XV.

The Boundless Tealth of Aisdom in Christ.

"In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."COLOSSIANS ii. 3.

"WH

HERE shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?" These sublime words of the ancient patriarch have been echoed by the inquiring spirits of every age of the world. The soarings of men in quest of wisdom, and their own endeavours to find it, have ever failed in yielding true satisfaction. The philosopher has many a time been pleased with his own speculations, and occasionally the dim darkness

*Job xxviii. 12-20.

of the world's night may for a moment have been made visible by the flash of genius or the coruscation of some master mind, as by a flickering taper, but only to settle down again in thicker shade or deeper gloom. The only true reply to the question of the patriarch, and to the anxious sigh of every inquiring spirit, is in the words of the Apostle before us,"In whom "—that is, in Christ—" are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

There are modern forms of old Colossian error: those who say that there is no reliable truth but in the facts of nature; no religion but in the teachings of science; no hope for human progress but in renouncing all faith in Revelation as a weak and obstructive superstition. On the contrary, we assert that Jesus Christ, as the theme, the substance, and, so to speak, the Master-Spirit of Revelation, is the very wisdom of God; and though philosophers of every age have made their boast of wisdom, and have generally counted the gospel foolishness, yet in God manifest in the flesh, as the mystery of godliness," are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

Some commentators say that the antecedent to which the relative whom refers is mystery, not Christ, and that the marginal reading wherein is the correct one. I do not think so; but the difference is really immaterial, as Christ the crucified Saviour is Himself the mystery, and in Him as such are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." In a theme like this, so vast and so profound, our comments can only touch the truths which seem to lie upon the surface.

I. It is here declared that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ. They are deposited in Him as the God-man, the image of the Invisible God, the Head of the Church, the King and Preserver of the universe, by whom all things consist. The words used by St. Paul have doubt

less a reference to phraseology used, and doctrines taught, by the false teachers at Colossæ.* The next verse seems to confirm this supposition. It may therefore be difficult to mark the real distinction here between knowledge and wisdom. Yet there is such a distinction; knowledge is simply enlightenment, acquaintance with truth, and wisdom the use and result of that enlightenment, the application of the truth. Knowledge is the study, and wisdom its fruit. The word treasures suggests the idea of great value and excellence. No wealth for the soul is like that imparted by true wisdom and knowledge. It elevates, transforms, and adorns humanity, and is both imperishable and inalienable. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ; not select truths, but all kinds of truth for man have their source and centre in Him. We may take too narrow a view of the Apostle's assertion by limiting its application to spiritual knowledge. This would be a mistake; for as all things were made by Christ, and consist by Him, so all branches of knowledge for the human soul have a relation to Him, and find their truest meaning in Him.

The great themes of human study, or fields of knowledge, may be classified under the three heads-history, philosophy, and theology. History is really the knowledge of our race. in its social progress and national development. Philosophy is the knowledge of the laws and relations of matter and of mind. Theology is the knowledge of the Divine Being, His relation to us, and our obligations to Him. It will not, I think, be difficult to show that in Christ Jesus are hid all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom, in these great departments of thought.

There were "those who professed to be in possession of a higher Gnosis. In opposition to them the Apostle asserts that the depths of Gnosis are only to be found in the mystery of God.'"-Cony beare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul in loc.

1. Jesus Christ is the key to human history-the history of the race. Vast are the stores of wisdom and knowledge contained in the history of mankind, and of this history Christ is the true exposition. "The first man Adam was made a living soul: the last Adam a quickening spirit. The second man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. xv. 45, 47). The history of the ancient nations of the world cannot be examined thoroughly, or considered fairly, apart from the descendants of Abraham. All nations were in turn brought more or less directly into contact with the Jews, and every one sees that the Hebrew nation has relations to Jesus of Nazareth, clear, manifold, personal, and vital. The Bible contains the oldest historical records in existence. These show us the connection of No, Memphis, Nineveh, and Babylon, of Tyre and Sidon, of Tarsus, Athens, and Rome, with the ancient people of God; and as centuries rolled on, with Jerusalem; and Jerusalem, "the City of the Great King," and the metropolis of truth for the world, found its highest meaning and glory in the life and death accomplished there of the promised Messiah, the Christ of God. The Old Testament is "as some vast forest, dusky and shadowy, yet with wondrous breaks and glimpses of sudden light; but a majestic spirit haunts the obscure immense,"*-the Spirit of the promised King, the Ruler of the coming kingdom of God. The ancient records, considered in themselves, are incomplete; but in their types, their predictions, their allusions, they bear constant reference to ONE, the light of whose promised and expected advent flashed back upon Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, making every page of the stirring history sparkle with radiance and instinct with living. interest. No ancient history of any nation known in the

* Prof. W. Archer Butler's Sermons, 1st series, 2nd ed., ser. xiv. 1852.

world can be complete without a knowledge of its relation to the Jews, and no history of Judæa can have its full meaning, which forgets the burden of prophecy and the facts of history regarding the Messiah.

Nor is this true only as respects the period of the world's history prior to the advent of the Incarnate Son of God; but since He came the same truth holds good. The unbeliever may reject Christ, and scoff at Christianity, still he has to account for the presence of this religion in the world, and to explain its influence as by far the mightiest moral impulse which men or nations have received to shape their course, or mould their character for good. The pathway of Christ's name and influence is easily traced among the nations, in lines of light and liberty. Where He is best known, and His name most truly adored, the nation rises in the elements of truest stability and surest progress. How vast are the dependencies of our own empire, and how wide-spread the influence of our name and rule; and surely it would be impossible to write a history of England without taking into account our religion, and the relation of that religion to Christ, "the image of the invisible God."

We do not assert too much, then, in saying that no history of the world, political or moral, can be either just or accurate, that does not find in Christ foretold to come, or in Christ come and crucified, its centre and its key. All its treasures may justly be said to be hid in Him, and essentially connected with Him who is "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

2. Jesus Christ is the ground, the personal foundation, of true philosophy. He is the wisdom as well as the power of God. Man is a searcher after truth; he intermeddles with all wisdom. Philosophy presents to him three distinct. fields of investigation: nature or material creation, mind, and morals,-natural, mental, and moral science. What, it may