Living Fountains or Broken Cisterns
An Educational Problem for Protestants
9781465641007
281 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.... As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and under it is turned up as it were fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires; and it hath dust of gold. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.... “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 with me. It can not be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.... The gold and the crystal can not equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.... Whence then cometh wisdom? And where is the place of understanding?... God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof.” Man sometimes feels that he understands the way of wisdom, and boasts that he knows the place thereof. He may indeed understand it in a measure, and he may ascertain its abiding place; but that knowledge comes in one way, and only one. He who understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof, opens a channel which connects earth with that fountain of life. In the creation of the universe that wisdom was manifested. “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.” Written on the face of creation is the wisdom of the eternal. “And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” In other words, when man lives in harmony with God,—that is, when physically he acts in accordance with the laws of the universe; when mentally his thoughts are those of the Father; and when spiritually his soul responds to the drawing power of love, that power which controls creation,—then has he entered the royal road which leads direct to wisdom. Where is the wise? There is implanted in each human heart a longing to come in touch with wisdom. God, by the abundance of life, is as a great magnet, drawing humanity to Himself. So close is the union that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In one man—a man made of flesh and blood like all men now living—there dwelt the spirit of wisdom. More than this, in Him are “hid all the treasures of wisdom;” and hence the life of Immanuel stands a constant witness that the wisdom of the ages is accessible to man. And the record adds, “Ye are complete in Him.”
