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25. The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.
26. He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not.
Often have the shame and wretchedness of sloth been before us. Here is the finishing stroke. The desire of the slothful killeth him. It leads to no effort, therefore to no fruit. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick” (Chapter 13:12); and perpetual vexation frets him to death.† ‘What he longs for, he does not set his hand to purchase. But he would rather sit still and starve.’† He thinks to live by wishing, not by working.† Some faint desires he may have to work. But the effort to “take his hand out of his bosom”† is too great. His hands therefore, as if they were given him only to be folded, refuse to labor. There is no want of physical power and activity. He could spend his whole time in ‘busy idleness;’† but for useful labor he has no heart. Meanwhile, with all his inactivity, he is a prey all day long to a greedy covetousness; tantalized with insatiable desires; while the hope of enjoyment, though not out of sight, yet, from want of exertion, is out of reach. Thus, dreaming of the end without mortification or godly exercise, he dies with his desires in his mouth; envying those, whose industrious diligence enables them to give, and spare not.†
Such is the temporal evil of sloth; one of the many forms of moral selfishness, that paralyze alike our energy and our comfort. But far more ruinous is it in the higher and deeper concern. The stamp of death is broad and palpable upon the heartless professor. (Revelation 3:1.) We ask — What is his religion? He hopes he has a desire; and he has often heard that ‘the desire of grace is grace.’ Now this is true, if the desire be predominant. Faint as it may be in its first dawn, it “is the smoking flax,” which the Savior “will not quench” (Matthew 12:20), but kindle into a flame. But if it is always a desire, and no more, habitually overcome by a contrary inclination; instead of grace, it is a delusion, a mere sentimental excitement, to lull the conscience asleep. ‘How can an object, which standeth in a fixed distance from the nature which it should perfect, be procured by idle and standing affections? Those affections must have life in them, which would bring life after them. Dead desires are deadly desires.’† Beware then of the sluggard's cry. His desires, instead of carrying life in them, are cold things that strike death into the soul. Earnest seeking is the test of godly desire.† No quarter will be left unexplored, where we might find our God;† no means of grace unimproved, where we might enjoy his presence. (Isaiah 64:5.) It was an excellent prayer of Sir Thomas More — ‘Lord! make me to bestow pains in getting those things, for the obtaining of which I am used to pray unto thee.’
If some will call this active energy legal, our Lord's command to “labour”† proves, that it is scriptural. Whoever does not strive to come near to the standard, has never really apprehended it. Whoever desires only, and refuses to labor to be a growing Christian daily, gives doubtful evidence whether he be a Christian at all. Some profess to be hindered from duty, because they have no heart for it, like the man whom cold would keep from the fire, which was intended to warm him. The sluggard talks about grace — His “soul desireth, and hath nothing.” (Chapter 13:4.) Effort is the death of sloth. It sweeps away most, and endures the remaining difficulties, confident of ultimate success.
Not that the power is in ourselves. But when did God ever fail to help the sinner's endeavor? “That thou givest, we gather.” (Psalm 104:28.) ‘The ship is like to be steered with best certainty and success, when the pilot's eye is to heaven, and his hand at the stern.’† And thus prayer and diligence, dependence and energy, harmonize in the Bible; however they may be discordant in the crude systems of man's devising. Divine agency is given, not to excuse the neglect of human means, but to encourage their improvement. (Philippians 2:12, 13.) The means are as much the matter of divine self fore-knowledge and counsel, as the ends with which they are connected.
What then want we for active service, but the continued exercise of faith? This gave power at first; this alone sustains the power. Never let us suppose exertion for the prize to be too late. If ever thou art discouraged — much more — if thou art inclined to sloth — set it down in your mind, and pray that God would write it there clear as a sunbeam — ‘It is yours — It is yours for all time, and the fruit of it shall be yours for all eternity.’ There is no moment, when the Lord is not giving; when he has not bound himself to give, by infinite and most loving obligations. Deliberately devote yourselves. Put the resolution into practical form, habit, and place. Make all sacrifices for it. Seize all opportunities for making it good. Our work will be our recompense; our labor our wages. And while the slothful man only covets for himself, the righteous, in the flowing of the willing heart, lives for the Church. He has to give, and he spares not. “He is a blessing in the midst of the land.”†
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