Fasten and do not let slack. One rough grapple is not enough. Wisdom insidiously glides away if we give time to the arch deceiver. We are like a child trying to wake: he grasps the apple that one gives, but _slackens_ as drowsiness creeps back.--_Miller._ +I. Because many thieves lie in the way to rob us of what wisdom teaches.+ 1. _The devil steals away the seed of the word_ (Matt. xiii. 9). 2. _Wicked men also, by seducing us._ Sometimes by persecuting us to make us forsake the truth (Matt. xiii. 21). 3. _The world with its cares and profits seek to take this treasure from us_ (Matt. xiii. 22). The flesh presents many pleasures to us which drown our wits. +II. Because we may lose wisdom ourselves by negligence.+--_F. Taylor._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14-19. CONTRASTED PATHS AND OPPOSITE CHARACTERS. +I. The just man's path.+ 1. It is a _pre-ordained_ one. The path which the sun takes through the heavens, the path in which our earth encircles the sun, are the paths which God has pre-ordained for them. They are the only paths which they could take and preserve the harmony of the system to which they belong. They are the orbits which are exactly adapted to the fulfilment of the end for which God created them. So the path--the manner of life--of the godly man is the path in which God intended man to walk when He created him. He called him into being in order that he might "walk before Him and be perfect" (Gen. xvii. 1). "The highway of holiness" is the God-ordained path of man, the old way which was trodden by His creatures for ages before man had any existence. 2. It is a _blessing-dispensing_ path. The sun, by keeping God's pre-ordained path, is a blessing to the world. Its rays possess a quickening power which develops the hidden life of the plant, and so clothes the earth with beauty and fruitfulness. Without its heat and light our globe would be a great Sahara--a vast wilderness of black barrenness. It likewise brings into operation a sense in man which would otherwise be dormant. The light of the body is the eye, but where would sight be without sun? Creatures who have lived for years in darkness appear to lose the power of sight, even if light shines upon their eye-balls. The constant contact of the eye with light keeps alive the power of vision. So with the just man's path. Without the godly this world would be a moral wilderness. All the beauty of goodness there is in it comes from the life of the children of wisdom. "They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon" (Hosea xiv. 7). And He keeps alive the inner eye of man--the conscience. It, too, needs external light to play upon it to keep it alive. And the holy walk of the godly does this for the ungodly, it prevents the conscience from being utterly stifled by sin. 3. It is a _progressive_ path. It shines more and more. The light of dawn has