Proverbs 1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Suppose an iceberg possessed an intelligence and conscience; suppose it should say while dwelling in the polar region, "It is because of the sun that I am an iceberg," what would you answer? You would say, "It is not because of the sun, but because of your attitude towards the sun." Go down and place yourself beneath its melting rays, permit yourself to be enfolded in the arms of the Gulf Stream, and you will soon cease to be an iceberg, and become a part of the warm and gentle waters which enfold you. Or suppose we take this same truth in the realm of physical law. Many a Hindoo has stood for years with a napkin bound about his eyes that he might not see the sun, and when the cloth has been removed and he has sought to look upon that sun, he could not see. Behold, he had become blinded. Was it not he who had blinded himself? And yet, was it not also true that working through the natural law God had blinded him? There is a man sweeping toward Niagara, and I, standing on the shore, cry out, "Pull for the shore; the rapids are just below you, and you will go over the falls"; but he simply says to me, "God is too good to permit me to go over the falls"; and I cry again and he heeds not. But presently I see him grasp the oars. Alas, it is too late. Sweeping, whirling, plunging, his boat, like a cockle-shell, dashes over the cataract, and he is gone. Now we may say that the God who made water run down hill slew that man, but is the responsibility with Him? No. The man who knew that law and refused to recognise it slew himself. Well, men realise this in relation to their own physical organisation, because they realise that they have a physical constitution; but they do not realise that they have just as truly a moral constitution; that the laws of the one are as inevitable as the other; that in reference to the soul it is as true as of the body; "the soul that sinneth 'against the law of its being' shall die." (G. T. Dowling, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.WEB: For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them. |
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