The Wise Builder
D. C. Clark. Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands. The Scriptures have adapted their instructions to every character and condition in human life. I. DESCRIBE THE WISE WOMAN. 1. She must know how to manage with prudence and care the concerns of a family. It is woman's work to "guide the house." How many, on marrying, find they need to learn the first principles of domestic economy. If a man can be more happy in any other house than his own, he is a lost man. 2. A wise woman will improve her taste and her manners. This in no way involves her becoming proud. 3. A wise woman will aim to improve her mind. The mind is enlarged by receiving ideas, and by using them as materials of thought and reasoning. 4. A wise woman will endeavour to enlighten and improve her conscience. This is the faculty of the soul by which we weigh the morality of an action. To improve the conscience we must give it light, and let it guide us. Well enlightened, it guides to happiness and heaven. 5. A wise woman will be particularly careful to cultivate the heart. The instinctive affections are capable of improvement by other means than grace. But the female character is essentially defective in the absence of piety. Religion has a peculiar sweetness when it mingles with the modest softness of the female character. By reason of their peculiar trials, females need the comforts, hopes, and prospects of religion more, if possible, than the other sex. II. A WISE WOMAN BUILDETH HER HOUSE. To build her house is to promote the best good of her husband and her offspring. 1. How will such a woman affect their estate? Her wisdom will save more than her hands could earn. 2. She will render her family respectable. 3. She will render her family happy. She will so manage as not to irritate their passions. Her example will breathe through the house a mild and soft atmosphere. There is no resisting the combined influence of so many virtues. What she cannot do by her precepts and examples, she effects by her prayers. Her influence surely extends beyond her own family.Reflections: 1. Females see how they are to rise in the scale of being. 2. See the importance of supporting good schools. 3. See the importance of the gospel. 4. Females should make the Scriptures their daily study.From the mother, rather than the father, the members of the family will take their character. (D. C. Clark.) Parallel Verses KJV: Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. WEB: Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.