_Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife._ THE MAKER AND BREAKER OF A FAMILY’S PEACE Truth sweetens the relations of life; falsehood eats like rust into their core. When they live in love, men meet each other softly and kindly, as the eyelids me... [ Continue Reading ]
_The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts._ GOD’S FINING POT AND FURNACE The text is a parabolical description of God’s almighty power and wisdom, for the discovery and reformation of the closest, and subtlest, and perfectest thing in the world, which... [ Continue Reading ]
_A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue._ THE CONVERSATIONAL LIKINGS OF BAD MEN Men’s characters may be known by the conversations they most relish. The text enables us to see the kind of conversation that bad men like. I. They like flattery. “A wicked... [ Continue Reading ]
_A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool._ MORAL AND CORPOREAL CHASTISEMENT I. The one in its sphere is as legitimate as the other. Look at the sphere of each. 1. The sphere of the moral. It is for the wise. The “reproof” is for men open to reason and impressio... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly._ THE CRUELTY OF FOOLS The rage of wild beasts is short-lived, and their power is circumscribed within narrow limits. Man has more cause to dread his brother than all the beasts of the forest. Ambition, jealousy, and supe... [ Continue Reading ]
_The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with._ STRIFE AND CONTENTION Here contention seems to differ from strife, the former being more general, the latter more particular. Strife is by implication wholly forbidden, as being mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord._ OUR ESTIMATE OF OTHER MEN We may regard such an estimate from three points of view: in its effect on those thus estimated, on society in general, and on ourselves. Did we ever question with... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore is there a price in the hand of fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?_ OPPORTUNITIES OF YOUTH The term “fool” is not used in the modern sense of a man without reason; but rather in the sense of an unreasoning man. The term is applied much as we apply the term “wicked man.” T... [ Continue Reading ]
_A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity._ THE UNRIVALLED FRIEND Few men enjoy from others the highest and truest form of friendship. There is, however, a higher friendship among men of principle, among men of virtue. Where godliness builds her house, true friendship find... [ Continue Reading ]
_A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones._ MENTAL AND BODILY INFLUENCE The connection between the mind and the body, though not to be explained, is so striking as to force itself upon the notice of the least observant. There is such a sympathy between the two... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth._ THE NEARNESS OF LIFE’S INTEREST AND WORK “Far fowls have fine feathers”--that is our modern rendering of the Hebrew proverb. Both proverbs are directed against a common weakness of human nature, our... [ Continue Reading ]
_Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity._ STRIKING PRINCES The spirit of lawlessness, which sought a remedy for real or imaginary ills by striking at princes, was not a strange thing in the times of Solomon. The simple negative in Scripture is often stronger and more... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that hath knowledge spareth his words._ SIGNS OF A WISE MAN Two ways a man may show himself to be a wise man. 1. By the good temper, the sweetness and the sedateness of his mind. “A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit,”_ i.e.,_ a precious spirit. He is one that looks well to his sp... [ Continue Reading ]