The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 63

II. THE DANGERS FROM WHICH IT PRESERVES. Social dangers. In society lies our field of full moral development, both in sympathy with the good and in antipathy to the evil. 'l'wo dangers are particularized. 1. The influence of the bad man. We know men by their talk and by their actions-their habit in both; their "style" their ;: form," ~ll: t~? expres_sive language ~f_the ~iay.. <l) His talk is _of" froward thi~gs," or pervers1t1es -cunnmg, crafty, mahc1ous m spmt (ver. 12). Literally it is crooked talk which is a relative term-the direct opposite of the" straightness" of ver. 9 bein.,. meant'. Our moral i_ntuitions appear i_n the mind under the 3:nalog_y of relations in sp'7i.ce, and are thus designated probably m all lang~~es. The right hue and the curve or zigzag represent wba~ we/eel about good and evil m conduct. The speech of evil insinuation, covert sugge~tion, bad t-One,_ generall:v: may ~e 1;11eant ;_ or perhaps, rather, guilty topics of conver~at10n. Tb_e East 1s more leisurely m its habits than are we; and the warning has peculiar adaptat10n to the unfilled hours of an easy life, and which bad talk so often wastes and corrupts. (2) His habit of life. He forsakes the "straight· paths" to walk in "dark ways," such as those alluded to by St. Paul (Rom. xiii. 13; Eph. v. 11; 1 Thess. v. 5). In the like sense that darkness is antipathetic to us, is moral evil' (hence its appropriateness as an emblem) ; we may overcome the feeling partially, but only by doing ourselves a violence. lt is a step further in self-perversion to "take pleasure in the execution of evil, and to make merry over wickedness." Human nature demands sympathy; the most depraved cannot do without it or the semblance of it. We are always craving the sight of that which reflects us; hence the sight of evil gives joy to the bad man, the sight of good enrages him. For he is a deformity. His ways are crooked, twisted all his mode of mind and life; a moral deformity. The conscience, armed with the healthy perception of the true, beautiful, and good, sees all this in the bad man, recognizes him for what he is, and so is proof against him. One great lesson of Goethe's ' Faust' is that the tempted man does not see the devil in human shape, because hiH moral temper bas been first unstrung, and so bis vision vitiated. 2. The solicitatwns of the bad woman. The expressions," strange, foreign" (ver. 16), appear to designate her as the wife of another, an adulteress (comp. eh. vi. 26; but the sense is disputed). To allegorize the passage is to weaken its force; for the actual dangers of youth are clearly indicated. She is depicted in the strongest light of reality. 'l'his is what she is in the view of the inspired conscience. (1) Her infidelity to her husband and her God (ver. 17). For marriage is a bond, not only between two human beings, but between each and God. Affiance is the glory of womanhood ; to break her plighted troth is to wreck all her true charm and beauty. "Companion of JI.er youth" is a beautiful designation of the husband (Jer. iii. 4; Ps. Iv. 14). (2) Her dangerous arts. Oh, what can replace a youth defiled? or what more dangerous influence can there be than that of her whose "hatred is goaded by shame "-hatred against the virtue which confronts to reproach her? Her smooth tongue, flattering her victim with simulated admiration, and with the" hypocrisy of passion," is more deadly than the sword. (3) Her deadly seductions. Death, the kingdom of the shades, the ghosts who lead, according to the view of the ancient world, a faint and bloodless existence below, is the end of her and the partakers of her sins. To She~!, to Hades the boume whence no traveller returns, the steps of all her visitors tend. Her house 'seems ever to be tottering over the dark abyss. The truth held in this tragic picture is too obvious to need further illustration. Fatal to health of body, to peace of soul, to the very life itself, is the zymotic disease of lust. To the religious conscience thus the harlot appears; stripped of her paint and finery, her hypocrisy exposed, the poison of her being detected. It is the shadow of e. life, and ends in emptiness, darkness, and ghostly gibbering.-J. Vera. 20-22.-17.e principle of moral smbility. 'l'his may be regarded as the epilogue or summary of the whole chapter. The object of all Wisdom's exhortations e.nd warnings is the direction of youth to the good way, and that they may hold on the path of the just. For- I. 'l'HE RIGHTEOUS HAVE A FUTURE BEFORE THEM. A "dwelling in the land,._ the home-iaud • sound dear to an Israelitish ear. 'fhe form in which the happy future shall be ~ealized may be first material, but only to pass into the spiritual. For Dges Israel saw the promise under the image of material prosperity; afterwards, in the OH, II. 1-22,] THE PROVERBS.