Proverbs 11:14

Where no counsel is, the people fall.

The value of advice

Kings and rulers stand in special need of counsel. When a ruler is surrounded by good counsellors he and his people are safe. We can trace this truth in the rise and fall of nations. God’s advice is one of our most valuable helps, and the text tells us not to neglect it. Man is apt to go astray. His judgment is sometimes misled; while his affections are corrupted, and his will is ungoverned.

I. Why do we need advice? The first reason is found in the peculiar nature of the evils to which we are exposed. Sin has a strangely deluding influence over those whom it tempts. Here there is scope of need for wise counsels, which may enforce the neglected voice of conscience. Advice is also necessary in consequence of special circumstances in which we are placed. We are involved in difficulties from which others are required to rescue us. “Where no counsel is, the people fall.”

II. Where are we to seek advice? We should not ask for it except when we really require it. To be ever at a loss what to do unless we are “advised” is a characteristic of a life that is usually spent to little purpose. The secret of a useful course through the world lies in a measure of self-reliance. At other times when advice is sought there is a foregone conclusion, and a man only wishes to have his own views confirmed. Out of its proper place advice, instead of being a help, is almost a hindrance to a right decision. It is not safe to go indiscriminately to all sorts of people with a statement of our difficulties, and entreaties for advice in dealing with them. This disposition is the evidence of a weak mind and an irresolute will. There is no real safety in the counsel sought in the confessional. Supreme wisdom comes to us with greatest force when it flows through the channel of hearts bound closely to our own.

III. How to take advice. The danger of resenting counsel, when it is unpleasant, is one with which we are all more or less familiar. Those who give advice should always be pure of their warrant to do so. But the more experience a man has the less disposed he will be to give advice unsought. Men are rarely careful enough in their way of giving disagreeable advice. There is a spirit and a manner in some counsels which it is not in human nature to bear. But we must take care lest we be displeased with others whose advice we get, simply because we dislike it. All are not good counsellors who try to lead, and we cannot too carefully test the words of advice which, on every hand, are spoken to us. When we are in doubt as to their value, we must weigh them in the balance of God’s sanctuary; and if they speak not according to His law, it is because there is no truth in them. The Great Adviser is always interested in us. Reliance on help from above is verified by the experience of all good men. (A. MacEwen, D.D.)