Japan. The frog in the well sees nothing of the high seas. Tamul.-Sounding the ocean with a jackal's tail. Russian. They will not see all the world by looking out of their own window. Prabodh Chandrody.-How can an answer be given to him who does not comprehend his own spirit, any more than it is possible to inform a blind man respecting the figure of his body? Bengal.-Many elephants cannot wade the river; the mosquito says it is only knee deep. Is. 45. 9. Persian.-The legs of those who require proofs of God's existence are made of wood. Telugu. We cannot see our own forehead, our ears, or our backs; neither can we know the hairs of our head ; if a man knows not himself how should he know the deity ? Sanskrit.-He who does not go forth and explore all the earth is a well frog. Arab. The man is strange-who seeking a lost animal, suffers his own soul to be lost-who ignorant of himselfseems to understand God-who doubts the existence of God when he sees his creatures. Hearers not Doers gazers in a Looking-glass. God has given us a mirror in which we may see the true character of our soul; we may thereby grow in selfknowledge, and may adorn ourselves, not with what ministers to pride and worldly vanity, but with the ornaments of meekness and holiness, which are of great price in God's sight. This mirror is his holy Word, which holds up to us the true lineaments and features of the soul, and shows us how greatly it has lost the beauty of the image and likeness of God, and how it is disgraced and deformed by spots and blemishes of sin. The swellings of pride, the lines of envy and care, the shades of sensuality, sloth, and earthliness appear too plainly, when we look into this faithful mirror, which is not like flattering friends who say smooth things to us, and sometimes puff us up with the notion that we are clothed with various graces; but it tells us the very truth concerning our spiritual state; and no veil of false excuses, or artful cloaking and colouring of our faults, will disguise from us our true state, if only we never neglect to consult this mirror in sincerity and with earnest prayer. IO. There is looking without helping, as the Levite did, Luke Hearers not doers are also compared to those leading captive silly women ever learning never coming to the truth, 2 Tim. 3. 7; or to those hearing a fine song, Ezek. 33. 32; children with rickets have large heads, but weak joints. God's word was designed as milk to enable persons to grow, I Pet. 2. 2. A fresh corpse can have the image of an object painted on the eye, but it reaches not to the heart. Some hearers are like a sponge which suck up everything, but all goes out again; others like a strainer letting go the good and retaining the bad; while some are like a sieve dropping the chaff and retaining the good grain. China. The doctrine that enters only into the eye and ear is like the repast one takes in a dream; Ez. 33. 32. China.-Better return home and make a net than go down the river and desire to get fishes. China.-To look at a plum is not to quench one's thirst. Bengal.-One man is being impaled, while the other counts the joints on the stake. Veman.-Let the sinner listen to holy texts he will not relinquish his vile nature: though you wash a coal in milk-will the blackness be removed? Veman.-Whatever he devoid of understanding may read, his virtue continues only so long as he is reading; even as a frog is dignified only so long as it is seated on a lotus leaf. Turk.-It is not in speaking continually of honey that sweetness comes into the mouth. Arab.-Experience is the looking-glass of the intellect. Urdu.—If the camel could see his hump, he would fall down and break his neck. China.-Without striking the flint there is not even smoke. Persian.-One pound of learning requires ten of common sense to apply it. Buddhagosha. A reciter of the law, but not a doer, is like a cowherd counting the cows of others. The Wild Goat on the Mountains protected, so the Righteous.-Ps. 104. 18. How safely does the wild goat rest on the side of the precipitous mountain, or climb the dizzy height, where man's brain would turn, and his feet would inevitably slip! How freely and fearlessly does she leap from rock to rock! Her eye is as true, and her foot as sure upon the steep and slippery crag, as on some beaten road! God has fitted her for "the high hills" on which he has appointed her to live, and has endued her with those faculties of the foot and of the eye, which enable her, even in the darkest night, to walk on rocks and precipices where man could not tread securely under the noonday light. The lesson taught is God's protecting providence, which tempers the wind to the shorn lamb; it is like Jacob's ladder, extending from heaven to earth, though God's way to us may be in the sea, Is. 43. 16-i.e., leaving no track. God's acts are like clouds, which though black have the rainbow of hope from Christ the Sun of Righteousness, or like wheels of quick and easy motion, which, though wheel within wheel, are regulated by the main wheel. The Tongue an Helm.-JAS. 3. 2-5. We are told to keep the door of our lips; the tongue is little like a helm, or a bit in a horse's mouth, yet it guides. Sennacherib's tongue brought death on 185,000 soldiers, 2 Kings 18. 28; so Ananias and Sapphira's tongue brought death, Acts 5. 8-10. Bengal. His tongue is a sweeper's shovel. Solomon.-A soft tongue breaketh the bone ; a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. Telugu.-If your foot slip you may recover your balance, but if your mouth slips you cannot recall your words. Providence as a Hen sheltering her Chickens. MAT. 23. 27. A hen, on seeing the hawk that is hovering over her young, hastens forward to meet her frightened brood.. Fearless in that defence she places herself in front of the danger. She gathers her chickens under her wings. Not one of them is denied admission to that hiding-place, which they all so fondly seek, under a sense of their own utter helplessness. Christ had previously called the Pharisees the Gurus (teachers) of that day-hypocrites, blind guides, serpents; in this text all is love to the people of Jerusalem, 700,000 in number. Man is more inconsiderate than animals, than an ox or ass, Is. I. 3. 1. A hen is very compassionate to her young; so Christ wept over Jerusalem, Mat. 23. 13. The hen even flies at a dog approaching to her young; so Christ resisted the devil, Mat. 4. 6, 8. 2. A hen becomes weak from nourishing her young; so Christ sweat great drops of blood, Mat. 26. 30; he bore the heavy cross, Luke 23. 14. 3. A hen clucks to warn her young of danger; so God pleads-why will you die? Ez. 14.6. God 4. A hen's wings receive her young, Ps. 91. 3. says, I have spread out my hands, Is. 65. 2, come to me all that labour, Mat. II. 28, 29. A hen scratches to get meat for her young; she fasts herself to give meat to them; so God says, Ho every one that thirsts. Is. 55. I. A hen soon forgets her young when grown. Not so God. sucking child? Is. 49. 15. spite of herself, God's people never perish, John 10. 28. Can a woman forget her A hen loses her young in Telugu. Will he who planted the tree not water it? Luke 12. 24. Persian. The provider of food (God) gives to daily food wings in order to come. Honesty.-ROM. 13. 13. Christ gave the golden rule, Mat. 7. 12. Bengal. The thief and the hog have one path. He that builds his house with other men's money Hospitality.-ROM. 12. 13. Justus was hospitable to Paul, Acts 18. 7. Badaga. He does not ask his friend to go away, but he makes such a smoke in the house that his friend is obliged to leave. Telugu.-A kind reception is better than a feast. Who are God's Jewels.-MAL. 3. 16, 17. Jewels are much valued in every country; hence the New Jerusalem's gates are represented as made of pearls, Rev. 21. 21. The jewels on the High Priest's breastplate symbolized the twelve tribes as dear to him. An K |