Matt. vii. 6. Give not that tvhich is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
IN the holy Scriptures there are not only such directions as are necessary for the saving of the soul, but such also as are of a prudential nature, calculated for the rectifying of our judgment, and the regulating of our conduct, in less important matters. A pious person would obtain salvation, though he should not be discreet in his mode of communicating instruction
or reproof to others. But it is desirable that ^' the man of God should be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works :" and therefore he should attend as well to those admonitions which are of secondary importance, as to those which relate to the funda- mental points of faith or practice. The words before us are connected with the prohibition respecting the judging of others. To judge others uncharitably will expose us to similar treatment from them, as well as to the displeasure of Almighty God. Before we pre- sume to judge others at all, we ought to be diligent in searching out and amending our own faults ; with- out which we are but ill qualified to reprove the faults of others. We ought also to consider the state of the person whom we undertake to reprove : for if he be hardened in his wickedness, and disposed to resent our well-meant endeavours, it will be more prudent to let him alone, and to wait for some season when we may speak to him with a better prospect of success. Such is the import of the caution in our text ; from whence we may observe,
I. That rehgious instruction is often most unworthily received —
The value of religious instruction is but little known —
[Education in general is esteemed one of the greatest blessings we can enjoy ; nor is any sacrifice, whether of time or money, deemed too great for the obtaining of the benefits arising from it. A richly-furnished mind, a cultivated taste, a polished manner, are distinctions which the richer part of the community particularly affect : and they are most envied who possess in the highest measure such accompUshments. But divine knowledge is considered as of little worth : though it would enrich the soul beyond all conception, and adorn it with all the most amiable graces, and is therefore most fully charac- terized by the name of " pearls," yet has it no beauty, no ex- cellency, in the eyes of carnal men : the generality are as insensible of its value as swine are of the value of pearls, which they would " trample under their feet" as mire and dirt. Of this however we may be assured, that instruction, even though it be in a way of reproof, lays us under the deepest obligation to him who gives it^]
a Prov. XXV. 11, 12.