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
"My law." He who made us knows what is good for us. Submission to His
will is the best condition for humanity. Our own will leads to sin
and misery. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul. . . . Silently to forget God's law is a much more common thing
amongst us than blasphemously to reject it.--_Arnot._
Where love makes the impression, care locks it up. . . . Philo saith,
"Thou forgettest God's law, because thou forgettest thyself." For
didst thou remember thine own condition, how very nothing thou art,
thou couldst not forget His law whose excellency exceedeth all
things; and therefore to fasten His law in our hearts, God saith no
more than that it is _my law_, as if the strength of that reason were
sufficient to strike them into us not to be forgotten.--_Jermin._
We should be able to say to Wisdom as Cœnis did to her lady Antonia,
"You need not, madame, bid me do your business, for I so remember
your commands, as I need never be reminded of them."--_Trapp._
The mental faculties have a close relation and a mutual dependence
upon each other. There are, without doubt, original diversities in
the power of memory. But memory depends greatly on _attention_, and
attention depends not less upon the interest which the mind feels on
the subject. He who feels no interest will not attend, and he who
does not attend will not remember.--_Wardlaw._
Verse 2. _Length of days_ is the promise to the righteous--whether
for earth or for heaven as their Father deems fittest for them. In
itself, the promise, as regards this life, has no charm. . . . But
_peace added_ forms the sunshine of the toilsome way.--_Bridges._
The original is "length of days and years of lives." They are lives
which religion promiseth, one on earth, another in heaven: here such
a long life as short days can make up, but there days shall be years:
there shall be but one day, lengthened into eternity.--_Jermin._
Where is the consistency of promising long life to wisdom? Where is
the truth of such an assurance? But certain grammatical endings give
us immediate signs of another interpretation. The verb "add" is
masculine; the words "law" and "commandments" are feminine. On the
contrary, all are masculines among the nouns of the next clause.
Unless there should be reason to do violence by an ungrammatical
exception, the nouns should be the subjects rather than the objects
of the verb. We translate therefore, "For length of days, and years
of life, and prosperity, shall make thee greater."--_Miller._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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