Psalms 32:9

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding.

Bit and bridle: how to escape them

I. A privilege to be sought.

1. This guidance is very full in its nature.

(1) God is prepared to give you an inward understanding of spiritual things; for His instruction is intensely effectual upon the mind.

(2) God adds the precept to the doctrine, and instructs us in both.

(3) Here is fellowship as well as instruction; for the guide goes with the traveller, and thus will God, in the process of our instruction, give us fellowship with Himself.

2. This teaching is divine in its source. Our Lord may instruct us by men who are taught of Himself; but, after all, the best of His servants cannot teach us anything profitably except the Lord Himself teaches by them and through them. What a wonderful condescension it is that the Lord should become a teacher!

3. Observe how wonderfully personal is this promised guidance. The Infinite focusses Himself upon the insignificant!

4. This teaching is delightfully tender.

5. This teaching is constant.

II. A character to be avoided.

1. We are not to imitate creatures of which we are the superiors. One said, in my hearing, as an excuse for a passionate speech, “I could not help it. If you tread on a worm it will turn.” Is a worm to be the example for a saint?

2. We must mind that we do not imitate creatures to whom we are so near akin. A large part of us is animal, and its tendency is to drag down that part which is more than angelic. How abject, and yet how august is man! Brother go the worm, and yet akin to Deity. Immortal and yea a child of dust. Be ye not the prey of your lower natures.

3. We are not to imitate creatures devoid of reason. Be sensitive to the Spirit of God. “Give me understanding and I shall keep Thy law.”

III. As infliction to be escaped. DO not drive your Saviour to be stern with you. Do not choose the way of hardness--the brutish way. “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding,” for then you will become sad, gloomy, dull, stupid, and full of disquietude.

IV. A freedom to be attained. There are children of God who wear no bit or bridle: the Lord has loosed their bonds. To them obedience is delight: they keep His commands with their whole heart. The Son has made them free, and they are free indeed.

1. They are free, because they are in touch with God. God’s will is their will. They answer to the Lord as the echo to the voice.

2. Because tutored.

3. Because always trusting.

4. Because tender. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

That reason is an insufficient guide

That the will of man stands in need of restraint and control is an acknowledged truth: but it has been of late discovered that reason is all-sufficient in itself; that it wants no spur to stimulate, or curb to check it; but that, if left to take its own course, it is liable to no error--it never fails--it never injures others, or itself. Before this new doctrine be admitted, it must be subjected to the test of time and trial;--it must, like all other theories, be reduced to practice. What is religion, but the guide of reason and the controller of the will? What is law, but the restraint of individual will for the good of all? What is education, but the art of forming the will to obedience, of correcting its errors, and training it to virtue?

I. religion cheeks the vices, follies, and passions of mankind, by inculcating a belief that there is a Superior Power which created us, such as we are;--that set good and evil before us, for our free will to choose; but promised a reward for the one, and a punishment for the other. All religion, therefore, stands upon the supposition that reason left to itself is insufficient to direct us;--for if we should all choose the good of our own accord, reward and punishment must be superfluous: even false religion supposes this; nay, even a religion in the hands of the magistrate,--a political religion,--the avowed invention of man,--the product of reason itself, imputes error to reason, and preaches up the necessity of control.

II. The very existence of LAW in the world is a testimony of the universal suffrage of mankind against the power of reason. If all men acted right of their own accord there would be no need of law to restrain them.

III. education, though applied first to the individual, is the last resource of society. Men form themselves into society, from their mutual fears, for mutual protection. Their notions of a Deity may be derived from tradition or revelation. But, in the ordinary course of things, both religion and law exist before education. It is from reflection that men begin to perceive that the rising generation may be trained to habits suitable to the society of which they are to become members; and if education could act in proportion to its design, it would prevent the commission of those crimes which the law must punish.

IV. but do we really hope to stem the torrent by religion, law, and education? Yes--if they have not lost their effect upon the mind of man. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)