The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 312

IV. REMEMBER: WRY? 1. Why remembei· one's Ci·eato,· 1 (1) Because he is infinitely worthy of being remembered. (2) Because he is entitled to be remembered on the simple ground of being Creator. (3) Because without this remembrance of him both happiness is impossible here and salvation hereafter. (4) Because the human heart is prone to forget him, and remember only either his creatures or his comforts. 2. ITT1y remember him in the way above specified 1 (1) Because any remembre.nco short of that is incomplete, insincere, formal, external, and therefore essentially worth- less. (2) Because the above is the sort of remembrance the.t is demanded by Scripture. (3) Because only such remembrance is worthy of being presented to God. 3. Why rem.e,mber him in youth 1 (1) Because youth, as the first portion of a man's life, is due to God. (2) Because youth, as the formative period o( life, is the most important time for acquiring religious habits (Prov. xxii. 6). (3) Because youth, as the happiest season in life, is the time in which God can most easily be remembered. Then "the evil days" of business and worry, of temptation and sin, of affliction and sorrow, ot disease and decay, have not come; and the soul, besides being comparatively disengaged, is also ina mood for yielding to devout and holy impressions. (4) Bees.use if God is not remembered in youth he is apt to be forgotten in age. Learn: 1. The real essence of religion-fellowship with God. 2. The dignity of man-that he is capable of such fellowship. 3. The responsibility of youth-for shaping all one's after-life. 4. The evanescence of earthly joys-all doomed to be eclipsed by the darkness of evil days. Vers. 2-8.-.77ie 'last scene ef all; or, "man goeth to his long home." I. 'l'HE APPROACH OF DEATH. 1. The decay of man's higher faculties. " Or ever the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain" (ver. 2). Accepting the guidance of the best interpreters (Delitzscb, Plumptre -for other interpretations consult the Exposition), we may see: (1) In the sun an emblem of man's spirit, elsewhere compared to the lamp of Jehovah (Prov. xx. 27), a.nd described by Christ as "the light that is in thee" (Matt. vi. 23), and in its light a symbol of the spirit's activity of apprehension-thought, memory, imagination, etc. (2) In the moon a figure for the animal soul, "by means of which the spirit becomes the principle of the life of the body (Gen. ii. 7)," and which as the weaker vessel (it, according to Hebrew ideas, being regarded a.s female, while the spirit is male) is comforted by the spirit (Ps. xlii. 6). (3) In the stars a.n allegorical representation of the five senses, by which the soul bas cognizance of the outer world, and the light of which is dim and feeble in comparison with that of the soul and spirit, or of the reason and intelligence of man. (4) In the clouds that return after the rain, a materialized picture of those calamities and misfortunes, sicknesses and sorrows, "which disturb the power of thought, obscure the consciousness, and darken the mind," and which, though leaving man for a while, return again after a season "without permitting him long to experience health" (Delitzsch). 2. The failure ef man's "bodily powers. Picturing man's corporeal frame as a house, tbe Preacher depicts its ruinous condition as old age approaches. (1) The keepers of the house tremble. The aged person's arms, "which bring to the house (of the body) whatever is suitable for it, and keep away from it whatever threatens to do it injury," now, touched with infirmity, shake, "BJ that they are able neither to grasp securely, to hold fast and use, nor actively to keep back and forcibly avert evil" (Delitzsch). (2) The strong men bow themselves. The legs, in young men like marble pillars (Cant. x. 16), are in aged persons loose, feeble, and inclined to stoop. (3) The grinders, or the grinding-women, cease. That these are the molars, or teeth, which perform the work of mastication, is apparent; so is the reason why they are not now at work, viz. bees.use in aged persons they are few. (4) Those that look out of the windows are darkened. The eyes, called by Cicero " the windows of the mind" (' Tusc.,' i. 20), become dim, and as a consequence the soul's eyes, which look through the body's eyes, lose their power of perception. (5) The doors are shut in the street. These are probably the lips, which in old age are usually closed and drawn, because the teeth have disappeared. (6) The sound of the grinding is low. The noise made by an old man in me.stication is_ that of a low munching, be Leing unable any more to crack, crunch, or br~ak his food, (7) One rises up at the sound of a bird. So timid and nervous, and so hght a sleeper, ell, xh. 1-14.] EClCLESiASTES; OR, 'l'HE: PREACHKR. 309