S to inquire after it; and having obtained a copy, to read it with the most serious attention. He rose from the perusal of it with the fullest conviction of the falsehood of the system he had formerly adopted, and of the divine origin of Christianity. But he did not stop here; he was determined to examine the Book itself, which he was thus satisfied was a revelation from God. The result was that he cordially received this revelation of mercy, saw and felt his need of a Saviour, and, believing in Jesus, became a Christian, not in name only, but in deed and in truth. Naimbauna, a black prince from Africa, arrived in England in 1791. The gentleman to whose care he was intrusted took great pains to convince him that the Bible was the word of God, and he received it as such with great reverence and simplicity. "When I found," said he, "all good men minding the Bible, and calling it the word of God, and all bad men disregarding it, I then was sure that the Bible must be what good men call it-the word of God." An old negro, who could not read or write, being asked how he knew the Bible to be the word of God, said, “I know it by its effects upon my own heart." Sir W. Jones wrote on the blank leaf of his Bible: "I have regularly and attentively perused these Holy Scriptures, and I am of opinion that this volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, at whatever age or in whatever language they may have been written." A sceptical prince once asked his chaplain to give him some clear evidence of the truth of Christianity in a few words. The chaplain replied, "The Jews, your majesty." He meant that the entire Jewish history was a testimony to the truth of the Scriptures. "Even as a literary composition," says Dr. Angus, "the sacred Scriptures form the most remarkable book the world has ever seen. They are of all writings the most ancient. They contain a record of events of the deepest interest. The history of their influence is the history of civilization and happiness. The wisest and best of mankind have borne witness to their power as an instrument of enlightenment and of holiness; and having been prepared by men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,' to reveal the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent,' they have on this ground the strongest claims upon our attentive and reverential regard." "I must confess to you," said Rousseau, "that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me. The holiness of the evangelists speaks to my heart; and their work has such strong and striking characters of truth, and is, moreover, so perfectly inimitable, that if it had been the invention of men, the inventor would be greater than the greatest of heroes." "What book is that?" said a merchant to a young man, when a book fell out of his carpet bag as he was bringing out his certificates. "It is the Bible, sir," said he. "And what are you going to do with that book in New York?" said the merchant. The lad looked seriously into the merchant's face and said, "I promised to my mother I would read it every day; and I shall do so." The merchant took him at once into his office, and he became so valuable as to be taken into partnership. "The Bible," said Henry Rogers, "is not such a book as man would have made, if he could; or could have made, if he would." Sir Walter Scott, just before his death, said to his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart: "Read to me." "From what book shall I read?" he asked. "Can you ask?" said Sir Walter; "there is but one." "I chose," said his biographer, "John xiv. He listened with mild devotion, and said, 'Well, this is a great comfort.'' "I remember reading," says Dr. Cumming, "that in cutting down an oak that must have been two hundred years old at the very least, there was found in the heart of the oak a musket bullet. When it was stated to the peasants and villagers that it was so, they said it must be a trick-that the woodmen must have stuck it in, and pretended that it was found in the oak. But when men of science and practical knowledge investigated it, they found beyond all doubt that the bullet was in the heart of the oak, and there was no opening by which it could be inserted, and no symptoms of a rent by which it could have been inserted. But a country gentleman turned over the leaves of his history, and he discovered that in that very forest, when that tree must have been a mere sapling, a great battle was fought; that the presumption, nay, the certainty, was that a bullet had fastened in the sapling; that as it grew and broadened in bulk, in size and form, for two hundred years, it had grown over the bullet, and the bullet had come to be embedded and inserted in the very heart of it, without any opening by which it could have entered in past times: and thus the difficulty which perplexed at first, became solved and easily explained by further and more extensive research. In the same manner, when we meet with difficulties in Scripture, if we cannot explain them to-day, let us lay them up for investigation tomorrow, and we shall find that as we grow in light all will become plain." "Within this Sacred Volume lies To whom our God hath given grace But better they had ne'er been born Who read to doubt, or read to scorn."-Scott. Miss Catherine Sinclair has remarked that "the lines inscribed by Lord Byron on the blank leaf of a Bible testify the existence occasionally of thoughts and feelings in his mind such as it would have been well for himself and his readers if he had more faithfully cultivated and more frequently expressed; but he who could speak at times in language and feelings so far above the ordinary reach of man, yet delighted perversely to baffle his better nature, and disappoint the hopes of all who admired his genius, while they lamented the profligacy of his habits...... Those lines show how capable he was of thoughts and feelings such as the Christian could have delighted to honour." QUEST. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach? ANS. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. stand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. JOSH. i. 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt 2 TIMOTHY i. 13. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ROм. iv. 3. For what saith the Scrip- meditate therein day and night, that thou ture? mayest observe to do according to all that LUKE X. 26. What is written in the law? is written therein: for then thou shalt how readest thou? make thy way prosperous, and then thou HEB. xi. 3. Through faith we under-shalt have good success. I. All Scripture is important and useful, but not all equally so, or essential to salvation. — There are references to the history of nations, to customs, to natural science, etc., all worthy of study and full of instruction. II. Scripture principally teaches what we are to believe concerning God. 1. Its revelation of God is to be believed. Its evidence is satisfactory-its disclosures therefore demand faith; they are as the authority of God, and declare the truth concerning his nature, purposes, and works. 2. True knowledge of God is saving: John xvii. 3. III. Scripture principally teaches also what duty God requires of man. 1. Duty is what we owe to God. 2. The will of God is the duty of man; that will is revealed in the Scriptures: Ps. cxix. 105; Luke x. 25, 26. 3. The law of God reaches the heart and conscience: Jer. xxxi. 32–34. LESSONS. 1. The Bible is the only authority in matters of faith: Acts xvii. 11. 2. The Bible is the only standard of human duty: Deut. xxix. 29. 3. Faith and obedience are closely united; they are as the spring and the stream-as the seed and the fruit. Faith in Christ produces Christian life. ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. The celebrated John Locke was once asked by a relative what was the shortest and surest way for a young gentleman to attain a true knowledge of the Christian religion. "Let him study," said the philosopher, "the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament. Therein are contained the words of eternal life. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any admixture of error for its matter." The Count Oxenstiern, Chancellor of Sweden, remarked to an English ambassador who paid him a visit: "I have seen much and enjoyed much of this world, but I never knew how to live till now. I thank my good God, who has given me time to know him, and likewise myself. All the comfort I have, and all the comfort I take, and which is more than the whole world can give, is the knowledge of God's love in my heart, and the reading of this blessed book" (laying his hand on the Bible). A poor boy, going to a Sabbath school, was met by a companion, who invited him to play the truant; but he absolutely refused and went to school. When this came to be known, the boy was asked what it was that kept him from complying with the temptation. He answered, “Because I read in my Bible, 'My son, when sinners entice thee, consent thou not."" “View it in what light we may, the Bible is a very surprising phenomenon. In all Christian lands this collection of books is separated from every other, and called sacred; others are profane. Science may differ from them, not from this......This collection of books has taken such hold on the world as no other. The literature of Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of temples and heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book from a nation alike despised in ancient and modern times. It is read of a Sunday in all the thirty thousand pulpits of our land. In all the temples of Christendom is its voice lifted up week by week. The sun never sets on its gleaming page. It goes equally to the cottage of the plain man and the palace of the king. It is woven into the literature of the scholar, and colours the talk of the street. The bark of the merchant cannot sail without it; no ship of war goes to the conflict but the Bible is there. It enters men's closets; mingles in all the grief and cheerfulness of life. The affianced maiden prays God in Scripture for strength in her new duties; men are married by Scripture. The Bible attends them in their sickness; when the fever of the world is on them, the aching head finds a softer pillow if such leaves lie underneath. The mariner escaping from shipwreck clutches this first of his treasures, and keeps it sacred to God. It goes with the pedler in his crowded pack; cheers him at eventide, when he sits down dusty and fatigued; brightens the freshness of his morning face. It blesses us when we are born; gives names to half Christendom; rejoices with us; has sympathy for our mourning; tempers our grief to finer issues. It is the better part of our sermons. It lifts man above himself; our best of uttered prayers are in its storied speech, wherewith our fathers and the patriarchs prayed. The timid man, about awaking from this dream of life, looks through the glass of Scripture and his eye grows bright; he does not fear to stand alone, to tread the way unknown and distant, to take the death-angel by the hand and bid farewell to wife, and babes, and home. Men rest on this their dearest hopes. It tells them of God and of his blessed Son; of earthly duties and of heavenly rest. Foolish men find in it the source of Plato's wisdom, and the science of Newton, and the art of Raphael; wicked men use it to rivet the fetters on the slave. Men who believe nothing else that is spiritual believe the Bible all through; without this they would not confess, say they, even that there is a God. That nothing "Now for such effects there must be an adequate cause. comes of nothing is true all the world over. It is no light thing to hold, with an electric chain, a thousand hearts though but for an hour, beating and bounding with such fiery speed. What is it, then, to hold the Christian world, and that for centuries? Are men fed with chaff and husks? The authors we reckon great, whose word is in the newspaper and the marketplace, whose articulate breath now sways the nation's mind, will soon pass away, giving place to other great men of a season, who in their turn shall follow them to eminence and then oblivion. Some thousand 'famous writers' come up in this century, to be forgotten in the next. But the silver cord of the Bible is not loosed, nor its golden bowl broken, as Time chronicles his tens of centuries passed by. Has the human race gone mad? Time sits as a refiner of metal; the dross is piled in forgotten heaps, but the pure gold is reserved for use, passes into the ages, and is current a thousand years hence as well as to-day. It is only real merit that can long pass for such. Tinsel will rust in the storms of life. False weights are soon detected there. It is only a heart that can speak, deep and true, to a heart; a mind to a mind; a soul to a soul; wisdom to the wise, and religion to the pious. There must, then, be in the Bible mind, conscience, heart and soul, wisdom and religion. Were it otherwise, how could millions find it their lawgiver, friend, and prophet? Some of the greatest of human institutions seem built on the Bible; such things will not stand on heaps of chaff, but mountains of rocks. "What is the secret cause of this wide and deep influence? It must be found in the Bible itself, and must be adequate to the effect. To answer the question, we must examine the Bible, and see whence it comes, what it contains, and by what authority it holds its place."-Theodore Parker. The Rev. George Gilfillan said :- It has pressed into its service the animals of the forest, the flowers of the field, the stars of heaven-all the elements of nature. The lion spurning the sands of the desert, the wild roe leaping over the mountains, the lamb led in silence to the slaughter, the goat speeding to the wilderness; the tree blossoming in Sharon, the lily drooping in the valley, the apple-tree bowing under its fruit; the great rock shadowing a weary land; the river gladdening the dry place; the moon and the morning star; Carmel by the sea, Tabor among the mountains; the dew from the womb of the morning, the rain upon the mown grass, the rainbow encompassing the landscape; the light, God's shadow; the thunder, his voice; the wind and the earthquake, his footsteps;-all such varied objects are made, as if naturally designed from their creation, to represent Him to whom the Book and all its emblems point. Thus the quick spirit of the Book has ransacked creation to lay its treasures on Jehovah's altar, united the innumerable rays of a far-streaming glory on the little hill Calvary, and woven a garland for the bleeding brow of Immanuel, the flowers of which have been culled from the garden of a universe." "There is a difference which even childhood may discern," says Dr. Guthrie, "between the manner in which the doctrines and duties of the gospel are set forth in the Word of God, and their more formal arrangement in our Catechisms and Confessions. They are scattered over the face of Scripture, much as the plants of nature are distributed upon the surface of the globe. There, for example, we meet with nothing that corresponds to the formal order, systematic classification, and rectangular beds of a botanical garden; on the contrary, the creations of the vegetable kingdom lie mingled in what, although beautiful, appears to be wild confusion. On the same moor, in the same meadow, the naturalist collects grasses of many forms, and finds both enamelled with flowers of every hue. And in those primeval forests which have been planted by the hand of God, and beneath whose |