xxxiv. 7) and, therefore, that "without the shedding of blood is no

remission" (Heb. ix. 22), when learned, is half the Gospel. To learn it easily, would imply that "then hath the offence of the Cross ceased" (Gal. v. 11). God will not condemn Himself in his "righteous" action, and He cannot _"justify the wicked"_ without a mediator; and Solomon, without being able to clear all the difficulties, sets in this sentence as one of the great timbers of thought, which he looks to to defend the Gospel.--_Miller._

He spareth the wolf and so hurteth the lambs; He toucheth the members of Christ and the very apples of the Lord's eye.--_Muffet._

But let us place ourselves before the "Judge of all" accused by Satan, our own conscience, and the righteous law of God; convicted of every charge; yet justified. Does God then in thus "justifying the ungodly" (Rom. iv. 5) contravene this rule? Far from it. If He _justifies the wicked,_ it is on account of righteousness (Ib. iii. 25, 26). If He _condemns the just,_ it is on the imputation of unrighteousness. Nowhere throughout the universe do the moral perfections of the Governor of the world shine so gloriously as at the cross of Calvary. The satisfaction of the holy law, and the manifestation of righteous mercy, harmonise with the justification of the condemned sinner. And this combined glory tunes the song of everlasting praise.--_Bridges._

That condemning the just is a grievous crime, there is no doubt. But some will be startled at the wise man's assertion, that justifying the wicked is a crime of the like nature and malignity. But we rebel against God by turning to the right hand, as well as by turning to the left, from that way in which we are commanded to walk. Justifying the wicked has an appearance of mercy in it, but there is cruelty to millions in unreasonable acts of mercy to individuals. It was not altogether without ground observed by a senator to the Emperor Cocceius Nerva, when his detestation of his predecessor's cruelty seduced him into the extreme of clemency,--That it was bad to live in a state where every thing was forbidden, but worse to live in a state where every thing was allowed. Historians tell us, that the provinces of the empire suffered more oppression under the administration of this mild prince, than in the bloody reign of Domitian.--_Lawson._

As in the administration of justice, in the world or in the Church, so in the official declaration of doctrine and of duty, _faithfulness_ is the first and most essential qualification. No "gift," no bribe, no love of gain,--or, in the apostle's words, "greed of filthy lucre,"--must ever be allowed to corrupt "the man of God," and tempt him either to pervert or to keep back the truth--to "shun to declare" any part of "the counsel of God," or to utter a single sentiment but what he believes to be a lesson of God's Word, a Divinely authorised message. For a minister of Christ either to say what is false or to withhold what is true, from a wish to please those on whom he may feel himself dependent, is as unworthy of him as for a judge on the civil bench to pervert justice, and may be to others unspeakably more mischievous. The decisions of the latter can affect only what is temporary; the effects of the former's unfaithful temporising may extend to eternity. The guilt of the former, therefore, may be greater than that of the latter, in the proportion of the value of the _soul_ to the _body,_ of _eternity_ to _time._ There must be no bribery or corruption here. O to be able to say with Paul, "I am clear from the blood of all men."--_Wardlaw._

When Jacob, blessing the sons of Joseph, put his hands across, and laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh the elder, the thing displeased Joseph. But Jacob refused to have his hands removed. Now that which Jacob did in the blessing of his grandchildren, the same is the cursed doing of many who in the world are seated in the place of justice. For those whom God setteth on His right hand, they set on the left, those who God setteth on His left hand they set on the right. . . . And though God Himself call to them, _Not so,_ yet they refuse to alter their sentence. . . . And though their hands in justifying go across, yet being joined together in wickedness they are both an abomination to the Lord.--_Jermin._

_He that saith to the wicked, thou are righteous_ (1) condemneth the law of God, for that condemneth the wicked; (2) doth as much as he may to bring sin into credit, that others also should practise it without fear or reproach; (3) hardeneth the heart and hurteth the soul of the offender, debarring him from corrections, which are God's medicines for the curing of evils. He dealeth as a murderer under the name of a physician that encourageth his patient to eat the poison freely.--_Dod._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 16.

NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES.

+I. One of the uses which ought to be made of wealth.+ Men ought to use it to "get wisdom." it is obvious that a wealthy man has more opportunities of gaining knowledge than a poor man has, and an increase of knowledge ought to make a man wiser. A rich man's wealth gives him access to the wisdom of the great minds of past ages, and it often obtains for him the companionship of the most learned men of his own generation. It enables him to gain a knowledge of the world on which he lives and of the men who people it; by travel he can stand face to face with all the glorious works of God in nature, and he can mingle with men of various races and see human nature in all its various phases. And these experiences ought to make him a wise man. Wealth is given to men for this purpose, among others, to make them intellectually and morally better--for although spiritual blessings cannot be purchased for money, yet where the grace of God is in the heart, the "price in the hand" will increase a man's opportunities of growing in the knowledge of God and in the practice of godliness. Those who are _"rich in this world"_ may and ought to lay _"up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life"_ (1 Tim. i. 17-19). Their wealth ought not to be a hindrance but a help to high spiritual attainments. When we use bread rightly we get strength out of it; when we use water rightly we get refreshment out of it; when we use light rightly we get guidance out of it; and when the gift of wealth is rightly used, men get wisdom out of it.

+II. Wealth bestowed, where we can give no reason for its bestowal.+ Wealth in the hand of a fool seems thrown away. If we saw a bundle of bank-notes in the hands of an infant we should at once say they were in the wrong hand; but many a princely fortune is at the disposal of men who are as incapable now of putting it to a good use, as they were when they were children. Neither the head nor the heart are capable of guiding the hand--there is neither moral nor intellectual capability to make the riches the means of blessing even the possessor. _"Wherefore,"_ then, _"is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom,"_ especially when there are so many men in poverty who would make the best possible use of riches? We cannot answer the question. Even the wise man does not attempt to solve the problem. Men daily come face to face with facts connected with human existence which they cannot explain. In some of these they can see adaptation; although they cannot tell _how_ it is that the thing is so, they can discern a _fitness_ in its being so. But there are other facts in the government of God for which we can assign no reason, and the "price in the hand of a fool" is one of them. The Divine Ruler of men's destines fulfils His wise purposes in ways and by means which often perplex His finite creatures.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

We understand the term _"a price,"_ as signifying _whatever puts it in anyone's power to acquire_ the particular object. The phraseology is borrowed from the _market._ Any article, we are wont to say, may be had there, if a man has but the price to pay for it. What the _"price"_ is to the article wanted, the _means of acquiring_ are to _"wisdom."_ When we wish to put any article of ordinary merchandise within a person's power, we furnish that person with the price at which it is valued. There are cases, however, in which this may not be enough. The price may be in a man's hand, and yet the article may not be within his reach, not, at the time, to be had. Happily, it is never so with the wisdom here spoken of. If the means are possessed of acquiring it, it may always be acquired. It is in the hand of God himself; and He is never either at a distance that we cannot repair to Him, or unwilling to bestow it upon us when we come to Him for it--_bestow_ it, I say, for we must remember, with regard to divine wisdom, that, in a literal sense, it _cannot be purchased._ It must be had _"without money and without price."_ It is not to be "gotten for gold." Why is it, then, that in so many cases in which "the price is in the hand to get wisdom," the means of securing it possessed, its lessons remained unlearned, the mind ignorant, the heart unimproved? . . . Here is the answer--the only one that can with truth be given,--there has been _"no heart to it."_ The principle is of wide application, and might be largely illustrated. . . . There is no maxim more thoroughly established by experience, than that a man cannot excel in anything to which _his heart does not lie._ When do men succeed best in the pursuit of any object? Is it not when they _have a heart to it?_ What is it that keeps all men astir in the pursuit and acquisition of wealth? Is it not that _they have a heart to it?_ How do men acquire celebrity in any of the departments of science or of art? Is it not when they _have a heart to it?_--some measure of enthusiastic eagerness and persevering delight in the pursuit? . . . I put it to your consciences,--whether there be anything else whatever, that keeps you from the knowledge and the fear of God, wherein true religion consists, than your _having no heart to them?_ Talk not to me of _inability:_--your inability is entirely moral, and consists in nothing else whatever than your _"having no heart"_ to that which is good. And is this not criminal? If not, then there is no sin nor crime on earth, in hell, in the universe; nor is the existence or the conception of such a thing as moral evil possible. The want of heart to that which is good, is the very essence of all that is sinful. You offer anything but a valid excuse for your want of religion, when you say you _"have no heart to it."_ You plead in excuse the very essence of your guilt. If you desired to fear God, and could not help the contrary, your inability might be something in your behalf. But the thing cannot be. To desire to fear God, and not to be able, is a contradiction in terms. The having of the desire is the having of the principle. There can be no desiring to fear without fearing, no desiring to love without loving.--_Wardlaw._

No means can make a man wise who wanteth a good will to learn heavenly wisdom. Ishmael had good education, and Ahithophel had quick capacity, and the fool spoken of in the Gospel had great wealth, and none of all these attained to any grace. One of them was strong, and another witty, and another wealthy, but never a one wise and godly. Judas had as good a teacher as Peter, or as any other apostle, and had as good company, and saw as many miracles; and yet they having good hearts become worthy and excellent persons, and he having a false heart became a traitor and a devil.--_Dod._

Wherefore serve good natural parts, either of body or mind; or authority, opportunity, or other advantages, if they be not rightly improved and employed? Certainly they will prove no better than Uriah's letters to those that have them; or as the sword which Hector gave to Ajax, which, so long as he used it against his enemies, served for help and defence, but after he began to abuse it, turned into his own bowels. This will be a bodkin at thy heart one day: "I might have been saved, but I woefully let slip those opportunities which God had thrust into my hand."--_Trapp._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 17, 18, _and of CHAP. xviii._ 24.

TRUE FRIENDSHIP.

+I. A true friend loves under all conditions.+ 1. _He loves in times of separation._ The distance between our earth and the sun does not prevent the one from influencing the other--there is a power in gravitation which can make itself felt even when the objects affected by it are thousands of miles apart. So true love is quite independent of space--oceans may roll between the friends, yea, the very grave may separate them, and yet the gravitating force which first drew the heart of one man to another will make itself felt. It has been said that the dead and the absent have no friends, but this is a libel upon human nature. A friend loveth whether the object of his love is present or absent, and will, if needs be, defend his friend's character when he is not present to speak for himself. 2. _He loves even in times of temporary estrangement._ Transitory differences are not incompatible with the most genuine friendship, and while human nature is in its present imperfect condition it will sometimes happen that one real and true friend will disappoint and grieve another. But if the real and true feeling is in the heart it will be as unshaken by these temporary disturbances as the root of the tree is by the storm-wind that moves its branches.

+II. Friendship is especially precious in times of trial.+ True friends are not like the locust, which seeks only the green pastures and fruitful fields, and leaves them as soon as it has taken from them all that it could feed upon, but they are like the stars, the value of whose light is only really understood when all other lights are absent. When all is going well with a man he may underestimate the value of his friend's regard; he may not really know how heartfelt it is; but when misfortune, or sickness, or bereavement overtake him, he realises that a "brother is born for adversity."

+III. There is a bond stronger than any tie of blood-relationship.+ We have abundant and melancholy proofs that the mere fact of being brothers according to the flesh does not make men one in heart. The first man who tasted death was murdered by his brother, and many sons of the same father since that day have been separated from each other by a hatred as deep and deadly as that which prompted Cain to murder Abel. In the family in which Solomon was a son there was one brother with the blood of another upon his head (2 Sam. xiii. 28-30). Something stronger and deeper than the mere tie of blood is needed to make men one in heart. The most beautiful example of friendship upon record existed between the son of Saul and the shepherd of Bethlehem where there was no relationship according to the flesh, and where the heir-apparent to the throne loved as his own soul the youth who was to supplant him. There is no friendship so firm and enduring as that which is based upon doing the will of God (Mark iii. 35) no brotherhood so perfect and lasting as that which has its origin in a common discipleship to Him who is not ashamed to call them brothers (Heb. ii. 11), and who is Himself the "friend above all others," whose love can span the distance between His throne in glory and the meanest hovel upon earth, and the greater distance between Divine perfection and human sinfulness, and who was in all things _"made like unto his brethren,"_ that having Himself _"suffered being tempted, He might be able to succour them that are tempted"_ (Heb.