Ver. 12.--The conquest of love. "Love covereth all sins." It does this in that- I. IT 0ARRIES THE WEIGHT OF MAlIY SHORTCOMINGS. l. On the one hand, many proprieties will not atone for the absence of love. We are wholly unsatisfied if one who sustains to us a very near relationship (husband, wife, son, daughter, etc.) is scrupulously correct in behaviour if love be wanting from the heart. Nothing can compensate for that. The kindness that is not prompted by affection is of a very poor order, and it does not satisfy the soul. 2. On the other hand, the presence of pure and strong affection makes many things tolerable which in themselves are hard to bear. Not that any one has a right to excuse himself for transgressions of law, of whatever kind they may be, on the ground of his tenderness of heart. It is a complete and dangerous misreading of our Lord's word (Luke vii. 47) to suppose that he meant tha.t sins are forgiven because of the presence of much love ; it is the presence of much love that is the proof, not the ground, of forgiveness (see homily in loc.). But it is a. patent and common fact of human life that we can not only bear with one another, but can love and honour oue another when love dwells in the heart and shines in the countenance and breathes and burns in the words and actions, even though there may be much faultiness and many infirmities that have to be forgiven. II. IT IS PREPARED WITH GENEROUS I:sTERI'RETATIONS of much misbehaviour. Where a hard, cast-iron severity sees nothing but transgression, love sees much extenuation or even complete excuse; or it goes beyond that, and sees, or believes that it sees, a worthy and not an unworthy motive. It magnifies or invents a reason which puts conduct in another light, and makes it appear pardonable, if not creditable. It has quite a different account to give of the transaction; it is the.t which only generoll9 love could see and could supply. Ill. IT HAS A LARGE FORGIVENESS FOR EVEN GREAT OFFEN0ES. The Divine love "abundantly pardons." It blots out the worst misdeeds and pardons the negligence and impiety of whole periods of a sinful life. The humo.n love that is likest to the Divine can overlook very dark misdoings, and take back to its embrace those who have gone away and astray into a very "far country" of sin. IV. h REDE~:Ms AND RESTORES. When law does not avail, love will succee<l in winning the erring to wiser and better ways. It can lay its hand upon the sinner with a touch that will tell and will triumph. It hns a power to break the obdnrncy of guilt for which violence is utterly inadequate. It alone co.n lead the rebellious spirit into the gate of penitence and faith, and make its future life a life of obedience and wisdom. Thus in the best way, winning the noblest of all victories, it "covers sin" by conquering it, by leading the heart to the love of righteousness and the practice of purity. Where the TOU)!:h winds of penalty will fail, the soft, sweet sunshine of love will succeed most excellently.-C.
Ver. 19.-(See homily on eh. xxix. 11.)-C.
Ver. 22.-Divine enrichment. There is no inconsistency in the teaching of the text with that of ver. 4. For God blesses us by means of our own efforts and energy; indeed, we are more truly and fully enriclled of God when his blessing comes to us as the consequence of our faith and labour. 214 'fBE PROVERBS. (011. XI. 1-31.
I. Tim OllJECTS AT wmcrr WE AIM. Those without which we are apt to comidcr ourselves poor. They are these: 1. Material substance, or'(as we commoaly put it to ourselves) money. 2. Honour. A good measure of regard, duly and clearly paid by our fellows. 3. Power. The holding of a position in which wo are able to decide and to direct. 4. Learning, or unusual sagacity;' that intellectual superiority which enables us to lead or to command. JI. Tm, COXDITIO~ UNDER WHICII THESE MAY DE REGARDED AS THE BLESSING OF Gem. This is when we can truly say that there is" no sorrow," i.e. no real cause for regret that we have come to possess and to enjoy them. But when is this? I. When they have 11een acquired without any reason for self-reproach-justly, purely, honour- ably. 2. Whea we have not lost as much as we have gained by their acquisition.' ,v e may lose so much in time, or in health and energy, or in wise and elevating friend- ship, or in the opportunity for worship and service, that the balance in the siuht of heavealy wisdom may be against us. 3. When they do not become a heavy b~rden which we can ill bear. This they often do become. Frequently wealth becomes more of a burden than a blessing to its possessor. He would be a much lighter-hearted and less care-encumbered man if he had not so much substance to dispose of and to preserve. And so of power and influence. 4. When they do not become a snare to us, leading us into pride, or into a selfish separateness and unneighbourliness, or into a guilty self- indulgence, or into "an unenlightened and unchristian disdain of the common people," or into an overweeniug and fatal miscal,mlation of our own power and importance, or imo a deadening and suicidal worldliness. These great evils may not mean present' "sorrow," as we ordinarily understand that term. 'But they are such evils as our Divine Father sees with Divine regret; they are such as our heavenly Friend would fain deliver us from; and when riches of any kind end in them, they cannot be said to be the result of his blessing. Moreover, they all lead on and doWii, sooner or later, to grievous ends; those who yield to them are on their way to "pierce them- selves through with many sorrows" (1 Tim. vi. 10), Hence- III. THE PROFOUND WISDOM OF MODERATION ill' all human and earthly ambitions.' Who shall say how much of riches he can stand? Who cali tell where that point is to be found, on the other side of which is spiritual peril and ultimate "sorrow" of the, worst kind? "Give me neither poverty nor riches" is the wish and the prayer of the. wise and reverent.-C.