The truth of life in diverse aspects
We may divide the matter as follows.
I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE. (Proverbs 20:24.) It is needful, for human wisdom is shortsighted, and human direction inadequate. It is a gracious fact, and, if acknowledged, brings blessing to the trustful mind and heart. Each man has a life vocation. God appoints it, and will reveal the means for the attainment of it. We cannot enter the kingdom except through the guidance of Christ.
II. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. (Proverbs 20:27.) There is a light within us, or conscience in the most comprehensive sense. By the help of reason we may judge other men; by that of conscience, ourselves. It is in another statement the power of reflection, the inner mirror of the soul.
III. GENERAL RELATED TRUTHS.
1. The necessity of pondering well our wishes. (Proverbs 20:25.) We should think thrice before we act once. To act first and reflect afterwards is foolish and helpless; thus we reap the good of neither thought nor action.
2. The necessity of discrimination in rulers. (Proverbs 20:26.) The figure is borrowed from agriculture, from the process of sifting and threshing—the latter in a penal sense (2 Samuel 12:31; 1 Chronicles 20:3; Amos 1:3). It is carried into the gospel. The Divine Judge's "fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor." We must submit to law or be crushed by its penal action.
3. The necessity of love and faithfulness in government. (Proverbs 20:28.) For human government, to be sound, stable, and. respected, must be a reflection of the Divine government. And the eternal features of the latter are love and faithfulness. Clemency and severity are but two sides of the one living and eternal love which rules men only for their salvation.
4. The beauty of piety in youth and age. (Proverbs 20:29.) Let the young man in Christ approve his strength by manful self-conquest, and the old man by riper wisdom and blameless conversation (1 John 2:13, 1 John 2:14).
5. The necessity of inward purification. (Proverbs 20:30.) And to this end the necessity of chastisement. In bodily disease we recognize the struggle of life against that which is inimical to it; and in the afflictions of the soul the struggle of the God-awakened soul against its evils. Luther says, "Evil is cured, not by words, but by blows; suffering is as necessary as eating and drinking."—J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON