and also to heights of virtue and godliness. This habit of his will save him from many snares, and will enrich his soul with pure principles and honourable aspirations and right affections. 2. Jn circiimstance. 'l'he docile so11 will "be rewarded," will "be honoured." The pl\th he treads is one which leads to competence, to comfort, to health, to honour, to "a green old a1te," But there are three things which must be included in this readiness to learn. No one will be" wise," and no one can expect to reap these desirable results, unless be (1) is docile in the home, receiving "his father's (and his mother's) instruction (ver. 1); (2) has respect to the "commandment" lhe will of God as revealed in bis Word (ver. 13); (3) is willing to be corrected when he has gone astray, unless he "regards reproof" (ver. 18). For all of us fall into some error, make some mistakes, go astray in some directions; and we all need the kind hand that will lead us back and replace us in the right road. II. THE FOLLY AND THE DOOM OF THE UNTEACHABLE, What should we think of the young captain who insisted on setting sail without any chart, trusting to his native cleverness to shun the shoals and rocks, and to make his way to port? We know what to judge concerning him, and what to prophesy concerning his vessel; we are rnre that the one is a fool, and that the other will be a wreck. And what shall we think or youth when it resolves to sail forth on the great sea of life, disregarding the experiences of the wise, and trusting to its own sagacity? To take this course is: 1. To be unwise. Apart from all consequences which are in the future, it is the indication of a foolish spirit which is in itself deplorable. It shows a very ill-balanced judgment, a very exaggerated couception of one's own ability, a lack of the modesty the presence of which is so great a recommendation, and the absence of which is so serious a draw- back. It calls for and it calls forth the pity of the wise; it is well if it does not elicit their contempt. 2. To move in the direction of disaster. It is to be in the way which conducts (1) to the loss of much that is very valuable, to" poverty" of ruore kinds than one (ver. 18); (2) to shame (ver. 18), the forfeiture of good men's regard, and a descent to a condition in which self-respect al~o is lost; (3) to ultimate destruction (ver. 13). He that feareth not God's commandment, nor regards man's warning, is a candidate for contempt, is a swift traveller on the road to ruin.-C.
Ver. 4.-(See homily on eh. xxvii. 23.)-C. Ver. 7.- Wrong views of ourselves, given and received. One proverb may have many interpretations and many applications. This is such a one. It may well suggest to us two things. I. TrrE GUILT OF CONVEYING A FALSE VIEW OF OURSELl'ES; whether this be done b_y the merchant in his office, or by the charlatan on the platform, or by the quack in bis surgery, or by the preacher in his pulpit, or by the "philanthropist" in the news- paper, or by the man or woman of embellishment in society, or by the artist on canvas, or by the author in bill book, or whether done by the common miser or the conscienceless beggar. Here is the double iniquity of: 1. Falsehood, or, at any rate,falseness. The man is false to himself, and forgets what is due to himself; consequently, h~ does th~t which wrongs and injures himself. 2. Fraud; imposture. A man practises on his neigh hours ; be deceives them; in the worst cases he induces others to run most serious risks to their health or their fortune. II. THE :MISFORTUNE OF FORMING A WRONG ESTIMATE OF OURSELVES. 1. This is sometimes an appropriate penaZty. For if a man" makes ~self~ ric~ or poor in the eyes of others, it is extremely likely that he will before long 1magme himself to be so: It is one of the well-attested facts of human experience, that what men tr~ to persuade their fellows to think, they come in time to believe themselves. And th1s_holds good when the object as well as the subject is the man himself. Try to convmce othe:s that you are clever, learned, kind, pious, and before many mont~s. have been spent ID the endeavour you will actually credit yourself with these qualities. And the result is an entirely mistaken view of yourself. This is a punitive consequence_; for there is no moral condition from which we have such urgent need to pray and strr~•e that we may be delivered. Is it not the last stacre on the downward road? 2. It 1s a grave spiritual peril. Solemn, indeed, is the "warning addressed by the risen ~ord to the Church at Laodicea (Rev. iii. 14-19). But no warning can be too senous or .toQ <JB, Xtll, 1-25.] THE PROVERBS. 266