Our meeting this morning (as every meeting we hold in pursuance of scriptural objects) is a compliance, in a certain way, with the divine injunction which says:

We meet under the auspices and for the further attainment of wisdom. But what is wisdom? We may profitably ask this question, and spend a few moments in the contemplation of the full and certain answer which the truth supplies. To appreciate the value of the answer, let us look at the state of the subject apart from the truth.

The word wisdom has, of course, many minor applications. It may be spoken of in connection with any state of circumstances calling for action. In such and such a line of action we may say there is no wisdom, or that there is great wisdom in such and such another line of action. Wisdom, in this case, is limited to the particular interest or object involved in the circumstances-as in taking steps to avoid the plague or stave off a riot, or in smaller matters, to preserve health or secure a good business. But this morning we look at a larger application of the word. We look at it in relation to the ultimate, the eternal results of a man’s life-1, as affecting God; 2, as affecting the man himself; and 3, as affecting a man’s neighbour. The question is, What is wisdom in this broad relation?

The world has always made considerable pretensions to the possession of wisdom in this particular and important bearing. It is a pretension by no means peculiar to our day. The apostolic age was pre-eminent in this respect, as is evident from the allusions in Paul’s epistles and in some other parts of the New Testament. He says his preaching was “not with enticing words of man’s wisdom.” He admits having set forth wisdom, “yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught.” He recognised that “the Greeks sought after wisdom,” but what had it all come to?

“Where is the wise?” he asks.

“Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”

He plainly says,

And makes this very incisive application of the fact:

Many will be prepared to admit the force of all this as applicable to the false science and philosophy of 1,800 years ago, who may have a reservation in favour of the world’s wisdom in the nineteenth century. They may suppose that Paul would not have written of modern science as he wrote of Greek speculation. They may have a feeling to the effect that, in our day at all events, it has ceased to be true that the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. In this there is greater mistake than may at first sight appear. There is doubtless an accurate knowledge of the constitution of nature in all her aspects which did not exist in Paul’s day. Science is more truly knowledge in our day than then, notwithstanding a wonderful amount of speculation in its higher applications. Still “wisdom” is no more a characteristic of the experimental schools of modern times than of the speculative schools of Athens. Wisdom is more than knowledge. It comprehends knowledge but it is the right use of knowledge rather than knowledge itself. A man might understand the chemistry of farming, and be the vagabond of the village. Another man, with less knowledge, who industriously tilled the soil, would be the wiser man of the two.

The question is, what is scientific knowledge capable of doing for us, and how is the scientific knowledge used? The answer to this will bring modern learning as much under Paul’s disparagements as the wisdom of the Greeks. In the first place, it has no power to deliver us from the evil state in which we live. A man might understand all the mysteries of the universe without being a whit nearer salvation than the ignorant. His knowledge would merely be a knowledge of what exists, and a knowledge of this may be of service as regards present convenience and health; but it cannot be turned to any account in changing a man’s own constitution and averting the law of death, which overshadows all life, as at present manifested in the world. Professor Clifford died a few weeks ago at 35 or 36. He was a rising man; but his great natural knowledge and popular estimation were powerless to turn away the dishonour of death, or stay decomposition that compelled sorrowing friends to bury the pale corpse out of sight.

Wisdom may be defined as the doing of that which is for the best. But let us understand this. It is not doing that which we may intend for the best, but that which is for the best. A man’s intentions may be amiable enough, but -

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).

And by the best we mean the best possible, and not that which we may think best. This involves the question, what is the best possible? Notions on this subject will vary with every human whim and fancy. Obviously, we want a fixed standard. We have it in Christ. He exemplifies to us, and instructs us by his apostles as to the best possible. He shows in himself, and offers to us the perfection of being, intrinsically, and in all its relations. He shows to us that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested in the Son to the apostles, and by them reflected to us, through their teaching. We need not discuss whether he is true. The question is in reality not an open one. It stands in one position only-a self-manifest position of undeniable truth. Our assembly this morning around the emblems of a crucified Saviour shows that we recognise this. What if others falter and doubt and deny and blaspheme? There have always been such, and they usually and largely include such as are high in the wisdom of this world. Jesus actually gave thanks on this behalf:

Instead, therefore, of feeling perturbed at the scepticism of the learned, we ought to recognise it as a necessary feature of the situation. The “wise and prudent,” while sharp enough in natural things, are “too wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight” to discern the final goodness of God on the conditions which He requires-conditions which humble man and exalt God. The simplicity of belief, the dependence of faith, the humility of obedience, are all repugnant to their intellectual modes and instincts which lead them to prefer ways and thoughts that involve human headship, and provide scope for human importance and gratification. Such men are unfit for the final goodness of God, which requires that God may be glorified, and God’s way hides it from them.

We are here this morning rather as “the babes,” to whom Jesus says the Father hath revealed His precious intentions. It is ours to humble ourselves as little children, accepting in gratitude and rejoicing in the proffered goodness of God. But though children, Paul says, “in understanding, be men.”

In the exercising of our understanding, then, we look at the fact that the best that is possible, and the only permanent good that there is for any, is the gift of an immortal nature at the appointed time of Christ’s return to the earth, and incorporation in a system of society in which intelligence, faculty, health, wealth, and opportunity will combine to confer the conditions of perfectly blessed existence on the basis of permanence. We look also at the fact that this is attainable only in the channel of faith in what has been revealed concerning Christ, and obedience to what he has commanded. We then turn to the scientific systems of the day, and we ask whether they are not as lacking in wisdom as ever Paul pronounced the philosophies of the Greeks to be? If wisdom is the attainment of the highest good, where is the wisdom of a system that not only has no power to bestow good, but that would actually turn away our regard from that which has? Knowledge is all very good in its place; but it is possible to have a knowledge that the process of time will deprive of all value; and the time bestowed in the acquisition of it is thrown hopelessly away. And especially is this true of modern systems of science that tacitly deny Christ. “One thing is needful” in this matter, as Jesus said to Martha. There is knowledge that a man can do without; but there is a knowledge that a man must have. A man must know God and the Lord Jesus Christ; and he must know and engrave upon his mind the knowledge of what line of thought and action will commend him to their approbation. Time spent in obtaining this knowledge is valuably invested. Ultimately, it will include even all that the children of this world’s wisdom pride themselves on. Their knowledge is all on the surface of things. They are content to know natural phenomena, but to natural phenomena there is a foundation. They admit this foundation, but call it “unknowable.” So it is, to human investigation. But this great and unsearchable foundation-the Rock-the everlasting Power-has revealed Himself, and the gospel connects us with Him. Here is where a simple believer of the gospel is far wiser than the man laden with the technicalities and the honours of science. He stands inside creation, so to speak, while the man of science is on the outside. The man in Christ is related to the power that can affect and effect the developments of the universe; while the man of science, rejecting Christ, merely sees what exists for the time being, without any power to affect it, or any relation to what God means to effect. The man in Christ may be ignorant of the technicalities of human knowledge; but he possesses a knowledge of far more value in knowing God, and having a place in His love, for this is the ultimate source of all knowledge and power.

Where are the Greeks who disputed with Paul, saying, “What will this babbler say?” You would search creation in vain to find them. In due course they went the way of all flesh. If they were not burnt to ashes according to ancient modes of sepulture, they were laid in the all-devouring grave, and by this they have been eaten and so thoroughly digested that not a fibre could be discovered of which you could say, “This belonged to them.” Their knowledge and their presumption have perished with them. But Paul sleeps “in Christ,” which is a very different thing. Paul is in the grave, to be sure, but Christ is in heaven, and Paul is a reality to the mind of Christ; and when Christ, endowed with all-controlling power in heaven and earth, arrives in this part of the boundless dominions of the Father, who has “given him power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as” belong to him, the exercise of his power will reorganise the scattered dust of Paul, and Paul will step forth unhurt by his long sleep, to realise the result of his faith and labour in a physical invigoration which he never experienced in the days when he groaned, being burdened. Gladsome power will come with his investiture with immortality, and to him, in due course, will be opened that storehouse of knowledge at the doors of which the children of this scientific world are merely clamouring in vain. He will then “know even as he is known.” He will know as God knows. He will see nature from its divine side; he will recognise all its phenomena; discern the aim of its operations; measure its forces-estimate their play, and be able to regulate their action as God may permit. He will look round in vain for the philosophers who encountered him, saying, “What will this babbler say?” For it is written,

With a new force Paul will be able to ask:

And what will be true of Paul will be true of ourselves if we walk in wisdom’s ways. We shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, when the scientific glare of the age in which we live shall have been eclipsed in the glory of Christ.

To walk in these ways requires that a man make up his mind meanwhile to be considered a fool; because the wisdom of God is esteemed foolishness by the world, and the man a fool who embraces it. A truly enlightened man will be able to bear the reproach gladly, because he knows that in becoming a fool in the estimation of the wise of this world, it is as Paul puts it, “that he may be wise.” True wisdom is all on the side of those who submit to God. When Paul speaks of the “foolishness of God,” it is not that he admits foolishness as attaching to either: it is an accommodation to the language of men who think so. When he says, “Where are the wise?” he means the wise so-called, but who are really foolish; for as he quotes from the Scriptures,

When his advice concerning a man is, “Let him become a fool,” he means a fool so-considered-not a fool in reality, for the man who becomes a fool in the estimation of the world by submission to the requirements of God as revealed in the Gospel, becomes, in reality, a wise man for the first time. Let the scorners scorn as they may, it is a fact that-

The man who does not fear God is a fool, however much he may know of the works of God; for his knowledge of the works of God is of no use to him if he know not God himself. To God, he is merely a presumptuous gossiper about God’s property. His disappearance from the face of the universe is only a question of time-and that a very short time. Whereas, the man who knows God in the affectionate submission He requires, may be ignorant of the works of God in nature (and where is the man who knows the millionth part of these?) and he is yet a very wise man, for he is on the high road to the highest good. Even the things on which the wise of this world plume themselves will become his unbounded possession. Endless life and boundless opportunity secured in Christ, he will have ample time in the ages to come to learn all the marvels of the universe, great and small, while he will have power to study and understand them to an extent that the wisest of mortals has not even dreamt of, and capacity to apply them, and develop their objects and resources in the delights of truly efficient life, such as mortal has never yet tasted.

Meanwhile, wisdom and folly are not palpably manifest. The one seems the other. Be it ours to discern the one form the other. It is not difficult to do this when a man is in earnest. Christ is wisdom concreted for us, so to speak. To let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, is to let wisdom dwell. To get Christ is to get wisdom. Let us write this down, each man for himself, once for all, as a thing not to be questioned or deviated from in the least degree. It will supply a simple and safe rule of action in all circumstances. A man will be able to say to himself, “If I get Christ, I get all-health, life, riches, honour, knowledge, joy, and every conceivable and (to us meanwhile) inconceivable good. How can I get him? I read and I find my answer. I am to love him and obey him. To do this I must adopt that course of action that will help me to do so, and avoid that course of action that will interfere with my doing so. I cannot love him if I forget him, nor obey his commandments if they fail my memory. I must therefore read of him continually, and call to mind his commandments always. I must consider him in all I do. I must keep the company of his friends. I must avoid the friendship of his enemies. I must suffer with him in the self-denial he requires. I must refuse to enjoy the pleasures of sin, which constitute the pursuits of the present evil world. I must spend the time of my sojourning here in fear. I must speak of him and show him forth in my day and generation even as a lit candle at night gives light to the house. I must live as his steward, and consider his interest and mine identical. He prayed: I will. He did always the thing that pleased the Father: I will try. He went about doing good: I will strive to follow his example. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister: aspiring to a place among his many brethren, conformed to a common image, I will endeavour to act on the same principle, to follow the same rule. And if the way be narrow, and the labour toilsome, and the endurance trying to flesh and blood, I know it is not for long; for life is but a speeding shadow, a short story, a vanishing flower; and if I make use of it to obtain a place with Christ in the eternal and blessed ages beyond, I shall act the part of wisdom, which says to me,

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