Ver. 27.-Row to l1ate the wiclced. There is n hatred we have to endure and there ie also a hCLtred which we have to cherish. The question of any difficulty is-What is the feeling we should cultivate in our hearts towards the guilty? We may glance at- I. :ruE_ HATRED o:v: us BY THE ~?KED. "He_ that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked." I. This 1s a welkvenHed fact, attested by Scripture, by history, by observation, probably by experience. 2. Its explanation is at hand. (1) Wicked men are utterly otit of sympathy with the righteous. Their tastes, inclina- tions, habits, are all at variance with those of the good and pure. (2) The upright are obliged to condemn them, either in private or in public. (3) The life of the one is a standing reflection upon the conduct of the other. 3. There is one right way to meet it; viz. (1) to endure it as Jesus Christ endured it (Heb. xii. 3; 1 Pet. ii. 23), and as seeing the invisible but present and approving Lor,l (Heh. xi. 27); (2) to make an honest effort to remove it by winning those who indulge it. But the more difficult question is how we are to bear ourselves toward those whose conduct we reprobat~, whose character we detest, whose persons we are not willing to admit into our· homes. How shall we order- IL Ou11. HATRED OF THE WICKED? That there is a very strong feeling against the wrong-doer in the minds of the holy is obvious enough. It is a fact that "an unjust man is an abomination to the just." "Do not I bate them that h?.te thee? . . . I bate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies," said David (P~. cxxxix. 21, 22). Jesus Christ "looked round about on them with anger" (Mark iii. 5). God is "angr_y with the wicked every day" (Ps. vii. 11). He "hateth all the workers of iniquity " (Ps. v, 5). Our feeling, therefore, is the reflection of that which is in the heart of the Holy One himself. Of what elements should it be composed? 1. One element that ahould be absent. There should be no trace of personal ill will, of a desire for th~ suffering of the man himself; for the soul of the sinful we shonld wish well, and we fall into a mist11ke, if not into a sin, when we allow ourselves to find a pleasure in witnessing or in dwelling upon the humiliation or the sorrow of the wicked. We ought only to wish for that as a means of their puriHcation and recovery. 2. The elements that should be present. (1) Pure resentment, such as God feels, such as our Lord felt wbrn he lived amongst us (see Matt. xxiii.),-a feeling of strong reprobation, which we are obliged to direct against them as the doers of unrighteousness. (2) Faithful but measured condemnation. There is, in this view, a time to speak as well as o. time tu keep silence; and both publicly and privately it behoves us to blame the blameworthy, and even to denounce the shamefully unjust or cruel. But here we are bound to tako care that we are well acquainted with tbe matter on which we speak, and that our judgment is an impartial one. (3) Fearless and unflinching opposition. We must actively and steadfastly oppose ourselves to the iniquitous, and do our best to bring their purposes to the ground. (4) Sincere and practical compassion. With all thi~ that is adverse, we may and should conjoin such pity ns our Divine Saviour bas felt for ourselves, and such honest and earnest endeavour to win them to the truth and to the pmctice of righteousness as he put forth when he camo to redeem us from sin and to raise 1111 to the likeness and restore us to the kingdom of God.-O.
EXPOSITION. no one can hesitate to Bll.Y is well founded, CHAPTER XXX. if ho attempts to give it a. spiritual inter- Vere. 1-33,-Part VII. FIRST Al'PENDIX pretation, and to discern mysteries under '1'0 THE SECOND CoLLECTlON, containing the litero.l meaning : "Quo.1·ta hroc pard "the words of Agur." A abort introduo- elegCLntissimo. est et puloherrim11, roquo uo tion, teaohing that the Word of God is the difflcillima ot obscurissima: priores enim source of wisdom (vers. 1-6), is followed tros pCLrles continent Proverbio. et Parmmiua by apotbegms on different subjects (vers. claras, ao antithe11ibus et similituclinibus 7-33). Cornelius ll. Lapide offers the follow- pcrspiouas et i\luetres; hroc vcro cnutinet ing opinion concorning this appendix, which 111nigmat11 et gryphos insigu~s, tlCU uc1U1oa 570 THE t>ROVERBS; [OH, XXX.1-33,