Chapter XXI…

Chapter XXI

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Rivers of water.+ Rather streams, the allusion being to the watercourses, which in hot countries intersect fields and gardens for the purpose of irrigation, in which the water is entirely under the control of the husbandman. +2. Pondereth,+ rather weigheth, as in chap. xvi. 2. It is the same verb as that used in 1 Sam. ii. 3 and Isa. xl. 12, 13. +4. The ploughing.+ This word is by most modern commentators translated, as in the marginal references, light. It is likewise so rendered in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and in Luther's version. Ewald, Elster, Wordsworth, and others, translate as in the English version. The Hebrew words are very similar. Those who adopt the former rendering understand the word to stand in apposition to the high look and the proud heart of the first clause (literally, "To be lofty of eyes, and to be swollen of heart"), and regard it as a figurative representation of the spirit of the wicked man. Ewald and others refer the ploughing of the wicked to the "very first-fruits of a man's activity." +5. Thoughts,+ rather the counsels, the calculatings. +6. Vanity tossed to and fro.+ Rather a fleeting breath. The Hebrew word hebel, here translated vanity, means vapour. +7. Robbery,+ or violence, rapacity. +8.+ Zöckler translates the first clause of this verse, "Crooked is the way of the guilty man." Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word ish (man) expresses a man once good; froward implies his perversity, by having left the good way. +Right,+ i.e., direct, straightforward. +9. Wide house.+ Literally house of companionship, i.e., to share the house with her. +11. Instructed.+ Zöckler translates this "prospereth," and understands the simple to be the subject of both clauses of the verse. +12.+ The words man and God are both supplied by the translators. The verse should be "The righteous considereth the house of the wicked (and) overthroweth," etc. Some understand it, therefore, to mean "The righteous man gives instruction to the house of the wicked to turn them away from evil." But Stuart remarks that the verb of the second clause is a very strong word, to precipitate, to cast down headlong, and refers the righteous (one) of the first clause to God. This is Zöckler's rendering also. +15. Shall be.+ These words are not in the original, and destroy the sense, which is that justice is joy to the good, and destruction to the bad. Luther renders, "It is a joy to the just to do what is right; but to the wicked a terror." +24. Proud wrath,+ literally "wrath of pride" or overflowings of haughtiness. +27. With a wicked mind,+ literally, "for iniquity," and may refer to a desire to cloak a sinful purpose by an outward show of piety, or an attempt to expiate a sinful act by an outward atonement. Miller reads for +"how much more"+ "because also." +28. Constantly,+ rather for ever. Stuart understands the verse to mean "that the sincere listener to the Divine commands will ever be at liberty to speak, and find confidence put in what he says." +29. Hardeneth his face,+ or "putteth on a bold countenance." +Directeth,+ or "considereth," or "establisheth."

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.

THE KING OF KINGS.

+I. Kings are more entirely in the hand of God than subjects are in the hands of kings.+ The king of the days of Solomon was, as some Oriental rulers are now, an absolute monarch. In the case of Solomon himself, his will was law, and in his hand was the power of life and death (see 1 Kings iii. 24, 25). Of Nebuchadnezzar it is said, "Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down" (Dan. v. 19). It is to such a king that the proverb refers--to one who called no man or any number of men master, but upon whose single will apparently depended the destiny of millions. Yet he was not the independent being that he appeared, neither were his subjects so dependent upon his will as they appeared to be. The most abject slave in his dominions was less under his control than he was under the control of Him by whom "kings reign" and "princes rule" (chap. viii. 15, 16). The gardener whose ground is intersected by water-channels finds it a very easy task to turn the stream in the direction he desires; the soil yields to his touch, and forthwith the water flows whithersoever he wills. But the moist earth is not so easily moulded by the hand of man, as the heart of the proudest monarch is subdued to obedience by his Maker; and the water is not more entirely subject to the will of the husbandman than is the will of the most stubborn despot to the will of Jehovah.

+II. The power which God exercises over kings extends into a region where no earthly ruler can penetrate.+ The heart of the king is in the hand of Jehovah. This is more than the most absolute monarch can boast concerning his meanest subject. Nebuchadnezzar could issue his decree, but whoso did not fall down before his golden image should be cast into the fiery furnace, but he could not move the steadfast determination of the Hebrew youths to acknowledge no god but the God of Israel. His will could determine what should be done to their bodies, but all his threatenings could not reach their hearts. But God rules the spirit of a man in that He has access to his innermost thoughts and feelings, and can thus touch the spring of all his actions, and thus bring him to do His will, even when he seems to be doing only his own.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Could anything be more bold? Mark the compass--first, of subject, the whole stream as the gardener turns it; second, of object, "whithersoever" or anything He pleases; and third, of sovereignty; its pleasing Him, that being the only test. The "king" may be Cæsar. His lip may make new geographies (ch. xvi. 10). His "heart" may change the history of all things. And yet, like a vineyard's channels diverted by a child, the Pharaoh's heart is in the fingers of the Most High. . . . Upon whatsoever. Not toward anything. A stream may be turned in a new direction to get rid of it. God has no such streams. It is turned on something. For God has an end to answer when He rules even the vilest of fiends.--Miller.

Whether, in the second line, the pleasant refreshing influence of the rivulets, dispensing blessing and increase, comes into account as a point of the comparison, is uncertain (comp. Isa. xxxii. 2); this, however, is not improbable, inasmuch as the heart of a king may in fact become in an eminent degree a fountain of blessing for many thousands, and, according to God's design, ought to be so. See chap. xvi. 15.--Lange's Commentary.

For Homiletics on verse 2 see on chap. xvi. 2, page 454.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 3.

THE MORE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE.

+I. The sacrifices of the Mosaic law were acceptable to God as ceremonial signs.+ They were instituted by God, and therefore He expected them to be offered, and was displeased when His commands concerning them were disregarded. But they were but the means to an end, and if they did not lead to that end they were worthless in His sight. They were intended to awaken a sense of sin, and to be accompanied by observance of higher precepts and by obedience to more enduring laws. It availed nothing for a man to offer his bullock or his goat unless he laid his will upon the altar at the same time--no sin-offering could be acceptable to God unless the sin was put away, and no meat-offering could be regarded with favour if the heart of the offeror was without love to his neighbour and his life was marked by acts of injustice to him. It was of no avail to come before the Lord with "thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil," unless the higher requirement was fulfilled--to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God (Micah vi. 7, 8).

+II. The doing of justice and judgment is more acceptable to God because it is a moral reality.+ To love our neighbour as ourself is in itself good,--it is a moral attribute, an element of character, a part of the man himself. It is an expression of love to God and obedience to His commands which can be made anywhere and at all times, for to do justice and judgment is the law of the moral universe, and belongs to heaven as much as to earth. It is to do what God has been doing from all eternity, for it is written that they "are the habitation of His throne" (Psa. lxxxix. 14). All other offerings without these are "vain oblations," and even "an abomination" (Isa. i. 13) unto Him who owns "every beast of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Psa. l. 10). To expect a holy and spiritual Being to accept anything less than a moral reality is to expect Him to be satisfied with less than would often content a fellow-creature.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Sacrifice; literally, slaughter. But with slender exceptions, the slaughter is a slaughter for sacrifice. . . . He did not love the slaughtering of His Son upon the cross. He did not love the slaughtering of beasts year by year continually. On the contrary, He does love righteousness, and, therefore, He does love, in the severities that men impugn, that very element of right which is the attribute that they would bring into the question. Doing righteousness Himself, He prefers the right-doing of His creatures to any form of sacrifice or possible service they can ever render.--Miller.

"Sacrifice" at best is only circumstantially good--rectitude is essentially so. Sacrifice, at best, is only the means and expression of good; rectitude is goodness itself. God accepts the moral without the ceremonial, but never the ceremonial without the moral. The universe can exist without the ceremonial, but not without the moral.--David Thomas.

This maxim of the Proverbs was a bold saying then--it is a bold saying still; but it well unites the wisdom of Solomon with that of his father in the 51st Psalm, and with the inspiration of the later prophets.--Stanley.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 4.

THE PLOUGHING OF THE WICKED.

+I. The high look and the proud heart indicate a man wrong at the foundation of his character.+ They show that he has not yet learned the alphabet of true godliness--that he has not yet begin to know his guilt and his weakness. He is ignorant of the depravity of his moral nature--of the capabilities of wrong that lie hidden within him, undeveloped now, it may be, but ready to assert their presence when the temptation presents itself. The man who has been born blind is entirely ignorant of the outline even of his own features, but he does not form a conception which is farther removed from the reality than a spiritually unenlightened man does of the real features of his moral character. The proud man by his pride proclaims his moral blindness--his high look is a sure indication that the light within him is darkness--that he has never seen himself as he really is. Hence it follows that he is wrong at the very core and centre of his moral being; where pride holds her throne there is no room for God, there is no confession of sin, and no yielding to Divine guidance.

+II. While the heart is wrong the whole life will be wrong.+ This truth is expressed in the proverb, however we translate the verb in the second clause (See Critical Notes). Things that are not wrong in themselves become wrong if done from a sinful motive. A man may plough a field, and in itself the action may be neither good nor bad, but if he plough in order to sow a crop of thistles the action is a criminal one. A man may be diligent and painstaking in his business, and his diligence may in itself seem commendable, but if he exercises it only to gain money for sinful ends his very buying and selling becomes sin. And if we translate the word "light," and understand it to signify prosperity, the truth taught is very much the same. While a man's pride keeps him at a moral distance from God, no matter how successful he may be, the taint and curse of unpardoned sin is upon all his gains and possessions.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to the river, or the base to a pillar. Without these the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into flatness and ruin, and the action is sinful, or unprofitable and vain.--Jeremy Taylor.

The evil spirit called sin may be trained up to politeness, and made to be genteel sin; it may be elegant, cultivated sin; it may be very exclusive and fashionable sin; it may be industrious, thrifty sin; it may be a great political manager, a great inventor; it may be learned, scientific, eloquent, highly-poetic sin! Still it is sin, and, being that, has in fact the same radical and fundamental quality that, in its ranker and less restrained conditions, produces all the most hideous and revolting crimes of the world.--Bushnell.

All thine actions while unregenerate--whether inward or outward, whether worldly or religious--are all sinful and cursed. Like the leper under the law, thou taintest whatever thou touchest, and makest it unclean. . . . Thy calling is not without its corruption . . . nay, thy very religious exercises are sinful. . . . Thine incense stinks of the hand that offered it. . . . The vessel of thy heart is not clean, and God will not taste of the liquor which cometh out of it. Because thy person is not accepted, thy performances are all rejected. "Thou art in the flesh, and therefore canst not please God" (Rom. viii. 8).--Swinnock.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 5, 7, and 17.

THE ROADS TO WEALTH.

+I. The most likely road to lead to wealth.+ 1. Thoughtful diligence as opposed to thoughtless haste. We have before considered the necessity of thought before action (see on chap. xx. 18), and the same idea is conveyed in the use of the first noun here (see Critical Notes). But although it is wise and necessary to think before we act, thinking must only be preparatory to action, and must not take its place. It is good for a man to make a good plan of his house before he begins to build; but a house on paper only will not shelter him from the winter storms. It is advisable for the captain to study his chart well before he embarks upon his voyage, but if he does no more he will never reach the desired port. So it is good for a man to take counsel with himself and others before he sets out upon the voyage of commercial life--before he begins to build for a competency or a fortune; but after the thought and with the thought there must be action, and there must be painstaking and persevering action. He must not be all eagerness to-day and indifference to-morrow--he must not work hard this week and neglect his business next week;--such a man may get rich by a mere chance speculation or by a dishonest act, but, apart from all higher considerations, it is not the best road, because it is not the most likely road. No doubt there are men who have made their fortune by short cuts--by what is called luck, or by craft and robbery--but these are the exceptions, and the way of diligent perseverance is the one by which riches are generally gotten. 2. Self-denial as opposed to self-indulgence. "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich" (ver. 17). He who spends in self-indulgence as fast as he earns will be always poor. The lover of pleasure and luxury will not be a lover of hard work, and as we have just seen, it is that alone by which most men grow rich. And the extravagant and idle man will not be very likely to keep within his means, and to confine himself to honest ways of making money. And both these roads are roads which lead in the end to ruin. It is not likely that Solomon here refers to any poverty except material poverty. But it is also true that no man whose heart is set upon the gratification of his own selfish desires--whose life is one of self-indulgent ease--can ever be rich in the only true and lasting riches. He must always be in poverty as to character, as to intellectual wealth, and as to the gratitude and respect of those whom he might bless with his riches. "If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's (or another's), who shall give you that which is your own?" (Luke xvi. 11, 12). He is a poor man who has nothing but what he must leave behind him when he leaves the world. The greatest millionaire has nothing he can call his own if he has not a godly character.

+II. The only blessed road to wealth, viz., the way of truth as opposed to lying, the way of honesty as opposed to dishonesty.+ We need not consider these sins separately, for they are inseparable in human character and conduct. The liar is a thief, for by his tongue he cheats men of their rights, and the thief lies in action as well as in word. Solomon does not say that thieves and liars shall not grow rich. As a matter of fact they often do, and leave far behind them in their race those who are plodding slowly on in the path of honest diligence. But he looks to the end of such a way of making money, and of these who so make it. It often vanishes like a vapour (see Critical Notes), while the man who made it still lives. One falsehood leads to another, and a little dishonesty bringing success leads to another and another, each one on a larger scale, until the bubble becomes too thin, and it bursts and all is gone. But if the rogue keeps his fortune till the last--if he meets death a rich man, and is buried with all the pomp of wealth,--retribution awaits him before the tribunal of a righteous God. He sought death and destruction while he lived, and he found it ever here;--destruction of character and spiritual death, and he who here "refused to do judgment" goes to meet his judge a morally self-ruined man--one whose spiritual deathblow has been dealt by his own hand. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xiii. 11, page 306.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 5. Haste may have much of diligence in the temperament. But as indolence is its defect, this is its excess, its undisciplined impulse. The hand too often goes before, and acts without the judgment. Hence our English philosopher wisely counsels us--"not to measure dispatch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business." A wise man had it for a bye-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion--"Stay a little that we may make an end the sooner." To choose time is to save time, and an unreasonable motion is but "beating the air." The heavenly race is not to be run by so many heats, but by a steady course. "Run," not with haste or speed, but "with patience the race set before us" (Heb. xii. 1). The seed springing up in haste withered (Matt. xiii. 20, 21).--Bridges.

Verse 6. They seek death because they not only walk in the way of it, but run and fly with post haste as if they were afraid they should come too late or that hell would be full before they got thither. Thus Balaam's ass never carries him fast enough after the wages of wickedness. Set but a wedge of gold before Achan, and Joshua that could stop the sun in his course, cannot stay him from fingering of it. Judas, in selling his Master, what he doth, doth quickly.--Trapp.

Treasures; literally stores; from a root to shut up. "Tongue;" standing for all instruments of labour (see comment on chap. xii. 6). "Lying;" not telling lies in the worldly sense, for, so put, decent sinners would miss the signification, but lying in that high sense in which the most honest worldling may fill the portrait. "Tongue;" just coincident with fact, is of the haste of the last verse; that untrue uttering of thought against conviction in one's self, and, therefore, hardly to be dreamed of and spared by the Most High. Stores got by this lying career of business may seem solid, because they may be whole blocks of granite in some fire-proof square mile of street; and yet as to their possession the wise man employs a singularly intensive figure. They are driven breath! Surely he will pause at that! But no! They are driven breath as of man chasing after death! . . . The meaning is, that the hot breath of a man rushing to his doom is like the money made by the deceived impenitent. First, it is utterly perishable; second, it betokens the speed; and third, the voluntary rush to get himself to ruin.--Miller.

And forget not what the "lying tongue" includes--that he is chargeable with the evil who pretends, in any way, to be what he is not, to have what he has not, not to have what he has, to have said what he has not said, or to have done what he has not done, or not to have said and done what he has said and done; who tries to gain an end by any word, or act, or look, or even by silence and concealment designed to convey a false impression--by any means whatever not in harmony with honest truth--with "simplicity and godly sincerity." This, says Solomon, "is vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death." It is a "vanity;" inasmuch as it involves both folly and sin--the folly being made evident in ultimate detection, exposure, shame, and loss--loss of character, loss of confidence, and many a time loss of even what the falsehood had acquired. It is "tossed to and fro." Men learn it from one another. The man who has been imposed upon retaliates--he has no satisfaction until he has succeeded in duping him by whom he has himself been taken in, in practising on him an equal or a better trick. It is practised with little thought--with the vanity of a light and inconsiderate mind--and laughed at, in many instances, when it proves successful, instead of engendering remorse. Success produces a hundred imitators: and the cheats and the dupes are successively reversed, the dupe becoming in his turn the cheat, and the cheat the dupe.--Wardlaw.

Verse 17. Self-indulgence is not human happiness; it is a delirium, not a delight. It is a mere titillation of the dying nerves, not a Divine thrill of our imperishable sensibilities and powers. Its music is the notes of a maniac, not the strains of a seraph.--David Thomas.

He may be rich secularly. For here is a proverb that on earth has but a partial verity. But now, spiritually it is as settled as the heavens. "He that loveth his life shall lose it" (John xii. 25). A man cannot scale heaven for its "wine." Unless a man gets higher objects than himself, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And, therefore, it is literally true that the wealth that the soul attains is never made by the very most feverish desire to escape, or by the very most impassioned thirst for the mere joy of heaven. "Man;" the higher name for man. He may be ever so skilful. . . . "Loving;" not, if it loves, but because it loves. It is no harm to love happiness; but it cannot be in loving it, or because we love it, that we can create everlasting riches.--Miller.

Strange as it may seem, the way to enjoy pleasure is not to love it; to live above it; to "rejoice as though we rejoiced not; to use the world, as not abusing it" (1 Cor. vii. 30, 31); never pursuing it as our portion, or as making the happiness of an immortal being. The man who gives his whole heart and time to the love of pleasure, and sacrifices to it all his prudence and foresight, is surely on the highroad to poverty. On the same road is he that loveth wine, under the power of a "mocking delusion." He that loveth oil--one of the most precious fruits of Canaan--may find, that "those who could not live without dainties came to want necessaries."--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 8.

TWO WAYS.

+I. The way of fallen man.+ It is a froward or refractory way in relation to God. When we look at man's ways and compare them with the ways of all the creatures below him and inferior to him, we note a remarkable contrast. The sun, which was created to give him light and heat, never turns aside from its ordained path, and the moon never forsakes her orbit, with the rest of the heavenly bodies, continue in the way ordained for them at the creation, and impress us with a sense of order, and regularity, and obedience. And the living creatures beneath man remain true to their instincts, and manifestly fulfil their destinies in ministering to the wants of the human race. But when we come to man we come to a law-breaking, perverse creature--to a being who resists the law of God as written in his conscience, and the commands of God as given in revelation, and the very pleadings of self-love which often urge him to submission. The way of the Hebrew people under special Divine tuition is a specimen of the frowardness of all men in their natural condition, which is indeed a most unnatural condition, seeing that it is out of harmony with all the rest of creation. Delivered from bondage by miracle and fed and guided by the same miraculous love and power for nearly half a century, and again and again after their settlement in Canaan delivered from the consequences of their disobedience by the same mighty hand, the testimony against them was, "Ephraim is joined unto idols, let him alone" (Hosea iv. 15). Neither appeals to their conscience or their reason, or even to their own self-interest, nor promises nor threatenings, could induce them to choose God's way in preference to their own, and when He appeared among them in flesh, and after He had risen from the grave and the full meaning of His incarnation and death was unfolded to them by His apostles, they still perversely chose to go about "to establish their own righteousness" rather than "submit themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. x. 3). And man in general is as froward, as perverse, as was this froward people. Though their reason, and conscience, and self-love are all on the side of God's way they persist in walking in their own.

+II. The way of renewed man.+ It is a direct or straight way (see Critical Notes), because it is an obedient way. No man but a godly man keeps in one undeviating course, for none but he has but one aim and goal. The unrenewed man may be swayed by passion to-day, and by worldly interest to-morrow; but with him who has been born to a new and higher life one principle lies behind all his actions; and whatever his secondary plans and purposes, they are all subordinated to the one ruling law--the Will of God. His work--whatever it may be--whether that of the judge upon the bench, the minister in the pulpit, the tradesman behind the counter, or the sailor at the mast-head, has one end and aim above all others, viz., to glorify God; and this gives to it a directness and straightforwardness which is not an element in the walk and work of the ungodly. See also on chap. x. 9, 10, page 153, and on chap. xi. 3, page 195.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

No one is such a stranger in any land as man is in the land of righteousness; neither is any stranger so ignorant of his way, as man is of the way of virtue. Wherefore, man and purity are rightly opposed in our translation. For what is more froward, more impure, than man's way is? And he that is pure, how little man must he have in him. How must he put off man to put on purity. Wherefore, if in the whole way of man there be a right work, it is not the work of man, as he is man, but the grace of God.--Jermin.

It is too natural for us to think that, if we are no worse than the generality of our neighbours, we are safe. But Solomon and Paul teach us, that, to walk as man, is not to walk like saints (1 Cor. iii. 3). Whilst we are following the course of this world, we are walking in the broad road that leadeth to destruction, and not in the narrow way that leadeth unto life.--Lawson.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 9 and 19.

AN ANGRY WOMAN.

+I. No social discomfort is to be compared to that of an ill-tempered wife.+ A corner of the housetop would be exposed to the rain and to the storm, both of which, in Eastern countries, are generally of a violent character; and although it is not uncommon for Orientals sometimes to pass the night there, it would be most undesirable to be obligated at all seasons, and under all circumstances, to have no other place of refuge. He who had to dwell there would at one time be subjected to the intense heat of the mid-day sun, and at another would be chilled by the midnight air. Neither is the wilderness a pleasant place of abode. In addition to all the drawbacks of the housetop arising from exposure to the weather, a wilderness is a place of dreary solitude, and often of danger from wild beasts and lawless men. But it is better to dwell in either of these places than with a brawling or even with an angry woman. 1. Because one might enjoy intervals of repose. The rain would not always descend, neither would the storm-wind be always blowing; the sun would sometimes give forth only an agreeable warmth, and the night-wind bring only a refreshing coolness. Even in the wilderness the solitude would sometimes be enjoyable, and life there would not always be in peril. But the woman pictured here is one whose ill-temper is always ruling her and casting gloom over the home, and when there is no storm of passion actually raging there is one brewing and ready to burst forth. The unhappy partner of her life can never look forward to an hour of ease, for the lulls in the storm are but momentary, and the rifts in the clouds obscured again immediately. 2. Because, whatever may be the discomforts of a housetop or wilderness dwelling, they may leave the soul at rest. They can but reach the body, and the mind may be so absolutely calm or absorbed in thought as to be almost unconscious of what is passing without. To some men solitude has such charms that they are willing to forego many bodily comforts in order to obtain it. There have been and are those whose own thoughts are the only company they desire, and who would gladly brave the drawbacks of the housetop or the wilderness, if by so doing they could be left undisturbed to indulge their own speculations, or pursue their meditations. But the sharp tongue of a contentious woman leaves no corner of the soul undisturbed. It is vain for the subject of it to seek refuge in reflection upon more agreeable topics, to endeavour to banish the actual present by calling up images of the future, or of unseen though distant realities. All the powers of the mind are paralyzed by such an incubus, and the soul cannot wing its flight into pleasant regions, as it can do sometimes when the suffering only touches the outer man.

+II. External good fortune is no proof against this domestic curse.+ The "wide house" or the "house of companionship," suggests a goodly mansion--a dwelling which might be the centre of social gatherings, and whose owner is able to indulge in hospitality on a large scale. It calls up before us not the top-story garret of the very poor, or even the narrow dwelling of a struggling man, where the fight for bread, and the effort to make both ends meet, may have something to do with spoiling the temper of the housewife. But the angry and contentious woman is not confined to these abodes--Solomon almost seems to speak here from experience, but even if he did not, we know that even palace walls cannot keep out the curse, and that there is often such a skeleton at the must sumptuous feast.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The family is sometimes a fierce fire. It comprehends the greatest portion of our world. It is to us the most interesting, and therefore is capable of becoming the most trying portion.--Cecil.

Everyone has known some pair chained together by human laws where the heart's union has either never existed or been rent asunder. Two ships at sea are bound together by strong, short chains. As long as the sea remains perfectly calm all may be well with both; though they do each other no good, they may not inflict much evil. But the sea never rests long, and seldom rests at all. Woe to these two ships when the waves begin to roll. There are two conditions in which they might be safe. If they were either brought more closely together, or more widely separated, it might yet be well with them. If they were from stern to stern riveted into one, or if the chain were broken and the two left to follow independently their several courses, there would be no further cause of anxiety on their account. If they are so united that they shall move as one body, they are safe; if they move far apart, they are safe. The worst possible position is to be chained together, and yet have separate and independent motion in the waves. They will rasp each other's sides off, and tear open each other's heart, and go down together.--Arnot.

Better to retire into a corner of the housetop than to quit the house and go into bad company for diversion, as many who, like Adam, make their wife's sin the excuse of their own.--Henry.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 10.

THE DESIRE OF THE WICKED.

On "the desire of the wicked" see on chap. xi. 5, 6, page 199. Concerning that desire it is here affirmed--

+That it overmasters and destroys all natural feelings of compassion.+ The Bible teaches us that in the estimation of God he is our neighbour who, as one of the same great human family, stands upon the same level with us,--the child of the same God and heir to the same inheritance of sorrow and death. As such he has a claim upon our consideration and goodwill at all times, and sometimes he stands in need of our sympathy and help. Now there are spiritual desires and inclinations to which we are bound to subordinate some claims of human kinship. The relation of a disciple of Christ to his Master is so far above all human ties that they sink into apparent insignificance beside it, but this relationship has not the effect of lessening man's concern for the welfare of his brother, but of increasing it tenfold. But here is subjection to a principle as much below nature as the other is above it--evil instead of good is the aim of the life, and in proportion as it rules and reigns it drags a man below the level of even ordinary human nature and leads him to so earnest a pursuit of his own wicked devices that he has no time to pause to consider the claims of others.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

"Evil." All kinds of it. He rejoices in iniquity (1 Cor. xiii. 6); he rejoices in calamity (chap. xvii. 5); he desires nothing but evil (chap. xvii. 11). Blessed be God, if a soul desires anything but evil, i.e., desires it truly (see James iv. 2), that soul is saved. As to the second clause, there may be a bending over earthly distress, but real favour to his neighbour the lost man never shows. "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel" (chap. xii. 10).--Miller.

And here lies the difference between the godly and the wicked; not that the one is pure from evil and the other commits it, but that the one does it from constraint, the other from delight. The one testifies--"What I hate"--the other--What my soul desireth--"that do I." As the fruit of this native cherished principle, self to the wicked is both his god and his object.--Bridges.

He views "his neighbour" in no other light than as, on the one hand, the means of thwarting, or, on the other, the instrument of promoting his own ends. Can he gain anything by him? he will flatter and cajole him and do everything to win his favour, and secure his services. Does his "neighbour's" interest, reputation, personal and family comforts, connections, or even life itself, stand in the way of the attainment of his wishes?--he is ready to sacrifice all to his idol.--Wardlaw.

It is the common maxim of the schools, that, seeing the nature of the good is the nature of that which is desirable, it is impossible that evil, as it is so, should be desired. But then the schools do add also, that the will may desire anything, it is not required that it be good in the truth of the thing, but that it be apprehended as if it were good. And thus it is that the soul of the wicked desireth evil, because that he apprehendeth the good, either of some pleasure of profit, or some contentment in it.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 11.

INSTRUCTION FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT.

+I. An inevitable event in the history of the scorner.+ It is here taken for granted that he will be punished--that he who sets at nought the "counsel," and will have none of the "reproof" of wisdom, will have his day of reckoning. The "day of his calamity" and "fear" will come (chap. i. 27). Throughout this book, as throughout all the inspired writings, sin and punishment are linked as cause and effect. There is punishment in the constantly increasing dominion of evil in the soul, and there is punishment in the stings of conscience; but there is also punishment by the direct interposition of God, and it is to this that the proverb evidently points.

+II. One of the fruits of wisdom.+ He who is wise will be instructed. Having used what he has, he will in accordance with the Divine law receive more. To "him that hath shall be given" (Mark iv. 25). He who by a wise use of five talents has gained other five, shall have his store increased still more. This is likewise a foundation principle of this book, that the wise are those who are willing to be instructed, and that to those who desire instruction it will not be wanting. The special point of the verse is in the fact--

+III. That the punishment of evil men, and the soul-advancement of the good, have a work to do outside the men themselves.+ When the scorner receives punishment others receive instruction. This is one of its objects. A good ruler, as we have before seen (chap. xx. 26), is bound to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked for many reasons, and for this reason among others, that the punishment of one offender may prevent others from committing a like offence. Men often learn by example what they would not learn by precept--the inexperienced are often more deeply impressed by one instance of retributive justice than they would be by many admonitions in word. This is, as we know from God's Word, one end of His visitations. "For this cause," said God to Pharaoh, "have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth" (Exod. ix. 16). There are vessels belonging to our navy which are past repair, and are therefore unfit for sea. Yet they are retained as light-ships along the coast, and are useful in preventing better ships from going to pieces on the rocks. Pharaoh had long scorned the commands and the judgments of Jehovah, and his own doom was fast hastening on. But he would still serve as a beacon-light to save others--by his punishment the simple would be made wise. But there is the other and brighter side of the picture. The inexperienced are allured to goodness by the advancement of the good, as well as deterred from evil by the downfall of the wicked. When the simple sees the wise man in the attitude of a learner--when he finds that the wiser he is the more he desires instruction; and when he marks the effect of his humility and earnestness in his growth in all that is calculated to win him respect and to afford him real satisfaction, he "receives knowledge" by "the instruction of the wise" as well as by the "punishment of the scorner."

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

A respectful sinner; how is he a scorner? The Holy Ghost plainly intends just the shock that such words occasion. If a man hears that he should repent, and knows the reasons, and among the reasons are facts like hell, and calls like Christ's, and scenes like death, with all the realities of an eternal judgment, is there any spoken scorn that can be thought of as more scornful than the acted scorn of not repenting? "The simple becomes wise," i.e., the subject or the witness of the punishment, just as it may happen. . . . Punishment never wastes. The wicked may be thrust lower by his evil (chap. xiv. 32), but some saint receives the lesson. This principle reaches through the system. The philosophy of hell is its good-doing through all the universe.--Miller.

It is a stroke easily taken which another feels, the receiver only fears, and it is a blow haply given which, striking one, reacheth two; the scorner to his reward, the simple to his amendment. . . . Let it therefore be a sharp punishment which is inflicted; smite a scorner, for such it is that the scorner deserveth, and it will work upon the simple, though not by the touch of the punishment yet by the virtue of it. And when wisdom hath once subdued him by fear, then will it lead him on to hear the wise, and by attention to receive knowledge.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 12.

GOD'S SURVEILLANCE OF THE WICKED.

We follow here the rendering now generally given of this verse. (See Critical Notes.)

+I. We have a reference to a mystery in the government of God.+ It is mysterious that the wicked are permitted to live at large--to pursue their plans and carry on their iniquitous work. Under human governors, men who break the laws of the State and endanger life and property are not allowed to have liberty. If they are permitted to live, they live under restraint--their activities are confined within narrow limits, and so their power to do mischief is taken from them. The prisons scattered throughout our land declare that our rulers only permit those who break our laws to have a very narrow sphere of action; they live where all their freedom is taken from them, and where their rule of life is not their own but that of others. But God allows those who break His laws a larger amount of freedom--He permits them to mingle freely with righteous men, and to exercise their influence upon the world, and to carry out designs which are often in defiance of His commands. This has often perplexed the good in the world, and they have again and again asked the question, "Wherefore do the wicked live--become old; yea, are mighty in power?" (Job xxi. 7).

+II. The wicked living thus at large have God for a sentinel.+ There are many men living at large who are known to be dangerous characters--who, although they do not come within the reach of the law, are known to cherish feelings and intentions which are antagonistic to it. Such people need a more vigilant supervision than those in the prison cells, just because their freedom is greater. An ordinary man can watch a criminal who is secure in a prison, but much greater watchfulness and skill is needed to supervise the actions of one at liberty. Every house of the wicked contains a lawbreaker at liberty, and often one house contains many such who have a large amount of freedom in the execution of their wicked designs. God is the only Being capable of being the sentinel over such a house. They need one who knows the heart as only God knows it--one who sees all their plans before they become actions. They need a sleepless sentinel--one who can be awake at all hours, and so can never be taken by surprise. And this they have in God. None enters or departs from the house of the wicked, and no plot is concocted within it that is not marked by this ever-wakeful sentinel. The wicked have what it is indispensable they should have--an omniscient and omnipresent eye ever upon them.

+III. After the watch has been kept for a given time, the house is marked for falling.+ We know why God gives such men freedom, for He has told us. It is that they shall have opportunities of repentance--that they "shall turn from their way and live" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). He spares the house of the godless, for the same reason that the vine-dresser desired that the fruitless fig-tree should be spared (Luke xii. 6-9). He gives men time to bring forth fruits of holiness, to their own profit and to His glory. So He considered the house of the sinners, before the flood. His "longsuffering waited while the ark was a preparing" (1 Pet. iii. 20) for some tokens of a change of disposition towards Himself, and consequently towards His laws. But none came, and so the day came when the flood came, and swept away both the houses and their inhabitants. So He considered the house of the Jewish nation, after the death of Christ. In the days of John the Baptist, the "axe was laid unto the root of the tree" (Matt. iii. 10), but the hand was not lifted to strike, until the rejection of the Messiah, and of the ministry of His apostles, had proved that there was no hope of a moral change. The wicked shall be overthrown, but God considereth their house long before He gives the final blow.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

(It will be seen that these read the verse as in our version.)

The punishment of the wicked reads a lesson not only of love and trembling, but of wise consideration. Yet many are the perplexing mysteries of Providence. The righteous man does not always see with his right eyes. The prosperity of the wicked staggers his faith, excites his envy, and induces hard thoughts of God (Ps. lxxiii. 2-14). But when he looks with the eye of faith, he sees far beyond the dazzling glory of the present moment. He wisely considereth their house; not its external splendour and appurtenances, but how it will end. He justifies God, and puts himself to shame (Ib. verses 16-22). "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. xviii. 25). Here we rest, until He shall "arise, and plead His own cause," and "with the breath of His mouth, and the brightness of His coming, destroy" the very existence of evil. Meanwhile, where the superficial eye sees nothing but confusion, let the righteous man wisely consider lessons of deep and practical profit. The shortness of the prosperity, and the certainty of the overthrow, of the wicked; the assurance of a day of recompense; the contrast of the substance of the godly for time and for eternity--these are the apprehensions of faith. Do they not marvellously set out the perfections of God, and call to each of His children--"My son, give glory to God?"--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 13.

THE CRY OF THE POOR.

+I. The cry of the poor may always be heard.+ "The poor," said the Saviour, "ye have always with you" (John xii. 8), and so long as sin is in the world it must be so. There are many who sickness and bereavement makes poor, and many who are in need because of the sin of others, besides those who have been brought to poverty by their own wrong-doings. And from all these creatures of need there comes a cry--a direct appeal, it may be, for help, or the voice of lamentation because of their distress. This cry may be around us even when no appeal comes from the lip, and when no word of complaint is uttered. The wrongs of the oppressed and the miseries of the needy cry still when there is no speech nor language, and when no voice is heard.

+II. No human creature can afford to stop his ears to this cry.+ Not one of the millions who walk the earth can reckon upon being always independent of the pity and help of his fellow-creatures. He may be almost certain that he will not be so. He is not sure, however rich he is now, that he may not have to cry for bread, or he may have to cry for help in sickness or for sympathy in sorrow. It is quite certain that he will at some period of his existence cry to God for mercy. If, therefore, he is deaf to the cry of those whose distress he can relieve, he is as unwise as the servant of whom our Lord speaks in His parable, who refused to have compassion on his fellow-servant to the amount of a hundred pence, while he himself stood in need of the forgiveness of a far heavier debt (Matt. xvii. 23, 35). He who stops his own ears at the cry of the poor stops the ears of God against His own, for in the day when the favour of the King of the universe will be more precious than the wealth of ten thousand worlds, the charge will be brought against him, "I was an hungered and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink," etc. (Matt. xxv. 42).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

When we have reason to complain that we cry and shout, but God shutteth our prayer, let us consider our ways; perhaps we have shut our ears on some occasions against the cries of the poor. This was one reason why God accepted not the prayers and fasts of those people whom Isaiah speaks of in the fiftieth chapter of his book.--Lawson.

Did a rich man know for certain, that himself should be a beggar before he died, it would make him give to the poor when they cried, that others might give to him when he cried. Now the wise man here assureth every hard churl, that although now he be never so rich, yet shall he be a beggar. . . . The cries of the poor are but God's proclamation, whereby He publisheth His pleasure for the relieving of them. It is God therefore Himself that is not heard when they are denied; it is God that is not heard in His command, as well as the poor in his necessity. And, therefore, being made deaf as it were with the loudness of His own crying, He doth not hear the uncharitable when they cry unto him.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.

THE PACIFICATION OF ANGER.

+I. Human anger is an evil to be avoided.+ Even the anger of a righteous man exposes the object of it to danger. David had good reason to be angry with Nabal, but his anger, though it was the anger of a man just in the main, so nearly overmastered him for the time as to lead him to meditate a very bitter revenge. For even righteous indignation has a tendency to run into unrighteous action, as in the case of Esau and Jacob. The elder brother had just cause to be angry with the younger for his meanness and deceit, but lawful displeasure soon degenerated into an unlawful purpose, and Jacob had to flee for his life. If, then, even the anger of the righteous man is to feared because it may lead him to visit the offender with justice without mercy, much more is the anger of the unrighteous man likely to lead him to extreme measures, and the anger of either is an evil to be avoided when it can be done without sin.

+II. Gifts may appease human anger.+ This proverb does not, we think, refer to bribery but to lawful tokens of goodwill, and of a desire to be reconciled--to gifts by which we seek to make some atonement for a wrong done. Such were the presents which Jacob offered to Esau, and Abigail to David. A bribe is a gift offered to a third person who is to judge between the parties at strife, but the gift here is from the offender to the person offended.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

A gift in itself is gracious, but if it be secretly given it is yet more acceptable; for privy bestowing taketh away the blush of open receiving. When as then a present shall even so closely be conveyed unto the receiver as that it shall covertly be put into his bosom, then it will be most welcome and even forcible.--Muffet.

"Have gifts," says a judicious writer, "such a powerful influence to disarm resentment? Then let no man plead, in apology for the fury of his passions, that he is not able to conquer them. If money can conquer them, shall reason, and the fear of God, and the command of Christ, be too weak to bridle them? Surely the commandments of God our Saviour have too little authority with us, if they have less influence upon our spirits than gold and jewels have upon the spirits of almost all men."--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.

THE JOY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

+I. The just man's own character and actions give him joy.+ It is a matter of experience with all the righteous beings in the universe that joy comes to them from uprightness of character. The blessedness and joy of God Himself comes from His supreme and absolute righteousness, and in proportion as His creatures are conscious of partaking of His rectitude of character they feel real joy. But this righteousness of character is made manifest in righteous deeds. We know that God is a righteous God by what He has done, and by what He has promised to do, and the character of righteous men is likewise manifested in their acts. From these deeds come joy to the doer. Whenever a good man is able to redress some injury, or to make right some moral wrong--to put into exercise the love of right which is always latent within him--he feels joy.

+II. The just man derives joy from the justice and righteousness of others.+ His great desire is to see the world freed from the rule of sin, with all its consequent miseries, and he hails every act of justice done as one more step towards that end. He sympathises with all those who struggle for right against might, whether with human or Satanic powers, and every victory gained by them gladdens his heart. As he is on the side of justice he has nothing to fear, but everything to gain, from the advance of justice in the world, and in the universe, and therefore he not only rejoices in the doings of other righteous men, but especially in the righteous acts of God. Knowing that every one of them tends to bring in the rule of everlasting righteousness, and knowing that this rule will be the best possible for both the just and the unjust, and having a glad consciousness that to him it can bring nothing but good, the just dealings of God are the constant theme of his glad meditations. With the Psalmist he can sing, "Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments" (Psalm cxix. 164).

+III. The workers of iniquity have no such source of personal joy.+ The name given implies their character. It is iniquitous, unequal, crooked. Their path lies quite apart from the straight road of obedience to God and justice to men, and therefore none of the flowers and fruits which grow only in the one path can be gathered upon the other. But they not only miss the joy of the just, but are active agents in creating their own misery. Sin is a destructive power. Destruction is used in two senses. A thing is destroyed when the elements which compound it cease to be, but it is also destroyed when the form which made it precious and beautiful is lost. The palace is destroyed when the earthquake lays it level with the ground, although all the stones and timbers are still there. The garment is destroyed when the fire blackens and scorches it, although the warp and woof of the fabric is still in existence. So a man's destruction is, as we understand the Word of God, not the cessation of his existence, but the loss of all that makes existence of worth to himself and others.

+IV. The workers of iniquity cannot rejoice in the righteous dealings of others.+ The rectitude of the just man condemns them. It makes their ways look more crooked by the force of contrast, and it rebukes their consciences. It necessarily sometimes takes a more active form against them. The thief cannot joy in the law that condemns him to punishment, and is not likely to take pleasure in the character of the judge who passes sentence upon him. No godless man can rejoice in reflecting on the righteousness of God, for that righteousness fills him with terror in the present, and apprehensions concerning the future.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Not the saint's "judgment;" that is "joy," of course: but all "judgment," even the judgment of the lost. Sad doctrine that! and to man's feeling a very shameful one. But to man's reason there may be a glimpse of light. The highest "joy" is to be holiness; the highest holiness, the holiness of God. All judgment is built upon that. God's holiness, therefore, being the basis upon which He condemns the lost, is that "judgment" which is part of the trait may be part of the "joy" which springs to the glorified believer.--Miller.

"It is joy to the just to do right; but vexation" (distress, trouble) "to the workers of iniquity." Such is Boothroyd's rendering; and it agrees with the French. The righteous find their happiness in the ways of God,--in doing the thing that is right. So far from true religion--practical godliness--being a source to them of irksome melancholy, it is their "joy." But to the wicked it is irksome. The principle of goodness or of godliness being absent from the heart, all conformity to precept is against the grain with them. They may do what is right from compulsion, from considerations of interest, or from the constraint of conscience and fear; but pleasure in it they have none--no "joy." And hence it is that amongst ungodly, worldly men, the impression and saying are so prevalent, that religion is melancholy. While the heart continues at enmity with God, all outward conformity to the will and worship of God can be nothing better than vexation,--harassing and fretting to the spirit and drawing forth the exclamation, What a weariness is it! The joy of religious and virtuous practice can only be felt where there is the inward power of religious and virtuous principle. It is a joy that can only be known by the experience of the new heart; and by the new heart it is felt to be the only joy worthy of the name. But the heart that is still a stranger to the love must be still a stranger to the joy; and the whole life of the good man must appear a life of bondage. The man who has no ear for music would regard the ecstasies of a Handel as ridiculous; but such ecstasies are not on that account the less real.--Wardlaw.

Gravity is nowhere so seemly, as where it is the robe of the judgment seat; and though justice be done, yet if wantonly or lightly done, it is divested of the honour of it. Wherefore the joy which the wise man here commendeth is not the vanity, but the alacrity of the mind. That detracteth from the worth of it even in the sight of men, this addeth to it in the sight of God. Now, that which breedeth this joy is the habit of it. He that doth judgment now and then is not righteous, though he do that which is righteous. It is the constant doer of judgment that is made righteous by it, and findeth joy in the doing of it.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.

LIKE TO LIKE.

+I. The way of understanding.+ What is this way? In other parts of this book it is called the "path of the just" (chap. iv. 18, see page 58), "a way of righteousness" (chap. xii. 28, page 291), and a "way of life" (chap xv. 24, page 430). It is a way of understanding, because it is the path or method of life which is followed by those who have well considered their way--who regard both their present and future welfare in the highest sense of the word. The way of righteousness is a way of understanding, because it leads to spiritual life and blessedness, both here and hereafter; therefore those who walk in it give a proof of their wisdom. If we count a man to have no understanding who persists in walking on a road which those who know tell him leads to a precipice over which he must fall, and if the truth of what they say is confirmed by his own knowledge, how much more shall we count those of no understanding who persist in following the path of moral ruin? And by contrast the way of present moral light and life which is ever leading on to more light and life is well named "the way of understanding."

+II. The doom of the wanderer from it.+ He becomes one of an assembly with whom it is most undesirable to be numbered--the congregation of the dead. The graveyard is a place in which living men never take up their abode. Those who are there are there because they can no longer remain in the dwellings of the living and healthy. They would pollute the homes of those who are in life, and must therefore be separated from them. There is a spiritual graveyard--a place to which those who are destitute of moral life must be banished, because they are unfit for any other dwelling. And there they must remain, for it is the only place suited to their character and disposition. Judas, when he left this world, went to his "own place" (Acts i. 25)--to the place to which he belonged, because it was the abode of those like-minded with himself. From the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we infer that those who become numbered with that congregation will remain there until the great gulf fixed between them and the living is removed (Luke xvi. 26).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The original word here translated remains, signifieth to rest and be quiet. It is rest that giveth understanding, and it is understanding that giveth rest. A disquieted mind doth not readily understand things, and it is the understanding of things that quieteth the mind. In the way, therefore, of understanding, here be many resting-places. He that is wearied with the cares of the world, when he understandeth that man is born to cares, resteth himself therein. He that is toiled in getting the things of this world, when he understandeth how little sufficeth nature, and that when he dieth all shall be taken from him, resteth himself there. He that tireth his brains to search out knowledge, when he understandeth that the greatest part of men's knowledge is the least of his ignorance, and that to know Jesus Christ is life everlasting, resteth himself there. But he that wandereth from the way of understanding meeteth with no rest in all the ways he goes--his thoughts are in no quietness, his heart hath no contentment, his mind no peace. It is the grave alone that is the bed of his rest; and when he cometh to the congregation of the dead, to the general assembly of all mankind, then he shall be quiet. Or else, to consider the verse as our translation hath it: everyone that understandeth his way is not in the way of understanding. The crafty politician understands his way well enough, and goes on readily in it; the covetous worldling understandeth his way well enough, and goes and gets apace in it; the cunning cheater understandeth his way well enough, and passeth through with it. But none of these are in the way of understanding: that is but one, and is the enlightening of the understanding by the Word and Grace of God. That is the way of understanding, because thereby we understand ourselves to be in the right way indeed. The man, therefore, that wandereth out of this way, when he hath wandered all his ways, shall end them at last in the congregation of the dead--that is the rendezvous to which all are gathered--and being once there, he shall remain for ever amongst them. For when that change is come, they that have passed the way of understanding shall pass from death to life, but they that have gone out of the way shall only go from one death to another.--Jermin.

Verse 17 has been treated with verses 5 and 7.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 18.

THE RANSOM OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

This verse must be understood to express the same truth as that in Isaiah xliii. 3, in which Jehovah, speaking to the Hebrew people, says, "I gave Egypt for thy ransom--Ethiopia and Seba for thee," referring doubtless to the deliverance by the overthrow of the Egyptians and other nations. Here the Divine interposition is not on behalf of an elect nation, but on behalf of a special character; not for the deliverance of Israel according to the flesh, but of the true Israelite--the righteous and upright man wherever he is found, for "in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him" (Acts x. 35).

+I. When the wicked man stands in the way of the true advancement of the good he shall be removed out of the way.+ It is a law of the universe, and the end to which all God's government tends, that goodness shall finally have the ascendency over evil--that right shall triumph over wrong. Now, although we speak of goodness and of evil in the abstract, they have no abstract existence; they can only exist in connection with free personalities; with beings who have the choice of their actions. Hence, if evil is to be put down, it must be put down in the person of evil men or devils, and if good is to rule it must rule in the person of the good. Therefore, when the transgressor in any way opposes the real and true advancement of the righteous man he opposes the advance of righteousness, and he must be sacrificed. This is not always apparent to human eyes; things often seem to tend in quite the contrary direction; but this is because we do not know what is really most conducive to the coming of the kingdom of righteousness, nor how the overthrow of evil can be best accomplished.

+II. Every man must either be ransomed from sin or become a ransom for righteousness.+ The righteous and the upright on the earth have only become so by submission to the righteous will of God--by taking His yoke and choosing His service. This has delivered them from the power of evil--this has redeemed them from the slavery of sin. It was quite open to Pharaoh to fall in with God's will concerning Israel--to obey the demand which was made upon him. It was only after repeated refusal that he and his were made a ransom for God's people. It is in every case where God's will is made known, and it is only when men persist in transgression that they are made a ransom for the upright. But there is no neutral ground. Every man who is not upright is a transgressor, and as such will be subject to this law.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

In the time of some strange visitation for sin, the notorious offender, who is guilty of heinous crimes, by his suffering and death shall free the innocent person from the stroke of God's vengeance, who should not be spared, but plagued, if the evildoer were winked at. Moreover, some one that hath, by breaking the Lord's covenant or precept, caused trouble to fall both on himself and many others, who in like manner have not sinned as he hath done, shall, suffering alone for the sin which he hath committed, deliver by his misery the rest that are in the same adversity, but not for the same cause. The executing of Saul's sons (2 Sam. xxi.), the stoning of Achan (Josh. vii. 20), and casting of Jonah into the sea (Jonah i. 12), may more plainly declare and more fully prove the truth of this matter. It may be here objected, if the Lord punish the righteous for the wicked man's offence, how is he then righteous? To answer hereunto briefly--First, though the Lord afflict the innocent with the sinners oftentimes, yet He doth not correct them for the faults of transgressors, but for their own faults, there being none so just but that he sinneth sometimes. Secondly, when the just, having authority to punish sin, wink at the known offences of the ungodly, by letting them go scot-free, they make their transgressions their own, so that in such cases no marvel if the Lord scourge the just with the unjust; for even the just do in such cases appertain to the family of the unjust.--Muffet.

It is the hatred of the wicked against the righteous that bringeth them into captivity, but it is the favour of God towards them that He maketh those who have made them captives to be themselves the redemption of them. Or else, if the condition of this world by God's permission and providence hath cast the righteous into thraldom, it is the sport of the wicked to insult over them; but it is the compassion of God towards them that He maketh those who make sport at them to be themselves the sacrifice of their deliverance. And, seeing misery, being man's master, requireth the right of command over him, according as many are the general calamities of mankind, God maketh the wicked to serve it, and the transgressor to pay bondage unto it instead of the righteous.--Jermin.

The subjects of verses 19 and 20 have been already treated in this chapter. See on verses 5 and 7, and on verse 9.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 21.

A NOBLE PURSUIT AND A RICH PRIZE.

+I. A noble pursuit.+ Following after righteousness and mercy. These words may be taken as referring both to a state of judicial righteousness before God and to mercy received from him, and also to the attainment of a righteous and merciful character. The teaching of the Scriptures is that the latter is the result of the former;--that all true righteousness and mercifulness among men flows from having obtained mercy from God, and having come into right relations with Him. If a pursuit of any kind is to be successful it must be conducted according to certain known laws, and must recognise certain indisputable facts. If a man sets out to seek a distant shore where he knows the land is fertile enough to afford him abundant means of living, he must regulate his pursuit of the land and of its riches in accordance with the laws which govern the natural world. During his voyage he must observe the laws of navigation--he must steer his vessel with a due regard to the winds and tides, or he will never reach the shore, and when he lands he must still seek to obtain what he desires by working in harmony with natural laws. If he ploughs in the autumn and expects to gather in the winter, or sows weeds and expects to reap corn, he will be utterly disappointed. God is willing to bless his endeavours if they are made in subjection to known and established conditions, but not otherwise. So in every pursuit, whether in the world of matter or of mind. "If a man also strive for masteries," says Paul, "yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully" (2 Tim. ii. 5), that is, unless he conform to the rules of the course. The Grecian runner might reach the goal without having a regard to the conditions of the contest, but he would not even then receive the crown. But in the pursuit of many things--and especially in the following after a righteous and godly character--it is impossible to reach the desired end without observance of the conditions laid down by God Himself. There is one way only to become a truly righteous and merciful man, and that is by accepting the mercy of God and His method of justification, called in the New Testament "the righteousness of God" (Rom. iii. 21, etc.). The history of the Church combines with the testimony of Scripture to confirm this truth. The Jewish nation, as a nation, refused to accept it, "going about to establish their own righteousness they have not submitted unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. x. 3). Their history since has been a moral failure, and it is the history of all who have united with them in the rejection of the way of righteousness through the atonement of the Son of God. On the contrary, the acceptance of that righteousness and mercy has been the first step in the formation of the most righteous and merciful characters that have ever lighted up our world. The apostle who was the great expounder of the doctrine of imputed righteousness through the mercy of God could appeal to his spiritual children in such words as these: "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile; . . . neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness . . . but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cheriseth her children; so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were so dear unto us" (1 Thess. ii. 3-8). This was Paul's disposition and character after he became a partaker of Divine mercy and a justified man through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and all those who sincerely accept God's method of being made righteous bring forth the same kind of fruit in their life, although not always in such abundant measure.

+II. A rich reward.+ He who seeks mercy and righteousness from God by faith becomes, as we have seen, a righteous and merciful man. This in itself is moral life--a quickening of the spiritual capabilities--an awakening to spiritual realities and joys which were before unknown--an entrance into the possession of all that makes existence worth having. Such a man gets honour of a real and lasting nature--the goodwill of all the good in all worlds and the favour of God Himself. He follows after righteousness for its own sake--out of the pure love of holiness and purity, and not for any reward that it may bring either now or hereafter, and he finds as he follows it that many things are added unto it.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

"Follows after," chases eagerly. How absorbed the chase of some poor partridge on the hills. Even let that be our picture. "Righteousness and mercy, or kindness," the two tables of the law; a genial picture of all holiness. Now let a man chase holiness with the absorbed forgetfulness of self that such game would imply, and all else will come in at the death. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things else will be added thereto" (Matt. vi. 33). "Life," all sorts of life. "Righteousness," but one sort of righteousness in place of that personal righteousness which (in the first clause) we are still called to chase. "Glory," all sorts of glory. The list is not an illogical one. "Life," all that is personally good and happy, "righteousness;" all that buys that and keeps a title to it, "glory," that which is above happiness, and is always to be counted higher--viz., the honour and excellency of absolute purity of being.--Miller.

There is nothing which a man hath that is not going from him; there is nothing that a man seeketh that doth not seek to keep itself from him. It is therefore following that bringeth a man both to finding and possessing. Both are spiritual things, not the things of this world, that are worthy either of a man's following, or finding, or possessing. They are righteousness and mercy that are worthy of our seeking, they are life, righteousness, and mercy that are worthy of our finding. . . . Gregory, comparing spiritual and temporal riches together, showeth their differences to be great, because spiritual riches do even then increase, when they that are laid out, earthly riches are either laid out and so consumed, or else are kept and are not profitable. And in the following after them there is also this difference, that he who followeth after the things of this world always findeth less than he looked for; but he that followeth after spiritual things shall be sure to find more than he did or could look for--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 22.

A WISE MAN AND A MIGHTY CITY.

+I. The city of the mighty will not easily yield to conquerors.+ When a fortress encloses within its walls many strong arms and stout hearts, it will not be captured by child's play. The confidence that the defenders have, not only in the strength of their position but in their own individual power and prowess, will certainly prevent them from giving up without a struggle. Such a city must be "scaled" or captured either by stratagem or by a mightier force than that which defends it. There are various ways in which this may be done. When the height and thickness of the walls prevent their overthrow from without they may be assailed from beneath, and when brave men cannot be subdued by the sword they may be by hunger.

+II. In whatever way the city is taken wisdom is the mightiest force employed.+ Military strength--indeed physical force of any kind--is of little or no avail without wisdom to direct it. Under the guidance of a wise commander an undisciplined and almost powerless mob becomes a powerful army, and a very small amount of mere strength can be made very effective if it is wisely directed. Belshazzar had strong walls around his city, and a mighty army within it, but Cyrus possessed the wisdom which the Babylonians lacked, and therefore the "wise man" overthrew the confidence of the mighty.

+III. Wisdom is a power that is needed to take other strongholds besides those built of brick or stone.+ Any obstruction or difficulty which a man encounters in life may be a "city of the mighty" to overthrow which wisdom will be an indispensable ally. Poverty is such a city, and it cannot be scaled by activity and industry alone--the industrious effort must be guided by wisdom. Ignorance may be compared to such a stronghold, and wisdom is needed to guide the pursuit after knowledge. Sinful habits are walls around a man, and they are so defended and strengthened by invisible powers of evil that they cannot be cast down by strength of will alone--wisdom must be sought from above to turn the struggle into a victory. But we have not only to contend with personal evils but with relative ones, with the misery and sin around us if not within is, and here again nothing can be done without wisdom. Muscular force can do a little to put down their outward manifestations, but wisdom only can do anything towards lessening their real and terrible hold upon man. The human soul, also, is a "city" which can be "scaled" only by "the wise man." In Eden the city of Man-soul was taken by the subtlety and craft of the devil, and a wisdom more than human is needed to regain it. The undertaking is especially difficult, because there are inhabitants within the city who are averse to a change of masters--there are evil tendencies within which make men unwilling to leave the yoke of Satan for the service of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has, however, scaled this city of the mighty; all the wisdom of God has been brought to bear upon the work of reconciling men to Himself, and the Cross has accomplished what physical force of Omnipotence itself could not have achieved.

What is strength without a double share Of wisdom? Vast, unwieldy, burdensome; Proudly secure, yet liable to fall By weakest subtleties; strength's not made to rule, But to subserve where wisdom bears command.--Milton.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The Israelites never crushed the Philistines. The Jebusites long dwelt in Jerusalem's stronghold (Josh. xv. 63). The sinner (at conversion) in his feeblest state enters Canaan, and "scales the city of the mighty." But when his foot has touched that eternal tramping-ground, alas for him! there is still the citadel! "A wise man," not only as being a wise man, but in becoming a wise man, has scaled the city of the mighty, and evermore afterwards, in becoming wiser, he is "casting down the strength of its place of confidence." . . . Not to print mistake upon his emblems, Solomon qualifies the last by those that immediately follow. Conversion is not a warfare. It is not the glow of camps or the shout of armed men, but a drowsy and forlorn awakening. Arrayed against it may be the strength of the mighty, but it is a strength absurd and miserable, as against a droning and depressing inanition. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," and when we come to understand the venture, the climb over the gates is not a bound of strength, but a torpid crawl out of mortal infirmity of feeling. Hence the patient prosing of the Preacher, as he next approaches us (in verse 23). Christian obedience is the way to triumph.--Miller.

The art of war has already shewn the pre-eminence of wisdom above strength. Prudent tactics, or a wise application of courage, triumphs over mere personal prowess. Joshua's strategy in taking Ai was a proof of military wisdom. Solomon seems to have known of a wise man singly delivering his city from the power of a mighty king; a proof of wisdom quite tantamount to the strength of an aggressor scaling the walls, and thus casting down its confidence (Eccles ix. 13-18). Much more therefore will spiritual wisdom, the immediate gift of God, overcome difficulties as formidable as the scaling of the city of the mighty. A wise calculation of the cost is eminently serviceable in achieving most important triumphs (Luke xiv. 31, 32). For does not conscious weakness lead to a single dependence upon God? And what difficulties are too great for an Almighty arm? "By thee"--said a valiant soldier in the army of faith--"I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall." "Weapons of a spiritual, not a carnal," temper, "are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Cor. x. 4), impregnable to the power of man. All the promises are "to him that overcometh." Let the soldier go to the conflict "strong in the Lord," and "putting on his whole armour" (Eph. vi. 10). The triumph is sure. The heavenly city will be scaled. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. xi. 12).--Bridges.

For Homiletics on verse 23 see on chap. xiii. 3, page 294.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 24.

A NAME OF DEGREES.

+I. Many terms are needed to set forth the complete character of the wicked man.+ A complicated machine has many parts, each of which has a different action and performs a different work, and each of which has its distinctive name. But the whole make up one machine, the name of which includes all the parts. So it is with a wicked man. He is like a complicated and destructive piece of machinery--all that he does and is may be comprehended in the general term, godless, or wicked; but the various vices which go to make up his character have their distinctive name. In this proverb three degrees of wickedness seem to be set forth under different names, each one being an intensified form of the vice that has gone before. First there is pride; the man overrates his own worth, and by so doing underrates the worth of others. From pride of heart comes haughtiness of conduct--he is overbearing and insolent in his bearing towards those whom he looks upon as his inferiors. Then he becomes a scorner--he despises all, whether good or bad, and so fills up the measure of wickedness. For when all feelings of respect and reverence for even human worth have died out of a man he cannot fall much lower.

+II. Such a man is a constant vendor of what is within him.+ He dealeth in it; he cannot keep his pride and scorn to himself, it overflows in his contemptuous carriage, in his haughty look, in his angry words, and in his oppressive deeds. He may deny the fidelity of the portrait which Solomon here draws of him, but he whose dealings with his fellow-creatures are marked by these characteristics must submit to be called by the odious names here given.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

In the course of different proverbs this teacher will be found to have explained all his own use of terms. Piety as wisdom, and wickedness as folly--terms very characteristic of his books--he explains at the very first. Scorner is his favourite name for the impenitent. We were giving reasons for this under the eleventh verse. . . . The demurest sinner, who seems thoroughly respectful to the truth, would not push along so into the very jaws of death if he were not arrogantly trusting to himself, and if he felt not scornfully free from the necessities of the Gospel.--Miller.

It is the nature of pride to show itself as losing the contentment of those things upon which it is placed, unless by showing of them it show itself in them. And yet so odious a vice is pride, and so shameful, as that it would fain hide itself also. But there is nothing that doth so manifest and make known the pride of anyone as his wrath doth; wherefore as the name of a man telleth who he is, so he who dealeth in wrath telleth his name.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 25 and 26.

THE SWORD OF THE SLUGGARD.

+I. A sluggard cannot help desiring the results of toil.+ It is natural and lawful for men to value bodily health and comfort, and all those blessings which are the ordinary fruits of industry--they are good things which God gives His creatures to enjoy, but they are not His only gifts nor His best gifts. But they are the main objects of the sluggard's desire, for an inordinate and exclusive love of them has made him a slothful man. If he had put his reputation and his duty before his love of ease--if he had listened to the voice of conscience rather than to the pleadings of self-indulgence, he would be a worker instead of a mere wisher. The text suggests that mere desire to possess is not a power strong enough to turn an indolent man into an industrious one, although it is strong enough to make him miserable and wicked. For--

+II. A sluggard is an unrighteous man.+ This is both implied and expressed in the proverb. He is placed in contrast with the righteous man as one of an opposite character, and he is declared to be an habitual breaker of the tenth commandment. Covetousness is a sin nearly allied to envy, and both are in themselves transgressions of the moral law, and often lead to more heinous crimes. Let no man, then, say that his refusal to take his part in the work of the world is a matter which concerns himself alone, for even if a man were not responsible for a negative existence, such a course is certain to lead to positive sin.

+III. He is a self-destroyer.+ This is a phase of sloth which has not been placed before us in former proverbs on the subject. The sluggard not only makes wretched the existence which it his great aim to pamper, but he shortens it. His covetous and unsatisfied state of mind is a canker-worm at the root of all that he does possess, and, deprived of the healthful influence of labour, he becomes an easy prey to disease and death. It is probable that nothing undermines the bodily constitution more surely than unsatisfied desire. Men who have been great workers, but who have not seen the desire of their hearts fulfilled, have often died in consequence. How much more likely will the slothful man be to die under such a disappointment! If the rust eats into the sword which is in constant use, how much more certainly will it destroy that which is never drawn from the scabbard!

+IV. The righteous man is a worker and a giver.+ He is in all respects the exact opposite of the sluggard. He works not so much because of the gain of labour as because he loves to work, and because it is wrong to be idle. This he shows by the use he makes of much that he gains--he gives with an unsparing hand. In both he is an imitator of the righteous God, who is the Greatest Worker and the Greatest Giver in the universe. The righteousness of God prompts Him to bountiful acts towards needy creatures, and the righteousness of His righteous servants prompts them to do like deeds, according to their ability. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xiii. 4, page 296.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The desire kills him. Why? Because he will not gratify it. The way to gratify it is to get it accomplished. . . . Say not, It is the refusal that kills and not the desire. That is not altogether the case. The spark that is too weak to grow puts itself out by its attempts. The desire that is too dull to act has treasured in it the last remainders of the heart, and in its languid throbs makes itself the instrument of its own growing dissolution.--Miller.

In the Paris French translation the words stand thus--"All the day long he does nothing but wish." How very expressive at once of the unconquerable indolence and the fretful, envious, pining unhappiness of the sluggard! And in his wishing, he may at times, by the power of a sanguine imagination, work himself into hope; and then, disappointment only embitters the cup of his own mingling,--aggravates the misery, which he is painfully conscious is self-inflicted.--Further: he appears before us a stranger to all the positive and exquisite pleasures of charity and beneficence; but "the righteous giveth and spareth not." It is not said, you will observe--"the diligent giveth and spareth not;" because there are not a few who are sufficiently exemplary in diligence, to whom the Bible would not give the designation of "the righteous," and who are far from being distinguished for benevolence. But the antithesis, as it stands here, implies these three things: First, that diligence is one of the features in the character of the righteous:--Secondly, that the natural tendency, and ordinary result of this is, through the Divine blessing, abundance to spare:--Thirdly, that another distinguishing feature of the character of the righteous man, is readiness to part with what his industry acquires--"giving, and not sparing;" that is, giving cheerfully, and giving liberally; not assenting merely to the truth of the maxim, as being the word of the Lord, but feeling the truth of their own heart's experience--"It is more blessed to give than to receive."--Wardlaw.

It is not said by Paul, "If any man do not work, neither let him eat," for some would work and cannot get it, others would work and are not able, but "If any man will not work," if any have work to do, and will not, let him not eat. In the same manner the wise man speaketh; he doth not say, his hands do not labour, but his hands refuse to labour. . . . But he sheweth that though a sluggard be idle himself, yet his desire be so hard a labourer, that it is a daily labourer, and such a daily labourer painfully worketh all the day long. So that although he have no hands to work, his desire hath hands to beg and crave of him; which being not satisfied, is a just punishment of his careless sluggishness. But the righteous man, being as earnest in his labour as the other in his desire, getteth enough, not only to satisfy his own desire, but to supply the wants of others.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 27.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE WICKED.

+I. A Divine institution may become an abomination to the Divine Being.+ The right use of the gifts of God makes them blessings to men, but the abuse of them turns them into curses. So with the ordinances of worship, both under the Old Testament dispensation and in the New--that which is designed to bless men may by misuse add to their guilt before God, and that which, done in a right spirit, is most acceptable to Him, will, when joined to a sinful motive, be most abhorrent to His holy nature. The sacrifice of the Levitical dispensation was an ordinance of Divine appointment, but even those who lived before the days of the prophets were not left to suppose that the merely ceremonial act was of any value in the sight of God if a correspondent state of heart was wanting, The offering of Cain was unacceptable, because he lacked the faith of his brother Abel (Heb. xi. 4). Samuel taught the truth that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. xv. 22), and the father of our preacher was deeply conscious that "sacrifice and burnt offering" would not be acceptable to God unless they were the outcome of a "broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart" (Psalm li. 16, 17). The doctrine that "God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John iv. 24), is taught in the Old Testament as well as in the New. It is the teaching of this proverb.

+II. A Divine institution may be used by men to cloak their iniquity.+ The absence of a right motive is enough to turn the sacrifice into an abomination, as we have seen (see also on chapter xv. 9, page 408), but this comparatively negative wrong seems to lose some of its guilt beside the actual crime of the second clause of the verse, when men actually put on the outward semblance of religion, not from inadequate ideas of the requirements of God's law, or from the force of habit, or in a thoughtless spirit, but with the deliberate intention of deceiving their fellow-creatures. For it is inconceivable that any reasonable being can for a moment suppose that he can blind Him before whom all things must be "naked and opened" (Heb. iv. 13). If he believes in a God he cannot think that He is a Being who can be imposed upon by such a miserable deception, and, this being granted, it is most astonishing that any creature can presume to offer so great an insult to his Creator. And yet we know that sacrifices have been and are even now being offered to God for no other purpose than to cloak sin.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This is a New Testament idea:--"Ye ask and receive not," saith the Apostle James, "because ye ask amiss." How? Why, precisely in the way that the proverb points out, because ye do it for an interested purpose; as the Apostle expresses it, "that ye may consume it upon your desires." The wicked man asks for heaven that he may consume it in keeping comfortable through a long eternity. The proverb in verse 17 postulates the opposite. In merely loving happiness a man cannot create wealth. The mass of hypocrites, therefore, are those eternal-happiness hypocrites.. . . There may be other reasons, but that additional and fundamental among them all is this deepest one, that religious acts cannot be accepted if they are built upon nothing tenderer than "a calculated purpose." (So Miller translates the last two words. See also Critical Notes.) "Ye seek Me," says our blessed Redeemer, "not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled" (John vi. 26).--Miller.

For Homiletics of verse 28, see on chap. xii. 19, page 275. "The man that heareth" is evidently the man who is teachable and open to conviction, and therefore qualified to bear witness of the truth.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The last clause of the proverb seems to fix and restrict the first. A false witness often becomes so by the culpable habit of thoughtlessly repeating, without examination or certain knowledge. A man may thus do very serious injury to his neighbour's character or property. It proves a very loose conscience, and an utter want of that "charity which covers" instead of exposing faults. It is "rejoicing in iniquity" rather than "rejoicing in truth." This false witness will certainly be punished by God; and even by man he will be confounded and silenced. No one for the future will regard or receive his testimony. But the man that heareth--the true witness who speaketh only what he heareth, and is fully acquainted with--he speaketh constantly--to conviction. He holds to his testimony and never contradicts himself. He "speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." His word, even if it had been slighted at first, gains more and more credit and authority when the false witness shall have perished (chap. xii. 19).--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 29.

THE FACE AND THE WAY.

The last verb in the text is better translated--establisheth, or maketh firm.

+I. What is intended to reveal may be used to conceal.+ The human countenance is intended to express the feelings of the mind, and when a man is not afraid for another to read his thoughts and intentions, his face is to a great extent the index of his heart. But a bad man is unwilling that his neighbour should know what is passing within him--his thoughts and purposes will not bear the light--they are so selfish or impure that he is ashamed of them, or they are occupied with some malicious plan which must be concealed if it is to be successful. He therefore hardens his face--puts on an appearance of innocence and frankness as a cloak of the evil underneath. But this method of life is not an easy or a pleasant one--the contrast in the second clause seems to imply that such a man walks in an uneven or a miry road--it is hard to be always acting a part and to be obliged at all times to look what we do not feel, and there may come unguarded moments and unlooked-for surprises when the mask will fall and the truth come to light.

+II. The godly man has no need to practise hypocrisy.+ His thoughts and desires, and aims, are toward the true and the good--his heart is filled with goodwill towards his fellow-men, and he has, therefore, nothing to fear or to be ashamed of when his face reveals his inner self. This way of the upright is, in comparison with the way of the wicked, as a firm and level road--he who walks on it finds solid ground beneath his feet, and has no need to be ever on the look-out for bogs and pitfalls.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

A hardened heart and a hardened face,--a face that has learned to brave accusation and to look innocent under conscious guilt, are the most undesirable of all attainments. The confusion of innocence, when evil is imputed, is far preferable. Better far to be innocent and thought guilty, than to be guilty and thought innocent. Better far to have the sentence of acquittal in our own bosoms, though condemned by men, than to succeed in getting acquittal from men, and carry within us the sentence of guilt. How painful soever the former, we can still look up to God, and forward to His tribunal, as that of unerring rectitude,--where He will "bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day." O! there will be no "hardening of the face" then. Conscience will do its duty. The eyes which are as a flame of fire will search the inmost soul. Every eye will quail, and every countenance, even the most hardened, sink, before the look of Him that sitteth upon the throne. He will then at once "wipe off the reproach of his people," and "bring to light the hidden things of darkness." And then they who, under the influence of faith, and fear, and love, have "considered their way," shall lift up their faces without dread, and meet the smiles of their gracious Judge!--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 30 and 31.

COUNSEL AGAINST THE LORD.

+I. Only those plans succeed which harmonise with the will of God.+ This is of course true only in regard to the ultimate and final issue of men's plans and purposes. Sometimes, and indeed oftentimes, counsel against the Lord is very successful for a season, and for a very long season, but it is only for a season. 1. This is obvious if we consider God's knowledge of the future. It is inseparable from His Divine nature that He shall be able to "declare the end from the beginning," and therefore He says "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" "yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it" (Isaiah xlvi. 10, 11). Imagine the general of a vast army being confronted with a handful of blind men, would there be any room to doubt who would have the victory? If a traveller whose eyesight is so dim that he can only see a step or two before he has to travel an unknown road, will he not do well to take the arm and avail himself of the guidance of a man whose sight is perfect? The plan or purpose of our life is the road we desire to walk upon, and as we "know not what shall be on the morrow" (James v. 14) we can only hope to attain our desire if we enlist the All-seeing God on our side, and in order to do this our counsel must be in harmony with His. 2. God's Almighty power, also, ensures the success of His counsel. "The horse is prepared against the day of battle," but what is the united force of a world compared with the might of Him "who hath comprehended the dust in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?" . . . The prophet answers the question, "The nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of a balance" (Isaiah xl. 12, 15). The knowledge that our guide has of a dangerous path--the fact that he is acquainted with it from the beginning to the end--may not ensure our arrival at the desired goal. He and we may together be attacked by powerful foes, and power to protect is as needful as knowledge to guide. When we commit our way to God we have omnipotence as well as omniscience on our side.

+II. Yet men are ever opposing their finite wisdom and strength to the almightiness and infinite knowledge of God.+ The proverb embodies a truth so palpable to any who will look facts plainly in the face--it contains an inference so obvious to an unprejudiced mind that it would seem unnecessary to write it if we did not know that sin has so distorted men's mental vision--so biassed their reason--that they are ever imagining a "vain thing" and taking "counsel against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us" (Psa. ii. 2, 3). The world is full of confirmations of the fact, and it also contains abundant evidence of the truth of the inspired word. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision."

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

It would be a strong sentence if he declared that counsel against the Lord could never amount to anything. . . . But he does something more clear than that. There is no (such thing as) wisdom, etc., against the Most High. They could do nothing if they were; but wisdom never could be enticed to that side. The sentence embodies both ideas. There is no wisdom that could avail against God; but secondly, there is none that would ever attempt it. The expressions are peculiar. There is nothing of wisdom. The word is repeated: "Nothing, nothing, nothing."--Miller.

We may, perhaps, consider the wise man as pointing out three modes of covering and effecting evil purposes: in the twenty-seventh verse, the mask of religion; in the twenty-eighth, false testimony; in the twenty-ninth, the assumed boldness and look of innocence. But (verse 30) "there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord." There may be against men. In one, or other, or all of these ways they may be deceived. There may, in many cases, be "wisdom, and understanding, and counsel" more than sufficient to impose upon and outwit them. But God knows all. His eye cannot be eluded; His designs cannot be thwarted; neither His promises nor His threatenings can be falsified, by any artifice, or policy, or might of the children of men--no, nor of any created being.--Wardlaw.

Wisdom is that which is gotten by experience, understanding that which is gotten by study, counsel that which is gotten by advice . . . but let all be put in the scales against the Lord, they are but the dust of the balance unto Him. . . . For if wisdom be gotten by experience, He is the Ancient of days; He was ancient when days began. If understanding come by study, He hath all understanding of Himself at once. . . . And the whole world is His common council, and that not to give at all, but to receive counsel from Him.--Jermin.

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Chapter XXII

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. A good name.+ Literally "a name." +Loving favour,+ or "grace," "goodwill." +3. Are punished,+ rather "must suffer injury." +4. By humility,+ rather "The end or reward of humility," etc. Delitzsch reads "The reward of humility IS the fear of the Lord," etc. +5. Shall be,+ etc. or +Let him keep,+ etc. +6. Train up a child,+ etc. Miller reads "Hedge in a child upon the mouth of his way;" Delitzsch, "Give to a child instruction according to his way," i.e., conformably to the nature of youth. +8. The rod of his anger,+ or as Zöckler, the "staff of his haughtiness." +16.+ Zöckler reads this verse "One oppresseth the poor only to make him rich," i.e., "the oppression which one practises on a poor man rouses his moral energy, and thus, by means of his tireless industry and his productive labour in his vocation, he works himself out of needy circumstances into actual prosperity."

Here begins the third main division of the book of Proverbs. (See Introduction.) Its contents are styled in verse 17 "The words of wise men," and they differ from the second division in consisting for the most part of much longer sentences, comprising, as a general rule, two verses, but sometimes many more. Zöckler remarks that "there is prevalent everywhere the minutely hortatory, or, in turn, admonitory style, rather than that which is descriptive and announces facts." Delitzsch and other modern Bible students infer from verse 17 that this portion of the book contains "no inconsiderable number of utterances of wise men of Solomon's time." (See Introduction to the Book of Proverbs, Lange's Commentary.)

+21. Them that send unto thee,+ rather "them that send thee." "The senders here," says Zöckler, "are naturally the parents, who have sent their son to the teacher of wisdom, that he may bring back thence to them real culture of spirit and heart." +29. Diligent,+ rather "expert," "apt."

Additional CRITICAL NOTES for Chapter 22 (after verse 16).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.

BETTER THAN GOLD.

The second clause of the proverb explains the meaning of the name in the first clause--it is evidently a good reputation that is gained by uprightness and unselfishness--that loving esteem of others which is the fruit of "looking not only upon their own things, but also upon the things of others" (Phil. ii. 4). Such a name is better than wealth.

+I. Because the one may come by inheritance, and the other must be the result of personal character.+ The man who is born to wealth deserves no credit for being rich--he may be destitute of all personal excellence--he may, indeed, be a morally bad man, and may neither possess nor deserve the goodwill of his fellow creatures. But if a man does possess the confidence and love of others it is because there is that belonging to him that wins men to trust in him and to love him--if he has a "good name" and deserves it he is in some respects a good man.

+II. Wealth is often a transitory possession, but "loving favour" often outlives the present life.+ Many mere temporal gifts belong more truly to a man than his riches--his good looks or his handsome figure may long outlive his wealth, for they are more truly his. The uncertainty of riches is the subject of many a proverb, and therefore any possession which is more certain to last is better than they. A "good name"--the well-deserved reputation which is the result of loving our neighbour as ourself--is quite independent of the changes and chances of mortal life--it goes with a man to his grave, and embalms his memory long after he has passed away.

+III. A good name belongs to a higher region of life than wealth.+ Even when wealth has been honestly earned, and is the reward of moral excellence, and even if its possession could be assured to its owner, a good name is a more precious gift. Much skill and industry are required to build up a fortune, but skill and industry are not qualities of so high an order as those which are needed to acquire the loving favour of our fellow-creatures. He who possesses the latter must be a more excellent man than the merely honest and skilful seeker after riches, and the possession is itself of a far more precious nature. The gold and the silver are of the earth, earthy, but love and trustful confidence are good things which belong to the soul, and which are in consequence far more truly satisfying to man's higher nature. When one man possesses both these good things he is able to compare their power to bless, and none who has experimental knowledge of the worth of both would sacrifice his good name to retain his riches. They must bring him much outward deference, but he knows full well that this would cease if he became a poor man--that there are many who love not the man but only his money. But if he is so blest as to have won men's hearts he is fully assured that adversity will not deprive him of this good gift. To possess a "good name" is to be rich with the riches which constitute the most precious wealth of God. He is rich in material riches, for "all the beasts of the forest are his and the cattle upon a thousand hills," yea, "the world and the fulness thereof" (Psa. l. 10, 12). But this wealth is inferior to the mental power which produced it. God is great in intellectual wealth. "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?" (Isa. xl. 14). But His real wealth is His name--that name which He proclaimed to Moses--"The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6), which makes Him the object of the reverential love of all the good in the universe. And so it is with His creatures--in proportion as they have those spiritual characteristics which are possessed in perfection only by God Himself, their reputation for mercy, and goodness, and truth becomes their most precious and prized possession.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

We are not good judges of value in the public markets of life. We make grievous mistakes, both in choosing and refusing. We often throw away the pearl and carefully keep the shell. Besides the great disparity in value between the things of heaven and earth, some even of these earthly things are of greater worth than others. The valuables in both ends of the balance belong to time, and yet there is room for choice between them. There is the greater and the less where neither is the greatest. A trader at his counter has a certain set of weights which he uses every day and all day, and for all sorts of commodities. Whatever may be in the one scale, the same invariable leaden weight is always in the other. This lump of metal is his standard, and all things are tried by it. Riches practically serve nearly the same purpose in the markets of human life. . . . This is a mistake. Many things are better than gold, and one of these is a good name. A good conscience indeed is better than both, and must be kept at all hazards; but in cases where matters from a higher region do not come into competition, reputation should rank higher than riches in the practical estimation of men. . . . The shadows are not the picture, but the picture is a naked ungainly thing without them. Thus the atmosphere of a good name imparts to real worth additional body and breadth. As a substitute for a good conscience a good name is a secret torment at the time, and in the end a cheat, but as a graceful outer garment with which a good conscience is clothed it should be highly valued and carefully preserved by the children of the kingdom.--Arnot.

One is more valuable than the other as a means of usefulness. Riches, in themselves, can only enable a man to promote the temporal comfort and well-being of those around him. But character gives him weight of influence in matters of higher moment,--in all descriptions of salutary advice and direction,--in kingly instruction and consolation,--in counsel for eternity. It not only fits its possessor for such employments, but it imparts energy and effect to whatever he says and does. His character carries a recommendation with it,--gives authority and force to every lesson and every admonition; and affords, by the confidence it inspires, many opportunities and means of doing good, which, without it, could not be enjoyed. Riches, again, bring with them many temptations to sinful and worldly indulgences, such as are injurious to the possessor himself and to his family--both temporally and spiritually. Character, on the contrary, acts as a salutary restraint,--keeping a man back from many improprieties and follies, and even outward sins, by which it would be impaired and forfeited. And this restraint is felt, and properly felt, not for his own sake merely, but for the sake of all those objects with which his name stands associated; and especially from a regard to usefulness in connection with the truth, and cause, and church of Christ.--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 2.

LEVELLING DOWN AND LEVELLING UP.

+I. The rich and the poor have much in common.+ They have, in fact, everything in common which is independent of silver and gold. At first sight this seems to include almost everything worth having, and it does include the best and most lasting good, and often much beside. We rejoice in the thought that many a poor man has as large a share of God's blessed air and sunshine as his richer neighbour--that his bodily frame is as healthful and his house as full as love. But alas! we cannot forget that poverty in many cases shuts out men and women from the gladdening and healthful influences of pure air and sunlight, and consequently shuts them up to bodily disease, and tends to produce moral unhealthfulness. As civilisation advances, and countries become more populous, the gulf between poverty and wealth in this respect seems to widen, and when we consider how many advantages, not only material but intellectual and moral, the very moderately rich possess over the very poor, we do not find so much in common between them as appears upon a slight view of the case. It is indeed true that all the blessings of life that money cannot buy are as much within the reach of the poor as of the rich; but how many good things--not only for the body, but also for the mind and heart--are not to be gotten without gold and silver. There is, however, one platform upon which they all meet, even in this life--one levelling force which brings them into an absolute equality. In the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, and in all the blessed effects which flow from it, the rich man has no advantage over the poor man--the brother of low degree is shut out from nothing that his rich brother enjoys. In this sense, as in many others, we may use the prophet's words: "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low" (Isa. xl. 4). It does this: 1. By declaring their common and universal sinfulness. Disease of body is a levelling power--fever makes no distinction between king and subject--between master and servant; while they are under its dominion the one has no immunity from the weakness and pain of the other. So the Gospel plan declares concerning sin what experience testifies--that "there is no difference," that "all have sinned" (Rom. iii. 22-23), and that its debasing and destroying power is alike in prince and peasant. 2. By offering the same conditions of redemption to all. A physician, when he visits his patients with the intention of doing his best to heal them, does not prescribe one kind of treatment to the rich and another to the poor. The conditions of recovery are not regulated by their rank, but by their disease. So with the Gospel Remedy for the sickness of the soul. It is the same for every man. The strait road is not made wider for the man with money bags, the gate is opened as wide for the pauper as for the emperor. 3. By providing the same inheritance for all who accept the conditions. Every man who accepts the way of salvation has an equal right to claim God as his Father--has an equal liberty of access to Him (Ephes. iii. 12), at all times--is sealed with the same Spirit of promise, and his the same hope of blessedness beyond the grave. To each and to all it is said, "All are yours, and ye are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 22-23).

+II. To God must be referred the lot to which each man is born.+ He, as the Creator, calls each man into being, and determines the sphere in which he finds himself when he awakens to consciousness and to a sense of responsibility. Man, as a free agent, has much to do with determining his lot in life when he arrives at mature years, but the circumstances surrounding his birth and earlier years, and the mental gifts with which he is endowed, have much also to do with it, and these are determined for him by God. So that He is not only the Maker of the man's personality, but largely also of his position in the world.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

In the distinction between the rich and the poor there is something not altogether pleasant to the human mind. We are apt to recoil from it. Without much thought, by the mere spontaneous promptings of our feelings, we are apt to have some dissatisfaction as we behold the advantages of riches so unequally distributed among men. And frequently the dissatisfaction increases, as we can discover no just rule of this distribution; and as we behold more and more of the contrasted advantages and disadvantages of this distinction between rich and poor. Something like this was, in my opinion, the feeling of the writer of this text. He saw the distinction between rich and poor; he felt amazed; he had a disliking for it which set his mind at work. He thought the matter over patiently and religiously. And when he had done he gathers up the whole substance into this single aphorism and writes it down. That was his satisfaction. There he left the matter. . . . He had studied it as he studied botany: From the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He had contemplated the loftiness of the rich and the lowliness of the poor, wherein they differed, and wherein they agreed, and especially who made them to differ. . . . His faith in God and constant recognition of Him would lead him to take along with him in all his contemplations the idea of the one Great Maker of all; and then, when he found things strange, dark, or revolting to him growing out of the distinctions between rich and poor, he leaves all that with God. But before he comes to this, and while he is engaged amid things which he can understand, he finds another side of the question which at first disquieted him. . . . Coming to examine the matter, he finds that distinction is not the real affair after all; that there are more agreements than distinctions--more resemblances than differences: the Maker of all has made the all more alike than unlike. . . . They meet together in their origin and their situation as they enter the world. They are equally dependent, helpless, miserable. . . . The two classes are very much alike in their amount of happiness. . . . The rich man is not necessarily happy nor the poor unhappy. . . . The passions which make men miserable are exercised by both classes without any visible difference in their effects. . . . There is a substantial agreement in all the organs of perception and enjoyment, and much of our felicity here depends upon the organic constitution that makes us men. . . . In intellectual faculties there is the same strong resemblance. The perception, memory, imagination, reason, which God has given, He has been pleased to give with an impartial hand. . . . There is one common end to our humanity; . . . among dead men's bones you can find nothing to minister to human vanity. The rich and poor meet together in the tomb and at the final bar of God.--Dr. Spencer.

They meet often; yea, often is the rich forced to send for the poor, needing as much the help of his labour as the other doth the help of his money. But this maketh them to meet nearer yet, by causing the same who was rich to become poor, and he that was poor to become rich. . . . And they meet everywhere--there is no place that hath not both of them, and as there are many of the one, so there are many of the other.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on verse 3 see on chap. xiv. 15-18, page 363; on verse 4 see on chap. iii. 1-18, pages 29, 34, 39.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 5 and 6.

A HEDGED-UP WAY.

+I. God will hedge in the way of the froward man.+ As we have seen in considering former proverbs, men in a fallen condition have a tendency to break loose from restraint--especially from Divine restraint--and to mark out a path for themselves of their own devising. (See on chap. xxi. 8.) Every human creature shows more or less wilfulness in regard to their relations to God and His law--choosing rather to fashion his life according to his own ideas than accounting to the Divine idea and desire concerning him. And this wilfulness, if unchecked, grows with a man's growth and strengthens with his years, until his frowardness becomes the distinctive feature of his life. But he will not have it all his own way. He will not find the crooked path which he has chosen altogether pleasant and safe. Thorns will prick his feet and pitfalls will endanger his life. He will find himself confronted and fenced-in by laws of retribution which God has set about him to admonish him to forsake his rebellious way. For all the pain of body or mind which men suffer, and all the obstacles they meet with in the way of frowardness are intended to keep them from a deeper pain and a heavier punishment. A thorn-hedge is set by the side of the highway to admonish the traveller to keep the path, and so avoid, may be, the precipice or the bog on the other side. If he attempts to climb the hedge he will be wounded, and if he is a wise man the thorn-pricks will lead him to abandon his intention, and so to escape more serious harm. If the hedge does this if fulfils the end for which it was planted. So with the pains and penalties with which God hedges in the present way of the wicked man--they are intended to lead him into a better and safer way.

+II. It is a parent's duty to hedge in the way of his child.+ The father stands in the place of God to his young children in this respect, for his discipline in their early years is the best possible preparation for the discipline of God later on in life. Indeed the wiser the training of the earthly father the less are his children likely to need the corrective discipline of their Heavenly Parent. The child that accustomed to bend its will to the will of a good father will not find it so hard to yield obedience to the Will of God as he who has had no such training. He will grow upon the practice of sinking his will in that of a wiser will, and it will not be irksome for him so to do. Having found his father's yoke an easy one, and having in the path of filial obedience tasted pleasures unknown to the rebellious child, he will the more readily accept the yoke of God, and find in His service perfect freedom. But this blessed result will not be attained without much anxious and sometimes painful effort on the part of the parent. For the natural waywardness of man in general manifests itself in very early life. A child would like to be trained in the way it would go, rather than in the way that it should go. But this would in effect be no training at all. For the training of anything implies a crossing of the natural tendency--a repression in one direction, and an effort towards development in another. The training of the vine does not mean a letting it put forth its branches just where it wills or a twining of its tendrils around any object it chooses--it implies a free use of the pruning-knife and of the vine-dresser's other implements and methods of restraint and guidance. Every child, like every unwise man, would like to set up its own hedge, and put up its own fences, and prescribe the limits and bounds of its own conduct. But as we have already seen, God lets no man do this beyond certain limits, for He Himself sets "thorns and snares in the way of the froward." It is, therefore, cruel neglect in a parent to allow a child to do it, for thus the tendency to go in the wrong say is strengthened by indulgence, and every year the path of obedience to God becomes more difficult, and looks less inviting. If the parent does not set a hedge about his son's path, he is only making it certain that he will encounter thorns and shares further on in life. As to the promise attached to the command in this proverb, it can hardly be said to be of universal application. Solomon himself seems to have been an exception to the rule. We have every reason to believe that his father, after his birth, would train his son most carefully and enforce his precepts by example. We must believe that David's own bitter experience of the thorns and snares in the path of sin made him very anxious to preserve his son from wandering as he had done, and led him to train him most carefully. It is also said of the sons of a man whose life was outwardly stainless--of Samuel--that his sons "walked not in his ways" (1 Sam. viii. 3). Yet we cannot suppose that Samuel, who had seen in Eli's family the miserable fruits of non-restraint, had neglected to train his sons. Yet the exceptions are doubtless very few in number compared with the rule,--that a rightly-trained child does not depart from the right way in his riper years, though, in Bishop Hall's words, "God will let us find that grace is by gift, not by inheritance."

"Lord, with what care hast Thou begirt us round! Parents first season us: then schoolmasters Deliver us to laws; they send us bound To rules of reason, holy messengers.

Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin, Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes, Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in Bibles laid open, millions of surprises.

Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness, The sound of glory ringing in our ears; Without our shame, within our consciences, Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears.

Yet all these fences and their whole array, One cunning bosom--sin blows quite away."--Herbert.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 5. A forcible image to show that nothing stands so much in a man's way as the indulgence of his own unbridled will. The man who is most perversely bent on his purposes is most likely to be thwarted in them.--Bridges.

The ungodly finds nothing in his path to hell but thorns and snares, and yet he presses on in it! A sign of the greatness and fearfulness of the ruin of man's sin.--Lange.

Verse 6. Three different meanings have been found of the interpretation, "according to his way." (See Critical Notes.) It may be--1. His way in the sense of his own natural characteristics of style and manner,--and then his training will have reference to that for which he is naturally fitted; or--2. The way of life which he is intended by parents or guardians to pursue; or, 3. The way in which he ought to go. The last is moral, and relates to the general Divine intention concerning man's earthly course; the second is human and economical; the first is individual, and to some extent even physical. Yet although the third presents the highest standard and has been generally adopted, it has the least support from the Hebrew idiom.--Tr. of Lange's Commentary.

He learneth best any way that knoweth no other, and he best keepeth any way that groweth in it. Two children that are bred and grow up together, are settled in affection the one to the other. Now, it can be but a childish goodness that is in a child; but if the childhood of goodness shall be bred and grow up with the childhood of man, it will settle the stronger union between them. Aristotle saith, it is a matter of chiefest moment for a man to be accustomed this way or that.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 7.

AN ANALOGY AFFIRMED AND A CONTRAST SUGGESTED.

+I. The contrast between the poor man and the borrower.+ The proverb at least suggests that the poor man and the borrower are not necessarily convertible terms--that a poor man may owe no man anything, and that a man may be in debt without being a poor man in the common acceptation of the word. 1. The poor man and the borrower may occupy different social relations; indeed, as a rule this is the case. The poor man may have been born to poverty, and consequently may be inured to its hardships, one of which is its subjection to the will of the rich. But the borrower may have been born to wealth, and himself accustomed to rule over the poor. The one may be so ignorant and degraded by reason of his poverty as scarcely to be conscious of the yoke he wears; whereas the servitude of the other will be galling in proportion as his education renders him sensitive to his position. 2. They may be unlike in the fact that the poor man may have had no choice but poverty--he may have been born in it, and may have had no opportunity of altering his condition; but the borrower may not have been absolutely obliged to borrow--he may have borrowed merely to speculate or to waste.

+II. The point of resemblance between them.+ They are alike in being both dependent upon the same person--upon the rich man. This rich man may be unlike his poor brother in nothing save in his possession of gold; he may be as uneducated as he is, and morally, far beneath him. He may be much less polished and refined than the man who borrows of him, but, whatever he is or is not does not alter the case, his money makes him the master--both the poor man and the debtor must submit to his dictation, must acknowledge their dependence on him. Both often have the painful consciousness that he holds in his hand all that makes their existence of any value to them--both often alike feel that he could at any time deprive them of their very bread.

+III. The lesson of the proverb.+ The wise man, by thus showing how two men who are unlike in almost every other respect may be reduced to the same level in this, is probably reading a lesson against borrowing. The poor man's subjection to the rich is a matter which it is not in his power to alter, but a man goes into debt generally of his own free will. He may often be very hardly pressed by necessity to do so, or as a matter of business it may be advisable, but the proverb at least suggests that the step should not be taken without well weighing the consequences. It is doubtless mainly directed against borrowing when a man has not resources to repay, and is not likely to have them.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

1. The responsibility of the rich. How great the power of wealth. In this world it is a talent often more influential for good than intellect or genius. . . . 2. The temptation of the poor. . . . To become servile, cringing in spirit. Flunkeyism is the greatest curse of the people. . . . 3. The wisdom of the diligent. The industrious man is a wise man. Why? Because the more industrious he is, the more independent he becomes of wealthy men.--Dr. D. Thomas.

Very important it is to maintain an independence of mind, quite distinct from pride, which elevates the mind far above doing or conniving at evil, for the sake of pleasing a patron. Many have been forced to great entanglement of conscience, perhaps to vote contrary to their conscience, rather than lose the great man's smile. Often also the influence of capital is an iron rule of the rich over the poor. Many, who profess to resist conscientiously state-interference, have little regard for the conscience of their dependants. The monied master exercises a control over his workmen, which shows too plainly his purpose to make them the creatures of his own will. This gigantic tyranny should be denounced with the most solemn protest. The true Christian line is to shun that proud independence, which scorns the kindly offer of needful help; but at the same time to avoid all needless obligations. "Sell not your liberty to gratify your luxury." If possible, "owe no man anything but love" (Rom. xiii. 8). "Guard against that poverty, which is the result of carelessness or extravagance. Pray earnestly, labour diligently. Should you come to poverty by the misfortune of the times, submit to your lot humbly; bear it patiently; cast yourself in child-like dependence upon your God."--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 8.

A WORTHLESS SEED AND A ROTTEN STAFF.

+I. The seed sown.+ It is iniquity. All kinds of deeds and every manner of dealing that are out of harmony with the principles of justice are acts of iniquity. The least deviation from the path of moral right is in its measure an iniquitous step. Sowing iniquity is an expression that covers very much ground, and includes many degrees of moral wrong, from the withholding of the smallest act of justice to the inflicting of the greatest act of injustice. Now, whenever a man deliberately and knowingly does either the one or the other he does it with a purpose. He has an end in view as much as the farmer has when he sows seed in the field. Men do not generally act unjustly and commit crime out of mere love of sin--they generally expect and desire to gain something by it that they think worth having. Solomon here declares that they will be disappointed. He has before dwelt upon the retribution that will follow sin, he is here speaking of its deceptive character. Men do not get from it what they expect--they are disappointed either of the harvest or in it. This has been the experience of all sowers of iniquity in the world since Eve cast in the first seed. In a certain sense she got what she was promised, but how different the crop from what she hoped for. She "reaped vanity."

+II. The staff depended upon.+ Haughtiness or pride. (See Critical Notes.) This pride of heart and haughtiness of demeanour is born of a man's imagining that he has gained for himself a position and a name that will defy the changes and vicissitudes of life. This idea bears him up; he leans upon it, as men lean upon a rod or staff. The rich man often makes a staff of his riches, and uses it to "rule over the poor," as in verse 7. The man of talent sometimes makes his talent a staff, and walks among his intellectual inferiors with a proud and haughty step. The great conqueror says in his heart, "I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will be like the Most High" (Isa. xiv. 13-14), and with the rod of his power he smites the nations and tramples upon the rights of his fellow-creatures. But all these rods of haughtiness shall be broken, and those who lean upon them shall find they have been trusting to a broken reed, and the objects of their oppression shall say unto them, "Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?"

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The proverb takes two terms for iniquity, one meaning crookedness, the other meaning nothingness. It paints one as only breeding the other. It intends a positive law. Wheat breeds wheat. So iniquity breeds only worthlessness. A man may live a thousand years and yet the harvest will be unvarying. And then to meet the fact that the dominion that his ambition gives does make him ruler over the saints themselves, he employs a verb which expresses high action, but action that exhausts itself. Its literal sense is to consume. The idea is as of a fever which wears down the patient and itself together. . . . The impenitent seem to have the whole "rod," or sceptre, of our planet, the true solution is this, that the "rod" is just budding out its strength.--Miller.

Often may oppressors prosper for a time. God may use them as his chastening rod. But the seed-time of iniquity will end in the harvest of vanity; and when they have done their work, the rod of their anger shall fail. Such was Sennacherib in olden time, such was Napoleon in our own day. Never has the world seen so extensive a sower of iniquity, never a more abundant harvest of vanity. The rod of anger was he to the nations of the earth. But how utterly was the rod suffered to fail, when the purpose was accomplished! despoiled of empire, shorn of greatness--an exiled captive.--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 9.

THE BOUNTIFUL EYE.

+I. The eye is an index of the soul.+ This is true, not only of the expression of the eye but of its direction. What is in the mind can often be read in the eye; both evil passions and Divine affections reveal themselves through it, but sometimes both depend very much upon where the eye looks--upon the objects towards which the glance is directed. Perhaps the text refers both to the eye that softens at the sight of another's woe, and to the eye which makes it its business to look around and search for objects which the hand can help. For if the expression of the eye reveals the character so does the direction which it habitually takes. There is many an eye that readily moistens with sympathy at the tale or the spectacle of sorrow which can hardly be called a "bountiful eye," for it is only by accident that it ever encounters anything to call forth its sympathy. But the eye that is ever on the watch for opportunities of doing good, of feeding the hungry and raising the fallen, is a much surer index of a godlike disposition. For such an eye has something in common with the eye of Him who looked upon the bond slaves of Egypt and said, "I have seen the affliction of My people and am come down to deliver them," and who, manifest in a human body, "was moved with compassion" at the sight of "people who were as sheep not having a shepherd" (Mark vi. 34). He whose bountiful eye brings down a blessing upon him is not one who now and then meets a needy brother and relieves him; still less is he one whose sympathy is shown only by the look. His is evidently one whose glance of pity is followed by a deed of kindness and whose habit it is to look out for opportunities of succouring the needy.

+II. The soul is blest by the ministry of the hand.+ He who gives of his bread to the needy will have the gratitude of the needy, and there is not a more exquisite joy perhaps on the earth. But the blessing of God will be his in an especial manner. Upon both kinds of blessing see Homiletics on chap. xi. 25, page 234, and on chap. xix. 17, page 576.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Perhaps the expression--"he giveth of his bread to the poor," may mean, that he is ready even to share his own provision with them; not merely to give a small portion of his superfluities, but to stint himself for their supply. And this is the spirit of true charity.--Wardlaw.

Some that have a bountiful eye have no bread to give, but they will give what will turn to as good an account to the donor, and sometimes will be as pleasing to the receiver; tears and attention, and offices of tenderness and prayers to Him that is able to help.--Lawson.

This bountifulness is a privilege, which earth possesses above heaven. Many a rich blessing is sealed to it. "Beneficence is the most exquisite luxury; and the good man is the genuine epicure." He "hath a continual feast," because his objects are always before him.--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 10.

A MAN WHO OUGHT TO DWELL ALONE.

+I. The scorner should be dismissed from social bodies for his own sake.+ It is better for the man himself that his power to do evil should be as limited as possible. If we could know beforehand that a man intends to commit a great crime, and so render himself liable to heavy punishment, and bring guilt upon his conscience, the kindest thing that we could do for him would be to deprive him of the power of doing as he intends. We should thereby save him from the misery of becoming a greater transgressor. If the other disciples of Our Lord could have foreseen what was passing in the mind of Judas, and could have prevented his becoming the betrayer of his Master, how great a blessing would they have conferred upon that unhappy man! Whatever might have been his other sins, he would not have been stung with that agony of remorse at having betrayed innocent blood. But many sins are of such a nature that it is impossible to hinder men from their committal--the steps which lead to them are hidden from those around, and no one suspects that the guilty one has any such intention. The scoffer, however, is not a sinner of this kind--his transgression is not a single act, but a habit of life; it is not a secret purpose hidden in his heart until the moment of its accomplishment, but is manifested in his words. Men can therefore, to some extent, hinder him from increasing his own guilt by depriving him of the opportunities of indulging in his sin--if they "cast him out"--if they shun his society, and dismiss him from their midst, he will have fewer opportunities and temptations to indulge in scoffing, and so will be kept from going to such great lengths in sinning. A man who loves to turn into ridicule all pure and holy things, uses to his own condemnation and degradation influences which were intended to bless and elevate him, and it is better for himself that they should be placed beyond his reach than that he should so abuse them and increase his own guilt.

+II. He should be cast out for the sake of his fellow-creatures.+ There are certain diseases of the human body which are not only most dangerous for the patient himself, but expose to a like danger all who come in contact with him. The leper is not only a great sufferer himself, but he is a centre of a deadly disease which will spread itself to those with whom he dwells. It is therefore necessary to remove him from the society of other men--so long as he is a leper he must dwell alone, must be denied the privilege of citizenship and the joys of social life. So it ought to be with the scorner--the habit of scoffing is one which is very infectious--very easily communicated by one man to another; and seeing that it is so soul-destructive, those who indulge in it ought not to have the opportunity of communicating the moral pestilence. But there is another aspect of leprosy which renders it necessary to isolate as far as possible those who are suffering from it from the abodes of other men. Even if it were not so infectious, it is most loathsome; and this alone would render some separation necessary. Now, there are societies of men in which the words of the scoffer would be quite powerless to do harm--there are those whose love of that which is true and holy is strong enough to withstand all such evil influence. But to such men a scorner is a most repugnant character--they loathe his irreverent treatment of that which is to them most sacred. It is not required that they expose themselves to the pain of his society--they are at liberty to cast him out of their midst.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

There is no cure but "casting out." Such men are the Jonahs of churches, and of the coteries of social life. As long as they are there, there will be nothing but the bluster and commotion of the storm--"toiling in rowing," incessant distress, vain exertion, and no progress. The sea cannot "cease from its raging," till they are thrown overboard.--Wardlaw.

This thought occurs also in the Psalms (Ps. lxviii. 6). Only the rebellious, says the Psalmist, shall come to mischief. There are, it is true, great mountains of wickedness; but take away this one element of scorn--that is, make a man submissive and the causes of strife have flown. Christ manages afterwards. Take away the rebelliousness of the heart, and great monstrous sins will slowly be corrected and disappear. . . . Scorning is not itself the cause of the quarrel, and therefore ceasing to scorn does not remove it directly. Christ must remove the cause. Scorning expels Christ. Ceasing to scorn admits Christ. And, therefore, it is literally true--"Cast out the scorner (it may be thine own scornful heart), and the cause of quarrel passes away, and strife and shame cease."--Miller.

It is always the disposition of the scorner, that wheresoever he is, he scorneth to stay, and it is always the best usage towards a scorner to cast him out, and not suffer him to stay. For whosoever keepeth him shall be sure to keep strife and contention with him, and where they are, reproach and shame are the attendants of them. If any good be done a scorner he disdains that it is so little; if any wrong be done him he complains that it is very great. If he be used in anything, he disdains to be a servant; if he is not used he complains that he is neglected. Still he is discontented, and still his discontent breeds quarrelling and debate. But cast out the firebrand and the fire goes out; cast out Jonah and the storm shall cease. Cast out the scorner from thy house, and then there shalt be quiet. For whence are all suits of contention. Whence is all strife, but because the heart scorns to bear this, scorns to take that, scorns to let it go?--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 11.

A ROAD TO ROYAL FRIENDSHIP.

+I. The pure in heart deserve to be honoured with the friendship of the king.+ Where there is purity of heart, the springs of moral life are healthy--the whole man is an embodiment of truth and goodness. Such a man is worthy of the honour and confidence of those who stand in the highest positions, inasmuch as purity of heart belongs to the man himself, and is a possession that is counted precious by the best beings in the universe, whereas power and rank are often but accidents of birth, and in themselves alone are valueless in the sight of God, and in the eyes of the greatest and noblest of His creatures.

+II. The king consults his own interest when he shows favour to such men.+ A man of pure heart is a great blessing to any community. His very life is in itself a light which scatters moral darkness--a well which makes a fertile spot wherever it springs forth. And it is in proportion to the number of such men in a kingdom that the realm enjoys peace and prosperity. If we could find any earthly commonwealth composed entirely of such citizens, we should find a place where the kingdom of God had "come"--a heaven upon earth. But where there is purity of heart there is grace of lips--there is active effort to spread truth and righteousness. The well does not confine itself to the spot where it first issues from the earth, but sends forth health-giving streams far and near. Seeing, then, that such men are the real pillars of a state, he only is a wise king who seeks them out and delights to do them honour.

+III. Some kings have recognised their obligations and interest in this matter.+ Pharaoh discerned the purity of Joseph's heart by the grace of his lips, and made him the second ruler in the kingdom, and Darius promoted Daniel to the highest office in the realm. David's resolution was--"Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me" (Psalm ci. 6).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Pureness of heart describes not the natural, but the renewed man. It is no external varnish, no affectation of holiness; but sincerity, humility, shrinking from sin, conformity to the image of God. He who hath fully attained this pureness is before the throne of God. He who loveth it is the child of God on earth. His desire is perfection, constant progress, pressing towards the mark (Philip. iii. 12-15).--Bridges.

What Solomon says is rather an encouragement to love and cultivate "pureness of heart," than a motive to be directly regarded, and allowed to influence us to this duty. It is only one of those indirect results which may be enjoyed as a testimony of the higher approbation of God. . . . While we thank God for the favour He may give us in the sight of men,--we must see that we seek no friendships, whether among the greatest or the least, the highest or the lowest, by any other means whatever than the "pureness of heart," and the consistency of life here recommended.--Wardlaw.

Grace in the lips is necessary to recommend pureness of heart. We ought always to speak the words of truth, but we ought to speak it in the most pleasing manner possible, that we may not render it unacceptable by our manner of representing it. Daniel showed his integrity and politeness at once, by the manner of his address to Nebuchadnezzar, when he was called to give him very disagreeable information.--Lawson.

He that hath pureness of heart cannot choose but love it, such is the exceeding beauty and amiableness of it; and he that loveth pureness of heart cannot choose but have it, for that it is which purifieth and cleanseth the heart. Many there be who love a cleanness, and neatness, and pureness of apparel; many there are who love a clearness and pureness of countenance and complexion. No washing or purifying is thought to be enough to make this appear, so that often the heart is defiled by it. And with such puritans the courts of princes are much attended, wooing with this bravery the favour of the court and prince. But it is to the pure in heart that God inclineth in favour the heart of the king. And because the heart is not discernible by the king, God therefore giveth grace unto the lips, in which the purity of the heart shining, tieth the heart of the king as a friend unto him.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 12.

THE PRESERVATION OF KNOWLEDGE.

+I. God preserves knowledge by preserving the man who possesses the knowledge.+ The preservation of the life of the man of science who has discovered some secret of nature is a preservation of the knowledge that he has gained. If the discovery has been made by him alone, and he dies before he has revealed it, the knowledge is lost to the world. When a physician is acquainted with a special remedy or method of treatment for a certain disease which is known only to himself, the preservation of his life is the preservation of this special knowledge. If he leaves the world without imparting what he knows to another man, his secret dies with him--the abstract knowledge is not left behind when the man who possessed it is gone. All knowledge is preserved to us from age to age by its being communicated from one human being to another, as one generation succeeds the other, and the hand of God is to be recognised in its preservation. But this is especially true of the knowledge of God. In the days of old, God long preserved a knowledge of Himself in the world by preserving the life of Noah, of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. They stood almost alone in the world in this respect, and were like lighthouses on a dark and stormy ocean, sheltering and preserving a moral light in the moral darkness. If the lighthouse is destroyed the light goes out; and if these men had died without transmitting to others the light which they possessed, the world would have been left in ignorance of God. As the ages have rolled on, there have been more of these spiritual lighthouses, and God has always preserved a sufficient number upon the earth to bear witness of Himself.

+II. God has preserved knowledge by causing special care to be taken of His written Word.+ Holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and the record of the truths which were revealed to them is with us until this day. The knowledge of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ has thus been preserved for nearly nineteen centuries, and to-day we can become as familiar with the events of the Incarnation, and with the teachings of the Apostles, as if we had lived in the first century of the Christian era. Although many efforts have been made to destroy the Scriptures of truth, they are with us still, preserved by the providence of their Divine author, in order that men may not be without the means of becoming wise unto salvation through believing the truths which they contain. There have been dark days when the living guardians of Divine truth were hardly to be found; but if they had quite died out after the Bible was written we should still have had this source of spiritual knowledge with us, like a seed-corn, preserving within its husk the living germ, ready to burst forth and grow when it found a congenial soil. God, as the preserver of the knowledge of Himself, has made its safety doubly sure by not only committing it to the living man, but by causing it to be communicated to the written page.

+III. The preservation of knowledge by the Lord counteracts the evil and false words of wicked men.+ Acquaintance with truth concerning anything overthrows all false ideas and teachings concerning it. The coming of the morning light scatters all the darkness of night, and with it many false conceptions as to what is around a traveller on an unknown road. So a knowledge of Divine truth scatters error, and overthrows false conceptions concerning God and godliness, and convicts their enemies of falsehood, thus rendering them powerless to do harm. Our Lord, by His knowledge, thus overthrew the words of a great transgressor in His temptation in the wilderness, and it is by the spread of this knowledge of God which He has Himself preserved to us that the final overthrow of evil will be accomplished.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

There is still another sense of the words,--which they may bear; though by some, perhaps, it may be regarded as fanciful:--"The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge:"--they retain it. What He sees, be it but for a moment, does not, as with our vision, pass away. It remains. We see, and having seen, what passes from the eye passes also from the memory. Not so is it with God's vision. The sight of His eye is no uncertain or forgetful glance. It is unerring and permanent. All that His eyes have ever seen is known as perfectly now as when it passed before them,--as when it existed or happened!--And in the exercise of this permanent and perfect knowledge, "He overthroweth the words of the transgressors." All their evil desert remains before Him. They can neither elude His knowledge, nor bribe His justice, nor resist His power. They shall be made to learn by fearful experience, "whose words shall stand, His, or theirs!"--Wardlaw.

When knowledge seemed on the eve of perishing, a single copy of the Scriptures, found as it were accidentally, preserved it from utter extinction (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14-18). For successive generations the Book was in the custody of faithful librarians, handed down in substantial integrity (Rom. iii. 2). When the church herself was on the side of the Arian heresy, the same watchful eyes raised up a champion (Athanasius) to preserve the testimony. Often has the infidel transgressor laboured with all the might of man for its destruction. Often has Rome partially suppressed it, or committed it to the flames, or circulated perverted copies and false interpretations. Yet all these words and deeds of the transgressors have been overthrown.--Bridges.

The eyes of the Lord are His knowledge, and it is in Him, in His knowledge that knowledge is preserved. That is the bottomless treasure of it; from thence issue out all the veins of knowledge, wherewith the world is enriched. It is He that preserveth knowledge for the seekers of it, it is He that preserveth knowledge in the teachers of it. . . . His eyes shall watch over it, and though blindness put out the eyes of many, yet in Goshen it shall shine and bring comfort to His people.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 13.

AN ACTIVE IMAGINATION.

+I. Inactivity of will may cause a too great activity of the imagination.+ Man is made for action, and if he refuses to employ his powers in doing some useful and real work, it is probable that he will put forth some morbid effort in another direction. If his limbs are not at work, his mind will probably be active, and if he does not occupy it with objects which are worthy, it will be filled with thoughts that are sinful, and imaginations that are false. It will be especially apt to invent excuses for sloth, by magnifying the difficulties which stand in the way of effort. Every obstacle will be magnified into an insurmountable hindrance, and little risks will be looked at through a medium which will make them look like dangers to be avoided at any sacrifice of duty. The wish is often father to the thought, and the slothful man welcomes and nurses the deception which is born of his own indolence. And the sluggard is an easy prey also to the suggestions of the tempter, who will not be slow to do what he can to inflame the imagination and distort the judgment.

+II. The sluggard rightly apprehends danger, but mistakes the source whence it will come.+ There is a devouring enemy which will slay him if he do not take care, but it is not without him, but within him. He has a foe who endangers his life, but that foe is his own sloth; or, as we say on chap. xxi. 25, his own unsatisfied desire. While his eyes are turned on the highway, and he is seeking to avoid the lion which he fancies is there, he is nursing in his bosom the indolence which will be his ruin. He has more to fear from himself than from the most terrible manslayer that ever crossed the path of any human being. But it is with him as with slaves to other forms of sin--he is ready to lay the blame of his disobedience to God's commands anywhere, rather than upon his own unwillingness to comply with them.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

"Saith," really a preterite. These proverbs have usually the future. The future is a present continuing forward. Here we have a future tracing itself backward. The impenitent have always been saying the same thing. Age has not changed. Men have stuck to it for near a century. . . . "There is a lion" at the mercy-seat. So that the minister quits answering the sluggard's cavils, and tells each man plainly--"These cries are symptomatic." There is no lion in the case. And a heart that will shape these phantoms would shape others, if these were laid. The difficulty is sloth. In truth, there is a "lion," but it is a bad heart, crouching against itself, and lurking to destroy the poor unwary sinner.--Miller.

This is a very odd excuse for his laziness. Lions are seldom found in the fields in the day time, and it is a very extraordinary thing if they be found in the streets. Does the sluggard himself believe there is any truth in it? If he does, why does he sleep in his house, since it is possible that it may be set on fire by some accident in the night? Why does he ever take a meal, for some have been choked by the bread which they put into their mouths? When we are employed in the duties of our calling, we need not vex ourselves with the apprehension of lions. "I will give mine angels charge over thee," says God, "and they shall keep thee in all thy ways." Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet. But let the sluggard remember that there is a lion in that bed where he dozes away his time, and in that chamber where he sits folding his arms together. The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and he rejoices greatly when he lights upon a sluggard for he looks upon him to be a sure prey. We are safe from the lions in the way of duty, and never safe when we avoid it. Lions, when they met David feeding his sheep, were torn in pieces by him like kids. A lion unexpectedly came upon that young man of the sons of prophets, who declined his duty when he was commanded to smite his neighbour, and rent him in pieces.--Lawson.

Here is no talk of Satan, "that roaring lion" that lies couchant in the sluggard's bed with him, and prompts him to these senseless excuses. Nor yet of the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," who will one day send out summonses for sleepers, and tearing the very caul of their hearts asunder send them packing to their place in hell. But to hell never came any as yet that had not some pretence for their coming hither. The flesh never wants excuses, and needs not to be taught to tell her own tale. Sin and shifting came into the world together; and as there is no wool so coarse but will take some colour, so no sin so gross that admits of a defence. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own likeness.--Trapp.

The tongue is seldom slothful, even in the slothful man himself. That will bestir itself to find excuses, and to plead pretences for the defence of sloth. That will be diligent to allege reasons that the sluggard may be negligent. . . . If the lion had been within, if the courage and nobleness of the lion had been in the sluggard's heart, he would never have talked of a lion without. No, it was the cold snail that was within; and unless the slothful man's house may be removed with him, he will not stir to go out of it. Thus he that feareth to be slain, without cause, delighteth to be slain by his own laziness.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.

A DEEP PIT.

This verse treats of two classes of character, both of which have been depicted before. (See on chaps. ii. 16-19, page 24, vi. 24, page 89, vii. 5-27, page 95.)

+I. The tempter.+ The strange woman--the woman who has been so deaf to the voice of all that is womanly as no longer to be worthy of the name, who instead of being man's helpmeet and endeavouring to win him to tread the path to heaven, is his curse and makes it her aim to drag him down to hell. Notice the main instrument of her destructive power--the mouth. It is by her words of flattery and deception and persuasion that she ensnares her victim and compasses his ruin. History and experience confirm Solomon's words, for, although external beauty is often a powerful ingredient in the temptation, it is not always so, and counts for very little if it is unaccompanied by that fascination of manner and of speech which have been used by so many bad women with such fatal effect. If we look at the portraits of some of those women who have exerted so mighty a power for evil in the world, we can seldom see sufficient beauty to account for the spell which they seemed to cast around their victims, and we must conclude therefore that it was rather to be found where Solomon puts it,--who may be hear speaking from bitter personal experience--viz., in the tongue. This proverb adds one more testimony to the many that have gone before of the immense power for evil or for good that is exerted by that "little member" of our bodily organism.

+II. The tempted.+ He is here depicted as an unwary traveller along life's highway easily deceived by the appearance of things, and, too careless or too unsuspecting to look beneath the surface, following the bent of his inclination and yielding to the voice of the charmer until he finds the ground giving way beneath his feet, and darkness and hopelessness all around him. Notice the fearful name here given to such an one--to one who is led away by such a tempter. He is abhorred of the Lord. Here is full evidence that God does not look upon human creatures with indifference as to their moral character--that merciful Father though He is, He does not extend to men that indiscriminating and therefore worthless tenderness which some would have us believe is His main attribute--that if men look upon sin as mere obedience to the dictates of nature, and therefore blameless, He does not so regard it. And if men will not attach any weight to the words of Scripture--not believing them to be infallible--they can read the same truth in their every-day experience. The terrible retribution which comes upon those who listen to the words of the "strange woman" is a sufficient testimony to the abhorrence in which the Creator of men holds the sin to which she allures the unwary and the licentious man.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

To what do the fearful words amount? To this: that in His righteous displeasure, there is not a heavier curse which an offended God can allow to fall upon the object of His wrath, than leaving him to be a prey to the seductive blandishments of an unprincipled woman:--that if God held any one in abhorrence, this would be the severest vengeance He could take on him.--Wardlaw.

The mouth of a strange woman is but the mouth of a far deeper pit, the pit of hell into which it openeth. The one is digged by the wickedness of men, the other by the justice of God.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.

A FACT STATED AND A DUTY INFERRED.

+I. Human nature in its most attractive form contains latent depravity.+ The flower of the thistle is beautiful to look upon, and its downy seed is an apparently harmless object, and one worthy of admiration, as it rears its head among the corn. But how much power of mischief is wrapped up in that ball of soft down, if it is allowed to scatter its seed unchecked. A young lion is as pretty and harmless a creature as a kitten, but what ferocious instincts lie dormant there. A child is the most attractive and innocent of human creatures. As we look upon its guileless face we can hardly connect the idea of sin with its nature, and hardly believe it possible that the most depraved man or woman in the world was once as pure and stainless. But the Book of God tells us that even that young soul is tainted with the disease that infects all our race, and what the Book says is confirmed by the experience of all who have had anything to do with training children. The foolishness of self-will very soon shows itself, and the little one early gives proof that he or she is a true child of Adam by rebelling against the restraints with which it is lovingly surrounded, and desiring at all risks to eat forbidden fruit. In the fairest child-form now living upon the globe there may be hidden seeds which, when fully developed, will fill the world with terror and misery.

+II. That this depraved tendency is deeply rooted in the child's nature.+ It is "bound" in or "fettered" to it by a cable of many strands, or a chain of heavy links--it is not a slight preference for the wrong which can easily be overruled--not a garment put on which the wearer can easily be persuaded to put off again, but a part of the very nature--a bent of all the faculties of the soul.

+III. The disease is one which will yield to proper treatment.+ We do not suppose that Solomon's words teach that any corrective rod will be potent enough to drive out all tendency to do wrong, inasmuch as experience and observation contradict it, but the same experience and observation confirm the truth that wise correction in youth is mighty in its moral power, and may so bring the child round to the love of the true and the good, that its own efforts will second the efforts of the parent, and it will itself turn upon the enemies within, being fully convinced that the self-will that is bound up in its own heart is the greatest folly to which it is liable. There are many who, looking back upon the wise and loving chastisement of a tender parent, can bear testimony to the truth of this proverb. On this subject see also on chap. xiii. 24, page 334.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The rod of correction is proper to drive away no other foolishness than that which is of a moral nature. But how comes wickedness to be so firmly bound, and so strongly fixed, in the hearts of children, if it be not there naturally.--Jonathan Edwards.

Bound, or fettered. . . . Firmly knit, closely settled; well tied in; that is, fixed in the childish spirit; this is the sense of nearly all the commentators. Of course, there are great difficulties at once. The fact theologically is just the opposite. "Folly" is not fixed in the childish heart; but stronger and stronger in periods afterwards. Why not, pro vero, "bound?" In much the majority of texts it means simply "tied down," or "fettered." "Folly is fettered in the heart of a child," that is, tied down, and, in many ways, repressed. This is literally the case. It is weak, and hemmed in, and easier to grapple with and drag out of the soul in youth than at any other period.--Miller.

Observe--it is foolishness, not childishness. That might belong to an unfallen child. No moral guilt attaches to the recollection--"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child" (1 Cor. xiii. 11). "A child is to be punished"--as Mr. Scott wisely observed--"not for being a child, bur for being a wicked child." Comparative ignorance, the imperfect and gradual opening of the faculties, constitute the nature, not the sinfulness of the child. The holy "child increased in wisdom" (Luke ii. 52). But foolishness is the mighty propensity to evil--imbibing wrong principles, forming bad habits, entering into an ungodly course. It means the very root and essence of sin in a fallen nature--the folly of being revolted from a God of love.--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.

OPPRESSION AND SERVILITY.

+I. Opposite actions proceeding from the same motive.+ This proverb seems to be directed against a man whose mastering passion is the unworthy one of amassing material gain and ministering exclusively to his own enjoyment. This is the commonest source of oppression. "Covetousness," says Dreyden, "is itself so monstrous that nothing else is like it except it be death and the grave, the only things I know which are always carrying off the spoils of the world and never making restitution." This is a true picture of the avaricious man who regards none of the needs and rights of his fellow-creatures, but only asks himself with regard to them how they can best be made to serve his interests. This leads him to grind down those who are poorer than himself, and use them as so many stepping-stones, by means of which he can mount higher in the social scale, forgetting that though their poverty makes them weaker than himself, they have a Friend who is far stronger than he is. But the same man who thus oppresses his needy brother will make it his business to propitiate the rich, and for the same end, viz., to advance his own interests. "Tyranny and flunkeyism," says Dr. Thomas, in his comment on this verse, "generally go together. Both are the children of avarice. He that proudly domineers over the poor will servilely bow his knee to the rich."

+II. Opposite actions meeting with the same retribution.+ Although these actions are so different, they can both be traced to one fountain-head, and therefore one sentence is passed upon both. The man who lives for himself shall not get anything worth having; or if he do, things will be mixed with the cup of his prosperity, which will make it an unpalatable one after all. He may get wealth, and may come to want health; he may be rich and healthy, and yet suffer in his family relationships. He will certainly come to want peace of conscience, the goodwill of his fellows, and the favour of God, and no gain can balance such a loss.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Sin pays its servants very bad wages, for it gives them the very reverse of what it promised. Whilst the sin of oppression or injustice promises mountains of gold, it brings them poverty and ruin. "Shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself in cedar?" said the prophet to Jehoiakim. It could not be, for he used his neighbour's services without wages, and gave him nought for his work. . . . We are not proprietors but stewards of the gifts of Providence, and must distribute that which He has entrusted to our care according to His will. And it is His pleasure that we should make to ourselves friends by the mammon of unrighteousness, not of the rich but the poor.--Lawson.

The covetous wretch and the vain prodigal are of quite contrary dispositions, and take quite contrary courses, and yet they both meet at last, for both come to want. . . . He that being rich taketh a little from the poor (for how little must it needs be that is taken from them) shall surely find that he taketh a great deal from himself, even all that he hath. And he that giveth much to the rich (for it must be much, or else it is not regarded by them) will wish he had given it to the poor, when being made poor, he will give himself little thanks for it, and find as little help from them to whom he has given his riches.--Jermin.

A reference to the Critical Notes at the beginning of this chapter will show that we have entered the third division of this book. One or two additional notes are subjoined.

+17.+ Miller reads the second clause, "And thou shalt incline thine heart," etc. +18. They shall withal be fitted in thy lips,+ rather "let them abide together upon thy lips." +20. Excellent things.+ Some here render "thrice repeated things," the French translation is "things relating to rulers or governors," and Stuart reads "Have I not written to thee heretofore," understanding Solomon to refer to the previous portions of the Book. Upon the first two Wardlaw remarks that they both contain the idea of superiority or excellence, for "why are things repeated but for their excellence? and princely or royal things"--which the French translation may yield when analysed--is but a figurative way of expressing transcendent superiority.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 17-21.

TRUST FROM KNOWLEDGE, AND BLESSEDNESS FROM TRUST.

+I. Knowledge of God must go before faith in God.+ There must be a knowledge of the existence, character, and power of any person before there can be any trust in him. God is not so unreasonable as to expect men to put trust in Him unless they have some grounds for their trust. Hence the Bible especially aims to make men acquainted with the Being upon whom they are called to exercise faith, by declarations concerning His character, and by a history of His doings in the past, and reminders of what He is doing in the present. Sometimes God points to the visible creation as a source whence man may obtain knowledge concerning Him, and come to exercise trust in Him. This is the drift of the sublime passage in Isaiah xl., in which Jehovah seeks to bring Israel, by a consideration of His creative power and wisdom, to confide in His Almighty strength. (Verses 27-31.) Sometimes He appeals to His dealings in the past as a ground of faith in His character and purposes in the present. What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone from me? (Jer. ii. 5.) The Son of God appeals to His Father's love as a basis of faith in Himself (John iii. 16). Paul speaks of the way of salvation as a "knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. iv. 6), because without knowledge there can be no faith, and an enlightened knowledge will certainly lead to faith. The preacher here points to the necessity of gaining this true wisdom, the knowledge of Jehovah, as the means of begetting trust in Him.

+II. Real blessedness will follow faith in God.+ A child can have no lasting and real joy in its life, unless it has faith in his father's love and wisdom. He feels instinctively that he is dependent upon that father, that much of his future well-being depends upon what that father is and does, and if he cannot be sure that he has his real welfare at heart, it will throw a dark shadow over his young life, which will deepen as he becomes more and more capable of realising his position. It is a worm at the root of all our peace of mind to distrust where we must depend. All men must feel that they are dependent upon God, and yet most men live, and perhaps most die, without giving Him that trust which alone can give them peace, and which those who know Him will testify that He fully deserves. The testimony of those who knew is "blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is" (Jer. xvii. 8). And it is because of its trust-begetting character that Solomon here declares that true knowledge--knowledge concerning Jehovah--is "pleasant" to the soul.

+III. Faith in the heart will manifest itself in the lip.+ A perfume may be hidden in the casket, but whenever the lid is lifted it will make its presence known. The tongue will speak sometimes of that which fills the heart, and when it does not do this in a direct manner there will be a tone in the conversation which will tell men what the soul prizes most. Knowledge in the heart will bring wise words to the lips--the love of truth will result in the answer of truth.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 17. This sounds like the opening of the earlier Proverbs, chap. v. 1; viii. 1. The repetition is significant. The life of the soul is attention. If that be persevered in, all things follow. God only can give saving light. And yet by laws like the planetary system, He will give it on the bending of the ear. Alas for us! we will not even do this much without His influence. Nevertheless He urges the promise. (See Miller's rendering in the additional notes at the beginning of this paragraph.) It is a law, though it be a law of grace. God has framed it. Hear outwardly, and thou shalt feel within. Such is our nature (chap. ii. 1-5), and it is shrewd to use it. The inclining is from Him; but the advice also is from Him! Shrink not from the advice because His strength is needed to make it His chosen instrument.--Miller.

We may mark that, whereas in the beginning of Proverbs the Wise Man had often called on his son to fasten attention on him, saying, "My son, my son;" now, after so much said, he supposeth that he needeth not to be called upon, and therefore speaketh unto him, without his usual compellation. And surely when much hath been said, to need still much calling on, sheweth much neglect of what hath been said, and much unworthiness to have been an hearer of it. And yet because in the best some rousing of attention is requisite, the Wise Man here lifteth up his voice, to cause a careful bowing down of the ear to his words. He would therefore have attention so to bow down the ear, as to make it as it were a bed, wherein the words of the wise might rest; because that is it which will bring true rest unto the heart. . . . But we may further note, that whereas he would have him to hear the words of the wise, it is to his knowledge that he would have him apply his heart. For we may hear the words of the wise men of this world, we may hear the words of human learning and understanding, and much good is to be gotten from them; but we must apply our hearts unto the knowledge of God's Word, and so far receive the other as they agree with that, or are not repugnant unto it. Or else hear the words of the wise, whosoever they be, if they be the words of wisdom which they deliver. But if their actions teach otherwise than their words do, apply not thine heart to follow their example. Let rather my knowledge instruct thee, that the heart may be as well applied to doing, as the ears to hearing.--Jermin.

Verse 18. It will last when we get it. This is the wonder to others. Here one has been trying to be a better man, and begins to be one from a sudden epoch. Others wrestle with their faults, and fall back into them again. Nothing can be more fitful than all moral reformations. But here, in spiritual life, a flash shoots up, and we never return to darkness. Why is this? Because it is pleasant, says the proverb. It becomes fixed because of its principle as of a sound nature. . . . When we watch over right words, which (Orientaliter) stands for all right actions, God rewards us by making them "pleasant," and so, even as in heaven itself, they become fixed as the very habit of our lips.--Miller.

Many there are whose lips do speak the words of wisdom, but they are not fitted upon their lips. . . . The reason whereof is, because the words of wisdom are not seated in the heart. For though the lips may give themselves motion and the head may furnish them with matter, it is the heart that fitteth the lips.--Jermin.

It will give thee most high satisfaction if thou dost so heartily entertain them, and thoroughly digest them, and faithfully preserve them in mind, that thou art able withal to produce any of them as there is occasion, and aptly communicate for other men's instruction.--Bp. Patrick.

Verse 19.--1. The particularity of address--"to thee, even to thee." In the days of prophetic inspiration, it was no unusual thing for the servants of God to receive express commissions to individuals, in which they alone were concerned. But the whole Book of God--the entire "word of His testimony"--should be considered by every one as addressed to him; as much so as if there were no other human being besides himself, and as if it had been "given by inspiration" to himself alone. There is no room for any saying, as Jehu did of old--"To which of all us?" The answer would, in every case, be--To each of you all--to thee--to thee--to thee. Not that there is no such thing as, "rightly dividing the Word of Truth;" not that there are no portions of it that have a special appropriateness of application to the characters and circumstances of individuals. Still, the great truths of the Word are alike to each and to all. And speedily a man may be placed in one or other of the peculiar situations to which the different portions of it are adapted! I know of nothing more important than for every individual to bring Divine lessons home to himself. Too often, alas! we forget personal amidst general application of particular truths. We think of them as intended for men, and forget that they are designed for us. Would you then profit by what you hear?--keep in mind that what is addressed to all is addressed to each--"to thee, even to thee."--2. Mark the emphasis on the time--"this day." We set a mark, in our minds, on days that have been rendered memorable by events of special interest. Would Noah, think you, ever forget the day of the year on which he and his family entered the ark, and when "the Lord shut him in?" or the day on which he again stepped out of it upon the green earth, to be the second father of mankind? Would the shepherds ever forget on what night of the year the angelic messengers, amidst the light of the glory of the Lord, announced to them the Divine Saviour's birth, and when "the multitude of the heavenly host," bursting on their sight, "ascended jubilant," saying "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men?" Or would Cornelius ever forget the day and the hour when the angelic visitant directed him to that instruction whereby he and all his house should be saved? You, it is true, have many times heard the words of truth. Let me, however, remind any of you who have thus often heard, and who still neglect them, of the importance to you of each day that you enjoy the privilege. Every time you thus hear them, your eternal all depends on the reception you give to the message of God. This day may be important indeed, for it may be the last on which Divine truth shall sound in your ears. O that it may be a day to be sacredly and joyfully remembered by every sinner now present, as the day on which he first felt its inestimable preciousness to his soul! If you thus hear, and thus improve the opportunity, the day will not be obliterated from your memory by the lapse of eternity. There is one thing of which with emphasis it may be said to each individual sinner, It is "to thee, even to thee:"--I mean the message of the Gospel--the message of free mercy through the Divine Mediator. There is no exception; there is no difference. The law speaks to each, "to thee, even to thee"--its sentence of condemnation. The Gospel speaks to each--"to thee, even to thee"--its offer of free, full, immediate, irrevocable pardon on the ground of the universal atonement. To every fellow creature we can say--An adequate atonement has been made for all; therefore for thee--"for thee, even for thee;" and on the ground of that atonement does Divine mercy come near to thee--"to thee, even to thee"--with the offer of forgiveness, acceptance, and life. "This day" is the message of life again "made known" unto thee, O sinner; and there is no obstacle to thine acceptance and enjoyment of it, but what is in thyself;--none in God; none in Christ; none in the atonement; none in the Divine offer of its virtue to mankind. "To thee is the word of this salvation sent;" and "now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation."--Wardlaw.

Only a Divine Word can beget a Divine faith, and herein the Scripture excels all human writings, none of which can bring our hearts to the obedience of faith. "I can speak it by experience," says Erasmus, "that there is little good to be got by the Scripture, if a man read it cursorily and carelessly; but if he exercise himself therein constantly and conscionably he shall feel such a force in it, as is not to be found in any other book whatsoever." "I know," saith Peter Martyr, "that there are many who will never believe what we say of the power of God's Word hidden in the heart; and not a few that will jeer us, and think we are mad for saying so. But oh that they would be pleased to make trial! Let it never go well with me--for I am bold to swear in so weighty a business--if they find not themselves strangely taken and transformed into the same image." The Ephesians "trusted in God" so soon as they heard the word of truth. They "believed" and were "sealed" (Ephes. i. 13). And the Thessalonians' faith was famous all the world over, when once the Gospel "came to them in power" (1 Thess. i. 5-8).--Trapp.

Verses 20 and 21. How the preacher labours! Let us begin at his most expressive terminus. We are to be sent for! some certain day. "Those that send" is but the proverbial cast. "Him that sends" is the more perfect meaning. As sure as the stars we shall be sent for one day; and one thing will be exacted from us, and one only in the creation, and that is light. The man without light perishes. Solomon says, his whole aim has been to press light on the sinner. . . . "Have I not done," he says, "and that under Scriptural promises, the very best things to secure my object? and is not that object, now that I might make thee to know the verity of the words of truth!" This Hebrew is very peculiar. "Words of truth" are easily uttered. "Counsels and knowledge" of the deepest sort may be in the minds of infidels. We may teach a child the very intricacies of faith. But there is a "verity" at its deepest root that the natural man cannot perceive (1 Cor. ii. 14). To express this, Solomon uses a very infrequent word. It means (in radice) to weigh out so as to be exact. That I might make thee to know the exactness of the words of truth. The meaning is that verity which is seen by a Christian eye.--Miller.

Surely if anything be worthy of sending for, worthy of going for, then are the words of knowledge and truth. If they may be had for going or sending, who should not go, who should not send, whither should we not go, whither should we not send? They are they which must bring us to heaven and to happiness. Or else to take the sense another way, and in a spiritual application of the words: Who are they that send unto us? What are the words of truth that we must answer unto them? They that send unto us are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. God the Father sendeth His blessings, God the Son His merits, and God the Holy Ghost His graces. The words of truth that we must answer are the words of thankful obedience.--Jermin.

The certainty of the words of truth. The evidence of the divinity of the Bible, instead of ever being shaken by all the efforts of infidelity, has been augmenting from the beginning hitherto. Its external evidence has grown in the fulfilment of its predictions. Its internal evidence, though in one sense ever the same, has, in another, been increasing also; inasmuch as it has stood its ground amidst all the advances of human knowledge, and men have never been able to improve upon it or to get before it:--and it is the one only book of which this can be affirmed. And its experimental evidence,--the manifestation of its truth in its saving influence,--in its power to dislodge and change the evil passions and habits of the worst of men,--has multiplied by thousands and tens of thousands of dead and living witnesses. In our own days, we have but to point, not only to cases of revival in our own land, in which the Gospel has proved itself "mighty through God" to the pulling down of the strongholds of worldliness and corruption, and turning hearts long alienated to God,--but to the lands of heathen idolatry and cruelty and vileness, wherever Gospel truth has found its way and has been embraced. There, in the marvellous changes that have been effected,--in the contrast between previous stupidity and pollution, and heartless and murderous ferocity, to intelligence and purity and virtue, and peace, and harmony, and happiness, we have the triumphs of the Cross, and the manifestation of the "certainty"--the Divine certainty--"of the words of truth." They have thus shown themselves to be indeed "excellent things" by the excellence of their effects. We call upon all to examine for themselves. The Bible courts examination. It is the unwillingness and refusal to examine, that is most to be deplored. The genuineness of its writings, the authenticity of its histories, the reality of its recorded miracles, the fulfilment of its prophecies, the sublimity and consistent harmony of its doctrines, the purity of its precepts, the origin of its commemorative ordinances, and its tendency to personal and social virtue and happiness,--all court examination. The testimony of the celebrated Earl of Rochester, when converted from infidelity and profligacy to Christianity and virtue, will be found the truth. Laying his hand on the Bible, he would say--"This is true philosophy. This is the wisdom that speaks to the heart. A bad life is the only grand objection to this Book."--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 22 and 23.

GOD THE SPOILER OF THE SPOILER.

+I. Robbery is of three kinds.+ 1. There is the open and unlegalised thief. There are men who do not pretend to respect the rights of others and who openly live in violation of Divine and human laws. They differ somewhat in their methods and in the description of their plunder--some seeking to gain an entrance in to the mansion and lay hands on the jewels of the wealthy, and others being content with what they can find in the cottage or on the wayside--but they are alike in pursuing their profession without any pretence that they fear God or regard men. But these are not the robbers against whom the sentence is passed which is contained in this proverb. 2. There is the legalised thief. There are governments under which iniquity is established by law--kingdoms in which wholesale robbery is carried on in the name of justice. There were many such in the days of Solomon and there is not a few in this nineteenth century. Perhaps, however, the Preacher was not referring so much to a government as a whole as to individuals who, sitting in the seats of justice, were regardless of the rights of those over whom their position gave them authority. The "oppressor in the gate" is probably a judge who disregards the rights of the poor man if he conceives it will further his own interest so to do, while he all the time pretends to be an administrator of justice and does all in the name of the law of the land. Under this class may be placed those who hold in trust property which has been given for the use of the poor and who disregard the claims of the really needy and so defeat the good intention of the donor. There is an immense amount of this misappropriation of money even in England, and although those who are guilty of it distribute their favours with a pretence of impartiality, and in the name of law they are as truly robbers in the sight of God as the burglar or the pickpocket. 3. There is the negative robber. A man may be a thief without taking anything from his fellow-man or without holding any official position and abusing his power and privileges. If a man or woman who is brought in contact with others poorer than himself or herself withholds from these poorer brethren anything simply because they cannot retaliate or enforce their rights, such a man or woman is a robber of the poor. And this may and is often done unconsciously--a man who would be indignant at being branded as unjust withholds from those whom poverty has placed in his power rights which belong to every rank and station but which are not always looked upon as the equal heritage of the poor and the rich. For it is quite possible to rob the poor without taking or withholding money from them. Some, who would not do this, rob them of their rest and leisure and withhold from them consideration and sympathy.

+II. Defenceless though the poor may seem, Almighty power is on their side.+ Although the robbery may be legalised on earth, it is contrary to the law of heaven, and although the judge who oppresses can be brought before no human tribunal, he will one day stand before the bar of God. The Judge of all the earth was Himself once a poor man, and can sympathise with the oppressed poor as well as avenge their wrongs. He will spoil the oppressor of his soul's comfort, and cause him to faint, and be afflicted for want of spiritual sustenance. Many a poor man's soul is made sad by legalised injustice, and Christ as man's judge will bring legalised justice to bear upon him who offends in this matter (Matt. xxv. 41-46). See also Homiletics on Verse 16, and on Chap. xiv. 30, page 389.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

After so promising a preface, and such wooing of attention, we looked for some fresh matter, and that of best note, too. But, behold, here is nothing but what we had before. "It is truth," saith the wise man, and yet I must tell you that "to write the same things to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe" (Phil. iii. 1).--Trapp.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 24 and 25.

AN INFECTIOUS AND DANGEROUS DISEASE.

+I. Friendship influences habit and thus moulds character.+ The reason given here for avoiding the companionship of an angry man is, "lest thou learn his ways." This subject has been treated at length in chap. xiii. 20, page 326. There is great need when pestilence is abroad to avoid needless contact with infected persons and things. In every man there is more or less liability to disease which sometimes only needs a slight exposure to unhealthy influences to develop into a fatal activity. We are always living and moving amidst unhealthy and infectious moral influences which are hurtful to us, because of the tendency there is within us to go wrong; and it is therefore the mark of a wise man to avoid as much as possible all intimate contact with those who are manifestly under the dominion of sin. This proverb does not of course forbid such intercourse as is sought for the purpose of benefitting the vicious man.

+II. A man's anger hurts himself more than those whom it leads him to injure.+ We should have expected that Solomon would advise us to avoid the angry man because of the injury he might do us when under the dominion of his passion, but instead of that he commands us to shun him because of the injury we shall do ourselves if we become like him. The wise man loses sight of the lesser danger in looking at the greater, and counts as nothing the harm an angry man can do to the body of a fellow-creature, in comparison with the grievous hurt he inflicts upon his own soul. And this is manifestly a correct view, whether we look at the present influence of passion or its remoter consequences. The man who receives an unmerited insult or injury may sustain no loss of dignity, nor suffer in any way in his spirit. But he who inflicts the injury becomes a meaner man in the very act, and creates a tempest of unrest within his own breast. And a blow which deals even death to an innocent man does not necessarily deprive him of any real good, but it creates a very hell of remorse for him whose anger prompted the deed. While Abel exchanged a blighted home here for an Eden in a brighter world, Cain wandered a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Lest thou be infected by his example, or provoked by his passion to return the like to him. Either (1) a mischief which is often the effect of unbridled rage, or (2) an occasion of sin, either by drawing thee to an imitation or requital of his rage, or by tempting thee to unfaithfulness in performing the great office of a friend--to wit, admonition or reproof, which, by reason of his furious temper, thou either canst not or wilt not do.--Matthew Poole.

It may seem strange that we should be supposed in danger of learning what we feel to be so very disagreeable. And yet we may. As already hinted, a passionate man may have interesting and attractive qualities otherwise. Now, in proportion as we either admire or love him for these, will be the hazard of our thinking the less evil of his one defect, and trying to palliate and to smile at it. And there is no little truth in the saying, that we either are like our friends and intimates, or will soon be. But more than this. The sudden and often unreasonable heats of the passionate man are ever apt to fret and irritate our spirits, and thus to form a habit of resemblance by the very reaction upon ourselves of his hot and hasty temper.--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 26 and 27.

SURETYSHIP AND ITS DANGERS.

+I. A command to avoid a perilous habit.+ We cannot, in the light of the spirit of Bible teaching--especially that of the New Testament--regard this proverb as forbidding all suretyship. It cannot mean that one honest man when he has ample means at his command is never to become security for another man of honesty. We know that there are cases in which it is the greatest kindness that one friend can do another, and that it is often the means of giving a poor or unfortunate brother a fair start in life. We are commanded to "bear one another's burdens" (Gal. vi. 2), and "to do good unto all men, especially unto those who are of the household of faith" (Gal. vi. 10), and this is sometimes the most effectual way of carrying out these precepts. But Solomon here warns men against the unwisdom of choosing for companions those men whose habit it is lightly to become a surety for another--who lend their name and credit without considering the responsibility they undertake or asking themselves whether they are doing any real good to the person they oblige. Although it may be a man's duty sometimes to become a surety for another it is perilous and wrong to make it a habit of life, and thereby encourage thriftlessness and perhaps dishonesty.

+II. A warning as to the probable consequences of such a habit.+ Solomon regards it as certain that a man who habitually becomes a "surety for debt" will come to ruin. This is obvious if we reflect that for one honest man who asks such a favour there are twenty who have little or no moral sense in such a matter; that although a good and true man is often found in circumstances of such need, the great majority who are so found are rogues.

For an illustration and comments on this subject see on Chap. vi. 1, page 76, and on page 216. Also Homiletics on Chap. xx. 16, page 589.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

We are commanded to "love our neighbour as ourselves;" but to do for him what might expose us to having our very bed sold from under us, is to love him better than ourselves, which is a step beyond the Divine injunction.--Wardlaw.

Seeing by taking suretyship upon him, he put himself under the creditor, and made himself to be, as it were, the bed on which the trust of others did rest, and seeing by not paying he hath taken away the creditor from the bed of his rest, it is but like for like if the creditor take away his bed from under him. And yet the wise man asking the question seemeth to me to imply in some sort that he should not do it. For though the other doth justly deserve it, yet in so much need let mercy spare.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on verse 28 see on chap. xxiii. 10, page 666.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 29.

THE DESTINY OF THE DILIGENT.

+I. The diligent man meets with Divine approval.+ The repeated commendations of diligence and condemnations of slothfulness which we meet with in this book show the estimate which God sets upon rightly-directed industry. 1. The diligent man is in harmony with God. The Divine Father is ever working for the good of His creatures, and no being who ever trod this earth laboured so continuously and earnestly as the Divine Son. With Him during His public ministry the completion of one work was the beginning of another. He was ever about His Father's business, diligently carrying on and seeking to finish the work which His Father had given Him to do. The man who is diligent in business is in this respect a follower of his Lord and Master. 2. He is in harmony with creatures both above Him and beneath Him. Angels are doing the will of their King with promptitude and despatch--Gabriel "flies swiftly" (Dan. ix. 21) when sent on a message to the earth. Heaven is a world of activity, the cherubim around the throne "rest not day nor night" (Rev. iv. 8). Many of the creatures below man set him an example of industry. (See on chap. vi. 6-11, page 78.) Even inanimate nature seems to rebuke the idle man. (See a comment by Dr. Perry on page 425.) 3. He is in harmony with the needs of humanity. The world calls for diligent workers, and without them all civilisation would soon cease and men sink to the condition of the savage. We have around us many proofs of this. The home of the indolent husband or wife is destitute of all refining influences and is often a nursery of crime. The land where the people are all thriftless is a land of degradation and poverty. We can well understand, therefore, that God's approval rests upon those who make the best use of the time and opportunities which He gives them.

+II. The diligent man will reap some reward for his diligence.+ It is not, of course, possible to take this proverb in an absolutely literal sense, because many diligent men never saw the face of a king. But without diligence it is hardly possible for any man to obtain any position of honour, or if he do he is not likely to retain it. But there is another sense in which diligence may bring a man before kings. Caxton was a diligent man, and by his diligence came literally to stand before the King of England. But he has, by his invention of the printing-press, stood before kings and princes from that hour to this, for they have all learned to honour his name, and to acknowledge their obligation to him. Every time a royal traveller takes his seat in a locomotive James Watt stands before him, for his ability to move with ease and speed from place to place is the result of that man's diligence, and his name is held in honour in consequence. And instances might be multiplied indefinitely, in which diligence has caused a man to stand before not only the kings of his own time, but of succeeding generations.

On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xii. 24, page 285.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Of all the qualities which kings especially look to and require in the choice of their servants, that of despatch and energy in the transaction of business is the most acceptable. . . . There is no other virtue which does not present some shadow of offence to the minds of kings. Expedition in the execution of their commands is the only one which contains nothing that is not acceptable.--Bacon.

God loves nimbleness; "What thou doest, do quickly," said Christ to Judas, though it were so ill a business that he were about.--Trapp.

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