A man's self is not that which he is for a short time and space, but that which he is for continuance, indeed for an endless continuance. And therefore that which we are in this life is not ourselves, but that which we shall be, that is ourselves. So that whosoever is wise for that time is wise for himself, and for that time we shall be wise if we be made so by the instruction of Eternal Wisdom.--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-18.
That which strikes one upon reading this description is the analogy and the contrast which it presents to the feast of Wisdom. +I. Its analogies.+ 1. _Both appeal to elements in the nature of man._ Man is a compound, a complex being. He possesses a moral nature, a conscience, which can be satisfied only with moral truth and goodness, to which Wisdom appeals with her wine and bread of God's revelation, and whose cravings they alone are able to appease. And he has sinful inclinations and passions which hanker after forbidden things, to which Folly appeals when she sets forth the attractions of her "stolen waters" and her "bread eaten in secret" (verse 17). God's wisdom and love are shown in appealing to the first, and Satan's cunning and malice are manifested in the adaptation of his appeal to the second. 2. _Both invite the same kind of character,_ viz., the "_simple,_" the inexperienced, those who have not tasted the sweets of godly living, yet "know not" from experience that the "dead" are in the house of Folly, that "her guests are in the depths of hell" (verse 18). Two potters may be desirous of possessing the same lump of clay in order to fashion it each one after his own desire. It is now a shapeless mass, but they know its yielding and pliable nature renders it capable of assuming any form, of taking any impress, which they may please to impart to it. The inexperienced in the experimental knowledge of good and evil are very much like potter's clay; and here Wisdom and Folly, God and the devil, holiness and sin, stand side by side bidding for the clay, the one desiring to fashion out of it a "vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use" (2 Tim. ii. 21), and the other anxious to make it a "vessel of wrath fitted to destruction" (Rom. ix. 22). 3. _Both invite to the feasts through those who possess powers of persuasion._ Though in the first Wisdom herself does not go forth, but sends her maidens, and in the second the woman herself goes out into the streets, yet they both belong to the sex which is, by common consent, allowed to be most skilled in the art of persuasion. History is full of instances of their power to influence for good and evil. There have been many Lady Macbeths, both in public and private life, and many "handmaidens of the Lord" whose influence has been as mighty on the side of good. Both Wisdom and Folly possess ambassadors whose persuasive powers are mighty. 4. _They utter their invitations in the same places._ Wisdom "crieth upon the high places of the city" (ver. 3). Folly "sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city" (ver. 14). They both give invitations where they are most likely to obtain guests. In the places where many congregate are found the greatest variety of characters and those who have the most varied wants, and as in such places those who have wares of any kind to sell are sure of finding some to purchase, so the ambassadors of Divine wisdom and the emissaries of evil are certain, where the multitudes are gathered together to find some to listen to their respective voices. 5. _Both use the same words of invitation, and offer the same inducements._ A feast is promised in both cases, _i.e.,_ both inviters promise satisfaction--enjoyment--to their guests. If a man coins bad money he must make it look as near as possible like the gold or he would not get anyone to accept it. It is only afterwards that his dupe finds that it lacks the ring of real gold. So the tempter to evil must make the advantages he professes to dispense look as much like real good as he possibly can. The false friend will often-times adopt the phraseology of the true, and will never be wanting in arguments to win his victim. The incarnate wisdom of God reminded His disciples that they might, in this respect and in others, learn something from the "children of this world," who, in some matters, "are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke xvi. 8). 6. _Both make the invitation wide and free._ "Whoso" is the word used by both. The kingdom of darkness, as well as the kingdom of light, is willing to gather of "every kind" (Matt. xiii. 47). The only condition is "Enter in and partake of the banquet prepared."