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AUTHOR OF COMMENTARIES ON JOB, RUTH, ETC. " Omnia vanitas, præter amare Deum, et illi soli servire. " — St. Augustine. TORONTO: WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPÔT, Corner of Yonge and Temperance Streets . 1890....

The Lectures on which this book is founded were delivered five-and-twenty years ago, and were published in A.D. 1867. [1] For more than twenty years the book has been out of print, a large first edition having been speedily sold out. No other edition was issued owing to the fact that my publisher soon passed into another profession. I have often been asked to reprint it, but have always felt that, before reprinting, I must rewrite it. Till of late, however, I could not command leisure for the ta

If we may now assume the Book Ecclesiastes to have been written, not in the time of Solomon, but during, or soon after, the Babylonian Captivity, our next duty is to learn what we can of the social, political, and religious conditions of the two races among whom the Jews were thrown when they were carried away from the land of their fathers. That they learned much, as well as suffered much, while they sat by the waters of Babylon; that they emerged from their long exile with a profound attachmen

Chap. I. , vv. 1-11. 1 The words of the Preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, 3 Since man hath no profit from all his labour Which he laboureth under the sun! [23] 4 One generation passeth, and another generation cometh; While the earth abideth for ever. 5 The sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down; And panteth toward the place at which it will rise again. 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and veereth to the nort

Chap. I. , v. 12, to Chap. II. , v. 26. 12 I, the Preacher, was King over Israel, in Jerusalem: 13 And I applied my heart to survey and search by wisdom Into all that is done under heaven: This sore task hath God given to the children of men, To exercise themselves therewith. Ver. 13. To survey and search into, etc. The verbs indicate the broad extent which his researches covered, and the depth to which they penetrated. 14 I have considered all the works that are done under the sun, And, behold,

Chap. III. , v. 1, to Chap. V. , v. 20. 1 There is a time for all things, And a season for every undertaking under heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up plants; 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 stones, and a time to gather up stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to ge

Chaps. VI., ver. 1, to VIII., ver. 15. 1 There is another evil which I have seen under the sun, And it weigheth heavily upon men: 2 Here is a man to whom God hath given riches and wealth and abundance, So that his soul lacketh nothing of all that it desireth; And God hath not given him the power to enjoy it, But a stranger enjoyeth it: This is vanity and a great evil. 3 Though one beget a hundred children, And live many years, Yea, however many the days of his years, Yet if his soul be not satis

Chap. VIII., ver. 16, to Chap. XII., ver. 7. 16 As then I applied my heart to acquire wisdom, And to see the work which is done under the sun— And such a one seeth no sleep with his eyes by day or by night: 17 I saw that man cannot find out all the work of God Which is done under the sun; Though man labour to discover it, He cannot find it out; And though the wise may say he understandeth it Nevertheless he hath not found it out. Ver. 17. : To illustrate this verse Dean Plumptre happily quotes H

Chap. XII., vv. 8-14. 8 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, All is vanity! 9 And not only was the Preacher a wise man; He also taught the people wisdom, And compared, collected, and arranged many proverbs. 10 The Preacher sought out words of comfort, And wrote down in uprightness words of truth. 11 The words of the Wise are like goads, And those of the Masters of the Assemblies like spikes driven home, Given out by the same Shepherd. 12 And of what is more than these, my son, beware; For of

Chap. I., vv. 1-11. The search for the summum bonum , the quest of the Chief Good, is the theme of the Book Ecclesiastes. Naturally we look to find this theme, problem, this "riddle of the painful earth," distinctly stated in the opening verses of the Book. It is stated, but not distinctly. For the Book is an autobiographical poem, the journal of the Preacher's inward life set forth in a dramatic form. "A man of ripe wisdom and mature experience, he takes us into his confidence. He unclasps the

Chap. I., Ver. 12, to Chap. II., Ver. 26. Oppressed by his profound sense of the vanity of the life which man lives amid the play of permanent natural forces, Coheleth sets out on the search for that true and supreme Good which it will be well for the sons of men to pursue through their brief day; the good which will sustain them under all their toils, and be "a portion" so large and enduring as to satisfy even their vast desires. 1. And, as was natural in so wise a man, he turns first to Wisdom

Chap. III., Ver. 1, to Chap. V., Ver. 20. I. If the true Good is not to be found in the School where Wisdom utters her voice, nor in the Garden in which Pleasure spreads her lures: may it not be found in the Market, in devotion to Business and Public Affairs? The Preacher will try this experiment also. He gives himself to study and consider it. But at the very outset he discovers that he is in the iron grip of immutable Divine ordinances, by which "seasons" are appointed for every undertaking un

Chaps. VI., VII., and VIII., vv. 1-15. In the foregoing Section Coheleth has shown that the Chief Good is not to be found in that Devotion to the affairs of Business which was, and still is, characteristic of the Hebrew race. This devotion is commonly inspired either by the desire to amass great wealth, for the sake of the status, influence, and means of lavish enjoyment it is assumed to confer; or by the more modest desire to secure a competence, to stand in that golden mean of comfort which is

Chap. VIII., Ver. 16, to Chap. XII., Ver. 7. At last we approach the end of our Quest. The Preacher has found the Chief Good, and will show us where to find it. But are we even yet prepared to welcome it and to lay hold of it? Apparently he thinks we are not. For, though he has already warned us that it is not to be found in Wealth or Industry, in Pleasure or Wisdom, he repeats his warning in this last Section of his Book, as if he still suspected us of hankering after our old errors. Not till h

Chap. XII., Vers. 8-14. "Students," says the Talmud, "are of four kinds; they are like a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sieve: like a sponge that sucketh all up; like a funnel which receiveth at one end and dischargeth at the other; like a strainer which letteth the wine pass but retaineth the lees; and like a sieve which dischargeth the bran but retaineth the corn." Coheleth is like the sieve. He is the good student who has sifted all the schemes and ways and aims of men, separating the wh