But if the heart recognises and owns its lawful Sovereign; if, captivated by His indescribable beauty and bowed before His indisputable authority, it seeks only in profound obeisance and absolute surrender, to worship and adore and serve, how royal is His treatment, how unstinted are His largesses. "Come up hither," He says, bringing the soul higher and higher, into fuller vision, into more buoyant life, into more effectual service. The evil ruler, we saw, made all his servants wicked. Christ, as King, makes all His servants holy, dwelling in them, and subduing their hearts to Himself in ever truer devotion; He through them carries out His vast designs of love in those portions of His dominion where rebels still rise up against Him, and where poor deluded hearts still fretfully cry, "We will not have this Man to rule over us." "In the multitude of people is the king's glory." May God hasten the time when all peoples and tongues shall bow down to and worship our King!
[604] It will be observed that, speaking generally, the early proverbs present the more favourable side of the kingship, and the later proverbs suggest a period of decline (see Introduction). Possibly the same test may serve to distinguish the passages in Deuteronomy and the book of Samuel; the brighter thought that the king was originally intended by God may come from the early days when the kings still promised well, and the darker thought which crosses the optimistic picture may emanate from the period when their failure and decline were unmistakable.
[605] Prov. xvi. 12, 13.
[606] Prov. xx. 8, 26.
[607] Prov. xxii. 11.
[608] Prov. xvi. 14.
[609] Prov. xix. 12.
[610] Prov. xvi. 15.
[611] Prov. xx. 28.
[612] Prov. xxi. 1.
[613] Prov. xiv. 35.
[614] Prov. xxix. 14.
[615] Prov. xxv. 2-5.
[616] Prov. xxv. 6, 7.
[617] Prov. xxx. 31.
[618] Prov. xx. 2.
[619] Prov. xxiv. 21, 22.
[620] The LXX. of xxiv. 23, which adds a passage not appropriate to Christ, "Whosoever is delivered up to him shall be crushed. For if his temper be exasperated, he consumes men, sinews and all, and crunches their bones, and burns them up as a flame, so that they are uneatable to the young of eagles."
[621] Prov. xxviii. 15, 16.
[622] Prov. xi. 15. The image from steering survives in our own governor (gubernator).
[623] Prov. xx. 18.
[624] Prov. xv. 22.
[625] See 1 Kings xvi. 7.
[626] Prov. xxx. 22.
[627] Prov. xvii. 7.
[628] Prov. xxviii. 2.
[629] Prov. xxviii. 12.
[630] Prov. xiv. 28.
[631] Prov. xxix. 2.
[632] Prov. xxix. 4.
[633] Prov. xxix. 12. _Cf._ Ecclesiasticus x. 2: "As the judge of the people is himself, so are his officers; and what manner of man the ruler of the city is, such are they also that dwell therein."
[634] Prov. xxiii. 1-3. _Cf._ the Eastern adage, "Dainties of a king burn the lips." It was a common occurrence at the court of Pope Alexander VI. to invite an obnoxious person to the Papal table and there dispose of him by means of poisoned food.
[635] Prov. xxxi. 8, 9.
[636] Luke xix. 38.
[637] Prov. xxix. 25, 26.