The Wisdom Built House

The Wisdom Built House

By W.H. Wood

Finished the preparation of this message on April 3, 1946.  To be delivered to the Senior Class of the Oak Vale High School on April 14, 1946 at 11 a.m. in the Baptist Church at Oak Vale.

“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars” Proverbs 9:1

Solomon speaks much, and often about wisdom; by which he means an understanding heart.  Many people have knowledge, but not understanding.  Knowledge without understanding is dangerous.  It is a prisoner’s dungeon.  It has been said:  “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”  So is much knowledge if it is without understanding.  Wisdom here is represented as a builder.  “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”

Wisdom hath builded her house.  Let us draw a vision of that house.  Its name is character.  It is on the banks of a beautiful river called life, and is surrounded by palm groves and fruitful orchards.  Its foundations are rugged, its walls massive, and its dome and pinnacles are towering and graceful.  I have envisioned its 4 successive stories:

           

In the first story there are the kitchen, dining room, pantry, bedrooms, and parlor.  These are for the care of the body. 

In the second story are the thought rooms:  the library and the conservatories of art and music, for the care of the mind. 

The third story has the laboratory, where all kinds of testing, and weighing, and measuring are done, for the care of the soul. 

The fourth story contains the observatory where, through the telescope of faith are beheld the things eternal, which once seen are ever longed for. 

In this vision, I have seen this wonderful building in course of construction.  I have seen the builders come forth to their work.  First come industry, leading the way.  A great heart superintended the construction.  Self-control gathered the material.  Conscience was an industrious workman, often tearing down what he had done and doing it over again.  Imagination was busy chiseling statuary, and painting landscapes of exquisite beauty. Purity cleaned the windows, and polished the walls.  I heard the shout of toilers as love and joy brought refreshments.  And I looked upon that house and said, “It is good.”

And in the vision I have seen on the opposite bank of that river, called life that which once promised to be a house beautiful.  Doubts and fear started it, but had not the courage to continue.  Indolence offered a helping hand, turned away under the first smiting rays of the sun.  Lust consumed more material than industry could gather.  Greed added a few boards.  Lawlessness chained his dogs at the gates, and despair finished to ruin.  My young friends, I have painted for you your own destiny according as you elect to have it so.  You may make your life a house beautiful, or you may make it a mass of ruins. 

The house wisdom builds is a complete structure.  “She hath hewn out her seven pillars.”  Seven in the scripture is the word of completeness.  Many houses fall because they are insufficiently pillared.  Who would say the life of Tom Paine or Bob Ingersoll was a success?  And who would say the same of any of those who are preaching and teaching skepticism or infidelity or atheism today?  Of such it maybe said:  Theirs is success at destruction, but not construction.  They have cast off the only foundation stone, without which the structure cannot stand.  That is not only true of the man who throws faith away, but of him also who throws moral character away.  I heard of a football game a few years ago where a score of students were drunk.  What good will an education do that sort of youth?  An educated hog is a hog still, and fit only for the slaughter pen.

Now I want you to notice with me the firm pillars upon which wisdom builds her house: 

            The first pillar is purpose.  A high and noble purpose is to a successful life what the drive wheel is to the locomotive engine.  It is what the rudder is to the ocean liner.  It is what aim is to the marksman.  A high and noble purpose, where there is willingness to toil and sacrifice for its achievements cannot be defeated.  Shakespeare held horses at a theater for the tips that he might receive, but purposed to become a great playwright, and lived to see a volume of his verse kissed by England’s Queen.  John Bunyan was a tinker, but his life purpose reached further than that, and he wrote the book that ranks next to the Bible.  Martin Luther was the son of a wool comber, but he consecrated himself to the cause of soul freedom, and led the Great Reformation.  Jim Garfield, working on a canal boat, envisioned the White House at Washington, and one day became President of the United States.  Abraham Lincoln, the young rail splitter, studied by a pine knot fire at night, and said, “I’ll get ready, maybe my chance will come”.  It came. Call the roll of all of earth’s great, and I will write after their names the word “purpose”.  But it must be remembered that before one purposes to do, he must propose to be; for it is what a person is that counts in the end. 

            The second pillar is courage.  The onward march to success and power must ring with the great note of courage.  It took courage to course the uncharted seas and discover new continents, and to set new standards of progress.  With “Cato” courage says, “Carthage must be destroyed”.  With “Caesar” courage says, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”  With “Napoleon” courage says, “there shall be no Alps”.  With “Luther” courage says, “the conscience of men shall be free.”  Courage that counts does not depend on time, nor does it depend upon place or circumstances.  It was courage that made Stonewall Jackson invincible in the leadership of his army.  Life has many stern battles to fight.  Even the Lord can do nothing with a coward.  For He says, “Fear not, but let your hands be strong.” Zechariah 8:13

            The third pillar is genuineness.  The world can soon see through a camouflage.  My young friends, after all the high schools, colleges, and universities can do for you, if you have not character.  Your life will be a failure.  The ring of the coin will tell what kind of metal it is.  If you are counterfeit, the world will find it out after it has bumped into you a time or two.  Paul’s injunction to Timothy was:  “keep thyself pure.”  Purity is the dynamic force of success.  It is the success of the sunbeam shimmering on the rod.  It is the success of the dewdrop kissing the rose.  It is the success of the water lily struggling up from the ooze of the river and flashing its robe of virgin whiteness in the light of day.  Such a life wears the crown of greatness, for it is made of the stuff that endures.  Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself, and Daniel became one of the outstanding figures of his time, ranking next to the ruler of the nation.  No one who stands convicted of impurity in the secret councils of his own soul can claim success until he has rid himself of the serpent coiled there.  With purity of thought, and motive, and purpose, and desire – whether his name is heralded afar, or whether he walks the more obscure paths, over his name at the end of life, cannot be written the word “Failure”. 

            Wisdom’s fourth pillar is unselfishness.  No worthwhile life can stand upon a foundation of selfishness.  It is God’s order that only that which gives lives.  Palestine has its Sea of Galilee, and its Dead Sea:  its sea of life and its sea of death.  The difference in the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee is that one receives and selfishly keeps, while the other receives and generously gives.  The man who can say of the battles of struggling humanity, “of which I am a part” is more than a goodly hero; he is a patriot of the highest order, and a blessing to the world.  Who would care anything about Grace Darling if she had rescued no drowning man?  Who cares anything about Florence Nightingale if she had nursed no sick and wounded soldiers?  Who would care anything about David Livingstone if he had enlightened no dark continent?  Who would care anything about Lord Shaftesbury if he had fed no hungry mouths, and clothed none who were naked?  Who would care anything about General Booth if he had not sent the drumbeat and the Gospel banner of the Salvation Army into the slums of cities around the world?  Who would care anything about Paul the apostle if he had carried no Gospel to the Gentiles?  Who would care anything about Jesus Christ if he had died on no cross for a world’s sins? 

            The fifth pillar in our temple of life is work.  We Americans are worshipers of genius, forgetting that genius is only another name for work.   Mr. Edison, perhaps the greatest genius ever produced by America, when asked to define genius, he said, “It is ninety-nine percent sweat.”  He illustrated his own definition in working eighteen months to make his graphophone say “receive” when it insisted on saying “retrieve”.  Carlyle said, “There 2 things necessary to a life of success:  One is to find one’s work, and the other is to do it.”  When Dean Stanley asked Carlyle:  “What shall I do?” Carlyle replied, “Do your best.”  Pitiful is the man, rising in the morning for the day’s toil, with no love in his heart for his work.  He who hails the daybreak with delight for the new opportunities it affords finds every hour of the day full of pleasure.  He who succeeds in life must count the hours.  A squanderer indeed is he who wastes his time.  Idleness is the devil’s workshop.  Idleness is the destroyer of character. 

            The sixth pillar in this house is right thinking.  There is no crown of enduring success that is not purchased by high and noble thinking.  “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7.  The life will gravitate towards its ideals.  We become like the things we keep company with in our thoughts.  It is said that when Michelangelo had completed his statue of David – a statue that looks more to have been chiseled by the hand of the skies than by the hand of man – the hard lines in his own face had softened.  Hawthorne has given us the outstanding classic illustrating this great truth in his story of “The Great Stone Face.”  Nature, in a majestic mood, had carved this face out in the rock, high upon the side of a mountain, and this lad who grew up under its inspiration, looking upon it daily, and idealizing in it all those fine graces that make for character in middle life became like unto it in his own features; and putting into action all those high ideals and sublime graces, he became the poet, the prophet, the teacher, the adviser, the comforter, and the leader of all the folks of the valley.  High ideals make lofty characters.  We do not rise above our thinking. 

            The last and crowning one of these seven pillars is faith.  In the window of an art store in Paris there was exhibited the statue of a Knight of the olden time.  He stood clothed from head to foot in chain armor.  A broad sword hung by his right side, and his shield at the left.  On his face was a look of high resolve.  In his outstretched hands was a scroll on which was written the one word “Credo” “I believe”.  The man who believes is the man who accomplishes.  No man is fit for lasting good until he can look up to God and out upon the world and say “I believe”.  It is quite the thing these days to scoff at the old faith, and try to set up in its stead the platitudes of puny man.  Those who deny God denies all authority, both God’s and man’s and paves the way for anarchy.  The red dragon book of revelation lashes the earth with its slimy tail today and calls for the destruction of all authority in earth and sky.  Realism, wherever it shows its hand, seeks the overthrow of governments and the destruction of religion.  A faithful alibi with these destroyers is the teachers, whether in high school, college or university, who belittles religion and kills the minds of youth with doubt concerning God and the Bible.  It has never been possible for man to get along in the world very well without glimpses of the world to come.  “Credo” “I believe”.  My young friends, as imperfect as the church may be, it is the whitest thing in all the world.  Faith in God is the tuning fork that brings singing into our hearts, the music of heavenly assurance that Jesus Christ, through His atoning death, is ours, and we, through His redeeming grace, are His; and that we are saved through His precious blood, and evermore kept by His power. 

(Illustration of a young man who used faulty material in building.)  Young friends, you are building a house that you must live in.  You must live in it for time, and for eternity.  Then, as the great apostle Paul admonishes:  “Let every man take heed how he buildeth.” 1 Corinthians 3:10.  When the testing time comes, will the house called life and character be of wood, hay, stubble, or will it be of Gold, silver, precious stones, that shall stand when every man’s work shall be made manifest, and shall be revealed by fire. 1 Corinthians 3:12.  Our chief business is to build a house that shall receive the approval of the great inspector and that shall be only, if Jesus Christ is the Architect and Godly wisdom is the builder.