unfortunate in h:.s experience. There is no doubt that in some countries and in some ages of the world, corruption is very widespread and deep, and in the land and time in which our author lived matters may have been as bad as he represents them. But the c~ perience of & single life does not afford sufficient ground for• broad generalizations concerning human nature. The words may be an expression of that terrible feeling of satiety and loathing which is the curse following upon gross sensuality such as that of the bistorica.l Solomon, with his three hundred wives and seven hun<lred concubines. No sensible person would take the moralizings of the satiate<.!. debauchee witbont very considerable deductions. Those of a chaste, temperate, God-fearing man are much more likely to hit the trnth. We ma.y grant that search had been made, and not one woman among the thousand whose dispositions and characters had been passed in review approved herself worthy of praise as like what a true woman should be, and still doubt whether the thousand were fair representatives of their sex. Did he search in the right quarter? or were the women the population of his seraglio? If they were, we cannot wonder that, in an institution which is itself an outrage upon human nature, all its. inhabitants were found corrupt. For a very different estimate of the female ch1nacter as exemplified in some of its representatives, we have only to read the praises of tl)-e Shularnite in the Song of Songs, and of the virtuous women described in Prov. v. 18, 19; xxxi. 10----31. Anr! Scripture itself is rich in the histories of good women. '!'here are those of patriarchal times whose tender grace gives such an idyllic charm to so many incidentt.of that early age. The nameR of Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel call up ideas of purity, mnooence, piety, and steadfast. love, as e. rich inheritance they have left to the race. Miriam, Hannah, Ruth, and Esther, too, suggest a world of goodness and holi- ness which was quite unknown to the experience of the writer of these dark anq sombre words in Ecclesiastes, Then in the New Testament we have the luminous figures of the Virgin-mother, the Prophetess Anna, the devout women who .ministered to Christ and stood by his cross,.and were early in the morning at his sepulchre, and were the first to beliel"e in him as their risen Lord, There are those in the long list re.corded iO: the Epistles of St. Paul, who were zealous fellow-labourers with him in all good works, who, by their deeds of hospitality, their kindly ministrations to the poor and sick and bereaved, reproved the wickedness of the world in which they lived, and gave promise of the rich han-est of goodness which would spring from the holy teaching and example of the Redeemer. And in no Christian country have abundant examples been wanting of the pure and devoted love by which mothers and wives and sisters have enriched and blessed the lil'es of those connected with them, and redeemed their sex from the stigma cast upon it by gross-minded and corrupt men. No persecutions have ever wasted any section of the Christian Church without finding among women as true and steadfast witnesses for the cause of Christ as among men. "A noble army- men and boys, Tue matron and the maid, Aronnd the Saviour's throne rejoice, In robes of light cumy'd. They elimb'd the steep :iecent of heaven Through peril, toil, and pain ; 0 God, tons may grace be given To follow. in their train I ". J.W.
EX POSITION. oppressive a tyrant 1Uay prove ellre ?l tribu. CHAPTER VIII. tion awo.ite hi:n. V,-rs. 1-9.-Section 5. There isno U9'.l in Ver. 1.-Who is as the. wise man? i.e. 1P-(iiuing or rebelling; true wisdom coun.wls WuQ is like, cqunl to, tl(o wise man? The obedience to the powen that be, mul suumi,,io11 eoihewhnt sudden queshon oecw·s nnturnlly to O,e di1pel'l./lati<n1s of P,·ocit!ellce. Howevl'r aftc~ tho results of the srarch for wisdom OIi, Vlll. 1-17.] ECCLESIAS'l'ES; on, THE PREACHER. Hl9