Ecclesiastes 2

Ecclesiastes 2:1-26

THE WOULD-BE HAPPY MANEcc_2:1-26.THE Quest of Happiness” is more than the * title of a book; it is well-nigh a uniform engagement of men. More people are animated by that quest than by any other single motive known to humanity. It is a quest under no Divine condemnation; but, rather, one that enjoys Divine sanction. From the third chapter of Genesis, where man’s happiness was spoiled by sin, through the sacred Book to Revelation twenty-two, where that happiness is fully recovered and made eternal, the inspired Scriptures themselves treat this theme more often and more seriously than any other to be found in the sacred Book.God, therefore, is not indifferent to the uniform cry of His creatures; nor has He failed to provide a way that leads back to a Paradise, more glorious than was the Garden of Eden, and on to a happiness unspeakable and full of glory.If perfect happiness is the final goal of the redeemed Church, the Divine reward of the righteous wrought out by Christ, then individual happiness should be the fruit of a right life here and now; and this Book of Ecclesiastes, if we read and understand it at all, was written to affirm, elaborate and prove that proposition.But, in its faithfulness to human experience, it records the mistaken paths that men follow in the search of the same, the wounds and sorrows therein experienced, and the implied woes that fruit from unwise ways.This second chapter is a faithful presentation of mistaken by-paths contrasted with the Divine highway to happiness.It may be studied under three suggestions: The Search for Physical Pleasure, The Sorrows of Financial Success, and The Satisfaction in Spiritual Good.THE SEARCH FOR Solomon here mentions four mistaken lines along which men are traveling in search of happiness, namely, wit, wine, works and wealth. And the wise man admits each and all of them ended in failure. His wit proved a disappointment; his wine was most unsatisfactory; his works failed to effect contentment, and the wealth even, was worm-eaten.His wit proved a disappointment.“I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.“I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it”? (Ecclesiastes 2:1-2).There is scarce a single passion, the enjoyment of which ends disastrously, but will find a concrete illustration recorded in the sacred Book.

Modern teaching imagines itself quite novel, and parades certain principles as if they were late discoveries— for instance, the impartation of truth through the eye.The child is to learn figures, now, by seeing them; he is to learn spelling at the sight of the word and not by a knowledge of the letters; he is to learn geography by looking at continents. But, even as Ecclesiastes tells us, “There is no new thing under the sun”.

God has long employed this method!Would you have a picture of this attempt to find happiness through mirth making? Turn back into your Old Testament to the history of Samson. His was a mirthful nature. So far as the Divine Record goes he is the original jester. His riddles were keen; his laughter was heavy, and to make his jokes the more effective he introduced the gambling element and became the center of social attraction. But, alas, the riddle brought betrayal, the laughter led to agony, the gamble ended with the loss of sight and liberty, and eventually of life itself.The fun-maker enjoys only a passing popularity; he is often called in to ornament an occasion, to redeem the same from dullness, but the jest is a slim contribution to pleasure, and a burst of laughter is seldom the expression of permanent happiness.

In fact, the greatest contentment is never voiced by guffaws. That also is vanity!

The wildest mirth sometimes emanates from the mad-house. It was as Solomon faced these facts he said, “This also is vanity”.His wine proved equally unsatisfactory. His confession is:“I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life”.Wine is not a modern invention. It is doubtful in fact, if the centuries have improved the least upon Solomon’s wine cellar. It probably held as many varieties and as tasty ones, as the modern lords of wealth now assemble. In all likelihood, wine then inflamed the brain, loosened the tongue, brightened the eyes and cheered the spirits, as it is now said to do; but then, as now, there was “a morning after,” with its dizziness of head and depression of spirits and sense of degradation.

Of it Solomon himself declared:“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).Yea, follow him while he goes into the details of “the day after”:“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?“They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine”,and listen while he moralizes,“Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.“At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder” (Proverbs 23:29-32).It is Solomon still writing,“It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:“Lest they drink, and forget the Law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted”.Men speak from time to time of “convivial companionships” meaning thereby, the company of men or women who drink together; but such conviviality has never yet accomplished happiness or made even a prominent, much less a permanent, contribution to the same. “Wine” truly “is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise”!We have just finished the celebration of Christmas festivities. Many men sought, during this season, to make the heart merry.

Many of the same are now cursing their foolishly chosen method of celebrating the Saviour’s birth.His works were also a failure in effecting happiness.“I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:“I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:“I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:“I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 2:4-7; Ecclesiastes 2:11).How true to life is this description. How many men are building houses, planting vineyards, laying out gardens and orchards. How seldom all of this produces happiness. One can drive through those aristocratic suburbs that surround our larger cities and look on mansions swept about by lawns more beautiful than Solomon ever saw, gardens that rival Eden itself and swimming pools that remind one of the private baths of rulers in Greece and Rome; and yet an inquiry into the personal history of those dwelling therein is often most disappointing. Quarrels, contentions, extravagances, drinkings, divorces—these are the words that find employment when the private history is spoken; and “vanity and vexation of spirit”, Solomon’s experience, is repeated in a thousand palaces.His wealth also proved worm-eaten.“I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.“So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.“And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy: for my heart rejoiced in all my labour”.Yet“there was no profit under the sun”.Strange speech, but strangely true! A few days ago English and American newspapers carried a fresh illustration of the futile attempts to find happiness through wealth in the history of Clarence Hatry of London, the multi-millionaire whose miraculous touch had “made dead business to live again.” He began his business life as an insurance clerk and at the age of twenty-five was director of one of the largest insurance companies in England.

Before he was thirty he was handling money by the millions. He reorganized the City Equitable Fire Insurance Company and capitalized it for a million and a half.

He took over the Commercial Bank of London, which had suffered heavily from the war, and made it the most active promoter of industrial companies in the land. He combined six of the largest jute companies into one with a capital of twenty-two and a half million. He consolidated twenty-six glass manufacturing plants into one with a capital of $18,657,000.The war over, depreciated trade threatened his financial ruin. His wife came forward and laid her two and a half million dollars worth of jewels upon the altar and saved the situation.Once more he found his feet and floated the “Corporation and General Securities Agency” for the negotiation of industrial and municipal loans.Then came the “Drapery Trust,” which developed a chain of old established department stores in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.He organized “shilling shares” and brought the ordinary workman to his aid. He organized the “Austin Friars Trust” and consolidated the largest steel plants into the shilling industries with a capital of $40,000,000.His offices in the heart of the city are described as “dazzlingly magnificent.” His mansion in Great Stanhope Street as “fit for a king.” His swimming pool was of Italian marble. His gymnasium was in charge of a famous instructor.

His dining hall was the gathering place of the great. In his stables stood the finest racing horses in large numbers.

His favorite yacht was the admiration and envy of titled lords. When he traveled his private valet and barber went with him. His wife’s jewels were the most costly known to the land.But a few weeks ago the crash came. It involved the “Drapery Trust,” the “Corporation and General Securities,” the “Oak Investment Corporation,” the “Austin Friar Trust,” the “Photomaton Patent Corporation,” the “Steel Industries,” the “Dundee Trust,” the “Retail Securities,” the “Associated Automatic Machine Co.,” and the “Allied Iron Founders.”Millions on millions of dollars were jeopardized, and many of them lost. Experts have wrought for weeks, and no estimate has as yet been possible of the far-reaching financial effect. And Hatry with his associates, refusing bail, wait in jail for the final decision of the courts; while his wife pleads with him not to commit suicide, begging that he meet his fate bravely, promising him that when the prison doors swing outward for him years hence, she will be waiting there with her love.What an illustration of the fact to which Solomon referred when he said, “I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings * * and there was no profit under the sun”.The inspired author voices very clearlyTHE SORROWS OF SUCCESSHe declares that they express only “vanity and vexation of spirit”; they voice but a combination of wisdom and folly; they give neither temporal happiness nor eternal triumph.They express only vanity and vexation of spirit.“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was mnity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).Vexation of spirit in gathering and vanity in the exhibit.

How often it is so! Our own city of Minneapolis has recently been treated to an illustration of Solomon’s statement.

The largest building it knows is the Foshay building. It towers thirty-two stories. Its interior appointments are as beautiful, attractive, and expensive as its exterior is imposing. On its twenty-third floor there is a living apartment, the furnishings of which represent $125,000, so the papers state. Who can tell what “vexation of spirit” the creator of the tower endured in order to bring that into existence? Who can measure “the vanity” that took possession of its builder on its completion?

And yet, at this moment, in its bankruptcy it combines what King Solomon expressed, namely, the inharmonious elements—“wisdom * * and folly”—wisdom in designing, and folly in effect. It must have been some such an enterprise made by Solomon that caused him to write: “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith”.Financial success often involves a combination of wisdom and madness.“I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done”.A great many people, who so lust for power and get such pleasure out of the exercise of the same, forget that its very possession demands the control of “wisdom”.People who pray for the first certainly ought not to forget to ask for the second.

James and John sought a special dispensation of power, but their objective was to use it against those who had not agreed with them; while Simon sought the same for selfish ends. Doubtless the reason that most of us are not given the first—power—is that we do not possess a sufficient amount of the second —wisdom!It is a dangerous thing to have great intellectual power without the wisdom that comes down from above. It but results in infidelity. It is a dangerous thing to have great financial power without the wisdom that emanates from the same source; it often drives its possessor to bankruptcy and involves thousands of them that had put their trust in him. It is a perilous thing to have political power, for without the “wisdom that is from above” it converts Pharaoh a potentate into an oppressor, and makes of a Jeffries, a man fit to be a king, a brutal murderer.On the other hand, of all the blessings bestowed upon nations, perhaps none equals that of the man who combines wisdom with power—a Josiah for Israel, a William I. for Germany, a Gladstone for England, a Lincoln for America.Solomon is not suggesting the impossibility of this combination; but he is emphasizing the rarity of it, its unspeakable value, and his sense of its utter necessity. This was shown when, on his accession to the throne, the Lord appeared to him in a dream by night, and God said,“Ask what I shall give thee.“And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before Thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with Thee; and Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that Thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.“And now, O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out ‘or come in.“And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.“Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge so great a people?“And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing” (1 Kings 3:5-10).But even wisdom may be perverted, as the life of Solomon abundantly proved; and while it excels folly as far as light excels darkness, when light itself becomes darkness, “how great is that darkness”!And such seems to have been Solomon’s experience for he writes:“The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.“Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise?

Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.“For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool”.Little wonder that he added,“Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 2:14-17).It is the despairing cry of the man who has fixed his faith in works and wealth rather than in God and righteousness; and who has been led by the lust of power and constrained by the passion for pleasure rather than moved by unselfish motives or led by the hand of a righteous God.Financial success insures neither temporal rest nor eternal riches.“Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.“And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun.

This is also vanity.“Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:17-19).Mark the word “labour”. It is a stronger expression than “work”. “Labour” is work at its worst! Labour means heaviness, onerous duties, fatigue of body, disquietude of spirit; and yet that is the word that runs through this recital of the king’s endeavors.“I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun.“For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.“For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun f“For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity”.Either one of the two interpretations are essential here, if sound sense be found in these phrases: the view that my good friend Dr. J.

C. Massee expresses that Solomon estimates the whole subject of life from the low level of the unregenerate man; or else, that the word “labour” is used accurately and with precision, and is meant to describe the annoyance, the burden, the sorrow, the despair of the man whose work-objective is mere riches, whose god is gold.

It could never refer to that higher spiritual service in which men even slave for values that perish not, seeking additional gain with which to honor God; for all such work proves at once a blessing, and, in the end, creates abiding joy.It is little wonder then, that Solomon concludes this chapter with the presentation ofTHE IN GAIN“There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.“For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than If“For God giveth to a mm that is good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner He giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit”.Mark the admission—“There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw that it was from the hand of God”.All human experience is sweetened by the sense of God! A man who recognizes Him as the Giver of every good gift will, in his plain bread, taste the manna from Heaven, and, in common syrup, eat honey out of the rock, and, in cold water, drink the wine from the grapes of Eschol.Truly, as Newell Dwight Hillis said, “If God cares for man, then life is wheat in the shock, and the angels of His Providence will lift those flails called troubles, and beat out the golden grain. If God cares for man, then man is gold in the rock, and adversity must lift the hammer, and temptation chisel away what is wrong or superfluous.”For, after all, the believing man sees in God not only the Creator, but the Owner of all good.

All treasures are His. The gold is His; the diamonds are the work of His hands; even the raw materials of wealth come only at His word.

Therefore Jeremiah wrote:“Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:“But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he under standeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord”.But Solomon follows this with another statement of supreme importance that may be summed up in these words,God’s best gifts are reserved for the good.“For God giveth to a man that is good in His sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy”.This is not a conflict of Scripture teaching. It is true, solemnly true, sadly true, “there is none good but One”. That is the absolute fact! But, by way of comparison, some men are better than others; and through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, some men are counted good even by God Himself; for when He looks on them He sees them in Christ in whom they “live, and move, and have [their] being”. Or, better yet, He sees “Christ in [them,] the hope of glory”. The proof that Christ indwells them and that they live their lives “by the faith of the Son of God” is discoverable in the spirit of obedience which has been imparted unto the saved; and it is a fact, as a brilliant writer has said, “God has ordained that every act of obedience to His Laws lends strength and resonance to those chords that vibrate joy.”Beyond all question Moses was a sinner.

The record of his impatience, anger, wrath, and murder is woven into imperishable Writ. And yet, beyond all question God recorded Moses as the good man of his day and gave to him wisdom and knowledge and joy.

Paul accounted himself “the chief of sinners” but in God’s sight he was a stalwart, and through all the experiences of opposition, persecution, imprisonment, and even the prospect of death, he retained a tranquility, undisturbed. Yea, there is even a note of joy in his final utterance:“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that Day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His Appearing”.John Bunyan was misjudged, maltreated, thrown into the foulest of prisons and kept there through many years, solely because of his loyalty to the Lord. But again the Word of God was made good, and there was given to him “wisdom, and knowledge”, and even “joy”, and the world is richer today because he transmitted the thoughts of his soul to the printed page.Yes, blind as Solomon has seemed in this Scripture, his eyes are being lightened, and as he looks Heavenward, a higher, better meaning of life breaks upon his mind and fruits in a better philosophy. If I might change but a single word, the Irish poet would then express history most potent and true: “What is the real good? I ask in musing mood,Order said the court, knowledge said the school,Truth said the wise man, pleasure said the fool,Love said the maiden, beauty said the page;Freedom said the dreamer, home said the sage;Fame said the soldier, equity said the seer.Spake my heart full sadly, the answer is not here.Then within my bosom softly this I heard,Each heart holds the secret; God is the word.”The good are the favored heirs of even the wicked.“To the sinner He giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God”.This is an indisputable truth. The only heir that ever gets anything out of riches is the righteous heir. Riches but curse the unrighteous child who comes into possession of them; but they bless the Godly, and through him become a blessing to others. I know a family who, thirty years ago, fell heir to millions. The sons were sinners; they squandered the father’s estate, quarreled among themselves, lived lives of dissipation, brought on their respective houses domestic disorder, and upon their souls eternal disaster.

But their own sister in the flesh, an ardent follower of Jesus Christ, has lived a life of loyalty to the Lord, of tranquility of spirit; a life of beneficent, efficient Christian service. She alone is the true heir; and for her no drop in stocks, change in markets, fluctuation in human affairs, will take away the “wisdom, and knowledge, and joy” that are her portion from the Lord.

In fact, her very sufferings have but refined her soul, enlarged her heart, and strengthened her hands.Newell Dwight Hillis conceived a parable and made it the scarlet thread that ran through his book, “The Quest of Happiness.” It related to a great king who had a son of his old age, the idol of his affections. Knowing that the elder brother would have the throne when he was dead, the king began to cast about to provide for Comfortas, his young but favorite child.Before his plans were fully ripe, an unexpected peril arose. One morning a messenger brought the king word that the insurrection that he thought was quelled forever had broken forth afresh, and he hurriedly made ready for what was to be his last war. By noon the king was on the march; by night his palace was far behind him; but even while he was giving orders to his officers, his thoughts were in the palace with Comfortas. In the dark, lying in his tent, the king slept a troubled sleep, and in his tossing called the child’s name. And in his dream two beings with shining garments stood beside his couch and asked him for the charge over the child Comfortas.

The first one was named the Angel of Success and Pleasure; “Give the child unto my care. I will give him health, such health that the fruits will never pall on his palate.

I will give him wealth, so great wealth that he will never want for gold. I will give him fame, so great fame that the people will stand before his house and shout when he appears. I will give him genius, so that his companions shall be kings, and not mean men. I will make the people his slaves, so that all who work with their hands shall build palaces for him; and those who travel shall bring him the fruit of their labor; and those who carve shall build a throne beautiful enough for him to sit upon; and those who sing shall amuse him that he may sleep; and those who speak shall stand about to praise him; and all his people shall burn incense before Comfortas, and his nostrils shall be filled with the sweetness thereof.” Then the king smiled upon the Angel of Pleasure, and stretching forth his hand, drew the beautiful girl to his side.And afterward, the Angel of Sorrow lifted the veil from her face, and the king saw her as one dissolved in tears, and stretching forth her hand, she said: “Give, oh, give the child Comfortas unto me! I will touch his body until it aches with pain. I will touch his gold and make his wealth poverty.

I will fill his fields with thorns and thistles. I will make him eat the bread of sorrow.

I will pull down the house that he builds and send fierce winds to assail his little bark. I will sink the ship that he loads. When he walks, I will make his burden heavy; and yea, when he hath won a good name, I will raise up enemies who will make black marks on the white page of his life-story. And at last, through days of struggle and nights of tears and prayers and endurance, he shall wax great and be our burden-bearer, and become a king strong enough to bear the world itself upon his shoulders. The Angel of Success loves him not, and because it is the easier way, she will give the child whatever he cries for, and with his pleasures she will rear a monster of selfishness with a heart of marble; but for the great love I bear him, I will make him suffer.”In that moment the king dropped the hand of the Angel of Pleasure and shrank from her as from pollution, and, stretching out his arms to the Angel of Sorrow, he said, “Take thou my child and make Comfortas king!”