Ver. 22.-Revenge and its antidote. I. THE srn ANTl FOLLY OF REVENGE. This passion appears to spring from a natural instinct; it pretends to justify itself as the fair return for some wrong, and it offers a compensation for the wrong suffered in the triumph which it gains over the wrong-doer. But it is both culpable and foolish. 1. It is culpable. Even if revenge were desirable, we have no right to wreak it on the head of the offender. We are not his judge and executioner. God says," Vengeance is mine, I will repay." We have no excuse for antedating the Di vine vengeance in our impatience by taking the law of retribution into our own bands. If another has hurt us, that fact is no excuse whatever for our hurting him. Two wrongs do not make one right. The i;pirit of vengeance in man is a spirit of hatred, and therefore one for which there is no excuse. Much as an enemy may have injured us, he is still our fellow-man to whom we owe charity and forgiveness. 2. It is foolish. At best it can offer but a gloomy compensation. Unless our nature delights in malignity, there can be no real satisfaction in seeing an enemy suffer. Though a natural passion may seem to be satisfied with a gleam of fierce joy in the moment of triumph, this must be succeeded by a dismal sense of the vanity of any such feelings. The after-thought of revenge must be bitter. Moreover, the exercise of vengeance will not cure enmity, but only intensify it. There- fore it may just provoke a second and greater wrong than that which it is avenging. There is no prospect before it but increasing rancour, hatred, strife, misery. II. THE ANTIDOTE TO REVENGE. We are not to be left to suffer wrong without corn pensation or hope. We may find a prospect of something better than the bitter harvest of vengeance if we turn from sinful man to God. Then we shall see the true antidote. 1. Jt springs from faith. We have to be assured that God can and will help us. We can thus afford to ignore the wrong that has been done us, or, if that be impossible, we can learn to look above it and feel confident that, if God undertakes our cause, all will be well in the end. This faith will not desire the ruin of our enemy. It is not an entrusting of vengeance to God, though he must see justice done to the wron<1-doer. But it is a quiet confidence in God's saving grace. It is better to be deli"C~red from the trouble lJrougbt on us by the misconduct of others than to remain in that trouble and see the guilty persons punished. We can afford to be magnanimous and for~et the nnkindness of man when we are enjoying the kindness of God. 2. It i's realized throu,gh prayer, patience, and liope. (1) Prayer. We must wait on the Lord. Vengeance is lost in prayer. Vv e shall cease to feel the boiling of rage against our foo when 011 our knees before God. There we cannot but remember how utterly we (Ill, ll, 1-30.j THE PROVERBS. 395
depend U:pon mercy. (2) Patience. Waiting on God generally implies some delay. We must wait for the answer. Deliverance does not come at once. Hasty revenge must be restrained by patience in prayer. (3) Hope. God will save at last, if not immediately. 'l'he prospect of this deliverance is a pleasing substitute for the hideous vision of revenge on an enemy.
Ver. 29.-Young men and old. I. EVF.RY TIME OF LIFE HAS ITS OWN PECULIAR EXCELLENCE. 1. Every age of man has Bome excellence. Youth appears vain in the grave vision of age, and age looks gloomy to the bright eyes of youth. Yet both youth and age have their mead of praise. It is possible for a man to miss all excellence in life and to live in dishonour from youth to age. But that depends upon his own con- duct, and he only will be to blame for spoiling every age of his life if he does thus live in dishonour. There are honourable and desirable conditions for life throu2:hout its whole length. 2. The excellences of the 11arious a,ges of man are d{tferent. The glory of a young man is not identical with the beauty of an old man. The common mistake is that in the narrowness of our personal experience we judge of other periods of life by the standards that only apply to those in which we are severally living. Hence either undue admiration or unreasonable disgust. It is cheering to know that a very different condition from that which floats before us as our ideal may be equally happy and honourable. 11. THE PECULUR EXCELLENCE OF YOUTH 18 FOUND JN ITS ENERGY AND TIIE USE IT M'.AEES OF IT. 1. Energy is a characteristic of youth. Then the fresh unfaded powers are just opening out to their full activity. 'l'his is the time for service. The young men go to the vars. "It is well for a man to bear the yoke in his youth." All kinds of fresh activities spring out of the fertile soil of youth. An indolence in youth is simply disgraceful. 2. Youthful energy is admirable. (1) Physical strength. This is a gift of God. It is a natural perfection of bodily life. It carries with it possi.bilities of manly work. "Muscular Christianity" may be as holy as feeble asceticism. (2) Mental strength. The intellectual feats of brain-athletics indicate noble energies and arduous industry. 'fhe mind is from God, and its ripened powers render him glory. (3) Moral strength. Daniel was stronger than Samson. The chief glory of yonthful strength is here-the power to resist temptation, to live a true life, to fight all lies and shameful thoughts and deeds, and stand up firmly for the right. 3. Youthful energy should be used in the service of Ghrist. 'l'hen its glory is radiant. A lower nse of it dims its lustre. Degradation to purposes of sin turns its splendour into shame. Ill. THE SPECIAL EXCELLENCE OF AGE IS TO BE SEEN IN ITS RIPE:NED EXPERIBNCE. 1. Expei-ience ripens with years. The suggestion of that fact may be seen in the picture or the grey head, the beauty of which chiefly resides in the thought of the harvest of years that it represents. Strength may be lost, but experience is gained. There is nn exchange, and it is not for any to say on which side the real advantage lies. 2. Tha experience of years has a beaitty of its own. We usually associate youth and beauty, aud we think of beauty declining with advancing years. Painful signs of life's stern battle break the fair charms of youth. But old age brings a new beauty. This is often seen even in the countenance, finely chiselled with delicate lines of thought and feeling into a rare grace and diguity. But the higher beauty is that of soul, the beauty of Simeon when he held the infant Saviour in his arms. 'l'he crowning beauty of age is in a perfected saintliness. 'l'o attain to this is to go beyond the glory of youtli. Yet there must accompany it a certain melancholy at the thought of the lost energy of earlier years, until the old man can look forward to the renewed youth, the eternal energy of the life beyond,