the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it ; neither shall it be valued with pure golda." Having stated all this, he again asks the question, " Whence then cometh wisdom ? and where is the place of understanding ?" He then answers, that it is hid from the eyes of all living : that God alone understandeth it : and that he hath declared where and what it is : " Unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil is understandingV Now, rich and determinate as this passage is, it does not equal the declaration of David, who says, " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom : a good understand- ing have all they that do his commandments : his praise endureth for ever." Here he not only iden- tifies the fear of the Lord with wisdom, but carries on the comparison from the beginning to the end, from the first formation of them in the soul to their final completion in glory.
To enter fully into his meaning, we shall consider the fear of the Lord, I. As existing in the soul —
" Man is born like a wild ass's colt," and is as destitute of true wisdom as he. " The fear of the Lord is the very beginning of wisdom ;" and then only does wisdom exist in the soul, when the fear of the Lord is implanted in it. But,
What do we understand by the fear of the Lord ?
[This needs not to be stated at any length, because a very few words will suffice to explain it. The fear of the Lord is here put for true religion ; even for such religion as manifests itself by a deep humiliation before God, a simple affiance in the Lord Jesus Christ, and an unreserved obedience to his will. This is well understood amongst you, and therefore needs not to be insisted on. You all know that it does not consist in a mere assent to Christianity as true, or a profession of it as the only true system : you are fully aware that there is compre- hended in it a real surrender of ourselves to God as his redeemed people.]
This, when existing in the soul, is true wisdom — [There is no true wisdom where this fear is not ; for
a Job xxviii. 12—19. b Job xxviii. 20, 21, 24, 27, 2S.