The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1893-04-28
The SUNDAY SCHOOL.
International Lesson fos April 30. 1898
Mtsdora's Nzrning-lrov. 1.:o-3J.


| ing a well-known truth or common fact
ascertained by experience or obscrva-
ton. The Hebrew term for provcrb.
Mashal. denotes properly representa-
ton. a statement not relating solely to
| a single fact. but standing for or repre-
senting other similar facts. IL means =
comparison. and il is highly probable
that all proyerbial sayings were at first
literally comparisons. DIR. Oort con-
lectures that some Of our proverbs were
originally curren; among the people as
riddles Such. for instance. as: what
Is sweet as honcy?" Ans. pleasant
discourse. for il is sweet 10 the soul.
and a medicine to the bones" (iG:24l;
''What is worse than meeting a bear?"
Ans. Meeting fool in fit Of
folly" us:ial. A proverb is large
amount of wisdom wrapped up in the
fewest words II is a fortune in a single
diamond. The genius. wit. and spirit
OF nation are discovered in its prov
cribs They are the salt-pits of ma
ton; treasured personalities 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 or PBovERBs.--Its Form.
The Book Of Proverbs is written in po-
etical form. But there is quite vari-
ETY. in the style. The Introduction
tchaps l-9). the Praise Of Wisdom. 10
written in the parallelism which dis
tinguishes Hebrew poetry. but is not
so much provcrbial as lyric. or didactic
poem. rising To a more spiritual height
than the other portions The proverbs
OF the next section lchaps. l0-2al are.
will single exception. in the form Of
a distich. or an epigram of two clauses.
1.-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. /. e.. garland Of fiow-
ers, like the Greek anthology. a collec-
ton of ancient Greek epigrams The
series Of proverbs in 1888 to 1911 Is es-
pecially characterized by its use Of the
name Jehovah (Lord in the old YER
sion). A series of five groups Of Nu-
merical Proverbs is found in 30:l5-3i.
The Praise Of a virtuous Woman. sI:lO-
81. is an Alphabetical Acrostic.
It's CHARACTER The Book of Prov
CRIBS belongs to what modern critics
call the wisdom literature. including
Proverbs. Job. Ecclcsiastes and Solo
mons Song. 1t approaches human
things and 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 despisc common sense
and discretion. II imprcsses upon US in
the most forcible manner the value Of in
telligence and prudence and of 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
ual that was ever written An adj
herence to the political economy and
spirit Of that collection of apothcyms
and essays would do more TO eradicate
from a 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. rs a whole. may
be called the book Of divine common
sense: that Is. 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 foreg,eam
of Christ in the great monoloCue Of
Wisdom in chapter s." yet other parts
of the book furnish abundant justifca-
ton of that type Of Christianity which
accepts but does not dwell on forms. so
bent is il 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.
ArrHoE--A large number Of the
proverbs are evidently by Solomon. rs
the inscriptions state But this does
not exclude the idea that Solomon
may have gathered much from previous
wisdom The human race did not cx-
ist at least 5000 years before his time
without coming many proverbs So
Shakespeare used tales and dramas that
hadexisted before his day and then made
them his own. Nor would il be strange
If 10 the earlier collection Of solomon
other proverbs had been added. just as
the new Webstcr's dictionary that now
lies before me contains a large amount
Of matter Webster never saw, and vet
IL rightly announces itself as the au-
thentic. unabridged Wcbster's revised
and enlarged. Some Of the latter por-
tions were gathered by Hezckiah. and
other sections were added still later, a.
the book itself says
DATE--Solomon lived about 1000 Il
G.. but his proverbs may have been
gathered into . book some time after
his death: Delitzsch thinks in the timo
Of Jehoshaphat 1000 II. c.. Others
place it later. Iezekiah' 5 collection be-
longs to 200 Il c.. and the last portions
may be As late as the times after the
exile. 40 II. c. or later.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
wisdom's voice is heard where II is
most needed. among the daily labors
and temptations of life