BEGINNING OF WISDOM

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 188, 6 May 1940, Page 6

BEGINNING OF WISDOM

The place of the Bible and religion in all true education was emphasized by the Rev. Percy Paris, preaching in Wesley Church, Wellington, last night. Mr. Paris’s subject was "The Beginning of Wisdom.”

Education was not simply the loading of the mind with gathered facts, but the training of the self in the proper application of facts, the right use of knowledge, the correct direction of our faculties, said Mr. Paris. The purpose of life was the development of personality in harmony with the will of God for people. That- was what, the Bible called the finding or saving of one’s soul, one’s personality. The Bible said little about knowledge; but a great deal about wisdom. “The fear of the Lord, the reverence of God, Is the beginning of wisdom.” The Bible brought people face to face with God. God’s voice was heard in the songs of the Psalmists, in the visions of the prophets, and in the deep undertones of the law. Most clearly that voice wqs heard in the life, spirit, and teaching of Jesus Christ. There one saw God. In Jesus was found the life eternal, the ultimate truth, arid the way of holiness. How thankful then one should be for the work of the British and Foreign Bible Society in its distribution annually of inillions of copies of the Scriptures in some 700 different tongues. Mr. Paris praised the work of the Bible in Schools League in bringing the Bible with its revelation of God and the Gospel of Jesus to the school children. Thus the children in their gaining of knowledge, learnt also that reverence for God and His will which was the beginning of wisdom.