THE TEMPORAL WISDOM OF THE BIBLE.
APART from its value as a spiritual guide, a comforter in distress and a shield against the darts of the tempter, the Bible is unrivaled as a manual of temporal wisdom. In the management of our earthly affairs it is, if we choose to accept it, a lamp to the feet and a light to the path. In the single book of Proverbs there are maxims enough to insure absolute success to the man who faithfully lives according to their teachings. Thrift, diligence, honor, integrity, thoroughness, and promptitude are among the virtues which shine like stars in the golden firmament of the Eastern sage. He tells the giddy heart of youth to forsake frivolity, and apply itself to instruction. He enjoins abstinence and temperance on those who are given to the indulgence of the lower appetites. He bids the talkative man to be reticent, the impertinent to respect authority, and the inexact to refrain from whispering and slander. Obedience in the family, good government in the State, economy in the household, energy in the individual, and responsibility for advantages bestowed, are inculcated in every chapter of this amazing collection of apothegms and adages. Many of the terse and picturesque sentences of Solomon have crystallized themselves in our common talk, and are coin current in conversation, not alone by the fireside, but in the market, the shop, and the office. Thus, “The way of the transgressor is hard,” “The wicked flee when no man pursueth,” “The borrower is servant to the lender,” and “The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds,” are at once justified by the experience of men and women in every position in society. “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings,” finds illustrations in biography, in history, and in the world’s roll of statesmen of to-day. The whole set of caustic and ironical observations on contentious, bitter, and unprincipled women, and their influence, though born of Solomon’s own exasperations and vexations, were written not for his period only, but for all time. The life of the harem, idle, flavorless, and supremely wearisome, must necessarily afford a soil adapted to the quick growth of envy, covetousness, and malice; yet even here there are fair village homes and ample city houses in which fretful, quarrelsome, and discontented wives and daughters make the atmosphere always heavy and stormful. Turning away from this aspect of the book, how rich are its aphorisms of consolation, and not to lose sight of our theme, how suggestive are its bits of good advice! “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver;” “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country;” “A soft answer turneth away wrath;” “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly;” and “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” It were easy to lengthen the list, but reflection and examination will enable any one to do it for himself. We have instanced the Proverbs rather than another book in the Biblical library because it is from first to last an epitome of directions for practical every-day life. But the earlier pages of Scripture, the picture-books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, and Judges, the condensed and deeply religious instructions of Deuteronomy, and the panoramic progression of kings and prophets, are crowded with hints, examples, and directions for the conduct of ordinary people in ordinary circumstances. When we reach the New Testament, there is, first and foremost, the sermon on the mount, and when the world arrives at a general and liberal fulfillment of its divine precepts, Heaven will have begun below. Then the cogent words of Paul, of John, of Peter, of James—what need is there for more than an index-finger pointing us to them? Do we not sometimes overlook and forget the fact that God’s Book is given for our help and direction in the life of action, as well as for our stimulus and encouragement in the life of devotion? The paradox of a man who prays fervently, and defrauds his neighbor; who bears the Christian name, and shames the Christian character, would be more infrequently found if we blended piety with practice, as the Bible does. Not only for hours of retirement and thought, but for hours of business and adventure, it is a Heaven-inspired companion and mentor.—The Christian at Work.