Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments.
The purpose of life
I. Life has a purpose. The architect intends the building he designs and erects to answer a specific end; so is it with the engineer, the ship-builder, the mechanic, the artist, the creator and fashioner of any work. Surely God must have had some end in view in making the universe, and in making us what we are, and in placing us in the midst of such wondrous realities.
II. What is the purpose of life?
1. It is our business to see that we get into right relationship with God. By nature and by practice we are in a state of alienation from Him; there is a breach of our own making--between Him and us. Our prime concern should be to get that breach healed. This is possible.
2. Our reconciliation to God effected, we should constantly love Him and obey Him, and seek His glory. For this He has given us life, physical strength, mental endowments, our spiritual nature. He has placed us here that we may do His will. This should be our continual aim. To engage in this employ should be considered rather a privilege than an obligation. In all pursuits and circumstances we should seek to live for God. Indeed, we can only fulfil this purpose by attending to details. It is only by being faithful in the least that we can be faithful in much. In mosaic, it is the filling up with small pieces that often gives completeness and beauty to the design. The neglect of little things sometimes leads to serious results. Let life’s details be “with God.” If we take heed to this, all our work will be done well.
3. The purpose of life embraces love and service to all mankind. In the sins and sorrows of men; in their struggle with poverty--aye, and with riches; in their temptations, and need of succour and sympathy; in all these see your field of toil. Up to your work. Perform it with glad heart and diligent hands; and never grow weary--at all events, never grow idle--till you can say, as your Master said--“It is finished.” When Dr. Donne was dying, he said, “I count all that part of my life lost which I spent not in communion with God, or in doing good.” (W. Walters.)
The moral of it all
There are times when every one of us is either constrained by sorrow, or invited by the hope of profit, to take stock of his recollections. We have all desired eagerly, we have all toiled; not one of us but has had his aspirations and his disappointments. Life has turned out, and will, we suppose, turn out differently from what we either hoped or found when we sallied forth upon its ways untried. The book is sympathetic with all who have lost their illusions; with all who watch the bright dreams die out one by one like the fairy lamps of some summer’s festival. How often have we exclaimed with the Preacher, as the hollowness of each pretence of this most pretentious world has been exposed by our own trial: “This also is vanity!” But there is another side to the subject. Some things are real. Never does the author of this book speak of religion as if it were an illusion, or of God as if He were other than true. The spiritual part by which we are related to God and know God is our genuine self. It is because the soul wants truth that it discards so impatiently the counterfeits of truth that press upon its notice. If there were not a vital spark of worth in the soul it would never criticize so severely the mass of worthlessness which surrounds it. That, then, is our subject--the vanity of the world and the worth of religion, and each of these seen, and seen only, in contrast and foil to the other.
1. We may name three things on which the moralist writes the legend of vanity--human labour, human knowledge, human pleasure.
(1) One of his thoughts about labour is that it seems a fruitless fretting against the fixed forces of nature. “The earth abideth for ever.” Suns arise and set; the wind shifts from quarter to quarter; the rivers flow to the sea, and the brooks flow to the rivers. There are times when we are oppressed with this thought, and it becomes unbearable. As one of our English noblemen, who had a mansion overlooking the beautiful valley of the Thames, said: “I cannot understand why people delight in the view of the river; there it is--flow, flow, flow, always the same!” How speedily the effect of man’s toil vanishes from the face of Nature! There is nothing more beautiful than the sight of well-ordered gardens or cultivated field; yet how quickly does Nature, as if in defiance of man’s effort at improvement, come rushing back with her weeds and wildness!
(2) Again, the contrast of human knowledge and wisdom with the sameness of human nature leads to the same reflection of disappointment. Increase of knowledge means increase of sorrow. The study of history brings to light a long series of passionate struggles after truth and good, which have incessantly to be begun anew.
(3) The Preacher turned with sickness of heart from the toil of knowledge, and betook himself to refined pleasures. The thought of death, levelling all distinctions, intruded itself upon him. The wise man is equalled in the earth at last with the fool. Life became odious to him because the work wrought under the sun was grievous to him; for all was vanity and vexation of spirit.
2. And now we come to “the conclusion of the whole matter.” If this legend, “Vanity and vexation of spirit,” is to be written upon the objects of human desire and delight, if the world sounds hollow wherever we touch it, where is reality to be found? The simple answer of the Preacher is, it is to be found in religion: “Fear God, and keep His commandments.” God is real as the soul is real. He is, as Augustine describes Him, the Life of our life, the core of our hearts. God is that pure and perfect Being for alliance and communion with whom we long. And it is the light we have from Him and in Him which makes the world look so dark, the perception of His rightness which throws into painful contrast the crookedness of men’s ways, and of His beauty which makes their wickedness so deformed. And our happiness must lie, for each one of us, in loyalty to Him, in the keeping of His laws, whether they be known to us through the study of Nature or of sacred Scriptures, or by attentive study of our own hearts and the oracular spirit of holiness, whose influence is felt therein. It is in weariness of the world that we fall hack upon the sweetness and truthfulness of pure religion for our refreshment and solace; it is when we have given up the conceit of being wiser than our forefathers, and the hope of setting crooked things straight, that we see distinctly the cultivation of our souls to be our main concern, and the only way to better the world is by reverently attending to our duty in wholeness and simplicity of heart. It is an ill thing for us if, when we have found out the hollowness of this bubble-like world, the trickiness and imposture of human nature, we say: “We will live like the rest, we will not take things seriously, we will pass on our way with a smile and a jest, trusting nothing, hoping nothing.” It is only the presence of God that is of substantial and eternal good, that can console us for the vanity of earthly things, as the Preacher found so long ago. (E. Johnson, M. A.)
Making the most of life
What is meant by “making the most of life”? The answer may be given in four distinct yet related propositions.
I. The wise reckoning of life in its end, aims, limitations, and possibilities. Life is a serious and tremendous reality; life is short at best; life is freighted with infinite possibilities of good and evil; life is a responsible trust of infinite solemnity and importance. To enter upon such a life and spend its precious years, and part with its priceless opportunities, without due consideration, with no serious thought of the future--the end, the obligations and the final issues of life--is to act the part of a fool and a wanton sinner.
II. The right choice of means for the securing of life’s great end. Life is a rational, fearful trust, which God has put into our hands, and He will hold us strictly responsible for the use and outcome of it. On the right choice of means and their wise and faithful application will depend mainly the tone, the character, the fruit, and the final outcome of life itself.
III. A jealous husbanding of all the resources at our command, in order to accomplish life’s end and mission.
IV. The utmost outlay of will and energy and effort to get the best possible results out of this brief period of probationary existence. The present is the seedtime of an eternal existence. Brief as this life is it affords the only chance of heaven. Our days are “numbered” from the start--enough, but not one too many, for the work given us to do. We must up and haste. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
The fear of God
The fear of God which he holds up before us, as the whole work and duty and happiness of man, is such a fear as blends with love, and issues in all holy obedience, in the keeping of God’s commandments, heartily, impartially, universally.
I. The principle of religion. This is the fear of God, not such a dread as wicked men have, and which makes them tremble--like the devils in their prison beneath, but a holy and reverential sense of His majesty--a belief in His presence, power, and goodness--the adoration of His love and wisdom--the reliance upon His providence and the dread of His displeasure. By consequence, the fear of God includes our belief in Him, as He has revealed Himself to us in His Word. The fear of God which I now commend to you is a mixed feeling--love, faith, confidence must blend with it. This is the inward principle of religion--without it there can be no acceptable worship. There are two extremes from which it is alike distant. The one extreme is that dread, which engenders superstition and human devices for its palliation and removal.
II. This fear is seen in its results--it necessarily leads to practice; it is in connection with duty and obedience. When we see the movements of a clock, or any complex machine, we know that there is a power at work within. If the hands of a watch move, we know that there is a cause; the result follows of course. It is so with the outward acts of religion when they are right; they spring from the inward principle. The great virtue of this inward principle is, that it actuates man in his conduct universally; it gives a right aim and tendency both to his desires and affections--both to his words and works. To govern the tongue, to restrain the appetites of the body, to correct the temper, to keep down the swellings of pride, the suggestions of malice and revenge, to curb all dishonesty in desire and action, to secure temperance, soberness, and chastity; “to keep the hands from picking and stealing, and the tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering;” to establish truth and integrity in the deep places of the heart; these are all results flowing from an inward principle of the fear of God.
III. This is the whole of man; his whole duty, his highest achievement, his noblest work. (H. J. Hastings, M. A.)
What is the whole duty of man
The Book of Ecclesiastes resembles that of Job--its aim is not disclosed till it ends. It might be called the Book of Awakening and Renunciation. If we look at life from a mere earthly point of view it is not worth living. All is vanity; what’s the use? As the book closes it reveals the true philosophy of life.
I. The fear of god. This includes a variety of feelings.
1. Reverence. This may be viewed as threefold, according to Goethe’s profound view of education--reverence for what is above us, reverence for our equals, and reverence for what is below us.
2. The fear of offending God by doing what is sinful.
3. This fear, which springs from reverence, has in it no torment, and is closely allied to hope.
II. The obedience of God. To keep His commandments includes the whole duty of man; or this is every man’s duty. The tree of duty supports many branches.
1. Our duty to God.
2. Our duty to ourselves.
3. Our duty to others.
III. Some reasons.
1. Our whole life shall be judged.
2. Every secret thing in the whole of life shall be revealed in the judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (L. O. Thompson.)
The summary of manhood
There is no need to caution men against the fear of God. The tendency to-day is not to fear too much, but too little.
I. Fear God. Godly fear is salutary.
1. It fosters reverence.
2. It guards virtue.
3. It restrains from sin.
4. It impels to obedience; to the--
II. Keeping of God’s commandments; of the commandment.
1. To repent.
2. To believe in the Lord Jesus. These are preliminary--to keeping--
3. The great commandment; and--
4. That “like unto it,” and the command--
5. To walk in “all the statutes of the Lord.”
III. “this is the whole duty of man;” rather, “this is the whole”--that is, this is everything--“so far as man’s life is concerned.” This is everything as it relates--
1. To faith.
2. To experience.
3. To conduct.
4. To service. Thus you get the complete man. (R. C. Cowell)
The whole duty of man
This suggests as a theme for meditation the fact that the religion revealed by God includes the entire sphere of possible human activity; that there is nothing good that a man can think, do, or say, or feel, which cannot in its highest forms be shown to be rooted in, and a fruit of, the religion which God has revealed. “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.”
I. The first point to determine is the meaning of the word fear. It is not slavish fear; it is not the feeling that a man might have who was writhing on the earth at the approach of a despot, and expecting to be ground into dust by the stamp of his iron heel. The scriptural meaning of fear is what we suggest by the word revere. “Revere God, and keep His commandments.” This is the “fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom.” Revering God as our Creator, as the Sovereign of the universe, as the one Lawgiver, is the union of the intellect which approves, and the heart which loves, and the will which consents. They are all in the single word revere. When reverence for God exists in a human soul, the natural attitude of that soul is the attitude which led St. Paul, while yet his name was Saul, to cry out: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”
II. When a child of God, revering Him, asks this question, he finds that the commandments of god include his devotions. The explanation of prayer, of the holy Sabbath, and of the Word of God is to be found in the fact that they create, maintain, and increase reverence.
III. Observe, also, that God’s commands take the form of righteousness, and these commands are simplified, and then details are presented under them. The first and great commandment is that “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and strength.” The only definition of the love of God which can satisfy the mind or the heart is “to have an intense desire to please Him.” It will apply equally to spirits in the body and out of the body. And the second is like unto it: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This does not mean more than thyself, as some fanatics have supposed, but as thyself; not in the sense of caring for thy neighbour as for thyself, or of caring for his house, his children, his life; but in this sense: that thou wilt do good to thy neighbour as thou hast opportunity, and that thou wilt not do evil to him even for thine own transient advantage. (J. M. Buckley, D. D.)