`When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the travail that is done upon the earth, how that one doth

not see sleep with his eyes by day or by night: then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the

work that is done under the sun, because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther;

though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it' (Author's translation).

Again in 3:10,11 the sore travail and its legitimate exercise is contrasted with the `far off' and the `exceeding

deep' things which wisdom cannot explore:

`He hath made everything beautiful in its season; also He hath set the age in their heart, so that no man can find

out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end' (Author's translation).

Revelation alone can make us know the work that God maketh `from the beginning to the end'. What is revealed

we know, what is unrevealed all our wisdom will never supply. We shall but make our folly manifest and ultimately

be found wresting the scriptures to make them fit our theories. Again in another parallel with the opening section

we read:

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

seen in every department of life today, from theology downwards). `In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the

day of adversity consider: that God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find

nothing after him ... neither make thyself over wise' (7:13-16).

Solomon, therefore, when he gave his heart to know wisdom and madness and folly, was simply asking to

`vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief (or mortification): and he that increaseth knowledge

increaseth sorrow' (1:17,18).

This result he arrives at in 2:21-23 :

`A man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity ... all his days are sorrows, and his travail

grief'.

It is impossible to attain to a knowledge of the world and its ways without experiencing the utter failure of man

to save himself or reform the crooked world. Wisdom also fails to make plain the work that God doeth from the

beginning to the end. Faith in His written Word is our only safety and rest. We have already indicated that the word

experience is the word enjoy. `I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore "look into"

pleasure'. What was the result of the investigation? `This also is vanity' (2:1). His experiment with `mirth' was very

thorough. It is set out in detail in the verses that follow. In verse 10 Koheleth says, `I withheld not my heart from

any joy (mirth)'.

`Therefore look into pleasure'. - This word pleasure is rendered `good' twenty-four times in Ecclesiastes, besides

`better' and `well'. Koheleth did not `plunge into pleasure' as some of his detractors maintain, but `investigated

good', as he repeats in 2:3. Here he examines mirth, there he interrogates folly with the same object in view. All

that he could say of laughter was that it was mad. In chapter 7:3,4 we find (as we have found before) his sober

judgment on the matter:

`Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the

wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth'.

His question concerning mirth was, `What doeth it?' In what way does it help man upon the road to true peace

and lasting joy. Surely the beginning of wisdom is to recognize that we are in an evil age, with corruption in our

nature, and condemnation as our legal end. The laughter of fools and the mirth that is indisciplined are out of place

in the presence of such a state. It is like the crackling of thorns under a pot in its transience. Solomon went the

whole gamut of experiences, and in verse 3, when he gave himself to wine, he exposed the subtle philosophy that

was expressed later in the Ruba'iyát of 'Omar Khaiyam. Chapter 7 answers the `laying hold of folly' by replying `It

is good that thou shouldest take hold of (same word) this', indicating the argument of verses 13-17 already quoted

above. No conclusion is arrived at in 2:3. All we know is that the writer tested these things in turn with one object: