I. Notice the reality of the contrasts presented in life. Full as life is of pathetic meanings, we are often strangely insensible to them. We may not regard them with indifference, but we fail to realise them. Life is made up of the endless play and vicissitude of circumstance, often rising into a tragic pathos. Men and women are apt to be engrossed with their own little share of life. They are unable to conceive life as a whole even in their own case, its breadth of shadow as well as of light, or how the one is meant to fit into the other, and harmonise the whole to a higher meaning than it would otherwise have. They are content with the passing hour, especially if it be an hour of enjoyment. They feel that the light is sweet, and that it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun; and beyond this their thoughts do not carry them. It is needless to say that this is an essentially irreligious frame of mind, barely a rational one. The Preacher warns us to look ever from the present to the future, from the light to the darkness, and even from the opening portals of life to a judgment to come.
II. And this points to the second and still higher view of life suggested in the text. It is not merely full of vicissitudes which should always awaken reflectiveness; but below all its vicissitudes, and behind all its joys and sorrows alike, there lies a law of retribution which is always fulfilling itself. It is only when we rise to this view of life that we rise to a truly moral or religious view of it. We must realise that all the moments of life have a Divine meaning, that they are linked together by spiritual law, and are designed to constitute a spiritual education for a higher sphere. This is the true interpretation of the judgment which God has everywhere set up against life, and especially against its festive moments, as the most dangerous and self-absorbing. The light is acknowledged to be good, and life, pleasant. The young man is acknowledged in his natural freedom. His heart is allowed to cheer him in the days of his youth, and he may walk in the ways of his heart and the sight of his eyes. Life is good and to be enjoyed; yet it is always grave, and the account is always running up against it. The true view is at once earnest and genial, bright yet always thoughtful, looking to the end from the beginning and forecasting the future, yet without anxiety, in the experience of the present.
J. Tulloch, Some Facts of Religion and of Life,p. 232.
Reference: Ecclesiastes 11:7-10. R. Buchanan, Ecclesiastes: its Meaning and Lessons,p. 407.