Foolish Sons
T. L. Cuyler, D.D. Proverbs 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. I never can forget my interview with a widowed mother who sent for me to counsel with her over her only son, who for the first time had been brought home by a policeman and laid helpless in the hall. It was the adder's first sting in a mother's heart. I said, "This is the turning-point of your boy's life: harshness now will ruin him; love him now more than ever." Said she, "He is penitent this morning, and says it shall be the last time." It was not. Such first times are seldom last times. The burden grew heavier, till at last the mother's prayer moved the Hand to move the heart, and he was plucked as a brand from the burning and brought into the fold of Christ. And it is not only the drunken or debauched son that lies heavy on the mother's heart. Sin leads to other follies and breeds other griefs. When I see a young man who has superior advantages for culture wandering into low companionship, pitching his household tent over against Sodom, I say, "There is a foolish son who will be the heaviness of his mother." When I see beardless self-conceit talking about the scientific scepticism of the day, and pretending to Rationalism and doubts about God's Book and the Cross of Christ, and scoffing at what the Isaac Newtons and the Luthers and Wesleys and Chalmers bowed down before with overawed spirit — sneering at the faith once delivered to the saints — I predict a career that will be a heaviness to the mother. (T. L. Cuyler, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. WEB: The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.