Great Understanding.
I. There are times and occasions when wrath is not only allowable, but right.A man who is incapable of being angry lacks an element of perfection. Anger against wrong-doing is possible without any feeling of vindictiveness or malice towards the wrong-doer. There is much in the Bible about the “wrath of God” (Rom. i. 18), although He is “love” (1 John iv. 8). A child does not honour a parent the less, but the more, because he knows that parent can be angry when there is just occasion. Neither could we reverence God if He was a Being who could not be displeased.
II. But a man who is slow to wrath shows—1.That he understands himself.Even the holy and all-perfect God is “slow to anger” (Neh. ix. 17). Although He could not misjudge any creature, and although He could never by any possibility allow His wrath to exceed the bounds of perfect justice and righteousness, He is not “soon angry.” The man who understands his own frailty and short-sightedness will not allow anger to take possession of his spirit in a hurry, if he is to “be angry and sin not” (Ephes. iv. 26), he must only be angry after due reflection upon the cause of his anger. 2.That he understands others.Hasty and passionate anger never convinces the offender of his guilt, but awakens wrath in his breast also. But the displeasure which is the result of calm consideration may carry some weight with it. On this subject see also Homiletics onverse 17.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“He that is hasty of spiritexaltethfolly.” He gives folly for the time being the throne and sceptre of his mind, and fulfils her preposterous and mischievous dictates. And when reason, for the time deposed, resumes her vacated seat, she finds no easy task before her to repair the evils which have been done in the brief but stormy reign of passion.—Wardlaw.
I.The passion of anger is like wind to the ship: so it is to the soul called to steer its course to Immanuel’s land. 1. If there be a dead calm, and the winds blow not at all, or very weakly, the ship does not make way. And if men be so stupid, indolent, and unconcerned, that their spirits will not stir in them, whatever dishonour they see done to God, these are standing still in the way to heaven. And many there be, who are all fire in their own matters, but in those of God their hearts are dead as a stone. Such was the case of Eli:“His sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not”(1 Sam. iii. 13). It was not so with Paul: for“his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry”(Acts xvii. 16). 2. If the wind is brisk enough, but yet is contrary, the ship will at best have much ado with it, and may be driven into a shore which the crew desired not to see. So if men’s anger be in itself sinful, if their anger burn against what is good and just: such anger cannot fail of an unhappy event. 3. Though the wind be not contrary, yet if it be too impetuous and violent, it may dash the ship on rocks and split it. So though men’s anger may have a just ground, yet if it prove excessive and boisterous, it may run men headlonginto great mischiefs. Oft-times reason lets anger into the breast; but then anger turns out reason to the door, and carries on all precipitantly without reason or discretion: like one that brings in coal to his hearth, because of the cold, but unwarily lets it fall on tow, which sets the house on fire.II.He that is slow to wrath. 1.Is slow to take up anger in his own cause.It is wisdom indeed to be very tender of God’s honour, but more indifferent about our own personal interests, as Moses was. 2.Manages it warily when it is taken up.He finds himself on slippery ground, and is therefore slow in his motions. 3.Is easy to lay it down(Ephes. iv. 26–27). He shuts it out when there is no more use for it.III.The passionate man proclaims his folly—he proclaims himself—1.A proud man,and the proud man is a fool in God’s account and in the account of all who understand themselves. 2.A weak man.He is a slave to his passions. 3.An unwatchful man,who has his enemies within him, without him, round about him, and yet cannot be brought to stand on his guard (Prov. iv. 23, 24).—Boston.
Wise anger is like fire from the flint, there is a great ado to bring it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.—Henry.
The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.—Southgate’s “Many Thoughts on Many Things.”
The heaviest body is slowest in going, but his treading is the surest; in like manner, he that is slow to anger recompenses the dulness of his steps with the soundness of his proceeding; for he taketh leisure (as it were) to look of his ways. Tertullian says, “Where the injury is little, there is no need of patience; but where the injury is great, there is the help of patience more needful against it. If they be small wrongs, contemn them for their smallness; if great wrongs, by patience give way unto them in respect of their greatness.” The original ofhasty,isshort-winded.For as haste in going maketh the breath to be short, so the haste of the soul to anger maketh that to puff and blow on every small occasion; so that the soul is as it were climbing up a great hill, there toexalt her folly,for all to behold it.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse30.
A Sound Heart.
The blessed effects of a contented spirit.The “sound heart” being here placed in contrast to “envy,” shows that it means a spirit that is content with its lot in life—that is not ever reaching after the unattainable—that is not jealous of others who are in more favourable circumstances. Such a quietness of spirit is—
I. Favourable to bodily health.The mind of a passionate man wears out the bodily frame, and no passion that can possess the soul is more imperious and agitating, and consequently more injurious to health than envy. Jealousy is said to be as “cruel as the grave” (Cant.viii. 6), and it is cruel not only to the objects of it, but also to him who allows it a dwelling-place in his spirit. Its withering effects are felt even in the body, it is “rottenness of the bones” in this sense. But a contented spirit goes a long way to promote and to preserve bodily health. A quiet spirit is a stranger to all those restless feelings which give sleepless nights and anxious days to the envious man.
II. It is indispensable to the attainment of a noble character.Calmness of spirit gives room for the development of all the graces and virtues which go to make up the “perfect man” (Ephes. iv. 13). Growth in nature demands some degree of quietness and calmness to develop itself. The mighty forestoak of a hundred years has attained its present noble dimensions by processes which have gone on for the most part in days and nights of stillness. So a character of moral strength and beauty can be formed only in the atmosphere of a calm and well-governed spirit.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“Envy,”excitement of any kind;perturbation;a wise saw, perhaps, of the old hygiene, but true spiritually. Religion rejoices in peace. Mad passion may be overruled; but so can our lusts be. As much as lieth in us, we should have peace. The soul is a temple (1 Cor. iii. 17), and “holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord, for ever” (Psa. xciii. 5).—Miller.
The wordsoundsignifies healthful, free frommoral distempers—the distempers of “the inner man,” such as discontent, malice, and envy. Strictly speaking a“sound heart”—a heart entirely free from the evil passions that belong to fallen nature—is not to be found. But in Scripture asoundheart, and even aperfectheart, are phrases used to signify the real sincerity and predominant rule of right principles and actions. Envy, perhaps the most odious in itself, and the most corroding and torturing to the spirit, is here called “rottenness of the bones”—not a meresurface sore,but a deep-seated disease; likecaries,or inflammation in the substance of the bone itself.—Wardlaw.
I. The nature of envy.It is a pain, or uneasiness, arising from an apprehension of the prosperity and good fortune of others; not because we suffer from their welfare, nor that our condition may be bettered by our uneasiness, but merely because their condition is bettered. There is a strong jealousy of pre-eminence and superiority implanted in our nature by Almighty God, for wise and noble purposes, to excite to the pursuit of laudable attainments, and the imitation of good and great actions. This principle isemulation.It is also an uneasiness occasioned by the good fortunes of others; but not because we repine at their prosperity; but because we ourselves have not attained the same good success. Its effect is to excite us to great designs, but when it meets with a corrupt disposition it degenerates into envy, the most malignant passion in human nature, the worst weed of the worst soil. So far from stirring up to imitation, envy labours to taint and depreciate what it does not so much as attempt to equal.II. The cure for envy.1.That we endeavour to take a right estimate of things.The laws of God are the eternal standards of good and evil; what they declare valuable, or enjoin as wise, are truly so, and what they disclaim as hurtful or worthless are, in fact, to be so regarded. 2.That we try to make a right judgment of our own worth and abilities.If we do this, we shall find that there are others in the world at least as wise and as good as we are, and perhaps we shall also find, that if merit were the standard of honour and affluence, we should not abound altogether as much as we do. 3.Reflect seriously upon the vanity of all worldly advantage.Shall we envy himwhose breath is in his nostrils?whose gloryfadeth as the flower of grass?—Delany.
Envy is called a passion, and passion means suffering. The patient who is ill of envy is a sinner and a sufferer too. He is an object of pity. It is a mysterious and terrible disease. The nerves of sensation within the man are attached by some unseen hand to his neighbours all around him, so that every step of advancement which they make tears the fibres which lie next his heart. The wretch enjoys a moment’s relief when the mystic cord is temporarily slackened by his neighbour’s fall; but his agony immediately begins again, for he anticipates another twitch as soon as the fallen is restoredto prosperity. . . . The cure of envy, as wrought by the love of Christ, is not only a deliverance from pain, it is, even in the present world, an unspeakable gain. That man will speedily grow rich who gets and puts into his bag not only all his own winnings, but also all the winnings of his neighbours. . . . The Nile, contrary to the analogy of other great streams, flows more than a thousand miles without receiving the waters of a single tributary; the consequence is, that it grows no greater as it courses over that vast line. Other rivers are every now and then receiving converging streams from the right and left, and thereby their volume continually increases until it reaches the sea. The happiness of man is like the flow of water in a river. If you enjoynothingbut what is your own, your tiny rivulet of contentment, so far from increasing, grows smaller by degrees, until it sinks unseen into the sand, and leaves you in a desert of despair; but when all the acquisitions of your neighbours go to swell its bulk, your enjoyment will flow like a river enriched by many affluents, growing ever greater as life approaches its close. It is some such river that makes glad the city of God.—Arnot.
Socrates called envy the soul’s saw; and wished that envious men had more eyes and ears than others, that they might have the more torment by beholding and hearing other men’s happiness.—Trapp.
Envy at last crawls forth from hell’s dire throng,Of all the direfull’st! Her black locks hung long,Attired with curling serpents; her pale skinWas almost dropped from her sharp bones within;And at her breasts stuck vipers, which did preyUpon her panting heart both night and day,Sucking black blood from thence, which to repair,Both day and night they left fresh poisons there.Her garments were deep-stained in human gore,And torn by her own hands, in which she boreA knotted whip and bowl, which to the brimDid with green gall and juice of wormwood swim;With which, when she was drunk, she furious grew,And lashed herself; thus from the accursed crewEnvy, the worst of fiends, herself presents,Envy, good only when she herself torments.—Cowley.
main homiletics of verse31.
The Oppressed and Their Oppressors.
I. Those who are the objects of oppression—“The poor.” They are made up of three classes. 1.Those who have never known their supplies to be equal to their positive needs—who have not only always lived from hand to mouth, but whose hands have never been able to obtain a sufficient supply for the mouth.Such poor ones have this advantage, they have never known better days—their life is like a river whose shallow waters have never overflowed its banks—whose channel has always been much deeper than the stream. There is no force of contrast to add to the present bitterness. 2.Those who have been reduced from sufficiency to want.To such poverty is a greater hardship than to those just mentioned. The light and comfort of the past makes the darkness and misery of the present harder to bear. If their own wrong-doing or mistakes have been the cause of their fall, the trial is all the heavier. 3.There are those whom we call poor who, though not actually in want, have to toil hard and unceasingly for the necessaries of life, and who know nothing of the luxuries of wealth and ease.
II. The oppression of any or all of these is an insult to God.To oppress the first is to oppress men for what they cannot help—for that for which they are as irresponsible as for the colour of their skin, and therefore it is to reproach Him who appointed them to their lot in life. To oppress the second is to insult God, by afflicting them beyond the affliction which He has permitted to fall upon them. Whether their present condition is retribution or chastisement, itsmeasure has been appointed by the hand of the All-wise Ruler of men, and it is “reproaching” Him to add to it by oppression. If a child is being corrected by its parent, or a criminal is paying the penalty which the judge has awarded to him for his crimes, it is an impeachment of their judgment to add in any way to the punishment that has been decreed. Those who oppress the third class are guilty of a sin against those who have always been special objects of His favour, and who make up a large proportion of the members of His kingdom. (See Homiletics and Comments onverse 21.)
III. Mercifulness to the poor reveals reverence for God.1.It shows that the man regulates his conduct by Divine laws.God, as we have seen in considering the 21st verse, has been most explicit in the revelation of His will in this matter. 2.He sees in every man some trace of his Divine Creator.
“Man is God’s image; but a poor man isChrist’s stamp to boot.”—Herbert.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“Oppression”means something more than the contempt and neglect dealt with in verse 21. He who acts such a part “reproacheth His Maker.” For,first,he acts as if the poor were of another species—an inferior order of beings; whereas they have all the attributes of the same manhood with him by whom they are condemned.Second,he acts as if the circumstances in which the poor are placed were a warrant for him to imitate the Divine conduct and depress them still further, which is a reproach of God, as if He dealt with the poor in spirit of unkindness or partiality. . . . A man may have mercy on the poor who doesnot “honour God.”Humanity may, and often does, exist without godliness; but godliness cannot exist without humanity.—Wardlaw.
We treat God with no respect (1) when“the poor,”who are His children are not treated as such; (2) when the poor, who are his dependents, are left unhelped, so as to seem to bring Him into discredit, but (as is most intended, judging from the whole drift of this part of the chapter) (3) when the poor, who are His instruments, and are sent to exercise our virtues, are not treated as such, but our“Maker”thwarted in the work ofmaking us betterby these needy visitants. Life moves by such sort of influences.—Miller.
God takes it for an honour, how should this prevail with us. How exceedingly shall such be honoured in that great panegyris at the last day, when the Judge shall say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat.”—Trapp.
He that reproacheth the poor reproacheth his own Maker, and showeth himself unworthy to have been made by Him; reproacheth the Maker of the poor, as if either He could not help him, or else as if He had made him to be oppressed by making him poor. But God, who suffereth thee to oppress the poor, will not suffer thee to be unpunished for it, and seeing thou sparest not to reproach Himself, will not spare to scourge thee. Tully saith, “Men in nothing come nearer God than in giving,“ and Gregory Nazianzen goes further, and tells us, “Thou mayest even by no labour be made God, do not, therefore neglect the opportunity of obtaining a Deity. Make thyself God to the miserable, by imitating the mercy of God.”—Jermin.
The ancient Church possessed in full the glorious truth, that of all the real compassion which flows through human channels, the fountain-head is on high. He who gets mercy shows it.—Arnot.
main homiletics of verse32.
The Death of the Righteous and the Wicked.
I. The wicked man dies unwillingly.He is “driven away.” Our first parents,—conscious of the severance of a moral bond between them and God—knowing that they had fallen from their original position, in which they would have gone fearlessly and joyfully to any part of God’s universe—ignorant of the unknown and dark future that lay before them—left their first home unwillingly. They had to be “driven out” of Eden (Gen. iii. 24). A man who is conscious of a moral distance between himself and God, seldom quits this world willingly. Anundefineddread, perhaps, but still a dread, of the unknown state beyond death possesses him, and he is made subject to the laws of death “unwillingly.” As Adam had to be driven out of Eden, so he quits his present abode, not from choice, but from necessity. His unwillingness to go arises from his condition of heart—from his moral standing. He “is driven awayin his wickedness.” Adam’s consciousness of guilt made him unwilling to quit his abode in Eden. The same consciousness makes men fear to die. “The sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. xv. 56). The man whose sins are unpardoned is conscious that he has much to fear in the unknown future. His spirit witnesses to the truth of the Divine Word, “After death, the judgment” (Heb. ix. 27).
II. But to the righteous man the hour of death is a time of hope.He does not die in his sin. A separation has taken place between him and sin. He is conscious of having been delivered both from its guilt and its dominion. The severance that has already been accomplished has wrought a greater change than that which death can work. The change ofrelationship to Godand ofcharacterwhich he has already experienced, has made a mere change ofplacea matter of small moment in itself, and the change from this world to the heavenly city an occasion of hope and rejoicing. The angel of death is no officer of justice to bring him before his judge, but a messenger to guide him to his Father’s house. The objects of this hope have been considered in Homiletics on chap.x. 24,28; pages 176 and 181.
outlines and suggestive comments.
The righteous dies by his own consent. It is a glad surrender, not a forcible separation (Psa. xxxi. 5). The tabernacle is not rent, or torn away, but “put off” (2 Pet. i. 14).—Bridges.
“The wicked is thrust lower by his evil” (seeCritical Notes).“Death,”that is, the worst form ofevil.Observe thecrescendo. “Evil,”which is supposed to be a discipline,“thrusts down the wicked;” death,the very grimmest of the list, becomes to the righteous a gracious refuge.“Thrust lower,”this is an intensive expression. If trouble thrusts a man lower, how much more must joy and intoxicating wealth. The idea is—all hurts him. Even discipline hurts the lost.—Miller.
Oh, the different departures of the reprobate and the Christian! The one knows he changeth for the better; the other mistrusts, for the worse; to the one death is a gulf of sorrow, to the other a port of liberty; he, because he is stripped for a scourging; this, because he lays aside his clothes, after his toil, to go to bed. . . . All our loathness to depart, and fears in departing, arise from our own unsettledness; we have not made sure to ourselves a dwelling in these glorious heavens; many mansions there be (John xiv. 2), we have not provided ourselves one.—T. Adams.
A Christian should be a volunteer in death. Many of the martyrs were as willing to die as to dine; went to the fire as cheerful as to a feast, and courted its pale and ghastly countenance as if it had been a beautifulbride. . . . Cyprian said Amen to his own sentence of death. Bradford, being told by his keeper’s wife that his chain was a-buying, and he was to die the next day, pulled off his hat and thanked God for it. . . . Ann Askew subscribed her confession in Newgate thus, “Written by me, Ann Askew, that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might, and as merry as one that is bound towards heaven.” Indeed it is said of a wicked man that his soulis required of him,and that Godtakes away his soul(Luke xii. 20; Job xxvii. 8); but of a godly man that hegiveth up the ghost,and hecometh to his grave(Gen. xxv. 8; Job xiv. 10). . . . Socrates, and some of the wiser heathen, comforted themselves against the fear of death with this weak cordial, that it is common to men, the way of all the earth. Hence it was, when the Athenians condemned Socrates to die, he received the sentence with an undaunted spirit, and told them that they did nothing but what nature had before ordained for him. But the Christian hath a greater ground for a holy resolution, and a stronger cordial against the fears of death, even the hope of eternal life; and surely, if he that exceeds others in his cordials be excelled by them in courage, he disgraceth his physician. . . . It is no marvel that they who lived wickedly should die unwillingly, being “driven away in their wickedness,” as a beast that is driven out of his den to the slaughter, or as a debtor driven by the officers out of his house, where he lay warm and surrounded by all sorts of comfort, to a nasty, loathsome prison.—Swinnock.
It is storied of Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon, that when, in his expedition to the Holy Land, he came within view of Jerusalem, his army, seeing the high turrets, goodly buildings, and fair fronts, being even transported with the joyfulness of such a sight, gave a mighty shout that the earth was verily thought to ring with the noise thereof. Such is the rejoicing of a godly man in death, when he doth not see the turrets and towers of an earthly, but the spiritual building of a heavenly Jerusalem, and his soul ready to take possession of them. How doth he delight in his dissolution, when he sees grace changing into glory, hope into fruition, faith into vision, and love into perfect comprehension.—Spencer’s “Things New and Old.”
If this be true, it is a demonstration on the side of religion, and that upon three accounts. (1) Because the principles of religion, and the practice of them in a virtuous life, when they come to the last and utmost trial, do hold out. The belief of a God, the persuasion of our own immortality, and of the eternal recompense of another world—thatJesus Christ came into the world to save sinners—is commonly more strong and vigorous in the minds of good men when they come to die; they have then a more clear apprehension and firm persuasion of the truth and reality of these things, than ever they had at any time of their lives, and find more peace and joy in the belief of them. . . . And the principles of infidelity and vice are more apt to shrink and give back at such a time. (2) The principles of religion minister comfort to us in the most needful and desirable time. If it be true of every day of our lives,sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,much more of the day of death. It is surely enough to have that one enemy to encounter, at which nature startles even when the sting is taken away. . . . If there were nothing beyond this life, it were worth while to provide for a quiet death. There is no man that calculates things wisely that would, for all the pleasures of sin, forfeit the peace and comfort of a righteous soul, going out of the world full of the hopes of a blessed immortality. (3) When men are commonly most serious and impartial, and their declarations are thought to be of the greatest weight, they give this testimony to religion and virtue, and against impiety and vice. Even Lucretius says, “Men’s words then come from the bottom of their heart, the mask is taken off, and things then appear to them as indeed they are.” In thesecircumstances men generally declaim most vehemently against their sins and vices, and declare on the side of piety and virtue. Surely this is a great testimony on the side of religion, because it is the testimony not only of its friends, but of those who have been its greatest enemies.—Tillotson.
A clear testimony to a future state of rewards and punishments.—Wordsworth.
Though there was no revelation of immortality and resurrection then, still the pious in death put their confidence in Jahve, the God of life and of salvation—for in Jahve there was for ancient Israel the beginning, middle, and end of the work of salvation—and believing that they were going home to Him, committing their spirit into His hands (Psa. xxxi. 6), they fell asleep, though without any explicit knowledge, yet not without the hope of eternal life. Job also knew that (xxvii. 8) between the death of those estranged from God and of those who feared God there was not only an external, but a deep essential distinction; and now the wise man opens up a glimpse into the eternity heavenwards (chap. xv. 24), and has formed (chap. xii. 28) (seeCritical Notes) the expressive and distinctive word for immortality, which breaks like a ray from the morning sun through the night of theSheol.—Delitzsch.
We are not able to form a right conception of what it is to be and to abide in wickedness. Because it is so near us, we do not know it. If it were a body standing before us, we could examine its proportions and describe its appearance; but because it is a spirit transfused through us, we remain ignorant of its character and power. . . . A ship is lying in a placid river when winter comes, and is gradually frozen in. The process was gentle, and almost imperceptible. There was no commotion and no crash. The ice crept round, and closed in upon the ship without any noisy note of warning. . . . Her own element closed and held her. . . The ship is not shaken. No creaking is heard—no strain is felt. She feels firm and easy. Even when the pines of the neighbouring forest are bending to the blast, she sits unmoved in her solid bed. That bed she has made for herself, and it therefore fits her. This is very like the wicked in his iniquity, and before he is driven away. . . . He stands steady in his element, and no ripple disturbs its surface. When the ice of the river goes away, the embedded ship goes with it. It is a dreadful departure. The water swells beneath; the ice holds by the crooked banks awhile; but, after a period of suspense, the flood prevails and the trembling, rending mass gives way. Reeling icebergs and foaming yellow waves tumble downwards in tumultuous heaps, and the ship is swept away like a feather on a flood. If we had a sense for perceiving spiritual things, the most heart-rending sight in the world would be a sinner set fast in his element, and the flood of wrath secretly swelling from beneath. . . . But he who has been begotten again to a living hope has it at the time when humanity needs it most. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Stars are a grateful mitigation of the darkness; but we do not want them by day. Hope, always lovely, is then sweetest when it beams from heaven through the gloom that gathers round the grave. . . . The ship has set sail, and kept on her course many days and nights, with no other incidents than those that are common to all. Suddenly land appears; but what the character of the coast may be the voyagers cannot discern through the tumult. The first effect of a new approach of land is a very great commotion on the water. It is one of the coral islands of the South Pacific, encircled by a ring of fearful breakers at some little distance from the shore. Forward the ship must go. The waves are higher and angrier than any they have seen in the open sea. Partly through them, partly over them, they are borne at a bound; strained, and giddy, and almost senseless, they find themselves within that sentinel ridgeof crested waves that guard the shore, and the portion of sea that still lies before them is calm and clear like glass. It seems a lake of Paradise, and not an earthly thing at all. . . . Across the belt of sea the ship glides gently,—and gently soon touches that lovely shore. It is thus that I have seen a true pilgrim thrown into a great tumult when the shore of eternity suddenly appeared before him. A great fear tossed him for some days; but when that barrier was passed, he experienced a peace, deeper, stiller, sweeter than ever he knew before. A little space of life’s voyage remained after the fear of death had sunk into a calm, and before the immortal felt the solid of eternal rest. On life’s sea as yet was the spirit lying, but the shaking had passed; and when at last the spirit passed from a peaceful sea to a peaceful land, the change seemed slight.—Arnot.
The text looks like the cloud between the Israelites and Egyptians; having a dark side toward the latter, and a bright side toward the former. It represents death, like Pharaoh’s jailor, bringing the chief butler and the chief baker out of prison; the one to be restored to his office, the other to be led to execution. The wicked are driven from this world to the other—from the society of saints on earth into that of the lost in hell; out of time into eternity; out of their specious pretences to piety; away from all means of grace. . . . The following circumstances make the godly in their death happy and hopeful. 1.They have a trusty good Friend before them in the other world.Jesus Christ, their best friend, is Lord of the land to which death carries them. When Joseph sent for his father to come down to Egypt, and Jacob “saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob revived” (Gen. xlv. 27). He resolved to undertake the journey. I think when the Lord calls a godly man out of the world, He sends him such good tidings, and such a kind invitation to the other world, that his spirit must revive when he sees the wagon of death sent to carry him thither. 2.They shall have a safe passage to another world.They have the Lord of the land’s safe conduct, His pass sealed with His own blood. . . . It is safe riding in Christ’s chariot. 3.They shall have a joyful entrance into the other world.. . . Is the bird in worse case, when at liberty, than when confined in a cage? Death comes to the godly man, as Haman came to Mordecai, with the royal apparel and the horse.—Boston.
main homiletics of verse33.
The Hidden Made Manifest.
I. The God-ordained place for moral wisdom—“the heart.” The Divinely ordained place for the sap of the vine is itsroot.1.It has its centre and spring there, that thence it may diffuse itself into every branch and leaf, and give life and health to the whole tree.So the Divinely-ordained place for moral wisdom is theheart—theaffectionsof a man. If it has its seat there it will certainly influence all his thoughts, and words, and deeds. 2.It is not only the most influential part of a man, but it is the most secure.There, if anywhere, it is out of the reach of harm. If it is only in thehead—the intellectual part of a man—temptation may rob him of it—false reasoning or adversity may shake it from its seat, but if it has hold of the heart, it will hold its own against every foe. 3.It is the only place from which it can reach and bless other human hearts.The sap of the tree must issue direct from its root if there is to be fruit that will sustain and give satisfaction to the eater. So a life will bring forth no fruit to feed others unless its religion is a religion of the heart. There is no way to the heart except from the heart, those who have only an intellectualhold upon moral wisdom cannot feed hungry souls. 4.It is the only place whence one can issue glory to God.The whole man, spirit and soul and body, must be under the guidance of moral wisdom if he is to render acceptable service to God. Nothing less will satisfy Him who “searches the heart of the children of men” (Jer. xvii. 10). If the heart is right, the external service will not be wanting. (See Homiletics and Comments on chap.iv. 23.)
II. Where this wisdom of the heart is lacking, the life will betray it.In all natural life there is a law by which its hidden secrets are manifested in outward signs. The health of the root is seen in the health of the tree, the disease of the internal bodily organs manifests itself in the outward appearance. So it is with moral health and disease. However men may try to appear what they are not, the natural tendency of human nature often proves too strong for the artificial restraint that is put upon it, and sooner or later men reveal what they really are. “That which is in the midst of moral fools is made known,” although time is needed for the folly fully to develop itself.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“Resteth” implies the tranquil and modest spirit of the wise, and the permanence of their keeping of wisdom; and especially that it is the fruit of the spirit from above descending and abiding on them (Numb. xi. 25, 26; Isa. xi. 2; 2 Kings ii. 15). Contrast Eccles. vii. 9. The wise does not draw forth his wisdom from its resting place within the heart at random, but in proper place and time, as the occasion may require. But fools cannot long disguise their folly (see chap. x. 14, xii. 23, xiii. 16). The Hebrew adage says, “A vessel full of coins will make no noise; but if there be only one coin in it, it will make a rattle.” The more learned one is, the more modest he will be; the more unlearned, the more presumptuous and ostentatious.—Fausset.
In the heart of the understanding wisdom remains silent and still, for the understanding feels himself personally happy in the possession, endeavours all the more to deepen it, and lets it operate within.—Delitzsch.
There she keepeth residence and there she ruleth, and thither she bringeth her treasures and her comforts, and every good thing that is to be wished for. And therefore she calleth for it, as most meet for her to possess; and safest for every wise man to yield unto her. “My son, give me thine heart.”
main homiletics of verse34.
National Salvation.
I. Some standard of right and wrong is necessary to national existence.There are men who have affirmed that there is no such thing as virtue and vice—that they are only inventions of those who desire to rule their fellow-creatures, and that the world could do without them. But experience teaches the contrary. Every nation, if it is to have an existence, even if it rejects a Divine revelation, or is ignorant of it, must have some standard by which to judge human actions. Without the recognition of such a standard, even if it is only based upon the light of reason, not only would national prosperity be impossible, but national existence. Rome and Greece had such standards as well as Israel, although the first-mentioned nations had no revelation from heaven except that of the natural conscience, and if all the existing codes were abolished to-morrow men would find it necessary to form others in order to preserve their national, if not their individual existence.
II. The prosperity and influence of a nation is in proportion to its national righteousness.This is not the case of the individual man. His present condition and circumstance, the measure of power that he possesses, or the amount of the influence he exerts, is no index of the amount of righteousness which he possesses. He may be a noble of the land, or he may have no social standing; he may fare sumptuously every day, or he may subsist on the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table, and neither from the one lot or the other can any conclusion be drawn as to what his moral standing is. There is another world in which the righteousmanwill be exalted, and the unrighteousmanwill reap the reward of unrighteousness; but national righteousness and unrighteousness receive their reward in this world. 1.Righteous dealing in a nation promotes its commercial prosperity.If the merchants of a nation are known to be honest in their transactions and truthful in their words, they will gain and hold a high place in the markets of the world. 2.It secures it an influence among the governing powers of the world.In proportion as its intercourse with other nations is marked, not by a lust for conquest or a desire to rule, no matter by what means—but by a recognition of the rights of all—in that proportion will it acquire a power far more real and far more lasting than that gained by its ability to outdo other nations in the number of its soldiers or the size of its navy.
III. National reproach for sin will be in proportion to its possession of a high or low moral standard.“Sin is a reproach toanypeople;” but it is the greatest reproach to those who possess the greatest light. The sin of Israel was a greater reproach to them than the sin of the Philistines was to them, because the one possessed the light of a Divine revelation, and the other did not. So in the present day, the nations who sin against the light of the revealed Word of God are far greater sinners than those upon whom the light has never shone. The principle to which the Divine Son gave utterance concerning the Jewish nation is the one by which He judges nations in the present day.“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin”(John xv. 24).
outlines and suggestive comments.
As there is nothing in religion to counteract the design of a wise system of civil polity, so there is nothing in a wise system of civil government to counteract the design of the Christian religion. The exaltation of the nation is the end of civil polity. Righteousness is the end of religion, or rather is religion itself.—Saurin.
It is the nature of sin (1) to lessen and diminish a people; (2) to sink and depress the spirit of a people; (3) to destroy the wealth of a people; (4) to deprive them of the blessings of freedom; (5) to provoke the displeasure of God and to draw down His judgments.—Emmons, in “Lange’s Commentary.”
Righteousness is both “the prop to make it subsist firm in itself and a crown to make it glorious in the eyes of others”(Bp. Sanderson).Greece in her proud science, Rome in the zenith of her glory, both were sunk in the lowest depths of moral degradation (Rom. i. 23–32 was a picture of the heathen world in the best ages of refinement). Their greatness consisted only in the visions of poesy or the dream of philosophy. Contrast the influence ofrighteousness,bringing out of the most debased barbarism a community impregnated with all the high principles that form a nation’s well-being. Thus to Christianise is to regenerate, to elevate the community, the “exalt the nation,” and that not with a sudden flash of shadowy splendour, but with a solid glory, fraught with every practical blessing. “Those princes and commonwealths who would keep their governments entire and uncorrupt, are, above all things, to have a care of religion and its ceremonies,and preserve them in due veneration. For in the whole world there is not a greater sign of imminent ruin than where God and His worship are despised.” Such was the testimony of the profligate politician Machiavelli. . . . What an enemy an ungodly man is to his country! Loudly though he may talk of his patriotism, and even though God should make him an instrument to advance her temporal interest; yet he contributes, so far as in him lies, to her deepestreproach.—Bridges.
Religion and virtue do naturally tend to the good order and more easy government of human society, because they have a good influence both upon magistrates and subjects. 1.Upon magistrates.Religion teaches them to rule over men in the fear of God, because though they be gods on earth, yet they are subjects of heaven, and accountable to Him who is higher than the highest in this world. Religion in a magistrate strengthens his authority because it procures veneration and gains a reputation to it. And in all affairs of the world so much reputation is so much power. 2.Upon subjects.First, it makes them obedient to government, and conformable to laws; and that not only out of fear of power, which is but a weak and loose principle of obedience, but out of conscience, which is a firm, and constant and lasting principle, and will hold a man fast when all other obligations will break. Secondly, it tends to make men peaceable with one another. For it endeavours to plant all those qualities and dispositions in men which tend to peace and unity, and to fill men with a spirit of universal love and goodwill. It endeavours likewise to secure every man’s interest, by commanding the observation of that great rule of equity, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.”—Tillotson.
We find the great general principle of Divine Providence, in regard to nations, thus laid down by Jehovah Himself to the prophet Jeremiah—“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and plant it; if it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them” (Jer. xviii. 7–10). This was a principle, not applicable toIsraelexclusively—for we find it expressly applied to the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the inhabitants of Sodom and of Nineveh. And the Old Testament bringing before us specimens of the Divine administration, the Spirit of God letting us so far into the secrets of its principles and laws, we have every reason to believe that in the government of God over the world, the same principle is still in operation, thatwemay not be able to trace it—that, had we only an inspired record of what takes place now, we should see it clearly in all cases; and even without such a record there are cases in which it would be equal impiety and blindness not to discern and own it.—Wardlaw.
“Righteousness”meanssaving righteousness,and“Sin-offering”is literallysin.(SeeCritical Notes.)“Righteousness”lifts to the very skies.“The mercy of nations,”as the words literally are, is not wealth, or peace, or a good king, or broad lands of plenty, but an interest in Christ, “the sin-offering,” and a home amongst the happy.—Miller.
“Peoples”is plural, whereas“a nation”is singular, implying the paucity of the nations observingrighteousness.The Hebrew word for reproach meaning also mercy, Gejer translates, “Mercy is an expiratory sacrifice for sin.” Not that mercy puts away sin before God, but before men, who are bymercyreconciled to those who had before been unmerciful to them.—Fausset.
main homiletics of verse35.
A Wise Servant.
In this verse we adopt Miller’s translation as being the more probable meaning. SeeCritical Notesand alsohis Comment.
I. The law of kindness is a law of power.Whether a man be the ruler of a nation or the ruler of a family, if he would acquire real power over those whom he rules, he must obey this law himself. Human nature is in a fallen condition, and it cannot be lifted into a state of obedience even to wise and good laws except they are enforced in a spirit of kindness. Kindness will bind men to loyal devotion with a far firmer chain than any force. There is, indeed, no principle in obedience to the latter; it rules only the bodily actions, and is powerless over the heart. Those who desire more than the service of half the man must issue their commands—must exercise their authority—in the spirit of mercy. The king, the master or the father, who is a despot, is only obeyed because he has power to punish. Consequently the obedience will only last as long as the power. This is a thought which parents especially should lay to heart.
II. The law of kindness is a law of policy.He who rules to-day may one day be at the mercy of him whom he rules. Kings have often needed favour of their subject—the master has often been at the mercy of his servant; and what has happened before will happen again in the changes and chances of life, and those who have shown mercy will be the most likely at such times to receive it. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt. vii. 2) holds good in this case. Therefore, the “kindness of a king is a wise servant; but his wrath becomes one that bringeth shame.” For remarks on the text as rendered in the Authorised Version, see below.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Solomon gets back to his king-craft. These maxims were familiar to him. It is rarely wise for “a king” to get in a passion with his people (see verses 29, 30). “If thou wilt be a servant unto this people” was said to the successor of this very man (1 Kings xii. 7); if thou wilt “answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.” But, more than king-craft, it is a rule for saints. The law of “kindness” should be on our lips. The power of gentleness is irresistible. If“the mercy for nations is the sin-offering”(see last verse), then we are all sinners together, and modesty forbids that we should go among the lost with anything but tenderness. The English version is due to the presence of a preposition. “The king’s favour is towards a wise servant.” But that proposition becomes idiomatic in certain cases. I say, “I want such a thingfora shelter.” “The kingdom of a king isfora wise servant,”i.e.,serves as one. There is no preposition before the words “brings shame;” but, on the contrary, the wordisis written out, and, as usual in that case, means“becomes;”all of which state of facts is in favour of our new version.—Miller.
These words state whatought to be.No one ought to be the king or the queen’s servant who is not wise; and toward every such wise servant the royal favour should be specially extended. And whoisawiseservant? Not a servant who flatters royal vanity; accommodates itself to royal foibles; indulges royal prejudices; chimes in with royal caprices; tolerates and connives at royal vices, whether personal or official. No; a wise servant must be a servant of conscientious principle, and of bland but unflinching fidelity. He is one who gives prudent and faithful counsel; who “speaks truthas he thinks it in his heart;” whose counsels are dictated by a right understanding of the times, and knowledge of what such times require, not by a wish to ingratiate the minister with the prince, and so to promote his own personal advantage, but by the principles of genuine patriotism as well as loyalty. . . . That servant “causeth shame” by whom that is encouraged from which reproach arises—who gives counsel to his prince which must prove either prejudicial or abortive; such as can hardly fail to render him unpopular with his subjects, and expose him, by their failure, to the derision of foreign states—a derision in which the kingdom as well as the throne, the people as well as the monarch, are involved.—Wardlaw.
Thus it is with the great King. All of us are Hisservants,bound to Him by the highest obligations; animated by the most glowing encouragements (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20; Matt. xxiv. 44–46, xxv. 21–23). All of us have our responsibilities, our talents, our work, our account. Towards the “faithful andwiseservant,” who has traded with his talents, who has been diligent in his work, and who is ready for his account—His favourwill be infinitely condescending and honourable (John xii. 26). Butagainst him that causeth shame—reflecting upon his Master, neglectful in his work, unprepared for his account—Hiswrathwill be tremendous and eternal.—Bridges.
Surely well is favour bestowed, where it reflecteth unto the giver’s honour: worthily is favour received, where wisdom’s hands are the receivers of it.—Jermin.
Critical Notes.—1. Grievous,“bitter,” “trying,”stir up;lit., “make to ascend,” like a flame fanned by bellows (Fausset).2. Useth knowledge aright,rather, “makes knowledge attractive,”i.e.,speaks so as to win the attention of the listeners;poureth out,or “bubbleth up.”3. Beholding,rather, “watching,” “observing” (so Stuart, Miller, and Delitzsch).4. Wholesome,“gentle,” “soft,”perversenessor “transgression,”a breach,“a crushing,” “a wounding.”6.Miller translates the first clause, “The house of the righteous is great treasure” (seehis Comment);revenue,rather “gain.”7. Disperse;some translators read “winnow,” or “sift.” Stuart translates the last clause of this verse “The heart of the fool is not stable;” Delitzsch reads, “Direction is wanting to the heart of fools,”i.e.,it has not therightdirection.10. Correction is grievous,or “there is grievous correction.” Miller reads, “Discipline is an evil to him.”11. Hell and destruction,“Sheōl,” and “Abaddōn,” two different names for the world of the departed. “Sheōl” is the unseen world in general, “Abaddōn” the place ofdestruction, i.e.,the place where their bodies are destroyed (so Stuart, Zöckler, etc.).How much more.Miller translates these particles by “because also” (seehis Comment).14. Mouth,or, “the countenance.”15. Afflicted,or “toiling.”17. Dinner of herbs,literally, “a traveller’s meal.”18. Stirreth up,lit. “mixes,” implying the reciprocal idea of giving and taking offence (Fausset).19. Made plain,“is paved,” or “is a highway.”21. Walketh uprightly,rather “goes straightforward.”24. The way of life is above,etc., rather “An upward path of life,” etc.Hell,Sheōl, as in verse 11.25. Establish the border,or “Keep fixed the landmark.”26. The words of the pure are pleasant,or “pure in His sight are pleasant words.”27. Gifts,i.e.,“bribes.”28. Studieth,i.e., “considers.”33. Instruction of wisdom,rather “a discipline of wisdom,” or “a training to wisdom.”
main homiletics of verses1and2.
The Use of Knowledge.
I. Knowledge is for use.The various gifts and acquirements of men in every grade of social life, of whatever kind they are, are intended by God to be used for the benefit of all. One man has what another lacks, that he may usewhat he possesses for their mutual good. Those who have wealth are bound to use it—they are not expected to keep it locked up in their coffers, but to lay it out for their own and their poorer neighbours’ good. So with knowledge. He who has a knowledge which can profit the body, the mind, or the heart of another sins if he holds it back. He will find that such a possession unused will be a witness against him in the day of reckoning. He will be accused of wasting his Master’s goods by not using them (Matt. xxv. 27).
II. Wisdom is needed to put knowledge to a right use.There are many people who know a great deal, but they do not know how to use it, either for themselves or others. They cannot make it of any practical use—they cannot enlighten and help others with it. Or they may put it to a wrong use. This is often the case with those who possess intellectual knowledge, but who lack moral wisdom. They put a good thing to a bad use.
III. One mark of knowledge combined with wisdom is the right use of the tongue in the presence of anger.A “soft answer” in the presence of anger indicates a knowledge of human nature, and also wisdom and self-possession to apply the knowledge. A man who can hold the helm of the vessel in the presence of a storm, and keep her well in hand, shows that he not only possesses knowledge but wisdom, and he to a great extent disarms the fury of the tempest by his calm discretion.
IV. A soft answer may turn away merited wrath.There are occasions when the most holy beings—the Most Holy One Himself—display a wrath which is only a proof of their perfect holiness. The “soft answer,” the pleading words of an intercessor, may turn away this wrath. The wrath of Jehovah was often kindled against Israel during their wilderness journey, but the “answer” of Moses “turned it away.” (See Exod. xxxii. 11–14; Numb. xiv. 11–20, etc.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 1—
Calmness is great advantage: he that letsAnother chafe may warm him at his fire,Mark all his wanderings and enjoy his frets,As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.—Herbert.
“A trying word;”literally a word of labour or pain. In dealing with sinners we ought to make the Gospel plain at first and not start unnecessary difficulties. Paul did this (1 Cor. iii. 2). Words that are not wrathful are often“trying,”as presenting to an angry inferior our reply in an easily misunderstood shape. We are to feed men with milk, and not with strong meat, all the more for being in a condition of fault.—Miller.
Look at the effect of the quiet and dignified reply of Gideon to the exasperated men of Ephraim, and at the case of Abigail and David. And as an exemplification of the opposite style of answer, you may be reminded of the contention between the men of Israel and Judah at the time of David’s restoration after the death of Absalom, where thefierce wordsof the latter drove off the former under the rebellious standard of Shebna, and of the case of Rehoboam, who by refusing to give“a soft answer”to the people deprived the house of David of the subjection of the ten tribes.—Wardlaw.
Nothing doth better stop the fury of a bullet than a mud wall: nothing doth soonerturn awaythe fury ofwraththan asoft answer.But where the pot is boiling, grievous words make it to boil over. Wherefore Chrysostom tells thee that thine enemy reconciled is more in thine own power than in his.—Jermin.
If gentle words prevail so mightily with most men to appease their anger, of what force shall the submissive supplications of penitent persons be with the Lord?—Dod.
We greatly need an instrument capable of turning away wrath, forthere is much wrath in the world to turn away. . . . That patent shield is a soft answer. Christianity makes it of the solid metal, and education supplies at a cheaper rate a plated article, useful as long as it lasts, and as far as it goes. . . . The Roman battering-ram, when it had nearly effected a breach in the walls of solid stone, was often baffled by bags of chaff and beds of down skilfully spread out to receive its stubborn blow. By that stratagem the besieged obtained a double benefit, and the besiegers suffered a double disappointment. The strokes that were given proved harmless, and the engine was soon withdrawn. In our department a similar law exists, and a similar experience will come out of it. . . . After praying to “Our Father” for your offending brother and yourself, you may speak to him with safety. . . . Pass your resentment through a period of communion with Him who bought you with His blood, and it will come out like Christ’s, a simple grief for a brother’s sin, and a holy jealousy for truth.—Arnot.
Verse 2. Eloquence, widely ordered, is very commendable, and availeth much. “The tongues of the wise useth knowledge aright”—deals kindly with her, offers her no abuse by venting her unseasonably, and making her over cheap and little set by. But eloquence abused may well be termed the attorney general, that makes a good cause seem bad, and a bad far better than in truth it is.—Spencer’s “Things New and Old.”
Paul, instead of exasperating his heathen congregation by an open protest, supplied their acknowledged defect, by bringing before them the true God “whom they were ignorantly worshipping” (Acts xvii. 23). He pointed an arrow to Agrippa’s conscience, by the kindly admission of his candour and intelligence (Acts xxvi. 27, 29). Thisright use of knowledgedistinguishes “the workman approved of God, and that needeth not to be ashamed” (2 Tim. ii. 15).—Bridges.
main homiletics of verse3.
Divine Intelligence.
I. The Eternal has a perfect knowledge of all places.The sun, in its meridian height, can only penetrate half the globe at the same time, and even then there are deep valleys and caves of the earth, and ocean beds where its rays never come; but God’s eye rests at once not only on all places of His dominion in this planet, which is but as a grain of sand amongst the worlds, but upon every spot in His boundless universe.
II. He has a perfect knowledge of the spirits of His creatures.The human soul has power to hide its secrets from the gaze of every fellow creature. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him?” (1 Cor. ii. 11). But God’s omniscient eye pierces into the hidden mazes of the soul and reads the silent thoughts and intents of the heart. In this most secret region He walks at large.“O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me, Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off”(Psa. cxxxix. 1, 2). God is the one potentate and judge who can claim a perfect knowledge of all His subjects from a personal acquaintance with each individual. Not one is lost in the crowd; each one stands before Him as distinctly as if he were the only creature in the universe.
III. God’s perfect knowledge of His creatures leads Him to contemplate both what is congenial and what is repugnant.He “beholds the evil and the good.” Men, when by Divine grace they become partakers of the Divine Nature, are much moved to gladness by the sight of that which is morally good, and turn with loathing from the evil which they must also contemplate. Yet theirhappiness springs from that which is within them and not from that which is around, or the preponderance of evil would make life unbearable. So the ever-blessed God, conscious of His perfect rectitude, has within Him a source of eternal satisfaction notwithstanding the “evil” that He beholds with Divine indignation and sorrow.
outlines and suggestive comments.
He mentions the “evil” first because they avowedly, or else practically, deny God’s providence (Jer. xvi. 17).—Fausset.
When we perceive that a vast number of objects enter in at our eye by a very small passage, and yet are so little jumbled in the crowd that they open themselves regularly, though there is no great space for that either, and that they give us a distinct apprehension of many objects that lie before us, both of their nature, colour, and size, and by a secret geometry, from the angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the distance of all objects, both from us and from one another—if to this we add the vast number of figures that we receive and retain long, and with great order, in our brains, which we easily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our discourse, we shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an Infinite Mind should have the universal view of all things ever present before it.—Burnet.
The darkness of the air may hide thee from men, and the darkness of thine understanding may hide thee from thyself, but there is no darkness can hide from God. . . . It was a pretty fancy of one that would have his chamber painted full of eyes, that which way soever he looked he might still have some eye upon him. And it was a wise answer of Livius Drusus, when an artist offered so to contrive his house that he might do what he would and none would see him. “No,” saith Drusus, “contrive it so, rather, that all may see me, for I am not ashamed to be seen.” If the eyes of men make even the vilest forbear their beloved lusts for awhile, and they that are drunk are drunken in the night, how powerful will the eye and presence of God be with those that fear His anger and know the sweetness of His favour. The thoughts of this omnipresence of God will quicken thee to holiness. The soldiers of Israel and Judah were prodigal of their blood in the presence of their two generals (2 Sam. ii. 14). Servants will generally work hard while their master looks on. The eye of God, as of the sun, will call the Christian to his work. Those countries that are governed by viceroys seldom flourish or thrive so well as those kingdoms where the prince is present in person. Conscience, God’s viceroy, may much quicken a Christian to holiness, but God, the Prince, much more. “I have kept Thy precepts,” saith David, “for all my ways are before Thee.”—Swinnock.
He is all-eye, and His providence like a well-drawn picture, that vieweth all that come into the room. I know Thy works and Thy labour (Rev. ii); not Thy works only, but Thy labour in doing them. And as for the offender, though he think to hide himself from God by hiding God from himself, yet God is nearer to him than the bark is to the tree, “for in Him all things subsist” (Col. i. 17) and move (Acts xvii. 28); understand it of the mind’s motions also. And this the very heathen saw by nature’s rush candle. For Thales Milesius being asked whether the gods know not when a man doth aught amiss, “Yea,” saith he, “if he do but think amiss.” “God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves,” saith another. Repletively He is everywhere, though inclusively nowhere. As for the world, it is to Him as “a sea of glass,” a clear, transparent body; He sees through it. No man needs a window in his breast (as the heathen Monus wished) for God to look in at: every man before God is all window (Job xxxiv. 22).—Trapp.
Such is the extent of wickednessthat in every place He beholdeth the evil and the good. Yea, if there be but one in a place, that one is both evil and good, and God beholdeth both his evil and his good. TheevilGod beholdeth first, but they are thegoodon whom He resteth, as approving of them, and as delighting in them. For their eyes are upon God in every place, as God’s eyes are upon them. The other looketh not after God, and so God looketh after them, as that He looketh from them in anger at their wickedness. He contemplates and considers, which is more than simply to behold, for contemplation addeth to a simple apprehension a deeper degree of knowledge.—Jermin.
The doctrine of Divine omniscience, although owned and argued for by men’s lips, is neglected or resisted in their lives. The unholy do not like to have a holy eye ever open upon them, whatever their profession may be. If fallen man, apart from the one Mediator, say or think that the presence of God is pleasant to them, it is because they have radically mistaken either their own character or His. They have either falsely lifted up their own attainments or falsely dragged down the character of the judge. . . . In every place our hearts and lives are open in the sight of Him with whom we have to do. The proposition is absolutely universal. We must beware, however, lest that feature of the Word which should make it powerful only renders it indefinite and meaningless. Man’s fickle mind treats universal truths that come from heaven as the eye treats the visible heaven itself. At a distance from the observer all around the blue canopy seems to descend and lean upon the earth, but where he stands it as far above, out of his sight. It touches not him at all; and when he goes forward to the line where now it seems to touch other men, he finds it still far above, and the point which applies to this lower world is distant as ever. Heavenly truth, like heaven, seems to touch all the world around, but not his own immediate sphere, or himself its centre. The grandest truths are practically lost in this way when they are left whole. We must rightly divide the Word, and let the bits come into every crook of our own character. Besides the assent to general truth, there must be specific personal application. A man may own omniscience and yet live without God in the world.—Arnot.
The subjects of verses 4 and 5 have been considered before. (See Homiletics on chap.xii. 17, 18, page 274, and on chap.xiii. 1, page 293.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 4. Rueetschi carries the idea ofgentleness(seeCritical Notes) through the two clauses as the central idea: “It is precisely with this gentle speech, which otherwise does so much good, that the wicked is wont to deceive, and then one is by this more sorely and deeply stricken and distressed than before.”—Lange’s Commentary.
That tongue which is “a witness of truth,” and therefore “saves souls” (chap. xiv. 25),“is a tree of life.”Go into any garden of the lost, and where no such tree is, all are pagans. One sees, therefore, how the figure is kept up. I am here born into a land where there are gospeltongues;that is, if, when I grow up, I am not in China, and not in India, but in a Christian village, where people have and spread the gospel, that“tongue, as a healing thing,is (my)tree of life.”Where I get “life” is from its branches.—Miller.
This verse may be compared with the second. The tongue which “useth knowledge aright” has a morally and spiritually healing influence. It imparts instruction to the ignorant. It speaks peace to the troubled conscience. It soothes the anguish of the afflicted. It subdues the swelling of passion. It allays the self-inflicted tortures ofenvy. It heals divisions and animosities. These and other blessed fruits entitle it to the designation, “a tree of life;” productive, as it is, of genuine, varied, and valuable joys to all within the reach of its influence. And when the tongue makes known God’s “saving health,”—the salvation revealed by Him in the Gospel,—it then gives life in the highest and most important sense.—Wardlaw.
A high image of what the tongue ought to be; not negative, not harmless, butwholesome,orhealing,as the salt cast into the spring cleansed the bitter waters (2 Kings ii. 21). . . . But the meekest of men feltperverseness a breach in the spirit(Numb. xvi. 8–15). The tongue of Job’s friends broke “the bruised reed” (Job xiii. 1–5). Even our beloved Lord, who never shrunk from external evil, keenly felt the piercing edge of this sword (Psa. lxix. 19, 20).—Bridges.
One stripe of the tongue woundeth three—the backbiter, him that giveth ear to the backbiting, and the backbitten.—Cawdray.
Saith the old philosopher, “Than a good tongue there is nothing better, than an evil nothing worse. It hath no mean; it is either exceedingly good or exceedingly evil. It knows nothing but extremes, and is either best of all, or worst of all (Jas. iii. 8). The tongue is every man’s best or worst moveable. . . . A good tongue is the best part of a man, and most worthy of the honour of sacrifice. This only when it is well seasoned. Seasoned, I say, with salt, as the apostle admonisheth; not with fire” (Col. iv. 6).—T. Adams.
Everlasting benediction be upon that tongue, which spake, as no other ever did, or could speak, pardon, peace, and comfort to lost mankind. This was thetree of life,whose leaves were for the healing of the nations.—Bishop Horne.
The root of this tree goeth down to the heart, whence it sucketh the juice of wisdom; its body lieth in the head, where things are ruminated and concocted by it; the branches of it are the several speeches of the mouth; the fruit of it is spread abroad as wide as good occasion is offered.—Jermin.