Proverbs 16

Proverbs 16:24

Pleasant Words Pleasant words are as an honeycomb.—Proverbs 16:24.If King Solomon had lived in our day perhaps he would have written, “Pleasant words are like sugar, sweet and wholesome,” for that is what he means in our text. But there was neither cane sugar nor beet sugar in Solomon’s time, and any sweets he had were made with honey; so when he wanted to describe something sweet and good at the same time he compared it to the honey in the honeycomb.Now, none of us is as wise as Solomon, but we are like him in this, that we love to hear pleasant words. We like when people say pleasant things to us. For instance, we like to know that we have done any piece of work well. If someone says of it, “That’s exceedingly good!” we feel that all the trouble we have taken is worth while. The kind word pays us for our labor.1.

But there are pleasant words and pleasant words.The first kind we are going to speak about is the wrong kind—the pretense kind, the kind that we call “flattering.” Flattering words may sound all right, but we know they are false beneath. They are like poison hid in jam.

The person who flatters you usually does it for a purpose, and when a little voice inside tells you that what he says is untrue, beware!A flatterer is like the toad who pretended to be a saucer of meal. He was a very cunning specimen— that toad. He lived in a farmyard near the chicken- coops, and he noticed that the flies which were his favorite food came in the evening to get supper from the saucers of meal and water which had been set out for the chickens. “Aha!” thought the crafty old boy, “why shouldn’t I pretend to be a saucer of meal?” So he hopped along to one of the saucers, and rolled himself over and over in the meal till he looked so mealy that you couldn’t tell where the meal ended and the toad began. Then he lay very still and waited. Later the first fly arrived; he was followed by two or three more, and they were followed by still others, and soon the pretense saucer of meal was covered with flies. But, alas! for any silly fly who ventured too near the toad’s mouth.

Out popped Mr. Toad’s tongue, and that poor fly disappeared for ever.

The words of a flatterer may seem innocent and mealy, but take care! there’s danger beneath.2. But what about the right kinds of pleasant words? for there are many right kinds.(1) Well, the most common kind, and perhaps for that reason the kind that boys and girls think least about, is the polite hind. It is rather remarkable that there are lots of young people who seem to feel that politeness is unnecessary. More than that, they positively avoid it as something that is affected, something that is good enough for " softies,” but certainly not for them. So they drop out “Excuse me,” and “I beg your pardon,” and “I’m so sorry,” and even “please” and “thank you,” and they stick in grunts instead. Now, grunts are very well for a certain animal whose native language, so to speak, is a grunt, only he spells it “grumph.” He is a very good animal in his way, but we should never dream of asking him into our house or inviting him to sit down at our table.

He and his grumphs would be quite out of place there. And so are your grunts, boys and girls.

Leave them to the poor beast they belong to, and use your own language.(2) I think that the second kind of pleasant words is the kind kind. If we could read Hebrew we should find that the word King Solomon used for “pleasant” meant “love-breathing.” That is just what kind words do—they breathe love. If you want to make friends with anybody, how do you set about it? Do you snub them every time they speak to you? Do you take no interest in what they are doing, or throw cold water on all their plans? Of course not! You know better than that. You listen eagerly to what they have to say, and you try to be keen on what they are keen on.

If they are in a difficulty you try to help them out of it; and if you can’t get them out of it you say how vexed you are, and that alone helps no end. If you want to have a friend and be a friend your words must be kind words. You have only to look around you to see that this is true. Look at the boy who prides himself on squashing other fellows! He’ll soon be left with nobody to squash. Look at the girl with the nippy tongue! She can nip away if she likes, but nobody will want to come within yards of her.(3) The third kind of pleasant words we may call the wholesome kind. These are the words that are not only good to hear but help us to be better and do better.

If you are feeling in despair about your work or anything else, and things are looking “blue,” you know how tremendously it bucks you up if somebody gives you a word of praise. Why! you forget the blueness all in a minute. Instead of looking blue everything suddenly looks rose-colored, and you go ahead double speed because of that little word of encouragement. There are heaps of people in this world who don’t require “a good talking-to” to set them agoing. What they are needing is just a little pleasant word of praise.Then you know what pleasant words do to a quarrel. Pleasant words and a quarrel simply can’t live in the same room. If you bring in pleasant words the quarrel immediately dies. It can’t help it.

There’s something in a pleasant word that kills it outright.Pleasant words are splendid for envy too. Envy is a nasty green feeling, but if you put a few pleasant words alongside it the greenness mysteriously fades away. The pleasant words work like magic, and hey presto! it is gone.3. If we are going to require such a lot of pleasant words, where shall we manage to get them? We must have a store somewhere that we can go to when we need them. We must have more words than those that are on the tip of our tongue at the moment. That is common sense.But we shall not have much difficulty in solving the problem, for pleasant words don’t really belong to the tip of our tongue at all. They belong by right to the heart.

The tongue merely says them, but the heart makes them. The heart is not only a storehouse, it is also a factory working day and night. The kind of goods it manufactures depends upon the person from whom it takes its orders. If it takes its orders from someone whom we all know, whose name begins with the fourth letter of the alphabet, then the thoughts and words and deeds which it manufactures will be hideous and cruel and wicked. But if it takes its orders from the King of kings, its thoughts and words and deeds will be lovely and loving, true and gentle, sweet and pleasant.Boys and girls, let us see to it that we take our orders from Christ. Then we shall find it easy to be courteous, easy to be loving, easy to be helpful, easy to be generous, easy to speak pleasant words.

Proverbs 16:32

Ruling Our Spirits He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city.—Proverbs 16:32.We have all something in us that needs to be tamed. A well-known preacher used to say, “I am by nature a tiger, and had it not been for the grace of God to tame me, I fear that nobody could ever have lived with me.” He simply meant that by nature he had a very bad temper.More than a hundred years ago a very clever woman called Hannah More wrote a book called Hints towards forming the Character of a Young Princess. I do not know that you would care to read right through the book, but one thing that Hannah More said is worth remembering. Here it is. “The first lesson to be taught to the royal pupil is: ‘Where others cannot restrain us, there especially we should restrain ourselves.’” She then goes on to tell that Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, said to a soldier who found him praying in his tent, “Persons of my rank are answerable to God alone, and the dangers of such a position are only to be resisted by prayer and reading the Scriptures.”The boys and girls of the present day might well take a leaf out of Hannah More’s book. It would be good even for much older people to ponder over what she says. Her words are on the line of our text. It does not say that we must not be angry, but that we ought to keep our anger in check.For it is sad, but true— If you do not rule your temper, Your temper will rule you.Most of you have read Sinbad the Sailor. You remember how the Old Man of the Sea, when he got Sinbad to have pity upon him and lift him up, sat upon his shoulders, clinging closely to poor Sinbad wherever he went, and compelling him to do whatever he wanted until life became a burden to him. So it will be with us if we allow ourselves to be ruled by our temper.But although our temper makes a bad master it may make a good servant. When some of you see the lightning flashing during a thunderstorm you feel very much afraid. But those of you who are at school know that man has at last made the lightning his servant. What wonderful things it does for us!

It carries messages to our friends; it takes the burden of our hard work; it helps to rescue ships at sea; it lights our houses; it drives subways; and it helps doctors perform medical procedures.But how is it possible to make a servant of our temper? Not by crushing it out, but by getting the upper hand of it. Christ was angry when He drove the money-changers out of the temple courts, and when He denounced those who oppressed the poor. Without a holy anger we should never have had reformers like Knox or Luther. The ruling of our temper means courage—courage even greater than that of the soldier who takes part in the siege of a city. We know that the fighting soldier must lose all fear of being hurt when he is in battle.

The fight with our temper means something else; it demands even greater courage than that of the soldier. Greater, I say, for the wearer of many medals may still have an unconquered temper. Our battle demands more than the courage of flesh and blood. It is carried on within. There may be no signs of it beyond a moment’s silence, or the biting of the lip, but the victory means the making of character.The hardest battles ever fought, The greatest victories won, Are fought with never a comrade near, And never a shot or a gun. It may be a battle with terrible pain, Or a struggle with mind or soul, But God, who is watching His soldiers, knows The ones on His Honor Roll. But we need help in order to rule our spirits. Sometimes boys and girls have the impression that it is quite right to ask God to help them to do great things, and to be kept from great temptations, but that it would be wrong to speak to God about their little worries and tempers, and ask Him to help them when they feel like getting angry. There is nothing too little to tell to God. So never hesitate, dear children, to ask Him to help you to rule your spirits.