the Pasha of Jerusalem has increased the fall of water from Urtas, has converted the three pools or reservoirs into two, and has repaired the aqueduct, so that water again flows into Jerusalem from the pools of Solomon.

Josephus states that Solomon daily resorted to Etham, the ancient name of the village near to these reservoirs, now called Urtas: There was a certain place about fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is called Etham; very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water. Thither did Solomon use to go out in the morning, sitting on high in his chariot.'—Antiquities, viii. 7. 8.

A recent discovery has been made of a most magnificent reservoir, twenty yards square, and of a bath, both faced with marble slabs; also of a bath of intermediate size connected with the reservoir, and of shafts and richly carved capitals, all of pure white marble, in the eastern portion of the garden cultivated by Mr. Meshullam, near to these pools or reservoirs. Who but King Solomon could have erected these magnificent baths, and these magnificently sculptured pillars, resembling those in the substructure of the Temple? Can we doubt that Solomon erected them and used them ?-See Tristram's Land of Israel, page 400. The WOOD GERMINANT OF TREES signifies nurseries of seedlings.

VERSE 8.

The greater part of the treasures of gold and silver amassed by Solomon was imported into Palestine by his two fleets. Solomon is not recorded to have built any ships except at Ezion-Geber. Some of these ships sailed to Tarshish. The only Tarshish of the Old Testament is a sea-port on the coast of Spain. Of Solomon's two fleets, one coasted the peninsula of Arabia, and imported the greater part of the gold, also almug trees, and spices. That this fleet traded as far as India, or that Solomon had any DIRECT intercourse with India, has never yet been PROVED. The other fleet of Solomon WENT TO TARSHISH (2 Chronicles ix. 21), and is therefore called the NAVY OF TARSHISH (1 Kings x. 22), and brought back triennially a freight of 'gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks;' or, as I prefer to render, 'GOLD, SILVER, ELEPHANTS' TEETH, TRUNKS OF TREES, AND MASTS FOR SHIPS.' Now, that the ancient merchant ships built by Solomon should have triennially circumnavigated the whole of Africa from the Red Sea to near the Straits of Gibraltar, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, seems an absolute impossibility. Hence we conclude that this merchant fleet passed through the canal of Sesostris or Rameses, descended the Nile, and coasted the Mediterranean Sea to Tarshish, a commercial emporium of the Phoenicians on the Atlantic coast of Spain, at the mouth of the Botis or Guadalquivir, not far from the ancient Gades, now Cadiz. See note postfixed to the Map of Africa, explanatory of this ancient canal, of its navigation by the Tarshish fleet of Solomon, and of the freight imported by that fleet.

A WIFE, his principal wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
WIVES, his seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

'What a lovely train

Of blooming beauties, by connubial ties,

Or gift of neighbouring kings, or spoils of war,

Or made by purchase mine.'--Khoheleth.

The prominent distinction made by Solomon in this verse between the daughter of Pharaoh, his first wife, and his other seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, clearly manifests, that when he composed this didactic poem he had realized in his own heart, that the original institution of marriage was the marriage-union of one man and one

woman, and that polygamy and divorce were mysteriously conceded to the Jews on account of the hardness of their hearts. This prominent distinction seems also to imply his penitential lament for his idolatrous apostasy, resulting from these idolatrous intermarriages. Polygamy and divorce are condemned by Genesis ii. 24: They TWAIN shall be one flesh.' The word TWAIN is an integral portion of inspiration, being the reading of the Samaritan Pentateuch, of all the ancient versions, and of Matthew xix. 5, Mark x. 8, 1 Corinthians vi. 16, and Ephesians v. 31, and has the divine sanction of Christ Himself. The existence of polygamy in New Zealand, and in our other mission-fields, demonstrates the practical importance of the word TWAIN in Genesis ii. 24. The authority of Christ for the insertion of this word is paramount over its omission in every known Hebrew manuscript. The unwarrantable omission of this word TWAIN, whether intentional or unintentional, and the unwarrantable addition of 1 John v. 7 in the New Testament, by whomsoever introduced, besides other instances of addition and omission which might be adduced, prove the absolute necessity of some revision of the authorized English version, that obedience may be rendered to the Divine mandate: 'Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you' (Deuteronomy iv. 2). Super-excellent as the English authorized version is, its excellence must never be placed in competition with the integrity of God's Word as originally written, to which no man may add, and from which no man may subtract.

VERSE 10.

All the labour, erections, and accumulations of Solomon were merely things of time and sense, pertaining only to this life. They were his portion in time. They were his gratifications and the joy of his soul whilst he was in apostasy from God. The men of this world have their portion also in this life, and in this life only. May we, like the saints of old, have our affections elevated above the things of time and sense, and desire a heavenly country, 'that God may be called OUR God, because He hath prepared for us a city' (Hebrews xi. 16).

VERSE 11.

Nothing under the sun is a substantial good. Christ alone, realized by faith, can savingly benefit the soul, and impart abiding peace and permanent felicity.

IV.

CHAPTER II.-VERSES 12-26.

THE past experience of Solomon. Solomon, having prosecuted a fruitless research after true and enduring happiness in secular wisdom and knowledge, in mirth and hilarity, in riches and architecture, in intellectual gratification and luxurious refinement, lays down the axiom, that the same destiny of death and oblivion awaits the wise man and the fool, and that he himself must leave his earthly possessions and scientific achievements to his successor, of whose wisdom he had no guarantee, of whose want of wisdom he had too clear a foresight. Solomon concludes his personal experience by the acknowledgment of God's sovereignty in the administration of human affairs. The recognition and realization

of God's sovereignty in grace and providence can alone impart joy and peace in believing. Apart from this sovereignty all under the sun is vanity and vexation of spirit.

12 MOREOVER, I again reverted to the contemplation of wisdom, and of madness and folly.

For what can any man effect who comes after the king?

Even that which hath been already done.

13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, As much as light excelleth darkness.

14 The eyes of the wise man are in his head; But the fool walketh in darkness.

Yet I also perceived, that the same destiny awaiteth them both. 15 Then I said to myself,

As is the destiny of the fool, so the same destiny befalleth me ;

To what purpose then am I wiser than he?

Therefore I said to myself, that this also is vanity.

16 For there will be no remembrance of the wise man more than of

the fool for ever;

In the length of days to come both will have been forgotten:

And how dieth the wise man? even as the fool.

17 Therefore I hated life;

Because grievous unto me was the work that had been done under

the sun :

For all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

18 Yea, I hated all my labour wherein I had laboured under the sun; Because I must leave it to the man who shall be after me.

19 And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool?

Yet shall he be lord over all my labour wherein I have laboured, And wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun.

This also is vanity.

20 Yea, I again caused my heart to despair

Concerning all the labour wherein I had laboured under the sun.

21 Because there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and know

ledge, and dexterity;

Yet to a man who hath not laboured therein he must leave it to be

his portion.

This also is vanity and a great evil.

22 For what resulteth to man from all his labour and his disquietude

of heart,

Wherein he laboureth under the sun?

23 Verily all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night.

This also is vanity.

24 Man's happiness consisteth not in eating and drinking, And in his soul experiencing delight in his labour.

Yet even this I perceived to be from the hand of God.

25 For without Him who can eat and who can enjoy pleasure?

26 Verily He giveth to a man good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy:

But to the sinner He assigneth toil to amass and heap up,
That he may resign it to him who is good in the sight of God.
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

VERSES 12 AND 13.

This seems to be secular wisdom and skill which Solomon contrasted with folly, that from the comparison he might elicit where the SUMMUM BONUM, the sovereign good, could be found. He again prosecuted this investigation for his own satisfaction, and for the information of posterity, because none could expect to surpass the research of the wisest of men.

VERSES 14, 15, AND 16.

The same destiny as to the vicissitudes, sorrows, and afflictions of life, as to the separation by death of the soul from the body, as to the termination of man's probation on earth; but not the same destiny as to eternity. Death is the termination of equality of destiny. Death consigns the body to the grave, and the soul of each individual to incipient happiness or misery. IMMEDIATELY after death, the rich man lifted up his eyes in torment. IMMEDIATELY after death, Lazarus reposed on Abraham's bosom. To the penitent thief Christ graciously promised, 'TO-DAY shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, IMMEDIATELY, PERFECTLY (åπápтı): Yea, saith the Spirit, for that they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them' (Apocalypse xiv. 13). Life is the seed-time for eternity. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

VERSES 17 AND 18.

I hated life, my past life of apostasy from God, and of conformity to the love of this evil world, and I hated all the magnificent works I had erected from pride and ostentation, but not to the glory of God.

VERSE 18.

The man who shall be after me—my son and successor Rehoboam.

VERSES 19, 20, AND 21.

Solomon anticipated that his successor would act as men heretofore generally had acted, namely, make a bad use of the splendid inheritance, and that thus all the fruits of his super-eminent wisdom and scientific labour would ultimately be dissipated. What Solomon foretold, Rehoboam fulfilled. By his impolitic severity he alienated the affections of the ten

tribes, and caused the dismemberment of his kingdom, according to the prediction of Ahijah; and by his sin against God he caused the invasion of his kingdom by Shishak, king of Egypt, and the spoliation of his royal palace and of the temple of Jehovah, built and dedicated by his father Solomon.

VERSES 22 AND 23.

The expression UNDER THE SUN limits the vanity and unsatisfactoriness here predicated to secular labours resulting from secular motives, and performed for secular ends. Works springing from faith, done with a single eye to the glory of God, to promote the spiritual or temporal good of man, will never lose their reward of grace. 'Behold, I come quickly,' says Christ, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according as his work shall be' (Apocalypse xxii. 12).

VERSE 24.

Man's real everlasting happiness does not consist in eating and drinking, nor in physical, nor even in intellectual enjoyments. God, whose mercies are over all His works, hath conferred on the sons of men intellectual and physical enjoyments to sweeten their time-state here below, and to stimulate their gratitude, that they may never forget the hand from whence their mercies flow. Secular blessings, both intellectual and corporeal, are alike conceded to the just and to the unjust, to him that feareth God, and to him that feareth Him not. They are temporal; they are evanescent. And by God's children, after the example of the holy Patriarch Job, they ever should be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.

VERSE 26.

God giveth wisdom to make wise unto salvation, and imparts spiritual knowledge, and joy, and peace in believing, to all whom the Lord our God shall call. But he assigneth toil to amass and heap up to the incorrigible sinner, to the apostate who abideth in the state of nature's darkness, whose sins have not been forgiven, whose person has not been justified, whose soul has not been saved. The travail of this sinner to amass and heap up is vanity and vexation of spirit.

V.

CHAPTER III.-VERSES 1-15.

GOD's foreknowledge and predestination of the human race, of the birth and death of each individual, and of every occurrence which shall befall man in his passage through the quicksands of time to the ocean of eternity. Immutability of the Divine counsels contrasted with the mutability and vicissitudes of man, and with the constant revolution of all things human. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. All the wheels of providence subserve the purposes of grace.' 'God is a rock, His work is perfect.' Joy and peace in believing result from God's sovereignty in the administration of human affairs felt and realized by faith in the heart. All the past acts of human hands, and all the secrets of human hearts, will be revealed on the great day of judgment, when God