gospel of his Son, e. way of return and restoration. Indeed, it is bis Son Jesus Christ who is "the Way." To know him and to love and serve him is to have our feet planted in" the path of life."-C. • Ver. 13.-Sowing and reaping. It is true, indeed, that as we sow we reap. It is not only true that God will in some way or other cause iniquity to suffer and righteous- ness to be recompensed, but we find that sin meets with its appropriate penalty, and worth with -its appropriate reward. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." We have an illustration of this in the text, as we find many others elsewhere. I. INHUMANITY AND PITY. "Whoso stoppeth his ears," etc. Men will have no mercy on the merciless. Let a man be known to be hard-hearted, selfishly and cruelly indifferent to the distress of bis neighbours, and when the time of bis calamity comes he will discover ·that there is no eye to pity and no hand to help him. On the contrary, bis misfortune will give a secret if not an open satisfaction. But let a man be pitiful and generous in the day of bis prosperity, then when adversity overtakes him the hearts and the hands of many will open t.o sympathize and succour. The same principle is applicable to :m evil which is similar though not quite so serious, and to its corresponding virtue, viz.- H. SEVERITY AND LENIENCY. Our fellow-men will be sure to treat us with the same severity we impose on them. Austerity constantly begets austerity; it is not long before it hears the echo of its own harshness. Be down with rigid particularity on every offence you detect in your child, or your servant, or your neighbour, and you may reckon confidently on having the same unbending rigorousness of judgment applied to any deviation that can be discovered in yourself. But leniency brings forth leuiency; charity is the beautiful mother of charity. Make every kind and just allowance as you judge your brother, and you shall have every extenuation granted you when your infirmity leads you into error. We have the same thing showing itself, the appropriateness and correspondence of the penalty or the reward to the offence or the virtue in- IJI. GROSSNESS AND PURITY. " He. that soweth to the flesh, of the flesh reaps cor- ruption; and be that soweth to the Spirit, of the Spirit reaps life everlasting" (Gal. vi. 8). Bodily indulgence means bodily degeneration; spiritual culture means spiritual enlargement. IV.- GODLESSNESS AND GODLINESS. The man who lives without God bas to do without God in life nnd at the end of life as well as he can. He has to dispense with all the comfort and support of the consciousness of God's favour and tbat Divine indwelling which only comes with faith and love. But he who walks with God and lives unto him enjoys oll the unspeakable and inestimable advantages of the near presence, the gracious power, the continual comfort and succour of the Divine Spirit. As he sows, b:e reaps.-C. Ver. 21.-'--The successful search. What. a lamentable history might be written of human lives that would be correctly described as unsuccessful searches! Who, save the OmniEcient One, can tell how many have lived and toiled, have struggled and suffered, in search of a goal which they never reached ?-it may have been in business, or in the domain of the affections, or in the pursuit of art or of science, or in politics, or in exploration on land or sea. It is a thought of relief and comfort that no human life need be a failure-none, at least, on which the light of Divine truth has shone. It •is also pleasant to think that the higher we aim the likelier we are to reach our mark. Ho who· seeks satisfaction on the lower and grosser levels is most likely to f!lil; but he whose aspiration is toward wisdom and worth, toward goodness and God, is & seeker that will find- I. THE TRUE QUEB'l' oF A HUMAN HEART. Solomon speaks of "following after righteousness and mercy." These two words may be taken as covering tbe entire field of rectitude and love, being just in all our relations, aud being animated by the tipirit of kindness toward all with whom we have to do. Thus understood, they point to the endeavour of the human soul to find : 1. Acceptance with the li'1ing God ; for there is no happy sense of rightness or rectitude .until his favour has been secured, and we feel that we stand before him as those that arc true a11d loyal, his faithful subjects, 420 THE PROVERBS. [OH, XXI. 1-31,
his reconciled children. 2. Purity of heart and life-deliverance from the power and bondage of sin, of the evil forc~s w_hich sti_r within o.nd which plo.y around tho soul. 3 • .A course of honesty and equtty 10 the sight of man; such a regulation of conduct as will result in doing to others as we would that they should do to us walkincr along the path which brings no regrets and no reproaches. 4 . .A heart of kindness~ nourishing withio ourselves the prevailing feelin!l: of considerateness for others · th~ blessed faculty of forgetting our own personal tastes and preferences and pa~sing interests in order to remember the wants and well-being of our friends aod our fellow- men ; the mental and spiritual habit of sympathizing with sorrow and succourincr0 need with an open aod a willing hand. II. 'l'HE WAY TO THE GOAL, ,ve who have learnt of Christ need not miss our way• we may, and (if we are in earnest) we shall, find all that we seek. We shall attain to; I. Righteousness. (1) .Acceptance with God, being right with him by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. v. 1, 2; viii. 1). (2) The growth within us of those virtues and graces which come with the service of the holy Lord, with the study and the love of the sinless Friend, with p~ayer for the sanctifying influences of the indwelling Spirit. 2. Life ; for he that hves thus unto God, who is becoming daily like God who is rejoicing in the friendship of God, does live indeed. This_ is life-life spiritual: Divine, eternal. 3. Honour. No small share of the honour which comes from those whose esteem is worth possessing ; and in the end the honour which will come from the appraising and approving Lord, when he says, "Well done I " to his faithful servants.-C.
Ver. 22.-(See homily on vers. 29-31.)-C, Ver. 27.-(See homily on eh. xv. 8.)-C.