Two Ancient Proverbs
(No. 3080)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1908.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
29, 1874.
"The fear of man brings a snare; but whoever puts his trust in the
LORRD shall be safe." Proverbs 29:25.
WE have two ancient Proverbs here. Each of them is true as a separate
Proverb, but they are equally true when linked together. The
independent proposition, that the fear of man brings a snare, is a
Truth of God which experience has taught to many. The other
proposition, that he that trusts in the Lord shall be safe, has been
found most blessedly true by all those who have tested it. Then put the
two propositions together–that the fear of man brings a snare, but
trust in the Lord is the safe and certain way to avoid that snare–and
this also is true.
I. We shall, first of all, consider for a little while the first of the
two ancient Proverbs–"The fear of man brings a snare." That is ONE OF
THE GREAT EVILS THAT WE HAVE TO AVOID.
What a common evil the fear of man is–the fear of losing human
approbation, the fear of incurring human wrath. There are thousands of
men who have no fear of God, who have great fear of man. They break the
Laws of God without any fear of the consequences that must ensue, yet
they are afraid to break the laws of man because they dread the
punishment that might possibly follow. They are not afraid of Hell, yet
they are afraid of an earthly prison! They dread not the arm of the
Almighty, yet they are afraid of an arm of flesh.
The fear of man has been thought by some persons to be a very good and
salutary thing. Instead of bringing a snare, they think that it is the
means of preventing much sin among mankind. Now I do not doubt that
some are hindered by the fear of man from committing great crimes and
open acts of wrong, but the utmost that the fear of man can do is to
confer a very doubtful benefit. Try it in your own house among your own
children. If your children are kept from wrongdoing only by the fear of
you–if they only do that which they are bid to do because they are
afraid to do otherwise– you will have a very poor form of obedience.
And you will have, at the same time, an abundant crop of deceit
springing up, for when your child has done wrong, his fear of
punishment will drive him to a lie and perhaps lead him from one lie to
another. And lies may become so common with him that, at last, it shall
be as natural to him to tell a lie as to speak the truth! And I think
every parent must know that all the faults a child can commit, if put
into the scale together, are not equal in criminality and in injury to
his spiritual constitution as a lie. The power to tell a lie is one of
the most hideous powers to which man can attain–and some children are
kept in such a state of terror that they naturally learn to do it. It
is supposed, too, that servants cannot be managed without being kept in
a state of fear. Yet you all know what an eye-server is. If there is no
right principle in servants, they are worth nothing. Those who will
only work because the eye of the master or mistress is upon them, are
of very little value. You only teach them habits of deceit if they live
in constant fear of you. This experiment has been tried on a large
scale. Laws have been made with severe penalties for their violation,
yet men seemed as if they transgressed all the more. In prison, the
sternest forms of discipline have been tried, yet the prisoner has come
out determined to sin again! There has been no beneficial change
produced in him by fear.
I will not deny that the fear of man has its uses, but I must assert
again that it is always a very doubtful good which fear brings to the
human mind and heart. Love, my Brothers and Sisters, is the grand cure
for the evil of human hearts, especially the love that comes from
above! That pure and heavenly flame which is kindled only by the Holy
Spirit burns up sin. But "fear has torment"–it does little else but
plague and vex the soul.
Having said this much about any possible good that may come of fear, I
now remark that according to the text, "the fear of man brings a
snare." It has led many men into very great sins.
Look at Pilate. I mention him first because there was a peculiar
atrocity about his sin. The pure and holy Jesus is brought before him
and, after examining Him, he declares, "I find no fault in this Man."
He sends Him to Herod and the result is that he says to Christ's
accusers, "I have found no fault in this Man touching these things
whereof you accuse Him: no, nor has Herod: for I sent you to him."
Pilate's wife warns him that she has suffered much in a dream because
of Christ, and she says, "Have nothing to do with that just Man."
Pilate's own interviews with Christ impressed his mind and, therefore,
he wanted to set the Savior free if he could. But though he was a Roman
governor and placed in a high position of power, he was a poor slave to
the people! He was vacillating. He knew what was the right course and
he wanted to take it, but he feared the consequences. The Jews might
appeal to Caesar and say that he had spared the life of one who
pretended to be a king–and then he might lose his post. So this poor,
timid, contemptible creature takes water and washes his hands–and says
that he is innocent of the blood of this just Person–and the next
minute gives up the innocent Victim to be nailed on a cross! It was the
fear of man that caused Pilate's name to become infamous in the history
of the world and of the Church of God–and it will be infamous to all
eternity. The fear of man led him to slay the Savior! Take care that it
does not lead you to do something of the same kind.
Long before Pilate's day, there had been a king of Israel who lost his
crown through the fear of man. God had chosen Saul to be head over his
people, but when he was commanded by God to smite the Amalekites and to
destroy all that they had, he spared King Agag and the best of the
sheep and oxen, and all that was good because he "feared the people,
and obeyed their voice." He was head and shoulders taller than his
subjects, a man who, at other times acted as a despot and had his own
way. Yet at this particular time he feared the people and so did that
which God had commanded him not to do and, therefore, his kingdom was
torn from him and given to one who was better than he.
"Yes," you say, "those two were bad men who fell into sin through fear
of man." Yes, but I am sorry to say that I must also mention good men
who did the same. Look at Aaron, the priest of the Lord, and companion
of his brother, Moses! Aaron, who had spoken with God and was His
representative to the people. Yet, when Moses was gone up into the
mountain and the people came to Aaron and said, "Up, make us gods which
shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up
out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him." Aaron
bade them break off their golden earrings and bring them to him–and
he, the priest of God, desecrated his sacred hands by making for the
people a molten calf before which they might bow in worship! Ah, Aaron!
Had you had the courage of your brother, you would not have fallen into
that shameful sin!
Turning to the New Testament again, to give an example from it,
remember bold Peter and the words which he spoke so enthusiastically to
his Lord, "I am ready to go with You, both into prison and to death.
Though I should die with You, yet will I not deny You." Yet see him a
little later, warming himself in the high priest's palace and first one
of the maidservants, and then others that stood by, said to him,
"Surely you are one of them." And "he began to curse and to swear," to
prove that he was no disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ! Ah, Peter,
where is your courage now? Truly, "the fear of man brings a snare,"
even to the best of men! God save us from it and make us so brave that
we shall never fear any man so as to do a wrong action!
Again, the fear of man brings a snare in this respect, it keeps many
persons from conversion. Perhaps there are some such persons now
present. Let me see if I can pick them out. You scarcely dare to go to
the place where the Gospel is preached in a way in which God blesses
it, because if you were to go there, and it were known, it would be a
subject of jest in your family and would provoke remarks that you would
not like. There are many who dare not go to the house where God pours
out the blessing–they are such cowards that they dare not come to
listen to those who preach Christ's Gospel with power. And others who
do come and hear it, are afraid to receive the Truth to which they have
listened again and again. The thought in such a person's mind is, "What
would Father and Mother say if I were converted? Oh, what a time I
would have of it! What would my fellow workmen say? I would have to run
the gauntlet of the whole lot if they once knew that I had become a
Christian." Another says, "I don't know how I would endure the
persecution I would receive! My life would become intolerable if I were
to become a child of God." So they never come to Jesus because the fear
of man, which brings a snare, keeps them as the hopeless slaves of sin.
But, young man, do you mean to be damned just to please somebody else?
Do you mean to fling away your immortal soul in order to escape the
laughter of fools? Remember that they may laugh you into Hell, but they
cannot laugh you out again! Let not the fear of man be the ruin of your
soul! If, for the sake of pleasing men, you choose to forfeit some
small trifle, it does not much matter, but when it comes to the
forfeiting of Christ, the forfeiting of your soul, and the forfeiting
of Heaven, I appeal to your own conscience to say if it is worthwhile
to be eternally ruined for the sake of pleasing men, whoever they may
be! Is it not better that even father, and mother, and brother, and
sister, and every friend you have in the world should be against you,
and that God should be yours–than that you should have all these as
your friends and yet remain at enmity against the Most High?
I have no doubt that this same fear of man keeps a large number
ofpersons who are converted, from making a public avowal of their faith
And so it brings a snare to them. Nicodemus "at the first came to Jesus
by night." And Joseph of Arimathaea was "a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly for fear of the Jews." I hope you will not try to shelter
behind those two good men, for remember that as soon as Christ was put
to death, when His cause was at the very worst, they came out boldly
and proved their love of Him! And we do not read that they ever crept
back, like snails into their shells. Having acknowledged Christ as
their Lord and Master, I have no doubt that they continued to follow
Him whatever the consequences may have been. So far as you are
concerned, just now is the time to acknowledge Christ–especially now
because skepticism and superstition, the two monstrous evils which
threaten to devour true religion, are so rampant– and it needs some
moral courage to declare yourself upon the side of the simple Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is the hour for a Christian to play the man
for Christ, his Lord and Master! Yet there are many who are keeping in
the background because "the fear of man brings a snare" upon them.
Where are you, dear Friend? I cannot come round to all those pews,
otherwise I would stop, here and there, before some of you whom I know
and before others whom I suspect, and whom I joyfully suspect, of
loving my Master! I think you do, by the way you look when His name is
extolled in your hearing. Yet you have not said so in the way He
wishes. I charge you, by the love which you bear to Him, keep not back!
Imagine that you see Him now before your eyes and that you hear Him say
to you as He hangs upon the Cross, "I bore all this for you, and yet
are you ashamed of Me? If you love Me, acknowledge Me in the midst of
this wicked and perverse generation. Take up your cross and follow Me,
whatever suffering or reproach it may involve."
The fear of man has brought a snare to some of the greatest Believers
who have ever lived. And any child of God, whenever he fears the face
of man, loses some of the dignity which appertains to that
relationship. What a grand man Abraham was! Whenever I read his life, I
look up to him with astonishment and wish I had such faith as would
make me resemble him in that respect. He marches across the pages of
history with such quiet stately dignity that kings and princes are
dwarfed beside his great figure! How nobly did he say to the King of
Sodom, "I will not take from you a thread, even to a shoelace, lest you
should say, I have made Abram rich." But oh, how small did he look when
he said to Abimelech, concerning his wife, "She is my sister." She was
his sister, in a sense–there was some truth in what he said–but she
was more than his sister–so he was uttering a lie for which he was
rightly rebuked by the heathen prince!
You have, in David, another instance of how the fear of man can bring
the mighty down. How brave he is as he goes out to slay Goliath, and
how grandly he behaves when, twice, he spares the life of his sleeping
enemy! Yet see him there at Gath, when the servants of Achish
frightened him so that he "feigned himself mad in their hands, and
scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon
his beard." The fear of man had brought down Israel's future monarch to
drivel like a madman!
Equally sad is the case of Elijah, that grandest of men, as I may truly
call him. You see him in his grandeur as he cries, "Take the Prophets
of Baal! Let not one of them escape." And as he brings them down to the
brook Kishon and slays them there! And then as he goes to the top of
Carmel and prays till the rain descends upon the parched land. Yet,
after the excitement is over, he is afraid of the woman, Jezebel–and
the great Elijah shrinks down into the frightened man who runs away,
and cries, "It is enough! Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not
better than my fathers." So you see that "the fear of man brings a
snare" even to the best of men–it drags them down from their high
places and hurls them into the dust. Therefore may God preserve us from
it!
The fear of man keeps some Believers in very dubious positions. I have
known some Believers remain where they knew they were not doing right
and where, every day, they were dragging a heavy chain behind them
because they had not the moral courage to come straight out for God. If
any of you young people who love the Lord want to go the easiest way to
Heaven–you know that all ways there are rough, but if you want to go
the easiest way–take that which looks the hardest! Namely, be an
out-and-out, thorough-going Christian! "But that will cost me much,"
says one. It will at first, but it will be the more easy for you
afterwards. Whereas, if you begin by giving way to the world a
little–trimming a little–you will have to give way and trim more and
more. A Christian should be like a steamer that goes straight away to
the port it is intended to reach. But many professors are like sailing
vessels, the motive power that controls them is outside of them, so
they have to tack a good deal–and though they may ultimately get to
their destination–there is a good deal of strange sailing to the right
and to the left, and their voyage takes a very long while. I hope you,
dear Friends, will go straight to your mark. "Trust in God, and do the
right" and this will, after all, be the very smoothest path that you
can follow!
Further, the fear of man hampers the usefulness of a great many. There
are Brothers who ought to be preaching, but who are not because they
are afraid of men. And some who ought to go and visit the poor, but
they say that they cannot–the reason is that they are afraid of men!
Why, I have known some who were even afraid to give away a tract– they
were as much alarmed as though they had to put their hand into a
tiger's mouth! I have known some who were afraid to speak to their own
children about their souls. Is it not strange that they can speak to
other people's children about their souls better than they can to their
own? It should not be so! In fact, there is nobody living who any one
of us, if he is a Christian, has any right to be afraid of. We shall
never do good to people if we are afraid of them. What would have
become of the Church of God if the Apostles had been such timid, gentle
Christians as some whom I know? They would not have gone out to preach
in the streets–and as there were no chapels and churches, then–they
would not have preached at all! As soon as Caesar promulgated an edict
that they were not to meet on the first day of the week, they would
have said, "Perhaps we had better not meet." When they heard that the
crowds shouted in the amphitheatre, "Christians to the lions!" they
would have said, "We must not expose ourselves to such a risk–we must
think of our wives and families." And so they would have been cowards,
and soon there would have been no Christianity left in the world! Just
imagine what would have happened if the Reformers had acted thus.
Suppose Martin Luther had said, "I shall do as that old monk advised me
when I consulted him. He said, 'Martin, go back to your cell and live
there near to your God, and leave the Church and the world alone.'" If
Luther had followed that advice, where would the blessed Reformation
have been, and what preaching of the Gospel would there have been at
this present moment?
I must not continue much longer upon this part of my subject, but I
must say that to a minister of Christ the fear of man is one of the
worst of snares. Jonah tried to escape from going to Nineveh because he
was afraid of man. The Galatians could not bear the full light of the
Gospel and, therefore, certain teachers among them tried to shut off
some of its beams. And if a minister of Christ once begins to be afraid
of his hearers, his tendency will be to withhold some Doctrine through
fear of a wealthy subscriber, or to keep back some rebuke for fear that
it should bear too hardly upon an influential person in his
congregation. There is one sin which I believe I have never
committed–I think that I have never been afraid of any of you and I
hope, by the Grace of God, that I never shall be! If I dare not speak
the Truth of God upon all points and dare not rebuke sin, what is the
good of me to you? Yet I have heard sermons which seemed to me to have
been made to the order of the congregation. But honest hearers want
honest preaching and if they find that the preachers message comes home
to them, they thank God that it is so. They say, "Is it not right that
it should be so? If we err, should not the Word of God, which is quick
and powerful, search us, try us and find our errors?" And the preacher,
if he really preaches the Truth as it is in Jesus, must often deal out
rebuke as well as encouragement. May God deliver all His ministers from
the fear of man everywhere–and the whole Church of Christ too!
At one time, the fear of man took this form–the geologists had
discovered that Moses was mistaken and that God did not know how He had
made the world! Many seemed to think that something dreadful had
happened and they wondered how those objectors were to be answered.
Soon after that, somebody discovered that God was mistaken about having
made Adam and Eve, for they gradually developed from oysters or some
smaller creatures still! Then again there was a great outcry, "Who is
to answer these eminent philosophers?" O, Church of God, is every fool
to have any answer at all? Stand fast by the Inspired Word and be not
ensnared by the fear of man! We have seen scores of systems of
philosophy come and go, and we shall probably see as many more before
we die. Our business is to stand fast to the Truth of Revelation and
let philosophies die as the frogs of Egypt died in the days of
Moses–for die they will, and when fresh hordes come, they also will
die, but the eternal Truth of the ever-blessed God will never die–it
will live on in its own glorious immortality!
II. Now, in the second place, I want to show you that THE GREAT CURE
FOR THIS EVIL IS TRUST IN GOD. "The fear of man brings a snare: but
whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe."
I should have thought that Solomon would have said, "The fear of man
brings a snare: but whoever fears the Lord shall be safe." That would
have read very well and it would have been quite true. But it would not
have expressed the special Truth of God that Solomon then had in mind.
It is not fear, but faith, that is the cure for cowardice. Trust in the
Lord and you can then cry, "Whom shall I fear?" for you will feel that
you have the strength of the Almighty at your back. Trusting in God, we
feel that we are one with God and so we are made strong. That strength
breeds courage and enables us boldly to ask, "If God is for us, who can
be against us?" That courage leads us to count the cost of doing right
and, after counting it, we feel that in God's strength we can endure
that and a thousand times as much if necessary. And therefore we say,
"Come what may, we will serve the Lord." And with the Holy Spirit
resting upon us, we march boldly on to victory in His might. So that
trust in God, by giving us God's strength and consequently courage and
decision, lifts us up above the fear of man!
But the point of the text may be found in another direction, namely,
that trusting in God, we become safe, not merely from fear, but from
the consequences of defying fear. " 'Whoever puts his trust in the Lord
shall be safe." By trusting in the Lord and doing that which is right,
he may be a great sufferer, but he shall be safe. He will not be so
great a sufferer as he would be if he followed the opposite course.
Suppose that his enemies carry their persecution to extremes? They can
only kill the body and after that they have no more that they can do.
But suppose he were to forfeit his faith? Then his body and soul would
be cast into Hell which would be an infinitely greater and eternal
loss! Never imagine that you can be a loser by trusting in God.
Whatever risk there is in doing so, the risk of not trusting in Him is
far greater– and every sensible man will prefer the smaller risk.
Besides, how often it happens that if a man trusts in God and acts
according to his conscience, he is not a loser at all. Many have been
gainers thereby, though that ought not to be an inducement. Many have
said, "If we do what we feel is right, we shall lose everything" and
yet, when they have dared to run that risk, they have lost nothing at
all, for God has helped them in the emergency! But if they shouldlose
by doing the right thing, let this assurance comfort them, "Whoever
puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe." It is much better to be safe
than to be wealthy–and infinitely better to be safe for time and for
eternity than to have all the comforts of life about you, but to put
your soul in jeopardy!
A Christian need never be afraid of anybody. If you are doing right,
you have no cause to fear the greatest man who is serving the devil.
Look at Bernard Palissy, the Huguenot potter who produced such
wonderful works of art. One day the king of France said to him,
"Bernard I am afraid I shall be compelled to give you up to the
inquisitors to be burned if you will not change your religion."
Bernard's reply was, "I pity your majesty." Only think of that–the
potter pitied the king! So his majesty asked, "Why do you pity me,
Bernard?" "Because," he answered, "you have said what your majesty and
fifty thousand princes cannot make me say, I fear I shall be
compelled!'" Why, Sirs, Palissy was the king and the king was not
worthy to be the potter! A truly royal dignity dwelt in that potter's
soul. Are any of you young men going to allow anybody to make you say,
"I fear I shall be compelled to cease worshipping with the Dissenters?"
Or, "I fear I shall be compelled to abstain from attending that little
country Baptist Chapel?" Or, "I am afraid it might not be considered
proper for me to make an open profession of religion in the town where
I live?" If you talk like that, I can only say, "May the Lord have
mercy on your miserable little soul and give you enough manhood and
common honesty to confess what Christ has done for you!" If you really
have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ and have had
your sins forgiven, have been made an heir of Heaven and are on your
way to a glorious immortality, surely you cannot act the part of a
sneak like that! What? Are you who are to dwell among the angels, you
for whom there is a mansion in the skies and a robe of righteousness
and a crown of Glory–are you going to play the coward like that? Why,
if you act thus, you ought to be drummed out of the regiment of the
Church militant, so how can you expect to be in the Church triumphant
with such a miserable spirit as that? May the Lord help you to put your
trust in Him, that you may be saved from all fear of man!
Now to close. The last sentence of the text is true as an independent
proposition. "Whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe." I have
not time to speak about this sentence, but I give it to you to put
under your tongue as a sweet morsel as you go your way to your homes.
It is not, "He that trusts in himself." It is not, "He that trusts in a
priest." It is not, "He that performs good works and trusts in them,"
but, "whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe." The man who is
trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus may not always be
happy, but he is safe! He may not always be singing,
but he is safe! He may not always have the joy of full assurance, but
he is safe! He may sometimes be distressed, but he is always safe! He
may sometimes question his interest in Christ, but he is always safe!
I was astonished, the other day, to meet with an expression used by
Cardinal Bellarmine, who was one of the greatest Jesuit
controversialists. He closes a long argument about being saved by works
with the following very remarkable sentences, which I will quote as
accurately as I can–"Nevertheless, although the way of acceptance with
God is by our own works, there is a danger that men may so trust in
their own works as to grow proud, which would quite spoil their works
and, therefore, upon the whole, it is safest for them to rely upon the
blood and merits of Jesus Christ alone." Well done, Cardinal
Bellarmine! "Upon the whole. "I mean to do that as long as I live and
oh that everyone who has ever been deluded by the doctrines of the
Church of Rome, would listen to the Cardinal's confession that, upon
the whole it is safest to rest upon what Christ has done! Upon the
whole i t is better to trust in the Savior than to trust in ourselves!
Upon the whole it is better to be washed in His blood than to think
that we can make ourselves clean! The cardinal did not say all the
truth, but I thank him for what he did say, though the truth is better
put by Solomon in my text, "Whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be
safe." He shall be safe if he is sick, if he is rich, if he is poor! He
shall be safe when he dies, safe when he rises again, safe at the Day
of Judgment, and safe throughout eternity! Oh, then, come all of you
and trust in the Lord, for "whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be
safe" forever! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PROVERBS27.
Verse 1. Boast not yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day
may bring forth. Let us never boast of future days and years, or what
we mean to do when we come to any age, or what shall be our position
when we grow gray. Let us never boast of anything in the future, for we
cannot tell what even a day may bring forth.
2. Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and
not your own lips. For he who praises himself writes himself down a
fool in capital letters!
3. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is
heavier than them both. One might endure almost any sort of labor
sooner than have to live with one who is perpetually and foolishly
angry.
4. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand
before envy?'Envy is a snake in the grass! Christians, beware of envy.
You will, perhaps, be tempted to have it in your heart when you see
another Christian more useful than you are, or when some Christian
Brother seems to have more honor than you have. Ah, then cry to God
against it! Never let this venomous reptile be spared for a single
moment! The best of men will find envy creeping over them at times–it
may be envy of the wicked who are rich. We must seek to overcome that
at once. And even envy of the best of men, what is it but covetousness
and hatred and a breach of two Commandments? God save us from it!
5. Open rebuke is better than secret love. That I should love my fellow
man is a good thing, but to have love enough to be able openly to
rebuke his faults, is a very high proof of affection–and far better
than secret love that is silent when it ought to speak. And yet, how
many persons there are who are very angry with you if you give them an
open rebuke? And how many there are who are foolish enough to prefer
secret love to open rebuke, though they have Solomon's wisdom to teach
them better? Our Lord Jesus Christ has a secret love to His people, yet
He never spares them the open rebuke when He knows that it will be good
for them.
6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are
deceitful. Beware of the flattering world, Believer! Beware of the
flattering devil and of the deceitfulness of the flesh. When things go
smoothly with you, there may be the greatest danger. Whatever you do in
times of storm, keep a good lookout when the sea is calm and the sky is
clear.
7. The full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every
bitter thing is sweet. "The full soul loathes" (even that luscious
thing) "a honeycomb." No true preaching will go down with him who is
full of himself, full of his own importance. Unless there shall be many
of the flowers of rhetoric in the discourse, he will not listen to
sound Doctrine. "But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet."
Happy hunger is it when the soul hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. Then there are no hyper-critical observations about the
minister's delivery and no carping at words and
phrases. It is spiritual food that the soul seeks–and if it can get
that, though it may not be to its taste in every respect– there will
be a sweetness in it that will make it like a honeycomb.
8, 9. As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man that wanders
from his place. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so does the
sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel The Orientals were known
to smear their faces and especially their hair, with ointment and
perfume–and those who came near them were pleased with the scent. When
you can get a little conversation, especially upon points that help
towards godliness, with those of a like frame of mind with you–when
you can have sweet communion and fellowship with the people of
God–then it is that your hearts are rejoiced as with ointments and
perfumes!
10. Your own friend, and your father's friend, forsake not Have but few
friends, but stick closely to them. Above all, cleave closely to that
"Friend that sticks closer than a brother." If He is your Friend, and
your father's Friend, never forsake HIM. Forsake all the world for Him,
but let not all the world induce you to forsake Him.
10. Neither go into your brother's house in the day of your calamity:
for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off It is very
sad that it should be so, but sometimes our nearest relatives are the
farthest off, and those who ought to help us the most help us least.
Many a man has had kindness shown to him by his neighbor who was but a
stranger, when he has had little or no kindness from his own relatives.
But there is one Brother into whose house we may always go. So near of
kin He is to us, and so loving of heart, that He never thinks a hard
thought of us but the more we ask of Him, the more delighted He is with
us and is only grieved with us because we stint ourselves in our
prayers.
11. My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that
reproaches me. A good son is his father's honor. If any say of
such-and-such a man that he is a bad man, yet if his children walk
orderly, he can answer the slander without speaking a word. Would a bad
man have brought up his children in that way? Would they be walking in
the fear of God if he had not walked in that way himself? So the sons
of God ought to seek, by their consistency, to keep the name of their
Father clear of reproach. The consistency of our conduct should be the
best answer to the accusations of the infidel.
12, 13. A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself, but the
simple pass on and are punished. Take his garment that is surety for a
stranger. He that takes surety is sure, but he that goes surety for
another, and especially for a stranger, will smart for it, perhaps to
the day of his death.
13, 14. And take a pledge of him for a strange woman. He that blesses
his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be
counted a curse to him.There are some men who always use such sweet
words–they are so fond of you that they are up early in the morning to
give you their praise–and they continue all day pouring out their
flattering unction. Such blessings as these are a curse! And the wise
man will loathe these parasitical people who will see no faults, or
pretend that they do not see any, but will always be extolling mere
trifles as though they were the most sublime virtues. A sensible man is
not to be overcome by this flattery!
15. A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman
are alike. When there is a little leak in the roof and the rain keeps
dropping through, it is very uncomfortable. But it is ten times more
comfortable than it is to have to dwell with a contentious woman!
16. Whoever hides her hides the wind, and the ointment of his right
hand, which betrays itself That is to say, if a man puts sweet ointment
on his hand, the smell of it would soon be perceived. So, if a woman is
of a contentious, angry, quarrelsome disposition, her contentiousness
will be discovered–there is no hiding it.
17. Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance ofhis friend.
Hence the usefulness of Christian association and hence, also, the evil
of sinful company, for one sinner sharpens another to do mischief, just
as one saint encourages another to righteousness.
18. 19. Whoever keeps the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he
that waits on his master shall be honored. As in water, face answers to
face, so the heart of man to man. If I look into water, I see the
reflection of my own face, not another man's. And if I look into
society, I shall probably see men like-minded with myself. How is it
that a drunken man always finds other drunken men? How is it that
lascivious men always have a bad opinion of the morality of other
people? How is it that hypocrites always think other people hypocrites?
Why, because they can see the reflection of their own faces! When a man
tells me that there is no love in the Church of God, I know it is
because he sees his own face and
knows that there is no love in it. You will generally find that men
measure other people's corn with their own bushels. They are sure to
mete out to others according to their own measure–and they thus
unconsciously betray themselves.
20, 21. Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are
never satisfied. As the refining pot for silver, and the furnace for
gold; so is a man to his praise. Many a man who can bear adversity,
cannot bear prosperity. The world's censures seldom do a Christian any
harm, but it is the breath of applause that often gives us the scarlet
fever of pride.
22. Though you should crush a fool in a mortar among wheat with a
pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. No troubles, no
afflictions can, of themselves, make a fool into a wise man. The sinner
remains a sinner, after all Providential chastisements, unless
Sovereign Grace interposes.
23. Be you diligent to know the state ofyour flocks, and look well to
your herds. Be not slothful in business and, above all, let the
Christian be diligent to know the state of his own heart.
24-27. For riches are not forever: and does the crown endure to every
generation? The hay appears, and the tender grass shows itself, and
herbs of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for your clothing,
and the goats are the price of the field. And you shall have goat's
milk enough for your food, for the food ofyour household, and for the
maintenance for your maidens. Those who are diligent, generally
prosper, and they who are diligent in spiritual things shall have all
that their souls need. They shall be clothed with the robe of
righteousness, they shall be well fed and shall be satisfied. May the
wisdom of these Proverbs be given to us in daily life, that we may be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But above all, may heavenly
wisdom be given to us in all spiritual things, to the praise of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!