`No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless

it yieldeth the

peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby'.

Oh, the tragedy of unlearned lessons! The trial passed through without being exercised, the suffering endured

without result, the heavy stroke without the blessed fruit. God has so ordered the affairs of men that this world shall

not yield only joy and gladness; sorrow, vexation and worry at every turn beset the sons of men, not out of caprice

or indifference, but that they may be exercised, humbled therewith. And the Christian too passes through sore trials,

so that he may learn to lean harder and more completely upon his Lord.

Has the reader been `exercised' thereby? Have you gone on your knees with your trouble to ask that you may not

miss its lesson? Have you realized that He who sends the trial shapes the issue? (1 Cor. 10:13 lit.).

As a conclusion to the opening investigation Koheleth says:

`That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered' (1:15).

This conclusion, namely the utter inability of man to `reform' this age, is stated again in 7:13 :

`Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which He hath made crooked?'

Well may the gloomy Dane say:

`The time is out of joint. O, cursed spite

*

That ever I was born to set it right'.

The sore travail of the age is clarion-tongued in its call for Christ. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth,

waiting for the coming of the Prince of peace. `I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He come whose right it is'.

The believer who follows the teaching of Ecclesiastes may be spared the fruitless agony of the gospel of reform, and

learn to fret not himself because of evil doers, because of him that bringeth wicked devices to pass, but to roll his

burden upon the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

In the opening verse (1:13) the Preacher tells us he gave his `heart' to the search concerning the sore travail of

men. In the verses that follow, we can see how his heart went out into all the avenues of human suffering, pleasure

and experience in his endeavour to discover `what is that good?'

Throughout this section there is a repetition of the phrases `I gave my heart' either to see, or to know, and the

conclusion `Vanity' or `Vexation' comes as a sad refrain ten times.

Koheleth had gotten wisdom more than all that had been before him in Jerusalem. His heart also had `great

experience of wisdom and knowledge'. He not only possessed but he had used his gift. The word experience is

given in the margin `seen much'. It is variously translated in Ecclesiastes, viz., `to see', `enjoy', `perceive',

`consider', `behold'. Nevertheless Koheleth realized the unplumbed depths that surrounded him. So he gave his

heart `to know wisdom and to know madness and folly'. In many points chapter 7 echoes these opening verses.

There he shows that his experiences have taught a needful lesson:

`I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? I

applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the

wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness' (7:23-25).

Here Koheleth indicates that by wisdom some things cannot be fathomed, and this is more positively taught in

*

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5.