Proverbs 20:4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. This saying inculcates the lesson that men should diligently seize the opportunity whilst it is theirs. The sluggard is one of the pet aversions of the Book of Proverbs. The text contains principles which are true in the highest regions of human life. Religion recognise the same practical common-sense principles that daily business does. I. THE PRINCIPLES WHICH ARE CRYSTALISED IN THIS PICTURESQUE SAYING. 1. Present conduct determines future conditions. Life is a series of epochs, each of which has its destined work, and that being done, all is well; and that being left undone, all is ill. What a man does, and is, settles how he fares. The most trivial act has an influence on all that comes after, and may deflect a man's whole course into altogether different paths. There come to each of us supreme moments in our lives. And if, in all the subordinate and insignificant moments we have not been getting ready for them, but have been nurturing dispositions and acquiring habits, the supreme moment passes us by, and we gain nothing from it. The mystic significance of the trivialities of life is that in them we largely make destiny, and that in them we wholly make character. 2. The easy road is generally the wrong road. There are always obstacles in the way to noble life. Self-denial and rigid self-control, in its two forms — of stopping your ears to the attractions of lower pleasures, and of cheerily encountering difficulties — is an indispensable condition of any life which shall at the last yield a harvest worth the gathering. Nothing worth doing is done but at the cost of difficulty and toil. 3. The season let slip is gone for ever. Opportunity is bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. Life is full of tragic might-have-beens. II. FLASH THE RAYS OF THESE PRINCIPLES ON ONE OR TWO SUBJECTS. 1. In business, do not trust to any way of getting on by dodges, or speculation, or favour, or anything but downright hard work. 2. In your intellects. Make a conscience of making the best of your brains. 3. In the formation of character. Nothing will come to you noble, great, elevating, in that direction unless it is sought, and sought with toil. Don't let yourselves be shaped by accident, by circumstance. You can build yourselves up into forms of beauty by the help of the grace of God. 4. Let these principles applied to religion teach us the wisdom and necessity of beginning the Christian life at the earliest moment. There is a solemn thought still to consider. This life, as a whole, is to the future life as the ploughing-time is to the harvest. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. |
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