Our Lord draws no such pictures as these in the book of Proverbs; they have their value; it is necessary to warn young men against the seductions which the vices of other men have created in woman's form; but He prefers always to go to the root of the matter; He speaks to men themselves; He bids them restrain the wandering eye, and keep pure the fountains of the heart. To that censorious Wisdom which judges without any perception that woman is more sinned against than sinning He would oppose His severe command to be rid of the beam in one's own eye, before making an attempt to remove the mote from another's. It is in this way that He in so many varied fields of thought and action has turned a half truth into a whole truth by going a little deeper, and unveiling the secrets of the heart; and in this way He has enabled us to use the half truth, setting it in its right relation to the whole.[154] FOOTNOTES: [134] _Cf._ for this contrast between the two xxiii. 26-28, where Wisdom speaks, and expressly warns against her rival. [135] The arrangement of the house is that of an open courtyard, surrounded with apartments, the general roof supported on the pillars thus. [Illustration] [136] Prov. vii. 14. [137] Prov. ix. 5. [138] Matt. xxii. 1, _et seq._ [139] Prov. ix. 6. [140] Prov. ix. 7. [141] Prov. xxiii. 9. [142] Prov. xiii. 1. [143] Prov. xiv. 6. [144] Prov. xv. 12. [145] Prov. xix. 25. [146] Prov. xxiv. 9. [147] Prov. xxii. 10. [148] Matt. vii. 6. [149] Prov. ix. 9. _Cf._ xviii. 15, "The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge." [150] Prov. ix. 10. [151] Matt. xii. 43. [152] See John viii. 1 _et seq._ [153] Milton, _Paradise Lost_, xi. 650 etc. [154] The fuller teaching of the book on the subject of Woman will be found in Lect. XXXI. X. _WEALTH._ "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: But righteousness delivereth from death."--PROV. x. 2. "O'erweening statesmen have full long relied On fleets and armies and external wealth; But from _within_ proceeds a Nation's health." WORDSWORTH.