Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Sermons
I. THE CONNECTION OF PRECEPT AND PROMISE. 1. Precept needs confirmation. We cannot but ask - Why should we pursue this or that line of conduct in preference to another? Why should men be God-fearing, honest, chaste? We are rational creatures, not "dumb driven cattle," to be forced along a given road. We must have reasons; and it is to reason in us that the Divine reason ever makes appeal. 2. The confirmation is found in experience. This is the source of our knowledge; to it the true teacher must constantly refer for the verification of his principles, the corroboration of his precepts. The tone assumed by the teacher is indeed that of authority, but real authority always rests upon experience. Experience, in short, is the discovery and ascertainment of law in life. Precepts are its formulation. 3. The experience of the past enables the prediction of the future. Just; as we know the science of the astronomer, e.g., to be sound, because we find that he can predict with accuracy coming events, appearances of the heavenly bodies, eclipses, etc., so do we recognize the soundness of moral teaching by its power to forecast the future fates of men. Precepts are the deductions from the actual; promises the forecasts of that which, because it has been constant in the past, may be expected in the future. In science, in morality, in religion, we build on the permanence of law; in ocher words, on the constancy of the eternal God. II. PARTICULAR EXAMPLES OF THIS CONNECTION'. 1. Obedience ensures earthly happiness. (Vers. 1, 2.) The connection is first stated generally. "Extension of days," or long life, is the one aspect of this happiness; inward peace of heart, denied to the godless, the other (Isaiah 48:22; Isaiah 57:2l). Prolongation of days, life in the good land, dwelling in the house of the Lord, are the peculiar Old Testament blessings (Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 5:33; Deuteronomy 6:2; Deuteronomy 11:9; Deuteronomy 22:7; Deuteronomy 30:16; Psalm 15:1; Psalm 23:6; Psalm 27:4). (1) The desire for long life is natural, and religion recognizes it. (2) Without inward satisfaction, long life is no blessing. (3) While the Old Testament promises formally cover the finite life only, they do not exclude the infinite. In God and faith in him the infinite is germinally contained. 2. Love and good faith ensure favour with God, good will with men. "Mercy," or "love;" the word denotes the recognition of kinship, fellowship in men, and the duty of kindness therein implied. "Truth," in the sense in which we speak of a true man; sincerity and rectitude, the striving to make the seeming and the being correspond to one another; the absence of hypocrisy. St. Paul gives the ideas, "dealing truly in love (Ephesians 4:15). Let these virtues be bound about the neck, like precious objects, for the sake of security; let these commands be engraven in the only indelible way - upon the heart. Let the mind be fixed and formed, and the result will be favour in the sight of God, and a good opinion" in the minds of men. The two relations form a correlation. There is no true standing with God which does not reflect itself in the good opinion of good men; no worthy opinion of a man which does not furnish an index to God's view of him. Both were united in the case of the youthful Jesus. 3. Trust in God ensures practical direction. (Vers. 5, 6.) (1) This trust must be whole-hearted. An exception to it destroys it, as one faulty link will cause the chain to break, one rotten plank the ship to leak, etc. (2) The fallacy of confidence is when we separate the particular in our intelligence from the universal. This is intellectual egoism. There is a dualism in consciousness - the private self-seeking intelligence, and the Divine mind in us. (3) Trust is abandonment to the Divine mind, to the universal intelligence which carries us out of self. (4) Such trust implies the "taking cognizance" of God in all we do. Of bad, unjust men, like Eli's sons, it is said that they take no cognizance of Jehovah (1 Samuel 2:12). To ask of every action not - Is this what the generality of men would do in my position? but - Is it what God would have me to do? Not - Is it "natural"? but - Is it Divine? Such a habit ensures practical direction. All our egarements and stumblings arise from following the isolated intelligence, which is a true guide only for immediate sensuous relations, cannot light us for life's complex whole. Hence the way in which selfish and cunning people constantly outwit themselves, while the man who is set down by them as a fool for neglecting his own interests comes out safely in the long run. 4. Simple piety secures health. (Vers. 7, 8.) (1) Conceit is opposed to piety. This we have already seen. For what is conceit but the lifting of the merely individual into a false generality? In its extreme, the worship of self is a little god. (2) Simple piety has a positive and a negative pole: positive, reverence for God; negative, aversion from evil. The pious man affirms and denies, both with all his might. His life is emphatic, includes an everlasting "Yes" and an everlasting "No"! (3) Simple piety is the source of health. (a) Physical. It tends to promote right physical habits. It certainly reacts against the worst disorders, viz. the nervous. (b) Spiritual. It is in the mind what the sound nervous organization is in the body. The mind thus centrally right digests, enjoys, assimilates, the rich food which nature, books, and men afford. 5. Consecration of property ensures wealth. (Vers. 9, 10.) (1) Ancient custom commanded this. The consecration of the firstling of firstfruits was not confined to Israel. It was an ancient custom of the world generally. The part represents the whole, for all is God's. There seems to be no objection to the private practice of the custom by Christians still. In any case, let it be recognized that property, in the legal sense, but an expression of convenience; that really our temporary possessions, along with ourselves, are the property of God. If this be not recognized, we merely consume them, or hoard them, do not use them. (2) Plenty falls to the lot of the giver. The exceptions to the rule are apparent, and perhaps language does not suffice for their statement and elucidation. The rule is comprehensively true, and a comprehensive view is necessary for its application. Rich and poor are subjective terms. There is a rich poverty and a miserable affluence. The promise is only truly fulfilled in the man who feels he has abundance, and enjoys it. - J.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. As the wings of the cherubim touched one another in the midst of the house, so Mercy and Truth are such a pair as will either lodge together or leave together. There was such a similitude of nature between the Twins of Love, eros and anteros, that at once they wept, and at once they smiled, they fell sick together, and they recovered jointly. Such are the Twins of Grace, Truth, and Mercy; she that would have them out in twain and parted is an harlot, she that cries spare and preserve them whole, she is the mother and must enjoy them. Look upon them in a state of policy; mercy without truth is a sweet shower dropping on the barren sands, quite spilt, and no blessing follows it. Truth without mercy is extreme right and extreme injury. Mercy without truth is a dangerous pity. Truth without mercy is not verity but severity. Consider them towards God and heaven, and then most unfit it is that either should be alone. A faith of mere protestation without good works, such is truth without mercy; it might have been in the Gergesene swine, for such a faith is in the devil, says St. James. All the integrity of the heathen, all the goodness that Socrates could teach, because it is not in Christ, such is mercy without truth. St. Austin compares them thus: "A pagan living without blame before man is a man with his eyes open in the dark midnight, and he that professeth Christ and not mercy, but is sold to commit iniquity, is one with his eyes shut in a clear day, and he sees as little."(Bp. Hacket.) Bind them about thy neck (see Deuteronomy 6:8): —I. THE SUBSTANCE OF A TRUE PHYLACTERY: "Mercy and truth." These are the two grand elements of revelation. they meet man's nature as a being possessing intellect and heart, each of which has its respective cravings and claims. II. THE USES OF A TRUE PHYLACTERY. The old phylacteries seem to be used — 1. As mementoes. They were to remind the wearer of the law. 2. As safeguards. This was, indeed, a later and superstitious use. Still "mercy and truth" rightly worn are safeguards. They protect us from what is wrong and ruinous. (D. Thomas, D.D.) 1. Duties to men are to be made conscience of, as well as duties to God. 2. Mercy and truth should always go together; because both are ornaments to us. Men wear lace on good clothes, so doth mercy adorn truth. Both are profitable unto others. 3. The want of one buries the commendation of the other. 4. Both are together in God, else could we look for no favour from Him. Truth is required in all our dealings with men; but truth must always be tempered and toned with mercy. (Francis Taylor.) Write Homilist. Writing is a very ancient art. Moses knew it. There is a yet older writing, the penmanship of the soul. In this art every man is a busy writer. The soul registers every impression made on it. In comparing soul-writing with that of the pen, two things are observable correspondence and dissimilarity.I. CORRESPONDENCE. Both imply readers. Accuracy in both requires training. Both are either useful or injurious. II. DISSIMILARITY. Soul-writing is more universal; more voluminous; more permanent; more useful to Christianity. Truth written by the soul in the life is more legible than truth written by the pen. It is more convincing; and it is more persuasive. Conclusion: 1. Life is a book which we are writing day by day. 2. The book of life should be a Christian book. 3. This book of life will have to be examined. (Homilist.) At places of public resort, such as the summit of a lofty mountain or the site of a famous monument, you may see tables of wood or stone or level turf. All over them inscriptions have been chiselled so thickly that you could not now find an unoccupied spot to plant a letter on. The characters are various — some old, some new, some well-formed, some irregular scrawls, some mere scratches on the surface which a winter's storms will wash out, some so deep that they will be legible for ages. The table lies there, the helpless recipient of ideas, good or bad, that stray comers may impress upon it. The heart of man is like one of these common public receptacles.(W. Arnot, D.D.) 1. The duty of parents is clear, and their encouragements are great. Watch the young. Stand beside that soft, receptive tablet. Keep trespassers away. Insert many truths. Busily fill the space with good, and that too in attractive forms. This is the work laid to your hand.2. Afflictive providences generally have a bearing on this printing process. God sends what will break the heart or melt it. The heart, in contact with a busy world, was rubbed smooth and slippery. The type, when it touched, glided off the surface, and left no mark behind. This bruising and breaking opened the crust, and let the lesson in. (W. Arnot, D. D.) People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Bind, Faith, Faithfulness, Forsake, Hanging, Heart, Kindness, Leave, Loving-kindness, Loyalty, Mercy, Neck, Recorded, Round, Table, Tablet, TruthOutline 1. various exhortations13. The gain of wisdom 27. Exhortation to goodness 33. the different state of the wicked and upright Dictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 3:3 5017 heart, renewal Library March 6. "Lean not unto Thine Own Understanding" (Prov. Iii. 5). "Lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov. iii. 5). Faith is hindered by reliance upon human wisdom, whether our own or the wisdom of others. The devil's first bait to Eve was an offer of wisdom, and for this she sold her faith. "Ye shall be as gods," he said, "knowing good and evil," and from the hour she began to know she ceased to trust. It was the spies that lost the Land of Promise to Israel of old. It was their foolish proposition to search out the land, and find out by investigation whether … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth The Secret of Well-Being The Gifts of Heavenly Wisdom October the Twenty-Eighth Pleasantness and Peace Question Lxxxi of the virtue of Religion A Sermon on the Boat Race. Let Then the Saints Hear from Holy Scripture the Precepts of Patience... Christ Teaching Liberality Of Self-Surrender Abandonment to God --Its Fruit and Its Irrevocability --In what it Consists --God Exhorts us to It. Letter xxxi (A. D. 1132) to the Abbot of a Certain Monastery at York, from which the Prior had Departed, Taking Several Religious with Him. Epistle Cvi. To Syagrius, Ætherius, virgilius, and Desiderius, Bishops . The Tenth Commandment The Child Jesus Brought from Egypt to Nazareth. In Death and after Death An Appendix to the Beatitudes How those are to be Admonished with whom Everything Succeeds According to their Wish, and those with whom Nothing Does. How to be Admonished are those who Give Away what is their Own, and those who Seize what Belongs to Others. "Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. " "Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. " How the Whole and the Sick are to be Admonished. How to Make Use of Christ for Steadfastness, in a Time when Truth is Oppressed and Borne Down. "But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God," &C. "But it is Good for Me to Draw Near to God: I have Put My Trust in the Lord God, that I May Declare all Thy Links Proverbs 3:3 NIVProverbs 3:3 NLT Proverbs 3:3 ESV Proverbs 3:3 NASB Proverbs 3:3 KJV Proverbs 3:3 Bible Apps Proverbs 3:3 Parallel Proverbs 3:3 Biblia Paralela Proverbs 3:3 Chinese Bible Proverbs 3:3 French Bible Proverbs 3:3 German Bible Proverbs 3:3 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |