March 8

If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. - Proverbs 9:12.

AS religion makes us truly wise, to possess it is to gain the greatest advantage. Now this does not mean that heavenly wisdom will make a man cunning and selfish. The man of wisdom will be concerned to be useful. While religion is indeed personal, it is also social in its aspects and influences. It begins, and indeed must begin, with himself; but it must not end there. A Christian will be anxious, as he has opportunity, to do good to all men. Nor does it mean that he will not be beneficial to others as well as himself. As before his conversion he was a curse, so now he will prove a blessing.

Christians are “the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” They are the “repairers of the breach; the restorers of paths to dwell in.” Christians are the greatest benefactors of the human race. By their prayers and by their examples, by their influence and by their exertions, they “serve their generation according to the will of God.” The meaning of the expression, “thou shalt be wise for thyself,” first, is spoken of in reference to God. Our goodness extendeth not to him. Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? We must not, therefore, think much of our services in his cause; for when we have done all that is commanded of us, we must say we are unprofitable servants. That is, unprofitable to him, never to ourselves. And therefore we need not be afraid to come to him because we have no worthiness, and have nothing to bring; for he has said we are to come to him, not to communicate, but to receive.

Then it means, secondly, that though others may derive benefit from it, no one is or can be so enriched by it as the possessor of true wisdom. The fruit will fall principally into our own lap. It means that “godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come.” The temporal benefits of religion are great, but the Spiritual benefits are greater. And as to the eternal benefits to which it leads, and of which it is the earnest, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”