Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Proverbs 11:25

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Proverbs 11:25. The liberal soul shall be made fat — He who gives to the distressed, in the true spirit of charity, shall get a hundred fold from God's mercy. How wonderful is the Lord! He gives the property, gives the heart to use it aright, and recompenses the man for the deed, though all the fruit was found from himself!

He that watereth — A man who distributes in the right spirit gets more good himself than the poor man does who receives the bounty. Thus it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Prosperity; uprightness; generosity (11:1-31)

People are foolish to try to get rich by dishonest methods, because dishonesty brings judgment from which riches cannot save (11:1-4). By their blameless conduct, people ensure their ultimate victory; by crookedness they ensure their downfall (5-8). When good people have influence in a city, the citizens live in peace and happiness. But each city also has its troublemakers, who are a nuisance to their neighbours and create unrest in the community (9-11). Because of the trouble these people cause through their harmful speech, the city’s leaders must provide firm but wise direction (12-14).
A further warning is given against making rash guarantees (15; see notes on 6:1-5). Violence may bring prosperity, but the prosperity is deceptive, for it is shortlived. By contrast, kindness brings honour and a lasting reward (16-18). God is in control of the lives of all people, and he makes sure that the righteous life is the only worthwhile life (19-20). There are irregularities, both real and apparent, in the relationship between the inner lives and outer circumstances of some people, but in the end justice will be done (21-23).
Generosity will not result in poverty, for God will reward the generous person. But people curse those who hold back food in a time of scarcity in the hope of forcing the price up (24-26). No matter what people look for, good or evil, they will get it, but if they look for security through wealth they will be disappointed (27-29). The righteous, by their good lives, bring blessing to others. If even they at times suffer from God’s just punishment, how much more will the wicked suffer (30-31).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“The liberal soul shall be made fat; And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”

This repeats and elaborates what was stated in the previous proverb. “Wealth is not the result of miserliness, but rather the opposite.”The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 561.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Liberal soul - literally, “the soul that blesses,” i. e., gives freely and fully. The similitudes are both of them essentially Eastern. Fatness, the sleek, well filled look of health, becomes the figure of prosperity, as leanness of misfortune Proverbs 13:4; Proverbs 28:25; Psalms 22:29; Isaiah 10:16. Kindly acts come as the refreshing dew and soft rain from heaven upon a thirsty land.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn now in Proverbs to the eleventh chapter.

Now we have come in the Proverbs to individual little sayings of wisdom. Each one is separate and complete in itself and unrelated to the next. So that there is very little to comment on, because each of them become a complete little thought and finish within the verse itself. So it is extremely difficult as far as exposition is concerned, because it says it all. And the wisdom is to be gleaned just from really the brevity of the statement itself. And we are in the section in which we are dealing with that type of Hebrew poetry that is in contrast. And in these particular proverbs, there is a contrast between the righteous and the evil. And so you'll find them contrasted all the way through in these little nuggets of truth.

A false balance is an abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight ( Proverbs 11:1 ).

Now before the age of computers and scales like we have and all now, they used to do all of their merchandising with balanced scales. And they had little weights, and the weights would be set on the one side of the balance and then you'd put the grapes on until the scales balanced out. But these clever fellows would oftentimes have two sets of weights: one that they would buy with, and the other that they would sell with. And this was known as a false balance. And, of course, it's an abomination to the Lord. God wants us to deal fairly. God wants us to deal honestly. If you're in any kind of a business, God wants you to be upstanding in your business and to deal fairly and honestly with people. "A false weight is an abomination to the Lord." So it's talking about these diverse weights that people would often use.

I read that years ago in England when they still used the balanced scales that a baker sued a farmer over the pound of butter that he was buying. And he said that when he first started buying butter from the farmer, it was a full pound. But gradually the farmer was selling him less and less, until now he was only giving him about three quarters of a pound of butter and still charging him for the full pound. And so he sued him in court. The farmer in his own defense said to the judge, "Sir, I only have a balanced scale to measure the butter." And he said, "I always put the baker's pound loaf of bread on the other side of the scale and that's how I know when he has his pound of butter."

There is a tendency of charlatans to jimmy the gallonage measures on the gas pumps and things of this nature. God hates this kind of chicanery, and it's an abomination to God. God wants you to be fair, upright, honest in all of your dealings. He doesn't want you to be dishonest and shrewd and trying to take people. "The just weight in His delight." God delights in honesty in business.

When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom ( Proverbs 11:2 ).

Now as you go through the proverbs he has so much to say about pride. And it is a very fascinating study just to run your concordance through Proverbs and find out how many things he has to say about pride. Certainly it is something that God disdains. And it is true the man who is proud is blind. The man who is proud has never seen God. There's no way that a person can really come into a real relationship with God and still be proud. Isaiah said, "In the year the king Uzziah died then I saw the Lord high and lifted up, sitting upon the throne, His glory filled the temple. Then said I, 'Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips'" ( Isaiah 6:1 , Isaiah 6:5 ).

In seeing God, he sees the truth about himself. And so the man who is proud has never seen the truth about himself, which means he has never really seen God. And so there is much said about pride. How God hates pride. How God hates a haughty attitude, a haughty spirit, thinking that I am better than somebody else. Thinking that I'm too good to give him the time of day. Thinking, "Well, I'm too busy to be bothered by his needs." That I'm somehow elevated or above him. God hates that kind of an attitude. The lowly, that is the attitude that is esteemed of God. And so with the proud comes shame. God will bring him to shame.

In the next, after our lesson, the sixteenth I think, we get into more things on pride and all, cometh before a fall and so forth. But lowly and the proud and the humble are contrasted many times.

The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them ( Proverbs 11:3 ).

And so the contrast: the one, a man of integrity being guided; the man of perversity being destroyed.

Riches profit not in the day of wrath ( Proverbs 11:4 ):

Or in the coming day of God's judgment. Riches are going to be no profit to a person. How can you buy God off? "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" ( Matthew 16:26 ) You see. In the day of wrath riches will have no value at all. When God's day of judgment comes, the riches that you have gained will be of absolutely no value to you at all.

but righteousness will deliver a man from death ( Proverbs 11:4 ).

The day of God's wrath, riches of no value. In fact, we are told in Revelation that they'll be selling a measure of wheat for a day's wage. A pint of wheat, work all day, for a pint of wheat. The day of God's wrath.

The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness ( Proverbs 11:5 ).

So contrasting between righteousness and wicked.

The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but the transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness ( Proverbs 11:6 ).

You'll be caught in your own guile, in your own deceit.

When a wicked man dies, his expectation [or his hope] perishes: and the hope of the unjust men perish ( Proverbs 11:7 ).

So the death of the wicked, hope is all gone. As long as there's life, there's hope. When he dies, there is no hope.

Jesus said to Martha, when she said, "Lord, if You'd only been here, my brother would not have died." He said, "Your brother's going to live again." She said, "Oh yes, Lord, I know in the last day, the great resurrection." Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?" ( John 11:21 , John 11:23-26 )

I like that. Jesus is so direct with people. He makes this incredibly radical statement. So radical that it rivals anything I've ever read or heard of any man stating in Israel. A man saying, "If you live and believe in Me, you'll never die." Then He says, "Do you believe this?" So immediately He puts you on one or the other side of the fence. Yes, I believe. No, I don't believe. Oh, but it's much more than that. You either have hope or you have no hope.

Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, they have absolutely no hope. "When a wicked man dies, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perishes." It's the end of it. No hope for them. But those who believe in Christ, "Thank God," Peter said, "for a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" ( 1 Peter 1:3 ).

The righteous is delivered out of trouble, [contrast] the wicked cometh to his just desserts ( Proverbs 11:8 ).

Now God delivers the righteous man; the wicked man falls in the pit.

A hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor ( Proverbs 11:9 ):

Oh, the tongue, what it can do as far as destruction. How many people have been destroyed by gossip--many times untrue. "The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor." Contrasting:

but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting ( Proverbs 11:9-10 ).

So the contrast again, the righteous and the wicked. When it goes well with the righteous, the city is rejoicing. When the wicked dies, the city rejoices. When the righteous man is blessed and things are going well with him, everybody rejoices. When the wicked man gets wiped out, everybody rejoices.

By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. He that is void of wisdom despises his neighbor: but a man of understanding makes peace. A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit will conceal the matter ( Proverbs 11:11-13 ).

Talebearer will go out and tell everything he knows of evil, of the wrongdoing. But the person of a faithful spirit will cover it; he'll conceal the matter.

Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety ( Proverbs 11:14 ).

I've often said also, "In the multitude of counselors there is confusion." There are people who shop counselors. They'll come up and they say, "I was talking with Pastor Romaine, and I talked to Chuck Mattier, and I talked to Jerry Westburg, and I wanted to talk to you about this." Well, you know that they're really not looking for counsel. It's that the other three guys haven't agreed with them yet, and they're looking and hoping someone's going to agree with them somewhere along the line. They're looking for confirmation rather than real counseling, real guidance. And people just shop around until they can find someone who'll say, "Oh well, that's fine. Go ahead and do it. Yes, that's wonderful." They're really not wanting to be guided. They're only wanting affirmation that what they're doing is all right to do, is the right thing to do. And so in the multitude of counselors, quite often there is confusion. The more you go to, the more different things you hear. And you get to you don't know what to do.

He that is surety for a stranger will smart for it ( Proverbs 11:15 ):

If you say, "Oh yeah, he's all right," and you don't know the guy, hey, you're going to get bit. You're going to smart for it.

and he that hateth suretyship is sure ( Proverbs 11:15 ).

Interesting play on words. If you hate suretyship, that is, putting up your word for somebody else, if you hate doing that, then you're going to be safe. But if you put it up for a stranger, you're going to get hurt.

A gracious woman retains her honor: and strong men retain riches ( Proverbs 11:16 ).

"A gracious woman retains her honor." Beautiful.

The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubles his own flesh. The wicked works a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. As righteousness tendeth to life; and he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death ( Proverbs 11:17-19 ).

So righteousness and life contrasted with evil and death.

They that are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight ( Proverbs 11:20 ).

What a contrast.

Though hand join in hand ( Proverbs 11:21 ),

That is, for strength and defense.

the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered ( Proverbs 11:21 ).

This next one is an interesting picturesque.

As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion ( Proverbs 11:22 ).

A beautiful woman that has no discretion, has no sense. The ornament of gold, it's beautiful, but it's out of place in a swine's snout. A fair woman, beautiful, but she's out of place if she doesn't have discretion, if she's not discreet.

The desire of the righteous is only good ( Proverbs 11:23 ):

Righteous and wicked again.

but the expectation of the wicked is wrath ( Proverbs 11:23 ).

Now here we have an interesting spiritual law in the twenty-fourth proverb here.

There is that which scatters, and yet it increases; and there is that is that which holds more than is necessary, but it tends towards poverty ( Proverbs 11:24 ).

There is a spiritual law, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; measured out, pressed down, running over, shall men give unto your bosom" ( Luke 6:38 ). "He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly; he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully" ( 2 Corinthians 9:6 ). And "whatever measure you mete it out, it's going to be measured back to you again" ( Mark 4:24 ). Spiritual law. Here it is said in just a little different way, but the same spiritual truth. "There are those who scatter, and yet they increase." You increase by giving. "There are those who withhold more than is necessary, but it tends towards poverty."

The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered himself. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. He that diligently seeks good procureth favor: but he that seeks mischief, it will come to him. He that trusts in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. He that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise ( Proverbs 11:25-30 ).

They that are wise, let's see, they that win souls are wise and shall shine as the stars forever and ever. In Daniel, he that winneth souls is wise and "shall shine as the stars forever and ever" ( Daniel 12:3 ). How God wants us to be winning souls for Jesus Christ. "He that winneth souls is wise." A very wise occupation to give yourself to, winning others to Jesus Christ. "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; he that winneth souls is wise."

Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more than the wicked and the sinner ( Proverbs 11:31 ).

Continuing the contrast between righteousness and wickedness on through the twelfth chapter of the Proverbs. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

4. Wise investments 11:16-31

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The liberal soul shall be made fat,.... Or, "the soul of blessing" c: that is, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "the soul which blesseth"; not that merely prays for a blessing upon others, and wishes them well, and gives them good words; but bestows blessings on them, gives good things unto them liberally, cheerfully, and plentifully; and so is a blessing to the poor, and receives a blessing from them again; as such also do from the Lord, by whom they are "made fat"; or are blessed with temporal and spiritual blessings; and are in thriving and flourishing circumstances, both in soul and body. So he that comes full fraught with the blessing of the Gospel of Christ to others is enriched with it himself, and becomes more and more flourishing in gifts and grace;

and he that watereth shall be watered also himself; he that largely shares with others, like a flowing fountain of water, shall have an abundance communicated to him again from God, the inexhaustible fountain of mercies. Watering the plants in Christ's vineyard is one part of the work of a Gospel minister; "I have planted, Apollos watered", c. 1 Corinthians 3:6 and such who do their work well are watered, rewarded, refreshed, and comforted of God, being largely taught and richly furnished for such service by him; so the Targum,

"and he that teacheth, also he himself shall learn.''

c נפש ברכה "anima benedictionis", Montanus, Baynus, Cocceius, Michaelis; "anima benedictioni dedita", Schultens.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

      So backward we are to works of charity, and so ready to think that giving undoes us, that we need to have it very much pressed upon us how much it is for our own advantage to do good to others, as before, Proverbs 11:17; Proverbs 11:17. 1. We shall have the comfort of it in our own bosoms: The liberal soul, the soul of blessing, that prays for the afflicted and provides for them, that scatters blessings with gracious lips and generous hands, that soul shall be made fat with true pleasure and enriched with more grace. 2. We shall have the recompence of it both from God and man: He that waters others with the streams of his bounty shall be also watered himself; God will certainly return it in the dews, in the plentiful showers, of his blessing, which he will pour out, till there be not room enough to receive it,Malachi 3:10. Men that have any sense of gratitude will return it if there be occasion; the merciful shall find mercy and the kind be kindly dealt with. 3. We shall be enabled still to do yet more good: He that waters, even he shall be as rain (so some read it); he shall be recruited as the clouds are which return after the rain, and shall be further useful and acceptable, as the rain to the new-mown grass. he that teaches shall learn (so the Chaldee reads it); he that uses his knowledge in teaching others shall himself be taught of God; to him that has, and uses what he has, more shall be given.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Waterer Watered

A sermon (No. 626) delivered on Sunday Morning, April 23, 1865, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon.

“He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:25 .

The general principle is that in living for the good of others, we shall be profited also ourselves. We must not isolate our own interests, but feel that we live for others. This teaching is sustained by the analogy of nature, for in nature there is a law that no one thing can be independent of the rest of creation, but there is a mutual action and reaction of all upon all. All the constituent parts of the universe are bound to one another by invisible chains, and there is not a single creature in it which springeth up, or flourisheth, or decayeth for itself alone. The very planets, though they float far from one another, exercise attraction; and the fixed stars, though they seem to be infinitely remote, are still linked to one another by mysterious bonds. God has so constituted this universe that selfishness is the greatest possible offense against his law, and living for others, and ministering to others, is the strictest obedience to his will. Our surest road to our own happiness is to seek the good of our fellows. We store up in God’s own bank what we generously expend on the behalf of our race. The little spring bubbling forth from the ancient pipe on the hill side overflows the stone basin, and liberally supplies all the villagers with pure and cooling drink. In its flowing it does not waste itself, for the deep fountains in the bowels of the earth continue unceasingly to supply it, and both in winter’s frost and summer’s drought the spring-head yields its crystal stream. The little brook which babbles through the wood, hiding among stones, leaping down the moss-grown rocks, and anon deepening and swelling its stream, pours all its gatherings into the river hoarding not a drop, and though its treasure is constantly being lavished with unstinting liberality, yet heaven and earth see to it that the brook shall never fail to sing its joyous song,

“Men may come and go

But I go on for ever.”

The river hastens with its greater floods towards the all-receiving ocean, pouring itself out every hour with happy plenteousness as though it only existed to empty itself; yet the abundant tributaries which come streaming from the hills and draining the valleys are careful that the river shall know no lack, but shall be kept constantly brimming, a joyous and bounding river evermore. The ocean perpetually sends up its steaming exhalations to the sky, grudging nothing it puts no doors to its roiling waves, but uncovereth all its treasure to the sun, and the sun makes large draughts upon the royal exchequer of the deep; nevertheless the ocean is not diminished, for all the rivers are constantly conspiring to keep the sea full to the shore. The clouds of heaven when they are full of rain empty themselves upon the earth, and yet the clouds cease not to be, for “they return after the rain,” and the ocean down below seems but to be too glad to be continually feeding its sister ocean on the other side the firmament. So as wheels with bands are made to work together, as wheels with cogs working upon one another, the whole watery machinery is kept in motion by each part acting upon its next neighbor, and the next upon the next. Each wheel expends its force upon its fellow, and the whole find a recompense in their mutual action upon one another. The same truth might be illustrated from other departments of nature. If we view this microcosm, the human body, we shall find that the heart does not receive the blood to store it up, but while it pumps it in at one valve it sends it forth at another. The blood is always circulating everywhere and is stagnant nowhere; the same is true of all the fluids in a healthy body, they are in a constant state of expenditure. If one cell stores for a few moments its peculiar secretion, it only retains it till it is perfectly fitted for its appointed use in the body, for if any cell in the body should begin to store up its secretion, its store would soon become the cause of inveterate disease; nay, the organ would soon lose the power to secrete at all if it did not give forth its products. The whole of the human system lives by giving. The eye cannot say to the foot I have no need of thee and will not guide thee, for if it does not perform its watchful office the whole man will be in the ditch, and the eye will be covered with mire. If the members refuse to contribute to the general stock the whole body will become poverty-stricken, and be given up to the bankruptcy of death. Let us learn then from the analogy of nature, the great lesson that to get we must give; that to accumulate we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy we must make others happy; and that to get good and become spiritually vigorous we must do good and seek the spiritual good of others. This is the general principle.

The text suggests a particular personal application of the general principle. We shall consider it first in its narrowest sense, as belonging to ourselves personally; secondly, in a wider sense as it may refer to us as a Church; then thirdly, in its widest sense as it may be referred to the entire body of Christ, showing that still it is true that as it watereth so it shall be watered itself.

I. First then, in reference to ourselves personally .

There are some works my brethren, in which we cannot all engage. Peculiar men are called to be God’s great woodmen, to clear the way with the axe, to go before his army like our sappers and miners such men as Martin Luther, and Calvin, and Zwingle that glorious trio of heroes marching in front of reformation and evangelization; they are cutting down the tall trees, tunnelling the hills, and bridging the rivers, and we smaller men feel that there is little of this work for us to do. But when the backwoodsmen have cleared the forest, after all the roots are grubbed and the soil is burned and ploughed, then comes the sowing and the planting, and in this all the household can take a place; and when the plants have sprung up and need water, it is not only the stalwart man with the axe who can now apply himself to watering, but even the little children can take a share in this lighter work. Watering is work for persons of all grades and all sorts. If I cannot carry about me some ponderous load as the Eastern water-bearer can, yet I will take my little waterpot, my little jug or pitcher, and go to the well; for if I cannot water the forest tree I may water the tiny plant which grows at its root. Watering is work for all sorts of people; so then, we will make a personal application to every Christian here this morning: you can all do something in watering, and this promise can therefore be realized by you all, “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”

All God’s plants more or less want watering. You and I do. We cannot live long without fresh supplies of grace. Hence the value of the promise, “I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment.” There are no rills at our root as we grow in the soil of nature; it is only in the garden of grace that we are “like trees planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth our fruit in our season.” If the Lord Jesus who is the stem of the vine should cease to supply us with the fresh sap of grace, should we not be like the withered branch which is cast over the wall to be burned in the fire?

The Lord’s people usually get this watering through instrumentality. God does not speak to us out of heaven with his own voice perhaps the thunder might appal us; he doth not write texts of Scripture with his own finger in letters of fire across the sky, but he waters us by instrumentality, by his Word written and his Word preached, or otherwise uttered by his servants. His Holy Spirit waters us by the admonitions of parents, by the kind suggestions of friends, by the teaching of his ministers, by the example of all his saints. The Holy Spirit waters us, but he takes care to do it by our fellow-workers, putting an honor upon his own servants by using them in instrumentality.

This being fully believed by us all, we may proceed to another truth, namely that some of his servants especially want watering and should therefore be the objects of our constant care. Some plants need watering from their peculiar nature. A gardener will tell you that certain flowers require very little water, perhaps for months they will grow in a stony soil, but others must be watered regularly and plenteously or they will soon droop. Some of you, my dear brothers and sisters, are so desponding that if you did not receive much comfort you would hardly hold up your heads at all; you are so weak in the faith that if you were not fed with milk continually you would scarcely be alive. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God” is especially applicable to the mourners in Zion. Their constitutional temperament is such that to maintain the lamp of their joy they require much oil of comfort.

Perhaps too they are ignorant, and the ignorant want much watering. If they knew the doctrines of grace more fully they might go to the wells themselves: but not knowing where the water is, or feeling like the woman at the well that the well is deep, and that there is nothing to draw with, they cannot get the water; and we who are instructed in the way of God must take care that we bring up the water for them with our longer length of the line of knowledge, so that they may not fail to be watered.

It may be the need is not so much caused by the nature of the plant, but by the position in which it is placed. Many of you, dear brethren, are very happily situated where you can constantly attend the means of grace, where the family altar smokes with sweet perfume, where you cannot well help growing for you are like plants in a hothouse. But there are others on the contrary who live in houses where the jeer is far more frequently heard than the voice of praise; where instead of being helped in your devotions you are hindered; your spirit is driven to and fro with distractions; from the very closet where you wanted to commune with God, you are forced out by cruel mocking. We ought to be very tender over your condition, as being planted on no fruitful hill, but on a very thirsty land where no water is; your position should lead God’s people to watch you with deepest interest, and see to it that you are well watered.

I may mention also the sick. When our dear friends are tried with bodily pain, when they are shut up week after week from the public gatherings, then they want watering. Their position is such that we ought to be specially mindful of them. It is written, “He carrieth the lambs in his bosom, and gently leadeth those that are with young;” and we must note the peculiar condition of the saints of God, being most careful of those who most need our tenderness.

Let me also suggest the young to you. These want watering, both, let me say, from their character and from their position. With little experience and little knowledge they are prone to wander or to be seized by the wolf. Tend them with parental affection. When slips of flowers are first put into the ground they want more water than they will do afterwards; when they have sent out more roots, and these roots have abundant fibres searching through the soil for moisture, they may not require much of the gardener’s care; but just now they must have it or die. Therefore I say, let the feeble, the weak, the young, the sick, the persecuted, be watered most anxiously and lovingly by you all.

Certain dear friends need watering, not so much from their position and character, as from the present trials through which they are passing. Certain plants, after long standing in the sun, droop their leaves and look as if they must wither and die; but as soon as water is poured to their roots it has sometimes perfectly surprised me to see how they will recover. I could scarcely think that they were the same plants, their recovery was so sudden. The little roots beneath sent the message up to the main roots and said, “We have found out moisture, a friendly hand has given us a supply,” and the root talked to the stem, and the stem rejoiced, and the great leaves drank up their share, and the little leaves sucked up their drops, till the whole plant to the very summit was verdant once more and rejoiced. Times will come to all of us when we want water. I myself get very desponding at seasons, as I suppose you do. Unbelief dries us up. Oh that devil of unbelief! Why, if that demon were dead the other devil we might very well contend with. Personal affliction, losses, crosses, burdens, make us just like the withering shrub, and then we want to have the consolations of some kind friend to water us.

Dear friends, sometimes there are those in the Church who particularly want watering because they are actually withering. It is not to maintain verdure in their case, but to restore it. Those backsliding ones, those who have slipped with their feet, do not cast them off, for God casts not off the backsliding one. When they begin to forsake the House of God, do not forsake them; follow them with your tears. In such a Church as this if you do not exercise mutual oversight over one another we shall simply become a mass of corruption, instead of being a mountain of holiness. Watch over your brethren as soon as you see the first signs of declension. When they forsake the prayer-meetings, gently give them a hint of the evil of lukewarmness, and the danger of falling by little and little. When you mark the first sign in their outward carriage of laxity with regard to divine things, when you see coldness where there was formerly zeal, be sure to give a gentle word of earnest, pathetic admonition. As I look around this Tabernacle, I can but compare these rising seats to shelves in the conservatory, and you are the plants which must all be watered or you will languish and wither; and I who have to be my Master’s under-gardener am very anxious to say to all of you who have any water in your wateringpots, help me to water these plants, that by the gracious operations of God the Holy Ghost they may be kept fruitful, green, verdant in spiritual things even to the end.

We now enter more thoroughly into our text and observe that all believers have power to water others. You may not have much ability or influence, but you all have some power in this matter. In thinking over what Solomon meant, it struck me that he had in his mind’s eye the plan of irrigation which is followed in some Eastern countries. The rivers at certain seasons overflow their banks. The careful husbandmen whose farms are close along the sides of the bank, have large tanks and reservoirs in which they store up the water. After the flood, the river is comparatively empty, and the little farms, the vineyards, and pastures on the banks begin to cry out for water; then the careful husbandman lets out the water from his tank or reservoir by slow degrees, and uses it with great economy. It would sometimes happen that one of these farmers would have his reservoirs filled, and his next neighbor, perhaps through the bursting of a tank, or the falling down of the bank of earth, might have little or no water. At such times a churlish man would say, “I shall want all my water for myself, I will not lend or give so much as a drop of it. I have none to spare.” But the generous man says, “I do not know whether God may be pleased to send a drought or no, but I cannot let my neighbor lose all his crops for the want of a little water while I have a good stock in hand;” so he pulls up the sluice and lets such a stream as he thinks he can spare flow into his neighbour’s channel, that he may water his fields therewith. Now Solomon says that those who water others shall be watered; hence, next season it may happen that this good man may have no water himself; well then, all the farmers round about will say, “Why, he helped us when his tank was full, and we will return his kindness into his bosom.” “Ah,” says one, “he saved me from ruin; I should not have had a crop at all last season if it had not been for him.” So they all lend a portion till he finds no difficulty whatever; even in a season of drought when men cannot get water for love or money, he is sure to have it. The common feeling of men, as a usual rule, recognises the law of gratitude, and men say, “He watered others, he shall be watered himself.” My dear brother, you may be a man of talent, you may be a man of wealth: just turn on the big tap and let your ignorant or poor neighbors benefit a little by your abundance; pull up the flood-gates and let the more needy brethren be enriched by your fullness: open that mouth of yours that your wisdom may feed many; tell of what God has done for your soul that the humble may hear thereof and be glad. Do not be a reservoir brimmed up till the banks are ready to burst out through the weight which presses upon them, but just let some of the treasure run out, and when your need of it shalt come and who knows when it may overtake any of us? you shall find willing friends who shall run with swift feet to cheer your adversity.

This simile needs to be supplemented by another: many true saints are unable to do much. See then the gardeners going down to the pond and dipping in their watering-pots to carry the refreshing liquid to the flowers. A child comes into the garden and wishes to help; and yonder is a little watering-pot for him. Now, see that little water-pot, though it does not carry so much, yet carries the same water; and it does not make any difference to the half-dozen flowers which get that water whether it came out of the big pot or the little pot, so long as it is the same water and they get it. You who are like children in God’s Church, you who do not know much, yet try and tell to others what you do know, and if it be the same gospel truth and it be blest by the same Spirit it will not matter to the souls who get blessed by you whether they were blessed by a man of one or ten talents. What difference will it make to me whether I was converted to God by means of a poor woman who was never made a blessing to anybody else, or by one who had brought his thousands to the Savior’s feet? Go, my dear brethren, and exercise the holy art of watering. You say “How?” Why, a word may do it, a look may do it, an action may do it; only zealously desire to offer sympathy, to afford instruction, to give needed help, to impart what you may be favored with to others, and you shall be watering yourselves.

The main point is that in so watering others we shall be watered ourselves. I am sure we shall, for God promises it and he always keeps his promise. If I want to get water I must give water. Though that seems a strange way of self-serving, I pray you try it. Was not that a very singular thing that when the poor woman of Sarepta had nearly exhausted all her meal, the prophet asked for a cake for himself? She had been very saving of it; I dare say she had eaten only a mouthful or two every day. She and her poor boy were looking very thin. They had come to the last handful. She thought, “I will make one cake for my son and myself and then we will die.” She is outside picking up sticks that she may bake this cake. God intends to bless her. How does he do it? There comes his prophet, the hairy man, and the first word he says to her is, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.” She is quite ready to serve any one, and away she hastens for the water, when Elijah cries aloud, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” What, out of that little handful only enough for one? “Yes,” he says, “make me thereof a little cake first, and after make for thee and thy son.” “After that!” she might have said, “what will be left after that? When there is only a handful of meal and a little oil in a cruse, not enough for one, am I to give that to you and afterwards see to myself and child?” Faith enabled her to obey, and from that very moment neither she nor her son ever knew what want was. She gave from her little, and her little multiplied. The case of the woman of Zarephath is but one of thousands establishing the rule of God’s mode of action with his Church, a rule which shall not be broken till the end shall come.

Let me show you how you will get watered yourself. In the first place, if you try to do good to others it will do you good by waking up your powers. Thousands of men do not know what they are made of. You have no idea what a fine fellow you are, young man, till you begin to shake yourself a little and go forth to fight the Lord’s battles. We do not know what sinews we have till we climb the mountains; we do not know what strength there may be in our backs and arms till we have to carry a ponderous load, and then we find it out. You have latent talents, dormant faculties which would work wonders if you could call them forth. Some people are not awake more than skin deep; all underneath the skin is sound asleep. They are like the great candle which I showed you one night with a small wick, which was only melted a little in the middle while all the outside was still cold hard tallow, and did not contribute to the light. You have not become warmed through yet, your whole souls have not been wound up to the right pitch for serving God, you have only a little earnestness, a little zeal; but if you ventured upon holy enterprises you would bestir yourself so thoroughly that you would scarcely know yourself again. That would be a blessing indeed.

But next you would often find that in trying to water others, you gained instruction. Go talk to some poor saint to comfort her, and she will tell you what will comfort you. Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures, we came away blushing that we knew so little of them. We went to talk experimental truth, and we found we were only up to the ankles while here were God’s poor saints breast-deep in the river of divine love. We learn by teaching, and our pupils often teach us.

You will also get comfort in your work. Rest assured that working for others is very happy exercise. Like the two men in the snow; one chafed the other’s limbs to keep him from dying, and in so doing he kept his own blood in circulation, and his own life was preserved. Comfort God’s people and the comfort will return into your own soul.

Watering others will make you humble. You will find better people in the world than yourself. You will be astonished to find how much grace there is where you thought there was none, and how much knowledge some have gained while you as yet have made little progress with far greater opportunities.

You will also win many prayers. Those who work for others get prayed for, and that is a swift way of growing rich in grace. Let me have your prayers and I can do anything! Let me be without my people’s prayers, and I can do nothing. You Sunday-school teachers, if you are blessed to the conversion of the children, you will get your children’s prayers. You that conduct the larger classes, in the conversion of your young people you will be sure to have a wealth of love come back into your own bosoms, swimming upon the stream of supplication. You will thus be a blessing to yourselves.

In watering others you will get honor to yourselves, and that will help to water you by stimulating your future exertions. The Romans appointed censors in their State, not only to censure men for gross immoralities, but to require every man to give an account of what he was doing for the good of the Republic. We have deacons and elders would it not be an additional blessing to have censors in the Church to go round and ask the members, all of them, what they are doing for the good of the Christian Church? A Greek historian desired very intensely to say a word about the people of the city where he was born. He felt he could not write his history without saying something of his own native place, and accordingly he wrote this “While Athens was building temples and Sparta was waging war, my countrymen were doing nothing.” I am afraid there are too many Christians of whom, if the book were written as to what they are doing in the Church, it would have to be said they have been doing nothing all their lives. You would be delivered from that reproach if you began to water others.

Let me cease from this subject by saying while you are watering others, you will be manifesting and showing your love to Christ, and that will make you more like him, and so you will be watered while you are seeking to benefit your neighbors. To serve Jesus! what need I say of that? Look into that face bedewed with bloody sweat for you, and can you not sweat for him? Look to those hands pierced for you, and shall your hands hang idly down and not be used for him? Look at those feet fastened to the wood with nails for you! Can I ask of you any pilgrimage too long to repay the toil which those feet endured for your sake? My brethren and sisters, remember what Christ Jesus has done for you, from whence he came, the riches which he left, to what he came, the poverty and shame which he endured, and how he went down into the depths that he might take us up to the heights. If you will think of these, you will have the best motive methinks for beginning to look after his lambs and fighting with those lions which seek to devour his flock; and in that moving motive will be the main means by which you shall be conformed to his image, and shall become like him, self-sacrificing, doing your Father’s business.

I wish I could speak more powerfully this morning but the matter ought to speak for itself with Christians. If we love Jesus we shall not want any pleading with to water his plants. If you really love him it will not be a question of whether you shall do something, the only question will be “What can I do?” and you will say in your pew this morning, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” He has spared your lives, he has given you health and strength, provided you with spirituals and temporals, he has made your heart leap for joy at the sound of his name, he has plucked you out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay, he has taken you out of the black bondage of the prince of darkness and made you his sons and daughters; he has put the ring of his eternal love upon your finger, your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace

“This world is yours, and worlds to come,

Earth is your lodge, and heaven your home.”

There is a crown for your head and a palm branch for your hand and pavements of gold for your feet, and felicities for ever for your entire soul; and even your body is to be raised again from the dust and fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for you.” Now what will you do for him? Will you not win the promise that your soul shall be watered by seeking to water the souls of others?

II. a brief exhortation shall suffice for the second point this general principle is worthy of a wider application.

We as a Church, dear friends, have enjoyed singular prosperity. While many Churches have been depressed and decreased in numbers, we have increased. While other Churches have had the hectic flush of a spurious revival, we have had one perpetual revival lasting for nearly twelve years. I do not know that we have increased at a more or a less rapid rate; we could not increase more quickly for we have not officers enough, or time enough to see the converts as it is; we have never, I think, increased less, for the work seems to have ever the same prosperity about it. I praise God that I can say of my ministry in this place and elsewhere, that to this day it hath the dew of its youth upon it, and there are as many rejoicing to find Christ through the agencies employed in this Church to-day as in the first day when we came among you in the freshness and vigor of our youth. We have had no schism; we have had no division; we have not been vexed with heresy. We have been blessed with something like persecution, but this has only bound us the faster to one another till we are like a three-fold cord which cannot be broken, and like iron bars made red hot in the furnace and hammered together, we are not soon to be sundered from one another. Now, dear friends, up to this time the policy which we have pursued has been this: if members of other Churches want to know, we hereby tell them, we have endeavored to water others. Your minister has journeyed all over the three kingdoms preaching the Word, and you have not grumbled at his absence. We have undertaken many enterprises for Christ; we hope to undertake a great many more. We have never husbanded our strength; we have undertaken enterprises that were enough to exhaust us, to which we became accustomed in due season, and then we have gone on to something more. We have never sought to hinder the uprising of other Churches from our midst or in our neighborhood. It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties, to form other Churches. We encourage our members to leave us to found other Churches; nay, we seek to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land to become the goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long as we do this we shall prosper. I have marked other Churches that have adopted the other way, and they have not succeeded. This is what I have heard from some ministers: “I do not encourage village stations, or if I do, I do not encourage their becoming distinct Churches and breaking bread together. I do not encourage too many young men going out to preach, for to have a knot of people who can preach a little may very soon cause dissatisfaction with my own preaching.” I have marked those who have followed this course, and I have seen that the effect of trying to keep all the blood in the heart is to bring on congestion, and very soon the whole body has been out of health. My brethren, if you can do more good elsewhere than you can do here, for God’s sake, go, and happy shalt I be that you have gone. If you can serve my Master in the little rooms in the neighborhood, if by forming yourselves into smaller Churches you can increase the honor of my Master’s name, I shall love you none the less for going, but I shall delight to think that you have Christ’s spirit in you, and can do and dare for his name’s sake. At the present moment we rejoice to know that many a Sunday School in this neighborhood is indebted to the members of this Church for teachers. It is right. We do not want you at home, and are therefore glad to see you at work elsewhere. No matter, so long as Christ is preached, whether you throw your strength into that Church or into this Church. Here, as being members with us, we have the first claim upon you; but when we do not need you by reason of our abundance of men, go and give your strength to any other part of Christ’s Church that may desire you.

While I speak thus much in your praise my brethren and sisters, let me say we must keep this up. If we say, “We have the College to support, and we do as much as other Churches for various societies, and we can be content to sit still,” this Church will begin to go rotten at the core the moment we are not working for God with might and main. Sometimes I get a pull at my coat-tail by very kind, judicious friends, who think I shall ask you to do too much. My brethren are welcome to pull my coat-tail, but it will come off before I shall stand back for a moment. As long as I live I must serve my Master with my whole soul, and when you think I go too fast, you can stand back if you dare, for mark, you will be responsible to God if you do; you may start back if you will and if you dare, but I must go on, must go, MUST go on, or else you and I that are worthy of the day in which you live will follow me, step by step, in any good project, and though I should seem too rash, you will redeem me from the charge of rashness by the enthusiasm and the earnestness with which you carry out my plans. Here is this great city! Was there ever such spiritual destitution? A million of people who could not go to a place of worship, if they had the heart to go there! And here we have the priestcraft of the Church of England increasing the spiritual destitution by building fresh Churches not providing for it, but increasing it I say, for I reckon that wherever Puseyism is preached there is an increase of spiritual destitution; wherever broad Churchism comes, there is an increase of spiritual destitution, and it is little better where they go who preach the gospel in the pulpit, and read Popery at the font, the grave, and the bedside. In this last case public morality is shocked by the perjury of those who swear to a Prayer Book in which they do not believe. Much as I respect and even love believers in the Anglican Establishment, I can only feel that their presence in so corrupt a body is the reason why it exists; and I therefore think them to be doing mischief by buttressing a falling and ruinous cause. True Protestants, we must take upon ourselves to work for London, as if there were no other agencies at work except those of the Free Churches; for the Hagar Church, the Church which has a mortal for its head, the harlot Church which lives in alliance with the State, has too many sins of her own to repent of to be of much use in this hour of peril. The good she can do is so insignificant that it is not worth while to compute it, because the monstrous evil which she fosters and perpetrates is a more than sufficient set-off against it. We must work and toil and labor to scatter in every lane, amid alley and court of London, the pure gospel of the blessed God; and let men know that Sacramentarianism is a lie, and that there is no salvation but in the uplifted cross of Christ, and no salvation through ceremonies but only through a simple faith in him who loved us and gave himself for us. If ye, among others, are come to the kingdom for such a time as this, it shall be well with you; but if not, ye shall be put away as things abhorred, and this place shall be a hissing and a bye-word in generations yet to come, and it shall be said of you, there lived a people who were led by a man, who, with all his faults, was in earnest and was honest, and they would not follow him, but proved unworthy of him, and they have passed away, and their names are writ in water. They had opportunities which they did not use; work was allotted them which they were not worthy to take up, God said to them in answer to their request to be excused, “Ye shall be excused;” and they went back

“To the vile dust from whence they sprung,

Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.”

But it shall not be so with you my brethren, though I thus speak; I know your zeal, and love, and earnestness, and that you will continue to water others, and then you shall be watered yourselves. We will pray and strive together for the faith once delivered to the saints; we will cleave closer and closer to one another, and foot to foot, and shoulder to shoulder, we will march to battle for God and for his truth, and come what may, whoever may prove cravens in these days of charity and compromise, we will be found, in God’s name, by the help of God’s Spirit, faithful and true.

III. And now dear friends, another sentence or two will close the sermon.

On the widest scale, this is true. This is true of our denomination and of every Church. If we will water others, we shall be watered. From the very day when Carey, and Fuller, and Pearce went forth to send the gospel to the heathen, a blessing rested upon our denomination, I believe, and if we had done more for the heathen we should have been stronger to do more at home. You may rest assurred, though some may not think it, that our missionary operations are an infinite blessing to the churches at home that relinquishing them, giving them up, staying them, would bring such a blight and a curse that we had need to go down on our knees and pray, God send the missionary work back again. Give us an outlet for our liberality and our zeal, for without it we become like a pool dammed up, that is full of filth, and toads, and frogs, and all sorts of foul things. Lord, open the river for our zeal and let us once again have an opportunity to serve thee for the nations that are far away!” But I must leave you to preach on that point for my time has gone, and you can do so more practically than I can. My sermon is reported, and I will undertake that what you preach shall not be forgotten, it shall all be taken down in those boxes which shall be passed round. Say each of you as much as ever you can upon this subject by your contributions, and remember, “He that watereth others, shall himself be watered.”