+VII. The different characters with whom Wisdom's servants meet in giving her invitation.+ They meet with the wise and just man (ver. 9), and with the wicked, who are again classified as the _simple_ (ver. 4), and the _scorners_ (ver. 7). There is often a great difference in things of the same class and kind. All the fruit upon a tree may be bad, but all may not be equally bad. So among sinners are men of different degrees of sinfulness. There are the _simple_--those who are merely heedless of Divine teachings through a culpable ignorance and thoughtlessness, there are men so bad that they _scorn_ all God's invitations and set at nought His threatenings. This character is held up in Scripture as having reached the climax of iniquity, (See Homiletics on chap. i. 22.) The just man (ver. 9), is here synonymous with the wise man. He only is a wise man who has a worthy end which he sets himself to attain, and who uses the best means to attain that end. Hence the good or just man is the only truly wise man. He lays hold of all the means within his reach to increase his godliness, to get power to enable him to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk with God, and thus shows himself to be a member of the kingdom of the good which is the kingdom of the wise. He must be a _just_ man, one who is upright in all his relations in life, one who will not knowingly leave undone his duty to his fellow-men. A man who is right in his relations towards God will not fail in his relations towards men. Simeon was a _devout_ man, therefore he was a _just_ man (Luke ii. 25), so was Cornelius (Acts x. 2, 22). But these wise men are not all equally wise, and none are so wise that they cannot increase in wisdom, and therefore Wisdom sends forth her invitations to all to the wise and just men as well as to the simple and the scorner.