along his pathway to complete his circuit. The winds whirl about continually, and return

according to their circuit. The rivers run into the sea and return again to their source.

"All things are full of weariness" (see  12: 12  for the same word).  There is no

satisfaction to be found in the things of this life of themselves. What is the eye for but to

see? yet "the eye is not satisfied with seeing"! The idea of the endless circle comes out

again in 1: 9, 10:--

The final statement seems to reach the depths of vanity. "No remembrance" (1: 11).

After all the toil, the heart ache, the sleepless nights, the weary struggle, the little petty

triumph--oblivion, forgotten! Ichabod: where is the glory? One writer remarked that if

he had to use two geometrical figures, the one to represent man the other God, he should

use a circle for man and a straight horizontal line for God for He alone moves forward,

man but treads a never ending mill.

This book has something more cheerful to say even about this life, when we are ready

for the lesson (we intend to pause here so that we may all face this Scripture). Here we

are in a world of strife, struggle, turmoil. Whether we are officially in a state of Peace or

War makes very little difference. Men and women spend their lives in pursuing the

unsatisfying round of eating and drinking, buying and selling, losing and gaining, in

short, all the items enumerated in 3: 1-8, for what use or purpose? If it ends in the

things of this life, it has been a mere circle. If that circle is so big that it embraces "the

whole world", yet the Saviour says, "What shall it profit a man?"

My reader, ask yourself the question as before the Lord, DOES MY BUSINES PAY?

Do not consult your pass book, nor speak of your turn-over, do not think of your

increasing barns or added acres; where is the profit in the scriptural sense? Does each

year find you with an increasing balance stored up "where neither moth nor rust doth

corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal?' When you have computed

your yield per acre, have you thought of that other harvest? "God is not mocked, for

whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Some commodities are not very

saleable. For example, how few Buy the truth and sell it not. How many of us are keen

to Redeem the time because the days are evil? And when we labour with our hands do

we have the apostle's injunction in mind, That we may have to give to him that needeth?

One word in conclusion. "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can

carry nothing out." With that "one event" vanishes all the "gains" of this life. Oh to

realize the value of an everyday appreciation of resurrection ground!

"Your labour is NOT IN VAIN in the Lord."