'Surely the isles shall wait for Me, To bring thy sons from far, Their silver and their gold with them, Unto the name of Jehovah thy God, Even to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.'-(lx. 9.) 1 'Oh, land of the perpetual shadow of sails, Which art BEYOND THE STREAMS OF CUSH, 2 Accustomed to send ambassadors (missionaries) by sea, Even with fabrics of papyrus' (Bibles, émotoλàs ßißxívas, LXX.) upon the waters, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, To a people wonderful from their beginning and onward, 3 All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth, And when He bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. 4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, "I will sit still (but I will keep My eye upon My prepared habitation), As the parching heat just before lightning, As the dewy cloud in the heat of harvest." 5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to perfection, And the blossom is becoming a juicy berry, He will cut off the useless shoots with pruning-hooks, And the luxuriant branches He will take away, He will cut down. 6 They shall be left together to the ravenous bird of the mountains, And to the wild beasts of the earth; And upon it shall the ravenous bird summer, And all the beasts of the earth upon it shall winter. 7 At that time a present shall be brought unto Jehovah of hosts, 1 The word ship, or boat. occurs 309 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and never signifies a sailing vessel, Of a people scattered and peeled, Even of a people wonderful from their beginning and onward, Whose land the streams have devastated, Unto the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion.'-(xviii.) Isaiah, in chapter xviii., defines the LOCALITY of England, beyond and remote from the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, the three ocean-streams which encircle Arabian Cush on the east, the west, and the south. Isaiah defines the CHARACTERISTICS Of England as a pre-eminently naval state, whose ships navigate every sea, and trade with every people; as a missionary kingdom, sending forth heralds of mercy to Jews, Mohammedans, and Pagans, and Bibles in every tongue and to every land; as the predestined MESSENGERPEOPLE, divinely commissioned to restore expatriated Israel to Palestine. And Isaiah predicts the present and future COLONIAL AND NAVAL SUPERIORITY Of England, to enable her to fulfil this glorious commission amidst the impending crash of nations, and God's final judgments on an apostate world. The implacable hostility so generally manifested to Christology, more especially to the Christology of the Psalms, prognosticates the rejection of the Messianic interpretations of chapters VII., VIII., and IX. proposed in this volume. To see Christ prefigured in the Old Testament, where writers in general have not discerned Him; to represent the man Christ Jesus 'ONE ABOVE A THOUSAND,' where others have only seen the 700 wives and the 300 concubines of Solomon; to substitute submission to the sceptre of Messiah in place of subjection to the powers that be, is a high crime and unpardonable misdemeanour in these last days of Laodicean lukewarmness. Morbid feelings cause many to rest self-satisfied with anti-Messianic renderings and interpretations, however obscure or unintelligible they may be. Unlike Augustine and the Augustinian Fathers, they have no wish to discern Christ in the Bible where some may not have discerned Him. They see no beauty in these Messianic manifestations, that they should desire them. If however, these proscribed Messianic prefigurations remove any obscurities in this confessedly obscure book, ought not the reader to pause before he reject them, until he can adduce some other interpretation which shall render equally intelligible that which is now obscure? Well does the author recollect the joyful ecstasy of his most highly esteemed and venerable friend, the Rev. T. T. Biddulph, of Bristol, when Bishop Horsley's work on the Psalms was first published. Rarely did that man of God appear on any platform without quoting or referring to this work, so grateful to his soul. But Augustine the renowned Bishop of Hippo, Kennicott and Horsley, Biddulph and Julius Bate, Jones of Nayland and Parkhurst, and Fry rector of Desford, etc. etc., have entered into their rest. Their mantle, it is feared, has fallen on few. By the many their Messianic renderings are unheeded or rejected. Another generation have arisen, who behold with complacency the Davidical application of Psalm xxii., and the ascription to the royal Psalmist, AS GOD'S JUST RECOMPENSE TO DAVID, 'the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight' (Psalm xviii. 24), a perfection solely fulfilled and manifested by Immanuel, Jehovah our righteousness, and certainly not pertaining to one who had been guilty of adultery and murder. Bad books poison the soul, as bad food poisons the body. Novels, designated in modern nomenclature tales of fiction (SOME EXPRESSLY DESIGNED, PRINTED, AND PUBLISHED FOR SABBATH READING), sensational volumes, tomes antagonistic to truth both Divine and human, the characteristic, the bane, the curse of the present age, poison the intellect, debase the soul, alienate from God, and cause multitudes to see no beauty in Christ that they should desire Him. Yet Christ is 'the true bread, the life-giving bread, the bread of God, the bread of life, the bread which cometh down from heaven, that all may eat thereof, and not die. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.' As food is the nutriment of the body, so is Christ the nutriment of the soul. Christ is the sum and substance and acme of Divine revelation, which from Genesis to Revelation testifies of Him, 'la Via, la Verita, e la Vita,'-'the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' Hence to search the Scriptures intellectually, prayerfully, experimentally, with an earnest desire to discern Christ wherever Christ is therein revealed, is the paramount duty and requirement of the present day. The Divine mandate is not merely to READ, but to SEARCH, the Scriptures. As miners find few nuggets of gold on the surface, but excavate immense treasures from the bowels of the earth, so Divine truth is sufficiently patent in the Scriptures, that the wayfaring man shall not err therein, whilst the Bible contains a recondite and inner sense, heavenly treasures, Messianic manifestations, and unfathomable depths, even the unsearchable riches of Christ, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein,' into which God's children are privileged to delve in humility, faith, and prayer, that they may extract therefrom the mind of the Spirit in the volume of revelation. 6 If this volume shall elucidate any difficulties or reconcile any apparent discrepancies in Ecclesiastes, the most obscure and enigmatical of all the books of the Old Testament-if it shall shed any light on the reign, the commerce, the character, or the writings of the wisest of men—if it shall render more clear and conspicuous than heretofore Solomon's contrition, repentance, and salvation, to God be all the glory. As a labourer in God's vineyard I have, however unworthily, sown the seed. May the Lord of the harvest vouchsafe His blessing, and grant an abundant increase! and may the study of the Book of Ecclesiastes be as abundantly sanctified to the reader as through grace it has been sanctified to the author! As far as this volume is accordant with the Divine will, may the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him the God and Father of His people, crown it with His blessing, to the edification of His Church, the elucidation of His word, the manifestation of His truth, and the repression of error! Whatever therein may be defective or erroneous, may the covenant God of all grace pardon the writer and obliterate from the mind of the reader! And may the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls prepare both writer and reader for whatever events may be coming on the earth, arm them with the whole armour of God, cause them to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory in anticipation of the speedy advent of Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, and enable each of them to realize the gracious promise, 'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life!' RYDE, June 1867. ECCLESIASTES. I. CHAPTER I.—VERSES 1-11. THE vanity, instability, fluctuations, and unsatisfactoriness of all earthly pursuits and labours. Nothing secular can satisfy the immortal soul. Nothing sublunary can constitute the chief good of man. 1 THE words of Khoheleth, son of David, reigning in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, saith Khoheleth, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. 3 What profit is there to man From all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun? 4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, But the earth abideth for ever. 5 The sun also riseth, and the sun setteth, And hasteth to its place from whence it riseth. 6 The wind bloweth toward the south, and veereth about toward the north, It veereth round and round continually, And ever revolveth on its circuits. 7 All water-currents flow into the ocean, Yet the ocean does not overflow. Unto the place from whence the water-currents flow, Thither do they again return. 8 All words fail, man has not the power of utterance, The eye cannot be satisfied with seeing, Nor can the ear be satiated with hearing. 9 That which hath been is that which shall be, And that which hath been done is that which shall be done : And there is nothing new under the sun. A |