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Ecclesiastes
Chapter Ten
Ecclesiastes 10
Chapter Contents
To preserve a character for wisdom. (1-3) Respecting
subjects and rulers. (4-10) Of foolish talk. (11-15) Duties of rulers and
subjects. (16-20)
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:1-3
(Read Ecclesiastes 10:1-3)
Those especially who make a profession of religion
should keep from all appearances of evil. A wise man has great advantage over a
fool
who is always at a loss when he has anything to do. Sin is the reproach
of sinners
wherever they go
and shows their folly.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:4-10
(Read Ecclesiastes 10:4-10)
Solomon appears to caution men not to seek redress in a
hasty manner
nor to yield to pride and revenge. Do not
in a passion
quit thy
post of duty; wait awhile
and thou wilt find that yielding pacifies great
offences. Men are not preferred according to their merit. And those are often
most forward to offer help
who are least aware of the difficulties
or the
consequences. The same remark is applied to the church
or the body of Christ
that all the members should have the same care one for another.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:11-15
(Read Ecclesiastes 10:11-15)
There is a practice in the East
of charming serpents by
music. The babbler's tongue is an unruly evil
full of deadly poison; and
contradiction only makes it the more violent. We must find the way to keep him
gentle. But by rash
unprincipled
or slanderous talk
he brings open or secret
vengeance upon himself. Would we duly consider our own ignorance as to future
events
it would cut off many idle words which we foolishly multiply. Fools
toil a great deal to no purpose. They do not understand the plainest things
such as the entrance into a great city. But it is the excellency of the way to
the heavenly city
that it is a high-way
in which the simplest wayfaring men
shall not err
Isaiah 25:8. But sinful folly makes men miss
that only way to happiness.
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:16-20
(Read Ecclesiastes 10:16-20)
The happiness of a land depends on the character of its
rulers. The people cannot be happy when their princes are childish
and lovers
of pleasure. Slothfulness is of ill consequence both to private and public
affairs. Money
of itself
will neither feed nor clothe
though it answers the occasions
of this present life
as what is to be had
may generally be had for money. But
the soul
as it is not redeemed
so it is not maintained with corruptible
things
as silver and gold. God sees what men do
and hears what they say in
secret; and
when he pleases
brings it to light by strange and unsuspected
ways. If there be hazard in secret thoughts and whispers against earthly
rulers
what must be the peril from every deed
word
or thought of rebellion
against the King of kings
and Lord of lords! He seeth in secret. His ear is
ever open. Sinner! curse not THIS KING in thy inmost thought. Your curses
cannot affect Him; but his curse
coming down upon you
will sink you to the
lowest hell.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ecclesiastes》
Ecclesiastes 10
Verse 2
[2] A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's
heart at his left.
Heart — His understanding is always present with him and ready
to direct him. He mentions the right hand
because that is the common
instrument of action.
A fool's — His understanding is not effectual to govern his
affections and actions.
Verse 3
[3] Yea also
when he that is a fool walketh by the way
his
wisdom faileth him
and he saith to every one that he is a fool.
Walketh — In his daily conversation.
He saith — He discovers his folly to all that meet him.
Verse 4
[4] If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee
leave
not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.
The spirit — The passion.
Leave not — In anger or discontent. Continue
in a diligent and faithful discharge of thy duty
and modestly and humbly
submit to him.
Yielding — A gentle and submissive carriage.
Verse 6
[6] Folly is set in great dignity
and the rich sit in low
place.
The rich — Wise and worthy men
rich in endowments of mind.
Verse 8
[8] He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso
breaketh an hedge
a serpent shall bite him.
An hedge — Whereby another man's fields or vineyards are
distinguished
that he may either take away their fruits
or enlarge his own
fields.
Verse 9
[9] Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he
that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
Whoso removeth — Stones too heavy for them: who
rashly attempts things too high and hard for them.
Verse 10
[10] If the iron be blunt
and he do not whet the edge
then
must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
Wisdom — As wisdom instructs a man in the smallest matters
so
it is useful for a man's direction in all weighty affairs.
Verse 11
[11] Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a
babbler is no better.
Without — If not prevented by the art and care of the charmer;
which practice he does not justify
but only mentions by way of resemblance.
Verse 12
[12] The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the
lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
Gracious — Procure him favour with those who hear him.
Verse 14
[14] A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what
shall be; and what shall be after him
who can tell him?
Full of words — Forward to promise and boast what
he will do
whereas none can be sure of future events
even during his own
life
much more after his death.
Verse 15
[15] The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them
because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
Wearieth — Fools discover their folly by their wearisome and
fruitless endeavours after things which are too high for them.
Because — He is ignorant of those things which are most easy
as
of the way to the great city whither he is going.
Verse 16
[16] Woe to thee
O land
when thy king is a child
and thy
princes eat in the morning!
A child — Either in age
or childish qualities.
Eat — Give up themselves to eating and drinking.
Morning — The fittest time for God's service
for the dispatch
of weighty affairs
and for sitting in judgment.
Verse 17
[17] Blessed art thou
O land
when thy king is the son of
nobles
and thy princes eat in due season
for strength
and not for
drunkenness!
Nobles — Not so much by birth
as by their noble dispositions.
Verse 20
[20] Curse not the king
no not in thy thought; and curse not
the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice
and
that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
Thy thought — In the most secret manner.
The rich — Princes or governors.
A bird — The king will hear of it by unknown and unsuspected
hands
as if a bird had heard and carried the report of it.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ecclesiastes》
10 Chapter 10
Verses 1-20
Verse 1
Dead flies cause the ointment . . . to send forth a stinking
savour.
Dead flies
Among the Jews
oil rendered fragrant by being mixed with precious
drugs was used for many different purposes. With it priests and kings were
anointed when they entered upon their offices
guests at the tables of the rich
were treated to it as a luxury. It was used medicinally for outward application
to the bodies of the sick; and with it corpses
and the clothes in which they
were wrapped
were besprinkled before burial. Very great care was needed in the
preparation of the material used for such special purposes. Elaborately
confected as the ointment was
it was easily spoiled and rendered worthless. It
was accordingly
necessary not only to take great pains in making it
but also in preserving it
from contamination when made. A dead fly would soon corrupt the ointment
and
turn it into a pestilent odour. So
says the Preacher
a noble and attractive
character may be corrupted and destroyed by a little folly; an
insignificant-looking fault or weakness may outweigh great gifts and
attainments. The fault which shows itself in a character is not like a stain or
flaw in a marble statue
which is confined to one spot
and is no worse after
the lapse of years
but like a sore in a living body
which weakens and may
destroy the whole organism. One cause why the evil influence spreads is that we
are not on our guard against it
and it may grow to almost ungovernable
strength before we are really convinced that there is any danger. We can
recognize at once great errors and heinous vices
and the alarm and disgust they
excite prepare us to resist them; but little follies and weaknesses often fill
us with an amused contempt for them
which blinds us to their great power for
evil. So numerous are the sources from which danger arises
that a long list
might be made of the little sins by which the characters of many good men and
women are often marred: indolence
selfishness
love of ease
procrastination
indecision
rudeness
irritability
over-sensitiveness to praise or blame
vanity
boastfulness
talkativeness
love of gossip
undue laxity
undue
severity
want of self-control over appetites and passions
obstinacy
parsimony. Numerous though these follies are
they may be reduced into two
great classes--faults of weakness and faults of strength.
I. Faults of
weakness. This class is that of those which are largely negative
and consist
principally in omission to give a definite and worthy direction to the nature;
want of self-control
love of ease
indolence
procrastination
indecision
selfishness
unfeelingness. Want of self-control over appetites and passions
led David into the foulest crimes
which
though sincerely repented of
were
most terribly avenged
and have for ever left a stain upon his name. Love of
case is the only fault which is implied in the description of the rich man in
the parable (Luke 16:19)
a desire to be comfortable
and avoid all that was disagreeable
but it led him to such callous indifference to the
miseries of his fellows
as disqualified him for happiness in the world to
come. A very striking illustration of the deterioration of a character through
the sin of weakness and indecision is to be found in the life of Eli. His good
qualities have not preserved his memory from contempt. This is the sting of the
rebuke addressed to the Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:15-16). In Dante’s
description of the lower world special infamy is attached to this class of
offenders
that of those who have never really lived
who have never awakened
to take any part either in good or evil
to care for anything but themselves.
They are unfit for heaven
and hell scorns to receive them. “This miserable
mode the dreary souls of those sustain who lived without blame and without
praise.”
II. Faults of
strength. This class includes those faults which are of a positive character
and consist largely in an abuse of qualities which might have been virtues. The
very strength of character by which men and women are distinguished may lead by
over-emphasis into very offensive deterioration. Thus firmness may degenerate
into obstinacy
frugality into parsimony
liberality into extravagance
light-heartedness into frivolity
candour into rudeness
and so on. And these
are faults which disgust and repel
and cause us to overlook even very great
merits in a character; and not only so
but
if unchecked
gradually nullify
those merits. We may find in the character of Christ all the virtues which go
to make up holiness so admirably balanced that no one is over-prominent
and
therefore no one pushed to that excess which so often mars human excellence.
“His tender tone was the keen edge of His reproofs
and His unquestionable love
infused solemnity into every warning.” (Homiletic Magazine.)
Dead flies
Our instances must be taken almost at random; for
like their
Egyptian prototypes
these flies are too many to be counted.
I. Rudeness. Some
good men are blunt in their feelings
and rough in their manners; and they
apologize for their coarseness by calling it honesty
downrightness
plainness
of speech. They quote in self-defence the sharp words and shaggy mien of Elijah
and John the Baptist
and
as affectation
they sneer at the soft address and mild manners of gentler
men. The question
however
is not between two rival graces--between integrity
on the one side
and affability on the other; but the question is
Are these
two graces compatible? Is it possible for a man to be explicit
and open
and
honest
and
withal
courteous and considerate of the feelings of others? Is it
possible to add to fervour and fidelity
suavity
and urbanity
and brotherly
kindness? There never was one more faithful than the Son of God
but there
never was one more considerate. And just as rudeness is not essential to
honesty
so neither is roughness essential to strength of character. The
Christian should have a strong character; he should be a man of remarkable
decision. And he should be a man of inflexible purpose. When once he knows his
Lord’s will
he should go through with it
aye
through fire and water. But
this he may do without renouncing the meekness and gentleness which were in
Christ. He may have zeal without pugnacity
determination without obstinacy.
II. Irritability.
One of the most obvious and impressive features in the Saviour’s character was
His meekness. In a patience which ingenious or sudden provocation could not
upset; in a magnanimity which insult could not ruffle; in a gentleness from
which no folly could extract an unadvised word
men saw what they could
scarcely understand
but that which made them marvel. But many Christians lack
this beauty of their Master’s holiness; they are afflicted with evil tempers
they cannot rule their spirits
or rather they do not try. Some indulge
occasional fits of anger; and others are haunted by habitual
daily
life-long
fretfulness. The one sort is generally calm and pellucid as an Alpine lake
but
on some special provocation is tossed up into a magnificent tempest; the other
is like the Bosphorns
in a continual stir
and even when not a breath is
moving
by the contrariety of its internal currents vexing itself into a
ceaseless whirl and eddy. But either form
the paroxysmal fury
and the
perennial fretfulness
is inconsistent with the wisdom from above
which is
peaceable
gentle
easy to be entreated.
III. Selfishsess.
The world expects self-denial in the Christian; and with reason
for of all men
he can best afford it
and by his profession he is committed to it. Attention
to the wants of others
care for their welfare
and consideration for their
feelings are Scriptural graces for which all Christians ought to be
conspicuous. Christianity allows us to forget our own wants
but it does not
permit us to forget the necessities of our brethren. It requires us to be
careless of our own ease
but it forbids us to overlook the comfort and
convenience of other people. (J. Hamilton
D. D.)
Verse 2
A wise man’s heart is at his right hand
but a fool’s heart at his
left.
Heart and hand
I. The wise man’s
heart at his right hand means that his affections are at their proper objects.
The heart is the moral power or seat of principle. “With the heart man
believeth.” “A new heart also will I give unto you.” Then the hand is the
active power
the faculty by which principles are carried into action. “Cleanse
your hands
ye sinners.” “I will that men pray everywhere
lifting up holy hands
to God.” The right hand
again
is the ideal hand. “The Lord hath sworn by His
right hand.” Thus whatever a hand is or does
the right hand is and does
pre-eminently. It is the perfection of all that is characteristic in a hand.
When therefore
a wise man’s heart is said to be at his right hand
it is said
by way of commendation. It means that his moral nature is as it ought to be. It
occupies its right place. It sustains its right relations. It discharges its
proper functions. It is altogether a heart right in God’s sight. Now
the heart
is a most important portion of the body. It is the very seat and citadel of its
life. Derangement in it means instantaneous derangement in every vital process.
And in the spiritual life the thing we call the heart is no less essential. Out
of it are the issues of life. It is the seat of principle. It is the home of
the affections. It is the source of all the moral actions. The other powers are
the heart’s executive to obey its rule and carry out its high behests.
II. The wise man’s
heart at his right hand means that his principles are at the back of practical
power. All through Scripture the right hand is the emblem of power. Our Lord
styles the Father’s right hand “the right hand of power.” God is declared to
have led Israel “by the right hand of Moses
” and Israel to have obtained the
Land of Promise by “God’s right hand
and His arm
and the light of His
countenance.” So men are spiritually saved by God’s “right hand
” and Christ in
His resurrection was “by the right hand of God exalted.” The right hand of God
the right hand of man
is the organ of power in each. In the body the heart is
in closest connection with the strongest hand. And in the spiritual department
the same law holds. The godly man in whom exists the most perfect connection
between heart and life
has for this reason a power all his own. That power is
spiritual power
the mightiest power there is. It is an aspect of the force
that regenerates hearts
that illuminates minds
that changes characters
that
adorns lives with the transcendent beauties of holiness. Not more surely does a
right hand of power connect itself with a healthy nourishing heart
than a
forceful Christian life attends on and expresses the energies of a heart
renewed by grace.
III. The wise man’s
heart at his right hand means that his purposes are at the fittest agency for
carrying them out. When the heart chooses God’s will
the hand chooses His way.
It perceives the fitness of it. It believes in the policy of it. It would argue
the suitableness of it in any ease from the fact that it is His way. This is
true wisdom. No stronger reason for adopting a way than that it is God’s way.
IV. His resolutions
are at a degree of strength in which they promptly take the form of action.
There is a constitutional unreadiness in some people. They cannot be prompt.
This unreadiness which distinguishes the dull from the smart
distinguishes
also the left hand from the right. It responds more slowly to the will. It acts
less readily in almost every work. The right hand is the hand of promptitude as
well as the hand of skill. Now
in life
as every young man should consider
film element of promptitude has an important place. The few who succeed are the
wise men who have their boat of action ready to launch on the advancing wave of
opportunity. The many who fail are the foolish who are indolently unobservant
and therefore always off their guard. There is a perfectly identical treatment
of the question of personal godliness. Religion has its times of opportunity which
are its decisive hours. Some saving truth comes home. There are stings of
conviction. There are half-formed resolves that choice shall be made of eternal
things. But here the curse of spiritual unreadiness comes in. The man is not
prepared for immediate action. He is a spiritual “Athelstone the Unready.” To
God’s “now” he answers “soon.” To God’s “begin” he answers “wait.” The man
whose heart is where and how it ought to be is a man who takes God directly at
His word. The Divine “come” he takes to be the essence of duty
and the Divine
“now” to be never untimely. And so
like doves to their windows
he flies for
refuge to Christ. Then darting forth an eager hand
he lays hold on the hope
set before him. (J. E. Henry
M. A.)
Influence of a good heart
I. A good heart is
something which comprises all moral goodness
or everything truly virtuous and
excellent. “God is love.” His love comprises holiness
justice
goodness
and
truth. So a good heart in man consists in true benevolence
and comprises every
holy and virtuous affection. And for this reason the Scripture calls a good
heart a perfect heart
a pure heart
an honest heart
an upright heart
a wise
and understanding heart.
II. A good heart
fits men for every kind of duty.
1. A good heart fits men for all religious duties.
2. A good heart fits men for all secular as well as religious duties.
It disposes them to propose a right end in all their secular concerns
which is
the glory of God and the good of their fellow-creatures. So far as men are
guided by a good heart
they act from noble and benevolent motives in all their
pursuits. Whatever they do
they do it heartily
as to the Lord and not unto
men.
3. A good heart fits men for all social duties. It naturally prompts
those who possess it to speak and act with propriety in all companies
in all
places
in all stations
and in all relations of life. It makes men quick to
discover and practise the duties which they owe to each other.
4. A good heart fits men for doubtful duties
or duties in doubtful
cases. If any are at a loss whether to embrace or reject any religious
sentiment proposed
they have a standard in their own breasts by which to try
it. It is only to appeal to their own conscience
and ask
What says
benevolence in this case? Is this doctrine agreeable to disinterested
benevolence
or is it an expression of selfishness? And therefore the good
man’s heart is always at his right hand
and ready to decide what is true and
what is false.
5. A good heart figs men for difficult duties. There is a great
variety of difficult duties
but I shall mention only two sorts; dangerous
duties and self-denying duties. These have always been difficult to perform.
But a good heart will make them easy and pleasant
and dispose men to perform
them with a degree of alacrity and delight.
Improvement:
1. If a good heart fits men for every kind of duty
then they can
never find a solid and satisfactory excuse for their ignorance or neglect of
duty.
2. If a good heart figs men for all kinds of duty
then those who
have a good heart will be very apt to make it appear that their heart is good.
3. If a good heart fits men for every kind of duty
then those who
have a bad heart will be very apt to show it. Men are as apt to discover their
left hand as their right hand. They discover it both by not using it and by
attempting to use it without ease and dexterity. As a good heart fits men for
duty
so a bad heart unfits them for duty. It sometimes prevents their
understanding their duty
but more frequently prevents their doing what they
know to be their duty. Both their ignorance and neglect discover an evil heart
at their left hand.
4. If a good heart fits men for all kinds of duty
then those who are
destitute of it do no duty at all in the sight of God.
5. If a good heart fits men for all kinds of duty
then good men find
a pleasure in performing every kind of duty.
6. If a good heart fits men for every duty
then all good men desire
to grow in grace. They desire grace
not merely on account of the spiritual
enjoyment that grace affords them
but principally because it fits them for
every duty towards God and man.
7. If a good heart fits men for every duty
then those who are
destitute of it continually live in darkness. This is certainly a very
deplorable situation. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
Heart and hand
In the physical system the heart and the head are alike related to
the hand. We associate the heart with feeling
the head with thought
and the
hand with movement or action. Life is made up of feeling
thought and action.
The motive power may be said to lie in the heart; the guiding principle in the
head; and the efficient working element in the hand. But in the Scriptures the
heart is almost always used to denote the whole inner being
as including the
mental and moral nature
the intellect and the affections. Wisdom is the right
direction of all our faculties and powers towards a given end
and it demands
their harmonious co-operation. We want first of all to have concentration of
power
and after that the direction of it along the right lines. In the harmony
of head and heart we have wisdom in thought and action. In their contrariety we
have folly. The heart or soul ought to control the hand. It is the business of
a wise man to know what he can do and what he cannot do. A man need be in no
doubt as to the end of his existence. If it is one’s deepest desire really to
serve the Lord
He will lead one in the right way
and show one in specific
form what he ought at all times to do. A wise man’s heart is at his right hand
in this sense
that he always acts from within himself
or from the ground of
his own personal feeling. This sentence of Solomon means that the wise man is a
practical man--a man of action as well as of thought. The foolish man whose
heart is at his left hand has separated thought from action. If he has a theory
of life at all
his actual life is out of harmony with it. It is so with the religion of many: they
have separated between their theory of the life to come and their practice in
the present life. The man whose heart is at his right hand is always ready for
action
and specially prepared to seize the opportunity when it comes. There is
a general preparedness for action which always characterizes him
and makes him
equal to the occasion
his mind being constantly made up to a very large
extent. The true soldier is always ready for action. One’s facts and principles
must always be at hand
ready for the occasion. To have one’s heart at his
right hand is to do one’s work with his whole heart. He puts his mind and conscience
into it
and really enjoys it. His motto is that what is worth doing at all
ought to be done well. There is nothing so miserable as to have a work to do
for which one has no heart. But to have as one’s daily work that in which he
finds his highest happiness and culture is surely a most enviable condition. In
opposition to all this
the man whose heart is at his left hand is living an
essentially idle life. There is no unity of purpose in his existence. The deep
spiritual forces of his being
separated from all that is practical and
profitable
are wasted. Let us seek by all means the concentration of our
powers
and the direction of them to the one true end of life. Our heart is in
the right place
when our supreme affection is that love to God in Christ which goes continually
forth in earnest and prayerful endeavour for the good of others. When Sir
Walter Raleigh had laid his head upon the block
he was asked by the
executioner whether it lay aright; whereupon
with the marvellous calmness of a
man whose heart was fixed
he replied
“It matters little
my friend
how the
head lies
provided the heart be right.” (Fergus Ferguson
D.
D.)
Verse 7
I have seen servants upon horses
and princes walking as servants
upon the earth.
A social scene in human life
I. This social
scene is common.
1. In the political realm. We see small-minded men occupying
influential offices in the State.
2. In the ecclesiastical department.
3. In the commercial department. How often do we see little men by
trickery
fraud and lucky hits become the great men of the market.
4. In the literary department.
II. This social
scene is incongruous.
1. It does not agree with what we might have expected under the
government of a righteous God. That the race is not always to the morally swift
and the battle to the morally strong is an undoubted anomaly in the government of God.
2. It does not agree with the moral feelings of humanity. Whilst
there is a perversity in man which leads him to hurrah the successful and the
prosperous
there is
nevertheless
down deep in the heart of all men a feeling
that such a scene as that indicated in the text is something terribly
incongruous
a great moral enormity.
III. This social
scene is temporary.
1. Such a social scene does not exist in the other world. Death
destroys all these adventitious distinctions and moral incongruities.
2. Such a social scene will not always exist here. (D. Thomas
D. D.)
Verse 8
Whoso breaketh an hedge
a serpent shall bite him.
Respect the hedge
We covet the apple on the tree and forget the snake in the grass;
the consequence being
that when we essay to bite the apple
the snake bites
us. Now
there are many protective hedges about us; and the trouble is
that we
are variously tempted to play tricks with these
and upon occasion to set them
at naught. Therein we usually discover how great is the mistake we have made.
I. Guard the sense
of shame. Whatever tends to lessen the acuteness of the soul to things false
ugly
or foul is sharply to be shunned. Beware of the literature that tends to
reconcile to odious things! If the soul is to keep its virgin purity
it must
turn away even from the reflection of foulness in a mirror. Beware of the
company whose conversation and fellowship in some way
not perhaps very
apparent
blights the bloom and dims the lustre of pure feeling! Beware of the
amusements that filch away the quick delicacy which has been evolved in our
nature at an infinite expense! Beware of the fashion that sets lighter store by
old-fashioned modesty! Better pluck out as useless appendages the tender eyelashes which
guarantee the sight than consent to destroy the instincts of purity which
preserve the spirit. The sense of shame is a sacred thing; it is the
saintliness of nature
and we ought sedulously to guard and heighten it in the
fear of God. The man or woman who heedlessly violates this ethereal hedge puts
himself or herself outside what is elsewhere called a wall of fire.
II. Respect the
code of courtesy. Even in domestic life and between chief friends are
interposed hedges
if they be not rather flower borders
which must be
respected
if mutual regard and veneration are to continue. United most closely
as we are
certain delicate observances and deferences fix the isolation of our
personality
and imply the attention that must be paid to our rights and
feelings. The grievous misunderstandings and animosities which wreck the peace
and prosperity of households not uncommonly originate in excessive
familiarities between brothers and sisters; these fail to see that refined
proprieties guard the several members of a family as a scarlet cord reserves
special places in great assemblies
and that “good form” must be observed in
private as well as in public. Some one has wisely said
“It is no worse to
stand on ceremony than to trample on it.” No
indeed
it is often a great deal
better; for social ceremonial is the fence that protects the delicate forms and
flowers which are so difficult to rear. Let young people revere the pale of
ceremony
for when it is broken down beauty
purity and peace are at the mercy
of a ruthless world.
III. Obey the rules
of business. Regulations touching hours of going out and coming in
minute
directions for household conduct
rules about the handling of cash
usages in
keeping accounts
and petty laws directing twenty other details of duty
are
based in an expediency which really and simultaneously conserves the rights and
safety of masters and servants alike. The beginner may not see the
reasonableness of a system of delicate network which comprehends eating
drinking and sleeping
and the almost infinite ramifications of daily duty; but
there is more reasonableness in all these worrying precepts than he sees. The
laws of business are the outcome of the experience of generations
and are not
lightly to be set aside. A young man can hardly pay too much deference to the customs
and traditions of the establishment in which his lot is cast; he cannot; be too
exactly conscientious about the prescribed obligations of time
usage
method
goods and cash: to tamper here is to be lost. Beware of the slightest
infraction of your official duty
of all informality and unauthorized action
of all illicit and contraband ways and things
deadly serpents without rattles
wait behind the violated precepts! Whilst
on the other hand
if you keep the
least of these commandments
it shall keep you
and the discipline of obedience
on a lower level will strengthen you to comply with the sublimest laws of all
on the highest levels of thought and conduct. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Fences and serpents
What is meant here is
probably
not such a hedge as we are
accustomed to see
but a dry stone wall
or
perhaps
an earthen embankment
in
the crevices of which might lurk a snake to sting the careless hand. The “wall”
may stand for the limitations and boundary lines of our lives
and the
inference that wisdom suggests in that application of the saying it
“Do not
pull down judiciously but keep the fence up
and be sure you keep on the right
side of it.” For any attempt to pull it down--which
being interpreted
is to
transgress the laws of life which God has enjoined--is sure to bring out the
hissing snake with its poison.
I. All life is
given us rigidly walled up. The first thing that the child learns is that it
must not do what it likes. The last lesson that the old man has to learn is
you must do what you ought. And between these two extremities of life we are
always making attempts to treat the world as an open common
on which we may
wander at our will. And before we have gone many steps some sort of keeper or
other meets us and says to us
“Trespassers I back again to the road!” Life is
rigidly hedged in and limited. There are the obligations which we owe
and the
relations in which we stand
to the outer world
the laws of physical life
and
all that touches the external and the material. There are the relations in
which we stand
and the obligations which we owe to ourselves. And God has so
made us as that obviously large tracts of every man’s nature are given to him
on purpose to be restrained
curbed
coerced
and sometimes utterly crushed and
extirpated. God gives us our impulses under lock and key. All our animal
desires
all our natural tendencies
are held on condition that we exercise
control over them
and keep them well within the rigidly marked limits which He
has laid down
and which we can easily find out. We sometimes foolishly feel
that a life thus hedged up
limited by these high boundaries on either side
must be uninteresting
monotonous
or unfree. It is not so. The walls are
blessings
like the parapet on a mountain road that keeps the traveller from
toppling over the face of the cliff. They are training-walls
as our
hydrographical engineers talk about
which
built in the bed of a river
wholesomely confine its waters and make a good scour which gives life
instead
of letting them vaguely wander and stagnate across great fields of mud. Freedom
consists in keeping willingly within the limits which God has traced
and
anything except that is not freedom
but is licence and rebellion
and at bottom servitude of
the most abject type.
II. Every attempt
to break down the limitations brings poison into the life. We live in a great
automatic system which
by its own operation
largely avenges every breach of
law. I need not remind you
except in a word
of the way in which the
transgression of the plain physical laws stamped upon our constitutions avenges
itself; but the certainty with which disease dogs all breaches of the laws of
health is but a type in the lower and material universe of the far higher and
more solemn certainty with which “the soul that sinneth
it shall die.” The
grossest form of transgression of the plain laws of temperance
abstinence
purity
brings with itself
in like manner
a visible and palpable punishment
in the majority of cases. Some serpents’ bites inflame
some paralyze; and one
or other of these two things--either an inflamed conscience or a palsied
conscience--is the result of all wrongdoing. I do not know which is the worst.
III. All the poison
may be got out of your veins if you like. Christ has received into His own
inmost life and self the whole
gathered consequences of a world’s sin; and by the mystery of His sympathy
and
the reality of His mysterious union with us men
He
the sinless Son of God
has been made sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him. For sin and death launched their last dart at Him
and
like some venomous
insect that can sting once and then must die
they left their sting in His
wounded heart
and have none for them that put their trust in Him. (A.
Maclaren
D. D.)
The hedges of life
I look around upon the universe. It is a place of hedges. It is
not barren moorland about which we are doubtful if it has an owner
for He has
everywhere defined His rights and established His bounds.
I. Read it in the
light of history
and take it as a piece of experience. It is given us by a man
who brings it out of his own heart
for he had felt the bite of the serpent
himself. There was scarcely a hedge upon which he did not set his foot
and
there were few penalties of sin which he did not feel. Although every means was
at his command for avoiding sin’s consequences
he felt the serpent’s sting;
and if you will take his experience of sin
and rest satisfied in his verdict
on it
it will save you from untold sorrow and infinite regrets. But this is
not the experience of one man. Look around society and question men for
yourselves. Hear the intemperate man express the shame and contempt which
follow his intemperance; hear the worldly man as the day of life draws to its
close bemoan the hollow cheat the world has played upon him; listen to the
experience of those who have climbed out of the mire and have now their feet
set upon the rock; and the unqualified answer you will get will be that this
language is true. Or open the volume of history
and mark the solemn
retributions of God upon every page. Read the history of Jacob
of Haman
of
Ahab and Jezebel. Or open the book of secular history. Glance at the history of
Greece and Rome
or any nation under heaven. Thrones gained by the sword have
been lost by it. Fortunes won by fraud have cursed in turn every one that has
held them; and tear at random any page from the archives of the world
and it
will comment to you on these words
for the experience of men through 6
000
years has confirmed these truths
and they express the settled experiences of
mankind.
II. Read this not
only in the light of history
but in the light of revelation
and take it not
only as a piece of experience
but as the revelation of a Divine law. God’s
government has another world as its theatre as well as this. Men may sin here
and in some cases be comparatively free from any terrible outward consequences;
in that other domain of God’s the effects of their sin will reveal themselves
in all their fearfulness and terror. Poison does not always work immediately
but sometimes after days of health and happiness the serpent’s bite begins to
show itself. And so although violation of moral order may bring with it no
instantaneous punishment
punishment for all that will follow. It is a law of
the eternal universe. Now
these hedges are both physical
social and moral.
Break one of the laws of health
and you will induce disease; and that disease
is the bite of the serpent. Or break one of the laws of society
and society
will distrust you
and that distrust
that loss of respect and position
is the
bite of the serpent. But break one of the higher laws--the laws of
morality--and what
probably
will follow? Why
penalties severe and terrible.
Even in this world the resources of God to punish are infinite. He may punish
you in yourself
in your circumstances
by means of your children. He can
punish you through prosperity as well as through adversity.
III. Take these
words and read them in the light of the cross. God
in His infinite love
has
provided salvation in Christ. The temporal effects of sin He does not
remove--Divine forgiveness will not repair the shattered constitution
or mend
the broken fortune. The bite of the serpent works death; but God suffers it not
to work the second death. Yet do not misunderstand this
as though it were a
light thing to see now that salvation through Christ is offered to all. You can
never be what you might have been but for its committal. The damage you do to
the sapling appears in the massive trunk of the oak
and all your machinery
cannot straighten it. And though sin may be forgiven
the very omnipotence of
God cannot undo that which has been done; and though in future ages you
ultimately burn as a seraph or worship as an archangel
you can never be what
you might have been. (H. Wonnacott.)
Sin; and the serpent’s bite
We are supplied with motives be help the right-doing. But that is
not all! Our humanity is surrounded
as it were
with a wall of fire. Of God’s
great mercy we do not suffer for wrong-doing merely
but in wrong-doing also.
Neither heavenly bliss on the one hand
nor the punishment of evil on the
other
are exclusively matters of faith
for God has written the truth of his
Divine utterances on the page of our daily history and experience.
I. God’s laws.
1. If we go for a moment into the natural world
we find there are
certain principles
or laws
received and acted upon. The law of the centre of
gravity; even the clown knows that if he guides his vehicle to the edge of the
precipice
so that the centre of gravity falls beyond the bounds of safety
his
conveyance will fall over and be destroyed! In relation to our physical being
there are laws which we must keep
or the grave will receive us before due
time. A Hercules must take nourishment; every man must inhale air
and that air
must be composed of certain ingredients.
2. Consider man morally
and the same principles apply.
II. Man’s
lawlessness.
1. Suppose a man were to reach a dangerous spot
and were to see a
warning to that effect
but yet persisted in going right into destruction
he
would be regarded as not competent to take care of himself; still in such a man
we have an illustration of the folly of the lawless conduct of the unbeliever.
God
by His providence
in His Word
and by His Spirit’s teaching
has set up a
warning
in every by-path; plain enough to be read. “Trespassers shall be
punished
” meets us everywhere. Would that men read
understood and obeyed!
2. We see in human nature the mischievous tendency developed in daily
acts of folly. If we were compelled to do what we often choose to do
heaven
would be besieged by lamentations
and the multitude would mourn over the
hardness of their lot.
III. The
retribution.
1. Present retribution. Look at the debauched; his face is a
sign-board of hell
his heart a seat of woe.
2. Future retribution. (H. Parrish
B. A.)
The serpent behind the hedge
I. The hedges
which God has placed around us.
1. God’s commandments.
2. Parental restraints. Hedges with respect to associates
books
habits
and places of amusements.
3. Imparted principles. Teachers are anxious to fix truths
sentences
from Scripture
holy maxims
in the minds of the young
that they may be in
them as moral hedges in the time of temptation.
II. The young will
be tempted to break these hedges.
1. By their own evil hearts.
2. By evil companions.
3. By the evil one.
III. There is a
serpent behind the hedge. If we do wrong we shall certainly suffer. The path of
sin is full of serpents. The way of transgressors is hard. Punishment not
always visible
but surely follows the deed. In the sense of shame
in the
stings of conscience
in the displeasure of God
the serpent’s bite is felt. (W.
Osborne Lilley.)
Verse 9
Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that
cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
Raising stones and cleaving wood
The precise meaning of the maxim is not quite clear. Some think
the stone is part of a cairn that marks a neighbour’s property
which a man
tries to move. The tree
likewise
belongs to a neighbour; and the teaching is
that one who commits acts of aggression upon the property of others will
receive his punishment out of the acts themselves. Others find a political
reference. The reformer tries to move stones
to remove ancient grievances
or
to cut down trees
the upas-trees of hoary abuses
and finds that ancient and
deep-seated evils have a deadly power of striking at those who dare to meddle
with them. Or
again--and this
the simplest explanation
is to me at least as
likely as any other--the cynical author who has found vanity of vanities in
every successive sphere of human life observes in these homely words that
ordinary honest labour must pay its due of misfortune in this sad world: a man
cannot quarry stones to build his house
or cut logs to make up his fire
without risking the misfortune which a cruel fate seems to bring alike on the
evil and the good. This interpretation fits in well with the Preacher’s view of
life. Christ came to teach that in His right hand were pleasures for evermore.
He came to join in every kind of innocent enjoyment
to teach men that the
Father in heaven rejoiced in His children’s joy. He lifted stones and cleft
wood in the builder’s workshop at Nazareth for more than twenty years out of
His short life
to show that honest toil brought something else besides
danger--that the stone could become a Bethel
and the wood an altar which
raiseth the consecrated soul. (J. H. Moulton
D. D.)
Verse 10
If the iron be blunt
and he do not whet the edge
then must he
put to more strength.
The iron blunt
and the iron whetted
I. The less
facilities in work
the greater is the strength required. The woodman who has
to hew the old oak with a blunt axe must throw more muscular energy into the
stroke than if his instrument were keen.
1. This principle applies to secular work. The men who are placed in
such temporal circumstances as seem to doom them to destitution
must
if they
would overcome difficulties and rise
be strenuous in effort.
2. This principle applies to educational work. Thousands have so
employed the bluntest iron
that they have become the greatest apostles in
science
and the most distinguished masters in art. Do not find fault with thy
mental tools. Use the bluntest iron with all thy might
and thou shalt rise.
3. This principle applies to religious work. Most unfavourable are
the circumstances in which the millions are placed for the cultivation of a
truly godly life. Albeit
though the “iron” of such a man be blunt
let him use
it
and he will succeed.
4. This principle applies to evangelizing work.
II. Practical
sagacity in work serves to economize strength. “Wisdom is profitable to
direct.”
1. Strength may be saved in commercial pursuits by a wise system of
management. It is not the sweating bustler who does the most work in the
world’s trade; it is the man of forecast and philosophical measures.
2. Strength may be saved in governmental action by a wise policy.
3. Strength may be saved in self-improvement by a philosophic method.
4. Strength may be saved in the work of diffusing the Gospel by an
enlightened policy. (Homilist.)
God’s provision concerning labour
1. It may have often struck you
as a very surprising feature in
God’s dealings with this earth
that though He has abundantly stored it with
all the necessaries and comforts of civilized life
He has left both the
discovery and employment of such materials dependent upon human industry and
human ingenuity. The very metal mentioned in the text
to deprive the world of
which would be to produce starvation
and which with mighty toil is wrung from
the bowels of the earth
underwent many curious and necessary processes ere it
came to the husbandman in the form of a plough. God no more directed men where
to find
than how to prepare the iron. He only furnished them with faculties to
discover the substance
and placed them in circumstances favourable to their
development. Each man was left to his own ingenuity and industry; and after
having experienced the benefit of these discoveries themselves
they naturally
communicated them to others. And how marvellously has discovery gone on from
age to age! how have new properties been discovered
new errors been exploded
new theories
established! But with all our admiration
which the boundless stores thus laid
open to us are calculated to exercise
there does seem room for something of
surprise that God should have allowed a vast amount of the most beneficial
productions to be brought to light
not merely by patient investigation but
entirely by accident
so that the world has long been actually ignorant of many
blessings which lay within its reach. This has been singularly the case with
medicines. You might have expected that
having made so merciful provision for
the alleviation of human pain
God would not have left the world so long ignorant
of the existence of such antidotes and remedies. Yet it is very observable how
close an analogy there is between God’s dealings in this respect
and those
which relate to the scheme of salvation; for many ages God did not guide men
at least only a few
to the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness
and even
now how many of the great mass of our race are kept in ignorance of the balm
that is in Gilead. We may be sure there are some very wise ends
though not
discoverable by us
subserved by this protracted concealment. And we cannot but
observe a display of wisdom and benevolence in the arrangement by which our
world has been peopled
by no moans inferior to that which furnished us with
the treasures of the earth. If thousands of our race had been called into
existence before science had been discovered
and the arts been invented
what
could have resulted but universal wretchedness
inasmuch as every individual
must have struggled with the ground for a disastrous subsistence
and have
perpetually devoted himself to the warding off starvation! A beautiful thing in
the present economy is that the labour of one man raises a sufficiency for
numbers
and thus others devote themselves to various pursuit
and bring about
the spectacle of a stirring and well-ordered community. But this is owing to
the fact that the husbandman had the implements with which to work
whose
manufacture is not to be procured and effected without much toil and thought
and time. Man has not been left merely to his animal strength
but having been
taught
as it were
not only to use the iron
but also to “whet its edge
” he
is enabled to accomplish single-handed what
on any other supposition
must
have required the joint energies of a multitude of his kind. And as it was
God’s beneficent purpose to throw man
as it were
on his own industry and
ingenuity
must we not always admit the goodness as well as the mercy of the
appointment
through which it was ordered that there should be no excessive
pressure on our race
but that we have been afforded time to advance in
knowledge
equivalent to the increase and necessities of population? We have
now taken a general view of the text
and one
we think
which has enabled us
to survey Divine providence under a very interesting aspect. We will now bring
before you more precise illustration of the passage
but still under such views
as may best excite you to the observing the benevolence of God. It is a
property
or we might rather say an infirmity of man
that he cannot give
himself to incessant labour
whether it be bodily or mental
but what it soon
causes him to seek relaxation and repose. The iron will grow blunt
if used a
certain time; and if a man will then go on persevering in the using it
he must
be prepared to the putting to more strength
which will certainly ere long
bring about a total prostration
But if wisdom directeth him
so that he daily
whet the edge by some lawful recreation
he may by God’s help be enabled for a
long time to retain both his strength and his usefulness. And however it may be
in general
there is far more cause for fear that men will be too inert rather
than too active
though cases of a contrary nature frequently occur
in which
the caution most needed is
that they always “whet the edge.” The proverbial
saying which one so commonly hears
and which involves a great fallacy
“Better
wear than rust
” would almost seem to contradict the great principle of our
text; just as though it were necessary that iron should rust out
if it is not
rapidly worn out
whereas the truth is
that though by putting to more
strength
the iron will be worn out
it will not be rusted out through whetting
the edge
seeing that the whetting of the edge brightens what it sharpens And
it is melancholy to think of what frequently happens in our seminaries of
learning
where youths of high promise
of fine powers of imagination
and
large capacities for science
sink beneath the pressure of an overtasked mind
working out for themselves an early grave
and depriving the world of the
benefit which they might have conferred on it by their literature or their
piety
through that constant and incessant use of the iron
and continued
neglect of whetting the edge. And it is yet more melancholy to think how many
of the ministers of Christ have destroyed themselves by devoting themselves to
work with an uncalculating ardour. We have
therefore
to derive an important
lesson from the text; a lesson
that it is as much our duty to relax when we
feel our strength overtasked
as it is to persevere when we feel that strength
sufficient.
2. The man who spends his Sabbath religiously
remembering that it is
God’s day
and therefore to be devoted to God’s service
necessarily abstracts
his mind from secular cares
and thus allows it to recover that tone and
elasticity which must have been greatly injured under one continued uniform
pressure. And far more than this; in studying the Scriptures and meditating on
heaven
in attending the ministrations of the sanctuary
praying with all
fervency of purpose
the man is securing to himself fresh supplies of grace
which may strengthen him for the trials and duties of the week: The iron was
blunt
and had he attempted to proceed without interruption in his labour
he
must then have put to more strength
and thus have disabled himself for the
fulfilment of his duties; but he possesses wisdom
that wisdom which cometh
from above
and this taught him to withdraw himself to God
and bidding
farewell to earthly concerns
forget time in his anxiety for eternity. He has
been brought into contact with heavenly things
and the attrition has sharpened
him again for his earthly occupations
so that when “the iron” is brought into
use
“its edge” is so powerfully sharp
that what seemed adamantine was
divisible
and what seemed inseparable might be cleft. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
Blunt tools: a counsel and consolation
The writer of this book had gone where the Blessed Master went
into the carpenter’s shop. And there as he looked about him he saw this--that
it is not always the man who works hardest who does most: that the workman who
had a blunt tool must sharpen it
or he must work harder if he would keep pace
with the others.
I. Here is a
lesson on service. Iron is the very emblem of service. The stone age is
prehistoric
uncivilized and savage; the golden age is but a dream; the iron
age is the true age. Think of the plough
the sword
the thousand uses of iron;
the huge machinery with which men master the earth and lighten labour
the
modern shipping
and above all
in these later times
the pen. These things build
up our civilization and our strength. Iron may stand as the fittest emblem of
service. Shall the dead stones be capable of such high uses and such gracious
ends
and are we alone to be of no account? Is there no power that can uplift
us and enrich us for worth and blessedness? For us there must be possibilities
of good and blessing. For us somewhere
somehow
there must be high ends and
glorious purposes--the dullest
darkest
deadest of us. The iron is enough to
proclaim it.
II. Here is a
lesson on fitness for service. The iron gets blunt--that you cannot help. What
you can help and must help is this--that it do not remain blunt. Let it be a
matter of conscience with us that we be ever at our best for our Lord. Do you
ask how shall the iron be sharpened? The wise man gives us the method. “Iron
sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” In this
lonely London the sight of a friendly face
the touch of a kindly hand
the
sound of a cheery voice is a very whetstone of the spirit. Yet better than the
man’s prescription for dulness is contact and communion with the Friend of
Friends
the Lord Himself. Nothing else will keep us fit for service. I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Contact and communion with
Jesus Christ alone can keep us fit for service. Then
again
let there be a
daily surrender of ourselves to Him for service.
III. Some
consolation for blunt folks. If the iron be blunt
what then? Well
you must
use more strength. Alas
some of us sigh within ourselves
“I am not made of
fine material: I cannot take a keen edge: I am not one of your very clever
people. No genius am I at anything
but only a plain blunt tool. I see the
steel polished and graven; the flashing sword: and I know I shall never be like
that.” Well
make up for your dulness by your energy; and say
“If I have not
so many gifts
I must get more grace. If I am lacking in skill and learning
I
will be richer in love.” Some tools are the better for not being oversharp. He
who was the carpenter still needs hammers as well as chisels and planes. Only
give thyself to Him. (M. G. Pearse.)
Blunt axes
Solomon desires to impress upon us the truth of what a load of
trouble a man may save himself by a little forethought. A little preparation
a
little contrivance
will prevent in the end an enormous amount of work
whereas
the neglect of common foresight must entail the waste of strength and time and
toil.
I. Take education.
An uneducated child growing up into man’s estate is a dull
stupid individual.
He may get through a certain amount of labour
but it is only at the cost of a
great expenditure of bodily strength. There are about him all the rules of
science and mechanical laws
but not knowing them they cannot be used. A man
who knows general principles can with a very little contriving apply those
principles to almost everything he comes across. It is the man who knows the
most who will make the best workman when he has learnt the trade. There is not
a calling in life
from the ploughboy to the statesman
that may not be made
more effective by the worker being educated in the general details of learning
and science. The great error of the day is to suppose that general education
may supersede particular training
and that if a child has been to school that
therefore that child can turn his hand to anything.
II. Take mechanical
appliances. There is just as much work done in England in one day by the help
of machinery as it would take five hundred millions of men to perform without.
The reason is that as a nation we sharpen our axes before we begin to work. The
perfection of mechanical appliances
the power of steam
impresses into man’s
service the forethought and preparation.
III. Take the
principles of religion. Some may say
What has all this subject to do with
religion? Much every way. Religion teaches us how to live here as well as to be
saved hereafter. There is one notable thing which we should do well to lay to
heart
and that is that it is in Christian nations
and in Christian nations
only
that true progress in arts and science and knowledge has its being.
Heathen nations
such as China and India
are the same as they were 3
000 years
ago. Semi-heathen nations
such as Italy
Spain
and Turkey
are careless
dissolute
and remain as they were. But
more than this
the subject applies to
the welfare and salvation of our souls to a larger extent than we should at
first suppose. If men go about the world--as
alas! too many do--like a lot of
blunt axes
annoying their fellow-creatures with the unnecessary toil they take
to accomplish the most simple acts
they do not exalt the religion they
profess. Learning and wisdom are useful to the Christian
and they are
necessary to the Christian. (Homilist.)
Verse 16
Woe to thee
O land
when thy king is a child
and thy princes eat
in the morning!
Wickedness in high places
(with Psalms 26:10):--Those two passages are
descriptive of wickedness in high places.
The morals of a nation hardly ever rise higher than the virtue of the rulers.
Henry VIII. makes impurity national and popular. A William Wilberforce in the
Parliament ennobles an empire. Sin
epauletted and bestarred
comes to respect
and canonization; vice
elevated
is recommended. Malarias rise from the marsh
float upward and away; but moral distempers descend from the mountain to the
plain.
1. In unrolling
then
this scroll of wickedness in high places
the
first thing that I mark especially is incompetency for office. If a man seeks
for a place and wins it when he is incompetent
he is committing a crime
against God and a crime against man. It is not a sin for me to be ignorant of
medical science; but if
without medical attainment
I set myself up among
professional men
and trifle
in my ignorance
with the lives of those whose
confidence I have won
then my charlatanism becomes high-handed knavery. The
ignorance that in the one case was innocence
in the other case becomes a
crime. It is not a sin for me to be ignorant of machinery; but if I attempt to
engineer a steamer across the Atlantic
amid darkness and hurricane
holding
the lives of hundreds of people in my grasp
then the blood of all the
shipwrecked is on my garment. But what shall we say of men who attempt to
engineer our State and national affairs over the rough waters without the first
element of qualification?--men not knowing enough to vote “aye” or “no” until
they have looked for the wink of others of their party?
2. I unroll the scroll a little further and find intemperance and the
co-ordinate crimes. Oh! it is a sad thing to have a hand tremulous with
intoxication holding the scales of justice
when the lives of men and the
destinies of a nation are in the balance; to have a charioteer with unskilful
hands on the reins while the swift destinies of governments are harnessed on a
road where governments have been dashed to pieces
and empires have gone down
in darkness and woe!
3. I unroll the scroll of wickedness in high places still further
and I see the crime of bribery. It was that which corrupted Lord Bacon in his
magnificent position--it was that which led Chief Justice Thorpe to the
gallows.
There are four things for you to do:--
1. First
stand off from all political office unless your own
principles are thoroughly settled. Do not go into the blaze of temptation
unless you are fire-proof.
2. The second thing to do is to take the counsel of Paul
and pray
for your rulers; pray for all in authority. Do you know that Shadrach and
Abednego did not need the Son of God beside them in the fire so much as your
rulers do?
3. In the next place
be faithful at the ballot-box. Make up your
mind in a Christian way as to who are the best Men for office; then vote for
the man who loves God and hates rum
and believes in having the Bible read
every day
as long as the world stands
in all our common schools. But I have a
better prescription than all.
4. It is the fourth thing that I have to say in the way of counsel
and that is
evangelize the people. Gospelize this country
and you will have
pure representatives and pure men everywhere. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》