this withholding of information?

Think of the errors which have clustered around the wrong translation of aion. Instead of honestly rendering the

word `age', the translators assumed that it must refer to eternity, and so wherever possible they rendered it by words

which indicate eternity, and that which is everlasting. Has not the book of Ecclesiastes been written in order that we

may be led to see the utter impossibility of pushing beyond that which it has pleased God to reveal to us? `He hath

set the world (olam, the age) in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning

to the end' (Eccles. 3:11). Is there no word for us here? Are we quite sure that we, if taught by the Spirit of God,

can hope to find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end? Some of God's children appear to

think so. With all our heart we sympathize with them. Problems press hard upon us all. Believing implicitly in the

full inspiration of Scripture, and believing, moreover, that outside its sacred pages there is found no light upon these

matters, many have come to the conclusion that by prayerful painstaking study, by careful collocation, the whole

range of God's purposes will at length be discovered. Indeed this is no longer a supposition. Many of our readers

will have read already articles from the pens of earnest Bible students who believe that they have pieced the whole

together, and who do not hesitate to teach us what is to take place after Satan, and those whose names are not found

written in the Book of Life, are cast into the Lake of Fire. At this point exposition ceases, and inference enters.

There is no written revelation given us as to anything happening to those who are thus consigned to the second

death. True, passages of tremendous import are brought to bear upon the subject, but it is only by way of deduction.

This immediately puts the whole subject beyond the limits of inspiration, and we distrust our own heart too much to

allow ourself to be drawn beyond the divine limits.

When the reader opens the sacred volume he soon becomes aware that much must have taken place which is

unrecorded. He can discover by what is written in Isaiah 45:18 that the earth was not created `without form and

void', but that it became so. He can further discover that `the world that then was, being overflowed with water,

perished' (2 Pet. 3:5,6), but he will not find recorded the many details which his natural mind would lead him to

enquire into. In the third chapter of Genesis the Serpent, who is afterwards discovered to be Satan, is introduced

without any explanation as to how he came to be in the condition of enmity against God that we find to be the case.

The Scriptures reveal glimpses into the exalted rank, awful ambition, and fearful fall of Satan, but why he was thus

allowed to sin and all the many problems of the philosopher regarding the origin of evil remain unsolved.

Is it for us, when Scripture is silent, to attempt to force an answer by turning to the oracles of philosophy and

human reason? If God has hidden, shall we not rather bow the knee in submission? Must we know all? Is there no

room for faith? Are not the words of Job 42:1-6 a more fitting attitude of mind? Job was troubled by the problem of

evil. His friends sought to administer comfort, but in vain. He never received an answer to the problem. All that

we can learn is recorded by James, `that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy'.

There are many expressions in Ecclesiastes which teach us that a calm rest in the Lord, whether we fully

understand all His ways or not, is His will for us here. `God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a

time THERE for every purpose and for every work' (Eccles. 3:17). `Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad'

(Eccles. 7:7). Those who fail to see that God's purpose is over all must, when they contemplate the oppression on

every hand, feel driven almost to desperation, but the consciousness that though HERE evil prospers, there is a time

THERE for every purpose and for every work; this will keep us in the right attitude before God. The reason for the

dissatisfaction of the writer of Ecclesiastes is recorded in chapter 7, verses 25-29. It is written as an example and a

warning. He did not abide by what was written; no, he would find out `the reason of things'. What did he find? He

found, by a bitter experience that wrecked his whole career, that which he could have known by what had been

written for his guidance in the Proverbs. In those proverbs written for the guidance of the young Solomon we read

again and again warnings about the flattering woman. Solomon had been given, in Proverbs 31:10-31, a description

of the woman God would have him choose for his wife. Instead of this he wanted to know by experience the

`wickedness of folly', and he says:

`I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands' (Eccles. 7:26).

`Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: which yet my soul

seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found'

(Eccles. 7:27,28).

Poor Solomon! we see him with his `three score queens and four score concubines, and virgins without number'

(Song of Sol. 6:8) still unsatisfied (1 Kings 11:3 reveals the fact that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines,