The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-04-27
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

~ ttt ~ Nrittft -A--1- a.stY ~ III .
International Lesson for April so, 1898
Whdom's WArniug-Prov. 1:2O-3S.
GOLDEN TExr.-See that ye refuse not Him
that speaketh--Heb 1878
Proverbs. "A proverb is short
pithy sentence often repeated. express
ing wefl-ixnown truth or common fact
ascertained by experience or observa-
tion. The Hebrew term for proverb,
Mashal, denotes properly IA representa-
ton. statement not relating solely to
q single fact, but standing for or repre-
senting other similar facts. II means a
comparison, and It's highly probable
that all proverbial sayings were at first
literally comparisons DIR. Oort con-
lectures that some of our proverbs were
originally current among the people as
riddles Such, for instance, as: What
is sweet as honey?' Ans. PLEASANT
discourse, for it is sweet to the soul,
and medicine to the bones" Q6:24);
What is worse than meeting a bearp"
Ans. Meeting fool in fit of
folly" G7:12). A proverb is large
amount of wisdom wrapped up in the
fewest words. 1t is'a fortune in single
diamond. The genius, wit, and spirit
OF a nation are discovered in its prov
erbs. They are the salt-pits of ma
ton; treasured preservatives against
corruption. The wit of one--the wis
dom of many. The Spaniards, in whose
language they abound, call them "Lit-
tie Gospels"
The Book OF PRovERBs.-Its Form.
The Book of Proverbs is written in po-
etical form. But there is quite vari-
ETY. in the style. The Introduction
Chaps 1-9), the Praise Of Wisdom, is
written in the parallelism which dis
tinguishes Hebrew poetry, but is not
SO much proverbial as lyric, or didactic
poem, rising to more spiritual height
than the other portions. The proverbs
OF the next section Chaps. l0-22) are,
will single exception, in the form of
distich. or an epigram of two clauses,
the second answering or otherwise
completing the thought of the first"
Often they are the two parts of COM
parison. This portion is often called
an Anthology, l. e., a garland of fiow-
ers, like the Greek anthology, collec-
ton OF ancient Greek epigrams The
series of proverbs in 1873 to 1911 is es-
pecially characterized by it's use of the
name Jehovah Lord in the old ver-
sionl. A series of five groups of Nu-
merical Proverbs is found in 3o:15-31.
The Praise of a Virtuous Woman, S1.1O-
31, is an Alphabetical Acrostic.
ITS CHARACTERISTIC Book of Prov
erbs belongs to what modern critics
call the wisdom literature, including
Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes and Solo
mons Song. 1t approaches human
things ard things divine from quite
another side than the Prophets or the
Psalms. 1t is the philosophy of practi-
cal life. 1t is the sign to us that the
Bible does not despise common sense
and discretion. 1t impresses upon us in
the most forcible manner the value of in
teuigence and prudence and of a good
education. Above all, it insists over
and over again upon the doctrine that
goodness is wisdom, and that wicked
ness and vice are folly. The Book of
Proverbs is the best statesman's man.
nal that was ever written. An ad-
herence to the political economy and
spirit of that collection of apothepms
and essays would do more to eradicate
from people the causes of extrava-
gance, debasement and ruin, than all
the contributions to political economy
OF Say, Smith, Nautilus and Chalmers
together. The book, as a whole, may
be called the book of divine common
sense; that is, a book of instruction con-
corning behavior in the common trans
actions of life, in which the thought of
God and OF His continual presence holds
the chief place. While no Christian
can "help seeing the poetic foregleam
OF Christ in the great monologue of
Wisdom in chapter g." yet other parts
Of the book furnish abundant justifica-
ton OF that type of Christianity which
accepts but does not dwell on forms, so
bent is it upon moral applications of
the religious principle. They show
that the fear Of the Lord is quite com.
patible with deep interest in average
human life and human nature. II
charges us not to love God less, but man
more.
AuTHoR.-A large number of the
proverbs are evidently by Solomon, as
the inscriptions state But this does
not exclude the idea that Solomon
may have gathered much from previous
wisdom. The human race did not ex.
list at least 5000 years before his time
without coming many proverbs So
Shakespeare used tales and dramas that