Verse 5. It is evident, however, that the language implies, If, with all your efforts, you are unsuccessful in obtaining your discharge you must stand to your engagement. Treachery would be a much greater loss in character.--_Wardlaw._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-11. INDUSTRY AND INDOLENCE. A contrast. +I. The industrious insect.+ 1. _Nature is intended to be a moral teacher to man._ The most saintly natures of ancient and modern times have regarded God's works in this light, and God Himself has led the van in so often pointing man to animate and inanimate Nature for instruction and comfort. He first announced this truth when He said to Noah, "I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a token of a covenant between Me and the earth" (Gen. ix. 13). This is the first record of the enlistment of Nature as a helper to the human soul, the first recorded instance of God's pointing out to man what He intended all natural objects to become to his spiritual nature. Here the son of Solomon is exhorted to gain instruction--to be stirred up to a sense of duty--from a study of one of God's inferior creatures. _2. Nature becomes the instructor of those only who consider her ways._ The existence, within a man's reach, of the most beautiful painting in the world will be of no advantage to him unless he studies it. It is only as he _considers_ it that it will convey to him the thought of the painter. The works of God are within the reach of men, but they must be looked at and _considered_ if they are to be to him what God intended them to be. God placed the bow in the cloud and the tiny ant upon the ground to be subjects of meditation. The Psalmist _considered_ the heavens before he was moved with a sense of his own littleness and God's majesty (Psalm viii.). Solomon's precept is, "Consider the ant." 3. _The lessons which are to be learned from the study of the ant._ Industry, improvement of opportunities, and individual action. The amount of work done by this insignificant insect ought to be enough to shame an indolent man into activity. Her care in embracing present opportunities is a loud rebuke to those who would put off until to-morrow what, perhaps, can only be done to-day. She says, by her diligent use of present hours, "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work" (John ix. 4). Especially her individual effort is held up as worthy of imitation (ver. 7). While some men wait for another to take the initiative, to clear the path for them, she puts forth her own individual effort without guide, overseer, or ruler. Each man must do his own work in the world, each one has responsibilities of his own which will not admit of being discharged by proxy. He must find out his individual duty, and not try to shift the burden upon the shoulders of another, or wait for another to go before him in the way.