95-Pro_31:1-9
LECTURE XCV.
"The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows? Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink; lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." This chapter stands in a predicament quite similar to the one preceding it. They were, in all probability, both found among the writings of Solomon;-a portion of what he had collected, along with his proverbs, for the instruction of his people, and which were "copied out" by the "men of Hezekiah." Like the former, they obtained their place in the Jewish canon under divine direction; and constituted, without doubt, a part of those "Holy Scriptures" referred to by Christ and his Apostles, and of which Paul especially speaks as "given by inspiration of God." To the question, Who was Lemuel? it is impossible to return any certain answer. Some think it was a name given to Solomon himself. It signifies, "One belonging to God," and is thus similar in its signification to Jedidiah. There is, however, nothing in the history that affords any ground for supposing that his mother, Bathsheba, gave him any other name than those which are there recorded; though tho idea has the countenance of Jewish writers, as well as of several Christian commentators. And if Bathsheba was young when Solomon was born, and lived to a great age, it is not impossible that, in her old days, she might perceive the commencing symptoms of her son’s backsliding from God, and in such terms as those in this passage utter the grief and bitter anguish of her spirit.-But the more probable opinion is, that Lemuel was a neighbouring prince, whose mother was a pious Jewess, visited at times, as was the case with other females, by the spirit of inspiration, and whose instructions have received the stamp of divine authority by their admission into the sacred canon. As the words are called at once "the words of king Lemuel," and "the prophecy* (or inspired communication) which his mother taught him;"-we learn that the son, whosoever he was, paid a reverential and affectionate regard to the counsels of the mother,-carefully recording and preserving them; and it may thence be presumed, following them out in his course of life.
* The word is here, as in the first verse of the preceding chapter, rendered by Stuart as a proper name-"The words of Lemuel, king of Massa; which his mother taught him:"-the rules of Hebrew syntax making the rendering in the English translation "an impossible construction."
Verse Proverbs 31:2. "What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?"-Of this verse there are two principles of explanation; of either of which, according to the circumstances in which the words may be conceived to have been uttered, it is susceptible.
1. It may be interpreted as the expression of surprise,-of regret, and grief, and bitterness of spirit, in the disappointment of fond anticipations, arising from the discovery of symptoms and tendencies to evil on the part of one who was the object of so much tender love and so much prayerful solicitude. In this view, the expostulation is full of interesting and irresistible persuasiveness:-it is an appeal to filial affection, and a commentary on the first of the proverbs of Solomon, (Proverbs 10:1,) "A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." "What! my son!" the object of the mother’s fond affection!-an affection in which there is a force and a tenderness which none but mothers know!-"and what! the son of my womb!"-part of my very self! the fruit of my travailing pangs! for whom "I had sorrow when my hour was come," and for whom "I forgot the anguish for joy that a man was born into the world!" "And what! the son of my vows!"-the subject of many an anxious and earnest prayer, and of much pious and solemn dedication to God! Is this the result-this the reward of all? Am I indeed to see thee departing from the living God,-and pursuing the paths of irreligion, and folly, and worldliness, and vice, which lead down to the chambers of death? O! sad, sad day! O! bitter, bitter disappointment! Are all my cares, and counsels, and tears and prayers, to end in this?
2. The words may be explained as the utterance of an earnest desire, by salutary and affectionate counsel, to anticipate and prevent evil-evil to which all experience and observation had taught her there was a perilous propensity in the heart, and many temptations in the life, and especially in the life of those who were called to move amidst the honours and the pleasures of the world in high places,-"What shall I say to thee, my son?-the son of my womb? the son of my vows? What advice shall a mother give thee, who is solicitous about thine own best interests, and about the well-being of the people thou art commissioned by providence to govern?" She then admonishes her son against those vices which she knew to be a special source of danger: and she does so in a manner calculated to interest, impress, and melt his heart,-appealing, with the tenderness of maternal to the tenderness of filial love:-"What! my son! and what! the son of my womb!-and what the son of my vows!-It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of the afflicted." The vices thus warned against are the libertine indulgences of the seraglio and the banquet. Here, as in many other places, the two are connected together, They were generally associated then, as they are still,-both in the superior and the inferior circles of society. The courses mentioned were fitted to enervate both body and mind. They tended to indolence,-to negligent and slothful disregard of public obligations and duties,-and to the prostitution and abuse of royal eminence; as if high station were bestowed for the gratification of the selfish and vicious inclinations of those raised to it, instead of the benefit of those over whom they were set. The warning was given to the future kings of Israel by Moses, Deuteronomy 17:17-and the anticipated evil was mournfully realized in Solomon’s own case, "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin," Nehemiah 13:26. It was indeed a miserable contrast to the delightfully interesting and promising outset of his reign,-between his youth and his age,-the former shaming the latter, instead of (what ought to have been) the latter improving upon the former, and realizing its promises.* Whether the words of Lemuel’s mother were spoken before or after the time when this wretched defection took place,-the fact of the defection shows how imminent was the danger, and how much reason there was for the warning.
* See 1 Kings 11:4-10. The principle of the caution is applied to the priests, "whose lips should keep knowledge, as being the messengers of the Lord of hosts."*1 The admonition was given at the time when the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, had "offered strange fire before the Lord," and had been struck dead by fire from His presence. Whence the conclusion appears natural, that they had been in a state of insobriety when they fell into the sin for which they suffered. And if they were, we have in their case a clear proof that one sin can be no excuse for another.*2 *1 See Leviticus 10:10. rr
*2 It is said of an ancient prince, that he made a law that if a man committed a crime when he was intoxicated, he should be held guilty of two offences, and be punished for both. But such maxims and cautions apply to all. In all, at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances, the mind ought to be in entire and undisturbed possession and exercise of its powers, for the transaction of business,-for the discharge of duty-for the avoidance of temptation. In every condition and relation of life, sobriety should be one of the cardinal virtues. It well deserves such a designation, when so very much hinges upon it. Let it be impressed upon every conscience, that in every instance in which, even in the slightest degree, the regular exercise of the powers of the mind is affected and impaired-there is sin. But let it not be even thus limited. Let it not be imagined that no sin is committed, unless, in some degree or other, there is the unsettlement of reason. There may be a large amount of sin where there is nothing of the kind. There are those mentioned in Scripture who are "mighty to drink wine, and men of might to mingle strong drink"-a most noble, dignified, estimable, praise-worthy distinction,-the most difficult and elevated of human acquirements! They have actually succeeded in training their stomachs to stand more than those of their neighbours, in this most exalted department of the human faculties! And they boast of their powers. They fancy and flatter themselves that there is no harm, so long as they are able to keep themselves decently sober. What a mistake! Their powers, when thus prostituted and abused, are their degradation and disgrace. And there is sin as well as shame. They are guilty of criminal waste. They are guilty too of setting a fearful example, encouraging others in the trial of their powers of endurance in the same way,-and glorying in the sin and shame of those whom, in this worse than beastly competition, they have succeeded (as the phrase is) in "laying under the table." In the higher circles of society, there is, happily, much less of this amongst us than there once was. It is well when fashion takes the right side,-the side of virtue. And it were well, if the example of temperance, spreading downwards, should reach every rank and condition of the community; well for individuals, for families and neighbourhoods, for cities, for communities! Are wine and strong drink, then, absolutely and in all cases, useless and worse than useless?-in no cases to be used?-in none to be given? The inspired writer does not say so.
Verses Proverbs 31:6-7. "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."-Some imagine, that in the phrase "ready to perish" there is an allusion to the practice of administering a potion of strong mixed wine to criminals when led to execution, for the purpose of stupefying them, and so diminishing their sensibility to suffering. Such a potion the Saviour, when on the cross, declined to drink. He would not seem as if he were impatient of the sufferings he was enduring, or diminish by a single pang the expiatory agonies of the substitute and atoning Redeemer of the lost. There is no necessity for supposing such an allusion. The phrase is meant to be descriptive of a class of persons who are on the brink of some very heavy and ruinous calamity,-who are overwhelmed with apprehension, and fainting in despondency:-as the other phrase is of persons whose souls are embittered by the severe distresses of extreme poverty and privation, with their attendant evils,-or by any affliction that preys upon the mind, oppressing and dispiriting it. To such as these it is that the "wine" and the "strong drink" are here recommended.
I pity the state of that man’s mind, who can for one moment allow himself to suppose that this passage contains an inspired toleration of excess;-a permission and encouragement to the destitute and the afflicted and disconsolate, to drown the remembrance of their cares, and the sense of their ills, either in the intemperate carousals of social indulgence, or in secret and solitary application to the contents of the bottle;-to seek their relief in the insensibility of intoxication, or even to chase away the real sadness of care and mental trouble by the false and temporary excitement and merriment of strong drinks;-to make wine, in its inebriating excesses, the refuge from melancholy!-Would it be fair to set this one passage against the whole Bible?-one text against its entire scope and unnumbered positive and pointed and damnatory prohibitions? That were to treat the Bible as we treat no other book:-and indeed many a time has it been treated thus, as no other book has been. But when men do take hold of a passage like this, and turn it into merriment, and enjoy it, and quote it with a leer while they are putting the bottle to each other’s mouths and drinking themselves drunk,-they only discover the bent of their minds, and the inclinations of their hearts. They know all the while that the Bible condemns them, and that while they perversely cite this text over their jovial cups, a thousand others could be thundered in their ears, denouncing against them the vengeance of offended heaven, and shutting them out of the kingdom above. It would even be more consistent to question the canonical authority of the passage than to use it thus. But there is no need for such a resource. The lessons plainly taught are-
1. That, while wine and strong drink were not to be used in excess by any, and specially by those who, from their situation required, for others’ interests as well as for their own, the constant possession of a clear head and a sound and discriminative judgment,-yet, they were not without their use:-
2. That their use especially consisted in their being cordials to the suffering and depressed in spirit, to be used in the manner and for the purposes which a kind and gracious Providence designed them to answer. The same Providence that furnished the corn furnished the wine; and, when the one was used for its own purpose, with equal propriety and sinlessness might the other.* Those therefore who were "heavy of heart," from whatever cause, were warranted to use the means, in such a way as to revive them, and cheer them, and give them power to enjoy the good that remained to them. It is obvious that the use recommended is such as to enable them thus to enjoy whatever is fitted to yield enjoyment. But the drinking which the drunkard would fain find in this passage, is drinking which, while it drowns suffering, drowns enjoyment too; inasmuch as by a reasonable creature nothing can be rightly enjoyed when he has deprived himself of his reason; and such is the effect of all drinking to excess.
* See Psalms 104:15.
3. The lesson is one of benevolence, sympathy, kindness. Instead of abusing the gifts of Providence in wanton, unbecoming, and criminal self-indulgence,-make a right use of them for the benefit of others. If bread is intended to "strengthen man’s heart," and wine to "make it glad," it becomes just as much a duty to administer the latter where it is required, as to supply the former where it is wanted,-to furnish the heavy-hearted with wine as the starving with bread. All depends on its being done on right occasions-in cases of really urgent need. This is the use, then, which Lemuel’s mother admonished him to make of his abundance. Instead of spending his substance in gluttony or in epicurean nicety and luxury-she would, on the same principle, have admonished him to "deal his bread to the hungry"-to supply the wants of the destitute and famishing. The principle is in both cases the same. Give meat where it is needed; give drink where it is needed. Give the loaf to the starving; give the wine and the cordial to the sick-at-heart and desponding.-But-
4. Let not any such sentiment be misunderstood and perverted. Let not such inference be drawn, as that the blessed Bible directs to wine and strong drink as the refuge from the cares and sorrows of life. Because a thing may contribute to an end in one way, it does not follow that it must contribute to it in another. Because wine may contribute by its naturally cheering influence, to raise the animal spirits, and, from the connexion between the body and the mind, may thus dispose the latter for enjoyment which it would not otherwise have been in a condition to relish, that therefore it is the source to which the Bible directs the wretched for their comfort-would be an inference as senseless as it would be false and impious. No, my friends. When resorted to for such a purpose, it is the most wretched of all resources. We tremble for the man,-for his health-for his prosperity-for his character-for his family-for his own and their temporal and spiritual interests-who has recourse to the bottle, as his refuge from himself and from the cares that press upon his spirit. O ye poor and afflicted ones, the Word of God directs you, when distressed by the present, and anxious for the future, to another, a higher, a purer, an innocent, and a sure spring of consolation. The religion of the Bible,-the gospel, with its "exceeding great and precious promises," opens fountains of joy and gladness to your souls, amidst all the drought and desolation of your earthly lot. It sheds a blessed and cheering light upon the gloom of affliction, checks the feelings and the utterance of despondency, and teaches and enables the desponding and sinking spirit to say-"Yea, though the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." He who professes to believe in God, as a reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus, and in those promises which relate to both the life that now is and that which is to come, the promises of unchanging faithfulness and love,-who believes in the divine assurance that "all things do work together for good to them that love God;"-that He will never leave them nor forsake them;-that, "not having spared His own Son, He will also, with him, freely give them all things;"-he who believes these things, and yet betakes himself to other and baser sources of relief,-flies from his cares to the wine and the strong drink, and drinks himself into forgetfulness of them,-finding his Bible and the throne of grace either distasteful or incompetent for his relief,-must labour under some mighty delusion,-some unquelled and unsanctified principle of corruption. O! as you value all that is dear to you, beware of imagining that you have Bible authority for such a refuge. The Bible, wherever the subject is touched, condemns every approach to excess; and no circumstances will justify it. And it is a relief, moreover, as temporary as it is sinful; and it leaves behind it the superadded distress of a conscience ill at ease; and this again goads on to the greater indulgence, till even the professing Christian, who for a time "did run well," sinks into the degraded and miserable sot!-And those who complain of a nervous and morbid temperament had better beware. By having recourse to this cure, they may get a momentary stimulus, but one which, by its reaction, may only, in the long-run, aggravate the very evil which it was meant to alleviate and remove, and bring them to ruin.* * For the discussion of the use of intoxicating drinks, see Lectures lvii, lviii, lix.
Verses Proverbs 31:8-9. "Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy."-This stands directly opposed to whatever would unfit a magistrate for "judging righteous judgment." The "dumb" are either the literally dumb-who are thus naturally incapacitated for speaking in their own behalf,-or such as from extreme modesty and timidity, or any similar cause, are prevented from pleading for themselves. Such as these, together with "the poor and the needy" and "those appointed to destruction"-the friendless and unprotected-those who have no resources to enable them to maintain a plea with the man who oppresses and would defraud and injure them-those unjustly and cruelly devoted to ruin, by their superiors in rank and power,-he was to regard it as in a special manner his incumbent duty to take by the hand, to see that they get justice, and to save from meditated and attempted wrong.
I close with one reflection. If it is of importance for the poor and unfriended to have any one who will take their part, and come between them and wrong, how valuable to us poor helpless sinners the interference and advocacy of the gracious Redeemer,-the days-man and mediator between us and our justly offended God! From that God, it is true, we can never "suffer wrongfully:" He is "the righteous Lord," who "loveth righteousness:"-a "God of truth and without iniquity." But His law we have violated; and in His judicial capacity He must punish us. How delightful to know Him in the mercy as well as in the justice of His character, and to be assured that to that mercy, on the ground of His own atoning blood, our divine and all-merciful Intercessor makes appeal. He will plead the cause of all who in faith commit their cause to Him. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." O to be able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day!"