The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 367

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AU'l'HORS. Vers. 1---7.-The lowly and gentle life. He who is truly humble before his God will be sweet, kind, and peaceable in his relations to men. I. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THIS LlFE. (Vers. 1-3.) 1. It is the life of innocence in the seeking to have a conscience "void of offence toward God and toward men." 'l~his makes poverty rich and privation blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is for such. The consciousness of being dear to God is the true wealth of the soul; the sense of being e.lienated from him darkens and distresses even amidst wealth and luxury, In addition to this, Jet us recollect the paradox of the apostle, "Poor, yet making many rich." It is such liYes that have indeed enriched the world. 2. It is the life of thoughtfulness. 3. 1t is the life of content. II. lTs TRIALS AND CONSOLATIONS. 1. It often incurs the coldness of the world (ver. 4). A. man who goes down in the scale of wealth finds, in the same dearee the circle of ordinary acquaintances shrink. 2. But there is consolation-a sweetn~ss ~ven in the heart of this bitter experience, for the soul is thrown the more entirely upon God. When friends, when even father and mother forsake, the Lord takes up. Deus meus et omnia ! We are naturally prone to rely more upon man than upon God ; and have to rewrite upon our memories the old biblicRl maxim, "Put not your trust in man." Pornrty may separate us from so-ea.lied friends, but "who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Ill THE REPULSIVE CONTRAST TO TIDS LIFE, A victim of vice and moral poverty amidst outward wealth. 1. Folly and untruth. (Ver. 1.) The words and the thoughts are interchangeable.. The godless, selfish rich man's life is a living lie. The outward parts of Dives a.nd Lazarus are in the sight of Heaven reversed. 2. Thoughtless rash- ness. (Ver. 2.) The "making haste to be rich," so strong a passion of our da.y, may be chiefly thought of. But any excessive eagerness of ambitious desire, or sensual pleasure ,vhich bli.Dds the sonl to thought, and indisposes for serious reflection, comes under this head. But the unrefl.ective life is neither safe nor happy. It is to such thought- less ones the solemn warning comes, "Thou fool! thy soul sha.11 be required of thfle." 3. Murmuring discontent. (Ver. 3.) The source of the vicious kind of discontent is a conscience at war with itself, and perversely mistaking the true nature of the satis- faction it needs. The "Divine discontent" which springs from the sense of our inward poverty carries in it the seed of its own satisfaction. It is the blessed hunger and thirst which shall be fed. 4. False social relations. (Ver. 4.) Of the friends made by riches it is true that "riches harm them, not the man" (Bishop Hall). .And the great man lives amidst illusions; and, in moments of insight, doubts whether among the obsequious crowd there be a heart he can claim as his own. In such an atmosphere, false witness and lies, in all their forms of scandal, slander, destruction, spring up (ver. 5). It is a hollow life, a.nd the fires of judgment murmur beneath it. Yet the fulsome flattery which rises like a cloud of incense before the rich man, and the throng of easily bought "friends," still hide from him the true sta.te of the case, Well may Divine Wisdom warn of the difficulty which attends the rich man's entrance into the kinadom. Here there a.re great lessons on compensation. God hath set the one thing ove~ against the other, to the end that we should seek nothing after him (Eccles. vii.14). The gentle and humble poor may convert their poverty into the fine gold of the spirit; while the rich man too dearly buys" position" a.t the expense of the soul.-J. Vers. 8-17 .-Maxims of intelligence. I. THE WORTH OF INTELLIGENCE. 1. It is self-wnservative ( ver. 8). We all love our own soul or life in any healthy state of body a.ud mind. We a.II want to live as long as possible. It is natural to desire to live again beyond the grave. '!'hen let us understand that there is no way to these ends except tbat of intelligence, in the highest and in every sense. 2. It is the source of happiness. (Ver. 8.) The truth is very genera.I and abstract, like the truth of the whole of these proverbs. It does not a.mount to this-that good sense will in every case procur, happiness, but that there is no true happiness without it. II. S01,rn MAilHB OF INTELLIGENCE. 1. The sarrow that falsehood brings. (Ver. 9.) It is ,;,;rlain. Many a. lie is not immediately /ownd out in the ordinary stn~c of these olt, xtt. 1-29.] TlIE PROVERBS. 377