Ecclesiastes 2:16-23

Ecclesiastes 2:16

I. The noblest renown is posthumous fame, and the most refined ambition is the desire for such fame. And of this more exalted ambition it would appear that Solomon had felt the stirrings. But even that cold comfort was entirely frozen in the thought which followed. From the lofty pinnacle to which, as a philosophic historian, he had ascended, Solomon could look down and see not only the fallibility of his coevals, but the forgetfulness of the generations following. He knew that there had often been great men in the world; but he could not hide it from himself how little these men had grown already, and how infinitesimal the greatest would become if the world should only last a few centuries longer. And so far Solomon was right.

II. But if this be the phantom for which the worldling toils and sighs, there is a posthumous fame which is no illusion. If there be no eternal remembrance of the world's wise men any more than of its fools, it is otherwise with the wise ones of the heavenly kingdom. God has so arranged it that "the righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance." There is not in all the universe a holy being but God has found for it a resting-place in the love of other holy beings, and that not temporarily, but for all eternity. The only posthumous fame that is truly permanent is the memory of God; and the only deathless names are theirs for whose living persons He has found a place in His own love, and in the love of holy beings like-minded with Himself.

J. Hamilton, The Royal Preacher,Lecture VII.

References: Ecclesiastes 2:24. J. Bennet, The Wisdom of the King,p. 106. 2 C. Bridges, An Exposition of Ecclesiastes,p. 26. Ecclesiastes 3:1. H. Hayman, Rugby Sermons,p. 139. Ecclesiastes 3:1. R. Buchanan, Ecclesiastes: its Meaning and Lessons,p. 92.Ecclesiastes 3:1. T. C. Finlayson, A Practical Exposition of Ecclesiastes,p. 75.Ecclesiastes 3:1; Ecclesiastes 3:16. J. Bennet, The Wisdom of the King,p. 152.