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Wisdom is represented as calling, waiting, pleading; but, as concerning some who heard the call, altogether in vain. At last Wisdom grows indignant, as well she may. In carrying out His gracious purpose of revealing Himself to us, God may use every act and every feeling that is genuine to man. It is quite proper that men should deride the proud and the malicious when they are baffled and put to shame, and this natural feeling is here used to represent the feeling of God towards those who contemptuously despise the riches of His grace. The merely human gave the tone to the revelations of God that were made in Old Testament times. It is the divinely human — it is humanity at its best — which gives tone to all the representations of God made in the New Testament. So we have now severities and indignations, even the "wrath of the Lamb," but not derisions, not scorn, not any "laughing at calamity." The text does but express the feeling we have when the wicked meet their deserts.

I. EVIL HAS ITS CERTAIN FIXED CONSEQUENCES. Law equally reigns in the moral and in the material world. Every moral action has its certain and well-defined consequences.

II. NOTHING CHECKS CONSEQUENCES BUT THE REMOVAL OF CAUSES. Illustrate from cases of infectious disease. Man's great evil is wilfulness, and to remove this ever-fruitful source of moral mischief requires no less than a regeneration.

III. BY THE RESISTANCE OF GOOD COUNSEL THE EVIL GROWS STRONGER. He who goes after sin has to resist much counsel and persuasive influence. And this is the ever-working law, good resisted leaves evil stronger.

IV. IF EVIL GROWS STRONGER, ITS CONSEQUENCES MUST BECOME MORE SERIOUS, AND WILL BE BROUGHT ON MORE RAPIDLY. The simple ones turn deaf ears, and hurry after the tempters; and then their "fear comes as desolation."

V. EVIL MAY GROW BEYOND ALL INFLUENCE OF REPROOF, AND THEN ITS ISSUES MUST PROW OVERWHELMING INDEED. Men may get beyond the reach of all available moral influences. Conceive what that condition must be. Compare the state of the "devil-possessed." A most awful and alarming picture is that of a moral being abusing himself until he actually becomes insusceptible of moral impressions. In those who resist moral counsel and invitation a wilfulness grows up which becomes every day more difficult to overcome; a process of heart-hardening is actually going on. Be warned, then, of the "wrath of the Lamb."

(Weekly -Pulpit.)

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KJV: Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

WEB: Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;