CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 12:12. My Son.] An expression appropriate to the master of wisdom when addressing his pupils; equivalent to “my scholar,” or “dear reader.” (Proverbs 1:8.) Of making many books there is no end.] The plural form sometimes denotes the parts of one treatise, and conveys the general idea of “much writing.” The word may be, therefore, rendered collectively, “in making a great book there is no end.” Great labour for little result. These words may also be understood of the heathen literature, which on many subjects was misleading, and really settled no question.
Ecclesiastes 12:13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.] There is an implied reference to Ecclesiastes 12:12. Here the wise man concludes, since it is useless to make a long book. Fear God.] Lit. “God fear.” The object of fear is put first for the sake of emphasis. For this is the whole duty of man.] “The whole of man.” His destiny depends on this. “For that belongs to all men.” Luther.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 12:12-14
PARTING COUNSELS
We have here the parting counsels of one whose native ability, careful culture, long and varied experience, and spiritual wisdom, gave him the right to claim a hearing for his weighty words. He does not speak as a young and untried man, who, lacking experience, is yet able to reason from principles, and therefore gives advice with little hesitation. His counsels are not a brilliant intellectual effort, forcing attention upon itself; they arise rather from a heart which had endured the pain of conflict with temptation, doubt, and failure. The language is that of affectionate entreaty, and is concerned with those few and simple truths which age bequeaths to youth as the only heritage of any enduring value. The wisest man, when he draws near to the end of life, has little else to say than to commend old and familiar truths. Therefore, the Royal Preacher dwells upon the folly of useless struggles after the unattainable—the claims of duty—and the solemnities of the Judgment.
I. Leave Fruitless Speculation. (Ecclesiastes 12:12.) The statements of this Book touch many mysteries, in whose mazes the mind might easily be lost; but their chief use is to admonish the reader against the actual evils of life, and to stir him up to duty. Those speculations which only minister to curiosity are regarded as possessing two fatal disadvantages.
1. They do not reach a final settlement of any question. “Of making many books there is no end.” Literature is a necessity of every civilized nation. It preserves the best thoughts and sentiments of their wisest men, and is the very soul of that society in which it was produced. As long as there is mental activity among a people, their literature must be ever growing. Each age, also, claims and requires a different representation of truth, for the simple reason that it is different, in several respects, from every former age. Thus the making of many books cannot come to an end, for the mental activity of mankind must continue. But, in another sense, books do not come to an end. Many of them deal in curious speculations regarding the nature, state, and destiny of man. However confident their authors may have been in the certainty of their conclusions, or however numerous the readers who have yielded their assent, the eternal questioning comes up again and again, and nothing is settled. The old mysteries are inquired into by successive ages of thinkers. They are viewed from every side, and set in various lights of argument and illustration; yet still mankind are as far as ever from their perfect solution. It is true that the Bible admits these mysteries; yet the Bible shows where the mind of man may rest in safety and peace, and what is the proper attitude of the soul until such time as God shall be pleased to give more light. The literature of the world upon speculative subjects reaches no certain conclusion; yet it will continue to make the unavailing attempt as long as human society lasts. It is not wise to allow the mind to be unduly occupied with what is so unsatisfactory, especially if hereby we are drawn aside from our plain duty and constancy of our faith in the immutable things.
2. They are a wearisome exercise. “Much study is a weariness of the flesh.” This is true of the pursuit of ordinary knowledge. Nothing can be gained but by severe and constant exercises of the mind. Natural indolence must be overcome, the fear of difficulties overmastered, and all the anxieties of inquiry endured. The thinker has to pay the penalty of a weary brain and exhausted energies. When the knowledge gained is certain, and profitable for use or for delight, there is a grateful recompense. But how sad the fate of him who endures all the labour and anxiety for some pitiful and controverted conclusion! He wearies himself upon a profitless and endless task.
II. Make Practical Use of what is Certainly Known. Solomon could have written at greater length upon the subjects on which he treated. He draws not to an end from lack of wealth in thought or language. But why go on? Life is too short for prolonged exercises of this kind. Duty is at hand, and there are stern realities to face. The reader is exhorted to give his attention to the “words of the wise,” for they deal with those eternal truths which most concern man to know. They are truths not framed to satisfy the curious and unprofitable appetites of the mind, but to touch the heart, to rouse up the conscience, and to teach man his duty. What is thus certainly known is sufficient for every practical purpose.
1. It is sufficient to guard us against real evils. The Preacher has yet this to say, “By these, my son, be admonished.” These words of the wise give warning against the greatest evils to which man is exposed. There are many calamities which afflict man in his fortune or his flesh, but these are light and passing when compared with the crushing and lasting evils that may fall upon the soul. These are the only real calamities. To lie under the displeasure of God is the awful disaster. The Psalmist, speaking of the testimonies of God, says, “Moreover by them is thy servant warned.” No long and laborious study is required to learn what those evils are which we ought to dread most and to avoid. Unlike the speculations of the natural mind, the whole case of our spiritual danger may be put before us in few words.
2. It is sufficient to teach us what is our highest good. The “conclusion of the whole matter” is given in few and earnest words. They speak of duty to the Highest, and this is all that concerns man to know. When the whole of man’s existence is taken into account, this alone has any real importance for him. How loved, how honoured once, avails him not if, after life is ended, he does not rest in the smile of God. Therefore, our only concern is to learn our duty, that we might not be ashamed when we come to appear before Him. Such knowledge is not too wonderful for us, but is obvious and familiar, easy and intelligible. It may be considered as consisting of two elements.
(1.) Right feelings towards God. “Fear God.” The Scripture lays great stress upon the condition of the heart, because from it proceed the “issues of life.” The streams cannot be pure and sweet if the fountain is defiled. The heart determines what a man really is, for it is the origin and spring of moral action. The whole state of the feelings towards God is here spoken of under the name of fear, which (in the O.T. especially) is a word of wide signification. It is that feeling which both fears and loves—that filial awe which trembles lest it should offend, and yet knows no servile dread while it dwells under the shadow of a Father’s love. It is not the fear of ignorance which trembles at the thought of unknown terrors, but that intelligent fear which arises from a due recognition of the relations in which we stand to God. It springs from the earnest realities of our moral situation, and is that disposition of the soul by which alone we can walk humbly with God.
2. Practical Obedience. “Keep His commandments.” Right feelings towards God must issue in obedience. Regard for another—for his person, for his rights, for the claims of his affection towards us, disposes us to a ready and loving service. Unless feeling does spend and employ itself in duty, it uses the power of the soul to no purpose, and only deceives us with the semblance of goodness. Uprightness in the life is the only infallible proof of uprightness in the heart. The commandments of God are the authoritative statements of our duty to all that is above, around, and beneath us. They have regard to all what we ought both to know, to feel, and to do. They are the statutes of God’s kingdom, which all His subjects are bound to obey. According to the state of our heart, we feel them either a painful restraint, or the very charter of our liberty. Love to God turns them into a delight. When He enlarges our heart, we can run the ways of His commandments. The two great commandments of the Law speak of nothing else but right feelings, because, if these are present, right practice is sure to follow. There is a true “invariable sequence” in moral things.
III. Recognise the Fact of Human Accountability. (Ecclesiastes 12:14.) “For God shall bring every work into judgment.” The future is thus brought into view in order to strengthen the motives for obedience. The Judgment to come is rendered necessary by the fact of human accountability. As certain as there is moral disorder in the world, and there is a God over all of infinite justice and purity, so certain is it that. He will interfere with the course of human affairs, summon men before His bar, and assign to each his proper portion and place. If men are responsible to God, it is necessary that at some time their account should be rendered. However remote from Him we may feel ourselves to be, we shall have to come to Him for reckoning. The doctrine of the future Judgment is intended to influence our moral feeling and practice. This fact of human accountability, pointing as it does to the Judgment, should be practically recognised.
1. Because it raises and ennobles the idea of life. We may regard the fact, that we shall have to appear before God for Judgment, as a disadvantage—a source of dread and alarm. And so it must be, if we have resisted His will, and thus come under condemnation. But the fact of our accountability renders it possible for us, through the mercy of God, to obtain the reward of the righteous. Thus a prospect is opened, so sublime that the thought of it gives a supreme value to our life. The idea of Judgment implies that man shall live in a future state—that his individuality shall remain. This thought transfigures our poor human life, redeems it from the imputation of vanity, and our condition from meanness. Our inheritance is not brief life, but eternity.
2. It acts as a wholesome moral restraint. It is true that love in its highest moods does not think of restraint, but delights in its own freedom. Yet restraint is salutary, for it aids and guards weak virtue; and the highest virtue may be prevented thereby from the dangers of a fall. The thought that evil shall surely be punished is the first motive that urges us to righteousness—the higher and nobler motive comes afterwards. Also, the thought that even good actions shall come under the scrutiny of the Judge of all, tends to make us careful. Since the whole of our conduct shall be tested, we should look well to the purity of our motives.
3. It casts the soul entirely upon God. From His justice we can have no confident hope that we should see salvation, but rather we have much to fear. The chastisements of nature, and in the course of Providence, seem inflexible in their awful regularity. We have really no sure refuge but in the infinite charity of God. To please Him by our loving obedience should be the great endeavour of our life; for if we have this testimony, we may cherish a humble confidence that He will receive us in peace. Before the dread tribunal we all alike stand in need of mercy. If we can cast our souls upon God, even “these things to come”—though so terrible in themselves—cannot separate us from His love, which for us in Gospel times “is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 12:12. The Preacher doth wisely exhort us that we prefer saving studies, which are easily perceived, everlasting in their benefit, before those the search whereof is infinite, and the end whereof at last is only weariness and misery [Jermin].
“My son.”—The voice of warning should have the style and tone of affection, and have regard to the ultimate good of him to whom it is addressed.
He who listens to admonition is one of the children of wisdom.
In the study of the Scripture, men should not aim at their comfort only, but mainly that they may receive clear information and warning of their sin and hazard, the true remedy thereof, and the way to attain to it; for this is one use to be made of this Book, and consequently of the rest of Scripture [Nisbet].
There is a deceitful literature of the world which attempts to deal with the highest questions that concern humanity. It refuses the teaching of Scripture regarding the nature, the chief good, and the destiny of man. It rejects the supernatural aid of faith, which imparts a now faculty to man, by which alone he can have consciousness of truths beyond the dull and prosaic scenes of this mortal life. There is no reason why such unwarranted speculations should not go on for ever. They never reach to any certainty on which the soul of man can rest. Hence men become dissatisfied with them, and in their efforts to obtain something better, only substitute one folly for another. This false wisdom, admired as philosophy in one age, becomes the derision and scorn of the next.
Whatever is built upon God’s truth shall stand. All other foundations shall be removed when the storm arises; and though men may presume to build upon them again, yet their work is destined likewise to perish.
The truths of religion which bear upon practical duty are few and simple; but the speculations of the human mind, unaided by Divine light, are endless and confused. Hence he who engages in their study wearies himself in a fruitless task.
The study of the Word of God engages the attention, but it gives rest to the soul. All who love His law have great peace.
Ecclesiastes 12:13. This conclusion is not the summing up of the reflections in this Book, but rather the practical end which “The Preacher” had in view. He is now coming to the chief point which concerns all.
“The conclusion of the whole matter is one of those “nails” and “goads” by which “The Preacher” endeavours to affect the heart and conscience.
The fear of God delivers the soul from every other fear—from the anxieties of restless inquiry—from distrust and suspicion of God—from murmuring and discontent.
To fear God is in our hearts to serve and honour Him; to keep His commandments is the outward demonstration of this inward devotion, in the conversation and actions of our lives to show ourselves [Jermin].
The keeping of the commandments is inseparably connected with the fear of God, because all true feeling is bound by a pleasing necessity to engage itself in the service of its object.
Reconciliation to God is like entering the gate of a beautiful avenue which conducts to a splendid mansion. But that avenue is long, and in some places it skirts the edge of dangerous cliffs; and, therefore, to save the traveller from falling over where he would be dashed to pieces, it is fenced all the way by a quickset hedge. That hedge is the commandments. They are planted there that we may do ourselves no harm. But, like the fence of the fragrant brier, they regale the pilgrim who keeps the path, and they only hurt him when he tries to break through [Dr. J. Hamilton].
In the fear of God, and obedience to His will lies all that has any permanent value for man. Everything else will pass away, but this has an enduring substance.
It is not only the whole duty, but the whole honour, and interest, and happiness of man [Wardlaw].
Ecclesiastes 12:14. “God shall bring:” loath is guilty man to come into judgment, and therefore he crieth to the hills to cover him, to the mountains to fall upon him; but mountains and hills and all shall forsake him, and God shall bring him to it. The best way, therefore, is of ourselves beforehand to go unto His judgment, and in our own hearts to arraign ourselves before God, for that is which will make His Judgment to be comfortable to us [Jermin].
The fact that God often comes into judgment with man, in the course of human history, is included in these words. But the future Judgment is chiefly intended because the spirit returns to God that its true character may be revealed, and its true place assigned.
The future judgment will discover the realities of human conduct, for it will proceed upon perfect knowledge.
There will be such a development of character as shall justify the Supreme Judge, and the judgments He pronounces and executes, in the consciences of the condemned, and certify His unimpeachable righteousness to angels and men [Wardlaw].
The Judgment will bring to light both the hidden things of good and of evil—the secret deeds of shame, and the kind offices of retiring and modest worth.
In the light of the solemn account which we must all render to God, the life of man becomes as a seed from which a mighty forest is to spring.
The Christian lays the comfort to his heart that judgment is committed to the Son of Man. He knows that he has a Judge who can be “touched with the feeling” of his “infirmities.” The purest soul needs this assurance.
THE END.