"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker; and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers. Excellent speech becometh not a fool; much less do lying lips a prince."
This chapter, you perceive, commences with a proverb much the same as others that have been already under our notice:*1-"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife." The word "sacrifices" has reference to the practice of feasting on the flesh of the slain victims, when they were not holocausts-to be entirely consumed on the altar.*2 The preposition "with" is supplementary. The words have been rendered "sacrifices of strife;" that is, such as, in the appropriation and consumption of them, occasion contention and brawls. On the margin the proper sense of the word, in such a connexion, is evidently given-"a house full of good cheer with strife." I do not dwell now on the sentiment-the superiority of the feast of love-the feast of souls, to the banquet of royal dainties, where there is no heart. But let all feel its truth. Let the poor especially feel it, when called to partake of their frugal and necessarily stinted meals. If they sit down to these in the smiling cordiality of domestic love, and with the supplicated blessing of Him who "feeds the ravens" and "clothes the lilies of the field,"-they are happier far than those whose houses are full of good cheer; but full, along with it, of the bitterness of contention. Love sweetens the stinted portion, hatred embitters the full one.
*1 See Pro_15:16-17. rr
*2 Compare 1Sa_9:12-13; 1Sa_9:22-24.
Verse Pro_17:2. "A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren." The general maxim here is, that wisdom-true godly discretion-the exercise of genuine principle in steady fidelity, prudence, diligence, and general propriety of conduct,-tends to advancement-to elevate to higher station, and to secure approbation and reward. A servant whose character has been long tried and proved, will be highly respected and valued, and will obtain the most important trusts. Even the care of a refractory and wayward child may be committed to such a domestic, as one in whose fidelity and prudence the most entire confidence can be reposed. Or the phrase, "shall have rule over the son who causeth shame" may only signify his becoming the superior of such a son and heir, in the amount of his influence and weight in all domestic arrangements. Such a servant is a treasure in the family to which he or she belongs. And in many instances, with great propriety, have such servants found a place among the legatees of their masters;-obtaining, as their reward, and their testimonial of grateful approbation, a portion of the family patrimony. This was the case of old, in a special manner, with servants who had been born and brought up in the family, or on the estate, and had worn out the vigour of their youth and manhood in the faithful service of the one or of the other. Such a servant to the patriarch Abraham was Eliezer of Damascus.
Let me say, then, to servants, that there is hardly any other class in society who have more in their power, in either promoting or preventing domestic comfort and happiness. By faithfulness, industry, good temper, and respectful demeanour,-by putting your hearts into the interests of the household with which providence has associated you, and identifying yourselves with its well-being, you effect the former; you make yourselves happy, and you contribute no unimportant share to the happiness of all around you. It is thus too that you render both your station and yourselves respectable and honourable. It is the man that adorns the station; not the station the man. The very highest station can never secure respect to the occupant who acts unworthily of it,-who disgraces it. On the contrary, the very contrast between the station and the character will serve to deepen the dark shades of the latter, and aggravate both private and public disrepute. The dutiful servant is incomparably the more honourable and entitled to respect when set in comparison with the mean, the unjust, or the profligate master. No station will detract from you, if you adorn the station. And then-while you gain and fix affectionate and grateful regard, and secure from every generous master and mistress an earthly recompense; if you act under the influence of gospel principles, and, in serving your earthly masters, "serve the Lord Christ," you will enjoy the smile of divine approval, and, in the end, obtain "the reward of the inheritance."*
*See Col_3:22-24.
Verse Pro_17:3. "The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts."-There are two things effected on the silver and the gold when subjected to the process of the fining-pot, or crucible, and the furnace. These are-trial and purification; the first with a view to the second. Trial detects the proportion of extraneous matter in the ore,-or of alloy in the metal; and the process which detects, at the same time, and as the designed result, separates the extraneous matter, or the alloy, and by separation, purifies, and so renders the remainder the more precious.
"But the Lord trieth the hearts." It is obvious that a comparison is intended: "As the fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold; so the Lord trieth the hearts." Trying is more than simply discerning. The Lord does not need to try, in order to make any discovery for himself. He "knoweth what is in man." But He "tries," in order to bring to light what may lie concealed from men, and especially from the individual himself. And this He does in order to the person's conviction and benefit, and that He may be vindicated in his final judgments.
He "tries," in different respects, both "the wicked and the righteous." By the dispensations of his providence, He often elicits the latent evils that are in the hearts of the ungodly and the worldly. He brings out their hidden abominations. He manifests the deceitfulness, the hypocrisy, the "desperate wickedness," of their "inward parts,"-their rebellious and unsubdued dispositions. He exposes the simulation of dissemblers; and of those whose religion only seems to thrive when their profession of it brings no suffering and demands no sacrifice. How many has God thus tried and exhibited in their true characters!-how many has He thus "weighed in the balances, and found wanting!"-In the same manner too does God try, and bring out to view the inward graces and virtues of his children. And, while disclosing, He refines and purifies them, He detects and removes the alloy-the dross and tin of self and the world; separating "the vile" from "the precious," and so rendering the precious the more excellent;-purging away the earthly from the heavenly, and bringing the heavenly out of the furnace more spiritual and divine.*
* See Mal_3:3-4; Zec_13:9; Isa_27:9; 1Pe_1:7.
Let the Lord's people, then, in every season of affliction, seek above all things its refining virtue. Seek that, when "tried" you may "come forth as gold." O how sad to suffer, and not to profit! Pray that the gracious end of your heavenly Father may be answered in you; that you may be made more like himself,-more "holy as he is holy,"-more meet for heaven, while sojourning on earth:-that so you may not bear the heat of the furnace without acquiring the purity which the heat is meant to impart.
Verse Pro_17:4. "A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue." These words are capable of two meanings. They may mean, first, that the man is wicked who lends his ear to calumny and slander; who takes up, with easy and malicious credit, all injurious reports: and that he is deceitful and not to be trusted, who listens to and encourages the tongue of detraction and envy and inventive malignity,-gathering up evil, and making what he can of it for the stirring up of mischief.-Or rather, secondly, that the wicked and untruthful are prone to give heed to flattery of themselves, and calumny against others. The more ill they can hear of others, the better. They are supported and comforted by the knowledge that their neighbours are as bad as themselves or worse. They delight in "false lips" and in a "naughty tongue." They keep them in countenance. They furnish them with the means of evil, on which they can proceed in their own tales of falsehood and scandal-grafting one lie upon another, and forging all manner of calumnies. It is their highest gratification to get a good story, which they can turn to account in their own way.-"A wicked doer," too, "giveth heed to false lips;" because they are lips of which he can avail himself in time of exigency for his own safety. "A liar" is of essential use to the evil-doer. He can suborn him. He can get him to bear witness in his favour-to perjure himself to get him off, when in danger of being convicted.
Such characters too, it may be noticed, are fond of the lies of false teachers. They keep their ear greedily open to these. They are soothed and flattered and encouraged by them in their evil courses. They cannot but like the doctrine that allays their fears; that palliates sin; that makes light of future punishment; that tells them of a God all mercy; that assures them of ultimate universal salvation. Thus it was of old; and thus it is still.*
* See for example Isa_30:9-11; Jer_5:31.
O let thoughtless sinners beware of this wretched delusion! Lies may serve a present purpose; they may keep the mind easy for the time:-but their detection must come; and then the emphatic application of the prophet's question-"What will ye do in the end thereof?" It is strange how men should wish to be deceived; should be satisfied if they can but keep themselves in present quietness, though at the risk, or with the certainty, of everlasting disappointment, regret, and anguish.
Be assured, my friends, they are not your enemies who "tell you the truth." The truth may agitate for the time-may give present pain; but it is salutary; it tends to everlasting benefit. They are not your enemies who warn you that "the wages of sin is death;" when they add with the same breath, that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." They are not your enemies who sound in your ears the terrors of a broken law, when they sound along with them the gracious promises of a divinely accredited gospel. They are not your enemies who tell you of the "wrath of God revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men," when they tell you, at the same time, of the love of God revealed to "the chief of sinners" in the cross;-of God's delighting in mercy;-of "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."
Verse Pro_17:5. "Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker; and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished." The poor are of two descriptions-the industrious and virtuous; the idle and profligate; the one, poor, not by their own misconduct, but in consequence of circumstances over which they could exercise no control; the other, poor through indolence and vice.-Mockery is not the sentiment for either. We do, indeed, regard the one and the other with feelings widely dissimilar. In the one case we approve, in the other we condemn; on the one we smile with complacency; on the other we frown with indignation; to the one we cheerfully stretch the hand of our bounty; from the other we hold it back, through a hesitating sense of duty, lest our beneficence should be abused, and bad made worse. We may see it right to allow them to feel the effects of their folly and sin, in order to their future good.
The words before us have manifestly reference to the former-to those whom divine providence has placed in poverty and prevented from rising, or has been pleased, by what we are accustomed to call misfortunes, to reduce to poverty from a better condition. To "mock" at such is to "reproach their Maker." That Maker has assigned them their lot, and to mock them is to mock Him,-to mock the wisdom and the kindness of his administration. He who is the Maker of the poor is the Maker of the rich,-the Maker and Ruler of the mocker as well as of the object of his scorn. It is a sad thing when one "potsherd of the earth," because it happens to have got from the hand of the potter a little gilding and superficial decoration, mocks at another "potsherd of the earth" which chances to be somewhat more homely in its outward appearance, or perhaps formed of a little coarser material, than the other; both the work of the same hands, and both alike frail, brittle, and perishable.
It is one of the features of the divine greatness to regard the poor; and one of the features of human littleness to despise them. O what are all the distinctions of earthly condition in His eyes, who is "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity!" That "high and lofty One" regards the man of low degree who "trembleth at his word," while the proud scorner of the poor he "knoweth afar off."-Vast is the multitude of poor amongst us at this moment. O let there be anything but "mockery"-anything but making light of their lamentable privations and sufferings! May God keep all, whether in private or public station, from thus reproaching their Maker, and provoking his wrath!*
* See on Pro_14:20-21; Pro_14:31.
Verse Pro_17:6. "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers." We have had one crown of old age before.*1 Here we have another. A numerous progeny was, among the Hebrews, an object of high estimation and earnest desire. In the Scriptures, we find the number of a man's children frequently specified:-and at times it is represented as a token of divine favour and blessing.*2 As an example of one who enjoyed this crown, look at Joseph.*3 When we read the narrative of him, as the envied and persecuted stripling of seventeen, we feel towards him a warm and sympathising affection. But when we have followed him through all the intensely interesting steps of his history, and come to the touching close, we feel our affection for Joseph the youth, rise and ripen into veneration for Joseph the aged-the hoary patriarch-in the midst of his descendants of four generations. All these look up to him, with deep reverential love, and honour him for his years, his character, and his paternal authority. They thus invest him with a respectability and dignity which, as a solitary individual, he could not have possessed.
*1 Pro_16:31. rr
*2 See Psa_128:6. rr
*3 See Gen_50:23. rr
But this is not all that is intended. The meaning and truth of the saying depend greatly on the character of the children. It expresses what they ought to be.
This, then, implies the duty of parents, on the one hand, so to attend-diligently, affectionately, prayerfully, perseveringly, and with all the accompanying power of consistent example-to the education of their children, or, it may be, of their children's children,-as that they may be an honour to them,-and a comfort and support to their advancing and declining years-to the evening of their life's long day.-And it implies, on the other, the duty of children to be an honour to their fathers and grandfathers;-to lay to heart the influence which their behaviour cannot fail to have on the respectability, the character, the happiness of their parents.
Yes, my young friends; you may be their honour, or you may be their disgrace. "Which would you wish to be? If you are not "without natural affection," I need not answer the question. For your fathers' and mothers' sakes, then,-and to some of you I may say, for your grandfathers' and grandmothers' sakes, as well as for your own, let me urge you to goodness-to the adoption and cultivation of right principles, and especially of the principles of true godliness. O remember, that by one course of behaviour you will weave a garland of honour for the aged brows of those you love;-by another, you will encircle those brows with a crown of thorns,-ay, and, it may be, "bring down their gray hair with sorrow to the grave."
What an honour was young Timothy, who "from a child knew the holy Scriptures," to "his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice!" And what a stain upon his reputation-a sword in his bones-a weight of oppressive sadness on the spirit of his old age, were the profligate sons of Eli!-and Eli, let parents remember, was himself to blame; for "his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not."
"And the glory of children are their fathers:"-that is, I need hardly say, when their fathers are what they ought to be; when by character they have earned for themselves general affection, esteem, reverence, and honour. When this is the case, these feelings naturally attach themselves to their descendants. And when children follow their example and conduct themselves aright, this serves to double their honour. "The sons are honoured in the honoured sires."
Alas! it is not always the case, that fathers are, as they ought to be, "the glory of their children." Too frequently are they the reverse. Their children and grandchildren have to struggle into life against all the disadvantage arising from the disreputable characters of their sires. Let parents bethink themselves of this. They do not stand alone in the effects of their evil ways. Whatever disgrace they incur becomes a drag upon their children's advancement. The child that comes of so disreputable a stock, is unavoidably regarded with a suspicious and uneasy jealousy. There is a fear to trust him; a fear that he may inherit his father's principles, and follow his father's example. The effects of the father's infamy thus descend to him; and if ever he rises above it, and by his virtuous, honourable, and pious behaviour, commands our confidence and esteem, our admiration, respect, and love-no thanks to that father; he owes no part of it to him. It is self-acquired; or rather, let us say, he is indebted for it to the superintending providence and distinguishing mercy of Heaven; and he will be disposed, humbly and thankfully to say-"By the grace of God, I am what I am!"
Verse Pro_17:7. "Excellent speech becometh not a fool; much less do lying lips a prince." The plain sentiment of the first clause is, that the language of wisdom and piety is unsuitable to the lips of a foolish, unprincipled man:-rr
1. There is, what first and immediately strikes us, incongruity. To use the comparison of Solomon on another subject, it is "like a jewel of gold in a swine's snout." We wonder where the man can have got what he utters. "We are quite sure it is not his own. He gets no credit for it. The surprise we feel in hearing it, only awakens our attention the more to his folly and wickedness. The latter are the more strongly and loathingly impressed by the power of contrast. There is superadded to former impressions of his character, the further one of hypocrisy; and the suspicion of a mask assumed for some selfish end.
2. There is a total want of force, or weight, in such sayings from such lips. You all know and feel the native power of name and character. The sayings of one whose reputation is justly high for wisdom and goodness, are in danger at times of being received even too hastily. Whatever bears the "image and superscription" of such a man, we are ready to accept without testing or looking at it, as mint coin. On the contrary, and from the converse influence of the same principle, we suspect the sayings of the foolish. We shake our heads and say, We must think again, before we put our seal of acceptance on anything that comes from such a quarter. We must examine it; we must test it, especially before we venture to act upon it. The sayings sound well; they seem good; but they are so very unlike the man, we fear there must be more surface than solidity.
3. Hence arises want of influence. When a fool utters a wise, or a wicked man a good, advice, he to whom it is given thinks himself, by the very circumstance of its coming from such a person, at liberty to disregard it. The advice having no worth of character to support and recommend it, goes for nothing,-falls lifeless and pithless to the ground.
It well becomes the public teachers of religion to lay these thoughts to heart. More "excellent speech" cannot be uttered than the doctrines and precepts, the counsels and warnings, of the word of God. But if the character of him who utters them is notoriously at variance with his instructions, the incongruity shocks, disgusts, and revolts the hearer. It draws tears from the pious, and mockery from the profane. The latter feel the admonitions pointless. Good they may be; but they are blunted by the character of the speaker. They scoff, and exchange the sly wink with each other; or they are provoked at the thought of their being schooled by such a man! and, with the one feeling or the other, they leave the sanctuary, whispering or exclaiming with a careless shrug-"Physician, heal thyself."
"Much less do lying lips a prince." In such a case the incongruity, the indecency, the outrage on all consistency and propriety, is most flagrant. The prince ought to be the guardian of truth and honesty, of righteousness, and virtue, in the community. He who is officially their guardian, ought personally to be their example. The example is valuable; and so is the infusion of such principle into the administration of the government. There is nothing of more consequence for inspiring the community with confidence and so maintaining satisfaction and peace, than that rulers should keep their word to the people, redeeming every pledge, fulfilling every authorised and legitimate expectation. "Lying lips" may serve a present purpose, and suspend for the time a threatening evil,--but they will inevitably work mischief, and aggravate the dreaded calamity in the end. Simulation is bad in private life; worse in public; and worst of all in stations of high authority, example, and influence.*
* For further illustration, see Pro_16:10-13.
I close with two reflections:
1. Let none mistake the nature of the connexion between parents and children,-so as to imagine that the grace and the godliness of the one will avail and be accepted for the other. Every individual, old and young, must stand before God for himself. Godly parents and godly forefathers will not, in the great day, profit ungodly children, or be any protection to them from the avenging justice of God:-on the contrary, their godly ancestry will come in among the aggravations of their guilt and condemnation. They can have no share in their glory, since they have not "followed their faith," and traced the path to heaven in the footsteps of their holy example. Religion is a personal thing. There is no having it by proxy. Eli's sons were not accepted for Eli's sake. Let parents beware, and let children beware. If they would meet in heaven, and be each other's "joy and crown" in the final day,-let parents seek by all divine means, to have their children for their spiritual as well as their natural offspring; and let children receive the instructions, and emulate the Christian excellences of their godly parents. Then shall parents and children be the glory of each other, and Christ the glory of both.
2. Spiritual children are the glory of aged ministers and fathers in the Christian church-the house of God:-and when these are useful in their turn in bringing others to God, those of whose conversion they are the instruments, are children's children. So Paul and so John regarded their converts. It is not wrong surely for Christ's ministers to covet the honour of such a spiritual family,-who may be to them their "joy and crown" in the day of the Lord. Alas! that after even a long lifetime of labour, the number of such should often be so small! It gives reason for "great searchings of heart," whether, and how far, the cause may be found in deficiency of faithfulness, and earnestness, and prayer. I would humbly thank my God for the number of the members of this church to whom He has been graciously pleased to render the ministry of his gospel within these walls the means of saving benefit. And I would say to the congregation at large-I long for your salvation, and pray God, "that I may have some fruit among you also!" We must stand together at "the judgment-seat of Christ." O that I may then be found to have delivered my own soul by faithfulness to yours;-and that you may be found so to have profited by your privileges and opportunities, as that you may give your account with joy; so that minister and people may rejoice together!
