The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 131

11ense may be (whether of seeing, hearing, etc.), it is the pure pleasure which is not ~mly high and manly, but is also unaccompanied by bitter and accusin1Z thoughts, and 1s lasting as life itself. Why turn to devour tho garbage when "angels' food" is on the table? Vice is the very depth of folly. IV. ITs PENALTY. This is threefold. 1. Impoverishment (ver. 10). Vice soon scatters a man's fortune. A few years, or even weeks, will suffice for dissipation to run through a izood estate. Men "waste their substance in riotous living." 2. Remorse (vers. 11-14). How bitter to the soul the pangs of self-accusation! There is no poisoned dart that wounds the body as the arrow <>f unavailing remorse pierces the soul. 3. Death (ver. 5, "Her feet go down to death; her steps lay hold on hell"). Death physical and death spiritual are the issue of immorality. The grave is dug, the gates of the City of Sorrow are open, for the lascivious, the drunken, the immoral.-C. Ver. 11 (first clause).-llrourning at the last. What multitudes of men and women have there been who, on beds of pain, or in homes of poverty, or under strong spiritual apprehension, have "mourned at the last"! After tasting and "enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season," they have found that iniquity must meet its doom, and they have "mourned at the lnst." Sin makes fair promises, but breaks its word. It owns that there is a debt due for guilty pleasure, but it hints that it will not send in the bill for many years ;-perhaps never: but that account has to be settled, and they who persist in sinful indulgence will find, when it is too late, that they have to" mourn at the last." This is true of- I. SLOTHFULNESS, Very pleasant to be idling when others are busy, to be following the bent of our own fancy, dallying with the passing hours, amusing ourselves the whole day long, the whole year through; but there is retribution for wasted hours, for mis- spent youth, for negligent and idle manhood, to be endured further on; there is self- reproach, condemnation of the good and wise, an ill-regulated mind, straitened means if not poverty,-mouming at the last. II. INTEMPERANCE. Very tempting may be the jovial feast, very fascinating the sparkling cup, very inviting the hilarity of the festive circle; but there is the end of it all to be taken into account, not only to-morrow's pain or lassitude, but the forfeiture of esteem, the weakening of the soul's capacity for pure enjoyment, the depravation of the taste, the encircling round the spirit of those cruel fetters which "at the last" hold it in cruel bondage. IIL LASCIVIOUSNESS. (See previous homily.) IV. WoRLDLTh""ESB. There is a strong temptation presented to men to throw them• selves into, so as to be absorbed by, the affairs of time and sense-business, politics, literature, art, one or other of the various amusements which entertain and gratify. 'l'his inordinate, excessive, unqualified devotion to any earthly pursuit, while _it is to be distinguished from abandonment to forbidden pleasure, is yet wrong and rumous. It is wrong, for it leaveR out of reckoning the supreme obligation-that which we ~we ~ him in whom we live and move and have our being, and who has redeemed us with his own blood. It is ruinous, for it leaves UR (1) without the heritage we were ~eant to have, and may have, in God, in Jesus Christ and his blessed service and salvat1~n; (2) unprepared for the other and larger life which is so near to us! and to wh1c~ we approach by every step we take. However pleasant be the pursuits we engage ID or the prizes we win, we shall wake one day from our dream with shame and fear; we shall "mourn at the last."-C. Ver. 21.-Man in God's view. This verse is added as a powerful reason why the worst sins should be avoided. A man under temptation may well address himself thus- "Nor let my weaker passions dare Consent to sin; for God is there," I. THE VARIED ENERGIES AND ACTIONS OF MAN. Many are "the ways of man j" "all his goings" cannot easily be told. There is (1) his innermost th?ught stayting in his mind; (2) then his feeling or desire in some direction; (3) then his _resolut10n, !he decision of his will; (4) then his planning and arranging; (5) then ~1s consulta~10n and co-operation with others; (6) then his execution. Or we may consider tLc variety (lg, v. 1-23.] '!'HE PROVERBS. 121