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292 illustrations
She is the chief of the four cardinal virtues and may rightly be termed the hinge that turns them all about: wisdom to direct, justice to correct, temperance to abstain, fortitude to sustain.
Solomon commands: "Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them." The wise are least likely to covet such company, yet this counsel applies universally.
"Then shall ye return," the prophet declares, speaking of a conversion to full recognition of neglected duty and past transgressions.
The *hierarchs* (ἱεράρχης, those holding highest spiritual rank), distinguished from secular magistrates as recorded in 1 Chronicles 24:6, faced humiliation beyond mere political defeat.
The very repetition itself teaches us that our praises must be characterized by earnestness, frequency, delight, and universality.
But when praise flows from a heart refined by obedience to God's commandments, it becomes the noblest utterance of the human soul.
The Greek word *kapeleuo* (to peddle or retail for profit) originally described tavern keepers who adulterated wine—blending inferior stock, falsifying measures, deceiving customers for gain.
The Israelites faced temptation: the fruit of fields, the fascination of byways, the sparkling water of wells.
The pattern repeats throughout Scripture: Saul bribed assassins to hunt David (1 Samuel 22:6–19); the Jewish leaders later bribed Judas to betray the Son of David into their hands.
First, we must preserve childlike simplicity of character—the freshness and moral innocence the gospel restores.
This blessing represents a profound debt owed to godly parenthood.
When Paul recounts his visit to Jerusalem in Galatians 1:19, he distinguishes James from the other apostles, yet acknowledges his singular influence.
This is no superficial cleanliness but a composition free from wrong admixture.
His prayer echoes the psalmist's cry: "Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Thy law graciously" (Psalm 119:29).
The Victorian scholar John Devotion, M.A., observed that genuine, unfeigned praise—bestowed for commendable conduct useful to the community—serves as a precise measure of moral and religious character.
Tow—the coarse, broken refuse of flax or hemp—becomes the metaphor for those whom sin has hollowed from within.
King Hezekiah's near-death experience reveals what many never discover: the difference between mere existence and genuine life.
So too, a godly man will not gain—nor desire to gain—so much as a shoe-string through profaning the Sabbath with merchants, through fraud or deceit, through oppression or extortion, through usury (the devil's brokery), or through any unlawful or indirect...
Consider Nature itself: the earth was complete before Adonai created man in His own image.
The ablest theologians have settled that good intention cannot sanctify an immoral act; yet an evil intention will certainly corrupt even the best performances.
The *defilement* (*tum'ah*) he feared was twofold: the flesh had been offered to idols in Babylon's pagan temples, and the wine mingled with heathen libations.
The proverb reads: "As he that throweth a stone at an idol, so is he that giveth honour to a fool." Colonel Conder first identified the true translation, revealing the comparison's power.
"It is not good to eat much honey," Solomon warns.
The Hebrew word for "upright" means a person *good throughout, though not thoroughly*—one who genuinely pursues holiness, not one who merely personates religion.