Chapter XXIII…

Chapter XXIII

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. When thou sittest,+ etc. Miller here translates "Forasmuch as thou sittest," and applying the word ruler to God gives to the proverb a meaning entirely different from that generally attached to it. See his remarks in the Suggestive Comments. +What is before thee?+ Rather "Who is before," etc. +2. Put a knife,+ etc. Zöckler, Ewald, and others translate, "Thou hast put," or "thou puttest." The meaning may then be "Thou hast virtually destroyed thyself if thou art a self-indulgent man." Delitzsch, however, gives the verb the imperative form, as in the English version. +3. Deceitful meat.+ Literally "Bread of lies." Many commentators understand this to mean a deceptive meal, which is not given from motives of hospitality. +5. Wilt thou set thine eyes?+ etc. Rather "Wilt thou look eagerly after it, and it is gone?" +6. Him that hath an evil eye+--i.e., the jealous man. +11. Their Redeemer.+ Their Goel, or Avenger. In the Hebrew law this word is applied to the nearest kinsman. (See Ruth iii. 12.) +17. Let not thine heart envy,+ etc. The verb translated envy refers to both objects in the verse, and is better translated "strive after." Miller renders it "be aglow." "It is," he says, "a verb expressive of all emotion." (See Numb. xxv. 11-13.) +18. Surely there is an end.+ Delitzsch here reads, "Truly there is a future." "The root of the Hebrew," says Miller, signifies afterward. +20. Eaters of flesh.+ This may be translated "Devourers of their own flesh"--i.e., those who destroy their bodies by sensual indulgence. +23.+ The word also should be omitted in this verse. The three nouns in the second clause stand in apposition to the one in the first. +Instruction,+ rather "discipline." +25.+ This verse should be, "Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and her that have thee rejoice." +26. Observe,+ rather delight. +28. As for a prey,+ Delitzsch and Zöckler here translate "like a robber." +Transgressors,+ rather "the faithless." +30. Mixed wine--+i.e., wine mixed with strong spices. +31. When it giveth his colour,+ etc., literally, "When it showeth its eye." This may refer to its brightness, or to the head, or pearl of the wine. +"When it moveth itself,"+ etc., rather "when it glideth down with ease." +33. Strange women,+ rather "strange things."

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 1-3.

THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE TABLE.

+I. The table of a wealthy man is a place of temptation to the sin of overindulgence.+ At such a table there is a great variety of dishes, and the human appetite, in common with every bodily sense and mental faculty, delights in variety. The eye is best pleased with a diversified landscape, the ear with a diversity of sound, and the mind when it can vary the objects of its contemplation. So man's appetite is most gratified by a variety of food, and there is much more temptation to excess under such circumstances than when his hunger has to be satisfied from a single dish. Then, again, the food at such a repast is generally of the most tempting kind--all the countries of the world are put under contribution to supply it with dainties, and much skill and time is expended upon the preparation of the food. There is little danger of eating too much when bread is the only fare, but it begins and increases in proportion to the palatable nature of the viands. And the proverb seems to be addressed to those to whom a seat at the rich man's or ruler's table was not an every-day occurrence--to those to whom it was not given to feast so sumptuously every day--and this would increase the force of the temptation. The variety and the rarity of the dishes is much more tempting to one unaccustomed to such feasts.

+II. It is most degrading and injurious to yield to such a temptation.+ This is implied in the strong metaphor which Solomon uses. An undue indulgence in the pleasures of the table, even when it does not amount to positive gluttony, is a most fruitful source of disease, and for this cause, if for no other, dainty food well deserves the name which is here given to it. But it is also most injurious to man's better nature; it is often the first step to habits of intemperance and licentiousness, but if it does not lead to them it is altogether incompatible with intellectual and moral excellence. A man who is not master of his appetite is below the brute and can be neither great nor good. It is well to remember that an appeal to the appetite was one of the elements in the first temptation. An Eastern fable runs thus: "A king once permitted the devil to kiss him on either shoulder. Immediately two serpents grew from his shoulders, which, furious with hunger, attacked his head and attempted to get at his brain. The king tore them away. But he soon saw with horror that they had become part of himself, and that, in wounding them he was lacerating his own flesh." Such is the deplorable condition of every victim of appetite and lust.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

First, thy duty is to be temperate as to the quantity of thy diet. . . . God gave man food to further, not to hinder him in his general and particular calling, and surely they sin who feed till, like fatted horses, they are unfit for service. . . . Christians may cheer nature, but they must not clog it. It is a great privilege in the charter granted us by the King of Kings, that we should have dominion over the creatures; but it will be a sordid bondage if we suffer them to have dominion over us. Socrates was wont to say, that evil men live that they may eat and drink, but good men eat and drink that they may live. . . . Secondly, thy duty is to be temperate as to the quality of thy diet. Though no certain quality of food can be set down, yet in general this must be observed, that we make not provision for the flesh (Rom. xiii. 12). We may preserve the flesh, but we must not provide for the flesh. Our enemy is strong enough already, we need not put more weapons into his hands. . . . The Christian may take his food, but his food must not take him. . . . It is not unlawful to eat dainties, but it is unlawful to set the mind upon them. . . . We may eat and digest dainties, but we may not crave and desire dainties. God made man not for fleshly dainties, but for spiritual delights. . . . Elijah could be content with a raven for his cook. Daniel fed and thrived upon pulse: he looked fairer by it than those that did eat the king's fare. Brown bread and the gospel are good cheer, said the martyr. John the Baptist could live upon locusts and wild honey. The apostles had some ears of corn for a Sabbath-day's dinner. Though God is pleased out of mercy to afford us better provision, yet our work must be to mind moderation.--Swinnock.

It is of the Lord that hunger is painful and food gives pleasure; between these two lines of defence the Creator has placed life with a view to its preservation. The due sustenance of the body is the Creator's end; the pleasantness of food is the means of obtaining it. When men prosecute and cultivate that pleasure as an end, they thwart the very purpose of Providence.--Arnot.

(It will be seen that the following comment is based on Miller's rendering. See Critical Notes.) Kings like to see their guests eat. At the very utmost, this part of our behaviour is a matter of indifference. But of God nothing could be more exact. We see all eating with Him; in fact, feeding upon Him, as though He were Himself bread. "Forasmuch," therefore is just in place. "Discerning well who is before thee," that also, is perfectly consistent. And then our sin, what is that? Why, fleshly appetite! What is innocent at courts is idolatry in the banquet to the skies. . . . Serving the creature more than the Creator, Paul expresses it; and gives us ample analogy after a New Testament kind (Rom. i. 25, see also James iv. 3), for understanding, how we have put a knife to our throat, if we be men given to appetite.--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 4 and 5.

THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES.

In order to get the true meaning of this proverb it is necessary to define what Solomon understands by labouring to be rich. We call the possessor of vast estates or a large account at the bank a rich man, and so he is, if he lives within his income, paying his way and having a surplus to bestow upon the needy. But so is the village smith, who with less than a hundredth part of the income of the nobleman or merchant prince "looks the whole world in the face and owes not any man." Riches and poverty are but relative terms, and when we consider how indispensable it is that some men should possess more than a mere sufficiency for their personal needs, we may be sure that the wise man did not mean to discourage all effort to gain even more than enough for our daily needs. But the labour which is here forbidden is evidently that all-absorbing pursuit of wealth which engrosses the entire man to the exclusion of higher claims. When men make gold their god instead of their servant it is obvious that the boundary line of lawful pursuit is passed, and that deprecated in the proverb is entered upon. The text--

+I. Condemns all following after wealth under the inspiration of the natural heart.+ Man's "own wisdom" is an insufficient and dangerous guide in this matter as in all others. The unrenewed heart of man is selfish and sordid, prone to think only of its own desires and to set up a false standard of happiness. Only the wisdom that cometh from above can show men what is worth striving after, what will really bless the present and afford satisfaction in the future. If a man buys and sells and gets gain with a constant reference to the will of God, and in dependence upon Him, he will not labour to be rich--in other words, he will, with Paul, learn in whatever state he is to be content, and will know how to fulfil the duties which come with abundance and how to exhibit the graces which can only be manifested in poverty.

+II. Teaches that only those who do not trust in riches can really enjoy their possession, or escape bitter sorrow in their loss.+ Every rich man knows that it is possible that his wealth may leave him, and that it is certain that he must leave his wealth. The uncertainty of retaining them through life, and the certainty of losing them at death, are two thorns which must be found in the pillow of everyone who makes riches the chief good of his existence, and must surely deprive him of any heartfelt satisfaction from their possession. The soul of man is made for something higher and more lasting than any earthly good, and of all that men call good, and esteem precious, there is nothing which has less to satisfy the cravings of the soul than mere material wealth, or that is more easily and quickly lost. The only way, therefore, to get any present satisfaction in it, and to ensure oneself against future disappointment from it, is to follow the Apostolic injunction, and "trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God" (1 Tim. vi. 17).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Not like a tame bird, that returns; nor like a hawk, that will show where she is by her bells; but like an eagle, whose wings thou canst neither clip nor pinion. All their certainty is in their uncertainty, and they are only stable in this, that they cannot be stable. . . . Wealth is like a bird; it hops all day from man to man, as that doth from tree to tree; and none can say where it will roost or rest at night. It is like a vagrant fellow, which, because he is big-boned, and able to work, a man taketh in a-doors, and cherisheth; and perhaps for a while he takes pains; but when he espies opportunity the fugitive servant is gone, and takes away more with him than all his service came to.--T. Adams.

What a startling interdict this! What an immense proportion of the world's toil, and especially in such a community as our own, does it bring under condemnation and proscription! Were all the labour directed to this forbidden end to cease,--How little would be left!--what a sudden stagnation would there be of the turmoil of busy activity with which we are daily surrounded! What are the great majority of men about,--in our city and in our country? What keeps them all astir? What is the prevailing impulse of all the incessant bustle and eager competition of our teeming population? Are not all,--with a wider or narrower estimate of what riches mean,--"labouring to be rich?"--The love of fame has been called the universal passion. Is not the love of money quite as much, if not more, entitled to the designation? Yes; and many a time does the wisdom of the world set itself to the defence of the world's toil and the world's aim--alleging many plausible, and some more than plausible, things in its pleadings. "Riches," say they, "keep a man and his family from dependence. Riches enable a man to enjoy many comforts that are in themselves lawful and desirable. Riches procure a man distinction and influence in society. By this and other means, riches put it in a man's power to do good:--why should we not 'labour to be rich?'" It is all true; and the plea is in part quite legitimate. Yet Solomon, by the Spirit, with the authority, and in the kindness of God, enjoins--"labour not to be rich."--Wardlaw.

It were a most strange folly to fall passionately in love with a bird upon the wing. . . . How much better were it, since riches will fly, for thyself to direct their flight towards heaven, by relieving the necessitous servants and members of Jesus Christ.--Bishop Hopkins.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 6-8.

FEIGNED GENEROSITY.

+I. Men's inward life and feelings are often directly opposed to their outward life and actions.+ A man is here pictured as manifesting a large hospitality. His board is laden with dainty meats and surrounded with guests whom he presses to eat and drink with such an appearance of goodwill that it seems ungenerous to suspect him of insincerity. But words and even deeds do not always proclaim the man. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;" and this man's thoughts give the lie to his actions. He gives of his good things from no desire to cheer and relieve those who are poorer than himself, or to cement the bonds of friendship with his equals, but for some unworthy, and, it may be, from some base motive. He puts on for the time the garment of benevolence, but he is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," and will not hesitate to throw off his disguise, if the selfish ends which he has in view demand it. It is painful for us to be obliged to admit the truthfulness of the portrait here sketched by the Wise Man, but we know that it is not an exaggerated one.

+II. Those who encourage such hypocrisy will meet with a well-deserved punishment.+ It is taken for granted, and it is undoubtedly true, that there is a false gloss upon such feigned generosity which makes it easy to distinguish from the real thing. And, if we accept the hospitality of such a man knowing it to be a deception, we too practise hypocrisy, and thus become a partaker of his evil deeds. Such a man is guilty of two heinous sins, he is first a covetous and self-seeking sinner and then he is a gross hypocrite. The covetous man is according to the Inspired Book an idolator (Col. iii. 5), and our Lord when on earth could endure without anger all contradiction of sinners against Himself (Heb. xii. 3) except hypocrisy. This always set His holy nature on fire with indignation and called forth the only Woes that ever passed His lips. It was forbidden to the apostolic churches to sit at the table of any man who, "calling himself a brother," was yet "covetous or an idolator" (1 Cor. v. 11). For such a man was under a far deeper condemnation than one who openly manifested his real character, seeing that he added to his other sins that of professing to be what he was not, and to eat with such a man was not only to countenance his covetousness and idolatry but to share his hypocrisy. The Old Testament preacher here issues the same prohibition and obviously for the same reasons, and if men disregard them they fully deserve the negative and the positive punishment with which they are here threatened. All the friendly words which they utter to save appearances and to further selfish interests, and which convict them in their turn of hypocrisy, will be "lost," and bitter regret and self-condemnation will be their final portion.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The injunction, or dissuasion, I need not surely say, is by no means intended to give any license or encouragement to a spirit of pride or disdain. No. It is only a salutary warning to be cautious of bringing yourselves under obligation to any selfish and hypocritical dissembler of kindness, who only wishes to lay you under such obligation to serve purposes of his own. The man who has thus entertained you will boast of his hospitality; tell others of it, making the most of it for his own behoof; set it down against you, debiting you on account of it with certain expected good turns at your hand, when he comes to need them. He will throw it up to you, should you not do all he looks for; or rail at you to others for ingratitude and meanness in forgetting his kindness. He will remind you of it again and again, with vexatious importunity,--teazing you for your favour and influence in some object he has in view for himself or his family. It is amazing what an amount of expectation a man of this sordid and selfish disposition will found upon a dinner! Your having sat at his table, eaten of his dainties, and drunk of his wines, is price enough even for your conscience itself. Beware of him. Keep yourself free.--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 9.

THE MORALLY INCURABLE.

+I. A man may become morally incurable by human instructors.+ There are cases of bodily disease which it would be quite useless for the most skilful physician to attempt to cure; such an attempt would only be a throwing away of time and energy on his part which might be usefully employed upon another patient. And so there is at least one form of moral disease which is beyond the reach of human effort. It is that of the man who scoffs at everything, and upon whom, therefore, the most affectionate entreaties and the most solemn warnings are thrown away.

+II. To offer to such an incurable fool the wisdom of God is to break a Divine commandment.+ The Redeemer Himself, under the Gospel dispensation, issued such a prohibition. Even among the beneficent utterances of the Sermon on the Mount comes the command, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Matt. vii. 6). Although Christ and His disciples were sent forth to proclaim the Gospel message among men who, on account of their bitter animosity to Him and to His teachings were compared to "wolves" (Luke x. 3), there were others in a far more hopeless condition before whom they were forbidden to place the great truths of the kingdom of God, and they were such characters as the fool of this proverb, who would have "despised the wisdom of their words." The deep import of the words of Solomon are fully seen when we consider the even more startling utterance of Him who loved and died for all men.

+III. There is a Divine compassion for the sinner in this commandment.+ To offer to such a man what he would scoff at, would be to give him an occasion of increasing his own guilt by a new refusal of Divine truth. Mercy, therefore, is mingled with the stern judgment of the prohibition.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

We often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution begins with many men here. The day of grace terminates with many men before the day of death. There are those who reach an unconvertible state, their characters are stereotyped and fixed as eternity. The things that belong to their peace are hid from their eyes. They are incorrigible. Such is the character referred to in the text.--Dr. David Thomas.

Those that are reproved by ministers, and Christian friends may learn from this verse that they have no reason to take it amiss, or to think that they are treated with contempt. They are considered as offenders, but at the same time as offending brethren, who are not incurably perverse. They would be treated in a very different way, and might reckon themselves with more justice to be considered in the light of scorners, and dogs, and swine if there were no means used to recover them to repentance.--Lawson.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 10 and 11.

THE RIGHTS OF PRIVATE PROPERTY.

+I. In the community formed under Divine direction there was a possession of personal and private property.+ When the land of Canaan was first divided among the tribes, it was evident that each family had its respective allotment, the boundaries of which were clearly defined (See Duet. xix. 14, etc.) Each head of a family became, therefore, a possessor of property, to which no other person, not even the king in the days of the monarchy, had a right. (See 1 Kings xxi. 1-3.) The kingdom, therefore, formed under direct Divine supervision, was not governed on communistic principles; each man had his own inheritance, which became more or less valuable according to the industry and skill expended upon it. Social inequalities must have resulted from this arrangement, which were prevented from becoming too great by the arrangements connected with the year of jubilee, but which within certain limits were evidently not regarded by God as opposed to the welfare of His chosen people. We may infer, then, that the idea that it would be better for mankind if all things were possessed in common--if no man had anything which he could call his own--is not a Divine idea, and is a mistaken one.

+II. Those who are too helpless to protect their own rights are especially under the protection of God.+ The depravity of human nature is seen in the almost universal tendency displayed by the strong to forget the claims of the weak; but when this tendency is carried to the length of wronging the widow and the fatherless, it seems as if a man had sunk to the lowest depths of moral degradation. Yet there were such specimens of fallen humanity in the commonwealth established and governed by God Himself, as there are in nominally Christian England. But, from the earliest days of Jewish history, God declared Himself to be the Guardian of the widow and the fatherless, and the field which was their inheritance might have been well called God's Acre, from which all intruders were warned off by Divine command and threatening. This is a truth which it may be well for all those to lay to heart which hold property in trust for such dependent ones, or who have any other responsibility in relation to them. It is surely a comforting thought for the fatherless themselves that the place of the earthly parent is taken by One whose power as much exceeds all human power as His love goes beyond all human love.

ILLUSTRATION.

The state of Palestine with regard to enclosures is very much the same now as it has always been. Though gardens and vineyards are surrounded by dry stone walls or hedges of prickly pear, the boundaries of arable fields are marked by nothing but a little trench, a small cairn, or a single erect stone placed at certain intervals. It is manifest that a dishonest person could easily fill the gutter with earth, or remove these stones a few feet without much risk of detection and thus enlarge his own field by a stealthy encroachment on his neighbour's.--Dr. Jamieson.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The words in the first clause of the verse have been sometimes applied in a very different department--even to the danger and the criminality of intermeddling with old and long established articles of doctrine in religion, and principles and statutes of civil polity. . . . It is clear, however, that there can be no period of prescription for truth,--or rather for falsehood,--no length of time, that is, by which error that has passed for truth can become anything else than error. No time can transmute wrong into right. Changes, no doubt, should be made with caution. The longer anything has been received as a truth, the improbability of its being found an error becomes ever the greater. But if any dogma in any human system of Christian doctrine is proved, from a full and careful investigation of the Word of God, to have been set down and held as a truth by mistake,--it would be a most strange and mischievous attachment to antiquity for its own sake, that would resist its being expunged and the truth discovered substituted in its room. Never must we forget, that the most ancient landmarks of truth and duty are those which have been fixed here--in the Bible--by the hands of prophets, apostles, and evangelists, under the immediate direction of the "Spirit of the Lord." There are none so old as these. From the Bible human standards have been formed. Their landmarks profess to be in agreement, in the bounding lines of truth and error marked out by them, with those which are set down there. But when, on a careful survey, any of them are found to have been misplaced, and to bring any part of the region of error within the boundary of the territory of truth,--their removal becomes a duty of imperative obligation.--Wardlaw.

The word for redeemer signifies the man who was "next of kin," the kinsman on whom, by the law of Moses, it was incumbent as a matter of duty, and with whom too it was a matter of interest, to look after the concerns of his poor relations; with whom lay indeed the avenging of their blood, if in any case, their life should, in cruel selfishness, be taken away. It was on the principle of that statute that Boaz called upon the next of kin to come forward and redeem the inheritance of Elimelech at the hand of Naomi, and that, upon his hearing the conditions and declining, he did it himself. Now he who happened to be the redeeming kinsman might himself be poor, and powerless, and without either means or influence. But they should not, on that account, be unprotected and unbefriended. Jehovah Himself would take the place of their kinsman--would "plead their cause," would maintain their rights, would redress their wrongs, would bring His power to bear against their oppressors. He would fulfill for them the part of their near relation: and he is "mighty." Hear His words:--"Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless" (Exod. xxii. 22-24). These, you may think, are Old Testament threatenings, belonging to a judicial law that has passed away; or, more properly, they belong to the special theocracy, inasmuch as they do not prescribe any punishment to be inflicted by the hand of man, but announce what Jehovah himself would, by his own interposition, execute. Be it so. But think you that the character of God has changed? Such assurances and threatenings are not mere warnings of punishment; they are expressions of character.--Wardlaw.

Adored be the unsearchable pity, grace, and condescension of Emmanuel! When He could not redeem us as God, He became our kinsman, that He might be our Redeemer! (Heb. ii. 14-16).--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 12-28.

PARENTAL DUTIES AND PARENTAL JOYS.

This paragraph contains no subject upon which Solomon has not dwelt before, but their repetition shows the great importance which he attached to them.

+I. He repeats the truth that corporal punishment is a necessary and salutary element of parental training.+ (see Homiletics on chap. xiii. 24, page 234, and on chap. xix. 18, page 573.)

+II. He shows by example that appeals are also to be made to the higher and better nature of the child.+ Although the rod is to have its place, it is not to be the only force employed--a child is a reasoning and loving creature, and that training will miserably fail which does not take this fact into account. And in proportion as the child grows in years will the rod become less needful and effectual, and wise warning and loving entreaty will take its place. He is here besought to "give his heart to wisdom" and to live "in the fear of Jehovah"--1. Because of the exceeding joy that he will bring to his parents. (See verses 15, 24, and 25.) This is a thought that cannot fail to have weight with any son or daughter of good parents who is capable of grateful emotion. The consideration of the tender love and the unwearying patience that have surrounded them from their birth, and of the power that now lies in their hand to requite that long ministry of tenderness and long suffering, ought to be a powerful motive to dissuade from the evil path and allure into the good way. And it has been and ever will be, for many a child of godly parents has been kept in the hour of temptation by the remembrance of his father or his mother, even when he has not thought upon his God. (See also Homiletics on chap. x. 1, page 137.) 2. Because of the temporal ruin of an opposite course. (See verses 21, 27, and 28.) All these subjects have been considered before. (See Homiletics on chap. xxi. 17, page 609, and on chap. vi. 6-11, page 79, and on chap. vi. 24, page 89.) 3. Because of the rewards and punishments of the life to come. (See verse 18.) This verse (see Critical Notes) undoubtedly refers to the day of death and to the life beyond it, as do also chaps. xi. 7, and xiv. 32. (See Homiletics on pages 201 and 391.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 13. The command is framed upon a supposition that parents often fail on the side of tenderness; the word is given to nerve them for a difficult duty. There is no ambiguity in the precept; both the need of correction, and the tremendous issues that depend on it, are expressed with thrilling precision of language.--Arnot.

Verses 15, 16. Now the proverb personates the father, and, instead of a roundabout speech, utters the temper that should inspire the beating. There will be no good unless the father shows the son that it will be his highest joy, if the son learns wisdom. If thou be really "wise." That is the caution of the first clause. If it be no sham thing, but an affair of the "heart;" then "my heart shall rejoice," down in the same depths. And then, as men are great actors, and may look virtue as they whip a child, when they do not feel it much, Solomon protests that it must be real. Each part of this sentence must be meant. Not,--Thou must be a good citizen, or a clever worker, or a moral actor, or a good gratifying son; but the boy must see, (and he surely will see it, if it is felt), that the yearning is that he become wise in heart, i.e., a good earnest Christian, and then on the other hand, that down in the same depths, not with outward expressions of pleasure, but in your very heart--not in your made-up heart, which you keep to show to others, but in your very self--the proverb echoes your feeling, "My heart shall rejoice, even mine." The reduplication intensifies the sense. And then, unwilling to shake loose from the thought, he pushes it further. "Yea my reins shall rejoice." That deepest, firmest, lastingest receptacle of joy, the patient reins shall rejoice or "exult"--the very highest feeling coming from the deepest depths. "When thy lips," which are the best expounders of the heart, "speak right things." The doctrine therefore is that a man will save his child if he disciplines him with these witnessed tokens of his manifest affection.--Miller.

Verse 17. This habitual fear of the Lord is nothing separate from common life. It gives to it a holy character. It makes all its minute details not only consistent with, but component parts of, godliness. Acts of kindliness are "done after a godly sort" (John iii. 5, 6). Instead of one duty thrusting out another, all are "done heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto man" (Eph. vi. 6, Col. iii. 23). Some professors confine their religion to extraordinary occasions. But Elijah seems to have been content to await his translation in his ordinary course of work (2 Kings ii. 1-12). An example that may teach us to lay the greater stress upon the daily and habitual, not the extraordinary service. Others are satisfied with a periodical religion; as if it were rather a rapture or an occasional impulse, than a habit. But if we are to engage in morning and evening devotions, we are also to "wait upon the Lord all the day" (Ps. xxv. 5). If we are to enjoy our Sabbath privileges, we are also to "abide in our weekly calling with God." Thus the character of a servant of God is maintained--"devoted to His fear" (Ps. cxix. 38).--Bridges.

Verse 18. "Cut off," as the worldling's is. The worldling expects to be cut off. He toils with a hope, and that so vivid that he becomes aglow (see Miller's rendering, in verse 17) in worldly earnestness of purpose; and yet, ab imo, he knows that it will be cut off. . . . How can any intellect stand against such appeals? Work for something that will pay, for . . . there is something that shall never be "cut off."--Miller.

Verse 19. The hinging pivot of this verse is the pronoun thou. Friends may do ever so much, but in the end it must be thyself. There is an eternal "way." It is a way not for the feet but for the heart. The heart has some day to rise up and enter it. Once in, it will never wander any more out. My son, take that critical step. A man has a certain amount of strength, a certain amount of susceptibility let us call it, in matters of conversion. . . . Now the father, in his more immediate entreaties to his child, is to remember this.--Miller.

Verse 20. A man grows old by the common use of his faculties; but if he pleases he can travel faster. He can make drafts upon his flesh with wine, and burn faster. . . . A man can seek death by the most moral impenitence. But he can also travel faster. He can do it by drunkenness. He can do it by trains of trespasses, of which common drunkenness may stand as chief.--Miller.

We are forbidden not only to be drunkards or gluttons, but to be found in the company of such persons; for bad company is the common temptation which the devil uses to draw men to these sins. Those who have been long inured to a temperate course of life must not think that they are at liberty to infringe this precept, and to mingle themselves with the sons of riot, because they are strong enough in their own eye to overcome all the temptations of sensuality. Christ charges His own disciples, who had been practised in every virtue under his own eye, and who had less temptations to this vice than any other men, to take heed to themselves that their hearts might not be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness.--Lawson.

Verse 23. Solomon bids us buy the truth, but does not tell us what it must cost, because we must get it though it be ever so dear. We must love it both shining and scorching. Every parcel of truth is precious as filings of gold; we must either live with it or die for it. . . . A man may lawfully sell his house, land, or jewels, but truth is a jewel that excels all prices, and must not be sold; it is our heritage: "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever" (Psa. cxix. 111). It is a legacy that our forefathers have bought with their bloods, which should make us willing to lay down anything or lay out anything to purchase it.--Brooks.

A merchant buys for the very purpose of selling; and he will not buy unless he has a pretty good assurance that he will sell at a profit; that he can get for his article more than he has given. The case here, then, is quite peculiar. It is all buying. The article is one which is to be bought but never sold. And why? For the best possible reason, that it can never be sold at a profit, there is nothing too valuable to be given for it, there is nothing valuable enough to be taken for it. . . . 1. The buyer tests his article. He uses means to ascertain its genuineness. . . . The cautious purchaser makes sure of his bargain, and all the surer, the higher the price. . . . Now, all that is presented to us as truth must be thus tested. In physical science scientific men will not take upon trust what professes to be a new discovery without examining thoroughly the experiments by which it is said to have been ascertained. . . . Thus, too, does the metaphysician in regard to every new theory in mental science; and the moral philosopher in the department of ethics. . . . Now, we are as far as possible from wishing it to be otherwise in the department of religion. In proportion to the importance of the case,--to the height of the authority on which the claims to acceptance are rested,--the magnitude at once of the benefits promised, and of the risks incurred,--ought to be the solicitude and care with which the testing process is conducted. This then is the last department of all, in which what professes to be truth should be taken upon trust; in which inquiry should be careless, and faith easy. The obligation to examine is imperative and solemn; and marvellous, indeed, is the indisposition of men to enter on the investigation. Men who, with the utmost earnestness and perseverance, will test every alleged truth in science, in history, or in politics, cannot be persuaded to apply their powers to an inquiry more important, by infinite degrees, than any other that can engage the attention of the human mind! They either decline it altogether, or they set about it with a levity and a superficiality utterly at variance with what such a question demands, and from which no just appreciation or correct conclusion can be anticipated. 2. It is not enough for the buyer to ascertain the genuineness of his article. He sets about estimating its real worth; its worth intrinsically, and its worth adventitiously; its worth in itself, and its worth to him. The two may be widely different. The diamond is of incomparably more intrinsic worth than the grain of barley; but the cock in the fable spurned away the former and picked up the latter. In the present case,--having once ascertained the Divine authority of the record,--there can be no hesitation about either the intrinsic or the relative value of what it makes known. All truth is precious; but its preciousness is, of course, endlessly varied in degree. Two things may be considered as combining to constitute its value. They are--its subject, and its utility. In natural science some truths present a union of both. The discoveries of astronomy for example, are, many of them, full of intrinsic interest from their vastness and sublimity, and the impressions they give of the transcendent majesty of God; while, in some of their practical bearings, they are of pre-eminent advantage to men. But in a peculiar sense may this be affirmed of the discoveries of Divine revelation. These discoveries present views of God's moral government, in its great essential principles and in their practical application, such as have in them a weight of moral grandeur, and a consequent depth of absorbing interest surpassing all that nature can disclose. And, while they possess intrinsic preciousness above all other truths,--think of their value when estimated by the blessings which are unfolded in them, and to which the faith of them introduces the believer, in time and in eternity! The purchaser values the article he is about to purchase, by the amount of benefit the possession of it will bring him. In like manner must you estimate the value of "the truth" you are here counselled to buy. The value of it, in this view, is summed up by our Lord himself, when he says, "THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL." What then, the real worth to you, of any other compared with this? 3. The buyer, when he has estimated the value of his article, makes proportional sacrifices to obtain possession of it. Foolish estimates there may be; and these foolish estimates may be the occasion of foolish bargains; and these may be the grounds of regret and self-dissatisfaction. But supposing the certainty of all the benefits, for time and eternity, which in the Bible are promised and guaranteed in connection with "the truth," O! what is there, in the whole compass of what this world can confer, that should not, without one moment's hesitation, be sacrificed for its attainment? 4. In proportion to the buyer's estimate of his article, and the cost at which he has obtained it, will be the jealousy with which he retains and guards it. "Sell it not." Selling the truth, is not simply letting slip from the mind the remembrance of mere abstractions; it is to give up the profession and faith of it for the sake of the very things which we sacrificed for it. But "sell it not." Sell it not for the pleasures of sin. Sell it not for the riches and honours of the world. O part not with the pearl of great price for the husks which the swine do eat. . . . And be prompt with your bargain. Those who are much set upon an article will not delay their purchase, lest perchance it should pass from their hands. Blessed be God there is no danger here, so far as others coming forward before you is concerned. . . . But if not now prompt and decided you may be thwarted in another way. Death may decide the matter for you.--Wardlaw.

Verse 26. A supplication is come, as it were, from God to man, that man would send God his heart; penned by Solomon under the name of wisdom (chap. ix. 1), and directed to her sons. . . . He which always gave, now craves; and he which craves always, now gives. Christ stands at the door like a poor man, and asks not bread, nor clothes, nor lodgings, which we should give to His members, but our heart--that is, even the continent of all, and governor of man's house. . . . Should God be a suppliant unto thee and me, but that our unthankfulness condemns us, that for all the things which He hath given unto us, we never considered yet what we should give unto Him before He asketh. . . . Mark what God hath chosen for Himself: not that which any other should lose by, like the demands of them which care for none but themselves, but that which, being given to God, moves us to give every man his due. . . . Give God thy heart, that He may keep it; not a piece of thy heart, not a room in thy heart, but thy heart. The heart divided, dieth. God is not like the mother which would have the child divided, but like the natural mother which said, Rather than it should be divided, let her take it all. Let the devil have all, if He which gave it be not worthy of it. . . . As a man considers what he does when he gives, so God licenseth us to consider of that which we do for Him, whether He deserves it, whether we owe it, whether He can require it, lest it come against our will; therefore give Me, saith God, as though He would not strain upon us, or take it from us. . . . Is God so desirous of my heart? What good can my heart do to God? It is not worthy to come under His roof. I would I had a better gift to send unto my Lord; go, my heart, to thy Maker; the Bridegroom hath sent for thee, put on thy wedding garment, for the King Himself will marry thee. Who is not sorry now that he did not give his heart before? Is he not worthy to die that will take his heart from Him that made it, from Him that redeemed it, from Him which preserves it, from Him that will glorify it, and gives it to him that will infect it, torment it, condemn it? Will a servant reach the cup to a stranger when his master calls for it? Or will a man sell his coat if he have no more? What dost thou reserve for God, when thou hast given Satan thine heart? Christ hath promised to come and dwell with thee (Rev. iii. 20); where shall He stay, where shall He dine, if the chamber be taken up, and the heart let forth to another? Thou art but a tenant, and yet thou takest His house over His head, and placest in it whom thou wilt, as if thou wert landlord.--Henry Smith.

I. Man has nothing higher to dispose of. His heart is given when he sets his strongest affections upon an object. Wherever he centres his strongest love his heart is, and wherever his heart is he is. . . . II. Man is compelled to dispose of it. He is forced, not by any outward coercion, but by an inward pressure. It is as necessary for the soul to love as it is to the body to breathe. The deepest of all the deep hungers of humanity is the hunger of the soul to love. Sometimes so ravenous does man's animal appetite for food become, that he will devour with a kind of relish the most loathsome things; and so voracious is the heart for some object to love, that it will settle down upon the lowest and most contemptible creatures rather than not love at all. III. Man alone can dispose of it. No one can take it from him by force. He is the only priest who can present it.--Dr. David Thomas.

Verse 28. Uncleanness leads to faithlessness of manifold kinds; and it makes not only the husband unfaithful to the wife, but also the son to the parents, the scholar to the teacher and pastor, the servant to the master. The adulteress, inasmuch as she entices now one and now another into her net, increases the number of those who are faithless towards men. But are they not, above all, faithless towards God?--Delitzsch.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 29-35.

THE DRUNKARD'S PICTURE.

+I. The drunkard is an entire inversion of man as God intended him to be.+ God made man's mind to rule his body, but the drunkard's bodily appetites rule his mind. God gave man an intellect to guide his actions; He intended the various limbs of his body to be the servants of his will, and to obey the dictates of his reason. But the drunkard not only gives up all his spiritual and intellectual power to his body, but all his other bodily powers to the rule of one sense--that of his palate. Men who are not awake to their spiritual and mental needs might be expected to have as much regard for their animal wants, and to be as careful to avoid bodily suffering as the brute creation. But it is not so with the drunkard--although nights and days of privation and suffering are often the fruits of an hour's drinking, he voluntarily undergoes the former in order to enjoy the latter. Not only is conscience and reason and heart sacrificed to his mouth, but every other bodily sense is made to serve the one sense and every other part of the body to suffer, that one part may be gratified if but for a moment.

+II. He is an entire inversion of what we might expect even a fallen man to be.+ Looking at man as he is when he lives for this world only, he is generally alive to his own immediate temporal interests and careful to avoid in the future what has brought him suffering in the past. But it is not so with the slave to drink. If only wife and children had to leave lives of misery and his own life was a constant round of even animal enjoyment, the drunkard's career would not be such an unaccountable infatuation. Human selfishness would be sufficient to account for it. But who suffers like the drunkard himself? The wise man enumerates some of his miseries--woe, grief, contentions and wounds without cause, the stings of remorse, the disordered brain, and entire loss of consciousness and of power to defend one's own life and property--this is the drunkard's heritage. And in the intervals between his madness he knows it and drinks to the dregs the bitter cup of bodily and mental misery that must always follow the immoderate use of the wine cup. And yet his language is "I will seek it yet again." The child that has been burnt dreads the fire, but the poor drunkard scarred from head to foot with the marks of the flames, seems with all his other losses to have lost also the natural instinct of self-preservation and the power of learning anything from the great teacher--experience.

+III. A consideration of the strength and nature of the drunkard's chain should lead all to shun that which enslaved him.+ When we consider what havoc intoxicating drink has wrought, it is marvellous that men do not turn from it with loathing; that they are not afraid to play with so deadly, and yet so treacherous an enemy to mankind. When the sailor knows that there is a treacherous whirlpool in the ocean, which has engulfed a thousand noble vessels, he is careful to give it a wide berth, to keep far beyond the outermost ring of the current. But the habit of men in general seems to be to try how near they can come to his moral and social gulf of death, without being drawn beneath the waters. The experiment is fraught with deadly peril, and is often a fatal one. Solomon's advice is to ensure safety, by not even "looking upon the wine when it is red."

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

There is mention made of a monk at Prague, who having heard at shrift the confessions of many drunkards, wondered at it, and for experiment would try his brain with this sin, and accordingly stole himself drunk. Now, after the vexation of three sick days, to all that confessed that sin he enjoined no other penance than this: "Go and be drunk again." Surely his meaning was like that of Seneca, that drunkenness was a torment and affliction to itself.--Spencer.

Drunkenness is a special water at the devil's banquet. This sin is a horrible self-theft. . . . Thieves cannot steal lands, unless they be Westminster Hall thieves, crafty contenders that eat out a true title with false evidence; but the drunkard robs himself of his lands. Now he dissolves an acre, and then an acre, into the pot, till he hath ground all his ground at the malt quern, and run all his patrimony through his throat. Thus he makes himself the living tomb of his forefathers--of his posterity. He needs not trouble his sick mind with a will, or distrust the fidelity of executors.--T. Adams.

Verse 29. The best that can come of drunkenness is repentance--that fairest daughter of so foul a mother--and that is not without its woe, and alas! its sorrow and redness of eyes with weeping for sin.--Trapp.

Verse 31. He that would avoid the commission of sin must avoid the occasion of sin. If we would not fall down the hill we must beware of coming near the brow of it. Keep thee far from an evil matter. When the wine laughs in thy face then shut thine eyes lest it steal into thine heart. A guest may easily be kept out of the house at first, but if once entertained it is hard to turn him out of doors. When the governor of a fort once comes to parley with the enemy that besiegeth him there is great fear that the place will be surrendered.--Swinnock.

Verse 33. One remarkable peculiarity of this chapter is the junction and alternation of these two kindred sins. There they stand, like two plants of death, each growing on its own independent root, and nourished by the same soil, but cleaving close to each other by congeniality of nature, and twisted round each other for mutual support. . . . The alliance, so generally formed and so firmly maintained between drunkenness and licentiousness, is a master-stroke of Satan's policy. It is when men have looked upon this deceitful cup, and received into their blood the poison of its sting, that their eyes behold "strange women;" and when they have fallen into that "narrow pit," they run back to hide their shame, at least from themselves, in the maddening draught.--Arnot.

Verse 34. The passage is interesting, as showing what Ps. civ. 25, 26, cvii. 23-30, also show, the increased familiarity of the Israelites with a sea life.--Plumptre.

It is very foul weather in which a drunkard saileth. For as St. Ambrose speaketh, the multitude of lusts in him do raise a great tempest, which toss his mind to and fro, sailing as it were in the narrow sea of his body, so that he cannot be pilot to himself. . . . But that which maketh the drunkard's case worst of all is this: it is a shipwreck of the body only which in a tempest is feared, but he maketh shipwreck of his soul if repentance be not a plank of safety to him.--Jermin.

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Chapter XXIV

CRITICAL NOTES.--+5. A man of knowledge,+ rather "a man of understanding," +increaseth strength,+ literally "maketh power strong." Miller translates the entire verse thus:--"A strong man, if wise, is as a power indeed; and a man of knowledge makes strength really strong." +7. Wisdom is too high,+ etc. Delitzsch here reads, Wisdom seems to the fool to be an ornamental commodity, and thinks "the comparison lies in the rarity, costliness, and unattainableness of wisdom." "The word," says Miller, "occurs but three times in the Bible; once in Job xxviii. 18, translated coral; once in Ezekiel xxvii. 16, translated coral and agate; and once in this passage, where it ought to be translated coral again." Some, from this rendering, understand the verse to signify that a fool uses wisdom like a precious stone, only for ornament. +8. Mischievous person,+ literally a master or lord of mischief. +9. The thought,+ etc., rather, "the device or undertaking." +10. If thou faint,+ etc., rather "If thou hast been straitened in the day of straitness, strait is thy strength." +11.+ Literally, "Deliver them who are dragged forth unto death, and them that totter to the slaughter, oh, rescue them." +12. He that pondereth,+ literally, the Weigher of hearts. +He that keepeth,+ rather "watcheth." +14. There shall be a reward,+ rather, "there is a future," as in chap. xxiii. 18. +16. The wicked shall fall.+ Delitzsch reads, "the wicked are overthrown when calamity falls on them," i.e., they do not rise again and again as the just man does. +20. Reward.+ The same word used in verse 14, and in chap. xxiii. 18. Its literal meaning is "a hereafter." Zöckler translates it end in the first two instances, but in this case he reads future. Delitzsch and Miller render it hereafter or future in every verse. +21. Given to change,+ literally otherwise disposed, or, according to Miller, repeaters, turners back. +22. The ruin of them both,+ etc. This phrase is variously rendered, and different meanings are also attached to the same rendering. Delitzsch follows the Syriac version, and reads, "the end of their years, who knoweth it?" But Zöckler adapts the reading of the Authorised Version, which is supported by the Vulgate, by Luther, Ewald, Elster, and others. Some understand the word both to refer to those who rebel against God, and those who rebel against the king (so Zöckler), while others apply it to God and the king, and the ruin foretold as that proceeding from them. Here begins a short appendix to the third main division of the book of Proverbs, the first clause of verse 33 being its superscription, which is almost in the same words as that which introduces the division itself. (See chap. xxii. 17.) It extends only to the end of the chapter, and consists of maxims which have no apparent connection with each other. +23. These things also belong to the wise.+ Rather "These (the proverbs which follow) are also from wise men." The word also connects this introduction with that in chap. xxii. 17. +25. To them that rebuke,+ etc. The word him is not in the original, and spoils the sense. If this rendering of the verb is accepted, iniquity must be understood to be the subject of rebuke. Delitzsch however reads, "To them who rightly decide," and Miller renders, "To them that set the thing right." +26. A right answer,+ i.e., a faithful, straightforward answer. "The word comes," says Miller, "from a verb meaning to be in front." "The mention of the lips," Zöckler remarks, "is to be explained simply by the remembrance of the question to which the upright and truthful answer corresponds." +27. House.+ This word may mean here as it does in Exod. i. 21, Ruth iv. 11, 2 Sam. vii. 27, etc., the family--the household interests.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 1-6.

HOUSE BUILDING.

+I. An undertaking founded upon wickedness lacks the first element of stability.+ A house built upon a sandy foundation, we all know, does not possess the first requisite of safety. It is useless to erect any building for fine weather purposes only--if it is not able to stand a storm all the labour expended upon it is lost. Those places are very few where the tempest does not come sometimes, and even if we could find so favoured a spot, a sandy foundation would not be a permanent one. The ordinary play of the elements and the changes of the seasons would be ever at work upon the loose and shifting soil, and in time the house must fall. So it is with any work undertaken with an evil purpose or from wicked motives. There are laws at work in God's universe which will forbid such a building to remain long in existence. It is very easy work to lay the stones in the sand--much more easy than to hew out a place for them in the solid rock--and the apparently rapid success of evil men and evil deeds tempts many an unwise builder to work after their method. But the experience of the Psalmist is repeated in every age and must be to the end of time: "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found" (Psalm xxxvii. 35, 36).

+II. True wisdom consists in patient continuance in well-doing.+ In this passage, as throughout the entire Book of Proverbs, wisdom is set up as the rival of evil, and sin is accounted as the height of folly. The wise man accounts everything foolishness which is against the moral law of the universe, and the good man in his estimation the only wise man. That this is a just and true estimate is apparent to all who look a little beneath the surface of things--to all who realise that it is one thing to seem and another thing to be. The mansion upon the sand-bank appears to be a more desirable dwelling place than the cottage upon the rock, but time will prove which is the safer of the two. But permanence or safety are not the only recommendations to the home of wisdom. There is a satisfaction and a positive joy to be found in doing the right to which the evil-doer is a stranger. To be on the right side of the good is to be on the side of God and of conscience, to know from experience that all the moral powers of the soul grow stronger with use, and such experimental knowledge fills the chambers of the soul "with all precious and pleasant riches" (verse 4). These considerations ought to make it easy to obey Solomon's precept: "Be not envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them." The mariner on even a stormy sea would not envy the dweller in the lighthouse if he knew that the waves were rapidly undermining its foundation and rendering its speedy fall certain, and to envy a man a short-lived prosperity which must have a sad end is as contrary to the dictates of reason and self-love. A consideration of their "end" (Psalm lxxiii. 17) is a good preservative against such an envy, and has been tried by many men since the days of Asaph with the same success. But without bringing the future into the present, envy of the wicked may be effectually prevented if we can realise their present loss. The inhabitant of the dwelling filled with materials to satisfy his bodily and mental appetites and wants does not envy him whose house is destitute of such comforts. Yet that would be more reasonable than for him who has the opportunity of rearing for himself a well-furnished house of wisdom--of building a character which shall be in itself a source of satisfaction and joy to his better nature--to desire the empty and unsatisfying portion of evil doers.

For Homiletics on verse 6 considered by itself see on chap. xi. 14, page 214, and on chap. xx. 18, page 590.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 1. Sin is like sound, and it finds the moral nature of fallen man, like the atmosphere, a good conducting medium. The word or deed of evil does not terminate where it is produced. It radiates all round; and beside the direct propagation from a centre by diverging lines, it further reduplicates itself by rebounding like an echo from every object upon which it falls. Human beings may well stand in awe when they consider the self-propagating power of sin, and the facilities which their own corruption affords it. Different persons are affected in different ways. One is shaken by the example of wickedness in its first out-go, another by its rebounding blow. One is carried away in the stream, another hurts himself by his violent efforts to resist it. Some imitate the sin. Others fret against the sinner. Both classes do evil and suffer injury. Whether you be impatiently "envious against evil men," or weakly "desirous to be with them," you have sustained damage by the contact.--Arnot.

To be envious against evil men is plainly to confess ourselves to be worse than they are. For, as St. Gregory speaketh, we cannot envy except it be those who we think to be better than ourselves. Indeed, to envy against evil men is to make wickedness to be goodness, and to show no goodness to be in his heart that is so envious. . . . Whosoever thou be that envieth evil men, I cannot tell who should envy thee, except the devil, because thou strivest to be more wicked than he is. For they are only the godly that he is envious against.--Jermin.

Verse 4. The last virtue here spoken of is knowledge, whereby the inward rooms of the house are filled with all precious substance; unto the providing and treasuring up of food, of money, and all things necessary and comfortable, the knowledge of times, the prices of things, and of the means whereby commodities may be obtained, is requisite. . . . It is not to be marvelled at that many young married folk and householders in these days have nothing in their families but want of necessaries and bare walls, seeing they want both wisdom and understanding, and knowledge.--Muffett.

Riches imply (1) plenty of that which is precious and pleasant. (2) Propriety. They must be that which is their own; and hereunto economical prudence much conducteth. God bestoweth abundance on the wicked ex largitate, only out of a general providence; but upon his people that are good husbands ex promisso, by virtue of this and the like promises.--Trapp.

Verse 5. A strong man. (See Miller's rendering in the Critical Notes.) A common man, a better sort of man, are the four words for man in the Bible. This is a strong man. It means strong in a worldly sense. That man, if wise, is a power indeed. . . . The meaning is that a "strong" man, if not "wise," is not "strong" at all; that piety is itself strength; that the stronger a man without it, the weaker he is; that a strong man who is pious, not only becomes strong in that, but strong really by his worldly strength; because piety gives realness to every gift.--Miller.

I. Intelligence apart from piety is power. A man who has great intelligence, and knows how to use it, possesses a power superior to any physical force. . . . II. Piety apart from intelligence is a higher kind of power. It is the patience of love, endurance, patience, compassion; it is a power which will touch men's hearts, move the very arm of Omnipotence, "take hold upon the strength of God." III. Piety associated with intelligence is the highest creature power. What power on earth is equal to that possessed by the man of vast intelligence and consecrated affections, the man of sunny intellect and Heaven-inspired sympathies and aims?--Dr. David Thomas.

A wise man is not only strong in having wisdom, but in getting strength also. . . . For by wisdom knowing well the want and need of strength, he is careful and diligent to procure it; whereas many times strength, being presumptuous upon its own might, seeks not for wisdom to support it, and falls for want of having it.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 7.

A FALSE ESTIMATE AND A TRUE ONE.

+I. The fool's estimate of wisdom.+ Solomon here gives the fool's own reason for remaining in his folly, viz., that wisdom is difficult to acquire--that neither intellectual or spiritual knowledge can be gained without pains and self-denial. This is of course saying in effect that they are worthless, and this false estimate lies at the root of all ignorance, whether it be mental or moral. For if we can make a man feel that a thing is good and will bring him good, he will not be unwilling to seek to possess it, and his search and his pursuit will be diligent, and eager, and continuous, in proportion to the good which he believes the possession will bring him. The idle schoolboy complains of the difficulty of his tasks, and of the severity of his teacher, because he does not rightly estimate the value of knowledge, and the moral fool finds fault with the methods of becoming spiritually wise, because he has no sense of the worth of such wisdom. But it must not be forgotten that the longer the fool makes the excuse of the text, the more true it becomes. The powers of the intellect, like those of the body, are less capable of use the longer they remain idle. If a healthy man is so indolent as to refuse to walk, his legs by long disuse may become unable to perform their office, and if the mental powers are left unexercised in youth, it is more difficult to use them to purpose in middle life. And it is so, too, with the spiritual perceptions and capabilities. Although it is never too late to acquire the highest wisdom, it certainly seems more out of the reach of the man who has neglected to seek it throughout a long life, than of him who gives to its pursuit the vigour and freshness of his youth.

+II. The consequent estimate which wise men form of the fool.+ If men undervalue wisdom, they themselves are little valued, and their words and opinions have no weight with wise men. As it is a mark of folly generally to "open the mouth," although nothing comes therefrom that is worth anything, the declaration that a fool "openeth not his mouth in the gate" must point, not to his own modesty or conscious inability to speak wisely, but to the estimation in which he is held by others.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

In bodily things, the more weighty they are, the lower they fall; the lighter they are, the higher they go. Contrariwise is it in the things of the soul, and the more weighty they are, the higher they are; the lighter they are, the lower they lie. It is therefore the lightness of a fool's brain that makes wisdom too high for him: the giddiness of his head is not able to look up unto the height of it. . . . Therefore St. Gregory saith, If thou wilt find wisdom, tread upon the waves of this world, and walk upon the waters of this life, as St. Peter did, and she will reach forth her right hand to thee, as she did to Peter.--Jermin.

Verses 8 and 9 treat of subjects which have occurred more than once before. See on chap. vi. 12-19, page 81.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 10.

THE DAY OF ADVERSITY.

+I. The inevitable in human experience.+ The day of adversity is an ordination of God, as a necessary element in man's moral training. The human rulers of a well-ordered State make certain provisions for the education of the young, and these provisions necessarily include many things that are distasteful, and even painful, to the pupils. But if they were left to map out their own course, and to arrange for themselves the plan of their education, we well know that the result in the end would be unsatisfactory to everybody, and most of all to themselves when they were old enough to judge. Even so it is with mankind and the Ruler of the world. God has purposed that men shall be subject to such a course of instruction and discipline as shall at least give them an opportunity of becoming wiser and better, and the day of adversity is an indispensable element in such a training. It therefore does not come to us by chance, nor is it always to be regarded in the light of a penalty for special sin, but is a token of Divine interest in our real welfare--an expression of Divine desire for our moral growth. It is wise, then, for all to recognise the fact that adversity in some form or other, at some period or other, is an inevitable event in their human life.

+II. The test of human character.+ No man knows his moral strength until he comes face to face with trial. The chain that holds the vessel to the quay is only as strong as the weakest link, and if that one gives way the vessel is loosed from her moorings as surely as if every link was broken. So human character is only as strong as its weakest point, and if a severe strain is brought to bear upon a man, he will break down there. In the day of adversity every virtue and excellence that we possess will be subjected to a severe test, and if only one of them is found unequal to the trial, the whole character suffers, and we are in danger of losing our hold upon God, and so drifting from the right course. A man may have a high opinion of his own physical strength, and fancy that he is well able to grapple with any foe who might attack him. But it is not till he is in the grip of his antagonist that he knows how much or how little he is able to do and to bear. If he finds himself on the ground, stunned and bleeding, he rises from the struggle with a lower estimate of his own muscular strength than he had before. And so it is with the inner man when the day of adversity over takes it--we think that our faith and moral courage are equal to any emergency, but we are sometimes stricken down to the dust and "faint" from the weight of a blow which we thought beforehand we could withstand, and for the rest of our lives have less confidence in our spiritual strength.

+III. A strengthener of human character.+ Although men often "faint" in the day of adversity, or find their resources insufficient to meet their needs in the hour of trial, it is not necessarily the case, nor is it always so. Indeed, the intention of trial is not to take away our strength, but to increase it. If the day of adversity proves too much for our strength, the encounter may leave us morally weaker than we were before; but if we bear it courageously, and do not allow it to drive us to despair, or even to doubt, we come out of the ordeal stronger than when we entered into it. If a tree has too firm a hold upon the soil to be uprooted by the tempest, the shaking will but make it firmer still, and if our confidence and hope in God are not lessened by the blasts of adversity, they are rendered stronger and brighter, and more fitted to encounter the next storm. But fainting at the first blow of adversity leaves very little strength to meet the next trial, and this thought seems also to be in the proverb as it stands in the Hebrew.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

If you were to hear some men's experience you would think they grew as the white pine grows, with straight grain and easily split, for I notice that all that grow easy split easy. But there are some that grow as the mahogany grows, with veneering knots, with all the quirls and contortions of grain; that is the best timber of the forest which has the most knots. . . . There are many who are content to grow straight, like weeds on a dunghill; but there are many others who want to be stalwart and strong like the monarchs of the forest, and yet when God sends the winds of adversity to sing a lullaby in their branches, they do not like to grow in that way. They dread the culture that is really giving toughness to their soul and strength to its fibre.--Beecher.

The times of man's distress, though it be a night of sorrow and trouble, which it bringeth to the soul, yet is it a day also, because it showeth truly to the soul what a man is.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 11 and 12.

POSITIVE PUNISHMENT FOR A NEGATIVE CRIME.

+I. The negative crime.+ The question "Am I my brother's keeper?" is here answered with an emphatic affirmative, for whatever may be the special reference of the words it is plain that they condemn as criminal the non-interposition of the strong on behalf of the weak and distressed. This crime may be committed from various causes. Those who are guilty of it may be entirely indifferent to the sufferings of others. There are many men and women who, if they are at ease themselves, never concern themselves about the sufferings of others--it matters not to them who is hungry so as they are well fed, and what privations others may be enduring while their needs are supplied. But the crime is oftener chargeable to moral cowardice and unwillingness to practice self-denial. A man may be sufficiently concerned for the danger of a drowning brother to throw him a rope, but he may shrink from throwing himself into the water and risking a watery grave on his behalf. So he may pity the ignorant and the erring and feel sad when he thinks of their sorrows and their sins, and yet be unwilling to sacrifice his money or his leisure or his social position in endeavours to save them. But the proverb seems to deal especially with what seems at first sight to be a less blameworthy class of persons than either of these--with those who have never considered the claims which others have upon them--who are really ignorant how many hearts are breaking around them and how many are perishing for the want of a helping hand. But this ignorance is here regarded as criminal. "Evil is wrought for want of thought, as well as want of heart," but it is as much evil in the one case as in the other, and the want of thought is a sin in itself. And so is the want of knowledge here. God will not admit the plea "I knew it not," but holds him who utters it guilty for his ignorance as well as for his neglect.

+II. The positive punishment.+ No truth is taught more plainly in the Bible, than that men will not escape retribution of some kind because they have simply abstained from doing ill. The possessor of the one talent did not put it to a bad use, or throw it away. He kept it carefully wrapped in a napkin. But the sentence passed upon him was not merely that he should be deprived of his privilege, or that reward should be withheld, but:--"Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness" (Matt. xxv. 30). "The tree that was only barren was burned," says an old writer. The justice of this will be seen the more we consider how much actual wrong-doing on the part of some is chargeable to the not-doing of others. How much sin might be prevented if those who have it in their power sought to deliver others from bodily, or social, or moral death.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

"He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it." This favour of God may be here mentioned partly as a strong obligation upon Him to preserve him who was made after God's image, and whom God hath commanded him to love and preserve; partly to an encouragement to the performance of his duty herein from the consideration of God's special care and watchfulness over those who do their duty; and partly to intimate to them the danger of neglect of this duty whereby they will forfeit God's protection over themselves.--Poole.

The condition of sinners may be regarded as here very aptly set forth. They are "drawn unto death"--seized, or apprehended for death, and "ready to be slain:"--and the death to which they are doomed,--O how unutterably fearful! But you may naturally meet me with an objection here. In their condition there is no injustice; no unrighteous and cruel oppression. The sentence of death under which they lie is a divine sentence--in perfect accordance with all the principles of equity:--the sword with which they are "ready to be slain" is the sword of Divine justice itself. They deserve to die the death. To attempt to prevent it would be to arrest the hand of God. Ought not divine, and therefore unimpeachable, justice too have its course? The objection--otherwise irresistible--God has Himself removed. Justice, infinite justice, had all its claims acknowledged and fulfilled on Calvary. On the ground of the sacrifice there offered, the atonement there made, the God of justice and mercy has called on sinners to accept pardon, in the name and for the sake of His Son. His call comes with authority. It is a command. It is in virtue of the satisfaction of justice in the atonement of Christ, that we ourselves enjoy our own deliverance from the death and destruction to which, in common with all, we were devoted. And the very same authority that commanded us to believe and be saved, enjoins on us to be agents in attempting the rescue of others. O! what should we not be ready to do, to sacrifice, to suffer for such an end!--to effect such a rescue!--Wardlaw.

While Samuel Romilly's Bill to abolish the punishment of death for a theft amounting to the sum of five shillings passed the English House of Commons, it was thrown out by a majority in the House of Lords. Among those who voted against the Bill were one archbishop and five bishops. Our poet here in the Proverbs is of a different mind. Even the law of Sinai appoints the punishment of death only for man-stealing. . . . In expressions like the above a true Christian spirit rules the spirit which condemns all bloodthirstiness of justice, and calls forth to a crusade, not only against the inquisition, but against all unmerciful and cruel executions.--Delitzsch.

The Hebrew midwives, and Esther in after ages, thus delivered their own people drawn unto death. Reuben delivered Joseph from the pit. Job was the deliverer of the poor in the extremity. Jonathan saved his friend at imminent risk to himself. Obadiah hid the Lord's prophets. Ahikam and Ebed-melech saved Jeremiah. Johanan attempted to deliver the unsuspecting Gedaliah. Daniel preserved the wise men of Babylon. The Samaritan rescued his neighbour from death. Paul's nephew delivered the great Apostle by informing him of the murderous plot. The rule includes all oppression, which has more or less of the character of murder.--Bridges.

"Who is lord over us?" is the watchword of the life-long battle between an evil conscience and a righteous Judge. Here the commandment is exceeding broad. Like Divine omniscience, it compasses the transgressor before and behind. It checks his advance, and cuts off his retreat. Although a man should actually maintain in relation to every brother the neutrality he professes, it would avail him nothing. . . . What ails our brother, that he needs the compassion of a tender heart and the help of a strong hand? He is "drawn unto death," and "ready to be slain." This is the very crisis which at once needs help and admits it. If the danger were more distant, he might not be sensible of his need; if it were nearer, he might be beyond the hope of recovery. He is so low that help is necessary; yet not so low as would render help vain. He is "drawn unto death," and therefore is an object of pity; but his life is yet in him, and therefore he is a subject of hope.--Arnot.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 13 and 14.

HONEY AND WISDOM.

+I. An analogy.+ 1. Honey is found by man ready prepared for his use; no human skill is needed to make it fit for food--nothing that man can do can render it more palatable than it is as it flows from the comb. So the revealed wisdom of God as it is found in the Scriptures needs no intervention of man to make it suitable to human needs. 2. As honey is evidently designed by God to furnish a wholesome and pleasant food for the body, so has He designed that the revelation of His mind and will by His inspired messengers shall provide wholesome and congenial food for the soul of man. The great abundance of honey in Palestine led to its forming a more prominent part of daily food than in western countries, and its possessing these two qualities made it very fit for general and constant use, and was a perpetual testimony to the providence of God in relation to the needs and enjoyment of His creatures. So is the provision which God has made for the spiritual wants of the children of men. On this point we must take the testimony of those who have tasted this soul-food. We should not ask a man whether honey was pleasant to the taste if he had never eaten it, and those are not qualified to bear witness concerning the spiritual enjoyment and benefit to be derived from the "wisdom of God" who have not tested it. All those who have done so, whatever their condition in life, in whatever age they have lived, or whatever part of the world they have called their home, have agreed with David's testimony that it is "more to be desired than gold, yea, than much find gold: sweeter than honey and the honey-comb" (Psa. xix. 10).

+II. A contrast.+ 1. Honey may be eaten unto it cloys the appetite and injures the eater, but not so with the Word of God. Those who eat the most of this spiritual food are the most spiritually healthy, and have the keenest appetite for it. 2. Although this God-given bodily food may do much to nourish and sustain a healthy man, it cannot cure a diseased body, or prevent the inroads of sickness and decay. But there is a soul-transforming power in the spiritual food of which it is here an emblem. Those who eat of it are by it healed of spiritual disease, and are continually and unceasingly growing in moral health and vigour. 3. The blessings flowing from eating the spiritual food are only fully realised in the life beyond the present. To this the wise man refers in the last clause. (For Homiletics on this thought, see on chaps. xi. 7, xiv. 32, pages 201 and 391.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 13. The wise man's feast which he makes his son is but one dish. And what need of more when that is both good and pleasant? The glutton provideth many dishes, and costly to make them luscious, but they are not good, not good for the health of the body. . . . On the other side, the physician provideth divers meats, and they are good--good either for the preservation of heath or for the recovery of it, but they are not pleasant and grateful to the palate. That is the best feeding when those are joined together. . . . Or else if they are not joined together, notice that the wise man putteth good in the first place; as teaching thee rather to take that which is good though not pleasant, than that which is pleasant but not good.--Jermin.

Verse 14. When thou hast found it. That is, when thou hast so found it that thou canst feed upon it and convert it into nourishment, then thy pains of seeking shall be rewarded. And though it be a late reward, for wisdom is not quickly found, yet there shall be a reward, and that so full, that in nothing thine expectation shall be cut off. For though hardly yet it is well-gotten; and with pleasure will sweeten the pains, with good will satisfy the tarrying and recompense the delay. The Chaldee rendereth the middle part of the verse, "If thou hast found, the last will come better than the first." As if this were a mark whereby to know whether we have found wisdom or not, because then the further we go on the more sweetness we shall find.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 15 and 16.

A SOCIAL AMBUSH.

+I. A common practice of the wicked man in relation to the good.+ When we think of an ambush of men lying in wait to spring upon their foes at a fitting opportunity, two hostile parties are at once brought before us, we feel that there must be deep enmity on one side at least, or men would not be at such pains to overthrow their fellow-men. And this is indeed the case in society as a whole. Men are divided into two great parties. On one side stand the lovers of righteousness, and on the other the lovers of sin; and the latter must ever be more or less actively opposed to the former. But their favourite and most common method of attack is that indicated in the text. Wrong-doers are naturally cowards, and in their endeavours to injure better men than themselves they shrink from open attack. They are fully conscious that they could not stand their ground in a fair fight in the open field, and so they try to fall upon their foe in a moment when he is off his guard and in a place where he least expects to meet them. In other words, evil men do not openly assail either the character or the position of a good man, but by lying words spoken in his absence they try to blacken the first, and by secret schemes to overthrow the second.

+II. An utterly useless attempt of the wicked man in relation to the good.+ It is useless to try to kill a tree by lopping off the branches. Such a process may for a time deprive it of its beauty and stop its growth, but while the root has its hold upon the soil and can draw nourishment to itself from unseen sources beneath the surface it will live, and as soon as the axe has ceased to strike it will begin again to clothe itself in greenness and beauty. So it is with a righteous man. His enemies may succeed in bringing about his temporary overthrow and in depriving his outward life of much comfort, but the springs of his existence are fed from an invisible and unfailing source, and his well-being is not dependent upon external circumstances. And so even if the malice of the wicked is permitted to strip him of some things which made his life more apparently prosperous and secure, there is an inner life which they cannot touch, and which enables him in due time to recover from the wounds which they inflict either upon his character or his circumstances. For "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn" (Isa. liv. 17).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 15. Because it spites the wicked, that the godly dwell in safety, therefore they lay wait against their dwelling, by affliction and miseries seeking to throw it down, and . . . because the virtues of the godly condemn the vices of the wicked, therefore they lay wait and search into their dwelling houses to espy out their faults, because the goodness of the righteous shameth the naughtiness of the wicked, therefore they seek to break in even into their bedchambers and places of rest, and there to discover their errors and infirmities. Solomon forbidding them to do it, showeth it to be their manner to do it.--Jermin.

Verse 16. Perhaps you will say, had I fallen only once, I would not be much afraid; but I have often fallen before the enemy, and one day I must perish. But hear what God says:--The righteous man falls not once or twice, but many times, and still he rises. Your experience of former deliverances should encourage your hopes of new deliverances, for the salvations of the Lord are never exhausted. In six troubles He will deliver, and in seven there shall no evil touch you.--Lawson.

God's saints are bound to "rejoice when they fall into divers temptations." What though they fall into them? not go in step by step, but be precipitated, plunged over head and ears. Say they fall not into one, but into many crosses--as they seldom come single--yet "be exceeding glad" says the apostle, as the merchant is to see his ships come laden in.--Trapp.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 17 and 18.

THE FALL OF AN ENEMY.

Joy at the overthrow of an enemy is a feeling which is natural to an unspiritual man, but it is one which is here declared to be displeasing to God. Three reasons suggest themselves why this should be so.

+I. Such an emotion is inconsistent with a man's own well-being and happiness.+ The nature that can be indifferent to the calamities of another, even although that other has been an enemy in the past, is a nature destitute of all generosity and nobility. But the heart that can be glad at such an event is altogether possessed with the spirit of the devil--the flames of exultation that burn upon such an altar have been set on fire of hell. And as God loves the creature whom He at first created in His own image, it displeases Him to see him give place to a feeling so unworthy of his origin, and at the same time so productive of misery to himself. For the so-called joy that arises from such a cause is not only very short-lived, but is like a fire that blazes and burns brightly for a time, and then leaves nothing but a heap of ashes behind. The exultation over the fall of an enemy soon dies out, and leaves the heart scorched and dried by the heat of the unworthy passion.

+II. It is inconsistent with the spirit of brotherhood that God desires to exist among men.+ If there has been a break in the harmony of a family, and one member has been at enmity with another, the oneness of the parentage ought to be sufficient to erase all memory of past wrongs when the offender is overtaken by misfortune. Such would be the case where there was any real family affection. God desires all His creatures to recognise a universal brotherhood in virtue of their relation to Him, their common Father. He desires men to be ever ready to seek occasions to draw together in unity, and to avoid all that deepens an opposite feeling. If a man retains his enmity against his offending brother when that brother by reason of misfortune might be reconciled to him, he ignores entirely the law of brotherly love which God desires to rule in His human family.

+III. It is inconsistent with a right recognition of our need of Divine mercy.+ However much our offending brother may have wronged us, the amount of the debt of his trespass against us will bear no comparison to the amount of our indebtedness to God. In sinning against us he has but wronged an erring human creature like himself, and one who has very possibly failed in his duty towards him. But when we sin against God, we sin against One whose character is altogether fitted to win us to obedience, and whose every action in relation to us has been dictated by perfect love. It is only when we fail to recognise this truth that an unforgiving spirit can possess our hearts, and it is only when such a spirit has full sway that any man can exult in the downfall of his enemy.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

For prevention hereof think thus with thyself: Either I am like mine enemy, or else I am better or worse than he. If like him, why may I not look for the like misery? If better, who made me to differ? If worse, what reason have I to insult? (See Obadiah 12.)--Trapp.

St. Gregory saith it is only the keeping of charity that doth prove us to be the disciples of God, and that we have charity is shewn in two ways, namely, if we love our friends in God, and if we love our enemies for God. . . . Because another is an enemy to thee, be not thou an enemy to goodness, an enemy to thyself. For he that rejoiceth when his enemy falleth, doth himself fall much worse, and hath more cause to be grieved for his own wretchedness; he that is glad in his heart when his enemy stumbleth, stumbleth more dangerously in his own heart.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on the subjects of verses 19 and 20 see verse 1 of this chapter, page 676, and chap. xiii. 9, page 303.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 21 and 22.

RULE AND REVERENCE.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Be very careful with the word "niggardly" because it can sound like a racial slur, especially to those who do not know the word or who are not paying attention. Consider substituting "miserly," "sparing," or "parsimonious."

+I. The rule of some men and the subjection of others is a Divine ordination.+ God, by creating men with such different gifts and with powers of mind and body so unequal, evidently intends that society should not be on a dead level, but that in all communities there should be some recognised head. And the tendency of men in all ages to unite under some leader whom they deem worthy to be their head points to an instinct in human nature which we must refer to a Divine origin. The law of subjection and dominion has its place in the natural world. The entire solar system is held together by the subjection of the lesser bodies to one which is greater than all, and as the planets move in their orbits around the sun they seem like so many obedient subjects doing homage to their monarch, while their attendant satellites are in their turn subject to them. And the constant operation of this material law is productive of the most beneficial results. In like manner the observation of some such law among free and intelligent creatures is necessary to the order and consequent peace of society.

+II. But the deference of the subject to his earthly ruler must be always subordinate to the will of the Divine ruler of both.+ There are cases in which to "fear the king," in the sense of obeying him, would be to dishonour God, and times when he who demands obedience refuses to comply with the Divine demands upon himself. It is obvious therefore that the fear of the earthly king can only be carried so far as is consistent with loyal obedience to the "King of all the kings on the earth." The first precept of the wise man in this verse admits of no limitation, but the second must be limited by the first. But those who have been the most faithful servants of God have ever been most ready to render "honour to whom honour is due" (Rom. xiii. 7); and when duty has compelled them to disobey their commands they have done so with all due respect for their lawful authority. That fear of God which compels them to disobey unrighteous laws makes them obedient subjects to lawful rule, and constrains them, so far as is possible, to live as peaceable citizens.

+III. Therefore the peace of a kingdom and the stability of a throne will be in proportion to the reverence of king and people for the Divine Will.+ The fear of God is the great adjusting power in all relations of life. When it governs in the family the parents are loved and honoured by the children, and the children's welfare is the constant care of the parents. It is this fear of God alone that can solve the vexed problem of the relations between masters and servants, between capital and labour, and between monarchs and people. Where it is wanting there will be a weak rule on the one hand, and a niggardly service and a half-hearted obedience on the other, and both are responsible for those outbursts of disorder which involve both in a common calamity.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The connection of the two fears in the passage before us is evidently intended to impress the one by the other:--If you fear God, fear the king. God, whom you are bound supremely to fear, and whose fear should produce obedience to His Will, has enjoined the fear of earthly rulers: so that a failure in the fear due to them becomes a violation of the fear due to Him.

I need hardly say, that by the king we are to understand the government of the country. It may be monarchical, or it may not. We are by no means to look upon such expressions as this, in Scripture, as attaching the authority of inspiration to one form of government more than to another. Respecting the comparative merits of different forms, the Word of God should not be regarded as giving any decision, whether for the kingly, the aristocratical, the popular, or the mixed. The respect, or fear, is due to the legislative and executive powers, of whichsoever description these may be.--Wardlaw.

Submission of heart and life to the King Eternal overrides and controls, yet does not injure a citizen's allegiance to an earthly ruler. . . . The fear of the Lord must go first, but the fear of the king may follow. The supreme does not crush, it protects the subordinate. Although the heart is full of piety, there is plenty of room for patriotism. Nay, more, patriotism nowhere gets full scope except in a heart that is already pervaded by piety. These elements are like the two chief constituent gases of the atmosphere. The space which envelopes the globe is full of one gas--it is also full of the other. To discharge the nitrogen would not make the space capable of containing more of the oxygen. The absence of the one constituent destroys the quality but does not enlarge the quantity of the other. Take away godliness, and your loyalty, without being increased in amount, is seriously deteriorated in kind. Take away loyalty, and you run great risk of spoiling the purity of the remanent godliness. God's works are all good--His combinations are all beneficial. If we attempt to mend, we shall certainly mar them. . . . Go forward in your allegiance to "the powers that be," not until you think you have gone far enough, but until you come upon the law of God, claiming the space in front for Himself, and absolutely forbidding your advance. Go forward with the fear of the king, unless and until the fear of the Lord cross your path like a wall. . . . No feasible rule can be laid down except what the Scriptures contain. Let any man try to write down a scale showing when and where private persons may lawfully resist public authority, and he will soon be convinced that the case is hopeless. Every attempt to define the liberty of rebellion will be found to open a door to anarchy. In point of fact, very little of the liberty that now exists in the world has been achieved by violent resistance to governments because of oppression in temporal things.--Arnot.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 23-26.

IMPARTIALITY OF TRUTH.

+I. Two blessings to society.+ While there is nothing that more certainly undermines the moral tone of any community than that "respect of persons" which the Bible so emphatically and constantly condemns (Lev. xix. 15; Jas. ii. 1), there is no person who more contributes to the welfare of society, and contributes more to its well-being than the man who judges all men by the same standard, viz., their character. It is especially indispensable that those who are set apart to administer the laws of the land should be men above all suspicion of partiality. For, wherever there is a code of law, it is a testimony to that inborn sense of justice which is more or less active in every human being; and although it may sometimes be but an imperfect attempt to render to every man his right, if it is administered by men of integrity it is one of the greatest bulwarks of national prosperity and security. It may well be a matter of thankfulness to every Englishman that the judicial bench of this land occupies the high position that it does in this respect as in all others, and that the days when men thought it possible to use unlawful influences with an English judge have passed away. But to what do we owe this blessing, if not to the greater hold which the principles of the Bible has upon our national life? But Solomon brings before us another character which is as necessary to a nation's moral health, which is, perhaps, rarer than the first, but which might and ought to belong to every man. Those who are called to sit in judgment are the few, but those who in various ways are called to bear witness concerning persons and things, are the many. And some who would deem it a crime to have respect of persons in judgment, do not realise how much the cause of truth and righteousness would be furthered if men, in their every-day intercourse, would give a "right or straightforward answer" (see rendering in Critical Notes) to the questions put to them. If it was the habit of merchants and statesmen, of masters and servants, in the market and in the social circle, to speak the "truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," how much purer would be the moral atmosphere which we breathe, and how much more nearly would society on earth be like that of heaven.

+II. The recognition which such characters receive from their fellow-men.+ In a world where the unrighteous far outnumber the righteous, and where most men are but half loyal to truth, it is remarkable that it should be so. But history in general and individual experience in particular bears witness that Solomon was right. Even unrighteous men cannot help admiring a just and truthful man, and their consciences and their experience combine to testify that they themselves have more to hope from those who are morally above them than from those who are on a level with themselves. It is probable that both moral sense and self-interest combine to bring people as a whole to bless him who rebukes the wicked and to "kiss his lips" who giveth a right answer.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 26. The meaning of that ceremony of kissing him that was anointed to be king, St. Gregory giveth to be this, that it was to teach him that was so kissed that God hath brought him to that dignity to the end that he might make peace between God and his people that were under him, whereof a kiss is a sign and pledge. For by sinning we procure the enmity of God, when therefore a ruler is set up for the correction of sinners, thereby is taken away that which made us enemies to God. If, therefore, we read this verse as the English doth, we may understand it that everyone may acknowledge him to be a peacemaker between God and them, who by right judgment punisheth the wicked.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 27.

PLAN AND PATIENCE.

+I. Here is a lesson in working with method.+ In all undertakings it is necessary to consider what is the most important and indispensable element of success, and to make sure of that first. In the building of a house in the literal sense, the first thing to be done is to have a well-considered plan, and to gather and prepare suitable and sufficient materials. If, when the building is half finished, it is found that some great difficulty has been overlooked, or that the materials and the means to procure them are inadequate, failure and disgrace are the result, and all the time and money hitherto spent upon the work is thrown away. So in any other undertaking. If a man desires a certain position in life for which special qualifications are needed, he must first endeavour to know exactly what the requirements are, and then make sure that he is able to fulfil them. If he makes a start without well considering these things he may waste much precious time and energy, and ruin his prospects for life. The same principle may be applied to any philanthropic enterprise. These often fail, because they are entered upon without any just conception of the difficulties to be encountered, or of the resources which will be required to carry them on to a successful issue.

+II. A lesson in working with patience.+ The proverb seems to warn men not to be in too great a hurry to realise the fulfilment of their desires; not to be impatient to reap the harvest before the crop has had time to ripen. Men are sometimes so eager to obtain a certain good which to them appears desirable that they make a desperate and reckless attempt to gain it by some other road than that of patient perseverance. A man makes up his mind that he must live in a certain style, and keep up a certain appearance before the world, and he sets out to build a stately mansion without waiting until he has acquired the means whereby he can do it honestly. Men often desire to be at the beginning of their career where they can be only after days and years of toil, and if they act under the inspiration of this spirit of impatience they often most effectually shut themselves out entirely from the realisation of their desires.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This wisdom the very little bees do practise and show us, who first get honey and bring it into their hives, and afterwards make their seats and honeycombs. Against this rule here set down divers sorts of people offend, yea, all that take a preposterous course, whether in the matters of this life, or in those things that are spiritual. Some enter into the state of marriage before either they have wit, or have provided and gotten by their labour sufficient food or wealth to maintain them. Others lay out much on banquets, buildings, pastimes, or apparel, before they have a good stock or large comings in. Others meddle with hard points of controversy before they have learned the plain principles of religion. Others first and especially seek after the goods of this world, and, in the second place, at their leisure, and very slowly, they follow after the kingdom of God.--Muffet.

Possibly a spiritual meaning here, as elsewhere, lies beneath the prudential maxim. The "field" may be the man's outer common work, the "house" the dwelling-place of his higher life. He must do the former faithfully in order to attain the latter.--Plumptre.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 28 and 29.

AN UNCALLED-FOR TESTIMONY.

+I. There are times and circumstances in which it is our duty to witness against our neighbour.+ When the interests of right and truth are at stake, it is wrong for any man to be silent when by declaring what he knows, he could establish those interests, even although by so doing he brings punishment upon a fellow-man. It is often indispensable to the safety of innocent people that the wrong-doer should be exposed and brought to justice, and every man in such a case is not only blameless when he witnesses against such a "neighbour," but blameworthy when he does not do so. This is not witnessing against him "without cause," for there is a good and sufficient reason for the action.

+II. Such witness-bearing is of quite a different character from that which springs from malice.+ There are men in society who seem to live like beasts of prey. As the lion or the tiger is ever watching his opportunity to spring upon some defenceless creature at an unguarded moment, so these men seem to make it their business to watch their fellow-creatures for opportunities to injure their reputation and mangle their character. And in a world of faulty human beings, it is not difficult for such men to find food for their malicious appetites, without transgressing the limits of truth. In most men there is enough imperfection, and in many of actual sin, to render it easy to make out a case against them. But if no actual good can come to anybody by exposing their failings, much harm will come to the man who thus bears witness against them without a cause. The evil tendencies of his own evil nature will be strengthened by the act, and he will be exposing himself to the danger of having a causeless testimony borne against himself in his turn.

+III. There are circumstances in which there is a strong temptation to bear a causeless testimony.+ It is against this temptation that the proverb is especially directed. When a man has spoken evil of us without cause, when he has made public some hidden infirmity, or some secret fall, there is a great temptation to retaliate if opportunity offers--to tell what we know about him that will lower him in the estimation of his fellow-men. But this temptation must be resisted, both for our own sake and for his, and for this reason among others, that we are in the worst possible condition for bearing a truthful testimony. A man under the influence of intoxicating drink would be altogether unfit to bear witness for or against another. But the passion of revenge is as intoxicating to the human soul as the most potent liquor is to the human brain. It distorts the judgment, and dethrones the reason, and tramples under foot all the noblest emotions of our nature. A man under its sway would be very unlikely to be just to the object to whom he sought to return evil for evil; nay, he would be unable to confine himself within the limits of strict truth and pure justice. And, therefore, one who has wronged us is the man above all other men of whose faults we should never speak, unless there is an overwhelming moral necessity for it.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 28. "And mayhap, deceive with thy lips." This is expressed by a little participle before the verb. It helps in the ancillary thought, that not only is speaking evil wicked if it can do no good, but also it may prove actually unjust. All statement has a hazard of mistake. If it can do some good, we may risk something so as to witness; but if there can be no good, we should risk nothing.--Miller.

Verse 29. It is a great wickedness, when God is made a pattern for wickedness; and it is a strong temptation to wickedness, when the example of the Lord seemeth to countenance that which is proposed to be done. It is therefore against this that the wise man adviseth in this verse. For though God say, I will render to everyone according to his works, thou mayest not say, I will render to the man according to his works. God speaketh as a Judge to whom it belongeth to consider the works of everyone, and accordingly to reward them; but no man may be a judge in his own cause, no particular man may do that for himself which a judge may do for him. Wherefore it is a bad imitation thus to imitate the Lord, for we are not to do all things that the Lord doth, but all things that the Lord commandeth us to do.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 30-34.

THE SLUGGARD'S VINEYARD.

+I. We have here a precious possession in the hands of an unworthy proprietor.+ A vineyard is not a heritage of little or no value--if rightly cared for and cultivated it will yield to its owners the means of obtaining an honest living, and, it may be, put him in possession of wealth. Many a toiling, struggling man without an inch of ground on God's earth to call his own would feel as if he had nothing left to desire if he had such a barrier between himself and poverty, and would joyfully toil from dawn to sunset to make the best of that which God's providence had entrusted to him. But here is property which would be prized and cultivated by many in the hands of one who neglects and wastes it. The picture of our text is a parabolic representation of what is before our eyes every day. A vineyard of bodily strength is given to a man who by dissipation breaks down its wall and invites disease to enter. A vineyard of opportunities is inherited by a slothful youth who is too indolent and careless to improve them. The vineyard of a vast fortune or of a position of great influence is entrusted to one who is "void of understanding"--who does not realise his responsibility to God or to men.

+II. We have man, by neglecting to use God's gifts, limiting God's power to bless him.+ It was God's purpose that this vineyard should bring forth better things than thorns and nettles. He desired to see it covered with choice vines, whose branches should be loaded with clusters of refreshing fruit. But this could not be unless man would be a co-worker with Him. God did His part. The rain watered the soil, the sun shone upon it, but man refused to dig and plant, to weed and cultivate. And by withholding his power to labour he limited God's power to bless. Men do the same in other fields of labour, and in connection with the other opportunities of receiving the Divine blessing. Many good gifts come alike to the slothful and to the industrious man--to him who diligently "keeps" his vineyard and to him who neglects it. God makes His sun to shine, and sends His rain upon the fields of both. But in the one case sun and rain find a soil prepared to receive the full benefit of the blessings they can give, and in the other they can only strengthen the hold of the weeds upon the earth, and to increase the unfruitfulness of the vineyard. So men often limit God's power to bless them by His providence. Opportunities are given to them of bringing great blessings upon themselves or upon others, but only on condition that they labour earnestly and diligently at some work which God gives them to do. They may be called only to the special cultivation of their own intellectual and spiritual powers, or they may also be in a position to transform others from weeds in the social and moral vineyard into plants of beauty and trees yielding fruit. But whether the field open to them is a wide one, or comparatively narrow, all God's willingness to give the increase will be of no avail if they refuse to till the ground and sow the seed.

+III. We have a swift and sure-footed avenger advancing to awaken the slothful sleeper.+ That slumber, though long and deep, will not go on for ever. It would indeed be unjust to the active and industrious man if the slothful never felt the consequences of his indolence. But this would be contrary to the laws by which God governs the world. One of these laws is, that bodily want, or intellectual or spiritual beggary, will in due time overtake him who neglects to exercise the faculties and capabilities which God has given him to enrich every part of his nature.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This is a picture of sloth. At the same time it is a picture of sloth under attacks upon our faith. The world moves on, and, in our laziness, our garden gets all choked with new dogmas against the Gospel. The writer has already said that we are not to yield to "them that are given to change" (verse 21). He has also said that we are not to answer them with deceit (verse 28): and, now, what remains? Why, that we baffle them, that we work as hard as they do. I know no proverb more useful for the men of our times. We lie upon our lees till we think philosophy a sort of wickedness; till we think quiet under its advances a sort of Christian faith. We let science work on, till, by sap and mine, it is near our citadel. Great bodies of learned work are built up while the Church sleeps. If she fights, it is with a sort of chicane, with the gongs and bright paper, like a Chinese troop; when duty plainly is, to work up abreast of science. If the Church has more light, she must expect more contest. If she has better arms, she must expect more battles; with more mind, of course more to oppose; otherwise she has less to do than less capable believers. The world's science must be met by the Church's science, and new, sturdy brambles in her prolific fields must be ploughed under by improved implements. Otherwise, old-time arguments, and a sort of a chicane of a retort; responses like those of women, rather intended to say No than to be an actual reply, become indicative of a sluggard-Church, and of a garden cumbered like that before us. Slothful, literally sluggard man. Man is here the better sort of man (see Miller's comment of verse 5); in the last clause it is "a common man." The first has a field, the second a vineyard. All classes of men are bound to read up and get rid of occasions for cavil. . . . "The wall;" necessary to keep a church at all. Let scientists trample in upon the vineyard with nothing but a few old clothes to scare them, and presently we will have no Church whatever. Not "stone wall" (E. V.), but "the wall, as to its stones," "pulled down." It will not slowly crumble, but interested parties will help it when it begins to totter. "I saw, or looked." Seeing such things requires an effort. Not the slothful man's business alone! but mine! I am sufficiently like him. A vineyard with brambles, like that of Geneva, or England, or that of the cis-Atlantic Socinian States, is a picture for all mankind. . . . "Come, etc.," "sauntering along." Hithpael of walk. "Armed man." Both these descriptions mean (1) slowness, and (2) certainty; (1) unobserved ease of gait; but (2) doomlike certainty in coming. A Church that enjoys her ease may super-eminently prosper. Her foe may be behind the hill, and her doom may be sauntering noiselessly up, but their coming is as certain as the dawn. . . . A "little sleep" more, and the thing has been actually achieved.--Miller.

Let us learn from the scene described: 1. How gradual may be the approaches of the evils of sloth, while, at the same time, they are irresistible in the end. This is the lesson of the thirty-fourth verse. The traveller approaches by degrees. When comparatively at a distance, he appears harmless; but, when he has advanced a certain length, he is discovered to be "an armed man,"--all resistance to whom is too late, and consequently vain. Famine, though gaunt, is irresistibly mighty. Who can stand before it? Not the man of habitual sloth. The very habit has the more thoroughly incapacitated him for plucking up any spirit to ward off the final ravages of the frightful enemy. He succumbs, sinks and dies.--2. Our souls are committed by God to our own spiritual cultivation. This is no sinecure. They will not thrive themselves. If we would have them "as a watered garden, and as a field which the Lord hath blessed," we must apply spiritual activity and labour, to stock them with the appropriate graces, affections, and virtues, and to promote the growth and productiveness of them all. We must sow the seed, and seek by prayer the showers of the Divine blessing--the promised influences of the Divine Spirit. We must watch over the germination, the springing, the growth, and the fructifying of the seed. Without this all will be stunted and sterile. The noxious and unsightly weeds of sin will spring and luxuriate, and overspread the soil; all growing that ought not to grow, and nothing growing that should. Let parents apply the principle to the spiritual instruction of their children. Your families are as vineyards committed to your care and culture. Imagine not that, when left to themselves, they will spontaneously yield good fruit. The experience of all generations reads you an opposite lesson. You must enclose; you must dig, and sow, and water, and watch, and protect the springing blade, till it comes to the ear, and the full corn in the ear. You must train from their earliest germs your tender plants, and guard, and support, and prune them, and clear and manure the soil around them. The incessant care of both parents must be bestowed upon this; and all little enough. They must look for the help and for the blessing of God. O see to it, that the verses before us be not a just description of any of your families--from your parental negligence, indifference, and sloth. Let every family be as a sacred enclosure for God; fenced in from the blasts and blights of the world, where the "plants of his right hand's planting" are reared from the seed, for future productiveness.--Wardlaw.

Verse 32. The owner did nothing for the farm, and the farm did nothing for the owner. But even this neglected spot did something for the passing wayfarer, who had an observant eye and a thoughtful mind. Even the sluggard's garden brought forth fruit, but not for the sluggard's benefit. The diligent man reaped, and carried off the only harvest that it bore--a warning. The owner received nothing from it; and the onlooker "received instruction.". . . People complain that they have few opportunities and means of instruction. Here is one school open to all. Here is a schoolmaster who charges no fee. If we are ourselves diligent, we may gather riches even in a sluggard's garden. He who knows how to turn the folly of his neighbours into wisdom for himself, cannot excuse defective attainments by alleging a scarcity of the raw material.--Arnot.

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Chapter XXV

With this chapter begins the fourth main division of this book, consisting, as its introductory words inform us, of sayings and perhaps writings of Solomon, which were placed together in their present form by men appointed to the work by King Hezekiah. Zöckler remarks that "while the first and larger section of the book purports to be essentially a book for youth, this is evidently a book for the people, a treasury of proverbial wisdom for kings and subjects--as is indicated by the first introductory proverb. . . . Whether as the source from which the transfer or compilation of the following proverbs was made, we are to think simply of one book or of several books, so that the transfer would be the purely literary labour of excerpting, a transcribing or collecting by copying; or whether we have to consider as the source simply the oral transmission of ancient proverbs of wise men by the mouth of the people, must remain doubtful. It is, perhaps, most probable that both the written and the oral tradition were alike sifted for the subjects of the collection." (Zöckler, in Lange's Commentary.)

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Copied out,+ rather "collected." See the remarks above. +2. Honour,+ rather "glory," as in the first clause. +3.+ The word is should be omitted; unsearchable applies equally to the three subjects of the sentence. +4. The finer,+ rather the "founder," or "goldsmith." +6. Put not forth,+ literally "bring not thy glory to view, do not display thyself." +7. Whom thine eyes have seen.+ There is some difference of opinion as to the person to whom this sentence refers. Fleischer understands it as referring to the king, and to the additional humiliation felt when it comes upon one who has pressed so far forward that he can be perceived by the king. Delitzsch refers it not specially to the king, but to "any distinguished personage whose place he who has pressed forward has taken up, and from which he must now withdraw when the right possessor of it comes and lays claim to his place. . . . Thine eyes have seen him in the company, and thou canst say to thyself, this place belongs to him, according to his rank, and not to thee; the humiliation which thou endurest is thus well deserved, because, with eyes to see, thou wert so blind." (Delitzsch.) +8. Lest thou know not,+ etc. As will be seen from the Italics in the English version, this sentence is very elliptical. Zöckler reads, "lest (it be said to thee) what wilt thou do," etc. Delitzsch, "That it may not be said," etc. Miller, "Lest what thou doest, in its after consequence, by thy neighbour putting thee to shame." +9. A secret to another.+ Rather "The secret of another." +11. Pictures of silver.+ Literally "sculpture," or "figures" of silver. Delitzsch translates "salvers," Zöckler "framework." Stuart says, "The idea is that of a garment of precious stuff, on which is embroidered golden apples among picture-work of silver. Costly and precious was such a garment held to be; for, besides the ornaments upon it, the material itself was of high value." +Fitly spoken.+ Literally, "in, or upon its time." +12. An obedient ear.+ Literally "an ear that heareth." +13. The cold of snow,+ etc. "The coolness of snow is not that of a fall of snow, which in the time of harvest would be a calamity, but of drink cooled with snow, which was brought from Lebanon, or elsewhere, from the clefts of the rocks; the peasants of Damascus store up the winter's snow in a cleft of the mountain, and convey it in the warm months to Damascus and the coast towns." (Delitzsch.) +14. A false gift.+ This gift is generally understood to be one bestowed by the boaster, but which is worth nothing, or the mere promise of a gift which is never fulfilled. +15. Prince.+ Rather "Judge." +16. Filled.+ Rather "Surfeited." +17. Withdraw.+ Rather "Make rare." +18. A maul.+ An instrument or weapon shod with iron, probably a war-club. +19. Foot out of joint.+ Rather "An unsteady foot." +20. Nitre.+ "Not the substance we now understand by nitre--i.e., nitrate of potassa (saltpetre), but the natron or native carbonate of soda of modern chemistry." (Smith's Dictionary.) The combination of the acid and alkali would, of course, produce effervescence. +23. Driveth away.+ Rather "Brings forward the rain-clouds." Most modern commentators adopt this rendering of this verb, and read the latter phrase to suit the metaphor--"So a secret or slanderous tongue, a troubled countenance." +26. Falling down+--i.e., "yielding" or "wavering." +Corrupt.+ Rather "Ruined." +27.+ The last phrase in this verse is variously rendered. The words is not are not in the Hebrew. Stuart reads, "Searching after one's own glory is burdensome"--i.e., Honour, like honey, is good only when sought in moderation. Zöckler renders "To search out the difficulty, brings difficulty"--i.e., "Too strenuous occupation of the mind with difficult things is injurious." Delitzsch translates:--"But, as an inquirer, to enter on what is difficult is honour"--i.e., To overdo oneself in eating honey is not good, but the searching into difficult things is nothing less than an eating of honey, but an honour. The word translated glory is literally weight, and is often used to mean excellence and honour. But it will bear the opposite meaning of a burden or difficulty.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 1-3.

GOD'S MYSTERIES AND MAN'S RESEARCH.

+I. There is much connected with God's nature and with His government that will never be revealed to man in his present state.+ This is in accordance with the greatness of God and the littleness of man in comparison with Him. There are many things connected with God which man in his present state could not comprehend, and there are others which he might comprehend, but of which it is better he should remain in ignorance. The parent conceals many things from a child because the concealment is more consistent with a wise training than the revelation of them would be. Some of them the child could not understand, and others it is better that he should not know until he attain to riper years. When he has become a man he will adore the wisdom of his parent in thus withholding from him what he did. God, as the infinitely wise Parent and Trainer of human creatures, often doubtless conceals much from us for similar reasons, and we shall one day see that the concealment was to the glory of His gracious character. When a physician is called to treat a man whose life is hanging upon a thread, he is not expected to enter into an explanation of the nature of the remedies he uses or to give a reason for all the treatment he prescribes. Such an explanation would be unworthy of the dignity of his profession and hurtful to his patient. Concealment is often an essential and necessary part of his plan, and when the sick man is restored to health he acknowledges that it was to the glory of his healer that he kept him for a time in ignorance. God is the great Physician and Healer of human souls, and it would neither befit His majesty nor further His purposes of mercy to reveal the reasons of all He does to His fallen creatures. When they have attained to perfect moral health they will give glory to Him for all that He concealed as well as for all that He revealed.

+II. But there is much that is hidden that will be revealed to the diligent seeker.+ If it is God's prerogative and a part of His Divine plan to conceal much from man, it is His purpose and desire to reveal much to him if he will only seek after it. How many of God's operations in nature are full of mystery to one who only looks upon the surface of things, but how far diligent and earnest searchers have penetrated into the secret workings of the Divine wisdom in this direction. Although there is much hidden from them, still there is much that was once a mystery that is now made plain. And it is doubtless the same also in relation to God's working in higher regions--in His dealings in providence and in His plan of redemption. Although there is much here that must remain a mystery to the human mind, he who diligently and reverently seeks to know the mind and purpose of God in relation to these things will not lose the reward.

+III. While then, it is God's prerogative to determine what He will reveal to+ +man it is man's glory and duty to be ever seeking to know more of God's ways and works.+ The third verse seems to institute a comparison between the Divine and human rulers. These latter have their state secrets--sometimes for arbitrary purposes and in other cases from necessity they conceal their plans until their ends are accomplished. If the government is a despotic one this secrecy is to be feared and deprecated; if, on the other hand, the ruler or rulers are merciful and just their subjects may safely trust them when their plans of action are for a time hidden. But however it may be with human kings, there is no questioning the right of the King of Kings to hide what He pleases from His creatures, and no reason for His creatures to doubt either His wisdom or His love in so doing. But man has a duty to perform in relation to this concealment. His Maker and his Ruler does not desire to see him sit down in indolent indifference, making no effort to penetrate the secrets of the world around him, or to apprehend in some degree some of the deep things of God's "unsearchable dealings" (Rom. xi. 33). The veil seems to have been cast over some of these problems for the very purpose of stimulating man to search and to test the depth of his interest in them. While, then, the pursuit of knowledge of any kind is good, there is none so elevating, none that brings so rich a reward, and none that man is so bound to follow after, as the knowledge of God in His works of creation, and providence, and redemption. Solomon, as the greatest monarch of his day, counted this his first duty and his highest glory, and there have been many uncrowned kings in all ages of the world who have set this before them as the aim and end of their life, and in so doing have set a diadem upon their own brows and have won the homage and love of multitudes of their race.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verses 1 and 2. It was a good saying of a pious divine, "Lord preserve us from a comprehensible God." It is our duty to venerate and wonder, and not to pry with curious eyes into the secrets of God. The history of the fall is an everlasting warning to the sons of Adam to prefer the tree of life to the tree of knowledge.--Lawson.

1. Taking it in contrast with the latter part of the verse--"but the honour of kings is to search out a matter,"--there is implied the idea that the Divine knowledge is universal, perfect, and free from everything of the nature of inquiry, investigation, effort, in the acquisition. His acquaintance with all things is, in the strictest sense, intuitive, and, in the strictest sense, complete. He requires no "searching out" in order to discover anything; nor is it possible to make any addition to His knowledge. The past, the present, and the future are alike before His all-comprehensive mind. He sees all the present. He remembers all the past. He foresees all the future. His knowledge is "light without any darkness at all;" and it is light that is equally clear through the immensity of the universe, and through all time and all eternity! 2. The language implies God's entire independence and supremacy, as a part of His glory. He "giveth not account of any of his matters," further than, in sovereignty, He sees meet to do. He conceals when He pleases:--"Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?" and who can demand the disclosure of any one of the secrets of the infinite and independent Mind? 3. The impenetrable depth of His counsels is a part of God's glory. His "judgments are a great deep." What line of created wisdom can fathom them?--

"Not angels, that stand round his throne, Can search His secret will!"

"Canst thou, by searching, find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." "O the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" This is fitted to inspire us, His intelligent creatures, with "reverence and godly fear." In the sovereign secrecy, the unapproachable reservation, the unfathomable mysteriousness of the Divine counsels--in the very requirement that we humbly bow, in adoring submission, where we cannot comprehend, without asking a question, or urging a further disclosure:--in all this, there is something that gives the Creator His proper place. There is in it a sacredness, and awfulness, that makes us feel, as we ought to do, our infinite distance. This is God's glory.--Wardlaw.

Verse 3. There is no searching the height or the depth of the King's heart, any more than the height of heaven, or the depth of the earth, (which in those unastronomic days meant blankly not at all). Give God a universe to rule; and what He must do in that great compass, as a King, is quite unsearchable.--Miller.

For Homiletics of verses 4 and 5 see on chap. xx. 26 and 28, page 596.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 6 and 7.

SELF-PROMOTION.

+I. A wise man will let others judge of his qualifications for a high place or position.+ Men who consult their happiness and reputation are not so anxious to rise in the world as they are to qualify themselves for rising. A wise man knows well that it is not merely the position he occupies which raises him in the estimation of others, but the ability which he shows to fill the post, and the fitness which men recognise as existing between him and his high place. He has no desire to step into a position which he could not fill with some credit to himself and advantage to others, knowing well that he would then be like the jackdaw in the peacock's borrowed plumes, an object of derision to all beholders. He would rather occupy a low place with abilities to fill a higher, than be in one which was above his abilities, and he therefore gladly leaves the question of his social advancement in the hands of others.

+II. Self-promotion is not likely to result in satisfaction to the only actor in the transaction.+ 1. It is generally short-lived. If a man is really fit for advancement, some one or some number of people are generally to be found to say to him, "Friend, go up higher." The interests of men in general, are concerned in having the best men in the foremost places; and such men, in the end, are generally placed in them by common consent. But when a man without this call steps into a place of honour, it is very common for others to resent his self-conceit, and to call upon him to give place to a more worthy person. And so his self-constituted triumph is soon over. 2. It often ends in humiliation. It is hard to be obliged to take a lower place under any circumstances, but when we are thus retracing steps which our self-esteem alone prompted us to take, the chagrin is great indeed. And as the ascent in such a case is generally made before the eyes of many onlookers, so the descent will be equally public, and this adds much to the disappointment and the shame.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon, it first blinds us, and then compels us to lower by reason of our blindness.--E. Cook.

Now, it is not a little said in praise of him to whom it is said, "Come up higher." For, first, it showeth his modest humility, which is the praise of all other virtues. Secondly, it showeth the worth of his quality, which deserveth advancement. Thirdly, it showeth that to be due unto him which is bestowed upon him. On the other side, it is not a little reproach unto him that is put lower. For, first, his pride is objected to him; the overthrow of all that is praiseworthy. Secondly, his unworthiness is rejected with an upbraiding of it. Thirdly, the due punishment of being placed lower is justly inflicted. . . . And as if he were one unworthy for the prince to look upon, it is not said, by whom thou art seen, but whom thine eyes have seen, as noting also the proud presumption of the unworthy intruder.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 8-11.

TWO WAYS OF TREATING AN ENEMY.

It us undoubtedly helpful, and sometimes indispensable, that a man who has been wronged by another should seek redress from the offending person. These verses seem to refer to an injury done to character and reputation, and seeing that these are a man's most precious possessions, he has certainly as much right to seek restitution from him who has sought to rob him of this wealth, as he has to try and capture the thief who has stolen his money or his plate, and make him give back his unlawful gain. Solomon does not condemn all interference with a neighbour who puts us "to shame," but sets before us two opposite courses of action, either of which may be taken in such a case. He gives the consequences of both.

+I. There is the way of inconsiderate passion.+ This is a bad way, because--1. It may lead us to overstep the bounds of right and justice. A man under the power of anger has no ear open to the counsels of reason and prudence, and under such an influence he will very likely become as great an offender against his neighbour as his neighbour was against him. He in his turn may become a slanderer and a betrayer of secrets (verse 9), and so lose all hold on his opponent; and even be put to shame by the very person whom he intended to bring to shame. He is like a blindfolded man who rushes hastily down a steep path without considering what will be the end of so mad an act. 2. It is the least likely way to convince the offender of his fault. Words of angry recrimination, or deeds which savour of the spirit of revenge, will almost certainly make an enemy tenfold more of an enemy. If he disliked us before without any reason, his dislike will now have some foundation to rest upon, and the gulf of separation will be widened instead of bridged over. The end to be aimed at when a brother man has trespassed against us is clearly defined by Christ. We are to try to "gain our brother" (Matt. xviii. 15), that is, we are to try and win his esteem and love. This can never be done if we "go forth hastily to strive." But--

+II. There is the way of personal and wise remonstrance.+ 1. The complaint of our wrongs is to be made first to the person offending. Here the teaching of the wise man and the "greater than Solomon" are identical. "If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone" (Matt xviii. 15). To speak of it to a third person is to expose our neighbour unnecessarily, and, perhaps, to blacken his character far beyond his deserts. For, although we may give a plain unvarnished tale of his offence, he to whom we give it may colour it when he repeats it to another, and so what was but a molehill at the first may grow into a mountain before long. But if we go directly to the transgressor himself, we make it plain to him that we have no desire to make him suffer for his offence, and only ask him to deal with us in the same spirit of brotherly love in which we deal with him. Our willingness to cover his fault will go a long way towards persuading him to confess and forsake it. 2. We are to reason and persuade rather than to upbraid. The discourse is to take the form of a calm debate. We are to ask for the grounds of his attack upon us, and not to be too proud to enter into explanations of any act that he may have misconstrued. We are to try and convince him of the harm he will do to himself if he persist in trying to injure another, and we are to seek to clothe all our arguments and entreaties in language which is the least likely to offend and most calculated to win. Such words are compared by Solomon to a beautiful work of art which is precious and admirable not only for the skill displayed in the workmanship, but for the costly nature of the material out of which it is fashioned. (See Critical Notes on verse 11.) It may be a robe of costly material embroidered with gold and silver, or it may be a basket of wrought silver holding fruits of gold, but whatever the exact form of the production, it reveals skilful design on the part of the artist, and bears witness to his painstaking skill. A carefully framed appeal to lay before an offending brother is a work of art in a higher sphere--it calls forth all the tact and wisdom that we possess to fashion such a garment--to carve such a piece of work, but it is worth all the labour and pains that can be spent upon it, and will bring to its author the goodwill of others and the approval of his own conscience.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 8. For the sake of illustration, to suppose two or three varieties of this result:--1. The hasty man meets his supposed adversary,--some word or act of whom has just reached him. He is all full of the fuming pride of offended self-consequence; very big; very wrathful. In this spirit he makes his charge, and finds it is a mere idle unfounded rumour that has come to his ears; that there is actually nothing in it; that nothing of the kind has ever been either said or done; that there is no ground whatever for all his excitement and transport!--How foolish he looks, when his imagined enemy, against whom he has been breathing out the vehemence of passion, all collected and cool, stands wondering at his agitation,--unable to divine what has come over him!--And how is he laughed at for having stirred himself up to all this heat and hurry,--all this violence and emotion--for nothing!--2. It turns out that in the cause between him and his neighbour, which he has so hastily taken up, he is in the wrong--that, after all his froth and bluster, truth and justice are clearly on the other side, with all the solid and satisfactory argument; while on his there is little or nothing beyond the noisy and vehement protestations of self-sufficiency, and he is quite unable to withstand the proofs against him--the verdict of all impartial persons being in favour of his opponent. In this case, he must either, after having his pride keenly mortified, cool down, and own himself in the wrong--which is the best thing he can do, but far from easy to a man of his temper; or the more he is overpowered by the evidence of facts and by sound argument, the more must the sense of conscious defeat, and consequent feeling of inferiority, inflame him to rage; by which he will only render himself the more ridiculous, and give cause of more lasting mortification and shame. 3. The same things are true of a controversial dispute on any subject. Generally speaking, the hastiest and most self-confident is the most likely to fail. Such confidence very often accompanies partial information and superficial and one-sided views. The petulant, consequential disputant "goes forth hastily to strive," in the full assurance that his arguments are such as cannot be resisted, and in the full flush of anticipated triumph--of victory before the battle. But objections meet him, of which he had never thought. Arguments are arrayed and urged on the opposite side, such as had never occurred to his own mind, and such, therefore, as he did not at all expect, and cannot refute. . . . He is abashed, confounded, stupefied.--Wardlaw.

It is he that liveth in peace that doth enjoy himself. It is he that is at home, and findeth the comfort of what God hath bestowed upon him. He that falleth into strife goeth from his rest and contentment, goeth forth from himself, so that he is hardly himself while the strife continues. . . . Therefore let not strife be a thing into which thou art carried of thine own accord; but either let thine adversary drive thee into it, or else let necessity or some good reason either draw thee or force thee.--Jermin.

Verse 11. The beauty of the texture sets off the fruit with additional charms. So does a lively medium enhance the attractiveness of truth. "The preacher should strive to find out acceptable words"--words fitly spoken--giving to each their proper meat--and that "in due season" suited to their ages and difference of temperament. "How forcible are right words!" (Job vi. 25). Our Lord witnessed of Himself, as "gifted with the tongue of the learned, that He might know how to speak the word in season" (Isa. l. 4)--a word upon the wheels--not forced or dragged, but rolling smoothly along, like the chariot-wheels. His discourses on the living water and the bread of life arose naturally out of the conversation, and therefore were full of arresting application. Paul powerfully charged superstition on the Athenians and strengthened his reasoning by quoting from one of their own poets (Acts xvii. 22-28). To a corrupt and profligate judge he preached "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come" (Acts xxiv. 25).--Bridges.

That words may deserve this character, they must be the words of truth; for falsehood and error are on no occasion fit to be spoken. And therefore Job reproves his friends for endeavouring, by false doctrine, to comfort him, and direct his exercise in the time of his distress. But words may be true and yet unfitly spoken, for although nothing is to be spoken but truth, yet truth is not always to be spoken. Doeg the Edomite was guilty of murder before he killed the priests of the Lord, by telling the enraged tyrant that David had received bread and a sword from Ahimelech. Jonathan was a man of a very opposite spirit, and discovered it by the seasonable mention he made to his father of David's exploit in slaying Goliath. By putting Saul in mind of this noble action, he disarmed for a time his angry resentments.--Lawson.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 12.

GIVING AND TAKING.

+I. To give reproof effectually needs--+1. A character which deserves respect. An iron pin when cold may by the exercise of much strength and the expenditure of much time be driven through a plate of iron, but if it be red hot, it goes through it with speed and ease. A blunt axe may fell a tree, but if it has a good edge the work is done far more quickly and effectually. So a very faulty man may obtain a hearing when he reproves, and his reproofs may do good, but the same reproof from the lips of one who possesses a high moral character will be far more likely to reach the conscience of the listener and lead him to repentance. 2. A knowledge of the character and disposition of him whom he reproves. It is indispensable that the physician who ministers a powerful drug to a patient, or who subjects him to a critical operation, should first know something about his bodily constitution, should ascertain if there is tendency to disease which his treatment might strengthen, or exceptional weakness of any organ which would make it unable to bear the strain he is about to put upon it. If he does not make some preliminary investigation on these matters he may be developing an evil as great as the one he seeks to eradicate. A reprover should remember that all men are not alike in their temperament and moral development, and that consequently what would do real good to one transgressor would only harden another, and that, therefore, there must be acquaintance with the patient before the medicine is administered. 3. A sincere desire to benefit the offender. He who reproves without a real feeling of pity and a wish to help him whom he reproves will find that his words will do almost as much good as water does to a rock when it falls upon it. It may drop day and night for years, but the rock is rock still--no moisture penetrates it and no verdure clothes it. So reproof that is not dictated by love will never reach the heart, and no fruits of repentance will result from fault-finding for its own sake. 4. A due regard to a fitting time and place. He must not rebuke his child when he is suffering pain, or charge home a fault upon the father of a family before his children. We are not likely to reform a drunkard by upbraiding him when he is under the influence of drink, or to convince a proud man that he is wrong by putting him to shame before others. A wise reprover will not only see to it that his medicine is suited to his patient, but will consider when it is most fitting to administer it.

+II. To take reproof meekly--+1. Reveals a man under the control of reason. It is only the delirious patient or the child who angrily resists the surgeon's knife and looks no further than the present pain. A reasonable man may cry out under the operation, but he knows that his future health depends upon it, and he therefore submits patiently, although he suffers acutely. If a man looks at reproof in the same light, he will receive it in the same spirit, and give a convincing proof that he is not ruled by passion but by reason. 2. Reveals a man governed by true self-love. Love for our own true interests prompts us to welcome every hand stretched out to help us, and every means afforded us of becoming better and wiser. A wise reprover is a true friend, and he who does not recognise him as such shows that his own advancement is not the aim of his life and the object of his desire. But no greater proof of a sincere regard for our own moral and spiritual growth can be given than that of lending an obedient ear to a wise reproof.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The wise reprover or instructor, who lovingly and seasonably telleth his neighbour of his fault or duty, may fitly be likened unto a jewel of pearl; for he lighteneth and enricheth him that is instructed with knowledge and the gifts of God's Holy Spirit. The attentive and obedient hearer who desires to increase in learning, and who receiveth the Word of God with meekness, may also be aptly resembled to a golden earring; for he is transformed from glory to glory, by the ministry and instruction of the prudent and learned teacher.--Muffet.

When a reproof is both administered in wisdom and received in humility and in good part,--then there is a union of two equal rarities. A reproof well-administered is rare; and not less so is a reproof well taken. We may remark, however, that the rareness of the latter arises, to no small extent, out of the rareness of the former. It is because reproof is so seldom well-given, that it is so seldom well-taken.--Wardlaw.

An earring is fastened to the ear, and that it may be fastened, it pierceth the ear, and being so fastened, it is an ornament to the whole face; so likewise is a reproof upon an obedient ear. First, it pierceth it, and is received willingly into it; secondly, it is fastened upon it, so that it stays with it; thirdly, it is an ornament to his whole life, which is thereby reformed.--Jermin.

For Homiletics on the subject of verse 13, see on chap. xiii. 17, page 321.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 14.

CLOUDS WITHOUT RAIN.

+I. Those who promise and do not perform are wantonly cruel.+ To raise expectations without fulfilling them is one of the greatest unkindnesses of which men can be guilty. For however sorely the gift or the service desired may be needed, if the needy brother has never had any hope of possessing it, his sense of loss is not nearly so keen as it is if, depending on the word of another, he has felt as if the coveted good was almost in his grasp. The thirsty traveller in the desert feels his thirst more terribly after the deceitful mirage has led him to believe that a refreshing lake is just within his reach. He thinks he sees the sparkling water but a few paces distant, and is already in fancy drinking his fill when all his hopes are destroyed by the vanishing of the deception, and he is in a far worse condition than he was before its appearance. There are many men who are as deceitful and as disappointing as the mirage of the desert. Their large promises awaken bright hopes in the breast of some wayfarer on the journey of life, and he looks forward with confident joy to the time when he shall possess the promised gift. But his heart is gradually made sick by the deferred hope (chap. xiii. 12) until at last he becomes aware that he has been cruelly deceived, and finds himself a far more wretched man than he was before the promise was made to him.

+II. As a rule he who promises most will perform the least.+ Those who bestow most upon others are those who do not spend much time in talking about what they will do. Sometimes a heavy cloud is seen in the heavens, which seems as if it would every moment fall in refreshing showers. But a few drops only fall on the parched earth, and while the husbandman is looking with confident expectancy it vanishes from his sight. On another day a cloud which seems to promise far less falls in abundance upon the thirsty land. This is not the rule in nature, but it is in relation to the promises and performances of men. The loud boaster is well-nigh certain to be a cloud without rain, and should therefore never be relied upon, and the greatest givers are generally those who promise least.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

This verse may be understood, either of God's gift to man, or man's gift to God, or else of man to any other man. For many there are who boast of those gifts which God never bestowed on them; and though God be infinite in His bounty, yet by their lying do make Him more bountiful than He is. Many there are who boast of their gifts to God, either in regard of the church or the poor, whereas His church or His poor have them as little as God Himself needs them. Many boast of their kind gifts to others, whereas their not performing them makes them more unkind than if they never had promised. . . . Their false gifts are as the clouds, and their boasting as the winds. Their false gifts do lift them up, as the clouds are; their great boasting maketh a great noise as the wind doth. The winds drive the clouds and scatter them; so doth their boasting spread abroad the fame of their false gifts; and as the clouds without rain darken the heavens without watering the earth; as the dry wind troubleth the air without refreshing the ground; so these boasters even darken the heaven with their naughtiness, and trouble the earth with their brags, but satisfy none with their deeds.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.

FORBEARANCE AND PERSUASIVENESS.

+I. Patience without speech is an overcoming power.+ The strongest smith will find a piece of cold iron too much for him--if he attempt to bend or break it he will be met with a resistance which he cannot overcome. But he places that apparently unconquerable bar upon the coals, and by degrees it seems to assume altogether another nature, and is ready to be fashioned to any shape or form. He gets this victory by waiting, and he finds it a far more effectual method than attempting to subdue the metal by physical force. Forbearance will sometimes do as much for the stubborn human will as the fire does for the iron. Many men who cannot be threatened into compliance with our wishes, may be overcome by patient kindness. A prince may be here put by Solomon as a type of all men in authority and high position, who by reason of their position are less under the power of others and consequently are less likely to yield to any other force than persuasion. With such men high-handed dealing and efforts to intimidate generally provoke a more stubborn resistance.

+II. Patience seconded by gentle speech is doubly powerful.+ The smith's work is not done when by waiting he has given time for the iron to become soft and impressible; he must then bring his skill and activity to bear upon it and so mould it to his will. So after long forbearance there must be wise and persuasive speech to finish the work. The long-suffering patience, perhaps under trial and provocation, has softened the hard heart or the stubborn will, and now the gentle words are listened to and have their full weight. But this would not have been the case if patience without speech had not gone first to make way for them.

+III. Those who conquer by forbearance in deed and gentleness in word walk in the Divine footsteps.+ In the dealings of God with the human race, no attribute of His character is more manifest than "the riches of His forbearance and long suffering" (Rom. ii. 4), and it is by this that He "leads men to repentance." "Instead of coming down upon man by storm," says Dr. Bushnell, "in a manner of direct onset to carry his submission by storm, God lays gentle siege to him, waiting for his willing assent and choice. . . . To redress an injury by gentleness, and tame his adversary's will by the circuitous approach of forbearance and a siege of true suggestion is not the manner of men, only of God." It is not, alas! the manner of men in general, but all those who call Him Master try to imitate Him in this as in all other of His perfections that can be imitated by finite and imperfect creatures.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The soft member breaking the hard bone may seem to be a paradox. But it is a fine illustration of the power of gentleness above hardness and irritation. Apply it to those who are set against the truth. Many a stout heart has been won by a forbearing, yet uncompromising, accommodation to prejudice. In reproof Jehovah showed what He could do in "the strong wind and the earthquake." But His effective rebuke was in the "still small voice;" without upbraiding; sharp, yet tender (1 Kings xix. 11-13). So powerful is the energy of gentleness! Indeed, "among all the graces that adorn the Christian soul, like so many jewels of various colours and lustres, against the day of her espousals to the Lamb of God, there is not one more brilliant than that of patience."

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 16.

USE AND ABUSE.

+I. The good gifts of God are to be enjoyed by men.+ "Every creature of God is good," says the apostle, "and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. iv. 4). God has filled the world with gifts to minister pleasure to the bodily senses as well as to the spiritual aspirations, and the first are given to use "richly to enjoy" (1 Tim. vi. 17), as much as the last. Our Great and Beneficent Father, has not omitted to provide even for the gratification of our palate, but has furnished us with an almost infinite variety of natural productions, pleasant to the taste. His kindness in this matter is not to be overlooked, and these good gifts are not to be treated as though they were beneath our grateful appreciation. The asceticism which refuses to partake of them is not in accordance with the spirit of either the Old or New Testament.

+II. There is no material and temporal good which cannot be misused by man.+ Honey may here stand for any or all the lower sweets of life--for every blessing which is not of a purely spiritual nature--and the greatest temptation to misuse of these lies in the direction of over-use--of indulging in them to the neglect of other and more precious good, and so to the injury of the higher nature. Honey is a delicious article of food, and wholesome and nutritious to a certain extent, but if a man attempted to live upon it to the exclusion of plainer fair he would find that his bodily health would suffer. In like manner is there danger to spiritual health from an undue indulgence of even the gifts of God, which minister only or chiefly to the senses, or which belong to this life alone.

+III. The misuse of what is good in itself puts an end of all real enjoyment of it.+ If a man eats immoderately of honey it soon ceases to be pleasant to his taste, and the very sweetness that at first attracted him produces loathing. The same nausea of spirit follows immoderate indulgence in any merely temporal or material good--that which, used lawfully, would always afford true and real enjoyment, cloys upon the man who abuses it by over-use.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

The figure varies. In a former sentence we are commanded to eat honey because it is good (chap. xxiv. 13), and that was very carefully explained. It meant that piety was itself good, and we were to taste and see (Psa. xxxiv. 8) that before we could be Christians. But now the figure varies. There is a sweetness of eternal hope, even when we have not got down to the sweetness of a saving piety. We are to put on the helmet of hope. So the Apostle tells us (1 Thess. v. 8). But Solomon cautions us that we are to put on no more than is "sufficient." We are eating more than enough honey when we have no right to eat any, and so we may be eating too much when we ought to be getting more. There is such a thing as having more hope than evidence. And if a man has too much confident hope of heaven for the amount he has of piety, there certainly is a case of eating more than is sufficient. . . . Blessed is the man that has "found honey." Let him eat so much as is sufficient for him in this dismal pilgrimage. But, when he is once refreshed like Jonathan, let him sound for an advance.--Miller.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 17.

OBTRUSIVENESS.

+I. We may by indiscretion close a door which we have ourselves opened.+ There are many things which are pleasant and wholesome occasionally, which become not only unwelcome, but annoying, if we have too much of them. We do not desire to hear the sweetest song every day and all the day long--that which is refreshing and delightful now and then become wearisome if constantly repeated. We must apply this rule to ourselves in relation to our fellow-men. While we rejoice to feel that there are those who love us so well as to desire our presence upon all occasions, we must remember that most of our acquaintances will not set so high a value upon us, and that to be seen too often where we should be welcome if seen but seldom, is by our own act to shut our neighbour's door upon us.

+II. Our neighbour's objection to our constant visits may rise from no unkindly feeling.+ Men who have work to do in the world cannot give all their time, or much of it, to the entertainment of visitors. There are those who, living to no purpose themselves, forget that others feel themselves accountable to God for the use they make of their lives, and such idle people often sorely vex and hinder their busy neighbours by their thoughtless and unseasonable visits. The man who enters a house and takes from a diamond necklace one precious stone after another until he has taken the whole, is doubtless no friend, but a thief and a robber, and is punishable by the law of the land; but the man who enters his neighbour's house and robs him of hour after hour, steals property which probably cannot be redeemed, or redeemed only by encroaching upon the hours which ought to be given to rest. So that such a thoughtless intruder steals not only his neighbour's time, but indirectly his health and power to work. Surely such pests of society ought not to have the name of friend bestowed upon them, but deserve to be branded with a name more befitting their character, and more in accordance with their actions.

For Homiletics of verse 18, see on chap xii. 18, page 274.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 19 and 20.

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE AND UNSEASONABLE SONGS.

The day of adversity is, as we saw on chap. xxiv. 10, a testing time for the man who is the subject of the calamity, and it is also a season in which he tests the worth of those who have called themselves his friends in the time of his prosperity. These verses deal with two varieties among many who intensify his affection and deepen his grief, instead of bringing him help and comfort. There is--

+I. The faithless friend.+ This phrase is a contradictory one, but it is used for want of a better. The word friend, in its highest and best sense, denotes one who is worthy of trust and who never fails in the hour of trial. But there are many who assume the name who are unworthy of it, and whose failure when they are most needed is one of the most bitter drops in the cup of calamity. If the cable breaks in a calm sea the vessel and the crew may escape serious injury; but if it gives way amid storm and tempest, the consequences are most disastrous. It is hard to find a professed friend failing us when we are sailing in calm waters, but it may then be borne without entirely crushing the spirit. But when such a discovery is first made in the day of trouble, it is enough to break the stoutest heart.

+II. The undiscerning friend.+ There are many real friends who lack the ability to discern how best to help the sorrowful and heavy hearted. They sing a song with the intention of giving cheer when tears, or at least silence, would be far more acceptable to the wounded spirit. Songs of gladness, such as are doubtless here intended, fit the spirit when it is walking in the sunlight, but they aggravate the suffering of those who are in darkness of soul. He who aspires to the name of friend must learn to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those that weep.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 19. The greatest disaster, in proportion to the number of men engaged, that befel our arms in the Eastern insurrection, was the direct result of confidence in an unfaithful man. At Arrah-on-the-Ganges three or four hundred soldiers were sent to attack a body of the rebels, and relieve some British residents who were in danger there. A native was employed to ascertain the position of the enemy. In consequence of his report, the man left the river and made a night march into the interior. The messenger was false. The little army fell into an ambush prepared for them in the jungle. Two-thirds of their number were shot down in the dark by unseen foes. The remnant escaped to their ship when the day dawned. As they lay in that fatal valley getting their wounds in the dark, and helplessly wishing for the day, how exquisitely bitter must have been the reflection that a too ready trust in a faithless man had wrought them all this woe.--Arnot.

The God of nature hath placed the teeth in two jaws, that the one may be helpful to the other; and he hath supported man with two feet, that the one may be a succor to the other. From hence, to teach us the help and support which one man ought to yield to another. It is by means of this mutual support in the feet that we pass over the blocks that lie in our way; for while the one foot is lifted up to step over them, the other bears up the body. It is the mutual help of the jaws, and by their meeting together, that we break hard things and make the fit nourishment for us. In like manner, therefore, when a block lies in the way of anyone, another should be ready to support him until he get over it. When a hard distress lieth upon anyone, another should be ready to help him for the better breaking through it. But in this point too many are like a broken tooth, and he that looketh to meet with them for help in his distress, findeth them not to answer his expectation . . . and too many are like a foot out of joint, and he that thinketh to rest upon them in time of need, is sure to fall by them.--Jermin.

Verse 20. He that taketh away a garment from another may think to ease his burden, but it being done in cold weather, it addeth to his coldness; he that putteth vinegar upon nitre may think only to break the hardness of it, but he dissolveth it. In like manner he that singeth songs to a heavy heart may think to ease the burden of sorrow, may think to break the hardness of grief, but such is the force of the sad contraposition, such is the power of the contrariety between singing and sorrow of heart, that the ease of one's heart being able to sing, increaseth the weight of the other's trouble that he cannot do so.--Jermin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES 21 and 22.

A BLESSED RECOMPENSE.

+I. A recompense which is difficult.+ No one can affirm that it is an easy thing to minister help and comfort to one who has done us an injury, but it is more difficult in some cases than in others. Men are not bound to us by equal ties: some are merely related to us because they partake of the same common humanity; others are our kinsmen according to the flesh; while others stand in an equal nearer relation, and are brothers in a spiritual sense, being partakers with us of what is called in Scripture language the new birth. According to Christ's teaching this is the nearest and closest bond which can unite men, and yet it cannot be denied that we sometimes have to exercise the grace of forgiveness even towards these brethren. But the motive power which prompts us to return good for evil is certainly stronger in this latter case than in the others, or at least it ought to be so. For when we reflect that the brother who has wronged us stands in the same relation to Christ as we do ourselves, it ought not to be at all difficult for us to feed him when hungry, or in any other way in our power to minister to his needs. There will also in most men be found more or less natural promptings to succour an enemy who is related to them by ties of blood--the nearer the natural relationship the more easy will it be, as a rule, to comply with the command given by the Wise Man. But the greatest difficulty will be found in obeying it when the enemy is one who is altogether unlike us in character, and who is only related to us in the broad and universal sense of being human. To be active and earnest in our endeavours to relieve the necessities of such an one needs often much Divine help, but it is demanded of us by Him who dies for a world at enmity with Him.

+II. A retaliation which is blessed in its results.+ We understand with Zöckler, the figure here used to "describe the deep pangs of repentance which one produces within his enemy by rewarding his hatred with benefits." This is a result most desirable and blessed for him who has been the offender. For it is the only road by which he can regain peace of mind and self-respect, as well as the esteem of all right-minded people. This restoration of an erring brother would in itself be a great reward to the good man, but it is not, according to Solomon, the only one which is accorded to him who thus recompenses good for evil. A special reward for the special act is promised by Jehovah. There is one which is the outcome of the laws by which He governs men. If a traveller in a cold region finds a fellow traveller lying benumbed and forsaken by the roadside, and does what he can do to raise and restore him, the effort makes his own blood circulate more quickly, and his own frame glow with warmth. This it the outcome of a natural law of God, and there is the spiritual one akin to it. For whenever an effort is made to raise and restore one who has morally fallen, he who makes the effort feels a reflex glow of moral life and health in his own spirit. This is the certain effect which must follow every act of goodwill towards an enemy, as surely as the shadow follows the substance. But there are probably other rewards of an external nature--many blessings that come to a good man's life may be direct and special gifts from His Father above for deeds which, like the one now under consideration, are especially pleasing to Him.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

We may profess our goodwill towards our enemy, that we forgive and pray for him from our heart. But unless we are ready with the practical exercise of sympathy, we are only the victims of our own moral delusion.--Bridges.

It is action, not affection, that is here spoken of--not the disposition of the heart, but the deeds of the hand; and if it be a more practicable thing that we should compel ourselves to right bodily performances than call up right mental propensities, this may alleviate somewhat our dread of these precepts, as if they were wholly unmanageable or incompetent to humanity. Before, then, taking cognisance of what should be the inward temper of Christians towards those who maltreat or oppress them, we would bid you remark that the outward conduct towards them is that which forms the literal subject-matter of the commandments here given. The disciples are in this place told that . . . hard as it may be under their cruel provocations to keep unruffled minds and to feel peaceably, they, as much as in them lies, are to live peaceably . . . while it may not be the tendency of nature so to desire, our bidden obligation is so to do, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.--Chalmers on Rom. xii. 20.

Now, we know that if a coal or two of fire be laid on the hearth of the chimney below, he that is cold cannot be wholly warmed, or receive much good thereby; but if one basketful be poured on the fire after another, so that the coals are heaped up to the mantel-tree, or are as high as his head that fain would warm him, then he waxeth thoroughly hot and beginneth even to burn. It seemeth then that by this borrowed speech is meant, that if a man shall be very bountiful even unto his enemy, and heap upon him one good turn after another, this will cause his affection, which before was cold, to burn within him. Thus dealt David with Saul, who spared his life when he might have slain him, and only cut off a piece of his coat when he might have cut off his head.--Muffett.

I take for granted, that I believe to be the truth, that the words "for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head," have reference, not to the fires of Divine-vengeance, but to the influence of kindly treatment melting down the enemy to conciliation, as fuel heaped on the ore fuses it from the hardness, and sends it forth in liquid streams, to take the features and impress of the mould.--A certain prince, on leading his generals and his army against an advancing host of invaders, declared his resolution not to leave a single enemy alive. He sent an embassy to treat with them. He made proposals such as subdued and attached them, and rendered them valuable allies. On astonishment being expressed that he should have thus failed in his determination and promise, his ready reply was--"I have not failed: I have kept my word. I engaged not to leave a living enemy; nor have I. They are enemies no longer--they are friends." He had "heaped coals of fire on their head."--Wardlaw.

For hunger and thirst are common enemies, both to thee and him. And therefore, as where a common enemy invadeth, particular enmity is laid aside, and all join there to help and withstand him; so here lend a hand to resist these common enemies, which though now have seized on thine enemy may quickly seize on thee. Besides he is hungry as a man, he thirsteth as a man--not as an enemy--and therefore as a man give him bread to eat, give him water to drink. This may also quench the hunger of his enmity, and satisfy also the hunger of his hatred.--Jermin.

If anyone desires to try this work, he must bring to it at least these two qualifications, modesty and patience. If he proceed ostentatiously, with an air of superiority and a consciousness of his own virtue, he will never make one step of progress. The subject will day by day grow harder in his hands. But even though the successive acts of kindness should be genuine, the operator must lay his account with a tedious process and many disappointments. . . . The miner does not think that his coals of fire are wasted, although he has been throwing them on for several successive hours, and the stones show no symptoms of dissolving. He knows that each portion of the burning fuel is contributing to the result, and that the flow will be sudden and complete at last. Let him go and do likewise who aspires to win a brother by the subduing power of self-sacrificing love.--Arnot.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 23.

THE WAY TO TREAT A BACKBITER.

It will be seen from a reference to the Critical Notes, that nearly all modern commentators render this verse quite differently from the common version, and so reverse the meaning. It will, however, bear the common rendering, "I confess," says Wardlaw, "that if the word will bear it at all, our version seems decidedly preferable. There is something tame, commonplace, and of little practical consequence--hardly worth forming the subject of a proverb--in saying that as the north wind brings rain, 'a backbiting tongue' brings anger. But the verse as it stands in our translation inculcates a most important lesson." We therefore take the proverb as we find it in our Bible, as setting forth--

+I. An unrighteous action producing a righteous emotion.+ We have before had brought before us in this book the peculiar iniquity of backbiting and its evil results (see ch. xii. 17-19, 22, page 274). The special unrighteousness of the act lies, of course, in the fact that the person who is the subject of it, being absent and ignorant of the charge brought against him, has no opportunity of defending himself. A feeling of indignation against such an act, and an expression of it in the countenance, is therefore demanded from every lover of truth and justice. He who will calmly listen to a tale of slander and show no token of disapproval, makes himself a partaker of the sin. But it is impossible for a righteous man to act thus. When a putrid body is presented to our bodily senses, if we are healthy men we experience a feeling of revulsion which we cannot conceal. And so if a man is morally healthy he must experience and reveal a strong dislike to the backbiting tongue.

+II. The unrighteous action overpowered by the righteous emotion.+ When the heavy rain-clouds which overspread the sky are dispersed and driven away by the wind, they show themselves to be the weaker of the two contending forces. And so when the backbiting tongue is silenced by the look of righteous indignation, it gives proof that, however strong the workings of evil are, the power of goodness is stronger. Those who set their faces against this or any other vice, may always draw encouragement from the fact that there is a reprover within the breast of the wrong-doer, which in spite of all efforts to stifle it, seconds the reprover from without--wherever the conscience is at all awake, it says "Amen" to a faithful rebuke, whether administered by word or look. And so it is that a countenance upon which is written righteous anger is so potent a check to a backbiting tongue.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

It is a great encouragement to tale-bearers, to observe their wicked stories are heard with attention. If a man looks upon them with a cheerful countenance, and listens to their tales, and makes them welcome to his table, they naturally conclude that the person to whom they speak has as bad a heart as themselves, and they will not fail to bring him new stories of the like kind, as soon as they have got an opportunity to learn or to make them. But if the receiver of stolen goods is a sharer with the thief in his guilt, and if any man that encourages another in evil partakes in his sin, then he that hears the backbiter with complacency is little better than himself, and would probably follow the same trade if he had the same talents for it. We cannot, therefore, clear ourselves from the sin of backbiting, unless we refuse to receive a bad report of our neighbour, and testify our displeasure, by all proper methods, at the base conduct of the assassins that would murder in the dark the good-name of their fellow-creatures. When the murderers of Isbosheth brought their master's head to David, judging from their own disposition that it would be an acceptable present to him, he treated them in such a manner that no man ever sent another present of the like kind to him.--Lawson.

There is a place for anger as well as for love. As in nature, a gloomy tempest serves some beneficial purposes for which calm sunshine has no faculty; so in morals, a frown on an honest man's brow is in its own place, as needful and useful as the sweetest smile that kindness ever kindled on the human countenance. . . . We don't want a fretful passionate man; and if we did, we could find one without searching long or going far. We want neither a man of wrath nor a man of indiscriminating, unvarying softness. We want something with two sides; that is, a solid real character. Let us have a man who loves good and hates evil, and who, in place and time convenient, can make either emotion manifest upon his countenance. The frown of anger is the shade that lies under love and brings out its beauty.--Arnot.

For Homiletics on verse 24, see on chapter xxi. 9, page 613.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 25.

COLD WATER AND GOOD NEWS.

+I. Two blessings often ardently longed for.+ In these days of travel, many more can enter into the spirit of this analogy than in the days of Solomon--the comparative ease by which men can reach the most distant lands, and which in one aspect brings all places and people so much nearer together than in ancient times, is on the other hand the cause of far more separation between those who are bound together by tender ties, and fills far more hearts with an anxious longing for tidings from far countries. No more apt illustration could be used to picture such a condition of spirit than that of thirst; for as it, if of long duration, prostrates the frame and renders every other blessing of life incapable of affording any comfort, so often does a long delay of tidings concerning those most dear paralyse all the energies of the soul, and render it unable to gain comfort from any other source. The wife whose husband has been long fighting for his country on the distant battle-field, or the father whose son has been for years seeking his fortune in some far-off land, turns often with distaste from all the comforts and interests which surround them, and would willingly sacrifice many near blessings in exchange for cheering news from those beyond the seas. They are like the traveller in the desert, whose gold cannot allay his consuming thirst, and who would willingly give a bag of pearls for a cup of cold water.

+II. Two blessings bringing like results.+ Hagar and her son wandered in the desert till the water was spent in the bottle, and then mother and son gave up all for lost and lay down to die. We may take it for granted that neither the youth nor his mother were easily overcome or quickly daunted, but thirst and its attendant evils would soon have slain them as certainly as a band of desert robbers. But when God showed to Hagar the well, and they had drunk of its waters, it was as though a new life had entered into them, and hope and energy returned. This is a type of what has happened to many a heart-sick soul since those days. Jacob was going down to his grave still mourning for the son lost so many years ago, and life, we may well believe, had lost its interest for him when his sons brought the astonishing tidings, "Joseph is yet alive, and is governor over all the land of Egypt." And the old man renewed his youth, and, so to speak, began to live again, so life-restoring often to a thirsty soul is good news from a far country.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

A far-off land sends specially good news because we faint the more, and long the harder, for the very reason that it is so distant. They come more seldom. And our relations with far-off lands are weightier and more critical than those beside us. So much for the secular significance. But oh! the spiritual! The righteous scarcely are saved (1 Peter iv. 18). We are in a wilderness (Rev. xii. 6, 14). Our enemies are legion (Ephes. vi. 12). We run the gauntlet with daily foes (Ephes. v. 16); and that with daily changes in their attempts to trip us (Prov. v. 6). The sinner, wherever he may be met, is faint with fatigue. Our Saviour knew this when He shaped His appeal "Come unto me, all that labour," etc. (Matt. xi. 28). Now, high over all the odes of comfort is the "good news from a far-off land." All right there, come anything! A man's life may have been a perfect failure, quoad the opinion of the world; but if he have Heaven it has been the very best--there has not been an hour of it that has not been "marshalled by a Divine tactic," the best for the man and the best for his part in the war.--Miller.

We shall especially apply the subject--to heaven--good news from heaven. There are several things that make good news from a far country as grateful as "cold waters to a thirsty soul." I. If the country reported is altogether unlike our own. The human mind is always interested in what is novel and romantic--strangeness has a strange fascination for the soul. What charms have the reports of Captain Cook, Moffatt, Livingstone, for all minds. . . . II. If the country reported has conferred an immense benefit on us. Supposing that we had once been in a state of abject slavery, and that the far country reported to us had effected our emancipation and guaranteed our liberty, with what interest should we listen to everything about it--the act that served us would invest all the incidents connected with this history with a special charm. . . . III. If the country reported contained any that are dear to us. New Zealand, Vancouver's Island, and many other countries, are extremely interesting to many families in this land, on account of the friends they have living in them. . . . IV. If the country reported is a scene in which we expect to live ourselves. With what interest does the emigrant listen to everything referring to that land whither he is about to be wending his way, and which he is adopting as his home. Heaven as a far country pre-eminently meets all these conditions of interest. There is the Novel. . . . How unlike that country is ours. Here is a sphere for the play of the romantic. There is the Benefactor. What benefits that far country has conferred on us! Thence we have received Christ the Redeemer of the World, and the Blessed Spirit of wisdom, purity, and love. There are our Friends. How many of those who we have known and loved are there. How many such are going there every day. Some of us have more friends in heaven than on earth. There we expect to live. There we expect an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.--Dr. David Thomas.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 26.

THE EVIL RESULT OF MORAL COWARDICE.

+I. There can never be a good reason why a good man should waver or bow down before a bad man.+ Many reasons often exist why one bad man should fear another bad man, they are both on the wrong side, both arrayed against the moral order of the universe, and therefore are on the weakest side, and cannot count upon the support of any superior and all-powerful force. Neither of them has conscience or God upon his side; each one has to fight his battle on his own charges, and can with no confidence foretell the result. But the want of firmness on the part of a righteous man in the presence of wickedness--even when that wickedness is allied with all the power that it can arrogate to itself--is contrary to reason. For as surely as light must defeat the darkness, so surely must right in the end prove itself victorious over wrong. A good man has the whole force of the moral universe upon his side, and is assured both by experience and by Divine promise that if he holds fast to the end he shall be more than conqueror.

+II. The wavering of such a man pollutes the very sources of social morality.+ Unreasonable although it is, yet it is not out of the range of human experience. "The best men are but men at the best" says an old writer, and in times of great trial they often give evidence that it is so. Good and noble men have sometimes trembled and given way before the terrors of the stake, and far less terrible suffering has often sufficed to shake the constancy of true men who were less courageous. But whenever such a fall takes place it is a heavy blow to the cause of right and truth upon the earth. A good man is like a fountain of pure and living water. He is a source of moral life and health in the circle in which he moves; even if he does not put forth any direct or special effort for the advancement of morality, his life will as certainly have an influence for good as the lighted candle will illumine the darkness around it. But if he shows himself a coward when exposed to loss or danger for the sake of right, it will do as much harm to the moral health of the community in which he lives as would be done to its bodily health if the stream from which its members drink were polluted at the fountain head. The mischief done in each case may not show itself by any startling results. The poison in the water may not kill, but only lower the standard of health in those who partake of it, and so a moral fall in a good man may not lead other men to open apostasy from the right path, but it may make the walk of many unsteady. Christ tells His disciples this same truth when He calls them the "salt of the earth," and asks "if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted" (Matt. v. 13). In other words, the good are the conservators of the moral purity of the world, and if any one among them ceases to sustain this character he is not only a loser himself but a source of loss to others.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Lord Bacon gives this proverb political application: "It teaches that an unjust and scandalous judgment in any conspicuous and weighty cause is, above all things, to be avoided in the State;" and in his Essay (lvi.) of Judicature, he says; "One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain"--Tr. of Lange's Commentary.

Eastern fountain and springs (where the rains are only periodical, and at longer intervals) are of no common price. The injury of corrupting them is proportionate. The well is therefore a blessing or a curse, according to the purity or impurity of the waters. A righteous man in his proper character is "a well of life, a blessing in the midst of the land." But if he fall down before the wicked by his inconsistent profession, the blessing becomes a curse, the fountain is troubled, and the spring corrupt. What a degradation was it to Abraham to fall down under the rebuke of an heathen king; to Peter, to yield to a servant maid in denying his Lord! How did David's sin trouble the fountain, both to his family and his people! How did the idolatry of his wise son corrupt the spring through successive generations!

When a minister of Christ apostatises from the faith (and mournfully frequent have been such spectacles) or compromises his principles from the fear of man, the springs and fountains of truth are fearfully corrupted. When a servant of God, of standing and influences, crouches and falls down under the wicked, the transparency of his profession is grievously tarnished. Satan thus makes more effective use of God's people than of his own.--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 27.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING.

For Homiletics on the first clause of this verse, see on verse 16, page 703. A reference to the Critical Notes will show that, owing partly to its elliptical form, the rendering of the second clause has been much disputed. The reading found in our version is, however, quite admissible on the principles of Hebrew interpretation, and accords well with the first clause. The analogy teaches--

+I. That a desire for the good opinion of others is right and salutary.+ As honey is not only a pleasant but a wholesome article of food, so the wish to stand well with our fellow-men is a God-implanted feeling which is very beneficial both to the individual man and to society as a whole. He is a churlish being who does not care what other people think about him, who sets at nought their esteem or their blame, while a right regard to their judgment of us insensibly produces a beneficial influence upon our conduct and temper.

+II. But it is a desire which must not rule our life.+ Just as honey must not be substituted for plainer food, or made the staple article of diet, so a desire for the good opinion of others must not be put before higher motives--must not be made the ruling principle of life. This proverb may be linked with the preceding one to some extent, for the lack of firmness which good men sometimes display in the society and under the influence of worse men than themselves is often due to a desire not to lose their good opinion--not to be thought obstinate, or morose, or conceited. But when any question of right or wrong is at stake the approval or disapproval even of those whose goodwill is most precious to us must be cast aside.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

There is such a thing as vain glory. There is such a thing as a person's indulging an insatiable appetite for applause or honour. There is such a thing as "searching it out," looking ever after it, eager to get it, and touchily jealous of every omission to bestow it and every deficiency in its amount; exploring for it in every possible direction; listening with an ear on the alert to catch every breathing of adulation; fishing for praise; throwing out hints to draw it forth; eulogising others, to tempt a return; saying things in disparagement of oneself, for the sake of having the contradicted--things which, said by another, would stir the hottest of his blood. The temper of mind may be put in exercise, in regard to greater and to smaller matters. It may assume the form of a proud ambition, or of a weak-minded vanity. But in either case it may with truth be said that "it is not glory." A man's honour should rather come to him, than be eagerly solicited and searched for. It should not be made his object.--Wardlaw.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 28.

A DEFENCELESS CITY.

The other side of this picture is given in chap. xvi. 32. (See page 497.)

+I. Such a city as is here described proclaims the lack of a wise and powerful governor within.+ The walls and buildings of a city are constantly exposed to influences which promote decay, even if no hostile military force attacks them. The everyday exposure to storm and sun and rain will have a tendency to make the mortar crumble, and the bricks or stones to become loose and fall away. Hence, if a wise man governs a city he will make it a part of his constant duty to watch for the first signs of weakness, and if he has the authority which his position ought to put into his hand, he will cause each breach to be repaired as soon as it is discovered. And when we see a city whose walls are in a perfect condition--where there are no fallen stones and no crumbling mortar--we feel at ease that there is rule and authority residing there. But "a city broken down and without walls" tells plainly the opposite story. Now every human spirit in this fallen world is exposed daily, and sometimes hourly, to influences which tend to irritate and vex it, and so to destroy its means of defence against temptation, and lower its dignity and mar its moral beauty. And if a man yields himself up to these influences, and allows them to hold undisputed sway over his life, he proclaims himself to be without those essential elements to his welfare and happiness--wisdom to see his danger, and power to guard it.

+II. Such a city gives an invitation to the invader without.+ If a fortress is known to be well fortified, if there is no weak or unguarded point, an enemy will not hastily try to take possession of it. Its strength will oftentimes be its security against attack. But if its fallen towers and tottering defences tell of weakness and anarchy within, its condition will tempt the foe to enter. So if a man gives evidence that he has no control over his passions, both evil men and evil spirits will mark him for their prey, and will make it their business to lead him from one sin to another--to make him not only a negative but a positive transgressor. Such an one, in the language of Paul, "gives place to the devil" (Eph. iv. 27).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

To come to particulars; if any be angry or given to wrath, will he not quickly be led captive to revile and commit murder? If the affection of covetousness possess any, will he not easily be drawn to deceive and steal? The like is to be said of all the passions of the mind, which, if a man cannot bridle or govern, they will carry him headlong with violence into all mischief and misery, as wild and fierce horses oftentimes run away with an unguided coach or waggon.--Muffett.

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Chapter XXVI

CRITICAL NOTES.--+2.+ The first clause of this verse should be, +As the sparrow flitting, as the swallow flying,+ etc. +Causeless,+ i.e., "undeserved"--i.e., Such a curse is but transient--it alights for the moment, but, like a bird, does not stay long. Miller and others, however, understand the comparison to carry an entirely opposite meaning. (See Suggestive Comments on the verse.) +3.+ To our English ideas, the whip and bridle are assigned respectively to the wrong animals, but it must be remembered that the Eastern ass is often quite as spirited an animal as the horse. +6. Drinketh damage,+ or "injury." As in Job xxi. 20, the verb "drinketh" seems to express suffering in a large measure. +7. Are not equal.+ The Hebrew word, so rendered, is a very obscure one, and is rendered by Delitzsch, Gesenius, and others, "hang down." Zöckler and Stuart give the sentence the imperative form, and read, "Take away the legs from the lame, and the proverb in the fool's mouth." +Parable.+ This is the common word for proverb--the word that gives the title to the book. On its real meaning, see the Introduction. +8. Sling.+ Gesenius, Zöckler, and many other commentators, adopt the reading in the margin of the English version, and translate this word, which is very obscure, "a heap of stones." Stuart, Ewald, Delitzsch, and others, retain the word "sling," which is the reading of the Septuagint. Stuart thus explains the verse, "It would be absurd to +bind a stone in a sling,+ and then expect it to do execution. Equally so it is to +bestow honour on a fool,+ and expect any good consequences from it." If the first reading is adopted, the word stone must be understood to refer to a precious stone. +9. A thorn.+ This is generally understood to mean a thorny stick or staff, which is a mischievous weapon in the hands of a drunkard. +10.+ This verse is very difficult and obscure, and has many and entirely different renderings. Luther, Elster, and others, translate the subject of the first clause, "A master, an able man, formeth all aright,--or all himself." Delitzsch, Umbreit, and Hitzig, read, "Much produceth all." The French version is in substance the same as our English marginal rendering. Perhaps the greater number of Hebrew critics favour the rendering of Zöckler, Ewald, Stier, etc., who read, "As an archer, who woundeth everything, so is he who hireth fools and vagrants" (or wayfarers). Stuart and Miller translate the first word, "arrow," and the former thus explains the proverb, "He who employs fools and vagrants to do his work, will injure himself." +15. In his bosom.+ Rather, +In the dish,+ as in chap. xix. 24. +17. Meddleth,+ rather, "is excited." +21. Coals to burning coals--+i.e., "black coals to burning," etc. +22.+ A repetition of chap. xviii. 8. (See on that verse.) +23. Burning lips+--i.e., "lips whence some ardent expressions of friendship." +Silver dross.+ Impure silver not freed from the dross. +24. Layeth up,+ rather, "prepareth," or "mediateth." +26. Congregation+--i.e., "before the people assembled for judgment." (Zöckler.)

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.

A GIFT WRONGLY BESTOWED.

+I. To honour some men is both seemly and right.+ The snow and the rain come from heaven by Divine command, and are indispensable to the beauty and fruitfulness of the earth. So to accord honour where it is due is a Divine command (Rom. xiii. 7), and is indispensable to our social well-being.

+II. But honour accorded to a fool (i.e., a bad man) is incongruous and hurtful.+ Snow in summer is an exception to the rules of nature. It would indeed be a surprise to our reapers when they were about to gather in the grain, to find the fields white with snow, and such an event would be most mischievous in its effects. And in Oriental countries rain in summer would be equally surprising, and probably as hurtful, since the rain in those lands generally descends in torrents and not in gentle showers as with us. So, although God has commanded us to "honour all men" (1 Peter ii. 17), the wicked man, by his wickedness, puts himself outside this rule, and to place him in a position of honour, or to give him reverence, is entirely out of place, and an act which can only produce evil consequences. 1. It does harm to the man who gives it. The heavy rain or snow falling upon the ripened cornfield, takes away all its beauty and lessens its worth--it may make it utterly valueless. And so it degrades a soul to bow down where it ought to stand erect and firm, and a man who will from cowardice or any other cause cringe before a moral fool is a man who is of no use in the world from a moral point of view. (See on this subject, on verse 26 of the preceding chapter, page 711.) 2. It injures the man who receives it. It makes him feel as if there was no difference between vice and virtue, when he finds himself receiving that which ought to be given to a good man only, and so he is confirmed in his wickedness. This will be the case especially if the person who does him honour is a better man than himself, it is such a case as is described in the verse referred to above. 3. It has a bad influence upon men around them. It is an encouragement to bad men to continue in their evil courses when they see wickedness enthroned in high places, and worthless men receiving honour instead of the scorn which they deserve. Such an elevation makes all bad men more shameless and daring, and it also discourages and depresses better men. Although the truly good man's actions spring from a deeper source, and have their origin in a higher motive than the praise or blame of their fellow-men, yet there are many who are not firmly rooted in the practice of virtue, who are much influenced by the moral atmosphere in which they live. If they see their fellow-men doing as God does, and being a respecter of persons in regard to character, and to character only, their better nature will be strengthened, and their efforts to be upright and godly will be encouraged, but if they see "the wicked walk on every side," and "the vilest men exalted" (Psalm xii. 8), they may give up the struggle after a higher and better life in despair. And thus the effect upon the moral tone of the community will be as blighting and destructive as floods upon the growing corn, or as snow upon the ripening fruits. It is, therefore, the solemn duty of every man in this respect to "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not" (Mal. iii. 18).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Honour is unfit for a fool, in two respects especially; the one, for that punishment is properly due unto him; the other, for that he abuseth his authority, be it civil or ecclesiastical, unto the hurt of those that are subject unto him.--Muffett.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 2.

THE CAUSELESS CURSE.

A reference to the Critical Notes and the Suggestive Comments will show that different meanings are attached to this proverb.

+I. Men often utter causeless curses.+ In whatever country of the world we travel, and among whatever society, we are liable to hear men pouring forth maledictions against their fellow-creatures. There are places and circles where such imprecations are never uttered, because a better spirit rules those who belong to them, but there are, alas! exceptions to a rule. Curses without cause are uttered by masters against servants, and by parents against children, and by men in every condition and relation in life--curses prompted by passion and falling from the lips of men who answer to the description of the Psalmist--whose "inward part is very wickedness," and, as a consequence, whose "throat is an open sepulchre" spreading unhealthy and loathsome influence around (Psa. v. 9).

+II. Such a curse is harmless to its victims.+ A curse which is undeserved has no sting; it is as powerless to injure as the bird that flits over the traveller's head and soon disappears. Even if the creature attempted to harm the man it is too weak, but not weaker than the curse without cause. It may cast a passing shadow in its passage, but there is no substance in it--it consists of words without weight, and wishes that have no power to fulfil themselves.

+III. But such a curse will fall upon him who uttered it.+ We know that every bird who casts a shadow over our path will presently settle down again--it will find its nest whence it started, and there take up its abode. And so every curse uttered without a cause will return upon the head of him who uttered it--upon him will come the same, or worse, ills than those he has called down upon another. "Cursing men," says Trapp, "are cursed men."

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

(This comment, it will be seen, rests on another interpretation of the verse.) The type is graceful. The "bird" is so little, and his flight and roaming about so graceful, that we never think of him as having an aim. And yet, the wildest sport upon the wing is continually directed, and obeys the mind of the humblest voyager in the heavens. "Curses;" of all other things not aimless. "He doth not afflict willingly" (Lam. iii. 33). And so whether large or trivial; the one great curse, or its numerous army of descendants; none are without a purpose. In each gentle pulse upon the wind the twittering "swallow" has no more clear a meaning than these flying griefs, as they float fitfully toward them who are to bear them. This Hebrew has two meanings. . . . We have selected "to no purpose" here, because the preposition is ל and not בּ. Had we selected "for no cause," there would have emerged a beautiful sense. The meaning then, as birds do not make their appearance in the spring as apparitions, starting up ghost-like in the fields as they seem to, but have come long journeys, many of them in the night, and have reached us by honest flying, so the curse does not come without a cause. The meanings, as will be seen, are very different. One is, that the curse has a cause on our part; the other, that it has a reason on the part of our Creator. Now, both are true. Both are very expressive. Both have a fitness in the passage. . . . "To no purpose" yields the wider truth, and, moreover, is the bolder mystery. The curse had a subsistence earlier than we, and a "cause" later than it had a reason. It was pre-determined from the very beginning. And, therefore, ours is the bolder grasping of the cavil, and replies to the sinner more deeply.--Miller.

Powerless was Moab's curse, though attempted to be strengthened with the divination of the wicked prophet. Goliath's curse against David was scattered to the winds. What was David the worse for Shimei's curse; or Jeremiah for the curses of his persecutors? Under this harmless shower of stones we turn from men to God, and are at peace. "Let them curse; but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice" (Ps. cix. 28).--Bridges.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 3-11.

A LOW LEVEL.

+I. A moral fool puts himself on a level with the brute by turning a deaf ear to the voices of reason and conscience.+ That which above all other characteristics distinguishes man from the lower animals is the possession of a moral sense and a reasoning faculty; these are the great lights which God has given him for his guidance, by the use of which he may ever be rising to a higher moral and intellectual level. But the moral fool does not listen to them, and even after he has tasted the bitterness of disregarding them, and even while he is suffering from the evil effects of his folly, he gives evidence of his moral stupidity by returning to it (ver. 11). This is a plain proof that he is "as the horse or the mule, which have no understanding" (Psa. xxxii. 9).

+II. Having chosen his position he must be treated accordingly.+ When men act like men--when their conduct is such as befits responsible and rational creatures--they are open to reason and persuasion, and their fellow-men are bound to use such means in their intercourse with them. They are bound to listen to what they have to say, and to reply to their questions and consider their objections. But to do this with such a person as is here called a fool would be to disobey our Saviour's injunction, and to "cast our pearls before swine." It would be letting ourselves down to his level and encouraging him in his self-conceit. This, we think, is the meaning of verse 4. But, on the other hand, we are not always to be silent when the fool is talking. This also might lead him to think that his foolish arguments were unanswerable--that we thought him as wise as he thinks himself to be. He is to receive sometimes the stern rebuke that his folly deserves; the manifestation of our displeasure is to be in proportion to his manifestation of weakness and wickedness. This will also be "answering a fool according to his folly," as in verse 5. But a fool must be checked by means that will perhaps make more impression upon him than mere words. The rod must be applied--coercion and punishment must come into use where reason and moral persuasion are useless. Having placed himself on a level with the brute, he must be ruled sometimes by brute force--by the whip of compulsion, by the bridle of restraint. Men have the power of doing this to a certain extent, and it is their duty to use it. But whether they do or do not, God will certainly visit such an offender with the rod of punishment. Whether this is the truth contained in verse 10 or not, revelation and experience affirm it, and we have met with it repeatedly in this book. It is a great offence against Him who called us into being, and who desires His creatures to be worthy of their Creator, when men thus in practice count themselves unworthy of their destiny. The Hebrew nation, in the bygone ages, was called by God to occupy a higher moral level than the surrounding nations, but by its own stubbornness and self-conceit it made the purpose of God to none effect, and was therefore necessarily made to feel the bitterness of being treated like a wild and refractory animal (Jer. xxxi. 18). And so it is with men in general. God would treat them as His sons, but their moral foolishness compels Him to make them feel the whip, the bridle, and the rod. One other thought is suggested in verses 7 and 8--

+III. That even the fool will sometimes adopt the speech of the wise.+ A parable, or a wise saying, will sometimes be found in his lips, he will be sometimes heard to utter words of wisdom and give good advice. But precept is of little avail if not backed by a good example; the words and the deeds of such a man are as ill-matched as those of a cripple who has one sound and useful limb, but whose other is shrunken and useless. The gait of such a man is awkward and uncertain, the malformed and the healthy limb do not well balance his body. This is an apt illustration of the incongruity which often exists between the words and actions of a moral fool.

(For Homiletics on verses 6 and 8 considered separately see on verse 1, page 714, and on chap. x. 26, page 179.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 3. The rod is needful for the fool's back. Are you the unhappy fathers of foolish children? you must make use of the rod and reproof to give them wisdom. Are you authorised to bear rule in the church? the rod of church discipline must be applied to offenders, that they may be reclaimed, and others warned. Are you magistrates; the rod which God has put into your hands may be a means of preserving young malefactors from the gibbet at a more advanced period of life. Are you wise? beware of turning aside unto folly, that you may never need the rod. Are you fools? learn wisdom, or do not blame those whom duty and charity will oblige to use the rod for your correction.--Lawson.

Verses 4 and 5. Answer a fool, not with any dream that you thoroughly answer him, lest you be like him, and a fool yourself. And yet, by all means answer him. Answer wherever you can, lest he think you can't; exploding all baseless heresies and mistakes; lest, hardening himself where he might be convinced, and defrauding himself where there is everything to be said, he erect himself against facts where he has not been taught, and become wise in his own eyes. . . . Answer not a fool, because much mystery does not admit of answer, and you will be a fool yourself. But more. The natural man does not discern the things of the Spirit of God. If you answer a natural man with the idea that mere answers can turn him, you must "be like him," as having no sense yourself of what is purely spiritual. Notice here a grand rebuke of reason in all attempts to convince the sinner. Nevertheless answer a fool, and bow to just as great a rebuke to reason. We use reason far too gingerly. Reason is a Divine creation. It is an instrument. There is a thought as though it were wicked to go too deep. On the contrary, we are to out-think the fool. If we leave science to work her way, she will grow wise in her own conceit. Answer her. Rationalistic infidelity is by no means an infidelity in reason. And the church should make that to be seen. Scripture has been belied in the direction of Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor. ii). Nothing is more irrational than rationalism. And one of the first answers to the fool which he shall receive in the judgment will be, that he had all the reason for believing Christ which he had for anything beside, and a host of greater ones peculiar to the Gospel.--Miller.

These two sentences may seem at the first blush to be contrary . . . but this knot will be easily untied if it be observed that there are two sorts of answers, the one in folly, the other unto folly. A fool is not to be answered in his folly, or according unto his folly, that is to say, in such vanity as he useth, or after such a raging manner as he speaketh. . . . A fool is to be answered unto his folly; that is, by reasons to be confuted, and by reproofs that are wise to be bridled.--Muffett.

Generally speaking, it would be better to follow Hezekiah's command concerning Rabshakeh's blasphemy--"Answer him not." Jeremiah thus turned away in silence from the folly of the false prophets (Jer. xxviii. 11). If however we are constrained to reply--Answer him not according to his folly; not in his own foolish manner; "not rendering railing for railing" (1 Pet. iii. 9). Moses offended here. He answered the rebels according to their folly--passion for passion, and thus he became like unto them. David's answer to Nabal was in the same humiliating spirit. The answerer in this case is like the fool. He appears at the time to be cast in the same mould.--Bridges.

Verse 7. Uniformity and ubiquity of obedience are sure signs of sincerity; but as an unequal pulse argues a distempered body, so doth uneven walking a diseased soul. A wise man's life is all of one colour, like itself, and godliness runs through it, as the woof runs through the warp. But if all the parts of the line of thy life be not straight before God, it is a crooked life. If thy tongue speak by the talent, but thine hands scarce work by the ounce, thou shalt pass for a Pharisee (Matt. xxiii. 3). They spake like angels, lived like devils; had heaven commonly at their tongue ends, but the earth continually at their finger ends.--Trapp.

Verse 9. When a drunkard carries and brandishes in his hand a sweet briar, he scratches more with it than he allows the roses to be smelled; so a fool with the Scriptures or a judicial maxim oft causes more harm than profit.--Luther.

Proverbs have sometimes been hurtful even in the mouths of wise men, through the imperfection of their wisdom. Job's friends dealt much in parables, which they had learned by tradition from their wise ancestors, but they misapplied them in the case of Job; and although they meant to plead the cause of God, yet they displeased Him so much by their uncharitable speeches against Job, which they drew by unjust inference from undoubted truths, that He told them they had not spoken the thing that was right concerning Him as His servant Job had done. If Job had not been a strong believer, their management of truth must have sunk him into despondency.--Lawson.

Verse 11. The emblem is a loathsome and sickening one. It is meant to be so. It would not have been appropriate, had it been anything else. There are two ideas conveyed by the comparison. The disposition or tendency, on the part of the fool or vicious man, to return to his folly; and the loathsomeness--the vileness--of the thing itself, when it does take place. There are persons of great pretensions to refinement, who affect great disgust at the comparison. They wonder how anybody of ordinary delicacy can utter it. They would think their lips polluted by the very words. It were well for such persons to remember, that there is no comparison so odious as the thing itself which is represented by it. It were well if such persons would transfer their disgust and loathing at the figure to that which the figure represents:--if they would cherish a proper loathing of sin. That is what God holds in abhorrence:--that is what should be abhorred by us. Persons may affect to sicken at the comparison here used, and yet be themselves exemplifying the very conduct it so aptly represents. Folly and sin are incomparably more polluting and debasing to the nature of man, than the vilest and most disgusting practices in the inferior animals.--Wardlaw.

And is this the picture of man--"made a little lower than the angels" (Ps. viii. 5)--yea--"made in the likeness of God?" (Gen. i. 26). Who that saw Adam in his universal dominion, sitting as the monarch of creation; summoning all before him; giving to each his name, and receiving in turn his homage (Ib. ii. 20)--who would have conceived of his children sunk into such brutish degradation? The tempter's promise was--"Ye shall be as gods" (Ib. iii. 5). The result of this promise was--"Ye shall be as beasts." . . . Thus greedily did Pharaoh return from his momentary conviction; Ahab from his feigned repentance; Herod from his partial amendment; the drunkard from his brutish insensibility--all to take a more determinate course of sin; to take their final plunge into ruin.--Bridges.

According to the usual method of the Scriptures, a known thing is here employed to teach an unknown. The taste which inheres in nature is used as an instrument to implant the corresponding spiritual sensibility. The revulsion of the senses from a loathsome object is used as a lever power to press into the soul a dislike of sin. . . . The lines are strongly drawn, that the lesson may be clear and cutting. There must be a rude hearty blow, for there is a hard searing to be penetrated. Those who go back to suck at sins, which they once repudiated, may see in this terse proverb a picture of their pollution; only the Omniscient perfectly knows and loathes the vile original.--Arnot.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 12-16.

SELF-CONCEIT AND INDOLENCE.

+I. The ruinous effects of self-satisfaction.+ In the preceding verses Solomon has drawn a picture of the moral fool--of the man who seems to have no moral sensibility, and who is a slave to evil habits and degrading vices. At first sight it would seem that no one could be in a more hopeless condition, but a little consideration will convince us that the wise man is right when he declares that it is easier to convince a fool of his folly, than a self-conceited man of his ignorance and weakness. For there are many men who know that they are not what they ought to be, although they have not the moral courage to quit their sinful courses; and sometimes the very depth of degradation in which such men find themselves, and the strong contrast which exists in their outward life between themselves and more respectable citizens, startle them into a vigorous and successful effort to break their chains. But a man who is wise in his own eyes is generally outwardly decorous in his behaviour--is what has been called a respectable sinner--and it is this very outward propriety which lulls his conscience to sleep. Like the Pharisee in the temple, he thanks God that he is not as other men (Luke xviii. 11) who are outwardly immoral, and forgets that if he is not sensual he may be devilish (Jas. iii. 15), may be under the dominion on the sin that made the first and greatest sinner in the universe. It was men of this class, and not the openly profane and sensual, whom Christ declared to be in danger of committing the sin which should not be forgiven (Matt. xii. 31), and on another occasion he shows that their hopeless condition arose from the fact that they did not realise that they were in any spiritual need. "If ye were blind we should have no sin, but now ye say, we see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John ix. 41). This moral blindness is so hopeless because it is self-originated and self-sustained--because the subjects of it love darkness rather than light, and even call their darkness light, and their evil, good.

+II. Self-conceit is both the child and the parent of indolence.+ If a man feels certain that he is far in advance of his competitors for any prize or position, his efforts to gain it will be very feeble and intermittent. And on the other hand, if he is indolent he will be content with very low intellectual and spiritual attainments, and inclined to place a very high estimate upon the very little mental or moral wealth that he possesses. Being unwilling to labour after more, he makes the most of what he has, and so his sloth keeps him ignorant, and his ignorance confirms him in his slothful habits.

+III. The indolent man has spasmodic and fruitless seasons of activity.+ He turns upon his bed of sloth as though he were going to rise, and he puts his hand in the dish (see Critical Notes) of human enterprise and activity as though he intended to take a prize, and to taste the sweets of honest and earnest toil. But his resolutions are broken almost before they are formed, and his moral courage is not strong enough to carry him through the first difficulty, or make him willing to undergo the least self-denial. And so he ever remains a stranger to the sweetness of repose honestly earned, and to the relish of good things gained by industry and perseverance. On this subject see also on chap. xii. 27, page 289, and on verse 13. (See Homiletics on chap. xxii. 13, page 647.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 12. The publicans and sinners went faster to heaven than the Pharisees; yea, there may be a greater nighness between the things when there is a greater distance between the working of them and the bringing them together. Thus, brother and sister are nigher in blood yet farther off marrying each other than two strangers; and thus two men upon the tops of two houses opposite to each other in one of your narrow streets--they are nearer each other in distance than those below are, yet in regard of coming each to other they may be said to be farther off, for the one must come down and then climb up again. Thus now a moral man, though he seems nearer to a state of grace, yet is really farther off; for he must be convinced of his false righteousness, and then climb up to the state of grace.--Goodwin.

Verse 16. There is no refuting a man who says nothing. Nonsense is unanswerable if there only be enough of it. Who would dispute against a pair of bagpipes, or against a company of boys that hoot at him? If you will make a match at barking or biting, a cur will be too hard for you. And if you will contend with multitudes of words, or by rage or confidence, a fool will be too hard for you.--Baxter.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 17.

NEEDLESS INTERFERENCE.

The wise man may here be regarded as passing from one extreme of character to the other--from the man who is too indolent to mind his own affairs, to one whose activity is so great that it leads him to unnecessary interference with his neighbour's business. Or he may intend to suggest that indolence and meddling are very closely allied--that he who is not usefully occupied in doing his own work will be very apt to interfere impertinently with the concerns of others.

+I. Such a meddler brings trouble upon himself.+ It is a dangerous thing to take a strange dog by the ears, and he who does it will be very likely to suffer for it in his own person, for the creature will probably wound him. But he who meddles impertinently with those who are at strife has to deal, not with one angry brute, but with two angry men or women, and will very likely bring down the wrath of both upon his own head. For it is to be noted that the strife with which it is mischievous to intermeddle is that "which belongeth not to" a man--a quarrel in which an outsider has no right to take a part.

+II. He may do harm to others.+ To take a dog by the ears is at least a foolish and useless act, and will certainly not increase the comfort or peace of anybody. But it may so enrage the beast as to make him a general disturber of the public peace and safety. And the same holds good in relation to meddlers; the mischief that they do may extend far beyond themselves, and their action may form a centre of a wide circle of mental disquietude and moral mischief.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

A wide difference is made between "suffering as a busy-body, and suffering as a Christian." It is alarming to those who have no adequate sense of the criminality to find the apostle classify the one with "murderers, and thieves, and evil-doers."--Bridges.

For Homiletics on verses 18-22, see on chap. xvii. 14, page 513, and on chap. xviii. 6-8, page 539.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 23-28.

COUNTERFEIT FRIENDSHIP.

+I. Because there are true friends in the world false men sometimes put on the garb of friendship.+ Because there is an abundance of genuine coin in the country men take the trouble to make counterfeit imitations of it; the existence of the good money is the cause of the existence of the bad, and the great preponderance of the good over the bad is the reason why men sometimes get imposed upon and take the bad for the good. So there is much real and true friendship in human life, and there is therefore an opportunity given to wicked men to imitate its outward expression--there are many "burning words" uttered from the depths of a sincere heart, and therefore a wicked man will sometimes utter such words for the purposes of deception. The vessel of clay covered with silver may be taken for silver, because its shape and external appearance are close imitation of the genuine article, and the fair words of the false man may effectually deceive the listener, but it is because some things are what they seem, that other things are made to seem what they are not.

+II. The words of true friendship are used to reveal, and those of the false friend are employed only for concealment.+ There were many silver vessels in Solomon's palace, and their bright splendour was a true revelation of their intrinsic worth and genuineness; the shining surface reflecting the light was an indication of the preciousness of the entire article. But when a clay vessel is covered with silver, the external coating is used only to cover what is beneath, and perhaps to deceive those who look on it. So when the friendship is real the ardent expressions of affection which are uttered are only a revelation of the emotions which are experienced, but when it is only a counterfeit the words are like the silver which hides instead of revealing what is beneath it. Solomon's father thus records his experience of the language of a counterfeit friend: "His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords" (Psalm lv. 21).

+III. Because counterfeit friendship is opposed to human happiness it shall be publicly arrested and condemned.+ Every counterfeit has arrayed against it the force of human interest. It is to the interest of the general community that the forger should be brought to justice, and that the coiner of bad money should be severely punished. It is only by rigidly enforcing the law against such criminals that they are kept in check, and the safety of the public made tolerably secure. When such offenders are discovered their wickedness is condemned by the united voice of the commercial world. But the man who betrays another by false words is quite as great an enemy to his brother man, and ought to be as severely dealt with and as publicly and universally condemned. But it can hardly be affirmed that such is the case. If every such betrayer were dealt with by human laws we should need a large increase of judges and gaolers and prison-cells, and should find within the walls of the latter many men who are now living in mansions. And if it were only punished by being shut out from the favourable notices of their fellow-men, many would be missed from their present positions in commercial and fashionable circles. Although they are shunned, and their wickedness is abhorred by all lovers of truth and honesty, they are far from meeting at the hands of man with the contempt and condemnation which they deserve. But the forces arrayed against such men are nevertheless in operation, and though they often work secretly and slowly they are most certain to find their object and to make him conscious of their existence. There are other agencies at work in the universe besides human agencies, and a Divine lawgiver as well as human lawgivers. And although the latter may fail to discover those who break their laws, no offender against the law of God will be able to escape public arrest and condemnation, if not before a human congregation, before a higher and more august assembly.

+IV. A special form of punishment which will be the special portion of such offenders.+ The great principle proclaimed by Christ, "With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again" (Matt. vii. 2), is here uttered by Solomon. Every deceiver will be deceived, and one false man will become the prey of another false man. This is a law which is always and now in operation, although the punishment may not always be discernable to onlookers. But it is a work which the Almighty Judge has taken into His own hands, and many a one who is now suffering from a pitfall laid by another, knows very well in his secret soul that he is only passing through the same experiences which he once prepared for another--that if what he took for a silver vessel is only clay, he has himself palmed off the counterfeit article for a genuine one.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

Verse 28. It is not easy for us to forgive the injuries we receive; but it is far more difficult to forgive the injuries we do.--Lawson.

1. There is the inward self-reproach, arising from the workings of conscience, from which arises a secret irritability and fretfulness and unhappiness; and this produces dislike of the innocent occasion of it, instead of terminating (as it always ought to do) on self. This of course is only more injustice. True; but it is in human nature to hate with a bitter hatred the object of our own crime; as if it were a fault in that object to exist, and so to be the object on which our sin terminates. 2. The evil passions, like the good, are strengthened and increased by their exercise. If the utterance of the feelings of love serves further to inflame love, the utterance, in like manner, of the feelings of hatred tend to inflame hatred. The passion gives birth to the word and the action; and, reciprocally, the word and the action strengthen the passion. 3. The fretful uneasiness produced by the unceasing apprehension of detection and exposure, already alluded to, and of the weight of his vengeance who is the object of the lying tongue's assaults, gives rise also to the same feeling of rankling dislike to him who is the source of it. Thus the slanderer, instead of feeling pity for the man who his slander wounds, hates him still the more. This appears to have had a very striking exemplification in the case of our blessed Lord and His Jewish unbelieving adversaries. They "hated Him without a cause."--Wardlaw.

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