The Cry of Wisdom
William Arnot, D. D. Proverbs 1:20-23 Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:… Evil-doers are not left without a warning. The warning is loud, public, authoritative. The wisdom of God is a manifold wisdom. While it centres bodily in Christ, and thence issues as from its source, it is reflected and re-echoed from every object and every event. Every law of nature, and every event in history, has a tongue by which Wisdom proclaims God's holiness and rebukes man's sin. Wisdom speaks through man's conscience. It is not conscience proclaiming God's anger against the man's evil that has power to make the man good. It is the conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ that at once speaks peace and works purity. I. Reproof of the SIMPLE who love simplicity. By the "simple" is meant that class of sinners whose leading characteristic is the absence of good rather than positive activity in evil. The root of bitterness has not shot forth in any form of outrageous vice, but it remains destitute of righteousness. The simple for time are always a numerous class; but the simple for eternity are a more numerous class still. II. Reproof for the SCORNERS who love scorning. This class meet the threatening realities of eternity, not by an easy indifference, but by a hardy resistance. Scorners may be found on both the edges of society. Poverty and riches become by turns a temptation to the same sin. Scorners love scorning. The habit grows by indulgence. It becomes a second nature. It becomes the element in which they live. Their scoffs are generally parrying strokes to keep convictions away. These smart sayings are the fence to turn aside certain arrows which might otherwise fix their tormenting barbs in the conscience. The scorner is not so bold a man as he appears to be. III. Reproof for the FOOLS who hate knowledge. Fools are those who have reached the very highest degrees of evil. They hate knowledge, and knowledge has its beginning in the fear of God. The emphatic "no God" of the fourteenth Psalm indicates, not the despair of a seeker who is unable to find truth, but the anger of an enemy who does not like to retain it. It is not a judgment formed in the fool's understanding, but a passion rankling in his heart. (William Arnot, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: WEB: Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.