A righteous man eats to his heart's content, but the stomach of the wicked is empty. Sermons
I. THE PARENTAL INSTINCT. 1. This is, to let the child have his way; to give him the gratification be desires, to find a present pleasure in his momentary happiness. 2. This is, to spare him suffering. No parent can hear his child cry without suffering himself (herself). Our instinct is to save our children from every trouble, small and great, from which we can exempt them. And it "goes against the grain" to inflict punishment, to cause pain, to deprive of some known enjoyment. But we dare not be blind to - II. THE LESSON OF EXPERIENCE. Universal experience proves that to act on mere parental instruct is nothing less than selfish cruelty. It is to act as if we positively hated our children. For it is the one sure way to spoil them for life, to ruin their character. The undisciplined child becomes the wayward boy, the dissipated young man, the wreck of manhood. He becomes self-centred, incapable of controlling his spirit, exacting in all his relations, disregardful of all law and of all claims. It is to withhold the one condition under which alone we can expect any one to attain to an admirable and honourable manhood. It is to deny to our own children the most essential element of education. Experience proves that he who spares the rod acts as if he positively hated his son. III. THE PRACTICE OF WISDOM. This is the well-moderated correction of love. This correction should be: 1. Carefully proportioned to the offence; the lighter ones, such as carelessness or inaptitude, being followed by the lighter rebuke, and the graver ones, such as falsehood or cruelty, being visited with severer measures. 2. Administered, not in the heat of temper, but in the calmness of conviction, and with the manifest sorrow of true affection. 3. As free as possible from physical violence. The "rod" need not be made of wood or iron. A look of reproach (Luke 22:61), a just rebuke or remonstrance, a wisely chosen exclusion from some appreciated privilege, may do much more good than any blows upon the body. 4. Strictly just, with a leaning to charitable construction. For one unjust infliction will do more harm than many just ones will do good. 5. Occasional and of brief duration. Nothing defeats its own purpose more certainly than perpetual fault- finding, or constantly repeated punishment, or penalty that is unrighteously severe. It behoves us always to remember that as our heavenly Father does not "deal with us after our sins" with rigorous penalties, and is not "strict to mark iniquity" with unfailing chastisement, so it becomes us, as parents, in the treatment of our children, to let pity and charity have a very large, modifying influence on our correction. He that loveth chastens "betimes;" he is not always chastening. He takes care to let his children know and feel that beneath and above and throughout his fatherly righteousness is his parental love. - C.
The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul. Homilist. Bodily satisfaction is an essential element in our happiness so long as we are in this world. The text implies that the satisfaction of the body depends upon the condition of the soul; and this is a great truth greatly neglected. Consider what bodily satisfaction requires.I. BODILY HEALTH. No food can satisfy a diseased body, a body whose organs and functions are out of order. But the condition of the soul has much to do with physical health. The anxieties, ill-tempers, recriminations, impure passions of a wicked heart, will soon reduce the body to disease, feebleness, and ruin. On the other hand, a true, virtuous, and happy soul tends to physical health. "A merry heart doeth good like medicine." One thought can disorganise a healthy body and do much to restore a diseased one. II. BODILY SUPPLIES. The supplies necessary to satisfy the body should be — 1. Of a right kind. A body restless with hunger would scarcely be satisfied with confectionery. Now, the condition of the soul has much to do with the kind of food. The soul not only modifies our natural appetites, but creates artificial ones, and hence supplies provisions for the body which are unnatural and unhealthy. The soul, by its working on the body's appetites, has brought to the body's table compounds unsatisfying and deleterious. 2. A right amount. An insufficient amount, even of right provisions, would leave the body unsatisfied. But the question of sufficiency also depends greatly on the soul. Indolence, extravagance, intemperance, bad management, often so reduce men's material resources that they are left utterly destitute of the necessary food. These thoughts, we think, give an important meaning to the text, "The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want." A corrupt soul will evermore have a dissatisfied body. (Homilist.). People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Appetite, Belly, Content, Desire, Eat, Eateth, Eating, Eats, Evil-doers, Full, Goes, Hearts, Hungry, Lacketh, Measure, Righteous, Satiety, Satisfy, Satisfying, Soul, Stomach, Suffers, Upright, WickedOutline 1. a scoffer does not listen to rebukeDictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 13:25 4438 eating Library The Tillage of the Poor'Much food is in the tillage of the poor.'--PROVERBS xiii. 23. Palestine was a land of small peasant proprietors, and the institution of the Jubilee was intended to prevent the acquisition of large estates by any Israelite. The consequence, as intended, was a level of modest prosperity. It was 'the tillage of the poor,' the careful, diligent husbandry of the man who had only a little patch of land to look after, that filled the storehouses of the Holy Land. Hence the proverb of our text arose. It … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Poor Rich and the Rich Poor Practical Methods of Studying the Old Testament The Song of the Redeemed The Heavenly Footman; Or, a Description of the Man that Gets to Heaven: "And this is his Commandment," &C. Second Sunday after Easter How is Christ, as the Life, to be Applied by a Soul that Misseth God's Favour and Countenance. Opposition to Messiah Ruinous "But if Ye have Bitter Envying and Strife in Your Hearts, Glory Not," &C. "But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all These Things Shall be Added unto You. " Blessed are the Poor in Spirit Proverbs Links Proverbs 13:25 NIVProverbs 13:25 NLT Proverbs 13:25 ESV Proverbs 13:25 NASB Proverbs 13:25 KJV Proverbs 13:25 Bible Apps Proverbs 13:25 Parallel Proverbs 13:25 Biblia Paralela Proverbs 13:25 Chinese Bible Proverbs 13:25 French Bible Proverbs 13:25 German Bible Proverbs 13:25 Commentaries Bible Hub |