Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 22:1 - 22:6

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Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 22:1 - 22:6


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:



LECTURE LXVIII.



Pro_22:1-6.



"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. By humility, and the fear of the Lord, are riches, honour, and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it."



You will observe that the word "good" in the first of these verses is a supplement. In the original we have simply "a name." But this does not mean a mere name of renown. The verse must not be understood as a justification of the love of fame as a principle of action. Nor is it to be interpreted as expressing a preference of ambition to avarice,-of the love of power to the love of wealth. Many, alas! have there been, who, from mere eagerness to be distinguished,-with little consideration of either the nature or the means of the distinction,-have succeeded in "making themselves a name;" but a name which ought to be a name of infamy rather thin of honour. They have been great in power, and great in renown for all the evil which power without principle rendered them capable of doing. Solomon does not assuredly mean such a name. The "good" is a proper supplement. "A good name" is a reputation among fellow-men for piety, wisdom, prudence, integrity, generosity, and any other virtues that enter into a good character. But remember it is not a mere reputation for these. They must not be assumed in appearance, and a reputation thus got for the reality. To a man's own inward enjoyment there can be few things more opposed than a high reputation for qualities which there is no consciousness of possessing, but rather a consciousness that, if all were known, the feeling toward him would be reversed. This in itself must be worse than unsatisfactory, it must be most fretting and mortifying to a man's spirit,-exciting the gnawing irksomeness of self-indignant scorn; besides the incessantly haunting apprehension of the truth coming out, and the shame of detection.



Observe, the character is one which is not held in admiration only, but in affection:-"and loving favour rather than silver and gold." The "loving favour" is the affectionate esteem which springs from the "good name," and which is drawn by it to the person. In the first place, the "good name" and "loving favour" are more really pleasing in themselves-imparting more of true happiness than "silver and gold" in whatever amount-than all the riches of earth. The satisfaction is comparatively low and grovelling, which a person receives from the mere possession of wealth. It may be common to him with men of the lowest standard both in mental and moral worth. There is no saying how mean or how bad a man may be, and yet come into possession of " silver and gold," and "great riches." The satisfaction that arises from character is of a much higher and purer description; more worthy far of being coveted and valued. To a man of sensibility, indeed, few things can be more dear than a "good name." By such a man his purse will ever be esteemed as "trash" in the comparison. Few things are more distressingly painful to him than when any injurious suspicion is thrown upon his character. The full enjoyment of a fair fame is intensely gratifying. Hence arises a danger-(for what is there from which, to our deceitful hearts, danger does not arise?)-the danger of "thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think,"-and of making a righteousness of our "good name,"-getting secretly elated by it-and deriving a measure of self-gratulation and self-confidence from it even before God, and in the prospect of our final account. Hence also arises a necessity for self-jealousy. It is well for him who in any degree enjoys, and knows that he enjoys it, to counteract the tendency by looking to those evils in the sight of God, of which he must be a wonderful man who is not sensible:-to go over these in the secret chambers of conscience, those chambers to which no eye has access but his own and his God's. When he thus faithfully brings his heart and life to the test of the spiritual law of omniscience, he will find enough to prevent his being puffed up-enough to make him feel deeply his unworthiness of the divine regard, and of even the very lowest place in "the kingdom of heaven,"-enough, amidst the affectionate tributes of admiration from his fellow-creatures, to draw from his inmost and heavy-laden spirit the prayer-"God be merciful to me a sinner!"



Secondly,-the one is more valuable than the other as a means of usefulness. Riches, in themselves, can only enable a man to promote the temporal comfort and well-being of those around him. But character gives him weight of influence in matters of higher moment,-in all descriptions of salutary advice and direction,-in kindly instruction and consolation,-in counsel for eternity. It not only fits its possessor for such employments, but it imparts energy and effect to whatever he says and does. His character carries a recommendation with it,-gives authority and force to every lesson and every admonition; and affords, by the confidence it inspires, many opportunities and means of doing good, which, without it, could not be enjoyed.-Riches, again, bring with them many temptations to sinful and worldly indulgences, such as are injurious to the possessor himself and to his family-both temporally and spiritually. Character, on the contrary, acts aa a salutary restraint,-keeping a man back from many improprieties and follies, and even outward sins, by which it would be impaired and forfeited. And this restraint is felt, and properly felt, not for his own sake merely, but for the sake of all those objects with which his name stands associated; and especially from a regard to usefulness in connexion with the truth, and cause, and church of Christ. This is a very solemn consideration to a child of God. O remember, it is not your riches or your poverty, your high or low condition, that is an honour on the one hand, or a reproach on the other, to the name and doctrine of your divine Master, and a means of promoting or hindering the reception and progress of His gospel; it is your consistent character,-your high and blameless reputation. How vast the good this does-this preaching of the gospel by the life-in every circle in which a man moves!-and O what essential, and often extensive injury springs from the contrary-from the name without the reality of religion,-without consistent practical godliness! It was this consideration that led the Apostle Paul to set so high a value upon his "good name," and made him so solicitous to preserve it free not only of reproach, but even of suspicion. His official usefulness was involved in it, as well as his personal satisfaction. A reflection on him was a reflection on his cause, and a hindrance to his apostolic success. For similar reasons, we should all be jealous of our character,-not as a point of mere touchy selfish honour, but from the thought of the degree to which an unblemished reputation, or the contrary, bears on the glory of the Redeemer, and the salvation of souls. In this respect, it is incomparably more precious than "thousands of gold and silver."



Thirdly, I may further add, the "good name" lasts longest. The wealth of the rich man is often coveted even while he lives. When he dies, he leaves it for ever; and, if this has been his only or his chief recommendation and attraction, he is speedily forgotten, or remembered only with contempt. But "the memory of the just is blessed." It is embalmed in blessing. It is kept in affectionate reverence in the hearts of kindred and friends, of the church of God, and of society. And in "the day of the Lord," when the worthlessness of all distinctions of mere condition shall be made apparent-when all the "silver and gold" in the universe would not avail to bribe away the sentence of death-the Lord shall acknowledge those who have borne the character of holy practical consistency in the faith and profession of His name. Then, CHARACTER WILL BE EVERY THING, CONDITION NOTHING. Ay; and the "good name" will be retained in heaven,-retained for ever; and the principles from which it arose, freed from all admixture of baser material, will be the springs of everlasting blessedness, when "riches," however great, and "gold and silver," however abundant, shall all have been left behind, to perish with a burning world, and be as if they had never been.



Verse Pro_22:2. "The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all."-By the poor are here to be understood, not only the needy, the indigent, the dependent, but the inferior classes generally:-"the rich and poor" meaning the highest and the lowest, with all the intermediate grades. They "meet together:"-



1. In society.-Variety of condition arises naturally and necessarily from the operation of many causes:-from diversity in character and disposition, in turn of mind, in amount of ability and diligence; and from the endless variety of providential arrangements, so frequently above all human foresight or control. Every attempt to prevent this diversity is vain. "The rich and poor" are mutually dependent on each other. The rich could not do without the poor, any more than the poor without the rich. The comparison by which the apostle illustrates the reciprocal dependence of the members of the church on one another, may be applied to civil society-"The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you," 1Co_12:21. This ought to suppress, on the one side all emotions of supercilious scorn, and on the other, every rising of envy. Let "the rich and poor" feel their mutual dependence, and treat each other accordingly.



2. In the church.-There, in as far as the communion of saints is concerned, there is perfect equality. It is true, and an important truth, that union and communion in the church does not interfere with, or set aside, the distinctions of civil society, or the obvious and necessary proprieties thence arising in the social intercourse of life. But there is one gospel for all. All meet as sinners in a common condemnation; and all meet as saved sinners, on a common ground of acceptance. All are, in common, debtors to the same mercy, through the same atonement; all are renewed by the same Spirit; all supplied from the same fulness; all children of the same Father; all heirs of the same inheritance,-"heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Yes, all-the poorest as well as the richest. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. who is above all, and through all, and in you all," Eph_4:4-6.



3. In the grave.-Ah! here the equality-the humbling equality is complete. "The small and the great are there." All alike are subject to the stroke of death, for all have sinned. On all, the stroke of death produces the very same effects,-the cessation of all vital sensibility, and active energy-the same cold, and the same corruption: "the worms are spread under them, and the worms cover them." Their funeral obsequies are widely different; but in the grave they meet, in the same darkness, and loneliness, and putrefaction. The worms that prey on the dead make no distinction between the prince and the beggar.



4. At the judgment-seat; on either hand of the Judge; and on either side of the impassable gulf-in heaven or in hell.-The supreme Judge will himself assign them their stations at His tribunal. When He separates the assembled millions of mankind one from another, and places the one class on his right hand, and the other on his left, "the rich and poor" will be blended indiscriminately; and it will be to assemblies of all ranks and conditions of men, that the welcome on the one hand and the banishment on the other-"Come ye blessed," and "Depart ye cursed," shall be addressed; and heaven and hell alike shall for ever be peopled by both. To all, the principles of the judgment shall be equally and impartially applied:-condition in the present world being only regarded in as far as it contributed to augment or to diminish the measure of guilt. "There is no respect of persons with God."



This idea of ultimate impartiality is what is chiefly suggested by the latter part of the verse-"The Lord is the Maker of them all." He is so by creation. They alike owe to Him their being, and owe to Him every moment the maintenance of that being-the rich man and the honourable, equally with the poorest and the meanest on earth. Where is the monarch on the throne that, more than the lowest of his subjects, can draw a breath independently of God?-And they have the Lord alike for their Maker by providential allotment. The same Lord makes them what they are; and could at His pleasure reverse their conditions, making the rich the poor, and the poor the rich.-The Lord being "the Maker of them all" implies also the equal distance of all, as alike His creatures, from their common Creator and Governor. The distance is the same. In both it is infinite. When God is the object of common comparison, the distance between the highest and the lowest of mankind measures not a hair's-breadth; it is annihilated. All the distinctions of which men make so much, sink into nothing before his infinite Majesty. Both are alike dependent; and both are alike responsible. And when we look forward to death, to judgment, to eternity-O how trifling are the points of difference, compared with the points of agreement!



Verse Pro_22:3. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished."-Prudence is a contraction of providence; and providence literally means foresight,-seeing before,-looking forward. Such, you perceive, is precisely its import in this verse:-"The prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself." It is true that man is not endowed with prescience. He has memory, by which he retains, though even that very imperfectly, the remembrance of the past; but of the future he can know nothing with certainty. The events of the future are beyond his vision. Hence it is that prophecy comes among the evidences of inspiration, or divine commission. When Jehovah challenges the gods of the heathen to produce evidence of their pretensions to divinity, He says, "Let them show us things to come." Prophecy is a miracle-a miracle of knowledge. When a prediction is delivered in proof of an accompanying testimony or message, the subsequent fulfilment of the prediction is satisfactory evidence of its having indeed come from God; for "no man could know such things, unless God were with him." But, although man has not prescience, he may often sagaciously forecast the future. By comparing the operation of circumstances in former times similar to those which exist now,-by observing the tempers and dispositions of the persons on whom these circumstances exert their influence,-and by considering the probability with which certain events will lead to certain other events,-a man may form, in many cases, a very shrewd anticipation of what is to come. As we learn to discern the "signs of the sky," we may learn also to interpret "the signs of the times,"-and that, both as to what is private and what is public. A large amount of what we are accustomed to understand by prudence, consists in thus forecasting the future,-anticipating evils ere they arrive, and so making provision for avoiding them, or, if they are such as cannot entirely be shunned, for meeting them to the best advantage,-so as to mitigate at least their pernicious consequences. To the "prudent man" who thus "foresees the evil and hides himself,"-as the skilful mariner, who discerns symptoms of a coming storm which the inexperienced dream not of, and betakes himself to whatever harbour is within his reach, ere the tempest gather and burst upon the deep;-to this man stands in contrast "the simple, who passes on and is punished." The word "punished" seems here to mean, not judicial infliction, but simply suffering the injury and damage, whether in person or in property, which is the natural result of imprudence, of want of foresight and forethought. As when two men are on a road together, where there is danger approaching, the one, looking before him, sees it coming, and turns aside till it is past, while the other, entirely heedless, perceives not its approach, and, before he is aware, meets it, and suffers:-or, as when two travellers are passing through a country that abounds with wild beasts,-one of them, acquainted with the danger, knowing the haunts and the ways of the different animals, has all his eyes about lain, is ever on the look-out, before and on either side, avoiding this course and choosing that, moving cautiously and treading softly,-while the other, ignorant of the danger and of the precautions necessary to safety, goes forward heedlessly, and falls an immediate victim to his rashness,-so is it with " the prudent" and "the simple" in the journey of life.



Not that prudence never fails of its end. It does. There is a Providence that is above human prudence: and often it happens, that that Providence orders events in ways that are quite in contrariety to the conjectures of the most sagacious foresight. All sayings like the one before us are necessarily of a general character.



Let us apply the maxim, as it is justly and strongly capable of being applied to spiritual and eternal interests. These interests are, in the Bible, actually reduced to a simple question of prudence,-a question of profit and loss.* Well were it could we prevail on men to take up the matter in this light-to bring to a fair calculation the concerns of the soul and of the body, of time and of eternity! Well were it could we get them but to apply to these one-tenth part of the earnestness with which they set about taking stock, and bringing their books to a balance, that they may have a correct estimate of the true state of their business,-of the prosperity or the declension of their mercantile affairs! O the imprudence,-the wanton, criminal, self-destroying imprudence of leaving your accounts with God unexamined and unsettled!-in allowing the debit side of those accounts to run up, day after day, to a perpetually augmenting amount, while, on the credit side, you have nothing !-literally nothing!-all debt, and nothing to pay! Will you venture to leave your prospects for eternity in so ruinous a position? Know you not, that there is no stock from which your debts can be discharged but "the unsearchable riches of Christ?"-and will you refuse to avail yourselves of that stock, though it is set open to you for the purpose, and to allow settling-time to come on, with nothing whatever to meet it? In other words, there is no thing that can cancel the charges of guilt against you in the book of God's remembrance, but an interest in the blood and righteousness of the one Mediator;-and will you remain without that interest, and allow death and judgment to find you with all your guilt upon your head, through your rejection or neglect of the atonement?-to find you without a justifying righteousness, because you slight and disregard that which has been provided for you? O why will you "pass on and be punished," when you have the means of deliverance at hand,-the means of reconciliation and security?



* Mat_16:26.



Verse Pro_22:4. "By humility, and the fear of the Lord, are riches, honour, and life." *1-"Humility" and "the fear of the Lord" are naturally associated. They are indeed inseparable. There can be no true humility without the fear of God, nor any true fear of God without humility.*2 Lowliness of spirit is an indispensable characteristic of a religious life. It is in the valley of humiliation that the sinner first meets with God, and comes into a state of reconciliation with Him. It is with "a broken and a contrite heart" that he receives the mercy of the cross; and the spirit of humble self-renunciation abides with him all his future days. The spirit of pride cannot dwell in the same heart with "the fear of the Lord." And we have here afresh the lesson so repeatedly before us, that the tendency of "humility and the fear of the Lord" is to "riches, honour, and life "-to bring respect and wealth, and to render the present life a life of happiness; while securing the riches of divine grace, the honour that cometh from God, and a life of eternal blessedness hereafter.



*1 Comp. Pro_3:5-10. rr

*2 This is strongly indicated in the Hebrew, where there is no and; humility,-the fear of Jehovah. The two are in apposition.



Verse Pro_22:5. "Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them." There seems, in this verse, to be an intended antithesis with, the fourth. "The froward" stand in contrast with the "humble fearers of the Lord,"-and "thorns and snares" with "riches, honour, and life." The characters are opposite, and so are the effects.



The man who makes his way through a thicket of "thorns" is vexed, fretted, and wounded; and when there are "snares" besides, by which he is rendered insecure at every step, whether his foot may not be taken unawares, and even the troublesome progress he is making be thus arrested, great is the addition to his distress and perplexity. What a strong representation does this figure contain of the entanglements, difficulties, hazards, and miseries of "the froward"-the unprincipled and ungodly! There is no path clear, but the path of straightforward, single-eyed integrity. "He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them"-far, that is, from "the froward." Whether we render the original word soul or life; it is equally true, that the further from such the better. He that regards the real happiness of his life, and he that regards the welfare of his soul, will study to keep aloof from their society.



Verse Pro_22:6. "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This is a most important maxim-to parents and to guardians especially. The first observation we have to make upon it is, that the "training" spoken of must be considered as including all the parts of a truly religious education. The words are often quoted very much at random, and with hardly any definite meaning whatever. But you must not forget, where they occur. It is in the word of God. In all consistency, therefore, we must understand "training in the way he should go," as signifying training in the way which the Bible points out,-bringing up according to the principles and the practice which it prescribes. With no other kind of training can we suppose the God who gives the book to connect any promise. And I cannot bring myself to think that Solomon here means no more than what may be expected to arise from the nature of the thing; for, though even in that view of the words, there is a certain amount of truth in them,-the promise of God's covenant to the truly faithful training of children must surely be taken into the account.



The various branches of godly training may be thus enumerated:-1. Instruction in right principles,-the principles of God's word:-2. The inculcation of right practice,-the practice of God's will:-3. Salutary admonition, restraint, and correction:-4. The careful avoidance of exposure to evil company and evil example:-5. The exhibition before them of a good example in ourselves:-6. Constant, believing, persevering prayer. These are all necessary: and they are all connected with one another. The first must be accompanied with the second, and the second must be founded in the first; doctrine carried out to duty, and duty based in doctrine. The third and fourth neglected will render unavailing the first and second; for what will instruction in either doctrine or duty do, unless there be the avoidance of exposure to evil communications, and the admonition, restraint, and correction, necessary to show you are in earnest? What will food and medicine do, if there is no care to preserve from the infection of deadly maladies? The fifth-our own example-not attended to, will destroy the effect of all the preceding four. For what, in general, can avail mere talking to children, nay even correcting them, and warning them to keep away from evil companions,-if, with all this, our own conduct is in contravention of the whole, and, instead of recommending our instructions, exposing them to scorn, and when the rod is applied, giving them occasion to say, in their hearts if not with their lips-"Thou that judgest doest the same things?" And then, the omission of prayer will deprive all the rest together of their efficacy. When a child is early, carefully, piously, affectionately, and perseveringly, instructed, admonished, restrained, corrected-drawn and won with all tenderness, from evil to good, from the world to God,-inured to submission and diligence, and truth and integrity, and self-control,-an example set before him in harmony with all he is taught,-and all means, along with the subject of them, earnestly and constantly commended to God for His blessing;-if a child is thus "trained in the way that he should go,"-"when he is old he will not depart from it."



The language is strong. It is so strong, that one is almost afraid to qualify it; inasmuch as professedly Christian parents are so sadly prone to lay hold on any qualification of the words, and to make a pillow of it on which they set their consciences to sleep. At the same time, I cannot regard them as containing an absolute assurance that in every individual instance in which the means are faithfully used, the result will infallibly be as here stated. There are two extremes. That which has just been mentioned is one of them; but by far the least pernicious of the two. Indeed, as I have said, I almost shrink from calling it an extreme; for it is certainly much more desirable that parents, in cases where there has been a failure, should be led to distrust of themselves than to distrust of God; to examine well whether there has not been something wanting,-something they have omitted, or something they have done wrong; some deficiency, or some error, in their instruction, their correction, their vigilance, their example, or their prayers; whether they may not have "done what they ought not to have done, or failed to do what they ought to have done;" or whether, in the entire system of training there has been that decided precedence given to.their spiritual interests which there ought to have been; or that tender and winning affection and earnestness infused into the whole manner of spiritual tuition which there ought to have been; or that fervour and that faith in prayer that there ought to have been:-better that they should be led to such inquiry, and to such selfjealousy, than that by any modifying of the words, they should be tempted to take matters easy, and to allow the failure to lie lightly upon their consciences. Still, however, the verse may be interpreted on the same principle; as expressing strongly the tendency of early instruction,-what may naturally and reasonably be expected from it, as its appropriate result. Some, it is true, have gone to an absurd extreme,-as contrary to the Bible as it is to fact, in affirming the omnipotence of education,-so that anything whatever which you may determine to make of a child may be made of it-good, bad, or indifferent, and the first as easily and as surely as the others. While this is altogether wild and presumptuous, still there must be admitted to be not a little truth in the common lines-



"'Tis education forms the infant mind;

Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined."



And assuredly, we ought to be as assiduous in "bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," as if all depended upon our own efforts;-while we look, at the same time, for that divine aid and that divine influence, without which our labour will be in vain.



But if that which I have mentioned be an extreme, it is, as has been already said, incomparably less injurious than the other: namely, that of lulling the conscience to repose on the incessantly reiterated sentiment of the freedom and sovereignty of grace. When their children "rise up a seed of evil-doers," they are grieved no doubt; but they shake their heads and say-with a great deal more of self-complacency than of self-reproach, Ah! you see, we cannot command grace:-grace is free; God has "mercy on whom he will have mercy;" we have done what we could; but God has not seen meet to give the blessing. And it is wonderful how very easy reflections like these make them; when, if matters were duly and scripturally examined, the saying "we have done what we could" might be found far short of truth,-both as to the duty itself and the manner of it. There are doctrines which have truth, Divine truth, in them, but of which particular uses are no better than cant. This is one of them. This continual reference, with a long-faced seriousness, to the sovereign freedom of grace, is nothing better than the cant of orthodoxy, to apologize for the neglect of duty. The God of the covenant has given ample encouragement to his people, in the promises of that covenant, to bring up their children for Him. But they are connected with commanded duty,-and dependent upon the due discharge of it. Let parents set their hearts on the salvation of their children; let this be first and last and midst in their instruction, in their prayers, in their whole general training, and in their inquiries and their selection as to their children's settlement in life,-a matter in which Christian parents too often forget themselves, looking too much a great deal, both as to business and as to marriage connexions, to this world,-and so contradict all their previous professions, and prayers, and efforts, and do what they can to thwart and frustrate all:-and if there be, in any case, a failure, let it lead to selfsuspicion, self-examination, inquiry into the details of the particular case, searching of heart, and prayer. They will then, and then only, have "delivered their own souls." *



* The expression in the verse thus commented upon, in the way he should go, in the Hebrew is, literally, hit way; and Stuart remarks-"It means the bent of hit mind or inclinations, the capacity which he has to pursue this occupation or that. The Hebrew cannot be made to mean more than that the child should be educated for usefulness, in such a way as the bent of his genius indicates that he ought to be trained." The reader must form his own judgment of this view.