Chapter XIV · (continued 2)

What a world of sound theology lies in the deliverance of this verse—telling us much how the rewards and punishments of the Divine administration lie in the subjective state, apart from the objective circumstances.—Chalmers.

Good men know within themselves that they have in heaven a better and more enduring substance (Heb. x. 34); within themselves, they know it not in others, not in books, but in their own experience and apprehension. They can feelingly say that “in doing God's will”—not only for doing it, or after it was now done, but even while they were doing it—“there was great reward” (Psa. xix. 11). Righteousness is never without a double joy to be its strength: “Joy in hand and in hope, in present possession and in certain reversion” (Bernard).—Trapp.

All engineering proceeds upon the principle of reaching great heights or depths by almost imperceptible inclines. The adversary of men works by this will. When you see a man who was once counted a Christian standing shameless on a mountain-top of impiety, or lying in the miry pit of vice, you may safely assume that he has long been worming his way in secret on the spiral slimy track by which the old serpent marks and smooths the way to death. . . . Whatever the enormity it may end in, backsliding begins in the heart. . . . There is a weighing beam exposed to public view, with one scale loaded and resting on the ground, while the other dangles high and empty in the air. Everybody is familiar with the object, and its aspect. One day curiosity is arrested by observing the low and loaded beam is swinging aloft, while the side which hung empty and light has sunk to the ground. Speculation is set on edge by the phenomenon, and at rest again by the discovery of its cause. For many days certain diminutive but busy insects had, for some object of their own, been transferring the material from the full to the empty scale. Day by day the sides approached an equilibrium, but no change took place in their position. At last a grain more removed from one side and laid in the other reversed the preponderance, and produced the change. There is a similar balancing of good and evil in the human heart. The sudden outward change proceeds from a gradual inward preparation.—Arnot.

Every man, both good and bad, shall feel himself sufficiently recompensed for his service.—Dod.

“A good man shall be satisfied from himself.” I. He can bear his own company, his own thoughts. What is it that makes solitude so irksome to mankind? They cannot bear reflection. . . . Generally, we know, all is not right. Men do not like to look steadily at themselves, because, like the bankrupt tradesman who dreads striking a balance, they have a secret suspicion that their lives will not bear a rigid scrutiny. . . . The good man does not fear to probe his wound to the bottom. II. He is independent, as other men are not, of earthly vicissitudes. Men who have their portion here are never safe. The world is a disappointing world, but the good man’s eyes are opened to the glories of a better. . . . It is a doomed world, but his treasure is safe. . . . Let other men be suddenly driven from the pleasures, occupations, and companions with which habit has made them familiar, and they are like shipwrecked voyagers whose wealth has all gone down in the vessel in which they sailed. He is like a man who has escaped to shore with a casket of jewels in which his whole fortune is invested. III. He stands for judgment, not at the world’s bar, but at the tribunal of his own conscience. “It is a small thing,” said St. Paul, “that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment.” Was he, then, a morose man who cared nothing about his neighbours? No, but his conscience was ruled by God’s law, and in the very act of submitting himself to Christ as the Lord of his life and soul, he became comparatively independent of all besides.—J. H. Gurney.

main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses 15–18.

Revelations of Character.

I. Four marks of a foolish man. When a piece of ground is left to itself—left in the hand of nature alone, without the intervention of the hand of man—there will be a variety in its productions, but there will be no wheat—no grain to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. When human nature is left to itself there will of necessity be a variety in its productions, but, however unlike they may be in many respects, they are all alike in this, that they are equally unprofitable to God and injurious to man. We have here—1. The man who believes too much in others. “The simple believeth every word.” It is possible to have too much faith. The blessedness of having it in abundance depends entirely upon the foundation upon which it rests—upon the object in which a man trusts—in the person in whom he believes. Those who have faith in the words of men and women of worthless character—like the young man of chap. vii. 7—will find their ruin will be in proportion to the confidence. We stigmatise as a fool the man who shows his purse to any wayfarer whom he meets upon the high road; we know that his fellow-traveller may be only seeking a fitting time and place to rob him. In this world of fallen men and women we must withhold our faith until we have some knowledge. There are many now in the world whose foolish credulity has led to the other extreme of universal scepticism. From believing everybody and everything they have come to believe nothing, and to brand “all men” as “liars.” He who begins by being a “simple one,” and believeth every word, will most likely end in being a disbeliever and a scoffer. We are not required to believe in God without ground for our belief. He does not demand from us an unreasoning credulity, but an intelligent faith. 2. The man who believes too much in himself. He “rages,” or is presumptuous, and is “confident.” As the foolishness of the first man took the form of over-confidence in others, so this man shows his want of wisdom by undue confidence in himself. (On this character see Homiletics on chap. xii. 15, page 271.) 3. The man who is easily offended. Such a man reveals his folly by the insignificance of the matters which generally arouse his passion. The man who is “soon angry” is generally more angry about trifles than about things of importance. A parent who is easily vexed by his children’s transgressions is generally more severe in punishing those that really least deserve punishment. Such a person does not take into account the amount of moral wrong done, but the amount of immediate and personal inconvenience which he suffers. For if a man is “soon angry” he has no time to put things in their right light—to weigh the offence in the balance of right and of reason. The man who is soon angry shows that his mind is not filled with high and noble aspirations; if it were, there would be no room for vexation at small offences. God is “slow to anger,” because only things worthy of His notice can arouse it—because He is filled with high and holy purposes of good towards the human race. (See also on chap. xii. 16, page 272.) 4. The man who, by wicked plots against his fellow-men, incurs their hatred. This man possesses more mental activity than the others. But he uses it against himself, because he uses it against his fellow-men. “He is of wicked devices,” and “is hated.” A man cannot devise plans of evil any more than of good without mental labour. Probably Satan is the most active creature in the universe. He is ever “going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it.” And many of his human children imitate him in this respect. This man has not the simplicity of him who “believeth every word,” nor of him who haughtily rejects the counsel of others, nor of him who allows his feelings to carry him away. He sets about his plans with cool deliberateness, but he is a fool for all that. He is a fool, because, as we have seen over and over again, his plans of wickedness will not only fail, but will overthrow himself (see chap. xii. 3, 5 and 7). But the special element of foolishness in the man of wicked devices which is here noted is that his way of life is sure to bring him the hatred of his fellow-creatures. No man can afford to set at nought the good-will of his fellow-men. To be an object of universal execration is only the lot of a man who lives to injure others, and it is a very poor investment of life to put it to a use which will only bring such interest.

II. The marks of a wise man. 1. He walks through life with caution. To say that a man “looketh well to his going” is only saying that he acts like a rational and responsible creature. Even the animals, in obedience to the instinct of self-preservation, look to their goings, and avoid many dangers which beset them. The smaller birds, though apparently flying about without any care, have a quick eye for the hawk soaring above them, or for the cat crouching beneath. All creatures, whether brutes or men, instinctively look to their goings so far as regards their bodily life. The traveller on a dangerous road instinctively picks his way—does not set down his foot without looking to see where there is firm ground to tread upon. The man whose lot is cast in a city where a pestilence is raging naturally takes all possible precautions to avoid the infection. A mariner does his best to guide his vessel clear of rocks and quicksands. The prudent man extends this caution to every act of his life. As a merchant, he weighs probabilities before he embarks in any enterprise. He does not enter into speculations as men engage in a game of billiards. He considers the results of his actions in relation to others as well as to himself. Above all, he looks to his goings in relation to their morality; he frames his life, as we have before seen (chap. xiii. 14), according to the law of God within him in his conscience, and without him, in the revealed word. 2. He walks thus cautiously because he recognises moral danger. He “fears.” This makes all the difference in the lives of men. Some recognise the fact that they are in a world full of moral pit-falls and rocks which will be their ruin unless they take heed to their ways, and others do not. Some know the moral atmosphere is laden with moral pestilence, but others do not discern its impurity. The wise man “departs from evil” as he would involuntarily turn aside if he saw a deadly serpent lying in his path, or would parry a sword-thrust made at him by an adversary. His main business is, not to take care of his life, but of his character.

III. The respective reward of the wise and foolish. The first are crowned by an increase of knowledge, the second have an inheritance; but it is only to be given over to their foolishness. The wise man’s moral sense becomes more developed “by reason of use” it is more and more able “to discern good and evil” (Heb. v. 14). He is more and more removed from that simplicity which “believeth every word”—he can “try the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John iv. 1), while the foolish man is more and more the dupe of his own credulity, or of his own self-conceit, and becomes more and more the slave of uncontrolled passion.

illustration of verse 17.

Socrates, meeting a gentleman of rank in the street, saluted him, but the gentleman took no notice of it. His friends, observing what passed, told the philosopher that they were so exasperated at the man’s incivility that they had a good mind to resent it. But he calmly made answer, “If you meet any person in the road in a worse habit of body than yourself would you think you had reason to be enraged with him on that account. Pray, then, what greater reason can you have for being incensed at a man for a worse habit of mind than any of yourselves?”

outlines and suggestive comments.

Verse 15. He who applies himself to wisdom takes heed of his own ways, foreseeing dangers, preparing remedies, employing the assistance of the good, guarding himself against the wicked, cautious in entering on a work, not unprepared for a retreat, watchful to seize opportunities, strenuous to remove impediments, and attending to many other things which concern the government of his own actions and proceedings. But the other kind of wisdom is entirely made up of deceits and cunning tricks, laying up all its hope in the circumventing of others, and moulding them to its pleasure, which kind verse 8 denounces as being not only dishonest, but also foolish.—Lord Bacon.

“The simple believeth every word,” whether true or false, useful or injurious. Charity, indeed, “believeth all things” (1 Cor. xiii. 7), but not things that are palpably untrue. It is the truth which it readily believes. It believes all that it can with a good conscience to the credit of another, but not anything more. Epicharmus says, “The sinews and limbs of faith are not rashly to believe” (Acts xvii. 11). “The prudent man looketh well to his going”—whether it tends to grace and salvation, or to sin and perdition; he “believeth not every word”—as, for instance, the flattering words of seducers, who commend to him false doctrine or licentious practice (Eph. v. 15).—Fausset.

We may apply the verse in all its emphasis of meaning to eternal concerns. The simple hear different persons on the subject of religion, and take for granted that all they hear is right. They are easily bewildered by sophistical arguments; led away by appeals to feeling; swayed and mastered by false eloquence; seduced by flattery. They are the sport of all that is novel—“tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” On the contrary, when interests so vast are at stake the prudent man will feel his way, taking nothing upon trust. He first bends his earnest thought to the question of the Divine authority of the Bible—a question next in importance to that of the being of God; and having ascertained its authority, to learn its lessons. Having the map he will examine for himself the way to heaven. Having a Divine directory, he will trust no human guide.—Wardlaw.

History is full of examples of men who have lost their lives by means of their credulity, amongst whom were those great men, Abner and Amasa. . . . Some have been betrayed into the worst of sins, by believing groundless reports of others, as Saul in the case of David, and we might also add, David himself in the case of Mephibosheth. The nation of the Jews was threatened with desolation by the easy temper of Ahasuerus, who believed without examination the malicious suggestions of the wicked Haman. . . . The whole world was ruined by the simplicity of Eve, and the easy credit she gave the serpent.—Lawson.

To believe every word of God is faith. To believe every word of man is credulity. Admit only the one standard; like the noble Bereans, who would not believe even an apostle’s word, except it was confirmed by the written testimony (Acts xvii. 11).—Bridges.

We are not willing to be blindfolded at our meat, nor to eat our supper without a light, especially in strange places, where we neither know well the fidelity of our host, nor what dishes are set before us, and shall we be more provident for the outward man, than for the inward? Shall we keep out of our bodies such food as is not wholesome and savoury, and receive into our souls such food as will poison us? . . . No wrong is thus done to any man. We used to tell silver and weigh gold, and yet we prejudge not them at whose hands we receive them.—Dod.

Trust is a lovely thing, but it cannot stand unless it get truth to lean on. . . . It is a well-known characteristic of the little child to believe implicitly whatever you tell him. . . . It remains a feature of the child until it is worn off by hard experience of the world. . . . In this world a man is obliged to be suspicious. Man suffers more from man than from the elements of nature or the beasts of the field. A time is coming when this species of prudence will be no longer needed. When the people shall be all righteous, there will be no deception on one side, and no distrust on the other.—Arnot.

A prudent man looks forward to the consequences of things, and particularly to the consequences of his own conduct. O, how much misery and mischief might be avoided or prevented by attending only to this single principle, for what are most of the calamities we see in the world owing to but this—that men will not look before them? To the want of this wise foresight Moses attributed all the rebellions and enormities of the Jewish people, and therefore breathed forth this ardent prayer on their behalf, “Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end” (Deut. xxxii. 29).—Mason.

Verse 16. The “evil” from which the “wise man departeth” may mean either suffering or sin. Both may with propriety be included, the one being the cause of the other.—Wardlaw.

Fear is sometimes thought to be an unmanly principle. But look at the terrible extent of the evil dreaded. Without it is vanity and disappointment (Rom. vi. 21). Within it is the sting of guilt (1 Cor. xv. 56). Upward we see the frown of God (John iii. 36). Downward everlasting burnings (Mark ix. 44). . . . The fool, however, never fears till he falls. . . . Such a fool was the raging Assyrian, blindly confident in his own might, till the God whom he despised turned him back to his destruction (2 Kings xix. 28–37).—Bridges.

He (the good man) can never trust in himself, though he is satisfied from himself (verse 14). He knows that his sufficiency is of God; and the fear that causes him to depart from evil is a guardian to the love he feels. Love renders him cautious; the other makes him feel confident. His caution leads him from sin, his confidence leads him to God.—A. Clarke.

They which are in greatest safety are farthest from carnal security. The godly have not so many sins as the wicked, and yet they feel them more, and fear them more, and flee from them faster. And the wicked have not more valour than the godly nor so much freedom from punishment, and yet go beyond them in audacity and fleshly confidence. When David was dealt with by Nathan, he confessed his fault, he craved pardon, he set his heart to seek help from heaven against his sin; but when Ahab was spoken to by Macaiah, he persecuted the prophet, he proceeded in his purpose, he promised himself a safe return. Josiah, hearing the law of the Lord read by Shaphan, rent his clothes in grief and fear, but Jehoiakim hearing the words of God read by Baruch, in regard of the curses therein denounced, did tear the book and burn it in wrath and fury.—Dod.

A wise man knows that the enemy is strong, and that his own defences are feeble. His policy therefore is, not to brave danger, but to keep out of harm’s way. He seeks safety in flight. The fool’s character is mainly made up of two features; he thinks little of danger and much of himself. He stumbles on both sides alike. That which is strong he despises, and that which is weak he trusts. The dangers that beset him are great, but he counts them as nothing; the strength that is in him is as nothing, but he counts it great. Thus he is on all hands out of his reckoning, and stumbles at every step.—Arnot.

As a foolish fear is a betrayer of the strength of man, so a wise fear is the safety of him. Wherefore Cyprian saith, the Divine wisdom hath found out an excellent policy that by the help of fear we should be delivered. Great is the benefit of God’s providence, that sometimes fear is made both a virtue and a victory. A wise man departeth from evil before he cometh to it, for then the parting, as most easily, so is most happily made.—Jermin.

Fear a religious principle. The beginning of religion in the heart is a subject of curious inquiry and of great practical importance. There is no sufficient reason for supposing that it is in all men alike, we have no rule for saying that religion must either necessarily, or that it does usually proceed from the same cause. Different men are affected by different motives; and what sinks deep into the heart of one, makes little impression upon another. . . . Thus it is, that religion sometimes, not seldom indeed, has a violent origin in the soul, and begins in terror: “A wise man feareth and departeth from evil.”—Paley.

Verse 17. Some pettish spirits are like fine glasses, broken as soon as touched, and all on fire upon every slight and trifling occasion; when meek and grave spirits are like flints that do not send out a spark but after violent and great collision; feeble minds have a habit of wrath, and, like broken bones, are apt to roar with the least touch: it argues a very unsanctified spirit to be so soon moved. Let it be like the fire of thorns, quickly extinct.—Salter.

As small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is too much intent upon them; they vex and stir up anger, which begets an evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs.—Plutarch.

A man who falls into a passion does indeed commit a folly, but yet is far preferable to the coldly and selfishly calculating villain.—Von Gerlach.

“A man of wicked devices,” one, who when offended, represses the indications of his anger, all the while meditating revenge, and waiting for the opportunity when he can wreak it. As “he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly” as regards himself, so he that wickedly deviseth revenge, while deferring the expression of his anger, bringeth on him the “hatred” of others. Thus there is danger on both sides, in hastiness, and in deferring anger through malice. The latter is the worst offence.—Fausset.

The more hot-pulsed sinner may be lost; but the deep-set fool excels him both in guilt and danger. Alas! for the well-complexioned, coolly-settled, morally-esteemed, and long-established hypocritical professor. It is not all thinking that this book applauds, but that which is discriminate, the watching of our feet.—Miller.

Though religion alloweth to be angry, yet it forbiddeth to be soon angry, because he that is soon angry is as soon dealing foolishly. The haste of his choler maketh him to outrun his understanding, and the smoke of his anger putteth out the light of his judgment.—Jermin.

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others upon ourselves.—Pope.

As fine gold doth suffer itself to be tried in the fire six or seven times, and yet the heat of the fire doth never change its nature or colour; or as good corn is first threshed with the flail, and then winnowed with the wind, and yet is neither broken with the one nor carried away with the other; even so we should suffer ourselves to be tried by injuries, and yet not by impatience, through anger, change our nature, nor yet our colour, nor be carried away with any inconvenience.—Cawdray.

Verse 18. This proverb is especially instructive with respect to the deep inner connection that exists on the one hand between foolish notions, and a poor, unattractive, powerless earthly position, destitute of all influence,—and on the other hand between true wisdom and large ability in the department both of the material and the spiritual. Von Gerlach pointedly says, “There is a certain power of attraction, according as a man is wise or foolish; the possessions also which the one or the other attains are in accordance with his disposition.”—Lange’s Commentary.

The child of Adam is born to folly (Job xi. 12). That is his inheritance. He received it from his first father (Gen. v. 3; Psa. li. 5). So long as he remains simple, he confirms the title. Unlike an earthly inheritance, he cannot relinquish it. He holds it in life, he still holds it firm in death, and reaps its bitter fruits throughout eternity.—Bridges.

The prudent has not inherited much at this present date. He has not much of the world. He has not much of another. How shall we express his excellence? He has this poor thing that he calls piety. Where is its worth to him? Why, its worth to him is that it is a splendid “crown.” He makes a crown of knowledge. That is, he takes his piety, which is a mean, weak beginning, and makes it the badge of a glorious sovereignty. The Christian is a king. And by this is meant, that, when he becomes pious, everything becomes subject to him (1 Cor. iii. 22).—Miller.

The world says that none dies without an heir: Religion says that none dies without an inheritance. Everyone dying in this world is heir to himself in the next world.—Jermin.

main homiletics of verse 19.

A Levelling Law.

I. This law is now manifest to the inner life of the wicked. If a wicked man has any sense of right and wrong, he is conscious of the superiority of the good man. There is an inward bowing down of the evil to the good which is as real, although invisible, as any outward bending of the person of one man before another. Indeed it is far more real than much outward homage. There are many outward and visible bendings and bowings which are mere matters of form, which are only made to keep up appearances. But the involuntary bowing of the evil man’s soul in the presence of the good man is a real act of homage, although there is in it an element of unwillingness. There is a compulsory consent, so to speak, of the man himself against himself. But this genuflexion of soul is no mere pretence.

II. The good man is also conscious of it. He knows that it is so because in the constitution of the universe good is made to rule evil, because the head of the one kingdom—the kingdom of evil—is compelled to acknowledge the authority of the head of the kingdom of good. His own moral consciousness tells him that it must be so, and he has the declaration of God to confirm it. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord” (Isa. liv. 17).

III. What has been occasionally manifested in the outward life, and what is always the inner experience, will one day be universally visible to all the universe. The revelation of God tells us that there will be a universally visible manifestation of the submission of the evil to the good. And our sense of justice demands that it should be so. A day will come when, at the name of Incarnate Goodness, “every knee shall bow” (Phil. ii. 10), and the servants will have a portion of like reverence. “The sons also of them that afflicted Thee shall come bending unto Thee; and all they that despised Thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of Thy feet” (Isa. lx. 14).—See also Rev. xx. 4. It is also revealed to us when this visible manifestation shall take place. “In the end of this world,” at the close of the present dispensation, “the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. . . . Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. xiii. 40–43). “For this manifestation of the sons of God” they wait with “earnest expectation;” “creation groans” for it; Christ Himself awaits it at “the right hand of God” (Heb. x. 12, 13; Rom. viii. 19–22).

outlines and suggestive comments.

At one time or another, in one respect or other, the ungodly serve and crouch to the godly. Sometimes they that fear the Lord are lifted up to honour, and then the evil men bow themselves before them. Sometimes, again, the righteous wax rich through God’s blessing on their labours, and then come the wicked to their gates for alms and relief. Not only the poor ones, but the great ones, who yet are wicked ones, seek and sue now and then with all submission to the godly for their counsel and help. And I cannot tell how, but such a majesty there is in the godly oftentimes, that most desperately wicked men reverence their faces, and are silent or courteous in their presence.—Muffet.

There is not the general rule in the present dispensation. Righteous Lazarus bowed at the rich man’s gate (Luke xvi. 20). . . . But “the upright shall have dominion over the wicked in the morning” (Psa. xlix. 14; Mal. iv. 1–3). “The saints shall judge the world” (1 Cor. vi. 2).—Bridges.

There have been instances in which this proverb was verified in a very remarkable manner. The Egyptians bowed down before Joseph, and Moses, and the Israelites. The proud king of Babylon almost worshipped the captive Daniel, and Elisha’s favour was solicited by three kings, one or two of whom were bad men.—Lawson.

The wicked serve the righteous; and whether they do it knowingly, they do it wholly, and through eternal ages.—Miller.

In times of worldly prosperity, and while the wicked flourish, there is none more lifted up in pride and bravery of outward shows than they are; there is none, then, less esteemed, and more despised, than the good and righteous are. They shall give long attendance before the gates give way to them, and when they are entered a proud eye shall mightily overlook them, a scornful language shall throw them down at their feet. Wherefore Augustine calleth riches wings, by which men in pride fly not only above others, but themselves also. But if the time alter, and either some storm of common calamity beat upon them, or else the hand of God privately seize on them, then none are more dejected than the wicked, none then more esteemed than the righteous are by them. Then their ways are to the gates of the righteous, and much bowing there is to entreat their prayers unto God, and to obtain help and comfort from them. Then Dives, but fearing hell only, already sees Lazarus in heaven, and fain would come unto him.—Jermin.

main homiletics of verses 20 and 21.

An Aggravated Crime, a Questionable Virtue, and a Present Blessing.

I. A fourfold sin. A man who despises or hates his neighbour sins—1. In the simple exercise of the feeling. Hatred, or even the act of despising another, is in itself a sin. Here we must distinguish between hatred of the person and hatred of his practices—between despising a man himself and despising his actions. God Himself hates and abhors evil character, but He makes a distinction between a man’s character and the man. To hate or to despise any human creature is devilish. 2. By hating or despising him for his poverty. Poverty is a calamity often—always a burden and a cross. It is that for which a man should be pitied, and on account of which he should receive the sympathy of his fellow-men. Poverty is a burden heavy enough in itself, to add to it in any way is diabolical. 3. Because he hates and despises his fellow-sufferer. It is not a man beneath him, of whose trials he is ignorant, but his neighbour, one with whom he is on a level. The proverb speaks of one poor man hating another. Cases are not uncommon in which men who have risen from poverty to wealth hate and despise the class from which they have risen even more than those do who were born to rank and wealth. And sometimes men who have risen are hated by those whom they have left behind in the race. But for a poor man to dislike and to despise another poor man for his poverty, is a most unnatural and aggravated crime. A common calamity generally makes men feel a kinship for each other. Those who partake of a common lot generally feel a common sympathy. The poor do not generally hate and despise the poor. The poor man who does commit this sin against his neighbour commits a double sin against himself, for he knows himself the trials of his poor brother, and, therefore, does not sin through ignorance or inconsiderateness. 4. Against God. God “putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Psalm lxxv. 7). It is His ordination that “the poor shall never cease out of the land” (Deut. xv. 11). They are His especial care (Psalm xii. 5, etc.), and He will count any addition to their burden as a wrong to Himself.

II. A questionable virtue. “The rich hath many friends.” Friendship with a rich man may spring from social equality. There is a natural tendency in men who are equals in anything to form friendships with each other. Men of the same moral standing do so, men of the same intellectual attainments are attracted to each other, and men who are equals in social rank and in wealth are, by the force of circumstances, often thrown into each other’s society, and so a friendship which is real may be formed. But it is a more questionable bond than that which unites men in the two first-mentioned cases. It may be only a counterfeit of the genuine article, and it is nothing more if wealth is the only bond. Friendships formed upon similarity of intellectual and moral wealth have a far firmer foundation, because they rest upon what is inseparable from the man himself, while friendship founded upon riches has for its foundation what may at any time take to itself wings and fly away. Or the friendship may be one of social inequality. A poor man may attach himself to a wealthy man. This, too, may be genuine. The friendship may be built upon something which both value more than wealth; but if the friendship of the rich with the rich is regarded with doubt, and requires adversity to test it, much more does the friendship of the poor for the rich. The proof of the genuineness of the metal is the fire, the proof of the seaworthiness of the vessel is the storm, and it is an universally recognised truth that the proof of friendship is power to come uninjured through the fire and storm of adverse circumstances.

III. A present blessedness. “He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.” 1. Happy because “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts xx. 35), because gladness always comes to the heart when an effort has been made to lighten another’s burden. 2. Happy in possessing the gratitude and confidence of his poor brother. 3. Happy because he wins the favour of God. (See on verse 31.)

illustration of verse 20.

The bees were haunting the flowering trees in crowds, humming among the branches, and gathering honey in the flowers. Said Gotthold, “Here is an image of temporal prosperity. So long as there is blossom on the trees, and honey in the blossom, the bees will frequent them in crowds, and fill the place with their music; but when the blossom is over, and the honey gone, they too will disappear.” Temporal gain is the world’s honey, and the allurement with which you may entice it whithersoever you will; but where the gain terminates, there likewise do the love and friendship of the world stop.

outlines and suggestive comments.

Verse 20. Alas! it is a mystery of knowledge to discern friends: “Wealth maketh many friends” (chap. xix. 4); they are friends to the wealth, not to the wealthy. They regard not qualis sis, but quantas, not how good thou art, but how great. They admire thee to thy face, but inwardly consider thee only a necessary evil, yea, a necessary devil. . . . Worldly friends are like hot water, that when cold weather comes, are soonest frozen. Like cuckoos all summer they will sing to thee, but they are gone in July at furthest; sure enough before the fall. They flatter a rich man, as we feed beasts, and then feed on him.—T. Adams.

How former friendship between two persons may be transformed into its opposite on account of the impoverishment of one of them, is impressively illustrated by our Lord’s parable of the neighbour who a friend asks for three loaves (Luke xi. 5–8).—Lange’s Commentary.

The same word in the original which signifieth a friend signifieth a neighbour also, because a neighbour should be a friend. But though a rich man has friends far and near, a poor man is hated even of his neighbour. He that best knoweth his wants and should most of all pity them, doth least regard him and use him worst. He that is nearest at hand to help him is farthest off from helping him. Wherefore the neighbourhood of men being so bad, God becometh his neighbour, and as it is in the Psalms (cix. 31). “He standeth at the right hand of the poor man to save him.”—Jermin.

Verse 21. The impenitent is the poorest among men; and he who neglects him, and lets him go on in his iniquity, of course, is a cruel sinner. “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that lead many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.” He who despises his neighbour “sins,” literally “misses,” “blunders.” He wastes a splendid opportunity, not only for his neighbour, but for himself. The appeal is to self, and is made more intense where, instead of “despising” our neighbour, we actually “devise evil” against him (See next verse).—Miller.

1. There is a sin against the arrangements of God’s providence. 2. Against the frequent and express commands of His Word (Deut. xv. 7–11; Luke xii. 33; xiv. 12–14). 3. Against the manifestations of His distinguishing love. God has not only avowed Himself jealous for the poor, but “to the poor the gospel is preached,” and of those who become the subjects of God’s grace, and heirs of glory, a large proportion belong to this class. 4. In the contempt of God’s threatened vengeance against all who neglect them, and of His promised special favour to all who treat them with kindness.—Wardlaw.

We show our contempt of the poor, not only by trampling upon them, but by overlooking them, or by withholding that help for which their distress loudly calls. The Levite and the priest that declined giving assistance to the wounded traveller on the way to Jericho, were notorious breakers of the law of love in the judgment of our Lord. The Samaritan was the only one that performed the duty of a neighbour.—Lawson.

Through the gate of beneficence doth the charitable man enter into the city of peace. . . . God makes some rich, to help the poor; and suffers some poor to try the rich. The loaden would be glad of ease: now charity lighteneth the rich man of his superfluous and wieldy carriage. When the poor find mercy they will be tractable; when the rich find quiet, they should be charitable. Would you have your goods kept in peace? First, lock them up by your prayers, then open them again with your thankful use, and trust them in the hands of Christ by your charity.—T. Adams.

He that hath mercy on the poor maketh the other’s misery to be his own happiness, and as the other is comforted by it, so is he blessed by it. Blessed he is by the poor and his prayers for him, blessed he is by God and His favours upon him. Tabitha had reached out her hand to give unto the poor, and Peter reached out his hand in delivering her from death. She had bestowed clothing on the poor, and life is bestowed upon her. Wherefore the exhortation of Chrysostom is, “those things which God hath given us, let us give Him again, that so with advantage they may be again made ours.”—Jermin.

main homiletics of verse 22.

A Fatal Error and a Certain Good.

I. The mistake of devisers of evil. 1. They err in relation to the success of their plans. They think that their wicked devices will succeed, so they would not go to the labour and trouble of devising them. But they make a fatal mistake, because they ignore another plan, which embraces theirs. They forget that there may be a circle of action outside their circle, which may circumvent all their schemes. A man may look at the sea from the lower deck of a vessel and think he can see all that is to be seen. But his thinking so would only prove him to be a fool. The man at the masthead can see much further. A traveller on a plain may have an extensive view, but he who is on the mountaintop takes in all that he can see, and much besides. So it is with the man who devises evil. He can see a little way before him and around him, he thinks, therefore, that he can take in the whole situation at a glance, and can see what is needful for him to do and what can be accomplished to bring his plans to pass. But there is more beyond; God takes a higher position and has a wider outlook. He takes in not only all that the wicked man has seen, but much that he does not see. “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong” (Job v. 13). The device of Haman was so well planned that it seemed to him certain of success. But Mordecai’s God had a plan which embraced and out-flanked that of the murderer. The device of Joseph’s brethren seemed to embrace all that was necessary to accomplish his ruin, but it was utilised by the righteous Ruler of the Universe to bring to pass his exaltation. The device of evil against the Divine Son of God is the most palpable instance that the universe has ever seen of the short-sighted error of wicked men. 2. He errs because he will meet with retribution in his own person. Human rulers are sometimes involved in much perplexity because, although they know that plots are being woven against their government, they are not only at a loss to find a plan by which to bring home the crime to the conspirators, but feel they have no force strong enough to punish them if they are convicted. But God is never at a loss either for means to defeat the purposes of those that devise evil, or to punish them for their devices. He is never driven, by want of power, to yield to those who oppose the good—who work iniquity. (See Homiletics on chap. xii. 12–14, page 268.)

II. The reward of devisers of good. “Mercy and truth.” 1. Even a deviser of good needs mercy. The very act of devising good sometimes brings a man to need mercy of his fellow-man. Daniel devised nothing but good to the king of Babylon, but his very uprightness made him an object of envy and brought him into a condition to need mercy. Or a deviser of good may err in judgment. The best intentioned man is liable to make mistakes. No human being, however benevolent his life, can claim to be exempt from moral infirmities which will sometimes mislead him. Every man therefore needs that his fellow creatures should mingle charity with their judgment of him and with their conduct towards him. And he always needs mercy from God. No saint of ancient or modern times has ever been beyond the need of God’s mercy, although their very name implies that they are devisers of good. 2. He equally needs truth. He needs to be able to depend upon the word of another, he needs a certainty of being justly dealt with. A man’s success in business largely depends upon his being able to rest upon the fair dealing of others. He wants truth in others to meet his own truthfulness—as he strives to deal justly, and to love mercy, so he desires to be dealt with justly as well as mercifully. 3. Both these needs shall be met. Sometimes by men, always by God. Experience and history furnish us with many exceptions to the first. Those men of God who have been most eminent devisers of good have often met with anything but mercy and truth from those whom they have desired to benefit. Ignorance or envy has risen up against them, and so the missionary has been slain by the club of the savage abroad, and the reformer has been made the mark of slanderous tongues at home. But everyone has found the testimony of the inspired Word to be true in his own experience: With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful. With an upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright (Psa. xviii. 25).

outlines and suggestive comments.

If wicked men employ their thoughts to contrive mischief, and show so much diligence in the service of sin, although they have such a miserable reward, let God’s people exercise the same diligence in the service of righteousness, by seeking out and seizing opportunities of doing good, and their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.—Lawson.

Scripture traces actions to principles. Wicked as it is to do evil, it is far more hateful to devise it (see verse 17). Devising evil, therefore, if it comes not to the act, shows the purpose (chap. xxiv. 8).—Bridges.

To him who lays himself out in planning and executing designs of benefit to others, there shall be “mercy and truth.” From his fellow-men he shall experience universal love and esteem. He shall find sympathy in his distresses and reverses, faithfulness in dealing (for if anything will secure a man from being cheated and defrauded, it will be a character for disinterested kindness), and the general exercise of practical gratitude. And the Lord will make him to experience His love, and will fulfil to him faithfully all His “precious promises.”—Wardlaw.

Solomon here is no lawgiver, but an evangelist, leading us unto Jesus Christ. For we can obtain no mercy but in Him only. For “the promises of God are yea and amen in Him.”—Cope.

Can any one see any flaw in “Mercy” and “Truth?” Mercy is pure benevolence; and truth is that other quality of the good, which is commanded in the first table of the law, and answers to a love of holiness. Is there anything right, outside of “Mercy and Truth?” Is there anything wrong that the vilest rebel can detect in either one of them? Must “they not err that devise evil,” if for no other cause than that “Mercy and Truth” stand on the opposite side, and, through eternal ages, are busy in devising good?—Miller.

Aristotle relateth of Socrates that he affirmed all virtues to be sciences, all sins to be ignorances. And Aquinas saith of it, that therein he judged in some sort rightly because the will never would incline to evil, unless it were with some ignorance and error of reason. The question, therefore, is not here asked of him that deviseth evil, for he thinketh himself to be right, he doth not think that to be evil which he doth, nor himself to err in doing of it. He attaineth to the end at which he aimeth, and that persuadeth him that he aimeth aright. But so to be in the right way, is quite to wander from the right way; and howsoever such an one may not err in his plans and plots, yet doubtless he erreth from the ways of life.—Jermin.

Mercy and truth were the best that David could wish for his fast friend Ittai (2 Sam. xv. 20). These two attributes of God shall cause that good devices shall not miscarry. His mercy moves Him to promise, His truth binds Him to perform. “For Thy word’s sake, and according to Thine own heart Thou hast done all these things” (2 Sam. vii. 18–21). “According to Thine own heart,” that is out of pure and unexcited love, Thou didst give Thy Word and promise, and “for Thy Word’s sake,” Thou hast performed it.—Trapp.

main homiletics of verse 23.

The Profit of Labour.

1. The profit of social honour. It is both natural and right that a man should desire the respect and good-will of those around him. Nothing is more certain than that he who lives without working in some form or another, either for himself or for others, will not receive this reward. Those who are poor, and do nothing, sink into beggary and consequent dishonour; those who are rich, and have nothing to do—or rather, who do nothing—are not held in honour, either in life or after death. “Pray, sir, of what disease did your brother die?” said the Marquis Spinola one day to Sir Horace Vere. “He died, sir,” was the answer, “of having nothing to do.” “Alas!” said Spinola, “that is enough to kill any general of us all.” Honour cannot come from idleness, but labour brings not only honour while living, but gives us a title to be regarded with respect after we have left the world. Of no man who has lived to any purpose can it ever be said that he died of having nothing to do. 2. The profit of bodily health. A body which does not labour, either with brain or hand, is an easy prey to disease. The brain if used becomes strengthened for further use. The whole bodily frame is kept in health by wholesome work. 3. Profit to the moral nature. Labour calls for some form of self-sacrifice. It develops habits of painstaking and diligence which are helpful to a man’s moral nature. It helps the spiritual part of the man by helping the bodily, inasmuch as a strong and healthy body is the best instrument for a morally healthy soul. 4. The profit of material gain. In all free countries a man gets some wages for work. It may not be a fair remuneration, but there is some profit of this kind attached to it. There are, of course, exceptions to this proverb, as for instance, the labour of the man who devises evil in the former verse, or that of those whose poverty compels them to work, even to the injury of soul and body, for a miserable pittance which is not worthy the name of wages. Such, alas, is the lot of many even in our own country. The antithesis of this proverb, simply states that talk will not do instead of work. When men do nothing but talk, their talk is certain to be of that worthless kind condemned in chapter x. 19. (See Homiletics on page 168.)

outlines and suggestive comments.

Get leave to work In this world—’tis the best you get at all; For God, in cursing, gives us better gifts Than man in benediction. God says “Sweat For foreheads,” men say “Crowns” and so we are crowned, Ay, gashed by some tormenting circle of steel Which snaps with a secret spring. Get work, get work; Be sure ’tis better than what you work to get.

Be sure, no earnest work Of any honest creature, howbeit weak, Imperfect, ill-adapted, fails so much, It is not gathered as a grain of sand, To enlarge the sum of human action used For carrying out God’s end.—Mrs. Browning.

There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so mammonish, mean, is in communication with nature: the real desire to get work done will itself lead one more and more to truth, to nature’s appointments and regulations, which are truth. The latest gospel in this world is, Know thy work and do it. “Know thyself:” long enough has that poor self of thine tormented thee; thou wilt never get to “know” it, I believe! Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an unknowable individual; know what thou can’st work at, and work at it, like a Hercules! That will be thy better plan. It has been written, “an endless significance lies in work,” a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the man himself first ceases to be a jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby. Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like hell-dogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor day-worker, as of every man: but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and sour smoke itself thereby is made bright blessed flame?—Carlyle.

Industry need not wish; and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains, then help hands, for I have no lands, or, if I have, they are smartly taxed. He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honour; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling followed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes.—Franklin.

He that labours is tempted by one devil; he that is idle by a thousand.—Italian Proverb.

As in religion, it is not the man who speaks but the man who does that gives proof of his sincerity; so in earthly business, it is not the man who talks fluently, and lays down plausible schemes of business, but the man who labours and does all his work that has reason to expect the blessing of Providence. Those that wear their working instruments in their tongues are always the most useless, and sometimes the most hurtful members of society.—Lawson.

A busy tongue makes idle hands. If the mouth will be heard, the noisy loom must stop; and he who prefers the sound of his tongue to that of his shuttle, had need at the same time be a man who prefers talk to meat, hunger to fulness, starvation to plenty.—Wardlaw.

Rich beyond conception is the profit of spiritual labour (chap. x. 16). “The Son of Man gives to the labourer enduring meat. The violent take the kingdom of heaven by force. The labour of love God is not unrighteous to forget” (John vi. 27; Heb. vi. 10). But the talk of the lips gives husks, not bread. While there are only shallow conceptions of the Gospel, and no experimental enjoyment of Christian establishment, it is “all running out in noise.” Says Henry: “There is no instruction because there is no ‘good treasure within’ (Matt. xii. 35).” “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another?” is a searching question (Luke xxiv. 17). Ministers, doctrines, the externals, circumstantials, disputations on religion—all may be the mere skirts and borders of the great subject, utterly remote from the heart and vitals. . . . A religious tongue without a godly heart tendeth only to penury.—Bridges.

This is a difficult sentence. We have found it hard to vindicate its sense. The grammar is all obvious, and on the very account the reading is singularly fixed. But “all labour” is anything else than “profitable;” and the “talk of the lips” (chap. xxxi. 26) is one of the grandest ways of doing good among men. We understand it in a religious sense. All these proverbs might be worldly maxims, some of them actually in use; all of them with a show of wisdom; some of them utterly unsound; but all of them, when adopted by the Holy Ghost, and turned in the direction of the Gospel, true, in their religious aspect. So, now, in this particular instance, “all labour” might seem to promise well among the thrifty, but sometimes ruins men, even in this world, and is sure to ruin them, if worldly, in the world to come. But now, as a religious maxim, it is without exception. “All labour,” of a pious kind is marked, and will be gloriously rewarded out of the books of the Almighty. “All labour” of the impenitent, for their soul’s salvation, has “profit;” literally, something over. It brings them nearer. If continued long enough, it will bring them in; that is, if it be honest (Heb. xi. 6); while “the talk of the lips,” or, possibly, “an affair of the lips,” that is, mere intention, does “only” mischief. Mark the balance between “all” and “only.” Seeking is “all” of it an advance. Intending is “only” a retreat. One gains a step, the other loses one. Starting up actually to work, if honest, is an advance towards wealth; while intention, which is but an affair of the lips, tends only to make us poor indeed.—Miller.

When God gave man this curse, in labour thou shalt eat, he gave labour this blessing, to increase and multiply. It is a plant that prospereth in any soil, it is a seed that taketh well in any ground. For the labourer’s hire is never kept back by God. . . . Talking is not truly labour, and labour is rather to hold one’s peace. According as St. Ambrose speaketh “It is a harder thing to know how to be silent than how to speak. For I know many to speak, when they know not to hold their peace.” But it is a rare thing for any man to hold his peace, when to speak no way doth profit him. But no labour is so well spared as this, and sitting still is nowhere so commendable as in the lips.—Jermin.

They that painfully and conscientiously employ themselves in any vocation, how base and contemptible soever it seems to be, are in the Lord’s work, and Him they serve, as the apostle speaketh even of bondmen, and is it possible that His workmen shall work without wages or sufficient allowance? He reproveth those men which neglect to give to the hireling his recompense for his travail, or fail in due time to discharge it, and shall we think then that He will be careless of His own servants Himself? They have God’s Word for their security that they shall not be unprovided of so much as is expedient for them. If He say once that in all labour there is profit, they shall never have cause to contradict Him.—Dod.

It is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be made happy; and the two cannot be separated with impunity.—Ruskin.

main homiletics of verse 24.

Wealth with and Without Wisdom.

I. Both a wise man and a fool may attain to wealth. The intellectually wise, and the man who lacks mental ability, may both possess great riches. There are many who have vast estates and no more wisdom to manage them than an infant, and there are those whose ability is equal to their wealth and position. So with moral wisdom. Abraham, the friend of God, “was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Gen. xiii. 2). Job, who had the Divine testimony to his “perfectness” and “uprightness,” was “the greatest of all the men of the east” (Job. i. 3). But many godless men like these mentioned in our Lord’s parables (Luke xii. 16, 20; xvi. 19–24) have “much goods laid up for many years,” and “are clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day.” God is no respecter of persons in the distribution of temporal good in the shape of riches, but if there is any leaning to one class of character more than to another, He would seem rather to favour the ungodly. Because such “have their portion in this life” (Psa. xvii. 14) and in this life only; because they have only this heaven upon earth; because they have no desire and conception of anything higher; it seems as if the Ruler of the universe often gives them the only good they are capable of appreciating. Some of the most miserable specimens of humanity that the world has ever seen have sat upon thrones, and a few of the greatest of God’s human children have likewise wielded sceptres. So with the crown of wealth; it has been and is worn by men quite irrespective of moral character, but the preponderance seems to be in favour of the moral fool. Looked at in the light of eternity there is no injustice or even mystery in this.

II. But wealth is an adornment to the wise man only. If you dress an Ethiopian in pure white linen you will not change the colour of his skin. The man is what he was though his raiment is changed, and the whiteness of his garments makes his skin look all the blacker. If a tree is barren, the most costly and perfect artificial fruit placed among its leaves will not add to its beauty. It will only produce an incongruity which will be altogether distasteful to the spectator. Its barrenness is only made the more conspicuous. So no wealth can give any dignity to a mental and moral fool. Wealth will not hide the intellectual barrenness, nor cover the black stains upon the man’s moral character. Nay, the wealth only brings them more prominently into view. However rich a fool is “the foolishness of fools is folly,” and nothing else. But a man who is wise enough to know how to use wealth—especially if he is good enough to put it to the highest and best uses—even though he be neither intellectually great or highly polished, will make his riches a crown—will so use them as to merit and receive the respect and goodwill of his fellow-creatures. Wealth looks best upon the head of one who possesses both intelligence and goodness, but whenever it is studded with the gems of a wise and sympathetic liberality it is a royal diadem—it makes its wearer a king.

outlines and suggestive comments.

The Christian is rich in this world. We read in the 18th verse of the “prudent making a crown of knowledge.” Aladdin was rich when he had nothing but his lamp. If a ray of faith put creation in bondage to a saint, then not only is his “knowledge a crown,” but “his crown is his wealth.” What needs Aladdin further than his lamp? The sovereignty of saints, even in a forlorn world, makes a perfect opulence; while “the folly of fools,” seeing that it could give place to this; seeing that he also could have the lamp; seeing that the crowned princes, the very best of them, were fools like him; and therefore, that it can only be because he is a fool that he does not throw off his folly;—all this explains the closing clause, which is terse in its very quaintness; for, for the very reason that “the crown of the wise is their wealth, the foolishness of fools is folly.”—Miller.

Though, as a fearful temptation (Matt. xiii. 22; xix. 23), no wise man would desire riches; yet as a gift of God (1 Kings iii. 13; Psa. cxii. 3)—the gift, indeed, of His left hand (chap. iii. 16)—they may become His crown. What a crown they were to David and his wise son, as the materials for building the temple (1 Chron. xxix. 1–5; 2 Chron. v. 1); and to Job, as employed for the good of his fellow-creatures (Job xxix. 6–17). So that, though wisdom under all circumstances is a blessing, it is specially pronounced to be “good with an inheritance” (Eccles. vii. 11, 12). It is necessary to distinguish between the thing itself and the abuse of it. Wealth is in fact a blessing, when honestly acquired and conscientiously employed. And when otherwise, the man is to be blamed, and not his treasure.—Bridges.

What is the most gorgeous and dazzling earthly crown compared with a diadem of which the component parts are the blessings of the destitute relieved, the ignorant instructed, the vicious reclaimed, the afflicted comforted, the dying cheered with the hope of life, the perishing rescued from perdition and brought to God!—Wardlaw.

If good men are spoiled of their wealth, they need not lament, as if they had lost their crown. For riches are an ornament of grace to the head of wise men, even when they are lost. Job’s patience in the loss of everything, did as much honour to him as his extraordinary beneficence whilst he was the richest man in the East. We honour his memory still more, when he sewed sackcloth upon his skin, and defiled his horn in the dust, than at the time when judgment was his robe and his diadem.—Lawson.

As a horse is of no use without the bridle, so are riches without reason.—Cawdray.

Not riches but wisdom gives a crown of glory (chap. iv. 9). “The prudent are crowned with knowledge,” not with riches; therefore, the sense is, “Wisdom (the opposite of folly), being the crown of the wise constitutes their true riches,” and results in the heavenly riches; but the foolishness of fools is not riches to them, as the wise man’s crown of wisdom is to him, but is, and continues folly, i.e., emptiness—neither an ornamental crown nor enriching wisdom.—Fausset.

The seeming tautology of the second clause is really its point. “The foolishness of fools is . . . .” We expect something else, but the subject is also the predicate. “The foolishness of fools is foolishness.” That is the long and the short of it. Turn it as you will, it comes to that.—Plumptre.

Wisdom in a poor man is but a petty lord. He may rule himself well, but he shall have little command or power over others. Riches make a wise man a king, and as they crown him with honour by being well used by him, so do they extend his dominion far and wide. Many are subject to the law of his discretion, and the force of his wise authority prevaileth many ways. Well, therefore, doth the crown of riches sit upon his head, whose wise head it is that makes them to be riches. But riches in a fool are his bauble, whereby he maketh himself and others sport. . . . The wise being crowned by them are kings over their riches. They command them to their pleasure and use them to their honour. Whereas it is the folly of fools that they are galley-slaves to their own wealth.—Jermin.

Give riches to a fool and you put a sword into a madman’s hand; the folly of such fools will soon be foolishness. Why, was it not foolishness before? Yes, but now, it is become egregious foolishness. To what end is a treasure, if a man have lost the key that leads to it.—Trapp.

main homiletics of verse 25.

Deliverance by Truth.

I. What is implied in a witness bearer. A witness is supposed to give light. Those who have to decide upon a matter seek for the evidence of those who are personally acquainted with the facts. They are expected to testify as to what they have seen and heard, and by thus throwing light upon the subject to further the cause of truth and justice. A witness can only give light by speaking the truth. The words of a truth-teller are like rays of sunlight falling upon an object that was before indistinct, they make plain things which without their aid would be incomprehensible. On the other hand the testimony of a lying witness surrounds everything about which he bears witness with a mist and a darkness, and so foils the efforts of those who are desiring to get a right view of the subject.

II. Life and death are often in the power of those who bear witness. The evidence of a truthful man delivers from death—or from worse than death—those who are innocent, whereas a false witness may deliver them up to punishment. The one is like a lighthouse which enables the sailor to bring his vessel safely into port, the other is like the false light of the wrecker, by means of which the ship is dashed to pieces on the rocks. The first witness for God in Eden who did not belong to the heavenly family was a “false witness who spoke lies.” He testified to Eve that God was a hard master, that He had imposed upon her restrictions from a selfish motive, that the punishment which had been threatened would not follow disobedience to the Divine commands. Since this first false witness led our first parents on to death, many a human witness has, in like manner, given to the world false views of the Divine Father which have ended in like results. Both Satan and his servants murder character by bearing false witness. The Incarnate Son of God was pre-eminently “The True Witness” (Isa. lv. 4; Rev. i. 5). He came to deliver men by bearing witness of the true character of God from His own personal knowledge (John xvii. 25, 26). “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,” “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John xvii. 37; viii. 32). “The truth which Christ taught was chiefly on these three points—God, man, immortality. . . . He exhibited God as love, and so the fearful bondage of the mind to the necessity of fate was broken. . . . He taught the truth about the human soul, that it is not in its right place, that it never is in its right place in the dark prison-house of sin, but that its home is freedom, and the breath of God’s life. . . . He taught truth concerning immortality, that this life is not all; that it is not only a miserable state of human infancy.”—(Robertson.) By such testimony this “true witness delivered souls”—“proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. lxi. 1). On this subject see also on chap. xii. 17, pages 274-276.

outlines and suggestive comments.

We noticed that what crowned the wise was “truth” or “knowledge” (verse 18). Truth to become knowledge must get into the heart. To do so it must be “witnessed.” We noticed under the second verse that a man staggered, that is, he did not walk in levelness, because he did not see clearly. But, per contra, if a man sees clearly he walks in level ways; and then, according to our present proverb, he “saves” unconsciously the souls of others. This is most clear when the view is negative. Let there be no witness of truth, and where are the saved? No sinners are rescued in a dead nation. Every Christian is a centre of light. The Church is but a body of Christians. Where there is no Church, where are the penitents? The truth intended to be conveyed is, that he who sees the truth spreads it. While he who sees only “lies,” which is an exact portrait of the unredeemed, serves in spite of himself as a delusion to his friends, and deceives them into unbelief just in proportion to his influence upon them. Woe be to the wife or child where the husband is a “deceived witness” (verse 5). “Witness”—not in this case one who bears witness, but one who witnesses, in the sense of seeing.—Miller.

While true testimony may condemn, false testimony may acquit; while the former may destroy life, the latter may save it. It is probable, therefore, that the intended antithesis relates not so much to the actual fact of truth saving and falsehood condemning, as to the dispositions and intentions of the faithful witness on the one hand and the lying witness on the other. The faithful witness delights in giving testimony that may save life, that will be salutary and beneficial to his fellow-creatures. The lying witness will, in general, be found actuated by a malevolent and wicked purpose; having pleasure in giving testimony that will go to condemn the object of his malice. The sentiment will thus be—that truth is most generally found in union with kindness of heart, and falsehood with malevolence. And this is natural; the former being both good, the latter being both evil, falsehood being naturally more akin to malice, and truth to love.—Wardlaw.

Here again there is something like tautology in the second clause. We expect “destroyeth life” as the antithesis to “delivereth souls.” But in this case also there is an emphasis in the seeming absence of it. “A deceitful witness speaketh lies.” What worse could be said of him? All destruction is implied in falsehood.—Plumptre.

It is the honour of God to be a deliverer of souls, and that is the honour of a true witness. He delivers his own soul and another’s: his own from the wrath of God, another’s from the injustice of men: his own from wickedness, another’s from injury. The deceitful man speaketh not one lie, but many. The lie of perjury to God, the lie of injustice to the judge, the lie of falsehood to the master. Not one but many lies, because one lie usually bringeth many others with it.—Jermin.

The special work for which Christians are left in the world is to be witnesses (Acts i. 8). . . . Christ does not send his angels to proclaim His word or to wield His power. . . . The evidence by which the Spirit will convert the world is His truth, uttered from the Word, and echoed, still and small, from the meek and quiet life-course of converted men. . . . Two qualifications are required in a witness, truth and love (Ephes. iv. 15): these are needed, but these will do. . . . A witness, in contested cases, after giving evidence in chief, is subjected to cross-examination. A Christian’s profession is, and is understood to be, his direct and positive testimony that he is bought with a price, and that he is bound to serve the Lord who bought him: but as soon as this testimony is emitted, the examination begins. If he be not a true witness, he will stumble there. Either or both of two persons, with very different views, may subject a witness to cross-examination—the judge or the adversary. It is chiefly done by the adversary, and in his interests. The Supreme himself puts professing disciples to the test before the court of the world; but when He so tries His children, the truth comes forth purer and brighter by the trial. He who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, tempts to destroy. He puts the witness to the question in order to break him down. . . . We speak of the evidences of religion, but, after all, Christians are the best evidence of Christianity. . . . Let no man who bears Christ’s name lay the unction to his soul, that if he does no good he does no evil. One of the heaviest complaints made in the prophets against Jerusalem for her backsliding, is that she was a “comfort” to Samaria and Sodom (Ezek. xvi. 54); that those who had the name and place of God’s people, so lived as to make the wicked feel at ease. . . . If Christians live as like the world as they can, the world will think itself safe in its sin; and those who should have been the deliverers, will become the destroyers of their neighbours.—Arnot.

main homiletics of verse 26.

A Sure Refuge.

I. What is found in the fear of the Lord? “Strong confidence.” The confidence is in the Divine character, and is based upon a knowledge of it, in contrast to a false security which has its foundation in ignorance. There is a reverence of one being for another which is the outcome of ignorance, but this cannot generate that strong confidence which can be a sheet anchor to the human soul. The old Romans, in the early days of their history, had a reverence for their divinities, but it was a reverence of ignorance, it was a reverence for unrealities, and could never yield them that confidence which all men in all ages need to comfort them in trial and inspire them with hope in the mysteries of human life. There are men now who are quite ignorant of the Divine character and yet seem to possess great confidence that all will be well with them—that God, in fact, will not do what He has said He will do in relation to them. But this confidence is also false; it is based, not upon fear of the Lord, arising out of acquaintance with Him, but upon want of knowledge, and consequently upon disregard of His claims. But the strong confidence of our text is the fruit of a reverence which has its foundation in acquaintance with the holiness of the Divine Father, which is the outcome of a knowledge of His laws, of His threatenings, and of His promises. It is the confidence which a child reposes in a good parent, because it knows from experience—from an every-day contemplation of that parent’s life—what good grounds it has to reverence and to trust him. This confidence is strong enough to inspire the soul with courage to face the difficulties of human life and to vanquish them. Confidence in a fellow-creature is often inspiration. A soldier’s confidence in his general, a seaman’s confidence in his captain, inspires to the performance of deeds of heroism. And confidence in the living God, in that King who can do no wrong, in that leader who can make no mistake, has been the inspiration of millions of men and women in all ages and under all circumstances. It has been found strong enough to enable them to be heroes through a long life of poverty, of ignominy, of sickness, and it has sustained all in the hour of death, and many in the death of martyrdom. By the strength born of this “strong confidence,” they have “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,” etc. (Hebrews xi. 33–38).

II. This confidence gives men God for a refuge. 1. He is a present refuge from conscious guilt. This is a need which every man feels as soon as his conscience is awakened as surely as the man-slayer felt his want of a stronghold of defence from the avenger of blood. The God against whom man has sinned becomes, when His character is understood, the object of hope for pardon. The sinner can only “flee from God, by fleeing to God.” 2. He is a present refuge from all foes, whether spiritual or human. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” (1 Pet. iii. 13) is a question which can never be answered. It is impossible that the children of God can ever be without a resource in whatever peril of soul, body, or estate they find themselves, for—“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. viii. 31).

illustration.

The Rev. J. W. Fletcher had a profligate nephew, who was dismissed from his post as an officer in the Sardinian army. One day, by presenting a pistol to his uncle, General de Gons, he extorted from him a draft for 500 crowns. With this he called on Mr. Fletcher, and, as he exhibited it with exultation, Mr. F. took it, folded it up and put it into his pocket, saying: “It strikes me, young man, that you have possessed yourself of this note by some indirect method; and in honesty I cannot return it but with my brother’s knowledge and approbation.” Instantly the pistol was at his breast, and he was told, as he valued his life, to return the draft. “My life,” replied Mr. Fletcher, “is secure in the protection of the Almighty power who guards it.” This led the nephew to remark that his uncle De Gons was more afraid of death. “Afraid of death!” rejoined Mr. Fletcher, “do you think I have been twenty-five years the minister of the Lord of life to be afraid of death now? No, sir, thanks be to God who giveth me the victory! It is for you to fear death who have every reason to fear it. You are a gamester and a cheat, yet call yourself a gentleman. . . . Look, there, sir, look there! See the broad eye of Heaven is fixed upon us. Tremble in the presence of your Maker, who can in a moment kill your body, and for ever punish your soul in hell.” The youth was disarmed, and the interview ended in his uncle praying with him, and promising to give him a hundred crowns to relieve his immediate necessities.—From “The Proverbs Illustrated.”

outlines and suggestive comments.

Fear is anything but a refuge in itself. But as faith was imputed to the patriarch for righteousness (Rom. iv. 22), so this need not cloud Christ’s merit. Christ has so saved us that fear becomes our hope. He who has experienced “fear” has gone into a retreat; nothing can dislodge him from it. If the lost tremble, let them learn to fear; for by fear they become children of God, and as children of God they have an eternal refuge.—Miller.

Fear hath torment (1 John iv. 18; Acts xxiv. 25). It is the trembling of the slave (Rom. viii. 15); the dread of wrath, not of sin. There is no confidence here. It is pure selfishness. It ends in self. There is no homage to God. But the true fear of God is a holy, happy, reverential principle (see Psa. cxii. 1; xxxiii. 18; cxlvii. 11); not that which love “casts out” (1 John iv. 18), but which love brings in. We fear, because we love. We fear, yet we are not afraid (Psa. cxii. 1–7). The holiest and humblest is the most fixed and trusting heart. The fear of man produces faintness (Jonah i. 3; Gal. ii. 12). The fear of the Lord—such is the Christian paradox—emboldens. Its childlike spirit shuts out all terrors of conscience, all forebodings of eternity. Abraham sacrificed his son in the fear of the Lord; yet fully confident “that God was able to raise him up from the dead” (Gen. xxii. 12, with Heb. xi. 17–19).—Bridges.

What confidence shall be strong, if this is not strong? He confides in that which is all infinite:—the truth, the love, the wisdom, the power of his covenant God! Whatever the love of God has induced Him graciously to promise, no power or combination of powers in existence can stay from being done.—Wardlaw.

It does not mean that the fear of God is something on which one can rely, but that it has (xxii. 19; Jer. xvii. 7) an inheritance which is enduring, unwavering, and not disappointing in God, who is the object of fear; for it is not faith, nor anything else subjective, which is the rock that bears us, but this rock is the object that faith lays hold of (Cf. Isa. xxviii. 16).—Delitzsch.

Gregory, writing upon those words in Job iv. 6, “Is not this thy fear, thy confidence?” etc., saith that although Eliphaz did wrongfully reprove Job, yet he doth rightly set down the order of the virtues, when he joineth fortitude to fear. For in the way of God we must begin with fear that we may come to fortitude. For as in the course of the world boldness breedeth courage, so in the way of God it breedeth weakness, and as in the course of the world fear begetteth weakness, so in the way of God it bringeth forth confidence.—Jermin.

The fear which brings a sinner submissive and trustful to the sacrifice and righteousness of the Substitute is itself a confidence. . . . Those who went early to the sepulchre and looked into the empty grave where the Lord lay, departed from the place with “fear and great joy.” A human soul made at first in God’s image has great capacities still. In that large place fear and great joy can dwell together. . . . The filial fear of the children may be known by this, that it takes in beside itself a great joy, and the two brethren dwell together in unity. . . . “His children shall have a place of refuge.” They “are kept by the power of God.”. . . There are two keepings very diverse from each other, and yet alike in this, that both employ as their instruments strong walls and barred gates. Great harm accrues for confounding them, and therefore the distinction should be kept clear. Gates and bars may be closed around you for the purpose of keeping you in, or of keeping your enemy out. The one is a prison, the other a fortress. In construction and appearance the two edifices are in many respects similar. The walls are in both cases high and the bars strong. In both it is essential that the guards should be watchful and trusty. But they differ in this: the prison is constructed with a view to prevent escape from within, the fortress to defy assault from without. In their design and use they are exact contraries. The one makes sure the bondage, the other the liberty of its inmates. In both cases it is a keep, and in both cases the keep is strong—the one to keep the prisoner in, the other to keep the enemy out. The fear of the Lord to those who are within, and have tasted of His grace, is the strong confidence of a fortress to defend them from every foe; to those who look at it from without, it often seems a frowning prison that will close away the sunlight from all who go within its portals, and waste young life away in mouldy dungeons. Mistakes are common on this point, and mistakes are disastrous. . . . Though the refuge is provided, and the gate standing open, and the invitation free, poor wanderers stand shivering without because a suspicion clings to the guilty conscience, that the “strong tower” offered as a safe dwelling place will turn out to be a place of confinement from genial society and human joys.—Arnot.

For Homiletics on Verse 27 See on the Preceding Verse and on Chapter xiii. 14 Page 313.

outlines and suggestive comments.

Verses 26 and 27. The whole system of religion is expressed in the fear of God. A religion which makes this fear the principle of action implicitly condemns all self-confidence and presumptuous security, enjoins a constant state of vigilance and caution, a perpetual distrust of our own hearts, a full conviction of our natural weakness, and an earnest solicitude for Divine assistance. It keeps men always attentive to the motives and consequences of actions; always unsatisfied with present attainments; always wishing to advance and always afraid of falling away. The blessings it brings in its train are—1. Security. “Strong confidence.” “Place of refuge.” “Great is the confidence of a good conscience.” “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and He will deliver us” (Dan. iii. 17). “None of these things move me” (Acts xx. 24). When they told Numa that the enemy was at the gates, he simply answered, “But I am sacrificing.” When Antonius was threatened, he replied, “We have not so worshipped, neither have we so lived, that we should fear their conquering us” (Trapp). If such was the confidence of heathens, what should be that of Christians? God’s children “know in whom they have believed” (2 Tim. i. 12). 2. Consolation. “A fountain of life.” So called from the constancy of its supply. A confluence of the blessings, grace here and glory hereafter—present and future—upper and nether springs. David combines both when he says, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory” (Psa. lxxiii. 24). He refers to the future when he says, “Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!” (Psa. xxxi. 19). Here he speaks not only of what God has laid up, but of what He has laid out—not only of what he has in prospect, but of what he has in experience. 3. Deliverance from dangerous temptations. “To depart from the snares of death.” “The way of this world is like the Vale of Siddim (Gen. xiv. 19), treacherous and slippery and full of snares” (Trapp). But he that fears the Lord has many safeguards. “The integrity of the upright shall guide them” (chap. xi. 3).—S. Thodey.

Verse 27. “The law of the wise” is “the fear of the Lord,” for of both the same things are predicted (chap xiii. 14).—Fausset.

Not only does Christian confidence open a cover from the guilt, but it roots out the power of sin. For among the countless throngs of the redeemed, not one finds a cover from condemnation, who is not renovated into spiritual life.—Bridges.

The fear of the Lord teacheth wisdom, and wisdom teacheth that an evil feared is much the sooner avoided, and that it is a great safety of life to fear death. Wherefore St. Cyprian saith, “Be ye fearful, that ye may be without fear; fear the Lord, that ye may not fear death.” For the same fountain doth not send forth bitter waters and sweet; life and death do not issue from the same spring.—Jermin.

main homiletics of verse 28.

A King’s True Glory.

I. Human rulers are dependent upon their people for honour. 1. The safety of the king’s crown depends largely upon the number of his subjects. This was certainly the case in the days of Solomon, and is so now to a large extent. Small kingdoms are very likely even in these days to be engulfed by more powerful states—by those who can bring into the field an overpowering number of warriors. Numbers hold the diadems on the heads of the rulers of the great nations of Europe. That Palestine was to some extent an exception to this rule was due to the especial providence of Jehovah—that it was ever overpowered by numbers was because its inhabitants forsook their covenant God. But the general rule holds good. 2. The prosperity of their land depends upon its being well populated. Other things being equal, a populous kingdom will do more business with other nations—will plant colonies and mix more with the inhabitants of other lands; and all these things extend a nation’s influence and so make its ruler’s position a more honourable one.

II. It is therefore a matter of self-interest that a ruler should govern his people righteously. There is a lesson which the potentates of the earth have been slow to learn although the page of history abounds with so many examples of the peril of disregarding it. It would be the destruction of the head if it were to say to the other members of the body, by which it is maintained in life and health, “I have no need of thee.” The existence of the one depends upon that of the other. And it is not less so with the body politic. The safety and honour of the king is bound up in the well-being of his subjects. Where the one is dependent upon the many, self-interest, as well as duty, point to his so ruling that his people may enjoy peace and prosperity and so multiply.

outlines and suggestive comments.

There is a natural tendency in the population of a country to increase. When, therefore, population diminishes, there must be some cause counterworking nature. The subjects of a country may be wasted in destructive and depopulating wars; they may be driven by oppression to quit their native land, and to seek a refuge in more distant regions; they may be starved and reduced by measures that are injurious and ruinous to trade—measures that keep up the price of bread and depress the wages of labour. . . . The existence of a thriving vigorous population is a mark of freedom, of wise and impartial legislation, of paternal care—and it is the palladium of all that is desirable in the results of human rule.—Wardlaw.

A sentiment arrayed against feeble princes who nevertheless array themselves with disproportionate splendour; and this, as also verse 34, is designed to call attention to the principle, that it is not external and seeming advantages, but simply and solely the inward competence and moral excellence, whether of the head or of the members of a commonwealth, that are the conditions of its temporal welfare.—Lange’s Commentary.

How great, then, is the honour of our heavenly King in the countless multitudes of His people! How overwhelmingly glorious will it appear when the completed number shall stand before His throne (Rev. vii. 9, 10); each the medium of reflecting His glory (2 Thess. i. 10); each with a crown to cast at His feet (Rev. iv. 10, 11), and a song of everlasting joy to time to His praise (Rev. v. 9).—Bridges.

All grades depend upon their inferiors. The poor have us in their power. To be kind to them is a dictate of common selfishness. Carried into a spiritual light, the truth becomes much wider. Half of heaven will be what we did for the poor. Solomon was familiar with this as a king; but he marks the sentence as one for all humanity. If a man wishes to be comfortable on earth, let him make his inferiors great. And, if he wishes to be rich in heaven, let him cultivate with assiduous zest the graces of the perishing.—Miller.