The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 316

long ob~erved the growth of human character under diverse principles and influences, he was able to offer to the young counsel based upon extensive knowledge and deliberate reflect.ion. I. 'l'HE DESCRIPTION HERE GIVEN OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. Amplifying this terse and impressive langnage, we may hear the wise man addressing the youthful, and saying, "Remember that thou hast a Creator; that thy Creator ever remembers thee; that be not only deserves, but desires, thy remembrance; that his character should be remembered with reverence, his bounty with gratitude, his Law with obedience and submission, his love with faith and gladness, his promises with prayerfulne&S and with hope." ll. THE PERIOD HEBE RECOMMENDED FOR THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. Religion is indeed adapted to the whole of our existence; and what applies to every age of life, applies with especial force to childhood and youth, 1. Youth has peculiar susceptibilities of feeling, and religion appeals to them. 2. Youth has especially opportunities of acqniring knowledge and undergoing discipline, and religion helps us to use them, 3. Youth has abounding energy, and religion assists ue to employ this energy aright. 4. Youth is a time of great and varied temptations, and religion will enable us to overcome them. 5. Youth is introductory to manhood and to age; religion helps us so to live when young that we may be the better fitted for the subsequent stages of life's journey. 6. Youth may be all of life appointed for us; in that case, religion can hallow those few years which constitute the earthly training and probation. III. THE SPECIAL REASONS FOR ATTENDING TO THIS ADMONITION. 1. It is a tendency of human nature to be so absorbed in what is present to tho senses as to overlook unseen and eternal realities. 2. Our own age is peculiarly tempted to forget God, by reason of the prevalence of atheism,~osticism, and positivism. 3. Youth is especially in danger of forgetting the Divine Creator, because the opening intelligence is naturally interested in the world of ~utward things, which presents so much to excite attention and to engage inquiry. IV. THE ADDITIONAL FOROE WHICH CHRISTIANITY IMPARTS TO THIS ADMONITION. The figure of our blessed Lord himself appears to th,e imagination, and we seem to bear his winning but authoritative voice pleading with the young, and employing the very language of the text. He who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me," he who, beholding the young inquirer, loved him, draws near to every youthfol nature, and commands and beseeches that reverent attention, that willing fait.h, that affec- tioIIate attachment, which shall lead to a life of piety, and to an immortality of blessedness.-T. Vers. 2-7.-0ld age a11d death. By a natural transition, a striking antithesis, youth suggests to the mind of the Preacher the condition and the solemn lessons of old age. How appropriately does a treatise, dealing so fully with the occupations, the illusio □ s, the trials, and the moral significance of human life, draw to a close by referring expressly to the earlier and the later periods by which that life is bounded! L THE BODILY BYllPTOMB OF AGE. These are, indeed, familiar to every observer, and are described with a picturesqueness and poetical beauty which must appeal to every reader of this passacre. It is enough to remark that the decay of bodily power, and the gradual enfeebleme'i':it of the several senses, are among the usual accompaniments of advancing years. II. '1'1rn MENTAL SYMPTOMS OF AGE. Reference is naturally made especially to the effect of bodily enfeeblement and in6rmity upon the human emotions. 1. 'l.'he emotions of desire and aspiration are dulled. 2. 'l'he emotions of apprehension, self- dist1ust, and fear increase. III. 'l'HE NATURAL TERMINATION OF OLD AGE. There is no doubt that there are old persons of a sanguine temperament who seem unable to realize the fact that they aro approaching the end of their earthly course. Yet it does not admit of doubt that the several indications of senility described in these verses are reminders of the end, are premonitions of the dissolution of the body, and of the entering upon a new nntl altogether different state of being. IV. THE OPPORTUNITIES AND l:IERVI0EB oF AGE. 1. There is scope for the exercise of patieuce under growing infirmities. 2. There is a call to the acquisition and display dlt. xn. 1-14.J ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 313