ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER O E

WRITTE A D EDITED BY GLE PEASE

I quote many authors in this study, and if some do not wish their thoughts to be

shared in this way they can let me know, and I will delete their wisdom from the

study. My email is gdpease1@gmail.com

I TRODUCTIO

1. Paul Haopt wrote, " The Book of Ecclesiastes is unparalleled in the whole range of Biblical Literature. Ernest Renan spoke of it as the only charming book that was ever written by a Jew. Heinrich Heine called it the Canticles of Skepticism, while Franz Delitzsch thought it was entitled to the name of the Canticles of the Fear of God. From the earliest times down to the present age Ecclesiastes has attracted the attention of thinkers. It was a favorite book of Frederick the Great, who referred to it as a Mirror of Princes."

The negativity of this book causes many to totally neglect and reject it, but we nee to reallize that both the positive and negative are an important part of life and reality that we need to pay attention to.Your battery will not work if you connect only the positive cable, for it demands the negative as well to function. If you are absolute positive person who will accept no place for the negative, you will be doing a lot of walking, for your car will never start until you compromise your absolute rejection of the negative and hook that negative cable up.

We need to be thankful for people who spot the negatives of life and refuse to be only positive. Should the engineer who sees a crack in the structure of the bridge be optimistic about it never being a problem, or should he report it to be inspected and repaired? Most bridge-crossers would be thankful if he was a pessimist about it and ordered it fixed.We need people in all walks of life who are negative about things that are risky and dangerous. They are the keys to survival in a fallen world.

2. Richard Eder (L.A. Times). "Many of you have heard the story of the many who lost his wallet at night and was searching

for

it under a street light. A passer-by stopped and asked what he was doing. “Looking for my wallet,” the

man replied, “I dropped it only a few moments ago.” Together they searched for some time, going to the

very edges of the light and then, finally, the one who was helping asked, “Where did you drop it?” to

which the man replied, “Over there” while pointing to some point outside of the reach of the street light.

“They why are you searching here?” the helper asked exasperated. “Because,” the man calmly

replied, “its dark over there and much easier to see things here in the light.”

The author of Ecclesiastes, in pointing to wisdom and meaning in life, realizes that the direction

he is pointing is not where most people are wanting to look. It is not so easily controlled. It is not where

one might expect to find it. So he chronicles for us a journey where he pursues wisdom, pursues life’s

meaning, by going down the paths that others have taken previously in their search."

3. Dr. Jerry Morrissey, "The whole book is a numerical composition, divided into

two parts 2:1-6:9 and 6: 10- 11:6, each consisting of 93 verses, flanked by a prologue

of 18 verses and an 18 verse epilogue, yielding 111 verses per part. In the strange

world of numerology the numbers, 18, 93, 111, 186, and 222, are all related to the

number 37.

4. Pastor Bob Leroe, "Ecclesiastes is perhaps the most puzzling and misunderstood

book of the Bible. It’s been called “the mystery book of the Old Testament” (Ray

Steadman). Few sermons are preached from its pages. We may wonder what it’s

doing in the Bible; it seems out of place. Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon,

who had ample opportunities to observe and experience life thoroughly. He wrote

this book after he had plunged into materialism, sensuality, even idolatry. He got

lost following his desires and saw his life evaporating into insignificance. ow

repentant and nearing the end of his days, he writes a philosophical book for

unbelievers, exposing the secular mind/worldview. The title of the book refers to an

“assembly”, Solomon’s students. He calls himself “the Teacher” and conveys the

logical and tragic outcome of regarding life as a cosmic accident. Solomon offers his

class only two options--a life of hopelessness, or trust in God."

5. GEORGE AARO BARTO , Ph.D.,

"The earliest commentaries on Ecclesiastes are probably rep-

resented in the Jewish Midrashim, the beginnings of which go

back to the period when the canonicity of the book was first fully

recognized, if not to a date even earlier. These works were com-

posed for the edification of congregations, and while the literal

sense of a passage was not ignored, if that sense was at all edifying,

or would not give offense by its unorthodox character, nevertheless

the greatest liberties were taken with the text when it seemed

necessary to find edification or orthodoxy in a passage which ob-

viously contained none. The general view of these Midrashim

was that Solomon wrote Qoheleth in his old age, when weary' of

life, to "expose the emptiness and vanity of all worldly pursuits

and carnal gratifications, and to show that the happiness of man

consists in fearing God and obeying his commands."

Meantime, among Christians, the book of Ecclesiastes was

being interpreted by similar methods. The earliest Christian

commentator on Qolieleth was Gregory Thaumaturgus, who died

in 270 A.D., whose Metaphrasis in Ecdesianten Solomonis gives

an interpretative paraphrase of the book. The genuineness of

this work has been questioned, some assigning it to Gregory

azianzen, but Harnack still assigns it to Thaumaturgus. {Ge-

schkhte drr altchristlicJien IMeratur, I, 430, and Chronologie,

II, 99.) Gregory regards Solomon as a i)roi:)het, holding that his

purpose was *'t() show that all the affairs and pursuits of man

which are undertaken in human things are vain and useless, in

order to lead us to the contemplation of heavenly things." Gregory

of yssa and Jerome followed in g<)(xl time with commentaries

on the book, and each pursued a similar strain. The allegorical

method was emi)l(n'ed in its most developed form, esi>ecially by

Jerome, who wrote his commentary to induce Basilica, a Roman

lady, to embrace the monastic life. According to him, the purpose

of the book is "to show the utter vanity of ever}* sublunary- enjoy-

ment, and hence the necessity of ])etaking one's self to an ascetic

life, devoted entirely to the service of GOD."

6. REV. AAEO AUGUSTUS MOEGA , M.A.,

THE book of Ecclesiastes is in the form of a philo-

sopliical Essay or Treatise, and in this respect it differs

from the other Sacred Writings. In it Solomon

demonstrates, first, that true happiness cannot be found

in any of the means or appUances of the present world,

owing to their uncertain and transitory nature; he

then proceeds to establish the immortality of the soul,

and a future judgment, by arguments based on the

confused spectacle of Wrong, Inequality, and Injustice

presented here on earth; and after delivering several

precepts, social, political, and religious, bearing on the

general welfare and happiness of mankind, he draws the con-

clusion that in the fear of God and the keeping of His command-

ments, or in other words, in a life regulated with constant

reference to a future state of existence and a final Account, true happiness consists..

He commences by asserting the vanity of all earthly things, viewed in themselves, and illustrates their monotony and endless recurrence by examples drawn from natural phenomena. For instance, the generations of man follow each other in constant succes-sion; they ply the same round of incessant toil, without the power of effecting any substantial change ; they cannot increase or diminish the bulk of the earth, although they may vary the surface of it, and thus they depart without having produced anything that could strictly be called new. The course of the elements is equally without novelty ; the winds and waters fulfil their appointed revolutions, and recommence them again and again; and in like manner human events are constantly being reproduced; so that it may be truly affirmed that man cannot emerge from his present sphere so as to produce any new development of it.

7. REV. GEORGE GRA VILLE BRADLEY, D.D. DEAN OF WESTMINISTER

In the first place, the study of the Book is beset with

' special difficulties, other and in some respects far greater

difficulties than those which cross the path, and tax the judg-

ment, of the reader of the Book of Job. Whatever may be

the occasional obscurities of portions of that book, its chief

current of thought runs, in the main, clear and transparent.

In Ecclesiastes the case is quite different. The book is in

many respects — not in one but in many — an enigma. It is

not only that some of the most important verses — sometimes

just those on which we would lay our hands as containing at

last the surest indications of its true aim, and of its highest

and most momentous teaching — are written in a language

which is, to us, so obscure that we dare not rely absolutely

on the meaning which we would fain attach to them. We

feel like those who, toiling up some Alpine height, either see

the pathway suddenly disappear, or must rest their feet on

a support that they feel may give way suddenly beneath

tbem. This is a difficulty which it shares in some, though

in a far less, degree, with some of the most striking portions

of the Book of Job. But quite apart from these, and from

other difficulties, in which I yet hope to interest you, two

problems meet us at its very threshold, which, in treating the

Book of Job, we can in one case easily answer, in the other

cheerfully put aside. In the first place, it is not merely the

obscurity of this or that verse which we find baffle us in

reading Ecclesiastes ; but when we ask the question which

seems the first and most important of all questions, viz. what

is the main design and purpose of the book, we are at once

bewildered by the multiplicity of answers. To some it has

presented itself as merely the sad outpouring of the deep

melancholy of a world-weary monarch, sated with all that

life can offer.

Others have found in it * a penitential dirge ;

the sad confession and recantation of a repentant Solomon,

reconciled at last to the God whom he had forgotten.

There are not a few who will tell you something quite

different. They will confidently assure you that its main

object was to prepare the way for Christ, by expressly teach-

ing the doctrine of a future life, and of a judgment beyond

the grave. A Christian Father, St. Jerome, was followed by

an army of commentators, who read in it a discourse on

the blessedness of an ascetic, and even of a monastic, life.

Others, on the other hand, will give you a very different

answer; they will tell you not merely that it contains

a protest against an enervating asceticism, but that it

breathes throughout the spirit of the merest scepticism, or of

utter indifferentism, or of simple epicureanism ; or that its

real undertone is that of a cynical materialism, or of a gloomy

fatalism, or of a still darker pessimism ; they will absolutely

deny its having any claim to rank as a religious book at all,

still less to take its place in the most sacred of all books.

Again, while some tell us that it is a genuin - record of the

age of Solomon, others see in it a philosophical treatise of

centuries later, saturated with Greek thought. To some it is

a political pamphlet; a satire, almost a lampoon, on ^me

Eastern government ; to others a handbook for courtiers ;

with some it ranks as a systematic treatise ; with others as

a drama, or dialogue, in which two or more voices answer

and refute each other ; to others it seems a collection, put

together almost at random, of various sayings ; to others

a strange soliloquy, full of cross currents and conflicting

eddies, now steeped in sadness, now commending enjoy-

ment, now pointing to the reign of law, now asserting the

supremacy of mere chance, preaching now a kosmos, now

' a chaos."

Those dreary

sentiments, those disjointed proverbs, those hollow wraiths

of unavailing consolation, those wearisome repetitions, those

unintelligible utterances, those terrible pictures of human

destinies, those snatches of startling and, as it might seem,

wholly irreligious teaching, those * hard sayings,' will gather

a fresh interest as we try to track them through their many

windings to their true sense and actual teaching. We shall see

in them, if we do so faithfully, no body of Christian doctrine

wrapped up in an unchristian form, but that which is at all

times one of the most moving of all spectacles — the human

spirit led to face in hours of gloom its relations towards the

world and towards its God — struggling with the same problems

that vex our souls, and feeling its way through a night of

darkness to some measure at least of light and knowledge.

We shall feel that we are listening to one of those of whom

our Saviour said that * they desired to see the things which

we see, and did not see them.'"

8. REV. CHARLES BRIDGES, M.A.,

The Author confesses that he has felt his measure of

difficulty as to some of the statements of this Book.

But the result of his inquiry into its Divine credentials

has been solidly satisfactory. The conclusion there-

fore was natural, that a Book that ' had God for its

Author,' must have ' truth, without any mixture of er-

ror, for its matter.'^ Some of its maxims have indeed

been too hastily supposed to countenance Epicurean

indulgence. ay — even Voltaire and his Monarch

disciple have dared to claim detached passages as fa-

vouring their sceptical philosophy. But ' all of them'

— as Mr. Scott observes — ' admit of a sound and use-

ful interpretation, when accurately investigated, and

when the general scope of the book is attended to.'^

If any difficulties still remain, as Lord Bacon remarks

— ' If they teach us nothing else, they will at least

teach us our own blindness.' Thus Pascal profoundly

remarks on the Scriptures — ' There is enough bright-

ness to illuminate the elect, and enough obscurity to

humble them. " All things work together for good "

to the elect ; even the obscurities of Scripture, which

these honour and reverence on account of that Divine

clearness and beauty, which they understand.' There

is, however, a wide difference between what appears

upon the surface, and what a thoughtful mind in a

prayerful spirit will open from the inner Scripture. It

is most important to study the Bible in the spirit of

the Bible — to exercise a critical habit in a spiritual

atmosphere. Prayer, faith, humility, diligence, will

bring rest and satisfaction to minds exercised in the

school of God. As an able preacher remarks — ' We

expect to find some difficulties in a revelation from a

Being like God to such a creature as man. We even

rejoice in these difficulties. They are the occasion of

our growth in grace. They exercise our humility.

They are like the leaves and flowers, of which the

crown of faith is woven. They remind us of our own

weakness and ignorance, and of Christ's power and

wisdom. They send us to Him and to the Gospel.'

Our last testimony on this anxious point we draw

from the highest school of instruction— the death-bed.

' We must acknowledge' — said the late Adolph Monod

— ' that in the beginning of the study of Scripture,

there are many difficulties, and much obscurity. Some

labour is necessary to dissipate them ; and the mind of

man is naturally slow and idle ; and he easily loses

courage, and is satisfied with reading over and over

again, without penetrating further than the surface ;

and he learns nothing new ; and the constant perusal

of the same thing causeth weariness, as if the word of

God was not interesting ; as if we could not find some

new instruction in it ; as if it were not inexhaustible

as God Himself. Let us ever' — ^he adds — ' beware of

thinking these difficulties insurmountable. "We must

give ourselves trouble. For here, as in every part of

the Christian life, God will have us to be labourers

with Himself ; and the knowledge of the Bible, and a

relish for the Bible, are the fruit and recompence of this

humble, sincere, and persevering study.'

9. MARK COPELA D, "MESSAGE...

1. The futility of life "under the sun" - cf. 1:2,14

a. A key word is "vanity" (occurs 35 times in 29 verses),

which means "futility, uselessness, nothingness"

b. A key phrase is "under the sun" (occurs 29 times in 27

verses), which suggests "from an earthly point of view"

-- The book illustrates the vanity of life when looked at

solely from an earthly perspective

2. The importance of serving God throughout life - cf. 11:9-12:1,

13-14

a. The meaning of life is not found in experiencing the things

of this world

b. The meaning of life is found in serving the Creator of this

world!

10. RAY STEDMA , "The book of Ecclesiastes, or "the Preacher," is unique in

scripture. There is no other book like it, because it is the only book in the Bible that

reflects a human, rather than a divine, point of view. This book is filled with error.

And yet it is wholly inspired. This may confuse some people, because many feel that

inspiration is a guarantee of truth. This is not necessarily so. Inspiration merely

guarantees accuracy from a particular point of view; if it is God's point of view it is

true; if it is man's point of view it may be true, and it may not. If it is the Devil's

point of view it may or may not be true, as well, but the Devil's ultimate end, of

course, is evil. Inspiration guarantees an accurate reflection of these various points

of view.

Therefore the Bible does have much error in it. Whenever false views of men are

quoted or set forth, the Bible is speaking error. Whenever Satan speaks, most of his

statements are in error, and even the truth that he uses is twisted and distorted, and

therefore is erroneous.

So it is quite possible to "prove" all kinds of utterly false things by quoting the

Bible. because in that sense the Bible is filled with error. But the Bible always points

out the error which it presents and makes it clear that it is error, as in the case with

this book. Because of its remarkable character Ecclesiastes is the most misused book

of the Bible. This is the favorite book of atheists and agnostics. And many cults love

to quote this book's erroneous viewpoints and give the impression that these are

scriptural, divine words of God concerning life.

But right away in its introduction this book is very careful to point out that what it

records is not divine truth. It presents only the human view of life. You'll find that

over and over, throughout the whole course of Ecclesiastes, one phrase is repeated

again and again: "under the sun," "under the sun." Everything is evaluated

according to appearances alone -- this is man's point of view of reality and is utterly

exclusive of divine revelation. As such, Ecclesiastes very accurately

summarizes what man thinks.

11. ROBERT BUCHA A , D.D., "As regards the period and circumstances in the

life of Solo-

mon in which this book was written, it contains within itself

internal evidence of the fact that it was written near the

close of its inspired author's career, and after divine grace had

raised him up from his grievous fall, and restored him once

more to the fear, the love, and the service of God. In his

earlier years, as is well known, he was eminent for his piety.

Even from his birth it is testified that " the Lord loved him,"

in token of which He sent the prophet athan to give him the

significant name of Jedidiah — that is, " Beloved of the Lord."

When, still young and tender, he succeeded, by divine aj^point-

ment, to the throne of the kingdom, we read of him that " He

loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father"

(1 Kings iii. 3). Scarcely had he entered on his regal office

when, along with a multitude of his people, he " went to the

high place that was at Gibeon," the tabernacle of the congrega-

tion of God ; and after offering burnt -offerings unto the Lord, he

earnestly besought Him, sajdng — " ow, Lord God, let thy

promise unto David my father be established, for thou hast

made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in

multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may

go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this

thy people that is so great?" (2 Chron. i. 9, 10). The Lord

had been pleased in a vision to invite him to ask whatever

he would desire to have ; and this was the petition of the

youthful king — '• I am but a little child," said he, in . a sjjirit

of beautiful humility : " I know not how to go out or come in.

And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast

chosen, a great people tliat cannot be numbered nor counted

for multitude. Give, therefore, thy servant an understanding

heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and

bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people 1" It

was in answer to this truly touching and memorable request

that "God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing,

and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked

riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies;

but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;

behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given

thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was

none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise

like unto thee. And I liave also given thee that which thou

hast not asked, both riches and honour: so that there shall

not be any of the kings like unto thee all thy days" (1 Kings

iii. 7-14).

And now a dark and mournful period of his history begins.

ot that his capital is less brilliant, or his court less crowded,

or his royal estate less glitteriug and gorgeous than before. In

all these respects he shines with only increasing splendour; but

the moral glory of the man and of his reign are passing away.

His most honoured guests and associates are not now the wise

and good, the virtuous and holy, but those who are lovers oi

pleasure more than lovers of God. Strange women and loose-

' living men are now his companions and friends, and they have

corrupted his heart, and led him away from the God of his

fathers. That temple which he had reared with so much care,

and dedicated with so much solemnity to the service of the one

Jehovah, is now forsaken for the altars of idolatry — for Ash-

toreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcora, the abomina-

tion of the Ammonites; for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab,

and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.

How has the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed !

Ichabod ! Ichabod ! — for the glory is departed !

In this new career on which the misguided king has entered,

it is evident from many unequivocal tokens that he is ill at

ease. His former serenity no longer sits upon his brow. Often

it is throbbing with the burning fever of intemperance, and

oftener still with the anguish of remorse. In the vain hope of

obtaining relief from this internal disquietude, his mind is ever

on the rack, in quest of new occupations or new pleasures. ow

he tears himself away from those base sensual indulgences to

which he has given way, and shuts himself up in his chamber

among his neglected books. Anon, growing weary of this soli-

tude and of these exhausting studies, he plunges anew into all

those degrading excesses which for the time he had laid aside,

until the very satiety and disgust which they speedily produce,

drive him once more away to seek his lost peace of mind in some

more hopeful pursuit. Sick of his luxurious palace, and of its

maddening pleasures, he hurries forth from the city to breathe

the freshness and to enjoy the repose of nature, and his old love

of nature's works returns. He sits him down beneath the cool

shade of its majestic trees, and regales him with the odours of

its fragrant flowers, and persuades himself that in this Elysium

his happiness will return. He will enlarge and beautify his

gardens, and store them with all that is rarest and fairest in the

vegetable kingdom, and in this innocent and delightful employ-

ment, health shall come back to his languid frame, and cheerful-

ness to his care-worn and desolate heart. In a word, he tries

every means of expelling the worm that is gnawing at his con-

science but one ; and he tries in vain. And were it not that

this book of Ecclesiastes has been handed down to us among

the Scriptures of Truth, we might have seemed to be shut up to

the mournful conclusion that he had gone to the grave in a state

of hopeless and final estrangement from God. But this book is

the cheering and decisive evidence that before his sun went

down, the clouds which for a season covered it had rolled away,

and tliat its setting was bright with the radiance of life and im-

mortality. TJiere can hardly be a doubt in the mind of any

one who carefully examines the question, and who places this

book side by side with that record of Solomon's personal history

which the first book of Kings and the second book of Chro-

nicles contain — that this book is the complement, so to speak,

of the historical narrative — that the one comes in where the

other ends — and that without it we should have lost the grandest

lessons which the life of Solomon was designed to teach.

If the previous sketch of its inspired author's history has at

all served its inteiided purpose, it can hardly have failed to

throw much light on the design with which the book of Eccle-

siastes was written. Read in the light of its connection with

his preceding life, its design becomes clear as day. Ancient

heathen moralists were wont to speculate much on what they

called the summum honum, or chief good of man. In their able,

and in many respects instructive and remarkable treatises, they

left the grand question still unresolved. But, guided by the

Spirit of God, and taught by his own terrible experience, the

king of Israel has expounded this mystery. He has taught us

infallibly what is " that good for the sons of men which they

should do under the heaven all the days of their life" (Eccles.

»/4i. 3). The summum honum, the chief good, is " to fear God and

to keep his commandments." The design of the book of Ecclesi-

astes is to illustrate and enforce this all-important truth ; and

never, perhaps, did any son of Adam occupy such a vantage-ground

for performing this great work as the son of David. Do the

wise men of this world object to the conclusion here pronounced,

that only one who could grapple with the deep things of science

and philosophy is competent to instruct them on such a theme

In respect even of natural knowledge and mental endowments,

Solomon was the wisest of men's sons. Do the men of culti-

vated taste and intellectual refinement contend that only those

who are capable of ai:»preciatiug the beauties of nature and the

graces of art, and the productions of literary genius, are entitled

to say whether happiness may not be found in earthly and

created things 1 In every one of these attainments Solomon

was the first man of his age : a poet, a naturalist, an assiduous

cultivator of the fine arts, eminent for every accomplisliment in

which the scholar or the man of taste can excel. Or, once

more, do the men of the world — the gay, joyous, pleasure-loving,

boon companions who laugh care away — or those whose wealth,

and rank, and power, place all sorts of enjoyment within their

reach, and at their command — do they think themselves entitled

to hold that no one who is a stranger to their favoured circle

can tell what elements of happiness it includes, and how much

it can do to furnish man with all that his heart can desire ? Of

that brilliant circle Solomon was the very centre and star. If

wit, or wine, or mirthful company, or song, or sensual indulgence,

could give man the contentment and happiness for which his

nature longs, Solomon was the man of all others that must have

had the fullest share of all those blessings. He is, therefore, by

their own confession, the very master at whose feet they ought

to sit, in order that they may listen to his experience, and learn

his decision. The Lord, in His mysterious providence, per-

mitted His own Jedidiah to forsake Him for a season, and to go

after other gods, that in His own time and way He might

bring the Wanderer back, to tell the men of all after-times, and

to tell it as one who had authority to speak, what he had found.

And this, at his return, is the sum of that truth which, in this

blessed book, he has given by inspiration to the world — that

without God, and away from God, all is vanity and vexation of

spirit.

11. CHRISTIA D. GI SBURG.,

"1475-1530. — So numerous and conflicting were the opinions

about this book in the fifteenth century, that E,. Isaac Aramah,

who was desirous of making himself master of the subject, was

perfectly astonished to find that both the ancient and more

modern commentators were so greatly divided. Some forcing

upon it a strange and far-fetched literal sense ; others., a philoso-

phical meaning .J too mysterious and profound to be understood ;

and others., again., interpreting it according to the Midrash., find

in it laws and statutes full of piety. The point in which all of

them have erred alike is., that they alter the sense of the booh into

palatable sentiment ; and yet not one of tliem has put such sense

into it as to be able to boast., with reason.^ that they have drawn

from this rock ivholesome food., or elicited sweetness from this flint

{i.e.., from this difficult book). Rejecting, therefore, all these

different views, R. Aramah came to the conclusion, that every

statement in this book is perfectly ijlain and consistent with ortho-

doxy., that it contains the sid}limest of all contemplations., and

teaches the highest order of heavenly wisdom. Rabbi A. was

therefore amazed how it could ever enter into the minds of com-

mentators to think that the sages, of blessed memory, wanted to

put such a book among the apocrypha, and that the only reason

why they left it in the canon was, that the first and last ivords of

it were consistent with the law.

" ow, it was not because thinking men found it difficult to

discover the good sense of it that the sages wanted to hide this

book, but for fear of the multitude, who waste the riches of the

law. But as it is the habit of these ignorant people to look

merely at the beginning and the end of a book, and these por-

tions unmistakeably contain the fear of God, therefore the wise

men at last determined not to hide it from these people."

1548. — As grammatical exegesis was comparatively little

pursued in the sixteenth centmy, the difficulties of Coheleth

occasioned no trouble, and the book was regarded by its com-

mentators as surpassing all other books of Scripture in heavenly

lessons. Thus Elisha Galicho, or Galiko, who flourished in the

second half of the sixteenth century,' tells us, in the preface to

his commentary on Coheleth —

Since all the pursuits of this world and its lusts cling to the creature in

consequence of his earthliness and desire, and the soul of man covets these

things, and is in danger of being inextricably ensnared by them, many

lessons are given in the Law, Prophets, and Hagiographa, to point out the

way to the tree of life. Hence both the earlier and latter sages carefully

composed encouragement and admonitions, parables and proverbs, to teach

man wisdom by moral sayings, the fear of God, and the fear of sin, making

hedges and fences for the benefit of the multitude. And Solomon excelled

all in his moral Proverbs, which are as numerous as the advantages which

accrue to man when he inclines his ears to them. ow, to surpass even

these, he wrote Coheleth, the whole of which, from beginning to end,

is perpetually turning round the same point, and that is, to expose the

vanity of all eartbly pursuits, and to teach man to know that his happiness

is no happiness at all, and that his wishes and desires are vain and delusive,

and will not bear examination ; that the great object of life in this world is

to attain to the perfection of the soul, and its immortality ; to acquire that

light which will shine in the light of the countenance of the Eternal King

in the world to come. This is the design of this holy book, which is a guide

wliereunto all must look.

1770. — A new era now commenced in Biblical exegesis, and

in Hebrew literature generally. The immortal Mendelssobn

was now directing the mispent Jewish intellect and zeal to the

proper study of the Word of God, in accordance with the literal

and grammatical sense. His first effort to this effect was the

publication of a Hebrew commentary on Coheleth, which

appeared, according to the Jewish chronology, in 5530, i. e.,

1770 of the Christian era.^

Mendelssohn, too, complains that " nearly all the commen-

tators who have preceded me have almost entirely failed in doing

justice to their task of interpretation .... I have not

found in one of them an interpretation adequate to the correct

explanation of the connection of the verses of the book ; but,

according to their method, nearly every verse is spoken sepa-

rately and unconnectedly ; and this would not be right in a

private and insignificant author, and much less in a wise king "

(p. 73). As to the design of the book, Mendelssohn thinks tJiat

Solomon wrote it to propound the doctrine of the immortality of the

soulj and the necessity of leading a cheerful and contented life; and

interspersed these cardinal points with lessons of minor importance^

such as worship^ politics^ domestic economy^ c&c.

1831. — In 1831 Moses Heinemann published a translation of

Coheleth, with brief but comprehensive notes. He too thinks

that this book contains a collection of diverse experience^ ohserva-

tions^ opinions^ truths,, and lessons of ivisdom, which Solomon

collected together (hence the name /l/Hp, collector or compiler),, to

shew that everlasting life is the sole end of our existence here,, and

that everything earthly and sensual is vain,, foolish,, and transi-

tory.^ This view of regarding the book as a collection of differ-

ent opinions, &c., has its origin in an anxiety to remove from

Solomon every obnoxious sentiment.

In the early part of the Christian era Coheleth seems not to

have been in great favour with the Fathers of the Church,

judging from the general silence which prevails about it m the

first" second, and a part of the third centuries. This is rather

ominous, as we should have expected that, from its shewing the

emptiness of all earthly things, this book would be welcomed by

the suffering followers of Christ, who had to lose all for their

Master's sake, and to take up their cross and follow Him.

Whether this silence is owing to the fact that Coheleth is

nowhere quoted in the ew Testament, or to the doubts which

existed in the minds of some respecting its canonicity, or to

some other cause, it is not easy to divine.

210-270. — However, in the first half of the third century,

the wonder-working Gregory (Thaumaturgus), who was born at

eocajsareia, in Cappadocia, at the beginning of the third century,

and died in 270, wrote a short metaphrase of Coheleth.' Con-

sidering that he was the pupil and convert of Origen, the father of

allegorical interpretation in the Greek Church, we are astonished

to find such a comparatively simple paraphrase. According to

Thaumaturgus, the design of the Preacher is to shew that all the

affairs and pursuits of man which are undertaken in human things

are vain and useless, in order to lead us to the contemplation of

heavenly things.

12. BY MI OS DEVI E, M.A. ,

"There are two books which stand at opposite extremes

in the Old Testament : The Song of Songs and Ecclesi-

astes. The old Rabbis used to shake their heads at the

Song of Songs. It was too human and happy, too

exuberant with the joy of life to suit their sober theology.

They only allowed that love story in the Bible on one

condition. AU human passion must be ignored. It

must be spiritualised as a mystic parable of the love

of God, just as later on it became Christianised as an'

allegory of the love of Christ for the Church. The Book

of Ecclesiastes was the other extreme. It was equally

objectionable, because it reflected the heart of man as

a chaos of gloom, and told the truth without gloss or

apology. So Ecclesiastes has T)een baptized both as an

orthodox Jew and a devout Christian. He was neither.

He was a man with a melancholy bias recording his

experience. On a broad view of inspiration we see that

there is room in the Bible for all phases of Ufe. The

Bible is a Hving book, because it is so true to Ufe. I am

not surprised to find in it both a song of songs and a

sigh of sighs. Men cry to God in many languages, and

God hears and understands.

There is an unmistakable note of joy in all the " still

sad music " of this book. " There is nothing better for

a man than that he should eat and drink and make his

soul enjoy good in his labour. It is the gift of God." ^

" Every man also to whom God hath given riches and

wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and

to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour ; this is

the gift of God." ^ " God makes him to'sing in the joy

of his heart." ^ " Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy,

and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for akeady

God has accepted thy works . . . enjoy life with the

wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy

vanity." ^ « Rejoice, yomig man, in thy youth, and

let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth." *

Ecclesiastes saw a silver lining to the cloud, because

amidst all the anomalies of life he clung to the beUef in

a moral government of the world."

Much

that is spoken in the earlier portion of the book is spoken

in order to be confuted, and its insufliciency, its ex-

aggerations, its one-sidedness, and its half-truths are

manifest in the light of the ultimate conclusion. Through

all these perplexities he goes on * sounding his dim and

perilous way,' with pitfalls on this side of him and bogs

on that, till he comes out at last upon the open way,

with firm ground under foot and a cl^ar sky overhead." ^

This is a tale of Pilgrim's Progress.

" Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter :

Fear God and keep His commandments : for this is

the whole (duty) of man." Such is the triumph of

Ecclesiastes. " To probe to the bottom the misery of

the world, to find nothing but chaos and unsolved

enigmas, to follow the logic of thought wherever it leads,

and yet suddenly to stop short of the obvious conclusion

that there is no God and no moral government of the

world at all, but instead, to fall back on the simple,

plain duties of rehgion," ^ this is the victory which has in-

stalled Ecclesiastes to a niche in our admiration and love.

In many a subtle question versed

He touch'd a jarring lyre at first

But ever strove to make it true :

Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds.

At last, he beat his music out.

And it harmonised with the strains of the sweet Psalmist

of Israel.

Ecclesiastes is the prodigal son of the Old Testament.

With a bold adventurous spirit he claimed the portion of

hfe which belonged to him. Leaving the shelter of the

ancestral roof, he journeyed into a " far country " —

read many books, sat at the feet of many masters, saw

hfe and death. He too, perhaps, may have " wasted

his substance with riotous living." Then came the day

of disenchantment. " When he had spent all, there

arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be

in want." He had come to the end of his intellectual

resources. ' Life had not fulfilled its promise. He saw

Perpetual emptiness ! unceasing change !

o code,

o master spirit, no determined road.^

The restlessness, the hunger of the heart remained.

When he came to himself the vision of early days awak-

ened his soul. He recalled* the melodies of home : " The

Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." ^ And he arose,

and came to his father. The weary traveller found rest

under the old roof.

13. DAVID RUSSELL SCOTT, M.A.

"But perhaps the question may be asked why this

voice of despondency, disappointment and defeat, of

misery and scepticism, this voice of the decadent is

allowed to utter itself in Holy Writ. As a matter of

fact Koheleth did not get within the bounds of Scripture

without difficulty. Jewish scholars debated his claim

to a place in the Sacred College of Holy Writers. But

they did elect him. And, whatever may have been

the reasons for their decision, we cannot grudge him

the honour nor complain that " in the great record of

the spiritual history of the chosen and typical race, a

place has been kept for the sigh of defeated hopes, for

the gloom of the soul vanquished by the sense of the

anomalies and mysteries of human life." True ; no

Christian can subscribe to his faith, which is to him

both incomplete and false ; but may not the presence

of a faith, incomplete and even false, in the Scriptures

be interpreted as a sign and symbol, as a kind of parable,

that our imperfect faiths and mistaken beliefs are for-

given ? A sceptical creed did not keep Koheleth out

of the Sacred Canon ; an imperfect faith will not keep

a man out of the Kingdom. God pardons false and

mistaken thinking as well as what we call our sins."

14. “The purpose of the book seems to be to show that self-gratification and successful

worldliness do not bring

satisfaction to the human heart. Life without a knowledge of and fellowship with God

is empty and meaningless.

Man has a destiny which calls for cooperation with God in some worthy enterprise,

and in this he finds abiding

peace of soul...” (H.I. Hester, The Heart Of Hebrew History, p.311).

15. “The basic theme of Qoheleth is the ultimate futility of a life based upon earthly

ambitions and desires. Any

world view which does not rise above the horizon of man himself is doomed to

meaninglessness and frustration.

To view personal happiness or enjoyment as life’s greatest good is sheer folly in view of

the transcendent value of God Himself as over against His created universe. Happiness

can

never be achieved by pursuing after it, since such a pursuit involves

the absurdity of self-deification... Transient mortals must realize that

they are mere creatures, and that they derive importance only from

their relationship to the almighty Creator... In other words Ecclesiastes

is really intended to be a tract for the conversion of the self-sufficient

individual; it compels him to discard his comfortable, self-flattering

illusions and face honestly the instability of all those materialistic props

on which he attempts to base his security...Only as one finds a new

meaning for life in surrendering to the sovereignty of God and faithful

obedience to His will in moral conduct can one find a valid principle

and goal for responsible human living.” (Zondervan Pictorial

Encyclopedia Of The Bible, Vol. 2, pp. 187-188).

16. A. H. Mc EILE, B.D. "A writer in the Spectator has aptly styled the book of

Koheleth "A Hebrew Journal intime" The fascination of it

arises from the fact that it advances no theories; it is not a

thesis or a study, it is not a sermon or a collection of moral

aphorisms. It is the outpouring of the mind of a rich Jew, who

has seen much of the sad side of life, and who is intensely in

earnest. But while he reveals his mind and character, he tells

little of his personal circumstances . He states that he was

wealthy, and able to provide for himself every possible luxury

(ii. 4-10). He seems to have lived in or near Jerusalem, for

he clearly implies that he was an eyewitness of facts which

occurred at the "holy place" (viii. 10). He must have been

an old man at the time of writing; not only because his

language seems to have lost the buoyancy of youth (for that

is a point on which different students of his book might think,

and have thought, differently), but because his feverish attempts

(i. 12 -ii. 11) to find the summum bonum of life in pleasure,

and in wisdom, cannot have been abandoned in a few years,

while they were now far enough in the past to be looked at as

by-gone memories. He had had experience not only of youth

but also of manhood s prime, (xi. 10). And apparently

he had lived long enough to find himself alone in the world,

without son or brother (iv. 8 : the following words seem to

shew that he is referring to himself). Lastly, he had had

private sorrows and disappointments. Here and there " one

of a thousand" he might find "a man," but he had never

found a woman who was worthy of her name ; which probably

means (to translate his bitter generalisation into facts) that his

life had been saddened by a woman, who had been "more

bitter than death," whose heart had been "snares and nets,

and her hands fetters" (vii. 26-28).

17. Charles R. Swindoll

Synopsis of Ecclesiastes

Who wrote it? Since the author didn’t give his name, but referred to himself only as

“the teacher” or “preacher” (Hebrew: Qoheleth, Greek: ekklesiastes), we cannot be

certain. However, most of the evidence suggests that King Solomon was the author.

We can conclude this because the writer identified himself as a son of David and

king over Israel in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 1:1, 12). He also said he was the wisest

person to rule Jerusalem (1:16), built extensive projects (2:4-6), and had great

wealth (2:7-8).

What is it? Ecclesiastes is probably best understood as a “journal” of Solomon’s

reflections on meaning and purpose from the world’s limited perspective. It is his

presentation of evidence and conclusions based on observations and experiences for

those who have neither the time nor the resources to take the journey themselves.

Where was it written? Solomon said repeatedly that he was king over Jerusalem in

Israel (1:1, 12), and this book was probably written there.

When was it written? Ecclesiastes was probably written about 925 BC, toward the

end of Solomon’s life. As an old man, Solomon wisely reflected on his journey

through life, including his drift away from and back to God.

Why was it written? While affirming a high view of God’s sovereignty and

humanity’s utter dependence on Him (Ecclesiastes 3:4), Ecclesiastes was written to

show that life apart from God is empty and meaningless. Verse 2:11 says, “Thus I

considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had

exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after the wind and there was no

profit under the sun.” Yet Solomon ended by saying, “The conclusion, when all has

been heard, is: fear God and keep his commandments” (12:13). While life apart

from God is frustrating, life with God and enjoying His gifts with thanksgiving can

be abundant, regardless of our daily circumstances.

19. F. CRAWFORD BURKITT.

This author has put the whole chapter in the form of poetry.

Bubble of bubbles 1 All things are a Bubble !

What is the use of all Man's toil and trouble ?

Year after year the Crop comes up and dies^

The Earth remains/ Mankind is only Stubble*

The rising Sun will set and rise once more;

The Wind goes roving round from Shore to

Shore,

From orth to South it goes, and round and

round/

And back again to where it was before*

All rivers run into the Sea we know.

And yet the Sea doth never overflow;

Back to the place from whence their Waters

came

By unknown Channels must the Rivers go*

The weary Round continues as begun,

The Eye sees naught effective to be done.

or does the Ear hear aught to satisfy —

There's nothing, nothing, ew under the Sun*

Something (they tell us) really ew at last !

Why, surely, it was known in Ages past;

The Memory has faded, that is all.

And all our Lore will vanish just as fast.

(EccL i 12-11 26)

I in Jerusalem was Israel's King;

I set my Mind to study everything

Under the Heavens, how God hath contrived

That grievous Care men to their work should

bring*

I saw what was accomplished everywhere,

And all was Bubble and a meal of Air;

That which comes short cannot be made enough,

And what grows crooked Man can not make fair

I told myself. More Wisdom I have gained

Than all that in Jerusalem have reigned;

Wisdom and Folly both proved empty Air,

The more I knew, the more my Mind was pained,

I said, Then Til put Pleasure to the Test,

And this was just a Bubble like the rest;

Laughter seemed foolish, pointless was my Play,

Even in my Cups I kept in mind my Quest.

For all my Gaiety was but a Phase,

Sought for Experience, to learn the ways

By which men seek to get themselves some

Good

While they fulfil the umber of their Days*

So I went on and built, and planted too.

Gardens of beauty, bright with every Hue,

Watered unfailingly and bowered with Trees —

The Paradise of Eden made anew.

I got me Slaves and Slavegirls, stores of Gold,

With Flocks and Herds above what can be told,

Till I became more splendid and more rich

Than any King before me was of old.

From nothing that I wanted I refrained,

And all the while my Wisdom still remained,

And I got Pleasure in my Work and Toil —

And that was just the Harvest that I gained.

The work itself that was so well begun

Was but a Spider's Web that I had spun,

aught but a Bubble and a meal of Air:

There's nothing to be Gained under the Sun.

I looked at what my Wisdom had prepared.

In which some Folly too had partly shared.

And when I thought upon my Heirs to be

I asked. Is Folly then with Wisdom paired ?

I saw that Wisdom is the better state

As Light is better than the Dark, its Mate;

The Wise Man's Eyes are in his Head, the

Fool

Walks in the Dark and recks not of his Fate.

But there's one Law no Wisdom can defy,

Though I be wise, I like the Fool must die;

What Gain will then to me my Wisdom bring ?

** This also is a Bubble ** was my Cry*

For Fools forget the wise Man who has died —

What am I saying ? Can it be denied

A time will come when All will be forgot.

The Fool and Wise together, side by side ?

And so I hated Life; it seemed a Curse,

All things under the Sun were so perverse.

All was a Bubble and a meal of Air,

And all my Wisdom had but made it worse.

14 ECCLESIASTES

All I had done and all I had to do

I hated leaving to o one knows Who.

One coming after me perhaps as Wise,

Perhaps a Fool — that was a Bubble, too !

For if a Man with wisdom toil for long.

And then his Work be fated to belong

To some one else who has not toiled, why this

Is one more Bubble, nay, a grievous Wrong !

For what has such a one his Profit in?

A weary Struggle all his Days have been.

Even in the ight liis Mind had little Rest,

And what is his Reward ? A Bubble thin !

Surely the Worker should enjoy his Fill;

It is not so: hath God, then* managed ill ?

For who can think the ancient Adage true

That '' God gives whom He chooses Craft and

Skill,

But to the Sinner He gives Care and Zest

To toil and work to feather his own est

For God to give to whom He chooses ? — ay,

This is a thinner Bubble than the rest.

Everything Is Meaningless

1 The words of the Teacher,

.son of David, king in Jerusalem:

1. GLE PEASE, "What is the point of so much pessimism and negativity in the

Bible? We need to realize that negative thinking does have some positive value. It

makes you realize that the values we often treasure to give meaning to our lives are

really not adequate at all in the ultimate scheme of things. People spend their lives

pursuing dreams and things only to learn in the end that they do not give ultimate

meaning. They all pass away, and if you do not have something greater than all of

your earthly dreams and possession, you have nothing. It is all vanity without some

ultimate value, and that is the point of all the pessimism of Solomon. He had it all as

far as the world was concerned, but he and all he had is long gone. Had he no

relationship to God, it would have all been of no value at all. He is telling us that to

have it all is not enough to give life meaning and ultimate happiness. We need the

spiritual and eternal values that last or it is all dust in the wind.

Meaninglessness is a major malady of the modern man's mind. The magnitude of

this meaningless mania is monumental. This is the cause for all of the meaningless

drinking to excess, and all of the drug abuse, and all of the folly of sexual abuse, and

all of the crazy things peope will do to try and force happiness into their lives.

Masses of young healthy people kill themselves evey year because they cannot find

anything that give their lives meaning. A study of one hundred Harvard University

alumni revealed that after twenty years they had achieved goals of great success and

wealth, but the majority confessed in being caught in a feeling of futility in spite of it

all. Success is not the same thing as meaning. Only meaning gives people true

success and happiness, and without the ultimate and the spiritual there can be no

meaning that never ends. All ends without that which never ends, and so we need

the spiritual and eternal to really have meaning in our lives. The rich young ruler

had it all, but he knew he needed more than things and success, and so he came

asking Jesus, "What must I do to be saved." He did not like the answer and went

back to his meaningless life, and so it is with those who refuse the meaning of the

eternal that God has provided in His Son.

Solomon was one of the few men in history who could fulfill all the fantasies of life

that he records. It is easy for the poor and average person to say it is no big deal to

have it all in terms of wealth, power and glory. They lack credibility, but Solomon

actuall had it all, and for him to say it just does not cut it as the ultimate goal of life,

is to have complete credibility. He is the perfect example of one who can say that all

men dream of having is vanity, for he actuall had it all. He experienced the reality of

the negativity he writes about. Most people still dream that getting more and more

of things, power and honor will satisfy their being forever, but that is only because

they have never reached that goal yet, and so it is always appealing. Solomon had

reached the ultimate in human achievement, and he knew is was not the answer.

Warning signs are negative, for they are telling you what not to do, but their

purpose is positive, for they are designed to protect you from injury or even death.

Solomon is so negative and pessimistic as a warning to all people not to pursue

worldly goals as the chief end of their lives, for to do so is not wise, but the worst

folly of all. Don't focus on anthing under the sun as your ultimate goal, but look

beyond the sun, and set your affections on things above where God dwells. Knowing

what is not the way to go saves a lot to time and effort, and Solomon tells us in this

book a good many ways not to go to be ultimately wise and successful in living a life

pleasing to God. He traveled all the wrong roads himself, and he found them to be

dead ends. If we pay attention to him we will not have to learn the hard way, but

benefit from his experience. All of God's gifts are finally worthless without God.

Solomon drank from all the rivers of pleasure available to mankind, but they could

never quench his thirst apart from the river of life provided by our Lord Jesus

Christ. Even when we have life in Christ we still need to recognize the value of the

negative and pessimistic view of life. It is part of a positive perspective. The engineer

who sees cracks in the structure of the bridge out not to be optimistic and think it

will hold up okay, and so I will ignore it and not report it. He should be pessimistic

believing that it could lead to the death of many people, and, therefore, get it

reported to those who can fix it. We need to be negative and pessimistic about all

that is dangerous to life and health. You need to be pessimistic about how you look

when you get up every morning, and go look in the mirror and make something

more presentable out of the mess you see. If you do not do so, nobody is going to be

very positive about you that day. Like batteries we need both a positive and a

negative to be whole and properly functioning.We are to weep with those who weep

as well as rejoice with those who rejoice. This book is a reminder that we need to be

both negative and positive to be complete. In much of this book Solomon is an

expert in gloomology, which is the science of being blind to all but the negative. But

even a skilled gloomologist can see that it is futile to be always negative, and so

Solomon comes to a very hopeful and positive conclusion, and even some positive

perspectives along the way.

The first negative thinking in the Bible is that of God in Gen. 2:18 where he says, "It

is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." God saw a

negative reality and was motivated to correct it. You have to see and determine a

negative in order to be motivated to do something about it. It is people who see bad

things who do good things to make a difference so that bad things do not dominate.

The absolute positive thinker would say it was a perfect world and nothing need be

done. All will be okay forever. But God saw something lacking even in his almost

perfect world and it was his spying of that one negative reality that changed the

history of the world. Believers need to see the negative in order to change it just as

God did.

God's great love for man was based on his pessimism about man being able to save

himself from his sin and sinful nature. Had he been a positive thinker only and said

it will all work out some how if we just give it time, we would all be lost forever. God

knew better because he was a pessimist about man. He knew man could only be

saved if he had a Savior who could do for him what he could never do for himself.

Thank God for his negative thinking that led him to provide a way by which man

could have his sins atoned for by Christ. J. Gresham Machen the great theologian

said, "...the deepest pessimism is the starting point of Christianity." He point out

that all other schemes of salvation start with optimism. They believe man can work

out his salvation without God. Humanism says man can be his own savior, for they

are optimists where God is a pesimist.

Positive pessimism is also the foundation of the freedoms and protections we have in

America from the abuse of power. Our government is based on checks and balances

that says not one group or person can have total power, for it is known that human

natue cannot have total power and not abuse it. This pessimism keep our country

free from dictatorship and tyranny that people have had to suffer all through

history all over the world.

Pastor Ovidiu Radulescu wrote, "Are you a pessimist or an optimist? Maybe the

person who sit closest to you, and who know you the best, can answer the best. one

of us like to be labeling this…a pessimist, right? And yet I discovered both, optimist

and pessimist are necessary to make the world that we live in, a better place, both of

them. The optimist invents the airplane ( I can fly, you’ll see!…), and the pessimist

invents the parachute… You know, this things are together, I don’t want one

without other. The optimist said: “My cup runs over, what a blessing!” The

pessimist said “My cup runs over: what a mess!” We need both… And you know:

most times the pessimist and the optimist are right. Both of them are right. The

difference is that the optimist tries to say: is a lot more enjoyment in life with less

pain. That seems to be the basic message of Ecclesiastic.

Solomon puts his title as preacher before king because he has a message from God

to share with the world. Ecclesiastes is the Latin form of the Greek word for

preacher. Morgan and others like to call him the debater instead. He is a hard

preacher to understand sometimes, and if we sat in a church listening to him we

might have a problem staying awake. He is a king, however, and commands our

attention. Joseph Parker wrote, "It is no anonymous writer that asks us to pause on

the road of life, but a king, grand in all kinglilness, who ask us to sit down and listen

to his tale of personal experience. The opportunity is a grand one, and sholuld be

seized with avidity by all earnest students."

1B. CHARLES BRIDGES, "The Preacher^s ordinary course combined oral and

written instruction. "He taught the people knowl-

edge ; and that which was written was upright, even

words of truth," (chap. xii. 9, 10.) His oral teaching

was wondrously diversified in every track of science.

' He was the encyclopaedia of that early age.' (1 Kings,

iv. 30-33.) From all nations around, and from all *

ranks, they flocked to hear his wisdom. (lb. 34.)

Our Lord reads us a lesson of conviction from one of

these illustrious strangers : " The queen of the south

shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and

shall condemn it ; for she came from the uttermost

parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and,

behold, a greater than Solomon is here." (lb. x. Matt,

xii. 42.)

At his last period of life the Preacher laboured with

unwearied devotedness, to repair the dishonour to God

from his evil example. " He still taught the people

knowledge, and sought to find out acceptable words."

(Chap. xii. 9, 10.) Perhaps this office, as with restored

Peter in after days, was the seal of his restoration.

" When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Feed my sheep." (Luke, xxii. 32 ; John, xii. 15-17.)

But however his vast stores of wisdom may have fit-

ted him for his work, the school of experience furnish-

ed a far higher qualification. His main subject is the

utter vanity of earthly show, and the substantial

happiness of the enjoyment and service of God ; and

who could touch these points with such sensibility and

demonstration, as he, who had so grossly " committed

the two evils — having forsaken the fountain of living

waters, and hewn out to himself cisterns, broken cis-

terns, that could hold no water ?"^ (Jer. ii. 13.)

Most poignantly would he witness to the '' evil and

bitterness" (lb. 19,) of this way of folly. (Jer. ii. 13,

19.)

The Preacher^s parentage also added weight to his

Instructions — The Son of David/ How much di(J he

owe to his godly and affectionate counsel ! ^ Indeed

he stands out as a bright illustration of his own con-

fidence, that the " trained child," though for a while —

perhaps a long while — he may be a wanderer from the

path, yet, when he is old — in his last days — he shall

not depart from it." (Prov. xxii. 6.) Let God be

honoured in the practical exercise of faith, and his

promise will be made good in his own most fitting

time — " I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after

thee." 3

2. BAR ES, "Preacher - literally, Convener. No one English word represents

the Hebrew קהלתקהלתקהלתקהלת qôqôqôqôhelethhelethhelethheleth adequately. Though capable, according to Hebrew usage, of being applied to men in office, it is strictly a feminine participle, and describes a person in the act of calling together an assembly of people as if with the intention of addressing them. The word thus understood refers us to the action of Wisdom personified Pro_1:20; Pro_8:8. In Proverbs and here, Solomon seems to support two characters, speaking sometimes in the third person as Wisdom instructing the assembled people, at other times in the first person. So our Lord speaks of Himself (compare Luk_11:49 with Mat_23:34) as Wisdom, and as desiring Luk_13:34 to gather the people together for instruction; It is unfortunate that the word “Preacher” does not bring this personification before English minds, but a different idea.

3. CLARKE, "The words of the Preacher - Literally, “The words of Choheleth, son of David, king of Jerusalem.” But the Targum explains it thus: “The words of the prophecy, which Choheleth prophesied; the same is Solomon, son of David the king, who was in Jerusalem. For when Solomon, king of Israel, saw by the spirit of prophecy that the kingdom of Rehoboam his son was about to be divided with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; and the house of the sanctuary was about to be destroyed, and the people of Israel sent into captivity; he said in his word - Vanity of vanities is all that I have

labored, and David my father; they are altogether vanity.” The word קהלתקהלתקהלתקהלת

KohelethKohelethKohelethKoheleth is a feminine noun, from the root קהלקהלקהלקהל kahalkahalkahalkahal, to collect, gather together, assemble; and means, she who assembles or collects a congregation; translated by the Septuagint, ekklhsiasthv, a public speaker, a speaker in an assembly; and hence translated by us a preacher. In my old MS. Bible it is explained thus: a talker to the peple; or togyder cleping.

4. GILL, "The words of the preacher,.... Or the preacher's sermon. The whole book is one continued discourse, and an excellent one it is; consisting not of mere words, but of solid matter; of things of the greatest importance,

clothed with words apt and acceptable, which the preacher sought out, Ecc_12:10. The Targum is,

"the words of the prophecy, which the preacher, who is Solomon, prophesied.''

According to which this book is prophetic; and so it interprets it, and owns it to be Solomon's. The word "Koheleth", rendered "preacher", is by some taken to be a proper name of Solomon; who, besides the name of Solomon, his parents gave him, and Jedidiah, as the Lord called him, had the name of Koheleth; nay, the Jews say (i), he had seven names, and to these three add four more, Agur, Jake, Ithiel, and Lemuel; the word by many is left untranslated (k); but it seems rather to be an appellative, and is by some rendered "gathered", or the "soul gathered" (l). Solomon had apostatized from the church and people of God, and had followed idols; but now was brought back by repentance, and was gathered into the fold, from whence he had strayed as a lost sheep; and therefore chooses to call himself by this name, when he preached his recantation sermon, as this book may be said to be. Others rather render it, "the gatherer" (m); and was so called, as the Jewish writers say (n), either because he gathered and got much wisdom, as it is certain he did; or because he gathered much people from all parts, to hear his wisdom, 1Ki_4:34; in which he was a type of Christ, Gen_49:10; or this discourse of his was delivered in a large congregation, got together for that purpose; as he gathered and assembled together the heads and chief of the people, at the dedication of the temple, 1Ki_8:1; so he might call them together to hear the retraction he made of his sins and errors, and repentance for them: and this might justly entitle him to the character of a "preacher", as we render it, an office of great honour, as well as of great importance to the souls of men; which Solomon, though a king, did not disdain to appear in; as David his father before him, and Noah before him, the father, king, and governor of the new world, Psa_34:11. The word used is in the feminine gender, as ministers of the Gospel are sometimes expressed by a word of the like kind; and are called maidens, Psa_68:11; to denote their virgin purity, and uncorruptness in doctrine and conversation: and here some respect may be had to Wisdom, or Christ, frequently spoken of by Solomon, as a woman, and who now spoke by him; which is a much better reason for the use of the word than his effeminacy, which his sin or his old age had brought him to. The word "soul" may be supplied, as by some, and be rendered, "the preaching soul" (o); since, no doubt, he performed his work as such with all his heart and soul. He further describes himself by his descent,

the son of David; which he mentions either as an honour to him, that he was the son of so great, so wise, so holy, and good a man; or as an aggravation of his fall, that being the descendant of such a person, and having had so religious an education, and so good an example before him, and yet should sin so foully as he had done; and it might also encourage him, that he had interest in the sure mercies of David, and in the promises made to him, that when his children sinned, they should be chastised, yet his lovingkindness and covenant should not depart from them.

King of Jerusalem; not of Jerusalem only, but of all Israel, for as yet no division was made; see Ecc_1:12. In Jerusalem, the city of Wisdom, as Jarchi observes, where many wise and good men dwelt, as well as it was the metropolis of the nation; and, which was more, it was the city where the temple stood, and where the worship of God was performed, and his priests ministered, and his people served him; and yet he, their king, that should have set them a better example, fell into idolatry!

5. HE RY, "Here is, I. An account of the penman of this book; it was Solomon, for no other son of David was king of Jerusalem; but he conceals his name Solomon, peaceable, because by his sin he had brought trouble upon himself and his kingdom, had broken his peace with God and lost the peace of his conscience, and therefore was no more worthy of that name.

Call me not Solomon, call me MarahMarahMarahMarah, for, behold, for peace I had great bitterness. But he calls himself,

1. The preacher, which intimates his present character. He is KohelethKohelethKohelethKoheleth,which comes from a word which signifies to gather; but it is of a feminine termination, by which perhaps Solomon intends to upbraid himself with his effeminacy, which contributed more than any thing to his apostasy; for it was to please his wives that he set up idols, Neh_13:26. Or the word soul

must be understood, and so KohelethKohelethKohelethKoheleth is,

(1.) A penitent soul, or one gathered, one that had rambled and gone astray like a lost sheep, but was now reduced, gathered in from his wanderings, gathered home to his duty, and come at length to himself. The spirit that was dissipated after a thousand vanities is now collected and made to centre in God. Divine grace can make great sinners great converts, and renew even those to repentance who, after they had known the way of righteousness, turned aside from it, and heal their backslidings, though it is a difficult case. It is only the penitent soul that God will accept, the heart that is broken, not the head that is bowed down like a bulrush only for a day, David's repentance, not Ahab's. And it is only the gathered soul that is the penitent soul, that comes back from its by-paths, that no longer scatters its way to the strangers (Jer_3:13), but is united to fear God's name. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and therefore we have here the words of the penitent, and those published. If eminent professors of religion fall into gross sin, they are concerned, for the honour of God and the repairing of the damage they have done to his kingdom, openly to testify their repentance, that the antidote may be administered as extensively as the poison.

(2.) A preaching soul, or one gathering. Being himself gathered to the congregation of saints, out of which he had by his sin thrown himself, and being reconciled to the church, he endeavours to gather others to it that had gone astray like him, and perhaps were led astray by his example. He that has done any thing to seduce his brother ought to do all he can to restore him. Perhaps Solomon called together a congregation of his people, as he had done at the dedication of the temple (1Ki_8:2), so now at the rededicating of himself. In that assembly he presided as the people's mouth

to God in prayer (Ecc_1:12); in this as God's mouth to them in preaching. God by his Spirit made him a preacher, in token of his being reconciled to him; a commission is a tacit pardon. Christ sufficiently testifies his forgiving Peter by committing his lambs and sheep to his trust. Observe, Penitents should be preachers; those that have taken warning themselves to turn and live should give warning to others not to go on and die. When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren. Preachers must be preaching souls,for that only is likely to reach to the heart that comes from the heart. Paul served God with his spirit in the gospel of his Son, Rom_1:9.

2. The son of David. His taking this title intimates, (1.) That he looked upon it as a great honour to be the son of so good a man, and valued himself very much upon it. (2.) That he also looked upon it as a great aggravation of his sin that he had such a father, who had given him a good education and put up many a good prayer for him; it cuts him to the heart to think that he should be a blemish and disgrace to the name and family of such a one as David. It aggravated the sin of Jehoiakim that he was the son of Josiah, Jer_22:15-17. (3.) That his being the son of David encouraged him to repent and hope for mercy, for David had fallen into sin, by which he should have been warned not to sin, but was not; but David repented, and therein he took example from him and found mercy as he did. Yet this was not all; he was that son of David concerning whom God had said that though he would chasten his transgression with the rod, yet he would not break his covenant with him, Psa_89:34. Christ, the great preacher, was the Son of David.

3. King of Jerusalem. This he mentions, (1.) As that which was a very great aggravation of his sin. He was a king. God had done much for him, in raising him to the throne, and yet he had so ill requited him; his dignity made the bad example and influence of his sin the more dangerous, and many would follow his pernicious ways; especially as he was king of Jerusalem, the holy city, where God's temple was, and of his own building too, where the priests, the Lord's ministers, were, and his prophets who had taught him better things. (2.) As that which might give some advantage to what he wrote, for where the word of a king is there is power. He thought it no disparagement to him, as a king, to be a preacher; but the people would regard him the more as a preacher because he was a king. If men of honour would lay out themselves to do good, what a great deal of good might they do! Solomon looked as great in the pulpit, preaching the vanity of the world, as in his throne of ivory, judging.

The Chaldee-paraphrase (which, in this book, makes very large additions to the text, or comments upon it, all along) gives this account of Solomon's writing this book, That by the spirit of prophecy he foresaw the revolt of the ten tribes from his son, and, in process of time, the destruction of Jerusalem and the house of the sanctuary, and the captivity of the people, in the foresight of which he said, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity; and to that he applies many passages in this book.

6. JAMISO , "the Preacher — and Convener of assemblies for the purpose.

See on Introduction. KohelethKohelethKohelethKoheleth in Hebrew, a symbolical name for Solomon,and of Heavenly Wisdom speaking through and identified with him. Ecc_

1:12 shows that “king of Jerusalem” is in apposition, not with “David,” but “Preacher.”

of Jerusalem — rather, “in Jerusalem,” for it was merely his metropolis, not his whole kingdom.

7. K&D, "The title, Ecc_1:1, The words of Koheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem, has been already explained in the Introduction. The verse, which does not admit of being properly halved, is rightly divided by “son of David” by the accent Zakef; for the apposition, “king in Jerusalem,” does not belong to “David,” but to “Koheleth.” In several similar cases, such as Eze_1:3, the accentuation leaves the designation of the oppositional genitive undefined; in Gen_10:21 it proceeds on an erroneous supposition; it is rightly defined in Amo_1:1, for example, as in the passage before us. That “king” is without the article, is explained from this, that it is determined by “in Jerusalem,” as elsewhere by “of Israel” (“Judah”). The expression (cf. 2Ki_14:23) is singular.

8. PASTOR A DREW CHA , " Ray Stedman rightly calls this book “The Inspired

Book of Error.” But how can God’s book, the Bible, support error, and also be

accepted as inspired, truthful and real then? Listen to Stedman’s explanation:

There is no other book like it, because it is the only book in the Bible that reflects a

human, rather than divine, point of view. This book is filled with error. And yet it is

wholly inspired. This may confuse people, because many feel that inspiration is a

guarantee of truth. This is not necessarily so. Inspiration merely guarantees

accuracy from a particular point of view; if it is God’s point of view.

WHY IS THIS A ERRO EOUS BUT I SPIRED BOOK?

I SPIRATIO DOES OT MEA EVERY WORD I THE BIBLE IS TRUE

“These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son…”(V.1) Very quickly, we

know these words are of a human. It contains the observation from a man’s point of

view, not from God’s but a man’s. This man is, according to tradition and from the

data in the book, Solomon, King David’s son. This book was written when he was

already quite old, having experienced life and tried out all sorts of things and

approaches to life. He certainly had the means and the opportunity to experienced

what he wrote he experienced. So what he wrote was from his observation of life…

Apparently he had turned his heart away from God as recorded in 1 Kings 11:4,6

( IV) “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his

heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father

had been… So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the

LORD completely, as David his father had done.”

Furthermore, there is no strong “Thus saith the Lord” recorded in the book. Let us

be aware that the Bible also records man’s point of view i.e. his speeches too– may

be true may not be, also speeches of the devil too. So inspiration guarantees only an

accurate reflection of the views recorded by those who made it. We know there are

false views that are quoted such as speeches of Job’s friends and Satan’s twisting of

God’s Word is recorded such as his speech to Eve, “You will surely not die”

(Gen.3:4) in direct contradiction and twisting of “for when you eat of it you will

surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Furthermore, we know of countless cults and anti-God

movements that have arose out of misquoting and using them as “proofs” for

erroneous teaching as they wrench Scripture texts out of it divinely inspired context

and all you’ll get is heresy. In fact according to Stedman this book is the favorite of

atheists and skeptics because it contains lots of support for humanistic ideas. Thus,

though inspired these words of Ecclesiastes may be, it is no guarantee that those are

true words, in fact quite the opposite."

9. RAY STEDMA , "Unfortunately, the translators here refer to Solomon as "the

Preacher," and I am sorry they used that term as it makes the book sound a little

preachy at the beginning. On reading that second verse it would be so easy to affect

a "stained-glass" voice. In a modern audience this, of course, would turn everybody

off. The word translated preacher is the Hebrew word Qoheleth, which really means

"the one who gathers, assembles, or collects things." This is an apt title for the

author of this book, who has examined and then collected together the philosophies

by which people live. But I think a more accurate English translation would be "the

Searcher." Here is a searching mind that has looked over all of life and seen what is

behind people's actions. Searcher is the word that I am going to use wherever

preacher occurs, because the writer is not really a preacher or proclaimer, but a

searcher.

This is indeed a search, and if you are concerned about what the Searcher

discovered, he tells us. You do not have to read the last chapter to find out the

results of his search, because he puts it right here in verse 2: "Vanity of vanities" —

that is what he found. Vanity here does not mean "pride in appearance." Perhaps

some people spend too much time in front of the mirror in the morning, admiring

themselves a little. We call that vanity, pride of face, but that is not what this

Searcher is talking about. The word here, in the original, means "emptiness, futility,

meaninglessness, blahness."

othing in itself; the Searcher claims, will satisfy. o thing, no pleasure, no

relationship, nothing he found had enduring value in life. Everyone has seized on

one or another of these philosophies, these views of life, and tries to make it satisfy

him or her. But according to this Searcher, who has gone through it all, nothing will

work. When he says, "Vanity of vanities, emptiness of emptiness," that is the

Hebrew way of declaring the superlative. There is nothing emptier, this man

concludes, than life.

2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"

says the Teacher.

"Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless."

Life is a jest, and all things shew it ;

I thought so once, and now I know it.'

1. GLE PEASE, Solomon says all is meaningless, and sometimes Christians say

everything is meaningful, and there is a reason for everything, as is everything is

this fallen world has a purpose. This means that nothing is meaningless, and so you

have both extremes of thought, and neither extreme will hold water when given any

depth of thought. The only truly Biblical view of reality is that some things are

meaningless, and some are meaningful. It is not just Solomon, but God makes clear

in other parts of his revealed will that there is much that is meaningless. The word

here for meaningless and vanity is used in the following places:

Deut. 32:21, I kings 16:13, 26, II kings 17:15, Ps. 4:2, 10:7, 12:2, 94:11, Isa. 41:29,

44:9, 59:4, Jer. 2:5. In these texts God makes it clear that there is much in life,

especially the life of disobedience, that is vain and meaningless. It is just not true to

Scripture or reality that everything happens for a reason. Much is pure folly due to

the sinfulness of man and his meaningless pursuits. If everything was meaningful

and a part of God's plan, then all evil would be good, for it would be a part of God's

plan. It is not, and that is why we are to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is

in heaven. So much is not God's will on earth. All evil is not God's plan, but the

enemy of his plan. When we sin and disobey God's will we are not following his

plan, but defying his plan. All the folly and sin in the Bible and in every day life is

not because God has a reason for it as if it was a part of his plan. God will achieve

his end in spite of the evil of the world, but evil is not his plan.

Everything has a cause, but not a reason. To say there is a reason is to imply that it

is part of a plan, and this just makes all the evil and folly of the world which God

condemns and judges men for, a part of his plan, thus, making God the author of all

evil and folly. obody wants to believe this and release Satan,demons, and all the

evil works of human choices as the real culprits behind this fallen world. Why not

face the realilty that sin and evil are the enemy that God hates, and why he

commands us to avoid it to be pleasing to Him. The optimism that says everything

happens for a reason is a form of blasphemy, for it makes God the author of all he

hates and condemns. In this verse Solomon is just going to the other extreme, which

is also insane, and denies that God has a plan at all, and that much in the world and

life is very meaningful and purposeful. The truly wise person will avoid both

heresies. This, of course, is not Solomon's final view, but only how he feels about his

life of pleasure without God. He is starting from the bottom and working himself to

the top. As somone wrote, "A life of nothing,nothing worth; From that first nothing

ere our birth; To that last nothing under earth."

It is valid for a Christian to be negative and pessimistic at times, but the over all

perspective of the believer is to be optimistic and positive. An unknown poet put it-

"How stupid is life?" said the mole.

"This earth is a dull dirty hole.

I eat, I dig and I store,

But I find it all a bore."

The larks sang high in the blue,

"How sweet is the morning dew.

How clear the brooks, how fair the flowers.

I rejoice in this world of ours."

Which would you be of the two?

I side with the lark, don’t you?

The truth is everything on earth is truly meaningless w/o God. As Paul said:

“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage

SO THAT I MAY HAVE CHRIST” Phil.3:8 ( LT).

Remember this…

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about

the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless (1

Cor.15:58, LT).

1B. DR. DAVE COLLI GS, "Church, we want to look at the reality of life without

rose colored glasses on. Life is absurd. Ecclesiastes, a little book in the Old

Testament, speaks to that absurdity. I believe if we can understand the message of

Ecclesiastes, we will be more equipped to live quality lives at the beginning of this

21st century. Let us look now in Ecclesiastes; these are the words of the teacher, the

son of David, king in Jerusalem. If you are using the International Version, chapter

one verse two says "meaningless;" if you are using some of the other versions, it says

"vanity," and I am going to argue that both of these are poor translations of the

Hebrew word. I am going to translate this word as absurd. "Absurd says the

teacher, utterly absurd, everything is absurd.

Absurd means "unreasonable and inharmonious." He is saying life is unreasonable.

Do not think that you could ever create a syllogism that says premise one and

premise two always equal premise three and live life that way, because life does not

work that way. Solomon is not saying that life is a stupid farce by a mean God. He is

saying life is absurd. You can not make one and one equal two in human

relationships. Life is not a mathematical formula. Life can not be run through the

computer to spit out all the right answers, and if you only live by those right

answers, you will be happy, wealthy, healthy and popular. Life is absurd. It is

unreasonable and inharmonious. Some of our marriages would do a hundred

percent better if we did not expect everyday to be like a perfect day that comes to us

once in a while. Maybe the perfect day is the exception, and the normal day is the

normal day. To be unhappy that everyday is not perfect is an unrealistic expectation

of life. Maybe some of you would be happier in your work if you did not expect

every day to be the top day of your career. Maybe you could understand that there

are some days that are diamonds and some days that are stone. That is the reality of

life.

The thesis of this study is the unreasonableness and the inharmonious nature of life

and how to live well if you accept that as the reality of life. You can not live well if

you think life is always fair and reasonable. You can not live well if you expect life

to always be harmonious and beautiful. You can live well if you accept that life is

sometimes unreasonable, unfair, and often inharmonious; and because that is the

reality of life, I will commit myself to a certain behavior without expectation for it to

produce perfect results. "What does a man gain from all his labor at which he toils

under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

Life is absurd because the workshop remains while the craftsman profits very little

from his labor and passes away quickly."

1C. Pastor Edward Frey, "Meaningless. The original idea behind that word is

“breath.” The idea becomes very clear on a cold day, when we see our warm breath,

only to watch it vanish. That is an accurate picture of life on earth. Behind all the

hustle and bustle, the sparkle and shine, lies an existence that is empty and fleeting.

This is hard to accept because we want a piece of the eternal right now. Deep down

inside all of us there is the desire to obtain paradise. So we grasp at thin air in the

hopes of catching something that will last.

And so off we run, searching for more. We shop, we purchase, we stockpile, and we

hoard away all sorts of things. And why? Deep down we’re trying to convince

ourselves that our lives are meaningful. Have you ever taken a look in your garage

or your attic? I believe the average American’s garage is proof of Solomon’s

observation: Everything is meaningless. ow, there might be a few items in there

that mean something at the moment because they are important at that time. For

example, the lawnmower, the bicycle, the car (if you can fit it in there), are generally

meaningful things. Then there’s all that stuff, which when you look at it you might

ask, what’s the meaning of all this? Then we get frustrated because we have all these

things, but really don’t know what to make of it all. What once was so important

often turns into a meaningless memento that is now stashed in some cobweb-ridden

corner. It’s all an effort in futility. Solomon understood this frustration.

1D. British poet, Matthew Arnold wrote:

Most men eddy about

Here and there - eat and drink,

Chatter and love and hate

Gather and squander, are raised

Aloft, are hurled in the dust,

Striving blindly, achieving

othing; and then they die-

Shakespeare put it this way-

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale told

by an idiot, furll of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

1E. ALEXA DER MACLARE , " ow in reading this Book of Ecclesiastes—which

I am afraid a great many people do not read at all—we have always to remember

that the wild things and the bitter things which the Preacher is saying so abundantly

through its course do not represent his ultimate convictions, but thoughts that he

took up in his progress from error to truth. His first word is: ‘All is vanity! 'That

conviction had been set vibrating in his heart, as it is set vibrating in the heart of

every man who does as he did, viz., seeks for solid good away from God. That is his

starting-point. It is not true. All is not vanity, except to some blase cynic, made

cynical by the failure of his voluptuousness, and to whom ‘all things here are out of

joint, 'and everything looks yellow because his own biliary system is out of order.

That is the beginning of the book, and there are hosts of other things in the course of

it as one-sided, as cynically bitter, and therefore superficial. But the end of it is: ‘Let

us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep His commandments:

for this is the whole duty of man. 'In his journey from the one point to the other my

text is the first step, ‘One generation goeth, and another cometh: the earth abideth

for ever.’

1F. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D. "In the first place : It is to be considered as the

affect^

ing result of Solomon's own experience.— He had en-

tered into the spirit of the universal inquiry, *' who will

show us any good ?" and had made trial of the various

sources of worldly happiness. He had repaired in per-

son to the different springs, determined to take nothing

upon the reported experience of others, but to taste the

waters for himself. He had drunk freely of them all :

and in this treatise, he describes their respective pro-

perties and virtues. — The Book might, therefore, with

sufficient appropriateness, be entitled "The Experi-

ence OF Solomon."

Secondly. We are not to understand it as the lan-

guage of a mind soured and fretted by disappointment ;

the verdict of a morose and discontented cynic, the in-

cessant frustration of whose hopes and desires had made

him renounce the world in disgust, while his heart was

yet unchanged, and continued secretly to hanker after

the same enjoyments ; or of a wasted sensualist, who,

having run his career of pleasure, felt himself incapable

of any longer actually enjoying what still, however en-

grossed his peevish and unavailing wishes: — but we

are to regard it as the conclusion come to by one who

had felt the bitterness of a course of sin, and the empti-

ness of this world's joys, and, having been reclaimed

from " the error of his way," having renounced and

wept over his follies, was more than ever satisfied that

" the fear of the Lord is wisdom," and that " the ways

of wisdom are the only ways of pleasantness, and her

paths alone the paths of peace."

Thirdly. either must we conceive him to affirm, in

these words, that there is no good whatever, no kind of

enjoyment, no degree of happiness, to be derived from

the things of the world, when they are kept in their

own place, estimated on right principles, and used in a

proper manner Sentiments widely different from any

thing so ascetic and enthusiastic as this, will repeatedly

come in our way in the course of the Book — The

words before us are to be interpreted of every thing in

this world when pursued as the portion of him who

seeks it, — when considered as constituting the happiness

of a rational, immortal, and accountable being. His

verdict is, that to such a creature they can yield, by

themselves, no genuine and worthy satisfaction ; and

that, whilst they are, in their own nature, unsatisfying,

even in this world, they are worse, infinitely worse than

profitless, for the world to come. On this ground it

is, that he pronounces them vanity.—he had weighed

them all in the balances, and had found them wanting.

Fourthly. The peculiar emphasis may be remarked

with which this verdict is expressed. — He does not

merely say, all things are vain . " all is vanity ;"'

—vanity itself, and vanity of vanities ; that is, the

greatest vanity, — sheer, perfect vanity — And he dou-

bles the emphatic asseveration, " Vanity of vanities ;

vanity of vanities ; all is vanity." — This shows, first, the

strength of the impression on his own mind. It is not

the language of a judgment hesitating between two

opinions, or of a heart lingering between opposite de-

sires; but of a mind thoroughly made up, of a heart

loathing itself for having ever for a moment yielded to

a different sentiment, of decided conviction, of powerful

experimental feeling.— It shows, secondly, the earnest-

ness of his desire, to produce a similar impression on

the minds of others. It was a lesson which he himself

had learned by the bitterest experience ; and he is anx-

ious to prevent others from learning it in the same way.

He wishes them to take his word for it ; not to venture

after him in a repetition of the sad experiments on

which his conclusion was founded ; but to enter di-

rectly on another course ; to seek immediately and

earnestly a better portion,— even the " peace" of them

that *' love God's law,"— the '' life" that lies in the

" Divine favour,"— the joys and the hopes of true

religion.

1G. DAVID RUSSELL SCOTT, M.A.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ! With such

hopeless words does this book open words which,

with little variance in form, have been often repeated

and are still heard to-day, but which man, so long as

he has retained a semblance of health and sanity, has

never really believed ; if he had, he would have easily

found some more or less agreeable means of ending his

vain existence. The words in the interrogative form

most common to-day " Is Life worth living ? "

present a question which has been almost invariably

and finally answered by the men who put the question

living on and apparently being glad to do so in spite

of the real or imaginary misery of their lot. To the

selfish and whining pessimist, to the man who has a

grudge against his treatment by the world, to any

one tired and sick of life, no more wholesome tonic can

be given than the one which Epictetus administered to

such of his contemporaries as affected world-sickness.

He told them that there were many exits from the

theatre of life, and if they did not like the show they

could retire by the nearest door and make room for

men of a more modest and grateful spirit. o nervous

anxiety need be felt in administering this tonic. It

will have no fatal results. Even if it should do no

good, it will prove absolutely harmless in the case of

whining complainers, morbid egotists, and selfish

critics of life. But while this tonic may be the only

possible and safe cure in the case of those who enjoy

life by crying out against its vanity and by putting,

with a deluded seriousness, the question, Is Life worth

living ? it is not the treatment we are justified in

meting out to Koheleth. He was not an immature

youth ; he was a man of observation and experience,

who courageously faced the facts of life and compels

us to do the same, and, though his conclusions may be

hopeless and even bitter, they left him with at least

the one redeeming feature of a true compassion.

Justice at least demands that we look at the facts

which he saw and as he saw them and weigh the con-

siderations which brought him to his hopeless judgment

and reasoned conviction of the vanity of existence.

Koheleth is no dainty dilettante playing idly with the

facts of life. He thinks and he feels seriously and

intensely ; he deserves sympathetic consideration,

even though we, likewise thinking seriously and feeling

intensely, are compelled to reject absolutely his hopeless

words.

1H. William D. Barrick, Th.D., Discouragement, despair, and disappoint

ment. “when Solomon was old, . . . his

wives turned his heart away after othe

r gods” (1 Kgs 11:4). Intriguingly, the Old

Testament writers refer to idols (“other gods

”) as “vanities” (or, “empty things,”

“nothings”; Deut 32:21; 1 Kg

s 16:13, 26). The Preacher employs the same Hebrew word

for “vanities” in the book of Ecclesiastes. As an old man, the wisest, most

accomplished

and wealthy king of Israel

discovers that life no longer possesses meaning. All

satisfaction vanishes (Eccl 1:8;

4:8; 5:10; 6:7; 12:1). Solomon, Israel’s most powerful

king, feels powerless—unable to control his li

fe, unable to control what happens to his

work and wealth after hi

s death (2:18–19), unable to

prevent his death (9:12).

Surrounded by more success, opulence, and

pleasure than any person could ever

desire, Solomon hits rock bottom in his misera

ble existence. Then he begins a spiritual

odyssey to return from the quagmire of not

hingness in which he flounders—a search for

meaning in life. It begins with admitting hi

s empty condition. Solomon concedes that his

view of life is bleak and dismal.

2. BAR ES, "Vanity - This word הבלהבלהבלהבל hebelhebelhebelhebel, or, when used as a proper name, in Gen_4:2, “Abel”, occurs no less than 37 times in Ecclesiastes, and has been called the key of the book. Primarily it means “breath,” “light wind;” and denotes what:

(1) passes away more or less quickly and completely;

(2) leaves either no result or no adequate result behind, and therefore

(3) fails to satisfy the mind of man, which naturally craves for something permanent and progressive: it is also applied to:

(4) idols, as contrasted with the Living, Eternal, and Almighty God, and, thus, in the Hebrew mind, it is connected with sin.

In this book it is applied to all works on earth, to pleasure, grandeur, wisdom, the life of man, childhood, youth, and length of days, the oblivion of the grave, wandering and unsatisfied desires, unenjoyed possessions, and anomalies in the moral government of the world.

Solomon speaks of the world-wide existence of “vanity,” not with bitterness or scorn, but as a fact, which forced itself on him as he advanced in knowledge of men and things, and which he regards with sorrow and perplexity. From such feelings he finds refuge by contrasting this with another fact, which he holds with equal firmness, namely, that the whole universe is made and is governed by a God of justice, goodness, and power. The place of vanity in the order of Divine Providence - unknown to Solomon, unless the answer be indicated in Ecc_7:29 - is explained to us by Paul, Rom. 8, where its origin is traced to the subjugation and corruption of creation by sin as a consequence of the fall of man; and its extinction is declared to be reserved until after the Resurrection in the glory and liberty of the children of God.

Vanity of vanities - A well-known Hebrew idiom signifying vanity in the highest degree. Compare the phrase, “holy of holies.”

All - Solomon includes both the courses of nature and the works of man Ecc_1:4-11. Compare Rom_8:22.

2B. DR. W. A. CRISWELL, "Of all of the enigmatic writings in Christian and religious literature, there is no book, no writing, more enigmatic than the book of Ecclesiastes. It is the sphinx of Old Testament literature. It is the writing of a man who, with human reasoning, is facing the insoluble and contradictory problems of human life and human experience. And, as such, whether it be he, Solomon, the author, or whether it be the greatest philosopher who ever looked at experience, or whether it be we who live in this or any other generation, when you seek an answer to the inexplicable experiences of human life, you inevitably come to abject and abysmal despair.

No man who ever lived had the ability and the possibility of testing all human experience, as did Solomon. And he writes this essay in his old age. He had entered into every possible experience in human life. And there never has been a man they ever read of, who had that abounding infinite possibility. He had wisdom as from heaven itself. He had abounding riches. He was the emperor, sole ruler, of an empire. And any choice that he wished to make was his for the asking. I cannot imagine, for example, any ruler of any age who had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; but he did.

And all of those experiences that come to a man of absolute authority were his possession and he tried it all. And having experienced it all, he writes in his old age the verdict of what it is like to hope to find human satisfaction in the experiences, and awards, and achievements of this world.

Now, the second consideration: Having experienced all of these things that he has tried, which only he was able to do, he comes to one of the most glorious conclusions you could ever seek for in human life or in the revelation of God. When he comes to his final chapter, chapter 12 of the book of Ecclesiastes, you won’t read in all God’s word a greater appeal or a tribute to the presence and blessing of the Lord God on those who seek the favor of our heavenly father. He says in the first verse of the twelfth chapter, he says: You remember God all the days of your life, not just at the end of it or at the meridian height of it, but in the youth days of it. We’re to remember God all of our lives!

And he concludes the whole volume, this is the summation of the whole experience: Reverence God, fear God, observe what He’s given us to keep; and these things, that only heaven can bestow, will be yours to enjoy forever. That is the book of Ecclesiastes!"

Criswell points out that death ends all unless we have hope beyond death, and that is the Gospel. If you have no gospel, no good news that goes into eternity, death is the end, and it robs life of all ultimate meaning. He goes on-

Sweet people, do you remember this? Prime Minister Menachem Begin—who was my friend—Prime Minister Menachem Begin came here to Dallas to be here in our pulpit and to speak to our people. Oh, dear, they went through this building, seeking if there was a bomb. We had surveillance police a full day before. And they prepared an anti-Semitic demonstration out there on the streets on both sides. Do you remember?

And on Saturday when Menachem Begin was to come to be here to speak to us on Sunday, do you remember word came to him that his wife had died? And he immediately turned and went back home to Israel. Do you remember? Do you remember this? When Begin went back to Israel and buried his sweet wife, he never appeared in public to this day. His life closed like those chalices. His life closed like those pedals. He left government. He left his premiership. He left his public appearances.

3. CLARKE, "Vanity of vanities - As the words are an exclamation, it would be better to translate, O vanity of vanities! Emptiness of emptinesses.

True, substantial good is not to be found in any thing liable to change and corruption.

The author referred to in the introduction begins his paraphrase thus: -

“O vain deluding world! whose largest giftsThine emptiness betray, like painted clouds,Or watery bubbles: as the vapor flies,Dispersed by lightest blast, so fleet thy joys,

And leave no trace behind. This serious truthThe royal preacher loud proclaims, convincedBy sad experience; with a sigh repeatsThe mournful theme, that nothing here belowCan solid comfort yield: ‘tis all a scene.Of vanity, beyond the power of wordsTo express, or thought conceive. Let every manSurvey himself, then ask, what fruit remainsOf all his fond pursuits? What has he gain’d,By toiling thus for more than nature’s wantsRequire? Why thus with endlness projects rack’dHis heated brain, and to the laboring mind,Repose denied? Why such expense of time,That steals away so fast, and ne’er looks back?Could man his wish obtain, how short the spaceFor his enjoyment! No less transient hereThe time of his duration, than the thingsThus anxiously pursued. For, as the mind,In search of bliss, fix’d on no solid point,For ever fluctuates; so our little frames,In which we glory, haste to their decline,Nor permanence can find. The human raceDrop like autumnal leaves, by spring revived:One generation from the stage of lifeWithdraws, another comes, and thus makes roomFor that which follows. Mightiest realms decay,Sink by degrees; and lo! new form’d estatesRise from their ruins. Even the earth itself,Sole object of our hopes and fears,Shall have its period, though to man unknown.”

4. GILL, "Ecclesiastes 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher,.... This is the preacher's text; the theme and subject he after enlarges upon, and proves by an induction of particulars; it is the sum of the whole book;

vanity of vanities, all is vanity; most extremely vain, exceedingly so, the height of vanity: this is repeated, both for the confirmation of it, men being hard of belief of it; and to show how much the preacher was affected with it himself, and to affect others with the same. The Targum reads, "vanity of vanities in this world"; which is right as to the sense of the passage; for though the world, and all things in it, were made by God, and are very good; yet, in comparison of him, are less than nothing, and vanity; and especially as become subject to it through sin, a curse being brought upon the earth by it; and all the creatures made for the use of men liable to be abused, and are abused, through luxury, intemperance, and cruelty; and the whole world usurped by Satan, as the god of it. Nor is there anything in it, and put it all together, that can give satisfaction and contentment; and all is fickle, fluid, transitory, and vanishing, and in a short time will come to an end: the riches

of the world afford no real happiness, having no substance in them, and being of no long continuance; nor can a man procure happiness for himself or others, or avert wrath to come, and secure from it; and especially these are vanity, when compared with the true riches, the riches of grace and glory, which are solid, substantial, satisfying, and are for ever: the honours of this world are empty things, last a very short time; and are nothing in comparison of the honour that comes from God, and all the saints have, in the enjoyment of grace here, and glory hereafter: the sinful pleasures of life are imaginary things, short lived ones; and not to be mentioned with spiritual pleasures, enjoyed in the house of God, under the word and ordinances; and especially with those pleasures, for evermore, at the right hand of God. Natural wisdom and knowledge, the best thing in the world; yet much of it is only in opinion; a great deal of it false; and none saving, and of any worth, in comparison of the knowledge of Christ, and of God in Christ; all the forms of religion and external righteousness, where there is not the true fear and grace of God, are all vain and empty things. Man, the principal creature in the world, is "vain man"; that is his proper character in nature and religion, destitute of grace: every than is vain, nay, vanity itself; high and low, rich and poor, learned or unlearned; nay, man at his best estate, as worldly and natural, is so; as even Adam was in his state of innocence, being fickle and mutable, and hence he fell, Psa_39:5; and especially his fallen posterity, whose bodies are tenements of clay; their beauty vain and deceitful; their circumstances changeable; their minds empty of all that is good; their thoughts and imaginations vain; their words, and works, and actions, and their whole life and conversation; they are not at all to be trusted in for help, by themselves or others. The Targum is,

"when Solomon, king of Israel, saw, by the spirit of prophecy, that the kingdom of Rehoboam his son would be divided with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; and that Jerusalem, and the house of the sanctuary, would be destroyed, and the people of the children of Israel would be carried captive; he said, by his word, Vanity of vanities in this world, vanity of vanities; all that I and my father David have laboured for, all is vanity!''

5. HE RY, "That they are all vanity, Ecc_1:2. This is the proposition he lays down and undertakes to prove: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It was no new text; his father David had more than once spoken to the same purport. The truth itself here asserted is, that all is vanity, all besides God and considered as abstract from him, the all of this world, all worldly employments and enjoyments, the all that is in the world (1Jo_2:16), all that which is agreeable to our senses and to our fancies in this present state, which gains pleasure to ourselves or reputation with others. It is all vanity,not only in the abuse of it, when it is perverted by the sin of man, but even in the use of it. Man, considered with reference to these things, is vanity (Psa_39:5, Psa_39:6), and, if there were not another life after this, were made in vain (Psa_89:47); and those things, considered in reference to man (whatever they are in themselves), are vanity. They are impertinent to the soul, foreign, and add nothing to it; they do not answer the end, nor yield any true satisfaction; they are uncertain in their continuance, are fading,

and perishing, and passing away, and will certainly deceive and disappoint those that put a confidence in them. Let us not therefore love vanity (Psa_4:2), nor lift up our souls to it (Psa_24:4), for we shall but weary ourselves for it, Heb_2:13. It is expressed here very emphatically; not only, All is vain,but in the abstract, All is vanity; as if vanity were the proprium quarto modo - property in the fourth mode, of the things of this world, that which enters into the nature of them. The are not only vanity, but vanity of vanities, the vainest vanity, vanity in the highest degree, nothing but vanity, such a vanity as is the cause of a great deal of vanity. And this is redoubled, because the thing is certain and past dispute, it is vanity of vanities. This intimates that the wise man had his own heart fully convinced of and much affected with this truth, and that he was very desirous that others should be convinced of it and affected with it, as he was, but that he found the generality of men very loth to believe it and consider it (Job_33:14); it intimates likewise that we cannot comprehend and express the vanity of this world. But who is it that speaks thus slightly of the world? Is it one that will stand to what he says? Yes, he puts his name to it - saith the preacher. Is it one that was a competent judge? Yes, as much as ever any man was. Many speak contemptuously of the world because they are hermits, and know it not, or beggars, and have it not; but Solomon knew it. He had dived into nature's depths (1Ki_4:33), and he had it, more of it perhaps than ever any man had, his head filled with its notions and his belly with its hidden treasures (Psa_17:14), and he passes this judgment on it. But did he speak as one having authority? Yes, not only that of a king, but that of a prophet, a preacher; he spoke in God's name, and was divinely inspired to say it. But did he not say it in his haste, or in a passion, upon occasion of some particular disappointment? No; he said it deliberately, said it and proved it, laid it down as a fundamental principle, on which he grounded the necessity of being religious. And, as some think, one main thing he designed was to show that the everlasting throne and kingdom which God had by Nathan promised to David and his seed must be of another world; for all things in this world are subject to vanity, and therefore have not in them sufficient to answer the extent of that promise. If Solomon find all to be vanity, then the kingdom of the Messiah must come, in which we shall inherit substance.

6. JAMISO , "The theme proposed of the first part of his discourse.

Vanity of vanities — Hebraism for the most utter vanity. So “holy of holies” (Exo_26:33); “servant of servants” (Gen_9:25). The repetition increases the force.

all —Hebrew, “the all”; all without exception, namely, earthly things.

vanity — not in themselves, for God maketh nothing in vain (1Ti_4:4, 1Ti_4:5), but vain when put in the place of God and made the end, instead of the means (Psa_39:5, Psa_39:6; Psa_62:9; Mat_6:33); vain, also, because of the “vanity” to which they are “subjected” by the fall (Rom_8:20).

7. K&D, "The book begins artistically with an opening section of the nature of a preamble. The ground-tone of the whole book at once sounds in Ecc_1:2, which commences this section, “O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, O vanity of vanities! All is vain.” As at Isa_40:1 (vid., l.c.) it is a question whether by “saith” is meant a future or a present utterance of God, so here and at Ecc_12:8 whether “saith” designates the expression of Koheleth as belonging to history or as presently given forth. The language admits both interpretations, as e.g., “saith,” with God as the subject, 2Sa_23:3, is meant historically, and in Isa_49:5 of the present time. We understand “saith” here, as e.g., Isa_36:4, “Thus saith ... the king of Assyria,” of something said now, not of something said previously, since it is those presently living to whom the Solomon redivivus, and through him the author of this book, preaches the vanity of all earthly things. The old translators take “vanity of vanities” in the nominative, as if it were the predicate; but the repetition of the expression shows that it is an exclamation = O vanitatem vanitatum. The abbreviated connecting form of

,הבלהבלהבלהבל and the like, but (חדרחדרחדרחדר) חדרחדרחדרחדר after the form ,הבלהבלהבלהבל is here not punctuated הבלהבלהבלהבל

after the manner of the Aram. ground-form עבדעבדעבדעבד; cf. Ewald, §32b. Jerome read differently: In Hebraeo pro vanitate vanitatum ABAL ABALIM scriptum est, quod exceptis lxx interpretibus omnes similiter transtulerunt

�τµ��τµ��τµ��τµ�ς ς ς ς �τµ!�τµ!�τµ!�τµ!δωνδωνδωνδων sive �τµ%�τµ%�τµ%�τµ%νννν. HěvěHěvěHěvěHěvěllll primarily signifies a breath, and still bears this meaning in post-bibl. Heb., e.g., Schabbath 119b: “The world exists merely for the sake of the breath of school-children” (who are the hope of the future). Breath, as the contrast of that which is firm and enduring, is the figure of that which has no support, no continuance. Regarding the superlative expression, “Vanity of vanities,” vid., the Son_1:1. “Vanity of vanities” is the non plus ultra of vanity, - vanity in the highest degree. The double exclamation is followed by a statement which shows it to be the result of experience. “All is vain” - the whole (of the things, namely, which present themselves to us here below for our consideration and use) is vanity.

8. Pastor Jim Black, "The great American icon, Marilyn Monroe was found dead

from an apparent drug overdose at her Brentwood, California home. Some believe

the overdose to have been suicide, some believe it to be accidental. Others believe it

to be the result of conspiracy or murder. Regardless, Monroe’s death stands as a

testament to the futility of FAME.

Born orma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 in a Los Angeles hospital, her

mother Gladys listed her father as ‘unknown.’ She grew up being bumped back and

forth from her mother (who spent much of her time in psychiatric hospitals) to close

friends. She spent several years in foster homes and even spent several years in an

orphanage. Though her childhood wasn’t easy, she longed for something more;

something better.

She recalled later as she and Jane Russell signed their names in the cement in front

of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, "I want to be a big star more than anything.

Its something precious."

Become a big star she certainly did! What began as a part-time modeling stint

shooting pin-up posters during WW II soon blossomed into a full time modeling

career and an eventual movie deal. She made some 30 pictures over the course of

her short career and became an American icon– probably the most recognizable

figure in the world, even today!

But her life is a testament to what happens too often in Hollywood . . . & a life spent

in meaningless pursuit of fame. Her life, tattered and torn by three divorces,

countless affairs, drug addictions, and her career in major decline- ended tragically

amidst empty bottles of pills in very unglamourous circumstances at just 35!

She had said of Hollywood’s ‘fame’ machine, "Hollywood is a place where they’ll

pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul"

The refrain from the wise old Teacher of Ecclesiastes comes to mind again,

"Meaningless, meaningless, meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" He, too, had

sought after meaning in any number of areas like M.M. and he, too, had found very

little to satisfy, very little ultimate meaning in those places. He knew what it was like

to have everything (fame, fortune, power & public recognition) and still be empty

and alone, unhappy.

9. Pastor Bob Leroe, "The quote we’re most familiar with comes from verse 2, “All

is vanity”. This word has been translated many ways. Your Bible might read

“futile”, “empty”, “pointless”, “momentary”, or “meaningless”. The word literally

means “breath” or “vapor”. The only other place this word appears is

(appropriately) in Job. The Message translates vs 2, “There’s nothing to anything—

it’s all smoke.” In the T, James picks up on this when he asks a rhetorical

question, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then

vanishes” (4:14). James and Solomon weren’t existentialists, denying any purpose or

meaning in human life; they were rather saying that life is empty, fleeting,

transitory, and nothing matters--without God. Solomon exposes the insignificance

and absurdity of life IF life were nothing more than what is seen “under the sun”.

Solomon wanted to disillusion his readers against material goals, as an end in

themselves. More importantly, Solomon wanted to drive his readers to despair and

then to God. Before we’re ready to hear the Good ews, we need to understand the

“bad news”. Our efforts to obtain happiness are futile, and our earth-bound goals

are meaningless, apart from God.

10. Pastor Dennis Selfridge, "Maybe you have heard some of these sayings that seem

for the most part to be true:” Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you

cry alone.” “Every day in every way our world is getting better, better and better.”

“There is a light at the end of every tunnel.” “Things never seem as bad as they

seem so dream, dream, dream.”

Why do they tell us these things? “You just need to smile a little more, to believe,

just grab for it, you’ll make it someday.” They would want us to believe that if we

only keep hoping, there is a purpose in life. You know as I do that this world holds

little hope. This world is corrupt, wicked and immoral. Much of what we do is not

fun but is tiring and seems pointless. Many people that we meet are cruel, selfish

and downright mean. If we choose to live here on earth with no upward look we find

life void of purpose.

All worldly things are vanity. ot of themselves for they are God’s creation and

therefore good, but in reference to that happiness, which men seek and expect to

find in them. So they are unquestionably vain, because they are not what they seem

to be, and perform not what they promise, but instead are the occasions of

innumerable cares, and fears, and sorrows, and mischief. The writer says they are

not only vanity but vanity of vanities, vanity to the highest degree. And this is

redoubled, because the thing is beyond all possibility of dispute. All is unprofitable

as to the attainment of that happiness which all men are enquiring after. By this

restriction he implies that the happiness which in vain is sought for in this lower

world can only be found in heavenly places. Men continue and that a short age, and

then they leave all their possessions, and therefore they cannot be happy here,

because happiness needs to be unchangeable and eternal; or else the certain

knowledge of the approaching loss of all these things will rob a man of solid

contentment in them."

11. Tony Campolo said, "If you ever start to feel proud, just remember that soon

after your body has been lowered into the grave, your family & friends will be

eating potato salad & telling jokes, & you’ll be history."

12. KEITH KRELL, "This preacher fails to start his sermon with a compelling

introduction. There is no attention-grabbing illustration. There is no appeal to felt

needs. There is no whetting of the spiritual appetite so his audience will want to hear

more. The one called “the Preacher” violates a basic preaching principle. He tells his

readers up front that he has nothing to say because “all is vanity.” (Aren’t you glad

you are reading this?) I regret to say that the translation “vanity” is not the best

rendering of the Hebrew word hebel, for in our contemporary speech we typically

connect vanity with arrogance. Unfortunately, many contemporary English versions

continue to follow the Old English of the KJV. evertheless, there is great debate on

what the term hebel means. Does it mean temporary11 or meaningless?12 It would

seem that the word carries both ideas and even a few others. Hebel is an

inexhaustible term.13 It can mean “vapor, deceitful, futile,14 and fleeting.”15 It

points to what is without real substance, value, permanence, or significance.16 In

other words, no person or pursuit in and of itself will bring lasting satisfaction.

Everything is temporal. It may be that the modern Christian reader can do no

better than to import hebel into his or her vocabulary, much as has been done with

agape and to a lesser extent koinonia. Everything is hebel and therefore of no lasting

value.

In this one verse, Solomon uses the word hebel five times. Hebel appears thirty-eight

times in Ecclesiastes and only thirty-five other times elsewhere in the Old

Testament. The term is used in every chapter of Ecclesiastes with the exception of

chapter ten. It also brackets the book (see 12:8). Furthermore, Solomon uses a

literary device to bring out a supreme emphasis: “vapor of vapors—the thinnest of

vapors.” The Old Testament authors spoke of the “holy of holies,” “heaven of

heavens,” and “servant of servants.”17 Solomon says that everything in life falls

under this definition. Whatever hebel is, the world is full of it! The word “all” in the

context of what he proceeds to describe refers to all human endeavors (cf. 1:3).18

This verse is blunt; it is intended to shock the reader out of complacency. It is

designed to rock the boat, shake the tree, and pull the chain."

13. G. CAMPBELL MORGA , "The attitude of the preacher must be underst

ood, or we shall miss the value of the book. Through

all his experiences he never lost his intellect

ual conviction of the existence of God. He was

neither infidel nor agnostic. Unless a man profou

ndly believe in the existence of God, he will

never say “

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity

” when he is trying to li

ve without God. There is a

deadly satisfaction possible to a man if he can once rid himself of his belief in the existence of

God. It is deadly because it is similar to the sati

sfaction resulting from the use of an opiate. All

the restlessness of humanity is cause for thankf

ulness in that it reveal

s the underlying sense of

God. All the sob and agony of Ecclesiastes is

the outcome of the fact that the man whose

experience it describes never que

stioned the existence of God.

otwithstanding all this, the answering attitude of fear descri

bed in the book of Proverbs was

absent. He believed in God, but lacked the fear

which is the beginning

of wisdom. He did not

trust in the Lord with

all his heart. He did lean upon hi

s own understanding. Believing in the

existence of God, he did not in all his ways acknowledge Him, and consequently his paths lacked

direction, and he wandered over trackless deserts

in an agony of desire

without satisfaction.

14. ROBERT J. MORGA , "Several years ago while traveling in Brazil, I saw

graffiti scrawled across a building, written in Portuguese. I asked my guide what it

said, and these were the words: “We are beautiful drunkards, comets wandering

alone, looking at the stars, waiting for a future that doesn’t come.”

It reminds me of the words of the philosopher Bertrand Russell who wrote in his

autobiography, “What else is there to make life tolerable? We stand on the shore of

an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of

the darkness. But it is the voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence

returns.”

Well, here in Ecclesiastes, the writer, Solomon, has turned away from God and is

searching in other places for answers for the meaning of life. But he was

disappointed and disillusioned at every point.

The French physicist Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the

heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the

Creator made known through Jesus Christ.”

I don’t think anyone illustrates this better than the German philosopher, Friedrich

Wilhelm ietzsche. He was born in Saxony, in Germany in 1844. His father and his

grandfather were both German Lutheran ministers. His father suffered a mental

collapse and died when ietzsche was young, about five years old. As a result, he

was raised by a house full of “holy” women, as they have been called by

biographers: his mother and grandmother, two aunts, and a younger sister.

At age 13, ietzsche was sent off to boarding school, and by the age of 18, he was

doubting his faith. At 19, he went to the University of Bonn to study theology and to

prepare himself, despite his doubts, to follow in his father’s footsteps into the

Lutheran ministry. While at Bonn, he joined a fraternity and began drinking with

his fellows. It was also about that time that ietzsche visited a brothel in Germany,

in Cologne, and became infected with syphilis.

During those days, too, ietzsche was tremendously influenced by the philosophy of

pessimism articulated by Arthur Schopenhauer. When he enrolled in Leipzig

University, ietzsche was physically frail and sick, mentally alert and brilliant, and

philosophically moving further and further from Christianity.

During these years, he also became acquainted with the composer Richard Wagner,

who was one of the most twisted ego-maniacs who has ever lived. ietzsche was

drawn into his world. And at age 24, Friedrich ietzsche was invited to teach at the

University of Basel in Switzerland, not all that far from Wagner’s home on the

shores of Lake Lucerne. There he began taking long walks during which he

formulated his philosophy. He articulated his “Will to Power,” and his philosophy

about a coming “superman,” and especially his thoughts about the death of God.

Perhaps his most famous parable along those lines is called The Madman.

ietzsche said that a madman appeared in the marketplace one morning, holding a

lighted lantern in the bright daylight. He startled everyone by crying, “I’m looking

for God! I’m looking for God!” The people made fun of him. They said, “Do you

think God got lost? Do you think he’s hiding?” But the madman jumped into the

middle of the people, his eyes wild with alarm. He said, “Where is God? I’ll tell you

where he is. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. We have

cut ourselves off from God as though we had unchained the earth from the sun, and

we are wobbling out of control, plunging backward, sideward, forward, in all

directions. We’re becoming cold and dark and empty. Don’t you feel it?”

And then ietzsche asked a profound question: How shall we, the murderers of all

murderers, comfort ourselves? ietzsche was saying that in removing God from

our civilization, our life, and our philosophy, we were removing our source of

comfort. We were stripping ourselves of hope and peace. We were crossing what

another philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, would later call the line of despair.

ietzsche understood that when you abandon Christianity, you lose all basis for

moral absolutes. You lose all basis for eternal life. You lose all basis for inner

peace. But he thought that after an initial time of chaos and despair, his God-is-

dead philosophy would pave the way for a great superman to come and take charge

of the human race, someone who could lead humanity to its zenith.

What happened to ietzsche? The insanity he predicted for the world eventually

came upon himself. His health deteriorated so much that he had to resign from

teaching, and he wandered here and there through southern Europe, seeking

emotional and physical healing. He was unknown and unread at that time, a virtual

homeless philosopher, wandering around, writing brilliant philosophy, living a sick

and sad life.

In January 1889, while walking down a street in Turin, Italy, he collapsed and flung

his arms around the neck of a horse that had just been whipped by its driver.

ietzsche was helped to his room, and rapidly went insane. o one knows for

certain the reason. Most biographers attribute it to his syphilis. But perhaps it was

nudged on by a philosophy that rejected God and Christianity, and which, of

followed to its logical conclusions, led to absolute and utter despair."

15. Francis Schaeffer, "There is no other sufficient philosophical answer. You can

search through university philosophy, underground philosophy, filling station

philosophy —it does not matter which—there is no other sufficient philosophical

answer to existence. There is only one philosophy, one religion, that fills this need in

all the world’s thought, whether the East, the West, the ancient, the modern, the

new, the old. Only one fills the philosophical need of existence, of being, and it is the

Judaeo-Christian God—not just an abstract concept, but rather that this God is

really there. He really exists. It is not that this is the best answer to existence; it is

the only answer. That is why we may hold our Christianity with intellectual

integrity."

16. CHARLES BRIDGES, "This verse appears to have been intended

to be the

compendium of the whole treatise. The subject opens

upon us abruptly ; and no wonder ; The Preacher''s

heart is so filled with it. He longs to make a forcible

impression. His text is ' the whole world, with all the

pleasures, and profits, and honours, and endeavours,

and business, and events that are under the sun.'^ He

brings out his subject with a vast variety of illustra-

tion, and then closes with emphatically repeating his

judgment. He seems as if he could not give full ex-

pression to his convictions. It is not only vain, but

vanity^ itself. He redoubles his asseveration to show

the certainty of it, and that all is unmixed vanity in its

highest degree — vanity of vanities.'^ or does this

belong only to a part. Everything severally, all

things collectively — all is one expanse — one vast heap

of numberless perishing vanities. ' I affirm again and

again, that there is nothing in this world, but what is

the vainest vanity.'^ All is therefore utterly inefficient

for the great end of man's true happiness. It only en-

larges his desires in the endeavour to gratify them.

But it leaves behind ' an aching void,' a blank, that it

cannot fill up."

The picture of Lord Chesterfield, given by himself

furnishes' the most striking commentary on this statement — 'I have

run

the silly rounds of business and pleasure, and have done with them alL

I have enjoyed all the pleasures of tlie world, and consequently know

their futility, and I do not regret their loss. I appraise them at their

real value, which is in truth very low : whereas they that have not ex-

perienced always overrate them. They only see their gay outside, and

are dazzled with the glare. I have been behind the scenes ; I have

seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes, which exhibit and move

the gaudy machine ; and I have seen and smelt the tallow-candles

which illuminate the whole decoration, to the astonishment and admi-

ration of an ignorant audience. When I reflect back upon what I

have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I can hardly

persuade myself that all that frivolous hnrry-, and bustle, and pleasure

of the world, had any reality. But I look upon all that has passed as

one of those romantic dreams which opium commonly occasions, and I

by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose for the sake of the

fugitive dream."

Earthly things look

grand, till the trial has proved their vanity ; heavenly

things look mean, till the trial has developed their

glory. Calculate both worlds — each in its relative

value. ' In " looking at the things that are not seen

and eternal," how is the brightness of " the things that

are seen and temporal " eclipsed !' ^ And yet never

can we look off from this " seen and temporal " sphere,

till we look beyond it. Then truly the sight of the

brighter world will make this world a wilderness

17. MI OS DIVI E,"Pascal read the same facts which depressed

Ecclesiastes and soured Montaigne. A man of feehng

and a profound thinker, he shared the common experi-

ence, whilst with rare insight he explored the realms

of knowledge. " Ecclesiastes shows," he says, " that

man without God is in total ignorance and inevitable

misery." ^ Yet man, ignorant and miserable, is not to

be despised. ^The commonplaces of sin and sorrow are

the'meeting-places of God and man. Pascal had groped

and stumbled among the shifting sands of thought, but

he pressed God's lamps of revelation close to his breast,

and its splendour cast new light on the pathos of life.

" The wretchedness of man is the wretchedness of a

king — dethroned and disinherited. Who is unhappy

at not being a king except a deposed king ? ^ Pascal

learnt the secret of man's origin and destiny in the

Christian revelation. " Christianity is strange. It bids

man recognise that he is vile, and bids him desire to

be like God." ^ This was the final answer to human

philosophy in all its moods. " The Stoics say, * Retire

within yourselyes — ^it is there you will find yoiur rest.'

And that is not true. Others say, * Go out of yourselves ;

seek happiness in amusement.' And this is not true.

Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is^

in God, both without us and within us." ^

Pascal cries out to ancient and modern philosophy :'

" See, this is new ! The thought in God's breast is ever

the same, but revelation is new." God, who spake in

times past to the fathers by prophet, priest, philosopher,

and king, hath in these last days spoken to us by His

Son.* Physical science emphasises the thought of the

absolute sameness and continuous repetition of the past

and future, and yet it is possible to escape from the

treadmill, make to-morrow not as yesterday, and begin

life afresh. How can these things be ? How can a

man be bom when he is old ? ^ " The wind bloweth

where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,

but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth :

so is every one that is born of the Spirit." " If any

man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature : old things

are passed away, behold ! all things become new."

18. Pastor Apple, "EXPOSI G FOUR LIES ABOUT LIFE

I can think of at least four falsehoods many still call the truth.

1. 'Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.'

I've found quite the opposite is true. 'Laugh and you laugh alone. Cry and you get a

crowd. The whole world will cry with you.'

2. 'Every day in every way our world is getting better, better, better.' I'd like to meet

the guy who first wrote those words, wouldn't you? I'd string him up before

sundown.What a tragic, disillusioning dream!

3. 'There's a light at the end of every tunnel.' Keep hoping ...keep looking for it.

Murphy was right when he said that the light at the end of the tunnel was really the

'headlamp of an oncoming train.'

4. This fourth one comes from the pop music world of yesteryear: 'Things never are

asbad as they seem. So dream, dream, dream.' Want to sing it with me? o,

probablynot. Things are not really as bad as they seem. They're often worse, and

dreamingwon't make them better!

...Why do they tell us those lies? ... There's one simple answer: to make us believe

there's purpose and happiness if we simply keep on hoping..."

19. "Here is a book that makes clear that evil is real and not fiction. It is not God’s

will or plan, but it is real, and it makes life full of struggle for meaning. It is

superficial to say all is God’s will when so much is clearly out of his will. It is foolish

to say that evil is just good that we don’t yet understand. This denies the reality of

evil. Even God had to pay a price because of the reality of evil.

Gordon Allport tells of his experience in Zululand. At a Swedish Mission Hospital

which was completely up to date was helping the natives deal with serious injuries

and disease, but also near by was a witch doctor. He asked the doctor why he

allowed this superstition on his premises. He said the natives have a superior

attitude toward the white man. He admits they have wonderful magic and can

benefit the African people, but they can only tell you what is wrong and cure it, but

cannot tell you why there is evil in the world, so as soon as the African is patched up

he consults the diviner to find out who is the cause of the misfortune. Is it the spirit

of an offended ancestor, or some jealous rival or malicious relative? It is the why

that matters most." author unknown

20. JOH FRA KLI GE U G, "IF a single word were sought, to denote the

spirit

in which this volume has been written, the writer

would lay claim to the word constructive. As dis

tinguished from the purely critical, which latter

spirit so dominates our age, this may be figured in

simple terms of position and direction. The crit

ical spirit, taking a station outside the subject of

study, looks over into it with the eyes of a spec

tator, noting the results of a process in which it

has not shared, and passing judgment by a stand

ard of history or dogma or philology already made.

Its direction, by the very fact of being critical, is

essentially opposite to the creative surge and cur

rent of the author s mind ; it reduces his fervors

to a residuum of reason ; it imposes a dispassion

ate measure on what is to it a finished result ; its

besetting tendency is to leave the work cold and

obsolete, or analyzed out of life. The constructive

spirit, on the other hand, quickened first to living

sympathy, takes its place at the centre of the work

itself, whence the radiating lines of thought and

feeling stretch out in vital motion, seen through

the author s eyes and realized through his glowing

soul. Its endeavor thus is, virtually, to create his

work anew on his own pattern ; its direction is one

with his ; it has at heart the same goal of truth.

Such spirit by no means ignores or slights the

critical ; rather, it takes the critical in, on its way,

as an outfit of insight in which also the author

himself is concerned, and in whose light the prob

lems historic, dogmatic, philological, or whatever

else, assume the proportions essentially their due.

Thus its criticism has become a thing organic

and functional, a structural element of the tissue

itself.

The remark so often made of Biblical study

nowadays, that it is time to quit tearing down and

to begin constructing, applies with especial force to

this Book of Ecclesiastes. Itself initially a work

of reaction and stricture, its critical strain, its

negative element, lies on the surface ; so salient

that popular sentiment draws its allusions and

points its morals from it. " As bitter in the mouth

as a page torn from Ecclesiastes," is the way a

recent writer characterizes a certain modern book.

At the old sage s opening note of vanity and dis

illusion men, it would seem, have stopped short ;

have been too shallow and heedless, perhaps, to

go on to his solution. The very idea that there

is anything positive and constructive about the

book must needs, if asserted, accept a main bur-

den of proof. And yet this constructive strain,

this positive tonic uplift, is the controlling and

surviving element. It resolves all the discords,

makes the dark and turbid run eventually clear;

offsetting vanity by substance, the factitious by

the intrinsic, agnosticism by a solid asset of certi

tude. The whole book, it is herein maintained,

exists supremely for the sake of what is positive

and affirmative in it, for the sake of the better

structure it would build amid the ruins of a baf

fling world. It is in its large effect an uplifting

power, not a disintegration. That this is a tra

verse of the prevailing popular notion, the author

of the present volume is not unaware ; with confi

dence, however, he would invite the candid atten

tion of readers to his detailed presentation of it.

To find whether this is so, and how far, may

seem, perhaps, a complex matter, in view of

Koheleth s extremes and cross-currents ; for the

book is undeniably a repository of thoughts as

stubborn and contradictory as the thoughts of a

ture herself. And yet it is no mysterious thing,

nor does it require special pleading, when once we

are rightly launched on the central tide of his

thought. It calls upon us merely to hear him out,

giving due weight to all sides and colorings of his

plea. It is, in fact, like all deeper problems of life,

an affair of relation, balance, continuity, propor-

tion, or as may be more simply stated, an inquiry

how the book s various utterances hang together,

and what supreme and grounded effect they work.

In the light of an age which, almost beyond any

former one, is moving in the Koheleth vein, there

is need to determine anew, and with unpre-

judging care, the old sage s emphasis of things.

This is what the title-page means by its proposed

study of literary and spiritual values. The prob

lem on its concrete side is a purely literary one ;

literary in that broad and deep sense in which

alone the full concept of literature can be under

stood. To fathom it we must go beyond the curiosa

felicitas of words and figures, elegances and nu

ances. We must note how the book derives not

alone from its author, but from its age, from its

world, from the whole world beyond time and space

on which its two millenniums of vitality have laid

their power."

21. BY G. W. MYL E,

"My soul, why seek thy happiness helow^^here

in this fallen world, where "aUis vanity f " Oft

hast thou tried it, anxious still to find some

earthly good. As often thou hast found the

Preacher right — ^that "aU is vanity." Thou

sayest, '* All is vanity," — thou sayest well. The

worldling, too, can say that all is vanity, and

yet pursues it still. Be it not so with thse I Let

all that is empty here lead t&ee to what alone

will satisfy-*— the grace of God, the love of God,

the Lamb of God ; to " Jesus Christ the same

yesterday, to«<[ay, and for ever." (Heb. xiii, 8,)

Uast thou e*er asked thyself whence all this

vanity ? My soul, it comes from thee / Thou,

in thy father Adam ; thou, in thy fellows of the

human race, hast caused it all. Whence comes

the tempest? Whence the earthquake; the

pestilence ; the shipwreck ; the blighted crop ?

Whence sickness, famine, death? Whence come

bereavement, bankruptcy, and sorrow ? Whence

murder, drunkenness, and all uncleanness?

Whence all that is vile, and sad, and disappoint-

ing ? Whence comes the universal taint — the

wrongs, the groans, the misery of all created

things? My soul, they come from thee; from

thee in Adam, and from him in thee. The

poison that is in thee, has poisoned all besides.

Since thou art sinful, all is out of course. Since

thou art vanity, lo, all things here are vain.

The curse that fell on thee thou hast entailed on

them. My soul, be humbled with the thought —

consider and be wise. — Look o'er the Book of

ature. See all the troubles of this fallen world ;

see all that is disjointed, vile, and fleeting ; and

say, "It comes from mef" — My soul, thou

sayest, "AU is vanity!" Oh, look within^ for

all is vanity there. How swift for evil ! How

dead to all that is good! What rank corrup-

tion ! What inbred sin ! How weak thy pur-

poses! How faltering thy course! If all is

yanity without, it is tenfold vanity mthin. If all

around is vanity, thou art the master-vanity of

all. Bless, God, then, O my soul — in Jesus

thou hast that which is not vanity. In Jesus

thou hast all that is solid, durable, and perfect ;

food, riches, strength, life, pleasure, comfort,

peace. In Him, what hast dtou not f A sure

foundation! A Rock that moveth not! Unfailing

help! A hope, which maketh not ashamed!

Believe, then, of His fulness, and be full indeed."

22. CHRISTI A G. ROSSETTl wrote this poem that follows this verse and the

entire chapter as well as some other Bible references.

I SAID of laughter : it is vain.

Of mirth I said : what profits it ?

Therefore I found a book, and writ

Therein how ease and also pain.

How health and sickness, every one

Is vanity beneath the sun.

Man walks in a vain shadow ; he

Disquieteth himself in vain.

The things that were shall be again,

The rivers do not fill the sea.

But turn back to their secret source ;

The winds too turn upon their course.

Our treasures moth and rust corrupt.

Or thieves break through and steal, or they

Make themselves wings and fly away.

One man made merry as he supped.

or guessed how when that night grew dim

His soul would be required of him.

We build our houses on the sand

Comely withoutside and within,

But when the winds and rains begin

To beat on them, they cannot stand :

They perish, quickly overthrown.

Loose from the very basement stone.

All things are vanity, I said :

Yea vanity of vanities.

The rich man dies ; and the poor dies :

The worm feeds sweetly on the dead.

Whatever thou lackest, keep this trust :

All in the end shall have but dust :

The one inheritance, which best

And worst alike shall find and share :

The wicked cease from troubling there.

And there the weary be at rest ;

There aU the wisdom of the wise

Is vanity of vanities.

Man flourishes as a green leaf,

And as a leaf doth pass away ;

Or as a shade that cannot stay

And leaves no track, his course is brief :

Yet man doth hope and fear and plan

Till he is dead : — oh foolish man I

Our eyes cannot be satisfied

With seeing, nor our ears be filled

With hearing : yet we plant and build

And buy and make our borders wide ;

We gather wealth, we gather care,

But know not who shaU be our heir.

Why should we hasten to arise

So early, and so late take rest ?

Our labour is not good ; our best

Hopes fade ; our heart is stayed on lies

Verily, we sow wind ; and we

Shall reap the whirlwind, verily.

He who hath little shall not lack ;

He who hath plenty shall decay :

Our fatheis went ; we pass away ;

Our children follow on our track :

So generations fail, and so

They are renewed and come and go.

The earth is fattened with our dead ;

She swallows more and doth not cease :

Therefore her wine and oil increase

And her sheaves are not numbered ;

Therefore her plants are green, and all

Her pleasant trees lusty and tall.

Therefore the maidens cease to sing,

And the young men are very sad ;

Therefore the sowing is not glad.

And mournful is the harvesting.

Of high and low, of great and small,

Vanity is the lot of aU.

A King dwelt in Jerusalem ;

He was the wisest man on earth ;

He had all riches from his birth.

And pleasures till he tired of them ;

Then, having tested all things, he

Witnessed that all are vanity.

CHRISTI A G. ROSSETTl.

3 What does man gain from all his labor

at which he toils under the sun?

1. GLE PEASE, Many retired people look back at their life of labor and feel like

Solomon feels here. What is the point of it all? Have I gained anything that will last

by all of my years of labor? From the perspective of toil under the sun, they cannot

see any eternal achievment, nor any lasting values. It was all labor for an earthly life

of survival that will soon end anyway, and so nothing was gained by it all. Life can

get depressing when looked at only from an under the sun perspective. We need to

see life from an under the Son perspective to gain value from our labor. Paul wrote

in I Cor. 15:58, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you

know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." William De?Witt Hyde saw from

this perspective and could write,

Creation;s Lord, we give thee thanks

That this thy world is incomplete;

That battle calls our marshaled ranks;

That work awaits our hands and feet;

That thou hast not yet finished man;

That we are in the making still,

As friends who share the Maker's plan,

As sons who know the Father's will.

Those who have no vision of life in Christ with its eternal hope will feel like Solomon

does at this point in his life. Jean Paul Sartre, for example, wrote in his first novel,

ausea, " othing happens while you live. The scenery changes, people come in and

go out, that's all. There are no beginnings. Days are tacked on to days without

rhyme or reason, an interminable,monotonous addition." For him life was all a

meaningless series of events going nowhere. Such is life for those who live only

under the sun.

Chuck Swindoll suggests that, “if there is nothing but nothing under the sun, our

only hope must be above it.” Solomon is describing a worldview without any Higher

Power. Life will remain devoid of meaning until we seek out God. Ideals without

God are nothing more than empty optimism, wishful thinking.

1B. Pastor Dorman Followwill, "The roots of this question are found in Genesis

3:17-19. In fact, the entire book of Ecclesiastes is simply a larger commentary on the

truths found in this Genesis passage, and the only way to understand Ecclesiastes is

to read it in light of that context, the narrative of the fall. Here is what Genesis 3:17-

19 tells us: "Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your

wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, "You

shall not eat from it..."

Cursed is the ground because of you; In [sorrow] you shall eat of it all the days of

your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants

of the field; By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the

ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall

return.'"

In this passage God proclaimed his consequence for man's sin in the garden. It

introduced a sense of futility and meaninglessness into man's work and his entire

life. His work would be tainted by sorrow, and all his achievements would dwindle

away in the mind-numbing circularity of the statement, "For you are dust, and to

dust you shall return." It is just this futility in work, this meaninglessness in human

life, that underlies the question introducing the poem of Ecclesiastes 3-11:

In this poem Solomon gives us his overview of the book. His chief question is posed

in verse 3, and his initial findings are listed in verses 4-11. Solomon observes the

many circles within our world that illustrate the vanity of life under the sun. There

is the generational cycle, one coming and one going, and the earth remains

unchanged. There is the solar cycle, which is maddening in its changelessness. There

is the weather cycle, the wind blowing on its "circular courses." He even

contemplates the water cycle, from the ocean to the clouds via evaporation, back to

the ground via precipitation, back to the ocean via the rivers. All things seem to be

caught in wearisome circles that fail to satisfy the observing eye or the listening ear.

Then he explores the circle of time: "That which has been is that which will be...."

concluding with the oft-quoted phrase, "...There is nothing new under the sun." He

is not talking about technology or the material things of life here, but about human

life and experience itself, which is never new. His poem ends with the dark reflection

that there are endless time cycles binding humanity to a treadmill of repetitive

history, because there is no remembrance. The more we contemplate these endless

and changeless circles, the more all does seem meaningless."

1C. RAY STEDMA , "n verse 3 we have the question that he continually used in

his search: "What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?"

What is the profit of it to him? This is an interesting Hebrew word meaning, "that

which is left over." After he has sucked dry all the immediate delight, joy, or

pleasure from something, what is left over, what endures, what will remain to

continually feed the hunger of his life for satisfaction? It is the question we all are

asking. Is there anything that will really minister continually to my need—that

highest good, which, if I find it, will mean I do not need to look any further?

1D. KEITH KRELL, "Solomon follows up his theme with a rhetorical question that

demands a negative answer. In 1:3 he asks, “What advantage does man have in all

his work which he does under the sun?” The answer is there is no advantage. Work

seems pointless because it is quickly passing. Furthermore, it is monotonous. The

key phrase in Ecclesiastes, “under the sun,” is used twenty-nine times.21 This

phrase is the key to understanding the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon is writing from

his viewpoint—ground level, horizontal, limited, and human. In these words we

have a description of what life is like if the heavens are shut off from man. If a bowl

were placed over the earth, masking the heavens (i.e., the spiritual world from

which God speaks and acts), what would life be like? Given this perspective, what

would be the view from earth? This is the experiment which is in focus in the book

of Ecclesiastes."

1E. DAVID FAIRCHILD, "Ernest Hemmingway, a great writer, was ultimately an

existentialist. He believed that life was pointless and without meaning and he

believed that the only control and meaning that can be gained in this life is to

determine the time and way in which you die.

He preached and died his doctrine as his wife fell asleep, he quietly got out of bed,

grabbed his favorite hunting rifle and with great care he positioned his rifle right

where it could blow him to bits.

1F. CHARLES BRIDGES, "The

appetite indeed for wisdom, riches, honour, and sensual

indulgence, may be indefinitely enlarged. But sup-

posing the possession of this world's all — " What shall

it 'profit a man^ if he shall gain the whole world, and

lose his own soul ?" (Matt. xvi. 26.) The man of

the world may be orthodox in his creed and moral in

his practice. But he has stumbled at the very thresh-

old. He has placed the world before God — the body

before the soul — time before eternity.

Every step of advance shows more clearly the

" weary land." Labour, not rest, is our portion. (Chap,

ii. 11, 22.) '' Man ri«eth up early, and late taketh

rest, and eateth the bread of carefulness."'' All things,

even the most cheerful exercises, aix full of labour.

What therefore brings toil, brings only additional

proof that all is vanity. Indeed, in so many ways is

this weariness felt, that man cannot utter it. In all

the inconceivable variety, we are as far from rest, as

the sun, the wind, the rivers, in their respective spheres.

As the Christian philosopher profoundly remarks —

' Our own will, although it should obtain its largest

wish, would always keep us in uneasiness.' " Men

seek, and they find ; and yet they toil again, no nearer

the prize than at the beginning. ay, even the de-

lights enjoyed through the medium of the senses cloy.

Seeing and hearing bring no permanent satisfaction.

(Chap. iv. 8 ; v. 10, 11. Comp. Prov. xxvii. 20 ; xxx.

15, 16.) They would fain describe, if they could, the

bitterness and extent of their disappointment. Men

cry for more and more of the world. But when it

comes, it does not satisfy. Do they ever dream of

rest ? ' Whence arise distractions of heart, thoughts

for to-morrow, rovings and inquisitions of the soul

after infinite varieties of earthly things, swarms of

lusts, sparkles of endless thoughts, those secret Sow-

ings, and ebbs, and tempests, and estuations of that

sea of corruption in the heart of man — but because it

can never find anything on which to rest, or that hath

room enough to entertain so ample and so endless a

guest ?

ever, surely, can there be satisfaction to the eye, till

it be singly fixed upon the one object — to the ear, till it

listen to those breathings of love, which welcome the

" heavy-laden labourer " to the only true rest. (Matt.

xi. 28.) Is it not the real apprehension of the Saviour,

that gives life, energy, and joy to our religion ? The

object is full of fresh and sweet variety. To " the

new creature " it is a new existence ; " all things be-

come new." The appetite is fully satisfied even with

present gratification. " He that cometh to me shall

never hunger ; and he that believeth on me shall never

thirst." (John, vi. 35. Comp. iv. 13, 14.) Eternity

opens with the bright anticipation of perfect enjoy-

ment. The heavenly Shepherd shall be our Feeder.

The living fountain of waters shall be an eternally

satisfying delight. (Rev. vii. 16, 17.)

1G. DAVID RUSSELL SCOTT, M.A. "Let us suppose that by his labour

this profit comes to a man. He gains a substantial

competence ; he becomes rich ; the things that yield

to money, comfort, refined luxury, possessions, the

possibility of satisfying almost any personal desire,

are in his power ; he is a man of substance and has all

the importance of such. Has he, however, by this

increase made any real advance ? Has he gained any

real profit ? It is a simple moral commonplace, which

all men confess with their lips at least, that money is

no guarantee of happiness and that increase of wealth

does not mean increase of the joy of life. Koheleth

knows that well, and, later in the book, we shall see

the truth dramatically and powerfully depicted. In

the pursuit of wealth a man has probably to deny

himself many of the simple pleasures and innocent

enjoyments of life ; he has to " shun delights and live

laborious days," and when the goal is attained he will

look back and wonder whether the result has been

worth all the self-denial ; he has gained his end, but he

has lost much on the way. How many rich men regard

with envy the days of their comparative poverty and

would fain charm back into life the peace and gladness

of earlier times ! o doubt this feeling is in part due

to idealising, to the common tendency to tint the past,

and the future as well, with the rose, and to keep our

sombre colours for the present, but the fact remains,

the present, even with its wealth, retains its sombre hue.

Money provides food and raiment ; it may clothe a

man in purple and fine linen ; it may carry on " the

business" economically, generously or even extrava-

gantly ; it provides for the working expenses of life,

and as riches increase these have a way of increasing

too ; but profit is something over and above the

working expenses, it is the gain which remains when all

these have been fully met, and the question what profit

is there in wealth to a man from all his toil with which

he toils under the sun still remains a question. There

is one satisfaction which money seems to bring to men

in the sense of power. Men with money have power,

and they feel their power and win a certain kind of

happiness out of the feeling. But if the ideal of man-

hood is to be amongst men as one that serveth, and

he that will be greatest among men shall be least of all,

this sense of power is only a barrier between a man and

his ideal, and the money which creates it becomes a

positive evil. What profit is there, then, in money for

all the toil in which a man toils beneath the sun ?

But a man by his labour may win a reputation. But

what is a reputation ? It is a vapour, a mist, a brief

and transitory thing at the best. Should it even last

beyond a man's mortal years, should it place a man

amongst the immortals of the earth, the man himself

will leave his reputation behind, and who knows

whether he will then have any profit or pleasure in it ?

A reputation is a pleasing satisfaction, brief and pre-

carious ; when it is lasting, it comes too late for mortal

to enjoy ; only to a great and self-deluding conceit can

it prove a substantial reward and a real profit for a

man's labour under the sun. Or a man by his work

may bring blessing to others ; he may increase the

happiness in the world and bring comfort and gladness

and freedom to men. The thought has inspired many

a brave and faithful worker ; but there is a fly in the

ointment, for his work may never bring the blessing he

hopes to see : those for whom he works may reckon

little of the blessing ; they may even refuse it, or

simply take it with greedy hands and in their hearts

have no thought of the toil and sacrifice by which it has

come. Social reformers know the bitterness of dis-

appointment.

What profit is there in money, in reputation, in

philanthropy for all the toil in which a man toils under

the sun ? The question still remains a question.

The real value of Koheleth, however, lies in the fact

that he just about hits the mark when he declares that

life and the world are vanity. They are, when viewed

apart from Christ and the light which comes from Him.

Apart from Christ life is vanity and a pursuit after

wind. Christ makes an infinite difference. He revo-

lutionises all values. He turns the vanity into a

glorious privilege. Christ, at the heart of God and in

the world, means that love sits upon the throne of the

universe, that love sustains and guides the world and

has for the world a great and loving purpose. Let a

man have that faith a faith guaranteed in Christ and

revealed by Him he will not say that all is vanity and

a pursuit after wind. His labour will not be in vain in

the Lord. It will be part of love's gift to him, a

communion in love, a means by which the great purpose

of love is being worked out, a high privilege. His

labour will be for the Eternal Kingdom of God. Should

the Kingdom seem to tarry long and its complete

realisation become vague and uncertain, he will, none

the less, find through his work, his duty, and his daily

discipline the Kingdom realising itself in his own heart

and life. His work will bring to him profit, real profit,

something that endures and is of true worth patience,

insight, obedience and peace. The man who works

with faith in some great loving purpose of God works

not in vain. And ature, with its everlasting sameli-

ness, will be changed. The brook may sing its unending

song, as it slips and slides to join the brimming river,

that men may come and men may go, while it goes on

for ever ; but its chatter, chatter, as it flows will be

vocal with love and praise. How sweet and peaceful

the murmuring brook is to the heart that rests in love.

And with Christ there will be at least one new thing.

With Christ, God's redeeming love in his heart, in-

spiring it to a loving and redeeming service, the man

himself will be a new creation. He will have a new

vision of love streaming from an Eternal Sun, and

transforming with its rays his own heart and the whole

world of men and things. He will have the heart of

love which is the heart of immortal youth, and youth

ever finds the world a new place and full of new things.

Decadents, despondents, defeated and disappointed

ones ! from Christ comes in exchange for your spirit

of heaviness the garment of praise and the oil of joy

for mourning.

2. BAR ES, "What profit ... - The question often repeated is the great practical inquiry of the book; it receives its final answer in Ecc_12:13-14. When this question was asked, the Lord had not yet spoken Mat_11:28. The word “profit” (or pre-eminence) is

opposed to “vanity.”

Hath a man - Rather, hath man.

3. CLARKE, "What profit hath a man -What is the sum of the real good he has gained by all his toils in life? They, in themselves, have neither made him contented nor happy.

4. GILL, "Ecclesiastes 1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? This is a general proof of the vanity of all things, since there is no profit arises to a man of all his labour; for, though it is put by way of question, it carries in it a strong negative. All things a man enjoys he gets by labour; for man, through sin, is doomed and born unto it, Job_5:7; he gets his bread by the sweat of his brow, which is a part of the curse for sin; and the wealth and riches got by a diligent hand, with a divine blessing, are got by labour; and so all knowledge of natural and civil things is acquired through much labour and weariness of the flesh; and these are things a man labours for "under the sun", which measures out the time of his labour: when the sun riseth, man goeth forth to his labour; and, by the light and comfortable warmth of it, he performs his work with more exactness and cheerfulness; in some climates, and in some seasons, its heat, especially at noon, makes labour burdensome, which is called, bearing "the heat and burden of the day", Mat_20:12; and, when it sets, it closes the time of service and labour, and therefore the servant earnestly desires the evening shadow, Job_7:2. But now, of what profit and advantage is all this labour man takes under the sun, towards his happiness in the world above the sun? that glory and felicity, which lies in super celestial places in Christ Jesus? none at all. Or, "what remains of all his labour?" (p) as it may be rendered; that is, after death: so the Targum,

"what is there remains to a man after he is dead, of all his labour which he laboured under the sun in this world?''

nothing at all. He goes naked out of the world as he came into it; he can carry nothing away with him of all his wealth and substance he has acquired; nor any of his worldly glory, and grandeur, and titles of honour; these all die with him, his glory does not descend after him; wherefore it is a clear case that all these things are vanity of vanities; see Job_1:21. And, indeed, works of righteousness done by men, and trusted in, and by which they labour to establish a justifying righteousness, are of no profit and advantage to them in the business of justification and salvation; indeed, when these are done from right principles, and with right views, the labour in them shall not be in vain; God will not forget it; it shall have a reward of grace, though not of debt.

5. HE RY, "That they are insufficient to make us happy. And for this he appeals to men's consciences: What profit has a man of all the pains he takes? Ecc_1:3. Observe here, (1.) The business of this world described. It is labour; the word signifies both care and toil. It is work that wearies men. There is a constant fatigue in worldly business. It is

labour under the sun; that is a phrase peculiar to this book, where we meet with it twenty-eight times. There is a world above the sun, a world which needs not the sun, for the glory of God is its light, where there is work without labour and with great profit, the work of angels; but he speaks of the work under the sun, the pains of which are great and the gains little. It is under the sun, under the influence of the sun, by its light and in its heat; as we have the benefit of the light of the day, so we have sometimes the burden and heat of the day (Mat_20:12), and therefore in the sweat of our face we eat bread. In the dark and cold grave the weary are at rest. (2.) The benefit of that business enquired into: What profit has a man of all that labour? Solomon says (Pro_14:23), In all labour there is profit; and yet here he denies that there is any profit. As to our present condition in the world, it is true that by labour we get that which we call profit; we eat the labour of our hands; but as the wealth of the world is commonly called substance, and yet it is that which is not (Pro_22:5), so it is called profit, but the question is whether it be really so or no. And here he determines that it is not, that it is not a real benefit, that it is not a remaining benefit. In short, the wealth and pleasure of this world, if we had ever so much of them, are not sufficient to make us happy, nor will they be a portion for us. [1.] As to the body, and the life that now is, What profit has a man of all his labour? A man's life consists not in an abundance, Luk_12:15. As goods are increased care about them is increased, and those are increased that eat of them, and a little thing will embitter all the comfort of them; and then what profit has a man of all his labour? Early up, and never the nearer. [2.] As to the soul, and the life that is to come, we may much more truly say, What profit has a man of all his labour? All he gets by it will not supply the wants of the soul, nor satisfy its desires, will not atone for the sin of the soul, nor cure its diseases, nor contervail the loss of it; what profit will they be of to the soul in death, in judgment, or in the everlasting state? The fruit of our labour in heavenly things is meat that endures to eternal life, but the fruit of our labour for the world is only meat that perishes.

6. JAMISO , "What profit ... labour— that is, “What profit” as to the chief good (Mat_16:26). Labor is profitable in its proper place (Gen_2:15; Gen_3:19; Pro_14:23).

under the sun— that is, in this life, as opposed to the future world. The phrase often recurs, but only in Ecclesiastes.

7. K&D, "With this verse commences the proof for this exclamation and statement: “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he laboureth in under the sun?!” An interrogative exclamation, which leads to the conclusion that never anything right, i.e.,

real, enduring, satisfying, comes of it.יתרון, profit, synon. with Mothar, Ecc_3:19, is

peculiar to this book (= Aram. יותרן). A primary form, יתרון, is unknown. The punctator

Simson (Cod. 102a of the Leipzig University Lib.f. 5a) rightly blames those who use וי0רון, in a liturgical hymn, of the Day of Atonement. The word signifies that which remains over, either, as here, clear gain, profit, or that which has the pre-eminence, i.e., superiority, precedence, or is the foremost. “Under the sun” is the designation of the

earth peculiar to this book, - the world of men, which we are wont to call the sublunary

world. ש has not the force of an accusative of manner, but of the obj. The author uses the

expression, “Labour wherein I have laboured,” Ecc_2:19-20; Ecc_5:17, as Euripides,

similarly, µοχθε7ν µόχθον. He now proceeds to justify the negative contained in the

question, “What profit?”

8. Mark Twain expressed similar thoughts about the meaningless of life in view of

man’s inevitable death. Shortly before his death, he wrote, “A myriad of men are

born; they labor and sweat and struggle;...they squabble and scold and fight; they

scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them;

infirmities follow; ...those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned

to aching grief. It (the release) comes at last—the only unpoisoned gift earth ever

had for them—and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence,...a

world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.”

9. Dr. W. A. Criswell, "The Pattern of Pessimism: And not only do I read that here

in the word of God, written by the wisest man who ever lived, but I sense that, and I

see that, in all human life and in all human experience; if we accept what we see in

this world as final, it ends in ultimate, and desperate, and deadly despair.

For example, the reward of the best men and the most dedicated men who have ever

lived—what has been the end of their lives? In Florence, Italy, this is the place

where Savonarola was hanged and burned. And not in human history was there

ever a greater devoted man of God than Savonarola. And in the 1400s, that is the

end of the life of that marvelous exponent of the truth of God.

Think again: The main road that leads into Oxford University, into Oxford,

England this is the place, look at it. This is the place where Ridley, Latimer, and

Cranmer were burned at the stake; greatest men of God that mind could think for.

That is the end of their lives.

Or walk through the city of London. This is the city where in the Restoration, in the

1600s under Charles II, John Milton, God’s incomparable poet, was hounded to

death.

Or once again, stand in the jail in Bedford, England. This is the jail where the

Puritan spent twelve and one half years. Why?—because he refused not to preach

the unsearchable gospel of Jesus Christ.

You look at time, and tide, and history, and it brings you to infinite despair. That is

one of the tragic experiences of the men of God. Could there have been a more

worthy profit than Jeremiah?

Cursed be the day in which I was born: that the day not be blessed in which my

mother bore me.

That the man be cursed who brought news to my mother, saying, A male child has

been born to you; making him very glad.

Let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent: let him

hear the cry and the shouting at noon;

Because he did not kill me from the womb; that my mother might have been my

grave, and [her] womb always enlarged.

Or why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days

should be consumed with shame.

10. ROBERT BUCHA A , "

What meaning, then, is it intended that we should put upon

these words'? Obviously such a meaning as shall be in harmony

with the Preacher's fundamental doctrine, that " all is vanity."

All is vanity to the man who seeks his happiness away from

God, and to that man there is no profit in all his labour which

he taketh under the sun. His labour, however unwearied, never

brings him one step nearer his aim. Like that Sisyphus of

whom the fable tells, he is painfully rolling a heavy stone up

the steep mountain's side, and the moment he withdraws his

hand it rushes back to the bottom again. To illustrate this

ceaseless and yet unprofitable toil, a series of beautiful examples

are employed in the verses which follow. First, we are called to

contemplate the fluctuations of the human race, which resemble

the ebb and flow of the ocean's tides, continually advancing and

receding, but never gaining upon the land. " One generation

passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth

abideth for ever." Our fathers, where are they? and the pro-

phets, do they live for ever? The ile still flows in its ancient^

bed, but the Pharaohs who built those massive j^yramids which

continue to throw their evening shadows across its fertilizing

stream are long since forgotten and unknown. The mount

from whose flaming summit the voice of God came forth still

looks down upon the depths ai-ound it and upon the dreary

wilderness beyond, but the tribes and the tents of Israel have

disappeared. The sea of Tiberias still lies embedded, bright and

blue, amid the hills of Galilee and Golan, but the men who

crowded its shores to listen to the voice of One who spake as

never man spake are nowhere to be found. The earth abideth ;

its mountains and plains — its rivers and seas, are substantially

as they were, and where they were, thousands of years ago, but

earth's inhabitants have found upon it no continuing city, nor

any sure place of abode. It has been alternately their cradle

and their grave. There has been a ceaseless coming and going

— continual movement, and yet no progress; no advance made

in the way of gaining a surer footing, a more lasting place, a firmer

hold upon their earthly inheritance. The generation that now

exists, and has the earth at this moment in actual possession,

holds it by a tenure as fleeting and insecure as that which

belonged to the men of Babylon or ineveh, whose cities and

palaces, like themselves, have lain for ages buried in the dust.

But a few short years have to run their course, and of all those

thousand millions of living men who now people this world, not

one solitary surviver will remain. "One generation passeth

away, and another generation cometh ; but the earth," as if in

mockery of man's transient career, "abideth for ever!"

4 Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

1. GLE PEASE, As you read history it is obvious that no generation excapes the

circle of life. It just keeps on going and one passes away and another begins. The

race continues but the individuals do not, and so history does keep repeating itself,

but with a new cast every generation. Walter L. Porter put it this way, "The species

may survive, but the individual never does. The individual is the perpetual and

ultimate victim in this vain world. Life thrives on death, and death thrives on life.

Eat-and-be-eaten is the nature of earthly life. ature is a dog-eat-dog existence, a

competitive survival of the fittest, and the individual never survives; each one

ultimately succumbs. Every generation must face the same hopeless vanity, Solomon

found, because it is the nature of the system, and the system never changes. It is a

fixed order." There is no escape from this circle of life in history, but we have a

generation in Christ that will never pass away, but enjoy his presence, and one

another for all eternity. Only under the sun is the poet Catullus right-

Suns that set again may rise;

When once our fleeting light,

Over our day in darkness dies,

Sleep in our eternal night.

1B. Jacox has compiled many testimonies to the truth of what Solomon is saying in

this verse. He wrote, "HE that preached vanity of vanities, all is vanity, opened

that discourse with a contrast between fleeting man

and the abiding earth. The sons of men come and go ; they

appear for a little while, and then vanish away ; but the scene

of their brief show is a fixture, and the stage they strut upon

till the curtain falls is no mere vanishing quantity, no mere

dissolving view, like themselves. " One generation passeth

away, and another generation cometh : but the earth abideth

for ever." The contrast seems almost a cruel one between the

material dwelling-place and the spiritual dwellers therein ; it

abideth, but they abide not ; the round world hath its founda-

tions so sure that they cannot be moved, but the races that

people it are hurried off the scene, and for them there is no

stay. Even within their sorry space of existence they have

time, some of them, to grow feeble and old, to outlive their

health and strength, to exchange comeliness for wrinkles,

and bloom for decay. But the earth abideth as it was — its

canopy of skies as blue as of yore, its rush of rivers as fresh

and free, its encompassing seas as buoyant as ever

Whatever poets may say to the contrary, urges one who might

claim to be a prose-poet. ature is not sympathetic : rather is

she very insolent to us in her triumphant, durable beauty ;

and she loves to say to us, " Though you are weeping, my eyes

are dry ; though you are very sick and feeble, I am strong

and fair ; though you are most short-lived, here to-day and

gone to-morrow, I am eternal, I endure." Generations come

and go, live out their little life, and descend in common to

dusty death, come like shadows, so depart ; but the earth

abideth. A Cornhill essayist loves to think that the air we

breathe through our open window is the same that wandered

through Paradise before Eve was there to inhale it; that the

primroses which grow in our dear old woods are such as

decked the banks before sin and death came into the world ;

and that our children shall find them, neither better nor worse,

when our names are clean forgotten. Owen Meredith, in one

place apostrophizing ature, exclaims,

"On the winds, as of old,

Thy voice in its accent is joyous and bold ;

Thy forests are green as of yore ; and thine oceans

Yet move in the might of their ancient emotions."

As again in another place he calls the sun

"changeless, as when,

Ere he lit down to death generations of men,

O'er that crude and ungainly creation, which there

With wild shapes the cloud-world seems to mimic in air,

The eye of Heaven's all-judging witness, he shone,

And shall shine on the ages we reach not."

So Churchill, in very different metre and manner, sings of how

the same stars keep their watch, and the same sun runs in the

track where he from first hath run ; " the same moon rules

the night; tides ebb and flow; Man is a puppet, and this

world a show." The saying of some people that there is no

antiquity like that of nature, is disputed by Hartley Cole-

ridge : ature, indeed, has her antiquities, he says ; but they

are not the sun, the moon, and the stars, nor the overflowing

ocean, nor the eternal hills : these are all exempt from time,

and are no older now than when angels sang hallelujahs at

their creation. It is of La ahire that Charles Perrault

smoothly and soothly sings or says, '

The passions of men may, as Gerald Griffin says, convulse the

frame of society, and centuries of ignorance, of poverty, and of

civil strife may succeed to ages of science and thrift and peace;

but still the mighty mother holds her course unchanged : spring

succeeds winter, and summer spring, and all the harmonies of

her great system move on through countless aeons with the

same unvarying serenity of purpose. " God bless them ! "

cried Southey, of the lakes and mountains to which he got

back in 1803 : "I look with something like awe and envy at

their unchangeableness." They say the Highlands are changed,

exclaims Scott's Highland Widow, " but I see Ben Cruachan

rear his crest as high as ever into the evening sky." Come,

bids us one of ature's poets,

** Come, let us laugh at the old worldly modes,

And seek new life in ature's deathless power.

We'll leave the dust upon the beaten roads,

And in the meadows look upon the flower

Fresh as it ever bloom'd in Eden's bower."

And then, star-gazing, —

' * Ye fixed ones, what eye hath seen you stir

Since mark'd by Chaldee old, your ancient chronicler?

* * * * *

Still are ye deathless beacon-lights to Pain,

And watchful Sorrow. Thrones arise and sink,

Earth is transform'd beneath you ; ye remain,

Clasping distracted man with Order's sacred chain. "

Hood's ode to the Moon closes with an Amen, " So let it be : —

Before I lived to sigh, Thou wert in Avon, and a thousand

rills, Beautiful orb ! and so, whene'er I lie Trodden, thou wilt

be gazing from thy hills." Herr Teufelsdrockh, gazing up-

wards at the stars, muses on the thousands of human genera-

tions, all as noisy as our own, that have been swallowed up of

Time, and of whom there remains no wreck any more ; while

Arcturus and Orion and Sirius and the Pleiades are still

shining in their courses, clear and young, as when the shepherd

first noted them in the plain of Shinar.

" Fool'd was the human vanity that wrote

Strange names in astral fire on yonder pole.

Who and what are they — in what age remote —

That scrawl'd weak boasts on yon siderial scroll ?

Orion shines. ow seek for imrod. Where ?

Osiris is a fable, and no more :

But Sirius burns as brightly as of yore.

There is no shade on Berenice's hair.

* * * * *¦

Man knows no more than this : that you are still,

But he is moved : he goes, but you remain."

From Wordsworth's Churchyard among the Mountains we over-

hear at dusk the voice of a pensive gazer at the planet Jupiter,

that hung above the centre of the vale : it said, " That glorious

star, in its untroubled element will shine as now it shines, when

we are laid in earth, and safe from all our sorrows." In like

mood muses the Rydal bard himself at twilight, saying of his

surroundings. Thus did the waters gleam, the mountains lower,

to the rude Briton wandering in wolf-skin attire ; and by him

was seen the same vision of mighty barriers and enclosed gulf,

" the flood, the stars, — a spectacle as old as the beginning of

the heavens and earth !" A Somersetshire archaeologist pictures

for us a bit of local scenery from an unfathomable antiquity

downwards, and during the later Pliocene bone-cave period we

are instructed to feel ourselves at home, for the trees, and even

the mosses, and probably also the wild flowers, are the same :

even the main features of the landscape are identical : " The

Quantocks, and the Mendips, and the Blackdowns are still

overlooking the level plain at their feet." It is a common-

place with sojourners in Rome to glorify the view shut in by

the Alban mountains, looking just the same amid all the

decay and changes of "the eternal city," as when Romulus

gazed thitherward over his half-finished wall. So with the

unshaken snow on the brow of Delphi,

*' High and eternal, such as shone

Through thousand summers brightly gone,

Along the gulf, the mount, the clime ;

It will not melt, like man, to time."

States fall, arts fade, but ature doth not die, as Childe Harold

has it. Leaning over a parapet and watching the flow of the

Rhine, Walter in the Golden Legend exclaims,

** Yes, there it flows, for ever, broad and still,

As when the vanguard of the Roman legions

First saw it from the top of yonder hill."

Much it strikes the youthful Gneschen as he sits by the Kuhbach,

one silent noontide, and watches it flowing, gurgling, to think

how this same streamlet had flowed and gurgled, through all

changes of weather and of fortune, from beyond the earliest

date of history. " Yes, probably on the morning when Joshua

forded Jordan ; even as at the midday when Caesar, doubtless

with difficulty, swam the ile, yet kept his ' Commentaries '

dry, — this little Kuhbach, assiduous as Tiber, Eurotas, or Siloa,

was murmuring on across the wilderness, as yet unnamed,

unseen ; here, too, as in the Euphrates and the Ganges, is a

vein or veinlet of the grand World-circulation of Waters, which,

with its atmospheric arteries, has lasted and lasts simply with

the World. Thou fool ! ature alone is antique, and the oldest

art a mushroom ; that idle crag thou sittest on is six thousand

years of age." In silence lies Wordsworth's old Matthew,

and eyes the stream beneath the tree, till he too finds voice

in song :

* ' o check, no stay, this streamlet fears :

How merrily it goes !

Twill murmur on a thousand years.

And flow as now it flows."

198 OLD OCEA EVER YOU G.

Low they dug Lord Marmion's grave, even where he lay when

he fell; but every mark of it, his minstrel tells us, is gone :

Time's wasting hand has done away the simple Cross of Sybil

Gray, and broke his font of stone ;

" But from out the little hill

Oozes the slender springlet still."

Barry Cornwell's Thought on a Rivulet begins, " Look at this

brook, so blithe, so free ! Thus hath it been, fair boy, for

ever — a shining, dancing, babbling river ; and thus 'twill ever

be.

'Twill run, from mountain to the main,

With just the same sweet babbling voice

That now sings out, ' Rejoice, rejoice ! '

Perhaps 'twill be a chain,

That will a thousand years remain —

Aye, through all times and changes last,

And link the present with the past."

We talk of " old " ocean, hoary ocean ; " I cannot associate

age with it," protests one of America's foremost writers : '^ it is

too buoyant, animated, living : its crest of foam is not hoariness,

but the breaking forth of life." Ocean to him is perpetual

youth. The sea, as another transatlantic man of genius de-

scribes it, drowns out humanity and time ; it has no sympathy

with either ; " for it belongs to eternity, and of that it sings its

monotonous song for ever and ever." He calls it a " great liquid

metronome " that beats its solemn measure, steadily swinging

when the solo or duet of human life began, and to swing

just as steadily after the human chorus has died out and man

is a fossil on its shores. • Mr. Kingsley, in one of his studies

on the coast of orth Devon, has a similar rhapsody, but does

not forget the Apocalypse in his finale : he pictures for us

green columns of wave which rush mast-high up the perpen-

dicular walls, and then fall back and outwards in a waterfall of

foam, lacing the black rocks with a thousand snowy streams :

there they fall, and leap, and fall again; and so they did

yesterday, and the day before ; " and so they did centuries

ago, when the Danes swept past them, battle-worn, . . . from

THE SEA U TOUCHED BY TIME. 199

the fight at Appledore. ... Ay, and even so they leapt and

fell, before a sail gleamed on the Severn sea, when the shark

and the ichthyosaur paddled beneath the shade of tropic

forests — now scanty turf and golden gorse. And so they will

leap and fall, on, on through the centuries and the ages. Oh,

dim abyss of Time, into which we peer shuddering, what will

be the end of thee, and of this ceaseless coil and moan of

waters? It is true, that when thou shalt be no more, then,

too, ' there shall be no more sea.' " Meanwhile,

" Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee —

Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they ?

Thy waters wasted them while they were free,

And many a tyrant since ; their shores obey

The stranger, slave, or savage ; their decay ^

Has dried up realms to deserts : — not so thou,

Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play —

Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow,

Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now."

The penultimate line was scarcely improved when expanded

by Mr. Robert jMontgomery into the couplet,

* '' And thou, vast Ocean, on whose awful face

Time's iron feet can print no ruin-trace."

In the journal that Francis Jeffrey kept during his voyage

to America in 181 3, we find reflections on man leaving no

traces of himself on the watery part of the globe : he has

stripped the land of its wood, and clothed it with corn and

cities; he has changed its colour, its inhabitants, and all its

qualities; and over it he seems, indeed, to have dominion;

but the sea is as wild and unsubdued as on the first day of its

creation. " It is just as desert and unaltered in all particulars

as before its bed was created; and would be, after his race

was extinct. either time nor art make any alteration here."

Continents are worn down and consolidated, and the forests

grow up or rot into bog, by the mere lapse of ages ; but the

great expanses of the ocean continue with the same surface

and the same aspect for ever, and are, in this respect, to

Jeffrey's thinking, "the most perfect specimen of antiquity,

OLD OCEA EVER YOU G.

and carry back the imagination the farthest into the dark

abysses of time passed away." It is pleasant to see the old

Scottish judge in retreat at Skelmorlie, an old castle on the

Clyde, in after years, toying with " the shells and pebbles that

engaged the leisure of Scipio and Lselius, in a world in which

nothing was like our world but the said shells and pebbles,

and the minds of virtuous men resting from their labours."

So is it to see Dr. Channing, in decline and decay, writing

gratefully from his dear native Rhode Island, when seeking

rest there, and finding it : " Whilst the generation with which

I grew up has disappeared, nature is the same ; and even when

a boy, it seems to me that my chief interest clung to the fields,

the ocean, the beach." He is struck, during another visit,

amid other so many and great changes, with the continuance

of the order and beauty of the natural world, and sees in this

a manifestation of the immutableness of God, and a pledge

of the duration of " that principle which is nobler than nature,

the human soul." Madame de Stael delights to recall the

soul's "purest of emotions, religion," while gazing at that

superb spectacle, the sea, on which man never left his trace.

He may plough the earth, she says, and cut his way through

mountains, or construct rivers into canals, for the transport

of his merchandise ; but if his fleets for a moment furrow the

ocean, its waves as instantly efface this slight mark of servitude,

and it again appears as it was on the first day of its creation.

There is no writing a wrinkle on that brow, whether by man

the mariner or Time the destroyer.

" Old Ocean was

Infinity of ages ere we breathed

Existence — and he will be beautiful

When all the living world that sees him now

Shall roll unconscious dust around the sun.

Quelling from age to age the vital throb

In human hearts, Death shall not subjugate

The pulse that swells in his stupendous breast,

Or interdict his minstrelsy to sound

In thundering concert with the quiring winds."

But perpetual youth is not the exclusive prerogative of Old

AGE OF THE EARTH. 201

Ocean, perversely so-called. A traveller to Petra, exploring

its ruins, turns from regarding the works of man there, all

time-worn and decayed — statue and inscription, form, name,

and story alike gone — to discourse upon the products of

nature as alone perennial; for while the monuments of man

are all spoiled, the deUcate branches of the caper-plant hang

down as fresh and beautiful from the chinks in the rock as

they did two thousand years ago ; and the foliage of the wild

fig and tamarisk are as rich, we are told, " and the flower of

the oleander as gaudy, as they were when the Princes of Edom

dwelt in the clefts of the rocks, and held in pride the height

of the hill." o wonder if poets love to identify the strain of

song-birds in the dim past and the very present : thus Keats

with the nightingale —

' ' Thou wast nof born for death, immortal Bird !

o hungry generations tread thee down ;

The voice I hear this passing night was heard

In ancient days by emperor and clown ;

Perhaps the selfsame song that found a path

Through the sad tears of Ruth, when sick for home,

She stood in tears amid the alien corn."

And so Hood of the skylark, when he gladdens to think that.

after ages of sorrow and wrong, the scorn of the proud, the

misrule of the strong, and all the woes that to man belong,

" The lark still carols the selfsame song

That he did to the uncursed Adam."

Of the Earth herself, however, some poets incline to speak

as if she were even past " a certain age " — which phrase may

be taken to imply a certainly advanced age, but uncertainly

how far advanced. Philosophers rather than poets should be

the authority in such a question ; and the doctors differ.

Father Prout, indeed, contends that there is often more strict

logic, and more downright common sense, in a poet's view of

ature and her works, than in the gravest and most elaborate

disquisitions of soi-disant philosophy ; and he cites with appro-

bation Chateaubriand's protest against those who regard the

earth as an old toothless hag, bearing in every feature the

202 IS THE EARTH OLD- AGED?

traces of caducity; a protest followed up by a surmise (prae-

scientific, or anti-scientific, or both) that the earth may have

been designedly created with " the marks of age on its hoary

surface." Did not the Creator, he asks, understand the effect

and beauty of what we are agreed to call the picturesque ?

"Sans cette vieillesse originaire il n'y aurait eu ni pompe ni

majeste dans I'univers." The present question concerns, how-

ever, not the positive geological age of our planet, or any

amount of millions and billions of years more or less, but the

" certain " or uncertain age she has reached in point of

maturity; whether life and hope are as yet young with her,

and the world all before her, and she still in her teens ; or

whether she is decaying and waxing old, and therefore more

or less ready, as senescent, to vanish away. Several years

ago, some person or other — " in fact, I believe it was myself,"

Mr. de Quincey quaintly says — published a paper from the

German of Kant, on the age of our own little Earth — meaning,

not the positive amount of years through which she may have

existed, fifty milHons for instance, but the period of life, the

"stage," which she may be supposed to have reached. Is

she a child, in fact, or is she an adult ? Lady Mary Wortley

Montagu, in one of her letters, affirms the world to be past

its infancy, and no longer to be contented with spoon-meat.

" I imagine we are now arrived at that period which answers

to fifteen. I cannot think we are older, when I recollect the

many probable follies which are still (almost) universally per-

sisted in : I place that of war as senseless as the boxing of

schoolboys, and whenever we come to man's estate (perhaps

a thousand years hence) I do not doubt it will appear as

ridiculous as the pranks of unlucky lads." M. Guizot reckons

civilization to be as yet very young, and alleges of it and of

society, that whatever the length of the road they have come,

t*hey have incomparably farther to go. Old-fashioned Owen

Feltham opined, in his day, that the world had reached its

middle age when it was " somewhat more than four thousand

years old " — " though considering that there are promises that

the latter days shall be shortened, we cannot expect that it

IS THE EARTH OLD- AGED? 203

should endure for a like extent of time from that period."

He knew not, he added, what certain grounds they had who

pretended to foretell the particular time of the world's confla-

gration ; but surely, in reason, and nature, the end could not

be very far distant. "We have seen its infancy, its youth,

its virility, all past; nay, we have seen it well advanced in

declining years, the most infallible forerunner of a dissolu-

tion." He seems to see it as in t"he figure poetized by Lovel

Beddoes, of

"some aged, patient globe,

Whose gaunt sides no summers robe,

That like a prisoner through his grate,

Shivering in despair doth wait

For sunbeams broken, old, and pale."

Montaigne, on the other hand, ridiculed those who vainly

conclude the decline and decrepitude of the world by the

arguments we extract from our own weakness and decay :

Jamqiie adeo est affecta cetas, effcefaque telliis. The opposite

argument of Lucretius has been rudely Englished,

" But sure the nature of the world is strong,

Perfect and young ; nor can I think it long

Since it beginning took, because we know

Arts still increase, and still politer grow."

Who shall say that this old earth is near its decadence?

exclaims Dr. Wynter. " Why, it has only just been endowed

with its nervous system ; its muscles, if Ave may so term the

steam-engine, have only been just set in motion ; and its

locomotive powers, the railway and steamship, have only just

found out the full use of their legs. In brain, nerve, and

limb, it is but just emerging from its helpless infancy." The

American Autocrat of the Breakfast-table tells us he should

have felt more nervous about the late comet, if he had

thought the world was ripe : " But it is very green yet, if I

am not mistaken ; and besides, there is a great deal of coal

to use up, which I cannot bring myself to think was made

for nothing." The comet allusion reminds us of De Quincey's

sportive speculation as to the comparative age of our planet :

204 VEXED QUESTIO OF

whereas some think her in that stage of her life which cor-

responds to the playful period of twelve or thirteen in a

spirited girl, his impression rather inclines him to represent

the Earth as a fine noble young woman, full of the pride

which is so becoming to her sex, and well able to take her

own part, " in case that, in any solitary point of the heavens,

she should come across one of those vulgar fussy Comets,

disposed to be rude." He professes to perfectly abominate

those who place our Earth in the catagory of decaying, nay,

of decayed women — who absolutely fancy themselves to see

hair like arctic snows, failure of vital heat, palsy that shakes

the head as in the porcelain toys on our mantlepieces, and

asthma that shakes the whole fabric. " They absolutely hear

the tellurian lungs wheezing, panting, crying ' Bellows to

mend !' periodically as the Earth approaches her aphelion."

Elsewhere, again, he contends that if the Earth were on her

last legs, we her children could not be very strong or healthy.

" If our mother could, with any show of reason, be considered

an old decayed lady, snoring stertorously in her arm-chair,

there would naturally be some arottia of phthisis, or apoplexy,

beginning to form about us, that are her children." But is

there? He trows not. Is it likely, is it plausible, he asks,

that we children of Earth should just begin to find out effec-

tive methods by steam of traversing land and sea, when the

human race had a summons to leave both ?

A writer in the Times^ within the last decade, made a bit of

a sensation at the time by announcing that age was beginning

to tell upon the earth ; that its crust had got very dry ; that

its mould was not what it used to be ; that its natural covering

had become very thin in some places, and had quite dis-

appeared in others; in short, that, partly from having lived

too fast, partly in the ordinary course of things, this poor old

world of ours was rapidly becoming bald. It was an agricultural

warning ; and people were staggered at first. We all knew, as

one of his critics conceded, that it would be nonsense to pre-

tend our world was in the first bloom of its youth : even by

its own confession, it was not by any means a chicken, if

that phrase can be applied to a member of the solar system :

geology had hinted that it might be a good deal older than we

suspected — that there was something wrong about the dates

in the parish register ; and, in short, every one was walling to

admit that, as Falstaff puts it, "though not clean past its youth,

it had some smack of age in it, some relish of the saltness of

time." But we were not prepared for the statement that our

world was breaking down, or getting ready for its "lait de

poule et bonnet de nuit." We considered it, in the words of

a Saturday Reviewer, to be "a globe that was wearing well —

that might spin down the ringing grooves of change, take

a part in the music of the spheres, and indulge generally in

the amusements of planetary society for ages to come, with-

out any imputation of levity unbecoming its years." And by

general consent the idea of the earth's decrepitude seems to

have been put aside. "I believe the world grows near its

end," wrote Sir Thomas Browne, two centuries since; "yet

is neither old nor decayed, nor will ever perish upon the

ruins of its own principles" — that is, it will undergo mutation,

not annihilation. La Bruyere favoured the notion of the

world lasting " only," say, a hundred millions of years ; and

if so, it is yet in all its freshness, and is but just beginning.

If one may judge of the future by the past, he went on to

say, what novelties unknown are in store for us in the arts,

in the sciences, in nature, and in history; what discoveries

await us; what a variety of revolutions on the face of tlie

earth, in states and in empires ! What ignorance is ours, and

how shallow the experience that only dates back some six

thousand years ! Montesquieu, in his Lettres Persanes, touches

on current conjectures as to the decline of population, and

the comparative barrenness of this earth. "Seroit-elle deja

dans sa vieillesse? et tomberoit-elle de langueur?" We see

many regions exhausted of the power to yield sustenance to

man, he says ; and for all we can tell, the earth at large may

be suffering from causes gmerales, lentes et impej'ceptibles de

lassitude. Goldsmith's travelled Chinese, a sort of correlative

or counterpart in idea and in action to Montesquieu's travelled

2o6 EARTH'S ALLEGED DECREPITUDE.

Persian, speculates with something of trepidation on the senes

cence of the solar system in full, and dreads as all too near

the time when the motions of the planets may become so

irregular as to need repairing ; and a pang seems to afflict him

in seeing that, as Byron puts it, the brow

'' Of Earth is wrinkled by the sins and tears

Of— but Chronology best knows the years."

Old Scottish divines, of the time and the type of Rutherford

and Binning, argued that the properly instructed, who saw

ature as she really was, knew that as she, for about five

thousand years had been constantly on the move, her vigour

was wellnigh spent, and her pristine energy had departed.

" This is the world's old age ; it is declining ; albeit it seems

a fair and beautiful thing in the eyes of them who know no

better, and unto them who are of yesterday and know nothing,

it looks as if it had been created yesterday ; yet the truth is,

and a believer knows, it is near the grave." "The creation

now is an old rotten house that is all dropping through and

leaning to the one side." Despite such doctrine, the first gush

of spring is confessedly as balmy and as exhilarating to us as it

was to Lucretius ; and man walks from generation to generation

with the same skies and stars over him, and the same gales. of

Eden breathing spring after spring on his face.

" ature surely never ranges,

e'er quits her gay and flowery crown ;

But, ever joyful, merely changes

The primrose for the thistle-down.

'Tis we alone who, waxing old,

Look on her with an aspect cold,

Dissolve her in our burning tears,

Or clothe her with the mists of years."

Shaftesbury maintains of " this Mother-Earth, that though ever

breeding, her vigour is as great, her beauty as fresh, and her

looks as charming, as if she newly came out of the forming

hands of her Creator." What though Samuel Rutherford

assert that the lilies and roses had "more sweetness of beauty

and smell, before the sin of man made them vanity-sick " ? If

A FALLACIOUS FLORAL A ALOGY. 207

so, is not the change in man, not in them? Keble, in the

Christia?i Year, remembering the Divine monition to consider

the lilies, hails them as relics

" of Eden's bowers,

As pure, as fragrant, and as fair,

As when they crown'd the sunshine hours

Of happy wanderers there.

Fall'n all beside ....

But cheerful and unchanged the while

Their first and perfect form they show,

The same that won Eve's matron smile

In the world's opening glow."

As of men, so of flowers, one generation cometh and another

goeth, while the earth abideth for ever. It was once a favourite

fallacy to infer man's renewed existence from analogy with the

reflorescence, each returning spring, of the flowers of the field.

One might apply to the fallacious analogy the words of the

Man of Uz : " There is hope of a tree, if it be cut do^vn, that

it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof wall

not cease. . . . But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man

giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" There is hope, in

the case of the tree, of a fresh crop of leaves, while the trunk

remains alive ; but not of the same leaves. So there are ever

appearing new human lives here on earth, while the human

race itself, the original stock, continues in existence; but the

same men, once dead and gone, do not reappear. It is a

fresh set of men, as it is a fresh set of leaves. ot by such

floral analogies is the resurrection of the dead to be plausibly

maintained. A description of Esther Craven straying lonely

in ovember along the " steaming tree-caverned wood-paths —

the solemn charnels of the dead summer nations of leaves and

flowers," expands into a reflection on Miss Broughton's part

touching the fondness preachers show for drawing a parallel

between ourselves and those forest leaves ; telling us that, as

in the autumn they fall, rot, are dissolved, and mingle together,

stamped down and shapeless, in brown confusion, and yet in

the spring come forth again fresh as ever ; so shall we — who,

in our autumn, die, rot, and are not — come forth again in

2o8 A FALLACIOUS FLORAL A ALOGY.

our distant spring, in lordly beauty and gladness. " So speak-

ing, whether thinkingly or unthinkingly, they equivocate — they

lie ! * It is not the same leaves that reappear ; others like

them burst from their sappy buds, and burgeon in the ' green-

haired woods ; ' but not they — not they ! They stir not, nor

is there any movement among the sodden earth-mass that

was them [sic]." If the parallel be complete, she goes on to

say, others like us, — others as good, as fair as we — but yet

not 7ve — " other than us, shall break forth in lusty youth, in

their strong May-time ; but 7^ie shall rot on ! " Homer's simili-

tude is as perennial as its subject —

" Like leaves of trees the race of man is found,

ow green in youth, now with 'ring on the ground ;

Another race the following spring supplies,

They fall successive, and successive rise. "

Another race, not the same. But certainly both preachers and

poets, preaching poets in particular and poetical preachers,

have been, if they are not still, given to assume identity, in

their analogical arguments. So Hurdis, when arguing from

the return of spring a future resurrection for man : Will the

great God, who thus by annual miracle restores the perished

year, and youth and beauty gives by resurrection strange,

where none was asked, leave only man to be the scorn of

time and sport of death ? So Beattie :

' ' Shall I be left abandon'd in the dust,

"When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive ?

* -K- * *

o ; Heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive ;

And man's majestic beauty bloom again,

Bright thro' th' eternal year of Love's triumphant reign."

And in his Hermit the same bard gives expression to the sombre

utterance, involving the fallacy in question, —

" or yet for the ravage of winter I mourn ;

Kind nature the embryo blossom will save.

But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?

Oh, when shall it dawn on the night of the grave ? "

* The lady's lie -giving reminds one of Byron's,

" I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies ! "

DEAD FLOWERS SUPPOSED TO LIVE AGAI . 209

With which plaint the note of a later minstrel, his theme the

Mystery of Evil, is in tune :

*' And then ' Resurgam ' on those tombs was writ,

Though, when man once was hidden in their glooms,

I saw him never with life's spark relit :

Yet from their silken graves the very worms did flit."

Wordsworth's sonnet in Lombardy closes mth a reverse of this

last figure — an old man bent by a load of mulberry leaves being

his theme, and Man and Worm compared and contrasted : ere-

long their fates do each to each conform : " both pass into new

being, — but the Worm, transfigured, sinks into a hopeless grave ;

his volant spirit \nll, he trusts, ascend to bHss unbounded, glory

without end." Hood falls in \\'ith the current notion of flower

privilege, in his Ode to Melancholy :

" Is't not enough to vex our souls,

And fill our eyes, that we have set

Our love upon a rose's leaf,

Our hearts upon a violet ?

Blue eyes, red cheeks, are frailer yet ;

And, sometimes, at their svrih decay

Beforehand we must fret :

The roses bud and bloom again ;

But love may haunt the grave of love,

And watch the mould in vain."

Chateaubriand finishes a chapter of his d' outre-tombe memoirs

with an apostrophe to a little wood-pink resting on his table

among his papers : " Thou wilt spring forth again, little wood-

pink — thou whose late blossom blooms among the heather " —

but we, nous autres, "we shall not live again upon this earth

as will the sweet and solitary- flower." Delta (Moir) sings over

his loved lost Casy Wappy that snows muffled earth when he

left it in life's spring^^loom, but now '" the green leaves of the

tree return — but with them bring not thee " :

' ' 'Tis so ; but can it be — (while flowers

Revive again) —

Man's doom, in death that we and ours

For aye remain ?

Oh, can it be, that, o'er the grave.

The grass renew'd should yearly wave,

Yet God forget our child to save?"

14

2IO DEAD FLOWERS ASSUMED TO LIVE AGAI ,

The same note of interrogation, of deprecation, almost of ex-

postulation, rings through the closing stanzas of W. Caldwell

Roscoe's lines written after his sister's death :

*' What ! shall the faithful God who leads

The long revolving year — ,

Who in His bosom warms the seeds,

And breathes on ature's bier, —

Let lapse in earth our mortal goal —

This life, our seed immortal ?

Or this diviner spring — our soul,

Let freeze in Death's cold portal ? "

Abu Abdallah offered to his American visitor the rose ol

Jericho as a proof positive of man's immortality : in due

season the rose withers and dies, but also in due time it —

but what " it " ? — revives : " The little shapeless mass became

a miracle indeed. . . . The roots had expanded, the leaves

had unfolded, life and breath had returned to the dead child

of the Sahara, and the very blossoms began to show, and to

rival the faint rosy tints of the evening sun. — I never," adds

Mr. De Vere, "forgot that lesson of immortality — I never

forgot that Rose of Jericho. On my return to Europe I

learned that botanists called it ' Anastatica,' the flower of

the resurrection."* But the analogy should be of individual

man with each several flower; the root corresponds to the

human stock or race. That abides, but the individual man

dies off like the several leaves or blossoms of each succeed-

ing year, and those several leaves or blossoms revive not with

reviving spring.

" Ah. friends ! methinks it were a pleasant sphere,

If, like the trees, we blossom'd every year,"

sings Leigh Hunt. But what he sees, and presently goes on to

say or sing, is applicable to our purpose :

" Besides, this tale of youth that comes again,

Is no more true of apple-trees than men.

The Swedish sage, the ewton of the flow'rs,

Who first found out those worlds of paramours,

* Leaves from the Book of 'ature, by M. S. De Vere.

Tells us, that every blossom that we see

Boasts in its walls a separate family ;

So that a tree is but a sort of stand,

That holds these filial fairies in its hand."

Young is within his right when he tells how day follows night,

and gray winter gives place to soft spring, and all, to reflourish,

fades : as in a wheel, all sinks, to reascend ; " emblem of man,

who passes, not expires."' But man is here the stock, the race,

not the individual. Young was verging on the misleading

analogy when he proceeded to ask, Can it be that matter is

immortal and that spirit dies, and

" Shall man alone, for whom all- else revives,

o resurrection know ? Shall man alone,

Imperial man ! be sown in barren ground.

Less privileged than grain, on which he feeds, . . .

Severely doom'd death's single unredeem'd ? "

Redeunt jam gramina campis, Arbor ibiisque comce : . . . os,

ubi decidimus . . . Fuh'is d umbra siimus. Spring after winter

is life coming back to a dead world : it is a resurrection. But

all this species of analogy and illustration, valuable as it is in

the way of suggestiveness, is, in Frederick Robertson's words,

" worth nothing in the way of proof" It may be worth every-

thing to the heart, in so far as it strengthens the dim guesses

and vague intimations which the heart has formed already \ but

it is, he insists, worth nothing to the intellect ; for the moment

w^e come to argue the matter, we find how little there is to rest

upon in these analogies. '^ They are no real resurrections after

all: they only look like resurrections." To take a simile as

much in favour as the flowers of the forest— the chrysalis only

seemed* dead, just as the tree in winter only seemed to have

lost its vitality. What is wanted to show is a butterfly which

has been dried and crushed, fluttering its brifliant wings next

year again — or a tree that has been plucked up by the roots

and seasoned by exposure, the vital force really killed out,

putting forth its leaves again. We should then, it is admitted,

have a real parallel to a resurrection. But not until then.

1C. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D., "This can hardly indeed be called a figure. It is

rather a simple statement of fact. It affords, however,

a striking illustration of the general sentiment. — The

coming and going of successive generations, presents

a scene of endless variety ; yet it is itself fixed and un-

varying ; — the unalterable destiny of man. There is

nothing that impresses more afifectingly on the mind

the '^ vanity" of human life, than the perpetual change

of tenants that is taking place in this world of ours ;

—a change which goes on without interruption; —

the scene presenting the same general aspects, whilst

the actors in it are ever shifting; — the house remain-

ing the same, but the lodgers continually varying. — =

*' The Earth remainethyc>ret;fr ;" — that is, throughout

these successive generations of men ; — presenting to

the eye the same appearances, performing the same

daily and yearly revolutions, exhibiting the same alter-

nations of " seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat,

and summer and winter, and day and night,"* going

on, from generation to generation, in its old original

courses, whilst every thirty years it receives a race of

new inhabitants ; — and that, not by a periodical sweep-

ing away, and a periodical creation, but on the princi-

ple of an average, calculated from numbers at every

period of life, at every individual moment perhaps of

*• the three-score years and ten ;" — by which arrange-

ment, the variety, whilst it is the more incessant, is yet,

the less perceptible, and the uniformity, though in re-

ality not so constant, presents still more of the appear-

ance of unchanging sameness. — The perpetual stability

of the earth is nothing, alas ! to man. Each individual

can only occupy it his short appointed time, and must

then give place to a successor : and in the breasts of

the " men of the world, 'who have their portion in this

life," the truth expressed in this verse can engender no

feelings but those of indignant fretfulncss and morti-

fication. The permanence of the earth is but a tanta-

lizing assurance to the man, who has it not in his

power, however eagerly he may desire it, to continue

on it as a permanent resident. Happy they, who " con-

fess themselves strangers and pilgrims on earth, and

desire a better country, even a heavenly :" who are

heirs of '"' an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and

that fadeth not away."

1D. Edward Fitzgerald in his free translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

wrote these lines:

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety and Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

or all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

Yon rising Moon that looks for us again -

How oft hereafter will she wax and wane;

How oft hereafter rising look for us

Through this same Garden - and for one in vain.

2. BAR ES, "Vanity is shown in mankind, the elements, and all that moves on earth; the same course is repeated again and again without any permanent result or real progress; and events and people alike are forgotten.

Abideth - The apparent permanence of the earth increases by contrast the transitory condition of its inhabitants.

Ever - The word does not here absolutely signify “eternity” (compare Ecc_3:11 note),

but a certainly short period (compare Exo_21:6): here it might be paraphrased “as long as this world, this present order of things, lasts.”

3. CLARKE, "One generation passeth away -Men succeed each other in unceasing generations: but the earth is still the same; it undergoes no change that leads

to melioration, or greater perfection. And it will continue the same לעולם leolam, during

the whole course of time; till the end of all things arrives.

4. GILL, "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh,.... This shows that a man can have no profit of all his labour under the sun, because of his short continuance; as soon almost as he has got anything by his labour, he must leave it: not only particular persons, but families, nations, and kingdoms; even all the inhabitants of the world, that are contemporaries, live together in the same age, in a certain period of time; these gradually go off by death, till the whole generation is consumed, as the generation of the Israelites in the wilderness were. Death is meant by passing away; it is a going out of time into eternity; a departure out of this world to another; a quitting of the earthly house of this tabernacle for the grave, the house appointed for all living; it is man's going to his long home: and this is going the way of all the earth; in a short time a whole race or generation of men go off the stage of the world, and then another succeeds (q); they come in by birth; and men are described from their birth by such as "come into the world"; for which there is a set time, as well as for going out, Joh_1:9; and these having been a while in the world, go off to make room for another generation; and so things have been from the beginning of the world, and will be to the end of it. Homer (r)illustrates this by the succession of leaves of trees; as is the generation of trees, he says, such is that of men; some leaves, the wind sheds them on the ground; others the budding forest puts forth, and they grow in their room in the springtime; so is the generation of men; one is born, and another ceases. Now death puts an end to all a man's enjoyments got by labour, his riches, honour, and natural knowledge; these all cease with him, and therefore he has no profit of all his labour under the sun;

but the earth abideth for ever; for a long time, until the dissolution of all things; and then, though that and all in it will be burnt up, yet it will rather be changed than destroyed; the form of it will be altered, when the substance of it will continue; it will not be annihilated, but renewed and refined. This is mentioned to show that the earth, which was made for man, of which he is the inhabitant and proprietor, is more stable than he himself; he soon passes off from it, but that continues; he returns to the earth, from whence he came, but that remains as it did; he dies, and leaves the earth behind him, and all his acquisitions in it; and therefore what profit has he of all his labours on it? Besides, that remains to have the same things transacted on it, over and over again, as has been already; God, that made it for men to dwell in, has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of men's habitations in it; he has appointed who shall dwell on it, and where, in successive generations; and till all these men are born and gone off, age after age, the earth shall continue, and then pass through its last change. The

Targum is,

"the earth stands for ever, to bear the vengeance that is to come upon the world for the sins of the children of men.''

The Midrash Tanchuma, as Jarchi observes, interprets it of all the righteous of Israel, called the earth; and he himself, of the meek that shall inherit the earth: says R. Isaac (s),

"one kingdom comes, and another goes, but Israel abideth for ever.''

5. HE RY, "To prove the vanity of all things under the sun, and their insufficiency to make us happy, Solomon here shows, 1. That the time of our enjoyment of these things is very short, and only while we accomplish as a hireling his day. We continue in the world but for one generation, which is continually passing away to make room for another, and we are passing with it. Our worldly possessions we very lately had from others, and must very shortly leave to others, and therefore to us they are vanity; they can be no more substantial than that life which is the substratum of them, and that is but a vapour, which appears for a little while and then vanishes away. While the stream of mankind is continually flowing, how little enjoyment has one drop of that stream of the pleasant banks between which it glides! We may give God the glory of that constant succession of generations, in which the world has hitherto had its existence, and will have to the end of time, admitting his patience in continuing that sinful species and his power in continuing that dying species. We may be also quickened to do the work of our generation diligently, and serve it faithfully, because it will be over shortly; and, in concern for mankind in general, we should consult the welfare of succeeding generations; but as to our own happiness, let us not expect it within such narrow limits, but in an eternal rest and consistency. 2. That when we leave this world we leave the earth behind us, that abides for ever where it is, and therefore the things of the earth can stand us in no stead in the future state. It is well for mankind in general that the earth endures to the end of time, when it and all the works in it shall be burnt up; but what is that to particular persons, when they remove to the world of spirits? 3. That the condition of man is, in this respect, worse than that even of the inferior creatures: The earth abides for ever, but man abides upon the earth but a little while. The sun sets indeed every night, yet it rises again in the morning, as bright and fresh as ever; the winds, though they shift their point, yet in some point or other still they are; the waters that go to the sea above ground come from it again under ground. But man lies down and rises not, Job_14:7, Job_14:12.

6. JAMISO , "earth ... for ever— (Psa_104:5). While the earth remains the same, the generations of men are ever changing; what lasting profit, then, can there be from the toils of one whose sojourn on earth, as an individual, is so brief? The “for ever” is comparative, not absolute (Psa_102:26).

7. K&D, "“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: and the earth remaineth for ev.” The meaning is not that the earth remains standing, and thus (Hitz.) approaches no limit (for what limit for it could be had in view?); it is by this very immoveable condition that it fulfils, according to the ancient notion, its destiny, Psa_119:90. The author rather intends to say that in this sphere nothing remains permanent as the fixed point around which all circles; generations pass away, others appear, and the earth is only the firm territory, the standing scene, of this ceaseless change. In reality, both things may be said of the earth: that it stands for ever without losing its place in the universe, and that it does not stand for ever, for it will be changed and become something else. But the latter thought, which appertains to the history of redemption, Psa_102:26., is remote from the Preacher; the stability of the earth appears to him only as the foil of the growth and decay everlastingly repeating themselves. Elster, in this fact, that the generations of men pass away, and that, on the contrary, the insensate earth under their feet remains, rightly sees something tragic, as Jerome had already done: Quid hac vanius vanitate, quam terram manere, quae hominum causa facta est, et hominem ipsum, terrae dominum, tam repente in pulverem dissolvi? The sun supplies the author with another figure. This, which he thinks of in contrast with the earth, is to him a second example of ceaseless change with perpetual sameness. As the generations of men come and go, so also does the sun.

8. Pastor Melvin ewland, "Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, health clubs, exercise

equipment sales - all of these went into high gear because many of us gained

unwelcome weight over the holidays. And we’re very conscious of it, maybe even

going so far as to make new year’s resolutions to eat less & exercise more.

So we join a health club, or go to the store to see what kind of exercise equipment is

available. Or we watch the exercise programs on TV & find ourselves bombarded

with sales pitches for the latest miracle working machines.

There are treadmills & stair masters & life cycles & stationary bikes, & on & on

goes the list. All of these are designed to help us expend maximum amount of energy

for the longest period of time while we’re going nowhere.

APPL. By the way, maybe exercise machines are symbolic of our time. We are a

people seeming to go nowhere fast, & expending a lot of energy getting there.

B. We sound just like the people back in King Solomon’s time in the Bible. King

Solomon looked at his own life & the life of his people & became very depressed. It

seemed to him that they were just going around in circles, doing the same old things

over & over again, & never changing. They were running on a treadmill & never

getting anywhere."

9. RAY STEDMA , "The Searcher's theme is stated in verse 4: Humanity is

transient, but nature is permanent. A generation comes and a generation goes—the

human race passes on from this life, comes into life, lives its term, and goes on—but

the earth remains forever.

He has three proofs for this, the first of which is the circle of the sun. The sun rises

in the east; runs across the heavens, apparently; and sets in the west. Then it

scurries around the dark side of the earth while we are sleeping, and there it is in

the east again in the morning. That cycle has been going on as long as time has been

measured, as far back as we can read in human history. It is endless; it continually

repeats itself.

Then he speaks of the circuit of the winds. This is unusual, because we have no

evidence that people in Solomon's time understood scientifically the fact that the

wind, the clouds, and the great jet streams of earth run in circles. This is evident to

us in our day because we can see from a satellite picture in any news broadcast the

great circles of the winds. I do not know how they knew this back then. But Solomon

knew it, though the scientific world of that day did not seem to understand it.

His third proof is the circuit of the evaporative cycle. Where does all the water that

endlessly drops out of the sky come from? The answer, of course, is that it comes

from the ocean. An invisible evaporative process is at work by which the water that

runs into the sea never raises the level of the sea because there is an invisible raising

of that water back up into the clouds. These clouds then move east by the circuit of

the winds and drop their moisture again, and this goes on forever.

The writer is suggesting that there is something wrong in this. It is backwards,

somehow. Humans ought to be permanent, and nature ought to be transient. There

is something within all of us that says this. We feel violated that we learn all these

great lessons from life, but just as we have begun to learn how to handle life it is

over, and the next generation has to start from scratch again.

The Scripture confirms that something is wrong. The Bible tells us that people were

created to be the crown of creation. They are the ones who are in dominion over all

things. People ought to last endlessly and nature ought to be changing, but it is the

other way around. Humans feel the protest of this in their spirit. Something is

wrong that all of this is suddenly taken away from us, while the meaningless cycle of

nature goes on and on endlessly. Yes, the human spirit feels that strongly. That

pertinent question is going to be developed in the theme of this book.

Lord, as I look around and see the endless cycles of nature, I feel my own

transitoriness. Thank You for that fuller revelation that in Christ, who conquered

death, I have the hope of eternal life.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,

and hurries back to where it rises.

1. GLE PEASE, The sun is the perfect example of the circle of nature that keeps

on endlessly repeating itself without change. It has no goal to reach and so it just

keeps going in a circle. It is going all the time and working hard but it never gets

anywhere but where it already is. In contrast the Son of God changed his eternal

past and came into the world as a man, and laid down his life that man might have a

Savior who can give eternal life and infinite variety. In the Son we have goals to

achieve in both time and eternity. ature cannot offer this at all, but it is freely ours

if we live under the Son and not just under the sun.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in The Village Blacksmith

Toiling - rejoicing - sorrowing,

Onward through life he goes;

Each morning sees some task begin,

Each evening sees it close;

Something attempted, something done,

Has earned a night’s repose.

1B. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D.,

The Sun ascends in the morning from the East ;

runs his diurnal course across the heavens ; sets, and

disappears ; comes round again to the point of rising ;

renews the day, and repeats the same career :— light

and darkness ever alternating ; — each successive day

resembling that which preceded it : — perpetual same-

ness, yet incessant change.

The same general idea is still presented, under other

figures, in the sixth and seventh verses : — " The wind

goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the

north ; it whirleth about continually ; and the wind

returneth again according to its circuits, "^fl the rivers

run into the sea ; yet the sea (is) not full : unto the

place from whence the rivers come, thither they re-

turn again."

What so mutable as the wind? It is the very pro^

verb of fickleness, and instability ; — " whirling about

continually." — Yet, though constantly varying, it pre

sents no new appearances. There is no point of the

compass from which we can say it now blows for the

first time. Ten thousand times has it blown, and in

every conceivable degree of strength, from orth.

South, East, and West, and all the intermediate points.

• — Thus, whilst it is ever varying, it is always the same.

There is nothing new in its incessant and capriciou;^

shiftings : ^' it returneth again according to its cir-

cuits."

" All the rivers run into the sea ; yet the sea (Is)

not full :" — it does not overflow, swelling above its

everlasting boundaries^ notwithstanding this constant

and copious influx of waters. The sea gives back its

waters to the earth. By one of ature's beautiful pro-

visions, it is continually, by means of the solar influ-

ence, sending up insensibly into the atmosphere, sup-

plies of vapoury moisture, which descend again in si-

lent dews, or, condensing into clouds, come down in

rains and snows, watering the ground, that would

otherwise become arid and unproductive, and feeding

the springs, and streams, and rivers, which return again

to the sea, from which they were derived. — Thus

there is here too perpetual change, yet perpetual uni-

formity ; — the same regular rotation of mutual supply ;

— the rivers maintained from the sea, and the sea kept

full by the rivers. — In this figure too, it might perhaps

be Solomon's intention to insinuate an additional

thought ; namely, the unsatisfactory nature of the

sources of worldly happiness."

2. BAR ES, "Hasteth ... - literally, at his place panting (in his eagerness) riseth he there.

3. CLARKE, "These verses are confused by being falsely divided. The first clause of the sixth should be joined to the fifth verse.

“The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he ariseth; going to the south, and circulating to the north.”

4. GILL, "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The sun rises in the morning and sets at evening in our hemisphere, according to the appearance of things; and then it makes haste to go round the other hemisphere in the night: it "pants", as the word (t) signifies; the same figure is used by other writers (u); like a man out of breath with running; so this glorious body, which rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, and whose circuit is from one end of the heavens to the other, Psa_19:5; is in haste to get to the place where he rose in the morning, and there he makes no stop, but pursues his course in the same track again. By this instance is exemplified the succession of the generations of men one after another, as the rising and setting of the sun continually follows each other; and also sets forth the restless state of things in the world, which, like the sun, are never at a stand, but always moving, and swiftly taking their course; and likewise the changeable state of man, who, like the rising sun, and when at noon day, is in flourishing circumstances, and in the height of prosperity, but as this declines and sets, so he has his declining times and days of adversity. Moreover, like the rising sun, he comes into this world and appears for a while, and then, like the setting sun, he dies; only with this difference, in which the sun has the preference to him, as the earth before had; the sun hastens and comes to its place from whence it arose, but man lies down and rises not again till the heavens be no more, and never returns to his place in this world, that knows him no more, Job_7:10. The Jews (w) say, before the sun of one righteous, man sets, the sun of another righteous man rises.

5. HE RY, " But man lies down and rises not, Job_14:7, Job_14:12. 4. That all things in this world are movable and mutable, and subject to a continual toil and agitation, constant in nothing but inconstancy, still going, never resting; it was but once that the sun stood still; when it is risen it is hastening to set, and, when it is set, hastening to rise again

6. JAMISO , "(Psa_19:5, Psa_19:6). “Panting” as the Hebrew for “hasteth”; metaphor, from a runner (Psa_19:5, “a strong man”) in a “race.” It applies rather to the rising sun, which seems laboriously to mount up to the meridian, than to the setting sun; the accents too favor Maurer, “And (that too, returning) to his place, where panting he riseth.”

7. K&D, "“And the sun ariseth, the sun goeth down, and it hasteth (back) to its place, there to rise again.” It rises and sets again, but its setting is not a coming to rest; for from its place of resting in the west it must rise again in the morning in the east, hastening to fulfil its course. Thus Hitzig rightly, for he takes “there to rise again” as a relative clause; the words may be thus translated, but strictly taken, both participles stand on the same

level; שואף (panting, hastening) is like א= in Ecc_1:4, the expression of the present, and זוthat of the fut. instans: ibi (rursus) oriturus; the accentuation also treats the two partic. as co-ordinate, for Tiphcha separates more than Tebir; but it is inappropriate that it

gives to ואל־ם the greater disjunctive Zakef Quaton (with Kadma going before). Ewald

adopts this sequence of the accents, for he explains: the sun goes down, and that to its own place, viz., hastening back to it just by its going down, where, panting, it again ascends. But that the sun goes down to the place of its ascending, is a distorted thought. If “to its place” belongs to “goeth,” then it can refer only to the place of the going down, as e.g., Benjamin el-Nahawendi (Neubauer, Aus der Petersb. Bibl. p. 108) explains: “and that to its place,” viz., the place of the going down appointed for it by the Creator, with

reference to Psa_104:19, “the sun knoweth his going down.” But the שם, which refers

back to “its place,” opposes this interpretation; and the phrase שו cannot mean “panting,

rising,” since שאף in itself does not signify to pant, but to snatch at, to long eagerly after

anything, thus to strive, panting after it (cf. Job_7:2; Psa_119:131), which accords with the words “to its place,” but not with the act of rising. And how unnatural to think of the rising sun, which gives the impression of renewed youth, as panting! No, the panting is said of the sun that has set, which, during the night, and thus without rest by day and night, must turn itself back again to the east (Psa_19:7), there anew to commence its daily course. Thus also Rashi, the lxx, Syr., Targ., Jerome, Venet., and Luther. Instead of

is as characteristic of the שו redit (atque) etiam; but ,שב אף Grätz would read ,שו

Preacher's manner of viewing the world as סובב וגו, Ecc_1:6, and ין, Ecc_1:8. Thus much

regarding the sun. Many old interpreters, recently Grätz, and among translators certainly the lxx, refer also Ecc_1:6 to the sun. The Targ. paraphrases the whole verse of the state of the sun by day and night, and at the spring and autumn equinox, according

to which Rashi translates הרוח, la volonté (du soleil). But along with the sun, the wind is

also referred to as a third example of restless motion always renewing itself. The division of the verses is correct; Ecc_1:6 used of the sun would overload the figure, and the whole

of Ecc_1:6 therefore refers to the wind.

8. Pastor Paul Kraker, " I remember having an incredible generation gap with my

dad, and I could not tell any difference between my dad and someone who had lived

500 years before him. I remember thinking, this guy does not have a clue. Well, my

teenagers come along, and they are absolutely certain that I belong to the

eanderthal age. They never looked me in the face and said I did not have a clue,

but they did say to me on multiple occasions, "You just do not understand." Every

generation thinks they are the ones. We all live with the myth that we are just a little

brighter than the generation before us; we have our act together – we are the ones.

The problem is that is a myth that every generation creates.

One generation rarely learns anything from the previous generation. This century

started with a generation saying they would fight a war to end all wars. They fought

that war, and then they sent their sons to fight the Second World War, who sent

their sons to fight the Viet am War, who sent their sons to fight in the Middle East,

who will send their sons heaven only knows where. We rarely learn anything that

changes the moral quality of our lives from previous generations, because we create

this obnoxious myth that we are different. How can you learn from previous

generations when they are so different – but, in fact, they are very much like us.

Does anyone ever remember being a child and saying to yourself, "I will never say

that to my kids," only to grow up and be possessed by your parents, yelling at your

kids the very same thing that they yelled at you? My dad possesses me from time to

time; he just speaks right through my mouth. But, you know what, it is probably not

my dad. It is probably his dad, or his granddad, or his great, great granddad."

9. REV. GEORGE GRA VILLE BRADLEY, D.D. DEAN OF WESTMINISTER

Generations, he says, in the fourth and fol-

lowing verses, come and go ; their lives die out like fading

ver. 4. sparks. One generation goeth and another generation cometh.

They pass, but the earth abideth ; the earth, and dumb un-

changing ature. The unwearied sun pants, he says in his

own language, through his daily round, unmoved by the

wreck of human lives. The winds revolve and circle and

shift and blow with a hateful monotony of change. What

to them, we seem to hear him say, those stormy seas and

cruel tornados, those * sinking ships and praying hands ' ?

Downwards from their unexhausted sources flow the streams

through time-worn channels to a changeless sea, a sea whose

shores are strewn with the wrecks of empires. All nature

ver. 8. tells of this weary, unvarying round. o tongue, he says,

can tell no eye can see, no ear can caich, the full range of this

depressing self-repeating, endless cycle. There is no advance, _'

no progress. And the page of History tells the same tale. He

sees no onward movement there ; no evolution or development

in ature, no ' one increasing purpose running through the

ages/ in the story of mankind. It is the same tale, stirring,

it might be, if it stood alone, dulled and blunted and made

tame by incessant repetition. There is nothing new, nothing

great. All that is human repeats itself, and sinks into the

great gulf of oblivion and decay. The earth abides, the

sun rises, the rivers run, the winds blow, the sea rolls, man

lives his brief day, and dies ; all things are forgotten ; the earth

abides. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It is a dreary world

Can anything in the world be sadder than his mood?

What a gap we feel at once between such language and the

Psalmist's exulting joy in nature : The heavens declare the

glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork ^;

his words who sees the sun going forth as a bridegroom, and

rejoicing as a strong man to run a race; or his who, after

looking round on creation, cries, Lord, how manifold are Thy

works I In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is

full of Thy riches ^. What a difference from the language of

the Shepherd King^ as he pours out his full heart in gladness

at the familiar sight of the starry heavens. They suggest to

him, as well they may, his own insignificance. But they do

not * burn and brand his nothingness * into his soul. When I

consider Thy heavens ^, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the

stars, which Thou hast ordained ; What is man, that Thou art

mindful of him ? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him ?

' But for all that,' he cries, * Thou hast made man scarce less than

* Ps. xix. I. * Ps. civ. 24. ' Ps. viii.

divine ; Tbou hast crowned Thy creature man with glory and

' with honour ; and for all that,' O Lord, our Lord, how excellent

Chap. i. ^'s Thy name in all the earth ! Who hast set Thy glory upon

the heavens. What a difference also, if we turn to our own

day, between his weary and bitter mood and that of the most

mournful tones of modem poetry. ature does not touch —

does not seem to touch — and sadden him by the very sense of

its unutterable and mysterious beauty. There is no trace of

the ' pain of finite souls that yearn ' to something unapproach-

able, unattainable. There is no echo of the feeling, with

which a Keats listened to the music of the nightingale, and

sighed for ' easeful death.' There is none of that with which a

Shelley lay down in the Bay of aples, and, overborne by the

contrast between the boundless loveliness around him and the

want of peace within, called on the sea to * breathe over his

dying brain its last monotony.' The ' iimocent brightness of

a new-bom day' that filled Wordsworth with a thoughtful

joy, is to him mere weariness. The sunrise is no ' glorious

birth,' but only a type of nature's dull, remorseless pulse,

beating and beating through endless time, while men die

out, decay, and are forgotten. or, on the other hand, does

he read in nature what modern eyes have read, the stem and

ruthless law working out the advancement of all organic life,

through pain and suffering, through hunger, strife, and death.

To him all creation is stationary, or revolves in an endless,

weary, cruel, unmeaning circle.

6 The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

ever returning on its course.

1. GLE PEASE, "Soloman hates reruns, and that is all he sees on the screen of

his life. History and nature just keep repeating the same story over and over. It is

like a broken record. The sun rises and then it sets, and, whoppi, the next day and

every day it does the same thing. The winds blows and round it goes, and where it

goes everybody knows, for it just blows again. It a monotonous routine that does not

get anywhere. It is a merrygoroung that becomes a wearygoround and a colossal

bore.

When people get this pessimistic about life and nature it is a great danger for

boredom leads people into every sin there is in order to escape the maddening

monotony of their rutted routine. Roy Clake sings about this kind of boredom in his

song Right or Left at Oak Street.

The alarm rang at seven this morning

The same time it did yesterday

Seven-thirty is my breakfast time

And I know what the wife?s gonna say

The Crawfords next door got a new swimming pool

The Millers got a color TV

Mr. Wilson's job is not good as yours,

But his wife dresses better than me

I get to the school at eight o-five

And drop off the kids at the gate

Then I drive past the clock outside the bank

It's exactly a quarter past eight

When I reach the stop sign at Oak Street

The same thought crosses my mind

Should I turn right like I always have,

Or left and leave it behind?

Right or left at Oak Street

That's the choice I face everyday

And I don't know which takes more courage

The staying or the running away

A left turn would take me to somewhere

Leave alarm clocks and schedules behind

And the world wouldn't care if I'm not somewhere

At some particular time

Where a man can do what he wants to do

And no one expects him to give

All of his time to the same old routine

In the one life that he has to live

I'm not sure which way is the best way

But I've always turned right before

And it might be strange at the end of the day

If they weren't there at the door

A man must make his decisions

But he must consider the stakes

For every mans life is a gamble

It depends on the turn that he takes

Right or left at Oak Street

That's the choice I face everyday

And I don't know which takes more courage

The staying or the running away

2. BAR ES, "More literally, Going toward the south and veering toward the north, veering, veering goes the wind; and to its veerings the wind returns.

3. CLARKE, "“The wind is continually whirling about, and the wind returneth upon its whirlings.”

It is plain, from the clause which I have restored to the fifth verse, that the author refers to the approximations of the sun to the northern and southern tropics, viz., of Cancer and Capricorn.

All the versions agree in applying the first clause of the sixth verse to the sun, and not to the wind. Our version alone has mistaken the meaning. My old MS. Bible is quite correct:

The sunne riisith up, and goth doun, and to his place turnith agein; and there agein riising, goth about bi the south, and then agein to the north.

The author points out two things here:

1. Day and night, marked by the appearance of the sun above the horizon; proceeding apparently from east to west; where he sinks under the horizon, and appears to be lost during the night.

2. His annual course through the twelve signs of the zodiac, when, from the equinoctial, he proceeds southward to the tropic of Capricorn; and thence turneth about towards the north, till he reaches the tropic of Cancer; and so on.

4. GILL, "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north,.... The word "wind" is not in this clause in the original text, but is taken from the next, and so may be rendered, "it goeth towards the south", &c. that is, the sun (x) before mentioned, which as to its diurnal and nocturnal course in the daytime goes towards the south, and in the night towards the north; and as to its annual course before the winter solstice it goes to the south, and before the summer solstice to the north, as interpreters observe. And the Targum not only interprets this clause, but even the whole verse, of the sun, paraphrasing the whole thus,

"it goes all the side of the south in the daytime, and goes round to the side of the north in the night, by the way of the abyss; it goes its circuit, and comes to the wind of the south corner in the revolution of Nisan and Tammuz; and by its circuit it returns to the wind of the north corner in the revolution of Tisri and Tebet; it goes out of the confines of the east in the morning, and goes into the confines of the west in the evening.''

But Aben Ezra understands the whole of the wind, as our version and others do, which is sometimes in the south point of the heavens, and is presently in the north;

it whirleth about continually; and the wind returneth again according to his circuits; which may be meant of the circuits of the sun, which has a great influence on the wind, often raising it in a morning and laying it at night; but it is the wind itself which whirls and shifts about all the points of the compass, and returns from whence it came, where the treasures of it are. Agreeably to Solomon's account of the wind is Plato's definition of it,

"the wind is the motion of the air round about the earth (y).''

This also exemplifies the rotation of men and things, the instability, inconstancy, and restless state of all sublunary enjoyments; the unprofitableness of men's labours, who, while they labour for riches and honour, and natural knowledge, labour for the wind, and fill their belly with east wind, which cannot satisfy, Ecc_5:16; as well as the frailty of human life, which is like the wind that passes away and comes not again; and in this respect, like the rest of the instances, exceed man, which returns to its place, but man does not, Job_7:7.

5. HE RY, " the winds are ever and anon shifting (Ecc_1:6), and the waters in a continual circulation (Ecc_1:7), it would be of as bad consequence for them to stagnate as for the blood in the body to do so. And can we expect rest in a world where all things are thus full of labour (Ecc_1:8), on a sea that is always ebbing and flowing, and her waves continually working and rolling? 5. That though all things are still in motion, yet they are still where they were; The sun parts (as it is in the margin), but it is to the same place; the wind turns till it comes to the same place, and so the waters return to the place whence they came. Thus man, after all the pains he takes to find satisfaction and happiness in the creature, is but where he was, still as far to seek as ever. Man's mind is as restless in its pursuits as the sun, and wind, and rivers, but never satisfied, never contented; the more it has of the world the more it would have; and it would be no sooner filled with the streams of outward prosperity, the brooks of honey and butter(Job_20:17), than the sea is with all the rivers that run into it; it is still as it was, a troubled sea that cannot rest.

6. JAMISO , "according to his circuits— that is, it returns afresh to its former circuits, however many be its previous veerings about. The north and south winds are the two prevailing winds in Palestine and Egypt.

7. K&D, "“It goeth to the south, and turneth to the north; the wind goeth ever circling, and the wind returneth again on its circuits.” Thus designedly the verse is long-

drawn and monotonous. It gives the impression of weariness. שב may be 3rd pret. with

the force of an abstract present, but the relation is here different from that in 5a, where the rising, setting, and returning stand together, and the two former lie backwards indeed against the latter; here, on the contrary, the circling motion and the return to a

new beginning stand together on the same line; שב is thus a part., as the Syr. translates

it. The participles represent continuance in motion. In Ecc_1:4 the subjects stand foremost, because the ever anew beginning motion belongs to the subject; in Ecc_1:5and Ecc_1:6, on the contrary, the pred. stands foremost, and the subject in Ecc_1:6 is therefore placed thus far back, because the first two pred. were not sufficient, but

required a third for their completion. That the wind goes from the south (רוםC, R. דר, the

region of the most intense light) to the north (צפון, R. צפן, the region of darkness), is not

so exclusively true of it as it is of the sun that it goes from the east to the west; this expression requires the generalization “circling, circling goes the wind,” i.e., turning in all directions here and there; for the repetition denotes that the circling movement exhausts all possibilities. The near defining part. which is subordinated to “goeth,”

elsewhere is annexed by “and,” e.g., Jon_1:11; cf. 2Sa_15:30; here סבב סובב , in the sense

of סביב סביב, Eze_37:2 (both times with Pasek between the words), precedes. סביבה is

here the n. actionis of סבב. And “on its circuits” is not to be taken adverbially: it turns

back on its circuits, i.e., it turns back on the same paths (Knobel and others), but על and

are connected, as Pro_26:11; cf. Psa_19:7 שב : the wind returns back to its circling

movements to begin them anew (Hitzig). “The wind” is repeated (cf. Ecc_2:10; Ecc_4:1) according to the figure Epanaphora or Palindrome (vid., the Introd. to Isaiah, c. 40-66). To all regions of the heavens, to all directions of the compass, its movement is ceaseless, ever repeating itself anew; there is nothing permanent but the fluctuation, and nothing new but that the old always repeats itself. The examples are thoughtfully chosen and arranged. From the currents of air, the author now passes to streams of water.

7 All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

1. GLE PEASE, I like the way the poet read this verse and responded just the

opposite way of Solomon. He was weary of the boring sameness of it all, but she saw

a parallel with nature and God's plan.

I think a cloud that floats on high

Would vapor from the warm sea fed,

That makes it way through storm and wind

And then returns to ocean’s bed.

Is like to me. My soul came forth

A breath from God’s own tender breast,

And beaten hard by earth’s wild storms

Returns to him in death-true rest!

Sister M. Agnus

1B. SAMUEL COX, D.D.

"All things depend on the heart we bring to them.

This very contrast between ature and Man has no

despair in it, breeds no dispeace or anger in the heart

at leisure from itself and at peace with God. Tennyson,

for instance, makes a merry musical brook sing to us

on this very theme.

" I come from haunts of coot and hern,

I make a sudden sally

And sparkle out among the fern,

To bicker down a valley.

" I chatter over stony ways

In little sharps and trebles,

I bubble into eddying bays,

I babble on the pebbles.

" I chatter, chatter as I flow

To join the brimming river ;

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever.

" I steal by lawns and grassy plots,

I slide by hazel covers ;

I move the sweet forget-me-nots

That grow for happy lovers.

" I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance

Among my skimming swallows ;

I make the netted sunbeams dance

Against my sanded shallows.

" I murmur under moon and stars

In brambly wildernesses ;

I linger by my shingly bars ;

I loiter round my cresses.

" And out again I curve and flow

To join the brimming river ;

For men may come and men may go

But I go on for ever"

It is the very plaint of the Preacher set to sweet music.

He murmurs, " One generation passeth, and another

generation cometh, but the earth abideth for ever;"

while the refrain of the Brook is,

" For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever."

Yet we do not feel that the Song of the Brook should

feed any mood of grief and despair. The tune that it

sings to the sleeping woods all night is "a cheerful

tune." By some subtle process we are made to share

its bright, tender hilarity, though we too are of the men

that come and go. Into what a fume would the Hebrew

Preacher have been thrown had any little "babbling

brook " dared to sing this saucy song to him. He would

have felt it as an insult, and have assumed that the

merry, innocent creature was " crowing " over the swiftly

passing generations of men. But, for the Christian

Poet, the Brook sings a song whose blithe dulcet strain

attunes the heart to the quiet harmonies of peace and

good-will.

Again I say all depends on the heart we turn to

nature. It was because his heart was heavy with the

memory of many sins and many failures, because too

the lofty Christian hopes were beyond his reach, that

this " son of David " grew mournful and bitter in her

presence.

This, then, is the mood in which the Preacher com

mences his quest of the Chief Good. He is driven to

it by the need of finding that in which he can rest. As

a rule, it is only on the most stringent compulsions

that we any of us undertake this high Quest. Of their

profound need of a Chief Good most men are but

seldom and faintly conscious ; but to the favoured few,

who are to lead and mould the public thought, it comes

with a force they cannot resist. It was thus with

Coheleth. He could not endure to think that those

who have "all things put under their feet" should lie

at the mercy of accidents from which their realm

is exempt ; that they should be the mere fools of change,

while that abides unchanged for ever. And, therefore,

he set out to discover the conditions on which they

might become partakers of the order and stability and

peace of nature ; the conditions on which, raised above

all the tides and storms of change, they might sit calm

and serene even though the heavens should be folded

as a scroll and the earth be shaken from its foundations.

This, and only this, will he recognise as the Chief

Good, the Good appropriate to the nature of man,

because capable of satisfying all his cravings and

supplying all his wants."

2. BAR ES, "The place - i. e., The spring or river-head. It would seem that the ancient Hebrews regarded the clouds as the immediate feeders of the springs (Pro_8:28, and Psa_104:10, Psa_104:13). Gen_2:6 indicates some acquaintance with the process and result of evaporation.

3. CLARKE, "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full - The reason is, nothing goes into it either by the; rivers or by rain, that does not come from it: and to the place whence the rivers come, whether from the sea originally by evaporation, or immediately by rain, thither they return again; for the water exhaled from the sea by evaporation is collected in the clouds, and in rain, etc., falls upon the tops of the mountains; and, filtered through their fissures, produce streams, several of which uniting, make rivers, which flow into the sea. The water is again evaporated by the sun; the vapors collected are precipitated; and, being filtered through the earth, become streams, etc., as before.

4. GILL, "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full,.... Which flow from fountains or an formed by hasty rains; these make their way to the sea, yet the sea is not filled therewith, and made to abound and overflow the earth, as it might be expected it would. So Seneca says (z) we wonder that the accession of rivers is not perceived in the sea; and Lucretius (a) observes the same, that it is wondered at that the sea should not increase, when there is such a flow of waters to it from all quarters; besides the wandering showers and flying storms that fall into it, and yet scarce increased a drop; which he accounts for by the exhalations of the sun, by sweeping and drying winds, and by what the clouds take up. Homer (b) makes every sea, all the rivers, fountains, and wells, flow, from the main ocean. Hence Pindar (c) calls the lake or fountain Camarina the daughter of the ocean But Virgil (d) makes the rivers to flow into it, as the wise man here; with which Aristotle (e) agrees. So Lactantius (f) says, "mare quod ex fluminibus constat", the sea consists of rivers. Both may be true, for, through secret passages under ground, the waters of it are caused to pass back again to their respective places from whence they flowed, as follows;

unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again; this also illustrates the succession of men, age after age, and the revolution of things in the world, their unquiet and unsettled state; and the unsatisfying nature of all things; as the sea is never full with what comes into it, so the mind of man is never satisfied with all the riches and honour he gains, or the knowledge of natural things he acquires; and it suggests that even water, as fluctuating a body as it is, yet has the advantage of men; that though it is always flowing and reflowing, yet it returns to its original place, which man does not. And from all these instances it appears that all things are vanity, and man has no profit of all his labour under the sun.

5. HE RY, "That all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,2Pe_3:4. The earth is where it was; the sun, and winds, and rivers, keep the same course that ever they did; and therefore, if they have never yet been sufficient to make a happiness for man, they are never likely to be so, for they can but yield the same comfort that they have yielded. We must therefore look above the sun for satisfaction, and for a new world.

6. JAMISO , "By subterraneous cavities, and by evaporation forming rain clouds, the fountains and rivers are supplied from the sea, into which they then flow back. The connection is: Individual men are continually changing, while the succession of the racecontinues; just as the sun, wind, and rivers are ever shifting about, while the cycle in which they move is invariable; they return to the point whence they set out. Hence is man, as in these objects of nature which are his analogue, with all the seeming changes “there is no new thing” (Ecc_1:9).

7. K&D, "“All rivers run into the sea, and the sea becomes not full; to the place

whence the rivers came, thither they always return again.” Instead of nehhárim, nehhalimwas preferred, because it is the more general name for flowing waters, brooks, and

rivers; נחל (from נחל, cavare), פיקK (from אפק, continere), and (Arab.) wadin (from the

root-idea of stretching, extending), all three denote the channel or bed, and then the water flowing in it. The sentence, “all rivers run into the sea,” is consistent with fact. Manifestly the author does not mean that they all immediately flow thither; and by “the sea” he does not mean this or that sea; nor does he think, as the Targ. explains, of the

earth as a ring (נקאNושO, Pers. angusht-bâne, properly “finger-guard”) surrounding the

ocean: but the sea in general is meant, perhaps including also the ocean that is hidden. If we include this internal ocean, then the rivers which lose themselves in hollows, deserts, or inland lakes, which have no visible outlet, form no exception. But the expression refers first of all to the visible sea-basins, which gain no apparent increase by these

masses of water being emptied into them: “the sea, it becomes not full;” וTאינ (Mishn. אינו)

has the reflex. pron., as at Exo_3:2; Lev_13:34, and elsewhere. If the sea became full, then there would be a real change; but this sea, which, as Aristophanes says (Clouds,

1294f.), οUδVν γίγνεται [πι]^ηεόντων τ%ν ποταµ%ν πλείων, represents also the eternal

sameness. In Lev_13:7, Symm., Jer., Luther, and also Zöckler, translate ש in the sense of

“from whence;” others, as Ginsburg, venture to take שם in the sense of םaמ; both

interpretations are linguistically inadmissible.

Generally the author does not mean to say that the rivers return to their sources, since the sea replenishes the fountains, but that where they once flow, they always for ever flow without changing their course, viz., into the all-devouring sea (Elst.); for the water rising out of the sea in vapour, and collecting itself in rain-clouds, fills the course anew, and the rivers flow on anew, for the old repeats itself in the same direction to the same

end. מקום is followed by what is a virtual genitive (Psa_104:8); the accentuation rightly

extends this only to הלכים; for אשר, according to its relation, signifies in itself ubi, Gen_

39:20, and quo, Num_13:27; 1Ki_12:2 (never unde). שם, however, has after verbs of

motion, as e.g., Jer_22:27 after שוב, and 1Sa_9:6 after הלך, frequently the sense of הfש.

And שוב with ל and the infin. signifies to do something again, Hos_11:9; Job_7:7, thus: to

the place whither the rivers flow, thither they flow again, eo rursus eunt. The author here purposely uses only participles, because although there is constant change, yet that which renews itself is ever the same. He now proceeds, after this brief but

comprehensive induction of particulars, to that which is general.

8. Spurgeon, "Everything sublunary is on the move, time knows nothing of rest. The solid earth is a rolling ball, and the great sun himself a star obediently fulfilling its course around some greater luminary. Tides move the sea, winds stir the airy ocean, friction wears the rock: change and death rule everywhere. The sea is not a miser's storehouse for a wealth of waters, for as by one force the waters flow into it, by another they are lifted from it. Men are born but to die: everything is hurry, worry, and vexation of spirit. Friend of the unchanging Jesus, what a joy it is to reflect upon thy changeless heritage; thy sea of bliss which will be for ever full, since God Himself shall pour eternal rivers of pleasure into it. We seek an abiding city beyond the skies, and we shall not be disappointed. The passage before us may well teach us gratitude. Father Ocean is a great receiver, but he is a generous distributor. What the rivers bring him he returns to the earth in the form of clouds and rain. That man is out of joint with the universe who takes all but makes no return. To give to others is but sowing seed for ourselves. He who is so good a steward as to be willing to use his substance for his Lord, shall be entrusted with more. Friend of Jesus, art thou rendering to Him according to the benefit received? Much has been given thee, what is thy fruit? Hast thou done all? Canst thou not do more? To be selfish is to be wicked. Suppose the ocean gave up none of its watery treasure, it would bring ruin upon our race. God forbid that any of us should follow the ungenerous and destructive policy of living unto ourselves. Jesus pleased not Himself. All fulness dwells in Him, but of His fulness have all we received. O for Jesu's spirit, that henceforth we may live not unto ourselves!

8 All things are wearisome,

more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of

hearing.

1. GLE PEASE, Someone stated that every millionair said he would be satisfied

when he got his million, but when he got it, he had to continue to pursue more, for it

was not enough. othing is enough to satisfy, for the craving for things and for

experience of seeing and hearing are endless. We can never get enough of anything

to make life meaningful without God and the spiritual fulfillment that can only

come in knowing Christ as Savior. Blessed is the man who knows that more is not

the answer.

1B. Pastor Dorman Followwill, "I recall when I was a young boy visiting my

grandparents' cotton farm in Texas. To teach us kids a solid work ethic, they told us

to go out and hoe the cotton field. I remember our walking out to the field in the

cool of the early morning, hoes slung over our shoulders. When we got to the field,

each of us took one row several hundred yards long, and we started down it,

hacking away at the weeds. Before long the sun was baking our backs. When we

reached the end of the row, we moved down to another row and worked back. The

rows seemed to stretch on endlessly. After a week of this, I remember walking by my

very first row, and what do you think I saw in that row? A healthy new crop of

weeds! I experienced this "vanity": o matter how hard you work, the rows just

keep coming, and the weeds just keep growing. The monotony of it sank into my

soul.

1C. Steve Zeisler, "In the same way, man's lot is wearisome and unsatisfying.

either seeing nor hearing is satisfying. Retirees tell us that they soon tire of endless

vacations and wish they could return to work again. Entertaining yourself is

wearisome business. Taste, touch and smell, too, become jaded with excess. The boy

or girl working in an ice cream parlor soon becomes tired of ice cream. Acts 17

describes the jaded Athenian intellectuals in these words: "now all the Athenians

and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling

or hearing something new." Even talk becomes tiresome.

I notice that Stephen Jobs, the founder of Apple computers, has named his new

company and his new personal computer, " ext, Inc." He didn't name it "Ultimate,

Inc.", "Unique, Inc.", or "The End of the Line, Inc.", but " ext, Inc." He knows

that the technology which went into his new creation will be obsolete in a couple of

years. He probably will have to go on to " ext II, Inc." because there is no end to it

all. It's wearisome. It doesn't satisfy. The Rolling Stones recorded what is purported

to be the greatest rock and roll song ever, "I Can't Get o Satisfaction." They were

singing about sex, and this sentiment applies equally well there also. Everything is

wearisome. Unless there is some divine breakthrough, mankind is destined to

remain forever weightless and weary."

1D. DAVID FAIRCHILD, "If all you and I have is our senses, if all there is in this

life is what we can see and hear, we will never be full. If our sense are the key to our

happiness, you will be a miserable person because they are never satisfied. Our

consumerism is built upon this truth. From mailers, to telemarketers, to billboards,

to t.v. commercials, to radio ads, to internet pop-ups and spam mail, we are called to

worship the God of consumerism and his prophets are the marketing guru’s.

Our senses never have enough. We crave more and more. Drug pushers and pimps

base their livelihood on that cold, hard fact.

1E. REV. GEORGE GRA VILLE BRADLEY, D.D. DEAN OF WESTMINISTER

"call it what we will, to which, in one form or

another, the human soul is at all times liable. It is a malady of our

very being, a sad prerogative of our nature — this

profound, unappeasable, irresistible, mysterious melancholy,

taking at times the form of a spiritual paralysis, a moral

apathy; this sense of unsatisfiedness, incompleteness on the

one hand, and a turning from all that might fill the void on

the other.

' A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,

A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief.

Which finds no natural oatlet, no relief

In word, or sigh, or tear.

Shall we, my friends, be so startled, so offended, that some

place is found for such a mood, for such a frame, in that

sacred book which traces the dealings with our spirits of the

Father of all spirits ? Or shall we rather be thankful that, in

the great record of the spiritual history of the chosen and

typical race, some place should be kept for the sigh of

defeated hopes, for the gloom of the soul vanquished by the

sense of the anomalies and mysteries of human life? It

seems to me that we may well rejoice that, at a season which

tells us of the coming of the great Consoler, we should be

reminded not only of those wounds which He would have us

try to heal or console, its diseases, its afflictions, its destitu-

tion, its ignorance, its misery, its open graves, its desolate

hearts, but of its vaguer and more impenetrable sadness, to

which we so often minister in vain. ' Come unto Me He

said, ^ all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give

you rest ; ' and he who speaks to us to-day was one of those

who carried a heavy burden.

2. BAR ES, "All things ... utter it - This clause, as here translated, refers to the immensity of labor. Others translate it, “all words are full of labor; they make weary the hearers,” or “are feeble or insufficient” to tell the whole; and are referred to the impossibility of adequately describing labor.

3. CLARKE, "All things are full of labor - It is; impossible to calculate how much anxiety, pain, labor, and fatigue are necessary in order to carry on the common operations of life. But an endless desire of gain, and an endless curiosity to unfitness a variety of results, cause men to, labor on. The eye sees much, but wishes to, see more. The ear hears of many things; but is curious to have the actual knowledge of them. So desire and curiosity carry men, under the Divine providence, through all the labors and pains of life.

4. GILL, "All things are full of labour,.... Or "are laborious" (g); gotten by labour, and attended with fatigue and weariness; riches are got by labour, and those who load themselves with thick clay, as gold and silver be, weary themselves with it; honour and glory, crowns and kingdoms, are weighty cares, and very fatiguing to those that have them; much study to acquire knowledge is a weariness to the flesh; and as men even weary themselves to commit iniquity, it is no wonder that religious exercises should be a weariness to a natural man, and a carnal professor;

man cannot utter it; or declare all the things that are laborious and fatiguing, nor all the labour they are full of; time would fail, and words be wanting to express the whole; all the vanity, unprofitableness, and unsatisfying nature of all things below the sun; particularly

the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing; both one and the other require new objects continually; the pleasure of these senses is blunted by the same objects constantly presented; men are always seeking new ones, and when they have got them they want others; whatever curious thing is to be seen the eye craves it; and, after it has dwelt on it a while, it grows tired of it, and wants something else to divert it; and so the ear is delighted with musical sounds, but in time loses the taste of them, and seeks for others; and in discourse and conversation never easy, unless, like the Athenians, it hears some new things, and which quickly grow stale, and then wants fresh ones still: and indeed the spiritual eye and ear will never be satisfied in this life, until the soul comes into the perfect state of blessedness, and beholds the face of God, and sees him as he is; and sees and hears what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard below. The Targum is,

"all the words that shall be in the world, the ancient prophets were weary in them, and they could not find out the ends of them; yea, a man has no power to say what shall be after him; and the eye cannot see all that shall be in the world, and the ear cannot be

filled with hearing all the words of all the inhabitants of the world.''

5. HE RY, "That this world is, at the best, a weary land: All is vanity, for all is full of labour. The whole creation is made subject to this vanity ever since man was sentenced to eat bread in the sweat of his brows. If we survey the whole creation, we shall see all busy; all have enough to do to mind their own business; none will be a portion or happiness for man; all labour to serve him, but none prove a help-meet for him. Man cannot express how full of labour all things are, can neither number the laborious nor measure the labours. 8. That our senses are unsatisfied, and the objects of them unsatisfying. He specifies those senses that perform their office with least toil, and are most capable of being pleased: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, but is weary of seeing always the same sight, and covets novelty and variety. The ear is fond, at first, of a pleasant song or tune, but soon nauseates it, and must have another; both are surfeited, but neither satiated, and what was most grateful becomes ungrateful. Curiosity is still inquisitive, because still unsatisfied, and the more it is humoured the more nice and peevish it grows, crying, Give, give.

6. JAMISO , "Maurer translates, “All words are wearied out,” that is, are inadequate, as also, “man cannot express” all the things in the world which undergo this ceaseless, changeless cycle of vicissitudes: “The eye is not satisfied with seeing them,” etc. But it is plainly a return to the idea (Ecc_1:3) as to man’s “labor,” which is only wearisome and profitless; “no new” good can accrue from it (Ecc_1:9); for as the sun, etc., so man’s laborious works move in a changeless cycle. The eye and ear are two of the taskmasters for which man toils. But these are never “satisfied” (Ecc_6:7; Pro_27:20). Nor can they be so hereafter, for there will be nothing “new.” Not so the chief good, Jesus Christ (Joh_4:13, Joh_4:14; Rev_21:5).

7. K&D, "“All things are in activity; no man can utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, and the ear is not full with hearing.” All translators and interpreters who

understand devarim here of words (lxx, Syr., and Targ.) go astray; for if the author meant

to say that no words can describe this everlasting sameness with perpetual change, then he would have expressed himself otherwise than by “all words weary” (Ew., Elst.,

Hengst., and others); he ought at least to have said לריק יג. But also “all things are

wearisome” (Knob., Hitz.), or “full of labour” (Zöck.), i.e., it is wearisome to relate them

all, cannot be the meaning of the sentence; for יגע does not denote that which causes

weariness, but that which suffers weariness (Deu_25:18; 2Sa_7:2); and to refer the affection, instead of to the narrator, to that which is to be narrated, would be even for a poet too affected a quid pro quo. Rosenmüller essentially correctly: omnes res fatigantur

h. e. in perpetua versantur vicissitudine, qua fatigantur quasi. But יגעים is not

appropriately rendered by fatigantur; the word means, becoming wearied, or perfectly feeble, or also: wearying oneself (cf. Ecc_10:15; Ecc_12:12), working with a strain on

one's strength, fatiguing oneself (cf. יגיע, that which is gained by labour, work). This is

just what these four examples are meant to show, viz., that a restless activity reaching no visible conclusion and end, always beginning again anew, pervades the whole world-all things, he says, summarizing, are in labour, i.e., are restless, hastening on, giving the impression of fatigue.

Thus also in strict sequence of thought that which follows: this unrest in the outer world reflects itself in man, when he contemplates that which is done around him; human language cannot exhaust this coming and going, this growth and decay in constant circle, and the quodlibet is so great, that the eye cannot be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; to the unrest of things without corresponds the unrest of the mind, which through this course, in these ever repeated variations, always bringing back

the old again to view, is kept in ceaseless activity. The object to dƮbbēr is the totality of

things. No words can comprehend this, no sensible perception exhaust it. That which is properly aimed at here is not the unsatisfiedness of the eyes (Pro_27:20), and generally of the mind, thus not the ever-new attractive power which appertains to the eye and the ear of him who observes, but the force with which the restless activity which surrounds us lays hold of and communicates itself to us, so that we also find no rest and

contentment. With שבע, to be satisfied, of the eye, there is appropriately interchanged

used of the funnel-shaped ear, to be filled, i.e., to be satisfied (as at Ecc_6:7). The ,נמלא

min connected with this latter word is explained by Zöck. after Hitz., “away from hearing,” i.e., so that it may hear no more. This is not necessary. As saava' with its min may signify to be satisfied with anything, e.g., Ecc_6:3, Job_19:22; Psa_104:13; cf. Kal,

Isa_2:6, Pih. Jer_51:34; Psa_127:5. Thus mishshemoa' is understood by all the old

translators (e.g., Targ. משמעkמ), and thus also, perhaps, the author meant it: the eye is

not satisfied with seeing, and the ear is not filled (satisfied) with hearing; or yet more in accordance with the Heb. expression: there is not an eye, i.e., no eye is satisfied, etc., restlessly hastening, giving him who looks no rest, the world goes on in its circling course without revealing anything that is in reality new.

8. " Solomon reaches his conclusions through worldly means, and that, elsewhere in

the Bible, God has addressed these same matters and has given us godly alternatives

to Solomon's worldly results and conclusions. This is the case here. Solomon found

life "wearisome" because he discovered that the "eye never has enough of seeing,

nor the ear its fill of hearing." The problem with Solomon's tactic is that he was

seeking satisfaction in the things of the world, in what his eye could see and ear

could hear. In speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus addressed this:

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the

water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a

spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14). God has purposefully

made the things of this world unsatisfying so that we will seek the things above, so

that we will thirst for the living water, the water that Jesus gives us. His water not

only satisfies our thirst, but becomes in us a spring of living water, "a spring of

water welling up to eternal life." AUTHOR U K OW

9. RAY STEDMA , " When my wife's mother was ninety-five years old, she was

just a shell of a person, but her mind was still sharp and clear. One day she was in

our home, and somebody mentioned a far-off place. Immediately she said, "Oh, I

wish I could see that." Despite her years, the eye was not tired of seeing; it longed

yet to see other places, other realms, and other customs. The eye is never satisfied.

or is the ear ever satisfied with hearing. We are always alert to some new idea or

something new that has happened. That is why news programs are always popular.

Television, radio, and newspapers all cater to the ear's hunger to hear something.

Some juicy gossip about a Hollywood star will sell thousands of magazines and

newspapers. Some new way of making a profit always makes its appeal. The

Searcher's argument is that the ear never tires because human desire is never

satisfied; it is a consequence of the restlessness that is built into life.

10. The Interpreter’s Bible remarks, "The protest against the always recurrent

without lift or fruition, the protest which accentuates the minor music of these

verses, is really the adventurer in the human spirit always seeking new frontiers, the

‘divine discontent’ which, though it forbids us the lesser peace, calls us to the

heights. That is why the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with

hearing. The human spirit seeks the unseen and listens for the inaudible voice."

11. MCGEE, "This may not have seemed true before, but since the advent of television it is

obvious.

Many people watch television for hours day after day. Why? Because the eye is never

satisfied with seeing; the ear is never filled with hearing. Most of us love to go to new

places and see new scenes. This is one of the enjoyments of life. It is one of the things we

can enjoy in this big, wonderful country. I get kidded because I come from Texas, but I

must say in all honesty that I have never been in a state that I didn't like. They are all

wonderful. We live in a wonderful country and in a wonderful universe.

Man cannot exhaust the exploration of the universe. The more he learns, the more he sees

that he should learn. The more he learns, the more he sees how much more there is to

learn. This is frustrating. The physical universe is too big for little man. Yet man alone of

all God's creatures — as far as we know — is able to comprehend the universe. When a

dog bays at the moon, I don't think he knows the distance to the moon, and I don't think

he cares. I don't think he recognizes that he lives in a vast universe. I believe that the

world of a dog is a very small world. It is no bigger than a bone most of the time. But the

eyes and ears of man are never satisfied; he wants to explore.

12. Elton John sang about it in the Lion King:

From the day we arrive on the planet

And blinking, step into the sun

There's more to be seen than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

Some say eat or be eaten

Some say live and let live

But all are agreed as they join the stampede

You should never take more than you give

(Chorus)

In the circle of life

It's the wheel of fortune

It's the leap of faith

It's the band of hope

Till we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the circle, the circle of life

Some of us fall by the wayside

And some of us soar to the stars

And some of us sail through our troubles

And some have to live with the scars

There's far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps the great and small on the endless round

9 What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

1. GLE PEASE, Part of what Solomon is saying is that he has tried everything

that can be tried to give purpose and meaning to his life, and now there is nothing

left to try. There is nothing new under the sun that can be tried to make him give up

his pesimism and despair about life. He would treaure any new idea, but there are

none, for he has tried it all, and many times as well. It is the end of trying, and the

experiment is over, it is all meaningless.

1B. "And if there is nothing new under the sun, then the world becomes a closed

system which is uniform, predictable and unchangeable. It becomes a world where

we are powerless, for nothing can interrupt the cycle of nature. We make no real

impact on history. We have no really new ideas. It has all been done before and will

be done again.

And that was second reason why he saw these conclusions to be a horrible burden.

You see, if there is nothing new then he realised nobody would ever discover the

ultimate, as yet undiscovered answer to the problems of the world. There would

always be war and suffering and injustice and poverty and hatred and death. There

was no insight yet to be uncovered which will solve unhappiness.

As Solomon pointed out, new knowledge, no matter what of, could be the answer. As

he said in Ecclesiastes 1:10: "Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is

something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." And

so, Ecclesiastes 1:15: "What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking

cannot be counted.

And if there is nothing new under the sun, then the world becomes a closed system

which is uniform, predictable and unchangeable. It becomes a world where we are

powerless, for nothing can interrupt the cycle of nature. We make no real impact on

history. We have no really new ideas. It has all been done before and will be done

again.

And that was second reason why he saw these conclusions to be a horrible burden.

You see, if there is nothing new then he realised nobody would ever discover the

ultimate, as yet undiscovered answer to the problems of the world. There would

always be war and suffering and injustice and poverty and hatred and death. There

was no insight yet to be uncovered which will solve unhappiness.

As Solomon pointed out, new knowledge, no matter what of, could be the answer. As

he said in Ecclesiastes 1:10: "Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is

something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." And

so, Ecclesiastes 1:15: "What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking

cannot be counted." AUTHOR U K OW

1C. REV. LOYAL YOU G, "Some imagine that Solomon erred in supposing that

there

would be nothing new under the sun. They point to the

improvements and inventions of the present age, and hold

them up in triumph as contradicting Solomon. But Sol-

omon was himself an inventor, and well knew whereof he

affirmed. He did not assert that there were and would

be no new discoveries in science, no new inventions in

the arts, but that there was and would be no. new earthly

thing — no thing under the sun to satisfy the wants of

man. It is as though he had said to a restless ambitious

aspirant after some untried panacea to satisfy the heart ;

" that new thing which you are seeking, by which to sat-

isfy your desires, you can never find. There is no such

new thing; — no such under the sun." This implies that

there is, above the sun, so to speak, or in heaven, a satis-

fying portion. This expression, " under the sun," here

again used in this connection, confirms us in the interpre-

tation of the third verse. " What profit — under the sun?"

Ans. — There is nothing new under the sun to yield profit.

So far as profit is concerned there is nothing new.

Solomon is reason-

ing as Paul reasoned a thousand years after. " If in this

life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most

miserable." " If after the manner of men I have fought

with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the

dead rise not?" (1 Cor. xv. 19, 32.) « What profit hath

a man" if there be no other life 1 There must therefore

he a future.

1D. DAVID RUSSELL SCOTT, M.A. "And we have to remember

that all new inventions, wonderful as they are to us

and beyond the most daring imagination of the past,

are simply new combinations of forces and things that

are as old as time itself, and they leave simply un-

touched the cardinal features of human life. Birth

and death, work and rest, health and sickness, pain

and pleasure, hope and fear, loss and gain, friendship,

love, marriage, parenthood, bereavement, virtue, vice,

temptation, remorse, all these are ours : they belonged

to past generations ; they will belong to the generations

unborn. As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever

will be ; there is no new thing under the sun.

2. BAR ES, "Hath been ... is done - i. e., Hath happened in the course of nature ... is done by man.

3. CLARKE, "The thing that hath been - Every thing in the whole economy of nature has its revolutions; summer and winter, heat and cold, rain and drought, seedtime and autumn, with the whole system of corruption and generation, alternately succeed each other, so that whatever has been shall be again. There is really, physically, and philosophically, nothing absolutely new under the sun, in the course of sublunary things. The same is the case in all the revolutions of the heavens.

4. GILL, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be,.... The thing that

has been seen and heard is no other than what shall be seen and heard again; so that what is now seen and heard is only what has been seen and heard before; it is but the same thing over again; and that is the reason why the eye and ear are never satisfied; the same objects, as the visible heavens and earth, and all therein, which have been from the beginning, these are they which shall be, and there is nothing else to be seen and heard, and enjoyed;

and that which is done, is that which shall be done; what is done in the present age, nay, in this year, month, or day, shall be done over again in the next;

and there is no new thing under the sun; which is to be understood of things natural, as the works of creation, which were finished from the beginning of the world, and continue as they were ever since, Heb_4:3; the various seasons of day and night, of summer and winter, of spring and autumn, of heat and cold, of seed time and harvest, come in course, as they always did; these ordinances never fail, Gen_8:22. The things before mentioned, the constant succession of men on earth, who are born into the world and die out of it, just as they always did; the sun rises and sets at its appointed time, as it did almost six thousand years ago; the winds whirl about all the points of the compass now as formerly; the rivers have the same course and recourse, and the sea its ebbing and flowing, they ever had; the same arts and sciences, trades and manufactures, obtained formerly as now, though in some circumstances there may be an improvement, and in others they grow worse; see Gen_4:2, Exo_31:3; and even such things as are thought of new invention, it may be only owing to the ignorance of former times, history failing to give us an account of them; thus the art of printing, the making of gunpowder, and the use of guns and bombs, and of the lodestone and mariner's compass, were thought to be of no long standing; and yet, according to the Chinese histories, that people were in possession of these things hundreds of years before; the circulation of the blood, supposed to be first found out by a countryman of ours in the last century, was known by Solomon, and is thought to be designed by him in Ecc_12:6; and the like may

be observed of other things. The emperor Mark Antonine (f) has the very phrase ουδεν

καινον, "nothing new": so Seneca (g),

"nothing new I see, nothing new I do.''

This will likewise hold good in moral things; the same vices and virtues are now as ever, and ever were as they are; men in every age were born in sin, and were transgressors from the womb; from their infancy corrupt, and in all the stages of life; there were the same luxury and intemperance, and unnatural lusts, rapine and violence, in the days of Noah and Lot, as now; in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the old world, as in the present age; and there were some few then, as now, that were men of sobriety, honesty, truth, and righteousness. There is nothing to be excepted but preternatural things, miraculous events, which may be called new, unheard of, and wonderful ones; such as the earth's opening and swallowing men alive at once; the standing still of the sun and moon for a considerable time; the miracles wrought by the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New Testament, and especially by Christ; and particularly the incarnation of Christ, or his birth of a virgin, that new thing made in the earth; these and such like things are made by the power of, he divine Being, who dwells above the sun, and is not bound by the laws of nature. Spiritual things may also be excepted, which are the effects of divine favour, or the produce of efficacious grace; and yet these things, though in some sense new, are also old; or there have been the same things for substance in former ages, and

from the beginning, as now; such as the new covenant of grace; the new and living way to God; new creatures in Christ; a new name; the New Testament, and the doctrines of it; new ordinances, and the new commandment of love; and yet these, in some sense, are all old things, and indeed are the same in substance: there is nothing new but what is above the sun, and to be enjoyed in the realms of bliss to all eternity; and there are some things new (h), new wine in Christ's Father's kingdom, new glories, joys, and pleasures, that will never end.

5. HE RY, "Two things we are apt to take a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in, and value ourselves upon, with reference to our business and enjoyments in the world, as if they helped to save them from vanity. Solomon shows us our mistake in both.

1. The novelty of the invention, that it is such as was never known before. How grateful is it to think that none ever made such advances in knowledge, and such discoveries by it, as we, that none ever made such improvements of an estate or trade, and had the art of enjoying the gains of it, as we have. Their contrivances and compositions are all despised and run down, and we boast of new fashions, new hypotheses, new methods, new expressions, which jostle out the old, and put them down. But this is all a mistake: The thing that is, and shall be, is the same with that which has been, and that which shall be done will be but the same with that which is done, for there is no new thing under the sun, Ecc_1:9.

6. JAMISO , "Rather, “no new thing at all”; as in Num_11:6. This is not meant in a general sense; but there is no new source of happiness (the subject in question) which can be devised; the same round of petty pleasures, cares, business, study, wars, etc., being repeated over and over again [Holden].

7. K&D, "“That which hath been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.” - The older form of the

language uses only אשר instead of aמה־, in the sense of id quod, and in the sense of quid-

quid, אשר but mƮh is also used by it with the extinct force of an ;(Ecc_6:10; Ecc_7:24) כל

interrogative, in the sense of quodcunque, Job_13:13, aliquid (quidquam), Gen_39:8;

Pro_9:13; and mi or mi asher, in the sense of quisquis, Exo_24:14; Exo_32:33. In ש הוא(cf. Gen_42:14) are combined the meanings id (est) quod and idem (est) quod; hu is often the expression of the equality of two things, Job_3:19, or of self-sameness, Psa_102:28. The double clause, quod fuit ... quod factum est, comprehends that which is done in the world of nature and of men-the natural and the historical. The bold clause, neque est quidquam novi sub sole, challenges contradiction; the author feels this, as the next verse shows.

8. "For some reason, we aren't satisfied with the old. We feel we must find

something "new". We think: "There's got to be something `new', that no one else

has thought of, that brings satisfaction." In their rebellious nature, young men feel

they must reject what the old people are doing; they must reject the tried and true.

But this rejection of the tried and true does not bring anything "new". It just causes

them to cover the same ground that the rebels of the past covered. 'Round and

'round they go, until they end up where Solomon did, saying, "Meaningless!

Meaningless!... There is nothing new under the sun."

But wait, there is an alternative, God's alternative. We can find something new, but

it comes from the old: We can find new-ness from the Old Rugged Cross. Through

Jesus Christ, we ourselves can become "new". We are promised: "If anyone is in

Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (II Cor. 5:17).

Only He who created us in the first place can make anything "new". And He has

promised us "new" life through His Son, for through baptism into Christ Jesus, we

are buried with Him, "in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead

through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" (Rom. 6:4). Do you want

something new? Are you tired of the some old "meaningless" life? Turn to God.

Trust in Jesus. Seek new life in Him. He will give your life "new"ness and meaning.

He will press you into His service, giving your life purpose. May the Lord be

praised!" AUTHOR U K OW

9. Pastor Melvin ewland, "ILL. Today, cable TV companies tell us that they can

pipe more than 500 channels into our living rooms for our viewing enjoyment. Get

out the remote, guys. You can have the time of your life surfing over 500 channels.

ILL. Bruce Springsteen used to sing, "Fifty-seven Channels & othing On." ow

we have 500 channels with nothing on.

10. J. David Hoke, " o. I do not believe Solomon was wrong, because I do not

believe Solomon had these kinds of things in mind. Solomon had in mind the routine

of life and the monotony of living it. You see, whether you can cook your food in ten

minutes in a microwave, or in thirty minutes over an open fire, you still eat

regularly. Whether you sleep in a cave or on a nice waterbed, you still must sleep.

Whether you chisel words on a stone tablet or type them into a word processor it not

the point. The point is, for all our advances in technology, the gadgets we have

produced have not substantially altered us. Whether we live in mud huts, grass huts,

or brick huts has not made a great deal of difference. Whether we work on dirt

streets or Wall Street has not substantially altered the heart of man. Because of who

man is, and because the desires of man do not change, life tends to have a sameness

about it.

In Revelation 21:5 we read, "And he who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am

making all things new.’" Here, God is speaking of the ultimate recreation of all

things in the future. But what God ultimately does in fullness, He does now in part.

He can make a difference in our situation of sameness. He can make all things new

for you.

We must come to understand that there are new things under the Son. Of course,

the Son I’m talking of is not that glowing orb in the sky, but the living Son of God.

Jesus came to this earth to make a difference in your life. The Bible teaches us that

He came to give us abundant life. In Christ, God can make all things new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the

old things passed away; behold, new things have come." The truth of that passage is

that in Christ, a new creation has begun. When you come to Jesus Christ, you begin

a progressive change. You don’t become totally different overnight, but by the

Spirit, Christ is changing you. He is molding you after His own image. He is making

you a new person from the inside out. And that is the real need, not only for us, but

for all mankind. So as you consider the new year, the real question is not your

circumstances, but the condition of your spiritual health and the degree of your

intimacy with God.

You see, a changed man or woman sees a change in their circumstances. When you

are changed, things tend to change around you. But the real difference is in you.

Then you become a catalyst for change.

W. E. Sangster told the story of the workman who was harassed by his co-workers

because he lived a life of strict sobriety, never gambled, and always spoke of the

Bible with reverence. "‘If you believe in the Bible,’ they said, ‘you must believe that

water was turned into wine.’ ‘I believe more than that,’ he said. His mind went back

to his evil early days and his pre-conversion years. ‘I have seen,’ he said, ‘beer

turned into furniture, betting slips turned into food. I have seen a woman miserable

because she was married to a gambling addict made radiantly and permanently

happy because her man was changed before her eyes. Of course I believe in

miracles’" When you are changed, you change your environment.

11. DAVID LEGGE, "Clovis G. Chappell (sp?) was a famous American preacher many

years ago, and on one ew Year's Day he preached a sermon on this very text, Ecclesiastes

1 verse 9, under the title that I have borrowed off him this morning, 'The Cynic's ew

Year'. In his introductory remarks he said these words, listen very carefully as I quote

them verbatim: 'Here is a man' - i.e. the cynic - 'for whom life has obviously grown stale.

He has suffered heavy and tragic losses, among these surely one of the most pathetic is the

loss of his ew Year's Day. Of course January 1st came to him every 12 months, even as it

did to others, but it had for him no thrill of expectancy, it never meant a resurrection of

hopes, it never brought a revival of courageous effort to attain the heights, no longer did he

allow himself to be betrayed by it into making rash resolutions for the achieving of the

impossible. In fact, this day had ceased altogether to be for him the beginning of a new

year' - this is what I want you to note, he says: 'it was only the beginning of another year,

another year of boredom and yawns, of disgust and despair, of wearily trudging through a

monotonous waste of desert sand'.

I wonder could that be said of any of us here today, whether we are saved or lost, whether

we're one of God's people or not, it's irrelevant really in the light of God's truth today:

could it be said that, as we stand of the threshold of a new year, that it is only the beginning

of another year, another year of boredom and yawns, of disgust and despair, of wearily

trudging through a monotonous waste of desert sand? Chappell remarked, 'The trouble

with this man is that he has allowed himself to become a cynic'. He saw so much of life that

he didn't like, that he could not understand, make head nor tail of, and he became a cynic.

We're all cynics at times, we all adopt a cynical attitude from time to time when various

circumstances come into our lives

In case you don't know what a cynic is, the Oxford English Dictionary definition of it is

this: 'someone with little faith in human sincerity and goodness'. You've lost your faith in

humanity, lost your ideal that people really can be good at times. Henry Ward Beecher,

another great American preacher, defined the cynic like this: 'The cynic is the one who

never sees a good quality in a man, yet never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, he

is vigilant in darkness and blind to the light. He puts all human actions into two classes: the

openly bad, and the secretly bad. He holds that no man does a good thing except for a

profit'.

ow we're all cynics at times, we all adopt a cynical attitude from time to time when

various circumstances come into our lives. But you know a cynic, when you go up to him

and you say to him: 'So-and-so is a good man, have you ever met him?' - and the cynic

replies: 'Well, he's a good man when you see him, but what's he like behind closed doors,

do you know that?'. That is a cynic, or you say to them: 'So-and-so is', not a good man but,

'a good Christian' - and they say: 'Yes, he is a good Christian on a Sunday, but what is he

like the rest of the week? He takes long wide steps from Sunday to Sunday in his religion'.

The cynic is the type of person, and we're all like this I suppose, when you're nice to them

they say: 'What are you looking for? What are you after?'. You see, for the cynic a trusting

person, a person that has faith not just in God but in anything, is not trusting but is naive

and foolish, and is looking to get hurt.

Chappell says: 'Thus his eye strains out every good quality and takes only the bad, his

criticisms fall upon every lovely thing like frost upon flowers'. Everything is bad, and even

that which seems good, deep down is bad behind closed doors. A totally pessimistic cynical

attitude adopted toward everything in life. ow my question to us today, most of us here I

assume are Christians, is: could there be such a thing as the Christian cynic? Or a

Christian cynicism? One who has not just lost his faith in humanity's goodness, but also has

lost faith in God? ow I don't mean that you become atheistic or agnostic, but that you feel

that God has no good for you, and whilst He might have some blessings for others, you feel

that there is nothing that God can offer you. The experiences of your past have only caused

you to anticipate that the future will let you down just like the past.

Is it possible to be a Christian and to be a cynic? Well, in the Old Testament context of the

book of Ecclesiastes you see it possible to once have had faith in God and to lose that. As

you read through Ecclesiastes twelve chapters you find that he calls himself 'the preacher'.

This is a man who is a preacher, but the text that he takes is not the text of a promise of

God to encourage us, enthuse us and comfort us, but it's a cry of hopeless emptiness and

despair. He concludes over and over again that everything in life that he has seen, even in

the life of religion that he has enjoyed, is vanity of vanities, all is vanity - nothing is worth

anything! So his conclusion is that there is nothing new under the sun - now I know we can

say, 'Yes, you're right in a sense there, Solomon' - but what he means is in a pessimistic,

cynical sense there is nothing new, there is nothing to look forward to, all is pain and

anxiety and distress, it's all going round in a vicious cycle that everyone must experience,

and you can never get out of it until you die - and in fact his conclusion in this book is that

it's better to be dead.

12. CHARLES BRIDGES, " othing new. This, indeed, must be

a qualified statement. Amid endlessly diversified

changes and modifications some things, doubtless, there

are, which have not been already of old time. But the

main features of the universe are the same. Things

animate and inanimate remain as they were from the

beginning. (2 Pet. iii. 4.) " The works were finished

from the foundation of the world." (Heb. iv. 3.) The

same causes produce the same efi'ects. The laws of

the heavenly bodies, the courses of the seasons (Gen.

viii. 22 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 16, 17 ; Jer. v. 24), the arrange-

ments relative to the animal world, ' the chemistry of

the creation/ the chemical properties of natural bodies

and objects — have never changed. There is no new

tiling under the sun. ay, indeed, we may throw out

the challenge — 7s there anything of ivhich it may be

said, See, it is ruew ? Man's active intellect, assisted

by the experience of former ages, is indeed always at

work. But the most that he can boast of is little

more than an enlarged discovery of the properties of

matter, and a more accurate application of what has

been from the beginning. And may we not class the

vast discoveries, mechanical and scientific — the power

of steam and electricity — as developments of natural

principles — therefore notliing neiv? 'Fo'r novelty,'

said the great Bacon, ' no man that wudeth in learn-

ing or contemplation thoroughly, but will find that

printed on his heart — nothing new upon the earth.' ^

Solomon had just before beautifully described the pro-

cess of evaporation — the waters of the sea forming

clouds, which empty themselves upon the earth, and

fill the rivers, which again carry them into the sea

(vv. 6, 7). But here is no neiv creation of waters ;

only the successive reproduction of the clouds, vapours,

and rivers. In the wondrous economy of nature there

is, therefore, no new thing under the sun. ay, even

many discoveries, that appear to be new^ have been

shown to be the unknown work of bygone ages. The

art of printing was known in China some centuries

before it was proclaimed in Europe as a n£W invention.

The history of the Church furnishes abundant evi-

dence of our point. All ecclesiastial revolutions, and

the ever-varying phases of doctrine, are only ' the same

scene over and over again.' "^ We sound the warning.

Scott. Thus Bp. Sanderson — * He that shall impartially look upon

former and the present times, shall find that of Solomon exactly true

— There is no new thing under the sun. The things we see done are

but the same things that have been done, only acted over again by

new persons, and with a few new circumstances. It was in the Apos-

tles' times, and in the Churches of Galatia, even as it is with us in

these days.' Sermon on Gal. v. 22, 23

10 Is there anything of which one can say,

"Look! This is something new"?

It was here already, long ago;

it was here before our time.

1. CLARKE, "Is there any thing, etc. - The original is beautiful. “Is there any thing which will say, See this! it is new?” Men may say this of their discoveries, etc.; but universal nature says, It is not new. It has been, and it will be.

2. GILL, "Is there any thing whereof it may be said, see, this is new?.... This is an appeal to all men for the truth of the above observation, and carries in it a strong denial that there is anything new under the sun; and is an address to men to inquire into the truth of it, and thoroughly examine it, and see if they can produce any material objection to it; look into the natural world, and the same natural causes will be seen producing the same effects; or into the moral world, and there are the same virtues, and their contrary; or into the political world, and the same schemes are forming and pursuing, and which issue in the same things, peace or war; or into the learned world, and the same languages, arts, and sciences, are taught and learned; and the same things said over again (i): or into the mechanic world, and the same trades and businesses are carrying on: or the words may be considered as a concession, and carry in them the form of an objection, "there is a thing (k) whereof it may be said", or a man may say, "see, this is new"; so the Targum; there were some things in Solomon's time it is allowed that might be objected, as there are in ours, to which the answer is,

it hath been already of old time which was before us; what things are reckoned new are not so; they were known and in use in ages past, long before we had a being. R. Alshech takes the words to be an assertion, and not an interrogation, and interprets it of a spiritual temple in time to come, which yet was created before the world was.

3. HE RY, "It is repeated (Ecc_1:10) by way of question, is there any thing of which it may be said, with wonder, See, this is new; there never was the like? It is an appeal to observing men, and a challenge to those that cry up modern learning above that of the ancients. Let them name any thing which they take to be new, and though perhaps we cannot make it to appear, for want of the records of former times, yet we have reason to conclude that it has been already of old time, which was before us. What is there in the kingdom of nature of which we may say, This is new? The works were finished from the foundation of the world (Heb_4:3); things which appear new to us, as they do to children, are not so in themselves. The heavens were of old; the earth abides for ever; the powers of nature and the links of natural causes are still the same that ever they were. In the kingdom of Providence, though the course and method of it have not such known and certain rules as that of nature, nor does it go always in the same track, yet, in the general, it is still the same thing over and over again. Men's hearts, and the corruptions of them, are still the same; their desires, and pursuits, and complaints, are still the same; and what God does in his dealings with men is according to the scripture, according to

the manner, so that it is all repetition. What is surprising to us needs not be so, for there has been the like, the like strange advancements and disappointments, the like strange revolutions and sudden turns, sudden turns of affairs; the miseries of human life have always been much the same, and mankind tread a perpetual round, and, as the sun and wind, are but where they were. Now the design of this is, (1.) To show the folly of the children of men in affecting things that are new, in imagining that they have discovered such things, and in pleasing and priding themselves in them. We are apt to nauseate old things, and to grow weary of what we have been long used to, as Israel of the manna, and covet, with the Athenians, still to tell and hear of some new thing, and admire this and the other as new, whereas it is all what has been. Tatianus the Assyrian, showing the Grecians how all the arts which they valued themselves upon owed their original to those nations which they counted barbarous, thus reasons with them: “For shame, do not call

those things eurēseis - inventions, which are but mimēseis - imitations.” (2.) To take us off

from expecting happiness or satisfaction in the creature. Why should we look for it there, where never any yet have found it? What reason have we to think that the world should be any kinder to us than it has been to those that have gone before us, since there is nothing in it that is new, and our predecessors have made as much of it as could be made? Your fathers did eat manna, and yet they are dead. See Joh_8:8, Joh_8:9; Joh_6:49. (3.) To quicken us to secure spiritual and eternal blessings. If we would be entertained with new things, we must acquaint ourselves with the things of God, get a new nature; then old things pass away, and all things become new, 2Co_5:17. The gospel puts a new song into our mouths. In heaven all is new (Rev_21:5), all new at first, wholly unlike the present state of things, a new world indeed (Luk_20:35), and all new to eternity, always fresh, always flourishing. This consideration should make us willing to die, That in this world there is nothing but the same over and over again, and we can expect nothing from it more or better than we have had.

4. JAMISO , "old time— Hebrew, “ages.”

which was— The Hebrew plural cannot be joined to the verb singular. Therefore translate: “It hath been in the ages before; certainly it hath been before us” [Holden]. Or, as Maurer: “That which has been (done) before us (in our presence, 1Ch_16:33), has been (done) already in the old times.”

5. K&D, "“Is there anything whereof it may be said: See, this is new? - it was long ago

through the ages (aeons) which have been before us.” The Semit. substantive verb יש

(Assyr. isu) has here the force of a hypothetical antecedent: supposing that there is a

thing of which one might say, etc. The זה, with Makkeph, belongs as subject, as at Ecc_

7:27, Ecc_7:29 as object, to that which follows. ברn (vid., List, p. 193) properly denotes

length or greatness of time (as ברהn, length of way). The ל of לע is that of measure: this

“long ago” measured (Hitz.) after infinitely long periods of time. kמ, ante nos, follows the

usage of ףkמ, Isa_41:26, and l|paa', Jdg_1:10, etc.; the past time is spoken of as that

which was before, for it is thought of as the beginning of the succession of time (vid.,

Orelli, Synon. der Zeit u. Ewigkeit, p. 14f.). The singular היה may also be viewed as pred.

of a plur. inhumanus in order; but in connection, Ecc_2:7, Ecc_2:9 (Gesen. §147, An. 2), it is more probable that it is taken as a neut. verb. That which newly appears has already been, but had been forgotten; for generations come and generations go, and the one forgets the other.

11 There is no remembrance of men of old,

and even those who are yet to come

will not be remembered

by those who follow.

1. GLE PEASE, It is kind of a sad thought that I do not remember anything

about my great grandfather. I heard a few things about him as a child, but that has

been long forgotten. All he did and said is now lost, and his memory has faded

completely. That will be true now of my father in the minds of my great

grandchildren, and so his memory will be gone from the earth. All of us will follow

this pattern. We have far more pictures today, and even film and recordings, but the

fact is, we will all fade away in the memory of people in the future. This sad reality

can only be negative in the minds of those who have no vision except that of under

the sun. If we have the under the Son vision of those in Christ, we know we will see

our loved ones from the past for all eternity.

1B. Jim Black, "The Teacher knows that FAME and RECOG ITIO are fleeting --

nobody remembers those men of old! So seeking after fame & recognition is

ultimately meaningless- like ‘chasing the wind.’ Would we even know of King

Solomon today, if it weren’t for the Bible?

Consider this little exercise for a minute: Are these names familiar to us? Michael

Collins, Frances Perkins, Jim Thorpe, Andreas Gruentzig, Christiaan . Barnard?

These individuals all lived in the 20th century and all left an indelible impact not

only in their fields, but in the world! But do we even know who they are?

Michael Collins was a crewman on the Apollo 11 mission that was the first to walk

on the Moon in 1969. But most of us (who have come later) don’t recognize his name

-perhaps because it was eil Armstrong who took the first step. But Armstrong

wouldn’t have gotten there without the rest of his crew!

Frances Perkins’ name may not be as familiar to us as Susan B. Anthony, but she

was an incredible pioneer of women’s rights issues in the first half of our century.

At a time when many states in our country were still two years away from extending

women the right to vote, she was named the Secretary of State for the state of ew

York by then governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. A little later she was appointed to

national office- to be the Secretary when Roosevelt assumed the Presidency.

Unheard of in the 20’s & 30’s!

Jim Thorpe, some of you may have heard of. If I asked you who the greatest athlete

of the 20th century was- you might name Michael Jordan, or Mohamed Ali. But if I

had asked you that in the 1940’s, you’d have named Jim Thorpe. In 1950 he was

named the greatest football player & greatest athlete of the century by an

Associated Press poll of over 400 sportswriters around the nation. Thorpe was an

Olympic athlete, a professional baseball A D football player. In 1920, he helped

found and promote the American Professional Football Association which later

became the FL. But how many of you, who aren’t sports aficionados, knew that?

What about Andreas Gruentzig? I suspect few of us know who he is, yet his work

has directly impacted the lives of many of you! Many of you are still here today

because of him! He pioneered, tested and performed the first human angioplasty

procedure in the mid 70’s. In a day when it is becoming more and more

commonplace, its hard to realize that before 1974, the procedure was not only

considered risky & extremely dangerous- it was just unheard of!

Or Christiaan . Barnard? In 1967 he performed the world’s first heart transplant.

But fame is a fleeting thing; EVE for folks who left an indelible mark on their

world like these individuals! That’s not even to mention folks who’ve lived in

previous centuries or millennia! "There is no remembrance of men of old", the

Teacher says.

What about this? What do: George Clinton, Richard Mentor Johnson, William

Rufus King, John C. Breckinridge, Hannibal Hamlin all have in common? What

about elson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, Dan Quayle, Albert Gore, Jr., Dick

Cheney? Okay, now you’ve got it.– they all held the SECO D highest office in our

land! Vice President. But who remembers their names today? Who will remember

the names of recent V.P.s in another 100 years? Of Presidents even?

"There is no remembrance of men of old ..."

2. BAR ES, "

3. CLARKE, "There is no remembrance - I believe the general meaning to be this: Multitudes of ancient transactions have been lost, because they were not recorded; and of many that have been recorded, the records are lost. And this will be the case with many others which are yet to occur. How many persons, not much acquainted with books, have supposed that certain things were their own discoveries, which have been written or printed even long before they were born! Dutens, in his Origin of the Discoveries attributed to the Moderns, has made a very clear case.

4. GILL, "There is no remembrance of former things,.... Which is the reason why some things that are really old are thought to be new; because either the memories of men fail them, they do not remember the customs and usages which were in the former part of their own lives, now grown old; or they are ignorant of what were in ages past, through want of history, or defect in it; either they have no history at all, or what they have is false; or if true, as there is very little that is so, it is very deficient; and, among the many things that have been, very few are transmitted to posterity, so that the memory of things is lost; therefore who can say with certainty of anything, this is new, and was never known in the world before? and the same for the future will be the case of present things; see Ecc_2:16;

neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after; this will be the case of things present and future, that they will be buried in oblivion, and lie unknown to posterity that shall come after the things that are done; and if any person or persons should rise up and do the same things, they may be called new, though they are in fact old, for want of knowing that they were before. The Targum is,

"there is no remembrance of former generations; and even of later ones, that shall be, there will be no remembrance of them, with the generations of them that shall be in the days of the King Messiah.''

R. Alshech interprets it of the resurrection of the dead.

5. HE RY, "The memorableness of the achievement, that it is such as will be known and talked of hereafter. Many think they have found satisfaction enough in this, that their names shall be perpetuated, that posterity will celebrate the actions they have performed, the honours they have won, and the estates they have raised, that their houses shall continue for ever (Psa_49:11); but herein they deceive themselves. How many former things and persons were there, which in their day looked very great and made a mighty figure, and yet there is no remembrance of them; they are buried in oblivion. Here and there one person or action that was remarkable met with a kind historian, and had the good hap to be recorded, when at the same time there were others, no less remarkable, that were dropped: and therefore we may conclude that neither shall there be any remembrance of things to come, but that which we hope to be remembered by will be either lost or slighted.

6. JAMISO , "The reason why some things are thought “new,” which are not really so, is the imperfect record that exists of preceding ages among their successors.

those that ... come after— that is, those that live still later than the “things, rather the persons or generations, Ecc_1:4, with which this verse is connected, the six intermediate verses being merely illustrations of Ecc_1:4 [Weiss], that are to come” (Ecc_2:16; Ecc_9:5).

7. K&D, "“There is no remembrance of ancestors; and also of the later ones who shall come into existence, there will be no remembrance for them with those who shall come

into existence after them.” With רוןnז (with Kametz) there is also זכרון, the more common

form by our author, in accordance with the usage of his age; Gesen., Elst., and others

regard it here and at Ecc_2:16 as constr., and thus לרא as virtually object-gen. (Jerome,

non est priorum memoria); but such refinements of the old syntaxis ornata are not to be expected in our author: he changes (according to the traditional punctuation) here

the initial sound, as at Ecc_1:17 the final sound, to oth and uth. אין ל is the contrast of היה

to attribute to one, to become partaker of. The use of the expression, “for them,” gives :ל

emphasis to the statement. “With those who shall come after,” points from the generation that is future to a remoter future, cf. Gen_33:2. The Kametz of the prep. is that of the recompens. art.; cf. Num_2:31, where it denotes “the last” among the four

hosts; for there הא is meant of the last in order, as here it is meant of the remotely future

time.

Wisdom Is Meaningless

12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

1. BAR ES, "Solomon relates his personal experience Eccl. 2; the result of which was “no profit,” and a conviction that all, even God’s gifts of earthly good to good men, in this life are subject to vanity. His trial of God’s first gift, wisdom, is recounted in Ecc_1:12-18.

Was - This tense does not imply that Solomon had ceased to be king when the word was written. See the introduction to Ecclesiastes. He begins with the time of his accession to the throne, when the gifts of wisdom and riches were especially promised to him 1Ki_3:12-13.

2. CLARKE, "I the Preacher was king - This is a strange verse, and does not admit

of an easy solution. It is literally, “I, Choheleth, have been king over Israel, in Jerusalem.” This book, as we have already seen, has been conjectured by some to have been written about the time that Ptolemy Philadelphus formed his great library at Alexandria, about two hundred and eighty-five years before our Lard; and from the multitude of Jews that dwelt there, and resorted to that city for the sake of commerce, it was said there was an Israel in Alexandria. See the introduction.

It has also been conjectured from this, that if the book were written by Solomon, it was intended to be a posthumous publication. “I that was king, still continue to preach and instruct you.” Those who suppose the book to have been written after Solomon’s fall, think that he speaks thus through humility. “I was once worthy of the name of king: but I fell into all evil; and, though recovered, I am no longer worthy of the name.” I am afraid this is not solid.

3. GILL, "I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Solomon having given a general proof of the vanity of all things here below, and of the insufficiency of them to make men happy, proceeds to particular instances, and begins with human wisdom and knowledge, which of all things might be thought to be most conducive to true happiness; and yet it falls short of it: he instances in himself for proof of it; and he could not have pitched on anyone more proper and pertinent to the purpose, who had all the advantages of obtaining wisdom, was assiduous in his pursuit of it, and made a proficiency in it above all mankind; wherefore he must be owned to be a proper judge, and whatever is concluded by him may be taken for granted as certain; and this is the sum of the following verses to the end of the chapter. Now let it be observed, that he was a "preacher", not a private person, and must have a good share of knowledge to qualify him for teaching and instructing others; and, more than this, he was a king, and did not want money to purchase books, and procure masters to instruct him in all the branches of literature; and when he entered upon the more profound study of wisdom, and especially when he said this, it was not in his infancy or childhood, or before he came to the throne, but after; even after he had asked, wisdom of God to govern, and it had been given him; yea, after he had been a long time king, as he now was; though the Jewish writers, as the Targum, Jarchi, and others, conclude from hence that he was not now a king, but become a private person, deposed or driven from his throne, which does not appear: moreover, he was king of Israel, not over a barbarous people, where darkness and ignorance reigned, but over a "wise and understanding people", as they are called Deu_4:6; and he was king over them in Jerusalem too, the metropolis of the nation; there he had his royal palace, where were not only the temple, the place of divine worship, but a college of prophets, and a multitude of priests, and an abundance of wise and knowing men, whom he had opportunity of conversing with frequently; to which may be added, his large correspondence abroad; persons from all kings and kingdoms came to hear his wisdom, as the queen of Sheba; and by putting questions to him, and so exercising his talents, not a little contributed to the improvement of them. Now a person so qualified must be a judge of wisdom, and what he says deserves attention; and it may be observed, that what he says, as follows, is "in verbo regis et sacerdotis", on the word of a king and preacher, who would never risk his honour, or forfeit his character, by saying an untruth.

4. HE RY, "Solomon, having asserted in general that all is vanity, and having given some general proofs of it, now takes the most effectual method to evince the truth of it, 1. By his own experience; he tried them all, and found them vanity. 2. By an induction of particulars; and here he begins with that which bids fairest of all to be the happiness of a reasonable creature, and that is knowledge and learning; if this be vanity, every thing else must needs be so.

5. JAMISO , "Resumption of Ecc_1:1, the intermediate verses being the introductory statement of his thesis. Therefore, “the Preacher” (Koheleth) is repeated.

was king— instead of “am,” because he is about to give the results of his pastexperience during his long reign.

in Jerusalem— specified, as opposed to David, who reigned both in Hebron and Jerusalem; whereas Solomon reigned only in Jerusalem. “King of Israel in Jerusalem,” implies that he reigned over Israel and Judah combined; whereas David, at Hebron, reigned only over Judah, and not, until he was settled in Jerusalem, over both Israel and Judah.

6. K&D, "“I, Koheleth, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.” That of the two

possible interpretations of הייתי, “I have become” and “I have been,” not the former

(Grätz), but the latter, is to be here adopted, has been already shown. We translate better by “I have been” - for the verb here used is a pure perfect - than by “I was” (Ew., Elst., Hengst., Zöck.), with which Bullock (Speaker's Comm., vol. IV, 1873) compares the expression Quand j'étois roi ! which was often used by Louis XIV towards the end of his life. But here the expression is not a cry of complaint, like the “fuimus Troes,” but a simple historical statement, by which the Preacher of the vanity of all earthly things here introduces himself, - it is Solomon, resuscitated by the author of the book, who here looks back on his life as king. “Israel” is the whole of Israel, and points to a period before the division of the kingdom; a king over Judah alone would not so describe himself.

Instead of “king על (over) Israel,” the old form of the language uses frequently simply

“king of Israel,” although also the former expression is sometimes found; cf. 1Sa_15:26; 2Sa_19:23; 1Ki_11:37. He has been king, - king over a great, peaceful, united people; king in Jerusalem, the celebrated, populous, highly-cultivated city, - and thus placed on an elevation having the widest survey, and having at his disposal whatever can make a man happy; endowed, in particular, with all the means of gaining knowledge, which accorded with the disposition of his heart searching after wisdom (cf. 1Ki_3:9-11; 1Ki_5:9).

But in his search after worldly knowledge he found no satisfaction.

7. CHRISTIA D. GI SBURG., "The contents of this book shew that Solomon

wrote it in his advanced days, and appeals as it were to the new and rising

generation, and tells them, ' such and such things I have tried in my

lifetime, and forsooth I could try everything because of my being king.'

Over Israel is mentioned, because there was always among them prophets

and wise men, such as the children of Zerach,' and not as the sons of Kedar

who dwelled in tents, and thereby shewing that he was king over a wise

and intelligent people. Jerusalem is mentioned, because its situation is

advantageous for the reception of wisdom. It is known that the habitable

world is divided into seven parts, and there are no men with proper

faculties to acquire wisdom except in the three central parts, for the

foremost and the hindmost parts, being either too hot or too cold, interfere

with tiie nature of man. It is, moreover, known that the latitude of

Jerusalem is 33 degrees, and this is the centre of the habitable world, for

habitation is impossible except beyond the degrees where the sun inclines

either in the north or south.

8. ROBERT BUCHA A , "I the preceding context the Preacher has told us who

he is,

and what is to be the leading subject of his discourse, and has

thrown out some general reflections of a nature to prepare us for

what is to follow. Hitherto, however, he has made no reference

to his own individual connection with the matter in hand. So far

as we have gone he might have been, for anything he has yet

said, a simple looker-on, about to give us the results of his own

reflections, or a description of what he had observed in others.

It is now, for the first time, we learn that the case is altogether

difierent. From the passage before us we begin to discover that

it is not an abstract discussion, but a personal history with which

we have here to do. The school in which this instructor has

been taught, is that of his own painfully acquired experience.

A deeper and fresher interest gathers in consequence upon his

words. There is always a peculiar charm and a peculiar force

in the lessons of an actual life. They have a felt reality about

them which at once awakens our sympathy and commands our

confidence. This, we are ready to say, is no imaginary picture,

no empty speculation, but a series of facts ; for he who tells us

of them, has himself proved them all.

There is a difierence, not undeserving of notice, in the an-

nouncement which the Preacher makes of himself in the 12tli

verse, as compared with that which he had previously made in

the opening verse of the book. That opening verse informed

us that the words about to be spoken were those of the son of

David, king of Jerusalem. From the outset, therefore, we knew

that we were listening to a royal preacher ; but whether the

truths to be embodied in his inspired discourse had been learned

before or after he ascended the throne, the opening verse did not

explain. In the 12th verse, however, this information is distinctly-

communicated. " I the Preacher," it is here expressly stated,

" was king over Israel in Jerusalem." ot only am I king now,

when this discourse is pronounced, but I was king at the period

when these proceedings took 2:)lace, which my discourse will be

found to describe. It was not in my early youth the career was

run, and the observations and reflections were made, which this

book of Ecclesiastes records. Had it been so, the objection might

perhaps have been urged that at so immature an age, and with

necessarily but limited means and opportunities at my command,

I could not then be in a position either fully to work out the

88 THE preacher's life.

problem of what this world can do to farnish a satisfying portion

for man, or to form a right opinion regarding it. As the case

actually stands, however, there is no room to raise any such

question. It was in the prime and vigour of my days, and with

the unfettered freedom and the exhaustless resources of a sove-

reign prince, that I made this great experiment. If ever, there-

fore, there was a man on earth entitled to speak with authority

upon the subject, I am he! Such would seem to be somethiug

like the design and import of the statement which this 12th

verse contains. It is not to be regarded as a mere gratuitous

repetition of what he had said before. In virtue of what he had

said before, we knew that these were the words of a king. In

virtue of what he says now, we know that these words embody

the 2ye7'sonal experiences of a king. By this 1 2th verse, accord-

ingly, we are brought to the proper point of view for studying

these experiences. The scene we are to survey is Jerusalem in

the height of its magnificence. The actor on that scene is the

most illustrious monarch that ever occupied the throne of Israel.

The time is the very noonday of his life, when all his powers,

mental and bodily, are in their fullest strength, and when his

great dominion, his prodigious wealth, his umivalled fame, and

his immense popularity, have placed, so to speak, the world at

his feet. Well may we look and listen when such an one comes

forth to tell us what the world is worth, as a substitute for the

love and the enjoyment of God.

At what precise period his piety began to fade, the Scripture

history does not distinctly indicate. There seems no reason to

doubt, however, that its decay was gradual and progressive. It

is seldom, indeed, that religious convictions and habits, where

they are at all deep and strong, are thrown ofi* suddenly. Satan

would not succeed so often as he does, if it were his very first de-

mand that his victim should entirely and all at once cast the fear

of God away. He knows that the process of sap and mine will,

in the end, subdue many a citadel, which it would be hopeless to

attempt to carry by immediate and open assault. By such a se-

ductive process, no doubt, it was that the devout and spiritually-

minded Solomon was brought at length so far in his mournful

course of defection that he went after other gods, and " did evil in

the sight of the Lord," so that "the Lord was angry with Solo-

mon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel"

(1 Kings xi. 5, 6, 9). We may rest assured that long before he

had sunk so low as to become a worshipper of idols, he had lost his

former love and reverence for the God of his fathers. And if

we might venture to trace, with such imperfect materials as the

Scriptures supply, the steps of his dov\Tiward career, perhaps

we should not greatly err in specifying as the first of these steps,

his giving way to the pride of superior knowledge. Gifted with

a penetrating and com})rehensive intellect, and evidently addicted

to study from his earliest years, he surpassed in the extent and

variety of his mental acquirements all the men of his time. His

wisdom, we are told, " excelled the wisdom of all the children

of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was

wiser than all men : than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and

Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol : and his fame was in all

nations round about.

A frequent assumption regarding this book is, that

Solomon having come to a formal resolution to try, by actual

experiment, whether, and how far, worldly pursuits, possessions,

and pleasures were capable of making man truly happy, had

set himself deliberately to the task of going the round of them

all. This is not a very likely supposition, and there is nothing

whatever to support it either in this book itself, or in the

Scripture record of Solomon's life. It is much more natural

and reasonable to conclude that in following the course which

this book describes, he had no j)reconcerted plan or purpose at

all : but was simply giving way to the varying impulses of his

own carnal tastes and wayward will. Having suffered himself

to be drawn away and enticed by the lust of the flesh, and the

lust of the eye, and the pride of life, from the paths of piety

and holiness, he did, in point of fact, make trial of what earthly

things could do to confer happiness, but not by any means in

the way of systematically following out any scheme previously

arranged for that end. He was not seeking to solve any great

general question. He was simply following the bent of his own

mind, impelling him, in a season of backsliding and forgetful -

ness of God, now in one direction, now in another. But God

had a purpose in all this, though Solomon had none. He suf-

fered his erring servant thus "to labour in the very fire," and to

" weary himself for very vanity," in order to bring him back

from these broken cisterns that could hold no water, to the true

and olily fountain of living waters — that is to Himself. And

when, through the abundant mercy of God, this divine and gra-

cious purpose had been at length accomj^lished, Solomon was

moved by the Holy Spirit to turn his own experience to account

for the spiritual good of others. It was not, in other words, be-

fore the devious course described in this book began, but after

that course had come to an end, that Solomon was led to per-

ceive the importance of tlie lesson it was fitted to teach, and

proceeded, under the guidance of inspiration, to set that lesson

down in this truly precious portion of the Word of God.

In writing this book, Solomon was looking back on

the various incidents in his own history to which it refers,

from a totally different point of view from that in which he

regarded them at the time they actually occurred. ow he

sees them in the light which is thrown back upon them from

his new position as an humble penitent ^vho has been awakened

to his folly and his sin, and has returned from his backsliding to

the God from whom he had gone astray. They have now a

meaning to his mind which they had not before, because God's

design in permitting him to run that wild career has now dis-

closed itself to his spiritually enlightened eye. ow, accord-

ingly, he can see an order and a plan, where, in so far as he was

himself concerned, there was no order or plan at all. And while

it is most important, and indeed indispensable, to have this fact

distinctly in view, in order to understand the main scope of the

book, and the great lessons it is intended to teach, we must

never lose sight of the other fact already noticed — that in be-

taking himself to one pursuit or pleasure after another as the

book describes, Solomon had, at the time, no other object in

view than simj^ly to gratify the wish which at the moment was

uppermost in his mind. If we forget this, we shall inevitably

fail in the true interpretation of the particular incidents that

will come before us. In a word, we shall not succeed in accu-

rately tracing and explaining this most instructive portion of

Solomon's history, unless we realize his position and state of

mind at the time he was actually passing through it. Seen

from this, the direct and natural point of view, things will come

out in their own proper form and colour; and with the facts of

the history thus placed distinctly and correctly before us, there

will be less difficulty in arriving at the great truths they em-

body, and at the vitally important lessons they are fitted to

teach.

9. BY JAMES HAMILTO , D.D., F.L.S.,

"What led to Solomon s apostasy ? And what,

again, was the ulterior effect of that apostasy on him

self ? As to the origin of his apostasy the Word of

God is explicit. He did not obey his own maxim.

He ceased to rejoice with the wife of his youth; and

loving many strangers, they drew his heart away

from God. Luxury and sinful attachments made

him an idolater, and idolatry made him yet more

licentious : until, in the lazy enervation and languid

day-dreaming of the Sybarite, he lost the perspicacity

of the sage, and the prowess of the sovereign ; and

when he woke up from the tipsy swoon, and out of

the swine-trough picked his tarnished diadem, he

woke to find his faculties, once so clear and limpid,

all perturbed, his strenuous reason paralysed, and his

healthful fancy poisoned. He woke to find the

world grown hollow, and himself grown old. He

woke to see the sun bedarkened in Israel s sky, and

a special gloom encompassing himself. He woke to

recognise all round a sadder sight than winter a

blasted summer. Like a deluded Samson starting

from his slumber, he felt for that noted wisdom

which signalised his azarite days ; but its locks were

shorn; and, cross and self- disgusted, wretched and

guilty, he woke up to the discovery which awaits the

sated sensualist : he found that when the beast gets

the better of the man, the man is cast off by God.

And like one who falls asleep amidst the lights and

music of an orchestra, and who awakes amidst

empty benches and tattered programmes like a man

who falls asleep in a flower-garden, and who opens

his eyes on a bald and locust-blackened wilderness,

the life, the loveliness, was vanished, and all the

remaining spirit of the mighty Solomon yawned

forth that verdict of the tired voluptuary :

" Vanity of vanities ! vanity of vanities ! all is

vanity ! "

This we believe to be the true idea of the book.

We would describe it as a dramatic biography, in

which Solomon not only records but re-enacts the

successive scenes of his search after happiness; a

descriptive memoir, in which he not only recites his

past experience, but in his improvising fervor be

comes the various phases of his former self once

more. He is a restored backslider, and for the

benefit of his son and his subjects, and, under the

guidance of God s Spirit, for the benefit of the

Church, he writes this prodigal s progress. He is a

returned pilgrim from the land of od, and as he

opens the portfolio of sketches which he took before

his eyes were turned away from viewing vanity, he

accompanies them with lively and realizing repe

titions of what he felt and thought during those

wild and joyless days. Our great Edmund Burke

once said that his own life might be best divided

into "fyttes" or "manias :" that his life began with

a fit poetical, followed by a fit metaphysical, and

that again by a fit rhetorical ; that he once had a

mania for statesmanship, and that this again had

subsided into the mania of philosophical seclusion.

And so in his days of apostasy, the soul intense of

Solomon launched out into a fit of study, succeeded

by a fit of luxury. He had fits of grossness and re

finement, a mania of conviviality, a mania of mis

anthropy. He had a fit of building, a fit of science,

a fit of book-making; and they all passed off in

collapses of disappointment and paroxysms of down

right misery. And here, as he exhibits these suc

cessive tableaux, these facsimiles of his former self,

like a modern lyrist on St. Cecilia s day, he runs

the diapason of departed passion, and, in the

successive strophes and anti strophes, he feels his

former frenzies over again, in order that, by the very

vividness of the representation, we may be all the

better admonished."

"The preacher was king over Israel, and, because

he was wise, he taught the people knowledge. He

sought to find out acceptable words, and that which

was written was upright," of a true story, a real state

ment of the case. " And by these, my son, be ad

monished." Do you, my son, accept this father s

legacy; and do you, my people, receive at your

monarch s hand this " Basilicon Doron," this auto

biography of your penitent prince. These chapters

are "words of truth:" revivals of my former self-

reproductions of my reasonings and regrets my

fantastic hopes and blank failures, during that sad

voyage round the coasts of vanity. " By these be

admonished." Without repeating the guilty expe

riment, learn the painful result listen to the moans

of a melancholy worldling; for I shall sing again

some of those doleful ditties for which I exchanged

the songs of Zion. Look at these portraits they

are not fancy sketches they are my former self, or,

rather, my former selves : that lay figure in the

royal robes, surmounted first by the lantern -jaws of

the book-worm, now exchanged for the jolly visage

of the gay gourmand, and presently refining into the

glossy locks and languid smile of the Hebrew ex

quisite : now chuckling with the merriment of the

laughing philosopher, curling anon into the bitter

sneer of the Cynic, and each in succession exploding

in smoke; not a masque, not a mummery, not a

series of make-believers, but each a genuine evolution

of the various Solomon look at these pictures, ye

worldlings, and as in water face answers to face, so

in one or other of these recognise your present like

ness and foresee your destiny.

" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,"

and it is not the less " profitable " because some of it

is the inspired record of human infirmity. The seventy-

third Psalm is a lesser Ecclesiastes. There Asaph

tells us the workings of his mind when he saw the

prosperity of the wicked. " Behold, these are the

ungodly, who prosper in the world. Verily, I have

cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in

innocericy." And he was so full of resentment and

envy that his "feet were almost gone." He had

" well nigh slipped " into utter apostasy : when a

timely visit to the sanctuary intercepted his fall.

There two forgotten verities flashed upon his mind :

the coming retribution, and the all-sufficiency of

the believer s portion. " evertheless, I am continu

ally with thee : thou hast holden me by my right

hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and

afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in

heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that

I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth :

but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion

for ever. For lo, they that are far from thee shall

perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a

whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw

near to God : I have put my trust in the Lord God,

that I may declare all thy works/ And just as

Asaph s heart for a time was " grieved," " So

foolish was I, and ignorant : I was as a beast before

thee/ so Solomon s feet actually slipped, and in

this book he gives us his various reasonings whilst

still a backslider. And just as Asaph s " conclusion

of the whole matter " was the blessedness of piety

and the certainty of righteous retribution, " It is

good for me to draw near to God : they that are far

from thee shall perish," so Solomon s conclusion is

identical ; Fear God, and keep his commandments :

for this is the whole of man. For God shall

bring every work into judgment, with every secret

thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

It need, therefore, in no wise surprise us if we find

in these chapters many strange questionings and

startling opinions, before we arrive at the final con

clusion. Intermingled with much that is noble

and holy, these " doubtful disputations " are not the

dialogue of a believer and an infidel, but the soliloquy

of a " divided heart " the debate of a truant will

with an upbraiding conscience. As we listen to the

inward colloquy we could sometimes fancy that we hear

a worldling and a sceptic contending with an Abdiel.

But, after all, it is only the fitful meditation of one

who once knew better, and who, by bitter discipline,

is learning anew the lesson of his youth."

13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom

all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden

God has laid on men!

1. GLE PEASE, It can be a heavy burden to gain knowledge, for the more you

know, the more you feel responsible to try and change what is wrong with the

world, and this leads to frustration because you cannot change it.

1B. ALEXA DER MACLARE , "If he knew it at all, it was very imperfectly and

dimly; and whatever may be thought of teaching on that subject which appears in

the formal conclusion of the book, the belief in a future state certainly exercises no

influence on its earlier portions. These represent phases through which the writer

passes on his way to his conclusion. He does believe in ‘God, 'but, very significantly,

he never uses the sacred name ‘Lord. 'He has shaken himself free, or he wishes to

represent a character who has shaken himself free from Revelation, and is fighting

the problem of life, its meaning and worth, without any help from Law, or Prophet,

or Psalm. He does retain belief in what he calls ‘God, 'but his pure Theism, with

little, if any, faith in a future life, is a creed which has no power of unravelling the

perplexed mysteries of life, and of answering the question, ‘What does it all mean?

'With keen and cynical vision he looks out not only over men, as in this first chapter,

but over nature; and what mainly strikes him is the enormous amount of work that

is being done, and the tragical poverty of its results. The question with which he

begins his book is, ‘What profit hath a man of all his labour wherein he laboureth

under the sun? 'And for answer he looks at the sun rising and going down, and

being in the same place after its journey through the heavens; and he hears the wind

continually howling and yet returning again to its circuits; and the waters now

running as rivers into the sea and again drawn up in vapours, and once more falling

in rain and running as waters. This wearisome monotony of intense activity in

nature is paralleled by all that is done by man under heaven, and the net result of all

is ‘Vanity and a strife after wind.’

1C. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D., "" I gave my heart," — that is, I applied myself

with

zeal and diligence, — '' to seek and search out by wis-

dom,"— in the close and prudent and vigorous exercise

of his mental powers,—" concerning all (things) that

are done under the sun." — This is generally under-

stood of his scientific researches into the works of

nature and of art. I should rather interpret it of his

inquiry into all the endless variety of human occupa-

tions and pursuits ; because such seems to be the mean-

ing appropriated in this Book ro the phrase, " all things

that are done under the heaven," or " under the sun."

He applied himself to the examination of the sciences

and arts, the professions and labours, which occupy

the time, the industry, and the investigations of man-

kind.

The words in the end of verse 13th. " This sore tra-

vail hath God given to the sons of men, to be exer-

cised therewith," — are usually considered as expressive

of the irksomeness, and difiiculty, attending the acqui-

sition of that knowledge of which Solomon is conceived

to speak ;— God having so ordered it, that unusually

extensive acquirements must be the result of severe

application to study, accompanied, in its course of dis-

covery, with many obstacles and perplexities, much

disappointment and mortification, and a great variety

of painful and harrassing feelings. — I am disposed,

however, to understand the words, as simply explana-

tory, or exegetical, of what immediately precedes : " I

gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom, con-

cerning all things that are done under heaven ; (even)

that sore travail (which) God hath given to the sons of

men, to be exercised therewith." — That which is

'* given to the sons of men, to be exercised therewith."

must surely be something more general than the in-

vestigation to which Solomon had applied his heart ;

for which there were then, and still are, very few who

have either the ability or the leisure.— There is proba-

bly, in the words, a reference to what he had said a

litde before, " All things (are) full of labour :" — and

the true origin of this, as the appointed condition of

humanity, is to be found in the remote but divinely

authenticated records of the entrance of sin into the

world: — *' Unto Adam He said, Because thou hast

hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten

of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou

shalt not eat of it ; — cursed (is) the ground for thy sake ;

in sorrow shalt thou eat (of) it all the days of thy life :

thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and

thou shalt eat the herb of the field :— in the sweat of

thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the

ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust thou

(art,) and unto dust shalt thou return."*

This view of the meaning of the words is confirmed

by the parallel expression in chap. iii. 10. where the

connection leaves no ambiguity ; " I have seen the

travail which God hath given to the sons of men, to be

exercised therewith ;" — and it agrees well with what

immediately follows."

1D. DAVID RUSSELL SCOTT, M.A. "The intellectual

experiment in which he purposes to engage is evi-

dently a complex one, partly scientific and partly

philosophic, that is, it consists in gathering together

facts of human life, and then investigating them to

discover their meaning. If we may use modern

scientific terms, he is going to engage in anthropological

and sociological research : he turns to the proper study

of mankind which is man to see what wise meaning or

purpose (if any) there may be in human life.

In the carrying out of this intention he has been

pictured like the Arabian Caliph, the good Haroun

Alraschid going forth in disguise to visit all quarters of

the city ; to talk with barbers, druggists, calenders,

porters, with merchants and mariners, husbandmen and

tradesmen, mechanics and artisans ; to try conclusions

with travellers and with the blunt wits of home-keeping

men ; looking with his own eyes and learning for him-

self what their lives are like, how they conceive of the

human lot, and what, if any, are the mysteries which

sadden and perplex them ; trying to ascertain if they

have any key that will unlock his perplexities, any

wisdom that will solve his problems or help him to

bear his burden with a more cheerful heart. In a word

Pessimism and Love

he was out for experience and its interpretation, to

study man and society. We might imagine that this

study of mankind, especially if it were carried out in

the pleasant manner depicted, would be an agreeable

occupation to a gentleman, like Koheleth, of position,

leisure and abundant means. Research undertaken

amidst the delights of travel, of seeing new faces and

new scenes, of discovering new experiences, of being

at perfect liberty to pursue one's own courses, has an

enticing charm about it. But Koheleth, whatever

method he pursued, found no charm and little delight

in his investigations. He says that the work which

God has given to the sons of men is an evil business, a

woeful exercise, and he makes no exception of the work

which he himself has voluntarily undertaken. He

experienced no pleasure in it. He may have found

after a time that his work became very monotonous ;

that the people with whom he came into contact were,

beneath certain external differences, all very much

alike ; that human life in its experience of joy and

sorrow, hope and fear, defeat and success, loss and

gain, is very much one and the same the world over :

and some people would certainly prove to be dull kill-

joys and personally objectionable, while the brightest

and most agreeable only charm and interest for a

season. Koheleth found his investigations in the

human laboratory a sore trial.

1E. SAMUEL COX, D.D.,

This wisdom, however, is not a scientific knowledge

of facts or of social and political laws, nor is it the

result of philosophical speculations on " the first good or

the first fair," or on the nature and constitution of man.

It is the wisdom that is born of wide and varied experi

ence, not of abstract study. He acquaints himself with

the facts of human life, with the circumstances, thoughts,

feelings, hopes, and aims of all sorts and conditions

of men. He is fain to know "all that men do under

the sun," " all that is done under heaven." Like the

Arabian Caliph, "the good Haroun Alraschid," we

may suppose that Coheleth goes forth in disguise to

visit all quarters of the city ; to talk with barbers,

druggists, calenders, porters, with merchants and

mariners, husbandmen and tradesmen, mechanics and

artizans ; to try conclusions with travellers and with the

blunt wits of home-keeping men. He will look with

his own eyes and learn for himself what their lives are

like, how they conceive of the human lot, and what,

if any, are the mysteries which sadden and perplex

them. He will ascertain whether they have any key

that will unlock his perplexities, any wisdom that will

solve his problems or help him to bear his burden with

a more cheerful heart. Because his depression was fed

by every fresh contemplation of the order of the

universe, he turns from nature to "the proper study

of mankind."

But this also he finds a heavy and disappointing

task. After a wide and dispassionate scrutiny, when

he has " seen much wisdom and knowledge," he con

cludes that man has no fair reward " for all his labour

that he laboureth under the sun," that no wisdom

avails to set straight that which is crooked in human

affairs, or to supply that which is lacking in them.

The sense of vanity bred by his contemplation of the

stedfast round of nature only grows more profound

and more painful as he reflects on the numberless and

manifold disorders which afflict humanity. And hence,

before he ventures on a new experiment, he makes a

pathetic appeal to the heart which he had so earnestly

applied to the search, and in which he had stored up

so large and various a knowledge, and confesses that

" even this is vexation of spirit," that " in much wisdom

is much sadness," and that " to multiply knowledge is

to multiply sorrow."

2. BAR ES, "Wisdom - As including both the powers of observation and judgment, and the knowledge acquired thereby (1Ki_3:28; 1Ki_4:29; 1Ki_10:8, ...). It increases by exercise. Here is noted its application to people and their actions.

Travail - In the sense of toil; the word is here applied to all human occupations.

God - God is named as אלהים 'elohıpym thirty-nine times in this book; a name common

to the true God and to false gods, and used by believers and by idolators: but the name Yahweh, by which He is known especially to the people who are in covenant with Him, is never once used.

Perhaps the chief reason for this is that the evil which is the object of inquiry in this book is not at all unique to the chosen people. All creation Rom. 8 groans under it. The Preacher does not write of (or, to) the Hebrew race exclusively. There is no express and obvious reference to their national expectations, the events of their national history, or even to the divine oracles which were deposited with them. Hence, it was natural for the wisest and largest-hearted man of his race to take a wider range of observation than any other Hebrew writer before or after him. It became the sovereign of many peoples whose religions diverged more or less remotely from the true religion, to address himself to a more extensive sphere than that which was occupied by the twelve tribes, and to adapt his language accordingly. See the Ecc_5:1 note.

3. CLARKE, "And I gave my heart to seek and search -While Solomon was faithful to his God he diligently cultivated his mind. His giving himself to the study of natural history, philosophy, poetry, etc., are sufficient proofs of it. He had not intuitive knowledge from God; but he had a capacity to obtain every kind of knowledge useful to man.

This sore travail - This is the way in which knowledge is to be acquired; and in order to investigate the operations of nature, the most laborious discussions and perplexing experiments must be instituted, and conducted to their proper results. It is God’s determination that knowledge shall be acquired in no other way.

4. GILL, "And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom,.... As he had

all advantages and opportunities, so he did not want for industry and application to obtain knowledge; he gave his mind to it; he took up a resolution not to be discouraged by any difficulties, but to break through them, if possible; he set about the work with great readiness and cheerfulness; he had a price in his hand to get wisdom, and he had a heart unto it; see Pro_17:16; and he pursued it with all diligence, with all his might and main: nor did he content himself with a superficial knowledge of things; but "searched" after the most recondite and abstruse learning, and penetrated into the utmost recesses of it, to find out all that was to be known; and this he did "by" using all the "wisdom" and sagacity, the light and strength of reason, and all those bright natural parts, which God had given him in a very extraordinary manner. And his inquiry was very extensive; it was

concerning all things that are done under heaven; into the nature of all things, animate and inanimate; trees, herbs, plants, fossils, minerals, and metals; beasts, birds, fish, and all creeping things; see 1Ki_4:33; with everything else in nature: he sought to make himself master of all arts and sciences; to get knowledge of all trades and manufactures; to understand everything in politics, relating to kingdoms and states, and the government of them; to observe all the actions of men, wise and foolish, that he might know the difference, and be a judge of what was right and wrong. And his observation upon the whole is,

this sore travail hath God given to the sons of men, to be exercised therewith: he found by experience it was a heavy task, which God had put upon the children of men, to get wisdom and knowledge in the way it was to be gotten; which was very burdensome and wearisome to the flesh; nay, he found it was an (l) "evil business", as it may be rendered; or there was something sinful and criminal, which God suffered men in their pursuit after knowledge to fall into, and which their studies exposed them to; as to indulge a vain and sinful curiosity, to pry into things unlawful, and to be wise above what is written; or to be too anxious in attaining natural knowledge, to the neglect of things of great importance; or to abuse or trust in knowledge attained unto, or be vainly elated and puffed up with it. Or this may be understood of the evil of punishment, which God inflicts on men for the sin of eating of the tree of knowledge; and that as he is doomed to get his bread, so his knowledge, with the sweat of his brow, that is, with great pains and labour; which otherwise would have been more easily obtained: but this God has done to "afflict" or "humble" (m) men, as the word may be rendered; to afflict or punish them for sin; and to humble them by showing them how weak are the powers and faculties of their minds, that so much pains must be taken to get a small share of knowledge. The Targum is,

"and I saw all the works of the children of men obnoxious to an evil business; the Lord gave to the children of men, to be afflicted with it.''

5. HE RY, " Solomon tells us here what trial he had made of it, and that with such advantages that, if true satisfaction could have been found in it, he would have found it. 1. His high station gave him an opportunity of improving himself in all parts of learning, and particularly in politics and the conduct of human affairs, Ecc_1:12. He that is the preacher of this doctrine was king over Israel, whom all their neighbours admired as a wise and understanding people, Deu_4:6. He had his royal seat in Jerusalem, which then deserved, better than Athens ever did, to be called the eye of the world. The heart of

a king is unsearchable; he has reaches of his own, and a divine sentence is often in his lips. It is his honour, it is his business, to search out every matter. Solomon's great wealth and honour put him into a capacity of making his court the centre of learning and the rendezvous of learned men, of furnishing himself with the best of books, and either conversing or corresponding with all the wise and knowing part of mankind then in being, who made application to him to learn of him, by which he could not but improve himself; for it is in knowledge as it is in trade, all the profit is by barter and exchange; if we have that to say which will instruct others, they will have that to say which will instruct us. Some observe how slightly Solomon speaks of his dignity and honour. He does not say, I the preacher am king, but I was king, no matter what I am. He speaks of it as a thing past, because worldly honours are transitory. 2. He applied himself to the improvement of these advantages, and the opportunities he had of getting wisdom, which, though ever so great, will not make a man wise unless he give his mind to it. Solomon gave his heart to seek and search out all things to be known by wisdom, Ecc_1:13

6. JAMISO , "this sore travail— namely, that of “searching out all things done under heaven.” Not human wisdom in general, which comes afterwards (Ecc_2:12, etc.), but laborious inquires into, and speculations about, the works of men; for example, political science. As man is doomed to get his bread, so his knowledge, by the sweat of his brow (Gen_3:19) [Gill].

exercised— that is, disciplined; literally, “that they may thereby chastise, or humblethemselves.”

7. K&D, "“And I gave my heart to seek and to hold survey with wisdom over all that is done under the sun: a sore trouble it is which God has given to the children of men to be

exercised therewith.” The synonyms רשC(to seek) and 0ור (to hold survey over) do not

represent a lower and a higher degree of search (Zöck.), but two kinds of searching: one penetrating in depth, the other going out in extent; for the former of these verbs (from the root-idea of grinding, testing) signifies to investigate an object which one already has in hand, to penetrate into it, to search into it thoroughly; and the latter verb (from the root-idea of moving round about)

(Note: Vid., the investigation of these roots (Assyr. utîr, he brought back) in Ethé's

Schlafgemach der Phantasie, pp. 86-89.)

signifies to hold a survey, - look round in order to bring that which is unknown, or not comprehensively known, within the sphere of knowledge, and thus has the meaning of

bƮkkēsh, one going the rounds. It is the usual word for the exploring of a country, i.e., the

acquiring personal knowledge of its as yet unknown condition; the passing over to an

intellectual search is peculiar to the Book of Koheleth, as it has the phrase ל לב ,נתן

animum advertere, or applicare ad aliquid, in common only with Dan_10:12. The beth

of bahhochemah is that of the instrument; wisdom must be the means (organon) of

knowledge in this searching and inquiry. With על is introduced the sphere into which it

extends. Grotius paraphrases: Historiam animalium et satorum diligentissime

inquisivi. But נעשה does not refer to the world of nature, but to the world of men; only

within this can anything be said of actions, only this has a proper history. But that which offers itself for research and observation there, brings neither joy nor contentment.

Hitzig refers הוא to human activity; but it relates to the research which has this activity as

its object, and is here, on that account, called “a sore trouble,” because the attainment

and result gained by the laborious effort are of so unsatisfactory a nature. Regarding ענין,

which here goes back to ענה ב, to fatigue oneself, to trouble oneself with anything, and

then to be engaged with it. The words ענין רע would mean trouble of an evil nature (vid.,

at Psa_78:49; Pro_6:24); but better attested is the reading ענין רע “a sore trouble.” הוא is the subj., as at Ecc_2:1 and elsewhere; the author uses it also in expressions where it is

pred. And as frequently as he uses asher and ש, so also, when form and matter commend

it, he uses the scheme of the attributive clause (elliptical relative clause), as here (cf.

Ecc_3:16), where certainly, in conformity with the old style, נתנו was to be used.

8. CHARLES BRIDGES, "

The wise man throws himself with intense energy

into his hazardous inquiry ! He gave his heart to seek

and search out. All his extraordinary treasures of

wisdom were employed to know — Why is man — the

noblest of God's creatures — placed in the world to be

exercised tmth sore travail,^ during his short contin-

uance ? Why his unsatisfied desires — his weariness

of life — his strivings and toilings — his unsuccessful

search after happiness, even while all the sources of

earthly gratification are spread at his feet ?

The Preacher himself subsequently explained the

problem — " God hath made man upright, but they have

sought out many inventions." (Chap. vii. 29.) Man

by his fall alienated himself from the only source of life

and rest. Fallen man of himself cannot recover one

atom of his former perfection. God hath given him

this travail as the chastening for his apostacy. All is

dark with him, till he shall see that all is vanity, and

himself the chiefest of all vanities. This is the Lord's

training — the discipline of his school — the ordinary

method of liis Sovereign grace. Oh ! sinner — thou

must know the depth of thy ruin — the bankruptcy of

thy nature. Thou must learn to trample upon the

petty objects of the world — to set in full view its

meanness — its vanity — its nothingness. Thus the Lord

will bring thee to thy home, wearied with the unsuc-

cessful efforts to seek in thyself or in the world what

is only to be found in him. But once brought home —

oh ! the contrast of present repose with the sore travail

— what Lord Bacon beautifully calls 'sacred and

inspired Divinity — the Sabbath and port of all men's

labours and peregrinations.' ' All the creatures can

never be to me in his stead. I have found in him a

portion — soul-satisfying and eternal. (Ps. Ixxiii. 25,

26.) Trials follow me — sometimes enough to stagger the

strongest faith. But " I know whom I have believed."

(2 Tim. i. 12.) I know him to be an unfailing confi-

dence for time and for eternity. He has engaged to

take charge of all, and I bid my soul " return unto

her rest'^ (Ps. cxvi. 7), upon the engagements of an

unchangable, covenant-keeping God."

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the

sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the

wind.

1. GLE PEASE, "Here are some quotes by those who have given some time to

the study of education and wisdom, and they agree with Solomon.

Education—the great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the ages—purports to equip us to live and isprescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility.For the most part it serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity, and put thosesubjected to it at the mercy of brainwashers with printing presses, radio, and television at their disposal.(Beyond Futility by David Allen Hubbard)

Richard Eder (L.A. Times)k, "Jason Dougherty, as campus minister at OVC, has spoken with

me from time-to-time about his efforts, as well as those of all the faculty members at OVC, to integrate “faith and learning.” It is not enough to applaud such a noble effort—it should be pointed out that without such an integration, without the linkage between faith and learning the pure pursuit

of education"

1B. ALEXA DER MACLARE , "We may regard such a view of humanity as

grotesquely pessimistic; but there is no doubt that many of us do make of life little

more than what the Preacher thought it. It is not only the victims of civilisation who

are forced to wearisome monotony of toil which barely yields daily bread; but we

see all around us men and women wearing out their lives in the race after a false

happiness, gaining nothing by the race but weariness. What shall we say of the man

who, in the desire to win wealth, or reputation, lives laborious days of cramping

effort in one direction, and allows all the better part of his nature to be atrophied,

and die, and passes, untasted, brooks by the way, the modest joys and delights that

run through the dustiest lives. What is the difference between a squirrel in the cage

who only makes his prison go round the faster by his swift race, and the man who

lives toilsome days for transitory objects which he may never attain? In the old days

every prison was furnished with a tread-mill, on which the prisoner being set was

bound to step up on each tread of the revolving wheel, not in order to rise, but in

order to prevent him from breaking his legs. How many men around us are on such

a mill, and how many of them have fastened themselves on it, and by their own

misreading and misuse of life have turned it into a dreary monotony of resultless

toil. The Preacher may be more ingenious than sound in his pessimism, but let us

not forget that every godless man does make of life ‘Vanity and strife after wind.’

1C. The 119th-century Bible scholar G. S. Bowes pointed out the ultimate futility of

ambition that isn’t accompanied by dedication to God. Citing four powerful world

rulers of the past, he wrote: “Alexander the Great was not satisfied, even when he

had completely subdued the nations. He wept because there were no more worlds to

conquer, and he died at an early age in a state of debauchery. Hannibal, who filled

three bushels with the gold rings taken from the knights he had slaughtered,

committed suicide by swallowing poison. Few noted his passing, and he left this

earth completely unmourned. Julius Caesar, ‘staining his garments in the blood of

one million of his foes,’ conquered 800 cities, only to be stabbed by his best friends

at the scene of his greatest triumph. apoleon, the feared conqueror, after being the

scourge of Europe, spent his last years, in banishment.” o wonder Solomon

warned of the poor prospects for anyone who strives to succeed without relying on

God. - H.G.B.

2. BAR ES, "Vexation of spirit - A phrase which occurs 7 times, and may be otherwise translated, “feeding on wind.” Modern Hebrew grammarians assert that the word rendered “vexation” must be derived from a root signifying “to feed,” “follow,” “strive after.” This being admitted, it remains to choose between two translations:

(1) “striving after wind,” or “windy effort;” adopted by the Septuagint and the majority of modern interpreters; or

(2) feeding on wind. Compare Hos_12:1 : and similar phrases in Pro_15:14; Isa_44:20; Psa_37:3.

3. CLARKE, "Behold, all is vanity - After all these discussions and experiments, when even the results have been the most successful, I have found only rational satisfaction; but not that supreme good by which alone the soul can be made happy.

O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!

“How anxious are our cares, and yet how vainThe bent of our desires!”Pers. Sat. i., 5: 1.

4. GILL, "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun,.... All things done by the Lord, that were on the earth, and in it, and in the sea; he considered them, and endeavoured to search into the nature of them; and did attain to a very great knowledge of them, so that he could speak of them to the instruction of others; see 1Ki_4:33; and all that were done by men, by their head, or by their hands; all that were written or wrought by them; all their philosophical works and experiments, and all their mechanic operations; as well as all their good and bad works, in a moral sense; so the Targum,

"I saw all the deeds of the children of men, which are done under the sun in this world;''

and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit; not only the things known, but the knowledge of them; it is mere vanity, there is nothing solid and substantial in it, or that can make a man happy; yea, on the contrary, it is vexatious and distressing; it is not only a weariness to the flesh to obtain it, but, in the reflection of it, gives pain and uneasiness to the mind: it is a "breaking of the spirit" (n) of the man, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Alshech, interpret the phrase; it wastes and consumes his spirit, as well as his time, and all to no purpose; it is, as some ancient Greek versions and others render it, and not amiss, a "feeding on wind" (o); what is useless and unprofitable, and like labouring for that; see Hos_12:1, Ecc_5:16; and so Aben Ezra.

5. HE RY, "He made it his business to acquaint himself with all the things that are done under the sun, that are done by the providence of God or by the art and prudence of man. He set himself to get all the insight he could into philosophy and mathematics, into husbandry and trade, merchandise and mechanics, into the history of former ages and the present state of other kingdoms, their laws, customs, and policies, into men's different tempers, capacities, and projects, and the methods of managing them; he set himself not only to seek, but to search, to pry into, that which is most intricate, and which requires the closes application of mind and the most vigorous and constant prosecution. Though he was a prince, he made himself a drudge to learning, was not discouraged by its knots, nor took up short of its depths. And this he did, not merely to gratify his own genius, but to qualify himself for the service of God, and his generation, and to make an experiment how far the enlargement of the knowledge would go towards the settlement and repose of the mind. 3. He made a very great progress in his studies, wonderfully improved all the parts of learning, and carried his discoveries much further than any that had been before him. He did not condemn learning, as many do, because they cannot conquer it and will not be at the pains to make themselves masters of it; no, what he aimed at he compassed; he saw all the works that were done under the sun(Ecc_1:14), works of nature in the upper and lower world, all within this vortex (to use the modern gibberish) which has the sun for its centre, works of art, the product of men's wit, in a personal or social capacity. he had as much satisfaction in the success of his searches as ever any man had; he communed with his own heart concerning his attainments in knowledge, with as much pleasure as ever any rich merchant had in taking account of his stock. He could say, “Lo, I have magnified and increased wisdom,have not only gotten more of it myself, but have done more to propagate it and bring it into reputation, than any, than all that have been before me in Jerusalem.” Note, It becomes great men to be studious, and delight themselves most in intellectual pleasures. Where God gives great advantages of getting knowledge he expects improvements accordingly. It is happy with a people when their princes and noblemen study to excel others as much in wisdom and useful knowledge as they do in honour and estate; and they may do that service to the commonwealth of learning by applying themselves to the studies that are proper for them which meaner persons cannot do. Solomon must be acknowledged as competent judge of this matter, for he had not only got his head full of notions, but his heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge, of the power and benefit of knowledge, as well as the amusement and entertainment of it; what he knew he had digested, and knew how to make use of. Wisdom entered into his heart, and so became pleasant to his soul, Pro_2:10, Pro_2:11; Pro_22:18. 4. He applied his studies especially to that part of learning which is most serviceable to the conduct of human life, and consequently is the most valuable (Ecc_1:17): “I gave my heart to know the rules and dictates of wisdom, and how I might obtain it; and to know madness and folly, how I might prevent and cure it, to know the snares and insinuations of it, that I might avoid them, and guard against them, and discover its fallacies.” So industrious was Solomon to improve himself in knowledge that he gained instruction both by the wisdom of prudent men and by the madness of foolish men, by the field of the slothful, as well as of the diligent.

6. JAMISO , "The reason is here given why investigation into man’s “works” is only “sore travail” (Ecc_1:13); namely, because all man’s ways are vain (Ecc_1:18) and cannot

be mended (Ecc_1:15).

vexation of— “a preying upon”

the Spirit— Maurer translates; “the pursuit of wind,” as in Ecc_5:16; Hos_12:1, “Ephraim feedeth on wind.” But old versions support the English Version.

7. K&D, "He adduces proof of the wearisomeness of this work of research: “I saw all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and striving after the

wind.” The point of the sentence lies in הTוארא וה = וה, so that thus raïthi is the expression

of the parallel fact (circumst. perfect). The result of his seeing, and that, as he has said Ecc_1:13, of a by no means superficial and limited seeing, was a discovery of the fleeting, unsubstantial, fruitless nature of all human actions and endeavours. They had, as hevel

expresses, not reality in them; and also, as denoted by reuth ruahh (the lxx render well by

προαίρεσις πνεύµατος), they had no actual consequences, no real issue. Hos_12:1 also

says: “Ephraim feedeth on wind,” i.e., follows after, as the result of effort obtains, the

wind, roěh ruahh; but only in the Book of Koheleth is this sentence transformed into an

abstract terminus technicus (vid., under Reth).

8. Spurgeon, " othing can satisfy the entire man but the Lord's love and the Lord's

own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads, but they have been driven

out of such fatal refuges. Solomon, the wisest of men, was permitted to make

experiments for us all, and to do for us what we must not dare to do for ourselves.

Here is his testimony in his own words: "So I was great, and increased more than all

that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And

whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from

any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my

labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the

labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,

and there was no profit under the sun." "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What! the

whole of it vanity? O favoured monarch, is there nothing in all thy wealth? othing

in that wide dominion reaching from the river even to the sea? othing in Palmyra's

glorious palaces? othing in the house of the forest of Lebanon? In all thy music

and dancing, and wine and luxury, is there nothing? " othing," he says, "but

weariness of spirit." This was his verdict when he had trodden the whole round of

pleasure. To embrace our Lord Jesus, to dwell in His love, and be fully assured of

union with Him--this is all in all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of life in

order to see whether they are better than the Christian's: if you roam the world

around, you will see no sights like a sight of the Saviour's face; if you could have all

the comforts of life, if you lost your Saviour, you would be wretched; but if you win

Christ, then should you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a paradise; should you

live in obscurity, or die with famine, you will yet be satisfied with favour and full of

the goodness of the Lord.

9. DAVID FAIRCHILD, "There is that dreadful word again- vanity. That empty

futility that yearns for but finds nothing. That great let down of expecting a payoff

and receiving nothing. It is all futile and meaningless. It is empty when it should be

full. It isn’t the despair of tragedy Solomon has in mind but the despair of triviality.

That nothing really matters.

All our thinking and working done under the sun, apart from God is worse than

nothing. Is less than empty. It is like a black hole that pulls meaning and purpose

into is never satisfying downward spiral.

15 What is twisted cannot be straightened;

what is lacking cannot be counted.

1. GLE PEASE, This absolute pessimism about positive restoration or change is

really an exaggeration of a depressed person, but the fact is most of us would be

more likely depressed rather than hopeful and positive like the man in this story-

Explorer Thomas Hearne and his party had just set out on a rigorous expedition in

northern Canada to find the mouth of the Coppermine River. A few days after they

left, thieves stole most of their supplies. Hearne's response to the apparent

misfortune can inspire us all, for he wrote, "The weight of our baggage being

lightened, our next day's journey was more swift and pleasant."

There are degrees of pessimism and optimism. Solomon is in the lowest degree in

this book, and we can assume that Thomas Hearne had some pessimistic feelings

before he uttered his cheery positive slant on the situation. He had to have had

anger at anyone who would so such a thing, and some degree of sorrow at the loss

and inconvenience thrust upon them. He just had no choice, and so he took the high

road and made the best of a bad situation. We are all both pessimists and optimist in

varying degrees in every situation of life. When we hit bottom, like Solomon does

here, it is time to seek some help from a positive thinker. That is what a very famous

person did when he was down. He wrote, "The sentence which has most influenced

my life is, "Some persons grumble because God placed thorns among roses. Why

not thank God because He placed roses among thorns?" I first read it when but a

mere lad. Since that day it has occupied a front room in my life, and has given it an

optimistic trend. -- Benjamin Franklin

1B. REV. LOYAL YOU G, "That which is perverted, turned upside down,

destroyed,

cannot be placed in order. This describes man's fallen

nature in its revolution and destruction, as unable to be

changed by human means. "And that which is wanting

cannot be numbered ;" or that which is deficient cannot be

made up. What is wanting to man's happiness on earth

cannot be supplied by means known to this world. If

the evils of life could be mended, there would be hope.

But reason and philosophy have been appealed to in vain.

The crooked things of sin cannot be made straight by any

human art ; and what is wanting to happiness cannot be

supplied from human resources.

Blessed be God, the crooked can be made straight.

That which is wanting can be supplied. God has under-

taken what man could not do. He has undertaken to

rectify the most oblique and crooked of all things, the

human heart. What he undertakes he will accomplish.

Though it should require the sacrifice of his own Son, he

will redeem man from ruin. Though in order to this it

requires the union of the Godhead with manhood, he

will do it. Though it should require the third Person of

the Trinity to come and dwell in the shattered temple of

the human soul, he will do it. ow, for the sad and dis-

consolate heart, — for the crushed and broken heart, — for

the sinful and depraved heart, — there is comfort, and heal-

ing, and life. The weeping Christian will yet enjoy a par-

adise. And the groaning, bleeding creation will yet be

renovated, and enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons of

God. The gospel of Christ teaches more than philoso

phy can teach. It teaches the way of salvation through

the atoning blood of the Son of God. It points to heaven

and shows the way.

1C. DAVID FAIRCHILD, "We are crooked and can’t be made straight apart from

God. We are bent and burdened by the despair and pain of a cold universe that

doesn’t play by our rules. We may care, but in a chance universe without God as its

creator and sustainer, nothing cares back. It’s as if we’re trying take an unwound

coat hanger and reshape it back to its original form…it simply doesn’t happen. We

are not able, we are not wise enough, we are not powerful enough, and we are not

smart enough to fix the human condition of empty futility no matter how much

meaning we try to place upon our great intellect.

Finite man attempts to fill an infinite hole with finite thoughts and things. He finds

himself wearied and disheartened and the solution escapes him because he can never

reach the infinite starting with his own intellect, his own faculties of reason, his own

fallen emotions and spiritually stillborn condition. Only the infinite and eternal can

fill the yearnings of the eternal soul man. Only an infinite and personal God has the

capacity, the power, the eternal wisdom, and the right conclusion to the

philosophers dilemma. Only He can answer the question that He placed in each of

our hearts.

1D. ROBERT BUCHA A , ""I have

seen" said he, describing the result of it, "all the works that are

done under the sun ; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of

spirit." I have seen much that is humiliating — much that is

t / painful — much that is altogether out of joint — but I have found

myself impotent to amend it. " That which is crooked cannot

be made straight : and that which is wanting cannot be num-

bered." I have been compelled to acknowledge my impotence,

and to leave things just as they were. The ordinations of Provi-

dence and the perversity of human nature liave proved too

strong for me. All my wisdom and all my knowledge have

been of no avail to regenerate the world.

Smarting under this feeling of disappointment, and thus

thrown back upon himself, he retires within the deep recesses

of his own bosom, and thus describes the thoughts that passed

through his 023pressed and troubled mind — "I communed with

mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have

gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in

Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and

knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know

madness and folly." As if he had said — ' I have employed all

my laboriously gathered knowledge, and all my superior ac-

quirements and powers; and, searching into the state of things

in the world around me, I have seen both wisdom and folly

extensively at work — prudent men labouring in one way, and

madmen indulging their extravagances in another : but I have

not been able either to correct the mischief done by the one

class, or to insure the success merited by the other. My

larger knowledge and deeper study of these things have ended ,

in nothing but in the blasting of my hopes and in the grieving

of my heart.'

1E. Rabbi Abraham Belais. "Rabbi Moses

Alshucb gives various meanings to this verse, the last of which

nay be considered worthy of consideration. He thinks that

Solomon speaks here in reference to himself: What is the use of

my attempting, says the preacher, to improve and amend others,

teeing that I, myself, have failed and transgressed (for Solomon

inltiplied silver and gold, and wives, against the laws of God)

he, therefore, considers himself too crooked, perverse, and defi-

cient, that his words and admonitions should meet with a patient

bearing from the multitude. This explanation appears lo me,

however, as forced, unless it is to signify the humility of Solomon

in not deeming himself worthy enough to exhort the people."

1F. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D., "I shall not trouble you with the different

interpreta

tions which have been given of these words, but sim-

ply lay before you what seems to myself, from its

agreement with the connection, and with the scope of

the passage, to be their true meaning.

" (That which is) crooked cannot be made straight."

— We have a key to the import of this expression, in

chap. vii. 13. '^ Consider the work of God ; for who

can make (that) straight which he hath made crooked?"

This cannot refer to the natural perverseness of man-

kind, to the crookedness of their dispositions, their want

of original rectitude : because it cannot with truth be

said, that God hath made our nature crooked or per^

verse. On the contrary, in the close of the same chap

ter it is affirmed, ^' God made man upright ; but they

have sought out many inventions." So neither, in the

Vv'ords before us, is there any reference to the nature of

man ; but to the dispensations and arrangements of

Divine Providence. It is as if the wise man had said :

'^*' There is generally; in the lot of everv man. some.

thing crooked ;— something or other not to his mind ;

which he wishes, and tries, and labours, to make

straight, — to bend to his liking. But providence or-

ders it otherwise. His attempts are all counteracted

and frustrated. It is be) ond his power, with all the

pains he can bestow, to correct the evil. And by this

one circumstance, the spirit of the man who seeks his

happiness in the things of time, and is destitute of the

satisfying portion of God's children, is galled and irri-

tated. So that, although every thing else is as he would

have it,-— all straight and to his mind ;— yet, whilst this

one thing is crooked, he is dissatisfied and unhappy..

Indeed, the more entirely every thing else is right,

the more bitterly is his pride mortified, and his spirit

provoked, that this should continue wrong, and baffle

his endeavours to change and to rectify it. He kicks

against the appointment of heaven, and *' disquiets

himself in vain."

Haman went out from the Royal presence, ^' joyful

and with a glad heart," elated by the honours bestowed

upon him. But the special favour of majesty, " the

glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, and

his advancement above the princes and servants of the

king," — the enjoyment of the present, and the antici-

pation of the future ; — all '^ availed him nothing, so

long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king's

gate."* or are such cases by any means of rare oc-

currence. umberless are the instances of this kind

of unreasonable dissatisfaction ; arising from something

crooked which cannot be made straight ; from some

" dead fly" that mars the fragrance of the ointment : —

so that the name of Mordecai has become a kind of

proverbial designation for all those little circumstances,

which, existing singly in the lot of individuals, and

preying on their disappointed spirits, serve to take the

relish out of abounding sweets ;— and it has become

the familiar saying of common life, that everi/ mari has

his Mordecai.

*¦' And that which is wanting cannot be numbered."

— This is generally understood, I believe, as meaning,

that the wants which men experience in their pursuit

of happiness,— the felt deficiencies, discovered in every

step of their progress, are so many, and so diversified,

that they cannot be reckoned up. — I rather think that

the words contain a repetition, in different terms, of

the same idea that is expressed in the former part of

the verse. — A man of the world is here set before us,

casting up his accounts ;— taking an inventory of the

various items that make up the aggregate of his enjoy-

ment. The sum of them, it may be, is very large.

But there is some particular article, on which he has

set his heart, and which he would fain have it in his

power to put into his list* But his wishes are vain. It

is not in his possession ;— it is not within his reach. It

is *' wanting," and therefore '^ cannot be numbered."

Yet without it, the account is deficient ; and the de-

ficiency gives him more uneasiness and dissatisfaction,

than the entire sum of his blessings gives him enjoy-

ment. It mixes all with discontent, and thus poisons

the whole ; so that all his labour becomes not only

" vanity," but ^'vexation of spirit." — Thus, amidst all

the possessions and all the splendours of royalty, the

spirit of Ahab was dejected and unhappy,— and ^' he

turned away his face, and would eat no bread," be-

cause he could not have " the vineyard of aboth the

Jezreelite," that he might add to his pleasure-grounds

" a garden of herbs."*

Alas ! for human nature, that it jihould be so ! But

sovve see it, and feel it to be ; that we are inuch more

prone to be displeased on account of particular evils,

than to be satisfied with abundant and diversified good ,

—to indulge in discontent because of some one solitary

defect, than to cherish gratitude for unnumbered and

substantial blessings.— This is a crook in the nature of

our fallen race, which nothing can efiectually make

straight but the renewing energy of the grace of God.

1G. DAVID RUSSELL SCOTT, M.A."

He is possibly here repeating a proverb which

declares that there are evils and wants in life that

cannot be remedied : they are inevitable and in-

exorable, so interwoven into the texture of human

experience that the only way to remove them is by

some effective cremation of the whole garment. He

refers in later passages to certain moral and social

anomalies which no doubt were amongst the inevitably

crooked and deficient things. He says he knew princes

who were fools ; servants who rode horseback while

their masters (or who should be their masters) tramped

on foot ; judges who sat on the seat of injustice ; good

men who were despised and neglected ; bad men who

were honoured. Any faint expectation he may have

entertained, when he began his investigations, of

finding a perfect moral and social world, or even

finding one moderately good in its conditions, was

woefully disappointed, and his disappointment was

turned into despair as he felt the simple inevitableness

and the unchangeableness of the evils in the world.

The crooked, the deficient, the evil, all had to be. The

only mending was the total ending of human existence.

2. BAR ES, "He saw clearly both the disorder and incompleteness of human actions (compare the marginal reference), and also man’s impotence to rectify them.

3. CLARKE, "That which is crooked cannot be made straight - There are many apparent irregularities and anomalies in nature for which we cannot account; and there are many defects that cannot be supplied. This is the impression from a general view of nature; but the more we study and investigate its operations, the more we shall be convinced that all is a consecutive and well-ordered whole; and that in the chain of nature not one link is broken, deficient, or lost.

4. GILL, "That which is crooked cannot be made straight,.... By all the art and cunning, wisdom and knowledge of man, that he can attain unto; whatever he, in the vanity of his mind, may find fault with in the works of God, either of nature of providence, and which he may call crooked, it is not in his power to make them straight, or to mend them; see Ecc_7:13. There is something which, through sin, is crooked, in the hearts, in the nature, in the principles, ways and works, of men; which can never be made straight, corrected or amended, by all the natural wisdom and knowledge of men,

which shows the insufficiency of it: the wisest philosophers among men, with all their parade of wit and learning, could never effect anything of this kind; this only is done by the Spirit and grace of God; see Isa_42:16;

and that which is wanting cannot be numbered; the deficiencies in human science are so many, that they cannot be reckoned up; and the defects in human nature can never be supplied or made up by natural knowledge and wisdom; and which are so numerous, as that they cannot be understood and counted. The Targum is,

"a man whose ways are perverse in this world, and dies in them, and does not return by repentance, he has no power of correcting himself after his death; and a man that fails from the law and the precepts in his life, after his death hath no power to be numbered with the righteous in paradise:''

to the same sense Jarchi's note and the Midrash.

5. HE RY, " He tells us what was the result of this trial, to confirm what he had said, that all is vanity.

1. He found that his searches after knowledge were very toilsome, and a weariness not only to the flesh, but to the mind (Ecc_1:13): This sore travail, this difficulty that there is in searching after truth and finding it, God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted therewith, as a punishment for our first parents' coveting forbidden knowledge. As bread for the body, so that for the soul, must be got and eaten in the sweat of our face,whereas both would have been had without labour if Adam had not sinned.

2. He found that the more he saw of the works done under the sun the more he saw of their vanity; nay, and the sight often occasioned him vexation of spirit (Ecc_1:14): “I have seen all the works of a world full of business, have observed what the children of men are doing; and behold, whatever men think of their own works, I see all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” He had before pronounced all vanity (Ecc_1:2), needless and unprofitable, and that which does us no good; here he adds, It is all vexation of spirit,troublesome and prejudicial, and that which does us hurt. It is feeding upon wind; so some read it, Hos_12:1. (1.) The works themselves which we see done are vanity and vexation to those that are employed in them. There is so much care in the contrivance of our worldly business, so much toil in the prosecution of it, and so much trouble in the disappointments we meet with in it, that we may well say, It is vexation of spirit. (2.) The sight of them is vanity and vexation of spirit to the wise observer of them. The more we see of the world the more we see to make us uneasy, and, with Heraclitus, to look upon all with weeping eyes. Solomon especially perceived that the knowledge of wisdom and folly was vexation of spirit, Ecc_1:17. It vexed him to see many that had wisdom not use it, and many that had folly not strive against it. It vexed him when he knew wisdom to see how far off it stood from the children of men, and, when he saw folly, to see how fast it was bound in their hearts.

6. JAMISO , "Investigation (Ecc_1:13) into human ways is vain labor, for they are hopelessly “crooked” and “cannot be made straight” by it (Ecc_7:13). God, the chief good, alone can do this (Isa_40:4; Isa_45:2).

wanting— (Dan_5:27).

numbered— so as to make a complete number; so equivalent to “supplied” [Maurer]. Or, rather, man’s state is utterly wanting; and that which is wholly defective cannot be numbered or calculated. The investigator thinks he can draw up, in accurate numbers, statistics of man’s wants; but these, including the defects in the investigator’s labor, are not partial, but total.

7. K&D, "The judgment contained in the words, “vanity and a striving after the wind,” is confirmed: “That which is crooked cannot become straight; and a deficit cannot be numerable,” i.e., cannot be taken into account (thus Theod., after the Syro-Hex.), as if as much were present as is actually wanting; for, according to the proverb, “Where there is nothing, nothing further is to be counted.” Hitzig thinks, by that which is crooked and wanting, according to Ecc_7:13, of the divine order of the world: that which is unjust in it, man cannot alter; its wants he cannot complete. But the preceding statement refers only to labour under the sun, and to philosophical research and observation directed thereto. This places before the eyes of the observer irregularities and wants, brings such irregularities and wants to his consciousness, - which are certainly partly brought about and destined by God, but for the most part are due to the transgressions of man himself, - and what avails the observer the discovery and investigation? - he has only lamentation

over it, for with all his wisdom he can bring no help. Instead of לתקן (vid., under תקן), לתקןwas to be expected. However, the old language also formed intransitive infinitives with

transitive modification of the final vowels, e.g., יבש, etc. (cf. ישון, Ecc_5:11).

Having now gained such a result in his investigation and research by means of wisdom, he reaches the conclusion that wisdom itself is nothing.

8. CHARLES BRIDGES, "

The wise man directs our attention to two points —

the things that are, and the countless multitude of

things that are wanting. The world in its present

constitution from the fall — is full of crookedness and

defect. Yet a revereatial inquiry will shew many ap-

parent irregularities to be component parts of a system,

which " God hath made beautiful in his time." (Chap,

iii. 11.)

But let us look at this aphorism more minutely.

Physically, it lies upon the surface. We have no power

to alter our stature, or to change one hair of our heads.

(Matt. V. 36 ; vi. 27.) IntelUctually , man's wisdom can

never discover — much less remove — the causes of his

restless misery. Spiritually, every faculty of man is

under the perversity of the fall, and we have no more

power to make straight its crookedness, than to restore

the whole work of God to its original " uprightness."

Providentially, how often do the Divine appointments

appear crooked to man's eyes ! ay, there is ' a crook

in his lot ' which he cannot alter or amend — something

opposed to his own will, which he labours in vain to

make straight to his own wishes. With all our strug-

gling, crosses will be crosses still. (Chap. vii. 13.)

We must leave them, where God has placed them.

And if we gather wisdom from their discipline, they

will ultimately become the springs of our happiness,

and the crown of our glory.

But man " in the fulness of his sufficiency is in

straits." (Job, xx. 22.) He is a creature of so many

wants. That which is ivanting cannot he nwnbered.

One little crookedness is enough to wither his largest

sources of satisfaction. Ahab, with all the wealth of

his kingdom, for want of a little plot of ground, lays

himself down on his bed in vexation. (1 Kings, xxi. 4.)

Haman, with the monarch's favour — the adoration of

the people — immense riches and honours, had a crook,

that could not he made straight. " All this availed

nothing," so long as the bended knee of one poor Jew

was wanting. (Esth. v. 11-13.)

' othing but the cross of Christ ' — observes a spir-

itual writer — * makes other crosses straight.^ ^ But

where man's own will is his law, " woe unto him that

striveth with his Maker." (Isa. xlv. 9.) That will,

which is thus " enmity against God " (Rom. viii. 7),

must be the enemy to our own happiness. ever can

we be happy, till we be " clay in the hands of the pot-

ter" (Jer. xviii. 6); till there be no resisting material

throughout the whole conscious range of our spiritual

perceptions. " Should it be according to thy mind ?"

(Job, xxxiv. 33) — was once asked. Might not this be

to thy ruin ? From tlie many wills spring all the mis-

eries of earth. The one will forms the happiness of

heaven. Let thy God, then, mould thy will, and he

will frame thy happiness. Be thankful that it should

be thwarted, evei> when it pleads most vehemently for

indulgence. And shrink not from that process — pain-

ful though it be — that moulds it into conformity with

the will of Omnipotent love.

16 I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and

increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled

over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of

wisdom and knowledge."

1. GLE PEASE, Everyone agrees that Solomon was the one man most qualified

to explore every avenue of life to discover meaning in life. obody else had as much

wisdom and knowledge, and nobody else had the wealth he had to explore

everything possible. We would all prefer to experience everything on our own, but

we have to accept the reality that we must trust the experiences of others who can do

things we never can. It is wise to learn from the mistakes of others so we do not have

to make them ourselves. It is learning the hard way to learn only from our own

mistakes, and it can also be disasterous to do so.

2. BAR ES, "I am come ... - Rather, I have accumulated (literally “enlarged and added”) wisdom more than etc.

They that have been ... - The reference is probably to the line of Canaanite kings who lived in Jerusalem before David took it, such as Melchizedek Gen_14:18, Adonizedek Jos_10:1, and Araunah 2Sa_24:23; or, it may be, to Solomon’s contemporaries of his own country 1Ki_4:31 and of other countries who visited him 1Ki_4:34; 1Ki_10:24. for “in” Jerusalem render over.

3. CLARKE, "I communed with mine own heart - Literally, “I spoke, I, with my heart, saying.” When successful in my researches, but not happy in my soul, though easy in my circumstances, I entered into my own heart, and there inquired the cause of my discontent. He found that, though -

1. He had gotten wisdom beyond all men;

2. Wealth and honors more than any other;

3. Practical wisdom more than all his predecessors;

4. Had tried pleasure and animal gratification, even to their extremes; yet after all this he had nothing but vexation of spirit.

None of these four things, nor the whole of them conjoined, could afford him such a happiness as satisfies the soul. Why was all this? Because the soul was made for God, and in the possession of him alone can it find happiness.

4. GILL, "I communed with my own heart,.... That is, looked into it, examined it, and considered what a stock and fund of knowledge he had in it, after all his researches into it; what happiness accrued to him by it, and what judgment upon the whole was to be formed upon it; and he spoke within himself after this manner:

saying, lo, I am come to great estate; or become a great man; famous for wisdom, arrived to a very great pitch of it; greatly increased in it, through a diligent application to it;

and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem; or, "that before me were over Jerusalem" (p); governors of it, or in it; not only than the Jebusites, but than Saul, the first king of Israel, or than even his father David; or, as Gussetius (q), than any princes, rulers, and civil magistrates in Jerusalem, in his own days or in the days of his father; and also than all the priests and prophets, as well as princes, that ever had been there: and indeed he was wiser than all men, 1Ki_4:30; and even than any that had been in Jerusalem, or any where else, or that should be hereafter, excepting the Messiah; see 1Ki_3:12. And seeing this is said of him by others, and even by the Lord himself, it might not only be said with truth by himself, but without ostentation; seeing it was necessary it should be said to answer his purpose, which was to show the vanity of human wisdom in its highest pitch; and it was nowhere

to be found higher than in himself;

yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge; or, "saw much wisdom and knowledge" (r); he thoroughly understood it, he was a complete master of it; it was not a superficial knowledge he had attained unto, or a few lessons of it he had committed to memory; some slight notions in his head, or scraps of things he had collected together, in an undigested manner; but he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with everything worthy to be known, and had digested it in his mind.

5. PASTOR JACK PETERS HAS THIS WO DERFUL OUTLI E, "THE

MEA I G OF LIFE IS OT FOU D I HUMA PHILOSOPHY (WHAT I

THI K) 1:12-18

Solomon made a search of human wisdom "under the sun". He looked at wisdom

that does not include God and found it to be "vexation of spirit" (Vs. 17). He also

found it to cause grief (Vs. 18)

This is not a contradiction to Solomon's declarations of the value of wisdom in

Proverbs.

In Ecclesiastes Solomon talks of human wisdom. In Proverbs Solomon talks of

God's wisdom (Proverbs 1:7, 2:1-9, 4:5-7, 9:10)

THE MEA I G OF LIFE IS OT FOU D I PLEASURE (WHAT I E JOY)

2:1-3

Solomon tried to find the meaning of life in the pleasures of this world, and found

that it was "vanity". Although God is not opposed to our enjoying ourselves,

overindulgence is always discouraged. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is "temperance"

or self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

THE MEA I G OF LIFE IS OT FOU D I PROJECTS (WHAT I DO) 2:4-6

Solomon involved himself with great building projects, such as the temple, his own

palace, and the building of cities. These did not bring true satisfaction. The Bible

encourages us to work (Colossians 3: 17, 23), but work is not to be our God.

THE MEA I G OF LIFE IS OT FOU D I POSSESSIO S (WHAT I HAVE)

2:7-11

Solomon did not find true satisfaction and the meaning of true life in what he owned

(Luke 12:15).

He was an extremely rich man (1 Kings 9:10-28).

THE MEA I G OF LIFE IS FOU D I A PERSO (WHO I K OW) Colossians

1:13-20, John 14:6, Philippians 1:21, 3:4-11

We go to the ew Testament to find the true meaning of life. It is found in the

person of Christ!

When we know Christ as Savior and Lord we know the real meaning of life.

6. JAMISO , "communed with ... heart— (Gen_24:45).

come to great estate— Rather, “I have magnified and gotten” (literally, “added,” increased), etc.

all ... before me in Jerusalem— namely, the priests, judges, and two kings that preceded Solomon. His wisdom exceeded that of all before Jesus Christ, the antitypical Koheleth, or “Gatherer of men,” (Luk_13:34), and “Wisdom” incarnate (Mat_11:19; Mat_12:42).

had ... experience— literally, “had seen” (Jer_2:31). Contrast with this glorying in worldly wisdom (Jer_9:23, Jer_9:24).

7. K&D, "“I have communed with mine own heart, saying: Lo, I have gained great and always greater wisdom above all who were before me over Jerusalem; and my heart hath seen wisdom and knowledge in fulness. And I gave my heart to know what was in wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly - I have perceived that this also is a grasping

after the wind.” The evidence in which he bears witness to himself that striving after wisdom and knowledge brings with it no true satisfaction, reaches down to the close of

Ecc_1:17; ידע0י is the conclusion which is aimed at. The manner of expression is certainly

so far involved, as he speaks of his heart to his heart what it had experienced, and to

what he had purposely directed it. The אני leads us to think that a king speaks, for whom

it is appropriate to write a capital I, or to multiply it into we; vid., regarding this “I,” more pleonastic than emphatic, subordinated to its verb.

It is a question whether עם־ל=י, after the phrase (את) עם C, is meant of speaking with=ר

any one, colloqui, or of the place of speaking, as in “thou shalt consider in thine heart,”

Deu_8:5, it is used of the place of consciousness; cf. Job_15:9, (דיfע) יfע σύνοιδα = היה

[µαυτx, and what is said in my Psychol. p. 134, regarding συνείδησις, consciousness, and

συµµαρτυρε7ν. ל=י=, interchanging with עם־ל=י, Ecc_2:1, Ecc_2:15, commends the latter

meaning: in my heart (lxx, Targ., Jerome, Luther); but the cogn. expressions,

medabběrěth Ʈl-libbah, 1Sa_1:13, and ledabbēr ěl-libbi, Gen_24:45, suggest as more natural

the former rendering, viz., as of a dialogue, which is expressed by the Gr. Venet. (more

distinctly than by Aquila, Symm., and Syr.): διείλεγµαι [γy ξ{ν τ| καρδί} µου. Also לאמר, occurring only here in the Book of Koheleth, brings it near that the following oratio directa is directed to the heart, as it also directly assumes the form of an address, Ecc_

2:1, after בלבי. The expression, הג הך, “to make one's wisdom great,” i.e., “to gain great

wisdom,” is without a parallel; for the words, הג תו, Isa_28:29, quoted by Hitzig, signify

to show and attest truly useful (beneficial) knowledge in a noble way. The annexed והוrefers to the continued increase made to the great treasure already possessed (cf. Ecc_2:9 and 1Ki_10:7). The al connected therewith signifies, “above” (Gen_49:26) all those

who were over Jerusalem before me. This is like the sarrâni âlik ma~rija, “the kings who

were my predecessors,” which was frequently used by the Assyrian kings. The Targumist seeks to accommodate the words to the actual Solomon by thus distorting them: “above all the wise men who have been in Jerusalem before me,” as if the word in the text were

,בירושלם

(Note: In F. the following note is added: “Several Codd. have, erroneously,

birushalam instead of al-jerushalam.” Kennicott counts about 60 such Codd. It stands

thus also in J; and at first it thus stood in H, but was afterwards corrected to al-

yerushalam. Cf. Elias Levita's Masoreth hamasoreth, II 8, at the end.)

as it is indeed found in several Codd., and according to which also the lxx, Syr., Jerome,

and the Venet. translate. Rather than think of the wise (ימ�אnה), we are led to think of all

those who from of old stood at the head of the Israelitish community. But there must have been well-known great men with whom Solomon measures himself, and these could not be such dissimilarly great men as the Canaanitish kings to the time of Melchizedek; and since the Jebusites, even under Saul, were in possession of Zion, and Jerusalem was for the first time completely subdued by David (2Sa_5:7, cf. Jos_15:63), it is evident that only one predecessor of Solomon in the office of ruler over Jerusalem can be spoken of, and that here an anachronism lies before us, occasioned by the circumstance that the Salomo revivivus, who has behind him the long list of kings whom

in truth he had before him, here speaks.

Regarding היה היו qu'il y uet, for ,אשר qui furent, vid., at Ecc_1:10. The seeing here ,אשר

ascribed to the heart (here = νο�ς, Psychol. p. 249) is meant of intellectual observation

and apprehension; for “all perception, whether it be mediated by the organs of sense or not (as prophetic observing and contemplating), comprehends all, from mental discernment down to suffering, which veils itself in unconsciousness, and the Scripture

designates it as a seeing” (Psychol. 234); the Book of Koheleth also uses the word ראה of every kind of human experience, bodily or mental, Ecc_2:24; Ecc_5:17; Ecc_6:6; Ecc_9:9. It is commonly translated: “My heart saw much wisdom and knowledge” (thus e.g., Ewald); but that is contrary to the gram. structure of the sentence (Ew. §287c). The

adject. harbēh

(Note: Regarding the form הרבה, which occurs once (Jer_42:2), vid., Ew. §240c.)

is always, and by Koheleth also, Ecc_2:7; Ecc_5:6, Ecc_5:16; Ecc_6:11; Ecc_9:18; Ecc_11:8; Ecc_12:9, Ecc_12:12, placed after its subst.; thus it is here adv., as at Ecc_5:19;

Ecc_7:16. Rightly the Venet.: � καρδία µου τεθέαται κατ� πολ{ σοφίαν καί γν%σιν Chokma

signifies, properly, solidity, compactness; and then, like πυκνότης, mental ability, secular

wisdom; and, generally, solid knowledge of the true and the right. DƮƮth is connected

with chokma here and at Isa_33:6, as at Rom_11:33, γν%σις is with σοφία. Baumggarten-

Crusius there remarks that σοφία refers to the general ordering of things, γν%σις to the

determination of individual things; and Harless, that σοφία is knowledge which proposes

the right aim, and γν%σις that which finds the right means thereto. In general, we may

say that chokma is the fact of a powerful knowledge of the true and the right, and the

property which arises out of this intellectual possession; but dƮƮth is knowledge

penetrating into the depth of the essence of things, by which wisdom is acquired and in which wisdom establishes itself.

17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of

wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned

that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

1. GLE PEASE, Solomon was not satisfied to study only what is wise, for he

wanted to also know how madness and folly fit into the scheme of things. Maybe

being a fool would open up some new insight about life's meaning and purpose. We

do not have any record of how wild he went in his experiments, and to what degree

he became a foolish man, but he seems to be saying that he tried to be as crazy as the

fools of his day for some length of time to taste the full experience of their life style.

Like most of us who have never tried this nonsense, he concludes that being stupid

does not lead to fulfillment.

We've all heard the one about the pilot who announced over the intercom, "Ladies

and gentlemen, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we're making

excellent time. The bad news is that our navigational systems are malfunctioning

and we have no idea where we're going."

1B. Steve Zeisler, "Why is this? we wonder. Why should an increase in knowledge

and understanding bring grief and pain? I think most of us suffer from a 'cockeyed

optimist' syndrome. We feel that if we could just understand reality, that some

semblance of coherence would emerge; that there is something beautiful awaiting us

at the end of the 'yellow brick road'; that although to all outward appearances, the

world seems topsy-turvy, at its core everything is good and rational. But no. If all we

have to go on is life "under the sun," if heaven does not break through somewhere

along the line, then the farther we penetrate in our search the more we will discover

that there is no good center awaiting us at the end of our quest.

Solomon was forced to conclude that "in much wisdom there is much grief, and

increasing knowledge results in increased pain." Here is how he describes what he

learned, "What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be

counted." Like a jigsaw puzzle that is lacking several pieces to complete the picture,

"what is lacking cannot be counted." There is no way to complete the task. "What is

crooked cannot be straightened." I have counseled people who make the same

mistakes over and over again, hurting themselves and others in the process. In my

efforts to discover the root cause of their behavior, I sometimes hear something

along the lines of "I'm trying to gain the approval of my father." The fact that in

some cases the father has been dead for years-and can not undo hurt-doesn't seem

to matter. They continue seeking, and warped lives and stunted spiritual growth are

the result.

1C. REV. LOYAL YOU G, "Solomon, like our first parents, would know

evil as well as good by his own experience. And the

very knowledge of all these things was a vexation of

spirit. Ignorance would have been comparative bliss, as

the next verse declares. By wisdom, as an instrument,

Solomon had investigated other things; now he examines

the instrument itself. With this he also examines its

opposite — folly. " Contraries explain each other."

2. BAR ES, "To know madness and folly - A knowledge of folly would help him to discern wisdom, and to exercise that chief function of practical wisdom - to avoid folly.

3. CLARKE, "To know madness and folly - .holloth vesichluth הוללות ושכלות

Παραβολας και επιστηµην, “Parables and science.” - Septuagint. So the Syriac; nearly so

the Arabic.

“What were error and foolishness.” - Coverdale. Perhaps gayety and sobriety may be the better meaning for these two difficult words. I can scarcely think they are taken in that bad sense in which our translation exhibits them. “I tried pleasure in all its forms; and sobriety and self-abnegation to their utmost extent.” Choheleth paraphrases, “Even fools and madmen taught me rules.”

4. GILL, "And I gave my heart to know wisdom,.... Which is repeated, for the confirmation of it, from Ecc_1:13, and that it might be taken notice of how assiduous and diligent he had been in acquiring it; a circumstance not to be overlooked;

and to know madness and folly: that he might the better know wisdom, and learn the difference between the one and the other, since opposites illustrate each other; and that he might shun madness and folly, and the ways thereof, and expose the actions of mad and foolish men: so Plato (s) says, ignorance is a disease, of which there are two kinds, madness and folly. The Targum, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions, interpret the last word, translated "folly", by understanding, knowledge, and prudence; which seems to be right, since Solomon speaks of nothing afterwards, as vexation and grief to him, but wisdom and knowledge: and I would therefore read the clause in connection with the preceding, thus, "and the knowledge of things boasted of", vain glorious knowledge; "and prudence", or what may be called craftiness and cunning; or what the apostle calls "science falsely so called", 1Ti_6:20; see Pro_12:8;

I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit; See Gill on Ecc_1:14; the reason follows.

5. HE RY, "He found that when he had got some knowledge he could neither gain that satisfaction to himself nor do that good to others with it which he expected, Ecc_1:15. It would not avail, (1.) To redress the many grievances of human life: “After all, I find that that which is crooked will be crooked still and cannot be made straight.” Our knowledge is itself intricate and perplexed; we must go far about and fetch a great compass to come at it. Solomon thought to find out a nearer way to it, but he could not. The paths of learning are as much a labyrinth as ever they were. The minds and manners

of men are crooked and perverse. Solomon thought, with his wisdom and power together, thoroughly to reform his kingdom, and make that straight which he found crooked; but he was disappointed. All the philosophy and politics in the world will not restore the corrupt nature of man to its primitive rectitude; we find the insufficiency of them both in others and in ourselves. Learning will not alter men's natural tempers, nor cure them of their sinful distempers; nor will it change the constitution of things in this world; a vale of tears it is and so it will be when all is done. (2.) To make up the many deficiencies in the comfort of human life: That which is wanting there cannot be numbered, or counted out to us from the treasures of human learning, but what is wanting will still be so. All our enjoyments here, when we have done our utmost to bring them to perfection, are still lame and defective, and it cannot be helped; as they are, so they are likely to be. That which is wanting in our knowledge is so much that it cannot be numbered. The more we know the more we see of our own ignorance. Who can understand his errors, his defects?

6. JAMISO , "wisdom ... madness— that is, their effects, the works of human wisdom and folly respectively. “Madness,” literally, “vaunting extravagance”; Ecc_2:12; Ecc_7:25, etc., support English Version rather than Dathe, “splendid matters.” “Folly” is read by English Version with some manuscripts, instead of the present Hebrew text, “prudence.” If Hebrew be retained, understand “prudence,” falsely so called (1Ti_6:20), “craft” (Dan_8:25).

7. K&D, "By the consecutive modus ,aor. with ah, like Gen_32:6; Gen_41:11) וא0נה

and particularly in more modern writings; vid., p. 198, regarding the rare occurrence of the aorist form in the Book of Koheleth) he bears evidence to himself as to the end which, thus equipped with wisdom and knowledge, he gave his heart to attain unto (cf. 13a), i.e., toward which he directed the concentration of his intellectual strength. He wished to be clear regarding the real worth of wisdom and knowledge in their contrasts; he wished to become conscious of this, and to have joy in knowing what he had in wisdom and knowledge as distinguished from madness and folly. After the statement of

the object lādƮƮth, stands vedaath, briefly for ולדעת. Ginsburg wishes to get rid of the

words holēloth vesikluth, or at least would read in their stead 0בונית ושכלות (rendering them

“intelligence and prudence”); Grätz, after the lxx παραβολ�ς κα� [πιστήµην, reads משלות

But the text can remain as it is: the object of Koheleth is, on the one hand, to .ושכלות

become acquainted with wisdom and knowledge; and, on the other, with their contraries, and to hold these opposite to each other in their operations and

consequences. The lxx, Targ., Venet., and Luther err when they render sikluth here by

[πιστήµη, etc. As sikluth, insight, intelligence, is in the Aram. written with the letter

samek (instead of sin), so here, according to the Masora סכלות, madness is for once

written with ס, being everywhere else in the book written with ש; the word is an

[ναντιόφωνον,

(Note: Vid., Th. M. Redslob's Die Arab. Wörter, u.s.w. (1873).)

and has, whether written in the one way or in the other, a verb, sakal (סכל ,שכל), which

signifies “to twist together,” as its root, and is referred partly to a complication and

partly to a confusion of ideas. הללות, from הלל, in the sense of “to cry out,” “to rage,”

always in this book terminates in ôth, and only at Ecc_10:13 in ûth; the termination ûth is that of the abstr. sing.; but ôth, as we think we have shown at Pro_1:20, is that of a

fem. plur., meant intensively, like bogdoth, Zep_2:4; binoth, chokmoth, cf. bogdim, Pro_

23:28; hhovlim, Zec_11:7, Zec_11:14; toqim, Pro_11:15 (Böttch. §700g E). Twice vesikluthpresents what, speaking to his own heart, he bears testimony to before himself. By

yādƮ'ti, which is connected with dibbarti (Ecc_1:16) in the same rank, he shows the facit.

refers to the striving to become conscious of the superiority of secular wisdom and זה

science to the love of pleasure and to ignorance. He perceived that this striving also was

a grasping after the wind; with 14 ,רעותb, is here interchanged רעיון. He proves to himself

that nothing showed itself to be real, i.e., firm and enduring, unimpeachable and imperishable. And why not?

8. PASTOR WADE HUGHES SR. " HERE ARE 7 AREAS SOLOMO

SEARCHED FOR CO TE TME T A D WHAT HE DESIRED WAS ALWAYS

O E STEP FARTHER THA HIS REACH. Solomon’s search was a search for

VALUES and a VALUE SYSTEM.

1.) SEARCH FOR WISDOM/ LEAR I G. Ecc. 1:17 conclusion there is no end.

2.) SEARCH FOR PLEASURE/ EMOTIO S. Ecc. 2:1 Pleasure is a poor goal/

purpose.

3.) SEARCH I MI D ALTERI G DRUGS. Ecc.2:3 Solomon tried getting high, --

alcohol and booze does not satisfy.

4.) SEARCH MORE MATERIALISM. Ecc. 2: 4-6 Solomon gat him more and more,

and desires more and more.

5.) SEARCH FOR AUTHORITY. Ecc. 2:7 Solomon gat more and more well trained

servants, still empty?

6.) SEARCH FOR SECURITY. Ecc. 2:8 Solomon gat gold, silver... Thinking there

was security in the secure?

7.) SEARCH I MUSIC. Ecc.2:8 Solomon’s dad was a skilled music and could calm

the King’s nerves by playing music. Solomon trained the best musicians of history,

and Solomon was still empty and chasing endless rainbows with little to no results?

How sad?"

9. ROBERT BUCHA A , " I perceived that this also," this superior wis-

dom and knowledge of mine, when thus employed, "is vexation of

spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth

knowledge increaseth sorrow." If he knew more of institutions

and of men than any of his contemporaries — if he had looked

deeper into the whole condition of humanity than they — it had

only served to leave him under a more distressing and humili-

ating sense of man's pitiable state. It had but shown him this —

that all his boasted wisdom and all his boasted greatness were

no match for the countless errors and evils that prevail in this

fallen world. In itself considered it was a great and noble enter-

prise which Solomon, in the pride of his power and wisdom,

had taken in hand ; but prosecuted as it had been, in reliance on

his own might and his own prudence alone, and without any

regard to the grace and power of God, it necessarily terminated'

in a total failure. ot thus could the face of this guilty world

be renewed : not thus could the sorrows that afflict the human

heart be di-iven away : not thus could the wrongs and evils

which abound in society be brought to an end. Satan is not

to be charmed out of his fatal dominion over our fallen race by

the wise men of this world, charm they never so wisely. ot

by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of

Hosts !

Such is our view of this passage. The construction usually

put upon it — and which supposes it to refer to a period in

which Solomon had given himself up to severe and laborious

study as a means of gaining happiness — is altogether forced

and unnatural : as little in keeping with the probabilities of

the case as with the statements of the passage itself. Study

was no new thing with Solomon. Intellectual pursuits had

been his familiar occupation for years. He did not need to

have recourse to them now in order to find out what they could

do for the happiness of man. or is the language employed

that which is fitted to describe any such line of things. Its

whole tone and bearing savour, not of the closet but of the

busy world. It was not books, but men, wherewith the mind

of Solomon was evidently at this period engaged. " The things"

— that is, the works — done under the sun were what he had

given his heart to seek and to search out; and the practical

inefficiency of mere human wisdom, as a means of rectifying the

disorders of humanity, of making straight that which was crooked,

or of supplying that which was awanting, seems to have been

the disappointing fact, the discovery of which made all his great

acquirements appear to be nothing better than vanity, and their

exercise to be only " vexation of spirit."

Let us rejoice that One has arisen who is greater than Solo-

mon, and who also has given His heart to seek and search out

by wisdom — by a divine and infinite wisdom — all things that

are done under heaven. He, too, has seen the sore travail

which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised there-

with — how the earth has been cursed for sinful man's sake, and

how laboriously he eats of it in the sweat of his brow — how

man wearies himself amid toils and cares which, after all, leave

him as unsatisfied as ever. But, unlike the literal Solomon, this

mightier son of David, this more glorious King over Israel, has

found out a way whereby that which is crooked can be made

straight, and that which is wanting can be numbered. The Lord

Jesus Christ has come down from heaven to look upon this fallen

world. He has come, not to condemn it but to save it, and

tins great work He has accomplished by the blood of His cross.

He has redeemed us from the curse under which we groaned, by

himself bearing that curse for us ; and there is, therefore, now

no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. A sinful

nature was that crooked thing which no device of human wisdom

could make straight. Human science and philosophy, neither

in Solomon's days nor in ours, have ever been able to erect the

bent form of fallen and degraded humanity, or to supply the felt

wants of a consciously guilty soul. But He Avho is the power of

God, and the wisdom of God, has achieved this blessed triumph

for man. By His atoning sacrifice He makes reconciliation for

iniquity j by His infinite merits. He secures for us a title to

heaven; and by the regenerating and sanctifying grace of his

Holy Spirit, He rescues our moral and spiritual nature from the

dominion of Satan and sin, and restores us to the lost image of

God.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;

the more knowledge, the more grief.

1. GLE PEASE, "We live in a world of great knowledge and wisdom, and with

more educated people than ever, and yet the rate of suicide keeps climbing because

people cannot find meaning to life by means of knowledge. Pastor Cliff Watson

shared these statistics some years back, and we know that they are worse now than

then.

Illus: Percentage of U.S. teenagers who agree that "I often feel that I would rather

die than go on living": 19

Percentage who have tried to commit suicide: 6

-- Psychology Today, 10/88; Gallup Poll,

Illus: umber of soldiers who died in the Vietnam War: 58,000

umber of Vietnam vets who have committed suicide since the war: 100,000 --

Church Dean, am Vet, (Multnomah, 1990).

1B. MOODY BIBLE I STITUTE, "Growing up on the Mississippi, the mystery

and wonder of the river enthralled Mark Twain. In his book, Life on the

Mississippi, Twain notes that after realizing his dream of becoming a steamboat

pilot and learning to read every detail of the river and its banks, the mystery faded.

He compares this loss of wonder to how a physician would see a beautiful woman.

Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and

symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn’t he simply

view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to

himself? And doesn’t he some-times wonder whether he has gained or lost most by

learning his trade?”

Solomon’s field of expertise was life. He studied “all the things that are done under

heaven” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). So if it’s true that much study yields a bland

familiarity–a steamboat pilot can’t see the beauty of a river sunset and a doctor

can’t appreciate the beauty of a woman’s face--then Solomon, an expert in

everything, should be pitied above all, for he can’t see the beauty of anything!"

1C. KEITH KRELL, "Have you ever tried to catch the wind in your hands? It is

impossible. In fact, it is a ridiculously futile waste of time. It can’t be done! This is

exactly Solomon’s point. Wisdom “under the sun” fails to satisfy the soul. This

observation actually demonstrates Solomon’s wisdom, for the more knowledge we

acquire the more we realize just how ignorant we are. As Socrates himself said, “I

am the wisest of all Greeks, because I of all men know that I know nothing.” The

more we are educated in current events, the more serious the world’s problems

appear. The better we understand the vastness of our universe, the more

insignificant we become. In other words, increasing knowledge often compounds

our sense of futility.54 T.S. Eliot once remarked, “All our knowledge brings us

nearer to our ignorance.

1D. JACOX wrote, "WHAT came of the Preacher giving his heart to know

wisdom ? The invariable outcome, in his case : vexa-

tion of spirit. "For in much wisdom is much grief; and he

that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow."

Man's unhappiness, the Weissnichtwo philosopher takes it,

comes of his greatness. His capacity of knowledge brings

pains and penalties with it. Of almost all books that enlarge

the experience and have something really of revelation in them,

it may be said, as of that little book in the Apocalypse, that

even though sweet as honey in the mouth, the after-taste, the

abiding one, is bitter. Some books indeed, and to some

students, lack the prelibation of sweetness ; for, in a sense, all

study is a weariness to the flesh, and the rhymed rhetoric of

Shakspeare's Biron will apply :

" Why, all delights are vain ; but that most vain,

Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain :

As, painfully to pore upon a book,

To seek the light of truth ; while truth the while

Doth falsely * blind the eyesight of his look :

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile :

So ere you find where light in darkness lies,

Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes."

The aspirations of Manfred have been beyond the dwellers

* Dishonestly, treacherously.

THE MORE SORROW.

of the earth, and they have only taught him that " knowledge

is not happiness, and science but an exchange of ignorance for

that which is another kind of ignorance." There was never a

finer lesson read to the pride of learning, says a great critic,

than the exclamation of Marlowe's Faustus, after his thirty years'

study : " Oh, would I had never seen Wittenberg, never read

book ! " On the score of happiness, what comparison, asks a

latter-day sage, can you make between the tranquil being of the

wild man of the woods, and the A\Tetched and turbulent exist-

ence of Milton, the victim of persecution, poverty, blindness,

and neglect? "The records of literature demonstrate that

Happiness and Intelligence are seldom sisters."' Ever\^ new

lesson, says an eastern proverb, is another gray hair. Sated

latter-day pseudo-Solomons have echoed the prayer,

' ' Take from me this regal knowledge ;

Let me, contented and mute, with the beasts of the field, my brothers,

Tranquilly, happily lie, — and eat grass, Hke ebuchadnezzar ! "

It is in opposition to the doctrine of Pope's line, of " Happi-

ness, our being's end and aim," that Mr. Carlyle asks. How

comes it that although the gross are happier than the refined,

the refined would not change places with them? Were that

doctrine right, for what should we struggle with our whole might,

for what pray to Heaven, if not that the " malady of thought "

might be utterly stifled \vithin us, and a power of digestion and

secretion, to which that of the tiger were trifling, be imparted

instead thereof? "O too dear knowledge! O pernicious

learning ! " is the regretful cry in one of Hood's serious poems.

And in the same key is the note of Selred when taxing Ethwald

with having spoilt a promising youth by his clerkly appliances :

" For since he learnt from thee that letter'd art

"Which only sacred priests were meant to know,

See how it is, I pray ! His father's house

Has unto him become a cheerless den,

His pleasant tales and sprightly playful talk,

Which still our social meals were wont to cheer,

ow visit us but like a hasty beam

Between the showery clouds."'

Even the growing sense of ignorance is a depressing power.

214 THE MORE K OWLEDGE,

It is the law of all human knowledge, that the more the rays of

the light within us multiply and spread, the increasing circle

of light implies an increasing circumference of darkness to hem

it round. " Increase the bounds of knowledge, and you in-

evitably increase the sense of ignorance ; at all the more points

in a belt of surrounding darkness do you encounter doubt and

difficulty." Goldsmith's Chinese philosopher opens an epistle

with a grave expression of incipient misgiving as to the suffi-

ciency of wisdom alone to make us happy : he begins to doubt

whether every step we make in refinement is not an inlet to

new disquietudes. '' When we rise in knowledge, as the pros-

pect A\idens, the objects of our regard become more obscure,

and the unlettered peasant, whose views are only directed to

the narrow sphere around him, beholds nature with a finer

relish, and tastes her blessings with a keener appetite, than the

philosopher whose mind attempts to grasp an universal system."

But that is open to exception again, as tending to an inference

as general as the one drawn by the toper in the Golde?i Legend

is particular, viz., that

' ' the friars who sit at the lower board,

And cannot distinguish bad [wine] from good,

Are far better off than if they could,

Being rather the rude disciples of beer

Than of anything more refined and dear. "

Beranger, however, is free to adopt the travelled mandarin's

philosophy; for he may be said to echo it in the Hnes,

" Des sages m'ont ouvert les yeux ;

Mais j 'admirals bien plus I'aurore

Quand je connaissais moins les cieux."

y 'ai perdu ma douce ignorance, is the burden of his song. It

harmonizes with Barry Cornwall's strain, on the text that igno-

rance is bliss : " Rains fall, suns shine, winds flee, Brooks run,

yet few know how. Do not thou too deeply search," etc., for

" Men mar the beauty of their dreams by tracing their source

too well." One of his dramatic fragments is a more direct

annotation on the Preacher's utterance :

" What's knowledge? — Sorrow, — sorrow; little else.

All the black units which make up the amount

THE MORE SORROW. 215

Of human life (sad sum of deeds and thoughts!)

Together join'd, form knowledge. The great marks

Which guide us onwards thro' tempestuous seas,

Are beacons, currents, rocks. The sunny places

Teach nothing, save that now and then we sink

By trusting what looks fair."

To know nothing is the happiest life, says Sophocles : kv rw

(fipovcLv yap fxiqhh/, ^Sl(tto<; /3los, — of which the Latin adage

is a close translation, JVi/n7 scire est vita Jucundtssima, and the

English saw an accepted paraphrase, " Fools and children lead

a merry life." Montesquieu's travelled Persian soon comes to

the conclusion, " Heureuse I'ignorance des enfants de Mahomet !"

Balzac somewhere exclaims, to this effect, Frightful condition

of our race ! there is not a single one of our happinesses which

is not due to some kind of ignorance. Giordano Bruno con-

tends that ignorance is the mother of happiness, and that he

who promotes sciences increases the sources of grief. The

Admirable Crichton wound up his dies mirabilis at Padua with

a declamation on the blessedness of ignorance. One point

there is, as to which the mse of all ages are pretty well agreed,

in praise of ignorance, however faithfully they may be repre-

sented on the main question by Wordsworth's philosophic

moralist, when he exclaims, lamentingly,

" But, after all,

Is aught so certain as that man is doomed

To breathe beneath a vault of ignorance —

The natural roof of that dark house in which

His soul is pent ? How little can be knowm —

This is the Wiseman's sigh."

Or again when, in his autobiographic poem, he counts highest

among the many joys of youth the acquisition of knowledge :

" But oh ! what happiness to live

When every hour brings palpable access

Of knowledge, when all knowledge is delight,

And sorrow is not there ! "

The point of agreement referred to is with regard to the prying

into forbidden mysteries, such as the Caliph Vathek is warned

off from : " Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know that of

2i6 THE MORE K OWLEDGE,

which he should remain ignorant" — the sequel of the story

containing Vathek's avowal to Carathis, " How much I ought

to abhor the impious knowledge thou hast taught me!" — and

the moral of it teaching professedly the chastisement of blind

ambition, that would transgress those bounds which the Creator

hath prescribed to human knowledge, and by aiming at dis-

coveries reserved for pure intelligence, acquire that infatuated

pride which recognizes not the condition appointed to man,

*'to be ignorant and humble." As the great churchman says

in Sir Henry Taylor's " Anglo-Saxon " play, that

" not in mercy,

Save as a penance merciful in issue,

Doth God impart that moumfuUest of gifts

Which pushes farther into future time

The bounds of human foresight."

And such the drift of argument in Pope's Essay on Man — that

in pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies, quitting our sphere

to rush into the skies :

" Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,

All but the page prescribed, their present state :

From brutes what men, from men what spirits know ;

Or who could suffer Being here below ?

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,

Had he thy reason, would he skip and play ?

Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,

And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.

Oh, blindness to the future ! kindly given.

That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven."

So again in the third epistle of the same didactic poem, we

have an iterated enforcement of the same doctrine, that "blest"

is the lot of the animal doomed to feast man, " which sees no

more the stroke, or feels the pain, than favoured Man by touch

ethereal slain;" and though Man does foresee his death, he

cannot foretell the time of it — and previsions of that time are

only what Milton calls visions ill foreseen.

" To each unthinking being, Heaven a friend

Gives not the useless knowledge of its end :

To Man imparts it ; but with such a view

As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too :

THE MORE SORROW. 217

The hour conceal'd, and so remote the fear,

Death still draws nearer, never seeming near."

One of the Ingoldsby Legends takes up the strain, and rhymes

it anew in longer but lighter-footed metre :

" The kid from the pen, and the lamb from the fold.

Unmoved may the blade of the butcher behold ;

They dream not — ah, happier they ! — that the knife,

Though uplifted, can menace their innocent life ;

It falls ; — the frail thread of their being is riven,

They dread not, suspect not, the blow till 'tis given."

Walter Savage Landor was for once writing in that metre, but

touching on altogether a different theme, when he closed an

epigram A\'ith the couplet, so far (and only so far) pertinent to

our purpose, —

" In another six years I shall know all about it ;

But some knowledge is vain, and we do best without it."

Sleep on, is the gazer's benison on Eden's " blest pair ; and O,

yet happiest, if ye seek no happier state, and know to know no

more." Once having tasted the defended fruit, let them boast,

if they will, or can, their knowledge of good lost and evil got ;

" happier, had it sufficed them to have known good by itself,

and evil not at all." It was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's

philosophy to be young as long as she could, since there is

nothing can repay one for that invaluable ignorance which is

the companion of youth. " To my extreme mortification I grow

wiser every day. I don't believe Solomon was more convinced

of the vanity of temporal affairs than I am." J^e devieiis vieux

eii appreiiant toiijours. There was bitterness to Rousseau in his

private interpretation and self-application of that old verse ;

for, said he, " c'est une bien triste science . . . I'ignorance

est encore pre'ferable. . . . Que ne suis je reste toujours dans

cette imbe'cille mais douce confiance " in friendship and the

like. " Oh, rather rest in ignorance, —

' ' or ask thou if thy friends be what they seem ;

It is but misery too much to know

Amid this weary scene of life below —

It has its charms — that ignorance is one ;

or is it wise its veil aside to throw,

21 8 THE MORE K OWLEDGE,

Till in the presence of the Eternal Throne

It will be bliss to know even as we ai-e known." *

If ignorance can ever be bliss, then where and wheresoever

it is so blessed, Gray's conclusion is unimpeachable, that 'tis

folly to be wise. And blessed ignorance there is in this weary

world, of one sort and another, unless wearied experts bear false

witness. Leontes curses his forfeiture of complacent ignorance;

regrets the time when his knowledge was narrower :

" Alack for lesser knowledge ! How accursed

In being so blest ! "

So Othello's "I had been happy . . . had I nothing known !"t

Hamlet congratulates Horatio on 7iot knowing that "water-fly,"

the frivolous Osric : " Thy state is the more gracious ; for 'tis

a vice to know him." o Hamlet on the one hand, and no

Osric on the other, is the " respectable " hero who utters the

respect-worthy prayer, " May the last, knowledge I acquire be

that knowledge of the world which induces mistrust and con-

tempt of one's fellow-creatures." Gibbon congratulated "the

arctic tribes " of Lapland, as " alone among the sons of men

ignarant of war and unconscious of human blood : a happy

ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guardians of their

peace." Goldsmith accounted his ideal English peasant's "best

riches, ignorance of wealth." Beattie's sage warns off a young

inquirer with an

" Alas ! what comfort could thy anguish soothe,

Shouldst thou the extent of human folly know ?

Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to woe."

After reading all that was to be found in the languages she

was mistress of, the Lady Mary we have already quoted utters

a lament over the decay of her eyesight by midnight studies,

* Poems by C. F. Cornwallis.

f Compare a passage in the CEdipus Tyranmis, where Jocasta tells the

too eagerly and fatally inquisitive king, ' ' Thine ignorance is thy bliss. "

" CEdip. A bliss that tortures !

Jocasta. Miserable man !

Oh couldst thou never learn the thing thou art !"

THE MORE SORROW. 219

and " I envy," she adds, " the easy peace of mind of a ruddy

milkmaid, who, undisturbed by doubt, hears the sermon, with

humility, every Sunday, not having confounded the sentiments

of natural duty in her head by the vain inquiries of the schools,

who may be more learned, yet, after all, must remain as

ignorant." Madame de Motteville sounds a not unlike note

when she writes, recalling the transgression of the mother of

all flesh, " II nous coute si cher d'avoir .voulu apprendre la

science du bien et du mal, que nous devons demeurer d'accord

qu'il vaut mieux les ignorer que de les apprendre, particuUere-

ment a nous autres qu'on accuse d'etre cause de tout le mal.''

To be restored to his happier state of ignorance is the pleading

of Sydney Dobell's impassioned and sadly-enlightened Roman,

"if the sad fruit of knowledge dwells for ever on the lip.

" Take back this terrible sight,

This sight that passeth the sweet boundary

Of man's allotted world. Let me look forth

And see green fields, hills, trees, and soulless waters.

Give back my ignorance. Why should my sense

Be cursed with this intolerable knowledge?"

Take them away. Monsieur Emanuel Paul's pupil exclaims, of

the books lent and expounded by that exacting master : "Take

them away, and teach me no more. I never asked to be made

learned, and you compel me to feel very profoundly that learning

is not happiness." The particular instance is of general sig-

nificance. Churchill begins his now unread, if not unreadable,

poem oi The Author m!C^ something like an execration of letters

and learning :

' ' Much are the precious hours of youth misspent

In climbing Learning's rugged, steep ascent ;

When to the top the bold adventurer's got,

He reigns, vain monarch, o'er a barren spot ;

Whilst in the vale of Ignorance below,

Folly and Vice to rank luxuriance grow ;

Honours and wealth pour in on every side,

And proud Preferment rolls her golden tide."

Prior philosophizes in verse on happy obscurities in optics

and obliquities in vision, and so comes to the conclusion,

220 THE MORE K OWLEDGE,

•

*' If we see right, we see our woes ;

Then what avails it to have eyes ?

From ignorance our comfort flows.

The only wretched are the wise."

Unthinking creatures, muses Richardson's Clarissa, have

some comfort in the shortness of their views; in their un-

apprehensiveness, and that they penetrate not beyond the

present moment ; in short, that they are unthinking.

Speaking of the world as full of objects of sorrow, our

capacities to take which in are enlarged by knowledge, "none

but the wise man can know himself to be miserable," says

Robert South, who shows how not Solomon himself could

separate his wisdom from vexation of spirit, and who cites

Aristotle's assertion, that there was never a great scholar in

the world but had in his temper a dash and mixture of

melancholy. ihil scire vita jucundissima est. It is the empty

vessel that makes the merry sound, argues the wittiest of our

old Caroline divines ; " which is evident from those whose

intellectuals are ruined with frenzy or madness ; who so merry,

so free from the lash of care ? their understanding is gone,

and so is their trouble. It is the philosopher that is pensive,

that looks doumwards in the posture of the mourner. It is

the open eye that weeps." Erasmus, in his Mtopias 'EyKw/xtov,

Stultitise Laudatio, Praise of Folly, affirms the different branches

of science and learning {disciplincE) to be in truth gifts of the

daemons, who should properly be called Sarjfxovcs, or " knowing

ones," — and to have been without influence in that golden age

when all talked one language, so there was no need of grammar;

no one disputed, so logic was not required; rhetoric and

jurisprudence would have been equally superfluous. But when

the golden age had passed away, " learning came with other

evils, one grammar alone being sufficient for the perpetual

torture of hfe." It is consistent with the praise of folly and

the consequent or concomitant deprecation or disparagement

of science, that the witty scholar should declare idiots and

maniacs to enjoy advantages unknown to the learned and the

great : the swineherd was better off than TroXvfxrJTts 'OSvcra-cvs,

THE MORE SORROW. 221

by Homer designated ^vVrr/i/o?: let the sad, morose life ot

the wise man be compared with the career of a men*}' court-

fool, and ever}' advantage is claimed as indubitably apparent

on the side of the latter. Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts

reverted to the text, " Much reading is a weariness of the

flesh," and he bore corroborative testimony to the truth that

whoso increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. '"'How many

hundred studious days and weeks, and how many hard and

tearing thoughts, hath my little, very little knowledge cost me !

And how much infirmity and painfulness to my flesh, increase

of painful diseases, and loss of bodily ease and health !" In

more than one or two of his letters to Temple, Boswell hesitates

between the charms and the penalties of advancement in

learning. ow he en\T[es his friend's riper knowledge. But

then again, " when I consider what vexations you suffer, from

which I am free, I am inclined to quiet myself ' ^luch study

is a weariness to the flesh,' says the ^^'ise man ; now, if there

is on the whole more pain than pleasure in advancing far into

literature, would you advise me to do it?'' "Men of delicate

nerves may at times suffer from their knowledge, but they would

suffer from something else, and even their enjoyments from

knowledge counterbalance their sufferings." Considerable as

are the pleasures of studying logic and metaphysics, such

pleasures, in the opinion of modern thinkers, are alloyed by

the inseparable conviction that they are barren as far as all

result is concerned, and that such seductive inquiries, if pursued

in a spirit of remorseless logic, are discomfiture and uncertainty

after all. This also is vanity. As Shenstone echoes the sigh

of Ecclesiastes, —

" Ah ! what is science, what is art,

Or what the pleasure these impart ?

Ye trophies, which the leam'd pursue

Thro' endless, fruitless toils, adieu !

"What can the tedious tomes bestow

To soothe the miseries they show ?"

1C. REV. LOYAL YOU G, "And four reasons may be

assigned why this kind of wisdom is unsatisfactory and

tends to sadness. 1. There is hard labour in acquiring

it. 2. After all our search, the mind is still in doubt

about many things. 3. Painful discoveries are made of

the wickedness and misery of men ; and human wisdom

finds no remedy, (v. 15.) The heart alive to the distress

of sin, is in perpetual grief 4. The mind becomes more

susceptible to pain by the increase of knowledge. What

profit ?

Those who have great knowledge of men, who have

made extensive research into the character of mankind,

discover that men are false, unfair, perverse, and wicked.

It cannot but give them excessive pain and grief to see all

this and not be able to rectify it. " He that increaseth

knowledge increaseth sorrow."

2. BAR ES, "We become more sensible of our ignorance and impotence, and therefore sorrowful, in proportion as we discover more of the constitution of nature and the scheme of Providence in the government of the world; every discovery serving to convince us that more remains concealed of which we had no suspicion before.

3. CLARKE, "For in much wisdom is much grief - The more we know of ourselves the less satisfied shall we be with our own hearts; and the more we know of mankind the less willing shall we be to trust them, and the less shall we admire them.

Be that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow - And why so? Because, independently of God, the principal objects of knowledge are natural and moral evils.

The Targum gives a curious paraphrase here: “The man who multiplies wisdom, when he sins and is not converted to repentance, multiplies the indignation of God against himself; and the man who adds science, and yet dies in his childhood, adds grief of heart to his relatives.” A man in science; a foolish child in conduct. How pained must they be who had the expense of his education! But there are many men-children of this sort in every age and country.

4. GILL, "or in much wisdom is much grief,.... In getting it, and losing it when it is gotten: or "indignation" (t), at himself and others; being more sensible of the follies and weakness of human nature;

and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow: for, the more he knows, the more he would know, and is more eager after it, and puts himself to more pains and trouble to acquire it; and hereby becomes more and more sensible of his own ignorance; and of the difficulty of attaining the knowledge he would come at; and of the insufficiency of it to make him easy and happy: and besides, the more knowledge he has, the more envy it draws upon him from others, who set themselves to oppose him, and detract from his character; in short, this is the sum of all human knowledge and wisdom, attained to in the highest degree; instead of making men comfortable and happy, it is found to be mere vanity, to cause vexation and disquietude of mind, and to promote grief and sorrow. There is indeed wisdom and knowledge opposite to this, and infinitely more excellent, and which, the more it is increased, the more joy and comfort it brings; and this is wisdom in the hidden part; a spiritual and experimental knowledge of Christ, and of God in Christ, and of divine and evangelical truths; but short of this knowledge there is no true peace, comfort, and happiness. The Targum is,

"for a man who multiplies wisdom, when he sins and does not turn by repentance, he multiplies indignation from the Lord; and he who increases knowledge, and dies in his youth, increases grief of heart to those who are near akin to him.''

5. HE RY, "Upon the whole, therefore, he concluded that great scholars do but make themselves great mourners; for in much wisdom is much grief, Ecc_1:18. There must be a great deal of pains taken to get it, and a great deal of care not to forget it; the more we know the more we see there is to be known, and consequently we perceive with greater clearness that our work is without end, and the more we see of our former mistakes and blunders, which occasions much grief. The more we see of men's different sentiments and opinions (and it is that which a great deal of our learning is conversant about) the more at a loss we are, it may be, which is in the right. Those that increase knowledge have so much the more quick and sensible perception of the calamities of this world, and for one discovery they make that is pleasing, perhaps, they make ten that are displeasing, and so they increase sorrow. Let us not therefore be driven off from the pursuit of any useful knowledge, but put on patience to break through the sorrow of it; but let us despair of finding true happiness in this knowledge, and expect it only in the

knowledge of God and the careful discharge of our duty to him. He that increases in heavenly wisdom, and in an experimental acquaintance with the principles, powers, and pleasures of the spiritual and divine life, increases joy, such as will shortly be consummated in everlasting joy.

6. JAMISO , "wisdom ... knowledge— not in general, for wisdom, etc., are most excellent in their place; but speculative knowledge of man’s ways (Ecc_1:13, Ecc_1:17), which, the farther it goes, gives one the more pain to find how “crooked” and “wanting” they are (Ecc_1:15; Ecc_12:12).

7. K&D, "“For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” The German proverb: “Much wisdom causeth headache,” is

compared, Ecc_12:12, but not here, where עסn and מכאוב express not merely bodily

suffering, but also mental grief. Spinoza hits one side of the matter in his Ethics, IV 17, where he remarks: “Veram boni et mali cognitionem saepe non satis valere ad cupiditates coercendas, quo facto homo imbecillitatem suam animadvertens cogitur exclamare: Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor.” In every reference, not merely in that which is moral, there is connected with knowledge the shadow of a sorrowful consciousness, in spite of every effort to drive it away. The wise man gains an insight into the thousand-fold woes of the natural world, and of the world of human beings, and this reflects itself in him without his being able to change it; hence the more numerous

the observed forms of evil, suffering, and discord, so much greater the sadness (עסn, R.

which the inutility (crève-cour ,מכאוב) perstringere) and the heart-sorrow ,הס .cogn ,כס

of knowledge occasions. The form of 18a is like Ecc_5:6, and that of 18b like e.g., Pro_

18:22. We change the clause veyosiph daath into an antecedent, but in reality the two

clauses stand together as the two members of a comparison: if one increaseth

knowledge, he increaseth (at the same time) sorrow. “יוסיף, Isa_29:14; Isa_38:5; Ecc_

2:18,” says Ewald, §169a, “stands alone as a part. act., from the stem reverting from

Hiph. to Kal with י instead of .” But this is not unparalleled; in הן יוסיף the verb יוסף is

fin., in the same manner as י�ד, Isa_28:16; 0ומיך, Psa_16:5, is Hiph., in the sense of

amplificas, from יפיח ;ימך, Pro_6:19 (vid., l.c.), is an attribut. clause, qui efflat, used as

an adj.; and, at least, we need to suppose in the passage before us the confusion that the

ē of kātēl (from kātil, originally kātal), which is only long, has somehow passed over into î. Böttcher's remark to the contrary, “An impersonal fiens thus repeated is elsewhere altogether without a parallel,” is set aside by the proverb formed exactly thus: “He that breathes the love of truth says what is right,” Pro_12:17.

8. Pastor Melvin ewland, "A few years ago Alexander Curie was a 30-something

entrepreneur who worked on Wall Street in Manhattan. His salary was in the 6-

figures, & he lived in the upper east side. He was chauffeured down to Wall Street

every day to conduct business. He had access to everything this world offers, & this

is what he wrote,

"I’ve always felt that there must be something I could do of real tangible benefit.

Trading future markets does not have any real tangible benefit in my opinion. I

mean, it serves a purpose for the economy, but I don’t think of myself as really

doing a lot for society. I’m really doing it more for myself. I feel that there is a lack

of purpose in my being. I don’t understand why I’m here, & I don’t really try to

understand why I’m here because it would probably be futile." He sounds like a

modern-day Solomon, doesn’t he?"

9. He who increases knowledge increases sorrow. --Ecclesiastes 1:18

Gerrit and I were teenage friends when we attended Christian High School. One

day he became unhappy with the large assignments, so he reminded his teacher that

Ecclesiastes says, "He who increases knowledge increases sorrow" (1:18).

Apparently our teacher wasn't impressed. The assignments stayed large and our

sorrow increased.

Gerrit, of course, had misapplied Scripture to ease the discipline of learning. Yet the

passage makes a significant statement about the pain of gaining too much

knowledge if not accompanied by "the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1:7).

Yes, modern science has brought many benefits. But that same knowledge also

makes us aware of the possibilities for global disasters such as a nuclear holocaust

or unstoppable germ warfare. Many become so scared by television programs

portraying these dangers that they won't watch them.

A proper fear of the Lord is the antidote to the pain associated with accumulating

knowledge. This fear is not an emotion; it's a worshiping, trusting, submitting

relationship to God through Christ. When we live in fellowship with Him, the more

we learn, the more we will honor Him. And that certainly isn't something we should

be afraid of. —Herbert Vander Lugt

With knowledge comes both good and ill,

Some blessing and some harm;

But those who learn to fear the Lord

Can live without alarm. --DJD

The heart of education is education of the heart

10. CHARLES BRIDGES, "Wisdom was Solomon's first experiment in the pur-

suit of rest. — The object seemed to promise good re-

sult. He communed with his heart ; and brought to

the investigation all the advantage of great estate, large

ivisdom and experience. But here he lost his path.

He sought to know wisdom as the rest of man — thus

putting the gift in the place of the Giver. His range

of inquiry reached to the opposite quarter — to hioio

madness and. folly, as if the knowledge of contraries

would clear his mind. But truly the cost of this knowl-

edge was frightful. It was — as with our first parents

— the speculative knowledge of good, and the experi-

mental knowledge of evil — ' the pride and wantonness

of knowledge, because it looketh after high things, that

are above us, and after hidden things, that are denied

us.' ^ So far from increasing his happiness, it only ad-

ded a deeper stamp to his decision. — This also is van^

ity and vexation of spirit. This path of wandering

could only issue in the sober certainty of grief and, sor-

row, increasing at every step. The true rest of man

could never be found there. The soul that has wan-

dered from Grod will search heaven and earth in vain

for rest.

Yet we are no patrons of ignorance. Far be it from

us to deny the highly valuable pleasures of tvisdom and

knowledge. But if we attempt their pursuit, as Solo-

mon seems to have done, by making an idol of our

gifts — putting God out of his Supremacy — we can only

expect to add our testimony to their disappointment.

The more we know, the more we sliall be discomposed

by the consciousness of ignorance. ' The covetousness

of the understanding ' ^ — the disappointing results of

favourite theories — the cloud that hangs over the

brightest path of inquiry — all this places us further

from happiness than the fool. Admitting, therefore,

the high value of mere intellectual pleasures, their un-

satisfying results are grief and sorrow?

What a contrast is the substance and reality of the

Gospel 1 " The way of life is above to the wise" (Prov.

XV. 24) — higher than the highest pinnacle of this

world's glory. On the other hand, who can read the

gloomy pathway into eternity of one of the most amia-

ble of philosophers without sorrowful conviction? We

' ' Whosoever gets much wisdom, shall be sure to get much sorrow to

boot ; since the more he knows, the more cause of ^rie/ shall he find ;

for both he shall see more that he cannot know, and in that which ho

doth know he shall perceive so much vanity, that shall pierce and

humble his soul.' — Bp. Hall. 'If the proper happiness of man con-

sisteth in knoivledge, considered as a treasure, men who are possessed

of the largest share would have an ill time of it ; as they would be

infinitely more sensible of their poverty in this respect. Thus he who

imreaseth knowledge, would eminently increase sc/rrow. Men of deep re-

search and curious inquir}' should just be put in mind not to mistake

what they are doing. If their discoveries serve the cause of virtue

and religion in the way of proof, motive to practice, or assistance in it;

or if they tend to render life less unhappy, and promote its satisfactions,

then they are most usefully employed. But bringing things to light

alone and of itself is no manner of use any otherwise than as an enter-

tainment or diversion.' — Bp. Butler's Sermon upon the Ignorance of

-Man.

might point to Sir Humphry Davy as one of the most

accomplished men of his day. His science was the

medium of the most important usefulness. He had his

full cup of worldly honour and respect. And yet one

of the later entries in his journal tells us — ' Very mis-

erable.' The remedy for his misery he did not seek

from some new and untried path of science. ' I envy'

— said he—' no quality of mind or intellect in others —

not genius, power, wit, or fancy. But if I could choose

that which would be most delightful, and I believe,

most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious be-

lief to every other blessing ; for it makes life a disci-

pline of goodness, creates new hopes, when all earthly

hopes vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruc-

tion of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights ; call-

ing up the most delightful visions, where the sensual

and the sceptic view only gloom, decay, and annihila-

tion.' ^

Hard indeed is it for the philosopher to " receive

the kingdom of God " — in the only way in which it

can be received — " as a little child." (Mark, x. 15.)

Here will he find the only remedy for his grief and sor-

roiv. Intelligence in all the branches of natural sci-

ence gives no help to a right understanding of the

Gospel. It is a science of itself — peculiar to itself,

and therefore only to be rightly understood through

its own organ — Divine Teaching. Barren indeed is

mere theoretical knowledge. Correct views without

practical influence are only the surface of knowledge —

the lifeless mass. It is not knowledge in itself — but

* The Last Days of a Philosopher, quoted by Hamilton, Lecture y.

knowledge under Divine Teaching — that works the

main end. He is the wise man — and happy in his

wisdom, who is thus " wise unto salvation." If Solo-

mon with his mighty grasp of intellect could find no

rest in earthly wisdom, who else can expect it ? Let

the glowing stimulus be given to the pursuit of ' that

heavenly and never-perishing wisdom, which pours

through the mind with singular delight, and, as a kind

of honey, aflfects all its legitimate exercises with its

own sweetness.' ^ This wisdom stands out in striking

contrast to every " vain show." It is " life eternal "

(John, xvii. 3), — the source — not of grief and sorrow

— but of everlasting joy : ' To be wise without Christ

is plain folly.' ^ Alas! for that knoivledge that shews

the vanity, not the rest. A mercy indeed is it to be

turned away from the empty shadow, and to lay hold

of the solid substance. Here is unwavering repose.

All is pure and heavenly. All is freely offered. Once

having tasted the blessing — can we ever weary in the

wondering delight ?

11. Many have found the solution to this problem of gaining too much knowledge

and wisdom. They just avoid growth in these areas and seek good feelings instead.

Chuck

Colson gives us some illustrations.

"We've encountered this mind-set over and over

again, as in the case of two friends to whom Patty

and I have witnessed for years. One Sunday when

we were in their city, they agreed to accompany us

to church. On the way, the woman said, "Oh, I

hope the pastor will cheer me up today. I'm so

depressed. I found a dead bird at the back door

this morning."

Another longtime acquaintance told me he was now

attending a Unity church.

"Why?" I asked. "You are a Christian, and that is

a cult."

"Really?" The man looked surprised.

"Of course it is," I said. "They don't believe in

the Resurrection or even one true God."

"But my wife and I love it," he said. "We always

come away feeling better."

Even secular observers have noted how this demand

for "feel better" religion is affecting church

life and practice. A 1990 ewsweek cover story

heralded the dramatic religious resurgence among

the nation's baby boomers, reporting that more

than 80 percent consider themselves "religious and

believe in life after death." But "unlike earlier

religious revivals, the aim this time (apart from

born-again traditionalists of all faiths) is

support, not salvation, help rather than holiness,

a circle of spiritual equals rather than an

authoritative church or guide. A group affirmation

of self is at the top of the agenda which is why

some of the least demanding churches are now in

the greatest demand.

Colson, Charles, "The Body." Dallas: WordPublishing. 1992

12. BY G. W. MYL E,

"What kind of wisdom causeth grief? What

kind of knowledge is it, that increaseth sorrow

Perhaps it means the knowledge of the world,

its vileness, folly, and uncertainty — to have

learned that all its show is vain, and all its

pleasure nought. This causes grief to them, who

see its vanity. God's people mourn it. And

worldlings oftentimes disgusted with them-

selves and all around, and having nought to

sanctify the feeling, are filled with bitter dis-

appointment. — Also to know one's own corrup-

tion, to catch a glimpse of self in all its frailty;

to see our sin, to taste its power — to dread the

pains, and not to know the remedy — this causes

grief. Sorrow like this is turned to joy, when

sinners look to Jesus. Yet many saints forget

the promises, and fill their souls with bitterness,

from want of faith. —Again, wisdom may mean

the Science of the Schools — ^the round of human

learning, and attainment in the arts. Here also

grief is to be found. There is many a slip-

many vexations — in searching after knowledge.

The mind is hampered by its limited capacity ;

and, having gone thus far, it sighs that it can

go no farther. How many a bright experiment

thus ends in grief; and man discovers, to his cost,

that wisdom, after all, is vanity ! — But, most of

all, wisdom like this occasions grief in that it

tempts the soul to rest in second causes, and

thus to slight the Lord. 'Tis true, there is ex-

quisite delight in following some cherished

study ; to trace the hidden things of art and

science — to bring to light some fact, or prin-

ciple, unknown before. But then the world to

come ! Art thou prepared for it ? What of thy

sins? Are they forgiven ? What will declining

age, what will thy death-bed be ? What is to be

the end of all thy labour ? If all thy wisdom

end in misery — if all thy knowledge but per-

vert thy soul, is it not sorrow, after all?"

13. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D., "This seems a very strange assertion. There cannot

be a doubt, that, among all the sources from which men

seek their happiness, the pursuit of knowledge, (under-

standing the phrase in all its extent of meaning, with

the one exception only of the knowledge that '^ maketh

wise unto salvation," which it is evident must not be

taken at all into the account,) is decidedly the most ra-

tional, and the most fitted, from its nature, to yield en-

joyment worthy of such a creature as man. Yet even

of the pursuit of knowledge Solomon here affirms, that

" in much wisdom (is) much ^rief ;" and that " he that

increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." — Let us,

first of all, then, contemplate human wisdom apart from

the knowledge of God and Divine things, and take an

attentive view of the circumstances from which the

grief and sorrow of which he speaks may be considered

as arising.

In the first place : This wisdom and knowledge, if a

man is determined to go far beyond his fellows in the

acquisition of it, must be discovered, and examined,

and appropriated by '•'much study ;^^ and this, as Solo-

mon observes towards the close of his treatise, is " a

•weariness of the jiesh" — It is not easy for the unin-

formed and inexperienced to imagine the fatigue of

mind, and the consequent fatigue of body, to which the

men who devote their days to learning must lay their

account to subject themselves. Solomon speaks of

l^much wisdonij" and of the increase^ or growing

abundance of knowledge. ow such extraordinary ai •

tamments must be purchased at the expense of intense

and constant application ; which is inconceivably more

wasting and exhausting to the constitution, than the

hardest toil of the industrious labourer; and to which

many, earlier or later in life, some with a mournful and

lamented prematurity, have fallen victims. — The inces-

sant stretch of the mind's faculties, frequent harassing

and anxious perplexity, studious days and sleepless

nights must be his portion, who sets his heart on the

attainment of unusal eminence, in science in general,

or in any of its various departments.

Secondly : In this pursuit, as in others, there are

many disappointments to be exj)ected, to fret, and mor-

tify, and irritate the spirit : — such as, experiments fail-

ing, some of them perhaps long-continued, promising,

and costl}' ;¦— facts turning out contradictory, and un-

setdhig or overturning favourite theories ;-— the means

of prosecuting a train of discovery fulling short, at the

very moment, it may be, when they are most desirable ;

trifling and worthless results arising, after much labour,

long-tried patience, and sanguine expectation ;— the

anticipated honour and pleasure of introducing a new

and important invention or discovery, the product of

the experiments and investigations of years, lost on the

very eve of arrival, by the priority of an unknown com-

petitor. — These, and numberless other occasions of

mortification and disquietude, more and less considera-

ble, revealed or kept secret in the bosom, may be ex-

pected in the lot of the man who devotes himself to

science.

Thirdly : There are some parts of knowledge which

are, in their very nature, painful and distressing. — In a

world where sin reigns, and which, on account of sin,

lies under the curse of God, many must be the scenes

of misery, many the afflicting occurrences and facts.,

which present themselves to the observant and investi-

gating mind, that is in quest of general and extensive

information. They abound both in the past and present

history of mankind. They arc fitted to fill the heart

with ''grief" and "sorrow;" and the more a man's

knowledge extends,— the more he reads, and hears, and

observes, the more copious v;ill this source of bitterness

become. — ot but that there is much of an opposite

and pleasing description, as a set-ofF against those evils;

- — but it is enough, that there ore actually causes of

positive distress, and causes that necessarily multiply

with the growing extent of a man's knowledge.

Fourthly : There is to be taken into account the

mortification of pride that must be experienced, in con-

sequence of the limited nature of the human faculties.

There are, in every direction in which the rinnd may

choose to push its inquiries, boundaries, beyond which

it attempts in vain to penetrate. And when the man

who makes scientific research his supreme good, and

the main object of his life, finds, that in every depart-

ment of investigation he arrives at some point, beyond

which his powers, strained to their utmost effort, cannot

carry him,_at some subject that baffles all his endea-

vours to comprehend it,— some question which he can-

not answer,— some difficulty which he cannot solve ;

— that the most luminous path of discovery terminates

at length in impenetrable obscurity :_there is apt to

spring up, in the natural mind, an indignant dissatis-

faction, the offspring of the unsubdued pride and self-

sufficiency of intellect, which cannot fail to produce,

and sometimes in a very high degree, disquietude and

" vexation of spirit."

Fifthly : There is a similar feeling of mortification,

arising from the very circumstance, that, with all the

knowledge and wisdom that are acquired, there is still a

blank, still a consciousness of want and deficiency, in re-

gard to true happiness.— I do not mean the want of any

additional knowledge,— the want of something of the

same kind that has not been attained, and the attainment

of which seems difficult or hopeless ;— but a want which

even such additional attainments could not supply. The

man himself, while -sensible, irksomely sensible of it,

may not be well aware what it is, lor whence it arises ;

he may feel it, without knowing how it is to be re-

moved. He may sigh for the unknown something, and

wonder that he should not be happy. And few things

can be conceived more galling to the spirit, more vexa-

tiously mortifying, more fitted to fill a man with des-

peration, and with a fretful and sullen " hatred of all

his labour w^iich he hath taken under the sun," than

this bitter consciousness, that with all his study, all his

research, all his learning, all his varied acquirements,

there should still exist such a sense of w^ant, as to full

satisfaction and happiness.

Sixthly : The man of " much wisdom" and *' in-

creased knowledge," generally, if not universally, be-

comes the marked object of the scorn of some, and the

envy of others. — Some depreciate his studies and all

their results, laugh at them, and hold them up to con-

tempt and ridicule. Others are stung with secret jea-

lousy ; which is the odious parent of all the hidden arts

of detraction and calumny, and of injurious and un-

v.?orthy attempts to deprive him of his well-earned ho-

nours, and to cast him down from his excellency."

And it is not merely the apprehended or the suffered

aonsequences of such mean and wicked arts that is dis-

tressing;— to a mind of generous and honourable feel-

ing it must be grief and " vexation of spirit," even to

be the object of passions so vile and devilish.

Lastly : There is yet another consideration, which

to some of you may seem far-fetched, but which I can-

not forbear noticing. — The man who occupies his

powers in the pursuit and acquisition of human wis-

dom alone, careless of God, and uninfluenced by re-

gaxd to his authority and to his glory, is leaving eter-

nity a wretched blank ; has no solid and satisfactory

support in the anticipation of it, when the thought in-

trudes itself upon his mind ; and is treasuring up grief

and sorrow for the close of his career. God having been

neglected, his powers must be considered, in the Di-

vine estimate, and in the estimate of an awakened con-

science, as having been wasted and abused , — science

will not yield him peace and hope in the " valley of

the shadow of death ;" and a neglected God will call

him to account for the use made of those faculties which

he himself had bestowed, and of whose exercise he

ought himself to have been the first and highest object.

— However lawful, nay, however apparently excellent

and honourable his pursuits themselves may have been,

the reckoning will be fearful, when God is found to

have been awanting :— fearful, — and justly fearful. In

proportion to the greatness and variety of the powers

conferred, and the capabilities thence arising, will the

shame and remorse be deep, and the guilt and punish

ment aggravated.

Whilst such considerations as these may serve to

vindicate and illustrate the affirmation that " in much

wisdom (is) much grief, and that he who increaseth

knowledge increaseth sorrow ;"— it is necessary to ob«

serve, that Solomon does not by any means say, that in

" mucli wisdom and increase of knowledge" there is

720 ^enjoyment. That were a very different proposition.

There may and must be enjoyment, — various in kind

and in degree. — But, like the enjoyment springing from

every worldly and temporal source, it is mixed with

much of an opposite character. And, therefore, it is,

that such wisdom and knowledge, considered by them-

selves, opart from something still higher and still better,

considered as constituting the happiness of the man

who seeks and possesses them, must ever be found

vain ;— can never be a sufficient portion to the immor-

tal soul, especially in its anticipations of eternal exis-

tence ;— can never impart to the mind full, and steady,

and permanent satisfaction.

The passage, thus explained, suggests two conclu-

ding reflections : —

In the first place : — *' Godliness with contentment is

great gain."*_If it is impossible for a man, with all

his labour and all his skill, to control the administration

of providence, to command events, and to order all the

circumstances of his lot exactly to his mind ; if univer-

sal experience confirms the truth, that " that which is

crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is

wanting cannot be numbered:" then the secret of true

happiness must consist, in having the mind reconciled

to that which is crooked, and to that which is deficient ;

—in being submissive to all the arrangements of the

Supreme will. Such submission can only arise from

the confidence of faith in the wisdom, faithfulness, and

love, of our heavenly Father, and the assurance of his

universal and unceasing care of all the interests of his

children. " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ?

yet one of them shall not fall on the ground without

' I Tim. vi. 6.

your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all

numbered."^' — This is our encouragement to " cast all

our cares upon him. He careth for us." It is when we

avail ourselves of the precious privilege, "in every

thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to

make our requests known unto God," that ^* the peace

of God which passeth all understanding keeps our

heart and mind by Christ Jesus."t — ** We know that

all things work together for good to them that love

God, to them who are the called according to his pur-

pose. "| — " That which is crooked" and " that which

is wanting" may thus be numbered amongst our very

benefits, as contributing, according to the design of

Him who gives and withholds at his pleasure, to ad-

vance our best and highest interests ; to spiritualize our

affections ; to disengage our hearts from the world ; to

save us from the danger of making it bur portion ; to

draw us away from all its sinful pleasures, and to mo-

derate and sanctify our attachment even to its lawful

enjoyments; to bring us, in the state of our minds and

the tenor of our conduct, into more full conformity to

the spirit of the apostolic admonition : — "But this I

say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth, that both

they that have wives be as though they had none ; and

they that weep as though they wept not ; and they that

rejoice as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy

as though they possessed not ; and they that use this

world as not abusing (it ;) because the fashion of this

world passeth away."§— In such a world, my brethren,

as that which we inhabit, where there are so many

wants that cannot be supplied, and evils that cannot be

avoided, he is the truly happy man, who has been taught

* Matt. X, 29, 30, f Phil. iv. 6, 7.

+ Kom. viii. 28. fj 1 Cor. vii. 29—51.

of God the rare and precious lesssoii of contentment in

all conditions ; — " ot that I speak in respect of want ;

for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith

to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I

know how to abound : everywhere, and in all tilings I

am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both

to abound, and to sufler need:"*— he is the truly happy

man who in prosperity and adversity sees the love of a

father, — in the former " crowning him with loving-

kindness and tender mercies," in the latter *^ correcting

him for his profit ;" and who is prepared to say, under

all the trials and bereavements of life, when he feels his

inability to rectify that which is crooked, or to number

that which is wanting, — " The Lord gave, and the Lord

hath taken away ;~blessed be the name of the Lord !"

— " Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and

shall we not receive evil also ?"t

In the second place : — There is one description of

Avisdom and knowledge, that is infinitely excellent and

desirable ;— not the source of grief and sorrow, but the

fountain of pure and everlasting joy. " This is life eter-

nal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."J — Here is know-

ledge worth having and worth seeking : infinitely ex-

alted in its subject, and unutterably precious in its re-

sults. Were a man to possess all knowledge besides

this; to concentrate in his own mind the collected

science of all countries and of all generations ;— the

want of this would turn all to " vanity and vexation of

spirit." And on the contrary, the most ignorant and il-

literate of mankind, as to other branches of knowledge,

if possessed of this, is truly wise ; for he is " wise to-

ward God," " wise unto salvation," wise for eternity,

* Phil. iv. 11, 12. t Job i. 21. ii. 19. t John xvii, ?

Even now, this wisdom imparts the purest and most

elevated delight, amidst all the trying viscissitudes of

this valley of tears. The pleasures that arise from other

kinds of knowledge are themselves mingled with " grief

and sorrow," and are incapable of imparting.to the soul

any solid and effectual consolation and support under

the other troubles of life :-~and when we look forward,

and anticipate the close of this earthly scene, we behold

this wisdom ending in the enjoyment and fulfilment of

good hope, — in the possession of everlasting and un

mingled felicity ; — and every other, however valued,

and pursued, and applauded by men, terminating in

despair and darkness, and eternal shame.

The gospel of Christ, — the doctrine of the cross,

though esteemed foolishness by men, is " the power of

God, and the wisdom of God." It is the study of an-

gels. They desire to look into it. They explore its

sublime mysteries with intense and unwearied delight.

" If any man among you, then, seemeth to be wise in

this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise."

You can never be truly and profitably wise, but by

sitting down at the feet of Jesus, and " learning of him."

Here, my friends, — in this blessed Book, "given by

inspiration of God,"- — here, are the treasures of wisdom

and knowledge. An acquaintance with its precious

contents may not procure you a reputation for wisdom

in the world, may not enrol your names amongst its

honoured and applauded sages ; but it will procure for

you what is infinitely more valuable, " the honour that

cometh from God only." — Let Christians seek above

all things that they may grow in this knowledge ;— the

knowledge of the Divine word, in all its inexhaustible

riches and variety of contents ;~never losing sight of

him who is " the sum and substance of the word,"— the

reality of legal shadows, the spirit of prophecy, and tlie

glorious theme of apostolic testimony. — ** Let the word

of Christ dwell in you richly." In much of this wisdom,

there is much gladness, and he that increaseth this

knowledge increaseth joy.- — " My son, if thou wilt re-

ceive my words, and hide my commandments vvith thee;

so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom (and) apply

thine heart to understanding ; yea, if thou criest after

knowledge, (and) liftest up thy voice for understand-

ing ; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her

as (for) hid treasures ; then shalt thou understand the

fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For

the Lord giveth wisdom : out of his mouth (cometh)

knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound

wisdom for the righteous : (he is) a buckler to them

that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment,

and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou

understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity ;

(yea;) every good path."

We look before and after,

And pine for what is not :

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught ;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

DIVINE, "Thomas Kempis,....Over the porch of that cloister The Imitation of

Christ is written : " Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity

except to love God and to serve Him only." ^ Thomas

k Kempis was a Christian Ecclesiastes.^ His sensitive

soul felt deeply the tragedy of his time. The beginning

of the fifteenth century was a period of political anarchy

and ecclesiastical shame, of war, famine, corruption, and

misery. Thomas entered a monastery at the age of

twenty-one, and there spent seventy-one years in calm

communion with God, untroubled by the raging storm

without. His imperishable book tells us the secret of

his rest. It will be read as long as we crave for consola-

tion and peace. Yet we know all the time that this man

did not live in our world. Monasticism often shirked

the real problem of life. The monk retired from the real

battle of life, and we cannot follow liim without sur-

rendering our birthright as citizens, without renouncing

the hope of that victory which overcometh the world.

Footnotes

. 1:1 Or leader of the assembly ; also in verses 2 and 12