"In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool."
The sentiment expressed in the beautiful figure of the eleventh verse-" The mouth of the righteous is a well of life," is here, in the thirteenth verse, conveyed with more literal simplicity-" In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found."
Where there is "understanding" in the mind, there will be "wisdom" in the "lips." The lips will utter what the mind contains. The possession of a sound understanding, that has been employed in laying up useful knowledge, not only provides a man with a source of constant enjoyment to himself, but enables him also to benefit others. It is not right that the lips of the man who "has understanding" should be always closed. He will know, indeed, when to speak and when to be silent; but to keep his knowledge entirely to himself, would be "lighting a candle and putting it under a bushel." It is no uncommon thing to find a proneness to talk, not in proportion to the fulness but to the emptiness of the mind. But no duty can be clearer than that the man who has understanding should make his understanding useful. And he who, truly wise, puts God first among the objects of his knowledge; and his own eternal interests first among the objects of his desire and pursuit, is the man who will, by his lips, be most truly serviceable to others. Speaking the dictates of an understanding enlightened by the Spirit of God, he may be the instrument of making others "wise unto salvation."
"But a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding." The sentiment is similar to that in the latter clause of verses eighth and tenth,-"A prating fool shall fall." "Void of understanding," does not mean destitute of natural intellect. The rod is not for the back of him who is thus naturally incapable of comprehending the lessons of divine wisdom.
The character brought before us is that of the man who is full of himself, and who, in the vanity of his ignorant and self-sufficient mind, will not listen to the lessons of true wisdom. In childhood, this temper requires "the rod" of parental discipline, and will ever be exposing the subject of it to the necessity of such infliction. And in the community, when the self-will that has refused to receive instruction, or to be subject to salutary restraint, gives way to the indulgence of its evil propensities, it must be dealt with by the punitive coercion of the magistrate, for the general security and the public good. And in a sense still more serious, the man "void of understanding," who casts off the fear of God, who walks "in the sight of his eyes, and the imagination of his heart," exposes himself to penal visitations in a quarter infinitely higher. He is amenable to God for the use of his faculties; and by the abuse of them,-by their desecration to ignoble and worthless, or to wicked and ungodly ends,-he "treasures up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath;" and, in agreement with the allusion of the wise man in the words before us, he shall be "beaten with many stripes."
The sentiment is still similar in verse Pro_10:14. "Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction."
To "lay up knowledge," very obviously implies that value is set upon it. Men never think of seeking and accumulating what they regard as worthless:-and in proportion as an object is prized, will be the degree of eagerness with which it is pursued, and of jealous vigilance with which it is "laid up" and guarded. Thus the Miser. With what an eye of restless and eager covetousness does he look after the acquisition of the idol of his heart's desires!-with what delight does he hug himself on his success!-with what avidity does he add the increase to his treasures-carefully secreting them from all access but his own! With a care incomparably more dignified and useful, how does the man of science mark and record every fact and observation, whether of his own discovery and suggestion or of those of others! How he exults in every new acquisition to his stores! He lays all up in his mind; or, fearful of a treacherous memory, in surer modes of record and preservation. Hints that lead to nothing at the time may lead to much afterwards. Some one, in another generation, may carry out into practical application, or into the formation of valuable theories, the facts and conjectures that are now, in apparent isolation, "laid up" for such possible future use. The true philosopher, to use a colloquial phrase, "has all his eyes about him." He allows nothing to escape notice, and nothing, if he can help it, to pass into oblivion. "He lays up knowledge."
But alas! in this respect as in others, "the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light." Surely, if such be the practice of the wise men of the world, much more ought it to be of the truly wise, in regard to divine knowledge, the best and highest of all! *
* Pro_2:1-4.
It is the Christian's duty to seek knowledge in all directions, and by whatever helps he can be enabled to find it. It is his duty to lay it up for use-first for the purposes of selfimprovement and self-direction, and then for the further purpose of enabling him to contribute to the instruction and guidance of others. And every Christian should make it a point of conscience, to find out the particular sphere in which the knowledge he has laid up may be best turned to account for others' benefit-whether in the occupations of a Christian instruction agency, or in those of a Sabbath-school teacher, or in any other more private or more public department.
"But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction." The expression is forcible, and its meaning sufficiently plain. The fool babbles without discretion-with reckless inconsideration and rashness. He expends his shallow stock thoughtlessly and at random. You can place no confidence in him. He speaks when he should be silent, and is silent when he should speak. He blabs out secrets, forgetting till it is too late that they were confidentially entrusted to him. He suits not his talk to time, place, or company, but comes out with communications to parties the very opposite to those for whom they were intended, or to whom they are appropriate; and is in constant danger of saying just the things he ought not to say. Thus you are ever trembling for him-never sure but the very next opening of his lips may run him into a snare, and expose him to mischief.
Standing opposed as this does here to "laying up knowledge," it clearly relates to the propensity to talk without knowledge and without thought. And while the words of folly may prove the ruin of the fool as to this world, by the injudiciousness of their utterance, and by the breach and destruction of confidence;-" the fool's mouth is near destruction" in a sense much more alarming. "For every idle word," says Jesus, "that men shall speak they shall give account in the day of judgment;" "for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." There may be a vast amount of guilt in words: and thus "the mouth of the fool is near destruction," inasmuch as its very next utterance of profane and ungodly thought or feeling may place him on the very verge of hell; so that, were he cut off with the words on his lips and in the state of heart they indicate, he must sink into everlasting woe.
There is a pursuit that is incomparably more prevalent in the world than that of the "laying up of knowledge." To this Solomon refers in the next verse. It is that of wealth:-verse Pro_10:15. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty."
"Wealth" is pursued, as if there were the general and rooted conviction that it drew every thing in its train that heart could desire; as if it were the security for all that is necessary to the attainment and enjoyment of happiness, and the preservative from all that nature deprecates and dreads-a source of perfect security-a "strong city." It is evident that the wise man does not here express the sentiment that there is real security in the rich man's wealth. It is the state of mind that is intended-the confidence which the rich man places in his riches. This is clear from the connexion in which the same words stand elsewhere-" The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit."*
* Pro_18:11.
No doubt the possession of riches preserves from the evils which are specially incident to poverty. The rich are free from the distresses of the poor. Even from these, however, the protection is, in the last degree, precarious; for the riches themselves which constitute it, are every instant insecure. The "strong city" is exposed perpetually to be assailed and taken; the high wall to be overthrown; the citadel invaded and rifled; and he who trusted to its munitions left exposed, defenceless, disappointed, and, in proportion to the amount of his previous confidence, forlorn, and wretched;-driven, at times, even to insanity, or tempted to self-murder; and, to avoid the privations of time, plunging into the infinitely more fearful privations and woes of eternity!
Besides, insecure as the bulwarks are, there are multitudes of evils, common to rich and poor, from which, even while they stand, they are no protection. They cannot keep out disease, either of body or of mind, or ward off relative any more than personal afflictions. They can neither keep away nor cure, neither alleviate nor remove, the agony of the gout or the stone. They cannot quench the burning fever. They cannot arrest the progress of insidiously mining consumption. They can neither hinder nor heal the still more affecting maladies of the mind, and replace Reason on its vacant throne. They cannot purchase exemption from the grave, for the wife of the bosom, for the child, the parent, or the friend. And, if they are incompetent to ends like these, far less can they Save The Soul. Death-the "king of terrors"-"the last enemy," shall scale the walls of the "strong city," and surprise its confiding occupant in the very citadel of his strength. Where can he find a barrier that can prevent his entrance; where among all his treasures a bribe that will stay his dart! And when "after death comes the judgment," what shall he have, when he stands, stript of all his worldly possessions, and, what is infinitely worse, stript of every plea of defence-which, but for the temptations of the world, he might in time have provided,-a poor, naked, helpless, trembling culprit, before the tribunal of a neglected God-what shall he have to stay judgment-to avert damnation? "Riches profit not in the day of wrath!"
"The destruction of the poor is their poverty." The word rendered destruction being the same as in the preceding verse, it would be arbitrary to change the sense. Retaining it, the words are capable of two meanings. First, there are temptations peculiar to poverty as well as to riches. Agur was aware of these when he prayed, "Give me not poverty-lest I steal and take the name of my God in vain."* He who gives way to such influences of poverty, insures "destruction" as much as he who is "full and denies God, and says, Who is the Lord?" Secondly, as we found the preceding clause of the verse to refer to the state of mind-the confidence of safety inspired by his wealth in the bosom of the rich, it seems fair and natural to understand the latter clause on a similar principle. "The destruction of the poor" will then mean, that which, in their own eyes, is their destruction; that which engenders their fears and apprehensions-their constant dread of destruction. They are ever apt to contrast their circumstances with those of their wealthy neighbours, and to deplore their poverty, and fret at it as that which keeps them down, depriving them of all good, and exposing them to all evil. And, without doubt, it is the source of many and heavy sufferings, both-in the way of privation and of endurance. But the poor may indulge their fears, and make themselves unhappy without cause. Their forebodings may be more than groundless. If by their poverty they are exposed to some evils, they are exempted by it from others. If they but trust in God, they have a far surer ground of confidence than wealth can ever afford to the richest on earth. They are under the eye and the care of that Providence, without which even "a sparrow falleth not to the ground." "The name of the Lord is a strong tower"-how much stronger and more impregnable than any which wealth can construct! Thither running, they are safe. "Their place of defence is the munition of rocks."
* See Pro_30:7-9.
And as riches cannot save, poverty, blessed be God! cannot hinder salvation. No, nor can it shut out the soul from the present joys of salvation, or the consolations that spring from the "exceeding great and precious promises" of God's covenant. On the contrary-" Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?" Jam_2:5.
The poor have, at times, been so pressed by their fears, as to allow themselves to be tempted to sin, in order to shun the "destruction" they dread. But Oh! let sin be ever more dreaded than all the ills, in all their accumulation, of poverty. Remember,-sin will do, what poverty cannot do: it will ruin the soul. Let the poor seek the peace, and comfort, and safety which are imparted by the gospel; and thus, possessing the "true riches," they will not need to" fear what man can do unto them." The worst of all destructions will be far from them. They shall know, in their experience, that "godliness with contentment is great gain;" and when "heart and flesh fail; God will be the strength of their heart, and their portion for ever."
Verse Pro_10:16. "The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin."
"The labour of the righteous" may be understood in either a more restricted or a more general sense; either of his daily labour in his worldly business, or of all his active engagements. The words are alike true as to both. With regard to the former-it "tendeth to life" inasmuch as it is conducted on right principles, and with a view to right ends; not to those of mere selfishness, but to those of piety and benevolence. It "tendeth to life," by contributing to the truest happiness of his own life, in correspondence with the words of Him who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive;" and it "tendeth to life" also, by imparting, as far as his means and opportunities extend, happiness to the lives of others.
There is a higher sense too in which it "tendeth to life." And in saying this, I refer, not solely to ordinary labour, but to the whole of the active engagements of the child and servant of God. They all bear a certain relation to his final acceptance, and attainment of life everlasting. I need hardly say-on no ground of personal merit. The only ground of acceptance and life to any son or daughter of fallen man is found in the merit of the divine Mediator-in the righteousness, the sacrifice, and the intercession of Immanuel. But genuine faith in that Mediator-whether existing before or after his manifestation in the flesh, according to the amount of existing revelation-must be shown by the "work of faith and the labour of love." And the "labour of the righteous"-of which the true principle is known to the Judge, "the searcher of hearts," who distinguishes between the false and the true, according to the motive in operation,-will be graciously accepted, as the labour of one "accepted in the Beloved," and whose works are recognized as having their source, not in the spirit of self-righteousness, but in the power of faith. God the Father will then testify his regard to righteousness in two ways:-first, in justifying sinners on the ground of a righteousness fully commensurate with all the demands of his law, in their full amount of spirituality and purity-the perfect righteousness of his own Son:-and secondly, by making personal righteousness of character, or the holy influence of the truth, the necessary evidence of interest in the righteousness thus provided in Christ for the justification of the ungodly;-acknowledging the good works of his people, as works conformable to the precepts of his law, but evangelical in their dictating motive; and bestowing the reward of free grace, according to the measure both of rectitude in the act and rectitude in the principle.*
On the other hand, the fruit of the wicked (tendeth) to sin." The contrast is striking. It is not directly said, as the previous clause might lead us to expect, "tendeth to death," but "to sin." This, by the wise man, is considered as the same thing. It "tendeth to sin," and consequently to death. Thus it is said, "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."* Between the two there is an intimate and inseparable connexion.
* Jam_1:15.
The "fruit of the wicked" means here, apparently, the immediate proceeds of his labour-his income-his revenue. And the idea intended, seems to be, that when the wicked man prospers, and so acquires possessions, they only enlarge his means of sinning; only increase the amount of his selfish, worldly, vicious indulgence. The fruit of his labour, neither first nor last, is given to God, for the glory of His name, or for purposes in harmony with His will. The modes of using it, therefore, only serve to augment guilt, and aggravate the sentence of death. To such, by their abuse of it, prosperity proves a curse instead of a blessing. Whatever tends to death must be so regarded. Oh! it is an affecting sight, to behold men, as they call it, enjoying life, when their real occupation is-fitting themselves for destruction, "treasuring up wrath," forging for themselves "chains of darkness," ensuring death-the death that never dies, and adding virulence to the venom of its eternal sting.
The sentiment of the next verse is very similar to some that have already come under review-" He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth."
The instruction meant, I need not say, is the instruction of wisdom-salutary, saving instruction-the "counsel of God." He who humbly hears and "keeps" it, "is in the way of life"-in the way of present happiness, and in the way to life eternal. "But he that refuseth reproof-the reproof that would admonish and bring him to God, "erreth." Under the influence of a miserable delusion, he wanders farther and farther from "the way of life." He is not, like him who "keepeth instruction," in that way: he is already out of it; and he diverges from it more and more widely. He is like a traveller who has missed his road, and yet will persist in taking his own course, pertinaciously refusing all direction from those who are able to give it him. That traveller may fall into the pit or over the precipice; or, overtaken by the darkness and the storm, become desperate, and lay him down and die. We pity him; but his blood is on his own head. Thus it is with the-inner who "refuses reproof," who shuts his ear to remonstrance, however affectionate and earnest, and to every voice of faithful kindness that calls him to the way of life.*
* The verse here commented on, may be rendered, "He that keepeth instruction is a way of life," i.e. is a guide to the way of life; "but he that refuseth reproof causeth to err."-Comp. marg. of E. V.
Verse Pro_10:18. "He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander is a fool."
In the character depicted in this verse there is a threefold evil. There is, first, the indulgence of a sinful passion-the passion of hatred. God's word gives it no countenance. Its injunction is-"Love your enemies." There is only one description of hatred that is there tolerated. God himself is said to "hate all the workers of iniquity." But He hates them only as such. It is the character, not the person that is hated. If God hated the wicked personally, He would have pleasure in his death, a sentiment He solemnly abjures, as foreign to his nature. It is in a corresponding sense then, that we must understand the Psalmist when he says, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?. .. I hate them with perfect hatred."* It was simply as the enemies of God that he hated them. Could he have converted them into friends of God, and thus brought them to the enjoyment of His favour, and to the life which it imparts, he would willingly have done it: and that would have been the act, not of hatred, but of the truest love. We are not allowed to hate any human being.
* Psa_139:21-22.
Superadded to this, there is the guilt of hypocrisy and falsehood: he "hideth hatred with lying lips." The lips that cover hatred by lies-that is, by words that are in opposition to the true state of the mind and heart,-must of course be the lips of flattery-pretending love and friendly feeling, while mischievous devices, the dictate of cherished malice, are revolved in the mind. There can be few things more despicable or more detestable than this malignity of falsehood-oil on the lips and venom in the heart-all that is good in words, all that is evil in inward wish. There are not terms in language strong enough to express the abomination and the guilt of such conduct.
There is too the further guilt of treachery. I am disposed to take the words, "and he that uttereth a slander," in this connexion, not as a new and distinct character, but an additional feature only of the former. The man is supposed to "hide hatred by lying lips" from him who is the object of it, while, at the same time, he is slandering him to others. This is an addition to the diabolical wickedness. And at the same time, he who acts the part described is emphatically "a fool." Even in a worldly sense-even on the principles of common discretion, he is foolish; for the slander is almost sure to reach the ear of the person whom he flatters; and then he stands in the unenviable position of one selfbetrayed, and procures himself contempt, indignation, desertion, and mischief, for his pains. He becomes an outlaw from all reputable society; is put under the ban and the disgrace even of the world.-But in a higher sense "he is a fool." The odious want of principle displayed by him brings him under a ban more fearful than that of the world,-fixing upon him the curse of that God who "abhors the deceitful man;" and who hath doomed all liars to have their part in the "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone."*
* Psa_5:6; Rev_21:8.
Where is the man who will not join in the strongest terms of reprobation in regard to this hypocritical and treacherous villany? The world, as well as Christians, are open-mouthed against hypocrisy. There is often, however, a great deal of it practised under less obnoxious designations,-a great amount of dissimulation and flattery that passes under the names of needful prudence, and the etiquette of compliment and courtesy; in which, fair and fulsome words to the face, are followed by the curse of dislike, or the jeer of scorn, or the tale of slander, or the self-gratulation of good riddance, as soon as the back is turned.
But the hypocrisy which has the largest measure of the world's sarcastic virulence is-religious hypocrisy. And assuredly, no one can go beyond due bounds in the condemnation of it, wherever it really discovers itself. It is to be feared, however, that the detestation of hypocrisy is, in the case of many, only a convenient cover for the dislike of religion. They hate hypocrisy. And yet, how comes it that they have such a chuckling delight in the detection of instances of it? Were it the object of their serious hatred on right principles, such detection should fill them with sincere, heart-felt grief. But the manner in which they are affected by such discoveries, real or supposed, shows that they are not shocked by the dishonour done to God by such false pretensions, nor by the guilt brought by them on the consciences of those by whom they are made, and the fearful consequences to which they are thereby exposed. They avail themselves of such detections to throw out their general sarcasms and their sweeping innuendoes against the professors of religion at large. They shrewdly suspect that "it is not all gold that glitters;" that where there is most show there is often least substance. And, where there is more than ordinary appearance even of humble and unostentatious devotion, they are ready with another proverb, alleging, with a meaning wink of the eye, that "deep waters flow smoothly;" but that these saints (possibly the designation preceded with an epithet of vulgar malediction) are all, if one but knew them, much alike.
Now, my friends, we go fully along with you in your strongest reprobation of hypocrisy, of false and treacherous pretensions, whether to men or to God,--and especially, if you will, the latter. But forget not that the very idea of hypocrisy implies a reality of which it is the simulation. We have no objection that you be as cautious as you please in crediting the professions of religion; but it were a very unwarrantable abandonment of all charity to deny that there is any sincerity to be found. When you know that a forgery exists on the notes of any Bank, or on any department of the national Coinage, it is natural, and it is right, that you should be the more jealous in examining and distinguishing the counterfeit from the true. But why are you thus careful? It is because you set a value on the true. You never think of concluding that all are forged together. It would be well, if your abhorrence of hypocritical profession arose from your really setting a value on true religion itself-loving it, and deploring its desecration. But, if this were your state of mind and heart, it would carry you farther than even to the unfeigned admiration of it in others. You would be religious yourselves. You would feel at once its true dignity and its true happiness; and, not with "lying lips," but with lips of truth, giving utterance to the feelings of devotion, cherished in "simplicity and godly sincerity," you would unite with all "that in every place call upon the name of the Lord." You would give yourselves, heart and hand, to His service, under the influence of the "faith that worketh by love."
