The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 276

charactrr of one raised far above them in wisdom and honour, in order to brina it down to their level; of envy leading to an unjust and ungrateful sentence being pr~nounced upon nn almost_ faultless charact.er. But the warning is that deterioration may really ~rt in, tile precious ointment be actually changed into a disgusting odour, the wisdom nnd honour be outweighed by the little folly (" outweigh," Revised Version). • 'l'he ~ame teaching is given in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians St. Paul warns his readers that ~~eir to~eration of, a heinous sin in one of their members was poisoning the whole spmtual hfo of the Church (eh. v.). The fervour of their religious emotions, the hatred of sin and love of holiness which had led them to separate theruselves from heathen society, the aspirations and endeavours after purity and rio-hteousness which naturally follow upon au intelligent and earnest acceptance of Christian truth, were all being undermined by their omission of the duty that lay upon them, that of isolating the gross offender, and of expelling him from their community if he gave no ~igns of penitence and amendment. They might themselves be orthodox in belief and unblamable in conduct, but this sin would soon, if unchecked, lower the whole tone of the community, and nullify all the good that had been attained to. "Know ye not," he said, "that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" It was impossible to allow the fault to remain and to keep the evil influence it exerted within bounds; it would spread like infection, and be persistent until it had corrupted the whole community. And wlrn.t is true of a society is true of an individual. The fault which shows itself in a character is not like a stain or flaw in a marble statue, which is confined to one spot, and is no worse after the lapse of years, but like a sore in a living body, which weakens and may destroy the whole organism. One cause why the evil influence spreads is that we are not on our guard against it, and it may grow to almost ungovernable strength before we are really convinced that there is any danger. We can recognize at once great errors and heinous vices, and the alarm and disgust they excite, prepare us to resist them ; but little follies and weaknesses often fill us with an amused contempt for them, which blinds us to their great power for evil. The dead body of the fly in the vase of ointment is so insignificant a source of corruption, that it surprises us to discover that the fermentation it bas produced has tainted the whole mass. Weight for weight, there is an enormous disproportion between the precious fluid and the wretched little object which has corrupted it; yet there is no ignoring of the fact that the mischief has been done. In like manner does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honour; an uncorrected fault spreads its influence throughout a whole character and life. How often has the lesson been brought home to us, both in our reading of histories and biographies and in our own experience, of the widespread mischief done by a small foible or weakness!- " The little rift within the lute That by-and-by will make the music mute." So numerous are the sources from which danger arises, that a long list might be made of the little sins by which the characters of many goocf men aud women are often marred-indolence, selfishness, love of ease, procrastination, indecision, rudeness, irritability, over-sensitiveness to praise or blame, vanity, boastfulness, talkativcneos, love of gossip, undue laxity, undue severity, want of self-control over appetites and passions, obstinac.v, parsimony. Such are some of the follies which outweigh wisd?m and honour-which stamp the character of a man as unworthy of that re~pect wh1cµ his gifts and graces would otherwise have secured for him. Numerous though these follies are, they may be reduced to two great classes-faults of u-eakness and faults oj strength. I. ·FAUJ,TS OF WEAKNESS. This class is that of those which are largely negative, and consist principally in omission to give a definite and worthy direction to the nature; e.q. wn.n t of self-control, love of ease, indolence, procrastination, indecision, selfi11hness, lieartltssnc·s~. 'f!iat these are faults which create widespread mischief, and excite o. v,cneral contempt for the characters of those in whom they appear, will scarcely be ienied by any, and illustrations of them are only too abup.dant. Want of sel~-control wer appetites and passions led David into the foulest crimes, which, though smcercly •rnd r,as8ionately repented of, were most terribly avenged, and hl\ve for ever left a stain u1;on his name. Love of ea6e is the only fault which is implied in tho description o( Oil, X. 1-20.] ECOLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER.