The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 228

true, whether here stated or not, that the holding of power by a bad man is hurtful to himself. It elevates him in his own eyes when he needs to be humbled therein; it gives him the opportunity of indulgence, and indulgence is certain to feed an evil inclination, or to fostrr an unholy habit; it makes injurious flattery the probable, and a beneficial remonstrance the unlikely, thing in his experience. III. OF BRIEF DURATION, Ifwo only wait awhile we shall" see the wicked buried." It is probable enough that sin in power will be guilty of serious excesses, and will therefore bring down upon itself those human resentments or those Divine judcrments "·hich end in death. But, apart from this, an evil course must end at death~ God h~s put a limit to our human lives which, though it sometimes takes from the field a bra,e and powerful champion, on the other hand relieves society of the impure and the unjust. Sin in power is bound fast by the tether which it is quite unable to snap (see Ps. xxxvii. 35, 36). IV. CONTRACTING GCILT. They "had come and gone from the place of the holy." They had either (1) been professing to administer justice, and had done injustice; or (2) attended the place of privilege, and had despised their opportunity. Either way, the~- bad been "laying up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath." V. GoING DOWN INTO OBLIVION. The sense may be that this happens too often to the righteous; but it is certainly appropriate to the wicked. And is it not more applicable to them? For no man tries to remember them. No one proposes to erect monuments or institute memorials of them. There is a tacit understanding, if nothing more, that their name shall be dr,)pped, that their memory shall perish. The only kind thing that can be done concerning them is to leave their name unspoken. 1. Be content with the exercise of a holy and benignant influence. It is well to be powerful if God wills it. But most men have to live without it, and a human life may be destitute of it, and yet be truly happy, and be of real service to a great many souls. 2. Resolve to leave a holy influence and a fragrant memory behind. We may have to content ourselves with a very simple memorial stone, but if we. leava. kindly memories and good influences in many hearts, so that in our case " the memory of the just is blessed," we shall not have lived in vain.-C. Vers. 11-13.-The perversion of God's patience. No obscurity hangs over this passage; the evil to which the Preacher refers is clear enough and common enough, while his condemnation of it is distinct and decisive. I. .A PALPABLE FACT IN THE GOVERNMENT OF GoD. The fact is that God often lete ;;;in go unpunished, or, as we should rather say, partly unpunished. The tyrant is not dethroned; the fraudulent dealer is not convicted and sentenced; the murderer is not apprehended; the drunkard and the debauchee are not driven from the society which they disgrace; the hypocrite is not exposed and expelled; the men who fill their purses ~r satisfy their cravings at the expense of the property or even the character of their neighbours are sometimes allowed to remain in positions of comfort and of honour. And it may be that even their health and their spirits appear untouched by their sin~, and even by their vices. II. ITs ~nsINTERPBETATION BY JIIANY. What does it mean that God allows this to happen? 'l'hr. guilty are not slow to convince themselves that it means safety to them- selves. It is, they think, that God does not concern himself with the small particulars of human life, and will not therefore visit them with his penalties; or it is that God is too "cruocl," too kind, to punish bis children for following the bent of their own nature; or it is that the world is not under the government of any righteous Ruler at all, but only subject to certain laws of which they may prudently make use for their ultimate immunity. It is that they may safely go on in their evil course without fear of consequences. III. THEIR COMPLETE JIIIBTAKE. They argue that because we a.I ways make penalty fullow crime as soon as we can, and because our non-infliction of it argues our intention Lo couclolle it altocrether, it is the same with God, and that his forbearance to pnnish is 1irouf tliat he Joe; not intend to do so. Thus they think that "God is altogether such a one as ourselves." But they are wrong; he" will reprove us and set [our sins] in order before our eyes" (see Ps.]. 21). Vve a.I ways make penalty pursue wrong-doing witbout any interval, because (1) we are afraid the criminal will escape us, or (2) we orr. vm.1-17.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, 'rHE PREACHER, 217