Proverbs 21

Proverbs 21:1-8

LECTURE LXIV.

Proverbs 21:1-8 .

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them; because they refuse to do judgment. The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.”

In the first of these verses some suppose there is an allusion to a gardener, directing the rills of water through the different parts of his grounds; and that a comparison is intended between the ease with which the gardener does this, and the ease and certainty with which God superintends human volitions and purposes, so as to make all subservient to the attainment of His own ends. But the comparison appears, in both its parts, to relate directly to God. The king’s heart is represented as “in the hand”-that is, in the power, and under the control-of Jehovah, as completely as are “the rivers of water.”* And so are all “hearts”-all the purposes and determinations of men. This, I repeat, is one of those truths to which we are, a priori, constrained to assent. “Whatever may be the difficulties with which, in some respects, the subject is environed, we perceive, with a kind of intuition, and admit without an instant’s hesitation, that it must be so. The certainty of the divine counsels requires it. The regular administration of the government of the world requires it. Every view we can take of the divine glory requires it. Never can it be that the will of man should frustrate the will of God-the thoughts of the creature cross and interfere with those of the Creator. Human counsels may thwart human counsels; but it is the divine prerogative, amidst all the incessantly changing and conflicting volitions and actions of the millions of the world’s population, to say-“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”

• Comp. Proverbs 16:1 ; Proverbs 16:9 ; Proverbs 20:24 .

And while of this we affirm that it must be so, there is another thing of which, with equal confidence, we affirm the same,-namely, that men, in their volitions and actions, must be free, and, as free, must be accountable; the freedom being necessary to the accountableness. That men are invariably influenced by motives, no more affects the reality of their freedom, than God’s having reasons for every step of His procedure affects His. Every man is conscious of willing and acting freely. Both the portions must be alike true, whether we be able clearly to explain the principle of harmony between them, or not. Yet the principle, to a certain extent, is sufficiently intelligible. A man of uncommon penetration,-supposing him to know the peculiarities of any character, the circumstances in which its possessor is placed, and the manner in which the circumstances are calculated to affect his characteristic peculiarities,-would be able to say, with a proportional degree of confidence, how he would act, what course he would pursue, when under the influence of the given circumstances. Yet his knowledge and penetration would not, in the remotest degree, affect the freedom of him whose conduct he predicted. We have only to imagine this acquaintance with circumstances, with characters, and with the influence of the one upon the other, extended to infinitude and infallibility, and we have some notion of the way in which, by the control of circumstances, God can control volitions; and that, without at all interfering with liberty and accountableness. This, however, is still, and can never cease to be, one of “the deep things of God.” “The Lord reigneth,” says the Psalmist, “let the earth rejoice!” We have cause for joy in the assurance here given ns, that those members of our race, who, from their eminence and power, exert the greatest amount of influence over the condition of the world, are, as completely as the meanest, under the superintendence and control of the Supreme; so that even “kings,” be the extent of their dominion and the absoluteness of their power what it may, can never go beyond His permission. Let the conviction of this great truth, in all its comprehensiveness, preserve our minds from the agitating fears and apprehensions which might arise from the plans and avowed purposes of the monarchs of the earth,-as affecting the interests of our country, of the church, and of the world. All will be overruled for ends in harmony with divine wisdom and mercy. “HAVE FAITH IN GOD.”

Verse Proverbs 21:2 . “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but the Lord pondereth the hearts.” There may be a connexion between this and the former verse. It is not by the actual results of human actions,-results which God, by his overruling providence, may be pleased to bring out of them,-but by their principles and motives in the doing of them, that the agents will be tried. This will be the test; and it will ever be a most satisfactory, though deeply mysterious exemplification of the truth, that it was by an act the most heinous in the entire annals of mankind, that the redemption of the world was effected. The design of the proverb is,-that men, remembering this, may be jealous of themselves, and not take the rectitude of their way too easily for granted,-but examine their hearts,-search their motives, as in God’s sight and in prospect of that day when “He will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” A man’s WAY is right in the eye of God just in proportion as his HEART is right.

Verse Proverbs 21:3 . “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” This is a most important sentiment, and one frequently to be found in the Old Testament. Look at a few examples:-1 Samuel 15:22 ; Isaiah 1:11-15 ; Isaiah 66:3-4 ; Jeremiah 7:21-23 ; Hosea 6:6 ; Micah 6:6-8 . Such passages are in full harmony with the sentiment so distinctly sanctioned by the approbation of Christ, “There is one God, and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices,” Mark 12:33 . It would be an obvious misunderstanding and abuse of such expressions, were they to be interpreted as setting aside sacrifice under the former dispensation, or even making light of it, as a thing about which Jehovah was indifferent, and which He could allow to be neglected with impunity. The sacrifices were of divine institution. The cases were specified in which they were required to be offered; and all their varieties were prescribed. It was duty, therefore, scrupulously to adhere to divine injunction. The language is comparative. There was a danger among the Jewish people of being satisfied with a strict and punctilious performance of every part of the outward ceremonial of worship, and of making a kind of compromise in this way for the neglect of moral duties, or the practice of what was morally wrong. This propensity, which existed all along, evinced itself in its full strength in our blessed Lord’s time; and He sets the principle of the thing in its obviously correct position, in reprimanding those by whom it was most culpably exemplified,-“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin , and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone,” Matthew 23:23 . “Judgment, mercy, and fidelity” were the “weightier matters of the law.” They were, therefore, to be first regarded. If nothing could set them aside; nothing be a compensation for their omission. Might the others, then, be disregarded? By no means:-not even the smallest of them,-the tithing of garden herbs. Are Christ’s words words of contempt and ridicule at their attending to matters of such indifference,-things that might be done or not done at their pleasure? No verily. These things, though not first, had yet their own place; and no one could be too rigidly scrupulous in attending to them, however minute, as parts of the divine will. The fault of those reproved lay, not in their doing these, but in their neglecting to do the more important and necessary:-“These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

My brethren, the danger is not at an end. There might be a larger amount of it under an economy which was so characteristically one of external and typical rites; and less under a dispensation of which the leading character, contrasting it with the former, is its spirituality. But still there are outward observances in religion,-all the externalities of divine institutions and worship. Let us, then, be upon our guard. Let us not forget the primary necessity, if we would maintain a course well-pleasing to God, of the moral virtues, All that is said of their superiority in His sight to “sacrifice,” is equally true of whatever is external. To the heart and the life He still looks:-and the professing Christian who trusts in his baptism,-in his punctual presence in the house of God,-in his regular attendance on the table of the Lord,-is as far wrong in principle, as the Jew was, who trusted in his burnt-offerings and sacrifices, his ceremonial cleansings, his tithes and fastings,-while the paramount obligations of practical godliness were neglected by the one and are neglected by the other. They are in the same condemnation. “Sacrifices” of old were instituted for special purposes. They were arbitrary, ceremonial, typical, temporary; but “justice and judgment” belonged to the eternal rule of right. They had their origin and prototype in the moral nature of God. They were immutable in their obligation, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” “Sacrifices” were instituted for a single people; “justice and judgment” belong to mankind, and are alike obligatory on the whole race, in every nation under heaven. “Sacrifices” derived all their value from that which they prefigured, and from the worshipper’s state of heart in presenting them,-from. what they signified in themselves and what they indicated in the offerer;-“justice and judgment” have, in their own nature, an intrinsic excellence, and, forming part of the image of God, are the objects of His direct complacency and delight. The law of “sacrifice” was set aside when the system to which it belonged, “decayed, waxed old, and vanished away;” but the law of “justice and judgment” is not by the gospel “made void but established.” The very end of Christ’s mediatorial work was to vindicate eternal righteousness-the righteousness of the divine character-in the extension of mercy to man; and at the same time to give glory and stability to that law which is “holy, and just, and good,” and furnish new and mightily constraining motives of obedience to all its precepts.

There is One Sacrifice, my hearers, on which the God of the Bible teaches, invites, encourages, commands you to rest your hopes of pardon and acceptance with Him,-THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST;-the all-atoning blood of the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In this is your only security; and it is an equal security for All. God’s first commandment to you, as sinners, is to renounce self, and to trust there,-in that One Offering from their reference to which all previous offerings derived their wisdom and their worth;-and then, your “doing justice and judgment” must be the proof of your interest in that one offering, and of your heart having been turned to God by the faith of it.*

• Romans 8:1 .

Verse Proverbs 21:4 . “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin."-The first of these is the natural expression or indication of the second; the “high look,” or, as on the margin and in the Hebrew, “haughtiness of eyes,” the effect and expression of the “proud heart.” With regard to these there is no difficulty. That pride, and all the expressions and indications of pride, are hateful to God, is a sentiment often repeated.* But how comes in “the plowing of the wicked” in this connexion?-I would answer, that even retaining the translation, it is not incapable of an appropriate sense. The ordinary occupations of the wicked are gone about and pursued with “a high look and a proud heart;” not with the lowly spirit of dependence and prayer, but with the spirit of independent self-sufficiency and prayerless haughtiness. The things done, how good and useful soever in themselves, may be vitiated by the spirit in which they are done. Right in themselves, they may be wrong in their principle. And this view of the case might be connected with the previous verse. “The wicked” may bring his “sacrifice;” but if he brings it with “a high look and a proud heart,"-nothing can be more unacceptable in the eyes of that God to whom he offers it. Thus both his religious and his ordinary acts are marred by his state of mind. There is “sin” in them all. The sentiment has an apt illustration in the case of Cain. He was “a tiller of the ground.” He brought his offering to God: but it was not the offering of a sinner; it was not the type of atonement. The absence of this arose from his not being humbled before God as a sinner should be. And what he did bring, he brought with a “high look and a proud heart.” Thus “the plowing” of this first “tiller of the ground” was “sin,” and his offering too. So, on the same account, is that of every wicked man.

• See Proverbs 6:16-17 , &c.

You will observe, however, that the rendering on the margin is-“the light of the wicked.” Now the marginal renderings have precisely the same authority with those in the text: and they are, not unfrequently, much to be preferred. I am satisfied this is the case in the present instance. The word for a light or lamp, and the word for a plough and ploughing, are, in the original, like each other; but I am not aware of any instance in which the word, when it signifies ploughing, occurs in precisely the same form as here. Moreover, in the Septuagint Greek, the Latin Vulgate, and the Genevese French, * it is, in this occurrence, rendered as in our English margin; and the rendering has the sanction of most eminent critics and commentators. A light, or lamp, is often put as the symbol of prosperity. The verse is remarkably laconic-” Loftiness of eyes, pride of heart, the light of the wicked, sin.” The meaning seems to be, that in the prosperity of the wicked,-his light, his joy,-” there is sin." There is sin in it, because there is self in it-no humble recognition of God. He has himself kindled his own " lamp 3" has himself supplied the oil to it; has himself trimmed it; has himself sheltered it; has himself kept it burning. All is self. He walks in its light, and exults in it, with “a high look and a proud heart.” The higher he rises in prosperity, the more are " his eyelids lifted up." The clearer the light of his “lamp,” ’ the more self-sufficient is his vanity, and the more entirely forgetful is he of God. Thus there is “sin” pervading and characterizing all, and rendering all unacceptable in the sight of Him who PONDERETH THE HEART.

• Also in the German of Luther.

Verse Proverbs 21:5 . “The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.” How is the “hasty” man distinguished from the “diligent” man? Is not promptitude in action a necessary associate of diligence? The answer is, that the “hasty” man does not mean the prompt and ready man, but the rash and fickle man-the inconsiderate and changeable man,-the man who acts without forethought, and stops without afterthought. Observe, then-

1. Diligence, while it is opposed to laziness, is opposed also to rashness-to premature and inconsiderate haste. The diligent man first plans, and then acts. He proceeds thoughtfully and systematically. Diligence can effect little, unless accompanied with careful forethought; nothing worth while, and nothing permanent. The “hasty,” who act without consideration, who engage in rash projects, who are eager and sanguine in catching at every new thing, and in anticipating great results from little exertion,-can never thrive. Their hastily-conceived and ill-matured projects, are only the preludes to successive failures, disappointments, and ruin. And then

2. Diligence means steady perseverance in execution. What avails any plan, how well and how maturely soever concerted, if it be not prosecuted with steadfast resolution? Neither “plenteousness,” nor any truly good and valuable result, can reasonably be expected without this. The projects of the “hasty,” who, while they begin in rashness, are easily disconcerted and prone to change, are never worked out to their perfection. But those of the attentive, plodding, persevering man, who begins in earnest, and goes on to the end in earnest, prepared for difficulties and impressed with the truth that nothing is to be attained without labour,-are the projects that promise to produce, and generally do produce, a favourable result.

Verse Proverbs 21:6 . “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.” Diligence is a right road to “plenteousness:” here is a wrong-the “lying tongue;” on which rests the curse of God. And forget not what the " lying tongue " includes-that he is chargeable with the evil who pretends, in any way, to be what he is not, to have what he has not, not to have what he has, to have said what he has not said, or to have done what he has not done, or not to have said and done what he has said and done; who tries to gain an end by any word, or act, or look, or even by silence and concealment designed to convey a false impression-by any means whatever not in harmony with honest truth,-with “simplicity and godly sincerity.” This, says Solomon, “is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.” It is a “vanity;” inasmuch as it involves both folly and sin:-the folly being made evident in ultimate detection, exposure, shame, and loss,-loss of character, loss of confidence, and many a time loss of even what the falsehood had acquired. It is “tossed to and fro.” Men learn it from one another. The man who has been imposed upon retaliates; he has no satisfaction until he has succeeded in duping him by whom he has himself been taken in,-in practising on him an equal or a better trick. It is practised with little thought,-with the vanity of a light and inconsiderate mind, and laughed at, in many instances, when it proves successful, instead of engendering remorse. Success produces a hundred imitators: and the cheats and the dupes are successively reversed,-the dupe becoming in his turn the cheat, and the cheat the dupe. And what is the final issue? They who follow such courses may try to make light of the evil; but they are “seeking death;"-acting as if bent on their own ruin-a ruin which shall inevitably come.*

• Stuart renders the verse-though “not confidently, for the passage is obscure”-“By a lying tongue is there a winning of treasures; a fleeting breath are they who seek death;” meaning-“they who use a lying tongue in order to acquire riches are such as seek their own death, for they shall be as a fleeting breath.” This is certainly not so expressive as the rendering of our English version. Luther gives a still different rendering.

Verse Proverbs 21:7 . “The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them; because they refuse to do judgment.” This verse is obviously and closely connected, not in position merely but in sentiment, with the sixth. The sixth relates to the “getting of treasures” by deceit, this to “the getting of treasures” by violence. The one speaks of lies, the other of robbery.

“The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them.” It does so, when detected by men, and brought under legal cognizance. They lose what they have got, and are punished besides. And then-” what shall they do when God riseth up?" The just Judge will convict and cast them out. They shall be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” Why?-“because they refuse to do judgment.” This is what in the third verse is represented as “acceptable to the Lord.” But they “refuse.” This supposes them commanded and warned. They are, both by the dictates of conscience, and by the authority of God’s word,-and in many cases too, by His providence. They resist every admonition; and thus bring their blood upon their own heads.*

• See Proverbs 1:18-19 ; Proverbs 1:24-31 .

Verse Proverbs 21:8 . “The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.” Between this verse and the two preceding there is an equally manifest connexion. The contrast appears somewhat singular-between “the way of man” and the “work of the pure” Yet the language is framed on the same principle with that of the apostle, when he says, “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” 1 Corinthians 3:3 . The phrase “walk as men” is on the margin, “walk according to man.” The reference, in both cases, is to the natural and generic character of man as distinguished from that of the regenerate. “The way of man” is the way which he is naturally disposed to choose and to follow. It is “strange “-the way of an alien, of one estranged from God, and from holiness. It is “froward “-the way of self-will and rebellious insubordination.

Who, then, are “the pure?” The answer is-those who have been “renewed in the spirit of their minds;” in whom the divine promise has been verified. “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” All real purity in man is the effect of the word and Spirit of God. It is by this he is " washed and sanctified.” So it has been from the beginning; so it must be to the end.*

• John 3:3-10 .

And what is the proof of inward purification?-“His work is right.” Here is the test. Where there is purity in the fountain, there will be purity in the streams; and from the streams we judge of the fountain.-” His work is right.” This relates to a standard. That standard is the character and the law of God. All is right there; and nothing is right in man that does not harmonize, in principle and act, with the revealed will of God. RECTITUDE IS CONFORMITY TO THAT WILL.

Proverbs 21:9-13

LECTURE LXV.

Proverbs 21:9-13 .

“It is better to dwell in a comer of the house-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. The soul of the wicked desireth evil: his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes. When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise; and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge. The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness. Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”

God said, when he had created Adam-“It is not good that the man should be alone.” In the first of these verses, Solomon affirms that there are cases in which it is good for the man to be alone. These are cases in which the gracious design of a kind and benevolent God is counteracted by the evil passions which, through sin, became the heritage of our fallen nature.

In eastern countries, as you are aware, the roofs of the houses were flat; and when solitude and quiet were specially courted,-as for meditation and prayer, for example,-the “house-top " was not seldom the resort. To “dwell,” however, on the “house-top,” and in “a corner of the house-top,” could be no very comfortable residence, especially at particular seasons of variable weather. But the spirit of the verse is-anything rather than the evil complained of; any place, rather than within the range of fretfulness, contention, and clamour.

The wife that answers to the description before us, violates at once the precepts of God’s law and the spirit of His gospel, is a plague, where she ought to be a pleasure; a curse, where she ought to be a blessing;-embittering the fountains of enjoyment, where she ought to sweeten the springs of Woe; converting into a scene of unceasing vexation and misery, what ought to be a concentration of the richest delights of earth; throwing venomous and hissing snakes into the circle of love and peace and concord, of fond hearts, and kind lips, and beaming eyes, and making her wretched husband long to find a speedy escape from that which ought to be the repose of his toils, the solace of his cares, the balm of his sorrows, the refreshment, the strength, and the joy of his heart! Such as know by experience the wretchedness described, will sympathise, through bitter fellow-feeling, with others who endure it; and they, on the contrary, who know the exquisite sweets of that domestic intercourse over which love presides, will pity from the bottom of their hearts the hapless victims of this most fearful scourge of social life.

But let us deal fairly. Solomon, I have formerly had occasion to remark, made a most unjust estimate of the female character. The experience from which, doubtless, he here speaks, was an experience greatly the result of his own folly and sin. His crowded seraglio was not’ the place for either finding, cherishing, or enjoying the real excellencies of woman. I am fully persuaded, that both the average of general character, and of connubial affection and faithfulness, are greatly on the female side.-A vast deal has been said, and not a little sung, about the miseries of the matrimonial alliance. But of nine-tenths of it what is the origin? Is it not lightness and perverseness in the choice of a partner,-in the formation of the union? Is it not, in innumerable instances, the case, that the most intimate, sacred, indissoluble of all connexions is formed with a levity and infatuation, that have hardly a parallel in any other human negotiations! Do we not see men many a time bestowing far more consideration on the qualities of a horse or a cow before they will venture to purchase, than on the qualities of a woman before they will venture to marry?-the qualities of an inseparable companion for life? How, in such cases, is happiness to be looked for?-when men, ay and women too, act as if they not only said in jest but held in earnest, that the whole matter was no better than a lottery?-The man, moreover, who, regardless of the qualities of mind and heart, marries for mere personal appearance,-and still more and still worse, the man who looks only to the purse, and who thus prostitutes the finest and tenderest feelings of our nature, and vulgarizes the first and most endearing of all relations to a low, pitiful, sordid computation of pounds, shillings, and pence,-is not to be pitied, if in his fair or his wealthy spouse he find a termagant, and by bitter experience be taught the meaning and the truth of the verse before us; fleeing to the “house-top,” and there sighing out his wishes that he could resign beauty and wealth and all, to be free of the scourge of the tongue!

Verse Proverbs 21:10 . “The soul of the wicked desireth evil: his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes.” “Desireth evil!” What an amount of malignity do these words express! For the meaning does not seem to be that the wicked man desires the sin to which his corruption is prone. The latter clause of the verse leads us to interpret “evil” as meaning evil to his neighbour: the desire of which may spring from any of the various passions predominating in the bosom of " the wicked”-(all concentrated and summed up in selfishness)-avarice, ambition, lust, revenge. When any one of these predominates, or a combination of them sways the despotism of his heart,-“his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes.” Whenever “his neighbour” stands at all in the way of his own gratification,-of the acquisition of any object on which he has set his heart,-no consideration of his interest will be allowed for a moment to interpose an obstacle to its prosecution and attainment. Self is his idol; Selfishness his grand principle and impulse. He views “his neighbour” in no other light than as, on the one hand, the means of thwarting, or, on the other, the instrument of promoting his own ends. Can he gain any thing by him? he will flatter and cajole him, and do everything to win his favour, and secure his services. Does his “neighbour’s” interest, reputation, personal and family comforts, connexions, or even life itself, stand in the way of the attainment of his wishes?-he is ready to sacrifice all to his idol. He will tempt and seduce him. He will defraud, rob, oppress, slander, or even kill him. A history of the operation of such passions as were before enumerated, given by the inspiration of Him who “knoweth what is in man,” would form a most appalling commentary on this verse.

There are excellent commentators, however, who interpret the “desiring evil” of the love of sin in general; and who consider the love of sin as engendering the selfishness which sets at nought the claims of neighbour and friend. This may be the meaning; and, in effect, it comes to much the same thing.

Let us, my brethren, hate sin, and strive against the selfishness which the love of sin engenders, and which is one of the characteristics of “the wicked.” There is, remember, an important distinction between disposition or inclination, and conscience. They are often at variance. It is by the former, not by the latter, that character is formed and distinguished. The most wicked of men may in his conscience disapprove what, following the bent of his inclination, he does. Even when he “works all uncleanness with greediness,"-even when he pursues the gratification of his avarice or his ambition at the expense of every principle of equity and benevolence, and regard to the interests of others, he may be very far from having conscience on his side. But the main difference between him and the good man is, that while he compels conscience to yield to inclination, the other brings inclination into conformity with conscience-” crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts;” and, instead of selfishly setting aside the claims and rights and necessities of others for his own gratification, seeks his own pleasure in promoting the well-being of all around him. All his neighbours find favour in his eyes.

Verse Proverbs 21:11 . ““When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise; and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge.” * The “scorner,” as we have frequently had occasion to remark, is the man who laughs at all principle and restraint; who “makes a mock at sin,” and sets at defiance all authority. As “the simple “-he who is inexperienced, inconsiderate, thoughtless,-when he “sees the prosperity” of such an one, is in danger of giving way to the rising emotions of envy, and,-stumbled by the mystery which his very simplicity makes him at a loss to explain,-of seeking to imitate;-so when such an one is punished,-when the scorner’s high-minded contempt of God and goodness is thus visited and rebuked,-when the true and proper tendency of the course he follows is thus made manifest,-the simple is struck; consideration is forced upon him; he is led to look to the end of such courses; he " foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself;” he betakes himself to a wiser and a better way,-repenting and turning unto God; he is made wise, by learning to “fear God, and depart from evil.”

• Comp. Proverbs 19:25 .

In the latter part of the verse, what is the antecedent to the pronoun he? Is it “the wise?” It maybe; and the statement holds true. “The wise” improves under “instruction.” “He receiveth knowledge.” Instruction is not lost upon him. But I am inclined to regard “the simple” as the real antecedent; the meaning being, that from the “instruction of the wise,” as well as from “the punishment of the scorner,” “the simple” is enlightened and profited. The docility of “the wise “-the humble and earnest manner in which he is seen to receive the lessons of divine teaching,-tends, as does the view of the sad results of the scorner’s hardihood, to impress the mind of “the simple " with a sense of the folly of his own inconsiderate thoughtlessness.

Let us learn the lesson of imitating in the latter case, and being on our guard in the other. If we see “the wise receiving knowledge,” and see the effects of that knowledge in the propriety, consistency, and dignity of their conduct, in the influence, respect, and real substantial good of which it is productive;-and when, on the contrary, we see the unprincipled “scorner” reaping even here the bitter fruits of his madness, and look forward to the end, when these fruits will be reaped in their full amount of righteous infliction,-let us “stand in awe and sin not;” let us leave to himself “the seat of the scorner,” “the way of the sinner,” and “the counsel of the ungodly.”

Verse Proverbs 21:12 . “The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.” The supplement in this verse is evidently a very violent one. It is not easy to conceive the writer omitting to express the words that are here inserted,-if he really intended them to be understood. I refer to the words “but God.” I cannot imagine a more unlikely ellipsis. Some critics regard the verse as having undergone some little corruption in the original, and they venture to alter accordingly. But conjectural criticism is hazardous; and it must be a case of very hard necessity indeed that can justify having recourse to it. And at the same time the insertion of supplementary words requires hardly less caution and reserve. Observe, then:-First, the word rendered here “wisely considereth,” is the same verb which, in the preceding verse, is translated “is instructed;” and to instruct, to give instruction, is its most common acceptation. Farther, the verb translated “overthroweth,” means also “to turn aside”-generally in the sense of perverting, or turning from good, but not necessarily.

On such grounds, the verse has been translated by Dr. Boothroyd (and, although not in every point satisfied, I acquiesce in the rendering as the best,) “The righteous man teacheth, or gives instruction to, the house of the wicked, to turn away the wicked from evil.” A forced and unnatural supplement is thus avoided; and the difficulties, in a simply critical view, are at least greatly lessened. In the Vulgate Latin version, the same turn is given to the second part of the verse;-” The just man thinks maturely concerning the house of the wicked, that he may draw away the wicked from evil.”

And the practical sentiment thus brought out is one of the greatest importance. In the phrase “the house, or family of the wicked,” the word wicked is in the singular number,-” the house of the wicked man:"-in the latter part of the verse, “that he may turn away the wicked from evil,” wicked is plural, and may be considered as referring to the members of his household along with himself. The righteous man is deeply sensible that the family of the wicked are in danger of “perishing for lack of knowledge.” Who is to instruct them! He looks upon such families with melting compassion; and his compassion, like that of God, and like that of Christ, is practical. He seeks opportunities of communicating instruction; and the nature of the instruction appears from the.nature of the design-“that he may turn away the wicked from evil.”*

• Stuart renders the verse-“The Righteous One taketh cognizance of the house of the wicked; he will cast the wicked headlong into evil.” Of the verb in the second clause he says-“A very strong word, to precipitate, to cast down headlong.” Thus our translators have “Overthrow;” and such would certainly seem to be the usual sense of the term. Luther’s rendering of the former part of the verse is much the same as that of the English version; the latter he renders, “but the wicked think only to do mischief”-on what authority it is hard to say.

Verse Proverbs 21:13 . “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” In illustration of these striking and alarming words, observe-First: we may always expect, both in general society and in the church of God, “the rich and the poor to meet together.” “The poor shall never cease out of the land,” said God to Moses. “The poor ye have always with you,” said Jesus to his disciples. The distinction has existed from the beginning hitherto. Wherever there has been property, it has been in various portions; and were there an equal partition of property to-day, there would be a difference to-morrow-a difference arising from diversity of character, as well as from the incessant influence of changing events. On the very day of equalization ten thousand incidents, over which men themselves could exert no control, even independently of the operation of avarice, and prodigality, and fancy, and whim, and caprice, would produce ten thousand changes.-There are varieties of poverty; for poverty is a relative and comparative term. And among the indigent and dependent poor there are also varieties:-the industrious and the indolent; the sober and the intemperate; the virtuous and the vicious; the deserving and the undeserving. Hence, secondly, nothing can be of greater consequence than marking this distinction, and regulating our charity accordingly. The verse cannot mean, that by an indiscriminate distribution of alms,’ we should hold out an encouragement to laziness, or a bounty to thriftless and unprincipled profligacy-the beggary of the idle and the wicked. There is a “stopping of the ears” that is at times a virtue,-requiring an effort of self-denying principle, in opposition to the mere emotion and impulse of present pity. There are some who are worthless vagrants; there are others who are not really needy, but impostors on public benevolence. If we have the slightest ground to suspect either, it is but right to “stop the ear” till we know the case. Charity must be exercised judiciously. If it is not, we may greatly aggravate the evil it is our design to alleviate: and faithfulness to the stewardship with which God invests every man on whom he bestows the means of doing good, requires of him the use of discretion-the application of judgment, as well as the indulgence of feeling.-Thirdly, the sin here reproved is an unmerciful disposition; unfeeling hardness of heart; pitiless, avaricious, griping selfishness. Now, in many ways this selfishness may be exemplified. For instance, in the unreasonable beating down of the wages of the poor labourer and artisan; for true as it is that wages must be regulated by the state of supply and demand, yet there is, at times, to be seen a readiness to take advantage of circumstances beyond what they justly warrant, and, for the sake of a little extra profit, to grind the faces of the poor by screwing down the remuneration of their labour to the very starving point;-and, when they naturally and earnestly lift the voice of complaint and remonstrance, “stopping the ear at their cry.” There is, again, the denial of protection to the poor, when it is pleaded for against oppression, and when we have it at all in our power to afford it. There is, still further, the selfish, ruthless disregard of the applications of the poor in their times of want and suffering,-the heartless refusal to hear them,-to be troubled with their representations and complainings,-some excuse being ever found or devised for declining to listen to or relieve them. This is a fearful violation of the great law of righteousness and love. Once more, there is a public “stopping of the ear at the cry of the poor,” in times of prevailing destitution and distress, which, we cannot but feel, must awaken divine indignation against the Government and the country in which it prevails. It is the duty of every Government to deal equally with all classes of the community; and it becomes the duty of all the subjects of that Government to do what lies constitutionally in their power, to obtain the adoption of such measures as are fitted, without doing injustice to others, to provide most effectually, extensively, and permanently, for the wants of the unemployed and the destitute.

The saying of the verse is often verified amongst men. The avaricious and unmerciful, when they are themselves brought low and into straits, meet with little commiseration. As they meted, it is meted to them. If any thing is given them, it is with a grudge and stintedly. Heart and hand are closed against them; and the ear of generous kindness is turned away from their complainings. And in divine retribution, the saying is invariably and infallibly true. The poor were the objects of the special compassion and care of the merciful Saviour. His churches should resemble Him in this. It will fare ill with churches, as well as individuals, if they “stop their ear at the cry of the poor.” It is one of the marks of a church’s spiritual prosperity, and augurs the favour and blessing of their Lord, when the poor are kindly and liberally cared for.*

• See 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 .

Proverbs 21:14-20

LECTURE LXVI.

Proverbs 21:14-20 .

“A gift in secret pacifieth anger; and a reward in the bosom strong wrath. It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright. It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman. There is treasure to be desired, and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.”

In the first of these verses, we have a subject which, under various aspects, has been repeatedly before us.*-The offer on one side, and the reception on the other, of any “gift” that wears the form of a bribe, be it for the perversion of judgment-the tempting of a judge or an arbitrator to give a decision contrary to conscientious conviction,-or for the securing of an office, whether the office be of the lowest or of the highest description,-a place at a municipal Board, or a seat in the British Parliament,-deserves unqualified reprobation. It is well when corruption of this kind is sifted, detected, exposed, and publicly disgraced and put down. There are cases, however, in which “gifts” may be bestowed in perfect good faith, and for the most desirable ends,-when they may bo lawful, proper, and even necessary. The case supposed in this verse, seems to be that in which we have been guilty of something provoking, by which the anger of our neighbour has been stirred;-in which the offence taken has been well-founded; although the anger may not, in its degree at least, be justifiable. In such a case, submission, confession, apology, are manifestly due from us: and “a gift” may be an accompanying token of our sincerity in making it, and of our respect for the party offended.

• Proverbs 17:8 ; Proverbs 18:16 ; Proverbs 19:6 .

When, however, such a “gift” is bestowed, it must, in order to its answering its end, be bestowed discreetly-not in any such way as is calculated to produce the impression of selfishness, or vanity, or a mercenary spirit, on the part of him who receives it. It must, therefore, be “a gift in secret;” not ostentatious; not such as to bring credit to ourselves, and attach meanness to the other party,-credit to us for generosity,-meanness to him for selfish cupidity. There may be cases, indeed, in which the offence has been public, and in which the gift may be a public acknowledgment and public reparation. In such cases, publicity may be called for. But there must nothing be done that either implies on our part, or seems to impute on the other, aught that is hypocritical or dishonourable. All must be open and ingenuous,-all in “simplicity and godly sincerity.”

“Have gifts,” says a judicious writer, “such a powerful influence to disarm resentment? Then let no man plead, in apology for the fury of his passions, that he is not able to conquer them. If money can conquer them, shall reason, and the fear of God, and the command of Christ, be too weak to bridle them? Surely the commandments of God our Saviour have too little authority with us, if they have less influence upon our spirits than gold and jewels have upon the spirits of almost all men.”

Verse Proverbs 21:15 . “It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.” You will perceive, that, without the supplement, the antithesis in this verse is by no means direct and pointed. Other renderings accordingly have been given. As the following:-

1. “The doing of what is right is joy to the just; but destruction (is joy) to the workers of iniquity:"-the righteous, that is, delight in doing good, but the wicked in working mischief and ruin. The one resembles God, “who loveth righteousness and judgment, and of whose goodness the earth is full;” and Christ, who “with righteousness judges the poor, and reproves with equity for the meek of the earth;” who “went about doing good.” The other resembles Satan, who “was a murderer from the beginning;” whose work of delight is to tempt and to destroy; “who hath his name Apollyon.”

2. “It is joy to the just to do right; but vexation” (distress, trouble) “to the workers of iniquity.” Such is Boothroyd’s rendering; and it agrees with the French. The righteous find their happiness in the ways of God,-in doing the thing that is right. So far from true religion-practical godliness-being a source to them of irksome melancholy, it is their “joy.” But to the wicked it is irksome. The principle of goodness or of godliness being absent from the heart, all conformity to precept is against the grain with them. They may do what is right from compulsion, from considerations of interest, or from the constraint of conscience and fear; but pleasure in it they have none-no “joy.” And hence it is that amongst ungodly, worldly men, the impression and saying are so prevalent, that religion is melancholy. “While the heart continues at enmity with God, all outward conformity to the will and worship of God can be nothing better than vexation,-harassing and fretting to the spirit, and drawing forth the exclamation, What a weariness is it! The joy of religious and virtuous practice can only be felt, where there is the inward power of religious and virtuous principle. It is a joy that can only be known by the experience of the new heart; and by the new heart it is felt to be the only joy worthy of the name. But the heart that is still a stranger to the love must be still a stranger to the joy; and the whole life of the good man must appear a life of bondage. The man who has no ear for music would regard the ecstasies of a Handel as ridiculous; but such ecstasies are not on that account the less real.

3. There is still a third sense, of which the words, without supplement, are susceptible,-a sense I have not seen given, but which appears to me to have as fair a claim to be the true one as either of those mentioned:-“The doing, or executing of judgment is joy to the just, but destruction to the workers of iniquity.” The just, when, judgment is done, have no cause to fear:-it comes not upon them: “only with their eyes they behold, and see the reward of the wicked;” and they experience “joy,” when it is just judgment that is executed, inasmuch as it promotes the safety and the happiness of society. And the “doing of judgment” by the Judge of all, which is ever according to perfect rectitude, is “joy to the just,” as it brings glory to His name, and clears the moral universe of temptation and misery. But to “the workers of iniquity,” the execution of judgment is anything but “joy.” It is destruction; and the thought and anticipation of it, whether from man or from God, can engender only distress and fear. And the day of final judgment, while it shall be a day of “joy” to the just, will be the day of complete and irremediable “destruction” to the wicked.*

• Luther renders-“It is to the righteous a joy to do what is right; but to the wicked a terror.”

Verse Proverbs 21:16 . “The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead."-While the preceding verse has reference to the “workers of iniquity” generally, and represents the execution of judgment as their “destruction;” this verse relates apparently to apostates from the right way-“the Way of understanding;” those who for a time have walked in that way, under a profession of religion, and have abandoned it. Such there have been in every age; and of such it is here said, “they shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” The word so rendered happens to be in some other places of the Old Testament translated giants-with doubtful propriety, for in the first of its occurrences (Genesis 14:5 .) it is the name of a people, the “Rephaim.” It is the same word that is translated giants in Deuteronomy 2:11 ; Deuteronomy 2:20 ; Joshua 12:4 ; Joshua 13:2 ; Joshua 17:15 ;-but it is disputed whether it should not in these instances retain its appellative signification. Supposing this-still the people were a gigantic race; and from this, apparently, has arisen the confounding of the word used in our text with that rendered giants in the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Genesis. But the words are not at all the same:-and the word in the last-cited passage has been the subject of a large amount of critical discussion and variety of conjecture. But from the obvious fact of the Nephilim (called giants in the account of the antediluvian world) being men of signally desperate wickedness as well as of vast stature and power, it has been concluded that the abode of the giants came to bo a designation for the place of future punishment, or some region of it;-and it has been imagined that this is what is meant here by “the congregation of the giants.” There is, however, in all this more of conjecture and fancy than of certainty. The same word is rendered “dead”*1 in several other places. I shall not trouble you with the etymologies of the original word, from which the sense of “dead” is made out. It will be enough to remark, that here, as in the other passages referred to, it must be understood as meaning the wicked dead. This is clear from the very nature of the thing; and it is confirmed by the connexion of the 18th verse in the second chapter with the verse which follows. The “congregation of the dead,” then, means the assembly of those who were spiritually dead here, and who, having departed out of this world, are suffering, in the world to come, that “second death” which is “the wages of sin.” In all such connexions there is included under the idea of death that of destruction in general.*2

*1 See for example, Proverbs 2:18 ; Proverbs 9:18 . rr

*2 Comp. Proverbs 8:34-36 .

I have said that “the man who wanders out of the way of understanding” has special reference to apostasy from a religious profession and course. The verse may bo interpreted as expressing the increasing hardness, the consequent comparative hopelessness, and the final and irremediable misery, of such characters. This is no strange doctrine in the word of God. It is taught and impressed everywhere.* Let professors, then, beware of backsliding. Having entered on “the way of understanding,” let them beware of the infatuation of “wandering out of it.” O let nothing entice, nothing intimidate you! Keep the way which conscience and experience tell you is the right way. Keep it to the end. Set your faces as a flint. “Press toward the mark, for the prize of your high calling.” Let neither the world, the devil, nor the flesh, prevail. “Be faithful unto death, and your Lord will give you the crown of life.”

• Comp. Hebrews 10:26-31 ; 2 Peter 2:20-21 .

Verse Proverbs 21:17 . “He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.” The sentiment here is similar to that in various preceding passages of the Book. In the nature of things, and as evinced by experience, the tendency of extravagance in living is to poverty and its accompanying miseries. How should it be otherwise? Money is squandered, debt is incurred, credit is lost, the divine blessing is forfeited-that blessing which can alone secure prosperity. The man who follows such a course “shall not be rich”-neither rich for time nor for eternity.-It is not necessary to interpret “pleasure” here as signifying directly vicious pleasure, or criminal indulgence. On the margin it is rendered “sport:” and when connected with the latter member of the verse, the whole may be considered as including the pleasures of the table, luxurious refinements, costly establishments, foolish pastimes, and all the modes of what the men of the world call “enjoying life” even apart from the profligacy of voluptuousness.

Verse Proverbs 21:18 . “The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright.” This is evidently intended to express the regard of Jehovah to his people; a sentiment which pervades His word, and is to them full of consolation and delight, while it is a lesson of solemn alarm to the ungodly.*1 The words may be interpreted in two senses, which, however, are closely connected:-First, when the wicked form purposes of evil against the righteous, God frequently makes these evil purposes return upon themselves, and involve themselves in the very mischief they meant for his people.-Secondly, when the wicked stand in the way of the best interests of the righteous, and their general well-being,-that is, of what God sees to be truly best for them,-He will sacrifice the one to the other. The words of God by the prophet, may throw light on the phraseology of the verse before us:-“For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life,” Isaiah 43:3-4 . How was Egypt “a ransom?"-not in the strict and proper sense of the word: but when Israel was to be delivered, and Egypt, the oppressor, stood in the way, the deliverance was effected at the cost of Egypt,-by plagues on her people and land, and the destruction of her armies. Thus, in aftertimes was the army of Sennacherib sacrificed for the deliverance of good king Hezekiah and his people, when, in the time of their perplexity and peril, they cried unto the Lord. Thus did the plots of the wicked Haman for the destruction of Mordecai and the Jews come back upon himself. In the end, all “the wicked” that have opposed “the righteous,” and done what they could to frustrate their salvation, shall become, for their sakes, the victims of the divine displeasure.*2

*1 Comp. Psalms 11 ; Psalms 34:6-7 ; Psalms 34:15-16 ; Psalms 37:12-18 . rr

*2 See Matthew 25:41-45 .

Verse Proverbs 21:19 . “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.” We had the sentiment before us in last Lecture; and I only now observe, that it is still more strongly expressed here than even there. There the unfortunate victim of female passion and fretfulness and clamour, retires to the house-top. But here, even the house-top is too near. He is off to “the wilderness”-as far away as possible. The roof of the house is not a sufficient separation. He still hears the din. He is still too much within reach of the scourge of the tongue; he flees the house altogether. “The wilderness,” with all its discomforts and all its dangers, is better. The yelling of its savage beasts is not so frightful as that from which he escapes.

But let me repeat that the cases that call for pity are far from being all on one side. Are there no unreasonable, passionate, discontented, fretful, savage, brutal husbands? Alas, how many! I do believe the number of suffering wives is greater than that of suffering husbands. “A contentious woman,” says an authority from whom I have this morning quoted already*-“is not worse than a tyrannizing husband. A man may more easily make his escape from the presence of a scold, than a woman from the face of a brutal tyrant; and the delicacy of her mind makes her more susceptible of melancholy impressions from bad usage, than persons of the other sex ordinarily are.” This witness is true. Ah! how many gentle and affectionate spirits-how many women who are only prevented from being the very best of wives by the treatment they receive, by the felt impossibility of pleasing an unreasonable, conciliating a proud and passionate, or reclaiming an intemperate and faithless husband,-have pined out their days in wretchedness, and sunk, broken-hearted, into the grave! O! when husband and wife dwell together in love and peace,-amid the calm yet exquisite joys of domestic life,-how grateful they should be! They possess the best of earthly boons that heaven bestows. They drink of the purest and sweetest spring of pleasure opened to men in passing on to the world of eternity. Let them drink with humble and thankful cheerfulness, feeling their dependence, owning their obligations, even while they never forget the uncertainty and necessary shortness of all that pertains to time,-never forget that every connubial union must, sooner or later, be dissolved; and holding themselves in readiness for parting even while they arc in the full enjoyment of their earthly happiness. That happiness is crowned and perfected, when on the tie of nature there is superinduced the bond of grace; and there is thus an everlasting as well as a temporary union. Let this be the aim-and may this be the happiness-of every wedded pair in this assembly!

• Dr. Lawson.

Verse Proverbs 21:20 . “There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.” There is an evident correspondence between this verse and verse seventeenth. They may be regarded either as contrasts or as counterparts to each other. “The wise” and the righteous are in this book the same,-wisdom consisting specially in “the fear of the Lord;” and on the same principle, “the foolish” and the wicked are the same. The verse has clearly a reference to temporal things. The “treasure” is earthly treasure; the “oil,” that of worldly prosperity and abundance. When the treasure is called “treasure to be desired,” it seems to be designed to mark the difference between the treasure that is gotten by industry, prudence, frugality, and justice; and that which is gotten by unrighteousness, fraud, and oppression;-between the treasure in the house of “the wise” and the treasure in the house of “the foolish.” The former alone is “treasure to be desired,” as being obtained rightly and used rightly; and as being obtained by the divine blessing and enjoyed with it. The “treasure” and the “oil” may in themselves be the same. But of everything earthly there is an adventitious as well as an intrinsic value. The “treasure” which is obtained and enjoyed otherwise than we have described, is not “to be desired.” A man is better with nothing than with “treasure” gotten wickedly-gotten by a lying tongue-gotten by theft or robbery-gotten by oppressive grinding of the faces of the poor-gotten as a bribe for evil-gotten in any way that sets conscience and God against its owner;-and better far with nothing than with “treasure” in the use of which God and the claims of benevolence are forgotten; in the use of which, a man seeks as his solo end to gratify self, and is thus “treasuring up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

“But a foolish man spendeth it up.” This may either mean that the foolish man spendeth up his own treasure; so that whatever he acquires is speedily, through his own mismanagement, or extravagance, or abuse, consumed and gone;-or that the wise man has a fool for his successor-to whom his treasures go, and by whom they are soon exhausted:-“Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.”-Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 .

How true the closing words of this passage-“This is also vanity!” “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"-is the text of the book; and this is only one of its many illustrations and proofs. In “the dwelling of the wise” there are treasures infinitely more precious than any this world can furnish;-treasures of spiritual blessing,-unsearchable riches-riches that “perish not in the using.” He is rich in possession, and rich in hope, rich in time and rich for eternity. “The Wise” and “The Foolish” shall divide mankind at last. To which of the two assemblies would you belong? You may to either. It depends upon your own choice. God says-“Ye fools, when will ye be wise?” He shuts up none to final privation and suffering, but those who voluntarily and pertinaciously shut themselves up to folly. The gospel is the wisdom of God for our salvation; and it is our wisdom to receive it.

Proverbs 21:21-31

LECTURE LXVII.

Proverbs 21:21-31 .

“He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour. A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof. Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles. Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind? A false witness shall perish; but the man that heareth speaketh constantly. A wicked man hardeneth his face: but as for the upright, he directeth his way. There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.”

“RIGHTEOUSNESS AND MERCY” are the two great divisions of moral duty between man and man. In the Bible, as might be expected, they stand associated with a third-Godliness; that which forms the principle of the duties which man owes to his Maker and moral Governor.*1 There is nothing to which men are more prone than to put these asunder; and while, to a certain extent, practising towards their fellow-men what justice and humanity require, to leave out of their estimate of their characters altogether the affections and the conduct that arise from, and are required by, that primary obligation, that takes precedence of, and indeed is inclusive of, all others,-the obligation of every intelligent creature to God. The overlooking of this is the most affecting proof of human depravity, and the most prolific cause of human delusion. But, apart from the union, in Scripture, of these three branches of character, it may be noticed, that the word “righteousness” is frequently taken in a more comprehensive sense,-as a term for human duty at large, as it is also a term for all the moral excellence of Deity.*2 And when we recollect that “righteousness” consists in giving every one his due, why should it not include the first of all dues, that which is due to God? If it is unrighteous to withhold that which is due, the ungodly man is, in the highest sense, the unrighteous man. He fails to pay the first and most imperative of his debts. If there can be no claim equal to God’s, there can be no iniquity equal to the violation of it.-Benevolence is one of the primary elements of the divine character. And it is the law of the moral universe. Love is the fulfilling of that law. God has made love due from creature to creature, as well as from the creature to Himself. And he can neither imitate God, nor obey Him, who does not follow after “mercy” as well as “righteousness.”

*1 Comp. Titus 2:11-12 ; Micah 6:8 . rr

*2 See 1 John 3:7 ; 1 John 2:29 .

He who “followeth after”-who habitually and perseveringly practises these virtues, “findeth life.” He has a truly happy life. He has God’s presence and blessing; and these are life,-life’s true zest and joy.* He also " findeth righteousness.” The man of high principle, who is noted for his strict uprightness, will generally meet with a return in kind. Few, comparatively, will attempt to cheat the thoroughly honest dealer. Knaves themselves will be awed into honesty by the knowledge of his character. And he “finds honour;"-when in any case “righteousness and mercy” are eminently united; when a man not only adheres strictly to the imperative demands of justice, but lays himself out for the benefit of others-at a cost of toil and trouble, and self-denial and sacrifice,-“honour” will be his due; and honour he will obtain. It will attend upon him while he lives, and it will be attached to his name when he is gone hence. There may be a hind of greatness arising from mere vastness of intellect and mightiness of power, working wonders in the earth, and affecting now and for ages to come, the destinies of nations. But where there has been no principle; where there has been neither “righteousness” nor “mercy,” but the flagrant violation of both, the very page of history, which records the greatness, records with it the dishonour; associating with the magnitude of the events, and the magnitude of mental and physical resources by which they were brought about, the brand of moral reprobation. The only true, living, lasting “honour” is that which is gained by the operation of great moral principles, for all real greatness lies in moral worth. Even in life, the man of self-denying generosity will be so valued, and so honoured, that others will be ready to risk and sacrifice life itself for his preservation. “For a good man some would even dare to die.”

• Comp. Phi 4:8-9 .

But higher and better blessings may be meant. These, indeed, are not, in God’s word, associated, in the way of merit on the creature’s part, or of reward on His, with the practice of “righteousness and mercy;"-but “life, righteousness, and honour” are ever connected with the character. *

• Romans 6:20-22 ; Psalms 24:3-5 ; Romans 2:6-11 .

Verse Proverbs 21:22 . “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof.” The proverb has had, at times, a literal fulfilment. Look at ancient Babylon. With its insurmountable walls and bulwarks, it seemed secure; and its monarch could smile in proud defiance at the power of the mightiest assailants. But Cyrus had something besides military force. He had wisdom; and the turning of the course of the Euphrates, and entering by its channel, accomplished what force could not in any way effect; and in an unexpected moment,-a moment of careless and fearless mirth and revelry, and glorying in the impregnable security of its lofty and massive muniments,-was “the strength of the confidence” of Babylon “cast down.” The language refers, however, under a particular illustration, to the conquering of great difficulties in general-affirming that, for this end, wisdom is much more effectual than mere physical force. Force, without wisdom, very frequently, instead of gaining its objects, impedes and frustrates them. The “wise man " proceeds with cautious and considerate prudence,-with appropriate adjustment of means and methods to the circumstances and the characters with which he has to deal. And, in the case of the godly, the wisdom that consists in the fear of the Lord, will, in every season of perplexity and difficulty, look upward for divine direction, and guide itself by the light of the divine word.* It is thus that the good man encounters and overcomes spiritual opposition lying in the way of his course heavenward. In the strength of divinely promised aid, he “casts down the strength of the confidence” of his spiritual adversaries, and is made “more than conqueror.”

• See Proverbs 3:5-6 .

Verse Proverbs 21:23 . “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.” Here we have still another characteristic and another advantage of wisdom. It enables its possessor to “keep the mouth and the tongue”-to know the “time to be silent, and the time to speak,” and in the time to speak, what to say. We have had repeated occasion to notice the incalculable amount and variety of mischief of which the tongue is the occasion; how its openly uttered or secretly whispered words may break hearts, may ruin characters, may sever friends, may bring individuals and families to beggary and disgrace, may spread alienation and discord through extensive circles of intimacy and affection, may “pierce through with many sorrows” spirits that were enjoying peace and love, may be even as barbed daggers that take away life; how too they recoil in mischief to ourselves; how a word of slander brought out in a moment of irritation or thoughtlessness, may cost a man the humiliation of submissive apology, or the annoyance and expense of litigation, and the reparation of heavy damages; how the recollection of a hasty expression, along with the effects which have arisen from it to those to whom at the time no harm was meant, may inflict severe and long-continued self-reproach, with all its accompaniments of mental disquietude and distress; how the foolish utterances of an unguarded hour may go far to shake the credit of years of discretion-the recollection of that hour of folly ever returning upon the mind of previous admirers, and, if not absolutely obliterating their former estimate of a man’s sound sense and dignity, operating at least as a serious drawback on their respect for his character; how too it leads to inward deep remorse, arising from a consciousness of having spoken inconsistently with our Christian profession and principles, and the thought of having given an unfavourable impression of our religion, and failed of an opportunity of honouring God-a thought than which to a Christian heart there is none more galling, spirit-sinking, and severe:-associated as it is with proportionate diminution of interest in Christ, and of the validity of our confidence towards God.-It is indeed emphatically true that “whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.”

Verse Proverbs 21:24 . “Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath.” To “deal in proud wrath,"-on the margin, “in the wrath of pride,"-evidently means to act with the overbearing violence of a haughty spirit. All the conduct of such a man is insolently self-sufficient, and, when resisted, furious. The proud man is puffed up. He thinks all should at once yield to his will and wishes, and can bear with patience no opposition. This of course is a character that can never be liked. It stirs up the pride and passion of others. It becomes the object of universal indignation and disgust. Hence the man gets himself a name of reproach: he shall be called “proud and haughty scorner:” and in his name he finds his punishment: for true it is, that the proudest of men does not like being called proud; as the man who deals most in lies may like least to be called a liar. A “proud scorner” is one of the most unpopular and odious of characters. From him whom men thus designate, all will keep aloof. And in a world where all are necessarily so much dependent upon one another, in despite of a man’s self-concentrated pride and contempt of his fellows, it is not every one that. can afford to adopt and live upon the maxim of the tyrant-“Let them hate me, so they but fear me!” Thus he who, by his unbearable temper, “sets himself alone in the earth,” may be forced to feel the inconveniences of being without the good-will even of those whom he professes to scorn.

Verses Proverbs 21:25-26 . “The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth, and spareth not.” The word of God is characterised by its variety. Even on the same subject, how frequently soever introduced, there may generally be found some diversity in the position it occupies,-the light in which it is presented; some new phase in its source, its nature, or its results. The evil effects of sloth have been before us oftener than most points on which the wise man touches. Here it is again. We dwell only on the new aspect under which it appears. It is presented to us first, as a species of self-murder:-“The desire of the slothful killeth him:” and why?-“for his hands refuse to labour.” He will not work, and he cannot want. He “desires” certain acquisitions and indulgences; but his hands refuse to second his wishes. He cannot bring them to the necessary exertion; and so his unsatisfied desire gnaws, torments, wastes, irritates, destroys him. There is nothing more irksome than the longing, yawning, fretting yearnings of the indolent wretch who will not help himself. They are miserable; and they are suicidal; they “kill him.” Mere “desiring” that the ground were tilled will not till it. Mere wishing for money and food will not create either the one or the other. So that if he only “desires” life, but will do nothing to sustain it, he must die.* Another aspect of the same evil is that it engenders and maintains the spirit of a grasping grudging covetousness: “He coveteth greedily all the day long.” He sees others in the possession and enjoyment of what he wants. He longs after the same, but he will do nothing to obtain it. He sets his heart on all he sees, and pines away in that “envy which is the rottenness of the bones.” In the Paris French translation the words stand thus-“All the day long he does nothing but wish.” How very expressive at once of the unconquerable indolence and the fretful, envious, pining unhappiness of the sluggard! And in his wishing, he may at times, by the power of a sanguine imagination, work himself into hope; and then, disappointment only embitters the cup of his own mingling,-aggravates the misery, which he is painfully conscious is self-inflicted.-Further: he appears before us a stranger to all the positive and exquisite pleasures of charity and beneficence; but “the righteous giveth and spareth not.” It is not said, you will observe-“the diligent giveth and spareth not;” because there are not a few who are sufficiently exemplary in diligence, to whom the Bible would not give the designation of “the righteous,"-and who are far from being distinguished for benevolence. But the antithesis, as it stands here, implies these three things: First, that diligence is one of the features in the character of the righteous:-Secondly, that the natural tendency, and ordinary result of this is, through the divine blessing, abundance to spare:-Thirdly, that another distinguishing feature of the character of the righteous man, readiness to part with what his industry acquires-“giving, and not sparing;” that is, giving cheerfully, and giving liberally; not assenting merely to the truth of the maxim, as being the word of the Lord, but feeling the truth of it in their own heart’s experience-“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

• Comp. Ecclesiastes 4:5 .

Verse Proverbs 21:27 . “The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?” The sentiment of the former part of the verse we have already illustrated,* showing by an appeal to many explicit passages in the Old Testament, that, unless the character of the worshipper was in correspondence with the worship offered by him, that worship, instead of being acceptable to the “Holy One of Israel,” to the pure, truth-loving, and heart’s searching God, was held by him in abhorrence, and indignantly rejected.

• Proverbs 15:8 .

What, then, is the addition to this truth, in the latter part of this verse?-“How much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?” The meaning seems to be-when not only is the worshipper’s general character at variance with the religious service, but when the particular act of devotion itself is performed with an evil design-as a cloak or cover to some wicked purpose:-when a man comes before the God of truth for a purpose of falsehood,-a purpose suggested by the father of lies; concealing by a profession made to God some work of the devil. We have an instance in the history of Jezebel.*1 There was a fast-a religious service to Jehovah-proclaimed, with the express object of covering the perpetration of one of the most nefarious deeds of treachery and murder recorded in the Bible history. The case of Balaam is another. He ordered the building at successive places, of his seven altars, and offered his bullock and his ram on every altar. But all the while he was “loving the wages of unrighteousness;” and, for the sake of these wages, trying to bribe the Almighty into a permission to him to curse Israel. Look also at our Lord’s representation of the character of the hypocritical Pharisees; in which He seems plainly to point at something more than general dissimulation-the studied covering of the very act of robbery-the robbery of the widow and the fatherless-by some accompanying act of extraordinary devotion.*2 There are degrees in sin. There are aggravating circumstances in the same kinds of sin. There is wickedness in all hypocrisy-in all religious dissimulation,-there being no one thing in which “simplicity and godly sincerity” are more imperatively required than the services of religion; but of all religious dissimulation that must be the most heinous, in which an act of worship is performed expressly to cover and facilitate the execution of an act of villany; when a worshipper bows before the God of mercy and truth, with the assassin’s dagger under his garment; or confesses and prays to “the righteous Lord who loveth righteousness” to preclude suspicion,-to inspire confidence in his holy character, that he may the more-easily succeed in pillaging the poor!-Let all remember, that the same kind of guilt, though in various degrees, is contracted, when a man assumes, in the public worship of God, any airs of ultra devotion,-any sanctimonious ostentation and grimace, for the purpose of getting a character for religion, and so enabling him, under the cloak of such a reputation, to obtain credit and confidence, while he is, in his business, carrying forward a system of dishonourable and swindling speculation or embezzlement. O! of what is not human nature, under the dominance of unprincipled selfishness, capable!

*1 See 1 Kings 21:9-10 , &c. rr

*2 Mat 23:14 ; Luke 20:47 .

Verse Proverbs 21:28 . “A false witness shall perish; but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.” Here too we have former truth, with some addition to it. “A false witness” is, on the margin, “a witness of lies.” It probably means here a witness who gives in evidence inventions of his own, that he knows to have no foundation in fact. It stands in antithesis to-“the man that heareth.” This some critics understand in a sense which the occasional use of the verb to hear certainly justifies,-” the man that obeyeth.” But, in the present instance, this seems rather forced. “The man that heareth,” or who hath heard, is the witness who has personal knowledge of the case-who has been present on the spot and has listened to what passed.

The former “shall perish:” he shall fail in his cause, entangling himself in the meshes of his own inventions,-falsehood being seldom in all points consistent,-and so bring ruin upon himself in this life, and be visited with perdition in the end. Not so in regard to the latter: “the man that heareth speaketh constantly.” If we abide by this translation, the meaning is-that he who has heard persists uniformly in the same statements.* Truth is always consistent. No cross-questioning can elicit any incoherence. It needs nothing to help it out; nor is it ever in hesitation or at a loss. It is free, open, ready; delivering its testimony without apprehension, knowing that all is in harmony. But the original more properly signifies “unto victory.” One French version has it-“shall speak so as to gain the cause;” another-“shall speak, and shall have the victory.” This too is the sense given by the Latin Vulgate. The idea seems to be that the consistency of truth shall triumph over the artifice and chicanery of falsehood and deceit. The perjurer may for a time seem to have the better of the cause; but ultimately the witness of lies shall be exposed, and the witness of truth shall be triumphant.

• Stuart considers the meaning to be, “that the sincere listener to the divine commands will ever be at liberty to speak,” and “find confidence put in what he says.”

My brethren, we are all hastening to a tribunal where accuser, and witness, and judge, shall all be One. God is now the inspector of all our actions, and the hearer of all our words; and at the great day, He will not need that any should testify to him of man. There will be no need for calling witnesses, on whose testimony to found the verdicts of that day. “He that sitteth upon the throne” shall have a perfect intuitive knowledge of every individual of the countless myriads that shall then appear at His bar,-an unerringly distinct remembrance of every particular in the conduct and history of each, and of the motives by which, on every occasion, he was actuated. Conscience, however successfully bribed to a partial testimony now, will then respond to the truth of every charge. And when to those whom He places on his left hand, the Judge shall say, “Depart from me, ye cursed!” there will be no plea possible in arrest of the sentence. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” And the same omniscient and unerring Judge shall “justify the righteous.” Placing them on his right hand, he will welcome them to blessedness; and all their adversaries shall be ashamed; not a lip daring to open against them, or in impeachment of their sentence.*

• Romans 8:31 ; Romans 8:33-39 .

Verse Proverbs 21:29 . “A wicked man hardeneth his face: but as for the upright, he directeth his way."-The “wicked man” has good cause to be ashamed. His actions are such as give him plentiful reason to blush; but he blushes not. He “hardens his face.” He assumes the air of impudent effrontery; braves the searching gaze of others; bids them the defiance of an unmoved countenance. He thus seeks to command an impression of his innocence. He has learned the lesson of concealing the secrets of conscience. His desire and his study are, to attain the power of sinning without blushing; and it is wonderful what an amount of this command of countenance some have reached. There is no discerning from their looks the slightest symptom of conscious guilt; while the innocent may blush crimson at the very thought of being so much as charged with the evil, and exposing themselves to suspicion that has no ground.-“Hardening the face,” signifies also determined self-will, that is unmoved by expostulation, and proof against warning,-equally scornful of entreaty and of threatening-of love and of fear. Such was the character of God’s ancient people, in their times of rebellion against Him.* It required divinely imparted courage and self-command to be able to face them.

• Jeremiah 5:2-3 ; Jeremiah 8:12 ; Ezekiel 3:7-9 .

Mark the other side of the antithesis:-“but the upright directeth,” or, as on the margin, “considereth his way."-This may include two things:-1. His great desire and aim are, by a due consideration of his way, so to direct and order it, that he may have no cause for shame, and no need for command of countenance to conceal conscious guilt. While a blush may at times suffuse the cheek of conscious innocence at the very imputation of evil, it will soon pass away, and the naturalness of modest truth will inspire confidence in all who witness it. He would not “quench the blushes of ingenuous shame;” but he endeavours so to speak, and so to act, as that he shall have no reason to hide his head or cover his face,-far less to “harden” it. 2. The upright man is influenced by such a self-diffident consciousness of his liability to say and to do what is wrong, that when anything of the kind is imputed to him, or surmised against him, he humbly “considers his way.” He is led to self-examination,-to ascertain whether, through want of due watchfulness, he may not have erred. So far from “hardening his face” like a man who had such conceit of himself as to imagine that he could not do aught amiss, and that his only feeling under any imputation should be that of indignant scorn,-he is rather induced, in humility of spirit, to the more sincere and fervent adoption of the psalmist’s prayer:-“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” Psalms 139:23-24 .

O let the second of these characters be yours! A hardened heart and a hardened face,-a face that has learned to brave accusation and to look innocent under conscious guilt, are the most undesirable of all attainments. The confusion of innocence, when evil is imputed, is far preferable. Better far to be innocent and thought guilty, than to be guilty and thought innocent. Better far to have the sentence of acquittal in our own bosoms, though condemned by men, than to succeed in getting acquittal from men, and carry within us the sentence of guilt. How painful soever the former, we can still look up to God, and forward to His tribunal, as that of unerring rectitude,-where He will “bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day.” O! there will be no “hardening of the face” then. Conscience will do its duty. The eyes which are as a flame of fire will search the inmost soul. Every eye will quail, and every countenance, even the most hardened, sink, before the look of Him that sitteth upon the throne. He will then at once “wipe off the reproach of his people,” and “bring to light the hidden things of darkness.” And then they who, under the influence of faith, and fear, and love, have “considered their way,” shall lift up their faces without dread, and meet the smiles of their gracious Judge!

We may, perhaps, consider the wise man as pointing out three modes of covering and effecting evil purposes:-in the twenty-seventh verse, the mask of religion; in the twenty-eighth, false testimony; in the twenty-ninth, the assumed boldness and look of innocence. But (verse Proverbs 21:30 ) “there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord.” There may be against men. In one, or other, or all of these ways they may be deceived. There may, in many cases, be “wisdom and understanding and counsel,” more than sufficient to impose upon and outwit them. But God knows all. His eye cannot be eluded; His designs cannot be thwarted; neither His promises nor His threatenings can be falsified, by any artifice, or policy, or might of the children of men,-no, nor of any created being.

And, as there is “no wisdom, understanding, or counsel” against the Lord, so neither is there power:-verse Proverbs 21:31 . “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.” Sometimes, in the history of His ancient people, the Lord adopted means in themselves utterly inadequate,-absolutely trivial and powerless,-and granted the most signal success, for the purpose of conveying and impressing the lesson, that even when the best-equipped and most powerful armaments were employed, it was on Him they were still to depend,-and neither previously to confide, nor subsequently to glory, in their own resources, and might, and skill. Thus it was in the case of the reduction of their vast army to the “three hundred,” by whom the immense hosts of Midian were overthrown. And, in a similar manner, and at a most appropriate time, was the great lesson inculcated,-just when they were setting out on the conquest of the land of promise. By what means was the first city overthrown? By means which, but for the rumours that had come to their ears, the inhabitants might well have “laughed to scorn”-by successive processions round it, and the repeated blast of trumpets. This was manifestly designed to show them at the very outset to whom they were to owe the subjugation and possession of the land. It was an important and salutary lesson; and it is the very sentiment to which, in their hymns of acknowledgment and praise, the ancient church gave utterance.*

• Psalms 44:1-8 .

Let us, as we are taught to do, generalize the sentiment:-“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”*

• Psalms 127:1 .

“Fond mortals but themselves beguile,

When on themselves they rest:

Blind is their wisdom, weak their toil,

By thee, O Lord, mildest!”

Safe and happy is the man, and he alone, who “trusteth in Jehovah,” for “in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” And let me remind all, that the principle is applicable to means of safety from other and greater than temporal evils or created enemies. “Safety-salvation is of the Lord.” He has made known His way of security from the wrath to come. Men may devise and follow schemes of their own: but none but His can be safe. “There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel,” in this matter, “against the Lord.” His counsel shall stand. Ah! sinners, what plans soever of your own you may embrace, you will find the truth of this in the end. Christ is the only refuge. “There is no salvation in any other.” When Israel were penitent, they owned the worthless insufficiency of all the means of protection in which they had previously trusted, and cast themselves on the power and mercy of their own Jehovah.* Thus must it be with every penitent sinner. The very first thing he does is to renounce all his previous confidences, and betake himself to that one which Jehovah has provided and revealed.-And then, there is to the end a spiritual warfare, in which “safety is of the Lord.” We cannot cope with our spiritual enemies but in His strength. We must be “strong in the Lord.” We must be made conquerors “through him that loved us.” “Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.”

• Hosea 14:1-3 .