It is, comparatively speaking, so little a while since the Bible was the unfailing source of human comfort and inspiration, that the indifference with which, in recent years, it had come to be regarded by the many, must needs have brought disquieting thoughts to the few. In the days of our grandparents, and for five centuries before that, the Bible was, at once, the fount of divine wisdom, the sure depository of truth for the faithful, an impregnable rock; and so firmly was its influence established, that all the contrary efforts of the times could not weaken or diminish its power for strengthening and comforting the hearts and minds of believing men. Then, in perhaps a natural process--for reasons I will not in this connection endeavour to suggest, though they are evident enough to whosoever would seek them--the old power of the scriptures seemed gradually to fade. The Bible became less the personal companion, and more a sideboard ornament; if, indeed, it was not merely an impediment on the shelf of the forgotten. Then time again wrought change, a hopeful change. The scholarly study and criticism given to the book during the last twenty to thirty years, helped by well-organised and wonderfully well-rewarded archæological research, have had, with other tendencies, this effect. They re-established the authority of the scriptures, and reintroduced them to thoughtful minds; not quite, perhaps, as in the old uncritical days, but with the living force and authority of an immortal literature. The Bible became no longer--or should I say, not merely?--a mystical touchstone, a magical entity; but a rich collection of national writings, containing, as it does, a series of human documents of unsurpassable value--history, law, philosophy, politics, prophecy, poetry, proverbs, and allegories--which had for the centuries of its evolution and creation, and have for these days and the years to come, inspiration and messages which, when sought and realised, must inevitably rouse, raise, and instruct the energies and thoughts of mankind. It is as such--as human documents reflecting the ideals and the philosophy of eastern wisdom--that this selection of two of the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament has been included in the “Wisdom of the East” series. Regarded as human documents, there can be no question of their great interest and value. _The Wisdom of Solomon_ and _Ecclesiasticus_ follow naturally after, and are not unworthy to range with, _The Proverbs_ and _Ecclesiastes_; although not for an instant would one claim for them equality of excellence with those accepted parts of the Canon. Nevertheless, the neglect of the Apocryphal writings has meant a loss, unjustifiable; for they carry on the literature, and generally illustrate the ethical attitude, of the Jews, during the gap of years which lapsed between the last books of the Old Testament and the Synoptic Gospels, and are in many respects unique.