SERMON XIV.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUE WISDOM.

PREACHED FOR THE PAROCHIAL SUNDAY SCHOOLS, AT ST. BARNABAS, KING SQUARE,

ST. LUKE'S,

BY THE RIGHT REV. DR. SUMNER,

BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

"Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her, for she is thy life.”—Prov. iv. 13.

THE contents of this passage show that instruction is not here used for acquisition of knowledge or intellectual enlargement, but that it is synonymous with wisdom, understanding, heavenly teaching. It is introduced in a manner singularly striking and affectionate: "Hear ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine; forsake not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and beloved in the sight of my mother. taught me also, and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not; wisdom is the principal thing, and, therefore, with all thy getting, get understanding. Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life."

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from the words of my mouth; forsake her not-love her-take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keep her." This is not the style of some cold advocate, enforcing with decent seriousness a truth which, though it cannot be gainsayed, is not necessary and indispensable. They are the words of a father who feels that his son's soul is at stake in danger of perishing for lack of knowledge-irremediably lost if it be not led in right paths, and taught in the ways of wisdom.

Would that there were such a heart in us in these matters! Do we feel for ourselves any of this stirring anxiety? Are we eagerly watching for the first ray of divine light to illumine the heart of our child-the first stirring of the waters, denoting the presence of the angel of mercy, and the gracious provision of God for healing the diseased soul. Are we

1. The first thing that strikes the mind on the perusal of this passage, is the ex-pointing to instruction as the essential treme earnestness which the wise son of David displays in pressing his advice. There is an urgency in his language, which if employed on a subject of less paramount consequence, would be deemed importunate. He recurs again and again in the most forcible terms to his favourite topic, and shoots arrow after arrow at the same mark, that the shafts may not be sped in vain, or launched into the air at a venture. "Get wisdom, get understanding; forget it not; neither decline

good which is to be first gotten, and wrestling in prayer for the blessing which is to give it effect? Do we look around us, first into the bosom of our own families, then into that larger circle which God has providentially placed under our influence, or within our reach, to see whether its younger members are children of God-led by his grace-ruled by his will-instructed by his word-living in his fear? Brethren, we have a heavy responsibility in this respect. Rich and

poor, the highest and the lowest, alike convert, but as a vanquished enemy, in

incur it. It would be a fearful thing capable of further resistance. Thus it is hereafter, when some poor lost soul shall with the doctrine of human corruption. stand at the bar of God's judgment, to The natural man loathes the doctrine, and hear him put in the plea of justification- either disputes it altogether, or qualifies "No man cared for my soul," and then it in such a manner as to make it less unto be conscious that it was we ourselves palatable to the pride of the unrenewed who withheld from him that blessed heart. Man is represented as liable to knowledge which might have made him temptation, instead of being prone to evil wise unto salvation-that it was we who continually; weak and infirm of purpose, were verily guilty concerning our brother, instead of unable of himself to think or in that we saw him groping in the depths do any good thing; fallen, indeed, and of spiritual darkness, and lent him no imperfect, but not as our church reprelamp to guide his feet into the way of sents him, in accordance with Scripture, life. Our earnestness in the discharge very far gone from original righteousness, of this duty will doubtless be in propor- and while yet unregenerate, dead in trestion to our sense of its importance. He passes and sin. Thus it is with that carwho values not his own soul, will unques-dinal article of belief which has been tionably have little concern for the souls emphatically denominated the test of a of others. He who desires not instruc- standing or a falling church-justification tion for himself, will not care to impart it to the rising generation around him. Measure your own state, brethren, by this criterion; try your hearts by this test. None can be indifferent to the eternal welfare of others, but those who have not yet learnt, by the experience of their own individual case, that God desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his ways and live.

2. The text suggests, secondly, the natural alienation of the heart from instruction. It does not receive it willingly. It does not retain it, if received, without difficulty. This is strongly intimated by the earnest language of the sacred writer: "Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her."

That these reiterated counsels are not superfluous, I need not demonstrate. Folly is bound up in the heart of a man. He cleaves to it as to an hereditary possession, endeared to his mind, and congenial to him, and divine grace alone can eradicate the evil. How reluctantly does the understanding submit itself to divine truth! How unwillingly does it surrender its own preconceived notions and favourite prepossessions. Take, for instance, any of the great doctrines of the gospel; the heart will embrace none of them without a struggle. It disputes, as it were, each step of the ground, and yields its conviction, not like a willing

by faith; we are slow to admit it in all its scriptural integrity; we embrace it partially, or indistinctly, sometimes virtually, though without confessing it; sometimes with an open and distinct avowal, we mix up with the merits of Christ our own supposed works and deservings, and compile for ourselves an imaginary system, neither law nor gospel, but partaking of both, and enjoying the privileges of neither. So it is also with the doctrines of grace. We naturally look to ourselves, and not to God: we rely on our own innate power, and not on that effusion of spiritual strength which is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost. It is not until after repeated experience of our own helplessness and inability that we learn to stay ourselves on an everlasting arm, and are taught the presumptuousness and miserable folly of self-confidence.

To correct all false views of this kind is the promise of that instruction of which the text speaks. But suppose it effected, or, in other words, suppose that the Holy Spirit of God, through the medium of the preached or written word, or by a blessing upon some other means of grace, has enlightened the heart, and given it a true view of the way of salvation and of God's dealings with mankind, another difficulty arises which renders the energetic language of the text no less seasonable.

We are disposed to fall from the truth which we have once received, or to corrupt its integrity, or to waver and be unstable, carried away with every blast of vain doctrine. We need renewing day by day, lest temptations overcome us, or the love of heavenly things wax cold, or the pleasures, or the cares, or the troubles of the world, make shipwreck of our faith. If the hands flag, as those of Moses, the enemies of our salvation take advantage to prevail against us; and if the lips cease to worship in prayer, Satan enters into that which should be swept and garnished, fit for the temple of the Holy Ghost, and our last state becomes worse than the first. Hence the wise man's repeated injunction, "Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her." Though she flee thee, yet abide thou in her pursuit; though the heart struggle to be freed from her bands, yet suffer not thou its escape; though the old man within, and the world without, conspire to make her teaching of none effect, yet submit thou thy will, and understanding, and affections, to her influence-"Take fast hold of her; let her not go; keep her."

of life to men's bosoms! How would the shipwrecked sailor prize a compass in the midst of an unknown ocean! How would the pilgrim watch the rising of some well remembered star to guide his feet in his wanderings through a trackless wilderness! How would the fainting traveller be revived in his journey through the desert at the sight of some well of water, springing forth in the midst of rocks and sands, and providing needful relief when the whole head is weary and the whole heart sick! What the compass would be to the sailor, or the star to the pilgrim, or the well of water to the traveller, is the precept in the text to the soul of him that thirsts for divine instruction. Vainly would he wait for direction from other teachers. As there is but one good, so there is but one wise. Would he ask the sensualist what is life? He would tell him, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Would he ask the covetous man? He would tell him that to lay field to field, and to heap up many good things in store, and to multiply the sum of his possessions, this is life. The ambitious man would tell him 3. The last clause of the text resolves that life consisted in the increase of hothe whole question into a simple and in-nours-the worldly man in the success of telligible proposition. It brings the mat- his earthly pursuits and projects-the ter to a point. "Take fast hold of in-lover of pleasure in the satisfaction of his struction,. . . . for she is thy life." heart's desire, and in drinking to the dregs Dost thou desire to live-not the life that the cup which seems so sweet to his disnow is, the transient and ephemeral ex- ordered palate. But the language of istence of a corruptible body, which | Scripture is very different. "To be carwithereth like the grass, and fadeth as anally-minded is death." "He that liveth flower-but in that never ending state, in pleasure is dead while he liveth." On when a thousand years will be as one day? Then take fast hold of instruction -in obtaining her thou hast secured thy object, for she is thy life.

And here I may remark the succinctness and plainness of Scripture, where the great truths which are necessary to salvation are concerned. 66 Repent and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "By grace are ye saved, through faith." "Take fast hold of instruction, for she is thy life." O that men would listen to the words of the heavenly teacher, which thus strikingly bring home the business

the other hand, "Take fast hold of instruction-for she is thy life." "I wisdom dwell with prudence-whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord."

There is, indeed, in that word life, a comprehensiveness which conveys the fulness of joy to the penitent soul. When the heart has been roused to a knowledge of its danger in an unrenewed state, and the sinner sees for the first time the precipice on which he stands-judgment before him, pollution and guilt in all his actions, and no mediator to stand between himself and his offended God-the whole impossibility of atoning for his sin, or of

making satisfaction for the past, is pressed yet the greater the difficulty,—I should with awful conviction on his mind. The rather have said, the impracticability of final consequences of ungodliness are such individual superintendence,-the opened to his view. He sees written more urgent is the necessity for it, the upon the wall, in characters as distinct more prejudicial the want of it. We all as those which terrified the court of King know what scenes of vice are found in Belshazzar, "the wages of sin is death." the crowded streets and lanes of too many What would be the state of such a man a district round us-the temptations without the gospel? Those deep and which are spread for every age—the pesearching convictions of sin, which, culiar dangers to which the young, and under the teaching of the Holy Spirit those of the poorer class more especially, are rendered so salutary to the soul, are hourly exposed. It is a fearful would lead to nothing but despair, with- thought to reflect how many perish for out an acquaintance with the Saviour. lack of knowledge, even in a Christian That bitter repentance which makes the land-how many souls are lost through sinner loathe himself, and humbles his that brutish ignorance, which is the paproud heart even in dust and ashes, rent of every sin. To one who feels these would be hopeless and unedifying, if things deeply, who has a compassion for there were no knowledge of that fountain perishing sinners, and longs to see them opened for sin and uncleanness, wherein rescued from their perilous state, it is, whosoever washeth, though his sins be indeed, a comfort to know that there are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow Christian houses opened, and Christian -though they be red like crimson, they teachers at hand, who will train up a shall be as wool. But how is the scene child in the way he should go, and lead changed, where the lips of the preacher him, while yet a little one, to the feet of of peace has delivered his gracious mes- Jesus. Not that I would be understood sage. Let him that is athirst come, and to infer that all these poor children, who whosoever will, let him take of the water are the objects of this charity, are indeed of life freely. "I will cause breath to taught of God, or that they have all enter into you, and ye shall live." "He chosen, through divine grace, that better that hath the Son hath life." This is part which those embrace, who have indeed instruction which brings peace: it taken fast hold of instruction. No, brefirst abases the soul, and then purifies it; thren; this would be much to expect; it teaches the nothingness of all earthly and experience, I fear, would be far from confidence, and the insufficiency of hope warranting such a conclusion. But I resting on an arm of flesh, and then brings trust we may hope, that there will be found the inquiring penitent to him who is able among them many a Lydia, whose heart and willing to save, and will in no wise the Lord has opened, and who has attendcast out whosoever cometh to the Father ed to the things that have been spoken through him. "Come unto me all ye unto her. I trust there are not wanting that labour and are heavy laden, and I among them, those who love the Lord will give you rest." Jesus Christ, and who have learnt to 'After what has been said, brethren, you know the value of his salvation, and the will not doubt that it is chiefly on the preciousness of his promises. If there ground of its religious advantages, that I be but one such, what a glorious reward am desirous of seeing that institution for would that one soul be, for all the selfwhich I am desired to plead, receive your denial, all the labours of love, by which cordial support. In so populous a parish you will contribute, according to your as this, I need not tell you that it is im- means, to support, and, I trust, to perpetupossible for the steward of Christ's mys-ate, this useful charity in this populous teries, who, in the providence of God, has neighbourhood. been placed over you, to extend his private ministrations into the family of each of the poorer members of his flock. And

Bear with me, brethren, if I press this duty on you in a manner somewhat more urgent than is usual. I cannot forget

that it was in this very place where we those "secret things which belong to are now assembled, that I was first called upon to exercise my episcopal functions, by setting apart this building for a temple to the Lord, where his word might be preached, and praise and supplication might be offered in the name of Christ. It was here that for the first time I separated, in virtue of my office, from all profane and common uses, this house, as a house of prayer for worshippers in spirit and in truth. Nor have I had small pleasure in learning that the Sunday-school which has been since connected with this church, and for which I plead this day, appears to have been favoured, in an eminent degree, with the divine blessing. To many of those who hear me, its advantages are doubtless known personally. Some, I trust, there are, who have become acquainted with them more intimately in their capacity of teachers. I would bid them go on in their labour of love, with patient and steady zeal, in the name of the Lord. I would call on others who are like minded to come and do likewise to lend their aid in the furtherance of this interesting work, and to be fellowlabourers in preparing the hearts of the young, through divine grace, for the spiritual harvest. May He who is the Lord of the harvest, prosper the undertaking! May he bless the means provided, whether by your personal teaching, or by your pecuniary contributions, with a rich and abundant increase.

THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THE BIBLE SHOULD
BE READ.

CONSULT it divested so far as possible of prejudice, and with a sincere desire both to attain improvement and to search out the truth. The investigation which we recommend, lies equally between that inactivity which slumbers for ever over things acknowledged, and that impetuous temerity which relying on its own powers disdains assistance, attempts a flight beyond the precincts of lawful subjects, and with licentious boldness pries into

God." Some float for ever on the surface of admitted truths, fearful to rise above the level over which they have hovered from the first moment of consciousness. These resemble those birds which feed upon the insects dancing on the water, who never rise into the air, but always skim the surface of the lake, on the borders of which they received life. Others, on bold, adventurous wing, rise into the trackless regions of mystery, till they sink from the pride of their elevation, perplexed and exhausted. These, by aiming at too much, lose every thing Because they have attempted unsuccess fully to investigate that, which God has been pleased to put out of the reach of human comprehension, they will not believe any thing-they embrace a system of universal scepticism. So Noah's dove beheld on every side a boundless expansion of waters: and whether she rose or sunk, was equally bewildered, and found no rest for the sole of her foot. There is one point of difference, and that is, that she returned to the ark; but those whom we have described, too often are found to turn despisers, who wonder and perish. But the Christian is bold in investigating all that God has submitted to his researches, attempts every thing leaning on Almighty energy, and relies with implicit confidence upon the written word. So the eagle rises boldly into the air, keeping the sun in view, and builds her nest upon a rock.

We would not have you, with the inactive and supine, always coast the shore: nor with the infidel venture into the boundless ocean, without pilot, or compass, or ballast, or anchor: exposed equally to the quicksands, to the rocks, to the whirlpool, and to the tempest: but we are desirous that, like the Christian, you should boldly face, and patiently endure the storm, with the Bible as your compass, hope as your anchor, God as your pilot, and heaven as your country.— Dr. Collyer.