Then, as now, the debasement of the standard of life among the ruling classes was a far more threatening symptom of danger to the commonwealth than laxity of principle among the masses, who had never enjoyed the higher knowledge and more thorough training which wealth and rank, as a matter of course, confer. If the crew turn drunken and mutinous, the ship is in unquestionable peril; but if they who have the guidance of the vessel in their hands, follow the vices of those whom they should command and control, wreck and ruin are assured. The profligacy allowed by heathenism, against which the prophets cried in vain, is forcibly depicted in the words: _Why should I pardon thee? Thy sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by them that are no gods: though I had bound them_ (to Me) _by oath,[27] they committed_ (spiritual) _adultery, and into the house of the Fornicatress_ (the idol's temple, where the harlot priestess sat for hire) _they would flock. Stallions roaming at large were they; neighing each to his neighbour's wife. Shall I not punish such offences, saith Iahvah; and shall not My soul avenge herself on such a nation as this?_ The cynical contempt of justice, the fraud and violence of those who were in haste to become rich, are set forth in the following: _Among My people are found godless men; one watcheth, as birdcatchers lurk; they have set the trap, they catch men. Like a cage filled with birds, so are their houses filled with fraud: therefore they are become great, and have amassed wealth. They are become fat, they are sleek; also they pass over_ (Isa. xl. 27) _cases_ (Ex. xxii. 9, xxiv. 14; cf. also 1 Sam. x. 2) _of wickedness--neglect to judge heinous crimes; the cause they judge not, the cause of the fatherless, to make it succeed; and the right of the needy they vindicate not_ (v. 26-28).