But let the true believer, the righteous servant of God in Jesus Christ, take encouragement and comfort: there is no exercise of faith, no holy meditation, no fervent prayer, no religious deed, no pious intention or design, however secret from the eyes of men, which can escape the notice of their heavenly Father: though justice is not, cannot be, done to their characters here; though sometimes the greatest injustice and injury and wrong; yet shall they be triumphantly and gloriously vindicated at the last: though they be on earth forsaken or oppressed, though they bear the burden of private affliction or public scorn, in a “world which is not worthy of them,” they shall be visited and acknowledged and received at the last; shall lift up their heads with honour and with joy, and be admitted into a kingdom, which is more than worthy of all their faith and all their constancy; the Redeemer has marked them for His own; He will single them out, on the last day, from the crowd of countless multitudes, as objects of his compassion and favour; will take them into the arms of His mercy, and so “they shall be forever with the Lord.” {309} SERMON XVII. GOD MADE MAN UPRIGHT; MAN MAKES HIMSELF MISERABLE. ECCLES. vii. 29. _Lo_, _this only have I found_, _that God hath made man upright_, _but they have sought out many inventions_. IN this remarkable book, Solomon discusses the various earthly means employed by the human race, for the attainment of happiness; and he decides upon the utter insufficiency of them all. Nor is he to be regarded as making the enquiry from mere matter of speculation, but as declaring to the world the result of his own experience, as well as the counsels of the Most High. Exalted to the very summit of worldly prosperity and greatness, and learned in all the arts and sciences, he possessed advantages, in the pursuit of happiness, far beyond the common lot of mortality; if it were to be found upon earth, he would have been sure, in himself or some of his favoured dependents, to have made the discovery. But he declares, by many remarkable repetitions, his utter inability so to do; he gives up the matter as hopeless and impossible; “all, (even the fairest and the best of human schemes,) is vanity and vexation of spirit;” “that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.” {311}