We here behold the wickedness of man in strange conjunction (verse10) and contrast with the beauty of nature.
I. HUMAN DEPRAVITY AS DISCOVERED BY THE LIGHT OF NATURE.
1. The wealth of nature, and the poverty of man.
2. The cleanliness of nature, and the filthiness of man.
3. The order of nature, and the lawlessness of man.
4. The generosity of nature contrasted with the selfishness of man.
5. The joy of nature contrasted with the misery of man.
II. THE INABILITY OF NATURE TO RESTORE MAN TO PIETY AND HAPPINESS. Consider--
1. Those nations which dwell amid specially fair or splendid scenery. We have a striking illustration of the moral inefficiency of natural scenery in the text. The land is “as the garden of the Lord.” But the people? South speaks of sinners: “Who first turn grace, and then nature itself, out of doors.” This is descriptive of the inhabitants of this beautiful land. Again, we have an example in the Canaanites. And have we not examples in modern times of the inefficacy of nature to exalt man? The magnificent South Sea Islands and their inhabitants. Everywhere the glory of nature is stained with the scarlet of human sin, and nature can do nothing to purge that stain away. Or, consider--
2. Those individuals who live in special communion with mature. The sailor, the shepherd, the peasant--are these remarkable for refinement of taste or morals? We think not. But it may be said that these are only door keepers of the Palace Beautiful; well then, what of the High Priests, who draw near the inmost shrines of nature? The poet, the painter, the philosopher--what of these? Are these exceptionally good? We think the common verdict would be against them. No. The great and glorious globe is impotent to regenerate. It charms the eye, feasts the imagination, but it has no power to reach the deep places of our nature and fill us with purity and strength. Nature may make a good man better, but it cannot make a bad man good.
III. THE NEED AND PRECIOUSNESS OF THE GOSPEL. The lovers of nature remain corrupt and workers of iniquity, but the gospel changes the hearts and lives of those who accept it.
1. There is a lesson here for those who wish to substitute science for the Scriptures. Science, we are told, is to refine, moralize, spiritualize the people. Much of this is delusive. Scientific and philosophic knowledge has no power of itself to create right and truly religious feeling.
2. Another lesson is here for those who wish to open museums and picture galleries on Sunday. Contemplating marbles and pictures, do men gain the whiteness of the one or the beauty of the other? Let the moral statistics of Paris and Rome answer.
3. A final lesson is here for those who seek to substitute the temple of nature for the temple of grace. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Flee from unholy company
Darest thou come where such ill scents are to be taken as may soon infect thy soul? Of all trades, it would not do well for the collier and the fuller to live together. What one cleanseth the other will blacken and defile. The Spirit of God hath not washed thee clean, that thou shouldst run where thou will be made foul. (W. Gurnall.)
Shunning evil
It is related of William S. Stockton, the father of Frank Stockton, that he would cross to the sunny side of the street on a hot summer’s day so as to avoid the shadow of the Arch Street Theatre, such was his intense hatred of it. (H. O. Mackey.)
Evil to be shunned
Sir Peter Lely once said he never looked at a bad picture if he could help it, as he found it “tainted his own pencil.” (H. O.Mackey.)
Wicked companions
The impious lives of the wicked are as contagious as the most dreadful plague that infects the air. When the doves of Christ lie among such pots, their yellow feathers are sullied. You may observe that in the oven the fine bread frequently hangs upon the coarse, but the coarse very seldom adheres to the fine. If you mix an equal portion of sour vinegar and sweet wine together, you will find that the vinegar will sooner sour the wine than the wine sweeten the vinegar. That is a sound body that continues healthful in a pest house. It is a far greater wonder to see a saint maintain his purity among sinners than it is to behold a sinner becoming pure among saints. Christians are not always like fish, which retain their freshness in a salt sea; or, like the rose, which preserves its sweetness among the most noisome weeds; or, like the fire, which burns the hottest when the season is coldest. A good man was once heard to lament “that, as often as he went into the company of the wicked, he returned less a man from them than he was before he joined with them.” The Lord’s people, by keeping evil company, are like persons who are much exposed to the sun, insensibly tanned. (T. Secker.)
Danger of contamination
Sophronius, a wise teacher, would not suffer even his grown-up sons and daughters to associate with those whose conduct was not pure and upright. “Dear father,” said the gentle Eulalia to him one day when he forbade her, in company with her brother, to visit the volatile Lucinda, “you must think us very childish if you imagine that we should be exposed to danger by it.” The father took in silence a dead coal from the hearth, and reached it to his daughter. “It will not burn you, my child; take it.” Eulalia did so, and behold her beautiful white hand was soiled and blackened, and, as it chanced, her white dress also. “You cannot be too careful in handling coals,” said Eulalia, in vexation. “Yes, truly,” said the father. “You see, my child, that coals, even if they do not burn, blacken; so it is with the company of the vicious.” (From the German.)
