the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, the preacher gives the 'conclusion of the

whole matter'.

'Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole (duty) of

man.  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret

thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil' (Eccles. 12:13,14).

All the searching, reasoning and speculating led him no further into

truth, but rather entangled him in confusion.  Believers, today, under an

entirely different dispensation, and with the added advantage of a complete

Bible, are equally frail and human, and the moment we leave what is written

for deductions based upon our own limited and prejudiced observations, we,

too, must inevitably make shipwreck.  Solomon failed, even though he retained

the wisdom which was given him by God.  Are we wiser than Solomon when we

venture beyond the written Word?

We are so conscious of our limited knowledge in view of these

tremendous themes, that we dare not assume finality in any one particular

doctrine.  Our only hope is to keep absolutely loyal to what God has said,

and to remember that the moment we go beyond and supplement God's revelation

by our deductions and theories, the moment we criticize His right to hide as

well as to reveal, that moment we embark on a voyage chartless and

rudderless, saved from shipwreck only by a miracle of grace.

Yet one more consideration.  In Daniel 10:21 and 11:2 there are

statements which are worthy of careful study:

'But I will shew thee that which is noted in the Scripture of Truth'.

'And now will I shew thee the truth'.

The angel proceeds to give a most marvellously detailed account, first

of the events which were about to take place within a comparatively short

time of this announcement, and then of the yet future events of the time of

the end, or as he says in Daniel 10:14, 'Now I am come to make thee

understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days'.  The point to

which we would direct the reader's attention is, that what the angel came to

tell Daniel was already 'noted' ('writing' 5:24,25, 'sign' 6:8,9) in the

Scripture of truth.  What Scripture? the events foretold in Daniel 11 are not

found written in any of the Scriptures which had been given up to the time of

Daniel.  If this be so, the expression suggests the idea that there may be

Scriptures of truth to which the angels have access, and that the Scriptures

which we possess contain selections, given by God at different intervals, of

that heavenly scroll, which contains, possibly, ever so much more than we can

as yet grasp.  The angels do not know everything.  Principalities and Powers

are learning now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10).

We certainly do not possess a complete account of all God's purposes.

Daniel 11 shows us that He knew fully, and had recorded in the Scriptures to

which the angel had access, the doings of the kings of Persia and Greece.  We

are sure that His knowledge was not limited in the least, and that He knew

the complete course of the history of Greece and Persia, although the

Scriptures we have received do not treat of their histories beyond the scope

of the particular purpose for which they have been written.  Our Bible

centres around Israel and Jerusalem.  Whenever a nation came into touch with

Israel, they came within the scope of Divine revelation.  Is it not certain

that the One who wrote the history of Israel from start to finish, could