May God grant us a clear vision in this matter, that we may see the due relation of things! Goodness is the principal thing--for it faith itself and all religion exists. God is goodness--man is evil; what God means by saving us is to make us good like Himself. That we must be saved by faith means that we must be made good by faith, not that we must take faith in place of goodness. That righteousness is imputed to us by the goodness of God means that the goodness of Christ is reckoned as ours for the purpose of making us good, not in order to spare us the necessity of being good. And in this way, and this only, we must estimate one another. What a man believes in his heart we can never fully know; but whether he is good or not is a matter plain as the day. It is easy to bandy words of reproach, to call men unbelievers, sceptics, atheists; but there is only one wise way of speaking and thinking. If we see goodness, let us thank God, for there, be sure, His Spirit is;[279] if we see the lovely graces which shine in our Lord Jesus Christ gleaming, however fitfully, in our fellow-men, let us recognise Christ there. And where we see wickedness, let no consideration of outward Christian profession or orthodoxy of belief restrain us from fully recognising that it is evil, or from courageously contending against it.
[208] Prov. x. 28.
[209] Prov. x. 30.
[210] Prov. xiv. 11. Cf. Prov. xii. 7: "Overthrow the wicked; and they are not (_i.e._, there is no rising again for them), but the house of the righteous shall stand."
[211] Prov. xi. 18.
[212] Prov. xiii. 3.
[213] Prov. xi. 5, 6; xxi. 7.
[214] Prov. xxii. 8.
[215] Prov. xxi. 7, 8, 10, 15; xxvi. 24, 26; xv. 28.
[216] Prov. xi. 7.
[217] Prov. xiii. 9; xxiv. 20.
[218] Prov. xi. 19.
[219] Prov. xi. 21.
[220] Prov. xiv. 12; xvi. 5, 25; xxi. 2.
[221] Prov. xxiii. 17, 18; xxiv. 1, 19.
[222] Prov. xii. 7.
[223] Prov. xiv. 12; xvi. 25.
[224] Prov. xxiv. 15, 16.
[225] Prov. xxix. 16.
[226] Prov. xi. 3.
[227] Prov. xiii. 6. Cf. Prov. xiv. 14: "The backslider in heart shall be sated from his own ways, and the good man from himself." Though probably we ought to read, with Nowack, מִמְּעֲלָלָיו, which would give a completer parallelism: "The backslider shall be sated from his own ways, and the good man from his own doings."
[228] Prov. xi. 8. Cf. Prov. xxviii. 18.
[229] Prov. xxi. 18.
[230] Prov. xii. 13.
[231] Prov. xii. 21.
[232] Prov. xiii. 25.
[233] Prov. xvi. 17; xix. 16.
[234] Prov. xiv. 22.
[235] Prov. xxi. 21.
[236] Prov. xxi. 15; xxix. 6. Unless, with Delitzsch, we are to read בְּפֶשַׂע for בְּפֶשַׁע, and יָרוּצ for יָרוּן, which would give: "In the steps of a bad man lie snares, but the righteous runs and rejoices."
[237] Prov. xi. 27, 30.
[238] Prov. xii. 12.
[239] Prov. xvii. 26: "To punish the righteous is not good, nor to smite the noble for their uprightness."
[240] Prov. xiv. 32.
[241] Prov. xx. 11.
[242] Prov. xiv. 19.
[243] Prov. xxv. 26.
[244] Prov. xiv. 26: "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge." So Prov. xx. 7: "A just man that walketh in his integrity: blessed are his children after him."
[245] Prov. xiii. 22.
[246] Prov. xii. 26.
[247] Prov. xxii. 11. Cf. Prov. xvi. 13.
[248] Prov. xi. 31.
[249] Prov. xxix. 2.
[250] Prov. xxviii. 12.
[251] Prov. xi. 10, 11.
[252] Prov. xiv. 34.
[253] Prov. xxviii. 28.