SEE, but glance briefly, sorrow-worn and pale,
Those sunken cheeks beneath the widow's veil;
Alone she wanders where with him she trod,
No arm to stay her, but she leans on God.
WISDOM is better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared with it. PROVERBS, viii, 11.
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. ERBS, Viii, 22, 23.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments. FSALM, cxi, 10.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding. PROVERBS, iv, 7.
THE wise, I here observe,
Are wise towards God, in whose great service still,
More than in that of kings, themselves they serve.
SIR W. DAVENANT.
WHEN did wisdom covet length of days?
Or seek its bliss in pleasure, wealth, or praise?
No-wisdom views with an indifferent eye
All finite things, as blessings born to die.
THUS wisdom's words discover
Thy glory and Thy grace,
Thou everlasting Lover
Of our unworthy race!
Thy gracious eye surveyed us
Ere stars were seen above;
In wisdom Thou hast made us,
And died for us in love.
WISDOM smiles, when humbled, mortals weep. When sorrow wounds the breast, as ploughs the glebe, And hearts obdurate feel the softening shower,
Her seeds celestial then glad wisdom sows,
Her golden harvest triumphs in the soil.
WISDOM is humble, said the voice of God.
'Tis proud, the world replied. Wisdom, said God,
Forgives, forbears, and suffers, not for fear
Of man, but God. Wisdom revenges, said
The world; is quick and deadly of resentment,
Thrusts at the very shadow of affront,
And hastes, by death, to wipe its honour clean.
Wisdom, said God, loves enemies, entreats,
Solicits, begs for peace. Wisdom, replied
The world, hates enemies, will not ask peace,
Conditions spurns, and triumphs in their fall.
Wisdom mistrusts itself, and leans on Heaven,
Said God. It trusts and leans upon itself,
The world replied. Wisdom retires, said God,
And counts it bravery to bear reproach,
And shame, and lowly poverty, upright;
And weeps with all who have just cause to weep.
Wisdom, replied the world, struts forth to gaze,
Treads the broad stage of life with clamorous foot,
Attracts all praises, counts it bravery
Alone to wield the sword, and rush on death;
And never weeps, but for its own disgrace.
Wisdom, said God, is highest, when it stoops
Lowest before the Holy Throne; throws down
Its crown, abased; forgets itself, admires,
And breathes adoring praise. There wisdom stoops
Indeed, the world replied; there stoops, because
It must, but stoops with dignity; and thinks
And meditates, the while, of inward worth.
Ir is the way we go, the way of life;
A drop of pleasure in a sea of pain,
A grain of peace amid a load of strife,
With toil and grief, and grief and toil again:
Tea: but for this; the firm and faithful breast,
Bolder than lions, confident and strong,
That never doubts its birthright to be blest,
And dreads no evil, while it does no wrong:
This, this is wisdom, manful and serene;
Towards God, all penitence, and prayer, and trust;
But to the troubles of this shifting scene,
Simply courageous, and sublimely just;
Be then, such wisdom thing, my heart within,--
There is no foc, nor woe, nor grief, but Sin.
A MAN hath joy by the answer of his mouth and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! PROVERBS, XV, 23.
In the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found. PROVERBS, X, 13. The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook. PROVERBS, xviii, 6.
THAT to great faithless wits can truth dispense
Till 't turn their witty scorns to reverence:
Make them confess their greatest error springs
From curious gazing on the least of things;
With reading smaller prints they spoil their sight,
Darken themselves, then rave for want of light:
Show them how full they are of subtle sin,
When faith's great cable they would nicely spin
To reason's slender threads; then, falsely bold,
When they have weakened it, cry, It will not hold!
SIR W. DAVENANT.
Is sparkling wit the world's exclusive right?
The fixed fcc-simple of the vain and light?
Can hopes of Heaven, bright prospects of an hour,
That come to waft us out of sorrow's power,
Obscure or quench a faculty that finds
Its happiest soil in the serenest minds?
Religion curbs indeed its wanton play,
And brings the trifler under rigorous sway,
But gives it usefulness unknown before,
And, purifying, makes it shine the more.
A Christian's wit is inoffensive light,
A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight.
WHо can and a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. PROVERBS, xxxi, 10.
Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. I. CORINTHIANS, Xi, 11.
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make a help-meet for him. GENESIS, ii, 18.
So woman, born to dignify retreat,
Unknown to flourish, and unseen be great,
To give domestic life its sweetest charm,
With softness polish, and with virtue warm:
Fearful of fame, unwilling to be known,
Should seek but Heaven's applauses and her own;
Should dread no blame but that which crimes impart,
The censures of a self-condemning heart.
To be man's tender mate was woman born,
And, in obeying nature, she best serves
The purposes of Heaven.
Bur never, in her varied sphere,
Is woman to the soul more dear
Than when the homely task she plies,
With cheerful duty in her eyes;
And, every lowly path well trod,
Looks meekly upward to her God.
AND, lest a life without the genial aid
Of social intercourse, should barren prove
Of real joys, a partner God bestowed,
Whose milder converse, and endearing love,
Might cheer the lonely hour.
HE is a parricide to his mother's name,
And with an impious hand murthers her fame,
That wrongs the praise of woman; that dares write
Libels on saints, or with foul ink requite
The milk they lent us.
So likewise, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do. LUKE, xvii, 10.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. JAMES, 1, 22.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. JAMES, 1, 25.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. MATTHEW, V, 13.
HEAVEN doth with us as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike
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