Hiding-Places for the Prudent
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” — xxii. 3.
main element of safety is a just estimate of danger. Many of the great disasters that have occurred in war are due to the rashness which springs from undervaluing the enemy’s power. He who foresees the evil, hides himself until it pass; and he who so hides himself escapes the storm which lays lofty rashness low. There is much room for this species of prudence to exercise itself upon, in relation both to the present life, and to that which is to come. There are both encompassing dangers and safe hiding-places in the several regions of our secular business, our moral conduct, and our religious hopes.
1. In the ordinary business of life there are evils which may be foreseen by the prudent, and places of shelter in which he may safely lie. When speculation is rife, for example, — when all that a man has, and much that belongs to his neighbour, is risked at a throw, and a fortune made by return of post, — when people, made giddy by success, rush further and faster into the stream, — evil is near and imminent. It hangs like a thunder-cloud overhead. The prudent in such an hour is on his guard. He seeth the evil before the bolt has actually fallen. He seeks a place of shelter. Nor is that shelter far away; his daily labour and his legitimate business will be a sufficient defence against these foes. A disciple who has his heart in heaven should beware of fretting because his hands are fall all day long with earthly business; labour, when the Lord appoints it for his people, is a strong wall built round them to keep dangerous enemies out.
2. Evils lie before us in the region of practical morality — evils for which the prudent keep a sharp look-out. Frivolous and licentious companions, theatres, Sabbath amusements, and a multitude of cognate enticements, press upon a young man like wind •, if he be like chaff, he will be carried away. The wisest course is to go into hiding. In your father’s house and in your sisters’ company, — among sober associates and instructive books, — in the study of nature or the practice of art, — a multitude of hiding-places are at hand. Even there the enemy will seldom find you, But a deeper, safer refuge still, — a strong tower of defence, from which all the fiery darts of the wicked will harmlessly rebound, — is that “name of the Lord” into which the righteous run. All the power of the world and its god can neither drive a refugee forth from that hiding-place, nor hurt him within it.
3. But the greatest evils lie in the world to come, and only the eye of faith can foresee them. To be caught by death unready, and placed before the judgment-seat without a plea, and then cast out for ever, are evils so great that in their presence all others disappear like stars in the glare of day. But great though they are, the prudent may foresee, and the trustful prevent them. There is a refuge, but its gate opens into Time. If the prudent do not enter now, the simple will knock in vain at the closed door, when ne has passed into eternity without any part in Christ. If the needy are numerous, the refuge is ample: if the exposed are in poverty, the admission is free: if the adversary is legion, the Saviour is God.
“The simple pass on, and are punished.” “How long, ye simple, will ye love simplicity?” Although the saved are not their own saviours, the lost are their own destroyers. The reason why they perish is declared by Him who knows their hearts: “Ye will not come unto me.” A man is passing on in the way which he has chosen; he is eating and drinking, and making merry. Guilt is on his conscience, but he feels not its fiery bite; wrath is treasured over him, but he fears not its final outpouring. The open door of mercy abuts upon his downward path, but he heeds it not: he passes on — he passes by it. As he passes, a voice falls upon his ear; it is the voice of God’s own Son conjuring him with strong crying and tears to turn and live. Startled for a moment by the sound, he pauses and looks; but seeing nothing that takes his fancy, he passes on again. Again a voice behind him cries, in tones which show that life and death eternal are turning on their hinge, “Repent, lest you perish! why will you die 1” He stops and looks behind; it is a fit of seriousness, but it soon goes off. He heard a sound; but it must have been an echo in the mountains, or a call to some wanderer who has lost his way. Stopping his ears, and shutting his eyes, he passes on. Deaf to warnings from above, and blind to beacons reared before him, he still passes on, until, at a moment when he counts his footing firmest, he stumbles over the brink of life, and falls into the hands of the living God! This fall, the Bible tells us, “is a fearful thing.” Fear it now, and flee, ye who are passing on through life in your sin, and without a Saviour. Surely it should be plain to any rational being, that though a man may live without God in the world, he cannot escape from God when he dies. Do those who are passing on with their backs to Christ, and their hearts full of vain shows, know where life’s boundary-line lies, or what awaits themselves beyond it 1 Why will men pass on, if they are on such a path that another step may be perdition 1
If there were no hope, the wanderers would have no resource but to go forward in despair until their doom declared itself: but here, and now, blessed hope abounds. Cease to go on neglecting the great salvation, and the great salvation is ready for you: seek and ye shall find. They are not the great, and the wise, and the good who escape, but the sinners who seek the Saviour, — the prudent who foresee the evil, and hide. The question is not, How great is your sin 1 or, How long have you been a sinner 1 If you are lost while another is saved, it is not because your guilt is greater than his, but because you neglected the salvation which he deemed precious. If the simple is punished at last, it is because, in spite of a beseeching, weeping Saviour, “he passed on” through the day of grace, and fell upon the day of judgment.
(Bimtaiioit.