Chapter XVI (1)

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1.+ Nearly all commentators agree in reading this verse, _"To man belong the preparations of the heart, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord."_ +Preparations,+ lit. _"arrangements," "orderly disposings,"_ as those of an army in array, or as the loaves of the shewbread set in order. +2.+ Miller translates this verse very differently. See comments on the verse. +3. Commit,+ rather _roll._ +Thoughts,+ or _"plans."_ +4. For Himself.+ Many read "for its own purpose, or end." There is much in favour, however, of the reading of the Authorised text. +5. Though hand join in hand,+ literally _"hand to hand,"_ as in chap. xi. 21. This phrase is variously understood. Stuart renders it _"Should hand be added to hand," i.e.,_ although a haughty man should enjoy all his powers of resistance, _"he shall not go unpunished."_ Delitzsch and Zöckler render it _"assuredly,"_ as in chap. xi. 21. See also the comments on the verse. +6. Purged.+ Heb., _kaphar,_ "expiated," or "covered." +9. Deviseth.+ The form of the verb denotes anxious consideration. +10. A Divine sentence,+ literally _"divination," i.e., "an oracle,"_ or _"a decision."_ +"His mouth transgresseth not."+ Stuart and Delitzsch read, _"In judgment his mouth should not prevaricate, or err."_ +11. A just weight,+ literally, _"the scale,"_ "the upright iron in scales which the weigher holds in his hand" (Fausset). +Weights,+ literally _"stones,"_ which were anciently used as weights. +13. "They love him,"+ etc., rather _"he who speaketh right, or uprightly, is loved."_ +18.+ "The Hebrews observe that this verse stands exactly in the centre of the whole book" (Fausset). +19. Lowly,+ or the _"afflicted."_ +20.+ Delitzsch and Zöckler translate the first clause _"He that giveth heed to the Word findeth good."_ Stuart and others, _"He that is prudent respecting any matter."_ Miller says, _"Literally, wise about a word."_ +21. Sweetness,+ or _"grace."_ +Learning,+ or _"instruction."_ +22. Instruction,+ rather _"discipline," "correction."_ +26. He that laboureth, laboureth for himself,+ etc. Zöckler translates _"The spirit of the labourer laboureth for him, for his mouth urgeth him on."_ Stuart--_"The appetite of him who toils is toilsome to him_ (_i.e._, makes him exert himself) _for his mouth urgeth him on."_ Delitzsch--_"The hunger of the labourer laboreth for him,"_ etc. Miller--_"The labouring soul labours for it, for its mouth imposeth it upon him."_ (See his comment.) +28. A whisperer,+ _i.e.,_ _"a backbiter."_ +30. Moving,+ or _compressing,_ indicating resolution, or _biting,_ indicative of scorn and malice.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.

THE HEART AND THE TONGUE.

+I. The human heart needs preparation.+ 1. _It needs to be prepared for the reception of moral truth._ When the earth was _"without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,"_ it was not in a condition to receive seed into its bosom. There was a need of preparation before it was fit to receive seed which would produce "herb after its kind." Light must play upon its surface, heat and moisture must penetrate the soil. And man's heart, in his present fallen condition, is like the earth before the _"Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light: and there was light."_ It needs some preparation before it can receive the truth of God so as to be benefited by it--before it is that _"good ground"_ into which, when the _"good seed"_ falls, it _"brings forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold"_ (Matt. xiii. 3-8). As the plough must break the clods before the seed can be sown with any hope of harvest, so the _"fallow-ground"_ of the heart must be broken up--must undergo some preparation before it can be a profitable receiver of moral truth (Hosea i. 12). Our Lord, in the parable of the sower, teaches most distinctly the truth that the good which is derived from hearing Divine truth depends upon the state of heart of him who hears. 2. _It needs to be prepared to yield moral truth._ All the preparation of the earth is to the end--not that it should be a _receiver,_ but a _giver._ The seed is sown not that it should remain in the soil but that _the earth should "bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater"_ (Isa. lv. 10). So it is with the human soul. It takes in the thoughts of God, that it may translate them into holy words and deeds. The "preparation of the heart" is but a means to "the answer of the tongue." Out of the "good treasure of the heart" good things are expected to issue (Matt. xii. 35). But unless there is preparation to _receive_ there can be no _giving_ out of anything that is worth the giving. The quality of the water that comes to the lip of the drinker depends upon the quality of the water that fills the well. As we have often before remarked, the "tree" must be first "good," and then the "fruit will be good" (Matt. xii. 33). He whose heart is prepared by Divine influence to receive the Divine Word will not be at a loss for such an "answer of the tongue" as will bring glory to God, honour to himself, and blessings to others.

+II. The preparation of the heart, and, therefore, the answer of the tongue, depends upon God.+ In nature laws are constantly at work to bring to pass certain facts and results, and man works with these laws, and in obedience to them. But behind the laws there must be a law-giver--behind the working there must be a worker--and this worker and law-giver is God. The preparation of the earth is the work of man; yet both the preparation of the earth and the answer of the earth to that preparation is from God. There would be no harvest if the husbandman did not toil; but there would be no harvest if behind him and his toil there was not the Life-Giver. God is the spring of all activities, not only in the sower of the seed, but in the seed which is sown and in the earth in which it germinates. So in the preparation of the heart, and the right use of the tongue. Man's freedom and responsibility in these matters are insisted upon in the oracles of God. He and he alone is to be blamed if his heart is not prepared to receive the words of God. He is commanded as we saw just now to "break up his fallow ground" (Jer. iv. 3)--to prepare his spirit for the reception of Divine truth. Yet if a man's heart is thus prepared, and if by preparation of heart his tongue is able to speak good words, he is not the sole producer of the result. Behind the springs of thinking--behind the means used by the man himself--God is working "both to will and to do of His good pleasure." God claims to be the Author of all good, whether in the bud of thought or in the fruit of action. From Him "all good counsels and all just works do proceed." This is the teaching of the verse as it stands in our English Bible, but many commentators translate the verse differently. (See Critical Notes.) The thought as thus translated is similar to that in verse 9, upon which see Homiletics.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

The great doctrine of all Scripture is, that _heart_ religion is true religion. In nothing is Christianity more distinguished from all other systems of religion than in the moral purity which it inculcates and which it provides the means of producing. Other religions multiply articles of faith and ritual observances, and pompous ceremonials: this alone fixes upon the internal character of the worshipper and the actual state of the heart before God. God first gives grace, and then owns and honours the grace which He gives. "The preparations of the heart are of the Lord;" "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (chap. xv. 8). This was discovered long before Solomon's time. It was from the very first the primary design of the religion of the Bible. "_By faith_ Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (Heb. xi. 4). . . . It is God's prerogative to prepare the heart for Himself, and he does this especially, by establishing the principles of grace and holiness in the mind, and then actuating the habits of grace which His own Spirit has implanted. We need preparation--1. _For spiritual worship._ The worship of God, as it necessarily includes all the devout affections, is the most spiritual act in which we are engaged. In prayer, in reading and hearing God's word, and in approaching the sacramental table, we have especially to do with God, in the gracious relations in which He stands to us. And as these exercises raise us above the ordinary level of the world, and are foreign to our ordinary habits of thought and emotion as the creatures of dust and time, we need especial assistance to fix our attention, to purify our motives, and to realise the presence of the Master of assemblies. We need "grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Heb. xii. 28). This preparation of the heart is God's gift, it is God's promise, it is the Church's hope, and it has been realised in the experience of God's faithful people in the ordinances of His appointment. 2. _For active service._ Christians have much to do for God in the world, in the family, in the Church, in the disposal of their ordinary business, etc. In all these things wisdom is needed to direct, and wisdom should be sought from Him. 3. _For patient suffering._ It is a great thing to have a heart prepared for suffering. One important requisite is, _to anticipate its approach,_ that that day may not come upon us unawares, that trial may not entangle us in temptation, but may, like the overflowings of the Nile, leave the means of fertility behind. Another requisite is that we should _expect to meet with God in affliction._ When God announces a long succession of national judgments, He says, "And because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel" (Amos iv. 12). This text is usually applied to death and judgment, but it really relates to worldly disasters, and teaches that God would have us _prepare to meet Him_ in the distressing changes of human life. 4. _For enjoyment._ If there is much to be suffered there is also much to be enjoyed. But a time of prosperity needs _heart preparation,_ lest a time of ease be a time of danger. "It is the bright day brings out the adder, and that craves wary walking." It was when Noah had escaped the deluge, and had gathered in his first vintage from the grapes he had planted, that he drank of the wine and was drunken. David, safe in the wilderness, was entangled in fatal snares when walking on the roof of his palace. (_Note._ Though heart preparation is from God, it is not given as a premium to sloth, but in proportion to the earnestness with which we seek the grace. The following passage from a letter of Colonel Gardiner tells how that man of God sought preparation from God for the Lord's Supper. "I took a walk on the hills and mountains over against Ireland. And could I give you a description of what passed there, you would agree that I had much better reason to remember my God from the hills of Port P------ than David from the Hermonites, the land of Jordan, and the hill Mizar. In short, I wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant some hours, and made supplication to Him with strong crying and tears until I had almost expired, but He strengthened me till I had power with God. You will be able to judge by what you have felt upon like occasions, after such a preparatory work, how blessed the Lord's Supper was to me.")--_S. Thodey._

Man may lay out his plans, but God alone can give them effect in answer to the tongue of prayer (ver. 9; chap. xix. 21; 2 Cor. iii. 5).--_Maurer._

Often what you dispose in the aptest order in your heart you cannot also express suitably with your tongue. What one aptly speaks is from God.--_Mercer._

Men often determine in heart to say something, but God overrules their tongue so as to say something utterly different, as in Balaam's case (Num. xxiii).--_Menochius._

God takes the stone out of the heart that it may feel (Ezek. xxxvi. 26); draws it that it may follow; quickens it that it may live. He opens the heart that He may imprint His own law, and mould it into His own image (Acts xvi. 14; Jer. xxxi. 33). He works, not merely by moral suasion or by the bare proposal of means of uncertain power, but by the invisible Almighty agency. The work then begins with God. It is not that we first come, and then are taught; but first we learn, then we come (John vi. 45). . . . Shall we then wait indolently till He works? Far from it. We must work, but in dependence upon Him. He works not without us, but with us, through us, in us, by us, and we work in Him (Phil. ii. 13; Job xi. 13). Ours is the duty, His is the strength; ours the agency, His the quickening grace. "The work, as it is a duty, is ours; but as a performance it is God's" (Bishop Reynolds).--_Bridges._

Undoubtedly we arrange and plan. That is a matter of consciousness. But these are but the tools of the Designer. He uses our plannings to shape the last word to His mind. . . . The _"arrangings of the heart"_ are, indeed, as much God's as the final _"decree,"_ because, in brief, everything is. He destines everything; but not in the same sense in which they are consciously man's. They precede the end, and are present. They cannot determine the end, that is future. I cannot determine now what I will say the next moment. God can. I can and do arrange. But at any convenient point, at any interval, even the very least, God can swing me round. What I shall say is a part of His providence. I cannot ordain to say it in such a way as that it shall be said. In the smallest interval that follows God may tempt Pharaoh, and he may have new views as to letting the children of Israel go. God cannot tempt me to evil; but He can govern by the privation of good. And, therefore, "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever He will." This, of course, implicates God, to our weak seeming, in the sins of the wicked. The next verse discharges Him from any such accountability. (See Miller's rendering of verse 2, in his comments.)--_Miller._

Though a man have never so exactly marshalled his matter in hand, as it were, in battle array, as the Hebrew imports, though he have set down with himself both what and how to speak, yet he shall never be able to bring forth his conception without the help of God. . . . Digressions are not always unuseful. God's Spirit sometimes draws aside the doctrine to satisfy some soul which the preacher knows not. But though God may force it, yet man may not frame it.--_Trapp._

This is a matter of experience to which the preacher, the public speaker, the author, and every man to whom his calling or circumstances present a weighty difficult theme, can attest. As the thoughts pursue one another in the mind, attempts are made and again abandoned; the state of the heart is somewhat like that of chaos before the creation. But when, finally, the right thought and the right utterance for it are found, that which is found appears to us, not as if self-discovered, but as a gift; we regard it with the feeling that a higher power has influenced our thoughts and imaginings; the confession by us "our sufficiency is of God" (2 Cor. iii. 5) in so far as we believe in a living God, is inevitable.--_Delitzsch._

Man doth not carry himself one-half of the way, and then as one wearied is carried the rest by God. But it is God who supporteth him in the heart as well as in the tongue: it is He that supporteth man in the preparations of the heart, as well as in the subsequent proceedings of the man. He is a God of the valleys as well as of the hills; and it is He that worketh as well in the lowest degree of goodness as in the highest. His praise reacheth from the roof of the heart to the tip of the tongue, and all man's goodness is from His grace--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 2.

THE WEIGHER OF SPIRITS.

+I. One man has many ways.+ The text speaks of "all the ways of a man," implying they are numerous and varied. Man is a compound creature--the animal and the spiritual--mind and matter--both go to make up a man, and from this union of different elements come many different wants and wishes, hopes and desires, and from these many _wants_ come many _ways_--many and diversified efforts to satisfy his cravings. He finds himself having many bodily wants, and he seeks many different ways of supplying them. He is generally conscious of intellectual desires, and he seeks ways of satisfaction for them. If he listens to the voice within him, he feels that he has moral needs, and he tries to satisfy them also.

+II. As a rule men generally look with approbation upon their own ways or methods of life.+ A man does this because they are _his_ ways. What is our own generally looks well to use because it is ours. This is especially the case if it is ours by choice--if we have been the main instrument in its becoming ours. The builder looks with partial eyes upon the house that he has planned, the poet upon the poem that he has composed, the painter upon the picture that he has painted, the statesman upon the law that he has introduced. Most men are disposed to judge partially of their own deeds; ungodly men always regard their "own ways" as "clean." The sinner has a way of life which he has chosen for himself, and because it is _his_ way he thinks it is a good way to walk in.

+III. There is therefore need of an impartial Judge to pass sentence upon men's ways.+ Those who look upon us and our ways are generally better judges of us and of them than we are ourselves. They are good judges in proportion as they are wise and disinterested, and have a sincere desire to do us good. From them, if we are not given over to our own conceit and self-will, we may gain much very important truth about our ways. God is a judge who must be perfectly unbiased, and He can have no object in view except our good, therefore when He passes judgment upon our ways, we must accept it as truth. He declares that a man's ways, though clean in his own eyes, are not clean in His; we must not question the decision of absolute goodness and wisdom, and by refusing to have our ways condemned and to accept "His ways" (Isa. lv. 6-8), shut out from ourselves all hope of bettering our lives.

+IV. However one man's ways may deceive another, there is no danger of mistake on the part of God.+ "The Lord weigheth the _spirits._" A man may deceive _himself_ as to the goodness of his ways. Saul of Tarsus certainly did. When he "persecuted unto death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women" (Acts xxii. 4), his ways were "clean in his own eyes." But God weighed his spirit and found him wanting. And a man may deceive _others._ His outer garment may be so spotless that his fellows may not suspect what is hidden beneath. But there is an eye that can go beneath the surface--_"discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart;"_ there is One whose glory it is that _"He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears,"_ and whose judgment, therefore is _"righteousness"_ and _"equity"_ (Isa. xi. 3, 4).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

_"As to all the ways of a man, pure in His own eyes, while yet he weighs out spirits, is Jehovah."_ This change is very bold, and yet, really, not so bold as the old readings. It explains why _"pure"_ is found to be in the singular. The common version, besides that disagreement of number, is strained, in sense, materially. There are instances of like thought (Psa. xxxvi. 2), and, in one case, great similarity of language (chap. xii. 15); but the emphasis, in the present instance, seems stronger than in any of the rest, and would make us pause. It is not altogether true, the "all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes." Moreover, the case most like it (chap. xxi. 2), and which might seem irrefragably to establish it in its sense, we shall find habited in the same way. . . . And while our common version would jump needlessly into another subject, the one I give fits most perfectly. God moves man as He lists (ver. 1), and yet, as to the ways of a man, He is right in His own eyes while _"He weighs out spirits." He weighs out_ to all that which determines them, and that is, gifts according to the measure that He ordained in the Redeemer. He "weighs out" in the sense of taking strict account.--_Miller._

Weighing them, as goldsmiths do their plate and coins, finding them _light_ and _counterfeit_ oftentimes.--_Muffet._

His "weighing the _spirits_" implies that _here_ the moral good or the moral evil really lies. The mere action is in itself incapable of either, independently of what it indicates in the agent. When we speak of a moral action, we mean the action of a moral agent. A dog and a man may do the same action--may carry off, for instance, for their own use respectively, what is the property of another. We never think of calling it a _moral_ action in a dog, but we condemn the man for the commission of a crime against his neighbour, and a sin against his God. An action may even in its effects be beneficial, which in regard to the doer of it is inexcusably _bad:_ it may be good in its results, but bad in its principles.--_Wardlaw._

They that were born in hell know no other heaven; neither goes any man to hell but he has some excuse for it. As covetousness, so most other sins go cloaked and coloured. All is not gold that glitters. A thing that I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness. . . . But God turns up the bottom of the bag as Joseph's stewards did, and then come out all our thefts and misdoings that had so long lain latent.--_Trapp._

The important doctrine deducible from this text is that conscience (simply as _conscience_) is no safe guide, but requires to be informed and regulated by God's Will and Word, and that a _right intention_ is not sufficient to make a good action.--_Wordsworth._

How unclean are man's eyes, in whose eyes all his ways are clean. Certainly whatever a man's sentence may be of himself, there is something in him that gives another judgment. There is a spirit in man whose eyes, though dazzled much, cannot be put out. That seeth and condemneth much uncleanness, which man's wilful blindness and seeing darkness will needs have to be purity. There is a conscience in man which, though enslaved much, yet in many ways goeth contrary to man's perverseness, and condemneth those ways which man approveth. But God is greater than man's heart, and by the exact weights of His conscience discerning the errors of the conscience He pronounceth all a man's ways to be unclean.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THOUGHTS.

+I. There is an intimate connection between a man's works and a man's thoughts.+ Where there is no thinking there can certainly be no profitable work. The skilful workman has the plan of his work in his mind before he begins to use his fingers to execute it, and throughout its progress his thought is as busy as his hand. A work undertaken and carried through without thought is generally a useless work; indeed, it is impossible for working to be entirely independent of thinking.

+II. For the establishment of work there must first be the establishment of the thoughts.+ When a ship is under the guidance of one master-mind, and this mind is self-possessed and thoughtful, all the crew under his rule move with the regularity of clock-work. Order reigns in the leader, and therefore order rules the subordinates. He is the head and they are the hands, and because the one moves in obedience to a fixed purpose, the others do also. His thoughts are established, and therefore the work is done. Every man's thoughts ought to be the guide of his work, and if his thoughts and his intentions are fixed, or established, by being in harmony with the righteous law of God, his works will partake of the same character. The orderliness of his outward life will be the effect of an order that reigns within.

+III. If the thoughts are to be established, our undertakings must be committed to God.+ The learner tells the master what work he intends to undertake--he unfolds to him the plan of the machine he is going to construct, or shows him the design of the house he hopes to build, or the picture which he intends to paint, that he may be strengthened and encouraged in his undertaking, and that he may find out whether he has the approval of one who is much wiser than himself. If the master approves of his plan his mind is more fully made up, he is strengthened in his determination, his thoughts are established. Before he might have wavered, but now that he has submitted all his plans to one in whom he has full confidence and obtained his approval, he sets to work with a goodwill which is an earnest of success. If in all our undertakings in life we lay our plans before the Lord, and if we find, upon consulting His Word, that they are not in any way contrary to His Will, but appear to be in conformity with it, our minds have rest, our hopes of success grow stronger, and our energy is quickened to go forward. The establishment of our thought tends to the establishment of our work.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

I consider that work as good as done, that trial as good as borne, which I have solemnly committed to God in prayer.--_Fausset._

This counsel implies--1. _That all our purposes and doings should be in accordance with God's Will._ How is it possible to commit them to God otherwise? . . . We ought not to form or pursue any purpose unless we can, _with confidence,_ acknowledge God in it. The maxim by which, as Christians, we should be regulated, is to be found in the words--"Whatsoever is not of faith"--whatsoever does not proceed from a full conviction of right--"is sin" (Rom. xiv. 23). 2. _That none of our works can prosper without God._ This is a lesson of which the Divine Word is full (Psa. cxxvii. 1; Dan. v. 23; James iv. 13-16), etc. 3. _That it is, therefore, the obvious and imperative duty of intelligent creatures to own their dependence. . . ._ This is a counsel to which, despite all the theories and speculations of infidelity, natural conscience gives its sanction. 4. _That what is our duty is at the same time our interest._ The act of committing all things into the hands of God to be regulated as He may see fit, preserves the spirit from corroding anxiety. 5. _God will graciously smile on the efforts, and accomplish the purpose and wishes of him who seeks His blessing._ God will second and prosper, and fulfil the purposes he forms, and the desires he cherishes, crowning his endeavours with success.--_Wardlaw._

_Roll thy doings in the direction of Jehovah; and they shall have success according to thy plans. "Roll,"_ not exactly _commit. "In the direction_ of" the preposition _towards. Trust,_ therefore, is less implied than an attitude of _service. Roll forward thy work in the direction of Jehovah;_ that is, with an eye to Him; in a harmony with Him, recognising His plans (ver. 4): and what will be the result? Why, God means to have His way at any rate. Our works will _"have success,"_ one or the other fashion, in His scheme of Providence. He works in the work even of Beelzebub. But if we act _"in the direction of"_ His Will, they will have success _as we planned them._ That seems to be the meaning. We might read, "thy plans shall have success." . . . The whole would then mean, _"thy doings"_ shall _"have success"_ (literally, be made to stand) _as_ thy plans, or _in the shape_ thy plans gave them. Or, in other words, God, having an express purpose for all you do (ver. 4), will give success to your work at any rate. He has the exact niche for all you work at. But, if you turn it _in His direction,_ and aim with it at His Will, He will aim at yours; that is, He will give a success _after your plan;_ if not in the actual letter, still, in what is far the best, in the way best suited to your peculiar interest.--_Miller._

Never is the heart at rest till it repose in God; till then it flickers up and down, as Noah's dove did upon the face of the flood, and found no footing till she returned to the ark. Perfect trust is blessed with a perfect peace. A famous instance of this we have in our Saviour, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name" (John xii. 27). All the while the eye of His humanity was fixed upon deliverance from the hour of His temptation; there was no peace nor rest in His soul, because there He found not only uncertainty, but impossibility. But when he could wait on, acquiesce in, and resign to the will of His Father, we never hear of any more objection, fear, or trouble.--_Trapp._

The word "commit" most properly signifieth _cast,_ or _tumble_ thy works unto the Lord. Now, in casting or tumbling, there are three things. First, a regardlessness of any merit in them, for such things are usually tumbled as are little cared for. Secondly, a speediness, for commonly things are tumbled to make the greater haste. Thirdly, there is a weakness and lightness in the things tumbled, for things of weight and strength are not so easily removed. Now, plainly, such are the works of man: there is little solidity or stability in them; tumble them, therefore, upon the Lord--commit them into His hands. And do it speedily; do not defer it until thou seest no farther help in man, but at first betake thyself unto Him, for that will best show the confidence thou hast in Him. And do not fret and vex thyself with care, but tumble and cast thy care upon God. The less thou carest in that manner the more He will care for thee. So that by Him thy works shall be established which of themselves are frail and uncertain; by Him no time shall be lost for the well ordering of them, if thou lose no time in the committing of them to Him. Or else we may take the meaning of the words thus, Put over thy works unto the Lord, and whatsoever thou doest well let Him have the praise of it--let Him have thanks for it. . . . To this purpose Chrysostom borroweth a similitude from the play at ball, saying, "We must cast back and return our works unto God, even as in the play of tennis, the one tosseth, the other tosseth back the ball, and so long the sport handsomely continueth, as the ball tossed and tossed back again between the hands of both doth not fall down." The comfort of that which we have received from God is so long happily continued to us as we return God thanks for it.--_Jermin._

Verses 2, 3. The first of these verses tells us how a man goes wrong, and the second how he may be set right again. He is led into error by doing what pleases himself; the rule for recovery is to commit the works to the Lord, and see that they are such as will please Him. When we weigh our thoughts and actions in the balances of our own desires we shall inevitably go astray. When we lay them before God, and submit to His pleasure, we shall be guided into truth and righteousness. . . . It is a common and sound advice to ask counsel of the Lord before undertaking any work. Here we have the counterpart equally precious--commit the work to the Lord after it is done. The Hebrew idiom gives peculiar emphasis to the precept--roll it over on Jehovah. Mark the beautiful reciprocity of the two, and how they constitute a circle between them. While the act is yet in embryo as a purpose in your mind, ask counsel of the Lord, that it may be crushed in the birth, or embodied in righteousness. When it is embodied bring the work back to the Lord, and give it over into His hand as the fruit of the thought you besought Him to inspire. . . . These two rules following each other in a circle, would make the outspread field of a Christian's life sunny, and green, and fruitful, as the circling of the solar system brightens and fertilises the earth. . . . Perhaps most professing Christians find it easier to go to God beforehand, asking what they should do, than to return to Him afterwards, to place their work in His hands. This may, in part, account for the want of answer to prayer--at least the want of a knowledge that prayer has been answered. If you do not complete the circle your message by telegraph will never reach its destination, and no answer will return. We send in earnest prayer for direction. Thereafter we go into the world of action. But if we do not bring the action back to God the circle of supplication is not completed.--_Arnot._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 4.

ALL THINGS FOR GOD.

+I. There is one Person in the universe who knows the history of all things.+ Jehovah knows all things because He made all things. Some men know the history of their nation and the history of many nations. Others know the history of the philosophies of the world, can tell when and by whom certain ideas were first promulgated and certain methods adopted. There are other men who are acquainted with the history of natural objects, and whose knowledge is so extensive that it embraces the heavens above and the waters under the earth. But there is only One Being who can claim a knowledge of all things and all persons, and that is the Maker of all things. The smith who has beaten a ploughshare out of rough iron can give us the history of the share because he made it. The sculptor who calls into shape and form a beautiful statue knows the day and hour when the statue ceased to be a thing of the imagination only by the first application of his chisel. And he can give the history of its progress from that day until now because he is the author of its existence. So God, having called all things into being at first, and having upheld them ever since by the word of His power, has a perfect knowledge of their history. But He goes farther. No human worker knows anything of the essential nature of the material out of which he fashions his work--he finds that ready to his hand and can tell us but little about it. But God is the Creator of matter; He called it into being at first, and therefore knows not only the history of the formation of things as we see them but the essential qualities of the material out of which they are formed.

+II. Creation is the work of One Being.+ Most things made by man need co-operation. Although they are but inanimate objects they cannot be made by the unaided efforts of one creature. He must have the skill and strength of others to help him, either in the actual work itself, or in the preparation of the material, or the tools which he uses. A palace can be built only by the united effort of many hundreds of intelligent creatures, and when they have finished it they have only made a lifeless thing. A ship when in full sail is as much "like a thing of life" as any work of man, yet the movement that makes it look so life-like is not in itself but comes from an external power. Yet inanimate though it is, how many a man gave his toil and his strength to bring into existence this new thing. One thing made by man requires the strength and skill of many, and when made is without life; but the One God is the maker of all things that we see around us, many of which are full of life.

+III. The world is not co-equal with God.+ Matter is one of the "all things" which He has made. This being the case it is not as old as God. He was before the material was out of which _"in the beginning He created the heavens and the earth."_

+IV. The One God is the absolute Lord of all His creatures.+ This is the thought which must be expressed in the second clause of this verse. In considering it we must remember--1. _That the infinitely good God can do no wrong._ In proportion as men are good, certain acts are impossible to them. There are human beings who we feel are incapable of certain immoral acts. In proportion as men approach in their characters to the character of God it becomes a moral impossibility for them to do wrong to any creature. It is, therefore, conceivable that if we could find a man who was perfectly true and good we should find a being who could do no wrong. We cannot find such an absolute being among fallen men, but we do have such a Being in God. He is absolute goodness and righteousness and truth--as to His character, _"He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."_ It is, therefore, impossible for Him in any way to be author of sin. Being absolute goodness, He cannot make a wicked man. He hates sin, and cannot increase it by creating wickedness. It is an impossibility for Him to be the author of wrong in any way. 2. _That all His plans and purposes are manifestly directed to making men good._ If any person were to declare that God delighted or purposed that His creatures should live in darkness, we should point to the sun in the heavens as a direct refutation of such a statement. To any who declare that God is indifferent as to whether men live in sin or not, we point to the Bible and to the incarnation and death of His Son as the most emphatic denial of such an assertion. And if, in the face of such facts, it is impossible to believe that God is indifferent as to human character, it is a thousand times more impossible to conceive the possibility of His creating a "wicked man." 3. _Therefore no man can be brought to a "day of evil" except by his own consent._ No man can be brought to perform an evil deed except by his own consent, and consequently he cannot be brought to the consequences of evil without the exercise of his own free will. The human tempter cannot destroy the virtue of his victim unless he first gain his consent, and whatever evil day comes as the consequences, the sinner feels that it is the fruit of his own act. The sting would be removed if he felt that it had come upon him without any deed of his own. Satan certainly believes that he can bring no man to a day of evil without that man's consent. Consequently his great work is that of a _tempter_--a _persuader_--his great aim is to win the will of every man as he won that of our first parents. Nor can God bring a man to a day of evil unless that man consent. He has made man free, and His nature forbids Him to tempt His creatures to evil (Jas. i. 13), much more it makes it impossible that He should coerce their will to the committal of sin, which is the sole cause of all the evil that is found in the universe. The declaration of the text therefore is: 1. That all men exist by the will of God, who desires them to use their present life, so as to be fitted for a higher one. 2. That if a man crosses God's desires and purposes in this matter, he will come to a day of evil. 3. God will use the actions of those who opposed His will against themselves, and for the furtherance of His own purpose. God was the Author of Pharaoh's existence, and if he had yielded to the Divine Will he would by obedience have been raised to a higher condition of life. But when he opposed the Will of God, and put away from him the opportunities of Divine enlightenment, _then_ it might be said that "God created him for the day of evil"--then God over-ruled his opposition to His glory and to Pharaoh's destruction. And so He deals with all who exalt themselves against His will, refusing to fall in with His purpose of mercy towards them.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

_"Even the wicked for the day of evil," i.e.,_ to experience the day of evil, and then to receive His well-merited punishment. It is not specifically the day of final judgment that is directly intended (as though the doctrine here were that of a predestination of the ungodly to eternal damnation), but any day of calamity whatsoever which God has fixed for the ungodly, whether it may overtake him in this or in a future life. Comp. the "day of destruction" (Job xxi. 30), the "day of visitation" (Isa. x. 3).--_Lange's Commentary._

The day of evil is generally understood, and I have myself been accustomed so to explain it, of the day of _final visitation and suffering to the wicked themselves._ But I am now inclined to doubt whether "the day of evil" has here this meaning at all. There is another, of which it is alike susceptible, and which, in Scripture, it frequently bears--namely, the day of primitive visitation, in the inflection of judicial vengeance, in the course of God's providential administration. I question if the _suffering_ of the wicked be intended, and am disposed to refer the phrase to the _instrumental agency_ of the wicked. "The Lord hath made all things for Himself" will thus mean that He employs all as instruments in effecting His purposes, and that thus He makes the wicked as a part of His agency: employing them, without at all interfering with their freedom and their responsibility, as the executioners of wrath, "when He cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity," thus rendering their very passions the means of accomplishing His designs, making "the wrath of man to praise Him, and restraining the remainder of wrath."--_Wardlaw._

If by God's making all things for Himself he meant that He aimed at and intended the manifestation of His wisdom, and power, and goodness in the creation of the world, 'tis most true that in this sense He made all things for Himself; but if we understand it so, as if the goodness of His nature did not constrain Him thereto, but He had some design to serve ends and necessities of His own upon His creatures, this is far from Him. But it is very probable that neither of these is the meaning of this text, which may be rendered with much better sense, and nearer to the Hebrew, thus, _"God hath ordained everything to that which is fit for it, and the wicked hath He ordained for the day of evil;"_ that is, the wisdom of God hath fitted one thing for another, punishment for sin, the evil day to the evil-doer.--_Tillotson._

God made things without life and reason to serve Him passively and subjectively, by administering occasion to man to admire and adore his Maker; but man was made to worship Him actively and affectionately, as sensible of, and affected with, that Divine wisdom, power, and goodness which appear in them. As all things are of Him as the efficient cause, so all things must necessarily be for Him as the final cause. But man is in an especial manner predestinated and elected for this purpose. "Thou art mine; I have created him for my glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him" (Isa. xliii. 1-7).--_Swinnock._

God, in His revelations, hath told us nothing of the second causes which He hath established under Himself for the production of ordinary effects, that we not perplex ourselves about them, but always look up to Him as the first cause, as working without them, or by them, as He sees good. But he hath told us plainly of the final cause, or end of all things, that we may keep our eyes always fixed on that, and accordingly strive all we can to promote it.--_Beveridge._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.

HEART-PRIDE.

+I. That which may be hidden from all others is manifest to One Being.+ There is coin in the world that is not money nor money's worth, although it often passes through the hands of many before its worthlessness is detected. But there are eyes which could tell at once that it was not genuine, and hands which if it came into their possession would soon reduce it to its true level among the baser metals. So there is in the world a feigned humility, which has so much the appearance of the genuine article that no earthly creature suspects that it is the covering of a heart big with pride. But when God judges whether a man is proud or humble He looks through the words and actions at the _heart._ "Everyone that is proud in _heart,_" etc.

+II. God abhors pride.+ 1. _It is entirely contrary to His own nature._ God is entirely without pride. His condescension is one of His most remarkable attributes. God manifest in flesh abased Himself beyond the possibility of any finite creature. _"Being in the form of God . . . [He] made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"_ (Phil. ii. 6-8). We always find that in proportion as men are holy and God-like they are destitute of pride. The proudest men are always those who have least to be proud of. Therefore pride can have no place in the character of the holy and ever-blessed God. 2. _It is opposed to the possessor's well-being._ God not only abhors pride because He is Himself supremely good, but He holds it in abomination because He desires men's good. Whatever is opposed to God's nature must be opposed to man's interest. He who desires the salvation of all His creatures hates pride because it holds men tied and bound in fetters which hinder their approach to Him; because it makes men akin to the fallen angels. (On this subject see also on chapters xi. 1; xiii. 10, page 305, etc.)

+III. Union is no guarantee against punishment.+ "Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished." When that which is an abomination to God is the foundation of a confederation, it must be overthrown by the power of the stronger arm. And it contains within itself an element of overthrow. A house may have an appearance of compactness which may lead a casual onlooker to think it is destined to stand for many a century. But its foundation is in the sand, and its fall is only the work of time, even if storms and tempests never beat upon its walls. So there may be an appearance of strength where pride is the basis of union, but it can be only an appearance. Pride is a dividing force and not a binding one, and all confederations against God being based upon it, they rest only upon a foundation of sand. (See also on chap. xi. 21.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

(1.) If God has made everything for His purpose (ver. 4), how foolish the man who arrogantly forgets Him! (2.) If God has besought us to work under His plans (ver. 3), how wicked the man who proudly mutinies. If God works even in kings (chap. xxi. 1), how absurd the man who would work away from Him. How can it work well? "Hand to hand," _i.e.,_ in close quarters (chap. xi. 21), as we shall come all of us at the last, how can the workers outside of the Almighty possibly _"go unpunished?"--Miller._

How many sins are in this sinful world, and yet, as Lemuel saith of the good wife (Prov. xxxi. 29), "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou surmountest them all." So I may say of pride, many sins have done wickedly, but thou surmountest them all; for the wrathful man, the prodigal man, the lascivious man, the surfeiting man, the slothful man, is rather an enemy to himself than to God; the envious man, the covetous man, the deceitful man, the ungrateful man, is rather an enemy to men than to God; but the proud man sets himself against God, because he doth against His laws, he maketh himself equal with God, because he doth all without God, and craves no help of Him; he exalteth himself above God, because he will have his own will, though it be contrary to God's Will. As the humble man saith, "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name give the glory" (Psa. cxv. 1); so the proud man saith, "Not unto Him, not unto Him, but unto us give glory.". . . Therefore God is specially said to resist the proud, because the proud resist Him. Here is heaven against earth, the Creator against the creature, the father against the son, the Prince against the subject--who is like to win the field? . . . It had been too heavy for them, if he had said the Lord doth not care for them; for God's care preserveth us, and our own care doth but trouble us; but to say that the Lord doth resist them, is as if Michael should denounce war with the dragon till he hath cast him into the pit.--_Henry Smith,_ 1590.

Some make "hand in hand" to be no more than "out of hand," _"immediately,"_ or "with ease," for nothing is sooner or with more ease done than to fold one hand in another. God "shall spread forth His hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim, and He shall bring down their pride together with the spoil of their hands" (Isa. xxv. 11). The motion in swimming is easy, not strong; for strong strokes in the water would rather sink than support. God, with greatest facility, can subdue His stoutest adversary when once it comes to handy-gripes--when once his hands join to the proud man's hand--so some sense this text--so that they do _manus conserere,_ then shall it appear that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Heb. x. 31).--_Trapp._

From hand to hand expresses the consecutive connection of causes through which the Lord works; though the proud escape one occasion of His punishment, yet he is reserved for another.--_Mercer._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 6.

THE PURGING OF INIQUITY.