multitudes of those who have welcomed and adopted it as their law, their comfort, and their life, is made up from tribes and tongues almost without number. And every civilized people on earth has more or less openly acknowledged its teachings, as the great source of a sure prosperity, as the strongest foundation of a true and faithful national life.

And within the limits of the Christian church itself, a society established upon the doctrines of this book as its basis, we find a still stronger testimony to the mighty forces stored up and latent in its pages. Those periods of the church's history in which it has shown the greatest likeness to Jesus Christ, its founder and head, when it has produced the greatest impression, and extended its influence most rapidly on the world, have been periods of deep and earnest study of the Scriptures. Whenever, on the other hand, she has been most corrupt and unlike her Master, most weak and uninfluential for good, the Bible has been far away, out of her sight, and for purposes of continual guidance and illumination, to most of her children, as if it were not. If there is any truth which it is the mission of the church to bear before the world, to exhibit by living example, and enforce by constant testimony, that truth flows to her forever living, pure, and unadulterated, out of these sacred pages. All that she has of beauty, of strength, of renovating power, may be traced back in some way to what is contained for her here.

Who will deny any of these things? Yet who will receive the inferences that may be fairly drawn from these undoubted truths? It is acknowledged throughout the greater part of the Protestant church, that the knowledge of the Bible should be as widely and thoroughly diffused as possible. Indeed she has distinctly proposed to herself this grand problem, to institute and to maintain a constant and active circulation of the Scriptures throughout the bounds of the habitable world, a noble scheme, and one which has already accomplished glorious results. And what thoughtful believer does not feel it to be something for which he would even sacrifice life itself, to have the Bible in the hands of all men. Who would part with his own right in it, his own opportunities of consulting these oracles of salvation, for all else that the world can offer? But

where is he who makes that use of these precious opportunities which even his own lowest estimate declares to be fitting and needful? Are there even any, who, when they consider what this book contains for us, and what that constant and thoughtful use of it must be, that shall cause it to unfold its deepest treasures, will profess to have worked this mine hitherto, with that zeal and wisdom and earnestness which has caused it to yield to them all along, the utmost of its wealth that their own abilities and advantages would enable them to secure. By looking to see what neglect the Bible has suffered at the hands of its greatest lovers, we may infer how far it had fallen short of producing its fullest effect even upon the Christian church, and if it has done so much, while so misused and overlooked, what might we not expect from its thorough diffusion and faithful perusal throughout the various nations of mankind? What happy results might we not predict, if only those who profess to be guided by its precepts were in the daily habit of giving it some measure of that thoughtful attention which they bestow upon their farms, their accounts, or the routine of household duty?

In some

But something more than this is needed, even demanded, unless the church, which God has founded upon earth, is to be terribly shaken, and to suffer as she has not suffered hitherto in the great flood of worldliness that is now beating up against her foundations and threatening her destruction. respects the prospects of Christ's kingdom are bright and even glorious. The mighty hand of God is ever and anon interposed, so obviously directing its course, and preparing the way before it, that no believing heart can doubt that he will eventually cause it to triumph over all its foes. But mean time the great battle is still raging, and sometimes the army of the cross is driven backward, and sometimes it suffers terrible defeat and loss. At times it is almost overwhelmed by the onrushing tide of its foes. And just at the present crisis, those who look forth among the actual signs of the times see so much that is dark and threatening, that if there were not one sure confidence to rest upon, namely, that God knows and directs all, and will never forget the glory of his own most holy name nor the cause for which his Son both lived and died, they

would be ready to sink in despair. These gloomy tokens are so well known to most of those who watch the indications of Providence that it is not necessary to enumerate them here. It is sufficient to remark that while our Saviour doubtless calls on all his disciples watchfully to note all indications that make the position of the church in the age in which we individually live, it is not that our courage may sink or rise as their omens look unfavorable or fair, but that we may wisely acquit ourselves with reference to the real condition of affairs, and meet each emergency, as it arises, with just that course of action which it requires.

Now is surely the time, if ever, in the history of the world, that the faith of the church should be reinforced and strengthened, and her knowledge of the truths increased by communion with those inspired sources which contain so much of God's message to the world, that one name is applied to them and to him, who was in his own person the "Word of God" to man. Too much time, too earnest study, can hardly be expended here. True it is that the sacredness which breathes from every page of the holy record, the spirit of love which beautifies it throughout, the whole impress of a divine origin, can not fail of producing their effect, even upon the most careless reader, and so many are conscious of having derived great benefit from the mere contact afforded in the most disconnected and superficial perusal, that some have been ready to doubt whether any thing more is necessary or even desirable. Something of that sacred fear which the Jews of old attached to their holy things, lingers about the Word of God. Very far into that "holy of holies" it seems sacrilege to attempt to penetrate. Nor is the blessing altogether missed, even so unappreciated, when this reverence is sincere. For the divine mercy has so planned that he who runs may read. The gift was made to those whose condition was desperate, but whose desire after the truth that will save them is so small, that if the essential part of the message is not plainly and simply declared, and easily comprehended, it will all too seldom be sought after. And yet the command to "search the Scriptures" has its deep significance, and, if obeyed, brings great rewards.

Many a minister of the Gospel has wondered and lamented

over his imperfect success in proclaiming these good tidings of salvation, whose mistake has lain, in part at least, just here. Armed with a tolerably clear knowledge of the great truths that the Bible contains, full of zeal for the conversion of souls, ready to make any sacrifice for the cause of his Master, pleading often and earnestly with God to bless his ministry and make it fruitful, and, as to his Bible itself, perusing it daily with the loving and confiding spirit of a child listening to the instructions of its mother, his sermons are yet lacking in true vigor, in spiritual power. They fail to secure the steady attention of his audience. The impression made by them is general, and there is a sameness in their contents and tone from Sabbath to Sabbath, which at last wearies. Gradually, perhaps, one hearer after another ceases to attend upon the preaching; the church begins to think it time to have a change; and the pastor himself suspects, with only too painful a sense of certainty, that his usefulness is waning, and that it is time for him to seek another field.

We may suppose such a man to have formed his theory of sermonizing, partly from his observation of failures in entirely an opposite direction. The highly wrought and artificial method of discourse, he has observed, attracts admiration oftener than it leads to a change of resolution. He has himself experienced the effect upon his own mind of that strained and excited attention called forth by the finished and elaborate efforts of some of the "great preachers" of the day, and the after reaction and the sense of weariness which often follows, when the mind gropes about in vain for some one solid and valuable idea on which to dwell. He has concluded that these "ambitious" flights, so he has perhaps too uncharitably stigmatized them, have their own reward, but not the one he is seeking, and has resolved to avoid any imitation of such a style of sermonizing with the utmost care. And he is doubtless right in so far that no appeal made and applied by dry intellect alone, can very deeply touch the heart. But neither can the mere affectionate pleading of a loving heart effect very much, unless enforced with all the energy of a freshly invigorated understanding, and all the authority that argument and reason can supply. With men we must deal as men, considering human

nature in its entire constitution, and in its enforced variety of wants, not making the grace of God of more effect in this way, but remembering that since that grace makes use of human instruments to effect its ends, it will doubtless employ and honor all human faculties for this purpose; not the intellect alone, not the heart alone, but intellect and heart in strong and happy union, each doubly serviceable because supported and aided by the other.

The Bible itself, the "word" as in truth it is, is the mirror of what the preacher should be, the model of all other words which are to draw men to Christ. The few truths necessary to salvation are there presented in an endless variety of modes and forms, so that, if possible, in some way, men may be attracted out of every age and nation, that even each separate individuality of character may there find something corresponding to its peculiar needs. From the one living and vigorous root spring many branches and ramifications; each with its own burthen of leaves and flowers and fruit, each fresh and beautiful, and full of life, because of its communication with the common root. Those who first uttered the words of power had their understandings illumined, and their souls replenished, by direct communication with the great original source of light and life, but the preacher must receive that light through their aid, and with a more conscious, voluntary effort of his own faculties, than was theirs. Every day he needs to obtain a new supply through this unfailing medium, which is constructed to satisfy the world's need so long as it shall stand. And if, on arising from that study of its pages with which he is accustomed to satisfy himself, he finds that he has obtained no new and deep view of some portion of God's truth, no vivid impression, at least, unfelt before, he may be sure that his study has been insufficient. He can convey no more to his people than he has himself received. He will continue to resemble the unskilled player on an instrument, the few monotonous changes in whose music only tire the ears of the listeners, while the practised master knows how to draw from the very same chords a multitudinous harmony on which the memory lingers long after it is still.

Should this same student of Scripture habitually so linger