In Scripture and that Oriental speech framed to be its vehicle, narrow examples stand often for a universal class. "Honour thy father and mother," means--obey all superiors. "Thou shalt not steal," means--keep clear of every fraud. In those patriarchal countries, obedience to a father was the finest model of subordination. . . . Let the child take the first and obvious meaning; let the man look deeper. The earlier principles having been settled, the Proverbs have begun with a grand practical direction--that we are to listen to our teachers; that we are to begin at our firesides, and obey all the way up to God.--_Miller._ Verse 9. The instruction and discipline of wisdom do at first seem difficult and hard, and are like fetters of iron restraining the corruption and rebellion of nature; but at length they are like chains of gold, worn like ornaments and no burden at all.--_Jermin._ Nothing so beautifies as grace doth. Moses and Joseph were "fair to God," (Acts vii. 20) and favoured of all men.--_Trapp._ As Christ prays, "Hallowed be thy name," as his first petition, so Solomon put first in his promises mere beauty, the mere prize of being right. The best thing in being pious is the mere comeliness of piety.--_Miller._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-19. ENTICEMENT TO SIN AND EXHORTATION AGAINST YIELDING TO IT. +I. Youth will certainly be tempted.+ 1. _Because he is in an evil world._ In this world everything that possesses life is in danger of losing it. The tree is liable to have its root eaten by the worm, the smaller creatures in the animal world are beset with danger from those above them in size and strength, the fish in the sea is ever in danger of the hook and the net, the bird of the fowler's snare, the forest king of the hunter's gun. Man, in respect to his mere bodily existence, is surrounded by influences antagonistic to the preservation of his animal life. And this danger often presents itself in the form of _enticement_. The crumbs lure the bird into the trap, the bait tempts the fish to bite the hook. A smooth sea and light sunshine in the morning tempts the fisherman to the voyage upon the treacherous deep, which becomes his grave in the evening. Moral life is not excepted from this rule. Wherever the youth finds himself in the world he will be tempted, because he is everywhere surrounded by influences which war against his soul life. 2. _Because it is an ordination of God._ The Divine Ruler has ordained that men shall suffer temptation. There are things in this world which are the common lot of all men, from the highest to the lowest. Disease and death come alike to the proudest monarch and his meanest subject, to the man of highest intellect and to the most unlettered savage. And temptation is also an ordained heritage of man. Not even the "second Adam, the Lord from heaven," was exempted from this rule. 3. _Because it is necessary for the formation of moral character._ The seaman