Vers. 8, 9.-The picture of an ideal state. I. THE SOIL WELL CULTIVATED. As the land of a country is its principal source of wealth, where this is left untilled only desti- tution to the people upon it can ensue. Access to the broad acres of earth, to extract therefrom by means of labour the treasures therein deposited, constitutes an indispensable prerequisite to the material prosperity of any province or empire. Hence the Preacher depicts, or enables us to depict, a state or condition of things in which this is realized-the common people spread abroad upon the soil and engaged in its cultiva- tion; the upper classes or feudal lords deriving their support from the same soil in the shape of rents, and even the king receiving from it in the form of taxes his imperial revenues. II. THE LAW EQUALLY ADMINISTERED. The opposite of this is the picture sketched by the Preacher, who probably transferred to his pages a spectacle often witnessed in Palestine during the years of Persian domination-" tbe oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province; n the labourin~ classes despoiled of their scanty savings, and even denied their fair share in the fruits of their own industry, ground down and oppressed by the tyranny and avarice of their social and political superiors, the satraps aud other officers who ruled them, and these again preyed on by fiercer harpies above them, and so on, up through each as:ending rank of dignitaries, till the last aud highest was reached. Reverse the state of matters thus described, and imagine a.II classes in the community dwelling together in harmony, and conspiring to advance each other's comfort and happiness-the toiling millions chee1folly, honestly, and diligently cultivating the soil, and manufacturing its products into higher forms of wealth and beauty, the upper classes jealously guarding the rights and furthering the welfare of these industrious artisans, and ea.eh regarding the other with confidence and esteem-the poet's dream of Utopia., in which "all men's good" should be "each ruao's rule,'' would then be realized. IIL THE SOVEREIGN BENEFICENTLY ENTERPRISING. Not in pushing forward his own persona.I aggrandizement, which in ancient Oriental countries was often done at the expense of his subjects, as by Pharaoh of Egypt (Exod. i. 11) and Solomon of Israel and Judah (1 Kings xii. 4), but by devoting his energies to further the material (and intellectual} advancement of his people. "But the profit of a land every way is a. king that maketh himself servant to the field," or "is a king over the cultivated field" (Revised Version margin), or is a king devoted to a:;riculture (Rosenmiiller, Delitzsch, Wright), like Uzzia.h of Judah, who "loved husbandry" (2 Cliron. xxvi. 10). It is only amplifying this thought to represent the ideal state as one in which the king or emperor consecrates his life and powers to the honourable and laborious task of promot- ing the material prosperity and temporal happiness of his subjects by removing the yoke from agriculture, fostering trade and commerce, encouraging manufactures and inventions, aiding science and art, diffusing education, nod stimnlating his people upward in every possible way towards the ideal of a.II free peoples, viz. self-government. IV. 'l'HE DEITY APPROVING. Here a.gain the Preacher's picture must be changed. What he beheld was wholesale oppression ,and robbery practised by the upper and powerful classes against the under and powerless classes, or in modern phrase, " the massee," and God over both looking on in calm silence (Ps. I. 21), but by no menns imperturbed indifterence (Zeph. i. 12), accurately noting all the wickedness going on beneath the sun (Ps. xxxiii. .13-15), and quietly waiting his own time to call it to account (eh. iii. 16, 17; xi. 9; xii. 14). What must be substituted is a. state of mntters in which over the well-organized, industrious, peaceful, co-operating community the almighty Disposer of events, the King of nations and King of kings, presides, beaming 122 ECCLESIASTES i OR, 'l'HE PREACHER. [cu. v. 1-20,
on them with his gracious smile (Numb. vi. 2¼---26) and establishing the work of thei1 hands upon them (Ps. xc. 17). . Learn: 1. 'l'hc duty of the st.ate to seek the welfare of all, 2. The duty of each to promot-e the welfare of the state.