Proverbs 22:13

"The sluggard says: There is a lion outside," etc. Often in his spirit, the one who is lazy in doing good works, timid in confessing the faith he holds in his heart, says: I dare not profess the faith I hold outside, lest the impious …

The slothful man saith, there is a lion without,.... Or, "in the street".

THIS slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about lions as if it were his favorite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble to invent another excuse. Perhaps he hugs it to his soul all the more because it is a home-born fear, conjured up by his own imagination, and as mothers are said to love their weakest children best, so is he fondest of this most imbecile of excuses! At any rate, it serves him for a passable excuse for laziness, and that is what he wants.

THIS slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about lions as if it were his favorite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble to invent another excuse. Perhaps he hugs it to his soul all the more because it is a home-born fear, conjured up by his own imagination, and as mothers are said to love their weakest children best, so is he fondest of this most imbecile of excuses! At any rate, it serves him for a passable excuse for laziness, and that is what he wants. If you can get the king of beasts to apologize for your idleness, there is a sort of royalty about your pretences! He hopes his sloth will appear the less disgraceful if he can paint a lion rampant upon its shield. I am not about to speak of slothful men in general, albeit that when a man does not diligently attend to his business, he is committing great wrong to himself and to others. When a man is slothful as a servant, he is unjust to his employers, and when he is in business on his own account, idleness is usually a wrong to his wife and family. I know one who is the cause of poverty and need to those whom he ought to provide for—and all because honest labor and he have long since fallen out. He would not move an inch if he could help it, nor even open his eyes if he could manage to live and sleep all his life away. When a man is thoroughly eaten up with the dry rot of laziness, he generally finds some kind of excuse, though his crime is really inexcusable. "There is a lion in the way" and, therefore, the man judges it to be quite right that he should keep his bed, or that he should sit leisurely indoors and should not give himself too much trouble or run any risks! But all this is mere makeup to screen his loathsome vice. No Christian ought to be slothful in his ordinary work—the Apostle describes the good man as "not slothful in business"—of whatever kind that business may be.

The slothful man saith, There is a lion without - But why does he say so? Because he is a slothful man. Remove his slothfulness, and these imaginary difficulties and dangers will be no more. He will not go abroad to work in the fields, because he thinks there is a lion in the way, he will not go out into the town for employment, as he fears to be assassinated in the streets! From both these circumstances he seeks total cessation from activity.