It is eternity that filleth the right hand of Wisdom. _Days_ for the clarity, _length_ for the eternity. As the glory is clear for the countenance, so is it long for the continuance. The gift of the left hand is short and temporal. +I. Riches and honour are God's gifts, therefore, in themselves, not evil.+ Saint Augustine: "That they may not be thought evil, they are given to good men; that they may not be thought the best good, they are given to evil men." Chrysostom remarks that Christ doth not say: "Ye cannot _have_ God and mammon," but, "Ye cannot _serve_ God and mammon." +II. All are not so, but some; and therefore it is necessary for us to learn whether God gave us the riches and honour which we have.+ They came from God if (1) _they are honestly gotten_, (2) _justly disposed_, (3) _patiently lost_. +III. Wealth and worship are, for the most part, companions; for both those gifts lie in one and the same hand.+ Riches are the stairs whereby men climb up into the height of dignity, the fortification that defends it, the food it lives upon, the oil that keeps the lamp of honour from going out. +IV. Though riches and honour are God's gifts, yet they are but the gifts of His left hand.+ Therefore it follows that every wise man will seek the blessings of the right. Let us strive for the latter without condition; for the other, if they fall in our way, let us stoop to take them up.--_Thomas Adams._ Verse 17. +I. The ways of religion are ways of pleasantness.+ 1. There is a pleasure in the duties relating immediately to God--in _love, faith, reliance, hope, prayer,_ and _thanksgiving_. 2. There is a pleasure in those occupations in which a religious man will be frequently employed--_in studying the works of God and the Holy Scriptures: in meditating on the perfections of the Almighty, etc._ 3. There is a pleasure in that behaviour towards others, and that manner of prosecuting our worldly affairs, which ever accompany a religious disposition--in _calm integrity, honest industry_, and _acts of beneficence_. 4. There is a pleasure in performing our duty to ourselves--in _temperance_ and _control of the passions_. +II. The ways of sin are not ways of pleasantness.+ 1. No man can be happy who acts against his conscience. 2. If men persuade themselves that there is no future life, the expectation of perishing utterly presents no agreeable prospect to the soul, which has a natural desire of immortality. 3. Every act contrary to reason and religion is, if not always, for the most part, hurtful, even in this life.--_Jortin._ The excellency of the pleasure found in Wisdom's ways appears--+I. In that it is the pleasure of the mind. II. That it never satiates nor wearies. III. That it is in nobody's power, but only in his that has it.+--_South._