CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 7:2. For that is the end of all men] Not the house of mourning itself, but the fact that every house must, in turn, become such.
Ecclesiastes 7:3. Sorrow] Not that passionate and unavailing sorrow of the children of this world, but that salutary grief for our own sinfulness—the godly sorrow of 2 Corinthians 7:10. Laughter] The boisterous merriment of the children of light enjoyment, as distinguished from that recreation of reason—that spiritual joy in which it is proper for the righteous to indulge.
Ecclesiastes 7:7. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad] The meaning is, not that the wise man by oppression is driven to the verge of madness, but that the oppressor himself (who but for his own fault might have been a wise man) suffers intellectual and moral injury by repeated acts of unkindness and wrong. His higher intelligence becomes deadened, and he falls into the wretched condition of those in whom the lamp of reason is extinguished. A gift destroyeth the heart] A bribe accepted by men in power corrupts the moral nature. This kind of corruption was common amongst Oriental nations. All could be procured for presents.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 7:1-7
THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOODNESS
I. It makes Life Real and Earnest. Goodness in the soul expresses itself outwardly in actions of moral beauty—deeds of kindness and love. These win the admiration of society. Hence arises a good reputation. Goodness in character possesses an immense power, transforming human life into a solemn reality, and filling it with earnest endeavour. It does this,
1. By supplying the noblest impulse of life. (Ecclesiastes 7:1.) A man of high spiritual character cherishes an increasing passion for goodness. He desires one excellence above all others—that he may be right and true himself, and secure a good reputation amongst men. This is the noble ambition of the pure and holy. They aim to be good—to be like God; and so have a definite and lofty purpose in life. With such, life is an earnest and real thing. The constant striving after goodness imparts increased faculty to the powers of the soul.
2. By redeeming life from all that is frivolous and vain. Goodness in man must have in it an element of admiration for a goodness higher than his own. When the soul is enamoured of God’s holiness, life becomes a serious thing. It is seen with sober eyes, and felt to be the place for the discharge of loving duty, not for vain, trifling, and thoughtless frivolity. Good men have the aspirations, feelings, and refinements of true greatness, representing amongst their fellows the style and circumstances of a nobler citizenship. They have higher pleasures than feasting, a more exquisite joy than the thoughtless mirth of the children of this world, and more solid entertainment than the songs of fools. (Ecclesiastes 7:3-5.)
II. It Preserves the Soul from Great Dangers. There are forms of sin which have the most disastrous consequences, even in this life. They deprave every faculty of the soul. Two of these forms are introduced here as having elements of special danger—acts of tyranny and oppression, and corruption of the heart by receiving bribes. (Ecclesiastes 7:7.) Here we have two great dangers, from which the love of goodness and the desire of a fair reputation save us.
1. The injury of the rational faculty. He who indulges in repeated acts of tyranny and oppression becomes at length a monster, and hateful in the eyes of men. All his higher powers suffer injury. He loses his rational understanding; and when this is gone, destruction is near at hand. Sinners of this class madly pull down ruin upon themselves.
2. The injury of the moral faculty. When those in power and station take bribes, their moral faculties become weakened. They lose the sense of fine and delicate perception in things relating to conduct. In the strong language of Scripture, their whole moral nature becomes “corrupt,” i.e., broken together—unfitted for performing its proper functions. It is only by obedience and love that the delicacy of the moral sense can be preserved.
III. It Changes the Complexion of Earthly Sorrows. The sorrows of human life wear a forbidding aspect. The children of this world strive to forget them in the dissipation of pleasure, or they are driven by them into sullen despair. But goodness in the soul, appearing in the moral beauties of character, transforms sorrow—yea, transfigures it into the bright and heavenly. Sorrow, instead of being an unmixed evil, consuming and fretting the spirit of man, becomes the channel of precious benefits.
1. Death becomes a great teacher. (Ecclesiastes 7:2.) When men die, their houses are filled with friends who mourn their loss. It is but nature to weep then, in the presence of the greatest sorrow that can fall upon any home. But good men though they feel the common distresses of humanity, and shrink instinctively from the terrors of death, yet learn to make them the occasion of spiritual benefit. Death becomes a great teacher, giving them solemn lessons which they lay to heart. From what appears to be the terminus of life’s journey, good men can discern the lights of another and better country. Death himself holds the torch which shows them the path of life.
2. Human sorrow becomes a moral renovator. (Ecclesiastes 7:3.) The same afflictions which sink some men into despair, or drive them into the mazes of unreal and unwholesome pleasures, only refine the nature of the good man. They purify his affections from every mean and base element. “The heart is made better” by the pure and heavenly objects which it loves—by the increased fervour of its devotion. It is often in the seclusion of sorrow that the noblest purposes are framed, and strength is gathered for the greatest moral victories.
3. The pain of righteous reproof becomes more grateful than the loudest joys of the world. (Ecclesiastes 7:5.) “The rebuke of the wise” may be painful to a good man who has committed a fault, or has been betrayed into folly; but he accepts it with thankfulness, and learns the lessons it imparts. If the righteous thus smite him, he shall deem it a kindness; for they but imitate the action of the Merciful God who wounds only to heal. When the smart of reproof is over, they feel a greater joy than in listening to the thoughtless and empty merriment of fools.
IV. It makes Death itself to be Gain. (Ecclesiastes 7:1.) To our merely human apprehension, all the circumstances of death are clothed with terror. Levity turns pale at the contemplation of the last enemy, and the hardiest frame shudders as with a mortal chill. But the death of a good man is for him but a step in the path of progress; and for others a precious example, and a support of faith and hope. Let us consider the death of the good
(1) As a gain to society. There are certain elements of loss to society when the good pass away for ever. Yet death serves to set the virtues and graces of their character in a fairer and more enduring light. Whilst in this work-day world, they are not fully known; but death sets them on high, where they “shine as the stars for ever and ever.” Death opens the way to fame, and when their presence is no longer with us, they bless us with the scented fragrance of their ended life. How have the Apostles of our Lord gained by death, in the estimation of mankind, and in an ever-expanding influence! St. Paul and St. John are more fully known and revered at this day than they were in their own times.
2. As a gain to the individual. The day of a good man’s death is better to him than the day of his birth. It is an introduction to a sublimer state of existence—the day of his better nativity. It is in death that his soul seizes the infinite, and enters upon the wealth of all her mysterious nature. Death loosens the righteous from care, temptation, and sorrow. It is to him the greatest of liberties.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 7:1. At this point, the Royal Preacher enters upon a new stage of enquiry. He had laid open the sins, sorrows, and perplexities of humanity; now he seeks a remedy. If men would be happy and secure amidst all the storms of evil fortune, they must be good. They must learn to interpret the lessons of affliction, to control passion, to exercise wisdom and knowledge in conduct, and must seek to regain that uprightness which was the property of human nature as it came fresh from the hands of its Creator.
Whatever perplexities may arise in the contemplation of our existence and condition here, there are certain things that must be right. It must be right to cultivate goodness, to have confidence (notwithstanding appearances) in the rectitude of God, and to put ourselves in harmony with those Divine laws which are the charter and the pledge of liberty.
A good reputation springs from inherent goodness in the soul. The spiritual life within must work itself outwards. The savour of our good name cannot be confined; but like a precious ointment, it fills the whole sphere of our influence.
The richest perfumes, like every luxury of sensation, exhaust themselves, but the aroma of a good name is for ever fresh, and unhurt by the wrongs of time.
The awe and veneration which a good name inspires is the homage which society pays to virtue.
Just as a box of spikenard is not only valuable to its possessor, but preeminently precious in its diffusion; so, when a name is really good, it is of unspeakable service to all who are capable of feeling its exquisite inspiration; and should the Spirit of God so replenish with His gifts and graces, so as to render his name thus wholesome, better than the day of his birth will be the day of his death; for at death the box is broken, and the sweet savour spreads abroad. There is an end of the envy, and sectarianism, and jealousy, the detraction and the calumny, which often environ goodness when living; and now that the stopper of prejudice is removed, the world fills with the odour of the ointment, and thousands grow stronger and more lifesome for the good name of one [Dr. J. Hamilton].
Birth introduces the good upon the stage of a severe probation, full of risk and danger; but death fixes their goodness, placing it beyond the reach of injury. The monster, created by natural fears, is for the righteous but a friend who removes the load of earthly endurance, thus giving liberty to the soul to recover her strength, and to try her unencumbered powers.
In life, the righteous are but outdoor servants of the King of kings. In death, they are admitted to His palace, where they serve with increased dignity and comfort.
Ecclesiastes 7:2. A good man possesses the heavenly secret of distilling sweetness from sorrow.
The contemplation of suffering and death, with the practical recognition of the teaching they impart, best prepare us for that land where sorrow is unknown, and where life endures to immortality.
He who is spiritually wise discovers that the afflictions of our mortal state have their bitter root in sin. He penetrates beneath the surface, and contemplates that moral evil from which all natural evil grows. He therefore boldly faces the solemn fact which will restore for him the lost harmonies of creation, for it makes a “new earth” as well as “new heavens.”
The coarse mirth of the world ends in disgust and weariness, having no element of permanent consolation and hope. But the discipline of sorrow refines the character, imparts a serious and thoughtful attitude to the soul, and gladdens it by a hope beyond the grave.
In the place where they mourn for the dead, a man is reminded that to this also he must come. When a few years, at most, are gone, his own house will be turned into a house of mourning.
It is better to lay to heart the most painful facts of life, and to learn their solemn lessons, than to indulge in the forced merriment of foolish men.
The winds and the waves are terrible powers, but man, by the exercise of his reason and invention, forces them to render him obedient service, and to carry him whither he would be. So heavenly wisdom and goodness in the soul turn the sorrows of life into the means of spiritual improvement. The forces that destroy the foolish are elements in the triumph of the wise.
God saith unto the Prophet Jeremiah, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words” (Jeremiah 18:2). The “potter’s house” is the house of mourning wherein is the earthen vessel broken, the earthen vessel of man’s body, broken by death. And if we shall go down thither, that will make us willing to hear the words of God, whereby to keep our souls from the infection of sin. The very temper of sadness is a friend to virtue [Jermin].
Ecclesiastes 7:3. Godly sorrow, leading on, as it does, to endurance and experience, thus becomes one of the ancestry of hope. The laughter of the world is changed to sorrow which at length degenerates into remorse.
Worldly joy gleams on the surface, but leaves the heart within unchanged, still evil and unprofitable. The sorrows of the righteous may leave a sadness on the countenance, but peace and joy reign within.
The design of Providence, by the discipline of sorrow, is improvement.
By affliction the heart is made tender, and thus prepared for the impressions which the love of God can make upon it.
The affections of the soul are often trained in the school of adversity. The first lessons may be a wearisome bitterness and pain; but they impart superior moral culture, lead to the sweets of victory, and to bliss without alloy.
Strangers to godly sorrow must needs be strangers to their own blessedness [Nisbet].
Ecclesiastes 7:4. A wise man will choose to go where he can learn most of the nature of those great realities with which he is concerned. In the house of mourning, he learns to see—
1. The rebuke of pride and vanity.
2. The evil of sin. It surrounds our removal to another state with such awful circumstances.
3. The importance of goodness as a defence against the unknown and untried. Whatever the great future may reveal, if we have attained to the Divine image, we cannot fail.
It is with no sorrowful acceptance, but with glad heart that the righteous take up the cross. They follow that Divine Leader, who, though He may conduct them through barren and unpromising regions, will at length bring them to the heights of immortality.
The fool has no far-reaching sight, no power of penetration into the dread realities around him. Hence he is pleased with what glitters before his eyes, and only seeks the satisfaction of the present.
Let the heart of the wise go to the house of such an one as may reprove him when he offends, that he may bring him to tears, and make him to lament his own sins; and let him not go to the house of mirth where the teacher flatters and deceives; where he seeks, not the conversion of his hearers, but his own applause and praise [St. Jerome].
The moral nature of the inner man is determined by the objects of the heart’s satisfaction.
Ecclesiastes 7:5. The rebuke of the wise is but the sharp incision of a cunning hand that wounds only to heal. It is the rod of gentle and loving reproof, not the fist of wickedness.
The rebuke of the wise, though it may occasion a smart, leads to moral improvement; but the songs of fools, though they may afford some passing entertainment, are without any worthy aim.
There is in rebuke a jarring and harsh music, because it opposeth the fault that is committed, it disagreeth with the mind of him that hath committed it: but yet it is better music than the melodious songs of flattering parasites, who, leading on in wickedness, do bring on to destruction [Jermin].
The rough-hewn marble gives but the promise of a statue. Many a stroke and finishing touch must be given before it attains perfection. So the spiritual character requires those frequent touches of wise reproof which gradually shape it into symmetry and beauty.
It is better to follow the course of duty, though it may seem commonplace and the conditions of it severe, than to be lured to destruction by the siren songs of sinful pleasure.
Ecclesiastes 7:6. The joy of fools seems as if it would last for ever, and does indeed blaze up, but it is nothing. They have their consolation for a moment, then comes misfortune, that casts them down; then all their joy lies in the ashes.… Pleasure, and vain consolation of the flesh, do not last long, and all such pleasures turn into sorrow, and have an evil end [Luther].
In the mirth of the children of this world there lies no deep moral worth. It is but a sudden blaze of the fancy, or the passing joy of a tickled appetite.
This world’s mirth may be loud and imposing, but the sound of it quickly dies away, and the heated passion which inspired it subsides into melancholy and regret. Nothing remains but the ashes of disappointment.
The mouth of the righteous shall then be filled with laughter, when, the tears of their pilgrimage being dried up, their hearts shall be satisfied with exultation of joy. When the servants of God, being filled with joy of a manifest beholding of Him, shall, as it were, break forth into a cheerfulness of laughing, in the mouth of their understanding. Then their laughter shall not be as the crackling of thorns under a pot, but as the singing together of the morning stars, and as the shouting for joy of all the sons of God Jermin].
The mirth of sinners is noisy and short-lived, but the joy of the righteous is like the everlasting lights that shine in the calm depths of heaven.
Ecclesiastes 7:7. The health of the mind, which is wisdom, can no more be trifled with than the health of the body. Acts of cruelty and oppression harden the heart, dull the moral sensibilities, and gradually steal away every attainment of virtue. When the sound mind is lost, a man becomes a prey to every delusion and foolish temptation.
That a wise man may be changed into a monster of cruelty is an illustration of the terrible power of sin. It can destroy the tender charities of nature, and impart to the conduct that wild recklessness which amounts to fury, and which calls for the restraints of Divine judgment.
Acts of cruelty and oppression tend, more than any other forms of human sin, to efface the image of God in the soul They cause a man to approach to the likeness of the Evil One, who is both the Destroyer and the Adversary.
To ruin the promise of wisdom by entering upon the most dangerous courses of folly, is moral madness. Covetousness destroys the heart of them that are under the power of it; blinds their understanding that they cannot see the evil of anything that makes for their gain; sways their heart to receive bribes, which being received, they think themselves obliged to gratify the giver by perverting justice in his favour [Nisbet].
It is dangerous to weaken our moral sensibility by yielding to the lust of gain. When the heart is destroyed, there is taken away from a man the very capacity for religion.