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
+II. Those who are thus drawn into sympathy with Eternal Wisdom come
under conditions of life.+ Here is a repetition of an oft-repeated
truth of revelation, that life and God's favour are
inseparable--identical (ver. 35). We can see shadows of this truth in
the intercourse of men with their fellow-creatures. If a poor outcast
child, surrounded by influences of evil to which he must yield if
left to fight them single-handed, is lifted out of his degradation
into a godly home, the favour of the friend who thus raises him
changes his miserable existence into something worth calling life in
comparison. The child who, by wilfulness, has forfeited the favour of
a good parent, feels his entire existence clouded, but forgiveness
through reconciliation brings light and life back to his life. How
much more is it so when we come into sympathy with Christ by
hearkening to His voice and taking His yoke, and are by Him lifted
out of a life of bondage to sin into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God.
+III. Those who refuse thus to come into sympathy with Eternal Wisdom
are self-destroyers, because they are God-haters.+ He who refuses to
drink of the Fountain of Life, must, of necessity, be left to
soul-death. There is nothing that gives more sorrow to a human being
than to know that the evil from which he is suffering is
self-inflicted. If a man loses his sight through a wound which he
receives from another, although he feels his blindness to be a
terrible calamity, it lacks the element of bitterness which would be
added to it if it had been brought about by his own wilfulness. The
man who loses a limb in lawful battle looks upon his loss as an
honour, because it was inevitable. But his feeling would be very
different if he knew that he had been crippled for life by his own
folly. It will be the main ingredient in the bitter cup of those who
disregard the invitations of Divine Wisdom that they are moral
suicides. The consciousness of this is a perpetual hell to the human
spirit. And the mere neglect is sufficient to give the death-blow. It
is not necessary to be in positive opposition to God and goodness.
Not to listen is to refuse. Not to wait on God is to sin against
Him--is to despise the provisions of His mercy.
_ILLUSTRATION OF VERSE_ 34.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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