The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.
Circumstances or character
The imperial standard of weights and measures has been sent by the King into the market-place of human life, where men are busy cheating themselves and each other. Public opinion greatly needs to be elevated and rectified in its judgments of men and things. Society is like a house after an earthquake. Everything is squeezed out of its place. A standard has been set up in the market-place to measure the pretences of men withal, and those who will not employ it, must take the consequences. According to that standard “a poor man is better than a liar”; if, in the face of that sure index, you despise anhonest man because he is poor, and give your confidence to the substance or semblance of wealth, without respect to righteousness, you deserve no pity when the inevitable retribution comes. Error in this matter is not confined to any rank. “Do not cheat” is a needful and useful injunction in our day; and “Do not be cheated” is another. The trade of the swindler would fail if the raw material were not plentiful, and easily wrought. If the community would cease to value a man by the appearance of his wealth, and judge him according to the standard of the Scriptures, there would be fewer prodigies of dishonesty among us. In the Scriptures a dishonest man is called a liar, however high his position may be in the city. And the honest poor gets his patent of nobility from the Sovereign’s hand. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
The desire of kindness
In the Revised Version this sentencereads, “The desire of a man is the measure of his kindness.” The Divine rule of weights and measures is the only true one in the sphere of man’s duties and obligations. But a principle, however good, must not be strained. A man’s kindness is in his heart, not in the measure of the gifts themselves. The hand may be liberal, whilst the heart is illiberal. A desire to do good is a Divine emanation. A desire must be content to go as far as it can, and to do as much as it can. When that limit is reached, we must not be ashamed of doing so little. The desire to be kind is worth cherishing, because it does not always survive the changes in our circumstances. The desire often diminishes in exact proportion to the increase of means and opportunities for doing good. Where our desire to be kind fails through incapacity to do more, God will add what is necessary. The desire to be kind sometimes needs educating. It is not so large as it should be, because it is narrowed by ignorance or want of thought about the responsibilities of wealth. When will men study as earnestly how to use what they have got together as they studied and toiled to get it together? (Thomas Wilde.)
