truth. The Gospel is a delusion. Man is incapable of guilt-remorse. (John v. 40; Ezek. xviii. 32; Deut. xxx. 19) "I here set before you choose life." So God

in the Gospel.

IV. WHY will ye die? Some will in spite of God's provisions, and His warnings, and expostulations. Firstly: Because they love their sins better than their souls. "Cast away your transgressions "the condition of salvation. No! I love and delight in them. Secondly Because they will not give time to the serious consideration of

these things. "Make you a clean heart." This implies serious attention, prayer, &c.

When the question is put in the abode of the lost, Why did you die? you will say, I found time for reading, society, pleasure, business, but could find no time for religion! Thirdly Because they refuse to believe in any danger. . . . Some awake to this only in eternity. (Luke xiii. 25.) . . . The text is a word of solemn warning against death. Our conclusion shall be a word of alluring invitation to life. "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Bath. J. W.

(No. CXII.)

SPEECH A ROD.

"In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them."-Prov. xiv. 3. SPEECH is one of the distinguishing faculties of man. It is here spoken of as a "rod," or an instrument of the soul. It is a communicating rod, or instrument. "Its chief object," says Bishop Butler, "is plainly that we may communicate our thoughts to each other, in order to carry on the affairs of the world, for business,

and for learning." Through this rod of speech souls flow and reflow into each other. It is a conquering rod, or instrument. By speech a man often achieves his highest conquests, conquests over the thoughts, passions, purposes of minds. The mystic rod of Moses smote the rock of Horeb, and caused it to send forth refreshing streams; the rod of speech can smite the rock of souls, and make it stream with influences to refresh the mental desert. What wonders the rod of speech has done! The

text contains two things concerning this rod.

OR

I. IT MAY BE SELF-INJURIOUS, It is said, "the lips of the wise shall preserve them," and the implied antithesis is, that those of the First: fool will injure them.

SELF-ADVANTAGEOUS.

There is a speech that is self-injurious. The hasty speech of evil passion, the unchaste speech of sensuality, the lying speech of untruthfulness; all such speech inflicts an injury upon the speaker. It blunts his moral sensibility; it lowers his self-respect; it degrades his social credit. The rod of speech is often an instrument of spiritual suicide. Secondly: There is a speech that is self-advantageous.

The lips of the wise shall preserve them." A chaste, truthful, benevolent, judicious speech, is a guardian-rod of souls. It preserves the character and the reputation of the speaker.

II. ITS RESULTS UPON THE SPEAKER, WHETHER SELF-INJURIOUS OR OTHERWISE, DEPENDS UPON HIS OWN CHARACTER. First: The speech of the foolish must be selfinjurious. His speech is a "rod of pride." It is a rod that grows out of pride. By some the word rod here is understood as a shoot, or branch, as in the expression, "There shall come a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Pride and foolishness are nearly related. A proud man is a fool. Ho does not know himself, the universe, or his God.

Proud

speech is the rod that grows out of a foolish heart; but the rod which the foolish heart grows, it also uses as its instrument, and its use must tend to self-destruction. Pride works ruin. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Secondly: The speech of the wise must be selfadvantageous. The wise man is a good man, and a good man's

speech will tend to his own spiritual development, and the promo tion of his spiritual powers. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." "Keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

"The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things; who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own; who is Lord over us." (Psa. xii. 3,4.)

(No. CXIII.)

THE CLEAN CRIB, OR INDOLENCE. "Where no oxen are, the erib is clean; but much increase is by the strength of the ox."-Prov. xiv. 4.

I. THE NEGATIVE GAIN OF INDOLENCE. The indolent man will not go to the trouble of keeping oxen, and therefore he has no crib to clean; work brings work. Industry creates business. If a man will go to the trouble of keeping oxen, he must look after them, "keep their cribs clean," &c. Indolence saves labour. First: This is true in secular matters. A man who will not cultivate his land will save all the toil of harvest. A man who is too lazy to embark in business will be freed from much anxious toil and a thousand anxieties connected with a mercantile life. Secondly: This is true in intellectual mattere. A man who is too lazy to commence the work of self-culture, to strive after science, or to struggle after scholarship, will of course avoid all that study which is s "weariness to the flesh." Thirdly: This is true of spiritual matters. A man who will not take the trouble to ascertain the condition of his soul by looking into the glass of the Divine Word, will remain in that state of moral indifference by which he will escape all that battling against

inward corruptions, striving after spiritual holiness which the true feel to be a strenuous and unremitting conflict.

Thus a lazy man saves much work by not keeping oxen; he has no crib to clean.

. II. THE POSITIVE LOSS OF INDOLENCE. "But much increase

is by the strength of the ox." The man who keeps the ox, cleans out his crib, takes care of him, and industriously employs him in his fields, gets from him results that will more than compensate all his toil. Industry is potential wealth. In all true labour there is a profit. First: What an indolent man loses in secular matters. He loses (1) The pleasure of gaining wealth. There is often

more gratification in the pursuit of riches than in their possession. (2) He loses the pleasure of rightly using wealth. The generous heart alone can tell the exquisite delight connected with the distribution of wealth for the relief of the distressed, the promotion of knowledge, and the advancement of human happiness. Secondly: What an indolent man loses in intellectual matters. What glorious mental results grow out of laborious study, well disciplined faculties, varied treasures of knowledge, great social influence. Mental riches, unlike material, are inalienable, they cannot take to themselves wings and flee away. Thirdly: What an indolent man loses in spiritual matters. How great the joy of a spiritually disciplined soul, "it is a joy unspeakable, and full of glory." Here, then, is a choice for men. Indolence or industry. Indolence will save work, but lose its splendid results. Industry will have hard work, but out of it will come "much increase," increase of the highest good.

(No. CXIV.)

VERACITY AND WISDOM.

"A faithful witness will not lie; but a false witness will utter lies. A scorner sceketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth."-Prov. xiv. 5, 6.

I. HERE WE HAVE THE SUBJECT OF VERACITY. "A faithful witness will not lie." This is so much like a truism, that it will scarcely call for a remark. It means that a true man will be true in his expressions; an untrue man will be false. Two things, however, may be implied in it. First: That veracity in witness-bearing is very important. Lies are bad everywhere-in the family, in the market, &c.; they are bad in themselves, and bad in their consequences, but they are worse in the court of justice than anywhere else. Perjury is the worse form of lying. It frustrates justice, and when the oath is added, it involves the blasphemy of taking God's name in vain. Secondly: That veracity in witness-bearing can only be secured by a truthful character. The true man will be true everywhere; the false man, false everywhere. The only way, therefore, to put down lying in courts of justice, and everywhere else, is the making of men true and right in heart. This Christianity does.

II. HERE WE HAVE THE SUBJECT OF WISDOM. "A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth." Two things are implied in this. First: That the attainment of wisdom is a very desirable thing. Wisdom includes two things. (1) Acquisition of the highest knowledge. The knowledge of man, his nature, condition, relations, responsibilities. God, his being, character, laws, works, &c. (2) The right application of this knowledge. Knowledge is only really useful to us as

we practically apply it. All the arts that bless and adorn the civilized world are but the practical application of scientific knowledge. The sublime life of godliness is theology practically applied. This is wisdom. Secondly: The attainment of wisdom depends upon the spirit of the seeker. "A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not," &c. No character is more despicable than the scorner. This spirit includes pride. He sneers at a truth-indicating intellectual pride. He sneers at a person-indicating social pride. Irreverence. He scoff's at God. Heartlessness. He is regardless of the feelings of others. A man with such a spirit can never get wisdom. He has not the eye to see truth, even though it stand incarnated in a glorious personality. Pilate with this scoffing spirit saw it in this form, and yet asked, what is truth?" The scoffer, even in seeking wisdom, attains confounding fictions. "Hear the just doom, the judgment of the skies,

66

He that hates truth shall be the dupe

of lies;

And he who will be cheated to the last, Delusions, strong as hell, shall bind him fast."

That wisdom is easily attained by him that understandeth; by the man that has the true spirit, the spirit of humble docility which Samuel, Mary, and Cornelius had. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."

(No. CXV)

THE SOCIETY TO BE SHUNNED. "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge."-Prov. xiv. 7.

MAN is a social being, his natural affinities and relations show that he is made to a great extent for others, and that others are made for him. So far from

reaching perfection in isolation, his very existence would be intolerable in absolute solitude. The text holds up the society which we should avoid-the society of the foolish. A "foolish" man here stands for a "bad" mar. The text suggests that the society of such should be avoided for three reasons

I. IT IS UNPROFITABLE. "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge." What you want in society is knowledge. True knowledgeknowledge that (1) shall rightly guide, (2) truly comfort, and (3) religiously inspire the soul, but such knowledge is not to be got from the foolish man. He has no power to help you, and, therefore, time spent in his society is waste time, and you have no time to lose. II. IT IS MISLEADING. "The folly of fools is deceit." First: They cheat themselves. They fancy they have the true ideas, and the true pleasures, but it is a miserable delusion. "A depraved heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." Secondly: They cheat others. They mislead and entangle by the falsehood of their speech and the craftiness of their policy. Thirdly: It is wicked. They "make a mock at sin." Sin, the greatest insult to God, and the greatest curse to humanity-fools make a mock at. The spirit of mocking at sin is the most impious, cruel, infatuating; and from those who possess it we should flee as from the savage beasts of prey. "Go," then, "from the presence of a foolish man." Seek the society of the wise, whose society is profitable, who have the lips of knowledge, whose society is truthful. "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way." Whose society is good. "Amung the righteous there is favour."

(No. CXVI.)

THE HEART'S HIDDEN DEPTHS.

"The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not. intermeddle with his joy."-Prov. xiv. 10.

THOUGH men live in towns and cities, and in social gatherings, each man is a world to himself. He is as distinct, even from him who is in closest material or mental contact with him, as one orb of heaven is from another. Though governed by the common laws of his race, he has an orbit of his own, an atmosphere of his own, and abysses of life into which no eye but the eye of God can pierce.

I. THE HEART HAS HIDDEN DEPTHS OF SORROW. "The heart knoweth his own bitterness.' There is bitterness in every heart. There is the bitterness of disappointed love-the soul recoiling with agony at the discovery that its affections had been misplaced. There is the bitterness of social bereavement - Rachels weeping for their lost children, and vids for their Absaloms. There is the bitterness of moral remorse. All this is hidden where it is the most deep. The deepest sorrow in the human heart is hidden from others from three causes. First: The insulating tendency of deep grief. Deep sorrow withdraws from society and seeks some Gethsemane of solitude. Men cannot do a greater outrage than intrude on the notice of men in grief. Secondly: The concealing instinct of deep grief. Men parade little sorrows, but conceal great ones.

"The

Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief" mentioned his distress to no one but to God. Deep sorrows are mute. Thirdly: The incapacity of one soul to sound the depths of another. There is such a peculiarity in the constitution and circumstances of each soul, VOL. XXI.

that one can never fully understand another.

HIDDEN

II. THE HEART HAS DEPTHS OF JOYS. "A stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." Though joy is less selfconcealing than sorrow, yet it has depths unknown to any but its possessor and its God. The joy that rushed into Abraham's heart when Isaac descended with him from the altar on Moriah; the joy of the father when he pressed his prodigal son to his bosom; the joy of the widow of Nain when her only son raised himself from the bier, and returned to gladden her lowly home; the joy of the heart-broken woman when she heard Christ say, "Thy sins are all forgiven thee;" such joy has depths that no outward eye could penetrate. The joy of the true Christian is indeed a joy unspeakable and full of glory."

This subject furnishes an argument. First: For candour amongst men. We do not fully know each other, therefore we ought to be generous and candid in our treatment. "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him." Secondly: For piety towards God. Though men know us not, God does. He knows what is in man, and more, he has the deepest interest in our sorrows. "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." (Isa. lxiii. 9.)

I