_Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth._ THE THREEFOLD VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE Three views of human life are given in this remarkable chapter. I. The theatrical view of life (Ecclesiastes 2:1). The writer seeks to prove his heart with mirth and laughter; he treats his flesh with wine; he gathers pec... [ Continue Reading ]
_I said of laughter, It is mad._ THE WIT AND THE MADMAN If you were asked who had sat for the portrait of a madman, you would be disposed to look out for some monster, some scourge of our race, in whom vast powers had been at the disposal of ungoverned passions, and who had covered a country with w... [ Continue Reading ]
_I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do._ THE REVIEW Our Lord pronounced the children of this world “wise in their generation”: and who can doubt that thousands who are lost would, with God’s blessing, be saved, did they bring the same prude... [ Continue Reading ]
_The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness._ THE ADVANTAGE OF WISDOM OVER FOLLY Wisdom possesses the same advantage over folly that sight does over blindness. The man of wisdom, having all his wits about him, in the full possession and the appropriate exercise of all his... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore I hated life._ IS LIFE WORTH LIVING “Is life worth living?” is a question that is continually coming before the public mind in one form or another. When Mr. Maddock’s book appeared, as many of you may remember, there was an attempt to make light of it by the pun contained in the supposed... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me._ THE DIRGE OF THE DEAD HAND Solomon’s life was complete from the naturalistic standpoint. He sought pleasure with a zest we should condemn as licence nowadays, but which the s... [ Continue Reading ]
_There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour._ THE SIMPLE JOYS OF GODLY INDUSTRY We are not to regard these words as at all akin to the utterance of the baser Epieureanism, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we di... [ Continue Reading ]
_For God giveth to a man that is good in His sight._ TRUE GOODNESS I. He who is good before God is good. 1. A man may be good in his own esteem, and yet not be really so. The way in which we sometimes mistake ourselves is altogether pitiable. 2. A man may be good in the estimate of society, and... [ Continue Reading ]