The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Volume 13 (of 32): The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Book of the ProverbsHarris, W., Rev.
Religion
The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Volume 13 (of 32): The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Book of the Proverbs
when affliction has shut out our fellow-man from hearing the human
voice, but this man of wickedness makes his whole body a medium for
the conveyance of his evil plans and desires. He yields his "members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin" (Rom. vi. 13). The common
every-day language of outspoken honest men will not do to convey his
thoughts, because his thoughts are against the welfare of his fellow
creatures. This compels him to use a language which is comprehended
only by those who are like himself. The eye can be used in this way
as a more safe and swift instrument than the tongue. A look may
embody a thought that would need many words to express. The glance of
one wicked man to another has often been the sentence of death to
many. And so, in a less degree, perhaps, with the foot and the hand,
as Matthew Henry says, "Those whom he makes use of as the tools of
his wickedness understand the ill meaning of a wink of his eye, a
stamp of his feet, the least motion of his fingers. He gives orders
for evil-doing, and yet would not be thought to do so, but has ways
of concealing what he does, so that he may not be suspected."
+II. The end of such a man.+ (Verse 15.) 1. _His very success will
bring his ruin._ The man who makes it the business of his life to lay
plans against the comfort of his fellow-creatures may succeed for a
time, but by-and-by he will find himself so famous, or infamous, that
a reward may be offered for his person, and his very success in
deceiving others in the past will possibly so throw him off his guard
as to make him an easy prey to those who now lie in wait to bring him
to justice. But if he escape the messenger of human retribution, he
is sure of the Divine Nemesis. God's law and the universe are against
him. In sowing discord in the world, he has sowed destruction for
himself, and he must reap it. However cleverly he may have outwitted
his fellow-men, he has not deceived God, and _His_ law is that
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Ephes. vi. 7).
2. _The punishment will come when least expected._ "Suddenly shall he
be broken" (verse 15). The thief makes it his study to find an
entrance into his victim's house when he least expects him, and he
finds himself one day repaid in his own coin. When he is enjoying his
fancied security an officer of justice visits him, and suddenly he is
summoned to answer for his crimes. This we find is generally the case
with retribution; it not only comes certainly, but at a time when it
is least looked for. 3. _His ruin will be complete._ "He shall be
broken without remedy" (verse 15). The crime of murder is regarded by
our code of law as one which deserves the extremest penalty which man
can inflict upon man. The murderer, as a rule, is visited with a
punishment which, so far as his earthly existence goes, cuts off all
hope for the future. The man who is pictured to us in these verses is
one who appears to have completed his character as a sinner. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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