unity. It is simply a collection of aphorisms which have been formulated by the wise moralists among the Hebrews and which have passed current in the Hebrew nation. This character of the book is indicated by its title-page:

"The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; To perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels; To understand a proverb, and the interpretation: the words of the wise and their dark sayings."

Here is not a word said about the law of God, nor about revelation from him. The object of the book is simply to give practical wisdom by giving practical understanding of the experiences of life. As such it is to be read.

We are not, then, to look in the Book of Proverbs for a system of philosophy or theology. Theology is the science of religion, and the

Book of Proverbs is not scientific. It contains no religious creed, and nothing suggesting one; no ethical system, and no hint that any such system was in the mind of the authors or the editor. It contains no hint of what are called the great doctrines of Christianity, such as trinity, revelation, inspiration, divine sovereignty, and the like; no systematic counsels for the conduct of life, such as we find in the Sermon on the Mount. Separated instructions, fragments of wisdom, coined results of experience, -these are what are presented, and without system, deliberately and intentionally without system. The book never refers to Israel as the chosen people of God; contains no suggestion of a coming Messiah,— the great hope of Israel; and no revelation of the immortality of the soul. It contains five incidental references to sacrifices; but none to Temple or Tabernacle or priesthood or Levitical code; and none to the Mosaic moral code. Its reference to the law is to the moral law as interpreted by the reason and the conscience; its sanctions are in the main found, not in any supreme obligation to obey Jehovah, but in the consequences

which follow in this life, upon obedience and disobedience, that is, upon temporal and prudential considerations.

The contrast between prophetic and proverbial method in the treatment of life is brought out clearly by the contrast between two poems covering the same ground,- one in the Book of Psalms, the other in the Book of Proverbs. They might as well be given the same title, "The Two Paths." The poet's description of the two paths in the First Psalm is as follows::

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, Nor standeth in the way of sin

ners,

Nor sitteth in the seat of the scorn-
ful.

But his delight is in the law of the
Lord;

And in his law doth he meditate
day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water,

That bringeth forth its fruit in its

season,

Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall

prosper.

The wicked are not so;

But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous;

But the way of the wicked shall perish.'

"

That is a poet's interpretation of life, figurative in phraseology, ideal in spirit, written by one whose conception of life is derived from his conception of what life ought to be because his faith in a just God makes him sure that what ought to be will be. The other poem on the two paths, in the fourth chapter of Proverbs beginning at the tenth verse, reads as follows:

"Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings;

And the years of thy life shall be

many.

I have taught thee in the way of wisdom;

I have led thee in the paths of uprightness.

When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened;

And if thou runnest, thou shalt

not stumble.

Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go:

Keep her, for she is thy life.

Enter not into the path of the wicked,

And walk not in the way of evil

men.

Avoid it, pass not by it;

Turn from it, and pass on.

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief;

And their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wicked

ness,

And drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is as the shining light,

That shineth more and more unto perfect day.

The way of the wicked is as dark

ness:

They know not at what they stumble."

Here there is no figurative language; no tree growing beside the still waters, no leaf not withering, no chaff blown away by the wind; all is plain, simple prosaic, -a description of life as the author has actually seen it.