Chapter III.
Ver. 3
. “There is a time to kill,
and a time to heal.”
To “kill,” in the case of him who
perpetrates unpardonable transgression; and to “heal,” in
the case of him who can show a wound that will bear remedy.
4
.
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh.”
A time to weep, when it is the time of suffering;
as when the Lord also says, “Verily I say unto you, that ye shall
weep and lament.”
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But to laugh, as concerns the
resurrection: “For your sorrow,” He says,
“shall be turned into joy.”
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4
.
“A time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
When one thinks of the death which the
transgression of Adam brought on us, it is a time to mourn; but it is a
time to hold festal gatherings when we call to mind the resurrection
from the dead which we expect through the new Adam.
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6
.
“A time to keep, and a time to cast away.”
A time to keep the Scripture against the unworthy, and a
time to put it forth for the worthy. Or, again: Before the
incarnation it was a time to keep the letter of the law; but it was a
time to cast it away when the truth came in its flower.
7
.
“A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
A time to speak, when there are hearers who
receive the word; but a time to keep silence, when the hearers pervert
the word; as Paul says: “A man that is an heretic, after
the first and second admonition, reject.”
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10
. “I have seen, then, the
travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in
it.
11
. Everything that He hath made is
beautiful in its time: and He hath set the whole world in their
heart; so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning and to the end.”
And this is true. For no one is able to
comprehend the works of God altogether. Moreover, the world is
the work of God. No one, then, can find out as to this world what
is its space from the beginning and unto the end, that is to say, the
period appointed for it, and the limits before determined unto it;
forasmuch as God has set the whole world as
a realm of
ignorance
in our hearts. And thus one says: “Declare to me the
shortness of my days.”
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In this manner, and for our profit,
the end of this world (age)—that is to say, this present
life—is a thing of which we are ignorant.
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Luke vi. 25; John xvi.
20
.
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John xvi. 20
.
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The fast of the Paschal week, and the feast that follows, are
here referred to. Of course the religious
salutation
of
the Hebrews (
2 Sam. vi.
14
) is the thought of
Koheleth
, and figuratively it is here adopted for holy
mirth.]
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Tit. iii. 10
.
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Ps. cii. 24
,
τὴν
ὀλιγότητα
τῶν ἡμερῶν
μου
ἀνάγγειλόν
μοι
.