Here then is the plain, stern truth,--a law, not of Nature only, but of the Universe. As you look into a fact so solemn, so awful; as the cadence of the chapter closes, do you not seem to perceive with a new clearness how men needed One who could take away the sins of the world, One who could break those cruel bonds which men have made for themselves?
[72] Prov. xiv. 12.
[73] Prov. v. 8.
[74] The Laureate has touched with stern satire on this debased modern Realism:--
"Author, atheist, essayist, novelist, realist, rhymester, play your part, Paint the mortal shame of Nature with the living hues of Art. Rip your brothers' vices open, strip your own foul passions bare, Down with Reticence, down with Reverence--forward--naked--let them stare! Feed the budding rose of boyhood with the drainage of your sewer, Send the drain into the fountain lest the stream should issue pure. Set the maiden fancies wallowing in the troughs of Zolaism, Forward, forward,--aye and backward, downward too into the abysm!" --_The new Locksley Hall._
[75] Prov. ix. 17.
[76] Prov. vi. 25.
[77] Prov. vii. 16, 17.
[78] Prov. v. 15-19.
[79] _Paradise Lost._
[80] Prov. vi. 27, 28.
[81] Prov. v. 9.
[82] Prov. vi. 33.
[83] Prov. vi. 34, 35.
[84] Prov. v. 10.
[85] Prov. vi. 26.
[86] Prov. v. 11.
[87] Prov. v. 12-14.
[88] Prov. v. 21.
[89] It is, if we may say so, a maxim of modern science that "A sin without punishment is as impossible, as complete a contradiction in terms, as a cause without an effect" (W. R. Gregg).
[90] Prov. v. 23.
[91] _King Lear._
[92] Mark iii. 26.
[93] Prov. vi. 26.
[94] Prov. xxiii. 29, 32.