"A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want."
Of the former clause of the first of these verses, the sense may be either metaphorical or literal:-that is, it may refer to a better inheritance than wealth, or it may refer to wealth itself. By the careful and pious education of his children,-bringing them up in the fear of God and the habits of virtue-the "good man leaves them an inheritance" of right principles. And these are, in reality, a far more valuable inheritance than the largest amount of riches ever accumulated by human industry or speculation, or the largest number of acres that earthly estate ever contained. By bringing up his children thus, he bequeaths to them the very best of all legacies;-valuable, even as it respects this world; for better surely are the principles of which the right application may, by the blessing of God, acquire wealth, than the largest amount of wealth left to a child, with principles that unfit him for the right use of it, and fit him only for squandering it away: and, when regarded in relation to the world to come, invaluable, insuring the blessings which "cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof." Ye who have been "trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," value-O value this inheritance. Retain it with a miser's care, that none of it be lost. If you throw it not away, it will last you for ever. And more than this-it is an inheritance that may be transmitted, with due reliance on the promises of God, to generations to come. You have had it from your parents; you may transmit it to "children's children."*
* Compare Psa_78:1-7.
There is another sense too, in which "a good man leaves an inheritance to his children "-in the savour and influence of his name. The same affectionate veneration that has attended him in life, attaching to his memory when he is gone, will recommend his family to the sympathy and generous good-will of the community. They will be "beloved for the fathers' sakes." To the sympathy thus divinely secured, the psalmist seems to refer, when he says-" I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed," Psa_37:25-26.
Important as this is, and general in its application to good men, who may all leave their children this inheritance, if no other, the antithesis in the latter clause of the verse leads more naturally to the literal interpretation.
In this view, there are two things implied. First, that the blessing of God on his labours, enables him to obtain the inheritance which he has to leave. The proverb clearly implies this, the inheritance requiring to be made, ere it can be left. The second thing implied is, that with the inheritance the blessing of the Lord descends to his children. What would the inheritance be without this? an evil, rather than a good-a curse, rather than a blessing. If parents be faithful, affectionate, prayerful, spiritually-minded, and persevering in the religious education of their children, the character and the blessing will generally be found descending with the instruction. Many parents, I fear, are fond of "laying the flattering unction to their souls," when their children fail to evince the influence of the principles of godliness, and to keep their consciences easy by this means-that "grace does not run in the blood." Very true; but it accords with the entire tenor of God's covenant, that grace accompanies means; and that, where the means are rightly used, we may look for the grace.
It is quite clear, that in this and other passages, an inheritance is regarded as a good, and that no blame is attached to "the good man" who leaves it to his children and "children's children." We are to understand it as a good in itself. And so it is. But this is no reason for overlooking the danger associated with it. Christians should not forget it in their own case; parents should not forget it in their children's. What I wish earnestly to impress upon all parents, is this-that, while it may be a good thing to "leave an inheritance " to their children, they will do their children infinitely more service, by leaving them an inheritance of principles without wealth, than an inheritance of wealth without principles; and further, that they must not lay up an inheritance for their children by depriving God, and the cause of God, of their due,-by parsimonious stinting in the promotion of the claims of piety and benevolence; for by doing this, they will forfeit the blessing of the Lord upon their substance for themselves, and prevent the blessing from descending with it to their offspring.
While the "good man" thus "leaveth an inheritance to his children's children"-"the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." This proceeds on the same great principle with that laid down by the apostle-"All things are yours:" and, amongst other things, "the world." They are so, in the sense that they are all wisely ordered for the ultimate attainment of their highest good. That may most truly be called mine, from which I derive the greatest possible benefit it can be made to yield. It would be strange indeed, were I to wish anything else, or anything more. The assertion here made must be interpreted in a similar manner. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." His, among other things, is "the wealth of the wicked." The wicked man calls it his own. But it is God's. God retains the entire right to it, and the sole disposal of it. He can do with it what pleaseth him. God is the friend of his own children; and holds that property, like every thing else, for their good; so that it is theirs by being his. By the secret arrangements of his providence, he can, whensoever he will, transfer property from one owner to another; and in all cases in which it will be for his people's benefit, He will make the transference. Whensoever anything is wanted for his own cause, he can bring it into the hands of those-" the just"-to whom he has given grace to use it for its advancement.*
* Comp. Ecc_2:26.
Verse Pro_13:23. "Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment." There seems an interesting connexion, and perhaps a twofold connexion of suggestion or association, between the former verse and this. Talk of inheritances! says the poor man, with his scanty means and hard daily toil.-we have no inheritance, neither from our fathers, nor for our children: all is homely with us, and likely to remain so. Well, says Solomon, the poor man is not without his consolations, even of a temporal nature-"much food is in the tillage of the poor." The maxim, though under a particular form, like many others, is general; not to be confined to the one kind of labour specified, but extending equally to all the different modes in which the poor make their daily bread. The poor peasant, who cultivates his plot of ground industriously and by the "sweat of his brow," will, through the divine blessing, procure thereby an ample supply of "food" for himself and his family; and, if a child of God, he will have this with the sweet relish of his heavenly Father's smile. Industry and tidy economy will make the cottage fireside and table snug and comfortable; and its lowly tenants will enjoy plenty, though in a plain and homely form, without luxurious delicacies.-On the other hand, how often, in the case of those who obtain inheritances, may the poor see the saying verified, "There is that is destroyed for want of judgment." By prodigality and excess, by careless neglect, by bad management, by injudicious and ill-conducted plans and projects, they waste and ruin their fortunes. Their lands are extensive, but they are unproductive; or if productive, the product is mis-spent and squandered: it goes, no one can tell how. To such persons, the homely comfort of "the tillage of the poor" is a just object of envy; far more so than, in many cases, the wealth of the rich is to the poor.
Verse Pro_13:24. "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." There is no subject of deeper interest and importance than the EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG. It is so for their own sake; for the sake of their family and kindred; for the sake of society; for the sake of the Church; for the sake of the glory of God. In their systems of education, some are for excluding the "rod" altogether. But such would be wiser than God; for He has sanctioned its use. They, indeed, who consider Solomon as merely giving his own mind, are at liberty, how high soever his wisdom may be ranked, to dissent from his judgment, and to decline following the course he prescribes. This might be somewhat presumptuous; but there would be no impiety in it,-no resisting the dictates of the divine mind. But if Solomon wrote by inspiration, and the truths and precepts delivered by him are the truths and precepts of the Spirit of God, we must beware of gainsaying any of his prescriptions, in any of the various departments of duty.
For the Scripture authority, not warranting only, but enjoining the use of the "rod," I might quote many passages besides that before us.*1 I might also refer to such passages as, in speaking of the dealings of God with his people, contain allusions to this part of parental duty.*2 It should be noticed that the "rod" is to be taken for correction or punishment in general; not specifically for corporal punishment. The blessed God employs a great variety of kinds of chastisement in dealing with His children, suiting the correction in nature as well as in degree, to the peculiarities of each character, and the circumstances of each case;-so may Christian parents consider themselves warranted to employ whatever description of punishment experience may teach them to be best fitted to answer the end. Of the observations now to be made, some refer to the "rod" more specifically, and some to all kinds of correction.
1. The rod should be the last resource.-In this remark I refer of course to the "rod" properly so called. Perhaps the most suitable season for the use of it may be in the early stages of education, when the mind is but beginning to open, (as soon as the meaning and design of it can be distinctly understood) with the view of forming a habit of subjection, such as may enable you afterwards to rule easily and effectually without it. Still, whenever it is used, it should be as the last resort. If conviction and sorrow, sufficiently pungent and deep, can be produced otherwise; if you can reach the heart, and draw the tears of a tender and contrite spirit to the eyes-it would, generally speaking, in such circumstances, be cruelty to superadd the pain of correction, the end having been gained, in all respects more pleasantly and more effectually, without it. Cases are supposable, in which it may be necessary to proceed to the correction even amidst the tears and the sobs of submissive distress. I know nothing more acutely agonizing to a parent's feelings than when such necessity exists; and the cases in which it does exist are very rare. To inflict correction in spite of the confessions of weeping penitence,-which may, in most instances, be readily enough distinguished from the affected acknowledgments of a selfish and heartless hypocrisy,-is obviously in the face of the apostle's admonition-" provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged:" for nothing can well be more discouraging,-more calculated to engender a secret sentiment of inward dissatisfaction, as if greater severity had been used than was needed by the offender,-a rising emotion, which checks the full and free flow of affectionate and penitential tenderness, the tenderness which melts into the open bosom of offended but conciliated love.
2. When the "rod" is used, or any punishment inflicted, be sure that a fault has been committed.-Strange direction!-you may say: who requires to be told this? Do you suppose any of us so unnatural, so fond of putting our children to pain, that we would punish them for nothing? My answer is, that there is no parent who does not require the counsel. My full conviction is, that children are often chastened, and chastened at times severely, when they have committed no fault.-A fault I would have you remember, that justifies punishment, should involve the manifestation of some evil disposition. In every other case, correction is wrong; and the parent who inflicts it would himself be a fitter subject for it.-To illustrate my meaning by two or three exemplifications. There is in children, when in good health, a principle of activity,-a restless buoyancy that invites and impels them to lively exercise. It is an important instinctive propensity, intimately connected with bodily health,-with the strength of the bones, the firmness and pliancy of the joints, the tension of the nerves, the energy of muscular action, and the general growth and vigour of the entire frame. The indulgence of this propensity may make them at times a little noisy and turbulent. It may be indispensably necessary, on occasions, to lay it under temporary restraint. But authority should be reluctantly interposed; and, unless when authority is violated, or incumbent duty neglected, it should never be visited with punishment. You would be punishing your child for exhibiting nature's indications of health; which it should rather please you to see, as young people are seldom well, when dull and disinclined to romping and active exercise.-Again, evil is sometimes done in ignorance. The child has no idea that it has been doing any harm. You happen, I shall suppose, to leave a bank-note in your child's way. He finds the bit of paper. He finds it where it should not have been. He has no notion whatever of its value. He takes it up and throws it into the fire; and ho laughs and claps his hands, in innocent glee, at the pretty blaze. The loss, in such a case, is yours; but don't forget that so is the fault. You should not have left anything of the kind thus exposed. You may warn your child strongly, never again to burn any bits of paper he may find, till be Las asked you whether they are of use; and you may impress the lesson by teaching him the extent of the damage he has done. But take care. Let not rising passion at your loss lead you to inflict hasty and summary punishment on the child. He does not deserve it. And let not the punishment and the passion be proportioned to the amount of the loss. One pound or fifty was the same to the child The more valuable the note, the more inexcusable was your own carelessness. A severe infliction, in such a case, would be the extreme of unrighteousness; and it would be the greater culprit punishing the less.-Things, again, may be done by children from want of mature discretion. A child, when you are not at hand, may have his sympathies touched by the tale, and the apparent distresses, of some impostor; and knowing where money is to be found, and thinking, from what he may have seen you do, that if you only knew, you would afford relief, may give a great deal more than discretion, even in a really deserving case, would warrant. Would you be severe on him for this? It would be barbarous. It is one of the loveliest of principles, operating, as might be expected in a child, without due acquaintance with the acts of imposture or the value of money, to guide the exercise of his charity. I remember hearing of a fine little child who gave a beggar in this way half-a-crown; and, in telling what he had done, called it a white penny. In such a case, it would be right to inculcate the lesson that children should be on their guard in making use, even for charity, of what is not their own; and to teach the offender (if such he should be called) the difference between white and brown. But to correct him with the rod, would be worse than cruelty; it would be selling for half-a-crown a principle which it should be one of the main ends of education to cherish.-Still further, things may be done, that are much to be regretted, by accident. Here too correction is wrong, or should be very discriminatively inflicted. If the accident has happened in doing that which had been previously warned against or forbidden, there may be room for it. But to punish for what has been purely accidental, where there has been no evil principle or intention, is most unjust. Let children be trained, by all means, to caution and care. But O beware of assuming, in such cases, as the measure of punishment, the actual extent of the mischief done. A greater punishment may be deserved, where the damage has been ever so small than when it has been ever so great; because in the one case there may have been evil intention or great and culpable carelessness, and in the other neither..Nay the intention may even have been good; good may have been intended, and harm done. In this latter case, there should rather be reward for the intention,.than punishment for the accidental mischief "Whatever may be your loss, do not add to it an evil much greater,-the evil of spoiling your child by correcting for no fault. For example. Your child, watching your employment, sees by your looks and motions, that you are in want of something. He knows, or he guesses what it is; and with the lively glee of childhood, and affectionate eagerness to serve you, he sets off full speed to fetch it. By and by he comes back-slowly, and in altered mood. He hangs down his head beside you in hesitating silence, and fears to tell what has happened. He has alas! stumbled in his haste, and has let fall and broken the article he ran to bring. You feel your spirit rise at the loss and the disappointment. An article, it may be, of some value, is destroyed, and your process is interrupted and spoiled. But again take care. Lift not your hand. Call not for the "rod." His very eagerness to serve you has occasioned the misfortune. Would you punish him for that? Poor dear child! he is more to be pitied than you. The mortification and shame,-the sudden sinking of his little heart from lively gaiety to sadness and vexation, indicated by the slow creeping step, the downcast look, the tearful eye, and the faltering tongue,-are punishment enough for his undue haste, when that very haste was prompted by a praiseworthy principle. Caress him for his kind intention, whilst you join in lamenting the accident; restore, if you can, the smile to his countenance; and caution him not to be quite so quick in his motions, even to serve you, next time he happens to have brittle ware to carry.
3. Let there always be a due proportion between the fault and the correction. It should be laid down as a general principle, that all punishment beyond desert is punishment of innocence. The just degree of punishment is, in all cases, the smallest degree by which the desired effect may be produced-a proper impression, that is, of the evil done, humble submission, and promise of amendment. The kind and the degree may thus be different with different children. The repetition of an offence may, of course, warrant greater severity than the first commission of it. But in the conduct of some parents, there is an indiscriminate severity, a general system of rigour and harshness, which knows no rules of proportion; which acts as if the greatest punishment in its power to inflict were little enough for the smallest offence; and whose only reason for not inflicting a greater, in cases of more heinous fault, is its not having a greater to inflict. Nothing can be in more direct contrariety to the important warning already quoted-''Provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." What could more effectually either spoil their temper, or break their spirit?
4. Never chastise in a passion.-There are few cautions of more difficult observance; but few of more essential consequence. If you are unable to govern yourselves, are you fit for governing your children? Rage may frighten. It may even, by the mere power of terror, keep from outward trespass; but it never will reclaim to right feeling or right principle. Do not, then, deal in furious rebukes and angry blows. If you correct while the fit of passion is on-what is the effect? You are sure to appear to your child to be merely indulging and gratifying your own anger, instead of having in view the only legitimate object of all correction. And moreover, you are quite sure to exceed bounds, and thus at once to "provoke your child," and "to discourage him," while you lay up cause for vexation, and shame, and self-reproach, when you have leisure to cool. If you feel passion rising, lay a firm command upon it; restrain yourself; let the correction stand till you are calm, and fit to do it with judgment. Never forget that correction is for an end; that that end is the conviction, repentance, and recovery of the offender. This end is not to be effected by passion. All must be done, after the example of God, in love; with displeasure indeed, proportioned to the evil of the transgression, but with calm and unruffled dignity. The fuming heat of passion, beating a child, and renewing the beating, for relief to itself, only lets down the parent in the child's eyes, lessening his filial respect for him; and is thus most injurious. True affection will mingle grief with displeasure, tenderness with disciplinary coercion. This is strikingly expressed in the words-"My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." This should teach you the lesson of impressing your child's mind with the conviction that it is your very delight in him that obliges you to do violence to your own feelings in correcting him. This leads me to notice-
5. The propriety of always preceding or accompanying chastisement with convincing the offender of his fault. Show him, seriously and affectionately, why you chastise him. If you feel yourself at all at a loss to do this, you may be very sure you are doing wrong. Correction must never either be or appear to be, a mere arbitrary display of authority. In all the precepts respecting "the rod," the child's good is the object; and all should be regulated by a regard to this end. The spirit of it, on the part of parents, should be that which dictates the corrections of God, who chastens, not for "His own pleasure," but for his children's profit." And in seeking this end, mark the terms of the verse before us-" he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Oppose the beginnings of evil. Check propensities to it early; before they have time to acquire strength, and to form and settle into habits.
6. That correction may have the surer and happier influence, let it be accompanied with a system of encouragements. It is not fair to correct, and to correct severely for faults, and to express and manifest no satisfaction and pleasure in the right discharge of required duties. Children should be judiciously commended, as well as judiciously reproved; judiciously rewarded, as well as judiciously punished. There is, with different parents, a danger of the opposite extremes-of commendation and reward without reproof and punishment, and of reproof and punishment without commendation and reward. It requires much discretion duly to blend the two. The good sense of parents must distinguish between just commendation and what would only minister to vanity. But it is evident, that few things can possibly be more dispiriting to a child, than for a parent to be ever prompt to punish evil, but never to reward good; severe and forward to chide, but reluctant and backward to commend. Children should be stimulated by praise, as well as restrained by censure. You may be assured that this will eminently contribute to the right reception of your chastisements, and their salutary influence upon the character. I only add-
7. That correction is one of the most delicate and difficult of parental duties. It is easy to do it; but far, very far from easy, to do it well. Therefore, let parents keep it in their own hands. It must ever, in order to answer its appropriate ends, be associated with the blended faithfulness and tenderness of love. When transferred to improper hands, it is almost sure to produce the very opposite effects to those designed by it.
Let Christians, as the children of their heavenly Father, rejoice that their parental discipline is in the hands of One who cannot err, either in the time, the manner, or the measure of His corrections; who will make every stroke of " His rod" tell upon the best interests of his people; promoting their spiritual, and securing their eternal interests. And let their submission, in all their sorrows, correspond with this assurance.*
* See Heb_12:5-11.
The last verse must not detain us long-"The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want."
The two states contrasted in these evidently proverbial expressions, are a state of satisfaction and contentment, and a state of dissatisfaction and discontent:-the former that of the good man-" the righteous"-who enjoys his repast with a true relish arising from the love and blessing of his heavenly Father; the latter that of the "wicked" who in that love and blessing has no share! The particular expression here used respecting "the wicked," implies his never being satisfied; ever desiring, ever wanting, how much soever he obtains. What a fine contrast Paul presents to us in describing his own feelings, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need!" Php_4:11-12.
To the possession of this perfect satisfaction there is but one way. It is the enjoyment of God's Favour. Nothing can satisfy the soul of man but this; and when this is obtained, it will infuse the spirit of satisfaction into every thing. It will enrich every joy; it will alleviate, and sweeten, and sanctify every sorrow. Here lies the secret of true contentment and happiness. God In All Things, And All Things In God, is the sum of the divine lesson. And the lesson, like all the other lessons of Christian virtue, must be studied at the foot of the Cross. There must the grand principles of them all be imbibed and settled in the soul.
