Proverbs 12:9 He that is despised, and has a servant, is better than he that honors himself, and lacks bread. Amid the changes of this world, I have seen a man who, having known better days, had been nursed by luxury, and reared in the lap of fulness, outlive his good-fortune, and sink down into the baseness and meanness of the deepest poverty — in such a case it seems to be with men as with plants. Naturalists find it much less easy to teach a mountain flower to accommodate itself to a low locality than to persuade one which by birth belongs to the valleys to live and thrive at a lofty elevation; so there seems nothing more difficult to men than to descend gracefully .... And thus I have seen such an one as I have described, when he had lost his wealth, retain his vanity, continuing proud in spirit when he had become poor in circumstances. ( T. Guthrie, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread. |
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