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Pro_17:22 A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Ver. 22. A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine.] Eõåêôåéí ðïéåé : so the Septuagint renders it. And, indeed, it is åõèõìéá ~ that makes åõåîéá . All true mirth is from rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul. When faith hath once healed the conscience, and grace hath hushed the affections, and composed all within, so that there is a Sabbath of spirit, and a blessed tranquillity lodged in the soul; then the body also is vigorous and vigetous, for the most part in very good plight and healthful constitution, which makes man’s life very comfortable. For, si vales, bene est. If you are well it is good. And ëùóôïí õãéáéíåéí . "Go thy ways," saith Solomon to him that hath a good conscience, "eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, since God accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife of thy youth," {Ecc_9:7-9} &c., be lightsome in thy clothes, merry at thy meats, painful in thy calling, &c., these do notably conduce to and help on health. They that in the use of lawful means "wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." {Isa_40:31}
But a broken spirit drieth the bones.] By drinking up the marrow and radical moisture. See this in David, {Psa_32:3} whose "bones waxed old," whose "moisture," or chief sap, "was turned into the drought of summer"; his "heart was smitten and withered like grass; his days consumed like smoke"; {Psa_102:3-4} his whole body was "like a bottle in the smoke"; {Psa_119:83} he was a very bag of bones, and those also "burnt as a hearth." {Psa_102:3} Aristotle, in his book of long and short life, assigns grief for a chief cause of death. And the apostle saith as much in 2Co_7:10. {See Trapp on "2Co_7:10"} {See Trapp on "Pro_12:25"} All immoderations, saith Hippocrates, are great enemies to health.