Proverbs 16:32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city. Book of Proverbs is the best of all manuals for the formation of a well-balanced mind. We go to this book, not so much for full and definite statements of the distinguishing doctrines of revealed religion, as for those wise and prudential canons whereby we may reform extravagance, prune down luxuriance, and combine the whole variety of traits and qualities into a harmonious and beautiful unity. Here in this text is described and recommended a certain kind of temper which should be possessed and cherished by the people of God. 1. DESCRIBE THIS TEMPER. It is Christian moderation. St. Paul writes, "Let your moderation be known unto all men." He who ruleth his spirit is characterised by sobriety and equanimity. He is never driven to extremes in any direction. A well-poised and symmetrical character floated, as an unattainable ideal, before the minds of the better pagan philosophers. This is the famous "temperance" of Plato and Aristotle. II. SOME OF THE OBSTACLES THAT OPPOSE THE FORMATION OF A CHRISTIAN SOBRIETY AND MODERATION. 1. It is opposed to the appetites and passions of the body. It is one of the effects of the apostasy, that human nature is corrupted on the physical side of it, as well as upon the mental and moral sides. The bodily appetites are very different now from what they would have been had man remained in his original and holy condition. 2. Christian sobriety and moderation meets with an obstacle in man's disordered mental nature. How lawless and ungoverned is the human imagination! It is in some respects easier to control the physical appetites than to rule an inflamed and extravagant fancy. And a man's purely intellectual conclusions and convictions may be so one-sided and extreme as to spoil his temper. Fanaticism in every age furnishes examples of this. III. THE TRUE SOURCE OF CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE AND MODERATION. It must have its root in love. The secret of such an even temper is charity. No man can have this large-minded, comprehensive, and blessed equilibrium who does not love God supremely, and his neighbour as himself. Our subject, therefore, teaches the necessity of the new birth. There may be outward self-control without any inward self-improvement. Without a change of heart, there is nothing but the austere and ungenial attempt of a moralist to perform a repulsive task. Love — holy and heavenly charity — must be generated, and then under its spontaneous and happy impulse, it will be comparatively easy to rectify the remaining corruption, and repress the lingering excesses and extremes of appetite and passion. (G. T. Shedd, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. |
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