Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: March 16th

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." - Psalms 111:10.

It would be strange indeed if it were otherwise. If we believe in God the Creator of all, the Giver of every good gift, and if we believe it to be his wish that men should acknowledge his authority, and yield to his guidance, we cannot but believe that he will bestow his best gifts, especially such a gift as wisdom, on those only who defer to his authority, and aim to please him. The supposition that this gift is as fairly bestowed upon the ungodly as upon any implies that God disregards all moral distinctions, and has no tokens of his satisfaction to bestow on those whose great concern is to honor him. He undoubtedly bestows many gifts upon the wicked, for a season, that he may lead them to repentance by the experience of his goodness. But his best gifts are given after, not before, their repentance.

Can it then be said that the non-religious world is without wisdom? Has it no Aristotle, no Socrates, no Tacitus, no Goethe, no Gibbon? Let us understand what wisdom is. It is not any mere amount of knowledge that constitutes wisdom. Appropriate knowledge is essential to wisdom. A man who has not the knowledge appropriate to his position, who does not know himself in his relation to God and to his fellow-men, who is misinformed as to his duties, his dangers, his necessities, though he may have written innumerable works of a most exalted character, yet is he to be set down as a man without wisdom. What is it to you that your servant is acquainted with mathematics, if he is ignorant of your will, and of the way to do it? The genius of a Voltaire, a Spinoza, a Carlyle, only makes their folly the more striking. As though a man floating rapidly onwards to the Fails of Niagara, should occupy himself in drawing a very admirable picture of the scenery. Men who are exceedingly great in the world’s estimation have made the most signal blunders with regard to the most important things; and it is only because these things are not considered important by the world, that the reputation of these men remains.

If you have learned to estimate things in some measure as God estimates them, to desire what he offers, to relinquish what he forbids, and to recognize the duties that he has appointed you, you are in the path of wisdom, and the great men we have been speaking about are far behind you - far from the narrow gate which you have entered. He only is wise, who can call Christ the wisdom of God.

The fear of God is that deference to God which leads you to subordinate your will to his: - makes you intent on pleasing him; penitent in view of past willfulness; happy in his smile; transported by his love; hopeful of his glory.

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