Midas, the Phrygian king, asked a favour of the gods, and they agreed to grant him whatever he should desire. The monarch, overjoyed, resolved to make the favour inexhaustible. He prayed that whatever he touched might be turned to gold. The prayer was granted, and bitter were the consequences. What the king touched _did_ turn to gold. He laid his hand upon the rock and it became a huge mass of priceless value; he clutched his oaken staff, and it became in his hand a bar of virgin gold. At first the monarch's joy was unbounded, and he returned to his palace the most favoured of mortals. Alas for the shortsightedness of man! He sat at table, and all he touched turned to gold--pure solid gold. The conviction rushed upon him that he must perish from his grasping wish--die in the midst of plenty; and remembering the ominous saying he had heard, "The gods themselves cannot take back their gifts," he howled to the sternly smiling Dionysius to restore him to the coarsest, vilest food, and deliver him from the curse of gold.--_Biblical Treasury._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20-33. THE CRY OF WISDOM. +I. The wisdom of God is the voice of God.+ 1. _The wisdom of God in nature, in the heavens which declare His glory and in the firmament which sheweth His handiwork is Divine speech which speaks loudly of eternal power and Godhead._ 2. _There is a voice of wisdom in the laws and economy of the old dispensation, although that voice gave sometimes but an indistinct sound concerning Divine mercy and judgment._ 3. _The wisdom of God as displayed in the plan of salvation by Christ is the loudest, the most persuasive and unmistakable voice of God._ +II. God's voice of Wisdom is an earnest voice.+ Wisdom _crieth_. The voice of the mother who thinks that her children are in danger rings upon the ear with no uncertain, theatrical sound. When the voice of Paul rang through the Philippian prison and fell upon the man who was about to destroy himself, it was a _loud_ voice, because he was in earnest. God has to deal with his human children who are in danger, and therefore He speaks with earnestness when He says, "Do thyself no harm." The voice of God in the human conscience sometimes speaks as loudly as the trump of Sinai. He said by His prophets in the days of old, "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). The voice of Christ was an earnest voice. His death enforced the earnestness of the appeals which He uttered in His life. It proved the reality of His own and His Father's desire that "all should come to repentance." The voice of the Gospel ministry is an earnest voice. Those who have been baptised by the Spirit of God, _beseech_ men to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. v. 20).