Chapter XVII (2)

+III. If the miserable effects of strife are to be avoided, it must be attacked in its beginnings.+ Seeing how disastrous are the effects of the leak in the ship, and how much desolation is caused by the ravages of fire or the bursting forth of pent-up water through its banks, it behoves all who are in any way responsible in these matters to be watchful for the first indications of mischief, and to put a stop to it before it gets beyond their power. And if a man would avoid being a party to a quarrel, he must watch narrowly the first risings of anger in his heart and take care that he never utters the _first_ angry word. If the _first_ remains unspoken, a _second_ can never pass his lips; but if in an unguarded moment the angry feeling finds an outlet in angry speech, the speaker himself cannot tell where and how the mischief will end. It may go from words of strife to deeds of strife, and both will entail more misery upon their author than upon him who is the subject of them. The self-interest of every man ought to prompt him to check the beginnings of strife in himself and in others; it is so great an enemy to our social well-being that we are all as much interested in putting a stop to its ravages as we are in arresting the progress of a pestilential disease. But the children of God are specially called to this work. They are bound to be imitators of their Father in this matter, and He is "the God of peace" (Rom. xv. 33). All the plans and purposes of God have for their aim "peace on earth" (Luke ii. 14), and His children ought to emulate His example. And they cannot do otherwise. They have been made partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter i. 4), and the nature of God is eminently peace-loving. If, therefore, a man has been born of God he must delight in social peace and harmony--he must recoil from strife and discord. It is _peacemakers_ that shall be called _"the children of God"_ (Matt. v. 9), and _"He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now"_ (1 John ii. 9).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Man is a sociable-living creature, and should converse with man in love and tranquility. Man should be a supporter of man; is he become an overthrower? O apostasy, not only from religion, but also from humanity! The greatest danger that befalls man comes from where it should least come, from man himself. Lions fight not with lions; serpents spend not their venom on serpents; but man is the main suborner of mischief to his own kind. . . . God hath hewn us all out of one rock, tempered all our bodies of one clay, and spirited our souls of one breath. Therefore, saith Augustine, since we proceed all out of one stock, let us all be of one mind. Beasts molest not their own kind, and birds of a feather fly lovingly together. Not only the blessed angels of heaven agree in mutual harmony, but even the very devils of hell are not divided, lest they ruin their kingdom. We have one greater reason of love and unity observed than all the rest. For whereas God made not all angels of one angel, nor all beasts of the great behemoth, nor all fishes of the huge leviathan, nor all birds of the majestical eagle, yet He made all men of one man.--_T. Adams._

We are but several streams issuing from one primitive source; one blood flows in all our veins; one nourishment repairs our decayed bodies; we are co-habitants of the same earth, and fellow-citizens of the same great commonwealth; and he that hates another detests his own most lively picture; he that harms another injures his own nature. . . . The heavenly angels, when they agree most highly to bless and to wish the greatest happiness to mankind, could not better express their sense than by saying, "Be on earth peace, and goodwill among men."--_Barrow._

It is easier to abstain from a contest than to withdraw from it.--_Seneca._

Both the destructive elements--fire and water--illustrate the danger of the beginning of strife (chap. xxvi. 21). To neither element can we say, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!" (Job xxxviii. 11). . . . Seldom when we have heard the first word, do we hear the last. An inundation of evil is poured in. . . . The bank is much more easily preserved than repaired. . . . For, as one strongly observed, "Man knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the issues thereof?"--_Bridges._

Quietness is like a pleasant pond full of sweet fish sporting themselves up and down in it, and multiplying continually to a great increase; so in a quiet life men's affairs do prosper, and their estate is increased to plenty and abundance, so that they bathe themselves in the comfort of it. But let the sluice be taken up, the fishes are quickly gone, the waters stay not until they be gone also, and nothing but mud and mire is left; and even so let the gap of contention be opened, all comforts flee away, and usually the estates sink lower and lower until it be dried up to beggary and misery. Make up, then, all breaches as soon as they appear, or rather keep all sound by watchfulness, so that no breach may appear. And let not the serpent get in his head, for, because the scales of his body stand the other way, it is not easy to get it out again; because the mind of thine adversary is made averse from thee, it is not easy to end a strife begun.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 15.

INVERSION AND RESTITUTION.

+I. A present inversion of moral order.+ There is an established law, by which things spiritual are governed as well as things material. According to this law, punishment ought to come to the unrighteous and the righteous should be justified; that is, they should be declared to be righteous and treated accordingly. This law must and will prevail in the upshot and issue of things, because the Great Lawgiver of the universe is perfectly just and holy; but it does not always govern the dealings of men with men. Injustice may be meted out to a man by his fellow-man from _ignorance._ A human judge may pass an unjust sentence upon a prisoner, or society may condemn a man undeservedly simply because they are ignorant of all the facts of the case. We are so little capable of weighing all the motives of our fellow-creatures, that we may unwittingly sometimes justify the wicked and condemn the just. But the proverb is evidently directed against those who do it because they are themselves _unrighteous_--against those who are prompted by motives of self-interest or malice or by a simple hatred of good wherever it is found.

+II. A future restitution of moral order.+ If a man has an ear for music, all discordant tones are displeasing to him; but when the law of harmony is entirely subverted, all his musical sensibilities are outraged. So when a righteous man becomes cognizant of some gross injustice his whole soul rises up in protest against it. What therefore must be the light in which the perfectly pure and just God regards such subversion of moral order? He can but regard it with repugnance. But the certainty of this fact makes another fact no less certain--viz., that there will come a period in the history of the universe when this inversion shall cease, when moral order shall be restored, and it shall be no longer possible for the wicked to be justified, or for the righteous to be condemned. Thus saith the Lord, _"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness. . . . Which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel"_ (Isa. v. 20, 23, 24). When this sentence is completely carried out moral order and harmony will be restored to the universe.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

This verse shows that the term justify (Hebrew, _matzeddik_) is forensic, to _pronounce just_ one, even though not just in himself: a keyword in the doctrinal Epistle to the Romans: the opposite of _"condemn"_ or _pronounce impious_ (_mareshiang_).--_Fausset._

That _"both"_ should be, to the expression _"even"_ seems to point to as wonderful. They are both very plain propositions; and yet neither of them, in the mind of the sinner, is free from half-conscious surprise. That God "will by no means clear the guilty" (Exod. xxxiv. 7) and, therefore, that "without the shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22), when learned, is half the Gospel. To learn it easily, would imply that "then hath the offence of the Cross ceased" (Gal. v. 11). God will not condemn Himself in his "righteous" action, and He cannot _"justify the wicked"_ without a mediator; and Solomon, without being able to clear all the difficulties, sets in this sentence as one of the great timbers of thought, which he looks to to defend the Gospel.--_Miller._

He spareth the wolf and so hurteth the lambs; He toucheth the members of Christ and the very apples of the Lord's eye.--_Muffet._

But let us place ourselves before the "Judge of all" accused by Satan, our own conscience, and the righteous law of God; convicted of every charge; yet justified. Does God then in thus "justifying the ungodly" (Rom. iv. 5) contravene this rule? Far from it. If He _justifies the wicked,_ it is on account of righteousness (Ib. iii. 25, 26). If He _condemns the just,_ it is on the imputation of unrighteousness. Nowhere throughout the universe do the moral perfections of the Governor of the world shine so gloriously as at the cross of Calvary. The satisfaction of the holy law, and the manifestation of righteous mercy, harmonise with the justification of the condemned sinner. And this combined glory tunes the song of everlasting praise.--_Bridges._

That condemning the just is a grievous crime, there is no doubt. But some will be startled at the wise man's assertion, that justifying the wicked is a crime of the like nature and malignity. But we rebel against God by turning to the right hand, as well as by turning to the left, from that way in which we are commanded to walk. Justifying the wicked has an appearance of mercy in it, but there is cruelty to millions in unreasonable acts of mercy to individuals. It was not altogether without ground observed by a senator to the Emperor Cocceius Nerva, when his detestation of his predecessor's cruelty seduced him into the extreme of clemency,--That it was bad to live in a state where every thing was forbidden, but worse to live in a state where every thing was allowed. Historians tell us, that the provinces of the empire suffered more oppression under the administration of this mild prince, than in the bloody reign of Domitian.--_Lawson._

As in the administration of justice, in the world or in the Church, so in the official declaration of doctrine and of duty, _faithfulness_ is the first and most essential qualification. No "gift," no bribe, no love of gain,--or, in the apostle's words, "greed of filthy lucre,"--must ever be allowed to corrupt "the man of God," and tempt him either to pervert or to keep back the truth--to "shun to declare" any part of "the counsel of God," or to utter a single sentiment but what he believes to be a lesson of God's Word, a Divinely authorised message. For a minister of Christ either to say what is false or to withhold what is true, from a wish to please those on whom he may feel himself dependent, is as unworthy of him as for a judge on the civil bench to pervert justice, and may be to others unspeakably more mischievous. The decisions of the latter can affect only what is temporary; the effects of the former's unfaithful temporising may extend to eternity. The guilt of the former, therefore, may be greater than that of the latter, in the proportion of the value of the _soul_ to the _body,_ of _eternity_ to _time._ There must be no bribery or corruption here. O to be able to say with Paul, "I am clear from the blood of all men."--_Wardlaw._

When Jacob, blessing the sons of Joseph, put his hands across, and laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh the elder, the thing displeased Joseph. But Jacob refused to have his hands removed. Now that which Jacob did in the blessing of his grandchildren, the same is the cursed doing of many who in the world are seated in the place of justice. For those whom God setteth on His right hand, they set on the left, those who God setteth on His left hand they set on the right. . . . And though God Himself call to them, _Not so,_ yet they refuse to alter their sentence. . . . And though their hands in justifying go across, yet being joined together in wickedness they are both an abomination to the Lord.--_Jermin._

_He that saith to the wicked, thou are righteous_ (1) condemneth the law of God, for that condemneth the wicked; (2) doth as much as he may to bring sin into credit, that others also should practise it without fear or reproach; (3) hardeneth the heart and hurteth the soul of the offender, debarring him from corrections, which are God's medicines for the curing of evils. He dealeth as a murderer under the name of a physician that encourageth his patient to eat the poison freely.--_Dod._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 16.

NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES.

+I. One of the uses which ought to be made of wealth.+ Men ought to use it to "get wisdom." it is obvious that a wealthy man has more opportunities of gaining knowledge than a poor man has, and an increase of knowledge ought to make a man wiser. A rich man's wealth gives him access to the wisdom of the great minds of past ages, and it often obtains for him the companionship of the most learned men of his own generation. It enables him to gain a knowledge of the world on which he lives and of the men who people it; by travel he can stand face to face with all the glorious works of God in nature, and he can mingle with men of various races and see human nature in all its various phases. And these experiences ought to make him a wise man. Wealth is given to men for this purpose, among others, to make them intellectually and morally better--for although spiritual blessings cannot be purchased for money, yet where the grace of God is in the heart, the "price in the hand" will increase a man's opportunities of growing in the knowledge of God and in the practice of godliness. Those who are _"rich in this world"_ may and ought to lay _"up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life"_ (1 Tim. i. 17-19). Their wealth ought not to be a hindrance but a help to high spiritual attainments. When we use bread rightly we get strength out of it; when we use water rightly we get refreshment out of it; when we use light rightly we get guidance out of it; and when the gift of wealth is rightly used, men get wisdom out of it.

+II. Wealth bestowed, where we can give no reason for its bestowal.+ Wealth in the hand of a fool seems thrown away. If we saw a bundle of bank-notes in the hands of an infant we should at once say they were in the wrong hand; but many a princely fortune is at the disposal of men who are as incapable now of putting it to a good use, as they were when they were children. Neither the head nor the heart are capable of guiding the hand--there is neither moral nor intellectual capability to make the riches the means of blessing even the possessor. _"Wherefore,"_ then, _"is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom,"_ especially when there are so many men in poverty who would make the best possible use of riches? We cannot answer the question. Even the wise man does not attempt to solve the problem. Men daily come face to face with facts connected with human existence which they cannot explain. In some of these they can see adaptation; although they cannot tell _how_ it is that the thing is so, they can discern a _fitness_ in its being so. But there are other facts in the government of God for which we can assign no reason, and the "price in the hand of a fool" is one of them. The Divine Ruler of men's destines fulfils His wise purposes in ways and by means which often perplex His finite creatures.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

We understand the term _"a price,"_ as signifying _whatever puts it in anyone's power to acquire_ the particular object. The phraseology is borrowed from the _market._ Any article, we are wont to say, may be had there, if a man has but the price to pay for it. What the _"price"_ is to the article wanted, the _means of acquiring_ are to _"wisdom."_ When we wish to put any article of ordinary merchandise within a person's power, we furnish that person with the price at which it is valued. There are cases, however, in which this may not be enough. The price may be in a man's hand, and yet the article may not be within his reach, not, at the time, to be had. Happily, it is never so with the wisdom here spoken of. If the means are possessed of acquiring it, it may always be acquired. It is in the hand of God himself; and He is never either at a distance that we cannot repair to Him, or unwilling to bestow it upon us when we come to Him for it--_bestow_ it, I say, for we must remember, with regard to divine wisdom, that, in a literal sense, it _cannot be purchased._ It must be had _"without money and without price."_ It is not to be "gotten for gold." Why is it, then, that in so many cases in which "the price is in the hand to get wisdom," the means of securing it possessed, its lessons remained unlearned, the mind ignorant, the heart unimproved? . . . Here is the answer--the only one that can with truth be given,--there has been _"no heart to it."_ The principle is of wide application, and might be largely illustrated. . . . There is no maxim more thoroughly established by experience, than that a man cannot excel in anything to which _his heart does not lie._ When do men succeed best in the pursuit of any object? Is it not when they _have a heart to it?_ What is it that keeps all men astir in the pursuit and acquisition of wealth? Is it not that _they have a heart to it?_ How do men acquire celebrity in any of the departments of science or of art? Is it not when they _have a heart to it?_--some measure of enthusiastic eagerness and persevering delight in the pursuit? . . . I put it to your consciences,--whether there be anything else whatever, that keeps you from the knowledge and the fear of God, wherein true religion consists, than your _having no heart to them?_ Talk not to me of _inability:_--your inability is entirely moral, and consists in nothing else whatever than your _"having no heart"_ to that which is good. And is this not criminal? If not, then there is no sin nor crime on earth, in hell, in the universe; nor is the existence or the conception of such a thing as moral evil possible. The want of heart to that which is good, is the very essence of all that is sinful. You offer anything but a valid excuse for your want of religion, when you say you _"have no heart to it."_ You plead in excuse the very essence of your guilt. If you desired to fear God, and could not help the contrary, your inability might be something in your behalf. But the thing cannot be. To desire to fear God, and not to be able, is a contradiction in terms. The having of the desire is the having of the principle. There can be no desiring to fear without fearing, no desiring to love without loving.--_Wardlaw._

No means can make a man wise who wanteth a good will to learn heavenly wisdom. Ishmael had good education, and Ahithophel had quick capacity, and the fool spoken of in the Gospel had great wealth, and none of all these attained to any grace. One of them was strong, and another witty, and another wealthy, but never a one wise and godly. Judas had as good a teacher as Peter, or as any other apostle, and had as good company, and saw as many miracles; and yet they having good hearts become worthy and excellent persons, and he having a false heart became a traitor and a devil.--_Dod._

Wherefore serve good natural parts, either of body or mind; or authority, opportunity, or other advantages, if they be not rightly improved and employed? Certainly they will prove no better than Uriah's letters to those that have them; or as the sword which Hector gave to Ajax, which, so long as he used it against his enemies, served for help and defence, but after he began to abuse it, turned into his own bowels. This will be a bodkin at thy heart one day: "I might have been saved, but I woefully let slip those opportunities which God had thrust into my hand."--_Trapp._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 17, 18, _and of CHAP. xviii._ 24.

TRUE FRIENDSHIP.

+I. A true friend loves under all conditions.+ 1. _He loves in times of separation._ The distance between our earth and the sun does not prevent the one from influencing the other--there is a power in gravitation which can make itself felt even when the objects affected by it are thousands of miles apart. So true love is quite independent of space--oceans may roll between the friends, yea, the very grave may separate them, and yet the gravitating force which first drew the heart of one man to another will make itself felt. It has been said that the dead and the absent have no friends, but this is a libel upon human nature. A friend loveth whether the object of his love is present or absent, and will, if needs be, defend his friend's character when he is not present to speak for himself. 2. _He loves even in times of temporary estrangement._ Transitory differences are not incompatible with the most genuine friendship, and while human nature is in its present imperfect condition it will sometimes happen that one real and true friend will disappoint and grieve another. But if the real and true feeling is in the heart it will be as unshaken by these temporary disturbances as the root of the tree is by the storm-wind that moves its branches.

+II. Friendship is especially precious in times of trial.+ True friends are not like the locust, which seeks only the green pastures and fruitful fields, and leaves them as soon as it has taken from them all that it could feed upon, but they are like the stars, the value of whose light is only really understood when all other lights are absent. When all is going well with a man he may underestimate the value of his friend's regard; he may not really know how heartfelt it is; but when misfortune, or sickness, or bereavement overtake him, he realises that a "brother is born for adversity."

+III. There is a bond stronger than any tie of blood-relationship.+ We have abundant and melancholy proofs that the mere fact of being brothers according to the flesh does not make men one in heart. The first man who tasted death was murdered by his brother, and many sons of the same father since that day have been separated from each other by a hatred as deep and deadly as that which prompted Cain to murder Abel. In the family in which Solomon was a son there was one brother with the blood of another upon his head (2 Sam. xiii. 28-30). Something stronger and deeper than the mere tie of blood is needed to make men one in heart. The most beautiful example of friendship upon record existed between the son of Saul and the shepherd of Bethlehem where there was no relationship according to the flesh, and where the heir-apparent to the throne loved as his own soul the youth who was to supplant him. There is no friendship so firm and enduring as that which is based upon doing the will of God (Mark iii. 35) no brotherhood so perfect and lasting as that which has its origin in a common discipleship to Him who is not ashamed to call them brothers (Heb. ii. 11), and who is Himself the "friend above all others," whose love can span the distance between His throne in glory and the meanest hovel upon earth, and the greater distance between Divine perfection and human sinfulness, and who was in all things _"made like unto his brethren,"_ that having Himself _"suffered being tempted, He might be able to succour them that are tempted"_ (Heb. ii. 17), and thus prove Himself to be pre-eminently the "Brother born for adversity," and the "Friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

+IV. It is an evidence of great folly to treat men as bosom-friends before we know them.+ There are men who will trust in a comparative stranger to such an extent as to lend their credit and their good name to him without any reasonable security. Such a man Solomon here characterises as being "void of understanding." It is a mark of a fool to enter into any engagement without deliberation, and in nothing does lack of wisdom more plainly manifest itself than in the formation of hasty friendships, especially if the friendship involves a man in any kind of suretyship. From lack of prudence in this matter many a man has been "all his lifetime subject to bondage." It behoves all men in the matter of friendship to follow the advice of Polonius:--

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.

_ILLUSTRATION OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP._

Damon was sentenced to die on a certain day, and sought permission of Dionysius of Syracuse to visit his family in the interim. It was granted on condition of securing a hostage for himself. Pythias heard of it, and volunteered to stand in his friend's place. The king visited him in prison, and conversed with him about the motive of his conduct, affirming his disbelief in the influence of friendship. Pythias expressed his wish to die, that his friend's honour might be vindicated. He prayed the gods to delay the return of Damon till after his own execution in his stead. The fatal day arrived. Dionysius sat on a moving throne drawn by six white horses. Pythias mounted the scaffold and thus addressed the spectators, "My prayer is heard; the gods are propitious, for the winds have been contrary till yesterday. Damon could not come, he could not conquer impossibilities; he will be here to-morrow, and the blood that is shed to-day shall have ransomed the life of my friend. Could I erase from your bosoms every mean suspicion of the honour of Damon, I should go to my death as I should to my bridal.". . . As he closed a voice in the distance cried, "Stop the execution!" and the cry was taken up and repeated by the whole assembly. A man rode up at full speed, mounted the scaffold, and embraced Pythias, crying, "You are safe now, my beloved friend! I have nothing but death to suffer, and am delivered from reproaches for having endangered a life so much dearer than my own." Pythias replied, "Fatal haste, cruel impatience! What envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favour? But I will not be wholly disappointed. Since I cannot die to save you, I will not survive you." The king was moved to tears, and, ascending the scaffold, cried, "Live, live, ye incomparable pair! Ye have borne unquestionable testimony to the existence of virtue, and that virtue equally evinces the existence of a god to reward it. Live happy, live renowned, and oh! form me by your precepts, as ye have invited me by your example, to be worthy of the participation of so sacred a friendship."

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 17. _"The Friend."_ We are to notice the article. It does not impair the proverb for its secular use. We have such an idiom: _"the friend," i.e., the true friend._ Even a worldly friend, to be worth anything, must be for all times; and what is a brother born for, but for distress? But spiritually, the article is just in its place. There is but One Only _"Friend,"_ and a _"Brother"_ who would not have been _"born"_ at all, but for the distress and straitness of His house.--_Miller._

Friendship contrasted with the wicked decreases from hour to hour, like the early shadow of the morning; but friendship formed with the virtuous will increase like the shadow of evening, till the sun of life shall set.--_Herder._

Extremity distinguisheth friends. Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give us over, when once we lie-a-dying; and yet the death-bed hath most need of comforts. Christ Jesus standeth by His in the pangs of death, and after death at the bar of judgment; not leaving them either in their bed or grave. I will use them, therefore, to my best advantage; not trust them. But for Thee, O my Lord, which in mercy and truth canst not fail me, who I have found ever faithful and present in all extremities, kill me, yet will I trust in Thee.--_Bp. Hall._

A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but He swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets and make it fordable, and apt to drink up at the first revels of the Syrian star; but two torches do not divide, but increase the flame. And though my tears are the sooner dried up when they run on my friend's cheek in furrows of compassion; yet when my flame has kindled his lamp, we unite the glories, and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God; because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy.--_Jeremy Taylor._

When a man blind from his birth was asked what he thought the sun was like, he replied, "Like friendship." He could not conceive of anything as more fitting as a similitude for what he had been taught to regard as the most glorious of material objects, and whose quickening and exhilarating influences he had rejoiced to feel.--_Morris._

A brother for adversity is one who will act the brother in a season of adversity. Of such an one it is said, _he must or shall be born,_ possibly, _he is born._ I do not understand this last clause unless the assertion is, that none but such as are _born brethren, i.e.,_ kindred by blood, will cleave to us in distress. Yet this is true only in a qualified sense. But another shade of meaning may be assigned to the passage, which is, that such a man as a friend in adversity _is yet to be born, i.e.,_ none such are now to be found; thus making it substantially equivalent in sense to the expression: "How few and rare are such faithful friends."--_Stuart._

As in the natural, so in the spiritual brotherhood, misery breeds unity. Ridley and Hooper, that when they were bishops, differed so much about ceremonies, could agree well enough, and be mutual comforts one to another when they were both prisoners. Esther concealed her kindred in hard times, but God's people cannot; Moses must rescue his beaten brother out of the hand of the Egyptian, though he venture his life by it.--_Trapp._

Man in his weakness needs a steady friend, and God in His wisdom has provided one in the constitution of nature. Not entrusting all to acquired friendship, He has given us some as a birthright inheritance. For the day of adversity a brother is born to many who would not have been able to win one. It is at once a glory to God in the highest, and a sweet solace to afflicted men, when a brother or a sister, under the secret and steady impulses of nature, bears and does for the distressed what no other friend, however loving, could be expected to bear or do. How foolish for themselves are those who lightly snap those bonds asunder, or touch them oft with the corrosive drops of contention! One who is born your brother is best fitted to be your friend in trouble, if unnatural strife has not rent asunder those whom their Maker intended to be one in spirit. . . . _"There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."_ He must be a fast friend indeed, for a brother, if nature's affections have been cherished, lies close in, and keeps a steady hold. . . . Oh, when hindering things are taken out of the way of God's work, a brother lies very close to a brother. He who comes closer must be no common friend. . . . It is the idea of a friendship more perfect, fitting more kindly into our necessities, and bearing more patiently with our weaknesses, than the instinctive love of a brother by birth. From God's hand-work in nature a very tender and a very strong friendship proceeds: from His covenant of mercy comes a friendship tenderer and stronger still. Now, although the conception is embodied in the communion of saints, its full realisation is only found in the love wherewith Christ loves His own. . . . The precious germ which Solomon's words unfold, bore its ripened fruit only when He who is bone of our bone gave Himself the just for the unjust. Thus by a surer process than verbal criticism, we are conducted to the man Christ Jesus, as at once the Brother born for adversity, and the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. . . . In the day of your deepest adversity even a born brother must let go his hold. That extremity is the opportunity of your best friend.--_Arnot._

Verse 18. It is good to try him whom we intend for a bosom friend before we trust him; as men prove their vessels with water before they fill them with wine. Many complain of the treachery of their friends, and say, with Queen Elizabeth, that in trust they have found treason; but most of these have greatest cause, if all things be duly weighed, to complain of themselves for making no better choice.--_Swinnock._

Seeing he hath not understanding to keep himself from hurt, it were good if he had not power in his hand to do himself hurt. . . . Surely such a fool may quickly wring his hands together in sorrow, who before did clap his hands in joy, and may strike himself in anger with the same hand, wherewith in the foolish kindness of surety he struck the hand of another. . . . For often this over-kind part of a friend is the breaking of friendship if it bring no further mischief.--_Jermin._

The evil effects of _strife_ and _pride,_ which form the subject of verse 19, have been treated before. See on verse 14, and on chaps. xi. 2, and xvi. 18. Some expositors attach a slight difference to the meaning of the latter clause. See below.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

_"Sets high_ (exalteth) _his gate;"_ a figure that is probably misunderstood. It probably means _belligerence._ A moat over which issued armed bands, with banners and mounted spearmen, required high space to let them go forth. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates," etc. The soul that fixes itself that way against the Almighty, ready to march out upon Him on any occasion of quarrel, _"seeks"_ ruin.--_Miller._

The slothful man exposes himself to misery; but he waits for it till it comes upon him like a traveller. The aspiring man, that cannot be happy without a stately dwelling, and a splendid manner of living beyond what his estate will bear, _seeks_ for destruction, and sends a coach and six to bring it to him.--_Lawson._

_"And he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction."_ Some take this for a comparison:--As surely as he that exalteth his gate (enlarging it out of due proportion) seeketh destruction to his house, by thus weakening its structure,--_so surely_ does he that loveth strife generate transgression. The phrase _"exalteth his gate,"_ however, instead of being thus understood literally, may, with more propriety, be interpreted of a man's _ambitiously affecting a style of living beyond his income_--disproportionate to the amount of his means of maintaining it. The _general character_ is described by one particular manifestation of it--the high style of the exterior of his mansion. The "exalting of the _gate_" applies to the entire style of his household establishment--not to his dwelling merely, but to his equipage, his table, his servants, his dress, and everything else. He who does this _"seeks destruction:"_ he courts his own downfall, as effectually as if it were his direct object to ruin himself. Matthew Henry, in his own quaint and pithy way, says--"He makes his gate so large, that his house and estate go out at it."--_Wardlaw._

There is none that loveth strife more than he that _exalteth his gate,_ either the gate of his ears to hear the tales of others, and the praises of himself, or else the gates of his eyes overlooking others with scorn and disdain, and his own worth by many degrees, or else the gate of his mouth, which is properly the gate of man, with big and swelling words, with high and lofty terms which usually are the sparks that kindle contention. But what doth such an one do, but ever _seek for destruction,_ which at his lifted-up gate, findeth easy passage to run in upon him.--_Jermin._

For Homiletics on the subjects of verses 20 and 21, see on chapter x. 1, 13, 14, etc., and on verse 24.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 22.

THE MERRY HEART.

+I. The mind acts upon the body.+ It is a fact which no observant man would deny, that there is an intimate connection between sorrow of soul and sickness of body, and that cheerfulness of spirit tends to physical health. A physician always tries to keep his patient in good spirits, and when he discerns that he is weighed down by some mental burden, he wisely seeks to lighten that as well as to administer remedies to the body. And when a man is in health cheerfulness of disposition tends to keep him so; while a depressed condition of mind makes him a more easy prey to disease. That "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones," is a convincing proof of the mysterious sympathy that exists between the _man_ and his _earthly dwelling-place._

+II. What will conduce to cheerfulness of spirit--to what Solomon here calls "a merry heart?"+ 1. _A heart at peace with God._ Some poisons taken into the system produce for a time a calming and quieting influence upon the body, but it is a quiet and a calm which comes from deadening the capabilities of feeling. Opium may send a man to sleep, but it is a sleep which gives neither refreshment nor strength. A quiet conscience is the first and indispensable element of heart-cheerfulness, and there are other methods of getting free for a time from pain of conscience beside "that peace with God which comes from being justified by faith" (Rom. v. 1). But all other quiet of soul comes from opiates whose power is but for a time, while this peace comes from the consciousness of reconciliation with God--from a sense of standing in a right relation to all that is right and true in the universe. 2. _A vivid realisation of unseen realities._ Though a state of reconciliation with God will give freedom from the sense of guilt, it does not always give that active state of cheerfulness which can be called "a merry heart." A river sometimes glides along between its banks in a state of undisturbed calmness; but there are times when the volume of water is so great that it overflows its channels. Peace is like a calm river, but joy is like one whose waters cannot contain themselves within its boundaries, but must pour forth on the right hand and on the left. _Peace_ has been defined as "love resting," and joy as "love exulting." The one is a passive state of mind, while the other is active. But it is the latter, rather than the former, which makes that cheerful spirit which "doeth good like a medicine," and it is the fruit only of a vivid sense of "things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1). Those who live on high lands and breathe the pure mountain air, are conscious of an exuberance of animal life, of which even perfectly healthy people who live in the valleys know nothing. So, men who live in the higher regions of spiritual life know a "joy in God"--are sensible of an uplifting of spirit--to which ordinary and every-day Christians are strangers. They are not only _believers,_ but they are filled with "all joy and peace in believing;" they not only have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," but they "rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. v. 1, 2). 3. _A life of active love._ A selfish man can never be a cheerful man--he who lives for himself alone can never know the healing power of "a merry heart." There can be no abiding cheerfulness of heart without joy in God, and there can be no abiding joy in God without love to man. "There is nothing," says _Dr. Maclaren,_ "more evanescent in its nature than the emotion of religious joy, faith, or the like, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God. Such emotions, like photographs, vanish from the heart unless they be fixed. Work for God is the way to fix them. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but Work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God."

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind. . . . Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health. Repinings and secret murmurs of heart give imperceptible strokes to those delicate fibres of which the vital parts are composed, and wear out the machine insensibly; not to mention those violent ferments which they stir upon the blood, and those irregular disturbed motions which they raise in the animal spirits. I scarce remember, in my own observation, to have met with many old men, or with such who (to use our English phrase) wear well, that had not at least a certain indolence in their humour, if not a more than ordinary gaiety and cheerfulness of heart. The truth is, health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.--_Addison._

The verb means, _to cure,_ and, as far as we can fix it, the noun means, not a _medicine,_ but a final _"cure."_ In the world at large cheerfulness is an immense gift; but in religion the wise man wishes to say that hopefulness is strength (Neh. viii. 10); that it is better to look cheerfully upon God, than with complaints; that if we are to be _cured_ at all, a glad heart will help it.--_Miller._

All true mirth is from rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul. When faith hath once healed the conscience, and grace hath hushed the affections, and composed all within, so that there is a Sabbath of the spirit, and a blessed tranquility lodged in the soul, then the body also is vigorous and vegetous, for most part in very good plight and healthful constitution, which makes man's life very comfortable. . . . They that in the use of lawful means _wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength_ (Isa. ix. 31).--_Trapp._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 23.

BRIBERY.

+I. Its nature.+ An act of bribery may be committed without any monetary transaction taking place. It is not necessary that gold should pass from hand to hand to make a man guilty of bribery. It is not even necessary that there should be a distinct promise of any good either in the present or the future. A man bribes another if he merely implies by word or deed that he can make him suffer for speaking what he knows is the truth, and for acting according to the dictates of his conscience. And a man is guilty of accepting a bribe if he abstains from such speech or action from a fear of loss or from a hope of gain, although no distinct promise or threatening has been made by those whom he wishes to propitiate.

+II. Its cause.+ Want of integrity on the part of both the man who offers the bribe and him who accepts it. There are some men in the world to whom even a man who held their lives in his hand would not think of offering a bribe of any kind. He knows it would be as useless to attempt to make such men swerve from the path of right as to try to alter the course of the earth round the sun. There are many, we know, in this country, notwithstanding its many timeservers and place-hunters who, like Samuel of old can say, _"Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or who have I defrauded, who have I oppressed, or of whose hands have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?"_ (1 Sam. xii. 3). Only one thing is needed to destroy bribery--in its most impalpable and shadowy forms as well as in its more glaring and shameless manifestations--and that is universal honesty of character. When every man loves truth and right more than he loves material gain then bribery will cease, but not before. Men may be restrained by shame from being guilty of it openly, and will call it by some less obnoxious name, but the spirit of bribery will be at work so long as there are men upon the earth who love gain more than godliness.

+III. The universal testimony of the human conscience against it.+ "The wicked man taketh a gift _out of his bosom_"--it is a transaction of secrecy--there is a shame connected with the act which proves that conscience condemns it. The man who offers the bribe does not do it openly, which shows that he is fully conscious that he is transgressing the law of right; and the man who accepts it does not boast openly that he has done so for the same reason. Bribery is a sin which is repeatedly denounced by God (Isa. i. 23, 24; Ezra xxii. 13), but men who have not possessed the light of revelation have denounced bribery as a crime.

+IV. Its effect.+ It "perverts the ways of justice." Its effect is to bring about that abomination mentioned in verse 15--the justification of the wicked and the condemnation of the just. (See Homiletics on that verse.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

An honest man would rather lose his cause, however just, than gain it by such a base thing as a bribe. It must have been a great bondage for Paul to have been confined in a prison, when he loved the pulpit so well, had not his will been sunk in the Will of God; yet he would not offer the least bribe to his covetous judge, who detained him in prison, expecting that money would be offered for his freedom (Acts xxiv. 6).--_Lawson._

Is not the child of God often pressed with this temptation? Does the influence of a gift, the sense of obligation, never repress the bold consistency of godliness? Does no bias of friendship, no plausible advantage, entice into a crooked path?--_Bridges._

There is a gift of thankfulness, there is a gift of reconciliation, there is a gift of goodwill, all these are lawful. Besides these there is a gift of corruption; this is unlawful.--_Muffet._

Bribery is an officious fellow, and a special bidder to the fatal banquet, (Prov. ix. 17, 18). He invites both forward and froward: the forward and yielding by promises of good cheer, _secunda dies,_ that they shall have a fair day of it; the backward, honest man, by terrors and menaces that his cause shall else go westward (indeed, it goes to Westminster!). Yea, with pretence of commiseration and pity, as if the conscience of their right did animate him to their cause. Thus with a show of sanctimony they get a saint's money; but indeed, _argentum fæcundum, argumentum facundum,_--there is no persuasion more pathethical than the purse's. Bribery stands at the stairfoot in the robes of an officer, and helps up injury to the place of audience; thus Judas's bag is drawn with two strings, made of silk and silver, favour and reward. All officers belong not to one court; their conditions alter with their places. There are some that seem so good that they lament the vices, whereupon they yet inflict but pecuniary punishments. Some of them are like the Israelites, with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, with the motto of that old emblem, _In utrumque paratus;_ as the one daubs up justice, so the other cuts breaches of division. They mourn for truth and equity, as the sons of Jacob for Joseph, when themselves sold it; they exclaim against penal transgressions. . . . If the party be innocent, let his cause be sentenced for his innocence's sake; if guilty, let not gold buy out his punishment. If the cause be doubtful, the judge shall see it worse when he hath blinded his eyes with bribes. But the will of the giver doth transfer right of the gift to the receiver. No; for it is not a voluntary will. But as a man is willing to give his purse to the thief rather than venture life or limb, so the poor man gives his bribes rather than hazard his cause. Thou sayest the thief has no right to the purse so given; God saith, Nor thou to the bribe. . . . Far be from our souls this wickedness, that the ear which should be open to complaints is thus stopped with the ear-wax of partiality. Alas! poor Truth, that she must now be put to the charges of a golden ear-pick, or she cannot be heard.--_T. Adams._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 24 _IN CONNECTION WITH THE FIRST CLAUSE OF VERSE_ 22.

THE EYES OF A FOOL AND THOSE OF A WISE MAN.