'This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man, to be exercised
therewith.--ECCLES. i. 13.
'He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His
holiness.'--HEBREWS xii. 10.
These two texts set before us human life as it looks to two observers.
The former admits that God shapes it; but to him it seems sore
travail, the expenditure of much trouble and efforts; the results of
which seem to be nothing beyond profitless exercise. There is an
immense activity and nothing to show for it at the end but wearied
limbs. The other observer sees, at least, as much of sorrow and
trouble as the former, but he believes in the 'Father of spirits,' and
in a hereafter; and these, of course, bring a meaning and a wider
purpose into the 'sore travail,' and make it, not futile but,
profitable to our highest good.