I.
The Counsel of the Wicked.
1. Who are these people who come before us at the first stage, and whom the Authorized Version describes as "the ungodly," and the Eevised as " the wicked " ? We may find a name for them that will bring them into clearer focus for us than either of these, and perhaps enable us to obtain a photograph of them which we shall more distinctly recognize in life. Following the derivation of the Hebrew word, we begin to find them appearing before us as a people who are abnormal and out of course ; and this idea of them agrees very closely with their standing in the Psalm.
They stand out before us as a class of people whose aim has never taken shape through the fascination of life's nobler con- straints. And perhaps we shall do well to translate their Hebrew name, for our purposes, as " the lawless." We do not need to think here always of any way of life that startles us with singu- larity or violence. We meet with its representative continually in business or in the street, and his look and behaviour are for the most part quite commonplace.
His sins are chiefly, so far, those of omission ; the sins of commission are close behind. His indulgent mother would indignantly repudiate any suggestion of his perilous condition by ^ Ruskin, Proserpina ( Works, xxv. 247).
176 THE MAN THAT IS BLESSED
exclaiming, " He has never done anything wrong ! " But has he done anything good, anything decided and firm ? A moral negative will soon be transformed into a strong positive. Euskin reminds us that at the judgment the verdict will not turn on the " have-nots," but on the " haves." The deciding question will not be, " How much evil have you not done ? " but, " How much good have you done ? " When the body is in a general low condition, it catches disease quickly; when the soul is in a general low condition, it easily catches sin. The ungodly youth is he who never shows indignation against sin, whose whole bearing is dull, insipid, and easy-going. The ungodly person is a moral inverte- brate, a creeping thing; hence Pope's line pathetically applies
to him :
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Our salvation consists in not enduring ; to tolerate is to be lost.
Lord, with what care hast Thou begirt us round! Parents first season us; then schoolmasters Deliver us to laws; they send us, bound To rules of reason, holy messengers. Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin, Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes. Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, Bibles laid open, millions of surprises; Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness, The sound of glory ringing in our ears : Without, our shame ; within, our consciences ; Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears ! Yet all these fences and their whole array One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away.^
2. We read of walking in the counsel of these people. But again we shall have to ask whether we can bring the meaning into a better focus. The word "counsel" was an excellent translation in its time ; but the virtues of words alter so, and nowadays when we speak of any one's " counsel " we are apt to think merely of his advice to others. But for our translation of the Hebrew here, we seem to want a word broad enough to include the kind of plan and tone he is cherishing in his heart as suitable for his own living.
Expediency is the guide of life ! Behold a master-maxim the spirit of which pervades a large amount of morally dreary human
^ George Herbert,
PSALM I. I 177
thinking! It may be thinking infused with a great deal of business-like shrewdness, distinguished by moderation and savoir faire. It may encourage and guide you, if you adopt it, in developing ready efficiency of the kind that pays. It may help to build you up in alert self-confidence. And so far we shall call it prudence. But look further into its bearings. What if, while it may be putting one in the way of reaching a host of factitious little ends that awaken new greeds and ambitions in their attainment, it does not trouble to ask after any glorifying of life through a supreme aim that wins the satisfied homage of one's inmost heart ? Then it is plainly a prudence of the lawless — of those who, with all their skill and diplomacy, neglect life's highest norm and living rule.
^ No human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice. He has therefore rendered all endeavours to determine expediency futile for evermore. No man ever knew, or can know, what will be the ultimate result to himself, or to others, of any given line of conduct. But every man may know, and most of us do know, what is a just and unjust act. And all of us may know also, that the consequences of justice will be ultimately the best possible, both to others and ourselves, though we can neither say what is best, or how it is likely to come to pass.^
^ As soon as prudence has begun to grow up in the brain, like a dismal fungus, it finds its expression in a paralysis of generous acts.^