oe.n reduce this! the less will be their own condemnation, and the higher they may hope to move in the society they affect. But perhaps the main acco11nt of it is found in- II. TaE BLINDING INFLUENCE OF RIN. Those who break God's Law praise those who are wicked and that which is unworthy, because they" understand not judgment" (ver. 6). It is the fearful and fatal effect of sin upon the soul to pervert the moral judgment, to deprave the conscience, to make men regard with a diminishing dis- approve.I the wrongness of evil deeds, until they become absolutely indifferent to it, until they positively approve the actions which they once hated and denounced. Then the light that is in them is darkness, and how great and how sad that darkness is (see Matt. v. 23) I Everything is seen in a false light; truth appears as falsehood, good as evil, wisdom as folly; and, on the other hand, all those miserable delusions which a. sinful heart holds, and which are leading it down to death, appear as truth, and wrong and guilty actions a.ppear as right, and lives which are dismal failures seem to be successes. III. THE FUNCTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Their duty, or one of their duties, is to "contend with the wicked." This was the office, the service, of righteous Noah, of Lot, of Elijah, of Daniel, of Nehemiah, of John the Baptist, of Paul; it has been the function of every true and loyal-hearted man placed in the midst of those who are opposing the will of God. Contention is not the highest, as it certainly is not the most inviting, duty we ha.ve to take in hand. But it is often very necessary, and is sometimes quite noble service. 1. We may have to contend with the flagrantly bad, to denounce violence, oppression, injustice, vice, profanity, etc.; or with the mere hypocrite, who is right in form but wrong in heart; or with those who are half- hearted, and who are practically opposing the truth and the kingdom of God. 2. We should be very sure of our ground before we take up the attitude and use the weapons of hostility. 3. We should oppose ourselves to those who are wrong in no spirit of animosity against men, but of hatred of e.11 evil. IV. THE EFFECT AND REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. "They that seek the Lord understand all things." It is the most blessed effect of obedience that it elevates the <loer; it purifies his heart, it clarifies his vision, it unlocks the door within which are rare treasures of immortal truth, it makes the soul to see and to rejoice in that to which it had been wholly blind. It unveils the living truth of God. It enables us: 1. To know ourselves as God knows us. 2. To understand our life e.s God intended us to regard it. 3. To appreciate the words and to recognize the will of the Divine Teacher. 4. To know him himself, "whom to know is life eterne.l."-0, Ver. 8.-(See homily on vere. 20, 22.)-0. Ver. 9.-(See homily on eh. xv. 8.)-C.
Vers. 12, 28.-Hidden manhood. The two main truths here taught have been anticipated by a foregoing proverb, viz. the advantage to society of promoting the good ; and the injury done by the advancement of the wicked (see eh. xi. 10). But there is e. truth suggested by the wise man's language which does not elsewhere appear; he says that when the wicked rise "a man is hidden," that "men hide themselves." The fact here alluded to is clear enou~h; we have often rend, or he.va frequently observed, that the best men retire to seclusion and innctivity wheu iniquity is on the throne, when unprincipled cleverness holds the reins; they will not serve under a sovereign whom they despise, or in circumstances which make office-holding a disgrace, if not a danger. Ilut beyond and beneath this fact the language is fitted tu suggl'st to us that there is much of hidden manhood among8t us. We find it in- I. PREMATURE RETIREMENT. Not only under the conditions stated in the text, when the withdrawal of honourable men is necessary to the upright and the high- ruinded, but also under very different conditions. When men are allured by a desire for quietude and eaoe, or when they are disheartened by disappointment, or a.re tli,gusted by the slownes11 of their ascent to place and power, or when they under- eslirne.tc their capacity and their opportunity, and they therefore lay <luwu the wc:ipon o.ud leave the field. 'l'his is a serious l.:iss. Then "n mo.n is hidden;" a man is burying 550 'l'HE PROVERBS. [oH. xxvm. 1-28,
the wisdom of maturity, the large result of manifold experience, the gathered fruit of many years. He is hiding in his own home the cultured capacity he should be expending on the city, on the country of his birth. • II. UNDEVELOPED FACULTY, We do not know how often it happens that men.are born with great capacities in_ their n9:ture, and wh~ live a:nd die without manifesting them to the world. T(ieY: fail to receive the education which would bring them forth, or they are confined w1thm a range so narrow that they have no chance of showing what they could be and do. 'l'hey "die with all their music in them;." they pass away, unknown, unproved, unfelt. That is expended upon unimportant trifles which might have directed the affairs of some great company, or guided the activities of some influential Church, or decided the course of some powerful nation. A "man is hidden," and a community is left uncnriched. III. UNDISCIPLINED FORCE. When God gives to a human spirit a strona power of will, there is an imperative necessity that it should be wisely and rightly a~ided and controlled in youth. Faithfully disciplined, such a one becomes a most Jseful man, who will contribute largely to the advancement and happiness of the world. But if that discipline be withheld, and the clever, wilful boy be allowed to grow up into untrained and uncultured manhood, there will be a sad waste of power. He will be more likely than not to do harm rather than good to his generation; he may be a blight instead of a blessing. There is " a man hidden;" one who has it in him to be one of the highest and worthiest, but who, as it is, is lost or even worse than lost, to his contemporaries and his country. IV. UNRESCUED WRONG. Even when we see humanity at its very worst, in its very foulness and baseness, we do well to feel that beneath the humiliating and pitiful exterior is a hidden manhood. It is the noble work of Christian beneficence to get down to this, to lay its kind and holy hand upon it, to raise and to restore it, to bring it into the sunshine of truth and love, to make it visible and even beautiful in the sight of God and in the estimate of man.-C. Ver. 18.-(See homily on eh. xi. 3.)-C,