The Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 29:24-27

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Prevalence in alliance with religion

I. PRUDENCE AND RELIGION ARE EVER IN HARMONY. There can be no divorce between them. We are not placed between cross lights here. What intelligent regard to self prescribes, God's Law commands. Approach the facts of life from these two opposite sides, travel by either of these two paths, they meet at last in duty, in safety, in peace, and salvation.

II. SOME EXAMPLES OF THIS HARMONY.

1. All dishonesty or complicity with it is self-destructive. (Proverbs 29:24.) Enlightened experience says so, and stamps itself in the clear dictum, "Honesty is the best policy." God's Word says so, and here and in a thousand similar declarations and warnings pronounces a curse upon the sin.

2. Fear of man is perilous; confidence in the Eternal is safety. (Proverbs 29:25.) Experience again ratifies this. The coward dies a thousand deaths; the brave, but once. The feeble-hearted daily miss opportunities; the brave create them. Moral cowardice springs from want of inner conviction of the might of truth; moral strength, from the inner certainty that nothing but truth is victorious. Positive revelation here again fortifies the hints of common knowledge.

3. The vanity of honour from others; the true honour that comes from God. (Proverbs 29:26.) What bitter things have been written down in the experience of men of the world concerning the favour of the great, and the folly of courting it and depending upon it! and how does the same lesson echo back from the page of Holy Writ! Act well your part in Jehovah's sight; seek the honour that cometh from him only;—how common and Divine wisdom effect ajuncture once more!

4. Eternal antipathies. (Proverbs 29:27.) What experience teaches us in one form, that fellowship must be founded on sympathy, that tastes must be respected, that deep, undefinable feelings attract us to or repel us from others, God's Word again confirms: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." Acquaintance is mere collocation of persons; friendship and Christian communism are the eternal affinity of souls in God.—J.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

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