Homilist Proverbs 13:15 Good understanding gives favor: but the way of transgressors is hard. I. THE NATURE OF A SOUND INTELLECT. A good understanding must include four things. 1. Enlightenment. The soul without knowledge is not good. A good understanding is that which is well informed, not merely in general knowledge, but in the science of duty and of God. 2. Impartiality. A good intellect should hold the balance of thought with a steady hand. 3. Religiousness. It must be inspired with a deep sense of its allegiance to heaven. 4. Practicalness. It should be strong and bold enough to carry all its decisions into actual life. "A good understanding have all they that do His commandments." Thus it appears a good understanding is tantamount to practical godliness. II. THE USEFULNESS OF A SOUND INTELLECT. The greatest benefactor is the man of a good understanding. The thoughts of such men as these are the seeds of the world's best institutions, and most useful arts and inventions. The man of good understanding is the most useful in the family, in the neighbourhood, in the market, in the press, in the senate, in the pulpit, everywhere. 1. No favours so valuable as mental favours. He who really helps the mind to think with accuracy, freedom, and force, to love with purity, and to hope with reason, helps the man in the entirety of his being. 2. No one can confer mental favours who has not a good understanding. An ignorant man has no favour to bestow on souls. "Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge the wing with which we fly to heaven" (Shakespeare). Let us, therefore, cultivate a sound intellect. "I make not my head a grave," says Sir T. Browne, in his quaint way, "but a treasury of knowledge; I intend no monopoly, but a community in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves; I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less. I instruct no man as an exercise of my knowledge, or with an intent rather to nourish and keep it alive in mine own head than beget and propagate it in his; and, in the midst of all my endeavours, there is but one thought that dejects me — that my acquired parts must perish with myself, nor can be legacied among my honoured friends." (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.WEB: Good understanding wins favor; but the way of the unfaithful is hard. |
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