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WISDOM

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 22.

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WISDOM.

Its Importance.

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." Prov. 4: 7-9. "How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!" Ch. 16: 16. "He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul." Ch. 19: 8. "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Dan. 12: 3.

The Insufficiency of Human Wisdom.

It originated with Satan, and was imparted to the human race through falsehood and disobedience. Of the forbidden tree, God had said to the man, "Thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But Satan said, "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gen. 2: 17; 3: 4, 5. But from that teacher man never could learn anything but evil. By such wisdom it is impossible to know God. 1 Cor. 1: 19-25. "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." Ch. 3: 19. "The wisdom of their wise men shall perish." Isa. 29: 14.

Where to Get True Wisdom.

"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. . . . Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? . . . God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof. . . . And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Job 28: 12-28.
"Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" Deut. 4: 5-8. Verse 13 shows that the Ten Commandments are included in that which is Israel's wisdom. See also Phil. 3: 3 for a description of the true Israel.
"The Holy Scriptures . . . are able to make thee wise unto salvation." 2 Tim. 3: 15.

How to Get True Wisdom.

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James 1: 5. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. 11: 29. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Col. 3: 16. "A good understanding have all they that do His commandments." Ps. 111: 10.

The Character of Such Wisdom.

"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." James 3: 17.

EXALTING MAN ABOVE HIS MAKER.

THE chief characteristic of the religions of heathendom, from Babylon down, was the exaltation of man and the consequent debasing of their estimation of God. The evil passions of the human heart were deified, and the most loathsome creatures of earth were worshiped as gods. Because they preferred iniquity to righteousness, their own ways to God's ways, He "gave them over to a reprobate mind." In that reprobate mind all the conceptions of sin served as attributes of their gods.
At the same time they chose to build their own way to heaven, and in that way find their refuge from all the calamities of earth. It was the prerogative of God alone to provide that way and furnish that refuge; but in the exaltation of self, man sought to usurp that prerogative of God.
Just so it is to-day. The sin of Babylon and of ancient Egypt is the sin of this generation. Man is building his own tower to the heaven of heavens, is trusting in his own power to keep him, and to his own guidance to direct him to the choicest place in the garden of God. That the doctrines of New Thought were the doctrines of Babylon and Egypt is easy of proof. Babylon was "the beginning of kingdoms," and Egypt borrowed from her all that she had to lend. Beethoven kept constantly on his work table these sentences found in an ancient Egyptian temple:—
I am that which is, I am all that is, All that has been, All that shall be. No mortal man has lifted my veil.
All these ascriptions to Deity man took to himself, and so "worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator." Man to-day is being taught to do the same thing; is being led back to Egypt and to Babylon, and through them and their teachings to the service of him who taught Egypt and Babylon to dishonor God and set man above Him. Listen to these declarations borrowed from the creeds of the man-worshiping ancients: "As Life I am perfect." "Through faith in myself as a manifestation of the Infinite Life I am health and happiness." "I can not be sick, for as an Ego I am God manifest in the subconscious, and God can not be sick." "As an Ego I can not be weak, for Life is omnipotent, and all power is mine." "I think of myself as the I Am, which is infinite." "I live now the omnipotent and omnipresent Life." "Man is spirit here and now, with all the possibilities of divinity within him, and he can consciously manifest those possibilities here and now."
The only purpose in quoting these assumptions is to show the direct connection between the religion of Egypt and the dogmas of New Thought. They are the same in conception and substance. They both exalt man to the place of God, and consequently make God less than man.
In view of that fact the warning of God to ancient Israel is as apt to-day as then. Hear what the Word says: "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; . . . they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah! . . . Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit; and when Jehovah shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together." Isa. 31: 1-3.
Such helping is not help at all, and the light of such teachings is but the grossest darkness, to follow which is to walk into the open jaws of destruction. But the world is full of such teachings to-day. The religious press and the religious pulpit give utterance to it in polished phrase and word-worship, and the people drink it in as the milk of very truth. The Lord says, "The Egyptians are men, and not God." The doctrine of ancient Egypt, as the doctrine of modern New Thought, declares that man is God, with all the attributes of divinity in him, living the omnipotent and omnipresent life here and now, and having within himself the power to create himself. That is their own claim plainly declared, and the man who believes that he has that power falls down at the altar of self to worship there.
How fitting it is, in view of the startling growth of these heathen, man-worshiping teachings in these last days, that the last message of God to this world should be a message of warning against the worship of anything but God Himself. So Christ declared to Satan, the author of all these doctrines of heathen-ism, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." That is the message for the world at this time, when the world is being polluted as never before with the doctrines of idolatry. God declares that those who listen to and accept such teachings shall stumble and fall with their teachers, and be consumed together. "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come."