xviii. 11) who are outwardly immoral, and forgets that if he is not
_sensual_ he may be _devilish_ (Jas. iii. 15), may be under the dominion on the sin that made the first and greatest sinner in the universe. It was men of this class, and not the openly profane and sensual, whom Christ declared to be in danger of committing the _sin which should not be forgiven_ (Matt. xii. 31), and on another occasion he shows that their hopeless condition arose from the fact that they did not realise that they were in any spiritual need. _"If ye were blind we should have no sin, but now ye say, we see; therefore your sin remaineth"_ (John ix. 41). This moral blindness is so hopeless because it is self-originated and self-sustained--because the subjects of it love darkness rather than light, and even call their darkness _light,_ and their evil, _good._
+II. Self-conceit is both the child and the parent of indolence.+ If a man feels certain that he is far in advance of his competitors for any prize or position, his efforts to gain it will be very feeble and intermittent. And on the other hand, if he is indolent he will be content with very low intellectual and spiritual attainments, and inclined to place a very high estimate upon the very little mental or moral wealth that he possesses. Being unwilling to labour after more, he makes the most of what he has, and so his sloth keeps him ignorant, and his ignorance confirms him in his slothful habits.
+III. The indolent man has spasmodic and fruitless seasons of activity.+ He turns upon his bed of sloth as though he were going to rise, and he puts his hand in the dish (see Critical Notes) of human enterprise and activity as though he intended to take a prize, and to taste the sweets of honest and earnest toil. But his resolutions are broken almost before they are formed, and his moral courage is not strong enough to carry him through the first difficulty, or make him willing to undergo the least self-denial. And so he ever remains a stranger to the sweetness of repose honestly earned, and to the relish of good things gained by industry and perseverance. On this subject see also on chap. xii. 27, page 289, and on verse 13. (See Homiletics on chap. xxii. 13, page 647.)
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 12. The publicans and sinners went faster to heaven than the Pharisees; yea, there may be a greater nighness between the things when there is a greater distance between the working of them and the bringing them together. Thus, brother and sister are nigher in blood yet farther off marrying each other than two strangers; and thus two men upon the tops of two houses opposite to each other in one of your narrow streets--they are nearer each other in distance than those below are, yet in regard of coming each to other they may be said to be farther off, for the one must come down and then climb up again. Thus now a moral man, though he seems nearer to a state of grace, yet is really farther off; for he must be convinced of his false righteousness, and then climb up to the state of grace.--_Goodwin._
Verse 16. There is no refuting a man who says nothing. Nonsense is unanswerable if there only be enough of it. Who would dispute against a pair of bagpipes, or against a company of boys that hoot at him? If you will make a match at barking or biting, a cur will be too hard for you. And if you will contend with multitudes of words, or by rage or confidence, a fool will be too hard for you.--_Baxter._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 17.
NEEDLESS INTERFERENCE.
The wise man may here be regarded as passing from one extreme of character to the other--from the man who is too indolent to mind his own affairs, to one whose activity is so great that it leads him to unnecessary interference with his neighbour's business. Or he may intend to suggest that indolence and meddling are very closely allied--that he who is not usefully occupied in doing his own work will be very apt to interfere impertinently with the concerns of others.
+I. Such a meddler brings trouble upon himself.+ It is a dangerous thing to take a strange dog by the ears, and he who does it will be very likely to suffer for it in his own person, for the creature will probably wound him. But he who meddles impertinently with those who are at strife has to deal, not with _one_ angry _brute,_ but with _two_ angry _men or women,_ and will very likely bring down the wrath of both upon his own head. For it is to be noted that the strife with which it is mischievous to intermeddle is that "which belongeth not to" a man--a quarrel in which an outsider has no right to take a part.
+II. He may do harm to others.+ To take a dog by the ears is at least a foolish and useless act, and will certainly not increase the comfort or peace of anybody. But it may so enrage the beast as to make him a general disturber of the public peace and safety. And the same holds good in relation to meddlers; the mischief that they do may extend far beyond themselves, and their action may form a centre of a wide circle of mental disquietude and moral mischief.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
A wide difference is made between "suffering as a busy-body, and suffering as a Christian." It is alarming to those who have no adequate sense of the criminality to find the apostle classify the one with "murderers, and thieves, and evil-doers."--_Bridges._
For Homiletics on verses 18-22, see on chap. xvii. 14, page 513, and on chap. xviii. 6-8, page 539.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 23-28.
COUNTERFEIT FRIENDSHIP.
+I. Because there are true friends in the world false men sometimes put on the garb of friendship.+ Because there is an abundance of genuine coin in the country men take the trouble to make counterfeit imitations of it; the existence of the good money is the cause of the existence of the bad, and the great preponderance of the good over the bad is the reason why men sometimes get imposed upon and take the bad for the good. So there is much real and true friendship in human life, and there is therefore an opportunity given to wicked men to imitate its outward expression--there are many "burning words" uttered from the depths of a sincere heart, and therefore a wicked man will sometimes utter such words for the purposes of deception. The vessel of clay covered with silver may be taken for silver, because its shape and external appearance are close imitation of the genuine article, and the fair words of the false man may effectually deceive the listener, but it is because some things _are what they seem,_ that other things are made _to seem what they are not._
+II. The words of true friendship are used to reveal, and those of the false friend are employed only for concealment.+ There were many silver vessels in Solomon's palace, and their bright splendour was a true revelation of their intrinsic worth and genuineness; the shining surface reflecting the light was an indication of the preciousness of the entire article. But when a clay vessel is covered with silver, the external coating is used only to cover what is beneath, and perhaps to deceive those who look on it. So when the friendship is real the ardent expressions of affection which are uttered are only a revelation of the emotions which are experienced, but when it is only a counterfeit the words are like the silver which hides instead of revealing what is beneath it. Solomon's father thus records his experience of the language of a counterfeit friend: _"His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords"_ (Psalm lv. 21).
+III. Because counterfeit friendship is opposed to human happiness it shall be publicly arrested and condemned.+ Every counterfeit has arrayed against it the force of human interest. It is to the interest of the general community that the forger should be brought to justice, and that the coiner of bad money should be severely punished. It is only by rigidly enforcing the law against such criminals that they are kept in check, and the safety of the public made tolerably secure. When such offenders are discovered their wickedness is condemned by the united voice of the commercial world. But the man who betrays another by false words is quite as great an enemy to his brother man, and ought to be as severely dealt with and as publicly and universally condemned. But it can hardly be affirmed that such is the case. If every such betrayer were dealt with by human laws we should need a large increase of judges and gaolers and prison-cells, and should find within the walls of the latter many men who are now living in mansions. And if it were only punished by being shut out from the favourable notices of their fellow-men, many would be missed from their present positions in commercial and fashionable circles. Although they are shunned, and their wickedness is abhorred by all lovers of truth and honesty, they are far from meeting at the hands of man with the contempt and condemnation which they deserve. But the forces arrayed against such men are nevertheless in operation, and though they often work secretly and slowly they are most certain to find their object and to make him conscious of their existence. There are other agencies at work in the universe besides human agencies, and a Divine lawgiver as well as human lawgivers. And although the latter may fail to discover those who break their laws, no offender against the law of God will be able to escape public arrest and condemnation, if not before a human congregation, before a higher and more august assembly.
+IV. A special form of punishment which will be the special portion of such offenders.+ The great principle proclaimed by Christ, _"With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again"_ (Matt. vii. 2), is here uttered by Solomon. Every deceiver will be deceived, and one false man will become the prey of another false man. This is a law which is always and now in operation, although the punishment may not always be discernable to onlookers. But it is a work which the Almighty Judge has taken into His own hands, and many a one who is now suffering from a pitfall laid by another, knows very well in his secret soul that he is only passing through the same experiences which he once prepared for another--that if what he took for a silver vessel is only clay, he has himself palmed off the counterfeit article for a genuine one.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 28. It is not easy for us to forgive the injuries we receive; but it is far more difficult to forgive the injuries we do.--_Lawson._
1. There is the inward self-reproach, arising from the workings of conscience, from which arises a secret irritability and fretfulness and unhappiness; and this produces dislike of the innocent occasion of it, instead of terminating (as it always ought to do) on _self._ This of course is only _more injustice._ True; but it is in human nature to hate with a bitter hatred the object of our own crime; as if it were a fault in that object to exist, and so to be the object on which our sin terminates. 2. The evil passions, like the good, are strengthened and increased by their exercise. If the utterance of the feelings of love serves further to inflame love, the utterance, in like manner, of the feelings of hatred tend to inflame hatred. The passion gives birth to the word and the action; and, reciprocally, the word and the action strengthen the passion. 3. The fretful uneasiness produced by the unceasing apprehension of detection and exposure, already alluded to, and of the weight of _his_ vengeance who is the object of the lying tongue's assaults, gives rise also to the same feeling of rankling dislike to him who is the source of it. Thus the slanderer, instead of feeling pity for the man who his slander wounds, hates him still the more. This appears to have had a very striking exemplification in the case of our blessed Lord and His Jewish unbelieving adversaries. They "hated Him without a cause."--_Wardlaw._
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