THE word of God gives a complete answer to all caviling. Man urges continually that he is in a ruined condition, and knows not how to escape from it. Scripture gives a direct contradiction to this. It says there are two cries on the earth-two invitations, either of which man accepts: the cry of wisdom and the cry of folly. What is called folly in the sight of God is thought a great gain in the world. God designates her cry as that of "the foolish woman," because it has the qualities of natural attraction, and it is subtle in its influence. It is of immense importance which cry we attend. to, and are led. by; and every honest person knows how often he turns aside from the voice of wisdom and listens to the voice of folly. The cry of the foolish woman is naturally more attractive to us than the cry of wisdom, because of the terms of the latter.
The foolish woman cries to those "who go right on their ways," and to them only. The world is not inviting the world; there is no occasion for it to do so; and the intention of the invitation is to lead the upright astray. On the other hand, wisdom gives her invitation from the very highest places of the city; she sends it out to every one; she longs to give to all that which she has provided; she cries from the highest places as if, being really right, she were the more determined. They say a man who is right is always persistent. The other is persistent too, but she has not got the same thing to offer, and therefore she cannot assume as high a place as the former.
There is a great distinction in the cries. Folly offers something that will gratify-something pleasant to look forward to. If that be my thought it is almost sure to be something wrong. It is not this that wisdom proposes, but something right; what is good is not always right; you may be doing a good thing that is not a right one at all.
I am going to wisdom's feast, and therefore I refuse folly's. I am going to have bread and wine; not the Lord's Supper, I need scarcely say, but that which the Lord's goodness provides for me; the present enjoyment of soul in what God has provided for it. " They began to be merry"; it does not say that they had reached the finish of it.
Many speak of God's love as having done its most for us; but that is not all; it has done its best. Love has done its most; Christ has died for me; you could not get anything greater than that; but that does not satisfy love; it must do its best; it says to my soul Come up here; eat of my bread and drink of my wine. Many souls possess the most who have never got the best; they have never yet seen the good things that God has prepared for them. We read in Corinthians "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." It is a quotation from Isaiah, and the apostle quotes it to prove that Isaiah did not know the Great Supper. There is something great there, he says, but I do not see it; it is to me like folding doors, and I cannot see inside them. Paul can say, But we do; we are not inside, but the doors are opened, and we see in. That is the Great Supper; that is wisdom's entertainment. Love has gone down to the lowest point to reach me there, and now it would take me up to be with Christ where He is.
The house is a divine organization, an abode; the seven pillars give us the completeness of it; all is in perfect order, the most perfect arrangement, for" Christ is the wisdom of God"; He is the spring, the fountain, everything to the soul; all is connected with Him, all springs from Him, and therefore it entirely ravishes my heart; it gives me a sense of perfect delight; it is to me instant refreshing, as bread and wine typify; as the apostle says, To God I am beside myself. It is not only that I am saved but that
I have a great feast. "Many waters cannot quench love." I am at the feast; the work is crowned: it is the festival of accomplished grace; and therefore it is, " In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." To so great a height does love take me!
But many saints know nothing of wisdom's feast, and so they are not satisfied; they are always seeking some pleasure, by the way, to supply the lack they feel; they want something here, to be like little flowers in a hedge of thorns. But separation means that I have no right to such things. What right have I to pleasure here? what right have I to anything It is only Christ who can give me real pleasure, and that is at God's right hand; it is not here; it is something beyond what the human mind can reach to.
We ought to weigh the fact that there is only one spot that can satisfy the heart of God for us, and that spot too is the only one that can fully satisfy our hearts. You may thank Him day and night for the love He has shown you, but you have never got to the crown of it if you have not got there. It is all ready; it is accomplished; and it is the labor of the Spirit of God to bring you there. God has revealed it by the Spirit, and it is the sure mark of a faithful servant, that he labors to lead the soul to the things that God has prepared for it.
The world presents something that is pleasant, something that can be seen; there is no faith where you can see. Wisdom says, There is nothing to see in what I offer you; if you want it, you must "forsake the foolish and live." And so it always is in Scripture; it is always the evening before the morning: Abraham goes up to mount Moriah before he gets the blessing. In a world where God is unknown it must be so; it is a standing principle that "They who sow in tears shall reap in joy." You never took a step in your life that you did not find sorrow either with it or before it. But if I trust God in it, it will all open out like a bud. The question is not whether what is before me is in itself pleasant. Never is anything presented to you but that your first thought is, What will there be pleasant for me in it? You must not make this your object, but only seek that which will be according to God's mind for you in a world of evil, and it must therefore be a path of separation; but "If thou embrace her she shall bring thee to honor." " If any man serve me, him will my Father, honor."
The foolish woman attracts; she seeks to turn aside those who are going right; that is her object. The world knows how to address itself to each one of us; we each, in a certain sense, have got a world of our own-some sphere that affects us. The foolish woman always-ensnares or draws aside from the path of rectitude; she always runs in the opposite direction to wisdom. It is self-gratification that she offers, and that is always the bait when the flesh acts. I have no doubt that the better and the more comely the thing presented in connection with self-gratification, the more dangerous; and things are getting more this character every day. The lack is not that people are not going on nicely and rightly, but do they know the things that are in the heart of God for them? He is ever crying to His own, but another voice tries to rival His, and it is a great thing to be aware of it and to be armed against it. The worst of it is, that many think they have made such a good start, got such a long way on their road, that they are quite safe from such invitations, whereas they have never yet got out of the harbor at all. The thing is, not to think you have got out of sight of land, but to pull away every day. There is nothing like getting clear of the shore at once; but even when you are quite clear of it, yet as long as land can be seen, that is as long as you are on the earth, you are not out of danger.
I would press the thought that there is nothing God so delights in as making us perfectly happy, even in such a scene of ruin as this; as the psalmist expresses it: " This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs." What shall please Him? Some tell me obedience; others something else; but what does the Scripture say? It is praising God: " I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs." No amount of sacrifice can be of the same value to God as the enjoyment of the place He has set us in. Could anything be more disheartening to a loving parent than his children being dissatisfied with his care for them? Does ever a cloud cross my heart in the thought that there is not perfect love for me up there? If I had not an atom of His favor to show it me, I am satisfied with what I have in His heart. Nothing has done such damage practically to souls as judging of God's heart by His favors. I give the favors a color by the love: I do not judge of the love by the favors, but, knowing the love, I appreciate the favors.
He brings me into a scene of perfect happiness. Here it is wisdom that is said to do it; wisdom is set forth as to its action. Most hearts dwell upon love, and I do not object to their doing so, but wisdom only can complete love. When Abraham made a feast for Isaac he set forth the expression of his love. God says: Where shall love have its plenitude, its full demonstration? When I gather you round my Son. Then it will have its plenitude. We are to have the sense of the delight of God in us in this scene. As Caleb says: "If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land." But I cannot use such words for I say, He has delighted in us, and He has brought us in. Abraham loved Isaac before, but now he wanted to give some distinct expression of this love to the whole household; the festival is an expression, a demonstration, of the love when it had got to its height; so that which fully expounds the satisfaction of God's love is not when it reaches you in your ruin, but when it brings you into His own presence. This is the culminating point.
In 1 Cor. 2, the apostle speaks of wisdom doctrinally; and in Col. 2 his conflict is that the saints should understand the wonderful position into which they are called. Is this future? No, it is not future; that is the very point: " God hath revealed them unto us." It is what qualifies me for the contrariety, the difficulty, of the scene down here. When was it Moses said, "Show me thy glory?" It was when he was filled with the ruin of everything here, when all here was at an end. Israel had failed, idolatry had come in, all was gone; and then he says: If I could but taste of the scene of divine brightness, if I could but see God's glory, I could face it. When was Isaiah qualified? When he saw the King, the Lord of hosts; Habakkuk the same; and in the New Testament, Stephen looks up, sees the glory of God, and now he can meet everything.
It is an immense lack to souls not having a high moral elevation. If you have not a high sense of what you are brought to, your walk will be in keeping with your thought. How can a man be in keeping with a great thing if he have never seen it? I know nothing that saints are more deficient in than this; they cannot retire into solitude and say: I have a scene of perfect unbounded joy that my Father has given me outside of all the difficulties here. You are not fit to serve if you cannot say this: I see Him up there, and I am to walk according to what I see down here. If I had not seen Him up there I should be powerless down here, but if I have, I see what a practical thing it is to walk according to His life here. You may eat of the bread and drink of the wine that is mingled; there is wondrous joy to be had while in such a world as this. I never could face things here unless I could say, That which keeps me steady is the fact that I have a scene of light and joy outside all that attracts me on the one side and that oppresses me on the other. Wisdom is the aggregation of everything that delights the heart. When the queen of Sheba heard the words of Solomon "there was no more spirit in her." People talk of trying to get out of the world, hut I say, get but one sight of Solomon and you will be out.
But, says someone, I have not got it. Are you looking for it ? " As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." I would set you looking for it; I would have you seek " To see thy power and thy glory as I have seen them in the sanctuary." I would have you say, I will cry to-night for it; I will cry for weeks, and, if I do not get it in weeks, I will cry months, but get it I will. A sinner must believe to get heaven, but a saint must cry for it to enjoy it. He has given you a taste for it, and he will satisfy it: " He that seeketh findeth."
I want your soul to be awakened to the fact that there is the cry of wisdom; I want you to listen to it, and to enter into all the favor and love of God so that it may produce in you a practical result, and that practical result, separation. Who is safe from the enticing words of man's wisdom, and all the subtle ways in which it is propounded? No one who has not heard the voice of God's wisdom; only he is proof against it who knows Christ "the power of God and the wisdom of God:" "This I say lest any man should beguile you." Souls need Christ in a deeper way. If He have come down into this scene and delivered you from the things that surround you here, you can afford to take a new path and follow Him in faith.
If I contrast the two cries, I see that one demands moral separation; the other, offers pleasure. And all day and every day the two are inviting me; and, whenever I cannot tell which is the one to attend to, the words "Forsake the foolish and live" will guide me. A really wise man looks to be rejected; but on the other hand I get into the place where love is created by the service of love: "Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee."
And after all you have a better time of it here: "By me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased." You are a man superior to the things here, but, besides that, you derive more from everything in this scene because of what Christ is to you in it. On the contrary, when you come to the foolish woman, it all ends in sorrow of some sort: " The dead are there."
The Lord lead us into it, beloved friends. It is not merely in my walk and personal blessing that I gain, but I am led into the deeper sense of what God has prepared for them that love Him. There is a spot of unclouded light, a sphere where He has gathered everything round His Son, who will gird Himself and come forth and lead you into the light where He is.
(J. B. S.)