Proverbs 11:22 - Homilies By E. Johnson

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.