Proverbs 10
WARDProverbs 10:1-5
LECTURE XIX.
“The Proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.”
It is here, strictly speaking, that the Proverbs begin.
The general nature of these proverbs, or sententious maxims, was explained when we entered on the exposition of the Book. I shall not now resume the subject.
The preceding part of the Book having been, to a great degree, addressed to youth, nothing can be more natural than the position of the first of these maxims; and indeed, independently of any such connexion, its place is most appropriate. The education of the young, the early training of the rising hopes of society and of the church, must begin at home, in the bosom of the family, under the parental roof and the parental eye, and the parental care and culture. In saying so, I cannot withhold my anathema from a system, which, if it has gained any ground at all, has gained all that more than enough;-a system which, under the specious and fascinating name of Socialism, and holding out promises at which men are ever prone to catch, without giving mature thought, if any at all, to the means of their fulfilment, avows principles subversive of the first, most hallowed, most blessed, and most useful of all social ties;-a system which, independently of its atheistical dreariness and impiety, ought to be scouted and scowled out of existence by every man of virtue and every woman of chastity, by every friend to the blessings and the benefits of domestic life, and every lover of social order;-a system which, with an imbecility of argument that is only equalled by its unblushing effrontery, ventures, in the middle of the nineteenth century, amidst the advance of all descriptions of knowledge, to propose, as the sovereign panacea for all the disorder, crime, and misery of human life, a compound of which the worthily associated ingredients are-no God, no marriage, and no property-universal atheism, universal prostitution, and the universal overthrow of the incentives to personal and domestic industry; with the introduction of all the encouragements to idleness and plunder, by a state of things which, were it possible to bring it into being even for an hour, could not beyond that hour be continued! My present plea is for Domestic Life;-for all the sweets of connubial intercourse, and all the “charities of father, son, and brother,” which such a system would, at one fell sweep of its loathsome principles, annihilate. We must take things on a large scale. It will not do to argue from exceptions. If it must be called benevolence that does so, it is the benevolence of a distempered brain. Every rightly thinking man will admit, as the result of all reason and of all experience, that if the sacred distinctions of domestic society were once destroyed, the order and the benefits of all society would quickly perish with them.-But I must return from this digression.
Solomon speaks, in the first verse ( Proverbs 10:1 ), his own observation and his own experience. He had witnessed the gladness, and he had witnessed the grief of his father David; and for his own offspring he had felt all the racking solicitudes of a pious heart, and wept many a bitter tear for their follies. Yes, brethren; and if his own example, in what lie terms “the days of his vanity,” had served, as it would not fail to do, to encourage in evil those who were “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh,” and whom it was his duty to train in the fear of Jehovah, the bitterest of all his tears would be those with which. He lamented, on their account, his own criminal folly. And both in the introductory warnings of this Book, and in the solemn and affecting text, with its illustrative and impressive lessons, of the Book of Ecclesiastes, I discern the bitterness of spirit, that would fondly remedy the mischief which his example of misconduct so grievous had occasioned. the symptoms of it, they are beyond measure distressed and alarmed; they are vexed, fretted, mortified, as if something had occurred quite dishonourable to their family, and which, of all things, they must studiously conceal, if they cannot avert it; which, however, they do all in their power, with a cruel and criminal assiduity of varied means, to accomplish. They mourn over their poor child, as having got its head turned; and they curse in their hearts the methodists and fanatics by whom such notions have been instilled into his mind. And all this, just at the time when, in the estimate of the God of heaven, their child is beginning to be wise! This is an awful case. How unnatural in one sense! In another how sadly natural! It is quite what might be expected. They who are unimpressed by the words of the Redeemer, in reference to themselves, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"-cannot reasonably be expected to feel their application to others. They who love and seek for themselves, as their own portion, the wealth, and honours, and pleasures of the world-how can it be supposed that they should adopt another standard of desire and enjoyment for their children! The father whom “a wise son makes glad,” must be a pious father-a fearer of God. Parents who are themselves religious, can alone rejoice in the true spiritual religion of their children.
He begins at the beginning;-with maxims for youth relative to their entrance into life:-verse Proverbs 10:1 . “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” What does Solomon mean by “a wise son?” Is it a child of precocious intellect 1-taking up, quickly and largely, the various branches of his education?-a superior scholar? Or is it one who learns aptly how to manage for this world?-shrewd, sagacious, prudent, smart, in all temporal concerns?-holding out every fair promise of a good man of business-the buds and blossoms of future earthly well-doing and prosperity? Do not suppose that by asking such questions, it is my purpose to make light of indications like these. They are in themselves good, and where they are discovered cannot fail to be gratifying to parents. But every one who attends to the previous lessons of this Book, and to the general tenor of the Bible, will be satisfied that such qualifications are far from being those chiefly meant. Thus in the immediately preceding verses, we have the maxim which repeats and embodies the lessons of all the nine chapters, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.”-” A wise son," then, is one who early discovers this “fear of the Lord” as having taken possession, and assumed the dominion, of his heart; who loves, reads, and understands God’s word; and who walks in God’s ways.
Such a son “maketh a glad father.” “When this is said, there is evidently something more implied in the fathers character, than at first sight appears.-Worldly parents rejoice, when their children excel in the wisdom that, in a temporal view, promises well for their future life. But for all that bears the aspect of really serious religion, such parents are terrified. Instead of being glad when they discern the symptoms of it, they are beyond measure distressed and alarmed; they are vexed, fretted, mortified, as if something had occurred quite dishonourable to their family, and which, of all things, they must studiously conceal, if they cannot avert it; which, however, they do all in their power, with a cruel and criminal assiduity of varied means, to accomplish. They mourn over their poor child, as having got its head turned; and they curse in their hearts the methodists and fanatics by whom such notions have been instilled into his mind. And all this, just at the time when, in the estimate of the God of heaven, their child is beginning to be wise! This is an awful case. How unnatural in one sense! In another how sadly natural! It is quite what might be expected. They who are unimpressed by the words of the Redeemer, in reference to themselves, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"-cannot reasonably be expected to feel their application to others. They who love and seek for themselves, as their own portion, the wealth, and honours, and pleasures of the world-how can it be supposed that they should adopt another standard of desire and enjoyment for their children! The father whom “a wise son makes glad,” must be a pious father-a fearer of God. Parents who are themselves religious, can alone rejoice in the true spiritual religion of their children.
The same observations require to be carried forward to the second clause of the verse, which is the opposite side of the alternative:-“But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” The “foolish son,” is the son who fears not God,-who is without the principles of piety. In this sense, it is no uncommon thing to find a youth whom Solomon would have pronounced a fool, abundantly wise in regard to all that pertains to this world, both its learning and its business..Now, a godly parent, how grateful soever he may be for this wisdom, yet will not be satisfied with it. He cannot. So long as he sees the heart not given to God-no indications of that spiritual change without which there is no admission to the kingdom above, he will still heave the sigh of disappointment and grief, and long and pray for the happy day when his eyes may behold it.
I need hardly say, that in the style of parallelism in this verse, both parents are to be considered as meant in both clauses. They are supposed to be one in character, and consequently in feeling and desire, respecting their common offspring. The father who is glad for his son’s wisdom, will be grieved by his folly; and the mother to whose heart his folly is heaviness, will fully sympathise in the gladness imparted by his wisdom.-The two clauses might be transposed, and retain all their truth: “A wise son maketh a glad mother; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his father.”
There is here, then, a lesson for children, and a lesson for parents:-1. I am far from meaning that the young should be religious, merely to please their parents. They might be hypocrites for this purpose; but for this purpose alone they could not be religious. The first considerations by which youth should be induced to prefer a life of true religion, should be their relation to the blessed God, and the inestimable worth of their own immortal interests. The first and most sacred and imperative of their obligations are those under which they lie to Him; and for the happiness of their undying spirits, which is indissolubly connected with true religion, He, desirous ever of their good, has graciously provided, and has commanded them to seek, and to seek supremely. But we are more than warranted to urge on the young, as a collateral motive, the concern which their parents feel for their happiness, and the propriety of laying to heart, that by an ungodly course, along with the ruin they bring upon their own souls, they bring heart-break to those whom it is their first earthly duty to love; that thus, in a most affecting sense, they incur the guilt at once of suicide and of parricide. “Why should not this consideration be urged, to deter from irreligion and vice? I do urge it, my young friends. I urge it earnestly. Ah! it will be a bitter, bitter drop in the cup of future woe to many an ungodly youth, to recollect how ill requited were all the tender anxieties, the godly counsels, the fervent prayers, the faithful admonitions, the melting tears of pious fathers and mothers, who would fain have won them to God and to happiness, but whose affectionate solicitations and remonstrances they resisted, going on frowardly in the way of their own hearts.
- We have a lesson for parents. Let them see to it, that they put spiritual interests first in their desires, and efforts, and prayers in behalf of their children. Let them beware of all the biasing and misguiding influences of parental partiality, that would lead them to overlook, or to palliate the evils discernible in the characters of their children; and of that easy, listless hoping for good in future, that would make them deal with present faults, even of a serious description, with a seemingly kind but really cruel indulgence. Let the cords with which you draw them from evil to good be the cords of love; but never let go your hold of them. Let the rod with which you seek to drive folly from their hearts be the rod of love; and, while on no account you use it when it is not necessary-that is, when you can accomplish the desired effect without it,-do not withhold it when it is; for the highest authority assures you, “He that spareth the rod hateth his child.”
In this Book of Proverbs, we are not, in general, to look for any very strict connexion between the maxims that are successively introduced. Sometimes, however, an associating link, sufficiently natural, may be discerned. It is so here. The following verses might readily be suggested by the first.
Verse Proverbs 10:2 . “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.” Worldly parents covet for their children, as they do for themselves, the wealth of this world. They wish them to be rich. In all their plans for their settlement in life, this is the main concern, the * summum bonum* -the “one thing needful.” And not a few even of Christian parents seem to act as if, on this subject, they had adopted the world’s maxims. All else is made to yield to this. If, in a situation that promises to be lucrative, there are temptations of a moral and spiritual kind specially hazardous, how ingeniously they impose on their consciences! “What situation,” say they, “is there in this world without its temptations? If this has one kind, others have other kinds:-and then, grace is free. Situation, however free of temptations, cannot impart it, and situation, however full of temptations, cannot keep it back.” These are but flattering unctions. You would not, for any earthly consideration, set down your child amidst barrels of gunpowder, while sparks were flying in all directions around them. You hurry him away from a situation, when any violent and deadly epidemic makes its appearance, and his life is imminently at stake. Had you a right feeling in regard to his eternal interests, your first inquiries would ever relate to the security of them; and your weightiest solicitude would be to avoid exposing them to risk. Let both parents and children ponder the truth in this verse. Forget not that, how honestly and fairly soever acquired, riches bring with them many temptations and perils. The terms used in God’s word on this subject are very strong; and the strongest of all are from the lips of Him who " spake as never man spake:”-” How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”*-Above all, let parents be on their guard against instilling into their children’s minds such a love of riches as might tempt them, in “hasting to be rich,” to use unjustifiable means for their acquisition.
‘‘Treasures of wickedness" may mean, either treasures wickedly got, or treasures wickedly spent, or both. Such treasures “profit nothing,” that is, evidently for the bestowment of true happiness. It is a saying of divine truth, confirmed by universal experience, “that a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth:” and it is specially true, when the abundance is of the kind here described. There cannot fail, in that case, unless conscience has become “seared as with a hot iron,” to be many misgivings, much inward remorse, self-dissatisfaction and selfreproach-a sting in the treasure.
The connexion of the two parts of the verse intimates, that “riches profit not” in “delivering from death.” They cannot save even from temporal death, and far less from death eternal. Probably both-though the latter rather as an inference from the former-are included in the Psalmist’s words, “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means-redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) that he should still five for ever, and not see corruption."*1 So far from profiting then, they only serve, by making a man more reluctant to quit this world, and less prepared for another, to sharpen the sting of death, and to surround the grave with thicker horrors. They chain the spirit to earth, and torture it with the anticipation of the chains of hell.*2
*1 Psa 49:6-9 .
*2 Compare 1 Timothy 6:9-10 ; James 5:1-5 .
On the contrary-“righteousness delivereth from death.”-“Righteousness” in this connexion, evidently means, not mere justice in dealings with fellow-men; but, as in many other places, all that is included in a course of right principle; a course of faith and love and practical obedience. This " delivers from death”-not merely saving from the gallows, preserving from the punishments which human laws inflict upon the wicked; but taking the sting from death, and victory from the grave; at once preserving “from the second death,” and leading to “life everlasting.”
Another collateral and closely associated consideration is presented in verse Proverbs 10:3 . “The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.”
Among the children of men, in their natural unregeneracy, “there is none righteous, no, not one.” They are “the righteous,” who are justified from condemnation, and sanctified from pollution, by the pardoning mercy and the renewing grace of God, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” For them God provides present peace and joy; and all the means of maintaining and perfecting spiritual life, with the influences of the Spirit to render means effectual, for nourishing them up unto “life eternal,"-the higher life He has reserved for them, with himself in heaven. Surely, then, God will not leave them destitute of what is needful for them in “the life that now is.” He who gives them the greater blessings, will not withhold the less. He who gives life to the soul, will not neglect the body. He who bestows heaven’s bliss, will not deny that measure of earth’s good which he sees will prove for the greatest benefit.*1 It is of temporal supplies the wise man is here speaking. The “famishing of the soul,” indeed, might be understood, with great truth, of the proper and peculiar life of the soul. But the connexion rather demands a different interpretation: and in similar connexions, the word soul is often used (very frequently especially in the Old Testament Scriptures) to signify the person, and the animal life. The famishing of the soul, at the same time, may have reference to that weakness and fainting of spirit, which is the result of the corporeal exhaustion produced by the extremity of want.*2 It is of God’s people it is said in divine promise-” Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."*3
*1 Psa 37:3 ; Psalms 37:16 ; Matthew 6:33 .
*2 Psa 107:5 . rr
*3 Psa 34:10 ; Isaiah 33:16 .
On the contrary, “He casteth away the substance of the wicked."-The righteous have blessings as their “substance,” that are permanent. They belong to their immortal nature, and shall continue theirs for ever. So that to the poorest of them the Lord says, “I know thy poverty-but thou art rich.” Though “having nothing,” they “possess all things.” “All things” are theirs.*1 But “the substance of the wicked” is “of the earth earthy.” It pertains not to the soul, and partakes not of its imperishable vitality. O the miserable, but sadly common mistake of the rich man in the parable, when he addressed his soul in terms of congratulation, as if, in the abundance of worldly good, it had got what would give it real and permanent satisfaction-” Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry!"*2
*1 Compare 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 . rr
*2 Compare Luke 12:16-21 .
“Casting it away” is an act indicative of regarding it as worthless. The substance of this world is that on which the hearts of the sons of men are set. But God will “cast it away.” He will not only bereave them of it-and that, it may be, suddenly:-but what is there, in all this substance, that can avail as purchase-money for the soul and for heaven? Had a man “the world” to offer, God would “cast it away.” He would say, “Thy money perish with thee!” “Riches profit not in the day of wrath.” The famished soul must then die, and die for ever!
But we are ever in danger of extremes. Riches must not be our portion; but neither are they to be despised. They are, in themselves, a good. Many a time are they included among the blessings which God promises to bestow; and when so promised, they cannot be considered as an evil. This remark is necessary, to render the verses now expounded consistent with those which follow; in which the attainment of this good is made the motive to diligence, and such diligence one of the ingredients and characteristics of wisdom.
While habits of early industry are a means of preventing vice-for “to be idle is to be vicious,"-they are also the preventive of poverty, and the way to the enjoyment of temporal comfort and abundance:-verse Proverbs 10:4 . “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”
While it is dangerous to have the spirit of “them that will be rich”-who set their hearts on wealth, and make it the determining point of all their plans and pursuits, yet if, by the blessing of God upon honest and well-principled industry, riches do come, they are to be received gratefully, as a boon from the hand of God, to be employed for His glory, and for the good of others-relatives, friends, fellow-Christians, and fellow-men. This is the true benefit of riches. They put it into a man’s power to effect more extensive good. They give their possessor the privilege of resembling God the more as The Universal Dispenser-” the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift”-the bountiful giver of all that is enjoyed throughout creation. He who is animated by the godlike virtue of benevolence, must rejoice when he has it in his power to indulge it in more extensive exercise.
That the connexion is such as I have intimated with the principles of early training, is apparent from verse Proverbs 10:5 . “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.”
Prudence and sober industry will enable a youth, as the apostle expresses it, to “requite his parents,” and thus, by the reciprocations of practical affection, to gladden and comfort their hearts;-and nothing ought to be a source of purer or more exquisite gratification to a son than this, specially when, in divine providence, his parents come to be placed in circumstances that require it. Such a son too, by the universal respect which his character draws upon him, will be a credit and an honour to them. On the contrary, the indolent and slothful in his disposition-the “sleeper in harvest,” becomes an idle unprofitable vagabond, or possibly what is worse, a cunning artful knave, or a vacant, mindless, and heartless sot-a reproach of all himself, and (although it may be sometimes undeservedly) a discredit and shame to those who brought him up.
The remark suggests itself afresh, that the virtues of industry, and sober application to business, are closely connected, as practical results, with the “fear of God.” There may be diligence and sobriety where there is no religion; but there is, assuredly, no religion, where there are not diligence and sobriety. When the fear of God reigns in the heart, the prosecution of a man’s worldly calling, being conducted under the influence of the religious principle, becomes a religious act, and industrious activity a part of godliness.
Proverbs 10:6-12
LECTURE XX.
“Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot. The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.”
The preceding verses have reference to industry and idleness; and of these we have a comparison, as to their present and future effects, in the opening verses of the passage before us,-“Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.”
“The just,” as we formerly observed, is not the mere rigidly equitable man; but the man who, under the influence of the principles of true religion, unites benevolence with righteousness, and seeks, in acts of kindness as well as of equity, to fulfil “the royal law.” Ho is the “good man,” as distinguished from the merely “righteous man,” for whom, the apostle says, “some would even dare to die.” Such a character was the patriarch Job;* in whom righteousness and goodness appear blending in lovely practical union. “Blessings are on the head” of such a man. His value is appreciated; his real usefulness felt. If he prospers, he enjoys his prosperity with a blessing from God, and with the gratulations and plaudits of men. He sees and enjoys the general favour in which he is held. It gives him confidence, so that he can open his mouth without being ashamed.
“But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.” Of this clause a different rendering has by some been proposed. That of our received version, however, seems preferable, and we retain it. It yields a natural contrast with the first. Some conceive that there is an allusion to the practice of covering the face of the condemned.* According to this view, the import will be, that the violence of the wicked will bring him to condemnation. More probably, however, “covering the mouth” moans making ashamed-putting to silence. His detected and exposed iniquity, and rapacity, and selfishness, shall be like a muzzle upon his mouth, shutting it in silent confusion.
- See Esther 7:8 ; Job 9:24 . The latter passage seems to mean, that the wicked man, into whose hands the earth is given, condemns, silences, puts down, those by whom righteous judgment was executed.
And the blessing that is on “the just” is not confined to the period of his earthly life. It follows him to the grave. It hallows his ashes. It rests upon his name, when he himself has bidden a final adieu to the world. “The memory of the just is blessed.” His memory is blessed of God, who smiled complacently on his life of faith and love and practical godliness, and took him to himself at its happy close. It is blessed of his family, his kindred, his friends, his companions. It is blessed of the Church of God. It is blessed by mankind at large. For even the world, although incapable of appreciating the excellence of those principles by which the conduct of the truly good, the just, the children of God, is influenced and regulated, yet cannot but approve and admire the characteristic consistency which these principles produce, as their legitimate result, and with which the profession of them, unless the profession of hypocrisy or of selfdelusion, will invariably be associated.
I may here observe, that perhaps the blessings which rest on the “memory of the just,” are purer than even those which came upon him while he lived. While a man lives, there are, in this our fallen world, envy and malice, misapprehension and calumny enough to taint, at times, even the fairest reputation; but death, in general, disarms these enemies to living fame, and justice is done to the dead which was withheld, or but stintedly and partially bestowed, during life. Death is a smoother-down of asperities and alienations. Few are so thoroughly embittered as to carry their malice, in all its rancour, to the grave. And, in regard to those who knew and admired, esteemed, and loved the departed, there is, as all feel, a keenly sensitive jealousy of his memory,-a tenderness that shrinks from doing it wrong, and that is wakefully on the alert to vindicate it from the very slightest aspersion. It is embalmed in the sweetest of the heart’s affections; and the intrusion of aught that would taint the sweetness is resented with a sensibility specially acute.
On the contrary, “The name of the wicked shall rot.” The expression is strong, but far from unduly so. It becomes loathsome,-offensive as the putrid carcase of a dog. It is cast out and forgotten. Men have no pleasure in taking the name into their lips, or recalling the memory of the character with which it was associated. Whatever, during life, had been his greatness, (falsely so called, for there is no true greatness independent of goodness,) his name, even if recorded in his country’s annals, excites disgust instead of satisfaction, and his course is like a vile, stagnant, putrid kennel in the field of history-nauseous to every well-ordered and rightly-thinking mind.*
- For a commentary on these two verses read the 112th Psalm.
Let all remember, not the posthumous blessing of fellowmen only, but, in a special manner, the infinitely more desirable blessing of the living and life-giving God. “The Lord taketh pleasure in his people.” Their names are in his “Book of life.” There they stand enrolled, in connexion with the name of “the Lamb that was slain.” It is in this connexion that their names are well-pleasing to God, and that his blessing rests upon them. There is in the very best of men enough, and infinitely more than enough, to rot their names, and render them offensive to the God of taintless purity. But He delighteth in his beloved Son. And those who give their names to Christ in the profession of the gospel, are blessed for his sake, and held in everlasting remembrance. His name is “as ointment poured forth;” and theirs, in Him, partake of the fragrance. And moreover, God delights in his own image, in the measure in which, in each of his people, it is produced. He cannot but delight in “the beauty of holiness.” “The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.”
In this Book the wise and the foolish are brought before us under very many points of comparison and contrast. We have several in the verses that follow:-verse Proverbs 10:8 . “The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.”
It is one of the marks of true wisdom, and none of the least, that it is not self-sufficient and self-willed. This is the evident import of the former part of the verse. We might consider the disposition in reference both to God and to men,-to the Supreme Ruler and Lord of the conscience,-and to existing human authorities. Tho “wise in heart will receive” God’s commandments. This, true wisdom will do implicitly. It will never presume on dictating to God, or on altering and amending His prescriptions: but, proceeding on the self-evident principle that the dictates of divine wisdom must, in all cases, be perfect, will bow in instant acquiescence. With regard also to earthly superiors, a humble submission to legitimate authority, both in the family and in the state, is the province of wisdom. There is a self-conceit that spurns at all such authority. It talks as if it would legislate for all nations. It would give commandments rather than receive them. It likes not being dictated to. It plumes itself on its skill in finding fault. There is no rule prescribed at which it does not carp; no proposal in which it does not see something not to its mind; no order in which it does not find something to which it cannot submit. This is folly; for, were this temper of mind prevalent, there would be an end to all subordination and control.
To the “wise in heart” stands opposed “the prate fool but a prating fool shall fall.” The phrase in the original is a fool of lips, a lip-fool. It may be understood in two ways. First, the self-conceited are generally superficial there is much talk, and little substance; words, without sense; plenty of tongue, but a lack of wit. Light matter floats on the surface, and appears to all; what is solid and precious lies at the bottom. The foam is on the face of the waters; the pearl is below. Or secondly, the reference may be to the bluster of insubordination; the loud protestations and boastings of his independence on the part of the man who resists authority, and determines to be “a law to himself.”
In either sense it is true, that “the prating fool shall fall.” His words are a stumbling-block to his own feet. He exposes himself by his recklessness and rashness. He is in constant danger of falling into self-made mischief, or of exposing himself to the effects of individual resentment, or to the punitive visitation of the laws. The distinction at which he aimed, as a self-sufficient authoritative oracle, not being sustained by any such weight of intellect as is necessary for such pretensions, he falls from his fancied elevation into derision and neglect.
I have said that the “wise in heart” will receive the commandments of God implicitly. This may be considered as corresponding to the character in verse Proverbs 10:9 . “He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.” “Walking uprightly” stands opposed to all duplicity, all tortuous policy, all the crooked arts of manoeuvring, for the purpose of promoting reputation, interest, comfort, or any other end whatsoever.*
- Comp. Proverbs 2:7 .
He who walketh thus-" walketh surely." He walks with a comfortable feeling of security-a calm unagitated serenity of mind. This springs from confidence in that God whose will he makes his only rule. In the path of implicit obedience, he feels that he can trust* And further, the way in which he walks is the surest for the attainment of his ends.-Proverbs are generally founded in observation and experience, and express their ascertained results. Hence, even though not inspired, they have generally truth in them. It has become proverbial, that “honesty is the best policy.” The meaning is, that the acts of deceit very frequently frustrate the object of him by whom they are employed, and land him in evils greater than the one he meant, by the use of them, to shun. Let it be deeply impressed on all minds, and an ever-present thought, that the way of safety, of reputation, of happiness, of honour, and, generally speaking, of success, is the way of evidently commanded duty. In the opposite course,-the course regulated by the ever-shifting maxims of a worldly expediency, and the tactics of an accommodating policy, there can be nothing of that sweet confidence in God, which is the peculiar enjoyment of the “upright;” but the consciousness of evil interdicting all such confidence, separating between the soul and God, and distracting it with unceasing solicitudes.
- Comp. Psalms 37:1-7 .
And detection comes at last!-“He that perverteth his ways shall be known.” Artifice and guile seldom succeed long in screening themselves from discovery. The feet of the artful man are caught in the meshes of his own net; and his very efforts to disentangle himself discover his wiles. And then come, as the necessary consequences of the discovery, loss of character, loss of confidence, loss of interest, loss of comfort, loss of society, loss of friendship, and loss of the very end which all his arts had been plied to obtain,-the very object for the sake of which he perverted his ways.-And all this is no more than righteous retribution. The results, and the sufferings to which they give rise, are self-produced. The man has not even the comfort of not having himself to blame.
We have had the “prating fool” in contrast with the “wise in heart.” In the next verse, we have a contrast of a different kind:-“He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall.” We might, indeed, avoid the appearance of contrast altogether, by simply rendering the “but”-“and.” I am disposed, however, to think the but may be retained. The characters brought into comparison are the sly artful man-the man of looks, and nods, and hints, and innuendoes,-and the open, loquacious, chattering fool. The former is incomparably the more dangerous and mischievous to others;-the harm from the folly of the latter falls principally upon himself. We had the former already before us.* There is no character more odious, and none more pernicious in any society, domestic, ecclesiastical, or civil. The “winking eye” sows jealousies, foments dissensions, introduces distrust, separates friends, divides families, troubles churches, agitates kingdoms. It “causeth sorrow”-often the keenest inward anguish, and, it may be, the most serious outward broils and calamities. Surely that eye-as well as “the eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, the young eagles shall eat it.” The folly of the most reckless is not so perilous as the studied art of the “double-minded.” Still forget not that the “prating fool shall fall.” Let both evils be avoided. Be straightforward, yet be circumspect.
The image in the 11th verse ( Proverbs 10:11 ) is a very beautiful one, “The mouth of the righteous is a well of life”-or a living fountain. In Hebrew idiom, " living water" means, as various passages show, springing water.*1 As a well or fountain, then, of springing water, clear, cool, and refreshing to the exhausted traveller, so to the weary soul is “the mouth of the righteous.” Thus precious, thus salutary, thus cheering, thus invigorating and bracing, are the instructions, consolations, and counsels, of the wise and good. The mouth “speaking from the abundance of the heart,” brings forth the stores of a well-informed mind, and of a pious, kind, affectionate spirit. It is a striking figure which is used by Job, to express his disappointment on the failure of those friends to administer consolation and strength, from whose lips he had eagerly and fondly anticipated it.*2 The caravan in the wilderness, with their tongues cleaving to the roof of their mouth for thirst, see water at a distance. Their spirits rise at the sight. They hasten forward. But, ere they reach the spot, it has passed away. “The mouth of the righteous” will not thus disappoint the expectations of those who look for its refreshing words. The mouth of God’s servants and of God’s people ought, in this respect, to be like His own. His mouth is indeed “a well of life.” His instructions are all truth, and they are all life-giving. It was of them, as accompanied by the teaching and influence of the Spirit, that Jesus said-speaking of the water of the well of Sychar-“He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but who soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.*3”
*1 See in the margin, Genesis 26:19 . rr
*2 Job 6:15-20 . rr
*3 f John 4:13-14 . rr
In the original, the latter part of this verse is the same as the latter part of the sixth. The words may be rendered either, “violence covereth the mouth of the wicked,” or, “the mouth of the wicked covereth violence.” As they occur here, the latter seems the more natural meaning, as standing in more distinct and suitable contrast with the other clause of the verse:-" The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life," but “the mouth of the wicked covereth violence.” From the one there proceed the words of comfort, truth, and joy; under the tongue of the other there lie concealed cursing and bitterness, wrath, and clamour, and evil-speaking. There is something more fearful in the idea of the mouth covering violence than in that of its uttering it. If the mouth is kept close, it is only covering, till a convenient season, the violence that is within;-intimating, that the wicked is well aware when it is most for his nefarious purposes to keep silence, as well as when to speak out. Even when he compresses his lips and says nothing, there is no good there. It is but a cover to violence.
The connexion is natural between this and the following verse-" Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." Hatred and love are opposites, in their nature and in their effects. Here we have one of the many points of contrast.
“Hatred stirreth up strifes.” It will not allow its object to rest. It is ever jealous and touchy; catches impatiently at every trifle; lets nothing pass that can possibly be construed amiss; magnifies and misrepresents; is easily provoked; thinks evil; rejoices not in the truth but in iniquity; cherishes resentment; looks out for modes of retaliation; seizes every opportunity to pick quarrels; easily irritated, it is not easily appeased,-taking fire in a moment, but difficult to quench, and slow to cool. It blows up the kindling fuel, and stirs the dying embers of strife.
“Love,” on the contrary, “covereth all sins.” It is ever disposed to overlook, to pardon, to forget. This must, of course, be understood in harmony with such other parts of Scripture as Leviticus 19:17 .-“Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” Suffering sin upon a brother, is an act, not of love but of hatred-and one of its very worst. By “love covering all sins,” is meant the general disposition to pass over personal wrongs; not to be quick in taking offence, and, when offended, to be quick to reconciliation, “easy to be entreated”-every wish and desire set upon restored agreement.*
This passage in Proverbs affords the explanation of a much abused passage in the New Testament; the latter being a quotation of the former-" Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."* Men have interpreted this of almsgiving; and have represented gifts to the poor as covering the sins of the charitable from the eye and vengeance of Divine justice. There is in this a twofold error. Charity is not alms giving; it is love:-and it is not from the justice of God that it covers the sins of him by whom it is exercised, but from public exposure to others that it covers the sins of its object. The words in Proverbs show this: the “hiding of the multitude of sins” standing in contrast to the “stirring up of strifes."-The sense affixed, in thoughtlessness, to the words of Peter is most pernicious. But the true sense, as here made apparent, presents one of the most important of love’s exercises, and one most salutary amongst the Lord’s people in the fellowship of his churches-essential, indeed, to the preservation of peace, and union, and social prosperity.
Let this spirit, then-the spirit of love, be increasingly cultivated. “Love as brethren.” “Let brotherly love continue.” Let the world see in you “how Christians love one another.” This is the evidence of your own discipleship,*1 while it is one of the means of the world’s conviction, and conversion to Christ.*2
*1 f John 13:35 . rr
*2 f John 17:20-21 rr
Mark here the identity of the great principles of Old and New Testament morality. Many speak of them as if there were essential differences between them. It is not so. They are the same. When Peter says, “Charity covereth the multitude of sins,” he quotes Solomon. When Paul says, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head,"*3 he quotes Solomon. When our Lord himself says-” Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy;"*4-he does not quote the saying with approbation, as if it were a true interpretation of the law, and then lay down a law of his own in distinction from it. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy,” was not the Law of Moses;-no, never, and in no wise. Love to personal enemies was inculcated by the Law of Moses as well as by the law of Christ.*5 Our blessed Master is to be understood as only reprobating the false gloss, and restoring and confirming the true sense of the law. The whole law is summed up by Him in the two great precepts of love to God and love to men; or in the one great principle of love.*6 And in the parable of the good Samaritan, He shows that this love included enemies and aliens, as well as friends, and countrymen, and kindred.*7 And this is the Book whose morality is to be set aside by the atheistical and heartless novelties of the “New moral world!” O the deceitfulness and presumption of the human heart!
*3 Rom 12:20 . rr
*4 Matthew 5:43-44 . rr
*5 Exodus 23:4-5 . rr
*6 Matthew 22:35-40 . rr
*7 For the full discussion of this subject, see Wardlaw’s Syst. Theol. Lects. x, 11: vol. 3.
But of God’s Law, “holy, just, and good,” we are violators. We have incurred its sentence of condemnation. Vain is every attempt to justify ourselves before God, by any appeal to our own characters when tried by it-either by the one or the other of its great precepts. We cannot stand. There must be something else for us than the Law, or our case is desperate. It is not enough that the excellence of the Law shows the book which contains it to be of God: its very excellence is what condemns us. It is a comfort, however, that it does prove the book which contains it to be divine; for the same book which contains the Law contains the gospel. The same book that shows us the ground on which we are condemned, tells us the ground on which we may be justified. The same book which reveals God as a Judge, reveals him as a Saviour. The same book that tells us of judicial wrath, tells us also of pardoning grace. The same book that appointed “the ministry of condemnation,” appoints also the “ministration of righteousness.” The same book that reveals Sinai, with its “blackness and darkness and tempest,” reveals Calvary, with its propitiatory Lamb Of God, and its “still small voice” of love and mercy!
Proverbs 10:13-18
LECTURE XXI.
“In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.”
The sentiment expressed in the beautiful figure of the eleventh verse-” The mouth of the righteous is a well of life," is here, in the thirteenth verse, conveyed with more literal simplicity-" In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found."
Where there is “understanding” in the mind, there will be “wisdom” in the “lips.” The lips will utter what the mind contains. The possession of a sound understanding, that has been employed in laying up useful knowledge, not only provides a man with a source of constant enjoyment to himself, but enables him also to benefit others. It is not right that the lips of the man who “has understanding” should be always closed. He will know, indeed, when to speak and when to be silent; but to keep his knowledge entirely to himself, would be “lighting a candle and putting it under a bushel.” It is no uncommon thing to find a proneness to talk, not in proportion to the fulness but to the emptiness of the mind. But no duty can be clearer than that the man who has understanding should make his understanding useful. And he who, truly wise, puts God first among the objects of his knowledge; and his own eternal interests first among the objects of his desire and pursuit, is the man who will, by his lips, be most truly serviceable to others. Speaking the dictates of an understanding enlightened by the Spirit of God, he may be the instrument of making others “wise unto salvation.”
“But a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.” The sentiment is similar to that in the latter clause of verses eighth and tenth,-“A prating fool shall fall.” “Void of understanding,” does not mean destitute of natural intellect. The rod is not for the back of him who is thus naturally incapable of comprehending the lessons of divine wisdom.
The character brought before us is that of the man who is full of himself, and who, in the vanity of his ignorant and self-sufficient mind, will not listen to the lessons of true wisdom. In childhood, this temper requires “the rod” of parental discipline, and will ever be exposing the subject of it to the necessity of such infliction. And in the community, when the self-will that has refused to receive instruction, or to be subject to salutary restraint, gives way to the indulgence of its evil propensities, it must be dealt with by the punitive coercion of the magistrate, for the general security and the public good. And in a sense still more serious, the man “void of understanding,” who casts off the fear of God, who walks “in the sight of his eyes, and the imagination of his heart,” exposes himself to penal visitations in a quarter infinitely higher. He is amenable to God for the use of his faculties; and by the abuse of them,-by their desecration to ignoble and worthless, or to wicked and ungodly ends,-he “treasures up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath;” and, in agreement with the allusion of the wise man in the words before us, he shall be “beaten with many stripes.”
The sentiment is still similar in verse Proverbs 10:14 . “Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.”
To “lay up knowledge,” very obviously implies that value is set upon it. Men never think of seeking and accumulating what they regard as worthless:-and in proportion as an object is prized, will be the degree of eagerness with which it is pursued, and of jealous vigilance with which it is “laid up” and guarded. Thus the Miser. With what an eye of restless and eager covetousness does he look after the acquisition of the idol of his heart’s desires!-with what delight does he hug himself on his success!-with what avidity does he add the increase to his treasures-carefully secreting them from all access but his own! With a care incomparably more dignified and useful, how does the man of science mark and record every fact and observation, whether of his own discovery and suggestion or of those of others! How he exults in every new acquisition to his stores! He lays all up in his mind; or, fearful of a treacherous memory, in surer modes of record and preservation. Hints that lead to nothing at the time may lead to much afterwards. Some one, in another generation, may carry out into practical application, or into the formation of valuable theories, the facts and conjectures that are now, in apparent isolation, “laid up” for such possible future use. The true philosopher, to use a colloquial phrase, “has all his eyes about him.” He allows nothing to escape notice, and nothing, if he can help it, to pass into oblivion. “He lays up knowledge.”
But alas! in this respect as in others, “the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light.” Surely, if such be the practice of the wise men of the world, much more ought it to be of the truly wise, in regard to divine knowledge, the best and highest of all! *
It is the Christian’s duty to seek knowledge in all directions, and by whatever helps he can be enabled to find it. It is his duty to lay it up for use-first for the purposes of selfimprovement and self-direction, and then for the further purpose of enabling him to contribute to the instruction and guidance of others. And every Christian should make it a point of conscience, to find out the particular sphere in which the knowledge he has laid up may be best turned to account for others’ benefit-whether in the occupations of a Christian instruction agency, or in those of a Sabbath-school teacher, or in any other more private or more public department.
“But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.” The expression is forcible, and its meaning sufficiently plain. The fool babbles without discretion-with reckless inconsideration and rashness. He expends his shallow stock thoughtlessly and at random. You can place no confidence in him. He speaks when he should be silent, and is silent when he should speak. He blabs out secrets, forgetting till it is too late that they were confidentially entrusted to him. He suits not his talk to time, place, or company, but comes out with communications to parties the very opposite to those for whom they were intended, or to whom they are appropriate; and is in constant danger of saying just the things he ought not to say. Thus you are ever trembling for him-never sure but the very next opening of his lips may run him into a snare, and expose him to mischief.
Standing opposed as this does here to “laying up knowledge,” it clearly relates to the propensity to talk without knowledge and without thought. And while the words of folly may prove the ruin of the fool as to this world, by the injudiciousness of their utterance, and by the breach and destruction of confidence;-" the fool’s mouth is near destruction" in a sense much more alarming. “For every idle word,” says Jesus, “that men shall speak they shall give account in the day of judgment;” “for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” There may be a vast amount of guilt in words: and thus “the mouth of the fool is near destruction,” inasmuch as its very next utterance of profane and ungodly thought or feeling may place him on the very verge of hell; so that, were he cut off with the words on his lips and in the state of heart they indicate, he must sink into everlasting woe.
There is a pursuit that is incomparably more prevalent in the world than that of the “laying up of knowledge.” To this Solomon refers in the next verse. It is that of wealth:-verse Proverbs 10:15 . “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.”
“Wealth” is pursued, as if there were the general and rooted conviction that it drew every thing in its train that heart could desire; as if it were the security for all that is necessary to the attainment and enjoyment of happiness, and the preservative from all that nature deprecates and dreads-a source of perfect security-a “strong city.” It is evident that the wise man does not here express the sentiment that there is real security in the rich man’s wealth. It is the state of mind that is intended-the confidence which the rich man places in his riches. This is clear from the connexion in which the same words stand elsewhere-" The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit."*
No doubt the possession of riches preserves from the evils which are specially incident to poverty. The rich are free from the distresses of the poor. Even from these, however, the protection is, in the last degree, precarious; for the riches themselves which constitute it, are every instant insecure. The “strong city” is exposed perpetually to be assailed and taken; the high wall to be overthrown; the citadel invaded and rifled; and he who trusted to its munitions left exposed, defenceless, disappointed, and, in proportion to the amount of his previous confidence, forlorn, and wretched;-driven, at times, even to insanity, or tempted to self-murder; and, to avoid the privations of time, plunging into the infinitely more fearful privations and woes of eternity!
Besides, insecure as the bulwarks are, there are multitudes of evils, common to rich and poor, from which, even while they stand, they are no protection. They cannot keep out disease, either of body or of mind, or ward off relative any more than personal afflictions. They can neither keep away nor cure, neither alleviate nor remove, the agony of the gout or the stone. They cannot quench the burning fever. They cannot arrest the progress of insidiously mining consumption. They can neither hinder nor heal the still more affecting maladies of the mind, and replace Reason on its vacant throne. They cannot purchase exemption from the grave, for the wife of the bosom, for the child, the parent, or the friend. And, if they are incompetent to ends like these, far less can they Save The Soul. Death-the “king of terrors”-“the last enemy,” shall scale the walls of the “strong city,” and surprise its confiding occupant in the very citadel of his strength. Where can he find a barrier that can prevent his entrance; where among all his treasures a bribe that will stay his dart! And when “after death comes the judgment,” what shall he have, when he stands, stript of all his worldly possessions, and, what is infinitely worse, stript of every plea of defence-which, but for the temptations of the world, he might in time have provided,-a poor, naked, helpless, trembling culprit, before the tribunal of a neglected God-what shall he have to stay judgment-to avert damnation? “Riches profit not in the day of wrath!”
“The destruction of the poor is their poverty.” The word rendered destruction being the same as in the preceding verse, it would be arbitrary to change the sense. Retaining it, the words are capable of two meanings. First, there are temptations peculiar to poverty as well as to riches. Agur was aware of these when he prayed, “Give me not poverty-lest I steal and take the name of my God in vain.”* He who gives way to such influences of poverty, insures “destruction” as much as he who is “full and denies God, and says, Who is the Lord?” Secondly, as we found the preceding clause of the verse to refer to the state of mind-the confidence of safety inspired by his wealth in the bosom of the rich, it seems fair and natural to understand the latter clause on a similar principle. “The destruction of the poor” will then mean, that which, in their own eyes, is their destruction; that which engenders their fears and apprehensions-their constant dread of destruction. They are ever apt to contrast their circumstances with those of their wealthy neighbours, and to deplore their poverty, and fret at it as that which keeps them down, depriving them of all good, and exposing them to all evil. And, without doubt, it is the source of many and heavy sufferings, both-in the way of privation and of endurance. But the poor may indulge their fears, and make themselves unhappy without cause. Their forebodings may be more than groundless. If by their poverty they are exposed to some evils, they are exempted by it from others. If they but trust in God, they have a far surer ground of confidence than wealth can ever afford to the richest on earth. They are under the eye and the care of that Providence, without which even “a sparrow falleth not to the ground.” “The name of the Lord is a strong tower”-how much stronger and more impregnable than any which wealth can construct! Thither running, they are safe. “Their place of defence is the munition of rocks.”
- See Proverbs 30:7-9 .
And as riches cannot save, poverty, blessed be God! cannot hinder salvation. No, nor can it shut out the soul from the present joys of salvation, or the consolations that spring from the “exceeding great and precious promises” of God’s covenant. On the contrary-" Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?" James 2:5 .
The poor have, at times, been so pressed by their fears, as to allow themselves to be tempted to sin, in order to shun the “destruction” they dread. But Oh! let sin be ever more dreaded than all the ills, in all their accumulation, of poverty. Remember,-sin will do, what poverty cannot do: it will ruin the soul. Let the poor seek the peace, and comfort, and safety which are imparted by the gospel; and thus, possessing the “true riches,” they will not need to" fear what man can do unto them." The worst of all destructions will be far from them. They shall know, in their experience, that “godliness with contentment is great gain;” and when “heart and flesh fail; God will be the strength of their heart, and their portion for ever.”
Verse Proverbs 10:16 . “The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.”
“The labour of the righteous” may be understood in either a more restricted or a more general sense; either of his daily labour in his worldly business, or of all his active engagements. The words are alike true as to both. With regard to the former-it “tendeth to life” inasmuch as it is conducted on right principles, and with a view to right ends; not to those of mere selfishness, but to those of piety and benevolence. It “tendeth to life,” by contributing to the truest happiness of his own life, in correspondence with the words of Him who said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive;” and it “tendeth to life” also, by imparting, as far as his means and opportunities extend, happiness to the lives of others.
There is a higher sense too in which it “tendeth to life.” And in saying this, I refer, not solely to ordinary labour, but to the whole of the active engagements of the child and servant of God. They all bear a certain relation to his final acceptance, and attainment of life everlasting. I need hardly say-on no ground of personal merit. The only ground of acceptance and life to any son or daughter of fallen man is found in the merit of the divine Mediator-in the righteousness, the sacrifice, and the intercession of Immanuel. But genuine faith in that Mediator-whether existing before or after his manifestation in the flesh, according to the amount of existing revelation-must be shown by the “work of faith and the labour of love.” And the “labour of the righteous”-of which the true principle is known to the Judge, “the searcher of hearts,” who distinguishes between the false and the true, according to the motive in operation,-will be graciously accepted, as the labour of one “accepted in the Beloved,” and whose works are recognized as having their source, not in the spirit of self-righteousness, but in the power of faith. God the Father will then testify his regard to righteousness in two ways:-first, in justifying sinners on the ground of a righteousness fully commensurate with all the demands of his law, in their full amount of spirituality and purity-the perfect righteousness of his own Son:-and secondly, by making personal righteousness of character, or the holy influence of the truth, the necessary evidence of interest in the righteousness thus provided in Christ for the justification of the ungodly;-acknowledging the good works of his people, as works conformable to the precepts of his law, but evangelical in their dictating motive; and bestowing the reward of free grace, according to the measure both of rectitude in the act and rectitude in the principle.*
- Comp. Luke 12:33 ; Luke 19:12-19 ; Romans 2:3-11 ; 1 Timothy 6:17-19 ; Hebrews 6:10-12 .
On the other hand, the fruit of the wicked (tendeth) to sin." The contrast is striking. It is not directly said, as the previous clause might lead us to expect, “tendeth to death,” but “to sin.” This, by the wise man, is considered as the same thing. It “tendeth to sin,” and consequently to death. Thus it is said, “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”* Between the two there is an intimate and inseparable connexion.
The “fruit of the wicked” means here, apparently, the immediate proceeds of his labour-his income-his revenue. And the idea intended, seems to be, that when the wicked man prospers, and so acquires possessions, they only enlarge his means of sinning; only increase the amount of his selfish, worldly, vicious indulgence. The fruit of his labour, neither first nor last, is given to God, for the glory of His name, or for purposes in harmony with His will. The modes of using it, therefore, only serve to augment guilt, and aggravate the sentence of death. To such, by their abuse of it, prosperity proves a curse instead of a blessing. Whatever tends to death must be so regarded. Oh! it is an affecting sight, to behold men, as they call it, enjoying life, when their real occupation is-fitting themselves for destruction, “treasuring up wrath,” forging for themselves “chains of darkness,” ensuring death-the death that never dies, and adding virulence to the venom of its eternal sting.
The sentiment of the next verse is very similar to some that have already come under review-" He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth."
The instruction meant, I need not say, is the instruction of wisdom-salutary, saving instruction-the “counsel of God.” He who humbly hears and “keeps” it, “is in the way of life”-in the way of present happiness, and in the way to life eternal. “But he that refuseth reproof-the reproof that would admonish and bring him to God, “erreth.” Under the influence of a miserable delusion, he wanders farther and farther from “the way of life.” He is not, like him who “keepeth instruction,” in that way: he is already out of it; and he diverges from it more and more widely. He is like a traveller who has missed his road, and yet will persist in taking his own course, pertinaciously refusing all direction from those who are able to give it him. That traveller may fall into the pit or over the precipice; or, overtaken by the darkness and the storm, become desperate, and lay him down and die. We pity him; but his blood is on his own head. Thus it is with the-inner who “refuses reproof,” who shuts his ear to remonstrance, however affectionate and earnest, and to every voice of faithful kindness that calls him to the way of life.*
- The verse here commented on, may be rendered, “He that keepeth instruction is a way of life,” i.e. is a guide to the way of life; “but he that refuseth reproof causeth to err."-Comp. marg. of E. V.
Verse Proverbs 10:18 . “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander is a fool.”
In the character depicted in this verse there is a threefold evil. There is, first, the indulgence of a sinful passion-the passion of hatred. God’s word gives it no countenance. Its injunction is-“Love your enemies.” There is only one description of hatred that is there tolerated. God himself is said to “hate all the workers of iniquity.” But He hates them only as such. It is the character, not the person that is hated. If God hated the wicked personally, He would have pleasure in his death, a sentiment He solemnly abjures, as foreign to his nature. It is in a corresponding sense then, that we must understand the Psalmist when he says, “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?. .. I hate them with perfect hatred.”* It was simply as the enemies of God that he hated them. Could he have converted them into friends of God, and thus brought them to the enjoyment of His favour, and to the life which it imparts, he would willingly have done it: and that would have been the act, not of hatred, but of the truest love. We are not allowed to hate any human being.
Superadded to this, there is the guilt of hypocrisy and falsehood: he “hideth hatred with lying lips.” The lips that cover hatred by lies-that is, by words that are in opposition to the true state of the mind and heart,-must of course be the lips of flattery-pretending love and friendly feeling, while mischievous devices, the dictate of cherished malice, are revolved in the mind. There can be few things more despicable or more detestable than this malignity of falsehood-oil on the lips and venom in the heart-all that is good in words, all that is evil in inward wish. There are not terms in language strong enough to express the abomination and the guilt of such conduct.
There is too the further guilt of treachery. I am disposed to take the words, “and he that uttereth a slander,” in this connexion, not as a new and distinct character, but an additional feature only of the former. The man is supposed to “hide hatred by lying lips” from him who is the object of it, while, at the same time, he is slandering him to others. This is an addition to the diabolical wickedness. And at the same time, he who acts the part described is emphatically “a fool.” Even in a worldly sense-even on the principles of common discretion, he is foolish; for the slander is almost sure to reach the ear of the person whom he flatters; and then he stands in the unenviable position of one selfbetrayed, and procures himself contempt, indignation, desertion, and mischief, for his pains. He becomes an outlaw from all reputable society; is put under the ban and the disgrace even of the world.-But in a higher sense “he is a fool.” The odious want of principle displayed by him brings him under a ban more fearful than that of the world,-fixing upon him the curse of that God who “abhors the deceitful man;” and who hath doomed all liars to have their part in the “lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.”*
Where is the man who will not join in the strongest terms of reprobation in regard to this hypocritical and treacherous villany? The world, as well as Christians, are open-mouthed against hypocrisy. There is often, however, a great deal of it practised under less obnoxious designations,-a great amount of dissimulation and flattery that passes under the names of needful prudence, and the etiquette of compliment and courtesy; in which, fair and fulsome words to the face, are followed by the curse of dislike, or the jeer of scorn, or the tale of slander, or the self-gratulation of good riddance, as soon as the back is turned.
But the hypocrisy which has the largest measure of the world’s sarcastic virulence is-religious hypocrisy. And assuredly, no one can go beyond due bounds in the condemnation of it, wherever it really discovers itself. It is to be feared, however, that the detestation of hypocrisy is, in the case of many, only a convenient cover for the dislike of religion. They hate hypocrisy. And yet, how comes it that they have such a chuckling delight in the detection of instances of it? Were it the object of their serious hatred on right principles, such detection should fill them with sincere, heart-felt grief. But the manner in which they are affected by such discoveries, real or supposed, shows that they are not shocked by the dishonour done to God by such false pretensions, nor by the guilt brought by them on the consciences of those by whom they are made, and the fearful consequences to which they are thereby exposed. They avail themselves of such detections to throw out their general sarcasms and their sweeping innuendoes against the professors of religion at large. They shrewdly suspect that “it is not all gold that glitters;” that where there is most show there is often least substance. And, where there is more than ordinary appearance even of humble and unostentatious devotion, they are ready with another proverb, alleging, with a meaning wink of the eye, that “deep waters flow smoothly;” but that these saints (possibly the designation preceded with an epithet of vulgar malediction) are all, if one but knew them, much alike.
Now, my friends, we go fully along with you in your strongest reprobation of hypocrisy, of false and treacherous pretensions, whether to men or to God,–and especially, if you will, the latter. But forget not that the very idea of hypocrisy implies a reality of which it is the simulation. We have no objection that you be as cautious as you please in crediting the professions of religion; but it were a very unwarrantable abandonment of all charity to deny that there is any sincerity to be found. When you know that a forgery exists on the notes of any Bank, or on any department of the national Coinage, it is natural, and it is right, that you should be the more jealous in examining and distinguishing the counterfeit from the true. But why are you thus careful? It is because you set a value on the true. You never think of concluding that all are forged together. It would be well, if your abhorrence of hypocritical profession arose from your really setting a value on true religion itself-loving it, and deploring its desecration. But, if this were your state of mind and heart, it would carry you farther than even to the unfeigned admiration of it in others. You would be religious yourselves. You would feel at once its true dignity and its true happiness; and, not with “lying lips,” but with lips of truth, giving utterance to the feelings of devotion, cherished in “simplicity and godly sincerity,” you would unite with all “that in every place call upon the name of the Lord.” You would give yourselves, heart and hand, to His service, under the influence of the “faith that worketh by love.”
Proverbs 10:19-32
LECTURE XXII.
“In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom. The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation. As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.”
Three of these verses relate to the same subject. It is one which has come before us more than once already-the use of the tongue-its mischievous and its beneficial effects.
The maxim contained in the first is, like many similar ones, of a general character. It is no easy matter for a man to be a great talker, without saying both foolish things and faulty. The more especially, that men who are full of talk are in most cases (for there are exceptions) superficial men, without much solidity of judgment to direct and regulate their speech. Their extreme propensity to talk makes them forgetful of the common but just and needful maxim, “Think before you speak.” They speak without thinking. To hear them, one would fancy they had some pleasant sensation in the very movements of the organs of utterance; or that they were using them for the sole purpose of giving them volubility by practice; or that the sound of their voices was peculiarly grateful to their own ear, or, in their vain fancy, to the ear of others. Talk they must. And what is nearest the surface comes forth, be it right or wrong.
“But he that refraineth his lips is wise.” To “refrain the lips,” is to be “sparing of words.” He is truly wise who speaks with due consideration of when, where, and what.
There is one case in which “the multitude of words” is singularly inappropriate. I mean, in worship:-when a man pours out a volume of talk to God; as if this were what God desired and would be pleased with; as if the worshipper (if such he should be called) were vain of his fine and fluent speech, even before the throne of the Infinite Majesty, and imagined he should be “heard for his much speaking”-either for the quantity or the quality of his words! *1 How beautifully is the truth of this remark exemplified in the pattern of prayer given us by Jesus himself-the great, the Divine Teacher!*2
*1 See Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 . rr
*2 Mat 6:9-13 .
Verse 20. “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.”
The sentiment in the former clause is very similar to that in verses 11 and 13. The figure is different. The lessons of instruction, the counsels, consolations, directions, and reproofs “of the just” are precious as silver-as “choice silver,”-“silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.” They effect ends which silver, ever so refined, cannot attain.-The contrast, in the second clause, is striking:-” But the heart of the wicked is little worth.” Why is the contrast not between the tongue of the wicked and the tongue of the just? Simply because the state of the heart gives its character to the tongue. If the one be “little worth,” so will be the other. There is a beautiful correspondence between the language of our Lord and that of Solomon. Jesus speaks of the “good treasure” that is in the heart of the good man;* and Solomon speaks of his tongue being as “choice silver.” What he utters, is just a part of the “good treasure” brought out from within for use.
*3 Luk 6:46 .
Men admire talent, and are loath to think ill of him who possesses it, and to whom they feel themselves indebted, perhaps, for both pleasure and information. They weave the golden threads of genius into a vail, which they throw over the moral corruptions and defects of the heart and character. They allow talent to stand as a compensation for vice, and palliate irreligion for the sake of mental eminence. But it is to the heart that God especially, and in the first instance, looks. It is a heart renewed by grace; a heart in which the truth dwells by faith, and works with holy power; a heart under the dominant influence of heavenly wisdom;-it is such a heart that, in God’s sight, renders the tongue “as choice silver.” It is not the facts or demonstrations of science, nor the selectest beauties of elegant literature, that are here meant; but the lessons of divine truth. The most brilliant display of parts in conversation would not, in the Bible, receive the designation here used, were not the eloquence of the lips seasoned with the salt of genuine piety; and so calculated, not to minister amusement and intellectual gratification merely, but what the Bible calls “grace to the hearers.” And when, in any case, the tendency is of an opposite nature,-were all the brilliancy of genius ever possessed by the human mind concentrated in the one individual speaker, and flowing with all captivating sweetness from his lips,-this would be no protection to him, from the severest reprehension, and the heaviest denunciation of Heaven. Nay, the reprehension would be all the severer, the denunciation all the heavier, in proportion to the amount of intellect thus unsanctified, and withheld from God,-unbaptized by the Spirit, unconsecrated to God’s glory. Genius thus unhallowed, becomes only the more perilous, the more pernicious, the more guilty.
In the same strain it is added, verse Proverbs 10:21 . “The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.”
This is the same sentiment, under still another, and a very natural figure. Instruction, counsel, and comfort are represented as the food and nourishment of the soul. The righteous man may be a poor man:-yet he possesses what may render him, on many occasions, far more valuable, because far more useful, than the possessor of the largest amount of “choice silver.” The silver may provide “the meat that perisheth;” but the lips of the righteous furnish that which “endureth unto life eternal.” The words of his mouth give life to the dead, and they strengthen the life of the spiritually living. He directs the perplexed by wholesome counsel, and he soothes the afflicted with seasonable and tender sympathy,-thus feeding and cherishing the drooping and fainting spirit. The righteous man, by the wisdom of his lips, “both saves himself and them that hear him.” On the contrary, “Fools die for want of wisdom.” That is, of the true wisdom-" the fear of God." In spite of all their acquisitions in science, and all their reputation and honour, applause and flattery, for their worldly sagacity, they “die.” No power in the range of science or art can ward off either the first or the “second death”-no devices of the wiliest sagacity, can elude the detection, or perplex the councils, and nullify the judgment of the Omniscient and Almighty!
With the character of the righteous comes, in sufficiently natural connexion, “the blessing of the Lord:” for it is on them His blessing rests:-verse Proverbs 10:22 . “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”
The expression-" the blessing of the Lord maketh rich," is evidently susceptible of two meanings;-either that God’s blessing constitutes true riches; so that he who possesses it has in that blessing itself the best and most desirable wealth; or, that by the blessing of God riches are acquired. Men fancy that the requisites to such acquisition are in themselves. The Bible ever inculcates an opposite lesson-reminding them of their dependence, and of the necessity of the divine favour to success*
The meaning of the latter clause will, of course, be modified according as we affix the one or the other of these senses to the former. If the first be the true meaning, then the words, “He addeth no sorrow with it,” must signify, that this blessing is in itself the source of the purest and richest joy. The child of God, indeed, feels, like others, the sorrows of life. His religion is not the parent of apathy, but rather of more acute and tender sensibility; but the blessing of his heavenly Father sweetens every bitter cup that is mingled for him; sustains him under the pressure of the heaviest calamity; nay, even converts the sorrows of life themselves into grounds of praise, by rendering them the means of spiritual benefit. The Lord “adds no sorrow.” It gives no real cause for sorrow; inasmuch as, “all working together for good,” all shall be joy in the end. And then the blessing shall be realized in its fulness-sorrow and sighing having for ever fled away.
If the second be the meaning, then this latter clause will signify, that the riches obtained by the good man, who nought them in dependence on the divine blessing, being acquired with a good conscience, and used to God’s glory, are enjoyed by him without the agitations of perplexing anxiety and care, the secret gnawings of self-accusation and remorse, or the harassing distraction of spirit arising from the haunting apprehension of their loss. Both senses are good, and both equally true and natural.
Cultivate, brethren, a spirit of dependence, and a spirit of gratitude. Amid the bustle and excitement of worldly business, Christians themselves are in danger of forgetting their entire dependence; in danger of losing sight of God; of taking undue credit to their own sagacity in scheming and following out their schemes; of “offering sacrifice to their own net, and burning incense to their own drag;” but
“Fond mortals but themselves beguile,
When on themselves they rest;
Blind is their wisdom, weak their toil,
By thee, O Lord, unblest!”
And mark-no wealth can be comfortably enjoyed, that has not been acquired, in dependence on the divine blessing, by means which have the sanction of God’s law; and that is not used in a manner and for ends in accordance with God’s will.
We should reckon a man deranged in mind who should, in the way of pastime, break those laws ^of human society which are guarded by the sanction of death. Yet how much more are they chargeable with derangement, by whom the laws of God are violated with reckless mirth, although the sanction which guards them is one so incomparably more fearful! To do this in sport!-how inconceivably infatuated! Such folly, however, is to be found:-verse Proverbs 10:23 . “It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom.”
The “mischief” here spoken of is not, I apprehend, to be understood, exclusively at least, of that in which the giddy, volatile, thoughtless minds of youth are prone to indulge; which, however annoying, ends in no very serious consequences to those who are the subjects of it. Even this youthful propensity, however, is one constantly in danger of running to an extreme, and requires to be curbed and restrained. If parents and guardians treat any of its mischievous tricks as mere sources of amusement, there is a temptation to set the wits to work to devise a still better one next time; so that what began in jest may come to end in something more serious; and the young may be tempted to adopt and act on the unprincipled and vexatious maxim-“No sport without mischief!” But “the fool,” considered as the man who “has not the fear of God before his eyes,” goes much further than this. He makes “sport” of injuring the character and reputation, the property and interest, the personal and domestic comfort and happiness, of others. And, in still more general terms, he commits sin with a sportive and inconsiderate lightness, and heedlessness of consequences. Such men injure and disquiet their neighbours. They tempt others to crime, and laugh at the success of their temptation-enjoying the sport so much the more if they see any thing like remorse in those whom they have seduced. They treat with merriment even acts of nefarious turpitude, if they can be perpetrated with present impunity.
They hear with derision the admonitions and expostulations of the godly-jeering at them as all cant and hypocrisy; and, to show their superiority to restraint, and their proud defiance of threatened danger, they will sometimes repeat the evil reproved in the very face of the reprover, and that too with aggravations; or commit some other act still worse, and delight in laughing at the gravity of countenance and the heaviness of heart with which their conduct is contemplated. Alas for human nature!-there is such folly. But on the contrary, “The man of understanding”-the man enlightened by the truth and Spirit of God, “hath wisdom;” wisdom which prevents his acting so infatuated and ruinous a part. He considers all that belongs to his neighbour as by the law of God-the law of love-rendered sacred; and “mischief” which he would not like as practised upon himself, he shrinks from practising upon others. All sin, too, he regards with any feeling but that of sportiveness-any eye but that of mirth and encouragement. He dreads it, as of all evils the worst; hateful to God; ensuring His displeasure and curse; polluting and ruining the soul.
Sport and happiness are not one. When there is laughter in the mouth, there may be no joy in the heart. There is such a thing as laughing away terror; hiding real alarm by assumed gaiety; concealing anguish of conscience by the mirth of social revelry. The reflection is suggested by next verse-“The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.”
The wicked, then, has his fears-secret suppressed forebodings-the “fearful looking-for of judgment.” “Even in his laughter, the heart is sad; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.” Till he has arrived at that most appalling of all states-" having the conscience seared with a hot iron," he will have his misgivings, his disquieting apprehensions, scaring, like “a sudden phantom, his maddest mirth. And his fears are far from groundless:-they “shall come upon him.” And not merely his fears in life; but the worst and most overwhelming of his fears-the fear that assails his spirit, when he comes to the verge of an eternal world, (the great testing-time of human principles, human joys, and human hopes,) all, and more than all, “shall come upon him.” During his career of iniquity, he might affect to call such alarms, whether he saw them in others or at times felt them rising within himself, superstitious and womanish fears; but there is a reality in them. Conscience is in them; God is in them. They “shall come upon him.”
“While the “God with whom we have to do” is true to his threatenings, he is no less true to his promises. The righteous are as sure of the fulfilment of their hopes, as the wicked are of the realization of their fears:-” But the desire of the righteous shall be granted.” This might be taken comprehensively. “This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”* The good man’s “desire,” in regard to all spiritual supplies and blessings here, and for the enjoyment, not of temporal mercies merely but of God’s love in them, “shall be granted,” in answer to believing prayer. But the connexion leads us to consider the words as having special reference to the fulness of his desire, in the completion of all his hopes of future blessedness. And that blessedness shall be something far surpassing the thoughts of the most capacious mind, and the flights of the loftiest imagination.
And let me here apply a test of present character. The sources of the happiness of heaven will be the same things with those which are the desire of the righteous now. Is “the desire of their souls,” for instance, to their Lord and to “the remembrance of him?” There the desire shall be satisfied:-they shall “see him as he is,” and be " for ever with him."-Is their desire after communion with God 1 There, “He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them!"-Is their desire after freedom from sin, and perfection in holiness? There they shall be “like Him” who is “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners."-Is their desire after the joy of pure and holy fellowship with the family of the redeemed? There, all shall be clothed with the white robe, not only of imputed righteousness but of personal sanctity-all pure, even as God is pure!-Is their desire after perfect and permanent deliverance from all the sorrows and sufferings of time? There, “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” Revelation 7:16-17 .
This last may be considered as the desire of nature: the others are the desires of grace. And what we earnestly wish all to bear in mind is-that unless these spiritual and heavenly desires are in the heart now, there can be no wellgrounded anticipation of the possession of the blessings hereafter.
Many and striking are the figures employed in Scripture, to impress on the mind the transient nature of the prosperity of sinners, as contrasted with the stability and security of God’s people. Here is one:-verse Proverbs 10:25 . “As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.”
The whirlwind is rapid and impetuous, mighty and destructive, while it lasts. But it lasts not long: it “passes away.” Such is the course of the wicked. Their triumphs, their boastings, their sportive mischiefs, are only as. the shortlived fury of the hurrying tempest.*
- Comp. Job 27:16-21 ; Psalms 37:35-36 ; Psalms 58:9 .
In the latter clause-” But the righteous is an everlasting foundation,” the verb is supplementary: “But the righteous-an everlasting foundation.” Some supply has; making the words mean that he builds on a firm and permanent basis; he trusts in the “rock of ages”-in the “precious corner-stone, the sure foundation.” But the antithesis in the verse leads us rather to the idea of his own stability and endurance, as represented in other passages;* and in verse 30th of this chapter, “The righteous shall never be removed.” Perhaps there may be a reference to the violence of the wicked being directed against him, and his remaining, under the protection of the divine power, unmoved, unharmed. The whirlwind assails the mountain; sweeps and eddies along with impetuous and tearing fury; leaves here and there slight traces of its raging course:-but the mountain stands unshaken on its deep-laid and immoveable basis. Such shall be the amount of the wicked’s power; such the harmlessness of its results, against those who are under the protection of Jehovah. It shall spend itself, and pass away; and the righteous shall not be moved. “If God be for him, who can be against him?”
And reversing the question-as with awful truth it may be reversed-in regard to the wicked themselves:-if God be against them, who can be for them? Could they succeed in rousing the universe to take their part, what would all its combined powers and resources avail against the Maker of the universe?-against Him who says, with divine majesty, of all the opposition that can be brought to bear against Him-" Who will set the briars and the thorns against me in the day of battle? I will go through them,-I will burn them up together!"
It is worthy of being noticed, how often the two ideas of wickedness and sloth present themselves together to the mind of Solomon; the one apparently suggesting the other. Having spoken of the wicked, he brings before us the sluggard-“As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.”
There is no difficulty as to the meaning of the comparisons here used. Vinegar, or the sour grape, sets the teeth most unpleasantly on edge;-smoke, and especially smoke from particular descriptions of fuel, smarts, pains, and injures the eyes. All have felt this: and all who have employed a sluggish messenger for the execution of their business, instantly feel the appropriateness of the comparisons. He is sent for something you long to have, and are in special haste to obtain. You wait, and wait; you look out, and look out again, and again; but he is never like to return. You get impatient, irritated, fretful, angry. He is commissioned on some business that requires despatch,-in which, indeed, expedition is every thing: he lingers and loiters, and saunters away his time in listless lounging or trilling, till the opportunity is lost, and we are mortified and harassed by disappointment. And apart from the consideration of actually evil effects, the very sight of the yawning, lazy loiterer, whether engaged on our own business or that of others, is teasing and provoking. One is ever disposed to push him out of the way. He is a perfect annoyance-“as vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes.”
The sentiment in next verse-“The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened,” has been already fully illustrated* We pass on.
- Comp. Proverbs 3:2 ; Proverbs 3:16 ; Proverbs 9:11 .
Verse Proverbs 10:28 . “The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.”-" The hope of the righteous" is present “gladness.” O what gladness! above all that earth can grant, and springing from a source with which earth cannot interfere! And it shall end in “gladness:” not in disappointment and shame, but in all the joy of a glorious fulfilment. What gladness has the “hope of the righteous” imparted to many a soul, in passing through the valley of the shadow of death; enabling the happy combatant with the king of terrors to sing in the very midst of his conflict, as in triumph over an already conquered and fallen enemy-" O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 . And what a day of exulting gladness will that be, when, “the hope of the righteous” having been completed by the resurrection from the dead-the “multitude which no man can number shall stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10 . “But” on the contrary, and in contrast with the fulfilled anticipations and perfected joys of the righteous, “the expectation of the wicked shall perish.” What a striking and affecting counterpart to the statement in verse 24th ( Proverbs 10:24 )-“The fear of the wicked shall come upon him!” He has his fears; they are realized:-he has his hopes; they are frustrated and lost. The fears are well-founded; the hopes delusive and vain. They are based and built on false and deceitful views of himself and of God. They have no foundation ill truth. They are like the house built on the sand, which may stand in the summer’s sunshine and calm, but gives way, with tremendous and utter downfall, before the storm and the flood of winter. His “expectation shall perish.” He flattered himself with its stability; but it was while it was untried:-in the end he is buried in its ruins. “His hope is as the giving up of the ghost.” The vision that has deceived him,-the unreal phantom that has cheated his eyes and allured his wandering steps onward and onward to the gates of hell shall vanish then in “the blackness of darkness for ever!"-all his fears fulfilled; all his hopes for ever blasted!
The next verse may be taken in connexion with this, as assigning a sufficient cause for the “hope of the righteous,” being “gladness” in their end-” The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity." The connexion may not very readily appear as the words stand in our translation. They may be rendered-" Strength to the upright, is the way of the Lord" “but destruction to the workers of iniquity.” Either rendering holds out the communication of divine strength as the ground of the final perseverance of the righteous, and their happiness at last. It is the “way of the Lord”-his usual mode of dealing with his people, to give strength to them when they seek him, and thus “keep them through faith unto salvation.” * And the other part of “the way of the Lord” is, “destruction to the workers of iniquity.” “Evil shall not dwell with Him.” As “the just God,”-“a God of truth and without iniquity,” this must be his way. Under his holy and equitable administration, the righteous and the wicked can never possibly fare alike.
- Comp. Isaiah 40:28-31 ; Deuteronomy 33:25 .
The sentiment is still similar in verse Proverbs 10:30 -“The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth."-The word “removed” might be interpreted of his confidence and security under the protection of Omnipotence. But the contrast, or antithesis in the verse leads to a somewhat different interpretation. “The earth” should be rendered “the land.” The reference in the words appears to be to the promises made by Jehovah to his people, of continued and permanent possession, on condition of their continued obedience; and his threatenings against them on the ground of unbelief and rebellion. These promises were made to the righteous. Canaan was the land of promise. It was obtained by faith; and “by the obedience of faith” it continued to be held; and by unbelief and disobedience it was to be forfeited and lost.* Accordingly, the various removals of Israel were for their failure in faith and obedience,-for their unrighteousness and wickedness, as the indication of a heart departing from the Lord. The language, addressed to the people at large, always, of course, implies God’s regard to the righteous considered individually, and the assurance of his blessing to them.
- Comp. Deuteronomy 9:4-6 , with Deuteronomy 11:8-9 ; Deuteronomy 11:26-28 , and Deuteronomy 29:24-28 .
Even the present world the people of God enjoy better than the wicked; inasmuch as they enjoy it with his blessing and the assurance of his love, imparting to all its lawful possessions and enjoyments a zest and relish of which the men of the world, even “when their corn and their wine are increased,” know nothing. And then, “the land” shall be inherited by them for ever-the “better country, even the heavenly”-the “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” And when they once set foot on the inheritance above; when they once settle there; thence they shall never be removed. They shall have it in everlasting possession, by the charter, sealed with blood, and sure as the word and oath of Him “with whom it is impossible to lie.” And that land “the wicked shall not inhabit.” No foot of the “uncircumcised and the unclean” shall ever tread its holy soil. There shall be a full and final separation of the vile from the precious. Into the “holy city,"-the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” there “shall in nowise enter anything that defileth.” All there shall be “holy and without blemish.” That land shall never need to rest by the banishment of its inhabitants, that it may enjoy its Sabbaths, which had been desecrated by the ungodly and profane. Its one universal and perpetual Sabbath of holy rest shall never be disturbed; and it shall be enjoyed alike by all the blessed inhabitants,-being, in its character and in all its holy exercises, in full harmony with the pure and delighted feelings of every individual of the countless multitude of the redeemed.
We dwell not on the closing verses, as the sentiment they contain is very similar to what has been repeatedly before us. Let a single remark suffice.-While the tendency of all that “the righteous” utter, from the “good treasure of the heart,” is to profit souls, and to “save them from death “-the tendency, on the contrary, of the “corrupt communication” that proceeds out of the mouth of the wicked,-of the words of the “froward tongue” and the “perverse lips,"-is to spread spiritual death;-every word bearing upon it a taint of evil that carries pestilential infection to the heart. O! that men would but consider, not only the direct sin committed against God by the utterance of evil, but the amount of moral mischief of which such utterance may prove the present and ultimate occasion! As by the slightest puncture, the virus of putrefaction may find its way into the entire animal frame, inflaming, swelling, fevering, mortifying, killing; so may the virus of moral contamination and corruption be conveyed to the soul by a single word, and effect its present disorder and its final destruction; while, from that infected soul the contagion may spread to the injury and ruin of thousands.