Verse 15. Desire after forbidden enjoyments naturally springs from dissatisfaction with the blessings already in possession. Where contentment is not found at home it will be sought for, however vainly, abroad. Conjugal love is chief among the earthly gifts in mercy granted by God to His fallen creatures. . . . Whatsoever interrupts the strictest harmony in this delicate relationship, opens the door to temptation. Tender domestic affection is the best defence against the vagrant desires of unlawful passion.--_Bridges._ Do not steal water from others. Although the strange woman saith, "Stolen waters are sweet," yet remember that the dead are there (ch. ix. 17, 18). The wife is called a vessel in 1 Pet. iii. 7. These words also have been expounded by ancient interpreters in a spiritual sense, which may well be present to the reader's mind; and they have been applied to the pure waters of Divine wisdom, a sense which is suggested by Jer. ii. 13.--_Wordsworth._ If God had laid all common, certainly Man would have been th' incloser: but since now God hath impaled us, on the contrary, Man breaks the fence, and every ground will plough. O what were man, might he himself misplace! Sure to be cross he would shift feet and face.--_George Herbert._ +Spiritual Self-helpfulness.--I. Man has independent spiritual resources.+ He has a "cistern," a "well" of his own. First: He has independent resources of thought. Every sane man can and does think for himself. Thoughts well up in every soul, voluntarily and involuntarily. Secondly: He has independent resources of experience. No two have exactly the same experience. Thirdly: He has independent powers of usefulness. Every man has a power to do a something which no other can--to touch some soul with an effectiveness which no other can. Wonderful is this well within--inexhaustible and ever active. +II. Man is bound to use these resources.+ "Drink waters out of thine own cistern;" do not live on others. Self-drawing--First: Honours our own nature. Secondly: Increases our own resources. Self-helpfulness strengthens. The more you draw from this cistern the more comes. Thirdly: Contributes to the good of the universe. The man who gives only what he has borrowed from others adds nothing to the common stock. The subject--First: Indicates the kind of service one man can spiritually render another. To priest, rabbi, sectary, I would say--Man does not require your well; he has a cistern within. What he wants is the warm gospel of love to thaw his frozen nature, and to unseal the exhaustless fountain within, to remove all obstructions from its out-flow, and to make it as pure as the crystal. The subject--Secondly: Suggests an effective method to sap the foundation of all priestly assumptions. Let every man become self-helpful, and the influence of those who arrogate a lordship over the faith of others will soon die out. The subject--Thirdly: Presents a motive for