LECTURES ON THE BOOK OF PROVERBS BY THE REV. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D. EDITED BY HIS SON, THE REV. J. S. WARDLAW, A.M. VOL. II. A. FULLARTON & CO.: 44, SOUTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH; MDCCOLXI LECTURE XXXV. PROV. XIV. 25-31. "A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence; and his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. In the multitude of people is the king's honour: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor." "A TRUE witness delivereth souls." The words might be rendered with greater propriety, and wider comprehensiveness- -"a true witness saveth lives." But it may be said, and said justly, that a faithful testimony does not always save life. Such a testimony may evidently condemn a man as well as acquit him. It depends entirely, not on the fidelity of the witness, but on the facts of the case. If the facts are criminatory, a true witness must tell them as they are- -"the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,”—and the fault rests not with him that his testimony warrants a sentence of condemnation. The duty of giving such evidence may often be most painful; but the "true witness" must submit to this: the truth must be told.-And while true testimony may condemn, false testimony may acquit; while the former may destroy life, the latter may save it. Many a time has a false and perjured witness brought off a pannel that was guilty and deserved the punishment pronounced by the law against the offence charged. It is probable, therefore, that the intended antithesis relates, not so much to the actual fact of truth saving and falsehood condemning, as to the dispositions and intentions of the faithful witness on the one hand, and the lying witness on the other. The faithful witness delights in giving testimony that will save life-that will be salutary and beneficial to his fellow-creatures. The lying witness will, in general, be found actuated by a malevolent and wicked purpose, having pleasure in giving testimony that will go to condemn the object of his malice. The sentiment will thus be, that truth is most generally found in union with kindness of heart, and falsehood with malevolence. And this is natural; the former being both good, the latter both evil; falsehood more naturally akin to malice, and truth to love. A deceitful witness" is evidently not intended to be understood of a witness who deceives for the good of others. A man may occasionally deceive for such a purpose; but this is the exception, not the rule. The deceitful man deceives for his own advantage:--while the man of truth regards not the results, whether to others or to himself; but, be they painful or pleasant, considers only what fidelity and veracity demand of him: not things as he may wish them, but things as they are.* 66 Verse 26. "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence; and his children shall have a place of refuge." He who fears God, according to the revelation He has given of himself, may well have "strong confidence." That in which he confides is all infinite:-the truth, the love, the wisdom, the power of his covenant God! What con fidence shall be strong, if this is not strong? The God whom he fears and loves (for in the Scripture sense he cannot fear without loving) has given, in the name of his Son, "exceeding great and precious promises;"-precious in themselves, in the fulness of blessing, for time and for eternity, which they contain; precious, as given by divine fidelity; precious, as pledged and made sure of fulfilment * Comp. chap. vi. 19; xii. 17; xiii. 5. by all the resources of divine wisdom and divine power. Whatever the love of God has induced Him graciously to promise, no power or combination of powers in existence, can stay from being done. 66 The psalms abound with expressions of confidence, corresponding with the phraseology of the latter part of the verse And his" (the Lord's) "children shall have a place of refuge." This does not mean merely that God in His providence will see to their protection and preservation in seasons of danger and calamity-true though that is, but that, to them, as His children, HE HIMSELF will be " as a hidingplace from the storm, and a covert from the tempest;" so that they shall fully realize the security; and, in the enjoyment of "perfect peace," say with the prophet, "The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in HIM," Nah. i. 7. What is before said (chap. xiii. 14.) of "the law of the wise," is in next verse said of "the fear of the Lord." "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." There is a perfect and beautiful harmony between the two. "The law of the wise," is the great practical principle by which their whole character is formed and their whole conduct regulated, and that principle is "the fear of the Lord." And if the "law of the wise" be interpreted in the former passage, more generally, of the divine word, which the wise take as the "light of their feet and the lamp of their path," the authoritative guide of all their ways, what, we still ask anew, is the leading lesson of that very word? Is it not that the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and the beginning of wisdom? Is not the very purpose of God's word to reveal Him to guilty men in the appropriate character of the God of their salvation? And is not the very purpose of the manifestation of God's mercy to rectify the state of the heart toward Him? Is there not "forgiveness with Him that He may be feared?" Now "this fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." From these it effectually pre |