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2. Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.†
Also — seems to trace the fools perverse ways to their source. His soul is without knowledge. Ignorance gives perpetuity to folly. Knowledge is valuable even to the mind. It expands and sharpens its reasoning powers, and, when rightly directed, preserves from many besetting temptations. ‘Be assured’ — says a late eloquent Preacher — ‘it is not because the people know much that they ever become the willing subjects of any factious or unprincipled demagogue. It is just because they know too little. It is just because ignorance is the field on which the quackery of a political impostor ever reaps its most abundant harvest.’† Knowledge also opens much wholesome enjoyment. The intelligent poor are preserved in their home-comforts from the temptations of the ale-house. The most educated are raised above the frivolities of dissipation. Thus both classes are restrained from the sensualities of ungodliness.
But much more that the soul made for God, should be without knowledge, is not good. The blessing is not merely expansion of mind, or restraint of evil, but light and life eternal. (John 17:3.) Without it, all is thick darkness — the darkness of death. Man has no directory for his ways. He knows not “how to walk and to please God.” He knows nothing of spiritual duties, heavenly affections, the life of faith, the entire surrender of heart, or the living to the glory of God. Hence he substitutes services of his own, carnal and unprofitable. He “walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goeth.” (Ib. 12:35.) He has no remedy for his sins. Hence he devises penance, or at least repentance or reformation. Not knowing the mystery of the gospel, he cannot come to God by Christ, and wash in “the fountain opened,” and therefore can obtain no peace with God, or in his own conscience. (Romans 9:31, 32.) He has no support in his trouble, nothing better than vain philosophy, or natural hardness. He knows not whence it comes, the love of God in it, its true intent, its humbling, quickening, and sanctifying operation. He cannot “glory in tribulation” from a sense of its beneficial effects (Romans 5:3-5. Hebrews 12:11, with 5); and therefore he either despises it, or hardens himself against it, or faints under it. He has no strength for his duties — none but his own, which is perfect weakness. He knows not how to be “strong in the Lord,” to be “strengthened by the Spirit,” to use the Christian armour, to mortify sin, to resist Satan, or to overcome the world. He might be endued with unconquerable strength, and be able to “do all things through Christ strengthening him.” (Philippians 4:13.) But he knows not Christ. He has therefore no interest in him; and, “separate from him, he can do nothing.” (John 15:5.) He has no hope in his end. All is fearful uncertainty. He has no knowledge of the free grace of the gospel, no reliance on its promises, no confidence in the Savior, no title which he can bring to God for acceptance, and no view of God's faithfulness. And thus “fools die for want of wisdom.” (Chapter 10:21.) They “perish for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6.) “It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favor.” (Isaiah 27:11.) The terror of the great day will be, that “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.)
What then must we think of the thoughtless trifler, immersed in pleasure, playing with trifles, and despising this inestimable knowledge? What is he, but a man “without understanding,” justly compared to “the beasts that perish”? (Psalm 49:20.) Is ignorance then the mother of devotion? Is it not the worst of evils, the center of all evil (Isaiah 1:3, 4. Acts 3:17), the parent of irreligion, and the precursor of ruin? (Luke 19:42.) Awful indeed are its aggravations — to be ignorant in a time of knowledge, blind in a land of light, unenlightened in “the valley of vision”!
But let us mark the evil of the want of soundly-disciplined knowledge in temporal matters. The uninstructed child or savage acts rashly. The man of impulse is impatient to finish his work before the time, and therefore crowds into the day far more than belongs to it, forgetting that ‘things are not done by the effort of the moment, but by the preparation of past moments.’† Our wise moralist has well remarked — ‘He that is in a hurry proves, that the work in which he is engaged is too much for him.’† Certainly this hasting with the feet may be considered to be sin, inasmuch as it proceeds from a want of simple trust in God, and submission to his orderly arrangements and claims of regular duty.
The true method is to do “the thing of the day in the day.” (1 Kings 8:59, marg.) This is all that God requires to be done. The affair of one day at a time is as much as can be quietly committed to God in the daily exercise of faith. This principle should be carried into all important responsibilities. Bp. Burnet's account of Sir M. Hale is most valuable in this view. ‘Festina lente’ was his beloved motto, which he ordered to be engraven on the head of his staff. He was often heard say, that he had observed many witty men run into great errors, because they did not give themselves time to think; but, the heat of imagination making some notions appear in good colors to them, they, without staying till that cooled, were violently led by the impulses it made upon them; whereas calm and slow men, who pass for dull in common estimation, could search after truth, and find it, as with more deliberation, so with greater certainty.’†
But far more serious is this evil in spiritual matters. ‘Where no discretion is, there the soul is not well.’† The man therefore without knowledge, instead of “pondering his path” (Chapter 4:26), hasteth with his feet, and sinneth. Haste, as opposed to sloth, is the energy of Divine grace. (Psalm 119:60. Luke 19:6.) Here, as opposed to consideration, acting hastily in sin. This impatience is the genuine exercise of self-will, not taking time to enquire; “not waiting for the counsel of the LORD.” Godly Joshua offended here. (Joshua 9:14, 15.) Saul's impatience cost him his kingdom. (1 Samuel 13:12.) David's haste was the occasion of gross injustice. (2 Samuel 16:3, 4.) The prophet, not taking time to ponder the evidence contradicting his own message, was without a right knowledge. He hastened with his feet, and sinned. (1 Kings 13:18, 19.) Jehoshaphat's precipitancy asking counsel after, instead of before, was sharply rebuked. (2 Chronicles 18:1-4; 19:2.) Rash experiments, the result of haste, often threaten serious evils in the state. The same spirit rends the Church with schism. The heady professor wanders from Church to Church, and from sect to sect, without pondering. In common life how much sin has been the fruit of a few rash words or hasty lines! A sudden impulse has taken the place of considerate principles. Let us ever remember, that without self-discipline there can be no Christian consistency or stability. In a thousand cases haste may plunge our feet into sin (Chapter 28:20, 22), if not into ruin. The best-intentioned purposes, unwarranted by the will and word of God, are only blind impulses, to be checked, not followed. The real peace of faith, is to stand or sit still, and see how God will appear on our side, to make a way for us through many a deep water of perplexity. (Exodus 14:13. Isaiah 30:7.) “He that believeth shall not make haste.” (Isaiah 28:16.)
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