Proverbs 23:23 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

The freedom and the price of truth

We have often to insist upon—

I. THE FREEDOM OF THE TRUTH . In one sense, truth is essentially free. If firm and strong as the granite rock, it is also fluent as the water, elastic as the air. It belongs to no man, and cannot be patented or monopolized; it is the inheritance of mankind. We are all of us bound to communicate it freely, to "pass it on like bread at sacrament." This is emphatically the case with the truth of the gospel. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat … without money and without price;" "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. " But the lesson of the text is—

II. THE PRICE OF TRUTH . Truth has sometimes to be paid for; it has its own price, and we must be willing to buy it.

1 . That truth for which we involuntarily pay some price . We go forth into the world with crude, immature notions, which we find, by painful experience, have to be corrected and perhaps changed.. Sometimes this necessary lesson is very costly to us. In this way we have to buy the truth as to:

2 . The truth for which we voluntarily pay the price.

III. THE ABSOLUTE PRICELESSNESS OF THE TRUTH . "Sell it not." Heavenly wisdom, once gained, is not to be parted with for any consideration whatever. Nothing on earth represents its value. To lose it is to sign away our inheritance. It is to be held at all costs whatever.—C.