Charles Bridges: Ecclesiastes
- “I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.”
The Preacher hitherto had only given a general view of this world’s vanity.
He now confirms it from his own history. His royal dignity gave him every advantage of observation. He was King also, not of a barbarous and ignorant people, but of Israel, the only people on the face of the earth, who professed the true knowledge of God, and the right standard of principle. (Deut. iv. 7, 8.) He was in Jerusalem, the Mother Church in Israel, the city which God had fixed as the habitation of his glory.’
Who does not know his sadly instructive history ? His day opened as ” a morning without clouds.” His meridian was brightness “above his fellows.” But the shadows of evening how dark! Instead of the fruitfulness of a long course of devotedness, all was sorrow and shame, with only a few last rays of the setting sun to brighten the thick cloud. But how could Solomon thus fall ?
Could he, who so highly exalted wisdom, degrade himself into the lowest folly ?
Could he, who was so conscious of the snares of sin, and warned so Wisely, so earnestly, could he fall, so as to become a Proverb of Apostasy ?
He who had tasted such gracious manifestations of the Saviour’s love, leave the Beloved of his soul for abominable idols ? Only those who have been taught by experience, no less than
by Scripture, the total corruption of the heart, can solve the mystery. But to such the lesson is most valuable. The moment that utter weakness loses its hold, and forgets the need of habitual dependence, this is the moment of a certain fall.
The most:
- exalted Christian attainments,
- the longest standing in the Church,
- the most extensive usefulness in the world
- the richest store of spiritual gifts,
all furnish no security against the crisis. The most experienced is exposed, no less than the weakest babe in the family.
Oh! what need is there to ” watch unto prayer” (1 Pet. iv. 7), and to walk closely with God !