Chapter XVIII (1)

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Through desire, etc.+ The readings and expositions of this verse are many. Zöckler translates, _"He that separateth himself seeketh his own pleasure, against all counsel doth he rush on,"_ and the renderings of Stuart, Miller, and Delitzsch are substantially the same, except that Delitzsch translates the latter clause--_"against all that is beneficial he shows his teeth."_ Other readings are _"A self-conceited fool seeks to gratify his fancy and intermingleth himself with all things" (Schultens); "He who has separated himself agitates questions as his desire prompts, and breaks his teeth on every hard point" (Schulz); "He seeks occasion, who desires to separate himself from his friends" (Hodgson)._ Others read as in the Authorised Version. (See Comments.) +3. Ignominy,+ rather, _"shameful deeds."_ +4.+ The last clause of this verse may be divided into two smaller ones and placed in apposition, thus: _"a babbling brook,"--a fountain of wisdom._ Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word used for _man_ is _ish,_ a _good_ man, not _adam,_ the general term for man. +6. Calleth for.+ Stuart understands this in the sense of _"to deserve."_ +8. Wounds.+ The word so translated occurs only here and in chap. xxvi. 22, and will bear very different renderings. Some translate it _words of sport_ (Stuart and Zöckler); others, with Delitzsch, _dainty morsels;_ others, _"whispers, soft breezes."_ +9. Waster,+ or _destroyer._ +10. Safe,+ or _lifted high._ +14. Infirmity,+ _i.e.,_ sickness, disease of body. As in similar verses, Miller translates +"a wounded spirit;"+ _a spirit of upbraiding._ Here again, as in verse 4, the Hebrew word _ish_ is used for man. +16. A man's gifts.+ "Hebrew, _adam,_ the gift of a _man,_ however humble and low" _(Fausset)_. +19. "Is harder to be won;"+ these words are not in the original, but have been inserted to supply the sense. Some translators read _"a brother offended resisteth more than a strong city."_ Miller reads, _"When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength."_ +20. Satisfied.+ "If this word is taken in a good sense the _fruit_ must be good; but it may be ironical, meaning false or malignant words will find ample retribution. Perhaps the next verse helps us determine the meaning" _(Stuart)_. +21. They that love it,+ _i.e.,_ "make it a special object of gratification" _(Stuart)_ +24.+ The first clause of this verse should be "A man of many friends will prove himself base, or is so to his own destruction," _i.e.,_ he who professes to regard everybody as his friend will, in so doing, involve himself in trouble.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 1 _and_ 2.

Reference to the Critical Notes and to the Comments will show the widely different translations and expositions given to the first verse. We follow the Authorised Version.

SOLITUDE.

+I. Solitude is indispensable to the attainment of wisdom.+ If a tree is to become well-proportioned--if it is to spread out its branches on every side so that its girth is to be proportioned to its height, it must have space--a degree of separation is indispensable to its perfect development. It must be free to stretch out its roots and shoots on every side, and to appropriate to itself those elements in the earth and in the atmosphere which will make it strong and vigorous. So if a man is to be a wise man, if his mental and spiritual capabilities are to be developed as his Creator intended they should be, he must at times separate himself--a certain amount of solitude is indispensable. If he would grow wise in the mysteries of the natural world he must oftentimes shut himself away from the haunts of men, and ponder the manifold phenomena which creation presents to him, and endeavour to unravel her secrets. If he desires to become wise by acquaintance with the thoughts and deeds of the great and mighty men of past ages he must withdraw himself at certain seasons from the society of his fellow-men, and give himself up to study and reflection. And if he desire to acquire what, after all, can alone make him a truly wise man--an acquaintance with himself and with God--he must have seasons of separation in which to listen to the voice of his own heart and to the voice of his Maker. A man, when he is alone, is more likely to see things as they really are; he is less under the influence of the seen and temporal than when he is in the market, or on the crowded highway, and consequently things unseen and eternal have a more powerful influence over him at such a season. No man can be wise unless he has some self-knowledge, and no man can subject himself to much inspection while in company, hence the advice of George Herbert--

"By all means use sometimes to be alone;
Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear;
Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own,
And tumble up and down what thou find'st there.
Who cannot rest till he good fellows find,
He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind."

and it is equally true that no man is possessed of true wisdom who has not some knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in the written Word, and solitude is very favourable to a growth in Divine knowledge. Men can gain much, even of the highest wisdom, from intercourse with their fellow-men, but all human guides are fallible and all human teaching is imperfect--there must be seasons when a man "separates himself" from them all and stands face to face with the fountain of all truth, if he would "intermeddle" with pure wisdom.

+II. Those who are truly wise seek wisdom for its own sake.+ Many men seek secular knowledge for the sole purpose of acquiring fame by the acquisition. Some men spend days of solitude in patient investigation for no other purpose than to make a name for themselves. Some men even profess to be seekers after true and spiritual wisdom, when they are only striving to gratify some unworthy ambition. Such a man seems to be pourtrayed in the second verse as the "fool who hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself." (If he seeks knowledge at all, it is neither for its own sake nor for the purposes of fitting him for usefulness, but solely for the ends of self-display--_Wardlaw._) (He "hath no delight" in knowledge, "but in the displaying of his own thoughts."--_Hodgson._) But the true lover of wisdom is impelled to seek from the love of truth--from the desire which possesses his soul to "intermeddle with knowledge." When Sir Isaac Newton gave himself up to the pursuit of scientific truth, he "separated himself" simply from a "desire" to _know,_ and without the remotest desire or expectation of his present world-wide fame. And if it is so with every true lover of merely intellectual wisdom, it is pre-eminently so with the man who seeks spiritual wisdom. He is impelled to the search simply by a desire which is born of his appreciation of its worth--by a knowledge of its power to bless his life.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

A certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth and spread of the highest mind; and therefore must a very extensive intercourse with men stifle many a holy germ, and scare away the gods, who shun the restless tumult of noisy companies, and the discussion of petty interests.--_Novalis._

Desire is the chariot-wheel of the soul, the spring of energy and delight. The man of business or science if filled with his great object; and _through desire he separates himself_ from all lets and hindrances, that he may _intermeddle with_ its whole range. "This one thing"--saith the man of God--"I do" (Philip. iii. 13). This one thing is everything with him. _He separates himself_ from all outward hindrances, vain company, trifling amusements or studies, needless engagements, that he may _seek and intermeddle with all wisdom._ John _separated himself_ in the wilderness, Paul in Arabia, our blessed Lord in frequent retirement, in order to greater concentration in their momentous work. Deeply does the Christian minister feel the responsibility of this holy _separation,_ that he may "give himself wholly to" his office (1 Tim. iv. 15; 2 Tim. ii. 4). Without it--Christian--thy soul can never prosper. How canst thou _intermeddle with the great wisdom_ of knowing thyself, if thy whole mind be full of the world's chaff and vanity? There must be a withdrawal, to "commune with thine own heart" and to ask the questions--"Where art thou? What doest thou here?" Much is there to be inquired into and pondered. Everything here calls for our deepest, closest thoughts. We must walk with God in secret, or the enemy will walk with us, and our souls will die. "Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee" (Ezek. iii. 22). "When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee" (John i. 48). Deal much in secrecy, if thou wouldst know "the secret of the Lord." Like thy Divine Master, thou wilt never be less alone than when alone (Ib. xvi. 32). There is much to be wrought, gained, and enjoyed. Thy most spiritual knowledge, thy richest experience will be found here. And then, when we look around us into the infinitely extended field of the Revelation of God, what a world of heavenly _wisdom is there to intermeddle with!_ In the hurry of this world's atmosphere how little can we apprehend it! And yet such is the field of wonder, that the contemplation of a single point overwhelmed the Apostle with adoring astonishment (Rom. xi. 33). Here are "things, which even the angels desire to look into" (1 Pet. i. 12). The redeemed will be employed throughout eternity in this delighted searching; exploring "the breadth, the length, and depth, and height," until they be "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. iii. 18, 19). Surely then if we have any _desire,_ we shall _separate ourselves_ from the cloudy atmosphere around us, that we may have fellowship with these happy investigators of the Divine mysteries.--_Bridges._

The _separated one_ here is the impenitent. _"The aims of a man left to himself"_ is really a translation of but two words, meaning _a separated one seeks. "At the dictate of desire"_ is but one noun with a preceding particle, meaning _after,_ or _according to._ The noun means a _longing._ The sentence means that when a man gets separated from his place in the universe he _seeks,_ or _has a pursuit,_ after his present bent or longing. The word translated _wisdom_ in the second clause is derived from a verb that means to _be_ or _stand_ with some stability (see comment on chap. ii. 7), yielding the sense the lost man sits careless to what is _"stable."_ He does not regard it. He strikes for what he desires. A pretty thing for him to cavil! since _"against everything stable he just lets himself roll."_. . . The whole meaning is that the lost man is in high chase under the spur of appetite, and ruthlessly bears down _everything stable.--Miller._

_"Through desire"_ (through self-willed and self-seeking desire of wisdom)--_"wisdom,"_ Heb. _tushigyah,_ lit. all that is solid and stable: subsistence, essence, existence. The Pharisees were such; from the Hebrew, _pharash,_ to separate. They trusted in themselves, and in their own wisdom, despising others (Luke xviii. 9, xvi. 15; Jude 19). All heresy has more or less originated in the self-conceit which leads men to separate themselves from the congregation of the Lord (Ezek. xiv. 7; Hosea ix. 10; Heb x. 25). The two evils censured are (1) that of those who think they are born for themselves, and that others ought to be ministers of their self-seeking desires; (2) that of those who intermeddle with what does not concern them. The motive is through (his own) _"desire"_ of being esteemed singularly learned, as verse 2 shows, not from sincere "delight in understanding." His aim is singularity, through self-seeking desire (Psa. x. 3; cxii. 10) of raising himself to a separate elevation from the common crowd, and of being thought versed in all that can be known: so "he intermeddleth with all wisdom." His restless appetite for making himself peculiar and separate from others is marked by the indefinite verb "seeketh," it not being added what he seeketh, for he hardly knows himself what.--_Fausset._

If we have to decide between the two interpretations, one blaming and the other commending the life of isolation, the answer must be that the former is more in harmony with the broad, genial temper of the Book of Proverbs.--_Plumptre._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.

This verse also, as will be seen from a reference to the Critical Notes, and also from the Comments, is susceptible of several interpretations. We think it treats of--

THE SHORT-LIVED PROSPERITY OF EVIL MEN.

+I. Wicked men do come into places of power and influence.+ This fact has often tried the faith of righteous men. Asaph's _"steps had well-nigh slipped"_ when he saw _"the prosperity of the wicked"_--that _"violence covered them as a garment,"_ and that they _"set their mouth against the heavens;"_ and yet that _"their strength was firm,"_ and _"they had more than heart could wish"_ (Psa. lxxiii. 2-8). The tiller of the soil knows from experience that the useless weeds and noxious plants often seem to absorb all the nutriment from the earth, and so make it well-nigh impossible for the useful herb and sweet-scented flower to grow in the same field or garden. And moral weeds seem to have a like capability of utilising everything that comes in their way to their own advancement--the unrighteous man makes a fortune, or a position, or a name for himself, while his godly neighbour is struggling for a bare subsistence. In the field of the world, the tares grow as well as the wheat (Matt. xiii. 26), and often they seem for a time to be more flourishing. Ahab and Jezebel dwell in Samaria, and Elijah is compelled to flee into the desert. Herod feasts in the palace, while John the Baptist is beheaded in the dungeon.

+II. Contempt and reproach are their final portion.+ Their day of power is short-lived. David has recorded as his experience that he had _"seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree"_--but he _"passed by, and lo, he was not"_ (Psa. xxxvii. 35). And however their success may dazzle men's eyes and warp their judgment for a season, contempt is their portion at last. They are often held in contempt even while living, and the reproaches of those who have been made to suffer by them are heaped upon their heads. Many of those who fawned upon them and flattered them while they were prospering will be most ready to scorn and upbraid them, if the day of their retribution arrives before they quit this world. And if they keep their power and influence throughout the term of their human probation, their names will be contemned by posterity, and in the day when "everyone receives the things done in his body" (2 Cor. v. 10), they shall _"awake to shame and everlasting contempt"_ (Dan. xii. 2).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

When a _"wicked"_ man enters upon the stage, that creature, the most degraded of the universe, and who has the least right to show any _contempt,_ is the _very_ person to be the most _contemptuous;_ and the mortal who is himself most _disgraced,_ shows the readiest mind to cry shame upon and to _reproach_ and that even the Most High. Doubtless there is secular truth in all this. The _disgraced_ citizen is often the most _reproachful.--Miller._

I. They bring "contempt," not to themselves only, but to the places they fill, and the societies to which they become united--to themselves, for the unworthy manner in which they fulfil the duties of the trust they have assumed, or have had committed to them; and to their places and societies, with which their names are associated. They entail _"ignominy and reproach"_ upon all they have to do with. And in no case is this more true, than with regard to offences in the Church. O what an amount of scorn and reproach has been brought upon the sacred office of the ministry by the intrusion, under numberless pretexts, and from numberless causes, of wicked, worldly, ungodly men into its holy function! How full is Church history of this deplorable evil!--and how many infidels and scorners has Church history by this means produced. Thus it was under the old dispensation. The wickedness of the sons of Eli made men "abhor the offering of the Lord." And thus it is still. Of the "false teachers" who should arise in the latter days, it is said--"by reason of them the way of truth shall be evil-spoken of." From few other sources, if from any, has there proceeded a greater profusion of unmerited "reproach" of the name and doctrine and kingdom of the Lord; or has "the chair of the scorner" drawn a greater number and variety of its sarcastic sneers and bitter revilings. II. The phrase may mean--"When the wicked cometh" into _intimacy, companionship, familiarity,_ "then cometh contempt."--He who admits the wicked to his intimacy--makes him his associate--must share the infamy of his ill-chosen companion. Many a time too has _this_ been exemplified.--_Wardlaw._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 4.

A GOOD MAN'S MOUTH.

We must understand Solomon here to refer to a good man--to a man whose words are in harmony with the mind of God. Of such a man it may be said that his words are as deep waters and as a living spring.

+I. Because his soul is in communication with an exhaustless source of spiritual life and wisdom.+ Rivers and wells that are fed from the mountain recesses which are filled with eternal snows never dry up--they are fed from a source that is never exhausted. So long as the lasting hills remain, and the present natural laws govern the world they must give forth every day abundant streams. A communication has been established between the soul of a good man and the living God--he holds constant communion with a source of spiritual life which can never fail, and consequently he can never be at a loss for subjects upon which to discourse--his mind is always filled with new thoughts of God, and new hopes of heaven upon which to meditate himself and which he can communicate to others.

+II. Because that which flows from his lips is beneficial and refreshing to others.+ The waters in a shallow and stagnant pond give little or no refreshment to the thirsty traveller; they may even be the means of imparting disease to those who drink of them, or who live near them. But the water from a well, or from a deep and flowing stream, is generally pure and wholesome to the taste, and refreshing to the land through which it flows. And so it is with the speech of a godly man. Very mighty are the influence of words for good or for ill. Our first parents lost Eden by listening to the words of the tempter, and the speech of the wicked always diffuses an unwholesome moral atmosphere around it, if it does not eject a deadly poison into the soul. But the conversation and teaching of the godly are always a means of moral health to others; by their words they witness for the truth of God, and are the means of _"opening men's eyes, and turning them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God"_ (Acts xxvi. 13). And, like their Divine Master, they _"know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary"_ (Isa. l. 4), and thus that which flows from their lips is as refreshing and healthful to weary and struggling men and women on the highway of life as the living, cooling water-course is to the dusty and thirsty traveller.

+III. Because the flow is natural and spontaneous.+ Water may be sent through a tract of country by artificial means; fields may be watered and reservoirs filled by calling in science to supply natural deficiencies. But there is, after all, no comparison between this kind of forced irrigation and that which is the result of natural causes. If there is water beneath the surface of the earth it must force its way and find an outlet; it needs no hand of man to come to its aid; it penetrates the soil and forms a fertilising stream in obedience to natural law. And so the speech of a good man has nothing forced or artificial about it. It is the overflow of heartfelt experience. Like the apostles of old, he _"cannot but speak the things which he has seen and heard"_ (Acts iv. 20). The _"good things"_ of his lips are the natural outcome of the _"good treasure of his heart," "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh"_ (Matt. xii. 34, 35).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Talleyrand defined speech to be the art of concealing one's opinions. Speech, even without any attempt at concealment, must be endlessly deep and wide as uttering all our being. Who can translate all its outgoings? If this be so with man, who shall judge of God and censure His obscurer revelations? Solomon is satisfied with one great difference,--that while men's speech is _"deep,"_ God's speech is both _"deep"_ and _"living."_ One has a vital source, the other is dead and stagnant. Grant that both are obscure. One is the darkness of a pool, the other the breadth and gush of an overflowing water. We ought to submit to mystery in God, for the tide of His utterance is to flow on for ever.--_Miller._

One "greater than Solomon" "astonished the people" by the clearness, no less than by the _depth of the waters_ (Matt. vii. 28, 29). No blessing is more valuable than a "rich indwelling of the Word," ready to be brought out on all suitable occasions of instruction. If the wise man sometimes "spares his words," it is not for want of matter, but for greater edification. The stream is ready to flow, and sometimes can scarcely be restrained. The cold-hearted, speculative professor has his _flow_--sometimes a torrent of words, yet without a drop of profitable matter; chilling, even when doctrinally correct; without life, unction, or love. Lord! deliver us from this barren "talk of the lips" (chap. xiv. 23). May our _waters be deep,_ flowing from thine own inner sanctuary, refreshing and fertilising the Church of God!--_Bridges._

In the two clauses of the verse, on the principle of parallelism, there appears to be an inversion of the same sentiment; for, properly speaking, the words uttered are not the "deep waters," but the stream that issues from them; and, on the other hand, "the wellspring of wisdom" is not "the flowing brook," but the deep and copious fountain or reservoir from which it issues. Another passage may serve to confirm this view. "Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out." Here, the counsel is the deep water, not the words. But the words are the stream which the deep waters send forth. The words bring out and contain the counsel.--_Wardlaw._

It must be remembered that "deep waters" are associated in the Old Testament with the thought of darkness and mystery (xx. 5; Psalms lxix. 2; Eccles. vii. 24), and we get a more profound thought if we see in the proverb a comparison between all teaching from without and that of the light within. The words of a man's mouth are dark as the "deep waters of a pool, or tank; but the well-spring of wisdom is as a flowing brook, bright and clear." So taken the verse presents a contrast like that of Jeremiah ii. 13.--_Plumptre._

When this word _vir_ is used for man in sacred Scriptures it signifieth one who is strong and mighty, and for his strength great and excellent, and then by a man here we may understand him who is mighty and great in knowledge; the words of such a man are as deep waters, to the bottom whereof the shallow capacity of every one is not able to reach. But yet where the spring of those waters is a well-spring of wisdom, though sometimes it send forth deep waters, yet it doth not always; for that were to overwhelm the hearers. But at other times it is as a flowing brook, more shallow for capacity, but more forcible also in the stream of it, and either by persuasive exhortation carrying on the hearers to a pursuit of virtue and godliness, or else by a dissuasive reproof carrying them away from the practice of wickedness, and in both washing away the stains of their sinful lives. Wherefore St. Gregory saith, so must every preacher deal with his hearers as God dealeth with him; he must not preach to the simple as much as he knoweth because himself doth not know of heavenly mysteries as much as they are.--_Jermin._

The subject of verse 5 has been treated in the Homiletics on chap. xvii., verses 15 and 26.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-8.

FOLLY AND ITS RESULTS.

+I. None but a foolish man seeks contention.+ As we saw in the previous chapter (verse 14) contention or strife is an evil of which none at its beginnings can see the end. It may seem a very insignificant deed to strike a flint and steel together so as to produce a single spark, but one spark may produce a terrible and destructive fire. When a settler in a forest rubs two dry sticks together the act seems a trifling one, but the friction in time develops the latent heat of the wood, and there is enough fire brought into activity to lay low many a mighty forest tree. None but foolish men and children ever play with fire, and when they do it they generally suffer themselves first, but they are often not the only sufferers. So it is with contention, or a dispute in words. Wise men are often obliged to contend for truth and right, but they never _seek_ an occasion of dispute. But there are moral fools who think it only an amusement to pick a quarrel, little heeding what the consequences of it may be, not caring if blows succeed to angry words, or perhaps even desiring that they should do so. But although a man may play with fire and escape unharmed, or may even apply a torch to his neighbour's house without singeing so much as a hair of his own head, no fool's lips enter into contention or call for strokes without bringing retribution upon his own head. "His mouth" is in his own "destruction," and "his lips are the snare of his soul," for it is a law as old as the universe that _"with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again"_ (Matt. vi. 1, 2). The man who seeks contention will always find others like-minded with himself who will be willing to do for them what he has done for others, and he who "calls for strokes" upon his fellow-creatures will receive them upon his own head with compound interest.

+II. None but a cruel man will be a tale-bearer.+ A quarrelsome, passionate man is a fool, and he is also a cruel man, but he is not so cruel as the tale-bearer. The first man wounds, but he inflicts his injury in open daylight and in the front of his victim, but the second is like the treacherous footpad whose face is never seen and whose step is never heard, but who comes up behind his prey in the dark and leaves no trace behind but the mortal sword-thrust. But it must not be forgotten that there must always be two persons implicated in the guilt and cruelty of thus killing the reputation of a fellow-creature. The tale-bearer must have a repository for his slanders--the busy tongue must have a listening ear or no mischief would be done, and tale-bearing would die out for want of an atmosphere in which it could live. A reference to the Critical Notes will show that the word translated "wounds" may be rendered "dainties," and it is because evil reports of others are so keenly relished by an unsanctified man that the words of a tale-bearer are able to inflict such suffering and work so much ill in the world.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 6. The emperor Julian used to banter the Christians with that precept of our Lord, "When thine adversary smites thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also:" but Christians consult their ease as well as their consciences when they obey this precept in the spirit of it; whereas proud and passionate fools, when they give vent to their rancorous spirits, because they cannot bear the shadow of an indignity, not only turn the other cheek to their adversary, but smite, and urge, and almost force him to strike and destroy them.--_Lawson._

Verse 8. The bite of a viper is not so deadly as the wound of these "tale-bearers'" stories and insinuations. The truth is they contrive to infuse _their_ poison without a bite. If they would but appear in their true character;--would they but show their fangs, and make us feel them, we should be put upon our guard. We know the viper. We shun it. And when it has unhappily succeeded in wounding us, we instantly have recourse to means for preventing the poison from getting into the mass of the blood, and pervading the system. But these _human_ vipers infuse their poison in the language of kindness and love. "Their words are smoother than oil; yet are they drawn swords;"--envenomed fangs, of which the virus gets into our system ere we are aware, works its mischievous and morally deadly effects, and becomes incapable of extraction. Every attempt at its removal still leaves some portion of it behind. There is, in the original word, an implication of softness, simplicity, undesignedness, which only gives the secret weapon with which the wound is inflicted the greater keenness.--_Wardlaw._

The tongue of the tale-bearer is a two-edged sword, at once it cutteth on both sides, and his words are his wounds, at once wounding both him of whom he speaketh and him to whom he speaketh. To the one he gives the wounds of his slandering, to the other the wounds of his flattering. The one he woundeth so, that his blow is neither heard, seen, nor felt. The other he woundeth so, that though his blow be heard, seen, and felt, yet it is not perceived: in both they go down into the heart, as revealing the heart of the one, and as removing the heart of the other from him. . . . Or the words may be translated, _the words of a tale-bearer are as smoothing words:_ for he frameth his own words to as much softness, as those which he reporteth he maketh to be hard. And indeed, as they sound, they are commonly so pleasing, that they easily slip down into the heart, where they are readily entertained.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 9.

TWIN-BROTHERS.

+I. Slothfulness and prodigality have the same origin.+ As brothers are the children of a common parent, so sloth and waste have their root in the common sin of ungodliness; men are spendthrifts or they are lazy, because they have no right sense of their obligations to God and to man--because they do not look upon their life as a stewardship for which they must give an account (Rom. xiv. 12), but as a gift which they are at liberty to spend as they please. The acts of the prodigal and the slothful man differ in themselves, but they all spring from that spirit of self-pleasing which is the essence of ungodliness.

+II. The slothful man is a waster of God's most precious gifts.+ Twin-brothers are often so much alike that it is difficult for onlookers to distinguish one from the other. And there is an aspect in which we may view the slothful man in which we not only note the close resemblance he bears to his prodigal brother, but in which he is transformed into the prodigal himself. For the negative sinner--the man who does nothing--is a waster of his time and of his talents, and is therefore guilty of a positive crime. The man who "hid the Lord's talent" was visited with a stern sentence as a positive transgressor (Matt. xxv. 25). If we convict a man of prodigality for wasting gold, what shall we say of him who wastes what no gold can buy? "Time," says J. A. James, "is the most precious thing in the world. When God gives us a moment, He does not promise us another, as if to teach us highly to value and improve it, by the consideration, for aught we know, it may be the last. Time, when gone, never returns. We talk about 'fetching up' a lost hour, but the thing is impossible. A moment once lost, is lost for ever. We could as rationally set out to find a sound that had expired in air, as to find a lost moment." And when we reflect what infinite results depend upon what a man does with his time, we see the force of the proverb, because the slothful man is a waster of the most precious commodity in this world.

+III. The results of both extravagance and sloth are the same.+ It makes no difference in the end whether a man gets nothing, or spends all that he gets, he can come to poverty by either road. The one has been compared to a man who dies by a rapid and violent disease, and the other by a slow and subtle consumption. But the grave, sooner or later, receives them both.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

The practical lesson is, that in personal and domestic interests, _diligence_ and _economy_ should _go together,_ and that the one without the other never can avail for either obtaining or securing even the comforts of life. Of what use is industry if its proceeds are not prudently managed when they come in?--if husband, or wife, or both, be destitute of discretion, improvident and thriftless? if there is the absence of all sober and considerate calculation, and, as a consequence, no due proportioning of outlay to income, but a reckless and wasteful expenditure, leaving an unlooked-for deficiency--a woful amount _minus_--at the year's end? The poor inconsiderate fools never think what they are about. They keep no daily reckoning--no accounts; and so their money is gone, they can't tell how--they had no idea they were living at such a rate!--and even when they have made the discovery there is no improvement. They say, possibly, _they must take care;_ but they only _say_ it, and immediately forget it. Things go on as before; and still (to use rather a colloquial, but sufficiently expressive phrase), what is taken in by the door is thrown out by the window; and still the wonder continues _how it goes!_ They are ever marvelling how _other folks do._ They can't understand it. For _their_ parts, all that comes in finds its way off from them as fast as it comes, and many a time faster! Thus, as might be expected, there are the same appearances of bareness, and cheerlessness, and want, in the dwelling of the _thriftless_ as in that of the _slothful._ Extremes thus meet. . . . _Diligence,_ let me remind you, is as necessary for the acquisition of spiritual as of temporal good--of the riches of Divine knowledge of the mind, as of the blessings of the Divine life to the heart. And not less is _economy of means._ How often may it be seen, that with means of a very limited and stinted amount, there is more of spiritual prosperity in one instance, than is discoverable in another, with means the most varied and abundant. Many believers, it is to be feared, are spiritual spendthrifts. They use their privileges on no principle of economy. They read, they hear, they frequent ordinances--and yet their progress in spiritual attainments bears no proportion to the extent of their advantages. Rich in privileges, they are poor in the graces and enjoyments of the life of God in the soul. Why? The answer is plain. They who thrive on slender means, make the most of what they have; whereas they who live in the midst of abundance get into habits of carelessness, and of the prodigal use of what they have.--_Wardlaw._

The word also here used may seem to refer this verse to that which goeth before it; and then it is a further description of a talebearer. For he is commonly a fellow slothful in his work, being busy in his words, and he is indeed brother to him that is a great waster, spoiling his own estate by his slothfulness, and by the mischief which his talebearing falleth upon him; and spoiling him to whom he talketh by the ill mind which he putteth into him.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 10 _and_ 11.

TWO CITADELS.

+I. The citadel of him who trusts in the Lord.+ _"The name of the Lord."_ God has revealed Himself to men by many names, each one of which is intended to set forth some attribute of His perfect nature. The name "I AM," by which He revealed Himself to Israel (Exod. iii. 14) set forth His eternal self-existence, but He has also revealed Himself by names which are used to express human relations, such as king, judge, husband, father. These names are often borne by men who are destitute of the qualifications and feelings proper to the relationships which they express, but when any one of them is applied to God it is applied to one who combines within Himself all those attributes of character in perfection which ought to be possessed in some degree by men who are called by these names. The righteous man's refuge, then, is a Living Personality--a Self-existent and Eternal King and Father, infinite in power, in wisdom, and in tenderness. It is therefore 1. _An ever-present refuge._ "God is not far from every one of us" (Acts xvii. 27), and being ever near, is always accessible. 2. _An impregnable refuge._ Before an enemy can attack those who have taken refuge in a fortress, they must carry the citadel itself. So before any enemy can harm a righteous man, he must overcome the Almighty God; he must circumvent His plans, and overthrow His purposes.

"When His wisdom can mistake,
His might decay, His love forsake,"

_then,_ but not till then, will those be exposed to danger who have put their trust in Him. 3. _An eternal refuge._ The _"arms"_ of strength that defend the children of God are _"everlasting arms"_ (Deut. xxxiii. 7). Many of the ancient fortresses that are scattered over our land were once deemed impregnable refuges. But although they bade defiance to many an assault of men in battle-array, they have had to yield to a more subtle enemy. Time has crumbled their once mighty walls, and made them unfit for purposes of defence. But the righteous man can say to Him who is his "strong tower," _"Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. . . . Even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God"_ (Psa. xc. 1, 2).

+II. The stronghold of the man who trusts in riches.+ 1. _Riches are no defence against a man's most powerful enemies._ While a man has wealth he is defended from many bodily ills and from many vexations of spirit. A man of narrow means has often to fight a hard battle to supply his bodily necessities, and is a stranger to those luxuries which make his life, in this respect, so comfortable to a rich man. And a poor man has also to bend his will to the will of his richer neighbour--to endure often "th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely." Wealth is a defence against all these enemies to a man's comfort. But there are troubles far heavier than any of these, from which riches afford no protection. Disease and death cannot be turned aside with money--a troubled soul cannot be comforted with gold. A bed of down cannot do much for a man whose body is racked with pain--it can do nothing for him whose soul is bowed down by sorrow, or smitten with a fear of death. In any of these straits a soul can find no "strong city" of refuge in the possession of untold millions; these enemies laugh at such a wall of defence. The man who trusts in material wealth as his chief good, has either made too low an estimate of his own needs, or too high an estimate of the power of wealth. 2. _Wealth is a fortress with a most uncertain foundation._ Granted that it is a defence against some very real ills, who can insure to himself a continuance of his present possessions? The uncertainty of riches has been a subject upon which the sages and moralists of all ages have dwelt--the millionaire of to-day may be a beggar to-morrow, and he who was last year surrounded by this "high wall," which shut in so much that was agreeable to his senses and shut out so many discomforts from his temporal life, may be standing to-day a forlorn, unsheltered creature, with only the ruins of his once imposing fortress around him. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xi. 28.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

The strong refuge is not only safe, but _"set aloft,"_ so the word signifies, out of gunshot. None can pull out of His hands. Run therefore to God by praying, not fainting. This is the best policy for security. That which is said of wily persons that are full of fetches, of windings, and of turnings in the world, that such will never break, is much more true of a righteous, praying Christian. He hath but one grand policy to secure him against all dangers, and that is, to run to God.--_Trapp._

To this tower the wicked are sometimes driven in distress, then seeking help here, when it is nowhere else to be found. But the righteous in any distress runneth presently unto it. Thither their eyes look, thither their hearts carry them. Yea, they are not only carried _unto_ it but _into_ it, by placing their confidence in it, and making it their safety. They are well acquainted with the way, and therefore can make speed; they have cast off the clogs of worldly impediments and so are fit for _running;_ they think it much longer until they come to God, than impatient hearts do until they come to help.--_Jermin._

To "the righteous" God is good, and he nestles and shelters himself in that; _"runs into"_ the nurture and shelter of God's love, and, in the comfort of this _strong tower, "is lifted high."_ But there is a profounder sense. The very _"name"_ that is cavilled at by the lost is the foundation of the Christian's safety. "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh," God did by His _"name."_ He gave it to Christ's humanity. More specifically speaking, He used it in the _"name"_ of His own righteousness, to balance our guilt and to give weight and value to the price of His redemption. We are repeatedly said to be saved by the _"name"_ of God (Psa. liv. 1; John xvii. 11, 12). And this is the meaning. The perfect holiness of God, which the lost man would upbraid, is what is vital in the cross of Christ. It is not only "a strong tower," but our only defence. And the act of faith is a renouncing of self and a snatching at "the name," that is, the righteousness or substituted standing of our Great Deliverer.--_Miller._

_Take the sinner in his first awakening conviction._ He trembles at the thought of eternal condemnation. He looks forward--all is terror; backward--nothing but remorse; inward--all is darkness. Till now he had no idea of his need of salvation. His enemy now suggests that it is beyond his reach; that he has sinned too long and too much, against too much light and knowledge; how can he be saved? But _the name of the Lord_ meets his eye. He spells out every letter, and putting it together, cries--"Who is a God like unto thee?" (Mic. vii. 18). He runs to _it, as to a strong tower._ His burden of conscience is relieved. His soul is set free, and he enjoys his _safety. Take--again--the child of God_--feeble, distressed, assaulted. "What, if I should return to the world, look back, give up my profession, yield to my own deceitful heart, and perish at last with aggraved condemnation?" You are walking outside the gates of _your tower;_ no wonder that your imprudence exposes you to "the fiery darts of the wicked." Read again _the name of the Lord!_ Go back within the walls--See upon the _tower the name_--"I am the Lord; I change not" (Mal. iii. 6). Read the direction to trust in it--"Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant: that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? _Let him trust in the name of the Lord,_ and stay upon his God" (Isa. l. 10). Mark the warrant of experience in this trust--"They that know _thy name_ shall put their trust in Thee; for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee" (Psalm ix. 10). Thus sense of danger, knowledge of the way, confidence in _the strength of the tower_--all gives a spring of life and earnestness to _run into it._ Here the _righteous_--the man justified by the grace, and sanctified by the Spirit of God--_runneth_ every day, every hour; realizing at once his fearful danger, and his perfect security.--_Bridges._

For Homiletics on verse 12, see on chap. xi. 2 and xvi. 18.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 13.

ANSWERING BEFORE HEARING.

+I. A man who gives judgement in a matter before he has heard all the facts of the case wrongs himself.+ If he were to give his opinion upon a building as soon as the builders had dug out the foundation, or were to criticise a picture when the artist had only sketched its outline upon his canvas, he would be deemed a fool, and what he said would have no weight whatever. Men would justly say that the house or the picture had as yet no existence, and therefore could not be judged. And a man who has only heard a part of "a matter" is in no better position to judge in it, and commits as great a folly if he attempts to do so. He does violence to his very understanding--to those mental faculties which enable him to place things side by side and to compare them, and to sift and weigh evidence before he arrives at a conclusion. Unless he does this, the opinion that he forms to-day will be altered to-morrow, and his mind will never be firmly made up on any subject. As a necessary consequence, nobody will give much heed to his judgment--no thoughtful person will attach much weight to his words--and he will thus deprive himself of that consideration and respect which he might otherwise have enjoyed.

+II. Such a man often deeply wrongs others.+ A half-told story often makes the state of matters appear so different from the truth that it is a gross injustice to condemn or justify any person when that is all that is known. A man who does it proclaims that he values very lightly the reputation of those concerned, and is often a robber of what is more to a man than his purse, viz. his good name.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Secularly, this is beyond a doubt; judicially, here is a great outrage; socially, a something very impolite; but religiously, a thing altogether a _"shame."_ Men born yesterday might certainly afford to listen. Life is a wide thing; and might, at least, be acted through, before in the darker points we insist upon a judgment. . . . _Folly,_ and therefore, mischief; _shame,_ and therefore, ill desert. These elements often appear together.--_Miller._

According to Mr. Stuart Mill, it might be plausibly maintained that in almost every one of the leading controversies, past or present, in social philosophy, both sides were right in what they affirmed, though wrong in what they denied; and that if either could have been made to take the other's views in addition to his own, little more would have been needed to make its doctrine correct. . . . Nicodemus did well to start the seasonable query, "Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doth?" Festus did well to protest that it was not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die before that he which was accused had the accusers face to face, and had licence to answer for himself concerning the charge laid against him. And in the same spirit and by the same rule, otherwise applied, had Felix done well to defer hearing Paul's defence until Paul's accusers were present. . . . Aristides, they tell us, would lend but one ear to anyone who accused an absent "party," and used to hold his hand on the other, intimating that he reserved one ear for the absentee accused. . . . Cicero, "the greatest orator, save one, of antiquity," has left it on record, as we are pertinently reminded on the _Essays on Liberty,_ that he always studied his adversaries' case with as great intensity as his own, if not still greater. And what Cicero practised as the means of forensic success, requires, as the essayist urges, to be imitated by all who study any subject in order to arrive at the truth. For he who knows only his own side of the case is convicted of knowing little of that; his reasons may be good and no one may have been able to refute them, but if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, what rational ground has he for preferring either opinion?--_Jacox._

We ought to be the more cautious in forming and pronouncing opinions, because we are so little disposed to admit conviction if we fall into mistakes, or to retract them upon conviction. It is commonly supposed that ministers cannot repent, although they do not claim, like the Pope, the gift of infallibility; and there is too much reason for the supposition, provided it be not restricted to that order of men: for the same pride that makes one set of men stubborn in their wrong opinions is to be found in other men, although it is not perhaps so much strengthened by particular circumstances, nor so visible in their conduct, because they meet not with the same temptations to discover it. How many do we find who will not change their sentiments about religion, or about persons and things, upon the clearest evidence, and give way to anger upon the least contradiction to their favourite notions, as if their dearest interests were attacked! Saints themselves are not entirely delivered from this selfish disposition, as we see in the behaviour of David to Mephibosheth, after he had pronounced a rash sentence in his case.--_Lawson._