"Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated. The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends. He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly."
It is, at times, unavoidable, and all but a duty, to assume external appearances not quite in harmony with inward feelings. For the sake of his company, a man is often obliged to keep his secret sorrows in abeyance, and to seem cheerful when in reality his heart is depressed and sad; and often, from the painful effort it costs to maintain the semblance of a joyous spirit, deeper is the dejection into which he sinks. Even thus, "in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness."
But such is not the case here intended. The "laughter" is that of violent and boisterous merriment-what Solomon elsewhere calls "the laughter of the fool.* And well might he say of such laughter-the laughter of intemperate mirth-"it is mad." In such a world as this,-in such a condition as that of fallen man, and with such prospects before him, it becomes a species of insanity. It is often, Solomon alleges, but the veil of a heart ill at ease-a heart fretted by the stings of an accusing conscience, and oppressed with the forebodings of futurity which conscious guilt engenders. The jovial merriment of the social board is courted for the very purpose of repressing these-of drowning care, and silencing the inward monitor, whose voice, in solitude and quietness, is too well heard for the sinner's peace. When the glass, and the jest, and the laugh go round, there is a partial, and to others it may seem an entire suspension of these inward gnawings and secret fears. But even then the success is seldom complete. Could you look within; could you see the inner depths of the sinner's heart-you might find there something widely different from what outward appearances indicate. You might find the begun tortures of the undying worm, and real sadness in the very midst of the most boisterous revelry.-And when left to himself; when the song and the glass, the joke and the laugh have ceased with the breaking up of the company, and solitude and reflection follow, how emphatically true-" the end of that mirth is heaviness!"
* Ecc_7:6.
And may we not apply the words to the case of the deluded sinner, who attempts to be jocular and merry even on the bed of death? Ah! surely, in such a case, the lips and the heart belie each other. Jesting and levity, in these circumstances can be only the symptoms, while they are the attempted concealments, of internal disquietude. This is what we might naturally and fairly suspect; and many a confession, from those who have been brought back from the gates of death, and have subsequently come to a better mind, has confirmed the suspicion into certainty. There can be nothing more out of all reason,-nothing more affecting and shocking to every pious, and even to every soberly-thinking mind. Emphatically might it be said of such mirth-"it is mad." Even were the system of infidelity and annihilation true, the very thought, were there no more, of the final and irrecoverable extinction of conscious being, might be enough to render any man at least thoughtful and serious.
O how different from the "laughter" and "mirth" of the men of this world the joy of the Christian! that cheerful serenity of soul-that inward sunshine, which diffuses on every hand its benign and smiling influence!
What was before affirmed respecting the wicked and impenitent generally, is in the next verse affirmed specially of "the backslider"-of him who has "left his first love," and declined from the ways of God-"The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself."
Temporary backsliding may take place in the true children of God; but the "backslider" here is evidently he who, in the language of the Apostle, "goes back unto perdition." Solomon alludes to such "perpetual backsliding" on the part of those who thus prove themselves to have been no more than professors-" having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Such characters, whatever appearances they present to the eyes of men,-even of the people of God, with whom they associate, never were vitally and savingly one with Christ, and one with true believers in Him. This is as plainly affirmed as it is in the power of language to affirm it: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us," 1Jn_2:19. It is of such characters, therefore, that we must interpret other passages that describe final and fatal backsliding.*-O let professors be upon their guard; jealous of themselves; "keeping their hearts with all diligence;" "working out their own salvation with fear and trembling;" "building themselves up on their most holy faith." Let them ever remember, there may be a great deal of what Solomon here calls "backsliding in heart," that does not discover itself to the view of others in the outward conduct:-a declension in the inward vitality of true godliness,-a deadening of the tender sensibilities of the new nature,-the sensitiveness of conscience, the warmth and interest of heart in spiritual things. And backsliding, though temporary and partial, will be the occasion of severe though salutary correction, and bitter distress of soul. Thus it was in David's case; and thus it was in Peter's. And the general threatening from the Lord is, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God. of hosts," Jer_2:19. Even when restored, "the backslider" is "filled with his own ways." He returns through the valley of humiliation, with a burdened, aching, broken spirit, and may, as the merited result of his sin, be allowed to go mourning many a weary day in the bitterness of his soul. Of the final apostate the doom is the most fearful of all that the word of God describes.
*As Heb_10:26-30; 2Pe_2:20-22.
Mark the antithesis:-"The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways; and a good man from himself." For the supplement "shall be satisfied" there is no need. "From himself," some would render "from above himself," and refer it to his receiving from God, from the divine fulness of blessing and grace. This, however, though the original may bear it, seems rather a straining, to insure orthodoxy. It is unnecessary. For as "the backslider" is he who departs from God, the "good man" is he who cleaves to God; and as the one is "filled with his own ways," in their sad results, so are there in "the good man"-in his heart, and in his ways, which are the ways of God,-springs of true satisfaction and delight. He enjoys present happiness,-flowing from a sanctified state of mind; from the holy exercise of its renewed affections; from what the Apostle declares to have been his rejoicing, "the testimony of conscience" to the "simplicity and godly sincerity" of his conduct; from growing evidence of interest in the salvation of God, and in the well-founded hope of eternal life; and from the pleasure, pure and blessed, of pious and benevolent deeds. And, when he acts under the influence of Gospel principles,-having learned what it is to renounce self and to serve God from grateful love and glad devotedness,-he knows that "God is not unrighteous to forget his work and labour of love;" that He will own all at last, and say to every one who, instead of backsliding and apostatizing, perseveres in the right course, "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"
Verse Pro_14:15. "The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going."
The words may first be applied to the concerns of the present world. "The simple"-the thoughtless and inconsiderate, are easily imposed upon by the specious and the artful-by their plausible representations, their confident protestations and assurances, their flattering and fawning speeches, insinuating address, and fair and 'ample promises. Possessing no depth of discernment for the discrimination of character, and no steadiness of observation and comparison to enable them to profit by experience, they are credulous of all. This is a very different thing from the "charity which believeth all things." Charity, assuredly, should be more prone to believe good than evil, and ever disposed, where two views present themselves of any case, to credit that most favourable to the character of another;-but not against evidence; not so as to flatter any one into a false conception of his spiritual state, or even of his temporal affairs. What we have here described is the credulity of the simple, not the candour of the charitable.
Now "the simple," on finding himself often deceived and imposed upon, and thus injured by those in whom he unwittingly confided-"believing every word"-not unfrequently degenerates into the contrary extreme. He has his temper fretted and soured. He becomes universally and without distinction distrustful. From having, in his simplicity, taken the word of all men for honesty and truth, he comes to reckon all men cheats, liars, rogues; and appears in the wretched character of an embittered, jealous, all suspecting misanthrope.
"But the prudent man looketh well to his going?" We may liken "the prudent man," when at all in perplexity, to an intelligent traveller who has lost his way, or is not at least sure of it. He reflects. He brings before his mind the relative positions of places,-the time of the day with the direction of the sun in the heaven; and, laying all things together, considers which of two or three roads is the most likely to conduct him to his destination. Or, if he is in possession of a map, he examines it for his guidance. He does not, like "the simple," strike at once into the first way that offers itself, or choose without thought, or rashly take the advice of any one who may chance to give it him. In every matter of importance, he "looks well to his going;" first to find the right way, and next to keep it.*
* Comp. Pro_4:26.
"We may apply the verse, in all its emphasis of meaning, to eternal concerns.-"The simple" hear different persons on the subject of religion, and take it for granted that all they hear is right. They are easily bewildered by sophistical arguments; led away by appeals to feeling; swayed and mastered by false eloquence; seduced by flattering assurances, palatable to the selfishness of the heart. They get thus entangled in error and delusion, or in a strange confused jumble of error and truth, between which they have no clear discernment. They are the sport of all that is novel-" tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine." On the contrary, when interests so vast are at stake, as those of the whole man, body and soul, for an interminable existence, the "prudent man" will inquire earnestly and cautiously; will feel his way; will ponder every step; will deliberately examine every statement, and every argument, taking nothing upon trust. He first bends his earnest thought to the question of the divine authority of the Bible-a question next in importance to that of the being of God; and having ascertained its authority, he will go to it, with humble-minded candour and anxiety, to learn its lessons. Having the map, he will examine for himself the way to heaven as there delineated. Having a divine directory, he will trust no human guide.
Verse Pro_14:16. "A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident." In this verse, the evil from which the "wise man departeth," may mean either suffering or sin. Both may with propriety be included, the one being the cause of the other-all suffering having its origin in sin.
We might take the maxim as only a further illustration of prudence and folly. Thus, in regard to temporal evils, the wise man estimates aright the magnitude of the mischief and the degree of the danger; and, by discreet precaution, shuns impending harm. The fool, on the contrary, sees no danger; dreads no harm; pushes recklessly forward, and falls into mischief. The wise man, again, will take, and will profit by a hint of caution and friendly direction or dissuasion; but the fool, in his self-sufficiency, is impatient of every thing of the kind. He resents it, as implying a reflection on his own penetration. He takes it short and high. He breaks out into passion-as if, forsooth, he could not see that! He calls the adviser, how modestly soever he may have ventured the hint, officious, vain, forward, pragmatical. He frets and blusters. And though sensible of the goodness of the advice, he will go directly against it rather than appear to act by the counsel of another. He prefers being wrong in his own way to being right in another man's. He "rageth, and is confident."
Then, with regard to evil in the sense of sin. Set before the considerate-"prudent" man the nature and extent of its consequences,-its fearful results-here and hereafter-present and eternal-he thinks, he pauses, he trembles, he "departs from it." If sin is brought home to his conscience, he confesses and forsakes it. The fool, on the other hand spurns all restraint. He is provoked and offended by every tiling in the form of prohibition or threatening. The very commands of God irritate him. He foams, and winces, and champs the bit that checks him in his wild career. The secret stings of conscience goad him to madness. He is galled and chafed by the suggestions of this inward monitor, but not held back. He is only driven to pursue sin with the more headstrong and frantic avidity. Reproof is like a spark struck amongst combustibles. The man's irritable passions are inflamed; and, in return for the reproof how gently and kindly soever administered, he only repeats the sin in word or act, whatever it may happen to be, with strong manifestations of displeasure at the presumption that has ventured to find fault,-repeats it in an aggravated form, from pure spite and passion. He "rageth, and is confident." Thus too it often is when any one hints at the danger of the way in which he is expecting salvation, and presumes to recommend another-even when the hint is given from an avowed and heart-felt solicitude for the welfare of his soul and his eternal happiness. "What business," he mutters, "have people with me and my soul? Let them mind their own, and leave me to mind mine; impertinent intermeddlers with matters they have nothing to do with!-every man's religion is his own concern I" And thus, the very presumption, as he regards it, that would set him right, confirms him in wrong. He "rageth, and is confident." Suppose he is on the way to hell-that is his own concern; and if he chooses to keep that way, who has a right to hinder him ?-No one certainly, poor sinner. But neither have you a right to hinder us from wishing you well;-that is all. It is duty to give you the counsel, whether you hear or forbear. And when you angrily adopt the poet's words, and say-
"'Twere well, would you permit the world to live
As the world chooses;-what's the world to you?"
we might adopt the poet's answer-claiming kindred and brotherhood with you, and insisting on the privilege of kindred love. You surely cannot but approve the conduct of the servants of Naaman, when their master on receiving the prophet's order-" Go, wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean,"-"raged and was confident," saying, "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper." "My father," said these discreet counsellors, "if the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean." Now this is all we would say to you. We point you to the divinely appointed remedy for the deadly malady of sin, common to you with us all, and entreat you to avail yourselves of it. If you will" rage and be confident;" if you will rather retain the distemper and die eternally than be cured by any other means than your own; if you will prefer going to hell in your own way than to heaven in God's way-we cannot help it; we have delivered our own souls, and are clear of your blood: but you cannot prevent our still pitying and praying for you!
Verse Pro_14:17. "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated."
In the Septuagint Greek the verse is otherwise rendered, but without sufficient reason. The antithesis, as it stands in our own translation, which appears faithful to the Hebrew text, is abundantly manifest.
"Foolish" indeed is the conduct of the man of a quick, touchy, irritable temper. O! what would the irascible man many a time give to have his hasty words recalled!-His anger, however, vents itself in the vehement bluster of the moment. He utters rash and mischievous things, it may be; but people come to know him, and to appreciate these. His burst of passion is quickly over. The storm soon spends itself. The calm returns; and perhaps an apology for his haste and violence. How troublesome and unpleasant soever such a temper may be, it is not to be compared with that of the "man of wicked devices"-the man, that is, who studiously conceals and covers up his passion; broods over it; nourishes and cherishes it in the secret recesses of his bosom; waits his most favourable time for vengeance; watches, and contrives plans of retaliation; and all the while, perhaps, shows no external symptoms of the internal ferment, but possibly assumes the very opposite-is all smiles and courtesy. Than such a character none is more odious; and it is dangerous as it is odious. Such a character cannot but be "hated."
In the following verse, simplicity and prudence are again presented in a somewhat fresh point of contrast. "The simple inherit folly." This means not, as some would have it, that folly is theirs by hereditary possession, as part of the heritage of their fallen nature; but that through their inconsiderate and vacant listlessness, folly becomes their patrimony-with its full train of serious consequences-scorn, perpetual imposition, deranged affairs, distress and calamity, bankruptcy and ruin. The very designation of fool is the inheritance of the thoughtless simpleton, with all the derision that accompanies it. He stands as a neglected cipher in the intercourse of life, or becomes the dupe of every unprincipled deceiver.-On the contrary, "the prudent are crowned with knowledge." They acquire knowledge; and this knowledge becomes their crown. It brings them respect and honour; advances and elevates them in society.
The language, as in other cases, is equally true of the interests of the world to come. "The simple "-careless sinners, who pursue heedlessly " the course of this present world;" who disregard the gospel message, "the word of truth and love;" who, if hearing it at all, hear it with an ear between which and the mind the avenue is closed-in the end "inherit folly." All they find awaiting them as their portion, is the exposure of their folly, by the verdict of Heaven, before the assembled world,-with the "shame and everlasting contempt " which is the necessary consequence. While the "prudent "-the truly thoughtful and wise in heart-are raised to the most exalted honour-honour far transcending what belongs to earth; have placed on their brows a diadem of glory-the "crown of life that fadeth not away:"-all the result of that divine "knowledge" to which they lent a willing ear, and welcomed to their hearts. "For this is life eternal to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Verse Pro_14:19. "The evil bow before the good: and the wicked at the gates of the righteous."
All that Solomon intends by this language, so far as what is merely temporal is concerned, is, that not seldom the real, sterling superiority of righteousness and goodness over vice and impiety is made apparent. It does frequently happen, that " the wicked," by whom "the righteous" were scorned, have come, by a reverse of circumstances, to feel their need of their counsel and aid; to feel the excellence of that which they had contemned-the true nobility of goodness. They have been fain to have recourse to them; to fawn where they had despised; to cringe at the gate of those from whom they would have withheld even a passing look; to petition where dependence would have been disdained, and the very proposal of application for help resented as an insult.
Such instances may be only occasional, but the superiority of the righteous to the wicked is universal. And its universality will appear in the "judgment of the great day,"-the day when the light of eternity shall be thrown upon the honours and the possessions of time. O the agonizing regret with which the miserable mistakes of the past will then be recollected!-and how utterly will every thought be absorbed in the awful present and the still more awful future-the eternal future!
Verses Pro_14:20-21. "The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends. He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he."-Taking these two verses together, the connexion shows that the former of the two is not to be understood as if by all his neighbours in every case, the poor were hated. Those there are who "have mercy on the poor," and who are sensible that to "despise " them is to be guilty of sin. But, alas! for the selfishness of human nature!-the case supposed, and the principle involved in it, are far from rare. From the poor there is nothing to be got. There is not only no share of property to be had from them, by any process of attention and flattery, but no respectability; no distinction arising out of any connexion with them. Nay, even to be seen in their company is to insure being shunned by all who love the honours of the world, and are set upon what the world call good society.-" The rich hath many friends." There is keen satire in these words; but there is no slander. They are words of truth. The rich have friends, on both the accounts mentioned-interest and honour. If they are bountiful, the friends they have are not those who are attracted by the admiration of their benevolence, and become attached to them from love to their amiable and generous spirit. They are the friends who are drawn around them by the hope of sharing in the plunder-of getting something by it-profiting by their generosity and profusion-ever studious to please, and ever hinting, broadly or otherwise as circumstances may require. They are friends, not of the man, but of his table and of his purse. And if the rich man be a miser, his friends are his hangers-on, his parasites-persevering in attentions, fawning, flattering, accommodating, submitting to any indignity, patient of contradiction and insult, anticipating every wish, watching every look, running on every service; and all without one solitary feeling of real regard to aught else whatever but the coffers and the lands.
The spirit of the former of the verses is many a time very affectingly exemplified in the case of persons who have been reduced from affluence to poverty by sudden or gradual reverses. How many, in these circumstances, prove, as good Matthew Henry calls them, "swallow-friends, that leave in winter." They become shy of him to whom they had paid court. They find out plausible excuses for avoiding his company, and withdrawing from his house. They put the best face upon it they can, while every one sees the true cause. Poverty has stripped off all the former attractions. There is no longer anything to be had. Their friendship thus ceases at the very moment when it comes to be most needed.-Let not the blame of desertion, however, be put down, without exception, to this score. It does sometimes happen, that persons who are reduced in their circumstances act in such a manner as to bring upon themselves the very desertion and neglect, of which they subsequently complain, and which they are fond to impute, with real or affected selfcomplacency, to the pride, and selfishness, and insensibility of others,-casting severe reflections on those by whom they are forsaken, when the fault lies entirely with themselves; when, by their unbecoming temper and behaviour, they have driven off those by whom they might otherwise have been befriended and succoured.
A selfish spirit, however, when that leads to the conduct described, is always a sinful spirit. "He that despiseth his neighbour "-his poor neighbour, "sinneth "-sinneth against God. There is sin against the arrangements of His providence. There is sin against the frequent and express commands of His word.*1 There is sin against the manifestations of His distinguishing love: for God has not only, in the strongest terms, avowed himself jealous for the poor, making their interests his own; but "to the poor the gospel is preached," and of those who become the subjects of God's grace, and heirs of glory, a large proportion belong to this class.*2 And, finally, there is sin in the contempt at once of God's threatened vengeance against all who treat the poor with neglect or cruelty, and of His promised special favour to all who treat them with kindness and generous sympathy.
*1 Comp. Deu_15:7-11; Luk_12:33; Luk_14:12-14. rr
*2 See Jam_2:5-7.
"He that despiseth his (poor) neighbour sinneth;" and in sin there can be no happiness. Hence the force of the antithesis-"He who hath mercy on the poor, happy is he." "Happy is he," for his conduct is obedience to God's command;-and in "the keeping of his commandments there is a great reward." "Happy is he," for he hears a voice saying-" Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house; when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.. .. The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." He is "happy " also because of the pleasure found in the gratification of the benevolent affections-God having so constituted our nature, that in proportion as it is delivered from the disturbing forces of corruption, and restored to its original rectitude, it derives enjoyment from the exercise of kindness. "Happy is he," in a word, for he is God-like-like Him whose bounty supplies the universe.
Verse Pro_14:22. "Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good." This may still be applied to the poor.* They who thus "devise evil" against the poor do egregiously err, if they expect to prosper. The hidden curse of God is upon them. But the verse may be understood more generally-of the "devising of evil," of whatever kind, and from whatever motive, whether of malice, resentment, envy, avarice, or ambition. To him who "devises good "-who lays himself out in planning and executing designs of benefit to others, there shall be "mercy and truth." From his fellow-men he shall experience universal love and esteem. He shall find sympathy in his distresses and reverses, faithfulness in dealing (for if anything will secure a man from being cheated and defrauded, it will be a character for disinterested kindness, tenderness, and liberality) and the general exercise of practical gratitude. And the Lord will make him to experience His love, and will fulfil to him faithfully all His "precious promises."
* Comp. Isa_32:6-8.
Verse Pro_14:23. "In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." It must be obvious that by "the talk of the lips" is to be understood, not the legitimate use of the powers of speech in professional business. This, of course, comes under the description of the "labour in which there is profit." The reference is to vain, idle, empty talk-useless gossip. The character is that of the man whose tongue is ever in motion; who is uneasy till he gets some one on whom to inflict his prosings or his frothy tattle. He goes in quest of such.. He gets them inveigled to hear him. He stands or sits idle with them. His work and his family are neglected. The great talker is seldom a great worker. A busy tongue makes idle hands. If the mouth will be heard, the noisy loom must stop; and he who prefers the sound of his tongue to that of his shuttle, had need, at the same time, to be a man who prefers talk to meat, hunger to fulness, starvation to plenty. The husband's words will neither make into food nor clothing. Back and belly must alike starve: such talk "tendeth only to penury."
Verse Pro_14:24. "The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly." The meaning of the first clause is obvious. When a wise man has "riches" it is a part of his wisdom to know the proper use of them: and by putting them to that use,-by doing with them all the good in his power, they become a crown to him. He thus frames for himself a diadem of beauty more truly glorious than if the most exquisite skill were expended in working up all his gold and jewels into one as rich and costly as ever adorned a monarch's brow. O what is the most gorgeous and dazzling earthly crown compared with a diadem of which the component parts are the blessings of the destitute relieved, the ignorant instructed, the vicious reclaimed, the afflicted comforted, the dying cheered with the hope of life, the perishing rescued from perdition and brought to God! This is a royal crown indeed!
"The foolishness of fools is folly," is an expression which, taken by itself, might simply signify, that place a fool in any variety of circumstances, he will still identify himself; his "foolishness" will still be "folly "-never long-concealed: while it is folly, in regard to its ultimate product, to himself as well as to others. Of no benefit to his fellow-men, it leaves him in a fool's plight at last. Ah! surely that "foolishness is folly" indeed, of which this is the termination!
But it cannot fail to strike you, that there is no direct antithesis between the one clause of the verse and the other; there being no reference to " riches" in the latter, as there is in the former. To remove this defect, it has been conceived by some that in the latter part of the verse there is what critics call a paronomasia; the same assortment of letters having two significations, equally arising out of the primary meaning of the root-the one, fulness or wealth, and the other grossness, stupidity, or folly. It will then read-"but the fulness of fools, or the wealth of fools, is folly;"-and what may be called the play on the words has been successfully enough imitated in English-" but the abundance of fools is abundant folly." The sentiment will thus be, that while, by the use of his riches, the wise man converts them into a crown of glory, the possession of riches by the fool only augments his folly, by giving him new and more varied means and opportunities of displaying it. His wealth puffs him up. His foolish and weak mind is inflated by it; and, in the littleness of his vanity, and the trifling, ostentatious, or absurd uses to which he applies his ill-bestowed abundance, he only renders himself the more a fool.
In conclusion, let Christians, rich and poor, seek grace so to regulate their whole course that they may put honour upon the Son of God, and that "the word of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed." Beautiful is it to see, in all situations, the happy influence of right principle-the faith of divine truth showing itself in appropriate conduct; and appropriate conduct avowing its originating and guiding principle in the faith of divine truth! This is "holding forth the word of life."
