Proverbs 1:10-19 My son, if sinners entice you, consent you not.… Youth, neglected or corrupted, makes manhood despicable or vicious. The crimes of riper years multiply and embitter the infirmities and the sorrows of age. "Beware of poisoning the youthful mind with false principles. Leave the rational powers gradually to unfold themselves. You may aid reason in its operations, but never let authority supply the place of conviction, nor cheek a passion, but by an argument level to the comprehension." This is the pernicious doctrine of the new philosophy, which is but another name for infidelity. Better advice is, watch the first dawnings of intellect. It begins to open sooner than most suspect. Its natural tendency is towards error. It belongs to you to inform and to direct it. Watch, with equal care, the first emotions of feeling and passion; their tendency is equally towards vice. Tell your children that virtue derives its chief and its only religious value from its conformity to the nature and will of God, and that vice is odious and detestable from its opposition to both. I. IS IT NOT STRANGE THE WICKED SHOULD SEEK TO ENTICE OTHERS? That human nature is corrupted appears in the practice and the contagion of vice. Vice, the natural product of a tainted heart, first makes its appearance in the moral constitution; grows by indulgence, and is propagated by example. 1. Sinners are prompted to the seduction of others by natural impulse. It results both from their principles and their habits. 2. The wicked are led to seduction by a second motive. They feel a shame which they refuse to acknowledge; they are anxious to wear off this painful impression in their own minds, and divide the disgrace of their conduct in the opinion of mankind by the society of others. 3. Vice is also attended with fear. The man wants society in order to dissipate thought. 4. Vice, indeed, requires society either for its full enjoyment or the effectual accomplishment of its purposes. 5. Indefatigable is the kingdom of darkness in propagating itself. 6. Infernal influences may be necessary to account for the activity of the wicked in seduction. II. THE METHODS EMPLOYED IN THE WORK OF SEDUCTION. The efforts of the seducer are not systematic and uniform. They are accommodated to circumstances and tempers. You are not guiltless if you suffer yourselves to be seduced. No temptation amounts to a physical necessity of transgressing; neither sin nor sinners can prevail against you without your own inclination. Your most effectual weapon of defence is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, in connection with the other parts of the Christian armour. (David Birchan, D. L.) Parallel Verses KJV: My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. |
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