Vere. 18-20.-77,e myBtery of actions. I. THERE ARE ACTIONS WHICH, LIKE THE PLIGHT OF THE EAGLE, OB THE PASSAGE OF THE BmP, LEAVE NO VISIBLE TRACE BEHIND. What seems to strike the mind of the simple-hearted Agur is the fact that criminal deeds may be committed and, seemingly, leave as little trace behind. II. BUT THE MYSTERY AND SECRECY OF ALL ACTIONS ARE KNOWN TO Gon. v.i· e are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And God shall bring every secret work into judgment. Every act leaves its trace in the world of spirit.-J. Vere. 21-23.-Intolerable things. I. THE EXAMPLES. 1. The slave in authority. (Ver. 22.) The inversion of objects is intolerable to the trained eye; things standing upside down, etc. So in social relations and in political. Government belongs to the wise and the strong; the feeble in mind and the narrow in heart are emphatically the wrong men in the wrong place, in seats of power. 2. The self-satisfied fool. His fatuous smile is a satire upon himself and upon the condition of things which permits him to bask in so fantastic a paradise. Those are sights to make the "angels weep." 3. The ill-tempered wife. (Ver. 23.) She, again, is emphatically " out of place." For home, in any sweet sense, is the place which woman's presence makes a delight. 4. The ambitious maidservant. The effort to supplant, to grasp a place beyond one's rights and deserts, hurts our intuitive perceptions of what is right. An Oriental proverb says, "Sit in your place, and none shall make you rise," on which we have a pointed commentary from Christ in Luke xiv. 11, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." II. THE GENERAL LESSONS. Order and rank are Divine institutions. To overturn this is no work of the true reformer or friend of the social weal. Rule rests ultimately upon ability to rule; government, upon power; authority, upon wisdom. When thetie relations are actually reversed, society is disturbed, matters are unhappy. When they only seem to be reversed, there will be distress and discomfort in right minds, until the just order and the nominal state of things shall be restored.-J. Vers. 24-28.-The significance of little things. I. EXAMPLES. 1. The ant ( ver. 25) ; tiny in frame, yet full of providence, making wise provision against the rainy day. 2. The hedgehog(" coney," ver. 26); though feeblP, finds compensation in the strength of the dwelling it selects. 3. The locust (ver. 27); a creature, as an individual, easily crushed, yet gaining immense force by union with others. Joel (ii.) gives a splendid description of the raid of locusts under the figure of an invading army, with which tho accounts of travellers in tropical lands may be closely compared. 4. The lizard (ver. 28); another tender and feeble creature, nevertheless penetrates human dwellings, and makes itself at home in the palaces of kings. II. LESSONS. The lower creatures show unconscious mind. What they do, appa- rently with blind mechanical impulse, is exemplary in many respects to us who have reason and will. The profoundest lessons may be derived from the lowliest thing8. Mr. Darwin's work on 'Worms' shows how the most despised of creatures, by the very law of its being, labours for others and blesses a world. It is folly to seek to explore the heights of wisdom until we are familiar with what it teaches us in the little and the low. The " little flower in the crannied wall" contains in its life the secret and mystery of all existence.-J.
Vera. 29-31.-Grandeur in natural objects. Our rosthetic as well as our teleological perceptions are appealed to in the objects of nature. Certain creatures express grandeur, sublimity, or beauty in their form and carriage. I. EXAMPLES, 1. 'fhe lion. (Ver. 30.) He is in nature and for art the very symbol of strength and prowess. Literally, he is the "hero among beasts," and turns his ma"nificent front from the face of no foe. 2. The greyhound (ver. 31), with its slender for::i, is the very type of swiftness, which is another idea lying close to the sublime. His name (in German, Windspiel, or Windhund) compares him with the wind. 3. The goat; in its active capability, its nimble movement, and secure footing in dangerous places, gives another variety of the same idea. II. A PARALLEL IN HUMAN LIFE. The king in his majesty should combine ID his person and bearing the fearless brow of the lion, the swiftness of decision and action of 590 THE PROVERBS. [on. xxx. 1-33.
the other animals. The ideal majesty of man includes in itself all lower per.fections in the thought of the Creator. And every man should be .taught to realize the royal dignity of bis being in Christ. He is made a "little lower than the angels." and God's 1mrpose cannot be fulfilled until we men rise to claim the glorious heritag~ of the ideal manhood.--J.
Vers. 32, 33.-Moml prudence. I. IT TEA0RES THE CONTROL OP THE TONGUE. The folly and pride of the heart may be choked, if expression is denied them on the tongue. Ro evil or foolish thought is full-born till it is clothed in words. Give no formula to the momentary impulse of wrath or other passion, and the soul of evil will perish if it :find no body to inhabit. II. IT POINTS TO CONSEQUENCES. The quaint illustrations of .Agur exhibit the certa)nty of evil consequ~nces ~ evil thoughts a~d desires. As certain as any of the physical sequences mentioned, 1s the metaphysical sequence, the moral or immoral consequences of passion. Therefore, obsta principiis, resist the beginnings, "seal up the avenues of ill."-J.