of S. Victor says, "He was able to speak that against vanity not vainly." So prone are men enjoying plenty of outward delights to lose even the exercise of common prudence and reason, and to give themselves up as beasts to the leading of their sensual appetites, that it is a mercy much to be marked and acknowledged for a man to have any measure of the exercise thereof continued in that case. For Solomon speaks of this as a remarkable thing, which hardly would be expected by many, that he having all the delights of the sons of men," being so great and increased more than all that had been before him, might yet truly say this, "Also my wisdom remaineth with me [Nisbet]. 6. " Verse 10. The heart is often led by the eye, the seat of moral power becomes subject to the senses. The eye, the guardian of our safety, may be allured by a false light that "leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind," by false philosophies, pleasures, religions. Man received the first wounds of sin through the eye. The very sentinel placed aloft by heaven to guard us must be defended by God's especial grace. Let us remember how unhappily their eyes were opened unto them that were in Paradise, which were enlightened so long as they had them shut unto sin. Where we read "the eye is the light of the body," the Greek is, the lamp, the candle of the body: for as a lamp burneth very well, and giveth good light so long as it is shut up and kept close within some room; but if it be set in the open air, is soon blown out by the wind; so the eye, if it be kept shut from vanity by a watchful carefulness, then it giveth the best light to the body. But if it be wantonly and negligently opened, then the good light of it is soon put out [Jermin]. There is some earthly recompense. for human labours; but, at best, man is never truly rewarded here for all his pains. A transitory joy is but a poor compensation to set over against the infinite sadness of life, and the terrible forebodings of the heart. The eye, the most far-reaching of all our powers, cannot give us lasting joy. It may range freely over every delight, but the spirit of man will remain in bondage till it is delivered by the coming of the Holy Ghost. Labour there was in the seeking of it, labour in the possession of it, and yet this is the All which man seeketh of all his labour. This is the portion which the Preacher saith he had; there being no sickness, no enemy, no other cross either in mind or body, at home or abroad, to deprive him of it. So that we have here under the law, the Prodigal under the Gospel, asking his portion of his father, which is divided to him, and spent by him in the far country of this world upon worldly delights [Jermin]. Verse 11. "All the works." 1. In collecting riches. 2. In increasing the magnificence of the State. 3. In multiplying the means of social enjoyment. It is well that we should look upon the works we have wrought in the world, till we discover that, apart from God, they are labour, weariness, and pain upon every remembrance of them. To think upon our ways, to survey our position, is the first step towards obtaining our true good. The pangs of spiritual famine-the want of God, may be felt by one whose lot it is to live in the midst of a profusion of this world's plenty and pleasure. Our works in the world often outlast our joy. The Royal Moralist did not look upon his joy, but upon his labours. Vanity has two ingredients-hollowness and aimlessness. Without God, all things are unsubstantial; they have no solid and lasting worth. Human labour, when not inspired by the Divine idea, reaches no worthy goal. God had His witnesses for this truth in the old heathen world. Thus, in the poem of Lucretius, we read-"Therefore the race of men labours always fruitlessly, MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 12-16. PRACTICAL WISDOM. The Royal Preacher had exercised his wisdom on speculative subjects: he now applies it to the practical matters of human life. Of such wisdom, or philosophical prudence, we learn-I. That it possesses high Absolute Value. Of all earthly treasures, wisdom has the greatest worth. This is a truth at once evident to every reflecting mind. The perception of it is quick as vision. "Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly," &c. Such wisdom may be compared to the light. 1. Like light, wisdom is a revealing power. Without light, our knowledge of nature would be scanty. We could only have knowledge of near objects. The distant glories of the universe are completely veiled to the blind. But light reveals them-makes all things manifest. So wisdom reveals to man the true state of things around him-his position in the world-the conditions of earthly happiness. He is thus able to form the most sagacious plans, and to use expedients for the maintenance of his life, for avoiding dangers, and varying his pleasures. In physical endowments, man is inferior to the lower animals, but he obtains supremacy over them by that wisdom which reveals to him more of that world in which he lives. 2. Like light, wisdom is a guiding power. "The wise man's eyes are in his head." The eyes of the wise man are where they ought to be the lofty windows of the palace of the soul, through which she takes a large survey of the outward world, and the scene of man. The eyes of the mind, like those of the body, serve both to inform and direct. Every truth of nature or of man, that we discover, becomes for us a rule of action or duty. The facts revealed to the understanding guide us in our way through the world. He who walks in darkness runs the risk of stumbling. All nature is against the fool. 3. Like light wisdom is a vitalising power. Light is absolutely necessary to the growth and preservation of all kinds of life. The light of the day not only warms, but fertilises. The sun is a source of energy, performing all the work of this lower world. So practical wisdom is the real strength of man's life here. Folly is darkness-a dull negation-unproductive of vitality or beauty-generates fear. The ignorant are the victims of unnecessary fears, as we see from the history of superstition. Wisdom is a light to quicken all things necessary for man as an inhabitant of this world. It supplies that vital energy by which we do our work. By the life-giving power of wisdom, man conquers nature, by directing her forces to serve his own uses. The dull existence of the fool is not worthy of the name of life. We learn of this practical wisdom-II. That it is complicated with certain facts giving rise to painful doubts and questionings. The superiority of wisdom to folly is beyond dispute. It is at once apparent. Like the light, this truth is its own evidence. But there are attendant facts which lead to paiuful doubts and questionings as to whether wisdom, on the whole, has such 66 superior advantage; or whether, in the upshot of things, the wise man is better off than the fool. 1. We are not sure that posterity will preserve the fruits of our work and wisdom. Men labour that they may increase their earthly joys, amass wealth, and accomplish some wise designs; but how often are the fruits of their anxious toil spoiled and wasted by those who come after! As the custom of the world is folly, the Royal Preacher could only expect that his successor would be a foolish man-according to the general type. Every worker upon merely human principles, no matter how accomplished, must say at last, "I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought." The fact, that what we have gathered with such labour and pains may thus be wasted and dissipated by others, is enough to make the wisest serious and sad. The speech acquires a painful hue of reflectiveness, and the contemplation of life becomes a distress. 2. All our diligence and wisdom cannot avail to save us from oblivion. There is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever." It is not intended to deny all posthumous fame. Some names will live through the whole range of time, names like Moses-the earliest in literature, and sounding through the endless songs of heaven. But the great bulk of mankind are not remembered by posterity-the wise and the fool alike are soon forgotten: "One Cæsar lives, a thousand are forgot." Even if we live in fame ever so long, and are at last forgotten; when compared with eternity, this is equivalent to oblivion. 3. All our wisdom cannot save us from the common doom of the race. "One event happeneth to all." Our wisdom and skill cannot save us from accidents, pains, and from that sum of all fears and distresses-death. The terrible necessity of death awaits alike the foolish and the wise. We take pains to gather knowledge, and the maxims of wisdom; death comes, and our fancied superiority over others vanishes. If there be no future, the most sagacious of men may mournfully ask at the close of life," Why was I then more wise?" The wise and foolish appear to go out of life in the same manner. All differences are lost in the darkness of the tomb. Let us learn that heavenly wisdom is complicated with no painful facts to fill us with doubts and misgivings. Nothing can arise to dull the pure splendour of this Divine gift. The glory of it only increases as all that is precious in life is fading away. We can only be saved from the fate of oblivion when we seek the "honour that cometh from God only," when we are "confessed before the angels," and our names inscribed in the Book of Life. All who are truly wise shall be fixed in the regions of immortality-shall "shine as the stars for ever and ever." SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES. Verse 12. Whatever we desire to understand, it is necessary that we should not only look upon it, but behold it there must be a prolonged look. The object must not only be seen, but seen through. All men are bound to see what lies in their way, but few see with the eye of intelligent observation. The wealth of the mind comes not as a sudden gift of fortune: it is gathered slowly. He who contemplates human nature must be prepared to find it a mixed scene of wisdom, madness, and folly. There are wise men who govern their Conduct by reason, and maxims gained from experience and observation. There are others who have some intellectual power, but it is rashly applied. There is no sufficient guiding principle-their conduct is madness-power wasted in an irregular manner, without order or plan. There are simple men who are easily led, and become the willing dupes of cunning craft. The evils of the world are incurable by human means. We can only expect that the future will be as the past. The dream of human perfection is not realised. The paths of sin and folly are old and well worn. Generations to come will be content to travel in them. Posterity may forget our wisdom, and destroy the fruits of our labours. But he who works with eternity in view will find the grave a place of restitution. How vain are those possessions which the most foolish of mankind can disperse as chaff before the wind! It is well noted by Hugo, that first he looked upon wisdom as thereby coming to behold madness and folly. For as he speaketh-"No one goeth to darkness that he may see darkness; but he cometh to the light, that by the light he may see, not only light, but light and darkness also. First therefore the Preacher saith he beheld wisdom, so that he might behold in wisdom itself what itself is, and by itself madness and folly, which wisdom itself is not" [Jermin]. The utmost comfort that creatures can yield, when happiness is sought in them, may soon be attained. It is no such depth but that it may be sounded by those who will put it to the trial. One man may in a short time find out so much thereof as that he may defy others after him to find more. Whence appears a manifest difference between heavenly and earthly consolations, the heavenly being still upon the growing hand, and incomprehensible by any of the saints till in heaven they be filled with all the fulness of God. For here Solomon professeth himself to have been at the bottom of earthly delights, so as none after him could go deeper. "What can the man do who cometh after the king?" [Nisbet]. Verse 13. There are endowments of human nature, and improvements in character, which, though not distinctly spiritual, have high absolute value. Moral virtue and practical wisdom may beautify and adorn the character so as to win Divine commendation. young mau in the Gospel fell short of the highest excellence, yet "Jesus beholding him, loved him." The darkness and light in human conduct, even when it comes short of the highest requirements. Let us not despise the natural beauties and graces of character. All light should be welcomed. The Gospel has an attraction for all that is pure and lovely in human nature. It is the property of good things that they do not need an external praiser, but themselves when they are seen do testify their grace. It is a greater excellency which is approved by sight, than that which is commended by speech [St. Ambrose]. It is of human wisdom whereof I conceive him to speak, which therefore, though he could not be free from vanity, yet doth he prefer before folly, as much as light before darkness. Now light hath God himself for the praiser of it, and it is the first thing that God praised. "Let there be light," is the first word that God ever spoke; and that "God saw the light to be good," is the first praise that God ever gave. As soon as God made the light, He divided the darkness from it, as if he would not have the excellency thereof to be dishonoured by the company of it. Let it therefore be our care also to divide wisdom from folly. The society of the one doth much shame the other, and indeed most unworthy is folly, so much as to be joined in comparison with wisdom [Jermin]. Verse 14. Sensual pleasures dim the light of reason, and weaken man's power to direct his way. When the animal in man surmounts the rational, the eyes which should be the light of the body, are degraded to the dust, and blinded. The superior light, which the wise man of this world holds aloft to illuminate his path in life, does not prevent him from taking his last step into the darkness of the grave. The light that comes from beyond the sun can alone pierce that darkness. A fool hath not his eyes in his head, but in his heels. For when the comtemplative power of the soul is busied in worldly things, the nature of the To the wise man of the worid, there is humiliation in the thought of the disgraceful necessity of death. But Jesus has passed through the tomb and sanctified it, so that for the Christian, death becomes the gate of life. No one who has learned the knowledge of the holy will have mournfully to ask when his last hour draws near- "Why was I then more wise?" For such a man, the tree of knowledge becomes the tree of life. A man is placed in a high situation, receives an expensive education at school or college, and a still more expensive one of time and experience. And then, just when we think all this ripe wisdom, garnered up from so many fields, shall find its fullest use, we hear that all is over, he has passed from among us, and the question, hideous in its sugges iveness, arises-"Why was he then more wise?" Asked from this world's stand-point-if there is no life beyond the grave, then the mighty work of God is all to end in nothingness. But if this is only a state of infancy, only the education for eternity, then to ask why such a mind is taken from us is just as absurd as to question why the tree of the forest has its first training in the nursery garden. This is but the nursery ground, from whence we are to be transplanted into the great forest of God's eternal universe. There is an absence of all distinction between the death of one man and another. The wise man dies as the fool with respect to circumstances [Robertson]. The Preacher objecteth, that although the wise man seeth so far into the nature and condition of things, yet that one event happeneth to them all. And, as to this objection. 1. He granteth it, "Then said I in my heart," I said that it was so, and in my heart confessed it to be true. 2. He applieth it, “As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me." I cannot deny it in myself, of whom it cannot be denied that my wisdom is the greatest of any. 3. He repineth at it in these words, " And why was I then more wise?" Why did I so carefully search into the nature and condition of things, forecast the events of things? 4. He delivereth his sentence, "Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity." Then I concluded of it, and said so in my heart when I had considered of it [Jermin]. Verse 16. It is always a startling thing to see the rapidity with which the wisest and the best are forgotten. We plough our lives in water, leaving no furrow; two little waves break upon the shore, but no further vestige of our existence is left [Robertson]. The footprints we leave on the sands of time are soon washed away by the advancing tide. The words, "And how dieth the wise man ?" in the original are an exclamation-"But O, how is it that the wise man dieth as the fool!" This is not the conclusion of a cold and severe logic, but the expression of deep emotion. Beneath all the glory of this life, there is an unutterable sorrow. There are truths too deep for words. They are only to be uttered with a gasp and a sigh. Faith alone can cure the terrible melancholy with which this view of life afflicts the soul. The intellect, the throne of human wisdom, is part of the Divine image, and God will not suffer it to die in imperfect rudiments. Man |