The Book of Ecclesiastes

'I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness' Ecclesiastes 7:25. From the human point of view, life ('under the sun') does appear futile, and it is easy for us to get pessimistic. Ecclesiastes goes beyond the wisdom from other literature to emphasize the fact that human life and human goals, as ends in themselves apart from God, are meaningless. What a relief to turn and hear Jesus Christ say, 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.'