He who loves pleasure will become poor; the one who loves wine and oil will never be rich. Sermons
I. THE POWER OF GIFTS. (Ver. 14.) They are neither good nor evil in themselves, but may be employed for good or evil ends. Let us make a good use of this text. We learn that gifts should be quiet, unobtrusive, unobserved; and the same is true of all acts of kindness which are real gilts from the heart. They should neither irritate pride nor depress independence. By such little attentions and marks at love, how much evil may be warded off, how many asperities of temper or circumstance may be soothed! II. DELIGHT IN OR DISGUST FOR RIGHT CONDUCT. (Ver. 15). There is no joy in the world to be compared for depth and purity to that of the good conscience; no exercise that brings so much health and pleasure as acting rightly and doing good. But the corrupt mind of evil men can take no delight in looking at goodness, in contemplating pure and noble conduct. For the consequences can only be the judgment and punishment of their own iniquity. III. THE END OF ALL MORAL OBSERVATIONS. (Ver. 16.) One of the most solemn passages of the Bible. Taken literally or figuratively, of the present or of the future, they contain a statement, a prophecy, a fact. The wicked and unrepentant pass into a night without the hope of a sunrise to follow. IV. THE END OF IDLE AND FRIVOLOUS MIRTH. (Ver. 17.) He that will squander more than his plough can earn must utterly waste (Sirach 8:32). Magnum vectigal est parsimonia, or "Economy is income;" "Waste not, want not." "Better than merry Nineveh" is recorded as an old proverb (see Zephaniah 2:15). - J. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. Here is the secret of the failure of nine-tenths of our unsuccessful young men. They loved pleasure and gave themselves up to its pursuit, and so they have never got on, and never will. When poverty comes as the result of idleness and sloth and self-indulgence, it is both a curse and a shame. Poverty is, of course, a relative term. A leading business man says that only three out of every hundred who enter upon mercantile life become ultimately successful. The failures are largely due to causes that are within the young men's own control. Some young men fail through trying to acquire money by any other means than good honest work; and when a young fellow once gets on this line of rail you may say he is done for. Some remain poor because they lack business capacity. Others fail through sheer downright laziness; others through mistaking their calling, others through instability or lack of originality and enterprise. Some through extravagant sanguineness and boastfulness. What does the wise man mean by "pleasure"? We are all so constituted that the love of happiness is both a necessity of our nature and a positive duty. There is no truer index of character than the kind of object or pursuit that affords us our intensest pleasure. The word "pleasure" is often used in the Bible in a distinctly evil sense, as denoting voluptuousness and carnality. The text reads in the margin "He that loveth sport shall be a poor man." Certain forms of "sport" in moderation are perfectly legitimate. But incalculable mischief is being wrought amongst our young men by a too great fondness for sports and amusements. The inordinate craving for excitement has much to do with the ruin of some young men. It has been the same in every age, but we should have learned more wisdom by this time of day. () Self-indulgence is prevalent amongst all classes. I. It involves an EXTRAVAGANCE OF EXPENDITURE. Pleasure is an expensive divinity. The largest fortunes must often be laid upon its altar. II. It involves a FOSTERING OF LAZINESS. The self-indulgent man becomes such a lover of ease that effort of any kind becomes distasteful; the spirit of industry forsakes him. "He that loveth pleasure, shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich." But whilst it is true that self-indulgence leads to material poverty, it also leads to intellectual poverty. The man who would get his soul strong in holy resolves and righteous principles must agonise to enter in at the strait gate of habitual reflection, holy labour and earnest worship. This the self-indulgent man will not do. () ()
People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Lover, Loves, Loveth, Loving, Maketh, Mirth, Oil, Pleasure, Poor, Rich, Wealth, WineOutline 1. The king's heart in the hand of the Lord
Dictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 21:17 4490 ointment
4544 wine
5386 leisure, nature of
5447 poverty, causes
5845 emptiness
5850 excess
5967 thrift
6106 addiction
8821 self-indulgence Library Definition of Actual Grace
1. GENERAL NOTION OF GRACE.--The best way to arrive at a correct definition of actual grace is by the synthetic method. We therefore begin with the general notion of grace. Like "nature,"(3) grace (gratia, {GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI}{GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA}) is a word of wide reach, used in a great variety of senses. Habert(4) enumerates no less than fourteen; which, however, may be reduced to four. a) Subjectively, …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and HabitualEpistle xxi. To Constantina Augusta .
To Constantina Augusta [1593] . Gregory to Constantina, &c. Almighty God, who holds in His right hand the heart of your Piety, both protects us through you and prepares for you rewards of eternal remuneration for temporal deeds. For I have learnt from the letters of the deacon Sabinianus my responsalis with what justice your Serenity is interested in the cause of the blessed Prince of the apostles Peter against certain persons who are proudly humble and feignedly kind. And I trust in the bounty …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great Epistle Cvi. To Syagrius, Ætherius, virgilius, and Desiderius, Bishops .
To Syagrius, Ætherius, Virgilius, and Desiderius, Bishops [65] . Gregory to Syagrius of Augustodunum (Autun), Etherius of Lugdunum (Lyons), Virgilius of Aretale (Arles), and Desiderius of Vienna (Vienne), bishops of Gaul. A paribus. Our Head, which is Christ, has to this end willed us to be His members, that through the bond of charity and faith He might make us one body in Himself. And to Him it befits us so to adhere in heart, that, since without Him we can be nothing, through Him we may …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great How the Slothful and the Hasty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 16.) Differently to be admonished are the slothful and the hasty. For the former are to be persuaded not to lose, by putting it off, the good they have to do; but the latter are to be admonished lest, while they forestall the time of good deeds by inconsiderate haste, they change their meritorious character. To the slothful therefore it is to be intimated, that often, when we will not do at the right time what we can, before long, when we will, we cannot. For the very indolence of …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great How those are to be Admonished who Desire not the Things of Others, but Keep their Own; and those who Give of their Own, yet Seize
(Admonition 22.) Differently to be admonished are those who neither desire what belongs to others nor bestow what is their own, and those who give of what they have, and yet desist not from seizing on what belongs to others. Those who neither desire what belongs to others nor bestow what is their own are to be admonished to consider carefully that the earth out of which they are taken is common to all men, and therefore brings forth nourishment for all in common. Vainly, then, do those suppose …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great The Heavenly Footman; Or, a Description of the Man that Gets to Heaven:
TOGETHER WITH THE WAY HE RUNS IN, THE MARKS HE GOES BY; ALSO, SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO RUN SO AS TO OBTAIN. 'And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.'--Genesis 19:17. London: Printed for John Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street, 1698. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. About forty years ago a gentleman, in whose company I had commenced my …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 "And the Life. " How Christ is the Life.
This, as the former, being spoken indefinitely, may be universally taken, as relating both to such as are yet in the state of nature, and to such as are in the state of grace, and so may be considered in reference to both, and ground three points of truth, both in reference to the one, and in reference to the other; to wit, 1. That our case is such as we stand in need of his help, as being the Life. 2. That no other way but by him, can we get that supply of life, which we stand in need of, for he …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life An Analysis of Augustin's Writings against the Donatists.
The object of this chapter is to present a rudimentary outline and summary of all that Augustin penned or spoke against those traditional North African Christians whom he was pleased to regard as schismatics. It will be arranged, so far as may be, in chronological order, following the dates suggested by the Benedictine edition. The necessary brevity precludes anything but a very meagre treatment of so considerable a theme. The writer takes no responsibility for the ecclesiological tenets of the …
St. Augustine—writings in connection with the donatist controversy. Paul's Departure and Crown;
OR, AN EXPOSITION UPON 2 TIM. IV. 6-8 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR How great and glorious is the Christian's ultimate destiny--a kingdom and a crown! Surely it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive what ear never heard, nor mortal eye ever saw? the mansions of the blest--the realms of glory--'a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' For whom can so precious an inheritance be intended? How are those treated in this world who are entitled to so glorious, so exalted, so eternal, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 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 Links Proverbs 21:17 NIV
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