Ecclesiastes Modernized

ECCLESIASTES MODERNIZED.

BY ELDER R.W. SLOAN.

Since writing on “The Influence of the Bible,” and “Bible Language,“ I have been led to note how many ideas or thoughts, in this age esteemed beautiful and original, have been borrowed or stolen from the Bible. The short book of Ecclesiastes teems with illustrations, a few of which may not be uninteresting. Among the bright thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man whose memory is almost worshiped by some Americans, is one which finds expression in language something like the following: ‘‘The eye never tires as long as it can see far enough.” I have heard this expression admired again and again by persons affecting the utmost contempt for the Bible, and who never could see anything worthy a moment's serious reflection in the writings of the preacher. Solomon says, Ecc. i, 8, “All things are full of labor: man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.” The thought of Solomon is infinitely broader, deeper and better than Mr. Emerson’s, and has the advantage of being a few thousand years older, but it would never do to say so.

“Like causes produce like effects,” and “History repeats itself,” are ways we have of expressing what Solomon says, Ecc. i, 9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

‘‘There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.” Ecc. i, 11, and every atheistical fledgeling quotes N.P. Willis’ line,— “We die, even as the flowers,” as an unanswerable argument against a future existence, yet it is just what Solomon says:

“And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Ecc. i, 13, 14. Grey tells the same truth, in language inexpressibly beautiful:

“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,

Await alike the inevitable hour.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

“I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.” Ecc. ii, 1.

Burns, the greatest of lyric poets, puts the same thought in these words:

“But pleasures are like poppies spread,

We seize the flower, its bloom is shed;

Or, like the snow falls on the river,

A moment white, then melts forever;

Or, like the borealis race,

That flit ere you can point their place;

Or, like the rainbow's lovely form,

Evanishing amid the storm.”

“I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, what doeth it?” — ii, 2. Goldsmith specks of the “loud laugh, that betrays the vacant mind,” while another poet declares

“There's not a key attuned to mirth

But has its chord of melancholy.”

“The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness.”— ii, 14. Who does not know “there’s none so blind as those that will not see.”

“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? … 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.” — ii, 15 , 16. “Death is the common lot,” so says the modern proverb. “Side by side, rest king and beggar, and as one common earth holds their dust, so also one common fate assigns them to the same oblivion.” Rip van Winkle says: “Are we then so soon forgotten when we’re gone.”

“And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored. Ecc. ii, 19. The modern philosopher tells us: “One man furrows, another plants, still another waters, a fourth reaps, and a stranger enjoys the fruits of the labor of all.”

“There is nothing better for a man, then that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor.” Ecc. ii, 24.

St. Paul intimates that were certain vain reasoning in his day true, that would be good advice; while the world, to-day, is full of those who sing, as others did 1800 years ago, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

“For God giveth to a man 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.” — ii, 26.

We make it very practical in these good days, and say “God helps those who help themselves.”

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ecc. iii, 1. The very words here given have passed into our current proverbs; “A time for everything.” Shakspeare says, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,” etc.

“Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.” Ecc. iv, 3. This is probably another of those instances to which the thrifty housewife referred when she told her husband “Josiah, if them things is lost it ’ud been £2 in your pocket if you’d never been born.”

“The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh” Ecc. iv, 5. “The improvident and idle consume their inheritance,” saith the staid philosopher of more recent times.

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” Ecc. v, 1. Pope says: “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase” Ecc. v, 10. Of the many proverbial utterances of Pope, none ever voiced a broader truth or dressed it in fewer words than in the one where he covers the same ground as the Preacher in the above verse, when he declares, “Man never is, but always to be blessed.” There is another pointed saying in this connection a little more objectionable, it is true, but it gives nevertheless the sentiment of some disappointed fellow regarding the possession of riches: “God shows His contempt of wealth by the persons to whom He gives it.” Following the same line of thought is the 12th verse of the same chapter. “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” And the modern writers have partially kept pace with the saying: “Contentment is a pillow softer than down.”

“All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.”—vi, 7. “We eat to live, and live to eat,” is the way we tell the same thing.

“A good name is better than precious ointment.”—vii, 1. Shakspeare makes Cassius cry: “Reputation, reputation, I’ve lost my reputation; I’ve lost the immortal part of me.” The only exception to be taken to this is that in these days mankind pretend to look upon reputation as a bauble, as paste, character being considered the pure gem.

“Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" — vii, 3. Some more recent writer declares, “The bowed heart bends the knee,” and another says: “Grief brings repentance, and true repentance is the parent of good deeds.”

“The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth” —vii, 4. “The wise man suits himself to the times, but thou countest all seasons thine own, O fool,” is the way it has been put in this age.

“It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools”—vii, 5. Who does not know that “the rebuke of a friend is better than the flattery of an enemy.”

“Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools”—vii, 9. We are now told in these times that “anger is the folly of fools.”

“Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others”—vii, 21, 22. Also: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him”—x:8. The change between these utterances of Solomon and a pungent sentence of our days is not so great. “Curses, like young chickens, come home to roost.”

“Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Shakspeare’s famous words, “Frailty, thy name is woman” will occur to all, as will Pope’s celebrated line: “An honest man is the noblest work of God.”

“For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion”—ix, 4. The very words are among our current proverbs. The same is true of verse 10 of the same chapter:

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” While there is not a schoolboy who has not learned that “the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all” — ix, 11. The last part is sometimes covered by humanity with a phrase that runs like this: “Circumstances over which I have no control,” etc.

“Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor” — x: 1. Byron partially covers the same ground in a couplet in the “Monody on the death of Sheridan:”

“Hard is his fate, on whom the public gaze

Is fixed forever to detract or praise.”

“Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better”—x, 11. We say: “Lightning and a loose tongue are alike; one never can tell where either will strike.

“The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself”—x, 12. The modern version is: “He never opens his mouth but he sets his foot in it.” Not so comprehensive as Solomon’s, it’s true, but good, nevertheless.

“A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.”—x, 19. And now aver: “Money makes the mare go.”

“He that observeth the wind shall not sow and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap”—xi, 4. This is Solomon’s way of summing up a Micawber like character, who was forever waiting for something to turn up. So we say what the Preacher did by declaring that “the man who is always waiting for something to turn up, will always turn up waiting for something.”

With a liberal license the citations might be continued indefinitely, but enough has been quoted to show that some of our brightest thoughts, as we term them so uncomfortably resemble those in the Bible, that were the similarity discovered in any other production, one might be justified in charging the modern moulders of thought with a good deal of bare-faced stealing.