"My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him. A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike. Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself. Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Whoso keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof; so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured. As in water face answereth to face; so the heart of man to man. Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied."
The oft-repeated admonition in the first of these verses, "My son, be wise, and make my heart glad,"* is here enforced by a new consideration:-"That I may answer him that reproacheth me." O how happy a thing it is to a Christian parent, when, with delighted though humble confidence, he can point to his children, as a silent but convincing testimony to his faithfulness in the fulfilment of his trust, and a refutation of every malicious insinuation and charge to the contrary! True, indeed, every parent will be disposed, in lowliness of spirit, to acknowledge that in this, as in all other things, he has "failed and come short of the glory of God." Yet no satisfaction can be more exquisite to a parent's heart than that which arises from the practical proof, of diligence, fidelity, affection, and prayer, in a family growing up "in the fear of God;" and proving a credit to him in the eyes of others;-"The father honoured in the honoured son."
* See Pro_10:1; Pro_15:20; Pro_23:15-16; Pro_24:25.
The principle of the verse may be applied to spiritual fathers and spiritual children; and to the relation of a pastor and his people. It cannot fail, on the one hand, to he a source of delight to him, when he can point to his spiritual children and to the people of his charge, maintaining full consistency of Christian deportment,-"abhorring that which is evil, and cleaving to that which is good,"-as the most convincing evidence of the purity of his doctrine and the faithfulness of his ministrations;-and a sad unhappiness to him, on the other, when the enemy finds occasion for "reproach" in their many inconsistencies, and deflections from the way of God's commandments.-It may even be applied to the case of Heavenly Wisdom herself, teaching by the word. She is "justified of her children;"-and the most satisfactory reply to all insinuations against the doctrines there taught, as leading to licentiousness, should ever be, a simple appeal to the lives of those who believe them.
The two following verses are an exact repetition of the third verse of chap. 22d (Pro_22:3), and the sixteenth verse of chap. 20th (Pro_20:16); to which the reader is referred.
In verse fourteenth (Pro_27:14), the words, "it shall be counted a curse unto him," do not mean that his "friend" will be apt to curse him for it; but rather, he shall be reckoned as if he cursed his friend. The character intended is evidently that of the man given to flattering and laudatory adulation. The reference is to public, extravagant, unceasing, unseasonable, commendation. The man is supposed to make it his business to praise another,-day after day, and all the day long-proclaiming his excellences to all, and taking precious care, at the same time, that he himself shall hear!
To a man of any real modesty this will be painfully irksome,-insufferably offensive. It is putting him on the rack,-torturing his spirit. And further, such conduct is sure to produce either ridicule and laughter at the expense of the object of such overdone commendation; or envy and jealousy, with the inevitable results;-a system of detraction to counteract the praise; or a leering insinuation that the parasite is secretly encouraged and in pay for his flattery; or too high expectations from him who is thus lauded to the skies, and consequent disappointment;-it being, on this account, a serious disadvantage to any one, to be held up as a public prodigy by the extreme of eulogy. A wise man will prefer reviling and reproach to the disgrace of being thus befooled with flattery. And the flatterer, instead of being liked and encouraged, will be disliked, and held at a due distance, as one who is to be suspected of unworthy motives,-one who in bepraising others is only looking after his own interests.
The subject of next verse has also come repeatedly before us; and it certainly has no such attractions as to tempt one to repetition: "A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike:" but the sixteenth verse presents a new view of the same topic;-"Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself."
A prudent man, who has regard to his own and his family's respectability, as well as his wife's reputation, will be anxious to cover, as far as possible, her temper and behaviour, and the unpleasant differences and outbreakings thence arising. But alas! the attempt is vain. The utmost meekness, discretion, and caution, will not do. Her own unruly and wayward temper will, in spite of all, bewray itself. The attempts will be like endeavours to hold the wind, or to retain in the hand the smell of a fragrant and volatile ointment. The more closely the hand is pressed, the more will its warmth disengage the odour. So, the efforts of gentleness and calmness to mollify and to conceal may have the very opposite effect,-provoking all the more to openness, from resentful disdain, and the very love of contradiction-exposing herself, for the express purpose of disappointing and fretting, and mortifying him!
O far be all such scenes as these from the firesides of professedly Christian families! Heaven is the home of love and peace. And there must be love and peace here among those who are looking forward to that home;-where the blessed inhabitants "neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."
Verse Pro_27:17. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."-It would be wrong to say that this verse, as it stands in our translation, conveys no distinct idea. "Sharpening the countenance" does convey an idea. We immediately think of a man's face being enlivened and emboldened; and we infer that the enlivening and emboldening of the countenance arises from the enlivening and emboldening of the spirit,-and that this has been the effect of the man's standing by his friend-supporting and encouraging him. Still, the words appear much more natural and emphatic, when rendered-"So doth a man's countenance sharpen his friend."
By a very common figure, we use the word countenance for encouraging approbation, support, incitement. When a man is left to think and determine and work alone,-especially when it so happens that he has no firm confidence in the scheme itself about which he is engaged, or in the method by which he is prosecuting it, or in his ability and resources for carrying it through,-he gets flat and spiritless. His wits are blunted. They lose their keen edge and efficient energy; so that they do not serve him with their wonted acuteness and promptitude. In these circumstances, let a friend step forward, and take him by the hand; let him approve and smile on his undertaking, and offer his co-operation in forwarding it;-what a change! He is like another man. His spirits revive. His wits are sharpened. He proceeds with eager assiduity and cheerfulness, putting forth all his powers, and making corresponding progress toward a successful issue.
There is a general principle here. It is-that all individual and solitary application has a tendency to languish: whereas social exertion keeps up its life and spirit, by the influence of mutual excitement. This appears in childhood and youth-in the effect of a well-directed emulation: and on the same principle are founded all the institutions of social religion, in which the truth of the maxim is signally experienced.
Verse Pro_27:18. "Whoso keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof; so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured." There is here encouragement to servants,-to all who, in whatever department or way, are in the employ of others. The comparison is a sufficiently obvious one. The sweet and luscious fruit of the fig-tree is the reward of the pains and labour bestowed upon its cultivation. He who plants and waters, who prunes and dresses it, will in due time eat of the fruit:-so honour, confidence, reward, advancement, will be the result of a servant's diligent and faithful attendance upon his master; while, if he acts otherwise-neglects his master's business, follows his own inclinations, wastes his time, loiters on his errands, does his work indolently and inefficiently, to the prejudice of his master's reputation and interest, he must look in vain for such "honour." Then nothing is his due but disgrace and dismissal. See to it then, ye servants, that with the encouragement, you bear in mind the duty. And ye masters, be sure that ye overlook not the lesson to you, (which, if not so directly expressed, is so manifestly implied,) and, while you look for the duty, forget not the encouragement:-by which I mean, not merely the payment of wages punctually and fully when they are due;-but the smile, and look, and expression of approbation, and the occasional bestowment, when work has been done in an exemplary manner, of some little more substantial token of satisfaction,-some little extra reward.
And let us not forget the application of the words to ourselves as the servants of Christ. He is, both to servants and masters, a perfect example. In discharging his trust, in the former relation, as the voluntary SERVANT OF HIS FATHER, he was faithful to Him that appointed him. His language was,-language in perfect harmony with truth, "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work"-"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." And in his relation to his people as a Master, he "sends no one a warfare on his own charges." He demands no work but what is rightfully due. He is large in his promises. He smiles graciously upon active fidelity; and He will prove himself generous and liberal as well as just, in fulfilling his engagements. "Hath he said, and will he not do? hath he spoken, and will he not make it good?"
Verse Pro_27:19. "As in water face answereth to face; so the heart of man to man."-Calm bright water is here considered as a mirror. The countenance reflected from it is the counterpart,-the exact image of the reality:-"so the heart of man to man." What means this? 1. There are certain principles and feelings in our nature common to all mankind. Not it may be in the same degree; but still so universal as that every man may, to a certain extent, judge of others by himself. If there are exceptions, they are so rare as only to confirm the rule. These principles and feelings remain the same, amidst all varieties of situation and character. Take for example parental affection. When God says, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him," He proceeds on the assumption of fond and strong affection being the generic character of the paternal relation. Hence, one father may know from what his own heart feels what the hearts of other fathers feel. The same holds true, in a special manner, of self-love, in all its various modifications. It has certain universal likings and dislikings, desires and aversions. Every man prefers being loved to being hated,-being well-spoken of to being slandered,-being honourably dealt with to being cheated,-being the object of respect and kindness to being the object of disrespect and unkindness. This may not strike you as of so much importance as it really is. Remember the great "golden rule," or " royal law," is based upon it. Were there no such general correspondence of feeling and desire, how could this rule be possibly applied? This golden rule of equity and love, then, is founded on the fact that "as in water face answereth to face; so the heart of man to man."
2. In regard to the character of the unrenewed,-it maybe, and it is, greatly modified by constitutional temperament, by peculiarities of education, and by the diversity of circumstances in which they are placed;-yet, in the great staminal principles and essential features, their characters are very much alike. The substantial sameness, or identity, is discernible amidst all the diversity. Their likings and dislikings, their desires and aversions, their passions and propensities, are all closely akin to each other. So that, by observing in what manner corruption, in certain circumstances, operates in one, you may shrewdly and pretty surely estimate its operation in all. While the ambitious man loves power, the avaricious man wealth, the licentious man pleasure, and the one may not enter into the estimates and desires of the other in the precise particular on which the heart of each is set,-still, there is in them all one element of character, in which "there is no difference." They are all "of the earth, earthy." They are all "after the flesh;" and "minding the things of the flesh." "They are all going astray," under the influence of a common principle of rebellion and ungodliness, although each goes astray "in his own way." They all understand one another, and sympathise with one another, in the general feelings which they cherish. All cast in the same common mould, their features have undergone different descriptions of modification and distortion. There is the family sameness, and the individual varieties.
3. In like manner with regard to the new nature-the spiritual nature of the regenerate,-the children of God. It too is the same; so that "as in water face answereth to face," so doth the heart of one child of God to another. There is much variety, no doubt; yet there is a great deal of general, and even of minute and exact correspondence, in their views and their feelings. Their experience may be diversified in its details; but it is the same in its general principles. The spiritual conflict, though subject to many varieties, is, in its essential nature, alike in them all. It is the "flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;"-"the law in the members warring against the law of the mind." They all know this; they all feel this. Bring them to their knees together; and let any one of them be the mouth of the company in prayer to their common God and Father,-what a sympathy is immediately felt! In the confessions, the deprecations, the intercessions, the petitions, the thanksgivings, they are "of one heart and of one soul." They adore a common God; they love a common Saviour; they live by a common Spirit; they own a common unworthiness and guilt; they trust in a common atonement and a common mercy; they draw their supplies from a common fountain; and on a common ground anticipate a common heaven.
"Their fears, their hopes, their aims are one,
Their comforts and their cares.''
In the sentiments of humble self-renunciation, and "glorying in the cross,"-in gratitude for the Lamb's redeeming love,-in love to all that are His,-in zeal for God's glory,-in joy in the conversion of sinners to Him,-in delight in His word, His day, His ordinances, His worship,-in the feeling and acknowledgment of their constant proneness to "depart from the fountain of living water," and in their entire and incessant dependence on grace and obligations to it,-where is the individual dissentient? "When one believer breaks out into the song, "O to grace how great a debtor!" where is the other believer, whose emotions do not correspond,-whose pulses do not beat in unison? The Christian, then, who watches his own heart, and attends closely to its secret movements, will, generally speaking, be no great stranger to the hearts of his fellow-christians. From this cause it arises, that men, in hearing particular sermons, take fancies, as they many a time do, that the preacher has been hearing something about them; that some one has been giving him information. He has only been sketching from nature; and the sketch has met their consciousness. He has been describing a genus; and the description has been found to suit the individual. This has especially been the case, when the workings and tendencies,-the inward thoughts and desires of our common corruption have been faithfully and vividly delineated. It has then not seldom been very difficult to convince particular hearers, that a sermon has not specially been aimed at them.
There is one point in which the verse cannot hold true. There is a wide and essential difference between the regenerate and the unregenerate. The latter are altogether incapable of entering into the views and feelings of the former. Hence the unrenewed man is startled and astonished at the terms of self-annihilation and self-loathing in which the renewed man bemoans himself before God. He can neither understand it nor sympathise with it. He thinks if all that his godly neighbour says of himself be true, he must be bad enough with a vengeance. The reason is, that he is an entire stranger to the standard by which the renewed man estimates his character. He has never brought himself to the test of the holy heart-trying law of a holy heart-trying God; and has never seen himself in the light of the cross. Let him only be convinced of sin, and renewed in the spirit of his mind-and all will be plain. Then he will see clearly what puzzled and perplexed him before. Then he will enter into feelings which before he could not even imagine. Having received the vital principle of the new nature,-all its peculiar sentiments and emotions, its regrets and its sorrows, its estimates of self and its estimates of God, of sin and holiness, of this world and the next, its love and its hatred, its fear and its hope, its aversions, its aspirations, its longings,-all will immediately become his own:-and his only wonder now will be, that he should ever have thought and felt otherwise than he does,-otherwise than they did whom before he could not comprehend. Now, "as in water face answereth to face," so does his heart to theirs!
Verse Pro_27:20. "Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied." "Hell" or Sheol, means the place of the dead: and having this general meaning, it has come to be used with different particular meanings according to the connexion in which it occurs:-sometimes for the separate state-the invisible world; sometimes for the grave; sometimes for the place of torment.-"Destruction" may here be considered as signifying-by a species of personification-all the variety of ways taken together by which men are removed out of the world,-or as meaning "the second death"-the pit of woe. It is sadly true of both the grave and hell, that they are never "full;"-the word is the same as that translated, in the other clause of the verse, "satisfied," and might, in both occurrences, be well rendered sated. Generation after generation are swept into the grave; and of each successive generation the vast majority, alas! goes down to hell,-the vast majority living and dying without God. Thus the tomb and the pit are never sated.
And "so the eyes of man are never sated." The eyes, by a very natural figure, are put for the desires. Upon that which is the object of our desire, we fix our eyes; and that with an intensity of settled eagerness proportioned to the degree of the desire.*1 The meaning, then, is not merely that the sense of sight never has enough of its own peculiar enjoyments, but that the desire that is by the eye expressed is never satisfied by any amount of present gratification.*2 The desires of men are insatiable. They set their hearts on some particular object, and long for its attainment. They fix in their mind some point of advancement in the acquisition of the world,-some measure of wealth, or of power which they think, if once realized, would satisfy them to the full. They get what they want; but they still long as before. There is ever something unattained. Having gained the summit of one eminence, they see another above it; and as they mount, their views widen and their conceptions and wishes amplify, and still more is required to fill them.
*1 See for example-Pro_23:5. rr
*2 Compare, for a similar sentiment-Ecc_1:8; Ecc_2:10-11.
There is one thing and one only that can fill and satisfy-really and permanently satisfy-the amplest desires of an immortal mind. They possess it who can say, "the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup;" and who can continue to sing, even amid the desolation of all that is earthly in their lot-
"Should I this spacious earth possess,
And all the spreading skies,
They never could my thirst appease,
Or yield me full supplies.
Without my God, with all this store,
I should be wretched still;
With thirst insatiate, crave for more,
My empty mind to fill!
But when my soul's of God possessed,
What can I wish for more?
Here let me ever fix my rest,
And give all wandering o'er!
When the affections are "set on the things that are above;" when the chosen treasure is in heaven, and the heart is there also; when the eye of delighted contemplation is fixed on the glories and beauties of the "better country, even the heavenly"-the "inheritance that is incorruptible and that fadeth not away,"-this moderates the desire of earthly things. The eye ceases to fasten on them with its former avidity, having found a more powerful attraction-being drawn and fixed by something better. And then, when riches "make to themselves wings and fly away," instead of the sight being strained in gazing wistfully and painfully after them in their flight, it is directed to the "better and more enduring substance:" it "enters through the gates into the heavenly city," and settles on the fulness of its glory and joy.
