The first plain meaning of the word is to be kept in view. The whole
Book of Proverbs brands laziness as the most prolific source of
poverty. Honest toil is to it the law of life. It is never weary of
reiterating 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread'; and it
condemns all swift modes of getting riches without labour. No doubt
the primitive simplicity of life as set forth in this book seems far
behind the many ingenuities by which in our days the law is evaded.
How much of Stock Exchange speculation and 'Company promoters'
gambling would survive the application of the homely old law?
But it is truer in the inward life than in the outward that 'the hand
of the diligent maketh rich.' After all, the differences between men
who truly 'succeed' and the human failures, which are so frequent, are
more moral than intellectual. It has been said that genius is, after
all, 'the capacity for taking infinite pains'; and although that is an
exaggerated statement, and an incomplete analysis, there is a great
truth in it, and it is the homely virtue of hard work which tells in
the long run, and without which the most brilliant talents effect but
little. However gifted a man may be, he will be a failure if he has
not learned the great secret of dogged persistence in often unwelcomed
toil. No character worth building up is built without continuous
effort. If a man does not labour to be good, he will surely become
bad. It is an old axiom that no man attains superlative wickedness all
at once, and most certainly no man leaps to the height of the goodness
possible to his nature by one spring. He has laboriously, and step by
step, to climb the hill. Progress in moral character is secured by
long-continued walking upwards, not by a jump.
We note that in our text 'the slothful' is paralleled by 'the man void
of understanding'; and the parallel suggests the stupidity in such a
world as this of letting ourselves develop according to whims, or
inclinations, or passions; and also teaches that 'understanding' is
meant to be rigidly and continuously brought to bear on actions as
director and restrainer. If the ship is not to be wrecked on the rocks
or to founder at sea, Wisdom's hand must hold the helm. Diligence
alone is not enough unless directed by 'understanding.'