II. Wealth bestowed, where we can give no reason for its bestowal.Wealth in the hand of a fool seems thrown away. If we saw a bundle of bank-notes in the hands of an infant we should at once say they were in the wrong hand; but many a princely fortune is at the disposal of men who are as incapable now of putting it to a good use, as they were when they were children. Neither the head nor the heart are capable of guiding the hand—there is neither moral nor intellectual capability to make the riches the means of blessing even the possessor.“Wherefore,”then,“is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom,”especially when there are so many men in poverty who would make the best possible use of riches? We cannot answer the question. Even the wise man does not attempt to solve the problem. Men daily come face to face with facts connected with human existence which they cannot explain. In some of these they can see adaptation; although they cannot tellhowit is that the thing is so, they can discern afitnessin its being so. But there are other facts in the government of God for which we can assign no reason, and the “price in the hand of a fool” is one of them. The Divine Ruler of men’s destines fulfils His wise purposes in ways and by means which often perplex His finite creatures.
outlines and suggestive comments.
We understand the term“a price,”as signifyingwhatever puts it in anyone’s power to acquirethe particular object. The phraseology is borrowed from themarket.Any article, we are wont to say, may be had there, if a man has but the price to pay for it. What the“price”is to the article wanted, themeans of acquiringare to“wisdom.”When we wish to put any article of ordinary merchandise within a person’s power, we furnish that person with the price at which it is valued. There are cases, however, in which this may not be enough. The price may be in a man’s hand, and yet the article may not be within his reach, not, at the time, to be had. Happily, it is never so with the wisdom here spoken of. If the means are possessed of acquiring it, it may always be acquired. It is in the hand of God himself; and He is never either at a distance that we cannot repair to Him, or unwilling to bestow it upon us when we come to Him for it—bestowit, I say, for we must remember, with regard to divine wisdom, that, in a literal sense, itcannot be purchased.It must be had“without money and without price.”It is not to be “gotten for gold.” Why is it, then, that in so many cases in which “the price is in the hand to get wisdom,” the means of securing it possessed, its lessons remained unlearned, the mind ignorant, the heart unimproved? . . . Here is the answer—the only one that can with truth be given,—there has been“no heart to it.”The principle is of wide application, and might be largely illustrated. . . . There is no maxim more thoroughly established by experience, than that a man cannot excel in anything to whichhis heart does not lie.When do men succeed best in the pursuit of any object? Is it not when theyhave a heart to it?What is itthat keeps all men astir in the pursuit and acquisition of wealth? Is it not thatthey have a heart to it?How do men acquire celebrity in any of the departments of science or of art? Is it not when theyhave a heart to it?—some measure of enthusiastic eagerness and persevering delight in the pursuit? . . . I put it to your consciences,—whether there be anything else whatever, that keeps you from the knowledge and the fear of God, wherein true religion consists, than yourhaving no heart to them?Talk not to me ofinability:—your inability is entirely moral, and consists in nothing else whatever than your“having no heart”to that which is good. And is this not criminal? If not, then there is no sin nor crime on earth, in hell, in the universe; nor is the existence or the conception of such a thing as moral evil possible. The want of heart to that which is good, is the very essence of all that is sinful. You offer anything but a valid excuse for your want of religion, when you say you“have no heart to it.”You plead in excuse the very essence of your guilt. If you desired to fear God, and could not help the contrary, your inability might be something in your behalf. But the thing cannot be. To desire to fear God, and not to be able, is a contradiction in terms. The having of the desire is the having of the principle. There can be no desiring to fear without fearing, no desiring to love without loving.—Wardlaw.
No means can make a man wise who wanteth a good will to learn heavenly wisdom. Ishmael had good education, and Ahithophel had quick capacity, and the fool spoken of in the Gospel had great wealth, and none of all these attained to any grace. One of them was strong, and another witty, and another wealthy, but never a one wise and godly. Judas had as good a teacher as Peter, or as any other apostle, and had as good company, and saw as many miracles; and yet they having good hearts become worthy and excellent persons, and he having a false heart became a traitor and a devil.—Dod.
Wherefore serve good natural parts, either of body or mind; or authority, opportunity, or other advantages, if they be not rightly improved and employed? Certainly they will prove no better than Uriah’s letters to those that have them; or as the sword which Hector gave to Ajax, which, so long as he used it against his enemies, served for help and defence, but after he began to abuse it, turned into his own bowels. This will be a bodkin at thy heart one day: “I might have been saved, but I woefully let slip those opportunities which God had thrust into my hand.”—Trapp.
main homiletics of verses17, 18,and ofchap. xviii.24.
True Friendship.
I. A true friend loves under all conditions.1.He loves in times of separation.The distance between our earth and the sun does not prevent the one from influencing the other—there is a power in gravitation which can make itself felt even when the objects affected by it are thousands of miles apart. So true love is quite independent of space—oceans may roll between the friends, yea, the very grave may separate them, and yet the gravitating force which first drew the heart of one man to another will make itself felt. It has been said that the dead and the absent have no friends, but this is a libel upon human nature. A friend loveth whether the object of his love is present or absent, and will, if needs be, defend his friend’s character when he is not present to speak for himself. 2.He loves even in times of temporary estrangement.Transitory differences are not incompatible with the most genuine friendship, and while human nature is in its present imperfect condition it willsometimes happen that one real and true friend will disappoint and grieve another. But if the real and true feeling is in the heart it will be as unshaken by these temporary disturbances as the root of the tree is by the storm-wind that moves its branches.
II. Friendship is especially precious in times of trial.True friends are not like the locust, which seeks only the green pastures and fruitful fields, and leaves them as soon as it has taken from them all that it could feed upon, but they are like the stars, the value of whose light is only really understood when all other lights are absent. When all is going well with a man he may underestimate the value of his friend’s regard; he may not really know how heartfelt it is; but when misfortune, or sickness, or bereavement overtake him, he realises that a “brother is born for adversity.”
III. There is a bond stronger than any tie of blood-relationship.We have abundant and melancholy proofs that the mere fact of being brothers according to the flesh does not make men one in heart. The first man who tasted death was murdered by his brother, and many sons of the same father since that day have been separated from each other by a hatred as deep and deadly as that which prompted Cain to murder Abel. In the family in which Solomon was a son there was one brother with the blood of another upon his head (2 Sam. xiii. 28–30). Something stronger and deeper than the mere tie of blood is needed to make men one in heart. The most beautiful example of friendship upon record existed between the son of Saul and the shepherd of Bethlehem where there was no relationship according to the flesh, and where the heir-apparent to the throne loved as his own soul the youth who was to supplant him. There is no friendship so firm and enduring as that which is based upon doing the will of God (Mark iii. 35) no brotherhood so perfect and lasting as that which has its origin in a common discipleship to Him who is not ashamed to call them brothers (Heb. ii. 11), and who is Himself the “friend above all others,” whose love can span the distance between His throne in glory and the meanest hovel upon earth, and the greater distance between Divine perfection and human sinfulness, and who was in all things“made like unto his brethren,”that having Himself“suffered being tempted, He might be able to succour them that are tempted”(Heb. ii. 17), and thus prove Himself to be pre-eminently the “Brother born for adversity,” and the “Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
IV. It is an evidence of great folly to treat men as bosom-friends before we know them.There are men who will trust in a comparative stranger to such an extent as to lend their credit and their good name to him without any reasonable security. Such a man Solomon here characterises as being “void of understanding.” It is a mark of a fool to enter into any engagement without deliberation, and in nothing does lack of wisdom more plainly manifest itself than in the formation of hasty friendships, especially if the friendship involves a man in any kind of suretyship. From lack of prudence in this matter many a man has been “all his lifetime subject to bondage.” It behoves all men in the matter of friendship to follow the advice of Polonius:—
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;But do not dull thy palm with entertainmentOf each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
illustration of true friendship.
Damon was sentenced to die on a certain day, and sought permission of Dionysius of Syracuse to visit his family in the interim. It was granted on condition of securing a hostage for himself. Pythias heard of it, and volunteered to stand in his friend’s place. The king visited him in prison, and conversed with him about the motive of his conduct, affirminghis disbelief in the influence of friendship. Pythias expressed his wish to die, that his friend’s honour might be vindicated. He prayed the gods to delay the return of Damon till after his own execution in his stead. The fatal day arrived. Dionysius sat on a moving throne drawn by six white horses. Pythias mounted the scaffold and thus addressed the spectators, “My prayer is heard; the gods are propitious, for the winds have been contrary till yesterday. Damon could not come, he could not conquer impossibilities; he will be here to-morrow, and the blood that is shed to-day shall have ransomed the life of my friend. Could I erase from your bosoms every mean suspicion of the honour of Damon, I should go to my death as I should to my bridal.”. . . As he closed a voice in the distance cried, “Stop the execution!” and the cry was taken up and repeated by the whole assembly. A man rode up at full speed, mounted the scaffold, and embraced Pythias, crying, “You are safe now, my beloved friend! I have nothing but death to suffer, and am delivered from reproaches for having endangered a life so much dearer than my own.” Pythias replied, “Fatal haste, cruel impatience! What envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favour? But I will not be wholly disappointed. Since I cannot die to save you, I will not survive you.” The king was moved to tears, and, ascending the scaffold, cried, “Live, live, ye incomparable pair! Ye have borne unquestionable testimony to the existence of virtue, and that virtue equally evinces the existence of a god to reward it. Live happy, live renowned, and oh! form me by your precepts, as ye have invited me by your example, to be worthy of the participation of so sacred a friendship.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 17.“The Friend.”We are to notice the article. It does not impair the proverb for its secular use. We have such an idiom:“the friend,” i.e., the true friend.Even a worldly friend, to be worth anything, must be for all times; and what is a brother born for, but for distress? But spiritually, the article is just in its place. There is but One Only“Friend,”and a“Brother”who would not have been“born”at all, but for the distress and straitness of His house.—Miller.
Friendship contrasted with the wicked decreases from hour to hour, like the early shadow of the morning; but friendship formed with the virtuous will increase like the shadow of evening, till the sun of life shall set.—Herder.
Extremity distinguisheth friends. Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give us over, when once we lie-a-dying; and yet the death-bed hath most need of comforts. Christ Jesus standeth by His in the pangs of death, and after death at the bar of judgment; not leaving them either in their bed or grave. I will use them, therefore, to my best advantage; not trust them. But for Thee, O my Lord, which in mercy and truth canst not fail me, who I have found ever faithful and present in all extremities, kill me, yet will I trust in Thee.—Bp. Hall.
A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but He swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets and make it fordable, and apt to drink up at the first revels of the Syrian star; but two torches do not divide, but increase the flame. And though my tears are the sooner dried up when they run on my friend’s cheek in furrows of compassion; yet when my flame has kindled his lamp, we unite the glories, and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God; because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy.—Jeremy Taylor.
When a man blind from his birth was asked what he thought the sun was like, he replied, “Like friendship.” He could not conceive of anything as more fitting as a similitude for what he had been taught to regard as the most glorious of material objects, and whose quickening and exhilarating influences he had rejoiced to feel.—Morris.
A brother for adversity is one who will act the brother in a season of adversity. Of such an one it is said,he must or shall be born,possibly,he is born.I do not understand this last clause unless the assertion is, that none but such as areborn brethren, i.e.,kindred by blood, will cleave to us in distress. Yet this is true only in aqualified sense. But another shade of meaning may be assigned to the passage, which is, that such a man as a friend in adversityis yet to be born, i.e.,none such are now to be found; thus making it substantially equivalent in sense to the expression: “How few and rare are such faithful friends.”—Stuart.
As in the natural, so in the spiritual brotherhood, misery breeds unity. Ridley and Hooper, that when they were bishops, differed so much about ceremonies, could agree well enough, and be mutual comforts one to another when they were both prisoners. Esther concealed her kindred in hard times, but God’s people cannot; Moses must rescue his beaten brother out of the hand of the Egyptian, though he venture his life by it.—Trapp.
Man in his weakness needs a steady friend, and God in His wisdom has provided one in the constitution of nature. Not entrusting all to acquired friendship, He has given us some as a birthright inheritance. For the day of adversity a brother is born to many who would not have been able to win one. It is at once a glory to God in the highest, and a sweet solace to afflicted men, when a brother or a sister, under the secret and steady impulses of nature, bears and does for the distressed what no other friend, however loving, could be expected to bear or do. How foolish for themselves are those who lightly snap those bonds asunder, or touch them oft with the corrosive drops of contention! One who is born your brother is best fitted to be your friend in trouble, if unnatural strife has not rent asunder those whom their Maker intended to be one in spirit. . . .“There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”He must be a fast friend indeed, for a brother, if nature’s affections have been cherished, lies close in, and keeps a steady hold. . . . Oh, when hindering things are taken out of the way of God’s work, a brother lies very close to a brother. He who comes closer must be no common friend. . . . It is the idea of a friendship more perfect, fitting more kindly into our necessities, and bearing more patiently with our weaknesses, than the instinctive love of a brother by birth. From God’s hand-work in nature a very tender and a very strong friendship proceeds: from His covenant of mercy comes a friendship tenderer and stronger still. Now, although the conception is embodied in the communion of saints, its full realisation is only found in the love wherewith Christ loves His own. . . . The precious germ which Solomon’s words unfold, bore its ripened fruit only when He who is bone of our bone gave Himself the just for the unjust. Thus by a surer process than verbal criticism, we are conducted to the man Christ Jesus, as at once the Brother born for adversity, and the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. . . . In the day of your deepest adversity even a born brother must let go his hold. That extremity is the opportunity of your best friend.—Arnot.
Verse 18. It is good to try him whom we intend for a bosom friend before we trust him; as men prove their vessels with water before they fill them with wine. Many complain of the treachery of their friends, and say, with Queen Elizabeth, that in trust they have found treason; but most of these have greatest cause, if all things be duly weighed, to complain of themselves for making no better choice.—Swinnock.
Seeing he hath not understanding to keep himself from hurt, it were good if he had not power in his hand to do himself hurt. . . . Surely such a fool may quickly wring his hands together in sorrow, who before did clap his hands in joy, and may strike himself in anger with the same hand, wherewith in the foolish kindness of surety he struck the hand of another. . . . For often this over-kind part of a friend is the breaking of friendship if it bring no further mischief.—Jermin.
The evil effects ofstrifeandpride,which form the subject of verse 19, have been treated before. See onverse 14, and on chaps.xi. 2, andxvi. 18. Some expositors attach a slight difference to the meaning of the latter clause. See below.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“Sets high(exalteth)his gate;”a figure that is probably misunderstood. It probably meansbelligerence.A moat over which issued armed bands, with banners and mounted spearmen, required high space to let them go forth. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates,” etc. The soul that fixes itself that way against the Almighty, ready to march out upon Him on any occasion of quarrel,“seeks”ruin.—Miller.
The slothful man exposes himself to misery; but he waits for it till it comes upon him like a traveller. The aspiring man, that cannot be happy without a stately dwelling, and a splendid manner of living beyond what his estate will bear,seeksfor destruction, and sends a coach and six to bring it to him.—Lawson.
“And he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.”Some take this for a comparison:—As surely as he that exalteth his gate (enlarging it out of due proportion) seeketh destruction to his house, by thus weakening its structure,—so surelydoes he that loveth strife generate transgression. The phrase“exalteth his gate,”however, instead of being thus understood literally, may, with more propriety, be interpreted of a man’sambitiously affecting a style of living beyond his income—disproportionate to the amount of his means of maintaining it. Thegeneral characteris described by one particular manifestation of it—the high style of the exterior of his mansion. The “exalting of thegate” applies to the entire style of his household establishment—not to his dwelling merely, but to his equipage, his table, his servants, his dress, and everything else. He who does this“seeks destruction:”he courts his own downfall, as effectually as if it were his direct object to ruin himself. Matthew Henry, in his own quaint and pithy way, says—“He makes his gate so large, that his house and estate go out at it.”—Wardlaw.
There is none that loveth strife more than he thatexalteth his gate,either the gate of his ears to hear the tales of others, and the praises of himself, or else the gates of his eyes overlooking others with scorn and disdain, and his own worth by many degrees, or else the gate of his mouth, which is properly the gate of man, with big and swelling words, with high and lofty terms which usually are the sparks that kindle contention. But what doth such an one do, but everseek for destruction,which at his lifted-up gate, findeth easy passage to run in upon him.—Jermin.
For Homiletics on the subjects of verses 20 and 21, see on chapterx. 1,13, 14, etc., and onverse 24.
main homiletics of verse22.
The Merry Heart.
I. The mind acts upon the body.It is a fact which no observant man would deny, that there is an intimate connection between sorrow of soul and sickness of body, and that cheerfulness of spirit tends to physical health. A physician always tries to keep his patient in good spirits, and when he discerns that he is weighed down by some mental burden, he wisely seeks to lighten that as well as to administer remedies to the body. And when a man is in health cheerfulness of disposition tends to keep him so; while a depressed condition of mind makes him a more easy prey to disease. That “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones,” is a convincing proof of the mysterious sympathy that exists between themanand hisearthly dwelling-place.
II. What will conduce to cheerfulness of spirit—to what Solomon here calls “a merry heart?”1.A heart at peace with God.Some poisons taken into the system produce for a time a calming and quieting influence upon the body, but it is a quiet and a calm which comes from deadening the capabilities of feeling. Opium may send a man to sleep, but it is a sleep which gives neither refreshment nor strength. A quiet conscience is the first and indispensable element of heart-cheerfulness, and there are other methods of getting free for a time from pain of conscience beside “that peace with God which comes from being justified by faith” (Rom. v. 1). But all other quiet of soul comes from opiates whose power is but for a time, while this peace comes from the consciousness of reconciliation with God—from a sense of standing in a right relation to all that is right and true in the universe. 2.A vivid realisation of unseen realities.Though a state of reconciliation with God will give freedom from the sense of guilt, it does not always give that active state of cheerfulness which can be called “a merry heart.” A river sometimes glides along between its banks in a state of undisturbed calmness; but there are times when the volume of water is so great that it overflows its channels. Peace is like a calm river, but joy is like one whose waters cannot contain themselves within its boundaries, but must pour forth on the right hand and on the left.Peacehas been defined as “love resting,” and joy as “love exulting.” The one is a passive state of mind, while the other is active. But it is the latter, rather than the former, which makes that cheerful spirit which “doeth good like a medicine,” and it is the fruit only of a vivid sense of “things not seen” (Heb. xi. 1). Those who live on high lands and breathe the pure mountain air, are conscious of an exuberance of animal life, of which even perfectly healthy people who live in the valleys know nothing. So, men who live in the higher regions of spiritual life know a “joy in God”—are sensible of an uplifting of spirit—to which ordinary and every-day Christians are strangers. They are not onlybelievers,but they are filled with “all joy and peace in believing;” they not only have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” but they “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. v. 1, 2). 3.A life of active love.A selfish man can never be a cheerful man—he who lives for himself alone can never know the healing power of “a merry heart.” There can be no abiding cheerfulness of heart without joy in God, and there can be no abiding joy in God without love to man. “There is nothing,” saysDr. Maclaren,“more evanescent in its nature than the emotion of religious joy, faith, or the like, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God. Such emotions, like photographs, vanish from the heart unless they be fixed. Work for God is the way to fix them. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but Work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind. . . . Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health. Repinings and secret murmurs of heart give imperceptible strokes to those delicate fibres of which the vital parts are composed, and wear out the machine insensibly; not to mention those violent ferments which they stir upon the blood, and those irregular disturbed motions which they raise in the animal spirits. I scarce remember, in my own observation, to have metwith many old men, or with such who (to use our English phrase) wear well, that had not at least a certain indolence in their humour, if not a more than ordinary gaiety and cheerfulness of heart. The truth is, health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.—Addison.
The verb means,to cure,and, as far as we can fix it, the noun means, not amedicine,but a final“cure.”In the world at large cheerfulness is an immense gift; but in religion the wise man wishes to say that hopefulness is strength (Neh. viii. 10); that it is better to look cheerfully upon God, than with complaints; that if we are to becuredat all, a glad heart will help it.—Miller.
All true mirth is from rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul. When faith hath once healed the conscience, and grace hath hushed the affections, and composed all within, so that there is a Sabbath of the spirit, and a blessed tranquility lodged in the soul, then the body also is vigorous and vegetous, for most part in very good plight and healthful constitution, which makes man’s life very comfortable. . . . They that in the use of lawful meanswait on the Lord, shall renew their strength(Isa. ix. 31).—Trapp.
main homiletics of verse23.
Bribery.
I. Its nature.An act of bribery may be committed without any monetary transaction taking place. It is not necessary that gold should pass from hand to hand to make a man guilty of bribery. It is not even necessary that there should be a distinct promise of any good either in the present or the future. A man bribes another if he merely implies by word or deed that he can make him suffer for speaking what he knows is the truth, and for acting according to the dictates of his conscience. And a man is guilty of accepting a bribe if he abstains from such speech or action from a fear of loss or from a hope of gain, although no distinct promise or threatening has been made by those whom he wishes to propitiate.
II. Its cause.Want of integrity on the part of both the man who offers the bribe and him who accepts it. There are some men in the world to whom even a man who held their lives in his hand would not think of offering a bribe of any kind. He knows it would be as useless to attempt to make such men swerve from the path of right as to try to alter the course of the earth round the sun. There are many, we know, in this country, notwithstanding its many timeservers and place-hunters who, like Samuel of old can say,“Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or who have I defrauded, who have I oppressed, or of whose hands have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?”(1 Sam. xii. 3). Only one thing is needed to destroy bribery—in its most impalpable and shadowy forms as well as in its more glaring and shameless manifestations—and that is universal honesty of character. When every man loves truth and right more than he loves material gain then bribery will cease, but not before. Men may be restrained by shame from being guilty of it openly, and will call it by some less obnoxious name, but the spirit of bribery will be at work so long as there are men upon the earth who love gain more than godliness.
III. The universal testimony of the human conscience against it.“The wicked man taketh a giftout of his bosom”—it is a transaction of secrecy—there is a shame connected with the act which proves that conscience condemns it. The man who offers the bribe does not do it openly, which shows that he is fully conscious that he is transgressing the law of right; and the man whoaccepts it does not boast openly that he has done so for the same reason. Bribery is a sin which is repeatedly denounced by God (Isa. i. 23, 24; Ezra xxii. 13), but men who have not possessed the light of revelation have denounced bribery as a crime.
IV. Its effect.It “perverts the ways of justice.” Its effect is to bring about that abomination mentioned in verse 15—the justification of the wicked and the condemnation of the just. (See Homiletics onthat verse.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
An honest man would rather lose his cause, however just, than gain it by such a base thing as a bribe. It must have been a great bondage for Paul to have been confined in a prison, when he loved the pulpit so well, had not his will been sunk in the Will of God; yet he would not offer the least bribe to his covetous judge, who detained him in prison, expecting that money would be offered for his freedom (Acts xxiv. 6).—Lawson.
Is not the child of God often pressed with this temptation? Does the influence of a gift, the sense of obligation, never repress the bold consistency of godliness? Does no bias of friendship, no plausible advantage, entice into a crooked path?—Bridges.
There is a gift of thankfulness, there is a gift of reconciliation, there is a gift of goodwill, all these are lawful. Besides these there is a gift of corruption; this is unlawful.—Muffet.
Bribery is an officious fellow, and a special bidder to the fatal banquet, (Prov. ix. 17, 18). He invites both forward and froward: the forward and yielding by promises of good cheer,secunda dies,that they shall have a fair day of it; the backward, honest man, by terrors and menaces that his cause shall else go westward (indeed, it goes to Westminster!). Yea, with pretence of commiseration and pity, as if the conscience of their right did animate him to their cause. Thus with a show of sanctimony they get a saint’s money; but indeed,argentum fæcundum, argumentum facundum,—there is no persuasion more pathethical than the purse’s. Bribery stands at the stairfoot in the robes of an officer, and helps up injury to the place of audience; thus Judas’s bag is drawn with two strings, made of silk and silver, favour and reward. All officers belong not to one court; their conditions alter with their places. There are some that seem so good that they lament the vices, whereupon they yet inflict but pecuniary punishments. Some of them are like the Israelites, with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, with the motto of that old emblem,In utrumque paratus;as the one daubs up justice, so the other cuts breaches of division. They mourn for truth and equity, as the sons of Jacob for Joseph, when themselves sold it; they exclaim against penal transgressions. . . . If the party be innocent, let his cause be sentenced for his innocence’s sake; if guilty, let not gold buy out his punishment. If the cause be doubtful, the judge shall see it worse when he hath blinded his eyes with bribes. But the will of the giver doth transfer right of the gift to the receiver. No; for it is not a voluntary will. But as a man is willing to give his purse to the thief rather than venture life or limb, so the poor man gives his bribes rather than hazard his cause. Thou sayest the thief has no right to the purse so given; God saith, Nor thou to the bribe. . . . Far be from our souls this wickedness, that the ear which should be open to complaints is thus stopped with the ear-wax of partiality. Alas! poor Truth, that she must now be put to the charges of a golden ear-pick, or she cannot be heard.—T. Adams.
main homiletics of verse24in connection with the first clause of verse22.
The Eyes of a Fool and Those of a Wise Man.
I. Even a fool is conscious that there is good to be found.If we meet a traveller in search of a certain city, even although he is journeying in the very opposite direction to that in which the city lies, yet the fact that he is journeying at all shows that he is conscious of its existence. His eyes may be turned away from it instead of towards it, his feet may be carrying him every moment farther from it, yet he would not be seeking it in any direction if he had not a persuasion that it was in existence. A man may be digging for gold in a soil in which gold has never been found, nor ever will be, but the fact that he is digging anywhere proves that he is alive to the fact that there is gold in the world. So the fool is here represented as seeking—which shows that he is persuaded that there is a certain good and desirable thing which is attainable. Most men are seeking—“There be many which say, Who will show us any good?”(Psalms iv. 6). They are in one direction and another looking for that which will satisfy and ennoble them, and this universal quest proves a universal sense of the existence of some desirable good.
II. But the fool looks afar for what he needs while it is close at hand.An idle, unpractical man of business spends his time in fancies that he could make his fortune if he were in some far-off land, and all the time misses the opportunities of doing so which are within his reach at home. The idle youth dreams of the grand things he would do if he were a man, and neglects to do that which would ennoble and bless his present life. It is a very common characteristic of moral fools to imagine that they would be blest if they possessed something which is entirely beyond their reach, whereas means of obtaining the only real and lasting good are scattered around them so abundantly that they trample them every day under their feet. Every sinful man feels that it would be good for him to stand in a different relation to God, but he does not always seek that good in the direction in which it is to be found. He feels his need of a different disposition and character, but he does not go in quest of them where they may be found. In verse 22 the wise man traces this habit of the moral fool to the source. He finds “no good” because he “is froward in heart.” The fruitlessness of his search is due to nothing else but to his own perversity. He would rather demand external evidence for the truth of revelation than test it by compliance with its precepts. He excuses his neglect of the plain commands of God, by dwelling upon mysteries connected with His Gospel, which finite minds cannot solve. Israel of old was warned of this error.“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it”(Deut. xxx. 11–14). And Paul convicts them of the same sin after the coming of the Messiah. The Scribes and Pharisees in the days of Christ perversely looked everywhere for light, except to the moral sun which was shining in their midst.
III. The man whose understanding is enlightened not only knows what he needs, but he knows where to find it.It is a mark of practical sagacity in human affairs to know what is wanted, and to know also where to look for a supply of the want. A traveller ought not only to know the name of the city which hewants to find, but he ought to know upon which road to travel to find it. The physician ought not only to know what his patient needs, but he ought to know where to find the remedy. The statesman ought to be able to detect the nation’s needs, and he ought also to know where to look for a supply of the need. And so in every department of social life. A man’s life will be a failure if he can only discern that something is wanting in himself, in his family, or in his business, but does not know where to turn to supply the want. So it is in spiritual things. But he who is morally wise knows what is the real good to be aimed at, and knows where to seek it. He knows that“happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding,”that“the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold”(chap. iii. 13, 14). And he knows that it is “before him”—that the“fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding”(Job. xxviii. 28); and that he need not go “to the ends of the earth” in quest of this, but that it is within the reach of every sincere and earnest seeker. (Many expositors give this verse a different rendering. SeeCritical Notes. It would then express a truth similar to that contained in Homiletics on chap.xiii. 14, page 313.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
Heaven is able to know so much more plainly than hell. The very thing which is the best enlightener, the minds of hell will be entirely without. “The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not in me. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.” Hell, therefore, will always cavil. If saints judge better than sinners, how much better God than saints.“Wisdom is before(His)very face,”while the“eyes,”not of the“stupid”only, but of Gabriel himself, must be in the respect of contrast,“at the end of the earth.” “At the end,”not in the middle, where the thing can be best judged, but at the dark extremity.—Miller.
The countenance is the glass of the mind, and the star of the countenance is the eye. “In the face of the prudent wisdom is present.” In the whole countenance of the discreet person, and in every part thereof, there is a wise moderation; for in his brows he carrieth calmness, in his eyes modesty, in his cheeks cheerfulness, in his lips comeliness, in his whole face a certain grace and staidness. “But the eyes of the fool are in the ends of the earth.” On the contrary, he who is simple or vain governeth not his very eyes aright, but letteth loose unto them the bridle in such sort as that they roll or rove after every vanity, or pry into every corner.—Muffet.
We must not only learn wisdom, but keep it in our eyes, that it may be a light to our feet; for a man that has wisdom in his mind, and forgets to use it, is like one that has money in his chest, but forgets to carry some of it with him when he is going a long journey, to bear his necessary expenses. He will be at a great loss, on many occasions, that has money in his house, but none in his pocket.—Lawson.
“But the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.”He has no fixed and steady principle or rule; nothing on which he fixes his eye for his guidance. His thoughts are incessantly wandering after matters he has nothing to do with,—anything and everything but that which he should at the time be minding;—roving after every vanity, and keeping steadily no pursuit. It is specially true of “things pertaining to salvation.” Wisdom, in this matter above all others, is “before him that hath understanding.” He looks to one point. He seesone thing to be needful.He sees the wisdom of God providing for it. There he fixes. And this is wisdom. It is ever before him.Oneend—onemeans. Whereas “the fool’s eyes are in the ends of the earth.” Hehas examined nothing. He roves at random, with no determinate ideas about the most interesting, by infinite degrees, of all concerns. Ask himhow he hopes to be saved,and you immediately discover his thoughtless unsettledness. He is “in the ends of the earth.” His answer is to seek. It is here, it is there, it is nowhere. He hesitates, he supposes, he guesses, he is at a stand—he cannot tell. . . . There is another character that may here be meant, namely, theschemer,thevisionary projector.The truly intelligent man applies the plain and obvious dictates of common sense to the attainment of his end; but the scheming visionary fool is ever after out-of-the-way plans, new and far-fetched expedients.—Wardlaw.
Wisdom is full in the sight of the man of understanding, he beholdeth the beauty and perfection of it, he looketh into the worth and happiness of it. He sets it before him as a pattern, by which he frameth and ordereth all his ways, all his doings. His eye is never from it. It is the glass by which he espieth out the blemishes and defects of his life, and if he see in it a true resemblance of himself, it is not the glass that must be said to be true for that cannot be false, but it is himself that is a man of true worth; the glass approving his goodness, not he the goodness of the glass. But a fool beholds wisdom as a thing afar from him; he discerneth not what it is, nor what is the glory and excellency of it: he perceiveth nothing whereby either to take direction from it, or liking to it. He thinketh that he must go to the ends of the earth to get it, and if ever, it is in the end of his life, that he hath any sight of it. . . . Or else we may understand the latter part of the verse thus: That a fool’s eyes are in the ends of the earth, because in any trouble or distress he looketh all up and down the earth, from one end of it to the other for help and succour, and in the end as a fool remaineth helpless. But wisdom is before him that hath understanding, and stopping his eyes from looking too much that way, turneth them and directeth them up to heaven, where help ought to be sought and is sure to be found.—Jermin.
Verse 25 is a repetition of the thought in verse 21. For Homiletics and Comments see on chap.x. 1.
main homiletics of verse26.
Smiting the Just.
This verse has been variously rendered and explained. (SeeCritical Notesand the comments of different expositors.) It suggests, however—
I. That punishment in itself is sometimes necessary and desirable.When the laws of the family are wise and good, it is a great misfortune for the children, and a great sin against them, not to visit their transgressions with a suitable punishment. And it is absolutely essential to the existence of a well-ordered state, that there should be punishment for those who rebel against righteous laws. Civil rule is of Divine ordination—“the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. xiii. 1). When, therefore, there is no just cause for civil rebellion, it is a sin not only against the state but against the Ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth, to break the established laws. Punishment forms a necessary part of the government of the universe. God has, both by example and precept, shown its necessity. When there was rebellion in heaven against a perfect government, punishment followed, which was proportioned to the greatness of the transgression—the sentence passed upon the first rebel in the universe and upon those who were confederate with him was a terrible one, but it was only commensurate to the exceeding magnitude of the offence. If rebellion against a governmenthad been allowed to go unpunished, it would have made way for universal anarchy. And a community of any kind without punishment for transgressors, is lacking in a most essential element of its peace and stability.
II. But those whose moral character fits them to be the awarders of punishment are often the victims of it.The natural and right order of things in this respect is often exactly the reverse of what it ought to be, and just and noble men are treated as transgressors and suffer the punishment which ought to fall upon their persecutors. Might is very far from being right in this world, and even in this country Richard Baxter stood at the bar while Judge Jeffries sat upon the bench. The apostles of the Lord suffered scourging at the hands of the council at Jerusalem (Acts v. 40); Paul was condemned to death by Nero, and Incarnate Righteousness was crucified between two thieves at the instigation of some of the worst men that the world has ever seen. In all these cases, and in ten thousand others, the just were smitten, and as a rule they have suffered, not merelyalthoughthey were righteous, butbecausethey were so—it was their integrity that aroused the enmity of their persecutors—these moral“princes”were“stricken for equity.”
III. Such an abuse of power will in its turn be visited with punishment.Those who have thus unjustly condemned the righteous, have found in their own personal experience that “to punish the just isnot good”—“not good” for their own peace of mind—not good for their future reputation—not good for the nation who instigated them or permitted them to do the deed. Haman found that it was not good for him to aim a blow at the upright Mordecai when he was himself hanged upon his own gallows; the Persian princes found it was not good to strike a prince for equity when they were themselves cast into the den of lions; Judge Jeffries found it out when he lay face to face with death in the Tower. And among all the nations whose history has confirmed the truth of the text, none stands out so prominently as that one whose king was the author of the proverb. The punishment of thejust—the striking ofmoral princesfor equity—was one of the most prominent of their national crimes, and He whose death at their hands filled up the measure of their iniquity, declared that it was the great cause of their national ruin.“Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them that killed the prophets. . . . Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and Scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar”(Matt. xxiii. 29–35). The Jewish nation has been for nearly nineteen centuries a witness that “to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Even deserved punishment to the righteous does not seem good when designed to chasten the willing with a view to holiness. “Even.”This seems to have been treated as a wordde trop.King James’ men made italso;as though Solomon grew tired of sameness, and broke the monotone by a new opening vocable. But with the above rendering it takes its usual sense.“Righteous.”This word and“punishment”bear the weight of the word“even.” Even the righteous,who ought to know better; and“evenpunishment,”which the righteous, at last, ought to be willing to bear.—Miller.
Often is the wise man’s meaning much beyond his words.To punish the justnot onlyis not good,but it is “the abomination” (verse 15)—“an evident token of perdition” (Philip. i. 28). If rulers are “a terror to good works,” they are ministers of God in authority, but ministers of Satan in administration. And how will such injustice “abide the day of His coming,” when He shall “lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet!”—Bridges.
The wordprincesignifiesnoble,and is differently understood. It may be applied to the nobility ofstation,or to that ofmind.Some give preference to the latter; and by interpreting it of thenoble-minded,and the“just”in the former clause, ofthe righteousor thepeople of God,make the two clauses thus to correspond, and to have much the same import. It seems, however, both more natural and more comprehensive to considertwoideas to be expressed; the one relating to the duty of theruler,and the other to that of theruled.It is the incumbent duty of the ruler, on the one part, to administer justice with strict impartiality. It is the duty, on the other part, of subjects to countenance, encourage, and support the ruler in the equitable administration of his trust. To“strike”is evidently to be understood, not literally alone of actual striking, but of “smiting with the tongue” as well as with the fist or the rod,—of all kinds of vituperation and abuse, and attempts to bring the throne into disrepute and odium, and unsettle its stability, by shaking the confidence and attachment of the community. There are many occasions in which a man may be tempted to this. He may, in particular cases, have his mind biassed by pride, by self-interest, by partiality towards a friend, by political predilections; so that even when all has been done with impartial investigation, and the judgment pronounced according to legitimate rules of evidence and demands of equity, there may be unfair, unreasonable and angry dissatisfaction; and the prince may be smitten for justice. Every man ought to be on his guard against this. The higher the responsibility,—the more burdensome and difficult the trust,—and the more serious the results of bringing authorities and the laws into disesteem, and unsettling public confidence in them,—ought to be the amount of our reluctant caution in pronouncing censure. Another remark may be ventured. One of the great difficulties with which governments of great nations have to contend, arises from the variety of crossing and contending interests with which they have to deal. How anxious soever they may honestly be, to allow no undue bias to draw them from the line of impartial justice, yet there is hardly a measure they can adopt that does not affect differently different classes of the community; so that, from their various predisposing circumstances, that shall appear to one class—to those in one particular department of trade or commerce—the very essence of injustice, which by another is lauded as a most unexceptionable exemplification of impartial equity. This ought surely to have the effect—I do not by any means say of forbidding the most vigilant observance and the freest and most searching scrutiny and discussion of every measure, and the exposure of its evil or questionable character and tendency—but assuredly of procuring some allowance for the difficulty of the task of pleasing all parties, and some moderation in the tone of censure even where to us the grounds for it are clear and palpable. No man who knows himself will affirm, in almost any case, that, placed, in other circumstances, he might not see with other eyes. I speak in general. There are cases in which the interests of a suffering country are, to a vast extent, involved, in which it becomes every man’s paramount duty to speak out and to speak plainly, and to make the ears of the rulers to tingle with the outcry of humanity and justice.I would further apply the spirit of this verse to the case ofarbitrators.We have ourselves, it may be, consented to submit a litigated point to arbitration. We do so with a full persuasion of our being in the right—of our claim being the just one. But the arbiters unite in giving it against us. It would be most unreasonable on our part to retain a grudge, especially at the one appointed by ourselves, on this account. Our reference implied confidence in his impartiality and honour, and implied a pledge of cheerful acquiescence. To grumble, to censure, and to withdraw our friendship, would be indeed to“strike him for equity.”He would have proved himself unworthy of his trust, if his disposition to please and serve us had been too strong for principle, conscience, and oath. There isonegovernment, in which “the just” are never “punished”—all whose laws and all whose sanctions are the perfection of equity. But alas! it is under that very government that the spirit expressed by the phrase “striking princes for equity” is most fearfully manifested. All the murmurings of sinners against either the law of God or its revealed and threatened penalty, are the very essence, in its deepest malignity, of this spirit.—Wardlaw.
Righteous men are princes in all lands (Psa. xlv. 16); yea, they are kings in righteousness as Melchisedec. Indeed they are somewhat obscure kings as he was, but kings they appear to be, by comparing Matt. xiii. 17 with Luke x. 24; “many righteous,” saith Matthew, “many kings,” saith Luke. Now, to strike a king is high treason; and although princes have put up blows, as when one struck our Henry VI., he only said, “Forsooth, you do wrong yourself more than me, to strike the Lord’s anointed.”—Trapp.
main homiletics of verses27, 28.
Two Badges of a Wise Man.
I. Reticence of speech.This subject has been dwelt on before. See on chap.x. 19–21. The verses before us suggest further that a man who is sparing of words is not necessarily a man of abundant wisdom, for even a fool may hold his peace sometimes. Solomon elsewhere tells us that “a fool uttereth all his mind” (Prov. xxix. 11); but the fool of this text is not so foolish as to do that. It has been remarked that “by silence a fool abates something of his senselessness, and since he gets the opportunity to collect himself and to reflect, a beginning of wisdom is developed in him” (Von Gerlach). It argues some amount of wisdom in a man if he is silent when he has nothing to say which is worth the saying. But the false conclusion must not be drawn, that every man who is not given to much speech is a man of great understanding and of vast mental resources. It is much better that the stone should remain upon the mouth of a well of impure water, but it must not be taken for granted, because the well is kept closed, that there is a supply of life-giving water within.
II. Calmness of temper.It is a mark of wisdom to strive after a “cool” (excellent) “spirit.” 1.It makes life more pleasant.A man who allows himself to be vexed and irritated by all the annoyances of every-day life has no enjoyment of his existence. A fretful and hasty temper makes every bitter draught more bitter, and takes the sweetness out of the cup that would otherwise be a pleasant one. 2.It makes a man more respected and more useful.A man who cannot curb his temper is a despicable object, and will certainly be despised. A passionate man may be pitied and excused, but he cannot be respected. Hence he cannot have much influence for good upon others. This subject also has been treated before. See Homiletics on chap.xiv. 17and29, pages 363 and 386.
outlines and suggestive comments.
“He that retains his words knows knowledge.”The words are precise. It is the fact that he “knows knowledge” that impels a man to restrain his words. If he did not“know knowledge,”if he had notlight,and did not know it when he saw it; if he did not see light in God, and know it when he has seen it, and really see enough of it to convince him that “God is light,” he could not stand the darkness. The unfortunates in hell have no light to enable them to endure the dark. But the saint,knowing knowledge,and seeing that it exists in God, is balanced enough against the mysteries to enable him to restrain his words. . . . The wise man asserts that this silence is a chief mark of piety. . . . If a man do shut his lips he is wise. . . . The fool is a wise man when he is silent, and when, in meek submission, he bows to what he cannot understand.—Miller.
He cannot be known for a fool who says nothing. He is a fool, not who hath unwise thoughts, but who utters them. Even concealed folly is wisdom.—Bp. Hall.
He that hath knowledge hath not many words: the fulness of the one causeth in him a scarcity of the other. And there is nothing that he spendeth idly more unwillingly than his words. But yet,having knowledge,he knoweth both when to spare and when to spend. . . . The original words here areknowing knowledge,for many know much, but it is not knowledge that they know. Some labour hard and waste their time to know needless vanities, which, being better unknown, have not true knowledge in them. . . . Right knowledge is the knowledge of the Lord, and he that knoweth this spareth his words to spend them to God’s glory. And as it is in many the penury of their knowledge that causeth the superfluity of their words, so chiefly is the lack of this knowledge. For it is by this knowledge we learn that an account must be given for every idle word. . . . Silence being so rare a virtue, where wisdom doth command it, it is accounted a virtue where folly doth impose it. He that fails of this first help, and is so far gone in folly as that his tongue outgoes his understanding, yet hath a second help, and that is to stop, and shut his lips before they go too far, which, though not the first, yet is a second praise; and he hath the repute of some understanding who either seeth, or is thought to see, his want of understanding.—Jermin.
It has been safely enough alleged that of two men equally successful in the business of life, the man who is silent will be generally deemed to have more in him than the man who talks; the latter “shows his hand;” everybody can tell the exact length of his tether; he has trotted himself out so often that all his points and paces are a matter of notoriety. But of the taciturn man, little or nothing is known. “The shallow murmur but the deep are dumb.” Friends and acquaintances shake their heads knowingly, and exclaim with an air of authority, that “So and so” has a great deal more in him than people imagine. They are as often wrong as right, but what need that signify to the silent man? . . . To follow out one of the Caxtonian essayist’s illustrations,—When we see a dumb strong-box, with its lid braced down by iron clasps and secured by a jealous padlock, involuntarily we supposed that its contents must be infinitely more precious than the gauds and nicknacks which are unguardedly scattered about a lady’s dressing-room. “Who could believe that a box so rigidly locked had nothing in it but odds and ends, which would be just as safe in a bandbox?”—Jacox.
Critical Notes.—1. Through desire, etc.The readings and expositions of this verse are many. Zöckler translates,“He that separateth himself seeketh his own pleasure, against all counsel doth he rush on,”and the renderings of Stuart, Miller, and Delitzsch are substantially the same, except that Delitzsch translates the latter clause—“against all that is beneficial he shows his teeth.”Other readings are“A self-conceited fool seeks to gratify his fancy and intermingleth himself with all things” (Schultens); “He who has separated himself agitates questions as his desire prompts, and breaks his teeth on every hard point” (Schulz); “He seeks occasion, who desires to separate himself from his friends” (Hodgson).Others read as in the Authorised Version. (SeeComments.)3. Ignominy,rather,“shameful deeds.”4.The last clause of this verse may be divided into two smaller ones and placed in apposition, thus:“a babbling brook,”—a fountain of wisdom.Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word used formanisish,agoodman, notadam,the general term for man.6. Calleth for.Stuart understands this in the sense of“to deserve.”8. Wounds.The word so translated occurs only here and in chap. xxvi. 22, and will bear very different renderings. Some translate itwords of sport(Stuart and Zöckler); others, with Delitzsch,dainty morsels;others,“whispers, soft breezes.”9. Waster,ordestroyer.10. Safe,orlifted high.14. Infirmity,i.e.,sickness, disease of body. As in similar verses, Miller translates“a wounded spirit;”a spirit of upbraiding.Here again, as in verse 4, the Hebrew wordishis used for man.16. A man’s gifts.“Hebrew,adam,the gift of aman,however humble and low”(Fausset).19. “Is harder to be won;”these words are not in the original, but have been inserted to supply the sense. Some translators read“a brother offended resisteth more than a strong city.”Miller reads,“When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength.”20. Satisfied.“If this word is taken in a good sense thefruitmust be good; but it may be ironical, meaning false or malignant words will find ample retribution. Perhaps the next verse helps us determine the meaning”(Stuart).21. They that love it,i.e.,“make it a special object of gratification”(Stuart)24.The first clause of this verse should be “A man of many friends will prove himself base, or is so to his own destruction,”i.e.,he who professes to regard everybody as his friend will, in so doing, involve himself in trouble.
main homiletics of verses1and2.
Reference to theCritical Notesand to theCommentswill show the widely different translations and expositions given to the first verse. We follow the Authorised Version.
Solitude.
I. Solitude is indispensable to the attainment of wisdom.If a tree is to become well-proportioned—if it is to spread out its branches on every side so that its girth is to be proportioned to its height, it must have space—a degree of separation is indispensable to its perfect development. It must be free to stretch out its roots and shoots on every side, and to appropriate to itself those elements in the earth and in the atmosphere which will make it strong and vigorous. So if a man is to be a wise man, if his mental and spiritual capabilities are to be developed as his Creator intended they should be, he must at times separate himself—a certain amount of solitude is indispensable. If he would grow wise in the mysteries of the natural world he must oftentimes shut himself away from the haunts of men, and ponder the manifold phenomena which creation presents to him, and endeavour to unravel her secrets. If he desires to become wise by acquaintance with the thoughts and deeds of the great and mighty men of past ages he must withdraw himself at certain seasons from the society of his fellow-men, and give himself up to study and reflection. And if he desire to acquire what, after all, can alone make him a truly wise man—an acquaintance with himself and with God—he must have seasons of separation in which to listen to the voice of his own heart and to the voice of his Maker. A man, when he is alone, is more likely to see things as they really are; he is less under the influence of the seen and temporal than when he is in the market, or on the crowded highway, and consequently things unseen and eternal have a more powerful influence over him at such a season. No mancan be wise unless he has some self-knowledge, and no man can subject himself to much inspection while in company, hence the advice of George Herbert—
“By all means use sometimes to be alone;Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear;Dare to look in thy chest, for ’tis thine own,And tumble up and down what thou find’st there.Who cannot rest till he good fellows find,He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind.”
and it is equally true that no man is possessed of true wisdom who has not some knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in the written Word, and solitude is very favourable to a growth in Divine knowledge. Men can gain much, even of the highest wisdom, from intercourse with their fellow-men, but all human guides are fallible and all human teaching is imperfect—there must be seasons when a man “separates himself” from them all and stands face to face with the fountain of all truth, if he would “intermeddle” with pure wisdom.
II. Those who are truly wise seek wisdom for its own sake.Many men seek secular knowledge for the sole purpose of acquiring fame by the acquisition. Some men spend days of solitude in patient investigation for no other purpose than to make a name for themselves. Some men even profess to be seekers after true and spiritual wisdom, when they are only striving to gratify some unworthy ambition. Such a man seems to be pourtrayed in the second verse as the “fool who hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself.” (If he seeks knowledge at all, it is neither for its own sake nor for the purposes of fitting him for usefulness, but solely for the ends of self-display—Wardlaw.) (He “hath no delight” in knowledge, “but in the displaying of his own thoughts.”—Hodgson.) But the true lover of wisdom is impelled to seek from the love of truth—from the desire which possesses his soul to “intermeddle with knowledge.” When Sir Isaac Newton gave himself up to the pursuit of scientific truth, he “separated himself” simply from a “desire” toknow,and without the remotest desire or expectation of his present world-wide fame. And if it is so with every true lover of merely intellectual wisdom, it is pre-eminently so with the man who seeks spiritual wisdom. He is impelled to the search simply by a desire which is born of his appreciation of its worth—by a knowledge of its power to bless his life.
outlines and suggestive comments.
A certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth and spread of the highest mind; and therefore must a very extensive intercourse with men stifle many a holy germ, and scare away the gods, who shun the restless tumult of noisy companies, and the discussion of petty interests.—Novalis.
Desire is the chariot-wheel of the soul, the spring of energy and delight. The man of business or science if filled with his great object; andthrough desire he separates himselffrom all lets and hindrances, that he mayintermeddle withits whole range. “This one thing”—saith the man of God—“I do” (Philip. iii. 13). This one thing is everything with him.He separates himselffrom all outward hindrances, vain company, trifling amusements or studies, needless engagements, that he mayseek and intermeddle with all wisdom.Johnseparated himselfin the wilderness, Paul in Arabia, our blessed Lord in frequent retirement, in order to greater concentration in their momentous work. Deeply does the Christian minister feel the responsibility of this holyseparation,that he may “give himself wholly to” his office (1 Tim.iv. 15; 2 Tim. ii. 4). Without it—Christian—thy soul can never prosper. How canst thouintermeddle with the great wisdomof knowing thyself, if thy whole mind be full of the world’s chaff and vanity? There must be a withdrawal, to “commune with thine own heart” and to ask the questions—“Where art thou? What doest thou here?” Much is there to be inquired into and pondered. Everything here calls for our deepest, closest thoughts. We must walk with God in secret, or the enemy will walk with us, and our souls will die. “Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee” (Ezek. iii. 22). “When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee” (John i. 48). Deal much in secrecy, if thou wouldst know “the secret of the Lord.” Like thy Divine Master, thou wilt never be less alone than when alone (Ib. xvi. 32). There is much to be wrought, gained, and enjoyed. Thy most spiritual knowledge, thy richest experience will be found here. And then, when we look around us into the infinitely extended field of the Revelation of God, what a world of heavenlywisdom is there to intermeddle with!In the hurry of this world’s atmosphere how little can we apprehend it! And yet such is the field of wonder, that the contemplation of a single point overwhelmed the Apostle with adoring astonishment (Rom. xi. 33). Here are “things, which even the angels desire to look into” (1 Pet. i. 12). The redeemed will be employed throughout eternity in this delighted searching; exploring “the breadth, the length, and depth, and height,” until they be “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. iii. 18, 19). Surely then if we have anydesire,we shallseparate ourselvesfrom the cloudy atmosphere around us, that we may have fellowship with these happy investigators of the Divine mysteries.—Bridges.