force. Force, without wisdom, very frequently, instead of gaining its objects, impedes and frustrates them. The "wise man" proceeds with cautious and considerate prudence,—with appropriate adjustment of means and methods to the circumstances and the characters with which he has to deal. And, in the case of the godly, the wisdom that consists in the fear of the Lord, will, in every season of perplexity and diffi culty, look upward for divine direction, and guide itself by the light of the divine word.* It is thus that the good man encounters and overcomes spiritual opposition lying in the way of his course heavenward. In the strength of divinely promised aid, he "casts down the strength of the confidence" of his spiritual adversaries, and is made "more than conqueror."

Verse 23. "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles." Here we have still another characteristic and another advantage of wisdom. It enables its possessor to "keep the mouth and the tongue "-to know the "time to be silent, and the time to speak," and in the time to speak, what to say. We have had repeated occasion to notice the incalculable amount and variety of mischief of which the tongue is the occasion; how its openly uttered or secretly whispered words may break hearts, may ruin characters, may sever friends, may bring individuals and families to beggary and disgrace, may spread alienation and discord. through extensive circles of intimacy and affection, may pierce through with many sorrows" spirits that were enjoying peace and love, may be even as barbed daggers that take away life; how too they recoil in mischief to ourselves; how a word of slander brought out in a moment of irritation or thoughtlessness, may cost a man the humiliation of submissive apology, or the annoyance and expense of litigation, and the reparation of heavy damages; how the recollection of a hasty expression, along with the effects which have arisen from it to those to whom at the time no harm was meant, may inflict severe and long-continued self-reproach, with all its accom

*See chap. iii. 5, 6.

paniments of mental disquietude and distress; how the foolish utterances of an unguarded hour may go far to shake the credit of years of discretion—the recollection of that hour of folly ever returning upon the mind of previous admirers, and, if not absolutely obliterating their former estimate of a man's sound sense and dignity, operating at least as a serious drawback on their respect for his character; how too it leads to inward deep remorse, arising from a consciousness of having spoken inconsistently with our Christian profession and principles, and the thought of having given an unfavourable impression of our religion, and failed of an opportunity of honouring God—a thought than which to a Christian heart there is none more galling, spirit-sinking, and severe :-associated as it is with proportionate diminution of interest in Christ, and of the validity of our confidence towards God.It is indeed emphatically true that "whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles."

Verse 24. "Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath." To "deal in proud wrath,"- -on the margin, "in the wrath of pride,"-evidently means to act with the overbearing violence of a haughty spirit. All the conduct of such a man is insolently self-sufficient, and, when resisted, furious. The proud man is puffed up. He thinks all should at once yield to his will and wishes, and can bear with patience no opposition. This of course is a character that can never be liked. It stirs up the pride and passion of others. It becomes the object of universal indignation. and disgust. Hence the man gets himself a name of reproach: he shall be called "proud and haughty scorner:" and in his name he finds his punishment: for true it is, that the proudest of men does not like being called proud; as the man who deals most in lies may like least to be called a liar. A "proud scorner is one of the most unpopular and odious of characters. From him whom men thus designate, all will keep aloof. all are necessarily so much dependent upon one another, in despite of a man's self-concentrated pride and contempt of his fellows, it is not every one that can afford to adopt and

And in a world where

live upon the maxim of the tyrant-" Let them hate me, so they but fear me!" Thus he who, by his unbearable temper, "sets himself alone in the earth," may be forced to feel the inconveniences of being without the good-will even of those whom he professes to scorn.

Verses 25, 26. "The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long but the righteous giveth, and spareth not." The word of God is characterised by its variety. Even on the same subject, how frequently soever introduced, there may generally be found some diversity in the position it occupies, -the light in which it is presented; some new phase in its source, its nature, or its results. The evil effects of sloth have been before us oftener than most points on which the wise man touches. Here it is again. We dwell only on the new aspect under which it appears. It is presented to us first, as a species of self-murder:-"The desire of the slothful killeth him:" and why?" for his hands refuse to labour." He will not work, and he cannot want. He "desires" certain acquisitions and indulgences; but his hands. refuse to second his wishes. He cannot bring them to the necessary exertion; and so his unsatisfied desire gnaws, torments, wastes, irritates, destroys him. There is nothing more irksome than the longing, yawning, fretting yearnings of the indolent wretch who will not help himself. They are miserable; and they are suicidal; they "kill him." Mere desiring" that the ground were tilled will not till it. Mere wishing for money and food will not create either the one or the other. So that if he only "desires" life, but will do nothing to sustain it, he must die. Another aspect of the same evil is that it engenders and maintains the spirit of a grasping grudging covetousness: "He coveteth greedily all the day long." He sees others in the possession and enjoyment of what he wants. He longs after the same, but he will He sets his heart on all he sees,

do nothing to obtain it.

*

and pines away in that "envy which is the rottenness of the

bones." In the Paris French translation the words stand thus-"All the day long he does nothing but wish." How very expressive at once of the unconquerable indolence and the fretful, envious, pining unhappiness of the sluggard! And in his wishing, he may at times, by the power of a sanguine imagination, work himself into hope; and then, disappointment only embitters the cup of his own mingling, aggravates the misery, which he is painfully conscious is self-inflicted. Further: he appears before us a stranger to all the positive and exquisite pleasures of charity and beneficence; but "the righteous giveth and spareth not." It is not said, you will observe-"the diligent giveth and spareth not;" because there are not a few who are sufficiently exemplary in diligence, to whom the Bible would not give the designation of "the righteous,"—and who are far from being distinguished for benevolence. But the an

tithesis, as it stands here, implies these three things: First, that diligence is one of the features in the character of the righteous:-Secondly, that the natural tendency, and ordinary result of this is, through the divine blessing, abundance to spare:-Thirdly, that another distinguishing feature of the character of the righteous man, readiness to part with what his industry acquires—“giving, and not sparing;" that is, giving cheerfully, and giving liberally; not assenting merely to the truth of the maxim, as being the word of the Lord, but feeling the truth of it in their own heart's experience— "It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Verse 27. "The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?" The sentiment of the former part of the verse we have already illustrated,* showing by an appeal to many explicit passages in the Old Testament, that, unless the character of the worshipper was in correspondence with the worship offered by him, that worship, instead of being acceptable to the "Holy One of Israel," to the pure, truth-loving, and heart

searching God, was held by him in abhorrence, and indignantly rejected.

What, then, is the addition to this truth, in the latter part of this verse?-"How much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?" The meaning seems to be-when not only is the worshipper's general character at variance with the religious service, but when the particular act of devotion itself is performed with an evil design-as a cloak or cover to some wicked purpose:—when a man comes before the God of truth for a purpose of falsehood,- -a purpose suggested by the father of lies; concealing by a profession made to God some work of the devil. We have an instance in the history of Jezebel. * There was a fast-a religious service to Jehovah-proclaimed, with the express object of covering the perpetration of one of the most nefarious deeds of treachery and murder recorded in the Bible history. The case of Balaam is another. He ordered the building at successive altars, and offered his bullock and his But all the while he was "loving the

places, of his seven ram on every altar. wages of unrighteousness;" and, for the sake of these wages, trying to bribe the Almighty into a permission to him to curse Israel. Look also at our Lord's representation of the character of the hypocritical Pharisees; in which He seems plainly to point at something more than general dissimulation-the studied covering of the very act of robbery-the robbery of the widow and the fatherless—by some accompanying act of extraordinary devotion.t There are degrees in sin. There are aggravating circumstances in the same kinds of sin. There is wickedness in all hypocrisy - in all religious dissimulation,—there being no one thing in which "simplicity and godly sincerity" are more imperatively required than the services of religion; but of all religious dissimulation that must be the most heinous, in which an act of worship is performed expressly to cover and facilitate the execution of an act of villany; when a worshipper bows before the God of mercy and truth, with the assassin's

* See 1 Kings xxi. 9, 10, &c. † Matt. xxiii. 14; Luke xx. 47.