I. A talebearer. One celebrated nation of antiquity used to express this man's character by a very significant figure. They called a talebearer a "seedpicker." There are men in the world who live by their seed-collecting: by going about here and there, from house to house, from street to street, through a town large or small, and gathering together all the little stories which can be told or made about the neighbours who are dwelling securely by them, and ignorant of the calumnies by which they are assailed.
II. A talebearer revealeth secrets. Many motives go to make up a talebearer. (1) Perhaps he is a witty man. He can intimate, rather than express, a scandal. His representations of character are pungent. His imitations, his caricatures of manner and of speech, are irresistibly comic. In society he is the life of his company. It is not till he is silent and departed perhaps not even then that you begin to feel that there has been virtually a talebearer among you, and that he has been revealing unkind secrets. (2) Or he may be a man in whose own conscience there is a sore place. He knows something against himself. He is conscious of some lurking, some secret, some bosom sin. And it is a relief to him to hope that others are not so much better than himself. He finds a solace in his wretchedness in making company for his sin. (3) There are others who cannot bear superiors. They do not like superiors in station, but superiors in character they cannot brook. Their only comfort is in a general disbelief of virtue. A ridiculous story to tell of the eminently good is to them as a draught of water to the thirsty.
III. "He that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter." He does not say what matter. But we may understand it to include two things: that which has been entrusted to him in the secrecy of confidence, and that which has become known to him to another's disparagement.
If we could part for ever with the disposition of the talebearer, we should have parted with that which, more than anything else, confuses and perplexes and embitters human life. It is the want of self-knowledge which makes us so keen-sighted. It is the want of acquaintance with Christ, as our Propitiation first, and then as our Example, which makes it possible for us to sit in the tribunal of judgment.
C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of Life and Godliness,p. 1.
References: Proverbs 11:13. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 292.Proverbs 11:15. Ibid.,p. 294.Proverbs 11:16. Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 128. Proverbs 11:17. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 303.Proverbs 11:18. Ibid.,p. 305.Proverbs 11:18-23. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 287. Proverbs 11:19; Proverbs 11:21. H. Armstrong Hall, Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 271.Proverbs 11:20. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 307; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 281.