him with compassion, and this has the property of loving to spend itself. The messenger of mercy must catch the inspiration of true charity. III. He has a Soul-History. Solomon had an eventful history of spiritual conflict with sin, sorrow, doubt, and disappointment. He had attained to peace through a terrible struggle. Woe to that man who has nothing but an outward history-no stirrings of an inner life. It may not be necessary for the true preacher to fight over again all the soul-battles of Solomon, but he must know what moral conflict isthe crisis of victory must have taken place in his life. Without such a history. 1. The symbols of Divine truth will be mere words, having no life or spirit. 2. His utterance of truth will be only professional. 3. He, at best, can only promote the religion of habit, taste, or culture, instead of true spiritual feeling. IV. He has True Regal Power. Solomon was a Royal Preacher, and every preacher can be royal in his influence over souls. As mental power is superior to physical, so is spiritual to either. The men of literature are monarchs of the empire of mind. But the men who place spiritual principles deep in the heart of humanity have attained the greatest sovereignty beneath the Supreme Majesty. To gain a soul is to enhance the glory of our royal diadem. He who bears witness to the truth is a king. To possess Divine wisdom, and the power to utter it, invests a man with true kinghood. The Apostles still rule the Church by their words.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSE.

Verse 1. The methods God employs in the conveyance of His truth to man are not peculiar to religion. Men seek by spoken and written words to impress their thoughts on other minds. All who would affect public assemblies by speech must use the expedient of preaching. The great masters of knowledge, in every age, were, in their several ways, preachers.

Solomon was the inspired teacher of the people. His words of wisdom were not only uttered by the voice, but they were also made permanent in sacred literature, and so their influence is perpetual. But though the Christian preacher may not commit his words to the immortal custody of the press, they are engraven on human minds and hearts. That which is written on the soul lasts longer than inscriptions on brass or marble, than the still more enduring works of genius, or even than the Bible itself. The writing which God's truth traces upon the spirit of man will outlast all the imperfect appliances of human. learning. If a preacher is inspired by the Spirit, he can write books which will furnish the library of heaven.

Words become ennobled when they are used to convey spiritual ideas. The cross was once suggestive of disgrace and contempt; it now brings to our

mind the dear remembrance of the deed of infinite love.

The common expressions of our daily life have deep spiritual significations. Hunger, thirst, truth, freedom, life, death-these words, as the preacher uses them, have meanings of sublime importance. The Holy Ghost can turn the common elements of human language into a celestial dialect. There is a better and a more enduring substance in language than the literature of the world can express.

The words of the true preacher. 1. Instruct. 2. Persuade. 3. Gain the affections. 4. Unite true souls here. 5. Prepare souls for the great assembly on high.

Solomon taught the people knowledge. Paul was "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts xxviii. 31). The preaching that does not teach is worthless.

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Talent, logic, learning, words, manner, voice, action, all are required for the perfection of the preacher : but one thing is necessary,"-an intense perception and appreciation of the end for which he preaches, and that is, to be the minister of some definite spiritual good to those who hear him [J. H. Newman].

best words fall short of the sublime verities of which they are the vehicle.

The garment of man's speech must be narrower than the body of God's truth, which by one means or another has to be clothed with it [Trench].

The preacher should be careful in the choice of words, for their right use and ordering is not merely an accomplishment, but is bound up with the interests of truth itself.

The mixture of those things by speech, which by nature are divided, is the mother of all error [Hooker].

The preacher must avoid the danger of accepting the words of religion instead of the things which they repreThere is behind the words a

sent.

life-giving Spirit, without which they are vain. The advice of Bacon is to the point: ipsis consuescere rebus—to accustom ourselves to the things themselves.

The preacher's words are a debt due to the Church.

The sun does not monopolizo ite beams, and engross its light; but scatters them abroad, gilds the whole world with them. It shines more fo: others than itself; it is a public light Look on a fountain; it does not bind its streams, seal up itself, and enclose its waters, but spends itself with a continual bubbling forth. It streams forth in a fluent, liberal, and communicative manner; it is a public spring [Culverwell].

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 2—11.

THE LOWEST POSSIBLE ESTIMATE OF HUMAN LIFE A RESULT OF THE DENIAL OF THE SOUL'S SUPREME HOPE.

In

Apart from God and immortality, human life, in all its departments and issues, must be regarded as a failure. "All is vanity." We have: I. The failure of all Human Labours. "What profit hath a man of all his labour?" It cannot be denied that work and industry have their uses and rewards-they are necessary to the very existence of society. But they yield no lasting profit for man-they do not put him in possession of the chief good. Why do they fail to secure this result ?-1. Because they do not employ the whole capacity of man. many departments of industry, work is but a dull and weary round. The same course of things goes on from day to day, without variation. After the first difficulty of learning his task is over, a man works mechanically. Even in those labours requiring great intellectual skill and culture, some of the higher powers of the soul are left unemployed and unsatisfied. The Reason which apprehends eternal truth, and the Conscience which is sensitive to eternal law, may be dormant in the midst of great mental activity. A man may be engaged in the highest earthly work, and yet the sublimest powers of his nature may lie unused. 2. They are only accepted as a sad necessity of his position. Man does not labour because he delights in it; but because he is forced to join in the struggle for subsistence. Human labour is weariness and toil. Even the nobler exertions of the intellect exhaust the powers. The necessity for labour is a bitter draught for man. 3. They yield no lasting good. Some kinds of labour are for the supply of necessities, and some for ornaments to beautify and adorn life. The necessities recur again, and a fresh demand is made. The glories of this life soon clog the sense-they cease to please-there is no felt satisfaction. The fairest scenes soon fade and languish in our eye. All earthly pleasures lack the quality of permanence. The darkness of the shadow of death takes the fairest colours out of life. II. The failure of the Individual Life. "One generation passeth away," &c. If we deny man's supreme hope of being with his God for ever, the highest account we can give of life is-that the race is immortal, but the individual perishes. Humanity survives, but the separate souls which have composed it, which have lived and worked here, are gone for ever. They have come from forgetfulness, and sink thither again. The only constant remainders of all this glory and

activity are the earth and man--the type preserved, the individual lost. This rapid extinction of the individual life, as compared with the permanence of the scene on which it is manifested, appears:-1. From the uses of History. For what purpose is history, but to give us an account of past generations? It is necessary because they are gone. Their voices are hushed, and their thoughts and deeds can only reach us through literature, which embalms the past. History is written that the deeds of men may not altogether fail of renown. 2. From our own observation of Human Life. We see the world around us in fixed and constant outline, and the busy multitudes upon it. But the separate individuals composing these drop away, one by one, out of our sight. "He changes their countenance, and sends them away." Compared with the ever-during world, the life of man here is but a sudden flash in the darkness of eternal night. This is a melancholy view of life. (1.) It makes the final cause of man's existence an inscrutable mystery. If this life be all, we askwhy was such a creature made with capacities which the world itself cannot satisfy? Why should man be endowed with marvellous powers which have no room for expansion here? If there be no immortality, surely man was made in vain. (2.) Abates the value of every fact in the universe. Our own existence is the fact of the greatest importance to us. What is it to us that even God Himself exists, and that His works will ever furnish a sublime theme for contemplation, if we ourselves sink into eternal oblivion? (3.) That dead matter has a longer range of existence than human life, is a crushing humiliation for the soul. III. The failure of Man's Hope of Progress. If God and the prospect of a future life be shut out, all hope for any real progress for the race is but a delusion. 1. Nature does not indicate such progress. There is everywhere movement, activity and change; but no tendency of things to a higher state. All move in one regular, unvarying round. There is no onward march to the distant goal of perfection. Thus, water appears as vapour in the clouds, as liquid in the river; then it runs into the sea, and is raised to vapour again. It is driven in this endless round from age to age. The winds are lashed around their fixed circles. Even every separate particle of air performs its little journey, to and fro, by an invariable law. Even where there is apparent progress, there is no real advance. Life itself only passes from growth to decay. 2. Our experience of Human Life does not indicate it. The same classes of events constantly recur. History repeats itself. Given the facts of sin-evil propensities, and the forces of temptation, and it is not difficult to predict human conduct. As the underlying facts of depravity are pretty constant, it follows that one age is but the repetition of another. There is nothing absolutely new, even in mental effort. The grandest utterances of ger ius are but the expression of the inarticulate aspirations, or dumb agonies felt by myriads of minds and hearts long before. 3. There is no real progress, notwithstanding the activity of human invention and discovery. The mind of man will exert itself to fight with his hard conditions. But all his power does not avail to rend the iron bonds of his destiny. Thus, progress in medical science may restore health for a time, but cannot finally turn aside the common fate of death. The dominion of man over nature may be enlarged by his inventions, and his enjoyments multiplied; but the sad and severe facts of our existence still remain. Man by his genius has done much to conquer the wild forces of nature, yet by these he is often vanquished. He has assayed to conquer the winds and the ocean, but tempests and shipwrecks remind him that his sovereignty over nature is not complete. No human power or talent can banish the curse, and restore Paradise. IV. The Failure of Man's Hope for Fame. "There is no remembrance of former things," &c. It is natural to cherish a desire to be remembered. We cannot resign onrselves to the thought that our names and deeds shall quickly be lost in forgetfulness. Hence the restless pursuit of fame. But even this poor consolation is denied us. If we have no hope

of living with God hereafter, there is no earthly immortality of any kind for us. 1. The best men are soon forgotten. The wise, the good, and the great of past ages pleased and blessed their generation, and lived for awhile in the memory of posterity; but in the course of revolving years, they have entirely faded out of remembrance. No skill or goodness can preserve the majority of mankind from oblivion. 2. The world's greatest benefactors are unknown. This is true of the inventors of the most useful arts-of those who have devised principles of action which have changed the currents of a nation's history-their names are unknown. Those are not the greatest names that survive in history. The men whose thoughts were the deep foundations for changes and events are hidden in forgetfulness. Even the names of the authors of several of the sacred books are unknown. 3. The roll of fame cannot be practically enlarged. The human memory is not infinite. As new names are added to the roll of fame, other names We can have no consolation from any hope of fame. Let

us seek to be dear to the remembrance of God.