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Proverbs 29

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Proverbs 29:1-11

LECTURE LXXXVIII.

Proverbs 29:1-11 .

“He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance. The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice. The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it. Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath. If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest. The blood-thirsty hate the upright: but the just seek his soul. A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.”

The opening verse is one of many solemn admonitions in the divine word which require more of impression than of illustration. Is there an individual, who has been counselled and warned by parental authority and affection, expostulating, entreating, encouraging, correcting, rebuking;-who has heard many a kind admonition from the friends of his youth, and from the ministers of God’s word;-who has been visited and alarmed by the corrective afflictions of divine providence, and at once wooed by mercies and awed by judgments,-but who still “goes on in his trespasses,"-in his wicked, worldly, careless, ungodly course?-O let such a one listen now to this solemn and emphatic declaration-“He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

Wilt thou “harden thy neck,” scorner? Wilt thou refuse to bend to the yoke of divine authority? Wilt thou resist divine commands and divine invitations?” Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" How unutterable the malignant baseness of the ingratitude which the too faithful representation of Solomon elsewhere implies-“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil!” Recollect-there is a limit. You have not resolved for the future that you will always “harden your neck,"-that you never will give a serious thought to the interests of your better part and your better being;-but you flatter yourselves that it is time enough-that you will take it to heart by and by. Yet every day and every hour, you are becoming more callous. Every repetition of your refusal is settling you the more firmly in your habits of careless and worldly inconsideration. It is more than probable that some of you may recollect a time when you thought more and felt more than you do now; and, yet, in spite of this experience, you cherish the delusive idea that the tendency will be reversed, and that, instead of the same progress bringing you to think and feel still less than you do now, there will be a reaction, and that you will soften yourselves to reflection when you have got a little harder-when the indurating effects of sin and the world have steeled your hearts more thoroughly against the influence of what is good!-May not God in the end, after such a course, and as its merited reward, give you up to your own hearts’ lusts? May not He justly say of you-“Let them alone?"-May He not, in righteous retribution, leave you to a reprobate mind? Since you have “hated truth,” may He not suffer you to be the “dupes of lies?” and having wilfully turned away from Him and from His invitations, may He not allow “delusions strong as hell to bind you fast?” and let you sink to the grave and to perdition, “with a lie in your right hand?” And then-when the “sudden destruction cometh upon you”-appalling thought! it is “without remedy!” Then warnings, reproofs, invitations, entreaties, will be for ever at an end; and nothing mil remain but the unavailing anguish of regretted opportunities, that can never return.

The lesson of the following verse is for youth. How solicitous the wise man is for their wellbeing,-for their preservation from all the snares of evil! How often to impress his lessons and admonitions, he repeats them.* In the latter clause of this verse, the phrase in the original is-” he that feedeth or feasteth harlots.” The rake-the dissolute abandoned spendthrift is meant, who, like the prodigal son in the parable, “wastes his father’s substance with riotous living”-“devours his living with harlots.” But ah! my young friends,-is the “spending of substance” all the father’s grief? All!-it hardly comes into the estimate in comparison. No: it is not the loss of the substance, but the loss of the son, that rends with agony the godly parent’s heart.

From the antithesis in the fourth verse between “judgment” and the “receiving of gifts”-or the taking of bribes, it is obvious that by judgment is to be understood the exercise of the judicial function, and of the entire function of government, in the spirit and on the principles of stern unbending equity and impartiality, as opposed to venality, corruption, selfish partiality and respect of persons:-and we have affirmed anew the benefit to a country of the one, and the ruinous consequences of the other:-“The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it.”

The topic of the next verse is another to which we have found Solomon making repeated and pointed reference-“A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.”* Spreading a net for the feet of another-laying snares and traps for him, is what no man ever thinks of doing but for some purpose of mischief. And such is the evil of flattery. It is a snare spread for the feet. And it is often spread very dexterously. The experienced flatterer knows well what will take best with different characters. You have heard possibly of the man who tried every thing he could possibly think of, but without success; and who finished the whole of his insinuating address by telling the object of his adulation, and whom it was his interest and his aim to win,-that he was the first ho had met with in all his experience, who was proof against flattery. This was the very flattery that gained the day:-and all that had gone before was only an artful preparation for this. Be jealous then of flatterers, and jealous of yourselves. There is no flattery of which it can be truly said that it is harmless. In the verse before us, Solomon does not refer solely to the intention of the flatterer; he refers also to the tendency of the flattery. The latter may be far from harmless, even although, to a great degree, the former may. Injury may be done, and many a time is done, when no harm is meant to the party, and when there is no interest of our own to serve. And there is no little guilt on the part of those, who, seeing vanity to be a man’s failing, set themselves of purpose to feed it,-pouring into the ear, merely in the way of an amusing experiment, every description of fulsome adulation, trying how much, and in what variety, it will be taken in. The experiment is a cruel one. But it has another and a more direct ingredient of evil-falsehood. You cannot flatter thus without lying:-and it is much to be feared, there is no small amount of falsehood uttered in this way, of the turpitude of which they who are chargeable with it never think.

Verse Proverbs 29:6 . “In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.” In the former part of this verse, the expression is general; and the question naturally suggests itself-“A snare to whom f to himself, to others, or to both?"-I should answer the last; there being no restriction in the words, there is neither necessity nor warrant for making one. Often is the designing villain ensnared by his own devices-by his own schemes of wickedness. His foot is taken in his own net:-the trap which he had set for another catches and maims himself. Then the latter part of the verse is realized. The righteous praise God with songs of rejoicing;-thanking Him with gladdened hearts for their deliverance and safety, and for His righteous judgments on those who had unrighteously, without any desert of theirs, been plotting mischief against them. But the words are equally applicable to the tendency of sin,-of sin of every kind,-to the delusion and destruction of him who commits it. Scripture speaks of “the deceitfulness of sin:” and who is there that has not known and that has not felt it?-In the idea of a snare we have the conception of something concealed,-of a danger that does not appear, and into which a man may fall before he is aware. Thus it is with the sinner who goes on in his trespasses, who persists in his course of wayward rebellion. The evil does not immediately follow the commission of the sin to which he is tempted. “Sentence against his evil work is not executed speedily.” He finds himself, after the perpetration of it, as he was before. No judgment overtakes him. Conscience speaks; but he feels himself safe, and he succeeds in silencing it. He is encouraged to repeat the sin; and with less and less of remorse. The remonstrances of the inward monitor becoming less and less distinct, he adds iniquity to iniquity,-still enticed onwards and onwards in the way of evil. Now, in all this there is “a snare” a perilous and fatal snare. He is lured on to a ruinous end. He falls into it at last, and perishes.*

The antithesis is remarkable:-“But the righteous doth sing and rejoice.” He has joy in the inward " testimony of his conscience.” He has joy in the God of his salvation. He has joy in the good hope of the gospel;-“a hope that maketh not ashamed,” because, in the way of faith and obedience, “the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit.” And this state of spirit in which he “rejoices with joy and singing,” he possesses in the midst of all the privations, trials, and sorrows of the present life.-In this joy there is no “snare,"-no snare in the path in which it is experienced. There is nothing deceitful, nothing bewildering, nothing disappointing in the ways of God, and truth, and holiness. Ways of present-happiness, they end, not in disappointment, and shame, and ruin, but in “fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.”

Verse Proverbs 29:7 . “The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.” When the Apostle Paul is speaking of his being acknowledged as a fellow-worker by “James, Cephas, and John,” and of his getting from them “the right hand of fellowship,” that while they went to “the circumcision, he should go to the Gentiles,” the particular stipulation which he mentions is a very remarkable one:-“Only they would that we should remember the poor.” There is nothing in which, both in spirit and letter, there is a more perfect harmony between the Old and New Testament Scriptures, than the regard of God to the poor, and the injunctions of a special regard to them on the part of His people.

As it is not the case of the poor, in a general way, that is here mentioned, but “the cause of the poor,"-we may consider the verso as bearing more especially on the duty of magistrates and judges-of persons occupying situations of authority and influence as far as possible to protect their interests. In this view we may take, in connexion with it, verse fourteenth-“The king who faithfully judge th the poor”-who protects his rights and avenges his wrongs, even when these rights have been invaded and these wrongs-perpetrated by the aristocracy of his land, by the nobles that surround his throne, and whoso favour it might seem most natural for him to court and most available for him to secure,-the king who thus, in judgment and in his general administration, shows the impartiality of uncompromising and incorruptible principle-“his throne shall be established for ever.” He settles it on a secure basis,-in the affections of the masses of the people, and in the respect, admiration, and awe of the nobility themselves. They cannot but approve and admire even what they may not personally like. And moreover, if his poor subjects that are thus protected and vindicated by him are of the number of the godly,-how much may he owe of the stability of his throne and the prosperity of his government, to the prayers of these lowly and despised ones, who, how overlooked and neglected soever by men, have the ear of the Supreme Ruler,-“have power with God, and prevail!”

Let it be especially observed from the terms of the seventh verse, that disregard of the cause of the poor is part of the character of the wicked; and is itself wickedness:-while the consideration of the cause of the poor is a part of the character of “the righteous,” and is itself a part of practical righteousness. There is in the former an unprincipled setting aside of the great rule of right between man and man,-a rule of universal and indispensable obligation on “high and low, rich and poor together”-the golden rule-the royal law;-and there is a defiance of all the express injunctions enforced by the example of Jehovah himself.

Those described in the first clause of the following verse-“The scornful”-are such as, in their conduct and their measures, regard not the restraints of divine authority, hold in contempt the idea of apprehension from an over-ruling Providence, neither fearing its vengeance nor seeking its protection and blessing; despise counsel and advice; dash forward with self-sufficient and self-confident recklessness; and too often infect the people with the same spirit of ungodly presumption. They “bring the city,” that is the country at large, (the metropolis or seat of government being taken as the representative of the kingdom) “into a snare.” It is not discovered till it is too late for the application of any remedy;-and there is at once danger from human enemies, and danger from the judicial displeasure of an offended God. Thus, many a time, did the rulers bring Jerusalem “into a snare”-involving the people with themselves in divine visitations.*

“The wise who turn away wrath,” are the men who are humble and receive counsel, who “order their affairs” with combined integrity and prudence,-with decision yet with caution; men who, under the influence of religious principle themselves, diffuse that influence among others. They “turn away wrath,"-the wrath of enemies by their discreet measures uniting the honour of their country and its security with the spirit of conciliation and peace and amity;-and the wrath of God by their counsels and by their prayers. They rescue from " the snare.” They prevent or they avert danger. They propitiate and pacify, instead of provoking. One of the very strongest modes in which Jehovah declares to his ancient people His fixed determination to punish them for their sins, is that which avers the unavailingness of the intercessions even of such men as stood highest in His favour for turning away His displeasure. They should deliver themselves alone.*

Let us be thankful that we have an advocate with the Father, by whose intercession-(such is the Father’s delight in Him-such the unlimited influence of His mediation)-there is no amount of merited wrath that may not be turned away. The influence or “power with God " of the very best of men and greatest “saints of the Most High” that ever lived, has still been limited. But to Christ there is nothing which the Father will deny. If you come to Him in faith, and make Him your friend, your cause with God will be safe. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.” If you are wise, you will take this way of “turning away wrath;” and to this all who are “wise to win souls” will counsel you. Every other counsel will leave you exposed to “the wrath of God;” and it will “abide upon you.”

Verse Proverbs 29:9 . “If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.” This verse is capable of different interpretations, according as we understand the reference of the pronoun “he” in the words “whether he rage or laugh.” This some highly respectable commentators consider as referring to the “wise man” and as signifying the different methods he adopts, according to the different tempers of the persons he has to deal with, for turning them from their folly-“whether he be angry at them, or endeavour by gentler means, to reason or laugh them out of their folly.” With all due deference, I am disposed to differ, and to regard the words as referring to the “foolish man” and as expressing the different ways in which he may receive the reasonings, remonstrances, and persuasions of the man of wisdom. The “foolish man” may, as in other cases, mean the ungodly man, and the “wise man” the man that fears God. In which case the “contending” may refer to the appeals and pleadings of the latter against the wicked practices of the former. He will sometimes receive them with resentment and proud passion, and sometimes with scornful laughter and bantering mirth. In either case, “there is no rest.” There is no satisfactory result; and “the wise man” is in danger of being thrown off his own guard, and losing his temper, and exposing himself; which will only increase the turbulence,-either the rage or the mirth, of the fool.

But “contending with a foolish man” may signify entering into discussion-disputing some point with him. A wise man should rather shun engaging with such a disputant-especially where the want of principle is associated with weak capacity. The latter may often be found abundantly fond of disputation-eager to get into an argument. But there is no comfort or satisfaction in it, no end to it, and no good from it. In all discussion, the one object of the “wise man” is truth. He will not think of “contending” for anything else. But the “foolish man” cares not for this. He is confident he has truth already. He wishes nothing but a dispute. He is, in his self-sufficiency, eager to show off-to display his powers-powers hidden from all but himself; and is therefore ever ready and eager to enter the lists. There are the two ways here mentioned, in the one or the other of which such a man may receive and encounter you;-with violent anger, or with contemptuous laughter. The anger may arise from one or other of two causes,-your not at once admitting the force and conclusiveness of his arguments, or his finding himself puzzled and pinched by the force of yours;-while the laughter (which may be the very cover of felt though not confessed perplexity,) at your alleged silliness and blindness, in reasoning so weakly yourself, and not seeing what is so very plain,-the laughter of self-complacency and self-consequence. It is not easy to say which of the two is the more provoking; whether he blusters and storms and fumes with passion,-or whether he laughs and scouts, and turns to banter and ridicule all you say,-“there is no rest.” The wise man’s object is, to bring matters to a point; to leave discussion, when enough has been said, and to rest in the conviction of truth. But he cannot get to this. There is no silencing a fool. There is no end to either his heated and impetuous or to his scornful and laughing talk. Whether you answer him, or answer him not, he will, in either case, “rage” the more, or “laugh” the more. Nothing can be made of him. The wise man, having once entangled himself, may find it no easy matter to get out again with comfort or with credit.

When you meet with a man who is very eager for a discussion,-keen-set upon it, and who will not let you alone, till he has forced you to it,-you may be pretty sure that the object of that man is an argument,-an argument for the argument’s sake; that he has the fondness of a fool for fighting; that of course his mind is already made up, and that he only wishes to show how he can beat you off; that it is the battle he wants, and the victory,-not the truth, which he has already taken for granted. He is likely to prove a fool,-more hot-headed than clear headed; in arguing with whom you will beat the air. Better let him alone;-unless you wish an interminable altercation, with no rest while it continues,-and no resting-place at its close,-rather when it ceases without coming to a close at all.

“But the just seek his soul”-is susceptible of two senses. It may mean first, the just seek the life-the welfare, temporal and eternal-of their persecutors-of their bloodthirsty enemies, at whose hands they are suffering-it may be, even unto death. Such was the case with David and Saul; with Christ and his murderers; with Paul and his unbelieving countrymen; with Stephen and those who “gnashed upon him with their teeth,” and cast him out of the city, and stoned him;-and with all the prophets, apostles, and martyrs, in the bloody history of intolerance.

  1. They may mean-and probably do mean-that the upright, in opposition to the blood-thirsty by whom the just is hated, “seek his soul,"-that is, the soul or life of the object of the hatred-of the just or the upright. Of the Lord himself it is said-“He loveth the righteous.” And in this all His people resemble Him. It is one of their characteristic distinctions. They pray for the upright, and endeavour, by all means in their power, to preserve them from the deadly machinations of their persecutors. The amount of love required of God’s people towards God’s people is that they be ready to “lay down their lives for the brethren.” And if “for the brethren”-how much more for THE JUST ONE. We should think of our lives as nothing, when the alternative is the forfeiture of his love. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea set an example of this, when not only did the former plead for Jesus during his life, when his enemies were exasperated against him and plotting his destruction,-but both came forward, at the most perilous crisis of his history, and avowed themselves on the side of the Crucified. And such is the love which Jesus expressly demands towards himself.

Verse Proverbs 29:11 . “A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.”* It is obvious that this is another instance in which folly is to be understood of weakminded indiscretion: for the unprincipled are deep enough in their counsels, and cautious enough in the communication of them. While the “wise man” chooses time,-place, and company, for what he says,-especially when it relates to any matter that is important, or of which the beneficial issue depends on secresy and caution-the fool minds nothing of the kind. He thinks not of proprieties or of consequences. He speaks out at all times, in all places, and in all companies alike;-no matter to him:-he must speak; and, while many a time he speaks without thinking, it is a rare thing for him to think without speaking. If he has nobody else to talk to, he will rather talk to himself than be silent;-and in too many instances, it were well were he confined to his own company! For, whatever occurs to him coming out, no matter when, where, or to whom, there is incessant danger every time he opens his lips before others. Be it yours ever to act, in this respect, the part of the wise. Guard well your tongue. With intelligence and sound discretion, duly time your words, and duly weigh them; and let all you do say be marked by calmness, temperance, dignity, and truth.

Proverbs 29:12-18

LECTURE LXXXIX.

Proverbs 29:12-18 .

“If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. The poor and the deceitful man meet together; the Lord lighteneth both their eyes. The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever. The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

It is natural, when we think of Solomon’s own situation as king of Israel, to expect to find some of his maxims of proverbial wisdom bearing special reference to the character and conduct of men in power. And so it is. When, moreover, we think of the wisdom with which, at the outset of his reign, and at his own earnest request, he was divinely endowed, we as naturally anticipate a correspondence between the maxims and the character. Nor are we disappointed. The maxims are not those of the selfishness of power,-not those of arbitrary despotism or the sovereignty of royal will; nor are they those of an artful, intriguing, Machiavelian policy. They are sound and liberal, and based on the great principle of the public good being the end of all government,-the principle that kings reign, not for themselves, but for their people; while, in all their administration, they ought to be swayed and regulated by the laws of an authority higher than their own, by a regard to the will of God as their rule, and the glory of God, to which all else must ever be subordinate, as their supreme aim. But we must not forget, that the Book of Proverbs forms part of the canon of inspired Scripture; that it does not contain, therefore, the mere dictates of human wisdom, how extraordinary soever that wisdom was; that “a greater than Solomon is here.”

Verse Proverbs 29:12 . “If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked."-It becomes the interest of them all to lie and to deceive him; and the competition will then be, who can ply this wretched trade most artfully and most effectually. When it is perceived that truth is not welcome, and that a man gets nothing by straightforward honesty but a frown and dismissal,-“all will be wicked” for all will be liars. Flattery and slander become the staple of their communications to the ear of their master; the latter to serve the purposes of the former, and the former to make the latter go down,-the good that is artfully spoken of himself opening his ear to the more easy and credulous admission of the evil that is said of others. The upright being incapable of yielding to the general example, are made the victims of detraction and calumny, and are by this means either constrained to withdraw, or are put away from before the throne, and so leave it beset with wickedness,-the wickedness of flattery, falsehood, treachery, and malice. The jealousies of the monarch are awakened,-jealousies both personal and official, both as it respects himself and as it respects his government; and there comes to be brought into operation that most accursed of all systems-the system of espionage,-of spies and informers, plying all the arts of a despicable and villanous deceit,-fastening themselves on individuals, insinuating themselves into their confidence, tempting them to familiarity, and worming out their secrets; artfully intruding themselves into the social circle, in every class of society; “speaking lies in hypocrisy,” so as to open hearts and elicit discoveries, and lead on the simple even to language stronger than they would ever think of using;-and all this for the purpose of pleasing and poisoning the royal ear, and ruining the objects of their mean and treacherous venality and villany. Such spies and informers have been justly designated “the pestilent vermin of a nation.” The monarch that has recourse to them deserves not to reign. There is hardly a conceivable case in which the employment of such a system can be vindicated.

The principle of the verse is quite capable of application in other cases than that of the monarch. It is true of masters. If a master “hearken to lies,"-keeping an ear ever open to their admission,-“all his servants are wicked.” They imbibe the spirit of falsehood, and study the vile arts of flattery and malice; thus the conscientiously and sternly upright are kept or driven from their domestic establishments. Let masters and mistresses guard against those servants who discover a disposition to ingratiate themselves into special favour by smooth words and “fair speeches;” by great assurances of their own fidelity, and sly insinuations against their fellow-servants. They are cheats.-Parents too may take a lesson. Let them beware of listening to the fawnings of artful childhood and youth; and above all of giving any encouragement to tale-bearing. This can seldom be practised without lying; and it is itself a wicked and dishonourable thing. That there may be cases in which it becomes the duty of one child to reveal the words and doings of another I am far from denying. But the spirit and manner which distinguish the child that discovers what conscience will not allow it to keep secret, for the sake of the brother or sister, as well as of father and mother, and that does so by constraint and of necessity, are widely different from those of the cunning, selfish tell-tale. Would you, parents, have your children simple-hearted, honourable, generous, and noble-minded?-frown from you every approach to the coaxing and insinuating malice of tale-bearing, and cherish amongst your children the mutual open confidence of affection and truth,-teaching all to be the guardians of each other’s character and honour, to love one another, and to be eager to tell of each other the tale of good rather than of evil.

Verse Proverbs 29:13 . “The poor and the deceitful man meet together; the Lord lighteneth both their eyes."-There is a sentiment in a former chapter* analogous to the one in this verse, but by no means the same:-“The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all.” The word in this verse translated “the deceitful man” is used nowhere else in Scripture. Some understand it of the creditor, and some of the usurer. The latter is probably near the truth:-the man who takes advantage of the necessities of the poor to exorcise extortion,-to exact from them,-to “grind their faces.” The two “meet together,"-in the intercourse of life, and in the transactions of business:-the one in need, the other taking advantage of the need.

The case was provided against by the Mosaic law;*1 and the conduct enjoined by that law is enforced by the consideration in the verse before us:-“The Lord lighteneth both their eyes.” There are instances in which the enlightening of the eyes has reference to the mind-to the understanding-and is to be interpreted accordingly, as signifying the imparting of discernment-the giving of knowledge, or the capacity to receive it. But such does not seem to be the sense here. It appears to mean no more than that the Lord sustains the life of both, and at the same time is the giver of all that cheers it, according to a very common and natural sense of the word light.*2 In all our ordinary phraseology regarding life and death, there is frequent reference to the “eyes.” The dimming and darkening of the eyes is one of the indications of life being on the wane, and a very remarkable feature in the dying scene. We speak of the shades of death coming over the eyes; of the fixing and glazing of the eyes, in that solemn hour; and of their being closed in death. The sentiment, then, I conceive, is-that “the poor and the usurer” have alike every moment’s existence and every moment’s enjoyment from God. “In Him,” alike, they both “live and move and have their being.”

*1 See Exodus 22:25-26 . rr

*2 Compare Psalms 13:3 ; 1 Samuel 14:27 .

The next question of course is-What is the lesson that is thus taught? The answer is-

  1. There is a motive or inducement to the poor, to put their trust in Him who is “the God of their life and the length of their days.” He has, in His providence, assigned them an humble lot. But they have their life from Him; and their times are in His hand. The life He has given He does not overlook. He marks and sustains it.

  2. There is also a lesson to the usurious and unfeeling oppressor of the poor,-a motive to him to consider what he is doing. The poor whom he is thus using-so selfishly and so cruelly, is the creature of the same God with himself, and is sustained moment after moment by the same power and goodness. There is some thing very shocking in the thought of rendering that life miserable which the blessed God has given, and which He is every instant maintaining;-in the idea that the eyes which He is ever lightening, a fellow-creature should be dimming with the tears of bitterness. While God is giving to the poor “the light of life,” it surely becomes us, instead of quenching that light and making that life wretched, to do what lies in our power to make the possession of it worth retaining,-to supply their need, and to comfort their hearts.

Verse fourteenth ( Proverbs 29:14 ) was noticed with verse second ( Proverbs 29:2 ).-And having formerly,* and more than once, touched on the subject of early education, and especially, as a part of it, necessary and salutary correction, explaining its principles, and giving directions for its practice, I do not now again enter into the subject, which is afresh brought before us in verses fifteenth ( Proverbs 29:15 ) and seventeenth ( Proverbs 29:17 )-“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”

Verse Proverbs 29:16 . “When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall."-The former part of this verse seems almost like a truism. The multiplication of the wicked, and the increase of transgression, are next to one and the same thing:-the former being the increase of the agents of evil, and the latter of the evil done. They are different; but they are inseparable; tho one necessarily includes the other. The meaning may be, that wicked men encourage and embolden one another in iniquity; and that, by this means, the corruption spreads. Or,-as in the second verse of the chapter, the same word here rendered “are multiplied” is translated “are in authority”-the reference is, in all probability, to the influence of wicked rulers in promoting the increase of wickedness in the community; which requires not either illustration or proof.-“But the righteous shall see their fall.”*-Their fall, that is, from power and authority. It is not the final fall-the perdition of the wicked, that is intended. In that the righteous have no pleasure. Herein they resemble God;-are of one mind and heart with Him. He says, and confirms it by his oath-“As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” In the execution of the sentence against them, God glorifies himself; and the righteous solemnly acquiesce,-acknowledging and celebrating the justice of the divine administration:-“Even so, Lord God, Almighty, for true and righteous are thy judgments!” But pleasure in-witnessing the execution of the sentence, we cannot, we must not, for a moment, imagine them to have.

In this spirit, then-the spirit of compassionate apprehension and fear, we would, with all earnestness, warn and entreat the ungodly. We would beseech “the wicked to forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and to turn unto the Lord who will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Verse Proverbs 29:18 . “Where there is no vision the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” By “vision” is to be understood divine communication. Such communications, indeed, were imparted in different ways-“at sundry times and in divers manners;” but it is clear that the word “vision” here is to be taken comprehensively of them all.*

  • Comp. 1 Samuel 3:1 . Things are estimated in value according to their rarity or scarceness; and the word precious in this passage is of similar import with * scarce * or rare.

In the absence of such communications, “the people perish.” The word thus rendered-has been variously understood. By one eminent critic it is translated-“will apostatize.” By others it is rendered “are made naked,"-in the sense in which, on the occasion of the golden calf, Aaron is said to have “made the people naked to their shame.” By others still-“are dispersed”-as our Lord is said to have “had compassion on the multitude, because they were faint and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.” The spirit of the passage remains unaffected.

The words do not of course imply that wherever there is “vision,"-that wherever divine revelation is enjoyed,-it has its proper effect on those who enjoy it. Alas! no. We might refer for striking and melancholy evidence of the contrary to the state of the world in the time of Enoch before the flood, and of Noah immediately after it; to the character of the Jewish people under the judges and the prophets; to the character of the same infatuated people in the days of Christ and his apostles; to the hardened unbelief and wickedness of those cities that saw the Saviour’s mighty works and repented not; and to the condition, in regard to religion and morals, of the great masses of the population in countries, such as our own, in which the clearest light of revelation shines, and has long shone.

But in one view all this is only confirmatory of the truth of the verse before us. It demonstrates and impresses the necessity of divine revelation; the need in which men universally stand of it; seeing even with it-even where it exerts all its restraining power,-men continue in their state of apostasy and rebellion.

Strictly speaking, the entire race should be regarded as in a state of apostasy,-apostasy from the revelation of God originally given to man in innocence; as the God of nature, and subsequently to his fall, as the God of salvation. The apostasy has continued with regard to the vast majority until the present day. There is “vision;” yet the people “perish.” Jehovah sent his word to Israel. And what was the result? “What was the manifestation of the character of human nature thence produced? Did not they show, in the midst of “vision,"-when enjoying privileges and means of knowledge and goodness such as had been bestowed on no other people,-an incessant tendency to depart from God?-to leave their own Jehovah for “the gods of the heathen that were round about them?"-to prefer human folly to divine wisdom,-the darkness of error to the light of truth? Yes: and of this propensity the false prophets were ever availing themselves, while the true were ever lamenting over it, and expostulating with it. But bad as things were, amid “line upon line and precept upon precept,” how much worse would they have been, had the people been left with “no vision!” The rise of distinguished prophets often wrought for the time a wonderful change. Thus in the days when Elijah appeared,-the state of religion was very low. Elijah himself thought he was left alone as a worshipper of Jehovah. And, although in this he was mistaken, what were even the seven thousand of Jehovah’s reserve compared with the millions of Israel? Elijah was the instrument of giving an effectual check to prevailing ungodliness, and of “turning their hearts back again” from Baal to the Lord their God. And similar was the effect on other occasions. The “vision” threw a light on the deepening gloom-the prophet, with divine authority and evidence, imparting and impressing his messages from Jehovah.

The Bible, and faithful teachers of its divine discoveries, are one of God’s greatest blessings to the world. It has not unfrequently happened, in regions where the gospel has for a time flourished, and wrought its pleasing wonders in “turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” and in building up believers in their holy faith, and manifesting its salutary influence in the prevailing practice of what is “true honest, pure, lovely, and of good report,"-the rise and succession of a series of careless and unfaithful ministers, has completely altered the moral and spiritual aspect of the place; from life and vigour and fruitfulness, to deadness and desolation, to lukewarmness, declension, and apostasy. What a blessing to such a region, when, in the providence of the Church’s exalted Head, there conies a change of the opposite kind; when active, faithful, affectionate, and prayerful teachers start up amid the waste, and pitying the miserable destitution of the inhabitants, “preach the word, and are instant in season and out of season!"-They effect a revival; and, instead of “the people perishing,” souls are converted and saved; and “the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose.” The increase of “vision,” and the circulation of divine instruction works a change on which the eye of every good man,-every child of God, rests with a grateful delight.

Forget not the second part of the verse:-“But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The words imply our having the law. If you have the law, and do not keep it, you expose yourselves to a heavier sentence of condemnation, than if you had it not. It will be emphatically for the worse to you, and not for the better, if you are found possessors only and not improvers of privilege,-hearers of the word, and not doers.

Proverbs 29:19-27

LECTURE XC.

Proverbs 29:19-27 .

“A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he understand he will not answer. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become his son at length. An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not. The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Many seek the ruler’s favour: but every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord. An unjust man is an abomination to the just; and he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.”

Verse Proverbs 29:19 . “A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he understand he will not answer.” In interpreting proverbs, it is necessary to bear in mind, that from their very nature, as concentrating in brief expression, whether under a figure or in plain terms, some result of general and long-continued observation and experience,-they must always have some general meaning; and our object should be to find such a sense of the terms in which they are expressed as admits of such a meaning. Now in regard to this verse,-it would be rather hard on the class of society referred to in it, to apply the maxim with any thing approaching to universality;-as affirming that no servant, or that very few servants, will yield obedience to mere verbal orders, or be at all affected by verbal reprimands. On this account it is interpreted by some as expressing only the character of “the slothful, unprofitable, and wicked servant.” And thus it is in the Septuagint:-“an obstinate ox perverse servant will not be corrected by words.” But this, you will observe, converts the saying into a mere truism-that an obstinate servant will behave obstinately; a saying entirely destitute of the salt of a proverb.-Now, the difficulty is taken away by rendering the word, instead of servant, slave. The general sentiment then expressed, is one which, judging from the principles of human nature, all would expect to find true, and the truth of which has the attestation of experience, wherever slavery has prevailed.-I enter not into the question of the abstract lawfulness of slavery-further than to say that it can never, unless directly enjoined by God as a punishment, be reduced to any thing like consistency with the grand general rule of all rectitude between man and man; and that not till a man can lay his hand on his heart and say, in any given circumstances-“I should like to be a slave,” can he be an honest advocate of slavery, or a conscientious slaveholder. But domestic and predial bondage was then, as it since has been, extensively prevalent. And the words before us are expressive of the natural tendency and effect of such bondage,-modified of course according to the measure of absolute property in the slave and power over him, prescribed by the laws of different communities. That tendency is to reluctant and constrained service. The service is not that of affection, but of fear. It is not rendered with willing and cheerful activity, but solely under the influence of the selfish dread of punishment. There is a constant proneness to sullenness; for which, accordingly, there was (I am glad to be able, even to any extent, to speak in the past tense) an appropriate term in the vocabulary of our own colonial slave-owners and slave-dealers-a proneness to the sulks. There is a backwardness to hear, because there is no will to obey. It is otherwise when service is rendered from attachment, and from felt interest in a master’s comfort and benefit. Nor does it at all follow, even with regard to slaves, that the natural tendency of their condition may not be, to a great extent, counteracted by the power of kind and lenient treatment. Few in any situation, even the most unfavourable to the cultivation and exercise of the generous sensibilities, are entirely proof against the influence of these:-but of all states the state of slavery is the most prejudicial and destructive to the open and generous feelings of the heart, and to the influence of gratitude and obligation.

The argument against slavery, indeed, is powerful, from its tendency on hath sides of the relation-that of the owner or master as well as that of the slave. In regard to the latter, it tends to the degradation, and prostrate depression to the very dust, of all mental dignity and energy,-as well as to produce resentment, and sullenness, and suspicious jealousy, and reluctant and heartless subjection:-and in regard to the former, its tendency is to engender and foster superciliousness, pride, and passion, severity and cruelty, and an unworthily light estimate of fellow-creatures,-brethren of the same great family, destined to the same immortality, subjects of the same sinfulness and guilt, and redeemed by the same price to the enjoyment of the same inheritance!

I need hardly remark that, to a certain extent, the same tendencies pertain to the relative position of master and servant, whether the latter be bond or free, and whether the former be a purchasing proprietor or a joint possessor of the same liberty. There are rights on either side: and while servants owe to their earthly masters their time and all their powers of active industry, and the application of these with cheerful and hearty readiness,-it will be well for masters and mistresses, on the other hand, to bear in mind that their servants are partakers with themselves of all human feelings and susceptibilities;-and that, if they judge of these from their own experience, and from the principle of the golden rule,-they will be at once sensible that, while necessarily maintaining their own place and expecting all due obedience, the most effectual means, generally speaking, of attaining their end, will be-their throwing into the manner of issuing their commands, and exacting the required obedience, as much as possible of the spirit and practice of the law of kindness. And if they find tempers which even kindness will not subdue,-into which their attempts are vain to infuse the spirit of willing and cheerful activity,-they will have the inward consciousness that the fault has not been theirs.*

For the illustration of the sentiment of the following verse-“Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him,” the reader is referred to Proverbs 26:12 .

Verse Proverbs 29:21 . “He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become his son at the length.” The reference in this verso seems to be to home-born slaves-slaves born in the house and brought up from childhood in the family,-while, under this particular reference there is conveyed a general principle-a maxim of wider application. Observe 1. The conduct is unkind. The child is supposed to be still intended for a slave,-though, from what cause soever of particular liking to it, it is “brought up delicately.” The training is unsuitable to the future station: it unfits him for it. Instead of being inured to subordination, and to the toils and hardships of a slave’s life, he is nurtured daintily, so as neither to be fit for them by habit, by strength, nor by anticipation. Were the intention to make him a freeman, and to let him be his own master, and follow his own will, and make his own fortune in the world, it would be well enough:-but to treat like a pet child one who is destined to slave it for life, is, however meant, really cruel.-And here the observation may be generalized. It applies to all cases in which persons are brought up in a way that does not accord with the prospects in life that are before them,-with the situations they are destined, or are even in providence likely, to fill. When they have been accustomed to a style of living quite above what they have any reason to anticipate, they cannot, when the inferior prospects (to which they have never been taught to look forward) come to be realized, feel comfortable or happy. They are not in their element. Their habits unfit them for their occupations; so that they are at home in nothing;-while they feel all the while the depressing influence of disappointed hopes, and an unanticipated change-a sinking from the position they were wont to sustain, and the mode of living and of social intercourse they were accustomed to enjoy.-2. The conduct is imprudent. Expectations may be produced, which never can be gratified; foolish they may be, yet still not without some foundation,-expectations of being always treated as a member of the family, as a child instead of a slave. Nay, such as are crafty and insinuating in their address may, very naturally as human nature goes, take advantage of the partial liking discovered towards them, to ingratiate themselves further and further; and on some occasion when they have succeeded in making a specially favourable impression,-inducing the master to look with a more kindly eye upon them than ordinary,-may even by the arts of flattery and by sly insinuations against the heir, prevail so far as to supplant the children, and in part or in whole, dispossess them of their rightful patrimony. The master of the one-the father of the other-may do a thing in a moment of credulity and of passion, which he cannot recall, and over which he may grieve to the end of his days.

It is greatly conducive to the order and comfort of society, when all have the good sense and the principle to keep their respective places, with mutual good-will and cheerfulness. In the Scriptures, every thing said on the duties of masters and servants, is full of equity, propriety, and kindness. But the most righteous, honourable, and affectionate treatment of a servant, must not be considered as implying such indulgence as would prove to the injury of a child, or as would even unfit the servant for the situation which he or she is destined to fill, or is actually filling. There is not, in this, as in multitudes of similar cases, any possibility of laying down rules of universal observance;-so much depends on diversity of disposition and tempers, so that what would be proper and safe with one would be wrong and hazardous with another. It is a most important qualification of a servant, on the one hand, to know his men place, and from a sense of propriety and duty, cheerfully to conform to it:-and on the other hand, nothing can be more unamiable and unchristian on the part of masters and mistresses than a haughty assumption of superiority, and a determination that a servant shall always be made to feel his situation. The duty is, so to mingle authority with gentleness, and dignity with kind condescension, as that the authority shall be promptly and cheerfully obeyed without being felt,-as that the servant shall be at ease and happy, in the full confidence that nothing equitable and reasonable will be wanting on his master’s part, and nothing unjust or unreasonable exacted of him on his.-Christian servants, if they have good common sense along with their Christian principles, will beware of imagining that the equality of all in the church-the union of servant and master as fellow-disciples in the communion of the house of God, obliterates the lines of demarcation between the different classes in civil society. They will rather be anxious to show the contrary, especially in the eyes of men of the world, to avoid bringing unnecessary reflection and reproach on the religion they profess. It may be exceedingly painful to a Christian master to repress the undue forwardness which may be dictated by a false conception on this subject, associated with a deficiency in strength of mind;-whilst yet it may be indispensable:-only it should be done, not with hauteur, but with monitory and smiling kindness, or with sharpness of reprehension as varying tempers and circumstances may require. What says the Apostle? “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort,” 1 Timothy 6:1-2 .

Verse Proverbs 29:22 . “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.” Why does Solomon dwell so often on the evil tendencies of the angry passions? For two reasons:-because they are so prone to excess; and because, not being in themselves directly and in every case sinful, they are ever prone to find excuses for their excess in their legitimacy. Many times have we found him adverting to the subject: Proverbs 10:12 ; Proverbs 15:18 ; Proverbs 17:19 ; Proverbs 26:21 . To these passages the reader is referred, and for the sentiment of the following verse, “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit,” to Proverbs 15:32 ; Proverbs 18:12 .

Verse Proverbs 29:24 . “Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.” “Hateth his own soul,” means in this, as in other instances,-acts to the certain injury and ruin of his soul, as if he hated and desired evil to it: he is his own enemy,-in fact, if not in feeling.

The turpitude of theft, as a trespass against the principle and the express precept of the divine law, is here assumed. It requires no proof. The “partner” in any fraud is the man who, although not himself actually engaged in the direct perpetration of it, is privy to it, winks at it, secretly countenances it, and profits by it. He is as bad as the doer. He may screen his conscience under the pretext of his not doing the deed; but such a screen is a mere cobweb; it-will not stand a breath. He may possibly be even worse. If he flatters himself that he is getting the profit without the sin, when he is coolly and deliberately allowing another to damn his own soul,-taking no concern about that, provided he get something by it,-he must indeed be under the power of a “strong delusion.” The receiver and resetter is at least as guilty as the thief. I say at least; for in one obvious respect he is worse. His is a general trade, which gives encouragement to many thieves, by holding out to them the means of disposing of their stolen property and evading the law. He is thus, in fact, a partaker in the guilt of all. One thief cannot set up and maintain a resetter; but one resetter may keep at their nefarious trade many thieves. Moreover, when the thief swears falsely* the partner is tempted to allow the perjury to pass undetected, lest he should expose himself as well as the thief; by which means he covers the guilt of another doubly-in the theft and in the perjury. Nay, if he were summoned as a witness, he is tempted to similar perjury himself, and so to bring additional guilt more directly upon his own soul, and draw down upon himself the wrath of God. Thus, every kind and degree of participation in evil, and connivance at its perpetration, is a snare to a man’s soul. What, then, my brethren, is the general lesson? It is-“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things,” Phi 4:8 .

  • From the language here used, the Author seems to regard “cursing” in this sense as meaning perjury. Others understand it of “the curse pronounced (Leviticus 5:1 .) on him who conceals a theft.” “His partner hears this curse;” he is brought under it, yet will not reveal the thief.

Verse Proverbs 29:25 . “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” Here we have-1. A principle that leads to evil:-And 2. Another principle that counteracts and corrects it.

  1. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” The cases are so endlessly various in which this principle may be conceived to operate, that it is almost impossible to make a selection. I may notice a few. It “bringeth a snare” at the entrance on a religious life, there being few things that have in them a stronger withholding power than “the fear of man”-the dread of the contempt and scorn of the world, the alienation and desertion of friends, and the possible injury to prospects in life, thence arising. It “brings a snare” to believers themselves, when it tempts them to shrink from owning their Master, or from saying and doing what He commands to be said or done; or when it tempts them to concealment, to temporising, to evasion, to apostacy, to undue conformity to the world. It “bringeth a snare” when Christians are tempted to dissembling of their real sentiments, even by the fear of one another, when they happen to differ. It “bringeth a snare,” when ministers of the word, “stewards of the mysteries of God,” of whom it is required that they be “found faithful,” are tempted by the dread of offence, and censure and unpopularity, of the displeasure of individuals or of the multitude, to trim, to consult and conform to the likings and inclinations of their hearers,-to “shun to declare any part of the counsel of God”-or to “handle the word of God deceitfully,"-silencing their consciences, it may be, by pleading prudence, and blaming as deficient in this virtue such as are more faithful than themselves. It “bringeth a snare” to public men, in every department of civil life, when it tempts them from apprehension either of displeasing superiors or inferiors, to swerve from the straightforward course of truth, integrity, and justice, and the public good. The cases indeed, both more public and more private, in which this “fear of man” operates injuriously, are without number; cases, in which we may be tempted by it to “do those things which we ought not to do,” and to “fail of doing those things which we ought to do.” It operates in great matters and in small; in the highest and the lowest ranks of society, and in all between. It is ever suggesting the question-What will such a one think and say?-What will the world say?-instead of the one and only question which ought to determine every act and every word-What will God say? Our business is, to do our prescribed duty, and trust in Him;-to fulfil the dictates of His will in every situation, steadily, immoveably, without flinching, uninfluenced alike by the smiles and the frowns of men,-“fearing God, and knowing no other fear.” This is safety, and this alone. “They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever,” Psalms 125:1 . Even if a man’s firm fidelity should occasion him present evil, yet is he safe in the hands of his covenant God. Nothing shall ultimately injure him. O! had this trust in God possessed its due power in the hearts and over the conduct of God’s people, the impartiality of the sacred Record would not have had so many mournful cases to relate of deviations from the path of “simplicity and godly sincerity.” It was “the fear of man” that tempted the father of the faithful, and after him his son Isaac, to similar and repeated prevarication and falsehood, in Egypt and in Gerar. It was “the fear of man,” in “Aaron the priest of the Lord,” that made the molten calf, even when the vision of the burning mount should have impressed the fear of God. It was “the fear of man” that stained the page of David’s history with such deplorable instances of duplicity and dissembling. It was “the fear of man” that led Peter to deny Christ; and at a later period to dissemble so unworthily as to draw down upon him the censure of his fellow-apostle. It was “the fear of man” that made the friends and fellow-servants of Paul, when he was brought to trial before Nero, act with such dastardly unkindness, as to give him cause to say-“At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.” And to these might be added, many instances, from the sacred history, of the working of the same principle in characters where we are less surprised and mortified to find it; as in Saul, and Pilate, and others. Beware, then, of the fear of man, and cherish the fear of God!

Verse Proverbs 29:26 . “Many seek the ruler’s favour; but every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord.” This may be considered as the opposite temptation. We have had the fear of man: here is his favour. The temptation designed is-the love of “the honour that cometh from men,"-the benefit to be expected from being in the good graces of those who have much in their power. In both cases, let us well remember the assurance:-“Every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord.” This may be understood as referring to the overruling providence of God. Every man shall have what God appoints to him. Men are in His hand. They are His instruments, whether for evil or for good. Our fears and our hopes are alike in His power,-to disappoint or to fulfil them.-Or it may mean that every man’s final judgment cometh from the Lord,-the fixture of his everlasting state. And surely there can be no motive more powerful than this to beware of being swayed by either the favour or the fear of man.

Verse Proverbs 29:27 . “An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.” Assuredly the feeling meant by the same form of expression in the two clauses of this verse, is widely different. In the one case, it is the character alone that is “abomination.” In the feelings of the just toward the unjust, there is nothing of the nature of personal hostility,-no wish of evil,-no pleasure in his sufferings. It is all the contrary. He pities, and he prays for him:-he does him good as he has opportunity: he would fondly seek and save him. It is otherwise with the unjust toward the just. The malignant hatred of their goodness provokes exasperation against their person. How illustrative of this remark is the contrast between the feelings of the murderers of Stephen and the feelings of their suffering victim!-of the persecutors and the persecuted!-the former “gnashing upon him with their teeth,” thirsting for and imbruing their hands in his blood:-the latter, with his dying breath, pleading, like his gracious Master, for their forgiveness! Their character was an abomination to the holy martyr; but not their persons. But they made no such distinction. They hated the principles and the character, and they hated and killed the man.

As that first martyr felt, so ought we to feel towards our fellow-sinners, how bitter soever may be their thoughts of us, or their feelings toward us. We own ourselves debtors to the mercy of God in Christ; and we cannot, we dare not, glory over even the worst of men. We may loathe their characters, but we pity and love themselves. We may hate the sin, but we hate not the sinner. The blessed God “hateth all the workers of iniquity.” He hates them as workers of iniquity. But in the midst of all His assurances of abhorrence while they go on in sin, He still expostulates and pleads with them in mercy.

You think God’s commands are hard. No; it is “the way of transgressors that is hard.” Where is the single command of God’s, that does not bear upon it the impress of goodness as well as of holiness? What is the sum of all that He commands you to do, or commands you to abstain from? Does not the whole mean-“Forsake not thine own mercies:"-destroy not thyself:-consult thy first and best interests? Is not all He says to you said with the view of persuading you to escape from woe, and to embrace happiness ?-What is His one command by the gospel-” that ye believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” but a command to accept salvation, and to be blessed for ever? Obey it and live.

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