goodness; Job repented in dust and ashes, Job 42.6; so Peter took off his coat at first through zeal, but finally waits to put off his tabernacle, 2 Pet. 1. 14; so Paul at first calls himself the least of the Apostles, next less than the least of all saints, finally chief of sinners. 7. Ripening becomes weighty; the believer, a father in grace, has a zeal and love with a steadier flame; his graces are complete; hope with joy makes not ashamed. 8. Ripening corn becomes gradually looser, less need of the earth, so Paul learned to be in all things content; the worldling is attached to a shadow, but Paul thinks the world only dung. 9. Ripening easily distinguished from tares by the smell and fruit; the righteous bring forth fruit in old age, Ps. 92. 15; tares are then distinguished from wheat. 10. Ripened corn more susceptible of injury, as showers or wind may lay it level, so Jacob on his bed said, My soul, come not thou into their secret, Gen. 49. 6; David wished for wings like a dove to flee away. II. Ripened corn apt to fall of its own accord, so Paul wished to depart. The righteous seek a heavenly country, Heb. II. 16; hence no tears for them, Rev. 7. 14; they are clad in white robes. Turk.-Weep not over the dead but over the fool. Canara.-An old man may have a youthful heart; a poor man may have a noble inclination. Canara.-Nothing like newness in clothes, like age in men. Oriental.-A good old man is like old wine which has deposited its lees. Arab. The remembrance of youth is a matter of sighing; the remembrance of death refreshes the heart. Raghuvansa.-The men of feeble mind think the death of a friend a thorn fixed within the heart, whereas the wise men look on it as extracted-for death is the gate to happiness. Raghuvansa.-The king performed the obsequies for his deceased wife, of whom nothing, except her virtue, was left. Charity covers a Multitude of Sins.-PROV. 10. 12. Love pours water not oil on the flame, so with a conciliatory demeanour; love has a large mantle to hide faults; so with Christ and his disciples, Mat. 26. 31, 41; John 20. 25-27. Talmud.-To love a thing makes the eye blind, the ear deaf. Arab.--Love is the companion of blindness. Let the Dead bury their Dead.-MAT. 8. 22. One of Christ's disciples asked him leave of absence to go and bury his father. He replied, Your business is to preach my religion, and let those who are dead to God attend to burying the dead. A man in England, who lived to the age of 84, but was converted when 80 years old, had the inscription on his tomb:-" Died, aged 4 years,"-i.c., he reckoned that he was only really alive. when he served God. To be carnally minded is death, saith St. Paul, Rom. 8. 6; and the poor Prodigal son in the parable, having lived in that state of mind till his conversion, the father says of him: "This thy brother was dead, and is alive again," Luke 15. 24. Man has a soul and body, each of which dies in its own way; and so either of them may be alive while the other is dead. There is a sense in which Adam died on the day when he sinned; and there is another sense in which Adam lived 930 years. Adam delivered down a natural life to all us that are born of him; but the only inheritance he could leave to our spirits was that death to which he was fallen. It is this death of the spirit which makes it necessary for every man to be born again. There are multitudes of people who seem to live but are no better than dead; they are unburied dead; in them no sight, no sense of spiritual things, no appetite, no affection for them. We may preach to them all day long, and do no more good by it than if we were to preach to a man in his coffin. If we were to cry into their ears, or blow a trumpet to give them warning of the fire of judgment, and of eternal damnation, they would hear nothing. If we offer to them the bread of life, they want it not; for a dead man hath no appetite. Were the souls of men as visible as their bodies, we should see as much difference betwixt devout believers and the children of the world as between a living, healthy body and a corpse. They are twice dead, as Jude 12 saith, dead once by nature and dead again unto grace. The pleasures of this world will extinguish the life of a believer; she that liveth unto this world is dead while she liveth, 1 Tim. 5. 6. All heavenly affections will die. On the other hand Abel while dead yet spoke-i.e., by his works. Sanskrit.-A man of evil repute is, though living, as one dead. China-Let the dead care for the dead, the living for the living; i.e., in reference to excessive sorrow for the dead. Kural.-He lives whose life in love is led : Another reckons with the dead. Arab.-A benefactor is alive though removed to the mansions of the dead, Heb. II. 4. The wicked is dead though in the mansions of the living. Persian.-Whose soul is alive, his sensual desires are dead. Syriac.-Seek death to obtain life. Persian.-When I am dead the world is dead. The Congregation of the Dead and the Fool. Eight marks of fools. 1. Understand not who will show them any good, Ps. 4. 6; prefer corn to peace; beasts in man's form. 2. Hurt themselves; run into a hornet's nest, play with serpents; harbour a thief in the house. 3. Strive with one stronger; so the potsherd with its maker, Ps. 2. 9. God has even frogs, worms, and everything at his disposal. 4. Take brass for gold; so the mean things of earth for heaven, Phil. 3. 8. 5. Feed on ashes, among swine, Is. 44, 20, Luke 15. 16; so the Prodigal son; he labours for the wind, Ecc. 5. 15. 6. Sow when they should reap. pentance. 7. Delight in mischief, Ps. 28. 3. So a death-bed re 8. To save their hat lose their head. Chanak. In the dusk we lose our way, and a fallen woman is like a corpse. Syrian.-Seek death to obtain life—i.e., kill passion to save your soul. Syriac.-Put not a candle before a wall-i.e., by teaching a fool. Turk.-The fool is a cock which sings at the wrong time. Turk.-Making a fool understand is like making a camel' leap a ditch. Drunkenness.-EPH. 5. 18. Exemplified in Noah, Gen. 9. 21; Belshazzar, Dan. 5. 4; Nineveh, Nah. 1. 10. Finnish. The anvil proves the iron, the drink the man. Turk.-Vagabonds are at home in the drinking-shop. Russian.-A drunkard's money is in his hand but goes through his fingers. I Russian.-Drink one day, a headache the whole week. Riches have Wings like an Eagle.-PROV. 23. 5. The eagle is the king of birds; he has long wings; he can carry off a sheep in his talons, and fly high above the storms and lightning. Wings mark speed; hence the expression, wings of the wind, Ps. 104. 3. Ships are said to have wings, Is. 18. I-i.e., their sails. The four wings of riches are, water, fire, debts, thieves. If Nebuchadnezzar be in the palace among his nobles anon, he is soon in the park among the beasts. Adonijah was one day on the throne, on another seeking refuge for his life at the horns of the altar. Zedekiah, on Jerusalem being taken, saw his sons slain before his eyes, then his own eyes being put out, he was bound in fetters and sent to Babylon. Haman had great wealth, yet in one day he was hung on a gallows sixty feet high, and thus his riches fled. Josiah goes forth to battle, and is slain. Ahab goes forth against the Assyrians, and is slain also. Judas got thirty pieces of silver for betraying Christ, but he went out and hanged himself. Arab.-Riches diminish in the using, wisdom increases by use. Turk.-Every ascent has a descent. Afghan.-Wealth is a Hindoo's beard-i.e., uncertain. The Hindoos shave when in mourning, which often occurs, as the family connexions are numerous. Telugu.-Worldly prosperity is like writing on water. Telugu.-Riches flourish, like the charms of women, for a season, but rapidly fade away; as moonlight dies when a cloud passes over the sky. Bengal.-Riches are like a tree on a river bank. Bengal. The boat is now carried on the cart, and the cart on the boat. Hindi.-Fleeting as the sunshine of noon. Mahamudgar-Boast not of wealth, family, youth; fortune takes them all away in the twinkling of an eye. |