PROVERBS XXIII. 23 333
Think ye 'mid all this mighty sum
Of things for ever speaking, That nothing of itself will come,
But we must still be seeking?
This is intuition ; but it does not come miraculously ; there has been a long preparation for it in the race and often also in the individual.
^ A modern philosophical writer (Eucken), with much know- ledge of past endeavours after the truth, tells us that we must seek it in a new way. We must seek it, primarily, not without but within ourselves, not as a matter of the intellect merely, or of any one or more faculties alone, but of the life, as something belonging to a higher and wider Life which is seeking to realize itself in us. No doubt what is thus said is true. But it implies a distinction or contrast between the actual and the ideal, and that there is a faculty in man capable of perceiving the ideal. In what other way could we possibly know what the higher and wider Life moves us to ? The ideal, however, is not a mere intellectual perception ; there is also a sense or feeling of what is true and good, and an attraction that draws us upward towards itself. That there is a higher Life seeking to live in us, Christianity also teaches.^
^ One of the most interesting parts of the Pilgrim's Progress is that in which Christian and Faithful come to Vanity Fair, crowded with merry people, all engaged in buying trifles. " That which did not a little amuse the merchants was that these pilgrims set very light by their wares, they cared not so much as to look upon them : and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears and cry, ' Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.' One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, ' What will ye buy ? ' But they, looking gravely upon him, said, ' We buy the truth.' " ^
2. What is meant, then, by saying that the truth has to be bought — " Buy the truth, and sell it not ; yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding " ? The highest things have to be bought, not with money — indeed, they are above price ; but you cannot have them without cost, expenditure, sacrifice. To buy is to give up something that you value in exchange for something that you desire more, covet more, and perhaps need more. It is right, 1 W. L. Walker, The True Christ, 18. ^ j_ Jeffrey, The Way of Life, 254.
334 BUYING AND SELLING OF TRUTH
then, to say that all good and Divine things must be bought. Our great Master likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a merchant- man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. And the Apostle Paul, quite in the spirit of that parable, declared that he had suffered the loss of all things to win Christ — that is, he had sold all the other things to buy Christ, and got Him cheap at that sacrifice.
(1) We have all to buy what this writer calls wisdom, for it can be gained only in the school of experience, and the fees in that school are high. Wisdom is never inherited, never bequeathed or transmitted from father to son. Everyone has to buy it for himself in a dear market. This writer, in the preceding verse, counts the father happy who begetteth a wise child ; but that is impossible. His child may grow up into a wise man, but he is never born wise. A man may be born clever, talented, a genius, a poet ; he may be born rich, heir to an estate, a title, or a throne ; but he is never born wise. He has to buy wisdom at a big price. Some of our young people may be a great deal smarter than their fathers, much more up-to-date, as they say, and, by virtue of their superior education, far more knowing in book matters. But they cannot, in the nature of things, be quite as wise as their fathers, unless, indeed, the fathers are mentally deficient ; and even then, there is at least a probability that the sons will take after them ; because wisdom can be acquired only in the rough and painful school of experience. The buying of wisdom writes wrinkles and furrows on our faces, and heavy lines of care on our poor hearts. We buy wisdom with many a rebuff, humbling, and disappointment, with costly blunders and heartache, sad hours, and sometimes a bit of heart-break. We are buying wisdom all our lives, and often it comes to us only as the end approaches. That is the pathos of life. We often wish that we could have the wisdom sooner, before the twilight creeps on. It would make our lives so much happier and more useful ; but it comes only in time to use the greater part of it in the higher service, where, no doubt, it will be needed. Well might this writer say: "Buy wisdom." We have all to buy it.
^ On November 15, Principal Tulloch gave his opening lecture at St. Mary's College. My record of the day says " really very