outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 1—
Calmness is great advantage: he that lets
Another chafe may warm him at his fire,
Mark all his wanderings and enjoy his frets,
As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.—Herbert.
“A trying word;” literally a word of labour or pain. In dealing with sinners we ought to make the Gospel plain at first and not start unnecessary difficulties. Paul did this (1 Cor. iii. 2). Words that are not wrathful are often “trying,” as presenting to an angry inferior our reply in an easily misunderstood shape. We are to feed men with milk, and not with strong meat, all the more for being in a condition of fault.—Miller.
Look at the effect of the quiet and dignified reply of Gideon to the exasperated men of Ephraim, and at the case of Abigail and David. And as an exemplification of the opposite style of answer, you may be reminded of the contention between the men of Israel and Judah at the time of David’s restoration after the death of Absalom, where the fierce words of the latter drove off the former under the rebellious standard of Shebna, and of the case of Rehoboam, who by refusing to give “a soft answer” to the people deprived the house of David of the subjection of the ten tribes.—Wardlaw.
Nothing doth better stop the fury of a bullet than a mud wall: nothing doth sooner turn away the fury of wrath than a soft answer. But where the pot is boiling, grievous words make it to boil over. Wherefore Chrysostom tells thee that thine enemy reconciled is more in thine own power than in his.—Jermin.
If gentle words prevail so mightily with most men to appease their anger, of what force shall the submissive supplications of penitent persons be with the Lord?—Dod.
We greatly need an instrument capable of turning away wrath, for there is much wrath in the world to turn away. . . . That patent shield is a soft answer. Christianity makes it of the solid metal, and education supplies at a cheaper rate a plated article, useful as long as it lasts, and as far as it goes. . . . The Roman battering-ram, when it had nearly effected a breach in the walls of solid stone, was often baffled by bags of chaff and beds of down skilfully spread out to receive its stubborn blow. By that stratagem the besieged obtained a double benefit, and the besiegers suffered a double disappointment. The strokes that were given proved harmless, and the engine was soon withdrawn. In our department a similar law exists, and a similar experience will come out of it. . . . After praying to “Our Father” for your offending brother and yourself, you may speak to him with safety. . . . Pass your resentment through a period of communion with Him who bought you with His blood, and it will come out like Christ’s, a simple grief for a brother’s sin, and a holy jealousy for truth.—Arnot.
Verse 2. Eloquence, widely ordered, is very commendable, and availeth much. “The tongues of the wise useth knowledge aright”—deals kindly with her, offers her no abuse by venting her unseasonably, and making her over cheap and little set by. But eloquence abused may well be termed the attorney general, that makes a good cause seem bad, and a bad far better than in truth it is.—Spencer’s “Things New and Old.”
Paul, instead of exasperating his heathen congregation by an open protest, supplied their acknowledged defect, by bringing before them the true God “whom they were ignorantly worshipping” (Acts xvii. 23). He pointed an arrow to Agrippa’s conscience, by the kindly admission of his candour and intelligence (Acts xxvi. 27, 29). This right use of knowledge distinguishes “the workman approved of God, and that needeth not to be ashamed” (2 Tim. ii. 15).—Bridges.