CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 3:22. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?] Man cannot tell what God will do in the future with all his earthly circumstances—how far, in the great future, they will be modified or destroyed. Hence riches, &c., must have many elements of uncertainty. Therefore enjoy the present.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 3:19-22
THE DOUBT OF IMMORTALITY
There are times when the most assured truths are questioned. The Royal Preacher assumes the sceptic, and allows the appearances of things to cast on him the dismal shadow of doubt.
I. This doubt may arise from the identity of the outward conditions both of man and the lower animals. In the features of their physical existence, they are so much alike that one may be tempted to predict for them a common fate—total extinction at death.
1. They appear to be both alike under the dominion of chance. (Ecclesiastes 3:19.) “Befalleth”—i.e., they are mere chance, in the sense of being subject to it. They have not the free determination of their own lot. We apply the term chance to describe those occurrences whose causes are obscure. Those things upon which life mostly depends are wholly out of the power alike of men and beasts. They both appear to be the sport of innumerable chances.
2. Both are informed by the same principle of life. (Ecclesiastes 3:19.) “One breath.” In the essential qualities of physical life, our nature can boast no pre-eminence. The beasts, like ourselves, are supported by the products of the earth, and draw the vital air. They follow the same analogy of physical construction. They are liable to disease, danger, and accident.
3. They have both the same origin and destiny. As far as outward appearance is concerned, no difference can be detected in the two extremes of their existence. They all come from the dust, and return to the dust again.
II. This doubt is strengthened by our complete ignorance of a future life. (Ecclesiastes 3:21.) We may, indeed, speak of the spirit of man going “upward,” and the spirit of the beast going “downward,” yet the difference is too subtle to be easily discerned. “Who knoweth?” In the absence of any certain information, who can make a positive assertion?
1. We have no experience of a superior life for man. Knowledge does increase through ages, but humanity has gathered no experience of any life beyond this world. No one has returned from the other shores of life to tell the mysterious secret. The eternal silence of the grave strengthens doubt.
2. Human reason is powerless to give us any assurance of such a life. Reason may give us probable grounds for believing that there may be such a destiny for man, but it cannot give us a certainty. We may reason ourselves, almost with equal facility, into a belief for or against immortality. And in the similarity of the fates both of men and beasts, it is hard to discover the difference. There are times when the sense of immortality is not strong.
3. Some have accepted materialism as a doctrine. The blank ignorance of man upon the subject, together with appearances, have led them to adopt the dismal creed of hopeless extinction in the grave. Consider the wail of despair which marks some of the ancient poetry. St. Paul tells us the heathen had “no hope.” The very existence of doubt implies that there is some evidence on the other side of the question.
III. This doubt ought not to interfere with the enjoyment of the present. In the darkest seasons of doubt, there are some manifest duties. Whatever be our fate when life is ended, some clear path lies before us now. Man can enjoy his portion.
1. The present life affords scope for such enjoyment. No one thought, however tremendous or awful it may be, can ever be present to the mind. The short tenure of existence here, the dread certainty of death, does not prevent mankind from enjoying the present world.
2. No other arrangement will be made for man in this life. (Ecclesiastes 3:22.) “That is his portion;” when he has once departed from life, he cannot enjoy it again. Each life is a measured portion once for all.
3. We are unable either to command or to look into the future. A man cannot tell what shall be after him, even in his own immediate circle. He cannot shape the future according to his own views or wishes. It is vain for a man to trouble himself much regarding that over which he can have no command, and which is hopelessly concealed from him.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 3:19. If one questioned the eyes and judgment without listening to the Word of God, human life would appear to be governed by mere chance to such an extent that men would seem to be, as it were, like a great ant-hill, and like ants to be crushed. But the revelation of the Divine Word must be placed in contrast with this appearance [Melanchthon].
In building up the science of material things we learn to correct appearances—the reports of sense—by the convictions of reason. So the dark and melancholy appearances of life around us must be corrected by the light of faith.
On this, the human side of life, all is seeming confusion, as if chance and accident held dominion. He who looks no further has sufficient occasion for doubt and denial. We cannot see life clearly unless we see it in God’s light.
The anatomist can only examine the structure of the organs of physical life. The immortal creature cannot be investigated by the scalpel.
The sense discovers, both in man and beast, the same wave of life beating to and fro. He who only regards the physical part of our nature may believe, without difficulty, that the same dark fate is reserved for both.
Ecclesiastes 3:20. The lowly origin and destiny of the material part of our nature should be—a motive for humility—a rebuke to arrogance—a reason for seeking the imperishable.
It is but one place, there be no upper and lower places in death; but how different soever the places of men may be while they lived, when they die, they are all in the same place; yea, beasts are in the same place with the wisest, the richest, and the greatest men. And there indeed is their journey’s end [Jermin].
All that live are borne onwards by an irresistible decree, from dust to dust.
The degradation to which our physical nature must come when life is ended is a sore trial to faith. It seems as if we lose existence then. Faith, in seeking to grasp eternal life, has, after all, to leap a precipice.
Ecclesiastes 3:21. Man’s superior destiny in the great future, is a truth not unattainable, yet still difficult to be known. It has been hid from many, and by others has been obscured by sensuality, and devotion to this present world.
The common eye cannot trace human existence beyond the last scene of all. The image of God’s immortality stamped upon man cannot be discerned on this side of life, yet faith gets a glimpse thereof as reflected in the mirror of God’s word.
The philosophers were much turmoiled and very busy in seeking after the nature of the soul. Tertullian describes them as in a wood, wherein if they saw any light of truth, it is only glimpses of it through the thick trees of ignorance and errors; and wherein if any shall seek for the truth, he shall seek it in a wood. Surely there is no better manifester of the soul than He who is the Maker of it, and that is God Himself [Jermin].
Can anything be more marvellous or startling, unless we were used to it, than that we should have a race of beings about us whom we do but see, and as little know their state, or can describe their interests or their destiny, as we can tell the inhabitants of the sun and moon? We have more real knowledge about the angels than about the brutes. They have apparently passions, habits, and a certain accountableness, but all is mystery about them. We do not know whether they can sin or not, whether they are under punishment, whether they are to live after this life … Is it not plain to our senses that there is a world inferior to us in the scale of beings, with which we are connected without understanding what it is? [J. H. Newman.]
Ecclesiastes 3:22. Only the moment that we live in life is our possession. Every hour lived sinks irrevocably into the sea of the past; the future is uncertain. Therefore is he a fool who lets the present slip by unused, wastes it in vain amusement, or grieves with useless lamentations [Wohlfarth].
It is our duty to do the best with that which lies to hand, and not consume ourselves with vain longings after an ideal state. We must accept the conditions of our earthly existence as a fact, and we ought to lighten their burden by the spirit of joy.
With a firm conviction of the duty which the present demands, the tasks of life, though in themselves grievous, may be set to the music of the soul.
No second lease of life will be granted us. We should therefore act well in the present, so that we might await with confidence the mysterious crown of eternity.
The future is all uncertain. We cannot forecast history; or, to come closer home, that smaller portion of it interwoven with our own life and labours. Yet we may be assured that if we are good and true, the future hides nothing in it that can vanquish or distress us.
Within the vague and solemn mystery which rounds our little life here, there is yet some room for cheerfulness, contentment, and hope.