S. M.
Christ the wisdom of God. Prov.8:1,22-32.
Shall Wisdom cry aloud,
And not her speech be heard?
The voice of God's eternal Word,
Deserves it no regard?
|I was his chief delight,
His everlasting Son,
Before the first of all his works,
Creation, was begun.
[|Before the flying clouds,
Before the solid land,
Before the fields, before the floods,
I dwelt at his right hand.
|When he adorned the skies,
And built them, I was there,
To order where the sun should rise,
And marshal every star.
|When he poured out the sea,
And spread the flowing deep,
I gave the flood a firm decree
In its own bounds to keep.]
|Upon the empty air
The earth was balanced well.
With joy I saw the mansion where
The sons of men should dwell.
|My busy thoughts at first
On their salvation ran,
Ere sin was born, or Adam's dust
Was fashioned to a man.
|Then come, receive my grace,
Ye children, and be wise;
Happy the man that keeps my ways;
The man that shuns them dies.|