Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands . Proverbs 14:1 The wise builder D. C. Clark. The Scriptures have adapted their instructions to every character and condition in human life. I. DESCRIBE THE WISE WOMAN. 1. She must know how to manage with prudence and care the concerns of a family. It is woman's work to "guide the house." How many, on marrying, find they need to learn the first principles of domestic economy. If a man can be more happy in any other house than his own, he is a lost man. 2. A wise woman will improve her taste and her manners. This in no way involves her becoming proud. 3. A wise woman will aim to improve her mind. The mind is enlarged by receiving ideas, and by using them as materials of thought and reasoning. 4. A wise woman will endeavour to enlighten and improve her conscience. This is the faculty of the soul by which we weigh the morality of an action. To improve the conscience we must give it light, and let it guide us. Well enlightened, it guides to happiness and heaven. 5. A wise woman will be particularly careful to cultivate the heart. The instinctive affections are capable of improvement by other means than grace. But the female character is essentially defective in the absence of piety. Religion has a peculiar sweetness when it mingles with the modest softness of the female character. By reason of their peculiar trials, females need the comforts, hopes, and prospects of religion more, if possible, than the other sex. II. A WISE WOMAN BUILDETH HER HOUSE. To build her house is to promote the best good of her husband and her offspring. 1. How will such a woman affect their estate? Her wisdom will save more than her hands could earn. 2. She will render her family respectable. 3. She will render her family happy. She will so manage as not to irritate their passions. Her example will breathe through the house a mild and soft atmosphere. There is no resisting the combined influence of so many virtues. What she cannot do by her precepts and examples, she effects by her prayers. Her influence surely extends beyond her own family.Reflections: 1. Females see how they are to rise in the scale of being. 2. See the importance of supporting good schools. 3. See the importance of the gospel. 4. Females should make the Scriptures their daily study.From the mother, rather than the father, the members of the family will take their character. ( D. C. Clark. ) Wise and foolish wives J. Parker, D.D. The foolish woman does not know that she is plucking down her house; she thinks she is building it up. By unwise energy, by self-assertion, by thoughtless speeches, by words flung like firebrands, she is doing unutterable mischief, not only to herself, but to her husband and family. There are, on the other hand, wise women who are quietly and solidly building the house night and day: they make no demonstration; the last characteristic that could be supposed to attach to them would be that of ostentation; they measure the whole day, they number its hours, they apportion its worth; every effort they make is an effort which has been reasoned out before it was begun; every word is looked at before it is uttered; every company is estimated before it is entrusted with confidence. In this way the wise woman consolidates her house. ( J. Parker, D.D. ) House wifery Homilist. I. ITS GREAT POWER. 1. It can build up. "Every wise woman buildeth her house."(1) Materially. By her economy, industry, and wise management she increases its material resources. A good wife builds up her house —(2) Spiritually. A good wife by her example, her spirit, her admonitions, her reproofs, her prayers, rears in her house a very temple of industry, intelligence, and worship. 2. It can pull down. "The foolish plucketh it down with her hands." There are women who by their miserable tempers and degrading habits ruin their husbands and children. II. ITS NECESSARY QUALIFICATION. What is the necessary qualification for a good housewife? "Wisdom." ( Homilist. ) Home made happy by a good wife Christian Treasury. A plain marble stone, in a churchyard, bears this brief inscription: "She always made home happy." This epitaph was penned by a bereaved husband, after sixty years of wedded life. He might have said of his departed wife, she was beautiful, and accomplished, and an ornament to society, and yet not have said she made home happy. Alas, he might have added, she was a Christian, and not have been able to say, "She always made home happy." What a rare combination of virtues and graces this wife and mother must have possessed! How wisely she must have ordered her house! In what patience she must have possessed her soul! How self-denying she must have been! How tender and loving! How thoughtful for the comfort of all about her! ( Christian Treasury. ) He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord. Proverbs 14:2 Human conduct D. Thomas, D.D. I. MEN DIFFER WIDELY IN THEIR DAILY CONDUCT. 1. Some men walk uprightly. Walking uprightly implies —(1) Moral strength. The man is not bent and crooked by the infirmities of sin or the weight of depravity.(2) Conscious rectitude. He does not bow down his head, as if ashamed to look his neighbour in the face. He is as open as the day, and as fearless as the sun. 2. Some walk perversely. "They are perverse in their ways." They are crooked in their purposes, policies, and performances. II. MEN REVEAL THEIR HEART TOWARDS GOD IN THEIR DAILY WALK. 1. Right conduct springs from a right feeling towards God. The man that walketh uprightly feareth the Lord. There is no true morality without religion. Piety is the first principle of all rectitude. All good living must have respect to God. 2. Wrong conduct springs from wrong feeling towards God. "He that is perverse in his ways, despiseth Him." The wrong doer has no feeling of respect for God. He ignores Him as much as he can. You may know how men feel inwardly toward their Maker by observing how they deal outwardly with each other. ( D. Thomas, D.D. ) Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. Proverbs 14:4 The law of increase W. A. Gray. The illustration is drawn from husbandry, and in a country like Palestine, where the ox had such an important place in agricultural operations, it was peculiarly intelligible and peculiarly fit. "Where is the farmer," says the wise man, "who, in order to preserve tidiness in his stalls, would forego the assistance of oxen in his fields?" Something he might secure, no doubt; a rack unsoiled by the oxen's fodder, a floor unmarked by the oxen's hoofs, the absence of disorder that offends the eye, the freedom from task-work that tires the arm, with whatsoever satisfaction such immunity affords. Yes, but what does he lose? Almost all that makes his property profitable, almost all that makes his stackyard full. What of the ploughing of the land? What of the carrying home of the sheaves? What of the treading out of the corn? "Where no cattle are, the crib is clean." True. But what of that? Is the cleanness worth considering, in comparison with the increase that comes by the strength of the ox? And now, I think, we have hold of the principle. There is no good to be got without its accompanying drawbacks; let the drawbacks and the good be weighed carefully together, and if the good outbalance the drawbacks, then let the good be chosen and the drawbacks faced with resolution, intelligence, and cheerfulness. Sentiment is right in its place, fastidiousness is proper in its season; but sentiment is worse than idle, fastidiousness is worse than false, when we permit them to stand between us and a substantial good, the good that Providence intends us to get or the good that Providence commands us to do. I. We might begin with an illustration from the INDUSTRIAL sphere, the relation, namely, between manufacture and natural scenery. Where no manufacture is, the scenery is intact; but much increase comes by the processes of manufacture. Take, for example, the midland counties of England, and especially those parts of them we know as the Black Country. No region of England is more picturesque in itself, marked by the outlines and stored with the elements of natural and original beauty. Yet how man has overlaid and defaced things! Look at the country as it is now, ploughed with railway tracks, torn with excavations, encumbered with heaps of rubbish. And those to whom beauty is all may object to this. "What barbarism," they say, "what vandalism, what wanton and wilful desecration of the sanctities of nature! Better, surely, was the country in its virgin luxuriance, when the slopes were clothed with woodland." Well, the change means loss, no doubt, loss from the standpoint of the beauty-lover. But it means gain from the standpoint of the utilitarian, and gain, too, in the eye of those who look higher than what is merely utilitarian. For not only does black smoke, according to the proverb, make white silver, but it is a witness to facts, a testimony to realities, of which silver is only a single embodiment, and that, too, by no means the highest. The sight was a symbol of several things, all noble and honourable in their way. It is a symbol of man's power over nature, his diligence in extracting and his ingenuity in moulding the substance which nature conceals in her heart. It is a symbol of the clothing that covers shivering forms, a symbol of the bread that feeds hungry mouths. It is a symbol of England's greatness, industry, and world-wide trade. II. Passing from the industrial to the DOMESTIC sphere, we might select an illustration of a different character, which a poet-preacher of the time has happily associated with this text, and speak of the relation between children and home. We remark, then, that where there are no children, the house may be trim; but much profit comes through the presence and companionship of children. Neatness in a house may be good. But there is a neatness that tells of emptiness. There is a neatness that betokens loneliness. There is a neatness that is not half so attractive as the wear and tear, the disturbance and disorder, that denote the presence of busy little inmates, with their restless hands and roving feet. The loss is a small one compared with the gain. Children are God's heritage. How much they teach! How much they bestow! Not only does the parent train and develop the child, but the child may train and develop the parent. Our children should be leaders to all of us, leaders from faithlessness into faith, from restlessness into rest, from selfishness into sacrifice, from frivolity into earnestness, thoughtfulness, and the sense of responsibility. Does not the pure eye of an innocent child restrain the foul or the cruel act? Are not its needs a discipline in sympathy, its questionings a training in reflection? Where the children are absent, the home may be neat, the mind unperplexed; but much increase — increase of happiness, increase of affection, increase of prosperity — comes through association with little children. III. Or we might pass to the ECCLESIASTICAL sphere, and select as an instance of the same principle the relation between controversy and the Church. We note, then, at this point, that where no discussion is, the Church may be at rest; but much benefit comes through freedom of discussion, in the case of the Church as well as of the State. Some people are all for peace. But there is a peace of stagnation. There is a peace of indifference. There is a peace that is based upon lack of conviction. Do not judge of Church enterprises nor of Church proceedings, as some do, and condemn them simply because they create dispeace. Peace may be bought too dearly. Purity is better. Truth is better. Undoubtedly in discussion the crib may be soiled. Controversy often awakens temper, evokes party spirit, causes hard words to be said, unkind acts to be done, selfish rivalries to spring up Yet these may be a blessing in the end, in comparison of which the temporary soiling of the crib is a matter of smaller importance after all. There is the down-breaking of prejudice. There is the removing of misunderstandings. There is the formulating of principle. There is the discovering of character. It will be best for the spread of righteousness; it will be safest in the interests of belief. IV. Pass next to the sphere of PRACTICAL BENEFICENCE, and apply the principle of the text to the relation between philanthropy and experience. We remark, then, that where no philanthropy is, the experience may be easy, free from much that is unpleasant to look at, unpleasant to think of, and unpleasant to do; but much increase comes through the exercise of philanthropy. What have we here but the plain, simple lesson, which has to be learnt by every social benefactor, every Christian worker, that they who will live helpfully, as the saviours and the succourers of their fellow-men, must be prepared to forego fastidiousness. To do any real good amidst the poor, the sunken, and the vicious, men must come into contact with many things that are neither pleasant nor pure. Now, take any such labourer as these, in the great unselfishness, the overflowing charity, the fearlessness of mind and of heart, which the labour engaged in always demands. And take another, to whom labour of the time is unknown, one who, with the same possibilities and the same call, says, "No, the task you propose is distasteful, the experiences you prescribe are rough; I prefer to have my sight unoffended, my feelings unharrowed, my imagination unhaunted. Let me see to myself — the purity of my own character, the health and prosperity of my own soul, in the circle of my personal friendships, the seclusion of my private home." Put the two side by side. Which leads the richer existence? Each has its own reward. How shall we best explain these rewards, their distinctive nature, their relative value? Just in the terms of the text. For the one, the "clean crib" — a certain ignorance, a certain immunity, certain security; not only a sensibility unwrung by the spectacles of sorrow, but a mind kept closed to the pictures of sin: that, and perhaps little more than that. For the other, the "much increase," in the enriching of his personal character, the widening of his personal sympathies, together with the privilege of ministering to his brethren's welfare and the joy of being blessed to his brethren's souls. Clean garments, clean hands, who set a value upon these, as the continuous, the indispensable prerequisite of life? I will tell you who do not. Not the surgeon, as he walks the battlefield with the sponge that wipes the blood and the linen that binds the wounds. Not the rescue party, as they enter the mine, amidst the heat, the soot, and the smoke of a recent explosion, with which the caverns still echo, and the earth still smokes. Not the sailor, as he pulls to the wreck, through a troubled sea that casts up mire and dirt, till his arms are twined with the seaweed and his coat is drenched with the ooze. Clean hands and clean garments, you must be content now and then to forego them, if the world you live in is to be cleansed. V. Akin to the last thought is another one, drawn this time from the MENTAL sphere. Take the relation between force of character and life. We remark, then, in the last place, that where there is no force of character, the life may be inoffensive, harmless in itself, pleasing to others; but much increase, increase to the world and the Church, comes through force of character. Most men have the defects of their qualities. This is especially true of those whoso distinguishing quality is vigour, a certain superabounding energy and strength. The vigour is apt to be domineering, the energy rude, the strength unaccompanied with suavity, fine feeling, good taste. If you are to reap the advantage of such characters, you take them as you find them, and pardon and tolerate their coarseness that you may be helped and benefited by their zeal. Luther was earnest but rough. But we remember the work. We remember the time. Neither the period nor the task admitted of treatment by rosewater. What though the crib was untidy? Be thankful for the well-ploughed field; be thankful for the gathered sheaves of religious truth and religious liberty, which still remain in our storehouses, to give seed to the Christian sower and bread to the Christian eater, as the outcome of Luther's labours, the memorial of Luther's name. Take God's blessing as it comes to you, and be very tolerant towards the instruments. Polish is a less thing than enthusiasm, courtliness than sincerity. It may be well to have both things combined. But if we are shut up to the alternative, and feel tempted to pronounce for the softer qualities, as less likely to irritate, less apt to excite, let us fall back on the principle of the text, and while remembering that where no force of character is the life may be inoffensive, much increase comes by the vigour we fear. ( W. A. Gray. ) Where no oxen are, the crib is clean Christian Observer. I. Taken in its primary sense, IT CONVEYS A LESSON OF NO SMALL IMPORTANCE TO THE MERE CULTIVATOR OF LAND. You pride yourself upon the exquisite neatness and order of your farm. The spade, the plough, the fork, the cart, are almost as pure and delicate as when they came from the hands of the maker. But if the work is left undone, and you purchase neatness and order at the expense of having no sheep in the fold, then you pay too dear for your nicety; you have the clean crib, but you will have also an empty barn. II. The same maxim APPLIES TO THE MANAGEMENT OF A HOUSE. You pride yourself on the exquisite neatness of every corner in your dwelling-place. Not a cobweb is on the ceiling, and not a grain of dust on the staircase. The delighted mistress has the daily satisfaction of seeing her own fair face reflected in the polished table below her. The crib is clean; but you may here also buy the cleanliness at too high a price. Perhaps cleanliness is not merely your taste but your idol. You forget that usefulness is the true object of household economy, and that neatness is a mere means to this end. You, like Mr. Burke's man of honour, "feel a stain like a wound," and esteem a hole in a carpet as tantamount to a hole in your character. You forget that your house was not designed by the great Giver for yourself alone, but for your neighbours and friends, for brothers and sisters, and nephews and nieces, who want a little country air or London shopping, and who naturally look to you, as to a richer relation and friend, to give them the convenience they need. Surely you had better have a soiled "crib" than a narrow heart; and spotted tables than not a single loving, grateful, happy guest to sit at a clean one. III. This rule is also applicable, I think, TO LITERATURE. The correctness of some writers is perfectly unimpeachable. The grammarian searches in vain for a false concord or quantity, or the rhetorician for a false ornament. There is no confusion of metaphor; no redundancy of expression which disfigures the pages of less cautious writers. Now here the "crib" is clean; but then, in such cases, it is often equally true that there are no "oxen." The style is as "dull, cold, fiat, and unprofitable," as it is pure and correct. It is the judgment of a no less critic than Quintilian, that the writer who, in his youth, is never redundant, will usually in his old age be poverty stricken. Where the heart, the imagination, and the passions have free play, the critic may find something to correct; but very often also consciences will be touched and hearts be edified. IV. But I now turn to SOME HIGHER TOPICS, TO WHICH THE RULE APPEARS TO ME EQUALLY TO APPLY. Lenis is a most unexceptionable person; of the very calmest temper and the most placid manners. He is always to be found in the right place at the very right moment. He speaks little, and never offensively; he belongs to no party, and is a determined enemy to all excess. He is perhaps constant at church, though a little drowsy there; has a decided preference for vague, calm, general sermons. He gives decently to all popular or uncriticised charities. And the result of all this is, that he gets into no scrapes, incurs no reproach, is claimed as a friend by men of all opinions, simply because he was never known to express an opinion of his own. Now here "the crib "is unusually "clean." But at what expense is it purchased? I should say at the cost of most of the feelings, tastes, principles, rules, habits, and sympathies which constitute the substance and essence of the Christian character. The "crib is clean" because there are "no oxen." Lenis is as much like a statue as a man. All the higher and nobler passions of our nature have no place in him. His life is, possibly, harmless, but it is altogether unprofitable. And this because the one essential quality is wanting, the love of God, and the love of His family upon earth. He might be nearly all he is if there were no such Being as the Redeemer of the world, who had felt for him, and expected him to feel for others. The same thought may be extended to different classes of the ministers of religion. I remember to have seen, some years since, in a review of high authority, a comparison drawn between Bishop as a parochial minister, and Thomas Scott as the minister of Olney. The bishop, on quitting his parish for another sphere of duty, finds little but subjects of self-complacency, commendation, and thankfulness. The whole population might seem to have received the whole word of truth into their souls. Every plan had prospered. "The crib is clean." Mr. Scott, on the contrary, in quitting his parish, speaks strongly of the immorality of one part of the population, of the stubbornness and self-will of another, and of the abuse of the doctrines of grace in a third party. And whilst he dwells strongly, and gratefully, on the zeal, love, and fidelity of some, his language is certainly, on the whole, such as might be expected from the mourning prophet, when "rivers of water ran down his eyes because men kept not the word" of the Lord. Here, therefore, "the crib" was, to appearance, not equally "clean." But then I am disposed to think that the "oxen " were far more diligently at work in the one case than in the other. The object of the one minister was mainly to secure order, regularity, decency, harmony, with a decent regard for morals and religion. The object of the other was to "lay the axe to the root of the tree" — to convince, to alarm, to convert, to sanctify, to lead his hearers as contrite sinners to the foot of the Cross, and to qualify them under God for the highest seats in the kingdom of heaven. And the result was that, in the one case, few consciences were touched, few fears were awakened, few hearts were moved. In the other case, if there were some who were offended at plain truths announced in the somewhat homely language of the minister, there were also many awakened consciences. V. The last case to which I shall refer the proverb is that of CONTROVERSY. Eirenos is a man of peace. He can quote to you maxims without number from the Scriptures and from the writings of great theologians on the duty of gentleness, forbearance, charity. If you wish to enlist him on the side of those who are doing battle for some vital truth, he comes down upon you with a deluge of authorities which it is almost impossible to resist; tells you that Fenelon wrote a whole treatise upon "Charity"; that Bishop Hall was the author of a treatise expressly denominated "The Olive Branch "; that Hooker said the time would come when "a few words written in charity" would be worth all the angry disputation in the world. Now all this is true; and is, indeed, never to be forgotten by the disciples of a compassionate Saviour. A higher authority than any of these uninspired writers says: "If I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." But it may be well to remind Eirenos that, notwithstanding the peaceful spirit and language of all these authorities, Fenelon barely escaped burning for the honesty and explicitness with which he spoke his mind; Bishop Hall was for the same offence driven out of his diocese; Hooker was charged with all sorts of enormities before the Privy Council; and St. Paul himself was hunted down like a wild beast by all classes of the community. But Eirenos has no taste for such extravagances. Now here is the "clean crib," but where are the "oxen"? Here is Erasmus; but where is Luther, or Cranmer, or Ridley, or Latimer? Where are the zeal, the "indignation" at error, the "vehemence" of holy love, the devotion to God and to truth, which consumed the soul of the meek and lowly Saviour; which exiled St. John to Patmos; and which has lighted up the funeral pile of the whole army of saints and martyrs? ( Christian Observer. ) A faithful witness will not lie. Proverbs 14:5 A true witness The Fireside News. Truth is beautiful, as well as safe and mighty. In the incident related below a boy twelve years old, with only truth as a weapon, conquered a smart and shrewd lawyer, who was fighting for a bad cause. "Truth is the highest thing that man may keep," and the noblest child or man is he that keeps the truth ever between his lips. Walter was the important witness in a lawsuit. One of the lawyers, after cross-questioning him severely, said, "Your father has been talking to you and telling you how to testify, hasn't he? Yes," said the boy. "Now," said the lawyer, "just tell us how your father told you to testify." "Well," said the boy modestly, "father told me that the lawyers would try and tangle me in my testimony; but if I would just be careful and tell the truth, I could tell the same thing every time." The lawyer didn't try to tangle that boy any more. ( The Fireside News. ) Falsehood and flaw Newman Smyth. What a flaw is in. steel, what a foreign substance is in any texture, that a falsehood is to the character, a source of weakness, a point where under strain it may break. ( Newman Smyth. ) A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not. Proverbs 14:6 Secularism W. Arnot, D.D. It is the constant profession of those who reject the Bible that they are seeking truth. They seek wisdom and do not find it. They want the first qualification of a philosopher, a humble and teachable spirit. There is a race of men amongst us at the present day who scorn bitterly faith's meek submission to God's revealed will. They desire to be free from authority. The divinity, as they phrase it, is in every man. If men really were independent beings, it would be right to assert and proclaim their independence. But the problem for man is, not to reject all masters, but to accept the rightful one. Those who scorn the wisdom from above seek laboriously for the wisdom that is beneath. The name "secularist" is adopted to indicate that they appreciate and study the knowledge that concerns the present world, and repudiate as unattainable or useless all knowledge that pertains to another. "Secularism " is Latin for "this-world-ism." Before we adopt this philosophy we must be sure that there is immortality for man. If there is another world, our course here will affect our condition there. It is by faith in the unseen that men steer through the shifting sea of time. Cut us off from the future, and you have left the ship without a chart, and without a store; without a compass to steer by, and without a harbour to steer for; you have left the ship an aimless, meaningless, log lying on the water, to be tossed up and down by the waves, and driven hither and thither by the winds, until it fall asunder or sink unseen. ( W. Arnot, D.D. ) The proud and scornful incapable of attaining wisdom J. Abernethy, M.A. I. THE CHARACTER OF A SCORNER. The following ingredients in it: 1. Pride. An undue desire of honour, or an overvaluing one's self, and undervaluing of others. It is the source of undutiful behaviour towards God. It is discovered by affecting a pre-eminence above their fellows. Some claim honour on account of their actual knowledge or their capacity of investigating and discerning truth. To some religion is itself the subject of glorying and vain elation of mind. 2. Contempt of religion and virtue ( 2 Peter 3:3, 4 ). II. THE OBSTRUCTION WHICH ARISES FROM SCORNING TO MEN'S BECOMING WISE. 1. Pride is a great hindrance both to the attainment of knowledge and virtue. Especially is the man who is proud of his wisdom and his religion the farthest off from becoming truly wise and religious. 2. This perverse disposition rendereth men obnoxious to the displeasure of God, and entirely disqualified for receiving favour from Him. Only application is to exhort you to humility, as a most necessary qualification for your increase in useful knowledge, and in every Christian virtue. There may be mistaken notions of humility. It is far from consisting in any such sentiments as disparage human nature, or any such temper and behaviour as are unworthy its dignity. We must not degrade ourselves into a lower species that we may be humble men. With respect to God, it consists in a just sense of our own subjection and dependence, of our own weakness and guilt. This disposition will entitle us to the favour of God and the approbation of all good men. ( J. Abernethy, M.A. ) A scorner incapable of true wisdom Bp. Atterbury. I. WHO IS REPRESENTED HERE UNDER THE CHARACTER OF SCORNER? Scorners were men who, with much ado, had made a shift to get rid of good principles, and such stiff opinions as they found inconsistent with a loose practice. As they had not any religion themselves, so their way was to despise those who had. The scorner is said to "seek wisdom" and "not to find it" He pretends to know more, to have made freer inquiries after truth, and to have shaken off the prejudices of education more thoroughly than other people. II. IN WHAT SENSE HE CANNOT FIND WISDOM. Four things unfit such a man for impartial inquiries after Divine truth — a very proud, or a very suspicious temper, false wit, or sensuality. The two last generally belong to him; but the two first are essential to him, and inseparable from him. There is no quality that sticks more closely to a scorner than pride, and nothing more evidently obstructs right reasoning. Suspicion makes him doubt everything he hears and distrust every man he converses with. An extremity of suspicion in an inquirer after truth is like a raging jealousy in a husband or a friend; it leads a man to turn all his thoughts towards the ill-natured side, and to put the worst construction upon everything. False wit is a way of exposing things sacred and serious, by passing a bold jest upon them and ridiculing arguments instead of comforting them. The sensual man is, of all men living, the most improper for inquiries after truth and the least at leisure for it. He is never sedate and cool, disinterested and impartial. ( Bp. Atterbury. ) Go from the presence of a foolish man. Proverbs 14:7 The society to be shunned D. Thomas, D.D. Man is a social being. The text holds up the society which we should avoid — the society of the foolish. I. IT IS UNPROFITABLE. What you want in society is knowledge. True knowledge shall — 1. Rightly guide. 2. Truly comfort. 3. Religiously inspire the soul.But such knowledge is not to be got from the foolish man. He has no power to help you, and therefore time spent in his society is waste. II. IT IS MISLEADING. "The folly of fools is deceit." 1. They cheat themselves. They fancy they have the true ideas, and the true pleasures, but it is a miserable delusion. 2. They cheat others. They mislead by the falsehood of their speech and the craftiness of their policy. 3. It is wicked. They "make a mock at sin." "Go," then, "from the presence of a foolish man." Seek the society of the wise. ( D. Thomas, D.D. ) Safety in flight W. Arnot, D.D. It is the intention of their Maker that some creatures should seek safety, not in fighting, but in fleeing. In the moral conflict of human life it is of great importance to judge rightly when we should fight and when we should flee. The weak might escape if they knew their own weakness, and kept out of harm's way. That courage is not a virtue which carries the feeble into the lion's jaws. To go in among the foolish for the rescue of the sinking may be necessary, but it is dangerous work, and demands robust workmen. Your first duty is your own safety. But on some persons at some times there lies the obligation to encounter danger for the safety of a neighbour. ( W. Arnot, D.D. ) Fools make

Benson Commentary Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. Proverbs 14:1 . Every wise woman buildeth her house — By her care, industry: diligence, and prudent management, she improves, and raises her family and estate. So the phrase is used Exodus 1:21 ; 2 Samuel 7:11 ; Psalm 127:1 . He speaks of the woman, not exclusively of the man, of whom this is no less true, but because the women, especially in those times, were very industrious in managing their husbands’ estates. But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands — By her negligence, idleness, ill management, or want of economy, she lays it low, and wastes all that had been gotten by the care of others. Proverbs 14:2 He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him. Proverbs 14:2 . He that walketh in his uprightness — Whose conversation is sincerely godly and righteous; feareth the Lord — Hath a due regard and reverence for the Lord, from which all true piety and virtue flow; but he that is perverse in his ways — That cares not what he does, so he may but satisfy his own lusts and passions; despiseth him — Plainly declares that he does not fear him, but lives in a profane contempt of him, and of his commands and threatenings, which is the very source of all wickedness. Proverbs 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. Proverbs 14:3 . In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride — “Fools often bring upon themselves, by their ungoverned tongues, the correction due to their crimes,” and especially to their pride and arrogance; but the lips of the wise shall preserve them — From that rod. Wise men are careful of their words, that they may not offend, much more that they may not abuse, the meanest person, and hereby they remain in safety. Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are , the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. Proverbs 14:4 . Where no oxen are, the crib is clean — The crib and stable may be easily kept clean where there are few or no oxen: but there is so much advantage arising from tilling the ground, that it is better to have a litter with plenty of oxen, than to have great neatness without them. Some think this is spoken of those who boast much of constant neatness about their houses, &c., which, at the same time, shows they carry on but little business. For where there is much business done, and many persons coming and going, there will necessarily be oftentimes less cleanliness and neatness. This verse, however, may be considered as containing an admonition for the man without doors, (as the first admonished the woman within,) that he should not neglect his husbandry, of which it is well known oxen were the principal instruments, being not only employed in ploughing the ground, and carrying home the crop, but also in treading out the corn. Proverbs 14:5 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies. Proverbs 14:6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. Proverbs 14:6-7 . A scorner — A proud, self-conceited, and profane person; seeketh wisdom and findeth it not — Because he doth not seek it aright, namely, sincerely, earnestly, and seasonably, and in a constant and diligent use of all the means which God hath appointed to that end; and with an honest intention of employing his knowledge in the service of God, and for the furtherance of true religion. But knowledge is easy unto him — That is, is plain, and easily attained by him; that understandeth — That knows, and is deeply sensible of his own want of it, and of its great worth and necessity, which will make him use all possible diligence in seeking it, and, among other means, in praying earnestly to God for it. Go from the presence of a foolish man — Avoid the company and conversation of the ungodly. When thou perceivest not the lips of knowledge — When they break forth into foolish or wicked speeches, lest thou either be infected by them, or seem to approve them. Proverbs 14:7 Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit. Proverbs 14:8 . The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way — It consists not in vain speculations, nor in a curious prying into other men’s matters, much less in subtle arts of deceiving others, but in a diligent study of his own duty, and of the way to true and eternal happiness; but the folly of fools is deceit — The wit of ungodly men, which, though they account it their wisdom, is really their folly, is employed only in finding out ways of overreaching and deceiving others, and themselves too. Proverbs 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour. Proverbs 14:9 . Fools make a mock at sin — Wicked men, here meant by fools, please and divert themselves with their own and other men’s sins, which is a high offence to God and all good men. Or, as others render the clause, excuse, or cover sin; they sin against God or men, and then justify or extenuate their sins, which is to double the iniquity. Possibly the Hebrew of this clause, ????? ???? ???? , may be rendered, Sin deludes, or makes a mock of, fools, or sinners; that is, exposes them to shame and contempt, which is fitly opposed to favour, in the next clause. This translation suits exactly with the Hebrew words, and is adopted by two ancient and learned interpreters, Aquila and Theodotion. But among the righteous — Who are so far from making a mock at sin, or excusing it, that they do not allow themselves to commit it; there is favour — They find favour with God and men, because they make conscience of ordering their lives so that they may offend neither. Or, there is good-will, as the word ??? is properly and usually understood: they have a real love to one another, and are ready to perform to each other all offices of kindness; and therefore they neither willingly sin against others, nor rejoice in the sins of others. Proverbs 14:10 The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. Proverbs 14:10 . The heart knoweth its own bitterness — The inward griefs and joys of men’s hearts, though sometimes they may be partly manifested by outward signs, yet are not certainly and fully known to any but the persons themselves who are the subjects of them; or, as Bishop Patrick paraphrases the verse, “Nobody can know what another suffers so well as the sufferer himself; and he alone is privy to the greatness of that joy which springs from the happy conclusion of his sufferings.” The scope of the proverb may be, to keep men from murmuring under their own troubles, or envying other men’s happiness. Proverbs 14:11 The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12 . There is a way which seemeth right unto a man — There are some evil actions or courses which men may think to be lawful and good, either through gross ignorance, or self-flattery, or through want of necessary diligence in examining them by the rule of God’s word; all which are culpable causes of the mistake, and therefore do not excuse the error; but the end thereof are the ways of death — The event shows that they were sinful and destructive. Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Proverbs 14:13 . Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful — Do not think that every one that laughs is happy, or that profuse and immoderate joy is true pleasure, for the outward signs of it are often mixed with, or end in, real sadness: nay, such is the vanity of this present life, that there is no joy without a mixture of sorrow, which often immediately follows upon it. Proverbs 14:14 The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. Proverbs 14:14 . The backslider in heart — He who departs from God, although but inwardly; shall be filled with his own ways — With the fruit of his ways, namely, the punishment of his sins; and a good man shall be satisfied from himself — From the pious temper of his own heart, which cleaves to the Lord, and from the holy and righteous course of his life, he shall receive unspeakable comfort, both in this world and in the next. Proverbs 14:15 The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. Proverbs 14:15 . The simple — A foolish man; believeth every word — Is easily deceived with the smooth words and fair pretences of false and deceitful men; but the prudent man — The man well instructed and truly wise; looketh well to his goings — Either, 1st, To his own goings: he ordereth his conversation and dealings in the world with due circumspection, not considering so much what other men say as what he ought to do. Or, 2d, To the goings of the deceiver: that is, he judges of men’s words and professions by their conduct, which is a good rule. He is cautious, examining before he believes, and trying before he trusts, especially in matters of great moment; and considering things maturely before he does as he is advised. Bochart observes well upon this verse, that “as prudence without simplicity degenerates into craft, so simplicity without prudence is no better than downright folly. We must follow our Saviour’s counsel, and unite the serpent with the dove.” Proverbs 14:16 A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident. Proverbs 14:16 . A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil — He trembles at God’s judgments when they are either inflicted or threatened; and shuns sin, which is the procuring cause of all calamities; but the fool rages — Frets against God, or is enraged against his messengers who declare the threatening; or, as the Hebrew, ????? , should rather be translated here, transgresseth, or goeth on in sin constantly and resolutely; which is fitly opposed to departing from evil; as his being confident, in the next clause, that is, secure and insensible of danger, till God’s judgments overtake him, is opposed to fearing. Bishop Patrick’s interpretation is, “A wise man, being admonished of his error, and of his danger, is afraid of incurring the divine displeasure; and instantly starts back from that evil way into which he was entering, or wherein he was engaged: but a fool storms at those that would stop him in his course, and proceeds boldly and securely to his own ruin.” Proverbs 14:17 He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated. Proverbs 14:17 . He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly — His passion hurries him into many rash and foolish speeches and actions; and a man of wicked devices — One who, it may be, suppresses his passion, but designs and meditates revenge, watching for the fittest opportunities of executing it; is hated — Both by God and men; as being most deeply malicious, and like the devil, and most dangerous and pernicious to human society. The LXX. translate this verse, ???????? ??????? ???? ???????? , ???? ?? ???????? ????? ???????? , A hasty man acteth rashly, but a prudent man endureth many things: to which Houbigant’s translation is similar, He who is soon angry will deal inconsiderately; a considerate man will endure patiently. Proverbs 14:18 The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. Proverbs 14:18 . The simple inherit folly — Possess it as their inheritance, or portion; holding it fast, improving it, and delighting in it; but the prudent are crowned with knowledge — They place their honour and happiness in a sound, practical, and saving knowledge of God, and of their duty; and therefore earnestly pursue it, and heartily embrace it. Proverbs 14:19 The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. Proverbs 14:19 . The evil bow before the good — Giving honour to them, and supplicating their favour and help; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous — As clients and petitioners are wont to wait at the houses of the great and powerful, or beggars at the doors of such as they expect will relieve their wants. The sense is, good men will have the pre-eminence over the wicked often in this life, when God sees it expedient, but assuredly in the life to come. Proverbs 14:20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends. Proverbs 14:20 . The poor is hated — That is, despised and abandoned, as hateful persons and things are; of his own neighbour — Strictly so called of persons nearest to him, either by habitation or relation, and therefore most obliged to love and help him; but the rich hath many friends — As matter of fact daily shows. Every one is ready to make court to those whom the world smiles upon, though otherwise unworthy. Such, however, are not so much friends to the rich as to their riches, hoping to get some benefit by them. There is little friendship in the world but what is governed by self- interest, which is no true friendship at all; nor what a wise man will value himself upon, or put any confidence in. Proverbs 14:21 He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. Proverbs 14:21 . He that despiseth his neighbour — That doth not pity and relieve the poor, as this is explained in the next clause; sinneth — And therefore shall be punished for his inhumanity, which is opposed to his being happy, in the next branch; but he that hath mercy on the poor — That shows his compassion for them by his bounty to them; happy is he — He doth a worthy action, and shall be blessed in his deed. Proverbs 14:22 Do they not err that devise evil? but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. Proverbs 14:23 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Proverbs 14:23 . In all labour there is profit, &c. — Diligent labour is the ready way to riches; but idle talking, wherein too many spend most of their precious time, will bring a man to poverty. Houbigant renders the verse, All labour will produce abundance, but garrulity nothing but want. “Solomon here,” says Lord Bacon, as quoted by Bishop Patrick, “separates the fruit of the labour of the tongue, and of the labour of the hands; as if want was the revenue of the one, and wealth the revenue of the other. For it commonly comes to pass that they who talk liberally, boast much, and promise mighty matters, are beggars, and receive no benefit by their brags, or by any thing they discourse of. Nay, rather, for the most part, such men are not industrious and diligent in their employment; but only feed and fill themselves with words as with wind.” Proverbs 14:24 The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly. Proverbs 14:24 . The crown of the wise is their riches — They are a singular advantage and ornament to them, partly as they make their wisdom more regarded, while the poor man’s wisdom is despised, Ecclesiastes 9:16 ; and partly as they give a man great opportunity to exercise wisdom or virtue, by laying out his riches in the service of God, to the great good of mankind; which also tends to his own glory and happiness; but the foolishness of fools, &c. — But as for rich fools, their folly is not cured, but made worse and more manifest by their riches. Their riches find them fools, and leave them fools; they are not a crown, but a reproach to them, and an occasion of greater contempt. Proverbs 14:25 A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. Proverbs 14:25 . A true witness delivereth souls — That is, persons, namely, such as, being innocent, are falsely accused; whom he delivers from the mischief designed against them, by declaring the truth, and thereby clearing them from the charges brought against them; but a deceitful witness speaketh lies — To the injury and destruction of the innocent. Proverbs 14:26 In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge. Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. Proverbs 14:28 In the multitude of people is the king's honour: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. Proverbs 14:28 . In the multitude of people is the king’s honour — “The honour and splendour of a king depend upon the multitude, wealth, and strength of his subjects, whom, therefore, he ought to protect and cherish: for if they be wasted by unnecessary wars, or forced into other countries by oppression and unjust exactions, it proves the ruin of his kingdom.” — Bishop Patrick. Proverbs 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Proverbs 14:29 . He that is slow to wrath, &c. — He who is not soon provoked to anger by reproaches or ill usage, shows himself to be a wise and great man; but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly — Exposes his folly, and makes it apparent to every body. Hebrew, ???? ???? , lifteth up folly, displays it like a banner. Proverbs 14:30 A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones. Proverbs 14:30 . A sound heart — Free from envy, and such like inordinate passions, which are commonly called the diseases of the soul, even in heathen, as well as in the sacred writers. Or, as others render ?? ???? , a healing heart, mild, merciful, and kind to others, which is opposed to envy; is the life of the flesh — Procures and maintains the health and vigour of the whole body; but envy the rottenness of the bones — It wasteth the spirits, or consumeth even the strongest and most inward parts of the body. Proverbs 14:31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor. Proverbs 14:31 . He that oppresseth the poor — That uses the poor man hardly, as the Syriac renders it: that withholdeth from him that which is his due, either by the rules of strict justice, or by the great law of charity, of which see Proverbs 3:27 ; reproacheth his Maker — Whose image the poor man bears, by whose counsel and providence he is made poor, and who hath declared himself to be the protector and avenger of the poor; but he that honoureth him — That honoureth God’s image, and works, and laws; hath mercy on the poor — Does not only forbear oppressing or injuring the poor man, but affords him his pity and help. Proverbs 14:32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death. Proverbs 14:32 . The wicked is driven away — From God’s favour and presence, and from the society of the righteous, and from all his hopes of happiness, both in this life and in the next; in his wickedness — Or, for his wickedness. The Hebrew, however, ???? , is literally, in his evil; and may be understood of the evil of punishment: in the day of his trouble, when he shall flee to God for help, he shall be driven away from him. But the righteous hath hope in his death — In his greatest dangers and distresses; yea, even in death itself he hath hope of deliverance from, or of great and everlasting advantage by what he suffers. Proverbs 14:33 Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. Proverbs 14:33 . Wisdom resteth in the heart, &c. — Is laid up and hid there, and not vainly or rashly uttered by him, but only brought forth upon necessary or fit occasions; but that which is in the midst — That is, in the heart; of fools, is made known — That folly which is there instead of wisdom, or that small degree of wisdom which they have, they will publish in all times and companies, without any consideration or discretion. Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34 . Righteousness exalteth a nation — A righteous administration of the government of it, impartial equity between man and man, public countenance given to religion, the general practice and profession of virtue, the protecting and preserving of virtuous men, mercy, humanity, and kindness to strangers and enemies: these things put honour upon a nation, and exalt it in the eyes of God, and of all other nations. But sin is a reproach to any people — Brings contempt and ruin upon them, by provoking both God and men against them. Proverbs 14:35 The king's favour is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame. Proverbs 14:35 . The king’s favour is toward a wise servant — He will respect and prefer those who behave themselves wisely and virtuously, whatever enemies they may have that seek to undermine them. This Solomon was determined to do. He was resolved that no man’s services should be neglected to please a party, or a favourite. But his wrath is against him that causeth shame — He will displace and banish from the court those who are selfish and false, who betray their trust, oppress the poor, sow the seeds of discord in the country, and thus cause shame both to themselves, for their foolish and improper management of the king’s affairs, and to the king, who made so foolish a choice of servants. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. CHAPTER 15 THE INWARD UNAPPROACHABLE LIFE "The heart knoweth its own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy."- Proverbs 14:10 "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of mirth is heaviness."- Proverbs 14:13 "Yes! in the sea of life enisled, With echoing straits between us thrown, Dotting the shoreless watery wild, We mortal millions live alone. The islands feel the enclasping flow, And then their endless bounds they know." -Matthew Arnold WE know each other’s appearance, it is true, but there, for the most part, our mutual knowledge ceases. Some of us unveil nothing of ourselves to anyone; some of us unveil a little to all; some a good deal to a few; but none of us can unveil all even to the most intimate friend. It is possible to live on terms of complete confidence and even close intimacy with a person for many years, to become thoroughly acquainted with his habits, his turns of expression, his modes of thought, to be able to say with a certain infallibility what course he will take in such and such circumstances-and yet to find by some chance uplifting of a curtain in his life that he cherished feelings which you never even suspected, suffered pains of which you had seen no trace, and enjoyed pleasures which never came to any outward expression. How true this is we realize at once if we turn inwards and review all the thoughts which chase each other through our brain, and all the emotions which throb in our heart for a single day, and then deduct those which are known to any human being, known or even suspected; the sum total we find is hardly affected at all. We are quite startled to discover how absolutely alone we live, how impossible it is for a stranger, or even for an intimate friend, to meddle with more than a fragment of our inner life. This is not because we have any wish to conceal, but rather because we are not able to reveal, our silent unseen selves: it is not because others would not like to know, but because they have not the instruments to investigate, that within us which we on our part arc quite helpless to express. "For instance, the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul," { Proverbs 13:19 } yet no one can know how sweet but he who cherished the desire. When a man has labored for many years to secure an adequate maintenance for his family, and at length finds himself in easy circumstances, with his children growing up around him well and happy, no one besides himself can in the least gauge the sense of satisfaction, contentment, and gratitude which animates his heart, because no one can realize without actual experience the long and anxious days, the sickening fears, the blighted hopes, the rigorous sacrifices, through which he passed to attain his end. Or, when an artist has been toiling for many years to realize upon canvas a vision of beauty which floats before the inward eye, and at last succeeds, by some happy Combination of colors, or by some dexterous sweep of the brush, or by some half-inspired harmony of form and composition, in actually bodying forth to the senses that which has haunted his imagination, it is hopeless for anyone else to understand the thrilling joy, the lighthearted ecstasy, which are hidden rather than expressed by the quiet flush on the cheek and the sparkling glance of the eye. The mystical joy of a love which has just won an answering love; the deep-toned joy of the mother in the dawning life of her child; the joy of the poet who feels all the beauty of the earth and the sky pulsing through his nerves and raising his heart to quick intuitions and melodious numbers; the joy of the student, when the luminous outlines of truth begin to shape themselves before his mind in connected form and startling beauty; the joy of one who has toiled for the restoration of lost souls, and sees the fallen and degraded awaking to a new life, cleansed, radiant, and strong; the joy of the martyr of humanity, whose dying moments are lit with visions, and who hears through the mysterious silences of death the voices of those who will one day call him blessed, -joys like these may be described in words, but they who experience them know that the words are, relatively speaking, meaningless, and they who do not experience them can form no conception of them. "When the desire cometh it is a tree of life," { Proverbs 13:14 } which suddenly springs up in the garden of the heart, puts forth its jubilant leaves of healing, flashes with white wings of scented blossom, and droops with its full offering of golden fruit, as if by magic, and we are surprised ourselves that those around us do not see the wonder, do not smell the perfume, do not taste the fruit: we alone can sit under its branches, we alone can catch the murmur of the wind, the music of achievement, in its leaves. But this thought becomes very pathetic when we think of the heart’s bitterness, which the heart alone can know, -the hope deferred which makes it sick, { Proverbs 13:12 } the broken spirit which dries up the Proverbs 17:22 , the spirit which for so long bore a man’s infirmity, and then at last broke because it could bear no more, and became itself intolerable. { Proverbs 18:14 } The circumstances of a man’s life do not give us any clue to his sorrows; the rich have troubles which to the poor would seem incredible, and the poor have troubles which their poverty does not explain. There are little constitutional ailments, defects in the blood, slight deformities, unobserved disabilities, which fill the heart with a bitterness untold and unimaginable. There are crosses of the affections, disappointments of the ambitions; there are frets of the family, worries of business; there are the haunting Furies of past indiscretions, the pitiless reminders of half-forgotten pledges. There are weary doubts and misgivings, suspicions and fears, which poison all inward peace, and take light out of the eye and elasticity out of the step. These things the heart knows, but no one else knows. What adds to the pathos is that these sorrows are often covered with laughter as with a veil, and no one suspects that the end of all this apparently spontaneous mirth is to be heaviness. { Proverbs 14:13 } The bright talker, the merry jester, the singer of the gay song, goes home when the party separates, and on his threshold he meets the veiled sorrow of his life, and plunges into the chilly shadow in which his days are spent. The bitterness which surges in our brother’s heart would probably be unintelligible to us if he revealed it; but he will not reveal it, he cannot. He will tell us some of his troubles, many of them, but the bitterness he must keep to himself. How strange it seems! Here are men and women around us who are unfathomable; the heart is a kind of infinite; we skim the surface, we cannot sound the depths. Here is a merry heart which makes a cheerful countenance, but here is a countenance unclouded and smiling which covers a spirit quite broken. { Proverbs 15:13 } Here is a cheerful heart which enjoys a continual feast, { Proverbs 15:15 } and finds in its own merriment a medicine for its troubles; { Proverbs 17:22 } but we cannot find the secret of the cheerfulness, or catch the tone of the merriment, any more than we can comprehend what it is which is making all the days of the afflicted evil. { Proverbs 15:15 } We are confined as it were to the superficial effects, the lights and shadows which cross the face, and the feelings which express themselves in the tones of the voice. We can guess a little of what lies underneath, but our guesses are as often wrong as right. The index is disconnected, perhaps purposely, from the reality. Sometimes we know that a heart is bitter, but do not even surmise the cause; more often it is bitter and we do not know it. We are veiled to one another; we know our own troubles, we feel our own joys, that is all we can say. And yet the strangest thing of all is that we hunger for sympathy: we all want to see that light in the eyes of our friends which rejoices the heart, and to hear those good things which make the bones fat. { Proverbs 15:30 } Our joy is eager to disclose itself, and often shrinks back appalled to find that our companions did not understand it, but mistook it for an affectation or an illusion. Our sorrow yearns for comprehension, and is constantly doubled in quantity and intensity by finding that it cannot explain itself or become intelligible to others. This rigid and necessary isolation of the human heart, along with such a deep-rooted desire for sympathy, is one of the most perplexing paradoxes of our nature; and though we know well that it is a fact, we are constantly rediscovering it with a fresh surprise. Forgetting it, we assume that everyone will know how we need sympathy, though we have never hung out the signals of distress, and have even presented a most repellent front to all advances; forgetting it, we give expression to our joy, singing songs to heavy hearts, and- disturbing others by unseasonable mirth, as if no icy channels separated us from our neighbors’ hearts, making our gladness seem frigid and our merriment discordant before it reaches their ears. Yet the paradox forces itself on our attention again; human hearts are isolated, alone, without adequate communication, and essentially uncommunicative, yet all of them eagerly desiring to be understood, to be searched, to be fused. Is it a paradox which admits of any explanation? Let us see. It has been very truly said, "Man is only partially understood, or pitied, or loved by man; but for the fullness of these things he must go to some far-off country." In proportion as we are conscious of being misunderstood, and of being quite unable to satisfy our longing for sympathy and comprehension at human fountains, we are impelled by a spiritual instinct to ask for God; the thought arises in us that He, though He be very far off, must, as our Creator, understand us; and as this thought takes possession of the heart a tremulous hope awakes that perhaps He is not very far off. There lie before us now some beautiful sayings which are partly the expression of this human conviction, and seem partly to be inspired by the Divine response to it. "If thou sayest, Behold, we knew not this man; doth not He that weigheth the heart consider, and he that keepeth the soul, doth not He know?" { Proverbs 24:12 , marginal reading} "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them." { Proverbs 20:12 } How obvious is the inference that the Maker of the ear and the eye hears those silent things which escape the ear itself, and sees those recesses of the human heart which the human eye is never able to search! "The eyes of the: Lord are in every place, keeping watch upon the evil and the good." { Proverbs 15:3 } Sheol and Abaddon are before the Lord: how much more then the hearts of the children of men. { Proverbs 15:11 } He sees in the heart what the heart itself does not see. "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits." ( Proverbs 16:2 , rep. Proverbs 21:2 ) In fact, the spirit of man itself, the consciousness which clears into self-consciousness, and becomes in moral matters conscience, this "spirit, is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of the belly," { Proverbs 20:27 } so that a "man’s goings are of the Lord"; and he is often moved by this indwelling spirit and guided by this mysterious lamp in a way which "he can hardly understand." { Proverbs 20:24 } This intimacy of knowledge is not without its most solemn, and even terrible, side. It means of course that the Lord knows "the thoughts of the righteous which are just, and the counsels of the wicked which are deceit." { Proverbs 12:5 } It means that out of His minute and infallible knowledge He will render to every man according to his works, judging with faultless accuracy according to that "desire of a man which is the measure of his kindness," recognizing the "wish of the poor man," which, though he has not power to perform it, is more valuable than the boasted performances of those who never act up to their power of service. { Proverbs 19:22 } It means that "the Lord trieth the hearts just as the tiffing pot tries the silver, and the furnace the gold." { Proverbs 17:3 } It means that in thought of such a searching eye, such a comprehensive understanding on the part of the Holy One, none of us can ever say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin." { Proverbs 20:9 } All this it means, and there must be some terror in the thought; but the terror, as we begin to understand, becomes our greatest comfort; for He who thus understands us is the Holy One. Terrible would it be to be searched and known in this minute way by one who was not holy, by one who was morally indifferent, by one who took a curious interest in studying the pathology of the conscience, or by one who had a malignant delight in cherishing vices and rewarding evil thoughts. Though we sometimes desire human sympathy in our corrupt passions and unhallowed desires, and are eager for our confederates in sin to understand our pleasures and our pains, -and out of this desire, it may be observed, comes much of our base literature, and all of our joining with a company to do evil, -yet after all we only desire this confederacy on the understanding that we can reveal as little, and conceal as much, as we like; We should no longer be eager to share our feelings if we understood that in the first contact our whole heart would be laid bare, and all the intricacies of our mind would be explored. We must desire that He who is to search us through and through should be holy, and even though He be strict to mark iniquity, should be one who tries the heart in order to purify it. And when we are awakened and understand, we learn to rejoice exceedingly that He who comes with His lamp to search the inmost recesses of our nature is He who can by no means tolerate iniquity, or pass over transgression, but must burn as a mighty fire wherever He finds the fuel of sin to burn. Have we not found a solution of the paradox? The human heart is isolated; it longs for sympathy, but cannot obtain it; it seems to depend for its happiness on being comprehended, but no fellow-creature can comprehend it; it knows its own bitterness, which no one else can know; it broods over its own joys, but no one can share them. Then it makes discovery of the truth that God can give it what it requires, that He fully understands, that He can enter into all these silent thoughts and unobserved emotions, that He can offer an unfailing sympathy and a faultless comprehension. In its need the lonely heart takes refuge in Him, and makes no murmur that His coming requires the searching, the chastisement, and the purging of sin. No human being needs to be misunderstood or to suffer under the sense of misunderstanding. Let him turn at once to God. It is childish to murmur against our fellows, who only treat us as we treat them; they do not comprehend us, neither do we comprehend them; they do not give us, as we think, our due, neither do we give them theirs; but God comprehends both them and us, and He gives to them and to us accurately what is due. No human being is compelled to bear his bitterness alone, for though he cannot tell it or explain to his fellows, he can tell it, and he need not explain it, to God. Is the bitterness an outcome of sin, as most of our bitterness is? Is it the bitterness of a wounded egotism, or of a remorseful conscience, or of spiritual despondency? Or is it the bitterness which springs from the cravings of an unsatisfied heart, the thirst for self-completeness, the longing for a perfect love? In either case God is perfectly able and willing to meet the need. He delights to turn His knowledge of our nature to the purpose of cleansing and transforming the sinful heart: "By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many," He says. He is ready, too, to shed abroad His own rich love in our hearts, leaving no room for the hankering desire, and creating the peace of a complete fulfillment. No human being need imagine that he is unappreciated; his fellow-men may not want him, but God does. "The Lord hath made everything for His own purpose, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." He apprehends all that is good in your heart, and will not suffer a grain of pure gold to be lost; while He sees too every particle of evil, and will not suffer it to continue. He knows where the will is set upon righteousness, where the desire is turned towards Him, and will delicately encourage the will, and bountifully satisfy the desire. He sees, too, when the will is hardened against Him, and the desire is set upon iniquity, and He is mercifully resolved to visit the corrupt will and the evil desire with "eternal destruction from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His might,"-mercifully, I say, for no torture could be more terrible and hopeless than for the evil man to live eternally in the presence of God. Finally, no human being need be without a sharer of his joy: and that is a great consideration, for joy unshared quickly dies, and is from the beginning haunted by a vague sense of shadow that is falling upon it. In the heart of the Eternal dwells eternal joy. All loveliness, all sweetness, all goodness, all truth, are the objects of His happy contemplation; therefore every really joyful heart has an immediate sympathizer in God; and prayer is quite as much the means by which we share our gladness as the vehicle by which we convey our sorrows to the Divine heart. Is it not beautiful to think of all those timid and retiring human spirits, who cherish sweet ecstasies, and feel glowing exultations, and are frequently caught up in heavenly raptures, which the shy countenance and stammering tongue never could record? They feel their hearts melt with joy in the prospect of broad skies and sunlit fields, in the sound of morning birds and rushing streams; they hear great choirs of happy spirits chanting perpetually in heaven and in earth, and on every side of their obscure way open vistas of inspired vision. No stranger meddles with their joy, or even knows of it. God is not a stranger; to Him they tell it all, with Him they share it, and their joy is part of the joy of the Eternal. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.