Chapter XV (1)

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Grievous,+ "bitter," "trying," +stir up;+ lit., "make to ascend," like a flame fanned by bellows (Fausset). +2. Useth knowledge aright,+ rather, "makes knowledge attractive," _i.e.,_ speaks so as to win the attention of the listeners; +poureth out,+ or "bubbleth up." +3. Beholding,+ rather, "watching," "observing" (so Stuart, Miller, and Delitzsch). +4. Wholesome,+ "gentle," "soft," +perverseness+ or "transgression," +a breach,+ "a crushing," "a wounding." +6.+ Miller translates the first clause, "The house of the righteous is great treasure" (see his Comment); +revenue,+ rather "gain." +7. Disperse;+ some translators read "winnow," or "sift." Stuart translates the last clause of this verse "The heart of the fool is not stable;" Delitzsch reads, "Direction is wanting to the heart of fools," _i.e.,_ it has not the _right_ direction. +10. Correction is grievous,+ or "there is grievous correction." Miller reads, "Discipline is an evil to him." +11. Hell and destruction,+ "Sheōl," and "Abaddōn," two different names for the world of the departed. "Sheōl" is the unseen world in general, "Abaddōn" the place of _destruction, i.e.,_ the place where their bodies are destroyed (so Stuart, Zöckler, etc.). +How much more.+ Miller translates these particles by "because also" (see his Comment). +14. Mouth,+ or, "the countenance." +15. Afflicted,+ or "toiling." +17. Dinner of herbs,+ literally, "a traveller's meal." +18. Stirreth up,+ lit. "mixes," implying the reciprocal idea of giving and taking offence (Fausset). +19. Made plain,+ "is paved," or "is a highway." +21. Walketh uprightly,+ rather "goes straightforward." +24. The way of life is above,+ etc., rather "An upward path of life," etc. +Hell,+ Sheōl, as in verse 11. +25. Establish the border,+ or "Keep fixed the landmark." +26. The words of the pure are pleasant,+ or "pure in His sight are pleasant words." +27. Gifts,+ _i.e.,_ "bribes." +28. Studieth,+ _i.e., "considers."_ +33. Instruction of wisdom,+ rather "a discipline of wisdom," or "a training to wisdom."

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 1 _and_ 2.

THE USE OF KNOWLEDGE.

+I. Knowledge is for use.+ The various gifts and acquirements of men in every grade of social life, of whatever kind they are, are intended by God to be used for the benefit of all. One man has what another lacks, that he may use what he possesses for their mutual good. Those who have wealth are bound to use it--they are not expected to keep it locked up in their coffers, but to lay it out for their own and their poorer neighbours' good. So with knowledge. He who has a knowledge which can profit the body, the mind, or the heart of another sins if he holds it back. He will find that such a possession unused will be a witness against him in the day of reckoning. He will be accused of wasting his Master's goods by not using them (Matt. xxv. 27).

+II. Wisdom is needed to put knowledge to a right use.+ There are many people who know a great deal, but they do not know how to use it, either for themselves or others. They cannot make it of any practical use--they cannot enlighten and help others with it. Or they may put it to a wrong use. This is often the case with those who possess intellectual knowledge, but who lack moral wisdom. They put a good thing to a bad use.

+III. One mark of knowledge combined with wisdom is the right use of the tongue in the presence of anger.+ A "soft answer" in the presence of anger indicates a knowledge of human nature, and also wisdom and self-possession to apply the knowledge. A man who can hold the helm of the vessel in the presence of a storm, and keep her well in hand, shows that he not only possesses knowledge but wisdom, and he to a great extent disarms the fury of the tempest by his calm discretion.

+IV. A soft answer may turn away merited wrath.+ There are occasions when the most holy beings--the Most Holy One Himself--display a wrath which is only a proof of their perfect holiness. The "soft answer," the pleading words of an intercessor, may turn away this wrath. The wrath of Jehovah was often kindled against Israel during their wilderness journey, but the "answer" of Moses "turned it away." (See Exod. xxxii. 11-14; Numb. xiv. 11-20, etc.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 1--

Calmness is great advantage: he that lets
Another chafe may warm him at his fire,
Mark all his wanderings and enjoy his frets,
As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.--_Herbert._

_"A trying word;"_ literally a word of labour or pain. In dealing with sinners we ought to make the Gospel plain at first and not start unnecessary difficulties. Paul did this (1 Cor. iii. 2). Words that are not wrathful are often _"trying,"_ as presenting to an angry inferior our reply in an easily misunderstood shape. We are to feed men with milk, and not with strong meat, all the more for being in a condition of fault.--_Miller._

Look at the effect of the quiet and dignified reply of Gideon to the exasperated men of Ephraim, and at the case of Abigail and David. And as an exemplification of the opposite style of answer, you may be reminded of the contention between the men of Israel and Judah at the time of David's restoration after the death of Absalom, where the _fierce words_ of the latter drove off the former under the rebellious standard of Shebna, and of the case of Rehoboam, who by refusing to give _"a soft answer"_ to the people deprived the house of David of the subjection of the ten tribes.--_Wardlaw._

Nothing doth better stop the fury of a bullet than a mud wall: nothing doth sooner _turn away_ the fury of _wrath_ than a _soft answer._ But where the pot is boiling, grievous words make it to boil over. Wherefore Chrysostom tells thee that thine enemy reconciled is more in thine own power than in his.--_Jermin._

If gentle words prevail so mightily with most men to appease their anger, of what force shall the submissive supplications of penitent persons be with the Lord?--_Dod._

We greatly need an instrument capable of turning away wrath, for there is much wrath in the world to turn away. . . . That patent shield is a soft answer. Christianity makes it of the solid metal, and education supplies at a cheaper rate a plated article, useful as long as it lasts, and as far as it goes. . . . The Roman battering-ram, when it had nearly effected a breach in the walls of solid stone, was often baffled by bags of chaff and beds of down skilfully spread out to receive its stubborn blow. By that stratagem the besieged obtained a double benefit, and the besiegers suffered a double disappointment. The strokes that were given proved harmless, and the engine was soon withdrawn. In our department a similar law exists, and a similar experience will come out of it. . . . After praying to "Our Father" for your offending brother and yourself, you may speak to him with safety. . . . Pass your resentment through a period of communion with Him who bought you with His blood, and it will come out like Christ's, a simple grief for a brother's sin, and a holy jealousy for truth.--_Arnot._

Verse 2. Eloquence, widely ordered, is very commendable, and availeth much. "The tongues of the wise useth knowledge aright"--deals kindly with her, offers her no abuse by venting her unseasonably, and making her over cheap and little set by. But eloquence abused may well be termed the attorney general, that makes a good cause seem bad, and a bad far better than in truth it is.--_Spencer's "Things New and Old."_

Paul, instead of exasperating his heathen congregation by an open protest, supplied their acknowledged defect, by bringing before them the true God "whom they were ignorantly worshipping" (Acts xvii. 23). He pointed an arrow to Agrippa's conscience, by the kindly admission of his candour and intelligence (Acts xxvi. 27, 29). This _right use of knowledge_ distinguishes "the workman approved of God, and that needeth not to be ashamed" (2 Tim. ii. 15).--_Bridges._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.

DIVINE INTELLIGENCE.

+I. The Eternal has a perfect knowledge of all places.+ The sun, in its meridian height, can only penetrate half the globe at the same time, and even then there are deep valleys and caves of the earth, and ocean beds where its rays never come; but God's eye rests at once not only on all places of His dominion in this planet, which is but as a grain of sand amongst the worlds, but upon every spot in His boundless universe.

+II. He has a perfect knowledge of the spirits of His creatures.+ The human soul has power to hide its secrets from the gaze of every fellow creature. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him?" (1 Cor. ii. 11). But God's omniscient eye pierces into the hidden mazes of the soul and reads the silent thoughts and intents of the heart. In this most secret region He walks at large. _"O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me, Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off"_ (Psa. cxxxix. 1, 2). God is the one potentate and judge who can claim a perfect knowledge of all His subjects from a personal acquaintance with each individual. Not one is lost in the crowd; each one stands before Him as distinctly as if he were the only creature in the universe.

+III. God's perfect knowledge of His creatures leads Him to contemplate both what is congenial and what is repugnant.+ He "beholds the evil and the good." Men, when by Divine grace they become partakers of the Divine Nature, are much moved to gladness by the sight of that which is morally good, and turn with loathing from the evil which they must also contemplate. Yet their happiness springs from that which is within them and not from that which is around, or the preponderance of evil would make life unbearable. So the ever-blessed God, conscious of His perfect rectitude, has within Him a source of eternal satisfaction notwithstanding the "evil" that He beholds with Divine indignation and sorrow.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

He mentions the "evil" first because they avowedly, or else practically, deny God's providence (Jer. xvi. 17).--_Fausset._

When we perceive that a vast number of objects enter in at our eye by a very small passage, and yet are so little jumbled in the crowd that they open themselves regularly, though there is no great space for that either, and that they give us a distinct apprehension of many objects that lie before us, both of their nature, colour, and size, and by a secret geometry, from the angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the distance of all objects, both from us and from one another--if to this we add the vast number of figures that we receive and retain long, and with great order, in our brains, which we easily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our discourse, we shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an Infinite Mind should have the universal view of all things ever present before it.--_Burnet._

The darkness of the air may hide thee from men, and the darkness of thine understanding may hide thee from thyself, but there is no darkness can hide from God. . . . It was a pretty fancy of one that would have his chamber painted full of eyes, that which way soever he looked he might still have some eye upon him. And it was a wise answer of Livius Drusus, when an artist offered so to contrive his house that he might do what he would and none would see him. "No," saith Drusus, "contrive it so, rather, that all may see me, for I am not ashamed to be seen." If the eyes of men make even the vilest forbear their beloved lusts for awhile, and they that are drunk are drunken in the night, how powerful will the eye and presence of God be with those that fear His anger and know the sweetness of His favour. The thoughts of this omnipresence of God will quicken thee to holiness. The soldiers of Israel and Judah were prodigal of their blood in the presence of their two generals (2 Sam. ii. 14). Servants will generally work hard while their master looks on. The eye of God, as of the sun, will call the Christian to his work. Those countries that are governed by viceroys seldom flourish or thrive so well as those kingdoms where the prince is present in person. Conscience, God's viceroy, may much quicken a Christian to holiness, but God, the Prince, much more. "I have kept Thy precepts," saith David, "for all my ways are before Thee."--_Swinnock._

He is all-eye, and His providence like a well-drawn picture, that vieweth all that come into the room. I know Thy works and Thy labour (Rev. ii); not Thy works only, but Thy labour in doing them. And as for the offender, though he think to hide himself from God by hiding God from himself, yet God is nearer to him than the bark is to the tree, "for in Him all things subsist" (Col. i. 17) and move (Acts xvii. 28); understand it of the mind's motions also. And this the very heathen saw by nature's rush candle. For Thales Milesius being asked whether the gods know not when a man doth aught amiss, "Yea," saith he, "if he do but think amiss." "God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves," saith another. Repletively He is everywhere, though inclusively nowhere. As for the world, it is to Him as "a sea of glass," a clear, transparent body; He sees through it. No man needs a window in his breast (as the heathen Monus wished) for God to look in at: every man before God is all window (Job xxxiv. 22).--_Trapp._

Such is the extent of wickedness that in every place He beholdeth the evil and the good. Yea, if there be but one in a place, that one is both evil and good, and God beholdeth both his evil and his good. The _evil_ God beholdeth first, but they are the _good_ on whom He resteth, as approving of them, and as delighting in them. For their eyes are upon God in every place, as God's eyes are upon them. The other looketh not after God, and so God looketh after them, as that He looketh from them in anger at their wickedness. He contemplates and considers, which is more than simply to behold, for contemplation addeth to a simple apprehension a deeper degree of knowledge.--_Jermin._

The doctrine of Divine omniscience, although owned and argued for by men's lips, is neglected or resisted in their lives. The unholy do not like to have a holy eye ever open upon them, whatever their profession may be. If fallen man, apart from the one Mediator, say or think that the presence of God is pleasant to them, it is because they have radically mistaken either their own character or His. They have either falsely lifted up their own attainments or falsely dragged down the character of the judge. . . . In every place our hearts and lives are open in the sight of Him with whom we have to do. The proposition is absolutely universal. We must beware, however, lest that feature of the Word which should make it powerful only renders it indefinite and meaningless. Man's fickle mind treats universal truths that come from heaven as the eye treats the visible heaven itself. At a distance from the observer all around the blue canopy seems to descend and lean upon the earth, but where he stands it as far above, out of his sight. It touches not him at all; and when he goes forward to the line where now it seems to touch other men, he finds it still far above, and the point which applies to this lower world is distant as ever. Heavenly truth, like heaven, seems to touch all the world around, but not his own immediate sphere, or himself its centre. The grandest truths are practically lost in this way when they are left whole. We must rightly divide the Word, and let the bits come into every crook of our own character. Besides the assent to general truth, there must be specific personal application. A man may own omniscience and yet live without God in the world.--_Arnot._

The subjects of verses 4 and 5 have been considered before. (See Homiletics on chap. xii. 17, 18, page 274, and on chap. xiii. 1, page 293.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 4. Rueetschi carries the idea of _gentleness_ (see Critical Notes) through the two clauses as the central idea: "It is precisely with this gentle speech, which otherwise does so much good, that the wicked is wont to deceive, and then one is by this more sorely and deeply stricken and distressed than before."--_Lange's Commentary._

That tongue which is "a witness of truth," and therefore "saves souls" (chap. xiv. 25), _"is a tree of life."_ Go into any garden of the lost, and where no such tree is, all are pagans. One sees, therefore, how the figure is kept up. I am here born into a land where there are gospel _tongues;_ that is, if, when I grow up, I am not in China, and not in India, but in a Christian village, where people have and spread the gospel, that _"tongue, as a healing thing,_ is (my) _tree of life."_ Where I get "life" is from its branches.--_Miller._

This verse may be compared with the second. The tongue which "useth knowledge aright" has a morally and spiritually healing influence. It imparts instruction to the ignorant. It speaks peace to the troubled conscience. It soothes the anguish of the afflicted. It subdues the swelling of passion. It allays the self-inflicted tortures of envy. It heals divisions and animosities. These and other blessed fruits entitle it to the designation, "a tree of life;" productive, as it is, of genuine, varied, and valuable joys to all within the reach of its influence. And when the tongue makes known God's "saving health,"--the salvation revealed by Him in the Gospel,--it then gives life in the highest and most important sense.--_Wardlaw._

A high image of what the tongue ought to be; not negative, not harmless, but _wholesome,_ or _healing,_ as the salt cast into the spring cleansed the bitter waters (2 Kings ii. 21). . . . But the meekest of men felt _perverseness a breach in the spirit_ (Numb. xvi. 8-15). The tongue of Job's friends broke "the bruised reed" (Job xiii. 1-5). Even our beloved Lord, who never shrunk from external evil, keenly felt the piercing edge of this sword (Psa. lxix. 19, 20).--_Bridges._

One stripe of the tongue woundeth three--the backbiter, him that giveth ear to the backbiting, and the backbitten.--_Cawdray._

Saith the old philosopher, "Than a good tongue there is nothing better, than an evil nothing worse. It hath no mean; it is either exceedingly good or exceedingly evil. It knows nothing but extremes, and is either best of all, or worst of all (Jas. iii. 8). The tongue is every man's best or worst moveable. . . . A good tongue is the best part of a man, and most worthy of the honour of sacrifice. This only when it is well seasoned. Seasoned, I say, with salt, as the apostle admonisheth; not with fire" (Col. iv. 6).--_T. Adams._

Everlasting benediction be upon that tongue, which spake, as no other ever did, or could speak, pardon, peace, and comfort to lost mankind. This was the _tree of life,_ whose leaves were for the healing of the nations.--_Bishop Horne._

The root of this tree goeth down to the heart, whence it sucketh the juice of wisdom; its body lieth in the head, where things are ruminated and concocted by it; the branches of it are the several speeches of the mouth; the fruit of it is spread abroad as wide as good occasion is offered.--_Jermin._

Not a _silent_ tongue; mere abstinence from evil is not good. . . . Idleness is evil under the administration of God. . . . Not a _smooth_ tongue; it may be soft on the surface, while the poison of asps lies cherished underneath. The serpent licks his victim all over before he swallows it. Smoothness is not an equivalent for truth. . . . Not a _voluble_ tongue; that active member may labour much to little purpose. . . . Not a _sharp_ tongue: some instruments are made keen-edges for the purpose of wounding. . . . Not even a _true_ tongue. Truth is necessary, but it is not enough. The true tongue must also be _wholesome._ Before anything can be wholesome in its effects on others it must be whole in itself. . . . "Winged words" have fluttered about in poetry and prose through all the languages of the civilised world from old Homer's day till now. The permanence and prevalency of the expression proves that it embodies a recognised truth. Words have wings indeed, but they are the wings of seeds rather than of birds or butterflies. We are all accustomed in autumn to observe multitudes of diminutive seeds, each balanced on its own tiny wing, floating past on the breeze. . . . Words are like these seeds, in their winged character, their measureless multitude, and their winged speed. They drop off in inconceivable numbers: they fly far: they are widely spread. It is of deep importance that they should be for good, and not for evil. The tongue is a prolific tree, it concerns the whole community that it should be a tree of life, and not of death.--_Arnot._

Verse 5. He that regardeth reproof is prudent. Wise he is, and wiser he will be. This made David prize and pray for a reprover (Psa. cxli. 5).--_Trapp._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 6.

LIKE IN CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT UNLIKE IN CHARACTER.

+I. The wicked and the righteous are often on a level as regards material wealth.+ One may have "much treasure" and the other great "revenues," or _gain._ The laws of nature have no respect to character. God makes His sun to "shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust" (Matt. v. 43), so that the wicked man reaps a harvest as abundant as that of the righteous man. And all the laws of Providence move with the same even step, certainly showing no favour to the good man over the bad.

+II. But though their possessions may be equal, there is great inequality in the enjoyment of them.+ Character makes all the difference here. Even "a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked" (Ps. xxxvii. 16). The wicked man is troubled by a sense of being out of harmony with all that is holy, and just, and true in the universe of God, and with a foreboding of future retribution. The wealth of the spirit is so much more than material wealth as the spirit is so much more than the body. It is wealth to have _"a conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God"_ (Heb. ix. 14), and to "lay up treasure" without being thus "rich toward God" (Luke xii. 21) is only to _"spend money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not."_ (See on chap. iii. 14, 15, viii. 11-19, etc.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

"The _treasure_ in the house of the righteous" may be understood not of mere wealth, but of whatever is possessed with contentment and cheerfulness, with gratitude to God, with an assurance of His fatherly regard, with the peace that passeth all understanding, with resignation of spirit to the Divine Will, with the present enjoyment of spiritual blessing, and the well-founded "hope of glory, honour, and immortality." . . . We may suppose the revenues of the wicked to be _acquired_ and _enjoyed_ wickedly. But if not--yet if possessed and expended without the fear of God, and if the means themselves of banishing that fear, and preventing the choice of a better portion,--it may truly be affirmed that in them there is _"trouble."--Wardlaw._

_"The house,"_ as we have repeatedly seen (see on chap. ix. 1, xiv. 1), means a man's _whole interest._ The mere _interest_ of the _"righteous,"_ whether it seem high or low; his lot, whether it be on high or on a dunghill, his hap, just as it is, whether it be easy or under pain, is, under the covenant of the Almighty, an enormous riches; while not _"the house of the wicked"_ (for the wise man intends another of his climaxes); but stating his condition in the most favourable way, _"the revenue of the wicked,"_ imagining that to be of the most favourable kind; and not _"the revenue of the wicked,"_ but _in_ the revenue, as though the trouble were in the revenue itself, is, literally, _the being troubled_ (Niphal). The splendours of the lost will involve but _trouble_ in the whole eternity.--_Miller._

The treasures of the wicked are too much for their good and too little for their lusts. . . . But is it not the crown of the Christian's crown, and the glory of his glory that he cannot desire more?--_Bridges._

The riches of the wicked, in which they pride themselves, often consist of paper, and if bonds and charters make a man rich, the righteous cannot be poor, when they have bonds upon God Himself for everything they need, and the charter which shows their sure title to an everlasting inheritance. The devil robbed Job, but he could not make him poor, for his chief treasure lay quite out of reach of the enemy.--_Lawson._

Every righteous man is a rich man, whether he hath more or less of the things of this life. For, _first,_ he hath plenty of that which is precious. Secondly, _Propriety;_ what he hath is his own; he holds all in _capite-tenure_ in Christ; he shall not be called to account as a usurper. "All is yours" (1 Cor. iii. 22), "because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's." And although he had little, many times, in present possession, he is rich in reversion.--_Trapp._

His house is God's treasury, himself is God's treasure; wherefore God watcheth over his house to defend and preserve it; and himself God keepeth, as the apple of His eye.--_Jermin._

Even the trifling sum which the righteous keeps in his house is a great treasure, because it has God's blessing; but all the revenues, the large annual rents of the wicked from all his vast estate, are mere troubles.--_Burgon._

The thought of verse 7 has been treated before. (See verse 2, etc.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Utterance is a gift, and dumb Christians are blameworthy as well as dumb ministers. "Speak, that I may see thee," said Socrates. When the heart is full, it overfloweth in speech. We know metals by their tinkling, and men by their talking.--_Brooks._

In their houses, they catechise their children; in the company of their neighbours, they entreat of God's Word and works; in the church, if they be teachers, they publish wholesome doctrine.--_Muffet._

Most commentators say _scatter_ or _disperse. "Winnow,"_ which has usage (Ruth iii. 2), bears better upon the second clause. (See renderings in Critical Notes.) _Winnowing knowledge, i.e.,_ letting the lips, under the guidance of wisdom, be an instrument for holding folly back and giving utterance to knowledge, must be the finest practice for getting strength to piety; while the second clause shows the incompetence of folly to _"winnow"_ anything, by saying that _"the heart of the foolish is not fixed"_ (and therefore lacks the first principles of choice, in separating one thing from the other).--_Miller._

The foolish sow cockle as fast as wiser men do corn, and are as busy in digging descents to hell as others are in building staircases for heaven.--_Trapp._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 8 _and_ 9.

PRAYING AND LIVING.

+I. God loves righteous men with a special love.+ God has a love for all His human creatures--a love which springs out of His relationship to them as their Creator. He loves the "world" (John iii. 16), but this love cannot be said to spring from likeness of character between Him and the objects of His love. There is a spontaneous love welling up in the mother's heart towards her child long before that child has developed any qualities to win love. The love springs from the relationship that exists between the child and the parent, and it exists before there has been time and opportunity to develop a loveable character. And there is still love in the mother's heart from the relationship, if, after there has been time to form a loveable character, no such character is manifested--if there is no response to the parent's love. There is this spontaneous love in God for all His human children--a love that, even when it meets with no response, does not cease to pity those who reject it. _"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"_ (Rom. v. 8). _"But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us"_ (Titus iii. 4, 5). But the spiritual love which God has to righteous men--to men of integrity--to men who are sincere in their love of righteousness, and who make conformity to it the end and aim of their life (see on chap. xi. 3, page 196), is a love which springs from likeness of character. It is the personal love of a perfectly Righteous Being for persons whose characters, in some degree, resemble His own. The good human father loves to see his own character in miniature in that of his child. He delights to see his son _"following after"_ him in his holy habits and feelings--he loves him with a deeper and more joyful love as he sees in him the germs of holy desires and aims which he knows will be more fully developed as he grows into manhood. And so the "Heavenly Father" loves with the love of delight (chap. xii. 22) those of His human sons and daughters who have begun to reflect His image in their hearts and lives, and waits with patience until the blade changes to the ear, and the ear into the full corn--until they are not only _just men,_ but _"just men made perfect"_ (Heb. xii. 23).

+II. One act of a righteous man which God regards with special pleasure.+ "The _prayer of _ the upright." 1. _Because it is an expression of conscious need._ A sense of spiritual need and weakness is indispensable, even to the continuance of a righteous character, much more to its growth. While a man feels his need, he will not only keep what he already has, but will be in the way of getting more. While he feels that he has not _"already attained"_ neither is _"already perfect"_ he will _"follow after"_ perfection, he will _"reach forth unto those things which are before, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God"_--(Phil. iii. 12-14), even to entire and absolute holiness of character. When he prays, he expresses his sense of need, and thus gives proof of that lowliness and contrition of heart without which no man can receive supplies of Divine grace. Therefore God delights in his prayer. 2. _It is an expression of filial confidence._ He not only knows what he wants, but he knows who is able and willing to supply his need. Prayer is in itself an act of faith--it is an expression of belief that _"God is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him"_ (Heb. xi. 6). A human benefactor, especially a human parent, feels that application to him for help is a tribute to his goodness and to his power--it is a manifestation that those who seek his aid are assured of his willingness and ability to meet their need. So with the Divine Friend and Father. He loves to have His compassion and His power confided in by His creatures. 3. _It is an act of obedience._ God has commanded "men always to pray" (Luke xviii. 1). It was a condition to be observed under the Old Testament dispensation, as well as under that of the new. _"Thus saith the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them"_ (Ezek. xxxvi. 37). _ Ask and it shall be given you"_ (Luke xi. 9). The conditions are easy, but they are indispensable. No wise parent gives his children what they desire, except certain conditions are fulfilled. They may be very easy, but in no well-governed family are they dispensed with. So in God's family. True He knows what His children need before they ask Him, even better than the wisest and most tender human parent, but the command is absolute, the condition without exception. Prayer is therefore acceptable to Him because it is an act of obedience to His command.

+III. God abhors the way of the wicked.+ 1. _Because they are at war with their better nature._ There are instincts in every man which are opposed to wrong-doing. There is a light which lightens every man that cometh into the world. When men sin they war against their own better nature. Cain possessed instincts which he must have stifled and trampled down before he could shed his brother's blood, and so it is with every son of Adam. God must hate that which debases the creature whom He created in His own image. 2. _Because their ways are at war with His purpose to bless them._ A wise statesman may conceive a plan which he sees by his superior intelligence is calculated to bring great blessings to his nation. He labours to make the nation see it also--he uses all his reasoning power and all the force of his eloquence to bring it into operation, to make it the law of the land. But the very people whom it is intended to benefit may, from ignorance and prejudice, oppose his wise and beneficent efforts. He looks upon their opposition with the deepest displeasure, because it is opposed to their own welfare. If a son rebel against the plans which a wise and good father has formed for his benefit, the father must be deeply displeased at the obstinacy which thus frustrates his purpose of love and wisdom. God's complaint against Israel was, _"I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me"_ (Isa. i. 2)--rebelled against all His gracious plans and purposes concerning them, and that is His quarrel with the ways of wicked men in general that crosses all His purposes of mercy towards them.

+IV. Their acts of worship are especially displeasing to Him.+ They are offered with no sense of spiritual need--with no desire to forsake sin. When such men engage in outward acts of worship it is as if a thief were to offer to his judge some of his unlawful gain as a bribe to be allowed to go free of punishment. God so regarded the sacrifices of Israel when they came into His courts with _"hands full of blood." "Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth"_ (Isa. i. 14, 15). They were an abomination to Jehovah because the hearts of the men who offered them were in love with sin and desired only, if possible, to escape the penalty due to it. Men in all ages would have been well pleased to "be pardoned and to retain the offence," but the very suggestion of such a thing is a gross insult to the righteousness of God, and as this is the only construction that can be put upon a drawing near to Him in outward service while the heart is far from Him (Isa. xxix. 13), the _sacrifice_ of the wicked must be the act most abhorrent to God of a way which is altogether an "abomination unto Him."

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 8. When an ungodly man prays, it is not the _act of prayer_ that constitutes the sin, it is the want of a _praying heart._ The sin is _in him,_ not in his prayer.--_Wardlaw._

The formal devotion of a faithless man is not worth the crust of bread which he asks.--_T. Adams._

Man judges by acts, God by principles. _The sacrifice of the wicked,_ though it be part of God's own service, yet "will be found in His register in the catalogue of sins to be accounted for" (_Bp. Hopkins_). Is he then finally rejected? Far from it. His desire to seek the Lord would be the beginning of the prayer that ensures acceptance. That which brings acceptance is--not the perfection, but the simplicity of uprightness.--_Bridges._

"Sacrifice and prayer" are not here contrasted as the higher and the lower, but "sacrifice" is a gift to God, "prayer" is desiring from Him (Comp. Isa. i. 11, 15, etc.). Yet this is by no means an essential difference; for both sacrifice and prayer, which indeed fall likewise under the category of offering in the broadest sense (Ps. cxix. 108; Heb. xiii. 15) come under consideration here only as general tokens of reverence for God; and the value of both is clearly defined by this test, whether the state of heart is or is not well pleasing to God.--_Lange's Commentary._

It is not works that make the man good, but when a man is justified his works are also good. God in His grace makes well pleasing to Himself the works that come of faith, even though great imperfections still mingle with them.--_Starke._

_"The sacrifice of the wicked,"_ though it may be very costly--the column of Stylites, the hook-swinging of the east, the millions of anxious charity--without grace must be purely sin. _"The prayer of the upright,"_ though it _asks_ instead of _gives,_ yet it is a _delight,_ where the other is an _abomination._ A man may serve God out of sheer selfish wickedness. Moreover, _all_ are abominable. There is no just man upon earth. But the righteous has the righteousness of Christ; while these others are left, without a cover, to their own abominable guiltiness.--_Miller._

Works _materially_ good many never prove so _formally_ and _eventually,_ viz.: (1) When they proceed not from a right principle; (2) When they tend not to a right end. The glory of God must consume all other ends, as the sun puts out the light of the fire. But the prayer that proceeds from an upright heart, though but faint and feeble, doth come before God, even "into His ears" (Psa. xviii. 6), and so strangely charms Him (Isa. xxvi. 16) that He breaks forth into these words: "Ask me of things concerning my sons, and concerning the works of my hands command ye me" (Isa. xlv. 11). Oh that we understood the latitude of this royal charter!--_Trapp._

Verse 9. "The way of the wicked is abomination." Not his sacrifices only, but his civilities: all his actions--natural, moral, recreative, religious--are offensive to God. The very "ploughing of the wicked is sin" (Prov. xxi. 4). . . . But He loveth him that followeth after righteousness, although he fulfil not all righteousness, yet if he make after it with might and main, if he pursue it and have it in chase, "if by any means he may attain to the resurrection of the dead" (Phil. iii. 11); that is, the height of holiness that accompanies the resurrection: this is the man whom God loves. Now God's love is not an empty love; it is not like the winter sun, that casteth a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little warmth and comfort. "Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; those that remember Thee in Thy ways" (Isa. lxiv. 5), "that think upon Thy commandments to do them" (Psa. ciii. 20), that are weak but willing (Heb. xiii. 8), that are lifting at the latch, though they cannot do up the door: "Surely, shall every such one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength" (Isa. xlv. 24). "Righteousness," that is, mercy to those that come over to Him, and "strength" to enable them to come, as the sea sends out waters to fetch us to it.--_Trapp._

The way of the wicked and the abomination of the Lord go on with equal paces. It is his way, because he leadeth himself in it, refusing to follow the guide of instruction: and God's way it is, wherein His abomination pursueth after him. . . . St. Bernard saith, "God loveth, neither doth this arise from anything in others, but Himself it is from whence He loveth; and therefore the more vehemently, because He doth not so much love, as rather Himself is love."--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 10.

OUT OF THE WAY.

+I. There is a pre-ordained way for man to walk in.+ 1. _Nature suggests this._ Everything there speaks of law and order. 2. _Conscience suggests it._ 3. _Revelation declares it._ (On this subject see Homiletics on chap. xii. 28; xiii. 13, 14; pages 291 and 313.)

+II. A man may break loose from this God-ordained path.+ That he _can_ do this is his glory; that he _does_ do it is his shame. A convict is compelled to keep to a certain path, he is obliged to conform to a routine laid down for him by another. His outward life is governed by no will of his own, all his acts are prescribed by an authority which he cannot resist. But God will not keep men in the way in which He desires them to walk by such means. He did not so fence about the angels in heaven. They were "free to fall," and so are we. God treats His creatures as free men, not as prisoners. They have power to choose when they will serve; they are free to choose the way in which they will walk. All the force that is exerted over them is the force of moral suasion.

+III. The correction that follows this forsaking of the way is intended to punish and to reclaim.+ In all well-ordered human governments, and in all well-governed families, the main intention of punishment (except in the case of capital punishment) is improvement of character. This ought to be the chief aim of all human correction. It is the main intention in all the chastisements of God in this world. There is no retribution which comes to man in this world which will not, if accepted in a right spirit, become a means of restoring him to the forsaken path; therefore

+IV. To hate reproof is to shut out all possibility of moral restoration.+ A man who will not be reproved denies the imperfection of his nature. Every imperfect being must need correction, and for man to rebel against the chastisement of God is to pass sentence of death upon himself. (On this subject see Homiletics on chapters iii. 11, 12; xii. 1; xiii. 18; pages 247, 323, etc.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

We should always look hopefully at a sinner under _correction._ For, surely, so long as the physician administers the medicine, there is no ground for despondency. . . . This costly teaching brings us on wonderfully. Lord! let me know the smart of Thy rod rather than the eclipse of Thy love.--_Bridges._

There are three sorts of passengers that go out of the way. He that mistaketh the way, he that forsaketh his way, and he that loveth to be out of the way. Many miss the way who never were in it, or, being in the way, were missed from it, and these, oftentimes, are glad to be corrected and brought into the way. He forsaketh the way who at first is set in it, and seeing how to go on aright, yet willingly departeth from it: to such an one correction is grievous, and he suffereth it with trouble, but yet many times he is reduced by it. He loveth to be out of the way who hateth reproof, and of his amendment there is little hope. . . . The force of the verse is, that the suffering of correction is grievous, but that the hating of reproof is most pernicious.--_Jermin._

Of all sinners, reproofs are worse resented by apostates.--_Henry._

_"Discipline is an evil to him who forsakes the path."_ (See rendering in Critical Notes.) In our common version this idea is not brought out. It is a very grave one. Men not converted, but steadily _"forsaking the path of holiness,"_ are injured by _"discipline."_ In _"hating reproof"_ they go through the very soul-action which we mean when we say, _"they die."_ Each _"hating"_ emotion kills them. And this is the very philosophy of the _letter-killing_ (2 Cor. iii. 6); not that it is poison in itself, but that the Gospel awakens opposition, which, on its part, corrupts the mind.--_Miller._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 11.

TWO WORLDS.

+I. Two worlds out of reach of the human senses--the world of departed men and the human soul.+ Both these mysterious worlds are shut out or shut in from the eye of man by the bolts and bars of his bodily senses. How exceedingly small a portion of the vast universe of God is revealed to the eye of sense! The small globe upon which man finds himself is nearly all that he can possibly know with his bodily vision. Reason may tell him that there is much more, faith may afford him clearer evidence of things not seen (Heb. xi. 1), but over all there is a veil drawn. The vast world, where dwells the great majority of the human race--that unseen home, peopled with the spirits of just men made perfect, and the dwelling-place of the spirits of the unjust--are regions entirely beyond the reach of human sight. And there is another world equally out of the reach of his vision. He has never seen the soul of any one of the thousands of fellow-men with whom he has come in contact. He has never read the heart of his most intimate friend. His own "living soul," even that which is _himself,_ has never been apprehended by his bodily senses. He has never touched or looked upon _that._

+II. But both these invisible worlds are entirely open to the eye of God.+ The world of spirits and the individual soul of each man are seen by Him as plainly as we see the material world around us, or as we see the bodies of our fellow-creatures. And they are far more fully comprehended by Him than the visible things upon which our eyes rest every day are comprehended by us. For what do we really know of the essential properties of that by which we are surrounded? Is not our very bodily organism a mystery to us? But each soul of each individual man in the body, and each "unclothed" (2 Cor. v. 4) spirit in the worlds of the departed is "naked and open" in the eyes of Him with whom each one "has to do" (Heb. iv. 13) as really and as intimately as if in all the universe there was only one creature of whom the omniscient Creator had to take cognizance.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

It is the gross persuasion of some, as if hell and destruction were only things that God did set before us, and that they were not before Him; as if they were things wherewith God did only terrify us, and which should never be. But the wise man telleth us, that they are before the Lord, and that though we know not where hell is and what is done there, yet it is before God's eyes. And, therefore, though the heart of the children of men be made as deep as hell by hellish devices, yet much more is that manifest to God. The heart of man is more manifest to Him than it is to himself. Wherefore St. Augustine, speaking unto God, saith, "Thou wert within, and I was without." For, indeed, God is often within and knoweth what our hearts are, when we ourselves are without and do not know them.--_Jermin._

This terrible truth these hearts secretly know, and their desperate writhings to shake it off show how much they dislike it. The Romish confessional is one of the most pregnant facts in the history of man. It is a monument and measure of the guilty creature's enmity against God. . . . We have wondered at the blindness and stupidity of our common nature in permitting a man, not more holy than his neighbours, to stand in the place of God to a brother's soul. There is cause for grief, but not ground for surprise. The phenomenon proceeds in the way of natural law. It is the common, well understood process of compounding for the security of the whole, by the voluntary surrender of a part. The confessional is a kind of insurance office where periodical exposure of the heart to a man is the premium paid for fancied impunity in hiding that heart altogether from the deeper scrutiny of the all-seeing God. . . . It is God's love from the face of Jesus Christ shining into my dark heart that makes my heart open and delight to be His dwelling-place. The eye of the just Avenger I cannot endure to be in the place of sin; but the eye of the compassionate Physician I shall gladly admit into this place of disease.--_Arnot._

_"Because also the hearts of the children of men."_ (See Miller's rendering in Critical Notes.) The intimation is _God knows hell because He knows man._ He knows that "hating reproof," we die (verse 10), and just how fast we die or sink by each act of hating. In other words, he knows how fast sin grows under an administration of justice; and, therefore, how far a given sinner will have gone down, at any date, through his eternal age.--_Miller._

This verse may denote that the deepest machinations of the prince of hell, and of all his legions of fallen angels, are open to the Lord's inspection, and must end in their disappointment and deeper torment; how, then can man, who is so inferior in sagacity and subtlety, expect to hide his counsels from God, or to prosper in rebellion against Him? "There is nothing so deep or secret that can be hid from the eyes of God, much less man's thoughts."--_Scott._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 12.

SELF-DESTROYED.

+I. That a scorner is in hopeless ignorance.+ "Neither will he go unto the wise." If a thirsty man will not go to the river to which he has free and easy access, there is no hope of his thirst being quenched. If he will not apply to the only source whence his need can be supplied, he must remain in his needy condition. If a man who is sick will not apply to him who is able to cure his malady, the probability is that he will remain under the influence of disease, and die of his malady. If a man who is ignorant of the revelation of God, and of the healing power of Divine truth, refuses to go where wisdom is to be found--viz., among those who have been enlightened by Divine wisdom, there is no hope of his ever emerging from his state of ignorance. God uses one divinely enlightened man to turn another from darkness to light. This is the method of His procedure in His kingdom, and if the scorner rejects this means, he must remain in darkness. He may "go unto the wise" by listening to the voice of the living man, by observing the life of the morally wise, or by reading their thoughts, especially those of the divinely-inspired writers of the Scriptures. Men have begun to learn wisdom by each one of these methods; generally there is the combined influence of the three.

+II. The true source of the scorner's dislike to the company of the wise.+ He "hates reproof." As reproof is knowledge (see ch. xiii. 18, page 323) so an increase of knowledge, if it is not used, is reproof. The words of the wise and the lives of the wise reprove the scorner by increasing his light, and thus adding to his guilt. He therefore "cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved" (John iii. 20). He is like a man who is conscious that he is suffering from a dangerous disease, but who will not submit to the examination of the physician because he knows he would prescribe treatment which, though it would cure, would be painful. No men love reproof any more than they love the surgeon's knife; but wise men submit to the one and the other for the sake of the health to soul and to body which will follow. But the scorner hates the keen-edged weapon of reproof because he does not value the good that would result from patiently bearing the incision.