(V ers.15-17.) 1. There is the same need of firmness and discipline. Absolute liberty is licence. All our freedom is bounded by necessity. 'l'he good of the whole demands fixccl law; and this must be observed in the household as in the body politic. A weakness in the administration of acknowledged law is fatal to the purity of the home, to the welfare of nations. Evil-doers must be kept down; if their character cannot be changed, their power to work mischief must be taken from them by the unflinchin"' administrat.ion of law. And lastly, firmness, so far from alienating, really wins th; good will, the respect, and obedience of subjects in the petty commonwealth of home and in the larger sphere of the state.-J.
Vers. 18-23.-Fatal defects in the social state. I. THE WANT OF 0OMMANDING RELIGIOUS TEACHING. The great prophets of Israel were the great instructors of the people. They declared Jehovah's living oracles; they made clear the eternal principles of the moral law; they forecast what must be the future under moral conditions. The Christian preacher has succeeded to the office of the Jewish prophet. Woe to the nation if the supply of preachers ceases! if, sunk in material interests, they are allowed to forget that the" Word of the Lord" lives and endures, and obedience to it must be the foundation of all private blessing, a.II public prosperity I II. THE WANT OF FIRM POLICY AND CONDUCT. (Ver. 19.) There always will be a class more or less of "slaves," who must be governed, not by mere rhetoric or the appeal to feeling, but by the knowledge that words will be backed by deeds. God means what he says. The laws of nature are no mere abstract statements of truth ; they are stern and solemn/acts, which cannot be defied with impunity. And the law- less must understand that what ought to be shall be. III. THE WANT oF CALM DELIBERATION. (Ver. 20.) Whether in private or in pnblic life, this too may be a ruinous defect. Thus rash enterprises are begun, hostilities break out without warning, a lifelong alienation or the misery of a gene- ration may spring from the passion or the pique of the moment. IV. WANT OF DUE SEVERITY IN DISCIPLINE. (Ver. 21.) The exegesis of the verse certainly points to this meaning. Men are stung by the ingratitude or contumacy of those whom they had weakly petted, and whose faults they had nourished by their smiles. But human nature will only respond to just and true treatment; and injurious kindness will reap a thorny crop of ingratitude. V. "WANT OF SELF-CONTROL AND OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE. (Vera. 22, 23.) (For the first, see eh. xv. 18; x.xviii. 25.) Wrath is the very hot-bed of transgression and every "evil work." And self-esteem is a neighbour vice. So near a.re extremes in life: the moment we are highest in our own imagination we are really lowest in power, in position, in prospect. "He that would build lastingly must le.y his foundation low. .A.s man falls by pride, he recovers by humility." .A.ad the more God honours men, the more they should humble themselves.-J. Vere. 24-27.-Prudence in alliance with religion. I. PRUDENOE AND RELIGION ARE EVER IN HARMONY. There can be no divorce between them. We are aot placed between cross-lights here. What intelligent regard to self prescribes, God's Law commands. Approach the facts of life from these two opposite sides, travel by either of these two paths, they meet at last in duty, in safety, in peace, and salvation. II. SoME EXAMPLES OF TBIS HARMONY. 1 . .All dishonesty or complicity with it is self- destructive. (Ver. 24.) Enlightened experience says so, and stamps itself in the clear dictum," Honesty is the best _policy." God's Word says so, and ~ere and in a thouean~ similar declarations and warmags pronounces a curse upon the s!Il. 2. Fear of man ii perilous; confidence in the Eternal is safety. (Ver. 25.) Experience again rati~es t~is, The coward dies a thousand deaths; the brave, but once. The feeble-hearted daily miss opportunities ; the brave create them. Moral cowardice ~prings fro~ want of in~er conviction of the might of truth; moral strength, from the mner certamty that nothmg but truth is victorious. Positive revelation here again fortifies the hints of common knowledge. 3. The vanity of honour from others; the true honour that comes from God. (Ver. 26.) What bitter things have been written down in the experience of n,eu of the world concerning the favour of the great, and tho folly of courting it aad depending upun it I and how does the same lesson echo back from the page of Holy ea. XXIX. 1-27.] THE PROVERBS. 565