It is unjust and uncharitable to indulge suspicions against our neighbours, on the report of a liar, or even of common fame, which is generally a common lie.

Ver. 6. A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not; but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

A scorner may seek wisdom, but he never seeks it with right views, nor does he seek after that wisdom which best deserves the name. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the scorner seeks wisdom to gratify a curious fancy, to feed his pride, and to enable him, by the display of his wit, to make a figure. But he cannot find it, and the reason is plain : He has not a due value for the wisdom that comes from God, and he seeks it not with that earnestness and humility without which it cannot be found. He does not resign his understanding to the instructions of God, nor can his pride suffer him to receive with meekness the instructions and reproofs that give wisdom. The Greeks sought after wisdom, but Christ crucified was foolishness to them. They were already too wise to admit of the preaching of the cross, and scorned a tent-maker who would inform them of new doctrines, which had never entered into their own minds, and who would prove them by other methods than their own favourite ones,-eloquence and reasoning.

"But knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth." For he knows the inestimable worth of knowledge, and seeks for it as for silver. Conscious of his own ignorance, he thankfully improves the means of knowledge, and daily depends upon Jesus, the great Teacher, to open his heart for receiving it, Reproof, as a means of wisdom, is precious to him, and the knowledge which he already possesses fits him for making progress in it, for to him that hath shall be given.

Ver. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.

We must not willingly enter into the company of fools, but if, through ignorance of their character, we happen to do so, we must not stay in it, lest we be corrupted by their foolish conversation. We are either like them whose company we frequent, or shall soon be like them. Evil communications will efface our impressions of the evil of sin, and corrupt our own manners. Lukewarm persons, who are perhaps the least dangerous of bad companions, will, if we take pleasure in their company, transfuse their lukewarmness into us. Ephraim mixed with the people, and he soon became a cake not turned.

But when are we to leave the company of a foolish man ? As soon as we perceive that he has not the lips of knowledge. As trees are known by their fruit, so men are known by their words and works; but they are soonest known by their words, which are the most plentiful and the easiest products of the heart. We are not to suppose men to be fools without evidence, but profane or foolish words come from folly in the heart; for a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of his evil treasure, evil things,

Men may think themselves so steady in goodness, that they are in no danger of being corrupted by evil communications: but none are so ready to fall as those that think they stand. Let Peter be a witness, who on this ground ventured into temptation, and fell before it. But though we were secure against all danger to ourselves, our rashness might embolden weaker Christians to mingle with dangerous society, and so our practice prove a temptation to those for whom Christ died,

This commandment of God should strike terror

into the wicked. pany with them, and is it to be supposed that he will admit them to his own eternal fellowship? Either God or they must change, before they can be received into heaven *.

God will not allow us to keep com

Ver. 8. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way; but the folly of fools is deceit.

When men are acquainted with every thing but what they ought to know, they are only notable fools. If we had hearts large as the sand on the sea-shore, and filled with a world of things, whilst we remained ignorant of the way of attaining true happiness, we should resemble that philosopher who was busied gazing at the moon, till he fell into the ditch.

We are travellers to another world, and our wisdom lies in knowing the way that leads to the world of happiness. There is no way that will bring us to heaven but Christ; nor is any man wise to salvation who does not value the knowledge of a crucified Saviour above all other knowledge. We must endeavour to know the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God; to be acquainted with the difficulties of our way, and how to surmount them; to know the enemies that may be expected to oppose our progress, and in what manner to conquer them, and what refreshments may be met with in the way to animate our spirits in pursuing our journey.

It is a piece of necessary wisdom also, to acquaint ourselves with the business and duties of our own particular callings, that we may discharge them with honour and success. They are fools who know other people's business better than their own. Some people, if you will take their own word for it, could reign better than the king, and preach better than the minis

2 Cor. vi, 14.

ter. They know, in short, how to manage in every condition but their own. These are the busy-bodies and meddlers in other men's matters, who in scripture are condemned, and by their neighbours held in derision. That which they

"But the folly of fools is deceit.” call wit, the scripture calls folly. They mean to deceive others, but they deceive themselves worst by it. They may trick their neighbours out of their money, but they cheat themselves out of their souls.

All that wisdom of the serpent that is not reconcileable with the harmlessness of the dove, is folly; and every piece of deceit practised on our fellow-men, is a dangerous imposition on our own souls.

Ver. 9. Fools make a mock at sin; but among the righteous there is favour.

Foolish men make a sport of their own sins, when they ought to be humbled to the dust on account of them. Because they are not presently punished, they think that punishment shall never come, or, like brute beasts, they consider not what shall be hereafter. But if eternal burnings are a serious matter, sin that kindles them can be no just matter of indifference or sport.

Fools sport at the sins of others, which is far less human than to laugh at the fits of a man convulsed with agony, or the pains of one giving up the ghost. Sin is the sport of devils only, and those who make it a jest are devils clothed with flesh. Some of them are so like their father, that they will tempt men to sin that they may laugh at them. Such laughter will end in weeping and howling.

"But among the righteous there is favour." They have too much good-will to one another, and to all men, to make a sport at sin. They are affected with the sins of others, as a man would be if he were brought into

a lazar-house. A man of spiritual discernment perceives sin to be the most loathsome and dangerous of all distempers, and his eye affects his heart with tender compassion for their misery.

The righteous have a principle of charity, that disposes them to rejoice in the goodness and happiness of others as their own. Paul scarcely begins an epistle, without strong expressions of his joy in the prosperity of his fellow-Christians. This charity completed will multiply the blessedness of the heavenly state.

Ver. 10. The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.

The things of a man knoweth no man, but the spirit of a man that is in him. And a man's own tongue cannot express the bitterness of the griefs that he often feels, or the sweetness of the joy he experiences.

We must not be censorious of the griefs of others. There are some who do not express that grief which we think they ought to feel for their miscarriages, or the adversities with which they have met; but they perhaps grieve more than they appear to do. Sorrow may fill their hearts when they are alone, though company spreads cheerfulness over their countenances. God is the true judge of the measure of our repentance for sin, or our humiliation of spirit under his afflicting hand.

This observation should lead us to compassionate the sorrows of the afflicted. They have inward uneasiness that we cannot feel. Their griefs are frequently too strong for them to subdue, and when they would comfort themselves against sorrow, their hearts are faint within them. Job's friends would not have vexed him so much with their severe censures on his complaints, had they thoroughly weighed his griefs and calami*ties *.

*Job vi. 1, 2.