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In physics, in morals, in religion, reality has no respect for those who have no regard for truth and fact. Abused nature, undeterred by rank, plies her scourge on all the votaries of sin. Reality does not in moral matters seem to many so honest and severe. Fancy and imagining hold here a completer sway. Men propose to sip the sensual sweet and decline the sensual bitter. In religion, reality might seem to reign without a rival, for here is no dreamland for fancy, but the field of revelation for the activities of mind and heart. Some make religion their mirror, in which they see themselves the end of their whole devotion. Some overact their part in the temple, the more easily to overreach their brethren in the market. Some forge the name of God to the cheque of a sanctified deportment and present it for golden profits at the bank of Christian confidence. These are the hypocrites who trust that God will not expose them this side the grave; but their hope shall be cut off; "their trust is as a spider's web," which, while very beautiful in its structure, is equally fragile as to its texture, and, though adequate to the builder's purposes, yet, being self-spun, self-built, is destined to be swept away.

I. BEAUTIFUL AS TO ITS STRUCTURE. Admirable is the fairy architecture of the spider's web. This tracery of insect art, on hawthorn or holly fence, seen before the sun grows hot, strung with beads of dew, asks no painter's skill, no poet's eulogy; its beauty, like the sun's glory, is its own evidence. Beautiful, too, is the hypocrite's trust, and the religion that trust inspires. The hypocrite's religion satisfies the eye; it is the bright cloud which for the moment passes for the sun itself; it is the sacrifice without spot or blemish in the skin; an argument constraining charity to hope it is pure and right in heart. To men's sight the hypocrite's religion is like the spider's web, beautiful in its structure, but when tried it is found to be —

II. VERY FRAGILE IN ITS TEXTURE. This is no disparagement to the web. For such a tiny weaver, it is strong and wonderful. Were man as insignificant as the spider, his paltry trust would be no indignity; being but little lower than the angels, a hypocritical trust merits the comparison. God hangs great weights on small wires; the hypocrite hangs them all upon the semblance of them. There is nothing real but his wickedness, nothing true but his deception.

III. IT IS ADEQUATE TO THE OWNER'S PURPOSES AND SUCCESSFUL IN SECURING THEM. The hypocrite, wanting to fly with the doves to their windows, decks himself with their feathers. All of the true prophet is his hairy garment. His success often equals the completeness of his disguise. Charity hopes that under the leaves there is fruit; that behind the smile there is the loving heart; that the fragrance of profession steals from the true flower of grace within. It is adequate to his purposes, and too often successful in securing them. The spider ensnares his prey; the hypocrite does make a gain of godliness, and a ladder of religion.

IV. THEIR TRUST, BEING FALSE, SHALL, WITH ALL THAT RESTS UPON IT, BE UTTERLY SWEPT AWAY. The truth, holiness, and honour of God require it. Hypocrisy! It is a tomb with the lettered porch and golden dome of a temple. It is deception sublimed to a science. The hypocrite takes the precious name of Christ as an angler does a worm, and, thrusting it on the hook of his crooked purposes, angles for suffrages or lucre. But the pious dissembler will exhaust his last resource, and wear out his last disguise. This human spider may take hold with his hands, and pursue his close-couched schemes in the great King's palace, but coming judgment will sweep him and them away. The anger of the Lord will smoke against the hypocrite. No sacrifice can be presented without salt; no service can be accepted without sincerity.

(W. G. Jones.)

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KJV: Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.

WEB: Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider's web.