Vers; 20-23.-The voice of Wisdom. Wisdom is here personified; it is the language of poetic insj:liration. ..,, Later on, " in the dispensation of the fulness of times," Wisdom was mnnifested in human form, and spake in the hearing of men. But its voice has never been silent altogether, from the beginning until now. We are reminded of it- I. THAT THERE ARE MANY CHANNELS THROUGH wmcH WISDOM UTTERS ITS VOICE, The plural form ·of the·word:("wisdoms ")suggests the manifoldness of the utternnce. Goel. teaches us his truth, makes known his mind to us, through (1) the objects and laws of the physical world around us; (2)' the constitution of our own frame ; (3) the teachings of our own spiritual nature, the jucl.gments of our conscience and the conclusions ot· onr reason; ~4) his providential orderings; (5) the admonitions of his Spirit; (6) the won.ls of Jesus Uhrist: he is the" Wisdom of God" (l Cor. i. 24). • II. THAT THE VOICE OF WISDOM IS AUDIBLE TO ALL WHO WILL LISTEN, "Wisdom crieth without; she utters her voice in the streets : she crieth in the chief place of concourse," etc. (vers. 20, 21). Wisdom, Divine truth, does not merely whisper its doctrine in 8ectet places where there are few to hear; she does not reserve her teaching to the closed class-room to which only some favoured ones find admittance; she speaks "in the open," where the "ways meet," in "the chief places•of concourse." "Upon whom doth not God's light arise?" (Job xxv. 3). The friendly voices speak in the ear of childhood; they address the mind of youth; they have a message for manhood; they find their way to the sanctuary of age. Wisdom waits upon the pure and holy, walks by the side of spiritual indifference to win its ear, and confronts sin in its most secret haunts. Nothing-or nothing but the most hardened iniquity which calls evil good and good evil-can shut its doors so fast that the monitory voice cannot enter the cham hers of tllo soul. 32 THE PROVERBS. [olI, I, 1-33,
III. THAT WISDOM SPEAKS WITH A HOLY AND LOVING ENERGY. Wisdom "crieth " "utters her voice in the streets." There is an energy and an urgency in her tones an'd lll her language (vers. 22, 23). The utterance of Wisdom is none other than the voice of God. It is our Father who pleads with us; it is our Saviour who calls to us• it is our Divine Friend who implores us. It is no hard voice as of a court doo~eter that assaults us; it is the pleading, plaintive, pathetic voice of One who loves us with fatherly affection, and yea.ms over us with more than motherly solicitude that arrests us in our course and touches the tender and sacred feelings of our heart. ' IV. THAT WrsDOM SPARES NOT TO TELL us EXACTLY WHAT WE ABE. She does not mince her words; she does not cut away the knots of the cord with which we are to be stirred _to ne~n~ss of life.. She calls men simpletons, scorners, fools, and upbraids them for their stupidity and their folly (ver. 22). When we listen to the voices which are from above we must expect plain speaking. We must not start back with offence if we find ourselves condemned in strong terms. "'£hou art the man I" follows the narrative which transfixes the cruel and heartless robber of his neighbour's all, "Ye fools and blind ! " said the Wisdom of God, as he rebuked the hypocrisy of his day. We arc not to be repelled from, but attracted to, the man who, speaking for the only wise God, puts sacred truth into the strongest and even the sternest lanauage, V. THAT WISDOM SEEKS TO IMPART ITS OWN SPIBIT TO ITS D~CIPLES, "Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you" (ver. 23). Its aim is spiritual and beneficent. Gud wounds only that he may hea.l. He sends "poverty of spirit" that he may thereby make rich for evermore. He humbles that he may exalt, His one desire is to make us like himself; to put his own Spirit within us, that we may be " the children of our Father who is in hea.ven."-C.
Vers. 24-33.-ne Divine ultimatum. There is something which is fearful and appalling in these verses. We are ready to tremble as we read them. We are ready to exclaim, "How far may human perversity, and Divine retribution gol" With hushed voice, with subdued spirit, as those before whose eyes the lightnings of heaven are flashing, we consider the significance of the words. But first we see-- I. THAT Goo MAKES MANY APPEALS TO THE HUMAN SOUL, He calls, and we refuse j he stretches out his hands, and no man regards (ver. 24), He multiplies his counsel and his reproof (vers. 25 and 30). Thus his statement is sustained by his dealings with us; he gives us the repeated and manifold admonitions of our own conscience, ot the home, of the sanctuary, of friendship, of his Word, of his Spirit, etc. II. THAT HUMAN PERVERSITY GOES AS FAB AS THE DIVINE PATIENCE, Man "refuses," "regards not" (turns away his eyes, closes his ears), "sets at nought," "will not have,"" hates," does not choose ( deliberately rejects), all the counsel of God. Perhaps the course of human perversity may be thus traced : first temporizing, with the idea of submitting; then postponing, without any such intention; then disregard- ing, hearing without heeding; then positively disliking and getting away from; then actually hating, cherishing a feeling of rebellious aversion, ending in mockery and scorn. So far may human perversity go. God's wonderful patience in seeking to win is extended far, but not further than human opposition and resistance. 'l'o every "Come" from Heaven there is an answer, "I will not," in the human spirit. III. THAT Goo FINALLY ABANDONS SIN TO ITS DOOM, We must, of course, under~ staud the language of vers. 26, 27 as highly figurative. No proverb is to be pressed to its fullest possible meauing. The author always assumes that it will be applied with intelligence and discrimination. This is the language of hyperbole. No one could for a moment believe that the eternal Father of our spirits would, literally and actually, laugh and mock at our calamity and alarm. The significance of the passage i11 that, after a certain point of perverse refusal has been past, God no longer pleads and strives with hi.Ji wayward children. He interposes no further between a man and the con8e- qucnces of bis folly. He "leaves him alone" (Hos. iv, 17). He "gives him up• (Act!' vii. 42·; Rom. i. 26). He permits sin to do its own sad work in the soul, and to produce its own natural results in the life; be removes his restraining hand, and suffers tl,em "to eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices" (ver. 31). This is the end of impenitence, We see it only too often illustrated before uur eyeE. Men act as if they might defy their Maker, as if they might draw indefinitely OJI, JI, 1-22,] THE PROVERBS. 33