upon the wake of the ship and reveals the path that she has travelled. Memory is such a lamp to the human soul. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we find memory throwing such a light upon the past, and enabling him to look back upon the path which had brought him to his present abode. Conscience sat in judgment upon it and united with memory to make his present cup a bitter one. The bitterness that is always mingled with the life of the profligate becomes doubly bitter at its end. Memory throws her light upon his past, aud shows him the strength, and honour, and opportunities of life squandered in licentiousness, and conscience anticipates future retribution and makes him feel the truth of the word of warning," Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge " (Heb. xiii. 4). The bitterness is increased by the reflection that the sin was committed in defiance of counsel to act differently. And thou say, “How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof" (verse 12). Those who sin against the light of nature only, find a recompense which is terrible, yet which an inspired Apostle declares to be "meet" (Rom. i. 27). The sins here mentioned are sins against nature, and nature asserts her right to punish her broken law and leave her mark upon the fornicator. But when revelation, and instruction, and good example are added to the light of nature, the cup contains ingredients of tenfold bitterness. "Whoso breaketh one edge, a serpent shall bite him" (Eccles. x. 8). How much sharper will be the sting if a double-a threefold-hedge is broken through. III. Sweet waters flowing from a right relationship. The waters are sweet or living-1. From a consciousness that a chaste wife belongs to him alone (ver. 15). The profligate can lay no such claim for the woman of his choice; she is, by her own consent, common to all. The husbandman has a very different feeling concerning his own field, which he alone has a right to till, and the common land which is open to all comers. So the true husband has a feeling towards his wife to which the licentious man is an entire strauger. 2. Because such a life is in harmony with the rights of society. The brooks and rivers of the land cannot be pure if the springs are defiled. The social life of a nation can only be healthy while the purity of the marriage relation is maintained. God has written his doom whenever and wherever this sacred bond has been violated. The consciousness of being a blessing to the world swells the stream of satisfaction which arises from a faithful observance of this relationship. 3. Because a true marriage is a man's completion. The sinless man in Eden felt a want until Eve was given to him, even though God had created him in his own image. How much more does man now feel the need of a "helpmeet for him," such as he finds only in a faithful wife. 4. The waters are further sweetened by the reflection that this relationship is used to symbolise that existing between Christ and His Church. Christ is the Head of His Church for her good. The true husband feels that he is the head of the wife for the same end. The relationship becomes doubly blessed when looked at from this point of view. OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS. Verses 1 and 2. When the Word of God enters the heart, it will banish all pollution from the tongue.-Law son. Perhaps painful experience (1 Kings xi. 1-8, Eccles. vii. 26) had given the wise man wisdom and understanding. Therefore let us attend to it with fear and trembling.-Bridges. God allows us to call that knowledge ours which originally is His. 1. Because God give it us, and he that gives a man land allows him to call it his. 2. Because it is given for our good as well as other men's. We are not like the builders of Noah's ark, that could not be preserved in it.-Francis Taylor. Verse 5. Possession of hell is taken by the wicked before they come into it; the devil giveth them that when he by wickedness possesseth their hearts. There is no more to be done than to set up their abode in it.-Jermin. Verse 6. The words, if taken to refer to the woman, describe with a terrible vividness the state of heart and soul which prostitution brings upon its victims; the reckless blindness that will not think, tottering on the abyss, yet loud in its defiant mirth, ignoring the dreadful future.Plumptre. Verse 7. Let no one think what he will do when he is in danger, and how he will get from her, when once she hath got him to her, but hear now what ye are to do to keep out of danger. Jermin. Verse 8. The devil will tempt you enough without your own help. To tempt is his business. As you love. your life and your own soul, give him no assistance in the work of destruction.-Lawson. He that is farthest from fire is safest from the burning of it; he that is most remote from the way and course of the river is in less danger from the overflowing of it. It argues too much mind to be in the house, for anyone to come near the door of it. It is more safe not to be in danger of perishing, than being in danger not to perish. Chrysostom, speaking of Joseph, saith, "It doth not seem so wonderful to me, that the three children in the furnace overcame the fire, as that Joseph, being indeed in a more grievous furnace than that of Babylon, came forth untouched."-Jermin. 1. Because of thy proneness to evil. Straw will quickly take fire. Gunpowder is no more apt to take fire than our corrupt nature to be provoked to this sin. 2. Because flight is the best fight here. No struggle comparable to a safe retreat.-F. Taylor. Verse 10. It is said that Demosthenes gave this answer to a harlot who desired to seduce him from the path of virtue, and demanded a hundred talents for her hire: "I will not buy repentance so dear."―Jermin. One keenest torment of the damned will be to find that they are working hard in the very pit of the universe; submitting to the sentence (Matt. xxv. 28), "Take, therefore, the talent from him and give it to him that hath ten talents." The adulterer might make himself a bankrupt, and get himself sold for his transgression; but that is a trifle compared with the sweeping surrender that must be made of all by the finally impenitent.-Miller. Verse 12. The climax goes on. Bitterer than slavery (ver. 9); poverty (ver. 10); disease (ver. 11) will be the bitterness of self-reproach, the remorse without hope, that worketh death.Plumptre. Though in respect of God's infinite mercy, it be never too late in this life, yet take heed how we stay too long. It is true that the thief on the cross found mercy at the last hour; but it hath been well remarked, "It was not the last hour, but the first, of the thief's knowing God; as soon as he knew Christ he was converted. If, therefore, thou hast long known Christ, and has not repented, do not presume too rashly of mercy at last.-Jermin. There are no infidels in eternity, and but few on a death-bed.-Bridges. Verses 11, 12. Dying regrets. I The subject of these regrets. It is a man who has disregarded through life the means employed to preserve or reclaim him. What instructors has a man living in a country like this? First, Your connections in life. You may have been a member of a pious family, or had an instructor or a reprover in a brother, friend, or religious neighbour. Second, The Scriptures. Third, Ministers. Fourth, Conscience. Fifth, Irrational creatures. Can you hear the melody of the birds and not be ashamed of your sinful silence? Can you see the heavenly bodies perform unerringly their appointed course and not reflect on your own numberless departures from duty? Sixth, The dispensations of Providence. God has chastened you with sickness. You have stood by dying beds. II. The period of these regrets. It is a dying hour. It is "at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.' Such a period is unavoidable. The last breath will expire, the last Sabbath will elapse, the last sermon will be heard. Such a period cannot be far off. "For what is our life? It is a vapour that appeareth for a little time. and then vanisheth away." It is a flood. It is a flower. It is a tale that is told. It is a dream. Such a period may be very near. Such a period is Sometimes prematurely brought on by sin. III. The nature of these regrets. This mourning is (1) dreadful. A dying hour has been called an honest hour. The world then recedes from The delusions of imagination give way. Criminal excuses vanish. Memory goes back and recalls the view. guilt of the former life, and conscience sets the most secret sins in the light of God's countenance. 2. It is useless. Not as to others, but as regards the individuals themselves. We are to describe things according to their natural and common course, and not according to occasional exceptions. And in this case exceptions are unusual. And we are borne out in this assertion (1) By Scripture. There we find only one called at this hour. 2. By observation. We have often attended persons on what seemed their dying bed; we have heard their prayers and their professions; we have seen their distress and their relief, and, had they died, we should have presumed on their salvation. But we have never known one of these, who, on recovery, lived so as to prove the reality of his conversion! We have often asked ministers concerning the same case, and they have been compelled to make the same awful declaration.-Jay. Verse 14. In a spiritual sense this may be applied to those who "hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. i. 18), and who, although they dwell in the midst of holy men in the Church of God, set their example at defiance by evil lives.—Bede. Verse 15. Desire after forbidden enjoyments naturally springs from dissatisfaction with the blessings already in possession. Where contentment is not found at home it will be sought for, however vainly, abroad. Conjugal love is chief among the earthly gifts in mercy granted by God to His fallen creatures. . . . Whatsoever interrupts the strictest harmony in this delicate relationship, opens the door to temptation. Tender domestic affection is the best defence against the vagrant desires of unlawful passion.-Bridges. Do not steal water from others. Although the strange woman saith, "Stolen waters are sweet," yet remember that the dead are there (ch. ix. 17, 18). The wife is called a vessel in 1 Pet. iii. 7. These words also have been expounded by ancient inter preters in a spiritual sense, which may well be present to the reader's mind; 1; and they have been applied to the pure waters of Divine wisdom, a sense which is suggested by Jer. ii. 13.— Wordsworth. If God had laid all common, certainly Man would have been th' incloser: but since now God hath impaled us, on the contrary, Man breaks the fence, and every ground will plough. O what were man, might he himself misplace! Sure to be cross he would shift feet and face. George Herbert. Spiritual Self-helpfulness.-I. Man has independent spiritual resources. He has a "cistern,' a "well" of his own. First He has independent resources of thought. Every sane man can and does think for himself. Thoughts well up in every soul, voluntarily and involuntarily. Secondly: He has independent resources of experience. No two have exactly the same experience. Thirdly: He has independent powers of usefulness. Every man has a power to do a something which no other can-to touch some soul with an effectiveness which no other can. Wonderful is this well within-inexhaustible and ever active. II Man is bound to use these resources. "Drink waters out of thine own cistern;" do not live on others. Self-drawing-First: Honours our own nature. Secondly Increases our own resources. Self-helpfulness strengthens. The more you draw from this cistern the more comes. Thirdly Contributes to the good of the universe. The man who gives only what he has borrowed from others adds nothing to the common stock. The subject-First: Indicates the kind of service one man can spiritually render another. To priest, rabbi, sectary, I would say Man does not require your well; he has a cistern within. What he wants is the warm gospel of love to thaw his frozen nature, and to unseal the exhaustless fountain within, to remove all obstructions to its out-flow, and to make it as pure as the crystal. subject-Secondly: Suggests an effective method to sap the foundation of : The all priestly assumptions. Let every man become self-helpful, and the influence of those who arrogate a lordship over the faith of others will soon die out. The subject-Thirdly : Presents a motive for thankfully adoring the Great Creator for the spiritual constitution He has given us. We have resources not, of course, independent of Him the primal fount of all life and power, but independent of all other creatures. We are not like the parched traveller in the Oriental desert, who, because he cannot discover water, dies of thirst. Spiritually, we can walk through sandy deserts bearing an exhaustless spring within.-Dr. David Thomas. Verse 18. It is not only to feed and clothe her, and refrain from injuring her by word or deed. All this will not discharge a man's duty nor satisfy a woman's heart. All the allusions to this relation in Scripture imply an ardent, joyful love. To it, though it lie far beneath heaven, yet to it, as the highest earthly thing, is compared the union of Christ and His redeemed Church. Beware where you go for comfort in distress, and sympathy in happiness. The Lord Himself is the source of all consolation to a soul that seeks Him; yet nature is His, as well as redemption. He has constructed nether springs on earth and supplied them from His own high treasures; and to these He bids a broken or a joyful spirit go for sympathy. To "rejoice in the wife of thy youth"-this is not to put a creature in the place of God. He will take care of His own honour. He has hewn the cistern, and given it to you, and filled it, and when you draw out of it what He has put in, you get from Himself and give Him the glory.Arnot. Verse 19. In a spiritual sense, this imagery, derived from the limpid fountains and beautiful animals of the natural world, is regarded by the ancient expositors as descriptive of the delicious refreshment and perfect loveliness of Divine truth, and the infinite blessings which it bestows on those faithful souls which are united to it in pure and unsullied love.Wordsworth. Verse 20. A rare instance in which a canto does not begin with "My son," but with "Why." The question is intended to be pressed. The commerce with "the strange woman" is so plainly mad that the rightly educated impenitent cannot possibly answer the wise man's question.-Miller. MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 21-23. These verses contain three reasons why the way of sin should be avoided, and the way which God has appointed should be followed. I. Because there is no place secret enough to commit sin. The sinner often comforts himself with the thought that what he has done, or is in the habit of doing, is not known-that the actors of the deed were the only persons privy to it. The text declares that there is no such thing as a secret place, because there is no place where the eyes of the Eternal do not penetrate. God is a witness of every crime committed in secret. He is not only a witness after the deed, but of the deed. Therefore there is no place secret enough to be a place of sin. The thought of the ever-present God should deter the sinnner. 1. Because the Divine presence is a pure presence. People who are in the habit of committing the sin against which the whole of this chapter is directed, would possibly shrink from being guilty of it in the presence of a pure man or woman. How much more should they be deterred by the fact that the eye of the pure and holy God is upon them. 2. Because the presence of God is the presence of One who has authority to punish. The presence of the chief magistrate of a nation would be sufficient to prevent the most hardened criminal from committing crime. A thief would not steal before the face of the man whom he knew could punish him. The presence of God is the presence of the highest anthority in the universe, of One who is irresponsible to any other for His acts (Job. ix. 12), of One who hast power most terrible, of One who has always visited this sin with penalty. The presence of such an Authority ought surely to make the adulterer quake at the very thought of his sin. II. Because, though the sinner may not be apprehended by human law, he shall be laid hold of and bound by his own deeds (verse 22). Many sinners of this kind go at large in the world, and are never reached by human law. No officer of justice will ever lay his hand upon them, and no material chains will ever bind them. But they are already taken and imprisoned by their own evil habits, which have bound them in chains of increasing thickness as the acts of sin have been repeated. This is a thraldom from which escape can come in only two ways. A man must either cease to be, or he must repent, before he can be free. Annihilation would set him free, because in ceasing to be he would cease to sin. But the repentance demanded by God is the only thing which will break his chains and permit him to retain his existence. We have no proof that there will ever be any way of escape by the first means, but we have abundant proof that the second is open to all men on this side of death. III. Because the unrepentant adulterer will die as he has lived a fool (ver. 23). A fool is a man without knowledge, one who acts from impulse rather than from reason. The sinner here pourtrayed is not a fool because he has not had instruction, but because he has not heeded it. Nature, History, Revelation and Conscience were his instructors, but he has disregarded them all. If he had listened to them he would have gained an experimental knowledge of the blessedness of godliness and purity, of which he must now go out of the world as ignorant as he entered it. |