CRITICAL NOTES.--+2. Apple of the eye,+ the "pupil," literally the
"little man" of the eye, referring to the reflected image of a man
seen in that organ. +3. Bind them+ "refers to the rings with large
signets, upon which maxims were inscribed" (_Stuart_).
+4. Kinswoman,+ rather, "an acquaintance, a familiar friend."
+7. Simple,+ "inexperienced." +8. Went,+ "moved leisurely,
sauntered." +9. In the black and dark night,+ literally, "in the
apple," or "pupil" of the night. +10.+ Literally, "a woman, the
attire of a harlot," with no connecting word between, as though the
woman were nothing but such a dress. +Subtil,+ "guarded." Wordsworth
renders "her heart is like a walled fortress." +11. Stubborn,+ rather
"boisterous, ungovernable." +14.+ The offerings here named are those
of thanksgiving for blessings received. Of such offering, which, in
accordance with the law (Lev. vii. 16), must be eaten by the second
day, the guests partook, so that a rich feast is here offered to the
young man under the garb of religious usage. +16. With carved works,+
rather, "variegated coverlets of Egyptian linen." +20. The purse,
etc.,+ indicating long delay; +the day appointed,+ rather, "the day
of the full moon." +22. Straightway.+ "The Hebrew implies that he had
at first hesitated, until the fear of his to take the decisive step
was overcome by evil appetite, and he now, with passionate
promptness, formed the vile purpose and executed it at once, to cut
off all further reflection. Here is evidently a stroke in the picture
of the profoundest psychological truth" _(Lange's Commentary)._ The
latter clause of the verse is literally, "and as fetters for the
punishment of a fool." It has been variously rendered. Many
expositors read, "As the obstinate fool is suddenly caught and held
fast by a trap lying in a forbidden path, so has the deceitful power
of the adulteress caught the young man." +23.+ "The +liver+ stands
here as representative of the vitals in general as in Lam. ii. 11, as
in some instances the heart, or again, the reins" (Psa. xvi. 7;
lxxiii. 21, etc.). According to Delitzsch, the liver is here made
prominent as the seat of sensual desire. "Since the ancient Greeks,
Arabians, and Persians, in fact, connected this idea with the organ
under consideration, this view may be received as probably correct"
_(Lange's Commentary)._ +Knoweth not that it is for his life,+ _i.e._
"that his life is at stake."
NOTE ON THE SIGNIFICATION OF THE "STRANGE WOMAN" OF THIS CHAPTER, AND
OF MANY KINDRED PASSAGES IN THE BOOK.--Although most modern
commentators attach no other meaning to this woman than that which
would occur to the general reader, there are some who, as will be
seen from the comments, agree with most of the early expositors in
attaching to the representation an ideal meaning also. Wordsworth,
referring to the original meaning of the word _mashal,_ or proverb
(see preface), says, "By a consideration of the proper meaning of
this word _mashal,_ used in the title of the book, and by reflecting
on the use made of it in the Gospels, we are led to recognise in the
Proverbs or Parables of Solomon not only moral apothegms for
practical use in daily life, but to ponder deeply upon them as having
also a typical character and inner spiritual significance concerning
heavenly doctrines of supernatural truth, and as preparing the way
for the evangelical teaching of the Divine Solomon, Jesus Christ, in
parables on the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven." Following out
this principle of interpretation, he continues, "As in Solomon's
delineation of Wisdom we recognised Christ, so in the portraiture of
the 'strange woman,' who is set in striking contrast to Wisdom in
this book, we must learn to see something more than at first meets
the eye. Doubtless we must hold fast the literal interpretation, and
must strenuously contend for it; . . . but in the gaudy and garish
attire and alluring cozenage of the strange woman we may see a
representation of the seductive arts with which the teachers of
unsound doctrine, repugnant to the truth of Christ, endeavour to
charm, captivate, and ensnare unwary souls, and to steal them away
from Him. There is a harlotry of the intellect--there is an adultery
of the soul, and this harlotry and adultery are not less dangerous
and deadly than the grossest sins and foulest abominations. Indeed
they are more perilous, because they present themselves in a more
specious and attractive form." Hengstenberg, commenting on Eccles.
vii. 26, says, "There are strong grounds for thinking that the woman
of the Proverbs is the personification of heathenish folly, putting
on the airs of wisdom and penetrating into the territory of the
Israelites. . . . The key to Prov. ii. 16, 17, is Jeremiah iii. 4-20.
In Prov. v. the evil woman must needs be regarded as an ideal person,
because of the opposition in which she is set to the _good_ woman,
Wisdom. If Wisdom in chap. vii. 4, 5 is an ideal person, her opponent
must be also. . . . In chap. ix. again, the evil woman is put in
contrast with Wisdom; . . . the explanation is, in fact, plainly
given in verse 13. Last of all, in chap xxii. 14, we read, 'the mouth
of a foreigner is a deep pit,' etc. That the writer here treats of
false doctrine is clear from the mention of the mouth. Nahum iii. 4,
presents an analogous instance of such a personification. . . . To
the woman here, corresponds in Rev. ii. 20: 'the woman Jezebel,' a
symbolical person." Miller, as will be seen in the suggestive
comments on chap. ii. 16, looks upon this woman as an emblem of
_impenitence._
The following comment is by Professor Plumptre: "The strange woman,
the 'stranger,' may mean simply the adulteress, as the 'strange gods'
the 'strangers' (Deut. xxxii. 16; Jer. iii. 13), are those to whom
Israel, forsaking her true husband, offered an adulterous worship.
But in both cases there is implied also some idea of a foreign
origin, as of one who by birth is outside the covenant of Israel. In
the second word used, this meaning is still stronger. It is the word
used of the strange wives of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 1-8), and of those
of the Jews who returned from Babylon (Ezra x.), of Ruth, as a
Moabitess (Ruth ii. 10), of heathen invaders (Isa. ii. 6). Whatever
form the sin here referred to had assumed before the monarchy (and
the Book of Judges testifies to its frequency), the intercourse with
Phœnicians and other nations under Solomon had a strong tendency to
increase it. The king's example would naturally be followed, and it
probably became a fashion to have foreign wives and concubines. At
first it would seem this was accomplished by some show of
proselytism. The women made a profession of conformity to the
religion of their masters. But the old leaven breaks out. They sin
and 'forget the covenant of their God.' The worship of other gods, a
worship in itself sensual and ending in the foulest sin, leads the
way to a life of harlotry. Other causes may have led to the same
result. The stringent laws of the Mosaic code may have deterred the
women of Israel from that sin, and led to a higher standard of purity
than prevailed among other nations. Lidonian and Tyrian women came,
like the Asiatic hetaeræ at Athens, at once with greater importunity
and with new arts and fascinations to which the home-born were
strangers."
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-4.
THE SOURCE OF TRUE LIFE, ETC.
+I. The true life of man depends upon his relation to the Word of
God.+ "Keep my commandments, and live" (verse 2). The life which is
given to man upon his entrance into this world is not life in its
highest sense, but an existence in which he is to obtain life. "It is
not all of life to live." Those who do not keep God's commandments
are living existences, but in the moral signification of the word
they are _dead._ It was said by the highest authority--by the Son of
God Himself--that "it had been good for Judas Iscariot if he had not
been born" (Matt. xxvi. 24). Existence is not a blessing, oftentimes
a curse, unless a man is "born again," "not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 13).
Christ taught the same truth when He said, "Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke iv. 4). Man is not flesh
and blood only, he has not a mere animal existence, but moral
capabilities and needs, which must be nourished by the thoughts of
God. If this is not done, he has no life worth the name.
+II. The relation that a man should have to the Word of God is like
that which a rich man has to his banked money.+ "Lay up my
commandments with thee." The best place for money which the merchant
wishes to use constantly is a safe bank, from which he can draw out
at any time of need. So the Word of God must be laid up in the mind
ready for constant use. The Word of God must "dwell in us" (Col.
iii. 16). It must be stored up to furnish us with encouragement and
admonition in the unceasing warfare with temptation which we are
called upon to wage. It must be at hand at the moment of need.
+III. It is to be guarded with the same care as the eye is guarded by
the eyelid.+ "As the apple of thine eye." The eye is carefully
protected by nature because it is the organ of a most precious
sense--of a sense of which we stand in the greatest need--without
which we walk through the world in darkness. The revelation of God in
the Holy Scriptures is the only light which enlightens us amid the
darkness of ignorance and mystery by which we are surrounded. Without
it all our future would be darkness indeed. Hence its preciousness,
and hence the value we ought to set upon it.
+IV. It is to hold to us a relation like that of a pure, and tender,
and beloved sister.+ "Say unto Wisdom, Thou art my sister." The Word
of God is the highest wisdom. The relationship of brother and sister,
where it is what God intended it to be, is a very tender and pure
relationship, involving willingness to undergo self-denial for the
sake of her who is loved, to listen to her advice, to seek her
welfare. In this light we must regard the wisdom of God as revealed
in the Word of God if existence is to become _life_ to us. We must
exercise self-denial for her sake. "I prevented the dawning of the
morning, and cried: I hoped in Thy word" (Psa. cxix. 147).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 2. As God would have us keep His law as the apple of our eye,
so He keeps His people (Deut. xxxii. 10), in answer to their prayer,
as the apple of His eye (Zech. ii. 8). We guard the eye as our most
precious and tender member from hurt, and prize it most dearly. As we
guard the pupil of the eye from the least mote, which is sufficient
to hurt it, so God's law is so tender and holy a thing that the least
violation of it in thought, word, or deed, is sin; and we are so to
keep the law as to avoid any violation of it. The law resembles the
pupil of the eye also in its being spiritually the organ of light,
without which we should be in utter darkness.--_Fausset._
The instruction of the Word is the same to the soul which the eye is
to the body. For as the body without the sight of the eye runneth
upon many things that hurt it, and falleth at every little
stumbling-block, so the soul most fearfully runneth into sins if it
want the light and direction of the Word.--_Muffet._
Man are off and on in their promises: they are also slow and slack in
their performances. But it is otherwise here: the very "entrance of
Thy Word giveth light" (Psa. cxix. 130), and the very onset of
obedience giveth life. It is but "_Hear,_ and your soul shall live"
(Isa. lv. 3). Sin is homogeneous, all of a kind, though not all of
the same degree. As the least pebble is a stone as well as the hugest
rock, and as the drop of a bucket is water as well as the main ocean,
hence the least sins are in Scripture reproached by the names of the
greatest. Malice is called manslaughter, lust, adultery, etc.
Concupiscence is condemned by the law; even the first motions of sin,
though they never come to consent (Rom. vii. 7). Inward bleeding may
kill a man. The law of God is spiritual, though we be carnal. And as
the sunshine shows us atoms and motes that till then we discerned
not, so doth the law discover and censure smallest failings. It must
therefore be kept curiously, even "as the apple of the eye," that
cannot be touched, but will be distempered. Careful we must be, even
in the punctilios of duty. Men will not lightly lose the least ends
of gold.--_Trapp._
In some bodies, as trees, etc., there is life without sense, which
are things animated, but not so much with a soul as with a kind of
animation; even as the wicked have some kind of knowledge from grace,
but are not animated by it. Or rather the wicked do not live, indeed,
for life consisteth in action, and how can he be said truly to live
whose words are dead? But keep God's commandments, and live indeed,
live cheerfully with the comfort of this life, which makes life to be
life; live happily in the life of glory hereafter, which is the end
for which this life is lent us.--_Jermin._
Verse 4. Since, O youth, thou delightest in the intimacy of fair
maidens, lo! here is by far the loveliest one, Wisdom.--_Cartwright._
Wisdom has been represented as a wife, and here she is called a
sister. As Didymus says (in _Catenâ,_ p. 104), "Wisdom is called a
mother, a sister, and a wife." She is a mother, because, through her,
we are children of Christ; she is a wife, because, by union with her,
we ourselves become parents of that which is good; she is our sister,
because our love to her is chaste and holy, and because she, as well
as ourselves, is the offspring of God. Such is the love of Christ,
who is the true Wisdom, and who is all in all to the soul. Compare
His own words, applied to every faithful and obedient soul: "The same
is my brother, and my sister, and mother" (Mark iii. 35). "Do thou
love the true faith with sisterly love, it shall keep thee from the
impure love of the strange women of false doctrine"
(Bede).--_Wordsworth._
Holiness is positive. Sin is negative. The one is to love God, and
also our neighbour. The other is not to love God or our neighbour.
The one shows itself in a positive delight in the abstract holiness;
the other not in a positive delight in the opposite, viz., in an
abstract sin, but a delight in women, a delight in money, a delight
in praise, a delight in everything except moral purity, and therefore
a delight in things which are innocent when in limits, and that are
only guilty when the soul is let in upon them without curb of
superior affection. If a man calls Wisdom his kinswoman, then he may
love wine or love without moral danger.--_Miller._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-27.
A PICTURE DRAWN FROM LIFE.
The woman depicted here has been before us twice before. (See on
chap. ii. 16-19 and vi. 24.) We will therefore confine ourselves in
this chapter to the picture of her dupe. He fully justifies his right
to the title here given to him, viz., "a young man void of
understanding."
+I. Because he did not wait for temptation to seek him, but went
where he knew it would meet him.+ Those who carry gunpowder upon
their persons ought never to go into a blacksmith's forge, ought
never even to approach the door lest some sparks fall upon them. How
much more foolish is he who, knowing that there is a tendency to sin
within him, seeks out the place where the spark will be fanned into a
flame. This young man is found "near the corner" of the house of his
temptress, "he went the way to her house."
+II. He goes to ruin with his eyes wide open.+ The woman's character
is plainly written upon her dress and upon her face. There is no
pretence at disguise. She boasts of her infidelity to her husband.
Yet he yields to her invitation; yet he believes her professions of
attachment to himself. The most silly fish that swims will not bite
if the steel hook gleams through the bait, but this simpleton takes
the hook without any bait. The ox resists when he feels that he is
being driven to death, but this fool goes deliberately to the house
of death. He walks into the snare which he knows has been the death
of myriads of his fellow creatures. The remedy for this folly is
found in vers. 1-4.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verses 5-27. From the earlier and copious warnings against adultery
the one now before us is distinguished by the fact, that while
chapter v. contrasted the blessings of conjugal fidelity and chaste
marital love with unregulated sexual indulgence, and chapter
vi. 20-35 particularly urged a contending against the inner roots and
germs of the sin of unchastity, our passage dwells with special
fulness upon the temptations from without to the transgression of the
sixth commandment. It also sets for the folly and the ruinous
consequences of yielding to such temptations, by presenting an
instructive living example. . . . Aside from the fact that it is
nocturnal rambling that delivers the thoughtless idle youth into the
hands of temptation (verse 9), and aside from the other significant
feature that after the first brief and feeble opposition, he throws
himself suddenly and with the full energy of passion into his
self-sought ruin (verse 22, comp. James i. 15), we have to notice
here chiefly the important part played by the luxurious and savoury
feast of the adulteress, as a co-operating factor in the allurement
of the self-indulgent youth (verse 14 seq.). It is surely not a
feature purely incidental, without deeper significance or design,
that this meal is referred to as preceding the central or chief sin;
for, that the tickling of the palate with stimulating eats and drinks
prepares the way for lust is an old and universal observation (comp.
Exod. xxxii. 6, 1 Cor. x. 17, as also similar passages from the
classical authors).--_Lange's Commentary._
Apart from the external blandishments which are portrayed in this
passage, there belongs to them a power of internal deception the most
fallacious and insinuating--and this not merely because of their
strength, and of their fitness to engross the whole man when once
they take possession of him, and so to shut out all reflection and
seriousness--those counteractives to evil passions; but because of
their alliance with, and the affinity which they bear to, the kindly
and benevolent and good feelings of our nature. As the poet
says--himself a wild and wayward, and most dangerously seductive
writer--the transition is a most natural one, from "loving much to
loving wrong." Let all such affections be sedulously kept at bay, and
the occasions of them shunned and fled from, rather than hazarded and
tampered with. Let them never be wilfully encountered, or
presumptuously braved and bid defiance to, lest the victory be
theirs; and no sooner do they win the heart than they war against the
soul.--_Chalmers._
Verse 5. This woman not only represents the harlot and the adulteress
literally, but it is also a figure of whatever seduces the soul from
God, whether in morals or religion, and whether in doctrine and
practice, or in religious worship.--_Wordsworth._
_Strange,_ indeed, if she alienate us from the very God that made
her, and stir the jealousy of the very Being that gives us our power
to love her. (Hosea ii. 8.)--_Miller._
Verse 6. God is ever at His window, His casement is always open to
see what thou dost.--_Jermin._
Verse 8. Circumstances which give an occasion to sin are to be
noticed and avoided. They who love danger fall into it. The youth (as
verse 21 shows) did not go with the intention of defiling himself
with the "strange woman," but to flatter his own vanity by seeing and
talking with her, and hearing her flatteries. It is madness to play
with Satan's edged tools.--_Faussett._
_The beginning of the sad end._ The loitering evening walk, the
unseasonable hour (Job xxiv. 15; Rom. xiii. 12, 13); the vacant mind.
"The house was empty," and therefore ready for the reception of the
tempter (Matt. xii. 44, 45), and soon altogether in his possession.
How valuable are self-discipline, self-control, constant employment,
active energy of pursuit, as preservatives under the Divine blessing
from fearful danger.--_Bridges._
Verses 7-9. The first character appears on the scene, young, "simple"
in the bad sense of the word; _open_ to all impressions of evil,
empty-headed and empty-hearted; lounging near the place of
ill-repute, not as yet deliberately purposing to sin, but placing
himself in the way of it; wandering idly to see one of whose beauty
he has heard, and this at a time when the pure in heart would seek
their home. It is impossible not to see a certain symbolic meaning in
this picture of the gathering gloom. Night is falling over the young
man's life as the shadows deepen.--_Plumptre._
Verse 9. He thought to obscure himself, but Solomon saw him; how much
more God, before whom night will convert itself into noon, and
silence prove a speaking evidence. Foolish men think to hide
themselves from God, by hiding God from themselves.--_Trapp._
Verse 10. A careless sinner shall not need to go far to _meet_ with
temptation. The first woman met with it almost as soon as she was
made, and who meets not everywhere with the woman
Temptation?--_Jermin._
Verse 14. Though I indulge in amours, do not think I am averse to the
worship of God; nay, I offer liberally to Him: He is now therefore
appeased, and will not mind venial offences.--_Cartwright._
It is of course possible that the worship of Israel had so
degenerated as to lose for the popular conscience all religious
significance; but the hypothesis stated above (see note at the
beginning of the chapter), affords a simpler explanation. She who
speaks is a foreigner who, under a show of conformity to the religion
of Israel, still retains her old notions, and a feast-day is nothing
to her but a time of self-indulgence, which she may invite another to
share with her. If we assume, as probable, that these harlots of
Jerusalem were mainly of Phœnician origin, the connection of their
worship with their sin would be but the continuation of their
original _cultus._--_Plumptre._
An awful portraiture of the mystery of iniquity. It is applicable
also to corrupt churches, especially to the spiritual harlot
described by St. John in the Apocalypse. She professes zeal for God's
house and service, while she is offending Him by heretical doctrine,
and insulting Him by the fascinations of idolatrous worship, with
which she beguiles unwary souls to commit spiritual fornication with
her. (See Rev. xvii. 1-5; xviii. 9.) As Bede says, following in the
steps of Basil and others: All the description which is here given is
true, in a literal sense, of the meretricious allurements of an
adulteress; but it is to be interpreted also spiritually. False
doctrine tricks herself out with the embellishments of worldly
rhetoric and spurious philosophy, and is ever lurking at the corners
of the streets, to allure and deceive the simple, and to caress them
with her embraces; and she makes religious professions. She has her
couch adorned with heathen embroidery, and yet sprinkles with the
odours of spiritual virtues; but Christ says of her in the
Apocalypse, "I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit
adultery with her into the great tribulation, except they repent of
their deeds" (Rev. ii. 22).--_Wordsworth._
_The immoral devotionist._ 1. The absurd conduct of those who indulge
in immorality, and think to compound with God for so doing, by paying
Him outward forms of worship. 2. All external observances vain and
useless unless they are accompanied with purity of heart, and real
goodness of life. True religion is an end, and all external
observances are only means leading to that end. (See Micah. vi. 5.)
Agreeably to this St. Paul assures us that the end of the Christian
revelation is to teach men to "live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world" (Titus ii. 12). And Christ assures us that no
ceremonious method of atonement without practical goodness will
entitle us to the rewards of Christianity (Matt. vii. 21). All duties
enjoined by God can be enjoined by Him only for the good they do us.
"Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise is profitable
to himself?" (Job xxii. 2). And in which way can we possibly conceive
how an immoral man can reap any benefit from the mere forms and
ceremonies of religion? Is there any reason to think that God will
accept this religious flattery instead of purity of life? No, rather
it is an aggravation of his crimes. (See Isa. i. 11.)--_N. Ball._
Verse 15. O how diligent is wickedness, thinking that thing never
done soon enough which is too soon done at any time! O how diligent a
helper is Satan of wickedness, administering all opportunities for
it! And, therefore, as the harlot seeketh diligently, so she findeth
readily. Which is the shame of religion in many that profess it, and
who are so slow in the performance of religious duties, as if they
were both servants and masters, and had the commandments of God at
their own command, to do them at their pleasure; which is a great
reason that they are so ill observed. But if they would use their own
diligence, they should find God much more diligent to give a blessing
to it.--_Jermin._
Verse 16. Her coverings of tapestry could not cover her naughtiness,
her carved work could not embellish her own deformed work, her white
Egyptian linen could not make white her black Egyptian
soul.--_Jermin._
Verse 17. This might have minded the young man that he was going to
his grave, for the bodies of the dead were so perfumed. Such a
meditation would much have rebated his edge--cooled his
courage.--_Trapp._
Verse 18. But what if death draw the curtains, and look in the while?
If death do not, yet guilt will.--_Trapp._
Verse 19. Instead of saying, "_My_ husband," she contemptuously calls
him "_the_ goodman," as though he were unconnected with
her.--_Fausset._
Man may not be at home, but God is always at home, whose house is the
world: man may be gone a far journey, but God's journey is at once to
be everywhere; His farthest off, to be present always. . . . She
talketh that the goodman was not at home, but the good woman was not
at home either; she saith that her husband was gone a far journey,
but she herself was gone much farther from her duty. If she had been
at home, to have heard her conscience the home reprover of
wickedness, the goodman, though not at home, had not been so much
wronged; if she had not gone far from her covenant, her husband,
though gone far, had still been near and present in her
heart.--_Jermin._
Our hearts must be guarded against the admission of sin by stronger
motives than the fear of detection and disgrace, for artful
solicitors to evil will easily baffle such restraints as these.
Joseph might have expected his master's favour by complying with the
wishes of his mistress, but the motive that induced him to decline
her company was irresistible,--"How can I do this great wickedness,
and sin against God?"--_Lawson._
Verse 22. He goeth to the slaughter when he thinketh he goeth to the
pasture; or as those oxen brought forth by Jupiter's priests, with
garlands unto the gates, but it was for a slain sacrifice (Acts
xiv. 13).--_Trapp._
The butcher's yard would show the meaning of this first similitude.
In every sort of way the ox may be coaxed, and apparently to no
purpose. But though he may stand, ox-like, like a rock, yet the
experienced herdman knows that he will suddenly start in. This is his
nature. One inch may cost a hurricane of blows; but at a dash, as the
butcher expects, he will suddenly rush in to his doom.--_Miller._
Verse 25. Cut off the beginnings of desire. The first trickling of
the crevasse is the manageable, and therefore, more culpable, period
of the difficulty.--_Miller._
Verse 26. As Solomon himself subsequently was (Neh. xiii. 26). So
Samson and David previously. It is better to learn by the awful
example of others than by our own suffering. Experience keeps a dear
school, but fools will learn in no other.--_Fausset._
The house of the harlot had been compared before to the grave, to the
world of the dead; now it is likened to a battle-field strewn with
the corpses of armed men. The word speaks rather of the multitude
than of the individual strength of those who have
perished.--_Plumptre._
In a figurative sense, some of the greatest teachers of Christendom
have been seduced by the allurements of heresy, and have been cast
down from their place in the firmament of the Church, like stars
falling from heaven.--_Wordsworth._
The valour of men hath oft been slaved by the wiles of a woman.
Witness many of your greatest martialists, who conquered countries,
and were vanquished of vices. The Persian kings commanded the whole
world, and were commanded by their concubines.--_Trapp._
The secret thought that one can saunter toward her house (verse 8),
and at any time turn back, is cruelly met by most discouraging
examples. The whole passage is the more impressive, if we consider it
as a warning against confidence in strength, and particularly grand,
if we mark the second clause. . . . All men are strong, and strong in
the most substantial sense. All men, saved, are princes (Rev. i. 6);
and they are offered the second place in God's kingdom (Isa. lxi. 7.)
All men are bone of Christ's bone; all men are born with a birthright
to be kings and priests, if they choose to be, and brothers of
Emmanuel.--_Miller._
* * * * * *