Charles Bridges

Let us look more minutely into the features of the portrait drawn before us.

Her personal habits are full of energy. Manual labor, even menial³⁸ service, in olden times was the employment of females in the highest ranks. Self-denial is here a main principle. The virtuous woman goes before her servants in diligence, no less than in dignity, imposing nothing upon them, which she had not first bound upon herself, ruling her household most efficiently by the government of herself. Thus, she seeks out her materials for work. Her needle is at the service of her family. Instead of a suppressed murmur at some inconvenient demand, she sets the pattern of working willingly with her hands. Instead of loitering³⁹ herself, while they were laboring, she counts it no shame to be employed at the spindle and distaff.⁴⁰ She is early and late at her work, rising in the night.

The fruit of her work she turns to good account. She exchanges it in commerce for food brought from far. Her merchandize is good in quality—tapestry, fine linen, and girdles delivered to the merchant. Her whole soul is in her work—girding her loins with strength and strengthening her arms—ready to do any work befitting her sex and station. The land has also her due share of attention. Ever careful for her husband’s interests, she considers the value of a field; and, if it be a good purchase, she buys it and plants the vineyard for the best produce.

We now again observe her conduct as a mistress.

And here also her praise is not that she spends her time in devotional exercises (though these, as “a woman that feareth the Lord” (v. 30), she duly prizes); but that according to the Scriptural canon, “she guides her house” (1Ti 5:14), watching carefully over her charge, distributing both her meat⁴¹ and her work in due proportion and “in due season.” This is her responsibility. If a “man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening” (Psa 104:23), the woman finds her work as “a keeper⁴² at home” (Tit 2:5). And beautiful indeed is it to see, how by her industry, self-denial, and heartiness she “buildeth her house” (Pro 14:1). She rises while it is yet night, not for the sake of being admired and talked of, but to give meat to her household. The delicacy also, with which she preserves her own sphere, is remarkable…..So well does she look to the ways of her household, such untiring energy does she show in every department, that none can accuse her of eating the bread of idleness.

In her household, order is the principle of her rule….Nor is her provident⁴³ care limited to her own dependants. Her spindle and distaff are worked, not for herself only, or for her household, but for the poor and needy. And, having first drawn out her soul (Isa 58:10), she stretcheth out her hands (Deu 15:7, 8), to embrace those at a distance from her with the flow of her love; and thus “the blessing of those that were ready to perish cometh upon her” (Job 29:13; Act 9:39). Her spirit and manner also are of the same character, all in full accordance with her professions…the godly matron has not only the law of love in her heart, but wisdom in her mouth and in her tongue the law of kindness. The same love that binds her heart governs her tongue….Thus indeed “a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband” (Pro 12:4). He is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land, as blessed with no common treasures of happiness; as indebted perhaps for his promotion to the wealth acquired by her management at home, and, it may be, for the preservation and establishment of his virtue, to the encouragement furnished by her example and conversation.⁴⁴ For herself—manifest and manifold blessings rest upon her. Strength is the clothing of her inner man. Christian courage and resolution lift her up above appalling difficulties. The clothing of honor stamps her with the Lord’s acceptance, as His faithful servant, the child of His grace, and the heir of His glory…

Verses 28-31: the virtuous woman is obviously subserving⁴⁵ her own interest.

For what greater earthly happiness could she know than her children’s reverence and her husband’s blessing? We may picture to ourselves her condition—crowned with years, her children grown up, perhaps themselves surrounded with families and endeavoring to train them as [they] had been trained. Their mother is constantly before their eyes. Her tender guidance, her wise counsels, her loving discipline, her holy example, are vividly kept in remembrance. They cease not to call her blessed and to bless the Lord for her as His invaluable gift. No less warmly does her husband praise her. His attachment to her was grounded, not on the deceitful and vain charms of beauty, but on the fear of the Lord. She is therefore in his eyes to the end, the stay of his declining years, the soother of his cares, the counselor of his perplexities, the comforter of his sorrows, the sunshine of his earthly joys (Ecclus⁴⁶ 36:23, 24). Both children and husband combine in the grateful acknowledgment—many daughters have done virtuously; but thou excellest them all.

But why, it may be asked, do external recommendations form no part of this portrait? All that is described is solid excellence; and favor is deceitful. A graceful form and mien⁴⁷ often end in disappointment, more bitter than words can tell. Often do they furnish a cover for the vilest corruptions. And then beauty—what a fading vanity it is!

One fit of sickness sweeps it away (Psa 39:11). Sorrow and care wither its charms. And even while it remains, it is little connected with happiness. It proves itself the fruitful occasion of trouble, the source of many hurtful temptations and snares; and without substantial principle, to a well-judging mind it becomes an object of disgust rather than of attraction (Pro 11:22).

The portrait, here penciled by divine inspiration, begins with the touch of a virtuous woman and fills up the sketch with the lineaments⁴⁸ of a woman that feareth the Lord (31:10, 30). For the lovely features described—her fidelity to her husband, her active personal habits, her good management and diligence in her family, her consideration for the necessities and comforts of others, her watchfulness of conduct, her tenderness for the poor and afflicted, her kind and courteous behavior to all—this completeness of character and grace could only flow from that virtue which is identified with vital godliness. They are the good fruit that prove the tree to be good (Mat 7:17). They are such fruit, flowing from a right principle, as the natural corrupt stock of man could never produce.

How valuable also is this picture as a directory for the marriage choice.

Let virtue, not beauty, be the primary object. Set against the vanity of beauty the true happiness, [which is] connected with a woman that feareth the Lord. Here is the solid basis of happiness. “If,” says Bp. Beveridge—“I choose her for her beauty, I shall love her no longer than while that continues; and then farewell at once both duty and delight. But if I love her for her virtues; then, though all other sandy foundations fail, yet will my happiness remain entire”….“Thus, and once more,” says Matthew Henry, “is shut up this looking-glass for ladies, which they are desired to open and dress themselves by. And if they do so, their adorning will be found to praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

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38. menial – work that requires little skill or training; work of a household servant.
39. loitering – wasting one’s time in idleness.
40. distaff – a rod on which a fiber, such as wool or flax, is wound for spinning by hand.
41. meat – food in general.
42. keeper – one who stays at home and oversees the house; homemaker.
43. provident – foresight of and making provision for the future; frugal; economical.
44. conversation – manner of conduct; behavior.
45. subserving – furthering; promoting.
46. Ecclesiasticus – also known as The Wisdom of Ben Sira or simply Sirach. Bridges is here quoting from the Apocrypha, a collection of books, which Roman
Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy consider canonical. Though the Apocrypha was included as a separate collection between the OT and NT in the
original version of the 1611 KJV, neither the Jews nor the Protestant churches believed that the apocryphal writings were inspired, infallible Scripture.
47. mien – expression; appearance.
From Proverbs reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust.
48. lineaments – distinctive features or characteristics.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869): a leader of the Evangelical party in the Church of England. Best known for The Christian Ministry, Proverbs, and Psalm 119.

Courtesy of Chapel Library