the urgrncy of the case is summed up in the few following sentences. This is the reasoning: since- I. lNATTEl\TION TO TIIE VOICE OF WISDOM IS TIIE DEPTH OF FOLLY, F'or: 1. It is sclf-robb~ry. "He that sinneth agaiust rue wrougcth his own soul" (ver. 36). The man that shuts his eiirs when God spea.ks robs himself of all thoso precious thin"S ·which might make bis heArt ri?h an~ his lire noble-of spiritual peace, of sacred joy, of hea,·enl~• hope, of an elevatmg faith, of holy love, of Divine comfort, of the best forms of usefulness. 2. It is sel/'...destruction. "All they that hate me love death" (,·er. 3G). To harden our heart a.~ainst the invitations and wa.rnings of Divine wisdom is to trPad the path which leads straight to the gates of spiritual and eternal death. II. ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF WISDOM IS OUR HIGHEST INTEREST. 1. It leads to "blessedness" (vers. 32, 34); it ensures that state of soul which the eterna.l God declares to be the only enviable one, to be that which should be the object of our earnest aspiration. 2. It secures his own Divine favour (ver. 35)-the "favour of the Lord," the sunshine of his smile, the benediction of his voice ; he will "lay his hand upon us" in fatherly love; he will surround us with his "everlasting arms" of powerful protection. 3. It constitutes life in its very essence and substance. " Whoso findeth me findcth life" (ver. 35). To be wise with the wisdom which is from above, to "know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent,"" to understand and know the Lord that exerciseth loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness," to have gained "the secret of the Lord," to have learnt by blessed experience'' tha.t the Loni is gracious," "to be filled with the knowledge of his will,"-this is life, human life at its highest, its best, its noblest. Moreover, it is tha.t which issues in the eternal life on the other side the river, in the land where life is enlarged a.nd ennobled far beyond the reach of our present thought. Since these things a.re so, "now, therefore," we conclude that- III. DILIGENT DISCIPLESHIP IS THE ONLY OPEN COURSE. "Hearken," "hear instruc- tion," "refuse it not," etc. (vers. 32-34). This includes: 1. Earnest attention, heark- ening, watching, waiting. Something much more than allowing ourselves by force of custom to be found where wisdom is discoursed, "putting in an appearance" at the sanctua.ry. It implies a.n earnest heedfulness of spirit; a diligent, intelligent, patient inquiry of the son!; a hungering of the heart for the saving truth of the living God, 2. Practical obedience-" keeping the ways" of wisdom (ver. 32). "If we know these things, happy are we if we do them" (John xiii. 17; see Ma.tt. vii. 21-27). As earnest disciples of Jesus Christ, the way to" keep his ways" is (1) to a.ccept himself as our Saviour and Lord, with our whole hea.rt; (2) to strive daily to embody his will in all the relations we susta.in. That is to say, first enter into right relation to himself, making him the Saviour of our soul, the Friend of our heart, the Lord of our life; then strive to carry out his commandments in a.11 the transactions and relationships of our human life.-C.
EXPOSITION. seduced her victim, so Wisdom is represented CHAPTER IX. as having a house which she has made and Vera. 1-18.-15. Fifteenth admcnitory adorned, and to which Hhe invites her pupils. Spiritual writers see here two referenccs--one discourse, cont11.ining in a parabolic form an to Christ's incarnation, when he built for invitation of Wi8dom (vers. 1-12), and that himself a human body (John ii. 19); and an- of her rival Folly (vers. 13-18). The other to his work in forming the Church, chapter sums up in brief the warnings of which is his mystical body (1 Pet. ii. 5), And the sublime languaii;e used in this the preceding part. section is not satisfied with tho bAre notion Ver. !.-Wisdom was represented a.s hav• that we have here only an allegorical repre- iog a house at whose portals persons waited sentation of Wisdom calling followers to eagerly for admission (eh. viiL 34); the idea her. Rather we are constr11.i11ed to see a is farther carried on. Wisdom bath builded Divine intimation of the office and work of her house. (For the plural form or khoch- Christ, not only the Creator of the world, os moth, "wisdom," a plural of excellency, see in eh. viii., but its Regenerator. She bath on eh. i. 20.) As the "strange woman" in hewn out her aeven pillars. Arohiteclurnlly, eh. vii. possessed a house to which sb«i Mcording to Hitzig and others, the pillar11 OH. IX, 1-18,) THE PROVERBS. 181