Proverbs 22

WARD

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Proverbs 22:1-6

LECTURE LXVIII.

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. By humility, and the fear of the Lord, are riches, honour, and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

You will observe that the word “good” in the first of these verses is a supplement. In the original we have simply “a name.” But this does not mean a mere name of renown. The verse must not be understood as a justification of the love of fame as a principle of action. Nor is it to be interpreted as expressing a preference of ambition to avarice,-of the love of power to the love of wealth. Many, alas! have there been, who, from mere eagerness to be distinguished,-with little consideration of either the nature or the means of the distinction,-have succeeded in “making themselves a name;” but a name which ought to be a name of infamy rather thin of honour. They have been great in power, and great in renown for all the evil which power without principle rendered them capable of doing. Solomon does not assuredly mean such a name. The “good” is a proper supplement. “A good name” is a reputation among fellow-men for piety, wisdom, prudence, integrity, generosity, and any other virtues that enter into a good character. But remember it is not a mere reputation for these. They must not be assumed in appearance, and a reputation thus got for the reality. To a man’s own inward enjoyment there can be few things more opposed than a high reputation for qualities which there is no consciousness of possessing, but rather a consciousness that, if all were known, the feeling toward him would be reversed. This in itself must be worse than unsatisfactory, it must be most fretting and mortifying to a man’s spirit,-exciting the gnawing irksomeness of self-indignant scorn; besides the incessantly haunting apprehension of the truth coming out, and the shame of detection.

Observe, the character is one which is not held in admiration only, but in affection:-“and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” The “loving favour” is the affectionate esteem which springs from the “good name,” and which is drawn by it to the person. In the first place, the “good name” and “loving favour” are more really pleasing in themselves-imparting more of true happiness than “silver and gold” in whatever amount-than all the riches of earth. The satisfaction is comparatively low and grovelling, which a person receives from the mere possession of wealth. It may be common to him with men of the lowest standard both in mental and moral worth. There is no saying how mean or how bad a man may be, and yet come into possession of " silver and gold," and “great riches.” The satisfaction that arises from character is of a much higher and purer description; more worthy far of being coveted and valued. To a man of sensibility, indeed, few things can be more dear than a “good name.” By such a man his purse will ever be esteemed as “trash” in the comparison. Few things are more distressingly painful to him than when any injurious suspicion is thrown upon his character. The full enjoyment of a fair fame is intensely gratifying. Hence arises a danger-(for what is there from which, to our deceitful hearts, danger does not arise?)-the danger of “thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think,"-and of making a righteousness of our “good name,"-getting secretly elated by it-and deriving a measure of self-gratulation and self-confidence from it even before God, and in the prospect of our final account. Hence also arises a necessity for self-jealousy. It is well for him who in any degree enjoys, and knows that he enjoys it, to counteract the tendency by looking to those evils in the sight of God, of which he must be a wonderful man who is not sensible:-to go over these in the secret chambers of conscience, those chambers to which no eye has access but his own and his God’s. When he thus faithfully brings his heart and life to the test of the spiritual law of omniscience, he will find enough to prevent his being puffed up-enough to make him feel deeply his unworthiness of the divine regard, and of even the very lowest place in “the kingdom of heaven,"-enough, amidst the affectionate tributes of admiration from his fellow-creatures, to draw from his inmost and heavy-laden spirit the prayer-“God be merciful to me a sinner!”

Secondly,-the one is more valuable than the other as a means of usefulness. Riches, in themselves, can only enable a man to promote the temporal comfort and well-being of those around him. But character gives him weight of influence in matters of higher moment,-in all descriptions of salutary advice and direction,-in kindly instruction and consolation,-in counsel for eternity. It not only fits its possessor for such employments, but it imparts energy and effect to whatever he says and does. His character carries a recommendation with it,-gives authority and force to every lesson and every admonition; and affords, by the confidence it inspires, many opportunities and means of doing good, which, without it, could not be enjoyed.-Riches, again, bring with them many temptations to sinful and worldly indulgences, such as are injurious to the possessor himself and to his family-both temporally and spiritually. Character, on the contrary, acts aa a salutary restraint,-keeping a man back from many improprieties and follies, and even outward sins, by which it would be impaired and forfeited. And this restraint is felt, and properly felt, not for his own sake merely, but for the sake of all those objects with which his name stands associated; and especially from a regard to usefulness in connexion with the truth, and cause, and church of Christ. This is a very solemn consideration to a child of God. O remember, it is not your riches or your poverty, your high or low condition, that is an honour on the one hand, or a reproach on the other, to the name and doctrine of your divine Master, and a means of promoting or hindering the reception and progress of His gospel; it is your consistent character,-your high and blameless reputation. How vast the good this does-this preaching of the gospel by the life-in every circle in which a man moves!-and O what essential, and often extensive injury springs from the contrary-from the name without the reality of religion,-without consistent practical godliness! It was this consideration that led the Apostle Paul to set so high a value upon his “good name,” and made him so solicitous to preserve it free not only of reproach, but even of suspicion. His official usefulness was involved in it, as well as his personal satisfaction. A reflection on him was a reflection on his cause, and a hindrance to his apostolic success. For similar reasons, we should all be jealous of our character,-not as a point of mere touchy selfish honour, but from the thought of the degree to which an unblemished reputation, or the contrary, bears on the glory of the Redeemer, and the salvation of souls. In this respect, it is incomparably more precious than “thousands of gold and silver.”

Thirdly, I may further add, the “good name” lasts longest. The wealth of the rich man is often coveted even while he lives. When he dies, he leaves it for ever; and, if this has been his only or his chief recommendation and attraction, he is speedily forgotten, or remembered only with contempt. But “the memory of the just is blessed.” It is embalmed in blessing. It is kept in affectionate reverence in the hearts of kindred and friends, of the church of God, and of society. And in “the day of the Lord,” when the worthlessness of all distinctions of mere condition shall be made apparent-when all the “silver and gold” in the universe would not avail to bribe away the sentence of death-the Lord shall acknowledge those who have borne the character of holy practical consistency in the faith and profession of His name. Then, CHARACTER WILL BE EVERY THING, CONDITION NOTHING. Ay; and the “good name” will be retained in heaven,-retained for ever; and the principles from which it arose, freed from all admixture of baser material, will be the springs of everlasting blessedness, when “riches,” however great, and “gold and silver,” however abundant, shall all have been left behind, to perish with a burning world, and be as if they had never been.

Verse Proverbs 22:2 . “The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all."-By the poor are here to be understood, not only the needy, the indigent, the dependent, but the inferior classes generally:-“the rich and poor” meaning the highest and the lowest, with all the intermediate grades. They “meet together:”-

In society.-Variety of condition arises naturally and necessarily from the operation of many causes:-from diversity in character and disposition, in turn of mind, in amount of ability and diligence; and from the endless variety of providential arrangements, so frequently above all human foresight or control. Every attempt to prevent this diversity is vain. “The rich and poor” are mutually dependent on each other. The rich could not do without the poor, any more than the poor without the rich. The comparison by which the apostle illustrates the reciprocal dependence of the members of the church on one another, may be applied to civil society-“The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you,” 1 Corinthians 12:21 . This ought to suppress, on the one side all emotions of supercilious scorn, and on the other, every rising of envy. Let “the rich and poor” feel their mutual dependence, and treat each other accordingly.
In the church.-There, in as far as the communion of saints is concerned, there is perfect equality. It is true, and an important truth, that union and communion in the church does not interfere with, or set aside, the distinctions of civil society, or the obvious and necessary proprieties thence arising in the social intercourse of life. But there is one gospel for all. All meet as sinners in a common condemnation; and all meet as saved sinners, on a common ground of acceptance. All are, in common, debtors to the same mercy, through the same atonement; all are renewed by the same Spirit; all supplied from the same fulness; all children of the same Father; all heirs of the same inheritance,-“heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Yes, all-the poorest as well as the richest. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. who is above all, and through all, and in you all,” Ephesians 4:4-6 .
In the grave.-Ah! here the equality-the humbling equality is complete. “The small and the great are there.” All alike are subject to the stroke of death, for all have sinned. On all, the stroke of death produces the very same effects,-the cessation of all vital sensibility, and active energy-the same cold, and the same corruption: “the worms are spread under them, and the worms cover them.” Their funeral obsequies are widely different; but in the grave they meet, in the same darkness, and loneliness, and putrefaction. The worms that prey on the dead make no distinction between the prince and the beggar.
At the judgment-seat; on either hand of the Judge; and on either side of the impassable gulf-in heaven or in hell.-The supreme Judge will himself assign them their stations at His tribunal. When He separates the assembled millions of mankind one from another, and places the one class on his right hand, and the other on his left, “the rich and poor” will be blended indiscriminately; and it will be to assemblies of all ranks and conditions of men, that the welcome on the one hand and the banishment on the other-“Come ye blessed,” and “Depart ye cursed,” shall be addressed; and heaven and hell alike shall for ever be peopled by both. To all, the principles of the judgment shall be equally and impartially applied:-condition in the present world being only regarded in as far as it contributed to augment or to diminish the measure of guilt. “There is no respect of persons with God.”

This idea of ultimate impartiality is what is chiefly suggested by the latter part of the verse-“The Lord is the Maker of them all.” He is so by creation. They alike owe to Him their being, and owe to Him every moment the maintenance of that being-the rich man and the honourable, equally with the poorest and the meanest on earth. Where is the monarch on the throne that, more than the lowest of his subjects, can draw a breath independently of God?-And they have the Lord alike for their Maker by providential allotment. The same Lord makes them what they are; and could at His pleasure reverse their conditions, making the rich the poor, and the poor the rich.-The Lord being “the Maker of them all” implies also the equal distance of all, as alike His creatures, from their common Creator and Governor. The distance is the same. In both it is infinite. When God is the object of common comparison, the distance between the highest and the lowest of mankind measures not a hair’s-breadth; it is annihilated. All the distinctions of which men make so much, sink into nothing before his infinite Majesty. Both are alike dependent; and both are alike responsible. And when we look forward to death, to judgment, to eternity-O how trifling are the points of difference, compared with the points of agreement!

Verse Proverbs 22:3 . “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished."-Prudence is a contraction of providence; and providence literally means foresight,-seeing before,-looking forward. Such, you perceive, is precisely its import in this verse:-“The prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself.” It is true that man is not endowed with prescience. He has memory, by which he retains, though even that very imperfectly, the remembrance of the past; but of the future he can know nothing with certainty. The events of the future are beyond his vision. Hence it is that prophecy comes among the evidences of inspiration, or divine commission. When Jehovah challenges the gods of the heathen to produce evidence of their pretensions to divinity, He says, “Let them show us things to come.” Prophecy is a miracle-a miracle of knowledge. When a prediction is delivered in proof of an accompanying testimony or message, the subsequent fulfilment of the prediction is satisfactory evidence of its having indeed come from God; for “no man could know such things, unless God were with him.” But, although man has not prescience, he may often sagaciously forecast the future. By comparing the operation of circumstances in former times similar to those which exist now,-by observing the tempers and dispositions of the persons on whom these circumstances exert their influence,-and by considering the probability with which certain events will lead to certain other events,-a man may form, in many cases, a very shrewd anticipation of what is to come. As we learn to discern the “signs of the sky,” we may learn also to interpret “the signs of the times,"-and that, both as to what is private and what is public. A large amount of what we are accustomed to understand by prudence, consists in thus forecasting the future,-anticipating evils ere they arrive, and so making provision for avoiding them, or, if they are such as cannot entirely be shunned, for meeting them to the best advantage,-so as to mitigate at least their pernicious consequences. To the “prudent man” who thus “foresees the evil and hides himself,"-as the skilful mariner, who discerns symptoms of a coming storm which the inexperienced dream not of, and betakes himself to whatever harbour is within his reach, ere the tempest gather and burst upon the deep;-to this man stands in contrast “the simple, who passes on and is punished.” The word “punished” seems here to mean, not judicial infliction, but simply suffering the injury and damage, whether in person or in property, which is the natural result of imprudence, of want of foresight and forethought. As when two men are on a road together, where there is danger approaching, the one, looking before him, sees it coming, and turns aside till it is past, while the other, entirely heedless, perceives not its approach, and, before he is aware, meets it, and suffers:-or, as when two travellers are passing through a country that abounds with wild beasts,-one of them, acquainted with the danger, knowing the haunts and the ways of the different animals, has all his eyes about lain, is ever on the look-out, before and on either side, avoiding this course and choosing that, moving cautiously and treading softly,-while the other, ignorant of the danger and of the precautions necessary to safety, goes forward heedlessly, and falls an immediate victim to his rashness,-so is it with " the prudent” and “the simple” in the journey of life.

Not that prudence never fails of its end. It does. There is a Providence that is above human prudence: and often it happens, that that Providence orders events in ways that are quite in contrariety to the conjectures of the most sagacious foresight. All sayings like the one before us are necessarily of a general character.

Let us apply the maxim, as it is justly and strongly capable of being applied to spiritual and eternal interests. These interests are, in the Bible, actually reduced to a simple question of prudence,-a question of profit and loss.* Well were it could we prevail on men to take up the matter in this light-to bring to a fair calculation the concerns of the soul and of the body, of time and of eternity! Well were it could we get them but to apply to these one-tenth part of the earnestness with which they set about taking stock, and bringing their books to a balance, that they may have a correct estimate of the true state of their business,-of the prosperity or the declension of their mercantile affairs! O the imprudence,-the wanton, criminal, self-destroying imprudence of leaving your accounts with God unexamined and unsettled!-in allowing the debit side of those accounts to run up, day after day, to a perpetually augmenting amount, while, on the credit side, you have nothing !-literally nothing!-all debt, and nothing to pay! Will you venture to leave your prospects for eternity in so ruinous a position? Know you not, that there is no stock from which your debts can be discharged but “the unsearchable riches of Christ?"-and will you refuse to avail yourselves of that stock, though it is set open to you for the purpose, and to allow settling-time to come on, with nothing whatever to meet it? In other words, there is no thing that can cancel the charges of guilt against you in the book of God’s remembrance, but an interest in the blood and righteousness of the one Mediator;-and will you remain without that interest, and allow death and judgment to find you with all your guilt upon your head, through your rejection or neglect of the atonement?-to find you without a justifying righteousness, because you slight and disregard that which has been provided for you? O why will you “pass on and be punished,” when you have the means of deliverance at hand,-the means of reconciliation and security?

Matthew 16:26 .

Verse Proverbs 22:4 . “By humility, and the fear of the Lord, are riches, honour, and life.” *1-“Humility” and “the fear of the Lord” are naturally associated. They are indeed inseparable. There can be no true humility without the fear of God, nor any true fear of God without humility.*2 Lowliness of spirit is an indispensable characteristic of a religious life. It is in the valley of humiliation that the sinner first meets with God, and comes into a state of reconciliation with Him. It is with “a broken and a contrite heart” that he receives the mercy of the cross; and the spirit of humble self-renunciation abides with him all his future days. The spirit of pride cannot dwell in the same heart with “the fear of the Lord.” And we have here afresh the lesson so repeatedly before us, that the tendency of “humility and the fear of the Lord” is to “riches, honour, and life “-to bring respect and wealth, and to render the present life a life of happiness; while securing the riches of divine grace, the honour that cometh from God, and a life of eternal blessedness hereafter.

*1 Comp. Proverbs 3:5-10 . rr

2 This is strongly indicated in the Hebrew, where there is no * and ; humility,-the fear of Jehovah. The two are in * apposition* .

Verse Proverbs 22:5 . “Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.” There seems, in this verse, to be an intended antithesis with, the fourth. “The froward” stand in contrast with the “humble fearers of the Lord,"-and “thorns and snares” with “riches, honour, and life.” The characters are opposite, and so are the effects.

The man who makes his way through a thicket of “thorns” is vexed, fretted, and wounded; and when there are “snares” besides, by which he is rendered insecure at every step, whether his foot may not be taken unawares, and even the troublesome progress he is making be thus arrested, great is the addition to his distress and perplexity. What a strong representation does this figure contain of the entanglements, difficulties, hazards, and miseries of “the froward”-the unprincipled and ungodly! There is no path clear, but the path of straightforward, single-eyed integrity. “He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them”-far, that is, from “the froward.” Whether we render the original word soul or life; it is equally true, that the further from such the better. He that regards the real happiness of his life, and he that regards the welfare of his soul, will study to keep aloof from their society.

Verse Proverbs 22:6 . “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” This is a most important maxim-to parents and to guardians especially. The first observation we have to make upon it is, that the “training” spoken of must be considered as including all the parts of a truly religious education. The words are often quoted very much at random, and with hardly any definite meaning whatever. But you must not forget, where they occur. It is in the word of God. In all consistency, therefore, we must understand “training in the way he should go,” as signifying training in the way which the Bible points out,-bringing up according to the principles and the practice which it prescribes. With no other kind of training can we suppose the God who gives the book to connect any promise. And I cannot bring myself to think that Solomon here means no more than what may be expected to arise from the nature of the thing; for, though even in that view of the words, there is a certain amount of truth in them,-the promise of God’s covenant to the truly faithful training of children must surely be taken into the account.

The various branches of godly training may be thus enumerated:-1. Instruction in right principles,-the principles of God’s word:-2. The inculcation of right practice,-the practice of God’s will:-3. Salutary admonition, restraint, and correction:-4. The careful avoidance of exposure to evil company and evil example:-5. The exhibition before them of a good example in ourselves:-6. Constant, believing, persevering prayer. These are all necessary: and they are all connected with one another. The first must be accompanied with the second, and the second must be founded in the first; doctrine carried out to duty, and duty based in doctrine. The third and fourth neglected will render unavailing the first and second; for what will instruction in either doctrine or duty do, unless there be the avoidance of exposure to evil communications, and the admonition, restraint, and correction, necessary to show you are in earnest? What will food and medicine do, if there is no care to preserve from the infection of deadly maladies? The fifth-our own example-not attended to, will destroy the effect of all the preceding four. For what, in general, can avail mere talking to children, nay even correcting them, and warning them to keep away from evil companions,-if, with all this, our own conduct is in contravention of the whole, and, instead of recommending our instructions, exposing them to scorn, and when the rod is applied, giving them occasion to say, in their hearts if not with their lips-“Thou that judgest doest the same things?” And then, the omission of prayer will deprive all the rest together of their efficacy. When a child is early, carefully, piously, affectionately, and perseveringly, instructed, admonished, restrained, corrected-drawn and won with all tenderness, from evil to good, from the world to God,-inured to submission and diligence, and truth and integrity, and self-control,-an example set before him in harmony with all he is taught,-and all means, along with the subject of them, earnestly and constantly commended to God for His blessing;-if a child is thus “trained in the way that he should go,”-“when he is old he will not depart from it.”

The language is strong. It is so strong, that one is almost afraid to qualify it; inasmuch as professedly Christian parents are so sadly prone to lay hold on any qualification of the words, and to make a pillow of it on which they set their consciences to sleep. At the same time, I cannot regard them as containing an absolute assurance that in every individual instance in which the means are faithfully used, the result will infallibly be as here stated. There are two extremes. That which has just been mentioned is one of them; but by far the least pernicious of the two. Indeed, as I have said, I almost shrink from calling it an extreme; for it is certainly much more desirable that parents, in cases where there has been a failure, should be led to distrust of themselves than to distrust of God; to examine well whether there has not been something wanting,-something they have omitted, or something they have done wrong; some deficiency, or some error, in their instruction, their correction, their vigilance, their example, or their prayers; whether they may not have “done what they ought not to have done, or failed to do what they ought to have done;” or whether, in the entire system of training there has been that decided precedence given to.their spiritual interests which there ought to have been; or that tender and winning affection and earnestness infused into the whole manner of spiritual tuition which there ought to have been; or that fervour and that faith in prayer that there ought to have been:-better that they should be led to such inquiry, and to such selfjealousy, than that by any modifying of the words, they should be tempted to take matters easy, and to allow the failure to lie lightly upon their consciences. Still, however, the verse may be interpreted on the same principle; as expressing strongly the tendency of early instruction,-what may naturally and reasonably be expected from it, as its appropriate result. Some, it is true, have gone to an absurd extreme,-as contrary to the Bible as it is to fact, in affirming the omnipotence of education,-so that anything whatever which you may determine to make of a child may be made of it-good, bad, or indifferent, and the first as easily and as surely as the others. While this is altogether wild and presumptuous, still there must be admitted to be not a little truth in the common lines-

“‘Tis education forms the infant mind;

Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.”

And assuredly, we ought to be as assiduous in “bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” as if all depended upon our own efforts;-while we look, at the same time, for that divine aid and that divine influence, without which our labour will be in vain.

But if that which I have mentioned be an extreme, it is, as has been already said, incomparably less injurious than the other: namely, that of lulling the conscience to repose on the incessantly reiterated sentiment of the freedom and sovereignty of grace. When their children “rise up a seed of evil-doers,” they are grieved no doubt; but they shake their heads and say-with a great deal more of self-complacency than of self-reproach, Ah! you see, we cannot command grace:-grace is free; God has “mercy on whom he will have mercy;” we have done what we could; but God has not seen meet to give the blessing. And it is wonderful how very easy reflections like these make them; when, if matters were duly and scripturally examined, the saying “we have done what we could” might be found far short of truth,-both as to the duty itself and the manner of it. There are doctrines which have truth, Divine truth, in them, but of which particular uses are no better than cant. This is one of them. This continual reference, with a long-faced seriousness, to the sovereign freedom of grace, is nothing better than the cant of orthodoxy, to apologize for the neglect of duty. The God of the covenant has given ample encouragement to his people, in the promises of that covenant, to bring up their children for Him. But they are connected with commanded duty,-and dependent upon the due discharge of it. Let parents set their hearts on the salvation of their children; let this be first and last and midst in their instruction, in their prayers, in their whole general training, and in their inquiries and their selection as to their children’s settlement in life,-a matter in which Christian parents too often forget themselves, looking too much a great deal, both as to business and as to marriage connexions, to this world,-and so contradict all their previous professions, and prayers, and efforts, and do what they can to thwart and frustrate all:-and if there be, in any case, a failure, let it lead to selfsuspicion, self-examination, inquiry into the details of the particular case, searching of heart, and prayer. They will then, and then only, have “delivered their own souls.” *

The expression in the verse thus commented upon, in the way he should go, in the Hebrew is, literally, hit way; and Stuart remarks-“It means the bent of hit mind or inclinations, the capacity which he has to pursue this occupation or that. The Hebrew cannot be made to mean more than that the child should be educated for usefulness, in such a way as the bent of his genius indicates that he ought to be trained.” The reader must form his own judgment of this view.

Proverbs 22:7-16

LECTURE LXIX.

Proverbs 22:7-16 .

“The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor. Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor. The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.”

The effect of wealth has ever been to impart influence and power. Through the corruption of our nature, it is often possessed in a degree very disproportionate to the real worth of the owner; and, through the same corruption, the power arising from it is sadly abused. The rich assuming self-sufficient haughtiness, domineer over the poor, and make them feel their inferiority, taking advantage of their dependence to trample upon them,-to demand of them what is unreasonable, and even what is sinful; thus rendering their dependence “a temptation and a snare,” and extorting improper compliances, for their own convenience and advantage.

O let it not be supposed, that it is here held out as a motive to the pursuit and acquisition of riches, that you may thus “lord it” over the needy, and have a host of inferiors at your command. No. But it is a motive and stimulus to aim at an lowest and honourable independence, that you may not be subjected to such degradation, nor be exposed to the many temptations that arise out of it. Men naturally like to sway a golden sceptre over others; but it is neither in nature nor in grace to like to have it swayed over themselves.

“The borrower is servant to the lender” expresses a sentiment the same in kind. The man who lends lays the borrower under an obligation; and he is apt to feel his superiority, and to take advantage of it. He has “the borrower” under him. He asserts his claim upon him. He has it ever in his power to annoy him; and that he may make use of him for his own purposes, he may prolong the loan, and renew his bill. Having him by this means at his mercy, he contrives to keep him his humble servant. The precept-“Owe no man anything, but to love one another,” may, doubtless, be interpreted with a literality which would render it an impossibility. This much, however, we may surely say with truth, that the more literally it can be kept the better. Adhere as strictly to the letter as you can. Maintain then an honourable freedom. Cherish the spirit of independence. Prefer being your own master to bringing yourselves under obligation and subjection. Study, as far as possible, to have it to say-that no man holds against you any undischarged obligation.

Verse Proverbs 22:8 . “He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity; and the rod of his anger shall fail."-In nature, the crop corresponds to the seed; and, as formerly noticed the figure is not seldom, in Scripture, applied to the final results (and sometimes even to the present,) of different courses of moral conduct. In the divine administration, as in the vegetable world, evil produces evil, and good good:-“They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same,” Job 4:8 . Be it observed here, that these words were not true in the precise sense and according to the purpose of him who used them. He meant, that invariably the providential dealings of God corresponded with men’s characters; so that he inferred, from the very fact of Job’s sufferings, that he must have been guilty of flagrant secret sins. He saw him reaping suffering, and he concluded that ho must have “sowed iniquity.” This was false and cruel. But still, when the words are taken with reference to the ultimate issues of human conduct, they contain a most important truth.

To “reap vanity” is to reap nothing that is substantial or permanently profitable. The man who “sows iniquity” may for the time, perhaps, obtain the advantage he seeks; but it will prove all worthless in the end. “The harvest shall be a heap, in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” And this leads me to remark, that the word translated here vanity has also, and as properly, the sense of affliction, grief, misery. In the Vulgate it is rendered by the Latin word for mischiefs; in the Septuagint Greek the rendering is much the same; as it is also in other versions. From the latter part of the verse, it is likely that there is some special reference to the “iniquity” of oppression,-of the violence and wrong produced by haughty superiority and power:-“the rod of his anger shall fail.” The rod by which he oppressed and smote the poor, for his own selfish ends-that rod “shall fail.” Death shall wrest it from his hands. God shall break it in pieces; and his tyranny and iniquity shall leave him nothing but shame, remorse, and the fruits of divine vengeance.

Verse Proverbs 22:9 . “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor."-In the Hebrew the expression is-“He that is good of eye.” The opposite phrase-“an evil eye”-is frequent in Scripture, and is used in various senses. It is applied, for example, in a general way, to duplicity of principle; in which sense it stands opposed to what our Lord calls “having the eye single.” *1 It is applied also to a perverted state of the affections toward any of their objects,-supposed of course to be indicated by the looks.*2 It is further used for envy;*3 and further still for a principle closely allied to envy-covetousness-eagerly looking at the object desired, and grudging at every expenditure of it.*4

*1 Luk 11:34 . rr

*2 Deu 28:54 ; Deuteronomy 28:56 . rr

*3 Mat 20:15 ; Mark 7:22 : where it is distinguished from covetousness.

*4 Proverbs 23:6 ; Proverbs 28:22 : Deuteronomy 15:9 . rr

This meaning is illustrated by the use of the corresponding expression, in the verse before us,-“a good eye.” It means the eye of compassionate and generous tenderness,-that looks, “with a desire to relieve, on the wants and woes of others, melting in sympathy over their sufferings; and that, at the same time, does not merely weep-shedding unavailing tears,-but, affecting the heart, opens the. hand-“for he giveth of his bread to the poor.” Perhaps the expression-“he giveth of his bread to the poor,” may mean, that he is ready even to share his own provision with them; not merely to give a small portion of his superfluities, but to stint himself for their supply. And this is the spirit of true charity. “He shall be blessed:"-blessed of men; and blessed of God.

Verse Proverbs 22:10 . “Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease."-By “the scorner” in various occurrences of the designation in this Book, is meant the profane and impious scoffer at religion,-the “mocker, whose bands shall be made strong.” Here it seems to mean the man of contemptuous and sneering insolence,-of sarcasm and banter,-of sly and keen insinuation,-of malicious “jibes and jests and irony;” the man who is ever holding up others to ridicule or to suspicion; who vents his spleen against all in succession that come in his way, and whom it suits a present selfish or silly purpose to turn the laugh against, and to make the butt of satire and lampoon.

The sayings and doings of such a character are the source of endless heartburnings, jealousies, and contentions. “The scorner” may be mixed up with these as a party,-himself the object of resentment and retaliation; or they may be stirred up by his agency among others. Men of this stamp are the very pests of social life, in families, in neighbourhoods, in the circles of acquaintance and friendship. They are such characters as Paul may be supposed to have had in his eye, when, in inculcating peace, he threw in his conditional if-his modifying clause-“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” There is really no living in peace with them. There is no agreement, no quietness, no comfort, no enjoyment, till you get rid of them. They are the blowers of the fires of strife. Their words are seeds of malice. Their very looks set friends at variance. Their jests are dictated by the gall of ill nature, at which the very laugh is meant to engender spite and foment discord. They are cankerworms in the flowers and fruits of social life.

There are persons who sometimes make their appearance in churches,-persons who are full of spiritual pride and self-consequence,-“wise in their own conceits”-“O how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up!”-“no doubt they are the people, and wisdom shall die with them!” They “trust in themselves that they are right, and despise others.” They are supercilious “scorners” of all opinions but their own; and they treat all others with the sneer of selfsufficient derision. They thus produce “contention, strife, and reproach”-envies, resentments, charges and recriminations, uncharitable conjectures and surmises, schisms and divisions, wherever they go. And from church to church sometimes they do go,-carrying with them their tinder-box and their steel:-and woe to each in succession! Others are disposed to be at peace, and would live in it, in comfort and prosperity, if these strife-kindlers would but allow them. What, then, is the remedy, when such characters arise, and are found to be incorrigible? Here we have it:-“Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.” He shows a sad absence of the leading graces of the Christian character, and a consequent unfitness for a place amongst the children of God. His spirit is the very opposite of what is engendered by the influence of the gospel; and the prevalence of it is utterly destructive of all the ends of Christian fellowship. Humility and love, with their happy results, peace and harmony, are essential to the spiritual prosperity and growth of the churches of Christ. And surely that which is the very reverse of the example of the Master, and of what his Holy Spirit, when he dwells in the soul, produces, and which essentially and flagrantly mars and frustrates the very designs of Christian communion, ought to be put away. There is no cure but “casting out.” Such men are the Jonahs of churches, and of the coteries of social life. As long as they are there, there will be nothing but the bluster and commotion of the storm,-“toiling in rowing,” incessant distress, vain exertion, and no progress. The sea cannot “cease from its raging,” till they are thrown overboard.

Verse Proverbs 22:11 . “He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend."-By “pureness of heart” we should surely here understand, in its full extent, what is usually meant by the phrase in the word of God. It signifies sincerity, it is true; but it signifies that sincerity as attaching to and characterizing something more. It is the sincerity of genuine piety, of inward sanctity, of all the holy principles and affections which the heart-searching God enjoins and approves; which He loves; on which He smiles and “lifts the light of his countenance.”*

See Psalms 24:3-5 ; Psalms 73:1 ; Matthew 15:8 ; and, in connexion with these, to impress the necessity of guileless sincerity, Psalms 32:1-2 ; John 1:47 ; Psalms 51:6 .

He that “loveth pureness of heart,” is he who not only has an admiring affection for it in others, but desires it and cultivates it in himself,-using with constancy, diligence, and prayer, all the means of heart-purification. The Apostle, speaking of “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” says, “He that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God and approved of men.” Solomon agrees with him. “He who loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.”

By the “grace of his lips’” we are to understand, not merely propriety, correctness, and elegance of address, and persuasiveness of manner, but such address as the vehicle of wise and salutary counsel,-characterized by prudence, humility, and respect. Even when there is no liking to true religion, there are some of its effects which command esteem and win affection. Humble consistency, propriety, a conduct appropriate to station, firmness of adherence to principle with deferential gentleness of demeanour,-the great, even kings themselves, will admire and honour. So was it in the case of Joseph; of Ezra and Nehemiah; of Mordecai; of Daniel; of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and so has it been with others.

My brethren, let us cultivate the character, independently of every consideration of its effects to ourselves, amongst men. It is good in the sight of God; and that is enough. That should be our supreme reason for seeking it. Many, instead of reaping from it the favour of the prince, have been exposed on account of it to persecution and to death. The will of God must be our law, and the approving smile of God our reward. “While we thank God for the favour He may give us in the sight of men,-we must see that we seek no friendships, whether among the greatest or the least, the highest or the lowest, by any other means whatever than the “pureness of heart” and the consistency of life here recommended. Even in regard to mere external ceremonial defilement, Daniel and his companions would not, in compliance with the wishes and for the sake of the favour of the king, pollute themselves. It would have been a transgression against their God. It would have defiled their consciences, and impaired their sense of integrity before Him:-and what would the favour of the king of Babylon have been to them, when for it they had forfeited that of the God of heaven? Never must the lips be allowed to assume a grace that is inconsistent with pureness and sanctity; or to give utterance to a single word of flattering courtesy, to which the heart does not respond-no not for the sake of the friendly regard of all the crowned heads of Europe. What Solomon says is rather an encouragement to love and cultivate “pureness of heart,” than a motive to be directly regarded, and allowed to influence us to this duty. It is only one of those indirect results which may be enjoyed as a testimony of the higher approbation of God.

Verse Proverbs 22:12 . “The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge; and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.” This language is susceptible of various interpretations:-

By some it is interpreted in immediate connexion with the preceding verse. According to this view “the eyes of the Lord preserving knowledge” means their being upon it at all times for its protection and safety; knowledge being thus put-the abstract for the concrete-for the persons who are under its influence; so that the words in the former part of the verse will amount, in effect, to much the same with the expression-“the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.” Thus Dr. Lawson:*1-“When knowledge in the mind is attended by pureness in the heart and grace in the lips, they form an amiable and worthy character, which draws to it the eyes and hearts of wise men: but that is not the principal recommendation of it; for the eyes of the Lord himself preserve knowledge, and watch for good over the man whose lips and conversation are regulated by it."*2 This certainly renders the antithesis in the verse pointed and natural:-“but he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.”

*1 So also Stuart.

*2 Comp. 2 Chronicles 16:9 .

The first part of the verse has been understood of the vigilant care exercised by the Lord over knowledge,-that is, over the knowledge of Himself-over divine truth-over true religion in the world; of the providence of God preserving this truth, in the midst of abounding ignorance, idolatry, and infidelity under all its forms; of the successful overthrow of all opposition-all the false reasonings, the insidious sophistries, and corrupting heresies, of the unbelieving and ungodly; and the extraordinary preservation of the volume of inspired truth in such a measure of purity from age to age, amidst all the attempts to suppress and destroy it. This interpretation of the words has been illustrated by the calling of Abraham,-by the revelation given to Moses, and the commission of the “lively oracles” received by him from Jehovah, to the sacred custody of His ancient people, chosen from among the nations of the earth for the very purpose of the guardianship and preservation of “knowledge”-the knowledge of His law, of His purposes, and promises, and covenant:-and, under the New Testament dispensation, by the completing of the sacred canon, and its constant preservation through such a variety of concurrent causes;-its republication, after ages of darkness, at the glorious Reformation;-its translation and circulation in so many of the languages and dialects of mankind, so that now nothing could destroy it, short of the miraculous interference of the almighty power of its divine Author. If the former part of the verse be taken in this sense, then the latter may be interpreted of the vanity of “all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against it.” Infidel writers, in the elation of their presumptuous confidence, have given utterance, at times, to predictions of the speedy overthrow of what they have stigmatized as superstition and old-wives’ fables. But their own words-not God’s, have been “overthrown,” and have been proved “great swelling words of vanity.” Shame hath covered their authors. And “knowledge”-the best, the highest, the most valuable-Hie knowledge of the “only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent,” which is “life eternal,” remains in all its perfection to this hour; and never did it present a fairer and surer promise of universality and permanence:-“The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever,” Isaiah 40:6-8 .
There is still another sense of the words,-which they may bear; though by some, perhaps, it may be regarded as fanciful:-“The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge:"-they retain it. What He sees, be it but for a moment, does not, as with our vision, pass away. It remains. We see, and, having seen, what passes from the eye passes also from the memory. Not so is it with God’s vision. The sight of His eye is no uncertain or forgetful glance. It is unerring and permanent. All that His eyes have ever seen is known as perfectly now as when it passed before them,-as when it existed or happened!-And in the exercise of this permanent and perfect knowledge, “He overthroweth the words of the transgressors.” All their evil desert remains before Him. They can neither elude His knowledge, nor bribe His justice, nor resist His power. They shall all be made to learn by fearful experience, “whose words shall stand, His, or theirs!”

Verse Proverbs 22:13 . “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.” It is not a common thing for lions to frequent streets. The forest is their place. But the indolent sluggard conjures up imaginary difficulties and perils, such as would never occur to any but a morbid mind. Any excuse will do: the fancy of danger-the pretence of fear. But what keeps him still, even in cases of the utmost urgency, is not cowardice; it is mere indolence. Yet would he rather incur the imputation of timid chicken-heartedness than make any exertion, than rouse himself to the slightest activity. He is ready to say, “Call me what you will-abuse me as you like-say and think of me what you please-but let me alone.” The verse is obviously the language of sarcastic and cutting derision; and is intended, were that possible, to put the sluggard to the blush.

Let us beware of the encroachments of this somnolent and lazy habit. In calls of duty especially,-when the good of others and the glory of God summon us to exertion, let us strive resolutely against it. Never let it, in any case, be said,-never let our own consciences have it to say,-that indolence-the mere indisposition to bestir ourselves, has lost us an opportunity of glorifying God or benefiting men,-our families, our friends, our neighbours, our country, or the church of God. Never let us conjure up “lions” that have no being save in our own fancy, and, so lay up for ourselves regrets afterwards, and stings of conscience, which seasonable exertion, then too late, might have prevented,-nay more, might have substituted for them pleasing reflections and present and anticipated enjoyment.

Verse Proverbs 22:14 . “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.” For a full, affectionate, faithful, and fearful commentary on this emphatic and appalling sentence I refer you to the early portions of this Book, formerly under our review.* I have called the sentence before us an appalling one. Is it not? Can any words be more so? It is not so much the strong figure used-the “deep pit”-artfully concealed-into which the unwary passenger falls headlong ere he is aware, and perishes:-a pit this, into which a fall is more than danger, is certain death and destruction;-I refer more particularly to the latter words of the verse-“he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein!” O my hearers-my youthful hearers especially,-this is solemn, this is terrible. It is the language of bitter experience;-of a spirit that had felt the agony of being deserted of God, and in danger of being given up to judicial and final abandonment. Solomon had fallen into this pit. He had forsaken God, and God had for the time forsaken him. And Oh! the agony of awakened conviction and felt abandonment! To what do the fearful words amount? To this: that in His righteous displeasure, there is not a heavier curse which an offended God can allow to fall upon the object of His wrath, than leaving him to be a prey to the seductive blandishments of an unprincipled woman:-that if God held any one in abhorrence, this would be the severest vengeance He could take on him. O! let youth hear this, and tremble! There are few vices-if indeed there be any-more sadly prevalent; and there are few-if indeed there be any-more miserably destructive of soul, body, and estate. The abhorrence and the curse of God are in the haunts, whether open or secret, of profligacy and lewdness. Wish you to have proof of your being “abhorred of the Lord?” Court the company of the “strange woman.” If not, flee from the temptation, as you would from the opening mouth of hell!

See Proverbs 2:16-19 ; Proverbs 5:3-12 .

The following verse contains a statement of fact,-and the duty arising out of it. The fact stated is, that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.” By “foolishness’” is to be understood not merely frivolity, levity, and nonsense; but something greatly more deplorable,-the principles of moral evil-of spiritual corruption. This “foolishness” is “hound in the child’s heart.” It has a firm seat, from which it is not easily dislodged. It is inbred-entwined closely and intimately, and with sad universality of influence, among all the natural passions, desires, and affections of the human constitution, as well as all the powers and faculties of the mind, which are all tainted by the corrupting leaven.

“The rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” It is here implied that the foolishness is so “bound in the heart,” as to need this, among other means of expulsion. I say among others; for nothing could be more preposterous than to suppose the rod by itself to be meant here. It is “the rod” as accompanying, and contributing to give effect to instruction, admonition, counsel, example, and prayer.* And in order, as we have seen, to the end being effectually answered, the nature and degree of the fault, the time, the temper, the manner, and the measure, of the correction, must all be carefully attended to. Injudicious chastisement, ill-timed, ill-tempered, ill-adapted to the case, and ill-proportioned in measure, may effectually frustrate the end in view; nay may even serve to promote its opposite, confirming, instead of expelling folly.

See Proverbs 13:24 ; Proverbs 19:18 .

Verse Proverbs 22:16 . “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want."-How frequently, under different modifications and aspects, does the wise man introduce this subject! There are here two things which may and sometimes do go together-“oppressing the poor, to increase riches,” and-“giving to the rich.” The former is done to gratify avarice; the latter, to humour vanity. The one also furnishes the means of the other; the wealth that is obtained by the oppression of the poor, being employed in courting, by gifts and accommodations, the favour of the rich. There is something in this fitted to stamp the character with universal odium:-the idea of getting the riches that are spent in courting the rich, at the expense of the comfort of the poor, by screwing them down, stinting them in their means of life, grinding their faces, and defrauding them of their own! Such conduct brings a double curse, as that in verse sixth brings a double blessing:-first, for his oppression of the poor, who, as we have often seen, are God’s special care:-and secondly, for his selfish application of what is thus obtained. There is no principle in either, of regard to God,-either to His authority or to His glory; nor of benevolence to men. The sole object is the gratification and aggrandizement of self. It is self that oppresses the poor, and keeps from them what they do need; and it is self that curries favour with the rich, by giving to them that which they do not need. Of the man who acts thus, want shall be the doom. He shall not prosper. The curse of God will blast his acquisitions, and bring him low:-and in the end his portion shall be destitution and misery for ever.

Proverbs 22:17-29

LECTURE LXX.

Proverbs 22:17-29 .

“Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge: for it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge; that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? Rob not the poor, because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”

At this point, we enter on the third of the five parts into which, as I stated in the introductory Lecture, this Book has usually been divided. It extends from the first of these verses to the end of the twenty-fourth chapter. It is more of a connected character than the second part, and bears a closer resemblance to the style and manner of the first.

The opening words-“Bow down thine ear, and hear”-enjoin the attitude of earnest, eager listening;-the attitude at times to bo observed in a public assembly, when anything happens to be introduced by the speaker particularly in coincidence with the likings of his audience. There is then a breathless silence; every ear is erect and forward; and where hearing is dull, every aid applied to the organ that may prevent a single word of what is said being lost. But too often, alas! are to be witnessed the listless countenance, and the drowsy eye; and the ear, instead of being bent to a listening posture, is allowed, with all indifference, to catch or to miss the passing sounds, just as it may chance; and thus sounds that convey the most important and solemn truths strike upon the organ, without the mind’s being conscious of the least impression. Hence, we have the further injunction-“Apply thine heart.” There must be a feeling of interest-a desire to know and understand what is said. The connexion is very intimate between the state of the dispositions and the right exercise of the understanding. Simple ignorance,-ignorance that is involuntary and unavoidable-can never be culpable. The ignorance that is culpable, and that merits punitive retribution, is that which arises solely from moral causes.* There is divine wisdom, divine glory, divine suitableness and consistency, in the truths of God’s Word; but from the state of “the heart” there is a film on the eyes of the mind that renders sinners criminally, because wilfully, blind to all their excellence. When by the Holy Spirit’s power this film is removed and there is once spiritual illumination and discernment,-a taste and relish of divine “knowledge” imparted,-the eager longing is inspired for a growing measure of attainment in it. Then comes to be realized the truth of the verse which follows:-“For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them (the words of the wise and the knowledge thence derived) within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.” “Keeping them within” refers not to the memory merely, but to the heart. They must be treasured up there from delight in them and love to them. Like Him who is their subject, they must “dwell in the heart by faith.” As there is no kind of knowledge that can be compared in value with the knowledge of God’s truth, there is none of which the acquisition is more exquisitely grateful. It introduces a “peace that passeth all understanding,"-a joy before unknown,-a “joy unspeakable and full of glory”-a joy that wakes into fresh life as, in the progress of our inquiries, new light is thrown upon any of the divine discoveries. What believer is there who has not experienced the exquisite nature of the pleasure? And what pleasure so reasonable? The philosopher may scorn it: but if the discovery of a fact, or the solution of a problem, or the establishment of a theory, in science, gives him satisfaction, why should not the Christian be vindicated in the delight he feels on discerning more clearly the mind of God, on points connected, not with time merely, but with eternity? Can anything be imagined more important, more full of interest than this?

Compare Romans 1:28 ; John 8:43 (where hear means bear): Ephesians 4:18 (where blindness means more properly callousness or hardness-as in the margin-and as appears from the following verse-“who, being past feeling,” &c): and Deuteronomy 29:3-4 .

The understanding and retaining of “the words of wisdom” are necessary qualifications for the right imparting of them. This seems, substantially, the lesson of the latter part of the verse:-“They shall withal be fitted in thy lips:” that is, thou shalt be able to communicate them fitly-in an appropriate, intelligent, and effective manner. In proportion as God’s word is “kept within”-in the understanding with intelligence and discrimination, in the memory with clearness and readiness, and in the heart with experience and affection-will be the degree of capability to teach others, and of probable efficiency and success.

There is another benefit that may be connected with “keeping them within.” When we have the word “hidden in our hearts,” it is the means of progressive sanctification. It works with a leavening influence amongst all our affections, desires and passions, purifying the whole inner man.* And hence arises a further peculiar fitness of the words of wisdom in the lips. Most unfitting and incongruous are they in the lips of the ungodly. It is only when a holy life makes it manifest that they are in the heart, that they are appropriately “fitted in the lips.”

Psalms 119:11 ; 1 John 3:9 .

Verse Proverbs 22:19 . “That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.” On this verse observe the following things:-

The particularity of address,-“to thee, even to thee.” In the days of prophetic inspiration, it was no unusual thing for the servants of God to receive express commissions to individuals, in which they alone were concerned. But the whole Book of God,-the entire “word of His testimony,"-should be considered by every one as addressed to him;-as much so as if there were no other human being besides himself, and as if it had been “given by inspiration” to himself alone. There is no room for any saying, as Jehu did of old,-“To which of all us?” The answer would, in every case, be-to each of you all-to thee-to thee-to thee. Not that there is no such thing as “rightly dividing the word of truth;” not that there are no portions of it that have a special appropriateness of application to the characters and circumstances of individuals. Still, the great truths of the Word are alike to each and to all. And speedily a man may be placed in one or other of the peculiar situations to which the different portions of it are adapted! I know of nothing more important than for every individual to bring divine lessons home to himself. Too often, alas! we forget personal amidst general application of particular truths. We think of them as intended for men, and forget that they are designed for us. Would you then profit by what you hear?-keep in mind, that what is addressed to ail is addressed to each-“to thee, even to thee.”
Mark the emphasis on the time-“this day.” We set a mark, in our minds, on days that have been rendered memorable by events of special interest. Would Noah, think you, ever forget the day of the year on which he and his family entered the ark, and when “the Lord shut him in?"-or the day on which he again stepped out of it upon the green earth, to be the second father of mankind? Would the shepherds ever forget on what night of the year the angelic messengers, amidst the light of the glory of the Lord, announced to them the divine Saviour’s birth, and when “the multitude of the heavenly host,” bursting on their sight, “ascended jubilant,” saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men?” Or would Cornelius ever forget the day and the hour when the angelic visitant directed him to that instruction whereby he and all his house should be saved? You, it is true, have many times heard the words of truth. Let me, however, remind any of you who have thus often heard, and who still neglect them, of the importance to you of each day that you enjoy the privilege. Every time you thus hear them, your eternal all depends on the reception you give to the message of God. This day may be important indeed, for it may be the last on which divine truth shall sound in your ears. O that it may be a day to be sacredly and joyfully remembered by every sinner now present, as the day on which he first felt its inestimable preciousness to his soul! If you thus hear, and thus improve the opportunity, the day will not be obliterated from your memory by the lapse of eternity. There is one thing of which with emphasis it may be said to each individual sinner-It is “to thee, even to thee:"-I mean the message of the Gospel-the message of free mercy through the divine Mediator. There is no exception; there is no difference. The Law speaks to each-“to thee, even to thee”-its sentence of condemnation. The Gospel speaks to each-“to thee, even to thee”-its offer of free, full, immediate, irrevocable, pardon on the ground of the universal atonement. To every fellow-creature we can say-An adequate atonement has been made for all; therefore for thee-“for thee, even for thee;” and on the ground of that atonement does divine mercy come near to thee-“to thee, even to thee”-with the offer of forgiveness, acceptance, and life. “This day” is the message of life again “made known! unto thee, O sinner; and there is no obstacle to thine acceptance and enjoyment of it, but what is in thyself;-none in God; none in Christ; none in the atonement; none in the divine offer of its virtue to mankind. “To thee is the word of this salvation sent;” and “now is the accepted time, now the day of salvation.”
Mark the design:-“That thy trust may he in the Lord.” Can there be a design more gracious? It is connected with the sinner’s present and eternal happiness. “They that know thy name,” says David, “shall put their trust in thee:” then it follows-“for thou, Lord, hast never forsaken them that seek thee.” No. God “keeps them by His power, through faith unto salvation.” God is revealed, to be trusted in: and He is worthy of all confidence. To trust in God is to trust in His perfections, as made known in the gospel,-in His mercy as it there appears in union with the justice and holiness of His character and government, and in His faithfulness to all the “exceeding great and precious promises” of His covenant, which are “yea and amen in Christ Jesus.” All may thus trust in Him. I say to each hearer-“To thee, even to thee” is God in Christ made known, that thou mayest trust in Him. This trust arises from the knowledge of him as in Christ the God of salvation. Mark the testimony-“Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” 1 Peter 1:20-21 . A blessing is ever represented as accompanying and flowing from it; while the language dictated by it is that of unmoved tranquillity, and fearless joy-“O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation,” Isaiah 12:1-2 .

Verses Proverbs 22:20-21 . “Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge; that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee."-There are differences among critics and translators about tho exact meaning of the original word translated, in the former of these verses, “excellent things.” Yet I know not that it could be altered for the better. In all the views given of it there is still the idea, more plain or more covert, of superiority or excellence. If, with the Vulgate and Septuagint, we take up the sense “thrice repeated”*1-why are things thus repeated but for their excellence? If with the French translation, we render-“things relating to rulers or governors,” this, when analysed, may yield the meaning of princely or royal things,-which is but a figurative way of expressing their transcendent superiority. And even the simple rendering-rules or directions (Parkhurst) must be taken, according to the etymology of the term, as implying their having in them a kind of royal authority or commanding excellence.*2 The discoveries of the Bible-its truths and precepts alike, are in the highest sense “excellent things.” The word of God bears, like His works, the impress of His name and character. There is in it a self-evidencing power. It is its own witness. It meets all our consciousnesses, and is adapted to all our felt exigencies; and, though there are many things in it which our reason could never have discovered, yet they are such as, when discovered, are none of them contrary to reason, although above it: and those-that are within the compass of our understanding, recommend themselves to all our convictions, as worthy of the divine Being, and suited to us. There is impressed upon it throughout infallible proof of its divine original,-in its infinite superiority to all that unassisted human effort had ever been able to discover of God and of divine things. All is the harmony of perfect excellence. In this very Book of Proverbs-what a fund of practical wisdom!-all holy-all divine; all recognizing man’s relation to God, as every system of virtue ought to do; all founded in “the fear of the Lord” as “the beginning of wisdom!” And this divine “excellence” of the contents of the Sacred Volume is one of the evidences by which our faith in its certainty may reasonably be confirmed:-“that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth.”

*1 This rendering is based on a different reading of the Hebrew.

*2 Stuart renders (perhaps rightly) “Have I not written to thee heretofore” &c.; and remarks that the Hebrew word שלשרﬦ , while meaning " literally the day before yesterday, has also a more general meaning, viz. formerly, in time past;” and considers Solomon as alluding to “the previous portions of this Book.”

According to what has just been said, the more we know what the word of God is,-the more we study it, and become acquainted with its contents, and the more, in consequence, we experience of its holy power, and of the happiness arising from conformity to its dictates,-the greater will be our assurance of its truth. We shall have “the witness in ourselves” of its divinity,-the experimental evidence of its heavenly origin,-the proof of its being from God in its tendency to God-in its influence, (according to the degree in which it is prized, and felt, and followed, its spirit imbibed and its principles obeyed,)-over human character, in assimilating man to his Maker, in the beauty of holiness. There is a certainty as to facts, which rests upon the nature and amount of the testimony by which they are affirmed.* But besides this, and besides all the variety and force of external proof of the genuineness, authenticity, and inspiration of the Sacred Volume, there is, in its doctrinal discoveries and holy precepts, and in the adaptation of its provisions to the state and the need of man, an internal evidence;-and there is, in the realized efficacy of the doctrine here taught, in changing the heart and bringing the whole man under the power of new principles and new affections,-all working out a holy and a happy life,-an experimental evidence of its truth and divinity not less valuable and satisfactory, than they are, in their nature, in perfect harmony with the soundest reason. O! it is a blessed thing, to perceive clearly the one, and to possess largely the other!-a blessed thing thus to “know the certainty of the words of truth.” It is thus that we “have peace with God,” and that we “go on our way rejoicing.”

See Luke 1:1-4 .

And from an intimate and experimental acquaintance with revealed truth arises another advantage, here mentioned by Solomon-“that thou mightest answer the word of truth to them that send unto thee.” “Them that send unto thee,” is most naturally explained-them that consult thee, or apply to thee for instruction. This may be the case, not with public teachers alone, but with private Christians. And, as we have already seen, on verse 18th ( Proverbs 22:18 ), (of which the sentiment is similar,) it is a clear, familiar, discriminative, and experimental acquaintance with the contents of the inspired volume, that imparts fitness for this important duty. A professed believer in the Bible cannot but feel embarrassed and awkward, when inquiries are made by any desirous of instruction in its great truths, and they are constrained from the want of this, to “send them away empty.” See then, beloved, that you seek to make yourselves more and more intelligently and extensively familiar with the varieties of divine communication in the Sacred Scriptures,-that you may be able to “instruct the ignorant and them that are out of the way,” and “ready always to give an answer, with meekness and fear, to every one that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.”

Verses Proverbs 22:22-23 . “Rob not the poor, because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them."-O the condescending kindness of God-the God of love, to the poor! to those who are most in danger of being overlooked and despised. Old and New Testaments are full of the repetitions of it. Frequently have we had the subject before us. We do not-we dare not pass it. Where there is repetition in the Word of God, it is right that there should be repetition on the part of those who teach it;-that its lessons may be impressed the more deeply, and never allowed to slip out of mind. In the midst of the sameness too, there is variety.-“Robbery” of the poor may be practised directly or indirectly;-by taking from him, or by keeping from him; or by making his poverty a temptation to him to part with what he ought to retain. Few may think of “robbing the poor” in the first of these ways. Robbers generally seek better game. Yet even the little of the poor does not always escape the hand of covetous rapacity. But many there are, who “rob the poor” in the second of the ways mentioned. They deprive the poor of their due-keeping back from them what they are in fairness entitled to, and taking advantage of their urgent necessities to effect this; screwing them down to the very least for which, by the dread of starvation, they can be prevailed upon to work. And not seldom too has the poor been tempted to surrender his rights and privileges by being made to feel, for the purpose of extorting it from him, his helpless, unprotected, friendless condition. This has been done by private extortion; and it has been done, as Solomon here hints, “in the gate”-that is, by an undue advantage taken of the law, against the man who has no means of selfdefence, and who has thus cruelty and unrighteousness added to his affliction. Every way in which the poor is robbed “because he is poor,"-that is, in which advantage is taken of his indigent and dependent condition,-provokes the indignation of Heaven: “For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.” We are here reminded, that the poor are not friendless. The words “will plead their cause” have an immediate reference to judicial proceedings, alluded to in the previous phrase-“in the gate”-the place of such proceedings. At human tribunals, we sometimes find disinterested and benevolent counsel, who step forward to the protection of the poor, and gratuitously offer themselves to “plead their cause.” JEHOVAH HIMSELF is the counsel of the poor. He “will plead their cause.” He will interpose by his providence for their protection; or if here they are allowed to suffer, He will not permit their oppressors to pass with impunity, when He rises up to final judgment. He will show himself their friend and patron by avenging them on their adversaries. He will “spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.”

Verses Proverbs 22:24-25 . “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” In this wise and prudent admonition, it is evident, that by “friendship” is to be understood intimacy,-the alliance of mutual trust and confidence, and unbosoming familiarity and interchange of mind and heart; and by “an angry man,” a man of hot, fiery, passionate temperament.

For the comfort of personal and domestic life, there are few things more important than looking carefully to the tempers of those whom we choose as intimates, either with ourselves, or at our firesides, in the circle of family privacy and love. Whatever other qualifications a man may have that are fitted to make his society agreeable and tempt us to court it,-they may be many and attractive,-temper may more than neutralize the whole. Nothing can be more painful than a state of incessant apprehension of waking slumbering fires,-kindling to sudden ignition some latent combustibles; so that, instead of unreserved and open freedom, which is the very life and soul of “friendship,” every word must be carefully weighed ere it is uttered, lest it should prove a spark, and cause an explosion. It is insufferably irksome, to be ever under such restraint, and ever in the midst of such risks of touching the secret springs of hasty passion. And the consequences are mischievous. Not only will the intimacy of such men, men who are thus choleric and quarrelsome, endanger our getting involved in numberless factions and feuds with themselves, and, what is worse, with others through their means,-so that we shall not be able, how desirous soever we may be, to live in peace,-that first and best of blessings in social life to a good man:-but another and a greater hazard is mentioned in the latter verse-“lest thou learn his ways.” It may seem strange that we should be supposed in danger of learning what we feel to be so very disagreeable. And yet we may. As already hinted, a passionate man may have interesting and attractive qualities otherwise. Now, in proportion as we either admire or love him for these, will be the hazard of our thinking the less evil of his one defect, and trying to palliate and to smile at it. And there is no little truth in the saying, that we either are like our friends and intimates, or will soon be. But more than this. The sudden and often unreasonable heats of the passionate man are ever apt to fret and irritate our spirits and thus to form a habit of resemblance by the very reaction upon ourselves of his hot and hasty temper. And thus, from being good-natured and agreeable, we may gradually become very much the reverse.

This is “a snare to the soul.” It not only affects the comfort and tranquillity of our own minds and our social enjoyment-but our spiritual interests. Angry passions “war against the soul.” They are inconsistent with the principles of the truth of God, and with the precepts and example of our divine Master-and consequently with the evidence of true godliness, and of our relation to Christ as his subjects, and to God as his children. “The fruit of the Spirit is Love.”

Verses Proverbs 22:26-27 . “Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee.” On all subjects, we require “line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little."-You may think the subject in these verses is one on which we hardly require much urgency:-that there is enough in general of self-love in the heart to prevent any great excess of readiness in “striking hands and becoming sureties for debts.” But there are some dispositions that are generous and obliging; and there are those who are young and unexperienced in the ways of the world, who do stand in need of having such cautions repeated and urged.*

See on this subject Proverbs 6:1-5 ; Proverbs 11:15 ; Proverbs 17:18 .

The language evidently implies, not a universal prohibition of suretiship, as of a thing wrong in itself and under whatever circumstances, but an advice and admonition to special caution and circumspection. There may, as I have before said, be cases in which it is more than justifiable,-in which every claim of necessity and mercy renders it an imperative duty. But still, we are not entitled, for the sake of one, to expose others to risk. We are not entitled to overlook and disregard either the risks and rights of other creditors, or the interests of a dependent family.

The reason too assigned here for the caution shows us, that in our dealings with others, a prudent regard to our own interests is a perfectly legitimate motive;-“if thou hast nothing to pay”-that is, if, on the failure of the party for whom you have become responsible, you have not enough to make good your suretiship,-“Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?” This may seem a very rare case. Yet such creditors there have been, and may still be, whom selfishness and resentment drive to the extreme of harshness:-and whose irritation, perhaps, is exasperated by their seeing, that but for the said suretiship the party would have come to a stand and to a settlement earlier, and with so much the less loss to those whom he has involved. We are commanded to “love our neighbour as ourselves:” but to do for him what might expose us to having our very bed sold from under us, is to love him better than ourselves, which is a step beyond the divine injunction. And so many are the cases in which it is most difficult for us to get at the precise state and prospects of the person-friend though he may be-who makes the application, that there is hardly anything that calls for greater care, or warrants, in the eyes of all sensible and candid people, a larger measure of reserve, and even, generally speaking, of steady refusal.

Verse Proverbs 22:28 . “Remove not the ancient land-mark which thy fathers have set."-This is in correspondence with the express statutes of the Mosaic law.* The act is one of detestable deceit and fraud. A man may by this means, if he goes about it cautiously and by degrees, and chooses carefully his opportunities,-and especially when he has to do with one who is somewhat careless and unobservant in such matters,-add to the border of his own inheritance, and thus benefit himself and his family. But it is in a way which the God of truth and righteousness abhors. O let every one bear in mind, that how cleverly, ingeniously, and successfully soever this may be effected, and how secretly soever “from the eyes of all living,” eluding the detection of the defrauded himself, of his relations, and friends, and creditors, and of those public authorities to whom it is given in charge to search out frauds and to right the injured,-yet is it not unknown. The eye sees it, to which “the darkness and the light are both alike.” Every inch of land, every fraction of wealth, so acquired, has the curse of the Just One upon it.

See Deuteronomy 19:14 ; Deuteronomy 27:17 .

The words have been sometimes applied in a very different department-even to the danger and the criminality of intermeddling with old and long-established articles of doctrine in religion, and principles and statutes of civil polity. On this subject there are two extremes. There is, in the first place, an apprehensiveness and jealousy of all that bears the aspect of innovation, which is absolutely morbid, and becomes a weakness; and there is, in the second place, an excessive fondness for whatever has the charm of novelty to recommend it,-and a restless inquisitiveness after everything of the kind,-an incessant propensity to change, and to list for every shifting wind of doctrine. It may at once be admitted, that the latter is the more dangerous of the two:-and really when we see persons getting hold of principles which to them are new, becoming enamoured of them, pushing them to extremes, and perverting everything else into conformity with them,-hasty to question whatever is old, and as hasty to embrace whatever is novel,-so that, with minds unsettled and roving, it is impossible to predict to what lengths they are to go, and where they are to land,-we hardly wonder that others should run to the contrary extreme, be frightened from inquiry altogether, and speak, with grave apprehension, of the danger of “removing the old landmarks which our fathers have set.” It is clear, however, that there can be no period of prescription for truth,-or rather for falsehood,-no length of time, that is, by which error that has passed for truth can become anything else than error. No time can transmute wrong into right. Changes, no doubt, should be made with caution. The longer anything has been received as a truth, the improbability of its being found an error becomes ever the greater. But if any dogma in any human system of Christian doctrine is proved, from a full and careful investigation of the word of God, to have been set down and held as a truth by mistake,-it would be a most strange and mischievous attachment to antiquity for its own sake, that would resist its being expunged and the truth discovered substituted in its room. Never must we forget, that the most ancient land-marks of truth and duty are those which have been fixed here-in the Bible-by the hands of prophets, apostles and evangelists, under the immediate direction of the “Spirit of the Lord.” There are none so old as these. From the Bible human standards have been formed. Their land-marks profess to be in agreement, in the bounding lines of truth and error marked out by them, with those which are set down there. But when, on a careful survey, any of them are found to have been misplaced, and to bring any part of the region of error within the boundary of the territory of truth,-their removal becomes a duty of imperative obligation. All that has been introduced, in the form of doctrine or of practice, inconsistent with the statements and prescriptions of the Inspired Volume, has been unwarrantable innovation; and to be charged with innovation for returning to the original and only authoritative test of truth and error, of duty and sin, would be most unreasonable. “The traditions of the elders,” among the Jews had great antiquity; yet they were innovations. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” And then, as to innovations in the institutes of civil polity,-while hasty changes are admitted to be dangerous and undesirable, there is a clinging to things as they are that is little less than fatuous. To err is human. What system of human polity ever existed, that was perfect, and unsusceptible of improvement? While, therefore, in all that regards the constitution, and laws, and precedents of our national policy, every approach to a revolutionary spirit is greatly to be deprecated, yet the puerile dread of innovation ought not to prevent either the correction of abuses, or the introduction of improvements, corresponding with the advance of knowledge and experience. It should be laid down as a maxim that “final measures” belong only to God; that in all human administrations, the very phrase is presumption. Old customs cannot always suit new times and new circumstances. The occasions in which they originated pass away; the state of things is altered and reversed; and when change of condition requires change of law and practice, adherence to the old is folly.

The general principle laid down in the closing verse, is the tendency of diligence,-of activity, promptitude, and cleverness, quickness in apprehension, and dexterity and perseverance in execution,-to advancement in the world,-to the attainment of its wealth and its honours. It implies also, that wise and prudent princes will select for their own service and that of the state, men who have given proof of vigorous, intelligent, enterprising, and steadily persevering character in the departments in which they have been engaged:-“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”

Reverting for a moment to the language of a former verse, let me, in conclusion, press earnestly upon all THE CERTAINTY OF THE WORDS OF TRUTH. The evidence of the divinity of the Bible, instead of ever being shaken by all the efforts of infidelity, has been augmenting from the beginning hitherto. Its external evidence has grown in the fulfilment of its predictions. Its internal evidence, though in one sense ever the same, has, in another, been increasing also; inasmuch as it has stood its ground amidst all the advances of human knowledge, and men have never been able to improve upon it or to get before it:-and it is the one only book of which this can be affirmed. And its experimental evidence,-the manifestation of its truth in its saving influence,-in its power to dislodge and change the evil passions and habits of the worst of men,-has multiplied by thousands and tens of thousands of dead and living witnesses. In our own days, we have but to point, not only to cases of revival in our own land, in which the gospel has proved itself “mighty through God” to the pulling down of the strongholds of worldliness and corruption, and turning hearts long alienated to God,-but to the lands of Heathen idolatry and cruelty and vileness, wherever Gospel truth has found its way and has been embraced. There, in the marvellous changes that have been effected,-in the contrast between previous stupidity, and pollution, and heartless and murderous ferocity, to intelligence, and purity, and virtue, and peace, and harmony, and happiness, we have the triumphs of the Cross, and the manifestation of the “certainty”-the divine certainty-“of the words of truth.” They have thus shown themselves to be indeed “excellent things " by the excellence of their effects. We call upon all to examine for themselves. The Bible courts examination. It is the unwillingness and refusal to examine, that is most to be deplored. The genuineness of its writings, the authenticity of its histories, the reality of its recorded miracles, the fulfilment of its prophecies, the sublimity and consistent harmony of its doctrines, the purity of its precepts, the origin of its commemorative ordinances, and its tendency to personal and social virtue and happiness,-all court examination. The testimony of the celebrated earl of Rochester, when converted from infidelity and profligacy to Christianity and virtue, will be found the truth. Laying his hand on the Bible, he would say-“This is true philosophy. This is the wisdom that speaks to the heart. A bad life is the only grand objection to this Book.”

Lectures on the Book of Proverbs

Ralph Wardlaw (1779-1853) was a Scottish Congregational minister and theologian in Glasgow, where he taught for forty years. These lectures work through Proverbs a passage at a time, unhurried and practical, treating the proverbs as instruction for ordinary life rather than as detached maxims. …

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