eousness, and the wicked live long in spite of wickedness.2 There was no solution for the problem except the conviction deepened by worship and the sense of God's presence, that, in 1 Prov. xi. 3x. 2 Eccl. vii. 15. THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. 205 some way or other before death, or in the hour of death itself, the wrong was righted; or that, at any rate, the difficulty had a solution in the mind of an Almighty Father even if it were beyond the power of man to understand. Four of the Psalms— the Thirty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-ninth, and Seventy- third—contain deeply interesting discussions of this source of doubt; but the most splendid monument of the mental struggle which it excited is the Book of Job. γ. Finally, after centuries of national calamity and defeat and exile, in which the ideal "Jashar"—the Upright—the chosen of God—the righteous nation—was trampled under the feet of heathen enemies, and plunged into irretrievable ruin and oppres- sion, there came the era of acquiescence. It is represented by the Book of Ecclesiastes. Any real attempt to solve the prob- lems which seemed to controvert the general principle of God's righteous government is abandoned as impossible. It is tacitly conceded that the "philosophy" of the two earlier periods is shipwrecked on the rocks of actual fact. The righteous, so far as earth is concerned, are to all appearance forsaken, and his seed do beg their bread; so that the Divine order exists as some
eousness, and the wicked live long in spite of wickedness.2 There was no solution for the problem except the conviction deepened by worship and the sense of God's presence, that, in 1 Prov. xi. 3x. 2 Eccl. vii. 15. THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. 205 some way or other before death, or in the hour of death itself, the wrong was righted; or that, at any rate, the difficulty had a solution in the mind of an Almighty Father even if it were beyond the power of man to understand. Four of the Psalms— the Thirty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-ninth, and Seventy- third—contain deeply interesting discussions of this source of doubt; but the most splendid monument of the mental struggle which it excited is the Book of Job. γ. Finally, after centuries of national calamity and defeat and exile, in which the ideal "Jashar"—the Upright—the chosen of God—the righteous nation—was trampled under the feet of heathen enemies, and plunged into irretrievable ruin and oppres- sion, there came the era of acquiescence. It is represented by the Book of Ecclesiastes. Any real attempt to solve the prob- lems which seemed to controvert the general principle of God's righteous government is abandoned as impossible. It is tacitly conceded that the "philosophy" of the two earlier periods is shipwrecked on the rocks of actual fact. The righteous, so far as earth is concerned, are to all appearance forsaken, and his seed do beg their bread; so that the Divine order exists as some