Illustrations of the Book of Proverbs: Arnot

Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth.

ILLUSTRATIONS

OF THE

BOOK OF PROVERBS.

BY THE

REV. WILLIAM ARNOT,

ST. PETER'S FREE CLIMB, GLASGOW.

First Series.

Vol. 1.

LONDON;

T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW;

EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.

MDCCCLXIII.

TO THE READER.

THESE illustrations of the Proverbs are not critical, con-

tinuous, exhaustive. The comments, in imitation of the

text, are intended to be brief, practical, miscellaneous,

isolated. The reader may, however, perceive a principle

of unity running through the whole, if he takes his stand

at the outset on the writer's view point—a desire to

lay the Christian System along the surface of common

life, without removing it from its foundations in the

doctrines of Grace. The authority of the instructions

must be divine: the form transparently human. Al-

though the lessons should, with a pliant familiarity, lay

themselves along the line of men's thoughts and actions,

they will work no deliverance, unless redeeming love be

everywhere the power to press them in. On the other

hand, although evangelical doctrine be consistently main-

tained throughout, the teaching will come short of its

purpose unless it go right into every crevice of a corrupt

heart, and perseveringly double every turn of a crooked

path. Without "the love wherewith He loved us" as

our motive power, we cannot reach for healing any of the

deeper ailments of the world: but having such a power

within our reach, we should not leave it dangling in the

air; we should bring it down, and make it bear on every

iv TO THE READER.

sorrow that afflicts, and every sin that defiles humanity.

The two extremes to be avoided are, abstract unpractical

speculation, and shallow, powerless, heathen morality; the

one a soul without a body, the other a body without a

soul—the one a ghost, the other a carcass. The aim is

to be doctrinal without losing our hold of earth, and

practical without losing our hold of heaven.

Most certain it is that if the Church at any period, or

any portion of the Church, has fallen into either of these

extremes, it has been her own fault; for the Bible, her

standard, is clear from both imputations. Christ is its

subject and its substance. His word is like Himself.

It is of heaven, but it lays itself closely around the life

of men. Such is the Bible; and such, in their own

place and measure, should our expositions of it be.

Had our object been a critical exposition of the Book,

it would have been our duty to devote the larger share of

our attention to the more difficult parts. But our aim from

first to last has been more to apply the obvious than to

elucidate the obscure, and the selection of texts has been

determined accordingly. As there is diversity of gifts,

there should be division of labour. While scientific

inquirers re-examine the joints of the machine, and

demonstrate anew the principles of its construction, it

may not be amiss that a workman should set the machine

a-going, and try its effects on the affairs of life.

W. A.

CONTENTS.

Page

I. THE PREACHER 9

II. THE BOOK—PROVERBS 15

III. THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE 19

IV. THE FAMILY 25

V. FILIAL LOVE A BLOSSOM OF BEAUTY 30

VI. THE FOE AND THE FIGHT 34

VII. FILTHY LUCRE 57

VIII. THE CRY OF WISDOM 64

IX. A REVIVAL 72

X. SOWING DISOBEDIENCE, REAPING JUDGMENT 78

XI. SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND 88

XII. PERILS IN THE DEEP 97

XIII. THE MEANS OF SAFETY 104

XIV. A GOOD MEMORY 106

XV. THE ART OF PRINTING 110

XVI. TRUST 116

XVII. THE HEALTH OF HOLINESS 121

XVIII. CAPITAL AND PROFIT 123

XIX. A FATHERLY WORD ON FATHERLY CORRECTION 126

XX. TREASURES FOR THE TAKING 134

XXI. GAINFUL MERCHANDISE 136

XXII. LENGTH OF DAYS IN THE HAND OF WISDOM 139

XXIII. A PLEASANT PATH 142

vi CONTENTS.

Page

XXIV. WISDOM MAKING AND MANAGING WORLDS 144

XXV. CONFIDENCE IN GOD THE TRUE SAFEGUARD FROM

TEMPTATION 147

XXVI. THE RIGHT THING DONE AT THE RIGHT TIME 152

XXVII. THE CURSE AND THE BLESSING UPON THE HOUSE 158

XXVIII. PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE 161

XXIX. HOLD FAST 163

XXX. THE PATH OP THE JUST 166

XXXI. THE FOUNTAIN AND ITS STREAM 171

XXXII. FAMILY JOYS 179

XXXIII. THE METHOD OP PROVIDENCE FOR RESTRAINING EVIL 185

XXXIV. SEVEN HATEFUL THINGS 188

XXXV. MOTHER'S LAW 190

XXXVI. THE WORTH Or WISDOM 197

XX XVII. HATE EVIL 200

XXXVIII. RANK AND RICHES 202

XXXIX. THE REDEEMER ANTICIPATING REDEMPTION 205

XL. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER FOR THE KING'S SON 200

XLI. REPROOF 213

XLII. THE TALENT AND ITS PRODUCT 219

XLIII. THE PLEASURES OF SIN 221

XLIV. THE PLACE AND POWER OF A SON 229

XLV. DILIGENT IN BUSINESS 234

XLVI. POSTHUMOUS FAME 236

XLVII. THE WISE TAKE ADVICE: FOOLS ONLY GIVE IT 238

XLVIII. THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY 240

XLIX. THE WELL OF LIFE 242

L. EXPERIENCE KEPT FOR USE 245

LL THE MONEY POWER 247

LII. THE LIPS AND TONGUE 251

LIII. THE BLESSING OF THE LORD MAKETH RICH 254

LIV. A FOOL'S SPORT 261

CONTENTS. vii

Page

LV. FILM REALIZED, AND HOPES FULFILLED 263

LVI. THE PAINING WHIRLWIND AND THE SURE FOUNDATION 273

LVII. THE GREATNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 274

LVIII. HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY 279

LIX. ASSORTED PAIRS 285

LX. DIPLOMACY 288

LXI. THE DESTROYER OF A NEIGHBOUR 290

LXII. A TALEBEARER 292

LVIII. DEBTS AND SURETIES 294

LXIV. VIRTUE ITS OWN REWARD 303

LXV. EVERY SEED BEARS FRUIT OF ITS OWN KIND 305

LXVI. GOD'S PEOPLE ARE GOD'S DELIGHT 307

LXVII. A JEWEL ILL SET 308

LXVIII. THE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 312

LXIX. SCATTERING TO KEEP, AND KEEPING TO SCATTER 315

LXX. THE WATERER IS WATERED 319

LXXI. RAISING THE MARKET—THE PRACTICE AND THE

PENALTY 323

LXXII. THE TREE AND ITS BRANCH 327

LXXIII. THE WISDOM OF WINNING SOULS 333

LXXIV. A BITTER BUT HEALTHFUL MORSEL 336

LXXV. A HUSBAND'S CROWN 340

LXXVI. THE TENDER MERCIES OP THE WICKED 343

LXXVII. LIES, THE SNARE THAT LIARS ARE CAUGHT IN 345

LXXVIII. HOPE DEFERRED 347

LXXIX. GOD'S WORD THE PRESERVER OF NATIONS 350

LXXX. THE HARD WAY 352

LXXXI. THE CHOICE OF COMPANIONS 355

LXXXII. THE FATHER WHO HATES HIS SON 359

LX XXIII. SECULARISM 367

LXXXIV. FLIGHT, THE SAFETY OF THE WEAK 373

LXXXV. SYMPATHY 375

viii CONTENTS.

Page.

LXXXVI. A MAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS BELIEF 378

LXXXVII. THE BACKSLIDER 384

LXXXVIII. THE TRUSTFUL AND THE TRUTHFUL 388

LXXXIX. THE FOOL'S CONFIDENCE 392

XC. WITNESS 396

XCI. THE PLACE OF REFUGE 401

XCII. ENVY, THE DISEASE AND THE CURE 406

XCIII. THE MERCIFUL 410

XCIV. THE TWO DEPARTURES—THE HOPEFUL AND THE

HOPELESS 417

XCV. THE TRUTH IN LOVE 424

ILLUSTRATIONS

OF THE

BOOK OF PROVERBS.

THE PREACHER

"The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel."—i. 1.

GOD'S word is like God's world: it combines unity of

pervading principle, with endless variety in detail. The

whole Bible, considered as one book, stands entirely apart

from all other writings; and yet every several portion of

it is distinguished from every other portion, as much as

one merely human writing is distinguished from another.

This combination results from the manner in which it has

pleased God to make known his will. One Divine Spirit

inspires; hence the unity of the whole. Men of diverse

age, taste, and attainments write; hence the diversity of

the parts. Although the books are written by Moses,

David, Solomon, they are all alike the word of God:

therefore they exhibit a complete separation from all

other writings, and a perfect consistency among them-

selves. Again, although they are all one as being the

word of God, they are as much the genuine product of

different human minds, as the ordinary writings of men

are the work of their authors: therefore there is in matter

10 THE PREACHER.

and manner, an unconstrained, natural, life-like diversity.

It was God who "spake unto the fathers," but it was "by

the prophets" that he spoke; not by their tongues only,

but their understandings, memories, tastes; in short, all

that constituted the men. There is as much individuality

in the books of Scripture as in any other books. There

is as much of Moses shining through the Pentateuch, as

of Gibbon in the Decline and Fall. As are the articulat-

ing lips to the soul whose thoughts they utter, so are the

prophets to the Holy Spirit, whose mind they reveal.

Every writer was chosen by God, as well as every word.

He had a purpose to serve by the disposition, the acquire-

ments, and the experience of each. The education of

Moses as one of the royal race of Egypt was a qualifica-

tion necessary to the leader of the exodus, and the writer

of the Pentateuch. The experience of David, with its

successive stages, like geologic strata, touching each other

in abrupt contrast, first as a shepherd youth, then as a

fugitive warrior, and last as a victorious king, was a quali-

fication indispensable to the sweet singer of Israel. God

needed a human spirit as a mould to cast consolation in,

for every kindred in every age. He chose one whose ex-

perience was a compound of meekness and might, of deep

distress and jubilant victory. These, when purged of

their dross, and fused into one by the Spirit's baptism of

fire, came forth an amalgam of sacred psalmody, which

the whole church militant have been singing ever since,

and "have not yet sung dry."

Solomon did not, like David, pass his youth in pastoral

simplicity, and his early manhood under cruel persecution.

THE PREACHER. 11

Solomon could not have written the twenty-third psalm-

"The Lord is my Shepherd;" nor the fifty-seventh—A

psalm of David when be fled from Saul in the cave. His

experience would never have suggested the plaintive strains

of the ninetieth psalm—A prayer of Moses the man of

God—"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place." But,

on the other hand, Solomon went through a peculiar ex-

perience of his own, and God, who in nature gives sweet

fruit to men through the root sap of a sour crab, when a

new nature has been engrafted on the upper stem, did not

disdain to bring forth fruits of righteousness through

those parts of the king's experience that cleaved most

closely to the dust. None of all the prophets could

have written the Proverbs or the Preacher; for God is

not wont, even in his miraculous interpositions, to make

a fig-tree bear olive berries, or a vine figs: every crea-

ture acts after its kind. When Solomon delineated

the eager efforts of men in search of happiness, and

the disappointment which ensued, he could say, like

Bunyan, of that fierce and fruitless war, "I was there."

The heights of human prosperity he had reached: the

paths of human learning he had trodden, farther than any

of his day: the pleasures of wealth and power and pomp

he had tasted, in all their variety. No spring of earthly

delight could be named, of whose waters he had not deeply

drunk. This is the man whom God has chosen as the

schoolmaster to teach us the vanity of the world when it

is made the portion of a soul, and He hath done all things

well. The man who has drained the cup of pleasure can

best tell the taste of its dregs.

12 THE PREACHER.

The choice of Solomon as one of the writers of the

Bible, at first sight startles, but on deeper study instructs.

We would have expected a man of more exemplary life

a man of uniform holiness It is certain that in the main;

the vessels which the Spirit used were sanctified vessels.

"Holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy

Ghost." But as they were all corrupt at first, so there

were diversities in the operation whereby they were called

and qualified for their work. There were diversities in

the times, and degrees of their sanctification. Some were

carried so near perfection in the body, that human eyes

could no longer discern spot or wrinkle; in others the

principle of grace was so largely overlaid with earthli-

ness, that observers were left in doubt whether they had

been turned to the Lord's side at all. But the diversity

in all its extent is like the other ways of God; and He

knows how to make either extreme fall into its place in

the concert of his praise. He who made Saul an apostle,

did not disdain to use Solomon as a prophet. Very

diverse were the two men, and very diverse their life

course; yet in one thing they are perfectly alike. To-

gether in glory now they know themselveselves to have been

only sinners, and agree in ascribing all their salvation to

the mercy of God.

Moreover, although good men wrote the Bible, our

faith in the Bible does not rest on the goodness of the

men who wrote it The fatal facility with which men

glide into the worship of men may suggest another reason

why some of the channels chosen for conveying the mind

of God were marred by glaring deficiencies. Among

THE PREACHER. 13

many earthen vessels, in various measures purged of their

filthiness, may not the Divine Administrator in wisdom

select for actual use some of the least pure, in order by

that grosser argument to force into grosser minds the con-

viction that the excellency of the power is all of God?

If all the writers of the Bible had been perfect in holiness

—if no stain of sin could be traced on their character,

no error noted in their life, it is certain that the Bible

would not have served all the purposes which it now serves

among men. It would have been God-like indeed in

matter and in mould, but it would not have reached down

to the low estate of man—it would not have penetrated

to the sores of a human heart. For engraving the life

lessons of his word, our Father uses only diamonds: but

in every diamond there is a flaw, in some a greater and

in some a less; and who shall dare to dictate to the Omni-

scient the measure of defect that blinds Him to fling the

instrument as a useless thing away?

When God would leave on my mind in youth the

lesson that the pleasures of sin are barbed arrows, he uses

that same Solomon as the die to indent it in. I mark

the wisdom of the choice. I get and keep the lesson, but

the homage of my soul goes to God who gave it, and not

to Solomon, the instrument through which it came. God

can make man's wrath to praise him, and their vanity too.

He can make the clouds bear some benefits to the earth,

which the sun cannot bestow. He can make brine serve

some purposes in nature which sweet water could not

fulfil. So, practical lessons on some subjects come better

through the heart and lips of the weary repentant king,

14 THE PREACHER.

than through a man who had tasted fewer pleasures, and

led a more even life.

Two principles cover the whole case. "All things are

of God;" and "All things are for your sakes." We can

never be sufficiently familiar with these two: (1.) The

universality of God's government; and (2.) The special

use for his own people to which he turns every person

and every thing. All Solomon's wisdom, and power,

and glory and pleasure were an elaborate writing by the

finger of God, containing a needful lesson to his children.

The wisdom which we are invited to hear is Divine wis-

dom; the complicated life-experience of Solomon is the

machinery of articulation employed to convey it to the

ears of men. In casting some of the separate letters, the

king may have been seeking only his own pleasure, yet

the whole, when cast, are set by the Spirit so that they

give forth an important page of the word of truth.

The thought recurs, that the king of Jerusalem was not

from his antecedents, qualified to sit in the chair of autho-

rity and teach morality to mankind. No, he was not:

and perhaps on that very account the morality which he

taught is all the more impressive. Here is a marvel;

NOT A LINE OF SOLOMON'S WRITINGS TENDS TO PALLIATE

SOLOMON'S SINS. How do you account for this? The

errors and follies were his own; they were evil. But out

of them the All-wise has brought good. The glaring im-

perfections of the man's life have been used as a dark

ground to set off the lustre of that pure righteousness

which the Spirit has spoken by his lips.

THE BOOK—PROVERBS. 15

II.

THE BOOK—PROVERBS.

"To understand a proverb, and the interpretation;

the words of the wise, and their dark sayings."—i. 6.

IT is safer and better to assume that all men know what

a proverb is, than to attempt a logical definition of it.

As a general rule, the things that are substantially best

known are hardest to define.

Proverbs are very abundant in all languages, and

among all peoples. Many of them, though they seem

fresh and full of sap on our lips to-day, have descended

to us from the remotest antiquity. They deal with all

manner of subjects, but chiefly with the broadest features

of common life. The peculiar charm and power of the

proverb are due to a combination of many elements.

Among others are the condensed antithetic form of

expression and the mingled plainness and darkness of

the meaning. Often there is something to startle at first;

and yet, on closer inspection, that which seemed paradox,

turns out to be only intenser truth. Like those concen-

trated essences of food, which are so much used by tra-

vellers in our day, the proverb may not present to the

eye the appearance of the wisdom that it was originally

made of; but a great quantity of the raw material has

been used up in making one, and that one, when skil-

fully dissolved, will spread out to its original dimensions.

16 THE BOOK—PROVERBS.

Much matter is pressed into little room, that it may

keep, and carry. Wisdom, in this portable form, acts an

important part in human life. The character of a people

gives shape to their proverbs; and again, the proverbs

go to mould the character of the people who use them.

These well worn words are precious, as being real gold,

and convenient, as being a portable, stamped, and recog-

nised currency.

As a general rule, proverbs spring from the people at

large, as herbage springs spontaneously from the soil, and

the parentage of the individual remains for ever unknown.

Very few proverbs are attached, even traditionally, to the

name of any man as their author. From time to time

collections of these products are made, and catalogued

by the curious; and the stock is continually increasing

as the active life of a nation gives them off. In other

cases, books of proverbs have an opposite origin. Persons

who appreciate the proverbial form cast their own thoughts

in that mould, and so make a book of sentences, which

are proverbs in their nature, although not, in point of

fact, generated by casual contact of mind with mind in

miscellaneous human life. It is altogether probable that,

as to its construction, the Book of Proverbs partook of

both kinds. It is probable that Solomon gathered and

recast many proverbs which had sprung from human ex-

perience in preceding ages, and were floating past him on

the tide of time; and that he also elaborated many new

ones from the material of his own experience. Towards

the close of the book, indeed, are preserved some of

Solomon's own sayings, that seem to have fallen from

THE BOOK—PROVERBS. 17

his lips in later life, and been gathered by other

hands.

Even in this one book the proverb appears under con-

siderable diversity of form. Both in the beginning and

towards the close, occur arguments, more or less length-

ened, of continuous texture. But even in these the seve-

ral links of the connected chain are cast in the proverbial

mould; and the great central mass of the book consists

of brief sayings, more or less arranged, indeed, but almost

entirely isolated.

Considering how great a place proverbs hold in human

language—how great a part they act in human life—it

was to be expected that the Spirit would use that instru-

ment, among others, in conveying the mind of God to

men. Proverbs, like hymns and histories, are both in

human life and in the Bible—in the Bible, because they

are in human life. If you wished to convey a message

to a number of countrymen in France, you would not

speak in Latin in order to display your own learning; you

would speak in French in order to accomplish your object.

God's will to man is communicated by means of instru-

ments which man already uses, and therefore understands.

A greater than Solomon spoke in proverbs. He who

knew what was in man sometimes took up that instru-

ment, to probe therewith the secrets of the heart. Some

he gathered as they grew in nature, and others he created

by his word; but the old and the new alike are spirit

and life, when they drop from the lips of Jesus.

Of the proverbs current in the world many are light, and

some are wicked. Those of this book are grave and good.

18 THE BOOK—PROVERBS.

God's words are pure, whether he speaks by the prophets

of old, or by his own Son in the latter day. "More

be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb. Moreover,

by them is thy servant warned."—Psalm xix. 10, 11.

The book from which the following studies are selected

is peculiarly rich in "warnings," and the age in which

we live peculiarly needs them. "Speak, Lord, for thy

servant heareth."

THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE. 19

III.

THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:

but fools despise wisdom and instruction."—i. 7.

THE royal preacher begins his sermon at the beginning.

He intends to discourse largely of knowledge and wisdom

in all their aspects, and he lays his foundation deep in

"the fear of the Lord." This brief announcement con-

tains the germ of a fair-reaching philosophy. Already it

marks the book divine. The heathen of those days pos-

sessed no such doctrines Solomon had access to a

Teacher who was not known in their schools

"The fear of the Lord" is an expression of frequent

occurrence throughout the Scriptures. It has various

shades of meaning, marked by the circumstances in which

it is found; but in the main it implies a right state of

heart toward God, as opposed to the alienation of an

unconverted man. Though the word is "fear," it does not

exclude a filial confidence, and a conscious peace. There

may be such love as shall cast all the torment out of the

fear, and yet leave full bodied, in a human heart, the

reverential awe which all, creatures owe to the Highest

One. "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be

feared." "Oh fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is

no want to them that fear him!" "I am the Lord thy

God;" behold the ground of submissive reverence:

20 THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE

"which brought thee up from the land of Egypt;" be-

hold the source of confiding love. What God is inspires

awe; what God has done for his people commands affec-

tion. See here the centrifugal and centripetal forces of

the moral world, holding the creature reverently distant

from the Creator, yet compassing the child about with

everlasting love, to keep him near a Father in heaven.

The whole of this complicated and reciprocal relation is

often indicated in Scripture by the brief expression, "the

fear of God."

"Knowledge" and "wisdom" are not distinguished

here; at least they are not contrasted. Both terms may

be employed to designate the same thing; but when they

are placed in antithesis, wisdom is the nobler of the two.

Knowledge may be possessed in large measure by one

who is destitute of wisdom, and who consequently does

no good by it, either to himself or others. A lucid defi-

nition of both, in their specific and distinct applications,

is embodied in a proverb of this book, xv. 2, "the tongue

of the wise useth knowledge aright" We take the two

terms of this text as in effect synonymous,—the best

knowledge wisely used for the highest ends.

What is the relation which subsists between the fear

of the Lord and true wisdom? The one is the founda-

tion, the other the imposed superstructure; the one is

the sustaining root, the other the sustained branches;

the one is the living fountain, the other the issuing

stream.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:

the meaning is, he who does not reverentially trust in

THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE. 21

God, knows nothing yet as he ought to know. His know-

ledge is partial and distorted. Whatever acquisitions in

science he may attain, if his heart depart from the living

God, he abides an ignorant man. He who in his heart

says "no God," is a fool, however wise he may be in the

estimation of the world, and his own.

But how does this judgment accord with facts?

Have not some Atheists, or at least Infidels, reached the

very highest attainments in various departments of know-

ledge? It is true that some men, who remain willingly

ignorant of God, who even blaspheme his name, and

despise his word, have learned many languages, have

acquired skill in the theory and application of mathema-

tics, have stored their memories with the facts of history,

and the maxims of politics—this is true, and these

branches of knowledge are not less precious because they

are possessed by men whose whom life turns round

on the pivot of one central and all-pervading error; but

after this concession, our position remains intact. These

men possess some fragments of the superstructure of

knowledge, but they have not the foundation; they

possess some of the branches, but they have missed the root.

The knowledge of God—his character and plans, his

hatred of sin, his law of holiness, his way of mercy—

is more excellent than all that an unbelieving philo-

sopher has attained. If it be attainable, and if a Chris-

tian has reached it, then is a Christian peasant wiser

than the wisest who know not God. It is a knowledge

more deeply laid, more difficult of attainment, more fruitful,

and more comprehensive, than all that philosophers know.

22 THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE.

What right has an unbelieving astronomer to despise a

Christian labourer as an ignorant man? Let them be

compared as to the point in question, the possession of

knowledge. Either is ignorant of the other's peculiar

department, but it is an error to suppose the astronomer's

department the higher of the two. The Christian knows

God; the astronomer knows certain of his material

works. The Christian knows moral, the astronomer phy-

sical laws. The subjects of the Christian's knowledge are

as real as the heavenly bodies. The knowledge is as dif-

ficult, and perhaps, in its higher degrees, as rare. It

reaches further, it lasts longer, it produces greater results.

The astronomer knows the planet's path; but if that

planet should burst its bonds, and wander into dark-

ness, his knowledge will not avail to cast a line around

the prodigal and lead him home. He can mark the

degrees of divergence, and predict the period of total

loss, but after that he has no more that he can do. The

Christian's knowledge, after it has detected the time,

manner, and extent of the fallen spirit's aberration, avails

farther to lay a new bond unseen around him, soft, yet

strong, which will compel him to come in again to his

Father's house and his Father's bosom. The man who

knows that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so grace

reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus

Christ our Lord, possesses a deeper, more glorious, and

more potential knowledge, than the man who calculates

the courses of the planets, and predicts the period of the

comet's return.

Men speak of the stupendous effects which knowledge,

THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. 23

in the department of mechanical philosophy, has produced

on the face of the world, and in the economy of human

life; but the permanence of these acquisitions depends on

the authority of moral laws in the consciences of men.

If there were no fear of God, there would be no reverence

for moral law in the bulk of mankind. If moral re-

straints are removed from the multitude, society reverts

to a savage state. Inventions in art, though once at-

tained, are again lost, when a community feed on venison,

and clothe themselves with skins. So, "the fear of the

Lord" is a fundamental necessity, on which high attain-

ments, even in material prosperity, absolutely depend.

True knowledge in the spiritual department, as to the

authority, the sanction, and the rule of morality, is a

greater thing than true knowledge in the material depart-

ment, for the moral encircles and controls the economic

in the affairs of men.

The man whose knowledge begins and ends with

matter and its laws, has got a superstructure without a

foundation. In that learning the enduring relations of

man as an immortal have no place, and the fabric topples

over when the breath of life goes out. But this begin-

ning of knowledge, resting on the being and attributes of

God, and comprehending all the relations of the crea-

ture, is a foundation that cannot be shaken. On that

solid base more and more knowledge will be reared, high

as heaven, wide as the universe, lasting as eternity.

The knowledge of God is the root of knowledge.

When branches are cut from a tree and laid on the

ground at a certain season, they retain for a time a por-

24 THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE.

tion of their sap. I have seen such branches, when the

spring came round, pushing forth buds like their neigh-

bours. But very soon the slender stock of sap was

exhausted, and as there was no connection with a root,

so as to procure a new supply, the buds withered away.

How unlike the buds that spring from the branches grow-

ing in the living root! This natural life is like a severed

branch. The knowledge that springs from it is a bud

put forth by the moisture residing in itself. When

life passes, it withers away. When a human soul is, by

the regeneration, "rooted in Him," the body's dissolution

does not nip its knowledge in the bud. Transplanted

into a more genial clime, that knowledge will flourish for

ever. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, what it will

grow to.

THE FAMILY. 25.

IV.

THE FAMILY.

"My son, hear the instruction of thy father,

and forsake not the law of thy mother."—i. 8.

THE first and great commandment is the fear of God, and

the, second, which is next to it, and like to it, is obedience

to parents. Wherever the root is planted, this is the first

fruit which it bears.

The teaching of the Decalogue, and of the Proverbs,

though circumstantially different, is essentially the same.

On the one hand we have the legislator formally record-

ing a code of laws; on the other, the aged, prosperous,

and witty monarch collecting the best sayings that had

been current at his court in that Augustan age of Hebrew

literature. The cast of the writings corresponds with

the position of the men; yet there are evident marks

of the same spirit as the teacher, and the same truth

as the lesson. The ten commandments are divided into

two tables. The first lays the foundation of all duty

in our relation to God, and the second rears the super-

structure in the various offices of love between man and

his fellow. In the Decalogue the fear of God, lies deepest

as the root; and of the manifold duties which man owes

to man, the branch that springs forth first is filial love.

It is precisely the same here. The beginning of the com-

mandment is "Fear the Lord" and the earliest outcome is,

26 THE FAMILY.

"My son, hear the instruction of thy father." This verse

of the Proverbs flows from the same well-spring that

had already given forth the fifth commandment.

God honours his own ordinance, the family. He gives

parents rank next after himself. Filial love stands near,

and leans on godliness.

God is the author of the family constitution. He has

conceived the plan, and executed it. Its laws are stamped

in nature, and declared in the word. The equal num-

bers of the sexes born into the world, the feebleness of

childhood at first, and the returning frailty of age, are

so many features of the family institute left by the

Creator indented on his work. They intimate not ob-

scurely the marriage of one man with one woman, the

support of children by parents, and the support of decayed

parents by ther children grown. There are many such

laws deeply imprinted in nature; and in nature, too, a

terrible vengeance is stored up, which bursts with uner-

ring exactitude on the head of the transgressor.

One of the wonders of that little world in the dwelling

is the adaptation by which all the powers of the elder

children are exerted for the protection of the youngest.

A boisterous and impulsive boy, able and willing to main

tain his rights by force of arms against a rival older than

himself, may be seen to check suddenly the embryo man-

hood that was spurting prematurely out, and put on a

mimic motherliness, the moment that the infant appears,

bent on a journey across the room, and tottering unsteady

by. A condescending look, and a winning word, and a

soft arm around,—all the miniature man is put forth in

THE FAMILY. 27

self-forgetting benevolence. How exquisitely contrived is

this machinery in nature, both for protecting the feeble

thing that receives the kindness, and softening the rude

hand that bestows it! There is fine material here for

parents to watch and work upon. The stem is soft, you

may train it; the growth is rapid, you must train it

now.

In proportion as men have adopted and carried out the

ordinance in its purity, have the interests of society pros-

pered. All deviations are at once displeasing to God and

hurtful to men. The polygamy of Eastern peoples has made

the richest portions of the earth like a howling wilderness

The festering sores opened in the body of the community

by the licentiousness of individuals among ourselves, make

it evident, that if the course, which is now a too frequent

exception, should become the general rule, society itself

would soon waste away. It is chiefly by their effects in

deranging the order of families, that great manufactories

deteriorate a community. Though the socialist bodies,

being so sickly and diseased in constitution, have never

lived much beyond infancy amongst us; yet, as they are

founded on a reversal of the family law, their effects,

as far as they have produced effects, are misery and ruin.

The Romish priesthood, abjuring the divinely provided

companionship of the household, and adopting solitude, or

something worse, have ever been like a pin loose in the

circling machinery of society, tearing every portion as it

passes by. In the constitution of nature there is a self-

acting apparatus for punishing the transgression of the

family laws. The divine institute is hedged all round.

28 THE FAMILY.

The prickles tear the flesh of those who are so foolish as

to kick against them.

In practice, and for safety, keep families together as

long as it is possible. When the young must go forth

from a father's house, let a substitute be provided as

closely allied to the normal institution as the circum-

stances will admit. Let a s