The counsel in Proverbs is not mere toothless moral commonplace, but
is associated, in the preceding chapter, with fatherly advice to 'let
thine heart keep my commandments' and to 'trust in the Lord with all
thine heart.' The heart that so trusts will be safely guarded, and
only such a heart will be. The inherent weakness of all attempts at
self-keeping is that keeper and kept being one and the same
personality, the more we need to be kept the less able we are to
effect it. If in the very garrison are traitors, how shall the
fortress be defended? If, then, we are to exercise an effectual guard
over our characters and control over our natures, we must have an
outward standard of right and wrong which shall not be deflected by
variations in our temperature. We need a fixed light to steer towards,
which is stable on the stable shore, and is not tossing up and down on
our decks. We shall cleanse our way only when we 'take heed thereto,
according to Thy word.' For even God's viceroy within, the sovereign
conscience, can be warped, perverted, silenced, and is not immune from
the spreading infection of evil. When it turns to God, as a mirror to
the sun, it is irradiated and flashes bright illumination into dark
corners, but its power depends on its being thus lit by radiations
from the very Light of Life. And if we are ever to have a coercive
power over the rebellious powers within, we must have God's power
breathed into us, giving grip and energy to all the good within,
quickening every lofty desire, satisfying every aspiration that feels
after Him, cowing all our evil and being the very self of ourselves.
We need an outward motive which will stimulate and stir to effort. Our
wills are lamed for good, and the world has strong charms that appeal
to us. And if we are not to yield to these, there must be somewhere a
stronger motive than any that the sorceress world has in its stores,
that shall constrainingly draw us to ways that, because they tend
upward, and yield no pabulum for the lower self, are difficult for
sluggish feet. To the writer of this Book of Proverbs the name of God
bore in it such a motive. To us the name of Jesus, which is Love,
bears a yet mightier appeal, and the motive which lies in His death
for us is strong enough, and it alone is strong enough, to fire our
whole selves with enthusiastic, grateful love, which will burn up our
sloth, and sweep our evil out of our hearts, and make us swift and
glad to do all that may please Him. If there must be fresh
reinforcements thrown into the town of Mansoul, as there must be if it
is not to be captured, there is one sure way of securing these. Our
second text tells us whence the relieving force must come. If we are
to keep our hearts with all diligence, we must be 'kept by the power
of God,' and that power is not merely to make diversion outside the
beleaguered fortress which may force the besiegers to retreat and give
up their effort, but is to enter in and possess the soul which it
wills to defend. It is when the enemy sees that new succours have, in
some mysterious way, been introduced, that he gives up his siege. It
is God in us that is our security.