The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 261

strong, whether addressed to the Church or the individual, when there is a false estimate of self, a supposition of wealth which is but imaginary, a false confidence which, if not awakened now, will be terribly aroused and shattered further on. 3. But o. false estimate of ourselves may be, not a penalty, but rather a pity. When the heart thinks itself (makes itself) poor and destitute, while it is really "rich toward God," it suffers as it need not suffer, and it lacks the strength for doing good which it need not lack. And this is not unfrequently the case. Men have been misinstructed concerning the kingdom of Christ; and long after they have been within it they have been supposing themselves to stand outside it. Wherefore let those who teach take care how they teach, and let all disciples "take heed how they hear," that they may not think themselves wrong when they are right with God, rebels against the Divine Ruler when they are his accepted children.-C. Ver. 12, with ver. 9 (first part) and ver. 19 (first part).-Hope and disappointment. We learn that- I. HOPE IS PLANTED AS AN INSTINCT IN THE BUM.AN HEART. "Thou didst make me nope when I was upon my mother's breasts," says the psalmist (xxii. 9). We start on our course with a precious store of hopefulness in our soul; and it takes much to kill or to exhaust it. It lasts most men through life, though the troublous experiences we pass through weaken it, if they do not wound it unto death. II. IT IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH AND JOY TO us. 1. It is a source of strength to us. It leads us to entertain and to enter upon new ventures. It carries us on during many toils and through many difficulties. It sustains us to the end, when we are weary, and when we are opposed and baffled. "We are saved by hope." 2;-Jt is also a perennial source of joy. Rob life of its anticipation~, and_you deprive it of a very large proportion of its sweetness and satisfaction. III. SIN BAS INTRODUCED DISAPPOINTMENT, We must regard this as one part, &nd one very serious part, of the penalty of sin. Not, of course, that each case of disappoint-. ·lllent is the consequence of some particular antecedent wrong-doing; but that it forms 8 part of that whole burden and trial of life which is the mark and the penalty of human sin. There are lighter disappointments which may not count for much, though these put together would make up no small aggregate of evil. But there are heavier dis- appointments which constitute a very large and serious part of our life-sorrow. "Hope deferred" does indeed make the heart sick. The long and weary waiting for the return of the absent; for the manifestation of love ungratefully, and perhaps cruelly, withheld; for the health and strength which no treatment will restore; for the opening which would prove a great opportunity; for the signs of reformation in a beloved relative or friend; for the relenting and reconciliation of one who has been long estranged;- this does fill the soul with an aching such as no other trouble brings. It is one of life's very heaviest burdens. It is sometimes the burden and even the blight of a human life. IV. IT Is THE PART OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM TO AVERT IT. Not that it can be wholly averted-that is quite beyond our power. Not that there is any real blessing in the absence or the littleness of expectation. But that: 1. We should discourage and renounce the perilous and injurious habit of idle day-dreams. 2. We should moderate our hopes according to our circumstances, and be contented only to look for that which, in the providence of God, we may reasonably and rightly expect to partake of. V. IT IS TBE PART OF CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION TO AOOEPT IT. We must suffer when our hopes are unfulfilled; but we may find great relief in the thought that it is the will of God that we are submitting to. The feeling that it is our Divine Friend who is letting us pass through the dark shadow of disappointment, and that it is the holy Lord seeking our highest good who is sending us through the refining fires,-this will give balm to our wounded spirit; this will lighten the heavy load we bear, VI. Goo WILL GIVE HIS PEOPLE SOME GOOD MEASURE OF FULFILMENT, we shall prove by our experience in many ways and in many spheres-particularly in those of (1) our inner life and (2) our work for our Lord-that "the light of the righteom1 rejoiceth," that "when desire cometh, it is a tree of life," that "desire accomplished i~ sweet to the soul," If we rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, he will give l!J our heart's desires (Ps. x.xxvii, 41 7). 266 THE PROVERBS. [OH, XIII, 1-25,