Sermons Preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia/Sermon 7
SERMON VII.
price in hand of the foolish to get wisdom.
"Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?"
Wisdom is a gem of inestimable value. Nothing so strongly marks the superiority of one class of men above another, than their pre-eminence in wisdom. For the various arts of civilized life, the innumerable comforts and conveniences we enjoy, to which the native children of the forest are entire strangers; we are indebted to the operations of superior wisdom. It guides the mariner across the pathless waste of waters, and leads him back over mountain billows safe to his own kindred and home laden with the riches of foreign climes. It scours the surface of our globe, investigates the numerous vegetables of the verdant kingdom; marks their genera, their species, their different properties, their agencies, especially in arresting the ravages of disease to which man is liable in this state of discipline and trial. It penetrates the bowels of the earth and explores the wonders and riches of the mineral kingdom. It mounts up to heaven; up, at a dizzy height, and there observes the circuitous pathway of the planets, and with its vast line measures them as they roll along in the wide expanse. The order and regularity that obtain among men flow from this source. We sometimes see different nations involved in angry disputes, and led to the very point of bringing about all the horrors of a desolating war. Fortunately, however, superior wisdom in due season rises up in her majesty and makes her voice heard above the "sound of many waters:"—the tumultuous murmurs of the people are at once hushed: and the hostile spirit with its menacing array of the weapons of death, gives place to the pleasing spectacle of harmony, fraternity, peace, and their ever-attendant blessings. In this limited view of wisdom's operations, all are ready to acknowledge its paramount value and excellency. But the Holy Scriptures speak of, and the text alludes to, a wisdom of a much higher order still.
Job, in a figurative style common among the orientals, inquires where man's highest wisdom is to be found: and having searched in vain through every department of nature, he at length arrived at the true and only fountain. "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not in me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver he weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven. To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder. Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."[1] Thus we perceive that the revelation God made to man in the beginning, in which consists his highest wisdom, is, "the fear of the Lord."
There is a servile dread of God, arising from a sense of guilt and the awful desert of sin, which sometimes so harasses the impenitent, as to cause them to agonize under awful forebodings of coming wrath. But the principle referred to in the text, is a holy, reverential fear of offending the Divine Majesty, and a tender concern to please him in all our walks and ways. It includes the whole of practical obedience to the commands of God. Good old "Noah moved with" this holy "fear," when in prompt obedience to the command of his Maker, he "prepared an ark to the saving of his house."[2] This holy principle can never spring from unrenewed nature. It is, "the wisdom that is from above" and, "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."[3]
Whoever takes the hand of this heavenly guide, and follows her directions, shall pass safely through the perilous voyage of life, laden, not with corruptible treasures; but, with the riches of Christ and his gospel, and arrive at home, home to heaven, where they shall unite with kindred spirits in celebrating the praises of God and the Lamb forever and ever. This wisdom, in her ethereal flights, stops not among the rolling orbs of the planetary world. She mounts up infinitely higher. Her native place is in the palace of the King of Saints and angels. Thither she ascends, and unfolds to the eye of faith, the glorious reward of righteousness:— heavenly mansions—everlasting joys—"the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give at that day, unto all them that love his appearing."[4]
To be destitute of this heavenly wisdom, and unconcerned about obtaining it, however wise we may be as it respects things that pertain to this life, we are in the eye of God's Word, regarded as "fools" This is indeed, a mortifying epithet, but let us see whether it be not very properly applied to all those who "have not the fear of God before their eyes." If idleness, if a neglect to improve the proper season to labor, if a want of forethought to lay up provision for future necessities, be marks of folly in a temporal sense; then, the man who has the great work of his personal salvation before him, and spends all his time in matters of minor importance; who neglects, in "the accepted time," to provide himself with that robe of righteousness, in which he "may appear pure and blameless at the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;" he, who thus acts, may very properly regard himself as being superlatively foolish.
What a numerous multitude among our fellow-men show themselves to be deserving of this opprobrious epithet. There is not a city, town, or village, but what is crowded with them. They make up the great mass of mankind. Hence, the world may be compared to a bedlam. The number of our fellow-creatures deserving to bear this epithet being so vast, it will not be a matter of wonder, if a goodly number be found enclosed within these sacred walls. We cannot be fairly charged with a want of charity in thinking, that a little honest and sober reflection on the part of some of our hearers, would constrain them to class themselves with the number. There is such a thing as partial insanity. A crazy man may converse quite rationally upon certain topics; but, so soon as you approach some particular subject, he reasons no longer. Thus it is with man. Place before him his temporal interests, and he acts like a reasonable being. Bend his mind upon the various sciences, and the deep researches of his reasoning powers, demonstrate his near relation to superior beings. But lay before him the all-important subject of religion, and immediately you perceive the change. However eminent he may be as a scholar, a statesman, a philosopher; however wise and prudent he may be in his affairs as a farmer, mechanic or merchant, with regard to 'the one thing needful,' he gives little, or no signs of reason. Some are totally unconcerned about the things that belong to their present and everlasting peace. Others have a feeble sense of the importance of this subject, but put off the due consideration of it to a more convenient season. Another class, with more energetic folly than the former, make the attempt to serve both God and Mammon—to give half the heart to the Lord, the other half to the world. Others again, merely put on the garb of religion, the form of godliness, while they are destitute of its life and power. In this way, the great majority of mankind are acting as it relates to their spiritual and eternal welfare. Man thus suffers his precious moments to pass away unimproved, till, alas! in an hour when he thinks not death comes: "he giveth up the ghost, and where is he?"[5] Is this a rational mode of acting? What would be thought of any set of persons who acted thus, when they had some great temporal interest at stake, in danger of losing all their property by fire? If the most of them were seen to be totally unconcerned; others putting off their exertions to save their effects, to a more convenient season; others using one hand to secure their all; and others merely putting on the appearance of concern; would they not be regarded as insane persons? But how much more foolish do they appear, who act thus, in relation to their present and eternal welfare. A man may lose his earthly goods, but in the course of time, by industry, frugality and economy, he may succeed in accumulating an equivalent to all his losses. But when the soul is lost, all is lost—the joys of heaven once lost, are lost forever—the soul that descends to the dismal regions of despair, shall never be cheered by the glad sound of salvation. How egregious then, is the folly of ungodly men! If their folly was unavoidable, they would be excusable. For no one can be fairly blamed for unavoidable ignorance. But this is not the case. For their folly, they alone are to blame.
The text says—
"There is a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom."
By this we are to understand, that the means to obtain wisdom, through the benevolence of God, are placed in our hands. We have reason, conscience, the holy scriptures, the ordinances of God's house, the preaching of the gospel, the aids of the Holy Spirit, liberty of access to God through Christ, by prayer and supplication; we have pious parents, relations, friends, or good books to assist us. Here then is a price, a talent, or rather, talents of inestimable value placed into our hands to obtain wisdom; and by persevering in the right use of these means, we cannot fail to attain it. St. James says,—"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ash of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ash in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."[6] But with all these advantages in their hands to become wise unto salvation, it is a melancholy fact, that too many of our race remain foolish notwithstanding. The ungodly are wont to frame many excuses for their folly in continuing in their wretched state. They are all so frivolous in their character, that it is needless to detail. But whatever excuses they may frame to account for their not being truly wise, in the text, the grand reason is declared to be, that they have "no heart to it." Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?" That is, he has no sincere desire to obtain it. He will not be at the pains of considering long upon its nature, hence its transcendant excellencies are hid from his view. And seeing no beauty in it, he has no ardent desires after it. His desires are strong for the perishable objects of time and sense. He can ardently exclaim:—"What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed?"[7] "But none saith, where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night."[8] Since ungodly men, with all the facilities kind Providence has given them to be wise, continue wretchedly foolish notwithstanding, the wise man enquires,—Wherefore is it that they have these advantages? The question implies, that these means of wisdom are unworthily placed,—that they are of no essential benefit to the possessor. Hence, he says, Wherefore is this? "Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?"
We may answer, that this price is given—
1st. As a clear demonstration of the proposition, that God taketh "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live."[9] "I exhort" says St. Paul, "that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of Qod our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."[10] "God so loved the world" said our Saviour, "that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."[11] As a confirmation of the glorious truths here announced, God has graciously placed into the hand of every man ample means, which if rightly used, will compass his present and everlasting happiness. So the great Father of us all, may utter now the same vehement complaint of every ungodly impenitent sinner, as he did with regard to the base ingratitude of his people of old—"What could have been done more to my vineyard, thai I have not done in it?"[12] Furthermore, the "price" is placed into the hand of every man.
2d. That in the great day of account the finally impenitent shall not be able to show any reason why the sentence of condemnation should not be passed upon them for their neglect of improving it. In the parable of the talents the servant who had one, offered as an excuse for not improving it, his knowledge of the severity of his Lord; "reaping where" he had "not sown, and gathering where" he had "not strawed."[13] But he thus condemned himself. And his Lord showed him, that the very excuse he offered, was a more urgent reason why he should have improved the talent intrusted to his charge. Hence he was struck dumb: stripped of every extenuating plea—forced tacitly to acknowledge the sentence:—"Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; to be the just demerit of his consummate folly. Thus will it be. in the last great day with all who shall be found destitute of heavenly wisdom. When all the golden opportunities they suffered to pass away unimproved; the many glorious privileges neglected; the repeated calls and entreaties of God's providence, word and Spirit that have been slighted; when all these are brought to their remembrance; while the Judge is pronouncing the sentence, "Depart ye cursed" they will be constrained in inexpressible agony to say, Amen, to their own condemnation. And what a bitter ingredient will this be in that cup of indignation, which shall be their portion forever and ever—self-condemnation—forever exclaiming, I have destroyed myself!
See the importance then, my hearers, of duly improving the price that God in his goodness has placed into your hands to get wisdom. You are stewards of the manifold grace of God. And the day is at hand, when you will be called to stand at his dread tribunal, to render a strict account of your stewardship. You are surrounded with every necessary facility to enable you to make your peace with God, your calling and election sure. Through the providence of God your lot has been cast, not amidst the darkness of Paganism, superstition and idolatry, but in a Christian land, under the moral influences of Christian sabbaths, religious counsel and example. You have the Bible in your hand, that blessed book, which is "a lantern unto our feet, and a light unto our path" which informs us of the great love of our heavenly Father in giving his "Son to die for our offences, and to be raised again for our justification," and his Holy Spirit to enlighten, renew and sanctify our depraved nature. Now if you fail to bring forth the fruit of righteousness, after having all these superior privileges and blessings at hand, bow tremendous must be the punishment that awaits you in the eternal world! How can ye escape wrath to the uttermost?
I beseech you, let not the grace of God be granted you in vain. Avoid the doom of the wicked and slothful servant. In all your getting, get wisdom. Continue no longer under the shameful reproach of having "no heart to it." Seek after it, for it is better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. Seek it diligently and perseveringly. For "if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." And what "thy hand findeth to do" on this great subject, "do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest."