(with John 16:33)
I. Religion, regarded as a theory of a perfect state, is right in pronouncing itself a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. If a man could but walk perfectly in the way of religion he would be perfectly happy. But man is not born into an ideal state, into a perfect state even; on the contrary, he is born further from his nature than any other creature on earth. God did not make men perfect. He made them pilgrims after perfection.
II. Men are born with all the faculties of reason, but not with knowledge. That they are to find. Men are born with social natures, but not with social loves and refinements of experience. These they are to work out. Men are born with moral sense, but not with knowledge of its fruits, its inspirations, its various experiences. It is the business of their life to find out these things. To teach all this vast lore of experience God has established five schools: (1) the school of the family; (2) the school of the material world; (3) the school of civil society; (4) the school of business; (5) the school of the Church.
III. It is in the light of such a development that we can see the relation between joy and sorrow in the Christian scheme. Sorrow is that conflict which every person experiences as he is endeavouring to learn. It is the incident of growth from a lower to a higher state. Suffering is God's regent of the universe, saying, "The way is a way of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace:" and therefore when you suffer it is because you are out of the way.
If this be so, I remark: (1) The search for the origin of evil is a mistaken search in the direction in which men are looking for it. Evil is nothing in the world but a part of the Divine system by which we are to be unfolded. (2) We see the true and proper meaning of self-denial. It is a higher faculty, making a lower one keep down and know its place. (3) We see the foreshadowings of the Cross in human life. (4) We see love suffering in life. (5) There is but one way out of suffering, and that way is upward. All other ways are adjourning it, or preparing for its recurrence in even greater measure.
H. W. Beecher, Sermons,2nd series, p. 271.
There is a certain exclusiveness about this expression which stands out into a necessary emphasis; strong in the first, stronger in the second, clause of the sentence. For of many things it may be said, that some of their "ways" are "pleasant," though some be bitter; and of a very few things indeed, perhaps, it might be said that their "paths" are sometimes "peace." But of nothing in the whole world save one the life of a real child of God could it ever be spoken so broadly, so universally, so absolutely.
I. In this high peace, then, notice that there is a distinction drawn which is not without its special signification. It is the ways which are pleasant, and the paths which are peace. Now the way is always larger and broader than the path. And the meaning may be this: The more general and public things in religion things which all see and know these are pleasant; but the things which retire back and are most unfrequented, and which very few either see or guess, all these are "peace."
II. Wisdom's way is: (1) a high way. It is always reaching up out of littlenesses; it ranges at loftier levels, it has the world at its feet. (2) Wisdom's way always has one fixed mark. For that it steers. It throws lesser things aside as it goes, and it goes straight and earnest to a goal, and that goal is the glory of God. (3) Wisdom's way is a way of usefulness. It always puts usefulness first before pleasure, before profit. (4) To go in wisdom's way is to go in sweet fellowship. They who walk there walk hand in hand. It is full of sympathies, it is a road which lies in the communion of all saints, and all love all in wisdom's way. (5) Above all, Christ is there. They walk with Jesus, they lean on Jesus, they are satisfied with Jesus, and they shall travel on and reign with Jesus, in that city where they go.
III. Let us leave the wider track, and go down to one or two of the more secluded "paths." (1) There is a going out in a man's heart from its deepest places to Christ. He tells Jesus something which has long been a hidden burden in his mind. And in the little path of that secret confession there is a peace which no words can tell. (2) It is a very small path that faith takes, but the "peace passeth understanding." (3) Shame, sorrow, parting, death, lie in the same wisdom's path. Jesus' path lay just the same, through shame, through death. And wisdom's path and Jesus' path are both one; and both are peace.
J. Vaughan, Sermons,1867, p. 77.
References: Proverbs 3:17. J. Vaughan, Children's Sermons,1875, p. 278; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 142.Proverbs 3:19; Proverbs 3:20. Ibid.,p. 144.Proverbs 3:21-35. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 113.Proverbs 3:26. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,p. 147. Proverbs 3:27; Proverbs 3:28. Ibid.,p. 152.