Introduction
Introduction
Thomas Scott, the brilliant ex-unitarian brought to evangelical faith by John Newton, wrote a multivolume exposition of the whole Bible that achieved great popularity in the early years of the nineteenth century. In the preface to his treatment of Proverbs he declared: "It would be very useful for those who can command their time at some stated season every day to read and deliberately consider a few of those maxims, with reference to their own conduct in the various affairs in which they are concerned." Billy Graham, whose habit has been to read a chapter from Proverbs daily, would no doubt agree; as did Charles Bridges, who quoted Scott's words with approval toward the close of his own preface to the present exposition. In our day, as in his, many professed Christians never look at Proverbs, and many more find reading the book a dreary duty, boring them to tears and, as far as they can see, not benefiting them at all. But that is something that this classic commentary can help change.
Who was Charles Bridges? The nephew of Nathaniel Bridges, who in his day was known as the most learned and influential evangelical minister in the Oxford area, Charles spent his working life as a country clergyman of the Church of England. Born in 1794 and ordained in 1817, he died in 1869. As vicar of Melcombe Regis and Hinton Martell, where he served for the last twenty years of his life, he was an influential member of the Dorset Clerical Society who greatly impressed the young Handley Moule, later a Cambridge don, principal of Ridley Hall, and Bishop of Durham. Like his uncle, Charles was a scholar, and like Scott he was a clear, easy-flowing writer. His 1829 treatise The Christian Ministry became a standard work, going through eight editions in twenty-five years, and this major exposition of Proverbs, published in 1846, reached its fourth edition in 1859.
Bridges lived at a time when learned evangelical clergy, self-taught in theology for the most part, were constantly expounding from the Bible the roots and fruits of true piety; his work on Proverbs should be seen as a contribution to this endeavor. Of himself he says that, having in a major exposition of Psalm 119 "shown at large Christian experience to be built upon the doctrines of the Gospel," he wished to exhibit Christian practice as resting on this same foundation. He interprets Proverbs canonically— that is, as an organic part of the Bible as a whole, the "word of Christ" as he calls it—and evangelically—that is, as assuming the change of heart through the Holy Spirit's regenerating action about which evangelical theology is explicit—and practically—that is, as a guide to wise and godly behavior in all human relationships. And he sees Proverbs as enforcing the truth that "Holiness is happiness. It is not indeed the mirth of the fool or the gaiety of the thoughtless. But it is the only thing that deserves the name of happiness; the only solid, permanent principle of enjoyment." These are the perspectives that give his exposition its special flavor.
I commend it enthusiastically.
J. I. PACKER