Homilist Ecclesiastes 4:4-8 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor… Here is a portrait, drawn by a man who lived thousands of years ago, of three distinct types of character that you find everywhere about you. I. Here is a man WORKING FOR THE GOOD of society (ver. 4). Thank God! there have ever been such men — generous, disinterested, broad-hearted, God-inspired men — men who are doing the "right work." They are the "salt" of the State; remove them, and all is putrescence. How are these men treated by society? Here is the answer. "For this a man is envied of his neighbour." It has ever been so. Cain envied Abel, Korah envied Moses, Saul envied David, the Sanhedrim envied Christ, the Judaic teachers envied Paul. To see society envying such men is a sore "vexation" to all true hearts. What do the existence and treatment of these men show? 1. The great kindness of Heaven in sending such men into every age. What would become of an age without such men in it? The ignorant would have no schools, the afflicted no hospitals, the indigent no poor-laws and charities, the people no righteous laws and no temples for worship. 2. The rightful acknowledgments of most useful services are not to be expected on earth. How did the world treat Moses, Jeremiah, the apostles, and the Holy Christ? Yonder, not here, is the reward for truly right labour. 3. The moral state of society is both unwise and unrighteous. How unwise to treat men who do the "right work" amongst them with envy I For its own good it should cheer them on in their philanthropic efforts. How unrighteous too! These men have a claim to its gratitude, sympathy, and co-operation. II. Here is a man UTTERLY WORTHLESS in society (vers. 5, 6). 1. He exhausts his own property. The indolent man evermore "eats his own flesh": that is, exhausts his own personal strength, mental, moral, physical, for the want of proper exertion. 2. He wrongly estimates his own happiness. "Better is an handful with quietness than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit." In one sense this is true (Proverbs 15:16). But this is not the sense in which the lazy man regards it. By quietness he meant quiescence, non-exertion, lounging, folding the hands, and sleeping life away. Now, this character abounds in our age and land. These characters are not only a curse to themselves, dying with ennui, but a curse to society; they are clogs upon the wheel of industry; they are social thieves; they eat what others have produced. III. Here is a man AVARICIOUSLY MAKING USE of society (ver. 8). 1. The man he sketches worked entirely for himself. Selfgratification, self-aggrandizement, self the centre and circumference of all his activities. 2. The man he sketches worked unremittingly for himself. "Yet is there no end of all his labour." Always at it — morning, noon, and night; it was the one thing he did. 3. The man he sketches worked insatiably for himself. "Neither is his eye satisfied with riches." The passion of avarice has been called the great sepulchre of all the passions. Unlike other tombs, however, it is enlarged by repletion and strengthened by age. An avaricious man is like Tantalus, up to the chin in water, yet always thirsty. Avarice seems to me to be the ruling passion of the age. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. |
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