_A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches._ ON GOOD CHARACTER, OR GENERAL ESTEEM OF MANKIND While our Maker has left us greatly in the dark about unimportant and disputable matters, He has given plain directions concerning the performance of our duty. There is nothing more closely conn... [ Continue Reading ]
_The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all._ THE MIXTURE OF RICH AND POOR I. In all civil societies there are rich and there are poor people. This is the unavoidable consequence of the constitution of things. It will appear so if we examine whence ariseth wealth and whence... [ Continue Reading ]
_A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself._ SEEN AND UNSEEN EVILS OF LIFE The great mass of mankind live at hazard, so far as the final end of life is concerned. No certain destination is in their view, nor is their life guided by any central principle. There is a right object at which... [ Continue Reading ]
_By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life._ HUMILITY RECOMMENDED Every being pursues its own perfection, and would fain be satisfied in all the capacities it understands, and in all the importunate appetites it feels. God draws us insensibly to virtue and obedience, by... [ Continue Reading ]
_Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it._ ON THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH A strict and virtuous education of youth is absolutely necessary to a man’s attainment of that inestimable blessing, that unspeakable felicity, of being serviceable to his God, eas... [ Continue Reading ]
_The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender._ THE BORROWER SERVANT TO THE LENDER The mere circumstance of being rich gives one man superiority over another who is poor. He who is forced to borrow is placed on that very account in a sort of relative inferiority to him... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity._ THE HUSBANDRY AND HARVESTOF THE WICKED I. What is it to sow iniquity? or, to “sow to the flesh”? To follow only such a kind of life as a man’s own carnal and corrupt humour leads unto. It is called “sowing” because-- 1. Before sowing goes the dressing... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed._ THE BOUNTIFUL EYE The passage before us speaks of bounty in man, and blessedness from God. What is a bountiful eye, and what is the blessing belonging to him who possesses it? The eye is a wonderful part of the curiously wrought human frame. But the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease._ THE SCORNER The scorner is a character which Solomon has frequently called our attention to in preceding Chapter s. Few characters in society are more despicable in spirit or pernicious in influence. I. As... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend._ PURITY What is purity--this bright and blessed strength of human life? The foundation of all purity must rest upon the body. Without bodily purity no other form of purity is possible. On this must rise the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The slothful man saith, There is a lion without._ ONE LION; TWO LIONS; NO LION AT ALL This slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about the lions as if it were his favourite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble to invent another excuse. Perhaps he hugs it to his soul all the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of cor-rection shall drive it far from him._ FOOLISHNESS AND THE REMEDY I. The evil deplored. 1. Of what does this foolishness consist? Wrong wishes, purposes, thoughts, pride, sin, levity, etc. 2. Where does this foolishness lurk? In th... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches. .. shall surely come to want._ AVARICE I. Oppression. “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches “(R.V., “gain”). Everywhere do we see avarice working out its designs, and building up its fortunes by oppressing the poor. The poor have n... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise._ SPIRITUAL VERITIES I. The experimental knowledge of them is a transcendent blessing. They are “excellent things” in themselves--things that reveal a spiritual universe, a glorious Redeemer, and an ever-blessed God. But the verses teach that a k... [ Continue Reading ]
_That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth._ CERTAINTIES This is an age of inquiry. The ideas of the ancient world are the ideas of the childhood of the race. The Bible is a human book, which we reverence and love as a sacred treasure on account of the Divine spirit which per... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remove not the ancient landmarks._ THE OLD LANDMARKS The wisdom of the Mosaic code is nowhere more manifest than in its provisions touching the tenure of land. Every man in Israel was a landowner, and he must remain so. It was customary to mark the boundaries of estates by corner-stones. To remov... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seest thou a man diligent in his business?_ he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. THE BIBLE IDEAL OF MAN The Bible is a history of human life and a picture of character extending through many ages, and embracing in its scope a vast variety of the family of man. There e... [ Continue Reading ]