ches "Preach the word: be instant in season and out of
season."

Thus human reason and divine wisdom "keep step" together till the
former reaches its limit; and very soon, in looking forward, is that
limit reached. For listen now to her advice, consequent on the
foregoing. Therefore she says, Let not the enjoyment of the present
blind thee to the future; for alas there stands that awful mysterious
Exit from the scene that has again and again baffled the Preacher
throughout the book. And here again no science or human reason ever
has or ever can throw the faintest glimmer of clear light beyond it.
That time is still, at the end of the book, the "days of darkness." As
poor Job in the day of his trial wails: "I go whence I shall not
return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of
darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any
order, and where the light is as darkness." So Ecclesiastes says, "let
him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many." Oh sad and
gloomy counsel! Is _this_ what life is? Its bright morning ever to be
clouded,--its day to be darkened with the thoughts of its _end_? Oh
sorrowful irony to tell us to rejoice in the years of life, and yet
ever to bear in mind that those years are surely, irresistibly,
carrying us on to the many "days of darkness." Yes, this is where the
highest intellect, the acutest reason, the purest wisdom of any man at
any time has attained. But

Where Reason fails, with all her powers,
There Faith prevails and Love adores.

Where the darkness by reason's light is deepest, there Love--Infinite
and Eternal--has thrown its brightest beam, and far from that time
beyond the tomb being "the days of darkness," by New Testament
revelation it is the one eternal blessed Day lit up with a Light that
never dims; yes, even sun and moon unneeded for "The glory of God
enlightens it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof." Think of a
Christian with that blessed hope of the coming of his Saviour to take
him to that well-lighted Home--His Father's House--with the sweet and
holy anticipations of seeing His own blessed Face,--once marred and
smitten for him; of never grieving Him more, of sin never again to mar
his communion with Him, of happy holy companionship for eternity with
kindred hearts and minds all tuned to the one glorious harmony of
exalting "Him that sits upon the throne and the Lamb,"--of loving Him
perfectly, of se