1. Appropriation. "My law." Before we commend the Word of God to others we must receive it ourselves.

2. Instruction. "Forget not." This implies that something has been taught.

3. Exhortation. "Forget not." There are few things men so soon forget as Divine commands. The godly man is one who respects righteous law. He delights in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2; Romans 7:22). The moral law is eternal, and must be regarded by all true followers of Christ. Obedience to it is not the ground of justification, but this is attained in the work of sanctification.

II. GODLINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH PRESENT ADVANTAGES (ver. 2).

1. Intensity of life. "Length of days." In the long run the longest day is the day that has the longest record of service for God.

2. Length of life. "Long life." "A blessing," say some, "of the Jewish dispensation." A blessing, rather let us say, of all dispensations. "Righteousness tendeth to life" as much now as ever, and, other things being equal, he will live the longest who lives the best.

3. Serenity of life. "Peace." Tranquillity continuing through all the years. The peace of the man who hearkens to God is like a river (Isaiah 48:18), getting broader and deeper as it gets nearer to the sea.

III. GODLINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH REGARD FOR THE WELL-BEING OF MEN. "Mercy" (R.V. margin, "kindness") "and truth" (ver. 3). See here the bearing of a godly life upon the good of men. The mind of God is one of "good-will toward men" (Luke 2:14), and those who would be God-like must be of the same mind (Matthew 5:45).

IV. GODLINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH FAITH IN GOD (ver. 5). Trust in the Lord is the secret of safety (Proverbs 29:25), of happiness (Proverbs 16:20), and of spiritual prosperity (Proverbs 28:25).

V. GODLINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD (ver. 6). This acknowledgment of God is to be —

1. Personal. "Thy ways."

2. "In all thy ways." Man's ways are many. Some walk in high places, some in lowly valleys. The way of some is in the sea, of others in the office, of others in the academy, of others in the senate. Some men walk in many ways. Abraham Lincoln was a rail-splitter, a storekeeper, a bargeman, a lawyer, a member of a State legislature, a Congressman, and President of the United States, but in all positions he acknowledged God. At the threshold of life "he had," says one of his biographers, "a profound trust in Providence"; and when he left Springfield for Washington to take his place as President he said to his friends, "Pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot proceed."

3. In our own sphere. We need not go out of our way. The ordinary path of life will "furnish all we ought to ask." The promise in the sixth verse suggests that we may acknowledge God by looking to Him for guidance, and it gives the assurance of Divine direction.

VI. GODLINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH HUMILITY (ver. 7). "Be not wise in thine own eyes." "Many," says Seneca, "might have attained wisdom had they not thought they had attained it." The way to godliness is in the footsteps of Christ, and to follow in that path we must be meek and lowly in heart.

VII. GODLINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH PRACTICAL HOLINESS (vers. 7-9).

1. The godly man will shun evil. "Depart from evil." To "depart" may be rendered to "turn aside." As men sometimes "cut" those they do not wish to see, so is evil to be "cut." To go into the way of evil is to run a risk of falling into it.

2. Cultivate benevolence (ver. 9). Christian benevolence is substantial ("substance," not merely good wishes); generous ("first-fruits"); God-honouring ("honour the Lord"). Those who with a right motive give of what God has given them acknowledge their indebtedness to Him and His ownership in what they possess.

VIII. GODLINESS IS GAIN (ver. 10). Gain is not always godliness, but godliness is always gain in the highest sense. The giving of the first-fruits fills the barns.

(H. Thorne.)

I. THE RIGHT LIFE IS A WHOLESOME LIFE, PHYSICALLY HEALTHY. The body is a sacred trust, a temple of the Holy Ghost; to use it ill is to violate the trust and to defile the temple. The temperance of habit and orderliness of life which Wisdom requires of her children are the first conditions of vitality. Peace of mind, cheerfulness of temper, the transfer of all anxiety from the human spirit to the strong Spirit of God, are very favourable to longevity. Let no one think of measuring life only by days and years. Each day should be a full, rich day, unmarred by recollections, unshadowed by apprehensions. Each day is distinctly worth living. The life in God is undoubtedly a healthy life, nor is it the less healthy because the outward man has to decay, and mortality has to be swallowed up of life.

II. THE RIGHT LIFE REQUIRES FAIR DEALING BETWEEN MAN AND MAN. The main economic principle of wisdom is this, that all legitimate trade is the mutual advantage of buyer and seller.

III. WISDOM COMMANDS NOT ONLY JUSTICE, BUT GENEROSITY. She requires her children to yield the first-fruits of all their possessions to the Lord, and to look tenderly upon His poor. And the teaching of experience is that those who act upon this precept purchase to themselves a good possession.

IV. LOOK AT THE DEEPER, MORE SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF RIGHT LIVING. God is so much to men, that clear vision and strong action are utterly impossible apart from a humble dependence upon Him. The beginning of all wisdom is in the recognition of God, in personal submission to Him, in diligent obedience to all His directions. We do not at first see what is meant by trusting in the Lord with all our heart; we confuse it with that tepid, conventional relation to God which too frequently passes current for faith. They who do entirely renounce their own judgment, who, with their whole heart trusting Him, acknowledge Him in all their ways, find their lives running over with blessing, and become the means of incalculable good to the world and to themselves. It would not be easy to make plain or even credible to those who have never trusted in God how this guidance and direction are given. When a few years have been passed in humble dependence on God, it is then possible to look back and see with astonishing clearness how real and decisive the leadings of the Spirit have been. Our life, we find, is all a plan of God, and He conceals it from us, as if on purpose to evoke our trust, and to secure that close and personal communion which the uncertainty renders necessary. Some are suspicious of the "Inward Light," as it is called. That may be because they do not trust the Lord "with the whole heart." Wisdom calls for a certain absoluteness in all our relations to God, a fearless, unreserved, and constantly renewed submission of heart to Him. And while the external results of wisdom are great and marked, this inward result, which is the spring of them all, is more blessed than any. The supreme bliss of the heavenly wisdom is that it leads us into a detailed obedience to the law which is our life; it sets us under the immediate and unbroken control of God. To know the secret of the Lord, to walk in this world not guideless, but led by the Lord of life, to approach death itself not fearful, but in the hands of that Infinite Love for whom death does not exist, surely this is worth more than the gold and precious stones which belong only to the earth and are earthy.

(R. F. Horton, D. D.)

     8840   unfaithfulness, to God

The Red Lamp.
Travelling by express train the other day, we found that we were stopped a long distance from the station where we were timed to stop, and looking out of the window, saw a red light ahead. That accounted for it, we knew there was something in the way. The driver knew what he was about, and though anxious to go on, did not move until the red light was changed to white. Some of those who read this paper are living in sin. To such, the Bible speaks out in plain terms, and, like the Red Light, would …
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread

Notes on the Fourth Century
Page 238. Med. 1. In the wording of this meditation, and of several other passages in the Fourth Century, it seems as though Traherne is speaking not of himself, but of, a friend and teacher of his. He did this, no doubt, in order that he might not lay himself open to the charge of over-egotism. Yet that he is throughout relating his own experiences is proved by the fact that this Meditation, as first written, contains passages which the author afterwards marked for omission. In its original form …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of Meditations

Letter xxiv (Circa A. D. 1126) to Oger, Regular Canon
To Oger, Regular Canon [34] Bernard blames him for his resignation of his pastoral charge, although made from the love of a calm and pious life. None the less, he instructs him how, after becoming a private person, he ought to live in community. To Brother Oger, the Canon, Brother Bernard, monk but sinner, wishes that he may walk worthily of God even to the end, and embraces him with the fullest affection. 1. If I seem to have been too slow in replying to your letter, ascribe it to my not having …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Truth Hidden when not Sought After.
"They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."--2 Tim. iv. 4. From these words of the blessed Apostle, written shortly before he suffered martyrdom, we learn, that there is such a thing as religious truth, and therefore there is such a thing as religious error. We learn that religious truth is one--and therefore that all views of religion but one are wrong. And we learn, moreover, that so it was to be (for his words are a prophecy) that professed Christians, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Sundry Sharp Reproofs
This doctrine draws up a charge against several sorts: 1 Those that think themselves good Christians, yet have not learned this art of holy mourning. Luther calls mourning a rare herb'. Men have tears to shed for other things, but have none to spare for their sins. There are many murmurers, but few mourners. Most are like the stony ground which lacked moisture' (Luke 8:6). We have many cry out of hard times, but they are not sensible of hard hearts. Hot and dry is the worst temper of the body. Sure …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Sunday Before Lent
Text: First Corinthians 13. 1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

"But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness," &C.
Matt. vi. 33.--"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," &c. This is a part of Christ's long sermon. He is dissuading his disciples and the people from carnal carefulness and worldly mindedness. The sermon holds out the Christian's diverse aspects towards spiritual and external things. What is the Christian's disposition in regard to the world, how should he look upon food, raiment, and all things necessary in this life? "Be careful for nothing." "Take no thought for your life, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament