Proverbs 4
Butler1. HEAR, my sons, the instruction of a father, And attend to know understanding:
2. For I give you good doctrine; Forsake ye not my law.
3. For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
4. And he taught me, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words; Keep my commandments, and live:
5. Get wisdom, get understanding; Forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth:
6. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee; Love her, and she shall keep thee.
7. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: Yea, with all thou hast gotten get understanding.
8. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: She shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
9. She shall give to thine head a chaplet of grace: A crown of beauty shall she deliver to thee.
10. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; And the years of thy life shall be many.
11. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in paths of uprightness.
12. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
13. Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: Keep her; for she is thy life.
I-9. Thus chapter has three divisions, made by My son at the beginning of each. In the first portion (vs. 1, 2) the children are exhorted to listen to wise and good instruction. The writer states that, as a child he received instruction from parental affection, with counsel to observe it diligently (vs. 3, 4). The advice given was
14. Enter not into the path of the wicked, And walk not in the way of evil men.
15. Avoid it, pass not by it; Turn from it, and pass on.
16. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; And their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
17. For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
18. But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
19. The way of the wicked is as darkness: They know not at what they stumble.
20. My son, attend to my words; Incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21. Let them not depart from thine eyes; Keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22. For they are life unto those that find them, And health to all their flesh.
23. Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.
24. Put away from thee a froward mouth, And perverse lips put far from thee.
25. Let thine eyes look right on, And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26. Make level [or, weigh carefully] the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be established [or, ordered aright].
27. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: Remove thy foot from evil.
above all things to acquire wisdom and never to swerve from it; for this would keep him in safety (vs. 5, 6). Wisdom is therefore the first or principal thing, and should be obtained at all events. She will exalt and honor him who attains her. She will also adorn him with wreath and diadem (vs. 7-9). M. S.
1. My son. There are but two conditions in which we can stand. One or other of them must be ours. The alternatives are, slaves of sin, or sons of God. What a contrast both in the relation and in that to which it is sustained! Slaves or sons! God or sin! On the one side, tyrannous bondage; on the other, gentle, swaying love. On the one side, the whip and the lash; on the other, “My son, hear the instruction of thy Father.” A. M.
4. Retain my words. Let any one consider the vast amount of knowledge in science and history with which the mind may be absorbed; the daily news which is brought to every man’s door; the career open to all in politics or business; the stimulus of endless competition; let him look at the spirit of speculation, the hot haste, the anxiety for the future with which so many minds are filled; and he will wonder that there can be any gaps of time which reflection can seize upon, any corner of the soul left for it; he will not wonder that men cannot spend much deep thought on religion, but rather that it is not banished from its old seat in the mind. T. D. W.
7. Get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. Pray for it, give diligence in the use of all appointed means to attain it, wait at wisdom’s gate (8:34). Get dominion over thy corruptions, which are thy follies; get possession of wise principles and the habits of wisdom; get it by experience, get it above all thy getting; be more in care and take more pains to get this than to get the wealth of this world; whatever thou forgettest, get this; reckon it a great achievement, and pursue it accordingly. True wisdom is God’s gift, and yet we are here commanded to get it because God gives it to those that labor for it. H.
13. Take fast hold of instruction; for she is thy life. We come into the real school-life when we have left school. Duty is twofold; duty to do, duty to endure. We have the tasks of the school to do, and the discipline of the school to bear. And the more honest we are in the first, the braver shall we be for the second. We have duties to perform. Not what you do, but how you do it, is the test. And small things done as to the Lord and not to men grow golden and precious with the stamp of honest stewardship. Our manhood is truly developed only as we make life real, and we only make life real in proportion as we take each duty, great or small, and make it great by principle, and sacred because we do it unto God. A. Marsell. — What society sorely needs in the generations yet to come upon the stage is not more knowledge, not more refinement of manners, not more of the comforts of life, but it is more godliness, more truthfulness, more honesty, more charity, more self-sacrifice and self-restraint. If the next generation is to be any improvement on the present, our sons and daughters must be taught in ways of wisdom and led in right paths. Can a child come to mature years with a better possession than a character fixed in rectitude and radiant with goodness? Bartlett. — Life means not merely passing through the world with a fair measure of comforts, with enough bread for our hunger, with enough raiment to keep us warm. Life means growth into the image of Christ Himself, into strong, well-rounded character, into disciplined manhood and womanhood, into the blessed peace of God. J. R. M.
14,15. Many counsels of similar import are found in the New Testament, but none so specific, comprehensive, or sharply defined as this. Assuming the figurative supposition that there are but two paths of human life, a good and, therefore, right one, and an evil and, therefore, wrong one, the injunction is first general, not to enter the wrong, and next more definite and positive, to avoid it, or if it should happen to be touched at any point, not to pass a step upon it, but instantly to turn again and return to the right way. A main point to be noticed is the particularity and rigidity of the rule, its absolutely uncompromising character and unlimited extent. It applies to all forms and degrees of evil-doing. No matter how comparatively great or small the sin may be, it admits of no yielding. It allows not a step to be taken in the path of evil, but imperatively exacts entire forbearance, or the instant withdrawal from every sinful practice. This principle and this alone is the necessary rule of safety and usefulness. He only who practises this entire avoidance, this unqualified abstinence, this unyielding rejection of every evil practice can hope to stand safely, securely. B.
In his intelligence man possesses an instrument capable of appropriating the secrets of universal knowledge; in his free-will, the power of being holy as God is holy, and of becoming, by that means, the agent of His omnipotent will. But this aim, so far above him, is still for him lost in the dim distance. In order to reach it it is necessary that man should surrender himself; and in order to surrender himself he must be his own master, and, first of all, he must conquer himself. But what is the enemy he has to conquer? The common notion is that the obstacle in the way of our self-government is the authority of a master, who imposes his laws upon us; and that is why man makes efforts to get rid of or, at all events, to draw his attention away from the thought of God. This is the deepest of delusions. The danger which threatens our liberty is much more truly the power of our lower nature, of our sensual appetites, of our instinctive tastes. Here is the true enemy of our liberty, which we must overcome for ourselves by a series of victories, of which each one is an act of self-denial. Let the natural inclination cause the spring of the will to give way for a moment under its pressure, and there is an end of liberty; man is no longer his own master, he becomes, like an animal, the slave of nature. Godet.
Whence is it that temptation is so generally prevailing, so mightily prosperous in its operation? Why does not the soul meet it, as water meets fire? The fearful cause is that it acts on a nature congenial and accordant to what it offers. It is fuel that meets fire! Let suspicion and alarm be awakened, when we find our minds at work to make out anything to be innocent against doubt and uneasy conscience. Be careful that when unquestionable duty leads into the way of temptation we stay not longer near the temptation than we are honestly about the duty. Beware of the kind of companionship that directly leads into temptation. But let no man be beguiled to think he is safe against temptation at the times when his only companion is himself. The whole tempting world may then come to him through the medium of the imagination. The great deep of his own evil heart may then be broken up. Foster.
The beginnings of evil are dangerous. They are like the letting out of water—the little stream soon becomes a tumultuous flood. Young men are first drawn to evil by the cords of their vanity; these cords of vanity are tender, attenuated threads of weakness, but they soon grow into strong twisted cables. Chains of habit are soon formed which no agonistic effort can break. The imminent and special peril of young men lies in the fact that they are at the age when the imagination is most active. Unsobered by experience and unrestrained by judgment, they never dream of peril; so they dally with evil, touch the outer circle of the vortex of vice, and begin with only slight and occasional indulgences. But the threads wrap them round and round. An infant could break them at first, but they grow thicker and thicker. Little by little the passion takes on its strength. Bid the passion cease at first, and we are its master; but yield, and it bids us cease our upbraidings, at last, with an imperious voice. Restless grows the spirit of vice unless we have bidden it depart before its tiny strands have become cables of desire. The man becomes the helpless slave of the spirit within him. The same is true, no matter what the form of vice. Every enjoyment of vice is the beginning of a reign of passion, the very dawnings of evil pictured in the imagination may prove the beginnings of the bondage of vice. Then beware of the evil beginnings that make the soul the home of unclean thoughts. Beware of evil books, of the glittering attractions of evil resorts, of subtle vice, of the invisible waves of evil ever beating around us. H. Johnson.
Every commission of sin imprints upon the soul further disposition and proneness to sin; every one is both a preparative and a step to the next. When the soul is beaten from its first station, and the mounds and outworks of virtue are once broken down, it becomes quite another thing from what it was before. One visit is enough to begin an acquaintance, and this point is gained by it, that when the visitant comes again he is no more a stranger. South.—Sin is of an encroaching nature; it creeps on the soul by degrees, step by step, till it hath the soul to the very height of sin. The little thief will open the door and make a way for the greater, and the little wedge knocked in will make way for the greater. Satan will first draw thee to sit with the drunkard, then to sip with the drunkard, and then at last to be drunk with the drunkard. He will first draw thee to be unclean in thy thoughts, then unclean in thy looks, then unclean in thy words, and at last to be unclean in thy practices. T. Brooks.
We become like the things we touch. We take the features of that we look upon. Witnessed vice makes us vicious; depravity spreads. Vileness becomes less and less repulsive the more we look at it. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” An immense amount of adult depravity has its foundations laid for it in the child’s first years. The street is Satan’s nursery, and flashy literature his circulating library. It takes a great while to wear out a soul’s scar. Sin’s colors are put on with mordants. Parents are careful to keep their children away from diphtheria and smallpox; sin is worse than scarlet-fever and more catching. Diseases are catching, health is not. Flowers die, weeds spread. Human nature is like water: it never runs without running down hill, and, left to itself, does not stop till it reaches the bottom. Thinking what is bad soils the mind, breaks the edge of moral delicacy; and it is all one whether the soiling thought is started by crime dramatized, indelicacy sculptured, indecency painted, or sin printed in a paper and called news. C. H. P.—Curiosity strangely moves us to disobedience in pursuit of pleasure. We thus intrude into things forbidden in various ways: in reading what we should not read, in hearing what we should not hear, in seeing what we should not see, in going into company where we should not go, in reasonings when we should have faith, in acting as if we were our own masters where we should obey. We indulge our reason, our passions, our vanity, our love of power; we throw ourselves in the society of bad, worldly, or careless men. And all the while we think that, after having acquired this miserable knowledge of good and evil, we can return to our duty and continue where we left off. Newman.
Temptation is resistible at one time; it is almost irresistible at another. Temptation when it first begins to act upon us may be overcome. He who, when an evil desire rises within him, flies at once to the throne of grace, who cries out to God to help him, will see his temptation fading away. But when we yield to the temptation, which so easily we might have resisted at first, then it gathers strength, and with each new indulgence its demands are more imperious, its fascinations more seductive, and its thrall more complete. W. P. Roberts.—You may fight hard against temptation, and fight victoriously. You may beat it off and crush it down; and then, when weary with the conflict, you suffer the strain of vigilance to relax, it shall steal in and easily master the citadel which lately it spent all its force in vain to win. Beware of your best moments as well as your worst; or rather, the moments which succeed the best. They are the most perilous of all. Just when the consciousness of a triumph seems to permit and justify disarmament for a moment, the subtle foe with whom you have to deal will steal in on you and win a treacherous victory. J. B. Brown.
Of nothing stand more in awe than of your own selves, and of the dread potentialities of evil no less than of good which you bear about with you. Believe me, there is no smallest spark from Satan’s stithy which, if duly fanned, or even if left unquenched and not trodden out, might not increase into a flame, which should set on fire in you the whole course of nature; even as in this material world there is in each tiniest spark a possible conflagration, such as should wrap whole forests or cities in a flame.
Resist evil at the beginning. Then it is weak and you are strong; but after a little allowance the conditions will be reversed, and you will be weak and it strong. Stand in awe, I would say again, of your own selves. He knows very little of himself who does not know that as there is a possible heaven, so there is a possible hell within him. In the passing thought of impurity there is that which, being admitted, indulged, cherished, followed up whither it seeks to lead, would mould us at last into the hideous likeness of a Tiberius or a Louis XV. In the smallest act, word, or thought of genuine malice there is shut up a whole world of cruelty, of intensest delight in the suffering of others, such as a Domitian or an Eccelino never surpassed. Trench.
Sinful habits are fearful, fiery things. Ordinarily they are eternal; it is rare that they are changed. And a single choice may become a habit, may take precedence in the whole character, and grow into a despotism that never can be broken. Most of those persons who perish through intemperance, forge in the fires of youth the first links of the dreadful chain that envelops them. The Latin maxim is full of wisdom, obsta principiis. Resist the beginnings. Let not the present pleasures or gratifications with which Satan, or your tempting companions, or your own ungoverned passions may allure you to evil, prevail with you to begin the dread habit of indulgence. Beware the first step of a habit, or if you have taken it, break from it before it becomes eternal. Break from it now, or it is likely to become eternal. Remember that the pleasure is only momentary; the habit to which, for the pleasure, you sell your birthright is inveterate, and comes at last to be nothing but agony. Cheever. — Centres or centrepieces of wood are put by builders under an arch of stone while it is in process of construction, till the key-stone is put in. Just such is the use that Satan makes of pleasures to construct evil habits upon; the pleasure lasts, perhaps, till the habit is fully formed; but, that done, the structure may stand eternal. The pleasures are sent for firewood, and the hell burns in this life. Coleridge.
A sense of danger is essential to safety in all the walks of life. “The way to be safe is never to be secure,” said old Quarles. Safety is freedom from harm, while security is freedom from care. He who has a sense of insecurity and constant peril may be all the safer through the watchfulness that that sense engenders. On the other hand, “let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” S. S. T.—A great political thinker says, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” The price of keeping the treasure that God has given us is the same. There are old legends of fabulous riches hid away in some rocky cave amongst the mountains, guarded by mythological creatures, of whom it is said that their eyes have no lids. They cannot shut them, and they never sleep. And that is what Christians need to be, with lidiess, wide-opened, vigilant eyes, watching ever against the evils that are ever around us, and the robbers who are ever seeking to drag the precious deposit from our hands. Live to watch, and watch that you may live. A. M.
We have need not only to watch, but to keep up a strong habit of self-control. The current of our thoughts, the wandering of our imaginations, the tumult of our passions, the flashes of our temper, all the movements and energies of our moral being leave some mark, wither some springing grace, strengthen some struggling fault, decide some doubtful bias, aggravate some growing proneness, and always leave us other and worse than we were before. This is ever going on. By its own continual acting our fearful and wonderful inward nature is perpetually fixing its own character. It has a power of self-determination which, to those who give over watching and self-control, becomes soon unconscious and at last involuntary. Cardinal Manning.—The will, which is the central force of character, must be trained to habits of decision, otherwise it will neither be able to resist evil nor to follow good. Decision gives the power of standing firmly, when to yield, however slightly, might be only the first step in a down hill course. Smiles.
For one man that of set purpose and with deliberate conviction has done the wrong thing because he made up his mind to do it, there are hundreds that do it carelessly, unthinkingly, weakly—none the less sinfully; but oh! far the less manfully. For here is the manliness of manhood, that a man has a reason for what he does, and has a will in doing it. As the basis of all strong, noble, right life, I say to you, young men and women, have a will of your own about what you do and choose. Be the masters and lords of the circumstances in which you stand. Put your heel on temptations if they come to you. A. M.—Be not too slow in the breaking off a sinful custom. A quick, courageous resolution is better than a gradual deliberation. In such a combat he is the bravest soldier that lays about him without fear or wit. Wit pleads; fear disheartens; he that would kill Hydra had better strike off one neck than five heads. Fell the tree, and the branches are soon cut off. Quarles.
True courage and seasonable boldness ever characterize the genuine soldier of heaven. In every occupation of life, in all intercourse, in toil and in recreation our Christian armor should be worn and never be laid aside. The moment our allegiance is tested, the moment that the world requires what God forbids or forbids what God requires, we must stand to our arms and admit no thought of a surrender. Alford.—The fiercest warfare between the flesh and the spirit is not known to the worldling, but the Christian. Men never realize the power of sin until they begin to resist it. You never know the force of a stream until you throw an obstruction across it. Battles more significant than Marathon or Gettysburg have been waged in souls like Paul’s, Augustine’s, Luther’s, Bunyan’s. The test of Christian character is not uninterrupted triumph, but honest and continual conflict. Christ has veterans in His army who have stumbled through their whole lives, but who have kept their faces set like steel Zionward, and who will yet wear the laurel-wreath in the everlasting kingdom. J. H. Barrows.
In the secret warfare which is going on within our hearts we can trust no foresight nor weapons but those which are God’s. If we throw ourselves upon Him in watchfulness of prayer; if we acknowledge our manifold and secret dangers, and rely on Him to bless our continual resistance, we shall be safe; but if we forecast and resolve of ourselves, and determine that we will do or will not do such and such particular things, we shall find that we are fighting, like blind men, against sharpsighted foes, dealing our blows where there are no enemies, and exposing ourselves at every instant to the most fatal and deadly assaults. It is in faith alone—the faith which, with watchfulness of prayer, relies on God—that we can safely take one step forward amid the various dangers, foreseen and unforeseen, which spring up at every instant around our path. G. M.
Watchfulness without prayer is presumption, and prayer without watchfulness is a mockery; by the first a man invades God’s part in this great work, and by the latter he neglects his own. He who hopes to be delivered from temptation merely by praying against it affronts God, and deludes himself, and might to as much purpose fall asleep in the midst of his prayers as do nothing but sleep after them. South.—Watchfulness and prayer are inseparable. The one discerns dangers, the other arms against them. Watchfulness keeps us prayerful, and prayerfulness keeps us watchful. To watch without praying is presumption, to pray without watching is hypocrisy. The eye that sees clearly the facts of life will turn upward from its scanning of the snares and traps, and will not look in vain. These two are the indispensable conditions of victorious encountering of temptation. Fortified by them, we shall not “enter into” it, though we pass through it. The outward trial will remain, but its power to lead us astray will vanish. It will still be danger or sorrow, but it will not be temptation; and we shall pass through it, as a sunbeam through foul air, untainted, and keeping heaven’s radiance. A. M.
A final note upon the command of vs. 14, 15.
Every command, however strongly given, and whatever may be our inability to obey it, should rather encourage us than otherwise; for it never would have been left in the Bible if God were not ready to impart power to observe it to His glory. There is nothing laid down as a duty, but grace is promised to enable us to perform it. R. Hill.—This great ground-truth, so vital to Christian activity and hope, cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often. Every demand of God, whether to resist evil or to do good, to pray, to watch, to serve, and to endure carries with it a prophecy and pledge of a divinely assured fulfilment. B.
18. The path of the righteous is as the dawning light. Their way shines to themselves in the joy and comfort of it; it shines before others in the lustre and honor of it. They go on in their way with a holy security and serenity of mind as those that walk in the light. It is as the dawning light, which shines out of obscurity and puts an end to the works of darkness. It is a growing light, that shineth more and more, not like the light of a meteor, which soon disappears, or that of a candle, which burns dim and burns down, but like that of the rising sun, which goes forward and mounts upward unto the perfect day, until it reaches the brightness of meridian glory. Grace, the guide of this way, is growing; he that has clean hands shall be stronger and stronger; the joy which is the pleasure of this way, that honor which is the brightness of it, and all that happiness which is indeed its light shall be still increasing. H.—The Scripture is full of images and expressions which, like this, describe the believer’s life as one of progress—progress in knowledge, holiness, and grace. There is in this life no standing still, no rest in present attainments or degree of progress—we must go on, growing into greater conformity to the Divine image, until that day when our own race is run, and we awake satisfied with His likeness. Kitto.
There is no standing at a stay in religion, either we go forward or backward; if faith doth not grow, unbelief will; if heavenly mindedness doth not grow, covetousness will. A man that doth not increase his stock, diminisheth it; if you do not improve your stock of grace, your stock will decay. Watson.—Where there is life, real, spiritual life, there is progress in that life. A plant which makes no shoots or growth is dead or sickly. Even the tree which has reached its full height does not remain as it is, but constantly renews and varies its outward appearance. Thus it is with the kingdom of nature, and so it is with the kingdom of grace. “Be ye therefore renewed in the spirit of your minds.” “Though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.” Salter.—It is the nature of seed to propagate itself, and spread its virtue into branches and fruit. It will be aspiring to that perfection which nature hath allotted to it. If you do not grow, it is a sign there is no life in you. It is but the counterfeit, not the reality, of the new creature. Living natures do thrive; pieces of art stand at a stay. He is no member of Christ, but as a wooden leg or arm; not knit by any vital band, but some extrinsic ligaments; not fed with the increases of God, because he doth not grow. To content ourselves with a low degree of grace makes us unworthy of the benefit of regeneration, and below those that pretend to a likeness to God. Charnock.
Many a time are we tempted to say, “I make no progress at all. It is only failure after failure. Nothing grows.” Look at the sea when the flood is coming in, and you will think that the ceaseless flux and reflux is but retrogression equal to the advance. But look again in an hour’s time, and the whole ocean has advanced. Every advance has been beyond the last, and every retrograde movement has been an imperceptible trifle less than the last. This is progress; to be estimated at the end of hours, not minutes. And this is Christian progress. Many a fluctuation—many a backward motion with a rush at times so vehement that all seems lost; but if the eternal work be real, every failure has been a real gain, and the next does not carry us so far back as we were before. Every advance is a real gain, and part of it is never lost. Both when we advance and when we fail, we gain. We are nearer to God than we were. The flood of spirit-life has carried us up higher on the everlasting shores, where the waves of life beat no more, and its fluctuations end, and all is safe at last. F. W. R.
Men do not fly up mountains; they go up slowly, step by step. True Christian life is always mountain-climbing. Heaven is above us, and ever keeps above us. It never gets easy to go heavenward. No one leaps to sainthood at a bound. Nobody gets the victory once for all over his faults and sins. It is a struggle of years, and every day must have its victories. Yet while we cannot expect to reach the radiant mountain-summit at one bound, we certainly ought to be climbing at least step by step. Higher and higher should be our unresting aim and endeavor. J. R. M.—The very characteristic of the Christian conception of “growth in grace” is the indefinite approximation to an infinite perfection. The type for us is the express image of God, the complete man, Jesus Christ. To that supreme beauty our nature is capable of unlimited approach. No man knows how much of goodness, nobleness, and wisdom are possible for any man, or for himself. No bounds can be set to that progress of growth. A. M.—It is the will of God that he that hath “life eternal” should not only retain it, but have it “more abundantly;” that he should keep continually “growing up into Christ in all things”—his path being “like the light of the morning, shining more and more unto the perfect day.” The spiritual day is not meant to have a night—hardly a meridian—for it is to run parallel with the days of eternity. Its glow and glory, its radiance and sunlight, may keep on increasing and augmenting to the last, and then be continued in the upper world. The “way” of God’s saints is “a way everlasting.” The water of which they drink is “living water,” and is intended to be within them as “a well,” or fountain, “springing up into everlasting life.” Binney.
When persons make still nearer and nearer approaches unto God, and as they draw nearer to Him find a gradual influence of Divine light and life and power; grow more and more into suitableness to Him; are more acquainted with Him, are brought into higher delectations and to take more complacency in Him—this is walking in the Spirit; when a man’s path, as it is said concerning the righteous man, is as the shining light that shines more and more, brighter and brighter, unto the perfect day. As you know, the nearer approach we make unto the light of a glorious lucid object, the more light we have, still all along as we go our way grows more and more lightsome. They do not walk in the
Spirit, therefore, who keep moving in a circle or in a round of empty, sapless duties, who keep up the formalities of religion and no more; but they walk in the Spirit who make a progress, who go forward, who draw nearer and nearer unto God, and become more suitable to and like Him, more fit for present service, and for His eternal converse. Salter, 1840.—The obedient and the men of practice are those sons of light that shall outgrow all their doubts and ignorances, that shall ride upon these clouds, and triumph over their present imperfections till persuasion pass into knowledge, and knowledge advance into assurance, and all come at length to be completed in the beatific vision. And where a long course of piety and close communion with God has purged the heart, and rectified the will, and made all things ready for the reception of God’s Spirit, knowledge will break in upon such a soul, like the sun shining in his full might, with such a victorious light that nothing shall be able to resist it. South.
Whoever turns to the love of God in Christ, and yields in the inmost part of his being to the power of His grace, is already “light in the Lord.” The true home and affinities of his true self are in the kingdom of the light, and he is ready for his part in the inheritance, either here or yonder. True fitness will become more and more fit. We shall grow more and more capable of God. The measure of our capacity is the measure of our possession, and the measure in which we have become light is the measure of our capacity for the light. A. M.—The life of those who love God is, when it develops itself harmoniously, still always like the rising sun. It is a life of constantly increasing light in regard to God and Divine things, and also in regard to ourselves and all that here surrounds us. Continually increasing joy also is the portion of those who love God. From His presence pain flees away; there death expires, there life breaks forth like a flower from its bud, and the prophetic word goes constantly into broader fulfilment: “Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.” So, too, love leads us to a fairer hope; for love is life, and life for the finite creature grows and increases, and takes firmer root in the eternal, invisible source of life. Nay, here the boldest image becomes too weak; the sun in the region of nature passes from mid-day height to evening setting; in the life of those who love God there can be no mention of sunset; death is but the passage to the light of an eternal morning. Van O.
In the sphere of Christian faith the reality of a blessed future can never be a subject of doubt.
One needs to have taken only the first steps in this holy sphere to become aware how here all paths run toward a goal which shines alluringly from the world beyond; how all is only a beginning that points to a future consummation. A time is to come when everything incomplete shall attain a perfection, and every fragment appear as a beautiful whole; when every discord shall be resolved into harmony, and every hidden glory be revealed; when every holy desire find full satisfaction. J. Muller.—Yes! the path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more, brighter and brighter, unto the perfect day. It is imperfect now and often stormy and cloudy, but through the storm and the sunshine the path runs on. The beings toiling in it are not such in appearance as you would think destined to thrones of glory; they look rather like weather-beaten mariners, poor, way-worn pilgrims, with garments worn and dusty; but they are all to be presented without spot before the throne of God. They are all to be kings and priests. They are all to shine as the stars. Light, knowledge, sanctification, all things in the Christian life, all in the progress to glory, are gradual and partial now, entire and perfect hereafter. It is a toilsome, craggy way now, sometimes winding through places like the valley of the shadow of death, but nevertheless rising and, on the whole, growing brighter and brighter, until it shall end in the perfect day. G. B. C.
Light, pure, rich, varied, dazzling shines forth from the heavens by day and by night, just as the light of the Christian’s example is to be poured on the darkness of the world. It shines not indeed for display, but for use; not for its own glory, but like the light that should radiate from the Christian’s life, to illustrate the glory of the great Creator. And if Christian light does not shine forth in the life, we have the highest evidence that it has never been enkindled in the bosom. Barnes.—The simple power of goodness and uprightness flows out as an emanation on all around. The good man shines like the sun, not because he purposes to shine, but because he is full of light. The bad man is rebuked, the good man strengthened by his example; everything evil and ungraceful is ashamed before him, everything right and lovely is made stronger and lovelier. H. B.—A living Christian out among men in daily employment is an incessant fountain of Gospel light. He preaches all the time. A formal discourse is but for a half hour. A Christian life lived out among men is all of it text, argument, and application, and never lets go. It is an incessant sermon. It accumulates effects and adds results together. C. H. P.
Since we are, one and all, in the number of those to whom God has said, “Arise, shine, for thy light has come,” let us take care that we do shine; that we keep our souls, like a clear mirror, free from the mists and stains of earth, which would otherwise dim the glorious image of the Son of God, offering Himself to be reflected in them continually. And let us do our work swiftly and clearly, but as silently as possible; after the manner of rays of light, which come from the sun in silence, with inconceivable speed, straight to the point where God intends them to fall. Such should our work be; no noise, no disturbance, no loitering about other and meaner things. Keble.
19. Here thick darkness is contrasted with the light of the preceding verse. In such a darkness no one can know on what he may stumble. In other words, “They are surrounded with darkness, which exposes them to continual danger of stumbling to their ruin.” M. S.—We have the heavenly assurance that the path of the just is to shine more and more unto the perfect day. But this blessed truth involves its opposite, that the path of the wicked must grow darker and darker unto the total night, unless he give heed to the voice which calls him out of his darkness, and turn to the light, which is ever striving to illumine it. Hare.—This is an apt figure for every misspent life. It sets forth in a very striking manner the growing wretchedness and ruin induced by evil habits, the loss of reputation, of domestic comfort, of health, of peace of mind, of property, of life, of the immortal soul, sinking deeper and deeper down until the miserable victim makes the final plunge into the blackness of everlasting woe. W. H. G.
20-22. Solomon, having warned us not to do evil, here teaches us how to do well. It is not enough for us to shun the occasions of sin, but we must study the methods of duty. We must have a continual regard to the Word of God, and endeavor that it may be always ready to us. The sayings of wisdom must be our monitors to warn us of duty and danger. We must lodge them within us as a commanding principle, the influences of which are diffused throughout the whole man—“Keep them in the midst of thine heart, as things dear to thee, and which thou art afraid of losing.” Let the Word of God be written in the heart, and that which is written there will remain. H.
21. Men will spend hours in hearing and not one minute in serious reflections; as if the Word in their ears could cure the disease in the heart. This is the worm at the root of all our spiritual advantages. The soil must be made tenacious of the seed by the harrow of meditation, which hides it in the heart and covers it with earth; for want of being laid deep and banded by serious meditation the seed takes no root, because there is not much earth about it. Charnock. —Translate the sense of Scripture into your lives, and expound the Word of God by your works. Interpret it by your feet and teach it by your fingers—that is, let your walkings and your workings be Scripture explications Caryl.
23. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Watch thy heart more than all other things that are to be kept, because out of it flow the streams of thy life. The terseness of the Hebrew tongue enabled them to say, “Watch thy heart above all keeping, for from it are the outflowings of life.” The heart seems to be thought of as a fountain from which flow out all the streams that make up the weal or woe of human life. Since man has the making and the guarding of his own life-fountain put under his own charge, it behooves him to account it his first duty to keep it well. This life-fountain is the heart, the moral heart, out of which, says our Divine Lord, “proceed those things that defile the man—evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness, blasphemies.” Out of this come also the genial sympathies, the love and the friendship, the sweet charities that perpetually react to bless their authors and givers. But, above all, let it be considered that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; from the heart men repent with repentance never to be repented of; the love of the heart is the fulfilling of God’s great law, and brings the soul into sympathy with heaven. Verily, there is infinite reason for keeping the heart with all diligence, since out of it flow such issues of life. H. C.
The heart, as the central organ of the circulation of the blood, forms the focus of the life of the body. It is also the centre of all spiritual functions. Everything spiritual, whether belonging to the intellectual, moral, or pathological sphere, is appropriated and assimilated by man in the heart as a common meeting-place, and is again set in circulation from the heart; so that all vital motions of the soul proceed from the heart and react upon it. Now, because the heart is the central point of the person’s life, the work-place for the personal appropriation and assimilation of everything spiritual, the moral and religious condition of man lies in the heart. Only what enters the heart possesses moral worth, and only what comes from the heart is a moral product. A man’s whole life as an individual, as well as all his separate personal acts, derive their character and moral significance from the quality and contents of the heart. Because of this man is characterized by his heart in all his habitual and moral attributes. We read of a wise heart, of a pure heart, of an honest and righteous heart; and so, on the other hand, of a perverse heart, of a wicked and stubborn heart, and of a haughty heart. Also on man’s side the process of salvation begins in the heart. Faith, in which man’s personal life in its deepest basis takes a new direction, belongs entirely to the sphere of the heart, and is described as a making fast, a making strong (Psalms 27:14; 31:25), a staying of the heart (compare especially Psalm 112:7) on that foundation which is God Himself (Psalm 73:26). O.
God, who gave us these souls, gave us a strict charge with them: Man, woman, keep thy heart; take heed to thy spirit (Deut. 4:9). We must maintain a holy jealousy of ourselves, and set a strait guard upon all the avenues of the soul; keep our hearts from doing hurt and getting hurt; from being defiled by sin and disturbed by trouble; keep them as our jewel, as our vineyard; keep a conscience void of offence; keep out bad thoughts; keep up good thoughts; keep the affections upon right objects and in due bounds. Keep them with all keepings, so the Word is; there are many ways of keeping things—by care, by strength, by calling in help, and we must use them all in keeping our hearts; and all little enough, so deceitful are they (Jer. 17:9). Or, above all keepings; we must keep our hearts with more care and diligence than we keep anything else. We must keep our eyes (Job 31:1), keep our tongues (Psalm 34:13), keep our feet (Eccl. 5:1), but, above all, keep our hearts. Out of a heart well kept will flow living issues, good products, to the glory of God and the edification of others. All the actions of the life flow from the heart, and therefore keeping that is making the tree good and healing the springs. Our lives will be regular or irregular, comfortable or uncomfortable, according as our hearts are kept or neglected. H.
The great trust which is committed to us all is ourselves. And in connection therewith we are responsible for two things: first, for the development of character; and, second, for the exercise of capacity. We are responsible for the development of character. We have to cut off and suppress, or, at least, to subordinate and regulate a great deal within us in order that the true self may rise into sovereign majesty and power. We have to cultivate shy graces, unwelcome duties, sides of our character which are not naturally prominent. The faults that we have are not to be cured simply by the repression of them, but by the cultivation of their opposites. All this is given to us to do, and nobody can do it for us. We are stewards of many things, but the most precious gift of which we are stewards is this awful nature of ours, with possibilities that tower heaven-high, and evils that go down to the depths of hell, shut up within the narrow room of our hearts. The man who has himself put into his own hands can never want a field for diligent cultivation. And we are responsible for the use of capacities. God gives these to us that we may by exercise strengthen them. And so your natural self is your charge. A. M.—Behind every wrong act, every neglected duty—the hasty word, the impatient gesture, the equivocating answer, the jealous cruelty, the reckless calumny, is yourself. Each came out of your whole character; not your temperament, or your constitution, or your provocation, but yourself. You say it was unconsidered; but it was you that did not consider. You say you did not think; but God made you a thinking creature, and your thinking faculty was not given you for great occasions, which are rare in any life, and are not what will fix your place when you give in your account. Trace the secret history of any of the great crimes which now so often disgrace the business world, and you find that he who is unjust in much was unjust first in that which is least. “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.” Out of the one heart are the issues of life and death. F. D. H.
Inasmuch as the great issues of life are determined by the mastery of one set of principles over another, it is very important to seek the expulsion or entire suppression of latent evil tendencies by the careful nurture of tendencies of opposite character, for the strength of principles is in proportion to their exercise. In so far as tendencies to evil lie within us, we should avoid unnecessary exposure to influences that may draw them into activity; and, reversely, we should seek those conditions of life that will aid the development of the good. Chapman.—Heart and tongue must go together; word and work, lip and life, prayer and practice must echo to one another, or else thy prayers and thy soul will be lost together. T. Brooks.
Remember not only to keep your hearts when you are praying and hearing, and when you are in holy duties, but when you are feasting and refreshing yourselves, when you are in your callings, when you are buying and selling. Caryl.—Just as it is true that wherever two or three are met together in His name God is in the midst of them, so, if your heart be at one with His Spirit, you may, in the midst of worldly amusements—yet not without great danger, for you will have multiplied temptations—keep yourself unspotted from the world. F. W. R.
You wish to enrich and enlarge life, your business, your social enjoyments, your knowledge of literature, science and art. I appeal to your own common sense when I say, Then you must deepen your knowledge of God and your love to Jesus; you must meditate and pray more frequently; you must increase the motive power. Keep the heart with all diligence; keep it pure, unspotted from the world; keep it full; be filled with the Spirit, with love to God and man, with heavenward longings and with God-glorifying aims; keep it strong in ardent love and constant prayer, receiving strength by waiting on the Lord. Saphir.—Christianity, as a system of faith and duty, first of all seeks to purify the springs of action in the soul, and then to build it up in all the excellence of a graciously originated virtuousness of character. And this spiritual rectitude, which is itself the present realization of our salvation, though one and indivisible in its essence, is multiform in its manifestations, including all that is designated in the heart’s conceptions as either true, or beautiful, or good. Its truth is essential and immanent; its dignity is but the expression of its worth, which itself harmonizes with righteousness of life and unspotted purity; and thus embodying and comprising all moral excellence, it compels the approval of men’s moral consciousness. Curry.
Man’s heart is like a millstone; pour in corn, and round it goes, bruising and grinding, and converting it into flour; whereas give it no corn, and then indeed the stone goes round, but only grinds itself away. Even so the heart of man requires to have always something to do; and happy is he who continually occupies it with good and holy thoughts, otherwise it may soon consume and waste itself by useless anxieties or wicked and carnal suggestions. Scriver.—There are a thousand doors of access to the heart—conversation, books, incidents, means of grace, all the five senses; and passengers are busily thronging in and passing out at every door. Some of these passengers are bent on doing mischief, some on doing good, and some are questionable; some, though much fewer than is generally supposed, indifferent. Now will any precaution, short of watchfulness over the persons allowed to enter, avail to keep such a house in order? To dismiss the figure, unless we keep a guard and narrow outlook upon our hearts, we may find at any moment that we have “entered into temptation”—that is, have entertained it with the will, that we are fairly launched on the slippery incline which leads, it may be, to a very grievous fall. E. M. G.
Many a city has been taken on its strongest side, which was counted so strong that no watch was kept, even as no danger was dreaded there. We think that we are not exposed to one particular form of temptation; let none be too sure of this; and in resisting one form of evil, never let us forget that there are others in the world. Fleshly sins may be watched against, and yet room be given in the heart for spiritual wickedness, pride, self-righteousness, and the like. The victories gained over the lusts of the flesh may minister to those subtler mischiefs of the spirit; and our fate may be like that of the hero in the Maccabees, who was crushed by the falling elephant himself had slain. There is a white devil of spiritual pride as well as a black devil of fleshly lusts; and if only Satan can ruin us, it is all the same to him by what engines he does it; it is all the same to him whether we go down into hell as gross carnal sinners or as elated, self-righteous saints. Set a watch, therefore, all around your heart; not on one side only, but on all; for you can never be sure on which side temptation will assail. French.
24-27. “Froward” (v. 24) translates a Hebrew word which means deceitful, false, a mouth that speaketh lies, one that distorts the truth. “Perverse lips” are the same. Solomon exhorts the young to speak the simple truth, and never allow their lips to prevaricate, deceive, or in any wise to discolor the facts of the case. So the next verse beautifully conceives of the path of right and duty as straight, on a right line, not tortuous and zigzag. Let thine eye look ever straight onward, with no thought of deviation from simple uprightness. Ponder (in Hebrew, weigh)—i.e., carefully consider the path of thy feet, that thy ways may be evermore on solid ground, firmly planted. Turn into no devious path, either to the right hand or to the left. Reject all thought of guile, mischief, wrong in any form. Are not these noble words of wisdom? H. C.
The “issues” just spoken of are tracked to their three outlets. Speech turned from its true purpose, the wandering eye that leads on to evil, action hasty and inconsiderate, are the natural results where we do not “above all keeping keep our heart.” E. H. P.—Of the things from the heart that need to be put away, the first in the order of nature is the froward mouth. Words offer the first and readiest egress for evil. The next outlet from the fountain is by the eyes. The precept is quaint in its cast—“let thine eyes look right on”—and yet its meaning is not difficult. Let the heart’s aim be simple and righteous. Both in appearance and in reality let your path be a straightforward one. The last of these issues is by the feet. Ponder, therefore, their path. The best time to ponder any path is not at the end, nor even at the middle, but at the beginning of it. The right place for weighing the worth of any course is on this side of its beginning. By the word of God paths and actions will be weighed in the judgment. By the word of God, therefore, let paths and actions, great or small, be pondered now. Arnot.
Do not rest upon external reformations, they will not hold; there is no abiding, no advantage in such a work; you think, when reproved, I will mend and set about the redress of some outward things; but this is as good as to do nothing. To set the outward actions right, though with an honest intention, and not so to regard and find out the inward disorder of the heart, whence that in the actions flows, is but to be still putting the index of a clock right with your finger, while it is out of order within, which does no good. But a purified conscience, a soul renewed and refined in its temper and affections, will make things go right without, in all the duties and acts of our callings. L.
25. The rule of life, the comfort of life, the strength of life, the life of life, is first to have an object, and then to live up to that object steadily and unquestioningly. A distinct, sufficient purpose and a determined pursuit give reality to life and make the man. The primary thing is to have an object in life which will be worthy of our being, suited to our character, attractive to our tastes. For if it fail in any one of these three things it will not long be our goal. To fulfil these three conditions there can only be four things in which an object can be found—victory, usefulness, eternity, Christ. There are three snares which beset and entangle the feet of a man who has resolved to live for some great end. (1) Retrospection. Do not look back. Do not look back at past attainments, for they are nothing. Do not look back at old sins, for they are gone. The Christian religion is to cut off the guilty past, and to separate a man from himself, and from his own history. (2) Introspection. Do not look in. A great many people waste a great deal of time to no profit, but rather to much discouragement, and much hindrance to their spiritual advancement by pulling their own hearts to pieces. (3) Circumspection. Do not look around at circumstances. They are mere accidents. Looking at the waves and listening to the wind, Peter sank. A wrestler must never let his eyes drop. A racer must never look away from the winning-post, nor the ploughman from the end of the furrow, nor the helmsman from his needle’s point. Thousands of things are coming and going every day at our sides. But what are they all? They roll on the surface, but they cannot touch the deeper thing below. They dart, meteor-like, but my star is fixed. J. V.
Everything is education; the trains of thought you are indulging this hour; the society in which you will spend the evening; the conversations, walks, and incidents of tomorrow. And so it ought to be. We may thank the world for its infinite means of impression and excitement which keep our faculties awake and in action, while it is our important office to preside over that action and guide it to some Divine result. Foster.—The mind has its moral element, the society in which it lives; it has its nourishment, which it is constantly imbibing; the influences of the world and the lower nature, or those of the Spirit of God. One or other of these influences is always imperceptibly passing into the mind and effecting a gradual change. And the awful thought is that if the change is not for the better it must be for the worse; if the mind is not appropriating the higher, it must be appropriating the lower influences; if there is no growth in grace, there must be a growth in worldliness and sin. Strictly speaking, nothing is morally indifferent; every moral action leaves its impress upon moral character. Our fireside conversations, our thoughts as we pass along the streets to our daily work, our spirit in the transaction of business, all have some amount, small though it be, of moral value; all are tending more or less remotely to form the character; amid all and through all we are either making spiritual progress or falling back from the mark. With what solemnity do these thoughts invest even the most trifling incidents of life! E. M. G.
26. Thy ways be established. Men’s thoughts are much according to their inclination; their discourse and their speeches according to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds are as they have been accustomed; therefore there is no trusting to the force of Nature, nor to the bravery of words, except it be corroborate by custom. Therefore since custom is the principal magistrate of man’s life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs. Bacon.
27. Turn not to the right or left. A man who has character enough to be strict—to live strictly up to his principles—is likely to be broad, catholic, and liberal in those principles; while a man who has not character enough to be strict in his conduct is likely to be narrow and ill-defined in his principles. True strictness is a sure sign of character; and no one can have character without having clearly defined principles. It takes character to be liberal; it takes character to be broad; it takes character to be strict. Little character is needed to be loose or to be narrow. If you would be a man of principle, see to it that one of your principles is to be strict in living up to your principles. H. C. T.
If there be a case in which we may believe that the blessing of a holy God is really resting upon the head of a sinful man, it is when a man is humbly and prayerfully striving amidst manifold trials and temptations to walk in the narrow way of eternal life without turning to the right hand or to the left! T. M.