Piety is the fruit of training. If a man is a believer, it is a sign that he has had believing nurture; and if a scorner, it is a sign he has had“no rebuke.”This text reiterates the promise made to the training of a child. To treat it as in our English version is simply to evoke a truism, and might do very well, grammatically, if the verb were future, and not perfect. The idea embraces the solemn lesson, that Christians are not to be made without training.—Miller.
Or heareth and jeereth; as Lot’s sons-in-law, so Eli’s sons, and afterwards Samuel’s. Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross, as well as in his place, though not in his sin of indulgence. God will show that grace is by gift, and not by inheritance or education.—Trapp.
There is in the conscience of the scorner a hidden discouragement, and privy despair, both of pardon of his sinfulness, and possibility to leave it: and that doth exasperate him against such as shall be dealing with it. Who is willing to have his wound laid open to his disgrace and torment, when he taketh it to be altogether incurable?—Dod.
main homiletics of verses2and3.
Keeping the Mouth.
The human tongue needs keeping, or guarding.1.Because there is a tendency in men to speak as soon as they think.First thoughts are not always the fittest thoughts to be made public. It is always advisable to view them and review them in the light of our judgment before we give them utterance. Hence our tongue ought to be always “well in hand.” 2.Because when loosed it is a great power for evil as well as for good.It may bring much good to a man’s life. “A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth,” when his mouth brings forth good fruit—when “out of the good treasure of his heart he bringeth forth that which is good.” A tongue wisely used gives a man the respect and confidence of his fellow-men, yields him the satisfaction of having been a blessing to them (See Comments on chap.xii. 6and14). But a tongue which is uncontrolled is mischievous to others and to the man himself. “He that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.” As we saw in chapterx. 19, there is often a sin inmuch speaking.Such a tongue as that described in chapterii. 12, or that in chapterxii. 18(see Homiletics and Comments on those verses), destroy not only their victims but those to whom they belong. Such a tongue, the Apostle tells us, is “a fire, a world of iniquity: and is set on fire of hell” (Jas. iii. 6). 3.Because it is the last stronghold which is brought under complete control to spiritual rule—the weak point in the spiritual man’s armour where the adversary’s arrow may enter.This we know from inspired authority.“If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body”(Jas. iii. 2). We have an example of its truth in the case of Moses. That man who was “meek above all men which were upon the face ofthe earth” (Num. xii. 3), forfeited his right of entrance into the earthly Canaan by an unguarded use of the tongue. The prayers of the Psalmist show us the importance which he attached to the keeping of this stronghold and the difficulty attending it, as well as that only sure means of safety, that of calling in Divine help.“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips”(Psalm cxli. 3). Every morally wise man will make the resolve of David, “I will keep my mouth with a bridle,” not only “while the wicked is before me,” but at all times and in all places. Life is lost and won both in its higher and lower senses by not keeping the mouth.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 2. The “mouth of a man” in thatviva vocecountry, as formerly in our southern states, was the great instrument of a business man. He lived by giving orders. The mail conducts our business in our days. Afalse lipstood for all sorts of bad activity (Eccles. x. 12). A good man will be satisfied to earn his living. The bad man, in some way or other, wants to steal it. But apace with this secular meaning is one that concerns the saints. The good man expects to fight for heaven; the lost man to get heaven by deceit (see rendering inCritical Notes). It is true the tendencies might seem reversed. The good man hails a work done for him, and expects a ransom without money and without price. The bad man would intersperse some struggles of his own. But, in fact, the Christian, though saved by grace, works the more for it; and, in fact, the sinner, rejecting grace and interposing his own works, is just the man expecting blessings without costs, and without any earnest toil. Not“eat good”(English version) but “a good man will eat” (get his food). “The earnings of the mouth.” No one can go into a great city now without noticing how much of men’s money they make by their mouth. The gainful merchants are talking all day long. No man can buy salvation; but he reaches it by hard labour, and partly by earnest speech.—Miller.
Although the spirit and practice ofretaliationare nowhere vindicated in Scripture, but everywhere explicitly and strongly condemned: yet a treatment corresponding to their own treatment towards others is what everyone may expect, even independently of what deserves the name ofretaliation.In the nature of things it cannot be otherwise. It is not inhumannature, nor inanynature, not even in the Divine itself, to love (with the love of complacence) that which isunamiable.An amiable disposition alone can securelove;and it is greatly indicated by thetongue.The man who is charitable in his judgments, and disposed to speak well of others, will be himself the subject of charitable judgment, and of cordial commendation. Thus “he shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth.”—Wardlaw.
The mouth of a man dothblossomwhen he speaketh fairly and promiseth well, but then itbeareth fruitwhen that is performed which is promised. And by this fruit it is, which though others eat, yet a man himself eateth good, as having his soul cheered and nourished by the comfort of it. But as for the soul of the perfidious and false dealers, who make a show to do a thing, and do quite the contrary, although they carry it slightly and without violence, yet violence shall seize upon them, either to compel them to a performance, or else to a just suffering for not performing, which will be bitter food.—Jermin.
Verse 3. Speech, though our great activity, gives us more toil in holding it back than in actually employing it. So activity, which it typically represents, is harder to hold than to promote. Religion is an every-day battle. He that is not conscious of it, has no true religion.—Miller.
“Keep thine heart” (chap. iv. 23). This guards the citadel.Keep thy mouth.This sets a watch at the gates. If they be well guarded the city is safe. Leave them unprotected—thus was Babylon taken.—Bridges.
No wonder that the Holy Ghost here labours so much for the reformation of the tongue; for the Apostle also (Rom. iii. 13, etc.), when giving an anatomy of human depravity in the embers of the body, dwells more on the tongue than all the rest.—Cartwright, fromFausset.
main homiletics of verse4.
The Disappointment of the Sluggard’s Desires.
I. The desires of the sluggard cannot be satisfied—1.Because they are contrary to the ordination of God.The Divine ordination is, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Gen. iii. 19), in other words, that reward shall be the result of labour. If a man is to have that which he desires, he must frame his desire in harmony with the law of the universe, or he must be disappointed. If men desire to bring about any material result they take care to work in harmony with physical law. He would be looked upon as a madman who expected to achieve anything by setting at nought the law ofgravitation,for instance. It is quite as useless for men to desire to set aside God’s moral laws. 2.Because they are contrary to the practice of God.God, as we saw in homiletics on chap.xii. 24,27, is a great worker. He desired to save man, but He used means to accomplish His desires, even means which involved the highest self-sacrifice. Shall men expect to realise his wishes without effort, when God “spared not His own Son” (Rom. viii. 32) to bring about the salvation of the world, when Christ “endured the cross” to attain “the joy set before Him?” (Heb. xii. 2). 3.Because they are unfair to his fellow-creatures.He desires to consume, but not to contribute to the general good; he wants to have the reward of the diligent without his toil. It would be unjust to the industrious to give to him fordesiringwhat others gain byworking.Therefore,
II. He wearies himself far more by his laziness than he would do by honest labour.If a man is constantly desiring and never having his desires fulfilled, his life must become a weariness to him. Fulfilled desires become an incentive to renewed activity—he who has reaped one harvest as a result of his labour is quickened to new energy to sow for another crop. The sluggard knows not the enjoyment which comes to the man who has worked hard for the reward which he now enjoys; he knows not what it is to enjoy rest and recreation, because true diligence only can give them any true relish. (See also Homiletics on chap.vi. 6–11andxii. 24.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
The sluggard in religiondesiresto overcome his bad habits, to enjoy the happiness of God’s people. So far, well.Desiresare a part of religion. There can be no attainment without them. Many have not even the desire, yet the sluggard hath nothing, because it isdesirewithout effort. “Hell,” says an old writer, “is paved with such desires.”—Bridges.
Wishes and woulders are never good householders.—Muffet.
Doddridge says most people perish by laziness. Laziness is the attribute of a man who desires an object, but will not work for it. The impenitent desires heaven—nay longs for it—yea, confidently expects it (just as many a sluggard expects wealth), but religion never “turns up,” it never comes likegame taken in the chase (chap. xii. 27), it is a solid product; we must stir up ourselves to take hold on God (Isa. lxiv. 7). With no exceptions, such as are on “change,” it is the“diligent soul”that“shall be made fat”and theyearning sluggard,at the very last,“has nothing.”—Miller.
The slothful man has one mighty objection against heaven, that he cannot make sure of it in a morning dream.—Lawson.
Labour is the original law of man’s nature. Thefatigueanddistressof labour, are, no doubt, the result of sin. Even in the garden of primeval innocence, it was by his “dressing” and “keeping” that everything was to thrive.—Wardlaw.
The sluggard would and he would not, he would have the end, but would not use the means; he would “sit at Christ’s right hand,” but he would not “drink of His cup,” or “be baptized with His baptism.” Affection without endeavour is like Rachel, beautiful, but barren. . . . David, ravished with the meditation of the good man’s blessedness, presently conceives this desire and pursues it; not “Oh that I had this happiness,” but “Oh that I could use the means!” “Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes” (Psa. cxix. 4, 5).—Trapp.
main homiletics of verse5.
A Lawful Hatred.
I. A righteous man hates lying.1.Because it is contrary to his ruling disposition.His own righteous character has been created by believing the truth. His spiritual life is constantly renewed and sustained by believing the truth, and reducing his belief to practice. He is a child of the truth, and, therefore, apart from all the consequences of lying he instinctively abhors it. 2.He hates it also because of its evil influence upon men.Confidence in a lie ruined our first parents, and confidence in a law has ruined whole nations and mighty empires in the past. In proportion as men “believe a lie” (2 Thess. ii. 11) in the same proportion will be their ruin. The righteous man knows that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of truth (John xviii. 37), and as his great desire is to see that kingdom spread he must hate all that opposes it, and thus mars the happiness of the human race.
II. Wicked men are untruthful men.As the righteous man’s character is built by truth and upon truth, so that of an ungodly man is built upon falsehood. All such men are the children of him who was a liar from the beginning, and although they may not beliarsin the common acceptation of the word, there is a lack of truthfulness in the character of the most outwardly moral. In some shape or other he is a liar—he is a subject of him whose kingdom is built upon lying, and who could not retain under his influence a man who “hated lying” in every form and under every disguise. Such a man must come to shame. What would be the fate of a cripple if he were to challenge a man with sound limbs to run a race? Must he not be worsted in the end? Not more surely than will every subject of the kingdom whose foundation was laid in a lie. There is an Italian proverb which says, “A liar is sooner caught than a cripple.” If “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,” he who owns the lips must be an abomination also (see Homiletics on chap.xii. 22).
outlines and suggestive comments.
Clear and round dealing is the honour of man’s nature; and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold or silver, which may make the metal work the better but embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shameas to be found false and perfidious; and, therefore, Montaigne sayeth prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge, “If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God and shrinks from man.”—Lord Bacon.
The natural man shuns lying and deceit on account of the outward shame and reproach; the pious abhors them with all his heart for God’s sake.—Starke, in Lange’s Commentary.
The allegiance of the soul to truth is tested by small things, rather than by those which are more important. There is many a man who would lose his life rather than perjure himself in a court of justice, whose life is yet a tissue of small insincerities. We think that we are hating falsehood when we are only hating the consequences of falsehood. We resent hypocrisy and treachery, and calumny, not because they are untrue, but because they harm us. We hate the false calumny, but are half-pleased by the false praise. It is evidently not the element of untruth here that is displeasing, but the element of harmfulness. Now he is a man of integrity who hates untruthasuntruth; who resents the smooth and polished falsehood of society, which does no harm; who turns in indignation from the glittering whitened lie of sepulchral Pharisaism which injures no one. Integrity recoils from deception, which men would almost smile to hear called deception. To a moral pure mind the artifices in every department of life are painful. The stained wood which passes for a more firm and costly material in a building, and deceives the eye by passing for what it is not—marble. The painting which is intended to be taken for reality; the gilding which is meant to pass for gold; and the glass which is worn to look like jewels; for there is a moral feeling and a truthfulness in architecture, in painting, and in dress, as well as in the market-place and in the senate, and in the judgment hall. “These are trifles.” Yes, these are trifles; but it is just these trifles which go to the formation of character. He that is habituated to deceptions and artificialities in trifles will try in vain to be true in matters of importance; for truth is a thing of habit rather than of will. . . . And it is a fearful question, and a difficult one, how all these things, the atmosphere of which we breathe in our daily life, may sap the very foundation of the power of becoming a servant of the truth.—F. W. Robertson.
It is not said that a righteous man never lies. David lied more than once, and yet he could say with truth that he abhorred lying. Though he lied to Abimelech the priest, and to the king of the Philistines, yet his fixed hatred of sin was an evidence of piety, to which those can lay no claim who never spoke a lie in their lives, if their abstinence from this sin was caused by some other motive than hatred. . . . God and man agree in almost nothing but this, that a liar is detestable to both, and therefore he must, sooner or later, come to disgrace.—Lawson.
The affections are of as great force in the service of God as the words and actions, and the heart hath no less place than the members of the body. It must be one and the principal agent in love, where they have calling; and it must deal alone with detestation of those abominations which they are discharged to intermeddle with. . . . Here we have instruction to inform our hearts against all manner of wickedness, that they may be the more incensed against it. The less we like sin the more righteous we are, and the better the Lord will love us. And the more agreement there is between sin and our souls, the less peace there is between our souls and God. All the hurts and miseries that have ever come upon us, or on Christ for our sakes, do give just occasion to fall out with sinfulness, that hath been the cause thereof.—Dod.
Where grace reigns, sin is loathsome, where sin reigns the man is loathsome.—Henry.
main homiletics of verse6.
Overthrow by Sin.
For Homiletics on the first clause of this verse see on chap.xi. 3,5, 6.
I. The person overthrown—the sinner.1.To be a sinner implies the existence of a law.Where there is no law there is no transgression. The sinner here spoken of is a transgressor against moral, Divine law. 2.There may be sin against a law which is in existence but which is not known.A man may not know of the existence of a law, and thus may sin ignorantly. 3.But the sinner of the Bible is one who, if he does not possess a written revelation, does possess a “law written in his heart”—his conscience.(See Rom. ii. 14, 15.) Though the guilt is incomparably greater when a man sins against both conscience and revelation, yet he who transgresses the law of thefirst onlyis a sinner, and there must be overthrow in both cases, because moral transgression contains within itself the elements of destruction.
II. His overthrow.1.For a man to be overthrown by breaking a law, that law must be good.There have been laws that common integrity has compelled men to transgress, and men have been rewarded by the Great Lawgiver for the transgression. There are still laws in force in the world, the violation of which is a proof of moral courage. But the sinner here doomed to overthrow is a sinner against a law to which his own conscience bears witness that it is holy and just, and good (Rom. vii. 12). 2.The breaking of this law must overthrow a man, even if no power were ever put forth against him.Sin debases a man by the law of cause and effect. Nothing can prevent a man who throws himself over a precipice from finding the bottom of the chasm—nothing can keep a sinner from sinking lower and lower in the moral scale. The first man finds a bottom—comes to the end of his fall—he who sins keeps sinking lower and lower while he continues in sin. 3.The law against which the sinner transgresses is backed by the highest authority, and by the greatest power of the universe.It represents the greatest Being. Sin is not directed against anabstraction,but against aperson.He who has promulgated it is a living personality, and has all power to enforce its penalties. The Almighty God is against the sinner. Must he not then be overthrown? 4.The sinner can be placed in such a position as will justify him from the guilt of his past transgressions, and will enable him to keep the law in the future.The Lawgiver has Himself provided the way of escape. He Himself gives the power to obey. Hence he who sins against this law sins against mercy too, and doubles his condemnation, “is overthrown,” not by God’s law, but by his rejection of God’s method of deliverance from the guilt and power of sin.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Wickedness is ruin.1. It exhausts a man’sproperty,whether much or little. Sin is a very expensive thing; a person cannot commit it to any extent, but at a considerable loss, not of time only, but of substance. The passions are clamorous, exorbitant, and restless, till gratified, and this must be repeated. The case of the prodigal is in point, he wasted all his patrimony in riotous living. 2. It blasts hisreputation.Sin can never be deemed honourable on correct principles; yet while sinners possess means of supporting themselves in their vices, they still keep up their name and rank in the world; not in the Church of God, or in the estimation of heaven. But when the means of supplying fuel to feed the fires of foul desire and toweringambition fail, then their outward splendours go out into darkness. (See Prov. x. 7; xxiv. 30.) 3. It destroyshealth.Intemperance undermines the best constitution; it is a violence done to the physical order of things; it renders a man old in constitution, while he is young in years. 4. It hastens the approach ofdeath.Wicked men frequently do “not live out half their days” (Psa. lv. 23), “for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thess. v. 3). Sometimes their passions hurry them forward to the commission of crimes which terminate in the most disgraceful exit. 5. It effects the damnation of thesoul.A sinner “wrongeth his own soul” (Prov. viii. 36). He quenches the Spirit of grace, neglects the salvation of the gospel, till he goes to his own place. “The wicked shall be turned into hell” (Psa. ix. 17).—Theta,fromSketches of Sermons.
Righteousness keepeth the upright, so that, though belied or abused, he will not let go his integrity (Job xxvii. 5). David’s “feet stood in an even place” (Psa. xxvi. 12). The spouse, though despoiled of her veil and wounded by the watch, yet keeps close to Christ (Cant. v). Not but that the best are sometimes disquieted in such cases; for not the evenest weights, but at their first putting into the balance, somewhat swap both parts thereof, not without some show of inequality, which yet, after some little motion, settle themselves in a meet poise and posture.—Trapp.
As he walketh safely in the way who hath a faithful convoy with him, so he is most sure of a faithful convoy who is a strong convoy unto himself. Righteousness alone is a puissant army, and he cannot perish whom righteousness preserveth. But how can he escape who is beset in the way by his own villainy. The Hebrew is, that wickedness overthrowethsin.When a sinner is grown settled in sinning, he justly getteth the name of sin, and such an one it is that is here spoken of.—Jermin.
“Righteousness,”that good claim in law which merit gives some of the creatures. Ourrighteousnesscomes to us as the merit of Christ. The condition of our being held righteous is faith and new obedience. Therefore, if one is obedient, or, as this verse expresses it,“is upright”or “of integrityin the way,”“righteousness keeps guard over him.”Once righteous, always righteous. Having the proof of our righteousness now, that righteousness, or good standing in the law, shall guard us for ever; while sin, becoming equally perpetual, does not only not guard us, but (another intensive second clause) rejects what guard we have; that is, as it is most evangelically expressed,“subverts”or“overturns”the sin-offering. This word,sin-offering,instead ofallowingsuch an interpretation (seeCritical Notes)hasit in all preceding books.“Sin”is the rare rendering. Some of the most beautiful Scriptures, that are Messianic in their cast (Gen. iv. 7), are ruined by the translation“sin.”Leviticus never has the translation“sin”even in the English version.—Miller.
There is more bitterness following upon sin’s ending than ever there was sweetness flowing from sin’s acting. You that see nothing but well in its commission will suffer nothing but woe in its conclusion. You that sin for your profits will never profit by your sins.—Dyer.
main homiletics of verses7and8.
The Law of Compensation.
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. There may be pretensions to wealth where there is comparative poverty.Many men endeavour to make other people believe that they are richer than they are—indeed, it seems to be the common vice of modern society. It is to be deprecated for several reasons. 1.It is an injury to the man himself.Itvery often happens that his foolish artifices fail to blind others; he is like the ostrich who, when he places his head into the sand, thinks he has hidden himself entirely from observation; he only makes himself an object of ridicule to those who he thinks he has deceived. If, for a time, he that “hath nothing” succeeds in making people believe he is rich, the truth comes out in time, the bubble bursts, and the pretender comes to such shame as would never have been his portion if he had been content to pass for what he really was—a poor man. 2.Such pretenders are a curse to others.One such man makes many others. His costly furniture and brilliant entertainments, and all the adjuncts which are necessary to keep up the reputation of being a millionaire, lead his neighbours and associates to keep up appearances of the same kind, and so the mischief grows. Then such men rob honest men by leading them to trust them with their goods or money, and when the end comes many are brought to ruin. Examples of this truth are not far to seek, they are, alas, far too common in the present day. 3.Such pretension is base hypocrisy.A sin against which a righteous God levels His sternest threatenings (see on chap.xi. 9).
II. He who is really wealthy and yet does not use his wealth to the glory of God “hath nothing.”1.He is poor in relation to his fellow-creatures.The greatest beggar cannot do less for the world than he does, and he is poor in the love and gratitude of those from whom he might win a rich reward by the exercise of benevolence. 2.He is poor in spiritual riches.A miserly, niggardly man must be poor “towards God” (Luke xii. 21)—must be destitute of all that God counts worth possessing. The rich Church of Laodicea was so “increased with goods” that she said, “I have need of nothing,” but in the sight of the Son of God she was “poor” (Rev. iii. 17).
III. In a spiritual sense this text is true.Possibly the rebuke to the Laodicean Church may refer to that satisfaction in spiritual things “which maketh itself rich yet hath nothing,” because its possessor is destitute of any real knowledge of his own spiritual needs and, consequently, of his spiritual poverty.
IV. There are men who are in every respect the opposite of those with whom we have been dealing.1.There is the miser who “maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.”It is difficult to know what motive can prompt a man to do this except covetousness—a fear that he will be expected to part with some of his wealth for the good of others. What, therefore, was said under the second head will apply to him. 2.There are those who make no show of wealth, yet having enough to sustain their position in life are really rich.The man who is content to be known for what he really is, and has enough to live honestly, isrich,for riches and poverty are merely comparative terms, and the riches of one man would be poverty to another.
“For he that needs five thousand pounds to live,Is full as poor as he that needs but five.”
Therefore, “a man that maketh (or sheweth) himself poor” in this sense, has great riches. He has a sufficiency for all his wants, he retains his self-respect and the respect of his fellow-men. 3.The really poor man is rich when he spends his little with regard to the glory of God.Who of all those who cast their gifts into the treasury was so rich as the poor widow who cast in “all her living?” She was rich in the commendation of her Lord (Mark xii. 43), and all such as she will have the same recognition and will be rich in the gratitude and love of their fellow-creatures. Such an one shows that he is in possession of the “true riches” (Luke xvi. 11) which alone can preserve from moral bankruptcy. To them belongs the commendation “I know thy poverty, but thou art rich” (Rev. ii. 9). Such “poor of this world” are “rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom” (Jas. ii. 5). 4.Those who are thus really, because spiritually, rich have always a sense of spiritual poverty.They esteem themselves “less than the least of all saints” (Ephes. iii. 8), their watchword is “not as though I had alreadyattained” (Phil. iii. 12), therefore, to them belongs the rich possession of the friendship of “the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity” (Isa. lvii. 15). Thus “making themselves poor,” they “yet have great riches.”
V. There are advantages and disadvantages connected both with material wealth and with poverty.“The ransom of a man’s life are his riches.” This was more literally true in Solomon’s days than in ours, and is more so now in Oriental countries than among the western nations. There, even now, a man’s riches often excite the greed of some despotic ruler, or one of his irresponsible officials, and he is accused of some crime in order that his accuser may pocket a large ransom. In times of war, too, the rich are exposed to losses and vexations from their conquerors, which the poor escape. Wealth is the magnet which draws the plunderers upon them; although, at the same time, it enables them to ransom their lives. This is one of the penalties of riches. The spirit, although not the letter of the proverb, may be applied to modern European life. It is the hall of the nobleman what is exposed to the visits of the burglar. It is the great capitalist that loses when banks fail, and when there is a commercial panic. But none of these things touch a poor man. The despots pass him over, because he has no riches wherewith to ransom his life; in the time of war he is unmolested, as when Judea was invaded, “the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen” (2 Kings xxv. 12). No thief plans a midnight surprise upon his humble abode; he cannot lose his money, he has none to lose. Vultures are not attracted to a skeleton, they gather round a carcase covered with flesh. So it is with those who make it their business to live upon the wealth of others. They leave the poor man free. He hears not “rebuke” or “threatening,” he is left undisturbed. “He that is down need fear no fall,” says Bunyan. “He that hath empty pockets may whistle in the face of a highwayman,” says Juvenal. Therefore it is man’s wisdom, whether poor or rich, to be content with such things as he has (Heb. xiii. 5); to appear only what he really is, and to dedicate his earnings, or his savings, or his inheritance, to the glory of God; to follow George Herbert’s advice—
“Be thrifty; but not covetous: therefore giveThy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due.Never was scraper brave man. Get to live;Then live, and use it; else, it is not trueThat thou hast gotten. Surely use aloneMakes money not a contemptible stone.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
The teaching of chap. xi. 24 finds its echo here. There is a seeming wealth behind which there lies a deep spiritual poverty and wretchedness. There is a poverty which makes a man rich for the kingdom of God.—Plumptre.
This is a world of making show, the substance of truth is gone out of it, and ever since man ceaseth to be what he should be, he striveth to seem to be what he is not. Every sin masking in its own vizard; the vainglorious and the covetous both seeking by their seeming to gain some real advantage to themselves.—Jermin.
These opposite faults originate in the same cause, an excessive esteem of worldly riches. It is this that makes poor men pretend to have them, and rich men conceal them for the purpose of preserving them more safely. But although money is sometimes a defence, the want of it is sometimes a shadow under which poor men live unmolested by the plunderers.—Lawson.
Surely it is just that riches should be the ransom of a man’s life, for it is by them that a man’s life is brought into danger.—Jermin.
The seventh verse is terse beyond all expression. Such are all these proverbs.Making oneself rich may be itself the poverty, and making oneself poor may be itself the wealth; inasmuch as these acts may have been sins or graces of the soul, which enter by the providence of Heaven into the very condition of the spirit. The meaning is that outward circumstances are nothing in the question. A saint is poor or rich as is most useful for him. The treasure is himself.“There is that maketh himself rich and is all nothing;”because himself, not the wealth, is the important matter. On the other hand,“There is that maketh himself poor,”and not only “hath great riches,” which is the imperfect translation of our Bibles, but “is a great treasure.” He himself bereft of wealth, is all the greater for what God may have assigned. Solomon expounds more specially in the eighth verse:Ransom,covering—i.e.,the covering of his guilt. Poverty is a mere incident. A man’s true opulence is his eternal redemption. He is not poor who is pinched by want; but he who has not listened to rebuke.—Miller.
It is not poverty so much as pretence that harasses a ruined man—the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse—the keeping up a hollow show, that must soon come to an end. Have the courage to appear poor, and you disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.
main homiletics of verse9.
The Abiding Light.
I. The analogy between the righteous and the wicked.Both have a light or lamp. The words here translated lamp and light are elsewhere used interchangeably, and are often used to signifyprosperity(1 Kings xv. 4; 2 Kings viii. 19)of any and every kind.Prosperity resembles a lamp in thatit is an attractive force.A benighted traveller in the darkness is drawn towards a light wherever he sees it, although he does not know whether it is the light of a thief or of an honest man. Tempest-tossed mariners look anxiously for a light in their extremity, and hope for help from it whether it swings from the masthead of a pirate or from a vessel which carries the police of the seas. So prosperity in any man is an attractive force. A prosperous wicked man attracts to himself the needy and unfortunate. The unprincipled gather round him, hoping to share in some degree in the light and heat of his worldly success, and the good man who is poor is often compelled by need to do the same. The lamp of prosperity, like the net of the kingdom, “gathers of every kind” (Matt. xiii. 47), not because of what the prosperous manis,but because of what hehas.Many saints are dependent on sinners for their daily bread. Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate hoping to be fed with the crumbs which fell from his table. The prosperity of the righteous is equally attractive both to good men and bad for the same reason. The great mass of men in the world are toiling upon the sea of life for daily bread like tempest-tossed mariners, and wherever they see the light of prosperity they make for it, hoping for help in their need. And prosperity in the general acceptance of the world is as often given to the good as to the bad—to the wicked as to the righteous. Some commentators regard thelightor thelampas emblematic also ofposterity.The words in 2 Kings viii. 19 may be translated “to give him always a lightinhis children” (see Lange on 2 Chron. xxi. 7), and in this sense also the analogy holds good, seeing that both good and bad men become the heads of households, and have joy and honour in their children.
II. The contrast between the righteous and the wicked.1.The righteous man will grow more and more prosperous.Present and material prosperity is but an earnest and a shadow of that higherlightwhich shall“rejoice”throughouteternity. For the contrast implies that his light shallnot“be put out.” And this continuance has its root in his character. Although in this world character does not govern circumstances, there is a world in which it does. And, after all, a good man’s light—or occasion of satisfaction—consists more in what heisthan in what hehas,and this shines “more and more unto the perfect day” (chap.iv. 18)—See Homiletics, page 58. 2.The wicked man’s prosperity will come to an end.His candlewillbe put out by the hand of death. It may burn well for a time and he may rejoice in its light, but even if it continue to shed its rays around him till the last hour of earthly life, death will put it out. All that has made him a prosperous man has belonged to the earth, and this can shed no light beyond the grave. Itmaybe put out by the hand ofretributionbefore death. Lamps kindled by unjust means may burn well for a time, and human retribution may never put out their light, because men may not know how they were lighted; but God’s providence may put them out. (On this subject seenext verse.) Or if Divine retribution reserves its extinguisher for another world, another avenger may “put out” the light.Consciencemay assert its right, and without actually taking from a man that in which he has promised himself satisfaction, may take the satisfaction from it, and thus as surely “put out” his “lamp.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
How glowing, then, is the light of the Church in the combined shining of all her members! Many of them have no remarkable individual splendour; yet, like the lesser stars forming the Milky Way, they present a bright path of holiness in the spiritual firmament. . . . But it is thelightof the righteous that rejoiceth. Sin, therefore, will bring the cloud. Do we hope to shine in the heavenly firmament? Then we must shine with present glory in the firmament of the Church. So delicate is the Divine principle, that every breath of this world dims its lustre.—Bridges.
The comfort of the righteous is a heavenlylight,whose shining isrejoicing,and which even in this life maketh the darkness of Egypt to be light in Goshen, maketh the night of troubles to be day; but at length it shall be such a sunshine of glory, as that it dazzleth the human understanding to conceive it now. On the other side, the best comfort which the wicked have is but a lamp or a candle which shineth in the night; for as the light of a candle is shut up within a narrow circle of space, so their comfort is shut up within a narrow compass of time, until at length the candle be put out, never again to be lighted. But what I sayat length,when Job saith the candle of the wicked is often put out. Upon which words St. Gregory saith, “Ofttimes the wicked thinks his child to be his candle, but when his child, too much beloved, is taken away,‘his candle is put out,’and so with present honour or wealth.” He, therefore, that desireth not to rejoice in eternal things, cannot here always rejoice where he would be eternal.—Jermin.
They may not always rejoice, but their light will.“The lamp of the wicked”shines upon their own transitoriness. They never say that it will last. They know“that it shall be put out.”This is rather a dismal provision for being very cheerful. But“the light of the righteous,”however much they look at it,“rejoices.”The more they try it, the more it burns. It does not shine upon its own lack of oil. And, though they are not self-luminous, yet their“light”is, for it is the light of the Spirit, and it shines more and more through eternal ages.—Miller.
main homiletics of verse10.
The Parent of Strife.
I. Unlawful contention is the offspring of pride.If she is not heronlychild, she is her eldest-born. Scripture language more than hints that pride was the beginning of contention among the angels. Paul, speaking of the qualifications of a “bishop” or teacher, tells Timothy that such an one is in danger of “being lifted up with pride,” and thus falling “into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Tim. iii. 6), thus seeming to indicate that pride was at the bottom of all the contention that is at present going on in the universe between light and darkness, between good and evil. From the pride of this fallen star has come contention in heaven, and earth, and hell.
He it was whose guile,Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceivedThe mother of mankind; what time hisprideHad cast him out from heaven, with all his hostOf rebel angels, by whose aid aspiringTo set himself in glory ’bove his peers,He trusted to have equalled the Most High,If he opposed, and with ambitious aim,Against the throne and monarchy of God,Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud,With vain attempt.
And in the history of man’s dealings with man pride is the root of contention.“Whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?”(Jas. iv. 1). And is not the lust of pride, or envy, which is her foster-sister, the great cause of all domestic, and social, and national contentions? Has it not been the cause of every unrighteous war from the days of Chedorlaomer to the present century? And pride breeds contention on a narrower battle-ground still. It often creates war in the human spirit. Pride brings contention between duty and inclination, and, although there is no bloodshed, the contest is often very sharp and painful. The fact that “by pride cometh contention” is so plain that it may be said to be written upon the scroll of time, like Ezekiel’s roll, within and without. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. Pride is a thinking more of ourselves than we are—an over-estimation of our own worth. This must lead us to strive for supremacy over others who are our equals, or even our superiors. This must bring contention, for they will not willingly accord to us that to which we have no lawful claim. Therefore, while there is pride in the universe contention will never end. The fountain must be dried up before the streams cease to flow. When a human soul is emptied of pride there will be peace within. In proportion as it ceases to be a ruling force in the world contention will cease. Pride keeps the fallen principalities in contention with heaven, keeps the sinner in contention with his Saviour, and keeps man in contention with man.
II. Those who are not ruled by pride are well advised.1.Because of the consequences that obedience to the dictates of pride must bring to men themselves.There is in all men a wholesome fear of the consequences which flow from certain actions. If a child sees another burnt from playing with the fire, he will avoid doing that which he has seen to bring such pain and deformation to his brother. Self-love deters him from the act. Those who are well advised, because advised by the highest wisdom, know that the consequences of pride have been, and take cognisance of the deformation of character which it works in men around them. Therefore, the natural and spiritual instinct of wholesome self-love leads them to dread that which would bring such an additional scar to their alreadytoo much deformed character. The children of wisdom are well advised to be afraid of pride on account of its consequences to themselves. 2.Because of the misery it would bring to those nearly related to them.Isolation is not possible in this world. Every man, woman, and child is more or less nearly related to some others. The relation may be physical, intellectual, political, or moral—in some instances all are combined. A proud man, or woman, or child, makes those who belong to them miserable. A proud father makes his children miserable, a proud king involves his country in war, and brings misery upon his subjects. How many friends has pride severed? How many homes and countries has family or national pride blighted? Surely, then, those are well advised who shun it for the sake of those related to them. 3.Because of its consequences to humanity.The miseries of the human race are increased by pride, and the progress of the gospel is hindered by it. The man who does not scruple to pour oil upon a burning house, not only shows that he has no intention to help to extinguish the flames, but that he intends to widen their influence. Each drop that he pours upon the fire increases its intensity, and spreads the destruction. There are men who do not hesitate, by the indulgence of pride, to increase that war of passions which burns so fiercely and destructively in the world and desolates ten thousand hearts and homes. But the well advised, by the exercise of the grace of humility, endeavour to quench the conflagration which, first kindled by hell, has devastated the earth for so many generations.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Pride, if there be no cause of contention given, will make it.Transcendo non obedio perturbois the motto written upon pride’s triple crown. . . . Pride is a dividing distemper. Bladders blown up with wind spurt one from another, and will not close; but prick them, and you may pack a thousand of them in a little room. . . . It was a great trouble to Haman to lead Mordecai’s horse, which another man would not have thought so. The moving of a straw troubleth proud flesh; whereas, humility, if compelled to go one mile, will go two for a need; yea, as far as the shoes of the gospel of peace can carry it. “The wisdom from above ispeaceable.”—Trapp.
As to the great quarrel with God, which needs theransom(ver. 8), and which is mended by therighteousness(ver. 6), how long would that last, if we abandoned pride?—Miller.
main homiletics of verse11.
Two Ways of Growing Rich.
I. Wealth can be gotten.Wealth may be acquired by those who have it not. The wealth of the sea is within the reach of the fisherman. If he put down his net, sooner or later he will probably be rewarded with some gain. There is wealth in the sea of human life. Although the experience of some may be “to toil all night and to take nothing,” yet the rule is that men who make an effort will succeed in bringing into their nets more or less of worldly gain. Some degree of skill and toil are needed to do this, but probably there was never a time when talent of any kind, or patient endeavour, was more certain to meet with a reward than in the present day. Aptitude for business will probably make a man a thriving tradesman if it does not make him a merchant prince. Intellectual power and artistic skill have a wide field in which to work, and aregenerally sure of liberal reward. Probably there never was an age when those who have nothing but the net of genius to spread upon the sea of life were so certain to land gold upon the shore.
II. But there are two ways of getting rich.There is the way ofvanity.Some men come into a fortune by a single throw of the dice—by a fortunate speculation—a lucky hit. They may not be dishonest as men generally understand the word, although as a rule such transactions will not bear too much exposure to the sunlight, but it is not the best way to get money. Then there are others who for a lifetime have nibbled at the lawful gains of other men, and have thus become rich. And others have gotten their wealth by some one act of dishonesty, of which society is ignorant or is unable to punish. All these ways of making money are vain in comparisonwith that of patient, honest, daily toil.The reaper gathers in the golden grain in the sweat of his face, an armful at each stroke of the sickle; step by step, “hand by hand,” he makes himself master of the field and gathers the wheat into the garner. So patient daily toil is the Divinely-ordained way to grow rich. The daily practice of industrious habits and the exercise of patience, which are thus rendered necessary, are beneficial to a man’s moral nature.
III. The possession of wealth will be permanent or short-lived according to the way in which it has been acquired.1.Wealth gotten at a leap is generally “diminished” by the man who gained it.Such men are generally reckless in their expenditure, and squander a fortune in almost as short a time as they gained it. Such a sudden acquisition of wealth has been unfavourable to the formation of thrifty habits, and the man is not equal to his position. Many a gold-digger who has found in a day a nugget worth many thousands, has been a poor man again in a few months, and the experience of most men furnishes them with some similar illustration of the truth although not perhaps so striking. 2.Wealth gotten by dishonesty will be diminished by God.Time only is needed to make manifest the righteous judgment of God upon wealth gotten by such “vanity.” Like the prophet’s gourd, although it affords pleasant shelter to those who sit under it now, there is a worm at the root which will certainly bring it to nothing. Did we but know how some fortunes have been acquired, we should be less surprised at their possessors being suddenly reduced to beggary. It may be that those who are thus brought low are not the makers, but the possessors only, of wealth gotten by vanity, yet they have to pay the penalty. On the contrary, the man who has patiently and honestly gathered, little by little, a sufficiency, or even more, has gathered at the same time wisdom to use it, and has not forfeited the blessing of the Lord (chap. x. 22).
outlines and suggestive comments.
“It is easier to make a fortune than to keep it.” So say the worldly. Specifically forbidden is the keeping of the bread of heaven (Exod. xvi. 19). It was to be gathered every morning. A man who keeps gathering on the hand is the man to stay rich. But the saint who hoards up the past, and lives upon the fortune that he had, is the Israelite who kept the manna, and who found that it “bred worms and stank.” Even happiness is not promoted by over-guard. “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.” . . . Continuing to work not only keeps wealth, but “increases it,” most particularly spiritual wealth.—Miller.
The words admit of three renderings (1) That of the A.V. “Wealth gotten by vanity,”i.e., by a windfall, or sudden stroke of fortune, not by honest labour, is soon diminished; or (2) wealth is diminished by vanity, by empty or hollow ostentation; or (3) wealth is diminished quicker than a breath. Of these (1) is believed tobe the best. In any case the general meaning seems to be that the mere possession of riches is as nothing; they come and go; but the power to gain by skill of hand is everything. By labour, “or by the hand,” has three possible meanings (1) as in the A.V.; (2) in proportion to his strength; (3) “in due measure.”—Plumptre.
Ill-gotten goods fly away without taking leave of the owner; leaving nothing but the print of talons to torment him (chap. xxiii. 5). “But he that gathereth by labour shall increase.” Howbeit, sometimes, it is otherwise. “Master, we have toiled all night, and taken nothing” (Luke v. 5).—Trapp.
main homiletics of verse12.
Deferred and Accomplished Hope.
I. Two things are necessary to constitute hope.1.There is the desire for the real or supposed good.The man conceives there is in the distance that which he esteems a good, and he desires to possess it. No man desires what he deems is an evil. The fact that he desires it shows that he regards it as a good. 2.There is an expectation.A man may desire a good thing without hoping for it because he may feel that it is impossible to have his desire fulfilled. He has no expectation of its accomplishment, consequently he has no hope. Hope includes some amount of expectation, some foundation for the hope. A man who knows that his disease is incurable maydesireto recover his health, but as he has no reason to expect recovery he does nothopefor it. Sometimes, also, hope is founded on the promise of some person who is presumed to be both able and willing to perform it.
II. The constant postponement of the attainment of the desired and expected good produces mental sickness.Sickness of body enfeebles its powers, so does sickness of soul. A man derives strength to work when he possesses hope of enjoying some good thing in the future. Hope is a kind of spiritual food, by feeding upon which a man renews his energy. But the constant postponement of its realisation renders the hope less and less strong, and has the same effect upon the mind as insufficient food has upon the body, it enfeebles its resolution and lessens its courage. If a hungry man finds each day that his portion of food grows less, he will soon be conscious of the loss of flesh and strength, and if the process goes on for many months he will lose all power of action and probably his very life. The same thing takes place in a man’s spirit when hope is indefinitely “deferred.”
III. The accomplishment of the desire and expectation renews mental health and strength.“It is a tree of life.” The fruit of the tree of life in Paradise was designed to lengthen man’s life, to perpetuate his youth by constantly renewing his bodily vigour. It is said of the tree of life in the Paradise yet to come that “its leaves are for the healing of the nations” (Rev. xxii. 2). So the realisation of hope renews the life of the spirit, quickens all its powers, perpetuates its youth. And if the hope has been so long deferred as to induce “heart sickness,” its “coming” brings healing with it. Bodily health is restored by the operation of something from without. It is not usually brought about by that which is within us, but by the coming to us of that which is without. A man desires something which he has not—something outside of himself—either a material or a spiritual good; and if he comes to possess it, it is to the soul what healing medicine is to the body. And as those who eat of the tree of life in the heavenly world are “children of the resurrection,” and sons of undying youth, so realised hope makes the spirit conscious of new life, because it bringsjoy,and when a man is filled with joy he feels young, however many years he has lived. A renewed youth brings renewed activity. It lifts up the hands which hang down, and restores the feeble knees, and gives a man a new start in the race of life. Applying the words to the revelation of the New Testament, to the “hope of the Gospel” (Col. i. 23), we remark—1.That the Christian must be the subject of deferred hope.Hemustwait for the realisation of his desires and expectations. That “adoption of the body” (Rom. viii. 23) must be waited for. A glorified body would be out of place in an unglorified world. This hope must be deferred until his Lord’s expectations with regard to this world are fulfilled. The Son of God is waiting until the Father shall give the word that “time shall be no longer”—until the times of restitution of all things (Acts iii. 21). He is “at the right hand of God; from henceforthexpectingtill his enemies be made His footstool” (Heb. x. 13). When thatexpectationis fulfilled, thedesireof the Christian with regard to the resurrection body will be fulfilled also. He must also wait until after death for perfect victory over sin and its consequence, for the full revelation of what it is to be one of the sons of God.“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” “When this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up invictory.’ ”(1 John iii. 2; 1 Cor. xv. 54). 2.That even the deferred hope of the Christian is a tree of life.It is an eater that yields meat. It bears fruit (1) It gives birth topatience,and there is no grace that the human spirit needs more. According to apostolic teaching it is needful to“let patience have her perfect work,”if the Christian is tobe perfect and entire, wanting nothing(Jas. i. 4). It is the evidence of a great mind to be able to wait. The Eternal is a “God of patience” (Rom. xv. 5). He can wait, because He is infinitely great. (2) It brings forth joy. Paul says,“We rejoice in hope of the glory of God”(Rom. v. 2). (3) It satisfies the soul.“Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself”(1 John iii. 3). (4) It gives sympathy with God in relation to unregenerate humanity. God defers the realisation of the Christian’s hope, because He is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. iii. 9). While we wait the Divine desire grows in us also, that “all should come to repentance.”
illustration.
Perhaps in all history there is not a more salient instance of hoping against hope deferred than that of Columbus. Years and years were wasted in irksome solicitation; years spent, not indeed in the drowsy and monotonous attendance of ante-chambers, but, as his foremost biographer narrates, amid scenes of peril and adventure, from the pursuit of which he was several times summoned to attend royal conferences and anon dismissed abruptly. “Whenever the court had an interval of leisure and repose (from the exigencies of the Moorish war), there would again be manifested a disposition to consider his proposal, but the hurry and tempest would again return, and the question be again swept away.” . . . He came to look upon these indefinite postponements as a mere courtly mode of evading his importunity, and after the rebuff in the summer of 1490, he is said to have renounced all further confidence in vague promises, which had so often led to chagrin; and, giving up all hopes of countenance from the throne, he turned his back upon Seville, indignant at the thought of having been beguiled out of so many years of waning existence. But it is impossible not to admire the great constancy of purpose and loftiness of spirit displayed by Columbus ever since he had conceived the sublime idea of the discovery. When he applied again to the court after the surrender of Granada, in 1492, more than eighteen years had elapsed since the announcement of the design, the greatest part of which had been consumed in applications to various sovereigns, poverty, neglect, ridicule, contumely, and the heart-sickness of hope deferred, all that hitherto had come of it. Five years later, when preparations were afoot for his third voyage, we read that, “so wearied and disheartened did he become by the impediments thrown in his way,” that he thought of abandoning his discoveries altogether.—Jacox.
outlines and suggestive comments.
In his analysis of “the immediate emotions,” Dr. Thomas Brown adverts to that weariness of mind which one would so gladly exchange for weariness of body, and which he takes to be more difficult to bear with good humour than many profound griefs, because it involves the uneasiness of hope that is renewed every moment, to be every moment disappointed. He supposes a day’s journey along one continuous avenue, where the uniformity of similar trees at similar distances is of itself most wearisome; but what we should feel with far more fretfulness would be the constant disappointment of our expectation, that the last tree that we beheld in the distance would be the last that should rise upon us; when “tree after tree, as if in mockery of our very patience itself, would still continue to present the same dismal continuity of line.” Lord Bolingbroke, a professed expert in its power to weary and wear out, called suspense the only insupportable misfortune of life.—Jacox.
The rule, as expressed in the first clause, is universal, but in the second clause it is applied to a particular case. . . . The second member is a dividing word. The accomplishment of the desire is “a tree of life.” This belongs only to the hope of the holy. Many, after waiting long and expecting eagerly, discover, when at last they reach their object, that it is a withered branch and not a living tree. When a human heart has been set on perishable things, after the sickness of deferred expectation comes the sorer sickness of satiated possession. If the world be made the portion of the immortal Spirit, to want it is one sickness, to have it is another. The one is a hungry mouth empty, the other is a hungry mouth filled with chaff. The clog of disappointed possession is a more nauseous sickness than the aching of disappointed desire. There is no peace to the wicked. They are always either desiring or possessing; but to desire and to possess a perishable portion are only two different kinds of misery to men. They are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. You stand on the shore, and gaze on the restless waters. A wave is hastening on, struggling and panting, and making with all its might for the shore. It seems as if all it wanted was to reach the land. It reaches the land, and disappears in a hiss of discontent. Gathering its strength at a distance, it tries again, and again, with the same result. It is never satisfied, it never rests. In the constitution of the world, under the government of the Most Holy, when a soul’s desire is set on unworthy objects, the accomplishment of the desire does not satisfy the soul.—Arnot.
Aquinas noteth that hope in itself causeth joy, it is by accident that it causeth sorrow. Inasmuch as it is a present apprehension of good to come, it breedeth delight, but as it wanteth the presence of that good, it bringeth trouble. It is therefore the delay of hope that afflicteth. And indeed a lingering hope breedeth in the heart as it were a lingering consumption. It is a long child-bearing travail of a weak mind, for hope having conceived comfort is still in labour, until it be brought forth. So it is with the servants of God with respect to heaven. They having begun in hope their journey thitherward, it makes them evensick at heartto think how long it is until they can get there. Wherefore, St. Gregory saith, the punishments of the innocent are the desires of the righteous. For all having lost heaven by sin, even the just are punished with thedeferred hopeof recovering it.—Jermin.
Here is instruction—I. To hope for nothing but that which is haveable, and may well be had, and whereof we are capable, and that doth belong unto us.For if protraction cause the heart to languish, what will frustration and disappointment? It is one of the threatenings against the wicked in Deuteronomy, that“their sons andtheir daughters shall be given unto another people, and their eyes should look for them until they fail, and there shall be no might in their hand”(chap xxviii. 32). Now what is meant by this is that their expectation deceived should turn them to as much woe as if their eyes had lost their sight. And that was because that they, incurring the curse by their sinful behaviour, did yet presume of a restitution to happiness as though nothing had appertained to them but blessings.II. Not to limit God or prescribe to Him in what space He shall fulfil His promise.It was a heathenish speech of the King of Israel’s messenger, when he said, in blasphemous manner, that he neitherwouldnorought to attend on the Lord any longer(2 Kings vi. 33). But we need not draw admonitions against this from the infidelity of the wicked, but from the infirmities of the godly, as Abraham and Sarah had much ado to believe that a child should be gotten and conceived of their body after their natural vigour was consumed, and, therefore, Hagar was brought in to help the matter.III. Not to depend on man, nor to repose our hope in flesh and blood.For thereby we shall not only be delayed of our help too long, but defeated of it altogether. For it is a righteous thing with God, that they who will deify creatures with confidence, should be deceived by creatures with confusion. The poor Israelites found and felt this (Lam. iv. 17).IV. Where we undertake to minister succour, not to grieve the hearts of them that are in affliction by lingering too long before we relieve them.God doth teach us to show beneficence timely and in due season (chap. iii. 28). This was one testimony of a good conscience that comforted Job in his extremities, that “he had not held the poor from their desire nor caused the eyes of the widow to fail” (Job xxxi. 16).—Dod.
Hope’s hours are full of eternity; and how many see we languishing at hope’s hospital, as he at the pool of Bethesda! Hope unfailable (Rom. v. 5) is founded upon faith unfeigned. The desire will come to those who patiently wait on God; for waiting is but hope and trust lengthened. We are apt to antedate the promises and set God at a time as they (Jer. viii. 20) who looked for salvation in summer at furthest. We are short-breathed, short-spirited. But as God seldom comes at our time, so he never fails at His own, and then He is most sweet, because most seasonable.—Trapp.
The fourth verse has said that “the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing.” This verse declares that longing, accompanied by procrastination,enfeebles the heart;but that a bold plunging after the good, and attaining it, is a “tree of life.” This, dimly, is true in worldly affairs. A man who desires some worldly good and wavers, enfeebles his heart, but he who will dash boldly in strengthens it. . . . The least taste of arrived-at desire in the spiritual world, like the apples of Eden, breeds “life.” The soul will go on after that eternally.—Miller.
If Jacob serve the churl Laban seven years longer, if he think he shall have Rachel at the end of it, it will be but as seven days. Thus it is that the hope of better days sweeteneth the present sadness of any outward condition. There is no grief so heavy, but if a man tie heaven at the end of it, it will become light, but put them together, and the one will be swallowed up in the other.—Spencer.
The world dares say no more of its devices thanDum spiro spero(while I breathe, I hope); but the children of God can add by virtue of their living hope,Dum expiro spero(while I expire, I hope).—Leighton.
Hope is the hunger that makes our food acceptable; but hope deferred, like hunger prolonged, brings a kind of torture. . . . With the child of God “the patience of hope” issues in “the full assurance of hope.” What was it to Abraham, when, after long deferred hope, the answer came? Laughter. What was it when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, and they were like unto them thatdream? What was it to old Simeon and the waiting remnant when “thedesireof all nations”came?What to the disciples, when, at the manifestation of their risen Lord, theirsickening heartsbelieved not for joy, and wondered? . . . But what will be the joy at the great consummation of hope? (Rom. viii. 23–25).—Bridges.
main homiletics of verse13.
Bound by Law.
The literal translation of the first clause of this verse is “Whoso despiseth the law is bound by it,” or “is in bonds to it” (seeCritical Notes).
I. Divine law is a necessity of human nature.There must be a standard of right and wrong for moral and responsible creatures, and the law which is that standard ought to be appreciated in proportion to its perfection. Law in a family is a necessity for its right regulation, and in proportion as it approaches perfection it will meet the needs of its members. 1. The law of God is a necessity, in order to educate man’s moral sense. The human conscience sometimes lies buried under ignorance, or is passive in the hands of lawless desire, and it needs the law to arouse it to perform its proper functions, and thus prepare men for a Saviour. “Christ,” says Paul, “is the end of the law.” It arouses men to feel their need of His atonement. 2. It is needed as a basis of punishment and reward. There are some actions upon which men, by almost universal consent, pass judgment, and their judgment is embodied in their law, and thus forms a basis of conviction for the transgressor. And there are other actions which, by the same consent, are allowed to deserve reward, and that universal consent forms a kind of law. So the holy, just, and true law of God is needed as a standard by which men’s actions may be judged.