Proverbs 30:29-31 - Homiletics

Fourfold triumph

Each of the four here brought before us excites admiration for a successful course. As in former illustrations, the images rise up to a climax, and what is exhibited separately in the earlier ones is united and completed in the final image.

I. A TRIUMPHANT COURSE EXCITES EMULATION .

1 . True success is good . There are various forms of success. Some are more disgraceful than failure. A low end easily won, or a desirable goal reached by foul means, gives a worthless and even a detestable victory. But when both means and end are good, there is something admirable in success.

2 . This success is continuous . The most worthy triumph is not that of a sudden victory snatched at the end of a long, doubtful contest, but the carrying out of a course that is good throughout—a constant series of small daily victories over danger. Thus the lion is admired, not merely because he can bring down his prey by means of a long chase, or after patiently waiting for it in ambush, but because "he turneth not away for any," and of all four the excellence is that they "go well." With every man the true note of triumph is that he "goes well" day by day along the path of duty.

3 . This success is measured by the difficulties overcome . We gauge strength by what it can do, and the best standard may not give visible results in acquisition. The proof may be seen more in triumph over obstacles. He who persists through all hardship and danger enduring to the end, and faithful unto death, is the true soldier of Christ.

II. A TRIUMPHANT COURSE MAY BE VARIOUSLY RUN . The good and admirable may be of different forms. Success of the highest kind will be got by each using his own talents, not by any vainly imitating those of another. The lion cannot copy the goat's agility, nor the greyhound the lion's strength. Four methods of success are here suggested.

1 . Success may be won by indomitable energy . This is the characteristic of the lion. He is strong, and he "turneth not away for any."

2 . It may be got by swiftness . The greyhound is a feeble creature compared to the lion. Its glory is in its speed. There is a victory for nimbleness of mind as well as of body.

3 . It may be reached by agility , The hound can fly like the wind over the plain; and the he goat can pick its way among the crags of the precipice and climb to dizzy heights. They are not like the eagle that soars on its wings, for the quadruped must always have some foothold, but with this it can stand without fear in the most precarious positions. Skilful agility will enable one to triumph over difficulties, escape snares and pitfalls, and rise to daring heights.

4 . It may be attained by human qualities . Man is feeble as a coney compared to the lion, slow as a tortoise in the presence of the greyhound, lame and timorous beside that audacious mountaineer the goat. But he can master and outdo all these creatures by the use of mental and spiritual powers.

III. A TRIUMPHANT COURSE WILL DEVELOP UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS . Each of the four is known by its success, as none would be known if the animals were caged in a menagerie, and the king left to enjoy empty pageantry. The kingly faculty is not only recognized on a throne. As the power to govern, it is witnessed in business, in society, and in intellectual regions. There are born kings. We see how stirring times bring such men to the front as the Civil Wars revealed Cromwell. The noblest earthly career is to be a true leader of men. He who stands at the head of the great human family was and is a Divine King, and his triumph is in his ruling even through shame and death.