The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 322

Vers. 13, 14.-Divine requirement and human i·esponse. What is the conclusion of this inquiry? what result may be gained from these inconsistencies of thouaht and variations of feeling? Deeper down t-han anything else is the fact that there a;e- 1. Two GREAT DIVINE REQUffiEMENTs. God demands of us·: 1. Reve,·ence. We are to "fear God." That is certain. But let us not mistake this "fear" for a very dilferen t thing with which it may be confounded. It is not a servile dread, such as that which is entertained by ignorant devotees of their deities. Only too often worship rises no higher than that ; it is an abject dread of the malignant spiritual power. This is both a falsity and an injury. It is foun~d on a complete misconception of the Divine, and it reacts most hurtfully upon the mind of the worshipper, demoralizing and degradina, ,vhat God asks of us is a well-grounded, holy reverence; the honour which weakne;s pays to power, which he who receives everything pays to him who gives everything, which intelligence pays to wisdom, which a moral and spiritual nature pays to rectitude, to goodness, to love, to absolute and unspotted worth. 2. Obedience, We must" keep his commandments;" i.e. not only (1) abstain from those particular transgressions which he has forbidden, and (2) practise those virtues which he has positively enjoined; but also (3) carefully study his holy will in regard to all things, and strive earnestly and patiently to do it. This will embrace, not only all outward actions observable by man, but all the inward thoughts of the mind, and all the hidden feelings and purposes of the soul. It includes the bringing of everything of every kind for which we are per- sonally responsible" into obedience to the will of Christ." It requires of us rectitude in every relation that we sustain to others, as well as in all that we owe to ourselves, 'l'be text suggests- H. THE Two GREAT REASONS FOB OUR RESPONSE. Ono is that such reverent obedi- ence is: I. Our supreme obligation. "'!'his is the whole duty of man," or, rather," 'l'his it beboveth all men to do." This is what all men are iii sacred duty bound to do. There is no other obligation which is not slight and small in comparison with this. The child owes much to his father, the pupil to bis teacher, the_ beneficiary to his benefactor, the one who has been rescued to his deliverer; but not one of these obliga- tions, nor all added together, expresses anything that approaches the indebtedness under which we rest to God. To him from whom we came, and "in•whom we live and move and have our being," who is the one ultimate Source of all our blessings and of all our powers, who bas poured out upon us an immeasurable wealth of pure and patient love; to the gracious Father of our spirit; to the gracious Lord of our life; to the holy and the benignant One,-to him it does indeed become all men to rendor a reverent obedience. The other reason why we should respond is found in : 2. Our suprem1J wisdom. "For God will bring," etc. God is now bringing all that we are and do under bis own Divine judgment, and is now approving or disapproving. He is also BO governing the world that our thoughts and actions are practically judged, and either rewarded or punished, before we pass· the border-line of death. But while this is true, and while there is much more of truth in it than is often supposed, yet much; is left to the future in this great matter of judgmen.t; 'l'here are" secret things·" to be exposed; there are undiscovered crimes to b<l made known; there are iniquities that have escaped even the eye -of the perpetrator@, who "knew not what they did," to be revealed. There is a great account to be settled. And because it is true that "_we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one of us may receive the things done in his body," because "God will judge the secrets of all hoarts," 011. XII. 1-14.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 319