Proverbs 19:16 - Homiletics

Soul keeping

The "Power that makes for righteousness , " though not impersonal, as Mr. Matthew Arnold assumed, is nevertheless active as by a constant law. It is so ordered in nature and providence that goodness preserves life, and badness tends to ruin and death. Let us endeavour to see how the process is worked out.

I. THE GREAT RESULT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SOUL KEEPING .

1 . It may not be wealth. We cannot assume that goodness tends to riches. Keeping the commandments does not always result in a man's making his fortune. Christ was a poor man.

2 . It may not be earthly happiness. Other things being , a clear conscience should bring peace and inward joy. But there are troubles that fall upon us independently of our conduct. There are distresses that come directly from doing right. Christ was a "Man of sorrows."

3 . It may not be long life on earth. No doubt this was expected in Old Testament times, for then but dim notions of any existence beyond the grave ever entered the minds of men. On the whole, no doubt, goodness tends to health of body and mind. Still, very good people may die young. Christ died at thirty-three years of age.

4 . It will be the real preservation of the soul. The true life will be safe. The self will abide. Now, all our being really resides in our personal self. If this continues in safety, we have the highest personal security. But if not, all other gain is but a mockery; for "what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul—his life, himself?" ( Matthew 16:26 ).

II. RIGHTEOUSNESS LEADS TO SOUL KEEPING BY NATURAL LAWS . It is a matter of Divine ordering that obedience should be followed by life, disobedience by death. This was seen in the trial of Adam ( Genesis 3:3 ). It lies at the root of the great sanctions of the Mosaic Law ( Ezekiel 3:18 ). He who gave the commandments also gives life. Our life is in the hand of oar Lawgiver. It is in his power to withhold the life if we break the law. But we may look more closely into this princess. God's commandments are not arbitrary. They follow the natural lines of spiritual health. His prohibitions are really the warnings against the course that leads naturally and inevitably to death. Goodness is itself vitality, and badness has a deadening effect on the soul. The faculties are quickened by use in the service of what is right, and they are dwarfed, perverted, paralyzed, and finally killed by reckless, lawless conduct. The profligate is a suicide.

III. CHRISTIANITY HELPS US TO TRUE SOUL KEEPING BY LEADING US TO RIGHTEOUSNESS . We find ourselves in the unhappy condition of those who have not kept the commandments. Therefore we are in danger of death. We have "despised our ways." The law and the promise are not addressed to us as to new beings; but they meet us in our sin and on our road to ruin. Therefore, if there were no gospel, there would be no hope. Hence the need of a Saviour. But when we enter the realm of Christian truth we cannot turn our backs on the principles of the older economy. We cannot regard them as the laws of another planet, out of the reach of which we have escaped. They are eternal truths, and we are still within their range. Christ helps us, not by teaching us to despise moral considerations as though they were irrelevant to those who had entered into the covenant of grace, but by giving us his own righteousness to be in us as well as on us. He puts us in the way of obedience, while he cancels the consequences of the old disobedience. Thus he saves our souls by helping us to preserve them in a new fidelity to the ancient, eternal right.