How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)

"How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!" Proverbs 16:16

How much better — for wisdom buys what gold cannot procure. Wisdom — the mind which hearkens to God and the heart which yields to Him — brings me . . .
  His divine favor,
  His forgiving grace,
  His power to shield me,
  His guidance to lead me,
  His knowledge to inspire me,
  His glory to crown me!

Wisdom secures for me a wealth beside which the greatest treasures of the world are but dross!

Wisdom penetrates where gold cannot go. It carries pardon and peace into the deepest recesses of my spirit — while gold can do nothing but deck my body and my home. It gives me the strongest and the tenderest influence over others — while gold cannot dispel their griefs and answer their doubts. It lifts me into communion with the Most High God — and gold is powerless to lead me there, to that glorious country far beyond the stars!

Wisdom endures when gold is gone. This world's riches take to themselves wings and flee away — almost every day furnishes me with a new instance of how fleeting and perishable they are. But wisdom makes mine the possessions which never perish, which are never withdrawn, which through life and death and eternity, are certain to gladden my soul!

"Wisdom is supreme — so get wisdom!" Proverbs 4:7