+II. The Contrasts.+ 1. _In the character of the inviters._ In the one case they are "maidens," emblematical (as we saw in considering the first feast) of purity; in the other she who invites is evidently a bold and wanton woman, identical with the one described in chapters v. and vii. (compare v. 6, vii. 11, 12, with verses 13, 14). Each one who invites is an embodiment of the principles ruling in the house to which she invites; each one sets forth in her own deportment what will be the result of accepting the respective invitations. So that, although the words used may be similar, the simple might be warned from the difference in aspect and demeanour of those who use them. 2. _In the place to which the simple are invited._ "In the former case," says Zöckler, "it is to a splendid palace with its columns, to a holy temple of God; in the latter to a common house, a harlot's abode, built over an entrance to the abyss of hell." The first invitation is to the abode of a righteous king, where law, and order, and peace reign; the second is to an abode of lawlessness and self-seeking, and consequently of incessant strife and misery. Those who dwell in the first are ever magnifying the favour by which they were permitted to enter; the inhabitants of the latter are eternally cursing those by whose persuasions their feet were turned into the path which leads to death. 3. _Wisdom invites to what is her own; Folly invites to that which belongs to another._ Wisdom hath killed _her_ beasts and mingled _her_ wine; she cries, "Come, and eat of _my_ bread" (verses 2, 5). Folly saith to her victim, "stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant" (verse 17). The first is therefore a lawful meal: its dainties may be enjoyed with a full sense that there is no wrong done to oneself, or to any other creature in the universe, by participating in it. It may be eaten publicly; there is no reason for concealment--no sense of shame. But the guests of Folly are all wronging themselves, and wronging God, and wronging their fellow-men by sitting down at her table. And they feel that it is so even when the waters taste the sweetest, and the bread the most pleasant. Hence their banquet is a secret one, "for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret" (Ephes. v. 12). Hence they "love darkness rather than light;" they "hate the light, lest their deeds should be reproved" (John iii. 20, 21). 4. _The contrast in the results._ There are poisonous fruits which are pleasant to the taste, but which lead to sickness and death. And there are bitter herbs which are not palatable, but which bring healing to the frame. Some of Wisdom's dishes are seasoned with reproof and rebuke (verse 8), but the outcome of listening to her call is an increase of wisdom and a lengthening of days and years (verses 9-11). The feast of Folly is sweetened with "flattery" (chap. ii. 16, vii. 21). The lips of the tempter "drop as an honey-comb" (chap. v.