xix. 11), and the blessedness that he has tasted he knows to be but
the earnest of what is to be in the future, and therefore he is willing to sacrifice present advantage and worldly ease to obedience to them. He is like the trader who has received a sample of a rich cargo from a distant land, and who is so convinced of the value of the whole from that which has come to hand, that he is willing to undergo any present privation in order to become its possessor. The Son of God likened such an one to "a wise man, which built his house upon a rock," for it is evident that to "receive" commandments is here equivalent to "doing" them (Matt. vii. 24).
+II. A distinguishing mark of a fool.+ He is a _prater._ He is one who is willing to talk, but not to act; willing to give out words, but not to receive instruction; and therefore he is one who can give out nothing by speech that is worth giving. Unless the earth receives good seed into its bosom, it cannot give out "seed to the sower and bread to the eater." Unless a man receives into his heart the good seed of the kingdom, he can never bring forth moral fruit (Matt. xiii. 23), and he can never do more than _prate_ about spiritual truths. There are many words but no meat. There is only one Being in the universe who can be a giver without first being a receiver, and that is God. Outside of Him, all must receive of His fulness if they would be anything more than mere _talkers_ on eternal realities. All such men are fools. "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. i. 20).
+III. The end of such a mere talker.+ He shall fall. 1. _In the estimation of those who he pretends to instruct._ No men are so prone to assume the office of instruction as men who are ignorant, but such men cannot long hold a place in the estimation of others. 2. _He shall fall into deeper folly._ Those who refuse to receive that Divine commandment which will make them truly wise, must sink lower and lower into sinful folly. The longer he refuses the offered wisdom, and refuses to put his neck under the yoke of God's commandments, the heavier will grow the chains of sinful habit, and the more firmly will they be riveted. 3. _He shall fall into righteous retribution._ This will be proportionate to the opportunities he has had of receiving wisdom. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell" (Matt. xi. 23).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
A fool is in nothing sooner and better recognised than in his conversation.--_Geier._
It is striking how often Solomon dwells upon sins of the tongue; no member is so hard to control; none more surely indicates the man.--_Fausset._
The heart is the seat of true wisdom, and a teachable spirit is the best proof of its influence. For who that knows himself would not be thankful for further light. No sooner, therefore, do the commandments come down from heaven, than the well-instructed Christian _receives them_, like his father Abraham (Heb. xi. 8; Gen. xxii. 1-3), with undisputing simplicity; welcomes the voice of his heavenly teacher (1 Sam. iii. 10, Acts x. 33, Psa. xxvii. 8, cxliii. 10), and when he knows that "it is the Lord, girds himself" with all the ardour of the disciple to be found at His feet (John xxi. 2-7). But look at the professor of religion destitute of this _heart-seated wisdom._ We find him a man of creeds and doctrines, not of prayer; asking curious questions rather than listening to plain truths; wanting to know events rather than duties; occupied with other men's business to the neglect of his own (Luke xiii. 23, 24; 1 Tim. v. 13).--_Bridges._
It is one of the marks of true wisdom, and none of the least, that it is not self-sufficient and self-willed. This is the evident import of the former part of this verse. We might consider the disposition in reference both to _God_ and to _men_--to the Supreme Ruler and Lord of the conscience,--and to existing human authorities. The "wise in heart will receive" _God's_ "commandments." _This,_ true wisdom will do _implicitly._ It will never presume on dictating to God, or on altering and amending His prescriptions; but, proceeding on the self-evident principle that the dictates of Divine Wisdom must in all cases be perfect, will bow in instant acquiescence. With regard also to _earthly superiors,_ a humble submission to legitimate authority, both in the family and in the State, is the province of wisdom. There is a self-conceit that spurns at all such authority. It talks as if it would legislate for all nations. It would _give_ commandments rather than _receive_ them. It likes not being dictated to. It plumes itself on its skill in finding fault. There is no rule prescribed at which it does not carp, no proposal in which it does not see something not to its mind, no order in which it does not find something to which it cannot submit. This is folly, for, were this temper of mind prevalent, there would be an end to all subordination and control. The prating fool, or the _fool of lips,_ may be understood in two ways. First, the self-conceited are generally superficial. There is much talk and little substance: words without sense: plenty of tongue, but a lack of wit. Light matter floats on the surface, and appears to all; what is solid and precious lies at the bottom. The foam is on the face of the waters; the pearl is below. Or, secondly, the reference may be to the bluster of insubordination; the loud protestations and boasting of his independence on the part of a man who resists authority, and determines to be "a law to himself."--_Wardlaw._
The word "_commandments_" (E.V.), might often be translated "_laws_." One set of passages would just change words with another. The word translated "_commandments_" means primarily "_something fixed_." It answers to the New Testament "_law_" (Rom. viii. 3), and is adapted to the reasonings of the apostles. "_He of the wise heart_" means the truly wise. _He of the fool heart_ might seem good for the rest of the sentence. But a deep philosophy reminds the inspired man that men are not such fools as to believe in sin, as the pardoned Christian does in holiness. They know a great deal more than they either act or utter. A vast deal of the worldliness of men is a mere lip service, like that to the Almighty. And, knowing that the lost man is aware of his perdition, and has been told his folly, the proverb does not account him a fool in his deep sense, so much as superficially, and in the mad actings of his folly. In his _heart_ he knows he is deceived. In his _lips_ he is constantly deceiving himself. In his acts he keeps up a fictitious life.--_Miller._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-10.
OPPOSITE CHARACTERS.
+I. He who walketh uprightly.+ 1. _Is a restorer of an ancient path._ The way of uprightness is much older than the human race, and was originally the only way known in the universe to intelligent and moral creatures. Uprightness is as old as God. Crooked walking is of the creature and but of yesterday compared with uprightness. He who walks uprightly is a restorer of the breach made in heaven, and re-establishes the old paths (Jer. vi. 16) of righteousness upon earth. The way of uprightness was the way in which man walked in Eden. In Eden also man lost his way by entering the by-path of transgression and thus ceased to walk with God. He shall "be called a repairer of the breach, a restorer of paths to dwell in" (Isa. lviii. 12). A man who reopened up some ancient and important highway to a great city would be regarded by the citizens as a benefactor; how much more ought he to be held in esteem whose life reveals this ancient highway of holiness, who by his uprightness becomes himself a way to others. 2. _He obeys an ancient command._ "When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou _perfect_"--upright (Gen. xvii. 1). Often the great want of a partially-civilised country is a straight and level road, by which commerce can easily find its way to the central city, and a royal edict is sometimes issued that such a road should be made. The great want of the world in the day when this command was given to Abram was an example of uprightness in human life. The need of the world in this direction is still great, and the ancient command given to the patriarch is still in force. 3. _His walking is not limited to the present life._ He walks in the same way after death as before it. "He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness" (Isa. lvii. 2). Heaven has no better way of walking than the way of uprightness, and death will not make any change in the moral characteristics of the godly man, except to intensify and strengthen them. The death of the seed-corn will not be the means of giving birth to a different _kind_ of seed, but only of making an _increase_ of the same kind. Death is needful, not to change one thing for another, but to make much out of little. Death will bring heaven to the godly and upright, but it can give nothing to an upright man better than his uprightness, but this it can do, it can render him more entirely and completely upright. Hence the path of the upright is a path which death cannot end--a path which, begun to be trodden in time, will be continued in throughout eternity. The happiness of the human creatures who make up a family, or a larger community, will depend very much upon the uprightness of each member. Heaven's blessedness springs from the perfectly upright character of each citizen of that perfect city. 4. _His upright walk is sure, or safe, because it is preservative of character._ Uprightness is to character what salt is to food. He who walks uprightly can never become _less_ godly and righteous, but must of necessity become more and more so; hence the Psalmist's prayer, "Let integrity and uprightness _preserve_ me" (Psalm xxv. 21).
+II. The two phases of character are placed in contrast to that of the upright man.+ 1. _That of the man whose evil nature does not lie entirely upon the surface._ "He that perverteth his ways" and yet endeavours to cloak his perversion, to hide his wrong-doing. The "winking of the eye" mentioned in verse 10 indicates an effort after concealment. Those who "pervert" their ways pervert nature in order to attain their ends. The eye is intended by God to be a revelation of the soul, and where integrity and sincerity dwells, it is so. But he who walks crookedly or perversely makes an unnatural use of his eye, and by means of it endeavours to work ill to his neighbour. But all his efforts at concealment will at some time or other be ineffectual; the very means he uses to conceal his evil plans may be the means of awakening suspicion. And if he succeeds in blinding the eyes of his fellow men, "the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts" (1 Cor. iv. 5). The day of judgment will reveal the guilty secrets of many who have never yet--nor ever will be until that day--fully "_known._" 2. _That of him whose perversity is manifest to all._ The "prating fool" cannot conceal what he is. Upon him and upon his destiny, see Homiletics and Suggestive Comments on verse 8.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
Verse 9. An _upright walk_ is Christian, not sinless, perfection (Job i. 8); "walking before God," not before men (Gen. xvii. 1). Impurity, indeed, defiles the holiest exercise. But if the will be rightly bent, the integrity will be maintained. "Show me an easier path," is Nature's cry. "Show me," cries the child of God, "a _sure_ path."--_Bridges._
To walk uprightly, or to walk in integrity, means to act according to one complete scheme: not as the fool does (verse 8), behaving one way and believing another. It means to aim for "something stable" (chap.