Prov. xviii. 10. The name of the Lord is a strong toiver : the righteous runneth itito it, and is safe.
IN the Proverbs of Solomon we must not expect to find long and accurate statements of Divine truth, nor elevated strains of devotion founded upon it : the scope of the book is rather by brief sentences to fix upon the mind truths already acknowledged, and to shew the excellency of them in their effects. The passage before us is very instructive in this view, namely, as illustrating the blessedness attendant on
true piety. But it commeuds itself to us yet more forcibly, by exhibiting a contrast between the dispo- sitions and habits which religion inspires, and those which are indulged by the whole ungodly world. The text informs us what " the righteous man" does : the verse following our text informs us what the worldling does : the one makes God his refuge ; the other trusts in his wealth, or some other idol equally vain : the one founds all his hopes on God, as made known to us in the Scriptures of Truth ; the other, on some vanity, that has no title to confidence but '^ in his own conceit."
It was to mark this contrast that the blessedness mentioned in our text was confined to " the righteous." Solomon did not mean to intimate, that an unrighteous man, if he would flee to this tower, should be shut out : for the most unrighteous man in the universe is invited to come to it ; and, like the cities of refuge, its gates stand open day and night for the admission of all who desire to flee to it for refuge. But the truth is, that none but the righteous will run to it : none but they who are sensible of their guilt and danger, and are fleeing in earnest from the wrath to come, will enter in. All others deny the necessity of submitting to so humiliating a measure : they think they are safe enough without it. The believing pe- nitent, on the contrary, is thankful for such a refuge, and is in the habit of running to it on every occa- sion : and therefore to him, and to him alone, is the security confined.
To elucidate the passage, we will endeavour to unfold,
I. The character of God —
By "the name of the Lord" we are not to under- stand the mere zoord, Jehovah, as though that would afford us any security. This is a vain and foolish superstition, that has no foundation whatever in the Oracles of God. But, by "the name of the Lord" we must understand his character; as we learn from that expression of David, " They that know thy