main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses 18–20.
Depths of Wickedness.
I. There are deeds of iniquity which leave no outward immediate trace. The path which the eagle opens by her wings when she soars aloft cannot be traced by the human eye. The air closes behind her as she moves, and she leaves nothing to show that she has passed that way. The vessel ploughs its way through the deep, and leaves a wake behind her for a short time. But the sea, like the air, soon resumes its former condition, and the keel leaves no lasting indication upon the water whereby the course of the mariner can be seen. So the serpent glides over the rock, and for a moment its shining scales are reflected in the sun, and then it is hidden from sight and the rock bears no footprint upon its surface. No human skill could, in any of these instances, find any evidence by which to establish the fact that either the thing without life or the living creatures had been there. So the sin to which all these comparisons are linked is one which may be concealed from the eyes of all except those concerned in it, not only at the time of its committal, but also in the immediate future. Those who come in contact with the guilty parties may see no more trace of the sin than they would do of an eagle’s course, or, to use the other metaphor, of bread that had been eaten by one who has wiped his mouth after the meal.
II. Sin is so in opposition to the voice of the human conscience that even those who love it must seek to hide it. The adulteress has sunk as low in the moral scale as it is possible for a human creature to sink, and yet she seeks to hide her shame. Men of evil deeds love darkness rather than light, and so give evidence that there is that within them that condemns their unholy deeds. The very denial of the crime is a condemnation of it. There are many crimes which are not amenable to human law which men, notwithstanding, try to hide from human eyes, and their efforts to do this are witnesses against them and in favour of the law which they have broken.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses 21–23.
Burdens Grievous to be Borne.
I. It is sometimes dangerous to the peace of a community to raise a person from a low to a high position. To place a man who has never before crossed a horse, upon a high-spirited charger, is to create a source of danger both to himself and others. There is a strong probability that the unskilful rider will be thrown from his unaccustomed elevation, and so injure himself. And it is also probable that he will be the means of mischief to other travellers upon the road, whom he will overthrow in his unskilful efforts to keep his seat. It is generally as dangerous an experiment to lift a man at once from the position of a servant to that of a ruler. Although faithfulness “over a few things” is, according to the highest authority, the best qualification for rulership “over many things” (Matt. xxv. 21), it is not always hands used only to service are fit to hold the reins of government, either in a small or a large society. On this subject see also on chap. [xix. 10], page 569.
II. Some human creatures cannot safely be trusted with even a sufficiency of this world’s goods. They are not only unfit to rule others, but so unfit to rule themselves that they cannot be “filled with meat” without becoming a centre of disturbance. Even enough of the necessaries of life suffices to make them injurious to themselves and insolent to their betters. This is especially true of men who are slaves to their bodily appetites. There are men in the world who, although peaceable and even useful citizens when they are kept in a state of comparative want and hardship, indulge in excess and immorality as soon as the restraint is removed. They will sometimes know this to be true, and yet they are so wanting in moral courage and strength as not to struggle after a higher condition of being. Such men are fools indeed.
III. The change of disposition which change of circumstance sometimes seems to work may be the result of deliberate purpose. When a servant becomes a ruler he may be the occasion of trouble simply from intellectual inability, and the fool who cannot safely be filled with meat may be only morally weak; but the woman here represented as developing into a curse after marriage suggests a person who has deliberately hidden her real character for a time in order to gain a position in which she can have more opportunities of indulging her evil propensities. This is a step farther in wickedness, and this domestic burden is often the most grievous of all burdens. On this subject see on chap. [xxi. 9 and 19], page 613.
outlines and suggestive comments.