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SELECTIONS FROM ECCLESIASTES

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ECCLESIASTES

This is, in some respects, the most curious book in the Bible. It has puzzled many people. Like Proverbs, it is put together without very much order, but that does not make the greatest puzzle of the book. The question has been, "What does the author intend to teach?" The book seems to take a very dark view of life. It almost seems as though the author thought nothing was worth living for. Over and over he says that all is vanity; that is, emptiness, nothingness. He questions whether there is a life after death. It seems to the careless reader that this book is only gloomy, dark, and hopeless. But that is a superficial view. If one reads with more care, one finds another strain in the book. It is good for a man to enjoy his labor. This is the gift of God. Let a man eat and drink and enjoy his labor. This is his portion, or wages, from God. Such thoughts as these occur again and again in the book. One begins to see that all is not darkness. On the contrary, there is, so far as it goes, a very excellent way of living put forward in the book. The author's question is, What are the wages of life? What ought one to think of as making life worth living? His answer is, The work of life itself, with the ordinary pleasures that come with it, are the wages. It is these things that make life worth living. Now this author does not see all the truth. He does not even sum up the whole of life. It is a great lack that in his pictures, in the first few chapters, of the things that may be expected to yield pleasure, he says nothing about the unselfish life. The life he describes is all getting, getting, getting, and never giving. Now the life that simply spends itself in trying to get things and never tries to help others is sure not to be a very happy life. "Vanity of vanities" is its very proper conclusion. This picture of life is too narrow. It needs to be enlarged by the rich and beautiful New Testament ideal of the life of unselfish love.

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TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

To everything there is a season,
And a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to cast away;
A time to rend,
And a time to sew; [{244}] A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time for war,
And a time for peace.

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REMEMBER ALSO THY CREATOR

Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth:
Or ever the evil days come,
And the years draw nigh,
When thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
Or ever the sun, and the light,
And the moon and the stars,
Be darkened
And the clouds return after the rain.
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble,
And the strong men shall bow themselves,
And the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look out of the windows be darkened,
And the doors be shut in the street.
When the sound of the grinding is low,
And one shall rise up at the voice of a bird,
And all the daughters of music shall be brought low:
Yea, they shall be afraid of that which is high,
And terror shall be in the way;
And the almond tree shall blossom,
And the grasshopper shall be a burden,
And desire shall fail:
Because man goeth to his long home.
And the mourners go about the streets: [{246}] Or ever the silver cord be loosed,
Or the golden bowl broken,
Or the pitcher broken at the fountain
Or the wheel broken at the cistern:
And the dust return to the earth, as it was;
And the spirit return unto God who gave it.

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