Practical Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes T. Campbell Finla |..V.,T v.. #^*'' ol PRINCETON, N. J. ^ Sfclion vGO ! -^ i^ ', i .. C - THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. Tim MEDITATIONS AND MAXIMS OF KOHELETH A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES T. CAMPBELL FINLAYSON Author of " The Divine Ceiitlctiess and Other Sermons '' £o%xtioit T. FISHER UXWIN 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE MDCCCLXXXVII PREFACE THE followinpf pages contain the substance of a series of lectures delivered in 1SS3-4 to my own congregation. They are an attempt to expound, in the light of modern scholarship and criticism, and yet in a popular and practical manner, one of the most diffi- cult books of the Bible. I cannot lay claim to any personal scholarship enabling me to make an inde- pendent study of the book. Mine is the humbler task of endeavouring to popularize the scholarship of others, to acquaint the ordinary reader of Ecclesiastes with the results which have been arrived at by some recent critics and interpreters, and at the same time to bring home to the heart and conscience the practical teaching of the book, as confirmed, modi- fied, and supplemented by the later and fuller teaching of the Christian revelation. The Commentaries to which I have been chiefly indebted are those of Ginsburg, Zockler, Delitzsch, Dean Plumptre, and Dr. C. H. H. Wright. Where such scholars agree in their interpretation of the original, I have felt myself on safe ground. When they differ as to the meaning of obscure passages. 6 PREFACE. I have been compelled to choose, after careful thought, those interpretations which, on the whole, commended themselves to my own mind. I have not cared, however, except in one or two special instances, to trouble the reader with the grounds of such choice, or even with the various interpreta- tions from amongst which my choice has been made. In the preparation of my lectures for the press, I have availed myself of the Revised Version, which has appeared since they were delivered : and I have now to thank the Universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge for permission to cite that Version as the basis of my exposition. I am glad and somewhat relieved to find that, after having followed the method above described, I am able, as a rule, to adhere closely to the renderings given by the Revisers, either in their text or in their margin. It is with some regret that I have found myself unable to accept Dr. Ginsburg's view as to the plan and method of Ecclesiastes. He regards the book as a systematic discussion of the summuin bonum, or ''chief good" of human life ; and, in his masterly and exhaustive commentary, he endeavours to trace the course of the argument along which, as he supposes, the writer advances by definite steps towards the final solution of the problem. This theory of the book has been adopted by Dr. Samuel Cox, who, in his " Quest of the Chief Good," has through- out followed Ginsburg's views closely, and has pre- sented them with his accustomed literary skill and PREFACE. 7 power of illustration. The theory is at first sip:ht fascinating ; but I do not think that any special learning is required in order to justify its rejection. Doubtless the idea of the '' chief good " was an idea virtually familiar to the mind of Ecclesiastes ; but, after careful study, I find myself unable to regard the book as a treatise on any one subject ; and it is only by a process more ingenious than successful that it can be made even to assume the form of a systematic argument. Dean Plumptre's most interesting and suggestive commentary, to which I am under special obliga- tion, is admirably fitted to give fresh zest to the study of Ecclesiastes. It may be the case that, in his "ideal biography" of the author, he has (as Dr. Wright complains) allowed his imagination to play somewhat too freely around very slender materials. Nevertheless I have ventured to adopt his main supposition, that the book has in it an autobiographical element ; for many of its utterances are marked by an intensity which seems to indicate that they are the record of a personal experience. I have also had the benefit of reading Dean Bradley's ** Lectures on Ecclesiastes," more recently published. I am glad to see that he discards the idea of the Solomonic authorship, and that he refuses to regard the book as being either a systematic treatise or a dialogue between " two voices." I also admire the faithfulness with which he resists what he calls the " clerical " temptation to make Ecclesiastes 8 PREFACE. speak as a Christian, for purposes of edification ; but I cannot help thinking that his extreme caution in this respect has led him to take a somewhat too sombre view of the character and contents of the book. Professor Cheyne, in his "Job and Solomon," just published, has also presented what I hope is an unnecessarily dark view of Ecclesiastes. Not only does he regard those passages which speak of a future life and a future judgment as being probably interpolations by a later hand, but he also (as it seems to me) depreciates the significance of that reverent recognition of God which pervades the book, and which sometimes stands in close and striking connection with the writer's commenda- tion of cheerful enjoymatit. If Professor Cheyne's view of Ecclesiastes were accepted, I think we should find it very difficult to justify the retention of the book in the Canon of Scripture. I have only to add that, in the following pages, I have not been too anxious to avoid repetitions of thought and expression. The frequent recurrence of certain ideas, and even phrases, is a characteristic feature of the original book ; and perhaps it is as desirable as it is natural that this feature should be reflected, to some extent, in a consecutive exposition. T. C. F. RUSHOLME, MaNXHESTER, March, 1887. CONTENTS. TACK I. INTRODUCTION' ... ... ... ... II II. THi: VANITY AND MONOTONV 0I-" LIKE ... 25 III. EXPERIMENTS IN LIVING ... ... ... 37 IV. KNOWLEDGE AND RICHES ... ... 47 V. THE SIMPLE JOYS OF GODLY INDUSTRY ... 59 ^■I. TIMES AND SEASONS ... ... ... 73 \1I. MAN AND BEAST ... ... ... ... 85 VIII. MKMORIHS OI" PE»IMI>IIC MOODS ... 99 l\. RIVALRY, AVARICE, AND POPULARITY ... Ill X. REVERENCE TOWARDS GOD ... ... 1 23 XI. ANTIDOTES TO COVETOUSNESS ... ... 1 35 XII. MAXIMS FOR ADVERSITY ... ... ... I49 XIII. THE GOLDEN MEAN ... ... ... ... 165 XI\". THE STRENGTH OF WISDO.M ... ... 1 73 XV. PATIENCE UNDER OPPRESSION ... ... 1S5 X\I. THE HORIZON OF DEATH... ... ... 197 XVII. THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE IN LIFE... ... 211 XVIII. WISDOM AND FOLLY ... ... ... 225 XIX. UNCALCULATING BENEFICENCE 237 XX. YOUTH AND AGE ... ... ... ... 25 I XXI. THE EPILOGUE ... ... ... ... 26^ I. IXTRODUCTIOX. Chai'. 1. I {/\i.'7'i\mf I't'yston) :— " T/ie xvords of the Preacher, t/ic son of Daviil, king in Jerusalem^ ■^T^HE Book of Ecclesiastes is a book which at 1 once repels and attracts the ordinary Christian reader. Its utterances often appear to be inconsistent with each other ; and some of them seem to be the utterances of a sceptic, rather than of a believer in God — the maxims of a worldling, rather than the aspirations of a saint. We have perhaps wondered how such a book can have any fitting place in the Holy Scriptures. Those scholars, moreover, who have carefully studied the book have interpreted many of its passages so differently, and have even arrived at such diverse conclusions as to its main drift and purpose, that an ordinary reader might almost be excused in regarding it as an insoluble enigma. On the other hand, it will scarcely be denied that the book — partly on account of its very discords and mazes of thought — is fitted to exercise a peculiar fascination over the mind. Many of its utterances appeal to the most unlearned reader, and justify themselves to his reason and conscience as being wise, true, and good. Other utterances appeal to us as stating certain problems of life and destiny which have taxed the minds of the world's greatest thinkers, and which occasion more or less perplexity to every 1 4 INTRODUCTIOX. man who thinks seriously at all. Whilst other utter- ances, again, strike us as being echoes of darker moods — moods, perhaps, not altogether unfamiliar to ourselves — transient moods, it may be, in which doubt has threatened to eclipse faith, whilst sorrow, disappointment, or sin has created a temporary gloom within the soul. Then, too, the conclusion of the book, " Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man," seems to furnish us, after all, with such a clear and simple clue to the main purpose of the writer, as to justify the belief that, whatever difficulties of interpretation the book may present, its ultimate aim is to foster the life of godliness and virtue. On these grounds — as well as on the ground that some light has been thrown on the book by recent interpreters — I venture to hope that a careful study of its contents, in the light of modern scholarship and criticism, may be both interesting and profitable. The title of the book, as it stands in our version, is " Ecclesiastes, or The Preacher." " Ecclesiastes" is a Greek word, and is the title which the book bears in the Septuagint — the Greek version of the Old Testament. This Greek word "Ecclesiastes" was chosen as an equivalent for " Koheleth," the Hebrew title of the book. " Koheleth " is the name by which, throughout the book, the writer designates himself. The word is uniformly translated " Preacher" in our version ; but whether it can possibly bear this meaning seems to be doubtful. The Hebrew word THE NAME '' k'OI/EI.ETf/." 15 occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, and seems to have been coined by the writer himself. Some scholars, looking at its derivation, maintain that it must mean either " one who gathers an assembly," or "one who is a member of an assembly." If the latter be the meaning, then the word ** Eccle- siastes " is an exact equivalent ; for it appears that this Greek word was not commonly used in the sense of one who calls an assembly together, or of one who preaches to an assembly, but rather of one w^ho was simply a member of an assembly and took part in its deliberations and debates. Indeed, it has been suggested that " Debater," rather than " Preacher," would be the true English equivalent of the Greek " Ecclesiastes " and the Hebrew " Koheleth." And it has been suggested also that the reason why the writer deliberately coined the Hebrew word was just that he might present himself, not as a preacher or prophet who was prepared to give definite or author- itative deliverances on the problems of life and destiny, but rather as one member of an assembly, whose personal experience qualified him, in a special manner, for discussing such subjects, and who had often debated them both with himself and with others. It must, I think, be acknowledged that this inter- pretation of the title of the book agrees well with the character of its contents. But, inasmuch as the meaning of the word "Koheleth" seems to be still doubtful, I prefer simply to use it — or rather its more familiar Greek equivalent — as a kind of proper name, i6 IXTRODUCTION. or nom de plume. I will therefore constantly speak of the author of the book as " Ecclesiastes." The superscription of the book represents it as containing the words of Solomon, "the son of David, king in Jerusalem." It does not, however, follow either that the book was written by Solomon, or that the writer, in putting his utterances into the mouth of Solomon, was guilty of a literary forgery or fraud- Many, indeed, have taken the representa- tion of the book literally, and have supposed that we have here actually the "Confessions" of King Solo- mon, in his later days, when looking back with penitence on the sensualities and follies of his life. But there are several difficulties in the way of this supposition. We read in the First Book of Kings that it was when Solomon was "old" that he was led astray through the influence of his wives; but we do not read of any subsequent repentance. Then, again, this book of Ecclesiastes makes no reference whatsoever to the sin of idolatry, which it would probably have done if it had contained the veritable confessions of the penitent king. Then, too, Solomon himself would scarcely have written — "I, Ecclesi- astes, was king over Israel," seeing that, during his lifetime, he never ceased to be king ; nor is it likely that, in mentioning the various works which he had done, he would have omitted all reference to the magnificent temple which he had erected. Further, those scholars who have studied the original lan- guage of the book tell us that it contains many PA TE A XD A VTIIORSIIIl \ 1 7 words or forms of words which are found only in the later Hebrew literature. On these and several other grounds it is now the general opinion of com- petent critics that Solomon was not the author of the book, and that it cannot well have been written before the time when the Jews were under the dominion of the Persian monarchy. Some scholars place its composition at even a later date than this. They say that it contains clear indications of the influences both of the Stoic and the Epicurean philo- sophies; the}' affirm that it is "saturated with Greek thought and language ; " and they think, therefore, that it was probably written about two hundred years before the Christian era. But it may be asked : If this book was written during either the Persian or the Greek period, how can we regard with any respect an unknown author putting his utterances into the lips of Solomon, who had lived hundreds of years before him ? How can we regard such a man as in any sense inspired ? or how can we justify the retention of his book in the canon of sacred Scripture ? Now, here it is to be noted that there is an essential difference in literature between a dramatic personation and a fraudulent forgery. There is no evidence that the author of this book wished his contemporaries to believe that it was an ancient document written by Solomon. On the contrary, we cannot doubt that if he had wished this, he would have taken pains to choose forms of language 2 1 8 INTRODUCTION, belonging to the Solomonic period, and to avoid words of later date. He would doubtless also, in this case, have introduced allusions to well-known events of Solomon's reign. But there is every reason to believe that the contemporaries of Ecclesiastes would know well enough that his introduction of the name of Solomon into his book was a mere matter of literary form. In all ages, men have chosen this species of literature as a vehicle for the expression of their own thoughts, or of their conceptions of what other men may have thought or felt or said. The Book of Job, for example, is not a reporter's record of dialogues which actually took place ; the dramatic form is simply the literary setting in which the writer puts the truth he has to teach. The dialogues of Plato are specimens of a similar kind of writing. A popular specimen in our own language is the "Break- fast-Table " series of Oliver Wendell Holmes. And, as we have dramatic dialogue, so we may have dramatic monologue or autobiography. Some of our modern works of fiction have been written in this form. The object is not to deceive, but simply to portray characters or events more vividly, or to convey ideas more impressively. The device is a common one in poetry. Tennyson's " Maud " and / "St. Simeon Stylites" are specimens of this dramatic monologue. It is also a favourite mode of writing with Robert Browning : he places himself by imagi- nation in the position of this or that character, and leprescnts him as speaking in this oi' that fashion. LITERARY FORM OF THE P.OOk'. 19 Those, again, who have read a recent work of fiction, entitled *' Onesimus," will recognize what a striking use may be made of imaginary autobiography in the way of conveying to a reader the author's own ideas and conjectures. And in like manner, doubt- less, Ecclesiastes, in putting his utterances into the mouth of Solomon, meant simply to say to his readers : " This is how I conceive that Solomon himself uiii^Jit have spoken, if he had left behind him the records of his personal experience. He was a great and wise king ; his knowledge was most exten- sive and varied ; he had such a reputation for human wisdom that he might almost be regarded as Wisdom personified. His position gave him exceptional oppor- tunities for the study of human life. He possessed many things which other men spend their lifetime in coveting ; his material resources furnished him with an adequate practical laboratory in which to carry on his experiments in human happiness. His inner experiences, too, were diversified ; he had at different times looked out upon the world with the eye of the saint, of the philosopher, and of the sensualist. And this is how I conceive he might have spoken if, as a wise and thoughtful man, he had given us the result of his study, observation, and experience of human life." Now, we may perhaps wonder at the boldness of this literary device on the part of Ecclesiastes ; but we have no right to accuse him of forgery or deception ; and we can easily see how he might seek to give greater weight and impressiveness to his o.vn 20 INTRODUCTION. utterances by putting them, in this dramatic way, into the mouth of that king whose very name was almost regarded as a synonym for wisdom, but of whom it was nevertheless well known that he had been guilty of practical folly in the conduct of his life. And if the Bible teaches and helps us by means of history, and biograph}', and lyric, and proverb, and prophecy, and dramatic dialogue, and epistle, and allegory, why should it not also teach and help us by means of dramatic monologue ? Perhaps, however, the desire to give to his own utterances greater weight and impressivcness was not the only reason which led Ecclesiastes to choose this literary form of dramatic personation. Another and perhaps the chief reason may have been that he wished, under this thin disguise, to present the substance of his own personal experience. We can scarcely read the book without feeling that the author, whoever he was, is giving us the fruits of his own experiments in human conduct and happiness. The book is not so much a work of imagination, as a fragment of autobiography. Now, a writer some- times feels that he can record with greater freedom his own experiences — his sins and follies, his doubts, speculations, and conclusions — when he can put them into the lips of some other person. Thomas Carlyle's *' Sartor Resartus," for example, is a case in point. It is now well known that in that book, Carlyle, under the literary veil of giving us some account of the life and opinions of an imaginary J'KRSOXAL KXPERIEXCES. 21 German Professor, actually puts on record some* of the details of his own experience. The fictitious autobiography of the Professor is largely founded on certain circumstances and incidents of Carlyle's own earlier life ; whilst the account which is given of the Professor's inner experience is really an account of Carlyle's own mental and spiritual struggles at a certain crisis in his history. There are also, I think, other points of resemblance between " Sartor Resartus " and " Ecclesiastes ; " as, for example, their enigmatical aspect, their strange paradoxes, their outspoken confessions of doubt and perplexity, and their attempt to find some practical mode of satisfactory living, even in front of and amid the unsolved problems of the world. But what I wish specially to point out is that Carlyle evidently records his own experiences and conclusions with much more freedom and power under the peculiar literary form which he has chosen, than if he had attempted to write a veritable autobiography. And we can easily believe that the same may have been the case with the author of "Ecclesiastes." We are not to think of him as merely sitting down to conceive, by an effort of the imagination, how Solomon, with his wisdom and experience, might have philosophized on human life. No ; Ecclesiastes had doubtless a desire to put on record the results of his oicii observations, meditations, and experi- ences. In all probability he w-as himself a wealthy man. and had been able to indulge without stint in 22 JNTROD UC 77 ON. luxury and pleasure. Possibly he had at limes given himself up to sensual excesses. Probably also he had himself been a seeker after *' wisdom ; " and perhaps he had tried to weigh in the balance the claims of rival schools of philosophy. He had at- tempted to grapple with the problems of life and destiny ; he had meditated much on the strange anomalies of human history ; he had tried in vain to frame a satisfactory theory as to the Divine government of the world. He had been tossed to and fro between one opinion and another ; many a time had he "communed with himself" as to what was really the " chief good " for man ; he had made his own personal experiments on this subject ; he had tried to find out what kind of life brings to a man the greatest amount of substantial " profit " ; he had exhausted the sources of what many men regard as happiness, and had found them unsatis- fying; and at last, as the fruit of his life-long experience, he had been led to a " conclusion " which he was prepared to commend to others, as a practical key to the wisest mode of living. But he felt that he could speak with greater freedom con- cerning his own experiments and experiences — his own doubts and self-debatings and conclusions — if he presented them under the literary veil of the confessions, meditations, and maxims of Solomon the wise. Now, if this be anything like an accurate concep- tion of the authorship, the character, and the pur- PRESENT VALUE OF THE E00k\ 23 pose of this book of Ecclcsiastcs, it is obvious that we need not regard it as a s3-stematic treatise, or try to discover in it any closely-reasoned argument. The chief value of the book lies in the record which it gives of a human experience — the experience of a man who had exceptional opportunities of testing the worth of human life in its various aspects and pursuits, and of debating the great question as to what is the " chief good " for man. In studying the book we must constantly bear in mind two things : first, that it was probably written at least two thousand years ago — written before the gospel of Christ had shed on the world the light of a higher revelation ; and secondly, that the utterances of the writer, even in his better moods, are largely tinged by his own personal history — by the kind of life which he had chosen to live. But, if we bear in remem- brance these two things, we may perhaps even find that this book has some special lessons for our own times. There is an " Agnosticism " now abroad, the motto of which is " Who knows ? " — who knows whether there is a personal God? — who knows whether there is a future life ? Men who shut out of view the Christian revelation are asking them- selves, "Is life worth living?" Some are drifting into Pessimism, taking the darkest views of human nature and human life. Others protest vigorously against this Pessimism ; like M. Renan, who has recently told us that he has found life to be " a charming promenade," and that he considers this 24 INTRODUCTION. age to be one of the "most amusing" which the world has ever seen ! Some preach the gospel of work ; others preach the gospel of art and culture. Some lean to the Stoic, and others to the Epicurean philosophy. Some tell us to give up thinking of "happiness," and to keep our eye fixed on *'duty" ; others tell us that our duty consists in doing those actions which tend to promote " the greatest happi- ness of the greatest number." Amid these conflict- ing voices of our own day, it may do us some good to study the self-debatings and maxims of this ancient Jewish thinker on the ever-recurring prob- lems of human life ; and perhaps we may find that the ultimate "conclusion" to which his thinkings tended is, substantially, the most satisfactory prac- tical conclusion to which we ourselves can come, pro- vided only it be supplemented and ennobled by that higher light which he had not yet received — " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." II. THE VAXITY AND MOXOTOXY OF LIFE. Chap. i. 2-1 i {Revised Jl-rs/o/i) : — " ViX/iity of vanities, saitli the Preacher ; vanity of vanities, all is vanity. WJiat profit hath man of all his labour luherein he laboiireth under the sun ? One (generation goeth, and another (generation coinethj and the earth abide th for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun f^oetJi doivn, aiul hasteth to his place where he ariseth. The %uind i^oeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the nortJij it turneth about contimially in its course, and the wind re turneth aj^ain to its circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not fullj unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again. All things are full of weari- ness y man cannot utter it ; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which hath been is that which shall be j and that which hath been done is that which shall be done : and there is no new tiling under the sun. Is there a thing ivhcreof men say. See, this is new ? it hath been already, in the ages which were before us. There is no remembrance of the former generations ; neither shall there be any remembrance of the latter generations that are to come, among those that shall come after.'" THE book opens with the exclamation " Vanity of vanities! vanity of vanities ! all is vanity !" This same exclamation recurs at the close of the book; and the word " vanity," which the writer uses nearly forty times, must be regarded as one of the keynotes of his utterance. The Hebrew word means literally ** breath " or " vapour," a very natural and striking emblem of that which is transitory and unsubstantial. We have the same figure employed in the New Testament, with reference to the ilceting character of our earthly existence. " \\'hat is your life ? " asks St. James. " It is even a vapour that appeareth lor a little time, and then vanisheth away." The manner in which vapour, visible for a time, seems to melt into the surrounding air, suggests the idea of what is unsubstantial and perishable. Sometimes, too, vapour assumes the form of that which it is not, of that which is more solid than itself. " Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish ; A vapour, sometime, like a bear or lion, A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air. . . . 2S THE VAXITY AND MONOTONY OF LIFE. That which is now a horse, even with a thouglit The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct As water is in water." And when Ecclcsiastes exclaims, " Vanity of vanities ! " or " Vapoin- of vapours ! " he means, I suppose, to say that all human life and all things " under the sun " — or, as we say, all things sublunary — present, in a superlative degree, the characteristics of the shadowy, the transient, the unsatisfying. Ecclcsiastes goes on to ask the question, *' What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun?" The Hebrew word for "profit" here is a word which, it seems, is used in none of the other books of the Old Testament. It is used, however, several times by Ecclcsiastes. It was probably a commercial word which had come into use during the later period of Jewish history. Ecclcsiastes wishes, as it were, to " strike the balance " of human life. On the one side he would set all the toil, sorrow, and anxiety of man ; on the other he would set all that man gets and gains in and through earthly things; and, striking the balance, he would ask, What is the profit ? What is the net result to the man at last ? Are the wages a sufficient reward for the toil ? Is the gain worth the expendi- ture of thought and energy and suffering ? The question is much the same as that which some have recently started in our own day, " Is life worth living? " The tone of weariness in which Ecclcsiastes THE SAJfEXESS or XATCRE. 29 puts this question prolongs itself into the following verses, in which he seems to speak of the oppressive monotony of human experience. ''One generation goeth, and another generation cometh ; and the earth abideth for ever." The surroundings of man remain the same throughout the ages. New faces come upon the scene ; but the scene itself abides much as before. The sun rises, and sets, and rises again ; he runs always the same unvarying round. The wind may seem to be more variable, but it is only a question of a little more or a little less *' turning about." Now it is in the north, and again it is in the south : but it simply rings the same changes over and over again, though there may be a little variation in the order : North, East, South, West, — or East, North, West, South ; what does it matter ? " All the rivers, too, run into the sea," and have run into the sea for ages ; " yet the sea is not full ; " there is no actual permanent difference made in the volume of its waters : " unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again ; " they are constantly running into the sea in the same monotonous manner. "All things are full of weariness: man cannot utter it : " the world both of Nature and of human nature is, as it were, on a treadmill ; " the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." There is indeed plenty to see, and plenty to hear ; but the eye and the ear are wearied rather than satisfied ; for it is the same thing over and over and over again ; human words cannot 30 THE VAXITY AND MONOTONY OF LIFE, utter the inexpressible weariness of the everlasting^ monotony ! " That which hath been, is that which shall be, and that which hath been done is that which shall be done ; and there is no new thing under the sun." Just as the sun and the wind and the rivers have, from the beginning of the world, been constantly repeating their movements, so human history repeats itself, and human experience, in its great cardinal features, remains the same through the ages. " Is there a thing whereof men say, See, this is new ? " Are men disposed to fanc}- some- times that they have at last discovered a novelty ? Why, their " novelty " has doubtless existed in some former ages, the memory or the records of which have passed into oblivion. For " there is no remem- brance of the former generations, neither shall there be any remembrance of the latter generations that are to come, among those that shall come after." Thus the oblivion and the monotony of human life alike give to it the aspect of "vanity-," and make it difficult to see how man can find any substantial "profit" of all his "labour." Such, then, is the drear)^, melancholy opening of this remarkable book. Those who place its com- position as late as the Greek period find in this prologue traces of the Stoic and Epicurean philoso- phies. However this may be, it certainly needs no familiarity with Greek philosophy to make a man fee), in certain moods, as if all human life were simply a circle of wearisome and profitless monoton}'. The /S ALL VANITY? V writer, at any rate, seems to tliink that this mit;ht well be the feelinj:; of vSolomon, towards the close of his career, when, after his wide and varied experience, he meditated on human life. And probably we may venture to infer that it was largely the feeling of Ecclesiastes himself, after his own experiments in human conduct and happiness. But now, how are ivc to regard this utterance as to the *' vanity" of all things, the " profitless" character of human labour, the wearisome monotony of the world? Must we indorse it, because we find it here in the IMble ? Or, must we, on the other hand, condemn it and denounce it, as if it contained no truth whatever ? I submit that we need do neither. We may believe that Ecclesiastes had been taught by his own ex- perience some valuable lessons as to the practical conduct of life, and that he was able to give some very wise counsel to those younger than himself; and yet we may also believe that this wisdom was dearly bought, and that his outlook on the world, when he became *' a sadder and a wiser man," was largely coloured by his own past conduct. A man who outgrows his sins and follies may not always out- grow, in this world, all their consequences. A penitent profligate may be able to give us very sound advice ; but it does not follow that his estimate of human affairs is altogether accurate and healthful. If it be the case that Ecclesiastes, like Solomon, had wandered from the God of his fathers, and had for 32 THE VANITY AND MONOTONY OF LIFE. many years lived a life of worldlincss and even of sensuality, we must not be surprised if, when he re- covered himself and returned to God, he did not become altogether what he might otherwise have been. Vvhen he arrived at the " conclusion of the whole matter," and resolved to " fear God and keep His commandments," he was perhaps an old man ; and we cannot wonder that he was sad and weary at heart when he thought what a different thing his life might have been if this "conclusion " had been with him the beginning and the middle, as well as the end. If, all along, he had lived a godly life, his outlook also on the world, even in old age, might have been very different. From this point of view, there is some- thing as instructive as pathetic in the melancholy tone which pervades this book. As the young listen to the old man saying, " Remember now th}' Creator in the days of thy youth," they may profit, not only by his counsel, but also by the sad weariness with which he utters it. We are not bound to indorse the view which regards all things "under the sun" as simply presenting the aspect of a vain and wearisome monotony ; but we may learn wisdom from the fact that even the outlook of a religious man may be coloured by a long course of previous irreligion and worldliness. Whilst, however, we are not bound to indorse this melancholy estimate of Ecclesiastes, and whilst we may regard it as coloured and exaggerated by the weariness begotten of his former life, we need not IS ALL VANITY? . 33 denounce or condemn it as if it were simply the utterance of a morose pessimism or a sated worldii- ness. There is an element of profound truth in this estimate of the things " seen and temporal." It is not merely to the pessimist or to the worldling in his old age, that earthly things seem perishable and unsatisfying. A Christian apostle tells us that " the creature was made subject to vanity,'' and to " the bondage of corruption." Another Christian apostle reminds us that " the world passeth away and the lust thereof"—" the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Thomas a Kempis, in his "Imitation of Christ," tells us that "all is vanity, except to love God and to serve Him only." One of our own novelists, in his "Vanity Fair," has torn aside the mask which hides from view the hollow- ness of that glitter and show which are so apt to fascinate the inexperienced. We can scarcely, indeed, expect the young to have much feeling of the monotony of life, or much sympathy with the exclamation "Vanity of vanities." They are but recent comers on the scene ; and, as yet, life naturally presents itself to them in its aspects of novelty, freshness, and variety. They are looking forward to experiences as yet untasted ; and a cup which has not yet come to the lips is a very difterent thing from the same cup drained to the dregs. But few thoughtful men reach even middle life — not to speak of old age — without being at times oppressed by the thought of life's sameness, or without being at 3 34 THE VANITY AND MONOTONY OF LIFE. times impressed with a sense of the unsubstantial and unsatisfying nature of earthly things. Human life may vary from age to age in some of its details ; but, in its great broad features, it is unchanging. These are determined by the constitution of human nature, and its earthly surroundings. The railway and the telegraph may be, in a sense, " new things under the sun ; " but, after all, such novelties as these leave untouched the great cardinal features of human ex- perience. Birth, death, work, rest, health, sickness, pain, pleasure, hope, fear, loss, gain, friendship, love, marriage, parenthood, bereavement, virtue, vice, temptation, remorse — these things were all familiar to the generations that have gone before us ; they are familiar to us ; they will be familiar to those who are coming after us. And, as to the transient, uncertain, perishable, and unsatisfying nature of mere earthly happiness — of happiness due to mere earthly pleasures, pursuits, and considerations — this has been the trite theme of all the ages. Looking at human life apart from God and immortality — looking at the things "seen and temporal" apart from the things " unseen and eternal" — we perceive that there is a profound element of truth in the utterance, " All is vanity." Lastly here, we must not forget that this book was written at least two thousand years ago. Since Ecclesiastes meditated on the problems of human life, one really ''new thing" has been seen. The "Sun of Righteousness " has risen upon the world " with LIFE IX THE LICIIT OF CHRIST. 35 healing in His wings." The Word of God took llcsh, and dwelt among men. The Onlj'-begotten Son has revealed the Eternal Father, and has " brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." This new manifestation of God — this new and fuller reve- lation of His redeeming purpose for mankind — has entered as a modifying factor into human experience. The cardinal features of life remain as before ; but they take on a new aspect when they are seen in the light of our Father's love, and of that glorious im- mortality for which He is seeking to train us. What may be as " vanity,"' when it is considered as an end, may be anything but " vain " when it is con- sidered as a means. A scaffolding may be a poor affair ; but what if a beautiful and substantial temple is being reared within it ? A schoolroom, with its appropriate furniture, might not be a satisfying home; nevertheless it may well fulfil the purposes of education and discipline. The perishable may minister to the everlasting. The unprofitable may lead to higher gains. The unsatisfying may awaken a craving for that which will truly fill the soul. From this point of view the essential sameness of life through the ages bears its testimony to the persistent purpose of God and the constant needs of humanity. Why should not the schoolroom remain the same, if it has been adapted by Infinite Wisdom for the training and discipline of im- mortal souls ? Human life, viewed in itself, as a brief span of existence bounded by death, may be 36 THE VANITY AND J/ONOTONF OF LIFE. as "vanity;" but human life, viewed in the Hght of Christ and immortality, is an arena of education by probation — a sphere for the formation of spiritual and enduring character, and for the service of a living and loving Father. III. EXPERIMENTS IN LIVING. Chap. i. 12— ii. ii [Revised J'crsion) ;— " / the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by 7uisdont concerning all that is done under heaven : it is a sore travail that God hath given. to the sons 0/ men to be exercised therewith, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun ; and, behold, all is vanity and '« striving aftcrwind. That which is crooked cannot be made straight : ajid that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I have gotten me great wisdom above all that were before me in Jerusalem ; yea, my heart hath great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly : I perceived that this also was a striving after wind. For in muck wisdom is much grief ; and he that increaseth knowledge incrcaseth sorrow. T said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth ; therefore enjoy pleasure : and, behold, this also wasvanity. I said of laughter. It is mad: and of mirth. What doeth it? I searched in mine heart ho7v to cheer my flesh zvith wine, mine heart yet guiding me loitli wisdom, and ho7v to lay hold on folly, till I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted 7nc vineyards ; I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit : I 7nade me pools of water, to water therefrom the forest cohere trees 7oere reared : I bought mense)~vants and 7naidens, and had servants borti in my house ; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all that were before me in Jerusalem : I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces : I gat me men singers and womc?i singers, and the delights of the sons of men, concubines very many. So I was great, and increased tnore than all that were before me in Jerusalem : also my wisdom 7-emained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from the7n : I withheld not 7/ty heart f7-o/n any joy, for 7ny heart rejoiced because of all 7ny labour; a7id this was 7ny portio7i froi7i all 7>ty labour. Then I looked on all the wo)-ks that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do : and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after loind, and there loas no profit under the sun." ' Oi'i " a feeding on wind" (Margin). 39 ECCLESIASTES now proceeds to justify and illustrate from his own experience that esti- mate of earthly things which he has just expressed. He writes as a man who has had wide experience of human life ; and his book was perhaps written more especially for young men. Now,vhe knew very well that to the young his statement regarding the un- satisfying character of earthly things would appear not only exaggerated but even untrue. To the young, human life lias naturally an aspect of novelty; they are struck more with the variety than the monotony of the world; they find it difficult to believe that they can ever grow weary of the pleasures which they now enjoy, or the pursuits which they now follow so keenly ; and, at any rate, they are looking forward to new sensations — pleasures hitherto un- tasted, roads heretofore untravelled. Often, indeed, the young are dissatisfied and discontented ; but this is rather because they have not more of the things which they enjoy; they have an idea that, if only they had enough of these things, they would be quite happy. And so Ecclesiastes, in order to put his case as strongly as possible, pictures Solomon, the king of Israel, as giving the results of his personal experience. 40 EXPERIMENTS EY LIVING. Now, Solomon had prc-emincntl}' a reputation for wisdom. And it might naturally be thought that he would derive the greatest possible satisfaction from the stores of knowledge which he had amassed. First of all, therefore, he is represented as giving his experience in this matter. He had devoted himself, heart and soul, to the search after wisdom. With the special opportunities of observation and of research which his royal position afforded him, he had made a study of " all that is done under heaven." He had tried to penetrate to the roots of things — to become thoroughly acquainted with human nature, human pursuits, and human surroundings. And, in point of fact, he gathered great stores of knowledge. " I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I have gotten me great wisdom above all that were before me in Jerusalem ; yea, my heart hath had great experience of wisdom and knowledge." And what v/as the result ? He found it to be " vanity and a striving after wind," or " a feeding on wind." He found all his knowledge and philosophy to be unsatisfying. The attempt to satisfy the cravings of his nature with this earthly wisdom was like an attempt to "feed on wind" instead of bread. Yea, instead of bringing him happiness, his wisdom rather brought him pain and discontent. For his know- ledge brought him face to face with " crooked things" which it seemed utterly impossible to " straighten," and deficiencies which it seemed utterly impossible to fill up. And so his verdict is: " In much NNisdom THE PURSUIT OF KSOU'LEDGE. 41 is much s^'ici", J^nd he tliat incrcascth knowlcdj^c increaseth sorrow." It is to he ohscrved, however, that Ecclesiastes is not here speatcing of heavenly wisdom — of that wisdom concerning which it is elsewhere written that the " fear of the Lord " is its " beginning." He seems to be speaking simply of that knowledge of earthly things and human affairs which a man may acquire by intellectual study and observation. Nor does he deny that this knowledge has some advan- tages over ignorance and folly : for these advantages are frequently referred to in the course of this very book. But what he seems to say here is that the amassing of mere earthly knowledge, as if this were the chief good, is a delusion — that such knowledge is full of disappointments and sorrows, and cannot really satisfy the soul of man." Now, it is indeed true that our minds have been so constituted that the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge, simply as knowledge, is naturally accompanied with pleasure. And to a young and eager student rejoicing in the wider views and the fresh discoveries which his increase of knowledge brings, it may sometimes seem as if a life spent in study and research would give him the fullest satisfaction. But he is apt to forget that a wider view of things is not always a more pleasant view. Knowledge often destroys illusions. Knowledge often makes us more sensible of our ignorance, and more conscious of the limits of our powers. Knowledge often confronts us with problems 42 EXPERIMENTS IN LIVING. which cause us perplexing and painful thought, and which had not previously come within the range of our vision. The most learned philosopher or the most brilliant student of natural science often finds that all his knowledge is utterly unavailing in the presence of some practical difficulty — something "crooked" which he cannot straighten, something " wanting " which he cannot supply. How often the very knowledge of a skilful physician gives him a sadder because deeper insight into the malady which he knows to be incurable ! And how often we can see a tinge of melancholy in some of the world's greatest thinkers ! This is indeed no argument for indorsing the words of the poet, " Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise ; " for even the knowledge which brings sorrow may have some advantages over the ignorance which preserves happiness. But it is an argument for the conclusion of Ecclesiastes, that the mere possession of earthly wisdom is not the supreme good of human life, and that the attempt to satisfy one's soul with such knowledge is a "feed- ing on wind ! " Then, secondly here, Solomon is represented as making another and very different experiment in order to discover the " chief good " for man. Having tried knowledge and found it unsatisfying, he betakes himself to pleasure and luxury. Like the Faust of the modern drama, and like many another student weary of brain-work and perplexing thought, he gave himself up, for a time, to the gratification of the THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE. 43 senses. He tried mirth, laughter, and revehy. He tried to ''cheer his flesh with wine," whilst "yet his heart guided him with wisdom " : a difficult experi- ment truly ! The idea is that he indulged largely in feasting and banqueting, meanwhile watching himself so as not to overdo his indulgence. It was not that he was anxious to avoid sinning against God : Ciod was " not in all his thoughts." He simply wished to get all the possible good there was in wine, and in other pleasures of the table, without passing over into those excesses which might inflict pain and injury on himself. He gave himself up to a lilc of luxury, and surrounded himself with all those objects which could minister to sensuous gratification. He became a connoisseur in the arts of pleasure. He threw an element of refinement and taste into his enjoyments. He "built houses," and "planted vineyards," and laid out beautiful gardens, with all kinds of fruit-trees : he surrounded himself with the manifest tokens of wealth and state ; he gathered silver and gold and such precious things as are to be found only in kings' palaces ; he got men-singers and women-singers, to delight his ear with the sweetest music ; and, after the manner of Oriental monarchs, he had also a harem full of wives. " So,' he says, " I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem ; and, whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them ; I withheld not my heart from any joy." He secured whatever promised a new sensation of delight. " Also," he 44 EXPERI.UENTS IX LIVING. adds, " my wisdom remained with me." He means, I suppose, that his l^nowledge enabled him to choose objects of gratification, and skilfully to adapt means to the end he had in view ; and that his wisdom kept him from allowing his appetites to run riot in mere drunkenness and debauchery. And now, what was the result of all this ? *' I said of laughter, It is mad, and of mirth, What doeth it ? " " Behold, all was vanity and feeding upon wind ! " For a time, indeed, he had "joy" in his pleasure, and in the " labour " which he took in order to secure it. But, after a time, it palled upon his taste ; and when he came to " look on " all that he had done, he found that this magnificence and luxury and beauty and banqueting were as unsatisfying as his pursuit of knowledge had been. There was *' no profit under the sun." Now, I have already said that, probably under this literary veil of the Confessions of Solomon, the writer of this book is giving, substantially, his own experience. We may well believe that Ecclesiastes, like Solomon, had been a seeker after wisdom, and, like Solomon, had also given himself to pleasure. Probably he was a wealthy man, and had been able to surround himself with many kinds of luxury. But, in order to make the record of his experience still more impressive, he thus puts it into the lips of royalty. There are many young people who imagine that, if they were only able to obtain all that they desire in the shape of earthly good, they would soon PLEAS i'RE UNSAriSFVIiXG. 45 make for themselves a paradise of perfect satisfaction and enjoyment. But, in point of fact, tlie experiment has often been tried, and tried, too, even on a large scale. Here was a king, whose great wealth and knowledge enabled him to carry out to the full his practical researches into the value of sensuous plea- sure. And he failed to find the satisfaction of which he was in quest. It is to • be observed that Ecclesiastes does not condemn pleasure as such. He elsewhere says that there is "■ a time to laugh," and " a time to dance." He is no enemy to moderate and innocent enjoy- ment, in its own time and place. But what he says is that mere sensuous pleasure is not the "chief good" of life, and that, if pleasure be made the one object of existence, it ceases even to give the gratifi- cation which it might otherwise afford. There are many people who find it difficult to believe this. They derive so much enjoyment from the occasional pleasures of life, that they fancy perpetual pleasure would mean perpetual enjoyment. They make pre- cisely the same mistake as the little child who finds sweetmeats so delicious, that he fancies he would like to spend his existence in a confectioner's shop ! They overlook the possibility — nay, the certainty — of surfeit. The fact is that all sensuous pleasures lose their keenness, in proportion as they are indulged in to excess. And all pleasure is excess, when it becomes the supreme object of pursuit ; for pleasure has no right to usurp such a position in human life. 46 EXPERLUENTS IN LIVING. Worldliness, therefore, tends to spoil the very world for a man ; and sensuality avenges itself on the very senses themselves. Tennyson, in his " Vision of Sin," shows us how the youth who quenches the nobler aspirations of his nature, and gives himself up to sensual indulgence, may become the " gray and gap-toothed man," who mocks, in his brutal cynicism, at the very idea of goodness. Nor is it only the coarser forms of sensuality that lead to disgust and disappointment. Tennyson has also pictured for us, in his " Palace of Art," a soul that surrounds itself with all kinds of beauty, and shuts itself up to a solitary indulgence in refined luxury ; and he shows how on this soul there *' falls " at last " deep dread and loathing of her solitude," and how her palace of beauty becomes haunted with all manner of spec- tral shapes. Man's nature, as constituted by his Maker, is far too wide and deep to be satisfied with sensuous gratification. Man has not only eye, ear, and appetite : he has reason, conscience, and heart, and a spirit that links him to the Eternal ; and if we try to feed ourselves on mere pleasure, there is no wonder that the nature thu soutraged should take its revenge. A voluptuary may think himself wise, because he is careful, in his pleasures, not to injure his body; but, if all the while, through his excessive devotion to pleasure, he is starving and degrading the nobler side of his being, is he not foolish still? " For what," said Christ, '' shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " IV. KNOWLEDGE AND RICHES. Chap. il. 12-23 {!^(-'viscd Version): — " A)ui I iitnicd myself to behold ivisdo/n, and /iiad/iess and folly : for what can ihc man do that conieth after the khii^ / even that ivhich hath been already done. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly ^ as far as Hi^ht e.veelletJi darkness. The ivisc man's eyes are in his head., and the fool walhetJi in darkness : and yet I perceived that one event happeneth to them all. Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so xvill it happen even to vie; and ivhy was I then more wise ? Then I said in my heart, that this also was vanity. For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no remembrance for ever; seeing that in the days to come all will have been already forgotten. And hoto doth the wise man die even as the fool ! So I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me : for all is vanity and a striving after wind. And I hated all my labour wherein I laboured under the sun : seeing that I must leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth 7uhether he shall be a wise man or a fool .^ yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and ivherein I have shewed wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. Therefore I turned about to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour wherein I had laboured under the sun. For there is a man whose labour is with %visdom, and with knowledge, and with skilfulness ; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. TJiis also is vanity and a great evil. For luhat hath a man of all his labour, and of the striving of his heart, wherein he laboureth under the sun ? For all his days are but sorrows, and his travail is grief j yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest. This also is vanity P 49 SOLOMON is here represented as comparing the two kinds of life whicli he had been livinc; : " I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly." He had been a wisdom-seeker; and he had also been a pleasure-hunter and treasure-collector. He had tried pleasure even in the form of mirth and foll\'. He had found out how much — or rather how little — all this kind of sensuous excitement and gratification could do for him. And so, he felt that he was in a peculiarly favourable position for judging as to the re- lative value of wisdom and folly. " For what can the man do that cometh after the king? " Who is more able to give a verdict on this point than Solomon the wise ? Or, who is likely to try such contrasted experiments in living, under more advantageous conditions ? And now, comparing wisdom and folly, what is his verdict ? He has already said that, if either of them be pursued as the chief end of human existence, it must be pronounced " vanity." But, for all that, as he looked at wisdom and folly, and as he weighed them both in the balances of his own experience, he could not fail to see that "wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excellcth darkness." There is a " profit " or advantage in wisdom which 4 50 KNOWLEDGE AND RICHES. there is not in foll3\ " The wise man's eyes are in his head ; but the fool walketh in darkness." Light may often reveal disagreeable objects ; but who would therefore prefer to be blind ? All know- ledge, so far as it goes, is as vision to a man. It is often a help to him in the practical guidance of his life. Even the sorrow born of wisdom is better than the mere mirth of the fool who "walketh in darkness." Thus, if we compare the knowledge- seeker and the pleasure-seeker, we feel that the one is living a higher life than the other. They may both fail of the supreme good. They may both be dis- satisfied with the result of their endeavours ; never- theless it is a nobler thing to be bent on the acqui- sition of knowledge than to be bent on the mere gratification of the appetites and senses. Solomon (or Ecclesiastes, speaking in the name of Solomon) felt this to be true in his own experience. Bid — and there are many such " buts " in this book — he saw also clearly that there are some respects in which the wise man and the fool stand on the same level. " One event " — or one chance — " happeneth to them all." "The wise man's eyes," it is true, " are in his head : " but even the wisest man cannot see everything ; and the widest and clearest vision is often unavailing. Knowledge does give an advantage in the journey of life : but the advantage is a variable quantity. There are con- tingencies which no amount of knowledge can foresee: and there is one certainty — death — which no amount / / 'IS DOM AND POLL V COM PA RED. 5 1 of knowledge can prevent. Here, then, the wise man and the fool stand, so far, on the same level : they are both liable towdiatwe call ''the accidental"' element in human life ; and they must both succumb to the final certainty. "As it happencth to the fool, so will it happen even to me : and why was I then more wise ? " What is the use of all this boasted knowledge, if, after all, it gives me no permanent advantage over the most foolish man on earth ? Alas! "how doth the wise man die even as the fool!" And then both pass into oblivion : in the ages that are to come there will be no "remembrance" of either of them. This thought was as wormwood and gall to Ecclesiastes. It made him, for the time, a pessimist. " I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun v/as grievous to me; for all is vanity and feeding on wind." Now, these facts of human life which confronted Ecclesiastes, when he thus compared wisdom and folly, confront us still. Looking simply at knowledge as such, and looking merely at the brief span of our existence " under the sun," wx must confess that the wise man is sometimes as powerless as the fool. Two men take their seats in a railway train. The one man is an accomplished scholar, or mathematician, or philosopher. He has disciplined his mental powers, and has amassed large stores of knowledge. He has even acquired, it may be, a certain reputation as a man of learning, or as a leader of the thoughts of others. The man who is sitting beside him cares 52 KNOWLEDGE AND RICHES. nothing for intellectual culture. Animal enjoyment is his ideal. Give him a good dinner, and you may keep your books to yourself ! He could never see any good in racking his brains over hard problems. There sit these two men in the railway carriage, side by side : the one, perhaps, reading the latest book of science; the other, perhaps, glancing through some ** Sporting Gazette." Suddenly, in a moment, there comes the collision which it was utterly impossible for either of them to foresee : the train is a wreck ; and these two lie together, crushed, mangled, and dead ! ** One event, one chance, has happened to them both ! " Now, shut out the thought of God, and the thought of immortality, and what *' advantage " has the one man over the other ? The student has had his intellectual enjoyments : the votary of pleasure has had his enjoyments also. The scholar, along with his enjoyment, has had much fatiguing toil, and, it may be, painful thought ; the pleasure-seeker also has doubtless, on his part experienced some of the penalties of self-indulgence. The lover of knowledge has, indeed, had this ad- vantage, that his " eyes " have been *' in his head : " he has had a wider and clearer vision ; and he has lived a higher kind of life. But to what purpose ? Where is the permanent advantage ? These two men have lived their short span : and here has come Death, as the great leveller ! For a few years, perhaps, the scholar may be spoken of; his name may even get into some " biographical dictionary : " WEALTH IXIIERITF.D BY FOOLS. 53 but, unless he is one of a very select few, it will be little more than a name, and, in the ages to come, he will be altogether forgotten. To what purpose, then, has he " scorned delights, and lived laborious days?" Can he be said to have made the best use of human life, if he has simply spent it in acquiring a ''wisdom" which leaves him, in the end, indistinguishable from the fool ? Thus, then, we seem to be driven to the same conclusion as Ecclesiastes. Whatever ad- vantages earthly wisdom has, it cannot be regarded as the chief good for man. The amassing of know- ledge as the one supreme object of human existence is a vain delusion : it is a " feeding on wind : " it fails to satisfy the deepest cravings of the human soul. Akin to this fact that death seems to level the wise man and the fool, there was another fact which, at this stage of his experience, plunged Ecclesiastes into a kind of despair. He saw that, however in- dustriously and wisely a man might plan and labour, he would have to leave behind him to another all the material treasure he amassed : and that other might be a fool ! Thus a man had not even the satisfaction of knowing that what he had wisely gathered would be wisely guarded, or wisely spent. Even if his son should become his heir, that son might give way to folly. But how could he be sure that his son would succeed him ? He might survive his son. His estate might even pass into the hands of some one who had never taken any trouble or interest 54 KNOWLEDGE AND RICHES. therein, and who might forthwith proceed to dissipate it in his folly. This thought almost maddened Ecclesiastes, as he looked on the treasures which he had gathered together. He " hated all his labour." His heart was filled with a kind of sickening " despair " as he looked on his wealth, and wondered who would get it, or what would become of it, after he was gone. Thus he saw that the amassing of riches as the chief end of life was also " vanity." For what is the result to a man w'ho toils incessantly with this end in view ? What good does he get out of all his labour? "His days are sorrows;" his occupation is full of trouble ; "yea, even in the night his heart taketh no rest : " he cannot even get the sleep he needs, through the anxious cares which worry and oppress him. And, after all this toil and anxiety, after all his fatiguing days and sleepless nights, the very riches which he has gathered to- gether with so much patience and skill may pass into the hands of some fool who will scatter to the winds all the fruits of his labour. What satisfaction can there be to a human soul in a life like this ? Now, these facts of life, which thus burdened and educated Ecclesiastes in the school of experience, confront us still. And, perhaps it is even more needful to insist on the vanity of amassing wealth than on the vanity of amassing knowledge. In a commercial community, where not a few men have made fortunes by skilful and patient industry, great wealth, as such, is apt to be regarded with THE WORSHIP OF MAMMON. 55 mingled worship and envy. It is not the rich only who burn ineense in the temple of Mammon. There are those also that are thirsting to be rich, and " hasting " to be rich, who keep " cutting them- selves," as it were, " with knives and lancets," crying, " O Mammon, hear us ! Mammon, hear us ! " They will inflict almost any injury upon themselves, if only they may get wealth. They will overtax their powers ; they will rob themselves of needful food and sleep ; they will engage in hazardous speculations; they will try even the risks of com- mercial gambling, if only they may become rich. In a community like ours, for one young man who needs to be told that his nature can never be satisfied by mere intellectual culture, there are multitudes who need to be told that the chief good of life is not to be found in the pursuit or possession of wealth. There are hosts of young men who have the idea that, if they were only rich, they would be happy. Their one idea of "getting on" in life is getting rich. Nor are the young men themselves chiefly to blame for this. Very likely they have got the idea at their father's knee: some of them, alas! maybe said to have almost " drunk it in with their mother's milk ! " The whole atmosphere they breathe is saturated with this accursed notion that the only success in life, worth calling ** success," is the acquisition of riches. But indeed, to do our young men justice, it is not wealth, simply as wealth, that is usually the object of their desire. A young miser is a spectacle as rare 56 KWOIVLEDGE AXD RICHES. as contemptible. The younj;, as a rule, desire wealth chiefl}' as a means of securini^ pleasure, or even of enabling them to be generous to others. It is our middle-aged and older men who are more likely to be the victims of avarice. A man begins, perhaps, by simply seeking money for the supply of his per- sonal needs, and for the formation of a home of his own. By and bye, perhaps, he has to labour for wife and children, as well as for himself; and he desires to get money, that he may increase their comforts, or make some provision for them, which, in the event of his death, may lessen for them the strain and struggle of life. All this is natural and right enough. In this case, the pursuit of money by honest means is ennobled by the sanctions of duty and affection. But, if the man does not watch him- self, if he begins to exaggerate the value of material comfort and luxury, if he forgets that money is by no means the best legacy he can bequeath to his children, and if he does not cultivate the habit of giving as well as of getting, then by and bye the lust of mere accumulation grows upon him. Beginning with the desire to benefit those whom he loves, his eager pursuit of money begets, in course of time, an artificial craving, until at last his avarice, growing into an independent passion, may almost dry up the very springs of his affections. And so the strange, sad spectacle is sometimes seen, of a man who, even although adequate provision has been made for his family, or even after he has survived those who are rilE A MAS SIX a OF R/C/fES. 57 nearest to him, still goes on accumulating; wealth for no definite purpose that he could well explain. He gets very little enjoyment out of his own wealth. Its pursuit and possession give him a great deal of labour and anxiety. He knows that he must leave it all behind him before long ; and yet he dare not spend it freely now. Beneficence is no luxury to him. He has no hunger for well-doing. The spirit of generosity in him is well-nigh suppressed. His question is not, '' How much can I afford to give away ? " but " How little dare I with any decency give away ? " Nor can he be certain who his heirs are to be : and sometimes, perhaps, he shudders inwardly, as he asks himself what will yet become of all this treasure which it has cost him so much toil and care to scrape together! Was there ever such a will-o'-the-wisp as this ? To explode this monstrous delusion that the mere accumulation of wealth is the chief good for man, was one of the objects for which this book was written. Ecclesiastes recurs to it again and again. It seems as if the lesson he had learnt on this point had been burnt into his very soul by bitter experience. We need not, indeed, despise money. As Ecclesi- astes himself says, " Money is a defence." Money, so far as it goes, is a valuable means ; and, as a means, it may be used for high ends. But wealth, as the mere possession of abundance which a man never uses, never enjoys, never consecrates, never distributes for any noble object — this is a delusion 58 KNOWLEDGE AND RICHES. and a mockeiy. The man dies, and leaves it all behind him for ever : and then, in the eternal world, is he rich, or is he poor ? The very thought is enough to show that wealth can never be the supreme good for man. But indeed, even apart from the thought of God and of immortality, the mere accumulator of wealth is not the man who makes the most or best of the present life. The richest are not necessarily the happiest. Man's nature is a large, wide, deep thing : it has many capabilities of gratification and enjoyment ; and so, even if we look at this world only, we can feel the profound truth of the saying of Christ, that " a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." V. THE SIMPLE JOYS OF GODLY LYDUSTRY. Chap. ii. 24-26 {Revised Version) : — " There is 9iothins^ better for a tnan than that he should eat and drinks and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of Cod. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, ^ more than I? For to the man that pleaseih him God givcth wisdom, and knowledge, afid joy : but to the sinner he givcth travail, to gather aJid to heap tip, that he 7nay give to him that pleaseth God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.^^ ' According to some ancient authorities, "apart from him" (Margin). 6i WE have already seen how Ecclesiastes, speaking out of his own experience, although in the name of Solomon, pronounces the pursuit of knowledge, of pleasure, or of wealth, as the chief end of life, to be "vanity." He tells us how he had been plunged into a kind of despair when he thought that all the treasure, which he had so industriously and anxiously gathered together, might pass into the hands of a comparative stranger, or perchance even of a fool, who, in his folly, might scatter it all to the winds. The passage which is now before us springs directly out of this contemplation of the vanity of mere riches ; and perhaps it has reference also to the vanity of mere luxury and pleasure-seeking. "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour." We are not to regard these words as at all akin to the utterance of the baser Epicureanism, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ! " Wc are not to suppose that the Jewish philosopher, looking around him, and finding all to be " vanity and feeding on wind," con- cludes that the best thing a man can do, under the circumstances, is to give himself up to a life of sensuous enjoyment. This cannot possibly be his 63 THE SIMPLE JO YS OF GODL V LVD US7R Y. meaning here ; for he has ah-eady shown the empti- ness of a life of sensuous gratification, and he has also recorded it as his conviction that " wisdom is better than folly." Moreover, the words themselves do not point to mere idle self-indulgence ; for they speak of a man's " enjoying good in his labour.'' Ecclesiastes seems to have before his mind a life in which hearty and honest toil is blended with a con- tented enjoyment of the fruits of toil. In the maxim, " Let us cat and drink, for to-morrow we die," eating and drinking stand for all kinds of sensuous gratifica- tion, and even of sensual excess. But here, to " eat and drink" seems to stand rather for the simpler forms of living, as contrasted with luxurious and excessive self-indulgence. Thus also the prophet Jeremiah, when denouncing King Jehoiakim for building himself a magnificent palace at the cost of oppressing his people, points him to the life of his godly father Josiah : " Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice ? Then it w^as well with him." The prophet is contrasting the covetousncss of the son, bent on grandeur and luxury, and careless of the sufferings of his people, with the true kingly dignity of the father, who had been bent on doing judgment and justice, and had contented himself with simple habits of life. And, in like manner, in the passage now before us, the life of pleasure-hunting, which greedily seeks all manner of luxury and self-gratification, and also the life of avarice, which will not let a man enjoy the fruits THE MAN Til A T PLEASETII GOD. (^i of his own labour, are contrasted with a Hlc that finds pleasure in honest toil and in the cheerful enjoyment of simple and ordinary blessinj^^s. " There- is nothing better for a man than that he should cat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour." That this is the meaning of Ecclesiastes here is further evident from the manner in which he goes on to speak of the conditions of this contented and cheerful enjoyment of life. " This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God." This capability of taking pleasure in work and in the simple blessings of life is a gift of God. " For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment more than I ? " or — according to another reading — "Who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, apart from Him ? " that is, apart from God. This introduction of the thought of God is itself sufficient to show that Ecclesiastes is not here speaking as a sensualist, or as a mere pleasure-seeker. The intru- sion of the thought of God would mar the pleasure in which the sensualist indulges. But the kind of enjoyment which is here in view is an enjoyment which God gives to the virtuous and godly. ** For to the man that pleaseth Him God giveth wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that He may give to him that pleaseth God." Amidst the many anoma- lies of life, Ecclesiastes clings to the assurance that there is a moral government of God in this world. There are indeed perplexing problems in relation to this moral government, which he felt he could not 64 THE SIMPLE JO YS OF GODL V LYDUSTR V. solve, and which led him to look forward to a world beyond death where the dealings of God with men would be completed and vindicated. But still, look- ing at the broad facts of human life, and excluding cases apparently exceptional and perplexing, he saw that God does make a distinction, even here and now, between the ''sinner" and the "man who pleaseth Him." The virtuous and godly man has an advantage, even in this world, over the wicked. He receives from God a "wisdom and knowledge" which are associated with "joy." He finds a pleasure in his work, and is contented to eat the simple fruits of his toil. He may be a poor man, labouring for daily bread ; and yet he may receive from God this gift of thankful enjoyment. Whereas, on the other hand, Ecclesiastes saw that the " sinner " — the man who has no thought of God's commandments — may "gather together" and "heap up" riches, and yet have no heart to enjoy his own wealth. His labour, instead of giving him happiness, may be only a harassing and discontented struggle after that which, when he gets it, he is too avaricious to use. Surely this is "vanity and feeding on wind" ! And then, when the man dies, he leaves all his wealth behind him ; and God, in His providence, may give it to some man who " pleaseth Him," and who will be able to make a better use of it. We find this latter thought elsewhere in the Old Testament. Thus, in the Book of Proverbs, it is written : " He that by usury and unjui^t gain incrcascth his substance, he THE IIAPPIF.ST MAW 65 shall gather it for him that will pity the poor ; " and attain, in the Book of Job : " Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay, he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver." Ecclesiastes, of course, could not mean to say that the heir of the wealthy sinner was always a good man ; for he has already said that the man who spends his life in heaping up riches cannot be sure whether his heir will be " a wise man or a fool." But Ecclesiastes sees an indication of the moral government of God in that irony of Providence according to which the riches, and perhaps even the ill-gotten gains, of the sinner often pass over into the hands of better men. So far as the enjoyment of the avaricious and ungodly man is concerned, his labour is fruitless; its results are " vanity and feeding on wind " ; but the labour is not altogether wasted when its gains pass into the hands of some godly and virtuous man who can heartily enjoy them and rightly use them. Such, then, seems to be the meaning and spirit of this passage. Looking simply at the matter of happiness in this present world, Ecclesiastes, after all his experiments and his experience, comes to the conclusion that the happiest type of man is not the man who makes the mere obtaining of knowledge or of pleasure or of riches the great end of his being, but the man of godly and virtuous character who enjoys his work, and enjoys also the moderate and cheerful use of the simple, ordinary 5 66 THE SIMPLE JOYS OF GODLY INDUSTRY. blessings of life. The idea is one to which Ecclesi- astes recurs again and again ; and it forms one important element in his conclusions regarding the *' chief good " for man. Those who place the composition of this book in the Greek and not the Persian period — who think that it was written about two hundred years before Christ — regard this passage and other similar passages as containing traces of Greek thought. Dean Plumptre imagines that Ecclesiastes may have lived for some time in the city of Alexandria, and may have there become familiar with both the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies. And he thinks that in the utterance before us there is an echo, to some extent, of Epicu- rean teaching. Now, I have already pointed out the grounds on which it is impossible to identify this utterance with that degenerate form of Epicureanism which says, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But, on the other hand, it is quite true that the original and higher form of Epicureanism, whilst making pleasure the chief end of life, was careful to guard its doctrines against the appearance of leading to sensuality. Epicurus himself seems to have been a man of decorous and virtuous life ; and he seems to have inculcated the rule of temperance. In the interests of pleasure itself, he preferred moderation to luxury. He maintained also that the pleasures of the body, although not to be despised, were inferior to the pleasures of the soul ; and he seems to have held that the virtuous life was the ECCLESIASTES AXD EPICURUS. 67 life of true pleasure. It would certainly, therefore, be quite possible to quote passages from the litera- ture of the higher Epicureanism, bearing some affinity to the utterance now before us, and praising the quiet, unambitious life of cheerful labour, simple habits, and moderate enjoyment. But, even if we place the book in the Greek period — even if we suppose that Ecclesiastes, in his quest after wisdom, had been influenced, to some extent, by the higher Epicurean philosophy — we must surely confess that in this special utterance we have something added to that philosoph}'. The introduction of the name of God — to which I have already referred — betokens the mind that has been educated in the school of Hebrew piety. To Epicurus the very thought of God, or of the gods, as working in Nature or in human affairs, was a thought likely to disturb that "serenity of mind" at which he aimed. It was pleasanter to him to think of nature as simply a "concourse of atoms," which had somehow gathered themselves together into those forms out of which a man, by the wise exercise of his own reason, might extract the greatest possible amount of true pleasure. But to the mind of Ecclesiastes the power of enjoying with cheerfulness and contentment the ordinary blessings of life is a gift bestowed by God on the man who " pleaseth Him." Even the higher Epicureanism becomes a still higher thing when it is thus steeped in the spirit of piety, and as- sociated with a recognition of the Divine Providence. 63 THE SIMPLE JO VS OF GODL Y INDUSTRY, On the other hand, those scholars maybe right who regard this book as having been written in the earlier period — the period of the Persian dominion. At any rate, it does not seem necessary to suppose that Ecclesiastes received any teaching in the schools of Greek philosophy. Such proverbs as " The rest of the labouring man is sweet," and " The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep," are based on facts which must have been well known long before the time of Epicurus. In all ages, indeed, thoughtful observers of human life have noticed how human happiness is very far from being dependent on learning or wealth or luxury, how virtue brings a satisfaction denied to vice, and contentment gives a serenity denied to selfish ambition and restless avarice. Let us listen, for example, to the plough- man-poet of Scotland : " It's no in titles nor in rank ; It's no in wealth like Lon'on bank, To purchase peace and rest ; It's no in making muckle mair : It's no in books, it's no in lear, To make us truly blest : If happiness hae not her scat And centre in the breast. We may be wise, or rich, or great, But never can be blest : Nae treasures, nor pleasures, Could make us happy lang ; The heart aye's the part aye, That makes us right or wrang." Tiir. iiArrixEss of the lowly. c<) The great majority of the human race arc, after all, comparatively poor and unlearned ; and if human life, as a whole, is capable of affording any true enjoyment, this enjoyment must be compatible with very homely circumstances. It is also a palpable fact that high position and wealth and luxury often make it more difficult for a man to find real enjoy- ment in his life. Even in the simple matter of eating and drinking, how true it is that the appetite is often keener where healthy work is followed by homely fare than where anxious avarice, restless ambition, lofty rank, or luxurious idleness betakes itself to the delicacies of the table ! " The shepherd's homely curds, His cold, thin drink out of his leather bottle, His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, Is far beyond a prince's delicates, His viands sparkling in a golden cup, His body couched in a curious bed. When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him." Dean Plumptre reminds us that Shakespeare puts these words — even as Ecclesiastes puts his — into the lips of a king ; and doubtless many a king besides the Hebrew Solomon and the English Henry has sometimes been disposed to envy the happiness of the lowly. Now, the lesson which Ecclesiastes here sets before us is one of which we all need to be con- tinually reminded. Patent as the fact may be to us 70 HIE SIMPLE JO ] 'S OP GODL V IAD USER \ \ that the higher happiness of life is far more closely associated with unanxious labour, simple habits, and cheerful contentment, than with wealth or luxury, we are all more or less apt to live in forgetfulness of it. The social atmosphere which we breathe is too feverish and restless. We are apt to lose the blessings of to-day through over-anxiety about the morrow. We are apt to miss the enjoyment which God has put for us into the simple, common blessings of life, through our eager pursuit of some- thing more which may not really be anything better. It might be a desirable thing for some men who are spoiling their lives through selfish ambition or sordid Mammonism, to sit for a little while even at the feet of Epicurus ! But far better for all of us to sit at the feet of Christ. All that was really true and valuable in the higher Epicureanism is to be found, in a more exalted form, in Christianity. The somewhat unheroic serenity which was the ideal of Epicurus gives place, in the teachings of Christ, to a serenity compatible with heroism, and grounded on trust in the Heavenly Father. " Be not anxious for the morrow." " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." And the teachings of the New Testament generally are in radical harmony with the teaching of Ecclesiastes here. Ecclesiastes, however dark a view he might take of the "vanity" of earthly things considered in themselves, did not NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 71 think that the sorrows and perplexities of life ought to lead us into a morose despising or rejecting of the gifts of God. And the New Testament, although it counsels a wise and watchful self-discipline, says also that " every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanks- giving." On the other hand, Ecclesiastes was opposed both to a sordid avarice and a luxurious self-indulgence. To his mind the man most likely to make "■ the best of this world " was the man who " pleases God," and on whom God bestows the gift of a contented enjoyment of ordinary blessings. Now, the New Testament also tells us that "godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is." It tells us that "godliness with contentment is great gain." It reminds us that " the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil," and that they who are bent on being rich " fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition." It seeks to fix our attention on far higher things than material good, and bids us " follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." Thus Christianity has also the pious and heroic element of the higher Stoicism, without its pride and its violation of human instincts. It does not bid us proudly trample on either pleasure or pain ; but it bids us cultivate an inner peace and strength which shall prevent us from becoming the mere victims and slaves of circumstance. Without despising any "creature of God," it nevertheless 72 THE SIMPLE JOYS OF GODL Y INDUSTRY, teaches us lo estimate things according to tlicir relative importance. And is it not indeed one of the secrets of life, to keep things in their proper place — to put health above wealth, and bread above dainties, and the Bread of Heaven above the bread that perisheth ? Is it not one of the secrets of life, to receive material blessings with thankfulness, and enjoy them in moderation, without expecting to receive from them a kind or degree of satisfaction which they are utterly unable to impart ? But verily " the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." May we not well say with Ecclesiastes, " This is from the hand of God " ? And if only our hearts were set more steadfastly on higher things, if only we were more bent on "pleasing God," we W'ould be the better able to "eat and drink and enjoy good in our labour" — to enjoy with a more serene and contented spirit the simple, ordinary blessings which are common to humanity. VI. TIMES AND SEASONS. Chap. hi. 1-15 {Revised Version): — " To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven : a time to be born, and a time to die ; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal ; a time to break dozun, and a time to build up; a time to lueep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away st07tes, a7id a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose ; a time to keep, and a time to cast atuay ; a time to rend, and a time to sew ; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for ■peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth ? I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith. He hath made every- thing beautiful in its time : also he hath set ' the world in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning eve?i to the end. I know that there is 7iothing better for them, than to rejoice, atid to do good so long as they live. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labour, is the gift of God. I ktioio that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever : 7iothing ca/i be put to it, 7ior a7iy thi/ig take7i from it : and God hath done' it, that I7ie7i should fear before Hint. That which is hath bee/i already; a7id that which is to be hath already been; a/ui God seeketh again that which is passed azuay." ' Or, "eternity " (Margin). THE catalogue of "times and seasons" with which Ecclesiastes opens this chapter seems intended to point the question which he again asks, " What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth ? " We have aheady seen how, at the very commencement of his book, he puts this same question. Deeply impressed as he was with a sense of the "vanity" of earthly things, he utters his conviction that man cannot, by the most strenuous toil, acquire from these things a happiness which will really satisfy his nature. He records the experi- ments which he himself had made in his search after the chief good of life. He had tried the acquisition of knowledge ; he had tried the pursuit of pleasure and luxury ; he had tried the amassing of wealth ; and he had found each in turn to be "vanity and a feeding on wind." His much know- ledge brought him much grief; his pleasure brought satiety and weariness ; his wealth brought anxiety and apprehension. None of these things could, of themselves, bring him the satisfaction and enjoyment which he craved. And now, in this catalogue of "times and seasons,"' Ecclesiastes adduces another consideration, which ^(i TIMES AND SEASONS. shows how greatly man is restricted in his most strenuous endeavours to make himself happy. These various kinds of "times" all indicate that human actions and their issues are subject to the controlling influence of a Divine Order which runs through human life. Sometimes this order manifests itself in events w'hich are simply inevitable, and before which the will of man is utterly powerless. Thus circum- stances over which he himself has not the slightest control may bring him to his "time to weep," or his " time to die." Sometimes, again, the Divine Order manifests itself in certain arrangements which man cannot alter, but which he may easily recognize, and of which he may avail himself to his own advan- tage. There is a "time to plant," and a time to pluck up and gather the fruits of the earth ; but, if a man attempts to get his harvest at seed-time, he will fail. And then, again, there is an Order, not so easily discernible, according to which the issues of human action vary in proportion to the opportune- ness of such action. A man may be " breaking down," at the time when he ought to be "building up ; " he may be " keeping," when he ought to be "casting away;" he may be "silent," when he ought to be " speaking." If, either through ignorance or through self-will, he thus violates the law of oppor- tuneness or seasonableness, he may utterly fail to accomplish his ends. As our own proverb says, "Time and tide wait for no man." Or, as Shake- speare puts it : THE PIITXE Oh' PER. 77 "There is a title in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries." Thus man lives under a certain law of " tinies and seasons" — a certain Order of Nature and of Provi- dence : and this may reveal and assert itself, either by compellinj:^ him to submit to the inevitable, or by prescribini; the limits within which he must act, or by visiting him with certain disabilities if he is not wise or fortunate enough to do the right thing at the right time. Now, we need not suppose that, in thus emphasizing the fact of a Divine Order which restricts human action and controls its issues, Ecclesiastes is preaching the doctrine of mere Fatalism. It is true, indeed, that with regard to certain events of human life, this Order does take the aspect of an inexorable necessity. There are certain laws of Nature by which human life is absolutely bound. Man has his own divinely- ordained environment ; and within this environment he must live and work. By the exercise of his wisdom and his will he may modify some of his immediate and temporary surroundings ; but there are surroundings which he cannot alter, and which remain the same throughout the ages. It is, perhaps, to this perpetual environment that Ecclesi- astes refers, when he says: " I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it ; and God hath 78 TIMES AXD SEASONS. done it, that men should fear before Him. That which is hath been already ; and that which is to be hath already been; and God seeketh again that which is passed away." We have already seen how Ecclesiastes dwells on this idea of the recurring phenomena of nature and the recurring events of human experience. It is doubtless possible that he had an exaggerated conception of the way in which the past thus recurs in human life. But we must all admit that his words point to a great truth. Our own proverb, " History repeats itself," expresses substantially the same fact. The very constitution of human nature, and the very relation in which human nature stands to the universe and to God, imply certain abiding conditions of life, to which man cannot add, and from which he cannot take away. And God has decreed these conditions of life, in order that " men may fear before Him." This is one way in which He manifests His existence and His supremacy, and seeks to beget that spirit of humility and reverence with which it becomes the human creature to bow before the great Creator. But, whilst Ecclesiastes thus recognizes certain conditions of human life and decrees of Divine Providence which man's will is absolutely powerless to alter, it does not follow that he teaches a mere Fatalism. Elsewhere in this book he says : " God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." The distinctive action of God does not render impossible a distinctive action on the part MAN FREE WITIIIX LIMITS. 79 of man. It does not follow that, because we are absolutely bound in some directions, we are free in none. It might as well be said that, because we cannot travel to the moon, we cannot travel to China or Japan. It docs not follow that, because wc cannot transgress certain limits, we are not free within these limits. There are decrees of God in Nature and in Providence to which we are com- ■pelled to submit ; but man is not an automaton because there are certain experiences which he finds to be inevitable. The Divine Order sometimes asserts itself by compulsion, but, at other times, it simply asserts itself by inflicting some disadvantage on the man who will not recognize or obey it. There is "a time to be born, and a time to die; " there is also " a time to speak, and a time to be silent : " but a man's speech and silence are not as much be3'ond his own control as a man's birth and death. The great law of mortality cannot be linally resisted ; but the law of opportune speech may be daily violated. And if a man is silent when he ought to speak, or if he speaks when he ought to be silent, he must simply bear the consequences of his unseasonable conduct. And now I think we may see how these consider- ations give point to the question which is here repeated : " What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth ? " What Ecclesiastes means seems to be this, that man has no absolute power to shape or to control his own circumstances ; 8o TIMES AXD SEASONS. and that, therefore, even if happiness could be found in circumstances, his most strenuous exertions mi^dit fail to secure it. He must work under the great law of times and seasons. He may imagine that, if only he had this or that, he would be happy ; he may plan for it ; he may labour to obtain it ; but he cannot be sure of getting it. The times maybe against him; or he may fail to discern the times. Events may occur which oppose an insurmountable barrier to his efforts ; or he may not be wise enough to take ad- vantage of the favourable opportunity when it comes to him. Thus the ambition of the student may be balked, and he may fail to grasp the prize, just because a '' time " of ill-health comes to him ; or the merchant may be on the high road to fortune, when there comes a " time of war," which becomes for him a *' time to lose ; " and he cannot help himself. Or again, a season comes when a man would do well to "cast away" in bold venture ; but, instead of doing this, he thinks it is *' a time to keep," and so he misses his opportunity. By and bye, looking back, he says to himself: "Ah! if I had only made a venture just then, at the nick of time ; but it is too late now ! " Thus man is limited both by his power- lessness and his short-sightedness, in the presence of that Order which restricts his action or modifies its issues. And the uncertainties and disappointments of life which flow from this limitation often make human labour a source of anxiety and pain, instead of joy and profit. Man is indeed a free agent — free MAX'S ENVIRONMENT. 8r enough to be morally responsible ; he is not the mere creature of circumstance, or victim of fate. This is true. And it is further true that men sometimes imagine that they are hemmed in by barriers, when they ought to be surmounting them, and that they are restricted by their circumstances, when they might be altering them. But, on the other hand, it is just as true that man's choice is practically limited in a thousand ways — that all his work must be carried on under certain conditions which he himself has not fixed, and that, although he need not be the mere creature of circumstances, he cannot always be their creator. He can only live and labour within his environment — God in Nature, and God in Provi- dence. " Man proposes, but God disposes." And one reason why God, whilst endowing men with free- dom, exercises His power to limit and overrule their choice and their action, is that " men may fear before Him " — may recognize with humble reverence their utter dependence upon Him. What " profit," then, is there in a man's " labouring" to find his chief good in mere outward circumstances, when his labour must be conducted under so many restric- tions, and his most strenuous exertions may fail to mould his circumstances in accordance with his own desires ? But now, whilst Ecclesiastcs thus recognizes the fact that man is restricted by times and seasons — by laws of necessity and laws of opportuneness — he also rises to the conviction that this Order by which man G g2 TIMES AND SEASONS. IS limited is a right and beautiful thing. God " hath made everything beautiful in its time." The new- born babe has a beauty of its own ; and there is often a strange beauty of quiet restfulness on the face of the dead. The happy dance of seasonable mirth and the merry peal of innocent laughter are beautiful, as well as the tears of sorrowful affection that are shed over the grave of the departed. Even events w^hich to us have a harsh and unlovely look may nevertheless have their own fitting place in the economy of God. *' God hath also set eternity in the heart" of man; God hath put into the human soul a sense of the Infinite and the Everlasting ; and this sense is deepened by the very fact that " man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end." Man is hemmed in by times and seasons ; yet his thoughts transcend these narrower bounds. He sees a Divine order working in the universe ; he has the sense of a Divine plan running through the ages ; but it is only a frag- ment of this plan that he beholds. As he looks back in thought to the " beginning," and as he looks forward in thought to the " end," his mind is often utterl}- baffled by the dealings of Providence ; but the very mysteries of life increase his sense of the Infinite. His thoughts are carried upward to a Being who understands all, and forward to a goal which will explain all. No wonder that he cannot be satisfied with the mere things of time and sense, when God has thus " set eternity in his heart," And yet, just ETERNITY IX THE HEART 83 because he has this sense of the Infinite and Eternal, he is able to rise to the belief that even those events which thwart his own will and those m3'steries which baffle his own comprehension have their appropriate and beautiful place in a Divine order, and in the perfect working of the all-wise Ruler. And so Rcclcsiastes is led b}- these considerations to the same conclusion which he had alread}- an- nounced. " I know that there is nothing better for men than to rejoice, and to do good so long as they live. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labour, is the gift of God." Here again the very introduction of the name of " God," and of the idea of " doing good " in one's life, is enough to show that Ecclesiastes is not commend- ing mere sensual gratification. What he says is that the happiest man is he who works on cheerfully at his appointed labour, acting honestly and kindh-, and receiving from God the gift of a thankful and con- tented spirit which enables him to enjoy the simple, ordinary blessings of daily life. Now, although we possess the higher and fuller revelation of the gospel of Christ, and in that revela- tion have a measure of light which Ecclesiastes had not, yet I think that his words here point to abiding facts of human experience, and carry with them lessons which we shall do well to ponder. We are in quest of some "good," What is that ''good" ? Have we got it ? Are we ever likely to get it ? Are we setting our hearts on a happiness which we think 84 TIMES AND SEASONS. is to be found in circumstances, and are we there- fore setting ourselves with might and main to shape our circumstances in accordance with our own de- sires ? But God has '* set eternity in our heart ; " He has given us a sense of the Infinite and the Everlasting ; and mere earthly things can never of themselves fill and satisfy our souls. Nay, more ; even if true happiness could be found in mere cir- cumstance, we can never be sure of being able to shape our surroundings in accordance with our own will. We have to face the fact that another will besides our own is at work in our history — the will of God. He is restricting and limiting us by times and seasons. Circumstances which we did not create, which we could not foresee, which we cannot alter, and which we cannot explain, may occur to cross our wishes and to thwart our plans. Is this a reason for folding our hands in idleness ? No. But it is a reason for remembering that our lot is not entirely in our own hands. It is a reason for bending with reverence before the will of the Supreme. It is a reason for not trying to find our chief good in material things. It is a reason for cherishing some large and inclusive purpose which shall not be balked by the uncertainties and disappointments of this changeful life. It is a reason for seeking to be good and to do good in our life, and to receive from God that gift of pious contentment which shall make the inner world of the spirit less dependent on the outer world of circumstance. VII. MAN AND BEAST. Chap. hi. 16-22 {Revised Version) : — ''''And niorein'er I saw under the sun, in tJie plaee of judjj^e- ntent, tJiat luieicedness teas there j and in iJie plaee of rigiiteous- }U'ss, tliat luiekedness was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the -wiclced : for there is a time therefor every purpose and for every work. I said in mine heart, It is because of the sons of men, that God may prove them, and that they may see that they themselves aj-e but as beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befallcth them : as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they haiie all one breath; and man hath no preeminence above the beasts : for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knotueth the spirit oj mail ' whether it goeth up%vard, and the spirit of the beast ' whether it goeth downward to the earth ? Wherefore J saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works ; for that is his poi'tion : for who shall brinq him bade to see what shall be after him ? " ' Or, " tliat goeth " (Margin). S7 I HAVE already said that this book may be regarded as largely autobiographical. And not only does the writer record his experiences in his search after the "chief good," but he seems also to record his speculations and debatings on some of the perplex- ing problems of human life. He wished his readers to profit by his experience ; and therefore, doubtless, he wished them to feel that his maxims and counsels were not mere hasty or groundless utterances, but were the outcome of much practical acquaintance with men and things, and of much brooding over many problems. This is perhaps the reason why we find the present conclusions and exhortations of the writer blended with the record of his past ex- periments in living, and his past attitude towards some of the riddles of the world. And it is this blending of the past and the present, and the difficulty sometimes of determining to what extent Ecclesiastes indorses the moods and thoughts which he records, that make his book less easy of interpretation. Here, in the passage which now lies before us, he is evidently recording some of his past thoughts. His words are : " I saw under the sun ;" " I said in mine heart." He has already mentioned some 88 MAN AND BEAST. of the reasons which led him to entertain such a prolound conviction as to the ** vanity " of earthly things. He has described his own experience of the unsatisfying nature of earthly wisdom, pleasure, and vvealth ; and he has shown also how man, living and vvorkmg as he must within his divinely-ordained environment, can never be sure of shaping his cir- cumstances in accordance with his own will. But now, there was another thing which, to the eye of Ecclesiastes, added to the vanity and unsatisfac- toriness of life. ** I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there." In all ages it has been more or less a perplexing problem to reconcile the outward lot of the righteous and of the wicked in this world with the moral government of a righteous and almighty God. And there were probably special characteristics of the times in which Ecclesiastes lived, that made this problem then specially prominent, difficult, and painful. Not only were the just often injured by the unjust, but it was also often impossible for the injured to obtain legal redress, and injustice was often perpetrated even in the name of law. The very judges themselves were corrupt. The very " place of judgment " was often the place of iniquity. All this rendered human happiness much more un- stable, and gave to human life a greater aspect of " vanity." It perplexed Ecclesiastes, as it has perplexed many both before and since his time, that FUTURE JU'DGMENT. S9 such injustice as this should be permitted on tlie earth under the overruling power of God. But he clung to the assurance that God would sooner or later manifest His righteousness, and vindicate the cause of the injured and the oppressed. " I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked ; for there is a time ihcrc for every purpose and for every work." The word " there " seems to be emphatic, and appears to point to a future life. Ecclesiastes looked away from human tribunals to the Divine tribunal ; from the corrupt judges of earth to the Righteous Judge in the heavens. In presence of the anomalies which perplexed him, he found some relief in the thought that a time was coming when present wrongs would be redressed, and God would judge between the righteous and the wicked. And this thought, which he here records as a thought of the past, he afterwards indorses more than once in the course of his book. Indeed, his conviction as to the righteous judgment of God becomes a prominent feature in his ultimate deliverance on the problem of life, and the best way of using life. The closing words of the book are : " God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Here, however, in the passage now before us, Ecclesiastes goes on to record another thing which he had said in his heart. " I said in mine heart. It is because of the sons of men, that God may prove them, and that they may see that they themselves 90 MAN AND BEAST. are but as beasts." And then follows the strange and striking comparison between man and beast; in which the resemblance of men to the lower animals, especially in their common liability to accident and their common subjection to a death which to all outward appearance is the same, is cited as another element in the "vanity" of human affairs. It is difficult to determine the exact object of Ecclesiastes in instituting this comparison : partly because the Hebrew text of the passage is capable, in one or two places, of different translations ; and partly because it is possible to take very different views of the con- nection between the two things which Ecclesiastes had " said in his heart." One view which may be taken of this connec- tion is, that the second thought here mentioned is supplemental to the first. According to this view, Ecclesiastes, having recorded his conviction that the righteous God will yet judge between the righteous and the wicked, goes on to record how he had speculated as to the reason why God does not always execute this judgment here and now. It had occurred to him that the reason of this might be to "prove" or "test" men, and to show them that, in and of " themselves," they were liable to degenerate into a mere animal hfe. There is for man both probation and self-revelation in the fact that God does not visit all wickedness with immediate and manifest punishment. If a man thrusts his hand into the fire it is at once burnt : the suffering follows THE ANIMAL IN MAN. Qf immediately on the action, and the man is not Hkely to do the same thing again. Now, if all violations of the moral law were followed likewise by such im- mediate and manifest consequences, there might be a test of human prudence, but there would scarcely be any test of human virtue. If, for example, every man who should commit an act of dishonesty were — at once and without fail — to be stricken with paralysis, there would be no more virtue in honesty than there is now in keeping one's hand out of the fire. But the fact that God often postpones the manifest punishment of iniquity, and allows wicked men sometimes even to trample upon the righteous with apparent impunity, affords a test of moral character, and leaves room for the exercise of virtues which arc the result, not of mere prudence, but of an actual allegiance to God and righteousness. And this kind of probation, to which men are subjected, becomes an instrument of self-revelation. Men see how much of the animal there is in their nature. They see how like to animals they can become, when they are left to themselves and allowed to follow their own inclinations and desires. Just because it is often possible for them to commit sin with apparent impunity, and sometimes even with apparent advantage, how often is it the case that the strong tyrannize over the weak, and the cunning trick the unwary, like so many beasts of prey ! Men find, too, that they are subject to accidents and to death, even as the animals are; c;2 MAN AND BEAST. tlicy die and return to the dust just as the animals do. The spirit of man, indeed, " goeth upward " ^ at death; and the spirit of the beast "goeth down- ward to the earth " : but " who knoweth " the exact difference between the two ? The difference of destination does not make itself manifest to the senses. To all outward appearance the dissolution of the man and of the beast is exactly the same kind of thing ; the human being does not appear to have any pre-eminence in this respect over the mere animal. Now, all these circumstances and appear- ances put men to the proof ; they test men as to whether they will allow themselves to sink down into a mere animal, selfish life, or whether they will follow those divine inspirations which link them to God, beckon them to righteousness, and point them to immortality. The very fact that men, in many respects, outwardly resemble the lower animals, and the very fact that God does not always visit men outwardly according to their deeds, are facts which serve to test moral and spiritual character, and to make the distinction between the righteous and the wdcked more manifest at last. Such, then, is one view which may be taken of this passage, as record- ing a speculation which had come into the mind of Ecclesiastes regarding what might be called the philosophy of the Divine moral government. But there is another and very different view which may be taken of the passage. According to this ' See Authorised Version and margin of Revised Version. MA TERIAUSTIC SCEPTIC I S.)r. 93 view, the second thini; which Ecclesiastes " said in his heart " is to be regarded not as supplemental, but as aniagonistic to the first. When he looked at the way in which men often injured one another, when he saw how God permitted even judges to act unjustly, the first thought which arose in his heart was that, for some reason or other, God was simply postponing His judgment — that God would yet certainly judge the righteous and the wicked, if not here in this world, then " there," in a future life. And this tliought brought some consolation to him. But he could not at that time rest in this consolation ; for on the back of this thought there came another into his heart, antagonistic to it and threatening to override it. It was the dark, sceptical thought that, after all, God is dealing with men as He does, just to show them that they are really animals and nothing more ! God lets the beasts act towards one another as they will ; He lets them bite and devour each other ; they are liable to accident ; they arc subject to death ; they return to dust : men are also liable to accident ; men also die, and return to dust ; there seems to be the same kind of " breath " in them as in the animals ; and if God lets men injure and oppress and trick one another, may it not be because, with all their higher wisdom and sagacity, they too are simply animals that perish when they die ? According to this view, Ecclesiastes is here recording a mood of materialistic scepticism through which he had passed. The two things which he had " said in 94 MAN AND BEAST. his heart " were like the " two voices " of Tennyson's poem — voices conflicting with one another for the mastery, and plunging the soul for a time into doubt and perplexity. Now, this view of the passage certainly seems to accord better with the rendering which many Hebrew scholars give to the twenty-first verse, and which we find in the text of the Revised Version. **Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth down- ward to the earth ? " This, obviously, is a sceptical question, and suggests a doubt as to whether, after all, there is any difference between the destiny of man and the destiny of the brute creation. And evidently it is just such a question as a man might put, when tempted to accept a materialistic philo- sophy. Then, again, I must say that this second view of the passage also accords better with the closing verse of the chapter : " Wherefore I said that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works ; for that is his portion ; for who shall bring him back to see what shall be after him ? " It is difficult to connect these words with the idea that Ecclesiastes has just been recording a philosophical explanation of the Divine moral government. But if, on the other hand, he has just been recording a mood of scepticism through which he had formerly passed, then these words seem to follow naturally enough, as recording also the conclusion at which, " WHO A'.yOJJ'S?" 95 even then, he had arrived as to the best use of life. He has ah-eady registered this conclusion twice before, as the fruit of his own experience : and now he tells how this same conclusion forced itself upon him, even at a time when he was plunged into un- certaint}' as to the future judgement of God, and the higher destiny of man. Supposing this, then, to be the real drift of the passage before us, we surely need not be surprised that I'vcclesiastes, in presence of the problems of life, should have passed through some such mood of materialistic scepticism. When some of the ablest scientific men of our own day are telling us that man is simply a highly organized animal — a living auto- maton developed out of lower forms, and that there is every reason to believe that thought and feeling and conscience all perish at death ; and when others, taking up the "agnostic" position, are simply say- ing, with reference to immortality, ** Who knows ? " can we wonder that a Jew who lived more than two thousand years ago was tempted at times to ask the same question ? But it would seem that Ecclesiastes did not remain permanently in this sceptical attitude. We. may regard him as here telling his readers what he had " said in his heart " about man and beast : he is not necessarily indorsing it at the time when he writes this book. On the contrary, it would appear from other passages that he was now clinging to the assurance that God would yet judge between righteous and wicked men, and that the spirit of 96 MAN AND BEAST. man does not perish at death. At the close of his book his words seem to be clear and decisive : " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." Thus, how- ever dark may have been the mood of scepticism through which he had formerly passed, his final attitude, when he wrote this book, was that of faith in immortality. Now, if Ecclcsiastes could thus, with the light he had, arrive at the final conviction that the human spirit survives the dissolution of the body, surely we, in the fuller light of the Christian revelation, may well overcome the chilling doubts which may some- times creep in upon our souls. How different is the language of the New Testament, even as compared with that of the Old, on the subject of a future life ! " Christ hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." The Son of God, by His reve- lation of the Father, and by His own death and resurrection, has inspired His disciples with " the hope of glory." Events, indeed, sometimes occur in the providence of God, which utterly baffle our understanding, and which seem almost to deal with men as if they were mere animals. Catastrophes happen, in which men seem to be taken as if they were '* fishes of the sea." The most brilliant thinker suddenly meets with a blow on the head which robs him, for a time, of all power of thought. Such things as these may stagger us. But we recover faith when we look to Jesus Christ as the Light of ''WE KNOW." 1)7 the world, and the Revealer of the Father, lie who gave His Son to die for us, and who has led us to trust in His own fatherly love, will not let us ^'o down into nothingness. He who " died for us and rose again " has shown Himself to be the conqueror of death; and, "because He lives, we shall live also." Glorying in His character and cross, and receiving into our hearts somewhat of His own spirit, we become conscious of thoughts, motives, and aspirations which raise us above our mere animal nature and contain within themselves the earnest of immortality. The unbeliever points us to the palsied limbs, the enfeebled brain, the failing memory, and the dying struggle; and he asks, "Are these your immortals ? " Well, it is all very humbling ; we are indeed animals. But we are also more than animals ; we are men ; we are spirits, for whom Christ died ; and we look up to Him " who can change the body of our humiliation, that it maybe fashioned like unto the body of His glory." " Who knows ? " says the Agnostic : " there may be a future life, or tlierc may not : who knows ? " Let the Christian apostle answer him : " Wc know that, if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." To Paul the future life w-as no mere per- adventure or probability. It was an absolute certainty. He vvralked, indeed, " by faith and not by sight ; " nevertheless he " looked " at " the things which are unseen." As through the bodily eye he received 7 98 MAN AND BEAST. knowledge of the "temporal," so through the spiritual eye he received knowledge of the " eternal." The finite cannot comprehend the Infinite ; but man can know God as a little child knows a father. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." And if we " know " God through Jesus Christ, we may venture to say, in the assurance of our faith and hope, that we " know " also the fact of immortality. VIII. MEMORIES OF PESSIMLSTIC MOODS. Chap. iv. 1-3 {Revised Version) : — " T/ieu I rctiniicd and smu all the oppressions that arc done under the sun : and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there luas pozuer, but they had no comforter. Who-efore I praised the dead luhich are already dead more than the living which are yet alive ; yea, better than them both did I esteem him which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.^' lOI WE have already seen that there are several reasons for beheving that the author of this book was not Solomon himself, but a writer of later date, who by a legitimate literary device put into the mouth of Solomon his own observations and maxims concerning human life. The passage now before us presents one of the reasons for this belief. It is not likely that Solomon would have bewailed in this pathetic manner a system of oppression for which he himself, as king, would have been largely responsible. The same remark is true of the reference in the preceding chap- ter to the iniquities which were perpetrated even "in the place of judgment;" for it would have been the duty of Solomon to depose and punish the corrupt judges of the land. The language of the book, here and elsewhere, concerning the social and civil con- dition of the people seems to point to a much later date, when the Jews were groaning under a foreign yoke. Whether we place this date towards the close of the Persian dominion, or still later, in the time of Grecian ascendency, there was quite enough in the condition of the Jews during either of these periods to justify the language of the book concerning corrupt government and political oppression. We can well 102 MEMORIES OF PESSIMISTIC MOODS. believe that, during both of these periods, there were times so dark that many a Jew would be tempted to ask the question, '* Is life worth living?" and to sink down into a state of scepticism, melancholy, and de- spair. We can easily believe that, in such dark times, many would look back in imagination through the centuries to the bright and prosperous reign of Solo- mon, and might wish that they had been born in those "former days" which were so much "better" than these. And this may perhaps have been one reason why Ecclesiastes, in giving to his countrymen some maxims and counsels suited to the times, sought to lend greater emphasis to his words by putting them into the mouth of that wise and prosperous king whose reign was supposed to have been Israel's "golden age." Ecclesiastes himself had evidently caught the con- tagion of that melancholy which now depressed his countrymen : and perhaps the kind of life which he himself had lived had not tended to give him a brighter outlook on the world. However this may be, he seems to have often exercised his mind on the problem as to what was the best way in which a Jew could spend his life under the unsatisfying and disad- vantageous circumstances of the times. In pondering this problem, he appears to have reached the conclu- sion that the unsatisfying character of human con- ditions in this or that age, was simply a question of degree, that there was a radical element of "vanity" in all earthly things. Looking at the constitution of ADVERSE CIRCUyrSTANCES. 103 human nature and its relation to its surroundinj;?;, he had become convinced that it is impossible for man, with all his striving, to obtain for himself a satisfying happiness out of any mere shaping or collocation of circumstances. Circumstances, indeed, might be more or less favourable to happiness in this or that age ; but there were certain fundajnental character- istics of human life which remain the same througli all the ages, and which render man constantly liable to disappointment. Man is restricted in many ways ; by laws of Nature and events of Providence — by the constantly recurring phenomena of the world — by "times and seasons " which fetter his action. He must face the fact that another power besides his own is at work in his history, and not unfrcquently crosses his own desires and designs. This power, which some men might call fate or destiny, Eccle- siastes recognized as the power of God. And he believed that God had restricted men within these permanent conditions of life, " in order that men might fear before Him." Here, then, was one element in the "vanity" of earthly things : man is never sure of being able to shape his circumstances in accord- ance with his own wishes ; his most strenuous endeavours in this direction may often end in disap- pointment. But Ecclesiastes had also perceived another and deeper element in the " vanity " of earthly things. He had seen that, even under the most favourable and prosperous circumstances, man cannot extract from these alone a happiness that will 104 MEMORIES OE PESSIMISTIC MOODS. satisfy his nature. God "hath set eternity" in the "heart" of man ; and man cannot find his chief good in things " seen and temporal." Man discovers that the attempt to satisfy the hunger of his soul with these things ends, sooner or later, in disappointment. Now, we may well believe that Ecclesiastes, having, as the result of his own experience, arrived at these convictions, felt that he had a message for his countrymen amid the specially depressing circum- stances in which they lived. He felt that something would be gained if he could help them to see that the disadvantageous conditions of their own times were simply an exacerbation of those restrictions under which man must always live. Their subjection to the Persian or Grecian dominion brought with it special sorrows and hardships, which largely pre- vented them from gratifying their desires and accom- plishing their objects ; but in all ages men have had their burdens and troubles, and have had their wishes crossed and their ends thwarted by circumstances over which they had no control. Sorrow and disap- pointment were no " new things under the sun." Ecclesiastes felt that something would be gained if he could show his countrymen that the impossibility which they experienced of carving for themselves a satisf3'ing happiness out of their material surround- ings was not an impossibility peculiar to their own times, but was the chronic impossibility of human life. They were perhaps looking back to the reign of Solomon, as to the "golden age" of Israel's history. THE « GOLDEN ACE." ,05 They were perhaps wishing that the}' had lived tlicn, instead of now. They were perhaps fancying that then they would have been satisfied with life, and with the good things around them. lUit what if this ''■golden age" of the past were an illusion? What if it had been much more of an iron or leaden age than they imagined ? Human life had its troubles then, as really as now. There was weeping then, as well as laughing. There was death then, as well as birth. There was hatred then, as well as love. Human souls were unsatisfied then, as really as now. Let them take even the case of Solomon himself, in all his glory, and with all his wisdom. Solomon had advantages such as few men possessed of carry- ing on his researches after the "chief good" of life. And Ecclcsiastes docs not hesitate to follow him in thought into that royal laboratory in which he had sought to produce the elixir of a satisfying happiness. Ecclcsiastes ventures even to personate the king, and to describe the result of his experiments. And so, in this book, Solomon comes before us, telling us how he had tried, first the amassing of knowledge, and then the indulgence in mirth, pleasure, and all manner of luxury, and then the gathering of riches and all kinds of treasure, and how he had found each in turn to be "vanity and feeding on wind." So much for the "golden age" of Israel, as seen through the telescope of Ecclcsiastes. The most prosperous of Hebrew monarchs, amid all his luxury and mag- nificence, may even have envied at times the lot of io6 MEMORIES OF PESSIMISTIC MOODS. some simple peasant who could sleep sweetly after a day of unanxious labour. And Ecclesiastes repre- sents the king who was so renowned for his wisdom as arriving at the conclusion that the happiest kind of life possible on earth is the life of a man " pleasing God" and striving *'to do good," working cheerfully at his appointed tasks, and receiving from God the gift of a thankful and contented heart, which enables him to enjoy the most simple and ordinary blessings. It was in such considerations as these that Eccle- siastes found some antidote to the poison of that gloomy melancholy wiiich was so characteristic of the times. He wrote, of course, primarily for the men of his own day ; and he felt that he might do something to help them amid the special troubles of the period, if he could only get them to see that the chief good of man can never be extracted out of mere material circumstance — that those who are outwardly the most prosperous are not necessarily the most happy, and that the present disadvantageous con- ditions of their own lot were not altogether incom- patible with that kind of happiness which, in all ages of the world, had been the best and most satisfying. Such seems to be the main object of the teachings and counsels of this book. Ecclesiastes, however, wished his readers to feel that his maxims were not the mere hasty utterances of a " happy-go-lucky " moralist, but the counsels of one who had felt the pressure of the great problems of life. I have already suggested that this is perhaps one reason why his EXPERIENCE OF DOUBT. 107 book contains not only his conclusions and counsels at the ti)nc when he wrote it, but also the record of perplexities and speculations and phases of thou<,dit and fcclini; through whicli lie had formerly passed. Thus, we have seen that, in the preceding chapter, he probably records a mood of materialistic scepti- cism which had formerly crept over his soul in presence of some of the anomalies of Providence. We have reason, indeed, to believe that this scep- tical mood was not his final attitude of mind : but we are none the less likely to profit by the words of a man who shows us that he has felt the difficulties which perplex ourselves. There were many English- men of the last generation who were all the more deeply influenced by the teaching of Carlyle because he had described, under the guise of the imaginary autobiography of a German Professor, his own pas- sage through " the everlasting No " to " the ever- lasting Yea." The power of Tennyson's " In Jilemoriam " is all the greater because the poet therein gives us a glimpse of the manner in which his faith in God and immortality had been assailed by doubts and fears. And many of the earliest readers of Ecclesiastes, who had themselves been plunged into a scepticism occasioned by the cor- ruptions and disorders of the age, would not be the less likely to listen to the teachings of this book because the writer had himself known what it was to be staggered by the resemblance between man and beast. io8 MEMORIES OF PESSIMISTIC MOODS, Now, here again, in the opening words of this fourth chapter, Ecclesiastes makes another con- fession, and records how he had been plunged into the darkest views of life by the thought of the unrelieved wretchedness which was sometimes caused by tyranny. And so intense is his feeling here that he seems to forget his personation of Solomon : nor indeed can it be said that he takes any pains to keep up the dramatic use of this literary device after the second chapter of his book. " I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun ; and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter ; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no com- forter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive." So keen had been his sense of the misery sometimes endured by the victims of tyranny, and so deep was his pity for the oppressed, that he had pronounced it better to die than to live, and better still never to have been born at all, and so to have escaped even the sight of *' the evil work that is done under the sun." It does not follow that, when he now wrote, he was indorsing this pessimistic mood. It was enough that he had experienced it. He was no stranger to the melancholy which was characteristic of the times. " The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely," had increased his sense of the "vanity" of earthly things; and there had been times in his experience when he felt /■IXrKRIEXCE OF MELAXCIIOLV. ic; that " not to be " was better than " to be." The counsels which he was giving to his countrymen were not the counsels of a man on whom the troubles of the times were sitting lightly. On the contrary, they were the maxims of a man who could sympathize with his countrymen in their deep depression, who was keenly alive to the evils of an unjust and despotic government, and who had himself been tempted to* sink down into moroscness and despair. When, therefore, he urged his readers to make the best even of their disadvantageous conditions, and to seek after that kind of happiness which in all ages had been the most satisfying, they were surely more likely to listen to such maxims as coming from one who had felt in his own soul the burden of human life. Now, if Ecelesiastes was thus enabled to rise out of his darkest moods at any rate, through faith in God and in the righteous judgement of God — if, in spite of the melancholy of the times and the melan- choly which assailed himself, he was able to counsel his countrymen to a godly and thankful enjoyment of such blessings as remained to them — surely we, with the fuller and clearer light which we now possess, may well be proof against the spirit of pessimism. The modern pessimistic school of Germany is essen- tially atheistic : it has no faith in a living, personal, righteous God ; and it has no hope of a glorious immortality. But we who believe in God as revealed in His Son Jesus Christ can never, whilst we retain our faith, adopt the dark and dismal view that human no MEMORIES OF PESSIMISTIC MOODS. existence is a curse rather than a blessing. We cannot, indeed, deny the facts of moral and physical evil : sin and pain are realities which are not to be explained away : and there are also many mysteries of Providence which utterly baffle our understanding. But the love of God revealed in Christ — the Fathe!r- hood of God proclaimed in the gospel — the redeeming 'purpose of God manifested in the death of Christ for all mankind — forbid us to dishonour Him with the thought that life is not " worth living." The Chris- tian, it is true, is not bound to be an optimist, in the sense of asserting that this is "the best of all possible worlds." But we may remember that the absolutely best may not be now the relatively best. Health is better than medicine ; but it may be best to give medicine, so long as the patient remains out of health. Easy chairs may be pleasant; but easy chairs are not the chief furniture of a gymnasium ! God is seeking to bless His children by training and preparing them for higher blessedness. We cannot understand all His ways : but we can trust His love as revealed in Jesus. We cannot see the end from the beginning ; but we can wait in hope. Our grand defence against pessimism is the Fatherhood of God and the Cross of Christ. There are many dark things in our human life ; but " Qod is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all." IX. RIVALRY, AVARICE, AND POPULARITY. Chap. iv. 4-16 (AVrvVtv/ Vers ion) : — " Then I sa7C' all labour and every skilful loork, tJiat ^Jor litis a man is envied of his neii^hl>our. This also is vanity and a striving after tuind. The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. Better is an handful with quietness, tJian two handfuls with labour and striving after wind. Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun. There is one that is alone, and he hath not a second; yea, he hath neither son nor brother ; yet is there no end of all his labour, neither are his eyes satisfied with riches. For whom then, saith he, do I labour, and deprive my soul of good? This also is vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. Two are better than one ; because they have a good reivard for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow : but woe to him that is alone whe?i he falleth, and hath not another to lift him tip. Agaitt, if two lie together, then they have warmth : but how can one be warm alone? And if a mati prevail against him that is alone, ttuo shall withstand himj and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Better is a poor and wise youth than an old aiui foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition any more. For out of prison he came forth to be king; yea, even in his kingdom he was born poor. I saw all the living which walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the second, that stood up in his stead. There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was : yet they that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after windJ' ' Or, "it Cometh of a man's rivalry with his neighbour " (Margin). * According to some ancient versions, " whereas the other, thougli born in liis ]