HOMILIES BY V.A.RIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-3.-The antidote to despondency. It was said by a famous man of the world, "Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel." The epigram is more sparkling than true; reflecting men in every age have been oppressc<l by the solemnity of life's facts, and the insolubility of life's problems. Somo men arc roused to inquiry and arc beset by perplexities when trouble and adversity befall them- ~cl ves; and others experience doubts and distress at the contemplation of the broad aDtl obvious facts of human life as it unfolds before their observation. Few men who both think and feel have escaped the probation of doubt; most have striven, and many harn striven in vain, to vindicate eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to meu. l. THE FACT THAT IN THIS EARTHLY STATE THERE IS AN ABSENCE OF COMPLETE RETRIBUTION. "All things come alike to all ; " "There is one event unto all." The righteous, the good, and the wise do not seem to meet with more prosperity and greater happiness than the wicked and the foolish. The man who offers due religious observnncc, and who reveres his oath, is subject to misfortune and calamity equally with the negligent, the impious, the false swearer. No thunderbolt of vengeance smites the ~inner, no miraculous protection is round about the upright and obedient. Nay, the righteous is sometimes cut off in the prime of his manhood; the sinner's days are sometimes lengthened, and he dies in a delusive peace. II. 'l'HE DIFFICUL'l'Y, DOUBT, AND PERPLEXITY OCCASIONED BY THE OBSERVATIO:<r OF THIS FAOT. The writer of Ecclesiastes laid to heart and explored the mysteries of Providence; and in this he was not peculiar. Every observant and thoughtful person is sometimes compelled to ask himself whether or not there is a meaning in the events of life, and, if there be a meaning, what it is. Can our reason reconcile these events, as a whole, with belief in the existence, in the government, of a God at once almighty and benevolent? Are there considerations which can pacify the perturbed breast? Beneath the laws of nature ia there a Divine heart? or is man alone sensitive to the inequalities of human fate, to the moral contradictions which seem to thrust themselves upon the attention? l[I, 'l'HE •rRUE SOLUTION OF THESE DOUDTS TO BE FOUND IN THE CONVICTION TUAT ALL ARE IN THE HAND OF Goo. It is to be observed that faith in God can do what the human understanding cannot effect. Men and their affairs are not in the hand of chance or in the hand of fate, but in the hand of God. And by God b meant not merely the supreme Power of the universe, but the personal Power which is characterized 238 ECCL~SIASTES; OR, THE PRE.A.CHER. [on. ix. 1-18,
1-y t.he attributes Holy Scripture assigns to the Eternal. Wisdom, righteousness, and hcnevolence belong to God. And by benevolence we are not to understand an intention to secure the enjoyment of men, to ward off from them every pain, all weakness, want, and woe. The purpose of the Divine mind is far higher than this-even the promotion of men's spiritual well-being, the discipline of human character, and especially the perfecting of obedience and submission. • Sorrow and disappointment may be, and iu the case of the pious will be, the means of bringing men into harmony with the will and character of God himself.-T.