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Proverbs
Chapter Eleven
Proverbs 11
Commentary on Proverbs 11:1
(Read Proverbs 11:1)
However men may make light of giving short weight or
measure, and however common such crimes may be, they are an abomination to the
Lord.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:2
(Read Proverbs 11:2)
Considering how safe, and quiet, and easy the humble are,
we see that with the lowly is wisdom.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:3
(Read Proverbs 11:3)
An honest man's principles are fixed, therefore his way
is plain.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:4
(Read Proverbs 11:4)
Riches will stand men in no stead in the day of death.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:5,6
(Read Proverbs 11:5,6)
The ways of wickedness are dangerous. And sin will be its
own punishment.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:7
(Read Proverbs 11:7)
When a godly man dies, all his fears vanish; but when a
wicked man dies, his hopes vanish.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:8
(Read Proverbs 11:8)
The righteous are often wonderfully kept from going into
dangerous situations, and the ungodly go in their stead.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:9
(Read Proverbs 11:9)
Hypocrites delude men into error and sin by artful
objections against the truths of God's word.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:10,11
(Read Proverbs 11:10,11)
Nations prosper when wicked men are cast down.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:12
(Read Proverbs 11:12)
A man of understanding does not judge of others by their
success.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:13
(Read Proverbs 11:13)
A faithful man will not disclose what he is trusted with,
unless the honour of God and the real good of society require it.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:14
(Read Proverbs 11:14)
We shall often find it to our advantage to advise with
others.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:15
(Read Proverbs 11:15)
The welfare of our families, our own peace, and our
ability to pay just debts, must not be brought into danger. But here especially
let us consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in becoming Surety even for
enemies.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:16
(Read Proverbs 11:16)
A pious and discreet woman will keep esteem and respect,
as strong men keep possession of wealth.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:17
(Read Proverbs 11:17)
A cruel, froward, ill-natured man, is vexatious to those
that are, and should be to him as his own flesh, and punishes himself.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:18
(Read Proverbs 11:18)
He that makes it his business to do good, shall have a
reward, as sure to him as eternal truth can make it.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:19
(Read Proverbs 11:19)
True holiness is true happiness. The more violent a man
is in sinful pursuits, the more he hastens his own destruction.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:20
(Read Proverbs 11:20)
Nothing is more hateful to God, than hypocrisy and double
dealing, which are here signified. God delights in such as aim and act with
uprightness.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:21
(Read Proverbs 11:21)
Joining together in sin shall not protect the sinners.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:22
(Read Proverbs 11:22)
Beauty is abused by those who have not discretion or
modesty with it. This is true of all bodily endowments.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:23
(Read Proverbs 11:23)
The wicked desire mischief to others, but it shall return
upon themselves.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:24
(Read Proverbs 11:24)
A man may grow poor by not paying just debts, not
relieving the poor, not allowing needful expenses. Let men be ever so saving of
what they have, if God appoints, it comes to nothing.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:25
(Read Proverbs 11:25)
Both in temporal and spiritual things, God commonly deals
with his people according to the measure by which they deal with their
brethren.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:26
(Read Proverbs 11:26)
We must not hoard up the gifts of God's bounty, merely
for our own advantage.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:27
(Read Proverbs 11:27)
Seeking mischief is here set against seeking good; for
those that are not doing good are doing hurt, even to themselves.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:28
(Read Proverbs 11:28)
The true believer is a branch of the living Vine. When
those that take root in the world wither, those who are grafted into Christ
shall be fruitful.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:29
(Read Proverbs 11:29)
He that brings trouble upon himself and his family, by
carelessness, or by wickedness, shall be unable to keep and enjoy what he gets,
as a man is unable to hold the wind, or to satisfy himself with it.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:30
(Read Proverbs 11:30)
The righteous are as trees of life; and their influence
upon earth, like the fruits of that tree, support and nourish the spiritual
life in many.
Commentary on Proverbs 11:31
(Read Proverbs 11:31)
Even the righteous, when they offend on earth, shall meet
with sharp corrections; much more will the wicked meet the due reward of their
sins. Let us then seek those blessings which our Surety purchased by his
sufferings and death; let us seek to copy his example, and to keep his
commandments.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Proverbs》
Proverbs 11
Verse 1
[1] A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just
weight is his delight.
A false balance — The use of all false weights and
measures in commerce.
Verse 8
[8] The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the
wicked cometh in his stead.
Cometh — Into trouble.
Verse 9
[9] An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour:
but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
Delivered — From the infection of the
hypocrite's evil counsel.
Verse 11
[11] By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but
it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
The blessing — Wherewith they bless the city, by
their sincere prayers, and wise and wholesome counsels.
The mouth — By their curses, and oaths, and
blasphemies, and wicked counsels.
Verse 12
[12] He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a
man of understanding holdeth his peace.
Despiseth — Which he shews by contemptuous or
reproachful expressions.
Holdeth peace — Forbears all such expressions,
and silently and patiently bears those reproaches.
Verse 13
[13] A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a
faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
Secrets — Such things as were committed to his trust with a
charge of secrecy.
Verse 16
[16] A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain
riches.
Gracious woman — A woman endued with the grace of
God.
Retaineth — Or, holdeth fast her honour, or
reputation.
Verse 18
[18] The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that
soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.
Worketh — A work which will deceive his expectation.
Soweth — That worketh it with constancy, and diligence.
Verse 21
[21] Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be
unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.
Though hand join — Though they are
fortified against God's judgments by a numerous issue and kindred, and friends,
and by mutual and strong combinations.
The seed — Not only their persons, but their children.
Verse 22
[22] As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair
woman which is without discretion.
So is a fair woman without discretion — "Of beauty vain,
of virtue void, What art thou in the sight of God? A slave to every base
desire, A creature wallowing in the mire. Go, gaudy pageant of a day, Thy
folly, with thy face display: Set all thy charms and graces out, And shew - the
Jewel in thy snout!"
Verse 23
[23] The desire of the righteous is only good: but the
expectation of the wicked is wrath.
The desire — The desires and expectations of
the righteous shall end in their happiness, but the desires and expectations of
the wicked men shall be disappointed, and end in the wrath of God.
Verse 24
[24] There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there
is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
Scattereth — That gives liberally.
Increaseth — Through God's blessing upon his
estate.
Poverty — By God's providence secretly blasting his estate.
Verse 25
[25] The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth
shall be watered also himself.
Fat — Shall be enriched both with temporal and spiritual
blessings.
Verse 26
[26] He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him:
but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.
With-holdeth corn — In a time of
scarcity.
Selleth — Upon reasonable terms.
Verse 27
[27] He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he
that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.
Seeketh — To do good to all men.
Favour — With God and men.
Verse 29
[29] He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind:
and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.
Troubleth — He who brings trouble upon
himself and children, either by prodigality, or by restless endeavours to heap
up riches.
Wind — Shall be as unable to keep what he gets as a man is to
hold the wind in his hand.
Verse 30
[30] The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he
that winneth souls is wise.
The fruit — His discourses and his whole
conversation, is like the fruit of the tree of life.
Winneth — That gains souls to God.
Verse 31
[31] Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth:
much more the wicked and the sinner.
Recompensed — Punished for his sins.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Proverbs》
11 Chapter 11
Verses 1-31
Verse 1
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.
The heinousness of injustice done under the pretence of equity
The proverbs of this book are often figurative, and of a very
strong and extensive meaning. The words of the text imply the odiousness, not
only of false weights or balances, but likewise of all things of the like
nature and consequence; of all unfair and unfaithful actions; of all unequal
and injurious proceedings. There are two kinds of injustice; the one open and
barefaced, the other secret and disguised, so cunningly clothed and adorned,
that it appears like justice itself. The text manifests the odiousness of this
latter kind. A false balance is always made use of under the plausible pretence
of doing justice, though it has the contrary effect. This latter kind of
injustice is more abominable than the other.
Uprightness
I. Uprightness
portrayed.
1. Commercial integrity (Proverbs 11:1). There is an inspection of
weights and measures going on daily of which few are cognisant. (Leviticus 19:35-36). The God of heaven is
a God of detail.
2. Lowliness of spirit (verse2). Uprightness is not uppishness.
3. Integrity of purpose (verse3). “The crooked, winding policy of
ungodly men,” says Scott, “involves them in increasing wickedness.”
4. A right estimate of wealth (verse4). The upright man will consider
how his gains will look in the day of judgment.
II. Uprightness
rewarded.
1. The favour of the Lord (Proverbs 11:1).
2. Guidance (Proverbs 11:3). He who does right will be
rightly led (John 7:17; Psalms 112:4).
3. Deliverance (Proverbs 11:4).
4. The respect of others (Proverbs 11:10).
5. The good of others (Proverbs 11:11). (H. Thorne.)
The false balance
Text taken in literal and material sense, as applying to that
great world of fraud and imposition and over-reaching in which we live, and the
subject is our duty as Christians in the midst of it.
I. The manifest
truth of the assertion of the text, and the grounds on which it rests. God is a
God of justice. Truth, pure and unspotted, is the very essence of the Divine
character. Wherever there is deceit in the world, wherever injury, wherever
oppression, there is God’s anger and loathing accompanying it. The false
balance, which is an abomination to the Lord, where do we not see it around us?
From the powerful guides of public opinion, each assuming to be written in the
interest of justice and truth, but each, almost without exception, warping
justice and truth by false statements, false inferences, predetermined
conclusions, down to the petty fraud, in measure and weight, which you will
find in any chance shop you enter, certain known and avowed avoidances or
disguises of truth, are every day practised, and acquiesced in as inevitable.
The evil is in every class. But the mischief is not universal. But Christian
men and women sin by tacit acquiescence in these wrong things.
II. How may we rest
separate ourselves from, and discourage the false balance, and uphold and
cleave to the just weight? We must not begin with mere practical details. The
secret of all wrong is the false balance within the heart; the real cheating
begins there. Is our estimate of men and things which guides our action the
real and true one, or some artificial one, that is altogether wrong, and
leading us altogether wrong? Men who know what is right are sometimes mixed up
with the system of fraud. Why? Because they will not let recognised religious
principle hold the balance nor regulate the estimate formed of the relative
importance of men and things. “I must think,” such a man says, “as others
think; I must do as others do.” If we would get rid of the false balance
without, and in our streets and markets, we must begin within ourselves. Were
buyers honest, sellers would, by compulsion, be honest too. Here the fault
begins. Practical suggestions: conscientiously regulate the bestowal of
employment and patronage: there are certain signs by which even the dull of
discernment may discern the tokens of fraud and pretension. Be not an admirer of
the system of universal cheapness. (Dean Alford.)
Deception in business
Many are pleased at the dexterity with which they practise their
deceptions. The fraud is undiscovered, and being undiscovered, is unfelt by
those on whom it is practised, and what is never known and never felt can be no
harm. So they think. But God sees it, and He estimates the action on no such
principle; nor is it the principle on which you would estimate it were you the
party defrauded. You have no idea, in your own case, of admitting that what is
not missed is not lost; or that the cleverness of the fraud is any palliation
of it. You do not think the better of the merchant with his “balances of
deceit,” that the unfairness of the balance is ingeniously concealed. You do
not regard it as a compensation for the property abstracted from your plundered
house or warehouse, that the impression of your keys has been adroitly
obtained, or the mode of entrance skilfully devised and expertly executed. You
do not approve the laws of ancient Sparta which, to encourage cleverness and
sleight of hand, rewarded instead of punishing the youthful thief who could
steal without detection. Depend upon it, if you plume yourself on the dexterity
with which you have contrived and executed a plan for cozening your neighbour,
it will be no palliation with God, nor will any amount of such dexterity
produce any abatement of His sentence of condemnation. It is the moral
principle, or want of principle, in which the evil lies, and the very measure
of thought and contrivance expended for the purpose of ensuring success in the
contravention of God’s law, instead of diminishing, will serve to aggravate
your guilt in His sight. The “abomination” will be only the more loathsome. (R.
Wardlaw.)
Verse 2
When pride cometh, then cometh shame.
Pride
I shall first describe to you the several kinds of pride among
mankind, and show you their folly and wickedness; and, secondly, point out to you
the beauty and advantage of their
opposite virtue, humility.
I. The vice of
pride puts on a great variety of appearances, and is found in every rank and
condition of human life. Pride of station claims our first notice. “Man being
in authority,” is too apt
to be “proud at heart”; to be “puffed up” with this distinction; to consider
himself as a being of a higher order than the rest of his fellow sinners; and
to look upon those with disdain who are lower in the scale of society than
himself. But what do the Scriptures say to such a vain and foolish mortal as
this? They tell him that “man will not long abide in honour, seeing he may be
compared to the beast that perisheth.” They tell him that “men of high degree
are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.”
2. Nor is the pride of birth less unreasonable than that of rank.
Even a heathen in ancient times could see its absurdity, and say, “for as to
family and ancestors, and what we have not done ourselves, we can scarcely call
those things ours.”
3. Of the same wicked and foolish character is pride of riches.
Reason tells us that riches cannot give dignity of character, superiority of
intellect, vigour of body, endowments of mind, peace of conscience,
cheerfulness of heart, or any one of those advantages which form the chief
blessings of life; and, therefore, are a very insufficient foundation for
“pride of heart.”
4. Pride of talent, and pride of learning, also ill become “man that
is born of a woman.” A disease, an accident, “a sudden terror,” may overset the
mind, and turn all our light into “utter darkness.” Of the pride of beauty, in
order to show its folly, it need only be said, in the language of inspiration,
“surely all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of
the field; the
grass withereth, and the flower fadeth.”
5. The pride of judgment, also, which is too often the pride of the
young and ignorant, is of the like foolish description, and is equally rebuked
by the Holy Scriptures. It is a common and a true observation, that those who
know least generally imagine that they know most, and know best.
6. But, of all kinds of pride, spiritual pride, or the conceit and
boast of being holier than others, is the worst description of this bad
passion: most hateful to God, and most dangerous to our souls.
II. Opposite,
however, as the mid-day sun to “utter darkness,” is the character given in
cripture of lowliness or humility: and the view of the blessings which are
promised upon those in whom it is found. “When pride cometh, then cometh shame:
but with the lowly is wisdom.” When we consider the nature of man, fallen and
far gone from original righteousness, one might well think that men should of
their own accord see the propriety, the necessity, of the grace of humility in
their character. Our Lord has bound meekness and poverty of spirit upon our
consciences by His injunctions, and encouraged our obedience to His injunctions
by assuring us that “the meek and the poor in spirit shall inherit the kingdom of
heaven.” He has declared to us that those who “humble themselves shall be
exalted”; and finally, to give the greatest possible weight and effect to what
He said, He left us, in His own practice, the most perfect example of the
graces which He enjoined to His followers: for “He made Himself of no
reputation,” etc. (R. Warner.)
The advent and evil of pride
I. The advent of
pride. Pride is inordinate self-appreciation. This feeling comes to a soul; it
is not born in it. Infancy and childhood are free from it. How does it come?
1. By associating only with inferiors.
2. By practically ignoring the true standards of character. When we
lose sight of the eternal law of rectitude, and judge ourselves only by the
imperfect standards around us, pride is likely to come.
3. By a practical disregard to the majesty of God. The conscious
presence of God humbles.
II. The evil of
pride. “Then cometh shame.” The man who has formed a false and exaggerated
estimate of self must be disappointed one day. Man must always find his level;
he must come to realities.
1. Shame of folly. The soul bursts with a sense of its own foolish
estimate.
2. Shame of guilt. Pride is a wrong state of mind, and hence shame
follows it. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The shame of pride
The haughty and overbearing conduct of Cardinal Wolsey created him
many secret enemies, and it was his ostentation and love of power which caused
him to lose the favour of his sovereign. Proud of his talents, his wealth, his
position, his sole aim was to raise himself still higher, all his actions being
directed to his own aggrandisements; and this eagerness lay at the root of his
downfall, it being impossible for him to please Henry in the matter of the
divorce without losing all hope of the popedom. He felt severely the shame of
his first disgrace, and offered to surrender both office and wealth to avert
the king’s displeasure; but, being allowed to retire to his archbishopric, he
again excited the envy of his political rivals by his pride and love of show,
and, being arrested for high treason, the whilom leader of the State died
broken-hearted on his journey to London.
Pride
Among all the vices against which Solomon has cautioned us
(and he has scarce left one untouched), there is none upon which he animadverts
with more severity, or to which he more frequently recalls our attention, than
the vice of pride; for which there may be many reasons assigned, but, more
particularly, two seem to deserve our consideration.
1. The first is the extensiveness of the sin. Other vices tyrannise
over particular ages, and triumph in particular countries. Rage is the failing
of youth, and avarice of age; revenge is the predominant passion of one
country, and inconstancy the charasteristic of another; but pride is the native
of every country, infects every climate, and corrupts every nation.
2. The second reason may be drawn from the circumstances of the preacher. Pride was
probably a crime to which Solomon himself was most violently tempted, since he
was placed in every circumstance that could expose him to it. He was a king
absolute and independent, and by consequence surrounded with sycophants ready
to second the first motions of self-love, to comply with every proposal, and
flatter every failing. But Solomon had not only the pride of royalty to suppress,
but the pride of prosperity, of knowledge, and of wealth.
I. The nature of
pride, with its attendants and consequences. Pride, simply considered, is an
immoderate degree of self-esteem, or an over-value set upon a man by himself,
and, like most other vices, is founded originally on an intellectual falsehood.
But this definition sets this vice in the fairest light, and separates it from
all its consequences, by considering man without relation to society, and
independent of all outward circumstances. Pride, thus defined, is only the seed
of that complicated sin against which we are cautioned in the text. In
speculation pride may be considered as ending where it began, and exerting no
influences beyond the bosom in which it dwells; but in real life pride will
always be attended with kindred passions, and produce effects equally injurious
to others, and destructive to itself.
1. He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that
undervalues others will oppress them. Pride has been able to harden the heart
against compassion, and stop the ears against the cries of misery. It makes
masters cruel and imperious, and magistrates insolent and partial. It produces
contempt and injuries, and dissolves the bond of society. Nor is this species
of pride more hurtful to the world than destructive to itself. The oppressor
unites heaven and earth against him.
2. He that sets too high a value upon his own merits will, of course,
think them ill-rewarded with his present condition. He will endeavour to exalt
his fortune and his rank above others, in proportion as his deserts are
superior to theirs. Once fired with these notions, he will attempt to increase
his fortune and enlarge his sphere; and how few there are that prosecute such
attempts with innocence, a very transient observation will sufficiently inform
us. To pride, therefore, must be ascribed most of the fraud, injustice,
violence, and extortion, by which wealth is frequently acquired.
3. Another concomitant of pride is envy, or the desire of debasing
others. A proud man is uneasy and dissatisfied, while any of those applauses
are bestowed on another, which he is desirous of himself.
4. Another consequence of immoderate self-esteem is an insatiable
desire of propagating in others the favourable opinion he entertains of
himself. He therefore tortures his invention for means to make himself
conspicuous, and to draw the eyes of the world upon him. But for the most part
it is ordered by Providence that the schemes of the ambitious are disappointed,
so that “still when pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowly
is wisdom.”
II. Some of the
usual motives to pride, and how little they can be pleaded in excuse of it. A
superior being that should look down upon the disorder and corruption of our
world, that should observe the shortness of our lives, the weakness of our
bodies, the continual accidents, or injuries, to which we are subject; the
violence of our passions, the irregularity of our conduct, and the transitory
state of everything about us, would hardly believe there could be among us such
vice as pride. Yet so it is, that however weak or wicked we may be, we fix our
eyes on some other that is represented by our self-love to be weaker, or more
wicked, than ourselves, and grow proud upon the comparison. Another common
motive to pride is knowledge, a motive equally weak, vain, and idle, with the
former. Learning indeed, imperfect as it is, may contribute to many great and
noble ends, and may be called in to the assistance of religion. But how little
reason have we to boast of our knowledge, when we only gaze and wonder at the
surface of things? When the wisest and most arrogant philosopher knows not how
a grain of corn is generated, or why a stone falls to the ground? But were our
knowledge far greater than it is, let us yet remember that goodness, not
knowledge, is the happiness of man! There is another more dangerous species of
pride, arising from a consciousness of virtue; so watchful is the enemy of our
souls, and so deceitful are our own hearts, that too often a victory over one
sinful inclination exposes us to be conquered by another. This kind of pride is
generally accompanied with great uncharitableness, and severe censures of
others, and may obstruct the great duty of repentance.
III. The amiableness
and excellence of humility. To evince beyond opposition the excellence of this
virtue, we may observe that the life of our Lord was one continued exercise of
humility. (John Taylor, LL.D.)
Pride leading to shame
Tirmond, one of the Czar’s ablest surgeons, and to whom he was
much attached, having died, his widow married a young barber from Dantzic, who
was somewhat more expert in gallantry than in surgery; as he became very
wealthy by this marriage, he made a great figure at Moscow. Being one day sent
for by the Czar, he went to court in a magnificent dress, and in one of his
elegant carriages. Peter examined him, and roughly told him he was a blockhead,
and immediately sailed in a troop of valets and peasants, whom he ordered him
instantly to shave. The gentleman barber was under the necessity of obeying, to
the great amusement of the whole court, and with the same parade in which he
had arrived, he was then permitted to return. (Christian Weekly.)
Proud and lowly
Pride consists in an immoderate self-esteem, and places its
happiness in esteem and honour from others. No sin is more foolish than this,
it springs from ignorance of God, of ourselves and other men, and by the very
means which it uses for the accomplishments of its ends, ensures
disappointment. In seeking glory it finds disgrace. Pride made Nebuchadnezzar a
brute. It destroyed Herod with worms. It turned Lucifer into Beelzebub. By
other sins, man rebels against God; by pride he usurps His crown and dignity.
No wonder, then, that God looks up all those that are proud, and abaseth them.
Humble men think of themselves as they ought to think. They desire that God may
be honoured, even at the expense of their own honour. (G. Lawson.)
Verse 3
The integrity of the upright sham guide them.
Integrity the best guide both in religious inquiries and in moral
conduct
The policy of the world, like the world itself, is fluctuating and
deceitful. Uncertain both in its objects and its means, it knows nothing of
that steadfastness which religious principle communicates both to mind and
conduct. The shifts and windings of those who are guided by no higher
principles than those of pride and avarice would be truly ludicrous if they
were not accompanied with serious mischief. Integrity, originating in the
honest feelings of nature, exalted by piety, and cherished by serious
reflections upon the ends of a probationary state, is our purest guide amidst
all the temptations and difficulties, through all the vicissitudes and
perplexities, both in thought and in action, which are continually occurring in
the journey of life. By integrity is meant, steady determination to abide by
the profession of important truth, however unfashionable, and to be upright in
all transactions with the world, at whatever expense of temporary ease and
interest.
I. Integrity is
the surest guide to every practical purpose in our religious inquiries. These
inquiries have unfortunately been perplexed and mystified by the polemics of
Churches and sects. Of course it is integrity, enlightened, to a certain
degree, by a right education, that is meant. Go to the Bible with the sincere
desire of gaining the knowledge of practical and consolatory truths, without
any sectarian bias, and it is impossible that you should err in anything that
might affect your practice here, or your salvation hereafter. Your integrity
will guide you in all that is essential.
II. Integrity is
our best guide in our worldly transactions, as men and as members of society.
It is the great solver of all moral difficulties. Whence do these originate?
They are generated by that interference of complicated interests, which
embarrasses and perverts the minds of those who have no settled principle to
which they can refer amidst the ever-varying plans of worldly wisdom.
Integrity, enlightened by the truths, and fortified by the promises of the
gospel, admits of no hesitation on account of any temporary inconvenience, to
which an honest conduct may expose us. In public concerns, the surest way to
outwit cunning and artifice would be to fix only upon such objects as reason
can indicate and conscience may approve. Truth, in the hands of wisdom and
courage, has a commanding aspect, which would confound the subtle chicanery and
pitiful arts of a selfish and low-minded diplomacy. And in private transactions
between man and man it holds equally true that enlightened integrity, acting
with perseverance upon a settled plan, ultimately gains the very end by upright
means which in the cunning and dishonest tall a thousand times for once that
they succeed. Integrity makes a man rich in character, and that ensures him the
best chance of gaining earthly success and wealth. (Jas. Lindsay, D.D.)
On integrity as the guide of life
A man of
integrity is one who makes it his constant rule to follow the road of duty
according as the Word of God and the voice of his conscience point it out to
him. The upright man is guided by a fixed principle of mind. Hence you find him
ever and everywhere the same. In what manner does such integrity serve as the
guide of his life? To conduct ourselves in human affairs with wisdom and
propriety is often a matter of no small difficulty. Amidst that variety of
characters, of jarring dispositions, and of interfering interests, which is
found among those with whom we have intercourse, we are frequently at a stand
as to the part most prudent for us to choose. In public and in private life,
the doubt started by the wise man frequently occurs. Who knoweth what is good
for man in this life? In such situations as these, the principle of integrity
interposes to give light and direction. The virtuous man has one oracle, to
which he resorts in every dubious case. He consults his conscience. The
principle of integrity will always, if we listen to it impartially, give a
clear decision.
1. The guidance of integrity is the safest under which we can be
placed. The road in which it leads us is, upon the whole, freest from dangers.
The man of the world aims at higher things, and more rapid success, than the
man of moderation and virtue. But, at the same time, he incurs greater risks
and dangers. No calculation of probabilities can ensure safety to him who is
acting a deceitful part. He who follows the guidance of integrity, walks in the
high road, on which the light of the sun shines. The principle of integrity by
no means excludes prudence in the conduct of life. It implies no improvident or
thoughtless simplicity.
2. The path of integrity is the most honourable. Integrity is the foundation
of all that is high in character among mankind. He who rests upon an internal
principle of virtue and honour will act with a dignity and boldness of which
they are incapable who are wholly guided by interest. That firmness which the
consciousness of rectitude inspires gives vigour and force to his exertions on
every great occasion. It adds double weight to all the abilities of which he is
possessed. They who oppose him are obliged to honour him. Such a man is trusted
and relied on, as well as esteemed.
3. The plan of conduct on which the man of integrity proceeds is the most
comfortable, attended with the greatest satisfaction to his own mind. His
reference of all his actions to Divine approbation furnishes another source of
satisfaction and peace.
4. The man of integrity has in view the prospect of immortal rewards.
True integrity will prove the truest wisdom both for this world and the next. (Hugh
Blair, D.D.)
Integrity a good guide
Nehemiah was brave and upright; and his integrity guided him to honour
and renown, and his righteousness delivered his friends and their enterprise
from disaster (Nehemiah 6:10-16). Haman was perverse and
wicked; his ways were crooked; he conspired to take away the lives of others;
and on the gallows which he had set up for Mordecai he himself was hung: and so
“the transgressor was taken in his own naughtiness” (Esther 7:10).
Verse 5
The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way.
The Divine nature of righteousness
Not unreasonably this book of Proverbs charged with
unspirituality. It is not a manual of devotion. It is not a setting forth of
eternal principles of truth. It is a collection of homely aphorisms applicable
to the practical life of man. But these proverbs rest upon spiritual
principles, and they are saved from narrowness by the way in which they
explain, amplify, and qualify each other. The great pervading principle of the
book is righteousness, its Divine nature, and its blessed fruits.
I. The fundamental
principle of this book, and of all moral teaching. “Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he reap.” This by the world is--
1. Denied in practice.
2. Denied in theory. The theory is false that, live as you like, the
result will be the same. It is contradicted by experience. It is inconsistent
with the very being of a God.
II. Special
statement of the principles.
1. “The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way.” Note the
leading words. “Perfect,” not faultless, but upright. Not consciously or
intentionally reserving anything from God. “His righteousness.” Not his own, but
God’s; yet made his own by free adoption of his will. “Its work.” Not an
arbitrary reward.
2. “Wicked fall by his own wickedness.” Generally speaking, failure
is worked for, and comes as payment. Apply to
Goodness required by God
The main characteristic of all heathen religions is that their
gods do not demand righteousness, but certain outward and formal observances.
Sacrifices must be offered to them, their vindictive temper must be
propitiated, their anger averted; if the dues of the gods are paid, the
stipulated quantity of corn and wine and oil, the tithes, the first-fruits, the
animals for the altar, the tribute for the temple, then the Worshipper, who has
thus discharged his obligations, may feel himself free to follow out his own
tastes and inclinations. In the Roman religion, for example, every dealing with
the gods was a strictly legal contract; the Roman general agreed with Jupiter
or with Mars that if the battle should be won a temple should be built. It was
not necessary that the cause should be right, or that the general should be
good; the sacrifice of the wicked, though offered with an evil intent, was as
valid as the sacrifice of the good. In either case the same amount of marble
and stone, of silver and gold, would come to the god. In the Eastern religions
not only were goodness and righteousness dissociated from the idea of the gods,
but evil of the grossest kinds was definitely associated with them. The
Phoenician deities, like those of the Hindoos, were actually worshipped with
rites of murder and lust.
Every vice had its patron god or goddess, and it was forgotten by priest and
people that goodness could be the way of pleasing God, or moral evil a cause of
offence to Him. Even in Israel, where the teaching of revelation was current in
the proverbs of the people, the practice generally followed the heathen
conceptions. All the burning protests of the inspired prophets could not avail
to convince the Israelite that what God required was not sacrifice and
offering, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him. Again
and again we find that the high places were frequented, and the ritual
supported by men who were sensual, unjust, and cruel. The Sabbath Day was kept,
the feasts were duly observed, the priests were handsomely maintained, and
there, it was supposed, the legitimate claims of Jehovah ceased. What more
could He desire? This is surely the most impressive proof that the truth which
is under consideration is far from being obvious. So far from treating the
truth as a truism, our Lord in all His teaching laboured to bring it out in
greater clearness, and to set it in the forefront of His message to men. He
painted with exquisite simplicity and clearness the right life, the conduct
which God requires of us, and then likened every one who practised this life to
a man who builds his house on a rock, and every one who does not practise it to
a man who builds his house on the sand. He declared, in the spirit of the Book
of Proverbs, that teachers were to be judged by their fruits, and that God
would estimate our lives not by what we professed to do, but by what we did;
and He took up the very language of the book in declaring that every man should
be judged according to his works. In every word He spoke He made it plain that
goodness is what God loves, and that wickedness is what He judges and destroys.
In the same way every one of the apostles insists on this truth with a new
earnestness. St. John more especially reiterates it, in words which sound even
more like a truism than the sayings of this book: “He that doeth righteousness,
is righteous even as He is righteous”; and, “If ye know that He is righteous,
ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him.” (R.
F. Herren, D.D.)
Verse 7
The hope of unjust men perisheth.
The terrible in human history
There are
two terrible events in this text.
I. Death meeting
the wicked man. “The wicked man dieth.”
1. Death does not wait for reformation of character.
2. The greatest enemies of God and His universe are overcome. There
is a stronger power than that of the wicked.
II. Hope leaving
the human soul. What is dearer to the soul than hope? The soul lives in and by
hope. Shakespeare Says, “The miserable hath no medicine, but only hope.” When
the wicked man dieth, he loses this hope. Hope of liberty, of improvement, of
honour, of happiness. He dieth, and carrieth nothing away. (D.
Thomas, D.D.)
The hope of the wicked
Men derive almost the whole of their happiness from hope.
The wicked man laughs at the righteous because he lives by hope; but the wicked
man himself does the same. The present situation of the wicked man never yields
him the pleasure which he wishes and expects, but there is ever something in
view, in which, could he but obtain it, he would find rest. If his hopes are
deferred, his heart is sick; if they are accomplished he is still unsatisfied;
but he comforts himself with some other hope, like a child, who thinks he sees a
rainbow on the top of a neighbouring hill, and runs to take hold of it, but
sees it as far removed from him as before. Thus the life of a wicked man is
spent in vain wishes and toils and hopes, till death kills at once his body,
his hope, and his happiness. (G. Lawson.)
Verse 8
The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh
in his stead.
Trouble in its relation to the righteous and the wicked
All men have their troubles. The relation of the good and
the bed to trouble is strikingly different.
I. The righteous
are going out of trouble. The troubles of the righteous arise from physical
infirmities, mental difficulties, secular anxieties, moral imperfections,
social dishonesties, falsehoods, end bereavements. But the fact is, that they
are being delivered out of these troubles.
1. Partially, they are
being delivered out of trouble now.
2. Completely, they will be delivered out of all trouble at death.
II. The wicked are
going into trouble. They are going deeper into trouble every step they take.
They are forging thunderbolts and nursing storms. The trouble they are going
into is unmitigated. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Retributive justice
Thus do these two classes change places in the dispensations of
God. The same Providence often marks Divine faithfulness and retributive
justice. The Israelites were delivered out of the trouble of the Red Sea; the
Egyptians came in their stead. Mordecai was delivered from the gallows; Haman
was hanged upon it. The noble confessors in Babylon were saved from the fire;
their executioners were “slain” by it. Daniel was preserved from the lions; his
accusers were devoured by them. Peter was snatched from death; his jailors and
persecutors were condemned. Thus “precious in the sight of the Lord is” the
life, no less than “the death, of his saints.” To what source but his own free
and sovereign love can we trace this special estimation? (C.
Bridges.)
The wicked cometh in his stead
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came unhurt out of the “burning
fiery furnace”; whilst the men who cast them in were slain by the fierceness of
the heat (Daniel 3:22-27.) Daniel was taken up
alive and uninjured out of the lions’ den; whilst the men who had accused him
were cast into the same den, and the lions, which had not touched Daniel,
“brake all their bones in pieces” before they reached “the bottom of the den” (Daniel 6:23-24).
Verse 9
An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through
knowledge shall the just be delivered.
Hypocrisy and knowledge
The hypocrite is one who feigns to be what he is not--one
whose life is a lie. Selfish, he wears the costume of benevolence; false, he
speaks the language of sincerity and truth.
I. Hypocrisy is
destructive. The hypocrite, by his deception, has often destroyed the
reputation, the peace, end the soul of his neighbour. Hypocrisy--
1. Implies the pernicious. A consciousness of wrongness within is the
cause of all hypocrisy.
2. Employs the pernicious. Misrepresentations are its instruments.
II. Knowledge is
restorative. Knowledge here is in antithesis with hypocrisy. Real knowledge is
truth, reality. It scatters the clouds of ignorance and error, and raises the
soul to light, freedom, purity and blessedness. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The insincere
This verse may be understood with a reference to all insincere
professions of friendship and good intentions--to all insinuating and
flattering pretensions, adopted for the purpose of affecting a particular end.
How many are there who, for objects of their own deceive others; no matter what
the result may be to the deceived, provided the deceiver but accomplish his
selfish aim. In religion, the hypocrite has a purpose. His religion is not
real. He assumes the cloak to cover some secret design. The verse itself
suggests the design--the undermining of the principles of others. He insinuates
himself into confidence. The confidence increasing, he becomes by degrees more
and more bold, till, by slow steps, he unsettles the principles, shakes the faith,
dissipates the seriousness, and ruins the souls of others. Hypocrites are awful
stumbling blocks. (R. Wardlaw.)
Verse 10
When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth.
The public conscience in relation to moral character
Down deep beneath the errors, follies, vanities of the community,
there is a conscience. That conscience points evermore to the right and the
just, as the needle to the pole.
I. The public
conscience in relation to the righteous.
1. Public conscience is gratified by the prosperity of the righteous.
2. Public conscience acknowledges the usefulness of the righteous.
II. Public
conscience in relation to the wicked.
1. It rejoices in their ruin.
2. It acknowledges their mischief.
The “mouth of the wicked”--the channel of impieties, falsehoods,
impurities, and innumerable pernicious errors have caused in all ages, and is
still causing, the overthrow of states. (Homilist.)
The tribute to righteousness
This is a tribute to righteousness which must come sooner or
later. There is a heart in the city as well as in the individual man; a kind of
civic personality as well as a narrow individuality. When principles of the
highest morality govern the life of the city there is rejoicing everywhere,
because where righteousness is the blessing of God is, and the blessing of God
maketh rich, and no sorrow is added to that infinite and tender benediction. It
is singular indeed that even bad men rejoice when good principles are so
received and applied as to revive commercial industry and commercial
confidence, and create a healthy state of feeling as between nation and nation,
and city and city. When the wicked man perishes there is shouting of gladness,
although there may have been during his lifetime adulation and hypocritical
compliment paid to him. The wicked man never did anybody any lasting good. He
always took away more than he gave, and he never pronounced a kind word except
with a stinging spirit, and even in his superficial benedictions there was
nothing enduring, nothing solid and lasting in the comfort which he pretended
to bestow. The wicked man imagines that he is popular, but his imagination is
vain. He is only made use of, looked for in order that he may help in a time of
emergency, or in some way be unconsciously debased to uses the full range and
purpose of which he does not perceive. Every one is proud to recall the repute
of a righteous man. It is like reminding others of gardens of beauty, orchards
of delight, landscapes rich in all features of excellence and attractiveness;
the name of the righteous is a name of health; it is breathed as with the fresh
air of heaven; men delight to hear it and find their honour even in its
repetition. By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is
overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. The upright may be for a time opposed,
but for a time only; the issue is certain; truth will prevail, and they who
oppose the upright shall come to humiliation, if not to contrition, and to such
a sense of injury inflicted upon the innocent as will elicit from them words of
compunction, petitions, and supplications for pardon. (J. Parker,D.D.)
When the wicked perish,
there is shouting.
Joy in the fate of the wicked
On the death of Henry III of France, whose character was a
contemptible mixture of weakness, folly, and vice, the Parisians, who had long
held their king in distrust and contempt, gave themselves up to most
disgraceful excesses of joy, and the Duchess of Montpensier ran about the
streets crying, Good news, good news! the tyrant is dead! “Robespierre was
conveyed to the place of execution amid shouts and execrations of the populace,
who were frantic with joy at the downfall of the tyrant, the women dancing about
the procession in the most insane manner. There was great rejoicing in Ireland
when it was known that James Carey, the informer, had been shot. (J.
L. Nye.)
When Mordecai triumphed over Haman, “the city of Shushan rejoiced
and was glad” (Esther 8:15). “When the wicked perish,
there is shouting.” When Athaliah was slain, “all the people of the land
rejoiced” (2 Kings 11:20).
Verse 11
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted.
A political maxim
To the morals of men is imputed the public prosperity or
misfortunes. By “upright” is meant, men of sufficient abilities for the
stations which they fill, and of piety and resolution enough to discharge the
duties of their places.
1. When righteous magistrates are in authority, good laws are
enacted, and impartially administered; virtue meets with its encouragements and
vice with its due restraints and punishments.
2. The faithful dispensers of the sincere Word of God must needs
contribute very much to the happiness of the place where they live. Those who
propagate the knowledge of God, and excite men to glorify Him, must in reason
be esteemed the instruments of men’s felicity.
3. Every upright man, of what station soever, is a blessing to the
place where he lives, if he have so much of a public spirit and principle of
humanity in him as to desire his neighbour’s prosperity as well as his own; and
if he be ready upon all reasonable occasions to do good offices to others, such
a man is a good member of any civilised community.
The other part of the text deals with a contrary cause and effect.
1. At the tribunals of justice, in trials of right and wrong, an
unjust sentence has often proceeded from the mouth of a partial judge, a
corrupt jury, or a false witness.
2. In dispensing the Divine Word, and treating of the mysteries and
doctrines of religion, it is of most destructive consequences to the people, if
the mouth of the wicked have the handling of them; for then the people will be
sure to be divided by that religion which was designed to unite them, and be
emboldened to disobey God by the authority of His own misinterpreted Word. Pure
religion is certainly the very best cement of civil society, as mightily
enforcing the duties of unity, peace, and love among men: but religion
corrupted in the doctrines of faith and practice carries with it the seeds of
endless strife and contention, and ministers occasion to continual debates and
animosities.
3. In the daily affairs and transactions of common life, the mouth of
the wicked does much towards destroying the public good. If this be well
demonstrated, it is a fair warning to all cities which are concerned for their
own preservation, that they be very careful to increase the upright, and
diminish the number of the wicked among them. Let us then exert ourselves, upon
all just occasions, in the cause of truth, to the extermination of all that is
contrary to it. So shall we both entitle ourselves and those whom we shall
reduce from error to the gracious protection of God in this life present, and
to His everlasting salvation in that which is to come. (W. Reading, M.A.)
A good man a blessing to the city
When Hezekiah “wrought that which was good and right and truth
before God,” the Lord saved Jerusalem from the hand of every enemy, and made
the city prosperous (2 Chronicles 32:22; 2 Chronicles 32:30.) But it is
overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were foul of mouth; it was an open
sepulchre; and, because of their sins, God overthrew the two cities (Genesis 19:25).
Verse 12-13
He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour.
Types of character in social life
Four distinct types of character.
I. The insolent.
Men destitute of all true respect for their fellows. They are uncivil and rude,
sneering, saucy, abusive.
II. The respectful.
He is neither precipitant in the judgment he forms of men, nor hasty in his
language. He is the true gentleman of society: cautious, prudent, polite.
III. The tattler. A
tale-bearer is one who will take in your secrets, and hasten to his neighbour
to pour them into his greedy ears. He has a witching ear to know your concerns.
He is not always malicious in spirit, but he is always dangerous. He is always
defending friendships, starting suspicions, and creating animosities.
IV. The
trustworthy. The antithesis to the tale-bearer. He is a dependable friend; he
will listen to your secrets as things too sacred for speech. You can trust him
with your life, he will never betray you. (Homilist.)
Tale-bearers unloading refuse
“It was told me in the strictest confidence, but you won’t tell I”
“No,” was the quiet reply; “I prefer not to hear it. What right have you to
tell what you virtually promised not to communicate; I am sure I have no right,
and I have no desire to know what does not belong to me to know.” There are
people who use their friends as dumping-grounds, and unload on them any choice
bits of scandal they may chance to pick up, as though they were conferring a
favour. As long as human nature is what it is, there will be plenty of such
unloading to be done; but what noble mind wishes to be put to such ignoble
uses, and to have made in any part of his spiritual domain a scavenger heap?
The perfect character, like the perfectly kept house, has no dark and dusty
corners. It is kept sweet and pure in every part. There is no place where a
foul garment or a malodorous rag may be tucked away and hidden. Fire and water
and the broom and duster in a modern house keep all things clean. There is no
more reason why there should be nesting-places of evil in the soul than why
there should be dust upon our furniture. The pure sunlight of God let into dark
places cleanses and keeps them clean. The person who in confidence would taint
another is not a friend, but an enemy. (Christian Age.)
Tale-bearers traders in scandal
The word means “a hawker,” or “travelling-chapman”; and the
tale-bearer is a trader in scandal, an itinerant busybody. A. shrewd heathen
was wont to say, “Tale-bearers should be hung up by the tongue, and
tale-hearers by the ears.”
Verse 14
Where no counsel is, the people fall.
The value of advice
Kings and rulers stand in special need of counsel. When a ruler is
surrounded by good counsellors he and his people are safe. We can trace this
truth in the rise and fall of nations. God’s advice is one of our most valuable
helps, and the text tells us not to neglect it. Man is apt to go astray. His
judgment is sometimes misled; while his affections are corrupted, and his will
is ungoverned.
I. Why do we need
advice? The first reason is found in the peculiar nature of the evils to which
we are exposed. Sin has a strangely deluding influence over those whom it
tempts. Here there is scope of need for wise counsels, which may enforce the
neglected voice of conscience. Advice is also necessary in consequence of
special circumstances in which we are placed. We are involved in difficulties
from which others are required
to rescue us. “Where no counsel is, the people fall.”
II. Where are we to
seek advice? We should not ask for it except when we really require it. To be
ever at a loss what to do unless we are “advised” is a characteristic of a life
that is usually spent to little purpose. The secret of a useful course through the world lies in
a measure of self-reliance. At other times when advice is sought there is a
foregone conclusion, and a man only wishes to have his own views confirmed. Out
of its proper place advice, instead of being a help, is almost a hindrance to a
right decision. It is not safe to go indiscriminately to all sorts of people
with a statement of our difficulties, and entreaties for advice in dealing with
them. This disposition is the evidence of a weak mind and an irresolute will.
There is no real safety in the counsel sought in the confessional. Supreme
wisdom comes to us with greatest force when it flows through the channel of
hearts bound closely to our own.
III. How to take
advice. The danger of resenting counsel, when it is unpleasant, is one with
which we are all more or less familiar. Those who give advice should always be
pure of their warrant to do so. But the more experience a man has the less
disposed he will be to give advice unsought. Men are rarely careful enough in
their way of giving disagreeable advice. There is a spirit and a manner in some
counsels which it is not in human nature to bear. But we must take care lest we
be displeased with others whose advice we get, simply because we dislike it.
All are not good counsellors who try to lead, and we cannot too carefully test
the words of advice which, on every hand, are spoken to us. When we are in
doubt as to their value, we must weigh them in the balance of God’s sanctuary;
and if they speak not according to His law, it is because there is no truth in
them. The Great Adviser is always interested in us. Reliance on help from above
is verified by the experience of all good men. (A. MacEwen, D.D.)
Verse 16
A gracious woman retaineth honour.
The honour of woman
Here the sexes are put in beautiful apposition: woman is
gracious, man is strong. Graciousness dissociated from strength has indeed an
influence all its own; strength dissociated from graciousness is mere strength,
and is wanting in all those attributes which excite and satisfy the deepest
confidences of the world. A woman can work miracles by her graciousness. She
knows how to enter the sick chamber noiselessly. She knows how to enter the
room without violence, ostentation, or impressiveness, which signifies vanity
and display. Woman can speak the gentle word, and look the gracious look, and
use the magical touch of friendship and trust, and, in short, can carry her own
way without appearing to do so by the very force of tenderness, sympathy, and
persuasiveness. Who would raise the foolish question whether grace or strength
is the more desirable attribute? Each is desirable in its own way; a
combination that is the very perfection of character. Strength and beauty are
in the house of the Lord. The great column looks all the better for the
beautiful capital which crowns and enriches it. Men should endeavour to
cultivate grace, tenderness, all that is charmful in spirit, disposition, and
action. This cannot be done by mere mimicry; it is to be done by living
continually with Christ, studying His spirit, entering into all His purposes,
and reproducing, not mechanically, but spiritually, as much as possible of all
that was distinctive of His infinite character. The Bible has ever given honour
to woman. He is a fool and an unjust man who wishes to keep women in silence,
obscurity, and in a state of unimportance; and she is a foolish woman who
imagines that she cannot be gracious without being strong, and who wishes to
sacrifice her graciousness to some empty reputation for worthless energy. It is
not good for the man to be alone, for he is without grace; it is not good for
the woman to be alone, for she is without strength; when men and women stand to
one another in the right Christian relation they will complete one another, and
together constitute the Divine idea of humanity. (J..Parker, D.D.)
Verse 17
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul
The merciful man
Our God is a God of mercy.
Since He is full of mercy Himself, He is well pleased when He sees us exercise
the same towards our fellow-creatures. The wise man here does not speak of
tenderness towards others. The merciful man he here represents is a
self-interested individual. He “doeth good to his own soul.” The merciful is he
who is alive to his eternal interests, who is seeking the good of that treasure
which is committed to him--“his own soul.” How may you promote this most
desirable of all objects?
1. He who would do good to his own soul must carefully avoid all
manner of sin, whether in thought, word, or deed. The thoughts must be watched.
We are to be careful of the words which we utter, so that we may not make our
tongues the instruments of evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. And careful
also of our conduct and action.
2. Another mark of the object being kept in view, is the habitual
study of the Word of God. The Scriptures testify of Christ, and point Him out
as the “way, the truth, and the life.”
3. Attention to the means of grace.
4. He endeavours to realise an interest in the merits and atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
5. The merciful man, who does good to his own soul, does so only by
placing his entire dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. (D. Slyman,
B.A.)
The generous and the ungenerous
I. A generous
disposition is a blessing to its possessor.
1. A merciful man doeth good to his intellectual faculties. It is a
psychological fact that the intellect can only see clearly, move freely, and
progress vigorously as it is surrounded by the atmosphere of disinterested
affection. Selfishness blinds, cripples, enervates the intellect.
2. A merciful man doeth good to his moral sentiments. Conscience
approves only of the actions that spring from love.
II. An ungenerous
disposition is a curse to its possessor. Unmercifulness of disposition breeds
the fiends of envy, jealousy, malice, remorse, fear, suspicion, pride, that
torment the soul. (Homilist.)
Mercy to sufferers and to offenders
Mercy to sufferers is the disposition to relieve; mercy to
offenders is the disposition to forgive. The two are infinitely united in God.
Under His government all sufferers are offenders. It is only as offenders that
they are sufferers, and when He pardons the offence He cancels the sentence to
suffering. And in every good man the two are united. They should, indeed, be
regarded as one principle, operating in different departments. The merciful
man, whether considered in the one light or in the other--in exercising
forgiveness or in relieving distress--“doeth good to his own soul”; he
effectually consults his own interests. In the exercise of the generous and
kindly affections there is a genuine and exquisite happiness. (R.
Wardlaw.)
Verse 18
The wicked worketh a deceitful work.
The wicked and the just
There is here a startling contrast between them, in their work and
in their reward.
I. Their work.
1. There is intentionally set before us a good specimen of a bad man.
He is a man who works, and works hard in his own way. Some evil-doers are idle,
profligate, sensual, devilish. Such seldom deceive themselves, and but rarely
deceive others. But here is described a man who is very likely to deceive both
himself and others. Wicked men are often shrewd men of the world and clever.
They are zealous and laborious men, though the objects they aim at may be
unworthy and bad. Their mistake is not in the way they work, but in the thing
they work for. If all Christians were as eager in their pursuit of truth and
charity and all good works as worldly men are in their search after riches and
pleasures, what a difference it would make! Whilst the wicked man works in
earnest fashion for time, does he attempt any like efforts for eternity? It is
a mistake to think the bad man does not care for eternity at all. Multitudes
attempt to serve two masters. A man who works with all his strength for worldly
success often persuades himself that he will be able to work for eternity too.
Does he then labour for the “meat that endureth unto eternal life”? Nay, at
this point his wisdom is at fault, the deceitfulness of his work begins to
appear. He is no better than a spiritual impostor and spendthrift. He knows
nothing of the faith which awakens the generous and noble impulses of humanity,
which touches the heart and makes the life holy. He is altogether ignorant of
the quickening and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost.
2. Not such is the work of the righteous. He “soweth righteousness.”
The sowing of the seed is the crowning act of the husbandman’s preparation for
a crop. All his other work goes for nothing unless it be consummated by this
work. The wicked is said to work, but the just sows righteousness. The text
describes a work of faith. He who “sows righteousness” does it in order that he may hereafter gather
in the harvest. What is the seed he sows? (compare Hosea 10:12). To “sow righteousness,” to
“sow in righteousness,” and to “sow to the Spirit,” all means the same thing.
It is to live righteously, to do righteous actions, to perform acts of devotion
and piety to God, and to do works of truth and justice and charity towards our
neighbour. It is to learn to do the will of God, looking forward to a future
harvest,” having respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Righteousness in
Scripture is a universal virtue, containing in itself all other virtues. A man
must gather his seed before he can sow it. He who is to “sow righteousness”
must first obtain a supply of the precious fruit of righteousness. Whence can
this supply be fetched?
II. Their reward.
1. Working a deceitful work means working so as to deceive others.
There is no real truth in a bad man. He is sure to deceive, whenever deceit
will serve his ends. He will cast truth to the winds whenever truth calls upon
him to suffer, either in his own person, or in his purse, or in the good opinion
of others. Another rendering is, “the wicked winneth deceitful wages.” His work
will betray him to his ruin, and will in the end utterly disappoint his own
hopes. His work will break down just where it ought to stand, and fail
altogether when his need is the greatest.
2. Mark well the bright and refreshing contrast. “To him that soweth
righteousness shall be a sure reward.” The seed which has been sown in hope may
lie for a long time beneath the clods, and may seem to be dead as well as
buried. But as surely as God’s Word is true, it will spring up and grow, and
ripen for a harvest of unspeakable joy. The reward of the righteous is a reward
of grace and mercy. He that has “sown righteousness” most plentifully will look
for his sure reward only from the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ. We live
in difficult times, no doubt, but every age has its own trials, and the men of
every age are ready to believe that no trials are as bad as theirs. The only
safe way is the same in every age. It is to “sow righteousness.” (W.
Bonner Hopkins, B.D.)
To him that soweth
righteousness shall be a sure reward.--
The spiritual tillage
The husbandry and harvest of the righteous:--This is a
counter-plea to that profane principle of the atheists, who say, “It is in vain
to serve God.”
I. What it is to
sow righteousness. It is the same as to “sow to the Spirit.” The gracious
course of consecrating a man’s self unto God in the practice of godliness.
There is likeness betwixt the practice of godliness and the sowing of seed.
1. In some things which go before sowing--the preparation and fitting
of the ground, and the choice of seed to put in the ground. In like manner
there must be in the practice of godliness the preparation of the heart and the
choice of particulars belonging to a Christian course.
2. In the act of
sowing, which may include the time of sowing and the plenty of sowing. In the
spiritual business the seed-time for righteousness is in this life; the
opportunity must be taken when it comes. And to sow righteousness is to be rich
in good works.
3. In the things that follow after sowing. The fields must be hedged,
the cattle shut out, the birds driven away, the stones picked out, and the
field watched to see how it goes on. In spiritual matters it is vain to have
entered into a good course if it be not continued. The signs of the practice of
godliness are--
II. What is the
sure reward? This is either in the life present or in that which is to come.
Rewards in this life are both outward and inward: outward so far forth as the wisdom
of God shall see it fitting. The inward is peace of conscience, arising out of
the comfortable assurance of God’s favour. This is a joy working even in
afflictions. The reward in the life to come cannot be expressed. Scripture
reasoneth concerning the certainty of this reward by a proverbial speech,
“Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Holiness in the seed,
happiness in the harvest. And by the truth of God’s promise. There is a double
reward--a reward of favour and a reward of debt. The doctrines to be collected
are--
1. That the practice of godliness is a matter which requireth great
industry.
2. That the full reward of religion is not to be looked for
immediately on the practice of religion. Sowing and reaping come not at once.
3. That the Lord will surely reward those which faithfully labour in
His service. Though there be many a storm after our sowing, the harvest will
come, and we shall be comforted. Farmers pay their workmen straight after their
labour, before the corn be ripe, but the payments are of far less value than
the corn. God bestoweth upon His all that they have sown, and the hire shall
far exceed the travail. (S. Hieron.)
The two pursuits with their respective ends
Denunciations of wrath against the wicked are no less common in
Scripture than declarations of mercy to the penitent. The promises of almighty
love are often repeated; no less frequent are the proclamations of almighty
justice. The doom of the impenitent is no less certain than the rewards of the
righteous. Solomon seems to place before us in these words the life of the
righteous and the life of the ungodly contrasted with the respective objects
which they have in view and the different ends to which they lead.
I. The wicked
worketh a deceitful work. The object which he pursues seems to promise him
great things, but it generally fills him with disappointment and chagrin. The
characters of the wicked are various, but in one point they all agree--“they
forget God.” They practically forget Him. They salve over their own consciences
by thoughts of impunity. They have no love to God’s name, no inclination to
obey His laws; they are by consequence without the strongest bond of duty in
man, which is love. The law of God is hateful to them, because it puts
constraint upon their appetites and evil designs. And they are without the bond
of fear. As God’s judgments are out of sight, so they are out of mind. The
pursuit of evil cannot minister to happiness even here below. It is attended
with manifold woes, even upon earth. Sin, in most cases, is connected with
punishment. “He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his death.” It is the death
of hope, peace, reputation, and a good conscience. It is often the cause of a
premature temporal death. The pursuit of evil is the necessary school and
preparation for eternal death.
II. The different
ends to which the life of the righteous and the life of the ungodly lead. What
is righteousness? Other terms are godliness, holiness, the new man. What is
meant is not the righteousness of forms, but an inward disposition manifested
by corresponding conduct, the new heart and the new life. It is the godliness
which is opposed to the bodily exercise that profiteth little. Such
righteousness tendeth to life. It has a natural and necessary tendency to promote
present peace and eternal glory. In Scripture the words life and death are used
for happiness and misery. The righteous are necessarily training themselves for
eternal happiness, independently of that promise which secures to them “the
crown of glory that fadeth not away.” There must be a fitness for heaven, a
character acquired upon earth which is suitable to the abode of the just. The
righteousness of which we speak is conformity of heart and life to Jesus
Christ; it is union of soul with Him, a likeness to His example; it has a
measure of His holiness and perfection. Righteousness disposes and fits a man
for the enjoyment of God, for it cultivates those faculties of the soul which
are called into exercise in heaven. Righteousness rests upon the basis of love.
The acquiring of this righteousness is the preparation for the enjoyment of
God. Already the righteous have communion with the Father of their spirits and
with the “spirits of the just made perfect.” This being so, the passage for
them is easy from this world to eternity. But righteousness also has a tendency
to promote present happiness. The righteous live in the favour of God. They
have peace of conscience. They fear no evil. They can look on death without
alarm. Righteousness has a natural tendency to promote our welfare by
conciliating the favour of the good and the respect of all And the reward laid
up in heaven is sure. In conclusion, address two classes: Those who are seeking
after righteousness--a word of cheer. Those who are “working a deceitful
work”--a word of warning. (H. J. Hastings, M.A.)
The deceitfulness of sin
Opposites illustrate each other. Of this principle considerable
use is made in the sacred Scriptures.
I. Opposite
characters. The idea of righteousness is equality, as the equilibrium of a pair
of scales. Applied to moral or religious natures it means a correspondence
between our obligations on the one hand and our performance on the other. So it
becomes obedience or conformity to the law. The radical meaning of the word “wicked”
is inequality, unfairness. In a moral sense a want of correspondence between
duty and performance, or nonconformity to righteous laws. Wickedness is
disorder, incongruity, deception, an unsound principle, naturally producing a
deceitful work.
II. Opposite
practices. Righteousness renders to all their due. Where wrong sentiments are
indulged wrong dispositions and practices naturally follow. Hence result--
1. Treachery towards friends.
2. Fraud and falsehood in business.
3. Extortion and oppression.
4. Maladministration; a never-ceasing theme of complaint.
In all such cases the work is a “deceitful work”--deceitful in its
nature, operation, and results.
III. Opposite
results.
1. God convinces the sinner of his unrighteousness.
2. Enlightens, transforms, and renews the soul.
The renewed begins to sow righteousness. To him there is a sure
reward. Pause and inquire whether such a change has been effected in you. Pray
for convincing and converting grace. Persevere through evil and through good
report. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The reward of lowing righteousness
In the Bible a righteous person is one who loves and serves
God, i.e., one who is a true Christian. When people become true
Christians themselves they want to do all they can to try to make other people
Christians. All the good things that such people do in this way the Bible calls
righteousness. Sowing, in the text, means doing. Righteousness, in the text,
means kind acts, good works of any kind, that Christian people do out of love
to Jesus and from a desire to make others love Him. And thus we find out that
“sowing righteousness” means doing good. Righteousness is the best seed in the world
to sow.
1. Because of the size of the field in which this sowing may be
carried on.
2. Because of the number and kind of sowers. Farmers are only one
class of men. All classes of persons may be sowers of righteousness.
3. Because of the certainty of the reward. Farmers hope for harvest,
but cannot be quite sure. The reward of sowing righteousness is made up of
pleasure and profit. Sometimes the profit is found in this life. But the best
part of the reward is in heaven. (R. Newton, D.D.)
The evil and the good
Men separate morally into two great divisions. See them--
I. As they appear
at work.
1. Evil works deceitfully. It deceives the individual possessor; it
makes his very life fiction. It deceives others. It fabricates and propagates
falsehood.
2. The good works righteously. Being righteous in heart, he is
charged with righteous principles, which he sows as seed in the social circle
to which he belongs.
II. As they appear
in retribution. All works, the bad as well as the good, bring results to the
worker. These results are the retribution; they are God’s return for labour.
1. The righteous reap life. Life of the highest kind--spiritual. Life
of the highest degree--immortal blessedness.
2. The wicked reap death--the death of all usefulness, nobility, and
enjoyment.
III. As they appear
before God.
1. God observes moral distinctions.
2. God is affected by moral distinctions. What He sees He feels. (D.
Thomas, D.D.)
Verse 19
As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil
pursueth it to his own death.
The reward of righteousness
Life and death are objects of universal interest. Life here is
life spiritual and eternal. Death is viewed as involving separation and
exclusion from God.
I. Righteousness
proves the spiritual life to be begun in our souls; evil shows that our souls
are still dead in sin. Naturally we are all dead in sin. There is a life which
God’s life-giving Spirit begins in us. One of the most marked indications of
its existence is righteousness developing itself in the whole character and
conduct.
II. Righteousness
is connected with the spiritual nourishment which maintains life; evil with the
neglect of such nourishment, which occasions death. Man’s spiritual nature must
receive spiritual sustenance. The soul that is quickened to righteousness
hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and God bestows upon it what it seeks,
so as to nourish it and strengthen it.
III. Righteousness
leads to courses of action which prolong life; evil, from its very nature,
conducts to death. God’s ways tend not only to the preservation and
prolongation of life in this world, but to the full enjoyment of life for
evermore.
IV. Righteousness
associates us with those who are alive to God, thus helping to maintain life in
the soul; evil unites us to those who are spiritually dead, and brings us into
the same state with them. To be the living among the dead is no easy thing. If
voluntarily we associate with the dead, imbibing their spirit, and following
their ways, we must be conformed in likeness to them.
V. Righteousness
ensures the Divine protection, so that life is guarded and defended; evil
incurs God’s wrath, which is death. Life is a brittle thing. The great God who
gives it is ready, however, to ward off all the dangers which may menace it.
His favour is life; His frown is death.
VI. Righteousness
conducts to life everlasting in heaven; evil to eternal death in hell. The
world of glory shall be peopled by the righteous. The evil and unbelieving
shall inhabit the world of woe. (Anon.)
Pursuing evil
The “sure reward” in the preceding verse is “life” in this; and as
that reward is sure in the one case, the deceitfulness of the wicked s work”
lies in its affecting “death” as its result instead of “life.” He who “pursueth
evil” may overtake it, and may boast himself in the success of his pursuit. But
the very evil that he overtakes shall slay him. It is as if a man were to
pursue a serpent, captivated by the beauty of its appearance, in its shifting
and glistening hues, but ignorant of the venom of its sting, or its fang, and
in the act of laying hold of it, were to receive the deadly wound. Death treads
on the very heels of the man who “pursueth evil “; and when he overtakes the
evil, death overtakes him. (R. Wardlaw.)
The natural history of evil
Every sinner plans and acts against his own personal interest; and
fond as he is of life, he is a self-destroyer. He is allured by false
appearances, enveloped in sense and sensual delights, and follows a path that
ends in destruction.
I. The
commencement of moral evil in the human soul. He is born in a state of
impurity. Evil is interwoven in the very texture of his being. It commenced
with the first family of the human race, and the evil spirit of unrighteousness
has been transmitted from father to son. When a man is not properly acquainted with
the corruption of his nature, he mistakes a want of opportunity to sin for
moral purity of heart, and the absence of temptation for a truly virtuous mind.
Evil in actual operation in human life--
1. Springs up in thoughts.
2. Finds expression in overt acts.
II. The progress of
moral evil. “He that pursueth evil” There is not the root only, but also the
tree and the growth. A man seldom becomes a sudden profligate. By a continuance
in evil the feelings become less affected with its enormity, the conscience is
less tender and scrupulous, the base inclinations and passions of the heart
gather strength, and temptation finds an easy dupe to every impious proposal.
Sin has not a resting-place. It carries within itself the power of perpetual
motion. Sin hardens the heart.
III. the completion
of moral evil. It has its seed-time, its growth, and its harvest.
1. The completion of sin is the death of reputation.
2. The death of enjoyment.
3. The death of the body.
4. The death of the soul. (Thomas Wood.)
Verse 20
Such as are upright in their way are His delight.
The upright, God’s delight
I. Who are the
upright? Those whom God makes upright, the workmanship of His own Spirit, His
new creation. This does not deny that there is in a sense an uprightness in the
natural man. As long as man is a responsible being he is answerable to God for
the use of the means given him, and it is a certain truth that there is not a
natural man in the world who acts up to the light that he has. Great numbers
claim the character of being upright and sincere. So the apostle Paul thought
of himself when in his unconverted state. Natural sincerity never comes to the
testing of God’s holy light. It can deal with man, but there is never that in
natural sincerity which comes before God. For the upright see the publican
smiting on his breast; the prodigal returning home; the woman a sinner dropping
tears of penitence on Jesus’s feet; Matthew, Zaccheus, Nicodemus. The weakest,
the feeblest believer, is upright. He often, indeed, thinks himself otherwise.
He will even regard himself as a self-deceiver. The upright man mourns over
inbred corruptions. Sometimes he has seasons of doubt. He is brought into
circumstances of trial. Amidst all, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, he holds
fast his integrity.
II. The upright are
God’s delight. It is not their way, but themselves, that are His delight. He
loved them before all worlds; He loved them before they loved Him in eternity.
But the characters of the upright are His delight. He delights in the fruits of
His own Son’s mediation, in the workmanship of His own Spirit, and in the
reflection of His own image. But especially He delights in their being upright.
He looks to the humiliation of the upright, their broken hearts, their falling
tears. So precious is this uprightness before God, that it seems as if He
overlooked all faults where it is. What a word of encouragement this ought to
be to those who are honestly seeking Him! If you are indeed upright God knows
it, and “your inheritance shall be for ever.” (J. Harrington Evans.)
Verse 21
Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.
(Taken with Luke 23:51)
The laws of responsibility in combinations and partnerships
We are surrounded by numberless combinations devised by men for
all manner of purposes--religious, political, judicial, social, commercial,
scientific, industrial, artistic, educational, etc. Men widely abandon
endeavours after striking individuality in thought or conduct, and throw
themselves blindfold into the stream of fashion which carries the multitude
away. Men seek to recover their lost sense of power by combination with others
in doctrine, in capital, indeed in all departments. The will of each individual
becomes, as it were, a single minute cog in a mighty wheel-work of engineering,
which carries everything before it. All this is not favourable to the sense of
responsibility for conduct here or hereafter. There is a special delusion which
attends the combinations in which men seek to recover the sense of power, and
to unite their forces in order to accomplish their ends. This delusion consists
in mistaking joint responsibility for divided responsibility. The persuasion is
extended widely that union is not only strength in administration and
enterprise, but that it distributes the oppressive burden of responsibility in
equal or nearly equal and insignificant shares between all the persons who are
joined together in any undertaking; so that although the practical result of
their united action may be morally indefensible, or even utterly wicked and
injurious, no single person can be justly blamed, or rendered accountable for
the whole criminality of the result--since the wickedness has been effected by
an organisation or administration consisting of numbers of agents who have
assisted or consented in the work. A characteristic proverb has descended to us
from the last century to this effect: “A cathedral chapter would divide even a
murder between them”--a proverb unfairly singling out one particular kind of
Christian combination for censure, yet embodying two truths applicable to every
association, civil and religious.
1. That even well-disposed men will sometimes agree to do in company
what they would not dare to do as individuals.
2. That no man’s personal accountableness to God can ever be
swallowed up and lost in an impersonal organisation. The relation of the
individual to the moral government of God is primary, dominant, and
inalienable; it cannot be diminished by the concurrence of others. Before God
the combination of men in counsel and action results always not in divided
responsibility but in joint responsibility. Each member is responsible for the
whole result of what he consents to, or carries into action. There can be no
divided liability for a conjoint iniquity. If this were not so, it would
require men only to join hand in hand to go unpunished. But how should God
judge the world unless in all such cases the responsibility is joint, not
distributive? This is also the principle of human legislation and
administration. It is not, therefore, good to undertake, as if merely nominal,
any real responsibilities.
This truth, that a man is responsible for whatever he consents to,
ought--
1. To be proclaimed in relation to ecclesiastical organisations and
missionary societies.
2. The principle may be seen in the working of political party.
Educated men are guilty, in a free country, of all the national iniquity
against which they do not protest with determination.
3. The principle of personal liability needs application to
commercial affairs and civil life.
The Almighty God stands behind every creditor and every customer, in readiness
to assert and enforce every just claim to the uttermost. The Infinite Defender
of Right is behind every person who is wronged. The highest Law Court is
omnipresent and sleepless. We cannot put an end to the great battle between
selfish interests, but we can do much by public spirit and sound legislation to
alleviate its woes. On the whole I must express my conviction, however, that
the commercial world will bear an honourable comparison with the political and
ecclesiastical, when tried by this principle of the responsibility of each
member in every
combination. (Edward White.)
Combination
Men, like sheep, are gregarious. The combination is--
I. Natural. The
wicked, in the text, are supposed to be in danger, and nothing is more natural
than for men to crowd together in common danger. Fear as well as love brings
men together; the one drives, the other draws.
II. Useless. No
combination of men, however great in number, vast in wisdom, mighty in
strength, affluent in resources, can prevent punishment from befalling the
wicked. It must come.
1. The moral constitution of the soul.
2. The justice of the universe.
3. The almightiness of God, render all human efforts to avoid it
futile. (Homilist.)
Opposing God useless
The uselessness of opposing God must be manifest from every
point of view. God is omniscient, and knows all things; is almighty, and can do
all things; is omnipresent, and is everywhere: so that no device or counsel or
plot can succeed against Him. The image of the text is that of conspiracy,
wicked men combining, saying to one another in effect, “It each of us cannot
succeed singly, we may by combination succeed as a unity.” The possibility of
such a conspiracy was foreseen, and the issue of it is foretold in these plain
terms. Let men add money to money, genius to genius, influence to influence,
counsel to counsel, still it is but like the addition of so many ciphers--the
number being very great but the value being absolutely nothing. What one man
cannot do in this direction a thousand men are unable to do. Fool, then, is he
who supposes that because he has followed a multitude to do evil, therefore no
harm will come to him. Every man in the multitude will be judged as if he were
alone responsible for the whole mischief. Hands that are joined together in
wickedness may be dissevered on any occasion and for the flimsiest reasons. It
is folly for any wicked man to trust in a man as wicked as himself, for the
very fact that wickedness renders security impossible, and turns all manner of
association into a mere matter of temporary convenience, which may be varied or
destroyed according to a thousand contingencies. All evil partnerships in
business are doomed to failure. All irregular alliances in the household must
come to confusion and disappointment, and may end fatally. The same law holds
good in the State, and indeed in every department of life. There can be no
security but in righteousness, in high wisdom, in unselfish enthusiasm; where
these abound the security is as complete as it is possible for man to make it.
Men cannot be joined wisely and permanently together unless they are first
joined to the living God. Men can only be joined to the living God through the
living Christ; He is the vine, men are the branches, and unless the branch
abides in the vine it cannot bear fruit, but is doomed to be burned. True
union, therefore, must be religious or spiritual before it can be human and
social. Neglect of this great law has ended in inexpressible disappointment and
mortification on the part of statesmen, reformers, and propagandists of every
kind. (J. Parker, D.D.)
But the seed of the
righteous shall be delivered.--
The sanctions of obedience
The text is a twofold proposition--that combinations against God
and godliness only incur failure and penalty; and that the triumph of
righteousness is equally sure. There are among men’s habits three general kinds
of “wickedness,” or disobedience to God’s laws, entailing upon them three
several orders and degrees of retribution or punishment: violations of the laws
which govern the spiritual or moral man, the animal man, and the social man.
1. If the mind-laws, which include the intellectual and moral aspects
of man, be disobeyed, that is if the process of education be not
contemporaneous with the progress of years, the mental faculty languishes in
the stagnation of its undeveloped powers, the mental man grows and abides an
ignoramus, a stereotyped boor; and if the means of grace be in like manner
neglected, the spiritual man rises not into the dignity which the love of God
designed for him.
2. If the body-laws, or the principles which regulate the health, be
disregarded by habits of excess or even ordinary indulgence or neglect of exercise,
the penalty is a diseased body, and personal infirmity.
3. If the estate laws be disregarded, which make industry essential
to getting, and frugality essential to saving what is got, and forethought
essential in the way of insurance upon life or property, the punishment meets
the man in his estate, in his condition of life, that is, in the form in which
he has sinned. When we pray for a sound and enlightened mind, do we turn to the
Word “whose entrance giveth light”? Do we seek to inform our minds, correct our
judgments, and enrich our memories? When we pray for health and strength to
labour and enjoy, do we avoid those varieties, artifices, and excesses in food
and drink, and those sluggish habits of inactivity and sloth, which make health
physically impossible? When we pray for prosperity in our worldly affairs, do
we still, on conscientious principles, “labour, working with our hands the
thing that is meet”? Do we glorify God in our attention to our business? Where
can there be a more cogent, impressive, animating motive than the sterling
fact, “Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God
in your bodies and spirits, which are His”? Man can no more do without God, or
act independently of God and His laws, than the rays of light can dispense with the sun.
All the errors of individual character, all the failures in educational
theories, all the mistakes of experimental legislation, originate in the
fundamental fatal effect of reckoning without God, setting aside the great elemental
fact that He is at the root, progress, and issue of all things, and that to put
Him out of our calculations, to supersede His constitution, is to start upon
false premises, to provoke and compel a failure, to reason and range in a
vicious circle, for ever retracing its impracticable, unprogressive steps. “The
wicked shall not go unpunished.” “The seed of the righteous shall be
delivered.” (Joseph B. Owen, M.A.)
Verse 22
As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is
without discretion.
A good thing in a bad place
The Jews regarded the pig as an unclean animal. The heathen around
worshipped the pig, and they ate it afterwards as an act of worship. The
Egyptians, when they wished to draw a picture of a very foolish person, always
represented him as a pig. How unlovely is the idea of a jewel that might have
been worn by a queen being placed in the nose of a pig! But there are some
things that we see every day which are quite as bad. For instance--
1. A pretty face and a very ugly soul. It is nice to be beautiful,
but it is far better to be good. When you feel tempted to be proud because you
are good-looking, ask yourself, “Is my soul good-looking and beautiful to God?”
2. A good head and a bad heart. King John, one of England’s worst
kings, was a very clever man. It is not enough to be learned, or to have great
talents; we want to be holy, and then shall we be able to use our abilities
well.
3. Wise words and foolish deeds. It was said of a certain king, that
“he never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one.” A jewel treated as
described in this text would be a jewel misapplied. It was never intended for
such a use. And God did not intend that we should ever waste our minds and our
time in the service of sin. The Jews had a saying that the nose of a pig is
walking dirt. If a jewel were placed
in it, it would be spoiled. Sin mars a beautiful face; it will even make a
clever man foolish; it will ruin us if it be not taken away from us. (J.
J. Ellis.)
Bedizened wickedness
A fair woman is one of personal attractions. Discretion
means virtue or moral
worth. A woman of external attractions who is devoid of mind excellences is a
most unsightly object.
I. Here is a very
incongruous conjunction in one person. Physical beauty and moral deformity
united. Do not despise natural, or personal, or artistic beauty.
II. Here is a very
revolting conjunction in one person. Incongruity is not always disgusting, it is
sometimes ridiculous. But this incongruity is disgusting when it is seen aright
with healthy moral sentiments. We do not always see how revolting it is,
because our eye rests upon the personal attraction, and peers not into the
moral heart. We are taken up more with the “jewel” than with the “swine.”
III. Here is a very
common conjunction in one person.
1. Wickedness is prompted by personal attraction.
2. Wickedness is fond of personal attractions. Vulgarity always likes
finery, and sin is always fond of making a grand appearance. Do not, in forming
your fellowships, be carried away with one side of life. Do not follow the
swine for the sake of the jewel. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Verse 24
There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.
The tendency of liberality to riches, and of covetousness to
poverty
The words of this text carry an air of improbable and
surprising paradoxes to the covetous and worldly-minded, who naturally imagine
that scattering tends to poverty, and withholding to increase. But if we take
them to be allusive to the management of a husbandman in sowing his seed, the
sense will stand as easy as the thought will appear to be beautiful and just
(compare 2 Corinthians 9:6).
I. The description
of persons of very opposite characters. “Scatter” is the same word as
“disperse” (Psalms 112:9). He that scatters is the
liberal soul; the man who, with a free and generous spirit, labours to spread
the most useful and extensive influence, by all manner of means; the man who is
ready to distribute of his temporal substance for promoting religious and civil
liberties and interests, for doing good to the souls and bodies of men, and,
particularly, for relieving the necessitous and the distressed. We should
manage our religious and charitable distributions, not with contrivance how to
shift off our obligations and opportunities for them, but with devising how in
the best manner to improve them; not with a grudging, but with a free and
cheerful heart. On the contrary, he that withholds, keeps back, or spares, more
than is meet or right, is the covetous man, whose narrow, selfish spirit will
not suffer him cheerfully to pay his personal or his public debts, much less to
practise beneficence at an expense that cannot be demanded by human laws. No
arguments derived from humanity or Christianity can work his heart up to bear
his proper proportion in generous and beneficent acts.
II. What is
affirmed of these persons respectively. We might consider this increase and
want with respect to our best interests, that relate to the enrichment of the
soul in goodness. Distributing enlarges the heart, and makes it open, free, and
generous, with growing propensions to every good work. The man who withholds is
poor-spirited; he has a contracted soul; he is destitute of those amiable
graces by which our God and Saviour are most conspicuously imitated and
glorified. We may also consider this increase and want with respect to our
worldly substance. That is not lessened but improved by distributions on all
proper occasions. Withholdings, more than is meet, ever tend to poverty and
want. God’s blessing on the generous comes either as a visible increase of
their outward estates, or as a secret increase of the inward contentment of
their own minds. Those who are of a covetous temper, do not enjoy what they
possess. According to a just estimation of things, they are no richer by all
their silver and gold than if it still lay in the ore of the Indian mines.
III. Account for the
truth of both these propositions. Every virtuous, spiritual, and holy
disposition of the soul increases by frequent and proper exercise; and loses
its force and vigour, and aptness for action, by disuse and neglect. This is
common to all principles and habits of the moral or religious and supernatural
kind.
1. The blessing of God is upon them that scatter, and His blast is
upon them that withhold more than is meet.
2. The friendship of men is toward them that scatter, and their
disaffection toward those who withhold more than is meet. (J. Guyse,
D.D.)
Wise philanthropy
To distribute portions of our wealth in schemes and acts of
wise philanthropy is like casting into the ground as seed a proportion of the
last year’s harvest. It goes out of your sight for the moment, but it will
spring in secret, and come back to your own bosom, like manna from heaven. An
unwise man may indeed scatter his corn on barren rocks, or on equally barren
sands, and though he sow bountifully he will reap sparingly there. So, in the
moral region, the increase is not absolutely in proportion to the profusion of
the scattering. When a man lays out large sums on unworthy objects, to feed his
own vanity or gratify his own whim, he neither does nor gets good. The outlay
is in its own nature and necessarily profitable. In educating the young, in
reclaiming the vicious, in supporting the aged poor, in healing the sick, and
in making known the gospel to all, we have ample fields to cultivate, and the
prospect of large returns to cheer us in the toil. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
The profit of liberality
The Bible gives us plain view of the character and mind of God;
and that view sets Him before us as a Being interested in promoting the
happiness of His creatures. It presents Him as establishing, by His wise
decree, that order of things which places men in different classes and
circumstances of life; it shows us that high and low station, wealth and
poverty, affluence and dependence, are the result of Divine arrangement, and so
far it discourages pride and envy, and teaches thankfulness, contentment, and
resignation, in the several conditions of human life. God, in His care of all
His creatures, has made it binding on the rich, by an express enactment, that
they should see to, and provide for, the wants of the poor. There is nothing
more frequently, nor more strongly spoken of in the Word of God, than that
assistance, arising out of the fact of their brotherhood, which man should
render man. The text sets before us two different modes of dealing with our
property, in reference to our fellow-creatures.
I. The liberal
man, and what he gets from his liberality. The man here is living in the midst of dependent
fellow-creatures, and uses his property in relieving them. Here seems to be the
idea of a husbandman throwing his seed in every direction where it may be
profitable. The liberal man looks abroad, and where his money is wanted, and
where it is likely to do good, there he gives it with the greatest cheerfulness
of mind. This is what ought to be. We are not required to give away when we
have not in reality the power to do so; but when we possess the power the duty
is incumbent. We must “scatter” for the blessing of others. A notion prevails
that if we give liberally to others, we hurt ourselves. We are, indeed, told to
“do good, hoping for nothing again,” yet we may urge as an encouragement that,
in sowing the seeds of kindness, we are sure to reap a personal benefit. The
men who have been most liberal have, in a general way, prospered most in their
worldly undertakings; and certainly they have been rewarded with growth in
grace, and a large measure of peace, confidence, and joy in their own souls.
II. The mean man,
and the result which follows his meanness. To withhold is not always wrong. It
may be a right thing, a positive duty. But some men are wretchedly mean; they
have not a spark of kind sympathy or of generous sensibility in their souls.
They are over-full of their own things. These the text speaks about. There is a
measure in the amount of almsgiving which is to be determined by a person’s
circumstances. To whom much is given, from the same will much be required. If
you give God less than God requires of you, then instead of a blessing there
will rest on you a curse. God has often taken away from a man the riches which
he would not use rightly when he had them. Poverty of pocket is not the worst
kind of poverty. It is poverty of soul that is so deplorable. (William
Curling, M.A.)
The use and abuse of poverty
Nothing is wanting to the right direction of human conduct, but a
clear perception of man’s own interest, and a correct estimate of man’s own responsibility.
In the text a contrast of two characters and of two consequences.
I. Two opposing
characters. One is said to “scatter.” Of the blessed man it is said, “He hath
dispersed, he hath given to the poor” (Psalms 112:9). The apostle says, “He
which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Faithfulness implies two things:
first, a clear perception, a just apprehension of the purposes for which we are
put in trust; and secondly, a conscientious employment of those means by which
the purposes are to be accomplished, according to the dictates and directions
of the supreme Lord of all. Neither indiscriminate almsgiving nor improvident
expenditure derive any countenance from the rule of Christian practice, as
finally and unalterably settled in the epistles to the infant Churches. The man
who “scattereth” is the man who gives, whether to the service of his God, or to
the succour of his fellow-men, on principle; the man whose charities, as they
are called (though the term religious obligations would be far more
applicable), bear some definite and assignable proportion, not only to his
present expenses and indulgences, but to the provision for the family; the man,
who devotes to purposes of philanthropy and piety such a proportion of his
worldly increase, as his own conscience, enlightened and directed by God’s
Word, accounts an offering expressive of his gratitude to the Giver of every
good and perfect gift. The contrary character to this is he who “withholdeth
more than is meet “; he who
is actuated, alike in what he saves, and in what he spends, by considerations
purely selfish; who professes, indeed, that he accumulates upon principle, but
whose principle will not endure the application of the standard of the Word of
God, his object being to found or to aggrandise a family, while in prosecuting
this object he overlooks or undervalues the salvation of the soul. Many are the
subterfuges and evasions by which men endeavour to justify, or at least to
palliate, their own conduct in “withholding more than is meet,” e.g.,
difficulty of detecting imposture; perversion of benevolent funds; and the
excuse that whatever is spent is a contingent evil, while whatever is hoarded
is a certain good.
II. Two opposing
consequences. True wisdom involves the consideration of our latter end. If the
habits and actions of the “life that now is” can exert any influence upon the
destinies of “that which is to come,” the counsel given by our Lord would be
the dictate of policy, as well as the command of authority: “Walk while ye have
the light.” Temporal blessings do usually wait upon the discreet and
conscientious dispensation of God’s bounty. He that scattereth increaseth even
in this world’s goods. But Christian benevolence for Christ’s sake must not be
taken for the whole of the system of Christian practice, of which it only
constitutes a part. Towards poverty of soul tendeth that mistaken and short-sighted
policy, which men are wont to term prudence and forecast. But to have made no
use of God’s property for God’s purposes will be a ground of judgment and
condemnation, as much as to have abused it for our own. (Thomas Dale, M.A.)
How to gain by spending
The text is generally true, if we confine its application to
money. In a moral and spiritual sense the proverb is universally true. The man
who gives bountifully loses nothing by his gifts, but gains much. The first
thing that strikes us when we consider the nature of property is its exclusive
character. Every pound we call our own, and every shilling we reserve for our
own use, is so much less for other people. The higher wealth of the intellect
is not so exclusive in its nature. You do not lose your gift as an artist if
you teach a class to paint. Only in a limited degree do you increase your
mental endowments by imparting them to others. But we actually increase our
spiritual riches by spending them. The more of the bread of life you give away,
the more you will find in your store. Spiritual wealth is like money wealth in
this respect, that we must invest it if it is to increase. Hoarding money never
adds to the heap. Two practical lessons.
1. We see the absolute necessity of some form of spiritual activity
to the increase of the Christian life.
2. The course of thought we have been pursuing suggests to us the
spiritual nature of the Divine rewards. We need, badly need, a revision of the
vocabulary of the Divine rewards. Too often those rewards are spoken of in
terms which degrade rather than honour the high service of God. The reward and
the service are one. The rewards of Christ are not less service, but more
service and higher toil. (G. S. Barrett, D.D.)
Discreet liberality
Of all the rich men that have come to poverty, I never heard of
any that was ruined by a discreet liberality. (G. Lawson.)
Generosity
I. Generosity
exemplified.
1. In nature. Clouds give rain, sun gives light, earth gives fruit.
“The heart does not receive the blood to store it up, but while it pumps it in
at one valve, it sends it forth at another.”
2. In the example of Christ (Galatians 1:4).
3. In the early Church (Acts 2:44-45).
4. In modern times. Peabody, Morley, etc.
II. Generosity
extolled.
1. It is unstinted (Isaiah 32:8).
2. It is profitable. One who has had experience in giving
systematically, says, “It pays as an investment, and is a fortune in business.”
Mr. Haig Miller tells of a gentleman who, on starting in life, said, “I
determined that for every £10,000 I made £1,000 should be given back to God and
works of charity, and I have had ten times to fulfil my vow.” If temporal gain
is the motive which inspires giving, the act will be spoiled by the motive; but
giving from right motives is often honoured by a present and a bountiful
return. The converse of this is true. Withholding “tendeth to poverty.” If not
poverty of purse, as is often the case, there will be poverty of soul.
3. It is hearty. “God never sent us into this world to do anything
into which we cannot put our hearts.”
4. It is healthy. “If a man is growing large in wealth, nothing but
constant and generous giving can save him from growing small in soul.”
5. It is refreshing.
6. It wins the heart. Edward Payson said, when dying, “I long to give
a full cup of happiness to every human being.” The benedictions of his people
were a chief part of his rich reward (compare Job 29:13).
7. It is painstaking. The true friend of the needy does not wait till misery
presses its claim at his door; he goes and looks first (compare Luke 19:10). (H. Thorne)
Profitable scattering
Every year George Moore wrote these words in his pocket-book. They
became engraved on his soul, and to an extent formed his creed: “What I spent I
had: What I saved I lost: What I
gave I have.”
Benevolent activity
One would say that to scatter anything is to part with it without
advantage; and that to withhold, to keep back, is undoubtedly to save and to
retain. The text teaches that this may be quite a mistake on our part. There is
reckless scattering and there is wise withholding. The text is not to be taken
in its literalness; it is to be examined in its spirit. Happily we have no need
to go further in search of illustration of the truth of the text; we find it on
every farm, in every business, in every school. The text calls to benevolent
activity founded on religious faith. The doctrine enlarges and glorifies life
by calling into life elements and considerations which lie beyond the present
and the visible. The very exercise of scattering carries blessing with it,
breaks up the mastery of selfishness, and enlarges the circle of kindly
interests. Beneficence is its own compensation. Charity empties the heart of
one gift that it may make room for a larger. But if any man think to give God
something with the idea of having it back again, that man will be disappointed
and humiliated, and justly so, The other side of this text is as emphatic and
as often illustrated in practical life as the first. Selfishness is suicidal;
selfishness lives in gloom; selfishness injects poison into every stream of
life. Selfishness is most intensely selfish when it assumes the name of
prudence. When selfishness chatters proverbs, it has reached the depth beyond
which there is no death. God can turn the wicked man’s very success into
failure, and out of selfish ambition He can bring the scorpion whose sting is
death. Though this text is found in the Old Testament, the principle is
distinctly held by Jesus Christ. It is a moral principle, universal and
unchangeable in its force and application. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Liberality
This is one eminent branch of the character of the righteous, but
because there are many objections in the heart of man against the practice of
it, urgent motives are here addressed to us. The instructions delivered in this
and the four following verses, will, if they are but believed, be a sufficient
answer to every objection. There is that scattereth his substance by profusion
and luxury. That man diminishes his substance till it comes to nothing. But he
that disperses by giving to the poor, by liberal distributions for the support
of the commonwealth in times of danger, or for the service of religion, shall increase
his substance. He is like the husbandman, who sows with good-will and unsparing
hand that precious seed which is to produce a joyful harvest. It is God who
gives all that we enjoy, and by His secret blessing, or by remarkable
interpositions of providence, the liberal man is often made to abound in
riches, and enabled more and more abundantly to serve his fellow-men. Abraham
sat at his tent door to watch for passengers, and those who came he urged to
partake of his bounty, with more earnestness than other men beg an alms. (G.
Lawson.)
Verse 25
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be
watered also himself.
The waterer watered
The general principle is, that in living for the good of others,
we shall be profited also ourselves. This teaching is sustained by the analogy
of nature, for in nature there is a law that no one thing can be independent of
the rest of creation, but there is a mutual action and reaction of all upon
all. God has so constituted this universe, that selfishness is the greatest
possible offence against His law, and living for others, and ministering to
others, is the strictest obedience to His will. Our surest road to our own
happiness is to seek the good of our fellows. We store up in God’s own bank
what we generously expend on the behalf of our race. To get we must give; to
accumulate we must scatter; to make ourselves happy, to get good and become
spiritually vigorous, we must do good, and seek the spiritual good of others.
I. Apply this
principle, in its narrow sense, as belonging to ourselves personally. There are
some works in which we cannot all engage. Peculiar men have special work; but
watering is work for persons of all grades and all sorts.
1. All God’s plants, more or less, want watering.
2. The Lord’s people usually get this watering through
instrumentality. The Holy Spirit waters us by the admonitions of parents, by
the kind suggestions of friends, by the teaching of His ministers, by the
example of all His saints.
3. Some plants need special watering, and should be the objects of
unusual care--partly because of temperament or of ignorance, and partly because
of circumstances, maybe of trial, maybe of soul-withering.
4. All believers have some power to water others. In so watering
others we shall be watered ourselves. This is the main point.
II. The principle,
in a wider sense, as it may refer to us as a Church. We, as a Church, have
enjoyed singular prosperity; but we have endeavoured to water others. We have
undertaken a good many enterprises for Christ, and we hope to undertake a great
many more. We must keep our watering work up.
III. The principle,
in the widest sense, as it may be referred to the entire Body of Christ. Our
missionary operations are an
infinite blessing to the Churches at home. Relinquishing them, giving them up,
staying them, would bring such a curse that we had need to go down on our knees
and pray, “God send the missionary work back again.” (C. H.
Spurgeon}
Scriptural liberality illustrated and enforced
All the appearances of virtue and piety do not partake of their
real nature. See the case of the Pharisees. None of our good works can be
viewed with approbation by God unless they spring from a right principle, are
guided by a right rule, and are directed to a right end. God looks at the
motive in which they originate.
I. The character
of true religious or Christian liberality.
1. Its principle. The spirit which is in man must be the seat of this
virtue, or the liberal hand, so far as it respects God, is of no worth. There
is much beneficence apart from religion. But it is the grateful heart God
requires.
2. Its objects. First our kindred according to the flesh. Then the
poor and distressed in society.
3. The modes in which this liberality should express itself. It
should be honest in its administration. It should be proportionate in degree.
It should be affectionate in its communication. It should be expansive in its
embrace. It should be habitual in its exercise.
II. The recompense
to encourage us to its exercise and display.
1. As respects the life that now is. Inward pleasure, pleasure in
looking at the good effected; enlarged powers of usefulness.
2. As respects the life to come. Apply to those who give nothing to
the cause of the poor. To those who give little. To those who are in the habit
of giving much. (John Clayton, jun.)
The blessedness of blessing
It must be admitted that the natural tendency of things in this
present fallen world is by no means such as to secure a prosperous result to
rectitude of conduct, and failure to that of a contrary character. We often
witness the inversion of this order. It is necessary to consider the character
of the dispensation under which the book was written. The Jews were ostensibly,
as well as really, under the immediate government of God; a government
sanctioned by temporal rewards and punishments. This gave to the government of
God over them what we may term a visible character. There was an ostensible
Moral Governor. The Jew, apart from all consideration of a future state, was
entitled to look, even in this life, for a providential sanction to his
conduct, when his ways were such as pleased the Lord. In God’s dealings with
that people He affords an emblem, a visible emblem, of His dealings with
others. The great distinction between the Jewish and the Christian
dispensations is, that the one was addressed to sense, the other to faith; the
one deals with visible things, the other with spiritual. It is but consistent
with this distinction, that while God’s providential government over His people
is not less real under the Christian dispensation, it should be less manifest.
Those things which would be perplexing to us if we attempt to judge the ways of
God by sense, become reconcilable with His character and with His promises when
regarded in the judgment of faith. Objection might be raised on the ground that
the assertion of the text is contradicted by absolute matter of fact. The
words, translated out of their figurative language, obviously assert, that he
who liberally dispenses to others of those bounties, whether in grace or in
providence, which God has conferred upon him, shall be himself more abundantly
enriched. To the eye of sense this assertion is far from being universally
verified among us as a matter of fact. In a worldly point of view it is not
always the most virtuous who are the most prosperous, nor the most liberal who
are the most successful. But faith will see every promise to us fulfilled in a
higher and better sense. The highest exemplification of this passage is found
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He spent His life in blessing;
therefore it was He was so greatly blessed. The recompense of the reward is a
motive sanctioned by the highest example, that of Christ Himself. Some think it
savours too much of legality, to hold out a future recompense as a stimulus to
the active employment of all our talents in the service of God. Yet surely this
is to confound things that are perfectly distinct in themselves. It is not
inconsistent with the doctrines of grace to propose a proportionable increase
of future joy as a motive to present sacrifice, and to hold it up before
Christians as a matter of certainty, that every sacrifice which they make for
the Lord’s sake shall be repaid from the hand of the Lord. The liberal
distribution of our worldly substance is attended with a blessing from the
Lord, at least to the man himself. But the text is the exposition of an
established law in the universal government of God’s providence. Our progress
depends on our readiness to communicate of the stores already conferred upon
us. The Christian’s rule of spiritual advancement is not so much in proportion
to the acquisitions which he makes of knowledge, as to the use that he makes of
it. As we feed others our own souls are fed by God. It is in the nature of
things, or rather, I should say, it is in the appointment of God, that it
should be so. (W. Dodsworth, M.A.)
He that watereth shalt be watered
“If we give so much we shall exhaust our resources,” is a common
remark. Don’t be afraid of that, my friend. See that little fountain
yonder--away yonder in the distant mountain, shining like a thread of silver
through the thick copse, and sparkling like a diamond in its healthful
activity. It is hurrying on with tinkling feet to bear its tribute to the
river. See, it passes a stagnant pool, and the pool hails it. “Whither away,
master streamlet?” “I am going to the river to bear this cup of water God has
given me.” “Ah! you are very foolish for that; you’ll need it before the summer
is over. It has been a backward spring, and we shall have a hot summer to pay
for it--you will dry up then.” “Well,” says the streamlet, “if I am to die so
soon, I had better work while the day lasts. If I am likely to lose this
treasure from the heat, I had better do good with it while I have it.” So on it
went, blessing and rejoicing in its course. The pool smiled complacently at its
own superior foresight, and husbanded all its resources, letting not a drop
steal away. Soon the midsummer heat came down, and it fell upon the little
stream. But the trees crowded to its brink, and threw out their sheltering
branches over it in the day of adversity, for it brought refreshment and life
to them; and the sun peeped through the branches, and smiled complacently upon
its dimpled face, and seemed to say, “It is not in my heart to harm you”; and
the birds sipped its silver tide, and sang its praises; the flowers breathed
their perfume upon its bosom; the beasts of the field loved to linger by its
banks; the husbandman’s eye sparkled with joy as he looked upon the line of
verdant beauty that marked its course through his fields and meadows--and so on
it went, blessing and blessed of all. God saw that the little stream never
exhausted itself. It emptied its full cup into the river, and the river bore it
on to the sea, and the sea welcomed it, and the sun smiled upon the sea, and
the sea sent up its incense to greet the sun, and the clouds caught, in their capacious
bosoms, the incense from the sea, and the winds, like waiting steeds, caught
the chariots of the clouds and bore them away--away to the very mountain that
gave the little fountain birth; and there they tipped the brimming cup, and
poured the grateful baptism down. And so God saw to it, that the little
fountain, though it gave so fully and so freely, never ran dry. And where was
the prudent pool? Alas! in its inglorious inactivity it grew sickly and
pestilential. The beasts of the field put their lips to it, but turned away
without drinking. The breeze stooped and kissed it by mistake, but caught the
malaria in the contact, and carried the ague through the region. (R.
F. Horton.)
Soul fatness
If I desire to flourish in soul, I must not hoard up my stores,
but must distribute to the poor. To be close and niggardly is the world’s way
to prosperity, but not God’s (see Proverbs 11:24). Faith’s way of gaining
is giving. I must try this again and again; and I may expect that as much of
prosperity as will be good for me will come to me as a gracious reward for a
liberal course of action. Of course, I may not be sure of growing rich. I shall
be fat, but not too fat. Too great riches might make me as unwieldy as
corpulent persons usually are, and cause me the dyspepsia of worldliness, and
perhaps bring on a fatty degeneration of the heart. No, if I am fat enough to
be healthy, I may well be satisfied; and if the Lord grants me a competence, I
may be thoroughly content. But there is a mental and spiritual fatness which I
would greatly covet; and these come as the result of generous thoughts towards
my God, His Church, and my fellow-men. Let me not stint, lest I starve my
heart. Let me be bountiful and liberal; for so shall I be like my Lord. He gave
Himself for me: shall I grudge Him anything? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
God’s law of recompense
If I carefully consider others, God will consider me; and in some
way or other He will recompense me. Let me consider the poor, and the Lord will
consider me. Let me look after little children, and the Lord will treat me as
His child. Let me feed His flock, and He will feed me. Let me water His garden,
and He will make a watered garden of my soul. This is the Lord’s own promise;
be it mine to fulfil the condition, and then to expect its fulfilment. I may
care about myself till I grow morbid; I may watch over my own feelings till I
feel nothing; and I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to
lament. It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish, and out of
love to my Lord Jesus begin to care for the souls of those around me. My tank
is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it; what shall I do? I will
pull up the plug, and let its contents run out to water the withering plants
around me. What do I see? My cistern seems to fill as it flows. A secret spring
is at work. While all was stagnant, the fresh spring was sealed; but as my
stock flows out to water others, the Lord thinketh upon me. Hallelujah! (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 26
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.
Withholding corn
The text has to do with owners of corn and dealers in it. In
Solomon’s day famines were frequent, and were serious because trade
communications between different countries were so uncertain. Then persons
would buy up all the corn they could, so as to unduly raise the market-price.
In relation to this greed in trade, there is a wonderful reserve of Holy
Scripture. Mr. Arnot says, “In this brief maxim no arbitrary rule is laid down
to the possessor of corn, that he must sell at a certain period and at a
certain price: and yet the hungry are not left without a protecting law. The
protection of the weak is entrusted not to small police regulations, but to
great self-acting providential arrangements. The double fact is recorded in
terms of peculiar distinctness, that he who in times of scarcity keeps up his corn
in order to enrich himself is loathed by the people, and he who sells it freely
is loved. This is all. There is no further legislation on the subject.” Laws
which interfere between buyer and seller, master and workman, are blunders and
nuisances. The market goes best when it is left alone, and so in our text there
is no law enacted and no penalty threatened, except that which the nature of
things makes inevitable. A man may do as he pleases about selling or not, but
he cannot escape from the curse of the people if he chooses to lock up his
grain. But if it bring a curse upon a man to withhold the bread that perisheth,
what a weight of curse will light upon the man who withholds the bread of
eternal life.
I. How can this be
done?
1. By locking up the Word of God in an unknown language, or by
delivering and preaching it in such a style that the people shall not
comprehend it. Illustrate by the practice of the Roman Church. But the terms of
theology, the phrases of art, the definitions of philosophy, the jargon of
science, are an unknown tongue to the young godly ploughmen, or praying
shopkeepers. Simplicity is the authorised style of true gospel ministry.
2. By keeping back the
most important and vital truths of revelation, and giving a
prominence to other things, which are but secondary. Morality brings no food to
hungry souls, although it is good enough in its place. Dissuasives from vice
are not the bread of heaven, though well enough in their way. We need to have
the great doctrines of grace brought forward, for the Word of God is the sword
of the Spirit, and it is by preaching the truth as it is in Jesus that souls
are won to Him.
3. By want of loving zeal in our labour. That which God blesses to
the saving of sinners is truth attended by the earnestness of the speaker.
Think of the preaching of Baxter. We are guilty of withholding corn unless we
preach with a sympathising, loving, tender, affectionate, earnest, anxious
soul.
4. By refusing to labour zealously for the spread of the kingdom of
Christ and the conversion of sinners.
5. By refusing to help those who are working for Christ. I cannot
understand how a man can love God when he only lives to heap up riches.
II. The blessedness
which those possess who break the bread of life. To describe it is altogether
beyond my power. You must know, and taste, and feel it. There are many
blessednesses in doing good to others.
1. An easy conscience.
2. Comfort in doing
something for Jesus.
3. Watching the first buddings of conviction in a young soul.
4. The joy of success.
5. The final and gracious reward.
III. Now I have to
open the granary myself. Hungry sinners, wanting a Saviour, we cannot withhold
the bread from you! We tell you the way of salvation.
1. It is a satisfying salvation.
2. It is an all-sufficient salvation.
3. It is a complete salvation.
4. It is a present salvation.
5. It is an available salvation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The right to withhold
The text may be regarded as suggestive of a still higher thought
than the one to which it is limited. If men have no right to withhold corn,
what right can they have to withhold knowledge? If it is an evil thing to
injure the body or expose it to danger, what is it to injure the soul or to
expose it to the peril of eternal loss? If it is wrong to keep back bread from
the body, what must it be to keep back bread from the soul? An important
doctrine is involved in the whole text; there are some things which a man may
possess, as it were, for himself, and enjoy without sharing his delight with
others; a man may have
many precious stones, and may conceal them, and permit no eye but his own to
look upon them, or hand to touch them but his own: so be it; the pleasure is a
narrow and selfish one, and no great social consequences attend its enjoyment.
On the other hand, it would seem as if no man could have private property in
corn or in bread, in the sense of saying to the people, “I have it, but you
shall not possess it; though you offer double its price I will not allow you to
take it from me unless you multiply the price fivefold.” A man may talk thus
about diamonds and rubies, but he is not at liberty to talk thus about bread. A
man may have great property in pictures, but it is questionable whether he
should have any property in land in any sense that makes the people dependent
upon his caprice as to whether it shall be cultivated and turned to the highest
uses. It would seem as if light and air and land were universal possessions,
and that all men were equally welcome to them. In the case of the land, it may
be necessary that there should be temporary proprietorship, or some regulated
relation to it so as to prevent robbery; but with such regulated relation
proprietorship might well terminate. All this issue, however, can only be
realised as the result of the largest spiritual education. It is difficult to
persuade any great landed proprietor that he ought to surrender his rights for
the good of the commonwealth. This can only come after years, it may be even
centuries, of education of the most spiritual kind; or if it come earlier by
statesmanship, it must also come justly, for even good rights may be created by
faulty processes, and by mere lapse of time ownerships may be set up which have
no original force. We shall never have a commonwealth founded upon
righteousness and inspired by the spirit of patriotism until we are just to
every interest which stands in the way of its realisation. (J.
Parker, D.D.)
Verse 28
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall
Trusting in riches
I.
Here
is a common tendency. Trusting in wealth is--
1. Spiritually unsatisfactory.
2. Necessarily evanescent.
II. Here is a
terrible catastrophe. “Fall.”
1. Whence? From all his hopes.
2. Whither? To disappointment and despair.
3. When? Whenever moral conviction seizes the soul, whether before or
after death.
4. Why? Because wealth was never a fit foundation for the soul. (Homilist.)
But the righteous shall
flourish as a branch.--
The secret of spiritual life
The righteous--and some such there have been even in the darkest
periods of the world’s history--the righteous “flourish as a branch.” They lean
not on their own stem and live not on their own root. From the beginning the
same Jesus to whom we look was made known to faith. The manner and measure of
making known truth to the understanding were in those days widely different;
but the nature and the source of spiritual life were the same. But though all
the real branches live, all do not equally flourish. Whatever girds the branch
too tightly round impedes the flow of sap from the stem and leaves the
extremities to wither. Many cares and vanities and passions wrap themselves
round a soul and cause the life even of the living to pine away. When the world
in any of its forms lays its grasp round the life, the stricture chokes the
secret channels between the disciple and his Lord, and the fruit of
unrighteousness drops unripe. It is only as a branch that Christians can
flourish in this wilderness; they have no independent source of life and
growth. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
Verse 29
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.
Family life
I. Peace should be
the grand aim of all the members of the domestic circle. To trouble the house
is an evil.
II. There Are some
members who break the peace of their domestic circle. They are the ill-natured,
impulsive, false, selfish.
III. Those who break
the peace of their domestic circle are fools. Their folly is seen in this--
1. They get no good by it.
2. They get degradation by it. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Troubling one’s own house
There are many ways in which this may be done. A man may, by the
violence and irritability, the peevishness, fretfulness, and selfishness of his
temper; he may by his avarice on the one hand, or by his reckless prodigality
on the other--involving his family in starvation and suffering by opposite
means; he may by intemperance, with all its horrid attendants; he may by sloth,
and idleness, and indisposition to work, trouble his own house. “He shall
inherit the wind.” The expression is a very strong one. Could any words more
impressively convey the idea of loss, disappointment, and ultimate destitution
and beggary? The result the man deserves. A man’s family is his first charge
from heaven, and ought to be his chief and constant solicitude. The only evil to be
lamented is that he brings the destitution upon them as well as himself. (R.
Wardlaw.)
Verse 30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
The fruit of the righteous
By this is meant his prayers, his charities, his good example, the
virtues which compose his character and adorn his life, and all the efforts and
influences by which he
shows forth his wisdom in winning souls. To win souls in the best sense is to
bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus and subjugate them to His gracious
dominion. An illustrious ancient philosopher said, “There is nothing great on
earth but man, and nothing great in man but his soul.” How will you compute the
worth of a soul, or by what standard measure its greatness? Will you estimate
it by its nature and origin, or by its power and capacities, or by the duration
of its being, or by the cost of its redemption, or by the struggle for its
possession and control, or by comparison with the splendid and precious? And if
such is the value of the soul that worlds acquired could not compensate its
loss, nor a material universe redeem its forfeiture, how excellent, beyond all
power of language or of thought, the work of saving the priceless thing from
destruction, and placing it among the crown-jewels of the King of kings! Look
at the matter in another light. The soul is fallen, guilty, perishing; and he
who rescues and restores it confers an incalculable and inconceivable benefit.
Who shall limit the effect of your labour in saving a soul, or trace the
blessed influence to an end? The beneficent effect of faithful Christian labour
is an ever-swelling stream and an ever-enlarging growth. All heaven unites with
all that is heavenly on earth in witnessing to the precious fruit of
righteousness and the transcendent wisdom of winning souls. These
considerations appeal to your charity, others appeal with equal force to your
piety, your gratitude, your interest, your ambition. The Church was ordained
for mutual help and the recovery of the lost. The saints live for others, God
has blessed them, that they may be blessings to their race. (J.
Cross, D.D., LL.D.)
He that winneth souls is
wise.--
Soul-winning
I. The object of
the Christian worker. It is a good thing in any work to have a clear perception
of the object to be sought after. This brings our efforts into order and gives
them consistency. If a man lose sight of a clear purpose he becomes listless,
or at best mechanical. This is true pre-eminently in Christian work. They who
undertake it purpose the gathering of immortal souls out of darkness into God’s
marvellous light. Ours is an apostolic mission. We are to catch men--souls.
Their salvation is the centre of the target--the bull’s-eye which we are to
hit. We should be thankful for every token of success. If we can instruct the
mind or store the memory with the things of God, ours is not lost work, but we
are not to be content with these things; they may be means to the end, they are
not the end itself. Our purpose is to bring the young to Christ, and Christ to
them. The very magnitude of the purpose will give us encouragement if we look
at it rightly.
II. The manner in
which this work is to be done. “Winneth.” No force is to be employed. We cannot
drive even little children into the fold of safety with clogs and stones. We
want to lay hold of the heart, to gain the affections, and to do that we are to
use the persuasive aspect of the gospel. A forced religion, if you can conceive
it, is nothing worth. It is a sham flower. The examples of winning are found in
the way in which the first disciples of the Saviour, and above all, the Saviour
Himself, did their work. We are to live the truth, letting our whole life tell
of what is right, and that beyond mistake; and yet over all love is to preside,
softening our asperities, and making our wisdom peaceable as well as pure. Where
there is a tender, winning spirit, then plain home-thrusts can be made that
would be resented if they were mingled with the wrath of man. The attractive
power lies even more in the evident tone of our teaching than in the sort of
language we use. The root of persuasion lies in love to God and love to man,
cherished by prayer, kindled and sustained by the Holy Ghost.
III. The character
requisite foe this great work. “Wise.” There is needed a high style of
Christian character. We are to be good. The successful winner of souls must
himself be already won for Christ. Our work is intimately bound up with our
characters. Other things being equal, he will be most likely to bring others to
Christ who himself is nearest to Christ. The influence of personal holiness steals
in where nothing else can find a place. Our power with man will be just in
proportion to our power with God. Every devout effort to reach a holier life is
a way of increasing our efficiency as winners of souls. We have also to be wise
in the knowledge of God’s truth. A man may know enough for his own salvation
and yet not know so as to be able to impart effectively to others. Mighty in
the Scripture, we shall be mighty for our work. And we are to be wise in the
knowledge of the human heart. In their inmost nature the heart of a child and
of a man are very much alike. Any one may gain this knowledge who, with a
prayerful, sympathising nature, goes out into the world and keeps his eyes
open. The teacher who knows his children can give to each his portion of meat
in due season as none other can. Think of the encouragements to this work. Ours
is everlasting work, its monuments are to abide for ever. We are working for
eternity, polishing stones for the heavenly temple, searching for gems with
which to deck the Saviour’s crown. Think of the joy of the heavenly greeting,
and the approval of the Lord, an approval not bestowed according to success,
but according to fidelity. Upon no better purpose can you spend your life. Work
for Christ that shall stand. (Edward Medley, B.A.)
Soul-winning
He must be a wise man in even ordinary respects who can by grace
achieve so Divine a marvel as win a soul. He that winneth souls is usually a
man who could have done anything else if God had called him to it. He is wise--
1. Because he has selected a wise object.
2. Because to win a soul requires infinite wisdom.
3. He will prove to have been a wise man in the judgment of those who
see the end as well as the beginning.
I. The metaphor
used in the text. We use the word “win” in many ways, e.g., game
of chance, juggling tricks, etc. It is used in warfare. Warriors win cities and
provinces. The word was used to signify success in a wrestling match. There are
secret and mysterious ways in which those who love win the object of their
affections. Love is the true way of soul-winning. The Hebrew is, “He that
taketh souls is wise,” and the word refers to fishing, or bird-catching. We
must have our lures for souls adapted to attract, to fascinate, to grasp.
II. Some of the
ways by which souls are to be won.
1. A preacher wins souls best when he believes in the reality of his
work.
2. When he keeps closest to saving truth.
3. Souls are won by bringing others to hear the Word.
4. By trying after sermon to talk to strangers.
5. By button-holing acquaintances and relations.
6. By writing letters.
7. The soul-winner must be a master of the art of prayer. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Winning souls
Our Lord’s estimate of the soul’s value was exceeding high. His
mind saw its spiritual nature as an object of supreme worth. In proportion as
we are Christ-like will our views correspond, and our efforts also.
I. A great work
contemplated. The definite business of all Christian workers. Great because--
1. Of the value of the object.
2. Of the soul’s capacities--for evil if not won, and for good if
won.
3. Because the soul is the mainspring of life and action.
II. An effectual
method suggested. Winning.
1. Christian work is a magnetic force. The centre of electric
magnetism is the Cross.
2. The possibility here embodied. A work which all may undertake and
accomplish.
III. A character
here defined. “Is wise.” Because he benefits others. Because he gains a star
for his own crown. Because he is laying up treasure in heaven. For he wins the
approval of his God and the plaudits of the angels. The highest form of wisdom
is to devote life’s strength to gather pearls whose salvation will enrich with
eternal wealth. (J. F. Pridgeon.)
The life of the good
Note--
I. The involuntary
influence of a good man’s life. The fruit of a life is the involuntary and
regular expression of what the man is in heart and soul. All actions are not
the fruit of life, inasmuch as man in the exercise of his freedom and, indeed,
even by accident, performs actions that, instead of fully expressing, misrepresent
his life. The regular flow of a man’s general activity is the fruit, and this,
in the case of a good man, is a “tree of life.” It is so for three reasons.
1. It expresses real life.
2. It communicates real life.
3. It nourishes real life.
II. The highest
purpose of a good man’s life. “He that winneth souls is wise.” This implies--
1. That souls are lost.
2. That souls may be saved.
3. That souls may be saved by man.
4. That the man who succeeds in saving souls is wise.
III. The inevitable
retribution of a good man’s life. The recompense here is supposed to refer
rather to the suffering he experiences in consequence of his remaining
imperfections than of the blessings he enjoys as a reward for the good that is
in him. The sins of good men are punished on this earth. The argument here is a
fortiori--if God visits the sins of His people with punishment, much more
will He visit the sins of the wicked. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The soul-winner
Most men are aiming and endeavouring to win something to which
they attach great value. It may be secular wealth, or earthly honour, or
sensual pleasure. But there can be no wisdom in spending one’s life in the
endeavour to win any one of these things. The aim of Paul was to win Christ,
and that should be our first aim too. Having won Christ for ourselves, our aim
should be to win souls for Christ.
I. He who would
succeed in winning souls needs to be wise. It needs wisdom to succeed in the
business of life. It needs a far higher and nobler wisdom to win Souls. It is
an exceedingly difficult thing to win men over from the ranks of sin and Satan
to the ranks of God and His Christ.
1. The would-be soul-winner needs to be theoretically wise. He needs
to be well informed. He cannot know too much and must be well informed on some
very important matters, e.g., the sacred Scriptures, human nature, etc.
2. He needs to be practically wise--wise in action as well as in
thought. He should deal largely in the most attractive and pathetic truths. He
should carefully choose the most appropriate seasons. He should cultivate the
most loving spirit and the most kindly manner. He should be much in communion
with God.
II. He who does
succeed in winning souls proves himself to be wise. This is true looked at from
several points of view.
1. Think of this work in relation to God. It is co-operation with
God.
2. In its relation to those who are won.
3. In its relation to society.
4. In its relation to those who are engaged in it.
In this world it brings them honour, pleasure, and culture. The
blessings follow them into the future world. (John Morgan.)
Soul-winning
I. What is a soul?
We know little about a soul apart from the Bible. It teaches--
1. That man is a compound being.
2. That the soul is indestructible.
3. Because indestructible, its value is infinite.
II. What is meant
by winning souls?
1. The word “win” is used both in a good and bad sense. There are no
mean tricks in winning souls.
2. “Win” is a warlike word: what powers are there striving for the
soul?
3. Margin has, “he who taketh souls,” implying the use of various
allurements.
III. How may souls
be won? There must be--
1. Adaptation.
2. The soul-winner must be careful not to offend the prejudices of
those he seeks to win.
3. There must be method. The soul-winner must first have the love of
Christ in his own heart. Then he must proclaim it patiently, lovingly,
prayerfully, earnestly. This can be done in various ways.
IV. In what sense
is the man who wins souls wise?
1. In the ordinary sense. The man of business who has adaptation,
method, diligence, etc., you say is a wise man.
2. Because he is preparing for the future.
3. Because he builds lasting monuments.
4. Because he pleases God. (A. F. Barfield.)
A wise work
The Book of Proverbs may be compared to a basket of pearls. Each
verse is complete in itself; the truth contained within it is of independent
worth.
I. Wisdom is seen
in the attempt to win. The very effort itself is a proof of true wisdom.
1. The soul’s position proves it. It is a perishing one.
2. Soul-winning is a noble work. A soul-winner need envy no one. His
work surpasses all in true nobility.
3. Soul-winning is a lasting work, and therefore he who attempts it
is wise.
4. It is a soul-profiting work. The man who imparts a blessing by the
very act receives one. The way to be a joyful Christian is to be a working one
at the winning of souls.
5. Winning souls is a work that tells on eternity.
6. Winning souls is a work which will influence you in heaven.
II. Wisdom is
required in the work of winning.
1. The nature of the work as suggested in the text shows it. The word
for “winneth” has three references. It refers to the snaring of birds, the
catching of fish, the taking of a city. To the accomplishment of each of these
wisdom is required.
2. The variety of disposition seen in souls requires it.
III. Hints as to how
to set about winning souls.
1. They must be alarmed.
2. They must be allured.
3. They must be taken by the hand.
4. They who would win others must show that they themselves are won.
(Archibald G. Brown.)
The wisdom of winning souls
This text may refer to two things: wisdom in winning souls, or the
wisdom of winning souls. He who assumes, as the errand and purpose of his life,
the conversion of his fellow-men to Christ, has given the highest proof within
his reach that he himself is a wise man.
I. He has selected
the natural field for successful human effort. It is time to drop our suspicion
in reference to honest work. Butler’s definition says, “Happiness consists in a
faculty having its proper object.” That is, let any one of our powers fasten
itself upon a legitimate end, and proceed at once unto vigour, and a feeling of
true continuous joy will spring up from the mere exercise. Our reason is the
happiest in reasoning; our judgment in deciding; our imagination in the poetic
drawing of pictures; our affections in lavishing their love on chosen friends.
There needs only to be added the element of success. That is, we must be able
to gain the ends we aim at. If we are baulked, we are disappointed and
discontented. Hence it is important for each man to understand his own
adaptations and possibilities, so that he may seek right ends. Winning souls is
the true work for human souls to do. For it flings into successful action the
whole Christian man, body, mind, and spirit. There is intelligence in it; there
is faith in it; there is hope in it; there is activity in it; there is
excitement and exhilaration in it. And success is sure to follow fidelity. The
old fable was that one who always carried a myrtle-wand in his hand would never
grow weary in the way. But here is no fable. The love of Christ in the heart,
and the zeal of Christ in the life, are what evermore satisfy, exercise, and
rest the soul.
II. The specific
end to be reached in winning souls evidences wisdom in the choice. Even a
ministry of destruction has something grand about it, fearful as it seems to
gaze upon, awful as it must be to exercise. But a ministry of relief is better
than any of retribution. It has in it all the sublimity of power, and then the
additional grace and glory of help, the beauty of being serviceable. A ministry
of salvation is simply transcendent. It deals with a man’s highest nature, and
touches upon the destinies of eternity. Everywhere God seems to look upon human
beings as just so many souls. To save a man is to deliver a fellow-man from sin
and hell, and bring him to holiness and heaven. To save a soul is to
incorporate with the eternal destiny of a sentient and reasoning being a new
spring and force of exultant and exhilarant life; to quicken all its
susceptibilities; to renew the will into a profitable obedience to God; to
unfold all the capacities of intellect and affection. In a word, to save the
soul is more than to create the soul.
III. The
proprietorship we gain in the souls we instrumentally win. We love what we work
for more than what costs us nothing. Value to you is measured by this sum of
yourself you have put in possession. A soul we help to save possesses a value
to us unlike that of any other soul. For we gain a kind of proprietary right in
it. God lets us feel so.
1. Present companionship. The soul we lead into the joys of this new
life becomes our helper, and returns the benefit. If we put into active,
beneficent, useful, attractive life any human soul, may we not share all the
benedictions its sweet, gentle, Christlike career is scattering around it?
2. Eternal communion. Those who are with us here will go with us to
be in our company hereafter.
IV. The grand
awards of the gospel for this work show the wisdom of winning souls.
1. The growth of personal graces. He who watereth others shall be
watered himself. He who carries a lantern for darkened men finds his own path
lit the clearest.
2. The day of approval. Every soul which saves a soul shares in the
satisfaction his work gives to the Master. Oh, the exquisite joy of that
supreme moment when a Christian labourer presents a new prince or princess to
Christ, the King of Glory, in the midst of heaven! (C. S.
Robinson.)
The wisdom of winning souls
The estimate which men form of spiritual things is very different
from that which they form of temporal things. An individual who is the victim
of temporal evil excites our pity, and kindles our compassion, but an
individual perishing in ignorance, and dying in sin, excites no compassion.
I. The object here
proposed to our benevolent sympathy and regard--the soul of man. The soul of
man--who of us understands it? Fix attention on the nature and frame of the
human soul. In nature it is not material, it is spiritual and immaterial. The
body is divisible, the soul is a homogeneous substance--it is indivisible,
insoluble, inseparable. The soul is not matter. We know of only two substances,
matter and spirit, flesh and mind, body and soul--these make up the whole of
what we know to have any existence in the universe of God. Philosophers have
speculated much about the locality of the soul in the body. All that we know
is, that although the soul dwells in matter, it is perfectly and entirely
distinct from it.
1. We may endeavour to form some estimate of the soul by noticing its
Maker, its origin. Think of it as formed for eternity; as occupying all the
attributes of Jehovah in its formation; as made in the true image of God; as
made next in rank and degree, though equal in blessedness, to the angelic multitude.
Though the soul is not in the condition it was in when it came from the hands
of its Maker, still there is that about it that tells us something of what it
was; there are traces of primeval glory and dignity. Such is the faculty of
reason, and the power of conscience.
2. Form a notion of the soul’s capacities, and faculties, and
properties. Think of its power of thought; of the recording pen of memory; of
the tablet of the heart; of the creations of genius; the glow of enterprise;
the light of reason; all proving to us that the soul of man is spiritual,
intellectual, immaterial, immortal. Think, too, of its power of knowledge. The
soul of man wanders on and on, exploring invisible and distant objects.
3. Think of the power of pleasing. How it can charm by description,
dazzle by comparison, enliven by wit, convince by argument, thrill, captivate,
and carry away by eloquence. Think of its power of acting on matter, in the
glow of painting, in the symmetry of architecture, in the beauty of sculpture,
in the enchanting intonations of the human voice.
4. The soul must be of inestimable value, for its redemption has been
effected by Jesus Christ.
5. Think, too, on the endless duration of the soul’s existence. Only
one word can be applied to the duration of the human soul--it is the word
Eternity. The soul never dies.
II. The conduct
described in the text, in reference to this object, and recommended to our
adoption. We can only win souls as instruments and accessories. Christ is the
ransomer of the soul. The French commentator paraphrases the text thus: “He
that sweetly draweth souls to God, maketh a holy conquest of them” (Diodoret)
.
1. We are to endeavour to win souls by instruction. Knowledge is
wanted, is agreeable. Knowledge is to be communicated, now, from mind to mind,
from one to another. The man who has knowledge is bound to communicate it to
the man who has not.
2. We must do it by persuasion. For the soul is not only ignorant,
but perverse. Its ignorance calls for illumination, and its perverseness and
obstinacy call for entreaty and persuasion. Seriousness of manner, combined
with affectionateness of spirit, are the charms we are to employ, the artillery
we are to command. We are to clothe our words with plainness, seriousness, and
affection.
3. It is our duty to endeavour to win souls by admonition. It is
necessary, sometimes, to rebuke with all authority and all earnestness.
III. The eulogium
which the text pronounces on the conduct of those who win souls. He is “wise.”
1. Scriptures say that man is wise who saves his own soul.
2. The text pronounces that man wise who is instrumental in winning
the souls of his fellow-creatures. Such a man, in his conduct, is promoting the
honour, and glory of God. Such a man connects himself with the coming in of the
mediatorial reign of our Immanuel. Such a man is the best friend of the human
race, and most effectually promotes the welfare of mankind around him. (J.
Beaumont.)
The work and responsibility of the ministry
The work of the ministry is an awful thing. What shall we
say of the responsibility which belongs to him who, at an age when he could
neither deceive himself nor be deceived, chooses an office to which he
professes to be divinely called, even the cure of souls?
I. The worth of
souls. The very word “souls” is startling. The soul is a direct emananation
from God--a breath of God, a spark, so to call it, of Deity. It is a living
soul. It has infinite capacities. See the estimation in which God holds it;
especially in giving His Son for its redemption. See not the original
redemption only, but also all the subsequent acts of grace. Then most guilty
must he be who despises his own soul, and in spite of all this array of mercy,
chooses death rather than life.
II. The winning of
souls.
1. The agency which the Divine wisdom has seen fit to employ in this
business.
2. The means which this agency is commissioned to use. In preaching
the doctrine of Christ, we are wielding a weapon of omnipotent might.
3. While with fidelity we preach Christ, we must do it with the
earnestness which its importance demands, and the affection which its subject
warrants.
4. And we must also labour to the utmost to give no offence, that the
ministry be not blamed. But this line of conduct is strictly within the limit
of the faithful preaching of the Word. What are the noble and glorious results
of a ministry so conducted? Such a pastor both saves himself and them that
hearken. (Joseph Haslegrave, M.A.)
The mission work of winning souls
1. Missionary associations and enterprises take their rise out of the
most enlightened and comprehensive views of human nature.
2. Missionary Societies employ the only expedient which has ever been
known to act on
human nature with the power of effecting a moral transformation.
3. Missionary enterprises proceed on the most enlightened views of
the harmony between the instrumentality of man and the agency of God in the
work of winning and saving souls.
4. The instrumentality employed secures the most glorious of all
results to the instruments themselves.
5. Missionary operations are conducive, in a high degree, to the prevalence of the
spirit of Christian union. (H. F. Burder, M.A.)
Winning first your own soul, then other souls
The charity that wins a soul begins at home; and if it do not
begin there it will never begin. The order of nature in this work is, “save yourselves
and them that hear you.” But though this charity begins at home, it does not
end there. From its centre outward, and onward all around, like the ripple on
the surface of the lake, compassion for the lost will run, nor stop until it
touch the shore of time. Winning immortal souls is work for wise men, and we
lack wisdom. On this point there is a special promise from God. Those who need
wisdom and desire to use it in this work will get it for the asking. The wisdom
needed is different from the wisdom of men. It is very closely allied to the
simplicity of a little
child. Much of it lies in plainness and promptness. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
Two ways of wisdom
I. In the choice
of the object of pursuit. When men fix on that which is of real and
unquestionable value to the exclusion of other things. There can be no doubt of
the preference due to the soul’s interests, even on the low standard of calculated good. Common
sense must admit the wisdom shown in making the soul of man the object of the
pursuit of men. If true of man’s own soul, equally true of the souls of others.
He who makes the soul the object of his pursuit, and aims at doing good to men
through those means that are spiritual, finds that his benevolence is exercised
under circumstances very favourable.
II. In determining
the manner in which that object shall be pursued. In selecting, out of many
plans, that which is the most likely to succeed. Of these plans for winning
souls some are of men’s devising, and bear the marks of their original. There
is one, and one alone, of God’s ordaining. Of men’s schemes there is--
1. The religion of morality, which aims at men’s reformation, by
addressing the reason in the form of arguments and conviction.
2. The religion of sentiment, which addresses itself to the feelings,
and endeavours to win the affections by exhibitions calculated to melt and
touch and soften the sensibilities of men’s natures. And there is the Divine
religion of the gospel, which aims at the conversion of the soul through faith.
This system speaks to the heart and to the conscience; and this is the way of
wisdom in winning souls. (Henry Raikes, M.A.)
The winner of souls
I. What is here
implied?
1. That these souls might be lost, else they could never be
won--would never need to be won.
2. That these souls, though lost, are not irrecoverably lost; they
may yet be won.
3. That human instrumentality is to be employed for the
accomplishment of these ends; the work is the Lord’s.
II. The winner of
souls has a twofold aim. The immediate aim is the salvation of souls; the
ultimate aim is the glory of God.
III. The gain is
perpetual. These souls once won are won for ever. Leave it to other men to
build palaces and rear memorial pillars, to add house to house, and call their
lands by their own names; be yours the God-like task of contributing to rear
the palace of the Great King--of adding another and another stone to that
goodly structure--of setting up pillars in the eternal temple that shall stand when
all others have fallen--of brightening the diadem of Jesus with gems rescued
from ruin--with stars that shall shine for ever and ever. Be it yours to win
souls; for the price of them is far above rubies, more precious than the gold
of Ophir--to rear plants that shall flourish and bloom for ever in the paradise
of God. (Thos. Main, D.D.)
A word to winners of souls
I. He is wise who
wins souls, for he has a blessing in the winning.
1. The best way to keep our own souls in health is to seek those of
others.
2. The best way to benefit our brethren is to seek souls.
II. He has a
blessing in the won. Every soul we win for Christ--
1. Is a token of His favour. It proves we have used the means in the
right way.
2. Causes, or should cause, more watchfulness. We are examples to
them.
3. Is an additional helper for us. What sweet communion have we with
our spiritual fathers and spiritual children!
III. He has a
blessing stored up in heaven.
1. Exalted position. “Shine as stars.”
2. Perpetual preferment. “For ever and ever.”
3. Unbounded delight. (R. A. Griffin.)
The winning of souls
To win souls is a proof of wisdom, and it is also an exercise of
wisdom. There is the wisdom of winning souls to be considered, and also
the wisdom in winning souls.
I. The wisdom of
winning souls.
1. Human souls require to be won. They are at first in a lost state.
They are lost as being without knowledge, without righteousness, without
happiness, and without hope.
2. But the souls of men may be recovered. The method of their
salvation is arranged and completed in the gospel.
3. See the wisdom of this work in its innate grandeur and excellence.
In a shipwreck or a fire what strenuous efforts are made to save property, or
to save life: how much more to pluck these brands from the burning.
4. See what an enduring work it is. Other things, saved, may perish
again; but a soul saved will be secure for ever.
5. See the reward it brings to the happy agent himself. It gratifies
his benevolence, and his piety--it secures him affection and love--it will
ensure immortal honour (Daniel 12:3).
6. It is an essential part of our duty as Christians. The task of
winning souls is committed to us. A dispensation of the gospel is entrusted to us. We are bound by
the pledges of our allegiance and
gratitude to Christ to employ ourselves in this work.
II. The wisdom in
winning souls.
1. There are difficulties peculiar to the work.
2. The required wisdom consists of several important constituents. (The
Congregational Pulpit.)
The supreme wisdom
The literal meaning of these words is “He that catcheth souls is
wise.” The figure is taken from the manner in which the fowler catches the
birds. He that goeth into the wilds of nature, where the spirits of men are
rude and untamed, and employs his skill in attracting and winning them to
cultivation and righteousness, is wise. The enterprise of capturing a soul for
this end is replete with honour, and brings such distinction that rank and
talent have been proud to consecrate themselves to the work. The ostensible end
of all enlightened government is to win souls, and that administration is the
wisest whose measures are fitted to win the largest number to civilisation and
from vice to morality. The legislature that does not apprehend the moral as
well as the social and civil wants of a people is either barbarous or
wicked--as it may happen to rest on ignorance or selfishness. Let us select any
form of philanthropy--the
genius of that form really is the recovery of the soul. You never give a beggar
alms without some reference to his mind. Whether you would or not, you must
include the relief of his mind when you are moved to lighten his bodily
distress. The true philanthropist gives scope to this mental sympathy. Why does
he seek to alleviate the mental and physical disorders of his fellow-men? Because they stand in
the way of their moral nature. He does not stop when he has rescued a family
from starvation. “He that winneth souls is wise.” He makes the world better and
increases the resources of his country’s greatness. In treading a low
neighbourhood of the East-end of London, you find a family bearing every mark
of extreme distress. You enter what more resembles a den than a room. But in
that foul and wretched hovel there would be a lot more than meets the eye. Amid
that squalor, and in such a home, there would be scenes of the greatest crime
and ruin, and if the children were turned out on society they would be like so
many prowling wolves. But suppose you are the instrument of checking this current of evil and
wickedness. What have you done? In rescuing these poor creatures from poverty
you dispel one of the chief incentives to crime by waking up energies laid
asleep by destitution or wickedness. You have, by sending the children to
school, closed one door of ignorance and vice, and opened another of
intelligence and virtue. You have won souls to knowledge and integrity. But
here I ask, Have we done all when we have reached this step? Have governments
arrived at the limit of their possibilities when they have made men free and
prosperous? Has philanthropy executed her mission when she has supplied the
needy with bread and gathered about them conditions of health? As if a man had
drawn up a careful design for a mansion, had laid the foundation, carried up
the walls, and then had neglected to cover the building, the result being that
when the winds and rain came the splendid fragment, wanting the coherence and
support of a roof, falls away and collapses. Long experience has convinced me
that unless education be roofed and crowned with religion, the principles of
human character, however wisely laid, however right in themselves, will not
prevent the character from collapsing. The principles of human character will go
down, and the soul is not won, but lost. The doctrines Christ came to reveal or
enforce, and the great atoning work which it was the business of His life to
finish were illustrated upon a miniature scale in order that we might be ready
and able at once to study their operation. The truths He proclaimed were for
all time and for the world, but the application was first directed by Himself
to a small district of Palestine. He taught us how to win souls. He addressed
Himself to every human want. Unlike all other benefactors I have ever seen or
heard of, He did not give Himself to one department of charity. He raised the
whole man. And the dispensation of His goodness was as practical as it was
beneficial. He satisfied the hungry, but He never pauperised indolence. Why do
I mention these particulars? In order to show that our heavenly Lord took care
of the earthly life--its animal and social wants; and in His daily teachings He
included those earthly virtues of truth, purity, industry, loyalty, and love.
But the basis of His superstructure of philanthropy was the salvation of the
soul. It must be the aim of all power professing beneficence to take the soul
to the arms of God. The soul not only belongs to God, everything belongs to
Him; but the soul has a future of immortality, and the brief life of a few
years here must train it for the life of ages. To win a soul is not to bring it
into bondage, it is to take it and keep it for God. The Saviour was ever
removing obstacles in the way to heaven, and the supreme obstruction--sin--He
laid down His life to remove. All His earthly lessons, all His parables and
teachings, lead up to heaven like the steps of a ladder. And I think you cannot
begin this winning process too soon. The perceptions of a child are far in
advance of its tongue, although that begins early. Its temper and will are apt
scholars before its tongue can frame a syllable. It will learn more in the
first three years than you can teach it in the next ten. (E. E.
Jenkins, M.A.)
The wise man wins souls
It is supposed that a man is wise because he wins souls.
That is not the teaching of the text. He wins souls because he is wise. Let us
look at the matter in this way: there is a necessity in wisdom that it shall
win souls. Wisdom always wins. The wise man may never speak to a soul, and yet
he may win it. This is not the picture of an ardent evangelist running to and
fro in the earth upon the vague and general mission of winning souls. That is
the popular misunderstanding of the text. The real interpretation is that if a
man is wise he will by the very necessity of wisdom win souls, draw them to
him, excite their attention, compel their confidence, constrain their honour.
There is a silent conquest; there is a preaching that never speaks--a most
eloquent preaching which simply does the law, obeys the gospel, exemplifies the
spirit of Christ, works that spirit out in all the detail of life, so swiftly,
patiently, sympathetically, completely, that souls are won, drawn, saying,
Behold, what virtue is this! what pureness, what charity, what simplicity, what
real goodness and beneficence! This must be the right doctrine, because it
comes out in the right line. So then the scope of the text is enlarged. (J.
Parker, D.D.)
Souls to be won, not driven
This wise man does not drive souls--he wins them. Souls cannot be
driven. We may attempt to drive them, and therein show our folly, but it is of
the nature of the soul that it be charmed, lured by angel-like beauty, by
heavenly eloquence, by mighty persuasion of reason. The soul that is driven
offers no true worship; nay, as we have just said, the soul can defy the
driver. The body can be driven to church, but not the soul. It does not follow
because a man is sitting in church that he himself is there. A child forced to
church is not at church. The house of God, therefore, should be filled with
fascination, attraction, charm, so that little children should long to go to
it, and it should be a deprivation not to go there. The wise man would not
drive men to any form of goodness, though he is bound to prohibit them under
penalty from certain forms of social evil, because those forms involve the
health, the prosperity, and the best advantage of others. (J. Parker,
D.D.)
How to win others to Christ
Soul-winning is a blessed possibility to all who are “filled with
all the fulness of God.”
1. Be prayerful. Have regular hours for secret communion with God.
2. Study the Scriptures.
3. Be gentle. Lead rather than drive. Speak the truth in love. Never
argue.
4. Be polite. Haste or brusqueness will repel. A courteous, affable
manner is well-nigh irresistible.
5. Be courageous. Trusting the guidance of the Spirit, never be
afraid to speak to any soul.
6. Leave the result with God. It is unwise ever to waste time in
regrets. A rebuff may mean a soul under strong conviction. Some seeds take
longer to sprout than others. Remember you are not working for yourself, but
for God; that without Him you could do nothing; and to Him belongs all the
glory. (G. F. Pentecost.)
How to win
In Chicago, a few years ago, there was a little boy who went to
one of the mission Sunday-schools. His father moved to another part of the
city, about five miles away, and every Sunday that boy came past thirty or
forty Sunday-schools to the one he attended. One day a lady who was out
collecting scholars for a Sunday-school met him and asked him why he went so
far, past so many schools. “There are plenty of others just as good,” said she.
“They may be as good, but they are not so good for me,” he said. “Why not?” she
asked. “Because they love a fellow over there,” he answered. Ah! love won him.
“Because they love a fellow over there!” How easy it is to reach people through
love! (D. L. Moody.)
Soul-winning
Some preachers think only of their sermon; others think only of
themselves: the man who wins the soul is the man who aims at it. (Dean Hook.)
Success in soul-winning
Success in soul-winning is only given to skill, earnestness,
sympathy, perseverance. Men are saved not in masses, but by careful study and
well-directed effort. It is said that such is the eccentric flight of the snipe
when they rise from the earth, that it completely puzzles the sportsman, and
some who are capital shots at other birds are utterly baffled here.
Eccentricity seems to be their special quality, and this can only be mastered
by incessant practice with the gun. But the eccentricity of souls is beyond
this, and he had need be a very spiritual Nimrod, a “mighty hunter before the
Lord,” who would capture them for Christ.
The best news
When Chalmers was in the very zenith of his popularity in Glasgow,
and crowds were gathering every Sabbath round his pulpit, he was walking home
one evening with a friend, who told him of a soul who had been converted
through the instrumentality
of a sermon which he had preached. Immediately the tear-drop glittered in the
good man’s eye, and his voice faltered as he said, “That is the best news I
have heard for a long time. I was beginning to think that I had mistaken the
leadings of providence in coming to your city; but this will keep me up.”
The joy of winning souls
Bishop Harold Browne of Winchester once said that among all the
joys which had been given him in the course of a long and busy life, none had
come with a deeper thrill, or had remained so freshly in his heart, as the joy
he had felt when, as a young curate, he had been for the first time the means,
through God, of leading a soul to peace and trust in Christ. This is a joy
which all can have, if they ask for guidance in the work of influencing others
for God. (F. E. Toyne.)
The winner of souls is wise
A learned divine was asked, on his death-bed, what he
considered the greatest
of all things. His answer was, “It is not theology, nor controversy; it is to
save souls.” Doddridge wrote, “I long for the conversion of souls, more
sensibly than for anything besides.” Matthew Henry says, “I would think it a
greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of gold and silver
for myself.” Brainerd said, “I cared not where nor how I lived, or what
hardship I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.” Ward
Beecher says, “As the pilot beats cruise far out, watching for every whitening
sail, and hover through day and night all about the harbour, vigilant to board
every ship that they may bring safely through the Narrows all the wanderers of
the ocean, so should we watch off the gate of salvation for all the souls,
tempest-tossed, beating in from the sea of sin, and guide them through the
perilous straits, that at last, in still waters, they may cast the anchor of
their hope.” The Christian is to do good, not by force or hardness, but by
gentle persuasion and persevering kindness. To win, as in a game, implies skill
in adapting the means to the end.
1. He who would be successful in winning souls to Christ must be considerate
and thoughtful.
2. Another qualification is courage.
3. Another is tender, unaffected sympathy. It is said that if a piano
is struck in a room where another stands unopened, one who should place his ear
near it would hear a responsive note within, as though touched by the hand of
an unseen spirit. Such is the power of sympathy. (John N. Norton.)
A motto for a new year
Our first object should be to win Christ. That being attained, we
cannot adopt a better motto for life than this, “He that winneth souls is
wise.”
1. He is a wise man who sets this before him as the object for which
to five. No pursuit is more worthy of our energies. No pursuit yields a better
return.
2. He who would be successful in this work must go about it wisely.
He must himself be wise unto salvation. He must have the tact to discern his
opportunities, and rightly direct his appeals. The word winneth (margin,
“taketh”) is an allusion to the hunter’s craft.
3. A wise adaptation to the circumstances and temperaments of those
we seek to bless is needed in this work. It will not answer to deal with all
alike. Men are not to be taken in the lump and treated after some patent method
of moral mechanics. Every human being is an individual, and must be so reckoned
and laboured for. No labour or self-denial will be misspent in this holy cause.
(C. A. Davis.)
Verse 31
Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth.
Judgment here
Two ways of explaining this text.
1. Of the happiness which God has appointed for goodness, it has
pleased Him that some portion should accrue in this world; and of the misery
which is the wages of sin, a much more abundant portion.
2. Even the righteous shall be recompensed (that is, punished) for
their sins, in the earth, much more the wicked, with a sorer punishment. The
argument is, if the good and pious often suffer for the faults they fall into,
for the wicked to expect an exemption from suffering is a most vain and absurd
expectation. The first is the more natural and obvious sense of the passage.
This world is not a place of retribution. It is a place where men may suffer
for their virtues and escape for their wickedness; and this so frequently as
even to afford some ground and pretence for questioning which course a man had
best take if this life were his all. A man might say, “Let us live to
ourselves, and seize all the good within our reach, whatever be the
consequences to others.” Such a plan the wise king pronounced to be foolish and
shortsighted, even on the principles of worldly prudence, and without taking
another life into the account. After all the arguments from suffering virtue
and successful wickedness have been urged and admitted, the balance of good will be found
to be with the good, and evil unknown to them, to beset the path and track the
steps of the wicked. The words imply that any one may see this who will attend
carefully to what passes around him. It is in every one’s mouth that “honesty
is the best policy.” The upright and regular part of the community is too
sagacious and too strong for the schemer at last. The honest and good gain upon
them and pass them, even in the career of worldly success. There is a reward in
this life for a strict adherence to temperance and all the other branches and
laws of self-government. But this doctrine is apparently opposed to such
teachings as are found in Ecclesiastes 9:11. But it may be noticed
that in Proverbs the rule is dealt with, and in Ecclesiastes the exceptions to
the rule. Such exceptions there will always be. Part of the text declares that
the punishment of sin in this world is more certain than the reward of virtue.
And the fact is so. The recompense of the wicked does not tarry. Their course
is soon interrupted by evil and suffering. We can generally predict the end of
the wicked in this world. Licentiousness and debauchery lead to disease and
embarrassment. Of dishonesty it may be said, its resources are soon dried up,
and the plenty it procures is but for a moment. From the laws of nature and the
appointments of Divine providence there is no escape. The true end and design
of all the Divine afflictions and all earthly sufferings is our improvement. He
adapts His methods to our wants, and appoints us such trials as we can bear.
But the promise
of recompense in the earth is perceived to belong to them; is fulfilled in them
in many respects. (A. Gibson, M.A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》