This book records the experience of King Solomon, the wisest, richest, and happiest king that ever sat upon a throne. Was there a cup of earthly bliss which Solomon had not fully tasted? Wisdom, riches, pleasures, honor, power had been poured in rich and abundant profusion into the lap of the King. The world and its varied stores utterly failed to satisfy and fill the heart of the monarch, and "What can the man do that cometh after the king?" Here is detailed the experience of one who had both capacity given him from God, and the means to minister to it fully, also divinely given. Hence it is important to see that we have not in this book the morbid experience of a misanthrope, nor of one who had failed in the search after every form of human happiness. Moreover, it is the record of the musings of a heart which had not drunk in, and enjoyed, every kind of lawful pleasure merely, but besides had gratified to the full every unlawful pleasure and lust. The book was written by Solomon at the close of his life, and after his repentance because of his idolatry and other sins (1 Kings 11). Calmly the aged monarch reviews his life. To him the world had yielded its choicest stores. Is he satisfied? He takes pen in hand, and, gazing up and all around, he writes down "All is Vanity." "Everything beneath the sun" is pronounced unworthy as an object for the heart of man. "All is vanity" is the solemn and true verdict of the King, and the whole duty of man as to this world is to "fear God and keep His commandments." This book searches everything "beneath the sun" to find a satisfying object large enough for the heart, and the utter failure is here announced.
O for grace to learn and read the lesson to present and everlasting profit, that there is but ONE whose glory is above the brightness of the sun, even Jesus, who alone can fill the heart and satisfy the deepest longings of the soul.
GENERAL DIVISIONS.
1.-The vanity of everything beneath the sun. Eccl. 1-6.
2.-The path of true wisdom through the world. Eccl. 7-12.