Proverbs 3

Proverbs 3:1-10

LECTURE VII.

Proverbs 3:1-10 .

“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”

The admonition in the first verse, “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments,” is substantially the same as that in the eighth verse of the first chapter. The terms, however, are not identical, and there is a shade of corresponding difference in the meaning. Three things may be considered as implied in this verse-

REMEMBRANCE, ATTACHMENT, and OBEDIENCE. First, then, it is an admonition to remembrance:-“forget not my law.” Some there are-not a few indeed-who almost put away from themselves every admonition that relates to the exercise of memory. They say they have no memory. It too often happens, however, that the failure in memory is confined to subjects of this nature; that in other matters it is sufficiently ready and sufficiently retentive. Allow me, then, to remark, that the mental faculties have a close relation and a mutual dependence on each other. There are, without doubt, original diversities in the power of memory. But memory depends greatly on attention; and attention depends not less upon the interest which the mind feels in the subject. He who feels no interest will not attend; and he who does not attend will not remember. The admonition not to forget involves, therefore, an admonition to attention-to the giving of “earnest heed”-that so the divine laws and truths might be fixed in the mind.-The words include, secondly, affectionate attachment,-“Let thine heart keep my commandments.” It is not enough that we merely remember as we might the laws of the twelve tables, or any other code, in which we feel no farther interest than that which arises from historical curiosity. We must feel our interest in them, as commandments binding on ourselves. They must have more than even the approbation of the conscience; they must have the concurrent affections of the heart, as the commandments of One to whom the love and devotion of our whole souls is supremely due. And wherever there is this consent of heart, there will be the third thing involved in the words, spiritual obedience. The “heart keeping the commandments,” must surely be considered as meaning, not external conformity merely to their requirements, but agreement with them in the inward principles, desires, and motives. God’s laws are, in this respect as in others, like himself: they search the heart. They require it to be right with God. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us.” “The thought of wickedness is sin.” “The Lord weigheth the spirits.” “The law is spiritual.” The Heart is what he requires; and it is his, just in proportion as, under the influence of his love, it is conformed to his law.

A motive is held out in the second verse to compliance with the admonition of the first:-“For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee.”

Such declarations are frequent. They certainly are not to be interpreted as a promise of long life in this world, in every instance, as the result of obedience to God’s laws. Had this been a promise even then, there would never have boon a case of death among “Israelites indeed,” except in old age. But assuredly, in point of fact, it was not so. There are promises to Israel, of their days being prolonged in the land which the Lord their God had given them, which are greatly mistaken when interpreted of the life of individuals; and as pledging in every case its prolongation to all the good. Such passages relate to the continued possession of the land of promise by the people, if they, in their successive generations, continued to serve God in the obedience of faith.-But there is a general tendency in the keeping of the divine precepts to the preservation of health and the prolongation of life, which is all that was then meant, or can now be meant, when the declaration is applied to individuals. The virtues of sobriety, of temperance, and chastity, and industry, and contentment, and control of the tempers and passions, and regularity, and integrity, and kindness,-and others that are included in subjection to the law of God, have all, in various ways, a manifest tendency to such a result. They conduce, eminently, in the ordinary course of things, to the enjoyment of health and long life-to the prevention of the tear and wear of the constitution, and to general prosperity and well-being; for here, as in many other places, “peace” may be understood as meaning more than quietness merely-even general prosperity. Such a tendency forms a quite sufficient ground for general declarations such as that before us.

In verse third ( Proverbs 3:3 ) is a specification of certain of the virtues to be cultivated and practised:-" Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart."

“Mercy and truth” are to be maintained in the whole of our intercourse and transactions with our fellow-men.

“Mercy” has two departments of exercise. There is mercy to offenders, and mercy to sufferers. The first is the spirit of gentleness, conciliation, and forgiveness;-a temper often and strongly inculcated on us in the New Testament Scriptures, (Ephesians 4:32 ; Colossians 3:12-13 .) The second is the spirit of humanity, and sympathy, and compassionate and active tenderness and kindness. This is associated with the other in the passages already quoted, and often urged as indispensable to the Christian character, as it was of old to that of the true Israelite, (1 John 3:16-18 .) It was this spirit which the Saviour so beautifully inculcated, even towards enemies, in the parable of the good Samaritan; and of which, in his whole life, he gave so interesting and perfect an exemplification.

Added to this must be “truth”-in all our words-in all our conduct,-for we may lie in look and in act, as well as with the lips. Truth implies that universal and unswerving veracity and integrity which secure the unhesitating confidence of all,-guileless simplicity and godly sincerity in all our ways.

Respecting “mercy and truth,” three things are hero enjoined: 1. “Let them not forsake thee:"-that is, let the practice of them be steadfastly and invariably adhered to by thee in all thy course-in all circumstances however trying, how strong soever the temptation to different feelings and an opposite course:-never in any case let them leave thee; keep them by thee constantly and perseveringly, that in no situation in which thou mayest be placed, they may ever fail to prompt and counsel thee.-Then 2. “Bind them about thy neck:"-that is, let them be at all times the grace and ornament of thy character. That this is the idea appears from chap. Proverbs 1:9 , “For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about the neck.” And then the command to “bind them about thy neck,” seems to imply the wearing of them constantly, as the permanent adorning;-not to be put on at one time and put off at another, like certain ornamental articles of dress that are worn only on special occasions and in particular companies. These are ornaments fit for all times and for all descriptions of society. All will admire “mercy and truth."-And 3. “Write them upon the table of thy heart.” Inscribe them deeply there. Let them not be the ornament of thy character merely, but thy treasure too. Let all thy heart’s affections and desires be under their control. Be not satisfied with knowing them as what was “written on tables of stone;” but let thy desire be, to have them incorporated with all the dispositions of the inner man,-to possess a heart in entire unison with their dictates,-to have, through prayer, the promise of the new covenant fulfilled in thee.*

• Jeremiah 33:3 . 2 Corinthians 3:3 .

Here too a motive is subjoined-verse Proverbs 3:4 . “So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”

I have already said that the ground of divine favour to sinners is nothing of theirs. The entire tenor of God’s word, and many most explicit passages in it, bear testimony to the grace of his covenant, and to the “redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” as the ground of reconciliation and forgiveness. But the enjoyment of the favour of God stands in inseparable association with the possession and manifestation of a certain character.* There is no enjoying the smile and blessing of God in any other way than the way of holy obedience. They who would walk with God must walk there; for nowhere else can God be found.

*See Psalms 5:4-6 ; Psalms 5:12 ; Psalms 11:7 ; Psalms 34:15-16 .

And as to men:-they are of two descriptions-the good and the bad. It is very obvious, that by the character recommended the favour of all the good will be secured. They are of one mind with God. They love what God loves, and hate what God hates. They that " love the Lord hate evil” “Mercy and truth " are the recommendations of all human character; for they are the recommendations of the divine.-But even as to bad men-to mankind in general, favour will be shown to “mercy and truth.” The men of the world may hate the principles of the man of God, but the latter will have a testimony in their conscience; and if he maintains a steadfast consistency, will command their respect and good-will. This is the only legitimate way of finding favour with men. Their favour must be foregone, if it cannot be gotten but by conduct inconsistent with right principle. It is but a false and selfish and temporary favour at the best that can thus be obtained; and it is obtained at the expense of what is infinitely more precious, the favour of God.

But the Scriptures teach us that “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” How, then, is steadfast consistency to be maintained?-how is the favour of the Lord to be thus steadfastly enjoyed? The answer is-verses Proverbs 3:5-8 . “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Self-sufficiency and self-dependence, ever since man gave credit to the lie of the tempter, and violated God’s law, in the vain hope of thereby exalting himself to the possession of knowledge like his Maker’s-has been one of the characteristics of his fallen nature. Instead of “trusting in Jehovah,” with the becoming lowliness of a dependent creature, he has all along, from that time, shown an infatuated proneness to rely on himself-on his own might, his own wisdom, his own resources. “Leaning to our own understanding” is, as far as it prevails, a kind of practical atheism. To form and prosecute our plans in this spirit of self-confidence, entirely forgetting Him “in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways,” is to act as if there were no God-as if the fool’s thought or the fool’s wish were true.

Remember, however, that “trusting in the Lord”-does not mean that we are not to use our “own understanding”-forming our plans with discretion, and with all possible foresight and precaution,-and in pursuing our ends employing all suitable and legitimate means. No. There is a legitimate using of the understanding that is not chargeable with “leaning to it.” While we use it, we are to depend on God for success, trust in the promises of his word, and trust in the care and overruling direction of his providence. Many a time has he shown by what trivial circumstances he can disconcert the most carefully arranged and apparently promising human devices. But still-as dependence upon God for strength to resist temptation does not preclude our applying all the energy of our own minds, so dependence upon him for direction in our ways does not set aside the employment of our own prudence and sagacity. It is our duty to acknowledge Him as Sovereign-” doing according to his will–none staying his hand;” as our Creator and Preserver, without whom we cannot draw a breath,-cannot live a moment for the effectuation of our purposes;*1 as the Supreme Director of all events, whose concurrent will is essential to the success of every measure, and without it all the thoughts of men are vain, turning out subversive of their own designs and subservient to God’s.*2

*1 See James 4:13-15 .

*2 See Psalms 10:5-16 .

Verse Proverbs 3:6 . “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Such acknowledgment of God, implies the careful consultation of God’s word for guidance, with a spirit that is disposed to bow implicitly to its authority in regard to the lawfulness or propriety of our ways-undertaking nothing till we have first ascertained this-that there is nothing in what we project and purpose to do that is out of harmony with God’s moral precepts. This must always be first. And, in doing this, unless we come to God’s word with the spirit mentioned-the spirit of sincere determination to follow the dictates of the oracle-to relinquish whatever we may have designed the moment we perceive any inconsistency between it and his will,-we are not “acknowledging” him. We are mocking him,-seeking to know his will with the secret resolution of following our own;-coming to his directory only in the expectation of finding our will supported by his,-and when we find it otherwise, spurning or compromising his counsel. Then, when we have ascertained our purpose to be lawful, we must look for direction and illumination, in considering its prudence and expediency and probable results, expecting God’s counsel and blessing, owning his authority, aiming at his glory, exercising submission to his sovereign pleasure; taking him as friend and counsellor in all our concerns, and leaving no means untried to discover what will be wellpleasing in his sight. He, who, in lowly reliance, and in earnest, acts this part, will not often fall into very erroneous or hurtful measures. God, by his word, and Spirit, and providence, will lead him in a right way;-will “make darkness light before him and crooked things straight.”

In “acknowledging” God, we are not to trust enthusiastically to impressions, to dreams, to fancied voices and inward suggestions. Far less are we to make a lottery of the Bible-opening it at random, and taking the text that first meets our eye as given us by God, and putting our own meaning upon it. We are to apply our understandings to the blessed volume of inspiration, that we may find its principles and precepts that bear upon our case, and give our hearts to prayer, for that influence of the Holy Spirit, which is necessary to deliver us from all undue prepossessions and prejudices in examining it. We are not now warranted to look for immediate inspiration,-for any direct intimations of the Spirit in regard to the course which at any time we ought to follow. The Spirit guides by the word-imparting that childlike simplicity-the simplicity and sincere submissiveness of “babes in Christ”-which will seldom leave those who are influenced by it long in the dark.

The seventh verse is a continuation of the same admonition:-“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil.”

A woe is pronounced by Jehovah against the spirit of self-sufficiency-“Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Isaiah 5:21 . And the injunction of the Lord to Christians is-” Be not wise in your own conceits," Romans 12:16 . Such a conceit of our own wisdom as produces the prohibited self-dependence and forgetfulness of God is inconsistent with the proper fear of God. Hence the connexion-" Be not wise in thine own eyes-fear the Lord." Cherish that reverential awe which will induce the constant acknowledgment of Him; and beware of provoking his jealousy of his own glory, for “the proud he knoweth afar off;” and it is “the meek lie guides in judgment, to the meek he teaches his way.”

We may remark another connexion. Where there is this self-conceit and self-reliance, there is danger of too little regard being paid to the first and highest of all questions, the question of the divine will,-of too little discrimination as to the morality of either end or means. Hence, in connexion with the condemnation of trust in our own wisdom, the wise man says, “Fear the Lord, and depart from evil”-into which, as if he had said, trust in yourselves and distrust of God will ever be apt to lead you. There is no true “fear of the Lord” unless there is departure from evil; and a genuine, humble, deep-felt fear of God-the constant, steadfast, self-diffident operation of the religious principle-will keep all right. It is a posture of mind that is beneficial alike to body and soul. This is the sentiment of the eighth verse: “It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” By the influence of this principle the mind is preserved in a state of cheerful tranquillity and peace-as the prophet says-" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee," Isaiah 26:3 . Now this tranquil and cheerful evenness of temper is in a high degree conducive to the health and comfort and vigour of the bodily frame. Every one knows how a state of anxiety and care, by chasing sleep from the eyes, and depriving of appetite, and otherwise affecting the functions of the animal nature, injures the health; and, when long continued and pressing heavily, may waste the vital energies, and even bring to the grave. And while health is thus promoted, the spirit of humble dependence and firm confidence in God contributes eminently to the prosperous growth of all the other graces and virtues of the Christian character. “Faith in God” is the germ of all spiritual growth;-and “the joy of the Lord,” springing from the exercise of an undoubting and unceasing dependence upon him in temporal and in spiritual things, “is the strength” of God’s children in all the activity of the divine life.

There was never a grosser slander than that which is thrown on religion when it is represented as tending to injure the body and the mind, by preying upon the spirit and sinking it to the earth. False views of religion may prey upon both mind and body-engendering distress and despondency; but true religion never can. It is cheering as the light of heaven, and healthful and bracing as the mountain breezes. The state of mind from which true religion is designed and fitted to deliver, is sometimes mistaken for religion itself-I mean a state of conviction, alarm, and fear. But this is not religion:-it is that from which religion delivers. The knowledge and faith of God as his own word reveals him,-confidence in him as he is there made known,-produces peace, and hope, and joy,-expels the fear which hath torment, and settles the soul in the sunshine of divine love.

As a large proportion of the speculations, and projects, and plans, and labours of men are directed to the acquisition of wealth, Solomon counsels, in the two following verses, how to use it when it has been obtained:-verses Proverbs 3:9-10 . “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”

If, under the influence of the fear of the Lord, we consider all as his gift-got under his providential direction, and smile, and blessing-the same spirit will prompt us to consecrate to Him, what through Him has been acquired. Moses admonishes the Israelites of the danger of forgetting God as the author of all their prosperity. (Deuteronomy 8:10-18 .) It was in proportion as they kept in mind their obligations to Jehovah for all the blessings of the land of promise, that they consecrated the substance which was his gift to his worship and to his glory; and in proportion as they fell into the sin of self-sufficiency and forgetfulness of him, they alienated his gifts from him, and gave his glory to another. So will it be with us. The more humbly and devoutly we remember God as the author of our prosperity, will we practically honour God in the use of our prosperity.

The Israelites “honoured the Lord with their substance,” when, at the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, so willing and abundant was the contribution, that a proclamation of excess was required to restrain it. And similar had been the disposition manifested in the preparation for the erection of the first temple. They “honoured the Lord with their substance,” when they devoted the due proportions of it to the ends of piety and charity which he had enjoined it on them to mind.

The law of the first-fruits you find in Deuteronomy 26:1-3 ; Deuteronomy 26:12-15 . They “honoured the Lord,” when they followed his law-first, because the act itself was an act of obedience, which is always honouring to him; second, because it was accompanied with a confession of God’s covenant faithfulness in the fulfilment of his promises, and a thank-offering for that faithful accomplishment of his word; and third, because the offering was designed for the support of his worship, and thus for securing the glory of his name.

The spirit of the law referred to is here inculcated; and neither in the terms of the duty nor of the motive, on principles at all peculiar to Israel. The duty is a duty still. The motive is a motive still. The injunction before us stands opposed to the selfish use of God’s temporal gifts,-of what we are ever too prone to think and call our own. God’s language to his people now is the same as it was of old-“The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts,” Haggai 2:8 .

In the language before us works both of piety and charity are evidently included. By both God is honoured; because both are enjoined by him as parts of the true use of worldly substance. They do not “honour the Lord with their substance” who use it for the gratification of vanity, or pride, or ambition, or covetousness; who squander it on self, or hoard it for self. They honour him with it, who employ it in ways consistent with his will, and calculated to promote his glory-indirectly by the manifestation of the influence of his religion, and directly by promoting the diffusion of the knowledge and influence of its principles. The law of the first-fruits teaches us the important principle, that God, instead of the last place, should have the first in his people’s generous calculations and bestowments. The arrangement of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer teach us the same lesson: those which relate to God, his name, and his kingdom, preceding those which relate to ourselves. The injunction of the Saviour justly interpreted, is in spirit and letter the same-" Seek ye first the kingdom of God."-Do we then honour the Lord with our substance, when, after bestowing lavishly on self all that self can wish,-not withholding our heart from any joy,-we give a little driblet of our surplus for him. For his poor, for his cause and kingdom? Does he honour the Lord who, without a grudge, expends ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred guineas on some article of ornamental elegance, or mere convenience, or at any rate of very questionable necessity, while the smallest pittance can with difficulty be wrung from him for the great interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom?-sums after sums, large and small, for worldly accommodations and enjoyments,-and a pound a-year for the salvation of the world!

Various are the motives held out to encourage the duty of liberality. In the verses before us, you may be tempted to regard the motive as a somewhat selfish and questionable one:-" So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." But second thoughts may give you another view of it. It is a trial of faith. And it is a trial than which few are found more difficult. It is hard to persuade a man that giving away will make him rich. We look with more confidence to bank interest, or the still better interest of a vested loan, than to a return of profit from what is given wholly away. It is difficult to convince a man that scattering will increase his store.

“While, therefore, the motive in itself looks worldly and selfish, he who comes to feel it so as to act liberally upon it, exercises a faith in God that is rare and of the highest order. He walks by faith, not by sight. He who gives to the poor, because God hath said-” He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord"-gives in faith. He who bestows of his substance for the cause of God, because God hath said, “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine”-bestows in faith. The promise is that the blessing of God shall be upon the substance and upon the industry of the liberal,-of those whose godliness overcomes their selfishness, and who show their faith and love by their liberality especially to God’s own cause.*

• Look at a striking and edifying exemplification of the principle: Haggai 1:3-11 ; Haggai 2:15-19 . Malachi 3:10 .-And in the New Testament see Phi 4:14-19 . 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 .

My brethren, there is too little of proving God in this matter. We can only discover God’s faithfulness by trying it; and without a doubt, if there were more of trial on our part, there would be proportionally more of the manifestation of faithfulness on his.

And there is a higher motive, even as it respects the results to ourselves, than earthly prosperity. Compliance with this injunction is not only a means of increasing our temporal good, but of augmenting our blessedness for eternity. For, while all the happiness of the world to come, shall be bestowed and enjoyed on the ground of grace, yet there shall be degrees of blessedness and glory corresponding to the measure in which the principles of faith and love have been practically manifested-a correspondence between the one and the other, as the apostle expresses it, like that between the seed sown and the crop reaped; the reaping corresponding in amount to the sowing. The right use of worldly substance is one of the ways in which the Lord exhorts his disciples to “provide themselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.” But He whom we serve knows the motives by “which we are influenced:-so that, if one is giving either in the spirit of self-righteousness, or of ostentation, or of any other unwarranted principle-” Let not that man think that he shall obtain anything of the Lord."

Proverbs 3:11-12

LECTURE VIII

Proverbs 3:11-12 .

“My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

“Ye have forgotten,” says the inspired writer to the Hebrews, “the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,” Hebrews 12:5-6 . We have thus the highest authority for regarding the address in this passage, as divine-as the address of God to his own children.

Is the address, then, to all men? No.-There is a sense indeed, and a very natural one, in which we are God’s children, as being the creatures of his hand. We are his children by creation. He gives us being; and by him our being is constantly sustained, and its wants all supplied.-In tracing the genealogy of Jesus, Luke terminates it with “Adam, who was the son of God.” All the rest in the enumeration, had their birth by successive parentages; but Adam had no father but God. And in this sense, as having all alike our being from God, it may truly be said, in the terms of the prophet-" Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God begotten us?"

But there was a higher sense in which Adam, when created, was a child of God: I mean, by character. In the phraseology of Scripture, one is called the son of another, who bears remarkable resemblance to him in this respect. And indeed we are not unaccustomed to the figure ourselves. We are wont to say of a youth who bears, in various features of his character, a striking likeness to his father, that he is quite his fattens son. It is in this sense that our Lord says to the Jews, in reply to their indignant allegation-“Abraham is our father”-“if ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” This is a very important sense of the designation. And in this sense, Adam ceased to be a child of God, when he fell into sin. He lost the divine image-the moral likeness of his Maker. He was made after that image, but sin effaced it. And in this sense, all his race have ceased to sustain the spiritual relation. As sinners, they are not the children of God, but “children of the Wicked One,” the great enemy of God, by whose temptation the seduction and apostasy were effected .

And the grand design of God by the scheme of mediation, is to bring men back to this holy and happy relation,-to restore apostate men to the honour and the blessedness of sonship to God. In this reconciliation-this transference from their relation to Satan to the family of God-there are two things essentially implied-they must be pardoned, and they must be purified. A state of sonship is a state of favour; and this necessarily includes forgiveness. No unforgiven sinner is a child of God. He is not in a state of reconciliation and acceptance; and not, therefore, one of his children; paternity involving and being the very imago of love. This is effected by the atonement-by the work of Christ in expiating human guilt by the sacrifice of himself. Sinners who believe in that atonement, as the ground of pardon, are forgiven. God’s “anger is turned away” from them. He “receives them graciously,” “loves them freely;” and gives them “a name and a place in his house,” even that of “sons and of daughters.”

The other requisite to this relation is resemblance. They must be renewed and purified. No sinner continuing under the power any more than in the guilt of his sins, can be a child of God. When God created man, he made him “after his likeness.” When God adopts a sinner-he re-instamps this image on his soul: and this new assimilation constitutes him a son. The Scripture expresses the sum of human depravity by the phrase, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” When a sinner becomes a child of God-there is a transition from enmity to love. God loves the renewed sinner; the renewed sinner loves God. This mutual love, paternal and filial, enters into the very essence of the relation. This saving change is effected by the agency of the Holy Spirit:-and it is effected by means of the gospel. The pardon is on the ground of the atonement. The renewal is by means of the atonement-the truth, that reveals the love of God in the provision of the ground of pardon, subduing the alienated heart to surrender itself to God. The very doctrine of pardon is the means of regeneration. There is forgiveness with God, that he may be feared.

Believers, then, are God’s children: such is invariably the statement of his word.*1 And this is the gift of God’s grace, and the work of God’s Spirit.*2 And this, brethren, is no mere empty title-not a title of which the only accompaniment is the honour of it. It is a real relation, with which stand associated the most unspeakably precious privileges-privileges in time and eternity.

*1 See John 1:11-13 .Galatians 3:26Galatians 3:26 .

*2 See 1 John 3:1 .Romans 8:14-17Romans 8:14-17 . Galatians 4:4-7 .

One of these privileges is brought before us in the text. It is one of no trivial value. The world in which we five is a place of trial. Many and various are the sufferings to which men in general, and the people of God among the rest, are subjected. The text speaks of the aspect which all these trials and sufferings bear, to those who have been brought into this new relation. The aspect is widely different from that which the same dispensations bear to the men of the world, the children of “the Wicked One.” It is very plain, that the same description of events may be viewed in different lights, and may be designed by Him who sends them for different purposes, according to the character of the parties affected by them. To the one they may be judicial, to the other gracious; to the one a fruit and a part of the curse, to the other, though not in themselves yet in their end, a blessing-the curse being extracted from them, and the paternal love of God turning them all to purposes of salutary correction. There is a beautiful amplification of the sentiment in the words of the Apostle, “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom ho receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave t-hem reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby,” Hebrews 12:5-11 .

We shall consider-

I. The Admonition. It consists of two parts. The one is an admonition against insensibility; the other against despondency. And both admonitions are founded in the view of the trials of life, as divine visitations or chastisements-paternal corrections. Every one of them is a stroke of the Father’s rod:-and the twofold admonition warns us against the two extremes into which we are ever prone to fall.

1. When may we be said to despise the chastening of the Lord? In the following cases. 1: When it is not felt;-when there is a want of natural sensibility to the particular stroke of the rod. This is but rare. Men in general are quite sufficiently alive to the value of temporal things. But the value is comparative. There are cherished and favorite possessions, and others less highly thought of, less fondly held. The Lord, it may be, deals gently. He spares the “gourd.” He does not take what is most highly set by. And, instead of humbly owning the kindness,-being lowly and submissive, and seeking a blessing on the gentle stroke that the heavier one may be withheld,-the preservation and safety of the greater produces insensibility to the privation of the less: and the correction is thus disregarded, and proves inefficient.-ii. When it is not duly felt as from God; when God’s hand, in the correction, is not duly considered, acknowledged, and submitted to. How much soever an event may be felt in itself; how much soever the feelings of nature may be wounded to the quick, and the heart ready to break under the sad calamity, be what it may,-unless it is felt as coming from God, it is “despised.” Every thing depends on this. A child may smart under the rod, or his punishment may vex and distress him greatly, but he may not feel it as from his father. It is not the sense of his displeasure that grieves him. And so with the child of God. If while smarting under his suffering he fails to own his heavenly Father’s hand; if it is considered as a mere chance that has befallen him,-as something that forms a part of the common lot of men, the fortune of others as well as his,-it is “despised.” That which should be most seen and most regarded, and give most concern, is overlooked or little thought of.-iii. When, although God is seen in it, and his hand is felt, it is not felt humbly and submissively; not bowed to but resisted;-when, in the expressive phrase of the wise man elsewhere, “the heart fretteth against the Lord;” or when the chastisement has the effect that restraint and coercion have, in the expressive figure of the prophet, on the “bullock unaccustomed to the yoke,” rendering him stubborn, wayward, refractory. This is the reverse of the admonition of James-" Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." It is the very opposite of all that correction is intended to effect. Job exemplified the proper state of mind under correction. Ho felt God’s hand; ho owned it; he bowed to it: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”-“Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job 1:21 ; Job 2:10 . The spirit of Jonah was a mournful exemplification of the opposite, when he fretted impatiently and selfishly at the loss of his gourd, and said, in the heat of a discontented and rebellious heart-" I do well to be angry." Never surely could there be more unseemly and sinful irreverence. It was “doing despite” to the correcting hand of the Lord-treating contemptuously the procedure of Him whose chastisement should have laid him low. All unsubmissiveness is contempt.-iv. When the design or end of correction is not duly laid to heart; is not seriously thought of and sought after. We never treat a fellow-creature with due consideration, when we show no concern about the objects he has in view; and especially when we ourselves are the subjects of his solicitude and his schemes. A child shows no respect for his parents, when, on being corrected by them for a fault, instead of seeking to shun the fault in future, he repeats it. This is practical contempt. So when the Lord tells his children the design of his corrections, and they show no anxiety after the attainment of that design, they “despise” his “chastening.” The design may be more general, or more particular. The general design of all affliction is-“to take away sin.” He who receives correction, but discovers no solicitude about being made by it a “partaker of God’s holiness,” “despises” it. The particular design may be involved in the nature of the correction. If there is worldly ambition-a commencing or growing prevalence of the “lust of the eyes and the pride of life”-it may be particularly aimed at by the infliction of sweeping losses in earthly substance; the frustration of sanguine hopes, and of painfully concerted schemes of gain and of worldly advancement. If there is the idolatry of the natural affections-any fondly cherished object of these drawing the heart away from God, and absorbing its interest, its solicitude, and its love-that may be rebuked and repressed by the smiting of the husband, or the wife, or the favorite and idolized child. Now if in either case, instead of the heart being weaned from the world and the excesses of its earthly affections-neither is its ambition cured in the one, nor its idolatry in the other; if it continues set, in all its desires, on the objects of which it has been deprived, so that it cannot let go its hold of them, but hankers after them, wastes itself in regrets and lamentations, unreconciled to the divine will, and forgetting the purpose of the privations, in sighing over the privations themselves,-we are then “despising the chastening;” for we are not seeking in earnest the accomplishment in us of the divine intention. We are not of one mind with God. We are treating despitefully his judgment,-for while he considers the end of affliction as well worth the sacrifice involved in the affliction itself-as more really valuable than the objects of earthly attachment and sources of earthly enjoyment which, for the sake of it, he takes away,-we judge otherwise; and mourn over our losses, and would have the objects of our attachment and the sources of our enjoyment back again,-instead of being humbly thankful for our intended benefit, and seeking with anxiety to obtain it.

2. The second of the two extremes against which we are admonished is-“being weary of his correction;” or, as the apostle has it, “fainting when we are rebuked of him.” We are chargeable with this-I. When we cherish a spirit similar to that just noticed-dwelling on, and brooding over, the trial itself; indulging fond memory in hanging and weeping over the recollection of it,-the spirit sinking to faintness, or wearying itself to exhaustion, by incessant bemoaning. This is wrong; and it arises, like the last mentioned, from forgetting, in the trial itself, the end for which it has been sent. It is remarkable how precisely opposite to “fainting” and “wearying” is the use which the apostle exhorts the Hebrews to make of their trials-“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed,” Hebrews 12:12-13 .-ii. This “wearying” and “fainting” may arise from unbelief of the divine promises on two points-as to the design of the trial, and as to strength or grace duly to bear and to improve it. There is nothing so bracing to the spirit, which might otherwise be ready to give way to feebleness and fainting, as the firm conviction of the two important Bible truths-first, that “all things are of God;” and second, that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” If the mind loses sight, or loses hold, of such assurances, the spirit will droop and languish. And so too is it, when the suffering saint forgets God’s “precious promises” (As 2 Corinthians 12:9 ; Isaiah 40:28-30 ) to the afflicted, and neglects to plead them at the throne of grace." iii “Painting” and “wearying” may take place in two ways. The heart may be overwhelmed by sudden trials-suddenness and heaviness united, giving an effect so stunning and overpowering, that the spirit sinks into a temporary stupefaction, its energies giving way-as the nervous and circulatory systems in the bodily frame are apt to be affected by any very sudden mental shock-going sometimes, with momentary intervals of revival, from one faint to another, each interval only giving time for the mind to receive a fresh impression of the stunning calamity, ere it has leisure for invigorating reflection. Or, it may become wearied out and exhausted by the long continuance of the same trial, or by the rapid succession of different strokes of the rod-another and another coming, ere the wound of the former has had time to heal. There are cases of both kinds to be met with, which have a strong claim on the sympathy of fellow-Christians. But how long soever the chastening hand of the Lord may be allowed to lie on the subject of his correction, and how numerous and frequent soever may be the successive strokes, there ought to be no “fainting” and no “wearying.” One thing alone-the assurance that “It is the Lord”-should be enough to prevent both the one and the other. This naturally leads to-

II. The CONSIDERATION ENFORCING THE ADMONITION-“For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

There is in the words a beautiful and most touching appeal to the very strongest and tenderest of nature’s affections. There is in this much of divine condescension and kindness. Had the infinite God addressed us in terms of divine loftiness, such as befitted only Godhead, expressing what belonged to himself exclusively, and to which there was nothing in our own nature and our own experience to which it bore even a distant analogy-we could not have understood, and therefore we could not have felt it. We might have marvelled at the incomprehensible grandeur of the communication-of which possibly we might, by the straining of our faculties, grasp as much as to make us wish for the mind of an angel, that we might comprehend more. But it would have awed us by its sublimity, more than it could have melted and cheered us by its kindness. But when “the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity,” deigns to speak to us “after the manner of men;” to enter into our own hearts, and draw his figures and illustrations thence,-exhibiting himself under relations which we bear to one another,-assuring us of the affections on the one part of that relation, as borne and exercised by himself towards us, and claiming from us in return those which appropriately pertain to the other,-we understand this; we feel this; we have a commentary on its meaning, written on our hearts with the very finger of God. He addresses us in terms of which we have the interpreter within. When we try to form to ourselves the conception of a Being without passions, without emotions, without variableness,-an ocean-depth, whose surface no storm can ruffle, whose unfathomed abysses nothing can agitate,-we are lost in veneration and awe. We can form no conception of what the state of such a mind can be towards any other existing being. “It is high; we cannot attain unto it.” But when that infinite Being breaks the dread silence; and his voice comes upon our ear in accents like these-" As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;"-“I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty;"-our bosoms thrill with new and unutterable delight; the smile of ecstasy plays upon our lips; and the starting tear of grateful joy gushes to our eye; and through that tear we look up with the reverential but confiding love and gladness of children. And when, amidst the trials of the world, He reminds us of his paternal relation to us, and assures us that they are of his appointment,-the dictate of his fatherly affection and wisdom; when through the clouds that shroud our sky his eye beams upon us, and his voice, not in thunder but in the whisper of peace, comes upon our ear-” My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,"-what a comfort in our deepest distresses-what a light of joy in our gloomiest day!

Let us not fail to observe, in order that we may not lose the benefit of our trials, that they are tokens of disapprobation and displeasure. God hates sin. He hates it in all. And if there be any in whom he regards it with special detestation, it is in his own children. He never “afflicts willingly.” He has no pleasure in correcting. But in proportion as his children are the objects of his love, sin in his children is the object of his hatred. It mars their character, and interferes with that complacency with which he contemplates his own image in them.

“We must beware of allowing our minds to be so absorbed in contemplating the divine love in trials, as to overlook the divine displeasure in them. All are for sin. There is no suffering in the universe but what is the fruit of sin-all its righteous desert. His children, even the best of them, have ever abundant reason to acknowledge that he corrects them less than their iniquities deserve. But still he corrects. The correction partakes of the nature of punishment; and punishments are expressions of the righteous displeasure of him by whom they are inflicted. And we should seek with all earnestness, that we may be “of one mind with God” in regard to the faults for which he chastens us. If his chastisements produce this effect;-if they transfuse into our minds a portion of the hatred with which he regards the evil corrected-all is well. And tins cannot be the case if we omit to reflect on the displeasure that is in them; if we smile at the thought of God’s unchanging love, so as to fail to mark the frown that darkens his brow. O that frown! How should the thought of it go to our hearts! To have offended our kind and gracious Father! To have deserved his displeasure! To have rendered it necessary for him to assume the rod! If we think thus, and are led by the thought to inquire into the causes of the displeasure, as they exist in our hearts or in our lives,-then may we profit by the stroke; not otherwise.

But still, the displeasure is the displeasure of love. The frown is the frown of love. The correction is the correction of love. And a conviction of this also is necessary to its proving salutary, and to the prevention of the two extremes against which the text warns us. We shall not “despise” it, when we are convinced of its being in love; nor, on the other hand, shall we “faint” and be “weary.”

Correction, when required, is represented as an essential part of an affectionate and faithful parent’s trust; so that God would relinquish his love, and violate the promises of his faithful covenant, if he did not administer needful chastisement-if he “spared the rod.” Thus the apostle represents the case, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” Hebrews 12:6-7 . This corresponds with the terms used by Solomon, “even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” The language implies his delighting in him at the very time when necessity is laid upon him to “visit his transgression with the rod, and his iniquity with stripes.” The bowels of the fond father yearn over his son-never more tenderly than when thus constrained by affection to put him to pain.

On the part of God, there is love in the gracious end of every trial. What is it? It is expressed under no fewer than three forms in the same chapter of Hebrews, verses 9-12. “Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” There is the general idea of profit. And this profit is expressed first in the emphatic phrase-” and live." The end is to maintain and promote the spiritual life in the soul, and thus to “keep it unto life eternal.” The spiritual life is in imminent danger from the world and the things of the world; and even from the overweening excess of affections that are in themselves not only lawful but right and incumbent-

Our dearest joys and nearest friends,

The partners of our blood-

How they divide our wandering minds

And leave but half for God!

It may be necessary to wound these affections by removing their objects, in order to quicken anew the affections that are due to God, and which the excess of the others was in danger of deadening:-that we may live! It is further expressed in being “made partakers of his holiness.” This is much the same thing in other terms. The spiritual life consists essentially in holiness; and the eternal life in which it ends, or rather, which is its maturity, is just the perfection of holiness. He has the life in perfection, who has the holiness in perfection. (Comp. Isaiah 27:7-9 .) There is no end the love of God can pursue-there is nothing whatever the love of God can possibly effect, in behalf of its objects, more precious than making them Partakers Of His Holiness. O! There is nothing which his children should not-and, if they are right-minded, will not cheerfully endure, for the attainment of such a good! What is there that can be taken away, that does not, if this is substituted, make the loss an unspeakable gain?-We have it again in “the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” We are all sensible of the truth, that “no affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous:"-and it is a comfort that we are not commanded to be in any such state of mind, as that it should seem to us other than we feel it to be:-but oh! what a harvest to reap from the seeds of bitterness and death! if they “yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness!”

And while the end is in love, love times and measures every correction. It comes in its proper season-just when He who is infinitely wise and kind sees it to be needed, and when it will be most salutary. And He corrects in measure-never inflicting one stroke beyond the requisite number; never infusing one drop of bitter beyond what, as the Great Physician, he sees will be salutary.

In addition to all this, God has, in love, given promise of those influences of the Spirit that are necessary to render his discipline efficacious. And he makes the very same appeal to paternal feeling and sensibility that he does in the text, to give us the full assurance of his readiness to grant them, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11:13 . What an encouragement! And if, by the influence that comes from our heavenly Father, such are the happy results of the afflictions of life, we may realize the words of Paul, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us,” Romans 5:3-5 . Such is the blessed influence on earth; and this ultimately rises still higher; it tells on heaven-“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!” 2 Corinthians 4:17 .

Proverbs 3:13-20

LECTURE IX.

Proverbs 3:13-20 .

“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.”

“There be many that say, Who will show us good?” This indeed is the universal inquiry. Wherever men are found, they are found making and pressing it. All the world is astir in seeking an answer to it. In all the conditions of human society, from the lowest to the highest.-from the most barbarous to the most civilized, there is one principle in operation-varying in its manifestations, according to the conceptions of good which, in the different stages of human progression, prevail. That principle is the desire of enjoyment-a desire expressed in this question, “Who Will Show us Good?” The pursuit is the same. The modes and directions in which the object is sought are infinitely diversified. In civilized countries like our own, where the truth of Solomon’s words elsewhere-“Money answereth all things”-is so universally experienced, the acquisition of wealth becomes one of the most general and engrossing of aims and occupations. It fixes more than anything else, the earnestness and constancy of desire and pursuit. He is the nappy man who proves most successful in this chase; whose speculations are most prosperous, and yield the highest return; who strikes the best bargains, and hits the luckiest chances; who accumulates the largest amount in the shortest time, and with the least trouble. That man is called emphatically fortunate, and becomes the object of envy or of ardent emulation to the less successful. And yet-I now speak especially to Christians, to the people of God, whose proper character is, that they are “not of this world,” but “renewed in the spirit of their mind”-terms of very opposite import may many a time be applied to such prosperity, when considered in its influence on spiritual character and state. How often has the prosperity of the present world, been the date of commencing declension in prosperity of a far higher and more valuable kind-the prosperity of the soul in the divine life! How often has the gain thus been loss!-and, as the treasure has augmented on earth, has it diminished in heaven! So that, in the highest and best sense, the acquisition has been anything but fortunate-a curse, rather than a blessing. What is the lesson of the Book of God?-verse Proverbs 3:13 . “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.”

“The mind’s the standard of the man.” Even in the sense of mere mental cultivation, this is true. A well-informed, well-stored mind, is an acquirement greatly superior in real excellence to aught that is merely external,-to wealth, or to all the outward distinction that wealth can procure. It is a source of more rational and richer enjoyment to the person’s self, and a far worthier ground of respectability and honour. There are few objects really more pitiable than an ignorant, senseless rich man,-a man whose mind, in its unfurnished poverty and emptiness, presents a perpetual contrast, which it is impossible not to mark, with his outward pomp and plenitude. Such a man is far from being so truly respectable or happy, as the poorer man who is in possession of a trained and cultivated understanding, and same portion of the treasures of useful knowledge.

But in stating the matter thus, we have taken but the lowest ground. The meaning of the words before us is far higher. The wisdom spoken of is not the mere acquaintance with science and literature, with men and things:-it is of a loftier order, and a richer preciousness. It is the knowledge of God-but not knowledge that “plays round the head” without “reaching to the heart.” It is the knowledge of God inspiring the fear of God;-the fear that is associated with and proportioned to love… This is heavenly wisdom; and of this alone could such things be affirmed as in the passage before us.

The connexion with the eleventh and twelfth verses, justifies the observation here, that this divine wisdom is often effectually learned in adversity. Indeed it is the one grand design of all God’s corrective discipline, to teach wisdom. To this correspond the words of the psalmist-” Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law," Psalms 94:12 . The chastening is evidently connected here with the teaching; the former as contributing to the efficacious accomplishment of the latter.

With the possession of wisdom, or of true religion, there stands connected what silver and gold, and all the jewels of earth can never possibly procure to their possessor-no, nor “all the things that can be desired,” belonging to earth and time. Suppose all the objects of earthly desire and pursuit in the one scale,-riches, with all that riches can command, in the largest variety and abundance,-and true wisdom in the other; the former would “fly up and kick the beam”-lighter than vanity in the comparison Put everything a luxuriating imagination can suggest on the one side, with the exception only of this wisdom; and put this wisdom by itself on the other, stripping the possessor of all else that heart can wish-the latter is, beyond expression, the more eligible. But, in forming such an estimate, it must never be forgotten of what sort of being we speak, when we speak of man. Speak we of a creature whose breath is in his nostrils-a creature whose existence is bounded, at the longest, by a few years, and who then sinks into annihilation, and is as if he never had been? No. We speak of an immortal being; of a being destined by the Author of his existence, to live for ever-to live as long as Himself-through a vast, a boundless eternity; possessing an existence which neither his own nor any created power can terminate, and which, when cycles of unimagined extent shall have passed away, will be no nearer than now to a close, no length of time diminishing eternity! Were the former supposition true, the ground assumed by Solomon might be more than debateable. Reduce man to a child of earth and time, and you render what belongs to earth and time, the only things of real consequence to him:-for what to him are matters that relate to a futurity he is never to reach, but in which he is to have ceased to be? But if man is to exist for ever-O into what comparative nothingness does every thing bounded by the span of his life on earth immediately dwindle! Whatever secures the happiness of his immortal being, it must be an abandonment of reason not to prefer. And yet this preference of eternity to time, is one of the great and distinctive principles of true religion. “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:18 . Is there any enthusiasm in this? Is it not rather obvious common-sense reckoning?-Whenever you admit man’s eternity, and regard true religion as providing for the happiness of that eternity, the truth of Solomon’s comparison must be felt. The mind cannot be sound that does not feel it-verses Proverbs 3:14-15 , “For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.”

And that true religion-the “wisdom that cometh from above”-does so provide for man’s eternity, appears to me to be the lesson of the verse which follows-" Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour."

I am aware that respectable commentators interpret this as meaning simply long life, and all desirable prosperity and comfort in it. But I am of opinion, that both parts of the verse refer to something higher and better; and for this reason especially-that in the verses proceeding, Solomon affirms the incomparable superiority of wisdom to silver, and gold, and rubies, and all things that can be desired of a similar transitory kind. Now it certainly appears far from likely, that Solomon should bring prominently forward as a reason for this superiority, the tendency of wisdom to procure these very things-the long life, and the riches and honours of the present world. “Length of days,” therefore, and “riches and honour,” I cannot but regard as meant in the way of contrast to the same things as they are “highly esteemed amongst men.” It is true, I freely allow, that wisdom does possess a most favourable tendency as to this life; but still its chief recommendation goes far beyond time and the things of time. The “length of days” is the same with that promised to the Redeemer in reward of his work-" He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever," Psalms 21:4 .-It is eternity itself. And the “riches and honour” conferred by divine Wisdom, are riches and honour incomparably more excellent and more lasting than those which the world or which man can bestow. If you compare the verse with chap. Proverbs 8:18 , you will be satisfied of this. The epithet here applied to the riches-“durable riches,” is evidently intended to make an emphatic distinction between them and the riches of earth. These are ever described in God’s word as the very reverse of durable. The riches meant here, then, are such riches as are spoken of elsewhere, as bestowed by the Saviour on all who come to him-the glories and enjoyments of heaven, or rather of the spiritual life begun on earth and consummated in heaven-being represented under the figure of those things which are most highly prized amongst men.* And as to the honour, it is not “the honour that cometh from man,” the eager aspiration after which the Saviour represents as one of the greatest obstacles to men’s submission to the wisdom of God-" How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" John 5:44 -But God hath said-“Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed,” 1 Samuel 2:30 .-And the Saviour hath said-" If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour," John 12:26 .-What an honour is this-bestowed by God himself-a participation in the glory of his exalted Son! And that Son declares-" To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne," Revelation 3:21 .

• See Revelation 2:9 ; Revelation 3:18 ; 2 Corinthians 8:9 ; 2 Corinthians 6:10 . James 2:5 .Matthew 6:20Matthew 6:20 .

How complete the two things in this verse, when put together! With one hand Wisdom bestows length of days; with the other provides for the enjoyment of the life thus bestowed:-or, inverting the order,-with one hand she bestows riches and honour, and with the other eternity to possess and enjoy them! Then follows-verse Proverbs 3:17 . “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” The ways of Wisdom are the ways of practical piety-of faith, and love, and holy obedience. All the variety of obedience is comprehended in the phrase her ways. These are the ways she marks out. And these ways are “ways of pleasantness, and her paths are paths of peace.”

Such has been, and such is the experience of every true child of God. I speak not of him who has “a name to live “-profession without principle-form without power,-whose religion is the dictate more of the conscience than of the heart. I speak of him who has really experienced the renovating power of the gospel, and who “delights in the law of God after the inward man.” True religion yields its joys only to the heart that is unreservedly surrendered to its sway. While the heart continues to be parted between God and the world,-while, amidst outward conformity to the claims of religion, the love of the world is still retained and cherished,-it cannot be to the disparagement of religion, that the happiness promised by it to its votaries is not enjoyed. Even in consistency with his own happiness, “no man can serve two masters.” Their opposing characters and demands must ever render the attempt irksome and unhappy. But in true religion itself-in the ways and paths-the more open and the more private walks-of heavenly wisdom-there is true blessedness. What, O what is there in true religion to engender gloom? It is light; and it is the property and office of light, not to gather mists, but to dispel them. It turns the shades of night into the morning.-Is a sense of God’s love gloomy?-the thought of having our sins forgiven, and being the objects of the divine favour, the paternal affection of our heavenly Father? Is this melancholy? Is it saddening to have the hope of eternal life? Is it an unhappy thing to have the mind tranquil and serene amid all the trying vicissitudes of life, through firm faith in the wisdom, the faithfulness, and the love of a covenant God? Is it fitted to make a man miserable, to have his appetites, passions, and desires under subordination and control, their restless turbulence and contending demands repressed, and their murmurs and agitations and frettings quieted? Is it an overpowering cause of dejection, to be made like God, and to have the presence, and smile, and aid, and guidance, and blessing of God, as our God, in every season of darkness and distress, and in the valley itself of the shadow of death? Is the anticipation a disheartening one, of being with God for ever, in fullness of joy?

Is this a picture of gloom and wretchedness?-a picture from which the mind should shrink with aversion or turn with disdain? Must not the mind be in a strangely unnatural and unreasonable state that thinks so, or feels so? And yet this is true religion. These are its native accompaniments and results! There is not, indeed, here the “laughter of the fool”-the intemperate merriment which is so often but a poor cover to a spirit that is ill at ease; but there is true joy,-substantial delight-the steady sunshine of the soul-“pleasantness and peace.”

The same train of thought is pursued in verse Proverbs 3:18 . “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.” Whatever is productive of true happiness-or rather, perhaps, whatever has a salutary and life-giving influence on the spiritual condition-is called by Solomon “a tree of life.”* The allusion is obvious; and in the words before us, it must be understood in the highest amount of import of which it is susceptible. The tree of life, the sacred symbol and pledge of immortal blessedness to continued obedience, had its place in the centre of the original Eden; and the import of it, as a symbol now, may appear from such passages as these:-“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”-“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”-“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city,” Revelation 2:7 ; Revelation 22:2 ; Revelation 22:14 .

• Comp. Proverbs 11:30 ; Proverbs 13:12 ; Proverbs 15:4 .

Observe the two clauses of the verse-” She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her; and happy is every one that retaineth her.” There is a necessity for retaining as well as laying hold. If we retain the instruction of Wisdom, hidden in our hearts-the principle of steadfast practical godliness,-it will then be in us a fountain of perennial joy-a “well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” Or, to keep by the figure in the passage-the “tree of life” will continue to yield its pleasant and salutary fruits, not through the present time of sojourning on earth merely, but for ever, in the paradise above.

“Happy is every one that retaineth her.” We spoke of man as immortal-destined to an interminable existence. This is one view of his true dignity. There is another. It arises from the amount of his susceptibilities, of enjoyment on the one hand, and of suffering on the other. Think of what man was, of what he is, and of what he is capable’ of again becoming. His capabilities are such, that nothing beneath God himself can satisfy them. To make man truly and permanently happy, he must be “filled with all the fullness of God.” God himself must be “the portion of his inheritance and cup.” His soul can be filled from no created fountain. And Wisdom provides for him a portion adequate to his most unbounded desires, to his most expanded capacities. God will be the fullness of his joy!

The excellence of wisdom is further recommended from its source. It is divine. It comes from Him whose possession of it is infinite, and who, in all his works, has given displays so wonderful of its infinitude:-verses Proverbs 3:19-20 . “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.”

The entire plan of creation-the mental model of this wonderful universe-in all its vastness and all its variety-was the product of wisdom-of divine wisdom-of Him from whom ice must learn our wisdom. There are some who take Wisdom here to be a personal designation and to have the same import as The Word. The ancient Jewish interpreters give not a little countenance to this principle of interpretation,-explaining it of the Messiah. It is sufficiently evident, however, from the variety of terms in these two verses-“wisdom” “understanding,” “his knowledge,"-that it cannot be personally taken here. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, are all recommended-by this consideration, that they are divine attributes, and were exercised and manifested by their divine possessor in the contrivance and formation of the universe. The spirit of the recommendation seems to be, that, as it is “the Lord that giveth wisdom”-the wisdom which Solomon eulogizes and recommends-that which comes from such a source must be excellent-well worthy the desire and the solicitation. Think of what wisdom, as it exists in Deity, has done-the wonders it has wrought! This will recommend God’s lessons. He is able to give wisdom, who has thus displayed it: “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth.”

The founding of the earth seems designed simply to convey the idea of the stability of this well-ordered world,-a world still “clothed with beauty,” even for rebellious man. And what must it have been in its original perfection, ere marred and blighted by the curse? The earth, in the sublime phrase of another scripture writer, is “hung upon nothing;” yet is it used as the very emblem of stability-” the firm foundations of the earth"-" the earth abideth for ever." The foundation of every part of the earth’s surface is its centre; because by a force whose nature we do not understand, and which may be considered as but another name for the might of the ever-present Creator, all the parts gravitate towards the centre, and by this power are all held together, as steadfastly as if they rested on an immoveable basis; and by the same power, the earth, with unalterable constancy, retains its position in the system-pressed by it equally on every side, as firmly as by the most solid material, never shifting one hand’s-breadth from the place assigned it.

The “establishing of the heavens,” is explained by the account of their creation. (Genesis 1:6-8 .) Or by “the heavens” we may understand something more extensive than the firmament of our globe-that atmosphere of superincumbent air that gives its blueness to the concave over our heads. “The heavens” may be interpreted of the visible regions of space-the starry heavens with all their hosts.

The reference, in the first clause of the 20th verse ( Proverbs 3:20 )-“By his knowledge the depths were broken up” seems to be, not to the breaking up of “the fountains of the great deep” at the deluge, but to the account of the first separation of sea and land at the creation. The continuous fluid mass was then broken up and dissevered, being separated thenceforward by the intervening barriers of land-a work to which no less sublime allusion is made in the Book of Job:-" Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? “When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” chap. Job 38:8-11 .

In the latter part of the verse, we have a beautiful exemplification of the resources of God’s “manifold wisdom”-“by his knowledge-the clouds drop down the dew.” From the entire surface of the earth, and more especially from that of seas, and Likes, and brooks, and rivers, there is insensibly effected, by the warmth of the solar rays, a perpetual exhalation of vapours. In the higher and colder regions of the atmosphere, these vapours condense into clouds, and are poured down in return upon the earth in the form of rain,-or distil insensibly, in the coolness of the evening and the night, in refreshing and fructifying dews. There is thus a constant reciprocation of supplies between the earth and the atmosphere-giving and receiving with common benefit,-a kind of circulation of fluids, the water being the life in the vegetable world, as the blood is in the animal. The waters which are above the firmament are supplied from the waters which are beneath the firmament. They again descend, to supply the springs, and streams, and rivers and seas, so as to “water the earth, that it may bring forth and bud, to give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater;” and to clothe it with all the untold variety, and exuberant profusion of vegetable life and loveliness.

To this “only wise God,” then, his creatures are to come for wisdom. Let them “ask of God, who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not."-And those whom God makes truly wise, he makes like himself. Mark the character of true wisdom, as it appears in Him. His wisdom is not mere speculative, or even mere practical skill-skill of contrivance, skill of execution;-it is skill directed to good ends; skill appropriately and beneficially applied; applied for ends in which are united the glory of his own name and the happiness of his creatures. The entire system of nature demonstrates this. In the same manner, the wisdom that “cometh from above”-that cometh from God-is like his own. It is not mere knowledge. It is knowledge, with the disposition and ability rightly to apply and improve it,-agreeably to the ends of our creation-the glory of God, our own happiness, and the benefit of fellow-creatures. And knowledge-the knowledge which God by his word and Spirit imparts-thus improved, is substantially True Religion.

In inviting you from the ways of the world to the ways of wisdom, we invite you to true happiness, to happiness which will never either pall in the enjoyment, or prove bitterness in the recollection, or terminate in disappointment and eternal loss. We invite you to the best, the purest, the highest, the richest enjoyment of which your ethereal and immortal nature is susceptible; to the enjoyment of the divine favour, the divine image. The divine presence, the divine intercourse!

Proverbs 3:21-35

LECTURE X.

Proverbs 3:21-35 .

“My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory; but shame shall be the promotion of fools.”

“Sound wisdom,” which in the first of these verses we are enjoined to “keep “-to retain in our hearts, and follow in our lives, is the wisdom taught by the word and Spirit of God. It has been already considered; as also the true benefit and honour which it secures; and to which allusion is again made in the words which follow-” They shall be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.” And as it is the part of “sound wisdom and discretion” to renounce confidence in self, and to trust in the Lord, the assurance follows-” Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble."

The following verses very beautifully describe the serenity of spirit, the undaunted fortitude, the equanimity, the tranquil satisfaction, which spring from this constant, steadfast reliance on the providence and promises of God; when accompanied by “the testimony of a good conscience”-a conscience unscarred by the remembrance of wilful sins, and that enjoys peace through the blood of atonement:-verses Proverbs 3:24-26 . “When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not,” rather, thou shalt not be, “afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh, For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.”

We have the truth of these verses finely exemplified in the experience of the pious father of Solomon, in those times when he was encompassed with enemies, on the alert for his apprehension and his life-" I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about," Psalms 3:5-6 . And in the form of assurance to others, founded upon his own experience, and amounting to a divine engagement, he says, “Jehovah is thy keeper: Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. Jehovah shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. Jehovah shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore,” Psalms 121:5-8 .*

• See Psalms 46:1-3 ; Psalms 91:1-5 .

“The desolation of the wicked,” ( Proverbs 3:25 ), may be taken in one or other of two senses:-the desolation made by the violence of the wicked; or the fearful and desolating vengeance executed upon them, whether in temporal judgments, or in the infliction of their final sentence.

From the terms before used, respecting the final destruction of the wicked, it is most likely that to it the reference is in this verse.* Then the people of God shall be undismayed. When “the heavens being on fire are dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat,” they shall smile over the ruins of a burning world; for in that last dread day, “the Lord shall be their confidence;” so that they shall say with triumph, “Lo! this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation,” Isaiah 25:9 .

• See Proverbs 1:27 .

In the verses which follow, we have some of the practical maxims of sound wisdom:-verses Proverbs 3:27-28 . “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.” This practical injunction may be applied-

1. To all lawful debts-for articles purchased, or for work performed:-2. It is strongly applied to the wages of labourers and servants; they being inferiors, and therefore in the greater danger of being treated in the manner described. Their case, accordingly, is carefully guarded.*1-3. To Government taxes, which ought to be regarded as debts due to the community; due by every member of it, for value received; namely, for the protection of person, and property, and liberty, and for all the benefits of good government. They should be paid with the same readiness and cheerfulness as other lawful debts.*2-4. To debts of charity and benevolence. For such debts there are. They cannot indeed be claimed; they cannot be made good in law. But they are due-due on the principle of the great rule or principle of right as laid down in this book-the “royal law,” (Matthew 7:12 .) “Wherever the obligation of this law is felt, it will effectually prevent the conduct reprobated in these verses. The conduct, alas! is too common. It may arise from various sources; as-

*1 See Leviticus 19:13 .Deuteronomy 24:14-15Deuteronomy 24:14-15 .James 5:3-4James 5:3-4 .

*2 See Romans 13:6-7 .

1. From an avaricious reluctance to part with the money;-a reluctance which discovers itself even although it is known that the thing must be done, that the payment must be made. The avaricious man is so loath to part with the object of his idolatry, that even a day’s delay pleases him. To-morrow is his day when he has to give; to-day, when he has to receive. In either case he has the pleasure of a day’s longer possession, and a day’s more interest. It may be little, but still it is something.-2. From indolent listlessness, careless, sluggish indifference. The man “has it by him;” but he is not in a mood to be troubled. He is occupied about something else, or he is not disposed to be occupied at all; and if the creditor be an inferior, very slight reasons or excuses will suffice. The man does not think either of the trouble, or the more serious inconvenience, to which he may be putting the claimant; while from mere inertness, mere indolent inconsiderate self-indulgence, he puts him off; and that, it may be, for successive times. This selfish thoughtlessness is very reprehensible.-3. From insolent superciliousness. This is often discovered towards inferiors, or towards persons against whom there exists a grudge. It arises from a pitiful and despicable desire to show superiority, and make its opposite be felt; to make it appear that the rule of payment to them is, not when they want, but when we choose! It is the vice of little minds-ungenerous, unjust, unchristian, unmanly.

It is a very common case in matters of charity. Great backwardness is frequently shown. There is an inward struggle between the dictates of avarice on the one side, and those of conscience or politeness on the other-“I dare say,” exclaims your money-loving professor, “the case is a very deserving one; but really I have not thought of it, and have not time to think now; do please call again in a few days, when I shall have considered it a little.” You do call: but in the midst of so many other matters, he really has quite forgotten the matter; he is sorry, truly sorry for it-but could not help it. And again you are put off; and all in the hope, the real but hypocritically dissembled hope, that you surely will not take the trouble of coming a third time. If, trusting to the sincerity of his assurances, you do venture the third call, ten to one but your importunate dunning affords a good apology for a passion, and a consequent fiat and hasty refusal-to which his mind had been made up from the beginning!

With regard to debts, which we are aware are to fall due at certain times, the precept clearly involves the duty of “having it by us” when those times come round. That it is not in our power at the time, may be a truth; but it forms no sufficient excuse, when we might have had it in our power had we been duly provident. Every debtor is bound to exert himself to the utmost, in every practicable way, to make provision for meeting the just demands of his creditors at the date of his engagements. This is what we ourselves expect when we are the creditors; and it is what we are bound to do when we are the debtors.

The next precept is one against the abuse of confidence:-verse Proverbs 3:29 . “Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.”

The conduct here condemned is one of the basest of possible crimes. He “dwelleth securely by thee,” means he has full confidence in thee, depends on thee, is altogether unsuspicious of thee. How odious, then, the idea of imposing on that unsuspecting confidence. Specially odious must it be, if pains have been previously taken to inspire confidence, by the assumed appearances of friendship and goodwill, for the very purpose of leading into a snare-thus laying the train, studying and devising evil, betraying and disappointing the trust purposely inspired and cherished!

In such cases, some selfish end must of course be supposed in view. And the evil may be practised in a very great variety of ways. As for instance:-A man in business does what he can to obtain another’s confidence; or, whether he acts with a view to this end or not, he knows he has that confidence; and he takes advantage of it to obtain large quantities of goods from him, when quite aware that his own affairs are precarious and his credit sinking, and that neither the goods nor the money for which he applies can retrieve them! This is treachery, and treachery of no ordinary turpitude.

Servants too may advance their selfish interests by practising upon the confidence of their masters or mistresses; and by a winning and artful address may insinuate themselves into that confidence, for the very purpose of abusing it. This has been done. It is signally base. On the other hand, there is not a more honourable or a more really valuable character than a trustworthy, faithful servant,-one who fully merits confidence, who never betrays or abuses it, but makes it in every way subservient to his or her employer’s interest. Such a servant is a treasure; and such servants ought all Christians in that station of life to be.

Such, alas! is the depravity of human nature, that there are not wanting cases in which the most nefarious crimes have been perpetrated through the medium of unsuspecting confidence, previously and studiedly inspired. The wife of a man’s bosom, or the child of his fond paternal love, has been seduced, and his heart wrung with incurable agony, and his family comfort, and happiness, and honour destroyed, by the unwitting confidence he has reposed in a seeming friend, to whom he has given up the fullness of an unsuspicious heart. And the assassin himself has plunged his dagger into the bosom which he had previously succeeded in divesting of all apprehension and even while the smile of security and unsurmising trust has played upon the lips, and sparkled in the eyes, of the betrayed and murdered friend! Far-O far from all who call themselves by the Christian name be everything of the nature of falsehood and treachery! It is, in all circumstances, wrong to “devise evil” against others; but to devise it under the cover of confidence, inspired by us and reposed in us, is infamous-is Satanic. It is the very sin by which “the devil beguiled Eve through his subtilty.” The very first thing he did was to insinuate himself into her good graces-to gain her confidence-to inspire a feeling of security. And having brought her mind to this position, he tempted her to the deed by which a world was involved in misery and death. All, therefore, who act such a part as is here condemned, “are of their father the devil.”

The same spirit that will avoid this evil, will avoid also the next:-verse Proverbs 3:30 . “Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.”

The spirit here condemned is not seldom discovered when any spite or jealous grudge, on whatever ground, is entertained towards one who is known to be a man of quietness and peace, averse to every thing like contention. There is a special pleasure in vexing and annoying such a person; forcing him into ill-humour and strife,-a most malignant pleasure!-compelling him, by dint of annoyance, to say and do things, which are then converted into charges and grounds of difference and quarrel! There are men of so strange a temper of mind, that they will not allow others to live in peace. Their delight is in teazing, vexing, and plaguing their neighbours. They seem to make a study of the art of strife. They have no rest, but when disturbing the rest of all about them. With such men of contention David had to do, when he said, “My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war,” Psalms 120:6-7 .

Under this particular must be included a litigious spirit. You find men loud in their protestations against law-the folly and the evil of going to law, who yet, somehow, are ever belying their professions. They can’t help it, they say, it is their neighbour’s fault, not theirs; but they are seldom out of court-ever after some plea or other. They magnify to importance the merest trifles; and suppose, or make, and prosecute injuries, where none were ever either intended or committed.

The language before us does not mean that we may indulge a spirit of strife, even when there is cause-even when harm has been done. The man of God will ever be the opposite of a man of strife. He will rather take wrong, than foment discord; he will bear much rather than come to any rupture. Instead of making quarrels, he is ever anxious to compose and to heal them. This is the spirit inculcated by the Lord of Christians, and exemplified in his own character. He did not “strive nor cry.” “When “he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not.” And all his laws inculcate the spirit of amity and peace. *

• See Matthew 5:39-41 .Romans 12:18-21Romans 12:18-21 . 1 Corinthians 6:6-8 .

The spirit of strife is allied to the spirit of oppression, or a proud and overbearing spirit. This comes next in order:-Proverbs 3:31 . “Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.”

“The oppressor” whether public or private, the man who “grinds the faces of the poor” by severity and extortion, may succeed, may prosper; may, by this means, amass a fortune, and rise to still higher honour. Suppose this the case. Still, he is not to be envied; not only because envy is in itself wrong, but because there is really nothing in his character and career to produce it. His prosperity is not to be envied even by the poorest and most suffering victim of his oppression. And while he is not to be envied, far less are his ways to be imitated, for the sake of obtaining the envied results-the same wealth, the same greatness, the same power; “Choose none of his ways.” The reason is assigned in the next verse, “For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous.”

“The froward” is a general denomination, under which the oppressor is evidently here included. It means one who is self-willed; bent on the gratification of his own propensities, the indulgence of his own passions, in spite of the restraints imposed by either divine or human authority. Men of this description are “abomination to the Lord.” This is a certain truth, and ought to be held as a firm and fixed conviction, all their success and prosperity notwithstanding. It may seem as if God smiled upon them; but temporal prosperity is a very fallacious measure of divine favour. So the psalmist Asaph was convinced, after being recovered from his temptation, arising from the observation of the troubles of God’s people, in contrast with the abundance and the ease of the wicked. They were still wicked, and the more the objects of God’s wrath that they were the enjoyers and the abusers of his goodness.*

• See Psalms 73:18-20 . So also Psalms 37:1 ; Psalms 37:7-9 .

In contrast with these being an “abomination” to the Lord, it is added-“but his secret is with the righteous.”

This, then, must be understood as an expression of special favour-of approbation, delight, and love.* It seems to mean, that the Lord will freely reveal to the righteous what he keeps from others-the truths and promises, the blessings and joys of His covenant of peace-secret to the soul that possesses them, intransferable, “passing all understanding,” “unspeakable and full of glory.” The secret of the Lord-“the secret of His covenant,” had then perhaps a special reference to what was at a future time to be more fully and clearly revealed; that which, to use Paul’s expression, “from the beginning of the world, was hid in God.” Thus God did to Abraham his friend, imparting to him, and to some others, in special favour, clearer discoveries than to the generality of believers, of the coming glories of his salvation. Speaking, however, simply after the manner of men, those with whom our “secret” is, are clearly our most intimate and confidential friends. The expression, therefore, may be interpreted of the friendship of God. Our blessed Lord throws light upon it, when he says to his disciples, “Ye are my Mends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you,” John 15:14-15 . And this may be compared with the assurances of intimate fellowship expressed in the preceding chapter, verses John 2:21 ; John 2:23 . “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

• See Psalms 25:14 .

Instead of choosing the oppressor’s ways, then, choose the ways of God’s people-of those with whom “his secret” is; in whom He delights; whom He admits to his confidential intimacy, and blesses with the secret intimations of his love. Cast in thy lot with them.

The same idea is expanded in verse Proverbs 3:33 . “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.”

The expression is an affecting and fearful one. There may be in it an allusion to the terms in which the denunciation was delivered to the disobedient and rebellious in Israel, Deuteronomy 28:15-19 . Upon the man who departs from God-from his truth and from his ways-” his wrath abideth.” His curse rests on him in the house and by the way. It remains in his dwelling-place. It mingles with all his domestic enjoyments; and his family, following his footsteps, entail upon themselves his guilt and his punishment, become inheritors of this curse of Heaven. It is the melancholy portion of the households that " call not upon the name of the Lord;" in which no domestic altar is erected to God’s worship, and no incense is offered of morning and evening devotion; where, instead of being trained in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” the rising inmates are suffered to grow up with “no fear of God before their eyes.” How delightful the opposite side of the alternative, “But he blesseth the habitation of the just!” This is exactly the reverse-as in Deuteronomy 28:2-6 . The Lord loved of old, and loves still “the dwellings of Jacob.” These are among the places where “Jehovah records his name,” and where He fulfills the promise-“I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.” He is “the God of the families of Israel."-His blessing the habitations of his people, does not imply that affliction shall never be permitted to enter them. It may; it does. Death itself finds his victims there as well as elsewhere. But trials are not curses. Even when they come in heaviest accumulation, the blessing of the Lord is still there. It is not withdrawn. It is many a time bestowed more richly than before. He himself, with the hand of a Father, mingles the cup; and he infuses blessing into it:-

“‘Tis mix’d with his unchanging love,

And not a drop of wrath is there.”

And, through divine influence on instruction and example, in answer to believing prayer, the children of God’s people succeed to the grace and the blessing of their parents. Grace, indeed, does not “run in the blood;” but it runs in the promise, and in the current of faithful parental tuition.*

• See Psalms 103:13-18 .

The same strain of sentiment continues in the following verse-“Surely he scorneth the scorners; but he giveth grace unto the lowly.” “The scorners” are here set in contrast with “the lowly.” They are, therefore, the proud; whom the Lord “knoweth afar off.” They are those who, in the spirit of lofty self-consequence and arrogance, treat with scoffing disregard the truths and precepts of God; who will not submit themselves to God’s humbling terms of reconciliation and favour; who disdain being, as all sinners must be, “debtors to grace;” who refuse to be taught, and to submit their minds to divine dictation, or their consciences to divine authority, or their lives to divine guidance and control.-“The lowly” are those who have learned their true character and situation as sinners, and have taken the position assigned to them and appropriately theirs, as suppliants for mercy. Their representative is before us, in the character and behaviour of the publican in the parable-who, in contrast with the high-minded Pharisee, the prototype of the scorners,-“stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” They are sensible of guilt, and willing debtors to mercy. They are sensible of weakness, and dependent on God for promised strength. They are sensible of ignorance, and look upward for divine bight, instruction and guidance. They are humble learners-“the meek,” whom the Lord “guides in judgment, and to whom he teaches his way.” They are gentle and forgiving to men, as they are abased and lowly before God.

Verse Proverbs 3:35 . “The wise shall inherit glory; but shame shall be the promotion of fools.”

“The wise” are the same description of persons as the “lowly.” This is indicated by the words ( Proverbs 11:2 ) “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.” Nothing indeed is more foolish in a creature than pride; unless it be pride in a sinner: and it is only there that pride is to be found. The wise are those who “fear God;” and all who fear God must be “lowly.” They shall “inherit glory.” The glory meant can be no mere earthly honour-that which “cometh from man.” It is the “glory of God”-the glory of which his people are heirs, which is the object of their steadfast and joyful hope (Romans 5:1-2 .); and of which the saints under the old as well as those under the new dispensation were the blessed partakers. They “inherit glory.” It is prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. Heirship presupposes sonship. They are God’s redeemed and adopted children, and in this relation are heirs, (Romans 8:14-17 .) “But shame shall be the promotion of fools.” They shall find in the end the very opposite of all that they sought and anticipated. They looked for “promotion.” On “the honour that cometh from man” they set their hearts. And “fools,” in Solomon’s sense of the term, may succeed in obtaining what they seek. But how great soever the amount of honour the forgetters of God acquire; how high soever their worldly exaltation, how splendid soever their establishments, how vast soever their authority and how eagerly soever courted their favour,-they are “fools” after all; fools in the estimate of all holy beings; fools in the estimate of Heaven. And the final result of all their worldly occupations and worldly attainments will be-” shame and everlasting contempt." This shall be their final “promotion;” and the remembrance, and the irretrievableness of their folly shall be their everlasting torment.

There are one or two closing reflections which the passage naturally suggests-

1. If it is wrong to delay fulfilling the just claims of men, how much more criminal must it be to put off the duty we owe to God. But many, alas! who are the very patterns of scrupulous punctuality in the discharge of their obligations to fellow-creatures, never pass a thought on the deep debt of obligation under which they lie to their Maker, Preserver, and Benefactor! They plume themselves on their honest and conscientious regularity in meeting every just demand upon them,-yet never give themselves the slightest concern about the undischarged, nay the unacknowledged obligations to Him, which every day and every hour brings with it. These obligations, indeed, are such as we never can repay; but both in words and in practice it becomes us devoutly to own and to express them.

2. Surely the maxims of the Bible, were they but followed out, are fitted in their operation to make a happy world! The grand end of the discoveries of the Bible is, Salvation. But it has a most important influence on the personal and the social happiness of mankind. Were its dictates obeyed-there would be no avarice, no injustice, no devising of evil, no envy, no strife, no oppression, no frowardness, no scorning, no pride, no evil passions; but the universal prevalence of “whatsoever things are true, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.”

3. On both these grounds there rests on every Christian the weighty and solemn obligation to spread the knowledge of God’s word-the knowledge of “the glorious gospel.” O! if there be one thing more than another to which the injunction “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thy hand to do it,” is applicable with special force-it is the spiritual and eternal welfare of our fellow-men!

4. Again we say-" Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord!" A man “without God in the world” may amass its wealth, may rise to its honours, may revel in its pleasures, may have “more than heart can wish;” but the saying of the Lord to the Church in Smyrna may as to him be inverted-" I know thy riches-but thou art poor." The mud-walled cottage of the humble peasant, with the blessing of a Father in heaven resting upon it, surpasses infinitely in desirableness the most gorgeous palace of an ungodly prince. The pomp and vanity of the world is but a passing pageant-the gaudy glitter of a day ending in perpetual night!