II. It is advisable to call in the wisdom of others to help us in our deliberations.Since one man is rarely, if ever, able to look at a matter from every point of view, his plans are most likely to be wisely laid, and his purposes most likely to succeed, if he looks at them with the eyes of other men as wellas with his own. They may discern a weak spot where he saw nothing to fear, or a point of vantage which had escaped his notice entirely. Or they may see good reasons for dissuading him altogether from the undertaking, or may make him so much the stronger for the task by encouragement and counsel. It is not generally those who are most able to act alone who lightly esteem the advice of others—these men who are the most successful in that to which they put their hand are not as a rule given to undervalue the wisdom of other people.
outlines and suggestive comments.
The greatest trust between man and man is the trust of giving counsel. . . . Things will have their first or second agitation; if they be not tossed upon by the waves of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune, and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken man.—Lord Bacon.
Ponder Bishop Hall’s description of the spiritualwar.“It admits of no intermission. It knows no night, no winter. It abides no peace, no truce. It calls us not into garrison, where we may have ease and respite, but into pitched fields continually. We see our enemies in the face always, and are always seen and assaulted; ever resisting, ever defending, receiving and returning blows. If either we be negligent or weary, we die. What other hope is there, while one fights and the other stands still? We can never have safety and peace but in victory. Then must our resistance be courageous and constant, when both yielding is death, and all treaties of peace mortal.” Does not this war bring the greatest need of deliberatecounsel,carefully counting the cost (Luke xiv. 31, 32); cleaving to our All-wise Counsellor (Isa. ix. 6) and Almighty Helper?—Bridges.
Among the Romans, though a man were never so strong, never so valiant, yet, if he wanted wisdom and counsel, he was said to bemiles sine oculis,a soldier without his eyes.—Jermin.
SeeCritical Notesfor the correct rendering of the second clause of verse 19, and for Homiletics see on chap.x. 19andxi. 13, pages 168 and 211.
main homiletics of verse20.
An Unnatural Child and a Natural Law.
I. An unnatural child.The ungrateful son or daughter of good parents is an unnatural being. If experience did not contradict, we should say that even fallen human creatures must return love for love, and could not help feeling gratitude to those who have denied themselves for their good. And if there is no love so strong and so unselfish as that which a parent feels toward a child, it does seem almost impossible that any child can be unresponsive to it. But if to remain untouched by it is unnatural, how much more so is it to attain to the height of wickedness upon which the text passes judgment. We must suppose that the proverb refers to fathers and mothers who are, to some extent, what they ought to be—who do in some measure reflect upon their offspring the tenderness of the Great and Divine Father—and then we can conceive of no more unnatural being than he “who curseth his father or his mother.” Every natural instinct tends in the opposite direction.
II. A natural law.It does not need any special Divine interposition to blight and ruin such a man. The most powerful and blessed human influences are those which flow from the home-life, and from the emotions which ought to be kindled by the relationship of a child to its parent. But if these holiestinfluences are resisted and these emotions are stifled, moral darkness must overshadow the life, and it will continue to deepen while the hardness of heart continues. It is well known that even the remembrance of parental love after long years of insensibility to it is often the first step back into the light of righteousness and hope, and that many who have sunk very low in crime could trace their present condition to the unnatural sin of hardening their hearts against parental love.
outlines and suggestive comments.
This cursing, according to our Lord’s standard, includes “setting light by father or mother;” wilful disobedience—a fearful, palpable mark of the last days. How God regards it, let his own curse on Mount Ebal (Deut. xxvii. 16), and his judgment of temporal death, testify. The present degradation of Africa is a witness, on the confirming page of history, of the frown upon an undutiful son (Gen. ix. 22–25)—his lamp put out in darkness.—Bridges.
It must needs be an obscure darkness that is fallen upon that soul, in whom the light of nature is so far extinguished as that he curseth them from whom he had the blessing of being. It must needs be a smoky breath that shall reproach him who was the breath of his nostrils. And what can he expect but that his lamp shall be put out in darkness.—Jermin.
For Homiletics of verse 21, see on chap.xiii. 11, page 306; also on chap.xxi. 5, 7, 17, page 609.
main homiletics of verse22.
The Recompenser of Evil.
I. The man who has been wronged is disqualified to punish the offender.A sense of pain and suffering is not helpful to a man’s judgment. He sees neither things nor persons in the light in which he would see them under happier conditions, and would not be likely to deal impartially with the offender. Hence, both the Bible and wise human governments—while freely allowing that he who injures another ought not to go unpunished—forbids men from undertaking the punishment themselves. Every human creature labours under another disqualification also. He is himself a law-breaker in a greater or less degree, and is not himself guiltless in thought and word, and perhaps in deed, of wrong towards his neighbour. The best of men cannot claim to be guiltless in this matter, and the majority are great offenders in one form or another. Therefore on this account also it is not meet for men to avenge their personal wrongs.
II. The most effectual way to rid one’s self of the desire for revenge.We do not understand this proverb to forbid the bringing of men who have wronged us to the bar of human justice, for this may be a duty which we owe to society. It would be criminal in most cases not to apprehend one who had robbed us if it lay in our power to do so, for by letting him go free we should be exposing other innocent men to danger. But there are many cases in which men are greatly wronged in ways which do not come within the cognisance of human law, and when no benefit to anyone would arise from their punishment by any human instrumentality. In such cases, the sure remedy for any vindictive feelings in our own breasts is to lay the matter before Him whose judgment must be impartial, and who will render to every man according to his works. Waiting upon the Lord, too, will remind us so forcibly of our own shortcomings and wrongdoings that we shall be more ready to forget those of our brother.
outlines and suggestive comments.
It is to be observed that it is not said, Wait on the Lord and He will avenge thee, but, He will save thee. By this kind of speech, the Holy Ghost would warn every one that is injured, not to think of the revenge or hurt of his adversary, but of his own defence and salvation.—Muffet.
The question is clearly this: Is your safety and protection best lodged in God’s hand or your own? By indulging your revengeful spirit, you do yourself a greater hurt than your greatest enemy can do you, for you gratify his ill-nature, when you suffer it to make a deep impression on your spirit, without which it could do you little or no hurt; but by committing your cause to God, you turn his ill will to your great advantage, making it an occasion for the exercise of the noblest graces, which are attended with the sweetest fruits, and with the rich blessing of God.—Lawson.
While Moses is dumb, God speaks; deaf, God sees and stirs. Make God your chancellor, in case no law will relieve, and you shall do yourself no disservice. If compelled to go a mile, rather than revenge, go two, yea, as far as the gospel of peace will carry you, and God will bring you back “with everlasting joy” (Isa. xxxv. 10). This is the way to be even with him, that wrongs you, nay, to be above him.—Trapp.
So far should the desire of revenge be from man’s heart, so far the execution of revenge be from man’s hand, that histongue should not say it.Shall any say, I will revenge, when God says, revenge ismine.Neither let any say, I will revenge because I have been wronged. For, as Tertullian says, what difference is there between being the provoker and the provoked; but that he is first found in wickedness, and the other afterward? Do not therefore provoke God to anger, by seeking revenge in thy anger. Let God have his right.—Jermin.
For Homiletics on verse 23, see on chap.xi. 1, page 190.
main homiletics of verse24.
God over All.
A reference to theCritical Noteswill show that in this verse there is an argument from the greater to the less, for the first clause contains an affirmation of a truth, and the second an argument drawn therefrom.
I. The truth affirmed,viz.—That the actions of the most mighty men, and the purposes of the wisest, are directly and absolutely under the control of God. This is self-evident if we admit that God is an Eternal, Omniscient, and Almighty Being, who concerns Himself with the government of the world. Having existed throughout the Eternal past and possessing absolute knowledge of the Eternal future, and being the Author of every man’s being—determining the date of his entrance into the world and the period of his continuance in it, and during all that time“encompassing his path and his lying down,”and even“understanding his thought afar off”(Psa. cxxxix. 2, 3)—how can even the mightiest of men boast of his independence of God and foretell what shall be the issue of his most sagacious counsels, or be confident that he shall be allowed to carry out even the most matured of his purposes. While he is perfectly conscious of his power to will and to do within limits, he must be also conscious that his ability to do both are dependent upon the will of Him in whom we all live and move and have our being.
II. The inference drawn.If God is thus above and behind the goings of the mighty of the earth, it is man’s wisdom to trust the mysteries of the present and the contingencies of the future into His hands. Every night throughout the year travellers from one part of our island to the other commit their bodily life unreservedly into the hands of one or two of their fellow-creatures. They are either impelled by inclination, or compelled by necessity, to undertake a certain journey, and to do this they must take their places in a railway train, and for a time surrender their power to take care of their own lives into the hands of others. Darkness is all around them as they travel on, and darkness is before them—they cannot discern the road by which they are travelling, or be absolutely certain that they will reach the place which they desire. Yet their confidence in the skill and fidelity of a few of their fellow-creatures is strong enough to make them generally at ease. Each human life resembles such a journey. The path from the cradle to the grave must be traversed, but insoluble mysteries lie all around, and the future is entirely hidden from view. There is but One who knoweth the way that we take, to whom both past, and present, and future are alike visible and comprehensible. His infinite wisdom and love ought to make us willing to leave Him to“direct our paths,”while a sense of our individual responsibility ought to keep us from presumptuous rashness on the one hand, and from indolent inertness on the other. The truth set forth in this proverb ought to be set beside that inverse 18.
outlines and suggestive comments.
As the first clause attributes to the Lord exclusivelythe orderingof great men’s goings, in order to attain success, so the second attributes to Him theprescient understandingof men’s course. God directs natural actions by His ordinary providence, spiritual actions by His special providence, which foreordains from eternity, awakens the sinner, removes obstacles, suggests that state of life wherein He sees that the man will not fall away, but attain to glory. However a man may understand his life with respect to its beginning and aim, yet he understands not the bestmeansin doubtful cases, nor can he ensure the issue.—Fausset.
Little did Israelunderstandthe reason of their circuitouswayto Canaan. Yet did it prove in the end to be “the right way.” As little did Ahasuerusunderstandthe profound reason why “on that night could not the king sleep;” a minute incident, seemingly scarcely worthy to be recorded, yet a necessary link in the chain of the Lord’s everlasting purposes of grace to His Church (Esth. vi. 1). Little did Philipunderstand his own waywhen he was moved from the wide sphere of preaching the Gospel in Samaria to go into the desert, which ultimately proved a wider extension of the Gospel. As little did the great Apostle understand that his “prosperousjourney” to see his beloved flock at Rome would be a narrow escape from shipwreck, and to be conducted a prisoner in chains. Little do we know what we pray for. “By terrible things wilt Thou answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation” (Ps. lxv. 5). We go out in the morningnot understanding our way;“not knowing what an hour may bring forth” (chap. xxvii. 1). Some turn connected with our happiness or misery for life meets us before night (John iv. 7). Joseph, in taking his walk to search for his brethren, never anticipated a more than twenty years’ separation from his father (Gen. xxxvii. 14). And what ought those cross ways or dark ways to teach us? Not constant, trembling anxiety, but daily dependence. “I will bring the blind by a way that they know not: I will lead them in paths that they have not known.” But shall they be left in the dark perplexity? “I will make darknesslight before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them” (Isa. xlii. 16).—Bridges.
The cross ways that thwart man’s goings are of God’s laying out, the short ways which some make are of His finding out, the long ways that some go about are of His leading. . . . He doth but tumble down the hill of his own audacious rashness that thinketh to climb up unto God’s way. What God hath revealed of Himself in moderating man’s ways is true wisdom to observe, and happy is he who maketh use of it. But as ignorance here is an idle carelessness, so knowledge there is a prying boldness.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse25.
For the correct rendering of this verse seeCritical Notes.
Religious Vows.
I. A man is under no obligation to vow.While the Scriptures contain many references to vows, whereby certain persons consecrated themselves or their property to God and give laws concerning their fulfilment (Num. xxx.), there is no command which requires men to enter into such a solemn engagement. The text refers solely toreligiousvows—to an act of special consecration to God, such as that of Jacob at Bethel when he dedicated the tenth of all his gains to the service of Jehovah (Gen. xxviii. 22), or that of Hannah when she promised that, if God would give her a man-child, she would give him unto the Lord all the days of his life (1 Sam. i. 11). It is obvious that such special acknowledgements of particular and exceptional blessings must be pleasing to God, but He lays upon men no obligation to render them, seeing that their value consists in their being spontaneous—the overflow of a grateful heart, or the result of a deep conviction of the claims of God, or of the need of Divine help in extraordinary circumstances.
II. A man is bound by the most solemn considerations not to vow thoughtlessly.As an intelligent and moral being he is bound to enter upon no course and to make no engagement without first inquiring whether the motive which prompts him at the outset is strong enough to carry him to the end. It is a snare and a sin to promise to a fellow-man and afterwards, in the words of the proverb, “to make inquiry,”i.e.,to ask ourselves whether we are prepared to abide by our promise. The inquiry must even in such a case be made beforehand, or we must be branded with unfaithfulness to our plighted word. (These remarks of course do not apply to vows and promises which are in themselves sinful or unlawful. The proverb does not deal with such.) If, then, a man is bound to consider well before he promises to man, how much more so before he vows to God! What must be the harm done to conscience and to character, and how great the insult offered to the Divine Majesty, when vows are made and obligations entered into, and afterwards he who thus bound himself finds that he is not morally prepared for the sacrifice. To such an one we might say, as Peter said to Ananias—“Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? . . . Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God”(Acts v. 4, 5).“Better it is that thou shouldst not vow,”says the Preacher,“than that thou shouldest vow and not pay”(Eccles. v. 5).
outlines and suggestive comments.
It is questionable whether vows, properly so called, are consistent with the genius of the New Testament dispensation. At any rate, of such vows as were common under the Old, we have no recorded examples under the New. Resolutions to serve God we may, nay wemustmake; there is no getting on in the Divine life and in the zealous promotion of the Divine glory, without them. But the binding of the soul by particular bonds and oaths, whether verbal or written—obligations superinduced upon those of the Divine law—have been “a snare” to many. Weak minds have often felt the obligation of their vow more stringent than that of the Divine authority.—Wardlaw.
main homiletics of verses26and28.
Pillars of Government.
I. A human ruler will have rebellious subjects in his kingdom.This will be the case however wise the laws, and with whatever care and discrimination they are administered. In the most cultivated and carefully kept ground some weeds are always found among the flowers—some tares among the wheat; and since the King who can do no wrong numbers among his subjects those who are lawless and disobedient, the best and wisest of human rulers must expect to do the same.
II. It is the duty and wisdom of a human ruler to make a distinction between his good and bad subjects, and to punish the latter.Even if the wheel mentioned in the proverb be regarded as simply an instrument of separation, as the threshing instrument separates the chaff from the wheat, the idea of punishment is retained. In a well-governed kingdom the laws which govern it are such a separating power between the evil and the good, so far as external conduct is concerned, and it is indispensable for the stability of peace and order that they should be strictly enforced. It would be most unjust, as well as unwise—it would be tempting men to transgression—if the lawless citizens in a community were allowed to go unpunished; and it is contrary to our innate sense of justice that in any kingdom “the righteous should be as the wicked” (Gen. xviii. 25)—that the thief should have all the privileges of an honest man, and the murderer the liberty of an innocent person. The punishment of transgressors not only defends the good man, but it may prevent the bad man from increasing his guilt by adding crime to crime. The king of Solomon’s proverbs is a typical word for all who are called upon to rule, whether in the family or the State, and the very word ruler, or governor, implies a discrimination between the evil and the good and a difference in their treatment.
III. The preservation of the throne depends more upon moral than upon physical power.We take the word “throne” in the widest sense as signifying any place or position which raises one man to be in any sense the ruler of another, from the throne of the father in his family and the master among his servants, to that of the king amidst his subjects. In each and every one of the kingdoms, although external and physical coercion and punishment are sometimes indispensable, yet there is no permanent stability unless there is mercy and truth in the ruler, and unless it is manifest in his government. Many a throne has been erected on other foundations,—physical strength has established many kingdoms, and material wealth has set many men upon thrones. But if they have raised a superstructure its foundation has been in the sand, and when the rain and wind of adversity have descended upon it it has fallen, and great has been the fall of it.There must be some truth and mercy—some righteousness and justice, and withal some exercise of grace towards the wrongdoer—if the throne or the kingdom is to be upholden, and the wisdom of the ruler will be shown in his so mingling sternness with severity as to make both contribute to one end. Truth must here be taken as synonymous with righteousness—as that observance of the just claims of every man which he has a right to expect and demand from those who rule him. This will include that punishment of the lawless which is the subject of verse 26, but is here implied that even punishment is to be tempered with mercy. Pity for the offender ought always to be mingled with indignation at the offence, and if any ruler desires to sit firmly upon his seat of justice he must consider not only the greatness of the crime but the strength of the temptation—not how severely he can punish the criminal but whether he can reform him. And this is rarely if ever done by the exercise of justice merely. The frost and cold are necessary to kill the weeds and vermin and to break up the soil, but there will never be flowers or fruit without summer rain and sunshine. And mercy is that “gentle rain from heaven” without which no sinful creature will ever bring forth fruits of righteousness.
illustration.
The necessity of mingling mercy with justice is strikingly exemplified in the great success which attended the efforts of the late Captain Maconochie to benefit the convicts in our penal settlement in Norfolk Island. Having, in his capacity as Secretary to the Governor of Tasmania, seen most terrible and hardening effects from unmixed severity, he desired earnestly to try what could be done by combining mercy with discipline and punishment. For this purpose he was placed in command of Norfolk Island, and remained there four years, having under his care from 1500 to 2000 doubly-convicted prisoners,i.e.,convicts who, after being transported from England to New South Wales, had been for other crimesagaintransported to Norfolk Island. Previous to his arrival they worked in chains, and it was considered dangerous for even armed officers to approach within three yards of them. It was considered unsafe to trust them with knives, and they therefore tore their food with their hands and teeth. They were accustomed to inflict dreadful injuries upon themselves in order to evade labour, and were described at the time as a demoniacal assemblage. But under more humane treatment the entire colony became changed, and one of his colleagues testifies that he and another superintendent “resided at one of the settlements in a cottage without lock and key, with simply a latch to the door, and close to the convict barracks, where over 2000 were lodged every night, also without locks.” “Not a single serious offence,” says he, “was ever committed in that time by any of those men, and the only bodyguard was another free superintendent and myself, together with a few trustworthy men selected from among themselves.” This gentleman (Mr. J. Simms, since Governor of Plymouth Prison) goes on to say, “I shall ever remember this year as the most remarkable of all my prison experience, because it . . . was a fair result of what might be realised from any body of men generally, thus treated, not by force, iron force, but by moral means.” One remarkable example is given. At Sydney there had been a most desperate and unmanageable convict, named Anderson. He was flogged time after time for various offences, but to no good effect. He became more outrageous than ever. At last, the authorities, in despair, put him on a little island in Sydney Harbour, where he was kept chained to a rock, and in the hollow of which rock he slept. After some weeks the Governor went to see him, and urged him to submit to authority, but he refused. He was then sent for life to Port Macquarie Convict Station, where he was again and again flogged. He made his escape, and lived among the natives for some time, but, ultimately, being recaptured, he was sent to Norfolk Island for the crime of murder. Under Maconochie’s humane treatment he became a changed man, and when the Governor of New South Wales visited the settlement he particularly noticed Anderson, and inquired, “What smart fellow may that be?” (SeeLeisure Hourfor October, 1878.)
outlines and suggestive comments.
All dynasties have been kind. If they are cruel now, it must be like the weight of a clock, running down. Therewaskindness. “Mercy and truth” must at some time or other have builded the “throne.”—Miller.
Godly Asa removed wickedness from the high place nearest his own throne and heart. Amaziah justly punished it with death. Nehemiah—that true reformer—rebuked it even in the family of the high priest. Our own Alfred appeared to maintain this standard as a witness for God in an age of darkness. But it is the King of kings alone that can make this separation complete. Often does He sift His Church by trial, for her greater purity and complete preservation (Amos ix. 9). But what will it be, when He shall come “with His fan in His hand, and shall thoroughly purge His floor?” (Matt. iii. 12). What a scattering of chaff will there be! Not an atom will go into the garner. Not a grain of wheat will be cast away. O my soul! what wilt thou be found at this great sifting day! “Who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth?” (Mal. iii. 2).—Bridges.
There goes more to preserve a king than to preserve a kingdom; and though the preservation of a kingdom be a weighty matter, yet the preservation of a king is much more weighty—though much care and pains be required for the one, much more is required for the other. Half of that will serve for the one which is needful for the other. Mercy will support the throne, but mercy and truth must preserve the king.—Jermin.
main homiletics of verse27.
The Candle of the Lord.
We understand by the spirit of a man the self-consciousego—that which takes cognizance of the inner life, and which reasons and passes judgment upon all a man’s perceptions, emotions, and volitions.
I. Man’s spirit is a candle, because it is not self-originating.When we speak of a candle, the idea of aborrowedlight comes before us; with us there is but one source and fountain of material light, and that is the sun, which, although it is but a candle of the Lord placed in the midst of our solar system so far transcends all our artificial lights in its glory and permanence, that in comparison with them it seems self-existent and eternal. As a matter of fact, we know that all the artificial light stored up for us in combustible materials around us had its origin in that great father of lights, the sun, and that these lesser lights require kindling before they give forth brightness. So with the spirit of man—it is not self-existent and eternal, nor did it kindle itself, it owes its existence to that God who is the intellectual and moral light of the universe, because He is the source of all knowledge and goodness. That same Divine Creator, who said“Let there be light and there was light,”who set the sun in the heavens to rule the day, made man in His own image by breathing into the human body that spiritual life which makes man a living soul, and distinguishes him from the animal creation around him. We can no more claim to be the author of our own spirits than the sun can claim to have called itself into existence.
II. Man’s spirit is a candle, because it is a revealing power.All light is revealing; it first makes evident its own existence and then reveals the existence of objects outside itself. When the sun comes forth above the eastern horizon like a bridegroom from his chamber, it reveals its own glory, and it makes manifest all things upon which its rays fall, and nothing is hidden from the light thereof. So in a less degree is it with every flame of light, and so it is with the mysterious spirit of man. It is self-revealing and self-evidencing, and in and by its light we become conscious of the existence of material forms and spiritual beings, and moral and physical influence outside ourselves.
III. Man’s spirit is a candle which is intended to prevent self-deception.Knowledge of any description is good and desirable, but there are two beings of whom it is moral death to remain in ignorance—ourself and God. The spirit of a man is the power by which he apprehends both, and this proverb deals exclusively with man’s power to know himself, and especially with his power to take cognizance of himself as a moral and responsible being. As the sun, when it darts forth its rays upon the earth, does not leave us in twilight, and in uncertainty as to what is around us, and as the candle brought into a dark chamber shows us, maybe, the dust and the cobwebs, as well as the costly drapery on the walls, so this God-kindled light searches into the innermost thoughts, and feelings, and motives, and shows to every man who does not wilfully turn away from the sight, both the good and the evil that is in him. True it is that, as a moral light, it does not shine so brightly as it did when man came forth from his Maker’s hand, and that he who“hateth light”because it is a reprover of his sin (John iii. 20) may to some extent obscure its brightness, yet every man possesses light enough within to show him his need of a light outside and above him—even of that“true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”(John i. 9).
outlines and suggestive comments.
The candle which God has kindled in man has, as the nearest sphere of illumination which goes forth from it, the condition of the man himself—the spirit comprehends all that belongs to the nature of man in the unity of self-consciousness, but yet more, it makes it the object of reflection; it penetrates, searching it through, and seeks to take it up into its knowledge, and recognises the problem proposed to it, to rule it by its power. The proverb is thus to be ethically understood.—Delitzsch.
The essential connection between the life of God and the life of men is the great truth of the world, and that is the truth which Solomon sets forth in the striking words of my text. The picture which the words include is one of the most simple. A candle stands upon a table in a dark room, itself unlighted. Fire is brought into the room; a blazing bit of paper holds the fire, but it is blown and flutters, and any moment may go out; but the blaze touches the candle and the candle catches fire, and at once you have a steady flame which burns bright and pure and constant. The candle gives forth its manifestation to all the neighbourhood which is illuminated by it. The candle is glorified by the fire, and the two bear witness that they are made for one another by the way in which they fulfil each other’s life. That fulfilment comes by the way in which the inferior substance renders obedience to the superior. The wax acknowledges the subtle flame as its master and yields to its power, and so, like every faithful servant of a noble master, it gives itself most unreservedly up, and its own substance is clothed with a glory that does not belong to itself. The granite, if you try to burn it, gives no fire; it only opposes a sullen resistance, and as the heat increases splits and breaks but will not burn. But the candle obeys, and so in it the scattered fire finds a point of permanent and clear expression. “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord,” says Solomon. God is the fire of this world. It is a vital principle, a warm pervading presence everywhere. What thing in outward nature can so picture to us the mysterious, subtle, quick, productive, and destructive principle; that which has always elevated men’s hearts and solemnized their voices when they have said the word “God,” as this strange thing, so heavenly, so unearthly, so terrible, and so gracious, so full of creativeness, and yet so quick and fierce to sweep whatever opposes it out of its path? The glory, the beauty,the marvel, the mystery of fire! Men have always felt the fitness of fire as being the closest of all the elements around the throne on which their conception of Deity is sitting. Men and all other beings, if such beings there are capable of watching our humanity, see what God is in gazing at the manhood God has kindled. The universe is full of the fire of divinity; men feel it in the air as they feel an intense heat which has not yet broken out into a blaze. There is meaning in a great deal of the unexplained, mysterious awfulness of life—the sense of God felt, unseen. The atmosphere is burdened with heat that does not burst out into fire, and in the midst of this solemn burning world there stands up a man, pure and God-like. In an instant it is as if a heated room had found some sensitive inflammable point where it would kindle into a blaze, and prospects of God’s felt presence become clear and definite. The fitfulness of the impression of divinity is steadied into permanence. The mystery changes its character, and is a mystery of light and not of darkness.The fire of the Lord has found the candle of the Lord,and burns clear and steady, guiding and cheering instead of bewildering and frightening us, just as a man obedient to God has begun to catch and manifest His nature. I hope you will find this truth comes very close to your separate lives, but let me remind you firstwhat essential dignity clothes the life of man in this world.Such philosophy as belongs to our time would deprecate the importance of man in the world, and rob him of his centralness. His position in such philosophies is this: that the world was not made for man. With us the old story that the Bible told, the book of Genesis with its Garden of Eden, and its obedient beasts waiting until man should tell them what they should be called, stands firmly at the beginning of the world’s history. The great notion of the centralness of man in the Garden of Eden re-asserts itself in every cabin of the western forests, or the southern jungles, where a solitary settler and his wife begin as it were the human history anew. There once again the note of Genesis is struck, and man asserts his centralness, and the beasts hesitate in fear till he shall tame them to his service, or bid them depart. The earth under his feet holds its fertility at his command, and what he does upon the earth is echoed in the storms. This is the great impressive idea which over the simplest life of man is ever growing, and with which the philosophies that would make little of the sacredness and centralness of man must always have to fight. This is the impression which is taken up, and steadied, and made clear, and turned from a petty pride to a lofty dignity and a solemn responsibility, when there comes such a message as this of Solomon. He says that the true sacredness, and superiority, and centralness of man is in the likeness of his nature to God’s, and that capacity of spiritual obedience to Him, in virtue of which man may be the earthly declaration and manifestation of God to all the world. So long as that truth stands, the centralness of man is sure. “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” This is the truth of which I wish to speak to you—the perpetual revelation of God by and through human life. I. You must ask yourself, first,what God is.See how at the very bottom of His existence, as you conceive of it, there lie these two thoughts—purpose and righteousness; how impossible it is to give God any personality, except as the embodiment of these two qualities, the intelligence that plans, and the righteousness that lives in duty. How could any knowledge of these qualities, of what they are, of what sort of being they will make, exist upon the earth, if there were not a human heart in which they could exist, and from which they could be shown? Only a person can truly utter a person; only from a character can character be echoed. You might write it over the skies that God was just, but it would be at best only a bit of knowledge—never a Gospel—never something which it wouldgladden the hearts of men to know. That comes only when a human life is capable of a justice like God’s justice, and is clothed with His justice in the eyes of men. I have just intimated one thing that we need to observe: man’s utterance of God is purely the utterance of a quality; it can tell me nothing of the quantities that make up His life. That God is just, and what it is to be just, I can learn from the just lives of the just men about me; but how just God is, to what unconceived perfection, to what unexplained developments that majestic quality of justice may extend in Him—of that I can form no judgment that is worth anything from the justice I see in my fellow-men. II. This seems to me to widen at once the range of the truth I am stating. If it be a quality of God, which man is capable of uttering, then it must be the simple quality of manhood that is necessary for the utterance, and not any specific quantity, nor any assignable degree of human greatness. Whoever has the spirit of man may be the candle of the Lord. A larger measure of that spirit may make a brighter light; but there must be a light wherever any human being, in virtue of his essential humanness, by obedience becomes luminous with God. There are the men of manhood, spiritually the leaders of the race; how they stand out! how all men feel their power as they come into their presence, and feel that they are passing into the light of God! They are puzzled when they try to explain it. There is nothing more instructive and suggestive than the bewilderment men feel when they try to tell what inspiration is. He who goes into the presence of any powerful nature, feels sure in some way he is coming into the presence of God; but it would be melancholy if only the great men could give you this conviction. The world would be darker than it is if any human spirit, as soon as it became obedient, did not become the Lord’s candle. A poor, bruised life, if only it keeps that human quality, and does not become inhuman, but is obedient to God, in its blind way, becomes a light. A mere child with his pure humanity, and with his turning of his life towards God from Whom he came—how often he may burn with some suggestion of divinity, and cast illumination upon problems and mysteries so difficult that he himself has never felt them! Little lamps burning everywhere. III. We have here the key to another mystery that often puzzles us.What shall we make of some men rich in attainments and well educated, who stand in the midst of their fellow-men dark and helpless?. . . Let us let the light of Solomon’s figure upon it. Simply this: they are unlighted candles; they are the spirit of man furnished to its very finest, but lacking the last touch of God; like silver lamps all chaste and wrought with wondrous skill, all filled with choicest oil, but all untouched by fire. IV.There are multitudes of men whose lamps are certainly not dark, and yet who certainly are not the candles of the Lord,—with a nature richly furnished, yet profane, impure, worldly. . . . Such a man is not another unlighted candle. He burns so bright and lurid that often the pure light grows dim within its glare. But if it be possible for the human candle, when the subtle components of a human nature are all mingled carefully in it; if it be possible that, instead of being lifted up to heaven, and kindled at the pure beam of Him who is eternally and absolutely good, it should be plunged down into hell, and lighted at the cruel flames that burn out of the dreadful brimstone pit, then we can understand the sight of a man who is rich in every energy of manhood cursing the world with the exhibition of the devilish instead of the Godlike in his life. . . . V. There is still one other way, more subtle and sometimes more dangerous than this, in which the spirit of man may fail of its functions as the candle of the Lord. The man may be lighted, and the fire at which he is lighted may be, indeed, the fire of God, and yet it may not be God alone he shows forth upon the earth. I can picture to myself a candle whichshould in some way mingle the peculiarity of its own substance with the light it sheds. So it is, I think, with the way in which a great many men manifest God. They have really kindled their lives at Him. It is His fire that burns in them. They are obedient, and so He can make them His points of exhibition, but they are always mixed with the God whom they show. They show themselves as well as Him; just as a mirror mingles its own reflection with the things that are reflected from it and gives them a curious convexity because it is itself convex. This is the secret of pious bigotry, of holy prejudices; it is the candle putting its own colour into the flame it has borrowed from the fire of God. The feeble man makes God seem feeble, the speculative man makes God look like a doubtful dream, the legal man makes God seem as hard and steel-like as law. VI. I have tried to depict some difficulties which beset the full exhibition in the world of the great truth of Solomon. . . . Man is selfish and disobedient, and will not let his light burn at all; man is wilful and passionate, and kindles his light with ungodly fire; man is narrow and bigoted, and makes the light to shine in his own peculiar colour; but all these are accident—distortions of the true idea of man. How can we know that?Here is the perfect man,Christ!. . . I bring a man of my experience and the man of my imagination into the presence of Jesus, but they fall short of Him, and my human consciousness assures me they all fall short of the best ideal of what it is to be a man. “I am come a light into the world,” said Jesus; “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” “In Him was light, and the life was the light of men.” So wrote the man who of all men know Him best. I think I need only bid you look at Him and you will see what it is to which our feeble lights are struggling. There is the true spiritual man who is the candle of the Lord, “the Light that lighteth every man.” It is entirely a new idea of life, new to the standards of our ordinary living, which is there revealed. All ordinary appeals to men to be up and doing, and to make themselves shining lights, fade away and become insignificant before this higher message which comes in the words of Solomon in the life of Jesus. What does that higher message say to you and me? That your full relationship to God can only be realised by obedience to Him, when you will shine by His light; then you cannot be dark, for He shall kindle you; then you shall be as incapable of burning with false passion, as you shall be quick to answer the true; then the devil may hold his torch to you, as he held it to the heart of Jesus in the desert, and your heart shall be as uninflammable as His. As soon as God touches you, you shall burn with a light so truly your own that you shall reverence your own mysterious life, and yet be so truly His that pride shall be impossible. In certain lands, for the most holy ceremonies they prepare the candles with the most precious care. The very bees that distil the wax are sacred. They range in gardens planted with sweet flowers for their use alone. The wax is gathered by consecrated hands, and the shaping of the candles is a holy task performed in holy places, with the singing of hymns, and in an atmosphere of prayer. All this is done because the candles, when they are made, are to burn in the most elevated ceremonies and on the most sacred days. With what care must the man be made whose spirit is to be the candle of the Almighty Lord! It is his spirit that the Lord is to kindle for Himself; therefore the spirit must be the precious part of him. The body must be valued only for the protection and education that the spirit may gain by it. The power by which his spirit shall become a candle is obedience; therefore obedience must be the struggle and desire of his life; obedience, not hard and forced, but ready, loving, and spontaneous; obedience in heart, the obedience of the child to the father, the obedience of the candle to the flame; the doing of duty not merely that the duty may be done, but that the soul in doing it maybecome capable of receiving and uttering God; the bearing of pain not merely because the pain must be borne, but that the bearing of it may make the soul able to burn with the Divine fire that found it in the furnace; the repentance of sin and the acceptance of forgiveness not merely that the soul may be saved from the fire of hell but that it may be touched with the fire of Heaven, and shine with the light of God as the stars, for ever.—Philips Brooks.
This “candle of the Lord” is aslightanddiminutivelight. A lamp is no such dazzling object. A candle has no such goodly light as that it should pride and glory in it; it is but a brief and compendious flame, shut up and imprisoned in a narrow compass. How far distant is it from the beauty of a star! how far from the brightness of a sun! This candle of the Lord, when it was first lighted up, before there was any thief in it, even then it had but a limited and restrained light. God said unto it: “Thus far shall thy light go; hither shalt thou shine and no further.” Adam, in his innocency, was not to crown himself with his own sparks. God never intended a creature should rest satisfied with his own candle-light, but that it should run to the fountain of light, and sun itself in the presence of God. What a poor happiness had it been for a man only to have enjoyed his own lamp. . . . The “candle of the Lord” is a lightdiscovering present,notfuturethings, for did you ever hear of such a lamp as would discover an object not yet born? Would you not smile at him that should light a candle to search for a futurity? . . . Let, then, this candle content itself with its proper object. It finds work enough, and difficulty enough, in the discovery of present things, and has not such a copious light as can search out the future. . . . The light of reason is acertainlight. Lamplight, as it is not glorious, so it is not deceitful—though it be but limited, it will discover such things as are within its own sphere with a sufficient certainty. The letters of nature’s law are so fairly printed, they are so visible and capital, that you may read them by this candlelight. . . . Although there is not vigour enough in any created eye to pierce into the pith and marrow, the depth and secrecy of being. . . . It is adirectivelight. The will looks upon that, as Leander in Musæus looked up to the tower for Hero’s candle, and calls it, as he doth there: “Lamp which to me, on my way through this life, is a brilliant director.”. . . The will doth but echo the understanding, and doth practically repeat the last syllable of the final decision; which makes the moralist well determine that “moral virtues cannot exist without intellectual powers.”. . . Other creatures, indeed, are shot more violently into their ends; but man hath the skill and faculty of directing himself, and is, as you may so imagine, a rational kind of arrow, that moves knowingly and voluntarily to the mark of its own accord. . . . It is anaspiringlight. I mean no more by this than what that known saying of Augustine imports: “Thou hast made us, O Lord, for Thyself: our heart will be restless till it return to Thee.” The candle of the Lord—it came from Him and it would fain return to Him. For an intellectual lamp to aspire to be a sun is a lofty strain of that intolerable pride which was in Lucifer and Adam; but for it to desire the favour, and presence, and enjoyment of a beautiful sun, is but a just and noble desire of that end which God created it for. . . . If you look but upon a candle, what an aspiring and ambitious light it is! . . . It puts on the form of a pyramid, occasionally and accidentally by reason that the air extenuates it into that form: otherwise it would ascend upward in one greatness, in a rounder and completer manner. It is just thus in “the candle of the Lord;” reason would move more fully according to the sphere of its activity, it would flame up to heaven in a more vigorous and uniform way; but that it is much quenched by sin . . . therefore it is fain to aspire and climb as well as it can. The bottom and base of it borders upon the body, and is thereforemore impure and feculent; but theapexandcuspisof it catches toward heaven. . . . Every spark of reason flies upward. This Divine flame fell down from heaven and halted with its fall—as the poets tell us of the limping of Vulcan—but it would fain ascend thither again by some steps and gradations of its own framing.—Culverwell.
For Homiletics on verse 28, seeverse 26.
main homiletics of verse29.
The Glory of Youth and Age.
I. Each period of life has a value and a glory of its own.There is a beauty in spring to which no other season of the year can approach. The vivid green of the opening leaves, and the meadows and hedge-banks carpeted with early flowers, give to spring a glory all its own. But the other seasons have their peculiar charms. It is no less pleasant to look upon the landscape at midsummer, when the woods are in their full dress, and the valleys are covered over with corn, or in the autumn, when the harvest is being gathered in, and flowers have given place to fruit. If spring is the time of hope and promise, autumn is the season of realisation and fulfilment, and we are all content that the one should be lost in the other. So it is with the different periods of our human life—each has its special charm and its special advantages. We love to dwell upon the loveliness of childhood, but we should not like to see our sons and daughters remain children for ever, and it is pleasant to look upon and to experience the energy and hope of youth, but there are good things which cannot be ours until we reach to mature life, and even to grey hairs. We have before considered the glory of the hoary head (see on chap.xvi. 31, page 493); we have only to consider—
II. The peculiar gift and glory of young men.It is, says Solomon, their“strength”—their power to do and to endure in a physical sense, what the aged cannot, by reason of the failure of their bodily powers. When men have passed middle life, they become more and more painfully conscious that if the“inward man is renewed day by day, the outward man is perishing”at the same rate (2 Cor. iv. 16), and although their experience is richer, and their wisdom greater, their physical ability and energy is not what it once was. Their ship is laden, it may be, with a far more precious cargo, but the tide is not so strong, and the breeze is not so powerful to waft it on its way as it was in the years that are gone. It is the glory of the young man that his strength is often more than enough for himself, he is able to bestow some upon the weak and needy. But the aged man is often painfully conscious that he has none to spare, that instead he is dependent upon the strength of others. The consideration of the special advantage of each season of human life ought to cheer the aged man and prevent him from regretting the days of youth, and at the same time it ought to make the young man respectful to the old, and willing to listen to their counsel, and so far as it is possible combine the wisdom of grey hairs with the vigour of youth. It also warns the young man against any abuse of his physical powers—against any unlawful indulgence of bodily appetites, and against the formation of unhealthy or indolent habits—which make so many of our youths prematurely old, bringing upon them the frosts of autumn, before they have brought forth its fruits.
main homiletics of verse30.
Pain as a Preventive of Pain.
For the different renderings of this verse, see theCritical Notes. However we translate it the thoughts suggested are the same, viz.:—
I. That pain in the present may prevent greater pain in the future.When the surgeon is called in to examine a wounded man, the examination of the wound may give him more pain than he would have suffered if he had been let alone; it may bring far more present suffering to extract the ball, or to insert the probe, than it would have done simply to bandage the wound. But the pain of to-day is to ensure days of healthful rest by and by; if the present suffering was not inflicted, months and years of pain in the future might be the result. The pain of mind or body inflicted upon a child of five or ten years old, is intended by its parent to prevent greater moral or physical pain when he is fifty or seventy. There is no human creature who can afford to do without the pruning-knife at some period of its life; and if the pruning is not administered, the penalty will be paid either in this world or the next. The wise and loving parent gives pain in youth to prevent pain to his child in manhood, and the All-wise and Loving Father, God, subjects His children to pain in the present life to prevent a deeper and more lasting pain in the life to come. He pricks the conscience by His word to bring men to repentance, and so to salvation from the “wrath to come” and He sees even in His own children so much “evil” remaining that He is compelled to visit“their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes”(Psa. lxxxix. 32), in order to“cleanse”their characters.
II. Pain of body may be beneficial to the human spirit.This is a subject to which our attention has been before directed. See on chap.xiii. 24, page 334, and on chap.xvii. 10, page 510.
Critical Notes.—1. Rivers of water.Ratherstreams,the allusion being to the watercourses, which in hot countries intersect fields and gardens for the purpose of irrigation, in which the water is entirely under the control of the husbandman.2. Pondereth,ratherweigheth,as in chap. xvi. 2. It is the same verb as that used in 1 Sam. ii. 3 and Isa. xl. 12, 13.4. The ploughing.This word is by most modern commentators translated, as in the marginal references,light.It is likewise so rendered in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and in Luther’s version. Ewald, Elster, Wordsworth, and others, translate as in the English version. The Hebrew words are very similar. Those who adopt the former rendering understand the word to stand in apposition to thehigh lookand theproud heartof the first clause (literally,“To be lofty of eyes, and to be swollen of heart”), and regard it as a figurative representation of the spirit of the wicked man. Ewald and others refer theploughing of the wickedto the “very first-fruits of a man’s activity.”5. Thoughts,rather thecounsels,thecalculatings.6. Vanity tossed to and fro.Rathera fleeting breath.The Hebrew wordhebel,here translated vanity, meansvapour.7. Robbery,orviolence, rapacity.8.Zöckler translates the first clause of this verse,“Crooked is the way of the guilty man.”Fausset remarks that the Hebrew wordish(man) expresses a man oncegood;froward implies his perversity, by having left the good way.Right,i.e., direct, straightforward.9. Wide house.Literallyhouse of companionship, i.e.,to share the house with her.11. Instructed.Zöckler translates this“prospereth,”and understands the simple to be the subject of both clauses of the verse.12.The wordsmanandGodare both supplied by the translators. The verse should be“The righteous considereth the house of the wicked(and)overthroweth,”etc. Some understand it, therefore, to mean “The righteous man gives instruction to the house of the wicked to turn them away from evil.” But Stuart remarks that the verb of the second clause is a very strong word,to precipitate, to cast down headlong,and refers therighteous (one) of the first clause to God. This is Zöckler’s rendering also.15. Shall be.These words are not in the original, and destroy the sense, which is that justice is joy to the good, and destruction to the bad. Luther renders, “It is a joy to the just to do what is right; but to the wicked a terror.”24. Proud wrath,literally“wrath of pride”oroverflowings of haughtiness.27. With a wicked mind,literally,“for iniquity,”and may refer to a desire to cloak a sinful purpose by an outward show of piety, or an attempt to expiate a sinful act by an outward atonement. Miller reads for“how much more”“because also.”28. Constantly,ratherfor ever.Stuart understands the verse to mean “that the sincere listener to the Divine commands will ever be at liberty to speak, and find confidence put in what he says.”29. Hardeneth his face,or “putteth on a bold countenance.”Directeth,or“considereth,”or“establisheth.”
main homiletics of verse1.
The King of Kings.
I. Kings are more entirely in the hand of God than subjects are in the hands of kings.The king of the days of Solomon was, as some Oriental rulers are now, an absolute monarch. In the case of Solomon himself, his will was law, and in his hand was the power of life and death (see 1 Kings iii. 24, 25). Of Nebuchadnezzar it is said,“Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down”(Dan. v. 19). It is to such a king that the proverb refers—to one who called no man or any number of men master, but upon whose single will apparently depended the destiny of millions. Yet he was not the independent being that he appeared, neither were his subjects so dependent upon his will as they appeared to be. The most abject slave in his dominions was less under his control than he was under the control of Him by whom“kings reign”and“princes rule”(chap. viii. 15, 16). The gardener whose ground is intersected by water-channels finds it a very easy task to turn the stream in the direction he desires; the soil yields to his touch, and forthwith the water flows whithersoever he wills. But the moist earth is not so easily moulded by the hand of man, as the heart of the proudest monarch is subdued to obedience by his Maker; and the water is not more entirely subject to the will of the husbandman than is the will of the most stubborn despot to the will of Jehovah.
II. The power which God exercises over kings extends into a region where no earthly ruler can penetrate.Theheartof the king is in the hand of Jehovah. This is more than the most absolute monarch can boast concerning his meanest subject. Nebuchadnezzar could issue his decree, but whoso did not fall down before his golden image should be cast into the fiery furnace, but he could not move the steadfast determination of the Hebrew youths to acknowledge no god but the God of Israel. His will could determine what should be done to their bodies, but all his threatenings could not reach their hearts. But God rules the spirit of a man in that He has access to his innermost thoughts and feelings, and can thus touch the spring of all his actions, and thus bring him to do His will, even when he seems to be doing only his own.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Could anything be more bold? Mark the compass—first, ofsubject,the wholestreamas the gardener turns it; second, of object,“whithersoever”or anything He pleases; and third, ofsovereignty;its pleasing Him, that being the only test. The“king”may be Cæsar. His lip may make new geographies (ch. xvi. 10). His“heart”may change the history of all things. And yet, like a vineyard’s channels diverted by a child, the Pharaoh’s heart is in the fingers of the Most High. . . .Uponwhatsoever. Not toward anything. A stream may be turned in a new direction to getrid of it. God has no such streams. It is turned on something. For God has an end to answer when He rules even the vilest of fiends.—Miller.
Whether, in the second line, the pleasant refreshing influence of the rivulets, dispensing blessing and increase, comes into account as a point of the comparison, is uncertain (comp. Isa. xxxii. 2); this, however, is not improbable, inasmuch as the heart of a king may in fact become in an eminent degree a fountain of blessing for many thousands, and, according to God’s design, ought to be so. See chap. xvi. 15.—Lange’s Commentary.
For Homiletics on verse 2 see on chap.xvi. 2, page 454.
main homiletics of verse3.
The More Acceptable Sacrifice.
I. The sacrifices of the Mosaic law were acceptable to God as ceremonial signs.They were instituted by God, and therefore He expected them to be offered, and was displeased when His commands concerning them were disregarded. But they were but the means to an end, and if they did not lead to that end they were worthless in His sight. They were intended to awaken a sense of sin, and to be accompanied by observance of higher precepts and by obedience to more enduring laws. It availed nothing for a man to offer his bullock or his goat unless he laid his will upon the altar at the same time—no sin-offering could be acceptable to God unless the sin was put away, and no meat-offering could be regarded with favour if the heart of the offeror was without love to his neighbour and his life was marked by acts of injustice to him. It was of no avail to come before the Lord with“thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil,”unless the higher requirement was fulfilled—to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God(Micah vi. 7, 8).
II. The doing of justice and judgment is more acceptable to God because it is a moral reality.To love our neighbour as ourself is in itself good,—it is a moral attribute, an element of character, a part of the man himself. It is an expression of love to God and obedience to His commands which can be made anywhere and at all times, for to do justice and judgment is the law of the moral universe, and belongs to heaven as much as to earth. It is to do what God has been doing from all eternity, for it is written that they“are the habitation of His throne”(Psa. lxxxix. 14). All other offerings without these are“vain oblations,”and even“an abomination”(Isa. i. 13) unto Him who owns“every beast of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills”(Psa. l. 10). To expect a holy and spiritual Being to accept anything less than a moral reality is to expect Him to be satisfied with less than would often content a fellow-creature.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Sacrifice;literally,slaughter.But with slender exceptions, the slaughter is a slaughter for sacrifice. . . . He did not love the slaughtering of His Son upon the cross. He did not love the slaughtering of beasts year by year continually. On the contrary, He does love righteousness, and, therefore, He does love, in the severities that men impugn, that very element of right which is the attribute that they would bring into the question. Doing righteousness Himself, He prefers the right-doing of His creatures to any form of sacrifice or possible service they can ever render.—Miller.
“Sacrifice” at best is only circumstantially good—rectitude is essentially so. Sacrifice, at best, is only the means and expression of good; rectitude is goodness itself. God accepts the moral without the ceremonial, but never the ceremonial without the moral. The universe can exist without the ceremonial, but not without the moral.—David Thomas.
This maxim of the Proverbs was a bold saying then—it is a bold saying still; but it well unites the wisdom of Solomon with that of his father in the 51st Psalm, and with the inspiration of the later prophets.—Stanley.
main homiletics of verse4.
The Ploughing of the Wicked.
I. The high look and the proud heart indicate a man wrong at the foundation of his character.They show that he has not yet learned the alphabet of true godliness—that he has not yet begin to know his guilt and his weakness. He is ignorant of the depravity of his moral nature—of the capabilities of wrong that lie hidden within him, undeveloped now, it may be, but ready to assert their presence when the temptation presents itself. The man who has been born blind is entirely ignorant of the outline even of his own features, but he does not form a conception which is farther removed from the reality than a spiritually unenlightened man does of the real features of his moral character. The proud man by his pride proclaims his moral blindness—his high look is a sure indication that the light within him is darkness—that he has never seen himself as he really is. Hence it follows that he is wrong at the very core and centre of his moral being; where pride holds her throne there is no room for God, there is no confession of sin, and no yielding to Divine guidance.
II. While the heart is wrong the whole life will be wrong.This truth is expressed in the proverb, however we translate the verb in the second clause (SeeCritical Notes). Things that are not wrong in themselves become wrong if done from a sinful motive. A man may plough a field, and in itself the action may be neither good nor bad, but if he plough in order to sow a crop of thistles the action is a criminal one. A man may be diligent and painstaking in his business, and his diligence may in itself seem commendable, but if he exercises it only to gain money for sinful ends his very buying and selling becomes sin. And if we translate the word“light,”and understand it to signifyprosperity,the truth taught is very much the same. While a man’s pride keeps him at a moral distance from God, no matter how successful he may be, the taint and curse of unpardoned sin is upon all his gains and possessions.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to the river, or the base to a pillar. Without these the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into flatness and ruin, and the action is sinful, or unprofitable and vain.—Jeremy Taylor.
The evil spirit called sin may be trained up to politeness, and made to be genteel sin; it may be elegant, cultivated sin; it may be very exclusive and fashionable sin; it may be industrious, thrifty sin; it may be a great political manager, a great inventor; it may be learned, scientific, eloquent, highly-poetic sin! Still it is sin, and, being that, has in fact the same radical and fundamental quality that, in itsranker and less restrained conditions, produces all the most hideous and revolting crimes of the world.—Bushnell.
All thine actions while unregenerate—whether inward or outward, whether worldly or religious—are all sinful and cursed. Like the leper under the law, thou taintest whatever thou touchest, and makest it unclean. . . . Thy calling is not without its corruption . . . nay, thy very religious exercises are sinful. . . . Thine incense stinks of the hand that offered it. . . . The vessel of thy heart is not clean, and God will not taste of the liquor which cometh out of it. Because thy person is not accepted, thy performances are all rejected. “Thou art in the flesh, and therefore canst not please God” (Rom. viii. 8).—Swinnock.
main homiletics of verses5, 7,and17.
The Roads to Wealth.
I. The most likely road to lead to wealth.1.Thoughtful diligence as opposed to thoughtless haste.We have before considered the necessity of thought before action (see on chap.xx. 18), and the same idea is conveyed in the use of the first noun here (seeCritical Notes). But although it is wise and necessary to think before we act, thinking must only be preparatory to action, and must not take its place. It is good for a man to make a good plan of his house before he begins to build; but a house on paper only will not shelter him from the winter storms. It is advisable for the captain to study his chart well before he embarks upon his voyage, but if he does no more he will never reach the desired port. So it is good for a man to take counsel with himself and others before he sets out upon the voyage of commercial life—before he begins to build for a competency or a fortune; but after the thought and with the thought there must be action, and there must be painstaking and persevering action. He must not be all eagerness to-day and indifference to-morrow—he must not work hard this week and neglect his business next week;—such a man may get rich by a mere chance speculation or by a dishonest act, but, apart from all higher considerations, it is not the best road, because it is not the most likely road. No doubt there are men who have made their fortune by short cuts—by what is called luck, or by craft and robbery—but these are the exceptions, and the way of diligent perseverance is the one by which riches are generally gotten. 2.Self-denial as opposed to self-indulgence.“He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich” (ver. 17). He who spends in self-indulgence as fast as he earns will be always poor. The lover of pleasure and luxury will not be a lover of hard work, and as we have just seen, it is that alone by which most men grow rich. And the extravagant and idle man will not be very likely to keep within his means, and to confine himself to honest ways of making money. And both these roads are roads which lead in the end to ruin. It is not likely that Solomon here refers to any poverty except material poverty. But it is also true that no man whose heart is set upon the gratification of his own selfish desires—whose life is one of self-indulgent ease—can ever be rich in the only true and lasting riches. He must always be in poverty as to character, as to intellectual wealth, and as to the gratitude and respect of those whom he might bless with his riches.“If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s(or another’s),who shall give you that which is your own?”(Luke xvi. 11, 12). He is a poor man who has nothing but what he must leave behind him when he leaves the world. The greatest millionaire has nothing he can call his own if he has not a godly character.