"Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot. The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins."
The preceding verses have reference to industry and idleness; and of these we have a comparison, as to their present and future effects, in the opening verses of the passage before us,-"Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot."
"The just," as we formerly observed, is not the mere rigidly equitable man; but the man who, under the influence of the principles of true religion, unites benevolence with righteousness, and seeks, in acts of kindness as well as of equity, to fulfil "the royal law." Ho is the "good man," as distinguished from the merely "righteous man," for whom, the apostle says, "some would even dare to die." Such a character was the patriarch Job;* in whom righteousness and goodness appear blending in lovely practical union. "Blessings are on the head" of such a man. His value is appreciated; his real usefulness felt. If he prospers, he enjoys his prosperity with a blessing from God, and with the gratulations and plaudits of men. He sees and enjoys the general favour in which he is held. It gives him confidence, so that he can open his mouth without being ashamed.
* Job_29:11-17.
"But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked." Of this clause a different rendering has by some been proposed. That of our received version, however, seems preferable, and we retain it. It yields a natural contrast with the first. Some conceive that there is an allusion to the practice of covering the face of the condemned.* According to this view, the import will be, that the violence of the wicked will bring him to condemnation. More probably, however, "covering the mouth" moans making ashamed-putting to silence. His detected and exposed iniquity, and rapacity, and selfishness, shall be like a muzzle upon his mouth, shutting it in silent confusion.
* See Est_7:8; Job_9:24. The latter passage seems to mean, that the wicked man, into whose hands the earth is given, condemns, silences, puts down, those by whom righteous judgment was executed.
And the blessing that is on "the just" is not confined to the period of his earthly life. It follows him to the grave. It hallows his ashes. It rests upon his name, when he himself has bidden a final adieu to the world. "The memory of the just is blessed." His memory is blessed of God, who smiled complacently on his life of faith and love and practical godliness, and took him to himself at its happy close. It is blessed of his family, his kindred, his friends, his companions. It is blessed of the Church of God. It is blessed by mankind at large. For even the world, although incapable of appreciating the excellence of those principles by which the conduct of the truly good, the just, the children of God, is influenced and regulated, yet cannot but approve and admire the characteristic consistency which these principles produce, as their legitimate result, and with which the profession of them, unless the profession of hypocrisy or of selfdelusion, will invariably be associated.
I may here observe, that perhaps the blessings which rest on the "memory of the just," are purer than even those which came upon him while he lived. While a man lives, there are, in this our fallen world, envy and malice, misapprehension and calumny enough to taint, at times, even the fairest reputation; but death, in general, disarms these enemies to living fame, and justice is done to the dead which was withheld, or but stintedly and partially bestowed, during life. Death is a smoother-down of asperities and alienations. Few are so thoroughly embittered as to carry their malice, in all its rancour, to the grave. And, in regard to those who knew and admired, esteemed, and loved the departed, there is, as all feel, a keenly sensitive jealousy of his memory,-a tenderness that shrinks from doing it wrong, and that is wakefully on the alert to vindicate it from the very slightest aspersion. It is embalmed in the sweetest of the heart's affections; and the intrusion of aught that would taint the sweetness is resented with a sensibility specially acute.
On the contrary, "The name of the wicked shall rot." The expression is strong, but far from unduly so. It becomes loathsome,-offensive as the putrid carcase of a dog. It is cast out and forgotten. Men have no pleasure in taking the name into their lips, or recalling the memory of the character with which it was associated. Whatever, during life, had been his greatness, (falsely so called, for there is no true greatness independent of goodness,) his name, even if recorded in his country's annals, excites disgust instead of satisfaction, and his course is like a vile, stagnant, putrid kennel in the field of history-nauseous to every well-ordered and rightly-thinking mind.*
* For a commentary on these two verses read the 112th Psalm.
Let all remember, not the posthumous blessing of fellowmen only, but, in a special manner, the infinitely more desirable blessing of the living and life-giving God. "The Lord taketh pleasure in his people." Their names are in his "Book of life." There they stand enrolled, in connexion with the name of "the Lamb that was slain." It is in this connexion that their names are well-pleasing to God, and that his blessing rests upon them. There is in the very best of men enough, and infinitely more than enough, to rot their names, and render them offensive to the God of taintless purity. But He delighteth in his beloved Son. And those who give their names to Christ in the profession of the gospel, are blessed for his sake, and held in everlasting remembrance. His name is "as ointment poured forth;" and theirs, in Him, partake of the fragrance. And moreover, God delights in his own image, in the measure in which, in each of his people, it is produced. He cannot but delight in "the beauty of holiness." "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright."
In this Book the wise and the foolish are brought before us under very many points of comparison and contrast. We have several in the verses that follow:-verse Pro_10:8. "The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall."
It is one of the marks of true wisdom, and none of the least, that it is not self-sufficient and self-willed. This is the evident import of the former part of the verse. We might consider the disposition in reference both to God and to men,-to the Supreme Ruler and Lord of the conscience,-and to existing human authorities. Tho "wise in heart will receive" God's commandments. This, true wisdom will do implicitly. It will never presume on dictating to God, or on altering and amending His prescriptions: but, proceeding on the self-evident principle that the dictates of divine wisdom must, in all cases, be perfect, will bow in instant acquiescence. With regard also to earthly superiors, a humble submission to legitimate authority, both in the family and in the state, is the province of wisdom. There is a self-conceit that spurns at all such authority. It talks as if it would legislate for all nations. It would give commandments rather than receive them. It likes not being dictated to. It plumes itself on its skill in finding fault. There is no rule prescribed at which it does not carp; no proposal in which it does not see something not to its mind; no order in which it does not find something to which it cannot submit. This is folly; for, were this temper of mind prevalent, there would be an end to all subordination and control.
To the "wise in heart" stands opposed "the prate fool but a prating fool shall fall." The phrase in the original is a fool of lips, a lip-fool. It may be understood in two ways. First, the self-conceited are generally superficial there is much talk, and little substance; words, without sense; plenty of tongue, but a lack of wit. Light matter floats on the surface, and appears to all; what is solid and precious lies at the bottom. The foam is on the face of the waters; the pearl is below. Or secondly, the reference may be to the bluster of insubordination; the loud protestations and boastings of his independence on the part of the man who resists authority, and determines to be "a law to himself."
In either sense it is true, that "the prating fool shall fall." His words are a stumbling-block to his own feet. He exposes himself by his recklessness and rashness. He is in constant danger of falling into self-made mischief, or of exposing himself to the effects of individual resentment, or to the punitive visitation of the laws. The distinction at which he aimed, as a self-sufficient authoritative oracle, not being sustained by any such weight of intellect as is necessary for such pretensions, he falls from his fancied elevation into derision and neglect.
I have said that the "wise in heart" will receive the commandments of God implicitly. This may be considered as corresponding to the character in verse Pro_10:9. "He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known." "Walking uprightly" stands opposed to all duplicity, all tortuous policy, all the crooked arts of manoeuvring, for the purpose of promoting reputation, interest, comfort, or any other end whatsoever.*
* Comp. Pro_2:7.
He who walketh thus-" walketh surely." He walks with a comfortable feeling of security-a calm unagitated serenity of mind. This springs from confidence in that God whose will he makes his only rule. In the path of implicit obedience, he feels that he can trust* And further, the way in which he walks is the surest for the attainment of his ends.-Proverbs are generally founded in observation and experience, and express their ascertained results. Hence, even though not inspired, they have generally truth in them. It has become proverbial, that "honesty is the best policy." The meaning is, that the acts of deceit very frequently frustrate the object of him by whom they are employed, and land him in evils greater than the one he meant, by the use of them, to shun. Let it be deeply impressed on all minds, and an ever-present thought, that the way of safety, of reputation, of happiness, of honour, and, generally speaking, of success, is the way of evidently commanded duty. In the opposite course,-the course regulated by the ever-shifting maxims of a worldly expediency, and the tactics of an accommodating policy, there can be nothing of that sweet confidence in God, which is the peculiar enjoyment of the "upright;" but the consciousness of evil interdicting all such confidence, separating between the soul and God, and distracting it with unceasing solicitudes.
* Comp. Psa_37:1-7.
And detection comes at last!-"He that perverteth his ways shall be known." Artifice and guile seldom succeed long in screening themselves from discovery. The feet of the artful man are caught in the meshes of his own net; and his very efforts to disentangle himself discover his wiles. And then come, as the necessary consequences of the discovery, loss of character, loss of confidence, loss of interest, loss of comfort, loss of society, loss of friendship, and loss of the very end which all his arts had been plied to obtain,-the very object for the sake of which he perverted his ways.-And all this is no more than righteous retribution. The results, and the sufferings to which they give rise, are self-produced. The man has not even the comfort of not having himself to blame.
We have had the "prating fool" in contrast with the "wise in heart." In the next verse, we have a contrast of a different kind:-"He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall." We might, indeed, avoid the appearance of contrast altogether, by simply rendering the "but"-"and." I am disposed, however, to think the but may be retained. The characters brought into comparison are the sly artful man-the man of looks, and nods, and hints, and innuendoes,-and the open, loquacious, chattering fool. The former is incomparably the more dangerous and mischievous to others;-the harm from the folly of the latter falls principally upon himself. We had the former already before us.* There is no character more odious, and none more pernicious in any society, domestic, ecclesiastical, or civil. The "winking eye" sows jealousies, foments dissensions, introduces distrust, separates friends, divides families, troubles churches, agitates kingdoms. It "causeth sorrow"-often the keenest inward anguish, and, it may be, the most serious outward broils and calamities. Surely that eye-as well as "the eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, the young eagles shall eat it." The folly of the most reckless is not so perilous as the studied art of the "double-minded." Still forget not that the "prating fool shall fall." Let both evils be avoided. Be straightforward, yet be circumspect.
* Pro_6:12-14.
The image in the 11th verse (Pro_10:11) is a very beautiful one, "The mouth of the righteous is a well of life"-or a living fountain. In Hebrew idiom, " living water" means, as various passages show, springing water.*1 As a well or fountain, then, of springing water, clear, cool, and refreshing to the exhausted traveller, so to the weary soul is "the mouth of the righteous." Thus precious, thus salutary, thus cheering, thus invigorating and bracing, are the instructions, consolations, and counsels, of the wise and good. The mouth "speaking from the abundance of the heart," brings forth the stores of a well-informed mind, and of a pious, kind, affectionate spirit. It is a striking figure which is used by Job, to express his disappointment on the failure of those friends to administer consolation and strength, from whose lips he had eagerly and fondly anticipated it.*2 The caravan in the wilderness, with their tongues cleaving to the roof of their mouth for thirst, see water at a distance. Their spirits rise at the sight. They hasten forward. But, ere they reach the spot, it has passed away. "The mouth of the righteous" will not thus disappoint the expectations of those who look for its refreshing words. The mouth of God's servants and of God's people ought, in this respect, to be like His own. His mouth is indeed "a well of life." His instructions are all truth, and they are all life-giving. It was of them, as accompanied by the teaching and influence of the Spirit, that Jesus said-speaking of the water of the well of Sychar-"He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but who soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.*3"
*1 See in the margin, Gen_26:19. rr
*2 Job_6:15-20. rr
*3f Joh_4:13-14. rr
In the original, the latter part of this verse is the same as the latter part of the sixth. The words may be rendered either, "violence covereth the mouth of the wicked," or, "the mouth of the wicked covereth violence." As they occur here, the latter seems the more natural meaning, as standing in more distinct and suitable contrast with the other clause of the verse:-" The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life," but "the mouth of the wicked covereth violence." From the one there proceed the words of comfort, truth, and joy; under the tongue of the other there lie concealed cursing and bitterness, wrath, and clamour, and evil-speaking. There is something more fearful in the idea of the mouth covering violence than in that of its uttering it. If the mouth is kept close, it is only covering, till a convenient season, the violence that is within;-intimating, that the wicked is well aware when it is most for his nefarious purposes to keep silence, as well as when to speak out. Even when he compresses his lips and says nothing, there is no good there. It is but a cover to violence.
The connexion is natural between this and the following verse-" Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." Hatred and love are opposites, in their nature and in their effects. Here we have one of the many points of contrast.
"Hatred stirreth up strifes." It will not allow its object to rest. It is ever jealous and touchy; catches impatiently at every trifle; lets nothing pass that can possibly be construed amiss; magnifies and misrepresents; is easily provoked; thinks evil; rejoices not in the truth but in iniquity; cherishes resentment; looks out for modes of retaliation; seizes every opportunity to pick quarrels; easily irritated, it is not easily appeased,-taking fire in a moment, but difficult to quench, and slow to cool. It blows up the kindling fuel, and stirs the dying embers of strife.
"Love," on the contrary, "covereth all sins." It is ever disposed to overlook, to pardon, to forget. This must, of course, be understood in harmony with such other parts of Scripture as Lev_19:17.-"Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him." Suffering sin upon a brother, is an act, not of love but of hatred-and one of its very worst. By "love covering all sins," is meant the general disposition to pass over personal wrongs; not to be quick in taking offence, and, when offended, to be quick to reconciliation, "easy to be entreated"-every wish and desire set upon restored agreement.*
* 1Co_13:4-7; Eph_4:31-32; Jam_3:13-18.
This passage in Proverbs affords the explanation of a much abused passage in the New Testament; the latter being a quotation of the former-" Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."* Men have interpreted this of almsgiving; and have represented gifts to the poor as covering the sins of the charitable from the eye and vengeance of Divine justice. There is in this a twofold error. Charity is not alms giving; it is love:-and it is not from the justice of God that it covers the sins of him by whom it is exercised, but from public exposure to others that it covers the sins of its object. The words in Proverbs show this: the "hiding of the multitude of sins" standing in contrast to the "stirring up of strifes."-The sense affixed, in thoughtlessness, to the words of Peter is most pernicious. But the true sense, as here made apparent, presents one of the most important of love's exercises, and one most salutary amongst the Lord's people in the fellowship of his churches-essential, indeed, to the preservation of peace, and union, and social prosperity.
* 1Pe_4:8.
Let this spirit, then-the spirit of love, be increasingly cultivated. "Love as brethren." "Let brotherly love continue." Let the world see in you "how Christians love one another." This is the evidence of your own discipleship,*1 while it is one of the means of the world's conviction, and conversion to Christ.*2
*1f Joh_13:35. rr
*2f Joh_17:20-21 rr
Mark here the identity of the great principles of Old and New Testament morality. Many speak of them as if there were essential differences between them. It is not so. They are the same. When Peter says, "Charity covereth the multitude of sins," he quotes Solomon. When Paul says, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head,"*3 he quotes Solomon. When our Lord himself says-" Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy;"*4-he does not quote the saying with approbation, as if it were a true interpretation of the law, and then lay down a law of his own in distinction from it. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy," was not the Law of Moses;-no, never, and in no wise. Love to personal enemies was inculcated by the Law of Moses as well as by the law of Christ.*5 Our blessed Master is to be understood as only reprobating the false gloss, and restoring and confirming the true sense of the law. The whole law is summed up by Him in the two great precepts of love to God and love to men; or in the one great principle of love.*6 And in the parable of the good Samaritan, He shows that this love included enemies and aliens, as well as friends, and countrymen, and kindred.*7 And this is the Book whose morality is to be set aside by the atheistical and heartless novelties of the "New moral world!" O the deceitfulness and presumption of the human heart!
*3 Rom_12:20. rr
*4 Mat_5:43-44. rr
*5 Exo_23:4-5. rr
*6 Mat_22:35-40. rr
*7 For the full discussion of this subject, see Wardlaw's Syst. Theol. Lects. x, 11: vol. 3.
But of God's Law, "holy, just, and good," we are violators. We have incurred its sentence of condemnation. Vain is every attempt to justify ourselves before God, by any appeal to our own characters when tried by it-either by the one or the other of its great precepts. We cannot stand. There must be something else for us than the Law, or our case is desperate. It is not enough that the excellence of the Law shows the book which contains it to be of God: its very excellence is what condemns us. It is a comfort, however, that it does prove the book which contains it to be divine; for the same book which contains the Law contains the gospel. The same book that shows us the ground on which we are condemned, tells us the ground on which we may be justified. The same book which reveals God as a Judge, reveals him as a Saviour. The same book that tells us of judicial wrath, tells us also of pardoning grace. The same book that appointed "the ministry of condemnation," appoints also the "ministration of righteousness." The same book that reveals Sinai, with its "blackness and darkness and tempest," reveals Calvary, with its propitiatory Lamb Of God, and its "still small voice" of love and mercy!
