The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 324

Yers. 13, 14.-The last word. In the passage with which the Book of Ecclesiastes concludes, the clue is found which leads the speaker out of the labyrinth of scepticism in which for a time he had gone astray. He at last emeraes from the dark forest in which he had long wandered, and finds himself under the ;tars of heaven, and sees in the eastern sky the promise of the coming day. It is true that from time to time iu his earlier meditations he bad retained, even if it were with but a faltering grasp, the truth which he now announces confidently and triumphantly. "It had mitigated his pessimism and hallowed his eudremonism" (eh, vii. 18; viii.12; xi. 9). And it must be taken as cancelling much of what he had said about the vanity of human life. Over against bis sombre thoughts about one fate awaiting both the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish (eh. ix. 2), and the levelling power of death, that makes no distinction between man and the brute (eh. iii. 18-22), and shakes one's faith in the dignity and worth of our nature, is set hili final verdict. God does distinguish, not only between men and the brutes, but between good men and bad. The efforts we make to obey him, or the indifference towards the claims of righteous- ness we may have manifested, are not fruitless; they result in the formation of a character that merits and will receive his favour, or of one that will draw down his displeasure. The nearness of God to the individual soul is the great truth upon which our author rests at last, and in his statement of it we have a positive advance upon previous revelations, and an anticipation of the fuller light of the New Testament teaching. God, he would have us believe, does not deal with men as nations or classes,' hut as individuals. He treats them, whatever may have been their surroundings or national connections, as personally accountable for the disposition and character they have cultivated. His jurlgment of them lies in the future, and all, without distinction of persons, will be subject. to it. In these points, therefore, the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes transcends the teaching of the Old Testament, and approximates to that of Obrist and the apostles. The present life, with all its inequalities, the adversity which often besets the righteous, and the prosperity which the wicked often enjoy, is not the whule of existence, but there is a world to come in which the righteous will openly receive the Divine favour, and the wicked the due reward of their deeds. The blessings which were promised to the nation that was faithful to the Divine Law will be enjoyed by each individual who has had the fear of God before his eyes. Judgment will go by character, and not by outward name or profession (Matt. vii. 21-23; Rev. xx. 12). We have, therefore, here a great exhortation founded on truths which cannot be shaken, and calculated to guide each one who obeys it to that goal of happiness which all desire to reach. "Fear God, and keep his commandments." Both the inward disposition and the outward conduct are covered by the exhortation. I. In the first place, then, THE PBINOIPLE BY WHIOH WE BHOtJLD BE GOVERNED IB THE "FEAR OF Gov." This is the root from which the goodly leaves and choice fruit of a religious life will spring. If the word "fear" had been used in this passage only, and we had. not been at liberty to understand it in any other than its ordinary sense, one would be forced to admit that such a low motive could not be the mainspring of a vigorous and healthy religious life. But all through the Scriptures the phrase," fear of God," is used as synonymous with a genuine, heartfelt service of him, and as rather indicating a careful observance of the obligations we as creatures owe to him, than a mere dread of his anger at disobedience. It is not to be denied that fear, in the ordinary sense of the word, is reasonably a motive by which sin may be restrained, but it is no stimulus to that kind of service which we owe to God. "I thank God, and with joy I mention it," says Sir Thomas Drowne, "I was never afraid of hell, nor ever grew pale at the description of that place. I have so fixed my contemplations on heaven, that I bav11 almost forgot the idea of hell ; and am afraid rather to lose the joys of one then ('odure the misery of the other, To be deprived of them is a perfect hell, aiiu necd1t err. XIL 1-14.J ECCLESIASTES; Oll, THE PREACHER. 321