Proverbs 30:15-16 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Reflections on the insatiable

I. THE EXTERNAL LIFE IS THE MIRROR OF THE INTERNAL . Our spirit finds analogies to itself in the objects of nature, of history, and in the general course of human life. And all that we observe there , in the great world, may serve as a light to reveal to us what passes here , in the world of each man's heart.

II. IMAGES OF INSATIABLE APPETITE . Hades; the barren womb; the thirsty earth; the all-devouring fire. The vampire, or bloodsucker, seems to be intended in the first example; it is supposed to suck the blood of the sleeping by night.

III. THE SPIRIT OF MAN IS INSATIABLE . And whether this appetite is rightly or wrongly directed, upon this depends his weal or woe. It may be directed to what is perishable or pernicious—to gold, power, pleasure, etc. Drunkenness is the commonest illustration of the insatiety of man's nature. Or it may be directed to righteousness, to the. knowledge of the truth, to the enjoyment of the good; and then it carries the power and promise of the "endless life"—J.