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VOL. LXXXVIH. RICHM(
Every Man
This is a day of the popularizing of education.
One may find in almost any book-shop neat little
volumes of the great English classics, of the most
convenient size, well edited and printed, and sold
for a mere trifle, and bearing the general title:
"Everyman's Library." The series is an enterprising
publisher's effort to bring the best books within
the easy reach of the masses of the people. In the
same spirit the great "correspondence schools" are
now offering to teach anybody, anywhere, almost
any subject and are appealing to all who have a
spark of ambition to improve their equipment for
life of work by a more extended knowledge and
training.
The man who reads the third chapter of Proverbs
finds himself face to face with the mightiest
of all eneines of human onlfiira TTom ie
man's University." Everyman's, not in the sense
that every man is actually availing himself of its
advantages; but everyman's in the sense that every
one may do so if he will. Courses are here offered
precisely suited to every human being. The fees
are all provided for; the doors are wide open to all.
It is an ancient and honorable foundation?this
university?established by God just outside the
gates of Eden, with two students in its first class.
It has numbered among its graduates the greatest
names of earth; men like Enoch and Abraham, and
Moses and David, and Isaiah and Paul, and John,
to say nothing of great multitudes since the times
of the apostles. To the seer of Patmos the curtain
of heaven was drawn for a moment on one of the
great commencement days ai\d he was permitted to
look for a little while at the spectacle; of the whiterobed
throne with rw 1 ma in 4-Vmi^ l.onJo V.?
?0 AAA tiivii iiauuo nc euunicu
an hundred and forty and four thousand, and back
of them, tier upon tier, there rose "a great multitude,
which no man could number, out of every
nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues."
See his account of it in the seventh chapter of Revelation.
The school of which we speak is the Life of
Faith; some account of it we find in the third
chapter of Proverbs. This is the language of an
inspired sage, addressed to one whom he calls "My
Son." The address consists of three paragraphs,
which the American Revised Version marks off to
the reader's eye my printing them with spaces between.
An inspection of these paragraphs suggests
that the first one (verses 1-12?) has to do
with the course which the university provides; the
second (verses 13-26) speaks of the degree to which
the course conducts, and the third (verses 27-35)
suggests the career for which the training equips.
T TJ, ? ? -t ii?
a. i ni/ uumoo. i ut iuuuuauuu ui tut; course
is the one text-book?a divine revelation (verse 1).
The course is a course of experience and is mastered
by doing and suffering. is divided into two
classes, the junior class, or the school of prosperity,
and the senior class, or the school of adversity.
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s University
The school of prosperity is sketched in verses
2-10. Everything here suggests bright skies and
fair winds; for instance, "length of days and years
of life and peace" (v. 2), or "favor and good understanding
in the sight of God and man" (v. 4),
or "thy barns shall be filled with plenty, and thy
vats shall overflow with new wine" (v. 10). A
good share of true prosperity is usually the lot of
God's people in this life. True prosperity, not the
enervating luxury of overdone creature comforts,
but the best and noblest joys of a temperate and
intelligent spirit. There is a tendency in the very
nature of piety to produce prosperity. Think,
for instance, of the industry, the intelligence, the
frugality, thrift, fidelity which God's Word in
culcates. Godliness lias the promise of the life that
now is. (1 Tim. 4:18.)
But if a man is to profit by this course there are
certain cardinal points to which he must attend.
These are stressed in this sketch of the course as
things which men, in the days of their prosperity,
are peculiarly liable to overlook, and which are,
nevertheless, vital to any profiting by God's favoring
providence. First, we are charged not to
forget God's law (v. 1). Prosperity frequently
occasions a strange and perverse forgetfulness of
God. the verv snnrof> nrul fiix7oi? nf if Wa^oil
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earnestly Israel was warned against this very thing
as they were about to enter on the enjoyment of
their Promised Land. See Deuteronomy 8:11 and
elsewhere. In the second place, we must see to it
that a prosperous life is a life of kindness and truth
(v. 3). These are the two poles around which all
the virtues of a symmetrical character revolve.
Truth and all its cognate qualities are the bony
framework of character; kindness and all its allied
traits are the soft and genial flesh that clothes the
frame. Either or both may be impaired by prosperity.
The milk of human kindness may be dried up
and men lose the power of feeling with their suffering
fellows. Or. on the other band, fha stnrdv +r-ai+a
of the "truth" family may become enervated in a
smooth and easy lot. All the virtues of a rounded
scriptural character must be vigilantly cultivated
if we are to profit by a course of prosperity. In
the third place, we are taught that the days of our
prosperity must be days of lowly-hearted trust in
and dependence upon God (v. 5-7). Prosperity
tempts to self-confidence and pride. It is so easy
to trust in God's gifts instead of in him. If our
prosperity is to help, not harm us, we must be just
as humble when rich as when poor, just as scrupulous
in seeking God's direction as in the days
of our extremity and sore need. And, finally, all
our prosperity must be dedicated to the glory of
God (v. 9)., We must honor the Lord with our
substance and with the first fruits of all our increase.
God's goodness, if it is to bless us, must
not be consumed on ourselves, but used for him.
As long as we do this, prosperity cannot hurt us.
Verses 11 and 12 tell us of the university's se
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Rev. Theron H. Rice, D.D.
nior class, the school of adversity. Sooner or later
all God's students are promoted to that; "whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth." No candidate for
the university degree could possibly be perfected
without it, and the most proficient disciples have
been most thoroughly exercised in this part of the
course. In the light which other scriptures throw
on the subject we learn that the aim of this
"chastening of the Lord" is at least threefold. First,
to rebuke sin in God's child (see Heb. 12:5) ; second,
to correct errors or wrong tendencies in us
(see Job 5:17); and third, to teach us (see Ps.
94:12). How often and urgently we need all these
things! We sin, should grow bold in sinning,
did not God wake us, arrest us by a sharp rebuke.
We are pursuing some infatuated course to our
great loss and detriment; God's chastening turns
us aside and drives us back to the safe road. And
then, apart from any particular sin to be dealt
with in our lives, there are great lessons which we
can only learn in the school of suffering, just as
we can see the stars only in the night's darkness.
Some years ago certain noble trees in an American
city were seen to be dying. Scientists who investigated
the cause pronounced that they were slowly
perishing for lack of sleep. The brilliant electric
lights in the neighborhood turned night into day.
God's people would fare ill without his chastening.
But there are certain things here also which may
rob a man of the profit of this course, and our text
instructs us concerning them very clearly. A
man under the discipline of suffering is in danger
of erring in one of two directions. He may "despise
the chastening of the Lord" (v. 11) ; that
is to say, he may esteem his suffering lightly; he
may ignore it with a proud, stoic disdain, or at
tempt to forget it in some form of diversion. To
him God says despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord. Look your trouble in the face. It is
"Friend Sorrow," with both hands full of blessings.
Or a man may go to the opposite extreme: He
may faint when he is rebuked (v. 11); he may
take his suffering seriously enough, so seriously
that it crushes him. But against this, too, he is
warned, for such weakness would equally frustrate
the purpose of the discipline. By God's grace he
may and must stand up and bear manfully his
heavy cross; God means it for his profit. Neither
to fly from nor to sink under Ond'a diamr?lino nf
suffering is to carry ourselves aright in this part
of our training and to become eventually "partakers
of God's holiness." (See Heb. 12:12.)
II. The Degree: That to which these two classes
conduct us is wisdom. Both the courses converge on
that attainment. Happy is the man who, out of
life's joys and life's sorrows, extracts wisdom; who,
whether suffering or rejoicing, is through it all and
by it all growing wiser.
This wisdom which is the outcome for the godly
man of.the entire discipline of life is very beautifully
described in verses 13-26. We haven't space