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
solution, as it were, by the moral atmosphere which encircles the
judgment-seat of God. Uniting with all of kindred essence that has
been generated in your soul, it will be precipitated by a law, and
when it falls, it will not miss the mark. Thou alone shalt bear it.
Those who have not found refuge in the Sin-bearer must bear their own
sin. Sins, like water, are not annihilated, although they go out of
our sight. They fall with all their weight either on the sin-doer or
on the Almighty Substitute. Alas for the man who is "alone" when the
reckoning comes.--_Arnot._
A man's self is not that which he is for a short time and space, but
that which he is for continuance, indeed for an endless continuance.
And therefore that which we are in this life is not ourselves, but
that which we shall be, that is ourselves. So that whosoever is wise
for that time is wise for himself, and for that time we shall be wise
if we be made so by the instruction of Eternal Wisdom.--_Jermin._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-18.
THE FEAST OF FOLLY.
That which strikes one upon reading this description is the analogy
and the contrast which it presents to the feast of Wisdom. +I. Its
analogies.+ 1. _Both appeal to elements in the nature of man._ Man is
a compound, a complex being. He possesses a moral nature, a
conscience, which can be satisfied only with moral truth and
goodness, to which Wisdom appeals with her wine and bread of God's
revelation, and whose cravings they alone are able to appease. And he
has sinful inclinations and passions which hanker after forbidden
things, to which Folly appeals when she sets forth the attractions of
her "stolen waters" and her "bread eaten in secret" (verse 17). God's
wisdom and love are shown in appealing to the first, and Satan's
cunning and malice are manifested in the adaptation of his appeal to
the second. 2. _Both invite the same kind of character,_ viz., the
"_simple,_" the inexperienced, those who have not tasted the sweets
of godly living, yet "know not" from experience that the "dead" are
in the house of Folly, that "her guests are in the depths of hell"
(verse 18). Two potters may be desirous of possessing the same lump
of clay in order to fashion it each one after his own desire. It is
now a shapeless mass, but they know its yielding and pliable nature
renders it capable of assuming any form, of taking any impress, which
they may please to impart to it. The inexperienced in the
experimental knowledge of good and evil are very much like potter's
clay; and here Wisdom and Folly, God and the devil, holiness and sin,
stand side by side bidding for the clay, the one desiring to fashion
out of it a "vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the
Master's use" (2 Tim. ii. 21), and the other anxious to make it a
"vessel of wrath fitted to destruction" (Rom. ix. 22). 3. _Both
invite to the feasts through those who possess powers of persuasion._
Though in the first Wisdom herself does not go forth, but sends her
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account