the means by which we are delivered from the penalty and power of sin, aud more than recover the position lost by man's fall. Ignorance here is indeed a fatal ignorance in those who have the knowledge within their reach; it is not good for any human soul to be without this knowledge, and it is most souldestroying to those who have only to seek it in order to find it. IV. Some of the evil consequences which flow from ignorance in general and from ignorance of God in particular. 1. Ignorance leads to hasty action, and consequently often to wrong action. For "he that hasteth with his feet sinneth," and "the foolishness of man perverteth his way." In common and every-day life we find that the most ignorant people are the least cautious, and act with the least reflection. Knowledge teaches men to think before they act, for it makes men more alive to the importance of their actions. A child will play with gunpowder with as little hesitation as he would with common dust, but a man would not do so, because he knows what would be the consequence if it ignited. A man who had never been in a coalmine, and who was ignorant of the dangers of fire-damp, would be very likely to descend the shaft and enter hastily into the gloomy passages without first testing the state of the air, but a miner would not do so, because he knows more about the matter. He would advance cautiously, and ascertain what was before him before he ventured far. So people who are ignorant of the mind and will of God as revealed in His word act without much thought as to the consequences of their actions-they enter upon a road at the impulse of a passing faucy, without asking themselves whither it leads-they decide upon a certain course of action without thought of the consequences. And such hasting with the feet is always a perversion of a man's way, a wandering from the right path, for a fallen man does not forsake the evil and choose the good by instinct but by effort founded upon reflection. 2. Spiritual ignorance leads to rebellion against God. It is only a man who does not know God, who "frets against the Lord." A child because he is ignorant of his father's motives will fret against the wise and kind restrictions which that father places around him. So men wilfully ignorant that whenever God says "Thou shalt not" He is only saying "Do thyself no harm," chafe and fret against His moral laws. They will not set themselves to obtain that knowledge of God which the gospel reveals and consequently they look at all His commands through a cloud of ignorance which makes them grievous and heavy instead of easy and light. And there are many mysteries connected with God's government that will tend to make men's hearts fretful and discontented if they remain in ignorance of Ilis character. There are many problems in connection with man's present life which he cannot solve-many apparent contradictions, and much which looks like injustice on the part of Him who rules the world, and every soul who does not know God as He is revealed in His Son will, when he thinks on these things, is likely to be led to harbour rebellious thoughts against Him. When we consider the evil which flows from ignorance of God we can better understand how it is that "the knowledge of the Lord' is so often used in Scripture as synonymous with all that can bless and elevate mankind (see Isa. xi. 9, etc.) OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS. We should desire first the enlightening of the eyes and then the strength ening of the feet. Hence "Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts," and then, "I will run the way of Thy commandments" (Psa. cxix. 27, 32). 564 He that would sail safely must get a lame is more likely to come to his journey's end than the blind. Hence we see that there is more hope of a vicious person that hath a good understanding, than of an utterly dark and blind soul, though he walks upon zealous feet. .. Learn to know God. "How shall we believe on Him we have not known?" (Rom. x. 14). Knowledge is not so much slighted here, as it will be wished hereafter. The rich man in hell desires to have his brethren taught (Luke xvi. 28). Sure if he were alive again, he would hire them a preacher. "The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." (Hosea iv. 6). If we see a proper man cast away at the sessions for a non legit, with pity we conclude he might have been saved, if he could have read. At that general and last assizes, when Christ shall "come in flaming fire," woe be to them that "know not God" (2 Thess. i. 8). For "He will pour out His fury upon the heathen, that know Him not, and upon the families that call not on His name" (Jer. x. 25). . . . . In Prov. ix. 18, the new guest at the fatal banquet is described by his ignorance. "He knoweth not what company is in the house," that the dead are there." It is the devil's policy, when he would rob and ransack the house of our conscience, like a thief to put out the candle of our knowledge; that we might neither discern his purposes, nor decline his mischiefs. ... Indeed ignorance may make a sin a less sin, but not no sin. "I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief," says the apostle (1 Tim. i. 13). The sins of them that know are more henious than the sins of them that know not. But if thou hadst no other sin, thy ignorance is enough to condemn thee, for thou art bound to know. They that will not know the Lord, the Lord will not know them.-T. Adams. " The most innocent of all faults might seem ignorance. The only sin (when philosophically stated) is ignorance. The "chains" that confine the lost (2 Pet. ii. 4) are "darkness." The change that overtakes the saved is The light (2 Cor. iv. 6). The graces that adorn the Christiau all flow from a new intelligence. Our text is literally exact. If the man "has no knowledge," and that of a deep spiritual sort, his "life is no good; that is, it possesses none, and is itself a horrid evil. And yet the concluding clause largely relieves the difficulty. man, knowing there was something wrong, ought to pause, and grope about for the light just as all would in a dark cavern. Instead of that he rushes darkly > Here, the inspired finger is put upon the precise mistake. We are warned that we are in blindness. Why not hesitate, then, and cast about us? We push on, knowing we are in the dark. This is the photograph of the impenitent . . . And yet, the wise man says, he ignores this point of wilfulness, and in his heart is angry with the Almighty. He "perverteth," or subverteth "his way," that is, totally upsets and ruins, so that it is no way at all. Nothing could describe more truly the sinner's path, because it does not reach even the ends that he himself relied on. Death arrives, too, to wreck it totally. And though he has resisted the most winning arts to draw him unto Christ, yet, at each sad defeat, "his heart is angry against Jehovah."-Miller. ... Ver. 2. Haste, as opposed to sloth, is the energy of Divine grace (Psa. cxix. 60, Luke xix. 6). Here, as opposed to consideration, acting hastily is sin. This impatience is the genuine exercise of self-will, not taking time. to inquire; not waiting for the counsel of the Lord." Godly Joshua offended here (Josh. ix. 14, 15). Saul's impatience cost him his kingdom (1 Sam. xiii. 12). (1 Sam. xiii. 12). David's haste was the occasion of gross injustice (2 Sam. xvi. 3, 4).—Bridges. Religion a sentiment and a science. I know of no attack on Christianity more artfully made than that which is attempted when a distinction is attempted to be drawn between religion and theology. ... Let us see what the value of religion is, when it is separated from theology. We are told that religion is a sentiment, a temper, a state of mind. Theology is a science, a pursuit, a study and it is asserted or insinuated that it may be well with the soul, although it be destitute of spiritual knowledge. . . But we, who are called Christians, by the very name we bear, imply that more than devotional sentiment is necessary to make a religious man.. You must accept Jesus as the only Saviour if you would escape perdition, and how can you accept Him unless you know Him? Nay, further, how can you accept Him unless you know yourself?... There are many other things which we ought to know and believe, to our soul's health and comfort; but... the soul that is without knowledge of this, the great Christian scheme, the Divine plan of salvation, is only nominally and by courtesy a Christian soul... Except as bearing upon these truths, the religious sentiment is a luxury and nothing more. It is not the theoretical distinction between the sentiment and the science that we censure, but their separation and divorce.-Dean Hook. Ver. 3. Such was the foolishness of Adam! First he perverted his way; then he charged upon God its bitter fruit. "God, making him upright," made him happy. Had he been ruled by his will, he would have continued So. But, seeking out his own inventions" (Eccles. vii. 29), he made himself miserable. As the author of his own misery, it was reasonable that he should fret against himself, but such was his pride and baseness, that his heart fretted against the Lord, as if he, not himself, was responsible (Gen. iii. 6-12). Thus his first-born, when his own sin had brought "punishment" on him, fretted, as if "it were greater than he could bear." (Ib. iv. 8-13). This has been the foolishness of Adam's children ever since. God has linked together moral and penal evil, sin and The fool rushes into the sin, and most unreasonably frets for the sorrow. sorrow; as if he could "gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles.' (Matt. vii. 16). He charges his crosses, not on his own perverseness, but on the injustice of God. (Ezek. xviii. 25). But God is clear from all the blame (James i. 13, 14): He had shown the better; man chooses the worse. He had warned by his word and by conscience. Man, deaf to the warning, plunges into the misery; and, while eating the fruit of his own ways,' his heart frets against the Lord. is hard to have passions, and to be punished for indulging them. I could not help it. Why did he not give me grace to avoid it?" (See Jer. vii. 10). Such is the pride and blasphemy of an unhumbled spirit. The malefactor blames the judge for his righteous sentence. (Isa. viii. 21, 22, Rev. xvi. 9-11, 21).-Bridges. It This was the case in Greece as well as in Judea; for Homer observed that men lay those evils upon the gods, which they have incurred through their own folly and perverseness." This is often the case with regard— 1. To men's health. By intemperance indolence or too close application to business. . . or unruly passions, they injure their frame. . . and then censure the providence of God. 2. To their circumstances in life. . . . Men complain that provi dence frowns on them . . . . when they have chosen a wrong profession, despising the advice of others. or when they have brought themselves into straits by their own negligence. 3. To their relations in life. They complain of being unequally yoked.. when they chose by the sight of the eye, or the vanity and lusts of the heart.... They complain that their children are undutiful ... when they have neglected their government. 4. To their religious concerns. They complain that they want inward peace when.... they neglect the appointed means of grace. . . . and that God giveth Satan power over them when by neglect they tempt the tempter.— Job Orton. For Homiletics on the main thought of verse 4 see on chapter xiv. 20, page 370. We have before had proverbs dealing with the evil of lying (see Homiletics on chap. xii. 17-19, xiv. 25, pages 274 and 379), and the constant recurrence of the subject, together with the repetition of the verses here, shows us the vast importance which the inspired writer attached to truth, and the many and great evils which flow from a disregard of it. Again and again he holds up the liar to view as a monster of iniquity, and seeks, both by the threatening of the retribution which awaits it a 1 by the misery which it causes to others, to deter men from yielding to this sin. If we consider what mischief a false man can do, we shall not be surprised at the prominence which the wise man gives to this subject (see page 274). But the most dangerous element of the lying tongue is the fact that in nine cases out of ten no human tribunal can bring to justice, and perhaps few human tribunals would care to do so. "The world, says Dr. David Thomas (" Practical Philosopher," page 414) " abounds in falsehood. Lies swarm in every department of life. They are in the market, on the hustings, in courts of justice, in the senate house, in the sanctuaries of religion; and they crowd the very pages of modern literature. They infest the social atmosphere. Men on all hands live in fiction and by fiction." If we allow that this picture is a true one, and, alas! we can cannot deny that it is, we can see that the evil is one with which no human hand can deal. A tiger may come down from a neighbouring forest and enter the city, and spread terror and dismay all round, and even kill a dozen of its inhabitants. But he is a tangible creature, he can be faced and attacked with weapons which can pierce his skin and make him powerless to do any further mischief. But into the same city may enter upon the summer wind impalpable particles of matter charged with a poison which may slay not ten men but ten thousand, and no weapon that has ever been forged by human hand can slay these destroyers. The plague will keep numbering its victims until the poison has spent itself or until a pure and healthful breeze scatters the deadly atmosphere. So with lying in comparison with more palpable and gross crimes. The thief can be caught and imprisoned, the murderer is generally traced and hanged; but the sin of lying so permeates the whole social atmosphere that nothing but the diffusion of heavenly truth can rid the world of the poison. But the liar, however he escapes some forms of retribution, “shall not go unpunished." 1. He shall be self-punished. His own conscience will be his judge and executioner in one. The fear of discovery here will generally haunt him as a shadow does the substance, but if this ghost is laid there will be times, however hardened he may be, when that witness for truth that is within him will scourge him in the present and fill him with forebodings concerning the future. 2. Men will punish him by not believing him when he speaks the truth. In proportion as a man's veracity is doubted will be the suspicion with which his word is received. He may tell the truth on two occasions out of three, but if his falsehood on the third is found out, his truthtelling on the first and second will not avail him much. It is a terrible thing to live always in an atmosphere of distrust, but it is one of the punishments of a liar. 3. God will punish him after he leaves this world. Concerning him and some other great transgressors it is written that "they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Rev. xxi. 8). Whatever may be the precise meaning of these terrible words, we know that they were spoken by one whose every word was "true and faithful" (see verse 5 of the same chapter), and they are but an intensified form of the last clause of our texts-" He that speaketh lies shall perish.' OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS. Falsehood is fire in stubble. It likewise turns all around it into its own substance for a moment-one crackling, blazing moment, and then dies. Aud all its contents are scattered in the wind without place or evidence of their existence, as viewless as the wind which scatters them.-Coleridge. "He whose breath is lies shall be lost." Breath means the inborn and natural impulse. The root of the verb translated shall perish," means to lose oneself by wandering about. The cognate Arabic means to flee away wild in the desert. The spirit, therefore, that habitually breathes out falsities, and so acts constitutionally athwart of what is true, is best described by keeping to the original; that is, instead of perishing in the broader and vaguer way, he wanders off and is lost in the wilderness of his own deceptions.Miller. The thief doth only send one to the devil; the adulterer, two; the slanderer hurteth three-himself, the person of whom, the person to whom he tells the lie.-7. Adams. MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 6 and 7. TWO PROOFS OF HUMAN SELFISHNESS. I. The servile regard which men pay to rank and wealth. A prince is a man in whose hand there is power to advance the material interests of other men, and this makes him a loadstone to the godless man whatever his character may be. As the magnet will attract all the steel dust within its reach, so the prince is a magnet which attracts all the self-seeking and the worldly who can by any possibility obtain any favour from him. To gain that favour they will fawn upon him and flatter him, and will stoop even to become suppliants at his feet. Let him be one of the most contemptible of human creatures, there will not be wanting those who may be in many respects his superiors who will serve him from hope of advancing their own interests. We know that this is not universally the case-that there have been noble men in all ages who would scorn to entreat the favour of any man, simply because he was a man of power; but Solomon here speaks of the rule and not of the exception, and the fact that it is so testifies to the self-seeking which is the characteristic of men in general. II. The treatment which the poor man often receives from his more wealthy kinsfolk. The proverb implies that those who hate him and pass him by with disdain are richer than himself, and therefore not only bound to pity his poverty but able to lighten his burden. But the same selfishness which draws men to the rich causes them to shun the poor in general, and especially their poor relations, for they feel conscious that these latter have a stronger claim upon them than those who are not so related. And even if the poor man does not need the help of his richer brethren he will often find himself unrecognised by them, simply because he occupies a lower social station. He has nothing to give them in the way of material good-his favour is worth nothing in the way |