Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 29:19 - 29:27

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Ralph Wardlaw Lectures on Proverbs - Proverbs 29:19 - 29:27


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:



LECTURE XC.



Pro_29:19-27.



"A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he understand he will not answer. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become his son at length. An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not. The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Many seek the ruler's favour: but every man's judgment cometh from the Lord. An unjust man is an abomination to the just; and he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked."



Verse Pro_29:19. "A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he understand he will not answer." In interpreting proverbs, it is necessary to bear in mind, that from their very nature, as concentrating in brief expression, whether under a figure or in plain terms, some result of general and long-continued observation and experience,-they must always have some general meaning; and our object should be to find such a sense of the terms in which they are expressed as admits of such a meaning. Now in regard to this verse,-it would be rather hard on the class of society referred to in it, to apply the maxim with any thing approaching to universality;-as affirming that no servant, or that very few servants, will yield obedience to mere verbal orders, or be at all affected by verbal reprimands. On this account it is interpreted by some as expressing only the character of "the slothful, unprofitable, and wicked servant." And thus it is in the Septuagint:-"an obstinate ox perverse servant will not be corrected by words." But this, you will observe, converts the saying into a mere truism-that an obstinate servant will behave obstinately; a saying entirely destitute of the salt of a proverb.-Now, the difficulty is taken away by rendering the word, instead of servant, slave. The general sentiment then expressed, is one which, judging from the principles of human nature, all would expect to find true, and the truth of which has the attestation of experience, wherever slavery has prevailed.-I enter not into the question of the abstract lawfulness of slavery-further than to say that it can never, unless directly enjoined by God as a punishment, be reduced to any thing like consistency with the grand general rule of all rectitude between man and man; and that not till a man can lay his hand on his heart and say, in any given circumstances-"I should like to be a slave," can he be an honest advocate of slavery, or a conscientious slaveholder. But domestic and predial bondage was then, as it since has been, extensively prevalent. And the words before us are expressive of the natural tendency and effect of such bondage,-modified of course according to the measure of absolute property in the slave and power over him, prescribed by the laws of different communities. That tendency is to reluctant and constrained service. The service is not that of affection, but of fear. It is not rendered with willing and cheerful activity, but solely under the influence of the selfish dread of punishment. There is a constant proneness to sullenness; for which, accordingly, there was (I am glad to be able, even to any extent, to speak in the past tense) an appropriate term in the vocabulary of our own colonial slave-owners and slave-dealers-a proneness to the sulks. There is a backwardness to hear, because there is no will to obey. It is otherwise when service is rendered from attachment, and from felt interest in a master's comfort and benefit. Nor does it at all follow, even with regard to slaves, that the natural tendency of their condition may not be, to a great extent, counteracted by the power of kind and lenient treatment. Few in any situation, even the most unfavourable to the cultivation and exercise of the generous sensibilities, are entirely proof against the influence of these:-but of all states the state of slavery is the most prejudicial and destructive to the open and generous feelings of the heart, and to the influence of gratitude and obligation.



The argument against slavery, indeed, is powerful, from its tendency on hath sides of the relation-that of the owner or master as well as that of the slave. In regard to the latter, it tends to the degradation, and prostrate depression to the very dust, of all mental dignity and energy,-as well as to produce resentment, and sullenness, and suspicious jealousy, and reluctant and heartless subjection:-and in regard to the former, its tendency is to engender and foster superciliousness, pride, and passion, severity and cruelty, and an unworthily light estimate of fellow-creatures,-brethren of the same great family, destined to the same immortality, subjects of the same sinfulness and guilt, and redeemed by the same price to the enjoyment of the same inheritance!



I need hardly remark that, to a certain extent, the same tendencies pertain to the relative position of master and servant, whether the latter be bond or free, and whether the former be a purchasing proprietor or a joint possessor of the same liberty. There are rights on either side: and while servants owe to their earthly masters their time and all their powers of active industry, and the application of these with cheerful and hearty readiness,-it will be well for masters and mistresses, on the other hand, to bear in mind that their servants are partakers with themselves of all human feelings and susceptibilities;-and that, if they judge of these from their own experience, and from the principle of the golden rule,-they will be at once sensible that, while necessarily maintaining their own place and expecting all due obedience, the most effectual means, generally speaking, of attaining their end, will be-their throwing into the manner of issuing their commands, and exacting the required obedience, as much as possible of the spirit and practice of the law of kindness. And if they find tempers which even kindness will not subdue,-into which their attempts are vain to infuse the spirit of willing and cheerful activity,-they will have the inward consciousness that the fault has not been theirs.*



* For the spirit in which the mutual duties of master and servant should be fulfilled, see Eph_6:5-9; Col_3:22-25, with Col_4:1.



For the illustration of the sentiment of the following verse-"Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him," the reader is referred to Pro_26:12.



Verse Pro_29:21. "He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become his son at the length." The reference in this verso seems to be to home-born slaves-slaves born in the house and brought up from childhood in the family,-while, under this particular reference there is conveyed a general principle-a maxim of wider application. Observe 1. The conduct is unkind. The child is supposed to be still intended for a slave,-though, from what cause soever of particular liking to it, it is "brought up delicately." The training is unsuitable to the future station: it unfits him for it. Instead of being inured to subordination, and to the toils and hardships of a slave's life, he is nurtured daintily, so as neither to be fit for them by habit, by strength, nor by anticipation. Were the intention to make him a freeman, and to let him be his own master, and follow his own will, and make his own fortune in the world, it would be well enough:-but to treat like a pet child one who is destined to slave it for life, is, however meant, really cruel.-And here the observation may be generalized. It applies to all cases in which persons are brought up in a way that does not accord with the prospects in life that are before them,-with the situations they are destined, or are even in providence likely, to fill. When they have been accustomed to a style of living quite above what they have any reason to anticipate, they cannot, when the inferior prospects (to which they have never been taught to look forward) come to be realized, feel comfortable or happy. They are not in their element. Their habits unfit them for their occupations; so that they are at home in nothing;-while they feel all the while the depressing influence of disappointed hopes, and an unanticipated change-a sinking from the position they were wont to sustain, and the mode of living and of social intercourse they were accustomed to enjoy.-2. The conduct is imprudent. Expectations may be produced, which never can be gratified; foolish they may be, yet still not without some foundation,-expectations of being always treated as a member of the family, as a child instead of a slave. Nay, such as are crafty and insinuating in their address may, very naturally as human nature goes, take advantage of the partial liking discovered towards them, to ingratiate themselves further and further; and on some occasion when they have succeeded in making a specially favourable impression,-inducing the master to look with a more kindly eye upon them than ordinary,-may even by the arts of flattery and by sly insinuations against the heir, prevail so far as to supplant the children, and in part or in whole, dispossess them of their rightful patrimony. The master of the one-the father of the other-may do a thing in a moment of credulity and of passion, which he cannot recall, and over which he may grieve to the end of his days.



It is greatly conducive to the order and comfort of society, when all have the good sense and the principle to keep their respective places, with mutual good-will and cheerfulness. In the Scriptures, every thing said on the duties of masters and servants, is full of equity, propriety, and kindness. But the most righteous, honourable, and affectionate treatment of a servant, must not be considered as implying such indulgence as would prove to the injury of a child, or as would even unfit the servant for the situation which he or she is destined to fill, or is actually filling. There is not, in this, as in multitudes of similar cases, any possibility of laying down rules of universal observance;-so much depends on diversity of disposition and tempers, so that what would be proper and safe with one would be wrong and hazardous with another. It is a most important qualification of a servant, on the one hand, to know his men place, and from a sense of propriety and duty, cheerfully to conform to it:-and on the other hand, nothing can be more unamiable and unchristian on the part of masters and mistresses than a haughty assumption of superiority, and a determination that a servant shall always be made to feel his situation. The duty is, so to mingle authority with gentleness, and dignity with kind condescension, as that the authority shall be promptly and cheerfully obeyed without being felt,-as that the servant shall be at ease and happy, in the full confidence that nothing equitable and reasonable will be wanting on his master's part, and nothing unjust or unreasonable exacted of him on his.-Christian servants, if they have good common sense along with their Christian principles, will beware of imagining that the equality of all in the church-the union of servant and master as fellow-disciples in the communion of the house of God, obliterates the lines of demarcation between the different classes in civil society. They will rather be anxious to show the contrary, especially in the eyes of men of the world, to avoid bringing unnecessary reflection and reproach on the religion they profess. It may be exceedingly painful to a Christian master to repress the undue forwardness which may be dictated by a false conception on this subject, associated with a deficiency in strength of mind;-whilst yet it may be indispensable:-only it should be done, not with hauteur, but with monitory and smiling kindness, or with sharpness of reprehension as varying tempers and circumstances may require. What says the Apostle? "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort," 1Ti_6:1-2.



Verse Pro_29:22. "An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression." Why does Solomon dwell so often on the evil tendencies of the angry passions? For two reasons:-because they are so prone to excess; and because, not being in themselves directly and in every case sinful, they are ever prone to find excuses for their excess in their legitimacy. Many times have we found him adverting to the subject: Pro_10:12; Pro_15:18; Pro_17:19; Pro_26:21. To these passages the reader is referred, and for the sentiment of the following verse, "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit," to Pro_15:32; Pro_18:12.



Verse Pro_29:24. "Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not." "Hateth his own soul," means in this, as in other instances,-acts to the certain injury and ruin of his soul, as if he hated and desired evil to it: he is his own enemy,-in fact, if not in feeling.



The turpitude of theft, as a trespass against the principle and the express precept of the divine law, is here assumed. It requires no proof. The "partner" in any fraud is the man who, although not himself actually engaged in the direct perpetration of it, is privy to it, winks at it, secretly countenances it, and profits by it. He is as bad as the doer. He may screen his conscience under the pretext of his not doing the deed; but such a screen is a mere cobweb; it-will not stand a breath. He may possibly be even worse. If he flatters himself that he is getting the profit without the sin, when he is coolly and deliberately allowing another to damn his own soul,-taking no concern about that, provided he get something by it,-he must indeed be under the power of a "strong delusion." The receiver and resetter is at least as guilty as the thief. I say at least; for in one obvious respect he is worse. His is a general trade, which gives encouragement to many thieves, by holding out to them the means of disposing of their stolen property and evading the law. He is thus, in fact, a partaker in the guilt of all. One thief cannot set up and maintain a resetter; but one resetter may keep at their nefarious trade many thieves. Moreover, when the thief swears falsely* the partner is tempted to allow the perjury to pass undetected, lest he should expose himself as well as the thief; by which means he covers the guilt of another doubly-in the theft and in the perjury. Nay, if he were summoned as a witness, he is tempted to similar perjury himself, and so to bring additional guilt more directly upon his own soul, and draw down upon himself the wrath of God. Thus, every kind and degree of participation in evil, and connivance at its perpetration, is a snare to a man's soul. What, then, my brethren, is the general lesson? It is-"Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things," Php_4:8.



* From the language here used, the Author seems to regard "cursing" in this sense as meaning perjury. Others understand it of "the curse pronounced (Lev_5:1.) on him who conceals a theft." "His partner hears this curse;" he is brought under it, yet will not reveal the thief.



Verse Pro_29:25. "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." Here we have-1. A principle that leads to evil:-And 2. Another principle that counteracts and corrects it.



1. "The fear of man bringeth a snare." The cases are so endlessly various in which this principle may be conceived to operate, that it is almost impossible to make a selection. I may notice a few. It "bringeth a snare" at the entrance on a religious life, there being few things that have in them a stronger withholding power than "the fear of man"-the dread of the contempt and scorn of the world, the alienation and desertion of friends, and the possible injury to prospects in life, thence arising. It "brings a snare" to believers themselves, when it tempts them to shrink from owning their Master, or from saying and doing what He commands to be said or done; or when it tempts them to concealment, to temporising, to evasion, to apostacy, to undue conformity to the world. It "bringeth a snare" when Christians are tempted to dissembling of their real sentiments, even by the fear of one another, when they happen to differ. It "bringeth a snare," when ministers of the word, "stewards of the mysteries of God," of whom it is required that they be "found faithful," are tempted by the dread of offence, and censure and unpopularity, of the displeasure of individuals or of the multitude, to trim, to consult and conform to the likings and inclinations of their hearers,-to "shun to declare any part of the counsel of God"-or to "handle the word of God deceitfully,"-silencing their consciences, it may be, by pleading prudence, and blaming as deficient in this virtue such as are more faithful than themselves. It "bringeth a snare" to public men, in every department of civil life, when it tempts them from apprehension either of displeasing superiors or inferiors, to swerve from the straightforward course of truth, integrity, and justice, and the public good. The cases indeed, both more public and more private, in which this "fear of man" operates injuriously, are without number; cases, in which we may be tempted by it to "do those things which we ought not to do," and to "fail of doing those things which we ought to do." It operates in great matters and in small; in the highest and the lowest ranks of society, and in all between. It is ever suggesting the question-What will such a one think and say?-What will the world say?-instead of the one and only question which ought to determine every act and every word-What will God say? Our business is, to do our prescribed duty, and trust in Him;-to fulfil the dictates of His will in every situation, steadily, immoveably, without flinching, uninfluenced alike by the smiles and the frowns of men,-"fearing God, and knowing no other fear." This is safety, and this alone. "They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever," Psa_125:1. Even if a man's firm fidelity should occasion him present evil, yet is he safe in the hands of his covenant God. Nothing shall ultimately injure him. O! had this trust in God possessed its due power in the hearts and over the conduct of God's people, the impartiality of the sacred Record would not have had so many mournful cases to relate of deviations from the path of "simplicity and godly sincerity." It was "the fear of man" that tempted the father of the faithful, and after him his son Isaac, to similar and repeated prevarication and falsehood, in Egypt and in Gerar. It was "the fear of man," in "Aaron the priest of the Lord," that made the molten calf, even when the vision of the burning mount should have impressed the fear of God. It was "the fear of man" that stained the page of David's history with such deplorable instances of duplicity and dissembling. It was "the fear of man" that led Peter to deny Christ; and at a later period to dissemble so unworthily as to draw down upon him the censure of his fellow-apostle. It was "the fear of man" that made the friends and fellow-servants of Paul, when he was brought to trial before Nero, act with such dastardly unkindness, as to give him cause to say-"At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me." And to these might be added, many instances, from the sacred history, of the working of the same principle in characters where we are less surprised and mortified to find it; as in Saul, and Pilate, and others. Beware, then, of the fear of man, and cherish the fear of God!



Verse Pro_29:26. "Many seek the ruler's favour; but every man's judgment cometh from the Lord." This may be considered as the opposite temptation. We have had the fear of man: here is his favour. The temptation designed is-the love of "the honour that cometh from men,"-the benefit to be expected from being in the good graces of those who have much in their power. In both cases, let us well remember the assurance:-"Every man's judgment cometh from the Lord." This may be understood as referring to the overruling providence of God. Every man shall have what God appoints to him. Men are in His hand. They are His instruments, whether for evil or for good. Our fears and our hopes are alike in His power,-to disappoint or to fulfil them.-Or it may mean that every man's final judgment cometh from the Lord,-the fixture of his everlasting state. And surely there can be no motive more powerful than this to beware of being swayed by either the favour or the fear of man.



Verse Pro_29:27. "An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked." Assuredly the feeling meant by the same form of expression in the two clauses of this verse, is widely different. In the one case, it is the character alone that is "abomination." In the feelings of the just toward the unjust, there is nothing of the nature of personal hostility,-no wish of evil,-no pleasure in his sufferings. It is all the contrary. He pities, and he prays for him:-he does him good as he has opportunity: he would fondly seek and save him. It is otherwise with the unjust toward the just. The malignant hatred of their goodness provokes exasperation against their person. How illustrative of this remark is the contrast between the feelings of the murderers of Stephen and the feelings of their suffering victim!-of the persecutors and the persecuted!-the former "gnashing upon him with their teeth," thirsting for and imbruing their hands in his blood:-the latter, with his dying breath, pleading, like his gracious Master, for their forgiveness! Their character was an abomination to the holy martyr; but not their persons. But they made no such distinction. They hated the principles and the character, and they hated and killed the man.



As that first martyr felt, so ought we to feel towards our fellow-sinners, how bitter soever may be their thoughts of us, or their feelings toward us. We own ourselves debtors to the mercy of God in Christ; and we cannot, we dare not, glory over even the worst of men. We may loathe their characters, but we pity and love themselves. We may hate the sin, but we hate not the sinner. The blessed God "hateth all the workers of iniquity." He hates them as workers of iniquity. But in the midst of all His assurances of abhorrence while they go on in sin, He still expostulates and pleads with them in mercy.



You think God's commands are hard. No; it is "the way of transgressors that is hard." Where is the single command of God's, that does not bear upon it the impress of goodness as well as of holiness? What is the sum of all that He commands you to do, or commands you to abstain from? Does not the whole mean-"Forsake not thine own mercies:"-destroy not thyself:-consult thy first and best interests? Is not all He says to you said with the view of persuading you to escape from woe, and to embrace happiness ?-What is His one command by the gospel-" that ye believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," but a command to accept salvation, and to be blessed for ever? Obey it and live.