The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 283

we are to do our work in the world; we mysterious; and yet nature works them up cannot make a certainty of anything; pro- into e. strange increase of bulk, diversity, bability in the guide of life. We cannot e.nd proportion." Controversies concernin.~ secure ourselves f'rom failure; we can but the origin of the soul have been rife from do our best, and uncertainty of result must early times, rome holding what is culled not paralyze exertion. "It is not of him Tre.dncianiem, i.e. that soul and body nrc that willeth, nor of him that nmneth, but of both derived by propagation from earthly God that hath mercy" (Rom. ix. 16). St. po.rents; others supporting Creationism, i.e. Gregory deduces a lesson from this verse: that the soul, created specially by God, is "He calls the unclean spirit wind, but men infused into the child before birth. St. who are subjected to him clouds; whom he Augustine confesses(' Op. Imperf.,' iv. 104) impels backwards and forwards, hither and that he is unable to determine the truth or thither, as often as his temptations alternate either opinion. And, indeed, this is one c,f in their hearts from the blasts of suggestions. those secret things which Holy Scriptmc He therefore who observes the wind does bas not decided for us, and about which no not sow, since he who dreads coming tempta- o.utborito.tive sentence bas been given. The tions docs not direct his heart to doing good. term "bones" is used for the whole confor- .And he who regards the clouds does not mation of the body (comp. Prov. xv. 30; xvi. reap, since he who trembles from the dread 24); meleah, "pregnant," means literally, of human fickleness deprives himself of the " full," and is used like the Lo.tin plen,t recompense of an eternal reward " (' Moral.,' here and nowhere else in the Old Testament, xxvii. 14). though common in Inter Hebrew. Thus Ver. 5.-As thou lmowest not what is the Ovid, 'Meto.m.,' x. 469- way of the spirit. In this verse are presented one or two examples of man's ignorance of " Plana patris thalamis excedit., et impia. natural focts and processes as analogous to diro the mysteries of God's moral government. Semino. fert utero." The word trnnslated "spirit" (roach) may mean also "wind," and is so taken here by And' Fast.,' iv. 633- many commentators (see eh. i. 6; viii. 8; and ,, Nuno gro.vidum pecus est; gra.vid!ll BUnt comp. John iii. 8). In this view therewonld semine terrlll. be two instances given, viz. the wind and Telluri plence victime. pleno. do.tU1·," the embryo. Certainly, the mention of the wind seems to come naturally ufter what ho.a Even so thou lmowest not the works of preceded; and man's ignorance of its way, God who maketh all. Equally mysterious and powerlessness to control it, are em- in its genera.I scope and in its details is blematic of his attitude towards Divine the working of God's providence. And ns providence. The versions, however, seem everything lies in God's bMds, it must needs to support the rendering of the Authorized be secret and beyond human ken. This is Vorsion. Thus the Septuagint (whioh con- why to" the works of God" (eh. vii. 13) is nects the clause with ver. 4), ;., oTs ('' among added, "who mo.ketb a.II." The God of whom," i.e. those who watch the weather), nature is Lord of the future (comp. Amos "There is none that knowelh what is the iii. 6; Ecclus. xviii. 6); mnn must not dis- way of the spirit (Toii =•~µaTos);" Vulgate, quiet himself a.bout this. Quomodo ignoras qUllJ sit via spiritus. If Ver. 6.-In the morning sow thy seed. we tuke this view, we have only one ideu in Do not let your ignornnce of the future nn, I the verse, and that is the infusion of the the inscrutability of God's dealings le1td you brnn.th of life in the embryo, 11nd its growth to indolence e.nd ape.thy; do your appointed in its mother's womb. Nor how the bones work; be active and diligent in your co.Bing. do grow in the womb of her that is with The lubonr of the former is to.ken a.a o. t_vpe child. Our version, by its insertions, has of business generally, and was especially m11de two facts out of the statement iu the appropriate to the class of persons whom Hebrew, which is literally, how the bones Kohelcth is instructing. Tho injunction (11re) in the womb of a pregnant woman. occurs n11turully after ver. 4. And in the Beptungint, "As (ws) bones 11re in tho womb,'' evening withhold not thine he.ad. Lubonr etc.; Vulgo.te, Et qua ratione compingantur on untiredly from morn till evening. It is ossa in ventre prmgnantis;" And in what way not on advice to rest during midd11y, e.s that the bones are framed in the womb of the was too hot n time to work (Stmirt), but 1t pregnant." The formation and quickening oall to spend the entire day in active em- of the fcstus were always regarded us my~- ployment, the two extremities being n,en- terious and inscrutable (oomp. Job x. 8, 9: tioned in order to include the whole. Work Ps. oxxxix. 15; Wisd. vii. I, etc.). Wright undertuken in e. right spirit is e. blessing, oompnres M. Aurelius, x. 26, "The first not e. curse, shuts out mo.ny temptntion~, principles of life a.re extremely slender nnd encourages many virtues. Some see here 11  278 ECCLESIAS',l'ES ; OR, THE PREACHER [en, xr, 1-10.