CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 25:26. Falling down—i.e., “yielding” or “wavering.” Corrupt. Rather “Ruined.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 25:26
THE EVIL RESULT OF MORAL COWARDICE
I. There can never be a good reason why a good man should waver or bow down before a bad man. Many reasons often exist why one bad man should fear another bad man, they are both on the wrong side, both arrayed againt the moral order of the universe, and therefore are on the weakest side, and cannot count upon the support of any superior and all-powerful force. Neither of them has conscience or God upon his side; each one has to fight his battle on his own charges, and can with no confidence foretell the result. But the want of firmness on the part of a righteous man in the presence of wickedness—even when that wickedness is allied with all the power that it can arrogate to itself—is contrary to reason. For as surely as light must defeat the darkness, so surely must right in the end prove itself victorious over wrong. A good man has the whole force of the moral universe upon his side, and is assured both by experience and by Divine promise that if he holds fast to the end he shall be more than conqueror.
II. The wavering of such a man pollutes the very sources of social morality. Unreasonable although it is, yet it is not out of the range of human experience. “The best men are but men at the best” says an old writer, and in times of great trial they often give evidence that it is so. Good and noble men have sometimes trembled and given way before the terrors of the stake, and far less terrible suffering has often sufficed to shake the constancy of true men who were less courageous. But whenever such a fall takes place it is a heavy blow to the cause of right and truth upon the earth. A good man is like a fountain of pure and living water. He is a source of moral life and health in the circle in which he moves; even if he does not put forth any direct or special effort for the advancement of morality, his life will as certainly have an influence for good as the lighted candle will illumine the darkness around it. But if he shows himself a coward when exposed to loss or danger for the sake of right, it will do as much harm to the moral health of the community in which he lives as would be done to its bodily health if the stream from which its members drink were polluted at the fountain head. The mischief done in each case may not show itself by any startling results. The poison in the water may not kill, but only lower the standard of health in those who partake of it, and so a moral fall in a good man may not lead other men to open apostacy from the right path, but it may make the walk of many unsteady. Christ tells His disciples this same truth when He calls them the “salt of the earth,” and asks “if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted” (Matthew 5:13). In other words, the good are the conservators of the moral purity of the world, and if any one among them ceases to sustain this character he is not only a loser himself but a source of loss to others.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Lord Bacon gives this proverb political application: “It teaches that an unjust and scandalous judgment in any conspicuous and weighty cause is, above all things, to be avoided in the State;” and in his Essay
(56) of Judicature, he says: “One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain”—Tr. of Lange’s Commentary.
Eastern fountain and springs (where the rains are only periodical, and at long intervals) are of no common price. The injury of corrupting them is proportionate. The well is therefore a blessing or a curse, according to the purity or impurity of the waters. A righteous man in his proper character is “a well of life, a blessing in the midst of the land.” But if he fall down before the wicked by his inconsistent profession, the blessing becomes a curse, the fountain is troubled, and the spring corrupt. What a degradation was it to Abraham to fall down under the rebuke of an heathen king; to Peter, to yield to a servant maid in denying his Lord! How did David’s sin trouble the fountain, both to his family and his people! How did the idolatry of his wise son corrupt the spring through successive generations!
When a minister of Christ apostatises from the faith (and mournfully frequent have been such spectacles) or compromises his principles from the fear of man, the springs and fountains of truth are fearfully corrupted. When a servant of God, of standing and influence, crouches and falls down under the wicked, the transparency of his profession is grievously tarnished. Satan thus makes more effective use of God’s people than of his own—Bridges.