What physician would say to a sick man in such a case, "Go, and come again?" Human need is a disease that is increased by delay in dealing with it. It is a weed that grows apace. What is only a seed to-day will be a sapling soon. If you delay the moral and intellectual training of the ignorant, the chains that bind them will be harder to break to-morrow than they are to-day. So that delay makes the demand greater, and the debt which might have been easily paid when it was due becomes hard to meet by withholding. 4. To do the good to-morrow which might be done to-day is not to be an imitator of God. The Divine Father makes His sun to shine to-day upon the evil and the good. He does not say, "To-morrow I will give thee," but, "now is the accepted time." 5. The postponement of that which is due is "a devising of evil in the heart against thy neighbour" (ver. 29). Our Lord, in his parable of the good Samaritan, has answered for us the question, Who is my neighbour? (Luke x.). It is the man who is in need, and whose need we can relieve. It is not merely a negative, but a positive sin to withhold help to such a one--it is a violation of that rule of life which Christ Himself declares "is the law and the prophets" (Matt. vii. 12). _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._ Verse 27. The borrower is then to repay his debt to the lender; the finder to restore that which he hath taken up to the loser; he which hath received anything into his custody, is to bring it forth to him who reposed trust in him; the master is to pay the servant his wages. Finally, everyone is to practise that precept of the Apostle (Rom. xiii. 8).--_Muffet._ This practical injunction may be applied: 1. To all lawful debts, for articles purchased or work performed. 2. To government taxes, which ought to be regarded as debts due to the community. 3. To debts of charity and benevolence. For such debts there are. They cannot indeed be claimed; they cannot be made good in law. But they are _due_--due on the principle of the "royal law" (Matt. vii. 12).--_Wardlaw._ Here Solomon passes from general recommendations of wisdom to particular precepts of it. He reverts to instances of "mercy and truth" (ver. 3). He who is in need has a claim of ownership upon our property by the law of love, which is the law of God. Need makes the poor the owner, and God makes thee the dispenser of the goods which thou hast and which he needs: so such benefits are called "righteousness," _i.e.,_ a righteous debt or obligation (2 Cor. ix. 9; Matt. vi. 1, "alms;" Greek, "righteousness"). The same principle applies in the case of spiritual knowledge which thou hast and thy neighbour has not.--_Fausset._ With the luxuries of grace, the wise man mixes in its conditions. They are rugged like those of the Apostle (1 Cor. xiii). If we enjoy the good of the Gospel, we are to render again according to the benefits shown us.--_Miller._