Ver~. 4, 5.-The two ways of rneetingfolly. They are these- I. THE CAREFUL AVOIDANCE OF REPEATING IT. (Ver. 4.) Only too otten men allow the foolish to draw them into a repetition of their folly, so that one fool makes another. Folly is contagious, and we are all in some danger of catching it. This is the case with us when : 1. We let the word of anger provoke us to a responsive bitter- ness ; then we are " overcome of evil" instead of "overcoming evil with good " (Rom. xii. 21). 2. \Ve allow one exaggeration to lead us into another. When two men are in conversation, one is often tempted to lead the other into statements that exceed the truth; and exaggeration is only another name for falsehood. 3. We accept a foolish challen~. The young, more particularly, are fond of exciting one another to deeds of folly, &lld it often requires courage, steadfastness, even nobility of spirit, to refuse to follow t.ha leading of unwisdom. 4. We indulge in idle gossip; letting the first state- ment about or.1r n.eighbour, which is unfounded and slanderous, conduct us to idle and mischievous talk in the same foolish strain. 5. We permit ourselves to follow the lead of the man whose th~ughts and words are in the direction of a doubtful, or a dishonour- able, or a defiling tegion. In all these cases it behoves us "not to answer a fool according to his folly," w be silent altogether; or else to break away into another and worthier strain; or even to "take up our parable" against that which has been said in our hearing. But here we reach the other method, viz.- II. THE WISE CONDEMNATION OF IT. Folly is sometimes to be rebuked (ver. 5). Silence on our part would be mistaken and abused; it would be regarded as acquiescence or as incapacity to meet what has been said, and folly would go on its way, its empty head held higher than before. We must use discretion here ; must understand " when only silence suiteth best," and also when silence would be a mistake and even a sin. The times to answer a fool according to bis folly, i.e. in the way which is demanded by his folly, are surely these: 1. When ignorance needs to be exposed. 2. When pre- tentiousness and presumptuousness want to be put down. 3. When irreverence or actual profanity requires to be rebuked and silenced. 4. When vice or cruelty deserves to be smitten and abashed. Then let the true and brave man speak; let the name and the honour of his holy Saviour, let the cause of truth and righteousness, let the interests of the young and the poor and the weak unloose his tongue, and let him pour forth his indignation. In so doing he will be following in the footsteps of the Lord of truth e.nd love, and of the noblest and worthiest of his followers.-C.
Ver. 13.-(See homily on eh. xxii. 13.)-C. Vers. 18, 19.-17ie condemnation of sin. We have here, in a few strong sentences, a most forcible presentation of the evil and the guiltiness of wrong-doing. We see- I. ITs UGLIEST FEATIJUE-DECEPTION. "The man that deceiveth his neighbour" is not here simply the man who overreaches his customer or who introduces a low cunnina into bis business; he is rather the man who deliberately misleads his acquaint- ance, his "friend," and induces him to do that which is unwise and unworthy. He is the man who knows better himself, but who indoctrinates the inexperienced and the unwary with the principles, or rather the vain imaginations, of folly. He stoops so low that he does not hesitate: 1. To recommend forbidden pleasure as an object worthy of pursuit, though he knows well (or ought to know, if he can learn fron experience) that guilty gratification is the very costliest thing that any man can buy. 2. 'l'o persuade men that an unprincipled life is a profitable life, as if" a mnn's life consisted in the abundance of the things which he possessed;" as if a life without integrity were not the most utter and miserable failure. 3. To recommend selfishness and indulgence as a cunrlitiun of liberty, when in fact it is the beginning and is sure to end in the most OIJ. XXVI. 1-28.] THE PROVERBS.' li13
humilio.ting bondage. 4. To represent the service of God and or man as a drud(7ery and a dreariness, when in truth it is the height of human nobility and the very ess~nce of enjoyment. 5. To prevo.il upon the young to snatch at honour and success instead of honestly labouring and patiently waiting for it. There is no more painful and repulsive thing under heaven than the sight of experience and maturity breathing its fallacies, its sophisms, its delusions, into the ear of inexperience and innocency. II. !Ts BITTER FBUIT. What do these delusions bring forth? The deceiver is a man who" scatters firebrands, arrows, and death." The ultimate consequences of the "deceitfulness of sin" are sad indeed; they are: 1. Impoverishment in circumstance. 2. The loss of the love and the honour of the wise and good. 3. Remorse of soul and, frequently, if not usually, the departure of self-respect. 4. Hopelessness and death. 5. The extension of the evil which ha.s been imbibed to those around; becoming a source of poisonous error, a fountain of evil and wrong and misery. III. ITs PRACTICAL INSANITY. The fool who does wantonly scatter the seeds of deadly delusions in the minds of men is " as a madman." There is no small measure of insanity in sin. Sin is a spiritual disease; it is our spiritual nature in a state of com- plete derangement, our mind filled with false ideas, our heart affected with delusive hopes and fears. There is no soundness, no wholeness or health about us, so far as we are under the dominion of sin. We do things which we could not possibly have done if only reason and rectitude held sway within us. IV. ITs POOR AND PITIFUL APOLOGY. "He saitb, Am not I in sport?" When a man deludes and betrays, when be wrongs and ruins a human soul, and then makes a joke of it, he only adds meanness to his transgression. Who, outside the bottomless pit, can see any fun in a blighted life, in a wounded and bleeding spirit, in a soiled and stained soul, in the ruin of reputation, in the blasting of a noble hope, in the shadow of spiritual death? Human life and character and destiny are infinitely serious things; they are not to be the butt of fools.-O.