chapter xvi

. 10-15, page 472, and xiii. 24, page 335, also on chap. xix. 13-18, page 573.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 16.

VICTORY NOT WITH THE MAJORITY.

+I. There is no necessary connection between numbers and righteousness.+ Weeds grow faster than wheat, and are much more abundant than the grain. But the simple fact that there are more weeds than there is corn does not alter the character of either. In the same field it may happen that there is more to bind for fuel than for food--that the tares far outnumber the ears of wheat--and in this case the worth is on the side of the smaller quantity. So it is in the moral field of the world. It is a startling fact that under the government of God the wicked are permitted to multiply--that when a man sets himself in opposition to his Maker, he is not at once removed from the earth, but is permitted to live and use his life to make other men wicked like himself. We may sometimes be inclined to ask with the patriarch, _"Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power"_ (Job xxi. 7), and the question may be difficult for us to answer; but this we must never forget, that neither with an nor with God is there any necessary connection between quantity and quality, between worth and abundance.

+II. Neither are numbers any guarantee of victory.+ The greatness of a tree and the number of its branches do not make it certain that it will outlive the storm--on the contrary, its great bulk and height are often the causes of its fall. When the wicked multiply, and so increase transgression, they sometimes lose sight of their personal sin and danger in the sin and danger in the multitude, and persuade themselves that there is safety in numbers. But the very opposite is the case. Men grow more bold in transgression in proportion as they are surrounded with other transgressors, and venture to do deeds of wickedness when in company with others that they would fear to commit alone. And so the multiplication of the wicked, as it increases transgression, is the means of hastening their fall instead of retarding it. It was _"when men began to multiply upon the face of the earth"_ (Gen. vi. 1) that their wickedness became so great as to compel God to destroy them by a flood. It was the combination of the entire Jewish nation that enabled them to commit the crime of crucifying the Lord of Glory, but it was this "increase of transgression" that led to their final fall.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Combination emboldens in sin (Isa. xli. 7). Each particle of the mass is corrupt. The mass therefore of itself ferments with evil. Hence the prevalence of infidelity in our densely crowded districts above the more thinly populated villages. There is the same evil in individual hearts, but not the same fermentation of evil.--_Bridges._

The reference is, in all probability, to the influence of wicked rulers in promoting the increase of wickedness in the community, which requires not either illustration or proof.--_"But the righteous shall see their fall."_--Their fall, that is, _from power and authority._ It is not the _final fall_--the _perdition_ of the wicked, that is intended. In that the righteous have _no pleasure._ Herein they resemble God; are of one mind and heart with Him. He says, and confirms it by His oath--"As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." In the execution of the sentence against them, God glorifies Himself; and the righteous solemnly acquiesce, acknowledging and celebrating the justice of the Divine administration:--"Even so, Lord God, Almighty, for true and righteous are Thy judgments!" But pleasure in witnessing the execution of the sentence, we cannot, we must not, for a moment, imagine them to have.--_Wardlaw._

Cyrillus Alexandrinus tells us, when man was alone upon the earth there was then no such matter as sinning. . . . Much company in sin ever makes more, it being the weakness of man's understanding to fear little hurt and danger, where many run into it, and it being the nature of wickedness to take strength from a multitude, as not fearing then to be opposed or resisted.--_Jermin._

For Homiletics on the subject of verse 17, see on chap. xix. 18, page 573.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 18.

DIVINE REVELATION AND HUMAN OBEDIENCE.

+I. The human soul needs what it cannot produce.+ If the flower is to attain to its development of beauty and colour it must have the sunlight and the rain from without itself--it needs what it has no power to produce. The husbandman and all mankind need a harvest, but they have no power within themselves to supply their need; although they can plough, and plant, and sow, they cannot give the quickening rays of light and heat which alone can make the seed to live and grow. The entire human race has spiritual needs which it cannot supply, and capabilities which must be developed by influences outside and above itself. It needs a knowledge of God's Nature, and Will, and Purposes, if it is to grow in moral stature, and blossom and ripen into moral beauty and fruitfulness, but no human intellect or heart can acquire this knowledge by its own unaided efforts. If the human soul is to grow in goodness it must know God, and if it is to know Him, God must reveal Himself.

+II. God by revelation has supplied man's need.+ This supply men had a right to look for and expect. He had a right to look to the Creator of his bodily appetites and needs for the supplies that are necessary to his physical life and well-being, and he does not look in vain. God has given the _"earth to the children of men"_ (Psa. cxv. 16), and every year He causes it to bring forth and bud, not only giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but an abundance of luxuries for his enjoyment. It is most natural and reasonable to look to the Giver of all these good things for the body, and expect from Him the supply of the deeper needs of the soul. We do not think a human parent does his duty to his child if he only feeds and clothes him and makes no effort to enlighten his mind and satisfy his heart. And surely the Great Father of the universe would not be worthy of His name if He dealt so with the children of whose bodies and souls He is the Author. But He has not left us thus unprovided for, but _"at sundry times and in diverse manners_ He has spoken unto men" (Heb. i. 1), telling them enough of Himself and of themselves to satisfy their spiritual cravings, and to elevate their spiritual nature.

+III. It follows that gratitude and self-love should prompt men to listen to God, and to obey Him.+ If the foregoing assertions are true, it follows that man must give heed to the revelation of God, or sustain permanent and irretrievable loss. As he cannot reject the Divine provision for the body without bodily death, so he cannot refuse attention to God's provision for his soul without spiritual ruin--without causing to perish all those powers and faculties of his highest nature the exercise of which make existence worth having. Self-love, therefore, should prompt a man to _"keep the law,"_ and if he do not listen to its voice he has only himself to blame for missing real happiness. If a man is starving, his best friend can do no more than supply his need, he must eat the food set before him; and when God has offered to the children of men that wine and milk which will satisfy the soul, and cause it to grow, He has done all that even a God can do (Isa. lv. 1, 2). Man is a self-murderer if he refuse it.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

He doth not say they may perish, but they do perish; or they are in danger of perishing, but they do certainly perish where there is no serious, conscientious, faithful, powerful preaching. . . . These men perish _temporarily;_ when vision, when preaching ceased among the Jews, oh, the dreadful calamities and miseries that came upon the people! . . . There men perish _totally:_ both the bodies and the souls of men perish where serious conscientious preaching fails (Hosea iv. 6); _"My people are destroyed for want of knowledge."_. . . The Papists say that ignorance is the mother of devotion; but this text tells us that is the mother of destruction.--_Brooks._

This is only a hypothetical case, for there are no such _"people."_ Nevertheless there is such a principle. Just in proportion as men do not know they will not be punished. Paul and Solomon are in full accord. "They that sin without law shall also perish without law; but they that sin in the law shall be judged by the law" (Rom. ii. 12). These Proverbs elsewhere have taught the same doctrine (chap. viii. 36). Men might all perish, but some less terribly, from a difference of light. All men have some light (Rom. i. 20); and that which they actually have is all that they shall answer for in the day of final account. Still there is a form of ignorance that will exactly proportion our guilt. It is ghostly ignorance, or the absence of spiritual knowledge. Perhaps I may still say that a man is punished for what he has, and not for what he has not. A man who knows of this ignorance, and has light enough to know his need of light, has enough to give account for in that without being supposed to suffer for a profound negation. Be this as it may, there is such an ignorance. It exactly grades our sins. It is the measure of our depravity. The profounder it sinks we sink. No man need sink or perish. There is a remedy. "The word is nigh" (us).--_Miller._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 19 _and_ 21.

MASTERS AND SERVANTS.

+I. Human servants generally need correction.+ The relation of master and servant is generally, though not always, founded upon some superiority on the one side and inferiority on the other. Where there is any right adjustment of social relations, those who serve are those who lack knowledge of some kind which those who rule are able to impart, and hence arises the necessity of correction on the part of the master and of submission on that of the servant. It is undeniable that there are many inversions of this ideal moral order, but the proverb can only refer to what ought to be, and what _often,_ though not _always,_ is the case.

+II. The means of correction ought to be moral means.+ A servant is a moral and intelligent agent, and not a machine or a brute, and he can and ought to appreciate appeals to his reason and conscience. A wise and humane rider will use his voice to his steed in preference to the whip or the spur, and generally finds it effectual. And words of reproof and encouragement are probably the only successful means of dealing with human nature in this relationship. If these fail, no others will avail, and all benefit from the connection will cease.

+III. Therefore human masters need much wisdom.+ If they are over-indulgent the servant may take undue advantage and claim privileges to which he has no right (ver. 21). In the present constitution of things in this world, and probably throughout the universe, there are inequalities of position and rank which no wise man can ignore, and it is kind and wise to those beneath us to maintain these differences and distinctions. But to maintain them without haughtiness, and with that consideration and sympathy which ought to mark all our intercourse with our fellow-creatures, needs much wisdom on the part of superiors. Dr. David Thomas suggests another, and perhaps a pleasanter application of this proverb. "There is another side," he says, "to the kindness of a master towards his servant, that is, the making of the servant feel towards him all the sympathy and interest of a son. . . . He who can make his servant feel towards him as a loving, faithful, and dutiful child, will reap the greatest comfort and advantage from his service." But this happy result can only be brought about where the master is truly wise as well as kind.

For Homiletics on verses 20 and 22, see on chap. xiv. 17 and 29, pages 363 and 386. On verse 23, see on chap. xi. 2, page 192, and on xvi. 18, page 482.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 24.

CRIMINAL PARTNERSHIP.

+I. Partnerships are self-revealing.+ That proverb is an old and true one--"Tell me what company you keep, and I will tell you what you are." A man seeks the society and shares the pursuits of those who are likeminded with himself; if he chooses the fellowship of the good it shows that there is something in his character that has an affinity to theirs, and if he willingly associates himself with bad men, he proclaims himself to be a bad man. Good men do not "walk in the counsel of the ungodly," or "sit in the seat of the scornful"--men who are found in such places must be counted among the ungodly and scornful, although they may be negative rather than positive sinners.

+II. Criminal partnerships are self-destroying.+ As we have seen, partners with criminals are criminals themselves in spirit if not in actual deed, and must therefore meet with the doom of the transgressor. Probably the proverb is directed against those who shelter themselves under the idea that those who do not commit the crime themselves, but only consent to it beforehand, or conceal it afterwards, are not so very guilty; but this is nowhere the teaching of Scripture, nor is it the verdict of the human conscience.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

A partnership life is becoming more and more common and necessary in our commercial England. Great undertakings can only be carried out by companies. Modern legislation has greatly encouraged these combinations, by limiting the monetary liability of its members. Hence, joint-stock companies are multitudinous and multiplying. Such companies are often, perhaps generally, projected and managed by selfish, needy, and unprincipled speculators; and honest men are often tempted by the glowing promises of their lying programmes to become their adherents, and they soon find themselves in the unfortunate position referred to in the text.--_Dr. David Thomas._

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.--_Wardlaw._

There is a warning under the eighth commandment. Do we realise the same solemnity of obligation as under the first? Many professors attach a degree of secularity to a detailed application of the duties of the second table. But both stand on the same authority. The transgressions of both are registered in the same book. The place in the Decalogue cannot be of moment, if it be but there with the imprimatur--"I am the Lord thy God."--_Bridges._

It is the cursed policy of Satan, that he strives to join men in wickedness. In drunkenness there must be a good fellow; in wantonness there must be a corrival; in bloody duels there must be a second; in theft there must be a partner, yoking men together to draw upon themselves the heavy burden of God's displeasure. . . . Wherefore, although it may be a love unto the things stolen, or else a love unto the stealer, which maketh others to join with him, certainly he showeth little love to God's law, certainly he proveth great hatred, which he has to his own soul. For while he joineth with another in stealing some worldly goods, he joineth with Satan in stealing his own soul from himself. And whatsoever fear he may have of some _curse_ which the other hath laid upon him, if that he doth reveal it, he hath much more cause to feel the _curse of God's wrath,_ if he doth conceal it. He hath but _heard_ the one, he shall _feel_ the other.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 25 _and_ 26.

SAFETY FROM A SNARE.

+I. Men fear and hope too much from their fellow men.+ This fear and this hope are very active agents in this world, influencing men often to abstain from what they know to be right, and inducing them to do deeds of evil. Good men have often staggered and sometimes fallen before this fear and have been misled by this false hope, and both the hope and the fear are intensified when the object of them belongs to the ranks of the conventionally great--when the man whom they desire to propitiate is a _"ruler"_ among his fellows. Such a man sometimes has the power to injure those who displease him, and has also much that he can bestow upon those who seek his favour; but the weight of his displeasure and the worth of his gifts are generally estimated far too highly by his inferiors in rank, and when this is the case they are snares which lead to sin.

+II. Trust in God is the only escape from the fear that will mislead, and the hope that will disappoint.+ The many and the great contrasts, not only between the favour of God and the favour of man, but between all that is connected with the seeking and the bestowal, will lead every wise man to forsake the pursuit of the less for the greater. 1. _The favour of an earthly ruler is often obtained only by the exercise of great skill on the part of the seeker._ When the woman of Tekoa desired to obtain from David the forgiveness of Absalom, what ingenuity on her part was necessary in order to gain the monarch's ear and goodwill. She had to study how to put the case before him in the best light, and to enact a little drama before his eyes in order to enlist his attention and soften his heart. And yet she was pleading with a tender-hearted father for his own son. How different it is when we plead for the mercy of God either for ourselves or others. The simplest statement of the case is sufficient; no schemes or plans of any kind are necessary to win the ear of Him who is always waiting to be gracious. 2. _Success with an earthly ruler is often unconnected with the merit or demerit of the pleader._ It often happens that the most worthless characters obtain the greatest favours, even if the ruler himself be a fairly impartial man, because they have more friends at court than a deserving man. In the case just mentioned, Absalom, a thoroughly bad man, was able to command the services of a person who was probably more fitted to gain the desired end than any person in the kingdom. If there had been a banished subject who really merited a free pardon from the king, he would probably not have been able to command the services of so successful a pleader as the woman of Tekoa. But the case is altogether different with Him who doth not _"judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears"_ (Isa. xi. 3). The "judgment which cometh from the Lord" is founded on the strictest impartiality, and depends upon nothing but the character and needs of the suitor. If we add to these drawbacks the uncertain good which may be contained in the "favour of a ruler" even after it is obtained, we may well wonder that it is as true now as in Solomon's days that the "many" seek it, and only the few trust their earthly and their spiritual interests with their God. How many of the few who are not disappointed _of_ the favour of great men are disappointed _in_ it, and find it a poor and unsatisfying portion after all; but the testimony of all those who seek the higher good is _"In Thy favour is life, and Thy lovingkindness is better than life"_ (Psa. xxx. 5; Psa. lxiii. 3).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

To those who look out upon society from the standpoint of trust in God, the greatest magnates of the world will appear only as grasshoppers. . . . He who can say, "Surely my judgment is with the Lord," will stand before his race with undaunted heroism, and before his God with devotion. Conscious dependence on the Almighty is the spirit of independence towards men.--_Dr. David Thomas._

The fear of man leads you into a snare, and will the fear of God make you safe? No; if the character of the affection remains the same, you will gain nothing by a change of object. If you simply turn round and fear God as you feared men you have not thereby escaped. The fear of the greater Being is the greater fear. The weight presses in the same direction, and it is heavier by all the difference between the finite and the infinite. . . . It is not a transference of fear from man to God that can make the sinner safe. The kind of affection must be changed, as well as its object. Safety lies not in terror, but in trust. Hope leads to holiness. He who is made nigh to God by the death of His Son stands high above the wretched snares that entangled his feet when he feared men. The sovereign's son is safe from the temptation to commit petty theft. . . . When you know in whom you have believed, and feel that any step in life's journey hereafter may be the step into heaven, the fear of this man and the favour of that will exert no sensible influence in leading you to the right hand or to the left.--_Arnot._

Albeit faith, when it is in the heart, quelleth and killeth distrustful fear, and is therefore fitly opposed to it in this sacred sentence; yet in the very best sense it fights sore against faith when it is upon its own dunghill. I mean in a sensible danger. Nature's retraction of itself from a visible fear, may cause the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point--the state of the soul--to intermit and falter at such a time, as we see in the examples of Abraham, Isaac, David, Peter, and others. . . . The chameleon is said to be the most fearful of all creatures, and doth therefore turn himself into so many colours to avoid danger, which yet will not be. God equally hateth the timorous and the treacherous. "Fearful" men are the first in that black roll (Rev. xxi. 8).--_Trapp._

There is a higher step to be taken before we can well step so high; there is the favour of God to be procured before the favour of the ruler can well be obtained. For kings are but God's kingdoms; as they reign over their people, so He reigneth over them; as they sit on the throne of their kingdom, so He sitteth on the throne of their hearts, and by a distributive justice dispenseth the _judgment_ of his and their favours according as it seemeth good to His eternal wisdom. The favour therefore of thy ruler is worth thy seeking for; but first seek and get God's favour, if thou wilt get and enjoy the other to thy happiness. And when thou hast gotten it, remember that it was God's hand which directed the king's hand to reach it forth unto thee. For it is too commonly seen, as one speaketh, "Then doth God especially slip out of the minds of men, when they enjoy His benefits and favours."--_Jermin._

For Homiletics on verse 27, see on chap. xxviii. 4.

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