thought is presented, is repeated, is pressed on the reason and the conscience. David evidently yearned, strove, persisted with patient and resolute zeal, that he might con- vince and ip.spire his son with the sacred truths he held so dear. He represented heavenly wisdom, the truth of G'od, rts (1) the thing of surpassing intrinsic excellency (ver, 7); (2) a thing to be pursued in preference to other fascinations (vers. 5-7); (3) a thing to be cherished and held to the heart (ver. 6); (4) a thing to be highly honoured before men (ver. 8); (5) a. thing to be retained at all costs (ver. 13); (6) r,. friend that would repay all attentions-that would guard and shield from evil (ver,. 6, 12), that would lead to honour and esteem (vers. 8, 9), that would prolong life (ver. 10), that would. lead in that way which is the path of life itself (ver. 13). 1. To parents, the lesson of the text is (1) discern the one supremely precious thing to be commended to the heart of youth; and (2) commend it graciously, earnestly, fully. 2. To sons and daughters, it is (1) remember all the sacred solicitude that has been expended on you; and (2) fulfil the desire of your parents' hearts. " My son, klll,w •tlie God of your father" (see ver. 1); this is "good doctrine" (ver. 2); it is '' your life" (ver. 13).-C. Vers, 14-17, 19.-Tlieprudence of piety. We may say concerning piety or virtue -the wisdom which is from God includes both-that the essence of it is in right feeling, in loving him who is the Holy One and that which is the right and admirable thing, and in hating that which is evil and base; that the proef of it is in right acting- in aoing those things and· those only which are· good and honourable, which God's Word and our own conscience approve; and that the prudence of it is in these two things which are implied in our text. I. CHERISHING A WHOLESOME HORROR OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. There is an insensibility and an ignora·nce which passes for courage, and gets a credit which is not its due. '!'hose who. do not take the trouble to know what the issues of any line of conduct are, and who, go fearlessly forward, are not brave; they are only blind. We ought to know all we can learn of the consequences of our behaviour, of the end in which the path we are treading terminates. The prudent man will see and shrink from the consequences of evil; and if he open his eyes or consult those who can tell him, he will find that they are Rimply disastrous, 1. For sin is mischievous in its spirit; it gloats over the ruin which it works; it finds a horrible delight in doing harm to human souls (vers. 16, 17). 2. And it succeeds in its shameful design. It does "mischief;" it makes men" to fall." It causes spiritual. decline, decay, corruption- the worst of all mischief; it leads purity, sobriety, honesty, truthfulness, reverence, love, to fall down into the rninous depths of lasciviousness, intemperance, dishonesty, false- hood, profanity, hard-heartedness. 3, It leads down to a darkness and a death of which it did not dream (ver. 19). It sinks info ,that awful soul-blindness in which the "eye is evil," in which the very " light is 'darkness" (Matt. vi. 23), in which the moral judgment, all perverted, leads astray. "The ,vay of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble." Their powers of moral distinction are gone; they are "altogether gone astray." Piety, virtue, may well in godly prudence shrink with wholesome horror from this. II. CAREFUL AVOIDANCE OF THE WAY OF THE WICKED, and so of the path of temptation. 1. 'frue it is that we must be often found in perilo•:.s places at the call of daily dttty. 2, 'l'rue that at the invitation of mercy we shaL'. sometimes be found there. 3. But it. is also true that the wise will not needlessly sxpose themselves to tbe a~saults of sin. 'fhey will refrain from so doing both because (1) we are not sure of the measure of our own strength ; there may be some very weak places in our armour, ill-fortified parts in 011r character; most men are weaker than they know, somewhere. And also because (2) we do not know the full s.tren~th of temptation. Full often sin proves to have an ,~nimagined for~e, an unsuspected skill. The full strcngt~ of the nllurements ·and enticements of evil perhaps no man knows. The number ot the slain that lie on the spiritual battle-field tells with a mournful eloquence that thousands of the children ofmeh hav,i over-estimated their own resisting power, or under- estimated the insidiousness, or the fascination, or the force of the foe. Therefore,_ if duty does not demand it, nor mercy plead for it; shun the dangerous path, "enter not into the way of it ..• avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away" (vers. H, 15). 104' THE PROVERBS. [on. 1v. 1-27.
Let it be considered that this. is a Divine injunction; therefore let there be no hesitation about obeying. 'l'here is nothing unmanl.v or ignoble in prudence. It is not a virtue to be anywise ashamed of. There is ample scope for the utmost heroism of spirit and of life without exposing our young hearts to evils the very nature of which we may not know, the force of which we cannot measure, and from the conse- quences of which we might never be able to escape.-C.