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that Book i s !” Now they have driven Christ wholesale out of Proverbs. I believe that the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs is Christ. And in the New Testament how Christ is represented as our Wisdom. “That we may get us an heart of wisdom.” That we may gather a harvest of wisdom. And you may have Christ, the grandest of all harvests; Christ the Teacher, Christ the Friend, Christ the Business Partner, Christ the Companion in the home, Christ the Comforter, and through His Spirit the Sancti fier. What sort of harvest are we getting ? Are we gain ing day by day an heart of wisdom? What have you reaped, my.friend, and what are you reaping? “That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” It is a grand harvest that is to be gathered. How are we to make the best of it? By applying our hearts to it. We must have a wisdom that consists in an ardent study, and we must make wisdom the principal thing. We must say, “That is the harvest we have got to reap.” And applying our heart unto wisdom suggests something of concentra tion and deep devotion, if we are to gather in the golden harvest. Notice the R.V. expression in passing, “That we may get us an heart o f wisdom,” or, as Dr. Kaye ren ders it in his fine translation, “wisdom fraught out.” Not simply to be content to take wisdom or even to act wis dom, but to have wisdom in the heart, wisdom really en shrined in our inner being, having an inward experience of wisdom. Are we reaping that golden harvest? What a wonderful harvest this is! Did I describe it too strongly—that we may bring home a harvest of wis dom? You see, it may be a continual harvest. Some of you are' finding it so, blessed be the grace of God; there is never a day that in some way or other you are not bringing home wisdom. A continual harvest. Yes, and it lasts forever. Earth’s harvests end, but the harvest of wisdom we shall reap forevermore. Young people, Chris tian immortality opens up amazing things beyond the narrow bounds of this life. Think of bringing home a harvest of wisdom through all the ages of eternity! And then, this is a beneficent harvest. It not only does good to you, but what blessings it brings to others! If you have wisdom, how it helps everyone in the house, in busi ness! There are business men here this morning who would not like me to tell what I could tell, and would rejoice to be able to tell. How that God is using them in so many different quiet ways to help others, giving young fellows who have fallen, another chance. That is a Christlike thing to do. And there is not a more dam nable thing than to have a cruel heart towards a man who has fallen, and never to put out a hand to help him up again. Wisdom maketh a man’s face to shine, and we can do with more shining faces in this gray and often grim world. What a source of gladness this harvest is —to be always bringing home wisdom, to be wise unto salvation! I charge you, my friends, and I charge myself, not to miss securing that golden harvest. How Is th is H arvest to be S ecured ? My second point is, How is this harvest to be secured ? I should think in a great many different ways. “So teach us to number our days, that we may gather an harvest of wisdom.” That is the Psalmist’s method for the time be ing. He has other methods elsewhere, but this may well suffice us this morning. What do you think of this method, that if we are to get a perennial harvest of wis dom, we are to number our days? It is as if the holy writer said, “You will not bring home a harvest of wis dom unless you are taught to number your days.” “So
Keystone v xew Co. GLEANERS ON THE PLAIN OF BETHLEHEM, PALESTINE
Spread out your need before Him. Take one other word in the 16th verse, “ Let thy work appear unto thy ser vants.” God’s work, what a wonderful work it is! Work in the heavens. Work on the earth and in the air, work beneath land and sea, and work in the souls of men; and the most wonderful work that God does—He worketh in you and in me. He says so in His Book. “He worketh in you to will and to do o f his good pleasure.” Is it .not grand to bring home a harvest of such thoughts concern ing God? Take just one other word in the 17th verse, where we read of the beauty of the Lord our God. When Charles Kingsley lay dying he kept saying, “How beau tiful God is!” I can well understand that, can’t you? Does He not get more beautiful? Have you ever taken a good look at Him in Jesus? Then you are bound to see what beauty He has. We all need to be fascinated with the beauty of God. Is it not good to bring home a harvest of such wisdom, such a right understanding of things? So may we gather a harvest of wisdom—right conduct, right thinking, and feeling, and speaking, and doing; practical wisdom, as we sometimes say. The Bible abounds in the idea of wisdom, but unless it is practical, it is no use my talking about it. It is no use my talking about God if I d©; not, as ithe New Testament says, imi tate God. It is no use my believing in His wrath if I do not strive to avoid it. It is no use my having divine mercy as an article of my creed if I do not live and hope in it. True wisdom is applied truth. There is the idea in the text of applying our hearts unto wisdom. Someone may say, “Well, my brain is not equal to grasping it very easily.” That may be true, but you can live it. What wise lives many quiet people live! True wisdom lies in prayerfulness, repentance, Bible read ing, sweet temper, unselfishness, spirituality, and service for others. How is that harvest getting on? I would go further than that. The old divines would have it that wisdom in the Old Testament was Christ. You know how in Proverbs wisdom is personified, as they say, but I be lieve it is more than personification. I believe it is direct prophecy concerning Christ. I once came, many years ago, under the influence of the Earl of Shaftesbury as a Bible teacher. There are some clever men who smile at him, but he was a great Bible teacher, and I shall never forget the influence that he had on me. I remember how in his diary he says something like this, “I have been reading the Book of Proverbs. How deeply evangelical
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