For who can eat, &c.— For who shall eat, and who shall enjoy without him? It might also be rendered, For who shall eat, and who shall reflect more than I? Ecclesiastes 2:26. For he giveth wisdom and knowledge and pleasure to the man who is good in his sight; while he giveth the sinner a troublesome occupation, that he may gather and heap up riches to give to him who is good before God. See Desvoeux, p. 550. The third observation contained in these verses, and the 24th, is upon pleasure, which differs chiefly from riches in this, that when once it is procured, as it is at the same time enjoyed, it is so much the property of the enjoyer, that it can by no means be transferred to another; and so far it may be looked upon as a real good: but is that good the real result of the labour and trouble we put ourselves to, in order to procure it? It seems to be so at first; but, upon cooler reflection, it appears to be quite otherwise. The bounty of the Supreme giver of every good gift is the only source it proceeds from; Ecclesiastes 2:24. The Almighty does not always permit him who gathers the means of pleasure to enjoy them himself; and often employs the sinner to make as it were a provision for the just, whom he endoweth with wisdom and knowledge, and puts him into possession of those means of pleasure which another has heaped up for him. From this observation it is very reasonable to conclude, that the anxious research of pleasure is as vain as the rest of men's occupations in this world; since, after all, the end is not obtained by the most eager pursuer, but by him only whom God is pleased to bless.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Since the pursuit of wisdom disappointed all his hopes, behold the system changed; and that happiness sought in the indulgencies of sense, and the flowery paths of pleasure, which the regions of science could not bestow.
1. In mirth the jocund hours are passed; no joy withheld, no amusement forgotten; the poignancy of wit, and flights of humour, keep the gay circle in a burst of laughter: in dance and song, and all the delights of the sons of men, the live-long day is spent; while music's enchanting sound, with a vast variety of instruments, pours forth a flood of harmony; and pleasure reigns throughout the palaces of Zion: but is this man's proper good? no, in no wise; the event declared: behold, this also is vanity, poor and unsatisfactory. I said of laughter, It is mad; it diverts the soul from the ways of serious godliness; and what can be greater madness, than for momentary mirth to plunge our souls into eternal mourning? What doeth it? it can scarcely afford a transient respite from present griefs; for even in laughter often the heart is sad; and the end of that mirth, which tends to blunt the edge of divine conviction, or to dissipate the impressions which God's word hath made on our minds, must be heaviness: the time will come when none of these can afford the least satisfaction; the witty jest can no longer brighten the countenance, ghastly in the convulsions of death; the songs of vanity are pangs to the ear, which, lying on the bed of sickness, can scarcely bear the lightest foot that treads the floor; and the gay circle can afford no delight to the eye ready to close in death.
2. From wine he tried to find the joy which pleasure had denied: The board is filled; the sparkling glass goes round; and, though with reluctance he descended from the intellectual pleasures of a man to the enjoyments of a beast, he resolved to try the experiment, and to lay hold on folly; yet even when he made the attempt, he could not soberly but condemn the indulgence, and purposed to abstain from grosser excesses, and keep folly, as it were, at bay, acquainting himself yet with wisdom; maintaining such a guard over his appetite, that he might not be enslaved by drunkenness or excess, and only taste enough to satisfy him what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life; and as he owns the attempt folly, so he found it; for to seek, from the intoxication of our senses, any real good to our souls, must be indeed the foolishness of folly.
3. The board is cleared, the songs of mirth are silent; another scheme of happiness succeeds and promises greater satisfaction: the noble plans are drawn, the materials ready, the gorgeous palace rises majestical to view; the vineyards are planted, the gardens laid out with taste, the lawns extended, the woods disposed with nicest judgment; the trees, for fruit or show, exquisite of their kind; large pieces of water collected for use and beauty, to please the eye and fertilize the soil: a vast retinue ever waited his commands in all the various offices of his household; and, far from being impoverished with all his works, his income exceeded his expence: his treasuries were filled; his cabinet stored with jewels and whatever was exquisite and curious; and from the distant provinces the richest presents courted his acceptance, sent from tributary kings, or governors, or from such as sought, from his transcendant wisdom, solution of their difficulties, or counsel in their emergencies. Thus in riches, magnificence, and splendor, he quite obscured all his predecessors; and still his wisdom remained: amidst all his other pursuits he kept possession of himself, and was not so enslaved by any of them, as not to be able to form a right judgment of them; though he gave the most unbounded scope to the gratification of his desires, kept back his heart from no joy, tasted his pleasures with the higher relish of delight, and enjoyed all the fruits of his labours without a disappointment or check to allay the satisfaction: yet on the review, revolving all his works, the thought, the care, the expence they cost him, and how little real happiness they afforded him, he solemnly declares all to be vanity and vexation of spirit; and neither the employments nor enjoyments under the sun afforded the least real profit. They must look higher than the sun, who would secure substantial good.
2nd, Behold this wisest of men,
1. Re-assuming his pursuit of wisdom, though he had found it unsatisfactory: he might perhaps have overlooked something, or been hasty in his conclusion; at least he was reduced to this, because on reflection he was convinced that all his other schemes of happiness were, comparatively, madness and folly, and the pleasures of science as much superior to the joys of sense, as light excelleth darkness: and in all his decisions we may safely acquiesce; nor vainly essay by our own experience to prove those things madness and folly, which one, so much abler to make the experiment, and so much wiser to determine upon the case, has already resolved.
2. The repeated trial confirmed his former conclusion; for, though wise men seem to have some advantages over fools, yet all their foresight often stands them in as little stead as the fools' blunders: One event happeneth to them all; their bodies are liable to the same diseases, the same disasters attend them both, the same grave awaits them, and, when dead, they will be alike forgotten; even he himself, great as wise, was not exempt from this common fate: As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth to me; even to me, as the original emphatically expresses it; and therefore he concludes, Why was I then more wise? why take so much pains? What profit is there of my labour, when I stand on the same level, and am exposed to the same disasters as others? Then I said, This also is vanity, and the pursuit of worldly wisdom unprofitable and useless. Let all of this world,, proud of learning, abilities, wealth, or station, hear and weigh this mortifying truth; The fool and the beggar in the grave must be their equals; there no distinction is known but what divine grace alone makes.
3rdly, There seems to be something of impatience, as well as dissatisfaction, discovered by Solomon.
1. He appears heartily tired of all the schemes he had pursued, and the works in which he had been engaged; not only he hated his labour, was disappointed, and weary of the vanities he had sought, but hated life itself because of the troubles and vexations with which it is embittered, and wanted a rest that he could not find on earth. In despair he quitted all his toils, closed his books, dismissed his builders, forsook his pleasures; and now, assured that no happiness could be found beneath the sun, began, with holy indifference about creature-vanities, to seek the substantial bliss which is to be found in a better world. Note; It is happy for us, when the conviction of the insufficiency of the creature leads us up to the all-sufficiency of the Creator. God in Christ is the only portion that can fill the restless desires of an immortal soul.
2. He gives his reasons why he was tired of life and its toils. The work under the sun was grievous; not only the employments of the body, but the more fatiguing application of the mind; the labour of wisdom, knowledge, and equity; how to transact the business of our station with greatest advantage and integrity; the care and concern about which occasions many sorrows, through the disappointments and perplexities in which we are involved; and what in the day dwells thus anxiously on our minds, at night drives sleep from our eye-lids: such a vanity and vexation of spirit do they find this world to be, who are most occupied in it. And for whom do they toil? not for themselves, but for those who come after them. At death, all must be left behind to one who enters into possession of what cost him no pains; and it lightly goes; or he takes it as his portion, and thinks that he has thereby obtained a prescription to be idle and useless in his generation; for who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool that will inherit the fruit of their labours? The estate raised by equity and prudence is perhaps wasted in extravagance; and what the wise laboured all their days to erect, the fool that follows wantonly pulls down, as was the case with Solomon himself; and perhaps he, in the spirit of prophecy, foresaw how unworthy Rehoboam would prove. What therefore hath a man of all his labour? nothing that yields him substantial joy, or abiding satisfaction.
3. He declares what is the proper use of creature-comforts: to enjoy them in moderation, possess them with thankfulness, and improve them to the glory of God; and this must be the gift of God, who alone can give us a heart to spend freely what we have gained wisely; and, with a sense of his love enable us to relish the good that he bestows, and make even our worldly enjoyments the means of drawing us nearer to his blessed self: to this Solomon hastened; and the wise will seek to follow his example.
4. He concludes with observing the misery of the wicked, who have no heart to use aright the blessings that God bestows upon them: they are cursed with perpetual anxiety and toil, both to amass and to preserve their gains; they have no comfort in them, but pine in the midst of plenty; and, uncharitable and cruel, have no heart to open their stores for the relief of the needy; till God at last cuts them off, or takes from them what they so abuse, to give it to others who will employ their abundance to a better purpose: and this also is vanity and vexation of spirit to the wicked, who cannot bear the thoughts of parting with his possessions, and grieves at the prospect of seeing his beloved riches liberally spent, or in the hands of those who will devote them to the glory of God and the good of their fellow-creatures.