iii. 5), and our Lord when on earth could endure without anger all

contradiction of sinners against Himself (Heb. xii. 3) except hypocrisy. This always set His holy nature on fire with indignation and called forth the only Woes that ever passed His lips. It was forbidden to the apostolic churches to sit at the table of any man who, "calling himself a _brother,_" was yet _"covetous or an idolator"_ (1 Cor. v. 11). For such a man was under a far deeper condemnation than one who openly manifested his real character, seeing that he added to his other sins that of professing to be what he was not, and to _eat_ with such a man was not only to countenance his covetousness and idolatry but to share his hypocrisy. The Old Testament preacher here issues the same prohibition and obviously for the same reasons, and if men disregard them they fully deserve the negative and the positive punishment with which they are here threatened. All the friendly words which they utter to save appearances and to further selfish interests, and which convict _them_ in _their_ turn of hypocrisy, will be _"lost,"_ and bitter regret and self-condemnation will be their final portion.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

The injunction, or dissuasion, I need not surely say, is by no means intended to give any license or encouragement to a spirit of pride or disdain. No. It is only a salutary warning to be cautious of bringing yourselves under obligation to any selfish and hypocritical dissembler of kindness, who only wishes to lay you under such obligation to serve purposes of his own. The man who has thus entertained you will boast of his hospitality; tell others of it, making the most of it for his own behoof; set it down against you, debiting you on account of it with certain expected good turns at your hand, when he comes to need them. He will throw it up _to_ you, should you not do all he looks for; or rail _at_ you to others for ingratitude and meanness in forgetting his kindness. He will remind you of it again and again, with vexatious importunity,--teazing you for your favour and influence in some object he has in view for himself or his family. It is amazing what an amount of expectation a man of this sordid and selfish disposition will found upon _a dinner!_ Your having sat at _his_ table, eaten of _his_ dainties, and drunk of _his_ wines, is price enough even for your conscience itself. Beware of him. Keep yourself free.--_Wardlaw._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 9.

THE MORALLY INCURABLE.

+I. A man may become morally incurable by human instructors.+ There are cases of bodily disease which it would be quite useless for the most skilful physician to attempt to cure; such an attempt would only be a throwing away of time and energy on his part which might be usefully employed upon another patient. And so there is at least one form of moral disease which is beyond the reach of human effort. It is that of the man who scoffs at everything, and upon whom, therefore, the most affectionate entreaties and the most solemn warnings are thrown away.

+II. To offer to such an incurable fool the wisdom of God is to break a Divine commandment.+ The Redeemer Himself, under the Gospel dispensation, issued such a prohibition. Even among the beneficent utterances of the Sermon on the Mount comes the command, _"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you"_ (Matt. vii. 6). Although Christ and His disciples were sent forth to proclaim the Gospel message among men who, on account of their bitter animosity to Him and to His teachings were compared to _"wolves"_ (Luke x. 3), there were others in a far more hopeless condition before whom they were forbidden to place the great truths of the kingdom of God, and they were such characters as the fool of this proverb, who would have _"despised the wisdom of their words."_ The deep import of the words of Solomon are fully seen when we consider the even more startling utterance of Him who loved and died for all men.

+III. There is a Divine compassion for the sinner in this commandment.+ To offer to such a man what he would scoff at, would be to give him an occasion of increasing his own guilt by a new refusal of Divine truth. Mercy, therefore, is mingled with the stern judgment of the prohibition.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

We often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution begins with many men here. The day of grace terminates with many men before the day of death. There are those who reach an unconvertible state, their characters are stereotyped and fixed as eternity. The things that belong to their peace are hid from their eyes. They are incorrigible. Such is the character referred to in the text.--_Dr. David Thomas._

Those that are reproved by ministers, and Christian friends may learn from this verse that they have no reason to take it amiss, or to think that they are treated with contempt. They are considered as offenders, but at the same time as offending brethren, who are not incurably perverse. They would be treated in a very different way, and might reckon themselves with more justice to be considered in the light of scorners, and dogs, and swine if there were no means used to recover them to repentance.--_Lawson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 10 _and_ 11.

THE RIGHTS OF PRIVATE PROPERTY.

+I. In the community formed under Divine direction there was a possession of personal and private property.+ When the land of Canaan was first divided among the tribes, it was evident that each family had its respective allotment, the boundaries of which were clearly defined (See Duet. xix. 14, etc.) Each head of a family became, therefore, a possessor of property, to which no other person, not even the king in the days of the monarchy, had a right. (See 1 Kings xxi. 1-3.) The kingdom, therefore, formed under direct Divine supervision, was not governed on communistic principles; each man had his own inheritance, which became more or less valuable according to the industry and skill expended upon it. Social inequalities must have resulted from this arrangement, which were prevented from becoming too great by the arrangements connected with the year of jubilee, but which within certain limits were evidently not regarded by God as opposed to the welfare of His chosen people. We may infer, then, that the idea that it would be better for mankind if all things were possessed in common--if no man had anything which he could call his own--is not a Divine idea, and is a mistaken one.

+II. Those who are too helpless to protect their own rights are especially under the protection of God.+ The depravity of human nature is seen in the almost universal tendency displayed by the strong to forget the claims of the weak; but when this tendency is carried to the length of wronging the widow and the fatherless, it seems as if a man had sunk to the lowest depths of moral degradation. Yet there were such specimens of fallen humanity in the commonwealth established and governed by God Himself, as there are in nominally Christian England. But, from the earliest days of Jewish history, God declared Himself to be the Guardian of the widow and the fatherless, and the field which was their inheritance might have been well called _God's Acre,_ from which all intruders were warned off by Divine command and threatening. This is a truth which it may be well for all those to lay to heart which hold property in trust for such dependent ones, or who have any other responsibility in relation to them. It is surely a comforting thought for the fatherless themselves that the place of the earthly parent is taken by One whose power as much exceeds all human power as His love goes beyond all human love.

_ILLUSTRATION._

The state of Palestine with regard to enclosures is very much the same now as it has always been. Though gardens and vineyards are surrounded by dry stone walls or hedges of prickly pear, the boundaries of arable fields are marked by nothing but a little trench, a small cairn, or a single erect stone placed at certain intervals. It is manifest that a dishonest person could easily fill the gutter with earth, or remove these stones a few feet without much risk of detection and thus enlarge his own field by a stealthy encroachment on his neighbour's.--_Dr. Jamieson._

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

The words in the first clause of the verse have been sometimes applied in a very different department--even to the danger and the criminality of intermeddling with old and long established articles of doctrine in religion, and principles and statutes of civil polity. . . . It is clear, however, that there can be no period of prescription for truth,--or rather for falsehood,--no length of time, that is, by which error that has passed for truth can become anything else than error. No time can transmute wrong into right. Changes, no doubt, should be made with caution. The longer anything has been received as a truth, the improbability of its being found an error becomes ever the greater. But if any dogma in any human system of Christian doctrine is proved, from a full and careful investigation of the Word of God, to have been set down and held as a truth by mistake,--it would be a most strange and mischievous attachment to antiquity for its own sake, that would resist its being expunged and the truth discovered substituted in its room. Never must we forget, that the most ancient landmarks of truth and duty are those which have been fixed _here_--in the Bible--by the hands of prophets, apostles, and evangelists, under the immediate direction of the "Spirit of the Lord." There are none so old as these. From the Bible human standards have been formed. _Their_ landmarks profess to be in agreement, in the bounding lines of truth and error marked out by them, with those which are set down there. But when, on a careful survey, any of them are found to have been misplaced, and to bring any part of the region of error within the boundary of the territory of truth,--their removal becomes a duty of imperative obligation.--_Wardlaw._

The word for _redeemer_ signifies the man who was _"next of kin,"_ the _kinsman_ on whom, by the law of Moses, it was incumbent as a matter of duty, and with whom too it was a matter of interest, to look after the concerns of his poor relations; with whom lay indeed the avenging of their blood, if in any case, their life should, in cruel selfishness, be taken away. It was on the principle of that statute that Boaz called upon the next of kin to come forward and redeem the inheritance of Elimelech at the hand of Naomi, and that, upon his hearing the conditions and declining, he did it himself. Now he who happened to be the _redeeming kinsman_ might himself be poor, and powerless, and without either means or influence. But they should not, on that account, be unprotected and unbefriended. Jehovah Himself would take the place of their kinsman--would _"plead their cause,"_ would maintain their rights, would redress their wrongs, would bring His power to bear against their oppressors. _He_ would fulfill for them the part of their near relation: and he is _"mighty."_ Hear His words:--"Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless" (Exod. xxii. 22-24). These, you may think, are Old Testament threatenings, belonging to a judicial law that has passed away; or, more properly, they belong to the special _theocracy,_ inasmuch as they do not prescribe any punishment to be inflicted by the hand of man, but announce what Jehovah himself would, by his own interposition, execute. Be it so. But think you that the character of God has changed? Such assurances and threatenings are not mere warnings of punishment; they are _expressions of character.--Wardlaw._

Adored be the unsearchable pity, grace, and condescension of Emmanuel! When He could not redeem us as God, He became our kinsman, that He might be our Redeemer! (Heb. ii. 14-16).--_Bridges._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12-28.

PARENTAL DUTIES AND PARENTAL JOYS.

This paragraph contains no subject upon which Solomon has not dwelt before, but their repetition shows the great importance which he attached to them.

+I. He repeats the truth that corporal punishment is a necessary and salutary element of parental training.+ (see Homiletics on chap. xiii. 24, page 234, and on chap. xix. 18, page 573.)

+II. He shows by example that appeals are also to be made to the higher and better nature of the child.+ Although the rod is to have its place, it is not to be the only force employed--a child is a reasoning and loving creature, and that training will miserably fail which does not take this fact into account. And in proportion as the child grows in years will the rod become less needful and effectual, and wise warning and loving entreaty will take its place. He is here besought to "give his heart to wisdom" and to live "in the fear of Jehovah"--1. _Because of the exceeding joy that he will bring to his parents._ (See verses 15, 24, and 25.) This is a thought that cannot fail to have weight with any son or daughter of good parents who is capable of grateful emotion. The consideration of the tender love and the unwearying patience that have surrounded them from their birth, and of the power that now lies in their hand to requite that long ministry of tenderness and long suffering, ought to be a powerful motive to dissuade from the evil path and allure into the good way. And it has been and ever will be, for many a child of godly parents has been kept in the hour of temptation by the remembrance of his father or his mother, even when he has not thought upon his God. (See also Homiletics on chap. x. 1, page 137.) 2. _Because of the temporal ruin of an opposite course._ (See verses 21, 27, and 28.) All these subjects have been considered before. (See Homiletics on chap. xxi. 17, page 609, and on chap. vi. 6-11, page 79, and on chap. vi. 24, page 89.) 3. _Because of the rewards and punishments of the life to come._ (See verse 18.) This verse (see Critical Notes) undoubtedly refers to the day of death and to the life beyond it, as do also chaps. xi. 7, and xiv. 32. (See Homiletics on pages 201 and 391.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 13. The command is framed upon a supposition that parents often fail on the side of tenderness; the word is given to nerve them for a difficult duty. There is no ambiguity in the precept; both the need of correction, and the tremendous issues that depend on it, are expressed with thrilling precision of language.--_Arnot._

Verses 15, 16. Now the proverb personates the father, and, instead of a roundabout speech, utters the temper that should inspire the beating. There will be no good unless the father shows the son that it will be his highest joy, if the son learns wisdom. If thou be really _"wise."_ That is the caution of the first clause. If it be no sham thing, but an affair of the _"heart;"_ then _"my heart shall rejoice,"_ down in the same depths. And then, as men are great actors, and may _look_ virtue as they whip a child, when they do not feel it much, Solomon protests that it must be real. Each part of this sentence must be meant. Not,--Thou must be a good citizen, or a clever worker, or a moral actor, or a good gratifying son; but the boy must see, (and he surely will see it, if it is felt), that the yearning is that he become _wise in heart, i.e.,_ a good earnest Christian, and then on the other hand, that down in the same depths, not with outward expressions of pleasure, but in your very heart--not in your made-up heart, which you keep to show to others, but _in your very self_--the proverb echoes your feeling, _"My heart shall rejoice, even mine."_ The reduplication intensifies the sense. And then, unwilling to shake loose from the thought, he pushes it further. _"Yea my reins shall rejoice."_ That deepest, firmest, lastingest receptacle of joy, the patient _reins_ shall rejoice or _"exult"_--the very highest feeling coming from the deepest depths. _"When thy lips,"_ which are the best expounders of the heart, _"speak right things."_ The doctrine therefore is that a man will save his child if he disciplines him with these witnessed tokens of his manifest affection.--_Miller._

Verse 17. This habitual _fear of the Lord_ is nothing separate from common life. It gives to it a holy character. It makes all its minute details not only consistent with, but component parts of, godliness. Acts of kindliness are "done after a godly sort" (John iii. 5, 6). Instead of one duty thrusting out another, all are "done heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto man" (Eph. vi. 6, Col. iii. 23). Some professors confine their religion to extraordinary occasions. But Elijah seems to have been content to await his translation in his ordinary course of work (2 Kings ii. 1-12). An example that may teach us to lay the greater stress upon the daily and habitual, not the extraordinary service. Others are satisfied with a periodical religion; as if it were rather a rapture or an occasional impulse, than a habit. But if we are to engage in morning and evening devotions, we are also to "wait upon the Lord _all the day_" (Ps. xxv. 5). If we are to enjoy our Sabbath privileges, we are also to "abide in our weekly calling with God." Thus the character of a servant of God is maintained--"devoted to His fear" (Ps. cxix. 38).--_Bridges._

Verse 18. _"Cut off,"_ as the worldling's is. The worldling expects to be _cut off._ He toils with a hope, and that so vivid that he becomes aglow (see Miller's rendering, in verse 17) in worldly earnestness of purpose; and yet, _ab imo,_ he knows that it will be _cut off._ . . . How can any intellect stand against such appeals? Work for something that will pay, for . . . there is something that shall never be _"cut off."--Miller._

Verse 19. The hinging pivot of this verse is the pronoun _thou._ Friends may do ever so much, but in the end it must be _thyself._ There is an eternal _"way."_ It is a way not for the feet but for the _heart._ The _heart_ has some day to rise up and enter it. Once in, it will never wander any more out. _My son,_ take that critical step. A man has a certain amount of strength, a certain amount of susceptibility let us call it, in matters of conversion. . . . Now the father, in his more immediate entreaties to his child, is to remember this.--_Miller._

Verse 20. A man grows old by the common use of his faculties; but if he pleases he can travel faster. He can make drafts upon his flesh with wine, and burn faster. . . . A man can seek death by the most moral impenitence. But he can also travel faster. He can do it by drunkenness. He can do it by trains of trespasses, of which common drunkenness may stand as chief.--_Miller._

We are forbidden not only to be drunkards or gluttons, but to be found in the company of such persons; for bad company is the common temptation which the devil uses to draw men to these sins. Those who have been long inured to a temperate course of life must not think that they are at liberty to infringe this precept, and to mingle themselves with the sons of riot, because they are strong enough in their own eye to overcome all the temptations of sensuality. Christ charges His own disciples, who had been practised in every virtue under his own eye, and who had less temptations to this vice than any other men, to take heed to themselves that their hearts might not be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness.--_Lawson._

Verse 23. Solomon bids us buy the truth, but does not tell us what it must cost, because we must get it though it be ever so dear. We must love it both shining and scorching. Every parcel of truth is precious as filings of gold; we must either live with it or die for it. . . . A man may lawfully sell his house, land, or jewels, but truth is a jewel that excels all prices, and must not be sold; it is our heritage: "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever" (Psa. cxix. 111). It is a legacy that our forefathers have bought with their bloods, which should make us willing to lay down anything or lay out anything to purchase it.--_Brooks._

A merchant buys for the very purpose of selling; and he will not buy unless he has a pretty good assurance that he will sell _at a profit;_ that he can _get_ for his article more than he has _given._ The case here, then, is quite peculiar. It is _all buying._ The article is one which is to be _bought_ but never _sold._ And why? For the best possible reason, that _it can never_ be sold at a profit, there is nothing _too valuable_ to be _given_ for it, there is nothing _valuable enough_ to be _taken_ for it. . . . 1. The buyer tests his article. He uses means to ascertain its _genuineness._ . . . The cautious purchaser makes sure of his bargain, and all the surer, the higher the price. . . . Now, all that is presented to us as _truth_ must be thus tested. In _physical science_ scientific men will not take upon trust what professes to be a new discovery without examining thoroughly the experiments by which it is said to have been ascertained. . . . Thus, too, does the metaphysician in regard to every new theory in _mental_ science; and the moral philosopher in the department of ethics. . . . Now, we are as far as possible from wishing it to be otherwise in the department of _religion._ In proportion to the importance of the case,--to the height of the authority on which the claims to acceptance are rested,--the magnitude at once of the benefits promised, and of the risks incurred,--ought to be the solicitude and care with which the testing process is conducted. This then is the last department of all, in which what professes to be truth should be taken upon trust; in which inquiry should be careless, and faith easy. The obligation to examine is imperative and solemn; and marvellous, indeed, is the indisposition of men to enter on the investigation. Men who, with the utmost earnestness and perseverance, will test every alleged truth in science, in history, or in politics, cannot be persuaded to apply their powers to an inquiry more important, by infinite degrees, than any other that can engage the attention of the human mind! They either decline it altogether, or they set about it with a levity and a superficiality utterly at variance with what such a question demands, and from which no just appreciation or correct conclusion can be anticipated. 2. It is not enough for the buyer to ascertain the _genuineness_ of his article. He sets about estimating its real worth; its worth _intrinsically,_ and its worth _adventitiously;_ its worth _in itself,_ and its worth _to him._ The two may be widely different. The diamond is of incomparably more intrinsic worth than the grain of barley; but the cock in the fable spurned away the former and picked up the latter. In the present case,--having once ascertained the Divine authority of the record,--there can be no hesitation about either the _intrinsic_ or the _relative_ value of what it makes known. _All truth_ is precious; but its preciousness is, of course, endlessly varied in degree. Two things may be considered as combining to constitute its value. They are--its _subject,_ and its _utility._ In natural science some truths present a union of both. The discoveries of astronomy for example, are, many of them, full of intrinsic interest from their vastness and sublimity, and the impressions they give of the transcendent majesty of God; while, in some of their practical bearings, they are of pre-eminent advantage to men. But in a peculiar sense may this be affirmed of the discoveries of Divine revelation. These discoveries present views of God's moral government, in its great essential principles and in their practical application, such as have in them a weight of moral grandeur, and a consequent depth of absorbing interest surpassing all that nature can disclose. And, while they possess intrinsic preciousness above all other truths,--think of their value when estimated by the blessings which are unfolded in them, and to which the faith of them introduces the believer, in time and in eternity! The purchaser values the article he is about to purchase, by the amount of benefit the possession of it will bring him. In like manner must you estimate the value of "the truth" you are here counselled to buy. The value of it, in this view, is summed up by our Lord himself, when he says, "THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL." What then, the real worth to you, of any other compared with this? 3. The buyer, when he has estimated the value of his article, _makes proportional sacrifices_ to obtain possession of it. Foolish estimates there may be; and these foolish estimates may be the occasion of foolish bargains; and these may be the grounds of regret and self-dissatisfaction. But supposing the certainty of all the benefits, for time and eternity, which in the Bible are promised and guaranteed in connection with _"the truth,"_ O! what is there, in the whole compass of what this world can confer, that should not, without one moment's hesitation, be sacrificed for its attainment? 4. In proportion to the buyer's estimate of his article, and the cost at which he has obtained it, will be the jealousy with which he retains and guards it. _"Sell it not."_ Selling the truth, is not simply letting slip from the mind the remembrance of mere abstractions; it is to give up the profession and faith of it for the sake of the very things which we sacrificed for it. But _"sell it not."_ Sell it not for the _pleasures of sin._ Sell it not for the _riches and honours of the world._ O part not with the pearl of great price for the husks which the swine do eat. . . . And _be prompt with your bargain._ Those who are much set upon an article will not delay their purchase, lest perchance it should pass from their hands. Blessed be God there is no danger here, so far as others coming forward before you is concerned. . . . But if not now prompt and decided you may be thwarted in another way. Death may decide the matter for you.--_Wardlaw._

Verse 26. A supplication is come, as it were, from God to man, that man would send God his heart; penned by Solomon under the name of wisdom (chap. ix. 1), and directed to her sons. . . . He which always gave, now craves; and he which craves always, now gives. Christ stands at the door like a poor man, and asks not bread, nor clothes, nor lodgings, which we should give to His members, but our heart--that is, even the continent of all, and governor of man's house. . . . Should God be a suppliant unto thee and me, but that our unthankfulness condemns us, that for all the things which He hath given unto us, we never considered yet what we should give unto Him before He asketh. . . . Mark what God hath chosen for Himself: not that which any other should lose by, like the demands of them which care for none but themselves, but that which, being given to God, moves us to give every man his due. . . . Give God thy heart, that He may keep it; not a piece of thy heart, not a room in thy heart, but thy heart. The heart divided, dieth. God is not like the mother which would have the child divided, but like the natural mother which said, Rather than it should be divided, let her take it all. Let the devil have all, if He which gave it be not worthy of it. . . . As a man considers what he does when he gives, so God licenseth us to consider of that which we do for Him, whether He deserves it, whether we owe it, whether He can require it, lest it come against our will; therefore _give_ Me, saith God, as though He would not strain upon us, or take it from us. . . . Is God so desirous of my heart? What good can my heart do to God? It is not worthy to come under His roof. I would I had a better gift to send unto my Lord; go, my heart, to thy Maker; the Bridegroom hath sent for thee, put on thy wedding garment, for the King Himself will marry thee. Who is not sorry now that he did not give his heart before? Is he not worthy to die that will take his heart from Him that made it, from Him that redeemed it, from Him which preserves it, from Him that will glorify it, and gives it to him that will infect it, torment it, condemn it? Will a servant reach the cup to a stranger when his master calls for it? Or will a man sell his coat if he have no more? What dost thou reserve for God, when thou hast given Satan thine heart? Christ hath promised to come and dwell with thee (Rev. iii. 20); where shall He stay, where shall He dine, if the chamber be taken up, and the heart let forth to another? Thou art but a tenant, and yet thou takest His house over His head, and placest in it whom thou wilt, as if thou wert landlord.--_Henry Smith._

I. Man has _nothing higher_ to dispose of. His heart is given when he sets his strongest affections upon an object. Wherever he centres his strongest love his heart is, and wherever his heart is _he_ is. . . . II. Man _is compelled_ to dispose of it. He is forced, not by any outward coercion, but by an inward pressure. It is as necessary for the soul to love as it is to the body to breathe. The deepest of all the deep hungers of humanity is the hunger of the soul to love. Sometimes so ravenous does man's animal appetite for food become, that he will devour with a kind of relish the most loathsome things; and so voracious is the heart for some object to love, that it will settle down upon the lowest and most contemptible creatures rather than not love at all. III. Man _alone can dispose_ of it. No one can take it from him by force. He is the only priest who can present it.--_Dr. David Thomas._

Verse 28. Uncleanness leads to faithlessness of manifold kinds; and it makes not only the husband unfaithful to the wife, but also the son to the parents, the scholar to the teacher and pastor, the servant to the master. The adulteress, inasmuch as she entices now one and now another into her net, increases the number of those who are faithless towards men. But are they not, above all, faithless towards God?--_Delitzsch._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 29-35.

THE DRUNKARD'S PICTURE.

+I. The drunkard is an entire inversion of man as God intended him to be.+ God made man's mind to rule his body, but the drunkard's bodily appetites rule his mind. God gave man an intellect to guide his actions; He intended the various limbs of his body to be the servants of his will, and to obey the dictates of his reason. But the drunkard not only gives up all his spiritual and intellectual power to his body, but all his other bodily powers to the rule of one sense--that of his palate. Men who are not awake to their spiritual and mental needs might be expected to have as much regard for their animal wants, and to be as careful to avoid bodily suffering as the brute creation. But it is not so with the drunkard--although nights and days of privation and suffering are often the fruits of an hour's drinking, he voluntarily undergoes the former in order to enjoy the latter. Not only is conscience and reason and heart sacrificed to his mouth, but every other bodily sense is made to serve the one sense and every other part of the body to suffer, that one part may be gratified if but for a moment.

+II. He is an entire inversion of what we might expect even a fallen man to be.+ Looking at man as he is when he lives for this world only, he is generally alive to his own immediate temporal interests and careful to avoid in the future what has brought him suffering in the past. But it is not so with the slave to drink. If only wife and children had to leave lives of misery and his own life was a constant round of even animal enjoyment, the drunkard's career would not be such an unaccountable infatuation. Human selfishness would be sufficient to account for it. But who suffers like the drunkard himself? The wise man enumerates some of his miseries--_woe, grief, contentions and wounds without cause, the stings of remorse, the disordered brain, and entire loss of consciousness and of power to defend one's own life and property_--this is the drunkard's heritage. And in the intervals between his madness he knows it and drinks to the dregs the bitter cup of bodily and mental misery that must always follow the immoderate use of the wine cup. And yet his language is _"I will seek it yet again."_ The child that has been burnt dreads the fire, but the poor drunkard scarred from head to foot with the marks of the flames, seems with all his other losses to have lost also the natural instinct of self-preservation and the power of learning anything from the great teacher--experience.

+III. A consideration of the strength and nature of the drunkard's chain should lead all to shun that which enslaved him.+ When we consider what havoc intoxicating drink has wrought, it is marvellous that men do not turn from it with loathing; that they are not afraid to play with so deadly, and yet so treacherous an enemy to mankind. When the sailor knows that there is a treacherous whirlpool in the ocean, which has engulfed a thousand noble vessels, he is careful to give it a wide berth, to keep far beyond the outermost ring of the current. But the habit of men in general seems to be to try how near they can come to his moral and social gulf of death, without being drawn beneath the waters. The experiment is fraught with deadly peril, and is often a fatal one. Solomon's advice is to ensure safety, by not even _"looking upon the wine when it is red."_

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

There is mention made of a monk at Prague, who having heard at shrift the confessions of many drunkards, wondered at it, and for experiment would try his brain with this sin, and accordingly stole himself drunk. Now, after the vexation of three sick days, to all that confessed that sin he enjoined no other penance than this: "Go and be drunk again." Surely his meaning was like that of Seneca, that drunkenness was a torment and affliction to itself.--_Spencer._

Drunkenness is a special water at the devil's banquet. This sin is a horrible self-theft. . . . Thieves cannot steal lands, unless they be Westminster Hall thieves, crafty contenders that eat out a true title with false evidence; but the drunkard robs himself of his lands. Now he dissolves an acre, and then an acre, into the pot, till he hath ground all his ground at the malt quern, and run all his patrimony through his throat. Thus he makes himself the living tomb of his forefathers--of his posterity. He needs not trouble his sick mind with a will, or distrust the fidelity of executors.--_T. Adams._

Verse 29. The best that can come of drunkenness is repentance--that fairest daughter of so foul a mother--and that is not without its woe, and alas! its sorrow and redness of eyes with weeping for sin.--_Trapp._

Verse 31. He that would avoid the commission of sin must avoid the occasion of sin. If we would not fall down the hill we must beware of coming near the brow of it. Keep thee far from an evil matter. When the wine laughs in thy face then shut thine eyes lest it steal into thine heart. A guest may easily be kept out of the house at first, but if once entertained it is hard to turn him out of doors. When the governor of a fort once comes to parley with the enemy that besiegeth him there is great fear that the place will be surrendered.--_Swinnock._

Verse 33. One remarkable peculiarity of this chapter is the junction and alternation of these two kindred sins. There they stand, like two plants of death, each growing on its own independent root, and nourished by the same soil, but cleaving close to each other by congeniality of nature, and twisted round each other for mutual support. . . . The alliance, so generally formed and so firmly maintained between drunkenness and licentiousness, is a master-stroke of Satan's policy. It is when men have looked upon this deceitful cup, and received into their blood the poison of its sting, that their eyes behold "strange women;" and when they have fallen into that "narrow pit," they run back to hide their shame, at least from themselves, in the maddening draught.--_Arnot._

Verse 34. The passage is interesting, as showing what Ps. civ. 25, 26, cvii. 23-30, also show, the increased familiarity of the Israelites with a sea life.--_Plumptre._

It is very foul weather in which a drunkard saileth. For as St. Ambrose speaketh, the multitude of lusts in him do raise a great tempest, which toss his mind to and fro, sailing as it were in the narrow sea of his body, so that he cannot be pilot to himself. . . . But that which maketh the drunkard's case worst of all is this: it is a shipwreck of the body only which in a tempest is feared, but he maketh shipwreck of his soul if repentance be not a plank of safety to him.--_Jermin._

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