CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Instruction,+ or "correction." The Hebrew is
literally, "a wise son _is_ his father's correction," _i.e.,_ is the
product of his father's correction; or "heareth" may be supplied to
correspond to the verb in the second clause. +2. Shall eat,+ in the
second clause is, supplied by the English translation. Many
commentaries render this clause "the delight of the ungodly is
violence." So Zöckler and Delitzsch. Mill translates the verse, "Out
of the fair earnings of the mouth of a man a good man will get his
foot; but the appetite of the faithless out of robbery." +4. Fat,+
_i.e.,_ abundantly satisfied. +5. Lying,+ rather "deceit." Stuart
renders it "a false report." Zöckler translates the latter clause of
this verse, "the ungodly acts basely and shamefully." The
translations of Stuart and Delitzsch are nearly the same. Miller
reads the whole verse, "A deceiving business hates the righteous man,
but also shames and disgraces the wicked." +6. Sinner,+ literally
"sin," hence Miller reads "wickedness subverts the sin-offering," and
Zöckler "wickedness plungeth into sin." +7. Maketh,+ or "showeth."
+8.+ The latter clause of this is very obscure, but _rebuke_ is
generally translated "threatening," and is understood to mean that no
threatening can gain anything from the poor as they have nothing to
lose. Stuart understands it that "notwithstanding the obvious
advantage of wealth, yet the poor man will not listen to those who
rebuke him for sloth and wastefulness which have made him poor. The
supposition on this ground is that the man is poor by his own fault."
+9. Rejoiceth,+ "burns brightly." The words _light_ and _lamp_ are
regarded by most modern commentators as synonymous. +10.+ This may
read "Only by pride cometh contention," or "by pride cometh only
(nothing but) contention." +11. Vanity,+ rather "fraud." +By labour,+
literally, "by the hand," or "handful after handful." +12.+ Latter
clause, "a desire accomplished is a tree of life." +13. Shall be
destroyed,+ rather "is bound," or "is in bonds to it." +Rewarded,+
"be at peace." +14. Law,+ rather "doctrine," "instruction." +15. Good
understanding,+ rather "discretion." +Hard,+ "stony," "uncultivated."
This is the generally received rendering, but the word often
signifies "perpetual." Miller says "We find it in thirteen places,
and in every one of them it means perpetual." "_Strong_ or
_perpetual_ is thy dwelling-place" (Num. xxiv. 21). "Mighty rivers"
are _perpetual,_ or perennial rivers (Psa. lxxiv. 17). "Mighty
nation" (Jer. v. 15) corresponds with the next expression, "ancient
nation," and is to be rendered "perpetual" (or permanent). Umbreit
translates it "a standing bog" or "marsh." +16. Dealing with
knowledge,+ _i.e.,_ acteth with foresight. +Layeth open,+ rather
"spreadeth abroad." Delitzsch says, "There lies in the word something
derisive; as the merchant unrolls and spreads out his wares in order
to commend them, so the fool deals with his folly." +19.+ Literally
"quickened desire," "a desire that has come to be." Zöckler and
Miller say this cannot be designed to express "appeased desire," but
Delitzsch renders it "satisfied desire," and Stuart agrees with him.
The latter connects the second clause of the verse with the former,
thus, "Yet it is an abomination for fools to depart from evil,
therefore, they cannot be satisfied"; while Delitzsch understands it
to mean, "Because satisfied desire is sweet to the fool and his
desires are evil, therefore he will not depart from evil."
+23.+ "Tillage," rather "fallow ground" or "a new field," land which
requires hard labour.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.
THE WISE SON AND THE SCORNER.
+I. A condition implied.+ That the father who gives the instruction,
or administers correction, is a _wise father._ There are many fathers
who are incapable of instructing their children in the right way,
because they do not walk in it themselves. The "father" of these
proverbs is always pre-supposed to be one who is himself morally
wise--one whose life is a practical exposition of the good
instruction which he gives. The father who can only instruct with his
_lip,_ but not with his _life,_ cannot expect to command respect and
obedience. He is like a man who tries to save a vessel from sinking
by bailing out the water in bucketfuls, while he leaves the great
leak-hole unplugged. All that which is _done_ is more than
neutralised by what is left _undone._ If a physician prescribes a
certain medicine for a disease from which he is suffering himself,
but for which he refuses to take the remedy, he will find that his
patients will think, if they do not say, "Physician, heal thyself."
And children will not be slow to see if a father's practice fails to
endorse a father's precept.
+II. He who takes the advice of a morally wise father shows himself
to be wise also.+ The greatest proof of wisdom is a willingness to
learn from those who know more than we do. Other things being equal,
a father must know more than a son, and the son who hears his
instruction, and submits to his discipline, not only uses the means
by which to become wise, but shows that he is already wise enough to
use the right means to attain a desirable end. Christians are the
sons of God, if they are wise sons they will hear the instructions of
their Father. They show their wisdom in proportion as they submit
cheerfully to His discipline as to that of the "Only wise God"
(1 Tim. i. 17).
+III. He who will not listen to parental rebuke is in the last degree
a sinner.+ We understand the last clause of this verse to refer
likewise to a father and son. Parental instruction and correction are
God's ordained and special methods of training a human soul. There
are many reasons why a parent's rebuke should be regarded, if that of
strangers is not listened to (see Homiletics on chap. iv. 1-4, p.
53). He who disregards _that_ must be considered in as hopeless a
case as he who scuttles the lifeboat sent to save him. When the word
of a good father or mother is not obeyed it is practically _scorned,_
and a scorner is the most hopeless of sinners.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The language of this verse is capable of two meanings: either that
hearing instruction and not hearing reproof are the effect and the
manifestation, respectively, of a wise or a scornful mind; this wise
son showing himself to be so by "hearing his father's instructions,"
and the scorner showing himself to be so by "not hearing rebuke," or
(reversing cause and effect), that wisdom and scorning are the
results, respectively, of hearing or not hearing instruction and
rebuke. In other words--_"The son that is instructed by his father
turns out to be wise; he who receives no correction turns out a
fool."_ In the first of the two senses the abomination is chiefly to
_children_--in the second, to _parents._--_Wardlaw._
Piety is the fruit of training. If a man is a believer, it is a sign
that he has had believing nurture; and if a scorner, it is a sign he
has had _"no rebuke."_ This text reiterates the promise made to the
training of a child. To treat it as in our English version is simply
to evoke a truism, and might do very well, grammatically, if the verb
were future, and not perfect. The idea embraces the solemn lesson,
that Christians are not to be made without training.--_Miller._
Or heareth and jeereth; as Lot's sons-in-law, so Eli's sons, and
afterwards Samuel's. Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross, as well as in
his place, though not in his sin of indulgence. God will show that
grace is by gift, and not by inheritance or education.--_Trapp._
There is in the conscience of the scorner a hidden discouragement,
and privy despair, both of pardon of his sinfulness, and possibility
to leave it: and that doth exasperate him against such as shall be
dealing with it. Who is willing to have his wound laid open to his
disgrace and torment, when he taketh it to be altogether
incurable?--_Dod._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 2 _and_ 3.
KEEPING THE MOUTH.
+The human tongue needs keeping, or guarding.+ 1. _Because there is a
tendency in men to speak as soon as they think._ First thoughts are
not always the fittest thoughts to be made public. It is always
advisable to view them and review them in the light of our judgment
before we give them utterance. Hence our tongue ought to be always
"well in hand." 2. _Because when loosed it is a great power for evil
as well as for good._ It may bring much good to a man's life. "A man
shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth," when his mouth brings
forth good fruit--when "out of the good treasure of his heart he
bringeth forth that which is good." A tongue wisely used gives a man
the respect and confidence of his fellow-men, yields him the
satisfaction of having been a blessing to them (See Comments on chap.
xii. 6 and 14). But a tongue which is uncontrolled is mischievous to
others and to the man himself. "He that openeth wide his lips shall
have destruction." As we saw in chapter x. 19, there is often a sin
in _much speaking._ Such a tongue as that described in chapter
ii. 12, or that in chapter xii. 18 (see Homiletics and Comments on
those verses), destroy not only their victims but those to whom they
belong. Such a tongue, the Apostle tells us, is "a fire, a world of
iniquity: and is set on fire of hell" (Jas. iii. 6). 3. _Because it
is the last stronghold which is brought under complete control to
spiritual rule--the weak point in the spiritual man's armour where
the adversary's arrow may enter._ This we know from inspired
authority. _"If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect
man, and able also to bridle the whole body"_ (Jas. iii. 2). We have
an example of its truth in the case of Moses. That man who was "meek
above all men which were upon the face of the earth" (Num. xii. 3),
forfeited his right of entrance into the earthly Canaan by an
unguarded use of the tongue. The prayers of the Psalmist show us the
importance which he attached to the keeping of this stronghold and
the difficulty attending it, as well as that only sure means of
safety, that of calling in Divine help. _"Set a watch, O Lord, before
my mouth; keep the door of my lips"_ (Psalm cxli. 3). Every morally
wise man will make the resolve of David, "I will keep my mouth with a
bridle," not only "while the wicked is before me," but at all times
and in all places. Life is lost and won both in its higher and lower
senses by not keeping the mouth.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 2. The "mouth of a man" in that _viva voce_ country, as
formerly in our southern states, was the great instrument of a
business man. He lived by giving orders. The mail conducts our
business in our days. A _false lip_ stood for all sorts of bad
activity (Eccles. x. 12). A good man will be satisfied to earn his
living. The bad man, in some way or other, wants to steal it. But
apace with this secular meaning is one that concerns the saints. The
good man expects to fight for heaven; the lost man to get heaven by
deceit (see rendering in Critical Notes). It is true the tendencies
might seem reversed. The good man hails a work done for him, and
expects a ransom without money and without price. The bad man would
intersperse some struggles of his own. But, in fact, the Christian,
though saved by grace, works the more for it; and, in fact, the
sinner, rejecting grace and interposing his own works, is just the
man expecting blessings without costs, and without any earnest toil.
Not _"eat good"_ (English version) but "a good man will eat" (get his
food). "The earnings of the mouth." No one can go into a great city
now without noticing how much of men's money they make by their
mouth. The gainful merchants are talking all day long. No man can buy
salvation; but he reaches it by hard labour, and partly by earnest
speech.--_Miller._
Although the spirit and practice of _retaliation_ are nowhere
vindicated in Scripture, but everywhere explicitly and strongly
condemned: yet a treatment corresponding to their own treatment
towards others is what everyone may expect, even independently of
what deserves the name of _retaliation._ In the nature of things it
cannot be otherwise. It is not in _human_ nature, nor in _any_
nature, not even in the Divine itself, to love (with the love of
complacence) that which is _unamiable._ An amiable disposition alone
can secure _love;_ and it is greatly indicated by the _tongue._ The
man who is charitable in his judgments, and disposed to speak well of
others, will be himself the subject of charitable judgment, and of
cordial commendation. Thus "he shall eat good by the fruit of his
mouth."--_Wardlaw._
The mouth of a man doth _blossom_ when he speaketh fairly and
promiseth well, but then it _beareth fruit_ when that is performed
which is promised. And by this fruit it is, which though others eat,
yet a man himself eateth good, as having his soul cheered and
nourished by the comfort of it. But as for the soul of the perfidious
and false dealers, who make a show to do a thing, and do quite the
contrary, although they carry it slightly and without violence, yet
violence shall seize upon them, either to compel them to a
performance, or else to a just suffering for not performing, which
will be bitter food.--_Jermin._
Verse 3. Speech, though our great activity, gives us more toil in
holding it back than in actually employing it. So activity, which it
typically represents, is harder to hold than to promote. Religion is
an every-day battle. He that is not conscious of it, has no true
religion.--_Miller._
"Keep thine heart" (chap. iv. 23). This guards the citadel. _Keep thy
mouth._ This sets a watch at the gates. If they be well guarded the
city is safe. Leave them unprotected--thus was Babylon
taken.--_Bridges._
No wonder that the Holy Ghost here labours so much for the
reformation of the tongue; for the Apostle also (Rom. iii. 13, etc.),
when giving an anatomy of human depravity in the embers of the body,
dwells more on the tongue than all the rest.--_Cartwright_, from
_Fausset._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 4.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE SLUGGARD'S DESIRES.
+I. The desires of the sluggard cannot be satisfied--+1. _Because
they are contrary to the ordination of God._ The Divine ordination
is, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. iii. 19),
in other words, that reward shall be the result of labour. If a man
is to have that which he desires, he must frame his desire in harmony
with the law of the universe, or he must be disappointed. If men
desire to bring about any material result they take care to work in
harmony with physical law. He would be looked upon as a madman who
expected to achieve anything by setting at nought the law of
_gravitation,_ for instance. It is quite as useless for men to desire
to set aside God's moral laws. 2. _Because they are contrary to the
practice of God._ God, as we saw in homiletics on chap. xii. 24, 27,
is a great worker. He desired to save man, but He used means to
accomplish His desires, even means which involved the highest
self-sacrifice. Shall men expect to realise his wishes without
effort, when God "spared not His own Son" (Rom. viii. 32) to bring
about the salvation of the world, when Christ "endured the cross" to
attain "the joy set before Him?" (Heb. xii. 2). 3. _Because they are
unfair to his fellow-creatures._ He desires to consume, but not to
contribute to the general good; he wants to have the reward of the
diligent without his toil. It would be unjust to the industrious to
give to him for _desiring_ what others gain by _working._ Therefore,
+II. He wearies himself far more by his laziness than he would do by
honest labour.+ If a man is constantly desiring and never having his
desires fulfilled, his life must become a weariness to him. Fulfilled
desires become an incentive to renewed activity--he who has reaped
one harvest as a result of his labour is quickened to new energy to
sow for another crop. The sluggard knows not the enjoyment which
comes to the man who has worked hard for the reward which he now
enjoys; he knows not what it is to enjoy rest and recreation, because
true diligence only can give them any true relish. (See also
Homiletics on chap. vi. 6-11 and xii. 24.)
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The sluggard in religion _desires_ to overcome his bad habits, to
enjoy the happiness of God's people. So far, well. _Desires_ are a
part of religion. There can be no attainment without them. Many have
not even the desire, yet the sluggard hath nothing, because it is
_desire_ without effort. "Hell," says an old writer, "is paved with
such desires."--_Bridges._
Wishes and woulders are never good householders.--_Muffet._
Doddridge says most people perish by laziness. Laziness is the
attribute of a man who desires an object, but will not work for it.
The impenitent desires heaven--nay longs for it--yea, confidently
expects it (just as many a sluggard expects wealth), but religion
never "turns up," it never comes like game taken in the chase (chap.
xii. 27), it is a solid product; we must stir up ourselves to take
hold on God (Isa. lxiv. 7). With no exceptions, such as are on
"change," it is the _"diligent soul"_ that _"shall be made fat"_ and
the _yearning sluggard,_ at the very last, _"has nothing."_--_Miller._
The slothful man has one mighty objection against heaven, that he
cannot make sure of it in a morning dream.--_Lawson._
Labour is the original law of man's nature. The _fatigue_ and
_distress_ of labour, are, no doubt, the result of sin. Even in the
garden of primeval innocence, it was by his "dressing" and "keeping"
that everything was to thrive.--_Wardlaw._
The sluggard would and he would not, he would have the end, but would
not use the means; he would "sit at Christ's right hand," but he
would not "drink of His cup," or "be baptized with His baptism."
Affection without endeavour is like Rachel, beautiful, but
barren. . . . David, ravished with the meditation of the good man's
blessedness, presently conceives this desire and pursues it; not "Oh
that I had this happiness," but "Oh that I could use the means!" "Oh
that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes" (Psa. cxix. 4,
5).--_Trapp._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.
A LAWFUL HATRED.
+I. A righteous man hates lying.+ 1. _Because it is contrary to his
ruling disposition._ His own righteous character has been created by
believing the truth. His spiritual life is constantly renewed and
sustained by believing the truth, and reducing his belief to
practice. He is a child of the truth, and, therefore, apart from all
the consequences of lying he instinctively abhors it. 2. _He hates it
also because of its evil influence upon men._ Confidence in a lie
ruined our first parents, and confidence in a law has ruined whole
nations and mighty empires in the past. In proportion as men "believe
a lie" (2 Thess. ii. 11) in the same proportion will be their ruin.
The righteous man knows that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of truth
(John xviii. 37), and as his great desire is to see that kingdom
spread he must hate all that opposes it, and thus mars the happiness
of the human race.
+II. Wicked men are untruthful men.+ As the righteous man's character
is built by truth and upon truth, so that of an ungodly man is built
upon falsehood. All such men are the children of him who was a liar
from the beginning, and although they may not be _liars_ in the
common acceptation of the word, there is a lack of truthfulness in
the character of the most outwardly moral. In some shape or other he
is a liar--he is a subject of him whose kingdom is built upon lying,
and who could not retain under his influence a man who "hated lying"
in every form and under every disguise. Such a man must come to
shame. What would be the fate of a cripple if he were to challenge a
man with sound limbs to run a race? Must he not be worsted in the
end? Not more surely than will every subject of the kingdom whose
foundation was laid in a lie. There is an Italian proverb which says,
"A liar is sooner caught than a cripple." If "lying lips are an
abomination to the Lord," he who owns the lips must be an abomination
also (see Homiletics on chap. xii. 22).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature; and that
mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold or silver, which
may make the metal work the better but embaseth it. For these winding
and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely
upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so
cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and,
therefore, Montaigne sayeth prettily, when he inquired the reason why
the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious
charge, "If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much
as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For
a lie faces God and shrinks from man."--_Lord Bacon._
The natural man shuns lying and deceit on account of the outward
shame and reproach; the pious abhors them with all his heart for
God's sake.--_Starke, in Lange's Commentary._
The allegiance of the soul to truth is tested by small things, rather
than by those which are more important. There is many a man who would
lose his life rather than perjure himself in a court of justice,
whose life is yet a tissue of small insincerities. We think that we
are hating falsehood when we are only hating the consequences of
falsehood. We resent hypocrisy and treachery, and calumny, not
because they are untrue, but because they harm us. We hate the false
calumny, but are half-pleased by the false praise. It is evidently
not the element of untruth here that is displeasing, but the element
of harmfulness. Now he is a man of integrity who hates untruth _as_
untruth; who resents the smooth and polished falsehood of society,
which does no harm; who turns in indignation from the glittering
whitened lie of sepulchral Pharisaism which injures no one. Integrity
recoils from deception, which men would almost smile to hear called
deception. To a moral pure mind the artifices in every department of
life are painful. The stained wood which passes for a more firm and
costly material in a building, and deceives the eye by passing for
what it is not--marble. The painting which is intended to be taken
for reality; the gilding which is meant to pass for gold; and the
glass which is worn to look like jewels; for there is a moral feeling
and a truthfulness in architecture, in painting, and in dress, as
well as in the market-place and in the senate, and in the judgment
hall. "These are trifles." Yes, these are trifles; but it is just
these trifles which go to the formation of character. He that is
habituated to deceptions and artificialities in trifles will try in
vain to be true in matters of importance; for truth is a thing of
habit rather than of will. . . . And it is a fearful question, and a
difficult one, how all these things, the atmosphere of which we
breathe in our daily life, may sap the very foundation of the power
of becoming a servant of the truth.--_F. W. Robertson._
It is not said that a righteous man never lies. David lied more than
once, and yet he could say with truth that he abhorred lying. Though
he lied to Abimelech the priest, and to the king of the Philistines,
yet his fixed hatred of sin was an evidence of piety, to which those
can lay no claim who never spoke a lie in their lives, if their
abstinence from this sin was caused by some other motive than
hatred. . . . God and man agree in almost nothing but this, that a
liar is detestable to both, and therefore he must, sooner or later,
come to disgrace.--_Lawson._
The affections are of as great force in the service of God as the
words and actions, and the heart hath no less place than the members
of the body. It must be one and the principal agent in love, where
they have calling; and it must deal alone with detestation of those
abominations which they are discharged to intermeddle with. . . .
Here we have instruction to inform our hearts against all manner of
wickedness, that they may be the more incensed against it. The less
we like sin the more righteous we are, and the better the Lord will
love us. And the more agreement there is between sin and our souls,
the less peace there is between our souls and God. All the hurts and
miseries that have ever come upon us, or on Christ for our sakes, do
give just occasion to fall out with sinfulness, that hath been the
cause thereof.--_Dod._
Where grace reigns, sin is loathsome, where sin reigns the man is
loathsome.--_Henry._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 6.
OVERTHROW BY SIN.
For Homiletics on the first clause of this verse see on chap. xi. 3,
5, 6.
+I. The person overthrown--the sinner.+ 1. _To be a sinner implies
the existence of a law._ Where there is no law there is no
transgression. The sinner here spoken of is a transgressor against
moral, Divine law. 2. _There may be sin against a law which is in
existence but which is not known._ A man may not know of the
existence of a law, and thus may sin ignorantly. 3. _But the sinner
of the Bible is one who, if he does not possess a written revelation,
does possess a "law written in his heart"--his conscience._ (See Rom.
ii. 14, 15.) Though the guilt is incomparably greater when a man sins
against both conscience and revelation, yet he who transgresses the
law of the _first only_ is a sinner, and there must be overthrow in
both cases, because moral transgression contains within itself the
elements of destruction.
+II. His overthrow.+ 1. _For a man to be overthrown by breaking a
law, that law must be good._ There have been laws that common
integrity has compelled men to transgress, and men have been rewarded
by the Great Lawgiver for the transgression. There are still laws in
force in the world, the violation of which is a proof of moral
courage. But the sinner here doomed to overthrow is a sinner against
a law to which his own conscience bears witness that it is holy and
just, and good (Rom. vii. 12). 2. _The breaking of this law must
overthrow a man, even if no power were ever put forth against him._
Sin debases a man by the law of cause and effect. Nothing can prevent
a man who throws himself over a precipice from finding the bottom of
the chasm--nothing can keep a sinner from sinking lower and lower in
the moral scale. The first man finds a bottom--comes to the end of
his fall--he who sins keeps sinking lower and lower while he
continues in sin. 3. _The law against which the sinner transgresses
is backed by the highest authority, and by the greatest power of the
universe._ It represents the greatest Being. Sin is not directed
against an _abstraction,_ but against a _person._ He who has
promulgated it is a living personality, and has all power to enforce
its penalties. The Almighty God is against the sinner. Must he not
then be overthrown? 4. _The sinner can be placed in such a position
as will justify him from the guilt of his past transgressions, and
will enable him to keep the law in the future._ The Lawgiver has
Himself provided the way of escape. He Himself gives the power to
obey. Hence he who sins against this law sins against mercy too, and
doubles his condemnation, "is overthrown," not by God's law, but by
his rejection of God's method of deliverance from the guilt and power
of sin.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
_Wickedness is ruin._ 1. It exhausts a man's _property,_ whether much
or little. Sin is a very expensive thing; a person cannot commit it
to any extent, but at a considerable loss, not of time only, but of
substance. The passions are clamorous, exorbitant, and restless, till
gratified, and this must be repeated. The case of the prodigal is in
point, he wasted all his patrimony in riotous living. 2. It blasts
his _reputation._ Sin can never be deemed honourable on correct
principles; yet while sinners possess means of supporting themselves
in their vices, they still keep up their name and rank in the world;
not in the Church of God, or in the estimation of heaven. But when
the means of supplying fuel to feed the fires of foul desire and
towering ambition fail, then their outward splendours go out into
darkness. (See Prov. x. 7; xxiv. 30.) 3. It destroys _health._
Intemperance undermines the best constitution; it is a violence done
to the physical order of things; it renders a man old in
constitution, while he is young in years. 4. It hastens the approach
of _death._ Wicked men frequently do "not live out half their days"
(Psa. lv. 23), "for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then
sudden destruction cometh as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. v. 3).
Sometimes their passions hurry them forward to the commission of
crimes which terminate in the most disgraceful exit. 5. It effects
the damnation of the _soul._ A sinner "wrongeth his own soul" (Prov.
viii. 36). He quenches the Spirit of grace, neglects the salvation of
the gospel, till he goes to his own place. "The wicked shall be
turned into hell" (Psa. ix. 17).--_Theta,_ from _Sketches of Sermons._
Righteousness keepeth the upright, so that, though belied or abused,
he will not let go his integrity (Job xxvii. 5). David's "feet stood
in an even place" (Psa. xxvi. 12). The spouse, though despoiled of
her veil and wounded by the watch, yet keeps close to Christ (Cant.
v). Not but that the best are sometimes disquieted in such cases; for
not the evenest weights, but at their first putting into the balance,
somewhat swap both parts thereof, not without some show of
inequality, which yet, after some little motion, settle themselves in
a meet poise and posture.--_Trapp._
As he walketh safely in the way who hath a faithful convoy with him,
so he is most sure of a faithful convoy who is a strong convoy unto
himself. Righteousness alone is a puissant army, and he cannot perish
whom righteousness preserveth. But how can he escape who is beset in
the way by his own villainy. The Hebrew is, that wickedness
overthroweth _sin._ When a sinner is grown settled in sinning, he
justly getteth the name of sin, and such an one it is that is here
spoken of.--_Jermin._
_"Righteousness,"_ that good claim in law which merit gives some of
the creatures. Our _righteousness_ comes to us as the merit of
Christ. The condition of our being held righteous is faith and new
obedience. Therefore, if one is obedient, or, as this verse expresses
it, _"is upright"_ or "of integrity _in the way,"_ _"righteousness
keeps guard over him."_ Once righteous, always righteous. Having the
proof of our righteousness now, that righteousness, or good standing
in the law, shall guard us for ever; while sin, becoming equally
perpetual, does not only not guard us, but (another intensive second
clause) rejects what guard we have; that is, as it is most
evangelically expressed, _"subverts"_ or _"overturns"_ the
sin-offering. This word, _sin-offering,_ instead of _allowing_ such
an interpretation (see Critical Notes) _has_ it in all preceding
books. _"Sin"_ is the rare rendering. Some of the most beautiful
Scriptures, that are Messianic in their cast (Gen. iv. 7), are ruined
by the translation _"sin."_ Leviticus never has the translation
_"sin"_ even in the English version.--_Miller._
There is more bitterness following upon sin's ending than ever there
was sweetness flowing from sin's acting. You that see nothing but
well in its commission will suffer nothing but woe in its conclusion.
You that sin for your profits will never profit by your sins.--_Dyer._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 7 _and_ 8.
THE LAW OF COMPENSATION.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Be very careful with the word
"niggardly" because it can sound like a racial slur,
especially to those who do not know the word or who are not
paying attention. Consider substituting "miserly,"
"sparing," or "parsimonious."
+I. There may be pretensions to wealth where there is comparative
poverty.+ Many men endeavour to make other people believe that they
are richer than they are--indeed, it seems to be the common vice of
modern society. It is to be deprecated for several reasons. 1. _It is
an injury to the man himself._ It very often happens that his foolish
artifices fail to blind others; he is like the ostrich who, when he
places his head into the sand, thinks he has hidden himself entirely
from observation; he only makes himself an object of ridicule to
those who he thinks he has deceived. If, for a time, he that "hath
nothing" succeeds in making people believe he is rich, the truth
comes out in time, the bubble bursts, and the pretender comes to such
shame as would never have been his portion if he had been content to
pass for what he really was--a poor man. 2. _Such pretenders are a
curse to others._ One such man makes many others. His costly
furniture and brilliant entertainments, and all the adjuncts which
are necessary to keep up the reputation of being a millionaire, lead
his neighbours and associates to keep up appearances of the same
kind, and so the mischief grows. Then such men rob honest men by
leading them to trust them with their goods or money, and when the
end comes many are brought to ruin. Examples of this truth are not
far to seek, they are, alas, far too common in the present day.
3. _Such pretension is base hypocrisy._ A sin against which a
righteous God levels His sternest threatenings (see on chap. xi. 9).
+II. He who is really wealthy and yet does not use his wealth to the
glory of God "hath nothing."+ 1. _He is poor in relation to his
fellow-creatures._ The greatest beggar cannot do less for the world
than he does, and he is poor in the love and gratitude of those from
whom he might win a rich reward by the exercise of benevolence.
2. _He is poor in spiritual riches._ A miserly, niggardly man must be
poor "towards God" (Luke xii. 21)--must be destitute of all that God
counts worth possessing. The rich Church of Laodicea was so
"increased with goods" that she said, "I have need of nothing," but
in the sight of the Son of God she was "poor" (Rev. iii. 17).
+III. In a spiritual sense this text is true.+ Possibly the rebuke to
the Laodicean Church may refer to that satisfaction in spiritual
things "which maketh itself rich yet hath nothing," because its
possessor is destitute of any real knowledge of his own spiritual
needs and, consequently, of his spiritual poverty.
+IV. There are men who are in every respect the opposite of those
with whom we have been dealing.+ 1. _There is the miser who "maketh
himself poor, yet hath great riches."_ It is difficult to know what
motive can prompt a man to do this except covetousness--a fear that
he will be expected to part with some of his wealth for the good of
others. What, therefore, was said under the second head will apply to
him. 2. _There are those who make no show of wealth, yet having
enough to sustain their position in life are really rich._ The man
who is content to be known for what he really is, and has enough to
live honestly, is _rich,_ for riches and poverty are merely
comparative terms, and the riches of one man would be poverty to
another.
"For he that needs five thousand pounds to live,
Is full as poor as he that needs but five."
Therefore, "a man that maketh (or sheweth) himself poor" in this
sense, has great riches. He has a sufficiency for all his wants, he
retains his self-respect and the respect of his fellow-men. 3. _The
really poor man is rich when he spends his little with regard to the
glory of God._ Who of all those who cast their gifts into the
treasury was so rich as the poor widow who cast in "all her living?"
She was rich in the commendation of her Lord (Mark xii. 43), and all
such as she will have the same recognition and will be rich in the
gratitude and love of their fellow-creatures. Such an one shows that
he is in possession of the "true riches" (Luke xvi. 11) which alone
can preserve from moral bankruptcy. To them belongs the commendation
"I know thy poverty, but thou art rich" (Rev. ii. 9). Such "poor of
this world" are "rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom" (Jas.
ii. 5). 4. _Those who are thus really, because spiritually, rich have
always a sense of spiritual poverty._ They esteem themselves "less
than the least of all saints" (Ephes. iii. 8), their watchword is
"not as though I had already attained" (Phil. iii. 12), therefore, to
them belongs the rich possession of the friendship of "the High and
Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity" (Isa. lvii. 15). Thus "making
themselves poor," they "yet have great riches."
+V. There are advantages and disadvantages connected both with
material wealth and with poverty.+ "The ransom of a man's life are
his riches." This was more literally true in Solomon's days than in
ours, and is more so now in Oriental countries than among the western
nations. There, even now, a man's riches often excite the greed of
some despotic ruler, or one of his irresponsible officials, and he is
accused of some crime in order that his accuser may pocket a large
ransom. In times of war, too, the rich are exposed to losses and
vexations from their conquerors, which the poor escape. Wealth is the
magnet which draws the plunderers upon them; although, at the same
time, it enables them to ransom their lives. This is one of the
penalties of riches. The spirit, although not the letter of the
proverb, may be applied to modern European life. It is the hall of
the nobleman what is exposed to the visits of the burglar. It is the
great capitalist that loses when banks fail, and when there is a
commercial panic. But none of these things touch a poor man. The
despots pass him over, because he has no riches wherewith to ransom
his life; in the time of war he is unmolested, as when Judea was
invaded, "the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be
vine-dressers and husbandmen" (2 Kings xxv. 12). No thief plans a
midnight surprise upon his humble abode; he cannot lose his money, he
has none to lose. Vultures are not attracted to a skeleton, they
gather round a carcase covered with flesh. So it is with those who
make it their business to live upon the wealth of others. They leave
the poor man free. He hears not "rebuke" or "threatening," he is left
undisturbed. "He that is down need fear no fall," says Bunyan. "He
that hath empty pockets may whistle in the face of a highwayman,"
says Juvenal. Therefore it is man's wisdom, whether poor or rich, to
be content with such things as he has (Heb. xiii. 5); to appear only
what he really is, and to dedicate his earnings, or his savings, or
his inheritance, to the glory of God; to follow George Herbert's
advice--
"Be thrifty; but not covetous: therefore give
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due.
Never was scraper brave man. Get to live;
Then live, and use it; else, it is not true
That thou hast gotten. Surely use alone
Makes money not a contemptible stone."
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The teaching of chap. xi. 24 finds its echo here. There is a seeming
wealth behind which there lies a deep spiritual poverty and
wretchedness. There is a poverty which makes a man rich for the
kingdom of God.--_Plumptre._
This is a world of making show, the substance of truth is gone out of
it, and ever since man ceaseth to be what he should be, he striveth
to seem to be what he is not. Every sin masking in its own vizard;
the vainglorious and the covetous both seeking by their seeming to
gain some real advantage to themselves.--_Jermin._
These opposite faults originate in the same cause, an excessive
esteem of worldly riches. It is this that makes poor men pretend to
have them, and rich men conceal them for the purpose of preserving
them more safely. But although money is sometimes a defence, the want
of it is sometimes a shadow under which poor men live unmolested by
the plunderers.--_Lawson._
Surely it is just that riches should be the ransom of a man's life,
for it is by them that a man's life is brought into danger.--_Jermin._
The seventh verse is terse beyond all expression. Such are all these
proverbs. Making oneself rich may be itself the poverty, and making
oneself poor may be itself the wealth; inasmuch as these acts may
have been sins or graces of the soul, which enter by the providence
of Heaven into the very condition of the spirit. The meaning is that
outward circumstances are nothing in the question. A saint is poor or
rich as is most useful for him. The treasure is himself. _"There is
that maketh himself rich and is all nothing;"_ because himself, not
the wealth, is the important matter. On the other hand, _"There is
that maketh himself poor,"_ and not only "hath great riches," which
is the imperfect translation of our Bibles, but "is a great
treasure." He himself bereft of wealth, is all the greater for what
God may have assigned. Solomon expounds more specially in the eighth
verse: _Ransom,_ covering--_i.e.,_ the covering of his guilt. Poverty
is a mere incident. A man's true opulence is his eternal redemption.
He is not poor who is pinched by want; but he who has not listened to
rebuke.--_Miller._
It is not poverty so much as pretence that harasses a ruined man--the
struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse--the keeping up a
hollow show, that must soon come to an end. Have the courage to
appear poor, and you disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 9.
THE ABIDING LIGHT.
+I. The analogy between the righteous and the wicked.+ Both have a
light or lamp. The words here translated lamp and light are elsewhere
used interchangeably, and are often used to signify _prosperity_
(1 Kings xv. 4; 2 Kings viii. 19) _of any and every kind._ Prosperity
resembles a lamp in that _it is an attractive force._ A benighted
traveller in the darkness is drawn towards a light wherever he sees
it, although he does not know whether it is the light of a thief or
of an honest man. Tempest-tossed mariners look anxiously for a light
in their extremity, and hope for help from it whether it swings from
the masthead of a pirate or from a vessel which carries the police of
the seas. So prosperity in any man is an attractive force. A
prosperous wicked man attracts to himself the needy and unfortunate.
The unprincipled gather round him, hoping to share in some degree in
the light and heat of his worldly success, and the good man who is
poor is often compelled by need to do the same. The lamp of
prosperity, like the net of the kingdom, "gathers of every kind"
(Matt. xiii. 47), not because of what the prosperous man _is,_ but
because of what he _has._ Many saints are dependent on sinners for
their daily bread. Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate hoping to be
fed with the crumbs which fell from his table. The prosperity of the
righteous is equally attractive both to good men and bad for the same
reason. The great mass of men in the world are toiling upon the sea
of life for daily bread like tempest-tossed mariners, and wherever
they see the light of prosperity they make for it, hoping for help in
their need. And prosperity in the general acceptance of the world is
as often given to the good as to the bad--to the wicked as to the
righteous. Some commentators regard the _light_ or the _lamp_ as
emblematic also of _posterity._ The words in 2 Kings viii. 19 may be
translated "to give him always a light _in_ his children" (see Lange
on 2 Chron. xxi. 7), and in this sense also the analogy holds good,
seeing that both good and bad men become the heads of households, and
have joy and honour in their children.
+II. The contrast between the righteous and the wicked.+ 1. _The
righteous man will grow more and more prosperous._ Present and
material prosperity is but an earnest and a shadow of that higher
_light_ which shall _"rejoice"_ throughout eternity. For the contrast
implies that his light shall _not_ "be put out." And this continuance
has its root in his character. Although in this world character does
not govern circumstances, there is a world in which it does. And,
after all, a good man's light--or occasion of satisfaction--consists
more in what he _is_ than in what he _has,_ and this shines "more and
more unto the perfect day" (chap. iv. 18)--See Homiletics, page 58.
2. _The wicked man's prosperity will come to an end._ His candle
_will_ be put out by the hand of death. It may burn well for a time
and he may rejoice in its light, but even if it continue to shed its
rays around him till the last hour of earthly life, death will put it
out. All that has made him a prosperous man has belonged to the
earth, and this can shed no light beyond the grave. It _may_ be put
out by the hand of _retribution_ before death. Lamps kindled by
unjust means may burn well for a time, and human retribution may
never put out their light, because men may not know how they were
lighted; but God's providence may put them out. (On this subject see
next verse.) Or if Divine retribution reserves its extinguisher for
another world, another avenger may "put out" the light. _Conscience_
may assert its right, and without actually taking from a man that in
which he has promised himself satisfaction, may take the satisfaction
from it, and thus as surely "put out" his "lamp."
_outlines and suggestive comments._
How glowing, then, is the light of the Church in the combined shining
of all her members! Many of them have no remarkable individual
splendour; yet, like the lesser stars forming the Milky Way, they
present a bright path of holiness in the spiritual firmament. . . .
But it is the _light_ of the righteous that rejoiceth. Sin,
therefore, will bring the cloud. Do we hope to shine in the heavenly
firmament? Then we must shine with present glory in the firmament of
the Church. So delicate is the Divine principle, that every breath of
this world dims its lustre.--_Bridges._
The comfort of the righteous is a heavenly _light,_ whose shining is
_rejoicing,_ and which even in this life maketh the darkness of Egypt
to be light in Goshen, maketh the night of troubles to be day; but at
length it shall be such a sunshine of glory, as that it dazzleth the
human understanding to conceive it now. On the other side, the best
comfort which the wicked have is but a lamp or a candle which shineth
in the night; for as the light of a candle is shut up within a narrow
circle of space, so their comfort is shut up within a narrow compass
of time, until at length the candle be put out, never again to be
lighted. But what I say _at length,_ when Job saith the candle of the
wicked is often put out. Upon which words St. Gregory saith,
"Ofttimes the wicked thinks his child to be his candle, but when his
child, too much beloved, is taken away, _'his candle is put out,'_
and so with present honour or wealth." He, therefore, that desireth
not to rejoice in eternal things, cannot here always rejoice where he
would be eternal.--_Jermin._
They may not always rejoice, but their light will. _"The lamp of the
wicked"_ shines upon their own transitoriness. They never say that it
will last. They know _"that it shall be put out."_ This is rather a
dismal provision for being very cheerful. But _"the light of the
righteous,"_ however much they look at it, _"rejoices."_ The more
they try it, the more it burns. It does not shine upon its own lack
of oil. And, though they are not self-luminous, yet their _"light"_
is, for it is the light of the Spirit, and it shines more and more
through eternal ages.--_Miller._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 10.
THE PARENT OF STRIFE.
+I. Unlawful contention is the offspring of pride.+ If she is not her
_only_ child, she is her eldest-born. Scripture language more than
hints that pride was the beginning of contention among the angels.
Paul, speaking of the qualifications of a "bishop" or teacher, tells
Timothy that such an one is in danger of "being lifted up with
pride," and thus falling "into the condemnation of the devil" (1 Tim.
iii. 6), thus seeming to indicate that pride was at the bottom of all
the contention that is at present going on in the universe between
light and darkness, between good and evil. From the pride of this
fallen star has come contention in heaven, and earth, and hell.
He it was whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind; what time his _pride_
Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory 'bove his peers,
He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
If he opposed, and with ambitious aim,
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud,
With vain attempt.
And in the history of man's dealings with man pride is the root of
contention. _"Whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not
hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?"_ (Jas. iv. 1).
And is not the lust of pride, or envy, which is her foster-sister,
the great cause of all domestic, and social, and national
contentions? Has it not been the cause of every unrighteous war from
the days of Chedorlaomer to the present century? And pride breeds
contention on a narrower battle-ground still. It often creates war in
the human spirit. Pride brings contention between duty and
inclination, and, although there is no bloodshed, the contest is
often very sharp and painful. The fact that "by pride cometh
contention" is so plain that it may be said to be written upon the
scroll of time, like Ezekiel's roll, within and without. It is
impossible that it should be otherwise. Pride is a thinking more of
ourselves than we are--an over-estimation of our own worth. This must
lead us to strive for supremacy over others who are our equals, or
even our superiors. This must bring contention, for they will not
willingly accord to us that to which we have no lawful claim.
Therefore, while there is pride in the universe contention will never
end. The fountain must be dried up before the streams cease to flow.
When a human soul is emptied of pride there will be peace within. In
proportion as it ceases to be a ruling force in the world contention
will cease. Pride keeps the fallen principalities in contention with
heaven, keeps the sinner in contention with his Saviour, and keeps
man in contention with man.
+II. Those who are not ruled by pride are well advised.+ 1. _Because
of the consequences that obedience to the dictates of pride must
bring to men themselves._ There is in all men a wholesome fear of the
consequences which flow from certain actions. If a child sees another
burnt from playing with the fire, he will avoid doing that which he
has seen to bring such pain and deformation to his brother. Self-love
deters him from the act. Those who are well advised, because advised
by the highest wisdom, know that the consequences of pride have been,
and take cognisance of the deformation of character which it works in
men around them. Therefore, the natural and spiritual instinct of
wholesome self-love leads them to dread that which would bring such
an additional scar to their already too much deformed character. The
children of wisdom are well advised to be afraid of pride on account
of its consequences to themselves. 2. _Because of the misery it would
bring to those nearly related to them._ Isolation is not possible in
this world. Every man, woman, and child is more or less nearly
related to some others. The relation may be physical, intellectual,
political, or moral--in some instances all are combined. A proud man,
or woman, or child, makes those who belong to them miserable. A proud
father makes his children miserable, a proud king involves his
country in war, and brings misery upon his subjects. How many friends
has pride severed? How many homes and countries has family or
national pride blighted? Surely, then, those are well advised who
shun it for the sake of those related to them. 3. _Because of its
consequences to humanity._ The miseries of the human race are
increased by pride, and the progress of the gospel is hindered by it.
The man who does not scruple to pour oil upon a burning house, not
only shows that he has no intention to help to extinguish the flames,
but that he intends to widen their influence. Each drop that he pours
upon the fire increases its intensity, and spreads the destruction.
There are men who do not hesitate, by the indulgence of pride, to
increase that war of passions which burns so fiercely and
destructively in the world and desolates ten thousand hearts and
homes. But the well advised, by the exercise of the grace of
humility, endeavour to quench the conflagration which, first kindled
by hell, has devastated the earth for so many generations.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Pride, if there be no cause of contention given, will make it.
_Transcendo non obedio perturbo_ is the motto written upon pride's
triple crown. . . . Pride is a dividing distemper. Bladders blown up
with wind spurt one from another, and will not close; but prick them,
and you may pack a thousand of them in a little room. . . . It was a
great trouble to Haman to lead Mordecai's horse, which another man
would not have thought so. The moving of a straw troubleth proud
flesh; whereas, humility, if compelled to go one mile, will go two
for a need; yea, as far as the shoes of the gospel of peace can carry
it. "The wisdom from above is _peaceable._"--_Trapp._
As to the great quarrel with God, which needs the _ransom_ (ver. 8),
and which is mended by the _righteousness_ (ver. 6), how long would
that last, if we abandoned pride?--_Miller._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 11.
TWO WAYS OF GROWING RICH.
+I. Wealth can be gotten.+ Wealth may be acquired by those who have
it not. The wealth of the sea is within the reach of the fisherman.
If he put down his net, sooner or later he will probably be rewarded
with some gain. There is wealth in the sea of human life. Although
the experience of some may be "to toil all night and to take
nothing," yet the rule is that men who make an effort will succeed in
bringing into their nets more or less of worldly gain. Some degree of
skill and toil are needed to do this, but probably there was never a
time when talent of any kind, or patient endeavour, was more certain
to meet with a reward than in the present day. Aptitude for business
will probably make a man a thriving tradesman if it does not make him
a merchant prince. Intellectual power and artistic skill have a wide
field in which to work, and are generally sure of liberal reward.
Probably there never was an age when those who have nothing but the
net of genius to spread upon the sea of life were so certain to land
gold upon the shore.
+II. But there are two ways of getting rich.+ There is the way of
_vanity._ Some men come into a fortune by a single throw of the
dice--by a fortunate speculation--a lucky hit. They may not be
dishonest as men generally understand the word, although as a rule
such transactions will not bear too much exposure to the sunlight,
but it is not the best way to get money. Then there are others who
for a lifetime have nibbled at the lawful gains of other men, and
have thus become rich. And others have gotten their wealth by some
one act of dishonesty, of which society is ignorant or is unable to
punish. All these ways of making money are vain in comparison _with
that of patient, honest, daily toil._ The reaper gathers in the
golden grain in the sweat of his face, an armful at each stroke of
the sickle; step by step, "hand by hand," he makes himself master of
the field and gathers the wheat into the garner. So patient daily
toil is the Divinely-ordained way to grow rich. The daily practice of
industrious habits and the exercise of patience, which are thus
rendered necessary, are beneficial to a man's moral nature.
+III. The possession of wealth will be permanent or short-lived
according to the way in which it has been acquired.+ 1. _Wealth
gotten at a leap is generally "diminished" by the man who gained it._
Such men are generally reckless in their expenditure, and squander a
fortune in almost as short a time as they gained it. Such a sudden
acquisition of wealth has been unfavourable to the formation of
thrifty habits, and the man is not equal to his position. Many a
gold-digger who has found in a day a nugget worth many thousands, has
been a poor man again in a few months, and the experience of most men
furnishes them with some similar illustration of the truth although
not perhaps so striking. 2. _Wealth gotten by dishonesty will be
diminished by God._ Time only is needed to make manifest the
righteous judgment of God upon wealth gotten by such "vanity." Like
the prophet's gourd, although it affords pleasant shelter to those
who sit under it now, there is a worm at the root which will
certainly bring it to nothing. Did we but know how some fortunes have
been acquired, we should be less surprised at their possessors being
suddenly reduced to beggary. It may be that those who are thus
brought low are not the makers, but the possessors only, of wealth
gotten by vanity, yet they have to pay the penalty. On the contrary,
the man who has patiently and honestly gathered, little by little, a
sufficiency, or even more, has gathered at the same time wisdom to
use it, and has not forfeited the blessing of the Lord (chap. x. 22).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
"It is easier to make a fortune than to keep it." So say the worldly.
Specifically forbidden is the keeping of the bread of heaven (Exod.
xvi. 19). It was to be gathered every morning. A man who keeps
gathering on the hand is the man to stay rich. But the saint who
hoards up the past, and lives upon the fortune that he had, is the
Israelite who kept the manna, and who found that it "bred worms and
stank." Even happiness is not promoted by over-guard. "Things won are
done; joy's soul lies in the doing." . . . Continuing to work not
only keeps wealth, but "increases it," most particularly spiritual
wealth.--_Miller._
The words admit of three renderings (1) That of the A.V. "Wealth
gotten by vanity," _i.e._, by a windfall, or sudden stroke of
fortune, not by honest labour, is soon diminished; or (2) wealth is
diminished by vanity, by empty or hollow ostentation; or (3) wealth
is diminished quicker than a breath. Of these (1) is believed to be
the best. In any case the general meaning seems to be that the mere
possession of riches is as nothing; they come and go; but the power
to gain by skill of hand is everything. By labour, "or by the hand,"
has three possible meanings (1) as in the A.V.; (2) in proportion to
his strength; (3) "in due measure."--_Plumptre._
Ill-gotten goods fly away without taking leave of the owner; leaving
nothing but the print of talons to torment him (chap. xxiii. 5). "But
he that gathereth by labour shall increase." Howbeit, sometimes, it
is otherwise. "Master, we have toiled all night, and taken nothing"
(Luke v. 5).--_Trapp._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 12.
DEFERRED AND ACCOMPLISHED HOPE.
+I. Two things are necessary to constitute hope.+ 1. _There is the
desire for the real or supposed good._ The man conceives there is in
the distance that which he esteems a good, and he desires to possess
it. No man desires what he deems is an evil. The fact that he desires
it shows that he regards it as a good. 2. _There is an expectation._
A man may desire a good thing without hoping for it because he may
feel that it is impossible to have his desire fulfilled. He has no
expectation of its accomplishment, consequently he has no hope. Hope
includes some amount of expectation, some foundation for the hope. A
man who knows that his disease is incurable may _desire_ to recover
his health, but as he has no reason to expect recovery he does not
_hope_ for it. Sometimes, also, hope is founded on the promise of
some person who is presumed to be both able and willing to perform it.
+II. The constant postponement of the attainment of the desired and
expected good produces mental sickness.+ Sickness of body enfeebles
its powers, so does sickness of soul. A man derives strength to work
when he possesses hope of enjoying some good thing in the future.
Hope is a kind of spiritual food, by feeding upon which a man renews
his energy. But the constant postponement of its realisation renders
the hope less and less strong, and has the same effect upon the mind
as insufficient food has upon the body, it enfeebles its resolution
and lessens its courage. If a hungry man finds each day that his
portion of food grows less, he will soon be conscious of the loss of
flesh and strength, and if the process goes on for many months he
will lose all power of action and probably his very life. The same
thing takes place in a man's spirit when hope is indefinitely
"deferred."
+III. The accomplishment of the desire and expectation renews mental
health and strength.+ "It is a tree of life." The fruit of the tree
of life in Paradise was designed to lengthen man's life, to
perpetuate his youth by constantly renewing his bodily vigour. It is
said of the tree of life in the Paradise yet to come that "its leaves
are for the healing of the nations" (Rev. xxii. 2). So the
realisation of hope renews the life of the spirit, quickens all its
powers, perpetuates its youth. And if the hope has been so long
deferred as to induce "heart sickness," its "coming" brings healing
with it. Bodily health is restored by the operation of something from
without. It is not usually brought about by that which is within us,
but by the coming to us of that which is without. A man desires
something which he has not--something outside of himself--either a
material or a spiritual good; and if he comes to possess it, it is to
the soul what healing medicine is to the body. And as those who eat
of the tree of life in the heavenly world are "children of the
resurrection," and sons of undying youth, so realised hope makes the
spirit conscious of new life, because it brings _joy,_ and when a man
is filled with joy he feels young, however many years he has lived. A
renewed youth brings renewed activity. It lifts up the hands which
hang down, and restores the feeble knees, and gives a man a new start
in the race of life. Applying the words to the revelation of the New
Testament, to the "hope of the Gospel" (Col. i. 23), we
remark--1. _That the Christian must be the subject of deferred hope._
He _must_ wait for the realisation of his desires and expectations.
That "adoption of the body" (Rom. viii. 23) must be waited for. A
glorified body would be out of place in an unglorified world. This
hope must be deferred until his Lord's expectations with regard to
this world are fulfilled. The Son of God is waiting until the Father
shall give the word that "time shall be no longer"--until the times
of restitution of all things (Acts iii. 21). He is "at the right hand
of God; from henceforth _expecting_ till his enemies be made His
footstool" (Heb. x. 13). When that _expectation_ is fulfilled, the
_desire_ of the Christian with regard to the resurrection body will
be fulfilled also. He must also wait until after death for perfect
victory over sin and its consequence, for the full revelation of what
it is to be one of the sons of God. _"Beloved, now are we the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." "When this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"_ (1 John
iii. 2; 1 Cor. xv. 54). 2. _That even the deferred hope of the
Christian is a tree of life._ It is an eater that yields meat. It
bears fruit (1) It gives birth to _patience,_ and there is no grace
that the human spirit needs more. According to apostolic teaching it
is needful to _"let patience have her perfect work,"_ if the
Christian is to _be perfect and entire, wanting nothing_ (Jas. i. 4).
It is the evidence of a great mind to be able to wait. The Eternal is
a "God of patience" (Rom. xv. 5). He can wait, because He is
infinitely great. (2) It brings forth joy. Paul says, _"We rejoice in
hope of the glory of God"_ (Rom. v. 2). (3) It satisfies the soul.
_"Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself"_ (1 John
iii. 3). (4) It gives sympathy with God in relation to unregenerate
humanity. God defers the realisation of the Christian's hope, because
He is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. iii. 9). While we
wait the Divine desire grows in us also, that "all should come to
repentance."
_ILLUSTRATION._
Perhaps in all history there is not a more salient instance of hoping
against hope deferred than that of Columbus. Years and years were
wasted in irksome solicitation; years spent, not indeed in the drowsy
and monotonous attendance of ante-chambers, but, as his foremost
biographer narrates, amid scenes of peril and adventure, from the
pursuit of which he was several times summoned to attend royal
conferences and anon dismissed abruptly. "Whenever the court had an
interval of leisure and repose (from the exigencies of the Moorish
war), there would again be manifested a disposition to consider his
proposal, but the hurry and tempest would again return, and the
question be again swept away." . . . He came to look upon these
indefinite postponements as a mere courtly mode of evading his
importunity, and after the rebuff in the summer of 1490, he is said
to have renounced all further confidence in vague promises, which had
so often led to chagrin; and, giving up all hopes of countenance from
the throne, he turned his back upon Seville, indignant at the thought
of having been beguiled out of so many years of waning existence. But
it is impossible not to admire the great constancy of purpose and
loftiness of spirit displayed by Columbus ever since he had conceived
the sublime idea of the discovery. When he applied again to the court
after the surrender of Granada, in 1492, more than eighteen years had
elapsed since the announcement of the design, the greatest part of
which had been consumed in applications to various sovereigns,
poverty, neglect, ridicule, contumely, and the heart-sickness of hope
deferred, all that hitherto had come of it. Five years later, when
preparations were afoot for his third voyage, we read that, "so
wearied and disheartened did he become by the impediments thrown in
his way," that he thought of abandoning his discoveries
altogether.--_Jacox._
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
In his analysis of "the immediate emotions," Dr. Thomas Brown adverts
to that weariness of mind which one would so gladly exchange for
weariness of body, and which he takes to be more difficult to bear
with good humour than many profound griefs, because it involves the
uneasiness of hope that is renewed every moment, to be every moment
disappointed. He supposes a day's journey along one continuous
avenue, where the uniformity of similar trees at similar distances is
of itself most wearisome; but what we should feel with far more
fretfulness would be the constant disappointment of our expectation,
that the last tree that we beheld in the distance would be the last
that should rise upon us; when "tree after tree, as if in mockery of
our very patience itself, would still continue to present the same
dismal continuity of line." Lord Bolingbroke, a professed expert in
its power to weary and wear out, called suspense the only
insupportable misfortune of life.--_Jacox._
The rule, as expressed in the first clause, is universal, but in the
second clause it is applied to a particular case. . . . The second
member is a dividing word. The accomplishment of the desire is "a
tree of life." This belongs only to the hope of the holy. Many, after
waiting long and expecting eagerly, discover, when at last they reach
their object, that it is a withered branch and not a living tree.
When a human heart has been set on perishable things, after the
sickness of deferred expectation comes the sorer sickness of satiated
possession. If the world be made the portion of the immortal Spirit,
to want it is one sickness, to have it is another. The one is a
hungry mouth empty, the other is a hungry mouth filled with chaff.
The clog of disappointed possession is a more nauseous sickness than
the aching of disappointed desire. There is no peace to the wicked.
They are always either desiring or possessing; but to desire and to
possess a perishable portion are only two different kinds of misery
to men. They are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. You stand
on the shore, and gaze on the restless waters. A wave is hastening
on, struggling and panting, and making with all its might for the
shore. It seems as if all it wanted was to reach the land. It reaches
the land, and disappears in a hiss of discontent. Gathering its
strength at a distance, it tries again, and again, with the same
result. It is never satisfied, it never rests. In the constitution of
the world, under the government of the Most Holy, when a soul's
desire is set on unworthy objects, the accomplishment of the desire
does not satisfy the soul.--_Arnot._
Aquinas noteth that hope in itself causeth joy, it is by accident
that it causeth sorrow. Inasmuch as it is a present apprehension of
good to come, it breedeth delight, but as it wanteth the presence of
that good, it bringeth trouble. It is therefore the delay of hope
that afflicteth. And indeed a lingering hope breedeth in the heart as
it were a lingering consumption. It is a long child-bearing travail
of a weak mind, for hope having conceived comfort is still in labour,
until it be brought forth. So it is with the servants of God with
respect to heaven. They having begun in hope their journey
thitherward, it makes them even _sick at heart_ to think how long it
is until they can get there. Wherefore, St. Gregory saith, the
punishments of the innocent are the desires of the righteous. For all
having lost heaven by sin, even the just are punished with the
_deferred hope_ of recovering it.--_Jermin._
Here is instruction--+I. To hope for nothing but that which is
haveable, and may well be had, and whereof we are capable, and that
doth belong unto us.+ For if protraction cause the heart to languish,
what will frustration and disappointment? It is one of the
threatenings against the wicked in Deuteronomy, that _"their sons and
their daughters shall be given unto another people, and their eyes
should look for them until they fail, and there shall be no might in
their hand"_ (chap xxviii. 32). Now what is meant by this is that
their expectation deceived should turn them to as much woe as if
their eyes had lost their sight. And that was because that they,
incurring the curse by their sinful behaviour, did yet presume of a
restitution to happiness as though nothing had appertained to them
but blessings. +II. Not to limit God or prescribe to Him in what
space He shall fulfil His promise.+ It was a heathenish speech of the
King of Israel's messenger, when he said, in blasphemous manner, that
he neither _would_ nor _ought to attend on the Lord any longer_
(2 Kings vi. 33). But we need not draw admonitions against this from
the infidelity of the wicked, but from the infirmities of the godly,
as Abraham and Sarah had much ado to believe that a child should be
gotten and conceived of their body after their natural vigour was
consumed, and, therefore, Hagar was brought in to help the matter.
+III. Not to depend on man, nor to repose our hope in flesh and
blood.+ For thereby we shall not only be delayed of our help too
long, but defeated of it altogether. For it is a righteous thing with
God, that they who will deify creatures with confidence, should be
deceived by creatures with confusion. The poor Israelites found and
felt this (Lam. iv. 17). +IV. Where we undertake to minister succour,
not to grieve the hearts of them that are in affliction by lingering
too long before we relieve them.+ God doth teach us to show
beneficence timely and in due season (chap. iii. 28). This was one
testimony of a good conscience that comforted Job in his extremities,
that "he had not held the poor from their desire nor caused the eyes
of the widow to fail" (Job xxxi. 16).--_Dod._
Hope's hours are full of eternity; and how many see we languishing at
hope's hospital, as he at the pool of Bethesda! Hope unfailable (Rom.
v. 5) is founded upon faith unfeigned. The desire will come to those
who patiently wait on God; for waiting is but hope and trust
lengthened. We are apt to antedate the promises and set God at a time
as they (Jer. viii. 20) who looked for salvation in summer at
furthest. We are short-breathed, short-spirited. But as God seldom
comes at our time, so he never fails at His own, and then He is most
sweet, because most seasonable.--_Trapp._
The fourth verse has said that "the sluggard desireth, and hath
nothing." This verse declares that longing, accompanied by
procrastination, _enfeebles the heart;_ but that a bold plunging
after the good, and attaining it, is a "tree of life." This, dimly,
is true in worldly affairs. A man who desires some worldly good and
wavers, enfeebles his heart, but he who will dash boldly in
strengthens it. . . . The least taste of arrived-at desire in the
spiritual world, like the apples of Eden, breeds "life." The soul
will go on after that eternally.--_Miller._
If Jacob serve the churl Laban seven years longer, if he think he
shall have Rachel at the end of it, it will be but as seven days.
Thus it is that the hope of better days sweeteneth the present
sadness of any outward condition. There is no grief so heavy, but if
a man tie heaven at the end of it, it will become light, but put them
together, and the one will be swallowed up in the other.--_Spencer._
The world dares say no more of its devices than _Dum spiro spero_
(while I breathe, I hope); but the children of God can add by virtue
of their living hope, _Dum expiro spero_ (while I expire, I
hope).--_Leighton._
Hope is the hunger that makes our food acceptable; but hope deferred,
like hunger prolonged, brings a kind of torture. . . . With the child
of God "the patience of hope" issues in "the full assurance of hope."
What was it to Abraham, when, after long deferred hope, the answer
came? Laughter. What was it when the Lord turned again the captivity
of Zion, and they were like unto them that dream? What was it to old
Simeon and the waiting remnant when "the _desire_ of all nations"
_came?_ What to the disciples, when, at the manifestation of their
risen Lord, their _sickening hearts_ believed not for joy, and
wondered? . . . But what will be the joy at the great consummation of
hope? (Rom. viii. 23-25).--_Bridges._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 13.
BOUND BY LAW.
The literal translation of the first clause of this verse is "Whoso
despiseth the law is bound by it," or "is in bonds to it" (see
Critical Notes).
+I. Divine law is a necessity of human nature.+ There must be a
standard of right and wrong for moral and responsible creatures, and
the law which is that standard ought to be appreciated in proportion
to its perfection. Law in a family is a necessity for its right
regulation, and in proportion as it approaches perfection it will
meet the needs of its members. 1. The law of God is a necessity, in
order to educate man's moral sense. The human conscience sometimes
lies buried under ignorance, or is passive in the hands of lawless
desire, and it needs the law to arouse it to perform its proper
functions, and thus prepare men for a Saviour. "Christ," says Paul,
"is the end of the law." It arouses men to feel their need of His
atonement. 2. It is needed as a basis of punishment and reward. There
are some actions upon which men, by almost universal consent, pass
judgment, and their judgment is embodied in their law, and thus forms
a basis of conviction for the transgressor. And there are other
actions which, by the same consent, are allowed to deserve reward,
and that universal consent forms a kind of law. So the holy, just,
and true law of God is needed as a standard by which men's actions
may be judged.
+II. Whether men honour or despise the law they are bound by it.+
There is no place and there are no circumstances in this world in
which men are not bound by _physical_ law. Every man finds that if he
would have health he must inhale pure air. No man can afford to
despise this law, but whether he do so or not, it will hold him in
bonds. He must obey it if he would have health, to disobey may be
death. If a moving object is coming to meet us, if it has more force
in it than we have, we shall be overthrown by it if we do not get out
of its path. We may do as we please about meeting it, but we cannot
be loosed from the law which governs it. These laws of our earthly
life may not be universal laws, they are doubtless many of them
confined to our present state of being, but the moral law of God is
in force throughout the universe and there is no escape from it. What
is good here is good everywhere, what is morally right now can never
be wrong through all eternity. Whether men obey it or defy it, they
will be for ever bound by it.
+III. It is seen to be a good law by the results of keeping it.+ "He
that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded," or "shall be at
peace." Even when men violate physical law they do not pronounce it
bad. But it is seen to be good by its effects on those who keep it.
Men who obey the laws of health recommend those laws in their own
persons. Those who acknowledge the binding nature of Divine law and
fear it, recommend it to others as good. "Great peace have they that
love Thy law and nothing shall offend them" (Psa. cxix. 165).
Self-love binds men to obey it. "Whoso breaketh" this "hedge, a
serpent shall bite him" (Eccles. x. 8). The whole Bible is an
exposition of this text. (See Homiletics on verse 6.)
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
The slave _fears_ the penalty; the child _the
commandment._--_Bridges._
In many things we offend all, but we are not all despisers of the
Word of God. Good men have reason to lament their manifold breaches
of the commandment, and yet they have a sincere love and esteem for
it.--_Lawson._
Whatever comes with Divine authority is a Divine commandment. The
Gospel is on this as well as other accounts called the "law of
faith," being the _Divine prescription_ for the salvation of
sinners.--_Wardlaw._
This word has a private and personal, as well as a public
application; but it is in the providential government of the nations
that its truth has been most conspicuously displayed. The kingdoms of
this world in these days prosper or pine in proportion as they honour
or despise God's Word. . . . Number the nations over one by one, and
see where property is valuable and life secure; mark the places where
you would like to invest your means and educate your family; you will
shun some of the sunniest climes on earth, as if they lie under a
polar night, because the light of truth has been taken from their
sky. Traverse the world in search of merely human good, seeking but
an earthly home, and your tent, like Abraham's, will certainly be
pitched at "the place of the altar."--_Arnot._
The more we despise the law, the more we are bound by it. "But he
that fears." This is a splendid picture of the Christian. He is not
one that keeps the law, but "fears" it, _i.e.,_ tries to keep it,
fears it with a godly fear, and as a climax, frequent in a second
clause (see chap. xiv. 11 and _passim_), he is not one who comes
simply less under bonds, but is forgiven altogether.--_Miller._
The word of Divine revelation is here, as it were, personified as a
real superhuman power, whose service one cannot escape, and in
default of this he comes into bondage to it, _i.e._, loses his
liberty.--_Lange's Commentary._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 14.
LIVING BY RULE.
+I. The wise man lives by rule or according to law.+ "The law of the
wise." Wherever there is any _force_ or _power_ there must be rule,
or there will be destruction _from_ the power and possibly
destruction _to_ the power. The power that sets in motion the
locomotive must be governed by law, or it will destroy the driver and
that to which it was intended to give motion. Under the guidance of
law it will minister to man's convenience, left to itself it will
injure him and put an end to itself. Power is lodged within the hand
of every human being which may be used to bless himself and others,
but in order that it may do so it must act in accordance with some
law, it must have some rule for its guidance. Nothing on earth is so
powerful for good or for evil as a human soul, because its power is
exercised in the domain of spirit, but without rule it cannot
exercise its power for the good of others, and will even destroy all
its capabilities of working good to itself. Where men live without a
rule of life there is power without law, and this must work evil and
not good. It is the characteristic of a morally wise man that all his
powers of mind and soul are under control, he has them well in hand.
+II. Living by rule gives distinctness and definiteness to life, and
thus augments its power.+ The chaff that is lifted from the sieve by
the wind has no definite destination, it is entirely at the mercy of
the breeze to carry it anywhere that it pleases. How different is the
course of the eagle out in the storm wind! He moves by rule, either
facing or cleaving the blast, or utilising its force to bring him to
his destination. The vessel that has no hand to hold the rudder is
bound for no special port. The sea will take her somewhere, either
before or after she has gone to pieces; but it is very uncertain to
which point of the compass she will be carried. How different is the
steady ploughing of the waves by the ship whose head is under the
rule of the helmsman. There is a definiteness in her path, which
shows that she has one point to make, one port in view. Those who
live without rule are "like the chaff which the wind driveth away."
The blasts of passion, the current of outside circumstances, carry
them whithersoever they list. But the wise man lives under a law by
which those winds are rendered powerless to drive him, and are made
to carry him forward in the path which he is treading. The man
without a rule is a vessel without a rudder, and is destined,
finally, to be washed upon the shore of eternity a wreck. The very
gait of the child of wisdom indicates that he is bound for a certain
destination. By the way in which he guides his bark he shows that he
has a port to make upon the sea of life. And this definiteness is
always about him, whether he is in solitude or among the multitude.
He lives by rule, in the private recesses of his soul (see on chap.
xii. 5), and this enables him to rule his outward life. He finds that
the rule which governs his private life is strong enough to keep him
in public. The power of the multitude is not strong enough to
overmaster the power that is resident in his single will, because
that will is under a rule which gives it definiteness; and,
therefore, increases its force of resistance. Elijah is a fine
example of such a man. He was a man emphatically whose whole forceful
nature was under Divine rule. Whether he was in the wilderness or
upon Mount Carmel he was in subjection to the law of his God, and
this made him a man whose life was possessed with one definite aim
and purpose. Hence the mighty wave of opposition with which he was
met had no more power to move him than the ocean has to move the
solid rock. So with his great antitype, John the Baptist. He lived by
rule as much when alone in the desert as he did when he was in the
midst of the multitude; and, therefore, neither their applause or
blame, nor Herod's outburst of rage, had any power to change his
pre-determined course. Hence the question of Him who declared the
Baptiser to be the "greatest born of woman." "What went ye out in the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind," implying that he was
no reed bending to every blast, but a storm-resisting cedar, which
amid the uproar of the storm holds its own, and comes out of it more
firmly rooted and grounded by the power of the elements which it has
resisted. This is the inevitable consequence of living by rule. The
unruled though mighty locomotive wastes and loses its power in
destroying, that which is under the guidance of law preserves and
increases it. A lawless man possesses a terrible capacity for
destruction; but his power diminishes, even while he exercises it,
while he who is under Divine rule grows stronger and stronger. Sin
weakens a man, goodness increases his power.
+III. Snares are laid to turn men's power into a wrong channel--to
bring their lives under the dominion of lawlessness.+ There are
"snares of death" set to entrap men's feet. The aim of every tempter,
whether human or Satanic, is to lead men to abuse that power which
God has put into our hands in giving us a will. This being the
supreme force in a human soul, it is the great aim of the devil that
it should not be "subject to the law of God." His aim in Eden was to
loose the bonds which had hitherto held it firm to the Divine
command. The end of the temptation was, and has always been concealed
under a specious pretence of freedom, hence it is a _snare._ It is a
_snare of death,_ because, as we have seen, power without rule
destroys itself and others. As soon as Eve had fallen into the snare
of the devil, she began to know what it was to be under the dominion
of sin--she was conscious of having lost her hold upon herself, and
of having set in motion within her spirit a mighty power of evil. The
great aim of Satan in his temptation of Christ was to get His will to
exercise its power, if only for a moment, in antagonism to the will
of His Father. If the devil could have prevailed upon the Saviour to
have but created a loaf of bread to satisfy His hunger, he would have
succeeded in getting Him to use His Divine power in a manner which
would not have been in accordance with the purpose or plan of God.
The same aim is seen in each temptation under different forms, to
endeavour to lead the Son of God to free Himself by His Divine power
from the law of His Father. But the snare was avoided in each
instance by close adherence to the words of the law. "It is written"
is a sure preservative from the snares of death.
+IV. The rule by which the morally wise are governed is--+First,
_Abundant._ It is a _fountain._ A fountain is supplied from a living
spring--a never-failing source--and it therefore yields an unfailing
supply of water for men of all classes and conditions whenever they
need it. The Divine rule which governs the gild of wisdom originated
in God. The fountain of Divine truth came from this Holy and
Infinite spring. Therefore it is an all-sufficient guide or rule of
life for men in all ages, and under all circumstances.
Secondly--_Lifegiving._ It is a "fountain of life." By being the
conserver and strengthener of his spiritual power, as we saw under
the first head, and by being the means of his escape from the great
soul-ensnarer. Allowed to flow through the garden of the soul, and
exert there its due influence, it produces fruit unto holiness, and
the end everlasting life (Rom. vi. 22). _The law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing
the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the
eyes. . . . Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping
of them there is great reward_ (Psalm xix. 7-11). This was the
testimony of one who had drunk long and deeply of the waters of this
life-giving fountain.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is in the
bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in
heaven and earth do her homage; the very least, as feeling her care,
and the greatest, as not exempt from her power, both angels and men,
and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort
and manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the mother
of peace and joy.--_Hooker._
The holy instructions of a wise man are to be valued in this world.
There is a living virtue in the world of truth, even when earthen
pipes are the channel of its conveyance.--_Lawson._