Proverbs 3:1-10 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Precepts and promises of wisdom

I. THE CONNECTION OF PRECEPT AND PROMISE .

1 . Precept needs confirmation. We cannot but ask— Why should we pursue this or that line of conduct in preference to another? Why should men be God-fearing, honest, chaste? We are rational creatures, not "dumb driven cattle," to be forced along a given road. We must have reasons; and it is to reason in us that the Divine reason ever makes appeal.

2 . The confirmation is found in experience. This is the source of our knowledge; to it the true teacher must constantly refer for the verification of his principles, the corroboration of his precepts. The tone assumed by the teacher is indeed that of authority, but real authority always rests upon experience. Experience, in short, is the discovery and ascertainment of law in life. Precepts are its formulation.

3 . The experience of the past enables the prediction of the future. Just; as we know the science of the astronomer, e.g; to be sound, because we find that he can predict with accuracy coming events, appearances of the heavenly bodies, eclipses, etc; so do we recognize the soundness of moral teaching by its power to forecast the future fates of men. Precepts are the deductions from the actual; promises the forecasts of that which, because it has been constant in the past, may be expected in the future. In science, in morality, in religion, we build on the permanence of law; in ocher words, on the constancy of the eternal God.

II. PARTICULAR EXAMPLES OF THIS CONNECTION '.

1 . Obedience ensures earthly happiness . ( Proverbs 3:1 , Proverbs 3:2 .) The connection is first stated generally. "Extension of days," or long life, is the one aspect of this happiness; inward peace of heart, denied to the godless, the other ( Isaiah 48:22 ; Isaiah 57:2 ). Prolongation of days, life in the good land, dwelling in the house of the Lord, are the peculiar Old Testament blessings ( Deuteronomy 4:40 ; Deuteronomy 5:33 ; Deuteronomy 6:2 ; Deuteronomy 11:9 ; Deuteronomy 22:7 ; Deuteronomy 30:16 ; Psalms 15:1 ; Psalms 23:6 ; Psalms 27:4 ).

2 . Love and good faith ensure favour with God, good will with men. "Mercy," or "love;" the word denotes the recognition of kinship, fellowship in men, and the duty of kindness therein implied. "Truth," in the sense in which we speak of a true man ; sincerity and rectitude, the striving to make the seeming and the being correspond to one another; the absence of hypocrisy. St. Paul gives the ideas, "dealing truly in love " ( Ephesians 4:15 ). Let these virtues be bound about the neck, like precious objects, for the sake of security; let these commands be engraven in the only indelible way—upon the heart. Let the mind be fixed and formed, and the result will be favour in the sight of God, and a "good opinion" in the minds of men. The two relations form a correlation. There is no true standing with God which does not reflect itself in the good opinion of good men; no worthy opinion of a man which does not furnish an index to God's view of him. Both were united in the case of the youthful Jesus.

3 . Trust in God ensures practical direction. ( Proverbs 3:5 , Proverbs 3:6 .)

4 . Simple piety secures health. ( Proverbs 3:7 , Proverbs 3:8 .)

(a) Physical. It tends to promote right physical habits. It certainly reacts against the worst disorders, viz. the nervous.

(b) Spiritual. It is in the mind what the sound nervous organization is in the body. The mind thus centrally right digests, enjoys, assimilates, the rich food which nature, books, and men afford.

5 . Consecration of property ensures wealth. ( Proverbs 3:9 , Proverbs 3:10 .)