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."