V'JrE-Kdn^ari

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

ECCLESIASTES.

ECCLESIASTES.

A STUDY.

W. J. ERDMAN, D. D.

" For who knoweth what is good for man in
his life? "—Eccles. 6 : 12.

Philadelphia :
AVIL PRINTING COMPANY,
Market and Fortieth Sts.
1895-

Copyright, 1895.
BY
W. J. ERDMAN.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole
matter; Pear God and keep His command
ments ; for this is the whole duty of man. For
God shall bring every work into judgment,
with every secret thing, whether it be good, or
whether it be evil." — Eccles. 12 : rj, 14..

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1HE book of ECCLESIASTES is read
by Christians with doubt and per
plexity. They find it hard to ex
tract from it anything spiritual and heavenly,
and so try to read into it what is consciously
contrary to its spirit and letter. To others
its sayings and conclusions are most agree
able ; and being a book of the Bible, it seems
to sanction a conduct of life at variance with
the holiness and grace of Christianity. Schol
ars also have made it on the one hand a book
of piety, and again on the other of infidel
ity ; now it teaches only pessimism, then
(7)

8 ECCLESIASTES.
altogether cheerful industry and enjoyment
of the things of life ; and lastly, some would
reject it wholly as unworthy of the Spirit of
God. It is however in the Bible; it belongs to
the organism of Sacred Scripture ; it was
given by inspiration of God ; it is there for the
purpose common to all the books of Scripture,
and like all the books of the Old Testament,
can be fully understood only in the light of
the New. Like all of them, it looks to the
Messianic future ; it faces Jesus Christ ; it
leads to Him ; it is answered in Him. »
Whatever may have been the understanding
of this book by those of olden time, whatever
meaning may have been given to it by right
eous men and women, or good derived from it
for their edification, to us who have the New
Testament in hand it must reveal its full signi
ficance and intended use. If "by the law is
the knowledge of sin," through this book may
be the knowledge of "man under the sun."

ECCLESIASTES. 9
Herein he is seen left to himself to kn o w himself
and to look beyond himself for an enduring
good. The lines of his sadly varied search are
not limited by earth and time ; they tend to
the eternal and heavenly. Also, to one who
believes that this Scripture, though so pecu
liar, was given by inspiration of God, it should
be no surprise to find its meaning and use not
fully comprehended by either the writer or
the people for whom it was originally written.
In the following study of Ecclesiastes the
attempt is made to prove that its tentative ex
periences, its reflections, conclusions and all,
are of the Natural Man ; that even its " Fear
God " is still of " man under the sun " ; but that?
all is intended to lead to God and to Christ as'
man's everlasting righteousness and portion.
It is a preparation for redemption./
Discussions touching its specific teaching
may all be harmonized when the book is seen
to be the mirror of all men in many moods and

IO ECCLESIASTES.
of every man in some mood ; a book not of
one age, but of all time ; a shew of the world
and its fleeting vanities, and of the life of its
dwellers which is "even a vapor that appeareth.
for a little time, and then vanisheth away."
^ ECCLESIASTES IS THE BOOK OF THE
' Natural Man; it is the mirror of man
under the sun held up by the Wisest of
men ; and its last and best Conclusion is
still that of the Natural Man.

ECCLESIASTES. 1 1
I.
THE ADAM.

Proof is found in the more literal
reading of the Conclusion ; "The
end of the matter, the whole, let ns
hear ; fear God, and keep His com
mandments, for this is the whole of man, ' ' or
" this is the whole man."
The word for man is "the Adam," the
generic name of the race. This " whole duty "
is truly the ideal man, but the expectation of
judgment of things evil as well as of good
implies the failure and imperfection of this
very Adam ; and so for him law and duty can
be no ground of acceptance before God. It
is, then, the book of man. The word Adam
is found more than two score times, while the
name of man as an individual but six times,
and, as of a mortal, twice.
Already midway in the book we are told
plainly it is all about man, Adam, the race :

12 ECCLESIASTES.
" Whatsoever hath been the name thereof was
given long ago, and it is known that it is
Adam." But the experiences are not those
of Adam, wise and unfallen and at home
with God, but of one who knows not " what
is good for man in' his life all the days of his
vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow."

ECCLESIASTES. 13
II.
THE DIVINE NAME.
\N OTHER Proof that this book and
its noblest saying is of man not bom
again, lies in the fact that the only
Name of God in it, except Creator
{and that is also a proof), is what may be called
His natural name, Elohim.
Not once is spoken the name Jehovah,
the name of the everlasting covenant of
redemption; "I am the Lord." God seems
distant, far away, up in heaven, a judge,
and sinful man on earth, whose words should
be few. And so man, from the first sigh over
all vanities, to the last conclusion, is seen and
heard as unredeemed, unrenewed, out of
covenant relations, seeking what is best unr
der the sun, but not seeking God Himself;
and at the end of all his weary searchings,
speaking not in believing Hebrew phrase of
" the fear of the Lord," but of the fear of
God, and not even then of "thy God." In

14 ECCLESIASTES.
the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is speaking to
those who fear Jehovah ; in Ecclesiastes, it is
not so.
It is never denied that there is one living
and true God, holy and righteous, and that
man is fallen and sinful ; but in this book, no
redeeming mercy is seen in God, nor saving
faith in man. Herein " the Preacher " differs
wholly from the Psalmist. Men are told to
fear God, but never to trust Him ; it is not
Jehovah Who is in mind.
Man is in a mysterious relation to God and
His purpose and work. This unintelligible
mystery affects all the labor and travail of
man under the sun, so that man's perplexities
and ignorance continually tend to a fatalistic
view of life ; but this view is not actually
held, as is proved by the fear of God and the
belief in a day of divine judgment.
God has to do with every step in the strange
and serious investigation that is going on.
The search is before God ; He gives it, but He
assigns the task to exercise and humble man ;
He gives the days of life ; He gives good, and
bestows the power of enjoyment or withholds
it ; He made man upright and will judge him ;

ECCLESIASTES. 15
but throughout all, it is not Jehovah, the
covenant-keeping God of an everlasting re
demption, but Elohim the Creator, the Al-
1 otter, the Mysterious Worker, the Far-off i
Righteous One, the Final Judge.

1 6 ECCLESIASTES. III.
"UNDER THE SUN."
IE oft repeated, significant "Under
the Sun," is a proof that the
Preacher has in his eye man as
man ; even fallen, ignorant sons of
Adam, unredeemed and unrenewed.
The whole action and movement is thor
oughly horizontal.
The There are serious glances towards
Dread of the heavens, and melancholy looks tow-
Death, ards the underworld, but the main
thought has to do with the present earthly life.
The word " grave " is not even mentioned. It
is found in the English Version but once, and
there it stands for Sheol. Somehow the natural
man would speak of all the unseen with bated
breath, and then in moods of brooding melan
choly. So thoroughly absorbing is this
thought of life under the sun, that the reason
for quarreling with death is that it not only
ends the present labor and enjoyment, but it

ECCLESIASTES. 1 7
also prevents one from knowing what is going
on in the busy scheming world after one is
gone ; " who shall bring him back to see what
shall be after him ? " He is not curious to
know what may be after death in the under
world, but what shall be after him in this
world. All " under the sun," and only that, in
terests him ; the sigh of vain regret is thor
oughly of the natural man ; the other world is
far away and the thought of it unwelcome and
troubling. His consciousness is of the world
" under heaven ; " he would none of the other ;
human affairs, not divine, alone engross him.
The unwillingness to meet death is not be
cause of a judgment after death, but because
death cuts off all joys of earth and time, and
shortens life far too much, especially for the
"wise man." He, at least, would like to
enjoy long life, but it is no more for him than
for the fool. Fame after death might satisfy,
but alas! there is no remembrance forever;
he will never know whether men speak of
him after he is gone.
The thought of future judgment does at
times cloud the prospect, but only for a mo
ment. Its fear is all negative. And, of all

1 8 ECCLESIASTES.
things, the Preacher is not debating the ques
tion of "annihilation" or "conditional im
mortality." Such question is an intrusion of
modern thought and theory into the passages
concerning death as an event coming alike to
all ; and surely, the Preacher's words would
thereby involve also the good and righteous in
the common fate of annihilation. On the
contrary, it is the continuity of life " under the
sun," he has always in mind and heart ; and the
deprivation of all " under the sun " by death, is
what he so sadly deplores. He bewails the
fact that there is no " profit" under the sun;
no "portion," except in the present; no re
membrance after death. He would lay up
goods for his soul to enjoy here many years ;
and he would fain go far to find " the fountain
of immortal youth." He longs to live on and
on, and not pass as a shadow.
The While all this longing seems to be
Long the same as the desire of the people
Life, of God who delighted in the promise
of long life, it is, when narrowly examined,
something altogether different.
The well-known desire of patriarch and

ECCLESIASTES. 19
psalmist " to see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the living," and to abide on earth
many years, is found, indeed, in Ecclesiastes,
but in a perverted form. They prayed for it
in order " to walk before Jehovah," and to
have Jehovah for their " portion in the land
of the living ;" but the natural man would
live under the sun and find his " portion " in
the good things of his labor and toil, and
thinks of God, even in his moments of thank
ful enjoyment, with foreboding fear.
The hesitance and dread to go down to
Sheol aud its gloom and oblivion, confessed by
a Job, and a Hezekiah, and a Heman the Ezra-
hite, is verily echoed in the melancholy com
plaints ofthe Preacher so vainly-wise under the
sun ; but great is the difference of the motive.
They knew that in Sheol no songs of re
demption could be sung, no cheerful praise
of Jehovah would be heard, as in the land of
the living ; a time of waiting for the great Re
deemer would have begun ; but in this book
of men under the heavens, the contention
with death is that it cuts off all pleasures and
pursuit of riches forever. If men could only
keep on living here, there might possibly be

20 ECCLESIASTES.
some "profit" at last in living, for Jehovah
is not their portion here or hereafter.
A Job went down to the grave knowing he
would live again and see his Redeemer in the
latter day ; and the Ezrahite in the very pit
of darkness still called upon Jehovah as the
" God of his salvation" and an Asaph could
sing: ' ' Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,
And afterwards 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 f aileth,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever." But this seeker after the unknown good
guides his heart only with natural wisdom;
and when flesh and heart fail, sighs out,
"Vanity of vanities, the Whole is Vanity."
He knows nothing of meeting a Redeemer
and Saviour in God at last ; but looks for a
Judge, righteous and wrathful, whose fear
made life often darksome and sad, except in
transient moods of complacent enjoyment.
In brief, this strange transcript of what man
is and does and thinks under the sun, seems to
be held forth to men to show how near the

ECCLESIASTES. 21
natural man may come to high and holy reali
ties and not see them, how limited his vision
when looking before and after, and how, having
compassed sea and laud for an answer to his
great perplexing questions, he only knows that
all must die and meet God in judgment and
give account of their days and works of
vanity. Over and over again the preacher
speaks of evil and only evil ; he sees it which
ever way he looks, but he never hints of de
liverance from it through the Redeemer.

The His very Proverbs are but the natur-
Proverbs. alistic echoes of the parables and say
ings of the divine wisdom in the Book
of Proverbs ; they are not related to Jehovah
as the God of revelation and redemption, they
are not environed and permeated by the sense
and fact of a blessed fellowship with God on the
ground of redemption, and the forgiveness of
sins ; and though at times exactly like the pro
verbs of the wise man who loves the Lord, they
are used by the worldly-wise man as by one who
dislikes to think of God. And most note
worthy is it that while the " fool " (kesil) of

22 ECCLESIASTES.
the Book of Proverbs is generally the impious,
Ungodly man, the fool of Ecclesiastes under
the same name is only the ignorant, improvi
dent, wordy, loud-mouthed, self-conceited man.
In Proverbs his folly is viewed in its final re
lations to the divine and holy, in Ecclesiastes
with but one and that hardly an exception, to
the earthly and worldly. The dislike of the
fool — that is his kind of a fool — is carried so
far by " the Preacher " that he uses also
another name (sakal) for him, one found only
in this book, and designating the thick
headed fellow, ignorant of worldly affairs, who
would not know how to manage a fortune that
might be left him, and who tells every one
walking in the way that he is a fool, and does
things which the man of the world knows
enough to avoid as not being " in good form."
The kindred word " thickheadedness " is the
only one used in this book for " folly " or
" foolishness," except one, while in Proverbs
other words are used, this never ; all proving
the conceit and contempt of the wise man of
the world, who cannot abide the dull and the
stupid. Though the use of this word is not con
fined to this meaning, it gives the flavor and

ECCLESIASTES. 23
tone of all its uses as essentially of the world
" under the sun." But the Preacher, when he
has arrived at his later and more composed
state of mind, seems to forget that what he at
one time had himself said, he now blames the
wordy blockhead for saying, " A man cannot
tell what shall be, and what shall be after
him, who can tell him?" Still, in the pro
logue he retains it.
In brief, in all these proverbs of prudence
there is a flavor and hint of the world of men,
busy and self-seeking, distracted and disap
pointed. God is but rarely related to His wis
dom ; and as to fools, God is likely to be angry
with shallow-pates who bow and do not pay ;
" He hath no pleasure in fools."
On many matters familiar to Israel, there
seems to be an intentional withholding of all
reference or mention.
The great over-arching mystery of the work
and purpose of God, so perplexing to this
" Preacher " in his natural wisdom, is not alto
gether concealed in the earliest writings of
inspiration. Such mystery had already been
in part revealed, in promise and prophecy, in
history and triumphal song, and in many

24 ECCLESIASTES.
psalms of David, the father of the wisest of
men ; but in this book of man under the sun,
it seems to be understood that all to be known
on this question must be what natural reason
can discover. It is, however, to be pondered in
an environment of the knowledge and worship
of the one living and true God. It is man
" under the heaven " who is put to the test.
He expresses admiration and delight on be
holding the orderly course of the " times,"
each beautiful in its season, but he is per
plexed and wearied by his ignorance of the
purpose and goal of all, whereas every Hebrew
did know, even from earliest times, that all
things, all times and events, were related to
the promise and the preparation and final
fulfillment of a divine redemption and a
universal, eternal Kingdom of God.
There is also lack of allusion to the rites
and ceremonies of Israel. The book must be
wholly written as of the natural man ; and
especially as of man no longer a worshipper of
idols, but of a day as modern as our own.

ECCLESIASTES. 25

IV.

THE THEME.
\HE Theme of the book is a Proof
that the great " conclusion " is but
the best and final word of the natural
man. All its experiences, confes
sions, observations and exhortations are bound
together by the one great question of wise men
of olden time among other nations and peoples :
What is the chief good ? What should man
labor for as the true gain ? JVhat is the noblest
thing under the sun ? Is life worth living ?
Is there any profit ; any surplus, substantial,
enduring, that remains from all his labor and
toil? The Good is first sought in the goods of
life, and then in some true Rule for the Con
duct of L,ife ; so dividing the Book into two
equal parts.

26 ECCLESIASTES.
The Before following the Preacher in his
Preacher, great quest it should be noted that he
is to be viewed as a man who himself
belongs under the sun. Whether the word Ko-
heleth is rendered " Preacher," " Debater" or
"Assembler " or " One of an Assembly," the
whole tenor of the teaching proves it is Wisdom
from under the sun, Natural Wisdom, that is
speaking. The wisest of men undertakes to
observe and experiment with life under the sun,
in order to find out for all men the outcome
of all his searchings, and then rehearses all to
an assembly of his fellows. He is not supposed,
as already mentioned, to know any divinely-
revealed wisdom, or to have heard of a right
eousness of faith or of divine mercy or of
forgiveness of sins. He is to make answer as
a natural man to whom are given the resources
and helps common to natural men, only he is
wiser and richer than they, and so must bring
the final answer for all. And also he is a
Hebrew and knows of the one living and true
God. When he says " thou," in advice or
warning, it is not so much to some disciple or
" son " he is speaking as to himself, or he is
then assuming a high ground, far above " the

ECCLESIASTES. 27
madding crowd," but it is soon apparent how,
in these most exalted frames of the pious and
philosophic mind, he is still only a natural
man, for he is found, soon after, in the depth of
despair uttering his disgust and hate of life
and exclaiming: "The whole is Vapor and a
chasing of the wind." That " thou " is, after
all, a sign that he is talking to himself, telling
what he and all men under the sun ought to
do, but utterly fail to do.
Not only does he pronounce the verdict of
" Vanity " for all, but he resorts to the same
passing mirthful enjoyment he commends to
all ; but he would do it all before God. He
is indeed wiser and more serious than other
men, only to become more perplexed and sor
rowful than they.
On him hangs more heavily than on other
men ¦ < . the burden of the mystery
"... the heavy and the weary weight
" Of all this unintelligible world."
He, if any, can say, " I kno7v there is noth
ing better for them." He is king and can lay
the whole world under contribution to furnish
the means for answer. " What can the man
do who cometh after the king? "

28 ECCLESIASTES.
He repeatedly says, " I have seen all the
works that are done," " all the oppressions,"
and " all the labor I labored at." And so he
is to speak for the world, for the race, for
man, high and low, wise and foolish, rich and
poor, in hut and hall, living and dying. And
he speaks as before God. He, of all men,
feels a strange fear, seeing that somehow man's
imperfect vain life under the sun is mysteri
ously related to and controlled by the unalter
able purpose and work of God.

Ths The Method also of the Search is
Method, peculiar. It is a speculative question,
to be settled not by a process of reason
ing, but by personal experience, wise experi
mentation and wide observation. It is asked and
answered, not in classic form, but with Hebrew
cast and coloring, uttering the heart of man, and
in such manner that the book becomes a uni
versal book, true for men in all nations and
times. That " all is Vanity of Vanities and Vexa
tion of Spirit," — " Vapor of Vapors, all Vapor,
a Feeding on the Wind," is not the thing to

ECCLESIASTES. 29
be proved, but the thing that was found. It
is not taken for granted at the start. It is " by
wisdom " the answer shall be given. The
"Preacher" says that in every experience
and experimentation his wisdom remained
with him ; he never lets any experience so
overcome him as to blind him to its " vain "
significance. All is serious, solemn work.
The answer to the great question is sought in
thoughtful earnestness, in spite of pathetic
failures and melancholy conclusions. This is
man out of Christ, face to face with nature
and her riddle, with man and his enigma,
with God and His mystery ; and the answer
to each is full of temporary contradictions
and half truths, for so is man without God.
He asserts and recants, to assert again; he
renews the quest from various points ; he sees
the final far-off truth at long intervals from
height to height, while the valleys of man's
vain life and depths of dark despair lie be
tween. Make what we will of the book when try
ing to extract anything " evangelical " or
" spiritual " out of it ; it remains the book
of " men," not of " saints ; " and yet it is

30 ECCLESIASTES.
religious, for the natural man is religious, feel
ing after God, confessing Him in conscience
and dreading death for fear of what shall be
after death.

The con- Finally, it should be noted before fol-
ciusions. lowing the Seeker, that in the course
of the investigation two Chief Conclu
sions are reached which serve as a Resort from
the vain experiences, profitless labors, and un-
solvable problems of life ; the first, Enjoy the
good things of life and its works, and be thank
ful to God for the " chance " and the power of
enjoyment ; this is the good and the comely ;
and the second, Fear God and keep His com
mandments, for His judgment is coming.
To the first the Seeker often resorts; a
present joy in present labor he sees early, but
it is found at last to be confessedly a comfort
less and uncertain conclusion.
The earlier restful confidence disappears, a
tremor of fear is felt throughout its utterance ;
for death is the end of all, not only cutting
off further enjoyment, but also opening the
way to the judgment that is coming.

ECCLESIASTES. 3 1
And the very good things themselves are
seen to become a source of evil and vexation
of spirit. The rich man may be without the
power of enjoyment; days of darkness will
be many ; and to the poor man and to the
oppressed, who have no comfort or good, such
conclusion but vexes, making life more hate
ful and its mystery more unintelligible.
" This also is vanity."
Yet again, man will rouse himself to his
fruitless toil and endeavor ; he is more than
the beast he drives or the clod he treads upon ;
aud once more he seeks to attain the height
of his great argument, and only to fail again.
To the second Conclusion, the final and
abiding one, the whole vacillating course of
the search for the Chief Good under the sun
steadily moves. It is found at last, that among
all the vanities and contradictions, perplexi
ties and philosophies under the sun, this is
" the good " for man wherewith to exercise
himself, this is the final all-explaining event
in the great future ; this, the rule of the con
duct of life, in obedience to which will be
found also the highest good and real joy.

32 ECCLESIASTES.
An earlier, though less abiding, so-called
conclusion, and to which resort was had only
at the first experience of disappointment and
despair, may also be noted, that Life under the
sun is hateful in view of the one event of death
common to all; for death cuts off all work,.
and its fruit and enjoyment.
Later on, however, even life, with its fleet
ing insubstantial mirage, is deemed preferable
to the gloom and oblivion of the under world.
But from the beginning to the end, in view
of the sure event of death, a sigh is often
heard, as in a more modern day, " Why can
not we always be young ! " or of an older,
" Life is the dream of a shadow." The natural
man wants life to go on ; he seeks some solid
surplus, " profit " that will remain after all
his toil and moil, some residuum of joy after
the enjoyment.
The Progress of the Quest.
The Before the Preacher begins the nar-
symboi. ratjon 0f ^e or(ier of his investigation
he gives, in the very opening of the
Book, not only the result of all, which is vanity v.

ECCLESIASTES. 33
but a symbol of the unprogressive, monotonous
character of life under the sun, in the phe
nomena of the natural world around him. He
sees in nature the reflex and mirror of man's
endless toil and endeavor.
It is the life of man on earth, bound by
natural law, beholding, in the monotonous
turning of the wheel of nature, himself and
his vain and unchanging, ever-recurring ex
periences ; his prospects but retrospects ; the
world ceaselessly spinning in its round, its new
things but old things, an out-lived worn-out
thing ; his soul like the sea never full, like
the wind never at rest ; and to whom the
possession of wisdom, in such a world of un-
solvable problems, is the saddest and most
grievous possession of all. Yea, the very
abiding of the earth and the returning seasons,
while man once gone is gone forever, makes
human life more sad and vain.
But this opening confession of the book,
concerning the vanity of life and its monoto
nous unchangeableness, and of the sorrows of
wisdom, is the result of the search and not an
anticipation.

34 ECCLESIASTES. I.
The When the Seeker does start, it is as
vanities if he were all unexperienced in the
wise' life under the sun. He begins where
menter ^e begins, m youthful pleasure and
2-1-26. mirth, trying to find "the good" in
them ; and he ends with old age and
its burdens and ills. Eut note, as he proceeds
from vanity to vanity, he is ever "guiding his
heart with wisdom." In trying wild revelry,
he " reins in " his flesh with wine ; he does not
throw the bridle on the neck of passion and
appetite, when he would find what " good "
there is in the intoxicating cup ; he " keeps
his head level." But " the good " is not found
in mirth and its madness ; " this, also, is
Vanity." And what a confirmation, of this verdict of
the wise man, that poet gave, who feared not
God and even denied His existence !
" 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."

ECCLESIASTES. 35
From this madness of the fleeting hour, the
Seeker turns to the enjoyment of what, as
royal possessions, may be more satisfying and
enduring, but the verdict on all is " Vanity
of Vanities ; " and his very wisdom, because
to the wise and to the fool the one event of
death comes alike, makes life and all its labor
more hateful to him than to other men.
In this the opening scene of this varied and
all-touching experience, it is man, richest,
highest, wisest, at his best, that is portrayed ;
and if life and all its wisdom and works is
vanity with him, then it is for all under the
sun. It is man who looks up indeed to the
heavens, but knows not what is beyond except
judgment ; man with his mad follies and his
blank despair ; with his worn-out delights and
his hate of life ; with his lofty speculations
and his profound ignorance ; with his " sad
sincerity " and his paralyzing skepticism ;
with his strange recoveries to a calmer mind
and his resort to a dull or self-complacent con
tentment with his lot, which in turn becomes
itself but vanity ; and it is man, who, having
discovered the vanity of all enjoyments, gross
and sensual, refined and artistic, and feeling

36 ECCLESIASTES.
the sore vexation of all earthly possessions,
declares, at last, wisdom to be the most vexa
tious and sorrowful possession of all, because
it can only discover the worthlessness of all
the rest.
In fact, to this wise man, the actions of
men under the sun are seemingly sheer
madness ; it would seem at times as if all had
gone insane. But wise and pre-eminent as he
may be, and having, but a moment before, pro
nounced life to be hateful, he resorts, from his
disappointing works and vanities, after all, to
the conclusion he commends to all, " to eat
and drink and make his soul enjoy good in his
labor." He does it as before God ; though,
at times, in rather self-complacent, pharisaic
mood ; but this very conclusion is soon dis
turbed by the fact of a " vanity," inseparable
from it, alas ! somebody else, even a sinner,
once labored and heaped up the goods which
God's favorite now enjoys. " The Good," free
from all vanity, has not been found.
Job once spoke of the same disposal of the
goods of the rich oppressor, but with far dif
ferent spirit ; he took sides with God as just
in all this ; but this wise man puts himself in

ECCLESIASTES. 37
the sinner's place, and says of such laborious,
vain, vicarious heaping up of goods, " This
also is vanity and vexation of spirit."

The A melancholy silent questioning fol-
Timesof lows: "The good, the good, where is
the World. . .,. . , ' , .
it?" Anon, abruptly, he turns from
3: 1-22. .
his self-centered life to the great world
around him ; he turns from experience to
observation ; and his silence is broken by the
utterance of the most unique and briefest pos
sible statement of the " times " of human life,
both of the individual and of the race.
The "times" enumerated are just twenty-
eight ; the world number, four, multiplied
by the number of completeness, seven. Sur
veying the whole extent, the Preacher is
again confounded, not only by the profitless
labor of man, but also by his ignorance of the
relation of the piecemeal "times," into which
human life and history are broken, to the one
eternal purpose of God, moving, moulding,

38 ECCLESIASTES.
controlling and uniting all. God has set the
world in man's heart ; man has " thoughts
that wander through eternity," but, their all-
uniting divine Thought, who can find ?
The " times " of man are seen coming and
going in orderly, seasonable sequence, but not
only is there no permanent outcome or profit
from them all, but no one knows what God is
at in regard to them ; no wisdom under the
sun can tell ; all is inscrutable ; all one can sajr
is, that the mystery of the world and the ex
pectation of a judgment, when He will sum
mon all the past into His presence again,
should make men fear before Him. Man
under the sun knows not how to fit, or how
his work fits, into the great plan of God.
And so the Preacher concludes the best
thing he can do is to let God see to it all, and
thankfully resign himself to eating and drink
ing and the enjoyment of the good of all his
labor under the sun. And truly, in view of
the many scientific theories of the " problem
of existence," that come and go like other
vanities, mere misty, baseless things, it must
be said that man under the sun, left to his own
knowledge and surmisings concerning nature

ECCLESIASTES. 39
and history and God, lives in an ellipse of
"the unknowable;" the "unknown God"
above it, the oblivion of the grave beneath it,
and what was before, and what shall be after,
hidden in impenetrable darkness.
And man himself, to such theorists, seems
"Like the bubble on the midnight sea, which reflects
for a moment the starry heavens above, and then dis
appears forever."

But this wise man is reminded, by
Human ' J
and the judgment-day of God, of the unjust
judgment, judges on earth, and declares their
judgments will be rejudged, and that
God's Day will be long, " a time there for
every purpose and work." He also says that
the non-righting now, of human wrongs, is
intended to test men whether they really
believe, as men often say, there is no differ
ence between man and the beast, and so no
future life or judgment. Because one event
of death and dust is to both, and seemingly
to sense and sight the end of all, it is true,
men, in that respect, are like beasts ; but the

40 ECCLESIASTES.
fact of future judgment proves that man has
pre-eminence above the beast ; he should know
his " spirit " does go upward, and is not the
same " spirit " as that of the beast, and men
at last will be shown to themselves how like
beasts they were in living as the}' did.
However, all is "vanity," so far as the
unprofitlessness of life and labor under the
sun is concerned. Man has no more sub
stantial surplus of life and labor left, at death,
than the beast ; at least no one shall bring
him back to see what shall be after him ; he
would like to live on, or at least to know what
is going on in the world after he has left it;
but, as he cannot, he concludes again, "where
fore I saw that there is nothing better than
that a man should rejoice in his works; for
that is his portion." The enjoyment of this
present life and its goods is, at least, some
thing.

vanities But this Seeker after all that is done
social and under the sun, cannot remain in the
Political. self-complacent enjoyment to which
he resorts. He must, like wind and

ECCLESIASTES. 41
-wave, move and turn in ever restless mood.
He turns, he looks, and lo ! another vanity !
He beholds all the oppressions done under the
sun, and declares, for the comfortless oppressed,
it were better to be dead ; yea, for both living
and dead, it were better never to have been at
all ! Here is another descent into hopeless
ness ; just as at the beginning, in regard to
his own experiences and labors, he revolved
his thoughts until he made his heart despair,
so now he thinks it better never to have been,
on seeing the sad experiences of his fellows.
And then he beholds vanity after vanity,
social and political ; how the successful rich
man is envied of his neighbor ; how the lazy
fool derides the rich man's striving after wind ;
low the lone miser toils in vain, never know
ing the good of companionship ; and how
the wise youth, in place of an old and foolish
king, will be the idol of the fickle multitude
for a season, only to be neglected and forgot
ten in his turn. It is humbling, but very true
in every age and all lauds, that each genera
tion is self-centered and cares naught for what
was before or what will be after it. Not to
be always popular and " daily swallowed by

42 ECCLESIASTES.
men's eyes,v proves life and royalty to be but
vapor, and all effort and " bold emprise " a
striving after wind.
" Die two months ago and not forgotten
yet ? Then there's hope a great man's mem
ory may outlive his life half a year ! "

vain The Seeker, in the presence of all
Worship, these vanities and "windy efforts,"
5:1-20. Comes to another and solemn pause.
He seems to muse on the relation of the
Unseen Being to the professedly divinest act
of men, the worship of God. He seems to
turn to himself again and commune with his
heart on the loftier heights of what proves
to be, after all, but natural religiousness, and
which cannot save him from the depths of
unbelief, ignorance and despair, in which he
is soon seen hopelessly floundering.
Mindful of man's jaunty liberalism and
enslaving superstitions, rash vows and wordy
prayers, shallow reverence and dreamy wor-

ECCLESIASTES. 43
ship — dreamy and unreal because full of in
truding vanities and worldly businesses, the
Speaker earnestly exhorts the multitude going
to the house of God to have few words and
slow and solemn steps in their worship and
vows ; but even then he does so like a nat
ural man himself, knowing only of a God far
away, Who is looking upon sinful man on
earth with cold judicial eye, ready to destroy
the work of man in wrath.
This God, so far away from men, is even now
in Christendom itself, wherever honest con
science has not been superseded by mawkish
sentiment, the God of the religion and wor
ship of the natural man ; and particularly the
God of " Brotherhoods " and social " orders,"
which ignore or falsify Christ as the Redeemer,
and are held together by naturalistic beliefs
in the Divine, common to all men, the world
over. The very titles and terms, with which
they speak of God, in mortuary address and
obituary resolution, are all of a Being Who is
far off, mysterious, veiled away in the solitude
of His own eternity.

44 ECCLESIASTES.
The From this view of God and His fear,
vanities of the Preacher turns to behold the tyran-
and the nous extortions of the high among
conciu- meri) who forget they are kin to all
men, and that their common mother is
the earth ; and he points to their future judg
ment by One higher than they ; and then,
briefly discussing, as if it were something that
did not specially concern him, the vanity of
both the gain and loss of riches, he settles
down solidly into the conclusion that to enjoy
life in a serene, thankful, God-acknowledging
spirit, is the Good and the Beautiful thing
under the sun ; and the Good because the
Comely; "the fine thing." And he gladly
adds that when the remembrance of past en
joyments has become dim, the thought, that
" God gave it," is also " the Good." Or pos
sibly, and more in accord with previous con
clusions of "vanity," as in the Greek version,
" he will not much remember the days of his
life, for God distracts him in the mirth of his
heart."

ECCLESIASTES. 45-

The What now follows would confirm this ;
areat con- for out of this serene, self-satisfied
tradlction and mood, from this supposedly final au-
Faiiare. gwer as to u the Q00a» he is startled
' "" by a sore and common evil among
men, which, he says, he has often seen ; and
this contradiction confounds his Conclusion ;
even this : there are rich and honorable men,
from whom God has withheld the power of
enjoyment, and they go dyspeptics all their
days. Where, now, is "the Good?" And
" the Good " the Preacher would commend
to all men? "This is vanity, and it is an
evil disease."
Having begun his descent from the high
and sunny slopes of a life of natural piety
a'nd social enjoyment, he, at sight of still
another most vexatious " vanity and striving
after wind," sinks at last into the deepest mel
ancholy ; even this — to be rich and honored
and blessed with a hundred sons and live two
thousand years ! and yet have the " soul not
filled with good," even " the good " he fondly
once claimed he had found, and more than

46 ECCLESIASTES.
all, have at last no pompous funeral and
monumental marble, why ! it is better never
to have been.
From such extravagant mouthings and ex
traordinary fancies he subsides into discon
nected mutterings of former sayings, how " all
go to one place ; " how " all labor of man is for
his mouth and yet the appetite is not filled ;"
how " the wise has no advantage over the
fool ;" and how the poor man with something
to eat in sight, the result of honest labor, is
better off than the ever-discontented, unsatis
fied rich man, whose " desire " is wandering to
the ends of the earth in vain for something
new and better, always seeking an ever-
receding good ; wherefore " all is vanity and
a striving after wind."
And then the Preacher, glancing back over
all the way by which he has come, height and
depth, sums up all these experiences under
the sun to be truly those of the natural man,
of the race of Adam : " Whatsoever hath been,
the name thereof was given long ago ; and it
is known that it is Adam ; " but in view of
the unalterable fateful purpose of God, he
adds, it is an Adam, weak, ignorant and wholly

ECCLESIASTES. 47
unable to cope with Him that is mightier than
man. He confesses now to an utter nonplus
and failure of natural wisdom ; he knows not
what is " the good " for man — this unwise
weakling — , in all the days of his shadow-life
of numberless vanities. Before the mystery
and riddle of existence, he is dumb, and sits on
the ground clothed in the ashes and sackcloth
of hopeless melancholy.

6.
A third pause, deep and solemn, en-
The New 5 , ' % , '
Quest and sues ; but is broken abruptly as before.
Law of Yet for a while, all is darkness and
Life. '
7 : 1-29. despair j ms favorite conclusion has
utterly failed him. He has reached
his crisis. "The Good which is comely for
men " has not been found. He will set out on
a New Quest for "the Good," and look for it in
some true and high law for the conduct of life
under the sun. What it may be is not neces
sarily clear to him at the start. Possibly, as
attested by passing hints in the former part

48 ECCLESIASTES.
of the search, it will be found in the fear
of God ; and possibly, too, as in preceding
recognitions of God's relation to human
affairs and earthly enjoyment, the Chief Good
may at last be found in this very fear of God
and the two " conclusions " become one. Once
he had asked, " Is this vain life worth living ? "
now, " How can life, in spite of its confessed
vanities, be made worth living?" Once,
"What is the Good for which men should
labor?" Now, "Is the Good in some high
law of life ? ' ' Once,
" Is the Good in having goods ?" Now, " Is
the Good in some form of being or doing
good?" To discover this law of right living, he uses
a peculiar method. He is going to be wise
again, indeed, but, convinced by his former in
vestigations that vanity is inseparable from hu
man life, he will not seek " the Good " in hap
hazard things and uncentered " times " of life.
His wisdom heretofore had guided him in all
his search, and wisdom shall still be the prin
cipal thing either as a good and end in itself,
or as the means and method of finding the Chief
Good. This too is noteworthy, he turns his

ECCLESIASTES. 49
face now to the immediate future. Formerly,
he had complained of death and Sheol for
ending, so soon, his life and enjoyment under
the sun, just when he was ready to have a
long time of it, and for making it forever im
possible to know what would be after him on
the earth ; but now, knowing the grave is
inevitable, he would rather know and live for
what is just at hand. He would rather know
what is before him, on earth, before death,
than know what is after him after death.
And so, in philosophic mood, he balances the
" better " things of life over against the worse
and in view of God's unalterable work, which
leads the wise man to make the best of every
thing both good and evil, he strikes an average
of human experience, and in that average finds
the law of " the golden mean." An ideal per
fection is unattainable ; the crooked and in
complete will forever remain so.
A third time he thus breaks a long silence,
and rousing himself from his deep depression,
abruptly begins to discourse, as to himself, in
rhythmic, high and philosophic speech. He
does not say " he turned again and saw this
4

50 ECCLESIASTES.
or that." He hath seen it all. "The whole
have I considered in the days of my vanity."
To himself, again calm and serene, he says,
" thou ; " he is talking to his better self. And
yet see how natural wisdom is justified by her
wise child under the sun ; he tries at first this
practical average, this vaunted mean — not a
high, but as he soon finds it, a lower law of
life. But he will be very serious-minded
indeed, and no longer test mirth and laughter
and the song of fools and the pursuit of wealth
to find in them the Good sought for so long ;
but, keenly conscious he is more than the beast
he drives or the clod he treads upon, he will
seek in religious observances and mournful
funerals and charitable deeds and self-restaint,
the unknown blessing his soul desires. He
will not now have it even questioned whether
former days, in the world's long ago, were
better than the present ; his face is turned to
the future ; he is going to live in the busy
world ; and as to money it is good, but
wisdom is far better, for it is life giving.
Possessed of this idea of a wise behavior and
this potent principle of a prudent mean, so
avoiding all extremes, he starts out anew to

ECCLESIASTES. 5 1
apply his heart to know wisdom and to apply
his law to the affairs of men. At first he tried
by experience to find " the Good," then by ob
servation, but now he will apply rule, and
law, and " wise saws and modern instances."
He knows it is still a vain world and full of
anomalies and contradictions ; but being now
neither optimist nor pessimist, he will exhort
and caution against extremes, even in right
eousness, for now prudence and moderation
are everything.

The At the very start he meets a certain
contradic- contradiction in the contrarious treat-
extremes, ment, even by God, of the righteous
and the wicked; and at once he applies
his law of a prudent mean, and seeks to dis
suade men from puzzling themselves too much
with hard questions, and from thinking they
could be more righteous than God, and manage
the world better, if they had a chance. He
emphatically says, " Be not righteous over
much, neither make thyself over-wise ; why
shouldst thou destroy (confound) thyself?"
This is human ; but still more is it like the

52 ECCLESIASTES.
natural man trying to strike a religious aver
age, a smug medium, like many men to-day
and even professed Christians, to make these
words mean, " Be not so self-righteous, so
fanatical ; avoid excitement ; worry not over
the ' doctrines ; ' take religion calmly."
Still another like word, this " prudent man "
addresses to sinners, running to excess of riot
and in danger of speedy judgment : "Be not
over-much wicked, neither be thou foolish ;
why shouldst thou die before thy time?"
This word, sounding so plausible to young
men, and seemingly such a maxim of that
prudence the world admires so much and
practices so little, is quite human, when it is
made to mean by men who belong under the
sun, " Sin a little ; sow a few wild oats ; know
the world ; see life ; stop in time." In brief,
avoid bold wickedness and count not on over
much righteousness ; escape is found in the
safe mean, and is also compatible with the fear
of God.
Then the Preacher, evidently trying to make
himself believe all this, seems to halt in such'
"lame and impotent conclusion" and say
there was not anyhow a perfectly righteous

ECCLESIASTES. 53
man on earth. Telling himself he knew it was
so in his own case, and that wisdom was after
all the thing to be desired, he suddenly falls
into a confession of despair over his futile
endeavor to find " the far off, the soundless
deep of the work God worketh from the
beginning to the end." He cries out, "All this
have I tried by wisdom ; I said I will be wise ;
but it was far from me. That which is far off
and exceeding deep, who can find it out?"
" He and his heart," however, keep on con
sidering things and revolving thoughts, laying
one thing over against the other, to find out the
reason ; and he finally concludes that, while
men worthy the name are very scarce, the ex
tremest evil he has found under the sun is a
bad woman, and he who escapes from her
must have been good indeed in God's sight.
He also adds that God made " man (' the
Adam ') upright, but they have sought out
many inventions." One is, that Adam " fell
up ! " and has been going up ever since he
started under the sun. However, this natural
man thought differently, and knows all life is
somehow " out of joint," and wonders what
can "set it right."

54 ECCLESIASTES.

The But "the Preacher," cheering him-
Prudence sejf Up again, and making his face
and the , . _ _ _. -
conciu- shine with "sweetness and light,"
sion- and interjecting further praises of prvt-
8: ",5- dence and seasonable conduct touch
ing " the powers that be," however oppressive
their rule, speaks sympathetically of the mis
ery of men because of the lack of foresight,
yet confesses also that neither foresight nor
prudence of common men, nor wickedness of
mighty kings can deliver high or low from
the hand of the grave. He notes also the utter
vanity of the evil life of a wicked ruler who,
too, must not only die, but also will soon be
forgotten when dead. " Out of sight out of
mind ; " a vanity indeed !
From this the wise man, as if he must solve
the problem, turns to consider again the con
tradictory treatment of righteous and wicked,
the deepest, most perplexing problem, so tan
talizing in its ever-vanishing solution. His
" golden mean " will, somehow, not fit in or ex
plain at all. He thinks human life should
not be so full of these appalling contradictions

ECCLESIASTES. 55
and frightful extremes. He affirms and re
cants, and is soon involved in hopeless per
plexity. He had once said, " Be not overmuch
righteous," and now he says, "I know it shall
be well" (on earth he means) "with them
that fear God." In brief, in this world of the
righteous and the wicked, he sees the righteous
fares ill and dies early, the sinner fares well
and lives long ; and then, thinking if one
fear God it will be just the other way, and
finding out to-morrow it is, after all, not the
other way, he sighs, " this also is vanity,"
and again commends mirth and the having a
good and thankful time anyhow.
In view of this strange inscrutable allot
ment, and as if he had gotten to the end of his
wits, he most emphatically, says, "Then I com
mended mirth, because a man hath no better
thing under the sun than to eat and to drink,
and to be merry, and that this should abide
with him in all his labors all the days of his
life which God hath given him under the sun."
He has gotten back to his old resort again,
" And the tossed bark in moorings swings."

56 ECCLESIASTES.

Once more, and for the last time,
The Final ' '
Attempt the Seeker attempts to solve the prob-
FaHure. ^em 01" ^e under the sun. Extremes
8:161-9:12. there will be, and contrarieties many,
but might not clear foresight forestall
some of them and shape life and direct its
course ?
So he applies his heart to find out how the
various and multitudinous works and destinies
of men under the sun are related to the pur
pose and work of God. He would, as it were,
find it now, as a wise man who could tell
others ; but all he can say, after thorough
exploration, is, that though a wise man say
he knows, he really does not ; what he does
know is, that all the allotments of all men of
good and of evil, of love and of hate, are in
the hand of God. All is before them, and
none can tell beforehand what his lot or
" chance " shall be ; each moves blindly to his
fate ; God's purpose concerning each and all
is inscrutable ; and especially no foresight can
forestall the inevitable " event," the common
doom of death, which will close the experi-

ECCLESIASTES. 57
«nce of each allotment. In the grave is the
end of all their human toil and endeavor, and
toward it moves "the innumerable caravan."
Note, again, that when first he started he
~was saddened by the thought how the future
on earth after death was all unknown, but now
he discovers that no man can tell or find out
the future of his present time " under the sun."
Note, too, how, in the earlier stages of the
Search, it was repeatedly said that the dead
were better off than the living, and that lifej
was vanity, because no one knew what would
be after him on the earth; but now, in this later
more philosophic mood, life seems preferable
to death and the inactivity and silence of the
grave, for a man in fellowship with living!
men feels confident, and can still be devising'
and doing, and have his portion under the sun,
and enjoy the rush and roar of the busy world.
" A living dog is better than a dead lion."
Besides this, many men might have lived more
moderately and not gone prematurely to the
grave in the evil madness of their heart. They
would not obey this law of a golden mean.
However this may be, his philosophy fails
him again, and altogether.

58 ECCLESIASTES.
With this preference of life and its busy
scenes the Resort is again to the conclusion
to eat his bread and drink his wine with a
merry heart ; even to enjoy the fragrant de
lights of domestic and social life ; to live
while he lives his life of inevitable vanity, and
to work with all his might to secure the means
of such enjoyment. It is in a sadly baffled
spirit, in a pathetic irony, the Seeker so talks
to himself; he again says, "thou." And, as
once before such conclusion was confuted
with a contradiction and sore evil, and all his
knowledge met with an utter breakdown,
even after his pious words concerning wor
ship ; so now, after all this complacent pruden
tial advice and this exhortation to strenuous
exertion to make the most of life, he sees, turn
ing his thoughts to race and battle, and toil
and endeavor under the sun, how many labori
ous lives never meet with any success, and
how indiscriminating chance overrules all and
suddenly ensnares men in an evil time. Again,
doubt and despair darken over the weary
melancholy scene. The law of a " golden
mean " is invalid ; there are extremes and
will be ; "a wise man's heart discerneth both

ECCLESIASTES. 59
time and judgment," but even for him a sud
den "chance" of unexpected extreme evil
may fall.

Another and final pause ensues,
The Phil

osophy and but the lover of wisdom waits in
Taxlm]"' calmer mood. The climacteric of
maturer life and thought has beeu

9: 13—n: 16. reached. The silent query seems to
be, what answer can next be given to the great
question. For the last time, and as the shad
ows lengthen towards the "long home," this
wise investigator of all things done under
heaven, recovers himself, from his failure, to a
permanent serenity and composure of mind.
He is still wise and loves wisdom and prudence,
and will not utterly forsake the law of life
already found ; but the height of the greater
and better conclusion to fear God and keep His
commandments looms in the distance.
He begins, but very cautiously, to praise wis
dom again, as illustrated in the case of a poor
wise man who delivered a city besieged, but
who also was soon forgotten. True again to

60 ECCLESIASTES.
nature, he cannot overlook this familiar " van
ity " — to be forgotten, forgotten !
This serves him as an introduction to the
" proverbial philosophy " which follows. In
it, in his meditative, soliloquizing way, he sets
forth sundry observations and worldly-wise
maxims. All of them belong to the law of
life chosen, the law requiring prudence and
" due proportion " at all times and places, and
especially in relation to rulers. At last, how
ever, as if he had gained some solid footing for
himself and for his fellow men in their work
and walk with each other, he finishes these
wise sayings with one very wise for man under
the sun, the maturest product of his experi
ence, that man's ignorance of God's myster
ious purpose and work should not keep man
from doing his own work.

IO.

The Sum

Finally forecasting the future
and Fore- from the knowledge of the past, for
cast and r
Great Con- " old experience doth attain
elusion. To something like prophetic strain ; "
11:17-12: 14. ne Sums up all that life under the

ECCLESIASTES. 6 1
sun is, at its best ; and with mournful irony
forewarns man and especially youth that " all
that cometh is vanity." He is casting up the
account ; the sum of all is now set down ; and
at the same time the transition takes place to
the highest and best conclusion, to fear God
and keep His commandments and in view of
judgment to come.
The summing up of life under the sun
is this : " Truly the light is sweet and a
pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the
sun." Note how here the love of this earthly
life is shown in all that ; " oh ! to live on and
not die, to be ever young, never old ; pain and
evil and death far away." " Yea, if a man live
many years, let him rejoice in them all ; but
let him remember the days of darkness, for
they shall be many. All that cometh is
vanity." In this mingled strain of tender sadness
and solemn warning,- of vain regrets and
miserable anticipations of the old age of a
vainly-spent life, the Preacher closes the
strange eventful Quest ; lingering over the
scenes in which the joys of youth, with which
he began his search, and the sorrows and

62 ECCLESIASTES.
infirmities of old age, appear in melancholy
contrast. Then, adding the supplement, he
begins with the sadly familiar refrain, as if
he had just heard the dying sigh of sorrowful
old age : " Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity."
That the fear of God is the final and best
conclusion of man under the sun, is shown a
moment later when the whole search is swept
over with rapid review in the mind of the
Preacher. The Vanity of life is distinctly
revealed throughout the whole Book, before
the Epilogue is spoken, and then, in this sup
plement, the law is seen, that should rule life
under the sun and make it real and earnest ; —
the law in obedience to which, " the Good that
is Comely " would be found.
Thus in abrupt endings and sudden returns
to the one great question of the book, the
Preacher keeps showing man to himself ; so
debating between the vanities of life and the
gloom of the grave ; between the contentment
of ignorance and the worth of wisdom ; be
tween the vexations of riches and the miser
ies of poverty ; between the orderly " times "
of man and the " eternity " of God ; between
the wrongs which are not righted and the dead

ECCLESIASTES. 63
that can no longer be oppressed ; between a
distant God and a becoming worship ; between
the wonder that women worth the name are so
scarce and the reason that things are as they
are ; between the pride and fragrant joys of
family life and the event of death that comes
to all ; between the life-long possession of all
manner of earthly good and the final lack of
imposing obsequies and an hon'orable grave ;
between the problem of the proper conduct of
life and the deeper mystery of the divine pur
pose and plan ; between such, and manifold
more earthly things like these, and things too
high for mortal men, the Preacher keeps mov
ing on to the high conclusion, ever revealing
man as the creature of fitful moods, as ' ' all
things by turns," as " out of centre," as set
ting sail around his strange world, and coming
back at last to the place he started from, too
often but little wiser and no better.
All this varied experience and search can
be no other than that of the natural man ; of
man under the heavens, who, having boxed the
compass of all human speculations and vani
ties, and not knowing God as a Saviour,

64 ECCLESIASTES.
exclaims at last, "All is vanity." In his best and"
final conclusion, to fear God, it is seen that
man and God are still far apart ; what man is,
under the sun, and what he ought to be, as
one from above the sun, are two vastly different
things. Through the whole book, nowhere
under the sun is he seen to meet God, and
even at the close, when standing on the topmost.
height of human thought, a vast heaven of
separation and silence still cleaves between
him and God, the Judge of all.

ECCLESIASTES. 65

V.

THE LITERATURES OF THE
NATURAL MAN.
\CHE different Literatures of the
world are a Proof that Ecclesiastes
is the book of the Natural Man.
It hears its echoes or finds its
fullest expressions in the poetry and ethics
and philosophies of Greece and Germany,
Persia and France, India and England, China
and America. The book of this Preacher and
the books of sages, moralists and poets, match
each other at every part and point, but there
is no more redemptive power in the one than
in the others. The wise questions and doubtful
answers put forth by the soul of man in its press
ing needs are common to both ; likewise the
reviews of fitful experience and the monoton
ous verdict " All is Vanity." The king and
Preacher finds his counterparts in other nations
and ages;- his ancient sermon discloses the seeds
and germs of many modern reasonings on man

66 ECCLESIASTES.
and his destiny his " be-all and end-all," and on
the unknowable, all-molding idea, of "the
work that God maketh from the beginning to
the end." " The world" — man, nature, his
tory, time — " is set in man's heart " now as
then, and the natural man comes to the
" Unknowable," feeling after God, and in his
vain wisdom finding him not.
Here, too, are the sad musings of poets
and sentimentalists, who clothe nature in the
sack-cloth of their own melancholy ; here
the idealizing, the vacillation, the despair,.
the fatalism, which are but enlarged in the
soliloquies of a Hamlet or uttered in the dis
gust and mad resolve of a learned Faust. The
very collections of confessions and sentiments,
similar to these of Ecclesiastes, gathered by
certain writers from the works of sages and
moralists and poets of other ages and peoples,
strongly confirm the statement, that this He
brew Scripture is the Book of the Natural
Man.

ECCLESIASTES. 67

VI.
THE NATURAL MAN AND CON
SCIENCE.

HE most positive Proof that to
fear God and keep His command
ments, and in view of a judgment
to come, is the Conclusion of man
under the sun, is found in the New Testa
ment. Did the Hebrew sage conclude to fear
God and keep His law as the best and
noblest thing for man to do ; so also did
the Persian; the Greek, the Roman wise men,
for they, with all Gentiles, "shew the work
of the law written in their hearts ; their
conscience also bearing witness." It is charged
upon the Gentiles, by Paul, that they knew
God's eternal power and Godhead ; that they
did not like to retain God in knowledge ; that
they suppressed the truth ; that they knew
of the judgment of God and despised His

68 ECCLESIASTES.
goodness, and so were without excuse. His
conclusion is, " For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things
contained in the law, these having not the
law are a law unto themselves, their conscience
also bearing witness and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing, or else excusing, one
another." The same apostle, whether preach
ing to the philosophers of Athens or to the
rustics of Lycaonia, reiterates the same charge
of inexcusable ignorance of God, and warns
them of future judgment. To fear God is,
then, not heard for the first time, among men,
in this old Hebrew sermon, but is there with
the seal of inspiration, that the book may be
come the book for the race, its mirror and its
spokesman ; and that its final sentence may be
the link to the Gospel of Christ.
That sentence, that " conclusion," is the
truth underlying all natural religions ; the
utterance of the universal conscience ; the
highest teaching of Greek wisdom ; the grand
motive of heroic deeds ; the central principle
and illuminating idea of the histories of a
Carlyle, and a Froude, who, with an enlarged
application of its truth, call to an unrighteous

ECCLESIASTES. 69
nation — " Fear God ; do right ; thy judgment
day is coming." It is verily nobler in the
blood to do right than to mope in melancholy,
or to eat and drink. "What is man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more."
It is some relief, amidst the wrongs and
perplexities of the world, to look for a day of
divine judgment to righten and clear up all,
but there is no personal salvation in it. And
should one believe that many do fear God in
every nation, it will still remain a question
whether such fear has led them to look, in
confessed failure, like a Cornelius, beyond
themselves for salvation ; or whether, like the
unbelieving proselytes who despised the
gospel, they rest in pharisaic obedience tb
justify them before God. Over such men of
his own nation, boasting in this very conclu
sion of Ecclesiastes, and going about to estab
lish their own righteousness, the apostle's heart
yearned ; and for such he prayed as for men
unsaved, natural men, ..needing forgiveness
and the righteousness of God.

70 ECCLESIASTES.
It was true in Paul's day, in Solomon's, in
Abel's, and is now and always will be : " The
just shall live by faith." " By the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight
of God." The very testimony certain com
mentators adduce out of all countries and cen
turies to make this Book a " pious " God-fear
ing treatise, but proves it is all of the natural
man ; duty is not redemptive ; the wise of
Greece and Rome counted the Gospel ' ' fool
ishness." A scholar (Max Miiller) most com
petent to speak on this great question has
affirmed, as follows :
" I have devoted as much time as any man
living to the study of the sacred books of the
East, and I have found the one keynote — the
one diapason, so to speak — of all these so-called
sacred books — whether it be the Veda of the
Brahmins, the Puranas of Siva and Vishnu,
the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Zend-
Avesta of the Parsees, the Tripitaka/ of the
Buddhists — the one diapason, the one refrain
through all, to be salvation by works. They
all say that salvation must be purchased, must
be bought with a price, and that the sole

ECCLESIASTES. 7 1
price, the sole purchase money, must be our
own works and deservings. Our own Holy
Bible, our sacred book of the East, is, from
beginning to end, a protest against this doc
trine,"

72 ECCLESIASTES. VII.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
final Proof that even this highest
and best Conclusion is still of the
natural man, lies in the fact that
no preacher of the gospel would
select this text as one containing the gospel. Did
he do so, he would contradict the high truth
of the Old Testament itself, "the just shall
live by faith," and would wrench this book
out of its proper place in the organic structure
of the Old Testament, as throughout a prepa
ration for Christ and his redemption. This
" Conclusion," and obedience to it, are not
Christianity, with its cross and its grace ; nor
does it contain the wonderful things God has
revealed to the spiritual man.
Or should a "Preacher" read, to an un
saved assembly, the book of Ecclesiastes in
stead of preaching an ordinary sermon, he
would never, if he knew the gospel of the
grace of God, on reaching the conclusion of

ECCLESIASTES. 73
the whole matter, " Fear God and keep His
commandments," dismiss the congregation
with the benediction, as if their assent to
that final word had now set them right with
God, and "its practice would issue in their
salvation ! " Would he not, at that very pdint,
begin to preach to them justification by faith
in Christ alone, and to testify that whosoever
believes in the Son of God receives eternal
life, and will never, as a sinner, come into
judgment ?
The use of either the Text or Book, or
both, would be to convince of vanity and con
vict of sin, and to lead to Christ, the Righteous
ness of God and the Bread from heaven, the
Chief Good and Real Portion of men under
the sun ; — Whose words and example are His
changeless law for the conduct of life.
This Hebrew Preacher to natural men, can
only tell them what they ought to be, and
there he leaves them. The very suddenness
of the Conclusion is suggestive of subsequent
failure and despair. It has been so with all
who knew what law means. The great height
attained in the final conclusion, proves to be
but a Sinai, with its fire, and blackness, and

74 ECCLESIASTES.
tempest, and tremblings. Who has so feared
God and kept His commandments as to be
able to meet Him in judgment? But just
here the grace of God in Christ Jesus meets
the sinner, perplexed, weary, unsatisfied, con
demned, on his way to the darkness of the
grave and eternal judgment.
: When man ends then God begins. When
all the world had become guilty before God ;
when the Hebrew in his self-righteousness had
utterly failed to fear God and keep His com
mandments ; when the Persian loved darkness
rather than light ; when the Greek by his
wisdom knew not God ; when the Roman had
stupefied his conscience and liked not to retain
God in his knowledge even though there was
still taught by Hebrew Scripture and by
.Pagan creed, by seer and sybil, the coming of
a day of wrath, and the impending judgment
of Gehenna ; then God, in His love, wisdom
and power made Himself manifest, a just God
and a Saviour.
Where man ends there God begins. The
Book of the Natural Man comes to its close so
that the Gospel of the Son of God may open ;
the all of man, under the sun, of the first and

ECCLESIASTES. 75
fallen Adam, only convicts him of failure and
guilt, to lead him to the All of the last Adam,
the Lord from heaven. Over the highest
Thought of Man " under the sun," touching
the Good, over this loftiest Conclusion con
cerning Ideal Righteousness and future Judg
ment," God's heaven of gracious Thoughts
toward man as vain and sinful, bends out of
infinite depths. The Book of the Natural
Man is the Preparation for the Gospel of the
Son of God, the Redeemer.

ANALYSIS OF ECCLESIASTES.

PART I., Chapters 1-6.
Division I., Chapters 1-2.
Division II., Chapters 3-4.
Division III., Chapters 5-6.
PART II., Chapters 7-12.
Division I., chapters 7-9:12.
Division II., chapters 9:13-12:14.
The Theme: The Chief Good Sought
by the Natural Man Through Experi
ence and Observation of all Things
Done " Under the Sun."
PART I.
Division I. , Chapters 1-2.
The Prologue; the Wise Search; the Vanities;
the Resort.
SECTION I. 1 : 1-11. The Reflex ; the Con
clusion of all. (77)

78 ECCLESIASTES.
a. The Result of the consideration of all
Labor under the sun. i: 2-3.
b. In Nature is seen the symbol of the
monotonous round of Man's endless toil
and endeavor. 1 : 4-7.
c. There is no progress under the sun ; pros
pects are but retrospects; the present
things and generations and those to come
will be forgotten like the generations
gone ; the earth alone abides ; its abiding
a vexation to short lived man. 1:8-11.
Section 2. 1:12-18. Introduction: the
Seeker, the Search, the Method, the Result.
a. The Seeker; a King, the wisest and richest
of men. 1 : 12, 16. (2 : 9, 12, 25 ; 7 : 15,
23-25 J II: 9-IO0 .
b. The Search; the Chief Good for the sons
of men under heaven. Such search is
given of God to humble and discipline.
1:13,17. (2:3, 7:25, 1:13, 3:10.)
c. The Method: a philosophic, wise experi
mentation and careful observation. 1:13,
14 ; 1:16,17. (2:3,9 ; 7:23-25, 12:9-11.)
d.A" All is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit"
and this without remedy, for all under
the sun, perverse, " crooked " and defec
tive, "wanting," remains unalterably so.
1:14-15.
e. The Result in particular; wisdom itself is
but a sorrowful possession, a ' ' Vexation

ECCLESIASTES. 79
of Spirit." 1:16-18. (1:2-3, 2:11, 6:12,
11:8, 1:15, 3:14, 7:13).
Section 3. 2:1-11. The Result of all of
the Seeker's own personal Experience in search
of the Chief Good ; " the whole vanity and
vexation of spirit ; " or " all is vapour and
feeding on wind," or " choice or seeking of
wind." LXX.
a. The Vanity of the lust of the flesh. 2:1-3.
b. The Vanity of the lust of the eyes. 2:4-6.
c. The Vanity of the pride of life. 2:7-8.
d. The Result thus far, " Vanity, a striving
after wind;" no "profit," surplus, ad
vantage. 2 : 9-1 1.
Section 4. 2:12-26. Various Vanities
and the Final Resort.
a. The Vanity of even Wisdom itself, though
more excellent than folly, in view of
death and oblivion to wise and foolish
alike. "2:12-15.
b. The conclusion, therefore, that life is hate
ful, not worriliiving, for " The whole is
vapour and a chasing of the wind. " 2:16-
c. The hateful Vanity of work done wisely, in
view of a foolish, thick-headed heir. 2:
18-19.
d. The Vanity and Despair of work done
wisely, in view of a recipient who never

80 ECCLESIASTES.
did a stroke for the portion received. 2:
20-21.
e. The Vanity of all self-denying labor under
the sun. 2:22-23.
f The Resort to the Conclusion : to enjoy the
good things of life and labor, and to>
thank God for the " chance " and the
power of enjoyment.
The Conclusion weakened by a contra
diction inseparable from such self-com
placent enjoyment; and the refrain of
" Vanity and Vexation of Spirit," again
heard. 2:24-26;

Division II., chapters 3-4.
The Result of the Observation of all Done
under the Sun, in Search of the Chief Good.
Section i. 3:1-22. The " Times " of
Man ; the Purpose of God ; the Judgment.
a. The " times " of man under the sun, are in
orderly, seasonable sequence ; but not only
is there no permanent outcome or profit
from all their toil and trouble, but man
is perplexingly ignorant of the one great
unalterable purpose and work of God.
He does not know how to fit, or how his
little knowledge and work under the sun
fit into the eternal purpose of God. 3:1-11.

ECCLESIASTES. 8 1
b. The Resort, because of such ignorance and
of the necessity of submission to the in
evitable of the divine order, to the Con
clusion of a joyous, serene and thankful
enjoyment of good in one's labor, and to
fear before God in view of the divine
judgment of all the past. 3:12-15.
c. The Day of God will be long: " a time
therefor every purpose and work;" and
for all unjust judges under the sun; un-
righted wrongs test men; and yet one
" chance " of death is alike to men and
beasts; in that respect there is no pre
eminence of man above the beast, for " all
is vanity." Still, in view of all, one may
calmly rejoice in the present, for there is
no long future for man on earth; and
when he is gone he cannot know any
more what is done under the sun. 3:16-
22.
SECTION 2. 4:1-16. Observation of vari
ous wrongs and vanities under the sun.
a. Oppressions make death and oblivion pref
erable to life. 4:1-3.
b. The envy of lazy fools, of the successful
rich, makes success a vanity and vexa
tion of spirit. 4:4-6.
c. The Vanity and sore travail of the labor of
the lone miser, in coUtrast with the Bene
fit of Companionship. 4:7-12.

82 ECCLESIASTES.
d. The Vanities of political life: its sudden
reversals; its passing popularity. 4: 13-16,
8:10. Division III., Chapters 5-6.
Exhortations concerning Vanities in Re
ligion and the Extortions of the High. The
Vanities of Riches. The Height and the
Depths of the Preacher's Mood. The Conclu
sion as to the Chief Good ; its Contradiction
atid utter Failure.
Section i. 5:1-9. Divine worship ; hu
man injustice.
a. The worship of God: the rebuke of the
irreverent, rash and wordy. Foolish
fancies make worship Vanity. The
Seeker, in his mood of piousness, says
" thou " to himself. 5:1-7-
b. Exhortations (" thou ") concerning the ex
tortions of the high and the relations of
the Highest thereto. 5:8-9.
Section 2. 5 : 10-20. The Vanities of
Wealth; the Complacent Conclusion.
a. The Vanity of the Gain and increase of
Riches. 5:10-12.
b. The Vanity and sore evil of the loss of
hoarded riches in an unwise venture. 5:

Ecclesiastes. 83
c. The Result of Experience and Observation,
thus far, is the Conclusion that "the Good
that is comely," or the Good and the Beau
tiful, is, to enjoy the good things of life
and to thank God for the power of en
joyment. And when all enjoyment is
forgotten, it is still " the Good " that God
gave it. 5:18-20.
Section 3. 6:1-12. The sore Contradic
tion and utter breakdown of the foregoing
Conclusion; despair of finding the Chief Good.
a. The sore evil and vanity, common among
men, contradicting and disturbing the
complacent conclusion, not to be able to
eat and enjoy the good things of life.
6:1-2.
b. But the exceeding vanity and worst feeding
on wind is, in being rich, and having a
hundred sons and a long life, and yet in
life no fill of the soul, and at death no
honorable burial ; better never to have
lived at all. 6:3-9.
c. It is seen and acknowledged that all these
experiences under the sun are of man as
man, of Adam, the race, utterly weak and
unable to cope with the unalterable pur
pose and work of Him Who is mightier
than man. 6:10.
The Seeker comes to an utter break
down of all knowledge of what is the

84 ECCLESIASTES.
Good for man in all his shadow-like life
of numberless vanities, 6:11-12.

PART II., Chapters 7-12.
The Chief Good Sought for in Wise
Conduct. The Law of the Golden Mean.
Its Application. The Problem of Life
Unsolved. Wisdom the Most Desirable
Resort. The Final Retrospect. The
Warning. The Great Conclusion, or
The Chief Good Under The Sun.
Division I., 7:1—9:12.
The law of Prudence; the Anomalies; the
Resort; the fresh attempt; the final failure.
Section i. 7:1-29. The Recovery from
depths of despairful ignorance to a Philosophic
Mood. a. The balancing and the better things ; the
average struck. 7:1-14.
b. Things seen in days of vanity and not
ended ; anomalies among men ; the ex
tremes to be avoided. 7:15-18.
c. Wisdom a strength ; no one perfectly right
eous, not even the Preacher. 7: 19-22.
d. In all the Search iu the deeps of the past,
in the far off and soundless, the worst

ECCLESIASTES. 85
thing found was the evil woman ; and the
final confession follows that man, the race,
once created upright, is indeed fallen. 7:
23-29.
SECTION 2. 8:1-15. Prudence and caution
before wicked rulers. High and low, good
and evil, go to the same doom of death; no
golden mean, no prudence avails. The vanity
of an unloved ruler. The great problem con
cerning righteous and wicked unsolved.
a. Be prudent before kings. From lack of this
seasonable prudence great misery comes
on common men. They cannot save them
selves from the common, inevitable doom
of death, neither can rich rulers ; and a
vanity belongs to their very death ; their
memory is soon forgotten. " Out of sight,
out of mind." 8:1-10.
b. The assertions and recantings touching the
contrarious treatment of righteous and
wicked. 8:11-13.
c. In utter discomfiture the prudent man re
sorts to the favorite conclusion to enjoy
himself anyhow. 8: 14-15.
Section 3. 8:16, 9:12. The discomfiture
temporary. The final attempt to solve the
problem of God'' s work and human allotments.
The failure and resort to enjoyment; a new
contradiction.

86 ECCLESIASTES.
a. " All move to a common fate ; " but any
kind of life is better than oblivion ; all
allotments of joy and grief, love and
hatred, in the hand of God, but no one
knows what is before him in a world
of seeming chance. " A living dog is
better than a dead lion." 8:16-9:6.
b. " See life " (9 : 9) in the fragrant delights
of the family ; eat, drink and be merry ;
it is the portion left ; work hard for it.
9:7-10.
c. And yet the indiscriminate allotments and
unaccountable failures of life, check all
expectations of sure success. The evil
chance may happen to one any moment.
7:11-12. DIVISION II., 9:13-12:14.
Recovery to the placid philosophic mood ;
the cautious praise of wisdom ./ the proverbial
philosophy ; the final wise admonition as to
human work. The summing up ; the forecast;
the warning to youth ; the old age and its sor
rows ; the great Conclusion.
Section i. 9:13 ; 11:6. The philosophic
mind ; the wise maxims; the work of man
and God.
a. The narrative of the wisdom once seen in

ECCLESIASTES. 87
a city, leads to the rhythmical statements
that follow. 9:13-16.
b. The Proverbs of natural wisdom and pru
dence. 9:17; 10:20.
c. Man should do his work, though all igno
rant of the work. God worketh from the
beginning to the end, and this the
Preacher had failed to find out. 11:1-6.
¦ Section 2. 11:7; 12:8. The final sum
and forecast ; the exhortation ; the warning.
a. The final sum and forecast: that however
pleasant at times, life under the sun may
be, all to come, like all past, will have
many days of darkness, for "the whole,"
from childhood to old age, " is Vanity."
11:7-8.
b. Special exhortation to childhood and youth
as being themselves only vanity. A
pathos of irony; a melancholy approval
of enjoyment mingled with fear of coming
judgment. 11: 9-10.
c. Warnings against the evils and miseries of
the old age of a vainly spent life. The
Creator and Judgment to come.
The vanity of the old age of a vain
life. 12:1-8.
Section 3. 12:9-14. The Epilogue or Sup
plement. The last and mournful repetition of the

88 ECCLESIASTES.
monotonous Refrain, " Vanity of Vanities, all
is Vanity," with which the book began and
the old age closes, leads to the conclusion of
the whole matter.
a. Praise for the Preacher. 12:9-11.
b. The Weariness of the foregoing Search
and Study, and of the endless observations
or books that might still be made. 12:12.
c. The Great Conclusion of man under the
sun ; the material for the Conclusion
found during the search.
(1.) As to the relation of God to the Search,.
1:13; 3:10.
(2.) As to life, 5:18; 8:15; 9:9; 12:7.
(3.) As to earthly good and enjoyment, 2:26;.
5:19; 2:24; 3:13-14; 5:J9-2o; 97-*°; 6:2;
11:9.
<4.) As to future judgment, 3:15-17; 5:1-7; 7:
29; 11:9; 12:13-14..
But the Chief Good seen by the Natural
Man is still in the future; all is still facing
a Fulfillment and a Righteousness in the
Man to come from above the sun.
The Failure of man implied in the
abrupt ending; preparation for salvation
through it all.
Germantown, Pa.,
January, 1896.

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