The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1961-06-02
What S 1t About?
Lesson for June 4, 1861

selves that question. It's the big
gest question there iS-or it can
be, depending on what you mean
by the little word it A football
stadium with q men running this
way and that, in the middle of it,
and with 100000 plainly crazy
people filling all the seats-you
can explain the game and you
can maybe explain why the
viewers act crazy. A supermar-
ket. school, hospital, and so
forth, you can understand them
after a fashion. They fit in, they
make sense.
But does life make sense? Bits
and pieces of it do. But what's
life all about? Does life, my
life. your life, the life of man.
kind, fit into any conceivable pat
tern, or is it a meaningless mad
ness in the midst of an empty
universe?
A Strange Book
The StrangeSt book in the Bible
was written by a man who was
haunted by this question. Does
life make sense, and if so, what?
The book called Ecclesiastes tells
of this mans search for the
meaning of life, and of his con-
illusions. What makes the book
strange is not the question. 1t is
the answers that are strange, or
rather the answer. For his main
conclusion is that we don't know.
The writer of EcclesiaSteS is
what might be called tired
cynic. He had tasted the cup Of
life and found it bitter, or rather
he had tried to drink and found
the cup empty One mournful re-
frain comes over and overall
is vanity and a striving after
wind" Vanity-not meaning to
say pride, but emptiness. Life is
like a man trying to catch the
wind. He can't do it and even if
he could, he would still have
nothing. The wheel of life goes
around and around, till "all
things are full of WEAKNESS.
A Few Certainties
And yet life. even for this
strange old man. is not entirely
swamp. AS it is in a real
swamp, so it is with life, here
and there in the bog are small
solid islands. Some of these islets
Of certainty he names. At least
for him they are certain) One is
the fact. which he feels he has
to accept, that this life, for all
its good, has evil to match. Light
and dark-good and evil-cause
for rejoicing and cause for
mourning-seem to have their
settled places. There is a time
for everything, he says, and then
he lines up good-and-bad pairs)
such as weeping and laughing,
killing and healing. losing and
seeking. hate and love. war and
peace. This is one of the certain
ties of life. that not all of it is
good Ecclesiastes more than
hints that we might as well adj
NIT this and make the best Of it.
Man cannot figure out what God
has done; so the thing for men
to do is to enjoy themselves as
long as they live If sorrow is
real, so is joy. Furthermore, it
is possible to work at something.
and to enjoy what one has done.
In short, this tired old cynic is
not altogether a cynic, because
he does believe in few things.
One bit of wisdom we can take
from him at this point is that
there are unpleasant features of
life that cannot be changed.
Waste no time quarreling with
life accept it!
Fear God.
Ono of the strange features
about EccleSiastes is that the
author. who believed SO little that
was good, still did believe in God.
1t was not high faith that he
had. 1t was nothing like the faith
for example, of a Saint Paul.
God for Ecclesiastes is not a
Companion, he knows nothing of
Gods love. God is in heaven
and you upon EARTH he says,
therefore let your words be
few" that is. God is SO far away
that you'd better not say too
much about him, he lives in
a different world. Nevertheless,
though God cannot this man
| thought be known or loved. he
can be feared. You can make
VOWS to him. you can do some
service for him. God has no
pleasure Ill fools: SO don't be one.
Empty words grow many: don't
pour out more talk. Just live
the best you can in the world as
1t is. If this seems too dark
world. remember Eccleslastes
hasn't the last word in the Bible,
Biased on outlines copyrighted
by the Division of Christian Edu-
cation, National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the U. S. A.
Released by Community Press
Service.)