The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 404

make up for moral laxity. We might be worshipping in the house of the Lord day and night ; but if we were false, or cruel, or dishonest, or impure in our daily practice, we should certaiuly incur his righteous anger. 2. Moral }:>robity by itself will not take the place of the direct approach of our hearts to God, It is much that a man should be just in all his dealings, kind in his various relationships, blameless in his bearing and behaviour-very much. But it is not everything; it leaves out one essential thing. God desires and demands of us that we ourselves come into close and living union and communion with himself, that we look to him and address him, and trust and love him as our Divine Father and Redeemer. And no propriety of behaviour, no excellency of life, will take the place of this. 3. Devotion and duty must coexist, and will sustain one another. (1) We should so worship God that we shall be stronger to obey his commandments in the home and in the school and in the sho~verywhere. We may safely conclude that our sacrifice on the sa.bba.th is altogether imperfect and unsatisfactory if it does not lead to a worthier life in the week. (2) And we should so act in all the various paths of life that " with clean hands and a pure heart" we can go up to the house of the Lord, and render acceptable service of prayer and praise as we bow before him in the sanctuary. They are com- plementary one to the other ; and no wise man will disregard or disparage either.-C, Ver. 5.-(See homily on eh. xx:vii. 23,)-C. Vers. 6-8.-Marks of sin.~ Here we have four marks of that many-sided evil which God condemns as sin. I. lTs MANIFOLDXEss OF FORM. Of its varied developments we have four forms here specified. 1. Falsehood, with a view to temporal enrichment, or the sin of cheat- ing-a crime which has dishonoured the markets and counting-houses of every land. 2. Violence, with the same end in view-the breaking into the neighbour's treasury, or the assault committed on his person. 3. Injustice, .or the sin of withholding from our neighbour that which we know is his due; whether it be a. weekly wage (Jas. v. 4), or whether it be the appointment to which he is entitled by his merit, or the, honour he has gained by his services. 4. Perversity, or frowardness-the attitude of wanton and determined rebelliousness against God's rule, or insubmission to. his claim, or disobedience of bis particular commandment. • II. THE ONSUBSTAh"TIAL NATURE OF ITS succEss, Enrichment by falsehood is "a vanity [or,' a vapour'] tossed to and fro." It is proverbial that wealth that is ill-gotten is quickly lost; this is to be accounted for by the action of God's righteous punitive laws apart from the doctrine that sin commands his condemnation. lndP.pendently of this, it is certain that the satisfaction which comes from sin is short-lived and con- tinually declines. Sin allures its victims w.ith fine promises, but it breaks every one of them; its bread may be sweet for ·a moment, but "afterwards the mouth is filled with gravel" (eh. xx. 17). The hope of the sinner is very fair, but soon comes tho strong wind of penal law, and its castle is on the ground; it is •i swept away" (ver. 7, Revised Version). III. ITs SUICIDAL CHARACTER. 'l'hese guilty ones are "of them that seek death." "Death is the wages of sin," and those who conRciously live in sin and those (more especially) who know that this is so may be fitly spoken of as "seeking death." Suicide is not confined to those who deliberately take away their life with the pistol- &hot, or the cup of poison, or the fatal plunge. It is a folly and a crime that is being committed day by day at the hearth and at the table, in the office and in the study. Men are transgre11sing those known laws of God on the observance of which life as well as health depends. They who live in conscious wrong-doing are determinately travelling toward death, and are guiltily "seeking" it. IV. ITS DEEP AND WIDE DEPARTURE Fl!.0M THE HOLY PURPOSE OF GoD. The way of (the) man (of whom we are speakin~) is "strange" (ver. 8). It is quite foreign to the thought and contrary to tlte will of God. He is saying, "Go not along this path; turn from it, and pa.'ls away.'' It is sin which has cut this path for the feet of the human traveller, and it is ono which lies quito outside the King's highway. So strange is it to him, so alien tu hiij purpose, su far from his present desir.i, that ho is ~\'er 11&ying w his erring children, "Ret1Arn, retur11 I" Aud he ha& made, ia the CB, XXI. 1-31.] THE PROVERBS. 419