will do little good to re'.!ard one's self only as a sort of examplo to which certain truths are attached. Mere self-examination of the most lucid and honest character will not save our souls. ,ve have to go a step further, and act according to the knowlc,lge that we gain ia the light of God's truth. 3. He will find the application of wisdom directly ~elpful. When a man does not hold al_oof fro1_n it_ as from some curiosity only to be mspected, but embraces the truth of Chnst, takmg 1t home to his own heart he die- covers that it is a saving truth. By the personal reception of this Divine wi~dom he reaches the way of salvation. Above all, when we remember that Christ is "the Wisdom of God," we may see that for a man to receive that wisdom, i.e. to receive Christ, is to be wise for himself, because Christ brings the light of God's truth and Christ's presence is the source of sure salvation, '
Ver. 17.-" Stolen wate,·s." A fatal fascination, a.rising out of its very lawlesRness attaches itsP!f to sin. Illicit pleRsures are doubly attractive just because they a.r; illicit. L..t us consider the secret of I hese evil charms. I. THE PROVOCATION OF RESTRAINTS. There are many things which we do not care to have so long as they are within our reach, but which are clothed with a sudden attractiveness directly they are shut out from us. If we see a notice, "Trespassers will be prosecuted," we feel an irritating restraint, although we have had no previous desire to Pnter the path that it blocks. Innumerable fruits grew i11 Eden, but the one for- bidden fruit excited the greatest longing of appetite. Advertisers sometimes head their placards with the words, "Don't read this! "-judging that to be the best way to call attention to them. If you say, " Don't look!" everybody is most anxiom, to look. To put a book in an index expurgatorius is the surest means of advertising it. II. THE VALUE GIVEN BY DIFFICULTY OF ACQUISI'l'ION. We value little what we can buy cheaply. Rarity raises prices. If we have been to great labour and have run heavy risks in obtaining anything, we are inclined to measnre the worth of it by what it has cost us. Many designs of sin are only achieved with great difficulty. They involve te1rible dangers. When once accomplished, they are the more valueri for this. The pleJ1Sures of adventure, the Englishman's peculiar delights of the chase, are enlisted in the cause of wickedness. " All things that are, Are with more spirit che.sed the.n enjoyed." III. THE SENSE OF POWEB il'D LIBERTY. If you have gained your end in spite of law and authority, there is a natural elation of triumph about it. When you have succeeded in breaking bounds, you taste the sweets of an illicit liberty. IV. THE ENJOTimNT OF SECRECY. To some minds there is a peculiar charm about this. To them especially "bread eaten in secret is pleasant." Let it be all open and above-board, let it be of such a nature that one would have no objection to the world knowing it, and the pleasure loses its most pungent element. The air of mystery, the sense of superiority in doing what those about one little suspect, become elements in the pleasures of sin. But surely the highest natures must be too simple and frank to feel the force of such inducements to sin 1 V. THE FASCINATION OF WICKEDNESS. Pure, naked evil will attract on its own account. There is a charm in absolute ugliness. Some men really seem to love sin for its own sake. A wild intoxication, a mad passion of conscious guilt, instils a fatal sweetness into stolen waters. But it is the sweetness of a deadly poison, the euthanasia of crime. All these horrible charms of sin need to be ~uarded against. We must not trust to our own integrity; it is not proof against the fatal fascinations of temptation. 'l'o resist them we must be fortified with the love of higher joys, fed with the wholesome food of the banquet of wisdom (see vers. 1-5), attracted by the beauty of_ ho!iness, and above all, led to the pure and nourishing delights of the gospel feast by faith ra the Lord Jesus Christ. • en. 1x. 1-18.] THE PROVERBS. 189
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-6.- Wisdom's banquet; or, the call to salvation. I. THE FIGURATIVE REPBE- BENTATJON. Wisdom was termed, in eh. viii. 30, a "workmistress," in rererence to the structure of the physical world. Here she whose delight is in men and human life is represented as the builder, i.e. the founder of moral and social order. The seven pillars denote grandeur, and, at the aame time, sacredness. Her home is a temple. Religion is "the oldest and most sacred tradition of the race" (Herder); and it contains within it art, science, polity-all that makes human life stable, rich, and beautiful. Preparation has been made for a feast. The ox bas been slain, the spiced wine has been mixed (Isa. v. 22; eh, x.xiii. 30), the table set forth. Her servant has been sent forth, and her invitation has been freely made known on all the heights of the city. It is an invitation to the simple, the ignorant, the unintelligent, of every degree. II. THE BPIBITUAL CONTENTS. These receive a richer unfolding in the gospel (Matt. xxii, 1-14; Luke xiv. 16-24). Instead of the practical personification of wisdom, we have the living presence of Christ, " the Wisdom of God." Instead of the abstract, the concrete; for an ideal conception, a real Example and a present Object of faith. Instead of the splendid palace-temple, on the other hand, we have the thought of the kingdom of God, or the Church, resting on its foundations of apostolic truth. To the provisions of the table correspond the rich spiritual nourishment derivable from Christ, bis ·word and work-the true Bread sent down from heaven. To the invitation of Wisdom, the call to salvation by Christ. 1. The New Testament echoes the Old, and the gospel is essentially the same in every way. 2. The gospel of Christ is the unfolding, expansion, enrichment, of the ancient spiritual lore. 3. The relation of the Divine to the human rema.ins constant; it is that of supply to want, knowledge to ignorance, love and light to sorrow and darkness. 4. The invitation to the kingdom of heaven is free and general, conditioned by nothiug except the need of its blessings.-J.