"Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days. A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him. Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. To have respect of persons is not good; for, for a piece of bread that man will transgress. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. He that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue. Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer. He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase."
There are, in Scripture, two kinds of fear. In this verse, fear is associated with happiness:-elsewhere we find it associated with torment.* Such passages are in perfect harmony. The more, indeed, there is of the "love" that "casteth out fear"-the fear that "hath torment," the more there will be of the fear in the verse before us. The fear of a child, and the fear of a slave, are two very different principles. The former is the product of love, and is ever proportionate to love. It is affectionate fear. We fear to displease one whose love is the spring to us of our purest and sweetest enjoyment. The child loves his father, and delights in his father's love to him. He cannot bear his frown. The very thought of his displeasure brings the tear to his eye.-This is the kind of fear which the child of God feels and cherishes toward his heavenly Father. He loves Him, he venerates Him. He finds his happiness in His smile. He dreads to offend Him. His frown is the death of his joy. This is the fear of God which His word inculcates-the religious principle. It is here contrasted with "hardening the heart." It is therefore the gracious fear of a subdued and softened spirit,-the fear of love,-reverence for God,-fear of even His fatherly rebukes and corrections. It is self-distrust. It is tenderness of conscience. It is vigilance against temptation. It is the fear which inspiration opposes to highmindedness, in the admonition-"Be not high-minded, but fear." It is "taking heed lest we fall." It is a constant apprehension of the deceitfulness of the heart, and of the insidiousness and power of inward corruption. It is the caution and circumspection that timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonour God and the Saviour. And these the child of God will feel and exercise the more, the more he rises above the enfeebling, disheartening, distressing influence of the "fear which hath torment."
* 1Jn_4:18.
To "harden the heart" is to put away the fear of God; to be self-confident and presumptuous-unawed by threatenings-unsoftened by entreaties;-neither breaking under the one nor melting under the other. Of the man who thus "hardens" himself, final and irretrievable " mischief" must be the inevitable portion. On the contrary-"Happy is the man that feareth alway." Wherein consists his happiness? This fear keeps him from sin; produces simplicity of dependence upon God; imparts the stability of peace,-"a peace that passeth all understanding;" maintains consistency of conduct; and thus gives growing evidence of grace in the heart and of the hope being well-founded-a hope that "maketh not ashamed,"-of "glory and honour and immortality."
Verse Pro_28:15. "As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people." The "wicked ruler" is the ruler who, intoxicated with power, has aimed at it and obtained it for selfish purposes; who, instead of considering himself in his official capacity, as made for his people, fancies his people made for him,-tyrannizes over them,-selfish, avaricious, rapacious, turning everything, no matter by what means, to his own account. Such a man, instead of using all possible efforts to raise his subjects from a lower to a higher condition,-encouraging and animating them to industry, in order to their elevation and social prosperity,-rages at their poverty, because it does not furnish enough to himself,-does not fill his own treasures. He grinds, oppresses, and wastes them. He practises every exaction; his sole aim being to make the most of them for the time. He is the object of terror to his subjects. He is like a wild beast invading the herd or the flock,-tearing and devouring; a brutal monster without principle, and without heart.
Such a man may not be without ability. He may have talent enough for the invention and practice of any schemes of evil. But sometimes the absence of principle is united with the lack of mental capacity-wickedness with weakness:-(v. Pro_28:16). "The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor,"-and thus a source of terror, an object of hatred, and exposed to sudden destruction from popular fury. "But he that hateth covetousness"-who establishes himself in the affections and confidence of his people by justice and mercy, and by every liberal and generous endeavour to promote their best interests,-identifying himself with them,-making their honour and their happiness his own;-he "shall prolong his days."
The maxims here are, in the spirit of them, applicable to all power and influence, and especially to authority over the poor and the dependent. A man's honour, happiness, and safety are intimately associated with using that authority with moderation, with gentleness, with benevolent liberality, with upright and generous principle. Next to the security which lies in the protection of God, is that which arises from possessing the grateful lore of fellow-men, attached by a feeling of thankful obligation. And, in the present instance, the two go together. God and men alike surround such an one with their favour as with a shield.
Verse Pro_28:17. "A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him." This verse might be taken in connection with the preceding-as presenting a further description of the same character there depicted. The cruelty of an oppressive ruler frequently incurs bloodguiltiness. Thus it was with Ahab in the case of Naboth; thus has it been in thousands of instances. Whatever be the high station of him who acts the murderer's part-how independent and irresponsible soever he may imagine himself to be,-vengeance shall pursue him:-his sin will find him out. Even his crown and sceptre shall not protect him from righteous retribution. There is a higher than he-the "righteous Lord who loveth righteousness." Both on Ahab and Jezebel came the blood of Naboth. But the words may be taken more comprehensively,-in reference to murder by whomsoever committed. For the comparatively innocent-the unintending manslayer,-the cities of refuge were of old appointed; to protect him from the avenger of blood who might rise against him when his spirit was hot, and slay him without a trial. But for the murderer there was no refuge, and no atonement. For him no blood could avail; no sanctuary could protect him. From the very altar of God, if he betook himself to it, he was to be dragged to death.
Such seems the force of the somewhat remarkable language here employed. He shall "flee to the pit;" that is, he shall in vain attempt to escape. He may flee; but his very flight shall be "to the pit,"-to the very destruction he is seeking to shun. "The pit" does not appear to signify here, directly and literally, the bottomless pit, the pit of final woe; but rather, according to a figurative sense of it, covert and unexpected mischief and ruin. The very means he takes to effect his escape shall betray him to punishment. It is in this sense that the prophet uses the term when he says-" fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land." *
* Comp. Isa_24:17-18.
God's jealous regard for the life of man was strongly expressed at the second outset of our world's history; and expressed in terms of evident allusion to the early and awful violation of its sacredness in the antediluvian period:-"And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man," Gen_9:5-6. For my own part, having examined the various principles of interpretation by which those who are for doing away all capital punishments have explained these words, I have not been able to satisfy myself with any one of them. They seem to be all forced and unnatural,-and, on different critical grounds, inadmissible. I cannot but regard the language as bearing no fair and natural interpretation but that which makes it a divine requisition, on the part of man, of blood for blood,-that is, of life for life; and as thus affording more than a sanction, as laying down a requirement. Though I am far from conceiving that we are bound by Jewish criminal law, yet in the law regarding murder there is so evident an allusion to this original and universal injunction,-and the language withal is so very pointed and emphatically reiterated-that I cannot go the length of those who would include murder among crimes to be punished with infliction short of death.* When set beside the original and universal law, it serves, by its very emphasis and peremptoriness, to confirm the ordinary interpretation of that charge to the second progenitors of our race as the just one, and to show, therefore, the universality of its obligation.
* See Num_35:31-33.
Those things which have become proverbial have generally a large amount of truth. It is a remark that has been so often made,-that we cannot account for it otherwise than by admitting it to be founded in fact, and verified by the frequency with which the fact has been observed to happen,-that murder seldom escapes detection, and the murderer seldom ultimately eludes punishment. The detection is often after the lapse of a long interval,-an interval that has rendered the case hopeless, and has thrown over it the shade of oblivion. And in not a few instances it has been effected by means of the most extraordinary, and, at times, of apparently the most accidental and trivial kind. Providence pursues the blood-guilty, even when man has given up the search, and brings him to light, and conviction, and his merited recompense, in ways of which man could never have imagined. The instances of this are such as to stamp the seal of truth on the divine assurance-"Surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man."
One observation more. It can never, in these circumstances, be a duty to protect or screen a murderer. It must, on the contrary, be an incumbent duty to deliver him up. "Let no one stay him" says the wise man. It is incumbent on every patriotic citizen, who would not expose the land to God's "inquisition for blood," to hunt out the murderer, and bring him to justice. It is a duty to God, and a duty to our country. It is a duty, though the criminal were "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh." The only effort we can make on his behalf,-and that we ought to make with all solicitude, is-to save him from the second death, by bringing him to "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ."
Let no one pronounce the effort vain. The perpetrators of the most fearful murder ever committed on the face of the earth,-obtained forgiveness and life. They obtained it through the virtue of the very blood which, "with wicked hands," they shed. It "cleanseth from all sin." There is no sin so aggravated in its guilt, as that the blood of Christ is not a sufficient propitiation for it. O! it is a comfort to be assured of this. The least guilty cannot be pardoned-cannot be saved without it; and, blessed be God! the most guilty may! But let us not forget what incompetent judges we are of the amount of guilt in any. We are ever estimating guilt by the actions with which we are chargeable towards men, and the principles and the passions from which these actions proceed. We are apt to think there can be no malignity more criminal and deadly than that which imbrues its hand in a fellowcreature's blood. And yet-is hatred of man to be compared in guiltiness with enmity against God? If we are to form our estimate by the worthiness of the objects, and the claims they respectively have on our love,-there can be no comparison. It is true they are inseparable,-and the one springs from the other. But alas! how many there are who would be filled with horror, or with indignation, were any such thing imputed to them as the malice that prompts to murder, who would hear without the slightest stirring of emotion of any kind, the charge of enmity against God. And yet this is the sin of sins; the germ of all sin; and that which, entering essentially into all sin, makes it "exceeding sinful." This enmity must be pardoned, else the essence of all guilt remains; and this enmity must be slain, and supplanted by love, else the essence of all moral pravity remains.
The sentiments of most if not all of the verses which follow, to the close of the chapter, have been, with various modifications, repeatedly before us.
We are afresh reminded, in the first place, of the advantage, both as regards the present life and the life to come, of stern integrity of principle, and of the ruinous consequences both to temporal and eternal interests of that headstrong, rebellious self-will that resists the authority and grace of God (Pro_28:18.) "Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once."
Then we have anew, under a simple but expressive illustration, the tendency and results of steady perseverance on the one hand, and of idleness and profligacy on the other, (Pro_28:19.) "He that tilleth his land shall have bread enough, and he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough;" or, the one shall have plenty of bread and the other plenty of want. The expression in both clauses is the same in the original.
With the renewed commendation of diligence, the warning is again sounded (Pro_28:20.) against "hasting to be rich" and forgetting that rigid and unswerving fidelity which so secures alike the favour of fellow-creatures and of God himself, that "the faithful man shall abound with blessings." And of him who "hasteth to be rich"-the man whose insatiable appetite is set on the world's wealth,-mark the peculiar characteristic here mentioned, (Pro_28:22.) "He hath an evil eye," that is, especially, an envious and covetous eye. He covets all he sees. He grudges at the success of others; frets when another man makes more of a bargain than himself; cannot endure to see anything go past him; regards every one with the sullenness of discontent, and counts him as an enemy, that gets faster on than himself. "When this passion takes full possession of the soul, it is a most unhappy one. It eats out the vitals of contentment and peace; and it contains a thousand temptations to evil practices for the more speedy attainment of its end;-the "evil eye" producing the evil act; the look that covets being akin to the hand that steals.
The following verse, viewed in connexion with the preceding, suggests forcibly the thought that the avaricious man is in imminent danger of being guided and influenced in every thing by a regard to his own interest; and will be ever disposed to decide in causes that may come before him, according as this is likely to be affected; while the verse itself assures us, in striking terms, that there is hardly anything that can come before a judge or an arbitrator, in which there may not be some consideration fitted to sway him, if he do not set himself, with decidedness of purpose, against "respect of persons." The man who once gives way to it, and who allows his conscience to yield to any such temptation, or to any such laxity of principle,-may come to practise iniquity for the merest trifle, and to sin without remorse:-"For a piece of bread that man will transgress."
Then we have a fresh statement of the advantage of "rebuke" above "flattery." Rebuke is most apt to irritate, when conscience, the inward secret monitor, bears silent witness to the truth of that for which it is administered. None are so irritable under it as those who are previously dissatisfied with themselves. But although irritation may be the effect at first-verse Pro_28:23. "He that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue."
We should learn the important lesson not to withhold rebuke, when circumstances require its administration, on account of its first effects, and not by these effects to be startled or discouraged. We should not look for immediate confession, or fancy we have failed, because our "rebuke" has at the time produced even anger. Let our friend have leisure to think, to consider, to cool. It is with "rebuke" just as it is with a controversy. We should not expect a man with whom we engage in an argument, to give in at the moment of discussion. We should state and urge our arguments; and then leave them to be thought of and weighed afterwards, and, in the moments of calm consideration, let them work their way to conviction at leisure. The case is not to be regarded as hopeless, merely because feeling himself perhaps hard-pressed, he has got a little heated, and spoken keenly and dogmatically. Don't press your advantage too eagerly at the time:-dismiss the subject, and let his judgment dwell coolly upon it after. Do the same, when you have administered a reproof. If it irritates, and draws forth hasty and passionate words,-keep your temper; answer not again. Say no more, but leave him to come to himself. You may then experience the truth of the verse. It is not, remember, at the time, but "afterwards"-that "he that rebuketh a man finds more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue."
Verse Pro_28:24. "Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer."-Here is something for the younger portion of my audience. Young people are sometimes apt to fancy that they may make more free with what is in the house,-what is the property of their parents, than with what belongs to others,-to regard it as in a manner their own,-and hardly to imagine that they are alienating it when they appropriate it to their own use. But it is a sad mistake. Beware of the disposition. There is evil, and there is danger in it. For, first, "What belongs to parents-is not yours: and to take to yourselves what is not your own, without express request and permission, is, beyond question, a direct breach of the eighth commandment. It is stealing. Attempt not to evade this: for, secondly, the property of parents ought to be peculiarly sacred-not less, but more so than any other. A feeling should attach to it somewhat like that which attaches to holy things, things pertaining to God and to his service. The violation of their property should be felt as a description of sacrilege. Thirdly, There are involved in it,-although you may not be so sensible of it as you ought to be,-ingratitude, disobedience, disrespect,-and deceit and concealment, toward those with whom, of all on the face of the earth, there should be most of openness,-the openness of daylight sincerity and confidence. I can conceive few things worse,-more ominous of evil,-than when a young person practises deception upon a parent. And, lastly, This kind of freedom, when once ventured upon-grows. It serves to cherish a covetous spirit. It tempts to extravagant courses, of which the means are thus accessible; and such courses tempt further to other means of maintaining them.
Thus the disposition and practice in question tend to ruin-to ruin both temporal and eternal. The youth who begins by home pilferings, is preparing to be "a companion of the destroyer,"-of those who destroy both themselves and others. Such associates will tempt him to more extensive pilferings, and make him the tool of their base machinations and crimes.
And this suggests a counsel to parents. The counsel is-to beware of being too hard with their children. To give them much money, and to indulge them in all their desires, is infallibly to spoil them, and train them to evil. But the opposite extreme,-allowing them nothing,-giving them no indulgence, no gratification,-but treating them as if self-denial were the one and only virtue they had to learn,-is tempting them to take what should rather be given them, and endangering their principles of open integrity and honesty. On such a subject, as on many others, no precise rule can possibly be laid down. Every parent must learn to mingle affectionate indulgence with discreet and firm restraint; so as to make children sensible (this is the whole mystery) that you wish to make them happy, and to deny them nothing in mere caprice,-nothing which is right and good for them to have. While a child may be spoiled and ruined by injudiciousness and excess of gratification, parents must not, on this account, jump to the opposite extreme. The case is hardly more promising, when a child is so made to feel restraint, as that he ever secretly indulges the longing wish to be free.
Verse Pro_28:25. "He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat." The phrase for "He that is of a proud heart" is in the original, "He that is large in mind." And this is a phrase of which the meaning depends on the connexion in which it occurs. It is said of Solomon, that God gave him "largeness of heart, as the sand which is by the sea-shore." But here the designation is used in a bad sense,-and seems properly enough translated. It describes the man of aspiring ambition,-full of large and grasping desires after the honour, wealth, and power of the world, and thus rendered discontented, haughty, and imperious. These are the men who have been the disturbers of the world's peace:-ever restless, dissatisfied, envious, quarrelsome,-unhappy themselves, and the causes of unhappiness to others.
Men of such "proud heart" rouse opposition. This hinders their advancement; which aggravates the evil. Checked in their ambitious aims, they fret and fume, and are exasperated by whatever comes in their way. Hence "strife"-personal, domestic, and national feuds. And their pride is associated with high-minded self-confidence. They look to their own devices, their own resources, and their own power, for success; and to these they ascribe the success actually obtained. "They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag."
But that spirit never can secure the smile of Heaven:-"He that putteth his trust in The Lord shall be made fat." "Trust in the Lord" must not here, or anywhere else in Scripture, be understood of inactive indolent expectation of all things from Him. That is not trust; it is presumption: it is expecting what God has nowhere promised. He who "trusts in the Lord" is the man who is active in duty, and looks to the Lord for a blessing upon means,-who leaves the result in His hands; and is satisfied with His appointments. This man "shall he made fat:"-he has comfort and peace and happiness in all situations; an inward satisfaction, a heart-feast, a prosperity of soul, to which the other is a stranger.
Verse Pro_28:26. "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered."-He is ever, and justly, esteemed foolish, who puts confidence in a detected and known deceiver; and of all deceivers on earth the human heart is the least to be trusted. It has been, like the tempter who first introduced into it the principles of evil, "a liar from the beginning." Its inclinations change with the changing times, like the vane with the ever-veering and varying wind. How often does this happen in sickness, in adversity, in danger! Men think, and with confidence they say-if they were but well, if their life were but spared, if they were but brought up from their calamitous depression, if they were but saved from the threatening peril,-how differently they would live!-what altered characters the world would see them!-what they would do I and what they would not do! Health comes back; prosperity returns; the darkness dissipates; the danger passes over:-and all their goodness passes with it! Their fears are smiled at, and their resolves forgotten.
There are things too which we fancy and which we indignantly protest it impossible we should ever be induced to think of doing. We fire at the very association of our names with the supposition. And yet, when circumstances change,-and when opportunity and temptation are united, we actually do what even in imagination we shrunk from,-wondering how any man should dare to deem it possible!-"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." To such confidence nothing but self-ignorance can give birth, or can maintain it in being. It is palpable, whether in respect to the power of enduring trials,-of bearing prosperity,-of using aright increasing wealth,-of resisting temptation,-of discharging duty,-of making sacrifice to principle.-Blessed is he who "walketh wisely"-who (as this stands clearly in antithesis to the folly of self-reliance) walks in the fear of God, and with believing dependence on Him.
Behold anew the man of selfishness (verse Pro_28:27), and mark well the description of him. He not only does not set himself to seek out objects for the exercise of his sympathy and kindness,-but turns away from such as present themselves. He "hideth his eyes." He has no wish to see, because the seeing might oblige him to give. He pretends he cannot bear to see. He has a hundred excuses for not attending to petitions, of which the answer must come from his purse. Were words only wanted, he could keep both his eyes and his mouth open enough. Mark too the result-"He shall have many a curse."
The sentiment of the closing verse is the same with that of the twelfth-"When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase." Do seek the best interests of our country, by praying that our beloved Queen herself may be under the influence of the principles of true godliness, and preserved from the infection of all that is anti-protestant and anti-christian,-and that wise and faithful counsellors may ever be round her throne, men "fearing God and hating covetousness."
