Simple as opposed to guileful.
"The Lord preserveth the simple." This is not the "simple" of the Book of Proverbs—the young, inexperienced, susceptible souls, who are only too easily led astray. "Simple" hero rather means gentle, sincere, genuine, inoffensive, guileless, not ordering conduct by the subtlety of this world's wisdom; this very simplicity, which lays them most readily open to attack, is in itself an appeal for God's protection. Compare our Lord's commendation of the passive graces in his Beatitudes, especially this, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
I. THE SIMPLE MAN LETS GOD WORK. "The Lord preserveth the simple." He has no confidence to make his own plans; he waits to know and fit in with God's plans for him. This may seem weakness; and it sometimes is weakness. But it need not be. It should only be the simplicity of the child-spirit, which depends on the father, and has the fullest confidence in the fatherly wisdom and ways. He has no confidence in his own working out of the plan. So he leans on Divine help continually, ever saying, "What I know not, that teach thou me;" "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe," This, too, may seem to be weakness, but it is not; it is only man meeting fully the conditions of his being, for man is as a climbing plant, only strong and able to attain his best when he leans upon the strong. It is the problem of life, and the simple man most easily solves it—How can humanity reach its best? The simple man says, "By being always open to God's working in us."
II. THE GUILEFUL MAN DOES HIS OWN WORK. He is quite satisfied with his own plans. They are such as will bring the best possible to himself. He has an eye to the "main chance" always, and means to secure it straightforwardly if he can, otherwise if he cannot. And he is quite satisfied with his resources. There is nothing that he cannot do, or thinks he cannot do. Life is to him the sphere in which things have to yield to his wishes. The guileful man has no particular need of God, and, indeed, he sometimes finds him in his way, and so is aroused to an active antagonism. "God is not in all his thoughts." There is no place in him for humility—self-confidence fills all the space. There is no call to prayer, for he wants no help. He is sufficient unto himself, or thinks he is. The guileful man will not have it that he is a dependent creature.
III. THE GUILEFUL MAN REACHES PRESENT RESULTS; THE SIMPLE MAN REACHES ABIDING RESULTS. This is precisely the difference which having God makes. With out him there is nothing that abideth. With him everything worth having abideth forever.—R.T.