Proverbs 4

Proverbs 4:1-13

LECTURE XI.

Proverbs 4:1-13 .

“Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.”

Solomon, in the introductory portion of this Book, is especially addressing the young; and youth he knew to be naturally volatile, and listless as to the topics to which he was most solicitous to secure their attention. Hence, like a speaker who sees attention drooping-the interest of his hearers becoming languid-the eyelids heavy-the countenance vacant, and indicating an absent and wandering mind-he often rouses by a fresh appeal, in the language of affectionate concern:-Verse Proverbs 4:1 . “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.”

“Attention” is necessary to the acquisition of all knowledge, and not least the knowledge of divine truth. And when the instruction is imparted by a parent’s lips, earnest and thoughtful attention is specially incumbent on children. The obligation is reciprocal. It lies on parents to teach; it lies on children to learn. Of all knowledge, pious parents will ever be most solicitous to impart to their children the knowledge of God’s will. Whatever be second, this must be first. And while it should be that which parents are most anxious to impart, it should be that which children are most eager to gain. Remember, my young friends, Solomon here speaks of the “instruction of a father.” And for children to disregard paternal instruction, is ungrateful, cruel, wicked, and infatuated.

It is ungrateful. The obligations, under which children lie to parents, are of a nature never to be fully discharged. My young hearers, your fathers and mothers wept for joy at your birth, and many a time wept for sorrow at the sufferings of your helpless infancy and childhood. In that period of your entire dependence, they protected and cherished you; they fed and clothed you; they fervently prayed for you; they hung over your sickbed with the tenderness of unwearied anxiety-trembling between hope and fear; watching each moment every symptom, and rejoicing in the turn of the ebbing tide, and your restoration to health and life. O! your bosoms are yet strangers to the indescribable tenderness and force of parental love. To be rightly known, it must be experienced. How ungrateful, then, not to hear the instruction of a father or a mother, (for.the obligation applies alike to both) when, from solicitude about your bodies, they are taking thought for your souls; when, from care for your temporal, they are rising to care for your eternal interests. As this is the department of their highest obligation, so is it of yours. Sad evidence is it of your gratitude for the one, that you disregard and reject the other!

It is cruel. If you but knew it, there is nothing more agonizing to a godly parent’s heart. It is incomparably worse than that inspired by your severest bodily ailments. O! were you but aware of the secret anguish that wrings the bosom-that gnaws and consumes the spirit-of a pious father or mother, when instruction is contemned, and carelessly or stubbornly refused, you would not act thus.

It is wicked. It is a violation of God’s law. He has made it the duty of parents to instruct their families; and he has enjoined it as the corresponding duty of children, to hear their instructions. In refusing parental counsel, you are disobeying God.

It is infatuated. The young are always in danger of selfsufficiency. They will have their own way, refusing the dictates of superior wisdom and age. But “this their way is their folly.” They are their own enemies. They are treasuring up regrets for the close of life, and for eternity.

In all that I have thus said, one thing has been assumed. Solomon states it in the second verse ( Proverbs 4:2 ):-" For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law." I am speaking of the instructions of godly parents, and supposing them to be in harmony with the lessons of God. Children and youth are prone to question the goodness of them. Their hearts naturally dislike them. They are too strict, too spiritual, too holy, for their taste. Ever prone to worldly and sinful pleasures, they fret at the rein that holds them in. Even though that rein is of silk, and held by the hand of the kindest affection, they would rather be free. Their deceitful heart blinds and perverts their better judgments, so that they “call good evil, and evil good.” The doctrine of God, taught in the Bible, and instilled into the opening mind by godly parents, is, in every sense, “good doctrine.” It is good in its own nature-coming as it does from the very mind of God, by the illumination of his Holy Spirit; and it is good in its results, on the present and everlasting happiness of all who receive it. When temptations allure the young to “forsake the law,” which God gives them, they will find in their sad experience that it is good they are forsaking, and misery they are pursuing.

Solomon recommends his instructions to his own children,-as having been, not his only, but those of their venerable grandfather to himself. And he herein sets before us at once a filial and a paternal example:-verses Proverbs 4:3-4 . “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” Solomon, like Isaac, was a child of promise. He was the appointed heir of his father’s throne, and type of an infinitely greater successor than himself, (2 Samuel 7:12-13 .) He had a name given him, as formerly noticed,* significant of the divine affection and favour towards him. He discovered symptoms of early wisdom and piety, which could not fail greatly to endear him to the heart of his father, and of his mother also. He here shows how he felt the affection of both, and returned it.

• Lecture 1: p. 3.

Solomon was born to a kingdom. Too often has the education of the heirs of thrones been neglected-especially in that department which is incomparably the most important, both for their own sakes, and for the sake of their future subjects. It is of unutterable consequence, that those who are to be entrusted with power-so very dangerous a commission, and one which the temptations to abuse are so strong-should have principle to use it aright; that they to whom the interests of so many others are to be entrusted should be qualified to consult and promote those interests to the most advantage. David manifested his paternal affection for Solomon, in union with patriotic affection for his people, in the instructions he imparted to him, and the counsels and admonitions he addressed to him, in his early years. This example of David as a father, is here recommended to parents; while that of Solomon is recommended to youth.

Ye fathers and mothers, if you love your children, as David did Solomon, you will teach and admonish them as David did Solomon. You will “say unto them,"-and that with all tenderness and importunity, and the tears of solicitude for their well-being, “Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” You will be anxious for the life of your offspring;-for the true happiness of their life on earth,-of which you know by your own experience, if you are God’s people, true religion is the very zest and relish; and more especially for their future life,-their meetness for heaven, and their final attainment of " life everlasting.” Nothing short of this will satisfy you. Were you to be assured that all wealth and honour, and every variety of earthly good, in the richest abundance, were to be the lot of your children in the world, your hearts would still ache for them; you would feel that all was nothing, less than nothing, if the assurance was unaccompanied with any intimation of the safety of their souls. You would feel it an infinite relief to you,-a burden lifted off your spirits,-a joy unspeakable infused into your hearts, were all that variety and abundance of earthly good swept away, and the life of the soul and the hope of heaven substituted in its room.

And, my young friends, look at the example of Solomon. See here, how he goes back in recollection to the days of his childhood, with pious thankfulness-thankfulness both to his earthly and his heavenly Father-verse Proverbs 4:4 . “He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” He thus records it with filial reverence and love, to his father’s honour. I can conceive his heart, when he wrote these words, swelling in the remembrance of the days of his youth, and his eyes filling with the tears of tenderness.

And are there none of us who have cause for similar grateful remembrances? I for one must record mine; and many there are who can look back with delight and gratitude on the same scenes. Well I remember the family group, on the evenings of the “Lord’s day,” with our Bibles and our catechisms, storing our memories, and receiving, in simple explanations, and comparisons of one scripture with another, the early rudiments of saving knowledge-mingled with affectionate warnings, coming from the very bottom of a fond and devout heart, against “the ways of the destroyer,” and all the errors and sins and temptations of the world. The whole circle is before my eye-the eye now of memory and imagination alone, for all who constituted that circle are now gone but he who addresses you. To the Christian faithfulness of a long-departed father I rejoice to bear my renewed testimony, in the very words of Solomon-verse Proverbs 4:4 . “He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” I speak to many who have, through the grace of God, reaped the blessed fruits of such early lessons. Are there any hearing me who can remember scenes of a similar description, but not with sweetness, not with satisfaction?-none by whom, to this day, both the instructions and the recollection of them have been fruitless of saving benefit? O let such, how far soever advanced in life, yet remember, and yet improve the remembrance. Hear, with the ear of memory, “the instructions of a father,” or of a mother, or of both. If your secret convictions tell you that they “gave you good counsel,” it will even yet be for your good to improve it, that you may have their happiness in life, their hope in death, and a participation in the blessedness to which they are gone, and the choice of which they were so anxious to induce you to make. Make it yet-make it note. Ere you leave this house today, make it, and keep to it!

In the whole passage, from verse fifth to verse thirteenth, there is much that is similar to what has already been under our review.

Mark the urgency of the exhortation to the acquisition of wisdom-verses Proverbs 4:5 and Proverbs 4:7 . “Get wisdom, get understanding; forget it not: neither decline from the words of my mouth. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

If you look at what keeps the world astir, you will at once conclude, that most men around you are under the actuating influence of a very different maxim from that presented in the latter of these verses. You might, without being at all chargeable with a libel, read-“Money is the principal thing; therefore get money; and with all thy getting get a fortune.” This, alas! is the world’s “one thing needful.” All else is postponed to this. The world’s advice to the young is, Get money first. Secure a competency (a word of which the limit is never defined); and when that has been done, you will have leisure to think about what good folks call “better things.” Mind you the main chance. This world is the one with which we have first to do, as we are placed first in it. This world, then, first, and then the next! Ah! what a delusion! How many thousand times has it been found that, instead of leisure afterwards presenting itself for acquiring a better portion, the attachment of the heart to the world becomes stronger and stronger, and its seductive power the more and the more fascinating, as it is progressively acquired! The meshes of the net become the tougher and the more entangling, and the escape increasingly difficult, every hour. Its miserable victim comes to be held faster and faster in the toils, from which he flattered himself he would at any time set himself free. He is caught, and kept, and ruined, in the very net which he laid, unwittingly it may be, for himself O! when true wisdom is neglected for this-how pitiable! That preferred, which may never be got; and if got, may not be kept even for a day!-and that foregone for its sake, which cannot fail to be got, if in earnest desired and sought, which is the richest and sweetest relish of everything else, and which itself endures for ever-the portion of the soul, sure as eternity!

The urgency to “get wisdom,” is fully justified by the benefits here enumerated:-verse Proverbs 4:6 . “Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.”

The “preservation” is from the ways of sin, of folly, of the world, of death. From these true religion is the only safety.*

• See chap, 2:10-12.

And true religion is the only way to true honour and joy-to ultimate and permanent good:-verse Proverbs 4:8 . “Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her.” This may be connected with the previous verse; the one being just a carrying out of the conviction of the truth of the other. To “exalt wisdom,"-when we recollect that “the fear of the Lord is wisdom “-is to honour God. It implies the choice of true religion as the chief good-giving it the first and highest place among the objects of desire and pursuit-enthroning it in our hearts, or rather enthroning there Him who is the object of it.-” She shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour,” might be interpreted, as before, of the esteem which really consistent religion is fitted to inspire. It may, by its admirable practical effects, produce confidence, and obtain elevation to offices of trust and consequence and honour amongst men. But something more, something higher and better is intended. This appears from the ninth verse-“She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee."*1 The meaning of the two parts of this verse, when taken together, may be-She shall give thee true dignity here, and confer upon thee glory for ever hereafter. It is impossible, consistently with the ordinary import of the language of the Bible, to interpret the phrase “a crown of glory” of any thing else than the everlasting honours of heaven.*2

*1 See on chap. Proverbs 1:9 ; Proverbs 3:22 .

*2 Comp. Hebrews 2:9 . 2 Timothy 4:8 . 1 Peter 5:4 .Revelation 2:10Revelation 2:10 .

The blessing mentioned in the tenth verse-” The years of thy life shall be many,” has been more than once before us.* I dwell not on it now.

• Comp. Proverbs 3:1-2 ; Proverbs 3:16 .

The repetition of the same thoughts, in nearly the same words, inclines me to interpret the whole passage as the strain of David’s lessons to Solomon. And then we see the pattern after which, under the influence of the same Spirit which rested so abundantly upon his father, Solomon framed his own lessons. The likelihood of this is strengthened by the eleventh verse-“I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.” This, we say, is probably, though not certainly, the appeal of David to Solomon. If we may regard the language, 1 Chronicles 28:9 , “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he mil cast thee off for ever,"-as the sum of the many previous lessons and admonitions of David, we shall have a favourable, and, from what Solomon himself here tells us, a just impression of the tenor of the parental training, of which he had been the subject. Happy, enviably happy the parent who can, with a clear conscience, make this appeal!

We have here set forth the two branches which constitute the sum of parental tuition-instruction and direction; teaching truth and guiding to duty. The one part relates to knowledge-the other to practice. In all rightly-conducted education, the two should never be disjoined. To teach duty without truth, is to teach action without motive-virtue without its principle. To teach truth without duty is to teach motive without the practice to which it should lead. They are both partial-and if kept asunder, both worthless. To act without the only right motive, and to understand the motive, without following it out and realizing it in action-must be alike unacceptable to “Him with whom we have to do.”

The happy practical results of attention to parental counsel, and imbibing the principles and spirit of true wisdom, are expressed in verse twelfth. “When thou goest”-that is, in thy daily walk-thy course of conduct, “thou shalt not be straitened.” The word seems to express the case of one in difficulty and perplexity-contradictory impulses and obstacles pressing and hindering on every side-perpetually producing embarrassment and hesitation, and uneasy apprehension-hedging up the way, and hemming us in, and destroying the freedom and the confidence of advancement. Such is the case of the man who walks according to the maxims of a worldly and carnal policy. He is ever at a loss. As circumstances are ever shifting, he is ever shifting his principles and plans to suit them,-ever tearing and fretting himself with devices for this and the other end. But the “wisdom that is from above” inspires a simplicity and unity of principle, by which a vast amount of this agitating and painful perplexity is taken away, and liberty, delightful liberty, imparted to the steps. This wisdom has one point alone to ascertain-what the will of the Lord is. That point discovered, the mind is instantly at rest. The path is clear; the step free, bold, fearless.-Then, “when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.” May not this refer to cases of urgency, cases calling for instant decision and prompt action? He whose mind is implicitly subject to the divine authority and direction; who is well-informed in God’s word, and familiar with its contents; whose eye is single; whose principle is one; who looks not to the dictates of a crooked policy, but simply to God’s will and God’s glory-will not be often at a loss, or in great danger of making false steps, even when taken suddenly, and at unawares. He will be ready at all times and in all emergencies for action; and his duty will be done, while another is hesitating and considering, looking to results, and balancing probabilities; and, if necessitated to act on the instant, will be in great danger of stumbling-of hitting on some wrong, and far from advisable expedient. In the character of the former-of the man of principle, there is a firmness, a steadiness, a consistent uniformity of conduct, which appears in all circumstances, however different and opposite. His course does not shift with the wind. He is under no necessity of tacking from side to side, and accommodating to every changing current of air, like the vessel that must reach her point by the dexterous and ever-varying management of sails and rudder; but like the ship that is impelled by the marvellous might of steam-goes forward, direct to his destination, against wind, and tide, and current. The urgency of Solomon’s admonitions, implies the existence of temptation and consequent danger-danger, as we have said before, of “letting slip the things which we have heard.” Hence the style of the next verse, “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.” The natural giddiness and levity of youth; the allurements, in all their variety and force, of the world and of vice; the seductive enticements of evil company; the power of inward corruption, and the “wiles of the wicked one”-all draw one way-all against the impulse of heavenly principle, of divine wisdom; and they are all aided by the natural resistance to control of pride and self-will.

That on which we feel that we depend for safety, or for the attainment and continued enjoyment of something on which our hearts are set, and which is essential to our present or our future well-being or both, we “take fast hold of;” we will not let go; having seized it with avidity, we cling to it with tenacious grasp. Thus is it with a shipwrecked and drowning man within reach of a floating plank. With what eagerness he seizes it!-with what a desperate embrace he maintains his hold of it!-he will not “let it go”-he “keeps it, for it is his life.” Thus must it be with the sinner and heavenly wisdom. Thus must you feel your need of it. Thus must you lay hold on it. Thus must you cling to it:-“it is your Life.” You are lost without it. Let no buffeting wave of temptation drive you from it. Let nothing that seems to offer greater security induce you to quit your hold. It is your only life. You must lay hold of true religion, even as the trembling and sinking Peter caught at the out-stretched hand of his gracious and omnipotent Lord. Laying hold on Christ is laying hold on wisdom. In conclusion,-.

1. If it be an evil to spurn at the instructions of an earthly father, how much greater an evil must it be to slight the paternal counsels and entreaties of the divine Father Of All! How ungrateful, how wicked, how infatuated! Cruel we cannot with propriety call it; for all the suffering in which such neglect or refusal results must be your own. It cannot affect the blessedness of Deity.

2. The sentiment respecting wisdom in the seventh verse is the same in substance with that of a greater than Solomon, when he says-” One thing is needful," Luke 10:42 . Salvation and the means of its attainment must be the “one thing needful” for a sinful creature. He is wise who seeks and finds this. He is emphatically the “fool” who neglects it. This is the pearl of great price, which is “not to be gotten for gold,” and which he is an infinite gainer who parts with all else to find, as his everlasting treasure. How poor and miserable are those who get their desires as to this world, in the gratification of avarice, of ambition, of literary and scientific reputation, of personal and social pleasures, and get them to the full. If they live and die without wisdom-without fitness for the life to come-without Christ, without God, without hope!

3. Christian parents, let no infatuated wish to get your children forward in the world-to put them in the way of wealth or honour-to introduce them to what is reckoned genteel society and good connexions, or any earthly consideration whatever, tempt you to neglect their souls or to expose them to jeopardy. Proceed on the principle, that you are making the best provision for their temporal happiness by securing, in the first instance, that which is eternal. If you do otherwise you may rue it with tears of bitterness in the latter end.

Proverbs 4:14-27

LECTURE XII.

Proverbs 4:14-27

“Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the war of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”

The connexion of the fourteenth verse ( Proverbs 4:14 ) with the thirteenth ( Proverbs 4:13 ) is obvious and important. In the latter, youth are admonished in these terms-“Take fast hold of instruction.” But one of the principal sources of temptation to “let instruction go,” arises from the influence of evil company and example. Solomon was strongly impressed with this, knowing well the strength of corruption, and of the natural propensity to imitate evil rather than good. All who have, or ever have had, the charge of the young, must be aware of the natural predisposition to evil. Account for it as you will, the fact is beyond question, established by the recorded experience of all the thousands of years of the world’s history. Were the original bent of our nature to good, the difficulty would be to persuade to evil. It would require the arts of temptation to insinuate an evil thought, to suggest an evil wish, to induce to the speaking of an evil word, or to the doing of an evil act. But the difficulty lies all on the other side. How very easy to teach a child to sin! It may be questioned, indeed, if it require teaching at all to lie, to steal, to cheat, to swear; to be proud, and selfish, and vindictive; to pursue the world, and to disregard and forget God. How difficult the reverse! What unremitting vigilance is demanded, in instructing, admonishing, persuading, expostulating, correcting, plying all the arts of fear and love, in “training a child in the way wherein he should go!” Sin is a contagious distemper, of which there is a predisposition in the moral constitution of our fallen nature to catch the infection. Parents are solicitous, and dutifully solicitous, to keep their children from exposure to the contact of bodily disease. O how much more anxiously should they dread their exposure to the contagion of sin, and worldliness, and folly! They may well adopt, with affectionate earnestness, the terms of dissuasive expostulation in these verses-" Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away."* The language is strong; but to none who know the amount of the danger, will it appear at all stronger than the case warrants. It implies an intense propensity in youth to be self confident-to see no danger-to flatter itself with its possessing sufficient powers of resistance-to resolve on showing this, and to please itself with the thought of cheating the grave prognostications, and mortifying the timid wisdom, of its greybeard counsellors. Many a youth has lived to repent his adventurous self-ignorance and fool-hardiness. Sin is like a whirlpool. He who once ventures within the circle of its eddying waters, in the self-sufficient assurance that he may go a certain length, and then turn, at his pleasure, and stem the current back, may feel the fancied strength of the sinews of his moral resolution but weakness in the moment of need, and may-nay almost certainly will, be borne on further and further, till, all power of resistance failing, he is carried round and round with increasing celerity, and sucked into the central gulf of irrecoverable perdition!

• Comp. Proverbs 1:10 ; Proverbs 1:15 ; Proverbs 2:10-12 .

The reason of the previous caution is assigned in verses Proverbs 4:16-17 -“For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.”

What a contrast between the good man and the evil! When a good man falls into sin, overcome by temptation, his mind is wretched. He cannot bear himself His crime continues to haunt him by day, and to give him a wakeful and restless couch by night. And when he forms and matures a benevolent plan for the welfare of others, and fails in it, his wishes being frustrated by the slighting of his counsels and the refusal of his aid, he cannot sleep for regret and vexation. He sighs over the folly and infatuation which “forsakes its own mercies.” What a shocking and odious character the converse of this, here brought before us! of the bad man-the man who desires and watches for opportunities of evil, who prefers them to the very repose of his weary nature, and even to its necessary sustenance!-who forms schemes of mischief for his fellows, seeks their execution with restless impatience, and, when these schemes are frustrated, can “find no sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids!"-mortified pride, disappointed avarice, unappeased resentment, unsatisfied ambition, and the fretfulness of distracted and conflicting passions, scaring away from them “tired nature’s sweet restorer,” and depriving them of their appetite for their daily food! The meaning of the latter of these two verses evidently is, that the bread these “evil men” eat is the product of their wicked practices, and the wine they drink, of their injustice and rapacity. “They make their violence and deceit bear the expenses of their voluptuousness.” It is not that the wine produces the violence, any more than that the bread produces the wickedness; but that they live by wrong, getting what they eat and what they drink by wicked and violent dealing. Surely these words teach us the correctness of the psalmist’s estimate, “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.”

Solomon proceeds to place in contrast the present condition and the end of both:-verses Proverbs 4:18-19 . “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.”

The image in the former verse is a very beautiful one. We have before us the feeble glimmerings of the morning dawn, gradually brightening, dispelling the lingering shadows, tinging the eastern clouds and the mountain tops, till at length the risen sun pours the fullness of his gladdening light upon the earth, and thence mounts the heavens with increasing intensity of brilliance, till he reaches the meridian of his glory. Such is “the path of the just”-the progress of “the good man,” from the time of his conversion to the close of his life and his entrance on eternity. Light is emblematic of knowledge, holiness, and joy. The three bear invariable proportion to each other,-holiness springing from knowledge, and joy from both-joy spiritual and endless. “The entrance of God’s word giveth light.” The entrance of this light into the mind is often, like the early dawn, feeble, glimmering, uncertain. But when it is the real “light of life” from the Spirit of God, it does not abide so; it increases gradually from the moment of its entrance. He who is “enlightened from above” is eager for more of the blessed light. He thirsts for knowledge, and is on the alert to obtain it. He derives growing information from the works and ways, but most especially from the word of God; and reads all these volumes of divine discovery with new eyes.

Then, with growth in knowledge there is growth in holiness. At the first dawn of spiritual light, some faint desires are felt after God and sanctity. These progressively increase, as the experience increases of the peace of them who love God’s law; and they show their influence in the increase of practical godliness. The renewed sinner receives his fight from the “Sun of righteousness,” and he reflects the light with a growing purity and brilliance. The “beauty of holiness” thus expands and brightens in the character, “shining more and more.” Perfection itself remains as the attainment of a future and higher state of being. There is the zenith of the believer’s glory, of the advancing light of his holy conformity to Him who “is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all.” From that highest point in his heavenly course he shall never go down, never lose one ray of his splendour.

With the progress of knowledge and holiness happiness keeps pace. Every gladdening and delightful association is connected with the image before us-” the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The sun emerging from the east, is likened to a “bridegroom coming out of his chamber,” and to a “strong man rejoicing to run a race."-Joy is both the duty and the privilege of the believer. It is the natural attendant of spiritual illumination and inward purity. This joy too is progressive. Like the sun in every stage of his diurnal course, it may be subject to the overcasting of occasional clouds. But as the sun appears the brighter on his emerging from behind the cloudy veil, so the trials of the just, the darkening shadows that come over them, serve to give lustre to their virtues. They promote their experimental knowledge of God and of themselves, of temporal and spiritual things; and thus they promote their real happiness even on earth. And when they reach their meridian altitude, no cloud shall ever intercept their light. No shadow shall ever for a moment obscure the radiance of their joy. Their felicity shall be perfect, undisturbed, and unending.

On the contrary-verse Proverbs 4:19 . “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” Darkness is, as an image, the opposite of light. It represents ignorance, unholiness, and misery. An awful compound! Yet such is the way of “the wicked,” in the eye of God, and of all holy creatures. All is darkness-behind them, around them, before them. There is no light on which they can look back with pleasure; none to which they can look forward with hope. There is a sense, indeed, in which they are lights. But they are false lights-lights that “lead to bewilder”-meteors, that, when pursued, sink in darkness, and add to the gloom in which those who follow them are enveloped, when they have wandered still further astray in the pursuit. And this darkness increases, till, shadow after shadow deepening and accumulating upon it, it terminates at length in “the blackness of darkness for ever!” Thus there is a progress downward as well as upward-a progress to perfect night as well as to perfect day.

The way of the wicked being “as darkness,” implies at once its cheerlessness and its danger. They “know not at what they stumble.” There are obstacles and perils in their path at every step. The very next movement may throw them over a stone or into a pit; and, as every step in life may be the last, they are at every step in peril of sinking into the pit of woe itself, where “their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

Such considerations may well enforce attention to what follows in verses Proverbs 4:20-22 . “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”

The terms of the twenty-first verse may be compared, for illustration, with those in Deuteronomy 6:6 ; Deuteronomy 6:8 -” And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." Amongst the Jews, there was a sad propensity to take the latter injunction literally and externally. Hypocrites and formalists satisfied themselves with having little scraps of the law written on parchment, and actually worn as frontlets upon the forehead. But this was a delusion. The laws of God are never rightly “before the eyes,” unless they are “in the heart.” The meaning of the former clause of the verse is, that the commandments of God should be kept constantly in view, as the guides of the whole conduct. And this will be the case, when they are “kept in the midst of the heart.” The expression implies the cherishing towards them of a cordial attachment-loving them, delighting in them, and ever cultivating a sincere and earnest desire after conformity to them.

The motive to compliance with the injunction, in verse Proverbs 4:22 , we have had repeatedly before us:-" For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."

“Health” in the Hebrew means medicine: and beyond question, the tendency of sobriety, temperance, and regularity of behaviour, is to the possession of health in the best definition of it-a sound mind in a sound body. But the phrase seems intended to convey the idea of general prosperity and blessing; comfort and enjoyment.*

• Comp. Proverbs 3:8 ; Proverbs 12:18 ; Jeremiah 33:6 .

The next verse contains a most important admonition-“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

In the animal system, the heart is the fountain of life to the whole body. Thence the vital fluid, the red arterial blood, is propelled to the remotest extremities and the minutest parts. In the physical economy, therefore, a great deal must and does depend on the healthy state, and regular and efficient action, of this central organ.-In the moral system, the heart is the term employed for the affections, of which it is regarded, from whatever cause, as the seat. And there is an analogy between the action of the heart in the physical, and the exercise of the affections in the moral economy. As the healthy action of the former affects the vitality and vigour of the entire corporeal frame, so does the well-regulated exercise of the latter, influence the entire character of the moral agent. To the heart, accordingly, all the good or evil in the deportment of the life is ever traced-as to the fountain, whether of sweet waters or bitter-as to the tree, whether bearing good fruit or bad.* The natural character of the heart is given in few but emphatic terms-" Enmity against God," Romans 8:7 . This being its character, it needs to be renewed.

• Mark 7:21-33 . See Luke 6:43-45 .

Its leading and comprehensive principles of action must be reversed. Enmity must be changed into love. This is conversion. This is being “born again.” It is the work of God’s quickening Spirit.

Even the renewed heart requires the. Exercise of an unceasingly jealous vigilance. Hence the injunction, verse Proverbs 4:24 -“Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.”

In counteracting the power of the “law of sin in the members,” we need the constant aid of the Holy Spirit. But the influence of the Spirit is never to be understood as superseding our own watchfulness and diligence; any more than our “living and moving and having our being in God,” renders unnecessary our taking the requisite aliment, and attending to the care of our health. In the animal system, the heart would soon cease its action, and the body decay and die, unless food were supplied to the organs of digestion, and vital air inhaled into the lungs;-by the former of which the means of secreting the blood are furnished, while by the latter its purity is successively restored as it returns from its nutritive circuit to the fountain whence it issued. So, if we would keep the moral affections in healthy action, we must feed on “the bread of life,” and breathe the air of heaven. We must avoid error, and live upon truth. It is thus that the affections are to be kept vigorous and pure. It is thus that the spiritual life is to be maintained in its active vitality-its efficient and influential energy. But the language implies the exercise of an unremitting jealousy over every propensity to sin, and especially the “sin that may most easily beset us.” It implies also a close attention to the motives of all our words and actions. The reason assigned for vigilance over the heart is, that “out of it are the issues of life.” As the fountain is, so will be the streams. But this is not the only reason. “While the issues of the life indicate the state of the spring from which they proceed, the state of the spring itself is that which constitutes the character, and that to which God looks. As the heart is, so in God’s estimate is the man. It is the state of the heart that with Him decides the character. The true character indeed of every word and every action-of all that is external, depends on the inward impulse; on the principle, the motive, the disposition in the heart.

One description of “the issues of life” is then specified in verse Proverbs 4:24 . “Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.”

It is true that vigilance over the heart is vigilance over the tongue, inasmuch as “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” But there is need for particular specification of evils to be sedulously shunned; and of none have we; in general, more need to be reminded than the evils of the tongue. “A froward mouth,” is a mouth not subject to control; a mouth that gives utterance, with proud self-will and scorn of restraint, to the dictates of a rebellious spirit-an unsubdued, unsanctified mind.*1 Beware of imagining that there is little evil in mere words. There is no surer index of the state of the “inner man.” As is the conversation so is the heart.*2

*1 See Psalms 12:3-4 ; and compare it with Ephesians 4:29 ; James 1:26 ; James 3:2-10 .

*2 See Matthew 12:34-37 .

The admonition that follows is one of first-rate importance-verse Proverbs 4:25 . “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”

What is in these terms specially inculcated is, simplicity of principle and aim; singleness of motive; an upright unswerving regard to duty. The path of duty is one. It is narrow and straight. On it the eye should constantly and steadily be set-looking “right on;” not to any seducing objects that present themselves on the one hand or on the other. Many things may allure-may hold out tempting seductions from the onward path. Many other paths may appear more smooth, more easy, and, in all respects, for the time more desirable; but the one and only question must ever be, What is duty?

Verse Proverbs 4:26 . To “ponder the path of the feet,” means to consider it well. It should be “pondered,” by the word of God-whether it is in accordance with its directions; whether it be in harmony with our obligations to God and to our fellow-creatures. The latter part of the verse may be regarded as expressing the result of the pondering, “All thy ways shall be established;” “all thy ways shall be ordered aright.” And such regard implies discretion, inquiry, examination, and prayer.*

• See Proverbs 3:5-6 .

The path “pondered” there must be a subsequent resolute practical adherence to it:-verse Proverbs 4:27 . “Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”

Nothing must be allowed either to draw or to drive you from the good way; neither prosperity nor adversity, riches nor poverty, love of friends nor fear of enemies, hope of good nor apprehension of evil; or in the terms of the apostle, “neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword,”-“neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature”-any thing else in the universe that may be imagined to possess any power of temptation.

The proper improvement of the whole passage is, in the simple but significant words of the Redeemer, “IF YE KNOW THESE THINGS, HAPPY BE YE IF YE DO THEM.”