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Proverbs
Chapter Twenty-five
Proverbs 25
Commentary on Proverbs 25:1-3
(Read Proverbs 25:1-3)
God needs not search into any thing; nothing can be hid
from him. But it is the honour of rulers to search out matters, to bring to
light hidden works of darkness.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:4,5
(Read Proverbs 25:4,5)
For a prince to suppress vice, and reform his people, is
the best way to support his government.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:6,7
(Read Proverbs 25:6,7)
Religion teaches us humility and self-denial. He who has
seen the glory of the Lord in Christ Jesus, will feel his own unworthiness.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:8-10
(Read Proverbs 25:8-10)
To be hasty in beginning strife, will bring into
difficulties. War must at length end, and might better be prevented. It is so
in private quarrels; do all thou canst to settle the matter.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:11,12
(Read Proverbs 25:11,12)
A word of counsel, or reproof, rightly spoken, is
especially beautiful, as fine fruit becomes still more beautiful in silver
baskets.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:13
(Read Proverbs 25:13)
See what ought to be the aim of him that is trusted with
any business; to be faithful. A faithful minister, Christ's messenger, should
be thus acceptable to us.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:14
(Read Proverbs 25:14)
He who pretends to have received or given that which he
never had, is like the morning cloud, that disappoints those who look for rain.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:15
(Read Proverbs 25:15)
Be patient to bear a present hurt. Be mild to speak
without passion; for persuasive language is the most effectual to prevail over
the hardened mind.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:16
(Read Proverbs 25:16)
God has given us leave to use grateful things, but we are
cautioned against excess.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:17
(Read Proverbs 25:17)
We cannot be upon good terms with our neighbours, without
discretion as well as sincerity. How much better a Friend is God than any other
friend! The oftener we come to him, the more welcome.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:18
(Read Proverbs 25:18)
A false testimony is dangerous in every thing.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:19
(Read Proverbs 25:19)
Confidence in an unfaithful man is painful and vexatious;
when we put any stress on him, he not only fails, but makes us feel for it.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:20
(Read Proverbs 25:20)
We take a wrong course if we think to relieve those in
sorrow by endeavouring to make them merry.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:21,22
(Read Proverbs 25:21,22)
The precept to love even our enemies is an Old Testament
commandment. Our Saviour has shown his own great example in loving us when we
were enemies.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:23
(Read Proverbs 25:23)
Slanders would not be so readily spoken, if they were not
readily heard. Sin, if it receives any check, becomes cowardly.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:24
(Read Proverbs 25:24)
It is better to be alone, than to be joined to one who is
a hinderance to the comfort of life.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:25
(Read Proverbs 25:25)
Heaven is a country afar off; how refreshing is good news
from thence, in the everlasting gospel, which signifies glad tidings, and in
the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are God's children!
Commentary on Proverbs 25:26
(Read Proverbs 25:26)
When the righteous are led into sin, it is as hurtful as
if the public fountains were poisoned.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:27
(Read Proverbs 25:27)
We must be, through grace, dead to the pleasures of
sense, and also to the praises of men.
Commentary on Proverbs 25:28
(Read Proverbs 25:28)
The man who has no command over his anger, is easily
robbed of peace. Let us give up ourselves to the Lord, and pray him to put his
Spirit within us, and cause us to walk in his statutes.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Proverbs》
Proverbs 25
Verse 1
[1]
These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah
copied out.
These —
Which are contained in this and the following chapters.
The men —
Certain persons appointed by Hezekiah for that work. Many of them are political
precepts, and such as in a special manner concerned Hezekiah, and other
princes, for the conduct of their house and kingdom.
Copied —
Out of the historical records which were then extant.
Verse 2
[2] It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to
search out a matter.
The glory — It
is agreeable to the nature of God; it is a testimony of his infinite wisdom,
and of his absolute power and sovereignty.
To conceal — To
keep his counsels, and the reasons of his actions in his own breast.
Search out — To
communicate their counsels to others, that so they may search and find out the
right way.
Verse 3
[3] The
heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is
unsearchable.
The heart —
Though wise kings will search out other men, yet their inward thoughts and
purposes are hardly discoverable.
Verse 4
[4] Take
away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the
finer.
Take away —
Then, and not 'till then it is fit for that use.
Verse 6
[6] Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the
place of great men:
Stand not — Do
not affect frequent and familiar society with greater persons than thyself.
Verse 9
[9]
Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to
another:
Debate — If
thou hast any quarrel with him, first try to compose it by private discourse
with him.
Discover not —
Let not heat of contention provoke thee to divulge any of his secrets committed
to thy trust.
Verse 10
[10] Lest
he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away.
Lest he —
Reproach thee for thy gross violation of the laws of prudence, justice and
friendship.
Verse 11
[11] A
word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Of silver —
Which it seems was usual in those times, and was grateful to the eye for the
beauty and variety both of the colours and figures, the golden apples appearing
through net-work of silver.
Verse 13
[13] As
the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them
that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.
Cold of snow — As
drink cooled with ice or snow, as is usual in hot countries.
Verse 14
[14]
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.
Boasteth —
Promising what he never intends to give.
Is like —
Like empty clouds carried about with wind, and not affording that rain which
they promise.
Verse 15
[15] By
long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.
Forbearing — By
patient submission and expectation.
Breaketh —
Softens the hardest heart.
Verse 16
[16] Hast
thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled
therewith, and vomit it.
Honey — By
honey he understands, not only all delicious meats, but all worldly delights,
which we are here taught to use with moderation.
Verse 17
[17]
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house; lest he be weary of thee, and so
hate thee.
Withdraw —
Visit him not too frequently.
Verse 18
[18] A
man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword,
and a sharp arrow.
A sword — Is
as cruel and pernicious as any instrument of death.
Verse 20
[20] As
he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is
he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
As vinegar —
Which dissolves the nitre, and makes it useless and ineffectual.
Verse 21
[21] If
thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him
water to drink:
Bread — By
bread and water he understands all things necessary for his subsistence.
Verse 22
[22] For
thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
For — In
so doing, which words are expressed Romans 12:20, where this text is quoted. Thou
shalt melt him into repentance, and love.
Verse 25
[25] As
cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
So — Because it comes more
rarely and difficultly, after it hath been long expected.
Verse 26
[26] A
righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a
corrupt spring.
Falling —
When righteous men are oppressed by the wicked, the state of that common-wealth
is as deplorable, as if the publick fountains were corrupted.
Verse 27
[27] It
is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not
glory.
Not good —
For health.
To search —
Industriously to seek for applause.
Is not — Is
not only sinful, but shameful also.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Proverbs》
25 Chapter 25
Verses 1-28
Verse 2
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.
The glory of God in concealing
If God were to conceal everything from our view, it would be
impossible that any glory could result to Him from the sentiments and actions
of His creatures. It is by a partial communication of Himself that He has, in
the highest degree, consulted His honour and manifested His wisdom. A
temperature of mingled light and obscurity, a combination of discovery and
concealment, is calculated to produce the most suitable impressions of the
Divine excellence on the minds of fallen creatures.
I. The Divine
being is accustomed to conceal much. Specify some instances.
1. In relation to His own nature, and the manner of His existence.
His essence is altogether hidden from the most profound investigation, the most
laborious research, the most subtle penetration, of His creatures. We ascribe
to Him attributes and virtues; but how He exists, in an essential and eternal
nature of His own, no man can know. His perfections are impressed on the works
of nature, but in such a manner that we learn them only by inference.
2. In relation to the structure and constitution of His works. The
scenes of nature lie open to our view. But the mysteries of nature, with regard
to the essences of things, and indeed to a multitude of subtle operations, are
kept in a kind of sacred reserve, and elude the utmost efforts of philosophy to
surprise them in their concealments, and bring them to light. Those that have
devoted themselves to an investigation of the laws of nature perceive that the
meanest work of God is inexhaustible; contains secrets which the wisdom of man
will never be able to penetrate.
3. In the dispensations of His providence. By which is meant that
series of actions which the Divine Being is continually carrying on in the
government of the world which He has made. There exists such a decided connection
between well-doing and happiness on the one hand, and between wickedness and
misery on the other, as sufficiently to show, even independently of revelation,
that the Divine Being is the patron of rectitude and the enemy of vice. But the
natural course of things is frequently interrupted and suspended by incidental
causes; so that particular exceptions are continually occurring to the ordinary
rule. God conceals the design for which many events are permitted to take
place. And He is accustomed to throw much obscurity over the future. The most
important events of human life, on which our happiness greatly depends, are,
for the most part, concealed from our view.
4. In the economy of grace and redemption. The revelation contained
in the Scriptures extends only to facts, not to the theory of those facts, or
their original causes. The most important truths are communicated in a
dogmatic, not a theoretic, manner.
II. The Divine
Being promotes His glory, by such a temperature of light and shade as that which
distinguishes all His discoveries of Himself, and His dispensations towards His
creatures.
1. The concealment of things tends to glorify Him, as it is, in part,
the necessary consequence of His infinite superiority to all finite beings in
wisdom and understanding. His purposes and designs cannot be adequately scanned
by the wisdom of men.
2. It evinces His entire independence of the wisdom, counsel, or
co-operation of any or all
of His creatures. He may, with infinite safety and propriety, retire within
Himself, into the secret recesses of His own essence.
3. Such a degree of obscurity as attends the partial manifestation of
the Divine will, the progressive development of the Divine purposes, is
eminently adapted to the state, exigency, and condition of men. The prophetic
parts of Scripture are proverbially obscure. By not explaining His doings, God
trains us to submission, and cultures humility and vigilance, while at the same
time exciting to diligence and exertion. While there are many things which God
conceals, and thereby advances His glory, He has made manifest all that it is
essential for man to know. And among the things fully revealed is the
placability of God, His readiness to receive the chief of sinners who repent of
their sins and believe the gospel. (Robert Hall, M.A.)
God glorified by mystery
In our dealing with our fellow-men we resent reserve, secrecy,
isolation, almost as sharply as though they were moral transgressions. We are
attracted by frankness. The best hated men the world has had in it have always
been men of silence. Mystery is one of the arts of crafty ambition, for the
silly world is generally ready to accept silence for wisdom. Men cultivate the
habit of concealment, so that they may pass themselves off for better than they
really are. But reserve is not always ignoble. Strong, and noble, and unselfish
qualities sometimes determine a man’s silence. The welfare of an empire may
sometimes turn upon the power a statesman has of keeping the counsel of a
department. There are reservations in the knowledge that God has given us of
His own nature, purpose, and government; but these reservations always rest
upon motives that are pure, noble, and holy, and are identified with the
highest glory of the Divine character. No mystery is meant to alienate us from
God, but to attach us in closer bonds. It is needless to define the area of
mystery, if indeed that were possible. It starts in God, and covers the last
outlying atom of His dominion.
1. There are mysteries in the Divine nature and government that bear
direct witness to the glory of God’s person. The silence He maintains is a sign
of His self-sufficiency. As a matter of privilege, God may permit us to enter
into sympathy and co-operation with Himself and His work. But He does not need
our help, and by the stern reserve in His revelations He asserts the
separateness and the sufficiency of His own mighty power. If He employ us at
all, it is for our good. His power is separate, sufficient, solitary. God
conceals many things, to remind us of the gulf that separates the glory of His
nature from the dimness of all finite natures. Man is destined to more exalted
and intimate communion with his Maker than any other being in the universe, and
yet there are limitations upon his privilege necessitated by the very supremacy
of God. There are secrets we cannot enter, counsels we cannot share, age-long
problems, the solution of which we are not permitted to see. God conceals many
things, so that throughout the successive stages of our destiny He may bring
into our contemplation of His nature and works elements of inexhaustible
freshness. Reservations that are determined by motives of this type have an
intimate relation to the glory of the Divine name. The revelations of the life
to come will be gradual and progressive. If God’s revelation were a revelation
of exhaustive fulness, a revelation with no reserved questions in it, the very
enchantment of God’s nature would be gone.
2. God is glorified by mystery, because mystery has its place in the
discipline and exaltation of human character. The veiled truth sometimes calls
out a higher faith, a more chastened resignation, a more childlike obedience in
God’s people, than the truth that is unveiled. God conceals many things, so
that He may be magnified through His people’s trust in darkness and
uncertainty. No genuine spirit of trust can spring up in ignorance. In God’s
dealings with us, profound silence and ringing oracle, the hidden and the
revealed, the mystery and the defined truth, alway alternate with each other.
It is “the glory of God to conceal a thing,” because by the very shadows in
which He hides it we are cast with a more pathetic dependence upon His sympathy
and care, and come into truer and more childlike contact with His spirit. God
conceals many things, so that
He may protect us from needless pain and fear, and magnify His own gentleness.
Many a thing must be hidden from a child, and the more sensitive he is, the
stricter must be the concealment. God conceals some things from us to excite us
to nobler and more strenuous endeavour in our search after the truth. There are
truths that we shall come to know through our own thought and struggle, and
deepening spirituality of life, temporary mysteries that it is best for us to
know through conflict, experience, sustained contemplation. God hides many
things from the world, so that He may have secrets with the custody of which He
can honour His own chosen servants. And He conceals some things from us, so
that He may impress us with the solemnities of the unknown. God never conceals
what may be necessary to furnish His people for the work and service of life.
Let the revelation inspire your faith, and let the mystery awaken your awe. (Thomas
G. Selby.)
The glory of God and the honour of kings
I. The meaning of
the passage is supposed to be that God conceals much, and that it is His glory
to do so. There is a truth in this. We often try to find out God. God is the
profoundest mystery in the universe, and yet all is mystery without Him. No
creature knows God. There is much concealed in nature. It is not wonderful that there should be much
in God’s providential procedure that is concealed from us. God’s ways are not
our ways. If He has not given us light, it is better for us to be in darkness.
II. The great
principle contained in the text. The text is a whole. One part must be taken
with reference to the other. The wise man says it is the glory of God to do
that which is not the glory of kings to do. Government is necessary to the very
existence of society. There can be no government without law. It is the glory
of all governments to frame wise and salutary laws for the well-being and true
happiness of society, to guard these by sanctions, and by all the majesty of
power. Governments do not originate that which is moral in law. They do not
create the distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil. Magistrates are
the representatives of law. They are to see that it is respected and
maintained, and they are to punish law-breakers; if not, it is because
offenders baffle pursuit, and hide themselves. If kings do not search out a
matter, it is because they are indifferent to the conduct of their subjects,
and care not whether they are virtuous or vicious; and then the hour of
revolution is at hand; the kingdom will fall. The glory of God is the very
opposite to the honour of kings. God is a law-giver. His will is the law of all
morals. His being is the foundation of all law. And yet He has made provision
for pardoning men. He hides, He conceals their sins. He does this by an
atonement. It is the glory of God to save men by the death of Christ, because
by saving them thus He may magnify His own law, and honour His own government.
Governments have no gospel for criminals. God forgives sins. (H. J.
Bevis.)
Man’s knowledge suited to his circumstances
You know as much as is good for you, for it is with the mind as
with the senses. A greater degree of hearing would incommode us; and a nicer
degree of seeing would terrify us. If our eyes could see things
microscopically, we should be afraid to move. Thus our knowledge is suited to
our situation and circumstances. Were we informed more fully beforehand of the
good things prepared for us by Providence, from that moment we should cease to
enjoy the good we possess, become indifferent to present duties, and be filled
with restless impatience. Or suppose the things foreknown were gloomy and
adverse; what dismay and despondency would be the consequence of the discovery;
and how many times should we suffer in imagination what we now only endure once
in reality! Who would wish to draw back a veil which saves them from so many
disquietudes? If some of you had formerly known the troubles through which you
have since waded, you would have fainted under the prospect. But what we know
not now we shall know hereafter. (H. G. Salter.)
The concealed processes of Providence
Machinery boxed in goes round and accomplishes its work as well as
if it were all exposed to view. At one extremity the raw material goes in, and
at another the manufactured article comes out. This is all that the visitor
sees. For once, and to instruct a stranger, the master may take the covering
off, and lay bare the intricate accumulation of cylinders and wheels; but soon
he shuts the door again. Thus has the Author of salvation in the case of some
opened up in the processes of His providence, which are usually conducted in secret. (W.
Arnot, D.D.)
Verse 4-5
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a
vessel for the finer.
Purifying fires
No text in Scripture brings out with equal distinctness the higher
office of affliction, i.e.,, to develop in us preparation
for a true usefulness. The object of furnace fires is not to melt the precious
metal, or even to release the dross, but to make the metal ready for the
purposes of manufacture. Not the silver ingot, however, but the silver vessel,
is the object of the assayer. When God tries His children, it is not simply that
they shall “come forth as gold,” glorious as is purity of character, but that
they may be both ready to be shaped for His purposes and capable of being used
to fulfil His will. Paul seems to refer to this proverb in 2 Timothy 2:19-21, the only other
passage in which the same truth is taught by the same figure. (Homiletic
Review.)
Take away the wicked from
before the king.
The removal of wicked men from influential positions
This shows that the vigorous endeavour of a prince to suppress
vice, and reform the manners of his people is the most effectual way to support
his government.
I. What the duty
of magistrates is. To “take away the wicked”; to use their power for the terror
of evil works and evil-workers, to banish those from the court who are vicious
and profane, and to frighten them, and restrain them from spreading the
infection of their wickedness among the people. Wicked people are the dross of
a nation.
II. The advantage
of doing this duty.
1. It will be the bettering of their subjects. They shall be made
like silver refined; fit to be made vessels of honour.
2. It will be the settling of the prince. “His throne shall be
established in this righteousness,” for God will bless his government, the
people will be pliable to it, and so it will become durable. (Matthew Henry.)
Verses 8-10
Go not forth hastily to strive.
The worst and best ways of treating social dissensions
The social dissensions that are rife in our world are
incontestable proofs that humanity has fallen from its normal condition. There
is society in heaven, but no social differences or strifes. The text indicates
the best and the worst way of treating such dissensions.
I. The worst way.
“Go not forth hastily to strive.”
1. Precipitant strife is bad in itself. Men should never be hasty in
yielding to a passion. They should make the passion, however strong and
tumultuous for the moment, the subject of thought, and by thought should
subdue, purify, and direct it.
2. Precipitant strife exposes to shame. “Lest thou know not what to
do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.”
II. The best way.
“Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself,” etc. The direction here
seems to imply three things--
1. That an interview is to be obtained at once with the offender.
“Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.”
2. That an interview is to be obtained in order to talk the offence
over. “Debate thy cause.”
3. That the offence must be thus debated before the secret is
divulged to another. “Discover not a secret to another.”
4. That should the secret be divulged to another the pacific objects
of the interview might be nullified. “Lest he that heareth it,” etc. (Homilist.)
Verse 11
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
The lessons of the orange-tree
“Apples of gold” is a poetic name for the orange in more than one
Eastern tongue. “Pictures of silver” may be a figure for the creamy-white
blossoms of the orange-tree. No one who has seen orange-trees in full blossom
and full bearing can have failed to notice how the beauty of the golden fruit
is set off by its framework of white fragrant blossoms. “Fitly spoken” is in
the margin “a word spoken in season”--a timely, opportune word. Delitzsch
renders, “according to circumstances,” by which is meant a good word adapted to
time and audience and to all the conditions of the time. Most of us can
remember some word spoken in the very nick of time and so happily adapted to
our conditions at the moment that it largely influenced our whole subsequent
career. But perhaps the meaning is a word which was the fittest, the most
perfect and beautiful expression of the thought which had to be uttered. “A
word spoken on its wheels.” Every kind of thought has its appropriate
expression in language. What the wise man bids us admire is those weighty and
happy sentences which embody a noble thought in words of answering nobleness.
1. This is the first lesson of the orange-tree--that a happy, a fair
and noble utterance of a wise thought gives it a new charm, a new and
victorious energy. Distinction of style is almost as potent--if indeed it is
not even more potent--on the life and fame of a book as depth or originality of
thought.
2. All force becomes most forcible when it is smoothly and easily
exerted. It is not effort, strain, violence which tell in action any more than
in language, but gentleness, calmness, a gracious mastery and smiling ease. The
wiser you are the less passionate, the less vehement, the less overbearing you
will be. Great forces are calm and gentle because they are irresistible.
Calmness, composure, gentleness are signs of strength.
3. Religion is most potent when it is clothed with grace. A genial
and friendly godliness is like the ruddy fruit of the orange-tree encircled and
set off by its wealth of white, odorous blooms. There was much that was
admirable in the Puritan conception of religion; but though its heart was sound
its face wore a frown. And in many of us religion still wears a sour and
forbidding face. Some there are who still suspect beauty, culture, scholarship,
mirth, and even devotion to God and man, if it take any form other than that
which they approve and prefer. Such people do not render religion attractive.
Let us learn the lesson of the orange-tree, and the greatest lesson of all--the
lesson of charity. (Samuel Cox, D.D.)
Apples of gold in pictures of silver
The term translated “fitly” is a very curious one in the original
Hebrew. It signifies “wheels,” and the marginal reading is “a word spoken on
his wheels,” which means a word that rolled smoothly and pleasantly from the
lips of the speaker to the ears of the hearer. In ancient times the carts had
no wheels, and most things were carried on horseback. There were no roads, and
the carts were put on long shafts, the two ends of which rested on the ground, and
were dragged along by the horse with great difficulty, making deep ruts in the
ground. The first wheels that were used in our country were very clumsy and
rough. Modern wheels are light, and turn easily. The wise man says that each of
your words should be like a vehicle on easy-going wheels, so smooth and
courteous that it would produce no jar or shock to either speaker or hearer;
not hurt by any harshness or roughness, or leave a painful rut behind in the
memory. People in the East are remarkable for the grace and courtesy of their
speech. They carry this sometimes too far, and are guilty of insincerity and
exaggeration. We are apt to err in the other direction, and make our speech too
rough and harsh, fancying that we cannot be true and sincere if we are polite.
We are not so careful of our words as we ought to be. The text directs our
thoughts to the surpassing excellence of gentle and kindly speech. Cultivated
society is so pleasant to live in, because the people who move in it have
learned to control their tempers, are polite and forbearing to each other, and
do not say things that grate upon the feelings and leave a sting behind. But
while good society gives an outward and artificial politeness, the religion of
the meek and lowly Jesus gives true inward refinement and civility. It enables
us to be truly considerate, bearing with the failings of some, overlooking the
weaknesses of others, and having a good word to say of every one. It puts a
wheel on every one of your words, so that it may glide smoothly. There are
persons who grudge to say a word of praise to others, however deserving.
Frankly praise what is worthy of praise, and your words will be sweet and
pleasant to yourselves as well as to others. There is a temptation to be clever
and say smart things, and to use words of sareasm or ridicule at the expense of
those who are not so quick-witted as yourselves. Be very careful in finding
fault with people, lest you should make the offender an enemy. In the text
“apples” probably should be “oranges,” and this fruit gives a more suggestive
figure. The flowers and fruit may be found together on the orange-tree
throughout the whole year. The leaves are evergreen and of a cheerful, glossy
green, and the flowers of a brilliant white, with a most delicious scent. So is
the exceeding comeliness of a wise and gentle employment of your words. A word
fitly spoken can administer an all-round delight in the same way. We speak
about the language of flowers and of flowery language. It would be well if
there was more of this attractiveness in our speech. The old Athenian laws
required that a newly-married couple, when they were alone, should first eat a
quince together, in token, as this fruit was the symbol of good-will, that
their conversation should be mutually pleasant. And so your religion requires,
in all your intercourse with one another, that you should first eat the quince
of good-will, and be careful in choosing smooth words that have no sharp edges
to cut and wound, that roll easily and pleasantly on wheels without making any
jars or ruts. Over against all apples of discord that cause alienation and
strife and misfortune set the golden apples of gentle, kind, considerate words
that will win all hearts around you and sweeten the air and smooth all the
rough things of the world. (Hugh Macmillan, D.D.)
The excellency of fitly-spoken words
The comparison here has undoubtedly an allusion to some old
domestic ornament. “The idea,” says Stuart, “is that of a garment of precious
stuff, on which are embroidered golden apples among picture work of silver.
Costly and precious was such a garment held to be: for besides the ornaments
upon it, the material itself was of high value.” Others think that the allusion
is to a kind of table ornament, constructed of a silver basket of delicate
lattice-work, containing gold in the form of apples. The basket would, of
course, be so constructed as to show off with advantage its precious treasure,
the apple of gold. The ancient Easterns were men of taste and men of art; they
loved the beautiful, and they had their ornaments: and some of their ornaments
were as exquisitely constructed as those of any scenes or times.
I. Words fitly
spoken must be words fitted to exhibit the truth to the best advantage. They
must be to the truth what the basket was to the apples of gold--an instrument
for showing them off to the best advantage. There are words that hide the
truth; they are so profuse and luxuriant that they bury the priceless flower in
their wilderness. There are words that disgrace the truth; they are ill-chosen,
mean, suggestive of low and degrading associations.
II. Words fitly
spoken must be words adapted to the mental mood of the hearer.
1. Different men have different mental moods. Some are naturally
sombre, imaginative, and practical; others are gay, poetic, and speculative.
Words fitly spoken must be adapted to each particular mood: the form in which
truth would suit one mood would be inapt to another.
2. The same man has different moods at different times. Circumstances
modify the condition of the soul. Hence “a word fitly spoken” must be a word
presenting truth adapted to the soul in its existing mood. It must be a word in
due season.
III. Words fitly
spoken should be words spoken in the right spirit.
IV. Naturally-flowing
words. “Spoken upon his wheels.” Not forced or dragged words. Let us all
endeavour to use the right words in the family, in the market, in the schools,
in the debate, in the pulpit, on the platform, and in the press. (D.
Thomas, D.D.)
Apples of gold
Things of rare worth and beauty are words “fitly spoken,” words
that fit the case and match the opportunity. The human voice can do what
nothing else can. Of some men’s words we are sure that they are “apples of
gold.” Such are the words of the prophets who come with messages of hope and
warning. Among words of truth and beauty are--
1. Words of comfort. We have no distance to go to find a human life
that needs a consoling word. On the next foot of land to yours stands a man who
craves for comfort. There are times in life when the word of instruction would
be an injury and the elaborated argument a great hurt, as neither would
minister to the mind diseased; but simple, earnest, heartfelt words, born of
sympathy, are veritable “apples of gold.”
2. Words of counsel. These are not always welcome. Our independent
spirit will not permit us to invite or accept them. Yet many a man traces the
turning-point of his career to the time when he acted on some word of good
counsel. The word of experience is often the word wanted.
3. Words of encouragement. The world will never know what it owes to
those people who have encouraged others. To encourage a man is to help him to
turn some of the possibilities within him into actual achievements. Let us give
God thanks for all those winsome servants of His who walk their appointed ways
across His world, speaking as they
go the encouraging word. (Albert J. Shorthouse.)
Words on wheels
A wonderful deal of good often comes from what Solomon
calls “a word fitly spoken.” The Hebrew for “fitly spoken” here means “set on
wheels.” All our words are set on wheels. If they are good words, they are
wheeling on for good. If they are evil words, they go wheeling on for evil.
Remember this.
A word fitly spoken
A certain Baptist merchant of Richmond became seriously
embarrassed in his business. The report went out that he had failed, and caused
much painful surprise. A few days after the suspension of his business Dr.
Jeter, in passing down the aisle of the church one Sunday morning, met him. He grasped him by
the hand with unwonted warmth, and said, “ How are you, brother? I have heard fine news about
you.” Just about that time the sad brother was feeling that all the news concerning him was
of the worst sort. With mingled surprise and curiosity he asked the doctor what
he had heard. “Why, I heard that you had failed in business, and failed
honestly. It is nothing to lose your money if you have been able to retain your
integrity.” The kind word went far to reconcile the brother to his misfortunes.
He did “fail honestly,” and not long after started again, and rose to high
prosperity. (From “Life of Dr. Jeter.”)
Verse 13
As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful
messenger to them that send him.
The value of a good messenger to his employers
It is not necessary to imagine that Solomon here indicates the
occurrence in Judea of snow in the time of harvest. It is very improbable that
a snowstorm ever happened in that country during that period. The ancients in
the East did as we do, preserve the ice and snow of winter in order to cool our
summer beverages. A cold draught on a hot summer’s day was there, as here, most
refreshing. What such a beverage was to the thirsty man in the heat of a
tropical summer, is a faithful messenger to the soul of his master. Our subject
is the value of a good messenger to his employer.
I. His character
is refreshing to his master. What more pleasing to an employer than the
development of fidelity in his servants? To see them faithful, not only to
their engagements, but faithful to moral truth and to God. Even the Eternal
Master of us all is pleased with the fidelity of His servants.
II. His influence
is refreshing to his master.
1. His service will be likely to inspire his master with confidence
in him. He calmly relies upon his representative.
2. His service will be likely to awaken general respect for his
master. A “faithful messenger” can scareely fail to bring honour to his master.
(Homilist.)
Verse 15
By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue
breaketh the bone.
The power of gentleness
In the government of our words, mildness, or meekness, is
specially commendable. The right disposition includes meekness, gentleness,
courteousness, kindness. These are the virtues of a soft tongue. The opposites
are hardness, roughness, sharpness, bitterness, clamour, brawling. By the term
“breaking” is meant persuading, pacifying, convincing, appeasing, prevailing
with. A meek and gentle way of discourse is the most effectual means to
overcome the fiercest passions and most obdurate, cruel dispositions. A calm
and gentle way in vindicating ourselves is the most effectual means to work
confusion in such
as would calumniate and reproach us. This truth may be confirmed by two
considerations.
1. The nature of these fierce passions and this obduracy or hardness
of temper, which are increased by opposition, and consequently must be abated
by gentleness and yielding.
2. From the nature of lenity and gentleness, whose property it is to
insinuate itself into the hardest things. It is compared with oil. How does
this doctrine consist with the imprecations of Scripture? Explain that some of
them, though pronounced optatively, are to be understood declaratively, as
descriptive of the true state and condition of such parties. Those who used
these imprecations were inspired for a particular purpose. They spoke in their
zeal for God. It may be right to wish evil to come to persons for the sake of
its disciplinary mission. How does this doctrine consist with the severe
imprecations of Scripture? Our Saviour called the Pharisees “vipers,” Herod a
“fox.” The apostle calls some people “dogs.” To this it may be said, those who
have an extraordinary power of discerning may use such hard terms. And those in
public stations may thus severely chide and reprehend. How does this doctrine
consist with the duties of zeal and reproving, which sometimes must be done
with severity? A man may sometimes sin in not being angry. True “meekness of
wisdom” directs a, man how to order his zeal and rebukes. Learn--
1. That if soft words be of such a prevailing efficacy, soft and
gentle actions must be so too.
2. The folly and sinfulness of hard speeches, whereby others may be
provoked to anger and offence.
3. The lawfulness and fitness of giving men the reverence and honour
due to their proper titles.
4. Bitter and provoking words are unmanly, as being against the rules
of morality and very un-Christian, as being against the precepts of the gospel.
(Bp. John Wilkins.)
The manifestation and mightiness of moral power
There are three
kinds of power--material, mental, and moral.
I. The
manifestation of moral power. The words indicate a threefold manifestation.
1. Stillness. “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded.” Forbearance
implies calm endurance--a patience like that which the Great Heavenly Exemplar
exhibited under insults and persecutions.
2. Speech. “A soft tongue breaketh the bone.” “A soft tongue” not a
simpering tongue, not a silly tongue, not a sycophantic tongue, but the “soft
tongue” of tender love and forbearing kindness. Such a tongue is might: it
“breaketh the bone.” This somewhat paradoxical expression expresses the amazing
power of kind words; they break the bone, the ossified heart of the enemy.
Another manifestation of power here is--
3. Service. “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if
he be thirsty, give him water to drink,” etc. “In the smelting of
metals,” says Arnot, “whether on a large or small scale, it is necessary that
the burning coals should be above the ore as well as beneath it. The melting
fuel and the rude stones to be melted are mingled together and brought into
contact, particle by particle, throughout the mass. It is thus that the
resistance of the stubborn material is overcome, and the precious separated
from the vile.” There are but few hearts so obdurate as not to melt under the
fires of love that blaze over and under them. These words direct our attention
to--
II. The mightiness
of moral power.
1. Persuading. “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded.” Thus David
brought down Saul (1 Samuel 24:8-20; 1 Samuel 26:3-20).
2. Breaking. “A soft tongue breaketh the bone.” Loving words can
mollify the roughest natures. Gideon, with a kind word, pacified the
Ephraimites, and Abigail turned David’s wrath away.
3. Melting. “Thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” “The
Americans have a tract on this subject, entitled, ‘The Man who Killed his
Neighbours.’ It contains, in the form of a narrative, many useful, practical
suggestions on the art of overcoming evil with good. It is with
kindness--modest, thoughtful, generous, persevering, unwearied kindness--that
the benevolent countryman killed his churlish neighbour: and it is only the old
evil man that he kills, leaving the new man to lead a very different life in
the same village, after the dross has been purged away.” How sublimely elevated
is the moral legislation of the Bible! (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The power of Christian kindness
There is a tremendous power in a kind word.
1. Kindness as a means of defence. Have you ever known acerbity and
acrimonious dispute settle a quarrel? I have seen men moving amid the
annoyances, and vexations, and assaults of life in such calm Christian
deliberation that all the buzzing around about their soul amounted to nothing.
They conquered them, and, above all, conquered themselves.
2. Kindness as a means of usefulness. In all communities you find
sceptical men. How shall you capture them for God? Sharp argument and sareastic
retort never yet won a single soul from scepticism to the Christian religion.
When such are brought in, it is through the charm of some genial soul, and not
by argument at all. Men are not saved through the head; they are saved through
the heart. The same thing is true in the reclamation of the openly vicious. Was
ever a drunkard saved through the caricature of a drunkard? You can never drive
man, woman, or child into the kingdom of God. (T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)
Verse 16
Hast thou found honey?
eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit
it.
Religion and pleasure
It is a mistaken notion that religion is a melancholy business,
and the enemy of pleasure. Christianity is supposed to be synonymous with
inanity, and to impose a weariness alike on flesh and spirit that stifles the
freedom, represses the elasticity, and dulls the brightness which are the
natural and precious heritage of youth. But this is as false as the devil who
coined it. I stand here as the messenger of God, as the champion of pleasure,
the advocate of hilarity, the apostle of enjoyment, the prophet of
light-heartedness. Pleasure is a necessity of our nature. The goodness of God has
made bountiful provision for full satisfaction and delight. The body is endowed
with senses capable of exquisite sensations of delight. When you talk of the
melancholy of religion you become the Pharisaic boaster, and not
I. You thank your
God that you are not as other men. If the intellect seeks pleasure in the study
of the physical universe, does the Christian philosopher discover less to charm
his mind than do his scientific comrades of less assured belief? But ours is a
triple manhood. There is the moral and spiritual man. Surely there is honey in
doing right; there is pleasure in goodness and truth. As to the honey of life
to be found in a good conscience, in doing right, in walking uprightly,
according to the universally recognised laws of morality, surely the Christian
has a better chance than the ordinary man. What does religion allow, or rather
enjoin, in the way of pleasant recreations?
1. They must do me no harm; neither enfeeble my body, rob my brain of
its vital energy, or disturb my inward sense of right.
2. They must recreate my body; brace it up, and leave me readier for
after-service.
3. They must refresh
my mind; not make it sluggish, heavy, depressed, and ill at ease.
4. They must cheer my heart--in their present influence, in their
results, and in their memory. (J. Jackson Wray.)
The use of honey
1. The Bible does not prohibit pleasure. It does not say to the man
who has found honey, “Eat it not!” but “Eat so much as is sufficient for thee.”
What the Bible forbids is excess.
2. In prohibiting such pleasures, the Bible proceeds upon a principle
of benevolence. “Eat no more than is sufficient for thee!” Why? Not because
pleasure is grudged, but because pain is deprecated.
3. The principle upon which the Bible proceeds in this matter is a benevolent
one, because it accords with the constitution of our nature. There is a point
at which pleasure becomes pain. It is the law of our being, that if pleasure is
to remain pleasure, it must be enjoyed moderately and intermittently. (Homiletic
Review.)
Pleasure
I. The permission.
1. Pleasure is a necessity of our nature.
(a) Animal pleasure;
(b) intellectual pleasure;
(c) moral pleasure;
(d) religious pleasure;
(e) social pleasure.
2. Pleasure is a possibility of our condition. God, the all-wise and
all-kind, has not only made us for pleasure and given us a strong desire for
it, but has also bountifully surrounded us with its sources.
3. Pleasure is an element of our religion. Christianity is not a
morbid, ascetic system. “Rejoice in the Lord alway.”
II. The limitation:
“Eat so much as is sufficient for thee.” Pleasure is not to be indulged
indiscriminately and unlimitedly. We must indulge in such pleasures only as
are--
1. Dignified in their nature. We must remember the spirituality of
our nature and the immortality of our being. We are not animals. Let us not
make the mistake of the rich fool. We are made in God’s image, and are capable
of high and noble joys.
2. Beneficial in their influence. Pleasure must not be sought and
indulged in on its own account, but as a means toward the attainment of a
higher end. The objects of pleasure are--to recreate the body; to refresh the
mind; to cheer the heart; to fit us for the work of life.
3. Christian in their sanction.
4. Proportionate in their degree. Pleasure must not be the end of
life. It must not be pastime. Time is too valuable to be frittered away. (Thomas
Baron.)
The world’s honey
I. The world has
its honey.
1. It has a gastric honey. What pleasures can be derived from a
participation in the precious fruits of the earth!
2. It has a gregarious honey. How great the pleasure men have in
mingling with their kind, merely as social animals; the pleasure of mates,
parents, children.
3. It has a secular honey. Pursuit, accumulation, and use of wealth.
4. It has aesthetic honey. The beautiful in nature, art, music.
5. It has intellectual honey. Inquiry into, and discovery of, the
Divine ideas that underlie all the forms, and ring through all the sounds of
nature.
II. The world’s
honey may be abused.
1. Some eat too much of the gastric honey, and become gourmands,
epicures, voluptuaries.
2. Some eat too much of the gregarious honey, and become profligate
debauchees, bloated animals.
3. Some eat too much of the secular honey, and become wretched
misers, haunted with a thousand suspicions.
4. Some eat too much of the aesthetic honey, and grow indifferent to
everything but what they consider the beautiful and harmonious.
5. Some eat too much of the intellectual honey, and they have no life
but in that of observatories, laboratories, and libraries.
III. The world’s
honey abused produces nausea. Over-indulgence in any worldly pleasure issues in
a moral sickness and disgust. There is what the French call the ennui that
comes out of it--“that awful yawn,” says Byron, “which sleep cannot abate.” The
intemperate use of this honey often makes life an intolerable burden.
Conclusion: Take care how you use the world. You may have too much of a good
thing. There is a honey, thank God! of which you cannot take too much, which
will never surfeit or sicken--that is, the honey of spiritual enjoyment; the
enjoyment of studying, imitating, worshipping Him in whose presence there is
fulness of joy, etc. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Verses 17-20
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house.
Bad neighbours
Here are four kinds.
I. The intrusive.
It is pleasant to be visited by a neighbour whose interest is genuine. Two
evils accrue to those neighbours whose visits are intrusive.
1. They become tiresome. There is nothing fresh about them.
2. They become disliked. The natural consequence of irksomeness. Be
not too intimate with any. Livy remarks “that the perfection of good behaviour
is for a man to retain his dignity without intruding on the liberty of
another.” Another bad neighbour here indicated is--
II. The slanderous.
“A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword,
and a sharp arrow.”
1. A maul. This old English word, which is now obsolete, signifies a
hammer or a club, an implement used in the rough warfare of fighting men in old
times.
2. A sword. Another deadly implement, that by which millions of men
have been cut down in all
ages.
3. A sharp arrow. Another weapon of destruction. A slanderous
neighbour is as mischievous as any or all of these murderous weapons. He
knocks, he cuts, he pierces; he destroys you by his tongue. Not your body, but
your plans, your prosperity, your reputation, your happiness. Another bad
neighbour here indicated is--
III. The faithless.
“Confidence in an unfaithful man, in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth,
and a foot out of joint.”
1. That the unfaithful man fails. Like the “broken tooth” and the
“foot out of joint,” he fails to fulfil what is required of him. Just when you
want to eat, you find that the tooth is broken and useless; just when you rise
to walk, you find that your foot is out of joint. Just so with the faithless
man. All his old promises of friendship prove to be lies, nothing less.
2. The unfaithful man pains you. In the use of the broken tooth and
the disjointed foot when you try them, there is not only disappointment, but
torture. Such is the mental distress which is caused by the failure of
confidence, in proportion to the degree in which you had cherished it.
Especially is this felt “in time of trouble,” when help is so particularly
needed. To trust and be
deceived is at any time a bitter trial.
IV. The
injudicious. “As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar
upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.” When you are in
trouble there are neighbours whose attempt to comfort you is as absurd and as
ineffective as the taking away from a man his garment in cold weather, and as
giving to a thirsty man vinegar upon nitre to drink.
1. The injudicious comforter is one who presents incongruous
subjects. Sometimes he will talk on worldly subjects, subjects of gain,
fashion, and amusement, when the distressed mind is sorely agitated with
serious thoughts.
2. The injudicious comforter is one who presents proper subjects in
an incongruous spirit. He talks of the right things, but talks of them with a
spirit unsympathetic, sometimes undevout, canting, cold, and dogmatic. Such a
man’s comfort is indeed vinegar
on nitre, conflicting, irritating, and painful. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Verse 19
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a
broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
Man trusting in man
This is sometimes a great evil. To trust in man and disregard God,
or to repose in man the confidence that rightly belongs to God alone, is sinful
and ruinous. But in some respects it is natural and right to trust our fellow-men.
We are social beings. There can be no friendship without trust. It is right to
trust our friends--
1. For sympathy in joy or sorrow.
2. For help in time of need.
3. For honourable fidelity in all confidences.
I. The test of man
as an object of trust. The “time of trouble” tests the faithfulness of those in
whom we confide. Prosperity brings friends; adversity tests them. Three kinds
of trouble test man as an object of trust--
1. Trouble in our circumstances, or loss and poverty.
2. Trouble in our reputation, or misrepresentation and slander.
3. Trouble in our character, or sin. For a truly Christian man may
fall into grievous sin.
II. The failure of
man as an object of trust.
1. The unfaithful man in time of trial fails those who trust him.
2. The failure of the unfaithful man in time of trial is painful to
those who trust him. The attempt to use the broken tooth or dislocated joint
causes suffering. Some of the keenest anguish of human souls is caused by the
failure of those in whom they trusted.
Learn--
Verse 21-22
Verse 23
The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a
backbiting tongue.
Righteous anger
The marginal reading, which is, “The north wind bringeth forth
rain: so doth a backbiting tongue an angry countenance,” gives quite the
opposite sense. In Arabia the north wind blew over a long tract of dry land,
and therefore usually brought dry weather (Job 27:21); but in Judea the north wind, including all the
winds between the north and north-west, blew from the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore
commonly brought rain. Accepting the marginal version, the idea is, that as the
north wind brings forth rain, a backbiting tongue brings forth an angry
countenance. But our version, which we think equally faithful to the original,
gives an idea equally good and important; it is, that an expression of
displeasure in the listener will silence the tongue of the backbiter. The anger
referred to here is a righteous anger; its object is legitimate, its expression
is natural, its influence is useful.
I. Its object is
legitimate. It is directed against “a backbiting tongue.” A backbiter is a
clandestine traducer of character. His speech goes to damage another’s
reputation behind his back. He does it sometimes by telling truth as well as
falsehood. A man need not tell lies to be a backbiter; he can do it by parading
damaging facts, and such damaging facts may be found in the chapters of every
man’s life. He does it sometimes un-maliciously. He may be prompted by vanity;
he may disparage another in order to set himself off to better advantage. He
may do it from greed: his object may be to rob the subject of his talk of some
share of his patronage and support.
II. Its expression
is natural. “An angry countenance.” The countenance is a fuller, more faithful,
and forceful revealer of the soul than the tongue. An admiring look has often
won hearts which no words could enlist. A courageous look in the leaders of
campaigns wakes the invincible in battalions. A reproving look has broken
hearts, as Christ’s broke the heart of Peter. An angry look, not a mere
peevish, petulant look, but a look of right down honest anger, directed to a
backbiter, would send him in mute confusion from your presence.
III. Its influence
is useful. “The north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a
backbiting tongue.” (Homilist.)
Verse 25
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far
country.
Good news from a far country
We live in a little world. It is simply that we are a part of it
that it seems to us so great. By the multiplying of our interests in these days
of change and travel, there is many a far country from which good news comes to
us as cold waters to a thirsty soul. Think of that far country, heaven, and the
soul’s yearning for good news thence. Every righteous thought, every pure,
simple, generous purpose, every lowly resolve, every warning, of conscience
within condemning wrong, every conception that seems to be wooing to holiness
and sincerity, is a message from that far country. Well is it when they come to
thirsting souls. There are many difficulties about a revelation from God. If we
should be compelled to let miracles go, how simple is righteousness, how plain
is love, how clear is purity! Who shall say that there are no messages from the
far country? There may be uncertainties about many things, but there cannot be
uncertainties here. It must be right that I love right, that I do right. God
cares for His child--cares that its life shall be right and true and holy; that
its sins shall be blotted out. All revelation is not in the Bible. It is rather
a record of a revelation. Such records, too, are elsewhere. I lift my eyes to
the nightly heaven, and the record is there. I look upon the new-born spring,
and the record is there. I look into the heart of a little child, and the
record is there What is the sum of all revelations; what is the revelation?
Just Christ, the dear Saviour--His compassions, His infinite redemption, the
great message; He Himself the living Message-bearer from the far country. All
other good news is gathered about this. We cannot separate redeeming love from
any other gift of our Father’s care. Common news from a far country will often,
in this world of change, cheer you and me. We live in a world of separations
and farewells. Our paths, with most of us, are together only for a little
while. Countries far apart separate the members of the one family of God. But
nowhere can they be where God is not. And members of the one family shall cheer
each other’s heart with news from a far country. The news shall tell how God is
leading all by different paths, the right way for each, to the one city of
habitation. (T. Gasquoine, B.A.)
Tidings from a far country
Our interest in tidings from a far country may be based on many
considerations.
1. We may be interested in the novelty and the strangeness of the
information which reaches us about a foreign country, and the more so if any of
our friends have been engaged in the exploration--e.g., Columbus returning from
America, or Captain Cook from the South Seas.
2. If we have received any great possessions from that country: as
Solomon hearing about India and China, when his merchants returned with gold, etc.,
from that country.
3. If any great stranger or dear friend has come from it--e.g.,
Solomon, hearing about Sheba or Egypt; or the English about Sardinia, when
the king came over.
4. If any of our friends are there now--e.g., as
news from Australia, America, or any other country, where we have friends. If it be
good news, how it revives and cheers us! Perhaps our friends are doing business
for us successfully. (The Congregational Pulpit.)
Good news from a far country
The traveller on a hot summer’s day, parehed with thirst,
can easily understand the allusion, “cold waters to a thirsty soul.” They are
cooling, refreshing, and invigorating, and enable him to pursue his journey
with “strength renewed.” Not unfrequently they have been the means of saving
life--e.g., Hagar in the wilderness (Genesis 21:14-20); Samson after slaying
the Philistines ( 15:18-19). But the comparison is with
good news. Who does not love to hear good news? How exhilarating the news
brought to old Jacob respecting his son Joseph (Genesis 45:16-21); how joyful the tidings
brought by messengers relating to the restoration of the Jews (Isaiah 52:7); how jubilant the feelings
of the apostle, when bound at Rome, on hearing favourable reports of the
Colossian and Philippian converts! He again “thanked God and took courage.”
1. The first piece of good news is this, that the treaty of peace has
been signed. “Unto you is born a Saviour.”
2. So fascinating is that country that there will be no fear of
disappointment when we visit it, no wanting to return again on earth.
3. That country has very great attractions. It is--
Good news
I. What this good
news is. It is an assurance of the most stupendous and amazing love of the
greatest of all Beings.
1. It consists in pardon and peace.
2. It is the means of conveying everlasting joy.
3. It is the revelation of God to the soul.
4. It is the knowledge of sin atoned for; of the law fulfilled; of
Satan conquered; of death vanquished; and of heaven opened.
II. This glorious
news informs us of the stupendous way whereby this blessed intelligence is
conveyed. It is conveyed through Christ as the author of salvation.
III. We must first
become acquainted with the person sending, and country from whence, as well as
the communication sent, before we shall esteem it as good news.
1. The Spirit of God must open and shine into our minds.
2. He must subdue our worldly affections.
3. He must conquer our stubborn wills.
4. And daily read this good news to our souls. (T. B.
Baker.)
Echoes from afar
1. It is a far country, possibly, as measured by distance, this
heaven that we talk about. I prefer to believe that the dwelling-place of Deity
is near at hand, that the sainted dead are separated from us only by the thick,
dense, fleshly veil which envelops our free soul, so that we can neither feel,
nor hear, nor see. Heaven lies near to the habitations of the just.
2. But heaven is a “far country,” as being far away beyond our
comprehension. It is so utterly far beyond our experience, so surpasses our
comprehension, so outstrips our thought and conception, that even the aid of revelation
does give us dim glimpses of the distant splendours.
3. Heaven is a “far country,” because we are by nature so
disqualified from inhabiting it. We speak of the fall of man, and this is the
measure of it--a fall from paradise to perdition--a fall that only power Divine
can span. From this” far country” good news has come. News from a far country
is interesting to us, if it is from a strange land, unlike our own. If we have
those who are near and dear to us dwelling in it. If we hope, or intend, to live
in it by and by. Good news has come from this far country, the best and most
glorious news that can fall on mortal ear. Angels have brought it. Jesus has
brought it. The Holy Spirit has brought it. Holy men, moved by Him, have
written and spoken it. Subtle, gracious, secret good news is brought from the
far country still. (J. Jackson Wray.)
Verse 27
It is not good to eat much honey.
Natural desires running too far
Man is a creature of manifold desires. These desires may be
divided into two grand
classes--
1. Those that can never go too far. Such are the desires for
knowledge, holiness, assimilation to God.
2. Those that often run too far. Such are the desires for wealth; the
desire for power, which often runs into tyranny; the desire for pleasure, which
often runs into licentiousness. Here is running too far--
I. The desire for
animal pleasure. “It is not good to eat much honey.” It is not good for the
body. It is not good for the intellect. The rise of the animal is the fall of
the mental. It is not good for the soul. The pampering of the senses is the
death of the soul. “It is not good to eat much honey.” Here we have running too
far--
II. The desire for
human praise. “ So for men to search their own glory is not glory.” The word
“not” which is here in italics, is not in the original; it has been supplied by
our translators. In doing so they have evidently expressed the idea intended. A
desire for the praise of our fellow-men is natural, innocent, and useful. It is
very true that the praise of corrupt society is seldom of much worth, and often
indeed contemptible. There are men whose desire for human praise becomes a
passion; popularity is the god at whose shrine they are always paying their
devotions. Be master of your desires. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Pleasure and glory
The ordinary mind consents to this statement unwillingly. There is
a natural reluctance to stop short in the pursuit of enjoyment. What glory can
there be in getting a man to limit his own glory?
I. Our best
interests are not served by living chiefly on earthly pleasures. Our highest
being cannot be nourished by giving the chief place to earthly distinction and
attainments. Life is not intended to be made up entirely of bank holidays and
national festivals. Observe the point of emphasis in this verse. “It is not
good to eat much honey.” A little is all very well. The question of recreation
and amusement resolves itself into a question about the desires and impulses
which are allowed to rule men’s lives. Let a man understand his true position
He is face to face with a long history of good and evil principles working on
the one hand sublimity, and on the other disaster, in the lives of millions. He
has to take his place--carefully discovering his right place--in a world that
is darkened by the shadow of the crime and ignorance of ages, and torn to the
heart’s depth by the cruel wails of passion, and avarice, and remorse.
II. God has
something better for us to do, and something nobler for us to enjoy. He has
called to us to seek the knowledge of Himself; to grow up into this knowledge
of Himself; and to use the knowledge of Him, as it comes to us, for the benefit
of the world. Learn to think soberly and proportionately of all the pleasures
and distinctions of this life; ever having “respect unto the recompense of the
reward.” (W. H. Jackson.)
Verse 28
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken
down, and without walls.
Self-government essential to wisdom
Here is shown the ruinous condition of the person who has no rule
over his own spirit. What can concern a man more than the art of
self-government? It is inexcusable for a man to be a stranger to himself, and
not to know how to make the best of his own natural powers and affections.
I. What is it to
have rule over our own spirits We ought to consider the entire constitution of
our minds. There is something in the spirit which has a right to dominion, as
being in its nature superior; there are other parts which hold an inferior
place, and ought to be in subjection. There is conscience, a sense of duty and
sin, and of moral good and evil; a necessary self approbation arising from the
one, and reproach and condemnation from the other. And there are propensities
in our minds arising on particular occasions of life. These have been
conquered, and may be.
II. Where is the
proper authority lodged? Some things are necessary effects of laws of nature,
and in relation to them man has no rule. A man can inquire and deliberate. The
active powers may be suspended while we deliberate. To have rule over our own
spirits is to keep the passions under an exact discipline. And there are natural
desires in men of very unequal moment which often rise to passions. The true
end of self-government is that the superior powers of the mind may be preserved
in their due exercise. (J. Abernethy, M.A.)
The diversity of men’s natural tempers
The spirit sometimes means a temper, disposition, or turn of mind,
in general: thus we read of “an haughty spirit” and of “an humble spirit.” This
is, perhaps, the meaning of the expression in my text: by him that hath no rule
over his own spirit may be meant the person who hath no government of his
passions. But the expression may, without any impropriety, be taken for a man’s
particular temper or predominant turn of mind. God delights in variety
throughout all His works. The same God is the Father of our spirits; and He has
formed them also with considerable variety. All matter has the same essential
properties; yet the forms into which God has moulded it, and the purposes to
which He has applied the several parts of it, are infinitely different. In like
manner the souls of all men are indued with the same faculties; but from the
degrees in which they possess these faculties, and from the proportions in
which they are combined, there results an endless diversity of characters in
the human species. When the malevolent passions have a tendency to predominate
in the soul, they occasion all those diversities of temper to which we apply
the epithets sour, sullen, morose, severe, captious, peevish, passionate,
ill-humoured, and the like. On the contrary, the prevalence of the benevolent
affections of the heart produces a great variety of tempers, some of which we
term the sweet, the gentle, the mild, the soft, the courteous, the tender, the
sympathising, the affectionate, the generous. We may observe further that very
great diversities of temper may proceed from the same passion, only by its
being predominant in different manners. The passionate temper and the peevish
are extremely different; yet they both proceed from the predominance of the
very same principle--sudden anger. Deliberate anger produces in those who have
a propensity to it many distinctions of temper unlike to both these. It may be
remarked likewise that some tempers proceed from the weakness of a particular
disposition more properly than from a predominance of the contrary. Courage, so
far as it is constitutional, proceeds merely from the absence of fear.
Impudence is not the prevalence of any positive affection, but only the want of
shame. A want or a relative weakness in any one of the numerous parts of a
clock affects the soundness of the whole machine. The several passions and
affections are, in different men, combined in an infinite variety of ways, and
every particular combination of them produces a distinct temper. Perhaps every
temper, when it is analysed, will be found not to arise from the prevalence of
a single affection, but to derive its form in some degree from the union of
several. Thus in a compounded colour different ingredients are mixed, and may
be observed on attention, though one be so much predominant as to give it its
common denomination. But it is not only by the prevalence of some of them in
comparison with the rest that the passions produce diversities of temper among
mankind: the general tone also of all the passions occasions a suitable
peculiarity. A musical instrument acquires different tones by having all its
strings wound up to different keys. The passions of different persons are as it
were wound up to a variety of keys, and thence their souls derive distinct
tones of temper. Though the passions be the most immediate causes of the
varieties of temper, and though on that account they required our principal
notice in explaining these varieties, yet it must be observed that some
peculiarities of temper are occasioned almost wholly by the form of the
intellectual powers. When the understanding is clear and decisive it lays the
foundation of a firm and determined temper; an inability to form a clear
opinion produces fickleness and inconsistency. The same temper may, in
different men, proceed from different causes. The source of fickleness and
inconstancy is sometimes weakness of judgment; sometimes timidity; and
sometimes the keenness of all the passions, hurrying a man continually into new
pursuits according as they happen to be excited in their turns. A temper of
rashness may proceed from an improvident judgment, from the absence of fear and
caution, or from the violence of any passion. As similar tempers may proceed
from dissimilar causes, so even opposite tempers may proceed from the same
cause. The sceptical temper and the credulous may ultimately be resolved into
the same imbecility of understanding, an inability of clearly discerning the
real force of evidence. This inability likewise gives rise to an obstinate
temper in some, to a wavering temper in others: one is immovable in all his
designs, because he is incapable of discerning the strength of those reasons
which should persuade him to alter them; another is fickle in them all, because
he cannot see the weakness of the reasons which are produced against them. Such
are the general causes of the diversity of tempers among mankind. As no two
plants are exactly alike, as no two human faces are absolutely
undistinguishable, so no two tempers are perfectly the same. Every man has “his
own spirit,” his peculiar temper, by which he differs from every other man.
1. Each of us should study to know his own particular temper. The
knowledge of our natural temper is one important part of the knowledge of
ourselves.
2. A proper sense of the endless variety of tempers in the human
species would lead us to make greater allowance for the sentiments and conduct
of others than we often do.
3. The amazing diversity of tempers in the human species is a
striking instance of the contrivance and wisdom of the God who made us.
Variety, combined with uniformity, may be considered as the very characteristic
of design; a perfect combination of them is an indication of perfect wisdom. (Alex.
Gerard, D.D.)
The necessity of governing the natural temper
Is it, then, needful to evince the necessity of a man governing
his own temper? Every man acknowledges that all others ought to govern their
tempers, and complains of them when they do not. That we may perceive how much
it is the duty of every one of us to govern his own temper, let us attend to
the ill effects of neglecting to govern it. They are pointed out by an
expressive figure in the text: “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is
like a city that is broken down and without walls”; he has no security against
abandoning himself to every vice. Need I point out minutely the vices to which
the indulgence of a contracted and selfish temper naturally leads? The selfish
affections are various; they turn to different objects; but it requires the
strictest government to prevent a temper founded on the prevalence of any of
them from degenerating into the correspondent vice, ambition, or vanity, or
avarice, or sensuality, and the love of pleasure. It is still less necessary to
enter into a long detail of the detestable vices which spring from a temper
founded in a propensity to any of the malevolent passions. They lead to vices
which spread misery through society, and which overwhelm the person himself
with greater misery than he brings upon those around him. Habitual peevishness,
producing fretfulness on every, the slightest, occasion, putting one out of
humour with every person and every thing, creating incessant uneasiness to
those who are connected with him, eating out the enjoyment of life, is the
natural effect of a temper founded on a propensity to anger, though accompanied
with the weakest tone of passion. In whatever way our temper most disposes the
several passions and affections to exert themselves, it will, without
regulation, prove the source of peculiar vices. When the propensity to desire
renders the temper keen and eager, if we lay it under no restraint, it must
engage us in trifling and vicious pursuits; in respect of the object of our
pursuit, whether pleasure, profit, or power, it must render us craving and
insatiable, ever unsatisfied with what we have obtained, wishing and plotting
for more; and in respect of the means of prosecution, it must render us
impetuous and violent, regardless of the bounds of right, impatient of every
delay and opposition. Is the opposite propensity to aversion indulged?
Everything wears a gloomy aspect, and is viewed on its darkest side: we act as
if we were resolved never to be pleased; we search for occasions of disgust,
regret, and uneasiness, and we find them in every object; every gentle
affection is banished from the breast; discontent, fretfulness, and ill-humour
become habitual. The same temper, it may be further observed, will lead a man,
with equal readiness, into opposite vices in opposite situations. The same littleness
of mind renders a man insolent in prosperity and abject in adversity. That
vice, be it what it will, to which our particular temper directly leads us, is
an enemy already advanced to the gates of the heart; and if it finds the heart
“like a city without walls,” it enters at its pleasure; we can make no
resistance. But this is very far from being the whole effect of our neglecting
to govern our natural temper: the man who ruleth not his spirit does not merely
become enslaved to one vice; in consequence of this he is open to every vice.
Every ruling sin will require from the man who lives in the indulgence of it
the commission of many others for its support, for its gratification, or for
disguising and concealing it. But it deserves to be particularly remarked that
as soon as the misgovernment of natural temper has subjected a man to one
ruling vice, he is no longer proof against even such vices as are in themselves
most opposite to that very temper. Every one’s observation will supply him with
instances of persons who, being engaged in one vicious course, have by it been
led into sins most contrary to their nature; with instances of the soft and
gentle being brought to act with cruelty; of the benevolent and kind-hearted
labouring to bring ruin upon those who happened to stand in the way of some
unlawful project; of the generous, in the prosecution of some bad design,
stooping to the most sordid actions; of the candid and open betrayed into
schemes of artifice, dissimulation, and falsehood; of the timid rushing forward
into the most dangerous crimes. Thus the man who abandons himself to that one
vice which arises from the corruption of his natural temper is from that moment
in danger of every sin. Every predominant vice requires as great a number of
other vices to be subservient to it in the course of a wicked life as the
ministers whom any tyrant can stand in need of to be the instruments of his
cruelty, rapacity, and lusts. By being “like a city without walls,” destitute
of defence against any sin, he becomes “like a city broken down,” reduced to
ruins, desolated, uninhabited, and uninhabitable. Can you think without terror
of the accumulated guilt of all these vices, and of the punishment to which
they must expose you? Possessed and actuated by these emotions, be roused to
every exertion for removing the faulty propensity of your nature. While you
neglect to govern your natural temper, all your endeavours to avoid or to
mortify the vices which spring from it will be but like lopping off a few
twigs, which the vigour of the root will enable quickly to grow again, perhaps
stronger and more luxuriant than before: it is only by setting yourselves at
once to govern it, to rectify all its perversities, that you can lay the axe to
the root of the tree, and effectually
kill all the branches. (Alex.
Gerard, D.D.)
The manner of governing the natural temper
To extirpate one’s natural temper is impossible. It is a
distinguishing character, impressed on every soul by the hand of the Almighty,
which the power of man can no more erase than it can efface the distinctive
characters of the several kinds of plants and animals, and reduce them all to
one kind. If it were possible for a man to destroy his peculiar temper, it
would not be necessary; it would be even pernicious. Among all the varieties of
temper which men possess there is not one inconsistent with virtue, there is
not one which duty requires us to endeavour to extirpate. But though it be
neither possible nor necessary to extirpate the natural temper, it is both possible
and necessary to govern it. We every day meet with persons who, from good
breeding, or from prudence, can disguise their temper and keep it from showing
itself, not on one occasion, but on many occasions and through a long course of time; could not,
then, better principles enable them to correct it? A physiognomist pretended to
discover by his art that the great Athenian philosopher Socrates was addicted
to vices so opposite to his whole conduct and character, that all who knew him
were disposed to ridicule the pretensions of the physiognomist as absurd; but,
to their astonishment, Socrates declared that he was, by his constitutional
bias, prone to all the vices which had been imputed to him, and that it was
only by philosophy that he had got the better of them. Would it not be shameful
if many Christians could not make a similar declaration?
1. The first object of a man’s care, in ruling his own spirit, is to
refrain his natural bias, so that it may not become vicious, or lead him into
sin. Every passion and affection is weak and pliable in the moment of its
birth. Had we always recollection enough to observe, and resolution enough to
check its first tendency to irregularity, our victory over it would be easy.
But if we let slip this favourable moment, it will soon be able to carry us
wherever it pleases. If, therefore, we would refrain our predominant passion,
we must be at the greatest pains to avoid the objects, the opinions, the
imaginations, which are favourable to its growth. In order to restrain our ruling
passion it will often be necessary studiously to turn our attention to such
objects, and to accustom ourselves to such actions as are most contradictory to
it. When a twig has long been bent one way it cannot be made straight without
being for some time bent the contrary way. The vices to which the natural
temper gives us a propensity are those which we shall find the greatest
difficulty in conquering, and which, after many defeats, will most frequently
revolt. The last vices which a good man is able to subdue are his
constitutional vices.
2. It implies that every man render his temper subservient to the
practice of virtue and holiness. As every natural temper, even the most
amiable, may degenerate into vice, so, on the contrary, every temper, even that
which becomes most disagreeable by the smallest corruption of it, may be made
to contribute to the virtue of the heart. Some turns of temper are naturally
and strongly allied to virtue. All the tempers which are founded in a
predominance of the kind affections are directly favourable to the love of
mankind, to all the important virtues of benevolence and charity, and render
the practice of every social duty easy and pleasant; or that they introduce a
habit of soul congruous to the love of God, as well as to that inward serenity
which characterises every grace, and renders it doubly amiable. Other turns of
temper are, as it were, neutral between virtue and vice: in perceiving how
these may be rendered serviceable to virtue there is little difficulty. The keen
and eager temper in which desire is the chief ingredient, when directed to
holiness as its object, will render a man spirited in the practice of it, and
susceptible of a strong impulse from its joys and rewards. The contrary temper
in which aversion prevails, tends to cherish a deep abhorrence of sin, which is
one of the strongest securities against the indulgence of it. Both these
tempers may become equally conducive to holiness by prompting us, the one to
avoid evil, the other to do good. A high tone of passion, a sensibility,
ardour, or activity of spirit, prepares the soul for entering into the raptures
of devotion, for feeling the fervours of godly zeal, for showing eminent
alacrity in every duty. A temper opposite to this may be improved into a settled
composure and calm equability in the love and practice of holiness. It is more
needful to observe, because it is not so obvious, that even those turns of
temper which are most nearly allied to vice, and which are with the greatest
difficulty kept from running into it, may notwithstanding be rendered
subservient to virtue. Pride, for instance, may be improved into true dignity
of character, into a noble and habitual disdain of every thought and action
that is mean or base. An ambitious temper needs only to be fixed upon its
properest objects in order to animate us in the indefatigable pursuits of that
genuine honour which results from the approbation of God and from the glories
of heaven, and which will be bestowed only on the righteous, and in proportion
to their righteousness. A temper which, by being neglected, would become
blameably selfish and contracted, will, by being governed, become eminently
conducive to prudence, and an incitement to diligence in that course of
holiness which is our real wisdom and our best interest. Even that temper in
which the malevolent affections tend to preponderate, the sour, the morose, the
irascible, may be rendered subservient to our virtue and improvement: if it be
curbed so strongly as not to lead us to hurt others, or to wish for their hurt,
it will exert itself in a keen indignation against vice, a rigorous purity of
heart, a blameless severity of manners; and it will make us inaccessible to
many temptations which have great power over soft and gentle and social minds.
3. We ought not only to render our peculiar temper subservient to
virtue, but also to incorporate it with all our virtues. All the good men whose
lives the Scripture has recorded display different forms of holiness derived
from their dissimilar tempers. Job is characterised by patience; Moses by
meekness; David is high-spirited, his devotion is fervent, his virtues are all heroic; John and Paul
are both warm, fervent, and affectionate, but the warmth of the former is sweet
and gentle, that of the latter bold and enterprising. As every man thus derives
from nature a distinct personal character, he ought to adhere to it, and to
preserve its peculiar decorum. He can preserve it only by maintaining his own
natural temper so far as it is innocent, and acting always in conformity to it.
To conclude: If we would rule our own spirit, if we would govern our natural
temper, let us restrain it from degenerating into vice, or leading us into sin.
The means of governing our peculiar temper are the same with the means of
performing every other duty, resolution, congruous exercises, watchfulness and
prayer. But all these means we must in this case employ with peculiar care and
diligence, because it is a matter of peculiar difficulty to control and
regulate our predominant disposition. Its importance is, however, in proportion
to its difficulty. If we can effectually accomplish this, it will render it the
easier to subdue all our other irregular passions. They act in subordination to
it, and derive a great part of their strength from it; and to subdue it is like
cutting off the general who was the spirit of the battle, and on whose fall the
army breaks and takes to flight. (Alex. Gerard, D.D.)
Self-government
No man can be said to have attained complete rule over his own spirit
who has not under his habitual control the tenor of his thoughts, the language
of his lips, and motions of lust and appetite, and the energy of his passion.
This shows you at once the extent, and the division of our subject.
I. The government
of the thoughts. After all that has been written on the subject of
self-command, the regulation of the thoughts has seldom drawn the attention of
moralists. On the authority of silly maxims like these, that thought is free as
air, that no one can help what he thinks, innumerable hours are wasted in idle
reveries without the suspicion of blame. The time which we fondly supposed to
be merely wasted in doing nothing may have been easily employed in mischievous
imaginations, and thus what was considered as lost simply is found to be
abused. When we reflect also that every licentious principle, every criminal
project, and every atrocious deed is the fruit of a distempered fancy, whose
rovings were originally unchecked till thoughts grew into desires, desires
ripened into resolves, and resolves terminated in execution, well may we
tremble at discovering how feeble is the control over our imaginations which we
have hitherto acquired. We do not say that Caesar, brooding over his schemes of
ambition in his tent, was as guilty as Caesar passing the Rubicon and turning
his arms against his country; but we do say that licentiousness of thought ever
precedes licentiousness of conduct; and that many a crime which stains human
nature was generated in the retirement of the closet, in the hours of idle and
listless thought, perhaps over the pages of a poisonous book, or during the
contemplation of a licentious picture.
II. The government
of the tongue. “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.” This
will not appear an extravagant assertion when we consider how numerous are the
vices in which this little member takes an active part. If we consider these
vices of the tongue in the order of their enormity, we shall see how easily one
generates another. Talkativeness, the venial offspring of a lively, not to say
an unrestrained, fancy, hardly rises to a fault till it is found that he “who
talks incessantly must often talk foolishly, and that the prattle of a vain and
itching tongue degenerates rapidly into that foolish talking and jesting which,
as an apostle says, are not convenient. If for every idle, unprofitable, false
or calumniating word which men shall speak they shall give an account in the
day of judgment, what account shall those men render whose conversation first polluted
the pure ear of childhood, first soiled the chastity and whiteness of the young
imagination, whose habitual oaths first taught the child to pronounce the name
of God without reverence, or to imprecate curses on his mates with all the
thoughtlessness of youth, but with all the passion and boldness of manhood?
III. The government
of the animal appetites. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you, abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul.” For how humiliating is the consideration,
enough, indeed, to make us weep with shame, that man, the noblest work of God
on earth, the lord of this lower world, that this noble creature should suffer
himself to fall into the hands of the grovelling mob of appetites, and to be
fettered by base lusts which ought to be his slaves--that this ethereal spirit
should be wasted in the service of sensuality, and this intelligence, capable
of mounting to heaven, be sunk and buried in the slime and pollution of gross
and brutal pleasures!
IV. The government
of the passions. Not to be in a passion is generally the amount of the notion
which the world entertains of self-command. In the broad scheme of gospel
ethics, the opposite to anger is meekness; and meekness is no narrow or
superficial virtue. The meek man of the gospel is the very reverse of those who
act the most bustling and noisy part on the theatre of human life. He finds
himself in a world where he will be oftener called to suffer than to act. He is
not ambitious, because he sees little here worth ambition. Humility is the
gentle and secret stream which runs through his life and waters all his
virtues. To the government of the passions the principal prerequisite is the
restriction of the desires; therefore, as he expects little from the world he
will not often quarrel with it for the treatment he receives. (J. S.
Buckminster.)
Self-control
I. What is meant
by not having rule over our own spirit?
1. Intemperance of feeling, especially angry feeling.
2. Extravagance of speech.
3. Rashness of conduct.
4. Hence the formation of pernicious habits.
II. The evil of
lacking self-control. It destroys the walls of our city, and exposes us--
1. To the inroads of sin; and is itself sin.
2. To insult and dishonour.
3. To the machinations of foes.
4. To utter destitution and ruin.
III. The means of
promoting self-control.
1. Habitual efforts of the will.
2. Avoidance of temptation.
3. Prayerful dependence on God’s Spirit.
4. A serious and thoughtful habit of mind.
IV. Reasons and
encouragements.
1. Self-control is an essential part of our salvation.
2. The example of God’s forbearance.
3. The example of Christ’s meekness.
4. Its connection with our usefulness.
5. Self-control gives real increase of power.
V. Applications.
1. To the Christians in their family and friendly intercourse.
2. To Christians in Church deliberation and action.
3. To Christians in secular business and general intercourse with the
world. In conclusion, distinguish between self-control and apathy; and show its
consistency with being zealously affected in a good cause. (The Congregational
Pulpit.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》