THE QUESTION `WHAT IS THAT GOOD?'
3
PREFACE
The reader of Scripture will be aware how God uses men and women and their manner of life to set forth
principles of truth, e.g., Abraham as the illustration par excellence of justification by faith. In like manner the book
of Job presents to us one who is attested by God as, in His view, the man outstanding for uprightness on the earth in
his day (Job 1:8; 2:3 `none like him'), yet before that book is concluded Job is confessing his `vileness' (Job 40:4) for
there had been raised the question `How shall man be just with God?' To that there is but one answer, `I have found
a Ransom', `When we were yet without strength Christ died for the ungodly ... being justified by His Blood'.
Opening the book of Ecclesiastes we find ourselves viewing the wisest man (Eccles. 1:16), a man whose
`wisdom' was accredited by God (1 Kings 3:5-12 `none like thee'), even as Job's `uprightness' was, but the result of
his search `by wisdom' was, from one angle, a discovery that, apart from God, all is `vanity' (emptiness) and
`vexation of spirit'. To the questions raised in Ecclesiastes the Lord Jesus Christ is once again the answer, `When in
the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe ... we preach Christ crucified ... the Wisdom of God'.
Ecclesiastes is a book which deals with the circumstances of every passing hour, and much of its teaching is as
applicable today as when it was written - a mirror of what life may come to mean, if light be given but rejected. All
life unyielded to God must result in `vanity and vexation of spirit', but when Christ is given, not merely `a place', not
merely `prominence', but `pre-eminence', then life is really known and enjoyed as God meant it to be.
The author of this book, dealing with the principal themes in Ecclesiastes, has for many years devoted his
God-given talents and ability to the careful exposition of the Word of God, and the substance of this book appeared
as long ago as 1920-1923 in The Berean Expositor a (now Bi-monthly) publication edited by the author, and proved
then to be of great value. The book is now sent out with the prayer that it may be richly used of God and that
readers may find in its pages help in the quest of life's true portion, the deep satisfaction of a life yielded to Him
Who loved us and gave Himself for us and does still so love us, and the high privilege of representing here for a
time on the earth Christ Who now sitteth at the right hand of God. What a privilege to be here for His pleasure and,
in the power of the Spirit, to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour is not in vain in
the Lord.
A SERVANT OF THAT SAME ONE.