Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps10.6

Text File | 1993-03-21 | 4KB | 68 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        The testimony of the sixth verse concludes the evidence
against the prisoner upon the first charge of pride, and
certainly it is conclusive in the highest degree. The present
witness has been prying into the secret chambers of the heart,
and has come to tell us what he has heard. "_He hath said in his
heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity_."
O impertinence run to seed! The man thinks himself immutable, and
omnipotent too, for he, he is never to be in adversity. He counts
himself a privileged man. He sits alone, and shall see no sorrow.
His nest is in the stars, and he dreams not of a hand that shall
pluck him thence. But let us remember that this man's house is
built upon the sand, upon a foundation no more substantial than
the rolling waves of the sea. He that is too secure is never
safe. Boastings are not buttresses, and self-confidence is a
sorry bulwark. This is the ruin of fools, that when they succeed
they become too big, and swell with self-conceit, as if their
summer would last for ever, and their flowers bloom on eternally.
Be humble, O man! for thou art mortal, and thy lot is mutable.

        The second crime is now to be proved. The fact that the
man is proud and arrogant may go a long way to prove that he is
vindictive and cruel. Haman's pride was the father of a cruel
design to murder all the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar builds an idol; in
pride he commands all men to bow before it; and then cruelty
stands ready to heat the furnace seven times hotter for those who
will not yield to his imperious will. Every proud thought is twin
brother to a cruel thought. He who exalts himself will despise
others, and one step further will make him a tyrant.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 6.--"He hath said in his heart, I shall not be
moved: for I shall never be in adversity_." Carnal security opens
the door for all impiety to enter into the soul. Pompey, when he
had in vain assaulted a city, and could not take it by force,
devised this stratagem in way of agreement; he told them he
would leave the siege and make peace with them, upon condition
that they would let in a few weak, sick, and wounded soldiers
among them to be cured. They let in the soldiers, and when the
city was secure, the soldiers let in Pompey's army. A carnal
settled security will let in a whole army of lusts into the
soul.--^Thomas Brooks.

        Verse 6.--"_He hath said in his heart, I shall not be
moved: for I shall never be in adversity_." To consider religion
always on the comfortable side; to congratulate one's self for
having obtained the end before we have made use of the means; to
stretch the hands to receive the crown of righteousness before
they have been employed to fight the battle; to be content with a
false peace, and to use no efforts to obtain the graces to which
true consolation is annexed: this is a dreadful calm, like that
which some voyagers describe, and which is a very singular
forerunner of a very terrible event. All on a sudden, in the wide
ocean, the sea becomes calm, the surface of the water clear as a
crystal, smooth as glass--the air serene; the unskilled passenger
becomes tranquil and happy, but the old mariner trembles. In an
instant the waves froth, the winds murmur, the heavens kindle, a
thousand gulfs open, a frightful light inflames the air, and
every wave threatens sudden death. This is an image of many men's
assurance of salvation.--^James Saurin, 1677-1730.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 6.--The vain confidence of sinners.