plain to the mind distinctions between that which is true and that which is false, that which is honourable and that which is shameful, that which elevates and that which lowers, that which is permissible and that which is desirable. He is, further, the man who- 111. IMPARTS WISDOM, He will not be content until he has instilled into the mind and introduced to the heart discretion (ver. 4) and wisdom itself (ver. 2). Wisdom is the pursuit of the highest end by the surest means. No teacher of men who recognizes his true position will ever be contented until be has led his disciples to walk in the path of wisdom-to be seeking after the noblest ends for which God gave us our being, and to be seeking them by those ways which are sure to lead thereto. 1. Our highest wisdom is to seek " the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" (Matt. vi. 33). 2. Our one" Way" is the Son of God himself (John xiv. 6). The true teacher thus becomes the man who- IV. CONDUCTS TO MORAL EXOELLENCE. For he who is the child of wisdom will als.o receive the instruction of "justice and judgment and equity." He will be a man who will have continual regard to the claims of his fellow-men; who will shrii:.k from encroaching on their rights; who will endeavour to give to them the consideration, the care, the kindness, which they may rightly look for as children of the same Father, as disciples of the same Saviour, as citizens of the same kingdom, as travellers to the same home. The ideal teacher will also be a man who- V. FOSTERS INTELLECTUAL GROWTH.· (Vera. 5, 6.) We ourselves are not truly and satisfactorily progressing except our mental capacities are being developed, and thus truth and wisdom are being seen with clearer eye and held with tighter grasp. The wise man is therefore bent on training, exercising, bracing the intellectual faculties of his disci pie, so that he " will increase learning," will " attain to wise counsels," will think out and see through the proverbs and problems, the puzzles and perplexities, which come up for investigation. We know something in order that we may know much. We are wise that we may become wiser. We climb the first slope of the hill of heavenly truth that we may ascend the one which is beyond; we master the" deep things of God" that we may look into those which are deeper and darker still. Ours is ever to be the spirit of holy inquiry; not of querulous impatience, but of patient, untiring effort to understand all those truths which are within our reach, waiting for the fuller revelation of the days which are to come.-C. Ver. 7.-Thefoundation-truth. These words invite our attention to- I. THAT wmca CONSTITUTES THE FEAR OF GoD. "The fear of t.bo Lord" was the chief note of Hebrew piety. It expressed itself in that form (see Gen. xiii. 18; Exod. xviii. 21; Lev. xix. 14; Neh. v. 15; Ps. lxvi. 16; Eccles. xii. 13, etc.). What did it signify? Evidently something more and other thau mere dread. The piety of the Jews was an immeasurably higher thing than the abject terror with which the heathen shrank from the capricious anJ. malignant power of the deities they worshipped. It included: 1. Reverence for his Divine nature. 2. Sense of the Divine presence: "The Lord before whom I stand." 3. Regard for the Divine will, shown in the two ways of (1) obedience to his commands, and (2) submission to his appointments. II. THE FACT THAT THE FEAR OF UoD CONSTITUTES THE FOUNDATION ON WHICH WE BUILD. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." 'l'he sense of God, the belief that he is, that he reigns, that he is the Source and Fountain of all life arnl. bless- ing-this is the foundation on which all wisdom, all success, all excellency, rests. How truly fundamental is this fear of God is seen when we consider: 1. '!'hat it is implanted, as one of the earliest thoughts, in the human mind. The very little child can enter- tain it; it enters his opening mind with the first conceptions which are cherished there. As soon as we begin to think we begin to fear God. That sentiment, which never once affected the life of the most intelligent of the brute creation in any land or age, strikes deep root and bears fairest fruit in the spiritual nature of the "little child." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," even in time. 2. That the acceptance of God is the basis on which all truth must rest. There are mysteries in theism which may baffle and sometimes perplex us. But in atheism we are utterly at sea. Not to start from the acceptance of an originating, designing, fashioning, con- trolling, out-working Intelligence is to b~ "all abro11d" in the region of human investi• THE PROVERBS. [an. 1. 1-33,
gation and inquiry, Accepting that, the universe is indeed mysterious but it is not an all-shrouding mist in which we ourselves and everything around us ~re hopelessly lost. The fear of the Lord, the reverent acceptance of the truth that God is, and thBt he reigns, lies at the foundation, is the beginning, of knowledge-of tho truth which makes the world comprehensible to the understanding, and life valuable to the• soul. 3. That the feat of God is the ground of all heavenly wisdom. We cannot know our .'.lwn Divine Father, our own spi_ritual nature with all its high and ennobling capacities, the excellency of moral and spmtual worth, the supreme blessedness of self-surrender, if we do not know God, if we have not the mind of Christ revealed to us and accepted by us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, and is the very substance of that know- ledge which constitutes the "life eternal " ( J obn xvi i. 3). III. THE FOLLY OF SPIRITUAL INDIFFERENCE. "Fools despise wisdom and instruc- tion." The foolish man does not care even to begin to know; he despises the very elements of instruction ; he will not take the first step in the path of wisdom. He wanders off at his own will, and he goes in the direction of the thick darkness. He is turning from him who is the Light of life, and is travelling to that dreary l'egion where it is always night, away from God, from wisdom, from holiness, from love.-C.