The Vision of the Field
(No. 3001)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1864.
"For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be
tilled and sown." Ezekiel 36:9.
THESE words were addressed to the mountains of Palestine. Albeit that
they are now waste and barren, they are yet to be as fruitful and
luxuriant as in the days of Israel's grandeur. God will turn to
them–the vines shall then crown the summits and there shall be
harvests again upon the mountaintops.
The mountains of Israel were a soil of glass in which you could see
reflected, at a single glimpse, the condition and character of the
people. While the Israelites were obedient to God, the mountains
dripped with new wine and the little hills seemed to melt with
fertility. Honey dripped from the rock and oil appeared to be distilled
of the very flint. When the people sinned so that God gave them over to
their enemies, irrigation being neglected and the culture of the soil
no longer profitable, the mountains straightaway became as blank and
barren as though they were a howling wilderness! And then, again, when
the people repented and turned to God, the soil began to cover the
mountains, carried up there by the industry of the people, the sides of
the hills were terraced, the waste places began to blossom and the
vines were once more filled with clusters. You could thus read the
history of the people in the condition of their hills.
I intend to take the hills of Israel as a representation of our own
state–the state of our own heart. As they really did mirror forth the
condition of the people of old, the metaphor becomes peculiarly
attractive. I shall divide the subject thus–first, man's heart, by
nature, is like a waste field. Secondly, there is no hope for that
field unless Godshall turn to it in mercy. Thirdly, when Hie does turn
to it, He will have to till it, for, lastly, not until after tillage
can it be sown with any hope of success.
I. MAN'S HEART, BY NATURE, IS LIKE A WASTE FIELD.
A waste field produces no harvest. Reaper, you shall never fill your
arms with sheaves, the axle of the wagon shall never creak beneath the
load of harvest and the young men shall never dance with the maidens at
the harvest home. Let the field lie waste and the fruit it will yield
in a whole century will not be sufficient to feed a single individual!
Such is man, we say, by nature. He brings forth no fruit unto God.
Leave him alone and he will live unto himself. Perhaps he will be a
respectable sinner and, if so, he will selfishly spend all his life in
trying to provide for himself, alone, or for his family, which is but a
part of himself. He will go through the world from his birth to his
sepulcher without a thought of God. He will never do anything for God.
His heart will never beat with love to Him. He may sometimes, out of
sheer selfishness, go with others to worship, but he will not worship
God, whatever difference he may show to the outward form. His heart
will be in complete alienation from the God who made him. He will live
and he will die a strange monstrosity in the world–a creature that has
lived without love to his Creator!
Perhaps, however, he will be a disreputable sinner. He will live in
sin, find his comfort in drunkenness, perhaps in lust, possibly in
dishonesty–but regardless, he will bring forth nothing that God can
accept. I think I see the great God coming to look at the man, even as
a farmer might come to look upon his fallow field. What can God see? Is
there a prayer? Yes, he says a few forms of prayer, but they are dead,
lifeless things, and God cannot accept them. Does He see any praise?
Perhaps a shriveled hymn growing up in the corner of the field, but
since there is no heart in it, it rots and dies, and God abhors it. He
looks the whole field through. There is no thought for God, no
consecration of time to God, no desire to honor God, no longing to
produce in the world fresh glory to God, no effort to raise up to Him
fresh voices that shall praise His name. He lives unto himself, or to
his fellow men and having so lived, he so dies.
Now you know that there are a great many people who say to themselves,
"Well, if we do good to our neighbor, if we are kind to others, that is
enough." And they expect to have some reward for this. But, mark you,
every servant expects his master to pay his wages–surely then, if you
serve your fellow men, they ought to reward you. Let them give you a
statue, or let them emblazon your name on one of the rolls of fame. Let
them sound down your exploits to future generations! Still, let your
debtor and creditor account be fair. If you have not done anything
distinctly and avowedly in the service of God, there is no remuneration
that you can reasonably expect God to give you! What have you brought
forth to Him? Nothing whatever! And we say it sincerely, for we know
how sadly true it is–the natural heart of man never does and never can
produce so much as one single grain that God can receive as being to
His honor and glory. As for the natural children of men in all their
generations–
"Like brutes they live, like brutes they die. Like grass they flourish,
till Your breath Blasts them into everlasting death." Alas for them!
Unto You, great God, they render no prayer nor praise, no heart-felt
love nor reverent adoration. They pass through this world as though
there were no God!
Worse than this, the field that has never been plowed or sown does
produce something. There is an activity about human nature that will
not let us live without doing. Unless you should shut yourselves up in
a cell like a monk, or live on the top of a pillar, like Simeon
Stylites, you cannot very well pass through life utterly inert–without
any purpose of mind, without any movement of the limbs, without any
stir of the passions! And I suppose that even Simeon Stylites did exert
some influence, for he led other people to be as great fools as
himself. And even monks do some mischief by losing the interest on
talents for which they ought to have rendered a good account–and
spending their time in laziness which they ought to have employed in
useful service. "None of us lives to himself." Is there no wheat
growing on that soil? No barley? No rye? Very well, then, there will be
grass, and cockle, and stickers and all sorts of weeds. So it is with
the unrenewed heart. It produces hard thoughts of God, enmity against
the Most High. It is prolific of evil imaginations, wrong desires and
bitter envying. As these ripen, they bring forth ill words–idle, or,
it may be, lascivious words and perhaps atheistic, blasphemous words!
And as these ripen, they come to actions–and the man becomes an
offender in his deeds, perhaps against man, certainly against God. He
lives to produce sour grapes. The apples of Gomorrah hang plentifully
upon him.
I know I am describing some here present. There are many such persons
to be found in all our assemblies. They have done no good in their
lives. Measuring their lives by the standard of God, they have done
nothing. On the other hand, they have been guilty of much evil–they
have brought forth fruit unto sin. Nor is this the worst of it. The bad
farmer, who lets his fields run to weeds, does mischief to the
neighboring farm. Here comes the wind, willing to waft seed–good seed
if it can find it–into other soil. It will take the down of the flower
seed and bear it into a garden where it will be needed. Or, if it must,
it will carry the seeds of the thistle and so, when it comes sweeping
by the farmer's neglected field, it does damage to all the fields in
the neighborhood.
It is so with the sinner. "One sinner destroys much good." Is he a
father? His children grow up to be as ungodly as himself. Is he a
master? Then his men, like him, break the Sabbath and neglect the ways
of God. Is he a workman? Then his fellow workmen, who are younger than
he, take encouragement from his evil example and they are led into sin
while they blindly follow in his wake. Whatever station of life you put
him into, he does mischief! The more eminent he is, the more eminently
mischievous he is. I do not allude to those who are grave offenders
against the laws of society. I mean those good, decent people who have
no fear of God before their eyes. I think they do very much mischief,
for the devil's cause gets respectable through having them on its side!
Those who persistently live in violation of Divine Law and who do not
bend their necks to the yoke of Christ, may be very amiable, very moral
and very excellent. If so, in a certain sense, the more is the pity
because they get an increase of power to do evil, for others say, "If
such good men as these can live without religion and live despising it,
why shouldn't we?" Thus a bad cause, which would be hissed off the
stage if there were none but rascals to side with it, still walks
respectably in the light of day because of these persons who back it
up! God deliver you, my dear Hearers, from being like a field that does
mischief unto others! Beware, you upas tree, lest your poisonous
influence should receive the reward of Hell fire! Beware, you cumberer
of the ground, standing there and
sucking nutriment out of the soil, and cursing the other trees of the
vineyard, lest the sharp ax should soon cut you to the core and lay you
level with the ground!
A barren field resembles the heart of man in that all the good
influences that fall upon it are wasted. Comes there sunshine–it
produces no harvest on the fallow land. Here are the precious drops of
dew glistening in the morning, but they cannot produce an ear of corn.
And here fall the sweet smiling showers of rain that make the new-mown
fields all fragrant, but this field gets no good from it. It is even so
with you who are still in a state of nature. You have the blessings of
Providence, but they do not make you grateful. You even have the
blessings of the outward means of Divine Grace, but they excite in you
no longings towards God. Surely, my dear Friends, if this has been long
the case with you, you must be near unto cursing!
Yet the waste field does produce something pleasant to the eyes,
something worth looking at, for have you not seen the gorgeous poppy
and the finest specimens of the ranunculus growing in the field that
was never plowed and sown? And there is the dog-rose yonder and the
foxglove, and the forget-me-not, all springing up and flourishing where
there should have been furrows for wheat! And so a man may have a
comely appearance and make a fair show in the flesh, although he does
not live near to God. In his character and reputation, there may be
many a gaudy flower–yes, as red and as conspicuous as the poppy. He
may shine among men and men may talk much about him. But, as the Lord
lives, if the Lord's plow has never gone over him, the bright blushing
weeds are still just weeds! A poison and a pest, not a blessing or a
balm–as the farmer right well knows. Let those of you who are in such
a state see an apt emblem of yourselves every time you pass a piece of
waste ground, and say, "That is just what we are, and what we shall be
to the end of our lives, unless the Grace of God shall interfere to
retrieve us from endless ruin."
II. THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THIS FIELD UNLESS GOD SHALL TURN TO IT IN
MERCY.
Even so, unless the Lord shall turn to men, no good will ever come of
them. The text says, "I am for you, and I will turn to you." Man never
does of himself turn to God, and that for obvious reasons. We are sure
he never can, for he is "dead in trespasses and sins." We are certain
he never will, for by nature he hates anything like a new birth. And if
he could make himself a new creature, he would not, for Christ has
expressly said, "You will not come unto Me that you might have life."
Man is unwilling to give up sin–he loves it too much–he is unwilling
to be made holy for he has no time for spiritual things. God, then,
must come to man, for how can man, being naturally dead, and naturally
unwilling, ever come to God? Experience tells us that he will not. When
did you ever find a man who had come to God–who would say that he came
of his own natural inclination? All the saints on earth will tell you
that it was Almighty Grace that made them willing in the day of God's
power. If there is any man who ever came to God of himself, I can only
say that I know I am not that man–
"Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God."
If any unconverted person here will tell me that he can turn to God
when he likes, I ask him why he does not turn now? What measure of
damnation must be his due, when, according to his own confession, he
has a power which he will not use! Sinner, talk not vainly of what you
can do! Man, you can burn in Hell and you can fit yourself for the
flames, but this is about all you can do for yourself! You have
destroyed yourself! For that inglorious deed, your will was free and
your agency free likewise. But only in God is your help found. For
this, be sure–you have neither might nor skill. If ever you are saved,
it must be by another power than your own and by another faculty than
that which dwells in your puny, wicked heart. God must do it! If you
wait till your waste field plows itself, or brings forth a harvest, you
may wait till doomsday! And if I wait until my Hearers save their own
souls, and turn to God with full purpose of heart, I may wait till
these hairs are gray, or till these bones are carried to the tomb! And
even then they will not have saved themselves! If you have turned to
God, my dear Hearers, you know that the Lord has done it, so give Him
the glory! If you have not been converted, God help you to cry to Him
instantly and earnestly, "Turn us, and we shall be turned." Look to Him
who is exalted on high to "give repentance and remission of sins." Seek
Him and you shall live!
Oh, that you could now see your wretched plight, that you could feel
your imminent peril, that you could believe in the Sovereign operations
of God's Grace! Then would I venture to prophesy that salvation had
this day come to your house–yes, to your very heart!
III. WHEN THE FIELD IS TO BE PUT UNDER CULTIVATION, IT MUST BE TILLED.
So, when God turns to any man in His mercy, there has to be an
operation, a tillage, performed upon his heart! The farmer, unless he
is a fool, would never think of sowing his corn upon a field that
remains just as it was when it lay fallow. He plows it first. Although
we are to scatter the seed everywhere, upon the wayside as well as upon
the good ground, God never does. Common calling is addressed to every
man, but effectual callingcomes only to prepared men, to those whom God
makes "willing in the day of His power."
Now, what is the plow needed for? Why, it is needed, first of all, to
break up the soil and make it crumble. It has gotten hard–perhaps it
is a heavy clay and then it is all stuck together by the wet and all
baked and caked together by the sun that shines on it. Or perhaps it is
a light soil. Well, this may not need much plowing, but still, it will
cake over, as we all see even in our little gardens. After the rain has
gone, the sun comes, the ground cakes over and there will be no place
for the seeds to thrust in their tender roots. The corn will not sink
down into the earth unless the soil is broken up–and the more
thoroughly pulverized it becomes, the more like dust you get it–the
more hope there is that the seed will take good root.
In such-like manner must human hearts be broken. "A broken and a
contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." The more thoroughly
pulverized the heart becomes, the better. Hence, there needs to be the
sharp plow of the Law of God driven right through the heart to break up
its crust and split the clods. And then must come that blessed plow of
the Cross, which is the best plow that yet ever went across a
field–that blessed plow of the Cross, which, as it goes over it, turns
up the soil, even the very heart of it, and makes the sinner feel his
sin and hate it, too, because of the love of God which is shed abroad
by Christ Jesus the Lord. Thus you must be tilled, then, that the heart
may be broken, for the Seed of God will never get into an unbroken
heart!
And the plow is also needed to destroy the weeds, for they must be
killed. We cannot have them growing. To spare the weeds would be to
kill the wheat. The plow comes and cuts some weeds in two. Others it
turns over and throws the heavy clods on and leaves them to lie there
and be buried. It turns the roots of others up to the sun, and the sun,
by the brightness of its shining, scorches them and they die. Some
soils need cross-plowing–they need to be plowed this way and the other
way, and then they need someone to go through the furrows, afterwards,
and pull up the weeds, or else they will not be all rooted out of the
soil. And I am afraid that many of us who have been plowed still have
divers weeds left in us! The field must not only be plowed, but the
weeds must be killed! And so it must be with you, my dear Hearers. If
the Lord really saves you, He must kill your drunkenness, He must kill
your swearing, He must kill your whoredom, He must kill your lying, He
must kill your dishonesty. These must all go! Every single weed must be
torn up–there is no hope for you while there is a weed living!
True, I mean not those weeds which still exist, even in the regenerate,
but even they must be doomed. John Wellman, a member of the Society of
Friends, tells a strange story on himself. One night, after he had been
reading the Scripture, as he lay awake, he heard a voice saying, "John
Wellman is dead." And, being a Quaker, he was greatly struck therewith
and wondered how it was that he could be dead. He asked his wife what
his name was and she said, "John Wellman." Whereupon he perceived that
he must be alive. At last he understood it to mean that he was dead to
the world–that he was henceforth no longer what he formerly had been,
but a new creature in Christ Jesus. And it will be a blessed thing for
you, my dear Hearers, when the same thing may be said of you in the
same sense, "He is dead." There is a man I used to know–I wish I did
not still know him so well. I used to meet him every day, some years
ago, but we parted company. He would not go with me to Christ, so I
went without him. I became a new man and he is dead. Oh, how often I
wish he were buried, for I have to drag his dead body about with me
and, as it putrefies in my nostrils, I have to cry, "O wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" That
rascally old man bears my own name and once he was identical with
myself. I could gladly wish he were buried! In like manner, may it come
to pass with you that you may die to the flesh and that henceforth you
may live in the spirit unto God! And though the old man is still prone
to corruption, what a blessed stroke is that which takes the life out
of him so that he can no longer rule over you, but the new man reigns
supreme!
Plowmen tell us that when they are plowing, if the plow jumps, the work
is done badly. They must plow it all alike, from end to end, from
headland to headland. If the plow jumps, it has gone over some weeds or
knots and not torn them up. I would like always to preach so that my
plow may never jump. I sometimes say a hard word because I do not want
my plow to jump–I want to tear up all the knots and not leave one in
the ground. If one sin is tolerated, or one malicious
desire is spared, the life of God is not completely reigning in us! The
Lord make a clean sweep of the weeds and burn them
all!
Well, now, mark you, in this tilling there are different soils. There
is the light soil and the heavy soil–and so there are different sorts
of constitutions. There are some men who are naturally tender and
sensitive. Many, too, of our sisters are like Lydia–they soon receive
the Word. There are others who are like the heavy clay soil and you
know that the farmer doe not plow both soils alike, or else he would
make a sad mess of it! And so, God does not deal with all men alike.
Some have, as it were, first a little plowing and then the seed is put
in and all is done. But some have to be plowed and cross-plowed, and
then there is the scarifier and the clod-crusher and I know not what,
which have to be rolled over them before they are good for anything.
And perhaps, after all, they produce very little fruit. Different
constitutions need different modes of action. Let this comfort some of
you who have not been so much alarmed as others have been. Different
soils must have different methods. Christ does not deal with all men
precisely in the same way in His heavenly tillage.
A farmer has a large variety of implements. Go into the shed of a man
who is a high farmer and what a number of implements you may see! I
mentioned some of them just now, but there are far more than I can talk
about. So it is with our Heavenly Father–He has all kinds of
implements. Sometimes it is a Providential trial. One man loses a
child. Another has to bury his father. And yonder one has had to follow
his wife to the grave. Some have temporal losses– business becomes
bad–perhaps they are out of work and half starving. Others are
stretched upon a bed of sickness and others are brought near to the
grave. These circumstances are all so many different sort of plows with
which God plows the soil of our hearts!
The laborers whom the Lord employs are dissimilar, likewise, by the
diversity of their gifts. Ministers are some of one sort, and some of
another. Even the same minister is not always engaged in the same sort
of operation. There are some Sundays when I know some of you find me a
terrible scarifier, for I have the terrors of the Lord on my conscience
and there is very little comfort in the solemn warnings I am
constrained to utter. But if, sometimes, I come down upon you like a
clod-crusher, it is necessary that with true Grace and good hope, I may
at other times drill in the seed and nourish your hearts with the very
essence of the Gospel. The faithful evangelist has to become all things
to all men to accomplish his Master's work. But you must be tilled, for
there is no sowing the ground until it has been first stirred about.
And, you know, the farmer has his proper time for plowing. Some soils
will do better at one season and some at another. There are some soils
that break up best after a shower of rain and some that do best when
they are dry. There are some hearts, and I think almost all
hearts–that are best plowed after a shower of heavenly love has fallen
upon them. They are in a grateful frame of mind for mercies received
and then the story of a dying Savior comes to them as just that which
will touch the strings of their hearts. Anyway, dear Friends, I would
like to pass the question around, Have you been tilled? Has your heart
been tilled? Has the soil of your heart been turned up? Have the secret
things of your heart been discovered and brought to light, just as the
plow turns up the ants' nest? Have you been brought to know your own
corruptions? Are there straight furrows right through you so that you
can cry out, "O God, You have broken me in pieces, be pleased to come
to my help"? Then I am glad of it. You are ready to despair of
yourself, but I am not ready to despair for you. You tremble, but I am
encouraged. I rejoice, not that you are made sorry, but that you sorrow
to repentance after a godly manner! God has broken your heart and I
know that He will bind it up. If He has plowed you, He will sow you, as
He said to the mountains of Israel, "I will turn to you, and you shall
be tilled and sown."
IV. UNLESS GOD HAS TILLED THE HEART, IT CANNOT BE SOWN WITH ANY HOPE OF
SUCCESS.
After plowing, there comes the sowing. When the heart is ready, God
sows it–sows it with the best of wheat. The wise farmer does not sow
tail corn but, as Isaiah says, he casts in "the principal wheat." The
seed which God sows is living seed. If a farmer were to sow boiled seed
that has lost its vitality, what would be the good of it? But he sows
living seed. And so the Truth of God which Jesus Christ preaches and
bids us to scatter, is living wheat–living seed–and when that drops
into the soil, God watches over it. The grub may come and the crow may
come, but none of these shall get the seed–
"For Grace insures the crop "–
and up it shall spring–"first the blade, then the ear, after that the
full corn in the ear." It shall grow, for God has prepared the soil for
it!
Now, I want to scatter a handful of the good Seed of the Kingdom.
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Trust
Jesus, and you are saved. There–I saw a handful of that Seed go on the
wayside and another handful went upon some of you who are choked with
thorns. But if there is a broken heart here, the Seed has fallen upon
good ground, for that broken heart says, "What? If I trust Christ,
shall I be saved?" Yes, you will be saved in a moment! Every sin
forgiven you in a moment, for Jesus Christ took your place and stood
and suffered all the punishment of your sins! Therefore God having been
just in punishing Christ instead of you, can let you go free, and yet
be just as though He had sent you to Hell! If you trust Christ, the
merit of His suffering and the virtue of His righteousness shall be
yours. You shall go your way rejoicing because you have peace with God
through Jesus Christ! Will you believe or not, Sinner? God give you the
Grace to trust Christ! Trust Him now. And if you do, then I shall know
that God has plowed you, that God has prepared you before He bade me
drop in the Seed! Let those of us who know the power of prayer drag the
harrow across the field, for when the Seed is once in, it needs
harrowing. Thus let us preach the Word, and thus let us pray that the
Seed may take root, spring up, grow and bring forth a hundredfold! So
sinners shall be saved and so God shall be glorified!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ECCLESIASTES 11:6-10; 12.
Ecclesiastes 11:6. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening
withhold not your hand: for you know not whether shall prosper, either
this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. It is our
business to sow the good Seed of the Kingdom, to sow it broadcast, to
sow it at all times–"In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening
withhold not your hand." The result of our sowing does not rest with
us, but with the great Lord of the Harvest. Some of the Seed may fall
by the wayside, some among thorns, some upon a rock, or upon rocky
ground with only a thin layer of earth; but if God has called us to be
sowers, and we really sow Gospel Seed, some of it will fall into good
ground and bring forth fruit, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or even a
hundredfold!
7. Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the sun. And as it is so pleasant for the natural eyes to behold
the natural sun, how much more pleasant is it for the spiritual eyesto
behold the Sun of Righteousness! Sweet as the light of the sun is, the
light of the Sun of Righteousness is far sweeter.
8, 9. But if a man lives many years, andrejoices in them all; yet let
him remember the days ofdarkness; for they shall be many. All that
comes is vanity. Rejoice, Oyoung man, in your youth; and let your heart
cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your
heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but know you that for all these
things God will bring you into judgment. Nobody in his senses supposes
that Solomon exhorted young men to walk according to their own heart
and according to the sight of their eyes! This is a common way of
speaking–as we may say to a man who is going to excess in drink,
"Well, drink your full, and be drunk; but you will have to suffer for
it. It will certainly exact a penalty at your hands by-and-by." Nobody
would be so foolish as to say that we had exhorted the man to
drunkenness! On the contrary, we did, as it were, warn him not to
continue in his evil course by reminding him of the penalty which would
assuredly follow. So here Solomon seems to say, "Do this if you will.
Do it if you dare. But remember that there is a Judgment Day coming and
God will judge you for all these things–and according to these things
will He measure out your doom."
10. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart and put away evil from your
flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity. There is no doubt that if we
were holy, we would be happy. So, if we advise men to put away sorrow
from their heart, we must remind them that they cannot do it except by
putting away sin. The roots of evil must be cleared away, otherwise, in
the long run, to cut down the shoots and leave the roots may be but to
strengthen the evil. The removal of sorrow can only be effected by
going deeper and clearing the heart of sin–and this can only be
accomplished by God's Grace.
Ecclesiastes 12:1. Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near, when you shall
say, I have no pleasure in them. Do not give God the dregs of life. Do
not offer in sacrifice to Him anything that is worn out. Remember that
among the first fruits which the Jews were to bring to the
priest to be offered on God's altar, there were to be "green ears of
corn, dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears." The Lord
delights to have the hearts of His people while they are yet children.
The Lord said through Hosea the Prophet, "I taught Ephraim also to go,
taking them by their arms," as if, while they were but little, God had
taught them to take their first steps in walking. There is also that
passage in the prophecy of Jeremiah, "I remember you, the kindness of
your youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after Me in the
wilderness." God delights in those early evidences of love in the
morning of life, while the dew is upon everything and there is a
sparkling freshness all around. I pray that you who are young will
remember your Creator in the days of your youth!
2. While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the star, be not
darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. As they do in old age,
when troubles seem to multiply and the brightness of life seems to have
gone.
3, 4. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the
strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they
are few, and those that look out of the windows are darkened, and the
doors shall be shut in the street, when the sound of the grinding is
low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the birds, and all the
daughters of music shall be brought low. This is a wonderfully vivid
description of the failure of our natural powers. "The keepers of the
house shall tremble"–these are our arms which are the guardians of the
house of our body. We naturally thrust out our hands and arms to
protect ourselves if we are likely to fall, so they are "the keepers of
the house." "The strong men shall bow themselves," that is, our legs
and knees begin to shake. "The grinders cease because they are few."
Our teeth gradually decay and, at last, fall from their places. They
are like the first falling stones of a decaying wall, tottering to show
how the rest will soon follow. "Those that look out of the windows are
darkened." The eyes begin to lose their quickness of sight and fresh
windows–double windows–are sometimes needed to assist the failing
sight. "The doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the
grinding is low." The voice fails. Then there comes sleeplessness, so
that the first little bird that chirps in the morning wakes up the aged
man. And as for music, his ears sometimes fail to catch the sweetest
melody and his own voice is unable to attune itself as once it
did–"All the daughters of music shall be brought low."
5. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears
shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish. This is one of
the most beautiful pieces of poetic description that were ever penned!
Here we have a true picture of the nervousness which creeps over men in
the decline of life. Then there is the flourishing of the almond
tree–there are many before me now whose white hair shows that the
almond tree is flourishing!
5. And the grasshopper shall be a burden.Those things that we treated
lightly in our youth become a very heavy burden in our later years. A
little work wearies, a little care fatigues and a little trouble frets
us as it never used to do.
5. And desire shall fail The whole nature becomes more calm and less
ambitious–and less ardent than it used to be.
5, 6. Because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the
streets: before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is
broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken
at the cistern. "The silver cord" is the spinal marrow, which gradually
relaxes, for the strength and power of it are gone. The whole frame
begins to show symptoms of the paralysis which is creeping on. "The
golden bowl" is the skull, which contains the brain, and whoever has
seen a skull must see how appropriate the figure is. Then, in "the
pitcher" and "the wheel" we have a reference to the circulation of the
blood of which Solomon seems to have had at least some inklings. There
have been writers who have affirmed that the entire system of anatomy
might very well be gathered from these words. They are wonderful, not
only because of the poetic imagery which is on the surface, but also
because of the depth of meaning which lies beneath.
7. Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was: and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it Thus will it happen to us all unless
Christ shall first come. The machinery of our being will stand still.
The fountain of life will be dry; no longer will the living floods rush
through their appointed courses as they used to do. Please remember
that we are not merely talking about people in the street, of whom we
know nothing, but about ourselves, also, for we are mortal–so we must
die. Let us believe this and prepare for it.
8. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. This seems to
be the conclusion to which Solomon came by the experiment of his own
life, as well as by the teaching of God. This Book of Ecclesiastes
begins thus–"The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in
Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities;
all is vanity."
9. And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the
people knowledge; yes, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in
order many proverbs. That man is not fit to teach who does not give
good heed and set his words in order. He who says whatever comes first
into his mind, only gives out chaff which the wind drives away. But he
who would scatter his seed broadcast must take care that he has in his
seed-basket good seed that is worth sowing in the broad furrows of the
world-field.
10. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words. The Hebrew
expression means words of delight, for words that delight the ear may
help to win the heart and so prove to be "acceptable words."
10, 11. And that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
The words of the wise are as goads, and the words of scholars are as
well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. The true preacher's words
pierce us like the sharp ox-goads pierce the cattle, but they are also
like nails that are driven into the wood, and clinched so that they
cannot come out. There must be something to stir our emotions, and
something to retain in our memory. We need the goads, for we are like
the ox that is slow at the plow. And we need to have the nails well
driven into us for our memory is often like a rotten piece of wood
which lets the nail slip out as soon as it has to bear any weight. May
the Holy Spirit make all of us, who are preachers, to be wise so as to
know how to use the goad and how to drive the nail!
12. And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books
there in no end: and much study is a weariness of the flesh That is
what Solomon said and he had never seen the British Museum, or the
Bodleian and other noted libraries, for, if he had done so, he would
have said with an emphasis, "There is no end," for the books of his day
could scarcely have been one in a thousand, or one in a million,
compared with those which are now produced! I should not wonder,
however, if the one in a million was quite worth the million. There are
many books made that may benefit the printer, the publisher, and the
bookseller, but they are not likely to benefit anybody else!
13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep
His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Reverent walking
before the Most High. Reconciliation to Him so that we can thus walk
and thus live, and all this proved by a life of obedience to His
commandments–"This is the whole duty of man."
14. For Godshall bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil Notice that
expression, "every secret thing." It is not merely our public actions
that God will judge, otherwise we might be more at our ease–but He
takes account of our most private thoughts, words, deeds and intents.
Who among us can endure that ordeal? Yet we must endure it if we are to
stand before Him. O Lord, prepare us, by Your Infinite Grace, through
faith in Your dear Son, and by the regenerating work of Your gracious
Spirit, for this solemn testing time! Amen.