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are thoughts there which have been kindled by what we have seen, as Achan's covetous desires were created by the sight of the goodly spoils of Jericho. The eye of David was the entrance-gate of the thought which ended in adultery and murder. And the feet may lead us in forbidden paths-into the way of temptation-into the society of those whose words, finding entrance by the ear, may sow seeds of impurity within.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 20. Still he calls for attention. It fares with many of us as with little children, who, though saying their lessons, must needs look off to see the feather that flies by them.Trapp.

The former verse having spoken of hearing God's Word, this speaketh of reading it. For the beginning of obedience is to be willing to know what is commanded, and it is a part of performance to have learned what is to be performed. ... Let God's Word be in our heart, it will be in the midst of it. For the heart hath no outside, all is the midst there: the heart hath no outward show, all there is inward truth.-Jermin.

Verse 21. The terms of this verse may be compared, for illustration, with those of Deut. vi. 6, 8: "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." Amongst the Jews there was a sad propensity to take the letter injunction literally and externally. Hypocrites and formalists satisfied themselves with having little scraps of the law written on parchment, and worn as frontlets on the forehead. But this was a delusion. The laws of God are never rightly "before the eyes" unless they are "in the heart." The meaning of the former clause of the verse is, that the commandments of God should be kept constantly in view as the guides of the whole conduct. And this will be the case when they are kept "in the midst of the heart."-Wardlaw.

Verse 22. Some medicines are good for one part of the body, some for

another. This is good for all the body, and all the soul.-Cartwright.

Verse 23. That thou mayest keep thy heart sincere, to use the similitude of a castle, for so the heart is,1. Repair and fortify it diligently. Weak walls are soon broken down. Breaches give occasion for an enemy to enter. Thou wilt find something to mend every day in the understanding, or conscience, or memory, or will, or affections, if not in all of them. Victual this fort, else it cannot hold out against a siege. Feed it with good meditations from the creatures, and out of the Scriptures Starved soldiers cannot defend a fort. 3. Set up a regiment in thy soul. No fort can be kept without government; soldiers, else, will rebel and betray the fort. Commit that charge to a well-informed conscience; submit all thoughts, and words, and deeds to it. 4. Get arins in it to keep out enemies; to wit, God's prohibitions and threats in His Word. This is the sword of the Spirit (Ephes. vi. 17).—Francis Taylor. The man is as his heart is. The heart is the spring and fount of all natural and spiritual actions, it is the primum mobile, the great wheel that sets all other wheels agoing; it is the great monarch in the isle of man, therefore, keep it with all custody and caution, or else bid farewell to all true joy, peace, and comfort. When the heart stands right with Christ He will pardon much and pass by much. . . . Therefore we should keep our hearts as under lock and key, that they may be always at hand when the Lord shall call for them. . . . The word heart is here put comprehensively for the whole soul, with all its powers, noble faculties, and endowments, together

with their several operations, all which are to be watched over It is a duty incumbent upon every Christian to keep his own heart. Thou mayest make another thy park-keeper, thy housekeeper, thy shopkeeper, thy cashkeeper, but thou must be thy own heartkeeper. "With all diligence." Some understand this of all kind of watchfulness. 1. As men keep a prison. How vigilant are they in looking after their prisoners. 2. As they keep a besieged garrison, or castle, in time of war. A gracious heart is Christ's fort-royal. Against this fort Satan will employ his utmost art, therefore it must have a strong guard. 3. As the Levites kept the sanctuary of God and all the holy things committed to their charge (Ezek. xliv. 8-15). Our hearts are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and therefore we should keep a guard about them, that nothing may pass in or out that may be displeasing, grieving, or provoking to Him. 4. As a man keeps his life. The same word (shamar) is used in Job x. in reference to life. With what care, what diligence, do men labour to preserve their natural lives. 5. As men keep their treasures. There are few men who know how to value their hearts as they should. It is that pearl of price for which a man should lay down his all. 6. As spruce men and women do their fine clothes. They won't endure a spot upon them. Let not others be more careful to keep their outsides clean, than you are to keep your insides clean.-Brooks.

The fountains and wells of the East were watched over with special care. A stone was rolled to the mouth of the well, so that "a spring shut up, a fountain sealed," became the type of all that is most jealously guarded (Song Sol. iv. 22). So it is here. The heart is such a fountain-out of it flow" the issues of life." Shall we let the stream be tainted at the fountain head?-Plumptre. Keep the heart. 1. Because it falls directly under the inspection of God. Man can judge only by what is external, but "I, the Lord, search the heart,' 2. Because of the influence

the heart has upon the life. He that is concerned about making the tree good will probably make the fruit so. 3. Care in keeping the heart is greatly to be regarded for itself. Is there nothing pleasant, nothing honourable in being masters at home-in being possessors of our own spirits? Is it nothing that the peace of the kingdom is broken, even though the constitution of it be not overthrown ?-Doddridge.

A heart purified by the grace of God, and firmly rooted in truth as its ground, is the source and common fountain for the successful development of all the main activities and functions of human life, those belonging to the sphere of sense, as well as to the psychical and spiritual realms, and this must more and more manifest itself as such a centre of the personality, sending forth light and life.-Lange's Commentary.

Though to keep the heart be God's work, it is man's agency. Our efforts are his instrumentality.-Bridges.

All vital principles are lodged there, and only such as are good and holy will give you pleasure. The exercises of religion will be pleasing when they are natural, and flow easily out of their own fountain.-John Howe.

Although Solomon repeats himself he always advances upon the thought. There is always some characteristic novelty; and that novelty is the hinge of the purpose, and imbeds its meauing in the life of the passage. Here it

is the function of the beart. It circulates life. Give it good blood, and it will throw off disease; give it bad blood, and it will produce disease. Give it health enough, and it will throw off incipient mortification; give it no health, and it will produce mortification. Solomon weaves this into experimental godliness. . . . Guard the great central guard-post, and no out-station will be cut off. If it be, for a time, the heart will win it again. -Miller.

Verse 24. While we speak, we should never forget that God is one of the listeners.... Take the principle

of Hagar's simple and sublime confession, accommodated in thought to the case in hand, "Thou, God, hearest me." If our words were all poured through that strainer, how much purer and fewer they would be.Arnot.

It is true that vigilance over the heart is vigilance over the tongue, inasmuch as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

There is no surer index of the state of the "inner man." As is the conversation, so is the heart.-Wardlaw.

While a fire is confined to one man's house, even if it burns that house to its foundation, all other dwellings are unharmed; but when it lays hold of surrounding buildings, all the city is endangered. When an evil thought is confined to a man's own spirit, kept within the limits of thinking or desiring, though it may char his own soul with the blackness of perdition, the evil ends with himself. But when he allows his thought to become words, he kindles a fire outside himself which may go on burning even after he has forgotten it himself.

Verse 25. Let them be fixed upon right objects... Be well skilled in Moses' optics (Heb. xi. 27). Do as mariners do that have their eye on the star, their hand on the stern. A man may not look intently upon that he may not love.-Trapp.

Like one ploughing, who must not look back.-Cartwright.

Had Eve done so she would have looked at the command of God, not at the forbidden tree. Had Lot's wife looked straight before her instead of behind her, she would, like her hus

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Verse 26. Lift not up one foot till you find firm footing for another, those in Psa. xxxv. 6. The way of this world is like the vale of Siddim, slimy and slippery.-Trapp.

The habit of calm and serious thinking makes the difference between one man and another.-Dr. Abercrombie. The feet of the soul are generally understood to be the affections. And surely we have need to ponder the path of them before we give way to them. St. Bernard maketh the two feet to be nature and custom, for, indeed, by them we are much carried, and great need we have to ponder the path of them, so that they do not lead us amiss.-Jermin.

The best time to ponder any path is not at the end, not even in the middle, but at the beginning of it.-Arnot.

Verse 27. It is as if the royal way was hemmed in by the sea, and a fall over either side were danger of drowning. Some are too greedy; others too ascetic. Some are too bold; others too diffident. Some neglect the one Mediator; others seek more mediators. than one. Some flee the cross; others make one. Some tamper with Popery; others, from dread of it, hazard the loss of valuable truth.-Cartwright.

CHAPTER V.

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CRITICAL NOTES.-2. Discretion, Lit. "reflection," "prudent consideration." 3. Drop as an honey-comb, "distil honey." Wormwood. In Eastern countries this herb, the absinthum of Greek and Latin botanists, was regarded as a poison. It has a bitter and saline taste. 6. This verse is rendered in two ways. The forms of the two verbs may be in the second person masculine, and so apply to the tempted youth, or in the third person feminine, and so be understood to refer to the harlot. Most modern commentators take the latter reading. Delitzsch translates: "She is far removed from entering the way of life: her steps wander without her observing it." Stuart: "That she may not ponder the path of life, her ways are become unsteady, while she regards it not." The rendering in Lange's Commentary is, "The path of life she never treadeth, her steps stray, she knoweth not whither." The authorised version is, however, supported by Rosenmuller and Michaelis. 9. Honour, or power," "bloom," or "freshness." 11. Mourn, or "groan," "at the last," lit. "at thine end." 14. Readings here again vary. Miller translates: "I soon became like any wicked man.' Lange's Commentary: "A little more, and I had fallen into utter destruction." The renderings of Stuart and Delitzsch are substantially the same as the authorised version. 16. In order to make the idea in this verse agree with those preceding and following it, Stuart and other commentators insert a negative: "Let (not) thy fountains," &c. Lange's Commentary considers this needless, and retains the same idea by conceiving the sentence to be an interrogative indicated, not by its form, but by its tone: "Shall thy fountains?" &c. So also Hitzig. Holden, Noyes, Wordsworth, Miller, &c., read as in the authorised version. 19 Be ravished, lit. "err," used in the next verse in a bad sense, and in chap. xx. 1, and Isa. xxviii. 7, of the staggering gait of the intoxicated. It seems to express a being transported with joy. 21. Pondereth, or "marketh out." 22. Shall be holden, rather "is holden." 23. Without, "for lack of."

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ILLUSTRATION of VERSE 19.

Here we have started up, and sent leaping over the plain, another of Solomon's favourites. What elegant creatures those gazelles are, and how gracefully they bound. We shall meet them all through Syria and Falestine, and the more you see of them the greater will be your admiration. Solomon is not alone in his partiality. Persian and Arab poets abound

in reference to them. The fair ones of these fervid sons of song are often compared to the coy gazelle that comes by night and pastures upon their hearts. They are amiable, affectionate, and loving, by universal testimony, and accordingly no sweeter comparison can be found than that of Prov. v. 19.-Thomson's Land and the Book.

MAIN HOMIletics of THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 1-20.

BITTER AND SWEET WATERS.

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I. A wrong relation. The relationship here forbidden is wrong. 1. Because it is a sin against the tempter. The tempter in Eden had his load of iniquity increased by the yielding of the tempted one to his persuasion. He increased his crime when he made another a partaker of his disobedience. Satan, doubtless, becomes worse each time that he persuades another to sin. The gambler's guilt and misery is increased in proportion to his success in bringing others to ruin. The young man in the text increases the guilt of the "strange woman by yielding to her enticements. He burdens her with new guilt and intensifies. her iniquity, and therefore helps to treasure up for her a greater remorse when her conscience shall awake and arise from the grave of sensuality. 2. Because it is a sin against a man's own body. That which is our own is generally valued by us, and there is nothing material which is ours in a more exclusive sense than our bodily frame. It is nearer to us than any other material possession, and to sin against it is to sin against that which stands in the nearest relation to our personal moral individuality. There are sins done in the body by the mind which are purely mental, from which the body does not suffer; but adultery forces the body into a relation which brings misery and disease upon it, and in due season consumes and destroys it like a devouring flame.

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sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body" (1 Cor. vi. 18). 3. Because it is a sin against human nature in general, and national life in particular. Human nature is like the human body, every man is linked to his fellow-men as the several members of the body are parts of one whole. This solidarity—this union of interests— is more obvious when considered in relation to a particular community or nation; and, as no member of the human body can be disfigured without bringing the whole frame into a state of imperfection and loss of dignity, so no man can degrade himself without bringing degradation upon the whole race. The fornicator is a plague-spot upon the body of humanity; and although other sinners bring disfigurement upon the body universal, there is none who defiles it as he does. God has written His mark upon the crust of the earth against this enormous sin (Gen. xix. 24, 25). 4. Because it makes God, in a sense, to bear the iniquity with the transgressor. The youth who spends the money his father gives him in furthering his own wicked purposes makes his father an unwilling partaker of his crimes, because the money was supplied by him. God made this complaint against sinners in the olden time. The good gifts of the earth which God bestowed upon the Hebrew people were used by them in their debasing idol-worship. God gave them the means of honouring Him, and they used His gifts in dishonouring His name. So God gives to every man power to glorify Him and to bless himself and the world by the formation of right relations. When the power thus given is used in an unlawful manner, God's own gift is used against Himself. The sinner turns the Divine gift against the Divine Giver; and while in God he lives, and moves, and has his being, he lives and moves but to sin against his Maker. Thus in Scripture language God "is made to serve" with the sinner, while He is "wearied with his iniquities" (Isa. xliii. 22-24).

II. The bitter waters which flow from this wrong relation. (Verse 4.) 1. The loss of honour. (Verse 7.) To some men this is dearer than life. The captain would rather go to the bottom of the sea with his ship than live with a shadow upon his good name and reputation. The man who has lost his honour in the eyes of others has lost his honour in his own eyes, and the loss of selfhonour or self-respect is a calamity that is very bitter to the soul. The man who will indulge in unlawful intercourse, will find that he not only loses the respect of others, but he will be unable to respect himself, and this loss is the greatest that a man can sustain on this side of hell. It is a draught which, although there might be pleasure in the drawing, will be very bitter in the drinking. 2. The loss of manhood's vigour and opportunities. He will "give his years to the cruel, his strength to the stranger." The loss of youthful strength and energy is the loss of years, the youth becomes old before he is a man. The vessel or the mansion that is charred by fire before it is completed presents a strange contrast. The newness and freshness of the walls or the timbers that have escaped make the destruction of the rest more lamentable. The building has been marred just upon the verge of completion, the ship has been spoiled when she was all but ready for the voyage. It is sad to see an old tree blasted by the lightning, but it is a greater misfortune when the tree is in its prime, when it is laden with fruit about to come to perfection. But these are faint shadows of the sad spectacle which is presented by a youth who has become prematurely old by unlawful indulgence before he has reached his prime. He is unfit to battle with the sea of life at the very time when he ought to be setting out on his voyage. He falls short of fulfilling the demands of God and man at the moment when he ought to be bringing forth abundant fruit. Surely such a consciousness must be as bitter waters to the spirit. 3. The action of conscience and memory in a dying day. "And thou mourn at the last," etc. (Verse 11.) The lamp that hangs from the stern of the vessel throws a light

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