Charles Spurgeon on Proverbs
 
 
Spurgeon Excerpts
 
These are Proverbs to which Mr. Spurgeon refers in some of his sermons. They were not the main focus of the discourse, but were referenced while preaching on other texts.
 
 

 
“Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour. The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.” Proverbs 14:9-10.
 
“Of the irreligious man, the unbelieving man, it is surely true that ‘the heart knoweth its own bitterness.’ In the verse which precedes the text we read, ‘Fools make a mock at sin.’ Why do they so? It is to hide the uneasiness within their bosoms. Why does a man blaspheme? Why does he sneer at the truth? Why does he say evil things against the Christ of God? Why does he persecute godly people? Simply because these good things are a protest against his evil condition. He is disturbed by them, and is vexed by an uneasy feeling within his heart. The boy going through the churchyard at night whistles to keep his courage up; and many of the braggart speeches of infidels are merely an attempt to conceal the unrest of heart which they would not like to confess. They are not happy: they cannot be happy. Can a creature be happy at war with its Creator? Can the breaker of the law be happy when justice pursues his every step? They are ill at ease, and we may truly say of each one of them, ‘The heart knoweth its own bitterness.’ Be not afraid to approach them with the gospel: they are more ready to receive it than we imagine. When they roar most loudly there is little of the lion about them except the skin. Fear them not. They need the gospel even more than other people, and their attempt to bully their own consciences proves that they are somewhat aware of their want. Approach them without fear and press them home with the word of the Lord; for this is true of them, ‘The heart knoweth its own bitterness.’”
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2079 on Proverbs 14:10; “The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”
 
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From the same sermon:
 
“That verse which precedes my text, which we read as ‘Fools make a mock at sin,’ may be interpreted, ‘Fools mock at the sin offering’; or even ‘The sin offering is a mock to fools.’ Not only does the fool mock at the sin offering, but the sin offering becomes a vain thing to the fool.”
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2079 on Proverbs 14:10; “The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”
 

 
“Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.” Proverbs 24:33.
 
“But we have many spiritual sluggards, and it is to them that I speak. They are not sceptics, they are not confirmed infidels, they are not opposers of the gospel; perhaps their sluggish nature saves them from anything like energetic opposition to goodness. They claim that they are not averse to the gospel: on the contrary, they are rather friendly to it, and one of these days they intend to be obedient to its great commands, and to yield themselves as servants to Christ; but not just yet, the good time has not fully arrived. They have a very comfortable bed of sloth upon which they lie, and they do not want to rise in a hurry and exert themselves too much. They want to take this matter very leisurely and turn to Christ when it is quite convenient, — when it will not require so much self-denial as at the present moment. “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,” is their continual cry; and although God’s watchmen disturb them terribly, and cry aloud that they may wake them, yet they sleep so heavily that they just turn over when they are most disturbed and drop into their slumbers again. I want to cry aloud under the window of such sleepers to-night with the hope that peradventure some of them may be wakened. What meanest thou, O sleeper? Wilt thou sleep thy soul away? Wilt thou lose heaven rather than bestir thyself? Wilt thou never lift up thine eyes till hell’s torments are hopelessly about thee and within thee?”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 1670 on Proverbs 22:13 & Proverbs 26:13; “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” & “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.”
 

 
“In all labor there is profit.” Proverbs 14:23.
 
“In Solomon’s day every man sat under his own vine and fig tree, and there was peace throughout the whole country. Then, God’s law about dividing out the land among the people so that every man had his own plot was rightly observed, and each one had a fig tree of his own to which he gave his personal attention; and in due time, having waited upon the fig tree and kept it, he ate the fruit thereof. Solomon says in another place (14:23) ‘In all labor there is profit;’ and it is well when men feel that it is so for then they will be inclined to labor. A man would not long keep a fruitless fig tree. If he was quite sure that no fruit would be the result of his toil he would leave the tree to itself, or else he would say ‘Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground.’”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2643 on Proverbs 27:18; “Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honored.”
 

 
“There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:” Proverbs 30:24.
 
“The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.:” Proverbs 30:28.
 
“Dost thou fear that thou art too black a sinner to be saved? Remember Agur’s words concerning one of the ‘four things which are little upon the earth,’ but which ‘are exceeding wise.’ He said, ‘The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.’ It may be, that Agur had seen a big black spider in Solomon’s palace, and that as he mused upon it, he said to himself, ‘That ugly creature is very wise, for there was a great storm coming on, and her usual home would have been unsafe; so looking about for a place of shelter she espied an open window in the king’s palace, and in she went. She had no right there, no one had invited her, but there she was.’ Now, poor sinner, that spider was not as full of venom as thou art full of sin; there is a greater storm coming on than that spider dreaded, and the door of God’s mercy is as surely open as was that window in Solomon’s palace; and thou art invited to enter as that spider never was invited. O sinner, be at least as wise as a spider, and come in to God’s royal palace of salvation; for once thou art inside, thou shalt never be cast out!”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 3236 on Proverbs 31:6-7; “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”
 
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“There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” Proverbs 30:24-28.
 
“Agur, a little further on in his one chapter, cheers up the humbler sort of people by his talk about little things. In his twenty-fourth verse he says: — ‘There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.’ You that cannot do very much, take care never to lose an opportunity. Make hay while the sun shines: seize the seasons, and turn them to account. If you were a great man, and could at one speech sway the minds of thousands, even then you ought not to be idle; but if you can only deal with one at a time, do not let that one escape you. Copy the bees and the ants; and use the summer hours right diligently.
Next, read verse twenty-six. You are feeble; but remember, ‘The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.’ Keep to the rock, keep to eternal verities, keep to the things which cannot be moved. Never run away from the gospel. There is not much in you, but there is a great deal in Christ: always keep to him. You cannot say much, but let all you do say savor of Christ. Never quit the gospel or you leave the rock of your shelter. Keep to the rocks and you will do much good, and run no risk.
Next, if you are very little you should like the locusts associate with others, and go forth in an orderly way to work. Make yourself useful by dropping into rank, and in holy companionship doing your part in connection with the rest. One locust is a thing to be laughed at but when they go forth in bands they make nations tremble. One believer may accomplish little; but in the ranks of the Sunday-school the many can do wonders.
Suppose you are as little thought of as a spider, yet copy the spider in the two things which Agur mentions. Take hold with your hands. Always be taking hold upon the promise of the great King by the hand of faith. Let your faith come out of your own heart as the spider spins her web out of her own bowels. Be always hanging on to one promise or another, and constantly add to your holding. Have also a holy courage like the spider who is in king’s palaces. She is not satisfied with being hidden away in a barn or a cottage; she pays a visit to Solomon and makes her abode in his painted halls. If you can go anywhere for Christ, go and spin your web of gospel from your inmost soul. Make up your mind that whatever company you are in, you will begin to spin about Christ, and spin a web in which to catch a soul for your Lord. In this way, though you fear you are more foolish than any man, God will make as much use of you as if you were the wisest of men. I pray thee, O feeble one, render to thy Lord such service as thou canst.”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2140 on Proverbs 30:2; “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.”
 

 
“The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.” Proverbs 26:13.
 
“The way of the sluggard is also difficult. The idle man walks a hard road in his own apprehension: he has to break through thorns. Every mole-hill is a mountain to him; every straw is a stumbling-block. There is a lion in the way, he will be slain in the streets. You look out and can only see the smallest possible dog, but he is sure that it is a roaring lion and he must stay at home and go to bed. He cannot plough by reason of the cold. The clods are frozen he is sure; they are hard as iron and will break the plough-share. If you look out of doors you will see the neighbours’ teams going, but he has another excuse if you beat him out of the one he has given you. The difficulties that he sees are created in his own mind by his natural sluggishness; but he has such a creative faculty that he has always twenty arguments against exerting himself once. The first thing such persons do in the morning when they open their window is to look out and see a difficulty. Whenever they are sent about a task or on an errand they straightway begin to consider the great labor that will be involved in it, the imminent risk that will surely come of it, and the great advantages of leaving it undone.”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 1948 on Proverbs 15:19; “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.”
 

 
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Proverbs 27:6.
 
“It may be that because he is a faithful friend he will sometimes vex thee and anger thee. See how Solomon puts it in this very chapter: ‘Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.’ It takes a great deal of friendship to be able to tell a man of his faults. It is no friendship that flatters; it is small friendship that holds its tongue when it ought to speak; but it is true friendship that can speak at the right time and if need be even speak so sharply as to cause a wound. If thou art like many other foolish ones, thou wilt be angry with the man who is so much thy friend that he will tell thee the truth. If thou art unworthy of thy friend, thou wilt begin to grow weary of him when he is performing on thy behalf the most heroic act of pure charity by warning thee of thy danger, and reminding thee of thine imperfection. Solomon, in prospect of such a case, knowing that this is one of the greatest trials of friendship among such poor imperfect beings as we are, tells us not to forsake for this reason — nor indeed for any other reason — the man who has been to us and to our family a true friend: ‘Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not.’”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2627 on Proverbs 27:10; “Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not.”
 

 
“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.” Proverbs 14:14.
 
“Our text is certainly true concerning the backslider, ‘The heart knoweth its own bitterness.’ The Proverbs appear at first sight to be thrown together without connection, but it is not so: when you come to close reading you will discover that they are threaded pearls, and that they are in proper position with regard to each other. In the 14th verse we read: ‘The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.’ So, whenever a backslider goes away from God and plunges into sin you may not dare to think that he is happy. In his case ‘The heart knoweth its own bitterness.’ One of the most intense bitternesses that is ever experienced out of hell is that of one who is awakened to see his heinous criminality, when having known the truth, and enjoyed meetings for prayer, and having been accustomed to speak about his own conversion, and to labor for the salvation of others, having known rapt fellowship with God, and having stood to the front in holy effort, after all, he has turned aside to filthiness and dishonored the sacred name by which he was called. To dive from communion with God into gross sin! Ah, it were better for him that he had never been born! Even in the present anguish of his heart he will often feel himself set up as a target for the arrows of the Almighty till they seem to drink his blood. When the gracious Lord grants him repentance and he comes back, as I am persuaded he will, he will return with weeping and with supplication, and eat again of the paschal lamb with abundance of bitter herbs. Alas! even when he is restored and grace has cleansed the stain, his old wounds will be sadly apt to bleed afresh. As men that break a bone in their youth will find strange pains in bad weather visiting the limb, so do old men feel the sins of their youth in their bones. Some go softly all their days because of one grievous fall. Many a sigh and many a tear will start unawares because of former transgressions. Even the restored and pardoned heart knoweth its own bitterness.”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2079 on Proverbs 14:10; “The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”
 

 
“The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Proverbs 18:14.
 
Concerning the man here described, we note that he is in a state of great sorrow about himself. He is not bemoaning the dead but he is bemoaning himself. His moans are not about his lost money or estate: he may be poor, but this is not his present grief. His moans are not about his bodily pains: he may be sickly, but his distress is in his spirit rather than in his flesh. His moans are not now about the bitterness of his lot, the weariness of his daily toil, or the oppression of the proud. No, he bemoans himself, himself only. This is sorrow indeed. The grief is within. All the water outside the ship is of small account; it is when the leak admits the water to the hold that there is danger. “Let not your heart be troubled”: it matters something if your country or your house be troubled; but to you the trying matter is if your heart be troubled. We read that David’s heart smote him — that is an ugly blow against which there is no shield. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” This is what the Lord tenderly notes about the sinner at the turning-point, that he bemoans himself. His first and deepest grief is that he himself is in an evil case. He moans his own sad plight. Ah me! nothing is such a bitter fountain to myself as myself! My soul, thou art in some respects my sole misery! Thou art my very self; and if thou be wrong, all is wrong. My soul, how is it with thee? What am I? Where am I? and whither am I going? Lost! Lost! What hast thou lost? Alas, I have lost myself! Thus the Lord “heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.”
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2104 on Jeremiah 31:18: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.”
 

 
“The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”
 – Proverbs 14:10.
 
This bemoaning was addressed to his God. This is a very hopeful point about it: he cried to Jehovah, “Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised.” His deep trouble is poured out unto his God. It is a blessed thing when a man in his distress turns to his God and not from him. It is well when the troubled heart cries, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.” Is it so with any of you here present? Have you given up running to your neighbor? Is yours a grief with which no neighbor could intermeddle? Does it afford you some relief to look God-ward? Does even your despair turn its almost stone-blind eyes in the direction of the sun? When you cry and moan, are those cries and moanings unto God? Do you sit alone, and keep silence to all else? and do you speak to God in secret? Then let me assure you that there is hope.
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 2104 on Jeremiah 31:18: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.”
 

 
“The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.”
 
This brings me to observe that since carnal reason only sees the seeming of the thing, and sees even that in the pale light of the present, therefore brethren, affliction never seemeth to be joyous. If affliction seemed to be joyous, would it be a chastisement at all? I ask you, would it not be a most ridiculous thing if a father should so chasten a child that the child came downstairs laughing, and smiling, and rejoicing at the flogging? Joyous? Instead of being at all serviceable, would it not be utterly useless? What good could a chastisement have done if it was not felt? No smart? Then surely no benefit! It is the blueness of the wound, saith Solomon, which maketh the heart better; and so if the chastisement do not come home to the bone and flesh, distil the tear, and extort the cry, what good end can it have served? It might even work the other way, and be hurtful, for the child would surely think that the parent only played with it, and that disobedience was a trifle.
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 528 on Hebrews 12:11: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
 

 
“The ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.” Proverbs 5:21.
 
The heathen described their fabled deity, Jove, as sitting far aloft, regardless of the common affairs of this lower world. Upon a few kings and princes he might turn an observant eye, but the most of men were creatures far too insignificant to affect the mind of Jove. Whether they lived or died was nothing to him; they fulfilled their destinies and passed away, while Jove remained serenely still, or nodded as his august will might be. Not such is Jehovah, the God of heaven and of earth. He compasses our path and our lying down, and is acquainted with all our ways. “The ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.” He regardeth the cries of the afflicted. “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” “Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly.” Though he is so great a God that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, yet he deigns to dwell with the man who is of a contrite and humble spirit. God has not left us as the ostrich leaves her young. Say not that we are left without a friend to care for us: our Maker has not gone away; he has not shut up the gates of heaven; he has not closed his ear from hearing, neither has he restrained his hand from helping us; still does he hear his Ephraims when they bemoan themselves, and send them the mercy for which they pine.
 
 
Excerpted from sermon No. 743 on Jeremiah 31:18: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn, thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.”
 

 
 
(See 'Spurgeon's Preface' to the Book of Proverbs)