These final utterances of Solomon are not dogmas nor speculations, they are experiences,—­the experiences of one of the most favored mortals who has lived upon our earth, and one of the wisest.  If, measured by the eternal standards, his glory was less than that of the flower which withers in a day, what hope have ordinary men in the pursuit of pleasure, or gain, or honor?  Utter vanity and vexation of spirit!  Nothing brings a true reward but virtue,—­unselfish labors for others, supreme loyalty to conscience, obedience to God.  Hence, such profound experience so frankly published, such sad confessions uttered from the depths of the heart, and the summing up of the whole question of human life, enforced with the earnestness and eloquence of an old man soon to die, have peculiar force, and are among the greatest treasures of the Old Testament.

The fundamental truth to be deduced from the book of Ecclesiastes is that whatsoever is born of vanity must end in vanity.  If vanity is the seed, so vanity is the fruit.  It is, in fact, one of the most impressive of all the truths that appeal either to consciousness or experience.  If a man builds a house from vanity, or makes a party from vanity, or gives a present from vanity, or writes a book from vanity, or seeks an office from vanity,—­then, as certainly as the bite of an asp will poison the body, will the expected good be turned into a bitter disappointment.  Self-love cannot be the basis of human action without alienation from God, without weariness, disgust, and ultimate sorrow.  The soul can be fed only by divine certitudes; it can be enlarged only by walking according to the divine commandments.

Confucius, Socrates, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius declared the same truths, but not so impressively.  Not for one’s self, not for friends, not even for children alone must one live.  There is a higher law still which speaks to the universal conscience, asking, What is your duty?  With this is identified all that is precious in life, on earth or in heaven, for time and eternity.  Anything in this world which is sought as a good, whose end is selfish, is an impressive failure; so that self-aggrandizement becomes as absurd and fatal as self-indulgence.  One can no more escape from the operation of this law than he can take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea.  The commonest experiences of every-day life confirm the wisdom which Solomon uttered out of his lonely and saddened soul.  If ye will not hear him, be instructed by your own broken friendships, your own dispelled illusions, your own fallen idols; by the heartlessness which too often lurks in the smiles of beauty, by the poison concealed in polished flatteries, by the deceitfulness hidden, beneath the warmest praises, by the demons of envy, jealousy, and pride which take from success itself its promised joys.

Who is happy with any amount of wealth?  Who is free from corroding cares?  Who can escape anxiety and fear?  How hard to shake off the burdens which even a rich man is compelled to bear?  There is a fly in every ointment, a skeleton in every closet, solitude in the midst of crowds, isolation in the joy of festivals.  The wrecks of happiness are strewn in every path that the world has envied.