Little and Wise

And Address to Children

By: J. C. Ryle

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Dear Children, I should like you all to be very wise. Wisdom is far better than money, or fine clothes, or grand houses, or horses and carriages. People who are not wise seldom get on well; they are seldom happy. My best wish for any dear boys and girls that I love is, that they may grow up very wise. But how are we to be wise? Some of you will ask. What are we to do in order to get this wisdom, which you tell us is such a good thing? Dear children, if you would be wise, you must pray to God to put his Holy Spirit in your hearts, and give yon wisdom. This is one thing. Besides this, you must read God's holy book, the Bible. There you will find out what true wisdom is. There you will see what kind of things wise people do. This is another thing. And now let me talk to you about the four verses in the Bible which I have looked out for you. They are verses which tell us about wisdom. I hope they will do you much good. There you see that God tells you to learn a lesson of four little creatures,—the ant, the cony, the locust, and the spider. He seems to say that they are all patterns of wisdom. They are all poor little weak things. An ant is a little creeping insect, that everybody knows. A cony is a little creature very like a rabbit. A locust is like a large grasshopper. A spider is a thing that the least child need not be afraid of. But God tells you that the ant, the cony, the locust, and the spider, are very wise. Come then, dear children, and listen to me, while I tell you something about them. Some of you are but little now. But here you see it is possible to be little and yet wise.