" keep them with all the care and tenderness with which we keep the apple of our eye :" and he will administer to them, in every hour of trial, whatever shall be most suited to their necessities ^. In the hour of death especially, " when they arc goinf?, as it were, through fire and water, he will be with them : " and, on the instant of their release from this mortal body, he will transport them on the wings of angels to his blest abode, there to behold and participate his glory to all eter- nity. But who can form any idea of the blessings he will then bestow. It is sufficient for us to know that his word is pledged, and that what he hath promised, he is able also to perform.]
If such be the value of true wisdom, what must be,
II. The folly of neglecting it —
Sin of every kind is an act of hostility against sound wisdom : and, if the sin be wilful, it is an evidence that our hostility proceeds from a rooted hatred of vital godliness. There is the same mutual opposition, and irreconcileable enmity, between sin and holiness, as between darkness and light : they cannot consist together, nor can the love of both find room to dwell in one bosom. If then we allowedly neglect true wisdom,
1. We " wrong our own souls" —
[The soul has strong and just claims, which every sinner resists. As being of a higher nature, and endued with larger capacities, than the body, it claims that the body should submit to its authority. As being the only seat of intelligence, it claims that the body folloio its guidance. As being immortal, and doomed to spend an eternity in inconceivable happiness or miserj^, it claims that the body consult its interests. But when the voice of wisdom is silenced, and sin is permitted to rule in our mortal body, then is the soul wronged in every respect; its authority is slighted ; its counsel rejected ; its interest sacrificed: it is even made the drudge and slave of the body, to execute its devices and to gratify its lusts. Who does not see, that if any man, for the gratification of avarice, should resist the natural claims of the body for food and raiment, he would be justly and universally condemned ? And does he act less foolishly, who, in the manner before mentioned, wrongs his soul ? Yea rather, is not his folly greater in proportion as his soul is of greater value ? Truly this is a just picture of one who sins against true wisdom.]
2. We ''love death"—
<! Ps. V. 12.