FOR HOMILETICS ON VERSE 27 SEE ON THE PRECEDING VERSE AND ON CHAPTER XIII., 14 PAGE.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

MAIN HOMIletics of vERSE 28.

A KING'S TRUE GLORY.

I. Human rulers are dependent upon their people for honour. 1. The safety of the king's crown depends largely upon the number of his subjects. This was certainly the case in the days of Solomon, and is so now to a large extent. Small kingdoms are very likely even in these days to be engulfed by more powerful states-by those who can bring into the field an overpowering number of warriors.

Numbers hold the diadems on the heads of the rulers of the great nations of Europe. That Palestine was to some extent an exception to this rule was due to the especial providence of Jehovah-that it was ever overpowered by numbers was because its inhabitants forsook their covenant God. But the general rule holds good. 2. The prosperity of their land depends upon its being well populated. Other things being equal, a populous kingdom will do more business with other nations-will plant colonies and mix more with the inhabitants of other lands; and all these things extend a nation's influence and so make its ruler's position a more honourable one.

II. It is therefore a matter of self-interest that a ruler should govern his people righteously. This is a lesson which the potentates of the earth have been slow to learn although the page of history abounds with so many examples of the peril of disregarding it. It would be the destruction of the head if it were to say to the other members of the body, by which it is sustained in life and health, 'I have no need of thee." The existence of the one depends upon that of the other. And it is not less so with the body politic. The safety and honour of the king is bound up in the well-being of his subjects Where the one is dependent upon the many, self-interest, as well as duty, point to his so ruling that his people may enjoy peace and prosperity and so multiply.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

There is a natural tendency in the population of a country to increase. When, therefore, population diminishes, there must be some cause counterworking nature. The subjects of a country may be wasted in destructive and depopulating wars; they may be driven by oppression to quit their native land, and to seek a refuge in more distant regions; they may be starved and reduced by measures that are injurious and ruinous to trademeasures that keep up the price of bread and depress the wages of labour.

The existence of a thriving vigorous population is a mark of freedom, of wise and impartial legislation, of paternal care--and it is the palladium of all that is desirable in the results of human rule.- Wardlaw.

A sentiment arrayed against feeble princes who nevertheless array themselves with disproportionate splendour; and this, as also verse 34, is designed to call attention to the principle, that it is not external and seeming advantages, but simply and solely the inward competence and moral excellence, whether of the head or of the members of a commonwealth, that are the conditions of its temporal welfare.-Lange's Commentary.

How great, then, is the honour of our

heavenly King in the countless multitudes of His people! How overwhelmingly glorious will it appear when the completed number shall stand before His throne (Rev. vii. 9, 10); each the medium of reflecting His glory (2 Thess. i. 10); each with a crown to cast at His feet (Rev. iv. 10, 11), and a song of everlasting joy to time to His praise (Rev. v. 9).—Bridges.

All grades depend upon their inferiors. The poor have us in their power. To be kind to them is a dictate of common selfishness. selfishness. Carried into a spiritual light, the truth becomes much wider Half of heaven will be what we did for the poor. Solomon was familiar with this as a king; but he marks the sentence as one for all humanity. If a man wishes to be comfortable on earth, let him make his inferiors great. And, if he wishes to be rich in heaven, let him cultivate with assiduous zest the graces of the perishing.-Miller.

The occurrence of this political precept in the midst of the maxims of personal morality is striking. Still more so is its protest against the false ideal of national greatness to which Eastern kings, for the most part, have bowed down.- Plumptre.

The people are the king's best treasury; in their scarcity he cannot

be rich. Worthy was the speech of that Goth, a king of Italy, who, speaking of his subjects, saith, "Our harvest is the rest of all."-Jermin.

NOTE. The population of England and Wales in 1700 was about 5,475,000. At the beginning of the present century it was between eight and nine millions; it now exceeds twenty millions.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 29.

GREAT UNDERSTANDING.

I. There are times and occasions when wrath is not only allowable, but right. A man who is incapable of being angry lacks an element of perfection. Anger against wrong-doing is possible without any feeling of vindictiveness or malice towards the wrong-doer. There is much in the Bible about the "wrath of God" (Rom. i. 18), although He is "love" (1 John iv. 8). A child does not honour a parent the less, but the more, because he knows that parent can be angry when there is just occasion. Neither could we reverence God if He was a Being who could not be displeased.

II. But a man who is slow to wrath shows-1. That he understands himself. Even the holy and all-perfect God is "slow to anger" (Neh. ix. 17). Although He could not misjudge any creature, and although He could never by any possibility allow His wrath to exceed the bounds of perfect justice and righteousness, He is not "soon angry.' The man who understands his own frailty and short-sightedness will not allow anger to take possession of his spirit in a hurry, if he is to "be angry and sin not" (Ephes. iv. 26), he must only be angry after due reflection upon the cause of his anger. 2. That he understands others. Hasty and passionate anger never convinces the offender of his guilt, but awakens wrath in his breast also. But the displeasure which is the result of calm consideration may carry some weight with it. On this subject see also Homiletics on verse 17.

OUTLINES and suggeSTIVE COMMENTS.

"He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly." He gives folly for the time being the throne and sceptre of his mind, and fulfils her preposterous and mischievous dictates. And when reason, for the time deposed, resumes her vacated seat, she finds no easy task before her to repair the evils which have been done in the brief but stormy reign of passion.- Wardlaw.

I. The passion of anger is like wind to the ship: so it is to the soul called to steer its course to Immanuel's land. 1. If there be a dead calm, and the winds blow not at all, or very weakly, the ship does not make way. And if men be so stupid, indolent, and unconcerned, that their spirits will not stir in them, whatever dishonour they see done to God, these are standing still in the way to heaven. And many there be, who are all fire in their own

matters, but in those of God their hearts are dead as a stone. Such was the case of Eli: 'His sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not” (1 Sam. iii. 13). It was not so with Paul for "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry" (Acts xvii. 16). 2. If the wind is brisk enough, but yet is contrary, the ship will at best have much ado with it, and may be driven into a shore which the crew desired not to see. So if men's anger be in itself sinful, if their anger burn against what is good and just: such anger cannot fail of an unhappy event. 3. Though the wind be not contrary, yet if it be too impetuous and violent, it may dash the ship on rocks, and split it. So though men's anger may have a just ground, yet if it prove excessive and boisterous, it may run men headlong

1. Is

into great mischiefs. Oft-times reason
lets anger into the breast; but then
anger turns out reason to the door, and
carries on all precipitantly without
reason or discretion: like one that
brings in coal to his hearth, because
of the cold, but unwarily lets it fall on
tow, which sets the house on fire.
II. He that is slow to wrath.
slow to take up anger in his own cause.
It is wisdom indeed to be very tender
of God's honour, but more indifferent
about our own personal interests, as
Moses was. 2. Manages it warily
when it is taken up. He finds him-
self on slippery ground, and is therefore
slow in his motions. 3. Is easy to lay
it down (Ephes. iv. 26-27). He shuts
it out when there is no more use for it.
III. The passionate man proclaims
his folly-he proclaims himself-1. A
proud man, and the proud man is a fool
in God's account and in the account of
all who understand themselves. 2. A
weak man.

He is a slave to his passions. 3. An unwatchful man, who has his enemies within him, without him, round about him, and yet cannot be brought to stand on his guard (Prov. iv. 23, 24).-Boston.

Wise anger is like fire from the flint, there is a great ado to bring it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.-Henry.

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.-Southgate's "Many Thoughts on Many Things."

The heaviest body is slowest in going, but his treading is the surest; in like manner, he that is slow to anger recompenses the dulness of his steps with the soundness of his proceeding; for he taketh leisure (as it were) to look to his ways. Tertullian says, 'Where

if

the injury is little, there is no need of patience; but where the injury is great, there is the help of patience more needful against it. If they be small wrongs, contemn them for their smallness; great wrongs, by patience give way unto them in respect of their greatness." The original of hasty, is shortwinded. For as haste in going maketh the breath to be short, so the haste of the soul to anger maketh that to puff and blow on every small occasion; so that the soul is as it were climbing up a great hill, there to exalt her folly, for all to behold it.—Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 30.

A SOUND HEART.

The blessed effects of a contented spirit. The "sound heart" being here placed in contrast to "envy," shows that it means a spirit that is content with its lot in life-that is not ever reaching after the unattainable- that is not jealous of others who are in more favourable circumstances. Such a quietness of spirit is

1. Favourable to bodily health. The mind of a passionate man wears out the bodily frame, and no passion that can possess the soul is more imperious and agitating, and consequently more injurious to health than envy. Jealousy is said to be as "cruel as the grave" (Cant. viii. 6), and it is cruel not only to the objects of it, but also to him who allows it a dwelling-place in his spirit. Its withering effects are felt even in the body, it is "rottenness of the bones" in this sense. But a contented spirit goes a long way to promote and to preserve bodily health. A quiet spirit is a stranger to all those restless feelings which give sleepless nights and anxious days to the envious man.

II. It is indispensable to the attainment of a noble character. Calmness of spirit gives room for the development of all the graces and virtues which go to make up the "perfect man (Ephes. iv. 13). Growth in nature demands some degree of quietness and calmness to develop itself. The mighty forest

oak of a hundred years has attained its present noble dimensions by processes which have gone on for the most part in days and nights of stillness. So a character of moral strength and beauty can be formed only in the atmosphere of a calm and well-governed spirit.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.