Proverbs 19
WARDProverbs 19:1-3
LECTURE LIII.
“Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. The foolishness of man perverteth his way; and his heart fretteth against the Lord.”
The fool, being here opposed, not only to him “that walketh in his integrity,” but to “the poor” that so walketh,-is evidently intended to be regarded as occupying a superior station-as wealthy. The sentiment, then, is, that the pious and upright poor man “is better” than the perverse and foolish rich Man 1:1 . He “is better”-as a man. He is so, because more truly estimable and honourable. It should be a settled maxim-and with all that are wise it is-that character is the true dignity of man, and the want of it his true* disgrace. He is to be estimated, not by what he has, but by what he is. That which is merely extraneous is not the man. Moral and spiritual excellence dignifies human nature, and ennobles the possessor of it, with whatever external condition it be found in union. An enlightened mind and a renewed heart are the true glory of our nature-“the best style of man:"-and the poorest, with these, is “better,” in real respectability and solid worth, than the richest without them.
He “is better,” also as a man, because more truly happy. He carries the constituent elements of happiness within him. They are, as it were, a part of himself. They cannot, therefore, be alienated. They are like the “treasures in heaven,” which “no thieves can break through to steal.” They lie in the heart, and no “stranger” can “intermeddle” with them. His inward peace and satisfaction, incomparably surpass, both as to intrinsic value and abiding security, all that wealth and rank and worldly honour can ever yield.
- He is better-as a member of society. He is more useful, and therefore more valuable. The “perverse” and “foolish” exert an influence most pernicious and lamentable. The tendency of their example is to corruption and degradation; and thus to all that is fitted to prevent, instead of promoting true happiness. And the higher his station, and the more commanding his wealth, the contagion of his character becomes only the more diffusive and the more virulent. “Better”-far better, in this respect, “is the poor that walketh in his integrity”-diffusing around him, in the sphere in which his lot is cast, an antiseptic virtue, counteracting evil and promoting good. And, as the stability, prosperity, and happiness of a nation depend so much on the character of the working classes,-who form, as it were, the extended base of the social pyramid,-he is the best patriot who most effectually advances the knowledge, the religion, and the virtue of these classes;-who most effectually contributes to multiply the number of those who, in the lower departments of life, “walk in their integrity.” The “perverse lips” and the perverse life of the unprincipled fool do incomparably more harm to society, than his wealth can ever do it good. An augmentation of wealth is not always, either to individuals or to nations, an augmentation of happiness. Too often has it proved the very reverse-the sapping and undermining of the individual’s and the nation’s well-being,-instability and downfall having many a time dated their commencement, and graduated their progress, from the entrance and accumulation of unwonted wealth and luxury.
Ye upright and godly poor, “hold fast your integrity!"-O let nothing prevail with you to forfeit your inward peace! Stoop not to the use of any means to better your situation, by which you would be deprived of this. How great soever your success, your loss would be far greater than your gain. Poverty is no disparagement; dishonesty is. Cost, then, what it may, keep your character; keep your honour; keep your conscience; keep your assurance of God’s love; keep your hope of God’s glory. “Cast not away,” for any earthly consideration, “your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.”
Verse Proverbs 19:2 . “Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth."-The connexion of the two clauses of this verse has led critics to attach different senses to the word knowledge in the former, and has given rise to various translations, to convey what each has conceived to be the sense:-“It is not good for the soul to be without caution; for he that hasteth with his feet sinneth:”-“Quickness of action, without prudence of spirit, is not good; for he that hasteth with his feet sinneth:”-“Fervent zeal, without prudence, is not good; for he that hasteth with his feet sinneth:”-“Ignorance of one’s-self is not good; and he that is hasty of foot sinneth."-These various free renderings (for such they are) express, respectively, correct sentiments,-truths, and truths of practical value. But there does not appear the least necessity for any alteration of the received version. It is quite sufficiently confirmed by experience, that the tendency, not of self-ignorance alone, but of ignorance in general, is to produce that “hastiness of foot”-that imprudent precipitation,-which the latter part of the verse associates with the commission of sin, as being its natural and frequent cause. The haste of ignorance or superficial knowledge, has marred many an experiment in science-deprived the world of its possibly valuable results; and has prompted to conduct which has laid up for the agent the bitterness of regret, the sighs of penitential sorrow.
Considered as a general maxim, the former clause of the verse is a very important one.-A “soul” is a rational and intelligent spirit:-and what is such a spirit “without knowledge?” It seems as if there were, in the supposed case, the absence of an essential property. It is reason, with nothing on which, and nothing by which reason can work;-intellect, without what intellect is given to acquire;-powers, without instruments;-faculties, without means of putting them to profitable account;-mind, in destitution of that without which it might as well be matter. “Knowledge” is the soul’s very element,-in which alone it can “live and have its being.”
When man came, in his purity, from the creative hand of his Maker, his soul was put in possession directly of “knowledge.” This was the great good of his soul. It was capable of enjoying, and did enjoy-clearly and amply, we have every reason to believe, the best of all knowledge-the knowledge of God himself,-that wonderful Being from whom he had received his sensitive and his rational existence,-the infinite concentration of all greatness and all goodness, of all purity and of all love; and the knowledge of the works of God, as brought under his immediate or more remote cognizance; and of the character of God as manifested in them, to his observant and delighted mind;-those works on which, when they were finished, with man as their rational superintendent, and as God’s high-priest amongst them, to present to Him, on their behalf, the incense of their praise,-the eye of the Maker looked, and pronounced them all “very good.”
There was introduced by sin a description of knowledge which it had been for the soul’s good to have continued without-the experimental knowledge of evil. This was what man obtained by listening to the temptation which held out to him the deceitful promise of such an augmentation of knowledge as would place him, in a manner, on a parity with the Most High. Such was the temptation presented by the artful seducer. It was not,-as some malignant minds have alleged, and some weak minds have inconsiderately believed,-the fruit, but the promised results of the eating of it: “Ye shall be As God, knowing good and evil.” The temptation was thus no little, trivial, contemptible one, but one of the highest apparent excellence and worth. Man, however, was, by the experiment, a fearful loser. His moral dispositions became perverted and opposed to God,-and, in the things of God, his understanding became, by this very means, obscured. “He did not like to retain God in his knowledge,” and the knowledge of God was lost. This was emphatically “not good.” And from that day to this, in every age and in every clime, has the truth of the words before us been sadly experienced.
There is now a “knowledge of God”-in the same character as before the fall. but manifested in a relation and in works more appropriate to man’s fallen condition,-to which, with peculiar emphasis, the language must apply-the knowledge of God in the great work of redemption. This is the knowledge which it is the main design of revelation to impart. And what says He respecting it, who is himself the Word and Wisdom of God?-“This is LIFE ETERNAL, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”* O! can it, then, be “good” that the soul be without this knowledge? Let men of science say what they will, we must claim for it the very first place. Graduate, as you will, the scale of the comparative value of all other descriptions of knowledge, we demand the highest point for this. Though a human soul were able to embrace, and did embrace, the entire circle of knowledge comprehended in all its other departments,-yet, without this knowledge and its appropriate influence, it would have no more than the character of Satan, as expressed by a poet of our own, shortly but well-“Intellect without God.”
Yet even to general knowledge may the words before us be applied. It is good;-and “that the soul be without it is not good.” It gives better occupation to time; and, in various ways, contributes to fit its possessor for usefulness, preventing, both as to ourselves and others, that “hasting with the feet” which leads to sin. But still, even to render general knowledge truly available for a man’s usefulness, in the highest sense and degree, it must be associated with the knowledge of God. To that it must all be subordinated,-and by that it must be hallowed. General knowledge must be principled by divine knowledge, and by it directed in its application. Without right principle to guide the use of it, it may be (and in many instances, without question, it has been) only the means of enabling a man to be the cleverer villain,-endowing him with powers of evil,-with resources and arts of fraud and mischief. And, although I am very far from saying or thinking that, even without religion, thus is always the effect of such knowledge,-yet it is a consideration which should put Christians on the alert, that, while means so various are in requisition for the diffusion of science and literature, there be efforts made to maintain a corresponding diffusion of valuable religious instruction; that so, as far as lies in them, the imparting of the power may be accompanied with the imparting of the principle that shall insure the right and beneficial use of it.
Verse Proverbs 19:3 . “The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord."-We have, in Scripture, many exemplifications of the state of mind which this verse describes. How frequently does it appear in the history of the dealings of Jehovah with Israel! To themselves-to their own folly and sin,-they owed all their judicial sufferings; yet how incessantly do they “fret against the Lord,” and throw the blame of them on Him!-saying in their impatient petulance, “The way of the Lord is not equal?” Even when, in serving idols, they were indebted to the patient and long-suffering forbearance of God for the good they continued to enjoy, they ungratefully, and in the spirit of fretful murmuring, impute this good to the false gods they were criminally worshipping! And at a later day-when, in consequence of their rejecting the Messiah, the judgments of God began to come down upon them,-how did they, to the very last, instead of humbly “accepting the punishment of their sins,” persist in “fretting against the Lord!” *1-In Ahab, when he was reproved for letting Benhadad escape;*2 in Asa when he was wroth with the faithful seer who reproved him in the Lord’s name;3 and in Jehoshaphat, in his treatment of Micaiah the son of Imla4-we have, as in many more, individual exemplifications of the spirit.
*1 See 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 . rr
*2 1 Kings 20:42-43 . rr
*3 2 Chronicles 16:9-10 . rr
*4 2 Chronicles 18:25-26 . with Proverbs 19:7 . rr
We shall endeavour to apply the principle of the verse to a few of its various manifestations, both in regard to temporal, and in regard to spiritual things.
In the former, the error reprehended is exceedingly common. We meet with it every day:-and alas! our own hearts are all sadly prone to it.
A man, for example, undertakes a business for which he is in no way qualified either by nature or by education, by talent, temper, or habit:-or he conducts the business which he has undertaken, with inconsiderate carelessness and indolent negligence:-or he adopts hasty and rash steps, on the suggestion of some fool like himself, or on the sudden and sanguine thought of the moment-it strikes him, it takes his fancy, and it is done:-or he deliberately enters into speculations that are at best doubtful, problematical and perilous, depending on many chances, and ruinous if unsuccessful:-he goes perhaps still further aside by the adoption and prosecution of measures that are in their nature unprincipled and wrong; or by following out projects, in themselves sufficiently clear of objection, by means that cannot be justified. In these, and other descriptions of conduct, “the foolishness of a man perverteth his way.” His schemes and pursuits fail; and disappointments and losses, difficulties, privations, and distresses, necessarily follow.
In these circumstances, the man’s heart too often “fretteth against the Lord.” His lips may or may not give utterance to his fretfulness:-no matter, the sin is the same. The evil lies in the heart; and there the “Searcher of hearts” sees it. But the fretfulness is sadly misplaced. The blame lies with himself; and to “fret against the Lord” is at once unreasonable and impious.
I believe that both Satan on the one hand, and Providence on the other, get a great deal of blame that does not belong to them: Satan, in regard to men’s conduct, and Providence in regard to their circumstances. We are fond of shifting the blame off ourselves. “The serpent beguiled me, and I did cat,” was the first apology for sin. And with far less reason has the apology been often made since. Satan, even with all his hosts, cannot be the author of all the evil men do;-and I fear he gets the blame many a time that should lie with men’s own corrupt hearts. They “pervert their way,” and they accuse Satan:-they fail and suffer, and they accuse God. The depravity of our nature renders us much more prone to impute the evil that befalls us to Providence than to trace to the same source the good which we acquire. With regard to the latter, we are ever disposed, in the pride of our self-sufficiency, to say-“By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent."-But the very same principle makes us very averse to ascribe the former to ourselves. We fondly look for causes that will save our own credit, and throw the reflection upon anything rather than upon our own folly or our own sin. As Providence does superintend and control everything, nothing can be more convenient, as an off-get from any imputation against ourselves. The foolish heart of the unsuccessful man finds it so: he “fretteth against the Lord.” All fretting is fretting against the Lord,-for the reason just assigned, that the providence of the Lord does exercise an universal control over events. Men may not in so many words direct their complaint against the Lord. They may foolishly talk of their bad fortune; they may curse their ill luck. But these are only other modes of “fretting against” Him. They are only the more foolish, that terms are used expressive of what has no existence. They are, in expression, atheism; but, in spirit, they are fretful murmurings against what is actually the ordering of God.
This “fretting against the Lord” is often exemplified, when a man sees others succeed in schemes which he looked upon, and perhaps with justice, as foolish and most unpromising. In such case, the more successful man frets the more. He has “perverted his way,” and brought his troubles on himself; but another, whose way was in his estimation still more perverse, has succeeded; and why should not he succeed too?-But success to folly and perverseness is the exception; and nothing can bo more unreasonable, surely, than for a man to “fret against the Lord,” because He has not, in his case, reversed the natural tendencies of things!
There is one case in which the tendency to “fret against the Lord,” rather than to acknowledge His kindness, is strikingly apparent. It is every man’s duty to “acknowledge God in all his ways.” He who neglects or despises this, “perverteth his way and sinneth.” He violates every dictate of gratitude, of sound reason, and of Scripture. This “perversion of his way” may be the very cause why he has not obtained the object of his desire; arid yet his heart “frets against the Lord,” as the author of the evil that comes upon him, although he would not at all own Him in the pursuit of the good on which he had set his heart! There is something very shocking in this:-when a man never thinks of God, as it were, but with a curse; never thinks of Him but as bringing evil! When in the full pursuit of wealth and pleasure, “God is not in all his thoughts,” to own his dependence upon Him. When he succeeds and prospers, “God is not in all his thoughts” to bless Him for his kindness. But whenever he fails; whenever misfortune crosses his path; whenever evil comes upon him-then he thinks of God; but only to “fret against” Him and accuse Him of partiality. How unjust and ungenerous this spirit!
Another of the ways in which the principle of the text is exemplified is in the pursuit of happiness. A man seeks it in various ways, but he does not find it. Still there is remaining vexation of spirit; still an aching void; still some Mordecai, on whose account all else avails him nothing; still some “dead fly” that spoils the odour of the precious ointment; still something “crooked which cannot be made straight, something wanting which cannot be numbered.” He acquires wealth; but wealth does not bring him the satisfaction he anticipated from it. There is still some annoyance; something that does not go to his mind; something that galls his spirit; something which he finds riches cannot do for him. He gets learning; he gets honour; he gets fame; but it will not do. There is a want. He cannot, perhaps, tell how; but, somehow or other, he is not happy. “His heart frets” to find it so. But the truth is,-he is foolishly “perverting his way.” He is taking all ways to find happiness but the right way. He is seeking it, and expecting to find it, without making God himself his Chief Good. If, instead of vainly “fretting,” he would only be persuaded to come to Him, he would then find what would effectually fill the void; what would settle the disquietude; what would put a perpetual end to the discontent and the felt but unknown want. He has been “hewing out to himself broken cisterns that can hold no water,” and “fretting” that he cannot get his thirst quenched. Would he but cease thus to “pervert his way,” and come to “the Fountain of living water,” to which he is graciously invited, he should drink and thirst no more. To everything here below which yields at the best but a temporary gratification, and leaves behind a feeling of its insufficiency, it may be said, in the language of the Saviour respecting the water of the well of Sychar-“Whoso drinketh of this water must thirst again:"-but when a man once drinks of the “fountain of living water,” he shall “never thirst:” that water becomes in him “a well of water springing up into everlasting life!”
There is another way in which this principle operates-another department in which it displays itself-I mean in regard to the prohibitory laws of God, and the dictates of conscience when they are violated. “The foolishness of a man perverteth his way.” He follows the world. He chooses evil rather than good. He is quite sensible he is doing wrong. Conscience remonstrates, and reproaches, and sharply stings him. He is uneasy, and sometimes when alone, very unhappy. Solitude is irksome to him; for it is then, when other voices are still, that she most effectually makes herself heard. He is disquieted and restless. He frets,-but alas! it is often “against the Lord.” He is displeased with the law. Why should it be so very strict? Why not allow a little more indulgence? He is sullenly displeased, at the stinging reproofs of the inward monitor. Why cannot he do as he will, but conscience must be pricking and tormenting him? Can’t it let him alone?-He frets too at the penalty annexed to sin. Why so heavy a punishment? Why such fearful threatenings-of the “undying worm” and the “unquenchable fire?” Why cannot he take his indulgence, but hell with its fiery gulfs must yawn before him? Why, in a word, are there so many things that keep him from having peace in sin?-Or, still further-Why is his nature what it is? He throws the blame on his Maker for giving him, as he alleges in the bitterness of a fretful spirit, such passions, and then damning him for the indulgence of them. He cannot believe He will. If He does, He must be a tyrant!
Vain and fool-hardy sinner!-how reckless the presumption that would throw the charge of thy sins on that “God who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all!” Be considerate and humble. Think, ere you venture to speak, on what regards existing and incontrovertible facts in the administration of the infinite God! Presume not to imagine you can sound the depths of His counsels.-If you will go on in sin, and make your fallen nature your excuse, and expose your immortal soul to the jeopardy of damnation because you cannot solve all the difficulties, and unravel all the mysteries, connected with the origin of evil and the mode of the transmission of a sinful and tainted nature, and the grounds of a fallen creature’s responsibility:-there is no help for you. “Your hearts may fret against the Lord,” for not having prevented the entrance of sin, and kept man in his first estate. But this is not wise. You are in “foolishness perverting your way.” Your wisdom is, instead of puzzling yourselves with fruitless metaphysical perplexities about how the disease originated, and why it was permitted, humbly and thankfully to embrace the remedy which God, in love, has provided:-instead of “fretting against Him,” to “come to Him that you may have life.” You are acting an ungrateful, an unworthy, an infatuated part, in “fretting” at your fallen state, and refusing the means of recovery. But the plain truth is, there is guile in your very fretfulness: it is not with your fallen nature that you are dissatisfied. You are in love with it:-you have no desire to part with it; no desire to be freed from its existing propensities:-your “fretting” is, not that you are possessors of such a nature, but that you cannot get it indulged with impunity. Again:-men seek peace to their consciences by various means; and in this respect too “the foolishness of a man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.” He tries to find it in ways of his own devising:-he thinks he may make a compromise for the indulgence of some sins by abstinence from others:-he thinks he may do with a partial, if it be, as he fancies, a sincere obedience:-he imagines he may atone for his sins by penances, and pilgrimages, and charities :-by these and other means he tries it; but still he fails.-When he thinks of God and of God’s law, the peace which at times he fancies he has found will not abide the test. The foundation on which it rests will not stand scrutiny in the light of Heaven. He is still subject to misgivings and fears, and distracting forebodings, and questions that cannot be answered to the mind’s satisfaction. Peace still flees from him: the worm still gnaws-conscience still brings its charges; and there is a distressing feeling that they cannot be satisfactorily met, nor its remonstrances duly pacified. He wonders why he should not have peace. He “frets” because he cannot find it. But why should he fret? and above all why should he “fret against the Lord?” He is “perverting his way.” He is not seeking peace in God’s way. There is peace for every sinner through the blood of the cross. This is the only way in which the peace can be enjoyed consistently with the mutual relations between the sinner and God;-the only way in which the sinner is duly humbled and God duly glorified, If any poor presumptuous creature’s spirit shall “fret against the Lord,” because he cannot have peace and salvation in a way more flattering to human nature,-more palatable and gratifying to his pride of heart,-let him remember, that, as a sinner, his pride is unseemly and impious; that his “fretting” on such a ground is infatuation and presumption alike without a name. The pride of the sinner, who thus frets against sovereign mercy, must be his ruin; and he will have brought it upon himself. His heart must be broken down to the acceptance of a gratuitous salvation, through the blood of the cross. If he cannot bring himself to this; if he persists in spurning it-in “fretting” against it,-he must continue to try for himself, and to “fret” at the felt failure of every successive trial. The God with whom he has to do cannot alter His measures, infinitely wise and honourable to Himself, as well as kind and merciful to His creatures, to suit and to please the proud spirit of unsubdued rebellion? If you will not have life on His terms, is the infinite God to surrender the glory of his name and government, to gratify the humour of an ungrateful and haughty despiser of it?-of a perverse spirit that frets in discontent at what ought to fill it with “joy unspeakable” and gratitude such as his heart cannot contain?-O the folly of a poor sinner, “fretting against the Lord,” when He offers him-just what he needs-mercy! “Refuse it!” He might well say, “fret against it!-is such a thing possible?” Alas! it is more than possible. Many, in pride of spirit, refuse to bow to mercy, and, by thus “perverting their way,” sink into perdition: and thus perishing, they will through eternity have cause to “fret,” not against God but against themselves!
Once more: let no sinner “fret against the Lord,” because the grace that pardons sin associates inseparably with pardon, holiness of heart, and life. The scheme of mercy could not be from God, were it otherwise. There can be no “perverting of our way” more strange and fearful than that which “turns the grace of God into licentiousness,” and “frets against the Lord” because, instead of saving us from our sins, He does not save us in our sins! The scheme of God is a scheme of salvation: and a salvation that comes from God must be a salvation from what exposes to hell as well as from hell itself-a salvation from Sin. No other would be His. It is perfect. It cannot be broken into parts. It must be accepted as a whole, and its blessings enjoyed in their inseparable union.
Proverbs 19:4-15
LECTURE LIV.
“Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape. Many will entreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him. He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he mat keepeth understanding shall find good. A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lies shall perish. Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion: but his favour is as dew upon the grass. A foolish son is the calamity of his father; and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping. House and riches are the inheritance of fathers; and a prudent wife is from the Lord. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.”
There is a sense, and an important one, in which “wealth” not only may, but ought to “make friends;” in which, to the extent of its possession, it is the Saviour’s injunction to his disciples so to. use it:-“Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail. they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” * “The mammon of unrighteousness,” is a designation given by our Lord to the riches of this world, because among the men of the world it is so very frequently the occasion of unrighteousness-gotten by unrighteous means, and used for unrighteous ends.
He inculcates on his disciples its legitimate use; it being, of course, implied, that they who use it according to his will, have also so acquired it. The employment of it in the benefactions of kindness, is evidently what is commanded; by which the grateful affections of others, the objects of that kindness, may be secured; and, having become the source of satisfaction, and, it may be, of benefit, in the present world, may meet us even in the world to come, giving us a cordial welcome to the “everlasting habitations” prepared by our heavenly Father for his redeemed family, whom his mercy has pardoned, and his Spirit has renewed and made like himself.
But this way of “making friends” is evidently not what is meant by Solomon here; as the antithesis sufficiently indicates:-“Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.” “Wealth” has many means of “making friends,” of which poverty is destitute. It can operate, for its own selfish ends, on the selfish principles of others. These principles lead those under their influence to court the favour of the rich, and to catch with eagerness at every symptom of it, while, in many instances, it is only selfishness versus selfishness;-the showing of the favour, and the catching at the favour, being prompted alike by the same motive. “Wealth” can “make friends,” by gifts, entertainments, and various modes of aid to others, which the poor cannot command; and even by exciting and maintaining expectations, which are as foolishly formed and cherished, as they are selfishly encouraged. Let wealth become poverty; then comes the test of the friendship. Let “riches make themselves wings and fly away;” and the selfish friends find wings immediately too. The attraction is gone. The magnet has lost its virtue; or rather its poles are reversed, and it has become repulsive, driving away what before it held in close cohesion. He who, when rich, was surrounded by flattering friends, is now, when poor, found troublesome. Excuses are devised for keeping him at a distance; he is “separated from his neighbour.” The reason is, that formerly he could give, but now he needs; and the selfishness of human nature likes better to get than to give. O how different from the tendencies of that corrupt nature is the divine maxim of Jesus-“It is more blessed to give than to receive!” What a world would this be, were this maxim universally adopted, and consistently acted upon! The former part of this verse would continue true:-wealth would still “have many friends;” but they would be all of the description of grateful friends, made and held by its benevolent use. But the latter part of the verse would bo true no longer; the poor being courted as the object of kindness, for the sake of the blessedness of giving-the luxury of doing him good-would no longer be “separated” and shunned.
It is a comfort to the poor who fear God, that there is One from whom their poverty never “separates” them. “God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him;"-and of Him who, when on earth, “had not where to lay his head,” it is said-“He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.” In Him let “the needy” put their trust.
Verse Proverbs 19:5 . “A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.”*-Truth is a part of the conventional morality of the world. Society could not subsist without it. There is a constant tendency in our corrupt nature-I will not say to prefer falsehood to truth when there is no temptation to the former,-no end to be gained by it; but to set truth aside when there is a temptation,-any object of self-interest to be attained by its opposite. And falsehood is too frequently practised, to defeat the ends of justice. Were it not for the corruption of our nature, there would be no use for oaths. When an oath is administered in any case, falsehood becomes perjury; against which the laws of every well-regulated community direct severe punitive visitation. And even, should the “liar” and the “false witness” escape discovery and punishment among men-“he shall not escape” when “God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing.” “All liars”-and not less false swearers-“shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”
- See Proverbs 6:19 ; Proverbs 14:5 ; Proverbs 14:25 .
Verses Proverbs 19:6-7 . “Many will entreat the favour of the prince; and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. All the brethren of the poor do hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.” The contents of these verses are, in their spirit, very similar to those of verse fourth. The truth of them arises out of the same principle-the selfishness of our fallen nature; and it was practically evinced then, as it is still. Wherever the gratification of its wishes is to be got, selfishness will be found,-plying all its arts. The throne, as might, from the power of this principle, be anticipated, has many parasitical and self-interested attendants; hangers on for places, and pensions, and gifts. The gates, and halls, and antechambers of royalty,-or of the representatives and almoners of royalty, will ever be found crowded with applicants. This is one, it may be, of the gratifications and honours, but surely also of the annoyances and mortifications of power and station. It is an annoyance, from the frequent troublesomeness and importunity of the applicants; and it is a mortification,-the prince being well aware that it is not for his own sake that the court is paid,-not from any attachment to his person and character,-but solely to his princely power. If he sinks, and another is about to succeed him, he will be forsaken for the successor,-for him who is about to have the gifts and the berths at his disposal. The worship will be withdrawn from the setting, and devoutly paid to the rising sun.
In the latter of the two verses, “brethren” means, as in many other places, near relations; while “friends” signifies simply companions, or persons who have become intimate, but have no consanguinity.-We must not suppose “the poor” to have merited dislike by their own conduct. Then, indeed, they would not be entitled to love. The dislike and distance would be only their due. Idleness or profligacy would disfranchise them, in regard to the obligations of their friends to help them. The general sense of the words relates to the tendency of poverty itself to cool affection and to alienate friendship. This may arise from two causes-both alike selfish and unworthy. First, “the brethren of the poor” are not fond of owning him as one of their circle. They court alliance with the rich, the honourable, the great,-those who have their place in what the world call good society. They take every way of making their connexion with such persons known. They speak of it themselves, and are delighted when it is spoken of by others:-but their poorer relatives they rather keep out of sight. They make no mention of them themselves; and when others stumble upon the mention of them, they try to make the connexion as distant as possible, and to put the best face on what they feel to be disreputable, and do not like to hear of. And this, alas! is too frequently the case, even when, in regard to character, and the qualities which should render men estimable, the advantage is all on the side of the poverty. If any kin can be claimed with the great, it is eagerly done, even let their characters be ever so profligate; while connexion with the poor is concealed and all allusion to it avoided, although they are of the “excellent of the earth” in whom God himself has complacency. Even God’s people are too much in danger of being tempted, by a false and unworthy shame, to feel and act thus,-and to let their countenance sink when a poor relation is mentioned, and brighten at the notice of the rich connexions of the family;-although they know how different is the estimate of Him whose followers they profess to be.-O let Christians be on their guard against such conformity to the world! What are children to think, when they see it in their parents;-and when they are thus taught, by example, to value men, and to value relations, not according to character but to mere wealth and station! But there is another reason for the dislike and the distance. Poor relations are burdensome relations. They stand in need. They present demands, directly or indirectly, upon the purse; and this touches selfishness in another point. They are apt to be thought intrusive and troublesome. They are looked upon with jealousy. Their visits are discouraged. They are received with coldness; and are given to understand that the longer they are of coming back, so much the better. If they do venture sooner, their repulse becomes sterner. They find a deaf ear, or are put off with fair but indefinite and distant promises; and when by such means they are got rid of for the time, they are followed with a fretful wish that it may be many a day ere their face is seen again.
If such the treatment by relatives, what is to be expected of mere friends and acquaintances?-The latter part of the verse is very pouching:-“he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.” Exigency produces importunity. The poor reduced relation or companion urges his suit; reminds of former days of intimacy, and of past professions of friendship-of the claims of kindred-of the urgency of want. But this becomes irksome. It frets the temper; and sometimes frets it the more, in proportion as the justice and truth of the appeal are felt, because then conscience secretly puts in its sting; and they are sent away with an imperious and angry scowl.-O! that we would but accustom ourselves, in the true spirit of the “royal law,” to exchange conditions, and to consider how, in such an exchange, we should ourselves like to be so treated!-And if Christians would but bethink themselves what would become of them, if God were to deal with them, in their time of need and of application to Him, as they are thus tempted to deal with needy, dependent, and importunate relatives and friends!
We have had the lesson of the next verse, in its spirit and substance, and almost in the very terms, repeatedly before us. It is a lesson of which the importance is so fundamental,-lying as it does at the root of all happiness for time and eternity, that it cannot be too often or too urgently pressed on practical attention, and immediate and hearty compliance:-“He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.” Let a man’s intellect be ever so clear and sound on other matters, he is insane if he forgets God, and neglects his “Soul.” This is the prevailing insanity of the world,-the monomania of the entire race.
Verse Proverbs 19:10 . “Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes."-The word rendered “delight” is here to be understood as meaning prosperity, and abundance of life’s desired enjoyments, from which the delight of men arises:-and a “fool” means a man who is little in mind, destitute of knowledge and discretion, or base in character; or all the three. There is an incongruity between the man and his situation. His prosperity and condition attract notice and attention. There is a certain admiration and influence connected with them; but these are ill supported by his mental and moral qualities. What he has is out of keeping with what he is. You would smile, if you saw a poor man’s ass decked out in trappings of embroidery and gold. Not less incongruous is the union of prosperity and folly. The man occupies a conspicuous position; but there is no corresponding dignity or elevation of mind and character. Besides, in most cases, the “fool” cannot bear his good fortune, it renders him vain, insolent, self-sufficient, consequential, and overbearing. He assumes airs, such as only make his imbecility and folly the more apparent, and the unseemliness the greater and the more offensive. And still further-he has not wit enough to use his prosperity rightly. He perverts it to foolish, improper, unbecoming purposes; not only failing to apply it for the glory of God and the true benefit of men, but actually applying it to useless, silly, frivolous, fantastic ends, which expose him to universal ridicule.
“Much less,” adds Solomon, “for a servant to have rule over princes."-The case is one which has not unfrequently been realized in history. Even when the servant, as sometimes happens, is superior in mental talent and vigour of intellect, and discretion of management, to the prince,-yet still there is unseemliness,-an inversion of established and necessary order. He ought not to be a prince, whose imbecility subjects him to a servant’s rule. It seems evident, however, that by a servant, or slave, is meant a person who, while he is of low extraction, has mind, and education, and habits correspondingly low; a base-born, grovelling, ignoble spirit. The influence and authority of such a one is of all things the most unseemly and disgustful. In whichsoever sense the words are taken, the unseemliness is equally great. The sense has been given by one interpreter very briefly thus:-A fool knows not how to use abundance, nor a slave authority. The slave may not be naturally inferior; yet his education and habits of life render him altogether unfit for the acts of government. There have been exceptions. Among such, however, it is quite improper to place the case of Joseph; inasmuch as Joseph, though, in the mysterious providence of God, a slave in Egypt, was not such by birth or education; but by both, as well as by the grace of God, fitted for rule.
Verse Proverbs 19:11 . “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”*
- Comp. Proverbs 12:16 ; Proverbs 14:29 ; Proverbs 15:18 .
A man of true “discretion” and sound understanding will not be “easily provoked.” This is one of the attributes of genuine prudence, as really as of genuine charity. A quick and touchy irritability is the mark of a weak and foolish, rather than of a vigorous and sensible mind. Wood that is light and porous,-in which the sap, which is its life and strength, has ceased to circulate,-is proverbially the most easily fired.
When provoked, the man of discretion exerts his self-control; restrains resentment; checks and curbs it; knowing well that the instant indulgence of anger,-giving loose to its first emotions, so that they burst forth in ebullitions of violence,-is sure to carry the subject of it to extremes; and that when this is the case in the administration of reproof or reprehension, it at once exposes the man himself, and wrongs his neighbour. “It is his glory to pass over a transgression.” It is so because it is much more difficult-self-control requiring far greater effort than self-indulgence; because it shows the operation of high moral and spiritual principle,-a regard to God’s authority, such as overcomes the fear of man, especially of his contempt and ridicule, the worst of all to bear; and because it is the greatest glory of man, or of any creature, to be like God, whose Name is still, as it was of old-“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,” Exodus 34:6-7 .
Verse Proverbs 19:12 . “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion: but his favour is as dew upon the grass."-The “wrath of the king” affords indication of the danger arising from it in the effects which may follow:-just as the “roaring of the lion” does. The power of offended Majesty is thus intimated, and warning given for timely escape from its punitive inflictions. On the other hand, “his favour is like dew upon the grass.” The image presents the natural association of freshness, beauty, glory, growth fruitfulness. The dew falls softly on the face of nature-refreshing, beautifying, adorning, enlivening, fructifying. Thus comes upon its fortunate object, as the world esteems him, the favour of the prince. O! if he is regarded as fortunate who escapes the one, and enjoys the other; what shall we say of the “wrath” and “the favour” of the King of kings!* Above all things to be shunned, O shun His wrath; above all things to be desired and sought, seek and desire His favour. There is no misery like the endurance of the one; there is no blessedness like the enjoyment of the other. The one will sink you to hell; the other will raise you to heaven. Nay, the one is hell; the other is heaven.
- Comp. 2 Samuel 23:4 ; Psalms 72:6 ; Amos 3:6-8 .
Verse Proverbs 19:13 . “A foolish son is the calamity of his father; and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping."-In this verse there are brought before us two sources of great unhappiness in domestic life. The first of the two is the subject of frequent reference.* Let not the words be understood as if this source of unhappiness were always to be regarded simply as a calamity in providence. Let not parents too readily so regard it, and thus “lay a too flattering unction to their souls.” The blame may lie, and in most instances, if not in all, does lie, and must be, with themselves. Have their instructions been sufficiently scriptural? their admonitions sufficiently faithful? their example sufficiently consistent? their guardianship sufficiently vigilant? their entreaties and persuasions sufficiently affectionate? their efforts sufficiently united? their prayers sufficiently fervent and importunate? their faith in the promises of the covenant sufficiently firm and influential? O ponder, ye parents, such questions as these, and lay them deeply and solemnly to heart.
- See Proverbs 10:1 ; Proverbs 15:20 ; Proverbs 17:21 ; Proverbs 17:25 .
Then we have-“the contentions of a wife”-presented under the figure of “a continual dropping.” The idea is not simply that of uninterrupted constancy, although that is what is directly expressed;-it is in the effects of that constancy that the spirit of the comparison lies: As, first,-the most vexatious discomfort. The image is not that of mere falling rain, but of rain finding its way through the roof, and everywhere “dropping;” so that there is no escaping it:-it comes upon you in every corner:-you cannot abide in the house; or, if you do, it is amidst unceasing annoyance. Thus is it where dwells an angry, contentious, brawling woman. She banishes husband and children from the house. There is no living under the same roof with her. Or if a sense of duty, or a feeling of necessity obliges them to remain, it is in the midst of incessant irritation, and vexation of spirit. It is not easy, I should think, to determine, whether the clamour of the scolding termagant or the ill-natured discontented peevishness of the shrew, be the worse to bear. The man is to be pitied who happens upon either; the one ever passionate, the other ever complaining; the one angry at everything, the other pleased with nothing; the one ever furious, the other ever fretful. But further, their vexation and annoyance is not all:-the “continual dropping” is very injurious and destructive to the house,-rotting its timbers, loosening and disengaging its cement, and endangering its stability. So are “the contentions of a wife” ruinous to the family interests, as well as to its comfort and peace. They dishearten, dispirit, and paralyse exertion; they fret and sour the temper abroad as well as at home. When a man has cheerful domestic enjoyment at his own fireside,-unbending there after the toils of the day,-tasting with a happy husband’s and father’s relish the sweetest of earthly sweets, the sweets embosomed in the one word Home,-O with what cheerful alacrity does he set about and pursue his labour through the day, and, at its close, bring his earnings to the kind, smiling, industrious, frugal, managing, partner of his life! But when it is otherwise, his “hands hang down and his knees are feeble.” He goes out to his daily labour with a heavy heart-and, instead of anticipating the evening as a time of relief and ease, and compensation for his day’s fatigue, he sees the hour of his return home coming on with a sigh,-and lifts the latch of his door to enter his abode, with a heart still heavier than when he left it. Ah! this is a sad case.-But still further:-the respectability of the family is affected. Friends and neighbours keep aloof; and while the wife is blamed, and the husband is pitied, the blame and the pity are blended generally with feelings, and accompanied with expressions, that are more akin to scorn and ridicule than to respect. And what, in many cases, is the sad result? The poor man, finding no attraction at his own fireside has recourse to the club and the alehouse; and the history of a family, which might have been decent, wellprovided, respected, and happy, ends in destitution, wretchedness, and dependence:-like a tenement, which by a “continual dropping” has mouldered and decayed, and comes to ruin ere it has stood half its time.
And O! what shall be said, when the two evils in this verse unite! There cannot be a case more pitiable. Under the former alone, a man may be sustained and comforted by the cheering society and converse of a fond wife, the sharer and the soother of his sorrows, as he is of hers:-and under the latter alone, his misery may be not a little mitigated by the prudence, the sympathy, and the aid of a pious and affectionate son. But when the two come together-how deplorable!-the husband and the father alike wretched,-neither relation alleviating, but each aggravating, the affliction of the other!
Though my illustration, as you perceive, has been taken from inferior life,-from the dwellings of the labouring poor; yet be it remembered, the misery of such paternal and conjugal disappointments is very far from being confined to that class of the community. It is to be found in the highest circles of society, as well as in the lowest.-Nor let it be forgotten that the case might be reversed. It is not husbands alone that are made unhappy by peevish or passionate wives: many a wife leads a life of daily irksomeness and grief from the behaviour of a hasty and furious, or a selfish and sullen, and unreasonable husband. Let husbands then look well to themselves, how far they may be accountable for the tempers of their wives. “Few women have so little of the heart of a woman, or a human creature, as to make those men unhappy that treat them with discretion and tenderness; or, if women really deserve this character, gentle admonition and kind usage are the best means of reclaiming them.”
The next verse is a following out of the same subject.-“House and riches are the inheritance of fathers”-the paternal inheritance; that is-not what fathers inherit, but what fathers transmit as an inheritance to their sons. They are things which a man may receive by inheritance from his father, without any labour for them of his own:-“But a prudent wife is from the Lord."-Not that “house and riches” are not from the Lord too. But the meaning seems to be, that when a young man has succeeded to his father’s “house and riches,” there is something yet before him incomparably more important and more closely connected with the happiness of his future life; namely, his obtaining a suitable companion to share that house and those riches with him-“a prudent wife.” If he errs here-his inheritance will be of little avail to his happiness. The antithesis in the verse seems evidently to convey the idea that the latter of the two blessings is unspeakably the more precious of the two. The former-let the house be a palace for splendour, and the riches the most abundant that ever were accumulated,-could not confer happiness, were there strife and brawling, alienation and coldness, in the family. The poor peasant, to whom neither “house nor riches” have descended, but who labours with manly industry-
“From morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve,”
to share his little all with the active, economical, affectionate partner of his life,-for whom, on his return home-
“The busy housewife plies her evening care;-
Whose children run, to lisp their sire’s return.
And climb his knees the envied kiss to share,”
has an infinitely happier lot than the wealthiest Nabob of the East, without that love-feast of connubial and domestic peace, contentment, and cordial harmony.
“A prudent wife”-called elsewhere “a virtuous woman,” is one in whom “the heart of her husband can safely trust,” in regard to rectitude of principle, and propriety of conduct; whose dealings he does not require to be for ever watching; who, from his full reliance on her judgment and integrity, keeps him “without carefulness;” who, in the language of the Apostle, “loves her husband, loves her children, is discreet, chaste, a keeper at home, good, obedient to her own husband:"-one who counsels him in difficulty, cheers him in depression, and, by joint participation, doubles to him every joy and divides every care and sorrow. Certainly, among temporal blessings there is not a more precious gift of heaven to man below. It is “from the Lord."-The meaning is, not, as some have, most falsely, and calumniously to the female character, alleged, that there is no possibility, from the artfulness of woman, of forming any right estimate of what any one of the whole sex is to be after she has become a wife,-that it is all a lottery. This, I repeat, is a false and calumnious representation. It is not that we must look to providence, as in a matter where any consideration and care of our own are of no avail. It is true, there are cases of artful concealment and simulation, in which, subsequently to union, tempers discover themselves, of which the existence was never previously suspected. But, generally speaking, the fault lies on the side of the choosing party. “A prudent wife” is not to be got by an imprudent mode of choice. The gift must be sought “from the Lord.” But this does not mean that the Lord is supernaturally to point out the individual. Our own discretion must be put in exercise, along with prayer for the divine superintendence and direction, so as to bring about a happy result. And then the precious gift should be owned, and the all-bountiful Giver praised for his goodness in bestowing it.
Verse Proverbs 19:15 . “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.”* The tendency of a slothful spirit is, to grow by indulgence; yawning indolence ending in a “deep sleep.” And this is a time of defenceless exposure, both of person and property, as well as of entire unproductiveness. “He awaketh, and his soul is empty.” But he must “suffer hunger;” and, as being the effect solely of his own folly, it is right that he should be left to feel it.
- Comp. Proverbs 6:8-11 ; Proverbs 10:4 ; Proverbs 15:19 .
The sentiment holds as to spiritual concerns. Spiritual lassitude and sloth grows on the professor who indulges it. It becomes lethargy. It puts the soul in danger of falling into “a deep sleep.” A torpor comes over all its living energies; and then, incapacity for any active exertion increases. This is a period of special peril to the divine life in the soul. Its last spark is in danger of becoming extinct, and spiritual death of ensuing. Satan takes the advantage; plies his temptations; drives the listless and indolent into the grossest and vilest sins, and fills the conscience with a despair, that rivets the bonds of iniquity.
The second part of the verse applies equally to what is spiritual. There is “hunger” in the spiritual, as well as in the natural or animal life. When the soul is in sound health, it “hungers after” the word and ordinances of God, and finds constant gratification and relief from the enjoyment of them But the “hunger” which the soul is here spoken of as suffering, is a painful feeling of want:-the result of indolence and inactivity, and that cannot be immediately relieved; an unsatisfied longing, a gnawing emptiness. When the divine word is neglected, or not studied with attention and care; when no new knowledge is acquired, and there is no enlargement of the old, there is a vacancy in the mind,-a painful craving,-an appetite that is in need of supply, and ill at ease without it. When the stomach, the principal organ of digestion in the bodily frame, has not a sufficiency of aliment to keep its chemical powers in action,-its digestive juices give pain-sometimes most severe-by acting gnawingly upon itself. Now the renewed soul lives on divine knowledge. This is its food. It must have something to keep its powers in action; new supplies of its appropriate and necessary nourishment. There is a peculiar satisfaction to the soul, in the acquisition of fresh knowledge; like the satisfaction experienced by the corporeal appetite from the introduction of food to relieve and satisfy the appetite of hunger. The pain produced by felt ignorance, arises from the unnatural state in which the soul is placed by the want of that on which its powers can operate, and from which their operation may extract enjoyment. This pain in reality springs from conscience. It is right it should be felt. When felt, it will prove a stimulus to seek the nutriment by which alone it can be removed, and which alone can restore the healthful activity of the vital principles of the divine life, and renewed and corresponding growth. If our souls “suffer hunger;” if they pine and starve-the fault is our own. In the divine stores there is no lack of suitable provision. Every kind of supply is to be found in abundance, laid up for us in God’s word and ordinances. But there must bo diligence to obtain it. As corn in the granary will not nourish the body; so knowledge in the book will not nourish the soul. If you would not suffer from the gnawing “hunger” of ignorance, but would have the satisfaction and growth produced by knowledge, you must work for it; you must put forth effort to obtain it; you must find it, by such effort, in its native variety, and, by the process of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” you must appropriate it to the varied wants of your higher nature. Attend, then, to the duty enjoined upon you, to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour;"-to “add to your faith, knowledge;” to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom;” to “work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling, that God may work in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things ye shall never fall, but have an entrance ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
And let all remember,-that, although they may have no relish for the provision of God’s word, as the nourishment of the soul,-this absence of spiritual relish is their sin; and that their souls, thus famished, shall “suffer hunger” in the world to come, for evermore; endure all the pangs of “the second death,"-all the means of life, which they had here rejected, being eternally withdrawn.
Proverbs 19:16-20
LECTURE LV.
“He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul: but he that despiseth his way shall die. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.”
The phrase “He that keepeth the commandment” appears to be one which comprehends the giving of an appropriate reception and treatment to every part of the divine word. Every part of that word comes with authority,-has the full force of law. It is God’s commandment that we receive His truth, as well as God’s commandment that we do His will. “What, in Scripture, is called the obedience of faith, includes both;-the believing reception of truth, and the surrender of the heart and life to its holy practical influence,-which, in consequence of the perfect harmony between God’s mind and God’s will, is the same thing with conformity to the precepts of the divine law. We are equally bound by “the law of faith” as by the “law of works.” The first of God’s commandments to men, as sinners, is that they accept His salvation,-that they acquiesce in the terms of His offer of mercy. The rebel mind has not resumed its subjection to God till that is done. It remains in the spirit of rebellion; and in that spirit, obedience to no precept can be acceptably rendered. We must first give “the obedience of faith” to God’s testimony; and then the obedience of practice to God’s precepts. The latter is the result and evidence of the former:-and it is by both that we “keep the commandment.”
And this, as we have frequently had occasion to urge, is connected with the life and well-being of the soul. It is by the faith of God’s truth that the soul first receives life-spiritual life; and it is in “keeping” God’s precepts, under the influence of that faith, that this life of the soul is maintained, enjoyed, and advanced. Everything that is contrary to God’s “commandment,” wars against the life of the soul. Hence it is added-“But he that despiseth his way shall die.”-“His way” we might naturally suppose to mean God’s way. But the name of God not occurring in the previous part of the verse, the phrase seems rather meant to describe the man who scornfully disregards all admonitions, both divine and human, who smiles indifferently at every warning; who follows the “sight of his eyes and the imagination of his heart;” walking at random, instead of carefully and constantly “cleansing his way, by taking heed thereto according to God’s word.” “He shall die”-“die the death;"-not merely the death that consigns the body to the grave, but the death that consigns the soul to hell-” the second death.” He shall be lost for ever.
Verse Proverbs 19:17 . “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again."-The “pity” in the verse before us, is practical pity; the pity that gives,-the pity that acts,-the pity that visits, and comforts, and relieves. It is not the whinings of an unprofitable sentimentalism. It is not the pity of words, that says “Depart in peace-be warmed, be filled;"-it is the pity of deeds, that “gives those things which are needful for the body:"-not evaporating in sighs, or drowning itself in tears, but testifying its sympathy by substantial acts of kindness. Its practical character appears in the very words before us. He is supposed, in the exercise of pity, to give: “he that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.”
The words imply, first, the Lord’s own regard for the poor. The intimation of this in the words, is strong. We can hardly give a more satisfactory assurance of our regard for any one, than when we become responsible for all that is given to him; declaring whatever is done for him a favour to ourselves, and an obligation laid upon us to the doer or the giver. Thus the Lord here tells us, that all gifts to the poor are loam to Him.
The mode of expression before us, implies further, a right principle on the part of the giver. It is of great moment to mark this. There is much of giving to the poor, that has no principle in it, properly so called, at all; and there is not a little that springs from such principles and motives as have anything but the sanction of God’s word. A man may give to the poor, from the mere imitation of others; from the mere wish to be rid of them; from the ostentatious love of * eclat* ; from the presumption of self-righteousness, and the hope of “covering” by it “the multitude of his sins.” Surely the Lord, in such cases, cannot be regarded as approving and accrediting the gift, and placing it in His book of remembrance as a loan to Himself. He looks to the heart. He has respect to motives. The giver must evidently be considered as having, when he gives, a regard to the Lord; as acting in obedience to His will, in imitation of His example, in humble and lively gratitude to Him as the author of all his mercies. He loves and pities the poor, because God loves and pities them, and has made it his duty, and the appropriate manifestation of his gratitude, that he should feel for them, and seek their good. And he does so all the more in the view of the divine example as embodied in the perfect character of the incarnate Redeemer; whose whole life on earth exemplified the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning him,-“He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight,” Psalms 72:12-14 .
It is implied also, specially, that the gift is bestowed, with no expectation of any return from the poor himself. It is not a loan to him, but a gift; and a gift bestowed, not from any hope of his becoming available for some selfish purpose at a future time; for then it would have in it, whether the receiver knew the purpose or not, the essential spirit of selfish bribery. It is this disinterested giving that is enjoined, and that is pleasing in God’s sight.*1 The loan is not to the poor, but to the Lord. Hence the words imply still further, the certainty of a divine return,-and confidence in that certainty;-“and that which he hath given will He pay him again.” Such is the security. What is given is not lost. It is laid up in the bank of faith,-in the exchequer of heaven. It may be returned in blessing here, in the present world. Thus it was promised of old;*2 and so stands the promises still.*3 And it shall be returned in future rewards of grace, the recompences of Him who himself “delighteth in mercy."*4 What a motive is here to the practice of generous, openhanded charity. When given on right principles, the gift is a “laying up of treasures in heaven!"*5 The invisible character of the security, and the distance of the time of the return, are both trials of faith;-and were there more “faith in God,” there would be more giving to the poor; were there more “full assurance of hope,” there would be more of the lodging in loans to the Lord, of property above.
*1 See Luke 6:31-36 ; Luke 14:12-14 . rr
*2 Deu 15:7-11 . rr
*3 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 . rr
*4 Matthew 10:41-42 ; 1 Timothy 6:17-19 ; Hebrews 6:10 . rr
*5 Comp. Luke 12:33-34 . rr
Verses Proverbs 19:18-19 . “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again."-This too is a subject which has already been considered.* The verses before us, however, suggest some additional views of it; and it is a subject on which-as occasions for the use of the rod are occurring every day and every hour, and thus every day and every hour may good be done by the right, and evil by the wrong application of it-parents need to be frequently admonished. Observe, then-1. It is here assumed, that to the parent the infliction of chastisement is painful,-that it is a measure adopted with reluctance, involving as it does a strong and distressing conflict between feeling and duty, between the heart and the judgment. All parents who come not under the description-“without natural affection”-are tenderly sensible of this.-2. Correction with the rod should never be resorted to when the end designed can be effected by other means. God himself expostulates before he smites. The parent is not to be charged with “sparing the rod,” who can effect the ends of discipline without it;-whether by touching the springs of affection, or, where they are at all understood, appealing to higher principles. The Lord’s look to Peter had more effect than the severest visitation could have had. And if a parent has the affections of his children in such a degree, as that a look of grave displeasure shall affect their hearts more deeply with a sense of wrong than a hundred stripes,-why should the hundred stripes, or any one of them be inflicted?-3. When the rod is used-as used it must at times be-the end in view should be, purely and exclusively, the benefit of the child, not the gratification of any resentful passion on the part of the parent. Should the latter be apparent to the child, the effect is lost, and worse than lost; for, instead of the sentiment of grief and melting tenderness, there will be engendered a feeling of sullen hostility, a bitterness and alienation of spirit, a secret spurning at the rod, if not even of angry scorn towards him who has manifested selfish passion rather than parental love in the use of it. To avoid so sad a result, I repeat, no parent should allow himself to correct in a passion. If the hand that is trembling with rage seizes the rod, there is almost a certainty of harm rather than good being the result.-4. The verses direct, that it should be used early, by which, of course, must be understood, as soon as the nature and end of correction can be at all supposed to be apprehended. Not, sooner, certainly. It were unnatural and reckless cruelty to “chasten with the rod,” before there could be any understanding of its design,-of the connexion between the chastisement and the fault for which it was inflicted. This connexion it is of essential importance, distinctly to point out and impress; and as early as there is reason to think that the correction can be so understood as to serve the purpose of salutary restraint, it may and ought to be begun. The reason is, that it is so much easier to prevent the formation of the habit of evil, than to overcome it when formed. Nip the first blossoms of sin, as soon as they appear; lest they ripen into “the fruits of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah."-5. You are here taught further, that firmness must be in union with affection in applying the rod. The words seem to express a harsh, yet it is an important and most salutary lesson:-“let not thy soul spare for his crying.” The words do not mean, that you should not feel, very far from that. It was the knowledge that feeling was unavoidable, and that the strength and tenderness of it were ever apt to tempt parents to relent and desist, and leave their end unaccomplished,-that made it necessary to warn against too ready a yielding to this natural inclination. The child may cry, and cry bitterly, previously to the correction; but, when you have reason to think the crying is for the rod rather than for the fault, and that, but for the threatened chastisement, the heart would probably have been unmoved, and the eyes dry;-then you must not allow yourselves to be so unmanned by his tears, as to suspend your purpose, and decline its infliction. If a child perceives this, (and soon are children sharp enough to find it out) ho has discovered the way to move you next time; and will have recourse to it accordingly.-This leads me to remark-6. The rod must be used with discriminative proportion according to the magnitude of the fault committed, and according to the variety of tempers with which you have to deal. This variety is very great. A look or a word will go deeper into the heart of one child than the severest punishment will affect another. One child is yielding, another stubborn; one gentle, another fiery. The great principle is, that you must not yield till you have gained your end. Violent, ungovernable tempers must be met with calm but settled and determined firmness; they must be subdued: your point must be steadily and peremptorily maintained; to give way, would only be to increase the evil. and greatly to augment your own difficulty and suffering on a recurrence of the need for chastisement, and the necessity of giving way again. In this sense, and in this connexion, the nineteenth verse is understood by many, and, at any rate, the principle of it bears a clear and forcible application to the case of correction:-“A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.” Just substitute child for man; and mark how true the statement is. If the child is “once delivered” from chastisement,-if “his crying,” which in this case is the crying of tumultuous and bitter passion, once prevail to induce the giving up of the point, and of the attempt to inflict “the rod,"-the presumption grows. Passion, thus accomplishing its end, will rage with the greater fury next time;-will cry, and writhe, and spurn, and kick, with the more determined violence:-and “thou must do it again.” The words may be used either of the deliverance or of the correction. Your delivering him, or allowing him to escape once, will, in the way just mentioned, produce the stronger necessity for your letting him off again:-or (which is better) punish now; for if not, it must be done, and done with the greater severity to him, and the greater pain to yourself, in consequence of indulgence having confirmed and accumulated the evil, and rendered it the more hard to subdue.
I have taken the 19th verse in connexion with the 18th as applying remarkably well to the case of high-spirited and passionate children. They need not, however, be thus limited. They are understood by some commentators, as signifying that violent passions ever inflict their own punishment upon their unhappy subjects. These men are their own tormentors. They are never at rest. They are ever falling into scrapes and difficulties, and quarrels, and suits. You may “deliver” them-but they are no sooner freed from one, than they run into another,-thus punishing themselves, and keeping their friends in incessant vexation and trouble.
The words may also mean, in regard to wrathful men, what we have considered them as signifying in regard to wrathful children;-that they ought to be punished,-punished now-in order to break and subdue their violence. It is better to coerce them firmly at once, as the only likely means of bringing them to their senses, and preventing incessant repetitions of their offensive and violent conduct.
Verse Proverbs 19:20 . “Hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.” This brief counsel is in harmony with the whole of the introductory portion of this book, as well as with others of its proverbial sayings. “Thy latter end,” there can be no doubt, refers to death; to the time of bidding a final adieu to the world and all its relations and interests. That “latter end,” indeed, is not the end of our being. Were it so, the words-“that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end” would be bereft of all their meaning. The wisdom, in that case, both for life in its prime, and life in its close, would be, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!” Wisdom in our “latter end” has reference to our preparation for what is beyond,-for the subsequent eternity of our being:-compared with which the present life is “less than nothing and vanity,” and from its relation to which, as its preparatory stage, the present derives all its value. He who, at the end of life, is unprepared for the life to come, will then feel himself to have been a fool all his days. He reaches the verge of a never-ending and never-changing state of existence;-and the time given him to prepare for it has been wasted-all wasted, on its own worthless and passing interests. Even if the man has lived what is called a virtuous life, without any extraordinary out-breakings of the grosser vices-yet, if he has been a man of the world,-without God, and without any such anticipations of eternity as to induce preparation for it in earnest, in the only way in which such preparation can be made by a sinful creature-by an interest in the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, by obtaining through the one the pardon of sin, and through the other a renewed and holy heart;-he will then be found, in regard to all that is before him-all the vast and incalculable interests of the future world, emphatically a fool. It is a sad thing to live a fool; it is a much sadder thing to die a fool. But the one generally follows the other. The greater proportion of men die as they live. Wouldst thou then be wise in “thy latter end?"-attend now to the affectionate admonition:-“HEAR COUNSEL, AND RECEIVE INSTRUCTION.”
What can all the science and philosophy of the world do for a man, any more than its wealth, to make him “wise in his latter end?”
“Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins all her little store,
Content, though mean, and cheerful if not gay,
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,
Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night
Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light:-
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew,
And in that charter reads, with sparkling eyes,
Her title to a treasure in the skies!-
Oh! happy peasant! Oh! unhappy bard!
His the mere tinsel, here the rich reward:-
He, praised perhaps for ages yet to come,
She, never heard of half a mile from home:
He, lost in errors his vain heart prefers,
She, safe in the simplicity of hers!”
All the wit of Voltaire, and all the fulsome flattery of his friends, could but ill suppress the horrors of his dying hours. He could not hear the very mention of the name of Jesus. Hume died “as a fool dieth.” The concealed but, it is believed, authentic accounts of the nurse that waited upon him, attest the secret misgivings, groans and agonies of his dying chamber:-but, even were there no truth in them, his low pitiful jestings were more affecting by far than the direst distress. Even on his own principles,-even on the supposition of death being the final cessation of conscious existence,-was that a time for indulging in dull attempts at drollery? Surely, the very idea of the complete and everlasting extinction of all those powers of thought and speculation and inquiry, which had engaged his life, and which were on the stretch for further effort and further acquisition,-the quenching of all this light,-the transition from a living, intelligent, active mind, capable of everlasting expansion and corresponding enlargement of knowledge and delight, to a clod of earth, a mere handful of unconscious dust,-was enough to make any man seriously thoughtful, and to render joking, and such joking, most unnatural and unreasonable, and to excite more than a suspicion that there was a lurking unbelief of his own philosophy, and an appalling apprehension of a life to come, which this drivelling facetiousness was meant to cover from observation. And what is the wisdom that can only enable a man to say, as Tindal said-“If there be a God, I desire that he may have mercy upon me?” Is it wisdom to leave even a doubt on such subjects to the “latter end?” It is he who " hears counsel and receives instruction,"-the counsel and instruction of God-whose “latter end is peace.” It is he, who, viewing the full harmony of the divine perfections in the salvation of sinners through the mediation of Jesus, can look forward without alarm,-can cast himself on the covenanted mercy of God, and anticipate death as a release from the sorrows and the sins of mortality, and the introduction to perfect purity and “fulness of joy.” It is he who can say, in triumph over the fears of death and the grave, of judgment and of hell-“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing,” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 .
Proverbs 19:21-29
LECTURE LVI.
“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. The desire of a man is his kindness; and a poor man is better than a liar. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware; and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devonreth iniquity. Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.”
The first of these verses contains a very important truth;-a truth which may occasion many crosses and pains in the present experience even of the children of God, but which, in the final winding-up of the entire system of His providential administration, will, on the retrospect, fill their minds with admiring satisfaction, their hearts with gratitude, and their lips with praise.
The words are susceptible of a more limited, and of a more enlarged, interpretation. By some they are understood as meaning no more than that human counsels succeed only to the extent to which God purposes they should;-that “all our ways” are entirely under His control; so that in no case can we go one step further than He permits.
This, however, is but a branch of a more general position;-namely, that while in the hearts of men there are “many devices,"-many desires, intentions, and resolutions,-many objects, with the plans and means of their attainment,-God has counsels of His own,-specific ends to work out;-and that not only shall these be accomplished in spite of the “devices” of men, but that these very “devices” shall be rendered subservient to their accomplishment-that all that is human shall be so directed and overruled, as to effect what is divine. Many and striking are the exemplifications of this in the records of inspired history:-and these records contain a specimen of the principles by which the divine administration of the government of the world is still, and shall to the end be, conducted. Look at the “device” which was in the hearts of Joseph’s brethren:-“They said one to another, Behold this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, “Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams!” (See Genesis 37:19-27 ) These words were uttered with a bitter sneer-with a “leer malign” upon their countenances, as their eyes glanced to each other, and their jealous and resentful pride kindled the more. They were devising, as they thought, the most effectual means for frustrating all that those dreams had seemed to import:-there should be an end of them now. And no doubt, had they fulfilled their present purpose, an end to them there had been. But so it was not to be. There were other “devices” suggested-“Shed no blood,” said Reuben, “but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him;"-and then there was that of Judah-“What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him.”* This their last “device” they thought as likely to be effectual in bringing his presumptuous dreams to nothing as their first. But what was the result?-“the counsel of the Lord, that stood.” This act of theirs was the very means of accomplishing it. How speaks Joseph himself to them twenty years afterward?-” Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life."*1-And what were all the “devices” which were framed and executed by the “wicked generation” that “crucified the Lord of glory?” When they had taken their counsels, had got Judas successfully bribed, had got possession of their victim, and by intimidation of Pilate, had obtained his sentence of death, and had “nailed him to the tree;"-did they, by all this,-carried out by them in the freedom and the guilt of their lawless passions,-frustrate any purpose of heaven?” The counsel of the Lord, that stood:”-” Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” said Peter to them afterwards, ye “have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."*2 And thus it is in every event. Jehovah, the Universal Ruler, carries forward the designs of His providence, great and small, amidst, and by means of, the infinitely varying and crossing, the apparently conflicting, capricious, and random volitions and determinations of agents, who, all the while, feel themselves free, and who, in all that is necessary to moral responsibility, are free,-acting under no mechanical impulses or destinations of fatalism, but doing what they please, as disposition and motive influence them, without restraint and without compulsion!” Such knowledge is too wonderful for us.” Every attempt to comprehend it quite overpowers us. It is one of those many things in the moral world, as there are many too in the physical, which make us feel the limitation of our faculties, and, if rightly considered and improved, may impress us with a becoming and salutary “humbleness of mind.”
*1 Gen 45:5 . rr
*2 Act 2:23 .
I have said that the operation of tins truth may be often painful. We are naturally fond of our own “devices.” We fancy them wise. We anticipate from them the most beneficial results; and we dwell on the anticipation with delight. But impediments come in the way. Obstacles present themselves, and sometimes from quarters whence we least expected them, and where their occurrence occasions us the bitterest disappointment. Our great difficulty then is to see the hand of God,-or to retain the firm conviction that “all things are of Him.” Yet so assuredly it is. “Clouds and darkness” may be “round about him.” This is the trial of our faith. There will be light in the end-all light-He will give us to see that “His counsel has stood,” and that it has been well for us that our “devices” have not.
We must not, on the other hand, forget, that while God in mercy frustrates many of our “devices,” that “His counsel may stand,” it is sometimes a part of His counsel to chasten His people, both individually and socially, by allowing their “devices” and plans to succeed. He may frustrate the purpose of one, and give effect to the opposite purpose of another. In both ways He may chasten; or the one may be favour, and the other correction,-correction, such as may not be felt at the time, but felt in all its bitterness afterwards.
Verse Proverbs 19:22 . “The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar."-The meaning commonly affixed to this verse is probably the true one-that kindness is to be measured by the amount of a man’s desires to do good, rather than by the amount of his ability. Any other principle of estimate would be most unfair in regard to a very numerous class of our fellow-men. There may be a great deal of genuine and generous kindness in the heart of a poor man, who has nothing beyond desires and wishes in his power. The heart may be full, when the hand is empty. In this respect, the Bible principle is that of the purest equity-” It is required according to what a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”
But let it be observed and remembered-” the desires of a man are not his kindness,” when he has the ability to be practically kind, and confines himself to desires. No. In that case, there is the clearest of all evidence that the desire is not sincere;-mere profession, without reality-“love in word”-which is only another phrase for no love at all.*
- Comp. James 2:15-16 .
While, therefore, there are cases in which we cheerfully, according to a common phrase, “take the will for the deed,” knowing that there is a want of ability to do what the heart wishes,-there are other cases, in which we demand the deed as the only proof of the will,-the gift as the only evidence of the charity. The poor man, who is sincerely willing and desirous to serve us, had he but the power, is as much entitled to our lively and affectionate gratitude as if he had actually done us the service.
Such, in this connexion, seems to be the import of the second clause of the verse-“A poor man is better than a liar."-The liar is the hypocritical and empty promiser; the man of many words, but no deeds,-of large and flattering assurances, but no performance. The poor man, who is sincere in his kind desires, is “better”-better incomparably in himself, in the sterling principles of his character; and better to us, in the comfort and satisfaction imparted to our minds in our times of need,-than the man who talks as if his whole heart were love, but who proves by his conduct that his heart is all in his tongue, and that it is there only to teach it to lie;-the man who gives us to expect much, but from whom nothing is obtained; who turns out “a cloud without water;” or-to use the apt comparison of Job respecting his friends,-is like the “stream of the brooks” in the parched and burning desert, that rapidly passes away, and balks the eager anticipations of the thirsty and fainting caravan. The true sense, therefore, seems to be given by an interpreter and translator, who renders the verse freely-“The glory of a man is his beneficence; but better is the poor man than he that falsely professeth it."*1 This rendering indeed, of the former part of the verse proceeds on the supposition of “desire” meaning that which is the object of desire;-and so it is understood by others. An eminent critic renders-” That which is desirable, or praiseworthy, in a man, is his kindness or beneficence."*2 I prefer the sense we have before put on this part of the verse. And, from the whole, we should learn, first, to beware ourselves of all false, lying, hypocritical professions of kindness,-of which the sincerity is not evinced by the gift and act. The mouth and the purse are far from being always equally open. On the contrary, it is often where most is said that least is done; and where there are fewest words that most is got. Let us be of those who say little and do much, rather than of those who say much and do little. And we should further learn to be just to all, in our estimates of their “kindness.” We are in great danger of forming our estimates, and cherishing our feelings of gratitude, according to the amount of relief or of benefit actually obtained and enjoyed by ourselves. Yet it is the “kindness” not the mere gift considered in itself, that should be the measure of our gratitude. When a man pinches himself to help us, but can do comparatively little, we are more indebted to him than to the man who may give largely, and yet hardly touch even his superfluity.
*1 Hodgson.
*2 Schulz.
There is another sense-closely connected with the one which the clause preceding suggests-in which “a poor man is better than a liar.” Men may not only lie in their promises to give; they may lie as a means of getting. Now, it is better far that a man remain poor, than that he make rich by lying,-that is, by any false, deceptive, dishonourable means. Yes, ye upright poor, it is better-far, far better for your reputation, for your peace of conscience, for your trust in Providence, and even for the probabilities of your ultimately getting on in the world. On your “honest poverty” rests the smile of Heaven; and the very sense of your integrity places you in regard to respectability and happiness immeasurably above the man who is rich at the expense of truth.
Verse Proverbs 19:23 . “The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil-Supplements, in any translation, generally indicate some degree of obscurity in the original. There is obscurity in the middle clause of this verse where our translators have supplied-he who hath it; a supplement which is sufficiently bold. The word for satisfied may be either the verb to be full, or the adjective full or filled. The word rendered “abide” may signify to pass the, night-to lie down-to rest.
From these significations of the different words, various have been the senses affixed to the clause. “The full” has been understood of those who are full of prosperity and the pride which it engenders; and by an alteration in the connexion of the words in the latter part of the verse, it has been made to declare of him, that “he shall lie down in it, and that he shall be visited with evil.” But this interpretation, like one or two others, does not seem at all natural or satisfactory.
To myself it appears, that, taking the word for “satisfied” more literally as meaning full or filled, and the word for abide as signifying rest, or passing the night in quietness and peace-the verse might be rendered-” The fear of the Lord is unto fife; and he who is filled with it shall rest; he shall not be visited with evil.” The sense is thus not materially different from that of our received version.
The idea is the delightful one of felt security-tranquil, settled repose and serenity of spirit, from confidence in God’s wisdom, faithfulness, and power, and an assured sense of His love. While in person, in family, and in substance, the fearer of God is not exempt from trials: while he has sufferings, and feels them, and they are not, in themselves, to him more than to others, “joyous, but grievous”-yet in them “he is not visited with evil;” for that is not really evil, which is the divinely ordained means of his greatest good. He knows-” that cannot hurt which comes from God.” He knows that there is not a power in the universe that can “visit him with evil,” independently of God’s will;-for “if God be for him, who can be against him?” And if the “evil” that comes, comes under the direction of His will, the gracious nature of the purpose for which it is sent, changes, in the estimation of the sufferer, its very character-transmuting it into good:-temporal privation being spiritual acquisition; the pains of the body, the health of the soul; the sufferings of time, the preparatives for eternity. Thus-” the fear of the Lord is unto life”-tending to the enjoyment of the present life; and, springing as it does from the faith of divine truth, to the final attainment of “life everlasting.”
Verse Proverbs 19:24 . “A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.” It is agreed among critics, that the word translated bosom ought to be rendered, according to its more direct and literal signification-dish.* And, so understood, it is hardly possible to conceive a stronger or more graphic description of the sluggard:-he “droppeth his hand into the dish, it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth."-Indolent, lazy men are generally fond enough of their meat; but they like their ease even better. They would fain make the two compatible, and have their meat without the trouble of taking it. O! if it would but just drop into their mouth! You have here the poor yawning wretch at his meal. It is quite a toil to him. Having got a mouthful, he lets his hand drop heavily into the dish; and, while his jaws go lazily about the process of mastication, it is long before he can be at the trouble to raise it again with another. It is literally with him, according to the proverb-“Slow at meat-slow at work.”
- See 2 Kings 21:13 ; 2 Chronicles 35:13 .
But there is a general sentiment under the particular figure. The sentiment is, that indolence, growing upon its miserable subject, comes to feel even the very slightest exertion, however necessary, an insufferable annoyance. A good may be within immediate reach-quite at hand-the smallest possible trouble may obtain it; yet it will remain unsecured. The opportunity will pass. He will yawn, and wish, and resolve, but do nothing-still saying “time enough!"-till it is gone; and then, having yawned out his ineffective wishes, he will, in the same spirit of listlessness, yawn out again his unavailing regrets. Or perhaps he may fall back on fatalism-a system most congenial to the spirit of sloth, and find out that it was not ordained that he should have the thing!
Verse Proverbs 19:25 . “Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware; and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.” Observe here-1. There is an intended contrast, in the two clauses of the verse, between smiting and reproving; the one signifying the severity of punitive discipline, the other simply verbal admonition and rebuke. The former required in the case of the froward “scorner;” the latter only in the case of the “man of understanding."-2. The scorner and the simple, in the first clause, are understood by some of the same person:-” Smite a scorner, and the infatuated man will beware.” * The “scorner,” however, in other parts of this book, as we have more than once seen, is distinguished by the very fact of his incorrigibility in his selfwilled frowardness: “A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool.” It is much more likely that by “the simple” we are to understand, not the “scorner” himself, but those who are in danger of being brought under his influence, and corrupted by his example. They are those-the young especially-who are not yet hackneyed in evil; who have not yet learned to “mock at sin,” but who are exposed to the peril of the wayward and hardened “scorner’s” power over them. Although we would be far from laying down the principle that any man should be punished beyond his desert for the sake of others;-that a heavier infliction should be laid upon him than his crime will at all justify, merely that the * in terrorem* example may have the more powerful effect; yet it is a perfectly legitimate motive for the infliction, promptly and firmly, of such punishment as is deserved, that others may be warned, and may be dissuaded from similar courses; or, in the language of our criminal courts, “maybe deterred from such crimes in all time coming.” To go beyond desert, would be unjust; it would be injuring one man for the benefit of others; it would be “doing evil, that good might come.” But that the warning of others is a legitimate end in the infliction of merited punishment, is universally admitted; and it has the sanction of God’s word. * Simplicity, when taken as at all meaning what is evil, signifies inconsideration-heedlessness. “The simple will beware”-literally “will be cunning”-means their being put on their guard, so as to apply a caution as artful to repel seduction as the guile employed to seduce them.-3. While the punishment of the “scorner” benefits others, the reproof of the wise man benefits himself. He takes it in good part, and profits by it.
- Schultens.
Verse Proverbs 19:26 . “He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.” On reading this verse, we are ready to start, and to exclaim-A son “that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother!” Can such a monster exist? Can there be one who thus resists the strongest impulses, and belies the tenderest claims of his nature?-Would that the character existed only in fancy! It was a reality in Solomon’s time; it is a reality in ours. Amongst the black and base characters, of which catalogues are at times given in the word of God, “without natural affection” is one. It is not the mere waywardness and passion of childhood that is meant in this description. Oh! it is something incomparably worse than that! We have here before us a youth, who has fallen into habits of profligacy-who casts off parental restraint, as unworthy the regard of a lad of spirit; who, for the gratification of his foolish extravagancies and his expensive vices, “wastes his father,” making free, in every way in which he can lay his hand on it, with his substance, reckless if he should bring both him and the family to poverty;-who “chases away his mother,” driving her from him, when, even with the tears of maternal love she would expostulate and plead with him; caring for nothing but coercion, and taking advantage of her known inability to use it; scorning her tears-it may be her widowed tears,-tears with which tears of kindred sympathy have ceased to flow, and whose tender pleadings there is now no sterner authority to enforce!-Such youths, alas! the fatal power of evil has made;-and such youths “cause shame, and bring reproach.” They are a scandal to their parents and their families; and a nuisance to society:-and their doom is reprobation and ignominy, as the merited consequence to themselves. The youth who can so use a mother-is “fit for treasons.” There is not a crime in the whole catalogue of infamy, of which I cannot suppose him capable; nor is there any symptom more sadly portentous, of a life of crime, and a death of shame and misery.
- See Deuteronomy 13:11 ; Deuteronomy 21:21 .
In the verse we have what may be regarded as the extreme of the evil. It is evidently susceptible of many intermediate degrees: and they are all bad.-Of what Solomon calls “wasting a father” some youths are apt to form a very false idea of the wickedness. The circumstance of its being their father’s property they are appropriating and squandering, makes them think of their conduct with comparative lightness. Yet if wrong is to be measured by the amount of obligation to the party wronged, in what case can the crime be more atrocious than in that of a son robbing a father?-And let every child and every young person hearing me beware-as they value their own peace of mind, the approbation and esteem of men, and the favour of God,-of acting such a part as would send one pang to the heart, or draw one tear of bitterness to the eye, of the mother that bare them. O! knew you but a tithe of what you owe to that maternal fondness that watched and wept over your cradle; would you appreciate the meltings, the solicitudes, the fears, the hopes, the sorrows, the joys of a mother’s bosom,-affection for that mother would be the last of the affections that could take leave of your hardening heart; its warm drops the last that the iron hand of vice could wring out of it.
There appears to be a connexion between this verse and that which follows-“Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” In regard to the young, who have, under parental tuition, received “the words of knowledge,"-the knowledge that teaches them the “fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom,” and lays them under the restraints, the salutary restraints, of the divine law,-not unfrequently does it happen, that the delusive reasonings and sophistical plausibilities of scepticism and infidelity,-supporting as they do a system that has many recommendations to the carnal mind, and aiming at the unsettling and subversion of that which, though it has the secret sanction of conscience, is far from palatable to the natural inclinations of the heart,-serve to undermine the influence, and to loosen the hold, of better lessons. The lies of systems of error, like the first lie itself, have generally in them something fascinating,-something that the wayward heart likes, and which gives a deceptive colouring and speciousness to the arguments by which they are maintained. They are agreeable and insinuating. Their advocates season them with wit, and impart to them the aspect of great liberality of spirit and freedom from restraint,-a restraint which is represented, tauntingly, as unmanly, and fit only for the nursery and the leading-strings of childhood. This is all very taking and bewitching to young, inconsiderate, and hardly settled minds. When such principles enter, and get hold of the passions, and through the passions bribe and corrupt the understanding, restraint is thrown off-timidly, it may be, at first, but with a growing scorn and boldness;-the reins are cast on the necks of the passions; a course of self-indulgence, in every way that vice and fancy dictate, is pursued; the family patrimony is invaded and squandered; a mother’s tenderness,-the tenderness of remonstrance and tears, is indignantly resisted;-he “wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother."-I am fully persuaded, that in by far the greater number of cases, the principles of action are corrupted before the principles of belief; that the first thing is, the “putting away of a good conscience” by temptation to sin, and then the “making shipwreck of faith.” Enticements are held out, in various ways, to that which is evil. The evil is done. The conscience is for the time ill at ease. But the evil is sweet, and it is repeated. Conscience drives its stings still more tormentingly into the bosom. The fretfulness and sullenness of self-dissatisfaction ensue. But conscience gets gradually seared. The emollients of selffluttering error are applied to its wounds. The principles are accommodated to the practice. He who began in vice ends in infidelity. And the final result is, a course of wild and ungovernable licentiousness. Mark, then, ye youth, the counsel now before you; the counsel of human experience,-the counsel of compassionate kindness,-the counsel of divine authority:-“Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” Cease. If you have ventured to open your ear, shut it now; and open it to “the words of knowledge”-the words of divine instruction.
Verse Proverbs 19:28 . “An ungodly witness scorneth judgment; and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity."-Observe here-that the designation “an ungodly witness” is, on the margin, “a witness of Belial.” Sons of Belial is a common appellation of impious and unprincipled men. “A witness of Belial,” or “an ungodly witness”-is not, I think, to be understood, in this connexion, of a witness called to give evidence in a cause, between parties, before magistrates or arbitrators. The two parts of the verse, taken together, appear to contain a very apt description of the characters of those alluded to in the previous verse-by whose “instruction” the youth are made “to err from the words of knowledge;” men, who, instead of witnessing for God, witness for Belial-that is for wickedness and folly personified; all whose conversation is on the side of evil,-their testimony, by word and act, favourable to it, and unfavourable to goodness, and to the great concentration and prototype of all goodness. The verse, then, contains the character of those from whose counsel the young are warned to cease. They are men who vaunt themselves of their freedom from the restraints of law and justice,-laugh at scruples of conscience,-cast away the cords of authority,-set at nought threatened judgments; their “mouth devoureth iniquity,"-opening wide to receive, and greedily and voraciously swallowing down the pleasures of sin and of the world. And the closing verse presents a warning to flee their counsel-verse Proverbs 19:29 . “Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.” “Judgments” are not merely temporal chastisements-those visitations of Heaven which sometimes overtake the God-defying sinner even in the present life:-they are to be understood more especially of those final and fearful “judgments” which are denounced from heaven against all the workers of iniquity-the “scorners” and the “fools.”-“Scorners” are those who tempt and seduce; and “fools” are those who listen and yield to their seducing temptations, and follow them in their evil courses. The former shall be “beaten with many stripes.” But the latter shall not escape. Having cast in their lot with them here, they must lay their account with sharing it too hereafter. And both the one and the other shall suffer according to the amount of light and privilege they have respectively enjoyed. O how powerfully does all this recommend and enforce the advice-or rather the authoritative though gracious injunction-“Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge!” Cease-as you would avoid the judgments and the stripes of offended holiness and omnipotence. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”
In conclusion-Let all, young and old, remember, that there is one point, in regard to which, let what devices soever be in their hearts, “the counsel of the Lord-that shall stand.” God has fixed the way of a sinner’s salvation. He has made it known in His word. There you find His counsel in this matter,-the first of all to you, both in order and in importance. It stands there, the unchanging counsel of the unchanging God. He can never depart from it. It is framed in adaptation to the glory of His own character and government, and to the exigencies of man’s condition. It admits not of alteration. It cannot be improved; it must not be modified. As the counsel of God for a certain end, it is the only counsel by which that end can be answered. “BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED, THROUGH FAITH”-faith in Christ-faith in the righteousness and atonement of a divine Saviour. This-and this alone is the counsel of God, for your salvation.