S U N D A Y   S N I P P E T S (tm) # 3 2                25 June 1995    


                A Commentary on Ecclesiastes (3:6)
                       by Charles Bridges


A companion volume to his Commentary on Proverbs, Bridge's Ecclesiastes
Commentary opens up this more difficult book to the mind and heart of
the reader.  It too is a commentary in devotional form.

I provide the commentary on verse 3:6 for this week's Snippet.  You may 
wish to peruse Eccles. 3:1-14 to gain the fuller Bible context of this
verse.

        "A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a 
         time to cast away."

...Look around us.  We see men with their whole heart in their business.
Industry is successful.  Money flows in.  Here is the time to get - and 
for a while at least - a time to keep.  But the Providence of God has 
fixed a time to lose.  We look again - The tide has turned.  Speculation, 
or untoward circumstances, have given "wings to riches, and they have flown 
away."  Many a fortune, gotten by inheritance, has been cast away by reckless
extravagance.  Such is the uncertainty of a worldly portion!  How shadowy 
- how delusive - utterly without rest!

There are times also, when we may be called to cast away what we may have 
kept.  A shipwreck (Jonah; Acts 27:38) may demand the sacrifice.  The 
cross of Christ may require it.  The early Christians were called to a 
sharp exercise of their confidence, "taking joyfully the spoiling of 
their goods; knowing in themselves, that they had a better and an 
enduring substance."  But sacrifices for Christ bring no repentance [no 
regret].  The grand object swallows up all the cost, as not to be counted 
of.  Abundant compensation is secured...Here then is a treasure [eternal 
life], which there is a time to get - blessed be God - there is _no_ time 
to lose.  The good part, once chosen, shall never be taken away (cf. Luke 
10:42).  All the malice and power of hell is stirred to rob us of it. 
But a double security holds it fast.   It is "reserved in heaven for us."
We [believers] are "kept on earth for it."  (1 Pet. 1:4-5)  The security is
no less firm for the heirs, than for the inheritance.  Whatever, 
therefore, else we may lose, let Christ be our heart's treasure, and we 
are safe for eternity.

                - from _A Commentary on Ecclesiastes_, by Charles Bridges.
                Reprinted 1981 by The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh.
                [brackets mine].

Also avail. by Bridges: Exposition on Psalm 119, and  _Christian Ministry_.
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The New Geneva Study Bible (NKJV) has recently been released.  Contributors
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