A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 11 DEALING WITH BREAD UPON THE WATERS.

1. ECCLESIASTES 11 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Bread Upon the Waters
1 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.
BAR ES, "The verse means: “Show hospitality, even though the corresponding
return of hospitality to you may seem improbable; nevertheless, be hospitable in faith.”
Compare Luk_14:13-14; Heb_13:2. Some interpreters (not unreasonably) understand by
“bread” the seed from the produce of which bread is made. Seed cast upon the fertile soil
flooded by the early rains would be returned to the sower in autumn with large increase.
CLARKE, "Cast thy bread upon the waters - An allusion to the sowing of rice;
which was sown upon muddy ground, or ground covered with water, and trodden in by
the feet of cattle: it thus took root, and grew, and was found after many days in a
plentiful harvest. Give alms to the poor, and it will be as seed sown in good ground. God
will cause thee afterwards to receive it with abundant increase. The Targum understands
it of giving bread to poor sailors. The Vulgate and my old Bible have the same idea. Send
thi brede upon men passing waters.
GILL, "Cast thy bread upon the waters,.... As the wise man had often suggested
that nothing was better for a man than to enjoy the good of his labour himself, he here
advises to let others, the poor, have a share with him; and as he had directed in the
preceding chapter how men should behave towards their superiors, he here instructs
them what notice they should take of their inferiors; and as he had cautioned against
luxury and intemperance, he here guards against tenacity and covetousness, and exhorts
to beneficence and liberality: that which is to be given is "bread", which is put for all the
necessaries of life, food and raiment; or money that answers all things, what may be a
supply of wants, a support of persons in distress; what is useful, profitable, and
beneficial; not stones or scorpions, or what will be useless or harmful: and it must be
"thy" bread, a man's own; not independent of God who gives it him; but not another's,
what he owes another, or has fraudulently obtained; but what he has got by his own
labour, or he is through divine Providence in lawful possession of; hence alms in the
Hebrew language is called "righteousness": and it must be such bread as is convenient
and fit for a man himself, such as he himself and his family eat of, and this he must cast,
it must be a man's own act, and a voluntary one; his bread must not be taken and forced
from him; it must be given freely, and in such a manner as not to be expected again; and

2. bountifully and plentifully, as a man casts seed into the earth; but here it is said to be
"upon the waters"; bread is to be given to such as are in distress and affliction, that have
waters of a full cup wrung out unto them, whose faces are watered with tears, and foul
with weeping, from whom nothing is to be expected again, who can make no returns; so
that what is given thorn seems to be cast away and lost, like what is thrown into a river,
or into the midst of the sea; and even it is to be given to such who prove ungrateful and
unthankful, and on whom no mark or impression of the kindness is made and left, no
more than upon water; yea, it is to be given to strangers never seen before nor after, like
gliding water; so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "passing waters": or else to such
who may be compared to well watered ground, or "moist ground", as Mr. Broughton
renders it; where the seed cast will grow up again, and bring forth fruit, and redound to
the advantage of the sower, as what is given to the poor does; they are a good soil to sow
upon, especially Christ's poor, who are partakers of his living water, grace; see Isa_
32:20; though it may be the multitude of persons to whom alms is to be given are here
intended, which are sometimes signified by waters, Rev_17:15; as Ecc_11:2 seems to
explain it. The Targum is,
"reach out the bread of thy sustenance to the poor that go in ships upon the thee of the
water;''
and some think the speech is borrowed from navigation, and is an allusion to merchants
who send their goods beyond sea, and have a large return for them;
for thou shalt find it after many days; not the identical bread itself, but the fruit
and reward of such beneficence; which they shall have unexpectedly, or after long
waiting, as the husbandman for his seed; it suggests that such persons should live long,
as liberal persons oftentimes do, and increase in their worldly substance; and if they
should not live to reap the advantage of their liberality, yet their posterity will, as the
seed of Jonathan did for the kindness he showed to David: or, however, if they find it not
again in temporal things, yet in spirituals; and shall be recompensed in the resurrection
of the just, and to all eternity. So the Targum,
"for after the time of many days, then thou shall find the reward of it in this world (so it
is in the king's Bible), and in the world to come;''
see Luk_12:12. Jarchi instances in Jethro. Noldius (p) renders it "within many days",
even before many days are at an end; for seed sown by waters in hot climates soon
sprung up, and produced fruit; see Dan_11:20.
HE RY, "Solomon had often, in this book, pressed it upon rich people to take the
comfort of their riches themselves; here he presses it upon them to do good to others
with them and to abound in liberality to the poor, which will, another day, abound to
their account. Observe,
I. How the duty itself is recommended to us, Ecc_11:1. 1. Cast thy bread upon the
waters, thy bread-corn upon the low places (so some understand it), alluding to the
husbandman, who goes forth, bearing precious seed, sparing bread-corn from his family
for the seedness, knowing that without that he can have no harvest another year; thus
the charitable man takes from his bread-corn for seed-corn, abridges himself to supply
the poor, that he may sow beside all waters (Isa_32:20), because as he sows so he must
reap, Gal_6:7. We read of the harvest of the river, Isa_23:3. Waters, in scripture, are
put for multitudes (Rev_16:5), and there are multitudes of poor (we do not want objects

3. of charity); waters are put also for mourners: the poor are men of sorrows. Thou must
give bread, the necessary supports of life, not only give good words but good things,
Isa_58:7. It must be thy bread, that which is honestly got; it is no charity, but injury, to
give that which is none of our own to give; first do justly, and then love mercy. “Thy
bread, which thou didst design for thyself, let the poor have a share with thee, as they
had with Job, Job_31:17. Give freely to the poor, as that which is cast upon the waters.
Send it a voyage, send it as a venture, as merchants that trade by sea. Trust it upon the
waters; it shall not sink.”
2. “Give a portion to seven and also to eight, that is, be free and liberal in works of
charity.” (1.) “Give much if thou hast much to give, not a pittance, but a portion, not a bit
or two, but a mess, a meal; give a large dole, not a paltry one; give good measure (Luk_
6:38); be generous in giving, as those were when, on festival days, they sent portions to
those for whom nothing was prepared (Neh_8:10), worthy portions.” (2.) “Give to
many, to seven, and also to eight; if thou meet with seven objects of charity, give to
them all, and then, if thou meet with an eighth, give to that, and if with eight more, give
to them all too. Excuse not thyself with the good thou hast done from the good thou hast
further to do, but hold on, and mend. In hard times, when the number of the poor
increases, let thy charity be proportionably enlarged.” God is rich in mercy to all, to us,
though unworthy; he gives liberally, and upbraids not with former gifts, and we must be
merciful as our heavenly Father is.
II. The reasons with which it is pressed upon us. Consider,
1. Our reward for well-doing is very certain. “Though thou cast it upon the waters, and it
seem lost, thou thinkest thou hast given thy good word with it and art likely never to
hear of it again, yet thou shalt find it after many days, as the husbandman finds his seed
again in a plentiful harvest and the merchant his venture in a rich return. It is not lost,
but well laid out, and well laid up; it brings in full interest in the present gifts of God's
providence, and graces and comforts of his Spirit; and the principal is sure, laid up in
heaven, for it is lent to the Lord.” Seneca, a heathen, could say, Nihil magis possidere me
credam, quam bene donata - I possess nothing so completely as that which I have given
away. Hochabeo quodcunque dedi; hae sunt divitiae certae in quacunque sortis
humanae levitate - Whatever I have imparted I still possess; these riches remain with
me through all the vicissitudes of life. “Thou shalt find it, perhaps not quickly, but after
many days; the return may be slow, but it is sure and will be so much the more
plentiful.” Wheat, the most valuable grain, lies longest in the ground. Long voyages make
the best returns.
JAMISO ,"Ecc_11:2 shows that charity is here inculcated.
bread — bread corn. As in the Lord’s prayer, all things needful for the body and soul.
Solomon reverts to the sentiment (Ecc_9:10).
waters — image from the custom of sowing seed by casting it from boats into the
overflowing waters of the Nile, or in any marshy ground. When the waters receded, the
grain in the alluvial soil sprang up (Isa_32:20). “Waters” express multitudes, so Ecc_
11:2; Rev_17:15; also the seemingly hopeless character of the recipients of the charity;
but it shall prove at last to have been not thrown away (Isa_49:4).
K&D, "(Note: The Midrash tells the following story: Rabbi Akiba sees a ship wrecked
which carried in it one learned in the law. He finds him again actively engaged in
Cappadocia. What whale, he asked him, has vomited thee out upon dry land? How hast
thou merited this? The scribe learned in the law thereupon related that when he went on

4. board the ship, he gave a loaf of bread to a poor man, who thanked him for it, saying: As
thou hast saved my life, may thy life be saved. Thereupon Akiba thought of the proverb
in Ecclesiastes 11:1. Similarly the Targ.: Extend to the poor the bread for thy support;
they sail in ships over the water.)
regard this as an exhortation to charity, which although practised without expectation of
REWARD, does not yet remain unrewarded at last. An Aram. proverb of Ben Sira's (vid.,
Buxtorf's Florilegium, p. 171) proceeds on this interpretation: “Scatter thy bread on the
water and on the dry land; in the end of the days thou findest it again.” Knobel QUOTES
a similar Arab. proverb from Diez' Denkwürdigkeiten von Asien (Souvenirs of Asia), II
106: “Do good; cast thy bread into the water: thou shalt be repaid some day.” See also
the proverb in Goethe's Westöst. Divan, compared by Herzfeld. Voltaire, in his Précis de
l'Ecclésiaste en VERS, also adopts this rendering:
Repandez vos bien faits avec magnificence,
Même aux moins vertueux ne les refusez pas.
Ne vous informez pas de leur reconnaissance -
Il est grand, il est beau de faire des ingrats.
That instead of “into the water (the sea)” of these or similar proverbs, Koheleth uses here
the expression, “on the face of (‫)על־ּפני‬ the waters,” makes no difference: Eastern bread
has for the most part the form of cakes, and is thin (especially such as is prepared
hastily for guests, ('ughoth) or (matstsoth), Genesis 18:6; Genesis 19:3); so that when
thrown into the water, it remains on the surface (like a chip of wood, Hosea 10:7), and is
carried away by the stream. But ‫,ׁשּלח‬ with this reference of the proverb to beneficence,
is strange; instead of it, the word ‫הׁשלך‬ was rather to be expected; the lxx renders by
ἀπόστειλον ; the Syr., (shadar); Jerome, mitte; Venet. πέµπε ; thus by none is the pure
idea of casting forth CONNECTED with ‫.ׁשּלח‬ And the reason given does not harmonize
with this reference: “for in the course of many days ((berov yamin), cf. (mērov yamim),
Isaiah 24:22) wilt thou find it” (not “find it again,” which would be expressed by ‫ּתם‬ ‫.)ּתׁשּוב‬
This indefinite designation of time, which yet definitely points to the remote future, does
not thus indicate that the subject is the recompense of noble self-renunciation which is
sooner or later rewarded, and often immediately, but exactly ACCORDS with the idea of
commerce carried on with foreign countries, which expects to attain its object only after
a long period of waiting. In the proper sense, they send their bread over the surface of
the water who, as Psalm 107:33 expresses, “do BUSINESS in great waters.” It is a
figure taken from the corn trade of a seaport, an illustration of the thought: seek thy
support in the way of bold, confident adventure.
(Note: The Greek phrase σπείρειν πόντον , “to sow the sea” = to undertake a fruitless
work, is of an altogether different character; cf. Amos 6:12.)
Bread in ‫לח‬ is the designation of the means of making a living or gain, and bread in
‫ּתמצאּנּו‬ the designation of the gain (cf. Ecclesiastes 9:11). Hitzig's explanation: Throw thy
bread into the water = venture thy hope, is forced; and of the same character are all the
attempts to understand the word of agricultural pursuits; e.g., by van der Palm:

5. sementem fac muxta aquas (or: in loca irrigua); Grätz even TRANSLATES: “Throw thy
corn on the surface of the water,” and understands this, with the fancy of a Martial, of
begetting children. Mendelssohn is right in remarking that the exhortation shows itself to
be that of Koheleth-Solomon, whose ships traded to Tarshish and Ophir. Only the
reference to self-sacrificing beneficence stands on a level with it as worthy of
consideration. With Ginsburg, we may in this way say that a proverb as to our dealings
with those who are above us, is followed by a proverb regarding those who are below
us; with those others a proverb regarding judicious courageous venturing, ranks itself
with a proverb regarding a rashness which is to be discountenanced; and the following
proverb does not say: Give a portion, distribute of that which is thine, to seven and also
to eight: for it is well done that thou gainest for thee friends with the unrighteous
mammon for a time when thou thyself mayest unexpectedly be in want; but it is a
prudent rule which is here placed by the side of counsel to bold adventure:
COKE, ". Cast thy bread upon the waters— Cast thy corn before the waters, for thou shalt
find it, &c. Desvoex observes, the true design of this verse is so plainly pointed out by the
context, that interpreters could not avoid seeing that it is an exhortation to benevolence
and liberality; yet few of them understood the letter of the metaphor wherein that
exhortation is in a manner wrapped up; and the Chaldee paraphrast would not even
allow it to be a metaphor; but, through a very extraordinary synecdoche, made the
surface of the water to mean poor sailors, whose ships sail on that surface. It has been
observed by several interpreters, that in these words, cast thy ‫לחם‬ lechem, upon the face
of the waters, ‫,לחם‬ which is generally translated bread, may as well be translated corn:
besides other places, where it has that signification, no other construction can be put on
it, Isaiah 28:28 nor in this place neither, if we consider that Solomon makes use of a
proverbial metaphorical sentence, which must have a known, rational, literal sense,
independently of the remoter moral APPLICATION. But to cast one's bread upon the
surface of the waters, where it must be either devoured by the fish, or diluted to nothing,
before the waves leave it upon the shore, would be a very odd way of providing for
futurity; and I doubt whether one who would try the experiment could find his bread
again after many days. But the case is quite otherwise with respect to seed thrown upon
the surface of an inundation: When the waters subside, the corn which remains in the
mud grows, and is found again many days after, at the time of harvest. This is a very
rational construction of Solomon's words, which the judicious Bishop Lowth, in his 10th
Prelection, thinks may be illustrated from Psalms 104:14. But there is another, which, if I
am not mistaken, has the advantage of being better connected with the other proverbial
sentences, wherein the author has in a manner wrapped up his exhortation; and to
which, for that reason, I have given the preference in my translation. The words ‫על‬ ‫פני‬ al
peni, upon the faces, are often EMPLOYED for ‫לפני‬ lipni, before the faces, to signify, in
presence of, or over against; and the two phrases appear to be synonimous in that
sense, by comparing Exodus 14:2 with Numbers 33:7. They are so likewise in some
places, especially Genesis 32:21 and 2 Samuel 15:18 in the signification of before, with
respect to time. Now, why should not ‫עלּאפני‬ ‫המים‬ al-peni hammaiim, in the passage
before us, be rendered, Before the rainy season? Corn thrown at that time in the
ground, which in hot climates is then like dust, may be looked upon as thrown away; and
if you consider nothing but the impossibility of its thriving without moisture, it is very
natural that you should wait for the wind which will bring CLOUDS and rain (Ecclesiastes
11:4.). But the prudent husbandman knows, that in time of drought THE CLOUDS are
filling, and that as soon as they are full they must pour down rain upon the earth
(Ecclesiastes 11:3.): therefore he sows the seed in expectation of a crop, which he is
not to see immediately, but only after many days. This kind of prudence is that which

6. Solomon recommends with respect to the poor, as may be seen by the whole context.
TRAPP, "Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after
many days.
Ver. 1. Cast thy bread.] Thine own well gotten goods. Alms must not be given, said a
martyr, (a) until it have sweat in a man’s hand. "Let him labour, working with his
hands," saith the apostle, "that he may have to give to him that needeth." [Ephesians
4:28] And the bountiful man giveth of his bread to the poor, saith Solomon. [Proverbs
22:9] God hateth to have ex rapina holocaustum, a sacrifice of things got by rapine and
robbery; [Amos 2:8] "With such sacrifices God is not well pleased." Wherefore, if thou
hast of thine own, give; if not, better for thee to gratify none than to grate upon any,
saith Augustine. When our Henry III (an oppressing prince) had sent a load of frieze (b)
to the friar minors to clothe them, they returned the same with this message, that he
ought not to give alms of what he had rent from the poor, neither would they accept of
that abominable GIFT. (c) The Hebrew word signifying alms signifies properly justice, to
intimate that the matter of our alms should be goods justly gotten. (d) Hence also the
Jews call their alms box Kuphashel tsedaka, the chest of justice. Into this box or basket,
if thou cast but bread (so it be thy bread), brown bread, such as thou hast, and then wait
for the Lord, when he will return from the wedding with a full hand, thou shalt be fed
supernae mensae copiosis deliciis, as one saith, with the abundant dainties of the
heavenly table.
Upon the waters.] Heb., Upon the face of the waters, where it may seem clearly cast
away; as seed sown upon the sea, (e) or a thing thrown down AVON, as we say, no profit
or praise to be had by it. Or upon the waters, i.e., upon strangers (if necessary) whom we
never saw, and are never likely to see again. Or, "upon the waters," i.e., upon such as
being hunger bitten, or hardly bestead, do water their plants, being fed "with bread of
tears." {as Psalms 80:5} To this sense Munster renders the words thus, Mitte panem
tuum super facies aquas, sc., emittentes, Cast thy bread upon faces watered with tears;
or, "upon the waters," upon the surface of the waters, that it may be carried into the
ocean, where the multitude of waters is gathered together; so shall thine alms, carried
into heaven, be found in the ocean of eternity, where there is a confluence of all comforts
and contentments. Or, lastly, "upon the waters," i.e., in loca irrigua, upon grounds well
watered - moist and fertile soil, such as is that by the river Nile, where they do but throw
in the seed, and they have four rich harvests in less than four months; (f) or as that in
the land of Shinar (where Babel was founded, Genesis 11:1-9), that returns, if Herodotus
and Pliny may be believed, the seed beyond credulity. (g)
For thou shalt find it after many days.] Thou shalt "reap in due time, if thou faint not":
slack not, WITHDRAW not thy hand, as Ecclesiastes 11:6. Mitre panem, &c., et in verbo
Domini promitto tibi, &c., saith one; Cast thy bread confidently, without fear, and freely,
without compulsion; cast it, though thou seem to cast it away; and I dare promise thee,
in the name and word of the Lord, Nequaquam infrugifera apparebit beneficentia, (h)
that thy bounty shall be abundantly recompensed into thy bosom. "The liberal soul shall
be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered himself." [Proverbs 11:25] {See Trapp
on "Proverbs 11:25"} See also my Common Place of Alms. Non pereunt sed parturiunt

7. pauperibus impensa, That which is given to the poor is not lost, but laid up. Not getting,
but giving, is the way to wealth. [Proverbs 19:17] Abigail, for a small present bestowed
on David, became a queen, whereas churlish Nabal was sent to his place.
PULPIT, "Cast thy bread upon the waters. The old interpretation of this passage,
which found in it a reference to the practice in Egypt of sowing seed during the
inundation of the ile, is not admissible. The verb shalach is not used in the sense of
sowing or scattering seed; it means "to cast or send forth." Two chief explanations
have been given.
(1) As to sow on the water is equivalent to taking thankless toil (compare the Greek
proverb, Σπείρειν ἐπὶ πόντῳ ), the gnome may be an injunction to do good without
hope of return, like the evangelical precept (Mat_5:44-46; Luk_6:32-35).
(2) It is a commercial maxim, urging men to make ventures in trade, that they may
receive a good return for their expenditure. In this case the casting seed upon the
waters is a metaphorical expression for sending merchandise across the sea to
distant lands. This view is supposed to be confirmed by the statement concerning
the good woman in Pro_31:14, "She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her
bread from far;" and the words of Psa_107:23, "They that go down to the sea in
ships, that do Business in great waters." But one sees no reason why Koheleth
should suddenly turn to commerce and the trade of a maritime city. Such
considerations have no reference to the context, nor to the general design of the
book. othing leads to them, nothing comes of them. On the other hand, if we take
the verse as urging active beneficence as the safest and best proceeding under men's
present circumstances, We have a maxim in due accordance with the spirit of the
rest of the work, and one which conduces to the conclusion reached at the end. So
we adopt the first of the two explanations mentioned above. The bread in the East is
made in the form of thin cakes, which would float for a time if thrown into a stream;
and if it be objected that no one would be guilty of such an irrational action as
flinging bread into the water, it may be answered that this is just the point aimed at.
Do your kindnesses, exert yourself, in the most unlikely quarters, not thinking of
gratitude or return, but only of duty. And yet surely a recompense will be made in
some form or other. Thou shalt find it after many days. This is not to be the motive
of our acts, but it will in the course of time be the result; and this thought may be an
encouragement. In the Chaldee Version of parts of Ecclesiasticus there is extant a
maxim identical with our verse, "Strew thy bread on the water and on the land, and
thou shalt find it at the end of days". Parallels have been found in many quarters.
Thus the Turk says, "Do good, throw it into the water; if the fish does not know it,
God does." Herzfeld quotes Goethe—
"Was willst du untersuchen,
Wohin die Milde fliesst!
Ins Wasser wirf deine Kuchen;

8. Wer weiss wet sie geniesst?"
"Wouldst thou too narrowly inquire
Whither thy kindness goes!
Thy cake upon the water cast;
Whom it may feed who knows?"
Voltaire paraphrases the passage in his 'Precis de l'Ecclesiaste'—
"Repandez vos bienfaits avec magnificence,
Meme aux moins vertueux ne les refusez pas.
e vous informez pas de leur reconnoissance;
COFFMA , "In this and the following chapter, we find the conclusion of the
author, whom we believe to have been Solomon. It is a conclusive denial of the
hopelessness of earlier sayings in the book.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
"Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a
portion to seven, yea, even unto eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon
the earth. If THE CLOUDS be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth;
and if a tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree
falleth, there shall it be. He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that
regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the
wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even so thou
knowest not the work of God who doeth all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the
evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether
this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good."
REMEDY O. 1
These six verses are, "The first remedy proposed by the author for the perplexities
of life,"[1] a life which he has repeatedly called "vanity of vanities." And what is
this recommended remedy?
"Cast thy bread upon the waters, etc." (Ecclesiastes 11:1). For more than eighteen
centuries, there was never any doubt about what was meant here. Franz Delitzsch
noted, during the 19th century, that, "Most interpreters regard this as an
exhortation to charity";[2] and this writer is absolutely certain that the passage
could not possibly mean anything else. othing could be any more stupid than the

9. ew English Bible rendition: "Send your grain across the seas, and in time you will
get a return; divide your merchandise among seven ventures, eight maybe, since you
do not know what disasters may occur on earth."[3]
Ecclesiastes 11:1 and Ecclesiastes 11:2 here are parallel, Ecclesiastes 11:2 telling us
exactly what is meant by, "cast thy bread upon the waters." "It means to give a
portion to seven yea, even unto eight."[4] Why should this be called casting bread
upon the waters? Simply because benevolence should be practiced without either
any desire or expectation of ever getting it back, exactly as would be the case of
casting bread into a raging river.
Similar admonitions to give to the poor abound in both the Old Testament and the
ew Testament. See Matthew 5:42,46; Luke 6:38; Proverbs 19:7; Psalms 112:5, etc.
One must be amazed and outraged at what many recent interpreters and
TRA SLATORS are doing to this plain Scripture.
Peterson wrote that the passage, "Advises the undertaking of business ventures."[5]
Fleming AGREEDthat, "It refers to business ventures overseas trade."[6] Hendry
likewise thought that he found here a recommendation for people to take risks in
business enterprises, "He who will not venture until he is absolutely sure will wait
forever."[7] All such views of this passage are absolutely ridiculous and should be
rejected out of hand.
Even the radical and destructive critics of the International Critical Commentary
did not subscribe to such foolish interpretations as these. Barton wrote back in 1908,
"That bread cannot possibly mean merchandise";[8] and we find a similar
contradiction of this popular ERROR in the very first word of Ecclesiastes 11:2 (See
below). Barton also noted that by far the most probably CORRECTunderstanding
of this place views it as, "An exhortation to liberality," pointing out the ancient
Arabic proverb upon which the metaphorical words of the text are founded."[9]
"Give a portion to seven, yea, even unto eight, ..." (Ecclesiastes 11:2). What is the
measure of a scholar's blindness who will read the word "Give," here as, "Invest
your money"? or, "Send your grain overseas"!? That is exactly the way the
translators of Good ews Bible rendered this verse! "Put your investments in
several places, even many places."[10] Oh yes, there is a marginal reference in the
American Standard Version indicating that the word translated give may also mean
divide; but the three most dependable versions of the Holy Bible, namely, the KJV,
the American Standard Version and the RSV, unanimously render the word GIVE.
Besides that, the word divide never meant either distribute, diversify, or any similar
thing.
ow it is true that a lot of corrupt translations and paraphrases are AVAILABLE;
but all of them put together do not have one tenth of the authority of the three
standard versions of the Holy Bible just cited.

10. The remaining verses in this first paragraph (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6) are all related to
the admonition in the first two verses. Waddey, a very dependable and discerning
scholar stresses this.[11]
The mention of THE CLOUDS with their rain reminds men that all of their wealth
comes via the providence of God; and the mention of the fallen tree is a reminder
that death terminates one's opportunity to give (Ecclesiastes 11:3).
"A wind-observer will not sow ... a cloud-watcher will not reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4).
[12] This is Barton's rendition of Ecclesiastes 11:4. The application is simple
enough. If one is never going to give CHARITABLE GIFTS until he is able to
predict what good it will do in this or that case; or, if he will wait until he has no
suspicions about the need or intentions of the recipient, he will never do anything at
all. Of course, the agricultural metaphor here is true exactly as it stands. Get on
with the job, no matter what objections might be raised against it!
"Thou knowest not what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the
womb of her that is with child" (Ecclesiastes 11:5). The great mysteries of life are
beyond our comprehension. The workings of God's providence are not subject to
human understanding; and the future, even for ourselves, is absolutely
unpredictable. There is more than a hint in these verses that the benevolent
treatment of others by God-fearing people, while we have the ability to do it, might,
at some unknown time in the future, be, even for us, the means of our survival.
"Thou knowest not which shall PROSPER ..." (Ecclesiastes 11:6b). In view of all
that. is written in these verses, Solomon admonishes us to sow our seed, morning
and evening; and this is not speaking of a farming venture, but, "It speaks of the
acts of kindness and benevolence that we have OPPORTU ITYto do."[13] The
apostle Paul used exactly this same metaphor for benevolence in 2 Corinthians 9:6-
20. He commanded us to, "Do good unto all men" (Galatians 6:10), and promised
that if we "sow bountifully" we shall also reap "bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Paul's use of this metaphor for benevolence makes it virtually certain that the
sowing here means exactly what it does in the ew Testament, practicing liberality.
BE SO , "Ecclesiastes 11:1. Cast thy bread — That is, thy seed, which is here
called bread, as it is also JOB28:5, and Isaiah 28:28, because the produce of it
makes bread, and the husbandman could ill spare it, wanting it, perhaps, for bread
for himself and family; upon the waters — That is, either by the rivers’ sides, or in
moist and marshy ground, or even on the waters that cover it, where there might be
little prospect of a crop. Solomon here probably alludes to the manner of planting
rice in the eastern countries; for, as Sir John Chardin observes in his OTE on
Isaiah 32:20, “They sow it upon the water; and, before sowing, while the earth is
covered with water, they cause the ground to be trodden by oxen, horses, and asses,
which go mid-leg deep; and this is the way of preparing the ground for sowing. And,
as they sow the rice in the water, they transplant it in the water.” But, though
Solomon alludes to this, it is evident he means in these words to inculcate liberality
to the poor. As if he had said, Cast — That is, freely and liberally bestow; thy bread

11. — That is, thy money, or provisions, or the necessaries of life, of whatever kind;
upon the waters — Upon the poor, on whom thy bounty may at first, and for a time,
appear to be lost. (as the seed does, which a man casts upon the waters,) through
their unthankfulness or inability to make thee any returns: yet, thou shalt find it —
It shall be restored to thee, either by God or men, more certainly than the rice or
other seed corn, cast upon the marshy or watery ground, produces fruit in due
season: after many days — The return may be SLOW, but it is sure, and will be so
much the more plentiful the longer it is delayed. This clause is added to prevent an
objection, and quicken us to the duty enjoined.
CHARLES SIMEO , "LIBERALITY E COURAGED
Ecc_11:1. Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
WHILST, in the purity of its precepts, the inspired volume exceeds all other books
upon the face of the earth, it excels all other compositions in the variety and richness
of the images under which it exhibits our duty and urges the performance of it. THE
IMAGE under which liberality is here inculcated is well understood in countries
where the heat of the climate, uniting with periodical inundations, enables the
husbandman to proceed in a mode of agriculture unknown to us in the colder
regions of the globe. In Egypt, for instance, where the ile overflows the country
periodically to a vast extent, it is common for men to cast their seed, their rice
especially, upon the waters, whilst yet they are at a considerable depth. This might
seem to be folly in the extreme: but experience proves, that, instead of losing their
seed, they find it again, after many days, rising into an abundant crop. Such shall be
the return which we also shall find to our efforts, if we exert ourselves,
I. For the relief of men’s bodily wants—
Liberality to the poor is strongly insisted on in the Holy Scriptures. It is inculcated,
1. In a way of precept—
[Exceedingly clear and strong were the injunctions which God gave on this subject
to his people of old [ ote: See Deu_15:7-11 and cite the whole.] — — — So, under
the ew Testament dispensation, we are enjoined to “labour with our own hands;”
and to “lay by us weekly, in proportion as God has prospered us,” for the purpose
of relieving others [ ote: Eph_4:28. 1Co_16:2.] — — — ay, so obvious is this duty,
that the man who lives not in the practice of it must be an utter stranger to the love
of God in his soul [ ote: 1Jn_3:17.]: for “if he love not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen [ ote: 1Jn_4:20.]?”]
2. In a way of example—
[The good Samaritan shews us how we ought to exercise generosity, even towards
those who, by reason of particular differences and distinctions, may appear to be

12. most remote from us [ ote: Luk_10:33-37.]. The widow, in giving her mite, which
was all that she possessed, might be thought to have acted a very wild and
extravagant part, especially when she gave it for a purpose to which it could bear no
proportion, namely, the repairing of the temple: yet is that commended to us, by our
Lord himself, as an example highly to be admired, and universally to be followed
[ ote: Mar_12:42-43.]. As for the Macedonians, who were proposed as an example
to the Corinthians, their generosity exceeded all belief: for when in great affliction,
and in a state of deep poverty, they abounded unto the riches of liberality, and of
their own selves, without any solicitation on the part of the Apostle, besought him
with much entreaty to take upon him the distribution of their alms [ ote: 2Co_8:1-
4.]. othing can give us a higher idea of the excellence of charity than this.]
3. In a way of encouragement—
[God assures us, that “whatever we give to the poor, we lend unto the Lord; and
that he will, in one way or another, REPAY us again [ ote: Pro_19:17.].” He will
repay us, even in a way of temporal prosperity: for the giving of “the first-fruits of
all our increase to the poor is the way, not to empty our barns, but to fill them with
plenty, and to make our presses burst out with new wine [ ote: Pro_3:9-10.].” Still
more will he repay us in a way of spiritual prosperity; since, “if we draw out our
soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, he will satisfy our souls in drought,
and make fat our bones, and make us like a watered garden, or like a spring of
water, whose waters fail not [ ote: Isa_58:10-11.].” Even with eternal REWARDS
will he repay us, “recompensing, at the resurrection of the just,” the smallest
services we have rendered his people [ ote: Luk_14:14.], and not suffering “even a
cup of cold water to be left without its appropriate reward [ ote: Mat_10:42.].”
I say then, with assured confidence in reference to this matter, “Cast your seed upon
the waters; and you shall find it after many days.”]
But we may understand our text as encouraging our exertions also,
II. For the advancement of men’s mental improvement—
To this the same image is applied by the prophet Isaiah; who gives us this additional
information, that persons, previous to their casting of their seed upon the waters,
send forth their oxen and their asses to tread the ground with their feet, in order the
better to prepare the earth for its reception: “Blessed are ye who sow beside all
waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass [ ote: Isa_32:20.].” ow
this refers to the publication of the Gospel in every place, however untoward the
circumstances, or hopeless the appearance. And we can bear witness to the truth of
the prophet’s observation: for in many places, and on many hearts, where there has
been as little prospect of success as could well be conceived, God has given efficacy
to the word of his grace; and the handful of corn sown upon the top of the
mountains has sprung up, so that the fruit thereof has shaken like the woods of
Lebanon; and those of the city where it has been cast have flourished like the piles
of grass upon the earth [ ote: Psa_72:16. If this be a subject for Missions, this idea

13. must be E LARGED, and all that follows it be omitted.].”
To Infant Schools, for the promotion of which I now more immediately address you,
the text is peculiarly applicable; since nothing can be supposed more hopeless than
any attempt to benefit the rising generation, from the ages of two to five or six. But I
must say, that, if you cast your seed upon these waters, you shall find it again, in
very abundant benefits conferred on all the poorer classes of society—
[What a relief is it to the mother to have her infants duly attended to through the
day; whilst she, instead of having her hands tied by the care of them, is enabled to
earn bread for their support! What a benefit, too, is it to her elder daughter; who
would otherwise have her time occupied in attending upon her younger brothers
and sisters, and be thereby deprived OF EDUCATIO for herself, whilst she was
discharging that important office! This is of immense importance, because it secures
to all the children of the poor the same advantages; the elder and the younger being
alike partakers of the benefits thus freely accorded to them.
But to the children themselves the benefits are incalculably great. We cannot but
have seen, times without number, what depraved habits are contracted by the
children of the poor when playing about the streets or lanes of a town without
control. At home, for the most part, they see nothing but evil; and abroad, they
practise it in every way with sad proficiency, lying, swearing, quarrelling, the very
pests of the neighbourhood wherein they dwell. As for any thing good, they learn it
not; having no good principles instilled into them, and no good examples set before
them. But by being brought into a school at the early age of two or three years, they
are kept from all those temptations to which they would otherwise be exposed; and
have their conduct watched over, their tempers corrected, their habits restrained,
their principles improved, their whole deportment brought into subjection to good
instruction and to well-ordered authority. They are insensibly taught, by the
example of others, what could not have been infused into them by mere abstract
precept; and they acquire, by imitation, habits of order and docility, which they
could not by any other method have obtained. ow, then, who shall estimate the
value of this to the children themselves? or who shall say, What benefit shall, in a
course of years, arise to the whole community from such institutions as these, if they
be generally established and well supported? I have not spoken respecting religious
advantages accruing to the children, because it may be supposed that they are not at
that early age capable of religious instruction. But is it nothing, to prevent the soil
being overrun with briars and thorns, and to have it improved by the infusion of
moral principles? In fact, a child’s religion consists chiefly in the fear of God, and in
an habitual regard to his all-seeing eye: and this is implanted in their minds to vast
advantage, by the entire system of discipline to which they are subjected, as well as
by the distinct instructions which are given them. And though it is but too probable
that they may afterwards lose the impressions which are then made upon their
minds, yet they can never forget the general idea, that it was well with them when
they were so disciplined and so instructed. or is the influence which they may
carry home into their domestic circles, a trifling matter: for when their parents hear
them giving A ACCOU T of the lessons they have learned—lessons of meekness

14. and patience, of truth and honesty, of purity and love—they may themselves be put
to shame, and acquire very important hints for their own improvement.]
I beg leave, then, to recommend to your support this important institution—
I would recommend it,
[First, for the sake of the rising generation, on whom it will confer so great a benefit
— — — ext, for the sake of those who have set on foot this benevolent plan. one
but persons of very enlarged minds could ever have devised such means of
benefiting the poor. To instruct such infants would, to any common understanding,
have appeared as hopeless a task as that of “casting bread upon the waters.” Yet
experience has proved its vast utility; and shewn, that if such institutions were to
prevail in every town, a most extensive benefit would be conferred on the whole
community. Shall, then, persons capable of adorning and instructing the highest
ranks in society not meet with support, when they employ their talents in contriving
means for benefiting the poor? Surely every person ought to bear testimony to the
worth and excellence of such designs; and to give them, the beat tribute of applause,
their active concurrence, and their most liberal support.
Lastly, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, I would urge upon you the
support of this beneficent institution: for he counted not little children beneath his
notice; but took them up in his arms, and put his hands upon them and blessed
them, and declared that every attention that was paid to such infants would be
regarded by him as paid to himself [ ote: Mat_18:2; Mat_18:5.]. If, then, you have
any love to the Saviour, who himself assumed a state of infancy for you—yea, and
died upon the cross for you—shew it by your liberality on this occasion. Let all
endeavour to cultivate the ground. Let him that hath an ox, “send forth his ox;” and
let him that hath an ass, “send forth his ass.” Let every one, ACCORDI G to his
ability, contribute to help forward this good work, without intermission and without
despondency. To every one amongst you I would say, “In the morning sow thy seed;
in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper,
either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good [ ote: ver. 6.]”]
L.M.
. 1 GO labour on; spend, and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Father's will;
It is the way the Master went,
Should not the servant tread it still?
2 Go labour on; 'tis not for nought,
Thy earthly loss is heavenly gain;
Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not;

15. The Master praises; what are men?
3 Go labour on, while it is day,
The world's dark night is hastening on;
Speed, speed the work, cast sloth away;
It is not thus that souls are won.
4 Men die in darkness at your side
Without a hope to cheer the tomb;
Take up the torch, and wave it wide,
The torch that lights time's thickest gloom.
5 Toil on, faint not, keep watch, and pray;
Be wise, the erring soul to win;
Go forth into the world's highway,
Compel the wanderer to come in.
6 Toil on, and in thy toil rejoice;
For toil comes rest, for exile home;
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom's voice,
The midnight peal, Behold I come!
GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, "Giving and Receiving
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.—Ecc_11:1
1. There is considerable difference of opinion as to the sense of this verse of Ecclesiastes.
The old interpretation which found in it a reference to the practice in Egypt of sowing
seed during the inundation of the Nile is not admissible. The verb shalach is not used in
the sense of sowing or scattering seed; it means “to cast or send forth.” But there are two
other explanations of the passage for which much can be said.
(1) The view which Delitzsch has taken is a modification of that formerly held by Martin
Geier, J. D. Michaelis and others—namely, that Koheleth recommends the practice of the
prudent merchant, who sends for his merchandise in ships, which go over the face of the
waters to distant lands, with the expectation that on their return he will receive his own
with an increase. This view is supposed to be confirmed by the statement concerning the
good woman in Pro_31:14, “She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from
afar,” and the words of Psa_107:23, “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do
business in great waters.” But one sees no reason why Koheleth should suddenly turn to
commerce and the trade of a maritime city. Such considerations have no reference to the
context or to the general design of the book. Nothing leads to them, nothing comes of
them.
(2) The favourite explanation is that the verse inculcates a liberal charity—“Give your
bread to any who chance to need it, and you will at some distant time receive a reward.” If
we take it so, we have a maxim in due accordance with the spirit of the rest of the work,
and one which conduces to the conclusion reached at the end. The bread in the East is
made in the form of thin cakes, which would float for a time if thrown into a stream; and,
if it be objected that no one would be guilty of such an irrational action as flinging bread
into the water, it may be answered that this is just the point aimed at. Do your kindnesses,

16. exert yourself, in the most unlikely quarters, thinking not of gratitude or return, but only
of duty. And yet surely a recompense will be made in some form or other.
2. The earliest comment on the passage is that of Ben Sira, who in a maxim of his, extant
only in Chaldee, observes, “Strew thy bread upon the surface of the water and on the dry
land, and thou shalt find it in the end of days.” It will be observed in this earliest
comment upon the verse that the difficulty of considering the verb to refer to sowing of
seed was felt even at that time, and an attempt made to obviate it by translating the word
in a sense in which it certainly occurs. Bishop Lowth in his work on Hebrew Poetry has
explained the phrase as equivalent to the Greek expression “to sow the sea.” But the
aphorism of Koheleth was not meant as an exhortation to engage in labour though
apparently fruitless. Its signification is better conveyed in the Arabic proverb QUOTED
from Diez by several commentators, “Do good, cast thy bread into the water, at some
time a recompense will be made thee.” Delitzsch observes that the same proverb has been
naturalized in Turkish, “Do good, throw it into the water; if the fish does not know it,
God does.”
A very suitable parallel is QUOTED by Herzfeld from Goethe’s Westöstlicher Divan,
Was willst du untersuchen,
Wohin die Milde fliesst!
Ins Wasser wirf deine Kuchen:
Wer weiss, wer sie geniesst!
A similar interpretation is found in Voltaire. Dukes gives in his note the following story,
quoted from the Kabus by Diez (Denkwürdigkeiten von Asien, 1 Th. p. 106 ff.), which,
whether it be a fact or a fiction, well illustrates the meaning of the Arabic proverb: “The
caliph Mutewekkil in Bagdad had an adopted son Fettich, of whom he was very fond. As
the latter was bathing one day, he sank under the water and disappeared. The caliph
offered a large reward to any one who should recover the boy’s body. A bather was
fortunate enough after seven days to discover the boy alive in a cavern in a precipitous
mountain by which the river flowed. On investigation, the caliph ascertained that the boy
was kept from starving by cakes of bread borne to him over the surface of the water, on
which cakes was stamped the name of Mohammed ben Hassan. The caliph, having
summoned Mohammed ben Hassan into his presence, asked him what induced him to
throw the bread into the water. Mohammed ben Hassan replied that he had done so every
day for a whole year in order to test the truth of the Arabic proverb already cited. The
caliph, according to the story, was so pleased with his conduct that he made over to him
on the spot five villages in the neighbourhood of Bagdad.1 [Note: C. H. H. Wright.]
3. The whole passage in which the text occurs seems to be a protest against that
despondency and over-anxiety which are so apt to lower our generosity, and to relax our
faithfulness to duty. Beneficence ought to look forward hopefully into the future; but it
ought not to be over-calculating. Beneficence without hope loses one of the springs of its

17. energy. Beneficence without thought may cease to be beneficence in anything but the
motive, and may positively injure where it desires to bless. But thoughtfulness in well-
doing is one thing; anxious calculation is another thing. Such calculation is apt to rob us
of hope, and to depress our energy. It is likely also to defeat its own ends. For there are
limits to our powers of thought. We cannot with certainty forecast the future, or foretell
the results even of our own actions. The ways of God are, many of them, mysterious. It is
ours to sow; the harvest is with Him. No doubt we ought to sow as wisely as we can; but
we ought also to remember that, with all our wisdom, the harvest may be different from
what we anticipate. If we begin to calculate too much, we shall calculate badly. Let us
therefore do good “as we have opportunity,” dealing with present claims rather than with
future contingencies, acting with hopeful yet unselfish generosity, and with diligent and
thoughtful yet unanxious beneficence. This seems to be the central lesson of the passage
before us.
Give not only unto seven, but also unto eight, that is, unto more than many. Though to
give unto every one that asketh may seem severe advice, yet give thou also before asking;
that is, where want is silently clamorous, and men’s necessities not their tongues do
loudly call for thy mercies. For though sometimes necessitousness be dumb, or misery
speak not out, yet true charity is sagacious, and will find out hints for beneficence.
Acquaint thyself with the physiognomy of want, and let the dead colours and first lines of
necessity suffice to tell thee there is an object for thy bounty. Spare not where thou canst
not easily be prodigal and fear not to be undone by mercy; for since he who hath pity on
the poor lendeth unto the Almighty rewarder, who observes no ides [when borrowed
money was repaid] but every day for his payments, charity becomes pious usury,
Christian liberality the most thriving industry; and what we adventure in a cockboat may
return in a carrack unto us. He who thus casts his bread upon the water shall surely find it
again; for though it falleth to the bottom, it sinks but like the axe of the prophet, to rise
again unto him.1 [Note: Sir Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 90.]
I
The Precept
“Cast thy bread upon the waters.”
There can be little doubt that this admonition applies to the deeds of compassion and
beneficence which are the proper fruits of true religion. In times of famine, in cases of
affliction and sudden calamity, it is a duty to supply the need of the poor and hungry.
Almsgiving is the natural, the necessary, expression of a healthy Christian character. The
Christian cannot but be communicative of the goods which he has. Almsgiving is not a
concession to importunity, by which we free ourselves from unwelcome petitioners; it is
not a sacrifice to public opinion, by which we satisfy the claims popularly made upon our
place or fortune; it is not an appeal for praise; it is not a self-complacent show of
generosity; it is not, in a word, due to any external motive. It is the spontaneous outcome
of life.
But there are many other ways in which benevolence may express itself besides

18. almsgiving. The Christian is called upon to care both for the bodies and for the souls of
his fellow-men—to give the bread of knowledge as well as the bread that perisheth, and
to provide a spiritual portion for the enrichment and consolation of the destitute.
1. The Bread of Kindness.—Cast seed on the soil, and you may reasonably expect a
harvest. But to “cast bread upon the waters”—what good can come of that? And yet there
are many acts of beneficence which seem quite as unlikely ever to bring any return to the
benefactor. We are to be kind to others, even although we can see no ground for hoping
that we shall ever be recompensed by them. There are many cases in which simply the
need of others ought to be our chief motive in well-doing. It is INDEED quite true that
mere indiscriminate almsgiving is likely to do harm instead of good. But here, we shall
suppose, is a case in which we know a man to be in real need, and we are able really and
truly to help him. We are not sure that he will be even grateful to us. We cannot well
conceive of our ever coming into circumstances in which we shall need his help. Well, let
us “cast our bread upon the waters.” Let us be generous without calculation. Let us do
good to the man without any considerations of personal advantage. Let not our
benevolence take the form of a mere “investment.” However unprofitable to ourselves our
well-doing may appear to be, still let us continue to do well.
It surely cannot matter to you whom the thing helps, so long as you are content that it
won’t, or can’t, help you? But are you content so? For that is the essential condition of the
whole business—I will not speak of it in terms of money—are you content to give work?
Will you build a bit of wall, suppose—to serve your neighbour, expecting no good of the
wall yourself? If so, you must be satisfied to build the wall for the man who wants it built;
you must not be resolved first to be sure that he is the best man in the village. Help any
one, anyhow you can: so, in order, the greatest possible number will be helped; nay, in the
end, perhaps you may get some shelter from the wind under your charitable wall yourself;
but do not expect it, nor lean on any promise that you shall find your bread again, once
cast away; I can only say that of what I have chosen to cast fairly on the waters myself, I
have never yet, after any number of days, found a crumb. Keep what you want; cast what
you can,—and expect nothing back, once lost, or once given.1 [Note: Ruskin, Fors
Clavigera, Letter 19 (Works, xxvii. 323).]
(1) Charity, in the sense of the gospel, is disinterested. The design, in every act which is
entitled to this name, is to do real good to those who are its objects. The intention of the
author of it will invariably be to promote the happiness or to relieve the distresses of the
sufferer; not to advance his own reputation, to promote his own selfish purposes, or even
to prevent the reproaches of his own conscience. In a word, selfishness, of whatever kind,
and in whatever form it may exist, is not charity.
Lady Blanche Balfour was a person whose thoughts were not like other people’s
thoughts, and who could do things which other people could not do. The Cotton Famine
in Lancashire during the American Civil War stirred her sympathy greatly. As it happened
at the time that her establishment was being reduced,—probably with a view to her going
abroad with her children,—she used the opportunity to make a novel proposal to them.
They were told that, if they liked to do the work of the house, any money that was saved
in this way would go to the help of the distressed people. When they agreed to take this

19. up, the house was divided. The few servants remaining had the use of the still-room at
one end of it to prepare their own meals in, and the kitchen was made over to Lady
Blanche’s daughters, who, after the two eldest had a few lessons from the cook before she
left, did the family cooking, with only the assistance, for the roughest work, of two quite
untrained Lancashire girls, who were brought from amid the “idle sorrow” of the time in
Manchester to stay in Whittingehame House. Lady Blanche’s sons [of whom the Right
Hon. A. J. Balfour is the eldest] had also work of the house which they could do allotted
them, such as cleaning of boots and knives. Of course the young ladies were new to
cutting up and cooking meat; so the meals at first were very irregularly achieved, and
were trying enough even to youthful appetites. They must have been still more trying to
Lady Blanche herself, who was really an invalid always. But more than one purpose of
hers was served. The help sent to Lancashire was greater by the amount saved in
HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES; her children had the sense of giving this share of help
through their own labour and self-denial; and they had besides a discipline of great value,
as no doubt their mother intended, in the thorough knowledge acquired of details of
housekeeping, and in the check given to dependence on comforts. Others, perhaps, in her
circumstances might have imagined and planned such a procedure as this; but few could
have carried it through.1 [Note: J. Robertson, Lady Blanche Balfour, 25.]
(2) Bountifulness should distinguish beneficence. The crumbs which fall from the rich
man’s table, the scraps which are doled out at the servant’s door, are not to be here
accounted of. “The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.”
“Cast thy bread.” Let it not be extorted from you. Let it be given “heartily,” “not by
constraint, but willingly.” The “cheerful giver” is the acceptable giver. “Freely ye have
received, freely give.” Even when our own “daily bread” is scanty, we are to cast some of
it upon the waters whenever there is a Divine call to do this. A poor widow, who had
been reduced to penury, acted thus one day at Zarephath, a town in the region of Tyre and
Sidon. She shared with the prophet Elijah what she thought might possibly be her last
meal, and she took him home with her as a guest “for many days.” The reward of her
hospitality, after perhaps nearly two years, was the restoration to life of her dead son in
answer to the prophet’s earnest prayer.
Miss Pipe’s whole attitude to beneficence of action and expenditure was characteristic.
She believed in practical benefit rather than in charity commonly so called. Her gifts in
money were numerous and generous, but she took great pains to learn how the money
would be used, and often, when some individual or society was doing what seemed to her
valuable work, she would send to either an unexpected cheque in assistance of what she
approved. The work was just as often scientific, pedagogic, or artistic, as conventionally
charitable, and sometimes took the form of help in publication in order to preserve the
author’s aim from interference; of help in establishing schools, when she approved of
those who ventured; of money sent for travelling when the need was educational. These
and similar gifts did not interfere with a constant liberality to missions, church-schemes
and expenses, to hospitals, work amongst the poor, and especially to such work as Miss
Octavia Hill was doing, in which she warmly welcomed the high intelligence, the
EDUCATIVE processes, the seeds sown for the future. To her own personal friends she
was always and continuously generous, delighting to find out what they needed or
wished, and to supply it. Some memoranda of her personal expenditure have escaped

20. destruction, and indicate the splendid proportion of her giving to others compared with
her purchasing for herself. For instance, in one year she gave away £288, and spent £14
on dress; in another, while dress cost £90, giving reached £363; in a third, dress amounted
to £58 and giving to £406; in a fourth, dress had grown more costly, reaching £100, but
giving had increased to £485; and by 1880, dress had sunk to £71, while giving had
grown to £789.1 [Note: Life and Letters of Hannah E. Pipe, 194.]
2. The Bread of the Gospel.—Though liberality and kindness are the primary lessons of
our text, it may well suggest, as in our ordinary conversation it does suggest, every kind
of work for God. There is in the world an ever-increasing amount of work done in the
spirit of Christian benevolence, efforts on behalf of the young, the outcast, the victims of
drink, the criminal, the poor, the afflicted; efforts that at times seem to be fruitless, and
often meet with lack of appreciation, often with ingratitude, and at times even with wrath.
Those for whom we may have done our best take a base advantage of kindness, or say to
us, like the evil spirit of old, “Let us alone,” and, after all our efforts, are not any the
better, but rather the worse. We are inclined to lose heart and hope because we see no
fruit of our labours. It is to those in such a condition, who are depressed and think it not
worth while to continue, that such words as the text may apply. Our bread is to be cast
upon the waters. We are to render service—service that often costs much—to thankless
people. We must be content to work when our work is unacknowledged, unrequited—
even when it is despised. If we serve men in material things, indifference and ingratitude
may be the return; but this is still more likely to be the case when we seek to do them the
highest good. People appreciate gold, bread, or raiment sooner than they appreciate
efforts to raise their mind and character. Much of the highest, painfullest service wrought
for the good of men—work of brain and heart—is least appreciated. So many a sincere
worker is sad because of the lack of appreciation, and ready to renounce his self-
sacrificing work, seeing it is so disregarded.
But let us remember how God’s work and gifts are unappreciated. The multitude crowds
into the music-hall and gazes with rapture on some vulgar stage scenery painted in glaring
ochres, whilst God’s bright landscapes full of perfect beauty solicit their eye in vain.
There is a great crush in the public gardens to witness an exhibition of fire-works—small
tricks in saltpetre; but the eager crowd turns its back on the moon walking in brightness
and God’s heaven sown with stars. And men treat God’s government and grace as they do
His handiwork, ignoring Him who is wonderful in counsel, excellent in working. Yet for
all this He does not suspend His beneficent action; He continues His glorious and
generous administration, whatever may be the response of His creatures. He makes His
sun to shine upon the evil and the good, His rain to descend upon the just and the unjust,
despite the thanklessness of the far greater portion of those who are so richly and
undeservedly blessed. How largely the sublime work of the Lord Jesus is unrecognized!
“Where are the nine?” is a mournful question still on our Master’s lips. But He does not
fail, neither is He discouraged because of the blindness and heartlessness of those whom
He suffered to redeem; He pursues the thankless with offers of grace and blessing. We are
far too anxious about acknowledgments and congratulations. It is natural, perhaps, that
we should suffer some sense of disappointment, but have we not considerations and
motives to lift us far above such discontent? It is rather the gratitude than the apathy of
men that should leave us mourning. Let us work in the spirit of a noble faith and

21. consecration, knowing that what we give and suffer will be lightly esteemed among men.
It was a saying of Cromwell’s that “he goes farthest who knows not where he is going.”
He did not forecast his actions and see far ahead, did not, indeed, try to do so. To him the
important thing was to get what he regarded as a leading from the Lord. When he was
sure of that, all hesitation on his part was gone. It is not business-like to know not whither
you are going, and he is not likely to go far who should enter upon business in that
fashion. But in the spiritual realm it is different. The great thing there is to follow the
Divine leading, and to sow even though it be in tears, trusting Him who gives the
command that all will be well, and that in His own good time there shall come a reaping
time of joy.1 [Note: J. S. Maver.]
II
The Promise
“Thou shalt find it after many days.”
This comes in most seasonably on the back of such a precept, and its expressiveness is
not instructive merely; it is most encouraging; nothing could be better; it is in every way
most worthy of the heartiest consideration and acceptation.
1. The most uncalculating generosity is precisely that which is most certain, in one way or
other, to meet with its reward. “Thou shalt find it after many days.” This is not to be the
motive of our acts, but it will in the course of time be the result.
21st September 1863—Met at the house of the Rev. C. K. Paul, at Stourminster Marshall,
Father Strickland, an English Jesuit, who said to me—“I have observed, throughout life,
that a man may do an immense deal of good, if he does not care who gets the credit for
it.”1 [Note: Sir M. E. Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, 1851–1872, 111.]
If we give because we do not know how soon we may need a gift, and in order that we
may by-and-by “find the good of it,” do not even the heathen and the publicans the same?
Well, not many of them, I think. I have not observed that it is their habit to cast their
bread on thankless waters. If they forebode calamity and loss, they provide against them,
not by giving, but by hoarding; and even they themselves would hardly accept as a model
of charity a man who buttoned up his pocket against every appeal, lest he should be
yielding to a selfish motive, or be suspected of it. The refined selfishness of showing
kindness and doing good even to the evil and the unthankful because we hope to find the
good of it is by no means too common yet; we need not go in dread of it. Nor is it an
altogether unworthy motive. St. Paul urges us to help a fallen brother on the express
ground that we may need similar help some day (Gal_6:1); and he was not in the habit of
appealing to base motives. Nay, the very Golden Rule itself, which all men admire even if
they do not walk by it, touches this spring of action; for among other meanings it surely
has this, that we are to do to others as we would that they should do to us, in the hope that
they will do to us as we have done to them. There are other higher meanings in the Rule
of course, as there are other and purer motives for Charity; but I do not know that we are

22. any of us of so lofty a virtue that we need fear to show kindness in order to win kindness,
or to give help that we may get help when we need it. Possibly, to act on this motive may
be the best and nearest way of rising to such higher motives as we can reach.2 [Note:
Samuel Cox, The Book of Ecclesiastes, 250.]
2. Some may happily find an almost immediate return, like the mother of Moses when she
entrusted her babe to the Nile waters, and her faith was rewarded even beyond her
expectations. Others may be like Jonathan, whose unselfish love towards David found a
return after he was gone, in David’s kindness to his son, Mephibosheth. And to others the
fulness of the return may be still more remote, as when Ruth cast in her lot with Naomi,
and thereby came to be privileged to have in the line of her descent the Saviour of the
world.
There is a certain beauty and power in the life that is lived and the labours that are
wrought with a distant aim in view. There is no such thing as labour for remote ends in
the brute creation, but in man you find it, and nothing distinguishes man from man more
than the capacity to foresee and work toward a far-distant result. As Ruskin says, “It is the
far-sight, the quiet and confident patience that, above all other attributes, separate man
from man, and near him to his Maker, and there is no action nor art whose majesty we
may not measure by this test.”1 [Note: J. S. Maver.]
I know a man intimately who has been periodically solicited for LOANS of money during
a long term of years, and who has generally acceded to the request. Of these loans he can
recall only one instance of repayment; but the instance is that of a boy whom he relieved
in an emergency, and who has lived to be a comfort to his family. The one success has
compensated the many failures. The bread which has been cast upon the waters has come
back only in fragments; but the fragments have been so precious that they have justified
the cost.2 [Note: G. Matheson, Thoughts for Life’s Journey, 232.]
3. However long in coming, the reward will come. “Thou shalt find it after many days.”
Our work shall not be unavailing, our bark shall not be shipwrecked. To do any work
with ardour, thoroughness, and perseverance we must have a strong assurance that it will
succeed, and in the noblest work we have that assurance. The seed that was sown
generations ago is bearing fruit to-day, and it shall be so once more with the seed we sow.
The ship that we sent forth with trembling, that is never reported from any foreign port,
that is never spoken by a passing sail, that sends no message in sealed bottle on the
waves, that is frozen fast in abysses of frost and darkness, shall nevertheless return,
bringing treasure beyond all ivory, pearls, or gold. On celestial cliffs we shall hail
argosies that we fitted out and sent over stormy seas. “Blessed are the dead which die in
the Lord; … they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.”
Dr. Dwight of America tells how, when the country near Albany was newly settled, an
Indian came to the inn at Lichfield, and asked for a night’s shelter—at the same time
confessing that from failure in hunting he had nothing to pay. The hostess drove him
away with reproachful epithets, and as the Indian was retiring sorrowfully—there being
no other inn for many a weary mile—a man who was sitting by directed the hostess to
supply his wants and promised to pay her. As soon as his supper was ended, the Indian

23. thanked his benefactor, and said he would some day repay him. Several years thereafter
the settler was taken a prisoner by a hostile tribe, and carried off to Canada. His life was
spared, however, though he himself was detained in slavery. But one day an Indian came
to him, and giving him a musket, bade the captive follow him. The Indian never told
where they were going, or what was his object; but day after day the captive followed his
mysterious guide, till one afternoon they came suddenly on a beautiful expanse of
cultivated fields, with many houses rising amongst them. “Do you know that place?”
asked the Indian. “Ah, yes—it is Lichfield”; and whilst the astonished exile had not
recovered his surprise and amazement, the Indian exclaimed, “And I am the starving
Indian on whom at this very place you took pity. And now that I have paid for my supper,
I pray you go home.” 1 [Note: J. Hamilton, The Royal Preacher, 198.]
There is no labour lost
Though it seem tossed
Into the deepest sea.
In dark and dreary nights,
’Mid stormy flash of lights,
It cometh back to thee.
Cometh not as it went,
So strangely warped and bent,
But straight as an arrow new.
And though thou dost not know
How right from wrong may grow,
From false the true—
Thou must confess ere long
Sorrow hath broke forth in song—
That life comes out of death,
The lily and rose’s breath
From beds where ugly stains
Were washed below by earthly rains.

24. Fear not to labour, then,
Nor say, “I threw my time away!”
It is for God, not men,
To count the cost and pay.
PULPIT 1-6, "Bread upon the waters; or, rules and reasons for practicing
beneficence.
I. RULES. Beneficence should be practiced:
1. Without doubt as to its result. One's charity should be performed in a spirit of
fearless confidence, even though the recipients of it should appear altogether
unworthy, and cur procedure as hopeless and thankless an operation as "casting
one's bread upon the waters" (verse 1), or "sowing the 'sea' (Theognis).
2. Without limit as to its distribution. "Give a portion to seven, yea even unto eight"
(verse 2); that is, "Give to him that asketh, and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away" (Mat_5:42). Social economics may, bug the sermon on the
mount does not, condemn indiscriminate or promiscuous giving. One's bread should
be cast upon the waters in the sense that it should be bestowed upon the multitudes,
or carried far and wide rather than restricted to a narrow circle.
3. Without anxiety as to its seasonableness. As "he that observeth the wind will not
sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap" (verse 4), so he who is always
apprehensive lest his deeds of kindness should be ill-timed is not likely to practice
much beneficence. The farmer who should spend his days in watching the weather
to select just the right moment to plough and sow, or reap and garner, would never
get the one operation or the ether performed; and little charity would be witnessed
were men never to give until they were quite sure they had hit upon the right time to
give, and never to do an act of kindness until they were certain the proper, objects to
receive it had been found.
4. Without intermission as to its time. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the
evening withhold not thine hand" (verse 6). Who would practice beneficence as it
should be practiced must be as constantly employed therein as the husbandman is in
his agricultural operations. Philanthropy is a sacred art, which can only be acquired
by pains and patience. Intermittent goodness, charity performed by fits and starts,
occasional benevolence, never comes to much, and never does much for either the
giver or receiver. Charity to be efficient must be a perennial fountain and a running
stream (1Co_13:8). The charitable man must be always giving, like God, who
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, etc. (Mat_5:45), and who giveth unto
all liberally (Jas_1:5).

25. II. REASO S. Beneficence should be practiced for the following reasons:
1. It is certain in the end to be recompensed. (Verse 1.) The kindly disposed
individual, who fearlessly casts his bread upon the waters by doing good to the
unkind and the unthankful (Mat_5:45; Luk_6:35), may have a long time to wait for
a return from his venture in practical philanthropy; but eventually that return will
come, here on earth, in the inward satisfaction that springs from doing good,
perhaps in the gratitude of those who experience his kindness, hereafter in the
welcome and the glory Christ has promised to such as are mindful of his needy
brethren on earth (Mat_25:40).
2. o one can predict how SOO himself may become an object of charity. As
surely as the clouds when full of rain will empty themselves upon the earth, and a
tree will lie exactly in the place where it falls (verse 3), so surely will seasons of
calamity, when they come, descend on rich and poor alike; yea, perhaps strike the
wealthy, the great, and the good with strokes which the indigent, the obscure, and
the wicked may escape. Hence the bare consideration of this fact, that bad times
may come—not only depriving one of the ability to practice beneficence, but
rendering one a fit subject for the same (the latter of these being most likely the
Preacher's thought)—should induce one to be charitable while he may and can. This
may seem a low, selfish, and unworthy ground on which to recommend the practice
of philanthropy; but does its meaning not substantially amount to this, that men
should give to others because, were bad times to strip them of their wealth, and
plunge them into poverty, they would wish others to give to them? And how much is
this below the standard of the golden rule (Mat_7:12)?
3. o amount of forethought will discover a better time for practicing beneficence
than the present. As no one knows the way of the wind (Joh_3:8), or the secrets of
embryology (Psa_139:15)—in both of which departments of nature, notwithstanding
the discoveries of modern science, much ignorance prevails—so can no one predict
what kind of future will emerge from the womb of the present (Pro_27:1; Zep_2:2),
or what shall be the course of providence on the morrow. Hence to defer exercising
charity till one has fathomed the unfathomable is more than merely to waste one's
time; it is to miss a certain opportunity for one that may never arrive. As today only
is ours, we should never cast it away for a doubtful to-morrow, but "Act in the
living present, Heart within and God o'er head." (Longfellow.)
4. The issues of beneficence, in the recipients thereof, are uncertain. That an act of
charity, or deed of kindness, whensoever done, will prosper without fail in the
experience of the doer thereof, has been declared (verse 1); that it will turn out
equally well in the experience of him to whom it is done is not so inevitable. Yet
from this problematical character of all human philanthropy as to results should be
drawn an argument, not for doing nothing, but for doing more. Art atrabiliar soul
will conclude that, because he is not sure whether his charity may not injure rather
than benefit the recipient, he should hold his hand; a hopeful and happy Christian
will feel impelled to more assiduous benevolence by reflecting that he can never tell

26. when his kindly deeds will bear fruit in the temporal, perhaps also spiritual,
salvation of the poor and needy. "The seed sown in the morning of life may bear its
harvest at once, or not till the evening of age. The man may reap at one and the
same time the fruits of his earlier and later sowing, and may find that both are alike
good" (Plumptre).
LESSO S.
1. "As therefore ye have opportunity, do good unto all men" (Gal_6:10).
2. Weary not in well-doing (Gal_6:9).
3. Take no thought for tomorrow (Mat_6:34).
4. Cultivate a hopeful view of life (Pro_10:28).
Verses 1-6
Conditions of success in BUSI ESS.
I. THE MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED.
1. Enterprises not FREE from hazard. "Cast thy bread upon the waters," meaning,
"launch out upon the sea of business speculation." The man who would succeed
must be prepared to venture somewhat. A judicious quantity of courage seems
indispensable to getting on. The timid merchant is as little likely to prosper as the
shrinking lover.
2. Prudence in dividing risks. "Divide the portion into seven, yea, eight parts,"
which again signifies that one should never put all his eggs into one basket, commit
all his goods to one caravan, place all his cargo in one ship, invest all his capital in
one undertaking, or generally venture all on one card.
3. Confidence in going forward, The agriculturist who, is always, watching the
weather—"observing the wind and regarding the clouds (verse 4)—will make but a
poor farmer; and he who is constantly taking fright at the fluctuations of the market
will prove only an indifferent merchant. In business, as in love and war, the man
who hesitates is lost.
4. Diligence and constancy in labor. The person who aims at success in business
must be a hard and. incessant, not a fitful and intermittent, worker. If a farmer, he
must sow betimes in the morning, and pause not until hindered by the shades of
night. If a merchant, he must trade both early and late. If an artisan, he must toil
week in and week out. It is "the hand of the diligent" that "maketh rich" (Pro_
10:4).
II. THE MOTIVES TO BE CHERISHED.

27. 1. The expectation of a future REWARD. "Thou shalt find it [thy bread] after many
days." Such enterprises, though attended with risk, will not all fail, but will
generally prove successful—not immediately, perhaps, but after an interval of
waiting, as the ships of a foreign merchant require months, or even years, before
they return with the desired profits.
2. The anticipation of impending calamity. As no man can foresee the future, the
prudent merchant lays his account with one or more of his ventures coming to grief.
Hence, in the customary phrase, he "divides the risk," and does not hazard all in
one expedition.
3. The consciousness of inability to forecast the future. Just because of this—
illustrated in verses 3 and 5—the man who aspires to prosper in his undertakings
dismisses all overanxious care, and instead of waiting for opportunities and
markets, makes them.
4. The beige of ultimately succeeding. Though he may often fail, he expects he will
not always fail; hence he redoubles his energy and diligence. "In the morning he
sows his seed, and in the evening withholds not his band," believing that in the end
his labors will be crowned with success.
Learn:
1. That business is not incompatible with piety.
2. That piety need be no hindrance to business.
3. That each may be helpful to the other.
4. That both should be, and are, a source of blessing to the world.
EBC, "But in a wise Use and a wise Enjoyment of the Present Life: Ecc_11:1-8
What that Good is, and where it may be found, the Preacher now proceeds to show. But,
as his manner is, he does not say in so many words, "This is the Chief Good of man," or
"You will find it yonder;" but he places before us the man who is walking in the right
path and drawing closer and closer to it. Even of him the Preacher does not give us any
formal description; but, following what we have seen to be his favourite method, he gives
us a string of maxims and counsels from which we are to infer what manner of man he is
who happily achieves this great Quest.
And, at the very outset, we learn that this happy person is of a noble, unselfish, generous
temper. Unlike the man who simply wants to get on and make a fortune, he grudges no
man his gains; he looks on his neighbours’ interests as well as his own, and does good
even to the evil and the unthankful. He is one who "casts his bread upon the waters "
(Ecc_11:1), and who "gives a portion thereof to seven, and even to eight " (Ecc_11:2), The
familiar proverb of the first verse has long been read as an allusion to the sowing of rice
and other grain from a boat, during the periodical inundation of certain Eastern rivers,

28. especially the Nile. We have been taught to regard the husbandman pushing from the
embanked village in his frail bark, to cast the grain he would gladly cat on the surface of
the flood, as a type of Christian labour and charity. He denies himself; so also must we if
we would do good. He has faith in the Divine laws, and trusts to receive his own again
with usury, to reap a larger crop the longer he waits for it ; and, in like manner, we are to
trust in the Divine laws which bring us a hundred-fold for every act of self-denying
service, and bless our "long patience" with the ampler harvest. But it is doubtful whether
the Hebrew usus loquendi admits of this interpretation. It probably suggests another
which, if unfamiliar to us, has a beauty of its own. In the East bread is commonly made
in thin flat cakes, something like Passover cakes; and one of these cakes flung on the
stream, though it would float with the current for a time, would soon sink; and once
sunk would, unlike the grain cast from the boat, yield no return. And our charity should
be like that. We should do good, " hoping for nothing again." We should show
kindnesses which will soon be forgotten, never be returned, and be undismayed by the
thanklessness of the task. It is not so thankless as it seems. For, first, we shall "find the
good of it" in the loftier, more generous temper which the habit of doing good breeds
and confirms. If no one else be the better for our kindness, we shall be the better,
because the more kindly, for it. The quality of charity, like that of mercy, is twice blessed;
"It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
And, again, the task is not so thankless as it sometimes seems; for though many of our
kind deeds may quicken no kindness in "him that takes," yet some of them will; and the
more we help and succour the more likely are we to light upon at least a few who, when
our need comes, will succour and console us. Even the most hardened have a certain
tenderness for those who help them, if only the help meet a real need, and be given with
grace. And, therefore, we may be very sure that if we give a portion of our bread to seven
and even to eight, especially if they know that we ourselves have stomach for it all, at
least one or two of them will share with us when we need bread.
But is not this, after all, only a refined selfishness? If we give because we do not know
how soon we may need a gift, and in order that we may by-and-bye "find the good of it,"
do not even the heathen and the publicans the same? Well, not many of them, I think. I
have not observed that it is their habit to cast their bread on thankless waters. If they
forbode calamity and loss, they provide against them, not by giving, but by hoarding;
and even they themselves would hardly accept as a model of charity a man who but
toned up his pocket against every appeal, lest he should be yielding to a selfish motive,
or be suspected of it. The refined selfishness of showing kindness and doing good even to
the evil and the unthankful because we hope to find the good of it is by no means too
common yet; we need not go in dread of it. Nor is it an altogether unworthy motive. St.
Paul urges us to help a fallen brother on the express ground that we may need similar
help some day (Gal_6:1); and he was not in the habit of appealing to base motives. Nay,
the very Golden Rule itself, which all men admire even if they do not walk by it, touches
this spring of action ; for among other meanings it surely has this, that we are to do to
others as we would that they should do to us, in the hope that they will do to us as we
have done to them. There are other higher meanings in the Rule of course, as there are
other and purer motives for Charity; but I do not know that we are any of us of so lofty a
virtue that we need fear to show kindness in order to win kindness, or to give help that
we may get help when we need it. Possibly, to act on this motive may be the best and
nearest way of rising to such higher motives as we can reach. The first characteristic,
then, of the man who is likely to achieve the quest of the Chief Good is the charity which
prompts him to be gracious, and to show kindness, and to do good, even to the thankless
and ungracious. And his second characteristic is the stedfast industry which turns all

29. seasons to account. The man of affairs, who wants to rise, waits on occasion; he is on the
watch to avail himself of the moods and caprices of men and bend them to his interest.
But he who has learned to value things at their true worth, and whose heart is fixed on
the acquisition of the highest good, does not want to get on so much as to do his duty
under all the variable conditions of life. Just as he will not withhold his hand from
giving, lest some of the recipients of his charity should prove unworthy, so also he will
not withdraw his hand from the labour appointed him, because this or that endeavour
may be unproductive, or lest it should be thwarted by the ordinances of heaven. He
knows that the laws of nature will hold on their way, often causing individual loss to
promote the general good. He knows, for instance, that when the clouds are full of rain
they will empty themselves upon the earth, even though they put his harvest in peril; and
that when the wind is fierce it will blow down trees, even though it should also scatter
the seed which he is sowing. But he does not therefore wait upon the wind till it is too
late to sow, nor upon the clouds till his ungathered crops rot in the fields. He is
conscious that, though he knows much, he knows little of these as of other works of God:
he cannot tell whether this or that tree will be blown down; almost all he can be certain
of is that, when the tree is down, it will lie where it has fallen, lifting its bleeding roots in
dumb protest against the wind which has brought it low. But this too he knows, that it is
"God who worketh all;" that he is not responsible for events beyond his control: that
what he is responsible for is that he do the duty of the moment whatever wind may blow,
and calmly leave the issue in the hand of God. And so he is not "over exquisite to cast the
fashion of uncertain evils;" diligent and undismayed, he goes on his way, giving himself
heartily to the present duty, "sowing his seed, morning and evening, although he cannot
tell which shall prosper, this or that, or whether both shall prove good " (Ecc_11:3-6).
Windy March cannot blow him from his constant purpose, though it may blow the seed
out of his hand; nor a rainy August melt him to despairing tears, though it may damage
his harvest. He has done his duty, discharged his responsibility: let God see to the rest;
whatever pleases God will content him.
This man, then, has learned one or two of the profoundest secrets of wisdom, plain as
they look. He has learned that, giving, we gain; and, spending, thrive. He has also
learned that a man’s true care is himself; that all that pertains to the body, to the issues
of labour, to the chances of fortune, is external to himself; that whatever form these may
take, he may learn from them, and profit by them, and be content in them: that his true
business in the world is to cultivate a strong and dutiful character which shall prepare
him for any world or any fate; and that so long as he can do this, his main duty will be
done, his ruling object attained. Totum in eo est, ut libi imperes.
Is not this true wisdom? is it not an abiding good? Pleasures may bloom and fade.
Speculations may shift and change. Riches may come and go- what else have they wings
for? The body may sicken or strengthen. The favour of men may be conferred and
withdrawn. There is no stability in these; and if we are dependent on them, we shall be
variable and inconstant as they are. But if we make it our chief aim to do our duty
whatever it may be, and to love and serve our neighbour whatever the attitude he may
assume to us, we have an aim always within our reach, a duty we may always be doing, a
good as enduring as ourselves, and therefore a good we may enjoy for ever. Standing on
this rock, from which no wave of change can sweep us, " the light will be sweet to us, and
it shall be pleasant to our eyes to behold the sun," whatever the day, or the world, on
which he may rise (Ecc_11:7). But is all our life to be taken up in meeting the claims of
duty and of charity ? Are we never to relax into mirth, never to look forward to a time in
which reward will be more exactly adjusted to service? Yes, we are to do both this and
that. It is very true that he who makes it his ruling aim to do the present duty, and to

30. leave the future with God, will have a happy because a useful life. He that walks this path
of duty
"only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes.
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden roses."
The path may often be steep and difficult; it may be overhung with threatening rocks
and strewn with "stones of offence;" but he who pursues it, still pressing on "through the
long gorge" and winning his way upward,
"Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled,
Are close upon the shining table-lands
To which our God Himself is sun and moon."
Nevertheless, if his life is to be full and complete, he must be able to pluck whatever
bright flowers of joy spring beside his path, to find "laughing waters" in the crags he
climbs, and to rejoice not only in "the glossy purples" of the armed and stubborn thistle,
but in the delicate beauty of the ferns, the pure grace of the cyclamens, and the sweet
breath of the fragrant grasses and flowers which haunt those severe heights. If he is to be
a Man, rather than a Stoic or an Anchorite, he must add to his sense of duty a keen
delight in all beauty, all grace, all innocent and noble pleasure. For the sake of others,
too, as well as for his own sake, he must carry with him "the merry heart which doeth
good like a medicine," since, lacking that, he will neither do all the good he might, nor
himself become perfect and complete. And it is proof, I think, of the good divinity, no
less than of the broad humanity, of the Preacher that he lays much stress on this point.
He not only bids us enjoy life, but gives us cogent reasons for enjoying it. " Even/’ he
says, " if a man should live many years, he ought to enjoy them all." But why? " Because
there will be many dark days," days of old age and growing infirmity in which pleasures
will lose their charm; days of death through which he wall sleep quietly in the dark
stillness of the grave, beyond the touch of any happy excitement (Ecc_11:8). Therefore
the man who attains the Chief Good will not only do the duty of the moment; he will also
enjoy the pleasure of the moment. He will not toil through the long day of life till, spent
and weary, he has no power to enjoy his "much goods," or no time for his soul to "make
merry the glad." While he is "a young man," he will "rejoice in his youth, and let his heart
cheer him," and go after the pleasures which attract youth (Ecc_11:9). While his heart is
still fresh, when pleasures are most innocent and healthful, easiest of attainment and
unalloyed by anxiety and care, he will cultivate that cheerful temper which is a prime
safeguard against vice, discontent, and the morose fretfulness of a selfish old age.
Combined with a steadfast Faith in the Life to come: Ecc_10:9-12:7
But, soft; is not our man of men becoming a mere man of pleasure? No; for he recognises
the claims of duty and of charity. These keep his pleasures sweet and wholesome,
prevent them from usurping the whole man, and landing him in the satiety and
weariness of dissipation. But lest even these safeguards should prove insufficient, he has
also this: he knows that "God will bring him into judgment"; that all his works, whether
of charity or duty or recreation, will be weighed in the pure and even balance of Divine

31. Justice (Ecc_11:9). This is the secret of the pure heart-the heart that is kept pure amid
all labours and cares and joys. But the intention of the Preacher in thus adverting to the
Divine Judgment has been gravely misconstrued, wrested even to its very opposite. We
too much forget what that judgment must have seemed to the enslaved Jews; -how
weighty a consolation, how bright a hope! They were captive exiles, oppressed by
profligate despotic lords. Cleaving to the Divine Law with a passionate loyalty such as
they had never felt in happier days, they were nevertheless exposed to the most dire and
constant misfortunes. All the blessings which the Law pronounced on the obedient
seemed withheld from them, all its promises of good and peace to be falsified; the
wicked triumphed over them, and prospered in their wickedness. Now to a people whose
convictions and hopes had suffered this miserable defeat, what truth would be more
welcome than that of a life to come, in which all wrongs should be both righted and
avenged, and all the promises in which they had hoped should receive a large fulfilment
that would beggar hope? what prospect could be more cheerful and consolatory than
that of a day of retribution on which their oppressors would be put to shame, and they
would be recompensed for their fidelity to the law of God? This hope would be sweeter
to them than any pleasure; it would lend a new zest to every pleasure, and make them
more zealous in good works.
Nay, we know, from the Psalms composed during the Captivity, that the judgment of
God was an incentive to hope and joy; that, instead of fearing it, the pious Jews looked
forward to. it with rapture and exultation. What, for example, can be more riant and
joyful than the concluding strophe of Psa_96:1-13?
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad:
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof:
Let the field exult and all that therein is:
And let all the trees of the wood sing for joy
Before Jehovah: for He cometh,
For He cometh to judge the earth,
To judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with his truth:
or than the third strophe of Psa_98:1-9?
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof:
The world, and they that dwell therein:
Let the floods clap their hands,
And let the hills sing for joy together
Before Jehovah: for he cometh to judge the earth:
With righteousness shall he judge the world,
And the peoples with equity.
It is impossible to read these verses, and such verses as these, without feeling that the
Jews of the captivity anticipated the divine judgment, not with fear and dread, but with a
hope and joy so deep and keen as that they summoned the whole round of nature to
share it and reflect it.