The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 40

The "wit of many, the wisdom of one." A portable property of the intellect. A currency honoured in every land. "Jewels five words long, that on the outstretch'd forefinger of all time sparkle for ever." They may be compared to darts, to stings, !-0 goad_s. They ar?use the memo:y, awake the conscie!1ce; they fix the floating 1mpress1ons of truth m forms not easily forgotten. These Bible proverbs are in poetical form; and of them it may well be said, with George Herbert, "A verse finds him who a sermon flies." 2. The mode of speech is often figurative. The word rendered "dark BRying" means a profound saying, enigma, "thing hidden" (Matt. xiii. 35; Ps. lxxviii. 2), "obsc~re alle~ory_" (Augustine). An example of t~is _parabolic way of speaking is found m Agurs discourse (eh. xxx.). The power of 1t, hke the power of pictures and of all sensuous symbols and poetical images, lies in the fact that the form" ball' reveals and half conceals the soul within," and thus excites the curiosity, fixes the ntt,.,"tiou, stimulates exertion of thought in the listener. The best preachers leave much for the hearers to fill up for themselves. Suggestive teaching is the richest; it makes the pupil teach himself. Such is the method of our Lord in his parables; but not the only method; to be combined, as with him and here, with the direct mode of statement. The application is : " Take heed how ye hear." "To him that bath it shall be given." All wisdom is of God; the teacher and the disciple are both listeners at the living oracle of eternal truth. Knowledge is essential to religion, and growth belongs to both (Luke xvii. 5; Eph. iv. 15, 16; Col. i. 11; ii. 19; 2 'l'hess. i. 3; 2 Pet. iii. 18).-J. Ver. 7.-Religion the true beginning. This is the motto of the book. It is often found ( eh. ix. 10; Sirs.eh i. 16, 25, 26; Ps. cxi. 10). The Arabs have adopted it at the head of their proverbial collections. I. THE OLD TESTAMENT DESIGNATION OF RELIGION. It is the fear of Jehovah. That is reverence for him who is One, who is eternal, incomparable with any of the gods of the heathen, the Deliverer of Israel in the past and ever, the All-holy, just and merciful One. Such reverence includes practical obedience, trust, gratitude, and love. With this expression we may compare walking before Jehovah and the service of Jehovah, as designations of the practical aspect of religion, as the former indicates the emotional and intellectual. II. SUCH RELIGION IS THE TRUE GERlll OF BOUND KNOWLEDGE. Men have divorced by a logical abstraction science, and often sense, from religion. But ideally, psychologi- cally, historically, they are in perfect unity. Religion is "the oldest and holiest tradition of our race" (Herder). ,From it as the beginning the arts and sciences sprang. It is ever so. True science has a religious basis. I. In both the Infinite is implied and is sought through the finite. 2. Both run up into mystery-science into the nnlrnowable ground or substance behind all phenomena, religion before the inscrutable and unutterable God. 3. The.true mood is alike in both, that of profound humility, sincerity, self-abnegation, impassioned love of the truth, the mood of Bacon, of Newton, etc. III. THE REJECTION OF RELIGION FOLLY. The Hebrew word for "fool" is strong; it is cress, stupid, insensible. "A stock, a stone, a worse than senseless thing." Folly is always the reversal of some true attitude of the mind and temper. It is the taking a false measure of self in some relation. It is the conceit of a position purely imaginary -amusing in a child, pathetic in a lunatic, pitiful in a rational man. True wis_dom_ lies in the sense that we have little, in the feeling of constant need of light and d1rect1on; extreme folly, in the notion that the man " knows all about it." Most pitiable are learned fools. Without religion, i.e. the constant habit of reference to the universal, •all knowledge remains partial and shrUDk, is tainted with egotism, would ~everse the laws of intelligence, and make the universal give way to the particular, rnstead ?f .lifting the particular to the life of the universal. Beware of the contemptuous tone m •books, newspapers, and speakers. Reserve scorn for manifest evil. 'l'he wa~ to be •looked down upon is to form the habit of loo~ng down on o~hers. _To desp!se any !humblest commonplace of sense and wisdom 1s to brand ones self ID the sight of Heaven, and of the wise, afool.-J. Vera. 8, 9.-FiUal piety. The teacher speaks under the assumed form of a father, like St. Paul (1 Cor. iv. 15; Philem. 10), to give the more affectionate zest to his CH, I. 1-33.J THE PROVERBS. 25