I. THE FOLLY OF HASTE IN DEBATE. (Ver. 17.) "One tale is good till another be told." This saw holds good of private life, of lawsuits, of controversies in philosophy and theology. Audi alteram, partem," Listen to both sides." This is the duty of the judge, or of him who for the time being plays the judicial part. If we are parties in a debate or a suit, then nothing will hold good except to have the "conscience void of offence."
II. THE ADVANTAGE OF ARBITRATION. (Ver. 18.) The lot was the ancient mode of arbitration and settlement of disputes in a peaceful manner. Something corresponding to it in modern times may be adopted as a wise resource where other means of reconciliation have failed. Still better, the general lesson may be drawn - commit the decision to the wisdom of God.
III. THE MISERY OF DISSENSION. (Ver. 19.) The alienated brother or friend is compared to an impregnable fortress. "Oh how hard to reconcile the foes that once were friends!" The sweeter the wine, the sharper the vinegar; and the greater the natural love, the more violent the hate where that love has been injured.
IV. THE SATISFACTION OF WISE COUNSELS. (Ver. 20; comp. Proverbs 12:14; Proverbs 13:2.) The mode of expression is strange to a modern ear, but the thought is familiar and welcome. Words here stand for thoughts; the fruit of the lips comes from the root of the heart. When an intensely modern writer says, "Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of your principles," he puts the old truth in a new light.
V. LIFE AND DEATH IN THE TONGUE. (Ver. 21.) Here is another great principle, vast in its sweep. "Life and death are in the power of witnesses according to the testimony they bear, of judges according to the sentence they pass, of teachers according to the doctrine they preach, of all men who by their well or evil speaking bring death or life to themselves or to others" (Gill). Perhaps it is true that the tongue has slain its ten thousands where the sword has slain only its thousands. The employment of the tongue, whether for good or for evil, in blessing or in cursing (James 3:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3), brings its own fruit and reward to the speaker. "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." - J.
He that is first in his own cause seemeth just.
This proverb touches human life at many points, and human beings feel it touching them. It accords with common experience. It is true to nature — nature fallen and distorted. It does not apply to humanity in innocence. It has no bearing on the new nature in a converted man. This Scripture reveals a crook in the creature that God made upright. Self-love is the twist in the heart within, and self-interest is the side to which the variation from righteousness steadily tends. A man's interest is touched by the word or deed of another; forthwith he persuades himself that what is against his own wish is also against righteousness, and argues accordingly. He states his own case, but he leans over to one side, and sees every-fixing in a distorted form. His case is both a sin and a blunder. In the statement of your case do you permit a selfish desire for victory to turn your tongue aside from the straight line of truth? There is room for improvement here, and improvement here would tell upon the world. If a man can detect exaggerations on one side and concealments on the other, amounting to untruthfulness in their general effect, it shows that the fear of God was not before the eyes of the witness when he omitted his evidence. To walk with God in the regeneration is the short and sure way to rigid truth in all your intercourse with men. The adversary will find nothing if a greater than he has been there before him.
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Case, Cause, Examines, Forward, Judge, Neighbor, Neighbour, Plead, Pleadeth, Pleads, Puts, Questions, Righteous, Searched, Searcheth, Seemeth, Seems, States, TillOutline
1. A fool delights not in understandingDictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 18:17 5361 justice, human
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Two Fortresses
'The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit'--PROVERBS xviii. 10,11. The mere reading of these two verses shows that, contrary to the usual rule in the Book of Proverbs, they have a bearing on each other. They are intended to suggest a very strong contrast, and that contrast is even more emphatic in the original than in our translation; because, as the margin of your Bibles …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureOur Stronghold
A sermon (No. 491) delivered on Lord's Day Evening, October 26th, 1862, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." {safe: Heb. set aloft}---- Proverbs 18:10. Strong towers were a greater security in a bygone age than they are now. Then, when troops of marauders invaded the land, strong castles were set upon the various hill-tops and the inhabitants gathered up their little wealth and fled thither …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
Pride and Humility
A sermon (No. 97) delivered on Sabbath Morning, August 17, 1856 by C. H. Spurgeon. "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility."--Proverbs 18:12. Almost every event has its prophetic prelude. It is an old and common saying that "coming events cast their shadows before them;" the wise man teaches us the same lesson in the verse before us. When destruction walks through the land it casts its shadow; it is in the shape of pride. When honor visits a man's house it casts …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Spirit
A sermon (2494) intended for reading on Lord's Day, December 6th, 1896, delivered by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington on Thursday Evening, April 16th, 1885. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?"--Proverbs 18:14. Every man sooner or later has some kind of infirmity to bear. It may be that his constitution from the very first will be inclined to certain disease and pains, or possibly he may in passing through life suffer from accident …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
A Faithful Friend
A sermon (No. 120) delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 8, 1857, by C. H. Spurgeon at The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens. "There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."--Proverbs 18:24. Cicero has well said, "Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed." Friendship seems as necessary an element of a comfortable existence in this world as fire or water, or even air itself. A man may drag along a miserable existence in proud solitary …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
Pride and Humility
I. In the first place, we shall have something to say concerning the vice of PRIDE. "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty." Pride, what is it? Pride, where is its seat? The heart of man. And pride, what is its consequence? Destruction. 1. In the first place, I must try to describe pride to you. I might paint it as being the worst malformation of all the monstrous things in creation; it hath nothing lovely in it, nothing in proportion, but everything in disorder. It is altogether the very …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856
A Faithful Friend
Friendship, however, though very pleasing and exceedingly blessed, has been the cause of the greatest misery to men when it has been unworthy and unfaithful; for just in proportion as a good friend is sweet, a false friend is full of bitterness. "A faithless friend is sharper than an adder's tooth." It is sweet to repose in some one; but O! how bitter to have that support snapped, and to receive a grievous fall as the effect of your confidence. Fidelity is an absolute necessary in a true friend; …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857
Would that I were More Closely Bound
"There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." -- Proverbs 18:24. Would that I were more closely bound To my Beloved, who ever lives; Would that my soul were always found Abiding in the peace He gives; Would, that I might more clearly see His love an heritage for me More surely know, more meekly own, His bounteous grace my strength alone! And much I wish but I will pray For wisdom that the lowly find, -- And, O my Savior, every day, More of Thy meek and quiet mind. The comfort of a mind …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations
Epistle cxv. To Syagrius, Bishop of Augustodunum (Autun).
To Syagrius, Bishop of Augustodunum (Autun). Gregory to Syagrius, &c. If in secular affairs every man should have his right and his proper rank preserved to him, how much more in ecclesiastical arrangements ought no confusion to be let in; lest discord should find place there, whence the blessings of peace should proceed. And this will in this way be secured, if nothing is yielded to power but all to equity. Now it has been reported to us that our most beloved brother Ursicinus, bishop of the city …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great
Have Read the Letter which You in Your Wisdom have Written Me. You Inveigh against Me
I have read the letter which you in your wisdom have written me. You inveigh against me, and, though you once praised me and called me true partner and brother, you now write books to summon me to reply to the charges with which you terrify me. I see that in you are fulfilled the words of Solomon: "In the mouth of the foolish is the rod of contumely," and "A fool receives not the words of prudence, unless you say what is passing in his heart;" and the words of Isaiah: "The fool will speak folly, …
Various—Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus.
Messiah Unpitied, and Without a Comforter
Reproach [Rebuke] hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. T he greatness of suffering cannot be certainly estimated by the single consideration of the immediate, apparent cause; the impression it actually makes upon the mind of the sufferer, must likewise be taken into the account. That which is a heavy trial to one person, may be much lighter to another, and, perhaps, no trial at all. And a state …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1
"And if Christ be in You, the Body is Dead Because of Sin: but the Spirit is Life Because of Righteousness. "
Rom. viii. 10.--"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin: but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law," saith our apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 56. These two concur to make man mortal, and these two are the bitter ingredients of death. Sin procured it, and the law appointed it, and God hath seen to the exact execution of that law in all ages; for what man liveth and shall not taste of death? Two only escaped the common …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life
Letter xxvi. (Circa A. D. 1127) to the Same
To the Same He excuses the brevity of his letter on the ground that Lent is a time of silence; and also that on account of his profession and his ignorance he does not dare to assume the function of teaching. 1. You will, perhaps, be angry, or, to speak more gently, will wonder that in place of a longer letter which you had hoped for from me you receive this brief note. But remember what says the wise man, that there is a time for all things under the heaven; both a time to speak and a time to keep …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
How those are to be Admonished who do not Even Begin Good Things, and those who do not Finish them when Begun.
(Admonition 35.) Differently to be admonished are they who do not even begin good things, and those who in no wise complete such as they have begun. For as to those who do not even begin good things, for them the first need is, not to build up what they may wholesomely love, but to demolish that wherein they are wrongly occupied. For they will not follow the untried things they hear of, unless they first come to feel how pernicious are the things that they have tried; since neither does one desire …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great
Of the Character of the Unregenerate.
Ephes. ii. 1, 2. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. AMONG all the various trusts which men can repose in each other, hardly any appears to be more solemn and tremendous, than the direction of their sacred time, and especially of those hours which they spend in the exercise of public devotion. …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration
"Boast not Thyself of To-Morrow, for Thou Knowest not what a Day May Bring Forth. "
Prov. xxvii. 1.--"Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." There are some peculiar gifts that God hath given to man in his first creation, and endued his nature with, beyond other living creatures, which being rightly ordered and improved towards the right objects, do advance the soul of man to a wonderful height of happiness, that no other sublunary creature is capable of. But by reason of man's fall into sin, these are quite disordered and turned out of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
"Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. "
Isaiah xxvi. 3.--"Thou shall keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." All men love to have privileges above others. Every one is upon the design and search after some well-being, since Adam lost that which was true happiness. We all agree upon the general notion of it, but presently men divide in the following of particulars. Here all men are united in seeking after some good; something to satisfy their souls, and satiate their desires. Nay, but they …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
An Exhortation to Peace and Unity
[ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR] This treatise was first published in 1688, after Bunyan's death, at the end of the second edition of the Barren Fig Tree, with a black border round the title. It was continued in the third edition 1692, but was subsequently omitted, although the Barren Fig Tree was printed for the same publisher. It has been printed in every edition of Bunyan's Works. Respect for the judgment of others leads me to allow it a place in the first complete edition, although I have serious …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3
Directions to Awakened Sinners.
Acts ix. 6. Acts ix. 6. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. THESE are the words of Saul, who also is called Paul, (Acts xiii. 9,) when he was stricken to the ground as he was going to Damascus; and any one who had looked upon him in his present circumstances and knew nothing more of him than that view, in comparison with his past life, could have given, would have imagined him one of the most miserable creatures that ever lived upon earth, and would have expected …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration
Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel
In order accurately to understand the position of woman in Israel, it is only necessary carefully to peruse the New Testament. The picture of social life there presented gives a full view of the place which she held in private and in public life. Here we do not find that separation, so common among Orientals at all times, but a woman mingles freely with others both at home and abroad. So far from suffering under social inferiority, she takes influential and often leading part in all movements, specially …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life
We Shall not be Curious in the Ranking of the Duties in which Christian Love...
We shall not be curious in the ranking of the duties in which Christian love should exercise itself. All the commandments of the second table are but branches of it: they might be reduced all to the works of righteousness and of mercy. But truly these are interwoven through other. Though mercy uses to be restricted to the showing of compassion upon men in misery, yet there is a righteousness in that mercy, and there is mercy in the most part of the acts of righteousness, as in not judging rashly, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Concerning Baptism.
Concerning Baptism. [967] As there is one Lord, and one faith, so there is one baptism; which is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience before God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this baptism is a pure and spiritual thing, to wit, the baptism of the Spirit and Fire, by which we are buried with him, that being washed and purged from our sins, we may walk in newness of life: of which the baptism of John was a figure, which was commanded for a time, …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity
Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament
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