Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. It is a very great thing to prefer the greater to the smaller, the more serious to the less serious, in the regulation of our life. It makes all the difference between success and failure, between wisdom and folly. I. A SERIOUS MISTAKE, to prefer nicety or daintiness to fruitfulness or usefulness. This grave mistake is made by the farmer who would rather have a clean crib than a quantity of valuable manure; by the housewife who cares more for the elegance of the furniture than the comfort of the family; by the minister who spends more strength on the wording than on the doctrine of his discourse; by the teacher who lays more stress on the composition of classical verses than on the history of his country or than on the strengthening of the mind; by the poet who takes infinite pains with his rhymes and gives little thought to his subject or his imagery; by the statesman who is particular about the draughting of his bills, and has no objection to introduce retrograde and dishonouring measures; by the doctor who insists much on his medicine, and lets his patient go on neglecting all the laws of hygiene; etc. II. THE WISDOM OF THE WISE. This is found in subordinating the trivial to the important; in being willing to submit to the temporarily disagreeable if we can attain to the permanently good; in being content to endure the sight and the smell of the unclean crib if there is a prospect of a fruitful field. The great thing is increase, fruitfulness, the reward of honest toil and patient waiting and believing prayer. This increase is to be sought and found in five fields in particular. 1. Bodily health and strength. 2. Knowledge, in all its various directions. 3. Material wealth, that ministers to the comfort and thus to the well being of the families of man. 4. Wisdom; that noble quality of the soul which distinguishes between the true and the false, the pure and the impure, the imperishable and the ephemeral, the estimable and the unworthy, and which not only distinguishes but determinately chooses the former and rejects the latter. 5. Spiritual fruitfulness; the increase of our own piety and virtue, and also the growth of the kingdom of our Lord. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.WEB: Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox. |
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