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Ecclesiastes
Chapter Five
Ecclesiastes 5
Chapter Contents
What renders devotion vain. (1-3) Of vows, and
oppression. (4-8) the vanity of riches shown. (9-7) The right use of riches.
(18-20)
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:1-3
(Read Ecclesiastes 5:1-3)
Address thyself to the worship of God, and take time to
compose thyself for it. Keep thy thoughts from roving and wandering: keep thy
affections from running out toward wrong objects. We should avoid vain
repetitions; copious prayers are not here condemned, but those that are
unmeaning. How often our wandering thoughts render attendance on Divine
ordinances little better than the sacrifice of fools! Many words and hasty
ones, used in prayer, show folly in the heart, low thoughts of God, and
careless thoughts of our own souls.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:4-8
(Read Ecclesiastes 5:4-8)
When a person made engagements rashly, he suffered his
mouth to cause his flesh to sin. The case supposes a man coming to the priest,
and pretending that his vow was made rashly, and that it would be wrong to
fulfil it. Such mockery of God would bring the Divine displeasure, which might
blast what was thus unduly kept. We are to keep down the fear of man. Set God
before thee; then, if thou seest the oppression of the poor, thou wilt not find
fault with Divine Providence; nor think the worse of the institution of
magistracy, when thou seest the ends of it thus perverted; nor of religion,
when thou seest it will not secure men from suffering wrong. But though
oppressors may be secure, God will reckon for all.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:9-17
(Read Ecclesiastes 5:9-17)
The goodness of Providence is more equally distributed than
appears to a careless observer. The king needs the common things of life, and
the poor share them; they relish their morsel better than he does his luxuries.
There are bodily desires which silver itself will not satisfy, much less will
worldly abundance satisfy spiritual desires. The more men have, the better
house they must keep, the more servants they must employ, the more guests they
must entertain, and the more they will have hanging on them. The sleep of the
labourer is sweet, not only because he is tired, but because he has little care
to break his sleep. The sleep of the diligent Christian, and his long sleep,
are sweet; having spent himself and his time in the service of God, he can
cheerfully repose in God as his Rest. But those who have every thing else,
often fail to secure a good night's sleep; their abundance breaks their rest.
Riches do hurt, and draw away the heart from God and duty. Men do hurt with
their riches, not only gratifying their own lusts, but oppressing others, and
dealing hardly with them. They will see that they have laboured for the wind,
when, at death, they find the profit of their labour is all gone like the wind,
they know not whither. How ill the covetous worldling bears the calamities of
human life! He does not sorrow to repentance, but is angry at the providence of
God, angry at all about him; which doubles his affliction.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
(Read Ecclesiastes 5:18-20)
Life is God's gift. We must not view our calling as a
drudgery, but take pleasure in the calling where God puts us. A cheerful spirit
is a great blessing; it makes employments easy, and afflictions light. Having
made a proper use of riches, a man will remember the days of his past life with
pleasure. The manner in which Solomon refers to God as the Giver, both of life
and its enjoyments, shows they ought to be received and to be used,
consistently with his will, and to his glory. Let this passage recommend to all
the kind words of the merciful Redeemer, "Labour not for the meat that
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." Christ
is the Bread of life, the only food of the soul. All are invited to partake of
this heavenly provision.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ecclesiastes》
Ecclesiastes 5
Verse 1
[1] Keep
thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than
to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
Thy foot —
Thy thoughts and affections, by which men go to God and walk with him.
To hear — To
hearken to and obey God's word.
Of fools —
Such as wicked men use to offer, who vainly think to please God with their
sacrifices without obedience.
For —
They are not sensible of the great sinfulness of such thoughts.
Verse 2
[2] Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any
thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy
words be few.
Rash —
Speak not without due consideration.
To utter —
Either in prayer, or vows.
For God — Is
a God of infinite majesty, holiness, and knowledge.
Thy words —
Either in prayer or in vowing.
Verse 3
[3] For
a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known
by multitude of words.
A dream —
When men are oppressed with business in the day, they dream of it in the night.
Is known — It
discovers the man to be a foolish, and rash, and inconsiderate man.
Of words —
Either in prayer, or in vowing, by making many rash vows, of which he speaks
verse 4,5,6, and then returns to the mention of
multitude of dreams and many words, verse 7, which verse may be a comment upon this, and
which makes it probable that both that and this verse are to be understood of
vows rather than of prayers.
Verse 4
[4] When
thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in
fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
In fools — In
perfidious persons, who, when they are in distress, make liberal vows, and when
the danger is past, break them.
Verse 6
[6] Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before
the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice,
and destroy the work of thine hands?
Thy mouth — By
any rash vow.
Thy flesh —
Thyself, the word flesh being often put for the whole man.
The angel —
The priest or ministers of holy things. Such persons are often called angels,
or, as this Hebrew word is commonly rendered, messengers. And this title seems
to be given to the priest here, because the vow made to God, was paid to the
priest as one standing and acting in God's name and stead, and it belonged to
him, as God's angel or ambassador, to discharge persons from their vows when
there was just occasion.
It was — I
did unadvisedly in making such a vow.
Angry —
Why wilt thou provoke God to anger at these frivolous excuses? Destroy - Blast
all thy labours, and particularly that work or enterprize for the success
whereof thou didst make these vows.
Verse 7
[7] For
in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but
fear thou God.
For —
There is a great deal of folly, as in multitude of dreams, which for the most
part are vain and insignificant, so also in many words, in making many vows
whereby a man is exposed to many snares and temptations.
But —
Fear the wrath of God, and therefore be sparing in making vows, and just in
performing them.
Verse 8
[8] If
thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and
justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the
highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
If — Here is an account of
another vanity, and a sovereign antidote against it.
Marvel not — As
if it were inconsistent with God's wisdom, and justice, to suffer such
disorders.
For —
The most high God who is infinitely above the greatest of men.
Regardeth —
Not like an idle spectator, but a judge, who diligently observes, and will
effectually punish them.
Higher —
God: it is an emphatical repetition of the same thing.
Verse 9
[9]
Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the
field.
Profit —
The fruits of the earth.
For all —
Necessary and beneficial to all men. The wise man, after some interruption,
returns to his former subject, the vanity of riches, one evidence whereof he
mentions in this verse, that the poor labourer enjoys the fruits of the earth
as well as the greatest monarch.
Is served — Is
supported by the fruits of the field.
Verse 13
[13]
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for
the owners thereof to their hurt.
To their hurt —
Because they frequently are the occasions both of their present and eternal
destruction.
Verse 14
[14] But
those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is
nothing in his hand.
Perish — By
some wicked practices, either his own, or of other men.
Nothing — In
the son's possession after his father's death.
Verse 15
[15] As
he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and
shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
To go —
Into the womb of the earth, the common mother of all mankind.
Take nothing —
This is another vanity. If his estate be neither lost, nor kept to his hurt,
yet when he dies he must leave it behind him, and cannot carry one handful of
it into another world.
Verse 16
[16] And
this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and
what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
The wind —
For riches, which are empty and unsatisfying, uncertain and transitory, which
no man can hold or stay in its course, all which are the properties of the
wind.
Verse 17
[17] All
his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his
sickness.
He eateth — He
hath no comfort in his estate, but even when he eats, he doth it with anxiety
and discontent.
And wrath —
When he falls sick, and presages his death, he is filled with rage, because he
is cut off before he hath accomplished his designs, and because he must leave
that wealth and world in which all his hopes and happiness lie.
Verse 18
[18]
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to
drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all
the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.
Good —
Good or comfortable to a man's self, and comely or amiable in the eye of other
men.
His portion — Of
worldly goods; he hath a better portion in heaven. This liberty is given him by
God, and this is the best advantage, as to this life, which he can make of
them.
Verse 19
[19]
Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him
power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour;
this is the gift of God.
To take — To
use what God hath given him.
Verse 20
[20] For
he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in
the joy of his heart.
Remember — So
as to disquiet himself.
The days —
The troubles; days being put here for evil, or, sad days.
Answereth —
His desires, in giving him solid joy and comfort.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ecclesiastes》
05 Chapter 5
Verses 1-7
Verses 1-17
Verses 1-20
Verses 1-12
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.
Reverence and fidelity
This passage is a series of cautions against irreverence and
insincerity in worship, against discouragement because of political wrongs, and
against the passion for, and misuse of, great riches. Distrust in God underlies
all these evils. Humble faith in and reliance upon Him, in the contrast, mark
the wise man. Note--
I. One’s proper
bearing in the Lord’s house (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7).
1. In the first three verses carelessness and loose speech are
condemned in all who come into the presence chamber of the Almighty. So it is
when subjects appear before any sovereign to do him honour or make request.
Exact address and studied phrase are required. The free and easy spirit which will
not regard these is expelled hastily and with great indignation. Earthly
dignities are but a faint type of the heavenly. The soul which faintly realizes
this will come before Him with “few words,” if he be a Sinaitic worshipper; “in
fulness of faith” and “with boldness,” if he be a Christian believer.
2. In the further admonition, hasty and ill-considered pledges are
forbidden. Impetuous promising is the worst kind of trifling, and the Church or
person who incites another to it only works him harm. We are in agreement with
the Mosaic legislation regarding such impiety, “If thou shalt forbear to vow,
it shall be no sin in thee.” Sin lies, not in the refusal to make a partial and
ill-considered pledge to God, but in not heeding that first of all His commands,
“Give me thine heart.” Cordial assent to this requirement makes one an accepted
worshipper, whose acts and words do not conflict when he appears before God.
Thoughtless, giddy, garrulous lips here are an abomination unto Him. One might
better be dreaming and know it.
II. The duty of
relying upon the Divine justice (Ecclesiastes 5:8-9). The victims of
tyranny and wrong have not ceased wailing. We hear their pitiful cries in every
era of the world’s history.
III. The delusive
character of wealth (Ecclesiastes 5:10-12). To denounce riches
generally is as though one inveighed against the air: all men breathe it. All
men just as naturally long for these material treasures. But our lungs are
fitted to receive only a certain volume; we cannot use more. We cannot store it
for consumption, enjoying it all the more that others have not as much. And the
like is true of these earthly possessions. Beyond the mere provision for food,
and raiment, and shelter, and our varied tastes, they have no power to
minister, though piled high and broad as the pyramids. “He cannot reach to feel
them,” as the philosopher says. Yet the deceit is universal, that the more one
can amass the nearer he will come to perfect contentment. He will not believe
that he chases thus only a shadow--that it is as far from his embrace when he
counts his millions as when he had only units. He may as well expect to quench
his thirst by drinking of the ocean. (De Wm. S. Clark.)
Reverence and fidelity
With chapter five begins a series of proverbial sayings somewhat
like those of the Book of Proverbs, but showing more internal connection. These
represent some of the experimental knowledge which had come to the heart in its
chase after many things. We may use them, as we do the Proverbs, as
condensations of wisdom, each having a completeness in itself.
I. worship (verses
1-7).
1. The proper manner of worship is here suggested to us. It mush be
with a full intention of the heart and not merely with the outward symbols.
Always in worship, even when it is most freed of external props, there is the
opportunity for a lack of right intention, and, therefore, a lack of meaning to
God as well as to men. Worship must always be interpreted by the condition of
heart of the worshipper.
2. Vows formed a considerable element in the old Jewish worship, and
are more or less recognized in the New Testament. We promise to do certain
things: to be faithful to Christ and His Church, to love our fellow-Christians,
to obey those who are over us in Christ, etc. These are vows, pledges given to
God, and they should be kept as scrupulously as we would keep a business
obligation signed with our own hand.
II. A difficult
passage concerning statecraft follows. The State may be mismanaged, but it is
wisest to make the best of it. “If thou seest oppression of the poor and
violation of justice and righteousness in the government of a province, be not
astonished at the matter. Such perversion of state-craft is not confined to the
petty officials whose deeds you know. Clear up to the top of the Government it
is apt to be the same. For there is a high one over a high one watching, and
higher persons over them, and all are pretty much alike” (verse 8). “But the
advantage of a land in every way is a king devoted to the field” (verse 9). The
idea here is that the old simple agricultural form of government was the best
for the people of that day. The general meaning is that good government comes from having
rulers who are not rapacious for their own aggrandizement, but have the
interests of the country at heart.
III. The matter of
riches, which requires such special thought to-day, when riches come easily and
to many, was not without its importance in the olden time.
1. Wealth then as now
was unsatisfying (verse 10). It held out promises which it had no power to
fulfil. It said to men, “Be rich and you will be happy.” They became rich, but
they were not happy. The soul is made to crave the most ethereal kind of food;
but the rich man tries to satisfy it with coarse things. It is made to hunger
for the things of heaven; he thrusts upon it the things of earth.
2. Here also is emphasized the thought that the increase of wealth is
not satisfying (verse 11).
3. And then comes the old lesson, which many a rich man has confessed
to be true, but which those who are not rich find it very hard to believe true,
that labour with contentment is better than wealthy idleness (verse 12). Many a
successful millionaire has confessed that his happiest hours were in the
beginning of his career, when he felt that he must work hard for his wife and
babies, and when he returned home at night with a sweet sense of contented
fatigue that never comes now in his anxious days of great prosperity.” (D.
J. Burrell, D. D.)
Behaviour in church
I. That you should
enter the scene of public worship with devout preparation. “Keep thy foot,”
etc. The mad whom Solomon addresses is supposed to be on his way to the house
of God. The character of a man’s step is often an index to the state of his
soul. There is the slow step of the dull brain and the quick step of the
intensely active; there is the step of the proud and the step of the humble,
the thoughtless and the reflective. The soul reveals itself in the gait, beats
out its own character in the tread.
1. Realize the scene you are entering. It is “the house of God.” Whom
are you to meet? “The high and holy One,” etc. Draw not hither thoughtlessly.
“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,” etc. (Exodus 3:5). “How dreadful is this
place!” etc. (Genesis 28:16-17). Do not rush hither.
2. Realize the solemnity of the purpose. It is to meet with the
Mighty Creator of the universe, whom you have offended and insulted. It is to
confess to Him, and to implore His forgiveness.
II. That you should
listen to the instruction of public worship with deep attention. Having entered
the house of God, it is your duty to be more “ready to hear, than to offer the
sacrifice of fools.”
1. You should attend with profound carefulness to the services of
God’s house, that you may avoid a great evil,--that of “offering the sacrifice
of fools.” Mere bodily sacrifices are the sacrifice of fools (Ezekiel 33:31). Lip services are the
sacrifice of fools (Isaiah 29:13). The hypocritical services
are the sacrifices of fools (Luke 18:11-12). What are the sacrifices
that God will accept? (Psalms 51:17; Isaiah 66:2).
2. You should attend with profound carefulness to the services of
God’s house that your mind may be in a right state to receive true good. “Be
more ready to hear,” etc.
III. That you should
attend to the engagements of public worship with profound reverence. “Be not
rash with thy mouth,” etc. Let thy words be in harmony with thy real state of
soul; and see that thy state of soul is truthful and right. There seem to be
two reasons here against vapid verbosity in worship.
1. The vast disparity between the worshipper and the object he
addresses. “For God is in heaven,” etc. Duly realize His presence and
greatness, and you will become all but speechless before Him. Isaiah did so (Isaiah 6:1-6).
2. The fearful tendency of an empty soul to an unmeaning verbosity (verse
3). (Homilist.)
A dream cometh through the
multitude of business.--
The prayer and the dream
There is an analogy instituted between voluminous prayer and the
voluminous dream. The dream arises out of the various transactions of business,
and the fool’s prayer springs from the variety of his vocabulary. Confusion is
the characteristic of both. They are produced by external influences. The soul
as a directing rational power is asleep. Dim memories of things mingle in a
wild phantasmagoria before the closed portals of the sense of the dreamer. It
is just so with the worshipping word-monger. The nature and character of God,
the promises, Scripture language, are floating before the closed vision of the
pietistic dreamer, and his prayers are a jumble of disjointed things. This will
always be the case with him who gives himself up to the external influences.
But as it is better to dream than to be dead, so is it always better to pray,
even disjointedly and wildly, than to be without that breath of the spiritual
life. The mere enthusiast, guided by no reason in his devotions, may be brought
under its direction; but how shall mere reason become enthusiastic? We answer,
by the action of the Spirit of God on the soul. What we need is this Spirit. We
can prophesy to the dry bones, and clothe them with flesh; but the Spirit of
God is needed that they may stand up and become an army of God. “Come, O
breath, and breathe on those slain, that they may live,” is to be our prayer.
When we have got the answer to that petition, we shall be living, loving,
active Christians. (J. Bonnet.)
Verse 4-5
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it.
Of remembering and keeping our vows
One of the greatest inconveniences to which men are exposed in the various
transactions of life, one of the greatest hindrances in their performance of
duty, is forgetfulness: and this may be owing, partly to a defective
constitution of mind, more frequently to habits of inattention and wilful
neglect. A benefactor confers upon us a distinguished favour: we feel deeply
sensible of the obligation, and sure that it must always be remembered; we
venture to pledge ourselves that such will be the case; our own interest is
greatly concerned that it should be so; the continued good-will and kindness of
our friend depend upon it: and yet, when the benefit is past, and not seldom
even while it is enjoyed, we are led to bestow scarcely a thought upon the hand
from which our bounty has been supplied. None of us will deny our obligations
to God for the blessings of His providence and the riches of His grace; and
probably there are few of us, who have not been at some time or other so
powerfully affected by a consideration of the Lord’s dealings with us, as to
have entered into some resolutions before Him, and made some promises of
honouring and serving Him. But how soon have these hopeful convictions lost
their power; how soon has the enemy, who was watching all the while with
jealousy over them, “caught away that which was sown in their heart,” and
scattered it to the winds. The gains and pleasures, the corrupt indulgences,
the fashionable follies of the world, have rushed in like a flood, and swept
from them the very recollection of their promised change. If we could have kept
a register of our thoughts and purposes, no doubt we should find, upon
consulting it, that we had repeatedly, in the course of our lives, made our
resolutions, and avowed our purposes in the sight of Heaven, to walk more
humbly and faithfully with our God, and to live for eternity. And though we
have long ago dismissed these matters from our minds, and no longer trouble
ourselves either with the promised obligations, or our forgetfulness of them, yet
are they standing before God in living characters, which no time can efface or
alter. The sentiments, and affections, and conduct, which we saw necessary for
us years ago, continue to be equally necessary, though they are no longer felt;
our feelings may be changed and gone, but there is no change in duty: whatever
it was wise and good for us to promise, that we are now as much bound to
perform, as we were when the promise was originally made; and God will demand
it at our hands. There is one momentous occasion of our lives to which most of
us may carry back our thoughts with peculiar advantage; one occasion on which
we certainly did, in the most open, and solemn, and unqualified manner, pledge
ourselves to God in the presence of His Church and people; and that was when we
took upon ourselves the vows and promises, which were made for us at our
baptism, when we were confirmed. This is a transaction and a service upon which
we ought to dwell with great solemnity and frequency. It is incumbent on me to
say a word to those who are about to take upon themselves the promises and vows
made at their baptism. Let the matter be well weighed: let it be soberly
considered that they are going to give a promise and a pledge to the God of
truth; to declare that they are fully sensible of the engagement which has been
made for them, and are willing to take it wholly upon themselves; to declare
that, for the remainder of their days, they wilt walk worthily, by the help of
the Lord of that new and holy state into which they were baptized. Now, that
this is a most serious, important, and awful engagement, no one, who is come to
years of discretion, can fail to perceive. Let all them be assured, that if
this solemn vow be earnestly made and faithfully kept, God will be their friend,
and “He will save them”: if this solemn vow be trifled with and broken, God
will punish such mockery, and will become their enemy, and they may perish
everlastingly. Certainly we may say, in this case, if in any, “Better is it
that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.” (J.
Slade, M. A.)
The vow
The vow is a form of prayer. It is a prayer with an obligation.
The worshipper wants something, and, either that he may get it or that he may
show his gratitude, he resolves to do a certain thing. In the Old Testament
economy the vow was a common form of worship. There was something in it suited
to those lower and feebler views of God which obtained in the infancy of the
Church. The chief objection to it is, that it lays a man under a bond to do
what should always spring from love; that it is likely to be put as a full
satisfaction for the religious obligations of the Christian, which yet include
the whole life and being; and that there is in it an assumption that, if we do
not make the vow, the obligation on our part is not incurred; whereas this is
not so, for I may say that whatever is lawful for us to vow is always right for
us to do, even if we had not made the vow. Rashness and inconsiderateness
should not lead us to make any vow, either which we cannot keep, which we will
not keep, or which it would be unlawful for us to keep, for such, translated
into our language, is no doubt the essential meaning of those words--“Suffer
not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel,”--that is, the
messenger of God, the minister, the priest, who was cognizant of the making of
the vow,--“that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice,
and destroy the work of thy hands?” We are cautioned here not only against rash
vows, but against unconsidered and voluminous prayers. Be not rash nor hasty:
let thy words be few. Our Saviour cautioned against vain repetitions. Several
gross vices in prayer are here indicated. First, voluminous prayer is to be
guarded against--the utterance of the same request in many forms, as though God
should be affected with the variety and quantity of speech! This, when done as
a duty, is an evil; when done for pretence, is a hypocrisy. When we go to God,
we should go with some petition which we want granted. We should know what it
is; and if we have many petitions, we should have them arranged in proper
order, and we should express them simply. There is much prayer without desire;
and if God would grant many petitions which are offered up, many a worshipper
would be greatly amazed and sadly disappointed. Take for instance our prayers
for a new nature, for spiritual-mindedness. Well, we are afraid that there are
prayers lying at the back of these petitions giving them the negative. The
petitioners do not think there is not a good and a benefit in these things, but
they do not want them for themselves, at least not now. A new nature is just
what they do not want, but a little more indulgence of the old. They are as
full of worldly-mindedness as they can be, and do not wish to have it
destroyed. What then? Should we cease to offer up such prayers? No! But what we
should do is this: try to get such views of the nature of things sought to be
got rid of as shall lead to earnestness in our petitions against them, and to
get such views of the blessings prayed for as shall lead us really to desire
them. We require to study, that our prayers be of the right kind--that they be
not mere verbiage; and, as in going before men for any favour, our words should
be few, and well ordered. About the exercise of prayer there are great difficulties,
which can only be surmounted by previous study, by constant watchfulness, and
by a simple reliance on the Spirit of God, as the source from whom all our
inspirations flow. (J. Bonnet.)
Verses 8-17
Verses 10-17
Verse 10-11
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.
The unsatisfactoriness of material wealth
I. That as goods
increase, desire increases. This is not the case universally. There are men
whose property is daily increasing, but whose desires are not increasing. The
answer, as to who these men are, is suggested by the text. They are those who
have not set their affections upon money. Love of silver leads to
dissatisfaction with silver. Love of abundance leads to dissatisfaction with
increase. He who loves silver wants gold. He who loves gold wants land. “Man
never is, but always to be blessed,” if he look for blessedness only to earth.
As bodily hunger cannot be satisfied by fine scenery which appeals to the eye;
as thirst cannot be quenched by the strains of even the sweetest music; and as
what ministers to mental growth will not, directly at least, tend to physical
development; so neither can the soul thrive upon food other than its own. God
made man for Himself, and away from God, there is for man no abiding, no solid
satisfaction.
II. That
expenditure keeps pace with income. Wants are born of “goods.” These increase
and so do those who eat them. Further, wealth has its duties as well as its
advantages; and in its possessor be a Christian he will recognize those duties.
The practical recognition of them proves this, that “when goods are increased
they are increased that eat them.”
III. That the love
of wealth is vanity. “This also is vanity.” To love wealth “is vanity”: because
love of wealth makes men cold, unsympathetic, and morally unmanly, causes them
to live from circumference to centre, instead of from centre to circumference.
On the contrary he who lives for others lives a radiating life, realizes that
all are brethren. To love wealth is vanity, because whilst there is an
excitement in the pursuit of wealth there is no true enjoyment in its”
possession. A soul centred upon worldly wealth, like the daughter of the
horse-leech, cries, “Give! give!” We cannot serve God and mammon (J. S.
Swan.)
The vanity of riches
This passage describes the vanity of riches. With the enjoyments
Of frugal industry it contrasts the woes of wealth. Looking up from that
condition on which Solomon looked down, it may help to reconcile us to our lot,
if we remember how the most opulent of princes envied it.
1. In all grades of society human subsistence is very much the same.
Even princes are not fed with ambrosia, nor do poets subsist on asphodel. Bread
and water, the produce of the flocks and the herds, and a few homely
vegetables, form the staple of his food who can lay the globe under tribute;
and these essentials of healthful existence are within the attainment of
ordinary industry.
2. When a man begins to amass money, he begins to feed an appetite
which nothing can appease, and which its proper food will only render fiercer.
“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.” To greed there may
be “increase,” but no increase can ever be “abundance.” Therefore, happy they
who have never got enough to awaken the accumulating passion, and who, feeling
that food and raiment are the utmost to which they can aspire, are therewith
content.
3. It should reconcile us to the want of wealth, that, as abundance
grows, so grow the consumers, and of riches less perishable, the proprietor
enjoys no more than the mere spectator. A rich man buys a picture or a statue,
and he is proud to think that his mansion is adorned with such a famous
masterpiece. But a poor man comes and looks at it, and, because he has the
aesthetic insight, in a few minutes he is conscious of more astonishment and
pleasure than the dull proprietor has experienced in half a century. Or, a rich
man lays out a park or a garden, and, except the diversion of planning and
remodelling, he has derived from it little enjoyment; but some bright morning a
holiday student or a town-pent tourist comes, and when he leaves he carries
with him a freight of life-long recollections.
4. Amongst the pleasures of obscurity, or rather of occupation, the
next noticed is sound slumber. Sometimes the wealthy would be the better for a
taste of poverty; it would reveal to them their privileges. But if the poor
could get a taste of opulence, it would reveal to them strange luxuries in
lowliness. Fevered with late hours and false excitement, or scared by visions
the righteous recompense of gluttonous excess, or with breath suppressed and
palpitating heart listing the fancied footsteps of the robber, grandeur often
pays a nightly penance for the triumph of the day.
5. Wealth is often the ruin of its possessor. It is “kept for the
owner to his hurt.” Like that King of Cyprus who made himself so rich that he
became a tempting spoil, and who, rather than lose his treasures, embarked them
in perforated ships; but, wanting courage to draw the plugs, ventured back to
land and lost both his money and his life: so a fortune is a great perplexity to
its owner, and is no defence in times of danger. And very often, by enabling
him to procure all that heart can wish, it pierces him through with many
sorrows. Ministering to.the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the
pride of life, misdirected opulence has ruined many both in soul and body.
6. Nor is it a small vexation to have accumulated a fortune, and when
expecting to transmit it to some favourite child, to find it suddenly swept
away (Ecclesiastes 5:14-16). There is now the
son, but where is the sumptuous mansion? Here is the heir, but where is the
vaunted heritage?
7. Last of all, are the infirmity and fretfulness which are the
frequent companions of wealth. You pass a stately mansion, and as the powdered
menials are closing the shutters of the brilliant room, and you see the
sumptuous table spread and the fire-light flashing on vessels of gold and
vessels of silver, perhaps no pang of envy pricks your bosom, but a glow of
gratulation for a moment fills it: Happy people who tread carpets so soft, and
who swim through halls so splendid! But, some future day, when the candles are
lighted and the curtains drawn in that selfsame apartment, it is your lot to be
within; and as the invalid owner is wheeled to his place at the table, and as
dainties are handed round of which he dare not taste, and as the guests
interchange cold courtesy, and all is so stiff and so commonplace, and so
heartlessly grand, your fancy cannot help flying of[ to some humbler spot with
which you are mere familiar, and “where quiet with contentment makes her home.”
(J. Hamilton, D. D.)
Silver and satisfaction
This is true of all earthly things. No man is satisfied with any
human idol.
I. Corrupt
affection. All worldly love is corrupt. There is nothing good in silver. It has
only present beauty and usefulness.
II. The glamour of
time. How bright is the tinsel of an illuminated theatre! Such is the spell
cast over the things of time and sense, until the Spirit of God causes the
sunshine to beam in our hearts.
III. The
disappointment of ambition. Like a mirage the object sought eludes the grasp.
No acquisition is final.
The more we get the more we want. (Homilist.)
Verses 18-20
Verse 18
It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy
the good of all his labour.
Labour
It is concerning Labour in its broadest sense that I wish to
speak. The navvy with his shovel, the ploughman with his team, the weaver with
his loom, the clerk with his pen, the “commercial” with his order-book, the
domestic with her scrubbing-brush, the designer, manager, inventor, writer with
his brain and brilliant gifts, the minister with tender heart and cultured
mind--these all are sons of Labour, who, in their striving to do true work, can
realize a responsibility so great as to declare their brotherhood with Him who
declared, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day, for the
night cometh when no man can work.”
I. The rights of
labour.
1. Has not the labourer a right to expect some degree of pleasure in
his labour? To some this may seem somewhat fanciful, but they cannot deny its
justness. To eat, to drink, to sleep, to think, to speak, are pleasurable
sensations; why should so natural and necessary a function as toil be
otherwise? Yet we know it is to many. Multitudes are brutalized by work, simply
because they find no satisfaction in it. They work in order to live, and die in
order to find rest.
2. Equally just is it for Labour to assert its right to an honest
reward. Adam Smith, in his “Wealth of Nations,” got to the root of the wage
question when he said that the wages of labour were the fruits of labour. And
the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes, had he been able to hear that
sentiment, would have said “Amen! for it is his portion.” Amid the complex
tangle of modern mercantile transactions it would be an impossibility to assign
to the hand-worker the exact product of his individual labour, after deducting
the wages of the brain-worker who designs, organizes, or superintends, and the
other expenses involved in production. But should it not be the striving of a
Christian employer to secure to every worker as near an approximation to his
true reward as can be ascertained? Should it not be frowned upon as a deadly
sin for men to grow rich on “the hire of the labourers, which they keep back by
fraud”?
3. Further, it is surely Labour’s right to have the fullest liberty
in seeking these ends. The work done by our trade unions is a splendid monument
to the sturdy self-restraint of the workers, and whilst in the future the
principles taught and the methods adopted by them may undergo considerable
change, yet the intelligent association of men for purposes of educating public
opinion, and influencing the legislature will remain the most effective of
means for realizing Labour’s ideals.
II. The duties of
labour. Let Labour, whilst seeking for justice to itself, seek to deal justly
with others. If “capital” be the miserable abstraction of which the proverb
says it has “neither soul to save, nor heart to feel, nor body to kick,” it is
no reason why workers should deal unfairly with the individual “capitalist,”
who often is as much the victim of an evil social system as the worker himself.
If it be the maxim of commerce to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the
dearest, blind to all considerations as to whether thereby one obeys or
disobeys the law of Christ; if to take advantage of a brother’s necessity is
not condemned as a breach of commercial ethics, there is no justification
whatever for any worker adopting similar principles in his life work. Because a
man does not believe in the justice of our present system of doing business, it
is no reason why he should play ducks and drakes with his employer. Assuming
that the principle of competition is a cruelly oppressive one, and that many
employers are heartless tyrants, a sensible worker will, nevertheless, while
those evil conditions remain--and they may for some time yet--make the best he
can of them. To worry employers for concessions that it would be suicidal to
grant is, at best, a short-sighted policy. Better to attack the system to which
both masters and men are victims. Employers of labour are sometimes made
unnecessarily hard by the foolishness and inconsiderateness of workers. It may,
for instance, be quite legitimate for a mill-hand to grumble over the poorness
of his pay, but the justice of his plea becomes miserably weakened when he
“plays” for a couple of days when work is abundant, with the consequence that
that work is driven elsewhere. It may be quite lawful for a man to take a
holiday at any time he pleases, but not expedient. Even in such a matter the
higher law of brotherliness should prevail. In the ranks of manual labour,
though not these exclusively, we find a lamentable “want of thought,” which in
its results is often as bad as “want of heart.” It has been asserted that the
British workman is the hardest of all masters when he reaches that position;
that in his co-operative societies his “divvy” is often larger than it should
be because of underpaid labour. Not difficult would it be to prove that the
overwork of multitudes of shop assistants is caused by thoughtless working-folk
who “shop” late when it would be as easy to “shop” early. A man’s religion is
seen in the byways of conduct, and if in these movements he is not above
suspicion, he loses all claim to be called a Christian, for the spirit of
Christ’s Gospel says, “Deal with all men as with your brother, as with children
of God, whose necessity is your sorrow, whose strength is your joy.” (T. A.
Leonard.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》