66 any of our modern Epicureans, can ever hope to equal this princely style of life. Nothing was wanting that the most consummate art could furnish. Whatever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy." But what was the result of the experiment? Listen to the sad response, wailed out from every vista of his enchanting bowers; VANITY AND VEXATION OF SPIRIT, VV. 4-11. The Preacher is next led to compare earthly splendor and luxury with learning, as independent sources of happiness, and to give the preference to the latter. He concludes that a man who has knowledge and a cultivated intellect is better off than one who has palaces and pleasure-grounds, and all the luxuries of wealth at his command, who is at the same time destitute of knowledge. But although knowledge is better than something else, it is not the chief good; he still adheres to his former conclusion, that, if there be no future state, learning is a most vain thing. There is but little difference between a wise man and a fool, if death be the end of both; and he might well be sick of life, if its highest aim be to increase that knowledge which can only serve to strengthen the conviction that he must shortly sink into the same oblivion as the ignorant slave, or an infant which knows not its right hand from its left, vv. 12–17. 3. The vanity of a life of activity, and successful worldly enterprises, without a revealed religion.-Ch. 2: 18-26. 18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. 19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein 1 have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity. 20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity, yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? 23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity. 24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto more than I? 26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit. No matter how enterprising a man may be in his business, it must greatly embitter his gratification, when he reflects that he "toils for heirs he knows not who." His children, without any restraints of religion, may squander in dissipation what he lays up for them, and thus his estates soon pass into the hands of strangers, or perhaps of enemies. Some Rehoboam, who does not inherit the enterprising spirit or the sagacity of his father, may so manage affairs, that another, who has had no labor therein, shall seize the 66 inheritance for his portion, vv. 18-21. Besides, what a life of vexation does that man lead who is immersed in the perplexities of trade, who plans, and toils, that he may have the name of possessing great wealth! All his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night." What a life-like picture! There is many a man on Change" or the busy wharves, or in the more quiet counting-room, who needs no commentary on the meaning of these words. And is this all the happiness within the reach of mortals? this the summum bonum? this the only paradise known to the creed of the infidel, or the hopes of the thoughtless sensualist? What emphasis, then, have the Preacher's words, THIS IS ALSO VANITY, VV. 22, 23. Wealth has its uses. It is a blessing, when properly used, and no more to be despised than learning, the fine arts, the refined pleasures of elegant society, or the lawful gratification of our senses. "God giveth to a man that is good in his sight (a pious man), wisdom, and knowledge, and joy." He may find good in every thing. Money is also "from the hand of God;" and the servant of God should employ it with a grateful heart, in supplying his daily wants, and those of others dependent on him, and in furnishing food and the bread of life to such as are ready to perish. But to the sinner, who makes gold his god, and lives as if there were no heavenly treasures to be secured, it is a great curse; and, in due time, God, whose are the silver and the gold, will wrest it from the hands of all such, and commit it to those who will use it for His glory, vv. 24-26. 4. The vicissitudes of the world prove how inadequate it is as a portion, to make men truly happy.—Ch. 3: 1—15. 1 To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die ; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up. 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance. 5 A time to cast away stones, aud a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. 6 A time to get, and a time to lose ; A time to keep, and a time to cast away. 7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace. "What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? 10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of meu, to be exercised in it. "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. 12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and do good in his life. 13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour; it is the gift of God. 14 I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. 15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. * Human history is full of sudden antitheses; nothing is fixed, nothing stable. Human society is like the ocean on whose unquiet bosom, the light glances from point to point, in ever ceaseless change. Men love and hate; they go to war and then make peace. A period of union is succeeded by one of disunion; a season of silence by one of clamor. Fortunes are amassed, and then lost; some hold their possessions with an avaricious grasp; others squander them with a prodigal hand. We weep, and then laugh; we mourn, and then rejoice. We demolish, and then build up; the friend whom we had learned to trust, proves false. What we have labored to plant with great pains, is ruthlessly plucked up. Now prosperity reigns, and then the earth is desolated with judgments. We scarcely begin to live, before we begin to die. And dost thou look for happiness, O vain man, to such an inconstant world as this? Will the fairest inheritance here, where there is so much change, if you have nothing in reversion beyond, satisfy your soul? vv. 1--8. These changes are not the result of mere accident, or because the Governor of the universe has left the world to itself. They constitute the travail, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised therein. This is the moral discipline which he has instituted. So religion teaches. But if we despise its light, whither shall we look for comfort, tossed to and fro, as we are, upon this unquiet and often tempestuous sea? What madness there is in skepticism and irreligion! O tell me not that we are adrift like floating sea-weed, or sailors on the splintered spars of a wreck, without helm, compass, or chart. God reigns. His hand is in our very reverses; "He hath made everything beautiful in his time." Trials do not mar the divine picture; they constitute its darker shades, and are not only essential to its perfection, but to the picture itself. The painter must make as much use of shadow, as of light, in his wonderful art; it is the shadow by which he brings out the light, and gives outline and proportion to the objects on which his pencil is employed. If every part of some admired painting were concealed from our view, but certain dark clouds belonging to it, we should certainly discover nothing to awaken our admiration; and so if we see not the complete beauty of Providence, by reason of the vicissitudes and sorrows to which we are at present subject, it is because "we see but parts of one extended whole.” Events must be contemplated in their tendencies, relations, and seasons, and by the light of Divine Revelation, in order to understand how God hath made everything beautiful in its time. This the rejecters of revelation, and all who live without God in the world, fail to do; and hence the course of Providence is an enigma to them. They cannot find out the work of God. And even of the believer it may be true, that he cannot "find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end;" but he has never theless learned to refer all to His hand, to acquiesce in His will, and to wait until the mystery is cleared up in the light of eternity. He has learned not only to be satisfied with his lot, but to rejoice in it, whatever it may be; amidst this scene of uncertainty to maintain his cheerfulness, to "eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor;" assured that all the allotments of Divine Providence, have reference to a future and immortal state, where, to all who have learned in the present, to fear the Lord, all enigmas will be solved, and all knots untied. To murmur against Providence will not alter the course of God's government. The changes to which we are exposed are no new thing; they are the means in part which He of old hath used to wean His creatures from earth, and fit them for heaven. vv. 9-15. 5. Civil Government and Jurisprudence cannot, independently of revealed religion, heal the disorders of the world, or divest it of its vanity, as the portion of the soul. Ch. 3: 16, 17. And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. 17 I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. It was very natural for Solomon, who was a king and judge, to glance at this subject. Some might be ready to contend that when the science of laws and government was better understood, and more faithfully applied, those social evils which render an earthly portion so vain, would be corrected. But he avers that without the influence of a Divine religion, there will be corruption in the seat of judgment, and iniquity will coil itself up in the very place of righteousness. Men who betake themselves to magistrates and courts of justice, for redress, shall only receive greater wrong. Judges must be made to feel, that they must give account in the day of judgment to the great Judge of all men. It is a sense of their responsibility to God alone, which can make them faithful to their obligations to men. They are mere dreamers who expect that Literature, the Fine Arts, Polite Manners, or the more stringent arm of Courts, and Parliaments, will so mend this crazy fabric, shattered and scathed by sin, as to take off the reproach of vanity that now rests upon it. 6. Men who discard religion, and live in utter disregard of their immortality, have no pre-eminence above the beasts that perish. -Ch. 3: 18-22. I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and they might see that they themselves are beasts. 19 For tha which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast; for all is vanity. 20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? 22 Where fore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? The Preacher wished that it might be made manifest to the sons of men, that in living as if there were no hereafter, they reduced themselves to a level with the brute creation. If there be no immortality, and men are justified in living as if their only portion were here below, then the life of a man is of hardly more value than that of a beast, and his death hardly more to be considered. They both go to one place; they return to dust and that is the end of them. If we admit no knowledge but that which the boasted reason of man discovers; if we give the lie to God's Word, then who knows, and who can tell us whither the spirit takes its mysterious flight, when it forsakes this earthly tabernacle? Solomon proves, by implication, that unbelievers, and sensual and worldly-minded men, who love this world supremely, have not so good a claim to happiness, as the very beasts who are destitute of reason, and therefore exempt from the forebodings of evil, and the vexations of life, and are not amenable to that account to which God will hold all intelligent creatures. He gives the great doctrine of Immortality its proper place. It is this more than Reason which gives to man his pre-eminence above a beast. Life is of no value, nay it becomes a curse, if there be no hereafter, for which we may become prepared by the fear of God. Τί μοὶ τὸ ὄφελος ; εἰ νεκροὶ οὐκ ἐγείρονται.—I. Cor. 15; 32. It is religion which puts us in possession of future and everlasting happiness, and thus solves the enigma of our being; which teaches us to fill up life with such works as we can rejoice in now, and in the day of the Lord; and divests us of all undue anxiety respecting those events which are concealed by the curtain of Futurity. 7. The vanity of the world as a source of true happiness, by reason of the imperfections in men themselves.--Ch. 4: 1—8. 1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of the oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. 2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. 4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. 6 Better is a handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. Then I returned and I saw vanity under the sun. 8 There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother; yet is there no end to his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches ; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. Mark the oppression that fills the world! The bitter cup of slavery has been pressed to the lips of millions, by those on whose |