Chapter XVII
CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Sacrifices,+ literally killings, i.e., slain beasts, not necessarily animals killed for sacrifice. +2. A son that causeth shame,+ rather, a degenerate son. (Delitzsch and Zöckler). +4. A liar,+ literally, a lie, falsehood. +7. Excellent speech,+ literally "a lip of excess or prominence, an assuming, imperious style of speech" (Zöckler). +A prince,+ rather, a noble, a man of lofty disposition. +8. A gift.+ Some expositors understand this in the sense of a bribe. Delitzsch translates the whole verse--"The gift of bribery appears a jewel to its receiver, whithersoever he turneth himself he acted prudently," i.e., "it determines and impels him to apply all his understanding, in order that he may reach the goal for which it shall be his reward." Zöckler understands it to refer to the gift of seasonable liberality which secures for its giver supporters and friends. +9. Repeateth a matter.+ Most expositors understand this repetition to refer to a revival of a past wrong, but Miller translates "He who falls back into an act," i.e., transgresses again after forgiveness. +11.+ Many commentators translate the first clause "Rebellion," or "a rebel" seeketh only after evil, i.e., brings retribution upon himself. +12.+ Miller translates the latter clause "but not a fool his folly." (See his comment.) +14. Meddled with,+ rather "pours forth." +17. "Friend+ and +brother+ are related the one as the climax of the other. The friend is developed into a brother by adversity." (Lange's Commentary.) +20. A froward heart,+ rather, a false heart. +22. A broken spirit.+ Miller renders "an upbraiding spirit," i.e., spirit which cavils at God's providential dealings. +23. A gift,+ i.e., a bribe, +judgment,+ i.e., justice. +24.+ Many explain this verse to mean that the wise find wisdom everywhere while the fool seeks it everywhere but in the right place. Delitzsch and others understand the proverb to mean that wisdom is the aim of the man of understanding while the fool has no definite aim in life. +26. Also,+ rather, even. It emphasizes the verb immediately following, viz., to punish, i.e., to inflict a pecuniary fine. Zöckler renders the verse, "Also to punish the righteous is not good, to smile the noble contrary to justice," and explains the meaning thus, "The fine as a comparatively light penalty which may easily at one time or another fall with a certain justice even on a just man, stands contrasted with the much severer punishment with stripes; and as these two verbal ideas are related, so are also the predicates 'not good' and 'contrary to right' (above desert, beyond all proportion to the justice and reasonable) in the relation of a climax." Delitzsch reads, "Also to inflict punishment on the righteous is not good; this, the one overthrows his noble on account of his righteousness," i.e., it is not good when a ruler makes his power to punish to be felt by the innocent as well as by the guilty. Miller translates, 'Even deserved punishment to the righteous does not seem good, when designed to chasten the willing with a view to holiness," and explains his translation of the word generally translated princes, or the noble, by a reference to the Hebrew root from which it is derived and which may be rendered willing or generous. +27. Excellent,+ rather a cool spirit.
The homiletic teaching of verse 1 is the same as that of chap. xv. 17. (See pages 421, 422).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 2.
THE FOOLISH SON AND THE WISE SERVANT.
+I. High social position is not necessarily the outcome of mental ability or moral worth.+ Many a man is born heir to a great estate, or even to a throne, who brings shame upon the name he bears and the place he occupies. He may be inferior in intellectual power to many of the dependents upon the house, or he may be worse in character than they are. Or if he is not so degraded in character, or in such limited ability as to be surpassed by the majority, there may be one who serves him whose aim in life is far more lofty than his own, and who has far greater capabilities than he has.
+II. A wise man will acquire influence, whatever position he fills.+ A servant who understands his duties, and conscientiously fulfils them, will win respect and confidence; and these will give him influence in his master's house, and over all with who his business brings him into contact. There are many instances, both in the history of private families and in the history of courts, in which the judicious conduct of a subordinate person has averted evils which would otherwise have followed the crimes of a son of the house, and the father of such a son can but acknowledge such services, and reward them, if he is possessed of any gratitude. But whether he does so or not, it is an ordination of God's providence, which we see in constant operation around us, that a wise man is a fool's master. It is a law of nature that a stronger physical body shall govern the weaker, if no other power interferes, and it is a law in the universe of mind that the stronger mind shall rule the weak, and make it server his purpose in some way. This is the secret of many of the social changes which are always going on, in which some who were born to affluence come down to penury, and those who were born in obscurity take their places.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Eliezer will show the custom that suggests the type. He was a wise servant. Abraham thought he would have to be his heir (Gen. xv. 2, 3). All commentators put "son" in apposition with him who causes shame; i.e., makes them the same person. But to be the same person they should be in the same form grammatically, and "son" is in the construct. The causer of shame, therefore, is the father. And this is more consistent, for a wise father could uphold a son, or could give the inheritance to other brethren. In the worldly sense there could be no difficulty. In the spiritual what noted instances!--in the Israelites, who, unlike Abraham, failed to command their households (Gen. xviii. 19), and who gave place to their bought servants, the hated Gentiles!--in Satan, who has given place to man (Psalm viii. 2)!--in modern men who have professed the faith, but have debauched their children till they see them hardening under their very eyes, and some far-off waif gets before them into the everlasting kingdom. Better, says the last proverb, the utmost poverty, with peace and love; better, says the proverb, the poorest hold upon the Church, if there be the humbler hold upon the service of the Most High.--Miller.
If wisdom make us free, then are we free indeed: as on the other side, he is altogether a servant that dealeth unwisely. But he that is wisdom's freeman is not only a freeman but a master, not only a master but a son, not only a son but an heir, an heir among his brethren. So highly doth wisdom exalt. But thus it is with the Father of the world, it is not so with worldly fathers. Their foolish love doth honour their son, though his foolish life doth fill them with shame: their proud carriage despiteth their servant, though his wise carriage exalteth their estate. The son shall have all though he deserve nothing, the servant shall not have his wages though they be due unto him. But the wisdom of God bestoweth His love, the justice of God divideth His inheritance in another manner. Oftentimes, even in this life, he putteth the servant in the son's place. . . . Be wise, then, though thou be a servant, and thou shalt be His son who is the Father of wisdom. Be not wicked, though the son of rich parents, and, if may be, heir to a great estate, for He, the Lord of all, can quickly make thee a poor servant for thy sins, who has made thyself a servant to thy sins.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 3.
THE TRIER OF HEARTS.
We have here an analogy implied between men's hearts and gold and silver.
+I. Both have an intrinsic worth.+ Gold and silver have not only an artificial value, but they have qualities in themselves which render them of especial worth. So the heart of man--that spiritual and immortal part of him which constitutes him a man--is of priceless worth because of its infinite capacities of good and evil, its infinite capabilities of enjoyment and of suffering.
+II. Both must be separated from worthless alloy if they are to attain their real value.+ Gold and silver are comparatively worthless until they are separated from every other mineral; they must be unalloyed with baser metal, or nearly so, before their intrinsic excellence and capabilities become apparent and they can be put to the uses for which they are so peculiarly fitted. So the human soul cannot rise to the high destiny to which it is appointed until there is a separation made between it and sinful habits, motives, and desires.
+III. Both human souls and precious metals are subjected to a testing process.+ The gold and the silver ores are thrown into the crucible and placed over the fire, in order that it may be made manifest how much there is of real worth in them, and the human soul is subjected to trials of various kinds by the Great Searcher of hearts, in order that both the good and the evil that is therein may be seen, and the one separated from the other. The proverb seems rather to refer to the testing, than to the purifying process.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Trying is more than simply discerning. The Lord does not need to try in order to make any discovery for Himself. He "knoweth what is in man." But He "tries," in order to bring to light what may lie concealed from men, and especially from the individual himself. And this He does in order to the person's conviction and benefit: and that He may be vindicated in His final judgments He "tries," in different respects, both the wicked and the righteous. By the dispensations of His providence He often elicits the latent evils that are in the hearts of the ungodly and the worldly. He brings out their hidden abominations. He manifests the deceitfulness, the hypocrisy, the "desperate wickedness" of their "inward parts," their rebellions and unsubdued dispositions. He exposed the simulation of dissemblers, and of those whose religion only seems to thrive when their profession of it brings no suffering, and demands no sacrifice. . . . In the same manner, too, does God try and bring out to view the inward graces and virtues of His children. And while disclosing He refines and purifies them, He detects and removes the alloy--the dross and tin of self and the world, separating the "vile" from the "precious," and so rendering the precious the more excellent.--Wardlaw.
Silver is refined by getting the silver out from among the dross. Christians are refined by putting the silver in among the dross, and refining the dross away. Men in a natural state are not an ore of silver, but are dross, and they are nothing else. He who sits to purify them (Mal. iii. 3) does not disengage the gold, but supplies it as He goes along. In other respects the emblem is complete. (1) The "furnace" takes out the dross. So does "Jehovah." (2) The "furnace" burns out the dross. So does "Jehovah," with biting flames. (3) The "furnace" is a gradual worker. So is God.--Miller.
Man trieth many things, and many things in man are tried by man. The silver of a man's word is tried by a wise care: the gold of a man's deeds is tried by the fruit of them: the silver of a man's wit is tried by dangers and distresses, the gold of a man's understanding is tried by weighty and important business; the gold of a man's strength is tried by hard and burdensome labour; the gold of his knowledge by hard and difficult questions; the silver of a man's diligence is tried by the haste of affairs: the gold of a man's faithfulness by trust reposed in him: the silver of a man's estate is tried by a careful account, the gold of his virtues by troubles and temptations. Thus there is a fining-pot for the silver, and a furnace for the gold: and the heart of man trieth other things, but the trier of the heart is the Lord alone. The fine silver, the pure gold that lie in that, can be proved by nothing but by His touch. Whoever else taketh upon him to search the secrets of the heart, layeth open his own sin and folly. The heart itself cannot try itself; God is the goldsmith for it. Or else the original will bear well this sense, that God, by troubles, trieth the heart of man. Wherefore Tertullian saith, When we are burned in the heat of persecution then are we tried in the hold-fast of our faith. . . . And surely if Seneca could say, "I give thanks unto fortune because she would try how much I esteemed honesty, so great a thing ought not to stand me in a little," then certainly the servants of God ought to thank God when He, by troubles, trieth how well they love Him.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 4.
THE EVIL SPEAKER AND THE LISTENER.
+I. That which men give heed to reveals their character.+ If a man will listen to another who he knows to be false--if he permits him to be continually pouring into his ear that which he knows to be untrue--he is a liar himself. He could not make himself a receiver of lies if he were not of a kindred spirit with the liar. We classify animals according to the food which they eat, and we can classify men when we know upon what mental and moral food they love to feed. He who gives heed to falsehood and lying lips is a false man himself.
+II. Delight in wicked speech leads to wicked actions.+ Those who use ungodly language never stop there. There is but a step between wicked words and wicked deeds. Neither do those who begin by giving heed to men whose speech is prompted by him who is the father of lies (John viii. 44) stop with the mere listening. The listening, as we have seen, implies a certain degree of sympathy with the listener; this sympathy leads to imitation, and he who gives heed to false lips not only becomes himself a man of wicked speech but a "wicked doer."
+III. The liar and he who listens to him divide the responsibility of the sin between them.+ These two characters help to increase each other's guilt by strengthening each other in their ungodliness. The liar is encouraged to go on in his lying by those who give heed to his lies; if there were none willing to listen to him he would soon cease to sin in this direction. So that the receiver of falsehood will have to share the punishment of him who propagates it. Then the liar increases the wickedness of the wicked doer by his false words, which help to make his heart yet more ungodly and his doings yet more wicked. Thus ungodly men exert a reciprocal influence upon each other for evil.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Wicked men have a great treasure of evil in their hearts, and yet have not enough to satisfy their own corrupt dispositions. They are like covetous men, in whom their large possessions only increase their lust of having, and therefore they carry on a trade with other wicked men, who are able to add to their store of iniquity, by flattering and counselling them in sin.--Lawson.
"A liar" is of essential use to the evil-doer. He can suborn him. He can get him to bear witness in his favour--to perjure himself to get him off, when in danger of being convicted. Such characters, too, it may be noticed, are fond of the lies of false teachers. They keep their ear greedily open to these. They are smoothed, and flattered, and encouraged by them in their evil courses. They cannot but like the doctrine that allays their fears; that palliates sin; that makes light of future punishment; that tells them of a God all mercy; that assures them of ultimate universal salvation. Thus it was of old; and thus it is still (Isa. xxx. 9-11).--Wardlaw.
A man most mischievous himself yields most mischievously to the mischief of other sinners. "A lie" is the most weakly credulous. This is often noticed among the earthly. The biter is often most bitten, the tyrant most tortured. The cunning is often most caught, and what is singularly the fact, the sceptic is often the most believing. It is not a complete proverb, thought, for earth, because it is not universal. It is spiritually, as with all these other texts, that the truth has no exception. The greatest harm-doer is Satan, and so the greatest harm is done to Satan. He is the father of lies, and has been the most lied to. He was more deceived in Eden than his victim, and on Calvary than the men who crucified our Lord. And all his followers take from the world equal mischief with that which they inflict upon it.--Miller.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 5.
A DOUBLE REVELATION.
+I. Revealing crime.+ He who mocketh the poor reveals his own character. If we find one brother of a family mocking another brother, we feel that his conduct is a revelation of the state of his heart. We feel that such a man must be destitute of all right feeling--that he has no regard for their common parent--none of that tender feeling which ought to bind members of the same family. God has made of one blood all nations of the earth, and he who mocks the poor mocks one of the same great human family as himself, and thus shows that he lacks all true humanity and all right feeling towards the common Father of both. The displeasure with which God regards such a man reveals the Divine character. If the ruler of a country identifies himself with the most defenceless and friendless of his subjects--if he exacts the severest penalties for any wrong done to them--if, in short, he reckons an offence against them as committed against himself--he reveals that he is a man of true benevolence. The displeasure with which God regards not only them who oppress the poor, but also those who mock them--and a man does this when he gives empty words but no sympathy and help--reveals the tender compassion of His nature. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xiv. 31, page 389.
+II. An aggravated crime.+ "He who is glad at calamities," etc. It is a sin both against God and human nature to mock the poor--to treat men with indifference and contempt because they are in a lowly station--because they are compelled to labour much and labour hard for the supply of their daily wants: he who is guilty of such conduct reveals a nature that is entirely opposed to the nature of God, and lays himself open to retribution. But when a man is not only indifferent to the miseries of others, but can actually find in them an occasion of gladness, he is as near to Satan in character and disposition as a man out of hell can be. He is not only ungodlike, but is devilish. It is a prominent characteristic of the evil one that he finds a fiendish delight in the calamities of men, and a man cannot give a more convincing proof that he is of his "father the devil" (John xiii. 44) than by imitating him in this particular crime.
+III. A heavy retribution.+ We can form some estimate of the weight of punishment which must fall upon this last offender, by remembering how God regards the first. If He convicts him who mocks the poor of casting reproach upon his Maker, how much more will He visit him who "is glad at calamities."
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
So Tyrus is threatened, because she was glad at Jerusalem's calamities, saying, "I shall be replenished now she is laid waste" (Ezek. xxvi. 2). And Edom similarly (Obad. 12).--Fausset.
It is a sad thing when one "potsherd of the earth," because it happens to have got from the hand of the potter a little gilding and superficial decoration, mocks at another "potsherd of the earth" which chances to be somewhat more homely in its outward appearance, or, perhaps, formed of a little coarser material than the other; both the work of the same hands, and both alike frail, brittle, and perishable.--Wardlaw.
Why should I, for a little difference in this one particular of worldly wealth, despise my poor brother? When so many and great things unites us, shall wealth disunite us? One sun shines on us both; one blood bought us both; one heaven will receive us both, only he hath not so much of earth as I, and possibly much more of heaven.--Bishop Reynolds.
To pour contempt upon the current coin with the king's image on it, is treason against the sovereign. No less contempt is it of the Sacred Majesty, to despise the poor, who have, no less than the rich, the king's image upon them (Gen. ix. 6). This view marks the contempt of the poor as a sin of the deepest dye.--Bridges.
If God should appear in human shape, would we dare to insult him? Would not the fear of a just and dreadful vengeance deter us? And to mock the poor, amounts to the very same thing. God did actually appear in our nature, and He was then poor for our sakes; and those that despise the poor, despise them for a reason that reflects upon our Saviour Himself when He dwelt among us.--Lawson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 6.
FATHERS AND CHILDREN.
Two things are implied in this proverb:--First, that the fathers are good men. An aged man who is not a godly man cannot in any sense reflect any glory upon his descendants. Secondly, that the children are also godly and true, otherwise they are anything but a crown to their parents. The Wise Man is here speaking of those who are in both relations what God intended them to be. When such is the case--
+I. The children bring honour to their parents.+ They testify that the parents have trained them in the way that they should go--that they have given them a good example as well as good advice, and every child is then like a separate mirror, reflecting the character of the godly parent by whose influence he has become what he now is. And the greater number of these mirrors there are, the more brilliant is the crown of honour which is worn by the godly ancestor whose virtues are thus reproduced in his children and in his children's children, even long after he has left the world. Every tribute of respect that is paid to the children is another jewel placed in the crown of the godly ancestor.
+II. The parents are the glory of their children.+ Men glory in being descended from ancestors who have been great warriors or who have left them a vast inheritance of material wealth, but an inheritance of goodness reflects as much more glory upon those who are its heirs as the glory of heaven exceeds that of earth. Goodness holds a very old patent of nobility, and when children can boast of a long line of God-fearing ancestors, they can boast of a dignity which is as old as God. To be the descendants of those who are now before the throne of God is a glory before which all earthly glory fades away.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 7.
A TWOFOLD INCONGRUITY.
+I. Truth from the mouth of a godless man.+ This is not an unknown case. A man of immoral practices may inculcate precepts of purity--a dishonest man may, for the purpose of cloaking his own character, be loud in his praises of integrity and uprightness. But the speech of such a man will fall powerless on his hearers, even if they do not know thoroughly the character of the speaker. There will be a lack of the true ring of sincerity about his words--being words only, and not convictions, they will be "as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Suppose that a barrister, who was very ignorant of law and possessed of very limited mental capacities, having undertaken the defence of an important case, were to apply to one of his most learned and eloquent legal brethren to write his speech for him. When he got up to deliver that which was not the production of his own mind--that which he was not able thoroughly to appreciate himself--would not the listeners be struck with a sense of incongruity, would they not feel that, however good the arguments, however vivid the illustrations, however powerful the appeals, there was something lacking--that the speaker was a stripling wearing the armour of a giant? Something of this same feeling is experienced when an immoral man gives utterance to moral sentiments--he does not know the meaning of his own words, he lacks the experience necessary to give weight to what he says. He speaks what is in itself true, but he is not a true man himself, and consequently the utterance is like a "jewel of gold in a swine's snout."
+II. Untruth from the mouth of a man of exalted station.+ A prince (i.e., one who holds a high place among his fellow-men) is especially bound to be a man of truth and honour. It is here implied that he is to be an embodiment of truthfulness--that whether he owes his position to wealth, to birth, or to intellectual gifts--whatever else he lacks, he ought to be a truthful man; his words ought to be excellent, and they ought to be the reflection of excellence of character.
+III. The second incongruity is more mischievous than the first.+ "Excellent speech becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince." If a moral fool is a man who holds no position in the world, what he says will not be of so much consequence, because his influence upon others is little. He will injure himself, and those immediately connected with him, but the harm done will not be so widely spread as if he were one of the great of the land. The first man, if he puts on a garb of morality, and adopts language which does not represent his true self, is a liar, but his lying does not injure others so much as it does himself. But a "lying prince" is an instrument of wide-spread evil. To lie in a cottage is a sin against God and man, but to lie in a palace is a greater sin, because the inmate of the palace holds in his hand an immense power for good and for evil. What he says and does is felt more or less indirectly throughout his dominion, and as his responsibility is so great, the guilt of using it wrongly is great also.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
God likes not fair words from a foul mouth. Christ silenced the devil when he confessed Him to be the Son of the Most High God. The leper's lips should be covered, according to the law.--Trapp.
Lying lips are no less unbecoming in the mouth of a prince, who ought to honour the dignity of his station by the dignity of his manner. A prince of our own is said to have frequently used this proverbial saying, "He that knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign." You may judge from the text before us whether he deserved to be called the Solomon of his age. It was certainly a nobler saying of one of the kings of France,--that if truth were banished from all the rest of the world it ought to be found in the breasts of princes. A man's dignity obliges him to a behaviour worthy of it, and of him whose favour has conferred it. All Christians are advanced to spiritual honours of the most exalted kind. They are the children of God, and heirs of the eternal kingdom, and ought to resemble their heavenly Father, who is the God of truth. When a young prince desired a certain philosopher to give him a directory for his conduct, all his instructions were comprised in one sentence, "Remember that thou art a king's son." Let Christians remember who they are, and how they came to be what they are, and act in character.--Lawson.
Force not thyself above, degrade not thyself below thy condition.--Wardlaw.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 8.
THE POWER OF GIFTS.
+I. All men value gifts.+ Whether they be gifts which are of intrinsic value from their beauty or their rarity or whether they are of little worth in themselves, but are the expression of the love and gratitude of those who offer them, there is a certain pleasure in receiving them. A free-will offering is more acceptable to a right-minded man than that which is bestowed upon him as a matter of necessity. The fact that it is a gift invests it with a value beyond that which would otherwise be attached to it--makes it as a "precious stone" to the receiver. The good-will that prompts the gift turns a pebble into a diamond.
+II. All the blessing of a gift does not rest with the receiver.+--As a precious stone reflects rays of light in whichever way it is held, so generous-hearted liberality blesses him who gives as well as him who takes. The giver has the gratitude and love of the recipient and experiences the truth of the words of the Lord Jesus: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts. xx. 35). (For the opposite meanings which different commentators attach to the word "gift," see Critical Notes.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
1. Those that have money in their hand think they can do anything with it. Rich men, whithersoever they turn this sparkling diamond, expect it should dazzle the eyes of all, and make them do just what they would have them do in hopes of it. 2. Those who have money in their eye will do anything for it. It has great influence upon them, and they will be sure to go the way it leads them.--Henry.
Viewed as referring to the person who confers the gift, or has it to bestow,--we may notice first, that the reference may be to the man who is known to have something to bestow which all covet. In this case, every one desires his favour, strives to oblige him, tries every means of insinuation into his good graces. A man who has any skill in manœvering may, in this way, render what he has to confer a capital instrument for pushing forward his own prosperity; keeping all in expectation,--cherishing hope,--making his desired and coveted gift look first one way, then another, then a third; perhaps partially bestowing, and still reserving enough to hold expectants hanging on, so as to have them available for his own ends. Secondly:--On the part of those who have gifts to bestow, uses may be made of them that are honourable and prudent,--quite consistent, not with mere self-interest, but with right principle. They may be employed to avert threatened evil, and for the more sure attainment of desired good. Such was Jacob's gift to his brother Esau; when, in setting it apart, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward will I see his face." Such was the gift of the same patriarch, at a later period, to "the man the lord of the country," when he sent his sons the second time to Joseph in Egypt.--Wardlaw.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 9.
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND HOW TO SEPARATE THEM.
We have before noticed ways in which love covers sin or transgression. (See Homiletics of chapter x. 12, page 157.) This proverb sets forth--
+I. That he who thus covers sin is a great benefactor of the human race.+ The great need of a fallen world is such a state of heart as will promote love among men. One of Christ's last commands to his disciples was "Love one another as I have loved you" (John xvi. 12). And there is no more effectual way of promoting love than by freely forgiving an offence and at the same time endeavouring to turn the transgressor from the error of his way. A stream in winter may, by reason of the biting cold, be congealed into a rock-like solid mass, but when the summer sun shines upon it, it cannot long resist the influence, but melts and begins again to ripple and sparkle under its beams. So a sense of guilt and shame hardens the human heart, but a consciousness that the sin has been freely forgiven and forgotten melts it into contrition and love if it is not utterly dead to moral influences. This is the great power which binds sin-forgiven men and women to God--having been forgiven much they love much (Luke vii. 47-50).
+II. A man of opposite character is a curse to his race.+ Friendship is the greatest boon of human existence, and he whose words or deeds tend to break any such tie does his fellow-men a great wrong. There is no more effectual way of doing it than by a constant repetition of the faults of others, either by reminding the offender himself of his shortcomings or by speaking of them to a third person. Solomon may refer to either of these habits--both are bad, and show a disposition entirely opposed to that of Him who, when he forgave His ancient people, promised that He would "remember their sin no more" (Jer. xxxi. 34).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Seeketh love! A beautiful expression, much to be kept in mind! It shows a delight in the atmosphere of love--man's highest elevation in communion with his God (1 John iv. 16). It implies not the mere exercise of love, where it is presented, but the searching and making opportunity for it. But how seldom do we rise to the high standard of this primary grace, exalted as it is pre-eminently above "the best gifts" (1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii.); and illustrated and enforced by no less than the Divine example! (Eph. v. 1, 2). Yet too often it sits at the door of our lips, instead of finding a home in our hearts; forgetting that the exhortation is not, that we should talk of love, but that we should "walk in it;" not stepping over it, crossing it, walking by the side, but "in it," as our highway and course. One step of our feet is better than a hundred words of the tongue.--Bridges.
All unnecessary repetition even of real faults comes under the category of scandal, and is sinful and mischievous. You may fancy you are within the limit of blameworthiness, when you are telling no more than what is true: but, if you are telling even truth needlessly, for no good and laudable end, you are chargeable with the offence.--Wardlaw.
Alas! how many things are there to be suffered, how many things to be forgotten, how many things, though seen, to be as it were unseen, that love may be preferred. He that covereth transgression warmeth affection, and he that seeketh the love of man shall be sure to find the love of God. The way to seek and find other things is by uncovering that which is hid; but the way to seek and find love is by covering the offence.--Jermin.
If one has been our enemy it has been for some trespass. The best way to abate the enmity is to cover up and smother over, and thus erase from memory our act against him. He that does this "seeks love." "He who falls back into the wrong," i.e., iterates or doubles over his offence, drives away everything. (See Critical Notes.) . . . Spiritually, a man is not to complain of the alienation of his Maker, if he wilfully retain his sin. If God has given us a special way for covering sin, and we postpone it, and go tumbling back into our acts, the strife is ours.--Miller.
There are two ways of making peace and reconciling differences: the one begins with amnesty, the other with a recital of injuries, combined with apologies and excuses. Now I remember that it was the opinion of a very wise man, and a great politician, that "he who negotiates a peace without recapitulating the grounds of difference rather deludes the minds of the parties, by representing the sweetness of concord, than reconciles them by equitable adjustment." But Solomon, a wiser man than he, is of a contrary opinion, approving of amnesty, and forbidding a recapitulation of the past. For in it are these disadvantages: it is as the chafing of a sore; it creates the risk of a new quarrel (for the parties will never agree as to the proportions of injuries on either side); and lastly, it brings it to a matter of apologies: whereas either party would rather be thought to have forgiven an injury than to have accepted an excuse.--Lord Bacon.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 10.
CORRECTION MUST BE ADAPTED TO THE CHARACTER OF THE OFFENDER.
+I. Some men can be influenced by moral means.+ A man whose moral nature is developed can be brought to a sense of error by an appeal to his own sense of right and wrong. Although he has fallen into sin he does not love it, and the rebuke from without finds an echo in the monitor within his own breast. His susceptibility to reproof arises--1. From a deep sense of his obligations to God. He knows what God has done to put away sin and its effects from the universe, and gratitude to Him opens his ear and his heart to reproof. 2. From a sense of his own true interest. A man would be counted a fool if he were to be angry with the physician who desired to free him from the dominion of a bodily disease, and a morally wise man is too keenly alive to the worth of his own soul not to listen to a wise reproof.
+II. But there are men who can only be aroused to a sense of wrong-doing by physical suffering.+ Such men, by a long course of crime or by a constant resistance of moral influences, have sunk almost to the level of the brute. They are like the horse and mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held with bit and bridle (Psalm xxxii. 9). Nothing can awaken their sleeping consciences but severe and startling judgments or bodily chastisement, and even these "stripes" may fail to bring them to a right state of mind. Let men, then, beware, lest being often reproved and hardening themselves against it (ch. xxix. 1), they become so callous to the words of God and good men, or to the visitations of Providence, as to be "past feeling" (Eph. iv. 19).
ILLUSTRATION.
It was a maxim of Bishop Griswold--"when censured or accused, to correct--not to justify my error." A certain minister, with more zeal than discretion, once became impressed with the thought that the bishop was a mere formalist in religion, and that it was his duty to go and warn him of his danger. Accordingly he called upon the bishop, very solemnly made known his errand, and forthwith entered upon his reproof. The bishop listened in silence till his visitor had closed a severely denunciatory exhortation, and then in substance replied as follows:--"My dear friend, I do not wonder that they who witness the inconsistency of my conduct, and see how poorly I adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour, should think I have no religion. I often fear for myself that such is the case, and feel very grateful to you for giving me the warning." The reply was made with such evidently unaffected humility, and with such deep sincerity, that if an audible voice from heaven had attested the genuineness of his Christian character it could not more effectually have silenced his kindly intending but mis-judging censor, or more completely disabused him of his false impressions.--Episcopal Record.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Fools have sometimes received correction and made a good use of it, but they were fools no longer, for the rod and reproof gave them wisdom; but it is a sign that folly is deeply ingrained when an hundred rods leave men as great fools as they found them.--Lawson.
A look from Christ brake Peter's heart and dissolved it into tears. . . . But Jeroboam's withered hand works nothing upon his heart.--Trapp.
The folly of simplicity is a softness of nature; the folly of sin is a hardness of heart; the folly of conceit is a stiffness of will, and little doth a rod enter into any of them. For though the first be soft, it is hard to work upon it, although it be with hard and many strokes of the stick. The woolliness of a sheep's skin keeps back the force of the beating rod. . . . The rock in the wilderness first denied water to the Israelites, as, withstanding nature's force and the first stroke of Moses, it resisted as opposing the infidelity of sin, to the second stroke it yielded as submitting to God's power. But it is not the power of God's rod that enters into a fool.--Jermin.
A needle pierces deeper into flesh than a sword into stone.--Bridges.
David is softened with Thou art the man; but Pharaoh remains hardened under all the plagues of Egypt.--Henry.
Even amongst the children of God themselves there are great diversities of temper; some requiring harder dealing than others to bring them down, and to reclaim them from their follies, as is the case often with children in the same family. A word, or a look, will go with melting and heart-breaking power to the very soul of one, while the severest correction, and oft-repeated, will fail to bring down the stubborn and fractious spirit of another. O for more of the spirit of Job and less of the spirit of Jonah!--for more of that truly child-like disposition which gives way before every Divine admonition, which melts into penitence under the eye of an offended God, and looks up with a child's submission at the slightest touch of His corrective rod!--Wardlaw.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 11-13.
PHASES OF EVIL.
+I. The main characteristic of a sinner is that he is a rebel against the moral order of the universe.+ "He seeketh only rebellion." The planets in their courses describe their orbits in obedience to the law of gravitation, and because they do so the order of the heavens is preserved. God is the sun of the moral universe, and before sin entered it all His creatures kept the path of obedience to His will, held to their allegiance by the love and confidence which they bore to their Lawgiver. But sin snapped the bond, and the word sinner stands for one who has broken away from the moral law of God; every sinner seeketh rebellion.
+II. A sinner is a restless being.+ He seeks rebellion. These words seem to depict the restless character of the ungodly man. When a soul has lost its centre of gravity--when the will of God is not the polestar of life--it drifts about in obedience first to one lawless passion and then another, following in the footsteps of the great leader of rebellion, the first sinner, who, by his own confession, is continually going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it (Job i. 7).
+III. A sinner is an injurious man.+ No man can set himself in antagonism to the law of God, which leads to the happiness of his creatures, without bringing misery upon others, and the more determined his rebellion the more cruel are the effects of his sin upon them. A bear is naturally a cruel beast, but then a bear is robbed of what her instinct leads her to guard most jealously she is an object to be dreaded and avoided. Yet a wicked man is more to be feared, for there are in him capabilities of mischief beyond those possessed by the furious brute. The anger of the beast might be diverted or appeased--even a bear robbed of her whelps would forget her anger if a carcase were thrown in her path upon which she might wreak her vengeance. But the wrath of an angry man is less easily appeased. The mischief which the furious bear can do is more limited. The superior skill of man can soon put a stop to the ravages of a wild beast, but the angry folly of a single fool has often destroyed many lives and broken many hearts.
+IV. A sinner is an ungrateful thing.+ Many an ungodly man would deny this charge, but everyone who continues in a state of rebellion against God is continually rewarding evil for good. But the sin of the text doubtless refers to the ingratitude towards a fellow-man. This sin cannot be charged home upon every ungodly man--there are those who, though careless of rendering to God that which is His due, are content with rendering to their fellow-men evil for evil, and would not knowingly render evil for good. But while the heart is in a state of rebellion against its rightful sovereign, every evil tendency is continually growing stronger, and men by degrees descend to depths of evil from which they would once have recoiled with horror.
+V. God will, sooner or later, call His rebellious subjects to account.+ Although men sometimes go on in open rebellion against God for many years, not one shall finally escape. A writ has been issued for the apprehension of each one, although the execution is in some cases deferred. "Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God" (Rom. xiv. 12), and the messenger that summons the ungodly man to the Divine tribunal will be "cruel" because looked at through the medium of a guilty conscience.
+VI. The sinner brings evil upon his posterity.+ It is a truth which is illustrated by the experience of our daily life that no man stands alone in the world--that the sins of the fathers are, in some measure, visited upon the children--that "whoso regardeth evil for good," not only brings evil upon himself but upon "his house."
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Verse 11. God sometimes employs terrible messengers to chastise His own people. When David numbered his subjects, 70,000 of them were destroyed in three days by a visible messenger of severity, under the direction of an invisible minister of providence. If God takes such vengeance of the rebellions of some whom He pardons, what will the end be of them that seek only rebellion!--Lawson.
God hath forces enough at hand to fetch in His rebels. . . . The stones in the walls of Aphek shall sooner turn executioners than a rebellious Aramite shall escape unrevenged.--Trapp.
Many things there are which an evil man proposeth to his seeking: sometimes pleasures, sometimes profit, sometimes honour, sometimes favour, but in truth it is only rebellion against God that is sought by him. For these things are not to be found in the ways of wickedness, and therefore it is only his deceived imagination that looketh for them there. But rebellion against God is found in all his ways.--Jermin.
There are men that are summoning a cruel messenger to be sent against themselves. . . . They are "only the rebellious." A door of mercy! and a ransom fixed for sin! and only one class to fail! and they spontaneously rebels! These are the men that go in search of evil, and this is the meaning of the wise man.--Miller.
Verse 12. Witness Jacob's sons putting a whole city to fire and sword for the folly of one man; Saul slaying a large company of innocent priests; Nebuchadnezzar heating the furnace sevenfold; Herod murdering the children in Ramah; "Saul breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord"--was not all this the rage of a beast, not the reason of a man? Humbling, indeed, is this picture of man, once "created in the image of God" (Gen. i. 27).--Bridges.
For the "fool," what a meeting! when he has been robbed of every earthly chance! and is dead eternally! and the "folly," that has robbed him, is shut up with him in everlasting misery!--Miller.
See Miller's reading of the verse in Critical Notes.
Verse 13. To render good for evil is Divine, good for good is human, evil for evil is brutish, evil for good is devilish.--Trapp.
The most striking illustration of this sentence, is the history of the Jewish nation. Never was such ingratitude showed to any benefactor, as they showed to the Son of God, and never was the punishment of any people so dreadful, and of so long continuance. That scattered people proclaim to every nation under heaven how dangerous the sin of ingratitude is, especially when God our Saviour is the object of it.--Lawson.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.
THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE.
+I. This moral pestilence is of great antiquity.+ It began with the angels who "kept not their first estate" (Jude 6), and from that far-distant period until now the universe has never been free from discord--good and evil have striven against each other, and strife has also reigned between those who are on the side of evil. There was strife between the first two human brothers born into this world, and since the day when Cain slew Abel because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous, this terrible enemy of human happiness has been slaying his victims wherever men were to be found.
+II. Strife is a thing of growth.+ There is a moment when the fire which will presently destroy a town is only a tiny spark which the breath of a child could extinguish,--the leak which at last sinks the vessel and sends a hundred brave men to a watery grave was once no larger than a pin-hole--and the breach in the dam through which a torrent of water rushes, leaving desolation behind it, begins with an opening through which no more than a few drops of water can force their way. So it is with strife. It does not attain to its full dimensions in a moment. The hatred in the heart which is the root of strife may be at first but a passing feeling, but if it is not overcome at its first appearance it grows in strength from day to day. And its outward manifestation in strife may begin with but a few angry words--an apparently trifling disagreement. But those who have indulged in it will presently find themselves in the grip of a giant--overmastered, and carried headlong by passion to crimes of which they once thought it impossible they could ever be guilty.
+III. If the miserable effects of strife are to be avoided, it must be attacked in its beginnings.+ Seeing how disastrous are the effects of the leak in the ship, and how much desolation is caused by the ravages of fire or the bursting forth of pent-up water through its banks, it behoves all who are in any way responsible in these matters to be watchful for the first indications of mischief, and to put a stop to it before it gets beyond their power. And if a man would avoid being a party to a quarrel, he must watch narrowly the first risings of anger in his heart and take care that he never utters the first angry word. If the first remains unspoken, a second can never pass his lips; but if in an unguarded moment the angry feeling finds an outlet in angry speech, the speaker himself cannot tell where and how the mischief will end. It may go from words of strife to deeds of strife, and both will entail more misery upon their author than upon him who is the subject of them. The self-interest of every man ought to prompt him to check the beginnings of strife in himself and in others; it is so great an enemy to our social well-being that we are all as much interested in putting a stop to its ravages as we are in arresting the progress of a pestilential disease. But the children of God are specially called to this work. They are bound to be imitators of their Father in this matter, and He is "the God of peace" (Rom. xv. 33). All the plans and purposes of God have for their aim "peace on earth" (Luke ii. 14), and His children ought to emulate His example. And they cannot do otherwise. They have been made partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter i. 4), and the nature of God is eminently peace-loving. If, therefore, a man has been born of God he must delight in social peace and harmony--he must recoil from strife and discord. It is peacemakers that shall be called "the children of God" (Matt. v. 9), and "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now" (1 John ii. 9).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Man is a sociable-living creature, and should converse with man in love and tranquility. Man should be a supporter of man; is he become an overthrower? O apostasy, not only from religion, but also from humanity! The greatest danger that befalls man comes from where it should least come, from man himself. Lions fight not with lions; serpents spend not their venom on serpents; but man is the main suborner of mischief to his own kind. . . . God hath hewn us all out of one rock, tempered all our bodies of one clay, and spirited our souls of one breath. Therefore, saith Augustine, since we proceed all out of one stock, let us all be of one mind. Beasts molest not their own kind, and birds of a feather fly lovingly together. Not only the blessed angels of heaven agree in mutual harmony, but even the very devils of hell are not divided, lest they ruin their kingdom. We have one greater reason of love and unity observed than all the rest. For whereas God made not all angels of one angel, nor all beasts of the great behemoth, nor all fishes of the huge leviathan, nor all birds of the majestical eagle, yet He made all men of one man.--T. Adams.
We are but several streams issuing from one primitive source; one blood flows in all our veins; one nourishment repairs our decayed bodies; we are co-habitants of the same earth, and fellow-citizens of the same great commonwealth; and he that hates another detests his own most lively picture; he that harms another injures his own nature. . . . The heavenly angels, when they agree most highly to bless and to wish the greatest happiness to mankind, could not better express their sense than by saying, "Be on earth peace, and goodwill among men."--Barrow.
It is easier to abstain from a contest than to withdraw from it.--Seneca.
Both the destructive elements--fire and water--illustrate the danger of the beginning of strife (chap. xxvi. 21). To neither element can we say, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!" (Job xxxviii. 11). . . . Seldom when we have heard the first word, do we hear the last. An inundation of evil is poured in. . . . The bank is much more easily preserved than repaired. . . . For, as one strongly observed, "Man knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the issues thereof?"--Bridges.
Quietness is like a pleasant pond full of sweet fish sporting themselves up and down in it, and multiplying continually to a great increase; so in a quiet life men's affairs do prosper, and their estate is increased to plenty and abundance, so that they bathe themselves in the comfort of it. But let the sluice be taken up, the fishes are quickly gone, the waters stay not until they be gone also, and nothing but mud and mire is left; and even so let the gap of contention be opened, all comforts flee away, and usually the estates sink lower and lower until it be dried up to beggary and misery. Make up, then, all breaches as soon as they appear, or rather keep all sound by watchfulness, so that no breach may appear. And let not the serpent get in his head, for, because the scales of his body stand the other way, it is not easy to get it out again; because the mind of thine adversary is made averse from thee, it is not easy to end a strife begun.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.
INVERSION AND RESTITUTION.
+I. A present inversion of moral order.+ There is an established law, by which things spiritual are governed as well as things material. According to this law, punishment ought to come to the unrighteous and the righteous should be justified; that is, they should be declared to be righteous and treated accordingly. This law must and will prevail in the upshot and issue of things, because the Great Lawgiver of the universe is perfectly just and holy; but it does not always govern the dealings of men with men. Injustice may be meted out to a man by his fellow-man from ignorance. A human judge may pass an unjust sentence upon a prisoner, or society may condemn a man undeservedly simply because they are ignorant of all the facts of the case. We are so little capable of weighing all the motives of our fellow-creatures, that we may unwittingly sometimes justify the wicked and condemn the just. But the proverb is evidently directed against those who do it because they are themselves unrighteous--against those who are prompted by motives of self-interest or malice or by a simple hatred of good wherever it is found.
+II. A future restitution of moral order.+ If a man has an ear for music, all discordant tones are displeasing to him; but when the law of harmony is entirely subverted, all his musical sensibilities are outraged. So when a righteous man becomes cognizant of some gross injustice his whole soul rises up in protest against it. What therefore must be the light in which the perfectly pure and just God regards such subversion of moral order? He can but regard it with repugnance. But the certainty of this fact makes another fact no less certain--viz., that there will come a period in the history of the universe when this inversion shall cease, when moral order shall be restored, and it shall be no longer possible for the wicked to be justified, or for the righteous to be condemned. Thus saith the Lord, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness. . . . Which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. v. 20, 23, 24). When this sentence is completely carried out moral order and harmony will be restored to the universe.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
This verse shows that the term justify (Hebrew, matzeddik) is forensic, to pronounce just one, even though not just in himself: a keyword in the doctrinal Epistle to the Romans: the opposite of "condemn" or pronounce impious (mareshiang).--Fausset.
That "both" should be, to the expression "even" seems to point to as wonderful. They are both very plain propositions; and yet neither of them, in the mind of the sinner, is free from half-conscious surprise. That God "will by no means clear the guilty" (Exod. xxxiv. 7) and, therefore, that "without the shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22), when learned, is half the Gospel. To learn it easily, would imply that "then hath the offence of the Cross ceased" (Gal. v. 11). God will not condemn Himself in his "righteous" action, and He cannot "justify the wicked" without a mediator; and Solomon, without being able to clear all the difficulties, sets in this sentence as one of the great timbers of thought, which he looks to to defend the Gospel.--Miller.
He spareth the wolf and so hurteth the lambs; He toucheth the members of Christ and the very apples of the Lord's eye.--Muffet.
But let us place ourselves before the "Judge of all" accused by Satan, our own conscience, and the righteous law of God; convicted of every charge; yet justified. Does God then in thus "justifying the ungodly" (Rom. iv. 5) contravene this rule? Far from it. If He justifies the wicked, it is on account of righteousness (Ib. iii. 25, 26). If He condemns the just, it is on the imputation of unrighteousness. Nowhere throughout the universe do the moral perfections of the Governor of the world shine so gloriously as at the cross of Calvary. The satisfaction of the holy law, and the manifestation of righteous mercy, harmonise with the justification of the condemned sinner. And this combined glory tunes the song of everlasting praise.--Bridges.
That condemning the just is a grievous crime, there is no doubt. But some will be startled at the wise man's assertion, that justifying the wicked is a crime of the like nature and malignity. But we rebel against God by turning to the right hand, as well as by turning to the left, from that way in which we are commanded to walk. Justifying the wicked has an appearance of mercy in it, but there is cruelty to millions in unreasonable acts of mercy to individuals. It was not altogether without ground observed by a senator to the Emperor Cocceius Nerva, when his detestation of his predecessor's cruelty seduced him into the extreme of clemency,--That it was bad to live in a state where every thing was forbidden, but worse to live in a state where every thing was allowed. Historians tell us, that the provinces of the empire suffered more oppression under the administration of this mild prince, than in the bloody reign of Domitian.--Lawson.
As in the administration of justice, in the world or in the Church, so in the official declaration of doctrine and of duty, faithfulness is the first and most essential qualification. No "gift," no bribe, no love of gain,--or, in the apostle's words, "greed of filthy lucre,"--must ever be allowed to corrupt "the man of God," and tempt him either to pervert or to keep back the truth--to "shun to declare" any part of "the counsel of God," or to utter a single sentiment but what he believes to be a lesson of God's Word, a Divinely authorised message. For a minister of Christ either to say what is false or to withhold what is true, from a wish to please those on whom he may feel himself dependent, is as unworthy of him as for a judge on the civil bench to pervert justice, and may be to others unspeakably more mischievous. The decisions of the latter can affect only what is temporary; the effects of the former's unfaithful temporising may extend to eternity. The guilt of the former, therefore, may be greater than that of the latter, in the proportion of the value of the soul to the body, of eternity to time. There must be no bribery or corruption here. O to be able to say with Paul, "I am clear from the blood of all men."--Wardlaw.
When Jacob, blessing the sons of Joseph, put his hands across, and laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh the elder, the thing displeased Joseph. But Jacob refused to have his hands removed. Now that which Jacob did in the blessing of his grandchildren, the same is the cursed doing of many who in the world are seated in the place of justice. For those whom God setteth on His right hand, they set on the left, those who God setteth on His left hand they set on the right. . . . And though God Himself call to them, Not so, yet they refuse to alter their sentence. . . . And though their hands in justifying go across, yet being joined together in wickedness they are both an abomination to the Lord.--Jermin.
He that saith to the wicked, thou are righteous (1) condemneth the law of God, for that condemneth the wicked; (2) doth as much as he may to bring sin into credit, that others also should practise it without fear or reproach; (3) hardeneth the heart and hurteth the soul of the offender, debarring him from corrections, which are God's medicines for the curing of evils. He dealeth as a murderer under the name of a physician that encourageth his patient to eat the poison freely.--Dod.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.
NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES.
+I. One of the uses which ought to be made of wealth.+ Men ought to use it to "get wisdom." it is obvious that a wealthy man has more opportunities of gaining knowledge than a poor man has, and an increase of knowledge ought to make a man wiser. A rich man's wealth gives him access to the wisdom of the great minds of past ages, and it often obtains for him the companionship of the most learned men of his own generation. It enables him to gain a knowledge of the world on which he lives and of the men who people it; by travel he can stand face to face with all the glorious works of God in nature, and he can mingle with men of various races and see human nature in all its various phases. And these experiences ought to make him a wise man. Wealth is given to men for this purpose, among others, to make them intellectually and morally better--for although spiritual blessings cannot be purchased for money, yet where the grace of God is in the heart, the "price in the hand" will increase a man's opportunities of growing in the knowledge of God and in the practice of godliness. Those who are "rich in this world" may and ought to lay "up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim. i. 17-19). Their wealth ought not to be a hindrance but a help to high spiritual attainments. When we use bread rightly we get strength out of it; when we use water rightly we get refreshment out of it; when we use light rightly we get guidance out of it; and when the gift of wealth is rightly used, men get wisdom out of it.
+II. Wealth bestowed, where we can give no reason for its bestowal.+ Wealth in the hand of a fool seems thrown away. If we saw a bundle of bank-notes in the hands of an infant we should at once say they were in the wrong hand; but many a princely fortune is at the disposal of men who are as incapable now of putting it to a good use, as they were when they were children. Neither the head nor the heart are capable of guiding the hand--there is neither moral nor intellectual capability to make the riches the means of blessing even the possessor. "Wherefore," then, "is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom," especially when there are so many men in poverty who would make the best possible use of riches? We cannot answer the question. Even the wise man does not attempt to solve the problem. Men daily come face to face with facts connected with human existence which they cannot explain. In some of these they can see adaptation; although they cannot tell how it is that the thing is so, they can discern a fitness in its being so. But there are other facts in the government of God for which we can assign no reason, and the "price in the hand of a fool" is one of them. The Divine Ruler of men's destines fulfils His wise purposes in ways and by means which often perplex His finite creatures.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
We understand the term "a price," as signifying whatever puts it in anyone's power to acquire the particular object. The phraseology is borrowed from the market. Any article, we are wont to say, may be had there, if a man has but the price to pay for it. What the "price" is to the article wanted, the means of acquiring are to "wisdom." When we wish to put any article of ordinary merchandise within a person's power, we furnish that person with the price at which it is valued. There are cases, however, in which this may not be enough. The price may be in a man's hand, and yet the article may not be within his reach, not, at the time, to be had. Happily, it is never so with the wisdom here spoken of. If the means are possessed of acquiring it, it may always be acquired. It is in the hand of God himself; and He is never either at a distance that we cannot repair to Him, or unwilling to bestow it upon us when we come to Him for it--bestow it, I say, for we must remember, with regard to divine wisdom, that, in a literal sense, it cannot be purchased. It must be had "without money and without price." It is not to be "gotten for gold." Why is it, then, that in so many cases in which "the price is in the hand to get wisdom," the means of securing it possessed, its lessons remained unlearned, the mind ignorant, the heart unimproved? . . . Here is the answer--the only one that can with truth be given,--there has been "no heart to it." The principle is of wide application, and might be largely illustrated. . . . There is no maxim more thoroughly established by experience, than that a man cannot excel in anything to which his heart does not lie. When do men succeed best in the pursuit of any object? Is it not when they have a heart to it? What is it that keeps all men astir in the pursuit and acquisition of wealth? Is it not that they have a heart to it? How do men acquire celebrity in any of the departments of science or of art? Is it not when they have a heart to it?--some measure of enthusiastic eagerness and persevering delight in the pursuit? . . . I put it to your consciences,--whether there be anything else whatever, that keeps you from the knowledge and the fear of God, wherein true religion consists, than your having no heart to them? Talk not to me of inability:--your inability is entirely moral, and consists in nothing else whatever than your "having no heart" to that which is good. And is this not criminal? If not, then there is no sin nor crime on earth, in hell, in the universe; nor is the existence or the conception of such a thing as moral evil possible. The want of heart to that which is good, is the very essence of all that is sinful. You offer anything but a valid excuse for your want of religion, when you say you "have no heart to it." You plead in excuse the very essence of your guilt. If you desired to fear God, and could not help the contrary, your inability might be something in your behalf. But the thing cannot be. To desire to fear God, and not to be able, is a contradiction in terms. The having of the desire is the having of the principle. There can be no desiring to fear without fearing, no desiring to love without loving.--Wardlaw.
No means can make a man wise who wanteth a good will to learn heavenly wisdom. Ishmael had good education, and Ahithophel had quick capacity, and the fool spoken of in the Gospel had great wealth, and none of all these attained to any grace. One of them was strong, and another witty, and another wealthy, but never a one wise and godly. Judas had as good a teacher as Peter, or as any other apostle, and had as good company, and saw as many miracles; and yet they having good hearts become worthy and excellent persons, and he having a false heart became a traitor and a devil.--Dod.
Wherefore serve good natural parts, either of body or mind; or authority, opportunity, or other advantages, if they be not rightly improved and employed? Certainly they will prove no better than Uriah's letters to those that have them; or as the sword which Hector gave to Ajax, which, so long as he used it against his enemies, served for help and defence, but after he began to abuse it, turned into his own bowels. This will be a bodkin at thy heart one day: "I might have been saved, but I woefully let slip those opportunities which God had thrust into my hand."--Trapp.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 17, 18, and of CHAP. xviii. 24.
TRUE FRIENDSHIP.
+I. A true friend loves under all conditions.+ 1. He loves in times of separation. The distance between our earth and the sun does not prevent the one from influencing the other--there is a power in gravitation which can make itself felt even when the objects affected by it are thousands of miles apart. So true love is quite independent of space--oceans may roll between the friends, yea, the very grave may separate them, and yet the gravitating force which first drew the heart of one man to another will make itself felt. It has been said that the dead and the absent have no friends, but this is a libel upon human nature. A friend loveth whether the object of his love is present or absent, and will, if needs be, defend his friend's character when he is not present to speak for himself. 2. He loves even in times of temporary estrangement. Transitory differences are not incompatible with the most genuine friendship, and while human nature is in its present imperfect condition it will sometimes happen that one real and true friend will disappoint and grieve another. But if the real and true feeling is in the heart it will be as unshaken by these temporary disturbances as the root of the tree is by the storm-wind that moves its branches.
+II. Friendship is especially precious in times of trial.+ True friends are not like the locust, which seeks only the green pastures and fruitful fields, and leaves them as soon as it has taken from them all that it could feed upon, but they are like the stars, the value of whose light is only really understood when all other lights are absent. When all is going well with a man he may underestimate the value of his friend's regard; he may not really know how heartfelt it is; but when misfortune, or sickness, or bereavement overtake him, he realises that a "brother is born for adversity."
+III. There is a bond stronger than any tie of blood-relationship.+ We have abundant and melancholy proofs that the mere fact of being brothers according to the flesh does not make men one in heart. The first man who tasted death was murdered by his brother, and many sons of the same father since that day have been separated from each other by a hatred as deep and deadly as that which prompted Cain to murder Abel. In the family in which Solomon was a son there was one brother with the blood of another upon his head (2 Sam. xiii. 28-30). Something stronger and deeper than the mere tie of blood is needed to make men one in heart. The most beautiful example of friendship upon record existed between the son of Saul and the shepherd of Bethlehem where there was no relationship according to the flesh, and where the heir-apparent to the throne loved as his own soul the youth who was to supplant him. There is no friendship so firm and enduring as that which is based upon doing the will of God (Mark iii. 35) no brotherhood so perfect and lasting as that which has its origin in a common discipleship to Him who is not ashamed to call them brothers (Heb. ii. 11), and who is Himself the "friend above all others," whose love can span the distance between His throne in glory and the meanest hovel upon earth, and the greater distance between Divine perfection and human sinfulness, and who was in all things "made like unto his brethren," that having Himself "suffered being tempted, He might be able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb. ii. 17), and thus prove Himself to be pre-eminently the "Brother born for adversity," and the "Friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
+IV. It is an evidence of great folly to treat men as bosom-friends before we know them.+ There are men who will trust in a comparative stranger to such an extent as to lend their credit and their good name to him without any reasonable security. Such a man Solomon here characterises as being "void of understanding." It is a mark of a fool to enter into any engagement without deliberation, and in nothing does lack of wisdom more plainly manifest itself than in the formation of hasty friendships, especially if the friendship involves a man in any kind of suretyship. From lack of prudence in this matter many a man has been "all his lifetime subject to bondage." It behoves all men in the matter of friendship to follow the advice of Polonius:--
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
ILLUSTRATION OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP.
Damon was sentenced to die on a certain day, and sought permission of Dionysius of Syracuse to visit his family in the interim. It was granted on condition of securing a hostage for himself. Pythias heard of it, and volunteered to stand in his friend's place. The king visited him in prison, and conversed with him about the motive of his conduct, affirming his disbelief in the influence of friendship. Pythias expressed his wish to die, that his friend's honour might be vindicated. He prayed the gods to delay the return of Damon till after his own execution in his stead. The fatal day arrived. Dionysius sat on a moving throne drawn by six white horses. Pythias mounted the scaffold and thus addressed the spectators, "My prayer is heard; the gods are propitious, for the winds have been contrary till yesterday. Damon could not come, he could not conquer impossibilities; he will be here to-morrow, and the blood that is shed to-day shall have ransomed the life of my friend. Could I erase from your bosoms every mean suspicion of the honour of Damon, I should go to my death as I should to my bridal.". . . As he closed a voice in the distance cried, "Stop the execution!" and the cry was taken up and repeated by the whole assembly. A man rode up at full speed, mounted the scaffold, and embraced Pythias, crying, "You are safe now, my beloved friend! I have nothing but death to suffer, and am delivered from reproaches for having endangered a life so much dearer than my own." Pythias replied, "Fatal haste, cruel impatience! What envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favour? But I will not be wholly disappointed. Since I cannot die to save you, I will not survive you." The king was moved to tears, and, ascending the scaffold, cried, "Live, live, ye incomparable pair! Ye have borne unquestionable testimony to the existence of virtue, and that virtue equally evinces the existence of a god to reward it. Live happy, live renowned, and oh! form me by your precepts, as ye have invited me by your example, to be worthy of the participation of so sacred a friendship."
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Verse 17. "The Friend." We are to notice the article. It does not impair the proverb for its secular use. We have such an idiom: "the friend," i.e., the true friend. Even a worldly friend, to be worth anything, must be for all times; and what is a brother born for, but for distress? But spiritually, the article is just in its place. There is but One Only "Friend," and a "Brother" who would not have been "born" at all, but for the distress and straitness of His house.--Miller.
Friendship contrasted with the wicked decreases from hour to hour, like the early shadow of the morning; but friendship formed with the virtuous will increase like the shadow of evening, till the sun of life shall set.--Herder.
Extremity distinguisheth friends. Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give us over, when once we lie-a-dying; and yet the death-bed hath most need of comforts. Christ Jesus standeth by His in the pangs of death, and after death at the bar of judgment; not leaving them either in their bed or grave. I will use them, therefore, to my best advantage; not trust them. But for Thee, O my Lord, which in mercy and truth canst not fail me, who I have found ever faithful and present in all extremities, kill me, yet will I trust in Thee.--Bp. Hall.
A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but He swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets and make it fordable, and apt to drink up at the first revels of the Syrian star; but two torches do not divide, but increase the flame. And though my tears are the sooner dried up when they run on my friend's cheek in furrows of compassion; yet when my flame has kindled his lamp, we unite the glories, and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God; because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy.--Jeremy Taylor.
When a man blind from his birth was asked what he thought the sun was like, he replied, "Like friendship." He could not conceive of anything as more fitting as a similitude for what he had been taught to regard as the most glorious of material objects, and whose quickening and exhilarating influences he had rejoiced to feel.--Morris.
A brother for adversity is one who will act the brother in a season of adversity. Of such an one it is said, he must or shall be born, possibly, he is born. I do not understand this last clause unless the assertion is, that none but such as are born brethren, i.e., kindred by blood, will cleave to us in distress. Yet this is true only in a qualified sense. But another shade of meaning may be assigned to the passage, which is, that such a man as a friend in adversity is yet to be born, i.e., none such are now to be found; thus making it substantially equivalent in sense to the expression: "How few and rare are such faithful friends."--Stuart.
As in the natural, so in the spiritual brotherhood, misery breeds unity. Ridley and Hooper, that when they were bishops, differed so much about ceremonies, could agree well enough, and be mutual comforts one to another when they were both prisoners. Esther concealed her kindred in hard times, but God's people cannot; Moses must rescue his beaten brother out of the hand of the Egyptian, though he venture his life by it.--Trapp.
Man in his weakness needs a steady friend, and God in His wisdom has provided one in the constitution of nature. Not entrusting all to acquired friendship, He has given us some as a birthright inheritance. For the day of adversity a brother is born to many who would not have been able to win one. It is at once a glory to God in the highest, and a sweet solace to afflicted men, when a brother or a sister, under the secret and steady impulses of nature, bears and does for the distressed what no other friend, however loving, could be expected to bear or do. How foolish for themselves are those who lightly snap those bonds asunder, or touch them oft with the corrosive drops of contention! One who is born your brother is best fitted to be your friend in trouble, if unnatural strife has not rent asunder those whom their Maker intended to be one in spirit. . . . "There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." He must be a fast friend indeed, for a brother, if nature's affections have been cherished, lies close in, and keeps a steady hold. . . . Oh, when hindering things are taken out of the way of God's work, a brother lies very close to a brother. He who comes closer must be no common friend. . . . It is the idea of a friendship more perfect, fitting more kindly into our necessities, and bearing more patiently with our weaknesses, than the instinctive love of a brother by birth. From God's hand-work in nature a very tender and a very strong friendship proceeds: from His covenant of mercy comes a friendship tenderer and stronger still. Now, although the conception is embodied in the communion of saints, its full realisation is only found in the love wherewith Christ loves His own. . . . The precious germ which Solomon's words unfold, bore its ripened fruit only when He who is bone of our bone gave Himself the just for the unjust. Thus by a surer process than verbal criticism, we are conducted to the man Christ Jesus, as at once the Brother born for adversity, and the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. . . . In the day of your deepest adversity even a born brother must let go his hold. That extremity is the opportunity of your best friend.--Arnot.
Verse 18. It is good to try him whom we intend for a bosom friend before we trust him; as men prove their vessels with water before they fill them with wine. Many complain of the treachery of their friends, and say, with Queen Elizabeth, that in trust they have found treason; but most of these have greatest cause, if all things be duly weighed, to complain of themselves for making no better choice.--Swinnock.
Seeing he hath not understanding to keep himself from hurt, it were good if he had not power in his hand to do himself hurt. . . . Surely such a fool may quickly wring his hands together in sorrow, who before did clap his hands in joy, and may strike himself in anger with the same hand, wherewith in the foolish kindness of surety he struck the hand of another. . . . For often this over-kind part of a friend is the breaking of friendship if it bring no further mischief.--Jermin.
The evil effects of strife and pride, which form the subject of verse 19, have been treated before. See on verse 14, and on chaps. xi. 2, and xvi. 18. Some expositors attach a slight difference to the meaning of the latter clause. See below.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
"Sets high (exalteth) his gate;" a figure that is probably misunderstood. It probably means belligerence. A moat over which issued armed bands, with banners and mounted spearmen, required high space to let them go forth. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates," etc. The soul that fixes itself that way against the Almighty, ready to march out upon Him on any occasion of quarrel, "seeks" ruin.--Miller.
The slothful man exposes himself to misery; but he waits for it till it comes upon him like a traveller. The aspiring man, that cannot be happy without a stately dwelling, and a splendid manner of living beyond what his estate will bear, seeks for destruction, and sends a coach and six to bring it to him.--Lawson.
"And he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction." Some take this for a comparison:--As surely as he that exalteth his gate (enlarging it out of due proportion) seeketh destruction to his house, by thus weakening its structure,--so surely does he that loveth strife generate transgression. The phrase "exalteth his gate," however, instead of being thus understood literally, may, with more propriety, be interpreted of a man's ambitiously affecting a style of living beyond his income--disproportionate to the amount of his means of maintaining it. The general character is described by one particular manifestation of it--the high style of the exterior of his mansion. The "exalting of the gate" applies to the entire style of his household establishment--not to his dwelling merely, but to his equipage, his table, his servants, his dress, and everything else. He who does this "seeks destruction:" he courts his own downfall, as effectually as if it were his direct object to ruin himself. Matthew Henry, in his own quaint and pithy way, says--"He makes his gate so large, that his house and estate go out at it."--Wardlaw.
There is none that loveth strife more than he that exalteth his gate, either the gate of his ears to hear the tales of others, and the praises of himself, or else the gates of his eyes overlooking others with scorn and disdain, and his own worth by many degrees, or else the gate of his mouth, which is properly the gate of man, with big and swelling words, with high and lofty terms which usually are the sparks that kindle contention. But what doth such an one do, but ever seek for destruction, which at his lifted-up gate, findeth easy passage to run in upon him.--Jermin.
For Homiletics on the subjects of verses 20 and 21, see on chapter x. 1, 13, 14, etc., and on verse 24.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 22.
THE MERRY HEART.
+I. The mind acts upon the body.+ It is a fact which no observant man would deny, that there is an intimate connection between sorrow of soul and sickness of body, and that cheerfulness of spirit tends to physical health. A physician always tries to keep his patient in good spirits, and when he discerns that he is weighed down by some mental burden, he wisely seeks to lighten that as well as to administer remedies to the body. And when a man is in health cheerfulness of disposition tends to keep him so; while a depressed condition of mind makes him a more easy prey to disease. That "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones," is a convincing proof of the mysterious sympathy that exists between the man and his earthly dwelling-place.
+II. What will conduce to cheerfulness of spirit--to what Solomon here calls "a merry heart?"+ 1. A heart at peace with God. Some poisons taken into the system produce for a time a calming and quieting influence upon the body, but it is a quiet and a calm which comes from deadening the capabilities of feeling. Opium may send a man to sleep, but it is a sleep which gives neither refreshment nor strength. A quiet conscience is the first and indispensable element of heart-cheerfulness, and there are other methods of getting free for a time from pain of conscience beside "that peace with God which comes from being justified by faith" (Rom. v. 1). But all other quiet of soul comes from opiates whose power is but for a time, while this peace comes from the consciousness of reconciliation with God--from a sense of standing in a right relation to all that is right and true in the universe. 2. A vivid realisation of unseen realities. Though a state of reconciliation with God will give freedom from the sense of guilt, it does not always give that active state of cheerfulness which can be called "a merry heart." A river sometimes glides along between its banks in a state of undisturbed calmness; but there are times when the volume of water is so great that it overflows its channels. Peace is like a calm river, but joy is like one whose waters cannot contain themselves within its boundaries, but must pour forth on the right hand and on the left. Peace has been defined as "love resting," and joy as "love exulting." The one is a passive state of mind, while the other is active. But it is the latter, rather than the former, which makes that cheerful spirit which "doeth good like a medicine," and it is the fruit only of a vivid sense of "things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1). Those who live on high lands and breathe the pure mountain air, are conscious of an exuberance of animal life, of which even perfectly healthy people who live in the valleys know nothing. So, men who live in the higher regions of spiritual life know a "joy in God"--are sensible of an uplifting of spirit--to which ordinary and every-day Christians are strangers. They are not only believers, but they are filled with "all joy and peace in believing;" they not only have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," but they "rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. v. 1, 2). 3. A life of active love. A selfish man can never be a cheerful man--he who lives for himself alone can never know the healing power of "a merry heart." There can be no abiding cheerfulness of heart without joy in God, and there can be no abiding joy in God without love to man. "There is nothing," says Dr. Maclaren, "more evanescent in its nature than the emotion of religious joy, faith, or the like, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God. Such emotions, like photographs, vanish from the heart unless they be fixed. Work for God is the way to fix them. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but Work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God."
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind. . . . Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health. Repinings and secret murmurs of heart give imperceptible strokes to those delicate fibres of which the vital parts are composed, and wear out the machine insensibly; not to mention those violent ferments which they stir upon the blood, and those irregular disturbed motions which they raise in the animal spirits. I scarce remember, in my own observation, to have met with many old men, or with such who (to use our English phrase) wear well, that had not at least a certain indolence in their humour, if not a more than ordinary gaiety and cheerfulness of heart. The truth is, health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.--Addison.
The verb means, to cure, and, as far as we can fix it, the noun means, not a medicine, but a final "cure." In the world at large cheerfulness is an immense gift; but in religion the wise man wishes to say that hopefulness is strength (Neh. viii. 10); that it is better to look cheerfully upon God, than with complaints; that if we are to be cured at all, a glad heart will help it.--Miller.
All true mirth is from rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul. When faith hath once healed the conscience, and grace hath hushed the affections, and composed all within, so that there is a Sabbath of the spirit, and a blessed tranquility lodged in the soul, then the body also is vigorous and vegetous, for most part in very good plight and healthful constitution, which makes man's life very comfortable. . . . They that in the use of lawful means wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength (Isa. ix. 31).--Trapp.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 23.
BRIBERY.
+I. Its nature.+ An act of bribery may be committed without any monetary transaction taking place. It is not necessary that gold should pass from hand to hand to make a man guilty of bribery. It is not even necessary that there should be a distinct promise of any good either in the present or the future. A man bribes another if he merely implies by word or deed that he can make him suffer for speaking what he knows is the truth, and for acting according to the dictates of his conscience. And a man is guilty of accepting a bribe if he abstains from such speech or action from a fear of loss or from a hope of gain, although no distinct promise or threatening has been made by those whom he wishes to propitiate.
+II. Its cause.+ Want of integrity on the part of both the man who offers the bribe and him who accepts it. There are some men in the world to whom even a man who held their lives in his hand would not think of offering a bribe of any kind. He knows it would be as useless to attempt to make such men swerve from the path of right as to try to alter the course of the earth round the sun. There are many, we know, in this country, notwithstanding its many timeservers and place-hunters who, like Samuel of old can say, "Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or who have I defrauded, who have I oppressed, or of whose hands have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?" (1 Sam. xii. 3). Only one thing is needed to destroy bribery--in its most impalpable and shadowy forms as well as in its more glaring and shameless manifestations--and that is universal honesty of character. When every man loves truth and right more than he loves material gain then bribery will cease, but not before. Men may be restrained by shame from being guilty of it openly, and will call it by some less obnoxious name, but the spirit of bribery will be at work so long as there are men upon the earth who love gain more than godliness.
+III. The universal testimony of the human conscience against it.+ "The wicked man taketh a gift out of his bosom"--it is a transaction of secrecy--there is a shame connected with the act which proves that conscience condemns it. The man who offers the bribe does not do it openly, which shows that he is fully conscious that he is transgressing the law of right; and the man who accepts it does not boast openly that he has done so for the same reason. Bribery is a sin which is repeatedly denounced by God (Isa. i. 23, 24; Ezra xxii. 13), but men who have not possessed the light of revelation have denounced bribery as a crime.
+IV. Its effect.+ It "perverts the ways of justice." Its effect is to bring about that abomination mentioned in verse 15--the justification of the wicked and the condemnation of the just. (See Homiletics on that verse.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
An honest man would rather lose his cause, however just, than gain it by such a base thing as a bribe. It must have been a great bondage for Paul to have been confined in a prison, when he loved the pulpit so well, had not his will been sunk in the Will of God; yet he would not offer the least bribe to his covetous judge, who detained him in prison, expecting that money would be offered for his freedom (Acts xxiv. 6).--Lawson.
Is not the child of God often pressed with this temptation? Does the influence of a gift, the sense of obligation, never repress the bold consistency of godliness? Does no bias of friendship, no plausible advantage, entice into a crooked path?--Bridges.
There is a gift of thankfulness, there is a gift of reconciliation, there is a gift of goodwill, all these are lawful. Besides these there is a gift of corruption; this is unlawful.--Muffet.
Bribery is an officious fellow, and a special bidder to the fatal banquet, (Prov. ix. 17, 18). He invites both forward and froward: the forward and yielding by promises of good cheer, secunda dies, that they shall have a fair day of it; the backward, honest man, by terrors and menaces that his cause shall else go westward (indeed, it goes to Westminster!). Yea, with pretence of commiseration and pity, as if the conscience of their right did animate him to their cause. Thus with a show of sanctimony they get a saint's money; but indeed, argentum fæcundum, argumentum facundum,--there is no persuasion more pathethical than the purse's. Bribery stands at the stairfoot in the robes of an officer, and helps up injury to the place of audience; thus Judas's bag is drawn with two strings, made of silk and silver, favour and reward. All officers belong not to one court; their conditions alter with their places. There are some that seem so good that they lament the vices, whereupon they yet inflict but pecuniary punishments. Some of them are like the Israelites, with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, with the motto of that old emblem, In utrumque paratus; as the one daubs up justice, so the other cuts breaches of division. They mourn for truth and equity, as the sons of Jacob for Joseph, when themselves sold it; they exclaim against penal transgressions. . . . If the party be innocent, let his cause be sentenced for his innocence's sake; if guilty, let not gold buy out his punishment. If the cause be doubtful, the judge shall see it worse when he hath blinded his eyes with bribes. But the will of the giver doth transfer right of the gift to the receiver. No; for it is not a voluntary will. But as a man is willing to give his purse to the thief rather than venture life or limb, so the poor man gives his bribes rather than hazard his cause. Thou sayest the thief has no right to the purse so given; God saith, Nor thou to the bribe. . . . Far be from our souls this wickedness, that the ear which should be open to complaints is thus stopped with the ear-wax of partiality. Alas! poor Truth, that she must now be put to the charges of a golden ear-pick, or she cannot be heard.--T. Adams.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 24 _IN CONNECTION WITH THE FIRST CLAUSE OF VERSE_ 22.
THE EYES OF A FOOL AND THOSE OF A WISE MAN.
+I. Even a fool is conscious that there is good to be found.+ If we meet a traveller in search of a certain city, even although he is journeying in the very opposite direction to that in which the city lies, yet the fact that he is journeying at all shows that he is conscious of its existence. His eyes may be turned away from it instead of towards it, his feet may be carrying him every moment farther from it, yet he would not be seeking it in any direction if he had not a persuasion that it was in existence. A man may be digging for gold in a soil in which gold has never been found, nor ever will be, but the fact that he is digging anywhere proves that he is alive to the fact that there is gold in the world. So the fool is here represented as seeking--which shows that he is persuaded that there is a certain good and desirable thing which is attainable. Most men are seeking--"There be many which say, Who will show us any good?" (Psalms iv. 6). They are in one direction and another looking for that which will satisfy and ennoble them, and this universal quest proves a universal sense of the existence of some desirable good.
+II. But the fool looks afar for what he needs while it is close at hand.+ An idle, unpractical man of business spends his time in fancies that he could make his fortune if he were in some far-off land, and all the time misses the opportunities of doing so which are within his reach at home. The idle youth dreams of the grand things he would do if he were a man, and neglects to do that which would ennoble and bless his present life. It is a very common characteristic of moral fools to imagine that they would be blest if they possessed something which is entirely beyond their reach, whereas means of obtaining the only real and lasting good are scattered around them so abundantly that they trample them every day under their feet. Every sinful man feels that it would be good for him to stand in a different relation to God, but he does not always seek that good in the direction in which it is to be found. He feels his need of a different disposition and character, but he does not go in quest of them where they may be found. In verse 22 the wise man traces this habit of the moral fool to the source. He finds "no good" because he "is froward in heart." The fruitlessness of his search is due to nothing else but to his own perversity. He would rather demand external evidence for the truth of revelation than test it by compliance with its precepts. He excuses his neglect of the plain commands of God, by dwelling upon mysteries connected with His Gospel, which finite minds cannot solve. Israel of old was warned of this error. "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it" (Deut. xxx. 11-14). And Paul convicts them of the same sin after the coming of the Messiah. The Scribes and Pharisees in the days of Christ perversely looked everywhere for light, except to the moral sun which was shining in their midst.
+III. The man whose understanding is enlightened not only knows what he needs, but he knows where to find it.+ It is a mark of practical sagacity in human affairs to know what is wanted, and to know also where to look for a supply of the want. A traveller ought not only to know the name of the city which he wants to find, but he ought to know upon which road to travel to find it. The physician ought not only to know what his patient needs, but he ought to know where to find the remedy. The statesman ought to be able to detect the nation's needs, and he ought also to know where to look for a supply of the need. And so in every department of social life. A man's life will be a failure if he can only discern that something is wanting in himself, in his family, or in his business, but does not know where to turn to supply the want. So it is in spiritual things. But he who is morally wise knows what is the real good to be aimed at, and knows where to seek it. He knows that "happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding," that "the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold" (chap. iii. 13, 14). And he knows that it is "before him"--that the "fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding" (Job. xxviii. 28); and that he need not go "to the ends of the earth" in quest of this, but that it is within the reach of every sincere and earnest seeker. (Many expositors give this verse a different rendering. See Critical Notes. It would then express a truth similar to that contained in Homiletics on chap. xiii. 14, page 313.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Heaven is able to know so much more plainly than hell. The very thing which is the best enlightener, the minds of hell will be entirely without. "The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not in me. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears." Hell, therefore, will always cavil. If saints judge better than sinners, how much better God than saints. "Wisdom is before (His) very face," while the "eyes," not of the "stupid" only, but of Gabriel himself, must be in the respect of contrast, "at the end of the earth." "At the end," not in the middle, where the thing can be best judged, but at the dark extremity.--Miller.
The countenance is the glass of the mind, and the star of the countenance is the eye. "In the face of the prudent wisdom is present." In the whole countenance of the discreet person, and in every part thereof, there is a wise moderation; for in his brows he carrieth calmness, in his eyes modesty, in his cheeks cheerfulness, in his lips comeliness, in his whole face a certain grace and staidness. "But the eyes of the fool are in the ends of the earth." On the contrary, he who is simple or vain governeth not his very eyes aright, but letteth loose unto them the bridle in such sort as that they roll or rove after every vanity, or pry into every corner.--Muffet.
We must not only learn wisdom, but keep it in our eyes, that it may be a light to our feet; for a man that has wisdom in his mind, and forgets to use it, is like one that has money in his chest, but forgets to carry some of it with him when he is going a long journey, to bear his necessary expenses. He will be at a great loss, on many occasions, that has money in his house, but none in his pocket.--Lawson.
"But the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth." He has no fixed and steady principle or rule; nothing on which he fixes his eye for his guidance. His thoughts are incessantly wandering after matters he has nothing to do with,--anything and everything but that which he should at the time be minding;--roving after every vanity, and keeping steadily no pursuit. It is specially true of "things pertaining to salvation." Wisdom, in this matter above all others, is "before him that hath understanding." He looks to one point. He sees one thing to be needful. He sees the wisdom of God providing for it. There he fixes. And this is wisdom. It is ever before him. One end--one means. Whereas "the fool's eyes are in the ends of the earth." He has examined nothing. He roves at random, with no determinate ideas about the most interesting, by infinite degrees, of all concerns. Ask him how he hopes to be saved, and you immediately discover his thoughtless unsettledness. He is "in the ends of the earth." His answer is to seek. It is here, it is there, it is nowhere. He hesitates, he supposes, he guesses, he is at a stand--he cannot tell. . . . There is another character that may here be meant, namely, the schemer, the visionary projector. The truly intelligent man applies the plain and obvious dictates of common sense to the attainment of his end; but the scheming visionary fool is ever after out-of-the-way plans, new and far-fetched expedients.--Wardlaw.
Wisdom is full in the sight of the man of understanding, he beholdeth the beauty and perfection of it, he looketh into the worth and happiness of it. He sets it before him as a pattern, by which he frameth and ordereth all his ways, all his doings. His eye is never from it. It is the glass by which he espieth out the blemishes and defects of his life, and if he see in it a true resemblance of himself, it is not the glass that must be said to be true for that cannot be false, but it is himself that is a man of true worth; the glass approving his goodness, not he the goodness of the glass. But a fool beholds wisdom as a thing afar from him; he discerneth not what it is, nor what is the glory and excellency of it: he perceiveth nothing whereby either to take direction from it, or liking to it. He thinketh that he must go to the ends of the earth to get it, and if ever, it is in the end of his life, that he hath any sight of it. . . . Or else we may understand the latter part of the verse thus: That a fool's eyes are in the ends of the earth, because in any trouble or distress he looketh all up and down the earth, from one end of it to the other for help and succour, and in the end as a fool remaineth helpless. But wisdom is before him that hath understanding, and stopping his eyes from looking too much that way, turneth them and directeth them up to heaven, where help ought to be sought and is sure to be found.--Jermin.
Verse 25 is a repetition of the thought in verse 21. For Homiletics and Comments see on chap. x. 1.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 26.
SMITING THE JUST.
This verse has been variously rendered and explained. (See Critical Notes and the comments of different expositors.) It suggests, however--
+I. That punishment in itself is sometimes necessary and desirable.+ When the laws of the family are wise and good, it is a great misfortune for the children, and a great sin against them, not to visit their transgressions with a suitable punishment. And it is absolutely essential to the existence of a well-ordered state, that there should be punishment for those who rebel against righteous laws. Civil rule is of Divine ordination--"the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. xiii. 1). When, therefore, there is no just cause for civil rebellion, it is a sin not only against the state but against the Ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth, to break the established laws. Punishment forms a necessary part of the government of the universe. God has, both by example and precept, shown its necessity. When there was rebellion in heaven against a perfect government, punishment followed, which was proportioned to the greatness of the transgression--the sentence passed upon the first rebel in the universe and upon those who were confederate with him was a terrible one, but it was only commensurate to the exceeding magnitude of the offence. If rebellion against a government had been allowed to go unpunished, it would have made way for universal anarchy. And a community of any kind without punishment for transgressors, is lacking in a most essential element of its peace and stability.
+II. But those whose moral character fits them to be the awarders of punishment are often the victims of it.+ The natural and right order of things in this respect is often exactly the reverse of what it ought to be, and just and noble men are treated as transgressors and suffer the punishment which ought to fall upon their persecutors. Might is very far from being right in this world, and even in this country Richard Baxter stood at the bar while Judge Jeffries sat upon the bench. The apostles of the Lord suffered scourging at the hands of the council at Jerusalem (Acts v. 40); Paul was condemned to death by Nero, and Incarnate Righteousness was crucified between two thieves at the instigation of some of the worst men that the world has ever seen. In all these cases, and in ten thousand others, the just were smitten, and as a rule they have suffered, not merely although they were righteous, but because they were so--it was their integrity that aroused the enmity of their persecutors--these moral "princes" were "stricken for equity."
+III. Such an abuse of power will in its turn be visited with punishment.+ Those who have thus unjustly condemned the righteous, have found in their own personal experience that "to punish the just is not good"--"not good" for their own peace of mind--not good for their future reputation--not good for the nation who instigated them or permitted them to do the deed. Haman found that it was not good for him to aim a blow at the upright Mordecai when he was himself hanged upon his own gallows; the Persian princes found it was not good to strike a prince for equity when they were themselves cast into the den of lions; Judge Jeffries found it out when he lay face to face with death in the Tower. And among all the nations whose history has confirmed the truth of the text, none stands out so prominently as that one whose king was the author of the proverb. The punishment of the just--the striking of moral princes for equity--was one of the most prominent of their national crimes, and He whose death at their hands filled up the measure of their iniquity, declared that it was the great cause of their national ruin. "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them that killed the prophets. . . . Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and Scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" (Matt. xxiii. 29-35). The Jewish nation has been for nearly nineteen centuries a witness that "to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity."
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Even deserved punishment to the righteous does not seem good when designed to chasten the willing with a view to holiness. "Even." This seems to have been treated as a word de trop. King James' men made it also; as though Solomon grew tired of sameness, and broke the monotone by a new opening vocable. But with the above rendering it takes its usual sense. "Righteous." This word and "punishment" bear the weight of the word "even." Even the righteous, who ought to know better; and "even punishment," which the righteous, at last, ought to be willing to bear.--Miller.
Often is the wise man's meaning much beyond his words. To punish the just not only is not good, but it is "the abomination" (verse 15)--"an evident token of perdition" (Philip. i. 28). If rulers are "a terror to good works," they are ministers of God in authority, but ministers of Satan in administration. And how will such injustice "abide the day of His coming," when He shall "lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet!"--Bridges.
The word prince signifies noble, and is differently understood. It may be applied to the nobility of station, or to that of mind. Some give preference to the latter; and by interpreting it of the noble-minded, and the "just" in the former clause, of the righteous or the people of God, make the two clauses thus to correspond, and to have much the same import. It seems, however, both more natural and more comprehensive to consider two ideas to be expressed; the one relating to the duty of the ruler, and the other to that of the ruled. It is the incumbent duty of the ruler, on the one part, to administer justice with strict impartiality. It is the duty, on the other part, of subjects to countenance, encourage, and support the ruler in the equitable administration of his trust. To "strike" is evidently to be understood, not literally alone of actual striking, but of "smiting with the tongue" as well as with the fist or the rod,--of all kinds of vituperation and abuse, and attempts to bring the throne into disrepute and odium, and unsettle its stability, by shaking the confidence and attachment of the community. There are many occasions in which a man may be tempted to this. He may, in particular cases, have his mind biassed by pride, by self-interest, by partiality towards a friend, by political predilections; so that even when all has been done with impartial investigation, and the judgment pronounced according to legitimate rules of evidence and demands of equity, there may be unfair, unreasonable and angry dissatisfaction; and the prince may be smitten for justice. Every man ought to be on his guard against this. The higher the responsibility,--the more burdensome and difficult the trust,--and the more serious the results of bringing authorities and the laws into disesteem, and unsettling public confidence in them,--ought to be the amount of our reluctant caution in pronouncing censure. Another remark may be ventured. One of the great difficulties with which governments of great nations have to contend, arises from the variety of crossing and contending interests with which they have to deal. How anxious soever they may honestly be, to allow no undue bias to draw them from the line of impartial justice, yet there is hardly a measure they can adopt that does not affect differently different classes of the community; so that, from their various predisposing circumstances, that shall appear to one class--to those in one particular department of trade or commerce--the very essence of injustice, which by another is lauded as a most unexceptionable exemplification of impartial equity. This ought surely to have the effect--I do not by any means say of forbidding the most vigilant observance and the freest and most searching scrutiny and discussion of every measure, and the exposure of its evil or questionable character and tendency--but assuredly of procuring some allowance for the difficulty of the task of pleasing all parties, and some moderation in the tone of censure even where to us the grounds for it are clear and palpable. No man who knows himself will affirm, in almost any case, that, placed, in other circumstances, he might not see with other eyes. I speak in general. There are cases in which the interests of a suffering country are, to a vast extent, involved, in which it becomes every man's paramount duty to speak out and to speak plainly, and to make the ears of the rulers to tingle with the outcry of humanity and justice. I would further apply the spirit of this verse to the case of arbitrators. We have ourselves, it may be, consented to submit a litigated point to arbitration. We do so with a full persuasion of our being in the right--of our claim being the just one. But the arbiters unite in giving it against us. It would be most unreasonable on our part to retain a grudge, especially at the one appointed by ourselves, on this account. Our reference implied confidence in his impartiality and honour, and implied a pledge of cheerful acquiescence. To grumble, to censure, and to withdraw our friendship, would be indeed to "strike him for equity." He would have proved himself unworthy of his trust, if his disposition to please and serve us had been too strong for principle, conscience, and oath. There is one government, in which "the just" are never "punished"--all whose laws and all whose sanctions are the perfection of equity. But alas! it is under that very government that the spirit expressed by the phrase "striking princes for equity" is most fearfully manifested. All the murmurings of sinners against either the law of God or its revealed and threatened penalty, are the very essence, in its deepest malignity, of this spirit.--Wardlaw.
Righteous men are princes in all lands (Psa. xlv. 16); yea, they are kings in righteousness as Melchisedec. Indeed they are somewhat obscure kings as he was, but kings they appear to be, by comparing Matt. xiii. 17 with Luke x. 24; "many righteous," saith Matthew, "many kings," saith Luke. Now, to strike a king is high treason; and although princes have put up blows, as when one struck our Henry VI., he only said, "Forsooth, you do wrong yourself more than me, to strike the Lord's anointed."--Trapp.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 27, 28.
TWO BADGES OF A WISE MAN.
+I. Reticence of speech.+ This subject has been dwelt on before. See on chap. x. 19-21. The verses before us suggest further that a man who is sparing of words is not necessarily a man of abundant wisdom, for even a fool may hold his peace sometimes. Solomon elsewhere tells us that "a fool uttereth all his mind" (Prov. xxix. 11); but the fool of this text is not so foolish as to do that. It has been remarked that "by silence a fool abates something of his senselessness, and since he gets the opportunity to collect himself and to reflect, a beginning of wisdom is developed in him" (Von Gerlach). It argues some amount of wisdom in a man if he is silent when he has nothing to say which is worth the saying. But the false conclusion must not be drawn, that every man who is not given to much speech is a man of great understanding and of vast mental resources. It is much better that the stone should remain upon the mouth of a well of impure water, but it must not be taken for granted, because the well is kept closed, that there is a supply of life-giving water within.
+II. Calmness of temper.+ It is a mark of wisdom to strive after a "cool" (excellent) "spirit." 1. It makes life more pleasant. A man who allows himself to be vexed and irritated by all the annoyances of every-day life has no enjoyment of his existence. A fretful and hasty temper makes every bitter draught more bitter, and takes the sweetness out of the cup that would otherwise be a pleasant one. 2. It makes a man more respected and more useful. A man who cannot curb his temper is a despicable object, and will certainly be despised. A passionate man may be pitied and excused, but he cannot be respected. Hence he cannot have much influence for good upon others. This subject also has been treated before. See Homiletics on chap. xiv. 17 and 29, pages 363 and 386.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
"He that retains his words knows knowledge." The words are precise. It is the fact that he "knows knowledge" that impels a man to restrain his words. If he did not "know knowledge," if he had not light, and did not know it when he saw it; if he did not see light in God, and know it when he has seen it, and really see enough of it to convince him that "God is light," he could not stand the darkness. The unfortunates in hell have no light to enable them to endure the dark. But the saint, knowing knowledge, and seeing that it exists in God, is balanced enough against the mysteries to enable him to restrain his words. . . . The wise man asserts that this silence is a chief mark of piety. . . . If a man do shut his lips he is wise. . . . The fool is a wise man when he is silent, and when, in meek submission, he bows to what he cannot understand.--Miller.
He cannot be known for a fool who says nothing. He is a fool, not who hath unwise thoughts, but who utters them. Even concealed folly is wisdom.--Bp. Hall.
He that hath knowledge hath not many words: the fulness of the one causeth in him a scarcity of the other. And there is nothing that he spendeth idly more unwillingly than his words. But yet, having knowledge, he knoweth both when to spare and when to spend. . . . The original words here are knowing knowledge, for many know much, but it is not knowledge that they know. Some labour hard and waste their time to know needless vanities, which, being better unknown, have not true knowledge in them. . . . Right knowledge is the knowledge of the Lord, and he that knoweth this spareth his words to spend them to God's glory. And as it is in many the penury of their knowledge that causeth the superfluity of their words, so chiefly is the lack of this knowledge. For it is by this knowledge we learn that an account must be given for every idle word. . . . Silence being so rare a virtue, where wisdom doth command it, it is accounted a virtue where folly doth impose it. He that fails of this first help, and is so far gone in folly as that his tongue outgoes his understanding, yet hath a second help, and that is to stop, and shut his lips before they go too far, which, though not the first, yet is a second praise; and he hath the repute of some understanding who either seeth, or is thought to see, his want of understanding.--Jermin.
It has been safely enough alleged that of two men equally successful in the business of life, the man who is silent will be generally deemed to have more in him than the man who talks; the latter "shows his hand;" everybody can tell the exact length of his tether; he has trotted himself out so often that all his points and paces are a matter of notoriety. But of the taciturn man, little or nothing is known. "The shallow murmur but the deep are dumb." Friends and acquaintances shake their heads knowingly, and exclaim with an air of authority, that "So and so" has a great deal more in him than people imagine. They are as often wrong as right, but what need that signify to the silent man? . . . To follow out one of the Caxtonian essayist's illustrations,--When we see a dumb strong-box, with its lid braced down by iron clasps and secured by a jealous padlock, involuntarily we supposed that its contents must be infinitely more precious than the gauds and nicknacks which are unguardedly scattered about a lady's dressing-room. "Who could believe that a box so rigidly locked had nothing in it but odds and ends, which would be just as safe in a bandbox?"--Jacox.
* * * * * *
Chapter XVIII
CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Through desire, etc.+ The readings and expositions of this verse are many. Zöckler translates, "He that separateth himself seeketh his own pleasure, against all counsel doth he rush on," and the renderings of Stuart, Miller, and Delitzsch are substantially the same, except that Delitzsch translates the latter clause--"against all that is beneficial he shows his teeth." Other readings are "A self-conceited fool seeks to gratify his fancy and intermingleth himself with all things" (Schultens); "He who has separated himself agitates questions as his desire prompts, and breaks his teeth on every hard point" (Schulz); "He seeks occasion, who desires to separate himself from his friends" (Hodgson). Others read as in the Authorised Version. (See Comments.) +3. Ignominy,+ rather, "shameful deeds." +4.+ The last clause of this verse may be divided into two smaller ones and placed in apposition, thus: "a babbling brook,"--a fountain of wisdom. Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word used for man is ish, a good man, not adam, the general term for man. +6. Calleth for.+ Stuart understands this in the sense of "to deserve." +8. Wounds.+ The word so translated occurs only here and in chap. xxvi. 22, and will bear very different renderings. Some translate it words of sport (Stuart and Zöckler); others, with Delitzsch, dainty morsels; others, "whispers, soft breezes." +9. Waster,+ or destroyer. +10. Safe,+ or lifted high. +14. Infirmity,+ i.e., sickness, disease of body. As in similar verses, Miller translates +"a wounded spirit;"+ a spirit of upbraiding. Here again, as in verse 4, the Hebrew word ish is used for man. +16. A man's gifts.+ "Hebrew, adam, the gift of a man, however humble and low" (Fausset). +19. "Is harder to be won;"+ these words are not in the original, but have been inserted to supply the sense. Some translators read "a brother offended resisteth more than a strong city." Miller reads, "When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength." +20. Satisfied.+ "If this word is taken in a good sense the fruit must be good; but it may be ironical, meaning false or malignant words will find ample retribution. Perhaps the next verse helps us determine the meaning" (Stuart). +21. They that love it,+ i.e., "make it a special object of gratification" (Stuart) +24.+ The first clause of this verse should be "A man of many friends will prove himself base, or is so to his own destruction," i.e., he who professes to regard everybody as his friend will, in so doing, involve himself in trouble.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 1 and 2.
Reference to the Critical Notes and to the Comments will show the widely different translations and expositions given to the first verse. We follow the Authorised Version.
SOLITUDE.
+I. Solitude is indispensable to the attainment of wisdom.+ If a tree is to become well-proportioned--if it is to spread out its branches on every side so that its girth is to be proportioned to its height, it must have space--a degree of separation is indispensable to its perfect development. It must be free to stretch out its roots and shoots on every side, and to appropriate to itself those elements in the earth and in the atmosphere which will make it strong and vigorous. So if a man is to be a wise man, if his mental and spiritual capabilities are to be developed as his Creator intended they should be, he must at times separate himself--a certain amount of solitude is indispensable. If he would grow wise in the mysteries of the natural world he must oftentimes shut himself away from the haunts of men, and ponder the manifold phenomena which creation presents to him, and endeavour to unravel her secrets. If he desires to become wise by acquaintance with the thoughts and deeds of the great and mighty men of past ages he must withdraw himself at certain seasons from the society of his fellow-men, and give himself up to study and reflection. And if he desire to acquire what, after all, can alone make him a truly wise man--an acquaintance with himself and with God--he must have seasons of separation in which to listen to the voice of his own heart and to the voice of his Maker. A man, when he is alone, is more likely to see things as they really are; he is less under the influence of the seen and temporal than when he is in the market, or on the crowded highway, and consequently things unseen and eternal have a more powerful influence over him at such a season. No man can be wise unless he has some self-knowledge, and no man can subject himself to much inspection while in company, hence the advice of George Herbert--
"By all means use sometimes to be alone; Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear; Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own, And tumble up and down what thou find'st there. Who cannot rest till he good fellows find, He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind."
and it is equally true that no man is possessed of true wisdom who has not some knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in the written Word, and solitude is very favourable to a growth in Divine knowledge. Men can gain much, even of the highest wisdom, from intercourse with their fellow-men, but all human guides are fallible and all human teaching is imperfect--there must be seasons when a man "separates himself" from them all and stands face to face with the fountain of all truth, if he would "intermeddle" with pure wisdom.
+II. Those who are truly wise seek wisdom for its own sake.+ Many men seek secular knowledge for the sole purpose of acquiring fame by the acquisition. Some men spend days of solitude in patient investigation for no other purpose than to make a name for themselves. Some men even profess to be seekers after true and spiritual wisdom, when they are only striving to gratify some unworthy ambition. Such a man seems to be pourtrayed in the second verse as the "fool who hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself." (If he seeks knowledge at all, it is neither for its own sake nor for the purposes of fitting him for usefulness, but solely for the ends of self-display--Wardlaw.) (He "hath no delight" in knowledge, "but in the displaying of his own thoughts."--Hodgson.) But the true lover of wisdom is impelled to seek from the love of truth--from the desire which possesses his soul to "intermeddle with knowledge." When Sir Isaac Newton gave himself up to the pursuit of scientific truth, he "separated himself" simply from a "desire" to know, and without the remotest desire or expectation of his present world-wide fame. And if it is so with every true lover of merely intellectual wisdom, it is pre-eminently so with the man who seeks spiritual wisdom. He is impelled to the search simply by a desire which is born of his appreciation of its worth--by a knowledge of its power to bless his life.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
A certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth and spread of the highest mind; and therefore must a very extensive intercourse with men stifle many a holy germ, and scare away the gods, who shun the restless tumult of noisy companies, and the discussion of petty interests.--Novalis.
Desire is the chariot-wheel of the soul, the spring of energy and delight. The man of business or science if filled with his great object; and through desire he separates himself from all lets and hindrances, that he may intermeddle with its whole range. "This one thing"--saith the man of God--"I do" (Philip. iii. 13). This one thing is everything with him. He separates himself from all outward hindrances, vain company, trifling amusements or studies, needless engagements, that he may seek and intermeddle with all wisdom. John separated himself in the wilderness, Paul in Arabia, our blessed Lord in frequent retirement, in order to greater concentration in their momentous work. Deeply does the Christian minister feel the responsibility of this holy separation, that he may "give himself wholly to" his office (1 Tim. iv. 15; 2 Tim. ii. 4). Without it--Christian--thy soul can never prosper. How canst thou intermeddle with the great wisdom of knowing thyself, if thy whole mind be full of the world's chaff and vanity? There must be a withdrawal, to "commune with thine own heart" and to ask the questions--"Where art thou? What doest thou here?" Much is there to be inquired into and pondered. Everything here calls for our deepest, closest thoughts. We must walk with God in secret, or the enemy will walk with us, and our souls will die. "Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee" (Ezek. iii. 22). "When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee" (John i. 48). Deal much in secrecy, if thou wouldst know "the secret of the Lord." Like thy Divine Master, thou wilt never be less alone than when alone (Ib. xvi. 32). There is much to be wrought, gained, and enjoyed. Thy most spiritual knowledge, thy richest experience will be found here. And then, when we look around us into the infinitely extended field of the Revelation of God, what a world of heavenly wisdom is there to intermeddle with! In the hurry of this world's atmosphere how little can we apprehend it! And yet such is the field of wonder, that the contemplation of a single point overwhelmed the Apostle with adoring astonishment (Rom. xi. 33). Here are "things, which even the angels desire to look into" (1 Pet. i. 12). The redeemed will be employed throughout eternity in this delighted searching; exploring "the breadth, the length, and depth, and height," until they be "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. iii. 18, 19). Surely then if we have any desire, we shall separate ourselves from the cloudy atmosphere around us, that we may have fellowship with these happy investigators of the Divine mysteries.--Bridges.
The separated one here is the impenitent. "The aims of a man left to himself" is really a translation of but two words, meaning a separated one seeks. "At the dictate of desire" is but one noun with a preceding particle, meaning after, or according to. The noun means a longing. The sentence means that when a man gets separated from his place in the universe he seeks, or has a pursuit, after his present bent or longing. The word translated wisdom in the second clause is derived from a verb that means to be or stand with some stability (see comment on chap. ii. 7), yielding the sense the lost man sits careless to what is "stable." He does not regard it. He strikes for what he desires. A pretty thing for him to cavil! since "against everything stable he just lets himself roll.". . . The whole meaning is that the lost man is in high chase under the spur of appetite, and ruthlessly bears down everything stable.--Miller.
"Through desire" (through self-willed and self-seeking desire of wisdom)--"wisdom," Heb. tushigyah, lit. all that is solid and stable: subsistence, essence, existence. The Pharisees were such; from the Hebrew, pharash, to separate. They trusted in themselves, and in their own wisdom, despising others (Luke xviii. 9, xvi. 15; Jude 19). All heresy has more or less originated in the self-conceit which leads men to separate themselves from the congregation of the Lord (Ezek. xiv. 7; Hosea ix. 10; Heb x. 25). The two evils censured are (1) that of those who think they are born for themselves, and that others ought to be ministers of their self-seeking desires; (2) that of those who intermeddle with what does not concern them. The motive is through (his own) "desire" of being esteemed singularly learned, as verse 2 shows, not from sincere "delight in understanding." His aim is singularity, through self-seeking desire (Psa. x. 3; cxii. 10) of raising himself to a separate elevation from the common crowd, and of being thought versed in all that can be known: so "he intermeddleth with all wisdom." His restless appetite for making himself peculiar and separate from others is marked by the indefinite verb "seeketh," it not being added what he seeketh, for he hardly knows himself what.--Fausset.
If we have to decide between the two interpretations, one blaming and the other commending the life of isolation, the answer must be that the former is more in harmony with the broad, genial temper of the Book of Proverbs.--Plumptre.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 3.
This verse also, as will be seen from a reference to the Critical Notes, and also from the Comments, is susceptible of several interpretations. We think it treats of--
THE SHORT-LIVED PROSPERITY OF EVIL MEN.
+I. Wicked men do come into places of power and influence.+ This fact has often tried the faith of righteous men. Asaph's "steps had well-nigh slipped" when he saw "the prosperity of the wicked"--that "violence covered them as a garment," and that they "set their mouth against the heavens;" and yet that "their strength was firm," and "they had more than heart could wish" (Psa. lxxiii. 2-8). The tiller of the soil knows from experience that the useless weeds and noxious plants often seem to absorb all the nutriment from the earth, and so make it well-nigh impossible for the useful herb and sweet-scented flower to grow in the same field or garden. And moral weeds seem to have a like capability of utilising everything that comes in their way to their own advancement--the unrighteous man makes a fortune, or a position, or a name for himself, while his godly neighbour is struggling for a bare subsistence. In the field of the world, the tares grow as well as the wheat (Matt. xiii. 26), and often they seem for a time to be more flourishing. Ahab and Jezebel dwell in Samaria, and Elijah is compelled to flee into the desert. Herod feasts in the palace, while John the Baptist is beheaded in the dungeon.
+II. Contempt and reproach are their final portion.+ Their day of power is short-lived. David has recorded as his experience that he had "seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree"--but he "passed by, and lo, he was not" (Psa. xxxvii. 35). And however their success may dazzle men's eyes and warp their judgment for a season, contempt is their portion at last. They are often held in contempt even while living, and the reproaches of those who have been made to suffer by them are heaped upon their heads. Many of those who fawned upon them and flattered them while they were prospering will be most ready to scorn and upbraid them, if the day of their retribution arrives before they quit this world. And if they keep their power and influence throughout the term of their human probation, their names will be contemned by posterity, and in the day when "everyone receives the things done in his body" (2 Cor. v. 10), they shall "awake to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. xii. 2).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
When a "wicked" man enters upon the stage, that creature, the most degraded of the universe, and who has the least right to show any contempt, is the very person to be the most contemptuous; and the mortal who is himself most disgraced, shows the readiest mind to cry shame upon and to reproach and that even the Most High. Doubtless there is secular truth in all this. The disgraced citizen is often the most reproachful.--Miller.
I. They bring "contempt," not to themselves only, but to the places they fill, and the societies to which they become united--to themselves, for the unworthy manner in which they fulfil the duties of the trust they have assumed, or have had committed to them; and to their places and societies, with which their names are associated. They entail "ignominy and reproach" upon all they have to do with. And in no case is this more true, than with regard to offences in the Church. O what an amount of scorn and reproach has been brought upon the sacred office of the ministry by the intrusion, under numberless pretexts, and from numberless causes, of wicked, worldly, ungodly men into its holy function! How full is Church history of this deplorable evil!--and how many infidels and scorners has Church history by this means produced. Thus it was under the old dispensation. The wickedness of the sons of Eli made men "abhor the offering of the Lord." And thus it is still. Of the "false teachers" who should arise in the latter days, it is said--"by reason of them the way of truth shall be evil-spoken of." From few other sources, if from any, has there proceeded a greater profusion of unmerited "reproach" of the name and doctrine and kingdom of the Lord; or has "the chair of the scorner" drawn a greater number and variety of its sarcastic sneers and bitter revilings. II. The phrase may mean--"When the wicked cometh" into intimacy, companionship, familiarity, "then cometh contempt."--He who admits the wicked to his intimacy--makes him his associate--must share the infamy of his ill-chosen companion. Many a time too has this been exemplified.--Wardlaw.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 4.
A GOOD MAN'S MOUTH.
We must understand Solomon here to refer to a good man--to a man whose words are in harmony with the mind of God. Of such a man it may be said that his words are as deep waters and as a living spring.
+I. Because his soul is in communication with an exhaustless source of spiritual life and wisdom.+ Rivers and wells that are fed from the mountain recesses which are filled with eternal snows never dry up--they are fed from a source that is never exhausted. So long as the lasting hills remain, and the present natural laws govern the world they must give forth every day abundant streams. A communication has been established between the soul of a good man and the living God--he holds constant communion with a source of spiritual life which can never fail, and consequently he can never be at a loss for subjects upon which to discourse--his mind is always filled with new thoughts of God, and new hopes of heaven upon which to meditate himself and which he can communicate to others.
+II. Because that which flows from his lips is beneficial and refreshing to others.+ The waters in a shallow and stagnant pond give little or no refreshment to the thirsty traveller; they may even be the means of imparting disease to those who drink of them, or who live near them. But the water from a well, or from a deep and flowing stream, is generally pure and wholesome to the taste, and refreshing to the land through which it flows. And so it is with the speech of a godly man. Very mighty are the influence of words for good or for ill. Our first parents lost Eden by listening to the words of the tempter, and the speech of the wicked always diffuses an unwholesome moral atmosphere around it, if it does not eject a deadly poison into the soul. But the conversation and teaching of the godly are always a means of moral health to others; by their words they witness for the truth of God, and are the means of "opening men's eyes, and turning them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God" (Acts xxvi. 13). And, like their Divine Master, they "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" (Isa. l. 4), and thus that which flows from their lips is as refreshing and healthful to weary and struggling men and women on the highway of life as the living, cooling water-course is to the dusty and thirsty traveller.
+III. Because the flow is natural and spontaneous.+ Water may be sent through a tract of country by artificial means; fields may be watered and reservoirs filled by calling in science to supply natural deficiencies. But there is, after all, no comparison between this kind of forced irrigation and that which is the result of natural causes. If there is water beneath the surface of the earth it must force its way and find an outlet; it needs no hand of man to come to its aid; it penetrates the soil and forms a fertilising stream in obedience to natural law. And so the speech of a good man has nothing forced or artificial about it. It is the overflow of heartfelt experience. Like the apostles of old, he "cannot but speak the things which he has seen and heard" (Acts iv. 20). The "good things" of his lips are the natural outcome of the "good treasure of his heart," "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. xii. 34, 35).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Talleyrand defined speech to be the art of concealing one's opinions. Speech, even without any attempt at concealment, must be endlessly deep and wide as uttering all our being. Who can translate all its outgoings? If this be so with man, who shall judge of God and censure His obscurer revelations? Solomon is satisfied with one great difference,--that while men's speech is "deep," God's speech is both "deep" and "living." One has a vital source, the other is dead and stagnant. Grant that both are obscure. One is the darkness of a pool, the other the breadth and gush of an overflowing water. We ought to submit to mystery in God, for the tide of His utterance is to flow on for ever.--Miller.
One "greater than Solomon" "astonished the people" by the clearness, no less than by the depth of the waters (Matt. vii. 28, 29). No blessing is more valuable than a "rich indwelling of the Word," ready to be brought out on all suitable occasions of instruction. If the wise man sometimes "spares his words," it is not for want of matter, but for greater edification. The stream is ready to flow, and sometimes can scarcely be restrained. The cold-hearted, speculative professor has his flow--sometimes a torrent of words, yet without a drop of profitable matter; chilling, even when doctrinally correct; without life, unction, or love. Lord! deliver us from this barren "talk of the lips" (chap. xiv. 23). May our waters be deep, flowing from thine own inner sanctuary, refreshing and fertilising the Church of God!--Bridges.
In the two clauses of the verse, on the principle of parallelism, there appears to be an inversion of the same sentiment; for, properly speaking, the words uttered are not the "deep waters," but the stream that issues from them; and, on the other hand, "the wellspring of wisdom" is not "the flowing brook," but the deep and copious fountain or reservoir from which it issues. Another passage may serve to confirm this view. "Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out." Here, the counsel is the deep water, not the words. But the words are the stream which the deep waters send forth. The words bring out and contain the counsel.--Wardlaw.
It must be remembered that "deep waters" are associated in the Old Testament with the thought of darkness and mystery (xx. 5; Psalms lxix. 2; Eccles. vii. 24), and we get a more profound thought if we see in the proverb a comparison between all teaching from without and that of the light within. The words of a man's mouth are dark as the "deep waters of a pool, or tank; but the well-spring of wisdom is as a flowing brook, bright and clear." So taken the verse presents a contrast like that of Jeremiah ii. 13.--Plumptre.
When this word vir is used for man in sacred Scriptures it signifieth one who is strong and mighty, and for his strength great and excellent, and then by a man here we may understand him who is mighty and great in knowledge; the words of such a man are as deep waters, to the bottom whereof the shallow capacity of every one is not able to reach. But yet where the spring of those waters is a well-spring of wisdom, though sometimes it send forth deep waters, yet it doth not always; for that were to overwhelm the hearers. But at other times it is as a flowing brook, more shallow for capacity, but more forcible also in the stream of it, and either by persuasive exhortation carrying on the hearers to a pursuit of virtue and godliness, or else by a dissuasive reproof carrying them away from the practice of wickedness, and in both washing away the stains of their sinful lives. Wherefore St. Gregory saith, so must every preacher deal with his hearers as God dealeth with him; he must not preach to the simple as much as he knoweth because himself doth not know of heavenly mysteries as much as they are.--Jermin.
The subject of verse 5 has been treated in the Homiletics on chap. xvii., verses 15 and 26.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 6-8.
FOLLY AND ITS RESULTS.
+I. None but a foolish man seeks contention.+ As we saw in the previous chapter (verse 14) contention or strife is an evil of which none at its beginnings can see the end. It may seem a very insignificant deed to strike a flint and steel together so as to produce a single spark, but one spark may produce a terrible and destructive fire. When a settler in a forest rubs two dry sticks together the act seems a trifling one, but the friction in time develops the latent heat of the wood, and there is enough fire brought into activity to lay low many a mighty forest tree. None but foolish men and children ever play with fire, and when they do it they generally suffer themselves first, but they are often not the only sufferers. So it is with contention, or a dispute in words. Wise men are often obliged to contend for truth and right, but they never seek an occasion of dispute. But there are moral fools who think it only an amusement to pick a quarrel, little heeding what the consequences of it may be, not caring if blows succeed to angry words, or perhaps even desiring that they should do so. But although a man may play with fire and escape unharmed, or may even apply a torch to his neighbour's house without singeing so much as a hair of his own head, no fool's lips enter into contention or call for strokes without bringing retribution upon his own head. "His mouth" is in his own "destruction," and "his lips are the snare of his soul," for it is a law as old as the universe that "with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again" (Matt. vi. 1, 2). The man who seeks contention will always find others like-minded with himself who will be willing to do for them what he has done for others, and he who "calls for strokes" upon his fellow-creatures will receive them upon his own head with compound interest.
+II. None but a cruel man will be a tale-bearer.+ A quarrelsome, passionate man is a fool, and he is also a cruel man, but he is not so cruel as the tale-bearer. The first man wounds, but he inflicts his injury in open daylight and in the front of his victim, but the second is like the treacherous footpad whose face is never seen and whose step is never heard, but who comes up behind his prey in the dark and leaves no trace behind but the mortal sword-thrust. But it must not be forgotten that there must always be two persons implicated in the guilt and cruelty of thus killing the reputation of a fellow-creature. The tale-bearer must have a repository for his slanders--the busy tongue must have a listening ear or no mischief would be done, and tale-bearing would die out for want of an atmosphere in which it could live. A reference to the Critical Notes will show that the word translated "wounds" may be rendered "dainties," and it is because evil reports of others are so keenly relished by an unsanctified man that the words of a tale-bearer are able to inflict such suffering and work so much ill in the world.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Verse 6. The emperor Julian used to banter the Christians with that precept of our Lord, "When thine adversary smites thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also:" but Christians consult their ease as well as their consciences when they obey this precept in the spirit of it; whereas proud and passionate fools, when they give vent to their rancorous spirits, because they cannot bear the shadow of an indignity, not only turn the other cheek to their adversary, but smite, and urge, and almost force him to strike and destroy them.--Lawson.
Verse 8. The bite of a viper is not so deadly as the wound of these "tale-bearers'" stories and insinuations. The truth is they contrive to infuse their poison without a bite. If they would but appear in their true character;--would they but show their fangs, and make us feel them, we should be put upon our guard. We know the viper. We shun it. And when it has unhappily succeeded in wounding us, we instantly have recourse to means for preventing the poison from getting into the mass of the blood, and pervading the system. But these human vipers infuse their poison in the language of kindness and love. "Their words are smoother than oil; yet are they drawn swords;"--envenomed fangs, of which the virus gets into our system ere we are aware, works its mischievous and morally deadly effects, and becomes incapable of extraction. Every attempt at its removal still leaves some portion of it behind. There is, in the original word, an implication of softness, simplicity, undesignedness, which only gives the secret weapon with which the wound is inflicted the greater keenness.--Wardlaw.
The tongue of the tale-bearer is a two-edged sword, at once it cutteth on both sides, and his words are his wounds, at once wounding both him of whom he speaketh and him to whom he speaketh. To the one he gives the wounds of his slandering, to the other the wounds of his flattering. The one he woundeth so, that his blow is neither heard, seen, nor felt. The other he woundeth so, that though his blow be heard, seen, and felt, yet it is not perceived: in both they go down into the heart, as revealing the heart of the one, and as removing the heart of the other from him. . . . Or the words may be translated, the words of a tale-bearer are as smoothing words: for he frameth his own words to as much softness, as those which he reporteth he maketh to be hard. And indeed, as they sound, they are commonly so pleasing, that they easily slip down into the heart, where they are readily entertained.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 9.
TWIN-BROTHERS.
+I. Slothfulness and prodigality have the same origin.+ As brothers are the children of a common parent, so sloth and waste have their root in the common sin of ungodliness; men are spendthrifts or they are lazy, because they have no right sense of their obligations to God and to man--because they do not look upon their life as a stewardship for which they must give an account (Rom. xiv. 12), but as a gift which they are at liberty to spend as they please. The acts of the prodigal and the slothful man differ in themselves, but they all spring from that spirit of self-pleasing which is the essence of ungodliness.
+II. The slothful man is a waster of God's most precious gifts.+ Twin-brothers are often so much alike that it is difficult for onlookers to distinguish one from the other. And there is an aspect in which we may view the slothful man in which we not only note the close resemblance he bears to his prodigal brother, but in which he is transformed into the prodigal himself. For the negative sinner--the man who does nothing--is a waster of his time and of his talents, and is therefore guilty of a positive crime. The man who "hid the Lord's talent" was visited with a stern sentence as a positive transgressor (Matt. xxv. 25). If we convict a man of prodigality for wasting gold, what shall we say of him who wastes what no gold can buy? "Time," says J. A. James, "is the most precious thing in the world. When God gives us a moment, He does not promise us another, as if to teach us highly to value and improve it, by the consideration, for aught we know, it may be the last. Time, when gone, never returns. We talk about 'fetching up' a lost hour, but the thing is impossible. A moment once lost, is lost for ever. We could as rationally set out to find a sound that had expired in air, as to find a lost moment." And when we reflect what infinite results depend upon what a man does with his time, we see the force of the proverb, because the slothful man is a waster of the most precious commodity in this world.
+III. The results of both extravagance and sloth are the same.+ It makes no difference in the end whether a man gets nothing, or spends all that he gets, he can come to poverty by either road. The one has been compared to a man who dies by a rapid and violent disease, and the other by a slow and subtle consumption. But the grave, sooner or later, receives them both.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
The practical lesson is, that in personal and domestic interests, diligence and economy should go together, and that the one without the other never can avail for either obtaining or securing even the comforts of life. Of what use is industry if its proceeds are not prudently managed when they come in?--if husband, or wife, or both, be destitute of discretion, improvident and thriftless? if there is the absence of all sober and considerate calculation, and, as a consequence, no due proportioning of outlay to income, but a reckless and wasteful expenditure, leaving an unlooked-for deficiency--a woful amount minus--at the year's end? The poor inconsiderate fools never think what they are about. They keep no daily reckoning--no accounts; and so their money is gone, they can't tell how--they had no idea they were living at such a rate!--and even when they have made the discovery there is no improvement. They say, possibly, they must take care; but they only say it, and immediately forget it. Things go on as before; and still (to use rather a colloquial, but sufficiently expressive phrase), what is taken in by the door is thrown out by the window; and still the wonder continues how it goes! They are ever marvelling how other folks do. They can't understand it. For their parts, all that comes in finds its way off from them as fast as it comes, and many a time faster! Thus, as might be expected, there are the same appearances of bareness, and cheerlessness, and want, in the dwelling of the thriftless as in that of the slothful. Extremes thus meet. . . . Diligence, let me remind you, is as necessary for the acquisition of spiritual as of temporal good--of the riches of Divine knowledge of the mind, as of the blessings of the Divine life to the heart. And not less is economy of means. How often may it be seen, that with means of a very limited and stinted amount, there is more of spiritual prosperity in one instance, than is discoverable in another, with means the most varied and abundant. Many believers, it is to be feared, are spiritual spendthrifts. They use their privileges on no principle of economy. They read, they hear, they frequent ordinances--and yet their progress in spiritual attainments bears no proportion to the extent of their advantages. Rich in privileges, they are poor in the graces and enjoyments of the life of God in the soul. Why? The answer is plain. They who thrive on slender means, make the most of what they have; whereas they who live in the midst of abundance get into habits of carelessness, and of the prodigal use of what they have.--Wardlaw.
The word also here used may seem to refer this verse to that which goeth before it; and then it is a further description of a talebearer. For he is commonly a fellow slothful in his work, being busy in his words, and he is indeed brother to him that is a great waster, spoiling his own estate by his slothfulness, and by the mischief which his talebearing falleth upon him; and spoiling him to whom he talketh by the ill mind which he putteth into him.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 10 and 11.
TWO CITADELS.
+I. The citadel of him who trusts in the Lord.+ "The name of the Lord." God has revealed Himself to men by many names, each one of which is intended to set forth some attribute of His perfect nature. The name "I AM," by which He revealed Himself to Israel (Exod. iii. 14) set forth His eternal self-existence, but He has also revealed Himself by names which are used to express human relations, such as king, judge, husband, father. These names are often borne by men who are destitute of the qualifications and feelings proper to the relationships which they express, but when any one of them is applied to God it is applied to one who combines within Himself all those attributes of character in perfection which ought to be possessed in some degree by men who are called by these names. The righteous man's refuge, then, is a Living Personality--a Self-existent and Eternal King and Father, infinite in power, in wisdom, and in tenderness. It is therefore 1. An ever-present refuge. "God is not far from every one of us" (Acts xvii. 27), and being ever near, is always accessible. 2. An impregnable refuge. Before an enemy can attack those who have taken refuge in a fortress, they must carry the citadel itself. So before any enemy can harm a righteous man, he must overcome the Almighty God; he must circumvent His plans, and overthrow His purposes.
"When His wisdom can mistake, His might decay, His love forsake,"
then, but not till then, will those be exposed to danger who have put their trust in Him. 3. An eternal refuge. The "arms" of strength that defend the children of God are "everlasting arms" (Deut. xxxiii. 7). Many of the ancient fortresses that are scattered over our land were once deemed impregnable refuges. But although they bade defiance to many an assault of men in battle-array, they have had to yield to a more subtle enemy. Time has crumbled their once mighty walls, and made them unfit for purposes of defence. But the righteous man can say to Him who is his "strong tower," "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. . . . Even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God" (Psa. xc. 1, 2).
+II. The stronghold of the man who trusts in riches.+ 1. Riches are no defence against a man's most powerful enemies. While a man has wealth he is defended from many bodily ills and from many vexations of spirit. A man of narrow means has often to fight a hard battle to supply his bodily necessities, and is a stranger to those luxuries which make his life, in this respect, so comfortable to a rich man. And a poor man has also to bend his will to the will of his richer neighbour--to endure often "th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely." Wealth is a defence against all these enemies to a man's comfort. But there are troubles far heavier than any of these, from which riches afford no protection. Disease and death cannot be turned aside with money--a troubled soul cannot be comforted with gold. A bed of down cannot do much for a man whose body is racked with pain--it can do nothing for him whose soul is bowed down by sorrow, or smitten with a fear of death. In any of these straits a soul can find no "strong city" of refuge in the possession of untold millions; these enemies laugh at such a wall of defence. The man who trusts in material wealth as his chief good, has either made too low an estimate of his own needs, or too high an estimate of the power of wealth. 2. Wealth is a fortress with a most uncertain foundation. Granted that it is a defence against some very real ills, who can insure to himself a continuance of his present possessions? The uncertainty of riches has been a subject upon which the sages and moralists of all ages have dwelt--the millionaire of to-day may be a beggar to-morrow, and he who was last year surrounded by this "high wall," which shut in so much that was agreeable to his senses and shut out so many discomforts from his temporal life, may be standing to-day a forlorn, unsheltered creature, with only the ruins of his once imposing fortress around him. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xi. 28.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
The strong refuge is not only safe, but "set aloft," so the word signifies, out of gunshot. None can pull out of His hands. Run therefore to God by praying, not fainting. This is the best policy for security. That which is said of wily persons that are full of fetches, of windings, and of turnings in the world, that such will never break, is much more true of a righteous, praying Christian. He hath but one grand policy to secure him against all dangers, and that is, to run to God.--Trapp.
To this tower the wicked are sometimes driven in distress, then seeking help here, when it is nowhere else to be found. But the righteous in any distress runneth presently unto it. Thither their eyes look, thither their hearts carry them. Yea, they are not only carried unto it but into it, by placing their confidence in it, and making it their safety. They are well acquainted with the way, and therefore can make speed; they have cast off the clogs of worldly impediments and so are fit for running; they think it much longer until they come to God, than impatient hearts do until they come to help.--Jermin.
To "the righteous" God is good, and he nestles and shelters himself in that; "runs into" the nurture and shelter of God's love, and, in the comfort of this strong tower, "is lifted high." But there is a profounder sense. The very "name" that is cavilled at by the lost is the foundation of the Christian's safety. "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh," God did by His "name." He gave it to Christ's humanity. More specifically speaking, He used it in the "name" of His own righteousness, to balance our guilt and to give weight and value to the price of His redemption. We are repeatedly said to be saved by the "name" of God (Psa. liv. 1; John xvii. 11, 12). And this is the meaning. The perfect holiness of God, which the lost man would upbraid, is what is vital in the cross of Christ. It is not only "a strong tower," but our only defence. And the act of faith is a renouncing of self and a snatching at "the name," that is, the righteousness or substituted standing of our Great Deliverer.--Miller.
Take the sinner in his first awakening conviction. He trembles at the thought of eternal condemnation. He looks forward--all is terror; backward--nothing but remorse; inward--all is darkness. Till now he had no idea of his need of salvation. His enemy now suggests that it is beyond his reach; that he has sinned too long and too much, against too much light and knowledge; how can he be saved? But the name of the Lord meets his eye. He spells out every letter, and putting it together, cries--"Who is a God like unto thee?" (Mic. vii. 18). He runs to it, as to a strong tower. His burden of conscience is relieved. His soul is set free, and he enjoys his safety. Take--again--the child of God--feeble, distressed, assaulted. "What, if I should return to the world, look back, give up my profession, yield to my own deceitful heart, and perish at last with aggraved condemnation?" You are walking outside the gates of your tower; no wonder that your imprudence exposes you to "the fiery darts of the wicked." Read again the name of the Lord! Go back within the walls--See upon the tower the name--"I am the Lord; I change not" (Mal. iii. 6). Read the direction to trust in it--"Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant: that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (Isa. l. 10). Mark the warrant of experience in this trust--"They that know thy name shall put their trust in Thee; for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee" (Psalm ix. 10). Thus sense of danger, knowledge of the way, confidence in the strength of the tower--all gives a spring of life and earnestness to run into it. Here the righteous--the man justified by the grace, and sanctified by the Spirit of God--runneth every day, every hour; realizing at once his fearful danger, and his perfect security.--Bridges.
For Homiletics on verse 12, see on chap. xi. 2 and xvi. 18.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 13.
ANSWERING BEFORE HEARING.
+I. A man who gives judgement in a matter before he has heard all the facts of the case wrongs himself.+ If he were to give his opinion upon a building as soon as the builders had dug out the foundation, or were to criticise a picture when the artist had only sketched its outline upon his canvas, he would be deemed a fool, and what he said would have no weight whatever. Men would justly say that the house or the picture had as yet no existence, and therefore could not be judged. And a man who has only heard a part of "a matter" is in no better position to judge in it, and commits as great a folly if he attempts to do so. He does violence to his very understanding--to those mental faculties which enable him to place things side by side and to compare them, and to sift and weigh evidence before he arrives at a conclusion. Unless he does this, the opinion that he forms to-day will be altered to-morrow, and his mind will never be firmly made up on any subject. As a necessary consequence, nobody will give much heed to his judgment--no thoughtful person will attach much weight to his words--and he will thus deprive himself of that consideration and respect which he might otherwise have enjoyed.
+II. Such a man often deeply wrongs others.+ A half-told story often makes the state of matters appear so different from the truth that it is a gross injustice to condemn or justify any person when that is all that is known. A man who does it proclaims that he values very lightly the reputation of those concerned, and is often a robber of what is more to a man than his purse, viz. his good name.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Secularly, this is beyond a doubt; judicially, here is a great outrage; socially, a something very impolite; but religiously, a thing altogether a "shame." Men born yesterday might certainly afford to listen. Life is a wide thing; and might, at least, be acted through, before in the darker points we insist upon a judgment. . . . Folly, and therefore, mischief; shame, and therefore, ill desert. These elements often appear together.--Miller.
According to Mr. Stuart Mill, it might be plausibly maintained that in almost every one of the leading controversies, past or present, in social philosophy, both sides were right in what they affirmed, though wrong in what they denied; and that if either could have been made to take the other's views in addition to his own, little more would have been needed to make its doctrine correct. . . . Nicodemus did well to start the seasonable query, "Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doth?" Festus did well to protest that it was not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die before that he which was accused had the accusers face to face, and had licence to answer for himself concerning the charge laid against him. And in the same spirit and by the same rule, otherwise applied, had Felix done well to defer hearing Paul's defence until Paul's accusers were present. . . . Aristides, they tell us, would lend but one ear to anyone who accused an absent "party," and used to hold his hand on the other, intimating that he reserved one ear for the absentee accused. . . . Cicero, "the greatest orator, save one, of antiquity," has left it on record, as we are pertinently reminded on the Essays on Liberty, that he always studied his adversaries' case with as great intensity as his own, if not still greater. And what Cicero practised as the means of forensic success, requires, as the essayist urges, to be imitated by all who study any subject in order to arrive at the truth. For he who knows only his own side of the case is convicted of knowing little of that; his reasons may be good and no one may have been able to refute them, but if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, what rational ground has he for preferring either opinion?--Jacox.
We ought to be the more cautious in forming and pronouncing opinions, because we are so little disposed to admit conviction if we fall into mistakes, or to retract them upon conviction. It is commonly supposed that ministers cannot repent, although they do not claim, like the Pope, the gift of infallibility; and there is too much reason for the supposition, provided it be not restricted to that order of men: for the same pride that makes one set of men stubborn in their wrong opinions is to be found in other men, although it is not perhaps so much strengthened by particular circumstances, nor so visible in their conduct, because they meet not with the same temptations to discover it. How many do we find who will not change their sentiments about religion, or about persons and things, upon the clearest evidence, and give way to anger upon the least contradiction to their favourite notions, as if their dearest interests were attacked! Saints themselves are not entirely delivered from this selfish disposition, as we see in the behaviour of David to Mephibosheth, after he had pronounced a rash sentence in his case.--Lawson.
The sources of the evil are various. There is--1. Natural or acquired eagerness of spirit, and impatience of protracted inquiry. Such minds cannot bear anything that requires close and long-sustained attention. They become uneasy, fretted, and fidgety; and are ever anxious to catch at any occasion for cutting the matter short and being done with it. 2. The sympathy of passion with one or the other of the parties. One of them happens to be their friend; and whether it be he or his adversary that makes the statement, partiality for him stirs their resentment at the injury done to him; the blood warms, and, passion thus striking in, they hastily interrupt the narration--will hear no more of it--and at once proceed to load the enemy of their friend with abuse and imprecation. They know their friend, and to them it is enough that he has been a sufferer; they take it for granted that he must be in the right. 3. Indolence--indisposition to be troubled. This is a temper the very opposite of the first, but producing a similar effect. The former jumped to a conclusion from over-eagerness; this comes soon to a close from sheer sluggishness of mind. It is to a man of this stagnant and lazy temperament an exertion quite unbearable to keep his mind so long on the stretch as to listen even to a statement, and still more to an argument or pleading, that cannot be finished in a breath and done with. His attention soon flags; he gets sick of it; he seems as if he were listening when he is not, and with a yawn of exhaustion and misery he pronounces his verdict, and at times with great decision, for no other purpose than to get quit of the trouble. He can stand it no longer. 4. Self-conceit--the affectation of extraordinary acuteness. This would be an amusing character, were it not, at the same time, so provoking. The self-conceited man assumes a very sagacious and penetrating look--sits down with apparent determination to hear out the cause on both sides, and to "judge righteous judgment." But it is hardly well begun, when the self-conceited man sees to the end of it. . . . It is surprising with what agility this spirit of self-conceit gets over difficulties. It sees none--no, never.
"Where others toil with philosophic force, Its nimble nonsense takes a shorter course; Flings at your head conviction in a lump, And gains remote conclusions at a jump."
--Wardlaw.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.
SICKNESS OF BODY AND WOUNDS OF SOUL.
+I. A man can rise above pain of body.+ Men who do not seek supernatural help sometimes do it. They are endowed with a natural courage which makes them scorn to be overcome by physical pain, or they are naturally very hopeful, and are enabled in some measure to look beyond the present suffering to a time of relief in the future. Or intense excitement of the mind renders them for a time at least oblivious to bodily sensations. How many illustrations of this last case we have in men who have been desperately wounded in battle, and yet have been so intensely absorbed in the terrible contest that they have seemed scarcely aware of it, and have kept their position until their strength has utterly failed. But it is pre-eminently the godly man who can "sustain" infirmity of body. It is a fact of history that godly men and women have been even joyful in spirit when suffering great bodily pain. Instances are common in which those who have been in agony of body from some terrible disease have been full of comfort in their spirits, and have borne witness that they were conscious of a sustaining power outside themselves--of supernatural help from above which enabled them to "glory in tribulation." But this ability of human creatures to rise above bodily suffering has been most remarkably exemplified in those who have suffered because they were the servants of God--who have been witnesses for the truth of the Gospel of Christ. Even women have borne the most severe bodily sufferings not only with fortitude but with exultation--lifted above their bodily pain by a vivid realisation of unseen and spiritual realities and an intense consciousness of the favour of God.
+II. But a wounded spirit crushes the entire man.+ The spirit of the man is the man himself, his power to love, to hope, and to enjoy. When these have lost their energy, there is nothing to lift him up, and existence becomes an intolerable burden. The spirit can sustain the body under its trials, but sensual gratification and physical comforts can do nothing towards alleviating spiritual distress. But observe:--1. That all sorrow of heart does not crush a man. Sanctified sorrow, although it wounds the spirit, yet it only wounds it to raise it to a higher level--to make it capable of a more refined enjoyment. Bereavement, the faithlessness of friends, disappointed hopes, often deeply wound the spirit, yet men bear these wounds and often are made better and stronger by them. A sense of the favour of God and a peaceful conscience will prevent men from being overwhelmed by even very keen mental sorrow. 2. An unbearable wound of spirit can be the portion of those only who have no sense of the favour of God. So long as a man has this no pain of body or sorrow of soul can cast him down entirely, but without it he has little power to bear manfully the burdens of life, and a sense of the absence of it would be enough to crush him utterly although he had no other burdens to bear.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Spiritual sickness varies (as some diseases do in the body according to the constitution of the sick) thereafter as the soul is that hath it, whether regenerate or reprobate. The malignancy is great in both, but with far less danger in the former. 1. In the elect, this spiritual sickness is an afflicted conscience, when God will suffer us to take a deep sense of our sins, and bring us to the life of grace by the valley of death, as it were by hell gates unto heaven. There is no anguish to that of the conscience: "A wounded spirit who can bear?" They that have been valiant in bearing wrongs, in forbearing delights, have yet had womanish and coward spirits in sustaining the terrors of a tumultuous conscience. If our strength were as an army, and our lands not limited save with east and west, if our meat mere manna, and our garments as the ephod of Aaron; yet the afflicted conscience would refuse to be cheered with all these comforts. When God shall raise up our sins, like dust and smoke in the eyes of our souls . . . when He either hides His countenance from us, or beholds us with an angry look; lo, then, if any sickness be like this sickness, any calamity like the fainting soul! Many offences touch the body which extend not to the soul; but if the soul be grieved, the sympathising flesh suffers deeply with it. The blood is dried up, the marrow wasted, the flesh pined, as if the powers and pores of the body opened themselves like so many windows to discover the passions of the distressed prisoner within. It was not the sense of outward sufferings (for mere men have borne the agonies of death undaunted) but the wrestling of God's wrath with His spirit, that drew from Christ that complaint, able to make heaven and earth stand aghast: "My soul is heavy unto death" (Matt. xxvi. 38). . . . Neither is this sickness of conscience properly good in itself, nor any grace of God, but used by God as an instrument of good to His, as when by the spirit of bondage He brings us to adoption. So the needle that draws the thread through the cloth is some means to join it together. . . . 2. Spiritual sickness for sin befalling a reprobate soul, is final and total desperation. This is that fearful consequent which treads upon the heels of presumption. Cain's fratricide, Judas's treachery, presumptuous, aspiring, heaven-daring sins, find the final catastrophe, to despair of the mercy of God. . . . As if the goodness of God, and the value of Christ's ransom, were below his iniquity. As if the pardon of his sins would empty God's storehouse of compassion, and leave His stock of mercy poor. . . . This is that sin which not only offers injury and indignity to the Lord of heaven and earth, but even breaks that league of kindness which we owe to our own flesh. To commit sin is the killing of the soul; to refuse hope of mercy is to cast it down to hell. Therefore St. Jerome affirms that Judas sinned more in despairing of his Master's pardon than in betraying Him; since nothing can be more derogatory to the goodness of God, which He hath granted by promise and oath--two immutable witnesses--to penitent sinners than to credit the father of lies before Him.--T. Adams.
"The spirit of a man may control his sickness, but a spirit of upbraiding, who can carry that?" To give all up, and simply lie back and murmur, is bad even for worldly disorders; but Solomon derives out of it a much more profound spiritual sense. The "spirit of a man," at least among those to whom Solomon wrote, had truth enough to save him if he would only listen. Control. The original is contain, as in wine in a bottle, sickness--literally what is physical; but in this same book employed for the spiritual malady. If the soul, therefore, would lie quiet, and yield to its own light, it would be joined by what is higher, and would contain, or control its own malady; God helping, as He would, would check, and get the better of it; but "a spirit of upbraiding"--and by this is meant precisely the quarrel (chap. xvii. 19) with God which has been so long discussed--is what ruins all. It is upon them that are contentious, and will not obey the truth, (Rom. ii. 8)--that truth being in all of them through "the invisible things" which are seen "by the things that are made" (Rom. i. 20)--that the apostle denounces "tribulation and wrath, indignation and anguish." Not that men can save themselves, but that they would save themselves under God's influences if they did not contend with Him; that it is "rebellion" that turns the scale (Psa. lxvii. 6); that there is light enough in every man to draw him to saving light if he would only follow it; and that on this very account it is the great sorrow of the sinner that he has this "spirit of upbraiding," which, in the spiritual world, no moral malady "can carry."--Miller.
St. Gregory saith by patience we possess our souls, because, while we learn to bear rule over ourselves, we begin to possess that which we are. And surely, if thou be courageously patient, whatsoever thou mayest lose yet thou enjoyest that which thou hast; or, if thou hast nothing, yet thou shalt enjoy thyself, thou shalt enjoy the comfort of thy own spirit. Whereas impatiency for anything that is lost taketh away the comfort of all that remaineth, yea, the comfort of thine own self.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.
PRUDENCE AND KNOWLEDGE.
We have before given a definition of prudence as wisdom applied to practice; a prudent man is likewise defined as one "cautious to avoid harm." Taking in both definitions, the text suggests--
+I. That ignorance exposes men to danger.+ This is true in relation to any and every kind of evil to which men are exposed. A man who is in the general sense of the term an ignorant man--who does not possess even the rudimentary knowledge of an ordinary schoolboy--is liable to be imposed upon and deceived by those who know more. Ignorance of physical and scientific truth often leads men to expose themselves to bodily danger without being aware of it, and ignorance of spiritual truth often causes men to become victims of great moral evil without realising their danger. If a man, therefore, desires to avoid harm to body, mind, and soul, he must set himself to acquire knowledge both in relation to things material and spiritual.
+II. Prudence, i.e., wisdom applied to practice, is an indispensable qualification for obtaining knowledge.+ If a man possesses an estate beneath whose surface he knows there lies buried much precious mineral treasure, he must bring much wisdom and skill into play before he has the treasure in his hand. Wisdom must be reduced to practice in sinking the shaft and in working the mine before the hidden wealth is brought to light to enrich its owner. He must work, he must work in harmony with certain fixed laws if he is to become possessor of the treasure. So with obtaining knowledge. A man must exert himself--he must seek--and his exertions must be wisely directed if he is to possess the knowledge which is better than any material treasure because it enriches the better part of a man. It is not enough to be active, but he must see that his actions are wisely directed, that the means are adapted to the end in view. If there is effort without wisdom to guide it there may be seeking without getting.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
A heart made discerning gains in knowledge, etc. This is a beautiful fact. Snow gathers snow as we roll it on the ground. A wood gathers wood, like all vegetable or vital growths. A sinner stands dead like a blasted oak, but a saint not only lives by growing, but grows by living.--Miller.
"The heart" is here, as in many other instances, apparently used for the mind in general, including both the intellect and the affections. There is in "the wise" a love of knowledge, and an application of the mental powers for its attainment. And as "the ear" is one of the great inlets to instruction, it may here, with propriety, be considered as comprehending all the ways in which knowledge may be acquired.--Wardlaw.
The common course is that seeking goes before getting, but here getting is first, and seeking follows after. For surely they are the best seekers of knowledge, and are most earnest after it, who have already gotten it. They who have not gotten it do not know the worth of it, and so have no mind to look after it, or if they have the mind, they have no knowledge how to seek it. But they who have already found it are so affected with the worth of it, so directed by the light of it, as that they still seek more, still get more.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.
THE INFLUENCE OF TALENT.
Understanding the gift here spoken of as a special mental endowment (see Hitzig), we remark--
+I. That great abilities are gifts from God.+ There are certain mental capabilities which are the common inheritance of men in general, but it cannot be denied that there are men who, apart for all the differences made by circumstances and education, have capacities and abilities which far exceed those of ordinary men. The gift of one talent is more common than the gift of ten, yet both the ten and the one are gifts from the same hand. Although the Divine Creator gives to all men liberally, He does not give to all equally, but seeing that man is not responsible for this inequality, those who are most richly endowed should find in the fact of their superiority matter for gratitude and not for self-glorification.
+II. Such a gift tends to the exaltation of the man who possesses it.+ It "maketh room for him" in the world--it opens up to him many opportunities of social advancement, and it "bringeth him before great men,"--men who are either great in wealth and position or intellectually and morally great, or are great in both senses of the word. As surely as water will find its level, so a truly gifted man will find some outlet for his talents--some sphere large enough to use what has been bestowed upon him for the very purpose of being used. Even Daniel, although a captive in Babylon, found that the God-given powers within him made room for him at a heathen court and brought him before more than one mighty monarch.
+III. Such a gift to a man is a gift for men.+ Although it tends to his own personal exaltation and benefit, it is not bestowed for that purpose only or chiefly. When God bestows upon one man capabilities and endowments far above the common order, He does not intend to bless that man alone by the gift, but he holds him responsible for the use of the power put into his hand--He expects him so to enjoy his talents that his fellow-men also may be blessed by the gift. Thus the administrative ability which was bestowed upon Joseph was not given for him simply or chiefly to bring him before Pharaoh for his own advancement, but to bring blessing to the Egyptian nation, and to further God's purposes concerning his own family. When the Lord reckons with His servants, He will account that talent mis-used which is used for self-aggrandisement alone.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 17.
CROSS-EXAMINATION.
+I. The evidence of one person alone must not be too much depended on.+ This is but another way of putting the old proverb that "One tale is good till another is told." And this does not necessarily imply that the first teller of the tale is an untruthful person, but we are so apt to apprehend facts through the medium of our own prejudices--to see things in the light in which we wish to see them--that even two truthful men may sometimes vary much in their version of the same occurrence. This will be more certainly the case if it is a man's "own cause" that is under discussion, self-interest is then very likely to lead him to give a one-sided statement. He may unintentionally leave out facts which in the eyes of another person may be very important, or he may being others into a prominence to which an impartial judge may not consider them entitled. Hence--
+II. The need of cross-examination+--of another to "come and search him." Questioning may not convict the first person of any mis-statement, but it may elicit other facts which give quite a different colouring to the whole. The wife of Potiphar seemed "just in her cause" when she declared that Joseph left his garment in her hand and fled. This was not an untruth, and appearances were certainly very much against her innocent victim, but if Joseph had been allowed to tell his story too, the truth might have come to light. Therefore we learn that we must not give a verdict for or against an accused person until both he and his accuser have been heard.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
The first clause reads thus in the Hebrew, "A righteous one, the first in his quarrel," and has a brevity which is practically too great. The righteous is not a righteous man pro vero, but only righteous, he having the first chance to speak. How true this is, men for the first time in a court can easily imagine. Each last strong speech comes out victorious. Now the lost has done all the strong speaking as yet. Wait till God speaks, and the case will look very differently.--Miller.
In every case, the first information, if it have dwelt for a little in the judge's mind, takes deep root, and colours and takes possession of it, insomuch that it will hardly be washed out unless either some clear falsehood be detected or some deceit in the statement thereof.--Bacon.
Saul made himself appear just in his own cause. The necessity of the case seemed to warrant the deviation from the command. But Samuel searched him, and laid open his rebellion (1 Sam. xv. 17-23). Ziba's cause seemed just in David's eyes, until Mephibosheth's explanation searched him to his confusion. Job's incautious self-defence was laid open by Elihu's probing application (Job xxxiii. 8-12).--Bridges.
In religious disputes it is a great injustice to depend for the character of a sect, or an impartial representation of their doctrines, upon one whom partially has blinded and rendered unfit, however honest he may be, to do them justice. Party spirit has as much influence as gifts to blind the eyes of the wise, and to pervert the words of the righteous.--Lawson.
This word, falling from heaven on the busy life of man, is echoed back from every quarter in a universal acknowledgement of its justness. . . . This scripture reveals a crook in the creature that God made upright. There is a bias in the heart, the fountain of impulse, and the resulting life-course turns deceitfully aside. Self-love is the twist in the heart within, and self-interest is the side to which the variation from righteousness steadily tends. . . . The heart makes the lie, deceiving first the man himself, and thereafter his neighbours. The bent is in the mould where the thought is first cast in embryo, and everything that comes forth is crooked. In my early childhood a fact regarding the relations of matter came under my observation which I now see has its analogue in the moral laws. An industrious old man, by trade a mason, was engaged to build a certain piece of wall at so much per yard. He came at the appointed time, laid the foundations according to the specifications, and proceeded with his building, course upon course, according to the approved methods of his craft. When the work had advanced several feet above the ground, a younger man, with a steadier hand and a brighter eye, came to assist the elder operator. Casting his eye along the work, as he laid down his tools and adjusted his apron, he detected a defect, and instantly called out to his senior partner that the wall was not plumb. "It must be plumb," enjoined the builder, somewhat piqued, "for I have laid every stone by the plumb-line." Suiting the action to the word he grasped the rule, laid it along his work, and triumphantly pointed to the lead vibrating and settling down precisely on the cut that marks the middle. Sure enough the wall was according to rule, and yet the wall was not plumb. The rule was examined, and the discovery was made that the old man, with his defective eyesight, had drawn the cord through the wrong slit at the top of the instrument, and then from some cause which I cannot explain, using only one side of it, had never detected the mistake. . . . It is on some such principle that people err in preparing a representation of their own case. They suspend their plumb, not from the middle, but from one edge of the rule, and that the edge which lies next their own interests.--Arnot.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 18.
THE USE OF THE LOT.
We have before had the lot as a symbol of human freedom and Divine pre-ordination (chap. xvi. 33, page 499). In this verse the thought is the advantage of its use as putting an end to contention. That it is thus a means to a most desirable end appears when we consider--
+I. That it prevents waste of time.+ Time is to human creatures a very precious commodity, because the longest life lived in this world is comparatively short. If a man has a very small inheritance he cannot afford to have one and another of his neighbours encroaching upon his land and taking a portion here and there, or others putting their hands into his pockets and helping themselves to what is only sufficient for his own needs. If a young artist has a sketch given to him by his master which he is to fill up in a given time, he cannot afford to spend the moments disputing with the fellow-pupils about their respective rights to certain brushes and colours; while he is contending the hours are going, and when the master calls for the picture he will have none to show. A man's life is a limited inheritance, given to him by God, to use first of all for his own spiritual good, and he cannot afford to be robbed of any part of it. It is an outline which God has given to him to be filled up in a certain time--spiritual and mental capacities and abilities are bestowed upon him which he is expected so to use as to form a godly noble character, and he cannot afford to waste any of the life given him for this purpose in contention with his brother man, thereby arousing the devil within himself and in him with whom he disputes. The use of the lot is therefore desirable under certain conditions and restrictions, because in ending contention it saves time. When the eleven Apostles were awaiting the seal of their commission, they felt that they had no time to waste in contending who should fill up the empty place in their band--they knew that, although they were brethren in Christ, they might differ in their opinions in the matter--and they therefore wisely determined to decide it by referring to the lot. There have been, since, Christian men and women who resort to the same method of avoiding contention; and with the example of the Apostles before us, we can have no doubt that they are justified in so doing. But--
+II. It prevents waste of material wealth.+ If the kings and great men of the earth had resorted to this method if "causing contentions to cease and parting between the mighty," how many homes and cities would have escaped overthrow, how many a fruitful and prosperous country would have been preserved from desolation, and how many a princely fortune would have remained in the hands of its rightful owners. God divided the land of Israel by lot, and if men had generally been content to permit Him to divide the earth among them in a similar manner, how much more rich and prosperous would they have been.
+III. It prevents waste of human life.+ It would be indeed a blessing if property was the most precious thing wasted in the contentions of men. But, alas, disputes often lead to far more serious consequences, and that life of man, which is at the best so limited, has been made much shorter by the sword of his fellow-man. Sometimes family feuds have led men to resort to this terrible method of settling disputes, and men of the same parentage have fought till one shed the other's blood. And sometimes it has been a nation that has contended with another, and then not one has fallen a victim, but hundreds on both sides. And when we think not only of the wounds thus inflicted, and the lives thus cut off, but of the wounded hearts and darkened lives of those who mourn them, we must allow that any means of ending contention is better than permitting it to work its deadly work. And the fact that the lot was used by Israel at the command of God, and sanctioned by Him in the early history of the Christian Church, makes it certain that if used in a right spirit it might still be employed so as to be acceptable to Him.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
As the lot was had recourse to when causes were such as admitted not of determination otherwise, there seems to be a natural enough relation of suggestion between this verse and the preceding. In cases where representations differed, and the evidence between them was such as to leave it impossible to say certainly on which side was the preponderance, or when the parties would not submit to arbitration, or when they were too powerful to be safely meddled with, then "the lot caused contentions to cease, and parted between the mighty."--Wardlaw.
There seems no Scriptural prohibition to the use of this ordinance, provided it be exercised in a reverential dependence upon God, and not profaned for common purposes or worldly ends. At the same time the Word of God appears to be more fully recognised as the arbiter of the Divine will. . . . Perhaps it is more easy to abide by the decision of the lot than of the Word. The last requires more self-denial, humility, and patience, and therefore is more practically useful.--Bridges.
He that hath commanded to cease from labour, hath much more commanded to cease from strife. He that was pleased to make the Sabbath of rest, is also pleased with those who make a Sabbath of peace. This is a Sabbath altogether moral, never to be abrogated. Wherefore let reason and indifferency hear the differences that are between any, and if it can be done let them be reconciled. But if otherwise it cannot be ordered then let a lot be the compromiser of them. In that there can be no partiality, and though itself cannot judge of right, yet He that guides it is the most righteous Judge of the world. If a lot have erred, it is when men's understanding should have put things right, for God, having given power to men, He looks that man should use it. But God so loveth peace, that, where men cannot, He will do right, if that the lot refer unto His arbitrament. Wherefore, when the mighty strive, and might of reason standeth on both sides equally, being too strong for man to decide, let the Almighty by His lot decide it.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 19.
CASTLE BARS.
The state of things treated in this verse reveals most conclusively that man has fallen. Contention between any men is a plain proof that there is some flaw in human nature, that the relations of human creatures are not what they ought to be. If the disputants are men of the same nation, their contention seems more unnatural than if they belonged to different races, but when some of the same father--men brought up at the knees of the same mother, are found in a state of enmity, we have a very strong proof that the race is not what its head was when he came fresh from the hand of his Creator. Such enmity Solomon compares to the bars of a castle--
+I. Because it is hard to break through.+ The bars that guard the outlet of a fortress are strong, and when the iron crowbar is applied to them with a view of making an entrance, the weapon finds itself resisted by a substance as unyielding as its own. The bars strike against each other, but neither being more brittle than its antagonist, no progress is made. It is no ordinary difference that makes a ground of quarrel between brothers; there are so many ties to be broken and so many motives of self-interest to bind them, that the enmity must be deep to separate them at first, and being deep and strong, it is not easily broken down.
+II. Because it is the only thing that separates them.+ Friends who deeply love each other and are one in spirit sometimes find nothing between them but a few bars--the iron grating of a dungeon may be all that keeps them apart. But although it is only that, it is a very real and terrible barrier. And a dispute between brethren is like iron bars, dividing those who ought to be one more truly and sadly than any prison door could separate them. They may be dwelling under the same roof, and so have every opportunity of enjoying each other's society and gladdening each other's life. But contention builds around each one a more impregnable barrier than the highest walls of the strongest fortress.
+III. That to subdue such enmity requires more wisdom and skill than to take a city.+ There are several methods by which a city may be won. It may be taken by superior physical force, it may be surprised and captured, or its inhabitants may be starved into a surrender. But it is not so easy to capture a human heart--an angry brother must be subdued by different means, and by weapons which require more skilful handling. No physical force can break down enmity of heart--even God cannot reconcile men unto Himself by His physical omnipotence, but wins them by love. And this is the only power which can win "a brother offended." If he has been in the wrong we must approach him with a free forgiveness, and if the wrong has been on our side we must approach with submission and acknowledgement of our fault.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
"When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength; and contentions are like the bars of a citadel." The whole meaning is, that one "brother," "revolted away" from another, is "revolted from a city of strength," that being what one is to all the rest. In other words, brothers are a shelter to brothers, and quarrels lock up that resort. . . . Notice, that a brother is not only a commoner defence, but a "citadel;" and a "bar" to that keep shuts a man out of his best earthly dependence. It is a fine adage, even for this world . . . but when applied to our Great Brother, and to our God and King, it is one of the noblest of inspired texts. He who offends our Brother Prince shuts a high tower (Psa. xviii. 2). He who quarrels with our Surety snaps to the lock of a citadel; and then, alas, it shall be, just as the wild rush of embittered enemies should have roused him to enter in.--Miller.
The sweeter the wine the sharper the vinegar; accordingly, the greater the love implanted by nature, the more bitter the hate when this love is violated.--Zeltner.
The matter of fact is here stated--and there are natural enough reasons to account for it. More is justly expected from a brother than from a stranger--more of affection, gratitude, kindly treatment, fidelity, and trustworthiness. When such expectations are disappointed, the wound in the spirit is proportionately deeper, and more difficult of healing--the breach wider, and harder of being made up. Besides, the slower a person is to take offence--the longer he forbears--the more he forgives--the more difficult it is fairly to overcome the yearnings of affection, and break the bonds of brotherhood--the more inveterate may the spirit of resentment be; the more sullen and distant the alienation, when it is actually produced.--Warren.
Whether it be a brother by race, place, or grace; those oft that loved most dearly, if once the devil cast his club between them, hate most deadly. . . . As for brethren by profession, and that of the true religion too, among Protestants, you shall meet with many divisions, and those prosecuted with a great deal of bitterness. No war breaks out sooner, or lasts longer, than that among divines, or that about a sacrament; a sacrament of love, a communion, and yet the occasion, by accident, of much dissension.--Trapp.
The original word here used is a brother revolting or departing by disloyalty; or else a brother offended by disloyal departing. For such ought to be the command of love between brethren, that he that breaks it is a disloyal rebel unto it. And surely they that need to be firmly tied, because, being divided, they are so hardly joined. For as that which being whole is most strongly united, being broken is farthest from being made whole; and as a stick of hard wax, being broken, may more easily be conjoined than a stick of hard wood, so are the divisions of brethren more hardly composed than the contentions of others.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 20 and 21.
THE POWER OF THE LITTLE MEMBER.
Solomon again and again reverts to the mighty influences for good and evil which flow from the use of the tongue--that "little member" upon which such great issues often depend. He here notices--
+I. The power of words over the man who utters them.+ He declares that the state of the inward man--its rest or unrest, its gladness or its gloom--depends very much upon the use that is made of the tongue. A little thought and observation will convince us that this is true. Beginning with the familiar intercourse of every-day life, how true it is that the utterance of kindly words of sympathy, and advice and warning, have a tendency to make sunshine in the heart of him who utters them, while censorious, hasty, harsh words embitter and darken the spirit of their author. Going beyond these to utterances which have a wider influence, the proverb is no less true. The painter that has conceived a picture in his mind, and then, seeing it upon canvas, thinks of the many eyes who will gaze upon it with interest, and of those who perchance will be elevated and instructed by it, feels a satisfaction in the thought that it owes its existence to him--that without the working of his brain and hand it would not have been. "He is filled with the increase" of his skilful hand. So the man whose words are listened to and waited for by other men--whether he be the skilful barrister, or the powerful statesman, or the preacher of the Gospel, has a satisfaction in being able to put forth his conceptions as to give to his fellow-men new ideas--to show them things in a light in which they might never have seen them but for this power which he possesses. He has joy in being the originator of fresh and living thoughts, and in being able by clothing them in words to impart them to others. But upon the moral quality of the "fruit of his mouth" will depend the length and depth of his satisfaction. The single power to influence men by speech will gratify for the moment--but if the increase of the lips is to be an abiding source of contentment there must be a consciousness that the power has been used to benefit mankind in some way or other--that the skilful pleading has been on the side of right, that the powerful logic has been used to expose the false and to defend the true, or the brilliant oratory has had for its aim the moral enlightenment and strengthening of the listeners. If it be not so, the fruit of man's mouth will be like the roll given to the apocalyptic seer, "in the mouth as sweet as honey," but afterwards "bitter" (Rev. x. 10). How sad must be the reflections of those who have possessed this God-given power for good or ill when they have had to look back upon its misuse.
+II. The power of words over those who hear them.+ The tongue in its mighty influence is a king having the power of life and death. No other member of the human body can lay claim to such wide-spread and regal authority. The eye can influence men, but not so powerfully as the tongue, nor can its influence reach so many at once. The hand can strike down the body of a single foe, or two or three at once. But the tongue can reach a thousand hearts at one time, and make men its slaves, not in twos and threes but in masses. As it sways the affections and takes a man's will captive, it wields the power of life and death not over the body of the man but over the man himself. The tongue of the tempter can drag its victims down, body and soul, to hell, while the tongue which is touched with a living coal from off the altar of God can be the means of persuading men to be reconciled to their Heavenly Father, and so of making them partakers of eternal life. Seeing, then, what issues of life and death are dependent upon this king, it is manifest that men should keep him in absolute control; if so much depends upon his action he ought to be under the strictest supervision. If one member of the body politic, by the position which he holds and the ability which he possesses, is able to exercise a very powerful influence in the kingdom for weal or for woe, men watch him narrowly and jealously to see how he uses his power, and if they are anxious for the well-being of the State they endeavour to restrain him when he is going wrong and stimulate him when he is using his influence for the right. So ought every man to watch and guard his own tongue; seeing that life, and death are in its power, he ought to bring all his words to the bar of conscience and try them there, severely condemning them if they have not been such as would minister life to the hearers, and remembering that his Master has said, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matt. xii. 37).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
If a man were possessed of a field exceedingly productive, either of good fruits or of noisome and poisonous herbs, according to the cultivation bestowed on it, what pains would he use to clear it of every weed, and to have it sown with good grain! and yet, when the harvest is come, he may take his choice whether he will eat of the product or not. Such a field is the tongue of man, with this difference, that a man is obliged to eat the fruit of it, although it should be worse than hemlock. What care, then, should we use to pluck from our hearts every root of bitterness, and to have them furnished with knowledge and prudence, that our discourse may be good, to the use of edifying!--Lawson.
There is a sense in which we may understand the language, even taking the former clause of the twentieth verse literally--"A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth." You may smile and say, A man cannot live upon words! Very true. But the way in which a man uses his lips and his tongue, as the organs of speech, may contribute not a little to his getting, or his failing to get, "the meat that perisheth." I mean not that any of you should, in the slightest degree, try to work your way in life by words of flattery; but when a man's general conversation is such as to procure for him a character of discretion, courtesy, gratitude, straightforward integrity, and trustworthiness, this may surely contribute, eminently and directly, to the temporal sustenance and comfort of the man himself and his family: while an opposite style of intercourse may tend to penury and starvation. A man may, in various ways, make his "lips" the instrument of either want on the one hand, or plenty on the other.--Wardlaw.
Our understanding of verse 20 is, that as the outward wants of a man are satisfied by his daily acts, so he himself is, and that simply as his acts, or because of the intimate sympathy between the man and what he does. This thought is still clearer in the verse that follows:--"Death and life are in the power (literally the hand) of the tongue." There can be no doubt that men's conduct (for tongue is but the leading instrument of it) determines death or life, yet, in spite of the adventurous hazard, their love to it (or literally, just as they love this or that sort of tongue), they shall eat its fruit, and incur, of course, fearful responsibilities.--Miller.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 22.
A TWOFOLD GOOD.
+I. Polygamy cannot be recommended by those who have practised it.+ A thousand counterfeit coins, even if they pass as genuine for a time, are nothing worth in comparison with one real golden sovereign. Both may bear the image and superscription of the king, but the one is an insult to the name it bears while the other has a right to be imprinted with the royal name. The author of this proverb was a polygamist--his great experience qualified him to give an opinion upon the subject--but we do not here find him dwelling upon the satisfaction of the harem, but upon the blessedness of a wife. He was fully conscious of the fact that a real partner of his life--one woman to be a help-meet for him according to the Divine intention--would have added much more to his real welfare than the thousand counterfeits to whom it was an insult to God to give the name of wives. More than once he bears testimony to the blessedness of marriage in the true sense of the word, but we never find him praising the practice which was so great a curse to his own life. In this proverb he indirectly condemns himself and warns others by his own example. A vessel that has gone to pieces upon the rocks may still be used to prevent others from sharing her fate. The broken timbers may serve to light a beacon fire which may warn other vessels to take another course. Polygamy was the rock upon which Solomon shipwrecked his social happiness and much more (1 Kings xi. 3), and he seems here and elsewhere to warn his descendants not to follow in his footsteps in this respect and conform to the custom of the heathen monarchs by whom they were surrounded.
+II. Monogamy brings a double portion--a good thing and the Divine favour.+ The favour of a good parent is a thing prized highly by a dutiful child, and enhances the value of every other blessing. The favour of a good king is in itself a fortune which few men would despise. The favour of God is a fortune for a period which extends beyond that named in the marriage vow, it is a fortune which no creature can afford to despise, and a blessing which those who know Him prize before all things in earth or heaven. When a man enters into the marriage relation according to the Divine intention--making a woman his wife in the true sense of the word--he not only adds to his own comfort and consults his own interest, but he does that which is pleasing to God--he takes a step upon which he can fearlessly ask for the Divine blessing.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
"Findeth" implies the rarity of the thing obtained (Eccles. vii. 27, 28), and the need of circumspection in the search. Blind passion is not to make the selection at random.--Fausset.
The married who is truly Christian knows that, even though sometimes things are badly matched, still his marriage relation is well pleasing to God as His creation and ordinance, and what he therein does or endures, passes as done or suffered for God.--Luther.
There is a secular and a spiritual in every proverb. These two are not apart, but flow easily into each other. Secularly, a wife is the highest treasure. It is a vapid distinction to say a good wife, and the Bible many a time hurries on without any such distinction (comp. ch. iv. 3). A bad "wife" is no "wife" at all. A wife is the holiest of all relations; in the world the most powerful for good. . . . A good marriage is a means of grace, . . . of course any relation that is near and potent is covered by the passage.--Miller.
I shall always endeavour to make choice of such a woman for my spouse who hath first made choice of Christ as a spouse for herself; that none may be made one flesh with me who is not made one spirit with Christ my Saviour. For I look upon the image of Christ as the best mark of beauty I can behold in her, and the grace of God as the best portion I can receive with her.--Bp. Reynolds.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 23.
THE RICH AND POOR.
This proverb treats of a twofold aspect of human life which furnishes a strong proof of the fallen condition of human nature. There is, probably, no part of this earth--teeming although it is with riches enough to satisfy the needs of every living thing--in which those are not to be found who have to struggle hard for their daily bread, and who even then come off with but a scanty share. Poverty seems as universal as disease and death, and must be referred to the same source. For those who know anything of the character of God, know that it was not a part of his original intention that men should be placed in such circumstances; and when they look abroad upon their fellow-creatures, they see that all the poverty of the poor can be traced to wrong-doing on the part of men--to the selfishness of some, and to the indolence and vice of others. It is quite certain that, when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, the miserable poverty which now surrounds us on every side will cease to exist. Solomon here sets forth--
+I. One of the many evils of poverty.+ He has before mentioned some of its advantages (see chap. xiii. 8, page 300), but the evil of the text is a very real and common one. A poor man has not only a very small share of the material comforts of life, but even for these he is often compelled to sue as for a favour. Even if he is an honest and able man, he may be so dependent upon the caprices of the wealthy as to have to entreat their help and patronage before he can use his powers to his own advantage. Such a state of things is often felt to be hard and is undoubtedly so, and unless a poor man is noble and self-respecting, it has a tendency to make him cringing and servile--to dispose him to barter his conscience and his rights in order to satisfy his bodily needs. We know there have been many noble exceptions to this rule--that there have been hundreds of poor men who have preferred starvation to a forfeiture of any part of their God-given inheritance--but the temptation of the poor man in this direction is often very strong by reason of his great necessity.
+II. One of the many temptations of wealth.+ It would be a difficult matter, and perhaps an impossible one, to enumerate all the respective moral advantages of poverty and riches, and strike the true balance between them. There can be no doubt that each has its peculiar temptations (see chap. xxx. 7-9), and that one of the sins to which the rich man is most liable is that of inconsiderateness of the claims of his poor brother, and even of insolence towards him. It is a universal tendency of fallen humanity to look exclusively on his own things and not on the things of others, and the wealth of the rich man enables him to indulge this tendency to its utmost. And men are prone to go even beyond this--the children of the same common Father often take delight in making their poor brethren feel their dependence on them, and instead of giving sympathy and help freely and after a brotherly fashion, they withhold the first entirely, and if they give the latter they do it coldly and even contemptuously. That this is by no means the rule we have many proofs, but that the tendency is strong we know not only from observation but from the frequent warnings against it in the Word of God. The Apostle James charges even the professed followers of Christ with having "despised the poor" (Jas. ii. 6).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
The angels smile at the way the sinner cavils. He reverses what the proverb pronounces natural. For He who is supremely rich is meek and tender, and he who is profoundly poor is loud in his reproach!--Miller.
The languages of several countries are not so different as of the poor and rich man in one and the same country, and a stranger of another land is not such a foreigner as in the same land a poor man standing at the door of the rich. The one when he speaketh is not understood by the ear, the other when he speaketh is not understood by the heart: the words of the one are not apprehended, the wants of the other are not apprehended; the one is heard, but not conceived; the other is conceived, but not heard. When two talk in diverse languages they are known to be men of diverse countries; but when the poor and rich talk together, so different is their speech that one would hardly think them to be both men, and of the same nature. The one speaks as if he had hardly breath to bring forth his words, the other speaketh with such a strong breath that the harshness of it giveth an ill scent a great way off.--Jermin.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 24.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF FRIENDSHIP.
It will be seen from the Critical Notes that most modern critics translate the first clause of this verse very differently from the rendering in our Bibles. Some expositors, however, adhere to the old translation, and we therefore look at it--
+I. As expressing a need of human nature.+ It matters not in which condition man is found, whether in riches or in poverty, whether ignorant and rude or highly civilized and educated, he needs the friendship of one or more of his fellow creatures. The special good-will of some who can feel with him and for him in all the vicissitudes of life is indispensable to his happiness. Among all the gifts which an Almighty Father has given to His children, there is perhaps none, after His Own gracious favour, which is so necessary to their welfare or is so productive of joy as this gift of friendship. Men cannot live a life of isolation and know anything of the enjoyment of life. We cannot conceive of even perfect creatures living such a life--we know the angels and redeemed saints derive much of their bliss from the friendship of each other, and how much more does man in his present imperfect state need it. And the need can be supplied even in this selfish world. Men have been, and still are, able to find among their fellows those who are worthy of the name of friend. True it is that there is much that is called friendship that is unworthy of the name, but as we do not reject the real coin because there are base imitations of it, so we must not permit the counterfeit of friendship to shake our confidence in the real thing.
+II. As setting forth an indispensable condition of making and keeping friends.+ If a man desires to know the sweets of real friendship he must be prepared to be himself a real friend. The selfish and morose man who will not deny himself for another's good, or who cannot rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, cannot expect others to deny themselves for him and to sympathise with his joy and sorrow. If there is to be a genuine friendship there must be mutual confidence and a mutual recognition of excellencies, for if the trust and admiration is on one side only the fire will soon burn out for want of fuel. There are men whose love cannot be extinguished by coldness and distrust, but they are few and far between, and the wise man's words hold good as a general rule that "a man that hath friends must show himself friendly." (The latter clause of this verse was treated in Homiletics on chap. xvii. 17-18, page 518.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
A man of friends is apt to be broken all to pieces. (This is Miller's rendering only.) The significance of the whole is that a man of wide acquaintance is apt to break. Human friendships cost. In the strife to appear well, in the time it takes, in the industries they scatter, in the hospitalities they provoke, and in the securityships they engender, broadening our socialities will try every one of us well. It is not so with heavenly friendships. All spiritual communisms bless.--Miller.
Solomon delivers a warning against the vainglorious passion of aspiring to an universal acquaintance and an empty popularity, such as was courted by his brother Absalom, which will bring with it no support in adversity, but will ruin a man by pride and rashness and prodigal expenditure.--Wordsworth.
SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER.--That the chapter before us treats mainly of the virtues of social life, of sociability, affability, love of friends, compassion, etc., appears not merely from its initial and closing sentences, the first of which is directed against misanthropic selfishness, the latter against thoughtless and inconstant universal friendship, or seeming friendship, but also from the various rebukes which it contains of a contentious, quarrelsome, and partisan disposition, e.g., verses 5, 6, 8, 17-21. But in addition, most of the propositions that seem to be more remote may be brought under this general category of love to neighbours as the sum and basis of all social virtues; so especially the testimonies against wild, foolish talking (verses 2, 7, 13, comp. 4 and 15); that against bold impiety, proud dispositions and hardness of heart against the poor (vers. 3, 12, 23); that against slothfulness in the duties of one's calling, foolish confidence in earthly riches, and want of true moral courage and confidence in God (vers. 9-11; comp. 14). Nay, even the commendation of a large liberality as a means of gaining for one's self favour and influence in human society (ver. 16), and likewise the praise of an excellent mistress of a family, are quite closely connected with this main subject of the chapter, which admonishes to love towards one's fellow-men; they only show the many-sided completeness with which the theme is here treated.--Lange's Commentary.
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