Proverbs 12:26 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

Growth and seductiveness

The goal which a man will reach must depend on the tendency of the habits he has formed, or the way in which his life inclines, whether upward or downward. Are his habits such that we can properly speak of them as growing toward perfection, or such as may be more properly thought of as conducting or seducing to wrong and ruin?

I. THE GROWTH OF GOODNESS . "The righteous is more abundant than his neighbour" (marginal reading). He is more abundant because:

1 . The blessing of God rests upon him, and his reward is in fruitfulness in some direction.

2 . Righteousness means or includes virtue, temperance, industry, thrift, culture; and these mean prosperity and success.

3 . God's great prevailing law that "to him that hath [uses, or puts out, what powers he has] is given, and he shall have abundance," is constantly operating here and now, in all realms of human action; consequently, the good man is reaping the beneficial result.

II. THE SEDUCTIVENESS OF SIN . "The way of the wicked seduceth them." We read ( Hebrews 3:18 ) of "the deceitfulness of sin." And we know only too well by experience and observation how seductive and deceitful are its ways.

1 . It begins with a pleasureableness which promises to continue, but which fails, which indeed turns to misery and ruin (see Proverbs 7:6-27 ). At first it. is a soft green slope, but the end is a steep and rocky precipice over which the victim falls.

2 . It promises an easy escape from its hold, but it coils its cords around its subjects with quiet hand, until it holds them in a fast captivity.

3 . It persuades its adherents that its ways are right when they are utterly wrong, and thus sings to sleep the conscience which should be aroused and active.

4 . It pleads the crowded character of its path, and assures of safety; although the presence of a multitude is no guard or guarantee whatever against the condemnation and the retribution of the Almighty. But let youth understand that all these are "refuges of lies." For the truth is that