himself with the reflection that in good tim,i God will jadge the righteous and the wicked (eh. iii. 16, 17). The '9'ague but emphatic "there"- ,, there is a time there''-implies the world beyond the grave, the adverb referring probably to God, who is named in the preceding clause. This sitme thought emi,bles the' wise man to endare affliction patiently, "for to everything there is a time and jadgment" ( eh. viii. 6)-the oppressor shall meet with his reward.' It is plain 'that retribution in the present life is not meant; for· Koheleth's complaint is that moral government is not invariably enforced in this world; he must therefore refer to another state of existence, wherein foll jastice shall be done, This is made quite clear by the warning-to the young -in eh. xi. 9, "Know thou, that for all the,;e things God will bring thee into judgment; " and the solemn close of the whole treatise, " God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." This judgment is supposed to take place when the soul returns to God. Of its coarse and details nothing more is said; neither Koheleth nor any Old Testament scribe throws any light upon this mysterious subject, in this respect differ- ing materially from the heathen who have treated of the same. Had he borrowed from the works of Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans, he would have been at no loss for descriptions of Hades and its denizens ; the mythologies of those peoples would have supplied prolix details. But a sacred reti- cence restrains our author ; he speaks as he is moved, and gives no rein to his im'li:gination. Human thought could not pierce the darkness which enveloped the abode of the dead, and could deal only in vague conjecture or nnsnbstantial dreams, contrasted with earthly, sensible realities. So at this stage-of revelation seers could describe the future only on its negative side, as the privation of the joys, emotions, and pnrsuits of this present life. To elucidate the positive side of this state, further revelation was needed. Only of the great fact the writer is absolutely certain, and he employs the trn:t:h as a consolation in trouble, as an explanation of God's long-suffering, as a motive for restraint and-self-denial, as an event which shall solve the difficulties and remove the anomalies which are found in the course and constitution of this world. :·Having thus endeavoured to relieve Ecclesiastes from the misapprehensions to which it has been subjected ; having, as we hope, shown the unfounded nature of the accusations of Stoioism, Epicureanism, fatalism, scepticism, Hellenism,-we are in a position to state briefly our own view of the plan and scope of the book. What do we gather to have been the circumstances under which it was composed P The case seems to have been the following: The period was a, trying one. Oppression and injustice reigned; fools and proletarians were promoted to high positions ; wise and pious men were wronged and crushed.· Where was that moral government which the Law of Moses enunciated, and which had been the guide and support of the Hebrew people in all their eal'ly history P Did injustice meet with the p)lnisliment which they had been taught to expect P Did the good and xxxii INTRODUCTION TO
obedient prosper and live long in the land? Did not daily experience give the lie to the promise of temporal retribution set forth iu Scripture? And if revelation was false in this respect, why not in others also ? By this doubt the very foundation of religion was sapped; the hopes that the exiles had brought with them, on their return to their native land, were cruelly crushed, and the bitter cry arose, "Is there a God that judgeth the earth ? " Malachi had been gathered to his rest ; no prophet was there to lead the way to better things or to console the desponding people for the falsification of their expectations. What was the result ? Some took refuge in simple unbelief, saying in their hearts, "There is no God;" some, laying aside all consideration of the future, revelled in the present, lived in debauchery and sensuality, with the thought, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die ; " others, as if to constrain God to fulfil old prophecies, aBd to grant their temporal desires, practised a scrupulous observance of the outward duties of religion, a formal rigorism which anticipated that later Pharisaism which meets us in the gospel history. These tendencies are reflected in Ecclesiastes, and are more or less corrected herein. This rectification is not effe0ted in a formal, logical method. The work is by no means a regular treatise, moral or religious. Some have likened it to St. Augnstine's 'Confessions,' or to Pascal's 'Pensees.' It is, perhaps, not quite analogous to either of these, especially as it is written under an assumed name ; but it does unveil the author's hidden self, and teaches by recounting personal experiences, and may thus be termed ' Confessions,' or 'Thoughts,' rather than a dissertation or poem. Its subject is the vanity of all that is human and earthly, and by contrast and implication the steadfastness and importance of the unseen. The writer desires, in the first place (virtually, though not expressly), to comfort his countrymen under their present depressed circumstances, to teach them not to set their hopes on earthly success, or to fancy that their own efforts could secure happi- ness, but to make the best of the present, and to receive with thankful- ness th_e good that God sends or permits. He also urges the avoidance of ex:ternalism in religion, and shows wherein t~e devotion consists. And, in the second place, he warns against despair or reckless licence, as though it mattered not what one did, as if there were no higher Power that regarded; he solemnly asserts his faith in an overruling providence, though we cannot trace the reason or course of its working; his conviction that all is ordered for the best; his unswerving faith in the life everlasting and in a future judgment, which shall remedy the seeming anomalies of this present exist- ence. In all the problems of life, in all the disappointments and difficulties that meet our best and noblest efforts, there is nothing to cling to, no anchor on which to rest, but the fear of God and obedience to his commands. Whatever happens, or however things may seem to go contrary to one's wishes and aspirations, amid the outward prosperity of the wicked and the humiliation of the good, he triumphs in the assurance that he knows certainly that it eh.all be well with t~em th11,t fi,ar God (eh. viii. 1~). 'l'o ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. :xxxiii