American Standard Version Proverbs 8

Proverbs 8:1-36
EXPOSITION
Pro_8:1-36

14. Fourteenth admonitory discourse concerning Wisdom—her excellence, her origin, her gifts. She is contrasted with the strange woman of Pro_7:1-27; and the exceeding greatness of the blessings which she offers exhibits in the most marked manner the nothingness of the deceiver’s gifts. One is reminded of the celebrated episode of the choice of Hercules, delineated by Xenophon, ’Memorab.,’ 2.1. 21, etc. The chapter divides itself into four sections.
    (1) Introductory (Pro_7:1-3); Wisdom calls on all to listen, and gives reasons for trusting to her (Pro_7:4-11).
    (2) She displays her excellence (Pro_7:12-21).
    (3) She discourses of her origin and action (Pro_7:22 -31).
    (4) She again inculcates the duty of hearkening to her instructions (verses 32-36).
    Pro_8:1
    Doth not Wisdom cry? (see on Pro_1:20, and Introduction). The interrogative form, which expects an affirmative answer, is a mode of asserting a truth universally allowed. Wisdom is personified, though we are not so plainly confronted by an individual, as in the preceding case of the harlot. But it must be remembered that, whatever may have been the author’s exact meaning, however worldly a view the original enunciation may have afforded, we, reading these chapters by the light cast upon them by later revelation, see m the description of Wisdom no mere ideal of practical prudence and good sense, no mere poetic personification of an abstract quality, but an adumbration of him who is the Wisdom of God, the coeternal Son of the Father. The open, bold, and public utterances of Wisdom are in happy contrast to the secret and stealthy enticements of Vice. So Christ, the true Wisdom, says, “I have spoken openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and in secret spake I nothing” (Joh_18:20). The Septuagint changes the subject of this verse, and makes the pupil addressed: “Thou shalt proclaim (κηρύξεις) wisdom, that understanding (φρόνησις) may obey thee;” which seems to mean that, if you wish to acquire wisdom, so that it may serve you practically, you must act as a herald or preacher, and make your desire generally known. St. Gregory has some remarks about wilful ignorance of what is right. “It is one thing,” he says, “to be ignorant; another to have refused to learn. For not to know is only ignorance; to refuse to learn is pride. And they are the less able to plead ignorance in excuse, the more that knowledge is set before them, even against their will. We might, perhaps, be able to pass along the way of this present life in ignorance of this Wisdom, if she herself had not steed in the corners of the way” (’Moral.,’ 25.29).
    Pro_8:2
    She standeth in the top of high places, by the way. She takes her stand, not in thievish corners of the streets, like the harlot, but in the most open and elevated parts of the city, where she may be best seen and heard by all who pass by (see Pro_1:21, and note there). In the places of the paths; i.e. where many paths converge, and where people meet from different quarters.
    Pro_8:3
    The expressions in the text indicate the position which she takes and its capabilities. At the hand of the gates (1Sa_19:3). She posts herself at the side of the city gates, under the archway pierced in the wall, where she is sure of an audience. At the mouth of the city, inside the gate, where people pass on their way to the country. At the coming in at the doors, by which persons enter the town. Thus she catches all comers, those who are entering, as well as those who are leaving the city. Here standing, as in the Agora or Forum, she crieth; she calls aloud, saying what follows (Pro_8:4-36). It is a fine picture of the comprehensiveness of the gospel, which is meant for high and low, prince and peasant; which is proclaimed everywhere, in the courts of kings, in the lanes of the country, in the hovels of the city; which sets forth the infinite love of God, who is not willing that any should perish, but would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth (2Pe_3:9). Septuagint, “By the gates of the mighty she sits, in the entrances she sings aloud (ὑμνεῖται).”
    Pro_8:4-11
    She summons various classes of persons to attend to her, showing how trustworthy she is, and how precious her instruction.
    Pro_8:4
    Unto you, O men, I call. “Men,” ishim (אִישִׁים); equivalent to ἄνδρες, viri, men in the highest sense, who have some wisdom and experience, but need further enlightenment (Isa_53:3; Psa_141:4). The sons of man; בְּנֵי אָדָם, “children of Adam;” equivalent to ἄνθρωποι, homines, the general kind of men, who are taken up with material interests. St. Gregory notes (’Moral ,’ 27.6) that persons (heroines) of perfect life are in Scripture sometimes called “men” (viri). And again, “Scripture is wont to call those persons ’men’ who follow the ways of the Lord with firm and steady steps. Whence Wisdom says in the Proverbs, ’Unto you, O men, I call.’ As if she were saying openly, ’I do not speak to women, but to men; because they who are of an unstable mind cannot at all understand my words’” (’Moral.,’ 28.12, Oxford transl.).
    Pro_8:5
    O ye simple, understand wisdom. “The simple,” those not yet perverted, but easily influenced for good or evil. See on Pro_1:4, where also is explained the word ormah, used here for “wisdom;” equivalent to calliditas in a good sense, or πανουργία, as sometimes employed in the Septuagint; so here: νοήσατε ἄκακοι πανουργίαν, “subtlety.” Ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. For “fools” (khesilim), the intellectually heavy and dull, see on Pro_1:22. The heart is considered the seat of the mind or understanding (comp. Pro_15:32; Pro_17:16, etc.). Septuagint, “Ye that are untaught, take in heart (ἔνθεσθε καρδίαν).” The call thus addressed to various classes of parsons is like the section in 1Jn_2:1-29, “I write unto you. little children,” etc.
    Pro_8:6
    I will speak of excellent things; de rebus magnis, Vulgate; σεμνὰ γὰρ ἐρῶ, Septuagint. The Hebrew nagid is elsewhere used of persons; e.g. a prince, leader (1Sa_9:16; 1Ch_26:24); so it may here be best translated “princely,” “noble”—an epithet which the subject matter of Wisdom’s discourse fully confirms (comp. Pro_22:20, though the word there is different). Hitzig and others, following the Syriac, prefer the meaning, “plain, evident truths” (comp. Pro_8:9); but the former interpretation is most suitable. The opening of my lips shall be right things. That which I announce when I open my mouth is just and right (Pro_23:16). Septuagint.
    Pro_8:7
    Another coordinate reason for attention. My mouth; chek, “palate” (Pro_5:3, where see note); the organ of speech. Shall speak truth; emeth (see on Pro_3:3). The verb הָגָה (hagah) properly means “to speak with one’s self,” “to meditate;” and so the versions translate here, meditabitur, μελετήσει; but this idea is not appropriate to the word joined with it, “the palate,” and it must be taken to signify to utter, as in Psa_35:28; Psa_37:30, etc. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. Resha, “wickedness,” is the contrary of moral truth and right. Septuagint, “False lips are abominable in my sight.”
    Pro_8:8
    In righteousness; i.e. joined with righteousness equivalent to “righteous.” In Pro_3:16 the Septuagint has an addition which may perhaps be an echo of this passage: “Out of her mouth proceedeth righteousness, and she beareth upon her tongue law and mercy.” But more probably it is derived partly from Isa_45:23, and partly from Pro_31:26. There is nothing froward or perverse in them. In the utterance of Wisdom there is nothing crooked, no distortion of the truth; all is straightforward and direct.
    Pro_8:9
    They are all plain to him that understandeth. The man who listens to and imbibes the teaching of Wisdom finds these words intelligible, and “to the point.” Opening his heart to receive Divine instruction, he is rewarded by having his understanding enlightened; for while “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1Co_2:14), yet “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Psa_25:14), and “mysteries are revealed unto the meek” (Ecc_3:19, Complutensian *). Right to them that find knowledge (Pro_8:10). They form an even path without stumbling blocks for those who have learned to discern right from wrong, and are seeking to direct their lives in accordance with high motives. Septuagint, “They are all present (ἐνώπια) to those that understand, and right (ὀρθὰ) to those that find knowledge.”
    Pro_8:10
    Receive my instruction, and not silver; i.e. acquire wisdom rather than silver, if ever the choice is yours. And knowledge rather than choice gold (comp. Pro_8:19; Pro_3:1-35 :140. (For “knowledge,” daath, see on Pro_2:10.) The comparison is implied rather than expressed in the first clause, while it is made clear in the second. Thus Hos_6:6, “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,” the second matter mentioned being, not necessarily of no importance, but always in such cases of inferior importance to the other. We may quote Horace’s complaint of the worldliness of his countrymen, a marked contrast to the inspired counsel of Proverbs (’Epist.,’ Pro_1:1, 52)—
    “Villus argentum est auro, virtutibus aurum.
    O cives, cives! quaerenda pecunia primum est,
    Virtus post nummos.”
    Pro_8:11
    (See Pro_3:14, Pro_3:15, and notes.)
    Pro_8:12-21
    Wisdom tells of her own excellence.
    Pro_8:12
    I wisdom dwell with prudence; rather, as in the Revised Version, I have made subtilty (Pro_8:5) my dwelling. Wisdom inhabits prudence, animates and possesses that cleverness and tact which is needed for the practical purposes of life. So the Lord is said to “inhabit eternity” (Isa_57:15). Septuagint, “I wisdom dwelt (κατεσκήνωσα) in counsel and knowledge,” which recalls, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (ἐσκήνωσεν) among us” (Joh_1:14). In 1Ti_6:16 we find the expression, “Who alone hath (μόνος ἔχων) immortality,” exchanged with the phrase, “Who dwelleth (
    οἰκῶν) in the unapproachable light.” And find out knowledge of witty inventions. This rendering refers to the production and solution of dark sayings which Wisdom effects. But the expression is better rendered, “knowledge of deeds of discretion” (1Ti_1:4), or “of right counsels,” and it signifies that Wisdom presides over all well considered designs, that they are not beyond her sphere, and that she has and uses the knowledge of them. Septuagint, “I (ἐγὼ) called upon understanding,” i.e. it is I who inspire all good and righteous thought.
    Pro_8:13
    The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Wisdom here enunciates the proposition which is the foundation of all her teaching, only here, as it were, on the reverse side, net as the beginning of wisdom (Pro_1:7; Pro_9:10), but as the hatred of evil; she then proceeds to particularize the evil which the Lord hates. Taking the clause in this sense, we have no need to alter the persons and forms of the verbs to “I fear the Lord, I hate evil,” as Dathe and others suggest; still less to suppress the whole paragraph as a late insertion. These violent measures are arbitrary and quite unnecessary, the present text allowing a natural and sufficient exposition. There can be no fellowship between light and darkness; he who serves the Lord must renounce the works of the devil. Pride and arrogancy, which are opposed to the sovereign virtue of humility, are the first sins which Wisdom names. These are among the things which the Lord is said to hate (Pro_6:17, etc.). “Initium omnis peccati est superbia” (Ecc_10:15, Vet. Lat.). The evil way; i.e. sins of conduct, “way” being, as commonly, equivalent to “manner of life.” The froward mouth; literally, mouth of perverseness, sins of speech (see on Pro_2:12; and comp. Pro_10:31); Vulgate, os bilingue.
    Pro_8:14
    Having said what she hates, Wisdom now says what she is, and what she can bestow on her followers. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom. There is some doubt about the meaning of the word translated “sound wisdom” (tushiyyah). The Vulgate has aequitas; the Septuagint, ἀσφάλεια, “safety.” The word occurs elsewhere in this book and in Job, but only in two other places of Scripture, viz. Isa_28:29 and Mic_6:9. It means properly “elevation” or “furtherance,” or, as others say, “substance;” and then that which is essentially good end useful, which may be wisdom, aid, or security (see on Pro_2:7). Wisdom affirms that she possesses counsel and all that can help forward righteousness; see Job_12:13, Job_12:16, passages very similar to the present (comp. Wis. 8:9, etc.). I am understanding. Wisdom does not merely possess these attributes; they are her very nature, as it is said, “God is love” St. Jerome’s mea est prudentia, and the LXX.’s ἐμὴ φρόνησις, lose this trait. I have strength. Wisdom directs the energies and powers of her pupils, which without her control would be spent wrongly or uselessly (comp. Ecc_7:19). Wisdom, understanding, and might are named among the seven gifts of the Spirit in Isa_11:2; and we may see in the passage generally an adumbration of him who is called “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God” (Isa_9:6).
    Pro_8:15
    By me kings reign. By possession of wisdom kings are enabled to discharge their functions duly and righteously. So Solomon prayed for wisdom to enable him to rule his subjects properly (1Ki_3:9; Wis. 9:4). Princes (rozenim, Pro_31:4); either those who are weighty, inflexible, or these who weigh causes; the latter explanation seems most suitable. Vulgate, legum conditores; Septuagint, οἱ δυνάσται, These are said to decree justice; literally, to engrave just decrees on tablets; γράφουσι δικαιοσύνην, Septuagint. Early expositors take these words as spoken by Christ, to whom they are very plainly applicable (comp. Isa_32:1).
    Pro_8:16
    Princes; here sarim, “leaders.” All the judges of the earth. These words stand without a conjunction, in apposition to what has preceded, by what is called asyndeton summativum (Pro_1:21), and gather in one view kings, princes, and leaders. Thus the Book of Wisdom, which speaks of the duties of rulers, commences by addressing of κρίνοντες τὴν γῆν, “ye that are judges of the earth.” In the East judgment of causes was an integral part of a monarch’s duties. The reading of the Authorized Version is supported by the Septuagint, which gives κρατοῦσι γῆς. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee road, צדק, “justice,” in place of ארץ, “earth;” but this seems to have been an alteration of the original text derived from some idea of the assertion there made being too comprehensive or universal. Nowack compares Psa_2:10 and Psa_148:11, “Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth.” The Fathers have taken these verses as spoken by God, and as asserting his supremacy and the providential ordering of human government, according to St. Paul’s saying, “There is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God”.
    Pro_8:17
    I love them that love me. So Christ says (Joh_14:21), “He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him” Love attracts love. “Magues amoris est amor.” They who love virtue and wisdom are regarded with favour by God. whoso inspiration they have obeyed, obtaining grace for grace. So Ben Sira says, “Them that love her the Lord doth love “(Ecclesiasticus 4:14); so Wis. 7:28, “God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom.” The Septuagint changes the verbs in this clause, though they are parts of the same word in the Hebrew: Ἐγὼ τοὺς ἐμὲ φιλοῦντας ἀγαπῶ. This reminds one of the passage in the last chapter of St. John (Joh_21:15-17). where a similar interchange is made. Those that seek me early shall find me (see the contrast in Pro_1:28). “Early” may mean from tender years; but more probably it is equivalent to “earnestly,” “strenuously,” as people deeply interested in any pursuit rise betimes to set about the necessary work (comp. Isa_26:9; Hos_5:15). The Septuagint, “They who seek (ζητοῦντες) me shall find.” So the Lord says (Mat_7:7), “Seek (ζητεῖτε), and ye shall find;” Ecc_4:12, “He that loveth her loveth life; and they that seek to her early (οἱ ὀρθρίζοντες πρὸς αὐτὴν) shall be filled with joy” (comp. Luk_21:38).
    Pro_8:18
    Riches and honour are with me (see Pro_3:16). Wisdom has these things in her possession to bestow on whom she will, as God gave them to Solomon in reward of his petition for wisdom (1Ki_3:13). Durable riches and righteousness. Things often regarded as incompatible. Durable, עָתֵק (athek), occurs only here (but see Isa_23:18), and means “old,” “venerable,” “long accumulated;” hence firm and lasting. Righteousness is the last reward that Wisdom bestows, without which, indeed, all material blessings would be nothing worth. Wealth obtained in a right way, and rightly used, is durable and stable. This was especially true under a temporal dispensation. We Christians, however, look not for reward in uncertain riches, but in God’s favour here and happiness in another world. The Septuagint, “Possession of many things, and righteousness.” What is denoted by “righteousness” is further explained in the following verses, 19-21.
    Pro_8:19
    My fruit is better than gold. We have had Wisdom called “a tree of life” (Pro_3:18), and the gain from possessing her compared to gold and silver (Pro_3:14). Fine gold (paz); Septuagint and Vulgate, “precious stone.” The word signifies “purified gold”—gold from which all mixture or alloy has been separated. My revenue; Vulgate, genimina mea; Septuagint, γεννήματα; Hebrew, tebuah, “produce,” “profits.”
    Pro_8:20
    I lead in the way (better, I walk in the way) of righteousness. I act always according to the rules of justice. In the midst of the paths of judgment. I swerve not to one side or the other (Pro_4:27). So the psalmist prays, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end;” “Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk” (Psa_119:33; Psa_143:8). And the promise is given to the faithful in Isa_30:21, “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Virtue, as Aristotle has taught us, is the mean between two extremes.
    Pro_8:21
    That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; יֵשׁ (yesh), ὕπαρξις, “real, valuable possessions.” Those who love Wisdom will walk in her path, follow her leading, and therefore, doing God’s will, will be blessed with success. Such will lay up treasure in heaven, will provide bags which wax not old, will be preparing for “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (Mat_6:20; Luk_12:33; 1Pe_1:4). The LXX. here inserts a paragraph as a kind of introduction to the important section which follows: “If I declare unto you the things which daily befall, I will remember to recount the things of eternity;” i.e. thus far I have spoken of the advantages derived from Wisdom in daily circumstances; now I proceed to narrate her origin and her doings from all eternity. But the addition appears awkward, and is probably not now in its original position.
    Pro_8:22-31
    Wisdom speaks of her origin, her active operations, the part which she bore in the creation of the universe, her relation to God (see on Pro_1:20 and Pro_3:19, and Introduction). It is impossible to decide what was the exact view of the writer with regard to the wisdom of which he speaks so eloquently; but there can be no doubt that he was guided in his diction so as to give expression to the idea of him whom St. John calls the Word of God. The language used is not applicable to an impersonal quality, an abstract faculty of God. It describes the nature and office of a Person; and who that Person is we learn from the later Scriptures, which speak of Christ as the “Wisdom of God” (Luk_11:49) and “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (1Co_1:24). If we confine our inquiry to the question—What was in the mind of the author when he indited this wonderful section concerning Wisdom? we shall fail to apprehend its true significance, and shall be disowning the influence of the Holy Spirit, which inspires all Scripture, which prompted the holy men who spake to utter words of which they knew not the full spiritual significance, and which could only be understood by subsequent revelation. There is, then, nothing forced or incongruous in seeing in this episode a portraiture of the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, the essential Wisdom of God personified, the Logos of later books, and of the gospel. This interpretation obtained universally in the Church in the earliest times, and has commended itself to the
    most learned and reverent of modern commentators. That much which was contained in their own utterances was unknown to the prophets of old, that they did not fully perceive the mysteries which they darkly enunciated, we learn from St. Peter, who tells us that they who prophesied of the grace of Christ sought and searched diligently what the Spirit of God that was in them did point unto, and were shown that not unto themselves, but unto us, they ministered those things, secrets which angels themselves desire to look into (1Pe_1:10, etc.). Wisdom as a human endowment, animating all intellectual and even physical powers; Wisdom as communicating to man moral excellence and piety; Wisdom as not only an attribute of God, but itself as the eternal thought of God;—under these aspects it is regarded in our book; hut under and through all it is more or less personified. Khochmah is contrasted in the next chapter, not with an abstraction, but with an actual woman of impure life—a real, not an imaginary, antagonist. The personality of the latter intimates that of the former (see Liddon, ’Bampt. Lects.,’ 2.).
    Pro_8:22
    The Lord possessed me. Great controversy has arisen about the word rendered “possessed.” The verb used is קָנָה (kanah), which means properly “to erect, set upright,” also “to found, form” (Gen_14:19, Gen_14:22), then “to acquire” (Pro_1:5; Pro_4:5, Pro_4:7, etc.) or “to possess” (Pro_15:32; Pro_19:8). The Vulgate, Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus, Venetian, give “possessed;” Septuagint, ἔκτισε, “made,” and so Syriac. The Arians took the word in the sense of “created” (which, though supported by the LXX; it seems never to have had), and deduced therefrom the Son’s inferiority to the Father—that he was made, not begotten from all eternity. Ben Sira more than once employs the verb κτίζω in speaking of Wisdom’s origin; e.g. Ecc_1:4, Ecc_1:9; 24:8. Opposing the heresy of the Arians, the Fathers generally adopted the rendering ἐκτήσατο, possedit, “possessed;” and even those who received the translation ἔκτισε, explained it not of creating, but of appointing, thus: The Father set Wisdom over all created things, or made Wisdom to be the efficient cause of his creatures (Rev_3:14). May we not say that the writer was guided to use a word which would express relation in a twofold sense? Wisdom is regarded either as the mind of God expressed in operation, or the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; and the verb thus signifies that God possesses in himself this essential Wisdom, and intimates likewise that Wisdom by eternal generation is a Divine Personality. St. John (Joh_1:1), before saying that the Word was God, affirms that “the Word was with God (ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν).” So we may assert that Solomon has arrived at the truth that Wisdom was πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, if he has left it for later revelation to declare that ἡ Σοφία or ὁ Λόγος Θεὸς ἦν. Whichever sense we assign to the verb on which the difficulty is supposed to hang, whether we take it as “possessed,” “formed,” or “acquired,” we may safely assume that the idea conveyed to Christian minds is this—that Wisdom, existing eternally in the Godhead, was said to be “formed” or “brought forth” when it operated in creation, and when it assumed human nature. In the beginning of his way. So the Vulgate, in initio viarum suarum. But the preposition “in” does not occur in the original; and the words may be bettor translated, “as the beginning of his way”; i.e. as the earliest revelation of his working. Wisdom, eternal and uncreated, first puts forth its energy in creation, then becomes incarnate, and is now called, “the Firstborn of all creation (πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως)” (Col_1:15). Thus in Psa_2:7, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (Heb_1:5); and, “When he bringeth in the Firstborn into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him” (Heb_1:6). In the present clause, the ways of God are his works, as in Job_26:14 and Job_40:19, where behemoth is called “chief among the ways of God” (comp. Psa_145:17, where “ways” stands as a parallel to “works”). Before his works of old. These words are better regarded (with Delitzsch) as a second parallel object, קֶדֶם (kedem), translated “before,” being not a preposition, but denoting previous existence. Hence we translate, “The foremost of his works of old;” i.e. the earliest revelation of his energy. There is a curious passage in the ’Book of Enoch,’ ch. 42; which speaks of the personality and pre-existence of Wisdom, of her desire to dwell among men, frustrated by man’s wickedness: “Wisdom found no place where she could dwell; therefore was her dwelling in heaven. Wisdom came forth in order to dwell among the sons of men, and found no habitation; then she returned to her place, and took her seat among the angels.” We may add Wis. 8:3, “In that she dwelleth with God (συμβίωσιν Θεοῦ ἔχουσα), she magnifieth her nobility.”
    Pro_8:23
    I was set up from everlasting. The verb used here is remarkable. It is נָסַךְ(nasak), in niph.; and it is found in Psa_2:6, “I have set my King upon my holy hill.” Both here and there it has been translated “anointed,” which would make a noteworthy reference to Christ. But there seems no proof that the word has this meaning. It signifies properly “to pour forth” (as of molten metal), then “to put down,” “to appoint or establish.” The versions recognize this. Thus the Septuagint, “he established (ἐθεμελίωσε) me;” Vulgate, ordinata sum; Aquila, κατεστάθην; Symmachus, προεχείρισμαι; Venetian, κέχυμαι (comp. Ecc_1:9). So what is here said is that Wisdom was from everlasting exalted as ruler and disposer of all things. To express eternal relation, three synonymous terms are used. From everlasting; πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος, Septuagint, as Delitzsch notes, points back to infinite distance. From the beginning; i.e. before the world was begun to be made; as St. John says (Joh_1:1), “In the beginning was the Word;” and Christ prays, “Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (Joh_17:5). Or ever the earth was. This looks to the most remote time after the actual creation, while the earth was being formed and adapted.
    Pro_8:24
    The preexistence of Wisdom is still more expressly set forth. When there were no depths (Pro_8:27, Pro_8:28). The waste of waters which covered the face of the earth is meant—that great deep on which primeval darkness brooded (Gen_1:2). Before even this, man’s earliest conception of the beginning of the world, uncreated Wisdom was. Septuagint, “before he made the abysses” (see on Pro_3:20). I was brought forth; Vulgate, et ego jam concepta eram; Septuagint, at the end of Pro_8:25, γεννᾷ με, “he begetteth me.” The verb here is חוּל (chul), which is used of the travailing of women, and is rightly translated, “brought forth by generation.” It indicates in this place the energizing of Wisdom, her conception in the Divine mind, and her putting tbrth in operation. When there were no fountains abounding with water; i.e. springs in the interior of the earth (Gen_7:11; comp. Job_22:1-30; Job_26:1-14; Job_38:1-41.). Septuagint,”Before the springs of the waters came forward (προελθεῖν).”
    Pro_8:26
    Before the mountains were settled (Job_38:6). It is questioned where the mountains were supposed to be fixed, and some have thought that they are represented as fixed in the depths of the earth. But, as we learn from Gen_1:9, they are regarded as rising from the waters, their foundations are laid in the great deep. So the psalmist, speaking of the waters, says, “They went up by the mountains, they went down by the valleys, unto the place which thou hast founded for them” (Psa_104:8; comp. Psa_24:2). What is here affirmed of Wisdom is said of Jehovah in Psa_90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.”
    Pro_8:26
    The earth, nor the fields. The distinction intended is land as cultivated and occupied by buildings, etc; and waste uncultivated land outside towns. Septuagint, “The Lord made countries and uninhabited places (ἀοικήτους);” Vulgate, Adhuc terram non fecerat, et flumina. Hebrew, chutsoth; things without, abroad, hence open country. The Vulgate rendering, and that of Aquila and Symmaehus, ἐξόδους, are plainly erroneous, as waters have already been mentioned (Pro_8:24). The highest part of the dust of the world; literally, the head of the dusts of the world. Some have interpreted this expression of “man,” the chief of those creatures which are made of the dust of the ground (Gen_3:19; Ecc_3:20). But the idea comes in awkwardly here; it is not natural to introduce man amid the inanimate works of nature, or to use such an enigmatical designation for him. St. Jerome has, cardines orbis terrarum, “the world’s hinges;” Septuagint, “the inhabited summits of the earth beneath the heavens; according to St. Hilary (’De Trinit.,’ 12), “cacumina quae habitantur sub coelo.” Others take the term to signify the capes or promontories ot the world, the peaks and elevations; others, the clods of dry, amble land, in contrast to the untilled waste of waters; others, the chief elements, the matter of which the earth is composed. This last interpretation would lead us back to a period which has already been passed. Amid the many possible explanations, it is perhaps best (with Delitzsch, Nowack, etc.) to take rosh, “head” as equivalent to “sum,” “mass,” as in Psa_139:17. “How great is the sum (rosh) of them!” Then the expression comprehensively means all the mass of earth’s dust.
    Pro_8:27
    After asserting the pre-existence of Wisdom, the writer tells her part in the work of creation. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When God made the firmament, and divided the waters above it and below (Gen_1:7), Wisdom cooperated. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth. חוּג (chug), “circle,” or “circuit” (as Job_22:14), means the vault of heaven, conceived of as resting on the ocean which surrounds the earth, in partial accordance with the notion in Homer, who speaks of the streams of ocean flowing back into itself (
    ἀψόῤῥοος), ’Iliad,’ 18:399; ’Odyssey,’ 10:508, etc. That the reference is not to the marking out a limit for the waters is plain from the consideration that this interpretation would make the verse identical with Pro_8:29. Thus in Isa_40:22 we have, “It is he that sitteth above the circle (chug) of the earth;” i.e. the vault of heaven that encircles the earth. Septuagint, “When he marked out (ἀφώριζε) his throne upon the winds.” The translators have referred tchom, “depth,” to the waters above.
    Pro_8:28
    When he established the clouds above. The reference is to the waters above the firmament (Gen_1:7), which are suspended in the ether; and the idea is that God thus made this medium capable of sustaining them. Vulgate, Quando aethera firmabat sursum; Septuagint, “When he made strong the clouds above” (comp. Job_26:8). When he strengthened the fountains of the deep; rather, as in the Revised Version, when the fountains of the deep became strong; i.e. when the great deep (Gen_7:11) burst forth with power (comp. Job_38:16). The Septuagint anticipates the following details by here rendering, “When he made secure the fountains of the earth beneath the heaven.”
    Pro_8:29
    When he gave to the sea his decree (chok, as Job_28:26; Jer_5:22); or, its bounds. The meaning is much the same in either case, being what is expressed in Job_38:8, etc,, “Who shut up the sea with doors …and prescribed for it my decree, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” The LXX. omits this hemistich. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. Job_38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?… Who determined the measures thereof? or who stretched the line upon it? Wherein were the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof?”
    Pro_8:30
    Then I was by him. Wis. 9:9, “Wisdom was with thee; which knoweth thy works, and was present when thou madest the world.” So Joh_1:2, “The Word was with God.” As one brought up with him; Vulgate, cuncta componens; Septuagint, Ημην παρ αὐτῷ ἁρμόζουσα, “I was with him arranging things in harmony.” The Hebrew word is אָמוֹן (amon), “an artificer,” “workman” (Jer_52:15). Thus in Wis. 7:22 Wisdom is called ἡ πάντων τεχνῖτις, “the worker of all things.” The Authorized Version takes the word in a passive state, as equivalent to alumnus, “foster child.” and this interpretation is etymologically admissible, and may possibly, as Schultens suggests, be glanced at in St. John’s expression (Joh_1:18), “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” But as the point here is the creative energy of Wisdom, it is best to take the term as denoting “artificer.” It will then accord with the expression δημιουργὸς, applied by the Fathers to the Word of God, by whom all things were made (Eph_3:9, Textus Receptus, and Heb_1:2). And I was daily his delight; literally, I was delights day by day, which may mean either as in Authorized Version, or “I had delight continually,” i.e. it may signify
    (1) either that God took pleasure in the wisdom which displayed his workmanship, saw that it was very good (Gen_1:4, etc.), looked with delight on the beloved Son in whom he was well pleased (Mat_3:17, etc.); or
    (2) it may mean that Wisdom herself rejoiced in her power and her work, rejoiced in giving effect to the Creator’s idea, and so “founding the earth” (Pro_3:19). Vulgate, delectabar per singulos dies. The Septuagint adopts the former of these views, “I was that wherein he took delight.” But the second interpretation seems most suitable, as the paragraph is stating rather what Wisdom is in herself than what she was in the eyes of Jehovah. What follows is a parallel. Rejoicing always before him; Vulgate, ludens coram eo omni tempore, as though the work of creation was a sport and pastime of a happy holiday. The expression is meant to denote the ease with which the operations were performed, and the pleasure which their execution yielded. David uses the same word, speaking of his dancing before the ark, when he says. “Therefore will I play before the Lord” (2Sa_6:21; comp. Pro_10:23).
    Pro_8:31
    Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. Wisdom declares wherein she chiefly delighted, viz. in the world as the habitation of rational creatures. “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen_1:31); comp. Psa_104:31, and see the eloquent account of Wisdom in the book so named (Wis. 7:22-8:1). My delights were with the sons of men. Man, made in the image of God. is the principal object of creative Wisdom’s pleasure; and her joy is fulfilled only in the Incarnation. When the Word became flesh, then was the end and design of creation exhibited, and the infinite love of God towards man made, as it were, visible and palpable. Septuagint, “Because he rejoiced when he completed the world (τὴν οἰκουμένην), and rejoiced in the children of men.”
    Pro_8:32-36
    Wisdom renews the exhortation before given
    . The Vatican text of the Septuagint omits this verse; it is added in the Alexandrian and Sin.
    Pro_8:34
    Watching daily at my gates. The idea suggested has been variously taken; e.g. as that of eager students waiting at the school door for their teacher’s appearance; clients besieging a great man’s portals; Levites guarding the doors of the temple; a lover at his mistress’s gate. This last notion is supported by Wis. 8:2, “I loved her, and sought her out from my youth; I desired to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty.” Waiting at the posts of my doors; keeping close to the entrance, so as to be quite sure of not missing her whom he longs to see.
    Pro_8:35
    For whoso findeth me findeth life. Here is the reason why the man is blessed who attends to the instruction of Wisdom. A similar promise is made at Pro_3:16, Pro_3:18, Pro_3:22. The truth here enunciated is also spoken or the Word of God, the everlasting Son of the Father. Joh_1:4, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men;” Joh_3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life;” Joh_17:3, “This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ” (comp. Joh_8:51; 1Jn_5:12; Ecc_4:12). Shall obtain favour of the Lord; Vulgate, hauriet salutem, which happily renders the Hebrew verb (Pro_12:2). The grace of God bringeth salvation (Tit_2:11). Septuagint, “For my outgoings (ἔξοδοι) are the outgoings of life, and the will is prepared by the Lord (καὶ ἐτοιμάζεται θέλησις παρὰ Κυρίου).” This latter clause was used by the Fathers, especially in the Pelagian controversy, to prove the necessity of prevenient grace.
    Pro_8:36
    He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. So Septuagint and Vulgate. And the truth stated is obvious—he who refuses to obey Wisdom, and transgresses her wholesome rules, will smart for it. Every sin involves punishment, injures the spiritual life, and demands satisfaction. But Delitzsch and others take חֹטְאִי, “my sinning one,” “my sinner,” in the older sense of “missing,” as Job_5:24, the derived meaning of “sinning” springing naturally from the idea of deviating from the right way or failing to hit the mark. So here the translation will be “he who misseth me,” which is a good contrast to “whoso findeth me,” of verse 35. He who takes a path which does not lead to wisdom is guilty of moral suicide. All that hate me love death (Pro_7:27). “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh_3:36). They who will not hearken to Wisdom, and who scorn her counsels, do virtually love death, because they love the things and the practices which lead to death, temporal and spiritual Job_12:10, “They that sin are enemies to their own life” (comp. Wis. 1:12).
    HOMILETICS
    Pro_8:5
    Wisdom for the simple
    We may divide the simple into three classes.
15. There are those who think themselves wise while they are but fools: there is no hope for such.
16. There are people who make no pretence to wisdom, but who have chosen folly, and are quite indifferent to the claims and charms of wisdom.
17. There are anxious seekers after wisdom, who feel their present ignorance and incompetence with acute distress, and long to be among the wise, but despair of reaching the privileged circle. The first class will refuse to believe that the call of wisdom is for them, but to the other two it may come with effect.
    I. THE SIMPLE NEED WISDOM. This reflection should concern the second class—those who as yet have despised and rejected wisdom.
18. Wisdom is a joy. Even pleasure is rejected in the renunciation of truth, knowledge, thought, the vision of God, and the revelation of his will. The narrow mind is a dark mind, and when the light of God breaks in it will be seen that many new delights of knowledge and joys of Divine truth, which have long been missed, can now be happily received.
19. Wisdom is a safeguard. Men stumble in the dark. Snares are set for the unwary. In this great, mysterious world we may easily go astray and be lost, perhaps be entrapped in fearful soul perils. It is much to know the way, to know ourselves, to know our dangers, to know the will of God and how to have his guiding and saving help.
20. Wisdom is life. The foolish soul is but half alive, and it is on the road to destruction. Mere knowledge itself is a free intellectual life, and the exercise of thought in the practical application of the truth which we have assimilated, i.e. wisdom, is a living activity. It is moil;. unfortunate that many young men in the present day seem to despise all intellectual pursuits, and confine the attention of their leisure moments to idle amusements or at best to athletics. They fail to see the mental death that they are courting. But infinitely worse are they who turn from the moral side of wisdom—the fear of the Lord—and pursue the folly of godlessness, for this is soul death.
    II. THE SIMPLE MAY HAVE WINDOW. Here is the encouragement for the third class of the simple. It is for children, for weak minds, and for uneducated people.
21. Mental improvement is attainable. Where there is a will to rise, the young man under most disadvantageous circumstances will find the means to cultivate self-education.
22. The highest wisdom is spiritual. This wisdom is not like Greek philosophy—only open to intellectual culture. It is the truth of God that may be rewaled to “babes and sucklings” (Mat_21:16), and yet it is the highest truth. To be spiritually wise we need. not be mentally clever. What is wanted is a sincere love of truth, a pure heart, and a childlike teachableness.
23. The gospel brings wisdom to the simple. That gospel was scoffed at for its apparent simplicity. Yet it was indeed the wisdom as well as the power of God (1Co_1:24). Christ comes to us as the eternal Wisdom incarnate. The simple may know him, and when such receive Christ they receive the Light of the world and a loftier wisdom than was ever reached by the sages of antiquity or can ever be attained in the cold light of science.
    Pro_8:9
    Plain words
    The words of wisdom are here described as “plain words.” This expression has been so often abused that it is almost as important to see what it does not mean as to consider what it does mean.
    I. WHAT THE EXPRESSION DOES NOT MEAN.
24. Lack of grace. A mistake arising from the confusion of two meanings of the term “plain” has been pointed out by Archbishop Whately, and yet it is often repeated. “Plain” means smooth, simple, easy, intelligible; “plain” also means bare, unadorned, unbeautiful. The two meanings are quite distinct. But some have thought that a plain sermon must be a sermon wanting in all grace of style and beauty of illustration. This is an inappropriate use of the word “plain.” The words of Christ were plain, i.e. clear and simple; yet they were very beautiful and full of living illustrations. The duty to be plain is no excuse for slovenliness of speech.
25. Intellectual feebleness. Some people insist on having a “simple gospel” in a way that leads one to think they would condemn all vigour of thought. They forget that the teaching of St. Paul, which they admire so much, teemed with the highest intellectuality, and that he regarded the truth of the crucified Christ as the wisdom of God, and only as falsely mistaken for foolishness by the Greeks. It is the charm of the highest thinking that it can simplify difficulties. We sometimes fail to detect the great intellectual power of a writer just because this has been so perfect as to disguise all effort and make the result of processes of thought clear; while the laboured attempts of weaker minds induce us to mistake obscurity for profundity. Any subject looks simple in the hands of a master.
26. Rudeness and offensiveness. Disagreeable people make a virtue of being plain spoken when they are really harsh and inconsiderate. There is no unkindness about the plain words of the Bible. The Christian teacher should remember the admonitions, “Be pitiful, be courteous.”
    II. WHAT THE EXPRESSION DOES MEAN.
27. It signifies that the words of wisdom are intelligible. The first object of revelation, of course, is to reveal. The first object of speech is to declare thoughts. It is the neglect of this simple point that has given an excuse for the sarcasm that “words were invented to conceal thoughts.” The first duty of the speaker is to be plain. Afterwards he may be ornate if he will. But when the decorations of speech encumber its free movement and prevent it from accomplishing its practical ends, they are altogether encumbrances. And when intellectual power is wasted on a mere display of its own exercise, or confined to inventing difficulties and making obscure what was originally clear and simple, this also is misdirected. The Divine wisdom of the Bible claims to be intelligible. It is true that many people find. great difficulties in its pages, and all of us must confess that they are not to be fully measured and sounded. But
    (1) they who approach them in a right way, having spiritual mind, so necessary for the discernment of spiritual things, will be able to understand the main, most important truths of Christianity; and
    (2) whatever disputes may be raised about the meaning of the more abstract doctrines, the directions of duty and the indications of the things we are to do for our soul’s welfare are plain; indeed, the obscurity of religious subjects varies proportionately with their abstractness, with their separation from our life and duty.
28. It signifies that the words of wisdom indicate a plain sad simple course of action. They are “right,” or rather “straight to those that find knowledge.” We are not called to any complicated course of action. The intricacies of casuistry are not to be found in the Book of Proverbs nor anywhere else in the Bible. The way of duty is simple and straightforward.
    Pro_8:13
    Hatred of evil
    I. RELIGION INCLUDES MORALS. This is the broad lesson of the text. It should be accepted as a self-evident truism. Yet it has been often obscured by dangerous sophisms. Thus some have regarded religion as consisting in correctness of creed or in assiduity of devotion—things treated by God as worthless unless accompanied by righteousness of conduct (Isa_1:10-17). There is a common impression that religious merits may be pleaded as a set off against moral deficiencies. No assumption can be more false, nor can any be more degrading or more injurious. The reverse is true. Religiousness increases the guilt of unrighteousness of life by raising the standard up to which one is supposed to live, and also adds the sin of hypocrisy. True religion is impossible without a proportionate devotion to righteousness. because it consists in the fear of God. But God is holy; to reverence him must involve the adoration of his character—the love of goodness and the corresponding detestation of its opposite.
    II. RELIGION INSPIRES MORALS WITH STRONG EMOTION. Morality is to obey the law. Religion goes further, and hates evil. It is not a matter of outward conduct only. It goes down to the secret springs of action. It rouses the deepest passions of the soul. We cannot accept Mr. M. Arnold’s definition of religion as “morality touched with emotion,” because it ignores the foundation of religion in “the fear of the Lord,” in devotion to a personal God; but the phrase may serve as an apt description of an essential characteristic of religion. The difficulty we all feel is that, while we know the better way we are often so weak as to choose the worse. A cold, bare exposition of morality will be of little use with this difficulty. What we want is a powerful impulse, and that impulse it is the function of religion to supply. It makes goodness not only visible but beautiful and attractive, and it inspires a hunger and thirst after righteousness, a passion for a God-like life in the love of God, a yearning after the likeness of Christ in devotion of heart to him. It also makes evil appear hideous, detestable, by its horrible opposition to these affections.
    III. AMONG RELIGIOUS EMOTIONS IS THE PASSION OF HATRED. Religion is not based upon hatred. It begins with” the fear of the Lord,” with reverence for God rising up to love. No strong thing can rest on a mere negation. Neither morality nor religion starts from an attitude in regard to evil. But they lead on to this, and they are not perfect without it. The passion of hatred is natural; it has a useful, though a low, place in the array of spiritual forces. It is abused when it is spent upon persons, but it is rightly indulged against evil principles and practices. We are morally defective unless we can feel “the hate of hate, and scorn of scorn.” One of the means by which we are helped to resist sin is found in this hatred of it. It is not enough that we disapprove of it. We must loathe and abhor it from the very bottom of our hearts.
    IV. RELIGIOUS HATRED IS DETESTATION OF EVIL ITSELF, NOT THE MERE DISLIKE OF ITS CONSEQUENCES. When Paley, in his ’Moral Philosophy,’ described the function of religion in aiding morality as the addition of the prospect of future rewards and promises, he expressed a common sense truth, but a very low truth detached from more spiritual ideas and a very partial representation of the case. Religious morality is not simply nor chiefly the fear of God as a Judge who will punish us if we do wrong. It is reverence for a holy Father leading to hatred of all that is displeasing to him. We have no religion till we go beyond the instinctive dislike for pain that follows sin to hatred of sin itself. This is the test of true religion—that we love goodness and hate evil for their own sakes. It is interesting to observe that the sin selected for special abhorrence on the part of those who are inspired by “the fear of the Lord” is pride. This is spiritual wickedness of the most fatal character, In its feeling of personal merit and self-sufficiency it excludes both repentance and faith—the two fundamental conditions of spiritual religion. Therefore the spirit of the Pharisee and all pride must be hated above all things, and will be hated by those who have true reverence for the great and holy God, and true love for the lowly Christ who promised the kingdom of heaven to the “poor in spirit” (Mat_5:3).
    Pro_8:17
    The blessedness of loving and seeking Christ
    Wisdom is here personified. This is only the beginning of a process that is to grow through subsequent ages, manifesting itself in the Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, and finally developing into the doctrine of the “Logos” and the great revelation of Christ as the incarnate Word of God. We must not pretend to see the perfected thought in its earliest germ. The first personification of wisdom is little more than a figure of speech, an instance of the rich imaginative habits of Oriental thinking. Nevertheless, we know Christ to be the full, living embodiment of God’s wisdom. What is true of that wisdom is true of him. And, therefore, though the writer of the words before us had no thought of Jesus Christ the Son of God and Son of man, his teaching concerning Divine wisdom may be most useful when we connect it with the one perfect revelation of wisdom in our Saviour.
    I. LOVE FOR LOVE.
29. Love to Christ must precede a deep knowledge of Christ. We love before we seek and find. Of course, we must know something of him to arouse our love; but when this initial knowledge is attained, Love must have her perfect work before knowledge can ripen.
30. Love to Christ must be based on what is lovable in him. Wisdom is beautiful and attractive, and can excite love. How much more, then, should the incarnation of Wisdom in our brother man do this! The contemplation of the beautiful life of Christ and the study of his perfect character urge us to love him; but surely what he has done for us, his sacrifice of himself, his death on our behalf, must be our chief grounds for loving him.
31. This love to Christ will be met by his love in return. It is true that his love precedes ours, nay, that it is the great source of our love. But
    (1) it is not felt and enjoyed till it is returned, so that then it seems to come afresh as an answer to our love; and
    (2) there must be a stronger, more tender, more intimate love to those who appreciate it than can be given to others. Christ loved all men, hut not as he loved St. John. Christians loving Christ enjoy his peculiar love.
32. To be loved by Christ is the best reward of loving him. True love is satisfied with nothing less than a return of love, but it is satisfied with this. If we have nothing else we have a pearl of great price in the love of Christ. Then we can afford to lose all earthly good things, can count them but dung, that we may win Christ.
    II. FINDING FOR SEEKING.
33. We must seek Christ if we would possess him. He offers himself to all as a Saviour and a Master. But he must be followed and found. Our love to him will be the great attraction ever drawing us nearer to him.
34. The search for Christ must be earnest if it is to be successful. He will not answer a halfhearted call. Till we seek him with determination, reality, persistence, we shall meet no response. We must seek him before all things, must make Christ the chief end of life.
35. This earnest seeking will be rewarded by the receiving of Christ. Wisdom comes to him who seeks laboriously and patiently; much more will Wisdom incarnate, Wisdom with a heart to sympathize. Such a response will be the best reward of seeking. Better than anything that Christ could send us will be his own coming to dwell in our hearts. This will be the satisfaction of anxious inquiry in a full response, the blessing of love with love and close communion.
    Pro_8:22-31
    The primeval glory of Divine wisdom
    I. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS CREATED BY GOD. “The Lord created me as the first of his way.” This idea was suggested to the Greeks in the myth of Athene, who sprang from the head of Zeus. It is the poetic form of the great truth that God is the Creator of thoughts as well as of things; and it suggests that he not only called individual intelligences into being, but originated the primary laws and conditions of all intelligence, just as he ordained the laws of nature and the conditions of physical existence as well as the rocks and plants and animals subsequently created.
    II. DIVINE WISDOM WAS ANTECEDENT TO MATERIAL CREATION. “’Twas wrought from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” Thought precedes action, Design anticipates execution. The architect comes before the builder. Archetypal ideas precede creative work. In the awful depths of primeval antiquity the great Thinker wrought out the plans of the universe which as the great Worker he has been since evolving in visible existences.
    III. WISDOM ACCOMPANIED AND DIRECTED PHYSICAL CREATION. “I was by him as a master worker.” Wisdom did not cease when force appeared. The two wrought together. The result of their joint operation is the energetic cosmos—force and thought triumphing over death and chaos. When we endeavour to discover the secrets of nature, we are searching out the wisdom of God. When we learn the laws and processes of nature, we are able to think the thoughts of God. The naturalist should walk reverently, for he is treading in the footsteps of the mind of God. It should be our aim in studying nature to find God in his wisdom.
    IV. THE DIVINE WISDOM IN CREATION LEADS ON TO THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE AND ORDER. First there is the confusion of the elements. Gradually these elements are marshalled into order till Wisdom is able to “rejoice in his earthly world.” The onward movement of all things here indicated and illustrated very fully by recent science reveals the wisdom of God with increasing clearness. Instead of thinking of that wisdom as chiefly manifested in primitive creation, we should see that it is most active and most glorious in the latest and richest development of the life of the universe.
    V. THIS WISDOM IS ONE OF THE MOST GLORIOUS OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. God has glory of thought as well as glory of character. There must be all phases of perfection in the perfect Mind. God is not only to be regarded on the side of moral law and religious worship. He is the great Mathematician, Architect, Philosopher, Poet. Our thoughts of God are too “Churchy.” God is not only in the church. He is much in the fields. He has his workshops as well as his temples; nay, they are his best temples. Let us try to find him in “secular” thought and work, and worship him the more for the wisdom seen in his “earthly world.”
    Pro_8:29
    The decree of the sea
    We live under the reign of law. This fact is taken to be the late revelation of modern science. But it is embedded in Old Testament teaching. There we see that the laws of nature, which are but the ways of God on earth, are recognized as fixed and stable. But the Bible helps us in two ways in examining those laws. First, it traces them back to their origin in a personal will. These are not merely channels of a blind force. They are decrees of an authority. Secondly, it teaches us to believe that they are good, wisely directed and tending to righteousness. They come from a wise, holy, just, and benevolent source. The decree of the sea has a special significance.
    I. IT HAS A VAST DOMAIN. The sea covers three parts of the surface of the globe. Leagues upon leagues of spreading ocean roll round the earth with every tide. The sea is deep, and hides in its many waters myriads of living creatures. The fearful storms that sweep its surface tell sad tales of its more than giant strength. Here we are face to face with a frightful nature power. Yet that power is under law. God’s decree encircles it, and his hand reins it in with irresistible might. The sea is great, but God is greater; strong, but God is stronger. As we look at the fearful might and majesty of the ocean, we are called to bow before the infinitely greater Power who holds its waters in the hollow of his hand. If we tremble before its terror, we may remember that it is but the inanimate slave of our Father in heaven.
    II. IT IS ENSHRINED IN MYSTERY. Men have discovered some of the laws of tides, currents, storms, etc. Yet the ocean is still, in many respects, a great mystery. What caverns are hidden beneath its dark waters? What monsters of the deep may still elude the grasp, of man’s observation? What secret terrors may burst upon his astounded gaze? Here is indeed a mystery. Yet this is all known to God, governed by God, subject to his law, humbly obedient to his decree. God rules over all the mysteries of the universe.
    III. IT GOVERNS CHANGE. The sea is the symbol of fickleness and deception—today smooth as a mirror, “green calm below, blue quietness above” (Whittier); tomorrow a black and storm-tossed chaos. Its restless waves never cease to crawl to and fro on the quietest day; its tides are ever ebbing and flowing. Yet it obeys law. There are laws of change, as in night and day, the seasons, etc. God rules over all the vicissitudes of life. Change does not mean chance.
    IV. IT OVERRULES CONFUSION. God’s decree does not prevent the tempest, but the tempest itself obeys the law of God. The wild and wintry waste of waters, flecked with foam, and scoured with angry billows, is all under law and order. It is so in life. God does not prevent trouble; but he overrules it and limits its extent.
    This decree of the sea is typical of the Divine government of what looks most tumultuous and lawless in life. Apply it throughout with the four points—vastness, mystery, change, and confusion—
    (1) to earthly circumstances;
    (2) to the ocean of human life;
    (3) to the soul, that sea of many storms.
    Pro_8:30
    The pre-eminent glory of Christ
    This is affirmed of wisdom, and wisdom in the Proverbs is always an abstraction, an attribute of God, or a grace conferred upon man. Thus we have the highly imaginative picture of a certain quality of thought described like a personal favourite in the heavenly presence. But surely it is not necessary for us to rest with this idea. The New Testament cannot be out of our minds when we read the Old. It was not long before Jews learnt to personify wisdom, and when Christ appeared he realized in his own Person what had previously been ascribed to an abstract quality. Christ is “the Truth” (Joh_14:6) and “the Wisdom of God” (1Co_1:24). His pre-existence is affirmed by himself (Joh_8:58) and repeatedly asserted by his apostles (e.g. Col_1:16). We may, then, think of Christ embodying this wisdom of God in the awful ages of the past, and see how truly what is here predicated of wisdom applies to him in whom that wisdom dwelt.
    I. WISDOM IN CHRIST WAS WITH GOD. “I was by him.”
36. Wisdom was always with God, always at his right hand. There was never a time when God acted blindly, imperfectly, without full consciousness. We have no ground for thinking of a lawless chaos previous to the exercise of Divine wisdom and power in creation. Even when the world was” without form and void” (Gen_1:2), God’s wise thought presided over it. God’s mind did not grow like ours, from infantile simplicity. He was ever fully God.
37. Christ was similarly eternal with God. “The Word was with God” (
    Joh_1:1). When he came to our earth he came forth from God. His condescension was seen in this, that he left his place by the right hand of his Father and came down to dwelt with men.
    II. WISDOM IN CHRIST WAS CONCERNED IN CREATION.
38. God made the universe in wisdom. It bears the impress of thought. Deep purposes have impregnated it. Creation is a parable of infinite ideas.
39. God created all things through Christ. “By whom he made the worlds” (Heb_1:2). Of course, the humanity of Jesus was not then existing. But the Divine side of our Lord was not only eternal; it was even directly active. Therefore there is a Christ-spirit in nature.
    III. WISDOM IS CHRIST WAS GOD’S DAILY DELIGHT.
40. God rejoices over his work, as an artist over the thing of beauty that his hand has fashioned according to the dream of his heart. “God saw that it was good” (Gen_1:10). The thought that is in God’s work is his especial delight. He cares not for mere exhibitions of brute force. He loves wisdom.
41. God rejoices over Christ. So Christ is God’s “beloved Son” (Mat_3:17). There are times when we grieve our Father, though at other seasons he may smile upon us. But Christ always dwelt under the smile of his Father, a daily delight—rejoiced in for his wisdom and the holy and gracious use he made of it.
    IV. CHRIST, BY HIS WISDOM, WAS REJOICING ALWAYS BEFORE GOD. Wisdom is a source of joy. Wisdom devoted to God is doubly joyous. Christ had an ancient joy (Joh_15:11). He left a happy home to come to us. The word for this joy is “sporting.” Is there humour in nature? May there be in heaven those lighter, innocent joys which make up so much of the mirth of children on earth? Why should Christ have been always solemn?
    Pro_8:35, Pro_8:36
    Life and favour with God
    It is common to see this and similar passages applied directly to the soul’s possession of God, or to the special Christian faith in Jesus Christ. Now, it is quite true that we have here in germ what will lead up to those experiences. But apart from the mistake of ignoring the distinction between the elementary truth and its full development, there is a practical consideration that is too often overlooked. It is thought to be good policy to “Christianize” these passages of the Old Testament; i.e. it is thought they are thus most profitably used. On this low ground even an answer can be given—it may be shown that the policy is bad. The more Christian idea is true in itself. But it is expressed clearly enough in the New Testament. We gain no new light, therefore, if we contrive to see it here. We simply repeat a lesson that we have learnt elsewhere. But if we take the more literal meaning of the words, then, though the thought given to us may not be so exalted nor so valuable as the perfected Christian thought, it may have a distinct worth and use of its own, and therefore may add somewhat to our knowledge of Divine things—an addition which we should not have if we read the words as a mere repetition of what we had already learnt elsewhere, however much more important that other lesson might be. The New Testament teaches us that we have life in Christ. We who have that later and fuller revelation gain little or nothing by reading the same truth in the Book of Proverbs. That life is to be found in the Divine wisdom may be a has valuable thought. But it is a distinct thought, and therefore some addition to our knowledge; and as such it should be spiritually helpful to us. For this reason, though it may be perfectly legitimate for us to show how the words of our text foreshadow the great truths of Christianity, it may be more profitable for us to keep to their simple meaning, and see how life and Divine favour are received through the finding of Divine wisdom.
    I. WHAT IS MEANT BY FINDING DIVINE WISDOM.
42. It is not the mere knowledge of religious doctrine. Many have this, and yet miss the life eternal. We may know the Bible without knowing God.
43. It is not the results of some rare intuition, nor the achievements of elaborate intellectual effort; it is neither the vision of the mystic nor the secret of the Gnostic. For this wisdom is repeatedly offered to the simple with a most general invitation (e.g. verses 4, 5).
44. To find Divine wisdom is to come to the knowledge of God as far as this affects our own conduct, to know his disposition towards us, his will regarding our conduct, the way of life to which he calls us; it is further to know so much of God’s ways and thoughts as to be able to set them before us as a pattern, and thus to imbibe some of the great primeval wisdom described in the preceding verses; lastly, it is to set these thoughts in relation to practice and to make the knowledge of Divine things the rule of life.
    II. HOW LIFE AND THE FAVOUR OF GOD RESULT FROM THE FINDING OF WISDOM.
45. Life.
    (1) In this wisdom we see the way to life—that life which is to Christians here on earth as well as hereafter the life eternal.
    (2) The only life worth living is that lived with thoughts of God and aims directed by the knowledge of God. Eternal life consists in this knowledge of God.
46. The favour of God. God is pleased with us in so far as we walk in his ways. Divine wisdom only can direct us aright, so that we may please God. But the very habit of mind that consists in the thinking of Divine thoughts and the desiring and attempting to accomplish the purposes of Divine wisdom must be pleasing to God.
    “Base-minded they that want intelligence;
    For God himself for wisdom most is prais’d,
    And men to God thereby are nighest rais’d.”
    (Spenser.)
    III. HOW SELF-INJURY AND DEATH RESULT FROM THE LOSS OF THIS WISDOM. “He that misseth me,” etc.
47. The common evils of life will lead to our ruin unless we are saved by higher means. The traveller who rejects the guide may parish in the perils of his path; the patient who disobeys the physician may die of his disease. We shall ruin ourselves in sin “if we neglect so great salvation.”
48. The rejection of Divine wisdom is itself a fatal sin. It is our duty to hearken to its voice. If we refuse to do this, we shall suffer as a penalty for our wilful disobedience to the message from Heaven.
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_8:1-9
    Wisdom’s proclamation
    Again it is a poetical personification of truth, of God’s Word, of religion, morality, sense, prudence; for all these are included in the comprehensive conception of wisdom that is placed before us.
    I. THE PROCLAMATION OF TRUTH HAS NEVER FAILED IN THE WORLD. The cry is coeval with the world, with the conscience of man. The preacher has an institution second to none in antiquity and in honour.
    II. THE PREACHER MUST RE CONSPICUOUS TO AND AUDIBLE BY ALL. (Pro_8:2, Pro_8:3.) On raised ground, in lonely paths (Pro_8:2), in the open air, in the field and forest; and. (Pro_8:3) in the towns and cities, at the places of public resort and traffic, at the gates in the Orient, in the centre of Western cities, the preacher’s voice has been beard. All eminent teachers in books are truly agents of Wisdom, and heralds of the kingdom of God.
    III. THE SUBSTANCE OF TRUE PREACHING MUST BE THE SAME IN EVERY AGE.
49. It is human (Pro_8:3), and therefore intelligible, rational, practical.
50. It is especially addressed to inexperience—to the foolish and the thoughtless (see on Pro_1:4).
51. It deals with clear and manifest truth (see Hitzig’s reading of Pro_8:6), and so commends itself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
52. It is disinterested, free from sophistry and compromise (Pro_8:7).
53. It is just—correct and accurate in knowledge of human nature and of Divine things (Pro_8:8). And thus it is:
54. Acceptable and irresistible by the “honest and good heart” (Pro_8:9).—J.
    Pro_8:10-21
    Wisdom’s pleadings
    She has nothing novel to say concerning her nature, value, and blessings. Preaching must in the main be repetition; the iteration of the old, not with dry and sterile monotony, but with that freshness which comparison with everyday facts and illustrations gives. New combinations of facts are ever arising in which to frame the old precepts and set them forth. Besides, love gives novelty to old truth, as the old song is enjoyed from the lips of the latest sweet singer.
    I. SHE APPEALS TO COMPARISON. (Pro_8:10, Pro_8:11.) By comparison we increase and strengthen our perceptions. In the knowledge of man, books, art, life, comparison is everything. We are to compare Wisdom with material objects of sense, such as gold and silver, that we may see her to be incomparable; and so each for ourselves repeat the choice of Solomon (comp. on Pro_3:14, Pro_3:15).
    II. SHE APPEALS TO ASSOCIATION. (Pro_8:12.) Wisdom dwells with prudence. In modern language, the general implies the particular. Wisdom is intelligence in general; prudence, the appreciation of it in particular cases. In the poetical mode of representation we should say that Piety and Prudence are sisters, and go hand-in-hand, daughters of the voice of God, as Wordsworth said of duty. So, too, Wisdom has insight into enigmas, dark sayings, and generally deep things of God (see on Pro_1:4).
    III. SHE UNFOLDS TEE CONTENTS OF HER MIND. (Pro_8:18, Pro_8:14.) One of her many aliases is the fear of Jehovah. And this is religion, which includes all wholesome aversions, viz. wickedness in general, and in particular assumption, arrogance, evil habits, perverted speech. In other words, her sympathies are all with lowliness, purity, love, and truth. Insight or sharp and deep perception is another of her attributes, and force (comp. on Pro_2:7).
    V. SHE CLAIMS SUPREME AUTHORITY. (Pro_8:15, Pro_8:16.) Kings, rulers, princes, potentates, judges,—all received those places and fulfil those functions through her and her alone. Authority in polities rests on consent or on force, or both. And these are traceable ultimately to reason, and reason is the “inspiration of the Almighty.” Exceptions form no part of this representation. In modern language, we say that government, as a principle or institute, rests on an ultimate Divine basis. The text says tic less than this, nor does it say mort.
    V. SHE IS IN RECIPROCAL RELATION TO HER SUBJECTS. (Pro_8:17.) Her love is conditioned by love; the winning of her by the wooing. The notion that we can be passive, whether in knowledge or goodness, is an entire illusion. Such an illusion once prevailed as the doctrine of “innate ideas” now exploded in philosophy. All that becomes the portion of head or heart implies, necessitates a previous spiritual activity in us. We are ignorant because we will not learn, unhappy because we will not love.
    VI. SHE COMMANDS WEALTH AND HONOUR AND THE AVENUES TO THEM. (Pro_8:18-21.) Riches, honour, self-increasing goods, and righteous” (comp. on Pro_3:16). The righteous here is elucidated by the next two verses; she shows the right way to all earthly good. She is a tree of life, and yields incomparable fruit both for value and abundance (Pro_8:19). She guarantees possessions to her votaries. The connection between righteous and worldly wealth is insisted on. Not that it is always obvious. Nor again are we to expect notice of exceptions in teaching that is from first to last absolute in form. The stringency of the connection is what we have to recognize; the knowledge of its complete application to all cases opens the relations of eternity and demands the omniscience of God.—J.
    Pro_8:22-36
    Wisdom in eternity and in time
    This sublime view lifts us at once above the seeming contradictions of time, and suggests the solution of all its problems in God.
    I. SHE IS OF THE DIVINE BEGINNINGS OR ELEMENTS. (Pro_8:22.) An element in chemistry is the last simple substance we can reach in analysis. An element in thought is the last simple notion yielded by the dialectic of the understanding. Wisdom is thus before the visible creation—the earth, the sea, the mountains. The verses do but repeat and iterate this one simple and sublime thought. We may in like manner vary it in any form of thought and expression familiar to us. She is the Divine a priori; the logic of nature and spirit; the last and first, the ground of all existence; the eternal reason, the transcendent cause, the alpha and omega of the cosmic alphabet. We are trying to express the inexpressible, utter the unutterable, define the undefinable, find out God to perfection, if we press beyond these poor forms of speech and ignore the limit which separates the known from the unknowable, and reason from faith.
    II. THE CREATION PROCEEDING FROM THE DIVINE WISDOM FULFILS ITS COURSE BY WISDOM. (Pro_8:27.) What we term in science the discovery of law is for religion the revelation of the mind of God in the world and in us. The cosmos is here conceived under the forms of the poetic imagination—the heavens and their outstretched circle or vault; the clouds as massive bags or skins; the springs on earth as set in motion by direct Divine activity; the sea as bounded by a positive fiat; the earth as fixed on firm pillars, by one act as it were of the Divine Architect. And then was Wisdom at his side as mistress of the work (Pro_8:30), and was in delight day by day (Pro_8:30), “playing before him always; playing on the circle of the earth, and I had my delight in men” (Pro_8:31). One of the best illustrations of the poetical force and sense of this passage is in the Wisdom of Sirach 24: “I went forth from the mouth of the Highest, and as a mist I covered the earth. I pitched my tent in the heights, and my throne was as a pillar of cloud. The gyre of heaven I encircled alone, and in the depths of abysses I walked about. In the billows of the sea, and in all the earth, and among every people and nation, I was busy” (verses 3-6).
    III. WISDOM’S APPEAL AND PROMISES, (Verses 32-36.)
55. The appeal. “Listen to me, listen to instruction!” Drink out of this spring of eternity, whose currents flow through all the tracts of nature and of man. “Resist not!” for to resist is to oppose the law of things and to invite destruction. Let them be so eager to listen and to know that they shall daily apply, daily stand as suppliants or visitors at her door!
56. The promises. Happiness is repeatedly foretold (verses 32, 34). Life in all senses, intensive and extensive (verse 35). Favour with Jehovah (verse 35). And it follows, as the night the day, that he who sins against Wisdom, whether by neglect or direct disobedience, is guilty of a moral suicide, and shows a contempt for life and happiness, a perverse preference for death (see on Pro_4:13, Pro_4:22; Pro_7:27; comp. Eze_18:21).—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_8:1-21
    The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 1
    In these verses we have portrayed to us the surpassing excellency of the wisdom of God.
    I. IT IS AUDIBLE TO EVERY ONE. “Doth not Wisdom cry,” etc.? (Pro_8:1; see homily on Pro_1:20-23).
    II. IT IS URGENT AND IMPORTUNATE. (Pro_8:2-4; see homily on Pro_1:20-23.)
    III. IT MAKES ITS APPEAL TO UNIVERSAL MAN. (Pro_8:4, Pro_8:5.) “Unto you, O men, I call,” etc. There is nothing exclusive or partial in its address. Its sympathies are wide as the human soul. It draws no lines of latitude or longitude in any kingdom, beyond which it does not pass. It appeals to man—Jew and Gentile, male and female, bond and free, learned and ignorant, wise and foolish (simple), moral and immoral (fools).
    IV. IT IS IN FULL HARMONY WITH ALL THAT IS BEST WITHIN US. Some voices that address us make their appeal to that which is lower or even lowest in our nature. Divine wisdom appeals to that which is highest and best.
57. To our sense of what is right and good (Pro_8:6, Pro_8:7).
58. To our love of that which is true (Pro_8:7).
    V. IT IS AN APPRECIABLE THING. (Pro_8:9.) Through it takes high ground, not rooting itself in anything base, but making its appeal to that which is purest and noblest in our nature, it is still appreciable by all who can estimate anything at its true worth. To “him that understandeth,” to the man who is capable of any discernment, the words of heavenly wisdom will be plain—they will “receive them gladly;” while to those who have reached any height in attainment, the teaching of wisdom will be recognized as the excellent thing it is. The students of law will find in it the illustration of all true order; the disciples of ethics will perceive in it all that is morally sound and satisfying to the conscience; those who admire “the beautiful” will recognize that which is exquisite, admirable, sublime. The teaching of Divine wisdom is “right to them that find knowledge.”
    VI. IT IS INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH INTELLIGENT OBSERVATION. It consequently results in useful contrivances (Pro_8:12). So far from heavenly wisdom being confined, in its principles and its results, to the realm of the abstract and unseen, it is most closely allied with, and is constantly found in the company of, simple, homely discretion, the careful, intelligent observation of all surrounding objects and passing incidents. It issues, therefore, in “witty inventions.”
    VII. IT ISSUES IN, AND IS ILLUSTRATED BY, MORAL AND SPIRITUAL WORTH. (Pro_8:13.) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and the fear of the Lord is so intimately and essentially bound up with the hatred of evil, that they may be practically identified; we may say that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil”—evil in all its forms, “pride, arrogancy,” etc.—C.
    Pro_8:1-21 (continued)
    The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 2
    We have also these features of the wisdom of God—
    I. IT ENDOWS WITH THE WEALTH WHICH IS THE PRODUCT OF VIRTUE. (Pro_8:20, Pro_8:21.) It leads in that “way of righteousness” and those “paths of judgment” which result in “inheriting substance,” and being “filled with treasures.” It places in the hand of its followers all that measure of earthly good which they can regard with holy satisfaction and enjoy with a good conscience.
    II. IT IS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE IN HUMAN SOCIETY. (Pro_8:14-16,) It is attended with that breadth of understanding, that knowledge of affairs, that insight into “men and things,” which gives sagacity to statesmen and stability to thrones.
    III. IT RECIPROCATES AN ATTACHMENT. (Pro_8:17.) The more we know, the more attractive does knowledge become to our admiring spirit. The further we advance into its domain, the firmer becomes our footing and the brighter becomes the light. Moreover, the highest peaks attainable by man are only reached by those who begin to climb in the days of their youth (vide homily infra).
    IV. IT IS OF INCOMPARABLE VALUE TO THE HUMAN SOUL. (Pro_8:10, Pro_8:11, Pro_8:18, Pro_8:19.) If the choice should lie between wealth and wisdom, it is better far to choose the latter; for:
59. While wealth will not buy wisdom, wisdom will lead to wealth, later if not sooner, of one kind if not of another.
60. Wisdom itself is wealth; it is the possession of the mind, it is the inheritance of the soul, it is “durable riches and righteousness.”
    The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 3 (see below).—C.
    Pro_8:1-21
    Christ the Wisdom of God: No. 1
    Though it is not to be supposed that Jesus Christ was in the mind of the writer of this passage, yet as he does personify wisdom, and as wisdom was incarnated in that Son of man who was the Son of God, we should expect to find that the words of the wise man in the text would apply, in large measure, to the Lord Jesus Christ. They do so, and suggest to us—
    I. THE MANNER OF HIS TEACHING. (Pro_8:1-3) He “spake openly to the world, … taught in the synagogue, and in the temple,” etc..
    II. HIS APPEAL TO ALL CLASSES AND CONDITIONS OF MEN. (Pro_8:4, Pro_8:5.) He came unto the world at large, to “draw all men unto him.” None were, none are, so poor. or so rich, so ignorant or so learned, so simple or so subtle, so degraded or so refined, so spiritually destitute or so privileged, as to be out of range of his heavenly voice. All need his message; all are welcome to his kingdom.
    III. HIS MANIFESTATION OF THE TRUTH. (Pro_8:6-8.) He came “to bear witness unto the truth” (Joh_18:37). He came to be the living Truth himself (Joh_14:6), so that the more we know of him and grow up into him, the more of Divine truth do we receive into our souls.
    IV. THE APPRECIABLENESS OF HIS MESSAGE. (Pro_8:9.) When he spake with his own lips, men received his words, wondering at his wisdom and his grace (see Luk_2:47; Luk_4:22, Luk_4:32; Mat_7:28, Mat_7:29). “Never man spake like this Man,” said the officers to the chief priests (Joh_7:46). “The common people heard him gladly” (Mar_12:37). And now that he speaks to mankind from heaven, his message of truth and love is comprehensible to all who care to know his mind. To those who earnestly seek, the way becomes plain; to those who have “spiritual discernment,” the deeper things of God are intelligible; to those who “know him,” his dealings are seen to be right and true.
    V. HIS RESPONSIVENESS. (Pro_8:17.) (See succeeding homily.)
    VI. HIS INCOMPARABLE WORTH. (Pro_8:10, Pro_8:11.) Jewels, compared with him, are empty toys; gold, compared with him, is sordid dust. So great is his worth to the hungering heart, to the suffering spirit, to living, dying man, that all forms of earthly good are not to be named or counted in comparison.
    VII. HIS SERVICE ISSUES IN THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE RECOMPENSE. (Pro_8:18-21.) The fruit of the service of Christ is honour, joy (including peace), righteousness (Pro_8:20), the “inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (Pro_8:21; 1Pe_1:4).—C.
    Pro_8:10, Pro_8:11
    Wisdom and wealth
    The immeasurable preference of heavenly wisdom to earthly wealth may be seen if we consider—
    I. THE FAILURE OF WEALTH. Wealth is continually found to fail; for:
61. It cannot even buy happiness. It may purchase a certain amount of excitement and jollity, but it will not secure contentment, even for one brief year.
62. Much less can it buy blessedness. That happy state of which our Lord so often spoke as blessedness—the deep and true gladness of heart which God plants within the soul, and which all may well wish to possess—this wealth is utterly unable to impart.
63. It will equally fail to buy wisdom. Indeed, it may be truly said that:
64. It often stands positively in the way of its acquisition (Mar_10:23-25).
    II. THE CAPACITY OF WISDOM.
65. It tends to provide men with competency, if not with abundance. Honesty, purity, sobriety, diligence, frugality, those virtues which go with the “fear of the Lord,” tend to supply a man’s home with all that is needful and desirable.
66. It secures peace and joy of heart.
67. It, itself, is man’s chief treasure. Better the knowledge of God, the love of Christ, a holy, manly, loving spirit, than any external advantages whatsoever (see Jer_9:23, Jer_9:24).
68. It prepares for the enjoyment of the treasures which are in heaven (Mat_6:19-21).—C.
    Pro_8:17
    The responsiveness of Christ
    Adapting these words to him who became, and forever will be, the Wisdom of God, they may speak to us of—
    I. CHRIST’S INITIATIVE LOVE. It is quite true that “we love him because he first loved us.” We should first consider “the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins” (Eph_2:4, Eph_2:5). All our love to Christ springs from, has its source in, his spontaneous love toward us, unexcited by our affection, flowing from his own exceeding grace.
    II. HIS RESPONSIVE LOVE. This involves much,
69. His special interest in those who are inquiring at his feet. “Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said into him, One thing thou lackest” (Mar_10:21). Zacchaeus (Luk_19:1-48.).
70. His Divine favour accorded to those who have accepted him as their Lord. “I love them that love me” (see Joh_11:5). These are his friends and his guests (Joh_14:23; Joh_15:14, Joh_15:15; Rev_3:20).
71. Spiritual blessings which he will impart. He will dwell with us by his Spirit, and the fruits of the Spirit will abound in us. If, then, our interest in Christ, and the yielding of our hearts to him, result in his close friendship and in those highest impartations which flow therefrom, how wise must be—
    III. EARLY DISCIPLESHIP TO HIM! For if we would make sure of finding him and possessing his friendship, we should seek him without delay. Delay is always dangerous. There may intervene between ourselves and him:
72. Other objects which may fascinate our souls and lead us away from him.
73. The growth of the deadly spirit of procrastination.
74. A sudden close of our present life. But early discipleship, the coming in faith to his feet, to his cross, to his kingdom, to his vineyard, means the certainty of holiness and usefulness below and the assurance of blessedness above.—C.
    Pro_8:22-31
    The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 3
    We have here additional features of the wisdom of God, viz.—
    I. THAT THE WISDOM EVERYWHERE ILLUSTRATED DWELT IN THE DIVINE ONE FROM ETERNITY. (Pro_8:22-26.) Before anything visible was created, in the “far backward and abysm of time,” even to eternity, wisdom was an attribute of the infinite God.
    II. THAT CREATION AND PROVIDENCE ARE THE DELIBERATE OUTWORKING OF THE DIVINE IDEA. “When he prepared the heavens …then I was by him” (Pro_8:27-30). All things were constructed after the model in the Divine mind. Perfect intelligence, seeing through and foreseeing everything, directed everything according to absolute wisdom; thus the kindest end was gained by the surest means; thus beauty and serviceableness, grandeur and loveliness, are bound together in the visible world because they existed together in the mind of the great Architect (see Psa_104:24).
    III. THAT THE WISDOM OF HIS WORK WAS A CONSTANT SOURCE OF SATISFACTION TO THE MIND OF GOD. (Pro_8:30.) “I was daily his delight.” We find a pure and God-given satisfaction in the execution of any work on which we have slant our utmost energy. We might have hesitated to refer this to the Supreme Intelligence, but the Word of God warrants us in doing this. We may, therefore, believe that the glories and beauties of creation are not only the source of joy to our minds (and the deeper and fuller in proportion to our purity and piety), but that they are also a source of satisfaction to him who made them what they are.
    IV. THAT MAN IS THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF THE WISE ONE’S CARE. (Pro_8:31.) “My delights were with the sons of men.”
75. When God made man upright he “blessed him” (Gen_1:28), and rejoiced in him as in his noblest work on earth.
76. When man fell God was grieved; the heavenly Father’s heart was saddened at his children’s disobedience and wrong doing.
77. When man returns to righteousness God is well pleased (Luk_15:23, Luk_15:24). There is no such wisdom shown in creation or in providence as in redemption. To arrange the laws of a material universe, to direct the affairs of an illimitable kingdom,—there is wondrous wisdom in these Divine doings; but there is deeper wisdom still in redeeming a lost world, reconciling an alienated world, cleansing a guilty world, sanctifying an unholy world and fitting it for the society of the sinless in heaven.—C.
    Pro_8:22-31
    Christ the wisdom of God: No. 2
    Again regarding the Lord Jesus Christ as the Wisdom of God incarnate, we may let these words suggest to us—
    I. HIS ETERNITY. (Pro_8:22-26.)
    II. HIS SONSHIP. (Pro_8:22, Pro_8:30.)
    III. HIS AGENCY IN CREATION. (Verses 37-29; see also Joh_1:3, Joh_1:10; Eph_3:9; Col_1:16; Heb_1:2, Heb_1:3, Heb_1:10; 1Co_8:6.)
    IV. HIS PRIMAL BLESSEDNESS. (Pro_8:30; and see Joh_17:5; Php_2:6.)
    V. HIS SUPREME INTEREST IN MAN. (Pro_8:31.) “His delights were with the sons of men.” The interest taken by our Lord in ourselves was that of a
    (1) Creator,
    (2) Divine Ruler,
    (3) Redeemer; it is now that of a
    (4) sovereign Saviour.—C.
    Pro_8:32-36
    The convincing argument
    Here is a very strong, “Now, therefore.” The excellency of Divine wisdom has been so forcibly, so irresistibly urged that the speaker is entitled to drive his argument home and make a practical application. But the urgency of the case is summed up in the few following sentences. This is the reasoning: since—
    I. INATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF WISDOM IS THE DEPTH OF FOLLY. For:
78. It is self-robbery. “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul” (Pro_8:36). The man that shuts his ears when God speaks robs himself of all those precious things which might make his heart rich and his life noble—of spiritual peace, of sacred joy, of heavenly hope, of an elevating faith, of holy love, of Divine comfort, of the best forms of usefulness.
79. It is self-destruction. “All they that hate me love death” (Pro_8:36). To harden our heart against the invitations and warnings of Divine wisdom is to tread the path which leads straight to the gates of spiritual and eternal death.
    II. ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF WISDOM IS OUR HIGHEST INTEREST.
80. It leads to “blessedness” (Pro_8:32, Pro_8:34); it ensures that state of soul which the eternal God declares to be the only enviable one, to be that which should be the object of our earnest aspiration.
81. It secures his own Divine favour (Pro_8:35)—the “favour of the Lord,” the sunshine of his smile, the benediction of his voice; he will “lay his hand upon us” in fatherly love; he will surround us with his “everlasting arms” of powerful protection.
82. It constitutes life in its very essence and substance. “Whoso findeth me findeth life” (Pro_8:35). To be wise with the wisdom which is from above, to “know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent,” “to understand and know the Lord that exerciseth loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness,” to have gained “the secret of the Lord,” to have learnt by blessed experience “that the Lord is gracious,” “to be filled with the knowledge of his will,”—this is life, human life at its highest, its best, its noblest. Moreover, it is that which issues in the eternal life on the other side the river, in the land where life is enlarged and ennobled far beyond the reach of our present thought. Since these things are so, “now, therefore,” we conclude that—
    III. DILIGENT DISCIPLESHIP IS THE ONLY OPEN COURSE. “Hearken,” “hear instruction,” “refuse it not,” etc. (Pro_8:32-34). This includes:
83. Earnest attention, hearkening, watching, waiting. Something much more than allowing ourselves by force of custom to be found where wisdom is discoursed, “putting in an appearance” at the sanctuary. It implies an earnest heedfulness of spirit; a diligent, intelligent, patient inquiry of the soul; a hungering of the heart for the saving truth of the living God.
84. Practical obedience—”keeping the ways” of wisdom (Pro_8:32). “If we know these things, happy are we if we do them” (Joh_13:17; see Mat_7:21-27). As earnest disciples of Jesus Christ, the way to “keep his ways” is
    (1) to accept himself as our Saviour and Lord, with our whole heart;
    (2) to strive daily to embody his will in all the relations we sustain. That is to say, first enter into right relation to himself, making him the Saviour of our soul, the Friend of our heart, the Lord of our life; then strive to carry out his commandments in all the transactions and relationships of our human life.—C.

Proverbs 8:14
Consider (1) the self-assertion of Christ; (2) the bearing of that self-assertion on certain difficulties of our day.
I. The self-assertion of Christ is exhibited in three ways: (1) Christ claims a boundless power of satisfying human wants. He knows sin and sorrow through and through. Yet He never doubts His capacity of giving pardon and peace. (2) Christ claims for Himself the most transcendent ideals. The sun is not too glorious for Him: “I am the Light of the world. The morning star seen by the seer over the Grecian hills is not too fresh and lovely: “I am the Bright and Morning Star.” (3) Christ claims the possession of absolute truth by the very form and mode as well as by the substance of His teaching. He does not speak as a technical philosopher. He does not laboriously draw conclusions from syllogisms. He is at the centre of truth. Thus very much of His teaching is conveyed in an oracular form. It is divinely epigrammatic.
II. Consider the bearing of this on the difficulty which seems to be felt with distressing poignancy by many just at present. I mean the tone of much of the record in the Old Testament. (1) The Old Testament is a progressive system. When we are confronted with such objections, we should ask ourselves whether the things objected to form part of that progressive system, taken at a point short of its completion. (2) The Old Testament contains the pathology and diagnosis of sin. Its therapeutics are in the Gospel. Do the things excepted to form part of this pathology? If so, they are necessarily there and necessarily revolting. The Bible if divine, is yet “divine with the imperfections of our life.” Its pages are blistered with tears, and dripped with blood. Nay, they are sometimes splashed with mud. For sin is vulgar as well as awful. If it towers at times until it covers us with majestic shadows from awful heights, there are seasons when it grovels upon the dust in its meanness. (3) After all, it is chiefly to the thought of the text that we turn for confirmation. The great self-assertion of the “Amen” is our stay. We take the book as it is from the hand of Him who says, “I am understanding.”
Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 45.
Reference: Pro_8:15.— J. Andrew, Dundee Pulpit, p. 169.

Proverbs 8:17
I. “I love them that love Me.” It might be inferred from such words as these, that man must love God as a preliminary to or condition of God’s loving man. But the truth is that our love to God is nothing else but the reflection of God’s love to us; in no way an earthly production, but is heavenly every way—birth, nurture, end, and aim. God must first love us, so as not merely to surround us with mercies, not merely to make arrangements which render possible our salvation; but so as to enter into our souls, and there re-impress His own image, producing what we naturally have not—a sense of His love by generating our love in return. As we breathe because God hath breathed into us the breath of life, we love because God hath kindled in us a flame of affection; so that there can be no genuine love except as the result of a renewal of nature. When we answer to God’s love, becoming new creatures through obeying the motions of His Spirit, and therefore having affections purified and sanctified so that they may fasten themselves once more on the Infinite and Invisible; then, as though He had not loved us before, so entire is the relationship into which we are brought, He speaks in the language of our text, “I love them that love Me.”
II. “Those that seek Me early shall find Me.” We do not argue from this that, if God have not been sought early it is in vain to seek Him at all. But, nevertheless, the explicit promise is to them that seek God early; and we may not, therefore, doubt that there are advantages to those who begin in their youth, which will always widely remove their case from that of others who give their first years to the world. Consider the motives which should urge the young to seek God early. (1) There is the acknowledged though practically forgotten fact, that the life of the young is as uncertain as that of the old—that health and strength are no security against the speedy approach of death. (2) If the text does not exclude those from finding who only seek at the last, it distinctly implies that they will have much greater difficulty than had they sought early. (3) As men grow older they gradually lose a relish for those enjoyments which have fascinated them in youth; so that they outlive the pleasures for which they have been content to peril their immortality. Is it not to insult God to offer Him the miserable remnant of life which you have kept from Him so long as it was possible to devote it to His enemies? You must seek God early, while there is a sacrifice to be made, while there are passions that may be mortified, advantages which may be resigned, pleasures which may be abandoned.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1684

I. “I love them that love Me.” Consider what a blessed thing it must be to be loved by Jesus Christ,—by the Son of God Himself. (1) Jesus Christ is very great. (2) Jesus Christ is very rich. (3) Jesus Christ is very good. (4) He pardons the sins of those whom He loves. (5) He gives them power to become good. (6) He takes care that none whom He loves shall be lost. (7) He is getting ready a place in heaven for those whom He loves.
II. Let us see who are those that Jesus Christ loves. “I love them that love Me.” (1) Those who love Jesus Christ believe whatever He says in the Bible. (2) Those who love Jesus Christ try to please Him.
III. How are we to seek Jesus Christ? (1) We must seek Him in His own Book. (2) We must seek Him in His own House. (3) We must seek Him on our knees in prayer.
IV. “They shall find Me.” You will find the Lord’s presence in your own hearts and minds.
V. “Early.” (1) Seeking early is the safest way. (2) Seeking early is the happiest way. (3) Seeking early is the easiest way.
Bishop Ryle, Boys and Girls Playing, p. 19.

Consider the advantages of seeking early after God.
I. There is an incalculable advantage in beginning in season a work which we know to be long and difficult.
II. Another advantage of serving God in our youth is the defence which is thus set up against the encroachments of vice.
III. A third benefit is the promotion of happiness in the family circle, and the beneficent influence thus exerted upon companions and friends.
IV. Another blessing is the indescribable satisfaction which is afforded to parents and friends.
V. A fifth advantage of seeking God in youth is the ready access which it affords to a throne of grace.
VI. Another advantage is that we are thus prepared to meet with a smile the dark frowns of adversity.
VII. We are thus enabled to await, with calm and holy resignation, the coming of death.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 319.
References: Pro_8:17.—F. Tholuck, Hours of Devotion, p. 189. Pro_8:18-21.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 202. Pro_8:22-31.—Ibid., p. 205. Pro_8:22-36.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 195.

Proverbs 8:22-30
This is a description of the original solitude of God by a witness, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son.
I. This solitude was serene and happy. Even among men solitude is not always desolation. To make solitude happy two elements are required: first, that the mind be at ease and satisfied with itself; secondly, that it be employed also in some object out of itself. The serenity of God was, so to speak, composed of three elements: perfect self-satisfaction, profound self-contemplation, and the prescience, and in a sense the presence, of all created history, for “known unto God were all His works, from the foundation of the world.”
II. But there was society also with God. “I was by Him as one brought up by Him; I was daily His delight,” says the Logos. This shows a certain mysterious fellowship subsisting between the various Persons in the Godhead. From the glimpse given in the text of this communion, we gather that it was (1) familiar; (2) had always existed; (3) was incessant; (4) was unspeakably delightful.
III. Let us marvel especially at one part of the Divine employment throughout eternity. That is revealed to have been thinking of, nay, rejoicing in, man. How it elevates our conception of man to think of him forming one of the principal subjects of thought to God in His own serene eternity! And yet, how it humbles us to remember that God then thought of us as fallen, miserable, guilty beings, whom He must redeem from the horrible pit and the miry clay!
IV. Let us remember that while there is a sense in which we are always, there is a sense in which we are never, alone. Every soul is a Juan Fernandez—a solitary island with only one inhabitant; but that inhabitant is God. We must all one day meet this sole and silent one. The “lonely soul must flee to the lonely God.”
G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. i., p. 1.

Proverbs 8:23-25
Wisdom meant more to the Jews than to us, who have lost the sense of man’s unity by subdividing his faculties. It embraced to the Jew the mental and material range of the spiritual life: the ministers and magicians of Pharaoh are wise; so are Solomon and the angels; but also, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and the wise man is the ideally good man in Pro_16:21, Pro_16:23.
I. Wisdom is ever at work in the world. Civilisation is nature inspired by man’s wisdom. The Book of Proverbs does little else than honour continuously the victorious mind of man.
II. We find that man is not final—original. A source of wisdom behind is suggested; our partial and fitful intellect points back. God is the fountain; we are the channels. God’s wisdom touched the gross chaos with intention, and its epic is the first chapter of Genesis. The only beautiful thing in mechanical and other processes is the reflection of God’s wisdom in ours. What a great hoard of humility we should have if this were recognised!
III. We need our beliefs for ordinary life; sorrow is inevitable, and the ghastly thing about it is, that we feel as if it were preordained when we are in it. It is like the mountain shadow, or the crouching lion awaiting the weary pilgrim on the plain. Wisdom has something to say: “I am older than sorrow.” She bears testimony to God’s plan, to His love, justice, and thoughtfulness. And so in temptation, when the world seems to be spinning a net round us, wisdom soothes us. She is before temptation. This Wisdom is Christ, the “Word” of St. John. What wonder, since “Word” is the utterance of Wisdom! In the Atonement Christ is peculiarly the Wisdom of the world; He conquers a lower obstacle; God’s love, before confined, pours into the sinner over a broken barrier.
Phillips Brooks, Oxford Magazine, June 3rd, 1885.

Proverbs 8:29-30
I. It is in the active service of life, in the work of the marketplace, in the interchange of thought and the collision of minds differently constituted, that wisdom speaks to us. She comes as with an evangel, which she proclaims to all, which shuts out none but those who shut it out, seeking in her infinite compassion the ignorant and the foolish.
II. Wisdom yearns, as it were, for human sympathy, and the wide spaces of the universe would seem dark and cold to her if man were not there. She “rejoices in the inhabited parts of the earth; “her” delights are with the sons of men.”
III. Wisdom and the Eternal Word are one. Christ, who is made unto us sanctification and redemption, is also made unto us Wisdom. This truth suggests counsels, warnings, hopes, encouragements. (1) To many among us who make it their work to be observers of the facts and students of the laws of nature, the truth which is thus revealed gives a new ground for thankfulness and hope. The place whereon they stand is holy ground. All traces of design, order, development, the unfolding of the higher from the lower,—what are these but marks of the Eternal Wisdom manifesting Itself according to Its own determinate counsel and foreknowledge? (3) But it must not be forgotten that the Eternal Word reveals Himself as One whose delights are with the sons of men. It is an evil and hateful thing in His sight when truth is divorced from love; when the dreamer, or the theorist, or the observer, lives in his own lordly pleasure-house of knowledge or of beauty, and shuts out all sympathy with human suffering and human weakness. (3) The identity of the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs with the Word made flesh tells us of yet another path to win that treasure which is far above rubies—via crucis, via lucis. The path that leads to light and truth and wisdom is no path of pleasantness and ease. “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” Those who follow Him as witnesses to the truth may well be contented to bear His reproach.
E. H. Plumptre, Theology and Life, p. 161.
References: Pro_8:31.—J. Keble, Sermons from Christmas to Epiphany, p. 127. Pro_8:32.—J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 41.

Proverbs 8:36
Who is the “Me”? It is Wisdom. Who is the Wisdom? It is Christ; Christ is the Wisdom of God. What is the particular truth of the text? It is this, that sin is not only an offence to God, whom no man hath seen or can see, but it is a distinct and irreparable injury to the man, the sinner himself. It may be difficult to show men that they ought not to sin against a being whom they have never seen, or against spiritual, moral laws which they had no share in determining. Man may, under these circumstances, get up a kind of metaphysical defence against such obedience; but this unhappy possibility is met and overruled by the unalterable and appalling fact that not to obey is to suffer, to sin is to decline and perish, to go away from truth and purity and honour is to go into darkness and shame and intolerable torment. That is the tremendous hold which God has over you.
I. You have a strong emotional nature; you allow that. My question is, What are you going to make of it? Suppress it? Then you will wrong your own soul. Turn it towards low objects? Then you will debase one of the highest gifts of your nature. You must use it. Christ’s great appeal is to our feeling, our emotion, our homage, our loyalty. “He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul;” tears the stops out of the great organ of his being.
II. You have a great imaginative nature. What are you going to do with it? He that sinneth against that wrongeth his own soul. The whole material universe is a bird’s small cage compared with the infinite resources of Him who fainteth not, neither is weary, and of whose understanding there is no searching. Whoso sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul, belittles himself, trivializes his own nature, wastes his powers, shuts himself up in a cell, when he might be enjoying the liberty of an ever-expanding firmament.
III. You have a profound moral nature. What are you going to make of it? The Lord brings us to practical judgments, to distinct personal consequences of our action, and we who would shrink from any merely metaphysical divinity, from any philosophical conception of right, are bound to feel in our own flesh and blood and bones that we have done wrong. What are you going to do? The good man makes the best of his powers; the Christian man gets the best out of himself; righteousness makes a man realise the grandest of his powers, the widest of his capacities, and imparts to him as he goes along such instalments of heaven as are harmonisable with a life on earth.
Parker, Fountain, Oct. 18th, 1877.

Proverbs 8:1
Voice. Men are wanting to themselves: they cannot plead ignorance. (Calmet) — Wisdom stands on high in the Catholic Church inviting all to virtue and happiness. (Worthington) — Some explain this of the light which is communicated to men; but the Fathers apply it to Jesus Christ, some of the expressions regarding his divinity, and others his human nature, Ecclesiasticus xxiv.

Proverbs 8:3
Doors. Amid disputants, whose eagerness ought to convince us of the preference due to wisdom over all terrestrial concerns, ver. 10.

Proverbs 8:10
Money. They are generally incompatible.

Proverbs 8:12
Thoughts. All good comes from God, the eternal wisdom, (Calmet) which speaks here. (Worthington)

Proverbs 8:15
Things. Power and knowledge are the gift of the Almighty, Rom_12:1 A prince who resembles God the most, is his best present. (Pliny in Trajan)

Proverbs 8:18
Glorious. Literally, “proud.” (Haydock) — But here it only means great, Isaias ix 15., and 61:6 Riches too commonly nourish pride, and it is very rare to see them joined with justice. (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:19
Stone. So the Septuagint translate paz, (Haydock) which designates a more pure sort of gold, Gen_2:11 (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:21
Enrich. Hebrew, “grant what is (real goods) an inheritance to them,” &c. — Treasures. Septuagint add, “with goods. If I announce to you daily occurrences, I will admonish you to number the things of the world,” (Haydock) and all past events. (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:22
Possessed. As Christ was with God, equal to him in eternity, John i. Septuagint, “created,” which many of the Fathers explain of the word incarnate, (see Cornelius a Lapide; Bossuet) or he hath “placed me,” (St. Athanasius iii. contra Arian. Eusebius) a pattern of all virtues. The Septuagint generally render kana, “possessed,” as Aquila does here. (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:23
Up. Hebrew, “anointed.” Septuagint, “he founded.” Christ was appointed to be the foundation, on which we must be built. (St. Athanasius iii. Orat.)

Proverbs 8:24
Conceived. Having yet manifested none of my works. Since the creation, wisdom only seeks to communicate itself to us. (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:26
Poles. Hebrew, “head or height of the dust of the world.” (Haydock) — I subsisted with the chaos, before things appeared in their present form. (Calmet) — The poles denote the north and south, or the four quarters of the world. (Menochius)

Proverbs 8:28
Sky. Protestants, “clouds.” Pagnin, “the air.” Vulgate æthera. Septuagint, “the clouds above.” (Haydock) — Moses assigns the higher and lower waters the same origin, Gen_1:7

Proverbs 8:29
Pass. This is often remarked, Psa_41:8 — Earth. See Job_38:8 (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:30
Forming. Hebrew, “one nursed,” (Calmet) or nursing, nutritius. (Pagnin) — He was not an idle spectator. — Playing. With ease and surprising variety. (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:31
Men. God saw that all was good, but delighted most in his own image. (Menochius) — He prefers man before all other corporeal creatures. (Worthington) — To him alone below he has granted understanding, and a soul capable of virtue. The Son has also assumed our nature, Bar_3:37

Proverbs 8:35
Lord. Wisdom, or Jesus Christ, is our salvation, happiness, and life. Septuagint, “and the will is prepared by the Lord.” St. Augustine often quotes this to prove the necessity of preventing grace. (Ep. ccxvii., and clxxxvi.) (Calmet)

Proverbs 8:36
Death. Not in itself, (Haydock) but by adhering to such things as bring death. (Menochius)

Proverbs 8:1
(1757) Over and over again in the proverbs is the theme of seeking and listening to the wisdom of YHWH. Although wisdom is poetically acclaimed at times these are simply metaphors and wisdom is something to be acquired but is not a person or being.

Proverbs 8:5
Pro_1:4; Pro_1:22; Pro_1:32

Proverbs 8:13
Pro_3:7, Pro_6:12, Pro_15:9, Pro_16:18

Proverbs 8:23
(1758) Verses 22-23- Some have wrongly taken these scriptures out of context to pertain them to Yahshua and that He is a created being. However, wisdom is in the feminine gender and is being spoken about over the last 5 chapters and never personified as the Messiah. Also, Yahshua is eternal and not a created being, Mic_5:2, 1Jn_1:1, Joh_8:58.

Proverbs 8:36
(1759) Verses 27-36- Wisdom is spoken of poetically that to find it you will find life. How true this is as in this world you can find such great, smart people who can invent computers, space crafts that can go to the moon and every type of telecommunication, yet how many of these men with worldly education have the wisdom to seek YHWH and His grace in their lives?

Proverbs 8:1-5

Where and to Whom Wisdom Calls

After the seducing and misleading strange woman has spoken (Pro_7:6-23 ), now the “wisdom” lifts up Her voice (Pro_8:1 ; cf. Pro_1:20-22 ). The Wisdom is again presented here as a Divine Person. The Wisdom is Christ. The same is true of “understanding”. That too is a personification of Christ. Pro_8:1-21 point to the Lord Jesus. In His life He called to men as the Wisdom, and as the Understanding He made His voice heard to them. Now that He is in heaven, He does so through His servants.

The questioning form in which Pro_8:1 appears emphasizes the fact that no one has a valid excuse for ignoring the call of Wisdom or Understanding. The answer to the question cannot but be affirmative. No one can evade Her call, for it penetrates everyone. She does not speak mysteriously, in the dark, like the adulteress in Proverbs 7, but “calls” loudly and “lifts up her voice”. “Call” and “lift up her voice” both have the meaning of raising the voice. We see the Hebrew parallelism again in this verse, where the second line confirms the first line with different words.

The places where She stands are chosen with care. They are places where She can be seen by all, “on top of heights”, and where many people from all directions are present, “beside the way” and “where the paths meet” (Pro_8:2 ). She also makes Her voice heard beside the gates, at the opening to the city” (Pro_8:3 ). These are the places of trade and justice, where usually, therefore, many people are. Everyone who goes into or out of the city hears Her. She is also “at the entrances of the doors”, in which case we can think of the temple doors or the doors of the houses. She is wherever people are.

She calls to the “men” and Her voice sounds “to the sons of men” (Pro_8:4 ). Everyone is addressed. Wisdom does not address Herself only to a chosen few intellectuals or religious initiates as if She would only want to speak ‘on level’. No, She is available to everyone and excludes no one. It is as with the missionary task to proclaim the gospel worldwide and thereby reach every person without exception (cf. Mar_16:15 ).

All people know what is good and what is evil. However, they do not do good but evil. That is what Wisdom holds out to all people. No one who has to answer before the judgment seat of Christ will be able to say: ‘I did not know.’

In the midst of all people, Wisdom addresses Herself with a special word to the “naive ones” and the “fools” (Pro_8:5 ). They need Her most and are most prone to ignore Her. In Her grace, She says to the naive, the fools, to understand “prudence” to know what life is all about. She wants them to repent of their naivety and allow Her to enter their life. Then they will live and not perish.

The same is true for the fools. The fools are already much further away from Wisdom than the naive. Yet Wisdom includes them too in Her call. It is not yet too late to “understand wisdom” and to see their folly and come to their senses. When they come to their senses, they will see and understand that they are walking into judgment and repent.

Proverbs 8:6-9

What Wisdom Is Calling

Wisdom calls all people to listen to Her (Pro_8:6 ). She is there for everyone. No special intelligence is needed to understand what She says, but a willing heart. The content of Her words is of the utmost purity and extremely valuable. What She says are “noble things”. They are exalted things, things of excellent quality and of a precious, lofty character. When She opens Her lips, She lets hear “right things” that is, what is sincere and true.

Preceded by an affirming “for”, She says, “My mouth will utter truth” (Pro_8:7 ). She speaks the truth, that is, God’s truth, about all things. When the harlot suggests to the youth what her bedroom looks like and smells like (Pro_7:16-17 ), she is not lying to him, but speaking truth about it. However, it is not God’s truth. In the light of God’s truth, people can know how things are, whether they are good or bad, and how they are related.

Opposite the truth that Wisdom speaks, then, is not untruth or falsehood, but “wickedness”. “Wickedness” means living without God, disregarding Him. Therefore, to the lips of Wisdom, speaking wickedness is also “an abomination”.

It is of utmost importance to listen to the truth from the lips of Wisdom. “All the utterances” of Her mouth, are uttered “in righteousness” (Pro_8:8 ). You can trust each of Her words absolutely. They are words that do justice to every person and cause and lead people on the right path. There is nothing of the opposite in Her words. There is absolutely “nothing crooked or perverted in them”, nothing contrary to the truth of Scripture or contrary to sound teaching.

He who has the right mind understands that Her words are “straightforward” (Pro_8:9 ). Those who are already walking on the path of wisdom are even better able to understand Her. Straightforwardness is needed to understand wisdom, and not intelligence, scholarship or cleverness. The accuracy of Her words is understood by all who long to find knowledge.

Proverbs 8:10-21

The Value of Wisdom

When a person accepts the instruction (or teaching) of Wisdom, it makes him richer than he can ever become of silver (Pro_8:10 ; cf. Psa_119:72 ). Accepting instruction leads to “knowledge”. The possession of knowledge is preferable to “choicest gold”. “Wisdom” far exceeds the value of “jewels” (Pro_8:11 ). Whatever earthly wealth anyone might desire, it does not compare to Wisdom and what She gives. Because of Wisdom’s value to life, She is more to be desired than anything else.

Her dwelling place, where Wisdom is at home, is with “prudence” (Pro_8:12 ). This means that She is astute, that She possesses keen and clear insight both into people and into things and events. The right knowledge to act She finds through “discretion” or thoughtfulness. Discretion is the ability to make good plans and thoughtful decisions. She does not let Herself be tempted to act hastily and therefore wrongly. She has the knowledge to know what to do because She is thoughtful.

We see these traits – prudence and discretion – perfectly in the Lord Jesus. He always knew what to do at what time. For example, to avoid needless offense, He paid the temple tax even though He was free from it as King and He also declared His disciples as His subjects free from it (Mat_17:27 ). As for man, He knew what was in him and did not let Himself be deceived by outward appearances (Joh_2:23-24 ). Here we see some of the many treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Him (Col_2:3 ).

Prudence and discretion (Pro_8:12 ) only function when governed by “the fear of the LORD” (Pro_8:13 ). At the same time, the fear of the LORD leads to hating “evil”. Evil is seen in the seduction of the adulterous woman in the previous chapter. More generally, it refers to hating pride, arrogance, an evil way and wrong words.

“Pride and arrogance” are in man, in the sinful flesh. If we let these sins run their course and do not judge them when they want to assert themselves, they take us down “the evil way”. On that evil way are people with a “perverted mouth”, a mouth that God hates. Worldly people have a very different view of the things we should hate. They speak of ‘a different way of life’, of making ‘a different choice’, and force us to tolerate their way of life and certainly not call it evil and sinful.

Wisdom is expressed in counsel and wisdom, understanding and power (Pro_8:14 ). They are present with Wisdom. Understanding is not just present in Her as an attribute, but She is Understanding, it is Her Being. What is present with Her is what characterizes Her. Hers is “counsel” and “wisdom”. Hers is also “power” to do whatever She deems necessary according to Her counsel and wisdom. We see here again that the Wisdom is Christ. One of His Names is “Counselor” (Isa_9:5 ). The Spirit Who guides Him is “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD” (Isa_11:2 ).

Wisdom is also the source of all earthly power and authority. By Her, kings reign (Pro_8:15 ), not because She permits it, but because She determines it (Rom_13:1-6 ). She establishes kings (Dan_2:21 ). A king usually has the sense to reign well or bad. To reign well can only be done by the Wisdom. Those who do not seek the Wisdom will reign badly, as we see with the kings of Israel and some kings of Judah.

Wisdom allows rulers – possibly provincial, lower authorities – to decree justice. These rulers prescribe things and put them in writing; they are things that serve justice, the law of God. Without Wisdom, they cannot prescribe anything that is consistent with the law of God; by Wisdom they can.

As do kings, also princes rule by Wisdom (Pro_8:16 ). This also applies to the “nobles”, the distinguished men, if they lead in a beneficent manner. Similarly, all those who exercise their functions as judges anywhere on earth can only do so properly, that is, righteously in accordance with the law of God, by Wisdom. By themselves they cannot do this. How wise and just must Wisdom be if the most powerful people on earth cannot govern justly and beneficently without Her.

A person will appreciate Wisdom only if he has love for Her (Pro_8:17 ). Then there is connection with Her. What matters is the mind of the heart toward Wisdom. Where there is love for Wisdom, that love is reciprocated by Her with love in return. Love for Wisdom is evidenced by “diligently seeking” Her. This is what Solomon did (1Kg_3:9 ). The promise for those who do so is that they will find Her, encounter Her, possess Her (Jas_1:5 ).

Wisdom holds out a rich reward for those who seek Her, for She points out that “riches and honor” are with Her (Pro_8:18 ). Thus She does make it very attractive to earnestly seek Her. She adds that also “enduring wealth and righteousness” are with Her. It should be clear that this is not about earthly possessions, for they can be lost to a person just like that (
Pro_23:5 ). It is about treasures in heaven that no one can take away (Mat_6:19-20 ).

Enduring possession, by definition, can only be eternal possession and not temporal possession and is therefore ultimately enjoyed in the life after this life and not in the life here and now. Likewise, righteousness is something that cannot be translated into terms of gold or silver. Gold can be obtained or inherited, wisdom cannot. Wisdom can only be found by those who seek Her. Righteousness too is a quality that is not connected to earth, but to God. It is a characteristic of God in His dealings with people. In the way He deals with people, He is always consistent with His own righteous Being.

Those who have found Wisdom will enjoy Her “fruit” (Pro_8:19 ). Her fruit is what She brings forth, everything that proceeds from Her. We can think of all the blessings given to us by grace, such as redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, justification, sonship, eternal life. We can also think of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal_5:22-23 ), which He gives to everyone who is connected to Wisdom. That fruit belongs to Her, but She gives it to all who find Her. That fruit “is better than gold, even pure gold”. Clearly it is not earthly prosperity, but spiritual fruit.

The same is true of Her “yield”. Yield is a concept of the market, of commerce, a concept to be applied spiritually here. What Wisdom produces in fruit and yield does not concern material wealth, for Her fruit and yield are better than what gold and silver produce in their purest form (cf. Job_28:15 ). The product of wisdom, what comes from wisdom, is better than what can be obtained with gold and silver.

Wisdom walks (Pro_8:20 ). Her purpose is for us to follow Her as children do their parents, soldiers their general, students their teacher and sheep their shepherd. She leads Her followers “in the way of righteousness”. Those who follow Her walk on the same way. She precedes them “in the midst of the paths of justice” and thereby avoids deviation to the right or to the left. The follower of Wisdom is neither formal nor licentious. He remains far removed from both extremes. He follows neither a dry, dead system nor a whipped, noncommittal principles.

What is endowed is the portion of all who love Wisdom (Pro_8:21 ). It is an endowed right, however, because it is attached to the Lord Jesus Who acquired this right. The endowment is He Himself. Of those who have Him as their endowment, He also fills the “treasuries” of their heart (Luk_6:45 ). What He places of Himself in their heart is not subject to depreciation.

Proverbs 8:22-31

Wisdom Is an Eternal Person

In the previous verses, we heard Wisdom calling. Her call has come to every person without exception. In Pro_8:22-31 , Wisdom tells Who She is. We find in these verses a wonderful description of the Lord Jesus, because it is about Him. He, the eternal Son, is Wisdom in Person. If we were to ask how long God has been wise, the answer is simple that Wisdom has existed as long as God has existed, meaning eternally. Indeed, there is no conceivable moment when God was not wise to then become so at some point. This conclusively answers the question of how long the Lord Jesus exists.

This is evident from the first thing Wisdom says about Herself. She was with God, the LORD, even before any of the works of God were visible (Pro_8:22 ). Before the foundation of the world, Wisdom was with God as a distinct Person. The evangelist John confirms this. He writes, “In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” (Joh_1:1 ). “The Word” is also the Lord Jesus.

It is noteworthy that Wisdom begins by speaking of the LORD, the God of covenant with His people. With Him She is intimately connected. How closely, She says next. The LORD possessed Her “at the beginning of His way”. A wrong and misleading translation says that the LORD “created” Her instead of “possessed”. But Christ, the Son, as the Wisdom, says that the LORD possessed Him “at the beginning of His way, before His works of old” (cf. Mic_5:1 ).

When God began His way with the world, when He brought about His works, He did so through the Son, Who was with Him “of old”, that is, from eternity. Christ is the beginning of the creation of God, which means that He is at the beginning of all the works of God’s creation, that He began creation and completed it (Gen_1:1-31 Gen_2:1 ; Joh_1:3 ; Col_1:16-17 ; Heb_1:2 ). From Him all creation came forth. He was with God as the Wisdom of all the works of God. All the works of God were brought about by His wisdom. Thus, the Wisdom Herself was not created, but was with God from eternity.

Wisdom has been established or consecrated from eternity (Pro_8:23 ). Establishing or consecrating has to do with destiny to a particular purpose. In the Old Testament, kings and priests were established or consecrated to be what they were destined to be. Similarly, the Wisdom, Christ, was predestined by God to a particular work. We see something similar with regard to the atoning work of Christ, to which “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world” as the Lamb (1Pe_1:20 ). The work at issue here is the work of creation. Wisdom was there “from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth”.

That Wisdom was “brought forth” or “born” – it is said twice: in Pro_8:24 and in Pro_8:25 – means that Christ began to act as Creator at some point. What is present in God becomes visible. It is similar to what happens at the birth of a child. A child being born is already present in the womb, but becomes visible at birth. Wisdom proves Her pre-existence by beginning to act when there is nothing yet, when there “were no depths” and “no springs abounding with water” (Pro_8:24 ). The same goes for “the mountains” and “the hills” (Pro_8:25 ) which also owe their existence to Him Who was there (Psa_90:2 ).

The emphasis throughout this section is on the eternal (pre)existence of Christ. It is very important to hold to that. Everything there is is created by Him. It has a beginning, whereas He Himself does not. There is no such thing as ‘eternal matter’. Only the triune God is eternal. The Son was there “while He had not yet made the earth and the fields” (Pro_8:26 ). After the waters and heights of both previous verses, this seems to refer to the more habitable parts of the earth. By “the dusts of the world” are meant the constituents that make up the earth, including the treasures of the soil. All things have a beginning and that beginning is through Him.

The Word was in the beginning, meaning He was there with all that has a beginning and that He Himself has no beginning. He is the beginning of all things (Joh_1:1 ). God is the great Architect, Who built everything through Wisdom. He created all things through the Son (1Co_8:6 ). Everything became through the Word. This section from Proverbs 8 is explained in the first verses of John 1.

The Son is also involved in the preparation of the heavens (Pro_8:27 ). He was not a spectator, but the Executor (Heb_1:10 ). He gave the heavens their shape, brilliance and covering of sun, moon and stars. The heavens are drawn by Him as an overarching span over the flood of water, as one draws a circle with a compass (cf. Js 40:22; Job_26:9-10 ). In that span, He has made the clouds strong so that they can hold the water to pour out that water over the earth in His time and where He wants (Pro_8:28 ; Job_26:8 Job_36:27-29 Job_37:11 ). Also “the springs of the deep” are fixed and can spring up because of the power He grants them.

The place of the sea was not determined by evolution, but was appointed to him by the Son (Pro_8:29 ). In doing so, He has also commanded that the sea keep to the boundary set by Him and will not transgress it (Jer_5:22 ; Job_38:10-11 ). He has marked the foundations of the earth in such a way that the earth stands unshakable (Psa_104:5 ).

All the acts of creation just described by Wisdom attest to the Divine wisdom behind them. This proves the pre-existence of Wisdom before creation. God planned out His work and performed it with Wisdom, that is through His Son.

In Pro_8:30 it is no longer about creation, but about the relationship between the LORD, Yahweh, and Wisdom. Wisdom was eternally “with Him”. She is loved by God because Wisdom is the Person of Christ. He is the Word Who was with God in the beginning (Joh_1:1 ). In the New Testament, we see this same relationship of love reflected in the love between the Father and the Son. The relationship between the Father and the Son is one of eternal love (Joh_17:5 Joh_17:24 ).

While there is no time in eternity, yet it is expressed in such a way that the Father enjoyed His Son “daily”. Thus He allows us to share in the feelings of His heart for His Son. It is at the same time an example for us to occupy ourselves with the Son every day, to see Him and rejoice in Him. Surely there can be no other object of love and joy for us than Him to Whom the heart of God goes out, can there?

He is from all eternity God’s “master workman” and His “delight”. These expressions indicate how much God loved Him and how much He rejoiced in Him. There was never a time when this was different. God eternally looked upon Him with the greatest and deepest love and joy. The cause of this is the perfect unity in nature, attributes and desires that exists between Them. There was and is perfect harmony in thoughts and feelings. All that God is, He saw and sees in His Son.

This did not change when the Son became the Creator, for His work of creation is the fulfillment of God’s purpose. When He created the heavens and the earth, He was engaged in a game, as it were, which He played with great joy. It is reminiscent of the satisfaction He had when He saw everything after creation and then observed that “it was very good” (Gen_1:31 ).

As a result of what the Son created, a new area is created in which the Son Himself finds His joy (Pro_8:31 ). He Who was always the delight of God’s heart, rejoicing before Him, or: playing before Him also played in the world of God’s earthly kingdom. Then it seems as if He discovers in it something that fills Him with joy, and that is “the sons of men”. He calls them “My delight”.

He delights in all His works of creation, but in man He finds a special delight. His delight in man is shown in the clearest way by the fact that He became Man. The angels rejoiced when He created the world (Job_38:6-7 ). But when the Son becomes Man, they see the good pleasure of God in men and without any envy praise Him for it with the words, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luk_2:14 ).

God has His pleasure in men. That is why Christ became Man. God has no pleasure in sinful men. He is pleased with that one Man, His Son Jesus Christ, Who came as the expression of God’s pleasure in all men, for He came to save men from eternal judgment. Every person who confesses his sins and believes in Christ and His redemptive work on the cross is going to share in God’s pleasure. God is pleased with every person who is united to His Son through faith in His work.

World history is not an accident in which the Son of God spontaneously entered one time. At the beginning of all God’s ways is Wisdom, the personification of the Lord Jesus. This is the deep purpose of the world and its history. In Hebrews 1, this is stated in a nutshell (Heb_1:2-3 ). Christ is the center of God’s ways.

Knowing His Person not only answers the questions of our heart, but leads us into the world of the Father and the Son. Of this we get an impression here through the speaking of Wisdom from that eternity. We are not merely spectators in this majestic and sovereign action of Wisdom, but we in His grace are involved in this eternal plan of God. We have entered the house of Wisdom, as we see in Proverbs 9.

It is this Wisdom Who has guided every action of God with this earth, be it creation or salvation history. All things are through Him and for Him. This glory as Mediator stands before us here in the joy that God has in Him. And He is not a Mediator of angels, but His joy is with the sons of men (Heb_2:16 ).

Proverbs 8:32-36

The Blessing of Listening to Wisdom

After the description of the Person of Wisdom and Her work, the logical conclusion, introduced by “now therefore”, must be that the sons listen to Her (Pro_8:32 ). To this end, She calls the sons who have Her nature, who are wise. All who “keep” Her ways, She praises “blessed”, for they show that they are not only hearers, but also doers.

She calls to heed instruction, for in this way a person can become wise (Pro_8:33 ). As an additional exhortation, there is still the call not to reject instruction. Not to listen means to reject. Whoever does so shows that he is a fool. He will not escape eternal punishment.

He who listens to the Wisdom is “blessed” (Pro_8:34 ). He who listens will make every effort not to miss a word that Wisdom utters. He watches “daily” at the “gates” of Wisdom, to catch and store every word She speaks. We can think of the “gates” and “doorposts” as the entrance to the city and temple of God (cf. Luk_21:38 ). To watch and wait means to focus on something with full attention. It speaks of waiting with great concentration for what the Wisdom, the Word of God, is going to say.

This patient waiting for Wisdom, watchful and close to Her dwelling, is rewarded with finding life (Pro_8:35 ). Wisdom and life are intimately connected. The goal of wisdom is to live true life, which is living in fellowship with God. “Favor” means being accepted by God. It is the awareness of the benevolence of or recognition by God.

What a fool is one who sins against Wisdom (Pro_8:36 ). To sin means to miss the mark, here it is to miss the Wisdom, which is Christ. Christ is the center of all God’s plans. We see that in the Scriptures. Whoever sins against Him, misses Him, misses everything that is important to God. That lack is fatal. Whoever accepts this lack because he does not want the Wisdom is harming himself immensely. It proves hatred against Wisdom and love for what will be his death. Sinners die because they choose against Christ (cf. Hos_13:9 ).

Proverbs 8:1-3
CRITICAL NOTES
Places of the paths “in the midst of the highways.” “These ways are roads, solitary paths, not streets in the city, and the delineation proceeds in such an order as to exhibit Wisdom; first, in Pro_8:2, as a preacher in the open country, in grove and field, on mountains and plains, and then in Pro_8:3, to describe her public harangues in the cities, and in the tumult of the multitudes” (Zöckler).
Pro_8:3. At the entrance of its doors, i.e., “standing on the further side of the gateway” (Zöckler) “at the entrance of the avenues” (Stuart).
Pro_8:4. The Hebrew words for men are different in the two clauses, “the first signifies men of high position, the second men of the common sort” (Psa_49:2.) (Fausset).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:1-3
THE NATURE OF WISDOM’S CALL
Even if we reject the direct Messianic interpretation of this chapter, and understand Wisdom here to be only a poetical personification of an abstract attribute of God, it would be impossible, we think, for any minister of the New Testament to teach from it, and not find his way to Him who was “in the beginning with God” (Joh_1:2), to the Christ who is the “Wisdom of God” (1Co_1:24), “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col_2:3). To say the least, the language is admirably adapted to set forth the Incarnate Son, the Saviour of the world. The introductory paragraph reveals the intense desire of Wisdom to win disciples.
I. From her taking the initiative. Wisdom addresses man first. When two persons have become estranged by the wrong-doing of one, he who is in the wrong will be slow to find his way back to the other to acknowledge his fault. Because he is in the wrong he may conclude, and in many cases would rightly conclude, that an advance on his side would be useless. But an advance from him who is in the right would be more likely to be successful; such a course of conduct on his part would carry with it a powerful magnetic force to draw the offender back, and would be a most convincing proof of the desire of him who had been rightly offended to effect a reconciliation. And if the offence had been committed, not once, but many times, the reluctance of the offender to face his offended friend would be increased in proportion to the number of times the act had been repeated, and if, notwithstanding these repeated offences, advances should continue to be made from the other side, the desire for reconciliation would be made more and more manifest. Wisdom is here represented in this light, and God in Christ did take the initiative in “reconciling the world unto Himself” (2Co_5:19). The Incarnate Wisdom came to men because men would not, and could not, by reason of their moral inability, come to Him first. In proportion to the distance men wander from God do they feel the impossibility of returning to Him unless they can receive from Him some encouragement to do so. This encouragement they have in the fact that “the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost (Mat_18:11), that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom_5:8).
II. From the variety of places where Wisdom’s voice is heard (Pro_8:2-3). If a man has goods to sell, he seeks those places where he will be most likely to find buyers; if he has thoughts which he wishes to make public, he goes where he will find the most hearers. The pilot has wisdom which he wants to sell to the less experienced ship-master, and he runs his cutter out into the highway of the channel. He is found at “the entrance of the gates” of the water-ways, at the mouths of the rivers; he places himself in the way of those who need his wisdom, and who will pay a good price for his skill. In proportion to a man’s earnestness to obtain a market, or a hearing, will be his endeavour to seek out the places where he will most likely succeed. Wisdom is here represented as frequenting the most conspicuous places, the most crowded thoroughfares, to find buyers for that spiritual instruction which is to be had “without money and without price” (Isa_55:1). Christ was found imparting the treasures of His wisdom wherever men would listen to His words. He “went up into a mountain and taught” (Mat_5:1). He was found in the streets of the cities, in the temple, at the publican’s feast (Luk_5:27), in a boat on the shore of the lake. When multitudes were gathered at Jerusalem at the feasts, He was among them (Joh_7:14; Joh_7:37). At other times “He went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom” (Mat_9:35). And thus He revealed His intense desire to give unto men those words which He declares to be “spirit and life” (Joh_6:63).
III. From the earnest tone of her call. “Doth not Wisdom cry.” When the voice of Christ was heard upon earth it was in no indifferent tone He addressed His hearers. He was “moved with compassion” towards the multitudes who followed Him (Mat_14:14). On the “great day of the feast He stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink” (Joh_7:37). With what earnestness must He have uttered His lament over Jerusalem: “If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace” (Luk_19:42). A man’s tone is more or less earnest to us in proportion as he gives proof that he is willing to follow up words by deeds. Judged in this light, how earnest must the call of Christ to men sound when they consider that He was willing to face Gethsemane and Calvary to give effect to His words. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. Pro_1:20-21.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:1. She crieth by the written word, by ministers, and by the dealings of Providence. Instead of the clandestine whisper of the adulteress in the dark, Wisdom “puts forth her voice” openly in the day, and in a style suitable to every capacity, so that all are left without excuse if they reject her, preferring darkness to light.—Fausset.
The eternal Son of God gathers, plants, builds His Church by a voice, i.e., His word. All true teachers of the Word are crying voices through which Christ calls. Out of Christ’s school is no true wisdom. So long as Christ’s wisdom is still speaking outside thee it avails thee nothing; but when thou allowest it to dwell in thee it is thy light and life.—Egard.
We cannot promulgate as doctrine, but we think the last day will show that wisdom plied every art; that what was “all things working together for good” in behalf of the believer, was something analagous in tendency in the instance of the sinner; that if the sinner thought his lot defeated repentance, he was mistaken; or that, could he have fared otherwise, his chances would have been improved: all this was largely error; moreover, that he will be held accountable at last for quite the opposite, and punished for a life singularly favoured and frequently adapted as the very best to lead him to salvation.—Miller.
In her ministers, who are criers by office, and must be earnest (Isa_58:1). See an instance in holy Bradford. “I beseech you,” saith he, “I pray you, I desire you, I crave at your hands with all my very heart, I ask of you with hand, pen, tongue, and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ, for His name, blood, mercy, power, and truth’s sake, my most entirely beloved that you admit no doubting of God’s final mercies towards you.” Here was a lusty crier indeed.—Trapp.
This form of interrogation, which expects as its answer an assenting and emphatic “yes, truly,” points to the fact clearly brought to view in all that has preceded, that Wisdom bears an unceasing witness in her own behalf in the life of men.—Zöckler.
Pro_8:2. “Standeth” implies assiduous perseverance. Instead of taking her stand in dark places, in a corner, like the harlot (chap. Pro_7:9), she “standeth” in the top of high places.—Fausset.
Wisdom is representing as haunting all human paths. Folly lives upon them, too. Wisdom does not claim them as her own; Folly does. Wisdom has but one path. And she haunts every other to turn men out of such diverse journeyings into the one great track of holiness and truth.—Miller.
Pro_8:3. Thereby intending (1) to reach the whole concourse of the lost, and (2) to make human life at these great rallying places of men, speak its own lessons, and utter the loudest warnings against the soul’s impenitence.—Miller.

Proverbs 8:4-9
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_8:5. Wisdom. This is a different word from the one used in Pro_8:1, and may be translated “subtilty,” or “prudence,” and though it is here used in a good sense, may, when the context requires it, be translated “artful cunning.”
Pro_8:6. Excellent, literally “princely,” generally rendered “plain,” “evident,” “obvious.”
Pro_8:7. Mouth, lit. “palate.” Speak, literally, “meditate;” the word originally meant “mutter,” and grew to mean “meditate,” because what a man meditates deeply he generally mutters about (Miller).
Pro_8:8. Froward, literally, “distorted,” or “crooked.”
Pro_8:9. “Right to the man of understanding, and plain to them that have attained knowledge” (Zöckler). “To the men of understanding they are all to the point” (Delitzsch).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:4-9
GOD’S SPEECH MEETING MAN’S NEED
I. Divine Wisdom has spoken because God’s silence would be human death. When a man is lying in prison awaiting the execution of the extreme penalty of the law, after he has petitioned the monarch for a reprieve, the silence of the monarch is a permission that the sentence is to be carried out. His silence is a death-knell to the criminal who has asked for pardon. It is an anticipation of the steel of the executioner, of the rope of the hangman. He longs for the word that would bring pardon. There is death in the silence. In the history of men’s lives there are many other instances when the silence of those whom they desire to speak embitters their life. There are many who keep silence whose speech would fall upon the heart of those who long for it, as the dew and gentle rain falls upon the parched earth. A word or a letter would be like a new lease of life, but the silence brings a sorrow which is akin to death, which perchance is the death of all that makes life to be desired. A parent who has no word from his absent son goes down in sorrow to the grave. Jacob was thus going down mourning when the words of Joseph reached him. Then “his spirit revived” (
Gen_45:27), and the aged, sorrowful patriarch renewed his youth. The life of man—all that is worth calling life—depends upon God’s breaking the silence between earth and heaven. His silence is that which is most dreaded by those who have heard his voice. Hence their prayer is, “Be not silent unto me; lest, if Thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit (Psa_28:1). If man had been left without any communication from God, he must have remained spiritually dead throughout his term of probation. For he is by nature what is called in Scripture, “carnally-minded,” which “is death” (Rom_8:5). Every man, if left to himself, forms habits of thinking and of acting that cause him “to be tied and bound with the chain of his sins.” And if God had not spoken he must have remained in this condition, which is spiritual death. Therefore, God has broken this silence with an “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead” (Eph_5:14). The nations were walking in the darkness and the shadow of death when the “light shined” upon them (Luk_1:79), in the person of Him who is the Word and the Wisdom of God, who, Himself, declared “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life;” “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (Joh_6:63; Joh_10:10).
II. Human nature needs the voice of Divine Wisdom because the soul cannot rest upon uncertainties (Pro_8:6-8). If a man is in the dark upon any subject, he is in a condition of unrest; there is a desire within him to rise from the state of probability to one of certainty. If a boy works a sum and does not know how to prove that it is right, he does not feel that satisfaction at having completed his task that he would do if he could demonstrate that the answer was correct. After all his labour he has only arrived at a may-be. So the result of all efforts of man’s unaided reasonings concerning himself and his destiny was but a sum unproved. There was no certainty after ages of laborious conjecture. There might be a future life and immortality, but it could not be positively affirmed. Although the sum might be right there was a possibility that it was wrong. The world by wisdom arrived at no certain conclusions in relation to the Divine character and the chief end of man, and uttered but an uncertain sound on the life beyond the grave. “How can man be just with God?” “If a man die shall he live again?” were never fully and triumphantly answered until the Incarnate Word stood by His own empty grave and said, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (Joh_20:17). He brought “rest” to the weary and heavy laden (Mat_11:28), because His words were truth, and plainness, and certainty (see Pro_8:6-8); before they had been only error, or obscurity, or conjecture.
III. The wisdom of God is appreciated by those who have realised its adaptation to human needs. (Pro_8:9.) There is a twofold knowledge, or “understanding,” of Divine truth, as there is of much else with which we are acquainted. There is an acquaintance with the general facts of Divine revelation—a theoretical understanding of its suitableness to the needs of men, and there is a knowledge which arises from an experience of its adaptation to our personal need—a practical understanding which springs from having received a personal benefit. The chemist knows that a certain drug possesses qualities adapted to cure a particular malady, but if he comes to experience its efficacy in the cure of the disease in his own body, he has a knowledge which far surpasses the merely theoretical. It is then “plain” to him from an experimental understanding. The wisdom of God in the abstract, or in the personal Logos, is allowed by many to be adapted to the spiritual needs of the human race. They see the philosophy of the plan of salvation in the general, but its wonderful adaptation and “rightness” is only fully revealed when they have “found” the “knowledge” by an experimental reception of Christ into their own hearts. To him that thus “understands” all is “plain.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:4. Christ offers Himself as a Saviour to all the human race.
I. The most awakening truth in all the Bible. It is commonly thought that preaching the holy law is the most awakening truth in the Bible, and, indeed, I believe this is the most ordinary means which God makes use of. And yet to me there is something far more awakening in the sight of a Divine Saviour freely offering Himself to eyery one of the human race.… Does it not show that all men are lost—that a dreadful hell is before them? Would the Saviour call so loud and so long if there was no hell?
II. The most comforting truth in the Bible. If there were no other text in the whole Bible to encourage sinners to come freely to Christ, this one alone might persuade them. Christ speaks to the human race. Instead of writing down every name He puts all together in one word, which includes every man, woman, and child.
III. The most condemning truth in all the Bible. If Christ be freely offered to all men, then it is plain that those who live and die without accepting Christ shall meet with the doom of those who refuse the Son of God.—McCheyne.
They are called to repentance, they are called to the remission of their sins; they may and must repent, and they, by repentance, are sure of pardon for all their sins. The good angels have not sinned, the bad angels cannot repent; it is man that hath done the one, it is man that must do the other.—Jermin.
“O men.” Some render it, “O ye eminent men” (see CRITICAL NOTES), whether for greatness of birth, wealth, or learning. But “the world by wisdom knows not God” (1Co_1:21); and “not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (Pro_8:26). And yet they shall not want for calling, if that would do it. But all to little purpose, for most part. They that lay their heads upon down pillows cannot so easily hear noises. “The sons of men,” i.e., to the meaner sort of people. These, usually, like little fishes, bite more than bigger. “The poor are gospelised,” saith our Saviour. Smyrna was the poorest, but the best of the seven churches.—Trapp.
Several ways whereby God addresses Himself to man. How different the method which God uses towards the rational from that which He uses toward the material world. In the world of matter God has not only fixed and prescribed certain laws according to which the course of nature shall proceed, but He is Himself the sole and immediate executor of those laws.… It is to Himself that He has set those laws, and it is by Himself that they are executed. But He does not deal so with the world of spirits. He does not here execute the laws of love, as He does there the laws of motion. He contents Himself to prescribe laws, to make rational applications, to speak to spirits. He speaks to them because they are rational, and can understand what He says, and He does but speak to them because they are free. And this He does in several ways. 1. By the natural and necessary order and connection of things. God, as being the Author of nature, is also the author of that connection that results from it between some actions and that good and evil that follows upon them, and which must therefore not be considered as mere natural consequences, but as a kind of rewards and punishments annexed to them by the Supreme Lawgiver, God having declared by them, as by a natural sanction, that ’tis His will and pleasure that those actions which are attended with good consequences should be done, and that those which are attended with evil consequences should be avoided. Not that the law has its obligation from the sanction, but these natural sanctions are signs and declarations of the will of God. 2. By sensible pleasure and pain. A thing which everybody feels, but which few reflect upon, yet there is a voice of God in it. For does not God, by the frequent and daily return of these impressions, continually put us in mind of the nature and capacity of our souls, that we are thinking beings, and beings capable of happiness and misery, which because we actually feel in several degrees, and in several kinds, we may justly think ourselves capable of in more, though how far, and in what variety, it be past our comprehension exactly to define. 3. By that inward joy which attends the good, and by that inward trouble and uneasiness which attends the bad state of the soul. This is a matter of universal experience. It is God that raiseth this pleasure or this pain in us, and that thus differently rewards or punishes the souls of men, and thus, out of His infinite love, is pleased to do the office of a private monitor to every particular man, by smiling upon him when he does well, and by frowning upon him when he does ill, that so he may have a mark to discern, and an encouragement to do his duty.—John Norris.
Pro_8:5. A man may be acutely shrewd and yet be a fool, and that in the very highest sense. Nor is this a mere mystic sense. He must be a fool actually, and of the very plainest kind, who gives the whole labour of a life, for example, to increase his eternal agonies.—Miller.
The heart is frequently used, simply for the mind or seat of intellect as well as for the affections; so that “an understanding heart” might mean nothing different from an intelligent mind. At the same time, since the state of the heart affects to such a degree the exercise of the judgment, “an understanding heart” may signify a heart freed from the influence of those corrupt affections and passions by which the understanding is perverted, and its vision marred and destroyed.—Wardlaw.
Pro_8:6. The discoveries of Wisdom relate to things of the highest possible excellence; such as the existence, character, works, and ways of God; the soul; eternity; the way of salvation—the means of eternal life. And they are, on all subjects, “right.” They could not, indeed, be excellent themselves, how excellent soever in dignity and importance the subjects to which they related, unless they were “right.” But all her instructions are so. They are
true in what regards doctrine, and “holy, just, and good” in what regards conduct or duty. There is truth without any mixture of error, and rectitude without any alloy of evil.—Wardlaw.
Right for each man’s purposes and occasions. The Scriptures are so penned that every man may think they speak of him and his affairs. In all God’s commands there is so much rectitude and good reason, could we but see it, that if God did not command them, yet it were our best way to practise them.—Trapp.
The teaching is not trifling, though addressed to triflers. “Right things”—things which are calculated to correct your false notions, and set straight your crooked ways.—Adam Clarke.
Pro_8:9. If aught in God’s Word does not seem to us right, it is because we, so far, have not found true knowledge. “To those who have bloodshot eyes, white seems red (Lyra). He who would have the sealed book opened to him must ask it of the Lamb who opens the book (Rev_5:4-9.—Fausset.
The first part of this verse wears very much the aspect of a truism. But it is not said, “They are plain to him that understandeth them;” but simply to him that “understandeth.” It seems to signify, who has the understanding necessary to the apprehension of Divine truth—spiritual discernment. “He who is spiritual discerneth all things.” “They are all plain” to him who thus understandeth. It may further be observed, how very much depends, in the prosecution of any science, for correct and easy apprehension of its progressive development to the mind, on the clear comprehension of its elementary principles. The very clearest and plainest demonstrations, in any department of philosophy, will fail to be followed and to carry conviction—will leave the mind only in wonder and bewildering confusion, unless there is a full and correct acquaintance with principles or elements, or a willingness to apply the mind to its attainment. So in Divine science. There are, in regard to the discoveries of the Divine Word, certain primary principles, which all who are taught of God know, and which they hold as principles of explanation for all that that Word reveals, They who are thus “taught of God,” perceive with increasing fulness the truth, the rectitude, the unalloyed excellence of all the dictates of Divine wisdom. All is “plain”—all “right.” The darkness that brooded over the mind is dissipated. They “have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things” (1Jn_2:20).—Wardlaw.
When a man gets the knowledge of himself, then he sees all the threatenings of God to be right. When he obtains the knowledge of God in Christ, then he finds that all the promises of God are right—yea and amen.—Adam Clarke.

Proverbs 8:10-11
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_8:11. Rubies, “pearls.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:10-11
WISDOM BETTER THAN WEALTH
I. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth because it belongs to a higher sphere. The wisdom by which men succeed in finding gold and silver reveals the superiority of mind over matter. The apparatus of the miner or digger reveals that his thought, by which he is enabled to find the precious metal, is more than the metal itself. The precious stones which the merchant gains by trading are inferior to the wisdom he puts in operation to gain them, even though it is a wisdom which is only devoted to gaining money. The mental power which he puts forth shows that he is possessed of intelligence, which, belonging to the region of mind, belongs to a higher sphere than material wealth. When the wisdom is that spoken of in the text, the wisdom which springs from the very Fountain of goodness, it is not only preferable because it is the offspring of mind, but because it belongs to the higher region of spiritual purity.
II. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth, because it had an existence before wealth. The world, with all its precious stones, and rich mines of gold and silver, is but of yesterday compared with wisdom. The mental and spiritual wealth of God was before matter; upon that wisdom—as we learn in this chapter—depended the existence of the material (Pro_8:22-32; chap Pro_3:19-20). Mental wealth is eternal, material wealth belongs only to time. Gold had a beginning, because the earth had a birthday, but wisdom is as old as God.
III. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth, because it is an absolute necessity to man’s well-being, which gold is not. The first man, in his state of sinlessness, had no need of what men now call wealth, but wisdom—spiritual wisdom—was absolutely necessary to his continuation in a state of blessedness. Men need worldly, intellectual wisdom, even to make money. Many who inherit wealth lose it because they lack wisdom to use it rightly. But they can be blest without wealth, but not without the wisdom which leads to holiness. Wealth may bring pleasure with it, but to do so it must be united to true wisdom. Many who roll in riches have no pleasure in them; sometimes their very wealth adds to their unhappiness. Mental wealth enables men to extract some enjoyment from material wealth, but the riches of goodness makes gold and silver a means of increasing men’s happiness.
IV. Wisdom is to be preferred to wealth, because the latter may be destructive to character, and the former is its constructive power. Many men have been morally destroyed by their riches. But true wisdom is that by which a holy character is formed, the sustenance of the spiritual life. Riches may ruin; the wisdom which God gives to those who seek it at His hand can but bless.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:10. Thou canst not make as thy chief aim the acquisition of silver and that of true wisdom at one and the same time, for those aims mutually conflict, and each claims the whole man (Mat_6:24). To accept the one involves the rejection of the other as the chief portion. He who lives for money is void of wisdom (Luk_12:16; Luk_12:20), and is called in Scripture a “fool.”—Fausset.
Had it been said, Receive silver, who would not have held out his hand to receive it? Had it been said, Receive gold, who would not have been forward and glad with both his hands to have taken it? But it is instruction and not silver, wherein, lest a worldly heart be afraid that the taking of silver were forbidden him, the next words show the meaning, that it is but instruction rather than silver, as it is knowledge rather than gold.… He that seeketh gold and silver diggeth up much earth, but finds little of them, but he that receiveth instruction and knowledge, which are, indeed, of a golden nature, even in a little shall get and find much. Wherefore Clemens Alexandrinus saith, “It is in the soul that riches are, and they alone are riches whereof the soul alone is the treasure.”—Jermin.
The first warning uttered by this wisdom from above is the repetition of a former word. The repetition is not vain. Another stroke so soon on the same place indicates that he who strikes feels a peculiar hardness there. The love of money is a root of evil against which the Bible mercifully deals many a blow. There lies one of our deepest sores. Thanks be to God for touching it with “line upon line” of His healing Word.… A ship bearing a hundred emigrants has been driven from her course and wrecked on a desert island, far from the tracks of men. The passengers get safe ashore with all their stores. There is no way of escape, but there are means of subsistence. An ocean unvisited by ordinary voyagers circles round their prison, but they have seed, with a rich soil to receive, and a genial climate to ripen it. Ere any plan has been laid, or any operation begun, an exploring party returns to head quarters reporting the discovery of a gold mine. Thither instantly the whole company resort to dig. They acquire and accumulate heaps of gold. The people are quickly becoming rich. But the spring is past, and not a field has been cleared, not a grain of seed has been committed to the ground. The summer comes, and their wealth increases, but the store of food is small. In harvest they begin to discover that their stores of gold are worthless. A cart-load of it cannot satisfy a hungry child. When famine stares them in the face a suspicion shoots across their fainting hearts that their gold has cheated them. They loathe the bright betrayer. They rush to the woods, fell the trees, till the ground, and sow the seed. Alas! it is too late! Winter has come, and their seed rots in the soil. They die of want in the midst of their treasures. This earth is a little isle—eternity the ocean round it. On this shore we have been cast, like shipwrecked sailors. There is a living seed; there is an auspicious spring time; the sower may eat and live. But gold mines attract us; we spend our spring there—our summer there: winter overtakes us toiling there, with heaps of hoarded dust, but destitute of the bread of life.—Arnot.
Pro_8:11. First, because everything else without it is a curse, and with it is just what is needed; second, because it is necessary to all beings, and even to God himself, as the spring of action; third, because it is glory and wealth in its very nature.—Miller.
Surely he that thinketh himself adorned with precious stones, showeth himself to be of less price than the stones are. To whom Clemens well applieth that saying of Apelles, who, when one of his scholars had painted Helena set out with much gold, said unto him, “Alas, poor young man, when thou could’st not draw her fair thou hast made her rich,” for so, when many have neglected the jewel of the soul they seek to prank out the body with jewels.—Jermin.
The wisdom of goodness, or virtue. 1. Is absolutely and without any limitation good, absolutely and without any limitation useful and desirable. It alone can never be misapplied, can never be criminal. This we cannot pronounce of any other good. Riches may be a snare, honours a burden, even the endowments of the mind may be a snare to us. 2. It is far more unchangeable than the value of all other goods and endowments. The value of riches is regulated by our wants and the wants of the society in which we live. The value of honour changes according to the opinions, the usages, the political institutions of mankind. The value of sensual pleasure depends much on our constitution, age, and health. Even the value of mental endowments is subject to vicissitudes. The value of true wisdom alone is invariably the same. 3.
It is much more independent of station than any other good. Riches would cease to be riches if all men lived in abundance. Honour would lose much of its value if it gave us no precedence over others. A great proportion of the value of sensual and mental pleasures would be reduced to nothing if every man possessed them, and each in the same degree. But no man loses anything if another be virtuous likewise, but if all were virtuous all would infinitely profit thereby. 4. It has a pre-eminent value, by the effects it produces in us. It renders us: (1) much better, (2) more useful, (3) more happy. 5. It alone fits us for a better life. It passes for as much in heaven as it does upon earth, and much more. It alone assimilates us with God. What we call riches, power, and knowledge, are poverty, weakness, and darkness, with Him.—Zollikofer.

Proverbs 8:12-13
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_8:12. Dwell with or “inhabit.” Witty inventions, “skilful plans” (Stuart), “sagacious counsels” (Zöckler)
Pro_8:14. Sound wisdom, the same word as in chap. Pro_2:7 (see note there). Stuart reads here, “As for me, my might is understanding;” Delitzsch, “Mine is counsel and promotion.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:12-13
WISDOM AND PRUDENCE
I. Wisdom and prudence are here represented as dwelling together to express unity of action. Elster remarks upon this passage: “Prudence denotes here right knowledge in special cases, in contrast with the more comprehensive idea of intelligence in general; the practical realisation of the higher principle of knowledge found in wisdom.” Prudence is as necessary to wisdom, as the hand is to the will. Prudence asks what is the best time, the best place, and the best manner in which to carry out what wisdom has designed. It has therefore been defined as “wisdom applied to practice.” Wisdom decrees that a certain word is to be spoken. Prudence decides upon the best time, place, and manner in which to say it. Prudence must always dwell with wisdom, if the designs of a wise man are to be brought to a successful issue. In all God’s plans both are always in operation. Consider their manifestation in the plan of redemption. The wisdom of God is manifested in the conception of plan. His prudence was shown in the choice of the time, place, and manner of the manifestation. 1. The time was “the fulness of time” (Gal_4:4), when all the streams of human wisdom and greatness which had been flowing through the world for ages, had converged into one head and were seen to be powerless to accomplish the regeneration of the world. Then “God sent forth His Son.” 2. The place of the manifestation. When the wisdom of a commander has decided that a battle must be fought, his prudence is called in to decide where it must take place, where all lawful advantage will be upon his side. Our world was chosen by Divine prudence as the scene of the battle between the powers of Good and Evil because, seeing that here the human race had been most shamefully defeated by the devil, it was most fitting that here the Prince of Darkness should be defeated by One in human form—that the victory should be won where the defeat had been sustained. 3. The manner in which, or the means by which, man’s redemption was accomplished. The life of the Incarnate Son of God was adapted to influence the hearts of men. His death for their sins was calculated, as probably no other event could have been, to beget within them a love which is powerful enough to make them new creatures. The fact that millions of men and women have been thus born to a new life through the cross of Christ is a revelation of its adaptation to human needs, and a manifestation that Divine wisdom dwelt with Divine prudence in the plan of redemption; that in this, as in all His other workings, there was an exhibition of “sagacious counsels” (see CRITICAL NOTES).
II. Divine wisdom and prudence act in union for the promotion of moral ends (Pro_8:13). There is a wisdom and prudence which do not act in concert for this purpose, but for the very opposite. There is a manifestation of prudence choosing the best time, place, and method in which to work out an evil design. The plan of the tempter to ruin our first parents was a great display of united wisdom and prudence. The time, the place, the means chosen were all calculated to effect the purpose. But the wisdom and prudence of God unite to put down sin, to banish its evil influence from the universe. As we see the combination of wisdom and prudence in the Father’s plan of redemption, so we see them combined in every act and word of the Son of God while He was manifest in the flesh. The means He used to silence His enemies, to instruct His disciples, to enlighten the ignorant multitude, were all revelations of His Divine wisdom and prudence.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:12. That is, this spiritual light, which the very first proverb (ch. Pro_1:2-3) says is holiness; takes possession of any intellect; dwells in it; nay, makes a dwelling in it; for holiness can dwell in nothing else; and that intellect, though it may be the very mind of God, is stirred up by nothing else to do all that is grand in its total history (Pro_8:22-30). Satan, with such splendid intellect, what is he but the universe’s insanest fool? He toils for worse wages than anybody in the whole creation. But could wisdom get a lodging in that peerless intellect, what different results! She gets a lodging in our earthly faculties, and turns us about from sowing to our death, to a splendid harvest of eternal favour.—Miller.
Wisdom, in the most comprehensive aspect, is to be regarded as giving origin to all arts and sciences, by which human life is improved and adorned; as by her inventive skill developing all the varied appliances for the external comfort and well-being of mankind; as planning the “wondrous frame” of universal creation, which, with all its varied beauty, fills us, in the view, with astonishment and delight; and conceiving, in the depths of eternity, the glorious scheme—a scheme “dark with brightness all along”—which secures the happiness of man for ever, and in which she appears in her noblest and most attractive display, the whole, from first to last, discovering “the manifold wisdom of God.”—Wardlaw.
In the first address of Wisdom (ch. Pro_1:22-33), her words were stern and terrible. The first step in the Divine education is to proclaim “the terrors of the Lord,” but here she neither promises nor threatens, but, as if lost in contemplation, speaks of her own excellence. “Prudence.” The subtilty of the serpent, in itself neutral, but capable of being turned to good as well as evil. Wisdom, high and lofty, occupied with things heavenly and eternal, does not exclude, yea, rather, “dwells with” the practical tact and insight needed for the common life of men.—Plumptre.
Wisdom here beginneth to draw her own picture, and with her own pencil.… The force of the verse is, that Wisdom is there where there is a fitness of worth to entertain her.—Jermin.
I draw all into practice, and teach men to prove by their own experience, what is “that good, and holy, and acceptable will of God” (Rom_12:2). Trapp.
All arts among men are the rays of Divine wisdom falling upon them. Whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God.—Charnock.
Prudence is defined, wisdom applied to practice; so, wherever true wisdom is, it will lead to action.… The farther wisdom proceeds in man the more practical knowledge it gains, and, finding out the nature and properties of things, and the general course of Providence, it can contrive by new combinations to produce new results.—Adam Clarke.
Pro_8:13. To fear retribution is not to hate sin. In most cases it is to love it with the whole heart. It is a solemn suggestion that even the religion of dark, unrenewed men is in its essence a love of their own sins. Instead of hating sin themselves, their grand regret is, that God hates it. If they could be convinced that the Judge would regard it as lightly as the culprit, the fear would collapse like steam under cold water, and all the religious machinery which it drove would stand still.—Arnot.
The godly avoid evil and do good—not merely from habit, education, the hope of reward, or the fear of punishment, but from hatred of evil and love of goodness.—Cartwright.
The affection of hatred as having sin for its object is spoken of in Scripture as no inconsiderable part of true religion. It is spoken of as that by which true religion may be known and distinguished.—Jon. Edwards.
Wisdom having shown where she dwelleth, she showeth likewise where she dwelleth not.… He that saith, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil,” is Himself the Lord that hateth evil. And, doubtless, every one should hate that which He hateth, whom all must love. Now, in an evil way, there be some ringleaders, and such are “pride, arrogancy, and the froward mouth,” for these draw many other after them.… And as for the Eternal Wisdom, how much He hateth them, His little regard of Himself showeth plainly and fully. For it was His hatred of Satan’s pride, reigning in wickedness, as well as His love to man captivated by it, that made Him to become man; yea, a worm, and no man, and by His humility to destroy pride, which He so greatly hated.—Jermin.
It is not only Divine holiness, observe, that “hates evil,” it is Divine wisdom. This conveys to us the important lesson that the will of God, along with his abhorrence of all that is opposed it, is founded in the best of reasons. All that is evil is contrary to His own necessary perfection, and, consequently, to “the eternal fitness of things.”—Wardlaw.
As it is impossible to hate evil without loving good; and as hatred to evil will lead a man to abandon the evil way, and love to goodness will lead him to do what is right in the sight of God, under the influence of that spirit which has given the hatred to evil, and the love of goodness; this implies the sum and substance of true religion, which is here termed the fear of the Lord.—
Adam Clarke.
God’s people partake of the Divine nature, and so have God-like sympathies and antipathies (Rev_2:6). They not only leave sin, but loathe it, and are at deadly feud with it. They purge themselves—by this clean fear of God (Psa_19:7)—from all pollutions, not of flesh only, worldly lusts, and gross evils, but of spirit also, that lie more up in the heart of the country, as pride, arrogancy, etc.—Trapp.

Proverbs 8:14-16
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_8:14-16
THE SOURCE OF TRUE POWER
I. Moral wisdom is the strength of kings. “I have strength; by me kings rule.” There is a kind of strength in all wisdom. The serpent’s strength is in his subtlety. The strength of the kingdom of darkness consists in a kind of wisdom of which our Lord speaks, when He says, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luk_16:8). Many kingdoms have been founded and governed upon the basis of merely human sagacity. But in all such government there are elements of weakness. The foundation of all lasting, true government is to be found only in moral wisdom, in other words, in holiness. That king or ruler will in the long-run have the firmest hold upon his subjects who is himself ruled by Divine wisdom. His strength will be found in the fact, that he rules himself before he attempts to rule others. His personal character will be his chief strength. Christ Himself is strong to rule, because He is pre-eminently the “Holy One.”
II. Without moral wisdom there can be no righteous government. “By me princes decree justice.” A man’s laws will be the outcome of his character. He will not make righteous laws unless he has himself submitted to moral rule. We are assured that all God’s decrees in relation to all His creatures are righteous, because we know Him to be altogether righteous. He has been declared by Him who knows Him best to be the “righteous Father” (Joh_17:25), therefore we know that only righteous laws can be decreed by Him. And it is only in proportion as rulers are influenced by Him, and partake of His character, that they rule in righteousness.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:14. Wisdom’s life is a thing of system. It has an assured result. It is the card-building of the spirit. One card supports another. It builds out with a declared dependence to the very end.—Miller.
The Son of God is a counsellor, as Isaiah calleth Him; for He is both of the privy council of His Father, and the adviser of His Church. Moreover, He hath strength in Him, being the arm of God to conquer sin, with hell and Satan, and is able to do whatsoever He will. Substance (sound wisdom, see CRITICAL NOTES), or the being of things, is likewise His, for He causeth all creatures to be and subsist.—Muffet.
Direction how to act in all circumstances and on all occasions must come from wisdom: the foolish man can give no counsel, cannot show another how he is to act in the various changes and chances of life. The wise man alone can give this counsel, and he can give it only as continually receiving instruction from God: for this Divine Wisdom can say, substance, reality, essence, (see CRITICAL NOTES on Sound Wisdom), all belong to me: I am the fountain whence all are derived. Man may be wise, and good, and prudent, and ingenious; but these he derives from me, and they are dependently in him. But in me all these are independently and essentially inherent.—Adam Clarke.
Many things are done, but not having counsel for the foundation of them, are weak and rotten and fall again to nothing. Many have understanding what is to be done, and how to do it, but have not strength to effect it: again many have strength of effecting, but have not understanding how to go about it. But the eternal wisdom hath all. It is no strength which by His strength is not supported, no understanding which by His understanding is not enlightened, no counsel which by His counsel is not guided.—Jermin.
“Knowledge is power,” and knowledge in union with wisdom—the ability to use knowledge aright—multiplies the power. In proportion as there is “understanding” and “wisdom,” is there “strength”—moral and spiritual strength—strength to act and to suffer, to do and to bear.—Wardlaw.
Pro_8:15-16. The chief monarchs of the world come unto their sceptres by the power and permission of the Son of God. Lawgivers and counsellors, by His direction and inspiration, give advice and invent politic laws. Inferior rulers keep their places, countenance, and authority by His assistance, whereunto they also rise by His secret disposing of matters. Finally, judges and justices who use to keep courts and sit on benches, do by Him, from Him, and for Him, pronounce sentence, handle matters of state, execute laws, and finally determine all cases.—Muffet.
Here is a divine prophecy concerning Him who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat_23:18), and who has “on His head many crowns” (Rev_19:12), and “on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords” (Rev_19:16), and of whom it is written, “that by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Col_1:16-17).—Wordsworth.
Kings are kings only as they are wise, that is, wise in the sense of holiness. It does not mean holiness as altogether distinct from virtue, but holiness as that moral right which belongs to all ranks of moral intelligences. The virtue that belongs to God, and the virtue that belongs to Gabriel, and the virtue that remains in man, and the virtue that is wrecked in hell, are not all different qualities of moral right, but are all identically the same. One moral quality inheres in all. Government being a moral work, the man that governs must have a moral heart. And, as there are no two sorts of virtue, he truly exercises his kingship just in proportion as he is holy, i.e., in the language of this inspired book, just in proportion as he is spiritually wise.—Miller.
Every kingdom is a province of the universal empire of the “King of Kings.” Men may mix their own pride, folly, and self-will with this appointment. But God’s providential counter-working preserves the substantial blessing.—Bridges.
This language may be considered as implying (1) that human government, in all its branches, is the appointment of Divine Wisdom 2. That all who sustain positions of authority and power should act habitually under the influence of Divine Wisdom 3. That no authority can be rightly exercised, and no judicial process successfully carried out, without the direction of Wisdom 4. That Divine wisdom exercises control over all human agents in the administration of public affairs.—Wardlaw.
“By me kings reign,” not as if men did behold that book, and accordingly frame their laws, but because it worketh in them when the laws which they make are righteous.—Hooker.

Proverbs 8:17-21
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_8:17. Early, i.e., “earnestly” (see on ch. Pro_1:28).
Pro_8:18. Durable. Zöckler thinks this rather signifies “growing.”
Pro_8:21. Inherit substance, “abundance.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_8:17-21
THE REWARD OF EARNEST SEEKERS
I. The mutual love which exists between Wisdom and her children. There is always a mutual love between a true teacher and a diligent, receptive pupil, and the love on each side has a reflex influence on both master and pupil, and renders it more pleasant to teach, and more easy to learn. When a child loves his parent, and the parent is teaching the child, love oils the wheels of the intellectual powers, and furnishes a motive power to conquer the lesson. And when the parent feels that he is loved by his child and pupil, the love is a present reward. There is such a love between Christ and His disciples. Peter appealed to Christ’s consciousness of being loved by him when he said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee” (Joh_21:17). And Christ loves His pupils. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you” (Joh_15:9; Joh_15:13). This mutual love imparts patience on the one side and perseverance on the other. It was Christ’s “first love to us” that gave Him patience to “endure the cross and despise the shame” (Heb_12:2). And it is the responsive love of the disciple that enables Him to endure unto the end. It is the love that is born of the consciousness of being loved that stirs up to the diligent seeking of the latter clause of the verse, which expresses—
II. A certain success to the seekers of wisdom. In Holy Scripture earnest seeking and finding are complements of each other. The one does not exist without the other. Seeking ensures finding. Finding implies seeking. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not” (Jas_1:5). God’s promise is absolute. It can only fail on one of three suppositions. 1. That when God made the promise He had no intention of keeping it, or—2. That unforseen circumstances have since arisen which render Him unable to fulfil His word, or—3. That the conditions have not been fulfilled on the part of the seeker. We know that God’s holiness and omnipotence render the first two impossible, and therefore, whenever there is no finding, we are certain that there has been no real, earnest seeking. For the promise is limited by the condition, “they that seek me early, or earnestly.” If a traveller has a long journey to perform and many difficulties to overcome in the way, he shows his determination to arrive safely at his destination by setting out at early dawn. Those who are anxious to make a name, or a fortune, show their anxiety by rising early and sitting up late. There are degress of earnestness in seekers after Divine wisdom as in all other seekers. But those whose seeking is the most earnest will receive the most abundant reward. The Syro-Phœnician woman who besought Christ to heal her daughter was a type of earnest seekers. She redoubled her efforts as the apparent difficulties increased. She
asked, she sought, she knocked. And she received not only what she sought, but a commendation from the Lord for her earnest seeking (Mat_25:28).
III. What those find who find God. The reward promised to those who seek God is God Himself. In finding Him they find (1.) The lasting riches of righteousness (Pro_8:18-19). This a wealth which will last. However great the satisfaction, however many the blessings which may flow from the riches of earth, “passing away” is written upon all. Yea, long before the end of life the riches may “make themselves wings” (chap. Pro_23:5). Among many other qualities that make moral wealth incomparably superior to material wealth, not the least is its durability. (See on Pro_8:11-12; also chap. Pro_3:15-16). 2. Guidance, Pro_8:20. (See on chap. Pro_3:6, etc.) 3. Reality in opposition to shadow, Pro_8:21. The hungry man who dreams that he is feasting experiences a kind of pleasure. But the feast is only in vision. There is no power in it to appease his hunger, or nourish his frame. But, if on awaking, he finds a table really spread with food, he then has the substance of that of which in his dream he had only the shadow. Worldly men walk, the Psalmist tells us, in a “vain show,” i.e., in an “image,” an “unreality” (Psa_39:6). “They walk,” says Spurgeon on this verse, “as if the mocking images were substantial, like travellers in a mirage, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair.” There are many who dream that they are being satisfied while they are morally asleep. But by and by they awake and find that they have been feeding on visions of the night, that they have been spending their money for “that which was not bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not” (Isa_55:2). To all who are conscious of this soul-hunger, eternal wisdom here offers substantial heart satisfaction, “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:17. The philosopher could say, that if moral virtue could be seen with mortal eyes, she would stir up wonderful loves of herself in the hearts of the beholders. How much more, then, would “the wisdom of God in a mystery!” (1Co_2:7,) that essential wisdom of God especially, the Lord Jesus, who is “altogether lovely,” “the desire of all nations.” “My love was crucified,” said Ignatius, who “loved not His life unto the death” (Rev_12:11). Neither was there any love lost, or can be, for “I love them that love me.” Men do not always reciprocate, or return love for love. David lost his love upon Absalom; Paul upon the Corinthians; but here is no such danger.—Trapp.
The characters whom Christ loves. Christ loves those who love Him. (1) Because He has done and suffered so much for their salvation. We naturally prize any object in proportion to the labour and expense which it cost us to obtain it. How highly, then, must Christ prize, how ineffably must He love His people. For this, among other reasons, His love for them must be greater in degree, and of a different kind from that which He entertains for the angels of light. (2) Because they are united to Him by strong and indissoluble ties. The expressions used to describe this union are the strongest that language can afford. The people of Christ are not only His brethren, His sisters, His bride, but His members, His body, and He consequently loves them as we love our members, as our souls love our bodies. (3) Because they possess His spirit, and bear His image. Similarity of character tends to produce affection, and hence every being in the universe loves his own image when he discovers it. Especially does Christ love His own image in His creatures, because it essentially consists in holiness, which is of all things most pleasing to His Father and Himself. (4) Because they rejoice in and return His affection. It is the natural tendency of love to produce and increase love. Even those whom we have long loved become incomparably more dear when they begin to prize our love and to return it. If Christ so loved His people before they existed, and even while they were His enemies, as to lay down His life for their redemption, how inexpressibly dear must they be to Him after they become His friends.—Payson.
Seeking wisdom early implies (1) that it engages our first concern and endeavour, while matters of an inferior consideration are postponed. 2. The constant use of the proper means to obtain it. If we see one continually practising any art, we judge that it is his intention to be master of it. 3. The using them with spirit and vigour. The superficial and spiritless performance of duty is as faulty as the total omission.—Abernethy.
All fancy that they love God. But those who either do not seek God at all, or seek Him coldly, whilst they eagerly seek the vanities of the world, make it plain that they are led by the love of the world more than by the love of God.—Fausset.
It is His love to us that makes us to love Him; and, doubtless, He that loves us so as to make us to love Him, cannot but love us when we do love Him.—Jermin.
Seek early, as the Israelites went early in the morning to seek for manna (Exo_16:21), and as students rise early in the morning and sit close to it to get knowledge. To seek the Lord early is to seek the Lord (1) firstly; (2) opportunely. There is a season wherein God may be found (Isa_55:6), and if you let this season slip, you may seek and miss Him. (3) Affectionately, earnestly (Isa_26:9). That prayer that sets the whole man a-work will work wonders in Heaven, in the heart, and in the earth. Earnest prayer, like Saul’s sword and Jonathan’s bow, never returns empty.—Brooks.
Pro_8:18. Spiritual riches are durable. 1. Because they are gotten without wronging any man. Temporal riches are often gotten by fraud and violence, and, therefore, are not lasting. The parties wronged use all means to recover their own, and God punishes unjust persons. Spiritual riches no man can challenge from us. 2. They are everlasting riches, and therefore durable. That must needs last long which lasts ever. These are true, not transitory riches, which often change their masters. They will swim out of the sea of this world with us, out of the shipwreck of death. Neither fire nor sword can take them from us.—Francis Taylor.
In the matters of rank and riches, the two strong cords by which the ambitious are led, the two reciprocally supporting rails on which the train of ambition ever runs,—even in these matters, that seem the peculiar province of an earthly crown, the Prince of Peace comes forth with loud challenge and conspicuous rivalry. Titles of honour! their real glory depends on the height and purity of the fountain whence they flow. They have often been the gift of profligate princes, and the rewards of successful crime. At the best the fountain is low and muddy: the streams, if looked at in the light of day, are tinged and sluggish. Thus saith the Lord, “Honour is with me.” He who saith it is the King of Glory. To be adopted into the family of God,—to be the son or daughter of the Lord Almighty,—this is honour. High born! We are all low-born until we are born again, and then we are the children of a King.—Arnot.
Pro_8:20. Christ guides infallibly by—1. His word. It is all truth. 2. His spirit. Men mistake and think they are guided by God’s spirit when they are guided by their own, or by a worse spirit. But certainly whom Christ’s spirit guides He guides aright. 3. His example. All other men have their failings, and must be followed no further than they follow Christ. He is the original copy; others are but blurred abstracts.—Francis Taylor.
“I lead in the way of righteousness,” which is to say, I got not my wealth by right and wrong, by wrench and wiles. My riches are not the riches of unrighteousness, the “mammon of iniquity” (Luk_16:9); but are honestly come by, and are therefore like to be “durable” (Pro_8:18). St. Jerome somewhere saith, that most rich men are either themselves bad men or are heirs of those that have been bad. It is reported of Nevessan, the lawyer, that he should say, “He that will not venture his body shall never be valiant; he that will not venture his soul never rich.” But Wisdom’s walk lies not any such way. God forbid, saith she, that I, or any of mine, should take of Satan, “from a thread even to a shoelatchet, lest he should say, I have made you rich” (Gen_14:23).—Trapp.
Pro_8:21. The great “I AM” (Exo_3:14) is the only substantial reality to satisfy the disciples of Wisdom.—Fausset.
The followers of Christ shall be no losers by Him. They shall not inherit the wind, nor possess for their portion those unsubstantial things, of which it is said, they are not (chap. Pro_23:5), because they are not the true riches. It is not for want of riches to bestow, nor for want of love to His people, that He does not bestow upon every one of them crowns of gold and mines of precious metals.—Lawson.
Here is no yawning vacuum, but a grand object to give interest to life, to fill up every vacancy in the heart—perfect happiness. All that we could add from the world would only make us poorer, by diminishing that enjoyment of God for the loss of which there is no compensation. There is one point—only one—in the universe where we can look up and cry with the saintly Martyn, “With Thee there is no disappointment.”—Bridges.
“I will fill their treasures.” This is a great promise. It is made in a kingly style. There is no limit. It will take much to fill these treasures, for the capacity of the human spirit is very large. God moulded man after His own image, and when the creature is empty, nothing short of His Maker will fill him again. Although a man should gain the whole world, his appetite would not be perceptibly diminished, The void would be as great and the craving as keen as ever. Handfuls are gotten on the ground, but a soulful is not to be had except in Christ. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete (i.e., full) in Him.”—
Arnot.

Proverbs 8:22-31
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_8:22. Jehovah possessed me. The signification of this verb has been the subject of much discussion; ancient expositors, believing Wisdom here to be the eternal Son of God, deemed it necessary to reject the translation of the Septuagint, etc., who rendered it created, as the text then became an argument with Arians against the eternal co-existence of the Son. But most modern commentators, whatever view they take of the signification of “Wisdom,” agree in rejecting the reading of the authorised version. The majority render it, “created;” Delitzsch reads, “brought me forth;” Wordsworth and Miller, “got possession of,” or, “acquired.” Wordsworth says, “The word occurs about eighty times in the Old Testament, and in only four places beside the present is it translated ‘possess;’ viz., Gen_14:19-22; Psa_139:13; Jer_32:15; Zec_11:5; in the last two it may well have the sense of getting, and in the former of creating.”
Pro_8:23. Set up, Stuart, Miller, and early expositors render “anointed;” Delitzsch and Zöckler prefer the authorised rendering.
Pro_8:26. Earth, etc., “the land and the plains, or the beginning of the dust of the earth.”
Pro_8:27. Set a compass, etc., “marked out a circle,” i.e., “when He fixed the vault of heaven, which rests on the face of the ocean.”
Pro_8:30. As one brought up, “as director of His work,” or, “as a builder at His side.”
NOTE ON THE PERSONIFICATION OF WISDOM.—There has been great discussion among expositors as to who, or what, is to be understood by this personification. Many modern and all ancient expositors consider that it refers exclusively to the Divine Word, the Eternal Son of God, others understand it as relating entirely to an attribute of the Divine nature. There is a middle view, which is thus put by Dr. John Harris in his sermon on Pro_8:30-36 : “Others, again reply that it refers exclusively to neither—but partly to that wisdom which begins in the fear of the Lord, partly to the Divine attribute of wisdom, and partly to the Son of God, the second person in the Godhead.” We cannot do better than give the views of a few eminent expositors and writers. Delitzsch thus comments on Pro_8:22 : “Wisdom takes now a new departure in establishing her right to be heard and to be obeyed and loved by men. As the Divine King in Psalms 2. opposes to His adversaries the self-testimony: ‘I will speak concerning a decree! Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee;’ so Wisdom here unfolds her Divine patent of nobility; she originates with God before all creatures, and is the object of God’s love and joy, as she also has the object of her love and joy on God’s earth, and especially among the sons of men. (See his translation of the verb in this verse—Critical Notes). 1. Wisdom is not God, but is God’s; she has personal existence in the Logos of the New Testament, but is not herself the Logos; she is the world idea, which, once projected, is objective to God, not as a dead form, but as a living spiritual image; she is the archetype of the world, which originating from God, stands before God, the world of the idea which forms the medium between the Godhead and the world of actual existence, the communicated spiritual power in the origination and the completion of the world as God designed it to be. This wisdom the poet here personifies; he does not speak of the personal Logos, but the further progress of the revelation points to her actual personification in the Logos. And since to her the poet attributes an existence preceding the creation of the world, he thereby declares her to be eternal, for to be before the world is to be before time. For if he places her at the head of the creatures, as the first of them, so therewith he does not seek to make her a creature of this world having its commencement in time; he connects her origination with the origination of the creature only on this account, because that à priori refers and tends to the latter; the power which was before heaven and earth were, and which operated at the creation of the earth and of the heavens, cannot certainly fall under the category of the creatures around and above us.” Wordsworth, in accordance with the principle of interpretation set forth in the note at the beginning of chapter 7 says, “We should be taking a very low, unworthy, and inadequate view of the present and following magnificent and sublime chapters.… If we did not behold Him who is essential wisdom, the co-eternal Son of God, and recognise here a representation of His attributes and prerogative.” The arguments in favour of this view are thus summed up by Fausset: “Wisdom is here personal Wisdom—the Son of God. For many personal predicates are attributed to Him: thus, subsistence by or with God, in Pro_8:30; just as Joh_1:1 saith, ‘The Word was with God,’ which cannot be said of a mere attribute. Moreover, the mode of subsistence imparted is generation, Pro_8:22; Pro_8:24-25 (see CRITICAL NOTES). In Pro_8:22 God is said to have possessed or acquired wisdom, not by creation (Psa_104:24), nor by adoption, as Deu_32:6; Psa_74:2, but by generation. The same verb is used by Eve of her firstborn (Gen_4:1). Moreover, other attributes are assigned to Wisdom, as if she were not an attribute but a person—‘counsel,’ ‘strength,’ etc. Also, she has the feelings of a person (Pro_8:17): ‘I love them that love me.’ She does the acts of a person. She enables kings to rule, and invests them with authority (Pro_8:15-16). She takes part in creation, as one brought up, or nursed, in the bosom of the Father, as the only-begotten of His love (Joh_1:18). She cries aloud as a person (Pro_8:1-4), and her ‘lips’ and ‘mouth’ are mentioned (Pro_8:6-7). She is the delight of the Father, and she in turn delights in men (Pro_8:30-31), answering to the rapturous delight into which the Father breaks forth concerning Messiah (Isa_43:1; Mat_3:17; Mat_17:5; Eph_1:6). She builds a house, prepares a feast, and sends forth her maidens to invite the guests (ch. Pro_9:1-3). All which admirably applies to Messiah, who builds the Church, as His house, upon Himself the rock (Mat_16:8, etc.), and invites all to the Gospel feast (Luk_14:16, etc.). He is Wisdom itself absolute, and as the Archetype, from Him wisdom imparted flows to others. As such, He invites us to learn wisdom from Him who is its source, ‘counsel’ and ‘sound wisdom’ (Pro_8:14), are in Him as attributes are in their subject, and as effects are in their cause. The parallel (ch. Pro_1:20; Pro_1:23), ‘I will pour out my spirit unto you’ (see Joh_7:38), confirms the personal view. The same truth is confirmed by the reproof (ch. Pro_1:24), ‘Because I have called,’ etc., compared with Christ’s own words (Mat_11:28, etc.) So Christ is called the Wisdom of God (Col_2:3). As Wisdom here saith ‘I was set up,’ or ‘anointed from everlasting,’ so the Father saith of Messiah, ‘I have set’ or ‘anointed my king’ etc. (Psa_2:6). As in Pro_8:24, Wisdom is said to be “brought forth” or begotten by God before the world, and to have been by Him in creating all thimgs (Pro_8:27-30), so Messiah is called the ‘Son of God,’ and is said to have been with God in the beginning, and to have made all things (Joh_1:1-3) and to have been begotten before every creature (Col_1:15-17); and His goings forth are said, in Mic_5:2, to have been from of old, from everlasting.” The argument for the opposite view is thus stated by Dr. Wardlaw: “The objections to its meaning Christ, or the Word, are, to my mind, quite insuperable. For example: (1) The passage is not so applied in any part of the New Testament. I do not adduce this consideration as any direct objection to the interpretation in question. I mean no more than this, that from its not being so explained there, we are relieved from any necessity of so explaining it. Such necessity, then, being thus precluded, the direct objections may be allowed to have their full force. Observe, then (2), Wisdom here is a female personage. All along this is the case. Now, under such a view, the Scriptures nowhere else, in any of their figurative representations of ‘the Christ,’ ever thus describe or introduce Him. The application, on this account, appears to me exceedingly unnatural. (3) Wisdom does not appear intended as a personal designation, inasmuch as it is associated with various other terms, of synonymous, or, at least, of corresponding import (Pro_8:1, chap. Pro_3:19-20). Were it meant for a personal designation, like the Logos or Word in the beginning of John’s Gospel, this would hardly have been admissible. (4) That the whole is a bold and striking personification of the attribute of Wisdom, as subsisting in the Deity, appears further from what she is represented as saying in Pro_8:12 : ‘I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.’ Here Wisdom is associated with prudence; and the import of the association is, that Wisdom directs to the best ends, and to the choice of the best means for their attainment; and prudence, or discretion, teaches to shun whatever might, in any way or degree, interfere with and impede, or mar their accomplishment. This is precisely what wisdom, as an attribute or quality, does. And it is worthy of remark, that this association of wisdom with prudence, is introduced by the Apostle as characterising the greatest of the Divine inventions and works—that of our redemption. Wisdom was associated with prudence in framing and perfecting that wonderful scheme (Eph_1:7-8). (5). It is very true that there are many things here, especially in the latter part of the chapter—indeed through the whole—that are, in a very interesting and striking manner, applicable to the Divine Messiah. But this is no more than might have been anticipated, that things which are true of a Divine attribute should be susceptible of application to a Divine person.” We quote, in conclusion, the remarks of Dr. Aiken, the American editor and translator of this portion of Lange’s Commentary: “The error in our English exegetical and theological literature with respect to our passage has been, we think, the attempt to force upon it more of distinctness and precision in the revelation of the mysteries of the Divine Nature than is disclosed by a fair exegesis … If it be not unworthy of the Holy Spirit to employ a bold and graphic personification, many things in this chapter may be said of and by the personified Wisdom which these authors regard as triumphantly proving that we have here the pre-existent Christ, the Son of God.… We can, to say the least, go no farther than our author has done in discovering here the foreshadowings of the doctrine of the Logos. We are inclined to prefer the still more guarded statements,
e.g., of Dr. Pye Smith (Scripture Testimony to the Messiah), that this beautiful picture cannot be satisfactorily proved to be a designed description of the Saviour’s person; or that of Dr. John Harris (Sermon on chap. Pro_8:30-36): “At all events, while, on the one hand, none can demonstrate that Christ is here directly intended, on the other, none can prove that He is not contemplated; and perhaps both will admit that, under certain conditions, language such as that in our text may be justifiably applied to Him. One of these conditions is, that the language be not employed argumentatively, or in proof of anything relating to Christ, but only for the purpose of illustration; and another is, that when so employed, it be only adduced to illustrate such views of the Son of God as are already established by such other parts of Scripture as are admitted by the parties addressed.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:22-31
THE PERSONAL WISDOM OF GOD
I. The antiquity of the Personal Wisdom of God. Wisdom in the abstract must have existed before the creation of the world, because the world bears marks of wisdom. There must have been in Solomon the wisdom to design the temple before it took the form of beauty which made it so famous. There is skill hidden in the artist’s mind before it is manifested upon his canvas—the very existence of the picture proves the pre-existent skill. The world is a temple of large proportions, the beauty of which man can but copy afar off, and its existence proves the pre-existence of wisdom resident in a pre-existent person. As the world bears evident marks of great antiquity it proclaims an All-wise Cause which must necessarily be older still. There is no person known to the human race who claimed to have an existence before the world except Jesus Christ. He claimed—and it is claimed for Him by those who bore witness to Him—to have been before the world was, and to have been conscious of His divinity before the foundation of the world. He claims to have been possessor of “a glory with the Father before the world was” (Joh_17:5), a glory which included intellectual and moral wisdom. And the claim of His apostle concerning the pre-existence of the “Word of God” is most unmistakable (Joh_1:3). The existence of other and inferior “sons of God” before the creation of this world is implied in Scripture (Job_38:7), but we have no direct revelation concerning them. We feel that we could not apply to them, or to any creature, the words of the text, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way,” etc. But, in the light of New Testament revelation, if we give them a personal application, we must apply them to the Son of God, the Eternal Word, and to Him alone. The words point to an existence distinct from God. “I was by Him,” and “I was with Him.” And yet the intimate relationship and fellowship described does not express inferiority, but finds its fulfilment only in Him who not only “was in the beginning with God,” but who “was God.” (On this subject see note).
II. The Personal Wisdom of God the delight of the Eternal Father. “I was daily His delight” (Pro_8:30). (1) Likeness in character is a foundation of delight. A man who is godly delights to see his own godly character reflected in his son. The recognition of moral likeness in the uncreated Son gave delight to the Eternal Father. Nothing gives God so much joy as goodness. Hence His joy in His only-begotten Son. (2) Equality of nature is a source of delight to the good and true. Fellowship with an equal gives joy. Christ, when on earth, ever claimed this equality with the Father. He claimed an eternity of being. “Before Abraham was, I am” (Exo_3:14; Joh_8:58). Omniscience is claimed for Him, and He gave evidence that He possessed it. “He knew what was in man” (Joh_2:25). “And Jesus knowing their thoughts,” etc. (Mat_9:4). Divine energy. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (Joh_5:17). Independent existence. “As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (Joh_5:26). Holiness. “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (Joh_8:46). Almighty power. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat_28:18). In the eternal ages, before the creation of the world, the Father looked upon this “brightness of His glory and express image of His person” (Heb_1:3), and this Divine Equal gave joy to the uncreated God (Isa_42:1).
III. The delight of the Personal Wisdom of God in the creation of the home of man. “Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth” (Pro_8:31). The artist has joy in the thought of his completed work while it is in progress. He joys in that which is not as yet in outward form, but which is, in its completeness, within his mind. The architect, who sees day by day the building being reared which he knows will be the wonder of coming ages and the means of yielding comfort to thousands, rejoices in the thought of the blessing that is to come out of his work. He experiences an emotion with which a stranger cannot intermeddle (Pro_14:10). And so Eternal Wisdom is here represented as regarding the future home of man. He saw its adaptibility to the wants of the creatures who were to inhabit it—its inexhaustible resources for the supply of all man’s physical and many of his intellectual wants, and the thought of the millions to whose happiness the earth’s riches and beauties would minister throughout the ages gave Him joy. The best natures among human-kind delight when they are able to produce what will increase the happiness of their fellow-creatures. The poet rejoices when he feels that his thoughts will cheer the hearts of other men. The inventor is glad when he has made a discovery which he knows will be a boon to his race. And so the Eternal Wisdom of God looked with joy upon the earth which He had called into being for the habitation of the race whom He was about to create. The joy that would be theirs gave Him joy when He looked upon creation with their eyes.
IV. The special delight of the Personal Wisdom in man himself. “My delights were with the sons of men.” 1. His delight in man would arise from the fact that he was a creature different from all pre-existing creatures. Man is a link between mind and matter. He is a compound of the animal and the angel, of the dust of the earth and the breath of God. The material creation was called into being before man. The angelic and spiritual creatures existed before man. Man was, as it were, the clasp which united the two, and his unique character, we may well believe, made him a special object of interest to his Creator. New combinations give joy to those who, by combining forces, or material, or thoughts for the first time, bring about a new thing in the earth. They create a power or an idea which would not have existed if these elements had remained separate. Man, as he came originally from the hand of God, was such a perfectly balanced compound of mind and matter, of body and spirit, that his Creator had joy in the contemplation of His work, and declared it to be “very good” (Gen_1:31). If we apply the words of the text to the second person of the Godhead, we know, from Scripture testimony, that He was the Creator of man, for “without Him was not anything made that was made.” He is as rich in invention as He is in goodness. 2. The delight of Christ would be especially with men, because in His own nature God and man would meet in an eternal combination. The commander who can pluck victory out of the jaws of defeat, by the combination of certain forces not yet brought upon the field with others which have been already defeated, is allowed to give evidence of the highest military skill. The statesman who, anticipating the defeat of one measure, reserved another method of tactics in the background which he knew would ensure an ultimate success, and who used the very means by which he had been defeated as a lever to establish a better law and a more lasting benefit, would be considered to display ability of the first degree, and to be a benefactor of his race. And the contemplation of such a victory beforehand must be an occupation of the deepest interest to the mind which originates the plan and carries it into action. Christ is, beyond all comparison, the leader of men. He saw beforehand that human nature would be defeated in its first conflict with evil. He knew that Satan would enter in and spoil this new principality of God. But He had already made preparation for this defeat, and He purposed, by means of the very human nature which would be thus defeated, in combination with His own divinity, to spoil the spoiler and lead captivity captive. By the eternal union of His own nature with the human He purposed to place man on a firmer standing ground, and gain for him the power of an endless life. Christ becoming the head of the race has defeated sin in the human nature that was itself defeated, and the grace which He has thus imparted to man has lifted him to a higher level than that in which he was created. And if the first edition of man, which was “of the earth, earthy” (1Co_15:47), gave joy to his Creator, how much more must He have rejoiced in the prospect of that second edition which was to be made after His own likeness, and to be the reward of “the travail of His soul” (Isa_53:11), although even then He knew at what a cost the work would be accomplished. (1Pe_1:20.)
NOTE ON THE RELATION OF THE SON OF GOD TO THE FATHER. (Pro_8:22-30 Joh_1:1). On this subjeet Dr. John Brown says, “That the Son is essentially and eternally related to the Father, in some real sense, as Father and Son; but that while distinct in person (for ‘the Word was with God’), He is neither posterior to Him in time (for ‘in the beginning was the Word’), nor inferior to Him in nature (for ‘the Word was God’), nor separate from Him in being (for ‘the same was in the beginning with God’), but One Godhead with the Father;” this would seem to come as near to the full testimony of Scripture on this mysterious subject as can be reached by our finite understanding, without darkening counsel with words without knowledge.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:22. “The beginning of His way” evidently means the commencement of creation, when Jehovah set out in His course of creative and consequently of providential manifestation of His eternal perfections. When this was we cannot tell. We may know the age of our own world, at least according to its present constitution. But when the universe was brought into being, and whether by one omnipotent fiat, or at successive and widely varying periods, it is beyond our power to ascertain. One thing we know for a certainly revealed fact, that there were angelic creatures in existence previous to the reduction of our globe to order and to the creation of man upon it. These holy intelligences contemplated the six days work of Divine wisdom and power in this part of the universe with benevolent transport. “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” How many other creatures, and of what descriptions—how many other worlds, and how peopled, might have existed before man and his earthly residence we are unable to affirm. When men, indeed, begin to talk of its being absurd to suppose the universe so recent as to have been only coeval with our own globe, or our own system, they forget themselves. They do not speak considerately nor philosophically. There is no lapse of ages or any point of measurement in eternity.… Beginning is as inconsistent with the idea of eternity as termination is. Go as far back as imagination, or as numbers heaped on numbers, can carry you, there still remains the previous eternity, during which our speculative and presumptuous minds may wonder that Divine power had not been put forth.—Wardlaw.
Pro_8:23. It was in the last times, that the Eternal Wisdom was set forth unto us, but it was from everlasting, that He was set up to be a king over us. It was in the fulness of time that He offered Himself for us, but it was from the beginning that He was anointed to be priest unto us. It was upon the earth that His gracious lips taught us, but it was before the earth was that He was ordained to be a prophet for us. It is in Him that all are chosen who come unto eternity, and He Himself was chosen from eternity. From everlasting he was set up our King, to set us up an everlasting kingdom. From the beginning was He anointed our priest, to anoint us in a priesthood that shall never end. Before the earth was, He was ordained our prophet, to order our feet in that way which shall bring us from earth to heaven; He was chosen that we might be the chosen people of God.—Jermin.
Pro_8:24. The order of creation corresponds to that which we find in Genesis I. Still more striking is the resemblance with the thoughts and language of the book of Job, chap. 22; 26; 38. A world of waters, “great deeps” lying in darkness—this was the picture of the remotest time of which man could form any conception, and yet the coexistence of the uncreated wisdom with the eternal Jehovah was before that.—Plumptre.
At the period referred to here, creation was not yet actually framed and executed, it was only framed and planned; the whole being at once, in all its magnificence and in all its minuteness, before the eye of the Omniscient mind, in its almost infinite complexity, extent, and variety, yet without the slightest approach to confusion! All there, in one vast and complicated, yet simple idea!—Wardlaw.
Pro_8:27. God’s “setting a compass upon the face of the deep” seems to refer to His circumscribing the earth when in its fluid state, assigning to it its spherical form, and fixing the laws by which that form should be constantly maintained. I think it probable that this refers to the earth in the state in which it is described previous to the beginning of the six days’ work, by which it was reduced to order, and fitted for and stocked with inhabitants. How was the fluid element held together in the spherical form? The answer is, God “set a compass upon the face of the deep, saying, This be thy just circumference, O world!” By the power of gravitation, affecting every particle, drawing it to the common centre, the equilibrium was maintained, the globular form effected and kept; which may here be meant by the poetical conception of sweeping a circle from the centre, and defining the spherical limits of the world of waters.—Wardlaw.
Pro_8:29. Though great be the noise of the roaring of the sea, great the inconstancy of the tumbling waves, great the looseness of the flowing waters; yet the voice of God’s decree is easily heard by them, constant is their obedience unto God’s commandment, firmly do they keep the bounds of His law. But in the noise of our disorders, little is God’s Word heard by us, in the lightness of our hearts, much is the will of God slighted, in the looseness of our lives every way doth a careless regard of God’s law spread itself, which could not but drown us in a sea of God’s wrath, did not He who was when the bounds of the sea were decreed, purchase by the red sea of His blood a gracious pardon for us.… Fitly is God said to appoint the foundations of the earth only; for that alone founded the whole earth, no more was needful for it. But how little doth God’s appointment prevail with man, a little piece of earth. How often are God’s purposes in the means of salvation disappointed by him. To lay firm the foundations of grace in man’s heart, the Eternal Wisdom, who was when the foundations of the earth were appointed, came down from Heaven, and here was pleased to work out His life thereby to accomplish the work of our redemption. And shall not this, then, make us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling?—Jermin.
Pro_8:30. To Wisdom the work was no laborious task. She “sported,” as it were, in the exuberance of her strength and might.—Plumptre.
Pro_8:31. What was it that here attracted His interest? Man had been created in the image of God—free to stand or fall. This freedom was the perfection of his nature. His fall was permitted as the mysterious means of his higher elevation. His ruin was overruled for his greater security. This habitable earth was to be the grand theatre of the work that should fill the whole creation with wonder and joy. Here the serpent’s head was to be visibly bruised, the kingdom of Satan to be destroyed, “precious spoil to be divided with the strong” (Isa_53:12). Here was the Church to be framed, as the manifestation of His glory, the mirror of His Divine perfections (Eph_3:10; Eph_3:21). Considering the infinite cost at which He was to accomplish this work, the wonder is that He should have endured it; a greater wonder that, ere one atom of the creation was formed—ere the first blossom had been put forth in Paradise, he should have rejoiced in it.—Bridges.
Of all earthly creatures, Christ delights most in men. 1. Because man is the chief of God’s creatures upon earth, made after God’s image, and for whom all the rest were made. 2. Because He took on Him the nature of men, and not of angels (Heb_2:16). 3. He conversed most familiarly with men when He was incarnate. Men only had reason and wisdom to delight in Christ’s company, and to give Him occasion to delight in theirs. 4. Because He gave His life for them, that they might live with Him for ever. It seems, then, that He took great delight in them, and means to do so for ever.—Francis Taylor.
Did our Saviour, before His incarnation, rejoice in the habitable parts of the earth, and delight in visiting and blessing the sons of men? Then we may be certain that He still does so; for He is, yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the same. Still, He prefers earth to heaven; still, His chief delights are with the sons of men; and while, as man, He intercedes for them in Heaven, He still, as God, visits our world, to meet with and bless His people.… And how great will be our Saviour’s happiness, after the final consummation of all things!… If He loved, and rejoiced, and delighted in them before they knew and loved Him, how will He love and rejoice in them, when He sees them surrounding His throne, perfectly resembling Himself in body and soul, loving Him with unutterable love, contemplating Him with ineffable delight, and praising Him as their deliverer from sin, and death, and hell, as the author of all their everlasting glory and felicity.—Payson.

Proverbs 8:32-36
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_8:36. Sinneth against, “misseth,” so Stuart, Delitzsch, and Miller.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:32-36
EXHORTATION FOUNDED ON HUMAN OBLIGATIONS TO DIVINE WISDOM
I. Because Christ, the Eternal Wisdom, has manifested His sympathy with man, we are under obligations to come into sympathy with Him. A man who has manifested his sympathy with, and delight in, another’s welfare by most substantial acts of benevolence and self-denial, has taken the most reasonable method of awakening an answering sympathy in the breast of him whom he has thus regarded. And the obligation on the part of the recipient is increased in proportion to the amount of self-sacrifice undergone on his behalf. If such a benefactor desires and asks for the friendship of him whom he has befriended, it would seem impossible that such an appeal could be made in vain. The eternal wisdom of God has gone to the utmost of even His infinite capacity of self-denial to show His delight in, and regard for the human race. This, coupled with His eternal existence and His almighty power, is here made the basis of an exhortation to men to listen to His words, “Now, therefore, hearken unto me, O ye children!”
II. Those who are thus drawn into sympathy with Eternal Wisdom come under conditions of life. Here is a repetition of an oft-repeated truth of revelation, that life and God’s favour are inseparable—identical (Pro_8:35). We can see shadows of this truth in the intercourse of men with their fellow-creatures. If a poor outcast child, surrounded by influences of evil to which he must yield if left to fight them single-handed, is lifted out of his degradation into a godly home, the favour of the friend who thus raises him changes his miserable existence into something worth calling life in comparison. The child who, by wilfulness, has forfeited the favour of a good parent, feels his entire existence clouded, but forgiveness through reconciliation brings light and life back to his spirit. The favour, therefore, of a fellow-creature is sometimes, by comparison, life. How much more is it so when we come into sympathy with Christ by hearkening to His voice and taking His yoke, and are by Him lifted out of a life of bondage to sin into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
III. Those who refuse thus to come into sympathy with Eternal Wisdom are self-destroyers, because they are God-haters. He who refuses to drink of the Fountain of Life, must, of necessity, be left to soul-death. There is nothing that gives more sorrow to a human being than to know that the evil from which he is suffering is self-inflicted. If a man loses his sight through a wound which he receives from another, although he feels his blindness to be a terrible calamity, it lacks the element of bitterness which would be added to it if it had been brought about by his own wilfulness. The man who loses a limb in lawful battle looks upon his loss as an honour, because it was inevitable. But his feeling would be very different if he knew that he had been crippled for life by his own folly. It will be the main ingredient in the bitter cup of those who disregard the invitations of Divine Wisdom that they are moral suicides. The consciousness of this is a perpetual hell to the human spirit. And the mere neglect is sufficient to give the death-blow. It is not necessary to be in positive opposition to God and goodness. Not to listen is to refuse. Not to wait on God is to sin against Him—is to despise the provisions of His mercy.
ILLUSTRATION OF Pro_8:34
Hovering about the avenues of a royal residence, there are in Eastern as well as in other countries, always to be seen groups of people, some of whom are attracted by the impulse of curiosity, others by the hope of obtaining some mark of royal favour. The assiduity and perseverance requisite for succeding in their suit, and waiting the propitious moment of presenting themselves in the presence of their sovereign, is not, as may be easily supposed, at all times consistent with personal ease and convenience, and, accordingly, here and there may be observed individuals seated upon a stone, or reclining upon the grass, in anxious expectation for the appearance of the sovereign on his way to daily exercise. To sit at the gates of a king is a custom of great antiquity.—Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_8:32. O sweet courtesy! as if it were but a small matter that the Eternal Wisdom should become our Master, and teach us as His scholars; or that, being our Lord, He should teach us as His servants; or that, being God, He should teach us as men; yet greater is His love, and, as a Father, He teacheth us as His children. And well may He call us His children, for it is He that teacheth us who, by adoption, hath made us to be His children, which by hearkening unto Him we show ourselves to be.—Jermin.
Pro_8:34. Uriah watched at David’s gate as a token of service (2Sa_11:9). Lazarus watched at Dives’ gate as a token of dependence (Luk_16:20). Courtiers at royal entrances for smiles of favour. Let the sinner do all these things.—Miller.
Not watching awhile, and then going away if they be not let in presently, but waiting patiently till they be let in. Not only taking occasion of learning offered, but waiting to find occasions, as petitioners wait on great men till their causes be ended.—Francis Taylor.
Wisdom here appears as a sovereign, separate and secluded, in the style of Oriental monarchs, so that only those know anything of her who diligently keep watch at her doors. Wisdom, who is universal in her call and invitation (Pro_8:1-3), yet, in the course of communication, in order to test the fidelity of her admirers, veils herself at times in a mysterious darkness, and reveals herself only to those who never intermit their search (Mat_7:7).—Von Gerlach, in Lange’s Commentary.
There ought to be an expectation raised in us that the vital savour diffused in and by the Word may reach us; and many are ruined for not expecting it—not waiting at the posts of Wisdom’s door.—John Howe.
Pro_8:35. 1. Natural life is found by it, not in regard of the beginning of it, but in regard of the comfort and continuance. 2. Spiritual life, or the life of grace. Wisdom is the life of the soul, and what were the world worth if there were no light? 3. Eternal life, or the life of glory. This is indeed the life that Christ, the wisdom of God, died to purchase for us, and lived among us to show us the way to it.—Francis Taylor.
Pro_8:36. Doing without is a stupid misery; but hating wisdom is an insane marvel.—Miller.
Not to love and earnestly seek Wisdom is to sin against her. To disregard her is to hate her, and is virtually, though unconsciously, to love death: for it is loving things, which as being opposed to wisdom, bring with them death.—Fausset.
What meaneth this all, where one would think there could be none? Can there be an all to hate Him who loveth all that is? But if it were not so, why do so many resist His holy will, despise His heavenly laws, rebel against His sacred pleasure? Are not these effects of hatred? Besides, so doth He challenge the all of our affection, as not to hate all things for His sake, is to hate Him. Now they that hate Him, what can they love? Surely it must needs be death, because in all things else He is. But that is the fruit of sin, and they that love the tree must needs love the fruit also. But to whom do we speak these things, or why do we speak them? Where shall we find open ears, or seeing eyes, when now almost men care not whom they look after, so that they do not look after themselves?—Jermin.
A child or an idiot may kindle a fire which all the city cannot quench. In spite of their utmost efforts, it might destroy both the homes of the poor and the palaces of majesty. So a sinner, though he cannot do the least good, can do the greatest evil. The Almighty only can save him, but he can destroy himself.—Arnot.
Sin a self-injury. There are three facts implied in these words: Firstly, That man is capable of sinning. This capability distinguishes man from the brute, and belongs to all moral beings.… It is our glory that we can sin; it is our disgrace and ruin that we do. Secondly, That sin is something directed against God. All the laws of man’s being—physical, organic, intellectual, and moral—are God’s laws, and violation of them is rebellion against heaven. Thirdly, That sin against God is a wrong done to our nature. This is true of all sin, physical as well as spiritual. We cannot violate the laws of physical health, without losing at the same time something of the life, elasticity, and vigour of the mind. That sin injures the soul admits of no debate: it is a patent fact written on every page of history, and proclaimed by the deep consciousness of humanity. From this unquestionable fact we may fairly deduce three general truths. I. That God’s laws are essentially connected with the constitution of man. From this fact two things follow. (1.) That all sin is unnatural. (2.) That an evasion of the penalties of sin is beyond the power of the creature. II. That God’s laws are the expression of benevolence. We wrong our souls by not keeping God’s laws. Obedience to them is happiness. The voice of all Divine prohibitions is, “Do thyself no harm,” the voice of all Divine injunctions is, “Rejoice evermore.” We infer from this fact—III. That God’s laws should be studiously obeyed. (1.) Right requires it. All God’s laws are righteously binding upon the subject, and disobedience is a crime. (2.) Expediency requires it. A life of sin is a life of folly, for it must ever be a life of misery.—Dr. David Thomas.
Pro_8:30-36. I. From the beginning the welfare of man engaged the complacent regard of God our Saviour. He derived delight from the material creation because it was to be subservient to man. II. We may therefore expect that all His communications and intercourse with us would be made to harmonise with our welfare also. We are warranted in expecting that all His communications with us will harmonise with the wants of our nature—that the means will be adapted to the end. Accordingly Pro_8:35-36 imply that so perfect is the adaptation between the provisions of mercy and the necessity of man, that he who rejects them wrongs his own soul, that who receives them receives life. III. May we not infer that, even of this habitable part, He would rejoice in some spots more than in others, especially in such as are set apart for the diffusion of His truth and the promotion of His designs.—Dr. J. Harris.

Proverbs 8:1
Doth not Wisdom cry
The personification of Wisdom
Whatever may have been the satisfaction experienced by devout minds in reading this chapter, as if it contained the words of Christ and evidence of His pre-existent Divinity, I dare not withhold what I believe to be the true principle of interpretation.
The objections to its meaning Christ, or the Word, ere He became flesh, when “in the beginning He was with God, and was God,” are to my mind quite insuperable. For example—

1. It should be noticed that the passage is not so applied in any part of the New Testament. Had any New Testament writer expressly applied any part of the chapter to the Son of God, this would have been a key which we could not have been at liberty to refuse.
2. Wisdom here is a female personage. All along this is the case. Now under such a view the Scriptures nowhere else, in any of their figurative representations of “the Christ,” ever thus describe or introduce Him.
3. Wisdom does not appear intended as a personal designation, inasmuch as it is associated with various other terms, of synonymous, or at least of corresponding, import.
4. The whole is a bold and striking personification of the attribute of wisdom, as subsisting in Deity (see verse12: “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions”).
5. Things which are true of a Divine attribute would naturally be susceptible of application to a Divine person. (R. Wardlaw.)

Proverbs 8:2
She standeth in the top of high places.
The purpose and range of Wisdom
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 number 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. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:4
Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
God revealed in the universe and in humanity
The truth, which can guide us to perfection and to happiness, is teaching us always and everywhere. God surrounds us constantly with His instruction. The universal presence of Truth is the subject before us. Wisdom is omnipresent. The greatest truths meet us at every turn. God is on every side, not only by His essential invisible presence, but by His manifestations of power and perfection. We fail to see Him, not from want of light, but from want of spiritual vision. In saying that the great truths of religion are shining all about and within us, I am not questioning the worth of the Christian revelation. The Christian religion concentrates the truth diffused through the universe, and pours it upon the mind with solar lustre. We cannot find language to express the worth of the illumination given through Jesus Christ. But He intends, not that we should hear His voice alone, but that we should open our ears to the countless voices of wisdom, virtue, and piety, which now in whispers, now in thunders, issue from the whole of nature and of life.
I. The voice of wisdom. That is of moral and religious truth speaks to us from the universe. Nature everywhere testifies to the infinity of its Author. It proclaims a perfection illimitable, unsearchable, transcending all thought and utterance. There is an impenetrable mystery in every action and force of the universe that envelops our daily existence with wonder, and makes sublime the familiar processes of the commonest arts. How astonishingly does nature differ in her modes of production from the works of human skill. In nature, vibrating with motion, where is the moving-energy? What and whence is that principle called life—life, that awful power, so endlessly various in the forms it assumes—life that fills earth, air, and sea with motion, growth, activity, and joy—life that enlivens us—what is it? An infinite universe is each moment opened to our view. And this universe is the sign and symbol of infinite power, intelligence, purity, bliss, and love. It is a pledge from the living God of boundless and endless communications of happiness, truth, and virtue. A spiritual voice pervades the universe, which is all the more eloquent because it is spiritual, because it is the voice in which the All-Wise speaks to all intelligences.
II. The voice of wisdom utters itself from the world of moral and intelligent beings, the humanity of which we each form a part. This topic is immense, for the book of human nature has no end. New pages are added to it every day through successive generations. Take one great lesson, which all history attests—that there is in human nature an element truly Divine, and worthy of all reverence; that the Infinite which is mirrored in the outward universe is yet more brightly imaged in the inward spiritual world or, in other words, that man has powers and principles, predicting a destiny to which no bounds can be prescribed, which are full of mystery, and even more incomprehensible than those revealed through the material creation.

1. They who disparage human nature do so from ignorance of one of the highest offices of wisdom. The chief work of Wisdom consists in the interpretation of signs. The great aim is to discern what the visible present signifies, what it foreshows, what is to spring from it, what is wrapped up in it as a germ. This actual world may be defined as a world of signs. What we see is but the sign of what is unseen. In life an event is the prophetic sign and forerunner of other coming events. Of human nature we hardly know anything but signs. It has merely begun its development.
2. In estimating human nature most men rest in a half-wisdom, which is worse than ignorance. They who speak most contemptuously of man tell the truth, but only half the truth. Amidst the passions and selfishness of men the wise see another element—a Divine element, a spiritual principle. Half-wisdom is the root of the most fatal prejudice. Man, with all his errors, is a wonderful being, endowed with incomprehensible grandeur, worthy of his own incessant vigilance and care, worthy to be visited with infinite love from heaven. The Infinite is imaged in him more visibly than in the outward universe. This truth is the central principle of Christianity. What is the testimony of human life to the Divine in man? Take the moral principle. What is so common as the idea of right? The whole of human life is a recognition in some way or other of moral distinctions. And no nation has existed, in any age, that has not caught a glimpse at least of the great principles of right and wrong. The right is higher altogether in its essential quality than the profitable, the agreeable, the graceful. It is that which must be done though all other things be left undone, that which must be gained though all else be lost. Every human being is capable of rectitude. The power of resisting evil exists in every man, whether he will exercise it or not. The principle of right in the human heart reveals duty to the individual. Here, then, we learn the greatness of human nature. This moral principle—the supreme law in man—is the law of the universe. Then man and the highest beings are essentially of one order. It is a joyful confirmation of faith thus to find in the human soul plain signatures of a Divine principle, to find faculties allied to the attributes of God, faculties beginning to unfold into God’s image, and presages of an immortal life. And such views of human nature will transform our modes of relationship, communication, and association with our fellow-beings. They will exalt us into a new social life. They will transform our fellowship with God. How little we know ourselves! How unjust are we to ourselves! We need a new revelation—not of heaven or hell—but of the Spirit within ourselves. (W. E. Channing, D. D.)

The voice of Divine Wisdom
I. It is a voice striving for the ear of all.
II. It is a voice worthy of the ear of all.

1. Her communications are perfect.
2. They are intelligible.
3. Precious.
4. Exhaustless.
5. Rectifying.
6. Original. What Divine Wisdom gives is undeniably uuborrowed. (Homilist.)

Christ calling to men
There are two suitors for the heart of man. The one suggests the pleasures of sense, the other the delights of religion. The earthly suitor is the world, the heavenly suitor is Christ.
I. The speaker.
II. The object he has in view. Our salvation: our temporal and eternal happiness.
III. The persons to whom he speaks. Not to fallen angels, but to the sons of men. He utters His voice in every possible variety of place, if so be that by any means He might save some. The self-destruction of the impenitent. (Charles Clayton, M. A.)

The matter of Wisdom’s speech
Her exhortation. Her commendation.
I. God’s especial care is for men.

1. Because there is no creature upon earth more to be wondered at than man.
2. Because God hath made him more capable of instruction than other creatures.
3. Because man is most capable of getting good by instruction.
4. Because God sent His Son into the world to become man for the good of man.
   II. God looks that man should learn.
5. God takes great pains with him.
6. God is at great cost with him.
   III. All sorts of men may be taught by wisdom’s voice.
7. There is a capacity left in mean men.
8. Common gifts of illumination are bestowed on mean men, as well as great ones.
   It reproves great men if they are ignorant; and men of meaner rank cannot be excused if they are ignorant. (
   Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Wisdom offered to the sons of men
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.” 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 Loges, 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 far away; 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. So Wisdom will have men, and sons of man; simple men, foolish men. By this universality of the offer judge the Divinity of the origin. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The universal call of the gospel
I. The call of the text to spiritual duty is addressed to all men.
II. Calls and invitations serve the following important purposes.

1. They show us our duty and obligation.
2. They show the connection betwixt the state to which we are called and the enjoyment of the blessing promised.
3. They point out and hold before us what must be accomplished in us, if ever we be saved.
4. They are intended to shut us up to the faith now revealed.
5. They are designed to show us what we ought to pray for.
6. They are to shut us out of all so-called neutral ground in spiritual things. (John Bonar.)

Proverbs 8:5
Ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
Are you a fool?
The word “fool” is derived from a Latin verb, signifying “to be inflated with air”; substantive, “a wind-bag.” So a fool is a witless, blundering creature, one whose conduct is not directed by ordinarily good sense or judgment. All who do not serve God are fools, according to the Bible way of looking at things. Many are Bible fools who are not fools according to the world’s idea.
I. He is a fool who buys the wealth of the world with the riches of heaven. Does not the soul far outvalue the
body? Is not eternity greater than time? Thousands choose the tinsel before the real gold, as did the wicked cardinal, who said, “I prefer a part in the honours of Paris to a part in the happiness of heaven.”
II. He is a fool who supposes he can freely indulge in sin, and still keep it under his control. Men say they will go so far in the direction of this or that sin, and then stop short. As well might a man allow his train of loaded waggons to run down a steep declivity, until half the descent was made, before he applied the brakes. Dr. Johnson says, “The diminutive chains of habit are generally too small to be felt till they are too strong to be broken.”
III. He is a fool who, having once received injury, recklessly exposes himself to it a second time. In other words, He is a fool who learns nothing from his own folly. The wise man is a wary man; and having received injury in any direction once, he keeps clear of that coast ever after. “Experience,” one has said, “is one of the most eloquent of preachers; but she never has a large congregation.”
IV. He is a fool who waits till to-morrow before he becomes religious. What has any one to do with to-morrow? Does he know that he will ever see it? Men may trifle with their religious opportunities until they are lost beyond recall. Until you enter fully and lovingly into the service of God you are living like fools, because unnecessarily imperilling your highest and most urgent interests—because you are living at enmity with Him in whose favour is everlasting life, and in whose displeasure is everlasting death. (A. F. Forrest.)

Proverbs 8:6
Hear; for I will speak of excellent things.
The excellency of wisdom
Wisdom is represented as making a public appearance in a rude, ignorant, and corrupt world, loudly proclaiming her doctrines and counsels, and calling upon all men to hearken to them. What consideration could be more powerful to engage their attention than this, that she speaketh of “excellent things”: the opening of her lips is of “right things,” and her mouth speaketh “truth.” I propose to show that this is the just character of the instructions and precepts of religious virtue.
I. The excellence of the doctrines and injunctions of wisdom, absolutely and in themselves. We must fix an idea of excellence, making it the standard whereby to try everything which pretendeth to that character. There must be some common and plain rule wherein all men are agreed, and which must have so deep a foundation in nature as the necessary invariable determination of our minds. If you suppose the character of excellent and right to be the result of arbitrary human constitutions, it would never be uniform. But our notions of excellent and right are before the consideration of all laws, appointments, orders, and instructions whatsoever; for we bring all these to the test in our own minds, and try them by a sense which we have prior to any of them. Nor does this sense depend on any positive declaration of God’s will. The original idea of excellence is essential to our nature. It is one of those perceptions to which we are necessarily determined when the object fitted to excite it is presented to us. There is a test, or power of discerning, in the mind. And this discerns the excellency of religious things. Set right and true against their opposites, in any case wherein you are competent judges, and you will see to which of them your own minds must necessarily give the preference. There is eternal truth in all God’s testimonies; they are founded on self-evident maxims.
II. Compare the doctrines and precepts of wisdom with other things which are most valued by man, and show their superior worth. That wisdom is better than rubies, pearls, or whatever else can be described in this world, is shown—

1. In that none of them come up to the character of excellence before insisted on, and which must be attributed to wisdom. They all have only a limited and relative worth.
2. The most precious treasures of this world are not valued but with some regard to virtue, but religious wisdom is necessarily esteemed excellent independently of them, and without any manner of regard to them.
3. The things of this world, which rival wisdom in our esteem, have many inconveniences attending the acquisition and use of them, which do not affect this invaluable possession. Application:
   (1)We should hear the counsels of wisdom, make it our choice, and use our utmost endeavours to attain it.
   (2) We should entertain our minds with the excellency of wisdom as a very agreeable contemplation.
   (3) The excellence of wisdom should affect the characters of men in our esteem, and regulate our regards to them. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

Proverbs 8:7
For my mouth shall speak truth.
The doctrines of religion have their evidence in themselves
I. Confirm and illustrate this proposition.

1. Those things which religion requires of us are such as Reason herself, when she forms her judgment aright, cannot but approve, or, at most, cannot justly refuse her assent to them. This will appear with respect to the practical commands and duties of religion. The duties which seem to bear hardest upon human nature are repentance, mortification, contempt of this world, loving our enemies, suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake, and the like; which do all recommend themselves to our minds by their reasonableness. Though we have not the same clue of reason to conduct us through all the high mysteries of our faith, yet here also reason will justify us in yielding a firm and uncontroverted assent of mind to them, as having solid grounds of authority to rely upon, for the belief of them, which cannot possibly deceive us.
   II. The concurrent judgment and approbation of all wise and good men both as to the evidence and reasonableness of these doctrines and laws. The judgment of such persons ought to be of great weight and moment, as being a judgment based on personal experience. These men not only know the truth, but feel such a sensible force and power of it upon their minds, as both enlightens their understanding to discern its real excellency, and gently bends their wills to receive and embrace it. Faith is no hasty and blind credulity, but a sober and rational assent of mind, built upon sure and solid principles.
   III. Such persons as have no unjust prejudices against religion prevailing in their minds will sooner be brought to examine the several proofs and testimonies of its truth and divine authority. A fair examination of these proofs will not fail of giving them entire satisfaction. In dealing with the Jews, our Lord Jesus appealed to the consonancy of His doctrine with their own established law. He submitted His life and doctrine to their trial.
   IV. they who fairly examine the truths of religion, and are disposed to embrace them upon sufficient evidence, shall have that internal illumination of God’s Holy Spirit which shall clearly discover the excellency and agreeableness of them to their minds. God will not give them a full and intuitive view into the great and sublime mysteries of religion. God will give such knowledge as our present faculties can receive.
2. Religion is very plain and intelligible to all those who are willing to understand it.
3. Prejudice gains an almost invincible power over the minds of men.
4. The more men improve in the knowledge and practice of religion, the greater will be their satisfaction in it. The best men will have the most important secrets of God’s will revealed to them. (John Cornwall, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:10
Receive my instruction, and not silver.
The commendation of wisdom
I. Knowledge must be received.

1. Do not refuse knowledge offered you in the Book of God.
2. Do not refuse instruction offered you by God’s ministers.
   II. Knowledge must be received by way of instruction. Instruction is necessary, as it does not come by nature, and God does not teach it now by miracle.
   III. Knowledge must be more readily received than silver or gold. It can do that which gold and silver can never do. It is the best riches. More is gotten by labouring for knowledge than for money. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Proverbs 8:11
For wisdom is better than rubies.
Rubies
This jewel is called a sardius in two places in the Bible. The name comes from the Latin “Ruber,” which means red, and this name is given to the ruby because of its colour. It is sometimes called a carbuncle. We may regard the ruby as representing love or charity. What is there about the ruby on account of which love or charity may be compared to it? What did people in olden times think the ruby could do?
I. Cure sorrow. It was thought that a ruby had the power of driving away sadness from their hearts, or of curing their sorrows. That was not true, but this is true—if we have this ruby, a heart of love to Jesus, it will help to cure our own sorrows, and help us to cure other people.
II. Shine in the dark. Stories used to be told of rubies and other jewels being employed, instead of lamps, in dark caverns, to give light, just as if they had power in themselves to shine like so many suns. But this was a mistake. It is only true of the Bible ruby. Real love to anybody, and especially the love of Jesus, will shine in the dark. And when we speak of love shining in the dark, we mean that it will give us help and comfort in trouble. It will make us able to do and suffer things that we never could do without it.
III. Keep them from harm. People used to carry a ruby about them as a sort of charm. It is only the Bible ruby that can keep from danger. Loving and trusting God will be a true charm. The ruby heart will keep us from getting hurt. (R. Newton, D. D.)

The supreme worth of wisdom
What does Wisdom offer? She offers to surpass in value everything that men have yet honoured with their 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 may be stolen; desire may say, “I cannot pant and gasp any longer, I have been filled to satiety: let me die.” Nor are these things 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 him 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? 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 of them. 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 rattles the bag of its emptiness to prove its treasure! (J. Parker, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:12
I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence.
Prudence
This has been brought into unmerited contempt by being associated with what is really its opposite. The abuse of the title has led to practical evils. Individuals have been known to despise prudence as the most beggarly of the virtues, from a mistaken apprehension of its qualities. Marking the errors of the niggardly—the muck-worms of society—some persons conclude at once against the utility of prudence, and read the text, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth,” in a perverted sense. Nothing will they save, or provide for; and so against imprudence in one extreme they set up imprudence in the other. There is no such short cut to happiness; the spendthrift is as far off from felicity as the save-all. The only security lies in a positive assertion and practical affirmation of the whole doctrine and discipline of prudence in its purity and truth. We must conceive the right idea of Prudence, properly define her characteristics, arrive at an honest appreciation of her gifts and graces, and devote ourselves to her, as her faithful ministrants, in all her relations, social, intellectual, and moral. Such a prudence is co-mate with the loftiest wisdom. The prudential course of conduct would commend itself as an illustration of the most elevated philosophy. It would be at one with the most benevolent and beneficent impulses of the human heart, and at the same time insure the true interests of every individual who acted in obedience to its precepts. (The Scottish Pulpit.)

Of religious prudence
According to the general design of these proverbial writings, wisdom stands before religion, and religion is expressed by the fear of God. Prudence is either universal or particular. Universal prudence is the same with the doctrine of morality, the application of the most proper means, viz., virtuous actions, towards the acquiring the chief end, the happiness of man. And particular prudence is distinguished by the different objects and ends about which it is conversant, and is the prosecution of any lawful design by such methods as shall appear to be best, upon a due consideration of circumstances. The text asserts that there is an inseparable connection between religion and prudence. Neither can be without the other.
I. There is no true political prudence, but what is founded upon religion, or the fear of God. God has delivered the government of the world to men, reserving to Himself a power over nature and a philosophy consisted in pretending to give an account of the world and its original, without an infinite understanding and first mover. And the main corruption of prudence consists in attempting the government of the world by human policy, without a due submission to the providence of God. Proud reasoners, and the sensual part of mankind, either wholly deny a providence or attribute very little to its superintendency and power. The universal history of the world, and the particular histories of nations and families, are full of the tragical end of those proud politicians who thought to govern without God, and to be prudent without religion. A natural sagacity is not sufficient for man, who is accountable for his actions, who must engage on no designs but what are rational, nor pursue them by any means but what are just and lawful. The wisdom that degenerates into craft is really mischievous folly. An uprightness of action, a constancy in virtue, and unmovable frame of mind and resolution of always pursuing what is just and beneficial to the public, by right and laudable ways, will make a man fortunate, valuable, and reverenced—fit for any trust.
II. The pious person in the main is the truly judicious. Wisdom is the knowledge of things great, admirable, and Divine, whereby the mind is raised and enlarged into delightful contemplations; and prudence is a right practical judgment, or the skill of judging what we are to do, and what not, and of distinguishing between good and evil, and the degrees of each. The ancient moralists never allowed a wicked man to be prudent. They declare that a wicked life corrupts the very principles of true prudence and right reason. Prudence is that virtue or power of the soul whereby the mind deliberates rightly, and finds out what is best to be done, when all things are considered; or it helps us to discover what are the best means for obtaining a good end. Now it is religion that qualifies the mind to consider practical matters in their true nature and consequences; that purifies the intention, corrects the inclination, moderates the affections, and make our deliberations calm and wise. It is the fear of God that sets bounds to prudence, that shows how far we are to act in any undertaking, and where we are to resign things up to a higher Conduct. It is temperance that gives us intellectual vigour, that makes us masters of our reason. These, and such-like virtues, being the prerequisites, or ingredients, of all true prudence, it is the pious man that in the main is the truly judicious person. But it is the truly pious man. It is a very imperfect notion of prudence to think that it consists in an exact knowledge of the world, or in getting a large share and possession of it.
III. That particular prudence which is required in the conduct of a religious life.

1. The first rule for the more prudent conduct of a religious life is, not to engage in things which are above our sphere.
2. Not presently to catch at perfection and the highest instances of piety. There is an order of duties, and a gradual advancement in religion. Enthusiasts make mad work with religion.
3. Not to engage too vehemently in things of an indifferent nature.
4. Not to spoil a good constitution of soul by any superstitious fancies or unnecessary scruples of conscience. Piety alone keeps men in the right, the safe, the pleasant path. (
   Bp. T. Mannyngham.)

True prudence
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. (J. Carter, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:13
The fear of the Lord to to hate evil.
Hatred of evil
A formal definition of the fear of the Lord. To dread the punishment of sin seems to be the main feature in that religion which, under many forms, springs native in the human heart. This is the mainspring which sets and keeps all the machinery of superstition going. It was a maxim of heathen antiquity, that “Fear made God.” To fear retribution is not to hate sin. It is a solemn suggestion that ever the religion of dark, unrenewed men is, in its essence, a love of their own sins. Instead of hating sin themselves, their grand regret is that God hates it. If they could be convinced that the Judge would regard it as lightly as the culprit, the fear would collapse like steam under cold water, and all the religious machinery which it drove would stand still. All the false religions that have ever desolated the earth are sparks from the collision of these two hard opposites—God’s hate of sin, and man’s love for it. In Christ only may this sore derangement be healed. It is when sin is forgiven that a sinner can hate it. Instead of hating God for His holiness, the forgiven man instinctively loathes the evil of his own heart, and looks with longing for the day when all things in it shall be made new. Such is the blessed fruit of pardon when it comes to a sinner through the blood of Christ. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

A hidden token of the fear towards God
It is not merely in enlightenment of mind that the fear towards God has its result. “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” This departing from evil is the practical manifestation of a principle; it is habitual practice founded on a strong conviction of duty. In this text, the fear of the Lord is connected with the inward feeling of dislike for evil. Hatred, like love, is of the heart.
I. This fear must not be misunderstood as to its nature. It may be twofold. The alarm that is awakened by the threat of violence, or of immediate privation, is one kind of fear. This is the fear of dread, or terror. The other kind of fear is of respect or reverence, and this can only dwell in the heart of a friend towards a friend, or of a faithful servant towards a master worthy of esteem, or of a dutiful child towards an honoured parent. This is the “fear of the Lord.” What other fear should God be desirous of receiving and acknowledging at their hands?
II. If there be this fear, there will also be the hatred of evil. The Holy One cannot be so indulgent as to put no difference between godly fear and the love of sin. God hates evil as abhorrent from His holy nature. To require that we hate evil is no more than what the holiness of His own character requires from Himself. This requirement shows that God would draw us nearer to Himself. As He hates evil, He would have us hate it. (J. Rhenius, M. A.)

Proverbs 8:14
I have understanding; I have strength.
The self-assertion of Christ
Here is more than a florid personification of wisdom. It is the Word who is from everlasting—“Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
I. The self-assertion of Christ. Exhibited in three ways.

1. Christ claims a boundless power of satisfying human wants.
2. Christ claims for Himself the most transcendent ideals.
3. Christ claims the possession of absolute truth, by the very form and mode, as well as by the substance, of His teaching.
   II. The bearing of that self-assertion on certain difficulties of our day. Take the tone of much of the record in the Old Testament.
4. The Old Testament is a progressive system. Then much of it must be imperfect.
5. The Old Testament contains the pathology and diagnosis of sin. In meeting the difficulties of the Old Testament, the self-assertion of the “Amen” is our stay. He who spake the words given in Mat_5:17-18, knew the Old Testament. We talk of the extermination of the Canaanites. Are we gentler than He? We are offended by the polygamy of the patriarchs. Can we survey marriage with a purer gaze than that of the virgin eye which is also the eye of God? We take the book as it is from the hand of Him who says, “I am understanding.”
6. Take the general sources of unbelief and their salient characteristics. The source of unbelief is not always genuine thought, it is often feebleness of character and moral enervation. The secret of strength is to believe in Him who says, “I have strength.” (Abp. W. Alexander.)

Proverbs 8:15
By Me kings reign.
Christian loyalty
I. The special cause that we have for increased thankfulness to God.

1. We ought to be thankful for any event which tends to secure the blessings of peace to our country.
2. A state of peace, as it is most conducive to the temporal interests of a nation, so too it is essential to the interests of true religion.
   II. The duty of praying constantly and earnestly for those who are lawfully set over us. (H. W. Sulivan, M. A.)

Civil governments and their subjects
In this chapter is the figure of speech known as prosopoeia, or personification, in which any eminent quality or distinct attribute is invested with personal powers and properties, and is said to hear, to speak, to govern, to suffer, or to enjoy, and indeed, whatever else a person amongst us is capable of doing. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the personal and essential Wisdom of God. Here one of His prerogatives is alarmed—He has supreme control and authoritative influence over the great ones of the earth. The administration of all things in the natural and providential, as well as in the spiritual kingdom, is confided into His hands.
I. Civil government is of Divine institution; it is an ordinance of God. It is not the creature of chance; nor founded in the social compact; or by a sort of conventionality understood between the governed and the governors; but is based on the will of God.

1. Prove this by appeal to reason. God formed mankind with a view to happiness, and civil government is necessary to happiness. There can be no happiness without order, security, freedom. It never has been known that human beings, in any large numbers, have existed for any considerable time without the intervention of governments.
2. Prove this by appeal to Scripture (Rom_13:1-3; 1Pe_2:13). God is not the author of any specific form or mode of government in His Holy Word. In the case of Israel God dictated the special system of political government known as the Theocracy. But in other cases the mode of government is left to the suggestions of human wisdom, the improvements of time, and the claims and requirements of experience and of circumstances.
   II. The duties which subjects owe to their civil government.
3. Reverence and respect, for conscience’ sake, and for the Lord’s sake. The language of censure never becomes a subject towards his ruler but under the four following restrictions—
   (1) That this censure be founded in truth.
   (2) That we have a good motive in uttering it.
   (3) That we have a right end.
   (4) That we preserve due candour, moderation, and allowance.
4. Obedience to the laws. Disobedience to the laws is a sin against the public, and a virtual attack upon the social character of man.
5. Our proportion of contribution to the exigencies of the State.
6. We owe to our rulers to defend and support them in the lawful exercise of their authority.
7. And earnest prayer to God for His blessing upon them. This is the dictate of common benevolence, and is sanctioned and enjoined by a regard to the public welfare. It is the official character of the civil governor that is the ground upon which prayer is claimed for him. The direction of the faculties and talents and influence of the individual must materially interfere with the safety and happiness of the community. We may, therefore, wisely implore God to assist in their counsels those whom, in His providence, He has exalted. (G. Clayton, M. A.)

The connection of our Lord Christ with earthly sovereignty
I. The gifts which our Lord Christ has received for us.

1. The speaker. Wisdom personified. Wisdom in itself is perfect only in God. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. He is called “the Word,” which is wisdom manifested in utterance, and issuing in streams of blessings.
2. The gifts. Counsel, or practical wisdom. Sound wisdom, or inward principles. Understanding, shown in refusing the evil and choosing the good. Strength, the gift necessary to complete the other gifts.
3. For whom has the Redeemer these gifts? Generally, for the human race. Specially for kings, and all that are in authority.
   II. The connection of our Lord with the sovereignty of the earth. The true sovereignty of the whole earth belongs to our Lord Christ. All other power is simply derived from Him. (E. Bickersteth.)

Thanksgiving to Almighty God
The origin of kings may be traced as far back as authentic history extends. The kings engaged in the Persian wars appear to be among the first of whom any regular historical connection may be relied upon; indeed, we must have recourse to the sacred writings of the Jews for the earliest historical information. The Jewish historians frequently impute their national calamities to the vices of their monarchs. The words of this text imply—

1. A delegated authority, given by God Himself, in the appointment of kings and rulers.
2. That all earthly crowns must perish—that all earthly sovereigns are mortal. It is incumbent on all sincere Christians on special national occasions to acknowledge with gratitude the hand of Almighty God, and to adorn the Divine providence which superintends all worldly affairs; and let us rest assured that the exercise of almighty power and infinite goodness is combined with that mercy which is so strikingly exhibited throughout the vast range of creation, and which will be abundantly manifested in the realms of unfading glory. (N. Meeres, B. D.)

Good government

1. Magistrates cannot rule well without wisdom. They need wisdom in consultation and in execution.
2. Men cannot make good laws without wisdom. In regard of matter or manner.
3. Princes cannot rule well without just laws. Bless God that we live under laws, and are not left to the mere will of men. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

The wisdom behind civil government
If good laws against ill manners be, as sure they are, decrees of justice, these kings and princes, with inferior magistrates, will be the governing societies, here on earth, for public reformation. Civil rulers should be considered as subordinate to that ever-blessed society of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit above, the one God who, through the one Mediator between God and man, hath graciously vouchsafed to concern Himself for the reformation of a degenerate world, that iniquity might not be, at least so speedily or universally, its ruin.
I. The tendency of civil government to public reformation, in which common safety and happiness is so manifestly concerned. The very decreeing of justice, or the justice in good and wholesome laws decreed, has a natural and evident tendency to public reformation, with all its implied and consequent advantages. Ill manners have given the occasion to many good laws, which, though they serve to direct and confirm the good, yet are principally designed to correct and reform the bad. It is wrong and weakness to attempt government by mere compulsion. All fit methods of dealing with men must take hold of some principles, allowed or presumed, if not confessed. The great business of good laws will be more effectually to repress the overt acts of those vicious inclinations which so often lead men, in particular cases, contrary to the general dictums of their own deliberate judgment and conscience. See the matter and measure of some of the principal decrees of justice; as—

1. To God; that He be not openly affronted by the denial of His being, neglect of evident duty, and daring commission of notorious sin.
2. To the community; that private interests give way to that of the public.
3. To the magistrate; that all needful defence be provided, with a power sufficient for the asserting of his just authority.
4. To subjects more generally considered. The saving and securing to them those rights and liberties which are due, whether by common reason or the particular reason and fundamental contract.
5. To the poor; that the disabled and destitute be maintained; that the able and willing want not work, nor the idle a spur to labour.
6. To offenders themselves; that the justly obnoxious go not unpunished, nor yet their punishment outweigh the offence.
7. To persons of merit. Honour and other rewards are surely a point of justice due to such. Surely such decrees of justice are a public testimony for virtuous actions, and against the contrary vices. Whilst the preceptive part of such decrees recommends virtuous actions to the understanding, their sanctions of reward and punishment most fitly serve to press them on the will, as powerfully moving those two great springs of human action—hope and fear. The execution of just decrees gives a standing and open confirmation to them, as being the abiding sense of our rulers. They have evidently been well weighed and wisely resolved.
   II. The Son of God, the reforming, saving wisdom, on whom government depends. The term “son” is taken from amongst men, and though it cannot exactly agree to Him who is the Son of God, yet certainly intends to lead us to some such apprehensions about Him as may be allowed to our weakness, and will be sufficient for our purpose. The salvation of men is everywhere in Sacred Writ represented as the great design and business of this Wisdom, which well knows that pride, arrogancy, and the evil way will never comport with the peace and welfare of men either in their single or social capacity. The government of the Son as Mediator is to be founded in redemption, and exercised in a way of reformation. Religion in a degenerate world is but another name for reformation: especially the Christian religion, which was to correct not only the irreligion but also the superstitions of the world. It has been the care of our gracious Redeemer to recover the declining reformation under the happy influence of present governments.
   III. The more immediate dependence of civil government on the Son of God. True it is that our Saviour’s kingdom is not of a secular but spiritual nature: but His subjects are embodied spirits, and have their temporal as well as eternal concernments. Civil government decrees justice—
8. By our Saviour’s purchase and procurement.
9. Providential disposal.
10. Counsel and aid.
11. Appointment and authority. (Joshua Oldfield.)

The Divine right of kings
I. The authority or right by which kings reign. Monarchs and their authority have an acknowledged cause, and that cause external to themselves. All is derived from some other person. The person who speaks in this passage could be no other than the eternal Son of God. When St. John beheld our Lord in the Apocalypse, he saw Him as the fount and origin of government, with many crowns upon His head. Meet it was that the kings of the several quarters of the world should have their being by Him who is King of all the world; that all crowns, both the crown of glory in heaven and the crown of highest glory on earth, should be held of Him. By Christ, the Wisdom of God, and the Son of God, monarchs hold their rule and kingdoms are governed. They reign not by His mere leave, but by His express commission. They reign in Him and by Him. He reigns in them and by them; He in them as His deputies, they in Him as their authoriser; He by their persons, they by His power.
II. The act of reigning. Consider it in three different ways. That they reign at all; that they reign long; that they reign well. Each of these is alike the gift of God. By Him, His co-eternal Word and Wisdom, as by a door, they enter on their reign. By Him, as by a line which He stretches over every government, be it longer or shorter, they hold its continuance. Finally, by Him, as by a rule, they reign; they walk before the Lord their God; consider whom they represent, whose ministers and vicegerents they are. It is duration that constitutes a reign. Now, without any question, this depends on God. When they have begun they may end quickly, if He who create do not also preserve. And so that right reigning, upon which only a continuance of reign is promised. Can we believe that the complicated machinery of government can be preserved if religion be neglected? But our business now is with subjects, not kings. What has been said imposes duty on them. And even as, if princes considered by whom they reign, they would reign better, so also, if subjects remembered the same truth, they would obey better. For it from Him comes the authority, to Him is the duty of allegiance; and we are bound to be subject, not for wrath only, but also for conscience sake. Remember who it is that speaks. He is Christ, and he is called Wisdom. If Christ speaks, disloyalty and disaffection are anti-Christian. If Wisdom speaks, they are folly. Folly in itself, and folly in its consequences. Let Wisdom, then, be still justified in her children. (G. S. Cornish, M. A.)

Per me reges regnant
How do men claim to be kings? how do they hold their sovereign authority? by whose grant? Of the four words of the motto, the two latter (reges and regnant) be two as great matters as any be in the world. One, the persons themselves, as they be kings. The other, the act of their reigning, or bearing rule over nations. These two latter words depend on the two former—per me. By and through Him kings were first settled in their reigns. By and through Him ever since upholden in their reigns. By and through Him vouchsafed many miraculous preservations in their reigns.
I. Kings and kingdoms have their “per.” They are no casualties. There is a cause of a king’s reigning. That cause is a person. “By Me”—that is, not man or angel, but God only; God manifest. By Him—

1. Because He was man.
2. Because He is wisdom.
3. Because on Him the Father hath conferred all the kingdoms of the earth.
   III. Kings reign. Consider this reigning three ways.
4. As it hath a beginning.
5. As it hath continuance.
6. As it hath rectitude or obliquity incident to every act.
   These three are duly set on every king’s head through all the story of the Bible. Such a king is said to have been so many years old when he began to reign. He reigned in Jerusalem, or Samaria, so many years. And he reigned well or ill. (Bp. Lancelot Andrewes.)

The authority of Divine Wisdom
Wisdom here speaks of herself as the queen of the world. Wisdom, in the exercise of her authority—
I. Determines the destiny of rulers.

1. It inspires all the good actions of kings.
2. It controls all the bad actions of kings.
   II. Has a special regard for the good. Divine wisdom has heart as well as intellect; it glows with sympathies as well as radiates with counsels.
   III. Has the distribution of the choicest blessings for mankind. (David Thomas, D. D.)

Verses 17. I love them that love Me.
Emotion and evidence
The mind must reach religion’s creed by help of the heart. Reason is not to be set aside, but, with the value of the rational faculty exalted to its highest honour, the affections of the heart must constantly aid the rational faculty if it is expected to accomplish much in the realm of moral truth. There must be an attuning of the two instruments, the objective truth and the subjective man, such that the music of the former may not be rejected as a discord or lost because inaudible. Wisdom has always distributed her truth to those who love her. Those special ideas called “religion” will become truths or doctrines only by help of the heart’s friendship. Unless men can reach some wish in their favour, some partiality for them, it is hardly to be supposed that mere logic will ever force them upon individual or public practices. The power of the mind to reject conclusions not welcome to the feelings is enormous. It is possible that the poverty of evidence, confessed in this world to exist as to vast moral propositions, comes from the fact that earth was made, not for a wicked but for a virtuous race. Sin may have destroyed evidence by destroying the sentiments that made it visible. The exact sciences proclaim their ideas to all, and ask no favour of any kind. The evidences of Christianity must be weighed by a mind not averse to virtue, not averse to the being and presence of a just God, but full of tender sympathy with man. By a soul capable of sadness and of hope. (
David Swing.)

The characters whom Christ loves
The love which Christ entertains for His people is an affection the nature and extent of which can be learned only from a consideration of the causes which produce it.
I. The foundation of that love was laid in eternity.
II. Christ loves those who love Him because He has done and suffered so much for their salvation. He purchased them with His blood. From the birth to the death of His people He watches over them with unremitting attention. He forgives their sins, alleviates their sorrows, sympathises in their trials, heals their backslidings, wipes away their tears, listens to their prayers, intercedes for them with His Father, enables them to persevere, and accompanies them through the valley of the shadow of death. All this care and attention naturally tends to increase His love for them.
III. Christ loves those who love Him because they are united to Him by strong and indissoluble ties. The union between Christ and His people is presented under various figures—bride-groom and bride, vine and branches, head and members, soul and body. The bond of this union on our part is faith, but the union itself is formed by the appointment of God.
IV. Christ loves those who love Him because they possess His spirit and bear His image. Similarity of character always tends to produce affection, and hence every being in the universe loves his own image whenever he discovers it. Christ loves His own image in His creatures because it essentially consists in holiness, which is of all things most pleasing to His Father and Himself.
V. Christ loves those who love Him because they rejoice in and return His affection. It is the natural tendency of love to produce and increase love. Even those whom we have long loved on account either of their relation to us or of their amiable qualities become incomparably more dear to us when they begin to prize our love and return it. Improvement:

1. This subject may enable every one to answer the important question, Does Christ love me?
2. If Christ loves those who love Him, then He will love those most who are most ready to return His affection, to do all things, and to suffer all things for His sake.
3. How happy are they who love! What happiness, then, must they enjoy who love and are beloved by the infinite fountain of love, God’s eternal Son!
4. These truths afford most powerful motives to induce sinners to love Christ. (E. Payson, D. D.)

To whom will Wisdom give her good things
On them that love her she will bestow love again. On them that seek her aright she will bestow herself. There is great use of Wisdom, and she hath great store of wealth to bestow. How shall we obtain this Wisdom? Love her and get her. Love is the best Master of Arts, the surest teacher. As the good fruit of the study of Wisdom is very great, so the labour of them that respect her is not in vain. They shall enjoy both her love and herself.
I. Wisdom loves such as love her.
II. Wisdom must be sought for early and diligently.
III. Such as seek for wisdom diligently shall Find her. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

The love of wisdom necessary to the attaining of it
I. Explain the love of wisdom, and show the sentiments and dispositions that are imported in it. The affections and passions of the human nature are the moving springs which set our active powers at work. Various are the methods by which the objects of affection are introduced into the mind. Some wholly by the senses, some by reflection, inquiry, comparing things, and forming general notions of them. What is imported in the love of wisdom is—

1. A high esteem of its superior excellency as the result of mature consideration.
2. That we should desire it above all things. This Solomon proposeth as a qualification and means of attaining wisdom.
3. Love naturally showeth itself in the complacency which the mind taketh in the enjoyment of, or even in meditating upon, the beloved objects.
   II. How it contributeth to our obtaining wisdom.
4. In ordinary human affairs we see that desire putteth men upon that labour and diligence which are the ordinary means of success.
5. The love of wisdom is a disposition highly pleasing to God, and to it He hath made gracious promises. We must conceive of the Supreme Being as a lover of virtue and goodness, of everything which is truly amiable on the account of moral excellence; and if it be so, He hath complacency in those of mankind whose affections are placed on the same thing which is His delight. We have, therefore, the greatest encouragements and advantages for attaining to wisdom, and we ought to use all diligence in humble and affectionate concurrence with Him who worketh in us. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

God loves those that love Him
I. What kind of love God exercises towards them that love Him. There is the love of benevolence and the love of complacency. These two kinds of love are of the same nature, but distinguished by the objects upon which they terminate. The love of benevolence terminates upon percipient being, and extends to all sensitive natures, whether rational or irrational, whether they have a good, or bad, or no moral character. God desires and regards the good of all His creatures, from the highest angel to the lowest insect. The love of complacency is wholly confined to moral beings who are possessed of moral excellence. Nothing but virtue, or goodness, or real holiness is the object of God’s complacence.
II. What is implied in men’s loving God?

1. Some true knowledge of His moral character.
2. True love to God implies esteem as well as knowledge. Esteem always arises from a conviction of moral excellence in the person or being esteemed. All men have a moral discernment of moral objects. Sinners cannot contemplate the infinite greatness and goodness of God without discerning His infinite worthiness to be loved.
3. Their loving God truly implies a supreme complacency in His moral character. In the exercise of true love to any object there is a pleasure taken in the object itself. When men truly love God they take pleasure in every part of His moral character.
   III. Why does God only love such as first love Him? Before they first love Him they are not lovely. Their hearts are full of evil, and entirely opposed to all that is good. They are under the dominion of selfishness, which is total enmity to all holiness. But there is something in God which renders Him lovely and glorious before He loves sinners; and therefore they can love Him before He loves them. Improvement:
4. If God does not love sinners before they first love Him, then it is a point of more importance in preaching the gospel to make them sensible that He hates them than that He loves them.
5. Then the first exercise of love to Him must be before they know that He loves them.
6. Then they must love Him, while they know that He hates them, and is disposed to punish them for ever.
7. Then sinners are naturally as unwilling to embrace the gospel as to obey the law.
8. If God love those who first love Him, then He is willing to receive them into His favour upon the most gracious and condescending terms.
9. If God does not love sinners before they love Him, then they have no right to desire or pray that He would become reconciled to them while they continue to hate and oppose Him.
10. If God loves sinners as soon as they love Him, then, if they properly seek Him, they shall certainly find Him. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

Love returned
These words do not set forth either—

1. That Christ’s love is produced by ours. Its source is Himself.
2. Or that Christ’s love is since ours. It is eternal.
3. Or that Christ’s love is dependent on ours. Unchangeable.
4. Or that Christ’s love is only for those who love Him. He gave the greatest proof of it while we were enemies.
   I. Those who return Christ’s love have the evidence of His love to them.
   II. Those who return Christ’s love receive special manifestations of grace from Him. Answered prayers, the Spirit’s comfort, success in labour, joys of communion.
   III. Those who return Christ’s love have the position and title of His loved ones. Brethren, friends, sons of God.
   IV. Those who return Christ’s love give Him special gladness. (R. A. Griffin.)

And those that seek Me early shall find Me.—
Diligence in seeking wisdom always successful
The enjoyments of life are dispensed by the indiscriminating hand of Providence, and often in as large a measure to the unthankful and evil as to the good and virtuous. But wisdom is of a peculiar nature, and it doth not prevent any qualifying dispositions and endeavours in those who obtain it. The foundation of it is laid in the faculties of the mind. Nothing can sufficiently prove the sincerity of our professed affection to wisdom but that seeking it early which is recommended in this text.
I. Explain seeking wisdom early. It means this, that it has the chief room in our cares and application. That which is highest in our esteem, most earnestly desired and delighted in, will naturally engage our first concern and endeavours, while matters of an inferior consideration are justly postponed.

1. If we would seek wisdom it must be by the constant use of the proper means in order to our obtaining it.
2. Diligence, or “seeking early,” importeth using the best means frequently, and with spirit and vigour.
   II. Show the advantage of it. We have assurance of success. The text contains an express promise in the name of wisdom.
3. Diligence importeth such dispositions of mind as must please the Supreme Being.
4. Diligence in seeking wisdom or religion is really practising it. Commend the importance of seeking wisdom and religion in the beginning of every day, and in youth-time, which is the morning of life. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

Early seekers of Christ directed and encouraged
I. What it is to seek Christ early. The expression is sometimes used for the duty of prayer, sometimes for the whole of religion. To seek Christ is to seek the true knowledge of Christ, and a saving interest in Him. It is to seek that He may be all that to us, and that we may be all that to Him, for which He is made known and proposed in the gospel. To seek early signifies carefully, earnestly, diligently.

1. We are to seek early with respect to the time of life, or in the younger part of our days. The greatest and most important, concern of all others is not to be put off to the busy time of life, that is incumbered with the cares and hurries of this world; nor to old age, that is enfeebled by decays and loaded with infirmities. It is never too soon to seek after Christ, but it may be too late.
2. We are to seek Him early with respect to the day of grace, or to our opportunities of seeking Him. Whenever God calls us by His Word or providence, we should be early and speedy in attending to those calls.
3. It is to seek Him early with respect to all other things, or above and before all thing else. This relates to the earnestness and fervour with which He is to be sought in the younger part of our days. It is to seek Him with the whole heart.
   II. What peculiar encouragements there are to such as seek christ early.
4. Early seeking is most pleasing to Him.
5. It is the ordinary course of Divine grace to be found of early seekers.
6. Such have fewer obstructions in seeking.
7. There are peculiar promises to such. (J. Guyse, D. D.)

The holy quest
The legend of the “Holy Grail” tells us that Joseph of Arimathea came into possession of the dish from which the Saviour ate, or, according to another version, the cup from which He drank, when He celebrated the last Passover in the upper room with His apostles. When Joseph stood at the Cross, some of the blood which came from the wounds of Christ fell into this vessel, and Joseph ever afterwards carried about this relic with him in all his wanderings, until at length he came to England. The very presence of this sacred vessel had a mystic influence: miraculous cures were effected by it. But at length, in consequence of the wickedness of the land, this sacred vessel was no longer permitted to remain visible amongst men. What could be a worthier task of Christian knighthood than to go in search of it? Man is, by the very constitution of his nature, a seeker. For wise and good reasons God has made us creatures of desire. It is of the utmost importance that this seeking instinct of our nature should be wisely directed. This Book of Proverbs speaks to you of a treasure which is worthy of your pursuit, and which is the most valuable of all treasures.
I. This wisdom is a hidden treasure. Never be led astray by that lie of the devil, that those things which can be seen are the most real and substantial. It is a delusion which is the parent of all ignoble life. The existence of God is the greatest reality of all, and yet your eye cannot see God. You cannot see your mother’s love.
II. This wisdom is a sacred treasure. The grail was called the holy grail because it had sacred associations. God’s own wisdom is that which we are invited to share. By wisdom is not meant mere knowledge, but that heavenly yet practical wisdom which has to do with the most sacred region of our being—the conscience, the affections, the will—and which enables a man to walk through life in a right and wise direction, and in a spirit sympathetic with the mind of God. No man can be said to live wisely who is living out of harmony with God’s own purpose concerning him. True wisdom enables us to make a wise use of all earthly knowledge, but it is itself a heavenly and sacred treasure.
III. This wisdom is a priceless treasure. Wisdom may sometimes put a man in the way of obtaining wealth; but no amount of wealth can ever buy wisdom. The true wisdom will lead you into the paths of duty, honour, and integrity. No amount of wealth can by any possibility be a compensation for the lack of the priceless treasure.
IV. This wisdom is a life-giving treasure.

1. It is a healing influence.
2. A nourishing influence.
3. A life-renewing influence.
   V. This wisdom is a treasure which may be found by every earnest seeker. In the way of—
4. Reverence.
5. Prayer.
6. Courage.
7. Purity.
   I have said that man is born a seeker. It is also true that the elements of heroism lie embedded in the very constitution of our nature. There is plenty of room for Christian knighthood yet—for true chivalry of heart and life. Christ is the Divine Wisdom incarnate—the Word of God in human nature. Then seek Christ. (T. Campbell Finlayson.)

Advantages of seeking God early
The favour of the Almighty has always been bestowed upon such as remember Him in the days of their youth. See the cases of Joseph, Samuel, Solomon, Josiah, Hannah, Ruth, Timothy, etc.

1. There is an incalculable advantage in beginning in season a work which we know to be long and difficult.
2. Another advantage is the defence which is thus set up against the encroachments of vice. Youth is the season of warm and generous affections: the time when inexperience entices into a thousand snares; the season for active exertion. In youth, we say, the future hinges on the present. If the thoughts and feelings are pure, the soul will be bright with happiness.
3. Another advantage is the promotion of happiness in the family circle, and the beneficent influence thus exerted upon companions and friends.
4. Another advantage is the indescribable satisfaction which is afforded to parents and friends.
5. Another advantage is the ready access which it affords to the throne of grace.
6. Another is that we are thus prepared to meet with a smile the dark frowns of adversity.
7. There is every encouragement for seeking early after God, because we are thus enabled to await, with calm and holy resignation, the coming of death. (John N. Norton.)

Seeking God early
The Hebrew word used denotes seeking at the dawn or beginning of a day. From the words “I love them that love Me” it might be inferred that man must love God as a preliminary or condition to God’s loving man. The truth, however, is, that God’s love of man must in every case precede man’s love to God, and be its chief producing cause. “We love Him because He first loved us.” There is no natural power in men of loving God. No one of us will love God because everything around proves that God loves him. Our love to God is nothing else but the reflection of God’s love to us. What produces love to God? You cannot make yourselves love God. It is God alone who can make you love God. When we answer to His love, becoming new creatures through the motions of His Spirit, then, as though He had not loved us before, so endearing is the relationship into which we are brought, that He says “I love them that love Me.” If we cannot make our selves love God, we may think over the proofs of His love, we may look at His picture, read over His letters, and so put ourselves in the way of receiving those influences which can alone change the heart. From the words “Those that seek Me early shall find Me” we need not argue that if He has not been sought early it is in vain to seek Him late. What are the motives which should conspire to urge the young to an immediate attention to the things which belong unto their peace?

1. The life of the young is as uncertain as that of the old. Health and strength are no security against the speedy approaches of death. Now is the only moment of which you are sure.
2. They will have much greater difficulty in their seeking who fail to seek early. Many suppose that one time will be as fitting as another, late as early, for seeking the Lord. They think that, if they live, repentance will be as much within their power twenty or thirty years hence as it is now. But this is a supposition for which there is no warrant. An old writer says, “God has, indeed, promised that He will at all times give pardon to the penitent, but I do not find that He has promised that He will, at all times, give penitence to the sinful.” By continuing in sin habits are formed which will strengthen into taskmasters, and which, when men grow old, will be well-nigh irresistible. Very small is the likelihood of producing any moral impression on those who have grown old in forgetfulness of God. We know no so unpromising a subject of moral attack as an aged sinner, always supposing him to have heard the gospel in his youth. Then give God the prime of your strength, the flower of your days, the vigour of your intellect, the ardency of your affections. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

On the advantage of early piety
That the religion of Christ is, beyond all others, calculated to produce private and public felicity no man who is acquainted with that religion can doubt.

1. Those who enjoy the singular benefit of a pious education have the greatest probability of success and perseverance in their course. Of two travellers who have the same journey to go, he is much more likely to accomplish it who, rising betimes in the morning, sets out in all the liveliness and vigour of his strength than he who drowsily sleeps till noon and in the heat and toil of the day can scarce drag his feeble feet along. Good principles and habits, early imbibed and formed, are of such power that they will scarcely permit a wide deviation from right.
2. As no good either is or can be perfected in the human mind without almighty grace, so we have the most solid assurance of that Divine assistance when, in our early days, we carefully cherish the influences of God’s Holy Spirit. Our text is not only a promise, it is the most condescending call from the Lord of wisdom, inviting us to His love. Love begets love. Our love to Him shall be repaid by His love to us.
3. Hence arise many striking advantages. The first tincture is thus given to the mind, the first bias to the affections; thereby right habits and right principles get the first possession and preserve the inclination and practice from those warping and destructive customs and opinions which it is difficult to bend again and reduce to their original and necessary straightness. We all know how strong are the prepossessions and prejudices of education—ill prepossessions and unhappy prejudices—and we may be perfectly satisfied that good prepossessions and prejudices are equally prevalent and powerful. “The cask long retains the smell of the liquor with which it was first seasoned” (Horace). How difficult it is to gain the superiority over habits and customs, even in the most trifling matters, no man is ignorant; but to subdue habits which have long lived with us, and gained our approbation—habits of vice, to which sensual affections have annexed pleasure in the gratification; totally to alter our conduct, to pluck out the right eye of a darling lust, to cut off the right hand of a profitable sin—oh, how arduous, how painful! Here, then, we discern the unspeakable advantage of early good habits and principles, which, preserving us in the road of duty, secure us from this most difficult, if not, in some cases, impossible task, of correcting vicious habits, and amending corrupted customs and notions, which, through long possession, become intimate to men almost as themselves. And the early dedication of ourselves to God will be found not less comfortable than advantageous. It will teach you content in every station, will enable you to sail through life with as much ease and serenity as the unavoidable difficulties of this transitory state will permit; will give to your mind the purest pleasures and most satisfactory enjoyments; will make you a comfort to yourself, a blessing to your friends, and an ornament to society. (
   W. Dodd, LL. D.)

Early piety

1. Men have souls and minds capable of being very good or very bad, of enjoying much and suffering much. It is important that a right direction be given early in life to man’s whole nature. This can be secured in no way but by living, hearty piety.
2. Early piety will have a good effect in directing us to aright calling in life, and to a choice of suitable companions and associates.
3. Early piety alone can surely protect us from dashing on those rocks where so many have made shipwreck, both for this world and the next.
4. If we do not become pious in youth it is very uncertain whether we ever shall become so at all. When men grow old their hearts become harder, their wills more stubborn, and their sound conversion less probable. And a large number of the human race die before the period of youth has passed.
5. Should you live through youth, how can you bear the heavy burdens of middle life without the grace of God? If one comes to old age, with all its infirmities, and has not the grace of God in him, how sad his condition, how cheerless his prospects!
   Application:
6. Are you young? Be not wise in your own conceit. Live by faith on the Son of God.
7. Are you middle-aged? Is the burden of cares heavy? Cast it upon the Lord. Trust in the Lord and do good. Glorify Christ in your body and spirit, which are His.
8. Are you aged? Give yourself much to devotion. Set an example of sweet submission to the will of God. The nearer you draw to heaven, the more let its light and peace shine in your face, cheer your heart, and make your life a blessing to others. (W. S. Plumer, D. D.)

Seeking Christ early
I. Consider what it is to seek Christ early. To seek Christ is to seek the true knowledge of Him, and a saving interest in Him. As it relates to the act of seeking Him, it is to attend upon all the means of grace with seriousness, faith, hope, love, and delight. We are to seek early. With respect to all other things, or before and above all things else. This relates to the earnestness and fervour with which He is to be sought. We are to seek Him with the whole heart.
II. Consider what secular encouragements there are to such as seek Christ early that they shall find Him.

1. Early seeking is most pleasing to Him.
2. It is the ordinary course of Divine grace to be found of early seekers.
3. Early seekers have fewer obstructions to their seeking and finding Christ than others have.
4. There are peculiar promises made to early seekers. (T. Hannam.)

Seeking the Lord
In seeking the Lord—
I. Keep two things perpetually in view—His truth and the influences of His Holy Spirit. Without His truth we can have no rule, and without the influences of His Holy Spirit we can have no disposition to prize the right rule: both are absolutely necessary.
II. Under the influence of the Divine Spirit we shall invariably seek God as a God of mercy.
III. As a God of peace.
IV. As a king.
V. As a guide.
VI. As a portion. Now let me apply my subject.

1. There are some of you who do not seek the Lord—you can live without Him perfectly well.
2. There are others who seek the Lord, and perhaps you wonder why you do not find Him. Now, examine yourselves; is there not a great deal of hypocrisy, of deceit, in you?
3. There are others who seek Him, and seek Him honestly, and who think they do not find Him, when in reality they do find Him. They do not find Him in the consolation which they seem to need; but they find Him in principle—they find Him in driving guilt from the conscience, they find Him in enabling them to triumph over the tyranny of sin.
4. There are others who rejoice in the God of their salvation, who can say, “I know that I have sought and found the Lord; my Saviour is in me the hope of glory. I cannot but rejoice in Him at the present moment.” Rejoice with trembling. Remember, you have many and mighty enemies within and without. (W. Howels.)

Early seeking of Christ encouraged
I. What is implied in seeking the Lord Jesus?

1. A decided conviction of the utter insufficiency of every other object for our happiness and salvation.
2. A decided persuasion that in Christ Jesus every blessing that the soul requires is to be found.
3. A strong desire to obtain an interest in Christ.
4. Persevering efforts in the use of all appointed means to obtain this object.
   II. What it is to find Christ, and the happiness that results from it.
5. The expression, finding Christ—
   (1) Is figurative, and may be considered as intimating their obtaining a saving discovery of His character.
   (2) May intimate also their forming a saving connection with Christ.
   (3) Suggests their obtaining all the blessings of salvation.
6. The happiness that finding Christ yields.
   (1) They that find Christ obtain deliverance from the worst evils—horror of conscience, burden of guilt, dread of Jehovah’s wrath, tyranny of evil passions, thraldom of Satan.
   (2) They obtain the most valuable advantages. They obtain an interest in the favour of that God who has every blessing at His disposal; the graces which beautify the character, and give peace and joy to the soul in their exercise; an illumination which solves their doubts, scatters their fears, and opens before them scenes glowing with the splendour of eternal day. The heart now finds an object which can gratify its amplest wishes, and may rejoice that these advantages perish not in the using, and lie secure beyond the reach of accident.
   (3) They cherish the most blessed hopes with regard to the future.
   III. Those that seek Christ early have the strongest reason to expect success.
7. The Redeemer takes peculiar delight in the movements of early piety. These, in an especial manner, honour His supreme excellence.
8. The young are likely to seek Him with undivided hearts, and from affectionate choice.
9. The young have peculiar reason to expect the aids of the Spirit in seeking Christ.
10. The language of the text suggests that those who do not seek the Lord Jesus in their youth have much reason to fear that they shall never find Him.
    Conclusion:
11. Let me beseech the young to seek the Lord while He may be found.
12. I exhort those who have sought the Saviour early to maintain their earnestness in religion.
13. Let those who are in advanced life consider their ways and be wise. (H. Belfrage.)

Seekers who do not seek in vain
All the people in the world are seekers, only some people spend their time in seeking for silly and useless things. A king that I have heard of, instead of ruling his people properly, neglected his duties, and spent his time in going from kingdom to kingdom seeking for a mouse with pink eyes. What a waste of time for such a man! Those who are really learned have gathered their wisdom by being ready to learn.
I. Those who begin to seek God early have longer time in which to learn about Him. People who study music after they have grown up seldom become good players or singers; nor do I believe that any one ever really masters grammar who does not begin to study it thoroughly at an early age. Begin therefore at once to learn, for you have lost already more time than you can well spare.
II. Begin early, because you will have less to unlearn. Socrates, a wise man, charged one of his disciples double fees because, he said, he not only had to teach him how to speak, but also how to hold his tongue. A blacksmith could never become a painter, at least not very readily, for he would have to unlearn so much. If you fill your mind with foolish ideas, a vast amount of time will be required to get rid of these follies before you can be instructed in wisdom.
III. I think, too, that you will be more ardent and eager in the pursuit of wisdom if you begin young, and you will find that history confirms the truth of my opinion. You will not be so readily discouraged, and will more easily master your difficulties than older people can. Little children-students, we are here assured, shall not seek in vain, but they will be required to take pains. Columbus somehow got the idea that America existed, and he went to find the great unknown land. Day after day he sailed on without seeing it, but he one day spied some seaweed of a kind different to that known in Europe. This encouraged him to continue his search. So you, too, will sometimes feel inclined to give up in despair, but keep on; it is worth all the trouble you can ever expend upon it to become wise. And what joy it will impart to you when at length you see what you desire! (N. Wiseman.)

Seek Jesus early
Our business is to seek Jesus early in life. Happy are the young whose morning is spent with Jesus! It is never too soon to seek the Lord Jesus. Early seekers make certain finders. We should seek Him early by diligence. Thriving tradesmen are early risers, and thriving saints seek Jesus eagerly. Those who find Jesus to their enrichment give their hearts to seeking Him. We must seek Him first, and thus earliest. Above all things Jesus. Jesus first, and nothing else even as a bad second. The blessing is, that He will be found. He reveals Himself more and more clearly to our search. He gives Himself up more fully to our fellowship. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Seeking Christ in the dawn of life
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 whitening 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 up they start, 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 half-hoping that the moment they open their eyes they would see Me, and exclaim, “Blessed Spirit, take charge of my poor, young, little, 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. (
J. Parker, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:18
Riches and honour are with Me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
On gaining and using riches
Whatever is true and substantial happiness even in this life has a necessary dependence upon morality and religion. Wealth and riches are but heavy encumbrances and unprofitable lumber if they are not made use of to reward the good, to excite the diligent, and to relieve the oppressed. But that religion should be the path that leads to wealth and substance, and that to be good is the way to become rich, seems to be a paradox contrary to the sentiments of mankind. Piety may indeed comfort us in our wants, and support us in our affictions; but that it should be the best factor to gain them and store them up is an assertion so opposite to the persuasion of men that it seems like the wild affirmation of one who would defend a novelty.
I. Piety is the most effectual means to obtain riches.

1. Riches are the gift of God, not the goods of fortune. If there is a wise and provident Governor of the world, the success of all human enterprises depends upon His disposition of things. If the men of virtue and piety are the favourites of the Almighty, they may expect bounties as the signs of His love; if they be His faithful servants, as rewards of their fidelity.
2. See what piety is, examine it in itself and in its consequences, and we shall find it to be naturally productive of riches and plenty. Piety is the habitual practice of moral and Divine virtues, each one of which has a tendency to enrich its followers, e.g., industry, temperance, humility, brotherly love, liberality, and charity.
3. Credit and reputation in the world have a very great dependence upon honesty and an upright life, and they are things absolutely necessary for the promotion of our health and worldly interest. The only solid foundation of a good name is piety and virtue.
4. Piety and virtue direct to the use of those methods which are honest and lawful. The most honest means are always the sweetest.
   II. The securing of riches or making them durable. This may be considered in a double respect—
5. In relation to ourselves.
6. In relation to posterity. Whatever is got by means that are repugnant to piety is not to be kept, but must be parted with. All vices have a natural tendency to impoverish mankind. It is well to note that the efficacy of piety is not bounded here; it reaches beyond the grave, and entails its blessings on future generations. The generation of the faithful shall be blessed. (William Hayley, M. A.)

Proverbs 8:20
I lead in the way of righteousnses.
Substance the inheritance of the saints
I. Jesus leads in the way of righteousness—

1. By leading them into His holy, strict, and condemning law.
2. By implanting sincerity and uprightness.
   II. Jesus leads in the midst of the paths of judgment. These paths of judgment are when He, with His holy eye, scrutinises the heart and brings to light its secret workings. He leads by setting up a court of judicature in the heart, arraigning the soul at its bar; not with vengeance, as punishing a criminal, but as a parent, after the child has been playing truant all day.
   III. Jesus causes the soul to inherit substance. Something solid, weighty, powerful, real, and eternal. Power and life and feeling, and the blessed kingdom of God set up with authority in the soul. A substantial religion—something that is dropped into the soul from His own blessed self, something that comes out of Himself, and out of the fulness of His own loving heart, to make them rejoice and be glad. (J. C. Philpot.)

In the midst of the paths of Judgment.
The golden mean
In this country, if you walk in the middle of the street in the town, or in the middle of the road in the country, you are exposed to danger from horses and vehicles, for which that part of the road was reserved, and therefore side-paths and pavements have been provided, where you can take refuge from the traffic. It is different in the East. There the roads are so badly made, and so little frequented, that you are always safest in the middle. There is a rock, perhaps, on this side, and a precipice or a ditch on that, and the edges of the road are always so rugged and uneven that only the well-worn track in the middle is available for easy travelling. And from this condition of Eastern roads has arisen the moral lesson that the middle of the path of conduct is the safest and the best. The sentiment may be exemplified in everything moral and religious. The Greeks of old always spoke of the golden mean between two extremes, and were fond of proving that truth and safety always lay in the middle. The wise man speaks of the paths of judgment. These paths are oft either side of the way of righteousness, which is the middle; and they are called paths of judgment because, if you stray into them off the strait and narrow way of righteousness, you will meet with dangers and evils that will assuredly punish you. The virtues that yield the blessings of life are in the middle, between the vices that wreck and blight your life. A little too much on the one side or the other makes all the difference in the world; and so close to each other do the evils you have to avoid come, that narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. The side-path may, therefore, be smooth and pleasant, but it leads to danger. The middle of the road may be rough and difficult, but it is safe—the way of righteousness, between the paths of judgment. (H. Macmillan,D. D.)

Proverbs 8:21
That I may cause them that love Me to inherit substance.
Man’s enrichment by God
I. Love—the love of God as the source of every blessing.
II. The love of created being is excited by some good, real or imaginary, in the object beloved.
III. Man’s individual sins, wants, and necessities.
IV. Observe the way in which man is to become rich. God gives Himself—involving every good.
V. God himself is to be the wealth of His family for evermore. (W. Howels.)
Real substance in spiritual things
This is among the golden sayings of the book. In the text is an encouragement to religion drawn from the incomparable benefit of it. “They that love Me shall not be losers by Me.” The Hebrew word for substance means that which is: that which hath a firm and solid consistency.

1. By substance may be meant Christ. He must needs be substance who gives being and substance to everything.
2. By substance is meant the grace of the Spirit. That must needs be substance which partakes of the fulness of God.
3. By substance is meant salvation, expressly called substance (Heb_10:34).
   I. The qualification of the persons. “Those that love Me.”
4. The affection: Love. Love doth mellow and perfume holy duties. Love is that which the Lord is most delighted with.
5. The object of love: Christ. Did men know Christ, it were impossible to keep them off from loving Him.
   II. The specification of the privilege. Why is grace called substance?
6. For its preciousness.
7. For its suitableness.
8. For its needfulness.
9. For its satisfyingness.
10. For its certainty.
11. For its durableness.
    Substance signifies something that runs parallel with eternity. That spiritual things must needs have a real being and substance in them appears by two convincing arguments.
    (1) Because God, who is the original pattern of truth, hath asserted it.
    (2) This is most consistent with the rational nature.
    Learn—
12. The incomparable excellence of grace.
13. See the difference between the things of God and the things of the world.
14. See the egregious folly of those who mind things of less moment, but do not look after substance (Isa_4:2).
    Why do not men labour more after spiritual substance? Answer:
15. Ignorance.
16. Presumption.
    If we have this spiritual substance, we can remember a time when we wanted it. We know how we came by it. We highly prize it. (T. Watson.)

Proverbs 8:22-36
The Lord possessed us in the beginning of His way.
Wisdom the first creation of God
Here is the noble idea which overturns at a touch all mythological speculations about the origin of things—an idea which is in deep harmony with all the best knowledge of our time—that there is nothing fortuitous in the creation of the world; the Creator is not a blind Force, but an intelligent Being whose first creation is wisdom. He is the origin of a law by which He means to bind Himself; arbitrariness finds no place in His counsels; accident has no part in His works; in wisdom hath He formed them all. Here is a clear recognition of the principle that God’s law is a law also to Himself, and that His law is wisdom. He creates the world as an outcome of His own wise and holy design, so that “nothing walks with aimless feet.” It is on this theological conception that the possibility of science depends. (R. F. Horton, D. D.)

The autobiography of Wisdom
I. As having existed before all time.
II. As having been present at the creation.
III. As having been in external association with the creator.
IV. As having felt before all worlds a deep interest in man. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:23
I was set up from everlasting.
Christ set up from everlasting
Doctrine: That as Christ is the everlasting God, so, from all eternity, He was foreordained and set up for the great service of man’s redemption.
I. To prove That Christ is the everlasting God.

1. That He existed before the incarnation is evident from the appearance He made to our first parents in paradise.
2. We find His existence and agency in the production of all created beings.
3. Run up to the endless ages before the creation of the world, and we find Him existing or ever the earth was.
   II. What is imported in His being set up from everlasting.
4. It supposes the council of peace, or an eternal transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of lost sinners.
5. It implies the infinite complacency that the Father and Son had in each other from all eternity.
6. It implies a Divine ordination and decree, whereby He was from eternity elected into the great service of man’s redemption.
7. It implies that, in consequence of the decree, He was called of God to undertake the work of redemption.
8. It implies His own voluntary consent to, and complacence with, His Father’s call. He was actually set up in time.
   (1) His first appearance was in the promise made to our first parents.
   (2) Set up typically under the Old Testament.
   (3) Set up prophetically.
   (4) Personally and actually, in His incarnation, obedience, and death.
   (5) In His resurrection and ascension.
   (6) Sacramentally, in baptism and the last supper.
   (7) In conversion.
   (8) Will be set up at His second coming.
   III. For what ends and purposes Christ was thus set up.
9. As a sun, to give light to this lower world.
10. As a second Adam, the head of a new covenant of grace and promise.
11. As a repairer of breaches between God and man.
    IV. The grounds and reasons way Christ was set up.
12. Because it was the Father’s will and pleasure.
13. Because of the good-will He did bear to man upon earth.
14. Because of His ability for the undertaking.
15. Because He voluntarily offered Himself for the work and service.
16. Because from everlasting God foresaw what a revenue of glory would accrue to the crown of heaven through His mediation.
    V. Application of the doctrine. See the antiquity and activity of the love of God; the stability and perpetuity of the covenant of grace and of the Church; the reason why all hands should be at work to exalt Him. (E. Erskine.)

Proverbs 8:30
And I was daily His delight.
The happiness of Christ antecedent to His incarnation
The delights between the Father and the Son, before His assumption of our nature, were twofold.

1. They delighted in one another without communicating their joys to any other; for no creature did then exist save in the mind of God.
2. They delighted in the salvation of men; in the prospect of that work, though not yet extant. The condition and state of Jesus Christ before His incarnation was a state of the most unspeakable delight in the enjoyment of His Father. Consider this—
   I. Negatively.
3. He was not abased to the low estate of a creature.
4. He was not under the law in this estate.
5. He was not liable to any of those sorrowful consequents and attendants of that frail state of humanity which afterwards He assumed with that nature. Unacquainted with griefs. Never pinched with poverty and want. Never underwent reproach and shame. Was never offended with any impure suggestions. Never sensible of tortures and pains. There were no hidings or withdrawings of His Father. No experience of death.
   II. Positively.
6. A state of matchless happiness.
7. A state of intimacy, dearness, and oneness with His Father.
8. A state of pure, unmixed, and ravishing delight.
   III. Comparitively.
9. Compare it with the delight that some creatures take in each other, and you will soon find that they fall infinitely short of this.
10. Compare it with the delight that God takes in some of His creatures; you will find it to come short of the delight that God takes in Christ.
11. Compare it with the delight that the best of creatures take in God and Christ; how infinitely short it comes of the delight that God takes in Christ!
    Conclusion:
12. What an astonishing love was this for the Father to give the darling of His soul for poor sinners!
13. Adore the love of Jesus to sinners, that ever He should consent to leave such a bosom.
14. An interest in Jesus Christ is the true way to all spiritual preferment in heaven.
15. Jesus Christ is worthy of all love and delight.
16. It is a grievous thing to see God’s dear Son despised, slighted, and rejected by sinners.
17. Let us be ready to forsake and leave all for Christ. (John Flavel.)

Christ’s eternal felicity
I. Christ was with the Father at the beginning. This censures the Arians.
II. God the Father, as He delighted in Christ at the beginning, so He doth always.

1. Because He is His Son.
2. Because He never offended Him.
3. Because He is always ready to please His Father.
   III. Christ rejoiced in God the Father from the beginning, and does so always. Some read, “I rejoice, or sport, always before Him.” (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Rejoicing always before Him.
Eternal Wisdom rejoicing in the events to be revealed
If we contemplate the character of Divine Wisdom as directed to earth, dwelling amongst men, anticipating the concerns and circumstances and history of this human world, we shall—

1. Be led to perceive an importance attaching to all the ramifications of that history, to all its epochs and all its events.
2. In addition to this we shall be led to depend, with a degree of delight and joy, on all the arrangements and developments of this Wisdom in relation to our circumstances.
3. And we shall perceive the impropriety of our murmuring; and that there is the greatest measure of folly, as well as of danger, in allowing ourselves to dispute any part of the Divine proceedings.
4. Such a view will induce us to look with intelligent and instructed minds upon all the things around us, and to observe in the various circumstances which transpire before our view the actual working out of a plan arranged before eternity.
5. We shall regard the great Supreme with deep solicitude, in order that we ourselves may be brought to see the truth and results of all that is around us.
6. We shall anticipate the glory of that scene in its fulness which we now perceive in fragments. Christ looked forward to the production of the world for the sake of the men who would dwell on it. What is more wonderful than the intellectual, physical, moral, and spiritual being, man? Consider the proofs of this anticipation and delight, and the reason whence arises all this delight. (R. S. McAll, LL. D.)

Proverbs 8:31
Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth.
The rejoicing of Wisdom
I. Where did the Son of God by anticipation rejoice? “Habitable part of His earth.” “Sons of men.”

1. The simple fact in itself. Of all creation this insignificant globe of earth is singled out. And of this globe its habitable part. It is with souls He would have to do. It was the empire of mind upon the earth that He in time expected to assume. This puts an honour and dignity upon our poor human nature which it is impossible fully to estimate.
2. Certain circumstances connected with this fact. What claims had earth’s inhabitants upon His regard? We can think of none. Man is an insignificant being and a sinner.
   II. Why did the eternal joy of the Son of God centre in this earth? This joy could not have arisen from contemplation of our misery, and far less of our guilt. When He cast a glance down to this earth, what did His mind’s eye discover in its habitable parts? He saw men ruined, and purposed to save them. His atonement was the chief ground of joy to Himself, because the great occasion of glory to His Father and of good to His people. Lessons—
3. Of reproof to careless and Christless sinners.
4. Of consolation to believers. (N. Morren, M. A.)

Christ’s joy in the Church before His incarnation
Wisdom here is a real, not an allegorical person. It is the Eternal Word. Our Saviour informs us that, as soon as the world was made, the habitable parts of it became the scene and subject of His rejoicing. His delights were with men rather than angels. Yet He knew that the world would be wet with His tears and stained with His blood. Why, then, did He rejoice in the human inhabitants of the earth? It could not be on account of man’s intellectual or moral excellency. It must be because in the world the plan of redemption was to be executed, and because men were the objects of it. Our Redeemer rejoiced in the world because—
I. It was destined to be the place in which He should perform the most wonderful of His works. There He would obtain His greatest victory, make the most glorious display of His moral perfections, and in the most signal manner glorify the Father.
II. Because the habitable parts of the earth were the destined residence of His then future Church. They are all destined to be filled with His disciples. Everywhere Churches are to be established.
III. Our Redeemer’s chief delights and pleasures were with men.

1. Because He intended Himself to become a man.
2. To many the Divine Redeemer was to become still more nearly related. As His Church.
3. His delights partly lay in its being more blessed to give than to receive. How ungrateful and inexcusable does the treatment which Christ has received from men appear when viewed in the light of this subject! (E. Payson, D. D.)

The voice of God’s eternal Wisdom
I. From the beginning the welfare of man engaged the complacent regard of God our Saviour.

1. He represents Himself here as deriving delight from the spectacle even of the material creation, because it was subservient to man. He looked on material objects as visible realisations of eternal types. On comparing them with the originals in His own infinite mind He beheld the perfect resemblance, and was satisfied. He beheld them in their prospective application, serving as indexes or intimations of His infinite greatness to myriads of minds which He purposed to create. He looked on these objects as the first in an endless series yet to come. In His first acts of creation the Great Architect was laying the foundation of an all-comprehending and eternal temple. And it was all present in His mind, and He rejoiced in the glorious prospect.
2. There was the happiness of prospectively beholding the activity, enlargement, and progress of the whole system of creation and providence. The prospect of this development of His great plan afforded Him profound satisfaction. This is evident because He has sought at times to throw His Church into an ecstasy of delight by affording them glimpses of its onward course; for the disclosures of prophecy are such glimpses.
3. There was the happiness of prospectively beholding the effects arising from His gratuitous interposition for human salvation.
4. Then there was the happiness derivable from knowing that, important as the recovery of man is, in attaining it He should be attaining an end greater still—attaining the greatest of all ends—the manifestation of the Divine glory.
   II. All the Mediator’s communications and intercourse with us are made to harmonise with our welfare also. Tell us the distinguishing wants of human nature, and we will tell you the distinguishing excellences of Divine revelation.
5. From their eager inquiries and their signs of reflection you infer that they are intelligent beings, and from other signs you infer that the subjects which most deeply interest them are those which refer to their origin, their character, and their relation to the invisible and the future. Man’s solution of these problems is puerile, contradictory, and absurd. What is the Divine explanation of the mystery?
6. Man is manifestly a sufferer. Sorrow has but two places of refuge—the sanctuary and the grave.
7. Man is a personally sinful being. The Mediator has made special provision for the necessities thus arising. The vicarious sacrifice of Christ, while providing a complete satisfaction for human guilt, provides that which we equally require—means for the renovation of our sinful nature and motives to a constant progress in holiness. So wonderfully adapted to the susceptibilities, so exquisitely adjusted to all the springs of our nature is the Cross of Christ, that in the hand of the Spirit it relieves our apprehensions, while it quickens our sensibility—gives peace to the conscience while it increases its activity and power—inspires hope while it produces humility, by the very magnitude and splendour of the objects which inspire it—demands perfection, by presenting the affections with an object calculated to produce it.
8. But man is not only a rational, suffering, sinful being. He is groaning and travailing together in pain, casting anxious looks on the future, gazing on the distant darkness, invoking the dead. The burden of his great anxiety is this, “If a man die, shall he live again?” Answering that, Jesus is “the Resurrection and the Life.” Such are parts of that great system of saving truth by which the Saviour seeks to realise those purposes of mercy toward us, the bare contemplation of which filled Him with delight.
   III. The Saviour rejoices in such parts of the earth as are set apart for the diffusion of His truth and the promotion of His designs. Man was to have moved over the face of the earth as amidst the types and symbolic services of a temple, where everything was adapted to remind Him of God. Sin has disturbed this adjustment and thrown it in confusion. If this is to be remedied, some counter-force must be employed.
   IV. What does Christ expect from a place thus distinguished?
9. He expects you to sympathise with Him in His regard for human happiness.
10. He expects you to aim at results and to look for them.
11. Not only expect the results, but anticipate the consequences of those results. (J. Harris, D. D.)

And My delights were with the sons of men.
Christ’s delight in the sons of men

1. “Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth.”
   (1) “The habitable parts of His earth” are such places where the gospel comes, bringing the good tidings of Jesus Christ and His salvation for lost sinners.
   (2) “The habitable part of His earth” is especially intended of such as are, through grace, become “the habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph_2:22; Eph_3:17; Joh_4:13). The Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced in this habitable part of this earth from everlasting, before there was an earth to be inhabited.
2. The delights of Jesus Christ, from all eternity, were “with the sons of men.”
   (1) He knew that by standing as a Surety for His people, and bearing their guilt and punishment, He should also bear away their sins.
   (2) He knew that in saving His people, through His obedience in life and death, all the Divine perfections would be more remarkably displayed and glorified than in all the other works of God.
   (3) His delight proceeded from the pleasing prospect that He had of men being united to Himself by faith.
   (4) He delighted in the prospect of conveying the riches of grace to their souls.
   (5) He delighted in the prospect of their sincere services done in faith and love.
   (6) He delighted in the prospect of His acting towards them, as the Prophet of His Church, to teach them the mind and will of God for their salvation.
   (7) He delighted in the prospect that He had from everlasting, of His people being all brought home to glory, to be for ever with Him. The greatest honour that Jesus Christ can do to men upon earth is to delight in them. “Such honour have all His saints” (Isa_62:4). This implies—
3. His interest in them.
4. His continual remembrance of them.
5. His readiness to bestow His best favours upon them. Did Jesus Christ delight in His people from everlasting; then all the disciples of Christ should delight in Him (1Pe_2:7; Son_5:10). (W. Notcutt.)

Wisdom resident in the world
Wisdom rejoices in the habitable parts of the earth, not in the monastic retreats of a dreary desert or wilderness. Wisdom’s delights are among the sons of men, not in the midst of books. The inestimable advantages gained in those places, only become wisdom as they are used among men, just as the wheat, growing on some distant prairie, where few eyes ever rest upon its beauties, becomes food only as it reaches the crowded city, where men are longing for it and would die without it. Wisdom is in the world where men are; she delights to be there; we need not leave the world to find her if we will only hear the voice of God just where we are. The sins and failings of men can speak warnings to us; the needs of men can stir our activities; the kindness and goodness of men can point to God’s greater love. Everywhere hands point up to God and our true relations to Him, if only we will let Him be as real, as truly personal, as the rest of the world is to us . . . Wisdom delights in the habitable parts of the earth, and rejoices to be among the sons of men. Can it always be so? How often we tire of the very noise of our fellow-men, and wish to flee afar off and be at rest! Wisdom cannot feel that exhaustion. But how often the most habitable parts of the earth are the very homes of the foolishness of sin! We see their wickedness and foolishness: must not Wisdom itself see it much more? Are the social regulations of our life to-day likely to please the heart of Wisdom and make her long to be among them? How much true wisdom do they cultivate among those who are devoted to them? Wisdom may be in our streets, but it must be as a very sorrowful resident, as she sees soul after soul that she loves lost in the desire of gain, associating with its fellow-man only for selfish purposes. The souls might delight her and make her stay, but would the lives which she saw those souls leading do so? What can we do to make society and life generally worthy of this great presence which is ever in it? No laws, no customs, no institutions that we can establish for business or the State, no prescriptions that we may make for social life, will do the work; for those are impersonal, and what we have seen to be valuable to the world is the personal presence of Wisdom. And that must find its expression in our personal lives. All that makes society attractive or city life prosperous to-day came from God, and in that fact has its power for us. For that reason it cannot be ignored or put out of sight. But why, then, is it so dangerous to us? Because it destroys our sense of personal responsibility, which is the great thing by which we are to show forth the true character of God’s wisdom. Be followers of Christ, personal friends of Jesus. Recognise the fact that Christ is in all that is good, and that by being true to Him you cannot possibly get out of the stream of the world’s true life. You will have to leave some things that are false, you will have to condemn them by leaving them; but all which truly belongs to men must ultimately be the possession of those who have the Wisdom whose delights are among the sons of men. (Arthur Brooks.)

Divine Wisdom
I. The joy of god in this material world. The Divine Wisdom approved the result of the Divine power and skill.
II. His delights were with the sons of men. Humanity has always held a foremost place in the thoughts of God.

1. Man as a creature of God. The noblest work that God has placed upon the earth; he is the crown and glory of this terrestrial creation.
2. Man has sinned. The prescient eye of God from eternity looked upon man, not only as a creature endowed with high capabilities, and as an offender against law and a sufferer because of sin, but He looked upon him as a transgressor redeemed. He looked on men not only in their connection with the first Adam, but also in their connection with the second Adam. He foresaw the success which should crown the mission and sacrifice of His well-beloved Son. (T. Stephens.)

On the benevolence of Christ to the human race
I. Our blessed Lord rejoiced in the habitable part of the earth because He foresaw that the perfections of God would be manifested and glorified. The human race appears to have been created for a twofold purpose.

1. To glorify God upon the earth.
2. That our Lord might defeat the infernal purposes of the malicious spirits, destroy the works of the devil.
   II. His delights were with the sons of men, that He might minister to the comfort and happiness of their bodies. What an amazing constellation of virtues did He exhibit, and how boundless must have been that love which led Him day after day, amidst hunger, and thirst, and fatigue, and suffering, and sorrow, to relieve the wants of the needy and restore to the soundness of health and activity the miserable and forlorn sufferers of calamity and woe!
   III. His delights were with the sons of men, that He might enlighten their minds by His Word and Spirit. Many theories have been propounded to solve the mystery of the introduction of moral evil into the world, but no hypothesis is so credible or intelligible as that of the Scripture account of the fall of man. Our blessed Lord interposed on our behalf, and generously undertook to redeem us from the curse of the law and regain that immortal life which we had forfeited by our disobedience. How can we account for such a display of unparalleled benevolence but from His ardent desire to promote the best interests of men?
   IV. His delights were with the sons of men, that He might sanctify their souls and prepare them for the enjoyments of heaven. We ought to be extremely solicitous for the salvation of our souls, and never dare to imagine that, because Christ has died for our sins, we shall be saved without that holiness of heart and life which are the fruits of the Spirit in all them that believe. (D. Davidson.)

Wisdom’s delights with the sons of men
In these words are revealed things concerning the personal, substantial, and self-existent Wisdom.
I. “My delights were with the sons of men.” Wisdom, then, has her delights; and where does she find them? The prime of these delights is that which He finds in Himself. He has complacential delight in Himself, for He only is perfection, independent, and eternal. The communications of His glorious attributes are also His delight. These rest on the sinful sons of men. The words include the idea of dwelling with the sons of men. What led the Saviour to such condescension? It was purely of His tender love towards mankind. Whence originates this love? In His own bosom, and we can say no more and see no farther.
II. Rejoicing in the habitable parts of God’s earth. The Hebrew is forcible and poetical—“playing or disporting on the orb of God’s earth.” God formed the earth and the world with wisdom, but also with love, and not only for the benefit, but also for the happiness of His creatures, and with a special view to the pleasure of the sons of men. In Christ, the Wisdom of God, the same wonderful condescension continues still. He adapts Himself to our human conceptions; brings His mysteries near to us in a most gracious manner; and the same graciousness is seen in God’s everyday communion with His beloved children. The word “rejoicing” reminds of sweet music, and all the music on earth is made by Christ or for Him. (F. W. Krummacher, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:32
Blessed are they that keep My ways.
The claims of Divine Wisdom
I. These are very simple.

1. Diligently study its counsels.
2. Constantly obey its precepts. The teachings of Divine Wisdom arc not speculative, but regulative. They are maxims to rule the life.
   II. Very important.
3. Obedience to them is happiness.
4. To neglect them is ruin. (David Thomas, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:33
Hear instruction, and be wise.
Motives for hearing sermons
Contempt of God’s Sabbaths and disregard of ministerial instruction are melancholy characteristics of the age in which we live.
I. The tendency of preaching and meaning the word to promote our best interest. This tendency is sufficient to enforce the duty recommended in my text. The sacred oracles are profitable. The doctrines revealed in them are not doubtful speculations, or light and trivial matters, but truths of infallible certainty, of the most sublime and excellent nature, and, to us men, of infinite importance. The learned as well as illiterate need to go to church on their own account. None, in this imperfect state, arrive at such extent and exactness of Christian knowledge as to need no further assistance for knowing more. For wise reasons the Bible was not written in a systematic form. In searching the Scriptures we need to use the fittest and most effectual means in our power. What can be better suited to assist us in the attainment of religious knowledge than the discourses of those who have not only made it their chief business to study the sacred oracles, but who, by cultivating their rational powers, have acquired a facility of forming distinct conceptions of things, and of expressing those conceptions with plainness and propriety? And knowledge, however extensive, if it hath no suitable influence on men’s hearts and lives, will profit them nothing. Therefore men need a faithful monitor, to awaken in us a practical sense of danger and of duty. So sensible was Julian the apostate how wise an institution preaching was for promoting the knowledge and practice of religion, that he appointed men to preach moral philosophy, and to harangue, publicly, in defence of heathenism.
II. Hearing the Word of God is enjoined by express Divine authority. In the Old Testament dispensation (Deu_24:8; Ecc_12:9-11; Neh_8:7-11; Hag_2:11; Mal_2:7) synagogue worship had to be regularly attended. New Testament injunctions are Eph_4:11-13; 1Ti_4:16; 2Ti_2:15; 2Ti_4:2; Tit_1:9; Tit_2:1; Tit_2:7-8.
III. The dreadful threatenings denounced and executed against those who refuse to hear God’s Word. Such as Pro_1:24-31; Pro_21:16; Pro_28:9; Mat_10:14; Heb_2:2-3; Heb_10:28-29; Heb_12:25. On the other hand, God hath promised His special presence and blessing to the faithful preaching, and conscientious hearing of His Word. To support and strengthen our hopes let us review former accomplishments of these exceeding great and precious promises. In how miraculous a manner hath the Word of God often triumphed over the greatest opposition. (J. Erskine, D. D.)

Proverbs 8:34
Blessed is the man that heareth Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.
Attending public instruction recommended
I. The reasonableness of attending all the instituted means of our instruction. If God had never vouchsafed to men a positive revelation, we should have been obliged to feel after virtue if haply we might find it. And it is surprising to what lengths some have arrived without the help of that “grace which bringeth salvation.” But when it hath pleased God to erect a kingdom in the world, it is great ingratitude, a heinous contempt of God’s authority, an affront to His love, and so must be inexcusable folly so to neglect our own true interest.
II. What is imported in hearing. Scripture represents this as the sum of that duty and respect which God demandeth for Christ who is His Wisdom, and the great revealer of His will to mankind. Whatever is meant by hearing Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, it is enjoined and enforced with all the authority and obligatory power with which any Divine precept can be enforced. Hearing importeth a serious and attentive consideration, and a diligent application of the mind, to understand the important contents of the Divine message. We are to understand by hearing—

1. An attentive regard to instruction. The Wisdom of God hath the first right to be heard, and what He prescribeth, to be attended to.
2. Hearing signifies a submissive disposition. To hear is to turn at the reproofs of Wisdom, to tremble at the threatenings of God, to hope in His promises, and practise what He enjoineth.
3. Hearing Wisdom importeth an absolute unreserved obedience.
   III. The proper dispositions of mind, and the manner of hearing and using all means.
4. It importeth a sense of our constant need of instruction, that we may be still making further progress in knowledge and in grace. If this be the temper of our minds, it will incline us to a daily attendance at the gates of Wisdom; that is, a daily use of the appointed means for our increase in knowledge and virtue.
5. A constant care and solicitude that the benefit of them may not be lost; and particularly a strict vigilance over our own spirits and our whole behaviour.
6. Patience, which is signified by waiting, is also needed. Our progress to religious knowledge and virtue is gradual. Patience is the character of a continuance in well-doing, as well as of enduring afflictions. Always endeavour with alacrity and vigour to use the means of our religious instruction and improvement. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

Watchful diligence
I. The way to happiness is to hearken diligently to wisdom’s words.

1. We cannot of ourselves find out the way to true happiness.
2. No man can show it to us.
   II. We must not only hear, but watch for wisdom. Omit no occasion of learning, and make the best possible use of every occasion.
   III. We must not only watch for a while, we must wait long, if we would get wisdom. Give no place to idleness and slothfulness, lest ye become unteachable, and incapable of wisdom. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Waiting upon God
Profession without principle is worthless. He who is not an every-day Christian is no Christian at all.
I. The characteristics of an every-day Christian. They are—

1. Hearers. Many hear, and do not hear. Hearing implies profitable hearing. Many do not profit. They come to hear, but not to learn, or to practise. Some come fresh from the cares of the world. Others come with unclean hearts. If you would receive good by attending at the house of God, there must be a desire to profit; and with a lively faith.
2. They are watchers. This implies frequency, perseverance, self-denial, self-abasement, and a certain degree of anxiety.
3. They “wait at the posts of His doors.” That is, attend those places, and frequently attend them, where Christ is expected.
   II. Such a man will never lose his reward.
4. He finds life. St. John says, “He that hath the Son hath life.” Finding Christ is finding life. Finding Iris implies pardon. With pardon we have peace.
5. The reward consists in the favour of God. This favour is enduring. It supports the sinner in the time of his trouble.
   Lessons:
6. Though you may be a hearer, a watcher, a waiter upon Christ, you must expect your trials. Do not be surprised either at the number or the degree of your trials.
7. See that you come in the spirit of prayer and of faith. (H. Montagu Villiers, M. A.)

Waiting at Wisdom’s gates
The Bible seldom speaks, and certainly never its deepest, sweetest words, to those who always read it in a hurry. Nature can only tell her secrets to such as will sit still in her sacred temple, till their eyes lose the glare of earthly glory, and their ears are attuned to her voice. And shall revelation do what nature cannot? Never. The man who shall win the blessedness of hearing her must watch daily at her gates, and wait at the posts of her doors. (F. B. Meyer.)

Proverbs 8:35
Whoso findeth Me findeth life.
The Christian life delineated: Christ to be found in the ordinances, with the import and happy effects of finding Him
I. The ordinances are the place where Christ is to be found of poor sinners

1. What are the ordinances? The Divine ordinance of meditation. Christian conference about spiritual matters. Singing of the Lord’s praises. Prayer. The Word. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
2. Confirm this doctrine. The ordinances are by Christ’s own appointment the trysting-places wherein He has promised to be found of those that seek Him. Trysting-places for sinners, where they may be convinced, converted, and regenerated. Trysting-places for saints, where they may receive life more abundantly. They are the places wherein His people seek Him, who know best where He is to be found. They are what the Lord has allowed His people to supply the want of heaven, until they come there.
3. Apply this doctrine. It reproves those who slight attendance on ordinances; those who come to meet some they have worldly business with; who come, but not to find Christ there; who stand in the way of others attending on ordinances. It urges to seek Christ in ordinances. He is well worth the seeking.
   II. People may come to ordinances and not find Christ.
4. Reasons on the sinner’s side. Some have no design of finding Christ in ordinances at all. Many are indifferent whether they find Christ or not. Some desire not to see Him at all. Some cannot wait patiently at the gates.
5. Improve this point. Seek Him sincerely and uprightly with all your heart. Seek Him honestly and generously for Himself. Seek Him fervently, humbly, diligently, mournfully. Seek Him till you find.
   III. Then do people find christ when, upon a saving discovery of Christ made to their souls, they close with Him by faith.
6. Things in general touching the finding of Christ. There is a twofold finding of Him, initial and progressive. The immediate effect of the former is union, of the other actual communion with Christ. Some things to be observed. Sinners in their natural state have lost God. Man is a seeking creature. There is no satisfying of the soul till it come to God. God is in Christ, and is to be found in Him only.
7. More particularly explain the soul’s finding Christ. The soul savingly discovers and discerns Jesus Christ by a new light let into it. There is a twofold discovery of Him in the gospel, objective and subjective. There are six things the soul sees in Christ: A transcendent excellency. A fulness for the supply of all wants. A suitableness to meet his case and to glorify God. The Wisdom of God in Him. An ability to save. Willingness to save. Upon this discovery of Christ made unto and by the soul, the soul closes with Christ by faith. Such a discovery is not made to the soul till it be hunger-bitten. The nature of the object discovered speaks for itself. And the discovery is always attended with a heart-conquering power.
   IV. Sinners finding Christ find life.
8. Unfold that life which sinners find. It is a life of grace, in regeneration. A life of favour with God. A life of new obedience. A life of comfort. And eternal life.
9. What are the qualities of this life? It is a Divine life. A life of the whole man. A pleasant life. A persevering life. A growing life.
10. Confirm this doctrine. The sinner finding Christ finds all things necessary to make him happy. Look to the whole of Christ’s purchase, what He bought for poor sinners with His blood; and the soul finding Christ finds it all, and may say, “It is all mine.” (T. Boston, D. D.)

Wisdom’s rewards
Some man might say, “Why should we watch so much for Wisdom? What shall we get by so much labour? Lest any should refuse and despise Wisdom, as terrified with the mention of so much pains in getting, Wisdom promises large rewards of life and favour from God. Heavy things grow light, when great rewards are propounded. And if any man be inquisitive to know what is that blessedness promised to such as take pains to get Wisdom, she tells them that their diligence in seeking her shall be recompensed in a most copious reward. As if she had said, “They that find Me shall not obtain some vulgar matter of little weight, but an incomparable treasure of all good things—to wit, life, which all men naturally desire, and eternal life, which only God can give, and all that a man can justly desire; and so shall he be fully happy in God’s favour.” (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Life
The life that is found in Christ, who is our life—the life which, if diligently sought, shall be assuredly found, and which, when found, fills the soul with joy and peace.
I. The advantage of seeking Christ. We seek not only Him personally, but all that is in Him. We seek Him in whom all fulness dwells, and in seeking Him all the fulness that dwells in Him becomes ours. In finding Christ we find happiness, holiness, and heaven; pardon, peace, a quiet conscience, relief from the weary load of sin.
II. What do we find in Christ? Life is the great aim of all sentient beings; to obtain life, and having obtained it, to preserve it. Inquire, by way of contrast, what is gained by that life which is found elsewhere than in Christ? Sometimes life is sought in pleasure, in the world, in the love of things of the world, and in sin. Mistaking the great object of living, and pursuing a career of sin, men find that sin bringeth forth death—death of body and of soul, death for time, and death throughout eternity. There is a more excellent way, a way which has the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. The true life commences here. This life of ours is a pilgrimage. “He that findeth life” finds a life that is clothed with immortality, that revels in eternal day, that climbs unwearied the everlasting hills, that wears the crown of everlasting victory. (Robert Maguire, M. A.)

And shall obtain favour of the Lord.
Sinners interested in Christ obtaining favour of the Lord
I. Show some things supposed in this truth tending to clear the meaning of it.

1. There is a treasure of favour for poor sinners with the Lord. A treasure speaks preciousness, variety, and abundance.
2. This treasure is locked on sinners out of Christ, they have no access to it.
3. The sinner once interested in Christ has free access to the treasure, to bring forth from thence whatever he needs.
4. The sinner, when interested in Christ, will still be needing, while he is in this world.
5. It is the privilege and duty of believers to bring forth and fetch supply for all their wants out of that treasure.
   II. Show wherein the soul once interested in Christ shall obtain favour of the Lord.
6. In prosperity. They shall have balancing grace, to make them carry evenly and usefully. Balancing providences; some such mixture of bitterness in their cup as keeps them from miskenning themselves.
7. In personal outward athletics. But they shall be bettered by it; supported under it, and have deliverance in due time.
8. In desertion. They shall never be totally or finally forsaken.
9. In temptation. They shall either be made to keep their ground against the temptation, or at least temptation shall not be allowed to gain a complete victory over them.
10. Even when fallen into sin, the Lord will not leave them, nor cast them off.
11. In time of public calamity. They shall either be hid, or gracious favour shall be mixed with the trouble, or the sting shall be taken out of it.
12. Death. They shall then be freed from sin and freed from trouble.
    III. Confirm this doctrine.
13. Sinners have a right to the whole treasure of favour in Christ, in whom they are interested.
14. Jesus Christ is the dispenser of the treasure, the high Steward of the house of heaven.
15. The enjoyment is secured by the covenant of promises.
16. They have each of them a private key to the treasure, and that is faith. Improve this doctrine—
    (1) In a way of information;
    (2) in a way of encouragement. (T. Boston, D. D.)

What found with wisdom
I. Wisdom may be found. Else these promises were annexed in vain.
II. If wisdom be found, life is found withal.

1. Natural.
2. Spiritual.
3. Eternal life.
   III. Not only life, but God’s favour is gotten also by getting wisdom.
4. He shall find favour from God in receiving Him.
5. He shall find favour from God in rewarding him here.
6. He shall find favour from God in preserving him from many dangers.
7. He shall receive favour from God in preferring, or crowning him with eternal glory in heaven.
   Use—
8. To confute the doctrine of merits.
9. Seek wisdom earnestly and truly; not faintly and hypocritically, seeing ye look not only for life, but also for God’s favour from thence, which is the very cause of life, and the very life of life itself. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

The favour of God obtained by wisdom
The intention of this text is to represent a very great blessedness to good men, whether in the present or a future state, annexed to wisdom, or religious virtue, in consequence of their obtaining God’s favour.
I. How great, how substantial and comprehensive a felicity this is. It will be easily allowed, if we consider our most obvious notions of the Deity, as a Being infinitely perfect and all-sufficient, the fountain of life and happiness. We judge of the importance of any person’s favour, and of the security and advantage which may arise to ourselves from it, by his power and capacity. It is impossible that God’s favourites should be unhappy, because He neither wanteth power to effect what His good-will inclineth to, nor wisdom to contrive the best method for their safety and advantage. Though there are objects suitable to the inclinations God hath planted in our nature, yet even supposing them sought after, and enjoyed without sin, they come short of being our true felicity, both in the perfection of degree and in the duration of them. They cannot yield solid contentment and satisfaction to the mind of man, because they are too low in their kind for its high capacity; and they are of a perishing nature; pleasure is but for a season, honour only an empty shadow; nothing can be more variable and uncertain than it is. But the favour of God is a substantial good, and never-failing foundation of hope and spring of comfort; it extendeth to all possible cases, and is a support in the most distressed situation of affairs.
II. Upon what grounds may we expect that, if we find wisdom, we shall obtain favour of the Lord? How can men do anything that is good out of a regard to the Deity, unless they first believe Him to be good, and a lover of virtue? The greatest corruptions of religion and morality have taken their rise from wrong notions of God. But how doth it appear that the wise and virtuous obtain favour of the Lord, since His providence doth not distinguish them by marks of favour, but, by the confession of the sacred writers themselves, they are in as bad a condition with respect to the affairs of this life as the wicked? This objection hath been advanced against the equity and wisdom of Providence, and as seeming to prove that the affairs of this world are under no intelligent direction, but left to blind chance or necessity; but this is not conclusive against the doctrine of the text for the following reasons:

1. The present state is appointed in the wisdom of God to be a state of discipline and improvement.
2. The sufferings of good men in the present state may be considered as trials, and it is consistent with the favour of God to His servants that He should try them in order to their growth in virtue, and so becoming still more the objects of His favour.
3. We must keep in mind those things promised in the gospel. Two practical reflections.
   (1) See what is the noblest end of life, the worthiest of our affections, our choice, and of our most diligent and constant endeavours, that we may attain it.
   (2) The way to obtain this end is plainly marked out to us in Scripture, and it is very inexcusable folly and thoughtlessness if we mistake it. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

Proverbs 8:36
He that sinneth against Me wrongeth him own soul.
The sinner wrongeth his own soul
I. What are we to understand by a man sinning against Christ?

1. To take partial views of His glorious gospel.
2. When He would wreathe His gentle yoke about our necks, to kick at the restraint, and refuse it.
3. To coldly hear the offers of His grace, and grieve His Holy Spirit in not fully and spiritually accepting them.
   II. How can we be said to hate the only being who can save us? This expression seems wholly inconsistent with the natural dispositions of men. Yet as a fact, men may be seen all around us loving the ways of death.
4. We may be said to love death when we suffer and encourage our desires to go forth and loiter about the precincts of it. The thoughts and desires of a man tell us what he is.
5. We love the captivity of death when we make but few and faint efforts to break the chains of it.
   III. How does a sinner who loves death wrong his own soul?
6. He does it by choosing to be a beggar in the midst of riches.
7. He does it when he treats his soul as a fleeting mortal thing. We do it great wrong when we labour to fill it with too much of the creature, and with too little of Christ. (F. G. Crossman.)

Sinners wrong themselves

1. They snatch their souls away from wisdom.
2. They spoil (rob) their souls.
3. They infect their souls with the guilt of sin.
4. They corrupt them with the filth of sin.
5. They disgrace their souls.
6. They torment their souls with the pangs of conscience.
7. They betray their souls to sin.
8. They destroy them eternally. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Wronging one’s self
It would be repugnant to our moral sense to overlook the consequences of sin, and put on the same plane one whose life had been one of spotless purity and a grey-haired sinner who had at the eleventh hour found pardon. “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap” is an inflexible law. Notice certain particulars in which the principle is seen.

1. Opportunities are lost. A man wrongs his own soul by the sinful neglect of God’s commands in his early years. Those grand years freighted with golden chances of service for God and humanity, can never be recalled.
2. Moral growth is arrested. You may secure the resumption of arrested processes in a crystal or a plant, but as you ascend the scale of being difficulties increase. In one’s moral nature the law we illustrate holds inexorable sway. He that sinneth against God dwarfs, deadens, and stultifies his better faculties. Take a single faculty, like the memory. There is retention as well as reception. The passing thought, the momentary impulse, the fugitive desire we entertain—all these are ours; yea, they are us. We are ever enriching or defacing our moral life through the faculty of memory.
3. Look at the true end of our life here, service for God and our fellow-men. If that service is unrendered, it remains undone for ever.
4. Look at the effects of our sin on others. True religion in a man is that which earnestly and habitually makes for righteousness and holy obedience. If it does not keep from sin, it is not a religion sufficient to save. (H. A. Stimson, D. D.)

Wronging the soul
Of all created things the soul of man most resembles the Deity. It is like Himself in its nature. The soul is a being possessed of volition, with powers of imagining the loftiest themes, of conceiving and working out the most difficult inquiries. The Divine image is still traced upon the soul. It is therefore true that “he who sinneth against God sinneth against (wrongeth) his own soul.”
I. The Sinner wrongs his own soul in this world, by debasing it. Indulgence in vice wrongs and destroys the moral nature. Even the intellectual faculty is hurt and wronged by sin. Sensuality debases the mind. He who is the slave of sin occupies a lower position in creation than the man who by virtue asserts the high prerogative of nature, who by his goodness and righteousness strives to assimilate his soul to God. He wrongs the soul who makes it subservient to the base requirements of the body. The intellectual faculty will censure sin, and so will the moral faculty. Therefore these properties should be cultivated. The conscience is seared by indulgence in sin, and the Holy Spirit is grieved.
II. Sin wrongs the soul by subjecting it to punishment in the world to come. That this is true is evident from the teaching of nature as well as religion. The mind has reasoned correctly when it wrought out for itself the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and proved an existence beyond the grave. The living being is not the outer frame. Consciousness is perceived to be a simple and indivisible power—an essential property of the mind. The destruction of matter cannot of necessity be considered the destruction of living agents. The destruction of the body and all its organs does not necessarily involve the destruction of the reflecting powers; they may not even be suspended in death. Upon the immortality of the soul philosophy speaks the precepts of religion. Behold, then, the excellency of the soul, and the guilt of him who wrongs it. How is it possible that he who wrongs the heavenly Essence can escape the just judgments of God? But the Christian can realise the dignity of the soul from other considerations. He has the evidence of his own heart. Christianity requires the submission of the whole heart; the acceptance of its mysteries; the noblest self-denial, the most exalted virtue, the highest holiness, the perfection of humanity. But who except the Christian can realise this? From the death-bed of the unbelieving may be learned the misery, here and hereafter, of those who wrong their own soul. (David Ross, B. A.)

The wronged soul
I. The wrong sin does the nature of the soul.

1. Sin is inhuman.
2. Sin is unnatural.
3. Sin is the degradation of human nature.
   II. The wrong sin does the capacities of the soul. The soul of man is a great capacity for God. There is no punishment worse than the habit of sin, which comes from sinning. To do wrong is worse than to suffer any calamity. Pain is soon over, misfortune is for a moment, calamity is temporary. But sin is permanent. It does an irreparable injury to the soul. It keeps man out of his heritage. It defeats the end for which man was made. God made us in His image.
   III. The wrong sin does the power of the soul.
4. The conscience, which is that power of the soul by which we recognise the moral quality of actions.
5. Sin also wrongs the will. Sin enfeebles man at the most vital part of his nature. Sin wrongs the soul in every faculty and power. Conclusion:
   (1) Of all evils that man can know or suffer, sin is the worst.
   (2) The sinner makes his own hereafter. Remember that heaven is a holy soul in a holy place.
   (3) I cannot, I dare not, close without a word of hope for any troubled and penitent soul. (S. Z. Batten.)

The self-destroyer
The particular truth of the text is, that sin is not only an offence to God, whom no man hath seen or can see, but it is a distinct and irreparable injury to the man, the sinner himself. And that is the only way to get hold of man. Tell a man that by sinning he is hurting the unseen God, and what does he care? You can only get hold of a man in so far as any truth you teach or any requisite you demand impinges upon himself. Touch the little Self and you have put a hook in the nose of leviathan. God can make you possess in your bones the effects of your moral action. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The wrong done to the soul by unbelief
I. Unbelief, or a sinner’s not believing, accepting, closing with, and resting on Christ for salvation, is the sin against Christ by way of eminency. What treatment of Christ is it that is this sinning against Him? There is a doctrinal and a practical treatment of Him. Living ignorant of Christ and the fundamental truths of the gospel. Living insensible of our absolute need of Christ. Not believing the doctrines of the gospel. Of this treatment of Christ there are two evidences: their not seeking Him with the utmost diligence; their seeking life and salvation some other way—the way of the covenant of works or the way of uncovenanted mercy.
II. Confirm this doctrine.

1. Faith in Christ is honouring Him in a special manner; therefore unbelief must be a special dishonour.
2. Unbelief is the great Antichrist in the heart, sitting up there in downright opposition to the Son of God.
3. This sin engrosses the whole soul to itself against Christ.
4. It is the sin that ruins the hearers of the gospel, with whom Christ has to do.
5. It is equal to the grossest sins against the light of nature.
6. It is above these sins in heinousness.
7. It has none that goes beyond it but the sin against the Holy Ghost.
8. It is a sin directly striking against the glorious office wherewith Christ is invested, and while He is in the actual exercise of that office.
   III. Unbelief is sin against christ by way of eminency, and this appears from a view of some particular pieces of malignity wrapped up therein.
9. It is a despising Him as the Father’s choice.
10. It is a trampling of His love in taking the mediatory office.
11. It is a treating of Him as if He were an impostor.
12. It is a contempt poured upon His precious blood.
13. It is a frustrating of the ends of the death of Christ, as far as lies in the unbeliever’s power.
14. It is a declining of His government most reproachfully. From this doctrine learn lessons for saints, for sinners, for all.
    IV. The sinner Against Christ by unbelief wrongs his own soul.
15. Wrongs his own soul really. He does in very deed do hurt and bring damage to himself, body and soul. He keeps his soul in a state of alienation from God. He keeps his soul under the guilt of all his sins. In a state of inability to do what is good or acceptable in the sight of God. It fixes the soul in a state of condemnation.
16. Wrongs his own soul only; not Christ whom he sins against. All sin is against the mind and honour of Christ, but no sin is against His happiness. (T. Boston, D. D.)

The indignity of sin
There are various definitions of sins, each one of which is true according to our standpoint. If we regard sin as a violation of man’s true destiny, which destiny we read not only in God’s loving command, but also in the very law of man’s own being, then sin is the transgressing of the law. If we regard sin as variation from the right, the good, the true, then sin is unrighteousness. If we regard sin as the negation of man’s true nature as a spiritual being, and the identifying of him with the things of sense, then sin is materialism. If we regard sin as the fixing of the affections—affections that were intended for glories beyond the stars—upon the perishing thing of this world, then sin is worldliness. And, finally, if we regard sin as the failure or refusal of the soul to apprehend and confide in the unseen, then sin is unbelief. But it is always the one and self-same thing, the same grim and ghastly thing—in the godless man of the world, and the ruffian who outrages law, and the smooth libertine and vulgar thief; in the respectable atheist who says there is no God, and the brave outlaw who lives his creed and acts upon his belief. For, while sins differ, sin—the evil root out of which all sins proceed—is the same. Sins are but symptoms; the disease called sin lies deeper in the soul. And oh! it is an awful thought, well calculated to humble us all into the very dust, that no matter what our sins may be—no matter how decent, how respectable, how secret—they each and all proceed out of the same fell disorder as the sins of the veriest wretch who outrages man’s laws and exhausts man’s patience by his wickedness! And now that sin has been traced to its last analysis, let us consider its results on the soul. It was Wisdom that of old spoke the words of my text, and her voice is still uplifted among the sons of men, “He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul.” It is true that he wrongs the souls of others also. But it is not of this that I now speak. The worst wrong, the deepest indignity, is done to the soul that commits the sin.

1. He wrongs his soul by the degradation he inflicts upon it, the evil that he scatters through it. The soul comes as a new creation from God. It is enshrined in a body that inherits evil—evil propensities, insurgent affections; and it has a hard struggle at best, and cannot win the victory but by the help of God. But the man who sins makes a voluntary surrender of the nobler to the baser part, and so appropriates the frailty of the baser nature, and makes it a part of his soul’s being. Each sin by a certain reflex action spreads disorder through man’s whole nature. In this way the very bodily appetite may become the appetite also of the soul. Oh, grim and ghastly are the evils which sin inflicts upon the body! It dulls the eye, and palsies the hand, and banishes manly grace from the brow, and coarsens and brutalises the human face Divine. But something far more dreadful than this befalls the sinner. The soul takes on the vice of the body. The worst symptom of drunkenness, for instance, is not the craving of the body, but the craving of the soul. The soul of the inebriate begins to crave the false excitement of drink, and an obliquity corresponding to that of the body begins to set up in the soul. The eye of the drunkard sees false or sees double: the mind’s eye begins to see false also. And so it comes to pass that the soul of the drunkard becomes untruthful. This is the reason that men cannot trust the word of a drunkard. So also the deadly sin of impurity. The very mind and conscience become defiled. The mind panders to the body. Oh, horrible degradation! And so we find that there is a correspondence and correlation between different kinds of sin. The sensual man is always a cruel man. The drunkard is a liar. The thief is simply covetous and selfish, just like the worldling and the miser. In all these things man’s whole nature is shamed and dishonoured. In all his being he is degraded and coarsened by his sin.
2. And this becomes all the more evident when we examine the wrong which sin does to man’s characteristic powers. And first, his intellectual faculties, his reason, his power to know. It is a great and awful truth, little heeded, little understood, that all the powers of man’s intellect are blunted and weakened by sin. Who has not seen the splendour of some lordly intellect first dimmed, then obscured, by excess or folly, until its fitful light would blaze at intervals, and then go out in piteous darkness, or fade into still more pitiable imbecility? But even more pitiable, if possible, is it to see the royal intellect of man forced into the base service of the world, and compelled to drudge like a very slave in the interest of sordid vice, or avarice, or other selfishness. Who does not know how such intellect declines into trickery or beastly cunning, and it watches like a fox for a chance to deceive, or like a predatory beast to seize its prey? To such a man high thoughts and noble purposes become simply impossible. Not less disastrous and dishonouring is the influence of sin on man’s moral nature—on his power to discriminate and choose between right and wrong. Of the debilitating effect of sin upon the will of man I need not speak at length. All observation and all experience prove that this is its immediate, unvarying, inevitable effect. He who once yields to do wrong will find it harder the next time to do right, until he speedily becomes powerless to choose God and resist evil. But of the darkening, paralysing effect of sin upon a moral sense not so much is commonly thought, though such effect is not less immediate and inevitable. The moral sense, which at first is quick to discriminate, begins, under the pressure of sin, to lose the keenness of perception. The high sense of honour and of truthfulness is dulled. The good seems to be less good, and the evil does not seem to be so very evil, until at last that soul calls evil good and good evil. Woe to the soul that is in such a case! He has abdicated his throne, and lost his regal state, and broken his sceptre, and flung away his crown. Finally, even more debasing is the effect of sin upon the affections. This would seem to be the worst degradation of all—that man should not only sin his intellect and will and conscience away, but that he should love his shame, that his soul should be enamoured of its degradation. And yet, who does not know that even this is the effect of sin? Through it men learn to love the base things of this world and lose the power to love the nobler things. What is life to such a soul but shame? What shall death be but the beginning of an eternal bereavement? One word in conclusion. All the effects of sin may be summed up in one dreadful word—death. The dying of the soul, the decay of its faculties, the languishing of its strength—the progressive unending dying of an immortal soul, with all its unending anguish of unsatisfied tonging, unfulfilled desire, baffled hope, pitiless remorse, remediless desire—this is the dread reality at which men ought to tremble. It is no chimera of imagination; it is no spectre of the future—it is a present reality. It is doing its ghastly work even now in every soul where sin reigns. For the soul that sins is dying. The wages of sin is death. (Bp. S. S. Harris.)

The self-hurt of sin
Wisdom, as used here, is the law of God concerning human life and conduct, and sin is the transgression of that law. The text, not in a spirit of haughty denunciation, but with sad and kindly warning, declares that he who transgresses that law wrongs his own soul, is the author of his own sorrow and suffering and loss. God’s laws, under His immediate direction, work out the penalty of their own violation; in part here, fully hereafter. All God’s purposes in us are accomplished by the operation of beneficent law. To break the law is to thwart His purposes, and bring the ruin which naturally follows such a course. The law of the piano is, that its strings shall be tuned in harmony, and that under the skilful touch of the key light-cushioned hammers shall strike them so that they give out genuine music. But if you fail to tune them in harmony, and then, lifting the lid, strike them with iron hammers, you get discord and destruction. You have transgressed the law of the piano. The law of the watch is to submit to balance-wheel and regulator; take off the one and misplace the other, and your watch reports falsely all the time. You have transgressed its law. The law of the circulation of the blood is from heart to artery, capillary, and back again by the veins; and as it goes it repairs waste, carries off useless matter, and gives health and strength. But if you open an artery and send the blood outside its course, you die. You have transgressed the law. How sinful and self-destructive, then, is the violation of law, and how fatally does he who thus sins wrong his own soul!
I. Sin against spiritual law.

1. The law of nutrition. Hunger, flavour, and the delight of the palate are God’s arrangements for insuring the taking of proper food to repair the waste and supply the growth of the body. Break the law, and eat for the sake of pleasing the palate or increasing sociability, then indigestion, dulness, sleeplessness at night and sluggishness by day follow. Who shall estimate the sin against the temple of the soul?
2. The nervous system. Its motor power is intended to carry messages from the mind to the muscles, ordering work done and motion performed. Properly governed and temperately used, what usefulness, health, and abundance of valuable labour accomplished may result! Abuse it, and exhaustion, prostration, paralysis follow.
   II. The spiritual hurt.
3. To the truth-perceiving faculties. The judgment and reason, acting under the restraint of a pure conscience, leads to the truth in a thousand ways: in business, society, pleasure, habits, indulgences—in all necessary things—and the life is guided in righteousness and wisdom. But let unholy ambition, improper desire for gain, any form of wicked selfishness, get control of these faculties, and how they become warped, blinded, and misguided!
4. To the power of self-control. This is the battle of growing evil habits against the will—growing more and more impatient of restraint, more and more defiant of conscience and will, till appetite, strengthened into habit, leads manhood captive and blots out every hope and joy.
5. To the religious nature. Properly acted upon by the Holy Spirit, it becomes God’s audience-chamber in the soul; the natal chamber of the holiest purposes; the place where the strength comes which gives martyr-power. Sinned against, the demons of superstition, distrust, hatred of good, vile affections, scepticism, and cold, dark atheism come in to torment the soul. To the joys of memory and hope. Every life gathers up all its past and holds it in its present possession for evermore by faithful memory; and if that past be one of holy purpose and noble endeavour, every record it holds will be a joy for ever; its pains will turn to pleasure, its hardships to victories, its struggles to triumphs. But if its records be of deceit and dishonesty, of lust and recklessness, then remorse pours her bitterness into every recollection.
   III. He that sins against wisdom interferes with God’s purposes for his future. God has great ambitions for us.
6. He would build in us a noble character. Sin defeats His wish, and makes us in character ignoble.
7. He would make us useful; sin makes us hurtful to others.
8. He would make us happy; sin makes us wretched, utterly and for ever.
9. He would have us grow in spiritual beauty, symmetry, and power; sin deforms, enfeebles, and mars our being. (C. N. Sims, D. D.)

The wrong which sin does to human nature
The sinner does a wrong, indeed, to others. Sin is, to all the dearest interests of society, a desolating power. It brings misery into the daily lot of millions. But all the injury, great and terrible as it is, which the sinner does or can inflict upon others, is not equal to the injury that he inflicts upon himself. Does any one say he is glad that it is himself that he injures most? What a feeling of disinterested justice is that! Because he has not only wronged others, but ruined himself, is his course any the less guilty, or unhappy, or unnatural? I say unnatural; and this is a point on which I wish to insist, in the consideration of that wrong which the moral offender does to himself. The world, alas! is not only in the awful condition of being filled with sin, and filled with misery in consequence, but of thinking that this is the natural order of things. Sin is a thing of course; it is taken for granted that it must exist very much in the way that it does; and men are everywhere easy about it, as if they were acting out the principles of their moral constitution, and almost as if they were fulfilling the will of God.

1. Sin does a wrong to reason. There are instances in which sin, in various forms of vice and vanity, absolutely destroys reason. There are other and more numerous cases in which it employs the faculty, but employs it in a toil most degrading to its nature. There is reasoning, indeed, in the mind of a miser; the solemn arithmetic of profit and loss. There is reasoning in the schemes of unscrupulous ambition; the absorbing and agitating intrigue for office or honour. There is reasoning upon the modes of sensual pleasure; and the whole power of a very acute mind is sometimes employed and absorbed in plans, and projects, and imaginations of evil indulgence. But what an unnatural desecration is it, for reason—sovereign, majestic, all-comprehending reason—to contract its boundless range to the measure of what the hand can grasp; to be sunk so low as to idolise outward or sensitive good; to make its god not indeed of wood or stone, but of a sense or a nerve!
2. Sin is a kind of insanity. So far as it goes, it makes man an irrational creature; it makes him a fool. The consummation of sin is ever, and in every form, the extreme of folly. And it is that most pitiable folly which is puffed up with arrogance and self-sufficiency. The infatuation of the inebriate man, who is elated and gay just when he ought to be most depressed and sad, we very well understand. But it is just as true of every man that is intoxicated by any of his senses or passions, by wealth, or honour, or pleasure, that he is infatuated—that he has abjured reason. What clearer dictate of reason is there than to prefer the greater good to the lesser good? But every offender, every sensualist, every avaricious man, sacrifices the greater good—the happiness of virtue and piety—for the lesser good, which he finds in his senses or in the perishing world. Nor is this the strongest view of the case. He sacrifices the greater for the less, without any necessity for it. He might have both. A pure mind can derive more enjoyment from this world and from the senses than an impure mind. What bad man ever desired that his child should be like himself? And what a testimony is this, what a clear and disinterested testimony, to the unhappiness of a sinful course! How truly, and with what striking emphasis, did the venerable Cranmer reply, when told that a certain man had cheated him: “No he has cheated himself.”
3. Sin does a wrong to conscience. There is a conscience in every man, which is as truly a part of his nature as reason or memory. The offender against this, therefore, violates no unknown law nor impracticable rule. From the very teaching of his nature he knows what is right, and he knows that he can do it; and his very nature, therefore, instead of furnishing him with apologies for wilful wrong, holds him inexcusable. He will have the desired gratification; and to obtain it he sets his foot upon that conscience, and crushes it down to dishonour and agony worse than death.
4. Sin does a wrong to the affections. How does it mar even that image of the affections, that mysterious shrine from which their revealings flash forth, “the human face Divine”; bereaving the world of more than half its beauty! Can you ever behold sullenness clouding the clear, fair brow of childhood—or the flushed cheek of anger, or the averted and writhen features of envy, or the dim and sunken eye and haggard aspect of vice, or the red signals of bloated excess hung out on every feature, proclaiming the fire that is consuming within—without feeling that sin is the despoiler of all that the affections make most hallowed and beautiful? But these are only indications of the wrong that is done and the ruin that is wrought in the heart. Nature has made our affections to be full of tenderness; to be sensitive and alive to every touch; to cling to their cherished objects with a grasp from which nothing but cruel violence can sever them. But sin enters into this world of the affections, and spreads around the death-like coldness of distrust; the word of anger falls like a blow upon the heart, or avarice hardens the heart against every finer feeling; or the insane merriment, or the sullen stupor of the inebriate man falls like a thunderbolt amidst the circle of kindred and children. Oh! the hearts where sin is to do its work should be harder than the nether millstone; yet it enters in among affections, all warm, all sensitive, all gushing forth in tenderness; and, deaf to all their pleadings, it does its work as if it were some demon of wrath that knew no pity, and heard no groans, and felt no relenting! (O. Dewey, D. D.).

Proverbs 8
Sixteenth Address. Ch. Pro_8:1-36. The Appeal of Wisdom
The personification of Wisdom in this chapter is highly suggestive. Already in the opening verses of the Book (Pro_1:20-33) Wisdom has been personified, has “uttered her voice,” as here she utters it, “in the street” and “in the chief places of concourse,” and has pleaded, as here she pleads, with the sons of men. But here the fair impersonation, following closely upon the vivid picture of the immediately foregoing section, presents itself to us in striking and designed contrast to the dark form that passed before us there. Not lurking furtively at the corners of the streets in the deepening twilight; not leading astray with swift and stealthy footsteps and beguiling with whispered subtleties, but with free and open grace, “in the top of high places by the way,” in the sight of men, and with voice clear and melodious as a clarion-call does she utter forth her appeal (Pro_8:1-3). She speaks (Pro_8:4-36). While she addresses herself to every child of man, the “simple” and “fools” are specially invited to profit by her instruction (Pro_8:4-5). All her speech is plain and open, and needs only an intelligent ear to understand it (Pro_8:6-9). The treasures she offers are above all price, and such as even kings may covet (Pro_8:10-11). Telling us who she is and what she has to offer us (Pro_8:12-21), she goes on to affirm that her claim to attention is no less than that she is the eternal Possession and Fellow of Jehovah Himself, His joy and Counsellor in the creation and ordering of the universe, and that from the beginning her “delights were with the sons of men” (Pro_8:22-31). Therefore, on premisses such as these, she pleads with us yet again, as her children, that we refuse not the blessedness which she offers (Pro_8:32-36).
We are fain to confess that, in the contrast thus exhibited in these companion pictures of Night and Day, of Vice and Virtue, we have the work of a master hand. But besides its moral force and beauty, which lie as it were on the surface, this contrast has a deeper significance, “plain,” as are the words of wisdom, “to him that understandeth.” Why, we ask ourselves, does not the wise Teacher, having in hand to draw away his sons from the seductions of vice by subjecting them to the mightier attractions of virtue, set over against the abandoned woman of his first picture the pure and faithful wife, with her charm of holy love, as the subject of his second picture? Why does he not counsel his scholars, as indeed he does elsewhere (Pro_8:15-19), to find in God’s holy ordinance the true remedy for the pleasures of sin which the temptress offers them? Because, in the first place, he would lead them higher, and commend to them a yet worthier object of supreme affection, an object which at once includes and surpasses all pure and lawful objects of human devotion. Because he would have them learn to say of her who is the antidote, not for one vice only but for all the errors into which the unwise heart of man is wont to lead him:
Her I loved and sought out from my youth
And I sought to take her for my bride,
And I became enamoured of her beauty.
Wisd. of Solomon Pro_8:2, R.V.
And then also because through “the Spirit of God which was in him,” the ideal of comprehensive Wisdom which his mind formed took personal shape, and stood before him as the embodiment of all human virtue and perfection, a prophecy and a promise, such as had been vouchsafed to the bodily senses of others, a “preluding of the Incarnation.” See Introd., p. 31.

Proverbs 8:1-36
The following commentary covers Chapters 1 through 9.
There are two very distinct parts in this book. The first nine chapters, which give the great general principles; and the proverbs, properly so called, or moral aphorisms or sentences, which indicate the path in which the wise man should walk. At the end of the book is a collection of such made by Hezekiah.
Let us examine the first part. The grand principle is laid down at the outset-the fear of the Lord on the one side, and on the other the madness of self-will, which despises the wisdom and instruction that restrain it. For, besides the knowledge of good and evil in respect of which the fear of the Lord will operate, there is that exercise of authority in God’s created order which is a check on will (the origin of all disorder), as that confided to parents and the like. And these are carefully insisted on, in contrast with independence, as the basis of happiness and moral order in the world. It is not simply God’s authority giving precepts, nor even His statements of the consequence of actions, but the order He has set up in the relationships He has established amongst men, especially of parents, subjection to them is really owning God in His order. It is the first commandment with promise.
There are two forms in which sin, or the activity of man’s will, manifests itself-violence and corruption. This was seen at the time of the deluge. The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Satan is a liar and murderer. In man, corrupt lusts are even a more abundant source of evil. In chapter 1 violence is pointed out as the infringement of those obligations which the will of God has laid upon us. But wisdom cries aloud that her voice may be heard, proclaiming the judgment of those who despise her ways.
Chapter 2 gives us the result of subjection of heart to the words of wisdom, and an earnest search after it-the knowledge of the fear of Jehovah, and the knowledge of God Himself. He who applies himself to this shall be kept: he shall not only have no part with the wicked man, but he shall be delivered from the deceitful woman-from corruption. The judgment of the earth and the prosperity of the righteous are declared.
The latter principle being established, chapter 3 shews that it is not human sagacity or the prudence of man which imparts the wisdom here spoken of. Neither is it the ardent desire after prosperity and happiness, manifesting itself in crooked ways; but the fear of Jehovah and subjection to His word supply the one clue to guide us safely through a world of wickedness which He governs.
Chapter 4 insists on the necessity of pursuing wisdom at whatever cost; it is a path of sure reward. It warns against all association that would lead the contrary way and into ruin, adding that the heart, the lips, and the feet are to be watched.
Chapter 5 returns in detail to the corruption of heart that leads a man to forsake the wife of his youth for another. This path demoralises the whole man. But the eyes of Jehovah are upon the ways of man.
In chapter 6 wisdom will not be surety for another. It is neither slothful, nor violent, nor deceitful. The strange woman should be avoided as fire: there is no reparation for adultery. In chapter 7 the house of the strange woman is the path to the grave. To curb oneself, to be firm in resisting allurements, looking to Jehovah and hearkening to the words of the wise-such are the principles of life given in these chapters.
Chapter 8. The wisdom of God is active. It cries aloud; it invites men. Three principles distinguish it-discretion, or the right consideration of circumstances, instead of following self-will; hatred of evil, which evidences the fear of Jehovah; and detestation of arrogance and hypocrisy in man. It is by wisdom that kings and princes rule; strength, counsel, and sound wisdom, and durable riches, are found in it. Moreover Jehovah Himself has acted according to His own perfect discernment of the right relations of all things to each other; that is to say, He created them according to the perfection of His own thoughts. But this leads us farther; for Christ is the wisdom of God. He is the centre of all relations, according to the perfections of God; and is in Himself the object of God’s eternal delight. The everlasting wisdom of God is revealed and unfolded in Him. But this is not the only link. If Christ was the object of God the Father’s delight, as the centre and fulness of all wisdom, men have been the delight of Christ, and the habitable parts of Jehovah’s earth. It is in connection with men that Christ is seen, when considered as uniting and developing in Himself every feature of the wisdom and the counsels of God. The life that was in Him was the light of men. Christ is then the object of God the Father’s delight. Christ ever found His joy in God the Father, and His delight with the sons of men, [1] and in the earth inhabited by men. Here then must this wisdom be displayed. Here must the perfection of God’s ways be manifested. Here must divine wisdom be a guide to the conduct of a being subject to its direction. Now it is in Christ, the wisdom of God, that this is found. Whoso hearkens to Him finds life. Observe here that, all-important as this revelation is of the display of God’s wisdom in connection with men, we do not find man’s new place in Christ, nor the assembly here. She is called away from this present evil age to belong to Jesus in heaven. Christ cannot actually yet rejoice in the sons of men, if we take their state into account. When He takes possession of the earth, this will be fully accomplished-this will be the millennium. Meantime He calls on men to hear His voice. The principle of a path to be followed by hearkening to the words of wisdom is one of the greatest importance for this world, and of the most extensive bearing. There is the path of God, in which He is known. There is but one. If we do not walk in it, we shall suffer the consequences, even if really loving the Lord.
But in fact (chapter 9) wisdom has done more than this; it has formed a system, established a house of its own, upheld by the perfection of well-regulated and co-ordinate solidity. It is furnished with meat and wine; the table is spread; and, in the most public manner, wisdom invites the simple to come and partake, while pointing out to them the right way in which life is found. There is another woman; but before speaking of her, the Spirit teaches that instruction is wasted on the scorner; he will but hate his reprover. Wisdom is wise even in relation to its enemies. There is progress for the wise and the upright, but the beginning of it is the fear of Jehovah. This is its fundamental principle.
But scoffing is not the only character of evil. There is the foolish woman. This is not the activity of love which seeks the good of those who are ignorant of good. She is clamorous, sitting in the high places, at the door of her house, seeking to turn aside those who go right on their ways, and alluring those that have no understanding into the paths of deceit and sin; and they know not that her guests are the victims of death. Such are the general instructions which God’s warning wisdom gives us.
Note #1
So He became a man, and the unjealous testimony of the angels on His birth is, glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in men. Man would not have Him, and the special relationship of His risen place as man with God, “my Father and your Father, my God and your God,” and that of the assembly was formed, but His delight was in that race; for the time it was not peace on earth but division, but even after the millennium the tabernacle of God will be with men, where we have both the special relationship and the general blessing.

Proverbs 8:1-36
Proverbs 8 – In Praise of Wisdom
G. Campbell Morgan on Proverbs 8 : “There is nothing greater or grander in all the Biblical literature, as setting forth the beauty and grace of that wisdom which has the fear of Jehovah as its chief part.”
A. The call of wisdom.

1. (1-3) Wisdom cries out.
   Does not wisdom cry out,
   And understanding lift up her voice?
   She takes her stand on the top of the high hill,
   Beside the way, where the paths meet.
   She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city,
   At the entrance of the doors:
   a. Does not wisdom cry out: As before in the book of Proverbs, Solomon here wrote of wisdom as if she were a person – a noble, beautiful, helpful woman in contrast to the immoral woman described in Proverbs 7.
   i. “The unchaste wife moves covertly at dusk and speaks falsely; Wisdom moves publicly and speaks direct and authoritative truth.” (Waltke)
   b. She takes her stand on the top of the high hill: Wisdom personified cries out as widely and broadly as possible. She speaks to those beside the way and where the paths meet. She makes her call in the most public of places, by the gates, at the entry of the city. Wisdom is not hidden – it cries out to all who will listen.
   i. “A chapter which is to soar beyond time and space, opens at street-level, to make it clear, first, that the wisdom of God is as relevant to the shopping-centre (Pro_8:2-3) as to heaven itself (Pro_8:22).” (Kidner)
   ii. “The important point is that wisdom is for ordinary people—she is not confined to the academic classroom or to sacred precincts of the temple. Nor is she high atop some mountain where only the hardiest and most determined will find her. To the contrary, she wants to attract all and be accessible to all.” (Garrett)
   iii. Adam Clarke saw something wonderful in wisdom’s public proclamation, and something worthy to imitate. “There are, it is true, temples, synagogues, churches, chapels, etc.; but hundreds of thousands never frequent them, and therefore do not hear the voice of truth: wisdom, therefore, must go to them, if she wishes them to receive her instructions. Hence the zealous ministers of Christ go still to the highways and hedges, to the mountains and plains, to the ships and the cottages, to persuade sinners to turn from the error of their ways and accept that redemption which was procured by the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ.”
2. (4-11) The goodness wisdom promises.
   “To you, O men, I call,
   And my voice is to the sons of men.
   O you simple ones, understand prudence,
   And you fools, be of an understanding heart.
   Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,
   And from the opening of my lips will come right things;
   For my mouth will speak truth;
   Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
   All the words of my mouth are with righteousness;
   Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.
   They are all plain to him who understands,
   And right to those who find knowledge.
   Receive my instruction, and not silver,
   And knowledge rather than choice gold;
   For wisdom is better than rubies,
   And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.
   a. To you, O men, I call: Here Solomon spoke of wisdom personified. This is the message she presented to men and women, all who would listen to her.
   i. “The loudness and the perseverance of the voice is that of an earnest friend who warns of danger. For would she have cried so loud or continued for so long if she had not loved your soul, if she had not known the wrath that was hanging over you, the hell that was before you?” (Bridges)
   b. You simple ones, understand prudence: Wisdom doesn’t give up on the simple ones. The simple man described in Proverbs 7 seems like a lost cause, but he doesn”t have to be. We can learn the ways of wisdom and benefit from that learning.
   c. My mouth will speak truth: When wisdom speaks, it is true. When people use lies they should not be trusted to communicate wisdom. Wisdom says of her words that there is nothing crooked or perverse in them. Because of this, the words can be understood; they are all plain to him who understands. There is clarity and a straightforward character to wisdom, one that contrasts with elaborate so-called hidden truths and mysteries.
   i. It could be said of the Scriptures in general, they are all plain to him who understands. Of course, there are deep and occasionally complicated passages, but the fundamental truths of the Bible are plain to those who trust God and honor His word. As the American author Mark Twain was reported to have said, It’s not the parts of the Bible I can’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand.
   ii. “It was a smart answer which M. Durant, a witty and learned minister of the Reformed Church of Paris, gave to a lady of suspected chastity, and now revolted: when she pretended the hardness of the Scripture, Why, said he, madam, what can be more plain than ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery?’ Had she not been failing in the practice of what she could not but know, she had found no cause to complain of the difficulty of that which she could not know.” (Trapp)
   d. All the things one may desire cannot be compared with her: Wisdom’s value is above silver, gold, and rubies. Without wisdom, one may have the riches of this world and a miserable life. Early in his reign Solomon desired wisdom above all riches and was greatly blessed because of it (1Ki_3:10-13).
   B. Wisdom describes herself.
3. (12-21) What wisdom has and what wisdom gives.
   “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
   And find out knowledge and discretion.
   The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
   Pride and arrogance and the evil way
   And the perverse mouth I hate.
   Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom;
   I am understanding, I have strength.
   By me kings reign,
   And rulers decree justice.
   By me princes rule, and nobles,
   All the judges of the earth.
   I love those who love me,
   And those who seek me diligently will find me.
   Riches and honor are with me,
   Enduring riches and righteousness.
   My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold,
   And my revenue than choice silver.
   I traverse the way of righteousness,
   In the midst of the paths of justice,
   That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth,
   That I may fill their treasuries.
   a. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence: Where prudence – self-control, good judgment – is found, there wisdom will be found. A life given to impulse and extremes will not gain, appreciate, or display wisdom.
   i. Prudence: “Prudence is defined, wisdom applied to practice; so wherever true wisdom is, it will lead to action.” (Clarke)
   b. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: Reverence for God (and the wisdom that comes from it) is not neutral towards evil. Like the God it respects, it hates evil, along with the pride and arrogance and perverse mouth that often express evil.
   i. “God’s people partake of the Divine nature, and so have God-like both sympathies and antipathies. They not only leave sin, but loathe it, and are at deadly feud with it.” (Trapp)
   c. By me kings reign: Many gain power, stay in power, and exercise power through gaining and using wisdom.
   i. Adam Clarke had an interesting thought on the phrase I have strength. “Speaking still of wisdom, as communicating rays of its light to man, it enables him to bring every thing to his aid; to construct machines by which one man can do the work of hundreds. From it comes all mathematical learning, all mechanical knowledge; from it originally came the inclined plane, the wedge, the screw, the pulley, in all its multiplications; and the lever, in all its combinations and varieties, came from this wisdom. And as all these can produce prodigies of power, far surpassing all kinds of animal energy, and all the effects of the utmost efforts of muscular force.”
   d. I love those who love me: Those who love and pursue wisdom will find themselves rewarded. They will find wisdom (those who seek me diligently will find me) and the blessings wisdom brings (riches and honor…righteousness). It could even be said that wisdom seeks out her followers to bless them (that I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth).
   i. Those who seek me diligently will find me: “With sincere affection, and great diligence, and above all other persons or things in the world; which he mentions as the effect and evidence of their love; for otherwise all men pretend to love God.” (Poole)
   ii. Riches and honor are with me: “Paradoxically when wealth is sought it corrupts, but when wisdom is sought, edifying wealth is given (cf. 1Ki_3:4-15).” (Waltke)
4. (22-31) Wisdom’s long history.
   “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
   Before His works of old.
   I have been established from everlasting,
   From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
   When there were no depths I was brought forth,
   When there were no fountains abounding with water.
   Before the mountains were settled,
   Before the hills, I was brought forth;
   While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields,
   Or the primal dust of the world.
   When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
   When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
   When He established the clouds above,
   When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
   When He assigned to the sea its limit,
   So that the waters would not transgress His command,
   When He marked out the foundations of the earth,
   Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
   And I was daily His delight,
   Rejoicing always before Him,
   Rejoicing in His inhabited world,
   And my delight was with the sons of men.
   a. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way: God used wisdom and intelligence in the design of the universe. If we represent wisdom as a person, then it can be said that wisdom was with God in creation. In the beginning, before there was ever an earth, God used wisdom in making something out of nothing.
   i. A phrase from Pro_8:22 (The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way) became a key support for the teaching of an influential heretic in the early church. Arius of Alexandria spoke for and promoted the idea that Jesus Christ was
   not God (much in the way modern Jehovah’s Witnesses believe). Arius used this verse from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which puts the phrase like this: The Lord created me at the beginning of His way. Arius argued that Jesus is the wisdom of God, and this verse spoke of His creation. If Jesus was created, then He had a beginning and was not eternal, and if not eternal, then not God.
   ii. The errors of Arius were many. On this particular passage, he exaggerated the way that wisdom in Proverbs 8 is Jesus Christ. It is wonderfully true that Jesus is the wisdom of God, especially in His work on the cross (1Co_1:20-24), and that Jesus became for us wisdom from God (1Co_1:30), and in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom (Col_2:3). Yet it is a mistake to say that Proverbs 8 describes Jesus in a sort of direct correlation. Because Jesus is God, He has and expresses and demonstrates the wisdom of God; but the woman of Proverbs 8 does not directly describe Jesus.
   iii. A second – and perhaps more fundamental error – of Arius on this passage was to translate the Hebrew word qanah as created or birthed instead of possessed. While there is some case to be made for the idea of created or birthed, on balance the best translation is possessed. We could say, “Proverbs 8 doesn’t directly speak of Jesus in the sense Arius meant, and if even if it did, Pro_8:22 doesn’t say that God the Father created or birthed the Son of God.”
   iv. “The verb qanah can mean either ‘possess’ or ‘create.’ The older versions chose ‘possess’; otherwise it might sound as if God lacked wisdom and so created it before the world began. They wanted to avoid saying that wisdom was not eternal. Arius liked the idea of Christ as the meaning of wisdom and chose ‘create’ as the verb. Athanasius read ‘constituted me as the head of creation.’ The verb qanah occurs twelve times in Proverbs with the idea of acquire; but the Septuagint and Syriac have the idea of ‘create.’” (Ross)
   v. “The Arians (who denied the deity of Christ) appealed to Septuagint’s ‘created’, to prove that Christ, the Wisdom of God, was not eternal. But our concern must be with the word’s normal meaning, and with the general sense of the passage.” (Kidner)
   b. Before the mountains were settled: With poetic beauty, Solomon considered many different aspects of creation and how God used wisdom to design and arrange them all. Wisdom could say, I was beside Him as a master craftsman.
   i. The antiquity of wisdom has a real and practical application. If the whole created order is founded on God’s wisdom, then to go against His wisdom is to go against all creation. “When we belong to Jesus Christ and walk in His wisdom, all of creation works for us; if we rebel against His wisdom and will, things start to work against us, as Jonah discovered when he tried to run away from the Lord.” (Wiersbe)
   ii. He assigned to the sea its limit: “Wisdom has in mind that the Creator established unalterable laws or ordinances that set the boundaries for the earth that the hostile sea cannot transgress (see Job_38:8-11). The chaotic energy of the sea operates within strict limits.” (Waltke)
   c. Rejoicing in His inhabited world: The created world is so marked by God’s wise and good design and arrangement that wisdom rejoiced in it. Especially, wisdom was happy with God’s creation of man (my delight was with the sons of men). We sometimes think that the creation of man was a problem with the design and creation of the world; in a sense, man was the purpose of creation.
   C. Wisdom appeals for an audience.
5. (32-33) Asking for attention.
   “Now therefore, listen to me, my children,
   For blessed are those who keep my ways.
   Hear instruction and be wise,
   And do not disdain it.
   a. Now therefore, listen to me, my children: Having given her impressive résumé, now wisdom can make a reasoned appeal that we listen to her.
   b. For blessed are those who keep my ways: In sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious ways, the world, the flesh, and the devil want us to think that we will somehow lose by listening to wisdom and keeping her ways. The truth is that there is great blessing when we keep her ways.
   c. Hear instruction and be wise: Given that wisdom has proven herself to be good and reliable, and that she brings many blessings with her, we should give wisdom our attention and never disdain it.
6. (34-36) Wisdom’s reward and the cost of folly.
   Blessed is the man who listens to me,
   Watching daily at my gates,
   Waiting at the posts of my doors.
   For whoever finds me finds life,
   And obtains favor from the Lord;
   But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;
   All those who hate me love death.”
   a. Blessed is the man who listens to me: This blessing comes to those who not only listen to wisdom but are willing to inconvenience themselves to seek her. They are willing to watch daily at her gates and wait at the posts of her doors. Their pursuit of wisdom is intentional, not accidental.
   i. Watching daily at my gates: “Wisdom is represented as having a school for the instruction of men; and seems to point out some of the most forward of her scholars coming, through their intense desire to learn, even before the gates were opened, and waiting there for admission, that they might hear every word that was uttered, and not lose one accent of the heavenly teaching. Blessed are such.” (Clarke)
   b. Whoever finds me finds life: Wisdom here presents two incomparable gifts; life and favor from the Lord. To love true wisdom is to receive these; to reject wisdom is to wrong one’s own soul and to love death.
   i. And obtains favor from the Lord: “Which is better than life. God’s favour is no empty favour; it is not like the winter’s sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little heat or comfort.” (Trapp)
   ii. Love death: “Not directly or intentionally, but by consequence, because they love those practices which they know will bring certain destruction upon them.” (Poole)

Proverbs 8:1
CONTENTS
We have in this Chapter a most sublime account of some ancient events in eternity, and which, under the character of wisdom, the great speaker is calling upon the church to attend to. From beginning to end the subject is carried on by one and the same person. The chapter closeth with an exhortation.
Pro_8:1-4 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? 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. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
The chapter opens with the cry of wisdom, and both the earnestness of the subject, and the earnestness with which it is enforced, recommend the whole to our attention. I do not presume to speak with a positiveness of determination; the general design of this Commentary being more to enquire than assert; more to seek the teaching of the Spirit, to be led by him into all truth, than to lead the Reader’s mind concerning truth. But with all humbleness of soul while going over this most sublime chapter, I would venture to say, that as it appears to me the whole contents of it are concerning Christ as God-man Mediator, set up from everlasting. And under this one well known title, and office character of wisdom, Christ is here calling upon His church to attend to some things spoken respecting himself, and the Father’s appointment of him to this office, which, if he had not communicated to the church, and by his Holy Spirit given an understanding to know, never could have been known or believed. Hence the chapter begins with the cry of’ this glorious person, and the subject is proposed in a way of question, Doth not wisdom cry? Is it not plain enough to be heard in the numberless ways by which Christ as Mediator is proclaimed, throughout the whole book of God? What indeed doth the Bible treat of beside? There is nothing in it from beginning to end but Jehovah’s love, and mercy and grace, and favour, in the gift of his Son for the salvation of sinners; and the glories of Christ’s person, and the grace, and love of his heart in voluntarily standing up their great surety, and Saviour in redemption. Is not the whole voice of wisdom lifted up to proclaim these things? And to whom is salvation thus proclaimed, and the Lord Jesus the great author of it set forth, but to you O ye sons of men, that need both Christ and His salvation so very highly!

Proverbs 8:5-11
O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
Here we have both the glories of Christ, and the wretchedness of man strikingly represented. Jesus, well knowing how deaf and senseless our poor fallen nature is, and that unconscious of our own misery, and therefore unwilling to be prevailed upon to listen to what is proposed for our good, first declares to us our simplicity, and then the infinite importance of the things which he is going to declare to us, Excellent things they may well be called, for what can be equally excellent as the glories of his person, the riches of his grace, his suitableness to poor sinners, and the everlasting riches the possession of him must impart? And excellent things these are also in the view of the Father’s appointment of them for poor sinners, and the Father’s will and delight that they should be received by poor sinners, and made use of for his glory and the sinner’s joy. Reader! are not these things excellent things; and right things, and coming from the lip of truth? And further, allow me to ask whether there be an apprehension of them as such in your soul? Hath the loud cry of Jesus reached your ear? Hath the voice of understanding been heard in the chambers of your heart? Do you from day today with the eye of faith behold Jesus standing in the top of high places; that is by way of ordinances in the gates of his word, in the ministry of his paths, and both at the entering in, and going out of his providences, in all that is going on in the world? Surely it is in all these, and by all these, Jesus cries and calls upon the sons of men. Neither is there a faculty of the mind, in the hearing ear, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart, but what hath daily appeals made to each and to all, to listen to the heavenly preacher, and to be made wise unto salvation through the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 8:12-14
I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
This is a short but very comprehensive statement of who Christ is, and what is in him. Observe, he doth not say that he will give wisdom only, but that he is wisdom itself. He doth not declare that he, and he only, imparteth understanding, but that he himself is understanding. There is a vast deal more in these expressions than simply giving promises concerning them. For if Jesus be himself in the abstract these things, then must it undeniably follow, that neither wisdom nor understanding can be elsewhere, but in Christ. And it must further follow, That if Christ be both wisdom and understanding, in possessing him we possess all with him. Oh! precious wisdom! give me to know thee, and so to know thee as to be sensible of my union and interest with thee, and in thee. Then shall I enter into a right apprehension of those excellent things of the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit towards poor sinners, which thou hast come forth to proclaim, and which in possession secures the everlasting happiness of thy redeemed, in time, and to all eternity.

Proverbs 8:15-16
By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
Reader! do pause over these verses, and in the midst of admiring and adoring Christ in his sovereign distinction of character, as the Wisdom-Mediator, here behold him also as the Power-Mediator of God for salvation, to everyone that believeth. 1Co_1:24. There is nothing more refreshing to the soul than the contemplation of Jesus in his mediatorial kingdom and government, the church’s head and king in Zion. And what I particularly beg the Reader not to lose sight of, in this glorious distinction of character in our Jesus is, that Christ being king of Zion, by whom kings reign and princes decree justice, is Jehovah’s king in Zion. It is Jehovah that hath set him there, and set him as his king in Zion. For so he saith, Psa_2:6. For over and above his natural and essential right to all sovereignty and supremacy in common with the other persons of the Godhead as God, our Jesus hath a donative right as Mediator-head of the church, to this universal plenitude of power. All power, said Christ, in the moment of his ascension, is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. Mat_28:18. Given unto him, that is, as Mediator. Both for the reward of his redemption work, and for the purposes of giving out all that should be needful in grace here, and glory to his people hereafter. I pray the Reader to be sure and keep this in remembrance; for it forms the sweetest view of Jesus in this almightiness of power, in that what he is in this light he is for his people. He hath power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. Joh_17:2. And while to the providential events that are going on in the world, from the government of kings to the numbering of the hairs of our head, it is Jesus ordains, disposeth, commands, controls, and appoints all; think, Reader, what a sweet thought this is also, that this sovereign power of Jesus is no less to gather to himself a church; to call poor sinners, to comfort distressed saints; to stop the proud man’s oppression, and to lift up the humble from the dust. Precious, powerful Saviour! manifest, Lord, thy sovereignty by reigning in me, and ruling in me, and bringing every thought and imagination of my heart into subjection to the sceptre of thy grace.

Proverbs 8:17-21
I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
Reader! when Jesus saith, as he doth in the first of these verses, that he loves them that love him, do not imagine that it is meant to say, that our love of him becomes the cause of his love to us; for if we love him it is because he first loved us. 1Jn_4:19. And certain it is that his love to us, and for us, is the sole cause of ours. Nay, more than this: if Jesus had not done more than merely looking upon us with love, and by his grace, shedding abroad his love in our hearts by his Holy Spirit, he had not subdued the natural enmity of our nature against him, and both planted love in us towards him, and drawn out that love in exercise upon him, never should we have loved him, notwithstanding all that he hath done for us, to all eternity. By what the loving and all lovely Redeemer here saith, of loving them that love him, we are to understand that in those precious souls where a love to him is shewn, as he himself is the author as well as the object of that love, such may be well assured that he loveth them who love him. And Jesus means, no doubt, at the same time to say by the expression, that he values such love, and his eye is continually upon it. And he will preserve it and keep it alive, and when they seem to feel their love towards him cool, still he will not suffer the flame to go out. Sweet thought to cherish.
Son_8:7. And see, Reader! what blessings are held forth to the lovers of Jesus, here are durable riches and righteousness. Not the fleeting, dying, transitory enjoyments of the world! Not the silver and gold of Peru! Not the righteousness of creatures, nor the bread of creatures which perisheth with using. But the durable riches of Christ’s blood and righteousness which are forever, and the salvation which cannot be abolished. Oh! what fruit can be equal to the fruit of the Spirit, what revenue of choice silver and gold, to the possession of the everlasting income of Christ’s righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the holy Ghost. Yes, precious Jesus, thine is substance indeed, to all who possess thee and thy treasures. All other attainments are hollow, unsubstantial, and insecure. Reader! what saith your soul’s experience to these things? Do you enjoy Christ; is he your portion, your treasure, your happiness, your substance? If your heart can answer yes to the enquiry, then will you have a better apprehension of these things, than by any words which I can make use of, to shew the blessedness of their state, who in the love of Christ, and the possession of Christ, and an interest in his blood and righteousness; find a revenue indeed, of durable riches and pleasure.

Proverbs 8:22-31
The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
In these few verses are contained very many of the most sublime truths of the gospel, if we consider (as I have been all along considering through the chapter), that it is Jesus as Mediator, God and man in one person, here speaking to his church of himself and of his Father. In this sense Christ was as indeed possessed, set up, constituted and determined upon in the beginning of his ways. Set up secretly, not as yet openly to the church, but secretly in the divine decrees. And set up, not as God only, for then in this case the expression would not be suited to the divine nature, for how can God be said to be set up, who inhabiteth eternity. Neither as man only, for how could man be set up as man from everlasting. But in both natures as God-man Mediator he might be said to be set up, and possessed in the divine mind from all eternity. And in this sense also Christ might be said to be set up as the Wisdom-Christ, the pattern and sampler of the future creation of man. Paul, speaking to the same effect saith, that he is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature. Col_1:15 Intimating that though there is nothing visible in God, yet there was an holy thing, so called, Luk_1:35, to be openly born in after ages, which subsisted in the Son of God; and in this union of character, the Wisdom-Mediator elect stood by, when there were no depths, nor fountains abounding with water, and before an atom of the dust of the world was made. And in this sense also the expression as one brought up with him, is plain and intelligible. For the sacred persons of the God-head had not then gone forth in acts of creation. The Son of God had not then taken into union with himself the manhood. But the contemplation of the future event of this mysterious union with, all the blessed consequences of it, in the glories of the Mediator, and Jehovah’s glory in him, together with all the salvation of his church; these made the Mediator Jehovah’s delight, and the Mediator’s delights were in contemplating his love and duty to his Father in redemption-work, and the final happiness of his church, thus rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and his delights were with the sons of men: The same word rendered brought up in this chapter, is in the book of the Canticles, (Son_7:1) translated cunning workmen; meaning, jointly concerned in the works of creation, redemption, providence, and grace. As one brought up with him; wrapt up in the very bosom of the Father, embosomed, if the expression be allowable. So that there are two most blessed and glorious truths here contained. The sacred persons were unceasingly enjoying and solacing themselves in one another. This is one sweet thought. And the other is, that one, of their enjoyments arose from the salvation they had determined for our nature: I was daily his delight, said Jesus; and my delights were with the sons of men.

Proverbs 8:32-36
Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
The chapter sweetly concludes as it begun. Christ as Wisdom Mediator having called aloud to the church to listen to him, and having opened his commission and shewn his love to his people, and the blessedness of knowing him; now folds up the whole in an earnest exhortation that his church will listen to him; and declares the happy effects of following his advice, and the awful consequence of rejecting it, in becoming their own soul’s murderers.

Proverbs 8:36
REFLECTIONS
AND now, Reader! having gone over this blessed chapter, pause and enquire at your own heart what are your views concerning the contents of it? Doth it strike your mind that the wisdom here spoken of, and here speaking, is the Wisdom-Mediator the Lord our righteousness, thus unfolding the sweet and secret transactions in that high character of God-man, which took place before the world began? Was the Son of God thus constituted, thus appointed, and by the union of natures, as the Redeemer elect, thus possessed by Jehovah in the beginning of his ways, and before his works of old? And was it indeed, thou blessed Jesus, was it thou that didst then stand intentionally, as thou didst afterwards stand openly and in reality, in the streets of thy city Jerusalem, and speaking to thy church in all these endearing terms, to invite poor sinners to be happy in thy blood and righteousness. Oh! Lord, cause poor sinners then, by the sweet constraining influences of thy Holy Spirit, to listen to thy call, and to regard thy gracious invitation. Cause both the Writer and the Reader of these lines, if consistent with thy holy counsel and will, to enter into an heartfelt apprehension of all these precious truths connected with the knowledge of thyself, and the enjoyment also; that thy love may be so shed abroad. in our hearts that we may inherit substance, and that thou thyself mayest be our treasure and fill all of them. Oh! precious Lord! let a daily knowledge of thee, and a daily enjoyment of thee be our portion; for then will all these blessings follow, and we shall find indeed that riches and honor are with thee; yea, durable riches and righteousness.