all life. Though some animals are drowned in water, others are fitted to find it their natural element; but all living creatures perish in fire. The phcenix is an impossibility. So sin mocks life and beauty and healthy energy. But it is only a death-power. 1. ~t is destructive. l:<'ir~ ex_ists by consuming its victims. So sin does not simply use, it destroys the faculties 1t works through. 2. It tends to spread. l:<'ire leaps from object to object, rushing over a wide prairie, euvelopiug a whole city. "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! "(Jas. iii. 5). So sin spreads through the soul, and from one man to another. 3. It ccnverts into fire everything thnt it lays hold of. So sin turns all that comes under its power into its own nature. 4. It rages furiou.sly. Nothing is so like madness as a great fire. It ,is infinitely more horrible than the wildest tempest of wind and water. Sin is a fury of passion. 5. It leaves smouldering embers and dismal heaps of ashes. When the fire of passion is burnt out the soul is left charred, empty, dismal, as but dust and ashes. ' II. THE SINNER CARRIES FIRE IN HIS BOSOM. 1. It is in himself. You cannot kindle the fires of your sin outside your own soul at a safe distance. You cannot even sin with your hands while your heart is untouched. When sin is indulaed 0 it takes up its abode in a man's bosom. It enters his affections, it lies close to his' heart, it coils ~bout _his very life. 2. Moreover, he who takes this fire in his bosom cannot readily get nd of it. It penetrates deeper and deeper and spreads further and further, till it fills the whole man. It is not possible to sin for a moment and leave the scene of guilt scatbeless. He who enters the furnace of sin lets the fire of sin enter his own bosom, and when he goes forth carries it with him-himself a furnace of sins! III. THE SINNER WITH FIRE IN HIS BOSOM WILL FIND IT BURN HIM. Men talk of the fires of retribution as though they were kindled in some remote region by some unknown executioner, and so they are often as little moved by the thought of them as they are affected by the heat of the stars. But the fire in a man's bosom will bring its own retribution. The wicked man bas a hell within him. He is becoming like Milton's Sa.tan when he felt the impossibility of escaping from hell because of his own fearful state, and exclaimed, "Myself am Hell!" This is natural. It would require a. miracle to prevent the fire in the bosom from burning. But these terrible thoughts are not intended to induce despair. Rather they should so awaken us to the horror of sin as to lead us to shun it as we would run from a house on fire, and make us so realize our danger as to seek safety in that fountain opened for all uncleanness which can quench the fires of sin and stay all their fatal consequences. Vers. 30, 31.-Motive and re!ponsi"bility. I. GUILT IS TO BE :MEASURED BI' MOTIVE. The starving pick-pocket is not so wicked as the well-to-do house-breaker. Even in the low depths of crime moral distinctions need to be observed, lest we do grievous injustice to our most unhappy fellow-men. The principle that guilt is commensurate with motive rests on the Christian conception of it as an inward fa.et. ' This makes it always difficult to form a correct jndgment of other people. The rough external standard of the law must be applied by the administrators of civil justice, because no other standard is within their power. But it still remains true that the judge who pro- nounces sentence may be a much worse man than the prisoner whom he sends to the hulks. II. PRIMABY NECESSABIES ABE PBIOB TO CONVENTIONAL LAWS. It is an instinct of the most elementary character that prompts the hungry man to take food. Of course, it is still possible for moral laws to interfere with the pursuit of the object of that instinct, and we must always recognize that moral laws a.re higher than natural instincts. But in our complicated modern civilization we are not dealing with the direct and simple impact of those lofty and inflexible laws. We are brought into con• tact with very curious social arrangements, and the laws of right and justice are only allowed to work themselves out by means of an extraordinary social machinery. Under such circumstances there may be room for a protest of instinct against convention, though there can never be an excuse for the enjoyment of any personal desire when that is contradicted by absolute moralit,v. The hero of Victor Hugo's story, • Les Miserables,' is not regarded as a vulgar thief when he steals the loaf from the baker's shop to feed hi~ starving family. He appears as a revolutionist protesting against what he feels to be an unjust distribution of property. .A healthy Christian conscience must OB. VI, 1-35.] THE PROVERBS. 145
condemn his action; but in such a case every human heart will give great weight to "extenuating circumstances." III. RESPONSIBILITY CANNOT BE MEASURED BY MOTIVE. Here e. new element is introduced-one which cannot be lightly set aside. A man must reap the consequences of his deeds, no matter what motives prompted them. If he acts foolishly from the best of motives, he must suffer for his folly; if be offends against social law, no plea of primary necessity will exonerate him from the penalty. In a world of law and order we must look to the results of our conduct as well a.s to its inward urging principle. Moreover, if we injure any one without the least malice, but only through what we regard as sheer necessity, the fact of the injury does not vanish, and we a.re under a.n obligation to take the :first opportunity to make ample amends. Further, it is the duty of society to see that external right is done, even though those who resist it may be acting with the best of excuses. The thief must be punished, though his starving con- dition rouses our pity. But surely these painfulJpoints of casuistry should never a.rise. It is the duty of Christians to work for a. better social order, wherein no injustice can give the semblance of an excuse to crime.