Proverbs 11:24

Scattering and Withholding

Pro 11:24

Two of the principal words in this text are of course "scattereth" and "withholdeth." We ought to be on our guard against mistaken definitions and incomplete meanings of such words. We ought also to be on our guard against shortsightedness and ill-managed perspective in the consideration of doctrines and the planning of life. Half a meaning may amount to a falsehood. A wrong angle of vision may deceive as to distance, magnitude, and proportion.

For example one would say that to scatter anything is to part with it without advantage, to lose it; and that to withhold, to keep back, is undoubtedly to save and to retain. The text teaches us that this may be quite a mistake on our part. It must further be understood that all scattering is not advised, nor is all withholding condemned. The word scatter and the word withhold must therefore be regarded with modifications. There is reckless scattering and there is wise withholding. It will be seen, therefore, that the verse is not to be taken in its literalness; it is to be examined in its spirit. We must get into the method of the counsel, and understand the genius and scope of the doctrine. Happily we have no need to go farther in search of illustration of the truth of the text; we find it on every farm, in every business, in every school. The farmer will tell us that if the land be starved the crop will be starved as well. The merchant will tell us that if he be not often liberal in his outlay liberal almost to the point of apparent recklessness he will be short in his income. Some crafty persons will even give subscriptions to societies which they would gladly sink to the bottom of the sea, because these subscriptions come back to them in the way of patronage. Their donations are investments. Their charities are speculations. They turn benevolence itself into merchandise; they yoke generosity to the chariot of Mammon. Still they are preachers, and preachers of wisdom. If they abuse the principle, they exemplify it by thinking that scattering may mean getting. Their charities, their gifts, their plaudits, and their liberalities are often so much manure with which they hope to enrich the harvest of their own fortunes. All these considerations show us the importance of understanding what is meant by scattering, and what is meant by withholding. Let us seek with all eagerness of Christian hope to know the meaning of both parts of the text, that we may order the scheme of our life by its profound and most excellent wisdom.

The text calls us to benevolent activity founded on religious faith. Not to activity only, but to benevolent activity; not to a benevolent activity only, but to a benevolent activity founded on a religious basis and not a religious basis as the expression of a selfish sentimentality, but the only true and abiding religious basis, that which we find in the Cross and in the life of Jesus Christ. The doctrine enlarges and glorifies life by calling into play elements and considerations which lie beyond the present and the visible. The very exercise of scattering carries blessing with it, brings with it a peculiar and special benefit. Observe the very exercise of scattering, without pointing in a religious or Christian direction, the very act of scattering breaks up the mastery of selfishness, it enlarges the circle of kindly interests, it shows that there is something in the world beyond our own personal concerns. It were better, therefore, better for man, better as a discipline, better for his heart, better for every quality that is worth having, that a man should go to the river so many times a year and throw his money into it, than that he should never, never give anything away! Is that a hard saying? It is perfectly true, that rather than never part with anything except in the way of mere bargain-making it were better to go to the river and to throw some part of our property into it. What, then, of the benefit which accrues upon wise giving, upon philanthropic service, upon activities which bear the dear name and are inspired by the blessed spirit of Jesus Christ? Take a case. A man gives away a sovereign in Christ's name and for Christ's sake. Look at the elements which constitute that act and give it value. The man made the sovereign honestly; it is his, in point of fair service, by what is called right. If he keeps that sovereign he will break no law in commerce; if he will it away to his family he will violate no law in social equity; if he spend it upon himself society will not condemn him. Yet the man deliberately gives that money away to a poor child, to a friendless stranger, to a Christian society. See what lies behind the deed. The man says, in effect if not in words, "The money may be mine, but I myself am not my own. How then can anything be mine, except temporarily, and under laws of stewardship and responsibility? I have no property in myself; I am bought with a price; I am God's agent. So far as I have given society an equivalent for this sovereign it is mine; but the strength, the skill, the knowledge by which I gained it are the gifts of God. The image is Caesar's, but the gold is God's. I will hold what I have as Christ's; holding it so I instantly yield it at his call, saying, Thine O wounded, blessed Christ thine is the right!" So this giving away of the sovereign is not an off-hand deed; it is not done flippantly; it is not done to save appearances; it is not done from external social pressure; it becomes a great religious act, a solemn sacrifice, a holy thank-offering. So to give, so to scatter, is to increase. In many cases the man gets back two sovereigns for one, or fifty for one; but if he did not get a penny back he always increases in heart-volume, in joy, in love, in most mysterious and hallowed peace; the heavens become brighter; his cup of comfort is sweetened; he walks on a greener earth; he looks up to God through a bluer sky. Beneficence is its own compensation. Charity empties the heart of one gift that it may make room for a larger. He who lives towards God, whose life is an ascending line, will meet God coming to him with blessings unimagined and unceasing. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over." "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself."

Some of you may think that it is a dangerous doctrine to preach that if a man give away one sovereign he may get two, and perhaps he may get fifty back. Understand, however, that if any man shall give God anything in the way of having it back again that man will be disappointed, humiliated, and justly so. It is not an investment; it is not an appeal to some greedy, crafty one who says, "Well, if that be the way, I shall give away a sovereign just to try if I can get two back for it." Will you? Try it! and you will never see your sovereign again. Then you will not try it? Do not! We cannot have the footsteps of such evil men upon the floor of God's sanctuary. It is when we give alms free from all self-consciousness in the deed, when there is no calculation about it, when under the inspiration of love we touch the very holiness of God it is then that the grain of corn cast into the earth dies, germinates, fructifies, and returns a hundredfold. I bear witness, simply and solemnly, without affectation and with the emphasis of thankfulness, that I never yet, in any happy moment of sympathy with the dear Christ of God, did a generous deed without God hastening, as it were, to repay the deed, to make me a wiser, stronger, tenderer man. "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." No man works for God for nothing. His water is turned into wine, and that wine flows in unceasing blessed streams of divine love and comfort.

Two men started business with this vow: "We shall give to God one-tenth of all our profits." The first year the profits were considerable; the tithe was consequently considerable. The next year there was increase in the profits, and of course increase in the tithe; in a few years the profits became very, very large indeed, so that the partners said to one another, "Is not a tenth of this rather too much to give away? suppose we say now we will give a twentieth?" And they gave a twentieth, and the next year the profits had fallen down; the year after that they fell down again, and the men said to one another, as Christians should say in such a case: "Have not we broken our vow? Have we not robbed God?" And in no spirit of selfish calculation, but with humility of soul, self-reproach, and bitter contrition, they went back to God and told him how the matter stood, prayed his forgiveness, renewed their vow, and God opened the windows of heaven and came back to them, and all the old prosperity. I do not wish to make too much of this story, but I know it as a fact. There is no occasion to fear superstition in making such vows. If they be made in the spirit of selfishness, they will end in nothing; if in the spirit of little children, no man can tell the blessing.

The other side of the text is as emphatic and as often illustrated in practical life as the first: "There is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." Selfishness is suicidal; selfishness lives in gloom; selfishness injects poison into every stream of life; selfishness actually makes the world less and less every day, degrades man, dishonours life; it is blasphemy against the infinite goodness and mercy of God! Selfishness is most intensely selfish when it assumes the name of prudence. When a man says he must be just before he is generous, that man cannot be just, that man is a thief in his heart. Selfishness is often most base when it calculates aloud at the dinner-table and the tea-table arithmetically, and shows the world the whole process of its dry arithmetic. Souls cannot be trained on arithmetic. When selfishness chatters proverbs, which are but half truths; when in the interests of so-called honesty it robs God with both hands, then it has reached a depth beyond which there is no depth. Let it be known that upon such God has branded the stamp of failure. God is against thee O selfish heart! There may be great accumulation, may there not? Yes yet not one moment's enjoyment of it all! There may be good standing at the bankers, may there not? Yes, and no foothold in any human heart The property may outweigh the proprietor. As the stuff increases the man diminishes. As the deposit enriches the depositor impoverishes. "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." When God blows upon a man, who can find him? The whole universe is a protest against the selfish man. The light-streaming sun, the former and the latter rain, the odorous flower, the gift-bearing seasons, and yonder dear Father giving himself away in every pulsation of his being, these are against thee, O selfish heart! and when thou totterest towards the gate of dismission to find thine own place, thou shalt depart without regret as thou hast lived without love. Such is the picture. Yonder he is at the further end of life. Room for the leper! It is singular that men by grasping lose; that by scraping they get nothing; that by having great bunches of keys to lock up seven-fold doors they cannot find what they have locked away, there must be some way inside from the back; some way spirits get into it; at all events the thing goes. God has many ways of turning the selfish man's success to failure and disappointment. The darkness, the mildew, the locust, the frost, the lightning, the winds, are his servants. Thou shalt carry much seed into the field, and shalt gather but little in, for the locusts shall consume it. "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes." "Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied." How God mocks the bad man! How he can turn the wicked man's very triumph into failure, and how out of selfish ambition he can bring the scorpion whose sting is death!

We must be careful to observe that though the text is found in the Old Testament the principle is distinctly held by Jesus Christ. It is not a temporary law, it is a moral principle; it is universal and unchangeable in its force and application. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." What do you think of that in the light of common-sense? To non-Christian men it must sound very foolish. A man that gains his life loses it. A man who rises early and strives hard all day to maintain himself is actually diminishing the very quality of his manhood, the very volume of his being.

A man says that he is going in for influence. He dresses for influence, smiles for influence, turns round and round for influence, and after awhile people are laughing at him, and saying, "What an extraordinarily foolish man that is!" He has all the influence he deserves, and that is no influence at all. All great life, divine life, life like God's, is not to be calculated about, and argued out, and worked out in that ridiculous fashion. Self-forgetfulness coming out of self-crucifixion, and then you will have blessings until there is not room to contain them. By all means get out of yourself, if you would really do yourself the greatest possible service. Scatter liberally with the right motive if you would gather in the harvest, before which you may say truly not with atheistic insanity, but with Christian reverence "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years."

Some of you have your scheme of life yet to begin. Do not be narrow; do not be little; do not be what is termed prudent, in the poor shallow sense of that word. Be true, be noble, be self-oblivious. Have you natural amiability and philanthropic love of others? Encourage that. Do not live inwards; live from your hearts outward. And who knows but that Jesus Christ may meet you and show you the higher way, the only true and living way? All schemes which are mere schemes, mere programmes and methods of our own, are self-defeating if they are not conceived and executed, in the spirit of self-crucifixion. Do not be a mere plan. Be a great soul, live a holy life, and may the great Father gather you to his heart and bless you evermore!

Prayer

Almighty God, all souls are thine: may all souls be won to thee, for all we like sheep have gone astray; now may we return unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. Without thee our souls have no light, no hope, no rest; with thee our souls seize the inheritance of immortality, and are already clothed with heavenly victory. Now that we know thee through Jesus Christ thy Son, our blessed and only Saviour, we are in heaven: our citizenship is there; all the subjects which excite our best thinking are there; all the ambitions that stir our noblest impulses descend from heaven. We thank thee that we have been won to Christ, drawn to him, persuaded by him to accept the great priesthood which he represents. Once we had no wisdom; we were not only in dark night, but no star gleamed upon us from the frowning clouds: now we are at least in the dawn, now we have hope of advancing light, now we think that noonday may be accorded to us; and as these thoughts burn in our hearts we are filled with thankfulness, we are lifted out of the limitations of time and sense, and for one brief moment we breathe the air of heaven. May our souls be faithful to thee; may they know the truth, and obey it; may they love wisdom, and increase in it; may they follow after understanding, and secure the infinite prize. For all thy mercies we bless thee; for our assurance that in Christ Jesus we are saved souls we magnify thy grace: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Thou hast saved us, and not we ourselves. We are saved by faith, and not by works; because our confidence has been given to thee in Christ Jesus thy dear Son we are saved, and no man can pluck us out of the Father's hand. Give us to see more and more of the mystery of thy love its infinite range, its ineffable tenderness, its mysteriousness of pathos; then shall we be melted, bowed down in contrition, lifted up in praises, and our whole life shall be one solemn triumphant song. Take away from us everything that is hateful in thy sight; give us the clean linen of the saints, white and pure; grant unto us the Spirit of God, that he may dwell with us a purifying fire, an enlightening glory, a daily monitor and guide, and thus bring our life to the fulness of thine own purpose. Hear us for all for whom we ought to pray: where then, Lord of heaven, would our prayer cease? When we think of all the millions upon the face of the globe, of all who are old and young, rich and poor, in joy, in sorrow, in strength, in weakness, in peril on the sea, and in strange lands working out some mystery of providence, our imagination is overwhelmed. But thou seest all things, for thou dwellest in eternity. Have respect unto those for whom we ought specially to pray, and grant unto them such blessings as their lives particularly need. Help us by all means to become men in Christ Jesus wise, understanding, strong, patient men, knowing thy will and doing it, accepting thy purpose and suffering it; and at last may we be found to have glorified thee, whether in life, or in death, or in heroic service, or in heroic endurance. As for our sin, we will not name it, for whilst we pray at the Cross the miracle must be ever Christ's, and he has completed it, in that he has said to contrite and believing souls, Your sins which are many are all forgiven thee. Amen