Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave… Some errors are harmless and hardly worth the trouble of refuting; but an error about the nature and the uses of this present life is harmful, and worth an angel's powers to refute. Why have some persons gone off into sensualism, deriding and disregarding all the claims of religion? Because they have misunderstood life. Why have others renounced the world, and sought in the heart of the desert, or the solitude of a religious house, freedom from the temptations of the world, and the agitations of society? Because they have misunderstood life. I. THIS IS THE WORLD OF SERVICE. This idea involves necessarily these things — 1. Subordination. I remember that mine is a subordinate position. I am here to do something, and not to talk about doing it. "I must Work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work." 2. Work. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it." It is a doing world. "Man goes forth to his labour, and to his work, from the morning until the evening." Spiritually we need this world; all the varied scenes which make up our life were needful to the right training of our minds into that attitude of creaturely dependence, which not only befits us, but into which, by the very force of circumstances, we shall sooner or later be driven; and which, therefore, we had better make our own by voluntary choice. II. THE SERVICE OF THIS WORLD IS BUT FOR A SHORT TIME. Learn, then: 1. Moderation in all our earthly pursuits. 2. Earnestness in our religious life. Let us not throw our souls into our business, and our sleep into our religion. (W. G. Barrett.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. |
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