Chapter XIX…

Chapter XIX

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1.+ Delitzsch translates the last clause, "Than one with perverse lips, and so a fool." +2. Sinneth,+ literally "goeth astray." Delitzsch reads the last clause, "He who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray." +3. Perverteth,+ rather "overtures," "ruins." +5. Speaketh lies,+ rather "whose breath is lies." +6. The prince,+ rather "the noble or generous man." It seems to refer to one of rank, who is also of a benevolent disposition. "Entreat the favour," literally "stroke the face." +7. He pursueth them,+ &c. This clause is variously rendered. Zöckler reads, "He seeketh words (of friendship), and there are none;" Delitzsch, "Seeking after words which are vain;" Miller, "As one snatching at words, they come to stand towards him;" Maurer and others, "He pursueth after (the fulfilment of the) words (of their past promises to him), and these (promises) are not (made good)." +8. Wisdom.+ Literally heart. +9. Speaketh lies,+ "whose breath is lies." +10. Delight.+ Most commentators translate this word "luxury." Miller, however, as will be seen from his comment, retains the reading of the English version. +11. Discretion,+ or "intelligence." +13. Calamity.+ The word so translated is in the plural form, so as to express the continuance of the trouble. +16.+ Miller reads the verse "He that guards the commandment guards himself; in scattering his ways he dies." (See his comment.) Hitzig's rendering of the last clause agrees with Miller's. +18. Let not thy soul spare for his crying.+ The translations of most expositors here differ widely from the Authorised Version. Gortius, Maurer, Delitzsch, Zöckler, etc., read, "Let not thy soul rise to kill him," "Go not too far to kill him," etc., all understanding the precept to be directed against excessive severity. Cartwright renders it "Let not thy soul spare him, to his destruction." +20. Latter end,+ rather afterwards. +22. The desire of a man,+ &c. Rather "A man's delight (or glory) is his beneficence," or A man's kindness is what makes him desirable or, is a desirable adornment. +24. In his bosom,+ rather, in the dish. This is of course a hyperbolic expression to set forth the inactivity of the slothful man. "Athenæus," says Fausset, "describes (ch. xii. 27) the slothful man as waiting until the roasted and seasoned thrushes fly into his mouth begging to be devoured." +27. Cease my son,+ &c. "That causeth" are not in the original and the instruction spoken of may therefore be evil or good. "Two conceptions are possible: 1. The instruction is that of wisdom itself, and therefore a good wholesome discipline that leads to life; then the words can be only ironical, presenting under the appearance of a discussion from discipline in wisdom a very urgent counsel to hear and receive it (so Ewald, Bertheau, Elster). 2. The instruction is evil and perverted, described in clause 2 as one that causes departure from the words of wisdom. Then the admonition is seriously intended" (Zöckler, in Lange's Commentary). On Zöckler's first interpretation Dr. Aiken remarks, "To call this 'irony' seems to us a misnomer. Cease to hear instruction only to despise it. What can be more direct or literally pertinent?" Delitzsch says, "The proverb is a dissuasive from hypocrisy, a warning against the self-deception of which Jas. i. 22-24 speaks, against heightening one's own condemnation, which is the case of that servant who knows his lord's will and does it not (Luke xii. 47)."

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.

THE BETTER PART.

+I. A reference to an unexplained mystery of human life.+ It is here implied, though it is not directly expressed, that the fool who is perverse in his lips--who sets himself in speech and action against the moral law of the universe--is not so poor a man as he who walks in integrity. (We have before had this latter character before us. See Homiletics on chap. xi. 3, page 196.) It seems as strange that power and influence should be so often given to those who know least how to put them to a good use, as it would be to see a parent put a knife into the hand of a child who is incapable of using it, yet it is a sight which meets us on every hand, and a mystery which has presented itself to the minds of thinking men in all ages. Solomon had met with such instances in his day--he had seen the godly and upright walking in the shade and treading the bye-paths of life, while the perverse and foolish man was basking in the sunlight of worldly prosperity in the highways of society.

+II. An assertion, that, notwithstanding contrary appearances, the better portion is with the better man.+ It is not, after all, what a man's portion is, but how he uses it, that makes his life a blessing or a curse. A man who walks in integrity makes the righteous law of his God the rule of his life, and this keeping of the Divine commandments brings with it a reward (Psa. xix. 11) of which the rebellious fool knows nothing. He knows how to use his more limited opportunities and influence to the best advantage--how to put out his small capital so as to obtain the best interest upon it--how to trade with his five talents so as to make them other five, and so he is daily laying up a treasure which is better than all the fame and wealth that belongs to this world, for it is the riches of a righteous character by which he is raised himself to a higher spiritual level, and by which he is able to make the world better than he found it.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Integrity is itself a life, and a whole enjoyment, and better, therefore, than worldly interests which are nothing of the kind. Walking is an eastern figure, and we have failed to substitute it by a western one. A way in the East means a man's total course. Walking, therefore, means his total life or being. Better is a poor man, etc., refers, therefore, to a man not living in his money, nor indeed, in his horses or in his hounds, not living in his integrity, but walking in it, i.e., spending his whole time in it, staying in that way; of course, taking his pleasure in it (see verse 22). We have before seen that speech means whole conduct. The mouth, in those days, was the great implement of action. It is so still. The commonest labourer bargains out and orders out half his living by his mouth. "Perverse" or "crooked" in speech means speaking (i.e. acting) athwart of what we ourselves know in many particulars; first, athwart all moral truth; second, athwart deep personal conviction; third, athwart all personal interest (as our text implies). A Christian talks straight, because he speaks (acts) coincidentally with all of these. A sinner is crooked of lip, because he says what he does not think, and traverses for his lusts all the best principles of his moral nature.--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 2 and 3.

IGNORANCE LEADING TO SIN.

+I. The soul of man cannot be absolutely without knowledge.+ There is some knowledge which comes to the soul without any effort on the part of the man, which he has but to live to acquire, just as he has but to open his eyes to see. He is conscious of his own existence--of his personal identity as apart from all the beings and things by which he is surrounded, and of his capability of suffering and enjoyment, of hope and despair. And because of the light within him he cannot be altogether ignorant of the difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood. But his necessary knowledge extends to beings and things outside of himself. He knows without any effort much about the men and things which surround him, and the visible things of creation make it impossible that he should be altogether ignorant of the existence of the invisible God and Creator. So the apostle argues in Rom. i. 20.

+II. There is a knowledge which it is good to be without.+ There is a knowledge which human nature in its original dignity and sinlessness did not possess, the absence of this experimental knowledge was an essential element of its blessedness. The ignorance of evil was a blessed ignorance in which man's Creator would have kept him but for his own wilfulness, and the knowledge of which brought him misery. It is the blessedness of the unfallen spirits who have kept their first estate, that although they are conscious of the existence of evil in the universe, they have no experimental knowledge of it, and this ignorance constitutes the blessedness of the ever-blessed God Himself. Those sons of men who, because they are, and ever have been, in perfect health, know nothing experimentally of bodily pain or weakness, find it very good to be without this knowledge, and how much more good it is to be without a knowledge of soul disease and spiritual suffering.

+III. But there is an acquired knowledge which is indispensable to a man's well-being.+ Intellectual knowledge of some kind is necessary to prevent a man from being a shame to himself and a cumberer of the land. The well-being of the community depends upon one man's knowing some one thing that another man does not know; no man can know all things or even many things; no man, however great his knowledge, has enough of it to make him independent of the knowledge of others, but every man ought to have such a thorough knowledge of some facts and truths as to enable him to minister first to some of his own daily needs and to contribute something to the well-being of his fellow creatures. Some men must have theoretical knowledge, and others must know how to reduce theories to practice--the knowledge of the one is useless without the knowledge of the other. It behoves some men to investigate the history of the past, and to use this knowledge they so acquire for the good of the present generation, but while they are doing this it is indispensable that others should acquire a knowledge of things as they are at present, and should utilise their knowledge for the attainment of other ends which are quite as good. But intellectual knowledge of some kind is also necessary for the well-being of the mind itself. Man's mind can no more feed upon itself and be healthy than his body can feed upon itself and live. As the body needs to receive matter into itself to nourish and sustain it, so the mind needs to receive ideas upon which to feed and by which to grow. Without such a reception the intellectual part of a man remains undeveloped, and he is very far from the creature, intellectually considered, that God intended him to be. But there is a kind of knowledge even more needful for man to possess than that which will merely enlarge his mind or promote his temporal well-being. If his existence is to be really blest he must know things which relate to his spiritual well-being--he must be acquainted with the will of God concerning him, both in relation to the life that now is and to that which is to come. It is a calamity to be ignorant of things which fit a man to make the best of the present life, but it is a far greater calamity to be without that knowledge which fits a man for a blessed life beyond death. No man who possesses the revealed Word of God in the Scriptures need be without this most blessed and indispensable knowledge--everyone who thirsts for it may drink of this living water, and every hungry soul may eat of this bread and learn what are the thoughts of God concerning him, and what are the Divine purposes concerning his present and his future (Isa. lv. 1-7). And to be without this knowledge is indeed "not good," for it prevents the soul from recovering its lost and original dignity. A knowledge of the glorious God in the face of Jesus Christ is the means by which we are delivered from the penalty and power of sin, and more than recover the position lost by man's fall. Ignorance here is indeed a fatal ignorance in those who have the knowledge within their reach; it is not good for any human soul to be without this knowledge, and it is most soul-destroying to those who have only to seek it in order to find it.

+IV. Some of the evil consequences which flow from ignorance in general and from ignorance of God in particular.+ 1. Ignorance leads to hasty action, and consequently often to wrong action. For, "he that hasteth with his feet sinneth," and "the foolishness of man perverteth his way." In common and every-day life we find that the most ignorant people are the least cautious, and act with the least reflection. Knowledge teaches men to think before they act, for it makes men more alive to the importance of their actions. A child will play with gunpowder with as little hesitation as he would with common dust, but a man would not do so, because he knows what would be the consequences if it ignited. A man who has never been in a coalmine, and who was ignorant of the dangers of fire-damp, would be very likely to descend the shaft and enter hastily into the gloomy passages without first testing the state of the air, but a miner would not do so, because he knows more about the matter. He would advance cautiously, and ascertain what was before him before he ventured far. So people who are ignorant of the mind and will of God as revealed in His Word act without much thought as to the consequences of their actions--they enter upon a road at the impulse of a passing fancy, without asking themselves whither it leads--they decide upon a certain course of action without thought of the consequence. And such a hasting with the feet is always a perversion of a man's way, a wandering from the right path, for a fallen man does not forsake the evil and choose the good by instinct but by effort founded upon reflection. 2. Spiritual ignorance leads to rebellion against God. It is only a man who does not know God, who "frets against the Lord." A child because he is ignorant of his father's motives will fret against the wise and kind restrictions which the father places around him. So men wilfully ignorant that whenever God says "Thou shalt not" He is only saying "Do thyself no harm," chafe and fret against His moral laws. They will not set themselves to obtain that knowledge of God which the Gospel reveals and consequently they look at all His commands through a cloud of ignorance which makes them grievous and heavy instead of easy and light. And there are many mysteries connected with God's government that will tend to make men's hearts fretful and discontented if they remain in ignorance of His character. There are many problems in connection with man's present life which he cannot solve--many apparent contradictions, and much which looks like injustice on the part of Him who rules the world, and every soul who does not know God as He is revealed in His Son will, when he thinks on these things, is likely to be led to harbour rebellious thoughts against Him. When we consider the evil which flows from ignorance of God we can better understand how it is that "the knowledge of the Lord" is so often used in Scripture as synonymous with all that can bless and elevate mankind (see Isa. xi. 9, etc.).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

We should desire first the enlightening of the eyes and then the strengthening of the feet. Hence "Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts," and then, "I will run the way of Thy commandments" (Psa. cxix. 27, 32). He that would sail safely must get a good pilot before good rowers. Swift horses, without a skilful waggoner, endangers more. He that labours for feet before he has eyes, takes a preposterous course; for, of the two the lame is more likely to come to his journey's end than the blind. . . . Hence we see that there is more hope of a vicious person that hath a good understanding, than of an utterly dark and blind soul, though he walks upon zealous feet. . . . Learn to know God. "How shall we believe on Him we have not known?" (Rom. x. 14). Knowledge is not so much slighted here, as it will be wished hereafter. The rich man in hell desires to have his brethren taught (Luke xvi. 28). Sure if he were alive again, he would hire them a preacher. "The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea iv. 6). If we see a proper man cast away at the sessions for a non legit, with pity we conclude he might have been saved, if he could have read. At that general and last assizes, when Christ shall "come in flaming fire," woe be to them that "know not God" (2 Thess. i. 8). For "He will pour out His fury upon the heathen, that know Him not, and upon the families that call not on His name" (Jer. x. 25). . . . In Prov. ix. 18, the new guest at the fatal banquet is described by his ignorance. "He knoweth not" what company is in the house, "that the dead are there." It is the devil's policy, when he would rob and ransack the house of our conscience, like a thief to put out the candle of our knowledge; that we might neither discern his purposes, nor decline his mischiefs. . . . Indeed ignorance may make a sin a less sin, but not no sin. "I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief," says the apostle (1 Tim. i. 13). The sins of them that know are more heinous than the sins of them that know not. But if thou hadst no other sin, thy ignorance is enough to condemn thee, for thou art bound to know. They that will not know the Lord, the Lord will not know them.--T. Adams.

The most innocent of all faults might seem ignorance. The only sin (when philosophically stated) is ignorance. The "chains" that confine the lost (2 Pet. ii. 4) are "darkness." The charge that overtakes the saved is light (2 Cor. iv. 6). The graces that adorn the Christian all flow from a new intelligence. Our text is literally exact. If the man "has no knowledge," and that of a deep spiritual sort, his "life is no good;" that is, it possesses none, and is itself a horrid evil. And yet the concluding clause largely relieves the difficulty. The man, knowing there was something wrong, ought to pause, and grope about for the light, just as all would in a dark cavern. Instead of that he rushes darkly on. Here, the inspired finger is put upon the precise mistake. We are warned that we are in blindness. Why not hesitate, then, and cast about us? We push on, knowing we are in the dark. This is the photograph of the impenitent. . . . And yet, the wise man says, he ignores this point of wilfulness, and in his heart is angry with the Almighty. He "perverteth," or subverteth "his way," that is, totally upsets and ruins, so that it is no way at all. Nothing could describe more truly the sinner's path, because it does not reach even the ends that he himself relied on. Death arrives, too, to wreck it totally. And though he has resisted the most winning arts to draw him unto Christ, yet, at each sad defeat, "his heart is angry against Jehovah."--Miller.

Verse 2. Haste, as opposed to sloth, is the energy of Divine grace (Psa. cxix. 60; Luke xix. 6). Here, as opposed to consideration, acting hastily is sin. This impatience is the genuine exercise of self-will, not taking time to inquire; not "waiting for the counsel of the Lord." Godly Joshua offended here (Josh. ix. 14, 15). Saul's impatience cost him his kingdom (1 Sam. xiii. 12). David's haste was the occasion of gross injustice (2 Sam. xvi. 3, 4).--Bridges.

Religion a sentiment and a science. I know of no attack on Christianity more artfully made than that which is attempted when a distinction is attempted to be drawn between religion and theology. . . . Let us see what the value of religion is, when it is separated from theology. We are told that religion is a sentiment, a temper, a state of mind. Theology is a science, a pursuit, a study . . . and it is asserted and insinuated that it may be well with the soul, although it be destitute of spiritual knowledge. . . . But we, who are called Christians, by the very name we bear, imply that more than devotional sentiment is necessary to make a religious man. . . . You must accept Jesus as the only Saviour if you would escape perdition, and how can you accept Him unless you know Him? Nay, further, how can you accept Him unless you know yourself? . . . There are many other things which we ought to know and believe, to our soul's health and comfort; but . . . the soul that is without knowledge of this, the great Christian scheme, the Divine plan of salvation, is only nominally and by courtesy a Christian soul. . . . Except as hearing upon these truths, the religious sentiment is a luxury and nothing more. . . . It is not the theoretical distinction between the sentiment and the science that we censure, but their separation and divorce.--Dean Hook.

Verse 3. Such was the foolishness of Adam! First he perverted his way; then he charged upon God its bitter fruit. "God, making him upright," made him happy. Had he been ruled by his will, he would have continued so. But, "seeking out his own inventions" (Eccles. vii. 29), he made himself miserable. As the author of his own misery, it was reasonable that he should fret against himself, but such was his pride and baseness, that his heart fretted against the Lord, as if He, and not himself, was responsible (Gen. iii. 6-12). This his first-born, when his own sin had brought "punishment" on him, fretted, as if "it were greater than he could bear" (Ib. iv. 8-13). This has been the foolishness of Adam's children ever since God has linked together moral and penal evil, sin and sorrow. The fool rushes into the sin and most unreasonably frets for the sorrow; as if he could "gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles" (Matt. vii. 16). He charges his crosses, not on his own perverseness, but on the injustice of God (Ezek. xviii. 25). But God is clear from all the blame (James i. 13, 14): He had shown the better; man chooses the worse. He had warned by His Word and by conscience. Man, deaf to the warning, plunges into the misery; and, while "eating the fruit of his own ways," his heart frets against the Lord. "It is hard to have passions, and to be punished for indulging them. I could not help it. Why did He not give me grace to avoid it?" (See Jer. vii. 10). Such is the pride and blasphemy of an unhumbled spirit. The malefactor blames the judge for his righteous sentence (Isa. viii. 21, 22; Rev. xvi. 9-11, 21).--Bridges.

This was the case in Greece as well as in Judea; for Homer observed that "men lay those evils upon the gods, which they have incurred through their own folly and perverseness.". . . This is often the case with regard--1. To men's health. By intemperance . . . indolence . . . or too close application to business . . . or unruly passions, they injure their frame . . . and then censure the providence of God. 2. To their circumstances in life. . . . Men complain that providence frowns on them . . . when they have chosen a wrong profession, despising the advice of others . . . or when they have brought themselves into straits by their own negligence. 3. To their relations in life. They complain of being unequally yoked . . . when they chose by the sight of the eye, or the vanity and lusts of the heart. . . . They complain that their children are undutiful . . . when they have neglected their government. 4. To their religious concerns. They complain that they want inward peace when . . . they neglect the appointed means of grace . . . and that God giveth Satan power over them when by neglect they tempt the tempter.--Job Orton.

For Homiletics on the main thought of verse 4 see on chapter xiv. 20, page 370.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENT.

They are friends to the wealth, not the wealthy. They regard not qualis sis, but quantus--not how thou art, but how great. . . . These flatter a rich man, as we feed beasts, till he be fat, and then fall on him. . . . These friends love not thy soul's good, but thy body's goods.--T. Adams.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 5 and 9.

THE END OF A FALSE TONGUE.

We have before had proverbs dealing with the evil of lying (see Homiletics on chap. xii. 17-19, xiv. 25, pages 274 and 379), and the constant recurrence of the subject, together with the repetition of the verses here, shows us the vast importance which the inspired writer attached to truth, and the many and great evils which flow from a disregard of it. Again and again he holds up the liar to view as a monster of iniquity, and seeks, both by the threatening of the retribution which awaits it and by the misery which it causes to others, to deter men from yielding to this sin. If we consider what mischief a false man can do, we shall not be surprised at the prominence which the wise man gives to this subject (see ch. xii. 17-19, 22, page 274). But the most dangerous element of the lying tongue is the fact that in nine cases out of ten no human tribunal can bring to justice, and perhaps few human tribunals would care to do so. "The world," says Dr. David Thomas ("Practical Philosopher," page 414) "abounds in falsehood. Lies swarm in every department of life. They are in the market, on the hustings, in courts of justice, in the senate house, in the sanctuaries of religion; and they crowd the very pages of modern literature. They infest the social atmosphere. Men on all hands live in fiction and by fiction." If we allow that this picture is a true one, and alas! we cannot deny that it is, we can see that the evil is one with which no human hand can deal. A tiger may come down from a neighbouring forest and enter the city, and spread terror and dismay all round, and even kill a dozen of its inhabitants. But he is a tangible creature, he can be faced and attacked with weapons which can pierce his skin and make him powerless to do any further mischief. But into the same city may enter upon the summer wind impalpable particles of matter charged with a poison which may slay not ten men but ten thousand, and no weapon that has ever been forged by human hand can slay these destroyers. The plague will keep numbering its victims until the poison has spent itself or until a pure and healthful breeze scatters the deadly atmosphere. So with lying in comparison with more palpable and gross crimes. The thief can be caught and imprisoned, the murderer is generally traced and hanged; but the sin of lying so permeates the whole social atmosphere that nothing but the diffusion of heavenly truth can rid the world of the poison. But the liar, however he escapes some forms of retribution, "shall not go unpunished." 1. He shall be self-punished. His own conscience will be his judge and executioner in one. The fear of discovery here will generally haunt him as a shadow does the substance, but if this ghost is laid there will be times, however hardened he may be, when that witness for truth that is within him will scourge him in the present and fill him with forebodings concerning the future. 2. Men will punish him by not believing him when he speaks the truth. In proportion as a man's veracity is doubted will be the suspicion with which his word is received. He may tell the truth on two occasions out of three, but if his falsehood on the third is found out, his truth-telling on the first and second will not avail him much. It is a terrible thing to live always in an atmosphere of distrust, but it is one of the punishments of a liar. 3. God will punish him after he leaves this world. Concerning him and some other great transgressors it is written that--"they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. xxi. 8). Whatever may be the precise meaning of these terrible words, we know that they were spoken by one whose every word was "true and faithful" (see verse 5 of the same chapter), and they are but an intensified form of the last clause of our texts--"He that speaketh lies shall perish."

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Falsehood is like fire in stubble. It likewise turns all around it into its own substance for a moment--one crackling, blazing moment, and then dies. And all its contents are scattered in the wind without place or evidence of their existence, as viewless as the wind which scatters them.--Coleridge.

"He whose breath is lies shall be lost." Breath means the inborn and natural impulse. The root of the verb translated "shall perish," means to lose oneself by wandering about. The cognate Arabic means to flee away wild in the desert. The spirit, therefore, that habitually breathes out falsities, and so acts constitutionally athwart of what is true, is best described by keeping to the original; that is, instead of perishing in the broader and vaguer way, he wanders off and is lost in the wilderness of his own deceptions.--Miller.

The thief doth only send one to the devil; the adulterer, two; the slanderer hurteth three--himself, the person of whom, the person to whom he tells the lie.--T. Adams.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 6 and 7.

THE PROOFS OF HUMAN SELFISHNESS.

+I. The servile regard which men pay to rank and wealth.+ A prince is a man in whose hand there is power to advance the material interests of other men, and this makes him a loadstone to the godless man whatever his character may be. As the magnet will attract all the steel dust within its reach, so the prince is a magnet which attracts all the self-seeking and the worldly who can by any possibility obtain any favour from him. To gain that favour they will fawn upon him and flatter him, and will stoop even to become supplicants at his feet. Let him be one of the most contemptible of human creatures, there will not be wanting those who may be in many respects his superiors who will serve him from hope of advancing their own interests. We know that this is not universally the case--that there have been noble men in all ages who would scorn to entreat the favour of any man, simply because he was a man of power; but Solomon here speaks of the rule and not of the exception, and the fact that it is so testifies to the self-seeking which is the characteristic of men in general.

+II. The treatment which the poor man often receives from his more wealthy kinsfolk.+ The proverb implies that those who hate him and pass him by with disdain are richer than himself, and therefore not only bound to pity his poverty but able to lighten his burden. But the same selfishness which draws men to the rich causes them to shun the poor in general, and especially their poor relations, for they feel conscious that these latter have a stronger claim upon them than those who are not so related. And even if the poor man does not need the help of his richer brethren he will often find himself unrecognised by them, simply because he occupies a lower social station. He has nothing to give them in the way of material good--his favour is worth nothing in the way of promoting their worldly interests--the very fact that he is poor and yet is more or less nearly connected by family ties is supposed to dim the lustre of their greatness, and they therefore cherish towards him a positive dislike which they manifest by avoiding his society as much as possible, and by receiving all his advances towards friendship with coolness and disdain. If we had no other proof of the depth to which man has fallen since God created him in His own image, the regard which men pay, not to what a man is, but to what he has, would be one sad enough. (See also Homiletics on chap. xiv. 20, page 370.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Princes need not pride themselves in the homage that is paid to them, for their favour is sought by men, not so much out of regard to their persons, as from a regard to their power. Kindness and liberality have a greater influence for gaining the hearts of men, than dignity of station. There are many that seek the ruler's favour, but every man loves him that is generous. When power and generosity meet in the same person, he becomes an object of universal esteem, like Marcus Antoninus, who was lamented by every man when he was dead, as if the glory of the Roman empire had died with him.

How inexcusable are we, if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are the fruits of His bounty, conveyed by the ministry of those whose hearts are disposed by His providence to kindness. "I have seen thy face," said Jacob to Esau, "as the face of God." His brother's favour he knew to be a fruit of the mercy of Him with whom he spake and prevailed at Bethel.--Lawson.

For Homiletics on verses 8 and 9 see verses 2 and 5 of this chapter, also on chapters viii. 36 and ix. 12, pages 121 and 124.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 10.

INCONGRUITIES.

+I. Where there is wealth or exalted station their ought to be correspondent qualifications.+ (For the real signification of the word translated "delight" see Critical Notes.) If a man is rich he ought to be wise, and if he is powerful he ought to have been instructed how to use his power well. A fool is useless in any condition of life, but a fool who is the possessor of a fortune is a power for evil. We must understand the word "servant" here to mean an ignorant and incapable man--one who, though able to serve, has no ability to rule. A man may be very well fitted to perform the duties of a common seaman, but if he is ignorant of the laws of navigation it would be a great misfortune for both himself and the rest of the crew if he were to be appointed to the captain's post. If he had remained before the mast he might have done good service, but when he is promoted to a higher rank he is only an instrument of mischief. Of the two incongruities dealt with in the proverb this last is the most fruitful of evil. It is a lamentable thing when great riches come into the possession of a fool who does not know how to use his wealth either for his own or his neighbour's good, and it may be productive of positive harm both to himself and others. Instances are not at all uncommon, and most men have met with them, in which a man in a very humble station, and destitute of true and spiritual wisdom, inherits suddenly a large fortune. In the majority of such cases the inheritance is a curse rather than a blessing, for the inheritor has no idea how to use it so as to promote his own real welfare. His higher nature has never been developed, consequently he has no spiritual or intellectual desires to gratify, and all he can do with his wealth is to minister to his appetites and gratify his passions, which he often does in a most unseemly way, and to an extent which makes him a worse man when he is rich than he was when he was poor. But this misuse of wealth is not so great a misfortune as the misuse of power. The evil effects of the first will be confined within comparatively narrow limits, but those of the latter are widespread. When a man is neither a prince by birth or by nature, and yet is in a position which gives him power over men who are either or both, there is a great disproportion in the moral fitness of things which generally brings much social and national trouble. For if a man's only title to rule is that of birth, it is better for those whom he rules than if he had none at all. If he is an incapable man himself he may be the descendant of greater men, although they cannot reverence him for what he is. But when he has not even this small claim on their obedience, the unseemliness is so great that national anarchy, and consequently much individual suffering, is the almost certain result.

+II. Either of these incongruities present a deep mystery in the Divine government.+ When we consider what a great power for good as well as for evil is wrapped up in wealth, the providence appears to us dark which often gives it to the moral fool and leaves the wise man destitute. But when we find a weak man apparently holding in his hands the destinies of many stronger and nobler men--a "servant" ruling over "princes"--the providence seems darker still. But there are two sources whence we can draw comfort. We can look forward to that "time of restitution of all things" (Acts iii. 21) when all these manifest inconsistencies shall be done away with, and we can assure ourselves that "things are not what they seem"--that the wisdom of the wise man is a greater power for good than the wealth of the rich, and that, after all, the choice of the ruler is in the hand of those whom he rules, and that if the latter are "princes" they will not long suffer themselves to be ruled by one who is "a servant."

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

1. In its secular form this truth is obvious. 2. In its higher but intermediate form, it means that an ungodly sinner, here called "a stupid man," on his way to death and judgment, is so shockingly off in all interests of his being, that "delight" is a mockery; it is anything but suited to his state. And to have him stand, as he often does, superior to Christians, overawing Christian life, and repressing Christian eminence of character, is indeed a servant ruling a prince; and it is as good an instance as could be met, of something that does not suit, or as the original has it, does not sit well. 3. But Solomon would carry it a story higher. He means to continue his pursuit of the impenitent. He means to tell them that their delight, in itself considered, would not sit well; that to reward a fool would bring dishonour upon government; and to release the outlaw from his bonds would really be to elect the slave to a post higher than the "princes."--Miller.

With all the preference here expressed for virtuous poverty, the seemliness of rank, and the violence done by the upstart rule of the lower over the higher, are not overlooked.--Chalmers.

Abundance of wealth, dainty fare, and pastime or recreation, is not meet for a vain and wicked person. For, first of all, he rather deserveth correction than recreation; secondly, he abuseth all his delights and possessions to his own hurt, being drunken with his vanities; last of all, he is so puffed upon and corrupted by prosperity, that he oppresseth his neighbours. . . . But if a light vanity beseem not a vain person, then authority, which carrieth with it a weight of glory, less beseemeth a vile person, who is of a servile disposition and condition, especially that rule which is exercised over noble personages.--Muffet.

Judge, then, how horrible it is that men should set the devil or his two angels, the world and the flesh, on the throne, while they place God on the footstool; or that in this commonwealth of man, reason, which is the queen or princess over the better powers and graces of the soul, should stoop to so base a slave as sensual lust.--T. Adams.

The reason is, because a wise man is master of his delight, a fool is servant unto it. And delight never doth well but where it is commanded, never doth so ill as where it is commander. . . . The command of delight is like the ruling of a servant over princes; and as he is foolish in ruling, so it is the quality of a fool to give the ruling of his heart unto delight.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 11 and 12.

TWO KINGS.

+I. The man who exercises despotic power over the destinies of his fellow creatures.+ The similitudes by which Solomon describes the power that is sometimes lodged in a kingly hand are very strong, and were more true in his day than they are in ours. The wrath of a despot is like the roaring of a lion because it is an indication of the destructive power that lies behind it. That roar is not an empty sound, for everyone who hears it knows that the savage beast can do more than roar--that he can tear in pieces the unfortunate victim of his wrath. If he could only roar men would listen unmoved, but they tremble because they know that his anger can find an outlet in a more terrible manner. There are men whose wrath, although it is fierce, does not fill its objects with any alarm--they know that the man's anger can only find an outlet in words and that he is impotent to do them harm. But there are those whose anger can work terrible evil to its victims, and who have such forces at their command that a man may well fear to incur their wrath. There have been despots in the world to incur whose displeasure was like awaking the fury of a wild beast, and whose manner of repaying those who had offended them was more brutal than human. But men in such a position have as much power to bless as to curse. If they choose to exercise their prerogative in a kindly manner they can exercise an influence as reviving and as cheering as that of "the dew upon the grass." Such an one can elevate his subjects both socially and morally by the enactment of wise laws, and in this sense can make a wilderness rejoice and blossom as the rose. Perhaps, however, the proverb more directly refers to the power of the king to exalt and promote his favourites--those who either by chance or by devotion to his interests become objects of his especial regard. If such men are poor the king's favour can effect as great a transformation in their circumstances as the dew will upon a field scorched by the sun, and so long as that favour continues they are as continually and as liberally nourished as the grass is watered by the daily dew.

+II. The man who can curb his anger and pardon an offence.+ Solomon was a king whose power was not inaptly described by the twelfth verse, but he had too much spiritual enlightenment to conceive that there was any true glory in it alone. He gives the palm to the man who can "rule his spirit," and who can "pass over a transgression," especially if that man has great power in his hand to visit the offender with punishment. If it is the glory of a man with limited influence to pardon an offender, it is much more glorious for a king to do so, because his wrath is able to exercise itself without being called to an account. This thought may be applied to the King of kings, to the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe. When Moses besought Him to show him His glory, "He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee," and that name was, "The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin," (Exod. xxxiii. 19, xxxiv. 6). For Homiletics on the same subject see on chap. xiv. 29, page 386, and on chap. xvi. 32, page 497.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

If men, as they grow more sensible, forgive easier, and it is their honour or glory to "pass over an offence," the implication is that thus it must be with the All-Wise. Complaint is foolish, for eternity will reveal that the Almighty took no pleasure in punishing us. "The commonest man," literally "a man," but a man under the title which, all through this book, as in Isaiah ii. 9, distinguishes itself from another title, which means a man of the better sort. This gives two points of heightened emphasis:--First, even the commonest man thinks it well to forgive. How much more the Almighty! And, second, even the commonest man, when intelligent, forgives the easier: how much more the Great Intelligence? He who best understands His honour would not be likely to inflict punishment, unless where it was impossible that there should be a final escape (ver. 5).--Miller.

The monarch of the forest is a just comparison to the monarch of the land. "The lion hath roared; who will not fear?" The rocks and hills echo the terrific cry. The whole race of the animals of the forest are driven to flight, or petrified to the spot. Such is the king's wrath in a land of despotism; reigning without law, above law, his will his only law; an awful picture of cruelty, tyranny, and caprice! Unlimited power is too much for proud human nature to bear, except with special grace from above.--Bridges.

Discretion is a buckler made of a cold, hard, smooth metal, and that which giveth the true temper to the metal is delay. For in all the ways of discretion delay holdeth it by the hand, it judgeth not without delay, it worketh not without delay, it is not angry without delay. The fiery darts that are thrown against it kindle not this metal hastily, the strokes of wrong and injury bruise not this metal easily; the apprehensions of a moved spirit fasten not easily upon it, the fury that assaulteth it slips off by a mild smoothness from it.--Jermin.

The only legitimate anger is a holy emotion directed against an unholy thing. Sin, and not our neighbour, must be its object. Zeal for righteousness, and not our own pride, must be its distinguishing character. The exercise of anger, although not necessarily sinful, is exceedingly difficult and dangerous. . . . Thus it comes about, that although anger be not in its own nature and in all cases sinful, the best practical rule of life is to repress it, as if it were. The Holy might use it against sin in the world, if the Holy were here, but it seems too sharp a weapon for our handling. . . . The best practical rule for the treatment of anger against persons is to defer it. Its nature presses for instant vengeance, and the appetite should be starved. A wise man may indeed experience the heat, but he will do nothing till he cools again. When your clothes outside are on fire you wrap yourself in a blanket, if you can, and so smother the flame; in like manner, when your heart within has caught the fire of anger, your first business is to get the flame extinguished. . . . To pass over a transgression is a man's "glory." . . . This is a note in unison with the Sermon on the Mount, and therefore at variance with most of our modern codes of honour. It has often been remarked that the Bible proves itself Divine by the knowledge of man which it displays; but perhaps its opposition to the main currents of a human heart are as clear a mark of its heavenly origin as its discovery of what these currents are.--Arnot.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 13, 14 and 18.

DOMESTIC SORROW AND HOW TO AVOID IT.

+I. Two fruitful sources of sorrow.+ There are many fountains whence flow waters which sadly embitter the lives of men, but there is none outside of personal character which can more entirely darken their days than either of those mentioned in the thirteenth verse. To be either the father of a foolish son or the husband of a contentious wife is sorrow indeed. The first clause of this proverb is nearly the same as that in chap. x. 1, for Homiletics on which see page 137. The contentious wife is here compared to a "continual dropping," because although the discomfort would not be great if it were only occasional, its perpetual existence makes life wretched. A drop of water falling upon a man's head is a very trifling matter, but one of the most dreaded tortures of the Spanish inquisition was that in which a man was placed in such a position that a single drop was constantly descending upon his head. Hour after hour, day after day, and night after night, the drops followed one another in regular and unbroken succession until the poor wretch first lost reason and then life. It is much harder to bear a burden which is never lifted from the shoulders than to carry one which is much heavier for a short time and for a very limited distance. So it is easier for a man to rise above trials which, although they may be almost overwhelming for a time, last but through a comparatively very short portion of his life. But the trial of a contentious wife is unceasing so long as the marriage bond continues, and it is this that makes it so greatly to be dreaded.

+II. Means suggested whereby these sources of sorrow may be avoided.+ If so much depends upon our family relationships--if the character of the wife and child have so much to do with our weal and woe--it becomes a most momentous question how to act so as to secure a prudent wife in the first place, and then to avoid the calamity of a foolish son. It must be remembered that the first is purely a matter of choice. A man's "house and riches" may be "the inheritance of fathers," his social position may depend upon his parents, but his wife depends upon his own choice, and as "a prudent wife is from the Lord," if he seeks the guidance of Him who is alone the infallible reader of character, instead of following the leading of his fancy or consulting his worldly interests, he may with confidence expect to avoid the curse and secure the blessing. The other relationship is not one of choice. Our children are sent to us by the hand of God, and we have no more voice in determining their dispositions and mental constitutions than we have the colour of their hair, or any other bodily characteristic. But of two things we are certain. 1. That they will need a training which will not always be pleasant to them. Where there is disease in the body a cure cannot often be effected without a resort to unpleasant--often to painful--measures. It is not pleasant to a surgeon to use the knife, but it is often indispensable to his patient's recovery to health. And both experience and revelation testify to the fact that our children come into the world with a moral taint upon them--that they have a tendency to go the wrong way--that, in the words of the Psalmist (Ps. li. 5) they are "shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin." If a parent desires to avoid the calamity of a foolish son he must early recognise the truth that his child will not become morally wise unless he "chasten" him, unless he subject him to a system of moral training, unless he make him feel that punishment must follow sin. This will be as painful sometimes to the parent as to the child; the crying of the son will hurt the father more than the rod will hurt the child, but the end to be attained by present suffering must be borne in mind, and must nerve the heart and head of him whose duty it is to administer chastisement. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xii. 24, page 334.) 2. That there is reason to hope that children, if rightly trained, will be a joy and not a sorrow. There is hope. When a river has but just left its source among the hills, and the current is feeble, its progress can be stopped with ease; but when it has flowed on for a few miles and there is depth of water enough to float a fleet, it is almost impossible to stop its onward course. So, when the power of evil in the human soul is in its infancy, it is a much more easy task to restrain it than when it has acquired strength by years of uncontrolled dominion. When the young oak is but a few inches above the ground, the hand of the woodman can bend the slender stem as he pleases; but when it has grown for half a century he is powerless to turn it from the direction which it has taken. So a child's will is pliable to the wise training of the parent, and if the education of the moral nature be begun early, there is every reason to hope that it will acquire strength to overcome both sin within and without, and that a righteous manhood will in the future more than repay both him whose duty it is to chasten, and him upon whom the chastisement must fall.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verses 13, 14. "A prudent wife" is not to be got by an _im_prudent mode of choice. The gift must be sought "from the Lord." But this does not mean that the Lord is supernaturally to point out the individual. Our own discretion must be put in exercise, along with prayer for the Divine superintendence and direction, so as to bring about a happy result. And then the precious gift should be owned, and the all-bountiful Giver praised for his goodness in bestowing it.--Wardlaw.

"Every good gift is from the Lord" (James i. 17) only, some in the ordinary course, others more directly from Him. Houses and riches, through His gifts, come by descent. They are the inheritance of fathers. The heir is known, and in the course of events he takes possession of his estate. But the prudent wife is wholly unconnected with the man. There has been no previous bond of relation. She is often brought from a distance. "The Lord brought her to the man" by His special Providence, and therefore as His special gift.--Bridges.

Verse 18. The great force of the rule is its timely application--while there is hope. For hopeless the case may be, if the remedy be delayed. The cure of the evil must be commenced in infancy. Not a moment is to be lost. "Betimes" (chap. xiii. 24; xxii. 15)--is the season when the good can be effected with the most ease, and the fewest strokes. The lesson of obedience should be learnt at the first dawn. One decided struggle and victory in very early life, may, under God, do much towards settling the point at once and to the end. On the other hand, sharp chastening may fail later to accomplish, what a slight rebuke in the early course might have wrought.--Bridges.

You are here taught further, that firmness must be in union with affection in applying the rod. The words seem to express a harsh, yet it is an important and most salutary lesson:--"let not thy soul spare for his crying." The words to not mean, that you should not feel, very far from that. It was the knowledge that feeling was unavoidable, and that the strength and tenderness of it was ever apt to tempt parents to relent and desist, and leave their end unaccomplished,--that made it necessary to warn against too ready a yielding to this natural inclination. The child may cry, and cry bitterly, previously to the correction; but, when you have reason to think the crying is for the rod rather than for the fault, and that, but for the threatened chastisement, the heart would probably have been unmoved, and the eyes dry;--then you must not allow yourselves to be so unmanned by his tears, as to suspend your purpose, and decline its infliction. If a child perceives this (and soon are children sharp enough to find it out) he has discovered the way to move you next time; and will have recourse to it accordingly.--Wardlaw.

On the subject of verse 15 see Homiletics on chap. vi. 9, 10, page 79.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.

A DOUBLE KEEPING.

+I. A keeping of the Divine commandments.+ What is it to "keep the commandments?" Dr. Miller translates this verb to guard or watch. Taken in this sense therefore the proverb implies that there is need--1. To lay up God's law in our hearts. It is to be our constant aim to know the will of God--the words which He has spoken, the commands which He has given, are to be constantly kept in remembrance and made the principal subject of our thoughts. We are to tread in the footsteps of the man described in the first Psalm, whose "delight is in the law of the Lord" and who "meditates" upon it "day and night." But the word as it is commonly understood implies--2. To translate God's law into life. It is one thing to know the will of God, it is another thing to do it. Knowledge must come before obedience, but knowledge alone will not save the soul from death.

+II. A keeping of the human soul.+ There is but one way to guard the human soul from the dangers to which it is exposed, and that is by complying with the demands of the God who can alone give spiritual life. He commands us to yield ourselves unreservedly to His guidance, to accept His method of being made right in relation to His law, to fight against the evil tendencies of our fallen nature, and to seek His help to overcome them. In doing this He has promised that we shall find that emancipation from the bondage of sin, that awakening of spiritual faculties, and that sense of His favour which alone is the life of the soul. We have before dwelt upon proverbs which embody truths similar to those contained in this verse. (See on chap. xi. 3, page 195; chap. x. 8, page 151; chap. xiii. 6, 13, 14, pages 299, 312, 313; chap. xvi. 17, page 479.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Keep means to retain. Guard means to watch. The root of the present word means to bristle, then to watch close, either from the bristling of spears, or from a sharp stave. There is a philosophy in these words, . . . viz., that conscience is vagrant. We have to watch. Like the mind itself, it is hard to hold it to the point. Attention is our whole voluntary work. And, to a most amazing degree, the Scriptures are framed upon this idea. We are to remember now our Creator (Eccles. xii. 1). We are to remember the Sabbath day (Exod. xx. 8). We are to "observe to do," etc. (this very word guard.) See Deut. v. 1, 32, et passim. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed (this same word guarding) thereto according to Thy Word" (Psa. cxix. 9). "Guards himself" (the same word). (See Critical Notes.) This is an iron link of sequence which no Anti-Calvinistic thought can shake. He who stands sentry over the "commandment" stands sentry over himself; literally "his soul." There is no helplessness in man other than that tardema, or deep sleep (ver. 15) which "sloth" wilfully casts him into, and which a voluntary slothfulness perpetually increases and maintains. "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are aliens." The proverb advances upon this in the second clause. What more voluntary than a man's "way?" It has a voluntary goal, it has a daily journeying, and it includes all that is voluntary. Seize a man at any moment. All that he is upon is part of his life's travel. Now, a Christian has but one way. So far forth as he is a Christian, he has but one end, and one path for reaching it. There is a beautiful unitariness in his journeying. It is a habit of Scripture to turn attention to the scattered life of the lost. They have no one end. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light," says the Saviour (Matt. vi. 23). Thou "hast scattered thy ways to the strangers," says Jeremiah (iii. 13); this same expression. "Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way" (Jer. ii. 36). Despiseth (English version) suits the lexicon and suits the sense, for certainly the lost man has less respect for his way and life than the pardoned believer; but "scattering" is equally legitimate and common; more strengthened by analogy, and more in keeping with the first clause, where the verb to guard stands more opposed to vagrant and distraught ideas. "Dies;" see Job v. 2. Corruption is seated in the soul, but not out of reach by any means. A man can increase it. What we do outside kills inwardly. A man's counting-house might seem to have little to do with the state of his soul, but it is shaping it all the time. If he scatters his ways he is killing his soul, and what we are to remark is, that there is an ipso actu condition of the effect (as in chap. xi. 19) which is expressed in the Hebrew. The vagrancy of a morning's worldliness is that much more death, as punctually administered as any of the chemistries of nature. The form is participial. It is "in scattering," or "as scattering," his ways that "he dies."--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 17.

THE BEST INVESTMENT.

+I. A God-like disposition.+ To "pity the poor" and to show that we do so by ministering to their necessities (for this is implied in the proverb) is to be like God. We have before seen how He identifies Himself with them, and how severe is the condemnation which He passes upon those who wrong them. (See Homiletics and Comments upon chap. xiv. 31, page 390, and upon chap. xvii. 5, page 504.) God is a Being of compassion--the Gospel of salvation is a testimony to the pitifulness of His nature. He has remembered man in his low estate and in his condition of spiritual poverty, and out of the "riches of His grace" (Ephes. i. 7) He has supplied his need. But he has not only an eye for the spiritual necessities of His creatures, but for those also which belong exclusively to their bodily nature. God manifest in flesh had compassion upon the multitude because "they had nothing to eat" (Matt. xv. 32), and the same pitiful heart is still moved with a like emotion when He looks into the haunts of poverty and sees men and women and little children without the necessaries of life, or toiling hard and long for a pittance that is only just enough to keep them from starvation. The man therefore who "has pity on the poor" manifests a disposition akin to that of his Father in heaven.

+II. A most reliable debtor.+ God incarnate fed the hungry by miracle, but now that He has left the earth for a season He entrusts the duty to human hands. He does not now rain down bread from heaven to feed even his spiritual Israel, but He expects those of His children to whom He has given more than enough of this world's good things to do it for Him, and looks upon the act as a loan to Himself. 1. That the investment will be a profitable one is certain, from the character of God. When men entrust others with their money, they have especial regard to the character of those whom they make their debtor. This forms the chief and most reliable security that a man can have that he will receive it again. God's character is pre-eminently good--so good that His Word is more than the bond of the most trustworthy human creature, and none in heaven or earth or hell will ever be able to say that He has not paid them what was their due. 2. The wealth of God is a guarantee that He will repay with interest. A man who is generous by nature, and possessed of abundant means, will not only faithfully repay a loan but, if his debtor is a needy man, will feel a pleasure in adding to it a large interest, or will press him to accept some extra token of his esteem. God is a great and bountiful proprietor of all the resources of the universe, whether spiritual or material, and He loves to give abundantly. He has been always giving out of His fulness since there has been a creature upon whom to lavish His gifts, and He delights to see His children give, like Himself, generously and ungrudgingly. And, seeing he takes upon Himself to repay what is given to the poor, His generosity and His wealth are sureties that the interest for the loan will be very ample. His children may have to wait long for it, but the longer they wait the greater the accumulation of interest. They may receive a partial repayment in material good, but the great recompense will be at the "resurrection of the just" (Luke xiv. 14) on that day when the King shall say unto them, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me" (Matt. xxv. 34, 36).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

When Alexander set forward upon his great exploits before he went from Macedonia, he divided among his captains and friends all that he had; for which, when one of his friends reproved him, saying that he was prodigal, for that he had reserved nothing for himself, the answer which Alexander gave was this: that he had reserved much unto himself, namely, hope of the monarchy of the world, which by the valour and help of those his captains and nobles he hoped to obtain. And thus, surely, he that giveth to the poor may seem to be prodigal, yet, in respect of the hope that he hath of profit, he is frugal-wise; neither is his hope such as Alexander's was, which depended on the uncertainty of war, but such as is grounded upon the certainty of God's Word.--Spencer.

The Lord will not only pay for the poor man, but requite him that gave alms, with usury, returning great gifts for small. Give, then, thine house, and receive heaven; give transitory goods, and receive a durable substance; give a cup of cold water and receive God's kingdom. . . . If our rich friend should say unto us, lay out so much money for me, I will repay it, we would willingly and readily do it. Seeing, then, our best friend, yea, our king, the King of kings, biddeth us to give to the poor, promising that He will see us answered for that we give, shall we not bestow alms at His motion and for His sake?--Muffet.

The off-hand sense is no doubt correct, and, as a worldly maxim, often the munificent are rewarded in this world. . . . But we are not to suppose the generous to suffer, and the saint might lose by being paid in money. The saint might need the chastisement of pecuniary distress. We are not to suppose, therefore, this sense to be the grand one. But the meaning is that obedience, if it be spiritual, is a positive thing; that it involves large and generous sacrifices; that it is to "visit the fatherless" (Jas. i. 27); and to feed the hungry (Matt. xxv. 35); and that, in the grandest sense, he that does these things "makes a borrower of Jehovah;" and that the transaction, under the grand head of guarding his own soul (ver. 16), will pay him better than any less positive and more mystic species of obedience. . . . It may be fancy, but causing to borrow seems to be more expressive than (as an equivalent) to lend (E.V.). We can make God borrow of us at any time among the widows and the orphans (Matt. xxv. 40; Jer. xlix. 11).--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 18-20.

RELATIVE DUTIES.

We have before considered verse 18 in connection with verses 13 and 14. A reference to the Critical Notes will, however, show that there is an interpretation of the last clause which was not treated there. Verses 19 and 20, regarded separately, embody thoughts and precepts which we have had before. (See Homiletics on chap. xiv. 17, 29, pages 363, 386, and on chap. xii. 15, page 271.) But these verses, taken in conjunction with the other interpretation of the last clause of verse 18, may be regarded as giving valuable advice both to those who have to enforce discipline and administer chastisement, and to those who have to endure them.

+I. Counsel for parents.+ The reasonableness and necessity of chastisement has been considered before, but the additional thought which the other rendering of verse 18 makes prominent is, that it must be administered from a sense of duty, and dictated by love. Parents are far too apt to punish their children, not because they have sinned against God, but because they have offended them,--and when this is the case, the anger manifested deprives the correction of its salutary effect. "When the rod is used," says Wardlaw,--and the words may be applied to any form of parental chastisement,--"the end in view should be, purely and exclusively, the benefit of the child; not the gratification of any resentful passion on the part of the parent. Should the latter be apparent to the child, the effect is lost, and worse than lost; for, instead of the sentiment of grief and melting tenderness, there will be engendered a feeling of sullen hostility, . . . if not, even, of angry scorn, towards him who has manifested selfish passion rather than parental love." The parent must regard himself as God's representative, and must act, not as for himself, but for the Divine Master and Father of both parent and child. If this is done, there will be none of that "provocation to wrath" or "discouragement" against which Paul puts Christians on their guard (Col. iii. 21; Ephes. vi. 4), and there will be good ground to hope that the chastisement will bring profit.

+II. Counsel to children.+ The reasoning here is akin to that used by the Apostle in the twelfth of Hebrews. It is admitted by him (verses 11, 12), that "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous;" nevertheless, those who have to endure it are exhorted to accept it with submission because of the precious after-yield--they are counselled to give themselves up to the Divine pruner and suffer Him to work His will upon them now, in consideration of the "peaceable fruits of righteousness" which will be the result in the days of harvest. So Solomon argues here. He does not deny that "counsel" and "instruction," or rather discipline, may often be unpalatable and irksome, but he holds up the wisdom that may be gained by them as an incentive to induce the young to "hear" and to "receive" them--he "reaches a hand through time," and "fetches the far-off interest" of what at present seems grievous in order to give effect to his exhortations. The actions of men in the present are mainly determined by the amount of consideration they give to the future. There are men who live wholly in the present hour--who gratify the fancy or follow the passion of to-day without giving a thought of the needs of to-morrow, or the penalty that they may then have to pay for their folly. Others look ahead a little farther--they fashion the actions of to-day with a due regard to the interests of their whole future earthly life, but they bestow no thought upon the infinite "afterward" that is to succeed it. The proverb counsels both the young and the old to bring this long to-morrow into the plans of to-day, and to let the remembrance of it open the ear to the words of Divine wisdom by whomsoever they are spoken, and bend the will to receive the "chastening of the Lord," whether it come in the form of parental discipline or in a sterner garb.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verses 18, 19. "Being in great wrath, remit the punishment; but if thou let him escape, yet apply (or add) chastisement again." (So Muffet renders verse 19.) When thou are in thy mood, or burnest with fiery anger and displeasure, let pass for that time the correcting of thy child, lest thou passest measure therein, or mayest chance to give him some deadly blow. Nevertheless, if for that time or for that fault thou let him go free, yet let him not always go uncorrected; but when thou art more calm, according as he offereth occasion, correct him again.--Muffet.

Do not venom discipline by naked animosity. This is the human aspect. But now for the fine model of Jehovah. "He does not afflict willingly" (Lam. iii. 33). He follows this maxim: "Discipline thy son, because there is now hope." But Solomon wishes plainly to declare that to kill him He does not lift up His soul. "He taketh no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but that all should turn and live" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). It is evidently these great timbers of thought that Solomon is eyeing at the bottom of his structure. He is settling them along in place. Secularly, they may have but little connection; spiritually, they are all morticed close.--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 21.

MANY PLANS WORKING TO ONE END.

This proverb suggests--

+I. The ignorance and sinfulness of man, the infinite knowledge and goodness of God.+ Man is a creature of many devices; he is changeable in his purpose and plans because he is so ignorant concerning their issue. He cannot foretel with any certainty whether the event will be according to his desire, or, if it should be so, whether it will bring him satisfaction. Hence the purpose of to-day is not the purpose of next year--the plans of his youth are different from those of his riper years. But God is the same in His purposes yesterday, to-day, and for ever, because He can "declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Isa. xlvi. 10). A man's devices change in proportion as his feelings and desires vary; and these are changeable in proportion as he lacks perfection in his moral nature. But a Being of infinite goodness is not subject to these changing moods and desires: and His plans are like His character, always the same.

+II. The attitude which men ought to take in relation to this truth.+ It is obvious that the counsel of God must stand, and that it deserves to stand before all the devices of men. If, therefore, men would have their devices stand they must learn to square them by the counsel of God. A child will have its own way when it has learned to conform its will to the will of its parent. And if a man would have his "heart's desire," he must so "delight in God" (Psa. xxxvii. 4) that what pleases God pleases him also. For other Homiletics on this subject see on chap. xvi. 1 and 9, pp. 451, 468.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The great collective whole of the "devices" of all hearts constitutes the grand complex scheme of the human race for their happiness. Respecting the object of every device, God has His design. There is in the world a want of coalescence between the designs of man and God--an estranged spirit of design on the part of man. God's design is fixed and paramount.--J. Foster.

A man of the better sort. This is simply one of the names for man. We do not always translate it one of the better sort. But it is rarely chosen listlessly. Here it creates an emphasis. The most imposing "schemes" belong to the intelligent and great. The world is full of them. How foolish to build them up! Jehovah advises a whole new behaviour for His creatures. How mad to scheme away from it.--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 22.

POVERTY OF HEART AND POVERTY OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

If we read the first clause of this proverb as it stands in our translation it sets forth--

+I. The true measure of a man's benevolence.+ It is not to be measured by the amount of money that he expends upon his fellow-creatures, but upon his desire to benefit them. His desire to help them may be very strong, and yet his circumstances may be such that he has little more than sympathy to give. "The heart may be full," says Wardlaw, "when the hand is empty." And many deeds of charity that earn for men the title of benevolent are not really performed for motives of goodwill to others but from selfish and vainglorious ends. If we take the reading given in the Critical Notes it teaches rather the truth--

+II. That small deeds of kindness are far preferable to large professions of it.+ The liar of the second clause is evidently one who has it in his power largely to help others, and whose promises are in proportion to his power. But they are promises only. He does not hesitate by false words to raise hopes which he never intends to fulfil, and thus becomes like the deceitful mirage of the desert, which, after cheating the traveller with delusive hopes of water, disappears, and leaves him more despairing than before. On the other hand, the poor man is evidently one whose words never go beyond his deeds, and whose deeds, if not great, are up to his ability, and are so constantly performed and so evidently the outcome of real sympathy that they are like the little rill which follows the wayfarer all through his journey, and, which, although it can give but a little water at a time, is always at hand with that little.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

But let it be observed and remembered--"the desires of a man are not his kindness," when he has the ability to be practically kind, and confines himself to desires. No. In that case, there is the clearest of all evidence that the desire is not sincere; mere profession, without reality--"love in word"--which is only another phrase for no love at all. While, therefore, there are cases in which we cheerfully, according to a common phrase, "take the will for the deed," knowing that there is a want of ability to do what the heart wishes; there are other cases in which we demand the deed as the only proof of the will--the gift as the only evidence of the charity.--Wardlaw.

The imperial standard of weights and measures has been sent by the King into the market place of human life, where men are busy cheating themselves and each other. Many of these merchantmen, guided by a false standard, have been all their days accustomed to call evil good and good evil. When the balance is set up by royal authority, and the proclamation issued that all transactions must be tested thereby, swindlers are dismayed, and honest man are glad. Such is the word of truth when it touches the transactions of men. . . . There is a most refreshing simplicity in the language of Scripture upon these points. This word speaks with authority. It is not tainted with the usual adulation of riches. A dishonest man is called a liar, however high his position may be in the city. And the honest poor gets his patent of nobility from the Sovereign's hand. The honest rich are fully as much interested in reform in this matter as the honest poor. Make this short proverb the keynote of our commercial system, and epidemic panics will disappear. . . . After each catastrophe people go about shaking their heads and wringing their hands, asking, What will become of us? What shall we do? We venture to propose an answer to the inquiry. From the Bible first engrave on your hearts, then translate in your lives, and last emblazon aloft on the pediment of your trade temple this short and simple legend: "A poor man is better than a liar."

For Homiletics on the subject of verse 23 see on chapter x. 24, xiv. 26, and xviii. 10, pages 179 and 542. Verse 24 will be treated in chap. xxvi. 12-16. For the subject of verses 25 and 29 see chap. xvii. 10, page 509.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 26-29.

POSSIBILITIES OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY.

+I. The tenderest admonitions and the most solemn warnings sometimes fail to influence for good.+ Sometimes the most loving parental care seems utterly wasted upon an ungrateful child, and the more constant and tender the words of admonition the farther does he depart from the way in which he ought to go. There is many a man so in love with sin that he may be said to "devour iniquity" (verse 28); and when this fatal appetite has taken possession of the soul all appeals to his better nature, and even to his own self-love, are vain.

+II. When men are so hardened there is no depth of iniquity to which they may not sink.+ He who scoffs at all threats of retribution, both in this life and in that which is to come, has broken through all barriers of restraint, and will be capable of outraging all the tender ties of human relationship, even to the extent of bringing his parents to disgrace and shame. The most hardened sinners in the universe of God are not found in heathen lands, or among the ignorant at home, but they are those who, having heard instruction, have "erred from the words of knowledge." Each day that they resist the good influence brought to bear upon them they increase their moral insensibility, and their final condemnation (verse 29). Hence the admonition of verse 27. (See Critical Notes.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 26. This were an admirable text for young men entering upon life and still at the expense of their parents. It is a great enormity either to waste the property of their father while he is alive, or after they have succeeded to expel the widowed mother from the premises.--Chalmers.

Verse 27. It is so proper and natural for a son to hear instruction, that the hearing instruction maketh to be a son. . . . But if thou hear instruction, hear it not--not to be the better for it. Instruction speaketh to keep thee from erring: do not thou hear it to err: instruction putteth into thee the words of knowledge; do not thou put them out by erring from them, by not following them. . . . Cease thus to hear, but hear still. For by hearing at length thine error may be corrected; whereas, if thou hear not, thou dost not only err, but deprivest thyself of the means that reduce thee from erring.--Jermin.

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Chapter XX

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Strong drink.+ The Hebrew word Shekhar includes every strong drink besides wine. Delitzsch translates it mead. +2. The fear of a king,+ i.e., the dread which he inspires. +Sinneth against his soul,+ or "forfeits his life," so Delitzsch and Miller. +3. To cease from strife.+ Rather, "to remain far from" it. +4.+ Delitzsch translates this verse, "At the beginning of the harvest the sluggard ploweth not, and so when he cometh to reaping time there is nothing." +5. Counsel.+ Delitzsch translates this word "purpose," and understands it to refer to a secret plan. +6.+ Miller reads the first clause of this verse, "Much of the mere man one calls his goodness," i.e., "Much that is merely human." He allows, however, that the usual rendering conveys a very striking meaning and agrees admirably with the second clause. The Hebrew word means literally abundance of men. Delitzsch translates, "Almost everyone meeteth a man who is gracious unto him; but a man who standeth the test, who findeth such a one?" +7.+ This verse should be, "He who in his innocence walks uprightly, blessed are his children," etc. +8. Judgment.+ Rather justice. +Scattereth+ or winnoweth. +10. Divers weights.+ Literally, "a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah." +11.+ Touching the second clause of this verse, Miller says, "It is too terse for English, and we cannot translate it. Nor can we brook the English version. Doings are in the same category with work. How can one be the test of the other? The only room for a proposition is, obviously, for this: 'A child is known by his doings; and the question, Is he pure? is but the question, Is his work right?'" +15.+ Here Miller reads, There is gold, etc., in the lips of knowledge. +16. A Strange woman.+ Rather, "a stranger." +17. A man.+ The Hebrew word here uses is the one which denotes a superior man. +18.+ The first clause may be read, Establish thy purpose by counsel. +19. "Him that flattereth."+ Rather, him that openeth wide his lips, i.e., the babbler. +24. Man.+ The first word, Geber, denoting a superior or mighty man: the second, Adam, man in general, or an ordinary man. +25.+ The first clause of this verse should be, "It is a snare to a man to cry out hastily 'holy,' i.e., to vow without thought and consideration." +26. The wheel,+ i.e., the wheel of the threshing instrument which blows away the chaff. +30. The blueness of a wound.+ Cutting wounds (Delitzsch), Wounding stripes (Zöckler). Miller translates the "welts," (i.e., the tumid and purple confines of a wound) cleanse as though an evil, "that is, although painful and deformed, they have a clear office, viz., to purge away the sore." Wardlaw suggests that the word, being etymologically derived from a verb denoting to join together, may be translated compressions, and says, "The compressions of a wound are necessary for cleansing out of it the prurient and peccant humour, which would prevent its healing; they are, at the same time, in many cases exceedingly painful, and would only be endured or inflicted from necessity. And as they thus clean the wound and promote its healing, so in a moral sense does the severity of discipline affect with salutary and cleansing influence the condition of the inner man."

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.

STRONG DRINK.

Taking the two words here used to stand for all intoxicating drinks, we remark--

+I. That they are most deceptive in their operation.+ It is most certain that there is no person who is now an abject slave to strong drink, who would not once have indignantly repelled the insinuation that he or she would ever be a drunkard. It is taken probably for a long time without any evil effects being apparent, and the temporary stimulus is mistaken for a permanent increase of strength, until one day the unhappy victim finds himself a subject of the most tyrannical habit that enslaves fallen humanity. And strong drink may truly be said to be a "mocker," when we see how men appear to struggle to escape from its deadly fascination, and how fruitless their efforts often are.

+II. That they are powerful ministers to human passions.+ Wherever strong drink enters, every evil tendency is increased tenfold; the angry man becomes a monster of cruelty, and he who was before a comparatively harmless member of society, or even a useful one, becomes hurtful and dangerous. The restraints that are all powerful to govern a man when sober are all as utterly useless when he is under the power of string drink, as silken cords would be to keep a wild beast within bounds.

+III. It is utter folly to tamper with such a foe to human dignity and happiness.+ The deceptive influence of strong drink, and the miserable results of allowing it to gain the mastery over us, are all around men; none can now plead ignorance of its nature, or of its effects, for the world is full of homes ruined by it, and hearts which it has broken, and men whom it has changed into brutes. Experience sets her seal to Solomon's declaration, and brands as without wisdom those who play with such a deadly and treacherous enemy.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Solomon seldom singles out a specific vice; and when he does, it is often exemplary, or to be understood of any. He does single out drunkenness, however. Strikingly enough the Apostle does so (1 Cor. vi. 10).--Miller.

If the fruit of his own vine sometimes chastised the unwary Israelite with whips, the fiery product of our distilleries chastise the nation with scorpions. The little finger of strong drink in modern times is thicker than the loins of its father and representative in Solomon's day. The deceits which our enemy practises are legion; and legion too are the unwary "who are deceived thereby." I shall enumerate a few of its lying devices. 1. A great quantity of precious food is destroyed in this country that strong drink may be extracted from the rubbish. . . . On an average of ten years, the quantity of barley converted into malt in the United Kingdom has been nearly six millions of quarters annually. When you add to this the unmalted grain consumed in the distillation of spirits in Ireland, you have an aggregate sufficient to feed between four and five millions of people throughout the year. . . . What do we obtain in return? A large quantity of malt liquors and distilled spirits. And is the grain equivalent, or nearly equivalent to the loss? 2. The curative and strengthening powers of our strong drinks, which are so much vaunted, are in reality next to nothing. We speak of the ordinary use of these articles as beverages. . . . If they contribute at any time to the quantity of force exerted by man, it corresponds not to the corn that you give to your horse, but to the whipping. A master who has hired you for a day, and desires to make the most of his bargain, may possibly find it his interest to bring more out of your bones and sinews, by such a stimulus, but you certainly have no interest in lashing an additional effort out of yourself to-day, and lying in lethargy to-morrow. . . . Liebig has a pleasant notion about balancing on the point of a pen-knife, like a pinch of snuff, all the nourishment that the most capacious German swallows with his beer in a day. And it is chemistry he is giving us, not poetry or wit. . . . 3. Strong drink deceives the nation, by the vast amount of revenue that it pours into the public treasury. It is a true and wise economy to tax the articles heavily for behoof of the community, so far and as long as they are sold and used; but it is a false and foolish economy to encourage the consumption of the article, for the sake of the revenue it produces. Drink generates pauperism, and pauperism is costly. Drink generates crime, and crime is costly. . . . There is a huge living creature with as many limbs as a Hindoo idol, and these limbs intertwined with each other in equally admirable confusion. The creature having life must be fed, and being large, must have a good deal of food for its sustenance. One day, having got rather short allowance, it was rolling its heavy head among its many limbs, and found something warm and fleshy. Being hungry, it made an incision with its teeth, laid its lips to the spot, and sucked. Warm blood came freely; the creature sucked its fill, and gorged, lay down to sleep. Next day, it supplemented its short rations in the same way. Every day the creature drank from that opening, and as this rich draught made up about one third of its whole sustenance, the wonder grew, why it was becoming weaker under the process, day by day. Some one at last bethought him of turning over the animal's intermingled limbs, and found that all this time it had been sucking its own blood! The discoverer proposed to bandage the spot, and not permit the continuance of the unnatural operation. The financiers cried out, "A third of the animal's sustenance comes from that opening; if you stop it, he will die!" Behold the wise politicians who imagine that the body politic would die of inanition, if it were deprived of the revenue which it sucks from its own veins, in the shape of taxes on the consumption of intoxicating drinks!--Arnot.

The thoughts in verses 2 and 3 are the same as that in chap. xix. 12, see page 571, and chaps. xiv. 29 and xvi. 32, pages 386 and 497. The thought in the fourth verse is identical with that in chap. x. 4, although the similitude is different, see page 142.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 5.

DEEP SEA DREDGING.

+I. Much that is good, or much that is bad, may lie hidden in a man's heart without its existence being suspected by the majority of his acquaintance.+ The word here rendered "counsel" may be taken in a twofold sense. It may be used of knowledge, or of great mental ability, which is hidden either because its possessor is exceedingly modest or exceedingly reserved--either because he lacks the will or the power to make it known. Or it may refer to deeply-laid schemes or well-planned purposes which a man intends shall one day become facts, but which at present exist only in his own mind. And according to the nature of the counsel it may be compared to the wealth of beauty and riches which lie hidden in the depth of the ocean, unsuspected by the majority of those who sail above, or to the deadly torpedo which makes no ripple upon the surface of the water, and which its victims approach without dreaming of what is concealed beneath.

+II. The difficulty of one man's obtaining what another wishes to conceal will depend upon the comparative wisdom of both.+ For many ages the deep sea seemed to defy all the efforts of man to explore its depths and to find out its secrets, but now even the ocean has to own him master in this respect, and to submit to have its treasures brought to light. There has been, as it were, a struggle between the sea and the man of science as to which should possess the treasures of the deep, and the issue has depended upon the ability of the man in comparison with the depth of the ocean. So there is sometimes a struggle between men--the one desiring to conceal his knowledge or his plans within his own breast, and the other desiring to discover them. The issue will depend upon the comparative mental power of the two men. If both be "men of understanding," the resistance on the one side and the effort on the other will be continuous and long, and the "deep waters" may prove too deep for the bucket or the dredging net. But if the balance of wisdom is in favour of the seeker--if there is one spot where his line can reach--he will "draw out" the counsel and proclaim himself the master.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The whole emblem finely illustrates what is true of the "inward light" as held by the "Friends." All men have light which, if they would follow, would lead them (granting that they persevere) into the light of the gospel (Rom. i. 20). What better name for this than counsel? Alas! it lies "deep." No man will follow it but by the Spirit of God. . . . Nevertheless it is there! How solemn that fact at the judgment day! "The word is nigh" (Rom x. 8). "A man of discernment," or "understanding," i.e., the Christian. . . . Only the illuminated man, getting his light from its great fountain, will be moved to go down into his "heart," where the counsel lies waiting and, "draw" the "deep waters."--Miller.

Every question is, as it were, a turn of the windlass.--Plumptre.

He is an expert fisher. . . . But man can but draw them out; God seeth them in the heart, man can see no more than he draws out, but God seeth all; man draws and labours for the knowledge he getteth, but all things are naked and open unto God's sight.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 6-12.

AN UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE, A GENERAL RULE, AND A RARE VIRTUE.

+I. A double challenge to all men.+ Who can say, I am pure from my sin? A faithful man, who can find? To the first of these questions the answer must be in the negative. 1. God answers "No" to it. The testimony of Scriptures is that in His sight "shall no man living be justified" (Psa. cxlii. 2): that "all have sinned" (Rom. iii. 23): that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John i. 8). His ability to form a correct judgment rests upon His omniscience--He hath made the "hearing ear and the seeing eye" (verse 12), and shall He not hear and see and know the thoughts of man? (Psa. xciv. 9, 10). He is the ideal King who winnows the actions of man. See Miller's note on ver. 8 (Matt. iii. 12). 2. Man's experience answers "No" to it. "Even a child is known by its doings" (verse 11); the actions are like the hands of a clock, which tell to those who look upon them whether all the wheels within are in perfect working order. When we mark at all observantly the actions of even the best of men, we shall be most likely to detect here and there a flaw in their characters--some inconsistencies which tell of moral imperfection--but if not, man need only to look within with some degree of impartiality to be convinced that his "own heart condemns him" (1 John iii. 20). But to the second challenge we need not give an universal negative. Faithful men are rare, but they can be found. Even Solomon could point to the "just man" who "walked in his integrity," leaving a blessing behind him. His father David, although he was far from being free from sin, yea, although he sinned deeply and terribly, and yet was a man who could appeal to God to witness to his integrity (Psa. vii. 8)--to the general intent and purpose of his life being toward God and goodness--to his being in the main faithful to his convictions of the right and true. (On this subject see on chap. xi. 3, page 196.) And although faithful men are still rare enough to need search, they are more common than they were in Solomon's days. There are many men scattered throughout the world who put duty before worldly interests, and God's glory before their own, and are thus earning for themselves the well-done of the faithful though not the perfect servant (Matt. xxv. 21). For it is certain that if a man is faithful to himself--if he subjects his own moral condition to that scrutiny which must convince him of his own impurity before a heart-searching and Holy God, and accepts His method of being cleansed from guilt--he will be faithful both to God and man.

"To thine own self be true: And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not then be false to any man."

+II. A general rule.+ Another proposition here laid down is, that although absolutely pure men are not to be found, and although faithful men are rare, yet "most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness" (verse 6). There is a natural tendency in men to shrink from a very close inspection of their own motives, and desires, and feelings--they look anywhere rather than within, and consequently, very few have any conception of their own depravity. They have never measured even their actions, much less their thoughts, by the requirements of God's law, and consequently, while He pronounces them "wretched, and miserable, and poor" they are saying, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" (Rev. iii. 17, 18). Most men are thanking God that "they are not as other men are" when they ought to be smiting their breasts and saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke xviii. 13). It is this wide-spread self-deception concerning their real condition that renders men so indifferent to God's method for restoring them, and thus keeps the world in its present state of soul-sickness and death.

For Homiletics on verse 10, see on chap. xi. 1.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This faithfulness, where it exists, develops itself in two branches; the one suppressing our neighbour's vanity, and the other our own. The last mentioned is first in order of nature and in relative importance the chief. True faithfulness, like charity, begins at home. . . . Faithful reproof of another's foibles is a virtue which some can exercise without an effort. They deal a hearty blow on the head of a luckless brother egotist who stands in the way of their own advancement, and then expect to be praised for faithfulness. But it is Jehu's driving. The zeal which impels it is not pure.--Arnot.

The meaning is (see Critical Notes for Miller's rendering) that a man is apt to call mere animal traits, like amiableness, or good nature, by the name of goodness; and the caution is, that seeking deep for piety (ver. 5), we should be careful to take up with no such stupid counterfeit. Much of the mere flesh to borrow a New Testament expression, is kind and honest. There is much of the mere man's native morality. We must take care not to take that for "goodness." There is a certain true fidelity that embraces everything. That is religion. It embraces God. It embraces spiritual faithfulness. It may be easily counterfeited. It has been the snare of our race to take "what is of the mere man," and confound it with it.--Miller.

A faithful man--as a parent--a reprover--an adviser--one "without guile"--who can find? (Mic. vii. 1, 2). Look close. View thyself in the glass of the Word (Psa. ci. 6). Does thy neighbour, or thy friend, find thee faithful to him? What does our daily intercourse witness? Is not the attempt to speak what is agreeable often made at the expense of truth? Are not professions of regard sometimes utterly inconsistent with our real feelings? In common life, where gross violations are restrained, a thousand petty offences are allowed, that break down the wall between sin and duty, and, judged by the Divine standard, are indeed guilty steps upon forbidden ground.--Bridges.

But the manner in which men make known what they account their goodness is very various. Some are open with it. They almost literally "proclaim" it upon the housetops. To every individual, and in every company, they speak of it--of what they are, of what they have said, of what they have done, of what they think, and of what they wish and intend to do. And O! if they had but the means what would they not accomplish!

Some there are who are quite as vain, and as ambitious of commendation and praise--who, knowing that everything of the nature of ostentation is exceedingly unpopular, and lets a man down, and tempts others to pluck his feathers from him--set about their object with greater art. They devise ways of getting their merits made known so as to avoid the flaw of ostentatious self-display. In company, they commend others for the qualities which they conceive themselves specially to possess, or for the doing of deeds which they themselves are sufficiently well known to have done; and they turn the conversation dexterously that way; or they find fault with others for the want of the good they are desirous to get praise for; or they lament over their own deficiencies and failures in the very points in which they conceive their excellence to lie--to give others the opportunity of contradicting them; or, if they have done anything they deem particularly generous and praise-worthy, they introduce some similar case, and bring in, in as apparently accidental and unintentional a way as possible, the situation of the person or the family that has been the object of their bounty.--Wardlaw.

Verse 7. Many are the several walks of men in this world--one walketh in his pleasure, as it were in the walks of a garden; another walketh in his profit, and he walketh as it were up and down the exchange; another walketh in troubles, and he walketh as it were in a wood; another walketh in his poverty, and he walketh as it were in a desert; another walketh in his beastly lusts of drunkenness and uncleanness, and he walks as it were in mire and dirt; the just man walketh in his integrity, and he walketh as it were in the holy temple.--Jermin.

Verse 8. We must be very careful, then, how we do our sifting. God's is perfectly complete. . . . He winnows us at a glance. It is important, therefore, that we have something more than "evil," because "all" that He shall winnow bodily away.--Miller.

Verse 9. Behold here the king sitting upon the throne of His judgment, whereof the former verse speaketh! Who can say it, and so be untrue in saying it? Who shall say it, and be so impudent as to say it? For to make clean the heart is His work who hath made the heart, thou who hast made it unclean canst not make it clean.--Jermin.

This proverb is especially noteworthy because, in contrast with the style of conception which is elsewhere predominant in the Proverbs, according to which the imperfection of all human piety is but slightly emphasized, and he who is relatively pious is allowed to pass as righteous, it gives expression to the unsatisfying nature of all moral endeavours, as never conducting to the full extirpation of all sense of guilt, and a perfect feeling of peace with God; it accordingly suggests the need of a higher revelation in which the sense of guilt and of an ever-imperfect fulfilment of duty shall finally be overcome.--Elster, in Lange's Commentary.

Verse 10. Originally, as in xi. 1, of dishonesty in actual trade, but here perhaps as a companion to verse 9, with a wider application to all inequality of judgment, to all judging one man by rules which we do not apply to ourselves or to another.--Plumptre.

That whereby thou takest from others shall add unto the weight of thine own punishment; that whereby thou addest in measuring for thyself shall make God to take away from the measure of His mercy towards thee.--Jermin.

Verse 11. There is no tree that in growing doth not bend rather to the one side or the other; there is no river which, although it have many windings and turnings, yet in the course of it doth not rather turn one way than another; and so it is in the life of man, even from the childhood of man's life. Do not judge, therefore, of any man by one work or two, so thou mayest wrong him and deceive thyself.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on verse 13 see on chap. vi. 10, 11, page 79.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.

BARGAINING.

This proverb refers--

+I. To a world-wide manifestation of human selfishness.+ A custom that was prevalent in the days of Solomon, many centuries ago, and amid circumstances which differed widely from those by which we are surrounded, has held its place among men until the present day, and will doubtless continue to do so until the teachings and the spirit of Christianity rule the world. It prevails in modern England quite as extensively as it did in ancient Judea; and whether the buyer be a millionaire bargaining for an estate, or a costermonger for the worth of a shilling, he is often found knowingly, and therefore criminally, depreciating the value of the commodity. It is a trait of fallen humanity which "makes the whole world kin."

+II. To a pitiful ground of boasting.+ Although it does need some skill and experience to tell the real value of an article, it requires none to pronounce it good for nothing. Only a man with some knowledge and judgment can put a fair price upon it, but any fool can say, "It is naught, it is naught." And if by knowingly depreciating the purchase the buyer robs the seller, he has but a very poor transaction to boast of. He has wronged another, it is true, but he has far more grievously wronged himself, for if his neighbour is the poorer by a few pence or pounds he is the poorer by so much injury done to his own conscience, and by so much loss of the confidence of his fellow men. He who makes a boast of such a matter must, indeed, have few grounds for boasting.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This victorious boasting is not like other boasting. For that delighteth to do it in the face of the conquered; but this, as justly ashamed of itself, is made when they are gone one from the other. But to make a moral application of the words, as it is in buying commodities, so it is in the getting of wisdom and godliness; while a man labours for the obtaining of it, the trouble of his pains maketh him not to think so well of it, but having made it his own, then he praiseth the worth and excellency of it.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on Verse 15 see on chap. iii. 14, 15; viii. 11; xii. 14; xviii. 20, 21; pages 39, 107, 275, and 555.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.

NECESSARY SECURITY.

+I. An untrustworthy creditor.+ A man who under ordinary circumstances makes himself a surety for one who is a stranger to him, is chargeable with great folly, and the act may be a criminal one. He is very foolish if he pledges himself up to his ability of redeeming his pledge, and he is dishonest if he goes beyond it. The warning of the proverb is directed against entering into business relations with a man who has so slight a sense of his own responsibility as to become "surety for a stranger." It may be regarded as a certainty that a man who will enter into such an engagement without reflection and caution is not to be depended on--does not measure his actions in this particular by a very high standard of morality. He may be a man of generous impulses and good intentions, but he lacks that substratum of high principle which makes a safe creditor.

+II. An extreme security.+ The necessity of exacting security before credit, discloses the existence of immorality in the world. In a family where every brother is known to the other, and where the interests of each are the interests of all, there is no need to take a pledge for the performance of any promise, or the payment of any debt. But in the imperfect state of society in which we find ourselves, security before credit is necessary when we enter into business transactions with our fellow men, for the world is not yet ruled by the Divine precept, "Love thy neighbour as thyself"--(Matt. xix. 19). And the security may be regulated by the reliability of him whom we trust. Solomon here regards him who becomes surety for a stranger, as so unlikely to be faithful to his own liabilities, that those who trust him may exact from him even that pledge which was the last allowed in the Mosaic law, and which could not be retained beyond the day (Exodus xxii. 26, 27). The injunction is probably to be regarded rather as advice against trusting such a man at all. (On the subject of suretyship, see Comments on chap. vi. 1, page 76.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The moral is that securityships are so unsafe that we may treat the man as one already ruined. But in the spiritual world it means (chap. vi.) that a man who holds fast sloth (chap. v. 13), holds fast a bond of eternal vengeance; that he renews it by his wilful act (xvii. 18); that it is a bond to a friend (chap. vi. 1), but that friend forced ex lege to collect it; that if now at this late day he holds it on, stand clear from him! He will certainly be lost. Take his garment, that is, use the last resort, as against the most hopeless bondsman.--Miller.

His garment is not so near unto him as thou art unto thyself; this is not more needful to keep him warm than it is to keep thee safe. And seeing that he, by his folly, hath made himself naked of understanding, it is not thou but himself that maketh him naked of his garment. Seeing he is content to give himself a pledge for a stranger, it is less than thou doest in taking his garment as a pledge of him.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 17.

BAD BREAD.

+I. Some gratification is to be obtained from dishonest gain.+ Many a swindler gets not only bread by swindling, but many other things, which not only minister to his senses, but gratify mental appetites not in themselves unlawful. And he finds pleasure in the fruit of his dishonesty--in, it may be, his well-furnished table, his luxurious mansion, his social position. It is not the highest and the purest pleasure, but there is a sweetness in it, or men would not grasp so eagerly the "bread of deceit."

+II. A time will come when it will not only cease to give pleasure, but will bring misery.+ The dishonest man will find that, after all, his gains are not bread for his higher nature--that his soul is still unsatisfied, and crying out for sustenance--and, more than this, that his conscience demands satisfaction for the wrong-doing of the past--and even if he is permitted to keep possession of his ill-gotten wealth, it is not only what chaff without the grain, or the husk without the kernel, is to the starving man, but as the very sand of the desert or the dust of the highway in the mouth, tormenting as well as unsatisfying.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

"Everything gotten wrongfully is here implied." Bitter was Achan's sweet, deceitfully hid in the tent, which brought ruin upon himself and his family (Josh. vii. 21-24). Look at Gehazi. What profit had he from his talents of silver and changes of garments? Bitter indeed was the bread of deceit to him (2 Kings v. 20-27). Look even at Jacob, a true servant of God; and yet chastened heavily almost to the end of his days with the bitter fruits of deceit (Gen. xxvii.; xli. 36-38).--Bridges.

Men must not think to dine with the devil, and then to sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.--Trapp.

It is crusted without, as if it were bread; but within, contrary to bread, is not soft. The deceived, tasting it with the tongue of his hope and presuming confidence, findeth nothing which is not grateful unto him: the deceiver tasting it with the tongue of present profit findeth it most luscious unto him. But when the deceiver, having it in his mouth, pierceth it with the teeth of his trial, then so gravel breaketh the teeth so it breaketh his heart; and when the deceiver comes to feed upon it he findeth there is no juice of true profit.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 18.

THOUGHT BEFORE ACTION.

+I. The permanent success of an undertaking is generally in proportion to the thought bestowed upon it beforehand.+ It is an act of extreme folly to commit ourselves to any course, or to undertake any task without first weighing all the probable consequences, and providing against the most likely contingencies. Such a wise forethought by no means excludes entire dependence upon God, for while it is most true that "Man's goings are of the Lord," and "a man cannot understand his own way" (ver. 24), both common sense and the Word of God plainly teach that man must use the powers of forethought with which he has been endowed, or he must be content to see his purposes frustrated and his plans miscarry. If he desires his "purposes" to be "established," in other words--what he does to have a lasting result in the direction desired--he must "sit down first" and "count the cost" (Luke xiv. 28, 31).

+II. It is advisable to call in the wisdom of others to help us in our deliberations.+ Since one man is rarely, if ever, able to look at a matter from every point of view, his plans are most likely to be wisely laid, and his purposes most likely to succeed, if he looks at them with the eyes of other men as well as with his own. They may discern a weak spot where he saw nothing to fear, or a point of vantage which had escaped his notice entirely. Or they may see good reasons for dissuading him altogether from the undertaking, or may make him so much the stronger for the task by encouragement and counsel. It is not generally those who are most able to act alone who lightly esteem the advice of others--these men who are the most successful in that to which they put their hand are not as a rule given to undervalue the wisdom of other people.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel. . . . Things will have their first or second agitation; if they be not tossed upon by the waves of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune, and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man.--Lord Bacon.

Ponder Bishop Hall's description of the spiritual war. "It admits of no intermission. It knows no night, no winter. It abides no peace, no truce. It calls us not into garrison, where we may have ease and respite, but into pitched fields continually. We see our enemies in the face always, and are always seen and assaulted; ever resisting, ever defending, receiving and returning blows. If either we be negligent or weary, we die. What other hope is there, while one fights and the other stands still? We can never have safety and peace but in victory. Then must our resistance be courageous and constant, when both yielding is death, and all treaties of peace mortal." Does not this war bring the greatest need of deliberate counsel, carefully counting the cost (Luke xiv. 31, 32); cleaving to our All-wise Counsellor (Isa. ix. 6) and Almighty Helper?--Bridges.

Among the Romans, though a man were never so strong, never so valiant, yet, if he wanted wisdom and counsel, he was said to be miles sine oculis, a soldier without his eyes.--Jermin.

See Critical Notes for the correct rendering of the second clause of verse 19, and for Homiletics see on chap. x. 19 and xi. 13, pages 168 and 211.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 20.

AN UNNATURAL CHILD AND A NATURAL LAW.

+I. An unnatural child.+ The ungrateful son or daughter of good parents is an unnatural being. If experience did not contradict, we should say that even fallen human creatures must return love for love, and could not help feeling gratitude to those who have denied themselves for their good. And if there is no love so strong and so unselfish as that which a parent feels toward a child, it does seem almost impossible that any child can be unresponsive to it. But if to remain untouched by it is unnatural, how much more so is it to attain to the height of wickedness upon which the text passes judgment. We must suppose that the proverb refers to fathers and mothers who are, to some extent, what they ought to be--who do in some measure reflect upon their offspring the tenderness of the Great and Divine Father--and then we can conceive of no more unnatural being than he "who curseth his father or his mother." Every natural instinct tends in the opposite direction.

+II. A natural law.+ It does not need any special Divine interposition to blight and ruin such a man. The most powerful and blessed human influences are those which flow from the home-life, and from the emotions which ought to be kindled by the relationship of a child to its parent. But if these holiest influences are resisted and these emotions are stifled, moral darkness must overshadow the life, and it will continue to deepen while the hardness of heart continues. It is well known that even the remembrance of parental love after long years of insensibility to it is often the first step back into the light of righteousness and hope, and that many who have sunk very low in crime could trace their present condition to the unnatural sin of hardening their hearts against parental love.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This cursing, according to our Lord's standard, includes "setting light by father or mother;" wilful disobedience--a fearful, palpable mark of the last days. How God regards it, let his own curse on Mount Ebal (Deut. xxvii. 16), and his judgment of temporal death, testify. The present degradation of Africa is a witness, on the confirming page of history, of the frown upon an undutiful son (Gen. ix. 22-25)--his lamp put out in darkness.--Bridges.

It must needs be an obscure darkness that is fallen upon that soul, in whom the light of nature is so far extinguished as that he curseth them from whom he had the blessing of being. It must needs be a smoky breath that shall reproach him who was the breath of his nostrils. And what can he expect but that his lamp shall be put out in darkness.--Jermin.

For Homiletics of verse 21, see on chap. xiii. 11, page 306; also on chap. xxi. 5, 7, 17, page 609.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 22.

THE RECOMPENSER OF EVIL.

+I. The man who has been wronged is disqualified to punish the offender.+ A sense of pain and suffering is not helpful to a man's judgment. He sees neither things nor persons in the light in which he would see them under happier conditions, and would not be likely to deal impartially with the offender. Hence, both the Bible and wise human governments--while freely allowing that he who injures another ought not to go unpunished--forbids men from undertaking the punishment themselves. Every human creature labours under another disqualification also. He is himself a law-breaker in a greater or less degree, and is not himself guiltless in thought and word, and perhaps in deed, of wrong towards his neighbour. The best of men cannot claim to be guiltless in this matter, and the majority are great offenders in one form or another. Therefore on this account also it is not meet for men to avenge their personal wrongs.

+II. The most effectual way to rid one's self of the desire for revenge.+ We do not understand this proverb to forbid the bringing of men who have wronged us to the bar of human justice, for this may be a duty which we owe to society. It would be criminal in most cases not to apprehend one who had robbed us if it lay in our power to do so, for by letting him go free we should be exposing other innocent men to danger. But there are many cases in which men are greatly wronged in ways which do not come within the cognisance of human law, and when no benefit to anyone would arise from their punishment by any human instrumentality. In such cases, the sure remedy for any vindictive feelings in our own breasts is to lay the matter before Him whose judgment must be impartial, and who will render to every man according to his works. Waiting upon the Lord, too, will remind us so forcibly of our own shortcomings and wrongdoings that we shall be more ready to forget those of our brother.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

It is to be observed that it is not said, Wait on the Lord and He will avenge thee, but, He will save thee. By this kind of speech, the Holy Ghost would warn every one that is injured, not to think of the revenge or hurt of his adversary, but of his own defence and salvation.--Muffet.

The question is clearly this: Is your safety and protection best lodged in God's hand or your own? By indulging your revengeful spirit, you do yourself a greater hurt than your greatest enemy can do you, for you gratify his ill-nature, when you suffer it to make a deep impression on your spirit, without which it could do you little or no hurt; but by committing your cause to God, you turn his ill will to your great advantage, making it an occasion for the exercise of the noblest graces, which are attended with the sweetest fruits, and with the rich blessing of God.--Lawson.

While Moses is dumb, God speaks; deaf, God sees and stirs. Make God your chancellor, in case no law will relieve, and you shall do yourself no disservice. If compelled to go a mile, rather than revenge, go two, yea, as far as the gospel of peace will carry you, and God will bring you back "with everlasting joy" (Isa. xxxv. 10). This is the way to be even with him, that wrongs you, nay, to be above him.--Trapp.

So far should the desire of revenge be from man's heart, so far the execution of revenge be from man's hand, that his tongue should not say it. Shall any say, I will revenge, when God says, revenge is mine. Neither let any say, I will revenge because I have been wronged. For, as Tertullian says, what difference is there between being the provoker and the provoked; but that he is first found in wickedness, and the other afterward? Do not therefore provoke God to anger, by seeking revenge in thy anger. Let God have his right.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on verse 23, see on chap. xi. 1, page 190.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 24.

GOD OVER ALL.

A reference to the Critical Notes will show that in this verse there is an argument from the greater to the less, for the first clause contains an affirmation of a truth, and the second an argument drawn therefrom.

+I. The truth affirmed,+ viz.--That the actions of the most mighty men, and the purposes of the wisest, are directly and absolutely under the control of God. This is self-evident if we admit that God is an Eternal, Omniscient, and Almighty Being, who concerns Himself with the government of the world. Having existed throughout the Eternal past and possessing absolute knowledge of the Eternal future, and being the Author of every man's being--determining the date of his entrance into the world and the period of his continuance in it, and during all that time "encompassing his path and his lying down," and even "understanding his thought afar off" (Psa. cxxxix. 2, 3)--how can even the mightiest of men boast of his independence of God and foretell what shall be the issue of his most sagacious counsels, or be confident that he shall be allowed to carry out even the most matured of his purposes. While he is perfectly conscious of his power to will and to do within limits, he must be also conscious that his ability to do both are dependent upon the will of Him in whom we all live and move and have our being.

+II. The inference drawn.+ If God is thus above and behind the goings of the mighty of the earth, it is man's wisdom to trust the mysteries of the present and the contingencies of the future into His hands. Every night throughout the year travellers from one part of our island to the other commit their bodily life unreservedly into the hands of one or two of their fellow-creatures. They are either impelled by inclination, or compelled by necessity, to undertake a certain journey, and to do this they must take their places in a railway train, and for a time surrender their power to take care of their own lives into the hands of others. Darkness is all around them as they travel on, and darkness is before them--they cannot discern the road by which they are travelling, or be absolutely certain that they will reach the place which they desire. Yet their confidence in the skill and fidelity of a few of their fellow-creatures is strong enough to make them generally at ease. Each human life resembles such a journey. The path from the cradle to the grave must be traversed, but insoluble mysteries lie all around, and the future is entirely hidden from view. There is but One who knoweth the way that we take, to whom both past, and present, and future are alike visible and comprehensible. His infinite wisdom and love ought to make us willing to leave Him to "direct our paths," while a sense of our individual responsibility ought to keep us from presumptuous rashness on the one hand, and from indolent inertness on the other. The truth set forth in this proverb ought to be set beside that in verse 18.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

As the first clause attributes to the Lord exclusively the ordering of great men's goings, in order to attain success, so the second attributes to Him the prescient understanding of men's course. God directs natural actions by His ordinary providence, spiritual actions by His special providence, which foreordains from eternity, awakens the sinner, removes obstacles, suggests that state of life wherein He sees that the man will not fall away, but attain to glory. However a man may understand his life with respect to its beginning and aim, yet he understands not the best means in doubtful cases, nor can he ensure the issue.--Fausset.

Little did Israel understand the reason of their circuitous way to Canaan. Yet did it prove in the end to be "the right way." As little did Ahasuerus understand the profound reason why "on that night could not the king sleep;" a minute incident, seemingly scarcely worthy to be recorded, yet a necessary link in the chain of the Lord's everlasting purposes of grace to His Church (Esth. vi. 1). Little did Philip understand his own way when he was moved from the wide sphere of preaching the Gospel in Samaria to go into the desert, which ultimately proved a wider extension of the Gospel. As little did the great Apostle understand that his "prosperous journey" to see his beloved flock at Rome would be a narrow escape from shipwreck, and to be conducted a prisoner in chains. Little do we know what we pray for. "By terrible things wilt Thou answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation" (Ps. lxv. 5). We go out in the morning not understanding our way; "not knowing what an hour may bring forth" (chap. xxvii. 1). Some turn connected with our happiness or misery for life meets us before night (John iv. 7). Joseph, in taking his walk to search for his brethren, never anticipated a more than twenty years' separation from his father (Gen. xxxvii. 14). And what ought those cross ways or dark ways to teach us? Not constant, trembling anxiety, but daily dependence. "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not: I will lead them in paths that they have not known." But shall they be left in the dark perplexity? "I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them" (Isa. xlii. 16).--Bridges.

The cross ways that thwart man's goings are of God's laying out, the short ways which some make are of His finding out, the long ways that some go about are of His leading. . . . He doth but tumble down the hill of his own audacious rashness that thinketh to climb up unto God's way. What God hath revealed of Himself in moderating man's ways is true wisdom to observe, and happy is he who maketh use of it. But as ignorance here is an idle carelessness, so knowledge there is a prying boldness.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 25.

For the correct rendering of this verse see Critical Notes.

RELIGIOUS VOWS.

+I. A man is under no obligation to vow.+ While the Scriptures contain many references to vows, whereby certain persons consecrated themselves or their property to God and give laws concerning their fulfilment (Num. xxx.), there is no command which requires men to enter into such a solemn engagement. The text refers solely to religious vows--to an act of special consecration to God, such as that of Jacob at Bethel when he dedicated the tenth of all his gains to the service of Jehovah (Gen. xxviii. 22), or that of Hannah when she promised that, if God would give her a man-child, she would give him unto the Lord all the days of his life (1 Sam. i. 11). It is obvious that such special acknowledgements of particular and exceptional blessings must be pleasing to God, but He lays upon men no obligation to render them, seeing that their value consists in their being spontaneous--the overflow of a grateful heart, or the result of a deep conviction of the claims of God, or of the need of Divine help in extraordinary circumstances.

+II. A man is bound by the most solemn considerations not to vow thoughtlessly.+ As an intelligent and moral being he is bound to enter upon no course and to make no engagement without first inquiring whether the motive which prompts him at the outset is strong enough to carry him to the end. It is a snare and a sin to promise to a fellow-man and afterwards, in the words of the proverb, "to make inquiry," i.e., to ask ourselves whether we are prepared to abide by our promise. The inquiry must even in such a case be made beforehand, or we must be branded with unfaithfulness to our plighted word. (These remarks of course do not apply to vows and promises which are in themselves sinful or unlawful. The proverb does not deal with such.) If, then, a man is bound to consider well before he promises to man, how much more so before he vows to God! What must be the harm done to conscience and to character, and how great the insult offered to the Divine Majesty, when vows are made and obligations entered into, and afterwards he who thus bound himself finds that he is not morally prepared for the sacrifice. To such an one we might say, as Peter said to Ananias--"Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? . . . Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts v. 4, 5). "Better it is that thou shouldst not vow," says the Preacher, "than that thou shouldest vow and not pay" (Eccles. v. 5).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

It is questionable whether vows, properly so called, are consistent with the genius of the New Testament dispensation. At any rate, of such vows as were common under the Old, we have no recorded examples under the New. Resolutions to serve God we may, nay we must make; there is no getting on in the Divine life and in the zealous promotion of the Divine glory, without them. But the binding of the soul by particular bonds and oaths, whether verbal or written--obligations superinduced upon those of the Divine law--have been "a snare" to many. Weak minds have often felt the obligation of their vow more stringent than that of the Divine authority.--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 26 and 28.

PILLARS OF GOVERNMENT.

+I. A human ruler will have rebellious subjects in his kingdom.+ This will be the case however wise the laws, and with whatever care and discrimination they are administered. In the most cultivated and carefully kept ground some weeds are always found among the flowers--some tares among the wheat; and since the King who can do no wrong numbers among his subjects those who are lawless and disobedient, the best and wisest of human rulers must expect to do the same.

+II. It is the duty and wisdom of a human ruler to make a distinction between his good and bad subjects, and to punish the latter.+ Even if the wheel mentioned in the proverb be regarded as simply an instrument of separation, as the threshing instrument separates the chaff from the wheat, the idea of punishment is retained. In a well-governed kingdom the laws which govern it are such a separating power between the evil and the good, so far as external conduct is concerned, and it is indispensable for the stability of peace and order that they should be strictly enforced. It would be most unjust, as well as unwise--it would be tempting men to transgression--if the lawless citizens in a community were allowed to go unpunished; and it is contrary to our innate sense of justice that in any kingdom "the righteous should be as the wicked" (Gen. xviii. 25)--that the thief should have all the privileges of an honest man, and the murderer the liberty of an innocent person. The punishment of transgressors not only defends the good man, but it may prevent the bad man from increasing his guilt by adding crime to crime. The king of Solomon's proverbs is a typical word for all who are called upon to rule, whether in the family or the State, and the very word ruler, or governor, implies a discrimination between the evil and the good and a difference in their treatment.

+III. The preservation of the throne depends more upon moral than upon physical power.+ We take the word "throne" in the widest sense as signifying any place or position which raises one man to be in any sense the ruler of another, from the throne of the father in his family and the master among his servants, to that of the king amidst his subjects. In each and every one of the kingdoms, although external and physical coercion and punishment are sometimes indispensable, yet there is no permanent stability unless there is mercy and truth in the ruler, and unless it is manifest in his government. Many a throne has been erected on other foundations,--physical strength has established many kingdoms, and material wealth has set many men upon thrones. But if they have raised a superstructure its foundation has been in the sand, and when the rain and wind of adversity have descended upon it it has fallen, and great has been the fall of it. There must be some truth and mercy--some righteousness and justice, and withal some exercise of grace towards the wrongdoer--if the throne or the kingdom is to be upholden, and the wisdom of the ruler will be shown in his so mingling sternness with severity as to make both contribute to one end. Truth must here be taken as synonymous with righteousness--as that observance of the just claims of every man which he has a right to expect and demand from those who rule him. This will include that punishment of the lawless which is the subject of verse 26, but is here implied that even punishment is to be tempered with mercy. Pity for the offender ought always to be mingled with indignation at the offence, and if any ruler desires to sit firmly upon his seat of justice he must consider not only the greatness of the crime but the strength of the temptation--not how severely he can punish the criminal but whether he can reform him. And this is rarely if ever done by the exercise of justice merely. The frost and cold are necessary to kill the weeds and vermin and to break up the soil, but there will never be flowers or fruit without summer rain and sunshine. And mercy is that "gentle rain from heaven" without which no sinful creature will ever bring forth fruits of righteousness.

ILLUSTRATION.

The necessity of mingling mercy with justice is strikingly exemplified in the great success which attended the efforts of the late Captain Maconochie to benefit the convicts in our penal settlement in Norfolk Island. Having, in his capacity as Secretary to the Governor of Tasmania, seen most terrible and hardening effects from unmixed severity, he desired earnestly to try what could be done by combining mercy with discipline and punishment. For this purpose he was placed in command of Norfolk Island, and remained there four years, having under his care from 1500 to 2000 doubly-convicted prisoners, i.e., convicts who, after being transported from England to New South Wales, had been for other crimes again transported to Norfolk Island. Previous to his arrival they worked in chains, and it was considered dangerous for even armed officers to approach within three yards of them. It was considered unsafe to trust them with knives, and they therefore tore their food with their hands and teeth. They were accustomed to inflict dreadful injuries upon themselves in order to evade labour, and were described at the time as a demoniacal assemblage. But under more humane treatment the entire colony became changed, and one of his colleagues testifies that he and another superintendent "resided at one of the settlements in a cottage without lock and key, with simply a latch to the door, and close to the convict barracks, where over 2000 were lodged every night, also without locks." "Not a single serious offence," says he, "was ever committed in that time by any of those men, and the only bodyguard was another free superintendent and myself, together with a few trustworthy men selected from among themselves." This gentleman (Mr. J. Simms, since Governor of Plymouth Prison) goes on to say, "I shall ever remember this year as the most remarkable of all my prison experience, because it . . . was a fair result of what might be realised from any body of men generally, thus treated, not by force, iron force, but by moral means." One remarkable example is given. At Sydney there had been a most desperate and unmanageable convict, named Anderson. He was flogged time after time for various offences, but to no good effect. He became more outrageous than ever. At last, the authorities, in despair, put him on a little island in Sydney Harbour, where he was kept chained to a rock, and in the hollow of which rock he slept. After some weeks the Governor went to see him, and urged him to submit to authority, but he refused. He was then sent for life to Port Macquarie Convict Station, where he was again and again flogged. He made his escape, and lived among the natives for some time, but, ultimately, being recaptured, he was sent to Norfolk Island for the crime of murder. Under Maconochie's humane treatment he became a changed man, and when the Governor of New South Wales visited the settlement he particularly noticed Anderson, and inquired, "What smart fellow may that be?" (See Leisure Hour for October, 1878.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

All dynasties have been kind. If they are cruel now, it must be like the weight of a clock, running down. There was kindness. "Mercy and truth" must at some time or other have builded the "throne."--Miller.

Godly Asa removed wickedness from the high place nearest his own throne and heart. Amaziah justly punished it with death. Nehemiah--that true reformer--rebuked it even in the family of the high priest. Our own Alfred appeared to maintain this standard as a witness for God in an age of darkness. But it is the King of kings alone that can make this separation complete. Often does He sift His Church by trial, for her greater purity and complete preservation (Amos ix. 9). But what will it be, when He shall come "with His fan in His hand, and shall thoroughly purge His floor?" (Matt. iii. 12). What a scattering of chaff will there be! Not an atom will go into the garner. Not a grain of wheat will be cast away. O my soul! what wilt thou be found at this great sifting day! "Who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth?" (Mal. iii. 2).--Bridges.

There goes more to preserve a king than to preserve a kingdom; and though the preservation of a kingdom be a weighty matter, yet the preservation of a king is much more weighty--though much care and pains be required for the one, much more is required for the other. Half of that will serve for the one which is needful for the other. Mercy will support the throne, but mercy and truth must preserve the king.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 27.

THE CANDLE OF THE LORD.

We understand by the spirit of a man the self-conscious ego--that which takes cognizance of the inner life, and which reasons and passes judgment upon all a man's perceptions, emotions, and volitions.

+I. Man's spirit is a candle, because it is not self-originating.+ When we speak of a candle, the idea of a borrowed light comes before us; with us there is but one source and fountain of material light, and that is the sun, which, although it is but a candle of the Lord placed in the midst of our solar system so far transcends all our artificial lights in its glory and permanence, that in comparison with them it seems self-existent and eternal. As a matter of fact, we know that all the artificial light stored up for us in combustible materials around us had its origin in that great father of lights, the sun, and that these lesser lights require kindling before they give forth brightness. So with the spirit of man--it is not self-existent and eternal, nor did it kindle itself, it owes its existence to that God who is the intellectual and moral light of the universe, because He is the source of all knowledge and goodness. That same Divine Creator, who said "Let there be light and there was light," who set the sun in the heavens to rule the day, made man in His own image by breathing into the human body that spiritual life which makes man a living soul, and distinguishes him from the animal creation around him. We can no more claim to be the author of our own spirits than the sun can claim to have called itself into existence.

+II. Man's spirit is a candle, because it is a revealing power.+ All light is revealing; it first makes evident its own existence and then reveals the existence of objects outside itself. When the sun comes forth above the eastern horizon like a bridegroom from his chamber, it reveals its own glory, and it makes manifest all things upon which its rays fall, and nothing is hidden from the light thereof. So in a less degree is it with every flame of light, and so it is with the mysterious spirit of man. It is self-revealing and self-evidencing, and in and by its light we become conscious of the existence of material forms and spiritual beings, and moral and physical influence outside ourselves.

+III. Man's spirit is a candle which is intended to prevent self-deception.+ Knowledge of any description is good and desirable, but there are two beings of whom it is moral death to remain in ignorance--ourself and God. The spirit of a man is the power by which he apprehends both, and this proverb deals exclusively with man's power to know himself, and especially with his power to take cognizance of himself as a moral and responsible being. As the sun, when it darts forth its rays upon the earth, does not leave us in twilight, and in uncertainty as to what is around us, and as the candle brought into a dark chamber shows us, maybe, the dust and the cobwebs, as well as the costly drapery on the walls, so this God-kindled light searches into the innermost thoughts, and feelings, and motives, and shows to every man who does not wilfully turn away from the sight, both the good and the evil that is in him. True it is that, as a moral light, it does not shine so brightly as it did when man came forth from his Maker's hand, and that he who "hateth light" because it is a reprover of his sin (John iii. 20) may to some extent obscure its brightness, yet every man possesses light enough within to show him his need of a light outside and above him--even of that "true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John i. 9).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The candle which God has kindled in man has, as the nearest sphere of illumination which goes forth from it, the condition of the man himself--the spirit comprehends all that belongs to the nature of man in the unity of self-consciousness, but yet more, it makes it the object of reflection; it penetrates, searching it through, and seeks to take it up into its knowledge, and recognises the problem proposed to it, to rule it by its power. The proverb is thus to be ethically understood.--Delitzsch.

The essential connection between the life of God and the life of men is the great truth of the world, and that is the truth which Solomon sets forth in the striking words of my text. The picture which the words include is one of the most simple. A candle stands upon a table in a dark room, itself unlighted. Fire is brought into the room; a blazing bit of paper holds the fire, but it is blown and flutters, and any moment may go out; but the blaze touches the candle and the candle catches fire, and at once you have a steady flame which burns bright and pure and constant. The candle gives forth its manifestation to all the neighbourhood which is illuminated by it. The candle is glorified by the fire, and the two bear witness that they are made for one another by the way in which they fulfil each other's life. That fulfilment comes by the way in which the inferior substance renders obedience to the superior. The wax acknowledges the subtle flame as its master and yields to its power, and so, like every faithful servant of a noble master, it gives itself most unreservedly up, and its own substance is clothed with a glory that does not belong to itself. The granite, if you try to burn it, gives no fire; it only opposes a sullen resistance, and as the heat increases splits and breaks but will not burn. But the candle obeys, and so in it the scattered fire finds a point of permanent and clear expression. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord," says Solomon. God is the fire of this world. It is a vital principle, a warm pervading presence everywhere. What thing in outward nature can so picture to us the mysterious, subtle, quick, productive, and destructive principle; that which has always elevated men's hearts and solemnized their voices when they have said the word "God," as this strange thing, so heavenly, so unearthly, so terrible, and so gracious, so full of creativeness, and yet so quick and fierce to sweep whatever opposes it out of its path? The glory, the beauty, the marvel, the mystery of fire! Men have always felt the fitness of fire as being the closest of all the elements around the throne on which their conception of Deity is sitting. Men and all other beings, if such beings there are capable of watching our humanity, see what God is in gazing at the manhood God has kindled. The universe is full of the fire of divinity; men feel it in the air as they feel an intense heat which has not yet broken out into a blaze. There is meaning in a great deal of the unexplained, mysterious awfulness of life--the sense of God felt, unseen. The atmosphere is burdened with heat that does not burst out into fire, and in the midst of this solemn burning world there stands up a man, pure and God-like. In an instant it is as if a heated room had found some sensitive inflammable point where it would kindle into a blaze, and prospects of God's felt presence become clear and definite. The fitfulness of the impression of divinity is steadied into permanence. The mystery changes its character, and is a mystery of light and not of darkness. The fire of the Lord has found the candle of the Lord, and burns clear and steady, guiding and cheering instead of bewildering and frightening us, just as a man obedient to God has begun to catch and manifest His nature. I hope you will find this truth comes very close to your separate lives, but let me remind you first what essential dignity clothes the life of man in this world. Such philosophy as belongs to our time would deprecate the importance of man in the world, and rob him of his centralness. His position in such philosophies is this: that the world was not made for man. With us the old story that the Bible told, the book of Genesis with its Garden of Eden, and its obedient beasts waiting until man should tell them what they should be called, stands firmly at the beginning of the world's history. The great notion of the centralness of man in the Garden of Eden re-asserts itself in every cabin of the western forests, or the southern jungles, where a solitary settler and his wife begin as it were the human history anew. There once again the note of Genesis is struck, and man asserts his centralness, and the beasts hesitate in fear till he shall tame them to his service, or bid them depart. The earth under his feet holds its fertility at his command, and what he does upon the earth is echoed in the storms. This is the great impressive idea which over the simplest life of man is ever growing, and with which the philosophies that would make little of the sacredness and centralness of man must always have to fight. This is the impression which is taken up, and steadied, and made clear, and turned from a petty pride to a lofty dignity and a solemn responsibility, when there comes such a message as this of Solomon. He says that the true sacredness, and superiority, and centralness of man is in the likeness of his nature to God's, and that capacity of spiritual obedience to Him, in virtue of which man may be the earthly declaration and manifestation of God to all the world. So long as that truth stands, the centralness of man is sure. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." This is the truth of which I wish to speak to you--the perpetual revelation of God by and through human life. I. You must ask yourself, first, what God is. See how at the very bottom of His existence, as you conceive of it, there lie these two thoughts--purpose and righteousness; how impossible it is to give God any personality, except as the embodiment of these two qualities, the intelligence that plans, and the righteousness that lives in duty. How could any knowledge of these qualities, of what they are, of what sort of being they will make, exist upon the earth, if there were not a human heart in which they could exist, and from which they could be shown? Only a person can truly utter a person; only from a character can character be echoed. You might write it over the skies that God was just, but it would be at best only a bit of knowledge--never a Gospel--never something which it would gladden the hearts of men to know. That comes only when a human life is capable of a justice like God's justice, and is clothed with His justice in the eyes of men. I have just intimated one thing that we need to observe: man's utterance of God is purely the utterance of a quality; it can tell me nothing of the quantities that make up His life. That God is just, and what it is to be just, I can learn from the just lives of the just men about me; but how just God is, to what unconceived perfection, to what unexplained developments that majestic quality of justice may extend in Him--of that I can form no judgment that is worth anything from the justice I see in my fellow-men. II. This seems to me to widen at once the range of the truth I am stating. If it be a quality of God, which man is capable of uttering, then it must be the simple quality of manhood that is necessary for the utterance, and not any specific quantity, nor any assignable degree of human greatness. Whoever has the spirit of man may be the candle of the Lord. A larger measure of that spirit may make a brighter light; but there must be a light wherever any human being, in virtue of his essential humanness, by obedience becomes luminous with God. There are the men of manhood, spiritually the leaders of the race; how they stand out! how all men feel their power as they come into their presence, and feel that they are passing into the light of God! They are puzzled when they try to explain it. There is nothing more instructive and suggestive than the bewilderment men feel when they try to tell what inspiration is. He who goes into the presence of any powerful nature, feels sure in some way he is coming into the presence of God; but it would be melancholy if only the great men could give you this conviction. The world would be darker than it is if any human spirit, as soon as it became obedient, did not become the Lord's candle. A poor, bruised life, if only it keeps that human quality, and does not become inhuman, but is obedient to God, in its blind way, becomes a light. A mere child with his pure humanity, and with his turning of his life towards God from Whom he came--how often he may burn with some suggestion of divinity, and cast illumination upon problems and mysteries so difficult that he himself has never felt them! Little lamps burning everywhere. III. We have here the key to another mystery that often puzzles us. What shall we make of some men rich in attainments and well educated, who stand in the midst of their fellow-men dark and helpless? . . . Let us let the light of Solomon's figure upon it. Simply this: they are unlighted candles; they are the spirit of man furnished to its very finest, but lacking the last touch of God; like silver lamps all chaste and wrought with wondrous skill, all filled with choicest oil, but all untouched by fire. IV. There are multitudes of men whose lamps are certainly not dark, and yet who certainly are not the candles of the Lord,--with a nature richly furnished, yet profane, impure, worldly. . . . Such a man is not another unlighted candle. He burns so bright and lurid that often the pure light grows dim within its glare. But if it be possible for the human candle, when the subtle components of a human nature are all mingled carefully in it; if it be possible that, instead of being lifted up to heaven, and kindled at the pure beam of Him who is eternally and absolutely good, it should be plunged down into hell, and lighted at the cruel flames that burn out of the dreadful brimstone pit, then we can understand the sight of a man who is rich in every energy of manhood cursing the world with the exhibition of the devilish instead of the Godlike in his life. . . . V. There is still one other way, more subtle and sometimes more dangerous than this, in which the spirit of man may fail of its functions as the candle of the Lord. The man may be lighted, and the fire at which he is lighted may be, indeed, the fire of God, and yet it may not be God alone he shows forth upon the earth. I can picture to myself a candle which should in some way mingle the peculiarity of its own substance with the light it sheds. So it is, I think, with the way in which a great many men manifest God. They have really kindled their lives at Him. It is His fire that burns in them. They are obedient, and so He can make them His points of exhibition, but they are always mixed with the God whom they show. They show themselves as well as Him; just as a mirror mingles its own reflection with the things that are reflected from it and gives them a curious convexity because it is itself convex. This is the secret of pious bigotry, of holy prejudices; it is the candle putting its own colour into the flame it has borrowed from the fire of God. The feeble man makes God seem feeble, the speculative man makes God look like a doubtful dream, the legal man makes God seem as hard and steel-like as law. VI. I have tried to depict some difficulties which beset the full exhibition in the world of the great truth of Solomon. . . . Man is selfish and disobedient, and will not let his light burn at all; man is wilful and passionate, and kindles his light with ungodly fire; man is narrow and bigoted, and makes the light to shine in his own peculiar colour; but all these are accident--distortions of the true idea of man. How can we know that? Here is the perfect man, CHRIST! . . . I bring a man of my experience and the man of my imagination into the presence of Jesus, but they fall short of Him, and my human consciousness assures me they all fall short of the best ideal of what it is to be a man. "I am come a light into the world," said Jesus; "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "In Him was light, and the life was the light of men." So wrote the man who of all men know Him best. I think I need only bid you look at Him and you will see what it is to which our feeble lights are struggling. There is the true spiritual man who is the candle of the Lord, "the Light that lighteth every man." It is entirely a new idea of life, new to the standards of our ordinary living, which is there revealed. All ordinary appeals to men to be up and doing, and to make themselves shining lights, fade away and become insignificant before this higher message which comes in the words of Solomon in the life of Jesus. What does that higher message say to you and me? That your full relationship to God can only be realised by obedience to Him, when you will shine by His light; then you cannot be dark, for He shall kindle you; then you shall be as incapable of burning with false passion, as you shall be quick to answer the true; then the devil may hold his torch to you, as he held it to the heart of Jesus in the desert, and your heart shall be as uninflammable as His. As soon as God touches you, you shall burn with a light so truly your own that you shall reverence your own mysterious life, and yet be so truly His that pride shall be impossible. In certain lands, for the most holy ceremonies they prepare the candles with the most precious care. The very bees that distil the wax are sacred. They range in gardens planted with sweet flowers for their use alone. The wax is gathered by consecrated hands, and the shaping of the candles is a holy task performed in holy places, with the singing of hymns, and in an atmosphere of prayer. All this is done because the candles, when they are made, are to burn in the most elevated ceremonies and on the most sacred days. With what care must the man be made whose spirit is to be the candle of the Almighty Lord! It is his spirit that the Lord is to kindle for Himself; therefore the spirit must be the precious part of him. The body must be valued only for the protection and education that the spirit may gain by it. The power by which his spirit shall become a candle is obedience; therefore obedience must be the struggle and desire of his life; obedience, not hard and forced, but ready, loving, and spontaneous; obedience in heart, the obedience of the child to the father, the obedience of the candle to the flame; the doing of duty not merely that the duty may be done, but that the soul in doing it may become capable of receiving and uttering God; the bearing of pain not merely because the pain must be borne, but that the bearing of it may make the soul able to burn with the Divine fire that found it in the furnace; the repentance of sin and the acceptance of forgiveness not merely that the soul may be saved from the fire of hell but that it may be touched with the fire of Heaven, and shine with the light of God as the stars, for ever.--Philips Brooks.

This "candle of the Lord" is a slight and diminutive light. A lamp is no such dazzling object. A candle has no such goodly light as that it should pride and glory in it; it is but a brief and compendious flame, shut up and imprisoned in a narrow compass. How far distant is it from the beauty of a star! how far from the brightness of a sun! This candle of the Lord, when it was first lighted up, before there was any thief in it, even then it had but a limited and restrained light. God said unto it: "Thus far shall thy light go; hither shalt thou shine and no further." Adam, in his innocency, was not to crown himself with his own sparks. God never intended a creature should rest satisfied with his own candle-light, but that it should run to the fountain of light, and sun itself in the presence of God. What a poor happiness had it been for a man only to have enjoyed his own lamp. . . . The "candle of the Lord" is a light discovering present, not future things, for did you ever hear of such a lamp as would discover an object not yet born? Would you not smile at him that should light a candle to search for a futurity? . . . Let, then, this candle content itself with its proper object. It finds work enough, and difficulty enough, in the discovery of present things, and has not such a copious light as can search out the future. . . . The light of reason is a certain light. Lamplight, as it is not glorious, so it is not deceitful--though it be but limited, it will discover such things as are within its own sphere with a sufficient certainty. The letters of nature's law are so fairly printed, they are so visible and capital, that you may read them by this candlelight. . . . Although there is not vigour enough in any created eye to pierce into the pith and marrow, the depth and secrecy of being. . . . It is a directive light. The will looks upon that, as Leander in Musæus looked up to the tower for Hero's candle, and calls it, as he doth there: "Lamp which to me, on my way through this life, is a brilliant director.". . . The will doth but echo the understanding, and doth practically repeat the last syllable of the final decision; which makes the moralist well determine that "moral virtues cannot exist without intellectual powers.". . . Other creatures, indeed, are shot more violently into their ends; but man hath the skill and faculty of directing himself, and is, as you may so imagine, a rational kind of arrow, that moves knowingly and voluntarily to the mark of its own accord. . . . It is an aspiring light. I mean no more by this than what that known saying of Augustine imports: "Thou hast made us, O Lord, for Thyself: our heart will be restless till it return to Thee." The candle of the Lord--it came from Him and it would fain return to Him. For an intellectual lamp to aspire to be a sun is a lofty strain of that intolerable pride which was in Lucifer and Adam; but for it to desire the favour, and presence, and enjoyment of a beautiful sun, is but a just and noble desire of that end which God created it for. . . . If you look but upon a candle, what an aspiring and ambitious light it is! . . . It puts on the form of a pyramid, occasionally and accidentally by reason that the air extenuates it into that form: otherwise it would ascend upward in one greatness, in a rounder and completer manner. It is just thus in "the candle of the Lord;" reason would move more fully according to the sphere of its activity, it would flame up to heaven in a more vigorous and uniform way; but that it is much quenched by sin . . . therefore it is fain to aspire and climb as well as it can. The bottom and base of it borders upon the body, and is therefore more impure and feculent; but the apex and cuspis of it catches toward heaven. . . . Every spark of reason flies upward. This Divine flame fell down from heaven and halted with its fall--as the poets tell us of the limping of Vulcan--but it would fain ascend thither again by some steps and gradations of its own framing.--Culverwell.

For Homiletics on verse 28, see verse 26.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 29.

THE GLORY OF YOUTH AND AGE.

+I. Each period of life has a value and a glory of its own.+ There is a beauty in spring to which no other season of the year can approach. The vivid green of the opening leaves, and the meadows and hedge-banks carpeted with early flowers, give to spring a glory all its own. But the other seasons have their peculiar charms. It is no less pleasant to look upon the landscape at midsummer, when the woods are in their full dress, and the valleys are covered over with corn, or in the autumn, when the harvest is being gathered in, and flowers have given place to fruit. If spring is the time of hope and promise, autumn is the season of realisation and fulfilment, and we are all content that the one should be lost in the other. So it is with the different periods of our human life--each has its special charm and its special advantages. We love to dwell upon the loveliness of childhood, but we should not like to see our sons and daughters remain children for ever, and it is pleasant to look upon and to experience the energy and hope of youth, but there are good things which cannot be ours until we reach to mature life, and even to grey hairs. We have before considered the glory of the hoary head (see on chap. xvi. 31, page 493); we have only to consider--

+II. The peculiar gift and glory of young men.+ It is, says Solomon, their "strength"--their power to do and to endure in a physical sense, what the aged cannot, by reason of the failure of their bodily powers. When men have passed middle life, they become more and more painfully conscious that if the "inward man is renewed day by day, the outward man is perishing" at the same rate (2 Cor. iv. 16), and although their experience is richer, and their wisdom greater, their physical ability and energy is not what it once was. Their ship is laden, it may be, with a far more precious cargo, but the tide is not so strong, and the breeze is not so powerful to waft it on its way as it was in the years that are gone. It is the glory of the young man that his strength is often more than enough for himself, he is able to bestow some upon the weak and needy. But the aged man is often painfully conscious that he has none to spare, that instead he is dependent upon the strength of others. The consideration of the special advantage of each season of human life ought to cheer the aged man and prevent him from regretting the days of youth, and at the same time it ought to make the young man respectful to the old, and willing to listen to their counsel, and so far as it is possible combine the wisdom of grey hairs with the vigour of youth. It also warns the young man against any abuse of his physical powers--against any unlawful indulgence of bodily appetites, and against the formation of unhealthy or indolent habits--which make so many of our youths prematurely old, bringing upon them the frosts of autumn, before they have brought forth its fruits.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 30.

PAIN AS A PREVENTIVE OF PAIN.

For the different renderings of this verse, see the Critical Notes. However we translate it the thoughts suggested are the same, viz.:--

+I. That pain in the present may prevent greater pain in the future.+ When the surgeon is called in to examine a wounded man, the examination of the wound may give him more pain than he would have suffered if he had been let alone; it may bring far more present suffering to extract the ball, or to insert the probe, than it would have done simply to bandage the wound. But the pain of to-day is to ensure days of healthful rest by and by; if the present suffering was not inflicted, months and years of pain in the future might be the result. The pain of mind or body inflicted upon a child of five or ten years old, is intended by its parent to prevent greater moral or physical pain when he is fifty or seventy. There is no human creature who can afford to do without the pruning-knife at some period of its life; and if the pruning is not administered, the penalty will be paid either in this world or the next. The wise and loving parent gives pain in youth to prevent pain to his child in manhood, and the All-wise and Loving Father, God, subjects His children to pain in the present life to prevent a deeper and more lasting pain in the life to come. He pricks the conscience by His word to bring men to repentance, and so to salvation from the "wrath to come" and He sees even in His own children so much "evil" remaining that He is compelled to visit "their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes" (Psa. lxxxix. 32), in order to "cleanse" their characters.

+II. Pain of body may be beneficial to the human spirit.+ This is a subject to which our attention has been before directed. See on chap. xiii. 24, page 334, and on chap. xvii. 10, page 510.

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