She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the heights of the city, Sermons
The picture to be taken in contrast with that at the beginning of the chapter. I. THE TEMPER OF FOLLY. 1. She is excitable and passionate (ver. 13), and may be fitly imaged as the harlot, the actress and mask of genuine feeling. 2. She is irrational, and knows not what is what. True love is not blind, either as to self or its objects. 3. She is like the harlot again in her shamelessness (ver. 14). Folly does not mind exposure, and rushes on publicity. 4. She is solicitous of company (ver. 15). Must have partners in guilt, and companions to keep her in countenance. Fools cannot be happy in solitude, cannot enjoy the sweet and silent charms of nature. Wisdom finds good both in the forest and the city, in the cloister or amidst the "busy hum of men." 5. Folly is gregarious. Wherever there is a crowd, there is something foolish going on (ver. 16). It may be safely said of habitual gatherings in taverns and such places, "mostly fools." The wise man goes apart to recover and strengthen his Individuality; the fool plunges into the throng to forget himself. 6. Folly is sly and secretive (ver. 17). The secret feast is here the illicit pleasure (cf Proverbs 30:20). The fact that people like what they ought not to like all the more because they ought not, is a complex phenomenon of the soul. The sweetness of liberty recovered is in it, and forms its good side. Liberty adds a perfume and spice to every pleasure, no matter what the pleasure may be. Augustine tells how he robbed an orchard as a boy, admitting that he did not want the pears, and arguing that it must therefore have been his depravity that led him to find pleasure in taking them! In the same way one might prove the depravity of the jackdaw that steals a ring. Let us repudiate the affectation of depravity, a great "folly" in its way; and rather draw the wholesome lesson that the love of liberty, of fun - in short, of any healthy exercise of energy, needs direction. The instinct for privacy and liberty gives no less zest to legitimate than to illicit pleasures. II. THE END OF FOLLY. (Ver. 18.) 1. It is represented under images of darkness and dread. Shadows, "children of death," dead men, departed ghosts, hover about the dwelling of Folly and the persons of her guests. And these, while even they sit at her table amidst feasting and mirth, are already, in the eyes of Wisdom the spectator, in the depths of hell. Thus the shadows of coming ill "darken the ruby of the cup, and dim the splendour of the scene." 2. The indefinable is more impressive in its effect than the definable. As e.g. Burke has felicitously shown in his treatise on 'The Sublime and Beautiful.' The obscure realities of the other world, the mysterious twilight, the chiaro-oscuro of the imagination: in this region is found all that fascinates the mind with hope or terror. If it be asked - What precisely will be the doom of the wicked, the bliss of the righteous? the answer is - Definite knowledge has not been imparted, is impossible, and would have less effect than the vague but positive forms in which the truth is hinted. 3. The indefinable is not the less certain. It is the definite which is contingent, uncertain. Our life is a constant becoming from moment to moment. This of its nature is as indefinable as the melting of darkness into day, or the reverse. - J. For she sitteth at the door of her house. Homilist. I. AS CONDUCTED BY DEPRAVED WOMAN. A foolish woman is here the emblem of wickedness in the world. 1. She is ignorant. Blind to spiritual realities and claims. She is in the kingdom of darkness. 2. She is clamorous. Full of noise and excitement; bearing down all objections to her entreaties. 3. She is audacious. Modesty, which is the glory of a woman's nature, has left her. 4. She is persuasive. She admits that her pleasures are wrong, and on that account more delectable. II. AS DIRECTED TO THE INEXPERIENCED IN LIFE. To whom does she especially direct her entreaties? Not to the mature saint stalwart in virtue. She calls "passengers," the "simple ones." III. AS TENDING TO A MOST MISERABLE DESTINATION. The ministry of temptation is very successful as conducted by depraved woman. 1. This woman obtained guests. 2. Her guests were ruined. 3. Her guests were ruined contrary to their intention. () One of the foul spirits that assail and possess men is singled out and delineated, and this one represents a legion in the background. This is no fancy picture. It is drawn from life. The plague is as rampant in our streets as it is represented to be in the Proverbs. Mankind have sat for the picture: there is no mistake in the outline, there is no exaggeration in the colouring. Let no youth ever once, or for a moment, go where he would be ashamed to be found by his father and his mother. This woman is the figure of all evil — the devil, the world, the flesh, whatever form they may assume and whatever weapons they may employ. The one evil spirit, dragged forth from the legion and exposed, is intended not to conceal, but to open up the generic character of the company. In this life every human being is placed between two rival invitations, and every human being in this life yields to the one or to the other. The power of sin lies in its pleasure. If stolen waters were not sweet, none would steal the waters. This is part of the mystery in which our being is involved by the fall. Our appetite is diseased. In man fallen there is a diseased relish for that which destroys. There is an appetite in our nature which finds sweetness in sin. And the appetite grows by what it feeds on. It is only in the mouth that the stolen water is sweet; afterwards it is bitter. One part of the youth's danger lies in his ignorance: "He knoweth not that the dead are there." () People SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Door, Doorway, Entry, Highest, Opening, Places, Point, Sat, Seat, Seated, Sits, Sitteth, Takes, Throne, TownOutline 1. The discipline
4. and the doctrine of wisdom
13. The custom
16. and error of folly
Dictionary of Bible Themes Proverbs 9:13-18 5340 house Library The Temple of Wisdom
(Preached at Wellington College, All Saints' Day, 1866.) PROVERBS ix. 1-5. Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens; she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and to him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. This allegory has been …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other SermonsThe Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer --Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards this Form Of
If all those who are working for the conquest of souls sought to win them by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer and to the inner life, they would see many and lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once the heart is won, other defects are …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents Letter xxi (Circa A. D. 1128) to the Abbot of S. John at Chartres
To the Abbot of S. John at Chartres Bernard dissuades him from resigning his charge, and undertaking a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 1. As regards the matters about which you were so good as to consult so humble a person as myself, I had at first determined not to reply. Not because I had any doubt what to say, but because it seemed to me unnecessary or even presumptuous to give counsel to a man of sense and wisdom. But considering that it usually happens that the greater number of persons of sense--or …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux To Pastors and Teachers
To Pastors and Teachers If all who laboured for the conversion of others were to introduce them immediately into Prayer and the Interior Life, and make it their main design to gain and win over the heart, numberless as well as permanent conversions would certainly ensue. On the contrary, few and transient fruits must attend that labour which is confined to outward matters; such as burdening the disciple with a thousand precepts for external exercises, instead of leaving the soul to Christ by the …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer From his Entrance on the Ministry in 1815, to his Commission to Reside in Germany in 1820
1815.--After the long season of depression through which John Yeardley passed, as described in the last chapter, the new year of 1815 dawned with brightness upon his mind. He now at length saw his spiritual bonds loosed; and the extracts which follow describe his first offerings in the ministry in a simple and affecting manner. 1 mo. 5.--The subject of the prophet's going down to the potter's house opened so clearly on my mind in meeting this morning that I thought I could almost have publicly …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel The Authority and Utility of the Scriptures
2 Tim. iii. 16.--"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." We told you that there was nothing more necessary to know than what our end is, and what the way is that leads to that end. We see the most part of men walking at random,--running an uncertain race,--because they do not propose unto themselves a certain scope to aim at, and whither to direct their whole course. According to men's particular …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning An Analysis of Augustin's Writings against the Donatists.
The object of this chapter is to present a rudimentary outline and summary of all that Augustin penned or spoke against those traditional North African Christians whom he was pleased to regard as schismatics. It will be arranged, so far as may be, in chronological order, following the dates suggested by the Benedictine edition. The necessary brevity precludes anything but a very meagre treatment of so considerable a theme. The writer takes no responsibility for the ecclesiological tenets of the …
St. Augustine—writings in connection with the donatist controversy. The Gospel Feast
"When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"--John vi. 5. After these words the Evangelist adds, "And this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do." Thus, you see, our Lord had secret meanings when He spoke, and did not bring forth openly all His divine sense at once. He knew what He was about to do from the first, but He wished to lead forward His disciples, and to arrest and …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII 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 Links Proverbs 9:14 NIV
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