Gold Nugget 346 - Well-Spring of True Life

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      The words which come from the mouth of wisdom are “as deep waters.”  How shallow is much, if not most, that is spoken in our hearing!  It strikes no deeper than “the hour’s event,” than the mere gilding of our life; it only extends to the circumstances or to the conventionalities of life; it deals with tastes and customs, with regulation and proprieties; it goes no further than pecuniary or social expectations; it lies upon the surface and does not touch “the deep heart and reality of things.” 

      But the wisdom of the wise strikes deep; it goes down into the character; it touches first principles; it has to do with the sources and springs of human action; it concerns itself with the intrinsically true, the really beautiful, the solidly and permanently good. …

      The utterances of men who are not truly wise are lacking in this.  They can only repeat what they have learned; they have to consult their “authorities’ in order to know what they should say; they have to labour and strive in order to express themselves. 

      Not so the truly wise.  Their words come from them as water from a well-spring; their speech is the simple, natural, unconstrained outflow of their soul; they speak from the heart, not from the book.  Their spirit is full of Divine wisdom; they “have understanding”; they have knowledge, insight, love of the truth; they “cannot but speak” the truth that they have learned of God, the things they have heard and seen.  And the spontaneity of their utterance is one real element in their eloquence and their influence. ..

      They are “as a flowing brook.”  As water that is not pent up like a reservoir, but flows on through the thirsty land, communicating moisture and thus ministering to life and growth, so the words of the wise are continually flowing; they spread from heart to heart, from land to land, from age to age.  And as they flow they minister to the life and the growth of men; they communicate those living truths which enlighten the mind, which soften and change the heart, which transform and ennoble the life.  Their career is never closed, for from soul to soul, from lip to lip, from life to life, wisdom passes on in its blessed, unbroken course.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs 359-360, Proverbs 18:4, (W. Clarkson)

See also:  Proverbs 17:24

 

Gold Nugget 346

The Well-Spring of True Life

 

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