I. Nothing can prosper long that runs its head against any of the great walls of the universe. Life is known by its manifestations; no one has ever seen it. And no one ever sees the invisible barriers that close like a prison round the living, whenever they violate the laws of life. There arcunseen, pitiless limits existing walls of adamant, against which the waves of human passion and human folly dash, and break, and are shattered without mercy, even though every drop be a life, and every life be dashed to pieces in hopeless agony in the vain endeavour to go its own way, and set its own will as the judge what that way shall be. There is an eternal march of judgment, which they who choose can see. And calm, and clear, and pitiless on every side, amidst the noise of ignorant self-will, the clash of blinded passion, and wisdom blinder still, the voiceless warning strikes upon the world; and the great prison walls close in on those who will have it so.
II. It may be said: "These are but words; what proof is there of this invisible, everlasting wall of doom, and of the unseen executioners, God's secret police, that arrest the guilty and the careless, self-indulgent fools?" I answer: "Take any form of vice you like, give it power, give it wealth, and then wait a few years and see what comes of it. Watch the curse day by day, and hour by hour, walking by the victim's side; watch him dragged from bad to worse; stand in his dreary home when the last scene comes, and doubt no more of God's great prison walls on earth."
III. But it is equally true that the great laws of life act for good to those who follow them. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." God has not only set His prison walls that punish, and appointed His secret police of vengeance that avenge; but He has also set within the broad space of the world the protecting walls of the fold of Christ, the happy home of those who follow Him, where His sheep go in and out, and find pasture.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 358.
References: Proverbs 9:10. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ix., p. 156. Proverbs 9:12. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 219. Proverbs 9:13-18. Ibid.,p. 221.Proverbs 10:1. Ibid.,p. 229. Proverbs 10:4. Ibid.,p. 234.Proverbs 10:1-5. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 219.