For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Sermons
I. CONDITIONS ON MAN'S SIDE. The enumeration is climactic, proceeding from the less strong to the stronger expressions. 1. Receptivity. The open mind and heart, ever ready to "adopt" true sentiments and appropriate them as one's own. The point is not to ask - Who says this? By what channel does it come to me? But - Is it sound? is it true? If so, it is for me, and shall be made my own. Truth is common property. 2. Attention, concentration, assimilation. "Keeping her commands with us." The thorough student finds it necessary to exercise his memory, and to help it by the use of notebooks, where he hides his knowledge. So must we hive and store, arrange and digest, our religious impressions, which otherwise "go in at one ear and out at the other." Short germ sayings may be thus kept in the memory; they will burst into fertility some day. 3. Active application. In figurative language "bending the ear" and "turning the heart" in the desired direction. The mind must not be passive in religion. It is no process of "cramming," but of personal, original, spiritual activity throughout. 4. Passionate craving and prayerfulness. "Calling Sense to one's side, and raising one's voice to Prudence" - to give another rendering to ver. 3. We must invoke the spirit of Wisdom for the needs of daily conduct; thus placing ourselves in living relation with what is our true nature. Fra Angelico prayed before his easel; Cromwell, in his tent on the eve of battle. So must the thinker in his study, the preacher in his pulpit, the merchant at his desk, if he would have the true clearness of vision and the only genuine success. True prayer is always for the universal, not the private, good. 5. Persevering and laborious exertion. illustrated by the miner's toil. The passage (Job 28.), of extraordinary picturesque power and interest, describing the miner's operations, may help us to appreciate the Illustration. The pursuit of what is ideal is still more arduous than that of the material, as silver and gold. It is often said that the perseverance of the unholy worker shames the sloth of the spiritual man. But let us not ignore the other side. The toil in the spiritual region is not obvious to the eye like the other, but is not the less really practised in silence by thousands of faithful souls. We should reflect on the immense travail of soul it has cost to produce the book which stirs us like a new force, though it may appear to flow with consummate ease from the pen. Such are the conditions of "understanding the fear of Jehovah," or, in modern language, of appropriating, making religion our own; "receiving the things of the Spirit of God," in the language of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 2:14). It is the highest human possession, because permanent, inalienable, and preservative amidst life's ills. II. CONDITIONS ON THE SIDE OF GOD. If religion be the union or identification of the soul with God, he must be related to us in such a way as makes this possible. 1. He is wisdom's Source and Giver. He not only contains in himself that knowledge which, reflected in us, becomes prudence, sense, wisdom, piety; he is an active Will and a self-communicating Spirit. The ancients had a glimpse of this when they said that the gods were not of so grudging or envious a nature as not to reveal their good to men. God is self-revealing; "freely gives of his things" to us, that we may know, and in knowing, possess them. 2. His wisdom is saving. "Sound wisdom" (ver. 7) may be better rendered soundness, or salvation, or health, or saving health. It seems to come from a root signifying the essential or actual. Nothing is essential but health for sensuous enjoyment; nothing but health, in the larger sense, for spiritual enjoyment. Let us think of God as himself absolute Health, and thus the Giver of all health and happiness to his creatures. 3. He is Protector of the faithful. The Hebrew imagination, informed by constant scenes of war, delights to represent him as the Buckler or Shield of his servants (Psalm 18:2; Psalm 33:20; Psalm 89:19). Those who "walk in innocence" seem to bear a charmed life. They "fear no evil," for he is with them. The vast sky is their tent roof. They may be slain, but cannot be hurt. To be snatched from this world is to be caught to his arms. 4. He is eternal Justice. Being this in himself, the "way of his saints," which is synonymous with human rectitude, cannot be indifferent to him. Right is the highest idea we can associate with God. It is exempt from the possible suspicion of weakness or misdirection which may cleave to the mere idea of goodness or kindness. It essentially includes might. Thus the soul finds shelter beneath this vast and majestic conception and faith of its God. These, then, are the conditions, Divine and human, of religion. That we may realize it in ourselves, "understand right, justice, and equity" - in a word, "every good way" of life and thought, uniting piety with morality - the conditions must be faithfully fulfilled. Perfect bodily health may not be attainable; some of its conditions lie without the sphere of freedom, and within that of necessary law. Spiritual health is attainable, for it lies within the sphere of freedom. Then God is realized; it is the ether of the soul, and the region of love and light and blessedness. - J.
For the Lord giveth wisdom. I. THAT GOD IS THE ONLY FOUNTAIN OF ALL TRUE WISDOM. Men say that the Deity is not the only source of it, but that much of it may be attained by a converse with beings most opposite to Him, even with wicked and reprobate spirits. Such were the oracles and gods of the Gentiles, which the wisest men among them, not excepting himself, consulted, to learn of them how to set about and manage their most weighty affairs. Their mistake arises from their confounding the notions of wisdom and of craft. A wise man cannot maintain his character without doing always that which is just and right. Nobody shall ever be able to persuade him that an ill thing can be a real benefit, or the part of a wise man or a true friend. A cunning and crafty man lays this down to himself for a general rule, that by all means whatsoever he must gain his point, and come at the end which he aims at. In his pursuit of it he will proceed in the path of righteousness if that leads him most directly and easily to it. But when truth is on the opposite side he first bespatters it with all imaginable defamations, and then strikes at it furiously in the disguise in which he has put it. The difference between the wise and cunning man is this: the wise man studies to be thoroughly and substantially good; the cunning man contents himself with the shadow and appearance of goodness. And this confirms the conclusion that God alone is the fountain of all true wisdom.II. THE ONLY WAY TO DRAW WISDOM OUT OF THIS FOUNTAIN IS BY STUDYING AND PRACTISING THE SACRED ORACLES OF GOD. 1. How does it appear that the books which are called the Word of God contain the precepts of sound wisdom? How can those books which are styled the Divine Word contain such wise directions as lead men to happiness? It is in the power of every man to be happy who governs himself by the directions of the Wold of God, because that teaches him to possess his soul in patience, trusting in God, whose command he obeys, that He will lead him in the right way. 2. Does not this Word of God enjoin men in certain cases to suffer things very grievous to flesh and blood? It does, and yet these proverbs of Solomon, which seldom carry our views beyond this life, do vehemently inculcate upon us a strict adherence to the rules of piety and virtue, as what will most effectually conduce to our present welfare, let the chances and accidents of our condition be what they will. The sacred maxims are most beneficial, both for public government and private life, without respect had to anything hereafter. Let us take the royal preacher's word for it, that this science of Divine wisdom requires very intense and serious application of mind thoroughly to apprehend it. (W. Reading, M.A.) I. RELIGION IN RELATION TO THE ENDS OF STUDY. There are specific subjects of study bearing direct relation to a man's life-work. But the real object of study is to discipline the powers and to strengthen the mind. Study which is intended to increase knowledge and to gather facts begins when student life ceases. The best student is the man who "is" most, not the man who has learned most. The highest ideal of study must be that which secures, or at least aims at securing, thoroughness of discipline and wholeness of view. Perfection, as the harmonious and free working of all parts and powers of the mind, must be the goal to which the student tends. To learn everything is not given to man, but to be his best self in everything which he can be, this is his privilege. It is here that the subject of religion comes to be considered by the student. The nature which he possesses is distinctly religious. If a man does not attend to that faculty whereby he regards God, he neglects that part of himself which is most important and influential. No man can afford to pass lightly by the claims upon him which are put forth by religion. The religious nature must be disciplined and cultured if we are to lay claim to wholeness of being. See the influence which religion has exerted upon our human life and history. Eliminate religion from the story of the world and what is left? Critics charge religion with being a hindrance to human progress. But this is the common logical fallacy of putting the universal in place of the particular. Certain forms of religious polity may have done so, but not religion. Religion has, more than aught else, aided man in his long and weary pilgrimage of progress. Religion cannot be easily set aside by those who are engaged in the cultivation of the mind. All men are dealing with religious topics. The most striking instance is to be found in the modern teachers of science. Scarcely a single man of science of any repute but deals with these all-absorbing points of human thought, and indeed cannot help himself. Religion is human. II. RELIGION AS AN INFLUENCE OF DEEP AND FAR-REACHING POWER. The student cannot do his work as a common man. Intellectual cultivation is, as a rule, associated with moral refinement. The destruction of entire nature may be seen among students. This is generally preceded by neglect of the religious side of their nature — faith undermined either by the operations of intellectual doubt, or else still more seriously assailed by the numbing influences of sinful habits, but all proceeding in the first instance from the neglect of practical religion, the duties of prayer, and communion with the Unseen. 1. Religion renders the student reverent. Nothing is so unsuitable to the man who desires a cultivated mind as arrogance and self-esteem. All wisdom is humble. Reverence has been the mark of the profound and patient investigators of nature in all ages. Religion and its duties produce reverence. 2. Religion secures inward harmony of the powers. Man cannot gain intellectual vigour when his whole being is torn asunder by conflicting forces. Outward physical quietness is the necessary condition of study. Inward spiritual peace is as necessary, Religion will give this. Coming into proper relation to God, we find everything else in its place. To return to God is to return to the balance of our life. The religious life is only sustained by the knowledge of Him who is the express image of the Father, and the shining ray of the central light of God. Christ's religion is the religion of intelligence. (Llewelyn D. Bevan, D.D.) II. HOW, AND TO WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS, THIS WISDOM OF GOD IS GIVEN. 1. Now, the manner in which God gives us this wisdom is by His Holy Spirit, the Enlightener and Sanctifier of the Church, by an outward and inward teaching.(1) Outwardly He teaches us by giving a rule of faith and practice in things pertaining to God for the salvation of our souls. God also instructs us outwardly by the ministry of His Church, and the example of holy men and women.(2) But these outward instructions and motives not being able of themselves to inspire us with religious wisdom, God is graciously pleased to teach us inwardly, also, by His Holy Spirit. 2. It remains to be inquired to whom God giveth this heavenly wisdom. (1) (2) (3) (T. Tamson, D. D.) 1180 God, wisdom of 5028 knowledge, God source of human The Red Lamp. Notes on the Fourth Century Letter xxiv (Circa A. D. 1126) to Oger, Regular Canon Truth Hidden when not Sought After. Sundry Sharp Reproofs Sunday Before Lent The Knowledge of God "But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness," &C. Proverbs |
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