[Sep. 30th, 1855.]
Wisdom is a comprehensive word in the Scriptures. It is often used by Paul for the philosophy of the schools, or for human reason and its teachings; often for prudence and discretion; often for knowledge and understanding of the things of God, and hence for religion in a subjective sense, and for the gospel, the sum of truth, the highest form of truth. Frequently the same word is used both in an objective and subjective sense. It is so with “knowledge;” it is so with “righteousness,” “hope,” etc. So it is also with wisdom. This is either the system of divine truth, or the state of mind which the sincere reception of that truth produces. The latter is the sense here, as in Jas. 3:17. This is the wisdom by which our conduct is to be characterized.
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It is from above. It is the gift of God, not a self-induced virtue. It is something supernatural and divine.
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Pure, , as a dress or person newly washed; without spot, or defilement of any kind; as the garments of the saints who are clad in white. Thus pure should we be in all holy conversation and godliness.
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Peaceable. Negatively, it does not promote dissension, conflicts, or wranglings. Therefore it is not censorious, or disputatious. Affirmatively, it promotes peace, it heals divisions, allays animosities, assuages anger. 4. Gentle. , courteous, decorous, proper or beseeming, suitable to the circumstances of each particular occasion. 5. Easy to be entreated; , obsequious, open to conviction, ready to listen to admonition or reproof.
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Full of mercy and of good fruits; full of kind feeling, and abounding in acts of piety and beneficence. 7. Without partiality; , unambiguous, unmistakable, that which is manifestly what it appears or pretends to be, and therefore connected with the next term.
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Without hypoerisy. It is always what it pretends to be.
Such is the deportment we are to maintain in the world.
Those without, are those without the Church.
Redeeming the time. Availing ourselves of every opportunity to do good, so as to make the most of it, and so as to redeem it from evil.
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The excellency of such a life.
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It is honorable to religion and to our Saviour.
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It is blessed in itself; it is a heavenly life.
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It is beneficent. If all Christians were thus to live, the world would soon be as God’s holy mountain, where there is nothing to hurt or to destroy. And if this community should thus walk, this house would be the ante-chamber of heaven.
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