The American Crisis: Defined
Journal Entry #13
Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.
But since you rejected me when I called
and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,
since you ignored all my advice
and would not accept my rebuke,
I in turn will laugh at your disaster;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you-
when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

“Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me.
Since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the Lord,
since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,
they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.” – Solomon, Son of David, King of Israel (970-930 B.C.); writing in Proverbs 1: 20- 33

I love Solomon’s personification of Wisdom, as though it were a living, breathing entity: a Being. Much like the poem spoken by Job, in the depth of his anguish and sorrow, Wisdom would seem to represent considerably more than merely education to a lost and suffering humanity. And to a young Republic comprised of those similarly oppressed, seeking to establish a Novus Ordo Seclorum (new order of the ages).

“…Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds of the air.
Destruction and Death say,
“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.’
God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.
And he said to man,
‘The fear of the Lord- that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.’ " – Job 28: 20- 28