The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 317

of that wisdom which the experience of long years is particularly fitted to cultivate. 3. The aged are especially bound to offer to the young an example of cheerful obedience, and to encourage them to a life of piety and usefulness. V. THE CONSOLATIONS OF AGE. Cicero, in a well-known treatise of great beauty, bas set forth the peculiar advantages and pleasures which belong to the latest stage of hume.n life. 'l'be Christian is at liberty to comfort himself by meditating upon such natural blessings as "accompany old age," but he has far fuller ancl richer sources of consolation open to him. I. There is the happy retrospect of e. life filled with instances of God's compassion, forbearance, and loving-kindness. 2. And there is the bright anticipation of eternal blessedness. This is his peculiar prer~ative. As the outer man perisheth, the inner man is renewed day by day. The earthly tent is gradually but surely taken down, and this process suggests that he should look forward with calm confidence and hope to his speedy occupation of the" house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."-T. Vere. 9-11.-The religious thinker and teacher. The author of this book 'l\"as himself a profound thinker and an earnest teacher, and it is evident that his great aim was to use his gifts of observation, meditation, and discourse for the enlightenment and the spiritual profit of all whom his words might reach. Taught in the quiet of his heart by the Spirit of the Eternal, he laboured, by the presentation of truth and the inculcation of piety, to promote the religious life among his fellow-men. His aim as he himself conceived it, his methods as practised by him in his literary productions, are deserving of the attentive consid.eration ancl the diligent imitation of those who are called upon to use thought and speech for the spiritual good of their fellow-creatures. Words are the utterance of the convictions and the desires of the inner nature, ancl when spoken deliberately and in public they involve a peculiar responsibility. l. THE WORDS OF THE RELIGIOUS TEAOHER SHOULD BE THE EXPRESSION OF WISDOM. They should not be thrown off carelessly, but should be the fruit of deep study aud meditation. For the most part, they should embody either original thought, or thought which the teacher should have assimilated and made part of his own nature, and tested in his own individual experience. They should be the utterance of know- ledge rather than of opinion; and they should be set forth in the order which comes from reflection, and not in an incoherent, desultory, and unconnected form. II. THE WORDS OF THE RELIGIOUS TEACHER SHOULD BE WORDS OF UPRIGHTNESS. In order to this they must be the utterance of sincere conviction ; they must harmonize with moral intuitions; they must be such as consequently appeal to the same conscience in the hearer or reader, which approves them in the speaker or writer. Crafty arguments, specious and sophistical appeals, sentimeutal absurdities, do not fulfil these conditions, and for them there is no place in the Christian preacher's discourses, in the volumes of the Christian author. Ill. THE WORDS OF THE RELIGIOUS TEACHER SHOULD DE WORDS OF PERSUASIVENESS. The author of Ecclesiastes commends" proverbs" and" words of delight." Harshness, coldness, contemptuousness, severity, are unbecoming to the expositor of a religion of compassion and love. A winning manner, a sympatbiziug spirit, language and illustrations adapted to the intelligeuce, the habits, the circnmstances of auditors, go far to open up a way to their hearts. No doubt there is a si<le of danger to this requirement; the pleasing word may be the substitute for the truth instead of its vehicle, and the preacher may simply be as one that playeth upon a very pleasant instrument. But the example of our Lord Jesus, "the great Teacher," abundautly shows how winning, gracious, condescending, and touching language is divinely n<lapted to reach the hearts of men. IV. THE WORDS OF THE BELIGIOUS TEACHER SHOULD BE CONVINCING AND EFFECTIVE. The goads that pierce, the nails that penetrate and bind, are images of the language of him who beateth not the air. Let the aiw be kept steadily before the eye, and the mark will not be missed. Let the blow be delivered strongly and decisively, and the work will be well done. '!'he understanding has to be convinced, the conscience awakened, the heart touched, the evil pal!l!ions stilled, the endeavour and determination aroused; and the Word is, by the accompanying energy of the Spirit of God, able to effect all this. "Who is sufficient for these things?" 3H ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [en. xu. 1-14,