III. 1TB OFFENBIVENEBB TO Goo. "Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him." 1. God has told us fully what is his mind respecting it (Matt. v. 43-48; Rom. xii. 14, 20). 2. It is altogether unlike hill own action; for he is daily and momently blessing with life and health and innumerable bounties those who have forgotten or diHrega.rded or even deuied him. 3. There are two aspects in which it must be obnoxious to him. (1) He is the Father of our spirits, and how can he look with anything but sorrow on antagonism and hatred between his children? (2) He is the Holy and the Loving One, and how can he see with anything but displeasure the hearts of men filled with the feelings of malevolence, the hands of men occupied in dealing bitter blows against one another ? What, however, is the way by which this deep-root-ed disposition ea.a be expelled, and another and nobler spirit be planted in our souls ? What is the way to- IV. THE WORTHIER AND NOBLER SPIRIT. The one way to rise above vindictiveness and retaliation and to enter into the loftier and purer air of forgiveness and mag- nanimity is to connect ourselves most closely with our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. To surrender ourselves wholly to him, and thus to receive his Divine Spirit into our hearts (John vii. 38, 39; xv. 4; xvii. 23). 2. To have our hearts filled with that transforming love to our Father and our Saviour which will make us to become, unconsciously and gradually, like him in spirit and behaviour. 3. To let our minds be filled with the knowledge of his will, by patient and prayerful study of his Word ·and of his life.-C. Vers. 30-34.-The neglected garden. The whole scene is before us. The sluggard is asleep while everything is going wrong; instead of the flower is the thorn ; the ground is coloured with the green weeds; the wall is breaking down; where shoul,l be beauty is UJ1sightliness; where should be fruitfulness is barrenness or wilderness; ruin is written, on everything, everywhere. So is it with the farmer, with the trades- man, with the merchant or manufacturer, of the sluggard order. Consider it well. Negligence, dilatoriness, half-heartedness, in any department means decay, break-down, ruin. Poverty is on its way, and will certainly be knocking at the door; want will present itself with a force that cannot be resisted. 1. '\Ve have all of us a garden, an estate of our own, which God has given us to cultivate-that which is of more value than many thousands of o.cres of fertile soil, that which no riches can buy-our own true self, our own human spirit. God has solemnly charged us to cultivate that, tu weed it of error nnd prejudice, of folly and of passion; to plant truth there, his own living, abiding truth ; to plant righteousness there, purity of heart, inte;;ri ty of soul ; to plant love there, such o.s fills his own gracious Spirit; to build there walls of wise', strong, protecting habits, which will fence and guard the soul from intruding enemies. 2. There a.re all too many who treat this garden, this estate, with cnreless negligence; they throw their energy ·and force into everything else-business, love, politics, art, ploo.sure, society; but themselves, their own spirit, their own character, they leave to fare as best it may without care and without culture. 3. Very sad indeed arc the results of this foolish and guilty negligence. 'l'his picture of the sluggo.nl's gurJcu will tell us what they are. I. UNSIGHTLINESS. ,vhat a dreary picture-weeds, thistles, thorns, n broken wall ! The eye turns from it with repugnance. .And the neglected garden of the soul? Instead of the beautiful flowers of Christian reverence and love, and tho fair fruits of holiness and zenl, and the strong walls of n noble character, there nre s~en by God an,l man the unsightly weeds of transgression, of selfishness, of untruthful:icss-perhaps tLe thorns of intemperance and impurity and profanity. II. \V ASTE. African travellers tell us that passing over uncultivated rcisions they ho.ve to make their way through all kinds of rnnk growth, grass, or shrub which is high, strong, or thorny, covering many miles at a i;tretch. What waste is thcro ! What corn, what fruit, would not that lo.nd produce? Alas! for tho pitiful waste of an uncultured humnn soull ,vhat beauties might not be seen there, what fruits might not be grown there, what gmces and virtues might not be produced thore, if only the truth of Christ were received into tho mind and welcomed to the heart! lll. M1scmEF. These weeds will not ho confined to the sluggard's garden ; their seeds will be carried by the winds into his neighbour's, and do mischief enough thcro. 478 THE PROVERBS. [arr. xxv. 1-28,
A neglected soul is & mischief-working soul. It cannot confine its influence to itself or its own life. 'l'~ose influences cr?ss the w~ll and get !nto the neighbour's ground. And the seeds of sm are hurtful, poisonous thmgs, spreading error, falsehood delusion int-0 the minds of men. If we are not blessing our neighbours by the lives ~e live w~ are an injury and an evil to them. ' IV. Rurn. Th~ mai:i ~h,? neglects his estate is really, steadily, ruining himself. He may not see 1t until 1t IS too late. Poverty has been travelling toward him but only at the last bend of the road does it come in sight. Want suddenly appear;" as an armed man," stro~g, irresistible; there is no way of escape ; bankruptcy is before him. The soll;l that 1s neglected is being ruined? day by day it is being enfeebled, enslaved, detenocated; the good t~at w~s t~ere 1~ lesse~ing and_ disappearing; the hard c_rust of selfish_ness a~ worldlrness 1s th1ckenmg. _'lhe soul 1s being lost; it is penshmg. "I considered 1t well"-" set my heart upon 1t" (marginal readinu). This is, indeed, a thing to be well considered, to "set the heart upon,'' for the iss~es of it are those of life or death. Tbcre is time to restore it; but a little more nealiaence and the hour of" ruin" will have ~truck.-C. " " '