CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 4:10. If they fall.] Not both together, but if one or the other falls.
Ecclesiastes 4:12. A threefold cord.] Two cords would only suggest plurality, but three give the idea of strength.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 4:7-12
PORTRAIT OF A MAMMON WORSHIPPER
Instead of using the gifts of fortune wisely, and gaining favour with mankind, some only increase their misery by depriving life of its proper happiness. Here is the picture of a man who is possessed by the spirit of avarice—a worshipper of Mammon. Of such an one we may say:—
I. That his conduct is unreasonable. (Ecclesiastes 4:8.) He has no “child,” nor “brother;” no relation to care for, and yet he toils after money with restless anxiety, as if life itself depended upon it. This conduct is unreasonable.
1. It surpasses the proper bounds of prudence. Prudence ought to govern all conduct. A man should be diligent in work, striving to build for himself a defence against the storms of adversity. But when this passes to the extreme of greediness and grasping, so that a man forgets his own happiness to serve a base passion, his conduct is unreasonable.
2. The folly of it is sometimes apparent to himself. There are times when the voice of awakened reason within the avaricious man proclaims his folly. A better spirit possesses him for awhile, and he asks, “For whom do I labour?” &c. He feels, during this momentary fit of wisdom, that his conduct is utterly without useful purpose. He cannot spend all upon himself. He has no relations, and has made no friends. He wilfully deprives himself of happiness.
3. It is conduct which does violence to calm conviction, and to the tenderest feelings of nature. It is the nature of avarice to increase in fearful proportion, growing by what it feeds on. The more a man has, the more he covets. Avarice leads a man to trample rudely upon the charities of life; his whole heart withers, all his affections are resolved into one base passion. To love wealth for the sake of the power it gives, is capable of some defence from reason; but to love it for its own sake is the height of folly.
II. That he is condemned to suffer the distress of a cold and cheerless isolation. He has no relatives, but he might have made friends. He has not a “Second,” but is left all alone. His supreme selfishness has repelled all hearts.
1. This comes from the retribution of society. He who does not love cannot be beloved. Society, in the matter of the affections of love or hatred, gives measure for measure.
2. It is self inflicted. There is no necessity that it should be thus. A man can make himself friends by means of his wealth. Good deeds secure the gratitude of others—they bind heart to heart. The avaricious man may command men by his wealth, but he is obeyed without love. To live to self, is to die to all that is dear and precious in life. It is moral suicide.
III. That he is deprived of the true enjoyment of life. Social life has pleasures which are sought for in vain in selfish solitude.
1. The participation of others in our joy serves to increase it. (Ecclesiastes 4:11.) Superior joys are not impoverished by giving. The communication of knowledge to another does not decrease our own store; and in pleasing others, we lose nothing ourselves. He who will not share his joy with other breasts, must be content to see his own joy dwindle away.
2. Neglect of the social principle can only produce unhappiness. We were made for society, and there only can our happiness reach to any tolerable development. Beasts may herd together, but only men can live together. Selfishness is a breach of the natural laws of society, and the penalty is a blank and gloomy solitude.
IV. That he is deprived of proper protection. He who by his selfishness brings himself into a condition of barbarous solitude, suffers many disadvantages. If he has made a friend, he has the joy and satisfaction of a mutual reward of labour. (Ecclesiastes 4:9.) But in a state of isolation, he loses this, with all other advantages that are derived from companionship.
1. He is deprived of the protection of wise counsel. There are events in life which greatly perplex the judgment, and the mind of the exercised man is so confused by the circumstances in which it is placed, that it fails to be a safe guide. Hence the importance of wise counsel. Another mind coming fresh to the subject is able to suggest some wise directing ideas, and to place the difficulty in a more hopeful light.
2. He is deprived of timely aid in danger. He who has a companion when he falls, has one to help him. A man may fall, tripped by some snare of temptation, or overwhelmed by sudden calamity; and his state is desolate indeed if he has made no friend who can give him timely aid, and lift him up again.
3. He is deprived of the protection of sympathy in joy and sorrow. When men can feel together both on the joyful and mournful occasions of life, the gladness is intensified, and the force of the sorrow abated. There is a genial warmth in sympathy which secures a large comfort, and preserves a man from perishing in the severe season of trial. (Ecclesiastes 4:11.)
4. He is deprived of the defence of a large and compact friendship. (Ecclesiastes 4:12.) If he has two, or more to help him in the hour of need, so much the better. With a large fellowship, his defence is made stronger, and the enemy overawed and confounded. To despise the social compact is unnatural; it is unwise, and ends in unmitigated misery. The heart’s affections of the mammon worshipper are so completely given to the idol he adores, that he has nothing left in him responsive to the kind charities of life.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 4:7. As the vain and sinful courses which men take for happiness in this earth are so many and various that, let a diligent observer turn himself never so often to what hand he will, he shall always see more and more of them—so those who would promote the work of mortification in their own hearts ought to search them all out, and study the variety of them one after another [Nisbet].
Ecclesiastes 4:8. This is the first thing which a covetous man desireth, to have nobody near him, nobody that may either borrow, or beg, or get anything from him. Wherefore, St. Chrysostom calleth a covetous man the common enemy of all men [Jermin].
The ties of kindred are forced upon us by nature, but those of friendship are within our own power. A loving and kindly disposition will gain friends. It is a man’s own fault if he has no part in the kindred of souls.
The most selfish man has some connection with society, for he too is bound by the system of mutual dependence. Yet it is only a mechanical, and not a vital connection. Selfishness cuts the roots of social life.
Every virtue lies near some dangerous extreme. Activity in our worldly calling is commendable up to a certain point; but beyond this, wanting sufficient reason, it deserves the imputation of folly.
There is a diseased appetite for gain which only grows the more it is indulged.
The selfish soul can enjoy no true happiness, and is therefore driven to the unhealthy stimulus of onesordid thought.
The Mammon Man.—In his very nature he becomes as little human as that which he adores. Where his gold is buried, his affections too are buried. The figure which Salvian uses in speaking of him is scarcely too bold,—that his soul assimilates itself to his treasure, and is transmuted, as it were, into a mere earthly mass [Dr. T. Brown].
Even diligence must be restrained by rules. It should not degenerate into an unreasonable passion.
Ecclesiastes 4:9. He who deprives himself of the advantages of society by a mistaken devotion, or his own selfishness, has but an impaired heritage of life.
Man has no such resources in himself so that he can find a sufficient defence in loneliness. He must lean upon another. The strength of a man’s belief is more than doubled when he finds that his doctrine is received by another mind. Society is necessary for the very life of faith and action.
Society makes the Church possible. It is “where two or three are gathered together” that the Church is to be found.
Society lightens the tasks of labour, and exalts the enjoyment of its rewards.
God alone is self-sufficient—Man can only come to his true heritage of strength and enjoyment in society.
A single drop of water is insignificant, but united with the rest, in the ocean, it becomes an immense power. Society makes man sublime.
The improving of Christian Society for our furtherance in duty hath a special reward, not only after time, but even in this life. Hereby His people may expect to be sharpened, and have an edge put upon them in their duty—to have encouragements from others against difficulties—and fresh supplies of the Spirit drawn from heaven to each other by their mutual prayers; and so both their work is furthered, and their future reward ensured [Nisbet].
Ecclesiastes 4:10. The fellowship of love will always render help in danger.
The true man never deserts his friend when he falls. The first impulse of love is to give succour. Love does not wait to investigate. Danger, sorrow, and necessity are sufficient arguments.
In the best state of society, there must of necessity be many falls into sin, danger, and sorrow.
That is the only religion for man which can show him a true helper.
The Christian, even though deserted by all, yet, like his Master, is never really alone.
A sense of loneliness and desertion plunges the soul into the most oppressive gloom of sorrow. Society, friendship, and love assuage our sharpest grief, and pierce the thickest gloom with a kindly ray.
To be a helper to the fallen is one of the noblest uses of society—it is the joyful sound which fallen humanity hears in the Gospel.
In Christian society, mutual help has the highest motive, and the most splendid reward.
Ecclesiastes 4:11. If two lie together in the cold night of sorrow and sadness, they have the heat of comfort, which mutually they yield one to the other, even by striking together the hard flints of their misery, by easing their hearts while their tongues talk of their distress, by supporting each other under their burdens who cannot bear his own, by doubling the light of counsel which may the better show them the way of getting out. If two lie together in the prison of affliction, society gives heat to their cold irons, softens the hardness of them, and though it cannot break them off, yet makes them to be borne with the more contentment [Jermin].
The fervent glow of zeal for the truth, the fire of devotion and love, can only be maintained by the close communion of mind with mind, and heart with heart.
True sympathy cannot be generated by proxy; the close contact of hearts is necessary to melt them into the tenderness of love.
The live coals of a furnace soon expire when isolated from the rest.
A heartless solitude chills the affections. Love delights in presence—seeks the companionship of one who is ever near.
The soul may sooner leave off to subsist, than to love; and like the vine, it withers and dies if it has nothing to embrace [South].
Ecclesiastes 4:12. Love, by seeking companionship, provides a defence against the enemy.
It is the duty of the good to use their strength for the defence of one another.
As the union of the children of the Lord should be so strict, as their adversaries may lose hopes of breaking one of them, except they break all; so when the Lord doth unite them, it will be no easy matter for their most powerful enemies to prevail against them [Nisbet].
If we make friends by means of whatever wealth of mind, goodness, or estate we may have, we provide ourselves with a strong defence here, and with a welcome for us on the other shores of life.
The good man feels that though his native strength is small, yet, because he has communion with the Highest, and with all who are noble and true, his feeble power is multiplied by an infinite factor.
Mere doctrines, institutions, and laws can never give the Church power to vanquish her enemies. The Church can only be strong as a nation of brothers.
Unity in the Church gives strength to faith, increases charity, strikes awe into the enemy, and is the pledge of final victory.