n selfish self-denial, filling his dark
days with vexation, sickness, and irritation, he is snatched from all,
and, poor indeed, departs. Such the sad story of Solomon's experience;
but not more sad than true, nor confined by any means to Scripture.
World-wide it is. Nor is divine revelation necessary to tell poor man
that silver, nor gold, nor abundance of any kind, can satisfy the
heart. Hear the very heathen cry "_semper avarus eget_"--"the miser
ever _needs_"; or "_Avarum irritat non satiat pecunia_"--"the wealth of
the miser satisfies not, but irritates." But more weighty and
far-reaching is the word of revelation going far beyond the negation of
the king. "They that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a
snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in
destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all
kinds of evil, which some reaching after have been led astray from the
faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

But let us pass to the last three verses of the chapter. The Preacher
here says, in effect, "Now attend carefully to what I tell thee of the
result of all my experience in this way. I have discerned a good that
I can really call comely or fair. It is for a man to have the means at
his command for enjoyment, and the power to enjoy those means. This
combination is distinctly the 'gift of God.' From such an one all the
evils that make up life pass off without eating deep into his being. A
cheerful spirit takes him off from the present evil as soon as it is
past. He does not think on it much; for the joy of heart within, _to
which God responds_, enables him to meet and over-ride those waves of
life and forget them."

This is in perfect conformity with the whole scope of our book: and it
is surely a mistake that the evangelical doctors and commentators make
when they seek to extract truth from Solomon's writings that is never
to be attained apart from God's revelation. On the other hand, a large
school of German rationalists see here nothing beyond the teaching of
the Epicure: "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Rather does
it show the high-water mark of human reason, wisdom, and
experience,--having much in common with the philosophy of the world,
but going far beyond it; and then, at its highest, uttering some wail
of dissatisfaction and disappointment, whilst the majestic height of
divine revelation towers above it into the v