Tulloch (J.), Some Facts of Religion and of Life, 232.
Vincent (M. R.), God and Bread, 189.
Christian World Pulpit, vii. 20 (W. Spensley); xxxiii. 149 (J. J. S.
Perowne). Churchman's Pulpit : Twenty -filth Sunday after Trinity, xiii. 470
(C. Lowell).
After that the Judgment.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement.— Eccles. xi. 9.
The greater part of the Book of Ecclesiastes is of a sombre character. It records the experiences of one who sought on all sides and with passionate eagerness for that which would satisfy the higher wants of his nature — the hunger and thirst of the soul — but who sought in vain. Ordinary coarse, sensual pleasures soon lost their charm for him ; for he deliberately tried — a dangerous experiment — to see if in self-indulgence any real satisfaction could be found. From this failure he turned to a more promising quarter. He sought in " culture," the pursuit of beauty and magnificence in art, the pathway to the highest good, on the discovery of which his soul was set. He used his great wealth to procure all that could minister to a refined taste. He built palaces, planted vineyards and gardens and orchards ; he filled his palaces with all that was beautiful and costly, and cultivated every pleasure that is within the reach of man. " Whatsoever mine eyes desired," he says, " I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy. . . . Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on all the labour that I had laboured to do : and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." From this he turned to the joys and employments of an intellectual life — acquired knowledge and wisdom, studied the works of nature, analyzed human character in all its phases, and applied himself to the study of all those great problems connected with the moral government of the world and the destiny of the soul of man. Here he was baffled. The discoveries he made were, he found, useless for curing any of the evils of life, and at every point he
4o8 AFTER THAT THE JUDGMENT
met with mysteries which he could not solve, and his sense of failure and defeat convinced him that though " wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness," it does not satisfy the soul.
What, then, is the result of his inquiries, of his pain and labour in searching after the highest good ? Do his speculations leave anything untouched which may reasonably be the object of our pursuit, and which may afford us the satisfaction for which he sought in vain in so many quarters ? Does he decide that life is, after all, worth living, or is his conclusion that it is not ? In the closing sections of his book some answer is given to these questions ; something positive comes as a pleasing relief from all the negations with which he had shut up one after another of the paths by which men had sought and still seek to attain to lasting happiness. Two conclusions might have been drawn from the experience through which he had passed. " Since the employ- ments and enjoyments of life are insufficient to give satisfaction to the soul's craving, why engage in them, why not turn away from them in contempt, and fix the thoughts solely on a life to come?" an ascetic might ask. "Since life is so transitory, pleasure so fleeting, why not seize upon every pleasure, and banish every care as far as possible ? " an epicurean might ask — " Let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die." Neither of these courses finds any favour in the mature judgment of the writer who draws his teaching from the experience of the Jewish king. " Eejoice," he says, rebuking the ascetic ; " know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement," he adds, for the confusion of the epicurean. He speaks with the authority of one who had fully considered the problems of life, and with the solemnity of one whose earthly career was hastening to its close; and he addresses himself to the young, as more likely to profit by his experience than those over whom habits of life and thought have more power. The counsel which the Preacher has to give is bold and startling. " Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth ; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement."
^ The writer appears to have come under the influence of Greek philosophy. An accomplished scholar has been able to
ECCLESIASTES xi. 9 409
point out some remarkable coincidences between the sayings of Heraclitus and the sayings of Ecclesiastes. There are, moreover, passages in the book which furnish striking parallels to the Epicurean philosophy as it is interpreted by Lucretius. It is not surprising that thinkers, pondering the mysteries of the universe and the strangely complicated drama of human life, should have fallen into the same vein, should have been struck by the same problems, and have given utterance to similar thoughts respecting them. The melancholy, the questioning, the scepticism, which are found in Ecclesiastes, have been found in the Eastern mystics, and in poets so far removed from Ecclesiastes and from one another as Shakespeare and Tennyson. Thoughts like these are not the product of one age, or one country, or one philosophical school. They are the common heritage of all deeply moved hearts and minds. Still it must be admitted that the Jewish mind was not naturally reflective, it was averse from speculation, and it is at least not improbable that the thought of this Jewish preacher may have been coloured by Greek philosophy.^