What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away, and another cometh; but the earth abideth forever.

The Vagabond is one of those energetic souls who has a healthy dislike for people who spend their lives telling others how to conduct themselves and yet never manage to accomplish anything worthwhile themselves. Of a temperament eager and alive to things new, and yet not blind to what has come down from ages and generations past, he delights in old works which have so breathed the breath of life that they still cast their influence on people today, and he takes pleasure in the men who interpret these old works to a new age, a new generation, in the light of new ideas and new times.

A work at once the oldest and the newest of books is the Hebrew Old Testament. Really the chronicle of the Jewish tribes from earliest recorded times right down to the Christian era, a chronicle which took those people through some of the most amazing adventures that you can read about in any literature, a chronicle occasionally incomplete--full of blind spots, times when the race seemed to be swallowed up like Jonah from the face of the earth--nevertheless this chronicle, this story, has had as much to do with shaping the course of world affairs for the last nineteen hundred years as any other single factor. And not only did the Jewish religion give birth to the Christian, but its contributions in its own right are a vital force in modern society.

But the Old Testament is not just a history book; it is a statement of philosophy, a piece of poetry, and the expression of a fundamental outlook on Man and the Unknown. But philosophy, poetry, and religion are clearer to some minds than to others; if they are to survive in our society, men must be found to explain them, to expound them, to give them life. At Harvard such a man has taken a Bible course, declining into dotage, inspired it with his own enthusiasm, chiselled it with his incisive mind, and made it one of the most popular and influential courses in the undergraduate curriculum.

A vanity of vanities, this business of teaching young men the fruit of older wisdom? Is there no profit of all a man's labor which he taketh under the sun? Hardly. Rather is there great profit, perhaps not to the individual who puts in the effort and makes the sacrifices. The profit accrues to those who follow in his train, who have heard his voice, shared his enthusiasm, and will come in time to pass on to other rising generations his message.

And there is profit to the individual, too. At the end of one path where one must stop, there branch out more paths to follow, more new trails to be explored, where again is a chance to lead the way for others. All is not vanity and vexation of spirit. Rather is there work for all to do, rewards for doing it.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.

Today at noon, the Vagabond will go to the Fogg Large Room to listen to Kirsopp Lake, professor of History, lecture on Ecclesiastes and Tobit.