on the patience of their Divine Saviour, ae if they might reckon on the unlimited striving of the Holy Spirit. They are wrong; they make a fatal mistake; they commit the one unpardonable sin I They try to go beyond the Divine ultimatum. God's marvellous patience reaches far, but it has its bounds. When these are passed his voice ie still, his hand is taken down, his interposing inBuence is withdrawn. Sin must bear its penalty. But this awful passage closes with a word of hope. Let us turn to a brighter aspect, and see- IV. 'l.'HAT 80 LONG AS MAN HONESTLY DESIRES GoD's SERVICE, HE ll!A Y FIND PEA0E AND DEST. (Ver. 33.) If at any time it is in our heart to obey the voice of the All-wise, to lend an attentive ear to the Divine counsel, we may reckon on his grace and favour. Happy the heart that heeds the voice of Wisdom I Others may be rocked and tossed on the heaving billows of care and anxiety, of alarm and dread; but he, "dwelling in the secret place of the Most High," hiding in the Rock. of his salvation, shall "dwell safely, and be quiet from fear of evil." God will hide him in his pavilion; he will "rest in the Lord."-C. Ver. 32.-" The prosperiey of fools." "The prosperity of fools shall destroy them." Few men fear prosperity; but if they had enough wisdom to know their own weakness, they would see that there was nothing which they had so much reason to dread. We approach the truth of the text by seeing- I. THAT IT IS IN oun HUMAN NATURE TO ASPIRE TO PROSPERITY AND TO STRIVE AFTER IT. 'l'he Author of our nature has made us hunger for success as the food of the soul. II. THAT THE PROSPERITY OF THE WISE IS AN EMINENTLY DESmABLE THING. For it (1) will do them no harm, and (2) will multiply their influence for good. III. THAT THE PROSPERITY OF THE FOOLISH IS A CALAMITOUS THING. 1. It results in ruin to other people-often theil" temporal, still more often their spiritual, ruin. 2. It ends in their own destruction. It leads down to death; for: (1) It fosters pride, and "pride comes before a fall." (2) It ministers to passion, and passion conducts to the grave in every sense. (3) It induces worldline~s, and the man who loses himself in the cares, engagements, and excitements of the world is" dead while he lives." 'fhe conolusion of the matter is this : 1. Let those to whom God has denied prosperity cheerfully accept their lowliness. In their humble position they are com- paratively safe. They live where many arrows of destruction do not fly. 2. Let those who have attained prosperity ever recognize that the post of honour and of power is the place of danger, and that they need peculiar grace from God that they may not fall, 3. Let those who are being injured by their prosperity beware lest they go down fast to utter and irretrievable ruin.-C.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER II. men and wicked women. (3) Vers. 20-22 : the epilogue, or conclusion, combining en- Vere. 1-22.-3. Third admonitory dis- couragement on the one hand, and wo.rning course, pointing out the benefits which arise on the other. /1·om a sincere, earnest, and persevering search after Wisdom. This discourse divides itself Ver. 1.-The teacher here rovorts to the into three parts. (1) Vera. 1-9: a state- origino.l form of his address, as nppeo.rs from ment of the oonditions whiob, if fulfilled, the employment of the term, my son. It seems clear that it is no longer Wisdom reault in the highest lrnowledge of Jehovah personified who is the speaker, from the foci -the fear of Jehovah and the knowledge of that the words, "wisdom and understanding" God, who is the Source of wisdom and the in ver. 2 are used without the possessive Protection o.nd Ensurer of safety to the right- pronoun "my,'' which would have been un- eous. (2) Vers. 10-19: the nego.tively bene- doubtedly inserted if this address had been a continuation of the discourse in the pre- :ficio.l results of Wisdom, in delivery from t)le ceding chapter. Some of the idea.a of thlit paths of evil, from destructive lusts and address, however, are restated, o.s the crying passions, from the temptations of wicked and litling up the voice after Wisdom, and th" PltOVERBB. D 34 THE PROVERBS. ( OH, II, 1-22.