Growth and Seductiveness
W. Clarkson Proverbs 12:26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor: but the way of the wicked seduces them. The goal which a man will reach must depend on the tendency of the habits he has formed, or the way in which his life inclines, whether upward or downward. Are his habits such that we can properly speak of them as growing toward perfection, or such as may be more properly thought of as conducting or seducing to wrong and ruin? I. THE GROWTH OF GOODNESS. "The righteous is more abundant than his neighbour" (marginal reading). He is more abundant because: 1. The blessing of God rests upon him, and his reward is in fruitfulness in some direction. 2. Righteousness means or includes virtue, temperance, industry, thrift, culture; and these mean prosperity and success. 3. God's great prevailing law that "to him that hath [uses, or puts out, what powers he has] is given, and he shall have abundance," is constantly operating here and now, in all realms of human action; consequently, the good man is reaping the beneficial result. (1) In the physical world, bodily, muscular exercise "is profiting," and ends in abounding health and strength and capacity of endurance. (2) In the mental world, study and patient observation result in abounding knowledge and intellectual grasp. (3) In the spiritual world, devotion and the daily learning of Christ (Matthew 11:28) end in abounding virtue, in the "more abundant life" which the Saviour offers to confer. Thus the life of the righteous man is one of continual growth in all good directions, and he is "more abundant than his neighbour." II. THE SEDUCTIVENESS OF SIN. "The way of the wicked seduceth them." We read (Hebrews 3:18) of "the deceitfulness of sin." And we know only too well by experience and observation how seductive and deceitful are its ways. 1. It begins with a pleasureableness which promises to continue, but which fails, which indeed turns to misery and ruin (see Proverbs 7:6-27). At first it. is a soft green slope, but the end is a steep and rocky precipice over which the victim falls. 2. It promises an easy escape from its hold, but it coils its cords around its subjects with quiet hand, until it holds them in a fast captivity. 3. It persuades its adherents that its ways are right when they are utterly wrong, and thus sings to sleep the conscience which should be aroused and active. 4. It pleads the crowded character of its path, and assures of safety; although the presence of a multitude is no guard or guarantee whatever against the condemnation and the retribution of the Almighty. But let youth understand that all these are "refuges of lies." For the truth is that (1) the way of transgressors is all too soon found to be "hard" indeed. (2) After a very little way is trodden, it is most difficult, and further on all but impossible to return. (3) The paths of sin are all grievously wrong in the sight of Divine purity. (4) "The wages of sin is death." - C. Parallel Verses KJV: The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them. WEB: A righteous person is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.