Ver. 22.-(See homily on eh. xvii. 9.)-0. Vers. 23-28.-0n guard. Unfortunately, we have to treat men as we find them, not as we wish that they were and as their Creator n::.eant them to be. We are com- pelled to learn caution as we pass on our way. I. OUR FIRST DUTY AND ITS NATURAL REWARD. Our first duty, natural to the young and the unsophisticated, is to be frank, open-minded, sincere, trustful ; to say all tho.t is in our heart, and to expect others to do the same; to believe tho.t men mean what they say aI!d say what they mean. And the reward of this simplicity aud truth- fulness on our part is an ingenuous, an unsuspicious spirit, a spirit as far removed as possible from that of cunning, of artifice, of worldliness. II. THE CORRECTION OF EXPERIENCE. All too soon we discover that we cannot act on this theory without being wounded and hurt. We find that what looks like pure silver may be nothing better than" earthenware of the coa.rsest kind lacquered over with silver dross." Behind the lips th9.t burn and breathe affection for us and interest in us is a wicked heart in which are "seven abominations," in which dwells every evil imagination. We find that those who affect to be our friends when they stand in our presence are in fact our bitterest and most active enemies. We discover that our words, spoken in good faith and purity of heo.rt, are misrepresented, and are made a sword to smite us. Experience compels caution, reticence, sometimes nbsolute silence. III. THE TWO MAIN EVILS AGAINST WHICH TO GUARD. These a.re: 1. Fair speak- ing which is false. The false wordo that are ostensibly spoken in our interest, by one that means us harm; words which would lead to trust and expcctntion when we should be :ilive with solicitude and a!ert to avoid the danger which impends. By these our treasure, our position, our friendship, our reputation, our happiness, may bo seriously endangered. 2. Flattery. The invention and utterance of th:it which is 11ot felt at all, or the careless and pcrb<ips well-meant exaggeration of a feeling which is en_tertain_ed in the heart. Few things are more potent for harm than flattery. (1) It 1s readily received. (2) It is carefully treasured; men's self-love prompts them. to accept and to retain that which, if it were of an opposite character, they would reject. (3) It is harmful in three different directions: (a) It gives a wrong impression of our estate, and rROVERBE, 2 L 514 THE PROVERBS. [OH. XXVII. 1-27.
may lead to financial "ruin" (ver. 28). (b) It encourages an over-estimate or our capacity, and may lead to our undertaking that for which we are incompetent, and thus to an humiliating and distressing failure. (c) It engenders a false idea of our personal worth, and may lead to spiritual infatuation, and thus to the ruin of ourselves. IV. THE DUTY A~"D THE WISDOM OF WARTh'ESS. .As these things are so, as human society does hold a large number of dissemblers (ver. 24), as it is possible that the next acquaintance we make may be an illustration of this sad fact, it follows that absolute trustfulness is a serious mistake. We must be on our guard. We· must not open our hearts too freely. We must know men before we trust them. We must cultivate the art of penetration, of reading character. To be able to distinguish between the true and the false in this great sphere is a very large part of wisdom. Next to knowino- God, and to acquainting ourselves with our own hearts, is the duty of studying me~ and discerning between the lacquered potsherd and the pure silver. V. THE DOOM oF DECEIT. To be rigorously exposed, to be unsparingly denounced, to be utterly ashamed (vers. 26, 27).-C.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XXVII. not thine own month; Septuagint, "Let thy neighbour ( o,,,.,;,..a.s) laud thee." A stranger; Vers. 1-6.-These verses are grouped in •:,:;ii, properly, "an unknown person from pairs, each two being connected in subject. an unknown country; " but, like ii in the Ver. 1.-Boast not thyself of to-morrow. former hemistich, used indifferently for He boasts himself ( eh. :x:xv. 14) of to-morrow "another" (see on oh. ii. 16). "If I honour who counts upon it presumptuously, settles myself," said our Lord (John viii. 54), "my that he will do this or that, o.s if his life was honour is nothing." And as St. Paul testi- in his own power, and he could make sure fies (2 Cor. x.18)," Not he that commendeth of time. This is blindness and arrogance. himself is approved, but whom the Lord For thou knowest not what a day may bring commendeth." forth. Our Lord gave a lesson on this ''t,r<p rreo:vroii µ¾ </>pd.Cl?ls ~"rf,µ,a, matter in the parable of the rich fool (Luke xii); and an analogous warning, based on said the Greek gnomist; and our verse, is given by St. James (iv. 13, <1>l>-.0JJ1 l!,ro:111011 µ'iiMov f) ,ro:uTou >-.I-ye. etc.). On this topic moralists and poets And a trite maxim runs, "In ore proprio are always dilating. Very familiar a.re the laus sordet;" and an English one decides, words of Horace(' Carm.,' iv. 7. 17)- "He who praises himself is a debtor to " Quis scit, an e.djicia.nt, hodiernm crastina others." Delitzsch quotes a German pro- summm verb (which loses the jingle in translation), Tewpora di snperi?" " Eigen-lob stinkt, Freundes Lob hinkt, Euripides, ' Ale.,' 783- fremdes Lob klingt," "Self-praise stinks, friends' praise limps, strangers' praise otJ,, tu-r, 8vrrrWv 8uTu· l(nrlc,.,.a-ra., sounds." TTJV alip1ov µbv1.ou<rav el {3,rl,<rera,. Ver. 3.-A atone is heavy, and the sand To T,is ,,.6XT/< -yap a</>~~•! o! ,rpo{3firr~'l'CJ.11 weighty; literally, heaviness of a stone, Klfrr-r' oil 01Ba1C'l'011, ouB il:At<rK<'l'O:t 'l'EX"!J· weight of the sand. The substantives ore "Every day in thy life," says the Arab, more forcible than the co1Tesponding adjec- "is a leaf in thy history." Seneca. wrote tives would he; the versions r11ther weaken (' Thy d.,' 621)- the form of the expression by rendering, <have est saxum, etc. The quality in the " Nemo tam divos habuit favente., things mentioned is weight, heaviness, pon- Crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri, derosity: that is what we a.re bidden regard. Res deus nostre.s celeri citatas A fool's wrath is heavier than them both. 'l'urbine versat." '.rhe ill temper and anger of a headstrong There is tlie adage, "Nescis quid serus fool, which be vents on those about him, vesper vehat." 'l'he LXX. bas, as at eh. are harder to endure them any material iii. 28, "Thou knoweet uot what the next weight is to carry. Ecclus. xxii. 15, "Sund day ( 11 .;-,,,ovrra) shall bring forth." (For and salt and o. me.as of iron are easier to the expression, -Ii ,,,,.,ovrra, comp. Acts vii. 26; bear than n man without understandiug." xvi. 11.) '.rhe previous verse asks, "What is heavier Yer. 2.-Let another man praise thee, and thou lead? and what is the Dame thereof OIJ, X~VII. 1-27,] THE. PROVERBS. 515