American Standard Version Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11:1-31
EXPOSITION
Pro_11:1
A false balance; literally, balances of deceit (Pro_20:23). The repetition of the injunctions of Deu_25:13, Deu_25:14 and Le 19:35, 36 points to fraud consequent on increased commercial dealings, and the necessity of moral and religious considerations to control practices which the civil authority could not adequately supervise. The standard weights and measures were deposited in the sanctuary (Exo_30:13; Le 27:25; 1Ch_23:29), but cupidity was not to be restrained by law, and the prophets had continually to inveigh against this besetting sin (see Eze_45:10; Amo_8:5; Mic_6:11). Honesty and integrity are at the foundation of social duties, which the author is now teaching. Hence comes the reiteration of these warnings (Pro_16:11; Pro_20:10). A just weight; literally, a perfect stone, stones having been used as weights from early times. So we read (2Sa_14:26) that Absalom weighed his hair “by the king’s stone” (eben).
Pro_11:2
Then cometh shame (Pro_16:18 : Pro_18:12); literally, cometh pride, cometh also shame. Pride shall have a fall; self-assertion and self-confidence shall meet with mortification and disgrace in the end. “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased” (Luk_14:11); “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1Co_10:12). Septuagint, “Where violence (ὅβρις) entereth, there also dishonor.” But with the lowly is wisdom. “Mysteries are revealed unto the meek” (Ecc_3:19, Complutensian; Psa_25:9, Psa_25:14). The humble are already rewarded with wisdom because their disposition fits them to receive grace and God’s gifts (comp. Pro_15:33). Septuagint, “The mouth of the humble meditateth wisdom.”
Pro_11:3
The integrity—the simple straightforwardness—of the upright shall guide them in the right way, and give them success in their undertakings with the blessing of God (comp. Pro_11:5). Septuagint, “the perfection of the straightforward” (Pro_10:9). The perverseness (seleph);; they not only bring punishment on themselves when their evil designs are discovered and frustrated, but they ruin their moral nature, lose all sense of truth and right, and are rejected of God. This clause and the following verse are omitted in the Vatican and some other manuscripts of the Septuagint.
Pro_11:4
Profit not; afford no refuge (Pro_10:2). In the day of wrath (Pro_6:34), when God visits individuals or nations to punish them for sin (comp. Ecc_5:8). Such visitations are often spoken of (comp. Isa_10:3; Eze_7:19; Zep_1:15, Zep_1:18, etc.). More especially will this be true in me great dies irae. Righteousness … death (see on Pro_10:2; and comp. Tobit 4:10; 12:9). The Septuagint here adds a sentence which is similar to Pro_11:10 : “When the righteous dieth he leaveth regret, but the destruction of the wicked is easy and delightsome (πρόχειρος καὶ ἐπίχαρτος).”
Pro_11:5
The perfect; the upright and honest. Vulgate, “simple;” Septuagint, “blameless.” Shall direct—make straight or smooth—his way (Pro_3:6). The good man, not blinded by passion, follows a safe and direct path of life; but the wicked, led by his own evil propensious, and losing the light of conscience (Joh_11:10), stumbles and fails. Septuagint, “Righteousness cutteth straight (ὀρθοτομεῖ) blameless paths, but ungodliness walketh in iniquity.” Ὀρθοτομέω occurs in Pro_3:6, and nowhere else in the Septuagiut. St. Paul adopts the word in 2Ti_2:15.
Pro_11:6
An emphatic reiteration of the preceding sentences. Naughtiness; “strong desire,” as Pro_10:3, which leads to sin (Pro_5:22; Mic_7:3). The indulgence of their passions destroys sinners. Septuagint,” Transgressors are taken by lack of counsel.”
Pro_11:7
His expectation; that which he hoped for and set his heart upon, worldly prosperity, long life, impunity,—all are cut off, and the moral government of God is confirmed, by his death (Psa_73:17-19). (For “the hope of the ungodly,” see the forcible expressions in Wis. 5:14.) Of unjust men; Vulgate sollicitorum; Septuagint, τῶν ἀσεβῶν. The word seems to mean “vanities,” i.e. “men of vanity”—abstract for concrete. Others translate, “godless hope,” or “expectation that bringeth grief,” or “strong, self-confident men;” “men in the fulness of their vigour.” But the rendering of the Authorized Version is well supported, and the two clauses are coordinate. The Septuagint, in order to accentuate the implied antithesis, has seemingly altered the text, and introduced a thought which favours the immortality of the soul, “When a righteous man dieth, hope perisheth not; but the boast of the wicked perisheth” (Wis. 3:18).
Pro_11:8
Out of trouble; i.e. God is at hand to help the righteous out of straits (de angustia, Vulgate); or takes him away from the evil to come (Isa_57:1; Wis. 4:10-14). Septuagint, “escapeth from the chase.” In his stead (Pro_21:18). The evil from which the righteous is saved fails upon the wicked. As Abraham says to Dives in the parable, “He is comforted, but thou art tormented” (Luk_16:25). Of this substitution many instances occur in Scripture. Thus Haman was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai (Est_7:10); Daniel’s accusers were cast into the den of lions from which he was saved (Dan_6:24; comp. Isa_43:4).
Pro_11:9
An hypocrite (chaneph); simulator, Vulgate. So translated continually in Job, e.g. Job_8:13; Job_13:16, etc. Others take it to mean “profane,” “godless.” Such a man, by his falsehoods, insinuations, and slanders, destroys his neighbour as far as he is able (Pro_12:6). Septuagint, “In the mouth of the wicked is a snare for fellow citizens.” Through knowledge. By the knowledge which the just possess, and which they display by judicious counsel, peace and safety are secured. Septuagint, “Knowledge affords an easy path (εὔοδος) for the just.”
Pro_11:10
The city; any city. Ewald would argue that such language could not be used of the capital of the Jews till the times of Asa or Jehoshaphat. But what is to prevent the sentence being taken generally of any city or community? The Vatican manuscript of the Septuagint and some others give here only the first clause, “In the prosperity of the righteous the city succeeds,” adding from Pro_11:11, “but by the mouths of the wicked it is overthrown” (see on Pro_11:4; comp. Psa_58:10, etc.).
Pro_11:11
This verse gives the reason of the rejoicing on the two occasions just mentioned (comp. Pro_14:34; Pro_28:12). By the blessing of the upright; i.e. their righteous acts, counsels, sad prayers (Wis. 6:24). By the mouth of the wicked. Their impious language and evil advice, bring ruin upon a city.
Pro_11:12
He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor; uses words of contempt about his neighbour. Septuagint, “sneers at his fellow citizens.” The following clause indicates that contemptuous language is chiefly intended. Holdeth his peace. An intelligent man is slow to condemn, makes allowance for others’ difficulties, and, if he cannot approve, at least knows how to be silent. Nam nulli tacuisse nocet nocet esse locutum. “Speech is silver,” says the proverb, “silence is golden.” Septuagint, “A man of sense keeps quiet.”
Pro_11:13
A tale-bearer. The word implies one who goes about chattering, gossiping, and slandering (Le Pro_19:16); Vulgate, qui ambulat fraudulenter; Septuagint, “the man of double tongue.” To such a man it is safe to trust nothing; he revealeth secrets (Pro_20:19). He that is of a faithful spirit; a steadfast, trusty man, not a gadder about; he retains what is committed to him (Ec Pro_27:16, “Whoso discovereth secrets luseth his credit, and shall never find friend to his mind”). Septuagint, “He that is faithful in spirit [πνοῇ, as in Pro_20:27, where see note] concealeth matters.”
Pro_11:14
Where no counsel is. The word properly means “steersmanship,” “pilotage” (Pro_1:5; Pro_12:5; Pro_24:6). So Vulgate, gubernator; Septuagint, κυβέρνησις, “They who have no government fall like leaves,” reading alim instead of am. In the multitude of counsellors (Pro_15:22; Pro_20:18; Pro_24:6). This would go to prove the superiority of a popular government over the despotism of a single ruler. But the caution of our homely proverb is net inopportune, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Pro_11:15
He that is surety for a stranger; or, for another (see Pro_6:1). Shall smart for it. “Evil shall fall on him evilly who is surety.” He that hateth suretyship; guaranteed, as the word implies, by the striking of hands in public (Pro_17:18). Vulgate, “who is cautious of snares,” especially of the insidious dangers that lurk in suretyship. Is sure; is at rest and has nothing to fear. There is no paronomasia in the Hebrew. The play on “suretyship” and “sure” in the Authorized Version is either accidental or was introduced with the idea of giving point to the sentence. The Septuagint translates differently, “A wicked man doeth evil when he mixes with the righteous; he hateth the sound of safety (ἦχον ἀσφαλείας).” This perhaps means that the fraudulent creditor deceives the good man who has stood security for him; and henceforward the good man cannot bear to hear immunity and safety spoken of (see note on Pro_20:16).
Pro_11:16
A gracious woman; a woman full of grace. Septuagint, εὐχάριστος “agreeable,” “charming.” The author is thinking of personal attractions, which, he says, win favour; but we may apply his expression to moral exeellences also, which obtain higher recognition. Retaineth … retain; better, obtain … win, as in Pro_29:23. The two clauses are parallel in form, not in sense, and imply that beauty is more effective than strength, and honour is better than wealth. The Septuagint takes a narrow view: “A graceful woman bringeth glory to her husband.” The last clause is rendered, “The manly (ἀνδρεῖοι) are supported by wealth.” Between the two clauses the LXX. and the Syriac introduce the following paragraphs: “But a seat of dishonour is a woman that hateth righteousness. The indolent come to want wealth, but the manly,” etc.
Pro_11:17
The merciful man; the kind, loving man. Septuagint, ἀνὴρ ἐλεήμων. His own soul; i.e. himself. His good deeds return in blessings upon himself. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Mat_5:7) Troubleth his own flesh; brings retribution on himself. Some commentators, comparing Ec Pro_14:5 (“He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good?”), translate, “He who does good to himself is a kind man to others, and he who troubles his own body will be cruel to others.” The sentiment is quite untrue. Self-indulgence does not lead to regard for others; and a severe, ascetic life, while it encourages stern views of human weaknesses, does not make a man cruel and uncharitable. The Vulgate takes “his own flesh” to mean “his neighbours,” as Judah calls his brother Joseph “our flesh” (Gen_37:27). But the parallelism confirms the Authorized Version.
Pro_11:18
A deceitful work; work that brings no reward or profit, belying hope, like “fundus mendax” of Horace, ’Od.,’ 3.1, 30. The Septuagint has, “unrighteous works,” which seems a jejune rendering, and does not bring out the contrast of the sure reward in the second member (comp. Pro_10:2, Pro_10:16). To him that soweth righteousness (Hos_10:12; Gal_6:8, Gal_6:9). To “sow righteousness” is to act righteously, to live in such a way that the result is holiness. The “reward,” in a Jew’s eyes, would be a long life in which to enjoy the fruits of his good conduct. We Christians have a better hope, which is, perhaps, adumbrated by this analogy: as the seed sown in the field does not produce its fruit till the time of harvest, so righteousness meets with its full recompense only in the great harvest at the end of all things. The Revised Version renders, The wicked earnnth deceitful wages: but he that soweth righteousness hath a sure reward. This makes a good antithesis. The Septuagint renders the last clause, “but the seed of the righteous is a true reward (μισθὸς ἀληθείας).”
Pro_11:19
This verse is not to be connected with the preceding, as in the margin of the Revised Version, “so righteousness,” etc; each couplet in these chapters being independent, the connection, such as it is, being maintained by the use of catchwords, such as “righteous,” “wicked,” “upright,” etc. As righteousness tendeth to life. The various uses of the first word כֵן (ken) have led to different renderings. The Authorized Version takes it for “as;” the Revised Version as an adjective: He that is steadfast in righteousness. It is, perhaps, better, with Nowack, to regard it as an adverb: “He who is honestly, strictly, of righteousness, is to life.” The meaning is plain: real, genuine righteousness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come (1Ti_4:8). The LXX; reading בֵן (ben), translate, “A righteous son is born for life.” He that pursueth evil (Pro_13:21); Septuagint, “the persecution of the impious,” i.e. that which an impious man inflicts. But the Authorized Version is correct, and the clause means that he who practises evil brings ruin eventually on himself—a warning trite, but unheeded (comp. Pro_1:18).
Pro_11:20
They that are of a froward heart (Pro_17:20); Septuagint, “perverse ways.” The word means “distorted from the right,” “obstinate in error.” Upright in their way (Pro_2:21; Pro_29:27; Psa_119:1).
Pro_11:21
Though hand join in hand (Pro_16:5); literally, hand to hand, which may be taken variously. The Septuagint and some other versions take the phrase in the sense of unjust violence: “He who layeth hand upon hand unjustly;” Vulgate, manus in manu, “hand in hand,” which is as enigmatical as the Hebrew. Some Jewish interpreters consider it an adverbial expression, signifying simply “soon.” Some moderns take it to mean “sooner or later,” as the Italian da mano in mano, or, in succession of one generation after another (Gesenius, Wordsworth). Others deem it a form of adjuration, equivalent to “I hereby attest, my hand upon it!” And this seems the most probable interpretation; assuredly the Divine justice shall be satisfied by the punishment of the wicked (comp. Psa_37:1-40.). The Authorized Version gives a very good sense: “Though hands be plighted in faith, and men may associate together in evil, the wicked shall not go unpunished” (comp. Isa_28:15). St. Gregory (’Mor. in Job,’ lib. 25.) takes a very different view: “Hand in hand the wicked shall not be innocent;” for hand is wont to he joined with hand when it rests at ease, and no laborious employment exercises it. As though he were saying, “Even when the hand rests from sinful deeds, yet the wicked, by reason of his thoughts, is not innocent” (Oxford transl.). This exposition is, of course, divorced from the context. The seed of the righteous. This is not “the posterity of the righteous,” but is a periphrasis for “the righteous,” as in Psa_24:6; Psa_112:2, “the generation of the righteous” (comp. Isa_65:23). The climax which some see here—as if the author intended to say, “Not only the good themselves, but their descendants also shall be delivered”—is non-existent and unnecessary. Septuagint, “But he that soweth righteousness shall receive a sure reward,” which is another rendering of the second member of verse 18. Shall be delivered; i.e. in the time of God’s wrath (Psa_112:4, 23; Pro_2:22).
Pro_11:22
This is the first instance of direct “similitude” in the book. As a jewel [a ring] of gold in a swine’s snout. The greatest incongruity is thus expressed. Women in the East wore, and still sometimes wear, a ring run through the nostril, and hanging over the mouth, so that it is necessary to hold it up when taking food. Such a nezem Abraham’s servant gave to Rebekah (Gen_24:22; comp. Isa_3:21; Eze_16:12). The Septuagint has ἐνώτιον, “an earring.” So is a fair woman which is without discretion; without taste, deprived of the faculty of saying and doing what is seemly and fitting. The external beauty of such a woman is as incongruous as a precious ring in the snout of a pig. Lesetre quotes an Arab proverb: “A woman without modesty is food without salt.” Whether swine in Eastern countries were “ringed,” as they are with us nowadays, is unknown; if they were thus treated, the proverb is still more vivid.
Pro_11:23
(Comp. Pro_10:28.) The desire of the righteous is only good. They want only what is just and honest, and therefore they obtain their wiches. The expectation of the wicked—that on which they set their hope and heart—is wrath (Pro_11:4), is an object of God’s wrath. Other commentators, ancient and modern, take the clause to imply that the wishes of evil men, animated by wrath and ill temper, are only satisfied by inflicting injuries on others. Delitzsch would translate ebrah, “excess,” “presumption,” as in Pro_21:24. But the first interpretation seems most suitable (scrap. Rom_2:8, Rom_2:9). The LXX; pointing differently, for “wrath” reads “shall perish.”
Pro_11:24
There is that scattereth; that giveth liberally, as Psa_112:1-10 :99, “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the needy.” And yet increaseth; becomes only the richer in wealth and more blessed by God (comp. Pro_19:17). Nutt quotes the old epitaph, “What we spent, we had; what we saved, we lost; what we gave, we have.” Experience proves that no one ultimately loses who gives the tithe of his income to God (see on Pro_28:27). There is that withholdeth more than is meet; i.e. is niggardly where he ought to be liberal. But the expression is best taken as in the margin of the Revised Version, “that withholdeth what is justly due,” either as a debt or as a proper act of generosity becoming one who desires to please God and to do his duty. But it tendeth to poverty. That which is thus withheld is no real benefit to him. it only inure, sos his want. Septuagint and Vulgate, “There are who, sewing what is their own, make the more; and there are who, gathering what is another’s, suffer loss.” Dionysius Cato, ’Distich. de Mor.,’ 54.4, 1—
“Despice divitias, si vis animo esse beatus,
Quas qui suscipiunt mendicant semper avari.”
Pro_11:25
The sentiment of the preceding verse is here carried on and confirmed. The liberal soul; literally, the soul of blessings, the man that blesses others by giving liberally. Shall be made fat (Pro_13:4; Pro_28:25). The term is used of the rich and prosperous (Psa_22:29). Septuagint, “Every simple soul is blessed.” He that watereth—benefits and refreshes others—shall be watered also himself; shall receive the blessing which he imparts. The Vulgate introduces another idea, Qui inebriat, ipse quoque inebriabitur, where the verb implies rather abundance than excess, as in Pro_5:19, etc. The Septuagint departs widely from the present text: “A passionate man is not graceful” (εὐσχήμων), i.e. is ugly in appearance and manner—a sentiment which may be very true, but it is not clear how it found its way into the passage. St. Chrysostom comments upon it in ’Hom.’ 17, on St. John. There are some Eastern proverbs on the stewardship of the rich. When a good man gets riches, it is like fruit falling into the midst of the village. The riches of the good are like water turned into a rice field. The good, like clouds, receive only to give away. The rivers themselves drink not their water; nor do the trees eat their own sweet fruit, and the clouds eat not the crops. The garment in which you clothe another will last longer than that in which you clothe yourself. Who gives alms sows one and reaps a thousand.
Pro_11:26
He that withholdeth corn. The practice reprehended is not confined to any one time or place. The avaricious have always been found ready to buy corn and other necessary articles of consumption when plentiful, and wait till there was dearth in the market or scarcity in the land, and then sell them at famine prices. Amos sternly reproves this iniquity (Amo_8:4, etc.). It is a sin against justice and charity, and it is said of him who is guilty of it, the people shall curse him (Pro_24:24). Such selfishness has often given rise to tumult and bloodshed, and has been punished in a signal manner. The legend of Bishop Hatto shows the popular feeling concerning these Dardanarians, as they were called by Ulpian (’Digest. Justin.,’ 47.11.6). Such a one St. Chrysostom (’Hom. in 1 Cor.,’ 39) calls “a common enemy of the blessings of the world, and a foe to the liberality of the Lord of the world, and a friend of mammon, or rather his slave.” The Septuagint gives a curious rendering: “He who hohleth corn may he leave it for the peoples!”
i.e. may neither he nor his heirs be benefited by his store, but may it be distributed among others far and near! That selleth it; literally, that breaketh it, as it is said of Joseph when he sold corn to the Egyptians (Gen_41:56; Gen_42:6).
Pro_11:27
He that diligently seeketh good; literally, he that seeketh in the morning, as so often in Scripture, the phrase, “rising early,” implies unimpaired powers and diligence (Pro_27:14; Jer_7:13, etc,). Procureth favour; better, seeketh favour; by his very act of striving after what is good, he is striving to do what may please and benefit others, and thus to please God. Vulgate, “Well does he rise early who seeketh good.” It—mischief—shall come unto him; the consequences of his evil life shall fall upon his end. Says an Indian proverb, “When men are ripe for slaughter, even straws turn into thunderbolts.”
Pro_11:28
There are many expressions in this and the following verses which recall Psa_1:1-6. He that trusteth in his riches shall fall (Pro_10:2; Psa_49:6, Psa_49:7; Psa_52:7; Ecc_5:8). Wealth is of all things the most uncertain, and leads the heart astray from God (1Ti_6:17). As a branch; “as a leaf” (Psa_1:1-6 :8; Isa_34:4). The righteous grow in grace and spiritual beauty, and bring forth the fruit of good works. Septuagint, “He who layeth hold on what is righteous [or, ’helpeth the righteous’] shall spring up (ἀνατελεῖ).”
Pro_11:29
He that troubleth his own house; he that annoys and worries his family and household by niggardliness, bad management, and captious ill temper. So the Son of Sirach writes (Ecc_4:1-16 :30), “Be not as a lion in thy house, nor frantic (φαντασιοκοπῶν, ’suspicious’) among thy servants.” Septuagint, “he who has no friendly intercourse (ὁ μὴ συμπεριφερόμενος) with his own house.” Shall inherit the wind; he will be the loser in the end; no one will lend him a helping hand, and his affairs will fall to ruin. The fool—the man who acts thus foolishly—shall be servant to the wise of heart; to the man who administers his household matters in a better and more orderly manner (see on Pro_12:24). It is implied that the troubler of his own house shall be reduced to such extremity as to have to apply for relief to the wise of heart. The other side of the question is given by the Son of Sirach: “Unto the servant that is wise shall they that are free do service” (Ec10:25). The prodigal in the parable prayed his father to make him one of his hired servants (Luk_15:19).
Pro_11:30
The fruit of righteousness (of the righteous) is a tree of life (Pro_3:18; Pro_13:12); lignum vitae, Vulgate. That which the righteous say and do is, as it were, a fruitful tree which delights and feeds many. A good man’s example and teaching promote spiritual health and lead to immortal life. Septuagint, “From the fruit of righteousness springeth a tree of life.” And he that winneth souls is wise; rather, he that is wise winneth souls. The latter member is parallel to the former. He who gives men of the tree of life attracts souls to himself, to listen to his teaching and to follow his example. With this “winning of souls” we may compare Christ’s promise to the apostles that they should “catch men” (Luk_5:10; comp. Jas_5:20). The Septuagint introduces an antithesis not found in our Hebrew text: “But the souls of transgressors are taken untimely away.” Ewald and others change the present order of clauses in Pro_11:29 and Pro_11:30, thinking thus to improve the parallelism. They would rearrange the passage in the following way: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind; but the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart; but he that is wise winneth souls.” There is no authority whatever in the versions or older commentators for this alteration; and the existing arrangement, as we have shown, gives a very good sense.
Pro_11:31
The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth. Them are two ways of understanding this verse. The word rendered “recompensed,” שַׁלַ (shalam), is a vox media, and can be taken either in a good or bad sense. So the meaning will be, “The righteous meets with his reward upon earth, much more the sinner,” the “reward” of the latter being, of course, punishment. But the versions lead to another interpretation, by which “recompensed” is rendered “chastised;” and the meaning is—if even the righteous shall be punished for their trespasses, as Moses, David, etc; how much more the wicked! The Septuagint, quoted exactly by St. Peter (1Pe_4:18) has, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
HOMILETICS
Pro_11:1
Just weights
The point of this proverb is different from that of our low-toned though often useful saying, “Honesty is the best policy.” Every day we are discovering more and more how profoundly true that saying is, if not in the narrow view some take of it, yet in its broad issues and in the long run. But no man will be truly honest who puts policy before honesty, and bases his morality on selfish expediency. Therefore, if we are ever to reap the personal profit promised in the English proverb, we must mould our conduct on higher principles, such as that of the Hebrew proverb, which teaches us that dishonesty in trade is hateful to God, and that justice is his delight.
I. COMMERCE IS INCLUDED IN THE RIGHTFUL DOMAIN OF RELIGION. Few men would deny the abstract proposition that commerce has its morale, though many may be very indifferent in the application of them. But it must be further seen that commerce has its religion. There is a religious way of carrying on trade, and an irreligious way of doing it. God is in the shop as well as in the church. He is as much concerned with the manner in which we buy and sell as with the style in which we pray; nay, more so, for his chief interest is with our real, daily, practical life.
II. RELIGION REQUIRES JUST WEIGHTS IN TRADE. Religion requires them. No one would dare to admit that morality did not require them. But we have now to see that religion especially demands them. This is the place where the incidence of religion on trade is to be felt. Religion carded into business does not mean praying for prosperity and then cheating our neighbours in order to secure the answer to our prayer, nor giving to missionary collections a small dole out of the profits of swindling. It means honesty in business preserved for God’s sake. He will not hear our prayers While the weights and measures are being tampered with.
III. THE RELIGIOUS REQUIREMENT OF JUST WEIGHTS IS BASED ON THE OBLIGATIONS OF TRUTH AND OF OUR DUTY TO OUR NEIGHBOURS.

1. Truth. God hates all lies. False balances are concrete lies. They are worse than verbal untruths; for they are deliberate and permanent. A weak man may be surprised into a hasty expression that does not accord with his convictions under the shock of a sudden temptation. But to construct and keep false balances is to deceive with full consideration of what is being done. Adulteration is a similar offence. People who construct elaborate machinery for the very purpose of adulterating articles of trade should feel that all their ingenuity aggravates their condemnation.
2. Our duty to our neighbours. In a Christian country surely we should have some regard for the great maxim of Christ, that we should do to others as we would that they would do unto us. The tradesman should put himself in the customer’s case, the buyer in that of the seller. Brotherly kindness is the best human safeguard for integrity; but above this should be our regard for the approval of God. We please God not so much by singing hymns and offering sacrifices as by honest business. “A just weight is his delight.”
   Pro_11:2
   The shame of pride and the wisdom of humility
   I. THE SHAME OF PRIDE. Pride claims honour, and thinks itself secure of obtaining it. It would dread disgrace above all things, would rather starve and perish than suffer from contempt. Yet a true insight into life shows that pride is the direct precursor of shame, of the very thing it would most wish to keep off. Thus, like ambition, pride “o’erleaps itself.”
3. Pride claims too high a place. The proud man, thinking highly of himself, thrusts himself into positions where he is unable to meet what is required of him. If he took the lower place, no one would think ill of him; he might then be respected. But he makes himself ridiculous by aiming too high. The greatest of men have found out the folly of this ambition of pride. Others besides Shakespeare’s Wolsey can say—
   “I have ventured,
   Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
   This many summers in a sea of glory;
   But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
   At length broke under me; and now has left me,
   Weary, and old with service, to the mercy
   Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me.”
4. Pride refuses to receive correction. It will not stoop to confess itself in error. Satisfied with its own condition, it will not listen to advice, nor try for any improvement. Thus it remains stationary. The flecks and flaws of character which a humble man would allow his neighbour to point out and help him to remove become stereotyped in the proud man. Thus faults which would be forgiven and forgotten if they were only transitory in the growth of character bring disgrace by becoming permanent and characteristic.
5. Pride provokes criticism. No man is wise in being proud until he knows he is without reproach. For the very attitude of pride challenges attacks. It offends the pride of others, and in sheer self-defence they will set to work to discover the faults which charity or a happy indifference would otherwise leave undisturbed.
   II. THE WISDOM OF HUMILITY. Humility is not only right and beautiful; it is also wise. Both the Old and the New Testaments insist upon this truth. It was the mistake of Stoicism—the highest effort of secular morality—that it failed to see this. Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius—in other respects so near to the Christian ideal—are here severed from it by an impassable chasm. They were both Pharisees. The shame which pride brings, of course, suggests the wisdom of its opposite. But this wisdom has its positive recommendations. Humility, choosing lowly places, finds refuge in safe ones; admitting imperfection, confessing sin, it is ready to repent, and therefore capable of beginning a better life and of rising to perfection. Winning the hearts of men by its unassuming character, it escapes jealous criticism, and finds that faults are covered by love. Humility need not be the confession of unworthiness. Christ the Sinless One, Christ the Son of God, was the humblest and meekest of men. The Christian is called to walk in the steps of his Master, and to seek his joy in renouncing himself. Ultimately he will find his honour in the same course. “For every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
   Pro_11:13
   The tale-bearer
   Tale-bearing may result from spite and malice, or it may be an incident of idle gossip; but even in its milder phases it is a most mischievous practice, and one deserving of severe reprobation. Connected with what are called the minor moralities of life, the evil of it is far too little recognized by many Christian people, people who undoubtedly, endeavour on the whole to square their conduct with right principles. It is very important, therefore, that the character of this very common fault should be exposed.
   I. WHEN CONFIDENCE HAS BEEN REPOSED, TALE-BEARING IS SHAMEFULLY DISHONOURABLE. All of us admit in the abstract that it is mean and dastardly to betray confidence. But the practice is terribly frequent with people whose character should be proof against it. Of course, no man of principle would deliberately worm a secret out of an innocent, trusting friend for the very purpose of blazing it abroad. But there are cases in which the evil is less clearly recognized.
6. Confidence may be implied when it is not expressed. A man need not say in so many words that he is telling us a secret, and bind us over to keep silent by solemn promises, in order to put us under an obligation not to betray his confidence. If he evidently trusts us, calls us into his counsels as an exceptional privilege of friendship, and tells us what we know he would not wish us to make public, the duty not to repeat his words is scarcely less binding. If, through being admitted into a man’s house, we have discovered the skeleton in his cupboard, by accepting his hospitality, we are pledged not to reveal it.
7. Confidence may be betrayed through carelessness. If any one lends a jewel to a friend, he is required not only not to sell it, but not to leave it exposed to the danger of theft. Confidence is a jewel. It must be guarded. Should we through recklessness reveal what is entrusted to us, we are culpable. Two practical considerations:
   (1) Do not be over-anxious to learn secrets. They bring with them painful, difficult obligations. Those people who are most careless in betraying confidence are generally most eager in their curiosity to pry into the affairs of their neighbours. Both habits imply a low moral tone.
   (2) Be careful how you give confidence. This is not merely a maxim of prudence; it is a rule of charity, for the trust is an obligation, possibly a very arduous one. Why should you force it upon a friend, and so increase his burdens?
   II. WHEN CONFIDENCE HAS NOT BEEN REPOSED, TALE-BEARING IS UNCHARITABLE.
8. It is unkind, even if nothing damaging to character is said. We may know many innocent things about a man which it would be highly unbecoming to make public. The modest will respect decency of soul as well as of body. The veil of mental reserve is a requirement which should distinguish the civilized man from the savage as much as the clothing of his body. One of the penalties of royalty is the exposure of private. and home life in “the fierce light that beats upon a throne.” Unhappily, this evil grows upon public characters; and the tendency of “society papers” to pander to idle curiosity with personal gossip about celebrities is one of the most unwholesome habits of our day.
9. It is often injurious when no harm is meant. The report is misunderstood, or it is unfairly judged by going forth without the lights and shares of accompanying circumstances, like a text without its context. Thus a deed appears harsh which would be condoned if the causes which led up to it were all known. Like a rolling snowball, rumour grows as it progresses through the world. The love of dramatic effect unconsciously colours the “simple, round, unvarnished tale,” till the author could no longer recognize it.
10. It is ungenerous when it is a true tale of guilt. We are not called to tell all the evil which we know of our neighbours. Charity would hide it. It is most inhuman to take pleasure in the vivisection of character. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that it is sometimes our duty to speak out unpleasant truths, as in bearing witness to a crime from obligations of justice, and in giving a servant’s character; untruthfulness in the latter case is dishonest, unjust to employers, and directly unfair to persons of good character by the depreciation of the value of truthful testimonials in the loss of confidence in all such documents.
    In conclusion, see how injurious tale-bearing is to the tale-bearer.
11. It rouses retaliation. Who among us can defy the tongue of slander thus provoked?
12. It degrades the mind. Wordsworth has described the lowering influence of narrow personal talk in contrast with conversation on topics of larger, nobler interest—
    ” Sweetest melodies
    Are those that are by distance made more sweet.
    Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes,
    He is a slave—the meanest we can meet.”
    Pro_11:17
    The merciful man
    It would be our duty to be merciful if we suffered thereby, and indeed we can never be truly merciful solely from motives of self-interest, since genuine mercy must Spring from sympathy. Nevertheless, we sadly need all aids to righteousness—the lower as well as the higher; and therefore it may be useful for us to consider how much it makes for our own profit that we should be merciful.
    I. THE MERCIFUL MAN WILL OBTAIN MERCY FROM OTHER MEN. We never know in what straits the future may find us. Proud in our independence today, we may be in abject need before long, or at least in circumstances which make our welfare largely dependent on others. We are so much members one of another that it is not for our own good that we should injure one another. He is in the most precarious position who has provoked enemies by his cruelty. Let him beware of the turn of the tide of fortune. The tyrant calls forth the assassin. Employers who grind down their work people cause that very indifference to their interests of which they complain. If generosity wins friendship, surely it is a valuable grace. None love so much as they who have been forgiven much.
    II. ONLY THE MERCIFUL MAN WILL OBTAIN MERCY FROM GOD. This is an absolute principle the importance of which is too little recognized. In the Old Testament God tells us that he desires “mercy, and not sacrifice” (Hos_6:6); i.e. that the practice of the former, rather than the offering of the latter, is the ground of acceptance by him. Christ signalizes mercy by giving it a place in the Beatitudes, and saying that the blessing of the merciful is that they shall obtain mercy (Mat_5:7); calls upon us to love our enemies (Mat_5:44); inserts in his model prayer one sole condition—that God “forgives us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors” (Mat_6:12); and tells us that our offerings to God must be preceded by our forgiveness of men (Mat_5:23, Mat_5:24). Therefore the cruel man troubleth his own flesh, for he excludes himself from the enjoyment of God’s mercy—the one essential of his eternal welfare.
    “Consider this—
    That in the course of justice, none of us
    Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy:
    And that same prayer should teach us all to render
    The deeds of mercy.”
    III. THE MERCIFUL MAN Is BLESSED IN THE VERY EXERCISE OF MERCY.
13. The exercise of mercy is pleasing. The temptation to hatred promises a devilish pleasure; but it is a delusive promise. Once the passion is indulged, it works pain in the soul The expression of rage is no sign of pleasure. Cruelty makes a hell within, and peoples it with demons that torture the man himself even more than its victims. By a singular law of nature the exercise of mercy begins in the pain of self-sacrifice, but it soon bears fruit in inward peace and gladness.
14. The exercise of mercy is elevating and ennobling. Cruelty degrades the soul. Charity refines, exalts, sanctifies. The glory of God is in his mercy.
    “Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?
    Draw near them then in being merciful:
    Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.”
    Thus, to quote one more familiar saying of Shakespeare’s, we find that mercy
    “Is twice bleas’d,
    It blesses him that gives and him that takes.”
    Pro_11:24
    Meanness
    The Book of Proverbs is sometimes accused of taking too low and worldly a view of conduct, and of giving undue importance to prudential, self-regarding duties. Whatever truth there may be in these charges—and no doubt the New Testament does describe so pure and lofty an ideal of life as to leave the morals of Solomon and his compeers in a decidedly inferior rank—gives only the greater emphasis to those maxims of broad and noble character which are so clear and imperative as to claim attention even from moralists who observe the less exalted standards of character. Thus it is very significant that, with all its inferiority to Christianity, the ethics of the Book of Proverbs unhesitatingly and repeatedly condemns all meanness, and does honor to liberal habits. Even from a selfish and comparatively worldly point of view, meanness is shown to be a miserable mistake, and generosity a wise and profitable virtue. It is evident that high Christian principles would condemn meanness. It is interesting to see that the morals of the Proverbs are equally opposed to it.
    I. MEANNESS IS UNPROFITABLE BECAUSE IT IS DISPLEASING TO GOD. Let us set this consideration first, as of highest importance. Too many leave it to the last or ignore it altogether. They calculate the consequences of their actions on narrow, earthly principles; possibly they inquire what view their neighbours may take of it. But God’s judgment on it they consider to be of little or no account. Yet surely, if there is a God at all, the first question should be—How far will our conduct be approved by him? If there is a providence that “shapes our ends,” schemes that ignore this leave out of account the most important factor in determining the final issue of events. If God is really overruling our life, and will mete out to us curse and blessing according to his view of it, the way in which he will regard it is no mere problem of idle speculation; it is the most pressing question of practical life, more important than all other things put together. Now, God does hate selfishness, greed, and meanness, and he loves unselfishness and generosity; he will therefore punish the one and reward the other.
    II. MEANNESS IS UNPROFITABLE BECAUSE IT EXCLUDES US FROM THE SYMPATHY OF OTHERS. No vice is more anti-social. Even cruelty does not seem to sever the ties of friendship more thoroughly. Regarded only from a commercial point of view, it is shortsighted. The mean customer who strikes off the odd pence in the payment of a bill does this at the cost of checking all generosity in those who deal with him. The mean employer of labour saves a little by his grinding harshness, but he loses far more by provoking his workpeople to take no interest in their work. Meanness destroys those great pleasures and comforts of life which come from the love and friendship of our neighbours.
    III. MEANNESS IS UNPROFITABLE BECAUSE IT FAILS TO SACRIFICE THE PRESENT FOR THE FUTURE. The mean farmer will not sow sufficient seed, and consequently he will reap a short harvest. In business men must launch out liberally if they are to make large returns. From the lowest up to the highest concerns of life, self-sacrifice and generosity are requisite for ultimate profit. We must be willing to give up earthly wealth for the heavenly inheritance. The miser who clutches at his gold when God claims it will fail to obtain the pearl of great price.
    IV. MEANNESS IS UNPROFITABLE BECAUSE IT DEGRADES AND NARROWS THE SOUL. It is a vice that destroys all noble aspirations and all lofty aims. It dwarfs the spiritual stature. It shuts out visions of the infinite. It confines thought, affection, and desire to a miserable little world of worthless interests. In groping after the small gain that meanness idolizes, we lose all power of pursuing better things. The same meanness may be carried into religion, to our soul’s undoing. The pursuit of selfish salvation to the neglect of our duty to others overreaches itself. Whosoever desires to save his life, or his soul, will lose it. But in working for the good of others while forgetting our own advantage, we find our own soul most profited. “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_11:1-11
    The ways of honour and of shame
    I. JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE IN COMMON THINGS. Jehovah delights in “full weight,” and abominates the tricky balance. This may be applied:
15. Literally, to commerce between man and man.
16. Figuratively, to all social relations in which we may give and receive. Work is only honest if thorough; if honest and thorough, it is religious. If principle be the basis of all our transactions, then what we do is done “unto the Lord, and not unto men.” If we are indifferent to principle in the common transactions of the week, it is impossible to be really religious in anything or on any day.
    II. HAUGHTINESS AND MODESTY. Extremes meet. The former topples over into shame; the latter is lifted into the heights of wisdom.
17. No feeling was more deeply stamped on the ancient mind than this. Among the Greeks hubris, among the Romans insolence, designated an offence peculiarly hateful in the eyes of Heaven. We see it reappearing in the songs and proverbs of the gospel: “He hath brought down the mighty from their seat, and exalted them of low degree;” “Every one that. humbleth himself shall be exalted; but he that exalteth himself shall be abased.”
18. It is stamped upon all languages. Thus, in English, to be high, haughty, lofty, overbearing, are terms of censure; lowly, humble, terms of praise. In the German the words uebermuth, hochmuth, point to the same notion of excess and height in the temper.
19. At the same time, let us remember that the good temper may be counterfeited. Nothing is more easy than to suppose we have humbled ourselves by putting on a manner. Yet nothing is more detestable than the assumption of this particular manner. True humility springs from seeing ourselves as we are; pride, from nourishing a fanciful or ideal view of ourselves. Wisdom must begin with modesty; for a distorted or exaggerated view of self necessarily distorts our view of all that comes into relation with sell
    III. RECTITUDE AND FAITHLESSNESS. (Verse 3.) The former means guidance, for it is a clear light within the man’s own breast; the latter, self destruction. As scriptural examples of the one side of the contrast, may be cited Joseph and Daniel; of the other, the latter, Saul, Absalom, Ahithophel, Ahab, and Ahaziah.
    IV. RECTITUDE AND RICHES. (Verse 4; see on Pro_10:2.)
20. Riches cannot purchase the grace of God, nor avert his judgments.
21. Rectitude, though not the first cause of salvation, is its necessary condition. To suppose that we can be saved from condemnation without being saved from sin is a gross superstition.
    V. SELF-CONSERVATIVE AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE HABITS. (Verses 5, 6; comp. Pro_3:6; Pro_10:3.) Honesty and rectitude level the man’s path before him; wickedness causes him to stumble and fall. Straightforwardness means deliverance out of dangers, perplexities, misconceptions; while the eager greed of the dishonest man creates distrust, embarrassment, inextricable difficulty.
    “He that hath light within his own clear breast
    May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
    But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
    Benighted walks under the midday sun;
    Himself is his own dungeon.”
    (Milton.)
    VI. HOPE AND DESPONDENCY IN DEATH. (Verse 7.) The former seems implied. If the Old Testament says expressly so little about a future life, some of its sayings may be construed as allusions to and indications of it. It is little that we can know definitely of the future life. But the least we do know is that hope is inextinguishable in the good man’s soul; it is its own witness, and “reaps not shame.” But despondency and despair are the direct result of wicked living. To cease to hope is to cease to wish and to cease to fear. This must be the extinction of the soul in the most dreadful way in which we can conceive it.
    VII. THE EXCHANGE OF PLACES FOLLOWS MORAL LAW. (Verse 8.) The good man comes out of distress, and the evil becomes his substitute in sorrow. So with the Israelites and Pharaoh, a great typical example; so with Mordecai and Haman; with Daniel and his accusers. Great reversals of human judgments are to be expected; many that were last shall be first, and the first last.
    VIII. THE SOCIAL PEST AND THE TRUE NEIGHBOUR. (Verse 9.) The pernicious power of slander. The best people are most injured by it, as the best fruit is that which the birds have been pecking at; or, as the Tamil proverb says, “Stones are only thrown at the fruit-laden tree.” The tongue of slander “out-venoms all the worms of Nile.” It spares neither sex nor age, nor helplessness. It is the “foulest whelp of sin.” It promotes nothing that, is good, but destroys much. Knowledge, on the other hand—in the form of sound sense, wide experience—if readily imparted, is a boon to all. And the best of boons, for gifts and charities soon lose their benefit, while a hint of wisdom lives and germinates in the mind in which it has been deposited.
    IX. OBJECTS OF SYMPATHY AND ANTIPATHY. (Verse 10.) Gladness follows the success of the good and the downfall of the evil. The popular feeling about men’s lives, as manifested at critical periods of failure or success, is a moral index, and suggests moral lessons. There is a true sense in which the voice of the people is the voice of God. Compare the scene of joy which followed Hezekiah’s success in the promotion of true religion (2Ch_29:1-36, 2Ch_30:1-27), and the misery under Ahaz (2Ch_28:1-27); also the rejoicings on the completion of Nehemiah’s work (Neh_8:1-18); and for jubilation at evil men’s deaths, Pharaoh, Sisera, Athaliah (Exo_15:1-27; Jdg_5:1-31; 2Ki_11:13-20).
    X. SOUND POLITICS AND PERNICIOUS COUNSELS. (Verse 11.) The blessing, i.e. the beneficial principles and administration of good and wise men exalt a city (or state). On the other hand, unprincipled counsels, even if temporarily successful, lead in the end to ruin. “It is impossible,” said Demosthenes, “O men of Athens, that a man who is unjust, perverse, and false should acquire a firm and established power. His policy may answer for once, may hold out for a brief period, and flourish marvellously in expectations, if it succeed; but in course of time it is found out, and rushes into ruin of its own weight. Just as the foundation of a house or the keel of a ship should be the strongest part of the structure, so does it behove that the sources and principles of public conduct should be true and just. This is not the case at the present time with the actions of Philip.” Compare the examples of Elisha (2Ki_13:14, etc.), Hezekiah, and Isaiah (2Ch_32:20-23), on the one hand; and the Babel builders (Gen_11:4-9) and the Ammonites (Eze_25:3, Eze_25:4) on the other; also Jer_23:10; Hos_4:2, Hos_4:3.—J.
    Pro_11:12-15
    Social sins denounced
    I. THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL SIN. It dissolves mutual bonds of confidence, corrupts and disintegrates the social order and stability. In the mixed condition of human character and society there are elements of weakness and elements of strength. Our speech about others and behaviour to them tends either to bring out their weaknesses, so promoting discontent, suspicion, and distrust, or it. tends to bring out their good qualities, so promoting genial confidence and good will.
    II. SOME EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL SINS. Great stress, as usual, is laid upon the tongue.
22. There is contemptuous talk about our neighbour. The art of depreciation is cruel to others, and moreover is, as the text says, senseless. What good can come of it? Of Byron’s poetry the great Goethe said, “His perpetual fault finding and negation are injurious even to his excellent works. For not only does the discontent of the poet infect the reader, but the end of all opposition is negation; and negation is nothing. If I call bad bad, what do I gain? But if I call good bad, I do a great deal of mischief. He who will work aright must never rail, must not trouble himself at all about what is ill done, but only do well himself. For the great point is, not to pull down, but to build up; and in this humanity finds pure joy.”
23. Still worse is open slander (Pro_11:13). Secret detraction is like an arrow shot in the dark, and does much secret mischief. Open slander is like the pestilence that rages at noonday. It sweeps all before it, levelling the good and bad without distinction. A thousand fall beside it, and ten thousand on its right hand. They fall, so rent and torn in their tender parts, as sometimes never to recover the wounds or the anguish of heart which they have occasioned (Sterne).
24. Independent counsels (Pro_11:14) are another source of social mischief. As when there was no king in Israel, and when every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and the people became the prey of their enemies (Jdg_2:19, seq.; Jdg_17:6; Jdg_21:25). The spiritual forces in a nation, the intelligence and honest patriotism of its rulers, are ever of more importance than wealth, fleets, or armies.
25. Rash undertakings. (See on Pro_6:1, seq.) To promise more than there is a reasonable prospect of performing; to enter imprudently into bargains, covenants, or treaties, not easy to abide by, yet involving disgrace and dishonour if broken. The serious penalties which follow acts of imprudence should instruct us as to their real sinfulness, The good intention is marred by the hasty or thoughtless execution.
    III. SOME SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS.
26. Seasonable silence. (Pro_11:12.) As we are not to believe all we hear, so neither are we to speak all we know; to be cautious in believing any ill of our neighbour, and to be cautious in repeating what we do believe, are alike duties.
27. Kindly desire. “The honest man’s ear is the sanctuary of his absent friend’s name, of his present friend’s secret; neither of them can miscarry in his trust” (Bishop Hail).
28. Fulness of counsel. (Pro_11:14.) The “multitude of counsellors” implies association, conference, and cooperation. By the exchange of ideas we enrich, define, classify, or correct our own. The same subject needs to be looked at from opposite points of view, and by minds of different habit; and the just medium is thus arrived at.
29. Caution. (Pro_11:15.) Especially with reference to the incurring of responsibilties. To fetter or lose our freedom of action is to deprive ourselves of the very means of doing further good. One of the acts of benefaction is to contrive that neither the doer of the kindness shall be hampered by excessive responsibility nor the recipient of it by excessive obligation.
30. As the foundation of all, intelligence and love—the inner light which fills the intellect with illumination and the heart with glowing affection. These are the sources of truth in friendship, safety in counsel, general usefulness to society.—J.
    Pro_11:16
    The true grace of womanhood
    Even as the mighty keep a firm hold upon their possessions, so does the virtuous woman watch over her chastity and honour, to guard it from assault.
    I. THE PURITY OF WOMAN IS HER “HIDDEN STRENGTH” (Milton). “She that has that is clad in complete steel.”
    II. IT IS HER CHIEF ORNAMENT. It clothes her amidst dangers with “unblenched majesty” and “noble grace.”
    III. IT IS ROOTED IN RELIGION, FOUNDED LIKE MANLY TRUTH IN THE FEAR OF GOD.
    IV. IT IS PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
    “So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity,
    That when a soul is found sincerely so.
    A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
    Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
    And in clear dream and solemn vision
    Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.”
    (Milton.)
    J.
    Pro_11:17
    Religion and self-interest
    The loving man does good to himself, while the cruel afflict their own souls. As examples of the former, see Joseph in prison (Gen_40:6), the Kenites (1Sa_15:6), David and the Egyptian slave (1Sa_30:11-20), David’s conduct to Jonathan (2Sa_9:7; 2Sa_21:7), Job praying for his friends (Job_42:10), the centurion and the Jews (Luk_7:2-10), the people of Melita to Paul (Act_28:1-10). For examples of the latter, see Joseph’s brethren (Gen_37:1-36.; Gen_42:21), Adoni-bezek (Jdg_1:6, Jdg_1:7), Agag (1Sa_15:33), Haman (Est_9:25).
    I. RELIGION APPEALS TO THE WHOLE RANGE OF OUR MOTIVES, FROM THE LOWEST TO THE HIGHEST. We should cultivate the higher, but not ignore the lower.
    II. TO DO GOOD TO OTHERS IS TO DO CERTAIN GOOD TO OURSELVES. We thus make friends, and they are a defence.
    III. TO INJURE OTHERS IS CERTAINLY TO INJURE OURSELVES. Thus we make enemies. And “he that hath a thousand friends bath not one to spare; he that hath an enemy shall meet him everywhere.”—J.
    Pro_11:18
    The principle of recompense
    I. EVERY ACTION IS A SECONDARY CAUSE AND IS FOLLOWED BY ITS CORRESPONDING EFFECT.
    II. THE EFFECT CORRESPONDS IN KIND AND IN DEGREE TO THE CAUSE.
    III. HUMAN CONDUCT MAY THUS BE VIEWED AS A SOWING FOLLOWED BY REAPING WORK BY WAGES, ACTION BY REACTION.
    IV. THE GAIN OF THE WICKED IS DECEPTION ILLUSORY. Illustrations: Pharaoh’s attempt to decrease Israel resulted in their increase and his own destruction. Caiaphas seeking by murderous expediency to save the nation brought about its ruin. The persecution of the Church at Jerusalem led to the greater diffusion of the gospel (Act_8:1-40.).
    V. THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS STABLE AND SURE. Illustrations: The patient continuance in well doing of Noah, Abraham, Joseph. Compare the sowing of St. Paul in tears, e.g. at Philippi (Act_16:1-40), with his joyous reaping, as his Epistle to the Philippians witnesses. The reward is eternal—”a crown of righteousness that. fadeth not away.” “What we weave in time we shall wear in eternity.”—J.
    Pro_11:19
    The tendencies of conduct
    I. ALL ACTIONS HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND A REMOTE RESULT.
    II. IT IS THE FINAL RESULT THAT MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ESTIMATING DIFFERENT COURSES OF CONDUCT.
    III. THERE ARE TWO IDEAL TERMINI TO CONDUCT—LIFE AND DEATH. An old proverb says, “We know not who live or die.” But we may know towards which issue certain habits are tending.
    IV. TENACIOUS RECTITUDE IS THE WAY OF LIFE; BLIND PURSUIT OF THE OBJECTS OF PASSION, THE WAY TO DEATH.—J.
    Pro_11:20
    The Divine view of the oppositions in conduct
    I. GOD VIEWS PERVERSITY WITH DISPLEASURE. Moral perversity is analogous to physical deformity; the line is crooked when it should be straight.
    II. HE VIEWS RECTITUDE WITH DELIGHT. The morally right is the aesthetically beautiful. The true, the beautiful, and the good are one in God, and he can only delight in that which reflects himself. Hence his delight in the well beloved Son, and in all who are conformed to his image.—J.
    Pro_11:21
    Inevitable doom and certain escape
    I. A SOLEMN ASSEVERATION OF DOOM. The first words should be rendered, “The hand upon it!” referring to the custom of striking hands in a compact, and meaning the same as “My word for it!” Experience, the laws of nature, the assurances of God’s prophets, the voice of conscience, all ratify this doom; the sinner must meet his fate, and there is no ultimate deliverance.
    II. AN ASSURANCE OF SAFETY. The generation of the righteous, i.e. all that belong to that class, will escape from affliction, distress, condemnation, all woes that belong to time; for his refuge is in the eternal arms. If exiled from earth, it is to find a home in the bosom of God.—J.
    Pro_11:22
    Beauty ill set off
    The comparison of the gold ring in the swine’s snout suggests the idea of glaring incongruity. And the like is the incongruity between beauty and impurity in woman.
    I. THE SOURCE OF OUR DELIGHT IN PHYSICAL BEAUTY IS THAT IT EXPRESSES MORAL WORTH. Philosophers have always found it impossible to define the beautiful as an object. Analysis at last results in this—that in every beautiful object we detect an analogy to some perception in our own minds. It is a visible presentation of spiritual beauty.
    II. OUR DISPLEASURE IN THE ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICAL BEAUTY WITH MORAL WORTHLESSNESS ARISES FROM THE PRESENCE OF A CONTRADICTION. And the mind is made to love harmony.
    III. THUS WE HAVE A WITNESS IN OURSELVES THAT GOD DESIGNED BEAUTY AND VIRTUE TO BE INDISSOLUBLY UNITED. As the sign and the thing signified—the body and the soul. Sin ever puts asunder what God has joined, and all vice is incongruous with the beauty of his world.—J.
    Pro_11:23
    Wishes and hopes
    The wishes of the righteous are only good, for God prospers and fulfils them; but the hope of the wicked is extinguished in calamity (the wrath of God).
    I. WISHES AND HOPES HAVE A CERTAIN POWER TO FULFIL THEMSELVES. (See Mozley’s fine sermon on this subject.)
    II. THE REGULATION OF THE WISHES IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF SELF-DISCIPLINE.
    III. TO WISH AND TO HOPE FOE NOTHING BUT THE BEST (IN ACCORD WITH THE WILL OF GOD) IS AN INSURANCE AGAINST DISAPPOINTMENT.
    IV. SELFISH HOPES LEAD TO UNANSWERED PRAYERS AND TO BITTER CHAGRINS.—J.
    Pro_11:24-26
    The narrow and the large heart
    I. THRIFTY SPENDING. All wise outlay of money is a form of thrift, The increase of capital depends upon the observance of certain laws and rules of prudence; and the prudence which enables to amass enables also to spend. Spending in works of benevolence is seldom known to impoverish a man, for it is seldom disjoined from calculation and economy in personal habits. But whether we can trace out the manner of the connection in every instance or not, it is real and profound. Wise distribution is the condition of steady increase. In the highest point of view benevolence is a “lending to the Lord.”
    II. UNTHRIFTY SAVING. Niggardliness tends to poverty, because it stints the energies. It springs from a false view of the value of money, or an exaggerated view. The true source of happiness, as of wealth, lies at last in the will, its energy, its industry. He who has so little faith in this as to put all his reliance on the mere means of living, may well become poor outwardly, as he certainly is inwardly.
    III. THE SATISFACTION OF DOING GOOD. Here, again, we must look to the reflex effect of actions, The indirect results are the wider and the more important. From every free forth-going of the heart in acts of love and kindness there is a certain return into the heart. It is not sufficiently considered that whatever gives
    expansion to the mind—large views, broad sympathies—is so much gain in actual power. And again, that we cannot directly do much towards the removal of our own troubles, but obliquely may quell or diminish them by aiming at removing the troubles of others. Fulness of interests in the heart will not give room for grief to gnaw.
    IV. SELFISHNESS AND GENEROSITY IN COMMERCE. (Pro_11:26.) In time of dearth the avaricious proprietor, keeping back his corn to secure a higher price, brings down upon himself curses; while he who thinks of humanity more than of personal profit earns the blessings of the poor. The maxim that “business is business” is true, but may be pushed too far. If a trader profits by a war or scarcity, that is an accident; but it is not an accident, it is a crime, if he votes for war or interferes with the natural action of the market with a view to personal gain. If the same conditions of trade make the man rich which impoverish the many, he will feel it to be his duty to give the more out of his abundance.—J.
    Pro_11:27-31
    Temporal and eternal contrasts
    I. MEN FIND WHAT THEY SEEK. (Pro_11:27.) The favour of God, which includes all the elements of happiness by well doing, or sorrow by ill-doing. This law of antecedence and consequence in moral things, thus so reiteratedly pressed upon us, cannot be too constantly before the mind. Every moral action is a prophecy before the event; every moral result, a fulfilment of a previous prophecy.
    II. THE CAUSES OF DECAY AND OF PROSPERITY. (Pro_11:28.) Trust in riches leads to moral downfall (comp. Pro_10:2; Psa_49:6, Psa_49:7). By trust in riches is meant the habit of depending on them and their accessories—luxury and ease—as the main good in life. It is in this sense that “riches slacken virtue and abate her edge.” The laxity and dissoluteness of the mind may well be compared to the limp and falling leaf. He, on the other hand, whose trust is in spiritual resources—the treasures of the kingdom of God—is like a tree full of sap; his foliage is abundant; his leaf ever green (Palm 92:13; Isa_66:14).
    III. THE RETRIBUTION OF GREED AND OPPRESSION. (Pro_11:29.) The man who “troubles his house” is the close-fisted and greedy, who in his covetousness keeps his household upon scant fare or withholds from them their due pay (Pro_15:27). Ahab is thus charged by Elijah as a “troubler of Israel” (1Ki_18:17, 1Ki_18:18). But he reaps the wind, i.e. nothing from his misplaced care and exertion (Isa_26:14; Hos_8:7). Nay, he so comes down in the scale as actually often to fall into slavery to just and merciful lord (Pro_11:24). These reversals in human life—more marked or easily observable, perhaps, in ancient times than with ourselves—remind men of a superior judgment, which constantly revises and corrects the short-sighted and superficial judgments of men.
    IV. THE PRODUCTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Pro_11:30.) All that the good man says and does becomes a source of blessing and life (a “tree of life”) to many. He exercises an attractive power, and gathers many souls to his side for the service of God and the cause of truth.
    V. THE CERTAINTY OF RECOMPENSE. (Pro_11:31.) This may be taken as an argument from the greater to the less. The sins of the righteous do not escape chastisement; how much less those of men unreconciled to God! “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1Pe_4:18).—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_11:1
    (See homily on Pro_16:11, including Pro_20:10-23.)—C.
    Pro_11:2
    (See homily on Pro_16:18.)—C.
    Pro_11:3-5, Pro_11:8-11, Pro_11:19, Pro_11:20, Pro_11:28, Pro_11:31
    The pricelessness of integrity
    We have here a view of the exceeding worth of moral integrity, or of righteousness; we see what, in the judgment of the wise, it will do for its possessor. It will—
    I. DIRECT HIS WAY. “The integrity of the upright shall guide them; …the righteousness of the perfect [i.e. the upright] shall direct his way” (Pro_11:3-5). And we read. (Pro_10:9) that “he that walketh uprightly walketh surely.” The man who honestly and earnestly seeks guidance of God will find what he seeks; he will know what he should do, and whither he should go, and how he should act, in the various relations of life. Instead of moving onwards and backwards, instead of inclining this way and that, he will walk straight on in the highway of justice, purity, devotion. And he will walk “surely.” It is not in the way of holiness that the snares of sin or the stumbling blocks of folly are scattered about.
    II. DELIVER HIM IN DANGER OR DISTRESS. (Pro_11:4, Pro_11:8, Pro_11:9.) “Many are the afflictions” even “of the righteous,” but “the Lord delivereth him,” etc.; “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness” (Psa_112:4). Righteousness brings deliverance in many ways.
31. It secures the favour, and thus the merciful interposisition, of the Almighty.
32. It commands the esteem, and thus the succour, of the good and true.
33. It confers mental and physical vigour on its subjects, and makes them strong for the day of peril and of need.
34. It endows with those moral qualities—conscientiousness, consciousness of rectitude, courage, patience, hopefulness, perseverance—which lead to victory.
    III. MAKE HIM THE SOURCE OF ENLARGEMENT TO OTHERS. “The city is exalted” (Pro_11:11). Every man is something the better for the integrity of his neighbor; and the contribution of many righteous men to the exaltation and enlargement of the city, or the Church, or the society, is very great. They are the salt which preserves it; they are the fountain and the garner which supply its need and minister to its strength.
    IV. PROMOTE HIS PROSPERITY. (Pro_11:28, Pro_11:31.) As a rule, upon the whole, the righteous man will prosper and be recompensed “on the earth.” Sobriety, purity, justice, prudence; in fact, integrity conducts to well being now and here.
    V. SECURE FOR HIM THE GOOD PLEASURE OF THE HIGHEST. (Pro_11:20.) What a recompense is this—”to be a delight unto the Lord,” to “have this testimony, that he pleases God”! What a reward of the purest and most enduring kind to the Christian man, that he is “pleasing Christ,” is living every day in the sunshine of his Lord’s approval!
    VI. ISSUES IN THE FULNESS OF LIFE. “He that is steadfast in righteousness shall attain unto life.”
35. Unto the fulness of spiritual life below; nearness of access to God; a real approval by God and of delight in him; constancy of service rendered unto him; growing likeness to his Divine spirit and character.
36. Unto the fulness of eternal life hereafter.—C.
    Pro_11:7-10
    (latter part)
    Two sad aspects of death
    Death is the most unwelcome of all themes for human thought, certainly for the thought of the wicked. Yet has he special reason for considering its approach. For it is likely to arrive sooner than if he were righteous. As we read in this chapter, “Righteousness delivereth from death” (Pro_11:4); on the other hand, “The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness” (Pro_11:5). “The wages of sin is death,” and every departure from rectitude is a step towards the grave. But how melancholy a thing is the death of the wicked! It means—
    I. A MELANCHOLY EXTINCTION. Not, indeed, of the man himself, but of his work and of his hope. When the wicked dies, everything, except, indeed, the evil influences he has created and circulated, comes to a dreary end. His expectation, his hope, perishes. He can take nothing that he has toiled for into that other world which he is entering. All his laborious exertion, his elaborate contrivances, his selfish schemes, his painful humiliations, come to nothing; they are buried in the grove. He may have a powerful and well stored mind, hut he has cherished no desire, has entertained no ambition which reaches beyond the horizon of mortal life, and with the stopping of his heartbeat, every imagination of his spirit perishes; there is an untimely and utter end of all his brightest hopes. A sad and dismal outlook for a human spirit! How great and how blessed the contrast of a good man! His largest hopes are then on the point of being realized; his purest and brightest expectations are about to be fulfilled. This earth is, more or less, the scene of disappointment; but in the country whose bourne he is about to cross, he will find himself where
    “Trembling Hope shall realize
    Her full felicity.”
    II. A PAINFUL RELIEF. “When the wicked perish, there is shouting.”
37. It is bad enough when a man’s death is only felt by a very few souls. With the many opportunities we have of connecting ourselves honourably and attaching ourselves strongly to our fellows, we ought to be so much to our neighbours, that when we pass away there will be many to regret us and to speak with a kindly sorrow of our departure. Poor and fruitless must that life have been when this is not so.
38. It is seriously sad when a man’s death excites no regret; when “the mourners” do not mourn; when the only thing that is real about the funereal scene is the drapery of woe. It is a pitiful thing when Christ’s minister cannot pray for Divine comfort, because, though there are those who are bereaved, there is none that is afflicted.
39. It is a most melancholy thing when a man’s death is felt to be a positive relief; when, as he is borne to the grave, those who knew him cannot help being glad that one more root of mischief is plucked up, one more source of sorrow taken away. That a man, created to be a light, a refuge, a blessing, a brother, a deliverer, should be put away with a feeling in every one’s heart of gladness that he will be seen no more, put out of sight with the sentiment that the sooner he is forgotten the better,—this is sad indeed. What, then, is—
    III. THE CONCLUSION OF THE WISE? It is this: “Let me die the death of the righteous.” But the disappointing career of the author of these words (Num_23:10; Jos_13:22) should be a solemn warning and a powerful incentive to form the firm resolution to live the life of the righteous, lest, as in Balaam’s case, death should overtake us when we are in the ranks of the enemy.—C.
    Pro_11:17
    Honourable self-love; the effect of conduct on character
    Our great temptation, and therefore our great peril, is to look at all things in a selfish light; to ask ourselves, concerning each event as it unfolds itself—How will it affect me? This is very far indeed from the spirit of Christ; his spirit is that of unselfishness, of generous regard for the welfare of others. To bear one another’s burdens is to fulfil his law and to reproduce his life. Yet is there one respect in which we certainty do well to consider ourselves. We do well to pay very particular attention to the effect of our conduct on our own character, to ask ourselves—How are these actions of mine telling on my manhood? Are they building up, or are they causing to crumble and decay? The consideration is twofold.
    I. THE INJURY WE MAY DO OURSELVES, ESPECIALLY BY UNKINDNESS. “He that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.” Habitual cruelty does even more harm to itself than to its victim. That indeed is bad enough; for it is not only the present suffering which is inflicted by it; it is the diseased sensitiveness and the abjectness of spirit; it it the loss of courage and of confidence and of hopefulness that is left behind, which is the deepest and the darkest mark of cruelty on the object of it. But worse than ever, this is the moral injury which cruelty does to itself. It not only
    (1) calls down the strong condemnation of man, and
    (2) draws forth the strong rebuke and penalty of God;
    (3) it indurates the soul of the sinner. It makes him shockingly insensitive to human suffering. It may go so far as to cause him to take a savage and a diabolical delight in inflicting and in witnessing it. Thus it drags a man down to the very lowest levels. And what is true of cruelty, or of unkindness which very soon becomes cruelty, is true in other ways of other sins. All wrong doing, falsehood, dishonesty, lasciviousness, profanity, covetousness, intemperance, makes its mark and leaves its stain upon the soul of the evil doer; and the further he goes and the deeper he continues in sin, the deeper is the mark and the darker and broader is the stain.
    II. THE BLESSING WE MAY BRING UPON OURSELVES, ESPECIALLY BY KINDNESS. “The merciful man doeth good to his own soul.” Mercy may here stand for any form of kindness or of goodness of heart. It will include kindliness of manner, generosity of disposition, practical helpfulness, pity for those who suffer or are sad, patience with the erring and the froward, magnanimity under ill treatment, considerateness toward the weak and the unprivileged. All these forms of “mercy” bring a blessing to the merciful heart. They secure the appreciation and the affection of the best among men; they gain the approval and benediction of God. And they react with most valuable benignity on the heart itself. They contribute to:
40. A tenderness of spirit, a responsiveness of heart, which allies us very closely to our Divine Lord.
41. An excellency and even nobility of action which makes us “the children of our Father in heaven” (Mat_5:45).
42. A breadth of sympathy and largeness of view which make us ourselves truly wise and worthy in the sight of God.—C.
    Pro_11:21
    Divine providence
    “Reckonest thou this, O man, who doest such things, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” (Rom_2:3). No doubt men do indulge the thought that they will do wrong things with impunity; that, though others suffer, yet will they succeed in eluding justice; that they will have shrewdness enough to stop at the right point and to save themselves from the penalty of indiscretion. Sin is deceitful, and it imposes on its victims with strong and fatal delusions.
    I. THE CERTAINTY THAT SIN WILL SUFFER. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.”
43. How impotent must mere numbers be against the decision and the action of the Almighty! There is a certain sense of security that men have in being a part of a large multitude. But it is a false sense. What do numbers avail against the action of the elements of nature, or against the outworking of the laws which determine the well being and ill-being of the soul?
44. Confederacies of evil men are confessedly insecure. “Hand may join in hand;” the covetous, the dishonest, the violent, may combine; but in the heart of evil there are the seeds of unfaithfulness and treachery; and the alliance will break down in time. Sin carries in its folds the germ of its own undoing.
45. Against the continued success of sin many forces are combining.
    (1) All honest and true men have a direct and strong interest in deposing and dishonoring it.
    (2) It usually inflicts on some one man, or family, or city, an injury which calls forth an intense and invincible resentment.
    (3) It has within it the elements of physical and moral weakness, which are sure to be developed in time.
    (4) It is always open to the accusation of conscience and to consequent exposure.
    (5) It must move and even hasten towards utter demoralization and the loss of all that is most worth keeping.
    (6) It has against it the decree and the overruling action of the Holy One (Psa_34:16; and text). Sin never is absolutely unpunished, even when it imagines that it is; and it never remains unpunished, though it may seem to have excellent chances of escape. The judgment of God will overtake it in time.
    II. THE HOPE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. “The seed of the righteous shall be delivered.” “The generation of the upright shall be blessed” (Psa_112:2). Even if God allows a men to go on long without the proof of his Divine favour, yet will he not withhold his blessing. It will come upon the children, if not upon the upright man himself. And who is there that would not be more than willing that God should bless him through his offspring? To clothe them with honour, to satisfy them with substance, to deliver them in their time of trouble, to make them citizens of the kingdom of Christ, to employ them as ambassadors of Christ,—is not this a meet ample and rich reward for ill our personal fidelity? If God blesses us in our children, we fire blessed indeed.—C.
    Pro_11:24-26
    Expensive economy, etc
    We am accustomed to speak as if the man who spends freely is a spendthrift, and as if the man who restrains his hand is on the way to wealth. But if that is our thought, we am often and much mistaken. There is an—
    I. EXPENSIVE ECONOMY. “There is that withholdeth,” etc.
46. If we keep back the wage that is due to the workman, we shall miss the blessing that goes with justice, and suffer the curse which attends injustice (Jas_5:1 4).
47. If we keep back the corn we should sow more plentifully, or the strength we should expend more liberally, or the mental power we should employ more patiently and systematically, we shall reap less bountifully, we shall make less profit, we shall do less work in the spiritual sphere. “He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly” (2Co_9:6).
48. If we shut up our thought and our care to our own heart, or even our own home, we shall lose all the harvest of love and blessing we might reap if we did not withhold ourselves from those outside our door. It is a poor economy, indeed, that hides its talent in a napkin.
    II. PROFITABLE EXPENDITURE. There is a bound beyond which we should not go in putting forth our resources, physical, pecuniary, mental, spiritual What that limit is every one must decide for himself. Regard should certainly be had to the preservation of health and to the necessity for replenishment. But we may often wisely and rightly go very much further than we do; and if we did we should find that we were liberally repaid. Our scattering would mean increase, our liberality would mean nourishment, our endeavour to enrich others would result in our own growth and ripeness; watering them, we should ourselves be watered. This is true of:
49. Human sympathy and love. The friendly man makes many friends; and to have true friends is to be blessed indeed.
50. The energetic pursuit of our vocation, whatever it may be. It is the man who throws his full energies into his work who is repaid in the end.
51. Generous helpfulness. Give money, time, thought, counsel, whatever you have to give, unto those who need it, unto the young, the ignorant, the baffled and beaten, the unfortunate, the slain in life’s battlefield; and there shall come back to you that which will be far more valuable than anything or all that you have expended. There shall come to you
    (1) the smile of that Divine Saviour who gave himself for us, who, though he was rich, for our sake became poor;
    (2) the gratitude of those whom you serve, afterwards and yonder if not now and here;
    (3) spiritual enlargement,—the “soul will be made fat,” the heart will expand, and Christian graces of many kinds and of much beauty will make their home there.
    III. THE SUPERIOR CLAIM. (Pro_11:26.) A man has a right to do the best he can for himself; the best, even, for his own purse, though that is saying something very different and much less. But this right may soon be traversed. It is so crossed when a man cannot go any further without injuring his brethren; that bars his way; obligation limits claim. In other words, the claim of our fellow men is greater far than that of our individual self. When the people are lacking bread, we may not hold back our corn. God has given us our powers and our resources, not that we may build up a fortune, but that we may be of true service in a world which is full of need. To grow rich is not at all necessary to any one, and proves to be a curse to multitudes; to feed the hungry, to minister to want and sorrow, to still the cry of pain or perishing, to make glad the heart and bright the life,—that is the real privilege and heritage of man.—C.
    Pro_11:30
    Wisdom’s brightest crown and hardest task
    “He that winneth souls is wise.” Wisdom does many things for us; but we shall find—
    I. ITS BRIGHTEST CROWN in the souls that it wins, Wisdom wins wealth, honour, friendship, knowledge; acquaintance with men and with nature; high position and commanding rule; the gratification that attends achievement. Wisdom makes great changes in the face of nature, and effects great results in the organization of men. But the crown which it wears is its beneficent work in human souls. “He that winneth souls is wise” indeed. For to do that is:
52. To arrest a stream of evil influence, the full outflow and consequence of which it is impossible to estimate.
53. To originate a stream of holy and helpful influence, the growing and widening range of which we cannot imagine.
54. To turn back a human spirit from a course which leads downward to an opposite course which leads homeward and heavenward; it is to change the direction of one in whom are boundless capacities of accomplishment and of endurance, and to change it permanently for the better.
55. It is to give joy of the purest kind to hearts of the greatest worth, and satisfaction to the Divine Saviour himself (see Jas_5:19, Jas_5:20). It is wisdom’s brightest crown; but it is also—
    II. ITS HARDEST TASK. He that winneth souls must be, or needs to be, wise indeed; for he has a very great thing to do. He has:
56. To oppose himself to he knows not what supernatural hostilities (Eph_6:12).
57. To do battle with human obduracy and the evil spirit of procrastination.
58. To contend with the spiritual blindness and insensibility which are the sad consequence of long disloyalty.
59. To baffle the arts of false friendship and overcome the blandishments of an evil world.
60. To silence the deceitful voices which whisper to the awakened soul that there is no need to render an immediate and wholehearted decision; and thus to lead it to a full surrender to Christ and to his service.
61. To persuade to a life of earnest and habitual devotion and holy usefulness. The practical lessons of the text are:
    (1) That we cannot expend ourselves too lavishly in the great work of winning men to Jesus Christ. There is no room for extravagance here.
    (2) That we have need to put forth our whole strength to gain so great a victory.
    (3) That when we have done all we can do we must remember that nothing is accomplished without the influence which is from above.—C.

Proverbs 11:1
Our God is emphatically a God of justice. Wherever there is deceit in the world, wherever injury, wherever oppression, there is God’s anger and loathing accompanying it.
I. The false balance, which is an abomination to the Lord, where do we not see it around us? Of every rank and class some, and far too many, are, and are allowed to be, and are tolerated as, men of fraud, men of mere shine—workers and upholders of deceit.
II. It is obvious that we must not begin with mere practical details, if we would be right in this matter. The secret of all wrong is the false balance within the heart; the real cheating begins there. An unfair dealer has defrauded himself, before ever he defrauded another. And this is a most important consideration for all of us. Have we the balance right within? In other words, is our estimate of men and things, which guides our actions, the real and true one; or some artificial one altogether wrong, and leading us altogether wrong?
III. Were buyers honest sellers would by compulsion be honest too. If the Saviour whom we preach were really believed in by you, as having bought each of you with His own precious blood, you would be to the full as careful in this matter as any of Christ’s ministers could wish you to be. The old want is still the pressing one; the old cry still the necessary one for this generation to raise in the ear of heaven, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 34.
References: Pro_11:1.— W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 279. Pro_11:1-9.— R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 268. Pro_11:2.— W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 285. Pro_11:3.— Ibid., p. 288. Pro_11:4.— Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 93. Pro_11:4, Pro_11:24-28.— Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 345. Pro_11:5.— Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 157. Pro_11:9.— W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, p. 290. Pro_11:10-17.— R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 277.

Proverbs 11:13
I. A talebearer. One celebrated nation of antiquity used to express this man’s character by a very significant figure. They called a talebearer a “seedpicker.” There are men in the world who live by their seed-collecting: by going about here and there, from house to house, from street to street, through a town large or small, and gathering together all the little stories which can be told or made about the neighbours who are dwelling securely by them, and ignorant of the calumnies by which they are assailed.
II. A talebearer revealeth secrets. Many motives go to make up a talebearer. (1) Perhaps he is a witty man. He can intimate, rather than express, a scandal. His representations of character are pungent. His imitations, his caricatures of manner and of speech, are irresistibly comic. In society he is the life of his company. It is not till he is silent and departed—perhaps not even then—that you begin to feel that there has been virtually a talebearer among you, and that he has been revealing unkind secrets. (2) Or he may be a man in whose own conscience there is a sore place. He knows something against himself. He is conscious of some lurking, some secret, some bosom sin. And it is a relief to him to hope that others are not so much better than himself. He finds a solace in his wretchedness in making company for his sin. (3) There are others who cannot bear superiors. They do not like superiors in station, but superiors in character they cannot brook. Their only comfort is in a general disbelief of virtue. A ridiculous story to tell of the eminently good is to them as a draught of water to the thirsty.
III. “He that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.” He does not say what matter. But we may understand it to include two things: that which has been entrusted to him in the secrecy of confidence, and that which has become known to him to another’s disparagement.
If we could part for ever with the disposition of the talebearer, we should have parted with that which, more than anything else, confuses and perplexes and embitters human life. It is the want of self-knowledge which makes us so keen-sighted. It is the want of acquaintance with Christ, as our Propitiation first, and then as our Example, which makes it possible for us to sit in the tribunal of judgment.
C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of Life and Godliness, p. 1.
References: Pro_11:13.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 292. Pro_11:15.—Ibid., p. 294. Pro_11:16.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 128. Pro_11:17.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 303. Pro_11:18.—Ibid., p. 305. Pro_11:18-23.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 287. Pro_11:19, Pro_11:21.—H. Armstrong Hall, Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 271. Pro_11:20.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 307; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 281.

Proverbs 11:21
The one peculiar and characteristic sin of the world is this, that whereas God would have us live for the life to come, the world would make us live for this life. It takes, as the main scope of human exertion, an end which God forbids, and consequently all that it does becomes evil, because directed to a wrong end.
Men seem made for this world; this is what prevails on them to neglect the next world; they think they have reason for concluding that this world is the world for which they are to labour, and to which they are to devote their faculties.
I. There are a number of faculties and talents which seem only to exist in this world, and to be impossible in another. Our aim, men say, must be an aim of this life, our end of action must be in this world, because our talents point that way.
II. Another consideration of the same kind is the existence of national character. This seems to them to be a providential mark of what the world is intended to be. One nation is manly, and another is brave but cruel, and a third is sagacious, and a fourth is energetic and busy. These, then, it is argued, are the qualities of mind for which this life is intended. Religion is for the next world, not for this.
III. Men generally apply this argument to the case of individuals. They go into the world, and they find individuals of this or that character, and not religious; and hence they argue that religion is but a theory, because it is not on the face of society.
IV. Another consideration which the world urges in its warfare against religion is that religion is unnatural. It is objected that religion does not bring the elementary and existing nature of man to its highest perfection, but thwarts and impairs it, and provides for a second and new nature.
V. The strongest argument which the world uses in its favour is the actual success of its experiment in cultivating the natural faculties of body and mind: for success seems a fresh mark of God’s will, over and above the tendencies of nature. Men may or may not have the fear of God before their eyes, yet they seem to go on equally well either way. Let anyone betake himself to the world, and go through but one day in it, and he will understand what this argument is which the very face of society presents, namely, that religion is not needed for the world, and therefore is of no great importance.
Let us leave the world, manifold and various as it is; let us leave it to follow its own devices, and let us turn to the living and true God, who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. So that when the end comes, and the multitudes who have joined hands in evil are punished, we may be of those who, in the words of the text, are “delivered.”
J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 78.
References: Pro_11:21.—E. White, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 11. Pro_11:22.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 308. Pro_11:23.—Ibid., p. 312. Pro_11:24.—Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 37; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 315; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 161. Pro_11:24-31.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 295.

Proverbs 11:25
I. The theory can be submitted to a practical test.
II. All true getting is based upon true giving.
III. Self-care is self-defeat. We must work for others if we would be truly blessed ourselves.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 61.
References: Pro_11:25.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 626, and Morning by Morning, p. 234; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 319; Bishop Thorold, Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xxi., p. 20; Ibid., vol. i., p. 94. Pro_11:26.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 323; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 642. Pro_11:28.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 327.

Proverbs 11:30
I. The true Christian is not satisfied to watch and work for his own salvation, but he remembers the souls of others also. Every soul won for Christ is a token of His favour. The success of our efforts proves that we have used the right means in the right way, so that the planting and the watering of the human agency has been crowned by the Divine Spirit with an abundant increase.
II. The text contains a significant hint as to the mode of carrying on this blessed work. “He that winneth souls is wise.” The Christian is to do good, not by force or harshness, but by gentle persuasion and persevering kindness. To win, as in a game, implies skill in adapting the means to the end.
III. He who would be successful in winning souls to Christ must be (1) considerate and thoughtful; (2) he must have courage; (3) tender, unaffected sympathy.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 418.
References: Pro_11:30.—J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 373; New Manual of Sunday School Addresses, pp. 148, 151, 154, 158; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 850, and vol. xxii., No. 1292; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 333; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 346; E. Medley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 289; J. Morgan, Ibid., vol. xv., p. 334.

Proverbs 11:31
I. God is impartial. He is no respecter of persons, but causing His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the unjust; and so rewarding every man according to his work, paying him for all work done, of whatever kind it may be. Some work for this world, which we do see, and God gives them what they earn in this life; some work for the world above, which we cannot see, and God gives them what they earn in this life for ever and ever likewise. If a man wishes for treasure on earth he can have it if he will, and enjoy it as long as it lasts. If a man wishes for treasure in heaven he can have it too, and enjoy it as long as it lasts. God deals fairly with both, and pays both what they have earned.
II. Those who long for sanctification and desire to be holy, even as their Father in heaven is perfect, are they that have treasure in heaven. But how are such souls recompensed in the earth? Is not a man recompensed in the earth whenever he can lift up his heart unto the Lord, and behold His glory above all the earth? The world of man looks brighter to him then, in spite of all his sins and sorrows; for he sees the Lord ruling it, the Lord forgiving it, the Lord saving it. He takes heart and hope for the poor earth and says, “The earth is not deserted; mankind is not without a Father, a Saviour, a Teacher, a King.” Just in proportion as a man walks with God, just in proportion as the eyes of his soul are opened by the Spirit of God, he recovers the privilege which Adam lost when he fell. He hears the Word of the Lord walking among the trees of the garden in the cool of the day, and instead of trying, like guilty Adam, to hide himself from his Maker, answers with reverence and yet with joy: “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”
C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day and Other Sermons, p. 265.
References: Pro_12:1.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 336. Pro_12:4.—Ibid., p. 340; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 128. Pro_12:10.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 343. Pro_12:13.—Ibid., p. 345. Pro_12:20-28.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 324.

Proverbs 11:1
Balance. Both in commerce, (Deu_25:13; Calmet) and in passing sentence on others. (Ven. Bede)

Proverbs 11:2
Wisdom. God resists the proud, chap. 16:18, and 18:12, and Jas_4:6

Proverbs 11:7
Solicitous. Or ambitious. Hebrew, “the potent,” or Septuagint, “the impious.”

Proverbs 11:8
For him. As comparatively nothing worth to his master, chap. 21:18, and Isa_43:3

Proverbs 11:11
Overthrown. Ten just men would have saved Sodom. Achan alone threw all Israel into confusion. (Calmet)

Proverbs 11:12
Mean. Literally, “indigent” of sense. (Haydock) — We must put up with some faults, as none are without. (Horace i. Sat. 3.) (Calmet)

Proverbs 11:13
Walketh. Septuagint, “the double-tongued,” dissembler, or great talker. (Calmet)

Proverbs 11:15
That is. Hebrew, “that hateth those who make agreements is secure.” (Mont.[Montanus?])

Proverbs 11:16
Gracious. Virtuous and beautiful, as God hath granted beauty also for good purposes. This and virtue tend to the advancement of women, while men can use their strength to acquire riches. (Calmet) — Glory. Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic add, “of her husband. But she that hateth righteousness is a throne of disgrace. The slothful, though rich, shall come to poverty; but the laborious shall retain their riches.” Two hemistics seem to be lost in Hebrew. (Kennicott) — Most of the additions in the Septuagint are only glosses, or useless repetitions, (Calmet) though they seem not to be so in this place. (Haydock)

Proverbs 11:17
Kindred. Hebrew, “flesh,” Gen_29:14 The miser is cruel even to himself.

Proverbs 11:21
In hand. At rest, or making agreements. God will punish the race of the wicked.

Proverbs 11:22
Foolish. Beauty, without prudence, leads to ruin, as ornaments are ill bestowed on swine. The women in the east sometimes wore rings in their noses, (Gen_24:22; Calmet) or hanging down upon them, Isa_3:21 (Menochius)

Proverbs 11:24
Others. Moderation is always requisite. Hebrew, “there is one withholding from rectitude, yet for a defect,” (Mont.[Montanus?]) being too saving, he is a loser. (Haydock) — Avarice does not always increase riches. (Calmet)

Proverbs 11:25
Himself. He shall receive abundantly, 2Co_9:6 The beneficent shall be amply rewarded both in this world and in the next.

Proverbs 11:26
Corn. In times of scarcity. See Amo_8:7

Proverbs 11:29
House. By his profligacy, or law-suits, shall be impoverished, (ver. 17.; Calmet) or if he act with violence, he will make his house empty, Ecclesiasticus 4:35 (Menochius)

Proverbs 11:30
Life. Producing excellent fruits of virtue and edification.

Proverbs 11:31
Receive. Punishment, for almost inevitable faults, or be treated according to his deserts. Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, “if the just be hardly saved, where shall the impious and the sinner appear?” (1Pe_4:18) (Calmet) — Afflictions attend the just in this life. Shall the wicked escape? (Menochius)

Proverbs 11:1
Pro_20:10; Pro_16:11, Deu_25:13-16

Proverbs 11:2
Pro_16:18, Pro_18:12, Pro_29:23

Proverbs 11:4
Pro_10:2, Eze_7:19, Jas_5:1-6

Proverbs 11:13
Pro_20:19

Proverbs 11:14
Pro_15:22

Proverbs 11:15
Pro_6:1-3

Proverbs 11:24
(1766) The more one gives from the heart, the more he will be blessed by Elohim, Ecc_11:1-2, 2Co_9:7.

Proverbs 11:30
Psa_1:1-3

Proverbs 11:31
(1767) The reward of the saved is eternal life on the earth not in heaven, There is a judgment day on earth when Messiah returns and the righteous will be rewarded eternal life and the sinner will burn up completely in the Lake of Fire. (Rev_20:4-6; Rev_20:13, Rev_5:10, Gen_17:7-8, Heb_9:27, Jer_32:19, 2Co_5:10).

Proverbs 11:1

Honesty in Doing Business

This verse is about doing business as it happens in the marketplace and in the store, that is, in everyday life. God wants all business to be done honestly. If it is not, it is “an abomination” to Him; if it is, it is “His delight” Here we see God’s personal response to how trade is done. The handling of “a false balance” involves shortchanging one of the members of His people. God here stands up for the wronged one. In His “weighing” of the seller’s behavior, He employs an absolutely honest measure.

There is nothing in daily life that He is outside of. The lives of His people in their dealings with one another should reflect His attributes. Everything should be done in accordance with His will, that is, in accordance with Who He is as light and love. This also applies to commerce.

Because commerce is about profit, about money, especially there the dangers of being dishonest are great. Someone can be driven by greed for money just like that. Charging a little more than the product is worth, delivering a little less product than was paid for, makes the profit greater. God knows His people and therefore wants them to use “just balances, a just ephah and a just bath” (Eze_45:10 ).

Throughout Scripture, dishonesty in trade is condemned (Lev_19:35-36 ; Deu_25:13-16 ; Amo_8:5 ). God not only forbids it, but it is also an abomination to Him. God accepts one’s dealings only if they are honest. He pays attention to whether we give product for the money we charge for that product. Dishonesty runs rampant when God is not taken into account. A false balance is literally a ‘weight of deceit’. One who uses a false balance lacks sincerity of heart (Pro_11:20 ).

Being honest is linked by God in the law to the redemption of His people from Egypt (Lev_19:35-36 ). Through the redemption, He made them His own people. Therefore, they must be honest as He is. Likewise, by virtue of our redemption from the world, we too, who belong to the church of God, should be honest in our dealings. Any injustice, any dishonesty, must be avoided by us (1Co_6:8 ). This applies not only to material matters, but also when we have to deal with disputes or sin. Do we then apply an honest standard, or do we let family or friendship ties influence our consideration?

Proverbs 11:2-3

Humility and Uprightness

“Pride”, or arrogance, is literally “boiling over”, or overstepping boundaries and the hallmark of rebellion (Pro_11:2 ). Proud people puff themselves up to the level of a deity. In the wake of their puffiness follows “dishonor”, a word meaning “to be made light”. The proud, puffed-up person is like a balloon that deflates until only a rag remains.

An apt illustration of this is Herod Agrippa who allowed himself to be hailed as God and immediately afterward was eaten by worms and died (Act_12:21-23 ). He was a bloated god who shriveled up into a rag. The Pharisees are also puffed up. They think big of themselves in their relationship with God and look down contemptuously on others (Luk_18:9-12 ; Mat_6:5 ). The Lord pronounces the “woe to you” on them (Mat_23:13-32 ). Another example of hubris is Babylon the great, which is the roman-catholic church, which will also be judged for it (Rev_18:7-8 ). All that remains of it is “the smoke of its fire” (Rev_18:18 ).

Opposite of pride is humility or humbleness. “With the humble is wisdom”, as evidenced by the place they occupy before God and men. They moderate nothing; they are not puffed up. With them is the fear of God and that is their wisdom. They will be exalted in God’s time (Luk_14:11 ; 1Pe_5:6 ).

Those who are humble are also upright (Pro_11:3 ). The consequence or result of inner “integrity” is that it “will guide” the upright in the way they go and in the contacts they have. There is freedom and life in their going, both for themselves and for those they meet. Here we see the blessed influence that integrity has on the upright. Integrity is a mind of heart, expressed in acting honestly and faithfully.

Opposed to the upright are “the treacherous”. With them there is no integrity, but its opposite, “crookedness”. This crookedness is evident in the crooked ways they go and the crooked doctrine they preach. They themselves suffer the effect of this. By their crookedness they destroy themselves. Here we see the devastating effect that crookedness has on the treacherous themselves. He who seeks to damage others damages himself.

Proverbs 11:4-6

Righteousness Delivers and Guides

Even though someone possesses all the gold and silver of the world, it is of no significance “in the day of wrath”, which is the day of the wrath of God on sin (Pro_11:4 ; Zep_1:18 ; Eze_7:19 ; Mar_8:37-38 ). “The day of wrath” can be both the day of death and future judgment. In this life, possessions can be used to bribe a judge and buy off punishment. But that is not how it works with God. All that matters on that day is whether a person has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (1Pe_1:18-19 ). Those who have been redeemed by it have the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. Only that “righteousness delivers from death”.

Righteousness not only saves from death, but also has great practical value for life. Righteousness makes the way of the blameless smooth (Pro_11:5 ). The blameless one is incorruptible, unimpeachable, always honest. This is evident in his righteousness, in doing what is right. As a result, his way is also smooth. There is nothing twisted or ambiguous in it. He goes a safe and secure way through life. The way Joseph went in the midst of his brothers and in Egypt is an example of this. It is perfectly true of the Lord Jesus, the perfectly blameless, and it is also true of every one who follows Him in blamelessness.

What characterizes the way of the blameless is totally lacking in the wicked. With him we see the opposite. His wickedness does not give him any stability in life, but rather causes his fall.

In Pro_11:6 there is again mention of “the righteousness of the upright” In Pro_11:5 it is singular, “the blameless” one, now it is plural, “the upright” ones. Now it is about deliverance from dangerous, life-threatening situations. The smooth way of Pro_11:5 is a way with dangers. The same righteousness that makes the way smooth also helps overcome difficulties on that way. For this, the upright seek their help from Him Who has given righteousness.

“The treacherous” lack righteousness and therefore help in dangers. They do not even see those dangers, but are led by their own “greed”. They are “caught” by their greed, which causes them to be caught in it as in a prison. Their greed leads them to commit sins, which surround them like a net from which they cannot free themselves. Through that net they are dragged to judgment and ultimately to eternal death.

Proverbs 11:7-8

The Fate of the Wicked

As for “a wicked man”, the moment he dies his “expectation will perish” (Pro_11:7 ; Psa_49:16-20 ). This verse speaks of a great tragedy associated with the expectation that the wicked man believes he has. Any hope of longevity or success will end in disillusionment because that expectation is anchored in reliance on earthly possessions.

He may have had “the hope of strong men” that he would live forever in prosperity, with rock-solid confidence in carrying out his plans, but it all perishes like a vapor when he dies. The Lord Jesus tells of a rich man who dies without God. This man had to leave all his wealth at his death and in the afterlife he did not even have a drop of water to cool his tongue in even the slightest way (Luk_16:19-31 ).

What grace that the believer may have a certain hope, a hope that when he dies does not perish, but rather is fulfilled. The believer’s hope is a certainty; it is a hope that does not fail (Heb_11:1 ; Rom_5:5 ). Therefore, he hopes “with perseverance” (Rom_8:24-25 ).

“The righteous is” delivered by God “from trouble” (Pro_11:8 ). The righteous can come into trouble. We can think of oppressive, confining situations that limit his freedom and cause him anxiety. Wicked people can make life very troublesome for him. But God ensures that he does not perish and will deliver him from it.

What afflicts “the wicked” is opposite, and in a remarkable way. The wicked not only receives a deserved punishment, but he is given the place into which he himself first brought the righteous. The roles are reversed. A clear example of this is Haman being hanged in Mordecai’s place (Est_7:10 Est_9:1 ). With the men thrown into the lion’s den in Daniel’s place, we see the same thing (Dan_6:24-25 ). This reversal of roles will also take place when the Lord Jesus appears. The believers will then be delivered from tribulation, and the wicked will come into tribulation (2Th_1:6-7 ).

Proverbs 11:9

Knowledge Delivers From the Godless Man

“The godless man” is an insincere person. He pretends to be a helpful neighbor, but is an enemy. He is out to “destroy his neighbor” with his mouth, which emphasizes how intensely mean he is. He creates an expectation in his neighbor that he wants to do something for him, that he is seeking good for him. Instead of living up to that expectation, he is out for his destruction. He speaks all kinds of evil about his neighbor in order to give him a bad name. This is called “character murder”. By doing so, he makes his neighbor’s life a torment.

But “the righteous” will not fall prey to his pernicious activity. For they possess “knowledge”. By their knowledge they see through the godless. They see the real intention behind his words; they unmask him and resist him. The mouth of the godless is stopped and the righteous are delivered. The faithful Christian knows by holding fast “the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching” how “to refute the opponents”, by which he “silences them” (Tit_1:9-11 ).

Proverbs 11:10-11

The Joy and Exaltation of a City

In Pro_11:10-11 it is not about persons, but about “a city”, a community of life. A community of life appreciates it goes well with the righteous, i.e. when they prosper (
Pro_11:10 ). The righteous owe their prosperity, their state of prosperity, to their honest dealings, and the city benefits. A city, that is, its citizens, even rejoice in exuberant joy over this (cf. Est_8:15 ).

There is also joyful shouting when the wicked perish (2Kg_11:20 ). Likewise, there will be rejoicing in heaven when wicked Babylon is destroyed (Rev_18:20-21 Rev_19:1-2 ). In the first case, there is joy over the good influence of the righteous. In the second case, there is rejoicing over the elimination of the pernicious influence of the wicked.

The good influence of the righteous and the bad influence of the wicked on the life of a city are emphasized in Pro_11:11 . “The upright” pronounce blessing on the city and wish it prosperity. It does not just stop at wishing blessing, but the upright also effect blessing. Thus the city “is exalted”. It acquires a good name; it is pleasant to live and be there. The city becomes attractive.

In contrast to this is the ‘advertising’ that the wicked make for it. They tear down the city to the ground with their words. They do this by speaking negatively about the city, but also by their general language. Out of their mouths comes only curse and filth. Even with neat language, as many politicians usually use, their words conceal falsity and follow a hidden agenda. They present themselves as protectors, but their practice will show that they tear down the city.

We can apply this to the local church of God as a city. If we are upright, we will say good things about the church as a local community and want to be a blessing to it. All who are part of the local church will rejoice in it. People who have no connection with it because they live outside of God will not allow a local church to exist at all. They will spread slander about it and do everything to make it impossible for them to live and meet together. Such people can also be found in the church and do their destructive work by spreading false teachings.

Proverbs 11:12-13

Understanding and Trustworthiness

He who despises his neighbor proves that he lacks sense, literally, that he is “without heart” (Pro_11:12 ). Such a person completely lacks self-knowledge. He also expresses his contempt. This is evident in the second line of verse. Someone who has an understanding of who he himself is will not express contempt for his neighbor, but “keeps silent”. He realizes that his neighbor is no less than himself and that he himself is like his neighbor. The standard for the Christian is even higher: he will regard the other “with humility of mind as more important than himself” (Php_2:3 ; Eph_4:25 ).

A person “who goes about as a talebearer” is evil and not to be trusted (Pro_11:13 ; cf. 1Ti_5:13 ). If something is entrusted to him in secret, he will gladly make it public. Opposed to the talebearer is the person who is “trustworthy”. If something is said to him in confidence, he will conceal that matter and not make it public. He does not abuse the trust that has been given to him and therefore will not harm and shame the one who has confided in him.

Proverbs 11:14-15

Wise Counsel – Don’t Be Guarantor

“Guidance” is essential to the stability of a nation (Pro_11:14 ). Guidance can be compared to steering a ship. That ship here is the people, the nation. The ancient expression ‘the ship of state’ indicates that. The comparison is made because even a ship depends for its safety on the leadership of a captain who must be knowledgeable in the matter. Without people at the helm of ‘the ship of state’ who are competent to guide the people, a ship sinks, that is, “the people fall”. But “in abundance of counselors”, by many men who are able to guide in all kinds of fields, “victory” comes out of the distress and the people are saved from destruction.

This also applies to the people of God, of which the local church is a representation. Consultation under prayer and using God’s Word is necessary to be a church where the Lord Jesus can be in the midst. When discussing in Jerusalem the contentious question of whether the nations should keep the law, a saving answer was arrived at through the contributions of several wise counselors (Act_15:1-29 ).

A financially sound policy requires not making opaque financial commitments. One such opaque obligation is being “guarantor for a stranger” (Pro_11:15 ). Being guarantor or surety is an extremely foolish thing to do (cf. Pro_6:1-6 ), especially if it is done for a stranger. Solomon is very clear in his warning here: whoever is guarantor “will surely suffer for it”. He who is guarantor guarantees the other that he will pay his debt if the other defaults, while he is without any guarantee that the other will repay him. This can lead to his bankruptcy and beggary.

The contradiction in the second line of verse underscores how dangerous it is to be guarantor. It is about nothing less than “secure”, carefree, living. This is the perspective of him “who hates being a guarantor” or “who hates to strike hands” as it is literally said. To strike hands is to confirm an agreement, which is what we do today, among other things, by signing. Never sign or give any kind of endorsement until you fully know what you are committing yourself to with your signature or endorsement.

Proverbs 11:16

A Gracious Woman and Ruthless Men

“A gracious woman” is a charming, endearing woman. Although the woman is “the weaker vessel” (1Pe_3:7 ), she still possesses the strength to “attain honor”. She does so in the same way as “ruthless men attain riches”. Her strength does manifest itself in a very different way than ruthless people. Her strength is not physical, but spiritual in nature. She is a woman of virtue, which is spiritual courage or strength, a woman who trusts in God. An example of such a person is Ruth (Rut_2:11 ).

She is “gracious” because she attains imperishable “honor”. That honor endures even when outward beauty diminishes. She knows its value. That she “attains” it means that there are forces at work that want to hinder her to attain that honor. In the New Testament, the woman’s honor is linked to her long hair which is a symbol of her submission toward the man (1Co_11:15 ). She attains it and holds to it despite all the ruthlessness of emancipation.

Ruthless men attain transient “riches”. To secure their riches, they use physical violence against their neighbor. They have attained their riches by force and will hold on to it by force. If a neighbor knocks on their door to retrieve the property looted from them, they will forcibly drive them away.

Proverbs 11:17-21

The Results of Righteous or Wicked Conduct

One who is “merciful” to other people will experience the beneficial consequence “himself”, personally (Pro_11:17 ). A “merciful man” has love for his neighbor, for those who are related to him or with whom he comes into contact. Such a person is a follower of God, Who is merciful and demonstrates His mercy to people (Tit_3:4 ). Rahab showed mercy to the spies and thereby did good to her own soul and also to the souls of those belonging to her father’s house (Jos_2:12 Jos_2:14 ).

Similarly, this works for “the cruel man”, but in reverse. One who is without compassion works his own misfortune. Such a person is a cruel one in whom all love for his neighbor is lacking, both in his thoughts and actions. He plunges himself into misfortune. This is what Ahab and Jezebel experienced (1Kg_22:37-38 ; 2Kg_9:36-37 ).

“The wicked” is engaged in a work that is “deceptive”, that is, in work that produces nothing, that is without results (Pro_11:18 ). “He who sows righteousness” (cf. Jas_3:18 ) fares differently. Such a person leads others to do righteousness in their life, which is a benefit to yet others. What is sown will bear fruit (1Co_9:11 ; 2Co_9:6 ). The resulting harvest is here called “true reward”.

When righteousness is sown (Pro_11:18 ), it is “to life” (Pro_11:19 ). By life here is meant life in its deepest and richest form, that is, life in communion with God, eternal life. Doing righteousness and life belong together. Opposed to this is “he who pursues evil”, the pursuit of evil with the effort of all one’s powers in order to do it. This always and inevitably leads to “death”. Just as righteousness and life belong together, so do evil and death, “for the wages of sin is death” (Rom_6:23 ).

“The perverse in heart” (Pro_11:20 ) are those who have a crooked, twisted mind. Their whole spiritual life is affected by evil and permeated with it. They are “an abomination to the LORD” because they devise devious things in their heart and have no regard for God’s will in any way. But “the blameless in [their] walk”, that is, those who are inwardly focused on Him and therefore go His way, “are His delight”.

As in Pro_11:1 , it is about what is “an abomination to the LORD” and in contrast, what is “His delight”. In Pro_11:1 it is about honest or dishonest business, the practice of life. Here it is about the mind of the heart, whether it is wrong or upright. It is not just about outward behavior, but more importantly about the motives behind it. God watches our ways and also sees what is in our heart (1Sa_16:7 ). We can be honest, but in doing so we can only have our own interests in mind. Then we are not His delight.

“Assuredly”, there will be a day of retribution, you can be sure of that, there can be “hand to hand” on that, as something is confirmed with striking hands (Pro_11:21 ). Each one will be placed before the judgment seat of God and will have to answer for his deeds there (Rom_14:10-12 ; 2Co_5:10 ). Then the evildoer will not be able to declare himself ‘innocent’ and go “unpunished” The Judge sees through him completely. But “the descendants of the righteous”, which is all who belong to the generation of the righteous, will escape judgment (cf. Joh_5:24 ).

Proverbs 11:22

A Beautiful Woman Who Lacks Discretion

An outwardly “beautiful woman who lacks discretion” is similar to a beautiful “ring of gold” put in “a swine’s snout”. The Israelite women had a nose ring as an ornament, among other things (
Gen_24:22 Gen_24:30 Gen_24:47 ; Isa_3:21 ). It is nonsensical to think that wearing a nose ring would make an animal that is constantly filthy beautiful. It corresponds to our (Dutch) proverb: it is a flag on a mud.

The comparison is that a beautiful ornament is attached to an unworthy body. A swine does not know the value of it. You can want to adorn that animal with jewelry and thus try to make it attractive, but the animal continues to stink and finds pleasure in living in the mud and stench. The ring loses its beauty because of it. Jezebel was such a woman. Between her behavior and her dolled-up appearance, there was no correspondence. Her outward beautification paled in the light of her depraved interior (2Kg_9:30 ). We can also apply this to the beautiful appearance of the roman-catholic church which, however, is full of corruption inside (Rev_17:4-6 ).

The true adornment of a woman is within, in her heart, in her mind (1Pe_3:3-4 ). Of Abigail it is noted first that she was “intelligent” and then that she was “beautiful in appearance” (1Sa_25:3 ). A woman is attractive when she exhibits the mind and characteristics of Christ. The bride, the wife of the Lamb, will possess those characteristics in full glory (Rev_21:9-10 ).

Proverbs 11:23-27

The Blessing of the Righteous

The character of “righteous” and “wicked” is evident not only in what they do, but also in what they desire and expect (Pro_11:23 ). “Righteous” have no desire other than “only good”. They are in connection with God and therefore have a desire for good material and spiritual things in order to do good with it themselves.

“The expectation of the wicked” will bring them nothing but “wrath”. They have no connection with God and expect to gain as much benefit as possible from their wicked life. But their expectation will end up in nothing but God’s “wrath” on them, because all their desires provoke God’s wrath.

In the government of God, it is so arranged that first there must be distribution, giving, sowing, and then comes the profit, the yield, the benefit (Pro_11:24 ). God also wants that distribution should be generous or abundant and not sparse. When that happens, a person will experience that the yield is far more abundant than what has been distributed, given away or sown (Luk_6:38 ; 2Co_9:6-9 ; Psa_112:9 ). We can also distribute time and attention mildly.

The opposite is also true. There are those “who withhold what is justly due”. They believe they become rich as a result. But besides wronging others, they also cheat themselves. All their dishonestly obtained gain will lead to their want, for God will settle the account with them. In the end, they will be left empty-handed and with a list of debts that cannot be settled.

Not giving someone what is due is also a form of withholding more than is rightfully due. Nabal had that attitude toward David (1Sa_25:10-11 1Sa_25:38 ). The chief tax collector Zacchaeus realized the sinfulness of this behavior in time and repented of this sin (Luk_19:8 ).

Pro_11:25 connects with Pro_11:24 . “The generous man” is one who by word and deed spreads blessing around him, shows benefits and seeks the happiness of others. He who does this will himself receive blessing from it. One will benefit him, he himself will be prosperous. Whoever refreshes someone else (spiritually) will also be refreshed thereby himself. We see this with the Lord Jesus in His conversation with the Samaritan woman. The spiritual food He gave the woman also refreshed Him Himself (Joh_4:31-34 ; Mat_10:42 ; Jer_31:25 ).

He who does not distribute blessing (Pro_11:25 ), but on the contrary selfishly keeps everything for himself, and that in a time of scarcity, is cursed by the people (Pro_11:26 ). God wants us to distribute to others of the blessing He has given us. This applies to both material and spiritual blessing. If we make available of the blessing we have received and offer it for sale, blessing will rest on our head. In selling, we need not think only of money or a means of exchange. Selling means that the other person must make an effort to come into possession of what is offered for sale (cf. Pro_23:23 ).

One who appreciates good will seek it diligently, that is, he will strive to come into possession of it (Pro_11:27 ). Such a person is seeking “favor”, where we may think especially of the favor of God. He who “seeks evil” does so because he believes he will gain by it. He will not see what he is pursuing as evil. No one pursues evil for himself. It is about evil things in the sight of God. What he pursues, however, he will not get, but it will “come to him”. That refers to a cause from without. It means that he will finally be afflicted by the evil of God’s judgment.

Proverbs 11:28-31

The Growth of the Righteous

Wanting to get rich and abusing wealth are to be condemned. There is another evil associated with riches and that is trusting in riches (Pro_11:28 ). “Who trusts in his riches” will be shamed with it. He will find that to his shame when he “falls”. Riches do not provide a firm foundation for life. To fall means that his life will end in a mess. The cause is that he does not give God a place in his life (Luk_12:16-21 ).

For “the righteous” the opposite is true. They trust in God and “flourish like the [green] leaf”. Their life is rooted in Him and characterized by prosperity and fruitfulness (cf. Psa_92:12-15 ; Jer_17:7-8 ). The life of those who trust in riches is like a fallen and withered leaf, while that of the righteous is like a greening leaf full of vitality that continues to grow.

One who in his greed thinks only of himself plunges his house into troubles (Pro_11:29 ). There is no interest at all in fellow householders, whom he regards only as a nuisance in the pursuit of evil. What remains of his efforts is only wind, nothing he can grasp. From the way he has managed his home, it is clear that he is a fool. The second line of verse assumes that he has lost everything and has incurred so much debt that he must rent himself out as a “servant to the wise-hearted”.

What the righteous brings forth (Pro_11:30 ) contrasts with the fool of Pro_11:29 . His life as a righteous man shows that he has life. He does not have that life in himself. What comes out of him, what becomes visible of the life that is in him, comes forth from the true Tree of life, the Lord Jesus. Therefore, the life of the righteous person resembles the life of Him, the perfectly Righteous One.

This similarity is also reflected in the relationship to other people. One who brings forth a tree of life as fruit is seeking to bring others into connection with the true Tree of life. The primary concern is about attracting and winning others over to wisdom. Whoever does that, whoever wins souls in this way, is wise.

We can also apply it to the gospel. We can become fishers of men and catch them (Mat_4:19 ) by winning them over to Christ, that they may go after Him. Paul is a special example of such a wise man (cf. 1Co_9:20-22 1Co_10:33 ). His entire ministry is a source of life and spiritual food for generations to come.

“The righteous” has as much to do with the government of God as “the wicked and the sinner” (Pro_11:31 ). God in His righteousness must deal with every sin regardless of who commits that sin. A righteous person who sins must suffer and bear the consequences. Moses is an example of this. Because he sinned, he was not allowed to bring the people into the promised land. David’s life also shows the truth of what is written here. This retribution happens on earth. One comfort in this is that the righteous may know that Christ helps him bear the consequences of his sins because He bore the judgment of his sins on the cross.

“The wicked and the sinner” equally faces and will have to bear the consequences of his sins on earth. But there is a “how much more” for him – this is the first of the four “how much more” sayings (Pro_11:31 Pro_15:11 Pro_19:7 Pro_21:27 ). He will have to bear the burden alone because he lives without Christ and, if he does not repent, dies without Him. It seems that Peter quotes this word in his first letter when he writes: “And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?” (1Pe_4:18 ).

Proverbs 11:1
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:1. Just weight, literally, “a stone of completeness, a full stone.” Stone was a very ancient material for weight; not rusting, it was not changeable.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:1
JUST WEIGHT
This judgment on a false weight is a two-fold revelation.
I. It reveals the existence of a true standard. We only know what is false by knowing what is true. If a mason looks at a stone and declares that it is uneven, he declares at the same time that there is such a thing as an even stone, or that there is a possibility of making a stone perfectly level and square. He reveals his knowledge of what is even by passing judgment upon what is uneven. When a judge declares that a man has not fulfilled the requirements of the law, he thereby proclaims the existence of a law which ought to have been, and might have been obeyed. As Paul tells us, “Sin is not imputed where there is no law” (Rom_5:13). And if a weight is condemned as false, the condemnation implies that there is a certain standard of weight which ought to have been reached. God, who here tells men that He abominates a false balance, declares by His condemnation of it that there is such a thing as a true weight: that there is that which He recognises as justice between man and man. And much that men call “a full stone,” a “fair day’s wages,” is not so regarded by God. It is not dealing truly with a man to give him the smallest possible amount for the work he does—to take advantage of his poverty or ignorance to beat him down to the lowest sum for which his need will induce him to give his labour, and thereby condemn him to all the evils of insufficient means. “Behold!” says Carlyle, “supply and demand is not the one law of Nature; cash payment is not the sole nexus of man with man,—how far from it! Deep, far deeper than supply and demand are laws, obligations sacred as man’s life itself!” This is the law of the Divine kingdom: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Mat_7:12). Less than this is a “false balance,” this is the “full stone,” which is God’s “delight.”
II. It reveals the character of God. If a man declares that certain actions are displeasing to him, the declaration reveals his character; if the actions that he hates are wicked in themselves and hurtful to men, his hatred of them proclaims his own righteousness and benevolence. That God is a hater of false weights and measures in every sense and of every kind proclaims Him to be a God of mercy and truth, a Ruler who will Himself “not pervert judgment,” who “will not lay upon man more than right,” but who will “give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Job_34:12-13; Jer_32:19). And the text likewise proclaims God’s notice of what men sometimes call little things. The farthing kept back from the child, and the ounce taken from the pound, are as much marked by Him as the short wages given to the man, the unjust sentence passed upon the prisoner. Dr. Guthrie says “God sees the water in the milk, and the sand in the sugar.” There are no great and small transactions in a moral sense, one action contains the sin as much as another.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
In this emphatic reproduction of the old rule of Deu_25:13-14, we may find, perhaps, a trace, as in chap. Pro_6:1, of the growing commerce of the Israelites, and the danger of dishonesty incidental to it. While the words have a wider range and include all unequal and unrighteous judgments, there can be no doubt that the literal meaning is the prominent one. The stress laid on the same sin in chaps. Pro_16:11, Pro_20:10, bears witness to the desire of the teacher to educate the youth of Israel to a high standard of integrity, just as the protest of Hosea against it (ch. Pro_12:7) shows the zeal of the prophet in rebuking what was becoming more and more a besetting sin.—Plumptre.
Hither may be referred corruptions in courts, and partialities in Church businesses. See that tremendous “charge” to do nothing by partiality or by “tilting the balance” (1Ti_5:21). Those that have the “balances of deceit in their hand” (Hos_12:7) are called Canaanites, so the Hebrew hath it, that is, mere natural men (Eze_16:3), that have no goodness in them, no, not common honesty; they do not as they would be done by, which very heathens condemned.—Trapp.
Surely he that weighs in a false balance is himself weighed by God in a balance of justice, and for the gain he gets he getteth to himself from the Lord His just abomination; not only His dislike or condemnation of it, but the abomination because it is a theft cloaked with the colour of justice, even the exact justice of weighing. But a just balance is such a delight unto God as that He delighteth, as it were, to be a seller in that shop, and that He maketh others to delight to come and buy at it. Surely such a “perfect stone” (see Hebrew) is a perfect jewel, and a precious stone in the sight of God. But in a spiritual sense there is no such false balance as when man weigheth heavier than God, earth heavier than heaven, the pleasures of sin heavier than the crown of glory, a momentary contentment heavier than eternal blessedness. And justly are such false balances an abomination to the Lord. But that is a just weight whereby the light vanity of worldly things is rightly perceived, the levity of earthly greatness is truly discerned, the weightiness of God’s promises is duly considered, the heaviness of God’s threatenings is carefully apprehended. Such a weight is God’s delight, doth overbalance all whatsoever the world delighteth in.—Jermin.
That which is hurtful to our brother is hateful to God, and therefore can never be helpful to us. If He judge it unrighteous we shall find it unprofitable: if it be damnable in His sight, and therefore His soul doth hate it, it will at last be in our sense, and our souls shall rue it. Here is consolation to them that do constantly and conscionably addict themselves to the practice of equity. None hath truly learned this but such as have been apprentices to heaven, whom the Lord hath informed in the mysteries of that trade.—Dod.
Weight and balance are judicial institutions of the Lord, and every weight is His work. But marriage compacts, also political confederacies, civil compacts, judgments, penalties, etc., are ordinances of Divine wisdom and justice, and are effectively superintended by God.—Melancthon.
This is repeated with varied language three times (Pro_16:11; Pro_20:10; Pro_20:23). The tendency of all commentators is to treat it as descriptive of men. It seems conspicuously to be asserted of the Almighty. Sentences like chap. Pro_10:29 make the doctrine a very timely one, that God is in His very essence just; that He takes no liberties of an arbitrary nature; that He is the administrator, not at all of fate, for this is blind and unreasoning, but of eternal rectitude; that we need give ourselves no care of our government, for that He has no temptation to do us wrong, because “false balances” are an abomination to Jehovah.” “Delight” is rather a strong version. It only means that the Almighty has the eternal desire to be absolutely just. Omniscience, omnipotence, and this desire must make an immaculate administration. God will not, by a false balance, become an abomination to Himself.—Miller.
Commerce is a providential appointment for our social intercourse and mutual helpfulness. It is grounded with men upon human faith, as with God upon Divine faith. Balance, weights, money are its necessary materials. Impositions, double dealings, the hard bargain struck with self-complacent shrewdness (chap. Pro_20:14)—this is the false balance forbidden alike of the law and of the Gospel (Mat_7:12; Php_4:8).—Bridges.

Proverbs 11:2
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:2. Literally, “there hath come pride, there will come shame.” Stuart reads, “Does pride come, then shame will come.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:2
PRIDE AND HUMILITY
I. Pride comes to the human spirit. “When pride cometh.” There are certain weeds that come at certain seasons of the year without being sent for or desired. They tarry not for the will of man, but appear in the most wellkept garden and in the most carefully tilled field. The only will that the proprietor has in the matter is whether they shall be allowed to stay. If they stay, they will assuredly spread and increase in strength. Self-sown plants are the first to spring up in the ground, and will be the last to disappear. Nothing will kill them but uprooting and consuming the entire plant by fire. So pride will spring up in the human heart. The seeds are there, and the soul is congenial to their germination and growth. According to the highest authority upon the subject, pride is its natural outgrowth. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts.… pride” etc. (Mar_7:21-22). The question for every man to settle when pride comes up in the blade, is whether it shall be allowed to go on to the full ear—whether the feeling shall be allowed to remain until it is manifested in action, or whether the fire of the Holy Ghost shall be called in to consume the very root. “Pride,” says Adams, “is like the heart, the first thing that lives and the last thing that dies in us.”
II. When pride is permitted to remain, shame will follow, 1. Because it tends to ingratitude. If a man permits a wrong estimate of himself to grow up and strengthen within him, growing daily in a sense of his own importance and his own deserts, he will soon be ungrateful to men for their acts of goodwill, and to God for the position in which He has placed him in the world. Ingratitude is a high road to shame before God and before men, because it prevents men from taking advantage of present opportunities. 2. Because it keeps men ignorant. There is a shame arising from ignorance, when men have had no opportunities of acquiring knowledge. Even when it is not their own fault, men feel ashamed of their ignorance. But pride leads men to refuse instruction when it is offered to them, and thus it leads to wilful ignorance, which, being
wilful, is doubly shameful. 3. Because it makes men useless. If a man has received many gifts from the Divine hand and yet lacks that spiritual-mindedness and humility which is the salt to season them and make them acceptable to the hearts and consciences of mankind, he will be to them like a fountain of beautiful and polished marble without any water, and will only vex the thirsty traveller by reflecting the rays of light from the basin which he hoped to find filled with water. He is a cloud without water, lovely to the eye, but not refreshing to the thirsty land. And men will turn from and despise gifts without graces, especially the grace ef humility.
III. Lowly men are wise men, and are in the way of becoming wiser. 1. This we know from the Divine promise. “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit” (Isa_57:15.) From the nature of things, those who are alike in character will seek to dwell together. The good and the bad each go “to their own company” in this world, and must do so in every world. There is no pride in the Divine character: “He humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth” (Psa_113:6). Because He can rightly estimate everything and every person, pride cannot dwell with Him. Therefore He dwells with those who are like Himself, and the man with whom God dwells, and who is “taught of the Lord” (Isa_54:13), must be ever increasing in Wisdom 2. This we know from experience. The wisest men in the world, the men who are most able to teach others, are those who have been willing first to stoop to learn: those who have been willing to own their ignorance and need, and so have been willing to sit at the feet of those who knew more than they did. Wise men are always lowly in estimating their present acquirements, whether of intellect or character, and this keeps them in the way of ever becoming wiser.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Trite as the words now are, the appearance in many languages of the same maxim points to the delight with which men have in all ages welcomed this statement of a fact of general experience, in which they saw also a proof of a Divine government. A Rabbinic paraphrase of the latter clause is worth quoting: “Lowly souls become full of wisdom as the low place becomes full of water.”—Plumptre.
Where pride is in the saddle, shame is on the crupper. He is a “proud fool” saith our English proverb. But “God gives grace to the humble” (Jas_4:6); that is, as some sense it, good repute and report among men. Who am I? saith Moses; and yet who fitter than he to go to Pharaoh? He refused to be called Pharaoh’s daughter’s son; he was afterwards called to be Pharaoh’s god. (Exo_7:1.)—Trapp.
When Nebuchadnezzar was bragging of his Babel which he had built for his glory, he was banished from all habitation, not having so much as a cottage, and like a beast made to lie among the beasts of the field, with ignominy. When Haman thought to ride on horseback and to be waited on like a king, he was driven to lackey on foot, and to wait attendance like a page, and purposing to hang Mordecai on high to honour himself, he prepared a high gallows to be hanged on himself. When Herod thought himself good enough to take on him the state and honour of a god, the Lord declared him to be bad enough to be devoured of contemptible vermin.… Whereas the humble are always in the way of preferment, either to come to honour in a great place, or for honour to come to them in a mean place.—Dod.
It is the prayer of David, Let not the foot of pride come against me, or unto me: for pride and shame ride in one chariot, they come both together; he that entertaineth the one, must entertain the other. And howbeit pride set open her bravery, and shame awhile be masked, yet shame at length shall open itself, and pride shall not be seen. For how can shame choose but be joined with pride, which, says St. Ambrose, knows not how to stand, and when it is fallen, is ignorant how to rise. On the other side, although lowliness goes on foot, yet wisdom is her companion, which not only preserveth the lowly from shame, but highly advanceth them in the esteem of God and man. And indeed what greater wisdom is there than humility, which, says St. Ambrose again, by desiring nothing, obtaineth all that is despised by it.—Jermin.
The folly and wickedness of pride—1. Of station. “Man will not long abide in honour, seeing he may be compared to the beast that perisheth” (Psa_49:12). In the sight of God, the greatest and proudest of men are but dust and ashes. 2. Of birth. Even an ancient heathen could see its absurdity and say, “As to family and ancestors, and what we have not done ourselves, can scarcely be called ours.” We certainly had no hand in producing these distinctions. 3. Of riches. They cannot give dignity of character, superiority of intellect, vigour of body, peace of conscience, or any one of those advantages which form the chief blessings of life. 4. Of talent or learning. A disease, an accident, may overset the mind, and turn all our light into utter darkness, and even should our abilities and learning continue with us till the end of our days here below, they must then vanish and be extinguished. It was the consciousness of their uncertain and transient endurance, as well as of their imperfection, that made the wise Agur say, “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man and;” which drew from Solomon the confession, “In much wisdom there is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow” (Ecc_1:18). 4. Of beauty. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” 5. Of spiritual pride. Of all description of guilt this appears to be the most odious to God and unbecoming to man, and as such is denounced throughout the Scriptures. Everlasting shame is made the portion of every one “that exalteth himself.”—Warner.
Gabriel is the prince he is solely from the Spirit. It is because God gave him the Spirit that he remained in grace; and it was because God took the Spirit that Satan fell into apostasy. Pride, therefore, is a mad vanity. If “false balances” are an abomination to God, He would not be apt to let “pride” flourish. And yet pride does flourish in worldly things. The “shame” here must mean that spiritual contempt which looks to the whole eternity. It is only (1) out of contempt for him that God lets a man be proud; and it is only (2) contempt and shame that can follow upon the proud thought. Pride itself is an evidence of God’s contempt. And being “humble” not only (1) invites “Wisdom,” and makes her feel at home; not only (2) flows from Wisdom because she is at home, but (3) actually “is Wisdom.” It would not do to say, Has humility entered? There also enters Wisdom; for humility is wisdom, and could not exist unless Wisdom had entered already.—Miller.
Perhaps the reference in the words before us may especially be to the influence of pride in our intercourse with men. In this view of them they are verified in different ways. For example—the manifestation of pride,—of supercilious loftiness and self-sufficiency—strongly tempts others to spy out defects, and to bring down the haughty man from his imaginary elevation. Everyone takes a pleasure in plucking at him, and leaving the laurel-wreath which he has twined for his own brow as bare of leaves as possible; and thus to cover him with “shame.” Another way in which it tends to “shame” is, that it leads him who is the subject of it to undertake, in the plenitude of his confident self-sufficiency, to fill stations for which he is incompetent; by which means he, ere long, exposes himself to the derision or the pity of his fellows. He shortly finds himself in the position of those described in our Lord’s parable, who “choose for themselves the highest seats,” but in the end, abashed and crest-fallen, “begin with shame to take the lowest rooms.” That parable (Luk_14:7-11) is a graphic commentary on the words before us.—Wardlaw.
Pride was the principle of the fall (Gen_3:5), and, therefore, the native principle of fallen man (Mar_7:22). When pride had stripped us of our honour, then—not till then—cometh shame (Gen_3:7, with Gen_2:25). This is the wise discipline of our God to scourge the one by the other.… What a splendour of wisdom shone in the lowly child “sitting at the doctors’ feet, astonishing them at His understanding and His answers” (Luk_2:47). And will not this Spirit be to us the path of Wisdom? For the Divine Teacher “reveals to the babes what He hides from the wise and prudent.—Bridges.

Proverbs 11:3-4
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:3. Guide, “lead” “as a shepherd his sheep, and therefore in the path of safety and peace” (Stuart). Perverseness, “slipperiness,” “falseness.” Destroy. An intensive word in the Hebrew, “to lay hold of them with violent force” (Stuart).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:3
THE INFALLIBLE GUIDE
I. The upright man is in danger. To say that a man needs a guide is to say that he is exposed to some kind of danger—that the path which he has to tread is one in which it is possible to sustain loss of some kind. A man does not need a guide when he is walking in a road where he knows every step of the way, where his path lies straight before him, beset with no danger. An upright man has much to lose. He can lose much in losing one thing, he can, indeed, lose all in one thing, his all for time and eternity, viz., his moral character. If his uprightness of character sustains any loss, if any stain is permitted to fall upon that, it will only regain its erectness and purity at the cost of much pain and time. What was gained with difficulty at first will be harder to regain. It is up-hill work to redeem a lost character, and if it is not redeemed, existence is cast away and the man is said to be lost. And the very fact that a man is godly places him in danger. The thief is never found measuring the height of the wall or testing the security of the locks of the house where poverty reigns. He does not haunt such a dwelling, and reckon up the opposition he would be likely to meet with
there. Such a house has no attraction for him, and is safe from all danger so far as he is concerned, because there is no silver or gold there. But the house filled with plate and jewels is the one around which he paces with stealthy steps, and whose means of defence and unguarded doors or windows he takes note of. Such a house draws him towards it as the magnet draws the needle. So the godless man has little or no attraction for the enemy of souls. The very poverty of his moral nature renders him an unattractive object to the great thief of character. But an upright man he considers a foeman worthy of his steel, and the rich graces that dwell within the heart of such a one have a magnetic power for him who was “a murderer from the beginning” (Joh_8:44), and for all his emissaries and agents, whether they be devils or men.
II. The infallible guide for the godly or upright man: Integrity. What is integrity? Dr. Bushnell says: “As an integer is a whole, in distinction from a fraction, which is only a part, so a man of integrity is a man whose aim in the right is a whole aim, in distinction from one whose aim is divided, partial, or unstable. It does not mean that he has never been a sinner, or that he is not one now, but simply that the intent of his soul is to do and be wholly right with God and man. Old Simeon was such a man. It is said of him that he was just, that is, he was single in his purpose in relation to man, and that he was devout, which expresses the wholeness of his aim in relation to God. Paul was such a man. “What shall I do, Lord?”—“This one thing I do” was the key note of his life. (Act_22:10; Php_3:13) 1. This guide is one whose voice is not easily mistaken. If a man sets his own interest before him as the guide of his life, he is very likely to be mistaken as to what his own interest really is even so far as regards the present life. We are so short-sighted as to be unable to foretell what may be the issue of any act of life in relation to our own personal and present well-being looked at from a material point of view. If we are more unselfish and adopt the famous principle of “the good of the greatest number,” we involve ourselves in a still greater perplexity. This problem is one which can be solved by God alone. But every man whose conscience is not wholly depraved can determine as to the right and wrong of his actions, and thus possesses a clue to guide him step by step through every intricate path of life. Darkness of soul and circumstances may at times surround him, but here is a pole-star which will shine through the gloom. “In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass,” says Robertson, of Brighton, speaking of the doubts and perplexities to which the most sincere men are often the most liable, “whatever else is doubtful this is certain, that it is better to be generous than selfish, better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, better to be brave than a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is he, who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, has obstinately clung to moral good. Thrice blessed because his night shall pass into bright, clear day.” Thus “the integrity of the upright shall guide them.” This virtue is a guide as recognisable as sunlight. The eye of every man, in every nation, recognises the sun as the light which is the guide of his life; and integrity, honesty, and complete dealing between man and man is recognisable by every man whose conscience is not wholly blinded by long-continued persistence in wickedness (see Luk_12:57). 2. It shall guide a man to happiness. We have seen that happiness or self-interest cannot be the guide of life, either in relation to the one man or to the many. The happiness of one man, in this narrow and low sense of the word, may mean misery to another; but right-doing is the high road to the happiness of the individual, and the promoter of the happiness of all to whom he is related. Though happiness is not the aim of the upright man, yea, because it is not the aim of his life, he will be guided into it. The man who does right simply because it is right, and without hope of reward, will have a reward. Integrity must lead to the happiness of the upright man. The approbation of conscience is a large element of blessed happiness, and the certainty that right-doing can wrong none of his fellow-creatures, but may add much to their well-being, is another element in the reward. There is also happiness in the possession of a single aim, an undivided purpose in life. The concentration of all a man’s powers to one point increases his power to accomplish the task to which he has set himself. He is like a man steering for the harbour, with his eye upon the compass and his hand upon the wheel; he is conscious of a power to carry out his purpose, and the certainty of success is in itself a reward. 3. It must guide a man to heaven. All the upright who are in heaven have been guided there by integrity—by first of all “rendering unto God the things that are God’s”—loyal obedience to His conditions of salvation, and then, as a necessary result, rendering unto their fellow-men that which is their due.
ILLUSTRATION OF THE SECOND CLAUSE OF Pro_11:3
“The perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.” A Grecian legend.—An old diver was wont to boast of his skill to bring up treasures from the sea. To test his power the people threw many a golden coin and silver cup into deep water, all of which he brought to the surface with triumph. But one day a disguised fiend threw a tinsel crown into a whirlpool, and challenged the confident diver to bring it up, promising him, if he succeeded, the power to wear it, and to transmit it to his children. Down he sprung after the bauble, but the nereids of the sea, hearing the clangour of the crown when it fell upon their grottos, closed around him as he was grasping his prize and held him fast till he perished. The most daring may dare once too often; folly, though long successful, will plunge its victim into ruin at last.—Biblical Treasury.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
All obliquity and trick in the intercourse of men is a libel on Providence. Every recourse to falsehood is a direct distrust of God. Truth is both the shortest and the surest road in every difficulty. How much labour is lost by adopting tortuous paths. A great part of life’s labour consists in following a crooked course, and then trying to make it appear a straight one. The crooked line is far more difficult at the first, and the defence of it afterwards doubles the labour.—Arnot.
“I will walk in mine integrity,” was David’s staff, and in doing anything there is no such guide to do it well as the integrity of the heart. Knowledge is requisite, and is a good director: counsel may be needful, and is a good conductor; but the master pilot is the sincerity of the heart. If that be wanting the others will not be following, if that be present the others will not be wanting.—Jermin.
Everyone that is truly godly hath a faithful guide and an upright counsellor in his own breast. A sound heart is the stern of the soul, and a good conscience is the pilot to govern it.—Dod.
A man, to be led, must have a way; and, to have a way, he must have an end at which he is aiming. The end of the “upright” man is righteousness itself. If the great joy of heaven is uprightness, and the price of wisdom is above rubies, of course “integrity” is the best guide in the world, because of course righteousness is the best guide to righteousness; and, poor or rich, the righteous man is always advancing in his treasure. Righteousness is also the best guide to happiness, for no good thing shall be withholden from them that walk uprightly. Sin, on the other hand, by increasing itself, is itself its own seducer.—Miller.
Sincerity is one eminent branch of the good man’s character. Nathaniel was a man without guile. We accordingly find that, though prejudiced against Jesus of Nazareth, his sincerity appeared in the means which he employed to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, and he was led by it in the right way. Christ’s enemies were men of perverse spirits. They crucified Him with a view to maintain their honour and preserve their nation; but by their perverse conduct both were destroyed.—Lawson.
Every man who comes into a state of right intent, will forthwith also be a Christian. Whoever is willing to be carried just where it will carry him, cost him what it may, in that man the spirit of all sin is broken, and his mind is in a state to lay hold of Christ and to be laid hold of by Him.… “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him” (2Ch_16:9). God is on the lookout always for an honest man—him to help, and with him, and for him, to be strong. And if there be one, God will not miss him; for His desiring, all-searching eyes are running the world through always to find him.—Bushnell.
I. The guidance of integrity is the safest under which we can be placed. Perfect immunity from danger is not to be expected in this life. But let us inquire who the persons are that, in all the different lines of life, have gone through the world with most success, and we shall find that the men of probity and honour form by far the most considerable part of the list; that men of plain understanding, acting upon fair and direct views, have much oftener prospered than men of the deepest policy, who were devoid of principle. II. It is unquestionably the most honourable. Other qualities may add splendour to character; but if this essential requisite be wanting, all its lustre fades. He who rests upon an internal principle of virtue and honour, will act with a dignity and boldness of which they are incapable who are wholly guided by interest. He is above those timid, suspicious, and cautious restraints which fetter and embarrass their conduct. III. This plan of conduct is the most
comfortable. Amidst the various and perplexing events of life, it is of singular advantage to be kept free from doubt as to the part most proper to be chosen. The man of principle is a stranger to those inward troubles which beset men who consult nothing but worldly interest. His time is not lost, nor his temper fretted, by long and anxious consultations. One light always shines upon him from above. One path always opens clear and distinct upon his view. He is also delivered from all inward upbraidings, from all alarms founded on the dread of discovery and disgrace. The man of virtue has committed his way to the Lord. He co-operates with the Divine purpose. The power which sways the universe is engaged on his side. By natural consequence, he has ground to expect that any seeming disappointments which he may now incur shall be over-ruled in the end to some salutary result. IV. He has always in view the prospect of immortal rewards. That surely is the wisest direction of conduct, which is most amply recompensed at last.—Blair.
For Homiletics of Pro_11:4 see chapter Pro_10:2. The thought of the first clauses of Pro_11:5-6 is the same as that treated Pro_11:3.

Proverbs 11:5-6
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:5. Direct, “make smooth or even.”
Pro_11:6. Naughtiness, “cravings,” “desires,” “covetousness.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE LATTER CLAUSES OF Pro_11:5-6
MADE OR MARRED BY DESIRES
The word translated “naughtiness” should be rendered “lust” or “desires.” (See CRITICAL NOTES).
I. Sin is compliance with desires that do not harmonise with moral righteousness. A traveller on a lonely and dangerous road may have two guides offered to him by the opposite promptings of his own mind. He may have a strong desire to explore a path which looks most pleasant and attractive but which he knows does not lead to his destination, and is beset with many perils although its aspect is inviting. On the other hand, his good sense tells him it is unwise to run the risk of injury by thus turning aside from the road that he knows leads to the goal which he desires to reach, although the path may be rough and toilsome. If he yields to his first desire and pursues the dangerous path until it is too late to retrace his steps, he may lose his life by a false step over a precipice and so be destroyed by his own desires. All men are under the dominion of desires, and if their desires after God and righteousness have the rule they will be guided by them into the ways of deliverance and safety, as we saw in considering Pro_11:3. But if they yield themselves up to the guidance of desires which run counter to the law of God and right, as they are made known both by conscience and revelation, they sink lower and lower in the scale of moral being and become slaves when they might have been free men. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Joh_8:34; Rom_6:16).
II. The sinner is the forger of his own fetters. If a man labours in his field, his garden, or his vineyard, in harmony with the known laws which God has ordained to be observed, he may reasonably expect a good crop—an abundant harvest. But if he sets at nought these laws—if he yields to desires of self-indulgence—or in any other way acts contrary to the conditions which are indispensable to success—he has no one to blame but himself if he finds himself a beggar when he might have had plenty. The law of God’s moral universe is written in revelation, upon conscience, in the history of men, that “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” that “The wages of sin is death” (Gal_6:7; Rom_6:23). If men are “taken,” are first enslaved by sin and then suffer the penalty of sinning, they have themselves digged the pit of their own destruction—have forged the chains by which they are bound.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_11:4. How badly led those are who are not righteous, appears in this: that while righteousness does everything for a man in journeying to his end, wealth does nothing for him. “Wealth,” which seems to be the great guide of the human family, not only cannot deliver, but cannot profit in the crisis of fate. While “righteousness,” all covered with stains, lets no day go to waste; lets no mile be utterly lost; lets no fear ever be realised; still grapples a man’s hand; and still guides a man’s tread, till he steps at last into the regions of safety.—Miller.
It were no bad comparison to liken mere rich men to camels and mules; for they often pursue their devious way, over hills and mountains, laden with India purple, with gems, aromas, and generous wines upon their backs, attended, too, by a long line of servants as a safeguard on their way. Soon, however, they come to their evening halting-place, and forthwith their precious burdens are taken from their backs; and they, now wearied, and stripped of their lading and their retinue of slaves, show nothing but livid marks of stripes. So, also, those who glitter in gold and purple raiment, when the evening of life comes rushing on them, have nought to show but marks and wounds of sin impressed upon them by the evil use of riches.—St. Augustine.
Riches will not even obtain “a drop of water to cool the tormented tongue” (Luk_16:19-24). In vain will “the rich men of the earth” seek a shelter from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev_6:15-17).—Bridges.
While the words are true in their highest sense of the great dies irœ of the future, they speak, in the first instance, as do the like words in Zep_1:15-18, of any “day of the Lord,” any time of judgment, when men or nations receive the chastisement of their sins.—Plumptre.
“Wherefore should I die, being so rich?” said that wretched Cardinal, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, in Henry VI.’s time. “Fie,” quoth he, “will not death be lured? Will money do nothing?”—Trapp.
If righteousness delivereth not from the day, yet it delivereth from the wrath of the day: if it deliver not from death, yet it delivereth from the death of the wicked.—Jermin.
Pro_11:5. “The righteousness of the man of integrity” is perfect only in heaven, and how it “directs” or “levels” his way appears best by the perfect facility of walking in that bright abode. It will be no trouble there to travel forward. While more work will be done in heaven than here, yet there it is done so easily that it is called a “Rest.” The paths of this world are not only difficult, but deadly. “The wicked” will not only struggle, but “fall” in them; and the roughnesses at which he stumbles are not ever in the paths themselves, but really his “own wickedness.”—Miller.
Greedy desire (see CRITICAL NOTES) will strongly tempt men to sin, and so they will be ensnared.—Stuart.
The first part of this text may be taken—I. As declaring a fact. A real Christian takes, for direction in his way, the rule of righteousness. The question that he continually puts to himself is—“What ought I to do?” This is the character of a believer in the abstract; and though none may lay claim to perfection, yet none can be justly called believers, unless their lives in the main answer to this description. II. As propounding a promise. It is nowhere promised that the righteous shall not come into trouble, but the strait road goes through them. The other statement of the text may also be regarded—I. As an assertion proved by experience. The drunkard ruins his health and shortens his life by excesses. The spendthrift brings himself to beggary. The contentious man brings himself to mischief. They often dig a pit for others and fall into it themselves. III. As a threat. It does not always happen that men are visited for their sins in this life. Still it may be said to every ungodly man, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”—B. W. Dibdin.
Pro_11:6. Godliness hath many troubles, and as many helps against trouble. As Moses’ hand, it turns the serpent into a rod; and as the tree that Moses cast into the waters of Marah, it sweeteneth the bitter waters of affliction. Well may it be called the divine nature, for as God doth bring light out of darkness, so doth grace.—Trapp.
There need no blocks to be laid in the way of the wicked, no enemies need to thrust him down, for his own wickedness being his way, by that he shall fall.… Wickedness is fastened, by the devil, like a cord about the wicked; by that he pulls them after him: by that he makes them fall, first into shame and misery here, and into hell when they are gone hence.—Jermin.

Proverbs 11:7
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:7. His and men are not in the original, and the verse is variously rendered. Stuart reads, “When the wicked die, all the hopes perish; and when they are afflicted, their expectation of recovery or alleviation will be frustrated.” Zöckler—“With the death of the wicked hope cometh to nought, and the unjust expectation has perished.” Miller—“By the death of a wicked man hope is lost, and the expectation of sorrowing ones is lost already.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:7
THE DEATH OF THE WICKED
I. An inevitable event in relation to a wicked man. “When a wicked man dieth.” He must die. “It is appointed unto men,”—to the good and to the bad—“once to die.” (Heb_9:27). 1. This inevitable event is most undesired by the wicked man. The certainty of any coming event will make it to be dreaded in proportion as it is felt that its advent must be followed by unpleasant consequences. The man who knows that nothing can save him from becoming a bankrupt at no distant period feels the certainty of the fact to be a most unwelcome thought. The man who knows that on a certain day of reckoning he will be unable to meet his liabilities, and that the day will as surely arrive as the planets will hold on their way in the heavens, can only look forward to the future with the most gloomy apprehensions. That coming day is ever hanging over his present, and imparting a sting to every hour in which he allows his thoughts to dwell upon it. The certainty of death is a most painful subject of contemplation for a wicked man. Conscience tells him that he has no resources wherewith to meet the demands of that day—he knows that he is unfit to face that most ruthless of all creditors, and the knowledge that nothing can turn aside his footsteps is often a bitter drop in the cup of his present apparent prosperity and security. 2. The wicked man takes refuge from the thought of the
certainty of the event in the uncertainty of the time when it will take place. He indulges in “hopes,” and “expectations,” concerning the present life, because of the indefiniteness of its length. Although he knows that death must come one day, he hopes that it may be many years hence. The rich fool in our Lord’s parable knew that he must die some day—he admitted that certainty. But he made the uncertainty of the time an excuse for taking present ease. He refused to take into account the possibility that the summons had gone forth: “This night thy soul shall be required of thee.” 3. The certainty of the death of the wicked is a most painful subject of thought to good men. They look at the present condition of the ungodly, and, knowing the indispensable and intimate connection between present character and future happiness or misery, the certainty of the death of the wicked man is often a more saddening thought to them than to the man himself. The contemplation of such an event must give pain to a soul in harmony with God and goodness. 4. Yet, looked at with regard to his relation with others, the certainty of the death of the wicked is most desirable. If one portion of the body has become so diseased that the whole body is likely to suffer from it, a severance between the diseased part and the sound body must take place, however painful the operation may be. The loss of the part is indispensable to the salvation of the rest. There have been, and there are, men who are so morally diseased that their removal from the world is to be desired for the sake of others. It must be regarded as a blessing for the world that the death of the wicked is certain. The death of one wicked man is sometimes the means of bringing peace to many to whom his existence was a curse. There are men who do the best thing for the world when they leave it—their exit from it is the greatest benefit they have ever conferred upon it.
II. The wicked man is in his worst condition when he has most need of being in his best. It is at death that his expectation and hope perish. The time when we approach a crisis in our history is a time when we need to be most furnished with all the resources that will be demanded to meet it. It was more necessary that David should be filled with faith and courage when he went forth to meet Goliath than when he was keeping his sheep in his father’s fields. When a youthful candidate for academical honour comes to the day of his examination, he needs to concentrate all his past days of study into one focus. If on that day all his mental powers are not at their very best, he is likely to be overwhelmed with disappointment instead of to be crowned with honour. It is sad indeed to be dragged down by fear and despair at the moment when we need all the inspiration of confidence and hope to bear us up. The day of death is the great crisis to which all human life is tending—it is the day when a man needs every possible support to enable him to meet the solemn fact with which he stands face to face. Hope of a blessed immortality should then bear us up. We ought to be able to say, “I know in whom I have believed;” “I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand” (2Ti_4:6). But this is the hour when a wicked man’s hope takes wing and flies away. He is at his worst when he needs to be at his best.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Men derive almost the whole of their happiness from hope. The wicked man laughs at the righteous because he lives by hope; but the wicked man himself does the same with this difference, that whilst the hopes of the one are coeval with eternity, those of the other are bounded by time. The present situation of the wicked man never yields him the pleasure which he wishes and expects.… if his hope is deferred, his heart is sick; if it is accomplished, he is still unsatisfied; but he comforts himself with some other hope, like a child who sees a rainbow on the top of a neighbouring hill, and runs to take hold of it, but sees it as far removed from him as before. Thus the life of a wicked man is spent in vain wishes, and toils, and hopes, till death kills at once his body, his hope, and his happiness.—Lawson.
It is sad to be drawn into ruin by “desire” (see last verse); because it breeds only “hope,” and that is sure to perish. “The world passes away, and the desire of it” (1Jn_2:17).—Miller.
There have been some who have questioned whether the doctrine of a future state was understood under the former dispensation. They have regarded that economy as to such an extent carnal, worldly, and temporary, as to have excluded from it all reference to that subject. I might show, from many passages, the falsity of such a sentiment. In this verse we have one of them. Nothing can be clearer than that, were there not such a future state, the expectation and hope of righteous and wicked alike must perish together, and that the very distinction so evidently made here between the one and the other proceeds upon the assumption of a state beyond the present.—Wardlaw.
He died, perhaps, in strong hopes of heaven, as those seem to have done that came rapping and bouncing at heaven’s gates, with “Lord, Lord, open to us,” but were sent away with a “Depart, I know you not” (Mat_7:22). His most strong hope shall come to nothing. He made a bridge of his own shadow and thought to go over it, but is fallen into the brook. He thought he had taken hold of God; but it is but with him as with a child that catcheth at the shadow on the wall, which he thinks he holds fast. But he only thinks so.—Trapp.
He never had good by any hope, which hath not the fruition of his hope at death. Though a man should never obtain his desire in any earthly thing during his life, yet, if he enjoy salvation after this life, he hath failed of nothing. Though a man should miss of nothing that his heart could wish for, while breath is in his body, yet if he be damned, when the soul goeth out of his body, he hath never gained anything.—Dod.
Hope and expectation are long-lived things; though weak, and sick and blind, yet they hold out. They live with the longest liver, and seldom die in any, until they die themselves in whom they are. But the hope of the wicked doth not only die, but perish, that is, is lost in some unlooked-for, unthought-of manner.—Jermin.

Proverbs 11:8
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:8
THE WICKED COMING IN THE STEAD OF THE RIGHTEOUS
I. This proverb must be fulfilled from the nature of the case. If a vessel is being steered straight for the rocks nothing can prevent her from being dashed upon them except a change of course. Nothing else can avert the catastrophe, unless a supernatural power removes the rock out of the way. This last cannot be; the first alternative rests with the will of the commander. If another vessel is going in an opposite direction she must as necessarily escape the doom to which the other is hastening. There is nothing of fate about their different destinies, they are the outcome of a choice of opposite courses. So with the opposite ends of the righteous and the wicked. Deliverance for the first, an inheritance of trouble for the latter, are the result of no arbitrary fate but the outcome of their pursuing opposite courses. Unless God will remove His everlasting laws out of the universe it must be so, and to expect Him to do that is to expect Him to change His nature, which would be a much more dire calamity than the trouble which comes upon the wicked from his course of wilful opposition to righteousness. For in this life it is always open to a man to turn round, to change his course, and so to escape the shipwreck of his existence upon the rocks of perdition. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa_55:7). God will not remove His righteous laws out of the sinner’s way, but He holds out every inducement and encouragement to the transgressor to come into harmony with them.
II. The proverb has received abundant illustrations in the history of our race. Pharaoh designed to drive the Israelitish nation into the Red Sea and so to destroy them. God delivered them, and their oppressors “came in their stead.” Daniel’s persecutors planned to take his life, “the righteous man was delivered out of trouble,” and his wicked slanderers met with the death to which they had hoped to bring him. Instances might be multiplied in which this truth has been illustrated both in Scripture history and in more modern times.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
It is a “righteous thing” with God (2Th_1:6-7), though to men it seems an incredible paradox, and a news far more wonderful than acceptable, that there should be such a transmutation of conditions on both sides, to contraries.—Trapp.
Though the afflictions of good men seem sharp and grievous, yet they are not perpetual. Before ever God bring His into troubles, He appointeth how they shall be preserved in them, and pass through them, and get out of them. He doth as well see their arrival, as their launching forth, and the end of the boisterous storms which they must endure as well as the beginning and entrance thereof.—Dod.
In this world trouble is a common place, as the world is, both to the righteous and the wicked, and it beseems them both. The one has his proper and due place, the other has his place of honour. For, as St. Basil saith, He that saith that tribulation doth not beseem a righteous man, saith nothing else but that an adversary doth not beseem a valiant champion. Sometimes God Himself doth put the righteous into trouble, and then as the place belongeth to them, so St. Chrysostom tells us, God doth it not to bring the trouble upon us, but rather by the trouble to bring us to Himself. Sometimes the injustice or malice of men doth thrust them into it, and then, God delivering them, puts the wicked in their place. For this world is full of misplacings, the wicked being seated where the godly should be, the godly seated where the wicked should be. God Almighty is pleased sometimes to put things in order, and, showing mercy to the righteous, doth give the wicked their due place.—
Jermin.

Proverbs 11:9
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:9. Zӧckler here reads, “The hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour, but by the knowledge of the righteous shall they (the neighbours) be delivered.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:9
THE JUST MAN DELIVERED FROM THE MOUTH OF THE HYPOCRITE
I. We have here—1. A character most difficult to maintain. The actor cannot always be playing his part, he must have times when his own individuality asserts itself—when he appears the man he really is. The man most in love with the dramatic art finds a few hours’ practice at a time enough for him, and feels it a relief to throw off his stage character and be himself again. He cannot, if he would, be ever trying to live in an experience that does not belong to him—be ever assuming an individuality which is not his own property. It would be an intolerable burden to be always endeavouring to sustain a part. A hypocrite has set himself a hard task. He has undertaken to pretend to be living a life which he knows does not belong to him, and which he never can possess unless his whole nature is regenerated. Now to keep up the deportment and to use the language that belong to a true nature must be as difficult as for a professional actor always to be playing the part of a king. The hypocrite must sometimes feel that his life is a sort of treadmill, and must sometimes be overcome by his real self in spite of all efforts to prevent nature from asserting her rights. No hypocrite can be always in his stage dress. The character is difficult to sustain. 2. A character most injurious to mankind and most miserable for the man who owns it. The actor plays his part by assuming the character of another man, but he does this without necessarily injuring himself or any of his fellow-creatures. But it is not so with the hypocrite. If a bad man assumes the garb of a good man he tends to lessen the estimation of real goodness in the minds of men. The existence of false coin makes us suspicious of genuine gold. The hypocrite must be conscious that he is a living lie, and so a living curse to his fellow-creatures, and this consciousness can but make him miserable. 3. A character in danger of becoming irreclaimable. A man who tries to pass for a scholar when he is utterly ignorant is the most difficult person to change into a scholar. The man who desires to be always first among his fellows is the least likely to become a qualified leader of men. We have it on the best authority that whatever such a man may desire, that “whosoever will be chief shall be a servant” (Mat_20:27). He is only fit for a low position who is ever straining every nerve after a high one. The hypocrite is ever desiring to pass for what he is not—he is ever desiring to fill a place for which he is utterly unfit. He is less likely than the most openly vicious man ever to become in reality that which he is ever seeming to be. This was the judgment of the Son of God concerning the hypocrites of His day: “Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Mat_21:31). 4. A character most hateful to God and to man. A hypocrite must be disliked by those whose character he endeavours to personify. The good must hate hypocrisy because, as we said before, it lessens the power of goodness in the world by making men suspect the really good. A hypocrite is hated by other hypocrites. If a man wants to utter false coin himself, he prefers to enjoy a monopoly of the business. The more of it there is in circulation the less likely people are to be deceived by it. A hypocrite is hateful to God. No sin is so denounced under both the old and new dispensations as the sin of hypocrisy. “Incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it.… Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth” (Isa_1:13-14). The God of Israel reserves these burning words for His own people, who were drawing near to Him with their lips, while their hearts were far from Him. The most terrible denunciations of the Son of God were uttered against those who were guilty of this sin. “Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” is repeated again and again in one discourse (Matthew 23).
II. The chief instrument used by the hypocrite. “The mouth.” The power of speech is a most precious gift of God, and is intended by Him to be an instrument of blessing to the human race. It is this most precious instrument of good that the hypocrite is here represented as turning into an all-devouring weapon of destruction. He is like a man who gives potent poison for healing medicine. He may have disguised its deadly nature under an unknown and high-sounding name, but this will not lessen its deadly effects. The hypocrite is the man who above all others is skilful in making words the means of concealing thoughts—who speaks so plausibly that men believe they are drinking a healthful draught when they are imbibing a deadly poison. The tongue of the hypocrite destroys his neighbour because he makes him believe that he has his welfare at heart when he is really plotting his destruction. He makes him believe that some utterly worthless commercial speculation is sound and profitable, and so involves him in material destruction. Or he persuades him that a certain course of dishonest conduct is without moral danger, and so brings him into spiritual destruction. His neighbour’s destruction is certain in proportion to the strength of his confidence in the words of the hypocrite.
III. The means of deliverance from the hypocrite’s mouth. “Through knowledge shall the just be delivered.” The just man possesses a knowledge of God, and thus has a correct standard of character by which to judge men. If a man walks in the light of the sun he will be able to avoid pitfalls and open graves. A just man has an acquaintance with the character and the laws of God. He “walks in the light” (1Jn_1:7). And this gives him an insight into character—this furnishes him with a test to “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1Jn_4:1). The more men come into contact with reality the more quick will they be to detect unreality. The more men know God the more correct will be the estimate they form of their fellow-men. The Spirit of wisdom is a Spirit of “enlightenment” on this point as on all others (Eph_1:18). The law of the Lord “makes wise the simple” or the unwary (Psa_19:7). That scripture which is the “inspiration of God” “furnishes the man of God” with a means of escape from the snare of the hypocrite’s mouth (2Ti_3:16). The knowledge which is derived from its study is a foil for the attacks of the most subtle seducer.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Haman, under the pretence of loyalty, would have destroyed a whole nation (Est_3:8; Est_3:13). Ziba, under the same false cover, would have destroyed his neighbour (2Sa_16:1; 2Sa_16:4). The lying prophet, from mere wilfulness, ruined his brother (1 Kings 13).
Then look at the hypocrite in the church—“a ravening wolf in sheep’s clothing,” devouring the flock (Mat_7:15); “making merchandise with feigned words” (2Pe_2:1; 2Pe_2:3); an “apostle of Satan,” so diligent is he in his master’s work of destruction (2Co_11:3; 2Co_11:13). “These false Christs,” we are warned, “deceive many,” if it were possible the very elect (Mat_24:24).… Learn the value of solid knowledge. Feeling, excitement, imagination, expose us to an unsteady profession. (Such as Eph_4:14) Knowledge supplies principle and steadfastness. “Add to your faith knowledge” (2Pe_1:5).—Bridges.
Hypocrites are awful stumbling blocks. Full many has the detection of their true character hardened in sin and worldliness, and established in infidelity. Full many have they thus destroyed.—Wardlaw.
When God converts a soul, He gives it light. That light makes it invulnerable. All things afterward help it. “Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt.” Satan is one of the blessings of a Christian.—Miller.
It was an ordinary prayer of King Antigonus, “Deliver me from the hands of my friends.” When asked why he did not rather pray for preservation from his enemies, he answered, “That he guarded against his enemies, but could not guard against false friends.”—Lawson.
How to detect a hypocrite. To make a man a good man all parts of goodness must concur, but any one way of wickedness is sufficient to denominate a bad man.—Tillotson.
A hypocrite is hated of the world for seeming to be a Christian, and hated of God for not being one.—Mason.
The meaning of the verse as a whole is, “By the protective power of that knowledge that serves righteousness, they are delivered who were endangered by the artifices of that shrewdness which is the instrument of wickedness.”—Elster.
The just man is too wise to be flattered, and too knowing to be plucked away with the error of the wicked (1Pe_3:17-18).—Trapp.
Beware of carrying deadly weapons. An untrue man is a moral murderer, his mouth the lethal weapon, and his neighbour the victim.—Arnot.
“Neither man nor angels can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By His permissive will, thro’ heaven and earth:
And oft though Wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At Wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness
Thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.”
Paradise Lost. Book iii.

Proverbs 11:10-11
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:10-11
THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS CITIZEN OR RULER. THE FATE OF THE UNRIGHTEOUS ONE
I. The words imply that it does not always go with the righteous. “When it goeth well,” etc. A good man’s plans and efforts for the good of his fellow-citizens or fellow-countrymen are not always successful. They may need more resources to make them effectual than he has at his command. The men whom he desires to benefit may not themselves be willing to exercise the self-denial for their own welfare that he is willing to undergo for them. They would be willing to reap the harvest of joy, but they do not like to sow the seed of suffering. It often happens that a righteous man is in the midst of a generation who cannot appreciate his moral worth and his intellectual wisdom. It has been said that the intellectual struggles of one age are the intuitions of the next, and men that are now regarded as grand and noble were perhaps looked upon as of little worth in the generation in which they lived. Or a man may not live long enough to complete his plans for the public benefit—the best things are often slow in coming to maturity, and many a righteous man has been called away before he has perfected his designs of blessing for his race. Although the good and faithful servant will always have the “Well-done” of his master, his plans and purposes are often seemingly frustrated by the shortness of his life, the scantiness of his resources, or the misconception of his fellows. History abounds with illustrations of this truth.
II. That there must come a time when it will go well with the righteous. It is an ordination of God’s providence that the righteous man should pass through both experiences. The soldier needs defeat as well as victory to develope all his latent talent, to make manifest all the heroism that is within him. The mariner must pass through storms as well as fair weather if he is to learn the true art of navigation. And so the righteons man must have the experience of apparent failure and defeat to develop faith, and patience, and courage, which would otherwise remain hidden or dwarfed. But when this has been accomplished, a “set time to favour him will come.” “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psa_126:6). The worth of his character and his work will be recognised freely and generously by many, and must be acknowledged, although it may be with reluctance, even by his opponents. Joseph passed many years in servitude and imprisonment, but by and by his worth was freely acknowledged. “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? (Gen_41:38.) Both king and people decided that it ought to go well with him, and it did go well with him now that his ability and character were known.
III. The blessing and consequent joy that comes to others when the time has come for it to “go well with the righteous.” By the blessing of the righteous the city is exalted—“the city” as a consequence “rejoiceth.” Even the bad in a kingdom have cause for joy when the righteous have the pre-eminence in a community, whatever be their condition they would be much worse off under the rule of unrighteousness. The lost in hell and those who are being lost on earth are in a better condition from having the Righteous God upon the throne of the universe. The greatest criminals in our prisons find it better to have a just and righteous gaoler than an unrighteous one. So the whole city has reason to rejoice in the pre-eminence—in the success of the righteous. Such men exalt a city—1. By forming a basis for commercial enterprise. The rule of the unrighteous in a city will, in time, prevent commercial prosperity by destroying public confidence. 2. By promoting the just rights of all. That community is blessed where each citizen enjoys freedom to live his life and do his best for himself and others without trampling on the rights of his fellows. Tyranny on the one hand provokes rebellion on the other, and misery to both parties is the issue. The head is intended to think and plan for the rest of the body, the limbs are intended to carry out the designs of the head; if either the one or the other fails to perform its work, suffering comes to the whole frame. So in the body politic. Righteous men strive for the union of all classes for the good of all, and this unity exalts a city—gives peace at home, and is the surest defence against foes without. Righteousness is a stronger wall than any material defence. This is the safeguard of the ideal city of Isaiah’s prophecy. “I will make thine officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise” (Isa_60:18). 3. By averting Divine judgments. Sodom would have been spared if there had been ten righteous within the city. Unrighteousness in a nation must bring national calamity, but a minority of good men delays the visitation. “Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa_1:9). “For the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened” (Mat_24:22).
IV. That as the character and services of the righteous man shall meet with public and grateful recognition, so the man who by his wicked influence has brought misery upon his fellow-creatures shall meet with public execration. Just as the righteous man often seems defeated by untoward circumstances, and all his unselfish and patriotic plans seem nipped in the bud for a time, yet success comes to him in the end, or, if not so, yet at his death his real worth is seen and acknowledged; so a wicked and selfish man may seem to carry all before him for a time, and may even succeed in blinding men to his real character, yet the time comes when his worthlessness and self-seeking meet with their terrible yet just reward. There is a tendency generally in human nature to condone a man’s sins after he is dead, but instances are not few in the history of the world when this hnmane tendency has been stifled by the exceeding curse that some men have been to the world.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF Pro_11:10-11
A more vivid illustration of what has been said here concerning a righteous man cannot be found than in the life and labours of William the Silent, Prince of Holland. This noble man gave his all to the liberation of the Netherlands from Spanish tyranny. For many years he bore the whole weight of a struggle which Motley designates “as unequal as men have ever undertaken.” “To exclude the Inquisition,” he continues, “to maintain the ancient liberties of his country, was the task which he appointed to himself when a youth of three and twenty. He accomplished the task, through danger, amid toils, and with sacrifices such as few men have ever been able to lay upon their country’s altar; for the disinterestedness of the man was as prominent as his fortitude. A prince of high rank and with royal revenues, he stripped himself of station, wealth, almost at times of the common necessaries of life, and became, in his country’s cause, nearly a beggar as well as an outlaw.” At times it seemed as if the cause to which he had thus devoted himself was lost, and even this disinterested man did not escape the envy and suspicion of those whom he was trying to serve. But he lived to see his work accomplished, and when he fell at last by the hand of an assassin, he was “entombed,” to quote again from his biographer, “amid the tears of a whole nation.” “The people were grateful and affectionate, for they trusted the character of their ‘Father William,’ and not all the clouds which calumny could collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of that lofty mind to which they were accustomed, in their darkest calamities, to look for light. As long as he lived, he was the guiding star of a whole brave nation, and when he died, the little children cried in the streets.”—Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic.
Illustrations of the latter clause of Pro_11:10 abound in history. “Memorable in the prison experiences of Herod Agrippa was the arrival of news that the tyrant of Capreæ was dead. Immediately on the death of Tiberius, Marsyas, Agrippa’s faithful bondslave, hastened to his master’s dungeon, and communicated the joyful intelligence, saying, in the Hebrew language, “The lion is dead.” The centurion on guard heard the rejoicing, inquired as to the cause, ordered the royal prisoner’s chains to be struck off, and invited him to supper. But more memorable was the exultation, widely felt and cruelly expressed, at Agrippa’s own death—that loathsome death, so strange in its surroundings, of which a tale is told in the Acts of the Apostles. The inhabitants of Sebaste and Cæsarea, as we learn from Josephus, and particularly Herod’s own soldiers, indulged in the most brutal rejoicings at his death,—heaping his memory with reproaches.… In his account of the death of the Emperor Maximin, Gibbon says, “It is easier to conceive than to describe the universal joy of the Roman world on the fall of the tyrant.” The death of Richelieu is said to have been felt by France like the relief from a nightmare; from the king to the lowest rhymster, all joined in the burden of the couplets that proclaimed it—Il est parti, il a plié bagage, ce cardinal.—Jacox.
Judge Jeffreys. A disposition to triumph over the fallen has never been one of the besetting sins of Englishmen; but the hatred of which Jeffreys was the object was without a parallel in our history, and partook but too largely of the savageness of his own nature. The people, where he was concerned, were as cruel as himself, and exulted in his misery as he had been accustomed to exult in the misery of convicts listening to the sentence of death, and of families clad in mourning. The rabble congregated before his deserted mansion in Duke Street, and read on the door, with shouts of laughter, the bills which announced the sale of his property. Even delicate women, who had tears for highwaymen and housebreakers, breathed nothing but vengeance against him. The lampoons which were hawked about the town were distinguished by an atrocity rare even in those days. Hanging would be too mild a death for him: a grave under the gibbet would be too respectable a resting place: he ought to be whipt to death at the cart’s tail: he ought to be tortured like an Indian: he ought to be devoured alive.… Disease, assisted by strong drink and by misery, did its work fast. He dwindled in a few weeks from a portly and even corpulent man to a skeleton, and died in the forty-first year of his age. He had been Chief Justice of the King’s Bench at thirty-five, and Lord Chancellor at thirty-seven. In the whole history of the English bar there is no other instance of so rapid an elevation or so terrible a fall.—Macaulay.
Foulon, a French Official in the time of the great Revolution. This is that same Foulon named âme damnée (Familiar demon) du Parlement; a man grown gray in treachery, in griping, projecting, intriguing and iniquity: who once, when it was objected, to some finance-scheme of his, “What will the people do?” made answer, in the fire of discussion, “The people may eat grass:” hasty words, which fly abroad irrevocable, and will send back tidings.… We are but at the 22nd of the month, hardly above a week since the Bastile fell, when it suddenly appears that old Foulon is alive; nay, that he is here, in early morning, in the streets of Paris: the extortioner, the plotter, who would make the people eat grass, and was a liar from the beginning! It is even so. The deceptive “sumptuous funeral” (of some domestic that died); the hiding-place at Vitry towards Fontainebleau, have not availed that wretched old man. Some living domestic or dependent, for none loves old Foulon, has betrayed him to the village. Merciless boors of Vitry unearth him, pounce upon him, like hell-hounds. Westward, old Infamy! to Paris, to be judged at the Hotel-de-Ville! His old head, which seventy-four years have bleached, is bare; they have tied an emblematic bundle of grass upon his back; a garland of nettles and thistles is round his neck: in this manner, led with ropes, goaded on with curses and menaces, must he, with his old limbs, sprawl forward; the pitiablest, most unpitied of all old men. Sooty Saint-Antoine, and every street, musters its crowds as he passes; the Hall of the Hôtel-de-Ville, the Place de Grève itself, will scarcely hold his escort and him. Foulon must not only be judged righteously, but judged there where he stands without delay. Appoint seven judges, ye Municipals, or seventy and seven; name them yourselves, or we will name them, but judge him. Electoral rhetoric, eloquence of Mayor Bailly, is wasted for hours, explaining the beauty of the law’s delay. Delay, and still delay!… the morning has worn itself into noon, and he is still unjudged.… “Friends,” said a person, stepping forward, “what is the use of judging this man? Has he not been judged these thirty years?” With wild yells Sansculottism clutches him in its hundred hands: he is whirled across the Place de Grève to the
Lanterne (lamp-iron), which there is at the corner of the Rue de la Vannerie, pleading bitterly for life—to the deaf winds. Only with the third rope—for two ropes broke, and the quavering voice still pleaded—can he be so much as got hanged. His body is dragged through the streets; his head goes aloft upon a pike, the mouth filled with grass: amid sounds as of Tophet, from a grass-eating people. Carlyle’s French Revolution.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Two things, as herein is showed, do move the righteous unto joy. The one is, the honouring and good success of the just. When it is well with them that do well, the well-disposed multitude cannot but be inwardly glad, and outwardly testify this inward joy by signs and tokens of mirth. The other thing that moveth the well-disposed to rejoice, and even to sing (or shout) is the destruction of the wicked. There is great cause why the people of God should rejoice at the vengeance that is executed on the ungodly; for they persecute the Church, or infect many with their evil counsel and example, or draw God’s punishments on the places wherein they live. Thus did the ancient Israelities rejoice in old time, when the enemies of God were overthrown; and thus did we of late sing and triumph when the proud Popish Spaniards were drowned and confounded.… A kingdom is overthrown by the flattery, heresy, foolish counsel, and conspiracy of mischievous and ungodly persons. Thus a tongue can even build and overthrow a city.—Muffet.
The world, in despite of the native enmity of the heart, bears its testimony to consistent godliness (ch. Pro_16:7; Mar_6:20) … The people of God unite in the shouting occasioned by the overthrow of the wicked; not from any selfish feeling of revenge; much less from unfeeling hardness towards their fellow-sinners. But when a hindrance to the good cause is removed (ch. Pro_28:28; Ecc_9:18); when the justice of God against sin (2Sa_18:14-28), and his faithful preservation of His Church (Exo_15:21; Jdg_5:31) are displayed, ought not every feeling to be absorbed in a supreme interest in His glory? Ought they not to shout? (Psa_52:6-7; Psa_58:10; Rev_18:20). The “Alleluia” of heaven is an exulting testimony to the righteous judgments of the Lord our God, hastening forward His glorious kingdom (Rev_19:1-2).—Bridges.
By the good of the righteous; not “in the good” or “when it goeth well.” “By the perishing of the wicked,” not when the wicked perish. A city is very far from exulting in the good of the righteous, or in the destruction of the wicked. But “by,” or “by means of,” as the unacknowledged cause there comes the exulting and shouting. That is, a city is blest by the prosperity of righteous men. “Good.” This word cannot be properly translated. It means both good and goodness. If we say “good,” the “good of the righteous” will mean their welfare. If we say “goodness” it will mean their piety. The word in the Hebrew means both. The text to be complete must confine itself to neither. The city is not only blessed by the good that characterises the righteous, but by the good that happens to them. How glorious this becomes when “the righteous” means the Church! The wilderness and the solitary place have been glad for her. It is true of all the universe. As the history of heaven and hell, the “good of the righteous,” and “the perishing of the wicked” will breed universal benefit. It was such texts as these that moved the Papists to realise the good by actually slaughtering the wicked out of the land.… Piety is in proportion to usefulness. If a Christian does not bless his city, it is a mark against him. “Bless” means to invoke good. “The mouth of the wicked” pulls down a neighbourhood by every form of teaching. The righteous builds it, and especially by prayer.—Miller.
“The mouth of the wicked.” Whether he be a seedsman of sedition or a seducer of the people, a Sheba or a Shebna, a carnal gospeller or a godless politician, whose drift is to formalise and enervate the power of the truth, till at length they leave us a heartless and sapless religion. “One of these sinners may destroy much good” (Ecc_9:18).—Trapp.
Good men have not only God’s hand to give them good things, but godly men’s hearts to be joyful for them. When Mordecai was advanced, the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. When the Lord showed His great mercy on Zacharias and Elizabeth in giving them a son, their kinsfolk and neighbours came and rejoiced with them.… It is well known that righteous men will make their brothers commoners with them in their prosperity; when they are advanced, others shall not be disgraced thereby: when they are enriched, others shall not be impoverished thereby: when they are made mighty, others shall not be weakened thereby; And so it is said concerning Mordecai, that when the royal apparel was on his back, and the crown of gold on his head, that unto the Jews was come light, and joy, and gladness, and honour (Est_8:16).… Here is instruction to them that be desirous to gain the hearts of honest men.… Many men desire to be popular, but few to be righteous.… Good liking is not gotten by pomp and power, and favour is not gained by wealth and riches, and love is not commanded by authority and dignity. These may be allured with goodness, but never compelled by violence.—Dod.
Such is the nature of righteousness, that though it cannot make all to love it, yet it maketh all to love the welfare of the righteous. Origen therefore saith, that the few righteous which were in Jerusalem were not carried into captivity for their own offences, but that the captive people might rejoice in their welfare. For, saith he, had the wicked only been carried away, and the righteous remained, the wicked had never had the comfort of returning. On the other side, such is the nature of wickedness, that though many embrace it themselves, yet they are pleased to see it destroyed in others.—Jermin.
The exultant shout of relief at a man’s death might almost wake the dead man. It is hideous to think of a choral symphony of voices, jubilant at a dead march, making the welkin ring with huzzas at death’s last feat, and welcoming it to the echo. For those tumultuous pæans have a vengeful curse in every note. They mean malediction; and they say what they mean. The bad man dead and gone is such a good riddance. The multitude account it for themselves, not for him, such a happy release. The greatest of the greater prophets of the Old Testament indites the “triumphant insultation,” of his country and his countrymen against the dead and gone king of Babylon, when that oppressor ceased.… (Isa_14:4). When Alexander Jannæus, desirous of a reconcilement with his people, asked them what he should do to make them quite content;—“Die!” was the response. It was the only way. The death of Ethwald, in Joanna Baillie’s tragedy, points the moral to the same bitter tale. Here are the closing lines of the drama:—
“Through all the vexed land
Let every heart bound at the joyful tidings,
Thus from his frowning height the tyrant falls
Like a dark mountain, whose interior fires,
Raging in ceaseless tumult, have devoured
Its own foundations. Sunk in sudden ruin
To the tremendous gulf, in the vast void
No friendly rock rears its opposing head
To stay dreadful crash.… The joyful hinds
Point to the traveller the hollow vale
Where once it stood.”
Jacox.

Proverbs 11:12-13
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:12. Void of wisdom, literally, “of heart.” Zöckler inverts the phrase, “He that speaks contemptuously of his neighbour lacketh wisdom.”
Pro_11:13. “He who goeth about as a slanderer.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:12-13
CONTEMPT AND TALE-BEARING
I. He who lacks moral worth will be indifferent to the worth of others. He will despise the character that he does not possess. In the minds of some men who have no learning there is a disposition to undervalue the attainments of others. They do not value it because they do not possess it. In order to esteem it rightly they must come to the possession of it. Some men pretend to despise wealth and call gold sordid dust, but most, if not all people of this kind have very little of what they despise in their own possession. Some translate here “a heartless man despiseth his neighbour.” A man without moral wisdom is a man without a kind heart, and he despises his neighbour because he lacks the heart which is probably possessed by the man whom he despises. A man must have something good in himself to enable him to see what is worthy of honour in his brother. There must be light in the eye if we are to appreciate the light of the sun. A man must have something of a musical nature to be able to appreciate the musical gifts of another. A man shows that he is void of wisdom if he despises the meanest of his fellow creatures.
II. A special form in which contempt for others is often manifested. “A tale-bearer revealeth secrets.” If a man holds his neighbour in contempt, he is not careful of that neighbour’s reputation. Being himself without moral worth he has nothing to lose, and therefore esteems lightly what is most valued by his brother man. Men who by their own folly are always poor are ever anxious to bring others down to their own level, and so men without reputation are very often disposed to rob others of their good name. This they attempt to do by revealing what they ought to conceal. There are times when we ought faithfully to keep within our own bosoms what we know about another, even although what we know is in the highest degree honourable to him. In the plan which Christ had marked out for Himself there were times when He desired that even His deeds of benevolence should not be made known. To some whom He healed He charged “that they should not make it known” (Mat_12:16). If it is good sometimes to conceal what is only honourable and praiseworthy, how much more should a man be careful not to reveal any real or seeming inconsistency in a good man—anything which may in any way lower him in the estimation of others—any painful secret which might be mis-construed to his dishonour or lessen his influence for good in the world.
III. “The contrast exhibited in the conduct of a man of moral worth.” He, “being a man of understanding,” knows the value of every human soul. He may pity his degraded fellow-man, but never despises them. He sets too high an estimate upon his neighbour to hold in contempt even those who are far beneath him in moral excellence, how much less will it be possible for him to despise those who are his equals or superiors. Around the imperfections of all he throws the robe of that charity which even “thinketh no evil” (1Co_13:5), much less speaks a word that could be interpreted to his neighbour’s disadvantage. He holds the good name of others as a sacred trust. He guards it as a man of a “faithful spirit” would guard any precious possession belonging to another.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_11:12. “A heartless man.” All such are titles of the unsaved man. The same negative state, i.e., a want of the Spirit, and hence a want of benevolence, not only keeps men from blessing their city (Pro_11:11), but makes them contemptuous. Others’ interests do not weigh a feather. See a fine description of this in 1 Corinthians 13, where men are supposed even to “behave unseemly” from this high theologic fact. They do not care for their neighbours, and, therefore, do not care to behave well. If a neighbour is disgraced, they are too contemptuous to care for its effect. They are reckless in their talk of his disgrace, while a “man of understanding” is silent.—Miller.
No human creature is to be despised, for he is our neighbour. He is our own flesh, our brother, sprung from our common father Adam. Honour all men. Men were made in the image of God; and though that image is now lost, it is still a sufficient evidence of the sinfulness of despising, as well as of murdering, our neighbour, that in the image of God man was made, and that we cannot say whether the persons whom we are tempted to despise are not in that happy number of the chosen of God for whose sakes the Son of God hath dignified our nature by assuming it, and whom He will again beautify with that glorious image which was effaced by the fall. Do you allege that your neighbour is worthy of contempt, on account of his poverty or meanness, or some remarkable weakness, by which he is rendered ridiculous? I ask you whether he is a fool. You say, No. Then confess that your contempt ought to rest upon yourself; for Solomon says you are one, and want of wisdom is far worse than the want of riches, or beauty, or polite accomplishments.—Lawson.
Not remembering that he is his neighbour, cut out of the same cloth, the shears only going between, and as capable of heaven as himself, though never so poor, mean, deformed, or otherwise despicable. The man of understanding refraineth his tongue even if he be slighted or reviled. He knows it is to no purpose to wash off dirt with dirt.—Trapp.
Pro_11:13. The difference is a sharply drawn one, the distinction a distinctly defined one, between fidelity and unfaithfulness, between the treacherous and the loyal. There is a Danish proverb, quoted in the Archbishop of Dublin’s book, which warns us well against relying too much on other men’s silence, since there is no rarer gift than the capacity of keeping a secret: “Tell nothing to thy friend which thy enemy may not know.” One should be careful not to entrust another unnecessarily with a secret which it may be a hard matter to keep; nor should one’s desire for aid or sympathy be indulged by dragging other people into one’s misfortunes. “There is as much responsibility in imparting your own secrets, as in keeping those of your neighbour,” says Helps.—Jacox.
This expression comes from trading. He who gads about to indulge in gossiping, will gratify his taste by scandals that he did not intend to divulge. “Secrets” or “secret counsels,” that formal divan, where purest privacy is the thing that has been expected. It is these slight lusts, as we call them, that divulge character. The man that is born again will be of a “faithful spirit,” and will scorn to gratify scandal at a neighbour’s expense.—Miller.
A note to know a talker by, is that he is a walker from place to place (see CRITICAL NOTES), hearing and spying what he can, that he may have whereof to prattle to this body and that body. This carrying of tales the Lord forbiddeth in his law, where he saith, “Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people” (Lev_19:16).—Muffet.
Here we see that a well-governed spirit will govern the tongue. An unrestrained tongue is an evidence of levity, or of some worse quality in the heart. And if the spirit be faithful, the tongue will be cautious and friendly. The communication between the spirit and the tongue is so easy, that the one will certainly discover the quality of the other, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.—Lawson.
There are various ways of acting the “tale-bearer.” There is that of open blabbing. And this, as it is the simplest, is, in truth, the least dangerous. The character becomes immediately known; and all who have secrets which they really wish kept will take care to withhold them from him. There is next that of confidential communication. The secret-holder affects to look this way and that, to ascertain that no one is within hearing; and then with many whispered doubts whether he is doing right, and whispered no doubts that he is perfectly safe with the dear friend to whom he speaks, imparts it in a breath that enters only his solitary ear, as a thing received in the profoundest secrecy, and not, on any account whatever, to go further—thus setting the example of broken confidence as the encouragement and inducement to keep it. There is that also of sly insinuation. The person who has the secret neither openly blabs it nor confidentially whispers it, but throws out hints of his having it—allusions more or less remote as to its nature—by which curiosity is awakened, inquiry stimulated, and the thing ultimately brought to light; while he who threw out the leading notices plumes himself on having escaped the imputation of a tale-bearer. Now these and whatever others there may be, are all bad; and the greater the amount of pretension and hypocrisy, so much the worse.—Wardlaw.
Reticence is commended from another point of view. The man who comes to us with tales about others will reveal our secrets also. Faithfulness is shown, not only in doing what a man has been commissioned to do, but in doing it quietly and without garrulity.—Plumptre.
He is a rare friend that can both give counsel and keep counsel.—Trapp.
The Holy Ghost, here and elsewhere, compareth busybodies and such as delight to deal in other men’s matters, to petty chapmen and pedlars, which carry wares about, selling in one place and buying in another. A slanderous tongue trafficketh altogether by exchange, it will deliver nothing to you, but upon condition to receive somewhat from you. It will never bear an empty pack, but desireth, where aught is uttered and taken out, there to take somewhat to put in, that it may have choice for other places.—Dod.
We must regard every matter as an entrusted secret, which we believe the person concerned would wish to be considered such. Nay, further still, we must consider all circumstances as secrets entrusted, which would bring scandal upon another if told, and which it is not our certain duty to discuss, and that in our own persons and to his face.—Leigh Hunt.

Proverbs 11:14-15
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:14. Counsel, literally, “pilotage,” “steermanship.”
Pro_11:15. Suretyship, literally “striking hands.” See Notes and Illustration on chap. Pro_6:1. Stuart translates this verse, “An evil man showeth himself as evil when he giveth pledge to a stranger,” i.e., by hastily pledging himself and then not redeeming his pledge.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:14
HELMSMANSHIP
I. The many (the people) are dependent upon the few for guidance. The word counsel is literally “pilotage,” “helmsmanship.” The many passengers in the vessel are dependent upon the few who guide it. The dependence of the many upon the few for guidance runs through every phase of human life. The dependence of the children upon their natural head is but prophetic of all the periods of after life, which very much consists in the dependence of the many upon the few. The child’s life at home and at school is a preparation for the rough handling of circumstance in this matter in the time of manhood. Although the man’s ability to guide his own life is far greater than that of the child, yet his need of counsel and guidance has increased with his years and responsibilities. This need of guidance springs from men’s unequal gifts. The physical, mental, and moral inequalities of men create and supply the demand for leaders—for counsellors for the many. This inequality is an ordination of the Divine Ruler of the universe—God is the Author of the inequalities. In nature we see that the strong gives shelter to the weak. The mighty oak protects the tiny plant at its roots. Counsellors are the giant trees which give shelter by giving guidance to those who are in some respects inferior to them. Men may be born free, but they are nowhere born equal in mental and physical qualities. Hence some must counsel, others must be counselled. Guidance is felt to be a necessity, and men make a virtue of the necessity. The passengers on board a vessel submit to the direction of the pilot because they feel that their safety depends upon submission, and so do the members of a nation—the citizens of a city. They know from experience that the way out of a difficulty is not found by those who follow, but by those who lead—that if they would enjoy the advantages of civil peace and safety, they must submit to guidance and direction.
II. That “no counsel” in a nation will end in there being no nation to counsel. “Where there is no counsel the people fall.” The passengers in a ship who have no one to steer the vessel will soon cease to have need of a helmsman. So the nation which has no head—no government—will cease to be a nation. Its national existence will be ruined by the anarchy that must follow.
III. Many men to give counsel are as a rule better than one. When the sea is heavy and breakers are ahead, one man at the wheel of a vessel would not be able to hold her on her course, many hands at once must be at work—the united strength of the many is indispensable. “In the multitude” there is “safety.” So it is generally in the case of the ship of the State. As a rule, there is more wisdom and ability in the union of many men than in one—there is likewise less danger of despotic rule. But there have been many exceptions to this rule. Joseph knew how to provide for the safety of Egypt when all the rest of Pharaoh’s counsellors were at their wits’ end. Before the battle of Plassy—which laid the foundation of British rule in India—Clive called a council of war to decide whether or not the battle should be fought. The majority pronounced against fighting. But it is now generally allowed that if the advice of that council had been followed the British would have never been in possession of India. Clive decided to act in opposition to the opinion of the majority, and the day was won for England. (See Macaulay’s Essay on Lord Clive.) Sometimes in the multitude of counsellors there has been national ruin. “All the council” of the Jews sought to put Jesus to death (Mat_26:59), and so brought about the destruction of their nation. But these are exceptions to a rule.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The case supposed, appears to be that of a self-willed, self-sufficient, headstrong ruler who glories in his power; who determines to wield the rod of that power in his own way, and who plays the hasty, jealous, resolute, sensitive and vindictive tyrant; who disdains to call in counsel, or who does it only for the pleasure of showing his superiority to it by setting it at nought. I conceive the phrase, “Where no counsel is,” to be intended to convey not a little of the character of him by whom it is declined or disregarded. We have an example of such a character in Solomon’s own successor Rehoboam. And yet, at the same time, in his case we are taught the necessity of understanding all such maxims as admitting of exceptions. Rehoboam did take counsel; and his counsellors were not few. Had they been fewer, there would in that instance been more safety. Had he stopped with the “old men who had stood before Solomon his father,” all would have been well.… How much better would it have been for Ahab, had he taken for his sole counsellor Micaiah the son of Imlah than it was when he preferred the four hundred prophets of Baal! The maxim, therefore, is general. It affirms the danger of solitary self-sufficiency, and the safety of deliberate and, in proportion to the complexity and difficulty of each case, and the nature and amount of its consequences, of extensive and diversified consultation.—Wardlaw.
It is a penalty inflicted by God on a sinful state to give it princes void of counsel (Isa_3:4; chap. Pro_15:22).—Fausset.
Care seems to be taken after a proverb lauding silence, always to put in a eulogy of speech. (See chap. Pro_10:20-21.) Secrets are not to be hid until the whole community is one covered over wickedness. The same faithfulness that conceals a secret, intrudes counsel, and grasps control, and saves the people by that leadership that the pious alone are intended to achieve. The word counsel or “helmsmanship” is from a root meaning a cord; hence the tacking of the helm; and, now, that princely guidance, which piety in the world (though the world does not think so) does actually bestow. “Safety”—or “salvation.” The inspired sentence-maker is always managing what the music men would call a crescendo, for the second clause. The first clause speaks of the people as falling, the second as not only “not falling,” but, though fallen, as actually raised.—Miller.
Tyranny is better than anarchy. And yet “Woe also to thee, O land, whose king is a child”; that is, wilful and uncounsellable.… One special thing the primitive Christians prayed for the emperor was, that God would send him a faithful council.—Trapp.
It is not said that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety, but in the largeness or muchness of a counsellor, that is, such a counsellor as is furnished with a variety of counsels, and can look many ways for direction. For such a one is instead of many, nay, often far better; because he can sooner resolve what is best, than many will or can. And therefore, though it be good to have many, and when they agree perhaps to follow them, yet it may be better to have one of many counsels, on whom to rely.—Jermin.
Probably one is more struck, on reflection and in reading, with the exceptions to the rule, than with confirmatory examples of it, that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.… A modern historian finds in the unlicensed discretion reposed by the Roman Senate in the general, the most efficient aid to the extent of Rome’s early conquests, and he points by way of contrast, to the modern republics of Italy, as denying themselves scope for larger conquests by their extreme jealousy of their commanders. Anarchy in Antwerp is the heading of one of Mr. Morley’s graphic pages, and a lively picture it offers us of the confusion that ensued when the hydra heads of the multitudinous government were laid together. In Drake’s expedition of 1595, there were too many in command; and after losing time in debate which Sir Francis, if alone, would have spent in action, they were obliged to give up the attempt on the Canaries, with some loss. The otherwise unaccountable action of De Witt in 1671 is explained at once when the anarchical constitution of the Dutch republic is remembered—its want of a central authority, and the fact that, to raise money or troops, the consent of a number of petty councils was necessary, in the multitude of whose counsellors was anything but safety. “In the multitude of counsellors there may be safety,” says Alison, “it is in general safety to the counsellors, not to the counselled.” The quality of the counsel, and the ability of the counsellors, are elements of main import in the maxim of the king.—Jacox.
For Homiletics on Pro_11:15, see on chap. Pro_5:1-4.
ILLUSTRATION OF Pro_11:15
The melancholy instances of ruin, in consequence of becoming surety for others, are exceedingly numerous in the East. Against this they have many proverbs and fearful examples; but nothing seems to impart wisdom. Nearly all the Government monopolies, both among native and European rulers, are let to the highest bidders, and as the whole of the money cannot be advanced till a part of the produce be sold, sureties have to be accountable for the amount. But as men generally enter into these speculations in order to better a reduced fortune, an extravagant price is often paid, and ruin is the consequence both to the principal and his surety. This practice of suretyship, however, is also common in the most trifling affairs of life. “Sign your name,” is a request preferred by every one who is desirous of obtaining additional security to a petty agreement. In every legal court or magistrate’s office may be seen, now and then, a trio entering, thus to become responsible for the engagements of the other. The cause of all this is probably the bad faith which prevails amongst the heathen.—Roberts.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The traffic of ancient times was small, in comparison with the vast system of exchange which now compasses the whole world like network; but the same vices that we lament marred it, and the same righteousness that we desiderate would have healed its ailments. Neither the law of gravitation nor the law of righteousness has changed since the times of Solomon; both are as powerful as they then were, and as pervasive.… In those primitive times, it seems, as in our own, some men desired to get faster forward in the world than their circumstances legitimately permitted. They will throw for a fortune at another’s risk.… The warning does not of course discourage considerate kindness in bearing a deserving man over temporary pressure.… The Bible permits and requires more of kindness to our brother than we have ever done him yet; but it does not allow us to do a certain substantial evil, for the sake of a distant, shadowy good.—Arnot.
The heart and mind of every one is a stranger to every one except to God alone. He therefore that is a surety for another, is surety for a stranger.—Jermin.
… be not surety, if thou be a father,
Love is a personal debt. I cannot give
My children’s right, nor ought he to take it: rather
Both friends should die, than hinder them to live.
Fathers first enter bonds to nature’s ends;
And are her sureties, ere they are a friend’s.
—Herbert.

Proverbs 11:16
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:16. Last clause “as strong men retain,” or “grasp at riches.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:16
A GRACIOUS WOMAN
I. What is a gracious woman? 1. She is one who stands in right relations to God. Everything depends upon right relationship. Upon the right relationship of the earth to the great centre of the solar system depends all that makes the earth of worth to us—all its glorious fruitfulness and beauty. If there was not this adjustment of relationship between the earth and the sun, our planet would not only be an unfit abode for man, but would be a positive blot upon God’s universe. This is true also of men’s relations to each other, and is specially so in respect to our relationship to God. Nothing but a right relationship to Him can develope those moral beauties which alone make a true woman. She is accepted or “justified” by God’s most gracious favour on God’s own conditions. She lives in the eternal sunlight of His gracious influence, and is held to the most Blessed Being in the universe, by the sweet persuasiveness which flows from His blessed character. The thoughts of the Eternal God are the food of her spirit, and from this relationship to Him comes all the grace of her character. Is there any other relationship which can make such a woman? There is none, not only so, the absence of it may end in making even a woman a blot, a positive evil, in the moral universe. There can be no true graciousness where there is no union with Him whose most attractive attribute is His graciousness, who makes Himself known, as “the Lord God, merciful and gracious.” (
Exo_34:6). A gracious woman must be in right relationship with a gracious God. 2. In consequence of this, a gracious woman is right in her human relationships. Being right in the greater matter, she must be in that which is less. The earth, because she preserves her right relation to the sun, is right in her relationship to the other planets, that is, her path in the heavens is just that which is best for the whole planetary system—that which enables them also to keep their orbits, and prevents one of them from exercising a baleful influence over another. A woman whose spirit is under the influence of a gracious God will be a gracious daughter, a gracious wife, a gracious mother, a gracious friend and neighbour—that is, all her doings and sayings will be irradiated and warmed by that holiness and love which is the essence of the character of God Himself. In the summing up of the Divine law, Christ makes the right human relation depend upon a right Divine relation. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luk_10:27), and He repeats this foundation principle in His last discourse with His disciples before His death, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (Joh_13:35).
II. A woman with such a character wins honour. The strong men to whom she is compared (see CRITICAL NOTES) are warriors who take the spoil by strength of hand, such men as Othniel, the son of Kenaz, who took Kirjath-sepher by reason of his strength and military skill. For the strong men must gain their spoil before they can retain it. So with a gracious woman. She must win honour before she can retain it, and this she most certainly will do. She will be honoured by God because she is fulfilling His purpose in sending her into the world—because she is bringing glory to Him by showing to the world what He meant a woman to be. And as a necessity she will be honoured. Those in nearest relation to her will honour her. “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also and he praiseth her.” But she is honoured in a wider sphere by a larger circle—“her own works praise her in the gates.” (chap. Pro_31:28; Pro_31:31).
III. What she has won she will retain. Strong men, when they have won their prize, hold it fast. It is more difficult to obtain wealth than to retain it. Having done the first by reason of their strength, it is comparatively easy to do the second by the same means. So with a gracious woman. Honour is the guerdon of her gracious character, this she has won without any striving. Her character is that for which she has striven, and this it is which is the strength by which she retains her riches, viz., her honour.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Albeit the woman is the weaker vessel, yet when she is gracious, that is to say, graced, not so much with beauty, as with wisdom and virtue, she keepeth honour, that is, maintaineth her credit and preserveth her chastity. It were a hard thing to rob or spoil a strong man of his goods; but to take away the chastity of an honest matron, be she never so weak, it is impossible, who will rather die a thousand deaths than to be stained with the least speck of dishonesty.—Muffet.
A woman is powerful by her grace as the mighty are by their strength. In grace there lies as great force as in the imposing nature of the mighty; nay, the power of the strength of the latter gains only more property, while the woman gains honour and esteem, which are of more worth.—Rueetschi, from Lange’s Commentary.
Thus Deborah “retained honour” as a mother in Israel, the counsellor and stay of a sinking people. (Jdg_4:4; Jdg_5:7.) Esther “retained” her influence over her heathen husband for the good of her nation (Est_9:12-13; Est_9:25). And still the gracious woman retaineth honour long after she has mingled with the dust. Sarah, the obedient wife (1Pe_3:5-6); Hannah, the consecrating mother (1Sa_1:28); Lois, Eunice, and “the elect lady” (2Ti_1:5; 2Ti_3:15; 2Jn_1:1-4), in the family sphere; Phœbe and her companions in the annals of the Church (Rom_16:2-6; Php_4:3); the rich contributor to the temple (Mar_12:42-44); the self-denying lover of her Lord (Mar_14:3-9); Mary in contemplative retirement (Luk_10:39); Dorcas in active usefulness (Act_9:36):—Are not these “good names” still had in honourable remembrance? (Psa_112:6).—Bridges.
It is true of both sexes, which Solomon here affirms of women only, that gracious persons, they who are in the grace and favour of God, and are strengthened by His gracious assistance, shall from the generality of men gain an inward esteem and, for the most part, an outward respect. There are many instances in which virtue has been rather contemned and ridiculed,—and I will mention none other than the most signal of all, God Incarnate—but goodness has an inseparable splendour which can never suffer a total eclipse, and when it is most reviled and persecuted, it then shines brightest out of the cloud. So that all who are not wilfully blind, who will but make use of their eyes to see, must acknowledge the force of its rays. But why does Solomon here instance the woman rather than the man? Either this, that as vice is more odious and more detested, so on the other hand, virtue is more attractive, and looks more lovely in women than it usually does in men. Or it is, because men have more advantages of aspiring to honour in all public stations than women have, and the only way for a woman to gain honour, is an exemplary holiness. Or it is, because women are made of a temper more soft and frail, are more endangered by snares and temptations, and more inclinable to extremes of good and bad than men, and generally speaking, goodness is a tender thing, more hazardous and brittle in the former than in the latter, and consequently a firm and steady virtue is more to be valued in the weaker sex than in the stronger; so that a gracious woman is most worthy to receive and to retain honour. Or it is, because women in all ages, have given so many heroic examples of sanctity, that there is that peculiar to the sex which naturally renders them more pliable to the Divine grace than men.—Bp. Ken.

Proverbs 11:17
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:17. Or “He who doeth good to himself is a merciful man, but he who troubleth his own flesh is cruel.” So Stuart and Miller, Zöckler and Delitzsch read as the authorised version.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:17
MERCY AND CRUELTY
I. A blessed human character—“A merciful man.” The blessedness of any human existence depends upon the amount of mercifulness found in it. It will be blessed in itself, and a blessing to others in proportion as this Divine characteristic is found in the spirit. God, as a God of power, would be a wonderful and awe-inspiring Being, but He would not be the “the blessed God” (1Ti_1:11) if this were His only attribute. So far as men are concerned, He would only be a Person who added to the mysteries and miseries of human life. There is plenty of power in the world, but power is not the one thing needful for fallen and sorrowful humanity. A complex and mighty machine may, and does, excite our wonder and even our admiration, but it has no sympathy. God would be no more to us if He were not “The Lord God, merciful and gracious.” He could otherwise add nothing of blessedness to our existence—yea, His very existence would be a calamity for sinful men. So, no man is a real blessing to his fellow-creatures if he is not merciful. He may be a great genius, he may be a great intellectual power, he may be possessed of great influence from one source or another; but none of these things alone, or all of them put together, will add anything to the sum of human happiness if he is not merciful. He is simply a hard machine, and will never make any wilderness heart rejoice or any moral waste blossom as the rose. But mercy is a moral force, which works as subtilly and as certainly upon human hearts to bless them as do the mysterious influences of the spring-time upon the barren earth. The absence of mercifulness makes hell the barren world that it is, and fills heaven with moral light and joy. On earth, mercifulness is felt to be most needful. The scum of humanity are not insensible to its blessed influence, and there is no man, however exalted above his fellow-men, who does not sometimes stand in need of its exercise.
II. The region which is first blest by the exercise of mercy. The merciful man’s “own soul.” There are things which by the constitution of the material universe cannot be separated. Where there is flame, there is certain to be heat; where the sun’s rays come, there must be light. So mercifulness of disposition must bless a man’s own soul. The exercise of kindliness is in harmony with the law of self-love. A man is but obeying this law when he exercises mercy. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” implies that a man is to love himself. Loving his neighbour is the surest way—the only way—of truly doing good to himself. God has ordained that all exercise of loving kindness shall have a reward in the doing and for the doing. “He that watereth others shall be watered himself” (Pro_11:25). 1. His own spirit will be filled with a sense of blessedness. 2. His character will be daily growing more and more like God. 3. He will have mercy extended to him when he stands in need of it. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” “For with what measure you mete, it shall be measured unto you again” (Mat_5:7; Mat_7:2). And so it is that mercy—
“Is twice bless’d;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.”
We have now to consider the opposite character:—
III. A curse to human kind. “A cruel man.” He is an inflicter of pain upon others from a malicious disposition. Pain is the common lot of men. In the present constitution of things in this world it is a necessity, and will remain so while sin remains in human nature. Sometimes pain has to be inflicted upon human beings from the purest motives, and by the most benevolent of beings. The kindest physician in the world is obliged constantly to inflict severe physical pain. The moral teacher—the loving parent or master—must often be the means of inflicting mental pain. But in these cases the motive is not
ill-will, but good-will. The pain is contrary to the disposition of the person who inflicts it. He would not give the pain if the end could be obtained without it. He intends by present pain to give future pleasure. But a cruel man inflicts pain from choice, for the purpose of making men miserable. His cruelty is the outcome of his malicious nature. Hence he is a curse to his race. To the unavoidable and necessary pain of the world he adds that which is worse than needless. He would often inflict more than he does, if he had the power. Did not experience teach the contrary, we should not believe it possible that there could be such monsters in the garb of men. They are, indeed, of “their father the devil” (Joh_8:44), who finds his only delight in the misery of others.
IV. That, in the end, the cruel man will inflict the most pain upon himself. 1. He will “trouble his own flesh,” or his whole being in the present. He will be tormented by his conscience which now and again will rise from its deathlike slumber and avenge the miseries of those upon whose rights he has trampled—whose lives he has taken, or worse, whose souls he has ruined. While he is still pursuing his course of cruelty he will have the sting of the serpent remorse poisoning the life-blood of his spirit—a prophecy of future retribution possibly in this world, certainly in the next. 2. He is laying up trouble for himself in the future. Men may return his cruelty with compound interest,—(see comments and illustrations on Pro_11:10), whether they do or not God certainly will. The Divine decree has gone forth, “He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy. (Jas_2:13). His experience will be that of the cruel tyrant of Bezek. “As I have done so God hath requited me,” (Jdg_1:6-7), or that of Shakespere’s Richard 3.
O coward conscience, how thou dost afflict me!
The lights burn blue.—It is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What; do I fear myself? there’s none else by:
Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
Is there a murderer here? No;—yes, I am:
Then fly,—What, from myself? Great reason, why?
Lest I revenge. What? myself on myself?
I love myself. Wherefore? for any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O no; alas, I rather hate myself,
For hateful deeds committed by myself.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale.
And every tale convicts me for a villain
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all,—Guilty! guilty!
I shall despair.—There is no creature loves me:—
And, if I die, no soul will pity me:—
Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE LATTER CLAUSE OF THE VERSE
Buchanan, the Scotch historian, relates that John Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow, was so given to extortion and oppression, especially upon his tenants and vassals, that he would scarcely afford them bread to eat, or clothes to wear. But one Christmas eve, as he lay in his bed in his house at Lockwood, he heard a voice summoning him to appear before the tribunal of Christ, and give an account of his actions. Being terrified with this notice, and the pangs of a guilty conscience, he called up his servants, and commanded them to stay in the room with him. He himself took a book in his hand, and began to read; but the voice, being heard a second time, struck all the servants with horror. The same voice repeating the summons a third time, and with a louder and more dreadful accent, the bishop, after a most lamentable and frightful groan, was found dead in his bed.
The Last Days of Nero. Nero had landed in Italy about the end of February, and now, at the beginning of June, his cause had already become hopeless. Galba, though stedfast in his resolution, had not yet set his troops in motion; nevertheless, Nero was no longer safe in the city.… Terrified by dreams, stung by ridicule or desertion, when his last hope of succour was announced to have deceived him, the wretched tyrant started from his couch at supper, upset the tables, and dashed his choicest vessels to the ground; then, taking poison from Locusta, and placing it in a golden casket, he crossed from the palace to the Servilian gardens, and sent his trustiest freedman to secure a galley at Ostia. He conjured some tribunes and centurions, with a handful of guards, to join his flight, but all refused; and one, blunter than the rest, exclaimed, tauntingly, “Is it, then, so hard to die?” At last, at midnight, finding that even the sentinels had left their posts, he sent, or rushed himself, to assemble his attendants. Every door was closed; he knocked, but no answer came. Returning to his chamber, he found the slaves fled, the furniture pillaged, the case of poison removed. Not a guard, not a gladiator, was at hand, to pierce his throat. I have neither friend nor foe, he exclaimed. He would have thrown himself into the Tiber but his courage failed him. He must have time, he said, and repose to collect his spirits for suicide, and his freedman Phaon at last offered him his villa in the suburbs, four miles from the city. In undress and barefooted, throwing a rough cloak over his shoulders and a kerchief across his face, he glided through the doors, mounted a horse and, attended by Sporus and three others, passed the city gates with the dawn of a summer morning. The Nomentane road led him beneath the wall of the prætorians, whom he might hear uttering curses against him and pledging vows to Galbo; and the early travellers from the country asked him as they met, What news of Nero? or remarked to one another, These men are pursuing the tyrant. Thunder and lightning, and a shock of earthquake, added terror to the moment. Nero’s horse started at a dead body on the roadside, the kerchief fell from his face, and a prætorian passing by recognised and saluted him. At the fourth milestone the party quitted the highway, alighted from their horses, and scrambled on foot through a canebrake, laying their own cloaks to tread on, to the rear of the promised villa. Phaon now desired Nero to crouch in a sand-pit hard by, while he contrived to open the drain of the bath-room, and so admit him unperceived; but he vowed that he would not go alive, as he said, underground, and remained trembling beneath the wall. At last a hole was made through which he crept on all fours into a narrow chamber of the house, and there threw himself on a pallet. The coarse bread that was offered him he could not eat, but swallowed a little tepid water.… Suddenly was heard the tramp of horsemen, sent to seize the culprit alive. Then at last he placed a weapon to his breast, and the slave Epaphroditus drove it home.… Nero perished at the age of thirty years and six months.—Merivale.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There are two descriptions of mercy. There is mercy to sufferers, and mercy to offenders. Mercy to sufferers is the disposition to relieve; mercy to offenders is the disposition to forgive. The two are infinitely united in God. Under His government all sufferers are offenders. It is only as offenders that they are sufferers; and when He pardons the offence, He cancels the sentence to suffering. And in every good man the two are united. They should, indeed, be regarded as one principle, operating in different departments. Now “the merciful man” whether considered in the one light or the other,—in exercising forgiveness or in relieving distress—effectually consults his own interests. He does so, even for present enjoyment. The divine sentiment of the Saviour—“It is more blessed to give than to receive,” has its full application here. Jesus Himself, above all that ever lived on earth, experienced its truth. He “delighted in mercy.” He came from above on an errand of mercy. The “merciful man” participates in the blessedness of the Son of God.… He, moreover, procures favour with his fellow-men;—he “makes himself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness;” he causes society to feel an interest in him—to regard and treat him as its friend and benefactor. This is eminently gratifying and pleasing;—to know that in the hearts of our fellow-men our names are associated with affection and blessing, and that when we “fail,” there will be some ready to receive us into “everlasting habitations,” who had been made friends by our kindness during their sojourn in the wilderness. But above all, the mercy of the merciful is associated with the favour and blessing of God.… But the cruel stirs up resentment, instead of conciliating favour; so that on every hand, in every face, he sees an enemy, from whom he dreads the fulfilment of the Saviour’s maxim,—“With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.” How can he be happy? There is unhappiness in his very passions. The opposite of the character of God, they cannot but be associated with misery.—Wardlaw.
We are to preserve, as much as in us lies, these two parts of our nature, our souls and our bodies.… He that may truly be called a kind man, is kind to his own soul, in comforting his own heart, and in granting there-unto the delight which may be received by sleep, by food, and the use of all things necessary and pleasant. Wherefore the counsel which the son of Sirach giveth is good and worthy to be followed: “Love thy soul, and comfort thine heart, and put heaviness far away from thee.” (Sir_30:21, etc.) On the contrary side the cruel person, either for niggardliness, or travail, or sorrow, pincheth, consumeth, or pineth his body. He ceaseth not to labour, nor saith, For whom do I travail and deprive my soul of good things.—Muffet.
The merciful man will ever find a merciful God. (Psa_41:1 Mat_5:7). The widow of Sarepta and the woman of Shunem, each for their kindness to the Lord’s prophets received a prophet’s reward. (2Ki_4:16; 2Ki_8:1; 2Ki_8:6). The alms of Cornelius brought good to his own soul. (Act_10:2; Act_10:4). Even now “God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love.” (
Heb_6:10; Mat_10:42). At the great day He will honour it before the assembled universe. (Mat_25:34).… Cain found his brother’s murder an intolerable “trouble to his flesh.” (Gen_4:13-14). The doom of Ahab and Jezebel was the curse of their own cruelty. (1Ki_22:38; 2Ki_9:36-37). The treasures of selfishness will eat as a canker in our own flesh. (Jas_5:1; Jas_5:3).—Bridges.
Why did not the wise man say, “he that is cruel troubleth his own soul?” He knew that a cruel man cares nothing for his soul. If you would obtain a hearing from the merciless man, say nothing about his soul. He values it less than his dog. But if you could convince him that his want of mercy will be hurtful to his flesh, he would think a little about his ways. And it is evident from Scripture, that his flesh, no less than his soul, is under a fearful curse.—Lawson.
His chief business is with and for himself: how to set all to rights within, how to keep a continual sabbath of soul, a constant composedness. He will not purchase earth with his loss of heaven. And inasmuch as the body is the soul’s servant, and should therefore be fit for the soul’s business—it ought not to be pinched or pined with penury or overmuch abstinence, as those impostors (Col_2:23), and our Popish merit-mongers, that starve their genius, and are cruel to their own flesh. They shall one day hear, “Who required these things at your hand?”—Trapp.
In every act that mercy prompts there are two parties who obtain a benefit,—the person in need, who is the object of compassion, and the person not in need, who pities his suffering brother. Both get good, but the giver gets the larger share.… The good Samaritan who bathed the wounds and provided for the wants of a plundered Jew, obtained a greater profit on the transaction than the sufferer who was saved by his benevolence. It is like God to constitute His world so. Even Christ himself, in the act of showing mercy, has His reward.… And a man cannot hurt his neighbour without hurting himself. The rebound is heavier than the blow … Such is the fence which the Creator has set up to keep man off his fellows. This dividing line is useful now to keep off the ravages of sin; but when perfect love has come, that divider, no longer needed, will be no longer seen. It is like one of those black jagged ridges of rock that at low water stretch across the sand from the edge of the cultivated ground to the margin of the sea, an impassable, an unapproachable barrier: when the tide rises, all is level, and it is nowhere seen. This law of God, rising as a rampart between man and man, is confined to this narrow six thousand year strip of time. In the perfect state it will act no more, for want of material to act upon.—Arnot.
It is to his own soul that a merciful man doeth good. For it hath been well said, there is nothing so much a man’s own as that which is given to the poor. That which men do, they do as to a poor soul, of as noble birth, and by nature of as great excellency as their own soul is, and so they do it, as it were, to their own. That which God doth, He doth to a sinful soul, degenerate from the birth which He gave it, and turned to be a rebel against Him. So that God is more ready to be good to His enemies, than we are to be good to ourselves.—Jermin.

Proverbs 11:18-20
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:18. “The wicked gaineth a deceptive result, but he that soweth righteousness a sure reward” (Zöckler).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_11:18-20
SOWING AND REAPING
I. The life-work of the wicked contains within itself the germs of a threefold bane, A deception, a death, and an abomination. 1. A deception. The wicked man expects from his life-work that which it cannot possibly yield. It is against the moral constitution of the universe that a life of wickedness, or an evil undertaking in that life should yield satisfaction or any degree of real comfort to the worker. If a man sowed darnel in his field and expected to get a crop of wheat, he would be “working a deceitful work,” that is, he would be a victim of self-deception. Nature cannot go out of her way to gratify his desires, to prevent his disappointment. The ungodly man lives a life of ungodliness—he “pursues evil,” (Pro_11:19), he perversely chooses his own course, in other words, he “is of a froward heart,” (Pro_11:20), and he promises himself some kind of advantage. But it cannot be, he is doomed to disappointment. However much he lies to work his work, the issue of his work will not lie. The earth will not lie concerning what kind of seed is placed in her furrows. If wheat is hidden there she will not disappoint the husbandman by returning him tares—if tares are sown she will render back of what has been entrusted to her care. She will speak the truth about the sowing by giving according to that which she has received. The sinner wants to make God a liar. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” is the Divine sentence. “Ye shall not surely die,” is the assurance of the great deceiver. But the end will ever be what it was when man first suffered himself to entertain a doubt upon the matter. The man who builds himself a house upon the side of a volcano may promise himself, or may be promised by others, safety and peace, but unless he can quench the internal fires, that promise cannot be kept. The elements of destruction are ever at work under his very feet, the day will come when the devouring flame will burst forth and consume the work and the worker together. 2. Death. There are three kinds of death which are all the fruit of sin and which are developed out of one another as the blade, the corn in the ear, and the fall corn are successive developments of one seed. There is that preseut paralysis of all the spiritual capabilities of the man which the Bible calls carnal mindedness. (Rom_8:6). Into this condition Adam came at once as soon as he worked his wicked work, and every son of his who lives a life of opposition to the Divine will is even now “dead” in this sense. The death of the body is but the outcome of this spiritual death, and although it is the portion of those who have been made spiritually alive, its character is changed from a curse into a blessing. But the consummation of both these “deaths,” is that irrecoverable paralysis of spirit, and that correspondent condition of body known as the “second death.” This is what the man “pursues” who “pursues evil.” 3. An abomination. A musical soul hates discord, a honest man hates dishonesty, the pure-minded turn with loathing from all impurity. Although God loves His creatures, He holds in abomination all that is unholy; a persistent frowardness—a constant refusal to fall in with the Divine plan of separating sin from the human soul will—it is here and elsewhere declared—result in the very creature whom He has made becoming an offence to his Divine Creator.
II. The life-work of the righteous will meet the certain reward of a Divine character and Divine delight. 1. A Divine character. He is now a partaker of spiritual life. A man’s present healthy life is in itself a reward for any self-denial he may practise in observing the laws of health. There is a joy in living which a diseased man knows nothing of. So there is a present joy in being in a state of spiritual health, in the exercise of all the graces which are the fruit of the spirit, (Gal_5:22), to which a man who is morally diseased and dead is an entire stranger. The spiritual life which is the harvest of “sowing righteousness” or uprightness, is a present reward. But the present spiritual life and health is a prophecy and an earnest of a completed and perfected life in the city of God. Righteousness is the very life of God, and in proportion as His children attain perfection of character they attain a more perfect life. (See Homiletics on chap. Pro_7:1; Pro_7:4). 2. Divine delight. God is the Author and Fountain of all the righteousness in the universe, and He can but take pleasure in the work of His own hands. He delights in men of uprightness because He sees in them a reproduction of His own character. His “soul delighted,” (Isa_42:1), in the work and character of His elected servant, His only-begotten Son, because He was, pre-eminently “the Righteous.” (1 Isa_2:1). He delights also in His created sons in proportion as their character comes up to that perfect standard.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_11:18. 1. Opposite characters, The radical idea of the word righteousness seems to be that of equality, as the equilibrium of a pair of scales, etc. Hence, applied to moral or religious matters, it means a correspondence between our obligations on the one hand, and our performance on the other. But as the rightful claims of God and man are embodied in the Divine law, righteousness is considered as obedience and conformity to that law (Deu_6:25). And as this rule rather declares what it enjoins to be fit and proper, than makes it so, righteousness, in relation to the arrangement and constitution of things, is order, fitness, reality, truth. The radical meaning of the word here employed to denote the wicked man appears to be that of inequality, unfairness. Hence wicked, that is, unequal, balances (Mic_6:11). Agreeably to this idea, the word, when used in a moral sense, means a want of correspondence between duty and performance—nonconformity to the law of God. As righteousness is order, etc., so that which is the essence of wickedness, is disorder, incongruity, deception, a lie, an unsound principle. 2. Opposite practices. As is the tree, so is the fruit. Righteousness renders to God and to man their due. The unrighteous man robs God (Mal_3:8-9) of time and talents which should have been devoted to His service. His work is—Deceitful (often) in its intention. Deception is the very object proposed. Deceitful (always) in its nature. Weighed in the balances, it is found wanting. 3. Opposite results. The deceiver himself often becomes the dupe of his own delusions. By abuse the moral sense becomes blunted, etc., then follows what is described
Isa_44:18; Isa_44:20; 2Ti_3:13. Deceitful in its results—generally in this world. A tradesman who makes a point of telling profitable lies, is detected and disbelieved even when he speaks the truth, and, being deserted, comes to ruin.—Certainly in the world to come. Every man loves happiness; but sin will leave the sinner to weeping and wailing, etc. On the contrary, the righteous has a sure reward. His reward is—1. Certain. The perfections and word of God assure this. 2. Suitable; a reward of truth, a reward in kind, an increase of correct and pious feeling (Mat_5:6; Mat_5:8). Hence, 3. Satisfying (Psa_17:15). 4. Abiding (Psa_19:9).—Adapted from Sketches of Sermons.
Although the ungodly person labour much, yet he doth a work which neither shall continue, nor bring any fruit unto him. The hypocrite giveth alms oftentimes to be seen by men, but he shall never be rewarded for his liberality by the Lord. The transgressor of God’s law buildeth himself upon the show of an outward profession: such a house will fall. The vain teacher delivereth the straw and the stubble of error and vanity for true doctrine and sound divinity. This work cannot abide; the day will reveal it, and the fire will consume it.—Muffet.
None would be so rich and happy as the servants of Satan, were his promises all performed; but the misery is, that he will promise kingdoms, though he cannot, like Chaldean robbers, have a single sheep without the Divine permission; and what is worst of all, those that trust his promises are paid with fire and brimstone. The devil was a liar from the beginning, yet so infatuated are men, that they will trust him more than a God that cannot lie. The devil places pleasure and profit before them; God, by the threatenings of His word, sets an everlasting hell before them. But they will venture through it, in order to enjoy the vanities with which the great tempter allures them.—Lawson.
By necessity of his condition, every man’s life, and every moment of it, is a sowing. The machine is continually moving over the field and shaking; it cannot, even for a moment, be made to stand still, so as not to sow. It is not an open question at all whether I shall sow or not to-day; the only question to be decided is, Shall I sow good seed or bad?—Arnot.
If righteousness be our main end, God will make it our best friend; nor will He, as the world has done, reward us with ciphers instead of gold.—Bridges.
Nothing is durable that a wicked man does except his crimes.—A Clarke.
Our wage is better than ordinary, the whole crop that we sow is given us for our labour, and therefore let us not be too hasty to reap it before it be ready. Good farmers indeed pay the ploughman sooner than the corn is ripe, but cheaper than the corn is worth: Whereas God bestoweth freely upon his labourers all that they have sown, it is their own, and therefore let them tarry till harvest, and they shall find their hire will far surmount their travail.—Dod.
Let us inquire why this gracious course of consecrating a man’s self to God in the practice of godliness is called a sowing of righteousness. It is because of the likeness which is betwixt the practice of godliness, and the sowing of the seed—(1) in some things which do go before the sowing. Two things, then, have to be looked after, viz., the preparation of the ground and the choice of seed. In the sowing of righteousness the like to these two are of great behoof. The preparation of the heart and the choice of particulars belonging to a Christian course. (2) In some things which do accompany the sowing, viz., the time of souring and the plenty of sowing. When the season comes, the husbandman falls to his work, though, perhaps, it be not so seasonable as he could desire. So in spiritual business—the seed time for righteousness is this life: the opportunity must be taken when it comes. If I meet with many encumbrances, shall I cease sowing and tarry for a calmer season? God forbid. Through with it I must, in season, and out of season. If I look for a better time, upon a sudden, there will be no time at all. Then the seedsman casts not in one seed alone, but a handful at once, one handful after another. To sow righteousness is to be rich in good works, to do good once and again, to join with faith virtue; with virtue knowledge, etc. Some do now and then drop out a good work, some little devotion to God, some petty office of mercy to men, but it is to no purpose in the world; no plenty in sowing, no fulness in reaping. (3) In things which follow after sowing. Great is the care that the seed put into the ground may thrive and prosper; the fields be hedged, the cattle be shut out, etc. It is ever and anon looked to, to see how it be going on. So it is in vain to have entered upon a good course if it be not continued. (Php_4:1; Thess. Pro_4:1; 2Pe_3:18; Heb_6:1). Thus we see that to sow righteousness is—1. The submitting a man’s self to have his heart broken up by the power of God’s word. 2. A diligent inquiry into the best way of pleasing God. 3. A pressing forward amid many encumbrances. 4. A striving to be fruitful in good works. 5. A watching with continued diligence.—Hieron.
Pro_11:19. The course of rivers is to return to the sea, from whence they issue, and so righteousness, coming from the ocean of life, thither tendeth again, and evil, coming from the black sea of darkness, bendeth thither also. The difference which the passengers find is this: that in the waters of righteousness all the tempests and rough waves are in the river, but going on with it to the sea, there is nothing but calmness, security, and pleasantness, in which they bathe themselves for evermore. In the waters of wickedness the passengers find the river to be easy often, and smoothly to carry them along, but following the course of it, when they come to the sea, there are nothing but horrid storms, raging winds, and gaping gulfs of death, wherein they are for ever swallowed up.—Jermin.
Our principal pay will be in life, whereof we have part in hand by grace in our souls in this world, and the rest is behind until the pay day in the world to come. So that a sinner cannot discern the happiness of a Christian, nor conceive how God dealeth with him. For the comfort of a heart is a thing unknown to him, and the glorious life is hid with Christ in God, and shall not fully be seen before we appear with Him in glory.—Dod.
If righteousness is a seed, and is sown, and has a certain crop, then, in this way, “righteousness is unto life,” but he that pursues evil does so to his death; that is, he grows in spiritual corruption, and that eternally. He grows in spiritual corruption, not because creatures are self-subsistent, and advance by laws implanted in themselves; but because sin is the punishment of sin, and advance by laws implanted in the Almighty. Eternal justice declares that sin must be given up to an advance in sin.—Miller.
It is frequently possible for men to screen themselves from the penalty of human laws, but no man can be ungrateful or unjust without suffering for his crime; hence I conclude that these laws must have proceeded from a more excellent legislator than man.—Socrates.
Pro_11:20. Uprightness is a noble quality, for the Lord greatly delights in it. He boasted, if we may speak so, to the devil of Job’s invincible integrity. Christ speaks of an upright Nathaniel as a wonder in the world. How wonderful is the grace of God, that takes such kind notice of grace so imperfect as that which may be found on earth.—Lawson.
“An abomination to Jehovah,” as taught in this book, is a thing so radically full of mischief that it must be forced out of the way some day, by the very necessities of the universe.—Miller.
Not only those that pursue and practise wickedness, but they also that harbour it in their hearts, are hated of God. (Luk_16:15). A man may die of inward bleeding; a man may be damned for contemplative wickedness. The antithesis requires that he should say, such as are upright in heart. But He chooseth rather to say, in their way, not only because a good heart ever makes a good life, but to meet with such as brag of the goodness of their hearts when their lives are altogether loose and licentious. Whereas holiness in the heart, as the candle in the lantern, well appears in the body.—Trapp.
A pearl upon a dunghill is worth stooping for, and a gracious man or woman is worth looking after. Sure it is that God looks on them as His jewels, as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, His delight, His dear children, and what not. It much concerns us then, to set a true value upon them, make a true estimate of them, and (as much as lieth in us) to be mindful of them, comfortable to them, and willing on all occasions to do them good.—Spencer’s Things New and Old.

Proverbs 11:21
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:21. The Hebrew here is simply “hand to hand, the wicked,” etc. Zöckler and Delitzsch understand it as a formula of strong asseveration derived from the custom of becoming surety by clasping hands, and hence equivalent to “assuredly,” “verily,” “I pledge it.” Stuart says “Different meanings have been assigned. 1. Hand against hand, i.e., the injurious man. 2. From one hand to another, i.e., from one generation to another. 3. Joining hands in way of assurance—“verily.” All these are little better than guesses. The phrase is evidently proverbial and is doubtless abridged. The most simple interpretation is that of Michael, “Hand joined to hand will not protect the guilty. Let the evil man struggle with all his might he will not escape.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:21
DELIVERANCE FROM A CONFEDERATED OPPOSITION
I. The wicked will certainly confederate against the good. They will join “hand in hand.” 1. On account of their nearness to each other. If two nations who are near neighbours feel that the advance of one in possessions, in power, in wealth, will be the correspondent retrogression of the other, there will be a confederation of each nation. Their nearness to each other will necessitate a
defensive confederation—most likely an offensive one, for each will feel that its existence depends upon a union of its members. The wicked and the good in the entire universe make but two hostile camps, although they are not separated into distinct nationalities or divided by geographical boundaries in this world. Some of each side are found in every nation, in every city, in every hamlet, often in the same house, and while this is the case there will be confederation on both sides. We have here to do only with that of the wicked. Hatred of the good is often the only bond of union between wicked men, they feel that, if the good are to be held back from possessing the earth, they must unite to oppose their work. Hatred of Christ united Herod and Pilate (Luk_23:12). 2. This confederation of the wicked is against both persons and principles. The good fight only against the principles of the godless—they love their persons, the wicked hate both the persons and principles of the good. 3. The wicked will confederate because of the tremendous issues depending upon the conflict. If the principles that govern the good should triumph in the world, they instinctively feel that there will be no place left for their persons and principles. 4. Confederation implies choice, confidence in numbers, thought, and a covenant to stand by each other. Those who join hand to hand show that they choose each other’s society—choice is a revelation of character—those who join hands with the wicked reveal that they are wicked also. It implies confidence in numbers. Numbers have a wonderful influence in begetting confidence. They inspire men with hope of success. It seems impossible that so many can be defeated. The fact that the wicked are in the majority in this world is often a strong point with them. This was the hope of Pharaoh (Exo_14:6-7) and of Sennacherib (Isaiah 36). The first Napoleon made it his boast that “Providence fought always on the side of great battalions.” It likewise implies thought. They do not go to their work without taking counsel together as to the best means of accomplishing their ends. This “multitude of counsellors” (Pro_11:14) is one of the advantages of confederation. It likewise implies covenant. There is something even in a wicked man that makes him slow to break an agreement—to violate a solemn promise. Even the wicked Herod would keep his oath to the daughter of Herodias, although the thought of the crime which he must commit to do so startled him for a moment (Mat_14:9). All these things together make up the strength of the confederation of the wicked; but, notwithstanding,—
II. They will be defeated. “The seed of the righteous will be delivered.” The end of all their planning and plotting was the destruction of the good, but it will not be. Another confederation has been formed which has in it a stronger Person than any in the confederation of the wicked. God is in it. God has chosen the good for His confederates because they have chosen Him (Isa_41:8-9). Although the wicked have many on their side there are more in numbers on the other side (2Ki_6:16). Those unseen defenders of the good cause must be taken into account. God has thoughts and plans which embrace and overrule all the plans and schemes of the wicked. He has likewise made a covenant, and He cannot “alter the thing that has gone out of His lips” (Psa_89:34). Therefore the righteous may meet their foes with this challenge: “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for the Lord is with us” (Isa_8:9-10).
III. The members of the wicked confederation will be punished. Men think that individuals will be lost in the crowd. They think there is safety in being one of many. But it is not so. God will deal with men as individuals. He will “render to every man according to His work” (Psa_62:12). This is the word of the Lord to those who dare “to take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed (Psa_2:2)—“Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuges of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it” (Isa_28:18). And this is His word to “the seed of the righteous,”—“Behold they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn” (Isa_54:15; Isa_54:17).
ILLUSTRATION
A very solemn method of taking an oath in the East is by joining hands, uttering at the same time a curse upon the false swearer. To this the wise man probably alludes. This form of swearing is still observed in Egypt and the vicinity; for when Mr. Bruce was at Shekh Hunner, he entreated the protection of the governor in prosecuting his journey, when the great people who were assembled came, and after joining hands, repeated a kind of prayer about two minutes long, by which they declared themselves and their children accursed, if ever they lifted up their hands against him in the tent, or the field, or the desert, or in case that he or his should fly to them for refuge, if they did not protect them at the risk of their lives. Or, sometimes, when two persons make a contract they bring the palms of their right hands into contact, and raise them to their lips and forehead. At other times they rub the forefingers of their right hands together, repeating the words “right, right,” or “together, together.”—Paxton’s Illustration.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
What many wicked cannot do, in saving one wicked man from wrath, that shall one godly man do for many. For not only himself, but his seed shall be delivered.—Jermin.
The best way for any man to do his children good, is to be godly himself.—Dod.
The “seed of the righteous” is not simply the children of righteous people, because it includes the parents themselves; not simply the parents, because it includes the children; not both parents and children, because many children perish; but the seed of the righteous in the sense (1) that righteousness runs in lines;—there is a generation of them that seek Him (Psa_24:6)—and (2) that the righteous, as far as they are righteous in the parental relation, will have godly children (Gen_18:19; Tit_1:6). Righteousness itself (by its fidelities) has its offspring in Christian families. This is the favourite method of the Church’s growth.—Miller.
Let sinners beware of the danger and the inevitable result of fighting against God! “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against Him and: prospered?” What fearful odds—the creature against the Creator! the sinner against his rightful Judge! the arm of flesh against the hand of Omnipotence. Though the wicked could league all creation with them in conspiracy and rebellion, how powerless the combination! “He that sitteth in the heavens should laugh; the Lord should have them in derision. He should speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.” Companions in sin shall be companions in banishment and suffering. “Forsake the foolish, then, and live.” Choose another fellowship. Give your hand to God’s people, giving your heart to God Himself.—Wardlaw.
When we hear of the wicked, we are apt to think that men of abandoned lives can alone be meant. Hence, when we read the text we have a picture brought before us of some overbearing tyranny, or some perfidious conspiracy. Such specimens of evil are doubtless intended; still, after all, much more is included in its meaning, much which we see before our eyes. Is not the world itself evil? Is it an accident, is it an occasion, is it but an excess, or a crisis, or a complication of circumstances, which constitutes its sinfulness? or, rather, is it not one of our three great spiritual enemies at all times, and under all circumstances? (See Jas_4:4; Eph_2:2; Rom_12:2; 1Jn_2:15). Let us be sure, then, that that confederacy of evil which Scripture calls the world—that conspiracy against God of which Satan is the secret instigator—is something wider, and more subtle, and more ordinary than mere cruelty, or craft, or profligacy: it is that very world in which we are. It is not a certain body or party of men—it is human society itself.—J. H. Newman.

Proverbs 11:22
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:22
PRECIOUS THINGS POSSESSED BY UNWORTHY OWNERS
I. There is an analogy between gold and beauty. 1. They are both gifts from God. Whether a man possesses gold by inheritance or as the result of labour it is a gift from God. In the first instance no praise or blame is due to him for being a rich man, he can no more help it than he can help being in existence. And it is no less a gift from God when it has been earned by toil (see Homiletics on chap. Pro_10:22). Beauty is also a gift from God, those who possess it deserve no honour for being beautiful, those who lack it are not to be despised on that account. 2. Both have a certain value. Gold may add much to a man himself, it increases his opportunities of spiritual and intellectual growth. It enables him to add much to the joy and comfort of others, to give them opportunities of growth also; a rich man can, if he pleases, serve his generation most effectually by a right use of wealth, and thereby increase a thousandfold his own happiness as well as that of others. Beauty is precious also. A woman who possesses physical beauty possesses an influence which she can use, if she pleases, as a lever to raise the moral tone of those who come under her influence. A beautiful woman may use her beauty so as to earn for herself a good reward, and gladden the hearts of her fellow-creatures. 3.
Both may make their possessors worthy of praise or blame. Although neither praise nor blame can be attached to the possession of them, much may be to their use. He who uses gold as we have just indicated will receive the “well done,” which is the highest praise that man can receive (Mat_25:21). But if, like a sponge, he sucks up all the blessings that his gold can give into his own life, and leaves others unsuccoured and unblest, he will deserve, and he will receive, the sentence passed upon the rich by the Apostle James (chap. Pro_5:1). So with the use or the abuse of beauty. For the right use of this gift of God, praise will be accorded to its possessor, for its abuse she will be called to render an account.
II. Gold and beauty, each in a wrong relation. An ornament of gold is a fitting and becoming adornment of the human person. But the same thing in a swine’s snout is utterly out of place; the conjunction of the two strikes us as entirely incongruous. But it is not more so than to find a fair face united to an unlovely soul—to a soul which lacks the purity and modesty without which a woman is the most repulsive of God’s creatures. For the word translated discretion evidently means womanliness—virtue, and when we see a beautiful face and find that it belongs to one with a foul spirit, we seem to see heaven and hell united in one person. The analogy goes further; the swine uses his snout to grovel in the mire in search of that which will satisfy his animal and swinish nature, he could put a jewel of gold to no other use. And the woman of the proverb does the same with her beauty. She debases this jewel of God’s own workmanship to the vile use of satisfying her own grovelling and lawless desires, and thus renders the resemblance most striking.
ILLUSTRATION
Nearly all the females of the East wear a jewel of gold in their nostrils, or in the septum of their nose; and some of them are exceedingly beautiful, and of great value. The Oriental lady looks with as much pleasure upon the jewel which adorns her nose as any of her sex in England do upon that which deck their ears.—Roberts.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
We cannot, if we are ourselves right-minded,—if we have even good sense, apart from piety—admire such beauty. It hardly deserves the name. True loveliness consists not in the mere exquisite symmetry of features. It cannot exist without expression. To constitute true beauty, the countenance must be the index of the mind and heart—of what is intellectual and what is amiable.—Wardlaw.
The most direct proverb, in the sense of “mashal,” or similitude, which has yet reached us.—Plumptre.
Beauty is an earthly jewel, and is a comely ornament, where God and nature have bestowed it. But if there be no discretion to consider whence it cometh, and by whom it is preserved; if there be no understanding to perceive what the nature of it is, to what at last it cometh, and how soon it fadeth, it is then but as a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout.—Jermin.
God makes no more reckoning of sinful people without understanding, than of brute beasts without reason. Though they have human nature, and carry the shape and form of men and women, with best show, yet if there be nothing but flesh and blood and sinfulness, no beauty nor bravery, make the best of them, is more acceptable to Him than is the basest of all the other creatures. It is a very homely comparison wherewith the Holy Ghost disgraceth the wicked in this book, and yet so true, that He toucheth it again in the New Testament (2Pe_2:22).—Dod.
It is small praise, saith one, to have a good face and an evil nature. No one means, saith another, hath so enriched hell as beautiful faces. Art thou fair? saith an author; be not like an Egyptian temple, or a painted sepulchre. Art thou foul? let thy soul be like a rich pearl in a rude shell.—Trapp.
Beauty in the possession of an unthinking woman is more dangerous than a drawn sword in the hands of an idiot.
Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.

Proverbs 11:23
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:23. Wrath, i.e. God’s wrath (Zöckler).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:23
We cannot understand the first clause of this verse to mean that all a righteous man’s desires are good. 1. History contradicts it. Solomon must have known it was not true of his own father. David was a righteous man, but some of his desires were not only not good, but inhuman and devilish. Of all the good men of whom we read, whether in inspired or uninspired history, there is hardly one of whom some act is not recorded which reveals that their desires were sometimes sinful. 2. Present experience contradicts it. If those who are now looked upon as the salt of the earth were appealed to upon this matter they would emphatically deny that their desires were at all times and altogether good. But this we may affirm. I. That the main desire of a righteous man is that he may be good, and that to all his fellow-creatures “good may be the final goal of ill.” II. That there will be a period in his history when his desires will be “only” good. In nature all things tend towards a perfection—a completion. If no untoward circumstance prevent, a tree or a flower will go on growing until it has attained to the perfectness to which it has been ordained. The Christian is destined to attain to perfectness of moral beauty. And when this completion is arrived at his desires will be only good. See 1Jn_3:1-2, etc. (For full treatment of the verse see Homiletics on chap. 10: Pro_11:24; Pro_11:28.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Here we are to contrast a wish and an assurance (expectation) like that class of passages already alluded to where the last clause is intensive. The mere wish of the righteous is an intrinsic good; either first, because all actings of his heart, whether wise or unwise, will exercise him (Psa_84:7), and will speed him to his celestial state; or secondly, because the wish of a righteous man, quoad a righteous man, will be a righteous wish, and, therefore, will be good in itself, and will be sure to be gratified. The wish of a righteous man, like the spongelets of a tree, is that which goes searching for God’s gifts, and is sure in the end to attain them. Therefore, emphasising “only” the wish of a righteous man will be made altogether to work for his good, however disappointed, and however kept low and troubled in the difficulties of the present life. But “an assurance of the wicked;” that is, a thing so grasped and reached as to be no longer a “wish,” but a certainty; wealth, when it is made his, or honour, when it is actually grasped, will not only be lost; will not only be followed by “wrath” in the sense of actually bringing it; but “is wrath” in the sense of being sent as punishment, and in the further sense that the sinner knew it all the time; and that his assurance, though it seemed to be a certainty of joy, was, lower down, a certainty of punishment; we mean by that an assurance (which he would confess if he were asked) that all his properties could end only in increasing retribution.—Miller.
“Desire is the wing of the soul, whereby it moveth, and is carried to the thing which it loveth as the eagle to the carcase, to feed itself upon it, and be satisfied with it” (Bishop Reynolds). The desire of the righteous must be good because it is God’s own work (Psa_10:17; Rom_8:26-27). It must be only good, because it centres in Himself (Psa_73:25; Isa_26:8-9).… The corrupt mixture of worldliness, selfishness, and pride is against our better will (Rom_7:15). In despite of this mighty assault—“Lord, all my desire is before thee; thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (Psa_38:9; Joh_21:17).—Bridges.
Evil motions haunt his mind other-whiles, but there they inhabit not … As the ferryman plies the oar, and eyes the shore homeward, where he would be, yet there comes a gust of wind that carries him back again, so it is oft with a Christian. But every man is with God so good as he desires to be. They are written in the book of life that do what they can, though they cannot do as they would.—Trapp.
Pro_11:23 and chap. Pro_10:24. I. What, or who is the righteous man? 1. He is one whom God makes righteous by bestowing righteousness upon him—by counting the righteousness of His Son for his (Rom_5:19). A man must be righteous by imputation before he can be made good, for the Spirit which makes our persons good—which sanctifies our nature—is the fruit of the righteousness which is by Jesus Christ. 2. God makes a man righteous by bestowing upon him a principle of righteousness. Men must have eyes before they can see, tongues before they can speak, and legs before they go: even so a man must be made habitually good and righteous before he can work righteousness. 3. The man is practically righteous. Fruits show outwardly what the heart is principled with. Mark how the apostle words it: “Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness” (Rom_6:22). The works flow from the heart of a righteous man—of a man that before he had any good work had a twofold righteousness imparted to him—one to make him righteous before God, the other to principle him to be righteous before the world. II. What a righteous man desires. A righteous man is sometimes taken for his best part, or as he is a second creation, as in 2Co_5:17; Col_3:10, etc. In which places the sinful flesh, the old man, the outward man—all of which are corrupt according to the deceitful lusts—are excluded, and so pared off from the man, that he is righteous. As Paul in Rom_7:15-17 severs himself in twain,—himself as he is spiritual from himself as he is carnal—so the righteous man here must be taken for the I that would do the good, the I that hates the evil. There is a spring that yieldeth water good and clear, but the channels through which this water comes to us are muddy and foul: now, of the channels the water receives a disadvantage, and so come to us savouring of what came not with them from the fountain of grace—the Holy Ghost—but from the channels through which they must pass. The desires of a righteous man, then, are comprised under, (1) those they would have accomplished here, and (2) those which they know cannot be enjoyed until after death. And the first are comprised under communion with God in spirit and the liberty of enjoyment of His ordinances. And the second are comprehended under the desire of that presence of the Lord which is personal, and their desire to be in that country where their Lord personally is. These last have a long neck: for they look over the brazen wall of this, quite into another world. They breed a divorce betwixt the soul and all inordinate love of the world; their strength is such, that they are ready to dissolve that sweet knot of union betwixt body and soul and to grapple with the King of Terrors. These desires do deal with death, as Jacob’s love to Rachel did with the seven long years which he was to serve for her. III.
What is meant by granting the righteous man’s desires. It is to accomplish them. There is nothing that God likes of ours better than he likes our true desires. For, indeed, true desires are the smoke of our incense, the flower of our graces, the vital part of the new man. Right desires jump with God’s mind; they are the life of prayer; they are a man’s kindness to God; (chap. Pro_19:22) and they which will take him up from the ground, and carry him after God to do His will, be the work never so hard. Is it any marvel, then, that God has promised they shall be granted?—Bunyan.
The desire of all, as it is desire, is only of good; but as desire is accomplished, so it is the desire of the righteous only that is good, and their desire accomplished is good only. It is simply good, there is no mixture of evil added to it, yea, it is not only all good, but all the good that desire can wish.—Jermin.

Proverbs 11:24-26
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:25. Liberal soul, “the soul of blessing,” i.e., “the soul that blesses others.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_11:24-26
THE LIBERAL AND THE NIGGARDLY MAN
We have here a twofold contrast under two similitudes—
I. A man who withholds what he ought to give out. “He withholdeth more that is meet—he withholdeth corn” when he ought to sell it. 1. He is a sinner against the law of necessity which runs through all human things. The earth will only yield of her good things by first having good things cast into her bosom. The farmer who is sparing of labour and of money in the tillage of his fields will never be a rich man. The same principle is at work in the mart and on the exchange. There must of necessity be a wise scattering of wealth before there is any increase. 2. He is a sinner against the Divine ordination and commandment. When God organised the Hebrew commonwealth he ordained that the “poor should not cease out of the land” (Deu_15:2), and that they should be helped by the rich. The same principle was proclaimed by Christ, when he said “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Mat_10:8), God has given to you that you may give to others. This is the fast that Jehovah has chosen, “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house? When thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh” (Isa_58:7). 3. He is, as a necessity, a sinner against his fellow creatures. He sins against their need. In times of scarcity those who have abundance and will not give of their abundance are guilty, how much more those who have the material to feed the people and will not even sell it, but withhold it to raise the price. Such men are robbers and murderers. They murder by refusing the means of life. 4. He is a sinner against himself. He will not be so rich as he would have been if he had used what he had in accordance with the laws of nature and morality. A man who does not put his money out to a lawful use cannot make more by it. More than this, he is a stranger to that blessedness of which Christ spake when He said “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Act_20:35). But this is not all, he is under a Divine and human curse. God’s ban is upon him. If a tree is constantly receiving from the fatness of the earth and the heavens and yet brings forth no fruit for the service of man, it is marked for the woodman’s axe. The message of God to such cumberers of the ground is, Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire (Jas_5:1-3). “The people shall curse him.” How can they do otherwise? They feel that he has robbed them of their rights when he will not even sell what they are willing to buy.
II. The man who gives out liberally of that which he possesses. He yields first of all to the necessity of things. He scatters his wealth wisely in order to increase it. But this is his lowest motive and his smallest blessing. So far as mere trading goes this scattering to increase is a mere matter of necessity. He knows he must cast a bushel of corn into the ground if he would have it increase—that he must spend a thousand pounds before he can gain ten thousand. In this way he shows that he has faith in the ordinary law of multiplication. But he goes further than this. “He selleth corn” at a fair price, when, by withholding it, he might exact more. This is a sample of all his dealings with his fellow-men. He does not take advantage of their necessities to enrich himself (see Homiletics on Pro_11:1). He goes beyond this—he not only sells at a fair price, but he is a giver. He scatters in the way of giving out of his abundance, “looking for nothing again” (Luk_6:35). But he is a great gainer. 1. He will very likely get richer in material wealth by giving. This is not positively affirmed in the text “there is that scattereth and yet increaseth.” But he will certainly never be the poorer, for he makes God his creditor. “He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord” (chap. Pro_19:17). 2. He will certainly be richer in more precious wealth. “He will be watered himself.” He will have a double blessing. Men will call down blessings on his head. Those who partake of his wealth will give him in return love, honour, and respect. God will add to his personal character that which will increase tenfold the blessedness of his existence. He will, according to the apostolic promise, “make all grace to abound toward him, that he, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” He will “increase the fruits of righteousness” (2Co_9:6-11), and water his soul with His own Divine influence. “If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, aud make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, whose waters fail not” (Isa_58:11).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_11:24-25. Is not this just one of the appropriate ways of putting faith to the test on God’s part, and showing its reality on ours? Is it not precisely the defectiveness of this faith that makes us timid, cautious, parsimonious in giving? ever fearing that we may stint ourselves and feel the want of what we expend on suffering humanity and on the cause of God? Is it not thus by unbelief that we are tempted to sow sparingly? And ought it to be, that the husbandman trust more to the laws of nature than the Christian does to the covenant of his God.—Wardlaw.
The Jews in Haggai’s time had no prosperity till they made the house of the Lord their chief object (Hag_1:6; Hag_1:9-11; Hag_2:15-19). So far is the true wealth of the withholder from being increased by withholding what is meet to be given for the glory of God and the good of man, that he is at last deprived even of that which he had (Mat_13:12).—Fausset.
Men may scatter in improvidence and sin, and it tendeth to poverty (chap. Pro_21:17). But the man of God, “dispersing abroad” the seed of godliness (Psa_112:9), consecrating his substance and influence to the Lord, “as he has opportunity, doing good unto all men” (Gal_6:10), shall receive a plentiful increase.—Bridges.
The liberal man will ever be rich; for God’s providence is his estate, God’s wisdom and power are his defence, God’s love and favour are his reward, and God’s word is his security. Barrow.
The liberal soul is made fat in the healthful vigour of practical godliness. The minister is refreshed by his own message of salvation to his people. The Sunday-school teacher learns many valuable lessons in the work of instruction. The Christian visitor’s own soul glows in carrying the precious name of Jesus to a fellow-sinner. Every holy temper, every spiritual gift, every active grace is increased by exercise. Bridges.
Give, and thou shalt receive. John Howard, when he grew sad about his piety, put on his hat and went about among the poor. He came back a gainer. He diverted his mind from his own interests, and yet promoted them in a higher assurance. Religion being benevolence, as well as a love of holiness, doing good to others is a philosophic way of ripening it in ourselves. Pro_11:24 has its Poor Richard phrase as well as a higher one. Being “penny wise and pound foolish” is understood even in our shops. But the grand sense is evangelical. “Inserviendo allius consumor” may be true of poor impenitents, but a candle is no emblem for a Christian. He is a glorious sun who, by some strange alchemy, brightens by shining. Watereth refers to the ground, or to animals. “Giving plenty to drink” is the meaning of the word as applied to men.—Miller.
Wherefore doth the Lord make your cup run over, but that other men’s lips might taste the liquor? The showers that fall upon the highest mountains should glide into the lowest valleys.—Secker.
Man is God’s image, but a poor man is
Christ’s stamp to boot; both images regard.
God reckons for him, counts the favour His:
Write, so much given to God; thou shalt be heard.
Let thy alms go before, and keep heaven’s gate
Open for thee, or both may come too late.
The last clause of Pro_11:25 is literally he that raineth shall himself become a river. The water that falls in refreshing and fertilising irrigation is not lost, but becomes a fair stream. So the bounty of the liberal man, which rains down blessings, will flow on for ever in a beautiful river.—Wordsworth.
The well-being of all is concerned in the right working of each. One necessarily affects for good or evil all the rest in proportion to the closeness of its relations and the weight of its influence. You draw another to keep him from error: that other’s weight which you have taken on keeps you steadier in your path. You water one who is ready to wither away; and although the precious stream seems to sink into the earth, it rises to heaven and hovers over you, and falls again upon yourself in refreshing dew. It comes to this, if we be not watering we are withering.—
Arnot.
Poor men are not excluded from the grace and blessing of being merciful, though they attain not to the state and ability of being wealthy. Mercy is not placed with money in the purse, but dwelleth with loving-kindness in the heart. He that can mourn with such as do mourn, he that can pray for them that be in distress, has a “soul of blessing.”—Dod.
St. Gregory applieth the words particularly unto ministers, and saith, He that by preaching doth outwardly bless, receiveth the fatness of inward increase. And to this sense the Chaldee reads it, saying, “He that teacheth shall himself also learn.” And then the former part of the verse may be taken thus, the soul that bestoweth abroad the blessings of a wise instruction shall profit much in his wisdom, according to a common saying among the Jews, “I have profited more by my scholars than by all things else.”—Jermin.
Bounty is the most compendious way to plenty; neither is getting, but giving, the best thrift. The five loaves in the Gospel, by a strange kind of arithmetic, were multiplied by a division and augmented by subtraction. So will it be in this case. St. Augustine, descanting upon Psa_76:5, says, “Why is this?” “They found nothing in their own hands, because they feared to lay up anything in Christ’s hands.” “The poor man’s hand is Christ’s treasury,” saith another Father.—Trapp.
Pro_11:26. He that withholdeth corn holdeth, as it were, the gracious hand of God, yea, pulleth it back by his covetousness, when God in bounty hath stretched it forth unto a land.… Now, what is said of a countryman concerning his corn, let the citizen also mark concerning his wares, “Let not profit overcome honesty, but let honesty overcome profit.” And what is said to the citizen let the minister also observe, and bind not up by a damnable silence that good word which may profit many.—Jermin.
The point of antithesis apparently fails only to give stronger security to the blessing. The curse comes directly from the people; the blessing from above.—Bridges.
The prevailing maxim of the world, ever since the first murderer gave utterance to the tendencies of human nature, after its fall, in the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” has been, “Every man for himself.” The identity of human nature in all ages is stamped upon the book of Proverbs. What presented itself to view in Solomon’s days is no rarity still.… There can hardly be a more affecting exemplification than this of the power of an avaricious disposition in hardening the heart.—Wardlaw.
Such a man, like a corrupt, imposthumated member, would draw all the nourishment to himself, and cares not, though the other parts of the body perish. This oak, which will suffer no small trees to thrive near it, will in time fall with the breath of so many curses.—Swinnock.
Modern political economy may have taught us that even here the selfishness of the individual does, in the long run, by limiting consumption, and maintaining a reserve, promote the general good, but it is no less true that men hate the selfishness and pour blessings upon him who sells at a moderate profit. Our own laws against forestalling and regrating schemes for a maximum price of bread, as in the famine of the French Revolution, histories like that of M. Manlins, legends like that of Bishop Hatto and the rats, are tokens of the universality of the feeling.—Plumptre.
Literally, “breaketh it,” like Joseph to his brethren and the people in Egypt. In a spiritual sense this verse may be applied specially to pastors and to churches. He that withholdeth corn—he that keepeth back from others the bread of life, which is the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures—the food of the soul, he shall be accursed; but blessings are upon him that fully and freely dispenses it.—Wordsworth.
To be an object of aversion among his neighbours is a heavy infliction upon a human being. No man can despise it.… This, in the last resort, is the protection of the poor and the punishment of the oppressor. The mightiest man desires the blessing of the people, and dreads their curse. Wealth would be a weapon too powerful for the liberty of men, if he who wields it were not confined within narrow limits by the weakness of humanity, common to him with the meanest of the people.—Arnot.
Here is consolation to them that bring an upright heart to selling, though they cannot be large in giving: therein they do a service to God and perform a work of love to their neighbour.—Dod.

Proverbs 11:27
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:27. Procureth, rather “seeketh” Favour, i.e., God’s favour. So it is generally understood. But Delitzsch reads “He who striveth after good, seeketh that which is pleasing, i.e., that which pleaseth or doeth good to others.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:27
DILIGENT SEEKERS
I. An object worthy of search.—“Good.” There is. 1. Material, temporal good. The human race need no exhortation to stimulate them to go in quest of this good. The child begins his search after this good as soon as he is conscious of need and finds himself in possession of power to seek it. And until old age these good things are sought without any admonition from God to lead a man to seek them. 2. But there is a higher good—the good which ministers to the spiritual nature and forms a holy character—the good of which Christ speaks when He says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Mat_6:23). Men need to be exhorted to seek this good, and the Bible puts before them every kind of motive to stimulate men to the search—motives drawn from the happiness of a future heaven and a future hell, and from the present heaven or hell which will result from the search or from the neglect of this true good. Men are, as a rule, too much occupied with seeking the lower and the transitory good to seek that which is spiritual and eternal—that Supreme Personal Good—God Himself. God is the Good that the soul needs because He unites in Himself all that can minister to our better nature. The soul needs truth—and God is truth. The soul needs something above itself to worship, to love, to obey. There is nothing can supply this need but the living God.
II. How this good is to be sought. “Diligently.” The diligence will be in proportion to the desire. The word here translated diligently is the same as that translated “early” in chap. Pro_8:16. (See Homiletics on that passage).
III. The reward of diligent seekers after real good. “Favour.” 1. Of God. He loves to see men value that upon which He sets value, viz., their own spiritual and eternal gain. 2. Of good men always. Of bad men often. For the diligent seeking of this highest good does not make a man selfish—on the contrary, the more earnest he is in the search, the more will he lay himself out to serve his fellow-men. In this the contrast is marked between the diligent search after material and spiritual good. The sentiment of the verse is the same as that in chap. Pro_3:4 (see Homiletics on that verse).
IV. A most unworthy object of search. “Mischief.” Understanding this of evil in general which is most mischievous in its working and in its results, we remark—1. That it requires no great diligence to work moral mischief towards a man’s self. To abstain from seeking good is to seek and to find mischief. To “neglect salvation” (Heb_2:3) is enough to ruin. 2. That the man who plots to work mischief to another often sets the seekers after good an example of diligence. How much of planning—what an expenditure of thought and activity is often put forth to ruin another! 3. That the man who seeks mischief is certain to find it. It will not wait even to be found—it will “come” to meet him. But there may and will be some amount of disappointment. If he seeks his own ruin he will certainly succeed, but if he seeks to do another a mischief, he may miscarry, but the intention will be fulfilled in himself. Whether he succeeds in harming another man or not, it is a law of moral gravitation that “His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate” (Psa_7:16).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There is no negative existence. Man is born for action. All of us are living with a stupendous measure of vital activity for good or for mischief. Man was never intended—least of all the Christian—to be idle. Our Divine Master “went about doing good.” He is a counterfeit who does not live after this pattern. Usefulness is everything. We must not rest in life received, nor must we wait to have it brought to us. We must seek it.—Bridges.
From the last proverbs it has appeared that going after our own selfish gain, is really going after evil. Joy is innocent in itself; and yet, gone after absorbingly, it is an evil end. “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it” (Luk_17:33) Solomon, therefore utters a most philosophic truth when he says “He that diligently seeketh good,” etc., that is, who forgets himself, and is early (for that is the original sense) after what is intrinsically right and holy, that man is really the person who is seeking or hunting up favour; that is, if he could really gain it by hunting it up directly, and for his selfish good, he could not gain it more directly than by forgetting it, and striving for what is pure. (See Mat_6:33). Then follows the antithesis. He that seeks mischief, etc., as one is conscious that he does when he turns his heart selfishly even after innocent joys. He goes after that which may in itself be innocent, like money, or like the support of life; in a way that to his own conscience makes it confessedly evil, shall have it “come to him” at the end of his course, infallibly as evil.—Miller.

Proverbs 11:28
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:28. Branch, rather, “a green leaf.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:28
TRUST IN RICHES AND TRUST IN GOD
I. The trust in riches springs, 1. From the fact that gold, and what it can do for us, is within reach of the senses. Unless the bodily senses are counterbalanced by the moral—the spiritual—sense, they have a tendency to shut us in upon the seen—to shut out the unseen. This is why men make to themselves gods that they can see and carry about with them. The rich man can look upon his gold and upon all that it has purchased for him, his mansion, his lands, his sumptuous table, his obsequious servants. All these things are daily before his eyes, and if his spiritual sight is not keen, they are very likely to become his confidence. 2.
From the fact that gold can do very much for men. It can afford him opportunities of the best education. Gold can place the son of a tradesman side by side with that of the nobleman in this respect. It can surround him with all the refining influences of life. It will open to him positions of power and influence, its magic power will surround him with friends. When a man feels that he owes all these good things to gold, he is very prone to trust in it. 3. From the fact that gold is so universal in its influence in the present world. There is no place upon the globe, where there are human beings, where gold, or what gold can purchase, will not do something for a man. No monarch has such a wide dominion or so many subjects as this King Gold.
II. But he that trusts in riches will find them fail him. 1. Because he is more than the object of his trust. Man is more than gold because it was made for him and not man for gold. God made it to be his servant, but when a man makes it the object of his supreme hope and confidence, he inverts the Divine order and becomes its slave. And man needs something more than himself to be the object of his trust. 2. Because there are comforts for existence that gold cannot buy. Faith in a living God, a good conscience, hope for the future, present peace and rest of soul cannot be purchased for all the gold of the Indies. Nebuchadnezzar could make an image of gold, but all his riches could not purchase the faith and godly courage of the three Hebrew youths. The rich man in hell needed comfort that all his earthly wealth could not have purchased. 3. Because the only Being who can supply man’s deepest needs cannot be bribed. Pardon of sin cannot be “gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.” A holy character “cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.” (Job_28:16-17). The Holy Ghost—that “gift of God,” cannot be “purchased with money.” (Act_8:20). A golden key will not open the gate of heaven. Therefore “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God. (1Ti_6:17).
III. The righteous man shall not fall, but flourish as a branch, because as a branch in a tree he is in connection with life. Gold is a dead thing, but the God of the good man is a Living Person, a Being who can understand and supply all his soul’s need—a Being who is not only King of the present and the seen, but of the future and of the unseen. “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” “Because I live, ye shall live also” (Joh_14:19; Joh_15:5). He shall not only live, but flourish—“his leaf shall not wither”—“he shall bring forth fruit in his season” (Psa_1:3). The cause of the branch being laden with fruitfulness and beauty is because of its connection with the root. Trust is the link between the creature and the Creator, which makes the one a partaker of the fulness of the other. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer_17:7-8).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
I have read of one that, upon his dying bed, called for his bags, and laid a bag of gold to his heart, and then cried out, “Take it away, it will not do, it will not do!” There are things that earthly riches cannot do. They can never satisfy Divine justice, nor pacify Divine wrath, nor quiet a guilty conscience. And till these things are done, the man is undone.—Brooks.
As sheep that go in fat pastures come sooner to the slaughter-house than those which are kept upon the bare common: so, likewise, rich men, who are pampered with the wealth of this world, sooner forsake God, and therefore are sooner forsaken of God than others.—Cawdray.
He that trusts in riches may trust in that which may not disappoint him. That is, it may remain great, and may follow him to the grave. But while his riches are piling up, he himself is withering away. It is not the rich, but they that trust in riches (Mar_10:24). The truly important thing is the man himself; and while the unregenerate falls, or decays, the righteous, even without money, prospers. He grows from within. That is he grows, and not his money.—Miller.
Be not proud of riches, but afraid of them, lest they be as silver bars to cross the way to heaven. We must answer for our riches, but our riches cannot answer for us.—Mason.
Riches were never true to any that trusted in them. The rich churl that trusted and boasted that he had “much goods laid up in store” for many years, when, like a jay, he was pruning himself in his boughs, came tumbling down with the arrow in his side.—Trapp.
Riches are of a falling nature, now they fall to a man, now they fall from him, now they fall to this man, now to that, now to another. There is no holdfast of them, and less holdfast by them. He, therefore, that trusteth in them shall fall, fall into their hands and power, who seek his hurt and mischief, because not trusting in God, he receiveth no succour from Him.—Jermin.
Good men have the Lord Jesus Christ for their root, and God the Father to dress and keep them, therefore the drought of adversity shall not hurt them, nor the dews of wholesome prosperity fail them. They shall have safety for their bodies, graces for their souls, competency for their state, and all good furtherances for their everlasting glory.—Dod.
Money, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe,
Whence com’st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine?
I know thy parentage is base and low:
Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine.
Surely thou didst so little little contribute
To this great kingdom, which thou now hast got,
That he was fain, when thou wert destitute,
To dig thee out of thy dark cave and grot.
Then forcing thee, by fire he made thee bright;
Nay, thou hast got the face of man: for we
Have with our stamp and seal transferred our right:
Thou art the man, and man but dross to thee.
Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich,
And while he digs out thee, falls in the ditch.
Herbert.

Proverbs 11:29
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:29
FOOLISH HOME RULERS
“There are many ways of troubling one’s own house.” Many sparks fly from one anvil, but one is sufficient to set a house on fire. Some home-destroyers emit many sparks, but one evil habit or temper is enough to consume all the peace of home-life. A man may trouble his house by—1. Selfishness. When a dry sponge is placed in a vessel of water, it will soak up every drop of water that it can hold, and very probably will leave the vessel empty. So the selfish head of a household will absorb all the comforts of the household—take to himself all the luxuries and enjoyments which ought to be distributed among all its members. 2. Hasty temper. A human father and husband that will complain at every trifle and blaze into a passion when nothing has been done or said worthy of notice, will be a great troubler of his house. He will not be heeded when there is real occasion for his displeasure. The perpetual rattle of a daily siege so dulls the ear of the soldier that he does not notice the roar of the cannon on the day of special battle. So the members of a household who are always being subjected to the rattle of an ungovernable tongue make no account of reproof when there is really an occasion for it. 3. A perpetual assertion of authority. There can be no joyful obedience in a family where its head is always insisting upon the fact that he is their master. Such a constant proclamation of right to rule makes that a bondage which would otherwise be a glad service. 4. Prodigality or niggardliness. He who wastes that which belongs to his children is a robber, and so is he who from avaricious motives deprives them of those home comforts with which he is able to furnish them. These are but samples of the many ways in which a man may trouble his house—ways which are not altogether unknown in some homes whose head is a professor of godliness. Such a man is a far-reaching curse. The members of such a home scatter themselves abroad in the world carrying with them none of the blessed influences that they ought to have received from their home-life, and are very likely in their turn to become the troublers of their houses. The gold receives its form and polish, its image and superscription at the mint. Home is the mint where the value of the character for its entire future is often impressed upon it. The child generally bears the image and superscription of his parent.
II. Such a troubler is a fool. 1. He can reap no possible advantage by it. To “inherit the wind” is to inherit cold cheer. A wintry wind is poor comfort for a man with little raiment on a cold night. Wind is an unsatisfying substitute for food to a hungry man. But a man in such a condition is an apt illustration of a man in the winter of life who has forfeited that love and honour which would have been the reward of a different course of conduct. 2. He shall go down in social position. The man who has ruled his household well must win the respect and confidence of those outside of it. It is an inevitable consequence that he will go up in the estimation of his associates while one of the opposite character will go down and so “be servant to the wise of heart.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
He that troubles his own house in any form of impenitence; he that takes the trouble to live without the gospel; he that chases wealth when he admits that it will breed him vengeance; he that goes through the self-denials of the world to accumulate worldly benefits which he knows are mischiefs to his soul, is absolutely “fool” enough to be the “servant” in all these trials, and that through eternal ages, of wiser and better creatures.—
Miller.
He shall leave at last but the wind of his breath to deplore his folly and to beg help for his misery. St. Gregory taketh the latter part of the verse that a fool serveth the wise in heart even by ruling over him and oppressing him, for he advanceth him to a better state and condition of goodness.—Jermin.
He that would not undo himself, let him not undo his family and domestic affairs. It nearly concerneth a householder to know that his house is laden with his whole estate, that his people sail together with him in the same vessel, for his use.—Dod.

Proverbs 11:30
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:30. Or, “the wise man winneth” or “taketh” souls.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:30
THE WINNER OF SOULS
I. Souls can be won to God and goodness. 1. There is in every man a natural light to which to appeal. If a sick man has something in his constitution upon which the physician can fix as a basis of operation, there is hope of recovery. But where the constitution is utterly and entirely bad, the very effort of the physician is a proof of his lack of wisdom. Man is morally diseased, but he is not so depraved as to make his being won to God a hopeless attempt. There is in him a moral base of operation, he has a conscience which is more or less enlightened. Men are, acccording to the highest authority, “a law unto themselves,” “that which may be known of God is manifest in (or to) them.” (See Rom_1:19-20; Rom_2:14.) They would not be “without excuse,” as the Apostle there declares that they are, if they had no moral consciousness. 2. The very existence of the Bible proves that man is not hopelessly lost. Wise men do not waste words and efforts where they know they would be thrown away. They do not set on foot plans to help those for whom they know there is no hope. A wise physician will not harass his patient and waste his own energies when he knows there is no possibility of cure. It is kinder to let him die in peace. God is too wise and too kind to send man a revelation which he knows would be useless to him. He would not tantalise him with hopes which could not be realised. 3. The history of Christ confirms this view. He claimed to come to this earth for the special purpose of seeking and saving men. He was pre-eminently a winner of souls. There can be but one explanation of the Incarnation. 4. The moral difference in men is another proof. For every effect there is a cause. That there is an immense difference in the character of men is admitted by all; and the difference is that some have been won from sin to God.
II. Souls can only be won. There are two kinds of power in the universe—force and persuasion. The mother who desires her child to take a certain place may attain her end in two ways—she may take the child in her arms and carry it where she desires, or she may use moral suasion and induce the child to fall in with her wishes by the exercise of its own free will. The thing may be done either by strength of muscle or by the strength of love. Souls cannot be dealt with in the first way. The soul can only be won to God by the same kind of power as it was won from God, viz., by that of persuasion. If the tempter had tried force he would have failed with our first parents. He knew human nature too well to attempt the use of such means. Force is of no avail to bring about a friendship, and the winning of a soul is bringing about a friendship between man and God. Therefore the Apostle “beseeches” and “prays” men to be reconciled to God (2Co_5:20). To be won to God is to be won to service. Two kinds of service may be rendered to a human parent or ruler. There is a service of the body only which is prompted by fear, and there is the service of the whole man which is the fruit of love. God must have the latter or none (Isa_1:11, etc.,) hence the soul must be “drawn,” “constrained,” by the power of moral force. (See Hos_13:14; Joh_12:32; 2Co_5:11; 2Co_5:14).
III. Souls are won by fruit. Human nature will not be influenced by words without actions. The actions which make up a holy life are here called fruit. When two men are at variance and hatred is deeply rooted, he who would be a peace-maker must be something as well as say something. Words alone will not kill enmity—there must be correspondent deeds. This constituted our Lord Jesus Christ the great Reconciler—that He brought forth the fruits of holiness and self-sacrifice, and so gave weight to His words of persuasion. So many souls have been won by him because so much fruit was brought forth by him. And all who would win souls must in their measure do likewise. In this sense they must obey His injunction and be made partakers of His promise: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mat_4:19).
IV. The fruit that wins souls will be a “tree of life” both to the winner and to those who are won. The vine-dresser has joy in rearing his fruit, and the eater has joy in partaking of its sweetness. When he who seeks to win souls brings one to taste the sweets of godliness for himself, there is joy for both. The righteous man is a “tree of righteousness,” hence he is himself a “tree of life.” Others partake of his fruit and live unto holiness, and become fruit-bearing trees in their turn. And in this sense “he that reapeth and he who soweth rejoice together,” and the precious harvest is a “tree of life”—an undying source of soul-satisfaction to both.
IV. He who thus wins souls is a wise man. He saves men from a present and real misery. The end of all practical wisdom is to elevate the human race—to lift men out of misery and degradation—to solve the problems of every day social life. The man who wins a soul to God is a truly scientific man—he has reduced his moral science to practice in his own life, and then has brought it to bear upon the lives of others. He is a wise general who can turn the guns of the enemy against the foe. He who wins a soul can teach a man how to turn the forces that have been against him into powers and influences that shall work for him. He is a wise financier who can devise means by which a man can free himself from debt. The winner of souls can show his fellow-man how to be freed from moral debt. He is a wise physician who, by healing one man of a deadly pestilence, prevents the spread of disease. The man who turns another from the error of his ways, not only “saves a soul from death,” but hides a multitudes of sins (Jas_5:20) by, in some measure, lessening the increase of sin in the universe.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
I. Christians are a blessing to the world. 1. There is the influence of personal character, showing what religion is, viz., a living principle in the hearts of the faithful, which must spread its radiance. It may be said of a good man, as it was said of Christ, “He could not be hid” (Mar_7:24). 2. There is the force of the great principles they advocate—Freedom, Education, etc. They raise, in this way, the standard of public opinion. 3. There are their habits of active beneficence.
II. To win souls the highest wisdom is requisite. 1. Consider the preciousness of the object—souls. Made in the image of God, and designed to reflect His glory. Of infinite value in the esteem of Him who came to redeem them. 2. How greatly they are endangered by sin, held captive by Satan, in bondage by the world, entrenched in long habits of evil. The soul, in its present depraved state, is not inclined to seek God, nor anxious to obtain deliverance. 3. The difficulty is increased by the shortness of the time and the limitation of the means at our command. The preacher has only the Sabbath; Satan and the the world have all the week wherein to exert their influence. It is more or less so with all who endeavour to win souls.—S. Thodey.
He may begin as a “leaf” or “branch” (Pro_11:28), but he ends as a “tree.” The tree of life made the partaker of it immortal. “The fruit of the righteous” is immortal life to many a poor sinner. The latter clause may read either: “The wise is a winner of souls,” or “The winner of souls is wise.” It doubtless should be read in both. The grand “tree of life” on earth is the man converted already. The man converted already will be a “tree of life.” Both doctrines are true, and, therefore, in so terse a passage, I see no resource but to understand the Hebrew as pregnant of both. It is of the very essence of wisdom to be benevolent, and it is the very height of benevolence to catch the souls of the impenitent. Moreover, no soul is caught but by the wise.—Miller.
What is dwelt on is the power of wisdom, as we say, to win the hearts of men. He that is wise draws men to himself, just as the fruit of the righteous is to all around him a tree of life, bearing new fruits of healing evermore. It is to be noted, also, that the phrase here rendered “winneth souls,” is the same as that which is elsewhere translated by “taketh the life” (1Ki_19:4; Psa_31:13). The wise man is the true conqueror.—Plumptre.
To win souls is one special fruit of the tree of life. This is a noble fruit indeed, since our soul is more worth than a world, as He hath told us who only went to the price of it (Mat_16:26).—Trapp.
In this verse we have set forth to us the excellency of a righteous man. I. He is more useful than others. He is not a barren tree, but a fruitful bough, as Joseph was. And he doth not bring forth fruit unto himself. As the tree of life would give life to them that would eat thereof, so those that will hearken to the counsel of the righteous shall partake with him of eternal life. II. He is more skilful than others. He wins souls—1. By Scripture demonstration. Thou canst never throw down the devil’s strongholds except by God’s own weapons. 2. By earnest supplications. As the prophet did pray life into the dead child, so thou shouldst strive in prayer for dead souls. 3. By kind obligation. Labour by kindness and courtesy to gain upon all thou dost converse with, that thou mayst get within him, that thou mayst be in a capacity to do good to his soul. 4. By faithful reprehension. ’Tis quite contrary to Christian love to let sin lie upon thy brother (
Lev_19:17). Show your love to souls by the faithful rebuking of sin, not as a token of your displeasure, but as an ordinance of God. 5. By convincing conversation. Live before all thou dost converse with in the convincing power of a holy life. 6. By careful observation of all those advantages that God puts into your hand. Take advantage of his affliction. Make use of thy near relation or of his dependence upon thee, or of thy interest in him. It may be he is concerned in thy goodwill to him, or hath some affection for thee. Make use of it for God.—Alleine.

Proverbs 11:31
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_11:31. Miller transposes this verse and reads, “Behold the righteous on earth shall be recompensed,” etc. On earth may be placed either with “the righteous,” or with “recompensed.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_11:31
THE RECOMPENSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED
I. The righteous man will receive a present chastisement for his sins—1. Because of his near relation to God. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amo_3:2). Is this a strange principle of action? Is it not one which is, or ought to be, acted upon among men? If the son of a king commits a crime, is it not felt that his high position and his special privileges make him more deserving of punishment? Our Lord recognised this truth when He said, “To whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more” (Luk_12:48). Those who stand in a special relation to God are expected to show it by a holy life, and when they fall into sin greater dishonour is brought upon the name of God than by many sins of the ungodly. Hence the necessity for their chastisement. 2. Because he will not be punished in the next world. The whole tenor of Bible teaching recognises this truth, and Paul asserts it: “We are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1Co_11:32). 3. To overthrow that doctrine of devils—“Let us sin that grace may abound” (Rom_6:1; Rom_6:15). Many false doctrines have gone abroad in the so-called church, but surely none is so manifestly from the devil as this which proclaims that the more a child of God sins the more God is glorified! Will the man whose wound has been closed and whose bleeding has been stanched by the surgeon, tear off the bandage and reopen the wound in order to afford the physician another opportunity of displaying his skill? May he not, by such an act, be guilty of suicide? May he not so incur the anger of his doctor as to make him refuse to re-dress the wound? If any man thinks that the abounding mercy of God is a licence for sin, let him read the history of David, and ask himself if it does not prove that he is wofully mistaken. David himself most certainly was, if he presumed upon his high standing with the God whose “gentleness had made him great” (Psa_18:35) when he sinned the great sin which was the curse of all his after life. The God whom men fancy will be thus indulgent is not the God of the Bible—the God of Sinai—the God who visited the sin even of His servant Moses. “Let us sin that grace may abound” came from the forger of the oldest lie in human history. Mount Hor, Mount Nebo, and Mount Zion, each of which was the scene of a penalty inflicted on a distinguished saint of God for a particular and specified sin, bear witness to the truth that the “righteous will be recompensed on the earth.” And of these instances that of Moses is, perhaps, the most striking. Here is the chastisement, of the greatest man in the Old Testament dispensation—the specially elected leader and lawgiver of the chosen people. And though he had been and still was—yea, because he was the most honoured of Old Testament saints, he was shut out of the land to which he had been journeying for forty years for assuming a Divine prerogative—“die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother died at Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people: because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel” (Deu_32:50-51). Such a sentence testifies that God is a consuming fire to sin, in the righteous as well as in the wicked.
II. If God’s friends are chastised, His enemies must be.—For they not only sin but make light of sin, either denying the fact or blaming their circumstances, their temperament, or their tempters, laying the blame anywhere except upon themselves, and this increases their guilt. If those who acknowledge and confess their sin must yet be chastised for it, how much more those who refuse to do either! The sin of the righteous is the exception of his life, but the entire life of the ungodly man is a course of opposition to the law of God. If, therefore, the isolated instances are visited, how much more such an accumulation of moral debt! The very justice of God demands that if He punish the saint He shall also punish the sinner. This is New Testament teaching as well as Old. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God?” (1Pe_4:17).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
But where is the righteous person thus scourged, judged, and recompensed? On the earth, even in this life, and in the world. The earth is not that seat which the Lord hath properly appointed for judgment or vengeance, neither is this life the day of the great assize; yet rather than sin shall be unpunished, yea, even in the elect, the Lord will keep a petty sessions in this life, and make the earth a house of correction.—Muffet.
The righteous are under the discipline though not under the curse, of the rod.—Bridges.
The best must look for stripes, if they will take liberty to sin against God. True it is that the Lord taketh not advantage of infirmities, He passeth by them, He smiteth not His children for them: but when they grow too bold, He will nurture and awe them with correction. In this sense He may be said to be no respecter of persons, that as He will not endure the sinfulness of the wicked, though they be never so great, so He will not allow of the sins of the godly, though they be never so good. First, God herein respecteth His own glory, who will have His people to know that He doth look for service at their hands. And the wicked see by this that He is neither remiss towards all nor partial towards any. Second, He respecteth the good. How wanton, how froward, how stubborn would children be, into what perils would they cast themselves should they be altogether exempted from the rod. They could never feel comfort of their parents’ favour unless they sometimes found the smart of their displeasure … And the tribulation and afflictions of good men do not bring them behind the wicked, but show that the plagues and punishments of the wicked are yet behind.—Dod.
The righteous Lord shall pay His debts even to the righteous. Sin makes God a debtor.—Jermin.

Proverbs 11:1
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.
The heinousness of injustice done under the pretence of equity
The proverbs of this book are often figurative, and of a very strong and extensive meaning. The words of the text imply the odiousness, not only of false weights or balances, but likewise of all things of the like nature and consequence; of all unfair and unfaithful actions; of all unequal and injurious proceedings. There are two kinds of injustice; the one open and barefaced, the other secret and disguised, so cunningly clothed and adorned, that it appears like justice itself. The text manifests the odiousness of this latter kind. A false balance is always made use of under the plausible pretence of doing justice, though it has the contrary effect. This latter kind of injustice is more abominable than the other.
(1) In its nature. This is a complication of crimes and mischiefs, the other is simple injustice. This is always vile and ungenerous.
(2) In its consequences. We have far less security against this kind of unjust actors, so that the mischiefs of it are more certain and inevitable. Force can repel force, but it cannot repel treachery. God does, in a great measure, reserve cases of this nature for His own peculiar tribunal in the great and dreadful day. This kind of injustice is an “abomination” to Him; the word implies an extraordinary degree of hatred and detestation. (Laurence Echard, A.M.)

Uprightness
I. Uprightness portrayed.

1. Commercial integrity (Pro_11:1). There is an inspection of weights and measures going on daily of which few are cognisant. (Lev_19:35-36). The God of heaven is a God of detail.
2. Lowliness of spirit (verse2). Uprightness is not uppishness.
3. Integrity of purpose (verse3). “The crooked, winding policy of ungodly men,” says Scott, “involves them in increasing wickedness.”
4. A right estimate of wealth (verse4). The upright man will consider how his gains will look in the day of judgment.
   II. Uprightness rewarded.
5. The favour of the Lord (Pro_11:1).
6. Guidance (Pro_11:3). He who does right will be rightly led (Joh_7:17; Psa_112:4).
7. Deliverance (Pro_11:4).
8. The respect of others (Pro_11:10).
9. The good of others (Pro_11:11). (H. Thorne.)

The false balance
Text taken in literal and material sense, as applying to that great world of fraud and imposition and over-reaching in which we live, and the subject is our duty as Christians in the midst of it.
I. The manifest truth of the assertion of the text, and the grounds on which it rests. God is a God of justice. Truth, pure and unspotted, is the very essence of the Divine character. Wherever there is deceit in the world, wherever injury, wherever oppression, there is God’s anger and loathing accompanying it. The false balance, which is an abomination to the Lord, where do we not see it around us? From the powerful guides of public opinion, each assuming to be written in the interest of justice and truth, but each, almost without exception, warping justice and truth by false statements, false inferences, predetermined conclusions, down to the petty fraud, in measure and weight, which you will find in any chance shop you enter, certain known and avowed avoidances or disguises of truth, are every day practised, and acquiesced in as inevitable. The evil is in every class. But the mischief is not universal. But Christian men and women sin by tacit acquiescence in these wrong things.
II. How may we rest separate ourselves from, and discourage the false balance, and uphold and cleave to the just weight? We must not begin with mere practical details. The secret of all wrong is the false balance within the heart; the real cheating begins there. Is our estimate of men and things which guides our action the real and true one, or some artificial one, that is altogether wrong, and leading us altogether wrong? Men who know what is right are sometimes mixed up with the system of fraud. Why? Because they will not let recognised religious principle hold the balance nor regulate the estimate formed of the relative importance of men and things. “I must think,” such a man says, “as others think; I must do as others do.” If we would get rid of the false balance without, and in our streets and markets, we must begin within ourselves. Were buyers honest, sellers would, by compulsion, be honest too. Here the fault begins. Practical suggestions: conscientiously regulate the bestowal of employment and patronage: there are certain signs by which even the dull of discernment may discern the tokens of fraud and pretension. Be not an admirer of the system of universal cheapness. (Dean Alford.)

Deception in business
Many are pleased at the dexterity with which they practise their deceptions. The fraud is undiscovered, and being undiscovered, is unfelt by those on whom it is practised, and what is never known and never felt can be no harm. So they think. But God sees it, and He estimates the action on no such principle; nor is it the principle on which you would estimate it were you the party defrauded. You have no idea, in your own case, of admitting that what is not missed is not lost; or that the cleverness of the fraud is any palliation of it. You do not think the better of the merchant with his “balances of deceit,” that the unfairness of the balance is ingeniously concealed. You do not regard it as a compensation for the property abstracted from your plundered house or warehouse, that the impression of your keys has been adroitly obtained, or the mode of entrance skilfully devised and expertly executed. You do not approve the laws of ancient Sparta which, to encourage cleverness and sleight of hand, rewarded instead of punishing the youthful thief who could steal without detection. Depend upon it, if you plume yourself on the dexterity with which you have contrived and executed a plan for cozening your neighbour, it will be no palliation with God, nor will any amount of such dexterity produce any abatement of His sentence of condemnation. It is the moral principle, or want of principle, in which the evil lies, and the very measure of thought and contrivance expended for the purpose of ensuring success in the contravention of God’s law, instead of diminishing, will serve to aggravate your guilt in His sight. The “abomination” will be only the more loathsome. (R. Wardlaw.)

Proverbs 11:2
When pride cometh, then cometh shame.
Pride
I shall first describe to you the several kinds of pride among mankind, and show you their folly and wickedness; and, secondly, point out to you the beauty and advantage of their opposite virtue, humility.
I. The vice of pride puts on a great variety of appearances, and is found in every rank and condition of human life. Pride of station claims our first notice. “Man being in authority,” is too apt to be “proud at heart”; to be “puffed up” with this distinction; to consider himself as a being of a higher order than the rest of his fellow sinners; and to look upon those with disdain who are lower in the scale of society than himself. But what do the Scriptures say to such a vain and foolish mortal as this? They tell him that “man will not long abide in honour, seeing he may be compared to the beast that perisheth.” They tell him that “men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.”

2. Nor is the pride of birth less unreasonable than that of rank. Even a heathen in ancient times could see its absurdity, and say, “for as to family and ancestors, and what we have not done ourselves, we can scarcely call those things ours.”
3. Of the same wicked and foolish character is pride of riches. Reason tells us that riches cannot give dignity of character, superiority of intellect, vigour of body, endowments of mind, peace of conscience, cheerfulness of heart, or any one of those advantages which form the chief blessings of life; and, therefore, are a very insufficient foundation for “pride of heart.”
4. Pride of talent, and pride of learning, also ill become “man that is born of a woman.” A disease, an accident, “a sudden terror,” may overset the mind, and turn all our light into “utter darkness.” Of the pride of beauty, in order to show its folly, it need only be said, in the language of inspiration, “surely all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth.”
5. The pride of judgment, also, which is too often the pride of the young and ignorant, is of the like foolish description, and is equally rebuked by the Holy Scriptures. It is a common and a true observation, that those who know least generally imagine that they know most, and know best.
6. But, of all kinds of pride, spiritual pride, or the conceit and boast of being holier than others, is the worst description of this bad passion: most hateful to God, and most dangerous to our souls.
   II. Opposite, however, as the mid-day sun to “utter darkness,” is the character given in cripture of lowliness or humility: and the view of the blessings which are promised upon those in whom it is found. “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.” When we consider the nature of man, fallen and far gone from original righteousness, one might well think that men should of their own accord see the propriety, the necessity, of the grace of humility in their character. Our Lord has bound meekness and poverty of spirit upon our consciences by His injunctions, and encouraged our obedience to His injunctions by assuring us that “the meek and the poor in spirit shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.” He has declared to us that those who “humble themselves shall be exalted”; and finally, to give the greatest possible weight and effect to what He said, He left us, in His own practice, the most perfect example of the graces which He enjoined to His followers: for “He made Himself of no reputation,” etc. (R. Warner.)

The advent and evil of pride
I. The advent of pride. Pride is inordinate self-appreciation. This feeling comes to a soul; it is not born in it. Infancy and childhood are free from it. How does it come?

1. By associating only with inferiors.
2. By practically ignoring the true standards of character. When we lose sight of the eternal law of rectitude, and judge ourselves only by the imperfect standards around us, pride is likely to come.
3. By a practical disregard to the majesty of God. The conscious presence of God humbles.
   II. The evil of pride. “Then cometh shame.” The man who has formed a false and exaggerated estimate of self must be disappointed one day. Man must always find his level; he must come to realities.
4. Shame of folly. The soul bursts with a sense of its own foolish estimate.
5. Shame of guilt. Pride is a wrong state of mind, and hence shame follows it. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The shame of pride
The haughty and overbearing conduct of Cardinal Wolsey created him many secret enemies, and it was his ostentation and love of power which caused him to lose the favour of his sovereign. Proud of his talents, his wealth, his position, his sole aim was to raise himself still higher, all his actions being directed to his own aggrandisements; and this eagerness lay at the root of his downfall, it being impossible for him to please Henry in the matter of the divorce without losing all hope of the popedom. He felt severely the shame of his first disgrace, and offered to surrender both office and wealth to avert the king’s displeasure; but, being allowed to retire to his archbishopric, he again excited the envy of his political rivals by his pride and love of show, and, being arrested for high treason, the whilom leader of the State died broken-hearted on his journey to London.
Pride
Among all the vices against which Solomon has cautioned us (and he has scarce left one untouched), there is none upon which he animadverts with more severity, or to which he more frequently recalls our attention, than the vice of pride; for which there may be many reasons assigned, but, more particularly, two seem to deserve our consideration.

1. The first is the extensiveness of the sin. Other vices tyrannise over particular ages, and triumph in particular countries. Rage is the failing of youth, and avarice of age; revenge is the predominant passion of one country, and inconstancy the charasteristic of another; but pride is the native of every country, infects every climate, and corrupts every nation.
2. The second reason may be drawn from the circumstances of the preacher. Pride was probably a crime to which Solomon himself was most violently tempted, since he was placed in every circumstance that could expose him to it. He was a king absolute and independent, and by consequence surrounded with sycophants ready to second the first motions of self-love, to comply with every proposal, and flatter every failing. But Solomon had not only the pride of royalty to suppress, but the pride of prosperity, of knowledge, and of wealth.
   I. The nature of pride, with its attendants and consequences. Pride, simply considered, is an immoderate degree of self-esteem, or an over-value set upon a man by himself, and, like most other vices, is founded originally on an intellectual falsehood. But this definition sets this vice in the fairest light, and separates it from all its consequences, by considering man without relation to society, and independent of all outward circumstances. Pride, thus defined, is only the seed of that complicated sin against which we are cautioned in the text. In speculation pride may be considered as ending where it began, and exerting no influences beyond the bosom in which it dwells; but in real life pride will always be attended with kindred passions, and produce effects equally injurious to others, and destructive to itself.
3. He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them. Pride has been able to harden the heart against compassion, and stop the ears against the cries of misery. It makes masters cruel and imperious, and magistrates insolent and partial. It produces contempt and injuries, and dissolves the bond of society. Nor is this species of pride more hurtful to the world than destructive to itself. The oppressor unites heaven and earth against him.
4. He that sets too high a value upon his own merits will, of course, think them ill-rewarded with his present condition. He will endeavour to exalt his fortune and his rank above others, in proportion as his deserts are superior to theirs. Once fired with these notions, he will attempt to increase his fortune and enlarge his sphere; and how few there are that prosecute such attempts with innocence, a very transient observation will sufficiently inform us. To pride, therefore, must be ascribed most of the fraud, injustice, violence, and extortion, by which wealth is frequently acquired.
5. Another concomitant of pride is envy, or the desire of debasing others. A proud man is uneasy and dissatisfied, while any of those applauses are bestowed on another, which he is desirous of himself.
6. Another consequence of immoderate self-esteem is an insatiable desire of propagating in others the favourable opinion he entertains of himself. He therefore tortures his invention for means to make himself conspicuous, and to draw the eyes of the world upon him. But for the most part it is ordered by Providence that the schemes of the ambitious are disappointed, so that “still when pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom.”
   II. Some of the usual motives to pride, and how little they can be pleaded in excuse of it. A superior being that should look down upon the disorder and corruption of our world, that should observe the shortness of our lives, the weakness of our bodies, the continual accidents, or injuries, to which we are subject; the violence of our passions, the irregularity of our conduct, and the transitory state of everything about us, would hardly believe there could be among us such vice as pride. Yet so it is, that however weak or wicked we may be, we fix our eyes on some other that is represented by our self-love to be weaker, or more wicked, than ourselves, and grow proud upon the comparison. Another common motive to pride is knowledge, a motive equally weak, vain, and idle, with the former. Learning indeed, imperfect as it is, may contribute to many great and noble ends, and may be called in to the assistance of religion. But how little reason have we to boast of our knowledge, when we only gaze and wonder at the surface of things? When the wisest and most arrogant philosopher knows not how a grain of corn is generated, or why a stone falls to the ground? But were our knowledge far greater than it is, let us yet remember that goodness, not knowledge, is the happiness of man! There is another more dangerous species of pride, arising from a consciousness of virtue; so watchful is the enemy of our souls, and so deceitful are our own hearts, that too often a victory over one sinful inclination exposes us to be conquered by another. This kind of pride is generally accompanied with great uncharitableness, and severe censures of others, and may obstruct the great duty of repentance.
   III. The amiableness and excellence of humility. To evince beyond opposition the excellence of this virtue, we may observe that the life of our Lord was one continued exercise of humility. (John Taylor, LL.D.)

Pride leading to shame
Tirmond, one of the Czar’s ablest surgeons, and to whom he was much attached, having died, his widow married a young barber from Dantzic, who was somewhat more expert in gallantry than in surgery; as he became very wealthy by this marriage, he made a great figure at Moscow. Being one day sent for by the Czar, he went to court in a magnificent dress, and in one of his elegant carriages. Peter examined him, and roughly told him he was a blockhead, and immediately sailed in a troop of valets and peasants, whom he ordered him instantly to shave. The gentleman barber was under the necessity of obeying, to the great amusement of the whole court, and with the same parade in which he had arrived, he was then permitted to return. (Christian Weekly.)

Proud and lowly
Pride consists in an immoderate self-esteem, and places its happiness in esteem and honour from others. No sin is more foolish than this, it springs from ignorance of God, of ourselves and other men, and by the very means which it uses for the accomplishments of its ends, ensures disappointment. In seeking glory it finds disgrace. Pride made Nebuchadnezzar a brute. It destroyed Herod with worms. It turned Lucifer into Beelzebub. By other sins, man rebels against God; by pride he usurps His crown and dignity. No wonder, then, that God looks up all those that are proud, and abaseth them. Humble men think of themselves as they ought to think. They desire that God may be honoured, even at the expense of their own honour. (G. Lawson.)

Proverbs 11:3
The integrity of the upright sham guide them.
Integrity the best guide both in religious inquiries and in moral conduct
The policy of the world, like the world itself, is fluctuating and deceitful. Uncertain both in its objects and its means, it knows nothing of that steadfastness which religious principle communicates both to mind and conduct. The shifts and windings of those who are guided by no higher principles than those of pride and avarice would be truly ludicrous if they were not accompanied with serious mischief. Integrity, originating in the honest feelings of nature, exalted by piety, and cherished by serious reflections upon the ends of a probationary state, is our purest guide amidst all the temptations and difficulties, through all the vicissitudes and perplexities, both in thought and in action, which are continually occurring in the journey of life. By integrity is meant, steady determination to abide by the profession of important truth, however unfashionable, and to be upright in all transactions with the world, at whatever expense of temporary ease and interest.
I. Integrity is the surest guide to every practical purpose in our religious inquiries. These inquiries have unfortunately been perplexed and mystified by the polemics of Churches and sects. Of course it is integrity, enlightened, to a certain degree, by a right education, that is meant. Go to the Bible with the sincere desire of gaining the knowledge of practical and consolatory truths, without any sectarian bias, and it is impossible that you should err in anything that might affect your practice here, or your salvation hereafter. Your integrity will guide you in all that is essential.
II. Integrity is our best guide in our worldly transactions, as men and as members of society. It is the great solver of all moral difficulties. Whence do these originate? They are generated by that interference of complicated interests, which embarrasses and perverts the minds of those who have no settled principle to which they can refer amidst the ever-varying plans of worldly wisdom. Integrity, enlightened by the truths, and fortified by the promises of the gospel, admits of no hesitation on account of any temporary inconvenience, to which an honest conduct may expose us. In public concerns, the surest way to outwit cunning and artifice would be to fix only upon such objects as reason can indicate and conscience may approve. Truth, in the hands of wisdom and courage, has a commanding aspect, which would confound the subtle chicanery and pitiful arts of a selfish and low-minded diplomacy. And in private transactions between man and man it holds equally true that enlightened integrity, acting with perseverance upon a settled plan, ultimately gains the very end by upright means which in the cunning and dishonest tall a thousand times for once that they succeed. Integrity makes a man rich in character, and that ensures him the best chance of gaining earthly success and wealth. (Jas. Lindsay, D.D.)

On integrity as the guide of life
A man of integrity is one who makes it his constant rule to follow the road of duty according as the Word of God and the voice of his conscience point it out to him. The upright man is guided by a fixed principle of mind. Hence you find him ever and everywhere the same. In what manner does such integrity serve as the guide of his life? To conduct ourselves in human affairs with wisdom and propriety is often a matter of no small difficulty. Amidst that variety of characters, of jarring dispositions, and of interfering interests, which is found among those with whom we have intercourse, we are frequently at a stand as to the part most prudent for us to choose. In public and in private life, the doubt started by the wise man frequently occurs. Who knoweth what is good for man in this life? In such situations as these, the principle of integrity interposes to give light and direction. The virtuous man has one oracle, to which he resorts in every dubious case. He consults his conscience. The principle of integrity will always, if we listen to it impartially, give a clear decision.

1. The guidance of integrity is the safest under which we can be placed. The road in which it leads us is, upon the whole, freest from dangers. The man of the world aims at higher things, and more rapid success, than the man of moderation and virtue. But, at the same time, he incurs greater risks and dangers. No calculation of probabilities can ensure safety to him who is acting a deceitful part. He who follows the guidance of integrity, walks in the high road, on which the light of the sun shines. The principle of integrity by no means excludes prudence in the conduct of life. It implies no improvident or thoughtless simplicity.
2. The path of integrity is the most honourable. Integrity is the foundation of all that is high in character among mankind. He who rests upon an internal principle of virtue and honour will act with a dignity and boldness of which they are incapable who are wholly guided by interest. That firmness which the consciousness of rectitude inspires gives vigour and force to his exertions on every great occasion. It adds double weight to all the abilities of which he is possessed. They who oppose him are obliged to honour him. Such a man is trusted and relied on, as well as esteemed.
3. The plan of conduct on which the man of integrity proceeds is the most comfortable, attended with the greatest satisfaction to his own mind. His reference of all his actions to Divine approbation furnishes another source of satisfaction and peace.
4. The man of integrity has in view the prospect of immortal rewards. True integrity will prove the truest wisdom both for this world and the next. (Hugh Blair, D.D.)

Integrity a good guide
Nehemiah was brave and upright; and his integrity guided him to honour and renown, and his righteousness delivered his friends and their enterprise from disaster (Neh_6:10-16). Haman was perverse and wicked; his ways were crooked; he conspired to take away the lives of others; and on the gallows which he had set up for Mordecai he himself was hung: and so “the transgressor was taken in his own naughtiness” (Est_7:10).

Proverbs 11:5
The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way.
The Divine nature of righteousness
Not unreasonably this book of Proverbs charged with unspirituality. It is not a manual of devotion. It is not a setting forth of eternal principles of truth. It is a collection of homely aphorisms applicable to the practical life of man. But these proverbs rest upon spiritual principles, and they are saved from narrowness by the way in which they explain, amplify, and qualify each other. The great pervading principle of the book is righteousness, its Divine nature, and its blessed fruits.
I. The fundamental principle of this book, and of all moral teaching. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap.” This by the world is—

1. Denied in practice.
2. Denied in theory. The theory is false that, live as you like, the result will be the same. It is contradicted by experience. It is inconsistent with the very being of a God.
   II. Special statement of the principles.
3. “The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way.” Note the leading words. “Perfect,” not faultless, but upright. Not consciously or intentionally reserving anything from God. “His righteousness.” Not his own, but God’s; yet made his own by free adoption of his will. “Its work.” Not an arbitrary reward.
4. “Wicked fall by his own wickedness.” Generally speaking, failure is worked for, and comes as payment. Apply to
   (1) Man’s earthly life.
   (2) To man’s spiritual life. (W. R. Clarke, M.A.)

Goodness required by God
The main characteristic of all heathen religions is that their gods do not demand righteousness, but certain outward and formal observances. Sacrifices must be offered to them, their vindictive temper must be propitiated, their anger averted; if the dues of the gods are paid, the stipulated quantity of corn and wine and oil, the tithes, the first-fruits, the animals for the altar, the tribute for the temple, then the Worshipper, who has thus discharged his obligations, may feel himself free to follow out his own tastes and inclinations. In the Roman religion, for example, every dealing with the gods was a strictly legal contract; the Roman general agreed with Jupiter or with Mars that if the battle should be won a temple should be built. It was not necessary that the cause should be right, or that the general should be good; the sacrifice of the wicked, though offered with an evil intent, was as valid as the sacrifice of the good. In either case the same amount of marble and stone, of silver and gold, would come to the god. In the Eastern religions not only were goodness and righteousness dissociated from the idea of the gods, but evil of the grossest kinds was definitely associated with them. The Phoenician deities, like those of the Hindoos, were actually worshipped with rites of murder and lust. Every vice had its patron god or goddess, and it was forgotten by priest and people that goodness could be the way of pleasing God, or moral evil a cause of offence to Him. Even in Israel, where the teaching of revelation was current in the proverbs of the people, the practice generally followed the heathen conceptions. All the burning protests of the inspired prophets could not avail to convince the Israelite that what God required was not sacrifice and offering, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him. Again and again we find that the high places were frequented, and the ritual supported by men who were sensual, unjust, and cruel. The Sabbath Day was kept, the feasts were duly observed, the priests were handsomely maintained, and there, it was supposed, the legitimate claims of Jehovah ceased. What more could He desire? This is surely the most impressive proof that the truth which is under consideration is far from being obvious. So far from treating the truth as a truism, our Lord in all His teaching laboured to bring it out in greater clearness, and to set it in the forefront of His message to men. He painted with exquisite simplicity and clearness the right life, the conduct which God requires of us, and then likened every one who practised this life to a man who builds his house on a rock, and every one who does not practise it to a man who builds his house on the sand. He declared, in the spirit of the Book of Proverbs, that teachers were to be judged by their fruits, and that God would estimate our lives not by what we professed to do, but by what we did; and He took up the very language of the book in declaring that every man should be judged according to his works. In every word He spoke He made it plain that goodness is what God loves, and that wickedness is what He judges and destroys. In the same way every one of the apostles insists on this truth with a new earnestness. St. John more especially reiterates it, in words which sound even more like a truism than the sayings of this book: “He that doeth righteousness, is righteous even as He is righteous”; and, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him.” (
R. F. Herren, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:7
The hope of unjust men perisheth.
The terrible in human history
There are two terrible events in this text.
I. Death meeting the wicked man. “The wicked man dieth.”

1. Death does not wait for reformation of character.
2. The greatest enemies of God and His universe are overcome. There is a stronger power than that of the wicked.
   II. Hope leaving the human soul. What is dearer to the soul than hope? The soul lives in and by hope. Shakespeare Says, “The miserable hath no medicine, but only hope.” When the wicked man dieth, he loses this hope. Hope of liberty, of improvement, of honour, of happiness. He dieth, and carrieth nothing away. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The hope of the wicked
Men derive almost the whole of their happiness from hope. The wicked man laughs at the righteous because he lives by hope; but the wicked man himself does the same. The present situation of the wicked man never yields him the pleasure which he wishes and expects, but there is ever something in view, in which, could he but obtain it, he would find rest. If his hopes are deferred, his heart is sick; if they are accomplished he is still unsatisfied; but he comforts himself with some other hope, like a child, who thinks he sees a rainbow on the top of a neighbouring hill, and runs to take hold of it, but sees it as far removed from him as before. Thus the life of a wicked man is spent in vain wishes and toils and hopes, till death kills at once his body, his hope, and his happiness. (G. Lawson.)

Proverbs 11:8
The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.
Trouble in its relation to the righteous and the wicked
All men have their troubles. The relation of the good and the bed to trouble is strikingly different.
I. The righteous are going out of trouble. The troubles of the righteous arise from physical infirmities, mental difficulties, secular anxieties, moral imperfections, social dishonesties, falsehoods, end bereavements. But the fact is, that they are being delivered out of these troubles.

1. Partially, they are being delivered out of trouble now.
2. Completely, they will be delivered out of all trouble at death.
   II. The wicked are going into trouble. They are going deeper into trouble every step they take. They are forging thunderbolts and nursing storms. The trouble they are going into is unmitigated. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Retributive justice
Thus do these two classes change places in the dispensations of God. The same Providence often marks Divine faithfulness and retributive justice. The Israelites were delivered out of the trouble of the Red Sea; the Egyptians came in their stead. Mordecai was delivered from the gallows; Haman was hanged upon it. The noble confessors in Babylon were saved from the fire; their executioners were “slain” by it. Daniel was preserved from the lions; his accusers were devoured by them. Peter was snatched from death; his jailors and persecutors were condemned. Thus “precious in the sight of the Lord is” the life, no less than “the death, of his saints.” To what source but his own free and sovereign love can we trace this special estimation? (C. Bridges.)

The wicked cometh in his stead
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came unhurt out of the “burning fiery furnace”; whilst the men who cast them in were slain by the fierceness of the heat (Dan_3:22-27.) Daniel was taken up alive and uninjured out of the lions’ den; whilst the men who had accused him were cast into the same den, and the lions, which had not touched Daniel, “brake all their bones in pieces” before they reached “the bottom of the den” (Dan_6:23-24).

Proverbs 11:9
An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
Hypocrisy and knowledge
The hypocrite is one who feigns to be what he is not—one whose life is a lie. Selfish, he wears the costume of benevolence; false, he speaks the language of sincerity and truth.
I. Hypocrisy is destructive. The hypocrite, by his deception, has often destroyed the reputation, the peace, end the soul of his neighbour. Hypocrisy—

1. Implies the pernicious. A consciousness of wrongness within is the cause of all hypocrisy.
2. Employs the pernicious. Misrepresentations are its instruments.
   II. Knowledge is restorative. Knowledge here is in antithesis with hypocrisy. Real knowledge is truth, reality. It scatters the clouds of ignorance and error, and raises the soul to light, freedom, purity and blessedness. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The insincere
This verse may be understood with a reference to all insincere professions of friendship and good intentions—to all insinuating and flattering pretensions, adopted for the purpose of affecting a particular end. How many are there who, for objects of their own deceive others; no matter what the result may be to the deceived, provided the deceiver but accomplish his selfish aim. In religion, the hypocrite has a purpose. His religion is not real. He assumes the cloak to cover some secret design. The verse itself suggests the design—the undermining of the principles of others. He insinuates himself into confidence. The confidence increasing, he becomes by degrees more and more bold, till, by slow steps, he unsettles the principles, shakes the faith, dissipates the seriousness, and ruins the souls of others. Hypocrites are awful stumbling blocks. (R. Wardlaw.)

Proverbs 11:10
When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth.
The public conscience in relation to moral character
Down deep beneath the errors, follies, vanities of the community, there is a conscience. That conscience points evermore to the right and the just, as the needle to the pole.
I. The public conscience in relation to the righteous.

1. Public conscience is gratified by the prosperity of the righteous.
2. Public conscience acknowledges the usefulness of the righteous.
   II. Public conscience in relation to the wicked.
3. It rejoices in their ruin.
4. It acknowledges their mischief.
   The “mouth of the wicked”—the channel of impieties, falsehoods, impurities, and innumerable pernicious errors have caused in all ages, and is still causing, the overthrow of states. (Homilist.)

The tribute to righteousness
This is a tribute to righteousness which must come sooner or later. There is a heart in the city as well as in the individual man; a kind of civic personality as well as a narrow individuality. When principles of the highest morality govern the life of the city there is rejoicing everywhere, because where righteousness is the blessing of God is, and the blessing of God maketh rich, and no sorrow is added to that infinite and tender benediction. It is singular indeed that even bad men rejoice when good principles are so received and applied as to revive commercial industry and commercial confidence, and create a healthy state of feeling as between nation and nation, and city and city. When the wicked man perishes there is shouting of gladness, although there may have been during his lifetime adulation and hypocritical compliment paid to him. The wicked man never did anybody any lasting good. He always took away more than he gave, and he never pronounced a kind word except with a stinging spirit, and even in his superficial benedictions there was nothing enduring, nothing solid and lasting in the comfort which he pretended to bestow. The wicked man imagines that he is popular, but his imagination is vain. He is only made use of, looked for in order that he may help in a time of emergency, or in some way be unconsciously debased to uses the full range and purpose of which he does not perceive. Every one is proud to recall the repute of a righteous man. It is like reminding others of gardens of beauty, orchards of delight, landscapes rich in all features of excellence and attractiveness; the name of the righteous is a name of health; it is breathed as with the fresh air of heaven; men delight to hear it and find their honour even in its repetition. By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. The upright may be for a time opposed, but for a time only; the issue is certain; truth will prevail, and they who oppose the upright shall come to humiliation, if not to contrition, and to such a sense of injury inflicted upon the innocent as will elicit from them words of compunction, petitions, and supplications for pardon. (J. Parker,D.D.)

When the wicked perish, there is shouting.
Joy in the fate of the wicked
On the death of Henry III of France, whose character was a contemptible mixture of weakness, folly, and vice, the Parisians, who had long held their king in distrust and contempt, gave themselves up to most disgraceful excesses of joy, and the Duchess of Montpensier ran about the streets crying, Good news, good news! the tyrant is dead! “Robespierre was conveyed to the place of execution amid shouts and execrations of the populace, who were frantic with joy at the downfall of the tyrant, the women dancing about the procession in the most insane manner. There was great rejoicing in Ireland when it was known that James Carey, the informer, had been shot. (J. L. Nye.)

When Mordecai triumphed over Haman, “the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad” (Est_8:15). “When the wicked perish, there is shouting.” When Athaliah was slain, “all the people of the land rejoiced” (2Ki_11:20).

Proverbs 11:11
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted.
A political maxim
To the morals of men is imputed the public prosperity or misfortunes. By “upright” is meant, men of sufficient abilities for the stations which they fill, and of piety and resolution enough to discharge the duties of their places.

1. When righteous magistrates are in authority, good laws are enacted, and impartially administered; virtue meets with its encouragements and vice with its due restraints and punishments.
2. The faithful dispensers of the sincere Word of God must needs contribute very much to the happiness of the place where they live. Those who propagate the knowledge of God, and excite men to glorify Him, must in reason be esteemed the instruments of men’s felicity.
3. Every upright man, of what station soever, is a blessing to the place where he lives, if he have so much of a public spirit and principle of humanity in him as to desire his neighbour’s prosperity as well as his own; and if he be ready upon all reasonable occasions to do good offices to others, such a man is a good member of any civilised community.
   The other part of the text deals with a contrary cause and effect.
4. At the tribunals of justice, in trials of right and wrong, an unjust sentence has often proceeded from the mouth of a partial judge, a corrupt jury, or a false witness.
5. In dispensing the Divine Word, and treating of the mysteries and doctrines of religion, it is of most destructive consequences to the people, if the mouth of the wicked have the handling of them; for then the people will be sure to be divided by that religion which was designed to unite them, and be emboldened to disobey God by the authority of His own misinterpreted Word. Pure religion is certainly the very best cement of civil society, as mightily enforcing the duties of unity, peace, and love among men: but religion corrupted in the doctrines of faith and practice carries with it the seeds of endless strife and contention, and ministers occasion to continual debates and animosities.
6. In the daily affairs and transactions of common life, the mouth of the wicked does much towards destroying the public good. If this be well demonstrated, it is a fair warning to all cities which are concerned for their own preservation, that they be very careful to increase the upright, and diminish the number of the wicked among them. Let us then exert ourselves, upon all just occasions, in the cause of truth, to the extermination of all that is contrary to it. So shall we both entitle ourselves and those whom we shall reduce from error to the gracious protection of God in this life present, and to His everlasting salvation in that which is to come. (W. Reading, M.A.)

A good man a blessing to the city
When Hezekiah “wrought that which was good and right and truth before God,” the Lord saved Jerusalem from the hand of every enemy, and made the city prosperous (2Ch_32:22; 2Ch_32:30.) But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were foul of mouth; it was an open sepulchre; and, because of their sins, God overthrew the two cities (Gen_19:25).

Proverbs 11:12-13
He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour.
Types of character in social life
Four distinct types of character.
I. The insolent. Men destitute of all true respect for their fellows. They are uncivil and rude, sneering, saucy, abusive.
II. The respectful. He is neither precipitant in the judgment he forms of men, nor hasty in his language. He is the true gentleman of society: cautious, prudent, polite.
III. The tattler. A tale-bearer is one who will take in your secrets, and hasten to his neighbour to pour them into his greedy ears. He has a witching ear to know your concerns. He is not always malicious in spirit, but he is always dangerous. He is always defending friendships, starting suspicions, and creating animosities.
IV. The trustworthy. The antithesis to the tale-bearer. He is a dependable friend; he will listen to your secrets as things too sacred for speech. You can trust him with your life, he will never betray you. (Homilist.)

Tale-bearers unloading refuse
“It was told me in the strictest confidence, but you won’t tell I” “No,” was the quiet reply; “I prefer not to hear it. What right have you to tell what you virtually promised not to communicate; I am sure I have no right, and I have no desire to know what does not belong to me to know.” There are people who use their friends as dumping-grounds, and unload on them any choice bits of scandal they may chance to pick up, as though they were conferring a favour. As long as human nature is what it is, there will be plenty of such unloading to be done; but what noble mind wishes to be put to such ignoble uses, and to have made in any part of his spiritual domain a scavenger heap? The perfect character, like the perfectly kept house, has no dark and dusty corners. It is kept sweet and pure in every part. There is no place where a foul garment or a malodorous rag may be tucked away and hidden. Fire and water and the broom and duster in a modern house keep all things clean. There is no more reason why there should be nesting-places of evil in the soul than why there should be dust upon our furniture. The pure sunlight of God let into dark places cleanses and keeps them clean. The person who in confidence would taint another is not a friend, but an enemy. (Christian Age.)

Tale-bearers traders in scandal
The word means “a hawker,” or “travelling-chapman”; and the tale-bearer is a trader in scandal, an itinerant busybody. A. shrewd heathen was wont to say, “Tale-bearers should be hung up by the tongue, and tale-hearers by the ears.”

Proverbs 11:14
Where no counsel is, the people fall.
The value of advice
Kings and rulers stand in special need of counsel. When a ruler is surrounded by good counsellors he and his people are safe. We can trace this truth in the rise and fall of nations. God’s advice is one of our most valuable helps, and the text tells us not to neglect it. Man is apt to go astray. His judgment is sometimes misled; while his affections are corrupted, and his will is ungoverned.
I. Why do we need advice? The first reason is found in the peculiar nature of the evils to which we are exposed. Sin has a strangely deluding influence over those whom it tempts. Here there is scope of need for wise counsels, which may enforce the neglected voice of conscience. Advice is also necessary in consequence of special circumstances in which we are placed. We are involved in difficulties from which others are required to rescue us. “Where no counsel is, the people fall.”
II. Where are we to seek advice? We should not ask for it except when we really require it. To be ever at a loss what to do unless we are “advised” is a characteristic of a life that is usually spent to little purpose. The secret of a useful course through the world lies in a measure of self-reliance. At other times when advice is sought there is a foregone conclusion, and a man only wishes to have his own views confirmed. Out of its proper place advice, instead of being a help, is almost a hindrance to a right decision. It is not safe to go indiscriminately to all sorts of people with a statement of our difficulties, and entreaties for advice in dealing with them. This disposition is the evidence of a weak mind and an irresolute will. There is no real safety in the counsel sought in the confessional. Supreme wisdom comes to us with greatest force when it flows through the channel of hearts bound closely to our own.
III. How to take advice. The danger of resenting counsel, when it is unpleasant, is one with which we are all more or less familiar. Those who give advice should always be pure of their warrant to do so. But the more experience a man has the less disposed he will be to give advice unsought. Men are rarely careful enough in their way of giving disagreeable advice. There is a spirit and a manner in some counsels which it is not in human nature to bear. But we must take care lest we be displeased with others whose advice we get, simply because we dislike it. All are not good counsellors who try to lead, and we cannot too carefully test the words of advice which, on every hand, are spoken to us. When we are in doubt as to their value, we must weigh them in the balance of God’s sanctuary; and if they speak not according to His law, it is because there is no truth in them. The Great Adviser is always interested in us. Reliance on help from above is verified by the experience of all good men. (A. MacEwen, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:16
A gracious woman retaineth honour.
The honour of woman
Here the sexes are put in beautiful apposition: woman is gracious, man is strong. Graciousness dissociated from strength has indeed an influence all its own; strength dissociated from graciousness is mere strength, and is wanting in all those attributes which excite and satisfy the deepest confidences of the world. A woman can work miracles by her graciousness. She knows how to enter the sick chamber noiselessly. She knows how to enter the room without violence, ostentation, or impressiveness, which signifies vanity and display. Woman can speak the gentle word, and look the gracious look, and use the magical touch of friendship and trust, and, in short, can carry her own way without appearing to do so by the very force of tenderness, sympathy, and persuasiveness. Who would raise the foolish question whether grace or strength is the more desirable attribute? Each is desirable in its own way; a combination that is the very perfection of character. Strength and beauty are in the house of the Lord. The great column looks all the better for the beautiful capital which crowns and enriches it. Men should endeavour to cultivate grace, tenderness, all that is charmful in spirit, disposition, and action. This cannot be done by mere mimicry; it is to be done by living continually with Christ, studying His spirit, entering into all His purposes, and reproducing, not mechanically, but spiritually, as much as possible of all that was distinctive of His infinite character. The Bible has ever given honour to woman. He is a fool and an unjust man who wishes to keep women in silence, obscurity, and in a state of unimportance; and she is a foolish woman who imagines that she cannot be gracious without being strong, and who wishes to sacrifice her graciousness to some empty reputation for worthless energy. It is not good for the man to be alone, for he is without grace; it is not good for the woman to be alone, for she is without strength; when men and women stand to one another in the right Christian relation they will complete one another, and together constitute the Divine idea of humanity. (
J..Parker, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:17
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul
The merciful man
Our God is a God of mercy.
Since He is full of mercy Himself, He is well pleased when He sees us exercise the same towards our fellow-creatures. The wise man here does not speak of tenderness towards others. The merciful man he here represents is a self-interested individual. He “doeth good to his own soul.” The merciful is he who is alive to his eternal interests, who is seeking the good of that treasure which is committed to him—“his own soul.” How may you promote this most desirable of all objects?

1. He who would do good to his own soul must carefully avoid all manner of sin, whether in thought, word, or deed. The thoughts must be watched. We are to be careful of the words which we utter, so that we may not make our tongues the instruments of evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. And careful also of our conduct and action.
2. Another mark of the object being kept in view, is the habitual study of the Word of God. The Scriptures testify of Christ, and point Him out as the “way, the truth, and the life.”
3. Attention to the means of grace.
4. He endeavours to realise an interest in the merits and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
5. The merciful man, who does good to his own soul, does so only by placing his entire dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. (D. Slyman, B.A.)

The generous and the ungenerous
I. A generous disposition is a blessing to its possessor.

1. A merciful man doeth good to his intellectual faculties. It is a psychological fact that the intellect can only see clearly, move freely, and progress vigorously as it is surrounded by the atmosphere of disinterested affection. Selfishness blinds, cripples, enervates the intellect.
2. A merciful man doeth good to his moral sentiments. Conscience approves only of the actions that spring from love.
   II. An ungenerous disposition is a curse to its possessor. Unmercifulness of disposition breeds the fiends of envy, jealousy, malice, remorse, fear, suspicion, pride, that torment the soul. (Homilist.)

Mercy to sufferers and to offenders
Mercy to sufferers is the disposition to relieve; mercy to offenders is the disposition to forgive. The two are infinitely united in God. Under His government all sufferers are offenders. It is only as offenders that they are sufferers, and when He pardons the offence He cancels the sentence to suffering. And in every good man the two are united. They should, indeed, be regarded as one principle, operating in different departments. The merciful man, whether considered in the one light or in the other—in exercising forgiveness or in relieving distress—“doeth good to his own soul”; he effectually consults his own interests. In the exercise of the generous and kindly affections there is a genuine and exquisite happiness. (R. Wardlaw.)

Proverbs 11:18
The wicked worketh a deceitful work.
The wicked and the just
There is here a startling contrast between them, in their work and in their reward.
I. Their work.

1. There is intentionally set before us a good specimen of a bad man. He is a man who works, and works hard in his own way. Some evil-doers are idle, profligate, sensual, devilish. Such seldom deceive themselves, and but rarely deceive others. But here is described a man who is very likely to deceive both himself and others. Wicked men are often shrewd men of the world and clever. They are zealous and laborious men, though the objects they aim at may be unworthy and bad. Their mistake is not in the way they work, but in the thing they work for. If all Christians were as eager in their pursuit of truth and charity and all good works as worldly men are in their search after riches and pleasures, what a difference it would make! Whilst the wicked man works in earnest fashion for time, does he attempt any like efforts for eternity? It is a mistake to think the bad man does not care for eternity at all. Multitudes attempt to serve two masters. A man who works with all his strength for worldly success often persuades himself that he will be able to work for eternity too. Does he then labour for the “meat that endureth unto eternal life”? Nay, at this point his wisdom is at fault, the deceitfulness of his work begins to appear. He is no better than a spiritual impostor and spendthrift. He knows nothing of the faith which awakens the generous and noble impulses of humanity, which touches the heart and makes the life holy. He is altogether ignorant of the quickening and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost.
2. Not such is the work of the righteous. He “soweth righteousness.” The sowing of the seed is the crowning act of the husbandman’s preparation for a crop. All his other work goes for nothing unless it be consummated by this work. The wicked is said to work, but the just sows righteousness. The text describes a work of faith. He who “sows righteousness” does it in order that he may hereafter gather in the harvest. What is the seed he sows? (compare Hos_10:12). To “sow righteousness,” to “sow in righteousness,” and to “sow to the Spirit,” all means the same thing. It is to live righteously, to do righteous actions, to perform acts of devotion and piety to God, and to do works of truth and justice and charity towards our neighbour. It is to learn to do the will of God, looking forward to a future harvest,” having respect unto the recompense of the reward.” Righteousness in Scripture is a universal virtue, containing in itself all other virtues. A man must gather his seed before he can sow it. He who is to “sow righteousness” must first obtain a supply of the precious fruit of righteousness. Whence can this supply be fetched?
   II. Their reward.
3. Working a deceitful work means working so as to deceive others. There is no real truth in a bad man. He is sure to deceive, whenever deceit will serve his ends. He will cast truth to the winds whenever truth calls upon him to suffer, either in his own person, or in his purse, or in the good opinion of others. Another rendering is, “the wicked winneth deceitful wages.” His work will betray him to his ruin, and will in the end utterly disappoint his own hopes. His work will break down just where it ought to stand, and fail altogether when his need is the greatest.
4. Mark well the bright and refreshing contrast. “To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.” The seed which has been sown in hope may lie for a long time beneath the clods, and may seem to be dead as well as buried. But as surely as God’s Word is true, it will spring up and grow, and ripen for a harvest of unspeakable joy. The reward of the righteous is a reward of grace and mercy. He that has “sown righteousness” most plentifully will look for his sure reward only from the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ. We live in difficult times, no doubt, but every age has its own trials, and the men of every age are ready to believe that no trials are as bad as theirs. The only safe way is the same in every age. It is to “sow righteousness.” (W. Bonner Hopkins, B.D.)

To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.—
The spiritual tillage
The husbandry and harvest of the righteous:—This is a counter-plea to that profane principle of the atheists, who say, “It is in vain to serve God.”
I. What it is to sow righteousness. It is the same as to “sow to the Spirit.” The gracious course of consecrating a man’s self unto God in the practice of godliness. There is likeness betwixt the practice of godliness and the sowing of seed.

1. In some things which go before sowing—the preparation and fitting of the ground, and the choice of seed to put in the ground. In like manner there must be in the practice of godliness the preparation of the heart and the choice of particulars belonging to a Christian course.
2. In the act of sowing, which may include the time of sowing and the plenty of sowing. In the spiritual business the seed-time for righteousness is in this life; the opportunity must be taken when it comes. And to sow righteousness is to be rich in good works.
3. In the things that follow after sowing. The fields must be hedged, the cattle shut out, the birds driven away, the stones picked out, and the field watched to see how it goes on. In spiritual matters it is vain to have entered into a good course if it be not continued. The signs of the practice of godliness are—
   (1) The submitting a man’s self to have his heart broken up by the power of God’s Word;
   (2) a diligent inquiry into the best way of pleasing God;
   (3) a pressing forward amid many encumbrances;
   (4) a striving and caring to be fruitful in good works;
   (5) a watching over a man’s course with a continued diligence.
   II. What is the sure reward? This is either in the life present or in that which is to come. Rewards in this life are both outward and inward: outward so far forth as the wisdom of God shall see it fitting. The inward is peace of conscience, arising out of the comfortable assurance of God’s favour. This is a joy working even in afflictions. The reward in the life to come cannot be expressed. Scripture reasoneth concerning the certainty of this reward by a proverbial speech, “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Holiness in the seed, happiness in the harvest. And by the truth of God’s promise. There is a double reward—a reward of favour and a reward of debt. The doctrines to be collected are—
4. That the practice of godliness is a matter which requireth great industry.
5. That the full reward of religion is not to be looked for immediately on the practice of religion. Sowing and reaping come not at once.
6. That the Lord will surely reward those which faithfully labour in His service. Though there be many a storm after our sowing, the harvest will come, and we shall be comforted. Farmers pay their workmen straight after their labour, before the corn be ripe, but the payments are of far less value than the corn. God bestoweth upon His all that they have sown, and the hire shall far exceed the travail. (
   S. Hieron.)

The two pursuits with their respective ends
Denunciations of wrath against the wicked are no less common in Scripture than declarations of mercy to the penitent. The promises of almighty love are often repeated; no less frequent are the proclamations of almighty justice. The doom of the impenitent is no less certain than the rewards of the righteous. Solomon seems to place before us in these words the life of the righteous and the life of the ungodly contrasted with the respective objects which they have in view and the different ends to which they lead.
I. The wicked worketh a deceitful work. The object which he pursues seems to promise him great things, but it generally fills him with disappointment and chagrin. The characters of the wicked are various, but in one point they all agree—“they forget God.” They practically forget Him. They salve over their own consciences by thoughts of impunity. They have no love to God’s name, no inclination to obey His laws; they are by consequence without the strongest bond of duty in man, which is love. The law of God is hateful to them, because it puts constraint upon their appetites and evil designs. And they are without the bond of fear. As God’s judgments are out of sight, so they are out of mind. The pursuit of evil cannot minister to happiness even here below. It is attended with manifold woes, even upon earth. Sin, in most cases, is connected with punishment. “He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his death.” It is the death of hope, peace, reputation, and a good conscience. It is often the cause of a premature temporal death. The pursuit of evil is the necessary school and preparation for eternal death.
II. The different ends to which the life of the righteous and the life of the ungodly lead. What is righteousness? Other terms are godliness, holiness, the new man. What is meant is not the righteousness of forms, but an inward disposition manifested by corresponding conduct, the new heart and the new life. It is the godliness which is opposed to the bodily exercise that profiteth little. Such righteousness tendeth to life. It has a natural and necessary tendency to promote present peace and eternal glory. In Scripture the words life and death are used for happiness and misery. The righteous are necessarily training themselves for eternal happiness, independently of that promise which secures to them “the crown of glory that fadeth not away.” There must be a fitness for heaven, a character acquired upon earth which is suitable to the abode of the just. The righteousness of which we speak is conformity of heart and life to Jesus Christ; it is union of soul with Him, a likeness to His example; it has a measure of His holiness and perfection. Righteousness disposes and fits a man for the enjoyment of God, for it cultivates those faculties of the soul which are called into exercise in heaven. Righteousness rests upon the basis of love. The acquiring of this righteousness is the preparation for the enjoyment of God. Already the righteous have communion with the Father of their spirits and with the “spirits of the just made perfect.” This being so, the passage for them is easy from this world to eternity. But righteousness also has a tendency to promote present happiness. The righteous live in the favour of God. They have peace of conscience. They fear no evil. They can look on death without alarm. Righteousness has a natural tendency to promote our welfare by conciliating the favour of the good and the respect of all And the reward laid up in heaven is sure. In conclusion, address two classes: Those who are seeking after righteousness—a word of cheer. Those who are “working a deceitful work”—a word of warning. (H. J. Hastings, M.A.)

The deceitfulness of sin
Opposites illustrate each other. Of this principle considerable use is made in the sacred Scriptures.
I. Opposite characters. The idea of righteousness is equality, as the equilibrium of a pair of scales. Applied to moral or religious natures it means a correspondence between our obligations on the one hand and our performance on the other. So it becomes obedience or conformity to the law. The radical meaning of the word “wicked” is inequality, unfairness. In a moral sense a want of correspondence between duty and performance, or nonconformity to righteous laws. Wickedness is disorder, incongruity, deception, an unsound principle, naturally producing a deceitful work.
II. Opposite practices. Righteousness renders to all their due. Where wrong sentiments are indulged wrong dispositions and practices naturally follow. Hence result—

1. Treachery towards friends.
2. Fraud and falsehood in business.
3. Extortion and oppression.
4. Maladministration; a never-ceasing theme of complaint.
   In all such cases the work is a “deceitful work”—deceitful in its nature, operation, and results.
   III. Opposite results.
5. God convinces the sinner of his unrighteousness.
6. Enlightens, transforms, and renews the soul.
   The renewed begins to sow righteousness. To him there is a sure reward. Pause and inquire whether such a change has been effected in you. Pray for convincing and converting grace. Persevere through evil and through good report. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

The reward of lowing righteousness
In the Bible a righteous person is one who loves and serves God, i.e., one who is a true Christian. When people become true Christians themselves they want to do all they can to try to make other people Christians. All the good things that such people do in this way the Bible calls righteousness. Sowing, in the text, means doing. Righteousness, in the text, means kind acts, good works of any kind, that Christian people do out of love to Jesus and from a desire to make others love Him. And thus we find out that “sowing righteousness” means doing good. Righteousness is the best seed in the world to sow.

1. Because of the size of the field in which this sowing may be carried on.
2. Because of the number and kind of sowers. Farmers are only one class of men. All classes of persons may be sowers of righteousness.
3. Because of the certainty of the reward. Farmers hope for harvest, but cannot be quite sure. The reward of sowing righteousness is made up of pleasure and profit. Sometimes the profit is found in this life. But the best part of the reward is in heaven. (R. Newton, D.D.)

The evil and the good
Men separate morally into two great divisions. See them—
I. As they appear at work.

1. Evil works deceitfully. It deceives the individual possessor; it makes his very life fiction. It deceives others. It fabricates and propagates falsehood.
2. The good works righteously. Being righteous in heart, he is charged with righteous principles, which he sows as seed in the social circle to which he belongs.
   II. As they appear in retribution. All works, the bad as well as the good, bring results to the worker. These results are the retribution; they are God’s return for labour.
3. The righteous reap life. Life of the highest kind—spiritual. Life of the highest degree—immortal blessedness.
4. The wicked reap death—the death of all usefulness, nobility, and enjoyment.
   III. As they appear before God.
5. God observes moral distinctions.
6. God is affected by moral distinctions. What He sees He feels. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:19
As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.
The reward of righteousness
Life and death are objects of universal interest. Life here is life spiritual and eternal. Death is viewed as involving separation and exclusion from God.
I. Righteousness proves the spiritual life to be begun in our souls; evil shows that our souls are still dead in sin. Naturally we are all dead in sin. There is a life which God’s life-giving Spirit begins in us. One of the most marked indications of its existence is righteousness developing itself in the whole character and conduct.
II. Righteousness is connected with the spiritual nourishment which maintains life; evil with the neglect of such nourishment, which occasions death. Man’s spiritual nature must receive spiritual sustenance. The soul that is quickened to righteousness hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and God bestows upon it what it seeks, so as to nourish it and strengthen it.
III. Righteousness leads to courses of action which prolong life; evil, from its very nature, conducts to death. God’s ways tend not only to the preservation and prolongation of life in this world, but to the full enjoyment of life for evermore.
IV. Righteousness associates us with those who are alive to God, thus helping to maintain life in the soul; evil unites us to those who are spiritually dead, and brings us into the same state with them. To be the living among the dead is no easy thing. If voluntarily we associate with the dead, imbibing their spirit, and following their ways, we must be conformed in likeness to them.
V. Righteousness ensures the Divine protection, so that life is guarded and defended; evil incurs God’s wrath, which is death. Life is a brittle thing. The great God who gives it is ready, however, to ward off all the dangers which may menace it. His favour is life; His frown is death.
VI. Righteousness conducts to life everlasting in heaven; evil to eternal death in hell. The world of glory shall be peopled by the righteous. The evil and unbelieving shall inhabit the world of woe. (Anon.)

Pursuing evil
The “sure reward” in the preceding verse is “life” in this; and as that reward is sure in the one case, the deceitfulness of the wicked s work” lies in its affecting “death” as its result instead of “life.” He who “pursueth evil” may overtake it, and may boast himself in the success of his pursuit. But the very evil that he overtakes shall slay him. It is as if a man were to pursue a serpent, captivated by the beauty of its appearance, in its shifting and glistening hues, but ignorant of the venom of its sting, or its fang, and in the act of laying hold of it, were to receive the deadly wound. Death treads on the very heels of the man who “pursueth evil “; and when he overtakes the evil, death overtakes him. (
R. Wardlaw.)

The natural history of evil
Every sinner plans and acts against his own personal interest; and fond as he is of life, he is a self-destroyer. He is allured by false appearances, enveloped in sense and sensual delights, and follows a path that ends in destruction.
I. The commencement of moral evil in the human soul. He is born in a state of impurity. Evil is interwoven in the very texture of his being. It commenced with the first family of the human race, and the evil spirit of unrighteousness has been transmitted from father to son. When a man is not properly acquainted with the corruption of his nature, he mistakes a want of opportunity to sin for moral purity of heart, and the absence of temptation for a truly virtuous mind. Evil in actual operation in human life—

1. Springs up in thoughts.
2. Finds expression in overt acts.
   II. The progress of moral evil. “He that pursueth evil” There is not the root only, but also the tree and the growth. A man seldom becomes a sudden profligate. By a continuance in evil the feelings become less affected with its enormity, the conscience is less tender and scrupulous, the base inclinations and passions of the heart gather strength, and temptation finds an easy dupe to every impious proposal. Sin has not a resting-place. It carries within itself the power of perpetual motion. Sin hardens the heart.
   III. the completion of moral evil. It has its seed-time, its growth, and its harvest.
3. The completion of sin is the death of reputation.
4. The death of enjoyment.
5. The death of the body.
6. The death of the soul. (Thomas Wood.)

Proverbs 11:20
Such as are upright in their way are His delight.
The upright, God’s delight
I. Who are the upright? Those whom God makes upright, the workmanship of His own Spirit, His new creation. This does not deny that there is in a sense an uprightness in the natural man. As long as man is a responsible being he is answerable to God for the use of the means given him, and it is a certain truth that there is not a natural man in the world who acts up to the light that he has. Great numbers claim the character of being upright and sincere. So the apostle Paul thought of himself when in his unconverted state. Natural sincerity never comes to the testing of God’s holy light. It can deal with man, but there is never that in natural sincerity which comes before God. For the upright see the publican smiting on his breast; the prodigal returning home; the woman a sinner dropping tears of penitence on Jesus’s feet; Matthew, Zaccheus, Nicodemus. The weakest, the feeblest believer, is upright. He often, indeed, thinks himself otherwise. He will even regard himself as a self-deceiver. The upright man mourns over inbred corruptions. Sometimes he has seasons of doubt. He is brought into circumstances of trial. Amidst all, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, he holds fast his integrity.
II. The upright are God’s delight. It is not their way, but themselves, that are His delight. He loved them before all worlds; He loved them before they loved Him in eternity. But the characters of the upright are His delight. He delights in the fruits of His own Son’s mediation, in the workmanship of His own Spirit, and in the reflection of His own image. But especially He delights in their being upright. He looks to the humiliation of the upright, their broken hearts, their falling tears. So precious is this uprightness before God, that it seems as if He overlooked all faults where it is. What a word of encouragement this ought to be to those who are honestly seeking Him! If you are indeed upright God knows it, and “your inheritance shall be for ever.” (J. Harrington Evans.)

Proverbs 11:21
Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. (Taken with Luk_23:51).
The laws of responsibility in combinations and partnerships
We are surrounded by numberless combinations devised by men for all manner of purposes—religious, political, judicial, social, commercial, scientific, industrial, artistic, educational, etc. Men widely abandon endeavours after striking individuality in thought or conduct, and throw themselves blindfold into the stream of fashion which carries the multitude away. Men seek to recover their lost sense of power by combination with others in doctrine, in capital, indeed in all departments. The will of each individual becomes, as it were, a single minute cog in a mighty wheel-work of engineering, which carries everything before it. All this is not favourable to the sense of responsibility for conduct here or hereafter. There is a special delusion which attends the combinations in which men seek to recover the sense of power, and to unite their forces in order to accomplish their ends. This delusion consists in mistaking joint responsibility for divided responsibility. The persuasion is extended widely that union is not only strength in administration and enterprise, but that it distributes the oppressive burden of responsibility in equal or nearly equal and insignificant shares between all the persons who are joined together in any undertaking; so that although the practical result of their united action may be morally indefensible, or even utterly wicked and injurious, no single person can be justly blamed, or rendered accountable for the whole criminality of the result—since the wickedness has been effected by an organisation or administration consisting of numbers of agents who have assisted or consented in the work. A characteristic proverb has descended to us from the last century to this effect: “A cathedral chapter would divide even a murder between them”—a proverb unfairly singling out one particular kind of Christian combination for censure, yet embodying two truths applicable to every association, civil and religious.

1. That even well-disposed men will sometimes agree to do in company what they would not dare to do as individuals.
2. That no man’s personal accountableness to God can ever be swallowed up and lost in an impersonal organisation. The relation of the individual to the moral government of God is primary, dominant, and inalienable; it cannot be diminished by the concurrence of others. Before God the combination of men in counsel and action results always not in divided responsibility but in joint responsibility. Each member is responsible for the whole result of what he consents to, or carries into action. There can be no divided liability for a conjoint iniquity. If this were not so, it would require men only to join hand in hand to go unpunished. But how should God judge the world unless in all such cases the responsibility is joint, not distributive? This is also the principle of human legislation and administration. It is not, therefore, good to undertake, as if merely nominal, any real responsibilities.
   This truth, that a man is responsible for whatever he consents to, ought—
3. To be proclaimed in relation to ecclesiastical organisations and missionary societies.
4. The principle may be seen in the working of political party. Educated men are guilty, in a free country, of all the national iniquity against which they do not protest with determination.
5. The principle of personal liability needs application to commercial affairs and civil life. The Almighty God stands behind every creditor and every customer, in readiness to assert and enforce every just claim to the uttermost. The Infinite Defender of Right is behind every person who is wronged. The highest Law Court is omnipresent and sleepless. We cannot put an end to the great battle between selfish interests, but we can do much by public spirit and sound legislation to alleviate its woes. On the whole I must express my conviction, however, that the commercial world will bear an honourable comparison with the political and ecclesiastical, when tried by this principle of the responsibility of each member in every combination. (Edward White.)

Combination
Men, like sheep, are gregarious. The combination is—
I. Natural. The wicked, in the text, are supposed to be in danger, and nothing is more natural than for men to crowd together in common danger. Fear as well as love brings men together; the one drives, the other draws.
II. Useless. No combination of men, however great in number, vast in wisdom, mighty in strength, affluent in resources, can prevent punishment from befalling the wicked. It must come.

1. The moral constitution of the soul.
2. The justice of the universe.
3. The almightiness of God, render all human efforts to avoid it futile. (Homilist.)

Opposing God useless
The uselessness of opposing God must be manifest from every point of view. God is omniscient, and knows all things; is almighty, and can do all things; is omnipresent, and is everywhere: so that no device or counsel or plot can succeed against Him. The image of the text is that of conspiracy, wicked men combining, saying to one another in effect, “It each of us cannot succeed singly, we may by combination succeed as a unity.” The possibility of such a conspiracy was foreseen, and the issue of it is foretold in these plain terms. Let men add money to money, genius to genius, influence to influence, counsel to counsel, still it is but like the addition of so many ciphers—the number being very great but the value being absolutely nothing. What one man cannot do in this direction a thousand men are unable to do. Fool, then, is he who supposes that because he has followed a multitude to do evil, therefore no harm will come to him. Every man in the multitude will be judged as if he were alone responsible for the whole mischief. Hands that are joined together in wickedness may be dissevered on any occasion and for the flimsiest reasons. It is folly for any wicked man to trust in a man as wicked as himself, for the very fact that wickedness renders security impossible, and turns all manner of association into a mere matter of temporary convenience, which may be varied or destroyed according to a thousand contingencies. All evil partnerships in business are doomed to failure. All irregular alliances in the household must come to confusion and disappointment, and may end fatally. The same law holds good in the State, and indeed in every department of life. There can be no security but in righteousness, in high wisdom, in unselfish enthusiasm; where these abound the security is as complete as it is possible for man to make it. Men cannot be joined wisely and permanently together unless they are first joined to the living God. Men can only be joined to the living God through the living Christ; He is the vine, men are the branches, and unless the branch abides in the vine it cannot bear fruit, but is doomed to be burned. True union, therefore, must be religious or spiritual before it can be human and social. Neglect of this great law has ended in inexpressible disappointment and mortification on the part of statesmen, reformers, and propagandists of every kind. (
J. Parker, D.D.)

But the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.—
The sanctions of obedience
The text is a twofold proposition—that combinations against God and godliness only incur failure and penalty; and that the triumph of righteousness is equally sure. There are among men’s habits three general kinds of “wickedness,” or disobedience to God’s laws, entailing upon them three several orders and degrees of retribution or punishment: violations of the laws which govern the spiritual or moral man, the animal man, and the social man.

1. If the mind-laws, which include the intellectual and moral aspects of man, be disobeyed, that is if the process of education be not contemporaneous with the progress of years, the mental faculty languishes in the stagnation of its undeveloped powers, the mental man grows and abides an ignoramus, a stereotyped boor; and if the means of grace be in like manner neglected, the spiritual man rises not into the dignity which the love of God designed for him.
2. If the body-laws, or the principles which regulate the health, be disregarded by habits of excess or even ordinary indulgence or neglect of exercise, the penalty is a diseased body, and personal infirmity.
3. If the estate laws be disregarded, which make industry essential to getting, and frugality essential to saving what is got, and forethought essential in the way of insurance upon life or property, the punishment meets the man in his estate, in his condition of life, that is, in the form in which he has sinned. When we pray for a sound and enlightened mind, do we turn to the Word “whose entrance giveth light”? Do we seek to inform our minds, correct our judgments, and enrich our memories? When we pray for health and strength to labour and enjoy, do we avoid those varieties, artifices, and excesses in food and drink, and those sluggish habits of inactivity and sloth, which make health physically impossible? When we pray for prosperity in our worldly affairs, do we still, on conscientious principles, “labour, working with our hands the thing that is meet”? Do we glorify God in our attention to our business? Where can there be a more cogent, impressive, animating motive than the sterling fact, “Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are His”? Man can no more do without God, or act independently of God and His laws, than the rays of light can dispense with the sun. All the errors of individual character, all the failures in educational theories, all the mistakes of experimental legislation, originate in the fundamental fatal effect of reckoning without God, setting aside the great elemental fact that He is at the root, progress, and issue of all things, and that to put Him out of our calculations, to supersede His constitution, is to start upon false premises, to provoke and compel a failure, to reason and range in a vicious circle, for ever retracing its impracticable, unprogressive steps. “The wicked shall not go unpunished.” “The seed of the righteous shall be delivered.” (Joseph B. Owen, M.A.)

Proverbs 11:22
As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
A good thing in a bad place
The Jews regarded the pig as an unclean animal. The heathen around worshipped the pig, and they ate it afterwards as an act of worship. The Egyptians, when they wished to draw a picture of a very foolish person, always represented him as a pig. How unlovely is the idea of a jewel that might have been worn by a queen being placed in the nose of a pig! But there are some things that we see every day which are quite as bad. For instance—

1. A pretty face and a very ugly soul. It is nice to be beautiful, but it is far better to be good. When you feel tempted to be proud because you are good-looking, ask yourself, “Is my soul good-looking and beautiful to God?”
2. A good head and a bad heart. King John, one of England’s worst kings, was a very clever man. It is not enough to be learned, or to have great talents; we want to be holy, and then shall we be able to use our abilities well.
3. Wise words and foolish deeds. It was said of a certain king, that “he never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one.” A jewel treated as described in this text would be a jewel misapplied. It was never intended for such a use. And God did not intend that we should ever waste our minds and our time in the service of sin. The Jews had a saying that the nose of a pig is walking dirt. If a jewel were placed in it, it would be spoiled. Sin mars a beautiful face; it will even make a clever man foolish; it will ruin us if it be not taken away from us. (J. J. Ellis.)

Bedizened wickedness
A fair woman is one of personal attractions. Discretion means virtue or moral worth. A woman of external attractions who is devoid of mind excellences is a most unsightly object.
I. Here is a very incongruous conjunction in one person. Physical beauty and moral deformity united. Do not despise natural, or personal, or artistic beauty.
II. Here is a very revolting conjunction in one person. Incongruity is not always disgusting, it is sometimes ridiculous. But this incongruity is disgusting when it is seen aright with healthy moral sentiments. We do not always see how revolting it is, because our eye rests upon the personal attraction, and peers not into the moral heart. We are taken up more with the “jewel” than with the “swine.”
III. Here is a very common conjunction in one person.

1. Wickedness is prompted by personal attraction.
2. Wickedness is fond of personal attractions. Vulgarity always likes finery, and sin is always fond of making a grand appearance. Do not, in forming your fellowships, be carried away with one side of life. Do not follow the swine for the sake of the jewel. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:24
There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.
The tendency of liberality to riches, and of covetousness to poverty
The words of this text carry an air of improbable and surprising paradoxes to the covetous and worldly-minded, who naturally imagine that scattering tends to poverty, and withholding to increase. But if we take them to be allusive to the management of a husbandman in sowing his seed, the sense will stand as easy as the thought will appear to be beautiful and just (compare 2Co_9:6).
I. The description of persons of very opposite characters. “Scatter” is the same word as “disperse” (Psa_112:9). He that scatters is the liberal soul; the man who, with a free and generous spirit, labours to spread the most useful and extensive influence, by all manner of means; the man who is ready to distribute of his temporal substance for promoting religious and civil liberties and interests, for doing good to the souls and bodies of men, and, particularly, for relieving the necessitous and the distressed. We should manage our religious and charitable distributions, not with contrivance how to shift off our obligations and opportunities for them, but with devising how in the best manner to improve them; not with a grudging, but with a free and cheerful heart. On the contrary, he that withholds, keeps back, or spares, more than is meet or right, is the covetous man, whose narrow, selfish spirit will not suffer him cheerfully to pay his personal or his public debts, much less to practise beneficence at an expense that cannot be demanded by human laws. No arguments derived from humanity or Christianity can work his heart up to bear his proper proportion in generous and beneficent acts.
II. What is affirmed of these persons respectively. We might consider this increase and want with respect to our best interests, that relate to the enrichment of the soul in goodness. Distributing enlarges the heart, and makes it open, free, and generous, with growing propensions to every good work. The man who withholds is poor-spirited; he has a contracted soul; he is destitute of those amiable graces by which our God and Saviour are most conspicuously imitated and glorified. We may also consider this increase and want with respect to our worldly substance. That is not lessened but improved by distributions on all proper occasions. Withholdings, more than is meet, ever tend to poverty and want. God’s blessing on the generous comes either as a visible increase of their outward estates, or as a secret increase of the inward contentment of their own minds. Those who are of a covetous temper, do not enjoy what they possess. According to a just estimation of things, they are no richer by all their silver and gold than if it still lay in the ore of the Indian mines.
III. Account for the truth of both these propositions. Every virtuous, spiritual, and holy disposition of the soul increases by frequent and proper exercise; and loses its force and vigour, and aptness for action, by disuse and neglect. This is common to all principles and habits of the moral or religious and supernatural kind.

1. The blessing of God is upon them that scatter, and His blast is upon them that withhold more than is meet.
2. The friendship of men is toward them that scatter, and their disaffection toward those who withhold more than is meet. (J. Guyse, D.D.)

Wise philanthropy
To distribute portions of our wealth in schemes and acts of wise philanthropy is like casting into the ground as seed a proportion of the last year’s harvest. It goes out of your sight for the moment, but it will spring in secret, and come back to your own bosom, like manna from heaven. An unwise man may indeed scatter his corn on barren rocks, or on equally barren sands, and though he sow bountifully he will reap sparingly there. So, in the moral region, the increase is not absolutely in proportion to the profusion of the scattering. When a man lays out large sums on unworthy objects, to feed his own vanity or gratify his own whim, he neither does nor gets good. The outlay is in its own nature and necessarily profitable. In educating the young, in reclaiming the vicious, in supporting the aged poor, in healing the sick, and in making known the gospel to all, we have ample fields to cultivate, and the prospect of large returns to cheer us in the toil. (
W. Arnot, D.D.)

The profit of liberality
The Bible gives us plain view of the character and mind of God; and that view sets Him before us as a Being interested in promoting the happiness of His creatures. It presents Him as establishing, by His wise decree, that order of things which places men in different classes and circumstances of life; it shows us that high and low station, wealth and poverty, affluence and dependence, are the result of Divine arrangement, and so far it discourages pride and envy, and teaches thankfulness, contentment, and resignation, in the several conditions of human life. God, in His care of all His creatures, has made it binding on the rich, by an express enactment, that they should see to, and provide for, the wants of the poor. There is nothing more frequently, nor more strongly spoken of in the Word of God, than that assistance, arising out of the fact of their brotherhood, which man should render man. The text sets before us two different modes of dealing with our property, in reference to our fellow-creatures.
I. The liberal man, and what he gets from his liberality. The man here is living in the midst of dependent fellow-creatures, and uses his property in relieving them. Here seems to be the idea of a husbandman throwing his seed in every direction where it may be profitable. The liberal man looks abroad, and where his money is wanted, and where it is likely to do good, there he gives it with the greatest cheerfulness of mind. This is what ought to be. We are not required to give away when we have not in reality the power to do so; but when we possess the power the duty is incumbent. We must “scatter” for the blessing of others. A notion prevails that if we give liberally to others, we hurt ourselves. We are, indeed, told to “do good, hoping for nothing again,” yet we may urge as an encouragement that, in sowing the seeds of kindness, we are sure to reap a personal benefit. The men who have been most liberal have, in a general way, prospered most in their worldly undertakings; and certainly they have been rewarded with growth in grace, and a large measure of peace, confidence, and joy in their own souls.
II. The mean man, and the result which follows his meanness. To withhold is not always wrong. It may be a right thing, a positive duty. But some men are wretchedly mean; they have not a spark of kind sympathy or of generous sensibility in their souls. They are over-full of their own things. These the text speaks about. There is a measure in the amount of almsgiving which is to be determined by a person’s circumstances. To whom much is given, from the same will much be required. If you give God less than God requires of you, then instead of a blessing there will rest on you a curse. God has often taken away from a man the riches which he would not use rightly when he had them. Poverty of pocket is not the worst kind of poverty. It is poverty of soul that is so deplorable. (William Curling, M.A.)

The use and abuse of poverty
Nothing is wanting to the right direction of human conduct, but a clear perception of man’s own interest, and a correct estimate of man’s own responsibility. In the text a contrast of two characters and of two consequences.
I. Two opposing characters. One is said to “scatter.” Of the blessed man it is said, “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor” (Psa_112:9). The apostle says, “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Faithfulness implies two things: first, a clear perception, a just apprehension of the purposes for which we are put in trust; and secondly, a conscientious employment of those means by which the purposes are to be accomplished, according to the dictates and directions of the supreme Lord of all. Neither indiscriminate almsgiving nor improvident expenditure derive any countenance from the rule of Christian practice, as finally and unalterably settled in the epistles to the infant Churches. The man who “scattereth” is the man who gives, whether to the service of his God, or to the succour of his fellow-men, on principle; the man whose charities, as they are called (though the term religious obligations would be far more applicable), bear some definite and assignable proportion, not only to his present expenses and indulgences, but to the provision for the family; the man, who devotes to purposes of philanthropy and piety such a proportion of his worldly increase, as his own conscience, enlightened and directed by God’s Word, accounts an offering expressive of his gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. The contrary character to this is he who “withholdeth more than is meet “; he who is actuated, alike in what he saves, and in what he spends, by considerations purely selfish; who professes, indeed, that he accumulates upon principle, but whose principle will not endure the application of the standard of the Word of God, his object being to found or to aggrandise a family, while in prosecuting this object he overlooks or undervalues the salvation of the soul. Many are the subterfuges and evasions by which men endeavour to justify, or at least to palliate, their own conduct in “withholding more than is meet,” e.g., difficulty of detecting imposture; perversion of benevolent funds; and the excuse that whatever is spent is a contingent evil, while whatever is hoarded is a certain good.
II. Two opposing consequences. True wisdom involves the consideration of our latter end. If the habits and actions of the “life that now is” can exert any influence upon the destinies of “that which is to come,” the counsel given by our Lord would be the dictate of policy, as well as the command of authority: “Walk while ye have the light.” Temporal blessings do usually wait upon the discreet and conscientious dispensation of God’s bounty. He that scattereth increaseth even in this world’s goods. But Christian benevolence for Christ’s sake must not be taken for the whole of the system of Christian practice, of which it only constitutes a part. Towards poverty of soul tendeth that mistaken and short-sighted policy, which men are wont to term prudence and forecast. But to have made no use of God’s property for God’s purposes will be a ground of judgment and condemnation, as much as to have abused it for our own. (Thomas Dale, M.A.)

How to gain by spending
The text is generally true, if we confine its application to money. In a moral and spiritual sense the proverb is universally true. The man who gives bountifully loses nothing by his gifts, but gains much. The first thing that strikes us when we consider the nature of property is its exclusive character. Every pound we call our own, and every shilling we reserve for our own use, is so much less for other people. The higher wealth of the intellect is not so exclusive in its nature. You do not lose your gift as an artist if you teach a class to paint. Only in a limited degree do you increase your mental endowments by imparting them to others. But we actually increase our spiritual riches by spending them. The more of the bread of life you give away, the more you will find in your store. Spiritual wealth is like money wealth in this respect, that we must invest it if it is to increase. Hoarding money never adds to the heap. Two practical lessons.

1. We see the absolute necessity of some form of spiritual activity to the increase of the Christian life.
2. The course of thought we have been pursuing suggests to us the spiritual nature of the Divine rewards. We need, badly need, a revision of the vocabulary of the Divine rewards. Too often those rewards are spoken of in terms which degrade rather than honour the high service of God. The reward and the service are one. The rewards of Christ are not less service, but more service and higher toil. (G. S. Barrett, D.D.)

Discreet liberality
Of all the rich men that have come to poverty, I never heard of any that was ruined by a discreet liberality. (G. Lawson.)

Generosity
I. Generosity exemplified.

1. In nature. Clouds give rain, sun gives light, earth gives fruit. “The heart does not receive the blood to store it up, but while it pumps it in at one valve, it sends it forth at another.”
2. In the example of Christ (Gal_1:4).
3. In the early Church (Act_2:44-45).
4. In modern times. Peabody, Morley, etc.
   II. Generosity extolled.
5. It is unstinted (Isa_32:8).
6. It is profitable. One who has had experience in giving systematically, says, “It pays as an investment, and is a fortune in business.” Mr. Haig Miller tells of a gentleman who, on starting in life, said, “I determined that for every £10,000 I made £1,000 should be given back to God and works of charity, and I have had ten times to fulfil my vow.” If temporal gain is the motive which inspires giving, the act will be spoiled by the motive; but giving from right motives is often honoured by a present and a bountiful return. The converse of this is true. Withholding “tendeth to poverty.” If not poverty of purse, as is often the case, there will be poverty of soul.
7. It is hearty. “God never sent us into this world to do anything into which we cannot put our hearts.”
8. It is healthy. “If a man is growing large in wealth, nothing but constant and generous giving can save him from growing small in soul.”
9. It is refreshing.
10. It wins the heart. Edward Payson said, when dying, “I long to give a full cup of happiness to every human being.” The benedictions of his people were a chief part of his rich reward (compare Job_29:13).
11. It is painstaking. The true friend of the needy does not wait till misery presses its claim at his door; he goes and looks first (compare Luk_19:10). (H. Thorne)

Profitable scattering
Every year George Moore wrote these words in his pocket-book. They became engraved on his soul, and to an extent formed his creed: “What I spent I had: What I saved I lost: What I gave I have.”
Benevolent activity
One would say that to scatter anything is to part with it without advantage; and that to withhold, to keep back, is undoubtedly to save and to retain. The text teaches that this may be quite a mistake on our part. There is reckless scattering and there is wise withholding. The text is not to be taken in its literalness; it is to be examined in its spirit. Happily we have no need to go further in search of illustration of the truth of the text; we find it on every farm, in every business, in every school. The text calls to benevolent activity founded on religious faith. The doctrine enlarges and glorifies life by calling into life elements and considerations which lie beyond the present and the visible. The very exercise of scattering carries blessing with it, breaks up the mastery of selfishness, and enlarges the circle of kindly interests. Beneficence is its own compensation. Charity empties the heart of one gift that it may make room for a larger. But if any man think to give God something with the idea of having it back again, that man will be disappointed and humiliated, and justly so, The other side of this text is as emphatic and as often illustrated in practical life as the first. Selfishness is suicidal; selfishness lives in gloom; selfishness injects poison into every stream of life. Selfishness is most intensely selfish when it assumes the name of prudence. When selfishness chatters proverbs, it has reached the depth beyond which there is no death. God can turn the wicked man’s very success into failure, and out of selfish ambition He can bring the scorpion whose sting is death. Though this text is found in the Old Testament, the principle is distinctly held by Jesus Christ. It is a moral principle, universal and unchangeable in its force and application. (
J. Parker, D.D.)

Liberality
This is one eminent branch of the character of the righteous, but because there are many objections in the heart of man against the practice of it, urgent motives are here addressed to us. The instructions delivered in this and the four following verses, will, if they are but believed, be a sufficient answer to every objection. There is that scattereth his substance by profusion and luxury. That man diminishes his substance till it comes to nothing. But he that disperses by giving to the poor, by liberal distributions for the support of the commonwealth in times of danger, or for the service of religion, shall increase his substance. He is like the husbandman, who sows with good-will and unsparing hand that precious seed which is to produce a joyful harvest. It is God who gives all that we enjoy, and by His secret blessing, or by remarkable interpositions of providence, the liberal man is often made to abound in riches, and enabled more and more abundantly to serve his fellow-men. Abraham sat at his tent door to watch for passengers, and those who came he urged to partake of his bounty, with more earnestness than other men beg an alms. (G. Lawson.)

Proverbs 11:25
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
The waterer watered
The general principle is, that in living for the good of others, we shall be profited also ourselves. This teaching is sustained by the analogy of nature, for in nature there is a law that no one thing can be independent of the rest of creation, but there is a mutual action and reaction of all upon all. God has so constituted this universe, that selfishness is the greatest possible offence against His law, and living for others, and ministering to others, is the strictest obedience to His will. Our surest road to our own happiness is to seek the good of our fellows. We store up in God’s own bank what we generously expend on the behalf of our race. To get we must give; to accumulate we must scatter; to make ourselves happy, to get good and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good, and seek the spiritual good of others.
I. Apply this principle, in its narrow sense, as belonging to ourselves personally. There are some works in which we cannot all engage. Peculiar men have special work; but watering is work for persons of all grades and all sorts.

1. All God’s plants, more or less, want watering.
2. The Lord’s people usually get this watering through instrumentality. The Holy Spirit waters us by the admonitions of parents, by the kind suggestions of friends, by the teaching of His ministers, by the example of all His saints.
3. Some plants need special watering, and should be the objects of unusual care—partly because of temperament or of ignorance, and partly because of circumstances, maybe of trial, maybe of soul-withering.
4. All believers have some power to water others. In so watering others we shall be watered ourselves. This is the main point.
   (1) You will waken up your own powers.
   (2) You will yourself gain instruction.
   (3) You will get comfort in your work.
   (4) Watering others will make you humble.
   (5) You will win many prayers.
   (6) You will even get honour to yourselves, that will stimulate you to new exertions.
   (7) While watering others you will be manifesting and showing your love to Christ, and that will make you more like Him.
   II. The principle, in a wider sense, as it may refer to us as a Church. We, as a Church, have enjoyed singular prosperity; but we have endeavoured to water others. We have undertaken a good many enterprises for Christ, and we hope to undertake a great many more. We must keep our watering work up.
   III. The principle, in the widest sense, as it may be referred to the entire Body of Christ. Our missionary operations are an infinite blessing to the Churches at home. Relinquishing them, giving them up, staying them, would bring such a curse that we had need to go down on our knees and pray, “God send the missionary work back again.” (C. H. Spurgeon}
   Scriptural liberality illustrated and enforced
   All the appearances of virtue and piety do not partake of their real nature. See the case of the Pharisees. None of our good works can be viewed with approbation by God unless they spring from a right principle, are guided by a right rule, and are directed to a right end. God looks at the motive in which they originate.
   I. The character of true religious or Christian liberality.
5. Its principle. The spirit which is in man must be the seat of this virtue, or the liberal hand, so far as it respects God, is of no worth. There is much beneficence apart from religion. But it is the grateful heart God requires.
6. Its objects. First our kindred according to the flesh. Then the poor and distressed in society.
7. The modes in which this liberality should express itself. It should be honest in its administration. It should be proportionate in degree. It should be affectionate in its communication. It should be expansive in its embrace. It should be habitual in its exercise.
   II. The recompense to encourage us to its exercise and display.
8. As respects the life that now is. Inward pleasure, pleasure in looking at the good effected; enlarged powers of usefulness.
9. As respects the life to come. Apply to those who give nothing to the cause of the poor. To those who give little. To those who are in the habit of giving much. (John Clayton, jun.)

The blessedness of blessing
It must be admitted that the natural tendency of things in this present fallen world is by no means such as to secure a prosperous result to rectitude of conduct, and failure to that of a contrary character. We often witness the inversion of this order. It is necessary to consider the character of the dispensation under which the book was written. The Jews were ostensibly, as well as really, under the immediate government of God; a government sanctioned by temporal rewards and punishments. This gave to the government of God over them what we may term a visible character. There was an ostensible Moral Governor. The Jew, apart from all consideration of a future state, was entitled to look, even in this life, for a providential sanction to his conduct, when his ways were such as pleased the Lord. In God’s dealings with that people He affords an emblem, a visible emblem, of His dealings with others. The great distinction between the Jewish and the Christian dispensations is, that the one was addressed to sense, the other to faith; the one deals with visible things, the other with spiritual. It is but consistent with this distinction, that while God’s providential government over His people is not less real under the Christian dispensation, it should be less manifest. Those things which would be perplexing to us if we attempt to judge the ways of God by sense, become reconcilable with His character and with His promises when regarded in the judgment of faith. Objection might be raised on the ground that the assertion of the text is contradicted by absolute matter of fact. The words, translated out of their figurative language, obviously assert, that he who liberally dispenses to others of those bounties, whether in grace or in providence, which God has conferred upon him, shall be himself more abundantly enriched. To the eye of sense this assertion is far from being universally verified among us as a matter of fact. In a worldly point of view it is not always the most virtuous who are the most prosperous, nor the most liberal who are the most successful. But faith will see every promise to us fulfilled in a higher and better sense. The highest exemplification of this passage is found in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He spent His life in blessing; therefore it was He was so greatly blessed. The recompense of the reward is a motive sanctioned by the highest example, that of Christ Himself. Some think it savours too much of legality, to hold out a future recompense as a stimulus to the active employment of all our talents in the service of God. Yet surely this is to confound things that are perfectly distinct in themselves. It is not inconsistent with the doctrines of grace to propose a proportionable increase of future joy as a motive to present sacrifice, and to hold it up before Christians as a matter of certainty, that every sacrifice which they make for the Lord’s sake shall be repaid from the hand of the Lord. The liberal distribution of our worldly substance is attended with a blessing from the Lord, at least to the man himself. But the text is the exposition of an established law in the universal government of God’s providence. Our progress depends on our readiness to communicate of the stores already conferred upon us. The Christian’s rule of spiritual advancement is not so much in proportion to the acquisitions which he makes of knowledge, as to the use that he makes of it. As we feed others our own souls are fed by God. It is in the nature of things, or rather, I should say, it is in the appointment of God, that it should be so. (W. Dodsworth, M.A.)

He that watereth shalt be watered
“If we give so much we shall exhaust our resources,” is a common remark. Don’t be afraid of that, my friend. See that little fountain yonder—away yonder in the distant mountain, shining like a thread of silver through the thick copse, and sparkling like a diamond in its healthful activity. It is hurrying on with tinkling feet to bear its tribute to the river. See, it passes a stagnant pool, and the pool hails it. “Whither away, master streamlet?” “I am going to the river to bear this cup of water God has given me.” “Ah! you are very foolish for that; you’ll need it before the summer is over. It has been a backward spring, and we shall have a hot summer to pay for it—you will dry up then.” “Well,” says the streamlet, “if I am to die so soon, I had better work while the day lasts. If I am likely to lose this treasure from the heat, I had better do good with it while I have it.” So on it went, blessing and rejoicing in its course. The pool smiled complacently at its own superior foresight, and husbanded all its resources, letting not a drop steal away. Soon the midsummer heat came down, and it fell upon the little stream. But the trees crowded to its brink, and threw out their sheltering branches over it in the day of adversity, for it brought refreshment and life to them; and the sun peeped through the branches, and smiled complacently upon its dimpled face, and seemed to say, “It is not in my heart to harm you”; and the birds sipped its silver tide, and sang its praises; the flowers breathed their perfume upon its bosom; the beasts of the field loved to linger by its banks; the husbandman’s eye sparkled with joy as he looked upon the line of verdant beauty that marked its course through his fields and meadows—and so on it went, blessing and blessed of all. God saw that the little stream never exhausted itself. It emptied its full cup into the river, and the river bore it on to the sea, and the sea welcomed it, and the sun smiled upon the sea, and the sea sent up its incense to greet the sun, and the clouds caught, in their capacious bosoms, the incense from the sea, and the winds, like waiting steeds, caught the chariots of the clouds and bore them away—away to the very mountain that gave the little fountain birth; and there they tipped the brimming cup, and poured the grateful baptism down. And so God saw to it, that the little fountain, though it gave so fully and so freely, never ran dry. And where was the prudent pool? Alas! in its inglorious inactivity it grew sickly and pestilential. The beasts of the field put their lips to it, but turned away without drinking. The breeze stooped and kissed it by mistake, but caught the malaria in the contact, and carried the ague through the region. (
R. F. Horton.)

Soul fatness
If I desire to flourish in soul, I must not hoard up my stores, but must distribute to the poor. To be close and niggardly is the world’s way to prosperity, but not God’s (see Pro_11:24). Faith’s way of gaining is giving. I must try this again and again; and I may expect that as much of prosperity as will be good for me will come to me as a gracious reward for a liberal course of action. Of course, I may not be sure of growing rich. I shall be fat, but not too fat. Too great riches might make me as unwieldy as corpulent persons usually are, and cause me the dyspepsia of worldliness, and perhaps bring on a fatty degeneration of the heart. No, if I am fat enough to be healthy, I may well be satisfied; and if the Lord grants me a competence, I may be thoroughly content. But there is a mental and spiritual fatness which I would greatly covet; and these come as the result of generous thoughts towards my God, His Church, and my fellow-men. Let me not stint, lest I starve my heart. Let me be bountiful and liberal; for so shall I be like my Lord. He gave Himself for me: shall I grudge Him anything? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s law of recompense
If I carefully consider others, God will consider me; and in some way or other He will recompense me. Let me consider the poor, and the Lord will consider me. Let me look after little children, and the Lord will treat me as His child. Let me feed His flock, and He will feed me. Let me water His garden, and He will make a watered garden of my soul. This is the Lord’s own promise; be it mine to fulfil the condition, and then to expect its fulfilment. I may care about myself till I grow morbid; I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing; and I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to lament. It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish, and out of love to my Lord Jesus begin to care for the souls of those around me. My tank is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it; what shall I do? I will pull up the plug, and let its contents run out to water the withering plants around me. What do I see? My cistern seems to fill as it flows. A secret spring is at work. While all was stagnant, the fresh spring was sealed; but as my stock flows out to water others, the Lord thinketh upon me. Hallelujah! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Proverbs 11:26
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.
Withholding corn
The text has to do with owners of corn and dealers in it. In Solomon’s day famines were frequent, and were serious because trade communications between different countries were so uncertain. Then persons would buy up all the corn they could, so as to unduly raise the market-price. In relation to this greed in trade, there is a wonderful reserve of Holy Scripture. Mr. Arnot says, “In this brief maxim no arbitrary rule is laid down to the possessor of corn, that he must sell at a certain period and at a certain price: and yet the hungry are not left without a protecting law. The protection of the weak is entrusted not to small police regulations, but to great self-acting providential arrangements. The double fact is recorded in terms of peculiar distinctness, that he who in times of scarcity keeps up his corn in order to enrich himself is loathed by the people, and he who sells it freely is loved. This is all. There is no further legislation on the subject.” Laws which interfere between buyer and seller, master and workman, are blunders and nuisances. The market goes best when it is left alone, and so in our text there is no law enacted and no penalty threatened, except that which the nature of things makes inevitable. A man may do as he pleases about selling or not, but he cannot escape from the curse of the people if he chooses to lock up his grain. But if it bring a curse upon a man to withhold the bread that perisheth, what a weight of curse will light upon the man who withholds the bread of eternal life.
I. How can this be done?

1. By locking up the Word of God in an unknown language, or by delivering and preaching it in such a style that the people shall not comprehend it. Illustrate by the practice of the Roman Church. But the terms of theology, the phrases of art, the definitions of philosophy, the jargon of science, are an unknown tongue to the young godly ploughmen, or praying shopkeepers. Simplicity is the authorised style of true gospel ministry.
2. By keeping back the most important and vital truths of revelation, and giving a prominence to other things, which are but secondary. Morality brings no food to hungry souls, although it is good enough in its place. Dissuasives from vice are not the bread of heaven, though well enough in their way. We need to have the great doctrines of grace brought forward, for the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and it is by preaching the truth as it is in Jesus that souls are won to Him.
3. By want of loving zeal in our labour. That which God blesses to the saving of sinners is truth attended by the earnestness of the speaker. Think of the preaching of Baxter. We are guilty of withholding corn unless we preach with a sympathising, loving, tender, affectionate, earnest, anxious soul.
4. By refusing to labour zealously for the spread of the kingdom of Christ and the conversion of sinners.
5. By refusing to help those who are working for Christ. I cannot understand how a man can love God when he only lives to heap up riches.
   II. The blessedness which those possess who break the bread of life. To describe it is altogether beyond my power. You must know, and taste, and feel it. There are many blessednesses in doing good to others.
6. An easy conscience.
7. Comfort in doing something for Jesus.
8. Watching the first buddings of conviction in a young soul.
9. The joy of success.
10. The final and gracious reward.
    III. Now I have to open the granary myself. Hungry sinners, wanting a Saviour, we cannot withhold the bread from you! We tell you the way of salvation.
11. It is a satisfying salvation.
12. It is an all-sufficient salvation.
13. It is a complete salvation.
14. It is a present salvation.
15. It is an available salvation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The right to withhold
The text may be regarded as suggestive of a still higher thought than the one to which it is limited. If men have no right to withhold corn, what right can they have to withhold knowledge? If it is an evil thing to injure the body or expose it to danger, what is it to injure the soul or to expose it to the peril of eternal loss? If it is wrong to keep back bread from the body, what must it be to keep back bread from the soul? An important doctrine is involved in the whole text; there are some things which a man may possess, as it were, for himself, and enjoy without sharing his delight with others; a man may have many precious stones, and may conceal them, and permit no eye but his own to look upon them, or hand to touch them but his own: so be it; the pleasure is a narrow and selfish one, and no great social consequences attend its enjoyment. On the other hand, it would seem as if no man could have private property in corn or in bread, in the sense of saying to the people, “I have it, but you shall not possess it; though you offer double its price I will not allow you to take it from me unless you multiply the price fivefold.” A man may talk thus about diamonds and rubies, but he is not at liberty to talk thus about bread. A man may have great property in pictures, but it is questionable whether he should have any property in land in any sense that makes the people dependent upon his caprice as to whether it shall be cultivated and turned to the highest uses. It would seem as if light and air and land were universal possessions, and that all men were equally welcome to them. In the case of the land, it may be necessary that there should be temporary proprietorship, or some regulated relation to it so as to prevent robbery; but with such regulated relation proprietorship might well terminate. All this issue, however, can only be realised as the result of the largest spiritual education. It is difficult to persuade any great landed proprietor that he ought to surrender his rights for the good of the commonwealth. This can only come after years, it may be even centuries, of education of the most spiritual kind; or if it come earlier by statesmanship, it must also come justly, for even good rights may be created by faulty processes, and by mere lapse of time ownerships may be set up which have no original force. We shall never have a commonwealth founded upon righteousness and inspired by the spirit of patriotism until we are just to every interest which stands in the way of its realisation. (J. Parker, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:28
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall
Trusting in riches
I. Here is a common tendency. Trusting in wealth is—

1. Spiritually unsatisfactory.
2. Necessarily evanescent.
   II. Here is a terrible catastrophe. “Fall.”
3. Whence? From all his hopes.
4. Whither? To disappointment and despair.
5. When? Whenever moral conviction seizes the soul, whether before or after death.
6. Why? Because wealth was never a fit foundation for the soul. (Homilist.)

But the righteous shall flourish as a branch.—
The secret of spiritual life
The righteous—and some such there have been even in the darkest periods of the world’s history—the righteous “flourish as a branch.” They lean not on their own stem and live not on their own root. From the beginning the same Jesus to whom we look was made known to faith. The manner and measure of making known truth to the understanding were in those days widely different; but the nature and the source of spiritual life were the same. But though all the real branches live, all do not equally flourish. Whatever girds the branch too tightly round impedes the flow of sap from the stem and leaves the extremities to wither. Many cares and vanities and passions wrap themselves round a soul and cause the life even of the living to pine away. When the world in any of its forms lays its grasp round the life, the stricture chokes the secret channels between the disciple and his Lord, and the fruit of unrighteousness drops unripe. It is only as a branch that Christians can flourish in this wilderness; they have no independent source of life and growth. (
W. Arnot, D.D.)

Proverbs 11:29
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.
Family life
I. Peace should be the grand aim of all the members of the domestic circle. To trouble the house is an evil.
II. There Are some members who break the peace of their domestic circle. They are the ill-natured, impulsive, false, selfish.
III. Those who break the peace of their domestic circle are fools. Their folly is seen in this—

1. They get no good by it.
2. They get degradation by it. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Troubling one’s own house
There are many ways in which this may be done. A man may, by the violence and irritability, the peevishness, fretfulness, and selfishness of his temper; he may by his avarice on the one hand, or by his reckless prodigality on the other—involving his family in starvation and suffering by opposite means; he may by intemperance, with all its horrid attendants; he may by sloth, and idleness, and indisposition to work, trouble his own house. “He shall inherit the wind.” The expression is a very strong one. Could any words more impressively convey the idea of loss, disappointment, and ultimate destitution and beggary? The result the man deserves. A man’s family is his first charge from heaven, and ought to be his chief and constant solicitude. The only evil to be lamented is that he brings the destitution upon them as well as himself. (R. Wardlaw.)

Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
The fruit of the righteous
By this is meant his prayers, his charities, his good example, the virtues which compose his character and adorn his life, and all the efforts and influences by which he shows forth his wisdom in winning souls. To win souls in the best sense is to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus and subjugate them to His gracious dominion. An illustrious ancient philosopher said, “There is nothing great on earth but man, and nothing great in man but his soul.” How will you compute the worth of a soul, or by what standard measure its greatness? Will you estimate it by its nature and origin, or by its power and capacities, or by the duration of its being, or by the cost of its redemption, or by the struggle for its possession and control, or by comparison with the splendid and precious? And if such is the value of the soul that worlds acquired could not compensate its loss, nor a material universe redeem its forfeiture, how excellent, beyond all power of language or of thought, the work of saving the priceless thing from destruction, and placing it among the crown-jewels of the King of kings! Look at the matter in another light. The soul is fallen, guilty, perishing; and he who rescues and restores it confers an incalculable and inconceivable benefit. Who shall limit the effect of your labour in saving a soul, or trace the blessed influence to an end? The beneficent effect of faithful Christian labour is an ever-swelling stream and an ever-enlarging growth. All heaven unites with all that is heavenly on earth in witnessing to the precious fruit of righteousness and the transcendent wisdom of winning souls. These considerations appeal to your charity, others appeal with equal force to your piety, your gratitude, your interest, your ambition. The Church was ordained for mutual help and the recovery of the lost. The saints live for others, God has blessed them, that they may be blessings to their race. (J. Cross, D.D., LL.D.)

He that winneth souls is wise.—
Soul-winning
I. The object of the Christian worker. It is a good thing in any work to have a clear perception of the object to be sought after. This brings our efforts into order and gives them consistency. If a man lose sight of a clear purpose he becomes listless, or at best mechanical. This is true pre-eminently in Christian work. They who undertake it purpose the gathering of immortal souls out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. Ours is an apostolic mission. We are to catch men—souls. Their salvation is the centre of the target—the bull’s-eye which we are to hit. We should be thankful for every token of success. If we can instruct the mind or store the memory with the things of God, ours is not lost work, but we are not to be content with these things; they may be means to the end, they are not the end itself. Our purpose is to bring the young to Christ, and Christ to them. The very magnitude of the purpose will give us encouragement if we look at it rightly.
II. The manner in which this work is to be done. “Winneth.” No force is to be employed. We cannot drive even little children into the fold of safety with clogs and stones. We want to lay hold of the heart, to gain the affections, and to do that we are to use the persuasive aspect of the gospel. A forced religion, if you can conceive it, is nothing worth. It is a sham flower. The examples of winning are found in the way in which the first disciples of the Saviour, and above all, the Saviour Himself, did their work. We are to live the truth, letting our whole life tell of what is right, and that beyond mistake; and yet over all love is to preside, softening our asperities, and making our wisdom peaceable as well as pure. Where there is a tender, winning spirit, then plain home-thrusts can be made that would be resented if they were mingled with the wrath of man. The attractive power lies even more in the evident tone of our teaching than in the sort of language we use. The root of persuasion lies in love to God and love to man, cherished by prayer, kindled and sustained by the Holy Ghost.
III. The character requisite foe this great work. “Wise.” There is needed a high style of Christian character. We are to be good. The successful winner of souls must himself be already won for Christ. Our work is intimately bound up with our characters. Other things being equal, he will be most likely to bring others to Christ who himself is nearest to Christ. The influence of personal holiness steals in where nothing else can find a place. Our power with man will be just in proportion to our power with God. Every devout effort to reach a holier life is a way of increasing our efficiency as winners of souls. We have also to be wise in the knowledge of God’s truth. A man may know enough for his own salvation and yet not know so as to be able to impart effectively to others. Mighty in the Scripture, we shall be mighty for our work. And we are to be wise in the knowledge of the human heart. In their inmost nature the heart of a child and of a man are very much alike. Any one may gain this knowledge who, with a prayerful, sympathising nature, goes out into the world and keeps his eyes open. The teacher who knows his children can give to each his portion of meat in due season as none other can. Think of the encouragements to this work. Ours is everlasting work, its monuments are to abide for ever. We are working for eternity, polishing stones for the heavenly temple, searching for gems with which to deck the Saviour’s crown. Think of the joy of the heavenly greeting, and the approval of the Lord, an approval not bestowed according to success, but according to fidelity. Upon no better purpose can you spend your life. Work for Christ that shall stand. (Edward Medley, B.A.)

Soul-winning
He must be a wise man in even ordinary respects who can by grace achieve so Divine a marvel as win a soul. He that winneth souls is usually a man who could have done anything else if God had called him to it. He is wise—

1. Because he has selected a wise object.
2. Because to win a soul requires infinite wisdom.
3. He will prove to have been a wise man in the judgment of those who see the end as well as the beginning.
   I. The metaphor used in the text. We use the word “win” in many ways, e.g., game of chance, juggling tricks, etc. It is used in warfare. Warriors win cities and provinces. The word was used to signify success in a wrestling match. There are secret and mysterious ways in which those who love win the object of their affections. Love is the true way of soul-winning. The Hebrew is, “He that taketh souls is wise,” and the word refers to fishing, or bird-catching. We must have our lures for souls adapted to attract, to fascinate, to grasp.
   II. Some of the ways by which souls are to be won.
4. A preacher wins souls best when he believes in the reality of his work.
5. When he keeps closest to saving truth.
6. Souls are won by bringing others to hear the Word.
7. By trying after sermon to talk to strangers.
8. By button-holing acquaintances and relations.
9. By writing letters.
10. The soul-winner must be a master of the art of prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Winning souls
Our Lord’s estimate of the soul’s value was exceeding high. His mind saw its spiritual nature as an object of supreme worth. In proportion as we are Christ-like will our views correspond, and our efforts also.
I. A great work contemplated. The definite business of all Christian workers. Great because—

1. Of the value of the object.
2. Of the soul’s capacities—for evil if not won, and for good if won.
3. Because the soul is the mainspring of life and action.
   II. An effectual method suggested. Winning.
4. Christian work is a magnetic force. The centre of electric magnetism is the Cross.
5. The possibility here embodied. A work which all may undertake and accomplish.
   III. A character here defined. “Is wise.” Because he benefits others. Because he gains a star for his own crown. Because he is laying up treasure in heaven. For he wins the approval of his God and the plaudits of the angels. The highest form of wisdom is to devote life’s strength to gather pearls whose salvation will enrich with eternal wealth. (J. F. Pridgeon.)

The life of the good
Note—
I. The involuntary influence of a good man’s life. The fruit of a life is the involuntary and regular expression of what the man is in heart and soul. All actions are not the fruit of life, inasmuch as man in the exercise of his freedom and, indeed, even by accident, performs actions that, instead of fully expressing, misrepresent his life. The regular flow of a man’s general activity is the fruit, and this, in the case of a good man, is a “tree of life.” It is so for three reasons.

1. It expresses real life.
2. It communicates real life.
3. It nourishes real life.
   II. The highest purpose of a good man’s life. “He that winneth souls is wise.” This implies—
4. That souls are lost.
5. That souls may be saved.
6. That souls may be saved by man.
7. That the man who succeeds in saving souls is wise.
   III. The inevitable retribution of a good man’s life. The recompense here is supposed to refer rather to the suffering he experiences in consequence of his remaining imperfections than of the blessings he enjoys as a reward for the good that is in him. The sins of good men are punished on this earth. The argument here is a fortiori—if God visits the sins of His people with punishment, much more will He visit the sins of the wicked. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The soul-winner
Most men are aiming and endeavouring to win something to which they attach great value. It may be secular wealth, or earthly honour, or sensual pleasure. But there can be no wisdom in spending one’s life in the endeavour to win any one of these things. The aim of Paul was to win Christ, and that should be our first aim too. Having won Christ for ourselves, our aim should be to win souls for Christ.
I. He who would succeed in winning souls needs to be wise. It needs wisdom to succeed in the business of life. It needs a far higher and nobler wisdom to win Souls. It is an exceedingly difficult thing to win men over from the ranks of sin and Satan to the ranks of God and His Christ.

1. The would-be soul-winner needs to be theoretically wise. He needs to be well informed. He cannot know too much and must be well informed on some very important matters, e.g., the sacred Scriptures, human nature, etc.
2. He needs to be practically wise—wise in action as well as in thought. He should deal largely in the most attractive and pathetic truths. He should carefully choose the most appropriate seasons. He should cultivate the most loving spirit and the most kindly manner. He should be much in communion with God.
   II. He who does succeed in winning souls proves himself to be wise. This is true looked at from several points of view.
3. Think of this work in relation to God. It is co-operation with God.
4. In its relation to those who are won.
5. In its relation to society.
6. In its relation to those who are engaged in it.
   In this world it brings them honour, pleasure, and culture. The blessings follow them into the future world. (John Morgan.)

Soul-winning
I. What is a soul? We know little about a soul apart from the Bible. It teaches—

1. That man is a compound being.
2. That the soul is indestructible.
3. Because indestructible, its value is infinite.
   II. What is meant by winning souls?
4. The word “win” is used both in a good and bad sense. There are no mean tricks in winning souls.
5. “Win” is a warlike word: what powers are there striving for the soul?
6. Margin has, “he who taketh souls,” implying the use of various allurements.
   III. How may souls be won? There must be—
7. Adaptation.
8. The soul-winner must be careful not to offend the prejudices of those he seeks to win.
9. There must be method. The soul-winner must first have the love of Christ in his own heart. Then he must proclaim it patiently, lovingly, prayerfully, earnestly. This can be done in various ways.
   IV. In what sense is the man who wins souls wise?
10. In the ordinary sense. The man of business who has adaptation, method, diligence, etc., you say is a wise man.
11. Because he is preparing for the future.
12. Because he builds lasting monuments.
13. Because he pleases God. (A. F. Barfield.)

A wise work
The Book of Proverbs may be compared to a basket of pearls. Each verse is complete in itself; the truth contained within it is of independent worth.
I. Wisdom is seen in the attempt to win. The very effort itself is a proof of true wisdom.

1. The soul’s position proves it. It is a perishing one.
2. Soul-winning is a noble work. A soul-winner need envy no one. His work surpasses all in true nobility.
3. Soul-winning is a lasting work, and therefore he who attempts it is wise.
4. It is a soul-profiting work. The man who imparts a blessing by the very act receives one. The way to be a joyful Christian is to be a working one at the winning of souls.
5. Winning souls is a work that tells on eternity.
6. Winning souls is a work which will influence you in heaven.
   II. Wisdom is required in the work of winning.
7. The nature of the work as suggested in the text shows it. The word for “winneth” has three references. It refers to the snaring of birds, the catching of fish, the taking of a city. To the accomplishment of each of these wisdom is required.
8. The variety of disposition seen in souls requires it.
   III. Hints as to how to set about winning souls.
9. They must be alarmed.
10. They must be allured.
11. They must be taken by the hand.
12. They who would win others must show that they themselves are won. (Archibald G. Brown.)

The wisdom of winning souls
This text may refer to two things: wisdom in winning souls, or the wisdom of winning souls. He who assumes, as the errand and purpose of his life, the conversion of his fellow-men to Christ, has given the highest proof within his reach that he himself is a wise man.
I. He has selected the natural field for successful human effort. It is time to drop our suspicion in reference to honest work. Butler’s definition says, “Happiness consists in a faculty having its proper object.” That is, let any one of our powers fasten itself upon a legitimate end, and proceed at once unto vigour, and a feeling of true continuous joy will spring up from the mere exercise. Our reason is the happiest in reasoning; our judgment in deciding; our imagination in the poetic drawing of pictures; our affections in lavishing their love on chosen friends. There needs only to be added the element of success. That is, we must be able to gain the ends we aim at. If we are baulked, we are disappointed and discontented. Hence it is important for each man to understand his own adaptations and possibilities, so that he may seek right ends. Winning souls is the true work for human souls to do. For it flings into successful action the whole Christian man, body, mind, and spirit. There is intelligence in it; there is faith in it; there is hope in it; there is activity in it; there is excitement and exhilaration in it. And success is sure to follow fidelity. The old fable was that one who always carried a myrtle-wand in his hand would never grow weary in the way. But here is no fable. The love of Christ in the heart, and the zeal of Christ in the life, are what evermore satisfy, exercise, and rest the soul.
II. The specific end to be reached in winning souls evidences wisdom in the choice. Even a ministry of destruction has something grand about it, fearful as it seems to gaze upon, awful as it must be to exercise. But a ministry of relief is better than any of retribution. It has in it all the sublimity of power, and then the additional grace and glory of help, the beauty of being serviceable. A ministry of salvation is simply transcendent. It deals with a man’s highest nature, and touches upon the destinies of eternity. Everywhere God seems to look upon human beings as just so many souls. To save a man is to deliver a fellow-man from sin and hell, and bring him to holiness and heaven. To save a soul is to incorporate with the eternal destiny of a sentient and reasoning being a new spring and force of exultant and exhilarant life; to quicken all its susceptibilities; to renew the will into a profitable obedience to God; to unfold all the capacities of intellect and affection. In a word, to save the soul is more than to create the soul.
III. The proprietorship we gain in the souls we instrumentally win. We love what we work for more than what costs us nothing. Value to you is measured by this sum of yourself you have put in possession. A soul we help to save possesses a value to us unlike that of any other soul. For we gain a kind of proprietary right in it. God lets us feel so.

1. Present companionship. The soul we lead into the joys of this new life becomes our helper, and returns the benefit. If we put into active, beneficent, useful, attractive life any human soul, may we not share all the benedictions its sweet, gentle, Christlike career is scattering around it?
2. Eternal communion. Those who are with us here will go with us to be in our company hereafter.
   IV. The grand awards of the gospel for this work show the wisdom of winning souls.
3. The growth of personal graces. He who watereth others shall be watered himself. He who carries a lantern for darkened men finds his own path lit the clearest.
4. The day of approval. Every soul which saves a soul shares in the satisfaction his work gives to the Master. Oh, the exquisite joy of that supreme moment when a Christian labourer presents a new prince or princess to Christ, the King of Glory, in the midst of heaven! (C. S. Robinson.)

The wisdom of winning souls
The estimate which men form of spiritual things is very different from that which they form of temporal things. An individual who is the victim of temporal evil excites our pity, and kindles our compassion, but an individual perishing in ignorance, and dying in sin, excites no compassion.
I. The object here proposed to our benevolent sympathy and regard—the soul of man. The soul of man—who of us understands it? Fix attention on the nature and frame of the human soul. In nature it is not material, it is spiritual and immaterial. The body is divisible, the soul is a homogeneous substance—it is indivisible, insoluble, inseparable. The soul is not matter. We know of only two substances, matter and spirit, flesh and mind, body and soul—these make up the whole of what we know to have any existence in the universe of God. Philosophers have speculated much about the locality of the soul in the body. All that we know is, that although the soul dwells in matter, it is perfectly and entirely distinct from it.

1. We may endeavour to form some estimate of the soul by noticing its Maker, its origin. Think of it as formed for eternity; as occupying all the attributes of Jehovah in its formation; as made in the true image of God; as made next in rank and degree, though equal in blessedness, to the angelic multitude. Though the soul is not in the condition it was in when it came from the hands of its Maker, still there is that about it that tells us something of what it was; there are traces of primeval glory and dignity. Such is the faculty of reason, and the power of conscience.
2. Form a notion of the soul’s capacities, and faculties, and properties. Think of its power of thought; of the recording pen of memory; of the tablet of the heart; of the creations of genius; the glow of enterprise; the light of reason; all proving to us that the soul of man is spiritual, intellectual, immaterial, immortal. Think, too, of its power of knowledge. The soul of man wanders on and on, exploring invisible and distant objects.
3. Think of the power of pleasing. How it can charm by description, dazzle by comparison, enliven by wit, convince by argument, thrill, captivate, and carry away by eloquence. Think of its power of acting on matter, in the glow of painting, in the symmetry of architecture, in the beauty of sculpture, in the enchanting intonations of the human voice.
4. The soul must be of inestimable value, for its redemption has been effected by Jesus Christ.
5. Think, too, on the endless duration of the soul’s existence. Only one word can be applied to the duration of the human soul—it is the word Eternity. The soul never dies.
   II. The conduct described in the text, in reference to this object, and recommended to our adoption. We can only win souls as instruments and accessories. Christ is the ransomer of the soul. The French commentator paraphrases the text thus: “He that sweetly draweth souls to God, maketh a holy conquest of them” (Diodoret).
6. We are to endeavour to win souls by instruction. Knowledge is wanted, is agreeable. Knowledge is to be communicated, now, from mind to mind, from one to another. The man who has knowledge is bound to communicate it to the man who has not.
7. We must do it by persuasion. For the soul is not only ignorant, but perverse. Its ignorance calls for illumination, and its perverseness and obstinacy call for entreaty and persuasion. Seriousness of manner, combined with affectionateness of spirit, are the charms we are to employ, the artillery we are to command. We are to clothe our words with plainness, seriousness, and affection.
8. It is our duty to endeavour to win souls by admonition. It is necessary, sometimes, to rebuke with all authority and all earnestness.
   III. The eulogium which the text pronounces on the conduct of those who win souls. He is “wise.”
9. Scriptures say that man is wise who saves his own soul.
10. The text pronounces that man wise who is instrumental in winning the souls of his fellow-creatures. Such a man, in his conduct, is promoting the honour, and glory of God. Such a man connects himself with the coming in of the mediatorial reign of our Immanuel. Such a man is the best friend of the human race, and most effectually promotes the welfare of mankind around him. (J. Beaumont.)

The work and responsibility of the ministry
The work of the ministry is an awful thing. What shall we say of the responsibility which belongs to him who, at an age when he could neither deceive himself nor be deceived, chooses an office to which he professes to be divinely called, even the cure of souls?
I. The worth of souls. The very word “souls” is startling. The soul is a direct emananation from God—a breath of God, a spark, so to call it, of Deity. It is a living soul. It has infinite capacities. See the estimation in which God holds it; especially in giving His Son for its redemption. See not the original redemption only, but also all the subsequent acts of grace. Then most guilty must he be who despises his own soul, and in spite of all this array of mercy, chooses death rather than life.
II. The winning of souls.

1. The agency which the Divine wisdom has seen fit to employ in this business.
2. The means which this agency is commissioned to use. In preaching the doctrine of Christ, we are wielding a weapon of omnipotent might.
3. While with fidelity we preach Christ, we must do it with the earnestness which its importance demands, and the affection which its subject warrants.
4. And we must also labour to the utmost to give no offence, that the ministry be not blamed. But this line of conduct is strictly within the limit of the faithful preaching of the Word. What are the noble and glorious results of a ministry so conducted? Such a pastor both saves himself and them that hearken. (Joseph Haslegrave, M.A.)

The mission work of winning souls

1. Missionary associations and enterprises take their rise out of the most enlightened and comprehensive views of human nature.
2. Missionary Societies employ the only expedient which has ever been known to act on human nature with the power of effecting a moral transformation.
3. Missionary enterprises proceed on the most enlightened views of the harmony between the instrumentality of man and the agency of God in the work of winning and saving souls.
4. The instrumentality employed secures the most glorious of all results to the instruments themselves.
5. Missionary operations are conducive, in a high degree, to the prevalence of the spirit of Christian union. (H. F. Burder, M.A.)

Winning first your own soul, then other souls
The charity that wins a soul begins at home; and if it do not begin there it will never begin. The order of nature in this work is, “save yourselves and them that hear you.” But though this charity begins at home, it does not end there. From its centre outward, and onward all around, like the ripple on the surface of the lake, compassion for the lost will run, nor stop until it touch the shore of time. Winning immortal souls is work for wise men, and we lack wisdom. On this point there is a special promise from God. Those who need wisdom and desire to use it in this work will get it for the asking. The wisdom needed is different from the wisdom of men. It is very closely allied to the simplicity of a little child. Much of it lies in plainness and promptness. (W. Arnot, D.D.)

Two ways of wisdom
I. In the choice of the object of pursuit. When men fix on that which is of real and unquestionable value to the exclusion of other things. There can be no doubt of the preference due to the soul’s interests, even on the low standard of calculated good. Common sense must admit the wisdom shown in making the soul of man the object of the pursuit of men. If true of man’s own soul, equally true of the souls of others. He who makes the soul the object of his pursuit, and aims at doing good to men through those means that are spiritual, finds that his benevolence is exercised under circumstances very favourable.
II. In determining the manner in which that object shall be pursued. In selecting, out of many plans, that which is the most likely to succeed. Of these plans for winning souls some are of men’s devising, and bear the marks of their original. There is one, and one alone, of God’s ordaining. Of men’s schemes there is—

1. The religion of morality, which aims at men’s reformation, by addressing the reason in the form of arguments and conviction.
2. The religion of sentiment, which addresses itself to the feelings, and endeavours to win the affections by exhibitions calculated to melt and touch and soften the sensibilities of men’s natures. And there is the Divine religion of the gospel, which aims at the conversion of the soul through faith. This system speaks to the heart and to the conscience; and this is the way of wisdom in winning souls. (Henry Raikes, M.A.)

The winner of souls
I. What is here implied?

1. That these souls might be lost, else they could never be won—would never need to be won.
2. That these souls, though lost, are not irrecoverably lost; they may yet be won.
3. That human instrumentality is to be employed for the accomplishment of these ends; the work is the Lord’s.
   II. The winner of souls has a twofold aim. The immediate aim is the salvation of souls; the ultimate aim is the glory of God.
   III. The gain is perpetual. These souls once won are won for ever. Leave it to other men to build palaces and rear memorial pillars, to add house to house, and call their lands by their own names; be yours the God-like task of contributing to rear the palace of the Great King—of adding another and another stone to that goodly structure—of setting up pillars in the eternal temple that shall stand when all others have fallen—of brightening the diadem of Jesus with gems rescued from ruin—with stars that shall shine for ever and ever. Be it yours to win souls; for the price of them is far above rubies, more precious than the gold of Ophir—to rear plants that shall flourish and bloom for ever in the paradise of God. (Thos. Main, D.D.)

A word to winners of souls
I. He is wise who wins souls, for he has a blessing in the winning.

1. The best way to keep our own souls in health is to seek those of others.
2. The best way to benefit our brethren is to seek souls.
   II. He has a blessing in the won. Every soul we win for Christ—
3. Is a token of His favour. It proves we have used the means in the right way.
4. Causes, or should cause, more watchfulness. We are examples to them.
5. Is an additional helper for us. What sweet communion have we with our spiritual fathers and spiritual children!
   III. He has a blessing stored up in heaven.
6. Exalted position. “Shine as stars.”
7. Perpetual preferment. “For ever and ever.”
8. Unbounded delight. (R. A. Griffin.)

The winning of souls
To win souls is a proof of wisdom, and it is also an exercise of wisdom. There is the wisdom of winning souls to be considered, and also the wisdom in winning souls.
I. The wisdom of winning souls.

1. Human souls require to be won. They are at first in a lost state. They are lost as being without knowledge, without righteousness, without happiness, and without hope.
2. But the souls of men may be recovered. The method of their salvation is arranged and completed in the gospel.
3. See the wisdom of this work in its innate grandeur and excellence. In a shipwreck or a fire what strenuous efforts are made to save property, or to save life: how much more to pluck these brands from the burning.
4. See what an enduring work it is. Other things, saved, may perish again; but a soul saved will be secure for ever.
5. See the reward it brings to the happy agent himself. It gratifies his benevolence, and his piety—it secures him affection and love—it will ensure immortal honour (Dan_12:3).
6. It is an essential part of our duty as Christians. The task of winning souls is committed to us. A dispensation of the gospel is entrusted to us. We are bound by the pledges of our allegiance and gratitude to Christ to employ ourselves in this work.
   II. The wisdom in winning souls.
7. There are difficulties peculiar to the work.
   (1) In the perversity and prejudices of those whom we seek to save.
   (2) In the snares and oppositions of the world, skilfully managed by the great adversary of our souls.
   (3) In the ignorances, jealousies, and inconsistencies of the agents themselves.
8. The required wisdom consists of several important constituents. (The Congregational Pulpit.)

The supreme wisdom
The literal meaning of these words is “He that catcheth souls is wise.” The figure is taken from the manner in which the fowler catches the birds. He that goeth into the wilds of nature, where the spirits of men are rude and untamed, and employs his skill in attracting and winning them to cultivation and righteousness, is wise. The enterprise of capturing a soul for this end is replete with honour, and brings such distinction that rank and talent have been proud to consecrate themselves to the work. The ostensible end of all enlightened government is to win souls, and that administration is the wisest whose measures are fitted to win the largest number to civilisation and from vice to morality. The legislature that does not apprehend the moral as well as the social and civil wants of a people is either barbarous or wicked—as it may happen to rest on ignorance or selfishness. Let us select any form of philanthropy—the genius of that form really is the recovery of the soul. You never give a beggar alms without some reference to his mind. Whether you would or not, you must include the relief of his mind when you are moved to lighten his bodily distress. The true philanthropist gives scope to this mental sympathy. Why does he seek to alleviate the mental and physical disorders of his fellow-men? Because they stand in the way of their moral nature. He does not stop when he has rescued a family from starvation. “He that winneth souls is wise.” He makes the world better and increases the resources of his country’s greatness. In treading a low neighbourhood of the East-end of London, you find a family bearing every mark of extreme distress. You enter what more resembles a den than a room. But in that foul and wretched hovel there would be a lot more than meets the eye. Amid that squalor, and in such a home, there would be scenes of the greatest crime and ruin, and if the children were turned out on society they would be like so many prowling wolves. But suppose you are the instrument of checking this current of evil and wickedness. What have you done? In rescuing these poor creatures from poverty you dispel one of the chief incentives to crime by waking up energies laid asleep by destitution or wickedness. You have, by sending the children to school, closed one door of ignorance and vice, and opened another of intelligence and virtue. You have won souls to knowledge and integrity. But here I ask, Have we done all when we have reached this step? Have governments arrived at the limit of their possibilities when they have made men free and prosperous? Has philanthropy executed her mission when she has supplied the needy with bread and gathered about them conditions of health? As if a man had drawn up a careful design for a mansion, had laid the foundation, carried up the walls, and then had neglected to cover the building, the result being that when the winds and rain came the splendid fragment, wanting the coherence and support of a roof, falls away and collapses. Long experience has convinced me that unless education be roofed and crowned with religion, the principles of human character, however wisely laid, however right in themselves, will not prevent the character from collapsing. The principles of human character will go down, and the soul is not won, but lost. The doctrines Christ came to reveal or enforce, and the great atoning work which it was the business of His life to finish were illustrated upon a miniature scale in order that we might be ready and able at once to study their operation. The truths He proclaimed were for all time and for the world, but the application was first directed by Himself to a small district of Palestine. He taught us how to win souls. He addressed Himself to every human want. Unlike all other benefactors I have ever seen or heard of, He did not give Himself to one department of charity. He raised the whole man. And the dispensation of His goodness was as practical as it was beneficial. He satisfied the hungry, but He never pauperised indolence. Why do I mention these particulars? In order to show that our heavenly Lord took care of the earthly life—its animal and social wants; and in His daily teachings He included those earthly virtues of truth, purity, industry, loyalty, and love. But the basis of His superstructure of philanthropy was the salvation of the soul. It must be the aim of all power professing beneficence to take the soul to the arms of God. The soul not only belongs to God, everything belongs to Him; but the soul has a future of immortality, and the brief life of a few years here must train it for the life of ages. To win a soul is not to bring it into bondage, it is to take it and keep it for God. The Saviour was ever removing obstacles in the way to heaven, and the supreme obstruction—sin—He laid down His life to remove. All His earthly lessons, all His parables and teachings, lead up to heaven like the steps of a ladder. And I think you cannot begin this winning process too soon. The perceptions of a child are far in advance of its tongue, although that begins early. Its temper and will are apt scholars before its tongue can frame a syllable. It will learn more in the first three years than you can teach it in the next ten. (E. E. Jenkins, M.A.)

The wise man wins souls
It is supposed that a man is wise because he wins souls. That is not the teaching of the text. He wins souls because he is wise. Let us look at the matter in this way: there is a necessity in wisdom that it shall win souls. Wisdom always wins. The wise man may never speak to a soul, and yet he may win it. This is not the picture of an ardent evangelist running to and fro in the earth upon the vague and general mission of winning souls. That is the popular misunderstanding of the text. The real interpretation is that if a man is wise he will by the very necessity of wisdom win souls, draw them to him, excite their attention, compel their confidence, constrain their honour. There is a silent conquest; there is a preaching that never speaks—a most eloquent preaching which simply does the law, obeys the gospel, exemplifies the spirit of Christ, works that spirit out in all the detail of life, so swiftly, patiently, sympathetically, completely, that souls are won, drawn, saying, Behold, what virtue is this! what pureness, what charity, what simplicity, what real goodness and beneficence! This must be the right doctrine, because it comes out in the right line. So then the scope of the text is enlarged. (J. Parker, D.D.)

Souls to be won, not driven
This wise man does not drive souls—he wins them. Souls cannot be driven. We may attempt to drive them, and therein show our folly, but it is of the nature of the soul that it be charmed, lured by angel-like beauty, by heavenly eloquence, by mighty persuasion of reason. The soul that is driven offers no true worship; nay, as we have just said, the soul can defy the driver. The body can be driven to church, but not the soul. It does not follow because a man is sitting in church that he himself is there. A child forced to church is not at church. The house of God, therefore, should be filled with fascination, attraction, charm, so that little children should long to go to it, and it should be a deprivation not to go there. The wise man would not drive men to any form of goodness, though he is bound to prohibit them under penalty from certain forms of social evil, because those forms involve the health, the prosperity, and the best advantage of others. (J. Parker, D.D.)

How to win others to Christ
Soul-winning is a blessed possibility to all who are “filled with all the fulness of God.”

1. Be prayerful. Have regular hours for secret communion with God.
2. Study the Scriptures.
3. Be gentle. Lead rather than drive. Speak the truth in love. Never argue.
4. Be polite. Haste or brusqueness will repel. A courteous, affable manner is well-nigh irresistible.
5. Be courageous. Trusting the guidance of the Spirit, never be afraid to speak to any soul.
6. Leave the result with God. It is unwise ever to waste time in regrets. A rebuff may mean a soul under strong conviction. Some seeds take longer to sprout than others. Remember you are not working for yourself, but for God; that without Him you could do nothing; and to Him belongs all the glory. (G. F. Pentecost.)

How to win
In Chicago, a few years ago, there was a little boy who went to one of the mission Sunday-schools. His father moved to another part of the city, about five miles away, and every Sunday that boy came past thirty or forty Sunday-schools to the one he attended. One day a lady who was out collecting scholars for a Sunday-school met him and asked him why he went so far, past so many schools. “There are plenty of others just as good,” said she. “They may be as good, but they are not so good for me,” he said. “Why not?” she asked. “Because they love a fellow over there,” he answered. Ah! love won him. “Because they love a fellow over there!” How easy it is to reach people through love! (
D. L. Moody.)

Soul-winning
Some preachers think only of their sermon; others think only of themselves: the man who wins the soul is the man who aims at it. (Dean Hook.)

Success in soul-winning
Success in soul-winning is only given to skill, earnestness, sympathy, perseverance. Men are saved not in masses, but by careful study and well-directed effort. It is said that such is the eccentric flight of the snipe when they rise from the earth, that it completely puzzles the sportsman, and some who are capital shots at other birds are utterly baffled here. Eccentricity seems to be their special quality, and this can only be mastered by incessant practice with the gun. But the eccentricity of souls is beyond this, and he had need be a very spiritual Nimrod, a “mighty hunter before the Lord,” who would capture them for Christ.
The best news
When Chalmers was in the very zenith of his popularity in Glasgow, and crowds were gathering every Sabbath round his pulpit, he was walking home one evening with a friend, who told him of a soul who had been converted through the instrumentality of a sermon which he had preached. Immediately the tear-drop glittered in the good man’s eye, and his voice faltered as he said, “That is the best news I have heard for a long time. I was beginning to think that I had mistaken the leadings of providence in coming to your city; but this will keep me up.”
The joy of winning souls
Bishop Harold Browne of Winchester once said that among all the joys which had been given him in the course of a long and busy life, none had come with a deeper thrill, or had remained so freshly in his heart, as the joy he had felt when, as a young curate, he had been for the first time the means, through God, of leading a soul to peace and trust in Christ. This is a joy which all can have, if they ask for guidance in the work of influencing others for God. (F. E. Toyne.)

The winner of souls is wise
A learned divine was asked, on his death-bed, what he considered the greatest of all things. His answer was, “It is not theology, nor controversy; it is to save souls.” Doddridge wrote, “I long for the conversion of souls, more sensibly than for anything besides.” Matthew Henry says, “I would think it a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of gold and silver for myself.” Brainerd said, “I cared not where nor how I lived, or what hardship I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.” Ward Beecher says, “As the pilot beats cruise far out, watching for every whitening sail, and hover through day and night all about the harbour, vigilant to board every ship that they may bring safely through the Narrows all the wanderers of the ocean, so should we watch off the gate of salvation for all the souls, tempest-tossed, beating in from the sea of sin, and guide them through the perilous straits, that at last, in still waters, they may cast the anchor of their hope.” The Christian is to do good, not by force or hardness, but by gentle persuasion and persevering kindness. To win, as in a game, implies skill in adapting the means to the end.

1. He who would be successful in winning souls to Christ must be considerate and thoughtful.
2. Another qualification is courage.
3. Another is tender, unaffected sympathy. It is said that if a piano is struck in a room where another stands unopened, one who should place his ear near it would hear a responsive note within, as though touched by the hand of an unseen spirit. Such is the power of sympathy. (John N. Norton.)

A motto for a new year
Our first object should be to win Christ. That being attained, we cannot adopt a better motto for life than this, “He that winneth souls is wise.”

1. He is a wise man who sets this before him as the object for which to five. No pursuit is more worthy of our energies. No pursuit yields a better return.
2. He who would be successful in this work must go about it wisely. He must himself be wise unto salvation. He must have the tact to discern his opportunities, and rightly direct his appeals. The word winneth (margin, “taketh”) is an allusion to the hunter’s craft.
3. A wise adaptation to the circumstances and temperaments of those we seek to bless is needed in this work. It will not answer to deal with all alike. Men are not to be taken in the lump and treated after some patent method of moral mechanics. Every human being is an individual, and must be so reckoned and laboured for. No labour or self-denial will be misspent in this holy cause. (C. A. Davis.)

Proverbs 11:31
Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth.
Judgment here
Two ways of explaining this text.

1. Of the happiness which God has appointed for goodness, it has pleased Him that some portion should accrue in this world; and of the misery which is the wages of sin, a much more abundant portion.
2. Even the righteous shall be recompensed (that is, punished) for their sins, in the earth, much more the wicked, with a sorer punishment. The argument is, if the good and pious often suffer for the faults they fall into, for the wicked to expect an exemption from suffering is a most vain and absurd expectation. The first is the more natural and obvious sense of the passage. This world is not a place of retribution. It is a place where men may suffer for their virtues and escape for their wickedness; and this so frequently as even to afford some ground and pretence for questioning which course a man had best take if this life were his all. A man might say, “Let us live to ourselves, and seize all the good within our reach, whatever be the consequences to others.” Such a plan the wise king pronounced to be foolish and shortsighted, even on the principles of worldly prudence, and without taking another life into the account. After all the arguments from suffering virtue and successful wickedness have been urged and admitted, the balance of good will be found to be with the good, and evil unknown to them, to beset the path and track the steps of the wicked. The words imply that any one may see this who will attend carefully to what passes around him. It is in every one’s mouth that “honesty is the best policy.” The upright and regular part of the community is too sagacious and too strong for the schemer at last. The honest and good gain upon them and pass them, even in the career of worldly success. There is a reward in this life for a strict adherence to temperance and all the other branches and laws of self-government. But this doctrine is apparently opposed to such teachings as are found in Ecc_9:11. But it may be noticed that in Proverbs the rule is dealt with, and in Ecclesiastes the exceptions to the rule. Such exceptions there will always be. Part of the text declares that the punishment of sin in this world is more certain than the reward of virtue. And the fact is so. The recompense of the wicked does not tarry. Their course is soon interrupted by evil and suffering. We can generally predict the end of the wicked in this world. Licentiousness and debauchery lead to disease and embarrassment. Of dishonesty it may be said, its resources are soon dried up, and the plenty it procures is but for a moment. From the laws of nature and the appointments of Divine providence there is no escape. The true end and design of all the Divine afflictions and all earthly sufferings is our improvement. He adapts His methods to our wants, and appoints us such trials as we can bear. But the promise of recompense in the earth is perceived to belong to them; is fulfilled in them in many respects. (A. Gibson, M.A.)

Proverbs 11:1
a just weight] Lit. a full, or perfect stone, from the early use of stones as weights. So Eng. stone; Germ, stein. It is an enactment of the Mosaic Law here repeated and enforced: Deu_25:13; Deu_25:16; Lev_19:35-36. Comp. Pro_16:11; Pro_20:10; Pro_20:23. See Introd. p. 13.

Proverbs 11:2
wisdom] We should rather have expected honour, as a parallel to shame in the first clause. But wisdom is the root of honour. Comp. Pro_15:33, Pro_18:12.

Proverbs 11:3
perverseness] Some would render slipperiness; as we say, “a slippery fellow.” The noun occurs here only and in Pro_15:4, but the cognate verb is found several times in this Book (Pro_13:6, Pro_19:3, Pro_21:12). What is here meant is the trickiness and want of straightforwardness (the opposite of the “integrity” of the former clause) which mark the character and conduct of the treacherous (R.V.).

Proverbs 11:4
in the day of wrath] “While the words are true in their highest sense of the great ‘Dies iræ’ of the future, they speak in the first instance, as do the like words in Zep_1:15-18, of any ‘day of the Lord,’ any time of judgement, when men or nations receive the chastisement of their sins. At such times ‘riches profit not.’ ” Speaker’s Comm.

Proverbs 11:5
direct] Or, make plain, or straight; so that it leads to a prosperous issue. See Pro_3:6, note.

Proverbs 11:6
naughtiness] mischief, R.V., ἀπωλεία, LXX. But desires (as the same Heb. word is rendered in Pro_10:3, R.V.), or aims gives a good sense: “in insidiis suis capiuntur iniqui.” Vulg.

Proverbs 11:7
unjust men] iniquity, R.V. Comp. Hos_9:4, where the expression “bread of mourners” (the same Heb. word) may be “the emblem of utter impurity,” because everything connected with death involved ceremonial defilement. See note there in this Series.
Others render, with R.V. marg., strong men, or better, strength, i.e. wealth or worldly resources. The expectation of (i.e. based upon) such strength shall perish. Comp. for the sentiment Pro_11:4 above.
The proverb obviously implies, as a matter of popular knowledge and belief, that there is an expectation which does not perish at death; an expectation, which for the true children of Abraham, as for Abraham himself (Heb_11:9-10), reached beyond remembrance on earth in fame or family, “to all generations” (Psa_49:11).

Proverbs 11:9
be delivered] i.e. from the destruction wrought by the “mouth of the hypocrite, (or godless man R.V.)”. His knowledge will enable him to see and avoid the snare (παγὶς, LXX.).
Some, however, would render, “through the knowledge of the righteous shall they (i.e. the neighbour of the first clause, which as a noun of multitude may have a plural verb) be delivered.” This may be intended by the LXX.: ἐν στόματι ἀσεβῶν παγὶς πολίταις, αἴσθησις δὲ δικαίων εὔοδος (sc. πολίταις).

Proverbs 11:11
the blessing of the upright] This may mean either the blessing enjoyed by them, their prosperity (as in Pro_11:10); or the blessing bestowed by them, by their prayers and presence (Gen_18:26; Gen_39:5).

Proverbs 11:12
despiseth] i.e. shews his contempt openly, makes no effort to conceal it (μυκτηρίζει, LXX.), and so contrasts with the man of “wisdom” (heart, Heb.), who, whatever he thinks, keeps his thoughts to himself.

Proverbs 11:13
A talebearer] Rather, He that goeth about as a talebearer. This, as indicated in A.V. marg. (He that walketh being a talebearer), is the literal and more forcible rendering. It also brings out the warning more clearly, q.d. Don’t trust such a man.

Proverbs 11:14
counsel] See Pro_1:5 note. The same Heb. word is there rendered wise counsels, A.V. and sound counsels, R.V. Here R.V. renders wise guidance, with reference perhaps to the root-meaning of the word, steering a ship, κυβέρνησις, LXX. Comp. Pro_15:22.

Proverbs 11:15
smart for it] Both A.V. and R.V. add in the marg. “Heb. shall be sore broken.”
suretiship] Three entirely different Heb. words in this verse are rendered “surety,” “suretiship,” “sure.” The first denotes exchanging with another, taking his place, becoming bail for him; the second, striking hands (“Heb. those that strike hands,” A.V. and R.V. marg.), as a token of the suretiship; the third, safe, secure.
See on this verse Pro_6:1 note.

Proverbs 11:16
retaineth] i.e. acquires and keeps. Comp. Pro_29:23. In Gen_48:17 we read: Joseph held up (same Heb. word), i.e. took and kept hold of, and so raised, his father’s hand.
and]=as. We have a similar virtual comparison by juxtaposition of clauses in Pro_26:9; Pro_26:11.
strong] Rather violent, R.V., the reference being to such lawless action as is described in Pro_1:13.
The grace of true womanhood wins and retains honour not less securely than the violence of the freebooter holds fast his spoil.
The LXX. have for this proverb:
“A gracious woman brings glory to her husband,
But a throne of dishonour is a woman who hateth righteousness;”
and add:
“They who deal slothfully with riches become poor,
But the diligent stay themselves upon their wealth.”

Proverbs 11:18
deceitful wages] Lit. wages of falsehood, i.e. transitory and disappointing, in contrast to a sure reward of the second clause, lit. a reward of truth, i.e. real and lasting.
shall be] he that soweth … hath R.V. But there is no need to supply anything. The word worketh [earneth R.V.), governs both clauses.

Proverbs 11:19
As] The Heb. word means so, but has also the sense of firm, stedfast, and is so used of character, Gen_42:11; Gen_42:19; Gen_42:31; Gen_42:33-34.
Render:
He that is stedfast in righteousness is so unto life.
And he that pursueth evil doeth so unto his own death.
The rendering of R.V. marg., So (in like manner), connecting this proverb with that of the preceding verse, is less forcible and less in accordance with the style of this Book.

Proverbs 11:21
Though hand join in hand] Lit. hand to hand. This obscure phrase may mean either, though men clasp one another’s hands in strong confederacy (χειρὶ χεῖρας ἐμβαλὼν, LXX.); or, preserving more closely the parallel, from generation to generation, the idea being that of the Second Commandment, Exo_20:5.
The rendering, My hand upon it, R.V. marg. (sit dextra fidei testis), though forcible, is hardly in keeping with the style of this Book. The same phrase occurs Pro_16:5.

Proverbs 11:22
jewel] Rather, ring (R.V. marg.). The reference to the nosering, which Eastern women wore as an ornament, gives point to the proverb. See Gen_24:47; Eze_16:12, in both which places R.V. renders the same Heb. word, “a ring upon the nose.”
discretion] Lit. taste, which would seem to indicate the innate and instinctive character of womanly purity. We have a good example of it, in the form of tact or perception, in the case of Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite, to whom David says, using the same Hebrew word, “blessed be thy advice (wisdom, R.V. text, discretion, marg.), and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from bloodguiltiness,” 1Sa_25:33. Comp. αἴσθησις, “delicate perception, fine tact,” Php_1:9, and note there in this Series.

Proverbs 11:23
wrath] Strictly, outpouring, or overflowing, sc. of (God’s) wrath. Comp. Heb_10:27; and rod τοῦ θυμοῦ τῆς ὀργῆς, Rev_19:15.
Stated in full the proverb would be: That which the righteous desires is good, and therefore his desire when accomplished brings good or prosperity to himself; whereas the wicked, who desires evil, has nothing to look for but the just reward of evil, the displeasure of Almighty God.

Proverbs 11:24
scattereth] Comp. Psa_112:9 (where the same Heb. word is rendered dispersed); 2Co_9:6.
yet increaseth] Rather, increaseth yet more, R.V. εἰσὶν οἱ τὰ ἴδια σπείροντες πλείονα ποιοῦσιν, LXX.; Alii dividunt propria et ditiores fiunt, Vulg.
more than] This, with A.V. and R.V. text, is the best rendering here, of the Heb. particle. It may, however, mean from, and be taken with the verb (keep from = withhold), and then we have the rendering of R.V. marg. withholdeth what is justly due.
The two clauses of this verse are expanded into separate proverbs in the two verses which follow.

Proverbs 11:25
The liberal soul] Lit. the soul of blessing (ψυχὴ εὐλογουμένη, LXX.); the soul that is ready to benefit and bless in will and deed. Comp. “a blessing” = “a gift,” 2Ki_5:15, and ὁ σπείρων ἐπʼ εὐλογίαις, 2Co_9:6.

Proverbs 11:26
withholdeth] e.g. by keeping back his store in time of necessity to run up the price. See Amo_8:4-6, and comp. the legend of Bishop Hatto.

Proverbs 11:27
diligently seeketh … procureth … seeketh] Three different Heb. words are used. The shades of meaning are given by R.V.: diligently seeketh (with A.V.) i.e. makes good his chief aim; seeketh, i.e. whether consciously or not, is really seeking “favour with God and man”; searcheth after, i.e. is busily employed in the pursuit of mischief.

Proverbs 11:28
branch] Rather leaf, R.V. Comp. Gen_3:7; Psa_1:3.

Proverbs 11:29
troubleth] by churlish and niggardly ways. Comp. the story of Nabal, 1 Samuel 25.
the wind] Which shall drive away him and his possessions, Psa_1:4; or the wind may here be used to denote that which is unsubstantial and vanishes away. Comp. Isa_41:29.

Proverbs 11:30
the fruit of the righteous] We should rather perhaps have expected the proverb to run, “the righteous (himself) is a tree of life,” in his beneficent influence upon others (Rev_22:2); but the object of the proverb in both its clauses is to lay stress upon the attractive power of goodness, and this consists rather in the outward conduct, in words and works, than in the inward character, in motives and principles; rather in the fruit than in the tree.
a tree of life] See Pro_3:18, note.
he that winneth souls is wise] Rather, and a wise man winneth (lit. taketh) souls. Wisdom, like righteousness, draws and allures to itself.
The proverb has its highest exemplification in the highest wisdom. “They that be wise” are indeed “they that turn many to righteousness,” Dan_12:3.

Proverbs 11:31
shall be recompensed] This might mean, shall receive, in each case, the return due to him; the righteous shall be
rewarded (as the same Heb. word is rendered in Pro_13:13) and the wicked punished (comp. recompense evil, the Heb. word being again the same, Jer_18:20). But then it is difficult to understand why the law of retribution should obtain “much more” in the second case than in the first. “Recompensed” has therefore been understood to mean “punished” in both cases: The righteous shall be punished for his sins (“for there is no man that sinneth not,” 1Ki_8:46); how much more, &c. The LXX. paraphrase of this latter interpretation is adopted by St Peter: “If the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1Pe_4:18, R.V.

Proverbs 11:1-31
The following commentary covers Chapters 10 through 31.
In chapter 10 begin the details which teach those who give ear how to avoid the snares into which the simple might fall, the path to be followed in many cases, and the consequences of men’s actions: in short, that which characterises wisdom in detail, what may be prudence for man, divine discretion for the children of God; and also, the result of God’s government, whatever appearances may be for awhile. It is well to observe, that there is no question of redemption or propitiation in this book; it proposes a walk according to the wisdom of God’s government.
In the final chapter we have the character of a king according to wisdom, and that of the woman in her own house-the king who does not allow himself that which, by darkening his moral discernment through the indulgence of his lusts, would make him unfit to govern. In the woman we see the persevering and devoted industry which fills the house with riches, brings honour to its inhabitants, and removes all the cares and anxieties produced by sloth. The typical application of these two specific characters is too evident to need explanation. The example of the woman is very useful, as to the spirit of the thing, to one who labours in the assembly.
Although in this book the wisdom produced by the fear of Jehovah is only applied to this world, it is on that very account of great use to the Christian, who, in view of his heavenly privileges, might, more or less, forget the continual government of God. It is very important for the Christian to remember the fear of the Lord, and the effect of God’s presence on the details of his conduct; and I repeat that which I said at the beginning, that it is great grace which deigns to apply divine wisdom to all the details of the life of man in the midst of the confusion brought in by sin. Occupied with heavenly things, the Christian is less in the way of discovering, by his own experience, the clue to the labyrinth of evil through which he is passing. God has considered this, and He has laid down this first principle, “wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Thus the Christian may be ignorant of evil (if a worldling were so, he would fall into it), and yet avoid it through his knowledge of good. The wisdom of God gives him the latter; the government of God provides for all the rest. Now, in the Proverbs, we have these things in principle and in detail. I have not dwelt on the figurative character of the forms of evil. They are rather principles than figures. But the violent man of the last days is continually found in the Psalms; and Babylon is the full accomplishment of the woman who takes the simple in her snares and leads them down to death; just as Christ is the perfect wisdom of God which leads to life. But these two things which manifest evil proceed from the heart of man at all times since the fall: only we have seen that there is an active development of the wiles of the evil woman, who has her own house and her own arrangements. It is not simply the principle of corruption, but an organised system, as is that of sovereign wisdom.

Proverbs 11:1-31
Proverbs 11 – Blessings to the Righteous and Upright
Pro_11:1
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight.
a. Dishonest scales are an abomination: The term abomination was reserved for terrible, horrific things. This shows just how deeply God cares about simple honesty and fairness. He regards dishonest scales as an abomination.
b. A just weight is His delight: To the degree that God condemns the dishonest who defraud, to the same degree He has delight in just and fair business practices.
i. The Law of Moses clearly commanded God’s people to have honest scales (Lev_19:35-36 and Deu_25:13-16).
Pro_11:2
When pride comes, then comes shame;
But with the humble is wisdom.
a. When pride comes, then comes shame: The proud man or woman fears shame. Ironically, they cultivate shame and disgrace for themselves. One significant reason for this is that God resists the proud (Jas_4:6 and 1Pe_5:5).
b. With the humble is wisdom: There is great wisdom in humility because it recognizes the truth about God and the truth about self, especially in relation to others. This humility is an important foundation for true wisdom.
i. The humble: “Lowly (King James Version, Revised Version) is a rare word, found only here and (as a verb) in Mic_6:8 (‘walk humbly with thy God’), where it suggests the biddable spirit that is the opposite of the insubordination just considered.” (Kidner)
ii. “The humble man looks for nothing but justice; has the meanest opinion of himself; expects nothing in the way of commendation or praise; and can never be disappointed but in receiving praise, which he neither expects nor desires.” (Clarke)
Pro_11:3
The integrity of the upright will guide them,
But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
a. The integrity of the upright will guide them: The man or woman who lives with integrity – a trustworthy life lived without shame or secrets – is recognized as upright and will have their integrity to guide them.
b. The perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them: The false and crooked ways of the unfaithful will bring those who practice them to destruction.
Pro_11:4
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
But righteousness delivers from death.
a. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath: The book of Proverbs recognizes the benefit of riches, but also their limitations. Earthly wealth is useless in the day of wrath.
i. John Trapp used a historical example to illustrate the truth that riches do not profit in the day of wrath: “Wherefore should I die, being so rich? Said that wretched Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, in Henry VI’s time. Fie, quoth he, will not death be hired? Will money do nothing? His riches could not reprieve him.”
b. But righteousness delivers from death: We can, and should, use our present earthly wealth to store up treasure in heaven (Luk_12:33-34), which will bring profit in the day of wrath.
Pro_11:5
The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright,
But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
a. The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright: The blameless man or woman finds some rest in the confidence that God’s guiding eye is upon the righteous.
b. The wicked will fall by his own wickedness: The wicked man or woman has no such confidence. God does not need to specially intervene in the fall of the wicked; he or she can fall by his own wickedness.
Pro_11:6
The righteousness of the upright will deliver them,
But the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.
a. The righteousness of the upright will deliver them: The upright will have their reward; their righteousness will be blessed, and they will be delivered.
b. The unfaithful will be caught by their lust: As the upright are delivered, the unfaithful will be caught – and by their own lust, receiving the penalty of their own unfaithful desires.
Pro_11:7
When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish,
And the hope of the unjust perishes.
a. His expectation will perish: The wicked man or woman often expects blessing and goodness, but that expectation will perish when they die and face the judgment to come on all men and women (Heb_9:27).
b. The hope of the unjust perishes: The hopes of the wicked end up only being wishes, and wishes that are bitterly disappointed.
i. “That is to say, the expectation or hope of the wicked lies wholly on this side of the grave, and perishes at death.” (Morgan)
ii. “Hope was not made for the wicked; and yet they are the very persons that most abound in it! They hope to be saved, and get at last to the kingdom of God; though they have their face towards perdition, and refuse to turn. But their hope goes no farther than the grave.” (Clarke)
Pro_11:8
The righteous is delivered from trouble,
And it comes to the wicked instead.
a. The righteous is delivered from trouble: God promises deliverance to His righteous ones. Whatever trouble they experience in this life is only temporary, and they will see His deliverance in this life and especially in the life to come.
b. It comes to the wicked instead: For the righteous, this life is the worst trouble they will ever experience. For the wicked, their greatest trouble is yet to come.
i. “The Israelites were delivered out of the trouble of the Red Sea, but the Egyptians were drowned by it (Exo_14:21-28). Mordecai was rescued from the gallows, on which Haman was then hanged (Est_5:14; Est_7:10). Peter was snatched from death, while his persecutors and jailers were condemned.” (Bridges)
Pro_11:9
The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor,
But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.
a. With his mouth destroys his neighbor: One of the identifying marks of the hypocrite is that they destroy people with their words. Sincere love looks to build others up, not to destroy them.
i. “Haman, under the pretense of loyalty, sought to destroy a whole nation (Est_3:8-13). Ziba, under the same false cover, wanted to destroy his neighbor (2Sa_16:1-4; compare 19:26-27).” (Bridges)
b. Through knowledge the righteous will be delivered: God’s deliverance comes to the righteous through their knowledge, both in the sense of wisdom and in the sense of personal relationship with God.
Pro_11:10
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices;
And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.
a. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices: God gives favor among men with His righteous ones (Pro_3:4), and the community rejoices when they are blessed.
i. “When such men are encouraged and advanced into places of power and trust, the city rejoiceth; the citizens or subjects of that government rejoice, because they confidently expect justice and tranquility, and many other benefits, by their administration of public affairs.” (Poole)
ii. “However drab the world makes out virtue to be, it appreciates the boon of it in public life.” (Kidner, cited in Ross)
b. When the wicked perish, there is jubilation: As much as the community rejoices over the blessing of the righteous, they also celebrate the calamity and end of the wicked. Wicked men and women are not missed when they pass.
i. “Rome rejoiced at the death of Nero, and the public rejoiced in the French Revolution at the death of Robespierre.” (Waltke)
Pro_11:11
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted,
But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
a. The city is exalted: When good comes to the upright, it is good for the entire community. Their blessing and prosperity extend beyond themselves.
b. It is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked: The words of the wicked can even destroy a city, leading to its overthrow.
i. This mouth of the wicked can overthrow a city either spiritually or politically. It can be done through the promotion of spiritual or social deception. “Whether he be a seedsman of sedition or a seducer of the people, a Sheba or a Shebna, a carnal gospeller or a godless politician, whose drift is to formalise and enervate the power of truth, till at length they leave us a heartless and sapless religion.” (Trapp)
Pro_11:12
He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor,
But a man of understanding holds his peace.
a. He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor: The way of wisdom is also the way of love and respect. When one despises his neighbor, it isn’t evidence of superior wisdom and discernment, but a failure of true wisdom.
b. A man of understanding holds his peace: Men and women of wisdom (understanding) recognize there is a time and place to hold back one’s outrage. They know when love and respect should compel them to hold their peace.
Pro_11:13
A talebearer reveals secrets,
But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.
a. A talebearer reveals secrets: The unfaithful gossip, the uncontrolled talker (a talebearer) loves the power and intrigue of revealing secrets. For them, such secrets are a form of power that they use for their own advancement.
i. A talebearer: “Or, he that goeth about (from one place or person to another, as the manner of such is) telling tales, making it his business to scatter reports, revealeth secrets.” (Poole)
ii. “It is not safe to be close to this cruel man who trifles with the happiness of his fellow creatures. For as readily as he betrays a confidence about a neighbor to us, so he will betray a confidence about us to someone else.” (Bridges)
b. He who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter: The man or woman of wisdom – those of a faithful spirit – knows there is an appropriate time to conceal a matter. There are times when love and wisdom guide to privacy.
Pro_11:14
Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
a. Where there is no counsel, the people fall: People need leadership and guidance. God has given systems and structures of authority, and those in leadership need to be able to give wise counsel.
b. In the multitude of counselors there is safety: There is great value and safety in receiving opinions and input from
the multitude of counselors. No man or woman has all gifts and wisdom, and a multitude of counselors may work well to bring greater wisdom and safety in decisions.
i. “One special thing the primitive Christians prayed for the emperor was, that God would send him Senatum fidelem, a faithful council.” (Trapp)
Pro_11:15
He who is surety for a stranger will suffer,
But one who hates being surety is secure.
a. He who is surety for a stranger will suffer: To promise to pay the debts of a stranger is to invite trouble. It is never a surprise when one suffers because of such a foolish promise.
b. One who hates being a surety is secure: There is security in being responsible only for one’s own debts, for the things that they have control over.
Pro_11:16
A gracious woman retains honor,
But ruthless men retain riches.
a. A gracious woman retains honor: A mark of a truly gracious woman is that she carries with herself a sense of honor and dignity.
i. A gracious woman: “Hebrew, a woman of grace and favour, i.e. one who by her meekness, and modesty, and prudence, and other virtues, renders herself acceptable and amiable to God and to men.” (Poole)
b. Ruthless men retain riches: Character and honor are important to the gracious woman, but all the ruthless care about is riches. Wealth is their god.
i. Some believe that ruthless men does not have a negative sense in this proverb, and that it simply speaks of the reward that comes to the strong. “The method of this proverb is of comparison rather than of contrast, the idea being that a ‘gracious woman’ will defend honor with the same strength and persistency as ‘violent men,’ or ‘strong men,’ as the Authorized Version had it, will retain riches. The word ‘violent’ here suggests evil rather than good.” (Morgan)
Pro_11:17
The merciful man does good for his own soul,
But he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.
a. The merciful man does good for his own soul: The one who shows mercy to others will be shown mercy (2Sa_22:26), and this is good for the soul.
i. The merciful man: “The kindness spoken of is hesed, steadfast love, like God’s.” (Kidner)
b. He who is cruel troubles his own flesh: The one who is unmerciful and cruel to others will find that it troubles himself. The measure men use for others will also be measured to them (Mat_7:2).
i. “The word ‘trouble’ may recall Jos_7:25-26—Achan troubled Israel.” (Ross)
Pro_11:18
The wicked man does deceptive work,
But he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.
a. The wicked man does deceptive work: When someone works with deception and dishonesty, it is evidence of wickedness. The wise and honest person knows that work must be done in a way marked by honesty and integrity.
b. He who sows righteousness will have a sure reward: Those who do their work in righteousness – marked by honesty and integrity – will see the sure reward of their work. Their righteous work is like good seed that has been sown.
Pro_11:19
As righteousness leads to life,
So he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.
a. As righteousness leads to life: For Solomon, this was a self-evident fact. Using the same logic, he could have written, “As the sun rises in the east.” The path of righteousness is a path to life.
b. He who pursues evil pursues it to his own death: The way of evil is also a path, and it leads to death. Many people sacrifice a lot in their pursuit of the evil way, but their only reward is the destination of death.
i. Pursues evil: “That follows it hotfoot – as Asael followed Abner; that is, wholly carried after it, and thinks to have a great catch of it, that works ‘all uncleanness with greediness.’ [Eph_4:19].” (Trapp)
Pro_11:20
Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord,
But the blameless in their ways are His delight.
a. Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord: There is a sense in which we are the victims of sin, but another and perhaps greater sense in which we are the willing participants and perpetrators of sin. God is right to regard the perverse heart of man as an abomination before Him.
b. The blameless in their ways are His delight: Men and women can delight God. Especially from a new covenant perspective, we see thatthe blameless in their ways are those who have been forgiven and declared righteous because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. These are those who are His delight, God delights in them as He delights in His own Son.
i. We can say that this proverb hints at the transformation the new covenant promised. “The proverb calls for a transformation of human affections to correspond with God’s affections. One must be sincere in his heart and constant in his way. No in-between ground is granted.” (Waltke)
Pro_11:21
Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished;
But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.
a. Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished: Individually, man is not strong enough to resist God; collectively man is also not strong enough to resist God. God judged mankind when they joined forces to resist God in the days of the Tower of Babel (Gen_11:1-9).
b. But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered: God’s blessing will be upon His righteous ones, and upon their descendants (theirposterity).
Pro_11:22
As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout,
So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.
a. As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout: Solomon used a humorous and absurd word picture. No one would think of putting a ring of gold in a swine’s snout; the ornament doesn’t match the thing adorned.
b. So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion: It doesn’t fit to put a golden ring in a pig’s snout; even so it doesn’t fit to have a lovely woman who does not have the wisdom or self-control that mark discretion. The power and influence of that woman’s beauty aren’t enough to make up for her folly.
i. Lacks discretion: “The word is literally ‘taste’; this can mean physical taste (Exo_16:31), intellectual discretion (1Sa_25:33—Abigail had it), or ethical judgment (Psa_119:66). Here the description is probably of a woman with no moral sensibility, no propriety—unchaste.” (Ross)
ii. “Note that the woman has actually abandoned discretion; an immoral way of life is implied.” (Garrett)
iii. “It implies that she has turned herself into a boorish animal in her dress, speech, and behavior. In fact, she is worse than a pig. The sow by nature is boorish, but this woman ‘turns aside’ from her dignity. The misplaced ornaments, instead of enhancing her beauty, make her look foolishly wasteful, grotesque, and repulsive. Instead of gaining honor by her natural gift, she wins ridicule (11:16). The proverb instructs youth to give priority to inner grace, not outward beauty.” (Waltke)
iv. “If the thought of the contrast be carried out a little, it will be recognized that the swine will speedily destroy the luster of the gold, and so a woman lacking discretion will surely destroy her own beauty.” (Morgan)
Pro_11:23
The desire of the righteous is only good,
But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
a. The desire of the righteous is only good: The good character of a righteous man or woman is reflected in their desires. They desire that which is good.
b. The expectation of the wicked is wrath: The good desires of the righteous will be fulfilled, and that which is due to the wicked will come to them.
Pro_11:24
There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
And there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty.
a. There is one who scatters, yet increases more: This refers to the generous man or woman who scatters, yet not in the sense of wasteful distribution. This is Biblical generosity, which is like the scattering of seed (2Co_9:8-13) that will later bring a great harvest (increases more). We never lose when we give generously unto God and His work.
b. There is one who withholds more than is right: To be stingy and to hold on to more than is right is to lead to poverty. When we are selfish and ungenerous with what God has given us, we should expect that God would grant less to us – leading eventually to poverty.
Pro_11:25
The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will also be watered himself.
a. The generous soul will be made rich: God has promised to bless the generous soul and will do so with riches in this world, the next, or both.
i. The generous soul: “Hebrew, the soul of blessing; that man who is a blessing to others, who blesseth them, i.e. doeth good to them, as blessing is oft used for a gift, as Gen_33:11 1Sa_25:27 2Co_9:5.” (Poole)
ii. Rich is literally fat, and so translated in the King James Version (The liberal soul will be made fat). “Especially in countries where people have little to eat, the metaphor ‘to be fattened’ connotes wealth, abundance, full satisfaction, and health (cf. Deu_31:20).” (Waltke)
b. He who waters will also be watered himself: When we give, God knows how to give unto us. We can’t water others without being watered ourselves. We are never the loser for our God-guided generosity. Jesus told us that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Act_20:35).
i. “If I want to get water I must give water. Though that seems a strange way of self-serving I pray you try it.” (Spurgeon)
ii. “The minister is refreshed by his own message of salvation to his people. The Sunday school teacher learns many valuable lessons in the work of instruction. Every spiritual gift, every active grace, is increased by exercise, while its efficiency withers by neglect.” (Bridges)
Pro_11:26
The people will curse him who withholds grain,
But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.
a. The people will curse him who withholds grain: This has in mind the seller of grain who refuses to sell hoping to manipulate the market and gain a much higher price later. Such a selfish man or woman will not only be opposed by God but also cursed by the people. God is a remarkably generous God; selfishness comes from the fallen nature of man.
i. “The grain trader had larger stores at his disposal, which he presumably could hold back in times of shortage to raise the price.” (Waltke)
ii. This verse doesn’t establish a regulated price for grain, yet it protects the buyer by warning the seller of the eventual consequences of their action. People will curse him.
iii. Charles Spurgeon thought this spoke to how we should regard financial markets and transactions: “Laws which interfere between buyer and seller, master and workman, by any form of law, are blunders and nuisances. Parliaments and princes have hung on to the antiquated absurdity of regulating prices, but the Holy Ghost does nothing of the kind. All the attempts of men to control the price of bread and wheat is sheer folly, as the history of France may well prove. The market goes best when it is left alone, and so in our text, there is no law enacted and no penalty threatened, except that which the nature of things makes inevitable. God knows political economy, whether men do or not, and leaving the coarse machinery of police regulations, he puts the offender under a form of self- acting legislature which is far more efficient.”
b. Blessing will be on the head of him who sells it: The one who does good by providing grain and goods for sale will be blessed by the community. This proverb doesn’t refer to someone who gives away grain but simply to someone who sells it, making it available at a fair and good price.
i. The principle is spiritual as well as practical. When we distribute instead of hoarding, blessing will come. Spurgeon applied this to the “distribution” of the gospel in the 19th century missionary movement and the blessing that came to churches because of it. “Mark this, from the day when Fuller, Carey, Sutcliffe, and others, met together to send out missionaries to India the sun began to dawn of a gracious revival which is not over yet, for bad as the state of the Churches now is, yet it is marvellously an improvement upon anything before the age of missions…. I believe that the neglect of sending the word to the heathen brought a blight and a curse upon the Churches, which is now happily removed.”
Pro_11:27
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor,
But trouble will come to him who seeks evil.
a. He who earnestly seeks good finds favor: God honors the one who earnestly seeks good, and that one may be blessed with favor with God and among men. This is especially true when the good sought is God Himself (Deu_4:29, Mat_7:7).
b. Trouble will come to him who seeks evil: Seeking good brings favor, but seeking evil brings trouble. The trouble is often simply finding the evil that one seeks.
i. Him who seeks evil: “The ceaseless energy of Satan’s servants in seeking evil puts to shame our indifference!” (Bridges)
Pro_11:28
He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like foliage.
a. He who trusts in his riches will fall: Proverbs teaches us the value of money and wealth but also teaches us to never trust in riches. To put trust in riches is to invite our own fall.
i. “Riches were never true to any that trusted to them.” (Trapp)
b. The righteous will flourish like foliage: The righteous man or woman does not trust in riches, but in God. This leads to a truly flourishing life.
Pro_11:29
He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind,
And the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
a. He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind: To bring trouble to one’s own family is to prepare a future full of storm and difficulty. To inherit the wind is to have a future of storm and trouble.
i. “Achan, after whom the Valley of Achor was named (Jos_7:26), provides a classic example of the proverb. Nabal, by selfishly hoarding his food and water for his own men, hung disaster over his household, but Abigail, by her wisdom, saved it (1Sa_25:17; 1Sa_25:33).” (Waltke)
b. The fool will be servant to the wise of heart: Because God’s blessing is on the wise God will lift up the wise of heart. The foolish man or woman should expect to end up working for the wise man or woman.
Pro_11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
And he who wins souls is wise.
a. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life: A righteous life bears fruit, and it gives life to others. The New Testament will later speak of the fruit of the Spirit in the life of God’s people (Gal_5:22-23, Eph_5:9). This is fruit like a tree of life to others. It brings shade and sustenance to others.
i. “The fruit of the righteous – that is to say his life – is not a thing fastened upon him, but it grows out of him…. Look to it more and more that your religion is real, true, natural, vital – not artificial, constrained, superficial, a thing of times, days, places, a fungus produced by excitement, a fermentation generated by meetings and stirred by oratory. We all need a religion which can live either in a wilderness, or in a crowd; a religion which will show itself in every walk of life, and in every company.” (Spurgeon)
b. He who wins souls is wise: One of the greatest exercises of wisdom is to win souls to God and His kingdom. It takes wisdom to love, give, and winsomely answer those who have yet to come into God’s kingdom.

• We use the word win in romance; to win souls, you must love them.
• We use the word win in war; to win souls is a battle.
• We use the word win in sports; to win souls is a competition.
  i. “God himself wins not souls without wisdom, for the eternal plan of salvation was dictated by an infallible judgment, and in every line of it infinite skill is apparent…. There is as much wisdom to be seen in the new creation as in the old. In a sinner saved, there is as much of God to be beheld as in a universe rising out of nothing.” (Spurgeon)
  ii. He who wins souls: “Hebrew, that catcheth souls, as a fowler doth birds; that maketh it his design and business, and useth all his skill and diligence, to gain souls to God, and to pluck them out of the snare of the devil.” (Poole)
  iii. “The phrase ‘to win souls (i.e. people)’ can, however, also mean ‘to take lives’, when the context demands it (as in 1Ki_19:4)…. But the Old Testament knows the metaphor of capturing people with ideas or influences…and the promise, ‘thou shalt catch men’, was doubly apt if it was meant to awaken echoes of this proverb.” (Kidner)
  iv. “It is implied in our text that there are souls which need winning. Ah me, all souls of men are lost by nature.” (Spurgeon)
  v. “‘He that winneth souls is wise.’ I do not ask you how he did it. He sang the gospel, and you did not like it, but if he won souls he was wise. Soul-winners have all their own ways, and if they do but win souls they are wise. I will tell you what is not wise, and will not be thought so at the last, namely to go about the churches doing nothing yourself and railing at all the Lord’s useful servants.” (Spurgeon)
  Pro_11:31
  If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth,
  How much more the ungodly and the sinner.
  a. If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth: We see that many times God’s righteous men and women see at least something of the reward of their righteousness while they are still on the earth. A righteous life is a blessed life.
  b. How much more the ungodly and the sinner: The righteous will receive their reward, and often on this earth. It is sobering to consider how much more is this true of the ungodly and the sinner.

Proverbs 11:1
A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
What a blessed thought is it, that when our poor nature, weighed in the balance was found wanting; Jesus more than compensated what we needed, and, thereby delighted his Father. Dan_5:27; Pro_8:30; Joh_10:17

Proverbs 11:2-7
When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
I pause here to remark the striking expressions, by which the everlasting ruin of the unregenerate is marked. Job_27:8. See as a contrast, a striking portrait, Jer_17:5-8.

Proverbs 11:8-15
The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.
I can never pass over any passage respecting suretyship, without thinking of Jesus. Oh! thou Almighty Surety of thy redeemed! thou didst smart for it indeed; or as the phrase in this verse might have been rendered, shall be sore broken; for thou wast bruised, and broken, and put to grief, Isa_53:4-5 whereas, hadst thou refused to have stood forth for thy people, or as this verse renders it, hadst thou hated suretyship, thou hadst been sure. For resting in thine own eternal, uninterrupted glory with the Father: nothing could have arisen to have broken in upon thy felicity. Oh! matchless love! Oh! peerless grace! Teach me, dearest Jesus, to love thee, who hath so loved us!

Proverbs 11:16-24
A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain riches. The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath. There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
I wish that this last verse, and the great truth contained in it, was but better understood, and better put in practice by my poor heart. Jesus, I am sure, taught it in his whole life and glorious example. How hath he scattered grace, mercy, peace, and pardon, among the unworthiest of creatures. And how hath he increased in bringing forth to himself an everlasting revenue of praise and glory, from the millions, which he hath thereby snatched from hell. My Brother! how are we following the plan of Jesus, when we withhold, and in our scanty souls, so far from scattering, are living but to ourselves; and our own enjoyments. Reader! pray turn to that sweet portion of Jesus’s sermon, which may be construed in a general way, both for spirituals and temporals; as a gracious direction on this point. Mat_5:44-48.

Proverbs 11:25-31
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him. He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.
If Joseph was blessed in Egypt for selling corn, how blessed is Jesus in our spiritual Egypt in giving it? Gen_41:55-57; and that giveth it forever; and that giveth without upbraiding; and all this in opposition to unworthiness, ingratitude, and a thousand, and ten thousand provocations of evil.—Yea, more; that giveth not merely the corn of this life, but the wine, and oil, and bread of eternal life: yea, becometh all these, and infinitely more, in giving himself to them and for them. Precious Jesus! thou art indeed the bread of life, and the bread of God, which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world! Lord! evermore give me this bread! Joh_6:32-34.

Proverbs 11:31
REFLECTIONS
I BESEECH thee, gracious Master, to give me a right understanding in all things. Taught by thee, I shall then discover, that thou art here folded up in this chapter. And however, as so many parables, I may first read what is here written, soon, under thy teaching, I shall learn that of thee they treat, and to thee they are intended to lead me. – And have I, my soul, so learned Christ? Was Jesus the parable of the Gospel upon many occasions? And is he not very frequently in the Old Testament scripture? Was Jesus the Lazarus there depictured, poor, and without food, or resting place: bruised, and laying at the gate of the rich Scribes and Pharisees, despised, and at length dead; and while they knew him not, carried amidst the chariots of Angels to his Father’s bosom – and do I not behold him here, amidst the parables, the surety for the poor stranger and smarting for it? – him that scattereth, and yet increaseth: the liberal soul that maketh fat – and having watered the thirsty souls of sinners, is now glorified of his Father; and all power is given to him, as the glory-man mediator, in heaven and in earth? Hail! blessed, precious Jesus! thou art he whom thy people shall adore, and blessings shall be upon the head of him that was separated from his brethren; whom God our Father, hath made Universal Lord of our Egypt; and in whose wisdom, provision is laid for selling corn, for the salvation of our souls, when without thee, the famine of the bread of life, would have caused us to have perished forever.