The Epiphany of Wisdom
I. On the nature of wisdom, the teaching of Holy Scripture is singularly clear and striking. It says there is a wisdom of man, and this is the knowledge of the true end or purpose of life call it happiness, call it perfection, or what you will a knowledge which answers, to some extent, those ever-recurring questions, "Why was I made?" and "What am I now?" and "Whither am I going?" This is the wisdom which the author of Ecclesiastes sought for everywhere, and yet hardly found. It is this, over which, as discovered, the Book of Proverbs rejoices as more precious than gold and jewels, and from the rough ore of which it forges the current coin of its proverbial philosophy. But there is also a wisdom of God, and this is the idea or purpose of His dispensation to man, rolling alike in the stately march of Nature's law, or in the little world of the soul within. The fear of the Lord is declared to be the beginning of wisdom, and to the desponding author of Ecclesiastes, it seems to be the whole treasure of man.
II. The Epiphany of wisdom is, for us, unlike the Epiphany of power in this that it is not removed far away in the past, so that its voice comes to us only like the reverberations of some distant thunder grand, indeed, and solemn, but so vague and indistinct that they may be drowned by the more incisive sounds of ordinary life. No; the words of the Lord are as living now as on the very day they were uttered. They indicate their unequalled grandeur in this that, uttered by a Galilean carpenter eighteen centuries ago, they are universal in their application to all time and place. "Never man spake as this Man." And if that be true, there are three short practical questions which we may well consider: (1) What means the Epiphany of wisdom, if it does not mean that He who speaks, being true man, is yet more than man is, in some supreme and unique sense, revealer of the very mind of God? (2) And then, if this be so, is it not, in the next place, reasonable for us, in reverence and faith, to try the effect of His guidance in all the perplexities and needs of this life? (3) And if here also we find that His wisdom is a sufficient guide in all these questions and needs that we can understand, is it not then natural that, with regard to all those deep mysteries of eternity, and of Godhead, and of salvation which we cannot discover, but which yet are of infinite moment to our life is it not reasonable that in these things we should yield also to His claim, and prepare, at least, to sit at His feet with something like inquiring and unhesitating faith?
Bishop Barry, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 33.
References: John 7:46. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvi., No. 951; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 321; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 35; G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 101; F. Trestrail, Ibid.,vol. xxxvi., p. 141. Joh 7:53., Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 137; W. Sanday, The Fourth Gospel,p. 144.John 8:1-12. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 137. John 8:1-12. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 126. John 8:3-11. Parker, Hidden Springs,p. 243; Homilist,3rd series, vol. xv., p. 166. John 8:6. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 206. John 8:9. A. Ramsay, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 100. John 8:11. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,2nd series, p. 100; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,1874, p. 116.