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because God made not death; neither delighteth he when the living perish: for he created all things that they might have being and the generative powers of the world are healthsome, and there is no poison of destruction in them: nor hath Hades royal dominion upon earth, for righteousness is immortal: but ungodly men by their hands and their words called death unto them: deeming him a friend they consumed away, and they made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to be of his portion.

The arguments of the wicked are now set forth. The author has probably in his mind Jewish apostates who had adopted all the worst features of Hellenism, Epicureans of a low type. It is noteworthy that some of the words put into the mouth of these sensualists seem like a designed exaggeration or perversion of Koheleth's. Hence some people think that the Wisdom of Solomon is a reply to Ecclesiastes.

I have not been allowed to put the margin of the Revised Version into the text, but in a few instances in this passage the margin seems to me so much better than the text that I must specially call attention to it. In line 1, for within' read' among.' In line 3, read 'None was ever known that returned out of Hades.' In the last sentence of the first paragraph read, 'And there is no putting back of our end; because it is fast sealed, and none cometh again.' In the third paragraph, line 9, for 'servant' read 'child.'

For they said within themselves, reasoning not aright, 'Short and sorrowful is our life; and there is no healing when a man cometh to his end, and none was ever known that gave release from Hades. Because by mere chance were we born, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and while our heart beateth reason is a spark, which being extinguished, the body shall be turned into ashes, and the spirit shall be dispersed as thin air; and our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall remember our works; and our life shall pass away as the traces of a cloud, and shall be scattered as is a mist, when it is chased by the beams of the sun, and overcome by the heat thereof. For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and our end retreateth not; because it is fast sealed, and none turneth it back.

'Come therefore and let us enjoy the good things that now are; and let us use the creation with all our soul as youth's possession. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes; and let no flower of spring pass us by: let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered: let none of us go without his share in our proud revelry: everywhere let us leave tokens of our mirth: because this is our portion, and our lot is this.

'Let us oppress the righteous poor; let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the hairs of the old man gray for length of years. But let our strength be to us a law of righteousness; for that which is weak is found to be of no service. But let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is of disservice to us, and is contrary to our works, and upbraideth us with sins against the law, and layeth to our charge sins against our discipline. He professeth to have knowledge of God, and nameth himself servant of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts. He is grievous unto us even to behold, because his life is unlike other men's, and his paths are of strange fashion. We were accounted of him as base metal, and he abstaineth from our ways as from uncleannesses. The latter end of the righteous he calleth happy; and he vaunteth that God is his father. Let us see if his words be true, and let us try what shall befall in the ending of his life. For if the righteous man is God's son, he will uphold him, and he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries. With outrage and torture let us put him to the test, that we may learn his gentleness, and may prove his patience under wrong. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for he shall be visited according to his words.'

Thus reasoned they, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, and they knew not the mysteries of God, neither hoped they for wages of holiness, nor did they judge that there is a prize for blameless souls. Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own proper being; but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, and they that are of his portion make trial thereof.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died; and their departure was accounted to be their hurt, and their journeying away from us to be their

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ruin but they are in peace. For even if in the sight of men they be punished, their hope is full of immortality; and having borne a little chastening, they shall receive great good; because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he proved them, and as a whole burnt offering he accepted them.

Here, then, in this concluding paragraph of our sixth section (which corresponds to the opening of the third chapter) occur those great and notable words which I have so often quoted before. Here is the doctrine, now fully taught and accepted by a Jewish sage, of the human soul's immortality.

§ 7. Life on earth and life hereafter.-The later Greeks had coined the adage, Those whom the gods love die young.' So too the Alexandrian sage essays to show how childlessness on the one hand and early death on the other may be regarded as a blessing in disguise.

The example of Enoch, used to illustrate his general doctrine, sounds a strange one, seeing that he lived, according to the statement of the Priestly Code, for 365 years. But in comparison with the lives of the other legendary heroes of the primaeval period even 365 years are few. For hasted he' read with the margin 'he hastened him away.'

Better than this [i. e. than vice] is childlessness with virtue; for in the memory of virtue is immortality: because it is recognised both before God and before men. When it is present, men imitate it; and they long after it when it is departed: and throughout all time it marcheth crowned in triumph, victorious in the strife for the prizes that are undefiled.

But a righteous man, though he die before his time, shall be at rest. (For honourable old age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor is its measure given by number of years: but understanding is gray hairs unto men, and an unspotted life is ripe old age.) Being found wellpleasing unto God he was beloved of him, and while living among sinners he was translated: he was caught away, lest wickedness should change his understanding, or guile deceive his soul. (For the bewitching of naughtiness bedimmeth the things which are good, and the giddy whirl of desire perverteth an innocent mind.) Being made perfect in a little

while, he fulfilled long years; for his soul was pleasing unto the Lord: therefore hasted he out of the midst of wickedness.

In a striking passage our author parallels the former speech of the wicked on earth with a speech put, if I may use the phrase, into their souls' mouth after death, when they realize how the seeming folly of the righteous was in truth supreme wisdom, and how their own seeming cunning was in truth supremest folly.

They shall come, when their sins are reckoned up, with coward fear; and their lawless deeds shall convict them to their face. Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of them that afflicted him, and them that make his labours of no account. When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the marvel of God's salvation. They shall say within themselves repenting, and for distress of spirit shall they groan,

"This was he whom aforetime we had in derision, and made a parable of reproach: we fools accounted his life madness, and his end without honour: how was he numbered among sons of God? And how is his lot among saints? Verily we went astray from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness shined not for us, and the sun rose not for us. took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and we journeyed through trackless deserts, but the way of the Lord we knew not.

We

'What did our arrogancy profit us? And what good have riches and vaunting brought us? Those things all passed away as a shadow, and as a message that runneth by: as a ship passing through the billowy water, whereof, when it is gone by, there is no trace to be found, neither pathway of its keel in the billows: or as when a bird flieth through the air, no token of her passage is found, but the light wind, lashed with the stroke of her pinions, and rent asunder with the violent rush of the moving wings, is passed through, and afterwards no sign of her coming is found therein or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the air disparted closeth up again immediately, so that men know not where it passed through: so we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be; and of virtue we had no sign to shew, but in our wickedness we were utterly consumed."

Because the hope of the ungodly man is as chaff carried

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by the wind, and as foam vanishing before a tempest; and is scattered as smoke is scattered by the wind, and passeth by as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day. But the righteous live for ever, and in the Lord is their reward, and the care for them with the Most High.

§ 8. The panegyric of Wisdom.-We come now to the central portion of the whole book. the description and panegyric of wisdom. It is introduced, just as the Justification of the Righteous was introduced, by a rhetorical appeal to rulers and kings. We may note the stress laid upon the true doctrine that of him who has large power much is expected.

Hear therefore, ye kings, and understand; learn, ye judges of the ends of the earth: give ear, ye that have dominion over much people, and make your boast in multitudes of nations. Because your dominion was given you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High; who shall search out your works, and shall make inquisition of your counsels: because being officers of his kingdom ye did not judge aright, neither kept ye law, nor walked after the counsel of God.

Awfully and swiftly shall he come upon you; because a stern judgement befalleth them that be in high place for the man of low estate may be pardoned in mercy, but mighty men shall be searched out mightily. For the Sovereign Lord of all will not refrain himself for any man's person, neither will he reverence greatness; because it is he that made both small and great, and alike he taketh thought for all; but strict is the scrutiny that cometh upon the powerful.

Unto you therefore, O princes, are my words, that ye may learn wisdom and fall not from the right way. For they that have kept holily the things that are holy shall themselves be hallowed; and they that have been taught them shall find what to answer; set your desire therefore on my words; long for them, and ye shall be trained by their discipline.

The praise of wisdom begins by stating that, given the desire for her, she is easily found. If we remember that wisdom is more akin to goodness than to knowledge, the assertion is not so rash as it seems at first sight. Him who seeks to find God, God will meet halfway. Next, by a chain of deductions called in Greek