Vers. 15-18.-Violence and shameful joy defeated. I. THE ATTITUDE OF THE HAN OF FRAUD AND VIOLEN0E DEPIOTED. (Ver. 15.) He is like the prowling wild beast, seeking whom be may devour. God the Creator bas not armed us with tooth or tusk or other means of defence, like the wild beasts which are formed for making war on others. We are strongly furnished for defence, not for attack. Ferocity is distinctly an unnatural vice in us. II. Hrs A0TIVITY IB DEVASTATING. Here, again, be resembles the wild beast in his blind fury, the boar that uproots and overturns in the cultivated garden. III. THE _SELF-RECOVERY OF THE RIGHTEOUS. (Ver. 16.) 'l'o fall into sin and to fall into trouble are two different things. .Avoid the former, and God will not forsake thee in the latter. Seven falls stand for many-an indefinite number of falls. There is .m elasticity in rectitude like that of the young sapling; bent to the earth, it rebounds with strong upspring. "It may calm the apprehension of calamity to see how quiet a bound nature has set to the utmost infliction of malice. We rapidly approach a brink over which no enemy can follow us." But evil, being purely negative, a zero, the absence of internal power and virtue, has but an illusory existence, and quickly passes away. IV. BABE JOY TURNED INTO SHAME. (Vers.17, 18.) He who rejoices in the trouble of another, his own trouble stands behind the door. Why should he fear who takes his post with Omnipotence at his back? " Souls that of God's own good life partake He loves as his own self; dear as his eye They are to him ; he'll never them forso.ke. When they shall die, then God himself shall die; They live-they live in bleat eternity." The tyrant and his victim are made to change sides. The "wrath n which seems expressed in the calamities of the latter is transformed into the revelation of an "ever- lasting kindness," while terror strikes the heart of him who sought to infuse it into bis foe (compare R. Browning's striking poem,• Instans Tyrannus ').---J.
Vers. 19-22.-Religion fortifies the heart against envy. I. THE TEMPTATION TO ENVY THE PROSPERITY oF THE WICKED. It is very marked in the Old Testament. It is a common temptation. For we look e.t the outside of me.n's condition, e.nd are deceived by illusions. A pirate's vessel in the distance, a mansion built and inhabited by infamy, are beautiful objects of resthetic contemplation. So it is that the show aud bravery of success master our senses. II. THE ANTIDO'fE TO THESE FEELINGS. (Ver. 20.) "Consider the end "-darknes~ and the blackness of darkness. The wicked have no future. When this is once clearly seen, the che.rm on the surface fades e.way, e.nd the edifice of proud but godless prosperity sinks almost into e. smoking ruin. III. RELIGION AND MORALITY THE ONLY FOUNDATION OF SECURITY ~ND BLESSED- NESS, (Vers. 21, 22.) 'l'be one comprehensive word for religion is the" fear of Jehovah," reverence for God, and for oll that, being true, is of the very nature of God. And obedience to the king includes all those civil and socilll duties which we incur as members of e.n ordered commonwealth. Religion and loyalty go together; and the best way to make good subjects to the queen is to make men :rood servants c,f God. They will not make conscience of civil duties who make none of Divine.-J. Vers. 23-25.-Partiality and equality in judgment. I. RESPECT OF PERso~s. The literal translation is," To distinguish persons in judgment is not good." 'l'he judge should be impartial as the pair of scales, the emblem of his office, and blind to the persons who appear before him, that is, to their rank and position, as the symbolical :figure of Justice is represented to be. "One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul exampl~s; these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain." II. THE WILJ.l'UL PERVERSION OF RIGHT, (Ver. 24.) When the just man is suffered to fail in his cause before his adversary, the very uerve of public right is unstrung. It strikes a direct blow at the common wee.I, and hence brings down the curses of peoples and the enmity of states. III. EQUAL AND JUST JUDGMENT. (Ver. 25.) "A jut.Igo ought to prepare his way 472 THE PROVERDS. [OH, XXIV, 1-34,
to a. just sentence, as God useth to prepare his way, by raising va.lleys and taking down hills; so when there appeareth on either side a high hand, vioient persecution, cunning advantages taken, combination, power, great counsel, then is the virtue of a judge seen to make inequality equal; that he may plant his judgment as upon 11,n even ground" (Bacon). In the present text the glance is towards a proper and due severity, which will not allow the wicked to escape. "Odium may equa.lly be incurred by him who winks at crime and by him who has no regard to mercy. For in causes of life and deatb,judges ought, as far as the la.w permits, in justice to remember mercy, and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person" (Bacon). The purity of the judicia.l bench is one of the greatest of public blesRings. Let us be thankful that we enjoy it in our country, and pray that it may ever continue.-J.