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Bengal. The rain never streams up the thatch.

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Bengal. The milk once drawn never enters the cow's dug

again.

Afghan. My father died and his fever ended—i.e., death settles all accounts.

The Beginning of Strife, the Letting out of Water.
PROV. 17. 14.

A narrow channel cut in a dam will soon enlarge itself and make a wide breach. So with strife. The strife between the herdsmen led to the separation of Abraham and Lot, Gen. 13. 5; Paul and Barnabas separated, Acts 15. 39. Daniel, dreading the beginning of sin, would not take even the king's meat, Dan. 1. 8-16. They felt that sin was first thin like a spider's web, but soon becomes thick like a cart rope.

Urdu.-Let him touch your finger he will soon seize your wrist. So Solomon, 2 Kings 23. 13; Peter, Mat. 26. 34, 58, 64.

Tamul.-Will the flood that has burst the dam return to it at one's cry ?

Persian. The tree that has just taken root may be pulled up by the strength of a man.

Veman. If there be one dry tree in a forest, it will produce flame by friction and sweep away the rest; thus if a base wretch be born in a noble race, he will destroy it all.

Bengal.-Going in a needle, coming out a ploughshare. Bengal.-One drop of filth from a cow will spoil a vessel

of milk.

Chanak.-To pay off debts, quench a fire, and remove disease is good, for should they increase, they will not be stopped.

Italian.-If thou suffer a calf to be put on you, they will soon put on the cow.

Spaniard.-Give me to sit down, I shall soon make a place to lie down.

Tamul.-Where there are dogs there is quarrelling.
Servian.-Out of one quarrel one hundred sins.

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The Dead as Water spilled upon the Ground.

2 SAM. 14. 14.

The dead return no more to this world; they are as: water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again, like Pharaoh and his host which went to the bottom of the Red Sea (Ex. 15. 10), or David when he lost his child, and stopped weeping, saying-I shall go to him but he shall not return to me, 2 Sam. 12. 23; Job 14. 1-21.

Solomon uses a similar emblem of the tree fallen rising no more, Eccl. II. 3. The sound of the woodman's axe gives note that some giant of the forest is about to fall: soon the crashing boughs tell plainly that the work is done, and the pride of the summer foliage is brought down to the ground. A gap is made in the screen of wood, and the eye can now wander over the soft meadows, and the distant village, that were hid before. The fallen tree lies in the direction in which it fell. While it still flourished in its pride and glory, the direction as well as the period of its fall was uncertain. It was possible that it might fall toward the north, or toward the south: nor was there any reason why it should not enjoy the sunshine and the rain through many a verdant summer. But the word was given that the axe should be laid unto its root; and now the direction in which it should fall is no more a question. It is a fixed and unalterable fact. Theperiod during which one or the other direction could have been given to its fall is past and gone for ever. So the stroke of death fixes the direction and the character of our future state of being,

Malabar.-Can you draw out the water that has been absorbed by a piece of iron?

Japan.-A fallen blossom does not return to the twig. Gujerat.-The deed is forgotten, but not what is written. Tamul.-If rice be spilled it may be picked up, but can

water?

Gujerat.-Drowning yourself the world is drowned.

China. The roots of an old tree in the earth you may find; But a dead man is fully cut off from his kind. Badage. As long as you hold it in your hand it is a vessel, fling it on the ground you have only useless pieces.

The Wicked pass away as a Whirlwind.-PROV. 10. 25. In eastern countries so rapid and impetuous sometimes is the whirlwind, that it is in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, though running a mile in two minutes, or the fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry the traveller out of danger. Torrents of burning sand roll before it, the firmament is enveloped in a thick veil, and the sun appears of the colour of blood. In the frightful deserts of Senaar is pointed out a spot among some sandy hillocks, where the ground seemed to be more elevated than the rest, where one of the largest caravans which ever came out of Egypt, to the number of several thousand camels, was covered with sand, and every one perished.

The destruction of Sennacherib's army was probably effected under the direction of an angel by the blast of the hot pestilential south wind blowing from the deserts of Lybia, called the simoom. Sennacherib and his immense army had come like a whirlwind, threatening to bear down all before them, but they quickly vanished; 185,000 Assyrians being destroyed in one night, 2 Kings 19. 35. The world of the ungodly perished by the flood, Gen. 7. 21. In one day 23,000 Israelites who had joined Baal-peor, were killed, Numb. 25. 4.

Afghan.-Priority is good in all things but death. Sinners often die in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole. The life of the wicked like a whirlwind rises suddenly, Acts 2. 2. Jonah's ship was caught in a whirlwind, Jon. I. 4; it is very swift, hence said to have wings, 2 Sam. 22. 14; very destructive, 1 Kings 19. 11 ; yet God

who holds the winds in his fists, Pro. 30. 4, made a whirlwind to serve as Elijah's chariot to heaven, 2 Kings

2. II.

Canara. When the washerman's corpse is brought out, his secrets may be discovered-i.e., in the clothes he has stolen, Is. 15. 4.

Veman.-How long does the ball retain its elevation ? Afghan. When the knife is over a man's head, he remembers God.

Hebrew. The hope of the ungodly is like dust (thistledown), that is blown away with the wind: like a thin froth that is driven away with the storm; like as the smoke which is dispersed here and there with a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day. What wicked army passed away as a whirlwind?

The Worm of Conscience.-MARK 9. 48.
Conscience compared to a worm in three points.

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1. Sprung from filth; earth is a dunghill; 2. produce death by gnawing the internals, so Herod was eaten up of worms; 3. source of great pain, Acts 12. 23; 4. medicine, required, otherwise no internal cure.

Conscience is compared to a candle; such Joseph's brethren found it; Gen. 42. 21, 44. 16; Pharaoh, Ex. 9. 27, 10. 17; Saul, 1 Sam. 24; Herod, Mark 6. 26; Judas, Matt. 27. 4; Felix, Acts 24. 25. It is called a witness, Rom. 1. 9, as Cain's wounded spirit led him to wander as a vagabond.

Bengal.-No sin is hidden to the soul: only strike the ground, and the guilty start up in terror. Russian.-The horse may run quick, but he cannot run away from his tail.

China.-Men who never violate their consciences are not afraid if you knock at their door at midnight. Telugu. When the thief, who stole the pumpkin, was spoken of, he felt his shoulders-i.e., thinking some mark might have been left there.

Arab.-The worms of the vinegar are from the vinegar itself-i.e., family disagreements are from the family itself.

Tamul.-To a gloomy eye all obscure things are demons.

Man a Worm-JOB 25. 5, 6.

(Man like a worm in five points.)

The Shanti Shatak compares the wicked to dogs who delight in swallowing human bones filled with worms and moisture, eagerly licking the putrid juice as if it were palatable. Man is compared in the Bible to earth, dust, grass, a lie, vanity, in this text to a worm.

The butterfly spreads its wings, and the sun shines upon its plumes! The wisdom of the Creator has adorned it with beautiful lines, and painted it with glorious colours! It flies about and finds the plant which is proper to feed its brood of caterpillars; and there it lays its eggs to be hatched by the sun. In its infant state it crawls about as a helpless worm, and feeds upon green leaves. Then it folds itself up in a case like a coffin, where it lies, as it were, asleep, till the time of its change when it breaks this covering, it comes forth with wings and feathers like painted birds, to fly about the air, and the dew of the fields and meadows, and visit every sweet and pleasant flower. The white ant in India also has its change when it gets wings.

:

We are now upon this earth.

like the infant worms crawling about

But if we go on in the ways of God we shall at length be changed from a worm into an angel. But first we must be shut up in the grave, and hide ourselves in the state of death till the resurrection. Then we shall be raised to life and liberty, and put on a spiritual body, and be able to visit and enjoy all the wonders of God's works, such as poor helpless mortals cannot now see or understand. O let us not forfeit this

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