righteous King, and then upon that of His righteous servants. _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._ The righteous may be poor, and, in his sinful state, anything but a stately building to the Lord, but in his meanest infancy he is a "_foundation._" Very little appears above the surface. But he is a basis of all that is to be built, and that basis is to be "_eternal._"--_Miller._ The proverb reminds us of the close of the Sermon on the Mount, and finds the final confirmation of its truth in this, that the death of the godless is a penal thrusting of them away, but the death of the righteous a lifting them up to their home. The righteous who often enough perish in times of war and of pestilence; but the proverb, as it is interpreted, verifies itself, even although not so as the poet, viewing it from his narrow Old Testament standpoint, understood it; for the righteous, let him die when and how he may, is preserved, while the godless perishes.--_Delitzsch._ The continuance of the wicked is but while they dig the pit of their own destruction.--_Jermin._ The Lord will lay "a more sure foundation," and "he that believeth shall not make haste" (Isa. xxviii.16). These two promises lie together in the Scripture. When your heart's hope is fixed on that precious corner-stone, you need not be thrown into a flutter by the fiercest onset of the world and its god.--_Arnot._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 26. THE VEXATIOUSNESS OF A SLUGGISH SERVANT. +I. He is as smoke to the eyes.+ Smoke in the eyes prevents the accomplishment of a man's purposes, or at least it hinders and annoys him in their execution. The eye is the light of the body; if vision is in any way obstructed or impaired, delay and vexation must ensue. So the employer of a sluggish servant must be the victim of perplexity and annoyance. He sends him on an errand, or entrusts him with a work which is important should be done within a certain time. But he lingers over it until the time is long past, and perhaps an opportunity is lost which can never be recalled. Much often depends upon the performance of duties _up to time._ The want of punctuality sometimes is as disastrous as not doing the thing at all. How many plans have been frustrated, how many sufferings have in various ways been entailed upon men, by delay in the performance of duty. A master who has to depend upon a sluggard is like a man in the midst of the smoke of a burning house; he is uncertain as to his present whereabouts, and ignorant of what mishap may befal him next. +II. He is as vinegar to the teeth.+ He is most irritating to the temper. As vinegar sours everything with which it comes in contact, so a sluggard sours the temper of those with whom he has to do, and makes them sometimes not only irritable with him who is the offender, but with the innocent also. _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._