Proverbs 15
WARDProverbs 15:1-6
LECTURE XXXVII.
“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.”
In the words “a soft answer turneth away wrath,” anger is supposed to have been already kindled, and to have expressed itself in terms of passionate irritation. In such circumstances, the offended pride of our nature prompts us to return an answer in the same strain,-not “soft” but high and harsh. We wish to show, especially if others are present, that we are not afraid, and that we are not the persons to be provoked and abused with impunity!-The answer which natural feeling would thus dictate, would be one in “grievous words” adding to irritation, and further “stirring up anger”-one which would be only as fresh fuel to a burning and blazing fire, or as a fresh gust of wind on the already raging deep. In this there would be double wrong: it would be giving indulgence to an evil temper in ourselves, as well as stimulating and increasing it in others.
Our incumbent duty, when so situated, is self-restraint. Such restraint, though often regarded as mean-spiritedness, and want of becoming and manly pride (accustomed as we are to give gentle names to ungentle things) is true greatness of mind-true dignity.* But how much soever our judgments are convinced of this, how entire soever our concurrence in the abstract sentiment, we feel how impotent too often such conviction is in the moment of temptation, when exposed to the angry menaces, or the scornful and defying words, and looks, and gestures of an adversary! And yet that is just the moment for the exercise of self-restraint. At other times there is no trial of it and no need for it. It is easy to be calm, and sweet, and gentle, when there is nothing to provoke. Tempers are only known when brought into contact with some antagonistic element: as certain chemical substances when apart remain still, cool, and motionless; but when brought together, discover the heat and fume and noise of violent effervescence.
- Comp. Proverbs 14:29 .
Christian brethren, let us look to our great pattern: “When he was reviled, he reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not.” Yet never surely was there such true dignity of character-the sublimity of composure, the majesty of meekness!
The verse before us states a fact:-“A soft answer turneth away wrath.” In some instances, indeed, a soft answer is the surest way to irritate,-to stir up wrath even to the highest pitch. There are persons of so peculiar a temper, that they will be provoked by our very calmness,-roused to perfect fury, because they cannot get us into a passion like themselves. The failure of their attempts to provoke us increases their own rage, and the very contrast between our self-command and their want of it, adds to the madness. Generally, however, the effect will be as here represented. And even in the cases referred to of apparent exception, the exception, after all, relates only to the period of excitement,-the moments of actual irritation. On subsequent reflection, the remembrance of the “soft answer;” of the manner in which their passion was met, of the contrast between their own undue heat and our coolness, will produce the relentings of shame, and lead to acknowledgment of error.
The sentiment is-and it holds to reason as well as accords with fact-that meekness will allay the fury of the flames of passion. By pouring on oil we may calm the wave, which we should lash and rebuke in vain.
I might illustrate the proverb by Scripture instances. Look at the effect of the quiet and dignified reply of Gideon to the exasperated “men of Ephraim” by which “their anger toward him was abated.” Look again at the case of Abigail and David-the calm prudence of the former turning away the wrath which had been excited by the surly and ungrateful churlishness of the besotted Nabal, and which had armed David and his men for vengeance. And as an exemplification of the effects of an opposite style of answer, you may be reminded of the contention between the men of Israel and the men of Judah, at the time of David’s restoration after the death of Absalom, when the fierce words of the latter drove off the former under the rebellious standard of Sheba the son of Bichri; and of the case of Rehoboam, who by refusing the counsel to give “a soft answer” to the people who came petitioning for a mitigation of their burdens, and adopting one harsh and repulsive, deprived the house of David of the subjection of the ten tribes, which attached themselves to “Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin.”
Verse Proverbs 15:2 . “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.”
Similar sentiments have come repeatedly before us;* but though similar, not the same. “Knowledge” is the possession of information, and we have here the correct idea of wisdom; which, practically considered, is the right use of knowledge, and, in regard to character, the ability so to use it. The wise man makes a right use of knowledge in the mode of communicating it–“the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright”-as regards times, persons, places, company, and the spirit in which it is used: and in proportion to the degree of knowledge, both wisdom and principle become desirable, to enable and to dispose its possessors to use and to improve it.-" But the mouth of fools pours out foolishness." Their words are uttered without discrimination while the character of the words corresponds with the character of their minds. If we take wisdom and folly in their higher sense, as meaning religious principle on the one hand, and the want of it on the other,-then “using knowledge aright,” will be using it for the glory of God and the best interests of men; and “the pouring out of foolishness,” the presumptuous utterance of what is worse than light, and frothy, and unprofitable,-even the sentiments and words of irreligion and profanity.
- See Proverbs 12:23 ; Proverbs 13:16 ; Proverbs 14:33 .
Verse Proverbs 15:3 . “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
I need hardly say that all such language is figurative. “God Is A Spirit.” The ascription to Him of corporeal organs must be understood in harmony with this declaration. By “the eyes” of Jehovah, we are to understand His capacity of discernment. By us, the manner of that discernment is altogether incomprehensible. From this, indeed, arises the necessity for the use of such figures. Were language used directly expressing the functions and operations of spirit simply as such, we should be utterly incapable of understanding it. How God, the eternal Mind, is present every moment in every place, in the exercise of all His infinite perfections, is a matter which involves mysteries far beyond our powers of comprehension,-far deeper than the short line of our intellect is sufficient to fathom. The attempt to understand them will ever force from us the devout exclamation-“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it!”
“The eyes of the Lord are in every place,” expresses the unceasing inspection, on the part of the divine Being, of all creatures in the universe at the same moment; there being no person or object; nothing whatever that exists-alive or dead-spirit or matter-intelligent or unintelligent-active or inert-that is ever, even for a single instant, from under His gaze.
Without expatiating on the attribute of omniscience generally, I would confine myself to the light in which it is. here brought before us,-the light most immediately and practically useful to us-the divine acquaintance with the ways of men.
This is indispensable to God’s either governing or judging the world. His administration could not go on without it. There would be immediate and inextricable confusion. Equally essential is it to enlightened and impartial judgment. God must know that He may judge. He must know all that he may judge all; and He cannot know all otherwise than by a constant, universal, unintermitting supervision, and the most perfectly intimate acquaintance with the minds and hearts, as well as the words and actions of men.*
- Comp. Jeremiah 32:19 and Hebrews 4:13 .
The knowledge of God, arising from His universal presence and inspection, extends, we are here reminded, to both “the evil and the good.” Nor is the difference between the two ever overlooked by Him. It may at times appear as if it were. He does not always mark it in the distribution of temporal blessings, or crosses and trials. But “the evil” are not at all the more the objects of His favour that at times they prosper; nor are “the good” the less so that at times they suffer. His eyes still look with favour upon the one, and with displeasure upon the other. On the one He smiles, when to their unbelieving minds He may seem to frown; on the other He frowns, when to their self-flattering but deluded fancy He may seem to smile. The days of darkness through which the one are called to pass shall all terminate in the light of that “blessed day that knows no morrow;” while the light of the other’s temporary prosperity shall end in “the blackness of darkness for ever.”*
What a solemn thought, then, to “the evil,"-to them who are living “without God”-that from Him nothing can be concealed! When successfully hiding their misdeeds from the view of men, they forget this. How often realized is the description of Job-” The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death!" Ah! sad and fatal mistake!-" No eye shall see me!" There is an eye that seeth him;-an eye that is of incomparably greater consequence to him, did he but think of it, than the collective eyes of a peopled universe. Yes; and there is one morning coming, that shall be infinitely more alarming to him than any that ever dawned upon him in the prosecution of his wicked courses here:-a morning when he shall indeed be “in the terrors of the shadow of death;"-that eventful morning when the trump of God shall sound the summons to His bar; “when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation;” when “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
The truth stated in this verse is, at the same time, a source of joy unspeakable to the “good”-to the people of God. Is it not, Christian friends, a delightful thought, that the ever-watchful eye of your heavenly Father is over all your concerns?-that His gracious and all-wise providence superintends unceasingly everything relating to your present and your future well-being? In the strong terms used by your divine Lord and Master,-the strongest in the Bible, to express the minute particularity of the divine regard to his people’s interests,-” The very hairs of your head are all numbered." God’s eyes, when on His children, are the eyes of faithful love and vigilant care; not the eyes of keen scrutiny, in order to detect guilt, but the eyes of tender kindness, in order to afford supply in need, guidance in perplexity, and protection in danger. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.”
Is not this a comfort? You feel sympathy with the crying and tears of a strayed child, and with the joy of that child when it comes again under the parental eye. But no child of God can ever, in reality, be from under His eye, whatever the unbelieving doubts and suspicions of that child may tempt him to fear. When a child of God wanders, it is not from God’s ceasing to see him, but from his, for a time, ceasing to see God. It is our duty to maintain a firm faith in the constant superintendence of our heavenly Father, and to “delight ourselves in God."-Yet while there is reason for rejoicing, there is reason, at the same time, for solemn awe. O, the thought, of having God’s eye unceasingly upon us-the eye of Him who is the “high and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity,” who is “of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon sin,"-who “is fight, and in whom is no darkness at all!”
Verse Proverbs 15:4 . “The wholesome tongue,” or literally, as on the margin-the healing of the tongue, “is a tree of fife: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit."-The verse may be compared with the second. The tongue which “useth knowledge aright” has a morally and spiritually healing influence. It imparts instruction to the ignorant. It speaks peace to the troubled conscience. It soothes the anguish of the afflicted. It subdues the swellings of passion. It allays the self-inflicted tortures of envy. It heals divisions and animosities,-conciliating to each other the discordant and alienated, and converting enemies into Mends. These and other blessed fruits of “the wholesome tongue “-the “tongue of health “-entitle it to the designation, “a tree of life;"-productive as it is of genuine, varied, valuable joys to all within the reach of its influence. And when the tongue makes known God’s “saving health,"-the salvation revealed by Him in the gospel,-it then gives “life” in the highest and most important of all senses; bringing the outcast and undone sinner to “eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God!”
“But perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit!’ Its being, or producing, “a breach in the spirit”-may be variously understood. It disturbs and irritates the spirit. It destroys tranquillity and peace of mind. It brings guilt upon the conscience, and distress in various ways upon the heart. The continued unkindness and bitterness of the tongue may so wear out the ever pained and pining heart as to sink it at length prematurely to the grave, especially when, from the nearness and tenderness of any relation, there ought to be in the tongue “the law of kindness”-a sanatory, cheering, soothing, healthful influence.
Verse Proverbs 15:5 . “A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.”*
- Comp. Proverbs 1:23 ; Proverbs 6:20 , with Proverbs 6:23 ; Proverbs 10:1 ; Proverbs 13:1 ; Proverbs 13:18 .
O how signal the folly, how flagrant the imprudence-apart from all consideration of its wickedness and guilt-of “despising the instruction” and scorning the counsel, whether of a father or a friend, that would lead to the attainment of eternal happiness, for the sake of a good infinitely inferior, and that lasts but for a moment!” Eternity for bubbles “-the light, empty, airy, glittering bubbles that are blown by the breath of this world’s vanity-” proves at last a senseless bargain.”
Verse Proverbs 15:6 . “In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.”*
- Comp. Proverbs 13:22-23 ; Proverbs 14:11 .
The “treasure in the house of the righteous,” as here contrasted with the “revenues of the wicked,” may be understood, not of mere wealth, but of whatever is possessed with contentment and cheerfulness,-with gratitude to God-with confidence in His wisdom, faithfulness, and love,-with an assurance of His fatherly regard,-with the peace that passeth all understanding,-with resignation of spirit to the divine will.-with the present enjoyment of spiritual blessings, and the well-founded “hope of glory, and honour, and immortality.” Even the good things of time, how moderate soever in their amount, when enjoyed thus, become “treasures” indeed of inestimable preciousness; realizing the saying of the psalmist, “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.”
It is added accordingly-“But in the revenues of the wicked there is trouble.” These revenues we may suppose to be acquired wickedly, and enjoyed wickedly. But whatever the means of their acquisition, and although in the manner of their enjoyment and use there may be no direct injury to men,-yet if possessed and expended without the fear of God, and if the means themselves of banishing that fear, and preventing the choice of a better portion, it may truly be affirmed that in them “there is trouble.” How often do they engender fears and jealousies, anxieties and apprehensions, that drive sleep from the eyes, and slumber from the eyelids! How often do they inspire and nurture pride and passion, impatience of spirit, selfishness, and temptation to thoughtless and sinful indulgence,-such indulgence producing even at the time, and especially in the end, remorse of conscience and the fearful looking-for of judgment! How often do they thus, without imparting real happiness while they last, aggravate condemnation at the close! How often, too, do they render their possessor the object of envy, and of malicious detraction and slander, by which he is wronged even beyond what, on the part of fellow-men, he deserves,-how deep soever his guilt before Heaven! When “the revenues of the wicked” have such effects upon their possessor, tempting him to live and die without God-inserting stings in his conscience, and awakening forebodings in his heart-well may the saying of Samuel Johnson to the celebrated Garrick be applied to them-” These are the things that make a deathbed terrible.” It is terrible to leave them, for to the wicked worldling it is leaving his all; and it is more terrible still to enter on the dread unknown-on a world for which no provision has been made, and over the entrance hang “shadows, clouds, and darkness.” When he dieth he can “carry nothing away;” and he has nothing in hope beyond-no “bright reversion in the skies,” to compensate for the loss of all he is obliged to leave! His glory descends not after him. He has “trouble” with his revenues; trouble in leaving them; and trouble for ever in the fatal consequences of their seductive influence over him.
Proverbs 15:7-12
LECTURE XXXVIII.
“The lips of the wise disperse knowledge: but the heart of the foolish doeth not so. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die. Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then the hearts of the children of men? A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.”
Of “knowledge,” as of wealth, the true value depends upon its use. Laid up, under lock and key, in the coffers of the miser, the largest amount of riches, in bags of rusting gold and silver, serves no good end. Its owner may please him, self with the thought of having it, and of being known to have it. He may take delight in opening his chests and gloating his eyes, from time to time, on his accumulating heaps; but how mean and pitiful such a gratification even to a reasonable, and how much more to a morally responsible being!-Yet, in a similar way a man may plume himself on the extent and variety of his “knowledge.” He may feed his vanity in enumerating to himself its subjects and the amount of it on each. And the gratification arising from the possession of it-apart from the thoughts of vanity-may be of a far higher and more rational kind than that of the former; but if its possessor keeps it all hidden in the depths of his own mind,-shut up in the coffers of his memory, uncommunicated, unapplied to any useful purpose,-he bears the character of an intellectual miser.
“The lips of the wise disperse knowledge.” The lesson was finely exemplified by Solomon himself-“Moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth,” Ecclesiastes 12:9-10 . Solomon’s wisdom, we know, related to science, as well as to what are more properly called “the things of God.” We need not doubt that he “taught the people knowledge” in various departments; but from the special mention here made of his proverbs, we are warranted in considering his teaching as having special reference to the truths most essential for their present and eternal well-being. Thus too it was with all the prophets and apostles. The treasure was put into these “earthen vessels,” not to be kept there, as a personal and private deposit, but as one to be imparted-to be extensively diffused among mankind. “Their lips dispersed knowledge.” And it is the incumbent duty of all whom God has made “wise unto salvation,” with all zeal for God and compassion for fellow-creatures, to communicate the knowledge which may make others thus spiritually, substantially, eternally wise.
The antithesis in the verse-“but the heart of the foolish doth not so”-where we should naturally have expected the lips or the mouth-corresponds with that in the 20th verse of the tenth chapter ( Proverbs 10:20 ), and the principle of explanation is the same. The knowledge dispersed by the lips of the wise, comes forth from “the treasures” that are in “the heart.” But in the heart of “the foolish” the “knowledge” is not to be found:-and that which is not in the heart, cannot of course be “dispersed by the lips.” If his lips disperse any thing, it must be folly.
Verses Proverbs 15:8-9 . “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.”
Between these two verses there is a very close and important connexion. The latter of the two may be considered as containing the reason of the former. It is said of Jehovah-“Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity,” Psalms 5:4-5 . It is not their persons God hates; for He swears by himself-“I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” He hates their doings; hates their evil courses. These, as the second of the two verses states, are “an abomination” to Him, and so, therefore, are their religious services. Their persons are not accepted; and while they themselves are rejected, their offerings cannot be graciously received. This, brethren, is the true order of things. The sinner himself, believing the glad tidings of the gospel, is first “accepted in the Beloved;” and then, his person being accepted, and, on Christ’s account, in favour with God, his services are accepted also on the same ground. Intimations such as this, it has been said, might indicate to the then existing generation the approach of another economy, more pure and spiritual than the introductory and comparatively carnal one under which they lived. But this idea of the difference between the two dispensations has, at times, been pushed to an untenable and mischievous extreme. Why should such intimations be considered as only indicating a spiritual dispensation to come? Why not as indicating, or rather directly and pointedly expressing the necessity of spiritual worship-of heart-religion even then? I apprehend there never was a period, never a dispensation, when this was not required; or when any thing short of this was acceptable. What is the reason assigned by the Saviour himself for the necessity of spiritual worship?-“The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,” John 4:23-24 . The first of these two verses must not be understood as meaning that before that time the Father did not “seek such to worship him.” Against any such interpretation we might plead the verse immediately before it-“Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” That the Jews, as distinguished by their special revelation, “knew whom they worshipped,” can mean nothing less than that Jehovah had been revealed to them in the character in which Jesus speaks of him, namely as a Spirit-in the essential spirituality of His nature. God was always a Spirit. The same reason, therefore, always existed for the necessity of spiritual worship. He was always the Searcher of hearts; and always required, and could not but require, the devotion of the heart. Bodily service-the religion of posture-the religion of the lips-the religion of mere outward act, irrespective altogether of the character or the state of the heart, never could be well-pleasing in His sight. The Psalmist surely understood this, when he said-“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” The service presented by one man and by another may be, in all that meets the view of fellow-creatures, undistinguishable. But if, in the all-perfect knowledge of God, the characters of the parties are different, the services will be regarded accordingly-the one accepted, the other refused. It is the wickedness of the wicked that renders the “sacrifice of the wicked an abomination.” The bullock or the lamb might be the same. The rites observed in the offering of it might be the same; and all might be attended to with the same rigidly scrupulous exactness. Yet in the one case, it might be a sweet savour unto the Lord, and in the other “a trouble unto him which he was weary to bear.” That such was the case then as well as now, we are not left to infer from such premises as those given us by our Lord in the passage referred to. It is plainly and explicitly declared.*1 And the sentiment suggested by the connexion between the two verses before us, is no other than that which is stated with greater expansion in the divine expostulation with Israel in the opening chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy,*2 where in striking language the connexion between approved character and accept able worship is expressed with the utmost plainness, and with divine force. And the same is the sentiment, uttered, if possible, with even greater emphasis, in the language-“He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol."*3 I am aware that these expressions have been interpreted as meaning, that under the future dispensation all the existing and prescribed offerings would be abolished, and that it would be as much a sin to offer them as it was then a sin to withhold them. But I can see no sound reason for not interpreting the language as relating to the time then being. The connexion of the third and fourth verses brings out the same sentiment with that before us, that “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.” Why was the slaying of an ox in sacrifice as unacceptable to Jehovah as the murder of a man?-the offering of a lamb as the slaughter of an unclean dog?-the presenting a prescribed oblation as a libation of swine’s blood?-the burning of the sweet incense, compounded according to divine prescription, as the blessing of an idol? The reason follows:-” Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.” Thus the different passages speak the same language. They remind Israel, not merely of a coming time when worship of a more purely spiritual character should be required by Jehovah from His people, but of the then existing obligation to give Him the homage of a devoted heart, and of a life of obedience in harmony with nominal and ceremonial distinction,-and of the aversion of Jehovah, the heart-searching God, to worship of a different description,-to worship “coming out of feigned lips,” or unaccredited by a consistent life-that God has always looked, and could not but look to the principle within, and never would regard otherwise than with loathing “the sacrifice of the wicked.” I state these things strongly, because I am persuaded that very false conceptions prevail about the difference, in this and in some other respects, between both the worship and the morality of the old and the new dispensations.
*1 See Deuteronomy 10:12-16 . rr
*2 Isa 1:10-18 .
*3 See Isaiah 66:3 .
Let us remember that the sentiment before us is applicable now, in its full force, to all merely external acts and forms of worship. They can never be pleasing to the Lord. How should they? The principle of His dissatisfaction with them we feel in ourselves. If any of us were to receive a present, accompanied with many verbal professions of attachment, and we were afterwards to discover that the person from whom it came had been acting a part utterly at variance with all his professions, indicative of a heart that hated instead of loving us, and that the present with its accompaniments, was sent with no other view than to answer some selfish end of his own,-would not that which had at first gratified us be instantly loathed and cast away? Thus it is with God. No oblations, no acts of worship, no alms, can be acceptable in His sight, when He knows them to come from one whose heart, instead of being “right with Him,” is in a state of alienation and enmity,-in hostility to His authority and grace. They are either offered without principle or consideration at all; or for the purpose of covering sin, or of compensating for past transgressions, or of obtaining indulgence to conscience for the future-as a kind of bribe to the supreme Judge. They can be regarded by Him in no other light than as an awful insult to His holiness and justice and truth!
Are ungodly men, then, some may be ready to ask, to be forbidden to pray?-Forbidden to pray! Who and where is the man that will be presumptuous enough to lay such an interdict? Forbidden to pray! The very thought is shocking. Who will come with such a prohibition between even the chief of sinners-the veriest wretch on earth-and his God? Prayer, if the duty of one, is the duty of all. Abstinence from prayer is positive sin. At the same time, it ought to be equally plain, that every duty presupposes, in the injunction of it, whatever is necessary to its right and acceptable performance. If the act of prayer cannot be acceptable without the spirit of prayer, then, when we affirm it every man’s duty to pray, we affirm it every man’s duty to have the spirit of prayer. If, in order to acceptable prayer on the part of a sinner, it behooves to be presented in the name of a Mediator, and in the exercise of faith in that name,-then, when we call upon a sinner to pray, meaning, as we must, that he should pray acceptably, we call upon him to exercise that faith which is necessary to acceptable prayer. This is clear. In calling a man to the discharge of any duty, we call him, of course, to whatever is included in the right discharge of that duty; and among other things, to the motive or principle from which the lawgiver requires it to be done. When an ungodly man prays, it is not the act of prayer that constitutes the sin; it is the want of a praying heart. The sin is in him, not in his prayer. The prayer in itself may be very good; but, as coming from him, it may be worse than worthless.
We might apply the same principle more generally, extending it to all duties whatever. They ought all, without exception, to be done from the principle of love to God-the elementary and pervading principle of the whole law. An ungodly man is rightly called upon to the fulfilment of the personal and the relative duties which the divine law inculcates. But it is, at the same time, right and necessary to remind him, that, so long as his heart continues in a state of enmity against God, there is not one of them that can be fulfilled acceptably to Him. The principle of all acceptable obedience is wanting. It is in some such sense as this that it is said-” The ploughing of the wicked is sin.” And it is one of the most affecting circumstances in their condition, that there is nothing they can do that has the approval and acceptance of God! Are they therefore to be forbidden to perform these duties? No, assuredly. But they are to be faithfully reminded that the right discharge of them involves and requires the exercise of the right principle; and to be urged by this, and every other consideration fitted to excite a salutary alarm, to turn unto God. Such is the use *-e would make of the sentiment before us. Is it not an affecting thought to you, fellow-sinners, that while you continue impenitent and unbelieving, all your duties together-those even on the strict performance of which you may be most pluming yourselves-your very prayers-are “an abomination” to God! He invites you to come to Him, but not to come continuing in your evil ways. That is not coming to God; for coming to God is forsaking evil. To come to God, and to cleave to sin, is a contradiction in terms. The sinner who comes to God comes in prayer; and the sinner who comes in prayer must come in faith and in the renunciation of self and sin, to serve God thenceforward “in newness of life,” with “his body and with his spirit which are God’s.”
Verse Proverbs 15:10 . “Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.”
The word rendered correction is, on the margin, translated instruction; but the principle and spirit of the statement remain the same. Retaining the former translation there are two interpretations given of it.
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The word “is” being supplementary, the rendering may be-“Severe correction to him that forsaketh the way;” that is, shall be to him that forsaketh the way. This again is capable of two meanings. It may either, on the principle of parallelism, be understood as of similar import with the second clause of the verse, and explained of the punishment of the impenitently wicked: or it may be understood in reference to present suffering or chastisement, as a means of bringing back from error to a right course. Then the second clause will mean, that if any who has appeared, walking in the right way, and has, through temptation, gone astray from it, shall, notwithstanding correction, persist in hating reproof and spurning the admonitions of Heaven, he shall die, and his blood shall be upon his own head. God has said-“The just shall live by faith;” but “if he draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
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Understanding the word “grievous” in a sense quite familiar to our ear, the verse has been rendered-” Correction is irksome to him that forsaketh the way.” The child that loves instruction, and is really attached to the ways of God, may err, and need correction. But to such a child it will not be irksome or “grievous.” It will melt, and shame, and humble, and restore him. But if a child has submitted to instruction and to the ways of virtue by constraint rather than from principle and with a willing mind,-when for a time he has “run well,” but has tired of the right course, and wilfully forsaken it, for ways of his own, more congenial with the real likings of his heart,-to that child correction will be irksome; it will fret and provoke, instead of reclaiming him; will render him sullen, stubborn, and passionate, instead of bringing him in tears of penitence and submission to the feet of the parent whose counsel he has for the time been disregarding. It will have such effects, just in proportion as conscience tells him he is in the wrong, while yet his heart continues to hate the right;–his inclinations resisting conscience, and cleaving to sin and the world.
And what has place in the family of a pious earthly parent has place among the professed children of God. In the heart of a true spiritual child, the heavy but kind corrective visitations of his heavenly Father will produce contrition, and all the meltings of penitential sorrow; and they will lay him prostrate before the footstool of the divine throne, with the humble prayer-” Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit," Psalms 51:9-12 .
But in him whose “heart departeth from the Lord,” having never in the fulness of sincerity and truth, been given to Him, the effect will be very different. They will irritate and gall his spirit; drawing out the evil that is in the heart more and more, and occasioning the further and further spurning of the divine yoke,-the yoke of God’s authority. The consequence of any one’s “hating reproof”-and spurning the correction that is designed and fitted for his restoration, is death:-“he shall die.” He shall suffer his due punishment, in that “second death” which is “the wages of sin.”*
- See Proverbs 1:30-31 ; Proverbs 10:17 .
In connexion with such truths as we have been considering from these verses, it is of importance for us ever to remember, that there is no imposing upon God by outward professions and appearances. Such is the lesson of the eleventh verse:-" Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men?"
Sheol, the word here rendered “hell,” may sometimes, as well as its corresponding term Hades in Greek, signify the place of woe. Its general signification, however, is the unseen world-the state of the dead. The secrets of that invisible state, and especially of the prison-house of despair itself, are all “before the Lord,” though hidden from the eye of man.
The original word for “destruction” here is Abaddon. The’ designation is given to the wicked one, as the destroyer.* “The verse may denote,” says Mr. Scott, “that the deepest machinations of the prince of hell. and of all his legions of fallen angels, are open to the Lord’s inspection, and must end in their disappointment and deeper torment:-how, then, can man, who is so inferior in sagacity and subtlety, expect to hide his counsels from God, or to prosper in rebellion against him?”
- See Revelation 9:11 .
Verse Proverbs 15:12 . “A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him; neither will he go unto the wise.”
The “scorner,” the despiser of God and divine things, cannot bear reproof; winces, with rising resentment, at every thing that touches and wakes his conscience; dislikes his faithful monitor-receiving him with sullen coldness, with disdainful smile, or with abusive contumely,-spurning his salutary advice, and possibly traducing and calumniating his character. He “will not go to the wise”-the truly wise who “fear God”-either through proud contempt, or the consciousness of being wrong, and inability to bear having the wrong exposed and condemned.* Alas! that this principle should be in our fallen nature so strong and inveterate!
- Comp. 2 Chronicles 18:7 ; Isaiah 30:8-11 ; Amos 5:10 ; John 3:13 ; John 7:7 .
Careless sinners, your aversion to the word of God, which you secretly feel to be living, powerful, penetrating; your dislike of sermons that are too searching, that come too close to the conscience, that lay open the secrets of the heart, that press upon you the spirituality and damnatory character of the divine law; and your disposition to pick faults, wherever you can find them, in the characters of the godly, because you are sensible that their example condemns you-are all traceable to this principle. O beware of it. It will ruin you. It will be death to you in the end. Listen to conscience. Listen to God. He speaks to you here-in the Bible. You may try to throw it aside, and to parry for the time its piercing thrusts. But in your conscience you know and feel that it is divine. O comply with its invitations, that you may escape the execution of its fearful threatenings. “BELIEVE AND LIVE.”
Proverbs 15:13-20
LECTURE XXXIX.
“A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where lore is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.”
The countenance is the natural index of the mind. Each passion and emotion has its appropriate expression there. It can never be natural for a man to smile when angry, or to weep and frown when happy. The tear is appropriated to sorrow; the frown to anger; the smile to satisfaction and pleasure. He is the most accomplished hypocrite, who has most successfully learned the art of substituting the one for the other, and so disguising the real state of his feelings: the most unenviable of all accomplishments.
Yet true it is, that “a cheerful countenance” is not always (and that in other cases than criminal dissimulation) the indication of a “merry heart “-a really happy spirit; for, as we have seen, “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.”
“A merry heart,” in this verse does not mean the false, boisterous, temporary merriment, so frequently alluded to in Scripture, arising from worldly company, intemperance, and dissipation. Neither is it mere light-heartedness-mere thoughtless vacant good humour. It is something far higher and better than either. It is the inward peace and joy imparted by the light of true religion in the soul-the happiness expressed by Solomon in similar terms elsewhere, " Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works,” Ecclesiastes 9:7 . Such was the happiness so delightfully exemplified in the primitive church-when they “did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people.” And what imparted this personal and social cheerfulness then is sufficient to impart it now and to the end. True religion, as we have already said, but cannot say too often, is the only spring of substantial and satisfactory joy. It is fitted to give it; it is designed to give it. It is light-sun-light, gladdening every heart into which it finds admission.
And this joy, this inward cheerfulness, this “sunshine of the soul,” ought to appear. It should be manifest in the religious man’s looks and behaviour. It should smile on his lip, and beam in his eye. It should characterize his whole conversation and course of life. It ought to be so, for the credit of religion. That professor gives not a fair and faithful representation of it, who wraps his profession in the mantle of melancholy.-It should be the aim of every believer of God’s truth to show that the faith of it has made him happy:-not inspiring a mirth that is either frivolous or boisterous; that expresses itself in the song of the intemperate, the sportive gaiety of the vain, or the “laughter of the fool;” but shedding over the soul the light of heaven, a light which “makes the face to shine” and throws the radiance of joy on even the darkest steps of the Christian’s path through life.
By “sorrow of heart,” in the latter part of the verse, I would not understand mere grief on account of the bereavements, disappointments, and various trials of life,-to which the truly godly as well as others are subject. No doubt the tendency of these, especially when long continued and accumulated, is to “break the spirit”-to unnerve it, to deprive it of its tone and vigour, and to unfit for active exertion. Still, it is the excellence and recommendation of true religion, that it gives light even in darkness; that the joy which it imparts remains even in sorrow, and cheers the spirit when otherwise it would sink and break. “The sorrow of heart” here spoken of, we may consider as that which arises from an evil conscience, from envy, discontent, and other similar sources. Or, if the distresses of life are to be considered as among the causes of the sorrow that “breaks the spirit,” we must regard the language as spoken of those who have the sorrow without the sustaining and cheering consolation.-And in this we may be countenanced by the terms of the fifteenth verse, which, for the sake of connexion of subject and sentiment, we take in here:-” All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast." “The afflicted” are evidently the afflicted in situation, without the cheerful spirit or “merry heart” to support them. To such the days are indeed “evil.” They pass away very drearily. There is no relief; no light in the gloom; nothing to counteract or counterbalance the woe. “But he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.” The spirit of cheerful piety bestows a feast richer and better than royal dainties. These will not procure true happiness. There may be perfect wretchedness at the best-furnished table. The “rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day,” may be-too often has been-discontented, envious, anxious, gloomy, melancholy; his feasts not enjoyed; his wines, and his delicate and costly viands not relished. Even in poverty, with all its attendant ills, a spirit such as that we have before described will be “a continual feast.” A crust of bread and a mouthful of water, with a contented and cheerful heart-especially a heart sustained and gladdened by the “joys of God’s salvation,"-a heart in which the fountains of peace and delight have been opened by the Spirit of God–will be partaken with incomparably more enjoyment than all the luxuries that wealth can procure.-“All the days of the afflicted are evil;” for affliction is not in itself “joyous but grievous.” But the feast of him who is of “a merry heart,"-who has within himself the sources of true joy, is not terminated, is not even suspended in the season of affliction. His feast is independent of changing condition. He often relishes it most, when other sweets are embittered. Often is his inward spiritual festivity the richest, when the supply of his outward and earthly comforts is scantiest. Yes; and to those who enjoy this “continual feast” on earth, it is but the prelude and the foretaste of the everlasting feast of heaven.
We may fairly consider the next verse as indicating the nature of the feast-the mental, the spiritual feast-of which the verses we have been expounding affirm the excellence: “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge; but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” It is the feast of “knowledge “-above all. of divine knowledge. He who has “understanding”-who is enlightened of God, and discerns the excellence and glory of divine truth-” seeketh” such knowledge. From experience of the enjoyment already imparted by it, he seeks more, and still more-the appetite growing by gratification, delighted with every new discovery, yet never tiring of the old.*-And that in “seeking knowledge” the idea of “feasting” on it is included, is evident from the terms of the antithesis:-” but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” That is what they like; that is, therefore, what they seek, and from which they have their own poor and pitiful enjoyment. What feasts the very soul of the wise and good, to him is tasteless and even nauseous.-In regard to religion itself, they “feed on foolishness.” They are taken with everything, how absurd soever it may be, that serves the present purpose of keeping all quiet within; that lets conscience alone; that dispenses with serious thought, and, preventing inward disturbance, allows them to go on easily and comfortably in “the sight of their eyes and the imagination of their hearts.”
They have a relish for all doctrines of this easy un-annoying description,-that “prick not their hearts”-that embitter not present sweets by any forebodings of the future-that “prophesy smooth things, and cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before them “-the scarer of their thoughtless mirth and sinful gratification. They have an appetite for everything of that kind, and cry up to the skies the preachers who dispense it. But it is indeed “feeding on foolishness;” and the folly shall be manifest at last, when that on which they have fed “shall be turned to the gall of asps within them.”
The idea of a feast is evidently in Solomon’s mind through the whole passage:-and that, in the fifteenth verse, he designs a contrast between the godly and contented poor man enduring the afflictions of a state of privation and want, and the ungodly and discontented rich man, in the enjoyment of all the world’s fulness, is the more probable from what follows:-” Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure arid trouble therewith.” Here we have the source and character of the mirth intended. It is, as we have been assuming, the happy serenity and cheerfulness springing from true religion-from “the fear of the Lord.” And this too is the “understanding” meant in the fourteenth verse ( Proverbs 15:14 ), as this fear is “the beginning of wisdom.”
“Trouble,” in the latter part of the sixteenth verse ( Proverbs 15:16 ), may be understood in various senses, either of which yields a meaning to the verse in harmony with truth.-It may signify bodily affliction: in which case, the explanation of the verse will be, that poverty with health and cheerfulness is better than wealth with such corporeal trouble as incapacitates for its enjoyment.-It may signify trouble of mind and conscience: and then the sentiment will be, that poverty with peace of mind is far preferable to riches with the disquietude of conscious guilt and self-dissatisfaction;-poverty with a good conscience better than wealth with an accusing and evil conscience;-poverty with a conscience pacified by the blood of sprinkling, better than abundance with a conscience to which that peace-speaking blood has never been applied.-Or it may signify, the trouble of domestic discord and broils: and then the lesson will be that poverty with domestic union and peace, springing from and hallowed by the influence of true religion, is incomparably superior to riches the most profuse connected with the absence of such love and harmony,-with alienation, hostility, and strife. What a wretched compensation are “thousands of gold and silver” for the want of affection and peace-the absence of what the poet calls “that only happiness which has survived the fall”-domestic happiness!
This last view of the sixteenth verse ( Proverbs 15:16 ) is specified in that which follows:-“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” Some, indeed, would explain this verse in reference to the entertainer and his company-the “master of the feast and his guests,"-and to the company and guests among themselves;-making the meaning (and it is a true one) to be, that slender cheer, with a cordial welcome, is sweeter far than the costliest profusion with a manifest grudge, or with sentiments of mutual distrust and strife among those who partake of it. But the sentiment is applicable, with a special force of emphasis, to domestic life. In proportion to the delightful sweetness of the concord in which the fond affections of nature and grace bind the members of a family in one happy social circle-all being of one heart and one soul-dividing the cares, and more than doubling the enjoyments of life by mutual participation and sympathy,-all bosoms throbbing with a common pulsation,-all lips wearing a common smile,-and all eyes filled from a common fountain of tears-in proportion to the delightful sweetness of such a scene, is the wretchedness of its reverse:-and there is no one who has experienced either the sweetness or the wretchedness-especially the former-that will not subscribe to the sentiment so simply yet in effect so strongly expressed in the verse before us.
There is much in the Bible that bears most kindly on the condition of the poor. Throughout it, the Lord is ever expressing towards them His special sympathy and care. Is not this the case here? Are not the sentiments of these verses deserving of their special attention and interest? If you have not the wealth of this world, but are doomed to toil and to comparative penury-think of what is here so truthfully affirmed. If you have in you the fear of the Lord; if you have a sense of His love, and the assurance that that love orders every particular in your lot; if you have the contented and happy spirit which the conviction of this is fitted to inspire; and if to you the domestic scene is one of affectionate and delightful harmony, all hallowed and blessed by the same holy and heavenly principle of “pure religion and undefiled “-O why should you be “envious at the foolish, when you see the prosperity of the wicked?” If the abundance of the man of this world is associated with trouble, or with discord, or with hatred-and above all with His displeasure who “hateth all the workers of iniquity”-would you exchange conditions with such? No, my “brethren of low degree, you would not.” Never was there a spirit that enjoyed such perfect peace as His who said-” Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.” And He says to every one of his followers-“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” That peace may be found in the bosom and at the board of the poorest among you; and, possessing it, you will let the man of earth enjoy his “stalled ox,” and sit down in contented cheerfulness to your “dinner of herbs”-your scanty but divinely provided and blessed feast of love. And well were it if the minds of the young were early and deeply imbued with the spirit and sentiment of these verses;-if they had early instilled into them just conceptions of the nature and sources of true happiness, lest they fall into the fatal but sadly prevalent delusion that wealth insures it; and thus make wealth their leading star-their first and unceasing aim!-My young friends, these verses contain truth-divine truth-truth authenticated by the recorded experience of ages-truth that cannot fail, so obvious is it, to come home fully to the convictions of your judgments. It is the same truth as that so forcibly stated and illustrated by “the faithful witness”-the Lord Jesus himself.* And with what self-evidencing simplicity is the sentiment expressed by the apostle, when he says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content,” 1 Timothy 6:6-8 . They who have “godliness with contentment,” “have all and abound.” They have a treasure in the heart-a treasure in the house-and a treasure in heaven;-a treasure for time, and a treasure for eternity!
Verse Proverbs 15:18 . “A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth wrath."-Some would connect this verse with the preceding; and, according to this supposed connection, the meaning is, that a passionate man is a disturber of the peace and enjoyment! of the quietest and happiest company. It may, however, be understood more generally, as depicting the hasty, hot, resentful spirit, which startles touchily at every word or look; finds meanings in them that have no existence but in a perverted fancy; catches fire in a moment; breathes vengeance; and by high words stirs up the spirits of others, and kindles the flames of discord. In contrast with which is the spirit that is “slow to anger” and appeaseth wrath-the meek and quiet spirit which “is in the sight of God of great price.”
Verse Proverbs 15:19 . “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns; but the way of the righteous is made plain.”
The meaning is sufficiently obvious. “The slothful” fancies, as apologies for lazy inaction, innumerable obstacles and difficulties-anything as a reason for sitting still. And not merely does he anticipate obstacles to beginning, he is ever discovering them as reasons for desisting; finding out that further exertion is vain,-that there is no getting on,-that all is “a hedge of thorns,” at once annoying and impracticable,-that the expectation of ever accomplishing his end is quite utopian,-that he must give up at any rate some time or other, and therefore better now, seeing if the thing cannot be satisfactorily carried out, it is wise not to expend more useless toil. And he will argue this with no little plausibility; for “the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”
On the contrary, “the way of the righteous”-of him whose heart, under the influence of right principles, is set on the right discharge of duty-” is made plain.” It is cast up; it is paved. God whom he serves, makes obstacles diminish and disappear before him. Those he feared might prove insuperable, lessen and vanish as he nears them. He is surprised to find how they give way. When obstacles are previously seen, he sets his heart to them; looks at them in all their discouraging magnitude, and looks at the same “time to God-to Him “who giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might increaseth strength;” and in this strength-” the strength of the Lord God," he goes on and perseveres unto the end. Difficulties are thus surmounted. The way becomes increasingly “plain.” The “hedge of thorns” is cleared away. “Darkness is made light before him, and crooked things straight.”
In the whole of your spiritual warfare, brethren, put your trust in God-in the divine “Captain of your salvation.” He leads you to victory. Shrink not to follow Him. He will never leave you; let no unworthy and dastardly fears tempt you to leave Him. Let no indolence embrace your loins. Let no difficulties or dangers in the way daunt you. Press after His banner. Through Him you shall do valiantly. Let your encouragement be-" In Jehovah have I righteousness and strength." With His righteousness to justify you, and his strength to protect and save you, you shall be more than conquerors!
Sinners, beware of indolent supineness in “the things that belong unto your peace,"-in the concerns of your soul’s salvation. I call not upon you to be “up and doing,” that you may work out that salvation for yourselves. Thai is a work of which the honour belongs to another. The Son of God is the only Saviour. You are not to save yourselves, but to come to Christ for salvation. Defer not this under any false impression of difficulties and intercepting obstacles in your path, frightening you from the attempt. There is no such thing. It is all illusion. If there are obstacles in the path, they must be put there by yourselves; for there are none-no not one-of God’s interposing. He has cleared all away. There is no “hedge of thorns” between you and Christ. On the ground of his finished work-the work that justifies the ungodly-he stands ready to receive you; and God stands ready to receive you for his sake. Believe what this divine Book testifies of him as divinely true; and, in the spirit of felt necessity, of simplicity, of confidence, of self-renouncing humility, of grateful joy, cast yourselves, without fear or misgiving, on the riches of his grace:-“for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”
Proverbs 15:21-33
LECTURE XL.
“Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly. Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established. A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord: but the words of the pure are pleasant words. He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live. The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart; and a good report maketh the bones fat. The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
“Joy” in “folly!"-in the frivolous and wicked pursuits of a frivolous and wicked world! O the miserable pleasure!-the sorrow-breeding joy! Who seeks such joy is emphatically “destitute of wisdom” The truly wise-” the man of understanding, walketh uprightly;” adheres closely and steadily to the dictates of divine authority, with a single eye,-a “heart right with God.” He has no delight in folly; no joy in seeing, or hearing, or doing, or uttering it. He “abhors that which is evil, and cleaves to that which is good.” When witnessing folly in others, he feels with the Psalmist-" Pavers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law."
Verse Proverbs 15:22 . “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.”* This verse has been rendered, according to its true spirit-“Designs not well weighed shall miscarry; but when many have well deliberated, they shall succeed.”
- Comp. Proverbs 11:14 .
In these words there is still a connexion with folly. Hasty schemes-projects of crude and rash formation, and precipitate execution-bid fair to prove abortive. Such projects and schemes characterise the fool. They are the product of his self-sufficient conceit, and contempt of counsel. The miscarriage of them, anticipated by all but himself, covers him with confusion, and involves himself and others in difficulty and distress. Self-diffidence is always becoming. Even when we must rely on our own judgment, from a calm conviction of our better acquaintance with the principles, and facts, and likelihoods of any case-still it ought to be with humility.
The word translated “counsel” is by some rendered secrecy. And, on very many occasions, few things are of more consequence to success;-secrecy of consultation as to the best means of accomplishing important purposes, and secrecy among those concerned in their actual prosecution. For want of this, how many designs of the utmost moment have been doomed to frustration! But when there is faithful fellowship in consultation and execution, and no one left unconsulted whose knowledge might be turned to good account, and whose advice might preclude one or other of the possibilities of disappointment-this is what, by the blessing of God, is most likely to ensure success. I say by the blessing of God. O let it never be forgotten, that without that all is fruitless-even the union of the soundest judgments, and the best concerted and best adjusted plans. The two words of the late lamented and martyred Williams must never be separated, TRY and TRUST.
Verse Proverbs 15:23 . “A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!”
Some would connect this verse with the preceding. He who, among “a multitude of counsellors,” suggests a happy thought-a wise, prudent, sure, and safe expedient that had not occurred to the rest-that man “hath joy by the answer of his mouth:” he has the joy of gaining the approbation and thanks of others, and of seeing happy results from his advice being followed.
More generally:-when a wise, prudent, and pious man is enabled to give a salutary advice, in a matter of moment, at a seasonable time, in a manner at once convincing and persuasive, intelligent and winning, so as to conduce to the desired effect,-in preventing the adoption or arresting the prosecution of mischievous measures,-in keeping back or reclaiming from error and sin,-in supporting the distressed,-in supplying the destitute,-in confirming the irresolute,-in turning and strengthening the tempted,-in directing the rash and improvident,-in promoting, in whatever way, the benefit of others-immense good may be effected;-and this, having sprung from his suggestion, will give joy to his heart.*
- We have an apt illustration in the case of David and Abigail-1 Samuel 25:32-33 .
We are reminded afresh, that “the word spoken” must be not only “good,” but “in due season”-when circumstances are such as, instead of hindering the desired effect, will second and help on the advice. To be really “good” indeed, an advice must be good in the time and the manner, as well as in the matter of it. Persons who overlook this, wonder that they should fail;-they can’t understand it. Yet they might. If they would only look within and reflect whether, were the same counsel given to them at such a time, in such a manner, and in such circumstances, it would not equally fail.
The remark as to “due season,” holds with special force in regard to admonitions to the men of the world bearing on religion-of all subjects the most unpalatable, and respecting which they are most jealous and sensitive. How often do well-meaning but injudicious Christians do mischief, by obtruding their sentiments and their counsels, without in the least considering when or how!
Yet, let us again be warned against covering ourselves from the reprehensions of conscience under the convenient shield of necessary prudence, and thus lose, as alas! we too often do, many an opportunity of which, without the violation of any rule of propriety or delicacy, we might avail ourselves for the good of others. Let us be jealous of ourselves on the side on which we are most in hazard of erring-the side, generally, of undue reserve and dastardly timidity.
The word in the following verse translated “above” may, without any material alteration of its meaning, be rendered upwards: “The way of life is upwards for the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.”
There is a way of life, and a way of death, an upward and a downward way. “The way of life” it is the great purpose of the Bible to reveal. That way has been the same from the hour when “sin entered into the world.” Then God made it known. Whatever was required, in vindication of the divine character in human forgiveness and salvation, must have been required from, the first. Whatever was required at “the fulness of time” must have been equally required at the expulsion from paradise. The character of God was at both periods the same. The principles of His government, and the demands of His law were the same. The way of life for sinners, therefore, must have been the same. Though the atonement was not immediately made it was immediately needed, and it was immediately announced and promised. It was quite competent for that God who “knoweth the end from the beginning,” to proceed immediately upon the credit of what was afterwards to be done. The words of Jesus-" I am the way" were true not only when he uttered them, but for all past and all future ages. That way, announced in the first promise, and “witnessed by the law and the prophets,” was, at the “fulness of time,” clearly made known as a way open for sinners, and to remain open to the end. “Righteous Abel” went to heaven by this way, as aged Simeon did, as Stephen did, as every dying believer has since done, and as the last sinner saved from the earth must do. This “way of life”-the way of faith and holiness-is upwards. It leads to heaven-to the celestial world, with all its “fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.”
It is “for the wise.” The foolish are not found there. They despise the way, and refuse to walk in, or to enter it. They shut their ear. They turn away their foot. They choose counsels of their own. But all who are “wise,"-all who do not, in the spirit of infatuation, “forsake their own mercies,” are found in this way. And they are wise; for it is set before them, “that they may depart from hell beneath.” Fools take the downward road. It is easily found, and easily kept. It is full of company. It is full of allurements-bewitching, fascinating allurements, whose true nature is concealed under all that is tempting in appearance and promise. It is in accordance, alas! with the inclinations and tendencies of corrupt nature. The “upward” road is to that nature unattractive. It presents obstacles, privations, and hardships. It seems, as in the Pilgrim’s Progress it is designated-” the hill of difficulty." But the truly wise will disregard the hindrances by which the way is ever, on the part of Satan, most artfully beset. He will press into it; he will deny himself; he will “go in the strength of the Lord God.” He knows it to be the way of life;-that were there nothing else in it to the end than hardships, toils, and trials, still it leads “upwards”-away from the pit beneath to the paradise above,-from hell to heaven. And he finds, by sweet experience, that in this way there are present compensations, far more than sufficient to counterbalance all with which he is required to part; blessings,-and joys, and hopes, incomparably better than aught the downward way offers to its deluded frequenters. It is “the way of life” even now-the way of present pleasantness, the path of present peace!
Verse Proverbs 15:25 . “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.”
From the style of the antithesis, between the proud and the widow, we are naturally led to conceive a special allusion to the haughty oppressor of the desolate and unprotected-to the overbearing worldling who insolently abuses his power, in lording it over his poor dependents. Jehovah gives ample warning to all of the interest He takes in the cause of " the widow and the fatherless," and of his deep displeasure against all their oppressors* We may well tremble to think of promoting our own advantage, in any way, or in any degree, at their expense. Woe to the man who does so! God will see to it. What is so acquired cannot be enjoyed with either a quiet conscience or the smile of heaven. It is an accursed thing. It is the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment, by which the blessing of righteousness and mercy is turned away.
- See Deuteronomy 10:17-18 . * et loc. al* . Psalms 68:5-6 ; Psalms 146:9 ; James 1:27 .
“The proud,” just alluded to, are but one description of the more general character in the next verse-" The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord: but the words of the pure are pleasant words." Or thus, “Hateful to the Lord are the thoughts of the wicked; but pleasant are the words of the pure”-pleasant, that is, to the Lord. It is said, “The Lord is a God of knowledge; by him actions are weighed.” But His knowledge goes further than to actions. “The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.” Not one thought, sinner, passes through your. mind, though fleetly as the “arrows of light,” that escapes His notice. Your most secret imaginings; your most momentary wishes and purposes; ideas never uttered; designs never executed-“all are naked to His view."-That circumstances have prevented the execution of any purpose, does not in the least interfere with or mitigate the criminality of the intention. Of the good that David intended to do, God said, “It was well that it was in thy heart:” and so the evil that is in the heart of the sinner brings upon him guilt, rebuke, and condemnation. “The law is spiritual:”-” Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart;" and that unchaste thought is “an abomination to the Lord.”-" He that hateth his brother in his heart U a murderer;" and that thought of malice and envy, the embryo of murder, is “an abomination to the Lord.” The heart may thus be steeped in impurity, and indictable for a brother’s blood, while no overt act has discovered its hidden secrets to men.
“But pleasant are the words of the pure.” The pure stand in contrast with the wicked. They have been the acceptable worshippers of Jehovah in every age.* In them the promise of the New Covenant has been fulfilled-Jehovah having “written his laws in their hearts,"-having “taken away the stony heart out of their flesh, and given them a heart of flesh,"-having “given them a new heart and put within them a right spirit.” They have “purified their souls in obeying the truth.” They have been “washed and sanctified.” The “words” of such, evidently supposed to be in harmony with their character-pure words, are “pleasant” to the Lord. The child of God may have little else in his power than holy discourse. Other means of usefulness may not, in providence, have been conferred on him. He may have little wealth, little authority, little influence. The very attempts which, by the only means in his power, he makes at doing good, may fail. But even the attempt is “pleasant,” being made with an eye to the divine glory, and a benevolent wish to advance the happiness of fellow-creatures. “What he speaks for God, however humble the manner of it, and however lowly the company amongst whom it is uttered, God approves and records. “A book of remembrance is written before him for them that fear him and think on his name.” Their words may not be uttered in the society and in the ears of the great; but if they are pure words, proceeding from a pure heart, they are more acceptable to God than the words of the mighty and the noble coming from hearts not “right with Him.” As “the filthy conversation of the wicked” is not the less offensive and hateful to God, because it comes from the lips of high-born nobility, so the conversation of his sanctified children sounds not less pleasing to his ears for the meanness of their birth or the poverty of their condition. See to it, rich and poor alike, that all your words are words of purity. “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.” “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good, to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
- See Psalms 24:4 ; Psalms 73:1 ; Matthew 5:8 .
Verse Proverbs 15:27 . “He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.”
A man may be “greedy of gain” for two opposite purposes-to hoard or to spend. He who hoards “troubleth his own house.” He pinches both himself and them. He allows them to starve in the midst of plenty. He frets at every outlay. He grudges every comfort. Even necessary food and clothing are furnished in the scantiest measure, and of the meanest kind. He is hardly reconciled to the constitution of nature, which makes these requisite. He would fain make out living without them; but since this cannot be, his next best is to find out the minimum-the least on which nature can subsist. A poor, famished, troubled household truly, is the household of him whose great aim is to gripe and to keep!
Then, many a time, the man who, in his “greed of gain,” “hastes to be rich,” is one who “troubles his own house.” He plunges into rash and hazardous speculations-incessantly varying and precipitately executed schemes-anything that holds out a promise, although ever so precarious, of a quick and large return. It is luck or ruin. Hence perpetual apprehension, inordinate anxiety, carking care-care often too well founded, and ending in sudden loss, and wreck of fortune.
The “greed of gain” may lead a man to worse still-to the use of questionable, and even of flagrantly dishonest and iniquitous methods of acquiring it: which, when detected, (and how rarely do they escape detection!) bring on him utter disgrace,-disgrace too often unjustly and cruelly attaching to his family; while they must endure the distress-to many sensitive minds amounting to agony-of witnessing his exposure and dishonour. Often, alas! has the man of avarice been the “troubler of his house” by plans and courses of unrighteousness, meanness, falsehood, cruelty, oppression, and even murder!
The last clause of the verse implies that in the first there is a special, though not an exclusive, reference to the taking of gifts or bribes; for the antithesis is between him that is “greedy of gain” and him that “hateth gifts."-The receiving of bribes by men in situations of responsible influence, is one of the evils that is often produced by greed of gain. But “he that hateth gifts shall live:” that is, shall enjoy life-shall live in comfort, in domestic harmony, in social happiness, in the secure possession of a good conscience, a good name, and the blessing of God.
Verse Proverbs 15:28 . “The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.”
What is before said* of the wise and the foolish is said here of the righteous and the wicked: and what is before said of the utterance of wisdom and folly, is here said of the utterance of good and evil. We have repeatedly seen how Solomon identifies these in his statements. Wickedness is folly; goodness is wisdom. There is, in this verse, a very important feature in the working of right principle. “The heart,"-that is, the mind or inward part generally, not the affections merely, as we are wont to use the word heart, but the judgment also-” the heart of the righteous studieth to answer.” He considers what he should say, as well as what he should do; knowing what an amount of evil or of good often depends on words. The fear of God, and the love of his neighbour combine to dictate this.
- Proverbs 15:2 and Proverbs 12:23 .
What is, in the latter part of the verse, affirmed of “the wicked”-they “pour out evil things,” implies recklessness alike as to the evil of what they say in itself, and the effects, often serious, which it may produce; as if they gloried in the freedom of their tongue to utter what they please; saying, “Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?” They even get into the habit of thus “pouring out evil things,"-as in the case of the profane swearer,-and then derive their plea in extenuation, from the very consideration that proves the evil to have attained its greatest height-that they have got so much accustomed to it that they can’t help it! And, while they are wounding the sensibilities of all who hear them, they wonder what they can have said that should be so offensive!
Verse Proverbs 15:29 . “The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
In an important sense the Lord is near-alike near, to all;* and none can ever “go from his presence or flee from his Spirit.” But such phraseology as that in the former part of this verse is often used to express, not actual, or physical, nearness or distance, but states of mind. And the words, on this principle, may mean, either the state of mind of the wicked towards God, or the state of God’s mind towards the wicked.
Here the words relate to the latter, as is clearly indicated by the antithesis in the second clause of the verse. The meaning is, that the Lord has no complacency in the wicked. There is an infinitude of distance between His purity and their <evil principles and courses. These He holds in abhorrence; and they who follow them are not, and cannot be the objects of his love and care;-of those whom He guides by his counsel, shields by his power, cheers by his smile, and “receives to glory.” He “knoweth them afar off;” keeps aloof from them; sets his face against them; admits them not into his presence; and at last banishes them from him for ever!
But “He heareth the prayer of the righteous.” (Comp. Psalms 34:15-16 ; Psalms 66:18-19 ; Psalms 145:17-20 .) What a delightful assurance is this! “What a blessing to know that Jehovah is near; with an open ear, a loving heart, and a strong hand !*1 The Lord is his people’s friend in need. He listens to all their requests; places all He has to their account, for the supply of their every want; and maintains an endearing intimacy with them.*2 His people never need “go forward but he is not there; or backward but they cannot perceive him.” Never need they suppose him " hiding himself that they cannot see him.” The supposition is “their infirmity.” It is baseless. He withdraws not from them; but they from him. He is “ever near to them that call upon him,-to them that call upon him in truth.” “In six troubles he is with them; in seven he does not forsake them.” “His ear is never heavy that it cannot hear, nor his arm shortened that it cannot save.” “He is nigh to them that be of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
- 1 John 5:14-15 . rr
*2 See Luke 11:9-13 ; John 14:21-23 .
Verse Proverbs 15:30 . “The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart; and a good report maketh the bones fat.”
Light is, as formerly noticed, the natural emblem of joy. What joy, when light springs up in the midst of darkness, bringing into view all the glories and beauties of nature!-What new, strange, thrilling ecstacy of emotion, when light is let in upon the eyes of the blind! As light is thus joyous, so is a “good report” or good reputation to the heart of him who enjoys it. It “maketh the bones fat.”* The bones may be called the foundation of the corporeal structure, on which its strength and stability depend. The cavities and cellular parts of the bones are filled with the marrow; of which the fine oil, by one of the beautiful processes of the animal physiology, pervades their substance, and, incorporating with the earthy and siliceous material, gives them their cohesive tenacity; a provision without which they would be brittle and easily fractured. “Making the bones fat” means supplying them with plenty of marrow, and thus strengthening the entire system. Hence “marrow to the bones” is a Bible figure for anything eminently gratifying and beneficial. The idea is strongly brought out in the words-” And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies,” Isaiah 66:14 . The bones “flourishing like the green herb”-like an herb copiously sup plied with moisture-evidently means the firm, healthy, lively action of the whole system. The import, then, of the expression, “a good report maketh the bones fat,” is, that a good reputation contributes eminently to enjoyment, to comfort, health, active vigour, spirit, life, and happiness.
- Comp. Isaiah 58:11 .
By some, however, “a good report” is understood of good tidings; and they conceive “the light of the eyes,” to refer to the happy, glancing looks of the messenger of such tidings. The eyes of a friend glisten with gladness when he comes as the bearer of pleasant news. And, as “the light of his eyes rejoices the heart,” so the “good report” itself which he brings, makes “fat the bones.” It cheers and animates the spirit, and thus contributes to the liveliness and vigour of the body itself.
Verse Proverbs 15:31 . “The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.” The “reproof of life” evidently signifies the admonition of which the tendency and the intention are life-the life of him to whom it is addressed-his present and future happiness. And this verse may mean that the disposition to listen to the “reproof of life” is to be found among the wise. That is its appropriate place. It belongs to the wise,-is a feature of their character. The contrary-the rejection and disregard of that reproof is distinctive of the fool.*
- For further illustration of the general sentiment, see Proverbs 1:5-6 ; Proverbs 9:7-9 .
The words may also intimate that he who has once received aright, in sincerity and truth, “the reproof of life,” will thenceforward abide among the wise. He will fix his lot with them. He will permanently abandon the company of the foolish and the wicked. He will not return whence he came, but from his experience of the happiness found through the heavenly life introduced ink. his soul will cleave to the Lord and to his people.
That “the reproof of life” is here to be understood in the highest sense, is clear from what follows-” He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.”
“Despising the soul”-is acting as if it were a matter of no concern that the soul should be saved; or as if there were no reality in its alleged danger. O that none of you may come to discover the danger, or be brought to the conviction of the preciousness of the soul’s life, only when it is too late to escape the one, or to obtain the other! God grant that you may “hear reproof” in time, attending to and obeying His faithful admonitions as to your sinfulness and guilt, and the only way of deliverance and peace-and thus “get understanding,” securing the knowledge which alone is “life eternal.”
The same general lesson is followed out in the closing words of the chapter-“The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
Here is again the grand lesson of practical wisdom taught throughout the inspired volume-" Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." The fear of the Lord is the sum of Wisdom’s lessons. There is not a lesson superior to this in importance to man, among all the infinite stores of divine knowledge. There cannot be. Among all the objects of that knowledge He Himself is infinitely the first and highest.
The former part of the verse sustains an important connexion with the latter:-“And before honour is humility” The humility is here connected with “the fear of the Lord,” which, when genuine, is utterly incompatible with pride. The two sentiments cannot exist in the same bosom. They are mutually destructive of each other. There is nothing in any human bosom which God can regard as true humility, till the sinner comes down to his true condition-that is, till, in the spirit of entire self-renunciation, giving up, as dishonouring to God, all his previous confidences, he comes before the footstool of the divine throne as a suppliant for unconditional mercy. That sinner assuredly does the very reverse of honouring God, who stands out against the overtures of his mercy through a Mediator. Nothing can be more dishonouring.-It is dishonouring to the wisdom of God, by imputing to him the adoption of a needless device. It is dishonouring to the law of God, as denying the justice of its sentence. It is dishonouring to God’s righteousness, as setting aside the necessity of its claims being fully recognized and maintained. It is dishonouring to God’s mercy, as it restricts its freeness, and declines being a debtor to it but on certain conditions of its own. It is dishonouring to God, as being dishonouring to his Son, by presuming to divide the glory of salvation with Him, or even to take the credit to itself alone. Humility is the way to “honour.” The path to the glory of the celestial city must be through the valley of humiliation. The very first sentence the Saviour uttered, when describing the character of the subjects of his reign, was-“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Thus have we again had before us, under different aspects, the contrast between the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the wicked.-Alas! how many there are, who are prudent for time, but who take no thought themselves, and no counsel from others, for eternity! O let such be again reminded, that what is their joy now, will, in the end, be sorrow and bitterness. Death will silence your boastings, and judgment will expose and condemn them. Even now (you know in your inmost souls that I speak the truth) your pleasure in sin is subject to many misgivings of heart-you, especially, who have had the instructions and example of the godly. It has secret stings you do not own. The feast, and the dance, and the theatre, and all the higher or lower revelry of life, leaving an aching void which nothing on earth can fill,-you will sigh in vain after substantial happiness, just as Solomon did in what he emphatically calls “the days of his vanity”-until, like him, you return to God. Nothing whatsoever to which you can have recourse for happiness without God, can ever yield it. That is the law of His rational creation; and vain will be all your attempts so set it aside. He has fixed it. It is His absolute and irreversible decree-that no intelligent creature shall enjoy true happiness independently of Himself. And is it not right it should be so? Is it not right, that, when God offers himself to you, in the fulness of his love, and of his power to bless you, as “the portion of your inheritance and cup,” and you refuse the offer-your punishment should be the fearfully and eternally felt experience that every other is vain?-that every other sweet should turn to bitterness-and all other fulness to emptiness?-that forsaking Him who is the only “fountain of living water,” and hewing out for yourselves other cisterns, you should be condemned to find them all, in the end, “broken cisterns that can hold no water?"-that, even if they should hold it during life, and you should drink to satiety, and say, “Stolen waters are sweet,” you should at last see them shattered to pieces by the hand of Death, and your souls left empty-empty for ever-the fountain from which you might have found true, and pure, and permanent joy being then eternally sealed. O come-come now to that fountain, while it remains open. Come to God. Make Him your chief joy. And when you have given Him his proper place, all other things will yield their sweetness to you, according to their nature and their measure. Your happiness will then be-and there is no other-“GOD IN ALL THINGS, AND ALL THINGS IN GOD!”