"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew."
"There be many that say, Who will show us good?" This indeed is the universal inquiry. Wherever men are found, they are found making and pressing it. All the world is astir in seeking an answer to it. In all the conditions of human society, from the lowest to the highest.-from the most barbarous to the most civilized, there is one principle in operation-varying in its manifestations, according to the conceptions of good which, in the different stages of human progression, prevail. That principle is the desire of enjoyment-a desire expressed in this question, "Who Will Show us Good?" The pursuit is the same. The modes and directions in which the object is sought are infinitely diversified. In civilized countries like our own, where the truth of Solomon's words elsewhere-"Money answereth all things"-is so universally experienced, the acquisition of wealth becomes one of the most general and engrossing of aims and occupations. It fixes more than anything else, the earnestness and constancy of desire and pursuit. He is the nappy man who proves most successful in this chase; whose speculations are most prosperous, and yield the highest return; who strikes the best bargains, and hits the luckiest chances; who accumulates the largest amount in the shortest time, and with the least trouble. That man is called emphatically fortunate, and becomes the object of envy or of ardent emulation to the less successful. And yet-I now speak especially to Christians, to the people of God, whose proper character is, that they are "not of this world," but "renewed in the spirit of their mind"-terms of very opposite import may many a time be applied to such prosperity, when considered in its influence on spiritual character and state. How often has the prosperity of the present world, been the date of commencing declension in prosperity of a far higher and more valuable kind-the prosperity of the soul in the divine life! How often has the gain thus been loss!-and, as the treasure has augmented on earth, has it diminished in heaven! So that, in the highest and best sense, the acquisition has been anything but fortunate-a curse, rather than a blessing. What is the lesson of the Book of God?-verse Pro_3:13. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding."
"The mind's the standard of the man." Even in the sense of mere mental cultivation, this is true. A well-informed, well-stored mind, is an acquirement greatly superior in real excellence to aught that is merely external,-to wealth, or to all the outward distinction that wealth can procure. It is a source of more rational and richer enjoyment to the person's self, and a far worthier ground of respectability and honour. There are few objects really more pitiable than an ignorant, senseless rich man,-a man whose mind, in its unfurnished poverty and emptiness, presents a perpetual contrast, which it is impossible not to mark, with his outward pomp and plenitude. Such a man is far from being so truly respectable or happy, as the poorer man who is in possession of a trained and cultivated understanding, and same portion of the treasures of useful knowledge.
But in stating the matter thus, we have taken but the lowest ground. The meaning of the words before us is far higher. The wisdom spoken of is not the mere acquaintance with science and literature, with men and things:-it is of a loftier order, and a richer preciousness. It is the knowledge of God-but not knowledge that "plays round the head" without "reaching to the heart." It is the knowledge of God inspiring the fear of God;-the fear that is associated with and proportioned to love... This is heavenly wisdom; and of this alone could such things be affirmed as in the passage before us.
The connexion with the eleventh and twelfth verses, justifies the observation here, that this divine wisdom is often effectually learned in adversity. Indeed it is the one grand design of all God's corrective discipline, to teach wisdom. To this correspond the words of the psalmist-" Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law," Psa_94:12. The chastening is evidently connected here with the teaching; the former as contributing to the efficacious accomplishment of the latter.
With the possession of wisdom, or of true religion, there stands connected what silver and gold, and all the jewels of earth can never possibly procure to their possessor-no, nor "all the things that can be desired," belonging to earth and time. Suppose all the objects of earthly desire and pursuit in the one scale,-riches, with all that riches can command, in the largest variety and abundance,-and true wisdom in the other; the former would "fly up and kick the beam"-lighter than vanity in the comparison Put everything a luxuriating imagination can suggest on the one side, with the exception only of this wisdom; and put this wisdom by itself on the other, stripping the possessor of all else that heart can wish-the latter is, beyond expression, the more eligible. But, in forming such an estimate, it must never be forgotten of what sort of being we speak, when we speak of man. Speak we of a creature whose breath is in his nostrils-a creature whose existence is bounded, at the longest, by a few years, and who then sinks into annihilation, and is as if he never had been? No. We speak of an immortal being; of a being destined by the Author of his existence, to live for ever-to live as long as Himself-through a vast, a boundless eternity; possessing an existence which neither his own nor any created power can terminate, and which, when cycles of unimagined extent shall have passed away, will be no nearer than now to a close, no length of time diminishing eternity! Were the former supposition true, the ground assumed by Solomon might be more than debateable. Reduce man to a child of earth and time, and you render what belongs to earth and time, the only things of real consequence to him:-for what to him are matters that relate to a futurity he is never to reach, but in which he is to have ceased to be? But if man is to exist for ever-O into what comparative nothingness does every thing bounded by the span of his life on earth immediately dwindle! Whatever secures the happiness of his immortal being, it must be an abandonment of reason not to prefer. And yet this preference of eternity to time, is one of the great and distinctive principles of true religion. "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal," 2Co_4:18. Is there any enthusiasm in this? Is it not rather obvious common-sense reckoning?-Whenever you admit man's eternity, and regard true religion as providing for the happiness of that eternity, the truth of Solomon's comparison must be felt. The mind cannot be sound that does not feel it-verses Pro_3:14-15, "For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her."
And that true religion-the "wisdom that cometh from above"-does so provide for man's eternity, appears to me to be the lesson of the verse which follows-" Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour."
I am aware that respectable commentators interpret this as meaning simply long life, and all desirable prosperity and comfort in it. But I am of opinion, that both parts of the verse refer to something higher and better; and for this reason especially-that in the verses proceeding, Solomon affirms the incomparable superiority of wisdom to silver, and gold, and rubies, and all things that can be desired of a similar transitory kind. Now it certainly appears far from likely, that Solomon should bring prominently forward as a reason for this superiority, the tendency of wisdom to procure these very things-the long life, and the riches and honours of the present world. "Length of days," therefore, and "riches and honour," I cannot but regard as meant in the way of contrast to the same things as they are "highly esteemed amongst men." It is true, I freely allow, that wisdom does possess a most favourable tendency as to this life; but still its chief recommendation goes far beyond time and the things of time. The "length of days" is the same with that promised to the Redeemer in reward of his work-" He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever," Psa_21:4.-It is eternity itself. And the "riches and honour" conferred by divine Wisdom, are riches and honour incomparably more excellent and more lasting than those which the world or which man can bestow. If you compare the verse with chap. Pro_8:18, you will be satisfied of this. The epithet here applied to the riches-"durable riches," is evidently intended to make an emphatic distinction between them and the riches of earth. These are ever described in God's word as the very reverse of durable. The riches meant here, then, are such riches as are spoken of elsewhere, as bestowed by the Saviour on all who come to him-the glories and enjoyments of heaven, or rather of the spiritual life begun on earth and consummated in heaven-being represented under the figure of those things which are most highly prized amongst men.* And as to the honour, it is not "the honour that cometh from man," the eager aspiration after which the Saviour represents as one of the greatest obstacles to men's submission to the wisdom of God-" How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" Joh_5:44-But God hath said-"Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed," 1Sa_2:30.-And the Saviour hath said-" If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour," Joh_12:26.-What an honour is this-bestowed by God himself-a participation in the glory of his exalted Son! And that Son declares-" To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne," Rev_3:21.
* See Rev_2:9; Rev_3:18; 2Co_8:9; 2Co_6:10. Jam_2:5. Mat_6:20.
How complete the two things in this verse, when put together! With one hand Wisdom bestows length of days; with the other provides for the enjoyment of the life thus bestowed:-or, inverting the order,-with one hand she bestows riches and honour, and with the other eternity to possess and enjoy them! Then follows-verse Pro_3:17. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." The ways of Wisdom are the ways of practical piety-of faith, and love, and holy obedience. All the variety of obedience is comprehended in the phrase her ways. These are the ways she marks out. And these ways are "ways of pleasantness, and her paths are paths of peace."
Such has been, and such is the experience of every true child of God. I speak not of him who has "a name to live "-profession without principle-form without power,-whose religion is the dictate more of the conscience than of the heart. I speak of him who has really experienced the renovating power of the gospel, and who "delights in the law of God after the inward man." True religion yields its joys only to the heart that is unreservedly surrendered to its sway. While the heart continues to be parted between God and the world,-while, amidst outward conformity to the claims of religion, the love of the world is still retained and cherished,-it cannot be to the disparagement of religion, that the happiness promised by it to its votaries is not enjoyed. Even in consistency with his own happiness, "no man can serve two masters." Their opposing characters and demands must ever render the attempt irksome and unhappy. But in true religion itself-in the ways and paths-the more open and the more private walks-of heavenly wisdom-there is true blessedness. What, O what is there in true religion to engender gloom? It is light; and it is the property and office of light, not to gather mists, but to dispel them. It turns the shades of night into the morning.-Is a sense of God's love gloomy?-the thought of having our sins forgiven, and being the objects of the divine favour, the paternal affection of our heavenly Father? Is this melancholy? Is it saddening to have the hope of eternal life? Is it an unhappy thing to have the mind tranquil and serene amid all the trying vicissitudes of life, through firm faith in the wisdom, the faithfulness, and the love of a covenant God? Is it fitted to make a man miserable, to have his appetites, passions, and desires under subordination and control, their restless turbulence and contending demands repressed, and their murmurs and agitations and frettings quieted? Is it an overpowering cause of dejection, to be made like God, and to have the presence, and smile, and aid, and guidance, and blessing of God, as our God, in every season of darkness and distress, and in the valley itself of the shadow of death? Is the anticipation a disheartening one, of being with God for ever, in fullness of joy?
Is this a picture of gloom and wretchedness?-a picture from which the mind should shrink with aversion or turn with disdain? Must not the mind be in a strangely unnatural and unreasonable state that thinks so, or feels so? And yet this is true religion. These are its native accompaniments and results! There is not, indeed, here the "laughter of the fool"-the intemperate merriment which is so often but a poor cover to a spirit that is ill at ease; but there is true joy,-substantial delight-the steady sunshine of the soul-"pleasantness and peace."
The same train of thought is pursued in verse Pro_3:18. "She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her." Whatever is productive of true happiness-or rather, perhaps, whatever has a salutary and life-giving influence on the spiritual condition-is called by Solomon "a tree of life."* The allusion is obvious; and in the words before us, it must be understood in the highest amount of import of which it is susceptible. The tree of life, the sacred symbol and pledge of immortal blessedness to continued obedience, had its place in the centre of the original Eden; and the import of it, as a symbol now, may appear from such passages as these:-"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."-"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."-"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city," Rev_2:7; Rev_22:2; Rev_22:14.
* Comp. Pro_11:30; Pro_13:12; Pro_15:4.
Observe the two clauses of the verse-" She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her; and happy is every one that retaineth her." There is a necessity for retaining as well as laying hold. If we retain the instruction of Wisdom, hidden in our hearts-the principle of steadfast practical godliness,-it will then be in us a fountain of perennial joy-a "well of water springing up unto everlasting life." Or, to keep by the figure in the passage-the "tree of life" will continue to yield its pleasant and salutary fruits, not through the present time of sojourning on earth merely, but for ever, in the paradise above.
"Happy is every one that retaineth her." We spoke of man as immortal-destined to an interminable existence. This is one view of his true dignity. There is another. It arises from the amount of his susceptibilities, of enjoyment on the one hand, and of suffering on the other. Think of what man was, of what he is, and of what he is capable' of again becoming. His capabilities are such, that nothing beneath God himself can satisfy them. To make man truly and permanently happy, he must be "filled with all the fullness of God." God himself must be "the portion of his inheritance and cup." His soul can be filled from no created fountain. And Wisdom provides for him a portion adequate to his most unbounded desires, to his most expanded capacities. God will be the fullness of his joy!
The excellence of wisdom is further recommended from its source. It is divine. It comes from Him whose possession of it is infinite, and who, in all his works, has given displays so wonderful of its infinitude:-verses Pro_3:19-20. "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew."
The entire plan of creation-the mental model of this wonderful universe-in all its vastness and all its variety-was the product of wisdom-of divine wisdom-of Him from whom ice must learn our wisdom. There are some who take Wisdom here to be a personal designation and to have the same import as The Word. The ancient Jewish interpreters give not a little countenance to this principle of interpretation,-explaining it of the Messiah. It is sufficiently evident, however, from the variety of terms in these two verses-"wisdom" "understanding," "his knowledge,"-that it cannot be personally taken here. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, are all recommended-by this consideration, that they are divine attributes, and were exercised and manifested by their divine possessor in the contrivance and formation of the universe. The spirit of the recommendation seems to be, that, as it is "the Lord that giveth wisdom"-the wisdom which Solomon eulogizes and recommends-that which comes from such a source must be excellent-well worthy the desire and the solicitation. Think of what wisdom, as it exists in Deity, has done-the wonders it has wrought! This will recommend God's lessons. He is able to give wisdom, who has thus displayed it: "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth."
The founding of the earth seems designed simply to convey the idea of the stability of this well-ordered world,-a world still "clothed with beauty," even for rebellious man. And what must it have been in its original perfection, ere marred and blighted by the curse? The earth, in the sublime phrase of another scripture writer, is "hung upon nothing;" yet is it used as the very emblem of stability-" the firm foundations of the earth"-" the earth abideth for ever." The foundation of every part of the earth's surface is its centre; because by a force whose nature we do not understand, and which may be considered as but another name for the might of the ever-present Creator, all the parts gravitate towards the centre, and by this power are all held together, as steadfastly as if they rested on an immoveable basis; and by the same power, the earth, with unalterable constancy, retains its position in the system-pressed by it equally on every side, as firmly as by the most solid material, never shifting one hand's-breadth from the place assigned it.
The "establishing of the heavens," is explained by the account of their creation. (Gen_1:6-8.) Or by "the heavens" we may understand something more extensive than the firmament of our globe-that atmosphere of superincumbent air that gives its blueness to the concave over our heads. "The heavens" may be interpreted of the visible regions of space-the starry heavens with all their hosts.
The reference, in the first clause of the 20th verse (Pro_3:20)-"By his knowledge the depths were broken up" seems to be, not to the breaking up of "the fountains of the great deep" at the deluge, but to the account of the first separation of sea and land at the creation. The continuous fluid mass was then broken up and dissevered, being separated thenceforward by the intervening barriers of land-a work to which no less sublime allusion is made in the Book of Job:-" Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? "When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" chap. Job_38:8-11.
In the latter part of the verse, we have a beautiful exemplification of the resources of God's "manifold wisdom"-"by his knowledge-the clouds drop down the dew." From the entire surface of the earth, and more especially from that of seas, and Likes, and brooks, and rivers, there is insensibly effected, by the warmth of the solar rays, a perpetual exhalation of vapours. In the higher and colder regions of the atmosphere, these vapours condense into clouds, and are poured down in return upon the earth in the form of rain,-or distil insensibly, in the coolness of the evening and the night, in refreshing and fructifying dews. There is thus a constant reciprocation of supplies between the earth and the atmosphere-giving and receiving with common benefit,-a kind of circulation of fluids, the water being the life in the vegetable world, as the blood is in the animal. The waters which are above the firmament are supplied from the waters which are beneath the firmament. They again descend, to supply the springs, and streams, and rivers and seas, so as to "water the earth, that it may bring forth and bud, to give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater;" and to clothe it with all the untold variety, and exuberant profusion of vegetable life and loveliness.
To this "only wise God," then, his creatures are to come for wisdom. Let them "ask of God, who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not."-And those whom God makes truly wise, he makes like himself. Mark the character of true wisdom, as it appears in Him. His wisdom is not mere speculative, or even mere practical skill-skill of contrivance, skill of execution;-it is skill directed to good ends; skill appropriately and beneficially applied; applied for ends in which are united the glory of his own name and the happiness of his creatures. The entire system of nature demonstrates this. In the same manner, the wisdom that "cometh from above"-that cometh from God-is like his own. It is not mere knowledge. It is knowledge, with the disposition and ability rightly to apply and improve it,-agreeably to the ends of our creation-the glory of God, our own happiness, and the benefit of fellow-creatures. And knowledge-the knowledge which God by his word and Spirit imparts-thus improved, is substantially True Religion.
In inviting you from the ways of the world to the ways of wisdom, we invite you to true happiness, to happiness which will never either pall in the enjoyment, or prove bitterness in the recollection, or terminate in disappointment and eternal loss. We invite you to the best, the purest, the highest, the richest enjoyment of which your ethereal and immortal nature is susceptible; to the enjoyment of the divine favour, the divine image. The divine presence, the divine intercourse!
