The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 44

~earch is_ vain_. The attitude which the soul refused to assume in its pride, it is forced mto by 1ts distress. The wheel comes full circle; the sinner is smitten in the very place of his sin; and outraged conscience Is avenged, 4, Above all the tone of Wisdom is reasonable. These are no arbitrary, cruel, capricious dealinas 0 with t.ho sinner. They rest upon the law of things (vers. 29-31). "Because they h ated reason- able doct_rine, and coveted not the fear of Jehovah, fared not on the way of my counsel, and desp1s~ all 11?-Y rebuke; ~~erefo~e they shall eat of the fruit of their way, and be satiated with their counsels! It 1s the law of causality applied to moral things, "The curse causeless shall not come!" The most obvious example of the law of cause and effect in natur«;-the connection. o_f seed and crop, sowing and reaping-best illus- trates the process Ill the human spmt. We cannot deceive God, cannot evade law; wha~soever we sow, we ruu_st_ reap, _and that a~cording _to quantity, to kind or quality. Agam, the figure of a surfeit 1s forcible as applied to this experience of the consequenc~s of guilt. We find it also in Isa. iii. 10; Ps. lxxxviii. 4; cxxiii. 4. It brinas out the principle that all spurio~s plea_sures, i.e., those which are rooted only in egotism, cloy, a_nd so tur':1 the ~an agamst himself. Self-lo~thing, self-contempt, is the deep revela- tion of an mner Judgment. If any one asks with the anger of the atheistic poet," Who made self-contempt? " let him turn to this passage for an answer. 5. Wisdom is declarative of moral laws. 'l'he turning away, the resistance and recalcitrancy of the simple, murders th~~ (Jer. viii. 5; Hos. xi. 5), and the security (idle, easy, fleshly carelessness, Jer. xxu. 21) destroys them. " More the treacherous calm I dread Than tempests sailing overhead." (See South's powerful sermon, with his usual splendid illustrations, on "Prosperity ever dangerous to Virtue," vol. ii. ser. vi.) 6. She is prophetic of good to the obedient. In bright contrast to the spurious peace of the dulled conscience is the true peace of the wise and God-fearing, " He who listens to me shall dwell securely, and have rest without terror of calamity." It is like that of ordered nature-" central peace abiding at the heart of endless a!!ilation." In this profound union with God, the parables of life are but superficial and transient as the waves of ocean, while the depths are calm as eternity. The method of personified Wisdom is that of Christ, with which it may be compared at every point. (1) Sin is clearly exposed, in its effects and its cause. (2) Judgment is clearly announced. (3) Promises of eternal good are no less emphatically given. (4) Refuge from evil, and the way of salvation both temporal and eternal, are pointed out.-J. Vers. 1-6.-The ideal teacher. Solomon had all possible advantages to qualify him for the work of a teacher of men. He bad (1) special endowments from the hand of his Creator (1 Kings iii.); (2) a heritage of rich experience from the life of his father, beside parental counsels from his lips; (3) the best instruction which the kingdom could afford, and surely there must have been much wisdom to learn from so wise and faithful a teacher as the Prophet Nathan (2 Sam. xii.). Who, then, should be so well able as he was to give us the ideal of a true teacher? We are reminded by these verses that he is the man who-- I. Is AFFECTED BY THE PRESENCE OF IGNORANCE AND ERROR. He notices the "simple" man and the "young man" (ver. 4); he has regard to the fact that there are those about him who need to he led into the paths of "justice and judgment and equity" (ver. 3). His eye rests on t~ese; his _mind _perceives how urgently they_ need the " instruction" and "understandmg" which will save them from the penls to which they are exposed; his heart goes out to them; his sympathies embrace the~; he desires "to give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and dis- cretion." He is, therefore, the man who- II. CONVEYS KNOWLEDGE. 1. He seeks to impart a. knowledge of faces; to give "instruction" (ver. 2); to 'make known to the simple-minded and i_nexperienced the truth that "all is not 0aold that glitters," that men are often very different from that which they seem to be, that under a fair exterior there may lurk uttermost corruption, that the sweetest morsels may be the introduction to bitterest consequences, etc. 2. He seeks also to convey a knowledge of principles: to give" understanding;" to make cm. r.1-33.] THE PROVERBS. 29