Proverbs 19:8-17 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Maxims of intelligence

I. THE WORTH OF INTELLIGENCE .

1 . It is self-conservative ( Proverbs 19:8 ). We all love our own soul or life in any healthy state of body and mind. We all want to live as long as possible. It is natural to desire to live again beyond the grave. Then let us understand that there is no way to these ends except that of intelligence, in the highest and in every sense.

2 . It is the source of happiness. ( Proverbs 19:8 .) The truth is very general and abstract, like the truth of the whole of these proverbs. It does not amount to this—that good sense will in every case procure happiness, but that there is no true happiness without it.

II. SOME MAXIMS OF INTELLIGENCE .

1 . The sorrow that falsehood brings. ( Proverbs 19:9 .) It is certain. Many a lie is not immediately found out in the ordinary sense of these words; but it is always found in the man's mind. It vitiates the intelligence, undermines the moral strength. The rest must follow in its time— somewhere, somehow.

2 . Vanity stands in its own light. ( Proverbs 19:10 .) Those who have given way to over weening self-esteem and arrogance of temper—like Rehoboam, or like Alexander the Great, or Napoleon—become only the more conceited and presumptuous in success. The opposite of vanity is not grovelling self-disparagement, but the sense which teaches us to know our place.

3 . The prudence of toleration and of conciliation. ( Proverbs 19:11 , Proverbs 19:12 .) Socrates was a noble example of these virtues in the heathen world. We who have "learned Christ" should not at least fall behind him. To bear our wrongs with patience is the lower degree of this virtue. Positively to "overcome evil with good" stands higher. Highest of all is the Divine art to turn persecutors into friends ( 1 Peter 2:19 ; Matthew 5:44 , sqq. ) .

4 . The arcana of domestic life. ( Proverbs 19:13 , Proverbs 19:14 .)

5 . The inevitable fate of idleness. ( Proverbs 19:15 .)

6 . The wisdom of attention to God ' s commands. ( Proverbs 19:16 .)

7 . The reward of pity and benevolence. ( Proverbs 19:17 .) Sir Thomas More used to say there was more rhetoric in this sentence than in a whole library. God looks upon the poor as his own, and satisfies the debts they cannot pay. In spending upon the poor the good man serves God in his designs with reference to men.—J.