iv. 7) and gives the sweet sleep promised in verse 24, even although

outward circumstances may be apparently adverse (_see illustration_). This was the experience of David in the night of his adversity, even although he had brought it upon himself (Psa. iii. and iv). And the certain guidance which is promised in verse 6 insures an avoidance of all real danger (ver. 23). 2. _In times of special visitation_ (ver. 25). There was a "desolation of the wicked" in the days of Noah, but he and his house were "shut in" the ark by God Himself (Gen. vii. 16). In the day when the Lord "rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah He delivered just Lot" (2 Pet. ii. 6). When the "abomination of desolation stood in the holy place" at Jerusalem as foretold by our Lord (Matt. xxiv. 15), those who obeyed His command and fled to the mountains escaped the terrible fate of those who remained in the city. (This is recorded by Eusebius). This assurance of constant guardianship and guidance is "life" to the soul (Psa. xxx. 5). Fear of the future paralyses a man's energies, but confidence in an over-ruling personal God gives him strength for action.

_ILLUSTRATION OF VERSE_ 24.

THE LAST HOURS OF THE NINTH EARL OF ARGYLE, EXECUTED BY JAMES II.

So effectually had religious faith and hope, co-operating with natural courage and equanimity, composed his spirits that, on the very day on which he was to die, he dined with appetite, conversed with gaiety at table, and, after his last meal, lay down, as he was wont, to take a short slumber, in order that his body and mind might be in full vigour when he should mount the scaffold. At this time one of the Lords of the Council, who had probably been bred a Presbyterian, and had been seduced by interest to join in oppressing the Church of which he had once been a member, came to the castle with a message from his brethren, and demanded admittance to the Earl. It was answered that the Earl was asleep. The Privy Councillor thought that this was a subterfuge, and insisted on entering. The door of the cell was softly opened, and there lay Argyle on the bed, sleeping, in his irons, the placid sleep of infancy. The conscience of the renegade smote him. He turned away, sick at heart, ran out of the castle, and took refuge in the dwelling of a lady of his family, who lived hard by. There he flung himself upon a couch, and gave himself up to an agony of remorse and shame. His kinswoman, alarmed by his looks and groans, thought that he had been taken with sudden illness, and begged him to drink a cup of sack. "No, no," he said, "that will do me no good." She prayed him to tell her what had disturbed him. "I have been," he said, "to Argyle's prison. I have seen him within an hour of eternity sleeping as sweetly as ever man did. But as for me----."--_Macaulay._

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 21. Simply attend to them. "Watch" like a sentinel, intently eyeing. Solomon enjoins the voluntary, and promises the involuntary. The voluntary we can do, save only for that grand helplessness, an aversion of the will itself. The involuntary we cannot do, save only mediately through obedient acts. Attention is within our power if God gives grace to the will. This is the drift of the promise: You do your part and God will do His.--_Miller._

Eye these things as the steersman doth the load-star, as the archer doth the mark he shoots at, or as the passenger doth mark his way, which he finds hard to hit and dangerous to miss.--_Trapp._

Verse 22. Wisdom reveals the righteousness of God, whereby a believer lives before God. Without this the man is dead in sins (Heb. ii. 4, Eph. ii. 1).--_Fausset._

There is no life in the soul till knowledge come into it. There was no living creature in the world till light was made. God clears the understanding before He rectifies the will and affections; He keeps the same method in the little world that He did in the great world.--_Francis Taylor._

Verse 23. This promise has a direction embodied with it, "Thou shalt walk in thy way." We are required to keep the way of the Lord, and in the affairs of life to attend to our own concerns, shunning the character of busybodies by not meddling in the affairs of others.--_Lawson._

Good success in the way may be crossed again; what is crowned with good success in the end can never by crossed.--_Francis Taylor._

There shall be no cause to make thee stumble. For he that is blind or weak may stumble, though he be never so careful; and he may stumble that is careless, though he be never so well able to walk safely. But wisdom shall take away thy blindness, thy weakness, thy carelessness.--_Jermin._

Thou shalt ever go under a double guard, the peace of God within thee and the power of God about thee.--_Trapp._

Verse 24. Peter in prison, in chains, between two soldiers, on the eve of his probable execution, when there seemed but a "step between him and death." Yet in such a place, in such company, at such a moment, did he lie down so fearlessly and sleep so sweetly, that even the shining light failed to disturb him, and an angel's stroke was needed to awaken him.--_Bridges._

Surely the way to sleep quietly in this world is to be asleep to the world; his sleep is sweetest, when he is asleep, who, when he is awake, doth sweetly sleep in a neglect of worldly crosses or contentments.--_Jermin._

Verse 25. So safe will all thy ways be that to fear will be a sin.--_Plumptre._

From the terms before used, respecting the final destruction of the wicked, it is most likely that to it the reference is in this verse.--_Wardlaw._

"Be not afraid" is at once a precept and a promise to the godly. They shall have no cause to fear evil tidings, therefore it is their privilege that they are not to fear them (Psa. cxii. 7; xci. 5).--_Fausset._

The Christian is threatened by the sinners in all their ills, whether for them or by them. Sin breeds the whole of them; and the wise man would magnify the grace by saying that they are all equally indifferent. "Let cares, like a wild deluge come."--_Miller._

Let a David "walk through the vale of the shadow of death" he will not fear, no, though he should go back the same way; "for Thou art with me," saith he. He had God by the hand, and so long he feared no colours.--_Trapp._

Verse 26. Beware of mistakes here. Do not say God is your confidence, if He be only your dread. An appalling amount of hypocrisy exists in Christendom, and passes current for devotion. He who is himself most worthy is often more disliked than any other being, and, as if this ingratitude were not enough, men double the sin by professing that they have confidence in Him. I have observed that sea-going ships do not trust to themselves in the windings of a river. Where they are hemmed in between rock and quicksand, grazing now on the one and now the other, they take care to have a steam-tug, both to bear them forward and to guide them aright. They hang implicitly upon its power. They make no attempt at independent action. But as soon as they get clear of the narrows--as soon as they have attained a good offing and an open sea--they heave off and hoist their own sails. They never want a steamer till they come into narrow waters again. Such is the trust in God which the unreconciled experience. In distress they are fain to lean upon the Almighty. While they are in the narrows they would hang on the help of a Deliverer. . . . The line of their dependence seems ever tight by their constant leaning. But when they begin to creep out of these shoals of life they heave off and throw themselves upon their own resources. . . . This is not to have confidence in God.--_Arnot._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 27-29.

DOING JUSTICE AND LOVING MERCY.

True wisdom in the heart will show itself in right dealing between man and man. He who holds back any good thing by which it is in his power to bless another man is a thief. The withholding is a crime for which God will visit. This is true in relation not only to debts of justice (Jas. v. 4) but to so-called debts of mercy. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, there will be some against whom He will bring the charge--"I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not" (Matt. xxv. 42, 43). There are _five_ reasons against the postponement of any act of justice or mercy until the morrow. 1. The person who is in need to-day may be beyond your reach to-morrow. Death may remove him from your reach, and he may go into eternity your creditor. Men and women have been saved from taking a step which would have been their ruin, by a kindly word or act which would have come too late on the morrow. 2. If your needy friend does live to be helped on the morrow, you may not live to give him help, and you will then enter the presence of God a debtor to your brother. To-morrow is God's property, to-day is man's. 3. If your brother is not beyond your reach to-morrow, his need has been increased by the delay. If a man's condition calls for medical aid to-day, and it is withholden, the disease will have a firmer hold to-morrow and will be harder to cure. What physician would say to a sick man in such a case, "Go, and come again?" Human need is a disease that is increased by delay in dealing with it. It is a weed that grows apace. What is only a seed to-day will be a sapling soon. If you delay the moral and intellectual training of the ignorant, the chains that bind them will be harder to break to-morrow than they are to-day. So that delay makes the demand greater, and the debt which might have been easily paid when it was due becomes hard to meet by withholding. 4. To do the good to-morrow which might be done to-day is not to be an imitator of God. The Divine Father makes His sun to shine to-day upon the evil and the good. He does not say, "To-morrow I will give thee," but, "now is the accepted time." 5. The postponement of that which is due is "a devising of evil in the heart against thy neighbour" (ver. 29). Our Lord, in his parable of the good Samaritan, has answered for us the question, Who is my neighbour? (Luke x.). It is the man who is in need, and whose need we can relieve. It is not merely a negative, but a positive sin to withhold help to such a one--it is a violation of that rule of life which Christ Himself declares "is the law and the prophets" (Matt. vii. 12).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 27. The borrower is then to repay his debt to the lender; the finder to restore that which he hath taken up to the loser; he which hath received anything into his custody, is to bring it forth to him who reposed trust in him; the master is to pay the servant his wages. Finally, everyone is to practise that precept of the Apostle (Rom. xiii. 8).--_Muffet._

This practical injunction may be applied: 1. To all lawful debts, for articles purchased or work performed. 2. To government taxes, which ought to be regarded as debts due to the community. 3. To debts of charity and benevolence. For such debts there are. They cannot indeed be claimed; they cannot be made good in law. But they are _due_--due on the principle of the "royal law" (Matt. vii. 12).--_Wardlaw._

Here Solomon passes from general recommendations of wisdom to particular precepts of it. He reverts to instances of "mercy and truth" (ver. 3). He who is in need has a claim of ownership upon our property by the law of love, which is the law of God. Need makes the poor the owner, and God makes thee the dispenser of the goods which thou hast and which he needs: so such benefits are called "righteousness," _i.e.,_ a righteous debt or obligation (2 Cor. ix. 9; Matt. vi. 1, "alms;" Greek, "righteousness"). The same principle applies in the case of spiritual knowledge which thou hast and thy neighbour has not.--_Fausset._

With the luxuries of grace, the wise man mixes in its conditions. They are rugged like those of the Apostle (1 Cor. xiii). If we enjoy the good of the Gospel, we are to render again according to the benefits shown us.--_Miller._

It is the hungry man's bread which we hoard up in our own barns. It is his meat on which we glut, and his drink which we guzzle: it is the naked man's apparel which we shut up in our presses, or which we exorbitantly ruffle and flaunt in: it is the needy person's gold and silver which we closely hide in our chests, or spend idly, or put out to useless use. We are, in thus holding, or thus spending, not only covetous, but wrongful, or havers of more than our own, against the will of the rightful owners.--_Barrow._

1. They who have had much experience in the world may be of infinite use by giving _salutary advice._ 2. If we are afraid of being thought meddling, we can benefit others by a _good example._ 3. By _vindicating the characters_ of those who have been unjustly defamed. 4. By not only giving alms, but _attention, care,_ and _friendship_ to the needy. 5. _By recommending_ our brethren to God in _prayer_.--_Bishop Porteous._

Verse 28. This conduct is too common. It may arise--1. From an avaricious reluctance to part with the money. The avaricious man is so loath to part with the object of his idolatry that even a day's delay pleases him. 2. From indolent listlessness. The man is not in a mood to be troubled. He is occupied about something else, or he is not disposed to be occupied at all. 3. From insolent superciliousness. This is often discovered towards inferiors, or towards persons against whom there exists a grudge. It is the vice of little minds--ungenerous, unjust, unmanly.--_Wardlaw._

He gives twice to one in need who gives at once.--_Publius Syrus._

Keep as few good intentions hovering about as possible. They are like ghosts haunting a dwelling. The way to lay them is to find bodies for them.--_Arnot._

Verse 29. This evil may be practised in a great variety of ways. As, for instance--A man in business does what he can to obtain another's confidence; or, whether he acts from this view or not, he knows that he has that confidence, and he takes advantage of it to obtain large quantities of goods from him, when aware that his own affairs are precarious and his credit sinking. There are not wanting cases in which the most nefarious crimes have been perpetrated through the medium of unsuspecting confidence. The wife of a man's bosom, or the child of his paternal love, has been seduced by the unwitting confidence he has reposed in a seeming friend. It is the very sin by which "the devil beguiled Eve through his subtilty.". . . All therefore who act such a part are of "their father the devil."--_Wardlaw._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 30.

UNLAWFUL STRIFE FORBIDDEN.

+I. Strife is unlawful when no good can come from striving.+ The purpose or end of the strife must be the test as to whether it is right or wrong. Mere assertion of our rights or material gain is not the highest good. If Abraham had pushed the quarrel between his herdsmen and those of Lot there can be no doubt that Abraham could have established a lawful claim to a choice of the land. But the good to be gained by striving was not worthy to be compared with the harm that would have been done, and therefore Abraham nobly forbore to insist on his rights.

+II. Causeless strife is a self-infliction.+ A man can hardly be involved in lawful strife without mental agitation, how much more when he strives without cause. When the four winds of heaven seem to meet upon the sea, the waters foam and toss in ceaseless agitation. The winds must cease to strive before the calm can come. A man involved in an unlawful quarrel is like such a troubled sea. Reason and passion, heaven and hell, contend within him for the mastery, and while the battle lasts he must be miserable.

+III. Strife rarely ends with those who begin it.+ Man's relationship to his fellow renders it impossible for the results of his good or evil deeds to remain with himself alone. If the head of a family enters into a quarrel, the children will probably imbibe the spirit and suffer from the consequences. If kings and rulers involve a nation in unnecessary war, they bring needless suffering upon thousands of innocent people. This consideration alone ought to make men beware of entering into a quarrel.

+IV. Causeless strife in the children of God gives a false representation of their Father's character.+ They are God's representatives upon earth, they are expected to fashion their lives upon the Divine model (Matt. v. 48). God is a God of peace (1 Thess. v. 23). His contention is only with sin, and its end is the establishment of peace upon earth by righteousness.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 31-35.

THE OPPRESSOR NOT TO BE ENVIED.

The children of Wisdom are strongly tempted sometimes to do this. Like Asaph (Psalm lxxiii.), they see the prosperity of the wicked encompassed with pride, and clothed, as it were, with violence (verse 6), and they are tempted to say: "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency."

Such a state of mind is--+I. Dangerous.+ It is the first step to becoming like him. Envy of the oppressor may result in "choosing his ways." A conviction that there is anything belonging to the oppressor that can be envied may lead to becoming oppressors ourselves.

+II. Unwise.+ 1. _Because the oppressor is held in universal abhorrence by men._ True it is that he possesses power, or he could not oppress, but sooner or later the power will be transferred to the hands of those whose rights he has trampled on, and the outburst of rejoicing at his overthrow is the revelation of the hidden hatred of which he has all along been the subject. 2. _Because he is an abomination to the Most High_ (verse 32). As there is in the noblest of human kind an intense loathing of those who use their power to the injury of others, so this feeling exists more strongly in the mind of God in proportion as his goodness and benevolence exceeds that of the most perfect man. This is not only declared in revelation, but is manifested in the retributions of Providence. Since Pharaoh and his hosts were overthrown in the Red Sea, God has been slaying "mighty kings" who have followed in Pharaoh's footsteps, because "He is good, and His mercy endureth for ever" (Psa. cxxxvi). 3. _Because of the contrast in the character, and in the present and future reward of the oppressor and the child of Wisdom._ The oppressor is "froward." He will not submit to the voice of instruction or correction, but will be his own absolute lord and master. His actions, if not his words, say: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" The righteous are submissive to the Divine will--they are the "lowly," who are willing to learn of Him who was meek and lowly in heart (Matt. xi. 29). Such opposite characters must necessarily meet with opposite dealing from a righteous Ruler. It is a righteous law that "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. vi. 7). With the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward--with the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful--are the curse and the blessing which rest respectively upon, not only the froward and lowly man, but upon those to whom they belong--their _house_--those who are bound to them in family relation. The scorn of the froward man reaps a harvest of scorn, but "grace" is the reward of lowliness and humility (verse 34). The contrast in the future inheritance is still greater. The present curse and blessing may not be always evident to onlookers, but the future glory and shame will be manifest to the universe (Matt. xxv. 31-36).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 32. The Lord will freely reveal to the righteous what He keeps from others--the truths and promises, the blessings and joys of His covenant of peace, secret to the soul that possesses them, intransferable, "passing all understanding," "unspeakable and full of glory."--_Wardlaw._

There is no less a secret of godliness than there is of any other trade or profession. Many profess an art or a trade, but thrive not by it because they possess not the secret or mystery of it, and many profess godliness but are little the better for it, because they have not the true secret of it. He hath that with whom God is in secret in his heart, and he that is righteous in secret where no man sees him, he is the righteous man with whom the secret of the Lord is.--_Jernim._

They shall be of His cabinet council who choose rather to lie in the dust than to rise by evil arts, by wicked principles.--_Trapp._

Verse 33. Whatever cost be there, there can be no true cheer, for God's curse mars all; this will either rot the timber, and pull it down, or undermine the foundation, and blow it up. Possibly there may be in thy house a loving wife, loving children, many servants, stately rooms, costly furniture, dainty fare, great earthly delights; but, man, the curse of God is there. A spoonful of this, like copperas, will turn all thy wine into ink; thy sea of honey into gall and wormwood. How can thy sweetest dish be savoury, when the curse of God is thy sauce: Or thy finest raiment delight thee when in every suit there is the curse of God like a plague-sore? or how can thy most beautiful building content thee, when this curse of God on thee for thy wickedness turns it into a prison to keep thee, who art in the bond of iniquity, till the hour of death, the time of thine execution?--_Swinnock._

The houses of the wicked are of two kinds, some dwell in their merits, others in their vices. The Pharisees of the world dwell in the lofty houses of their own meritorious holiness. But as St. Bernard saith, What more foolish than to dwell in a house yet hardly begun? The debauched people of the world dwell in the dirty houses of their wicked lives, and cannot be gotten out of them. But the curse of God is upon both. The righteous dwell in God's mercy which covereth them from the anger of His justice. . . . The rich glutton may keep out Lazarus, but he keeps in God's curse.--_Jermin._

Here are the gods--could the philosopher say of his poor habitation, meaning his heathenish household gods--whatever else is wanting to me. How much more may the saint say so of his God.--_Trapp._

Verse 35. They shall be promoted, indeed, but their exaltation shall be like that of Haman, who was exalted when he was hung upon a gallows fifty cubits high.--_Lawson._

This last contrast carries us forward to the coming day when all shall "discern" in the full delight of eternity (Mal. iii. 18). The wise--the heirs of glory--are identified with the lowly (verse 34)--the heirs of grace. Self-knowledge--the principle of lowliness--is the very substance of wisdom. Their inheritance also is one--grace and glory (Psa. lxxxiv. 11). For what higher _glory_ can there be than the _grace_ which hath redeemed a worm of the earth and made him a king and priest unto God?--_Bridges._

Humility is both a grace and a vessel to receive grace.--_Trapp._

* * * * * *