Proverbs 8:1-36

The Cry of Wisdom

Proverbs 8:0

Her cry has already been heard in this book of sharp-cut, clear sentences, and we have been afraid because of the tone of her accusatory eloquence. Her voice was not what we imagined it to be, and we turned away from the fair speaker staggeringly, sorrowfully. Should it not speak like mother, or sister, or the other half of man's poor heart? But it is somewhat like a fury. "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof" (Proverbs 1:20-30 .) Now the voice is heard once more: what a change has come over it! Is it older? It is certainly tenderer. It has come after a new and sharp variety of experience. It is as one figure making its way between the soul and another figure, that other figure being the spectral evil, the very genius of ruin. We must read the seventh chapter if we would know the value of the exhortations in the eighth. The young man has been exposed to all the fire of hell, and wisdom cries and understanding puts forth her voice, and she pleads with the young man that he may come home in wisdom and purity.

A very vivid instance of personification is this. Wisdom and understanding are represented as living agents, ministries that can be seen, apostles sent from the hills of light that they may speak of glory and beauty and pureness to the children who dwell in the valleys of darkness. What answer can we make to this interrogation? A distinct and emphatic reply that it is even so. Yes, wisdom cries, and understanding puts forth her voice: we know it There is a voice which calls men to higher life, and we hear its sweet music every day, but do not receive it into an obedient heart. What if we suppose we discharge our duty by simply listening to its demands? That is a sad possibility in life. A man may think he accepts the gospel when he simply listens to it. True listening to the gospel means acceptance, obedience, sacrifice, reproduction of all holy life in sacred action, in solemn sacrifice. The voice is manifold. It is a voice within. What friend is that who inhabits your heart and says: My son, take care; be wise, be noble; scorn the mean deed; when thou doest thy charities open all thy fingers, and let thy liberality be a gospel to those who receive it; forget not thy God; pray without ceasing; be happy in thy Father; make the most of this poor little world, at the other end of it thou wilt find a white gate opening upon heaven; be brave, be true, be faithful, be grand; win an honest man's sleep, and I will see that on thy tired eyelids the spirit of slumber shall lightly rest? What other voice is that which says: Do the best you can for yourself; come home with both hands full, however you may fill them; when the poor look to thee, turn thine eyes away cold, steely eyes; nor let one tear come into them, for that would be unmanly; fight the world, put thy foot upon its neck and fill thy pouch with all its pelf; never heed any other world that may yet have to dawn upon thee? We know these voices; we have heard them both. Sometimes they commingle, and the heart is in tumult. The same good voice is in nature, talking to us in the spring blooms, in the summer gold, in the autumn purple, in the winter silver; revealing to us an energy equal to the occasion; speaking of powers we have never calculated, energies on which we have laid no measuring line, the pulsations that will not be reckoned arithmetically. We therefore reply to the interrogation of the text with a distinct affirmative.

Has wisdom a few children to whom she will speak? and has understanding a limited family within whose boundaries she will conduct her ministry of illumination and encouragement? The answer is given in these words:

"She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors" ( Pro 8:2-3 ).

She sets up her tower everywhere, and speaks to all mankind. That is the true wisdom. When we come to understand the purpose and range of true wisdom, our business will be to see how many people we can get in, not how many we can keep out. Sometimes we shall endeavour to enlarge the gate, if haply we may bring some one in who otherwise would be kept outside. Wisdom does not whisper; she cries; she puts forth her voice; she asks the assistance of elevation: where men are found in greatest numbers she is found in greatest activity. Universality is a proof of the gospel. Any gospel that comes down to play the trick of eclecticism ought to be branded and dismissed and never inquired for. We want ministers that will speak to the world, in all its populations, climes, languages, and differences of civilisation and culture. Thus we know the great sun that makes the day: he shines as cheerily on the wilderness as on the cultivated garden; he will smile as blithely upon a little waif or homeless wanderer as upon petted prince or pampered child of luxury. Let the light of the daily sun be the image of the higher life, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. The light will fall according to the medium which it penetrates: so the gospel will come to men in different ways, but it will be the same gospel, nothing wanting in glory, and nothing deficient in tenderness; yet it will express itself according to the individuality of the receiver, here a genius and there a dull mind, yonder one who flies and lives on the wing, and another who sits under his roof-tree and is afraid of the wind.

Wisdom shows herself to be truly wise by recognising the different capacities and qualities of men:

"Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man" ( Pro 8:4 ).

Children who are at school are accustomed to distinguish between viri and homines between the strong and the weak. "Unto you, O men, I call" strong, virile, massive "and my voice is to the sons of man" the lesser, the weaker, the more limited in capacity, but men still and I will accommodate my speech to the capacity of every one, for I have come to bring the world to the temple of understanding. Then there is further discrimination; we read of the "simple" and of the "fools." "Simple" is a word which, as we have often seen, has been abused. There ought to be few lovelier words than "simple," without fold, or duplicity, or complexity, or involution: such ought. to be the meaning of simple and simplicity. Wisdom comes to fools, and says she will work miracles. Could a man say, "I am too far gone for wisdom to make anything of me," he would by his very confession prove that he was still within the range of salvation. "To know one's self diseased is half the cure;" to know one's self to be ignorant is to have taken several steps on the way to the sanctuary of wisdom. This might be Christ speaking; yea, there are men who have not hesitated to say that by "wisdom" in this chapter is meant the Wisdom of God in history the Logos, the Eternal Son of God. Certainly the wisdom of this chapter seems to follow the very course which Jesus Christ himself pursued: he will call all men to himself the simple, and the foolish, and the faraway; he will make room for all. A wonderful house is God's house in that way, so flexible, so expansive; there is always room for the man who is not yet in. We thought we had filled the banquet table; but that was our mistake; when we had emptied all the hedge population, and all the highway wanderers, and brought them into the house, we found that the more we brought in the more room we created, and the expression of those who played the evangelist to the hospitable host was, "and yet there is room." Certainly! because yet there is another man not home, another nation not converted. The people who brought in all the wanderers were most impressed by the little effect which their labours took upon the space which was at their command. So wisdom will have men, and sons of men simple men, foolish men. By this universality of the offer judge the divinity of the origin.

What does wisdom offer? She offers to surpass in value everything that men have yet honoured with their recognition and appreciation. She will put aside rubies, and things that are to be desired, and all gold, and she will stand alone, absolutely unique in worth. Gold may be lost; rubies maybe stolen; desire may say, I cannot pant and gasp any longer, I have been filled to satiety; let me die. Not that these things are to be ignored as to their temporary value and uses. He is a foolish man who despises gold and rubies and pearls and choice silver; he is more foolish still who thinks they can buy anything that he can take into eternity with him. In death all these things leave the possessor. That is a mournful reality. May not a man take the family jewels with him? No, not one. Must he go into the other world empty-handed? Yes, empty-handed: he brought nothing into this world, and it is certain he can carry nothing out Then we have only a life-right in them? That is all; and even that right is considerably mitigated and limited by other claims and relationships. Then they all seem to come to nothing! Exactly; now the arithmetic is right. It was a long process, and the issue was a long line of ciphers. Is there anything that will go with a man clear through to the other spaces? Yes; character will go with him. The man's character is the man himself. The wise man has the key of all the worlds; and the fool has the key of none. This is the one lesson that has to be learned, and the lesson that never will be learned, so far as our poor human imagination can carry us. Yet it is to be learned by all the world, according to the promise and decree of heaven. To have, and yet to act as if we had not; to use the world, and not abuse it; to have all things, and yet to stand above them, and make a mere convenience of them, that would seem to be the issue of truest, largest spirituality. He who is without wisdom is without riches. He who has wisdom has all wealth. The wise man is never solitary. He has the thoughts of ages. He is a silent prophet; he will not write his prophecies, but, oh, how they make him glow, how they send a radiance into his vision, how they make him despise the charms, seductions, and blandishments of a lying world that exhibits its emptiness to prove its treasure! Some men are never dull when they are alone. Sometimes persons will say, Do you not feel lonely? and the answer is, Yes, when anybody calls upon me I always feel lonely! Could I be let alone I would live in heaven "never so little alone as when alone;" "I am alone, yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me." With all thy getting, get wisdom, get understanding, and thou shalt have banqueting all the day long without satiety, and music without monotony.

"I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions" ( Pro 8:12 ).

Many men are prudent who are not wise that is to say, they are superficially cautious, sagacious, calculating; but they are never wise. True wisdom is the metaphysic of prudence. It is the innermost life and reality, and it expresses itself in the large prudence which sees more points than can be seen by mere cleverness. He that seeketh his life shall lose it; he that will throw away his life for Christ's sake shall find it, and shall thus prove himself in the long run to be the truly prudent man. Beware of the prudence that is as a skeleton. The true prudence is the living body, inhabited by a living soul the soul is wisdom. Sometimes wisdom will drive a man to do apparently foolish things, at least, things that cannot be understood by those who live in rectangles, two inches by one and a-half. But "wisdom is justified of her children;" she calmly abides the issue of the third day, and raised again she vindicates her origin and declares her destiny.

"I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me" ( Pro 8:17 ).

Jesus Christ himself used words almost identical with these, for he said, "If any man love me, I will manifest myself to him;" nothing shall be kept back from his reverent scrutiny. We should know more of Christ if we loved him more. "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight."

"And those that seek me early." The word "early" is not in the original. The passage therefore might be read thus, "And those that seek me shall find me." Yet we cannot altogether throw out the word "early;" it seems to complete the rhythm. The word "seek," as originally employed, is a word which involves the meaning of seeking in the dawn just as the east is brightening a little, just as the day is being born. Thus we have some claim to the word "early." There are men who do not wait until midday in order to resume their journey after they have been benighted; they have, indeed, succumbed to circumstances, saying, "The darkness has overtaken us, and here we must lie;" but the moment there is a streak in the east they rise up; the staff is resumed, and the journey is prosecuted with renewed energy. This is the image of the text: They that seek me in the dawn shall find me; they that seek me at daybreak; they that come after me ere the dew be risen shall find me, and we shall have a long morning talk together: when the soul is young, when the life is free, when the heart is unsophisticated, they that seek me in the dawn shall find me, for I have been waiting for them, yea, standing by them whilst they were sleeping, and hoping that at the moment of awaking they would see me, and exclaim, Blessed Spirit, take charge of my poor, frail life all the day, and tell me what I ought to do. Fool is he who begins the day prayerlessly, who takes his own life into his own hand; verily in doing so he puts his money into bags with holes in them, and at night he shall have nothing.

Some have not scrupled to find in the whole chapter, especially in the latter portion of it, an image and a forecast of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God. It is not necessary to believe that anything like a date is being fixed when "the beginning" is spoken of, and when creation is apparently outlined; the larger meaning is this, that before there was anything to look at, or any man to look at it, the Spirit of Wisdom was the Spirit of Eternity. True wisdom is not the child of civilisation is not the child of creation: it is the Son of God; it partakes of the very quality of God; it comes up from the mystery of eternity, and yet accommodates itself to all the limitations and necessities of time. Fierce controversies have raged round the conclusion of this chapter. Arianism found its battlefield here, as in other verses, and orthodox men sprang forth with well whetted instruments to defend what they believed to be the truth. All that is gone. We have lived to see that Christ is indeed everywhere, in all power, in all light, in all wisdom, in all truth, in all love. Let us take care how we drive Christ out of any book. He himself found his name and office in many places that were supposed to be filled with merely local details; he found himself in Moses, in the Prophets, in the Psalms, and in all the Scriptures. The apostles have not hesitated to declare that he was before all things, and that by him all things were created, and without him was not anything made that was made: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There is no genius in mere depletion. That may be the inspired genius which finds Christ in unexpected places, and marvels that he spake with the woman. This was the surprise that continually followed the active ministry of the Son of God upon earth. People were amazed that he was found in such and such places: why, there he eats and drinks; yonder he has gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner; and yonder he says, "Woman, thy sins are forgiven thee;" expand thy wings, and fly like a dove to heaven's windows; and yonder again the poor, little-minded, infantile disciples were amazed that he spake with the woman; and so was the woman herself; and so was every one to whom he ever did speak. "Never man spake like this man." There was a touch in his tone, a quality in his soft hand that hid by its concealment the might almighty. There was a sympathy in his blessing which made the lame man leap for joy, and the blind man open his eyes as if startled into vision. Whilst, therefore, on the one hand, we should be careful that men do not import Christ into blank places, or, as it were, force him into positions which he does not really occupy in the Scriptures, there is another danger to be still more guarded against, and that is to ignore him simply because our eyes are holden that we may not see him until we come to the destined Emmaus; and then, when the day is far spent and the night is at hand, he may break our supper bread, and in breaking it may show that all the time he was in places unsuspected, near us with a marvellous proximity, and preparing us for the revelation which, had it come before, would have been at once premature and intolerable.

Over this study let us pause that we may pray:

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art waiting for our answer to the cry of wisdom. May our answer be the response of acceptance and love. We know that wisdom cries and that understanding puts forth her voice, and that wisdom and understanding are as womanly figures, mother and sister, crying and calling with all the pathos of deepest love. We have been deaf; we have turned aside from the way; we have loved darkness rather than light; we have done the things we ought not to have done; we have made hand, and foot, and head, and heart, and will, and imagination, and understanding, and every faculty, do the devil's black work. It is well for us to say this to our own souls, that in our prayer we may speak: in tones of humility, and in our despair may yet be prepared for some gospel of light. If we had hearkened unto thy commandments, and made thy statutes our songs in the house of our pilgrimage, we had made the earth beautiful as heaven. But we are as ravening wolves; we live upon one another; we watch for one another's stumbling and falling, and rejoice to be enriched by the poverty of others. We account him wise who is but a fool, if so be he fill both hands with gold, and pull down his barns and build greater. We would think of him as a wise man who knows most of God, who longs to see the larger spaces, to enjoy the longer summer day, who desires to be present with the Lord in all thought and sympathy and high resolve. Thus shall we come to a new standard of value; we shall account nothing manly that is not after the quality of Christ; we shall abhor all things that are evil and tainted, regarding them as sources of pestilence, and casting them away from us as things that are to be held in eternal hatred. Enable us to seek first thy kingdom and thy righteousness, that thereby we may prove ourselves to be wise. Let the time past suffice, wherein we have served the spirit of darkness and the prince of evil, and hence on from this sacred moment may we live to serve him who is purity and love. Thou hast sent down upon us many messages from heaven. We know them every one; we know them by their love, their fulness of grace, their tender sympathy, their adaptation to meet all the weariness and want and pain of life. Who can mistake the light of the sun? Is it not its own proof? Does it need other eloquence than its own warmth and radiance to attest its identity? It is even so with thy word: thy word is a sun and shield, a gospel of grace, a cry to men in danger, an encouragement to those who would do good, a sweet rebuke in blessing ending, and a great promise because a great discipline. May we quit ourselves like men; may we be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; wise unto salvation fools according to this world's reckoning, but wise because beginning in God, and evermore tending to the point of origin, and living a life of worship that prays and serves and suffers and forgives. All this we have learned because we have been in the school of Jesus Christ thy Son; otherwise we had been as the pagans are, worshipping that which our own hands had made, looking down upon our gods in expectant pity, doomed to disappointment: now our look is upward, onward, heavenward; we see heaven opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, and our hearts glow with a sacred fire, and our eyes are filled with wonder upon wonder never to be known. This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ; this is the miracle of the Cross. Unto that Cross we come for pardon every day. The blood of Jesus Christ thy Son is our one hope; we have no other, we want no other; it is enough even unto infinity of sufficiency: grant that we may know its power, yield ourselves to its action; and may we know that we have been with Christ by the Spirit of Christ ruling in us, giving us sweetness of temper, breadth of charity, chivalry of soul that noble manliness that yearns only to forgive. We would be baptized for the dead; we would fill up the ranks that have been thinned by the cruel scythe; we would that the young and the indolent and the latent might all come forward in spiritual energy, saying, Here are we; send us every one, for the harvest truly is great. We pray for the comfort of those who are disconsolate. Teach the uncomforted how many are the sources of disquietude, lest they blame themselves too poignantly, and crush the very hope which thou hast created. We pray for those who are undergoing long, painful, unspeakable discipline; torn and wounded and bruised, beaten in the face and driven back when they think they have found the house-door that opens upon the kind hearthstone: we pray for them lest their hearts be too much discouraged, thou knowest what flesh and blood can bear; thy tender pity is our safeguard in the extremity of sorrow. Bless all little children, young lives, dreaming souls, who are gathering knowledge every day only to find that there is much more to be gathered: spare them; make them wise and strong and good. Regard those who are travelling on the sea; who are in faraway lands; who are trying to make homes in homeless places with honest hands and brave hearts. The Lord grant unto all men, and the sons of men, light and grace and blessing, the music of promise and the glory of hope. Amen.

Prayer

Almighty God, we bring our tribute of praise unto thee, small and unworthy; but thou dost not despise that which is little and insignificant, thou dost even choose the things that are not to bring to naught things that are; thou dost turn our gift of water into a gift of wine, and our two small mites which make a farthing thou dost look into gold. We therefore come to thee with such as we have; we give thee our hearts, our minds, the whole affection and the whole loyalty of which thou hast made us capable. We would keep back no part of the price; we would be thine altogether, our judgment, our fancy, our will, our love, and every energy of our nature. Help us to give thee the entire sacrifice, withholding nothing, a holy offering unto the Lord. Thou hast made us what we are wonders to ourselves, mysteries that have no answer in time; thou hast given us desires after immortality, longings and stirrings which cannot be explained in mortal tones, so that though we do ourselves injury and seek to grieve and quench thy Spirit, yet behold thy Spirit is here, a continual protest, and a continual promise. Teach us that if we do thee wrong we do ourselves wrong no man can grieve the Spirit without also endangering the soul itself. We commend one another again to thy great care, to thy gentle patience, to thy long-suffering and thy perpetual kindness; it is a sea without a shore, it is a firmament full of stars, it endureth for ever. Therefore do we trust in God and hope in thee, and our expectation is from the heavens. This earth is too small for us, we need the firmament as well as the dry land; and shall not the firmament itself become too narrow for our growing powers, for our enlarging capacities, for our heightening and ever-purifying desires? We believe we shall need all thy heaven, and it is our joy to know that in our Father's house are many mansions. Help us, therefore, to yield ourselves to the inspiration of God, to follow the gentle lure of thy Holy Spirit, that we may come into the fulness of the estate of Christian manhood, being perfected in every power, and sanctified in every capability and every energy. Pardon our sins; every day exercise thine infinite prerogative of forgiveness; dismiss us from thy presence as pardoned ones, besprinkled with atoning blood as men who, having by faith touched the Cross and confessed their sins, are free evermore from the burden and the torment of guilt. Give thy servants understanding of their business, comprehension of the times; excite their best ambition, influence their purest desires, satisfy their noblest expectations. Thus within the narrow scope of time may every one labour well with industry continuous, and with hope that cannot be quenched. When our poor short day upon earth is done may we find that it was no day at all, but a brief night previous to the infinite morning. Amen.