amount to £500. A copy of Wycliffe's version of the New Testament cost, in 1429, four marks and twenty pence, or about £25 of our present money; and this, too, when reapers only got twopence a day wages, and a sheep was sold for a shilling. Twenty years' wages could not have bought a Bible!

XIII. Open your Bible with prayerful spirit. The saying is a wise one, that "Humanity is like a ship that has broken its cable and is drifting in unknown seas; and the Bible is its only chart that can guide it to a haven." If this be true, then we need come in a prayerful spirit to search its sacred pages. It has been beautifully said that the Bible is,

"A fountain ever springing,
Where the weary may repair;
The heavy burden bringing
Of sin and of despair.

A hive of honeyed treasure,
Distilled from Eden's bowers;
Where heaven-born hope, with pleasure,

May feed in wintry hours.

Drink for the soul that's thirsting,

Comfort for those that fear,

Balm for the heart when bursting,
May all be gathered here.

What added boon is wanting,

Thy blessing, Lord, must give,—
The gift of faith, by granting,

To read, believe, and live."

This blessing is promised to all who ask. Come, therefore, in the spirit which says, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law."

XIV. Handle the Bible reverently. It is sublime in its antiquity, and should be respected even for its age. It has achieved such mighty wonders, that we may well look at it with awe. It has passed through such a baptism of suffering and fire, that, amid its triumphs, we may well feel a spirit of reverence becomes us we approach it; and we may truly say with Scott in the "Monastery,"

Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries;
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch and force the way:
And better had they ne'er been born,

Than read to doubt, or read to scorn.

as

"The analytical chemist, when called upon to do so, separates the constituent parts of the very air he breathes; but for all the practical purposes of life he well knows that such a process is altogether needless. Forgetful of his science, he rejoices in the free air of heaven just as the peasant does, and thanks God for its vitality. So it is with the Bible. The critic may doubt, or may be satisfied as to the precise

place which such and such a passage ought or ought not to occupy in relation to other portions of Holy Writ; and there are times and seasons when such considerations are both proper and profitable. But he can scarcely be regarded as a wise man who, coming to the Bible for strength and consolation, for instruction in righteousness, or for help in the perfection of his character, does anything else than open his heart to its Divine teachings, and rejoice like a little child in the sunshine it can shed around his path."

XV. Come to the Bible with the conviction that it is God's word, said Dr. Whichcote, so far back as 1683.

"The Bible is to be read as man would read a letter to a friend; in which he doth only look after what was his friend's meaning and intention, not what he can feel upon his words." We need not have the slightest suspicion about it if what we have already advanced be true. "Time tries all," we are told; and time has most assuredly tried the Bible. Nineveh and Babylon had their histories written in marble; the Bible only on fragile parchment, entrusted to the care of a nation often taken captive. The strong cities have perished for ages; the weak book is with us to this day. And how is it? The only answer that can be given, is, Because it is the word of God, which endureth for ever.

"Speak to me now in Scripture language

alone," said a dying Christian; "I can trust the words of God; but when they are the words of man, it costs me an effort to think whether may trust to them."

I

"For more than a thousand years the Bible has gone hand in hand with civilization, science, law,-in short, with the moral and intellectual cultivation of the species, always supporting and often leading the way! Its very presence as a believed book has rendered the nations emphatically a chosen race, and this too in exact proportion as it is more or less generally studied. Of those nations which in the highest degree enjoy its influences, it is not too much to affirm that the differences, public and private, physical, moral, and intellectual, are only less than what might be expected from a diversity of species. Good and holy men, and the best and wisest of mankind—the kingly spirits of history enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations—have borne witness to its influences, have declared it to be beyond compare the most perfect instrument, the only adequate organ, of humanity; the organ and instrument of all the gifts, powers, and tendencies by which the individual is privileged to rise above himself, to leave behind and lose his individual phantom self, in order to find his true self, in that distinctness where no division can be,—in the eternal I AM, the everliving WORD, of whom all the elect, from the

archangel before the throne to the poor wrestler with the spirit until the breaking of day, are but the fainter and still fainter echoes." Then,

Come, brethren, let us all agree, and let us all united be; It's good for you, it's good for me, to love to read the Bible.

The Bible, it is good for all-for Jew and Gentile, great and small;

Before its fame all books must fall; there's nothing like the Bible.

Of all the schemes that men have tried, they could not put the Book aside;

It still increased and multiplied, and thousands have the Bible.

The Bible is the word of God, and Jesus sealed it with His blood;

In the midst of all the storms it stood-it's still the precious Bible.

God's word for ever shall remain; it cries "You must be born again;

You must be washed from every stain;" it's written in the Bible.

Our gracious Queen was asked one day, where the greatness of Old England lay;

She very soon was heard to say, "It lies within the Bible."

The Bible, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible:
Of all the books I ever saw, there's nothing
like the Bible.