Shall Wisdom cry aloud,
And not her speech be heard?
The voice of God’s eternal Word,
Deserves it no regard?

“I was His chief de­light,
His everlasting Son,
Before the first of all His works,
Creation, was begun.

“Before the fly­ing clouds,
Before the solid land,
Before the fields, be­fore the floods,
I dwelt at His right hand.

“When He adorned the skies,
And built them, I was there,
To order where the sun should rise,
And marshal ev­ery star.

“When He poured out the sea,
And spread the flow­ing deep,
I gave the flood a firm de­cree
In its own bounds to keep.

“Upon the empty air
The earth was balanced well:
With joy I saw the man­sion where
The sons of men should dwell.

“My busy thoughts at first
On their sal­va­tion ran,
Ere sin was born, or Adam’s dust
Was fa­shioned to a man.

Then come, re­ceive My grace,
Ye children, and be wise;
Happy the man that keeps My ways;
The man that shuns them dies.