The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 320

and "fading into the light of common day." Yet is there-and it is the truer and deeper thought- H. THE GLORY OF YOUTH. Whatever may be said of youth in the way of qualifioation, there is one thing that may be said for it which greatly exalts it-it may be wise with a prefound and heavenly wisdom, for it may be spent in the fear and in the love ol God (see Prov. i. 7; Job xxviii. 28). To "remember its Creator," and to order its life according to that remembrance, is the height and the depth of human wisdom. Knowledge, learning, cunning, brilliancy, genius itself, is not so desirable nor so admirable a thing as is this holy and heavenly wisdom. To know God (Jer. ix. 24), to reverenc:e him ~ the innermost soul, to love_ him with all the heart (Mark xii. 33), to be obedient to his commandment.s, to be patiently and cheerfully submissive to his will, to be honouring and serving him continually, to be attaining to his own likeness in spirit and character,-surely this is the glory of the highest created intelligence of the noblest rank in heaven, and surely this is the glory of our human nature in all its ranks. It is the glory of our manhood, and it is the glory of youth. Far more than any order of strength (Prov. xx. 29), or than any kind of beauty (2 Sam. xiv. 25), or than any measure of acquisition, does the abiding and practical remembrance of its Creator and Saviour glorify our youth. That makes it pure, worthy, admirable, inherently excellent, full of hope and promise. We may add, for it belongs to the text as well as to the subject- III. THE WISDOM OF YOUTH. " While the evil days come not," et.c. Let the young live before God while they are young; for: 1. It is a poor and sorry thing to offer to God, to a Divine Redeemer, the dregs of our days. To him who gave himself for us it becomes us to give, not our wasted and worn-out, but our best, our freest and freshest, our purest and strongest self. 2. 'l'o leave the consecration of ourselves to Christ to the time when faculty has faded, when the power of discernment and appreciation has declined, when sensitiveness has been dulled with long disuse, when the heavenly voices fall with less charm and interest on the ear of the soul,-this is a most perilous thing. To hearken and to heed, to recognize and to obey, in the days of youth is the one wise thing.-C. V ers. 5-7 .-Death, its meaning and its moral. Whatever be the true interpretation of the three preceding verses, there is no doubt at all as to the Preacher's meaning in the text; he has death in his view, and he suggests to us- I. !Ts CERTAINTY. Childhood must pass into youth, and youth into prime, and prime into old age--into the days which are bereaved of pleasure (ver. 1); and old age must end in death. Of all the tableauz which human life presents to us, the last one is that of "the mourners going about the streets." Other evils may be eh unned by sedulous care and unusual sagacity, but death is the evil which no man may a.void. II. ITs MEANING. What does death mean when it comes? 1. It means a shock to those that are left behind. The mourners in the street express in their way the sadness which is afflicting the hearts of those who weep within the walls. Here and there a death occurs which disturbs no peace and troubles no heart. But almost always it comes with a shock and an inward inexpressible pain to those who a.re bereaved. Even in old age the hearts of near kindred and dear friends are troubled with a keen and real distress. 2. It means separation. Man" goes to his long home." They who are left go to their darkened home, and he who is taken goes to his long home, to dwell apart and alone, to revisit no more the familiar places, and look no more into the faces of his friends. They and he henceforth must dwell apart; tbe grave is always a very long distance from the old home. 3. It means loss. 'l'he loss of the beautiful or the useful, or of both together. "Our life may have been like a golden lamp suspended by silver cLains, fit for the palace of a king, and may have shed a welcome and a cheerful light on every side ; but even the durable costly chain will be snapt at last, and the beautiful • bowl be broken.' Our life may have been like 'the bucket' dropped by village maidens into the village fountain, or like the 'wheel' by which water is drawn from the village well,-it may have conveyed a vital refreshment to many lips; but the day must come when tho bucket will be shattered on the marble edge of the fountain, and the tlmeworn wheel urop into the well" (Cox). 'l'he most beautiful life vanishes from our sight; the most useful life is taken away. 4. It means dissolution. "The dust en. xu. 1-14.J ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 317