Experience instructs, but it gives no relief,

For knowledge brings sorrow, and wisdom is grief,

And yet by the preacher of wisdom we’re told

To seek it as silver and prize it as gold.

It’s better to hear a rebuke from the wise

Than comfort receive from the flatterer’s lies;

And sorrow is better than laughter and song,

Which rarely turn sinners away from what’s wrong.

It’s better like Job to be tested and tried,

Refined in the furnace, as gold purified,

Than left to yourself, an undisciplined child,

A bastard, uncared for, allowed to be wild.

The chastening’s not pleasant, but better by far

Than easy indulgence and ignorance are.

By sorrow and pain is our wisdom attained —

And painful itself is the wisdom thus gained.

For that which is crooked cannot be made straight,

The number of that which is wanting is great,

And eyes that can see all the evil that’s done

Are vexed by the vanity under the sun.

Our Savior knew sorrow, and so will His friends —

But also the sweetness that sorrow attends.

The more we are like Him, the more we will feel

The sorrow of wisdom — and wisdom’s appeal.