Prov. xii. 1-15
HE who really wants to choose the path of life, who desires to grow wiser and better, will welcome whatever teaches him a lesson, though it be painful or hard. He will be glad for whatever shows him a fault in himself, that he may correct it. We are living at our best only when we are eager to grow into perfection and are ready to put away every fault we find in ourselves, anything that mars our beauty of character. Some one says: “Count yourself rich that day you discover a new fault in yourself, not rich because it is there, but rich because it is no longer a hidden fault; and if you have not found all your faults, pray to have them revealed to you even if the revelation must come in a way that hurts your pride.”
The inspired writer tells us that he that hateth reproof is brutish. That is rather plain talk. It means that he is like an animal, thinking only of present ease and comfort, without aspirations for nobler attainments. We have immortal souls and should desire ever to reach up to better things, at whatever cost to ourselves. We cannot grow in spiritual life without correction. Even a vine cannot come to its best without pruning. No child will grow into beauty of life if left to go its own way. It needs to be stimulated at some points, at others checked. It needs discipline, pruning, training. No doubt “reproof” is often overdone. Parents are cautioned by St. Paul not to provoke their children to wrath, lest they be discouraged. But wise and loving reproof is always good. It is aimed only at the correction of faults. It points out something in the life that is not beautiful. It may cut and sting, and yet it should not be despised nor rejected. He who hates to be told of his faults is very short-sighted. “While the marble wastes the image grows,” said a great sculptor, as he wrought away on his marble, sending the pieces of stone flying over the floor. The image can grow only by the wasting of the marble. If the stone were to resist the chisel and refuse to be cut away, it would be very foolish, for in no other way can it come into loveliness of form. God’s corrections are like the sculptor’s work on the stone. It is very foolish for us to reject them. It is choosing to keep our earthliness and faultiness rather than suffer the correction of the Lord.
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