Proverbs 12:12-24

The Root of the Righteous, Etc.

Pro 12:12-24

The wicked man would prosper according to the law of evil. He would take evil men in his net, and make a profit of them if he could; or he would borrow the net of an evil man with which to ensnare the good: he lives by what he calls his wits; being devoid of morality he is exempt from discipline, and so he lives the wild, loose life that is uncontrolled and all but irresponsible. The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit: the fruit is in the man himself; the stem may be feeble, the branches may be exposed to rough and cruel weather, but in the root there are juices that must by-and-by reveal themselves in abundant fruitfulness. The wicked man's possessions are all external; they can be held in the hand; they can be carried to the marketplace and disposed of for an equivalent in gold and silver: the treasures of the righteous are in the root; they are hidden, deeply down, where they drink the juices of the earth, and receive the light of the sun, that by the chemistry of nature they may express themselves in due time in leaf and blossom, in bud and flower and fruit. It is fruit which is yielded by the root of the righteous; though the word fruit is in italics in this text, yet it would seem to be the right word, and the only right word. Where only leaves were yielded Jesus Christ pronounced his condemnation; Jesus Christ continually said that his Father was glorified by the bringing forth of much fruit by the branches that were in the vine; he taught that the purpose of pruning was to multiply the fruit: there can be, therefore, no difficulty in adopting the word "fruit" in this instance as the right word. We are not to bring forth leaves only, or blossoms only, nor are we to afford opportunity for birds to build their nests only; all these things may be included, but the supreme object is the bearing of fruit which the husbandman can approve, and which can be turned to high utility by the hungering world.

"There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health" ( Pro 12:18 ).

Some men pride themselves on the pungency of their speech. They delight in sharp answers, keen retorts, quick repartees, and boast themselves when they cut their opponents in two. There are others who are gifted in the expression of complaint, reproach, and criticism against the whole providence of life. They can say sharp and bitter things about God and man, and they can be satisfied because of the edge of their own epigram, no matter against whom or against what that edge is directed. The tongue of the wise man is slower, but healthier; the wise man weighs his words; he is anxious to be associated only with judgments which can be confirmed by experience and illustrated by wisdom. The wise man speaks healthily that is to say, he speaks out of the abundance of his own health, and he speaks in a way that will double and strengthen the health of others. To come near him is to ascend a mountain and breathe the freshest air of heaven, or to go down by the sea-shore and receive messages across the great deeps, full of vigour, and truth, and strengthening influence. Wise men keep society healthy. But for their presence it would stagnate, and go from one degree of corruption to another until it became wholly pestilential. There are two speakers in the text, and to the end of time there will probably be two speakers in the world the critical speaker and the judicial speaker; the man all sharpness and the man all thankfulness. The business of Christian discipline is to tame the tongue, to chasten it, to teach it the speech of wisdom, and to instruct it as to the right time of utterance and the right time of silence.

"The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment" ( Pro 12:19 ),

Here, as usual, we have the two sides truth and falsehood. We know as a matter of fact that truth will be established for ever: it may not be established at first; cruel cross-examination may put it to many shifts, because of a deceitful memory; such an examination may even develop apparent inconsistencies, showing the man of ten years ago with the man of to-day, and triumphing in the discrepancy shown by the contrast. All this is possible, yet "truth will stand when all things fail." Events will occur, it may be long years after, to bring forth the judgment of the righteous as noonday, and to glorify the truth-speaker with the crown which belongs to verity and uprightness. The lying tongue succeeds indeed, but its success is momentary; it flashes and expires; it has a clear, straightforward story to tell, but events come and cross-examine that story, and set it in proper distance and perspective; alliances to which the story owed its consistency are broken up, and evil men begin to divulge secrets regarding one another; piece by piece the story falls asunder, and at the end it is found that it was the fabrication of a malignant genius. Be sure you are true yourselves and have a true purpose in view, and all discrepancies, inconsistencies, and difficulties will ultimately be smoothed down, and men will be brought to acknowledge the integrity of your heart. Be as skilful as you please in the way of telling lies, arrange everything with consummate cunning, hire all your allies, bribe your spies, and make your way clear by abundance of gold, and yet in the long run your very confederates will turn against you, and they to whom you have given most money will be glad to expose your cupidity and falsehood.

"There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief" ( Pro 12:21 ).

The next verse may be taken in connection with this namely, "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord; but they that deal truly are his delight." All history pledges its own spirit in favour of the just and the true and the good. Evil may happen to the just, but the evil shall be but for a moment; it shall be an evil touching circumstances but not realities; affecting the atmosphere, but having no effect on the rock upon which the life is established. When evil does happen to the just it shall be turned to his advantage, sooner or later; if he has been wounded in the fray, it is that he needs rest and will be the stronger for withdrawment from the throng and conflict of life; if he suffer loss of property, it is that he may learn the value of things, and deport himself as a wise and thrifty householder, gathering only such things as are of permanent value, and sitting loosely in reference to everything that is of temporary advantage. The wicked shall have satisfaction, but it shall be mischief; he shall have mischief upon mischief, until he himself groans because of his very success in evil-doing. He will turn the day into night because of evil works, and the night into day, because he will repeat himself in his dreams, and the shadow of the evil one shall overpower him, darkening the very noontide, and the voice of evil spirits shall haunt his ear, and trouble him with whispering and suggestion full of the deepest malignity. There are evil spirits in the very pillow on which the wicked man rests his head. When he extinguishes light that he may encourage sleep, the darkness is but the cover of numberless wicked ones come to torment the bad man in his repose, and to turn his solitude into a companionship full of sorrow.

"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute" ( Pro 12:24 ).

The whole world says on hearing this law, Truly this is right and good. It is right that a diligent man should be at the top of society, because where there is true industry there are always innumerable other virtues in association with it; there is forethought, there is punctuality, there is a due regard to others, there is an acceptance of the law of cause and effect, there is vigilance in relation to times, seasons, and opportunities, and there is a desire to give an equivalent for all the advantages that are enjoyed. The slothful man shall always be the servant of the diligent man, he shall be under tribute; he will have to pay for his indolence; he seems to be pursuing an easy course, but the ease is in seeming only, and not in reality. The slothful man will be looked down upon, trifled with, mocked, put to confusion, and when he knocks at the doors of others he will be told that he should have knocked at the door of providence, and not at the door of charity. This rule respecting slothfulness applies to indolence in all directions; to the boy at school, to the mother in the household, to the father in the marketplace, to the student in the college, to the agriculturist in the field. "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings." We are urged by the Apostle Paul to be diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. The diligence that is religious is elevated, unselfish, beneficent; it is not gathering for itself alone, but gathering that it may scatter, so that those who are unable to toil for themselves may be the children of legitimate charity and bounty. By the "slothful" we are not to understand the unhealthy, those upon whom a burden of infirmity has been laid, and who are simply unable, because of physical disability, to perform the duties of life; another law should operate in regard to such the law of Christian sympathy, charity, and holiest love. The slothful in this text are criminals men who yield to self-indulgence; men who allow the morning to come and grow into noonday and fall into night without bestirring themselves in any wise and profitable activity. All society says it is right that such should be laid under tribute, and should be made to feel the irksomeness and unprofitableness of neglect and unlawful sleep.

The chapter proceeds in the same tone to the end, indicating on the part of the writer the keenest observation of human nature, and the truest appreciation of human wants. How true it is that "heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop;" burdens it like a weight that cannot be borne; takes out of it all energy and lithesomeness and hope, all spring and fire, and depresses it to the earth with cruelty of weight. How true it is that "A good word maketh the heart glad;" the speaker is looked upon as an apostle from heaven; he is hailed as a friend who is able to drive away the lowering clouds, and turn the desert into a garden: a place for the good word must always be found in life; even the gladdest souls have times of depression; and those who lead the world sometimes fall into the rear, and the song dies upon their lips. The church should be the place where the good word is always spoken, a word that cheers men, enlivens, elevates, inspires, and ennobles them; the great broad word that comes down from heaven, rich with everything that the human soul can need in all the moments which make a mystery of its existence. How true it also is that "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour;" has about him a peculiarity of quality; he is not only equal to his neighbour, as wise and generous and genial and kind, but there is a point at which he rises above his merely worldly neighbour; he can go further into the darkness of human life, speak more tenderly to its sorrow, and kindle the light of hope where other men flee away because of a darkness that may be felt. How true it is that "The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting;" as he desired some one else to hunt it for him, so he will permit anybody to roast it for him: all he wants is to enjoy the result; and yet he is deprived of the enjoyment because he took no part in the process. To work for one's food is to enjoy it when the work is not burdensome; in the very act of going into the field we create an appetite for the enjoyment of what is found there; in this wonderful way has God linked together all the events and sequences of life. How grand is the final word of the chapter, "In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Verily, this is the gospel before the time; there is no higher truth of a practical kind in Christianity itself than this. The righteous shall go away into life eternal. To the good man death is abolished. It is never goodness that dies, but always disobedience. Obedience brings life with it growing life, growing health, growing joy. Happily, all these maxims can be put to the test; they are not mere intellectual ventures, audacious guesses, or wild propositions; they sum up in themselves the experience of the most comprehensive and varied life: they are not anonymous publications, left to be contradicted by any one who may care to call them lies; they have been proved, tested, verified, in innumerable and indisputable instances, by the writers. If any man would show that there is death in the way of righteousness, let him prove it by being righteous himself; then he will show that in the very act of endeavouring to disprove the proverb he magnifies and illuminates its holy truth.