shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness" (Isa. lvii. 2). Heaven has no better way of walking than the way of uprightness, and death will not make any change in the moral characteristics of the godly man, except to intensify and strengthen them. The death of the seed-corn will not be the means of giving birth to a different _kind_ of seed, but only of making an _increase_ of the same kind. Death is needful, not to change one thing for another, but to make much out of little. Death will bring heaven to the godly and upright, but it can give nothing to an upright man better than his uprightness, but this it can do, it can render him more entirely and completely upright. Hence the path of the upright is a path which death cannot end--a path which, begun to be trodden in time, will be continued in throughout eternity. The happiness of the human creatures who make up a family, or a larger community, will depend very much upon the uprightness of each member. Heaven's blessedness springs from the perfectly upright character of each citizen of that perfect city. 4. _His upright walk is sure, or safe, because it is preservative of character._ Uprightness is to character what salt is to food. He who walks uprightly can never become _less_ godly and righteous, but must of necessity become more and more so; hence the Psalmist's prayer, "Let integrity and uprightness _preserve_ me" (Psalm xxv. 21). +II. The two phases of character are placed in contrast to that of the upright man.+ 1. _That of the man whose evil nature does not lie entirely upon the surface._ "He that perverteth his ways" and yet endeavours to cloak his perversion, to hide his wrong-doing. The "winking of the eye" mentioned in verse 10 indicates an effort after concealment. Those who "pervert" their ways pervert nature in order to attain their ends. The eye is intended by God to be a revelation of the soul, and where integrity and sincerity dwells, it is so. But he who walks crookedly or perversely makes an unnatural use of his eye, and by means of it endeavours to work ill to his neighbour. But all his efforts at concealment will at some time or other be ineffectual; the very means he uses to conceal his evil plans may be the means of awakening suspicion. And if he succeeds in blinding the eyes of his fellow men, "the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts" (1 Cor. iv. 5). The day of judgment will reveal the guilty secrets of many who have never yet--nor ever will be until that day--fully "_known._" 2. _That of him whose perversity is manifest to all._ The "prating fool" cannot conceal what he is. Upon him and upon his destiny, see Homiletics and Suggestive Comments on verse 8. _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._