Springs in the Desert: Studies in the Psalms

‘* He sitteth in the seat of the scornful.’’ — Psa.o i, 1.

TuIs sitting suggests a settled mood. The scorn is not an occasional thing, something that comes and goes, and never tarries long. It has come to stay. It has taken up its home there. There is an air of permanency about it. It is not a swift spasm of ill-feeling, born one moment and destroyed the next. Itisa fixed habit. It is a residential feeling; it is a mood which knits the days together and runs throughout the life. The “seat of the scornful” is not a movable chair; it is an abode. ‘This man has sat down to stay. He is not occasionally cynical; he is a cynic.

‘, Now, What is a cynic? The etymology of

the word introduces the features of a dog.

And what is there dog-like about a cynic?

A snarl. Who has not known the neighbour’s

dog which crouches just behind the garden

gate and snarls at every passer-by? The passer-by may be a little child, or it may be an old man; it makes no difference, there is a snarl for both. It may be a tinker, soldier, sailor; it is all the same, everyone is snarled at as he goes along the way. No matter how genial your presence, or how cordial your word, or how gracious your errand, there is a bitter snarl for you as you pass the gate.

And that is the dog-like attitude which makes the cynic. He snarls at everything, and he sniffs and he sneers at everything. He is sarcastic and satirical. He is a disbeliever in the inherent worth of things. He has no confidence in the sincerity of others. He has a suspicion of every sort of courtesy, and he has a carping attitude to every social usage. He flings a mocking jibe at everything. He laughs at everything with bitter laughter. He suggests that there is a rotting decay at the heart of every beautiful thing. He cannot look at a flower without talking about the manure at its root. When others are admiring a lovely deed he hints at an

unclean motive. Even a mother’s love is

only an animal instinct, a fierce and merely

selfish passion at the very heart of her <0

affection. The cynic penetrates the lovely in search of the unlovely, and he is always sure that he finds it. You can hear his cruel laughter in the loveliest garden. You can hear his mocking cry in the sunny noon, or under the light of the midnight stars. Whatsoever things are ugly, the cynic thinks

on these things.

We What is the matter with him? He is suffering from a serious heart disease. His heart is soured. Now there is always a direct connection between the condition of the heart and the character of the sight. We cannot be careless about our heart and yet retain the accuracy of our vision. As is the heart so will be the eyes. ‘‘ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” That is the supreme example of the law, but the law has a hundred negative applications, and every one of them proclaims that a defect in the heart will be registered in a corresponding defect in the sight. If there is moroseness in the heart there will most certainly be perversity in the outlook. If the soul is soured the vision will be veiled, and the veil will be as a tinted lens which confuses the natural colours of all things. Suppose you look at the world through a yellow pane of glass. Why, then you have a yellow world. Suppose you look through a dirty pane of glass. Why, then everything is defiled. Suppose you look at everything through the yellow pane of jealousy, or the red pane of envy — why, then you disfigure everything. And if you look at things through a soured disposition you will not see anything that is lovely or sweet. The cynical heart has a charmless world.

°, And. how does a man become a soured man, a scornful man, a cynic? ‘The order of the verse in this psalm outlines the process of his creation. The process begins when a man begins to listen to evil counsels — ‘“‘the counsels of the ungodly.” That is to say, he opens his mind in ungodly hospitality, and he lets in the germs of evil conduct. You cannot keep your milk sweet and yet let anything into your dairy; one dirty germ can sour an entire milking. And when an evil counsel is given welcome into a sweet mind, it begins its defiling and souring work. When we begin to cherish low ideals, we speedily begin to act in ungodly ways; we choose our company, we seek the fellowship of the unworthy, we “stand in the way of sinners.” There is only one further step in the process, sinful conduct is creative of sinful and settled disposition. Every act helps to create an attitude. Every deed tends to fashion a mood. We are soured by our own misdeeds. We become cynics, and we sit in the seat of the scornful. m I know only one way in which a cynic can be made sweet. He must be born again. Superficial remedies are entirely ineffective. Do what we will we cannot cleanse this dairy! But there is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness: ‘‘ Lord, if thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” A

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