Not asilenttongue; mere abstinence from evil is not good. . . . Idleness is evil under the administration of God. . . . Not asmoothtongue; it may be soft on the surface, while the poison of asps lies cherished underneath. The serpent licks his victim all over before he swallows it. Smoothness is not an equivalent for truth. . . . Not avolubletongue; that active member may labour much to little purpose. . . . Not asharptongue: some instruments are made keen-edges for the purpose of wounding. . . . Not even atruetongue. Truth is necessary, but it is not enough. The true tongue must also bewholesome.Before anything can be wholesome in its effects on others it must be whole in itself. . . . “Winged words” have fluttered about in poetry and prose through all the languages of the civilised world from old Homer’s day till now. The permanence and prevalency of the expression proves that it embodies a recognised truth. Words have wings indeed, but they are the wings of seeds rather than of birds or butterflies. We are all accustomed in autumn to observe multitudes of diminutive seeds, each balanced on its own tiny wing, floating past on the breeze. . . . Words are like these seeds, in their winged character, their measureless multitude, and their winged speed. They drop off in inconceivable numbers: they fly far: they are widely spread. It is of deep importance that they should be for good, and not for evil. The tongue is a prolific tree, it concerns the whole community that it should be a tree of life, and not of death.—Arnot.
Verse 5. He that regardeth reproof is prudent. Wise he is, and wiser he will be. This made David prize and pray for a reprover (Psa. cxli. 5).—Trapp.
main homiletics of verse6.
Like in Circumstances, but Unlike in Character.
I. The wicked and the righteous are often on a level as regards material wealth.One may have “much treasure” and the other great “revenues,” orgain.The laws of nature have no respect to character. God makes His sun to “shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust” (Matt. v. 43), so that the wicked man reaps a harvest as abundant as that of the righteous man. And all the laws of Providence move with the same even step, certainly showing no favour to the good man over the bad.
II. But though their possessions may be equal, there is great inequality in the enjoyment of them.Character makes all the difference here. Even “a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked” (Ps. xxxvii. 16). The wicked man is troubled by a sense of being out of harmony with all that is holy, and just, and true in the universe of God, and with a foreboding of future retribution. The wealth of the spirit is so much more than material wealth as the spirit is so much more than the body. It is wealth to have“a conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God”(Heb. ix. 14), and to “lay up treasure” without being thus “rich toward God” (Luke xii. 21) is only to“spend money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not.”(See on chap.iii. 14, 15,viii. 11–19, etc.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
“Thetreasurein the house of the righteous” may be understood not of mere wealth, but of whatever is possessed with contentment and cheerfulness, with gratitude to God, with an assurance of His fatherly regard, with the peace that passeth all understanding, with resignation of spirit to the Divine Will, with the present enjoyment of spiritual blessing, and the well-founded “hope of glory, honour, and immortality.” . . . We may suppose the revenues of the wicked to beacquiredandenjoyedwickedly. But if not—yet if possessed and expended without the fear of God, and if the means themselves of banishing that fear, and preventing the choice of a better portion,—it may truly be affirmed that in them there is“trouble.”—Wardlaw.
“The house,”as we have repeatedly seen (see on chap.ix. 1,xiv. 1), means a man’swhole interest.The mereinterestof the“righteous,”whether it seem high or low; his lot, whether it be on high or on a dunghill, his hap, just as it is, whether it be easy or under pain, is, under the covenant of the Almighty, an enormous riches; while not“the house of the wicked”(for the wise man intends another of his climaxes); but stating his condition in the most favourable way,“the revenue of the wicked,”imagining that to be of the most favourable kind; and not“the revenue of the wicked,”butinthe revenue, as though the trouble were in the revenue itself, is, literally,the being troubled(Niphal). The splendours of the lost will involve buttroublein the whole eternity.—Miller.
The treasures of the wicked are too much for their good and too little for their lusts. . . . But is it not the crown of the Christian’s crown, and the glory of his glory that he cannot desire more?—Bridges.
The riches of the wicked, in which they pride themselves, often consist of paper, and if bonds and charters make a man rich, the righteous cannot be poor, when they have bonds upon God Himself for everything they need, and the charter which shows their sure title to an everlasting inheritance. The devil robbed Job, but he could not make him poor, for his chief treasure lay quite out of reach of the enemy.—Lawson.
Every righteous man is a rich man, whether he hath more or less of the things of this life. For,first,he hath plenty of that which is precious. Secondly,Propriety;what he hath is his own; he holds all incapite-tenurein Christ; he shall not be called to account as a usurper. “All is yours” (1 Cor. iii. 22), “because you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” And although he had little, many times, in present possession, he is rich in reversion.—Trapp.
His house is God’s treasury, himself is God’s treasure; wherefore God watcheth over his house to defend and preserve it; and himself God keepeth, as the apple of His eye.—Jermin.
Even the trifling sum which the righteous keeps in his house is a great treasure, because it has God’s blessing; but all the revenues, the large annual rents of the wicked from all his vast estate, are mere troubles.—Burgon.
The thought of verse 7 has been treated before. (Seeverse 2, etc.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Utterance is a gift, and dumb Christians are blameworthy as well as dumb ministers. “Speak, that I may see thee,” said Socrates. When the heart is full, it overfloweth in speech. We know metals by their tinkling, and men by their talking.—Brooks.
In their houses, they catechise their children; in the company of their neighbours, they entreat of God’s Word and works; in the church, if they be teachers, they publish wholesome doctrine.—Muffet.
Most commentators sayscatterordisperse. “Winnow,”which has usage (Ruth iii. 2), bears better upon the second clause. (See renderings inCritical Notes.)Winnowing knowledge, i.e.,letting the lips, under the guidance of wisdom, be an instrument for holding folly back and giving utterance to knowledge, must be the finest practice for getting strength to piety; while the second clause shows the incompetence of folly to“winnow”anything, by saying that“the heart of the foolish is not fixed”(and therefore lacks the first principles of choice, in separating one thing from the other).—Miller.
The foolish sow cockle as fast as wiser men do corn, and are as busy in digging descents to hell as others are in building staircases for heaven.—Trapp.
main homiletics of verses8and9.
Praying and Living.
I. God loves righteous men with a special love.God has a love for all His human creatures—a love which springs out of His relationship to them as their Creator. He loves the “world” (John iii. 16), but this love cannot be said to spring from likeness of character between Him and the objects of His love. There is a spontaneous love welling up in the mother’s heart towards her child long before that child has developed any qualities to win love. The love springs from the relationship that exists between the child and the parent, and it exists before there has been time and opportunity to develop a loveable character. And there is still love in the mother’s heart from the relationship, if, after there has been time to form a loveable character, no such character is manifested—if there is no response to the parent’s love. There is this spontaneous love in God for all His human children—a love that, even when it meets with no response, does not cease to pity those who reject it.“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”(Rom. v. 8).“Butafter the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us”(Titus iii. 4, 5). But the spiritual love which God has to righteous men—to men of integrity—to men who are sincere in their love of righteousness, and who make conformity to it the end and aim of their life (see on chap.xi. 3, page 196), is a love which springs from likeness of character. It is the personal love of a perfectly Righteous Being for persons whose characters, in some degree, resemble His own. The good human father loves to see his own character in miniature in that of his child. He delights to see his son“following after”him in his holy habits and feelings—he loves him with a deeper and more joyful love as he sees in him the germs of holy desires and aims which he knows will be more fully developed as he grows into manhood. And so the “Heavenly Father” loves with the love of delight (chap. xii. 22) those of His human sons and daughters who have begun to reflect His image in their hearts and lives, and waits with patience until the blade changes to the ear, and the ear into the full corn—until they are not onlyjust men,but“just men made perfect”(Heb. xii. 23).
II. One act of a righteous man which God regards with special pleasure.“Theprayer ofthe upright.” 1.Because it is an expression of conscious need.A sense of spiritual need and weakness is indispensable, even to the continuance of a righteous character, much more to its growth. While a man feels his need, he will not only keep what he already has, but will be in the way of getting more. While he feels that he has not“already attained”neither is“already perfect”he will“follow after”perfection, he will“reach forth unto those things which are before, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God”—(Phil. iii. 12–14), even to entire and absolute holiness of character. When he prays, he expresses his sense of need, and thus gives proof of that lowliness and contrition of heart without which no man can receive supplies of Divine grace. Therefore God delights in his prayer. 2.It is an expression of filial confidence.He not only knows what he wants, but he knows who is able and willing to supply his need. Prayer is in itself an act of faith—it is an expression of belief that“God is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”(Heb. xi. 6). A human benefactor, especially a human parent, feels that application to him for help is a tribute to his goodness and to his power—it is a manifestation that those who seek his aid are assured of his willingness and ability to meet their need. So with the Divine Friend and Father. He loves to have His compassion and His power confided in by His creatures. 3.It is an act of obedience.God has commanded “men always to pray” (Luke xviii. 1). It was a condition to be observed under the Old Testament dispensation, as well as under that of the new.“Thus saith the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them”(Ezek. xxxvi. 37).Ask and it shall be given you”(Luke xi. 9). The conditions are easy, but they are indispensable. No wise parent gives his children what they desire, except certain conditions are fulfilled. They may be very easy, but in no well-governed family are they dispensed with. So in God’s family. True He knows what His children need before they ask Him, even better than the wisest and most tender human parent, but the command is absolute, the condition without exception. Prayer is therefore acceptable to Him because it is an act of obedience to His command.
III. God abhors the way of the wicked.1.Because they are at war with their better nature.There are instincts in every man which are opposed to wrong-doing. There is a light which lightens every man that cometh into the world. When men sin they war against their own better nature. Cain possessed instincts which he must have stifled and trampled down before he could shed his brother’s blood, and so it is with every son of Adam. God must hate thatwhich debases the creature whom He created in His own image. 2.Because their ways are at war with His purpose to bless them.A wise statesman may conceive a plan which he sees by his superior intelligence is calculated to bring great blessings to his nation. He labours to make the nation see it also—he uses all his reasoning power and all the force of his eloquence to bring it into operation, to make it the law of the land. But the very people whom it is intended to benefit may, from ignorance and prejudice, oppose his wise and beneficent efforts. He looks upon their opposition with the deepest displeasure, because it is opposed to their own welfare. If a son rebel against the plans which a wise and good father has formed for his benefit, the father must be deeply displeased at the obstinacy which thus frustrates his purpose of love and wisdom. God’s complaint against Israel was,“I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me”(Isa. i. 2)—rebelled against all His gracious plans and purposes concerning them, and that is His quarrel with the ways of wicked men in general that crosses all His purposes of mercy towards them.
IV. Their acts of worship are especially displeasing to Him.They are offered with no sense of spiritual need—with no desire to forsake sin. When such men engage in outward acts of worship it is as if a thief were to offer to his judge some of his unlawful gain as a bribe to be allowed to go free of punishment. God so regarded the sacrifices of Israel when they came into His courts with“hands full of blood.” “Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth”(Isa. i. 14, 15). They were an abomination to Jehovah because the hearts of the men who offered them were in love with sin and desired only, if possible, to escape the penalty due to it. Men in all ages would have been well pleased to “be pardoned and to retain the offence,” but the very suggestion of such a thing is a gross insult to the righteousness of God, and as this is the only construction that can be put upon a drawing near to Him in outward service while the heart is far from Him (Isa. xxix. 13), thesacrificeof the wicked must be the act most abhorrent to God of a way which is altogether an “abomination unto Him.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 8. When an ungodly man prays, it is not theact of prayerthat constitutes the sin, it is the want of apraying heart.The sin isin him,not in his prayer.—Wardlaw.
The formal devotion of a faithless man is not worth the crust of bread which he asks.—T. Adams.
Man judges by acts, God by principles.The sacrifice of the wicked,though it be part of God’s own service, yet “will be found in His register in the catalogue of sins to be accounted for” (Bp. Hopkins). Is he then finally rejected? Far from it. His desire to seek the Lord would be the beginning of the prayer that ensures acceptance. That which brings acceptance is—not the perfection, but the simplicity of uprightness.—Bridges.
“Sacrifice and prayer” are not here contrasted as the higher and the lower, but “sacrifice” is a gift to God, “prayer” is desiring from Him (Comp. Isa. i. 11, 15, etc.). Yet this is by no means an essential difference; for both sacrifice and prayer, which indeed fall likewise under the category of offering in the broadest sense (Ps. cxix. 108; Heb. xiii. 15) come under consideration here only as general tokens of reverence for God; and the value of both is clearly defined by this test, whether the state of heart is or is not well pleasing to God.—Lange’s Commentary.
It is not works that make the man good, but when a man is justified his works are also good. God in His grace makes well pleasing to Himself theworks that come of faith, even though great imperfections still mingle with them.—Starke.
“The sacrifice of the wicked,”though it may be very costly—the column of Stylites, the hook-swinging of the east, the millions of anxious charity—without grace must be purely sin.“The prayer of the upright,”though itasksinstead ofgives,yet it is adelight,where the other is anabomination.A man may serve God out of sheer selfish wickedness. Moreover,allare abominable. There is no just man upon earth. But the righteous has the righteousness of Christ; while these others are left, without a cover, to their own abominable guiltiness.—Miller.
Worksmateriallygood many never prove soformallyandeventually,viz.: (1) When they proceed not from a right principle; (2) When they tend not to a right end. The glory of God must consume all other ends, as the sun puts out the light of the fire. But the prayer that proceeds from an upright heart, though but faint and feeble, doth come before God, even “into His ears” (Psa. xviii. 6), and so strangely charms Him (Isa. xxvi. 16) that He breaks forth into these words: “Ask me of things concerning my sons, and concerning the works of my hands command ye me” (Isa. xlv. 11). Oh that we understood the latitude of this royal charter!—Trapp.
Verse 9. “The way of the wicked is abomination.” Not his sacrifices only, but his civilities: all his actions—natural, moral, recreative, religious—are offensive to God. The very “ploughing of the wicked is sin” (Prov. xxi. 4). . . . But He loveth him that followeth after righteousness, although he fulfil not all righteousness, yet if he make after it with might and main, if he pursue it and have it in chase, “if by any means he may attain to the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. iii. 11); that is, the height of holiness that accompanies the resurrection: this is the man whom God loves. Now God’s love is not an empty love; it is not like the winter sun, that casteth a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little warmth and comfort. “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; those that remember Thee in Thy ways” (Isa. lxiv. 5), “that think upon Thy commandments to do them” (Psa. ciii. 20), that are weak but willing (Heb. xiii. 8), that are lifting at the latch, though they cannot do up the door: “Surely, shall every such one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. xlv. 24). “Righteousness,” that is, mercy to those that come over to Him, and “strength” to enable them to come, as the sea sends out waters to fetch us to it.—Trapp.
The way of the wicked and the abomination of the Lord go on with equal paces. It is his way, because he leadeth himself in it, refusing to follow the guide of instruction: and God’s way it is, wherein His abomination pursueth after him. . . . St. Bernard saith, “God loveth, neither doth this arise from anything in others, but Himself it is from whence He loveth; and therefore the more vehemently, because He doth not so much love, as rather Himself is love.”—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse10.
Out of the Way.
I. There is a pre-ordained way for man to walk in.1.Nature suggests this.Everything there speaks of law and order. 2.Conscience suggests it.3.Revelation declares it.(On this subject see Homiletics on chap.xii. 28;xiii. 13,14; pages 291 and 313.)
II. A man may break loose from this God-ordained path.That hecando this is his glory; that hedoesdo it is his shame. A convict is compelled tokeep to a certain path, he is obliged to conform to a routine laid down for him by another. His outward life is governed by no will of his own, all his acts are prescribed by an authority which he cannot resist. But God will not keep men in the way in which He desires them to walk by such means. He did not so fence about the angels in heaven. They were “free to fall,” and so are we. God treats His creatures as free men, not as prisoners. They have power to choose when they will serve; they are free to choose the way in which they will walk. All the force that is exerted over them is the force of moral suasion.
III. The correction that follows this forsaking of the way is intended to punish and to reclaim.In all well-ordered human governments, and in all well-governed families, the main intention of punishment (except in the case of capital punishment) is improvement of character. This ought to be the chief aim of all human correction. It is the main intention in all the chastisements of God in this world. There is no retribution which comes to man in this world which will not, if accepted in a right spirit, become a means of restoring him to the forsaken path; therefore
IV. To hate reproof is to shut out all possibility of moral restoration.A man who will not be reproved denies the imperfection of his nature. Every imperfect being must need correction, and for man to rebel against the chastisement of God is to pass sentence of death upon himself. (On this subject see Homiletics on chaptersiii. 11, 12;xii. 1;xiii. 18; pages 247, 323, etc.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
We should always look hopefully at a sinner undercorrection.For, surely, so long as the physician administers the medicine, there is no ground for despondency. . . . This costly teaching brings us on wonderfully. Lord! let me know the smart of Thy rod rather than the eclipse of Thy love.—Bridges.
There are three sorts of passengers that go out of the way. He that mistaketh the way, he that forsaketh his way, and he that loveth to be out of the way. Many miss the way who never were in it, or, being in the way, were missed from it, and these, oftentimes, are glad to be corrected and brought into the way. He forsaketh the way who at first is set in it, and seeing how to go on aright, yet willingly departeth from it: to such an one correction is grievous, and he suffereth it with trouble, but yet many times he is reduced by it. He loveth to be out of the way who hateth reproof, and of his amendment there is little hope. . . . The force of the verse is, that the suffering of correction is grievous, but that the hating of reproof is most pernicious.—Jermin.
Of all sinners, reproofs are worse resented by apostates.—Henry.
“Discipline is an evil to him who forsakes the path.”(See rendering inCritical Notes.) In our common version this idea is not brought out. It is a very grave one. Men not converted, but steadily“forsaking the path of holiness,”are injured by“discipline.”In“hating reproof”they go through the very soul-action which we mean when we say,“they die.”Each“hating”emotion kills them. And this is the very philosophy of theletter-killing(2 Cor. iii. 6); not that it is poison in itself, but that the Gospel awakens opposition, which, on its part, corrupts the mind.—Miller.
main homiletics of verse11.
Two Worlds.
I. Two worlds out of reach of the human senses—the world of departed men and the human soul.Both these mysterious worlds are shut out or shut infrom the eye of man by the bolts and bars of his bodily senses. How exceedingly small a portion of the vast universe of God is revealed to the eye of sense! The small globe upon which man finds himself is nearly all that he can possibly know with his bodily vision. Reason may tell him that there is much more, faith may afford him clearer evidence of things not seen (Heb. xi. 1), but over all there is a veil drawn. The vast world, where dwells the great majority of the human race—that unseen home, peopled with the spirits of just men made perfect, and the dwelling-place of the spirits of the unjust—are regions entirely beyond the reach of human sight. And there is another world equally out of the reach of his vision. He has never seen the soul of any one of the thousands of fellow-men with whom he has come in contact. He has never read the heart of his most intimate friend. His own “living soul,” even that which ishimself,has never been apprehended by his bodily senses. He has never touched or looked uponthat.
II. But both these invisible worlds are entirely open to the eye of God.The world of spirits and the individual soul of each man are seen by Him as plainly as we see the material world around us, or as we see the bodies of our fellow-creatures. And they are far more fully comprehended by Him than the visible things upon which our eyes rest every day are comprehended by us. For what do we really know of the essential properties of that by which we are surrounded? Is not our very bodily organism a mystery to us? But each soul of each individual man in the body, and each “unclothed” (2 Cor. v. 4) spirit in the worlds of the departed is “naked and open” in the eyes of Him with whom each one “has to do” (Heb. iv. 13) as really and as intimately as if in all the universe there was only one creature of whom the omniscient Creator had to take cognizance.
outlines and suggestive comments.
It is the gross persuasion of some, as if hell and destruction were only things that God did set before us, and that they were not before Him; as if they were things wherewith God did only terrify us, and which should never be. But the wise man telleth us, that they are before the Lord, and that though we know not where hell is and what is done there, yet it is before God’s eyes. And, therefore, though the heart of the children of men be made as deep as hell by hellish devices, yet much more is that manifest to God. The heart of man is more manifest to Him than it is to himself. Wherefore St. Augustine, speaking unto God, saith, “Thou wert within, and I was without.” For, indeed, God is often within and knoweth what our hearts are, when we ourselves are without and do not know them.—Jermin.
This terrible truth these hearts secretly know, and their desperate writhings to shake it off show how much they dislike it. The Romish confessional is one of the most pregnant facts in the history of man. It is a monument and measure of the guilty creature’s enmity against God. . . . We have wondered at the blindness and stupidity of our common nature in permitting a man, not more holy than his neighbours, to stand in the place of God to a brother’s soul. There is cause for grief, but not ground for surprise. The phenomenon proceeds in the way of natural law. It is the common, well understood process of compounding for the security of the whole, by the voluntary surrender of a part. The confessional is a kind of insurance office where periodical exposure of the heart to a man is the premium paid for fancied impunity in hiding that heart altogether from the deeper scrutiny of the all-seeing God. . . . It is God’s love from the face of Jesus Christ shining into my dark heart that makes my heart open anddelight to be His dwelling-place. The eye of the just Avenger I cannot endure to be in the place of sin; but the eye of the compassionate Physician I shall gladly admit into this place of disease.—Arnot.
“Because also the hearts of the children of men.”(See Miller’s rendering inCritical Notes.) The intimation isGod knows hell because He knows man.He knows that “hating reproof,” we die (verse 10), and just how fast we die or sink by each act of hating. In other words, he knows how fast sin grows under an administration of justice; and, therefore, how far a given sinner will have gone down, at any date, through his eternal age.—Miller.
This verse may denote that the deepest machinations of the prince of hell, and of all his legions of fallen angels, are open to the Lord’s inspection, and must end in their disappointment and deeper torment; how, then can man, who is so inferior in sagacity and subtlety, expect to hide his counsels from God, or to prosper in rebellion against Him? “There is nothing so deep or secret that can be hid from the eyes of God, much less man’s thoughts.”—Scott.
main homiletics of verse12.
Self-Destroyed.
I. That a scorner is in hopeless ignorance.“Neither will he go unto the wise.” If a thirsty man will not go to the river to which he has free and easy access, there is no hope of his thirst being quenched. If he will not apply to the only source whence his need can be supplied, he must remain in his needy condition. If a man who is sick will not apply to him who is able to cure his malady, the probability is that he will remain under the influence of disease, and die of his malady. If a man who is ignorant of the revelation of God, and of the healing power of Divine truth, refuses to go where wisdom is to be found—viz., among those who have been enlightened by Divine wisdom, there is no hope of his ever emerging from his state of ignorance. God uses one divinely enlightened man to turn another from darkness to light. This is the method of His procedure in His kingdom, and if the scorner rejects this means, he must remain in darkness. He may “go unto the wise” by listening to the voice of the living man, by observing the life of the morally wise, or by reading their thoughts, especially those of the divinely-inspired writers of the Scriptures. Men have begun to learn wisdom by each one of these methods; generally there is the combined influence of the three.
II. The true source of the scorner’s dislike to the company of the wise.He “hates reproof.” As reproof is knowledge (seech. xiii. 18, page 323) so an increase of knowledge, if it is not used, is reproof. The words of the wise and the lives of the wise reprove the scorner by increasing his light, and thus adding to his guilt. He therefore “cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved” (John iii. 20). He is like a man who is conscious that he is suffering from a dangerous disease, but who will not submit to the examination of the physician because he knows he would prescribe treatment which, though it would cure, would be painful. No men love reproof any more than they love the surgeon’s knife; but wise men submit to the one and the other for the sake of the health to soul and to body which will follow. But the scorner hates the keen-edged weapon of reproof because he does not value the good that would result from patiently bearing the incision.
III. Every scorner, therefore, is a self-destroyer.A man commits suicide if, when he is sick, he refuses to use the means by which he might be healed. If he die, he takes away his life as truly as if he thrust a sword through hisbody. He is not accountable for his disease, but he is responsible and blameworthy for neglecting means of cure within his reach. So with men in relation to spiritual knowledge. Ignorance is a crime only when the means of enlightenment are within reach. He who scorns to avail himself of those means, he who will not submit to reproof, he who rejects the invitation and despises the threatenings of Divine Wisdom (see chap.i. 20–33) is a moral suicide. (See also on chap.xiv. 6, page 346.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Men should “run to and fro to increase knowledge” (Dan. xii. 4). The Shunamite rode ordinarily to the prophet on the Sabbaths and other holy days (2 Kings iv. 23). Those good souls in Psalm lxxxiv. 7 passed on “from strength to strength,” setting the best foot forwards for like purpose; yea, those that were weak and unfit for travel would be brought to the ordinances upon “horses, in chariots, and in litters” (Isa. lxvi. 20). But now the scorner holds it not worth while to put himself to these pains, and is ready to say with Jeroboam, “It is too much for men to go up to Jerusalem,” to go up “to the mountain of the Lord, to learn His ways” (Isa. ii. 3). Yea, he set watches to observe who would go from him to Judah to worship, that he might shame them at least, if not slay them (Hos. v. 1). He would never have gone to the prophet to be reproved, and when the prophet came to him, he stretched out his hand to apprehend him. So Herod had a desire to see Christ, but could never find a heart to go to hear him; and yet our Saviour looked that men should have come as far to Him as the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon.—Trapp.
Here is instruction for all men, to observe the state of their own souls, and the better, when occasion is offered, to inform themselves of others by the company which they most delight to frequent. He that delighteth to associate himself with good men, is never to be deemed a friend to evil ways, and he that embraceth the fellowship of sinful persons, must needs be judged an enemy to godly behaviour. When David would clear himself to be none of the wicked, he made it fully manifest by this,that he went not with vain persons, neither kept company with dissemblers: that he hated the assembly of the evil and companioned not with the wicked.When he would prove himself to be one of the righteous, he evidently confirmed it by this, thathe was a companion of all them that feared the Lord and kept His precepts.—Dod.
There is none that loveth more truly, that loveth more profitably, than he that lovingly reproveth what he seeth amiss. And yet there is none that a scorner loveth less. But what marvel if he loveth not another, that loveth not himself! Where scorning is, there can be no love, that was never love’s disposition. Let no one that reproveth a scorner look for love from him. . . . But let the wise reprove him notwithstanding, and as St. Cyprian speaketh, if they cannot persuade him, to make him to please Christ, let themselves perform to Christ that which is their part, and let them please Christ by keeping his commandments.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse13.
A Cheerful Face and a Broken Spirit.
I. The outer man is to a large extent an index of the inner life.The joy of the heart is made visible upon the countenance. This is one of the infinitely kind and wise arrangements of God which minister so much to human happiness.We have but to consider the influence of a cheerful face to know how great a blessing it is that a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. “How blank would be the aspect of the world,” says Dr. Arnot, “if no image of a man’s thought could ever be seen glancing through his countenance! Our walk through life would be like a solitary walk through a gallery of statues—as cold as marble, and not nearly so beautiful.”
II. The effect of sorrow upon the human spirit.It“breaks”it. When a vessel’s timbers are shivered by the fury of the storm she may not go to pieces altogether. But she is no longer able to hold her own against the elements, which she could once use as forces to convey her from land to land. If she were now to put to sea, instead of riding over the waves and making them her servants, she would be a passive thing in their hands, a mere helpless bundle of timbers to be tossed whithersoever they pleased, instead of “walking the waters like a thing of life.” So it is with the human spirit when the cross seas and angry winds of adverse circumstances have quenched the hope and paralysed the energy that once governed and inspired the man. He is no longer able to face the storms of life, and outride them, or even make them advance his interests. He is passive amid the changes and chances of mortal life, and they drift him on wheresoever they will. But this can never be the case unless a man has lost faith in the character of God and his own high and immortal destiny. Then, indeed, the elements which he was built to rule will rule him, and he will fail to fulfil the end for which God launched him on the sea of life.
outlines and suggestive comments.
I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit, of the mind.—Addison.
The“sorrow of heart”here spoken of, we may consider as that which arises from an evil conscience, from envy, discontent, and other similar sources.—Wardlaw.
A “merry” or “glad” heart is one of the attributes of piety. It (literally)“does good to the countenance,” improves it,as we say in our idiom, “Come with us, and we will do thee good” (Numb. x. 29).—Miller.
This wordmerrimentis of frequent use among our old writers. It is Foxe’s favourite description of the holy joy of the martyrs.—Bridges.
It sits smiling in the face, and looks merrily out of the windows of the eyes. But this is not till faith has healed the conscience, and till grace has hushed the affections, and composed all within. Stephen looked like an angel when he stood before the council (Acts vi. 15); and the apostles went away rejoicing (Acts v. 41). There are that rejoice in the face only, and not in the heart (2 Cor. v. 12); this is but hypocrisy of mirth, and we may be sure that many a man’s heart bleeds within him when his face counterfeits a smile. It is for an Abraham only to laugh for joy of the promise, and for a David to “rejoice at the word as one that findeth great spoil” (Psalms cxix. 162), wherein the pleasure is usually as much as the profit. Christ’s chariot, wherein he carries people up and down in the world, and brings them at length to Himself, is “paved with love” (Cant. iii. 9, 10); He brings them also into His wine cellar (Cant. ii. 4), where He cheers up their hearts, and clears up their countenances, and this is Heaven beforehand. These are some few clusters of the grapes of the celestial Canaan. But as the looks are marred, so the spirits are dulled and disabled by sorrow, as a limb out of joint can do nothing without deformity or pain. Dejection takes off the wheels of the soul, hinders comfortable intercourse with God, and that habitual cheerfulness, that Sabbath of the spirit, that every man should strive to enjoy.Afflictions, saith one, are the wind of the soul, passions the storm. The soul is well carried when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tosses with tempests of wrath, grief, fear, etc., to move disorderly. Of these we must be careful to crush the very first insurrections; storms rise out of little gusts, but the top of those mountains above the middle region are so quiet that ashes, lightest things, are not moved out of place.—Trapp.
Mirth and cheerfulness make a man not only fitter for the occasions of this world, but even for spiritual affairs also. Wherefore Elisha calleth for a minstrel that, being angry with the king of Israel, by the melody of the music a more soft and sweet disposition might possess him. . . . “Joy,” saith Aquinas, “is, as it were, a juice spreading itself over the whole man, dispersing the comfort of itself to all the faculties of the soul, and all parts of the body.” But, now, what is it that maketh a merry heart? Surely not the things of this world. They only do beset the heart with a dream of mirth, they do only make the heart drunken with some flushings of joy. A merry heart indeed is that which the assurance of God’s favour rejoiceth, and that will make the countenance cheerful in any trouble, even in death itself. It is true also that by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken, the heart and the spirit being but one string of life. But what is it by which the heart should be made sorrowful? Surely not the things of this life, seeing the life of the heart is so far above them. For it is a shameful folly to hurt a better thing for that which is far worse. No; nothing should make the heart sorrowful but repentance for sin, and as that casteth down the spirit, so will it raise it up again. Wherefore Augustine saith, “Let the penitent always be grieved, and let him rejoice for his grief.” Nothing should make the heart sad but the fear of God’s displeasure, and if that break the spirit, it will heal it again with endless consolation.—Jermin.
The principal thought of verse 14 is a repetition in a slightly varied form of a truth that has been considered before. (See on chap.xii. 1,xiii. 18, etc.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
They are the wisest men that are most sensible of the imperfection of their wisdom.—Lawson.
“The mouth of fools feed,”etc., literally,pastures,like a brute. A thing fed takes the texture of its nourishment. The“mouth”or“face”(seeCritical Notes) of the fool grows more and more inane and brutal.—Miller.
As a hungry man seeks meat, or a covetous man gold, the more he hath the more he desires. Moses was no sooner off the mount where he had seen God face to face, but he cries, “Lord, show me Thy glory!” David, that knew more than his teachers, cries ever and anon, “Teach me Thy statutes.” Job prefers knowledge before his necessary food (chap. xxiii. 12). The wise man finds no such sweetness in the most delicate and dainty dishes, as in the search after Divine knowledge (Psa. cxix. 103). Even Aristotle saith that a little knowledge, though conjectural, about heavenly things is to be preferred above knowledge, though certain, about earthly things. And Agur saith it is to ascend into heaven (Prov. xxx. 4).—Trapp.
First,because the one sort is after the spirit, and therefore they favour the things of the spirit; and the other sort is after the flesh, and therefore they favour the things of the flesh.Secondly,because the one sort is guided by judgment, and choose that which will comfort their consciences; and the other is altogether led by lust, and seek only that which will satisfy their senses.Thirdly,faith makes the one sort to cast an eye to that which will follow hereafter; and sensuality causeth theother (like brute beasts, made to be destroyed) only to look to that which is present.—Dod.
Knowledge is necessary for us, not only to manage the affairs of this life, but also to perform the service of our Maker. Conscience may dictate to us that things are right or wrong, but conscience may be mistaken in her decisions, unless she call in reason to her assistance, for a clear knowledge of the revealed will of God cannot be understood without application of mind. . . . The desire of knowledge is in some sense natural to us all and is manifested very soon. We see how early curiosity exerts itself in lively children. But this natural desire may be misused. 1.It may be too little.Some persons do not desire knowledge so much as they ought, especially they are negligent in acquiring religious knowledge. This negligence may proceed from too warm a pursuit of other things. But what will this world avail us, if we are excluded from an inheritance in the next? It may proceed from mere sloth. But the unprofitable servant, who suffers his talents to lie useless, is to be cast into outer darkness. 2.It may be too much.Some things there are which we ought not to know, and a vain curiosity after them is an abuse of our natural desire of knowledge. This curiosity brought on the fall of our first parents, and still reigns among their posterity. Sin should only be known, as the rocks at sea, that they may be avoided. It becomes us also to be contented with such a knowledge of the Divine nature, and the Divine administration, as we are capable of acquiring, and of future events so far as God hath seen fit to reveal them.—Jortin.
The mouth of fools—the mouth of their souls and understandings—feedeth upon anything; even foolishness itself is good food unto them. Their distempered palate judgeth not the worth of things. They have a mouth to receive knowledge, but they have not a heart to consider and discern what they do receive. None is so ill a feeder as fools. Such fools are they in the prophet Isaiah who say, “Prophesy not unto us, right things speak unto us,” as the original word is,blandthings, pleasing things; but the word signifieth in the first placescatteredthings, such as coming from a scattered brain have no order and aim at no material point. Or else scattered things which may strike at none, which may hurt none, do no good to any. And, indeed, too many such there are. The world is full of speakers and talkers, that speak things they know not, and teach things they have not learned.—Jermin.
The Queen of Sheba, “coming from the utmost parts of the earth;” Nicodemus and Mary, “sitting at the feet of Jesus;” the Eunuch, journeying to Jerusalem; Cornelius and his company drinking in the precious message of salvation; the Bereans, carefully “searching the Scriptures,” all these show“the understanding heart seekinga larger interest in the blessing.”—Bridges.
That in “seekingknowledge” the idea of feasting on it is included, is evident from the terms of the antithesis. It is a feast of “knowledge” above all, ofdivine knowledge. He who has “understanding,”—who is enlightened of God, and discerns the excellency and glory of divine truth—“seeketh”such knowledge. From experience of the joy already imparted by it, he seeks more and still more—the appetite growing by gratification, delighted with every new discovery, yet never tiring of the old (1 Pet. ii. 1–3). “But the mouth of foolsfeedeth onfoolishness.” That is what they like; that is therefore what they seek, and from which they have their own poor and pitiful enjoyment. In regard toreligion itselfthey are taken with everything that serves the present purpose of keeping all quiet within; that lets conscience alone; that dispenses with serious thought, and preventing inward disturbance, allows them to go on easily and comfortably. They have a relish for all doctrines of this unannoying description—that “prick not”their hearts; that embitter not present sweets by any forebodings of the future; that “prophesy smooth things, and cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before them”—thescarerof their thoughtless mirth and sinful gratification. They have an appetite for everything of that kind.—Wardlaw.
main homiletics of verse15.
The Continual Feast.
I. All men have days of affliction.They may be traced to one of four sources—1.Men are afflicted by reason of their relation to the first head of the human race.Every man inherits bodily weaknesses of some kind—is, in apostolic phrase, made subject to vanity (Rom. viii. 20) of some kind or another for which he is not personally responsible—which is not the fruit of his own character or conduct, nor of that of his immediate ancestors. Mental sorrows are also born of this remote relationship. The human mind is not now what it was when it came first from the hand of its Creator. God at the beginning made man perfect—his spirit was a reflection of the perfect law of God, and all within was consequently harmony and peace. But it is not so now, even with the best of the human race. There has been a subjection to vanity through sin, and this is the fruitful source of much mental pain and sorrow to all men, although they are often unconscious of the origin of the darkness that envelops their spirit. 2.Men are afflicted by reason of their immediate relationships.A child who has a bad father suffers much and grievously, the father who owns a wicked child often has many days of deep affliction. A nation may be deeply afflicted by reason of the viciousness or unwisdom of its rulers. Many and various are the afflictions which come to men through those to whom they are related, whether by family or national ties. 3.Afflictions arise from personal transgression of God’s laws.These transgressions may be either of a negative or positive character—they may consist in doing what we ought not to do, or in leaving undone that which it is our duty to do. Much affliction comes to men because they have neglected to do for mind, body, or estate that which they are commanded by God to do. Men who neglect to work, or who neglect to conform to the laws by which their mind or their body is governed, must pay the penalty, and often suffer much affliction from the mere neglect of duty. And much more will those know days of affliction who are positive transgressors of any Divine law, whether physical or moral. 4.Affliction comes to men sometimes by Divine permission, either to chasten men for sin or to increase the goodness of their characters.Affliction came to Job, and he had many evil days, not because he was a sinner, but because he was a saint. Good man as he was, he had many days of affliction—days which were to him very evil—but they arose neither from his remote or immediate relationships, nor from personal or relative transgression, but were the outcome of Satanic agency, acting by Divine permission.
II. Days of affliction are evil days.While the patient is under the knife of the surgeon he is undergoing an experience which is in itself an evil, which is an experience to be dreaded and avoided if possible, however good may be the days of health which are the result of it. No one can feel that affliction in itself is anything but an evil—much good may come out of it, but that does not make the actual suffering of body or mind good in itself. If the sufferings of the present life were unconnected with the blessings which will spring out of them, if they were not regarded in the light of Divine revelation they would be unmitigated evils.
III. Evil days work good to him who can rise above them.If a seaman canbe cheerful and hopeful in the midst of a storm, he is all the better for having passed through it. His courage is strengthened and his experience is enlarged, he is more of a man than before he entered into conflict with the winds and waves. While others have been overwhelmed with terror, he has been full of a calm self-possession, and that which has shown how weak many men are, has shown how strong he is. But in order thus to rise above outward circumstances, there must be internal resources. Only those can come through the storms of life stronger and the better for having passed through them who have an unfailing well of hope and comfort within. The martyrs of old revealed that they had a continual feast within, although they had many days of affliction without. Their “merry hearts,” filled with true and unfailing gladness, lifted them above the bitterness and evil of their circumstances. Thus to glory in tribulation is to take “meat out of the eater and sweetness out of the strong.” But only those can practise this art who, like their Master, “have meat to eat” of which men in general “know not of” (John iv. 32).
outlines and suggestive comments.
The feast of him who is of “a merry heart,” who has within himself the sources of true joy, is not terminated—is not even suspended—in the season of affliction.Hisfeast is independent of changing condition. He often relishes it most when other sweets are embittered. Often is his inward spiritual festivity the richest, when the supply of his outward and earthly comforts is scantiest.—Wardlaw.
Affliction, as the fruit and chastening of sin, is an evil. . . . Though the abounding consolation of Christian affliction does not blot out its penal character, yet the child of God is not so miserable as he seems to be (2 Cor. vi. 10). The darkest of theseevil dayscan never make the consolations of God small with him (Job xv. 11). He can sing in the prison (Acts xvi. 25), can “take joyfully the spoiling of his goods” (Heb. x. 34), can praise his God when He has stripped him naked (Job i. 21). What realevilthen can affliction bring? Or rather what does it bring but many feast days? A few days’ feasting would soon weary the epicure. But here themerry heart hath a continual feast.—Bridges.
“All the days of the toiling are evil, but a good heart is a continual feast.”A glorious comparison! A sour heart is fed by a hard life; and yet, though the hard life is common to all, a brightened spirit masters it, and not only masters it but sweetens it.Toiling.the word is very peculiar.“Afflicted”our version has it.“Humble”is the translation in many cases. Toiling strikes us best, (1) because such is the root—the verb, first of all, means totoil—and (2) because such is the sense; the toiling character of life makes all groan together. We are not paid. Such is the toil of our spirits that life is a battle. As a worldly maxim,“a good heart”carries the day; but, as an adopted text, the wise saw strengthens itself. Under the toils of life,“a good heart,”regenerate by grace, greets the same toil the lost man does, and finds the“heart”itself“a continual feast.”—Miller.
This is diligently to be observed, that none can have a cheerful mind indeed but only such as, through faith in Christ having peace with God, pollute not their consciences with detestable iniquities. For indeed evils enter into such to trouble their minds, to profane their joys, and to pull them from the continual feast of security here spoken of, who either walk in the committing of gross offences, or are close hypocrites and dissemblers.—Muffet.
He that hath a heart merry in a good contentment can always invite himself to a full feast. When he hath not wherewith to feast others—yea, even when he wanteth perhaps what toeat, he wanteth not wherewith to feast himself. It is not a feast that must have time to provide it, and to make it ready, and which, being ready, is soon passed over; but it is a continual feast, ever ready, and never ended.—Jermin.
The sincere heart, the quiet conscience, will not only stand under greatest pressure, as did St. Paul (2 Cor. i. 9–12), but goes as merrily to die in a good cause as ever he did to dine, as did divers martyrs. Be the air clear or cloudy, he enjoys a continual serenity, and sits continually at that blessed feast, whereat the blessed angels are cooks and butlers, as Luther hath it, and the three Persons in the Trinity gladsome guests. Mr. Latimer saith the assurance of heaven is the sweetmeats of this feast. There are other dainty dishes, but this is the banquet. Saith St. Bernard, “Wilt thou, O man, never be sad? wilt thou turn thy whole life into a merry festival? get and keep a good conscience.” A good man keeps a holiday all the year about.—Trapp.
So far as we would live a comfortable life, we should seek to build up our inward man more than our outward estates; that our hearts be better furnished than our houses, and our consciences than our coffers, that our stock of faith and everlasting goodness may exceed our store of coin and temporal goods: and so shall we be fenced against all perils, and provided for against all wants, and secured against all accidents whatsoever.—Dod.
main homiletics of verse16.
A Treasure Without Trouble.
The fear of the Lord is better than worldly treasures—I.Because the fear of the Lord tends to peace of mind.In any piece of complicated machinery the condition of the internal works is a much more important matter than the ornamenting of the exterior. It is of much more consequence that all within a timepiece should move in harmony than that it should have a golden face or be set with jewels. It is of more importance to a man that all his internal bodily organs should be in perfect health than that he should be possessed of much external beauty. A strong frame, and pure blood, and health of body will minister much more effectually to his comfort than the most comely countenance. And the state of a man’s inner life has infinitely more to do with his real happiness than his external circumstances. He who has the fear of the Lord has the foundation-stone of peace within, and he who has that does not need an abundance of that which can only minister to the outer man. A little material wealth will content him who has the rich inheritance of a peaceful and contented spirit. Peace with God and love to man are included in the fear of the Lord, and neither the one nor the other of these good and perfect gifts can be bought with the treasure of this world. The first is the very salt of life without which all else is insipid and insufficient to satisfy the cravings of the human soul, and where the first is there will the second, which is also a great sweetener of poverty—(see ver. 17), be found also. II.Because of the trouble that is inseparable from worldly wealth.The treasure of this world has a certain value—it can do much for a man, both intellectually and materially. It can be so used by him as to bring blessings upon himself and others; but it is never unaccompanied by drawbacks. 1. There is trouble ingettingit. The bare sufficiency to sustain life may be got without much strain or anxiety; but if a man sets out to make a fortune, he must be content to have many cares and anxieties—many weary days and sleepless nights—before he obtains his object. Those thatwillbe rich cannot avoid much real trouble in carrying out their determination. 2. There is troubleafter it is gotten.Whenmen have accumulated great treasure they are not freed from trouble in connection with it. There is the care of retaining it, the desire, and almost the necessity, of increasing it. The more a man has the more he generally desires, and the more he seems to need. New demands are the outcome of a new position, and he who has amassed great treasure rarely contents himself with what he has, but strains every nerve to make the much,more.3. There is great trouble attendant on itsloss.Even if a rich man possesses the higher wealth—the fear of the Lord—he is more to be pitied if he loses his worldly wealth than a poor man is. The fall is so much greater, as the height from which he has fallen so far exceeds that from which a poor man can fall the hope of climbing it again is so much fainter, and he is in a more helpless and hopeless condition than his brother, who had but little to lose. But if he is destitute of the real treasure of human existence, then he has trouble without any compensation. He can say with Micah, “Ye have taken away my gods and what have I left?”
outlines and suggestive comments.
The preposition gives choice of meanings. It may be,by “the fear of Jehovah,”in which case it would mean the “little” earned by piety; or it may be “inthe fear of Jehovah;” in which case it would mean the little held and got possession of in a devout state; or it may be“along with,”as the word often means. All the ideas are correct. We choose as our English version, and, of course, for both parts of the sentence; for the expression “therewith,” has the same familiar preposition, and the same chance of either of the alternative meanings.“Better”is a Christian’s shieling, than an impenitent man’s palace (chap. xiv. 11). And that, not on account of heaven alone, but for the intrinsic joys of piety (seenext verse).—Miller.
Judas is bursar, and he shuts himself into his pouch; the more he hath, the more he covets. The apostles, that wanted money, are not so having: Judas hath the bag, and yet he must have more, or he will filch it. So impossible is it that these outward things should satisfy the heart of man.Soli habitent omnia qui habent habentem omnia—They alone possess all things that possess the possessor of all things. The nature of true content is to fill all the chinks of our desires, as the wax doth the seal. None can do this but God, for (as it is well observed) the world is round, man’s heart three-cornered: a globe can never fill a triangle, but one part will still be empty; only the blessed Trinity can fill these three corners of a man’s heart. . . . The bag never comes alone, but brings with it cares, saith Christ (Matt. xiii. 22); snares, saith Paul (1 Tim. vi. 9). . . . It is none of God’s least favours, that wealth comes not trolling in upon us; for many of us, if our estate were better to the world, would be worse to God. The poor labourer hath not time to luxuriate: he trusts in God to bless his endeavours, and so rests content; but the bag commonly makes a man a prodigal man, or a prodigious man; for a covetous man is a monster. . . . It is no argument of God’s favour to be His purse-bearer; no more than it was a sign that Christ loved Judas above the other apostles because he made him His steward: He gave the rest grace, and him the bag; which sped best? The outward things are the scatterings of His mercies, like the gleaning after the vintage: the full crop goes to His children.—T. Adams.
Here also we trace the harmony of wisdom,i.e.,of the Divine Word, speaking through many different channels, and in different tones. The proverb has its completion in the teaching which bids us “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. vi. 33), and finds echoes in themaxims of the wise among other nations who have uttered like thoughts.—Plumptre.
It is not the great cage that makes the bird sing. It is not the great estate that brings always the inward joy—the cordial contentment. The little lark with a wing sees farther than the ox with a bigger eye, but without a wing. Birds use not to sing when they are on the ground, but when got into the air, or on tops of trees. If saints be sad, it is because they are too busy here below. . . . If the bramble bear rule, fire will arise out of it that will consume the cedars; the lean kine will soon eat up the fat, and it shall not be seen by them. It is hard to handle these thorns hard and not to prick one’s fingers. Riches, though well got, are but as manna; those that gathered less had no want, and those that gathered more, it was but a trouble and annoyance to them.—Trapp.
main homiletics of verse17.
Two Feasts.
I. The equality here existing between the poor man and the rich man—they both have a dinner.This is as it ought to be. God gave the earth to the children of men, and when He enriched them with this large donation He intended that every living creature upon the earth should have enough to eat every day. When men lack sufficient food it is not because there is any lack in God’s gifts, either of herbs or oxen. When both the rich man and the poor man are fed out of the abundance of God’s gifts His Divine purpose in giving them is accomplished.
II. The inequality between the dinner of the poor man and that of the rich.The poor man is sustained upon the same kind of food as the rich man’s ox is fattened upon. In common with the beast he lives upon the produce of the earth. The rich man eats the ox which has been fed upon that which is the only food of the poor man. This is not as it should be. God never intended that one part of His human family would enjoy a monopoly of any of the food which He has provided. When He gave the earth into the hands of the first man He intended that all His children should be partakers of all the kinds of food which the earth afforded, and which were suited to the part of the world in which they lived. When it is otherwise it arises from sin, either personal or relative. Poverty does not always spring from indolence, or from inability to subdue the earth, and to obtain from it a full share of all that it affords, and when it does not, the man who is compelled to eat a dish of herbs while his neighbour feasts from the stalled ox, is either sinned against in the present, or has been sinned against in the past.
III. Opposite states of mind which more than compensate the poor man for his humbler meal.Hatred takes away all enjoyment from any of God’s gifts. If a rich man bears malice against the guest whom he is entertaining at his table—if while he feeds him upon the best, he desires for him the worst—he knows nothing of the pleasures of hospitality. Hatred is murder in the germ, and he who harbours such a devil within his breast cannot possess that peace of soul without which the choicest viands cannot be enjoyed. Butloveis a large compensation for a dinner of herbs. Love to husband or wife, to parent or to child, makes sweet every family meal, however homely the fare—that charity which“seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,”is a sauce to the humblest dish which one man can set before another, and more than lifts it above the rich man’s feast given for the sake of custom or expediency to guests to whom he has not a particle of goodwill.
outlines and suggestive comments.
A feast of salads, or Daniel’s pulse, is more cherishing with mercy, than Belshazzar’s banquet without it.—T. Adams.
Ruth and Naomi were happy when they lived on the gleanings of the field of Boaz, and in the fulness of their satisfaction poured their blessings on the head of him that allowed them the scanty pittance. . . . The conversation of friends is far pleasanter than any dish at the table. Where hatred is, there is silence or sullenness, or at least hollow mirth and tasteless ceremony; but where love and the fear of God are, the table conversation is delightful and useful. We find even a heathen poet reflecting on the pleasures of such an entertainment. (O noctes cœnœque deûm!—Hor.) How blessed were the disciples of our Lord, when they sat at meat with Him! Barley loaves and fishes were probably ordinary fare with them, but they were entertained with Divine discourse. Such pleasure as they enjoyed we cannot now expect; but His religion is admirably fitted to promote our present happiness, for love is His great commandment.—Lawson.
The sentiment is applicable, with a special force of emphasis, todomestic life.In proportion to the delightful sweetness of the concord in which the fond affections of nature and grace bind the members of a family in one happy social circle—all being of one heart and of one soul—dividing the cares and more than doubling the enjoyments of life by mutual participation and sympathy, all bosoms throbbing with a common pulsation, all lips wearing a common smile, and all eyes filled from a common fountain of tears, in proportion to the delightful sweetness of such a scene is the wretchedness of its reverse; and there is no one who has experienced either the sweetness or the wretchedness—especially the former—that will not subscribe to the sentiment so simply yet so strongly expressed.—Wardlaw.
“An allowance of vegetables.”Not only“vegetables,”but the lighter sorts of them; more nearly“herbs;”not only light fare, like that, but alimited amount;not onlyfleshon the other scale, but“stalled”beef; not only“stalled” beef,but no limit; “a stalledox.” Not only might this well be a worldly proverb to represent the married state, and all the arena of human affection, but signal when brought into religion.“A dinner of herbs;”with the blessed“love”of the Redeemer, is better than a pampered feast and the gloom of the impenitent.—Miller.
If love be the entertainer, it matters not much what the provision be: if true friendship be set upon the table of his heart that inviteth thee, let that make thee to esteem well of whatsoever is set on the table before thee. Thou comest with a gluttonous appetite—not the affection of a friend—if thy cheer be that which thou lookest after. Wherefore, then, though it be a dinner of herbs, yet if they come from love’s garden it is worthy of thine acceptance: thou mayest be sure that no serpent lies hid in those herbs. If it be but so smaller a dinner as atravellertaketh with him (seeCritical Notes), yet if it bring affection with it, thou mayest be sure that no hurt is coming to thee. But if thy dinner be a fatted ox, and hatred be the hand that carveth it unto thee, perhaps it is but to fat thee for the like slaughter.—Jermin.
Mark well, it is neither said in the Bible, nor found in experience, that they are all happy families who dine on herbs, and all unhappy who can afford to feast on a stalled ox. Some rich families live in love, and doubly enjoy their abundance; some poor families quarrel over their herbs. Riches cannot secure happiness, and poverty cannot destroy it. But such is the power of love, that with it you will be happy in the meanest estate; without it, miserable in the highest. Would you know the beginning, and the middle, and the end of this matter,the spring on high, the stream flowing through the channel of the covenant, and the fruitful outspread in a disciple’s life below—they are all here, and all one—Charity:—“God is Love,”“Love is of God,”“Walk in love.”—Arnot.