The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 123

teaching of Buddhism. The spectacle of miseries of old age, disease, and death, drovo the Jndian prince, Cakya Mouni, to find in Nirvana (annihilation, or unconscious existence) a solution of the great problem. But both are superseded by the teaching of Christ, who gives us to understand that "not to have been born" is not a blessin"' which the more spiritually minded might covet, but a state better only than that exceptional misery which is the doom of exceptional guilt (Matt. xxvi. 24).-J. W. Vers. 4-6.-Ambition and indolence. The Preacher turns from the greitt, and to him insoluble, problems connected with the misery and suffering in which so many of the children of men a.re sunk. "His mood is still bitter; but it is no longer on the oppressions an.:! cruelty of life that he :fixes bis eye, but on its littleness, its mutual jealousies, its greed, its strange reverses, its shams and hollowness. He puts on the garb of the satirist, and lashes the pettiness and the follies and the vain hurry of mankind" (Bradley). As it were, be turns from the evils which no foresight or effort could "·ar<l off, to those which sprino- from preventible causes. • I. RESTLESS AMBITION. (Ver. 4~ Revised Version, "Then I saw all labour and every skilful work, that it cometh of a man's rivalry with bis neighbour" (margin). The Preacher does not deny that labour and toil may be crowned with some measure of success, but he notices that the inspiring motive is in most cases an envious desire on the part of the worker to surpass his fellows. Hence he asserts that in general no lasting good is secured by the individual worker (Wright). The general community may benefit largely by the results achieved, the progress of civilization may be advanced by the competition of artist with artist, but without a moral gain being attained by those wbo have put forth all their strength and exerted to the utmost all their skill. They may still feel tba.t their ideal is higher than their achievements; they may see -with jealous resentment that their best work is surpassed by others. The poet Hesiod, in bis 'Works and Days,' distinguishes between two kinds ofrivalry -the one beneficent and provocative of honest enterprise, the other pernicious and provocative of discord. The former is like that alluded to here by the Preacher, and is the parent of healthy competition. "BeDeficent this better envy burns- Thns emulous hie wheel the potter turns, The smith his ~mvil beats, the beggar throng Industrious ply, the bards couteud in song." But our author, looking at the motive rather than the result of the work, brands as injurious the selfish ambition from which it may have sprung. II. 11,'DOLENCE. (Ver. 5.) "The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth bis own flesh." While there are some who fret and wear themselves out in endeavours t•J surpass their neighbours, others rust out in ignoble sloth. The bands of the busy artist are deftly used to shape and fashion the materials in which he works, and to embody the ideas or fancies conceived in his mind; the indolent fold their hands to"'ethcr, and make no attempt either to excel others or to provide a living for them- selves. The one may, after all his toil, be doomed to failure and disappointment; the other most certainly dooms himself to want and misery. "He feeds upon his own flesh," and destroys himself. The sinfulness of indolence, and the punishment which it brings down upon itself, are plainly indicated in in.any parts of Holy Scripture (Prov. vi. 10, 11 ; xiii. 4; xx .. 4; Matt. xxv. 26; 2 Thess. iii. 1~). _But the special poi □ t of the reference to the vice here seems to be the contrast which 1t affords to that of feverish ambition. The two dispositions depicted are opposed to each other; both are blameworthy. It is foolish to seek to escape the evils of the one by incurring thos,; of the other. A middle way between them is the path of wisdom. This is taught us in ver. 6: "Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit." The rivalry that consumes the strength, and kads almost inevitably to disappointment and vexation of spirit, is deprecated; so also, by implication, is the inactivity of the indolent. The "quietness" which refreshes the sc,ul, and gives it contentment with a moderate competence, is not idleness, or the rest of sloth. It is rest after labour, which the ambitious will not allow themselves to take. The indolent do not enjoy it, their strength wastes away from want of exercise i ell. IV'. 1-10.] EC0LESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 107