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Introduction Helps to a Devout Life; Being a Treatise on Religious Duties by Lawson, George
INTRODUCTORY.
" My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; ... then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God."--PROVERBS ii. 1, 2, 5.
IF we give heed to the instructions of Solomon, we "shall understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path" (ver. 9); but it does not follow that, in seeking information concerning the complete and perfect will of God, we should confine our attention to the book of Proverbs.
God has, indeed, given us a comprehensive statement of duty in that portion of Scripture. Wisdom speaks to us by the lips of the wise king of Israel. The Queen of Sheba, who came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear his wisdom, will rise up in the judgment and condemn us if we refuse to receive his words, and keep his commandments. Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. There are great things which he in vain desired to see and hear,-which have now been clearly revealed to men for the obedience of faith. In addition to what was "said by them of old time," who testified beforehand of the coming of Christ, increased light has been thrown on the plan of salvation, and consequently upon the great motives and principles of human duty, by the writers of the New Testament. "In these last days God hath spoken unto us by his Son" (Heb. i. 1). He came into the world to accomplish and reveal the Divine will (John i. 18). Had Solomon lived in gospel times he could not have said that there was no "new thing under the sun." The Lord created a new thing on the earth when the "Word was made flesh," and became the "revealer of the Father," the Great Prophet of the Church!
Angels were astonished at the wondrous discoveries of love and wisdom made known to men in the face of Christ Jesus. More particularly, in connection with the person and work of the Lord Jesus, we have been better instructed in regard to the reciprocal relations and respective operations of the three Persons of the Godhead in the economy of grace, and the corresponding obligations resting on the people of God. The truth on this subject was not altogether unknown to the ancient Church. Solomon summons men to listen to the voice of Jesus, as the Eternal "Wisdom of God," "whom he possessed in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." Nor is he silent about the Holy Spirit, and His gracious influence in applying the instructions of Divine wisdom to the soul. But as prophecies are best understood after their accomplishment, so the special agency of each Person of the Trinity in the work of human salvation is most clearly set forth in the account which the New Testament gives of the performance of the mercy promised to the fathers. "Through the tender mercy of our God, the dayspring from on high hath visited us." We now understand many things stated in the Old Testament much better than the holy men who were employed in committing them to writing.
Whilst we prize our superior privileges, let us improve them by walking in the light of the Lord, and conscientiously performing the duties we owe to each of the Divine Persons, in whose name we have been baptised and received into the fellowship of the visible Church. .
"He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah vi. 8).
"Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Eccles. xii. 13).