criticisms which can only be appreciated by the scholar and the theologian. But it is a pleasing fact that none of these difficulties or nice criticisms affect any great doctrine of the word of God, and that any person of a sound mind, and a sincere spirit, may, with very little external help, (which may readily be obtained) become well acquainted with the oracles of God, and thus be "rooted and grounded in the truth, established in the faith, abounding therein with thanksgivings." It is perhaps undesirable to lay down any plan for the guidance of our young friends in this matter. The great thing is to convince them of its importance, and to induce them to determine to engage in it. When once the purpose is well formed in the mind, to become, if possible, comprehensively and correctly acquainted with the oracles of divine truth, and to pursue this as the work of our lives, a great point is gained, If any suggestion were made, it would be something like the following:-Read carefully the books of the New Testament. Begin with the Gospel of John, then Matthew and the other Evangelists. Commit to memory several of the most important chapters and portions. Read then the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. Acquaint yourselves with the references you find to the Old Testament Scriptures; and having perused the histories and prophecies, and psalms, from time to time, fix-which you may by the chronology given in the margin-the period of each writer, and the circumstances under which their books, as well as many of the psalms, were written and composed. Let the end be kept before you for a few years, and your leasure and reading be prudently directed, and you will find that the task will become delightful and refreshing. What is well fixed in the memory in youth is seldom or never forgotten. Read and study the Scrip tures with a devotional spirit. This is of the highest importance to a right discovery of its truths. "The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God." Seek to feel while you read this word, that God is your teacher, and that you are learning at his feet what he wishes you to know. You will thus cherish a proper temper, and secure his blessing. "The meek will he guide in judgement." "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." To have a rich recollection of the precepts and promises of God, a clear and satisfactory acquaintance with the doctrines of his word, and a comprehensive acquaintance with all its parts, is surely no mean attainment, and must be fraught with lasting good. The question of christian evidences may be thought of importance here, but only a slight reference will be made to it. The Bible is its own witness. It carries in its own bosom the most formidable artillery for its own defence. The purity of its morality, the harmony of its teachings, and the divine character of its doctrines, all bespeak its heavenly origin. Were we to recommend any work as to the historical evidences of christianity, it would be that of Paley, which, with his Hore Paulinæ, as published by the Tract Society, contain almost all that can be desired. The importance of seeking to attain this knowledge of the Holy Scriptures must be obvious to every reader; nevertheless, we must solicit his patience while a few considerations which tend to make this manifest are set before him. First then, a neglect of the word of God in a professed disciple of our Lord is highly criminal. If God has given us this volume for our instruction and guidance, and we lay it aside, and neglect it from day to day; if we do not seriously peruse it, but content ourselves with a loose and su THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. perficial acquaintance with its truths, are we not guilty of disrespect to God, and neglect of his salvation? Do we not display a want of affection for the great truths which he has revealed to us, and of the holy principles which he has enjoined upon us? If we allow our leisure to be absorbed with other things, and avoid the perusal of the words of God for the words of men; or to give ourselves up to indolent trifling, can we expect the blessing of God, or that our course will not be regarded by him as highly criminal? Reflect how he has enjoined on his people a perusal of his word. "These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart: thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Mark how the apostle rebukes the Hebrews for their slender attainments: "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe." Consider how numerous are the exhortations of this class:- "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip :""As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word:"-add "to virtue, knowledge:"-" search the Scriptures." Let no young professor neglect the sacred word; let him rather seek for a large acquaintance with it, that he may "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Set before you the examples of the best men, whether their names are mentioned in the sacred page or that have been known to the church of God. Hear the Psalmist :-"O how I love thy law; it is my meditation 445 all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies :-I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. How sweet are thy words to my taste! yea sweeter than honey to my mouth. Thy statutes are my song in the house of my pilgrimage.' This and much more was written when little more than the first parts of the Old Testament were extant. Read the epistle to the Hebrews, and reflect how carefully the apostle must have perused the writings of the Old Testament; and mark by the allusions contained in the Evangelists and epistles the attention of their writers to the ancient oracles of God. So in our own time. Where is the man who has been most distinguished as a Christian professor for his piety, charity, and grace, do you not mark that he is one who has well stored his mind with the texts and doctrines of the divine word. Eminent piety never existed except in connection with a devout and habitual acquaintance with the word of God. Consider the respect which is invariably paid to intelligence in any pursuit. If a man in the humblest walks of life is intelligent, and his mind is furnished with the knowledge of his employment, other things being equal, he is ever most honoured and trusted. So in every sphere. So in religion. Do you wish to secure the regard of your christian brethren as a servant of Christ, seek to obtain the knowledge of God's word. Is it desirable that even the enemies of your religion should respect it? Let it be intelligent, based upon a knowledge of the Scriptures of truth, that ye may be able to "give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." Intelligence ever secures respect, and the religion you profess is that of "light and not of darkness." The very learning which is now being urged on your attention, as it is divine, enlightens and elevates the mind, and facilitates the acquisition of other knowledge. If a man, by becoming a christian, does not also become more generally intelligent, there is some reason to fear lest he is a christian only in name. It is the word of God that is the great means of sanctification and spiritual enjoyment. The prayer of our Lord was, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." But this hallowed and happy influence can be experienced and felt only in the degree to which the oracles of God are known and believed. It is where the word of Christ "dwells richly in all wisdom," where there is "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord," where there is a comprehensive knowledge of the "breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ," that the soul is "filled with all the fulness of God." The habitual perusal of the sacred oracles, and a delight in their holy testimony, superinduce the love of God, and joy in his service. What, again, is the great means of security and stability, but an extensive knowledge of the divine word? Our faith is built on knowledge, and as the latter becomes broad, deep, and stable, the basis of our faith is strengthened. Who are the persons most easily led astray from the paths of rectitude, the victims of every new error, or the followers of every "wind of doctrine?" They are not found usually among the diligent, humble, and devout readers of the word of God, who have habitually cherished the prayerful resolve, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel," but amongst the neglecters of the bible; the vain, the superficial and the self-sufficient among profes sors. "They have no root in themselves," and when the scorching trial comes, whether it be in the shape of persecution or pretence, they are dried up. The whole history of apostacy and perversion may be summed up in one word, a disregard to the claims of the word of God. The Finally, this knowledge is both a qualification for usefulness on earth, and a preparation for happiness in heaven. In the church of God we sometimes notice persons who are esteemed for their piety, and who are exceedingly useful in instructing the enquirer, and in giving counsel and comfort to the afflicted. These are invariably found to be those whose minds are stored with the treasures of the divine word. Their reverence for, and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, give them the distinctive excellencies of their character, constitute them a "guide to the blind," and enable them to speak a "word in season," to him that is weary; their superior knowledge of God and Christ and the gospel and the Holy Scriptures, is the very thing which distinguishes them from their brethren, and makes them pillars in the house of the Lord. ignorant, the unreflecting, the superficial professor, is neither prepared nor qualified for usefulness among men. And as on earth, so in heaven. The light that shines into the heart of a devout believer from the glory of the sacred page which is daily opened before him, lifts up his desires on high, and prepares him for that region where he shall no longer see "through a glass darkly, but face to face." Cultivate, then, this knowledge of the oracles of God. Let every week and month witness your advancement and growth in it, that your ways may be established. Remember that in this pursuit "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," but that humble, patient, prayerful perseverance, is that which obtains the reward. Many persons of comparatively slender capacity, whose oppor ELEMENTS OF POWER IN THE PULPIT. 447 tunities are not ample, have made | ciples, " sit at his feet and hear his happy progress in this knowledge, by word." Let no excuse be permitted virtue of habitual reading and prayer- to prevail with you to prevent the ful attention. Be not content then to continued effort to obtain a comprehave made a profession of the name hensive and correct, an experimental of Christ, and "tasted that the Lord and practical acquaintance with "the is gracious," but as those who by this word of the Lord." means are introduced amongst his dis ELEMENTS OF POWER IN THE PULPIT. create, no rhetoric express. Secondly, there is the preparation which the knowledge of the preacher's consistent piety imparts to those who hear him: disarming many of their prejudices, and even prepossesing them in favor of his object. And, thirdly, as we understand the matter, there is a congruity between the mind of a good man and the mind of the Spirit in the preacher's heart-the same heavenly power which comes into the hearer's heart, making the gospel which is preached, and which he believes, "the power of God" to his salvation. If we have not expressed ourselves too briefly to be understood, we have here exhibited a threefold manifestation of the law of sympathy, What are the elements of power in | apprehensions which no logic could the pulpit? The primary element most obviously lies in the depths of the preacher's own spirit. Happily, the time is rapidly passing away in which the clerical functionary could wrap himself in the mystery of official sanctity. That "sham" is pretty well exposed. It is generally felt that a man who preaches the gospel should be exemplary: that whatever else he is, he must be a good man. Though superstition still lingers around, and sometimes within the precints of the churches, and though everybody sees how men are, in a great degree, affected by mere power of mind, and by fascination of manner in a preacher, we are bold to say, there is no real power in what is preached unless it proceeds, or is believed to proceed, from one whose character is the expression of what he preaches. Most persons have contrasted the feebleness with which preachers of great intellect have preached the gospel, with the almost unacountable-not quite unacountable-hold on the popular mind secured by others, greatly their inferiors in every respect but this. The power of such men in their preaching, deserves more study than it has yet received, though our space forbids our enlarging on it as we wish. But here, in fact, are three distinct, yet harmonious elements of pulpit power. First, there is the strong influence on the preacher's mind of all the considerations which deepen, while preaching, his sense of the weightiness of what he says giving vividness to his sympathy between the preacher and the truth; that is power-sympathy between the preacher and the hearer; that is power-sympathy between the spirit of the preacher and the Spirit of God; that is power. There is great power in the preacher fully believing, at the time, every thing he says. Very worthy of remark is the power of a believing mind, irrespectively even of the soundness of the belief; but especially when what is so believed is the truth of God. We may be permitted to remind some preachers that there are lines of study which, by making men familiar with the difficulties into which every truth may be pushed, have taken away the sharp, robust belief which is of the highest worth in preaching. We do not regret the habit of investigating every principle, of privately exploring the depths of every thing relating to the gospel, of grasping the remotest difficulties which the keenest spirit can detect in either the proofs or the doctrines of our faith. Neither do we affirm that preachers are to speak to men as though no such difficulties existed, or as though they knew them not. But there is at the bottom of all these difficulties a subjective infirmity not apt to be suspected. We sometimes are pained to witness a hesitancy, a want of speaking out, which makes it quite impossible that a man's preaching should have power. Give us we say, the preacher who knows what is plain, what is proved, what is vital; who can separate this from things perplexed, doubtful, or comparatively unimportant; and who so heartily believes his own preaching that every one who hears him knows that he believes it for sufficient reasons. This is the power of a believing mind-of a discerning mind-of an honourable mind-of a mind that is and knows itself to be, and proves itself to be, full of truth. Our clerical readers need not to be told, yet they may seasonably be reminded, how exclusively the Christian religion is an affair of faith. The preacher has to do with " things not seen;" with principles that go down into depths which human intelligence has not fathomed; with revealings of the past, the present, and future, which carry him far beyond the range of man's experience; and, if he would speak of these things with power, he must speak of them with full belief. He is, also, to believe the promise that he shall not preach these truths in vain, so long as he preaches them undoubtingly as the truths of God. But to do this is not so easy as might be supposed. To do this, our preacher must be a man of deep thought consistent and well-balanced thought -thought in the silence of his chamber, in the recesses, as it were, of the temple under the lights of Calvary and the inspirations of Pentecost, and amid the calm contemplation of" eternal judgement." Even these grand elements of pulpit power will not be skillfully wielded unless the preacher knows the minds with which he has to deal. All power is relative to the object in which the effects aimed at are to be produced. The object on which the preacher works is the human mind. There are universal properties of our moral nature with which all preachers have to do. Those are the greatest preachers who keep these common features of humanity in view, to whatever audience they preach; and hence there are sermons which, ordinarily speaking, produce nearly the same effects at all seasons, in all places. Yet the modifications resulting from time, place, and varieties of age, culture, and employment, are so many and so great, that for a preacher to neglect them, would be to deprive himself of more than half his power. We are almost ashamed to have to put into words so simple a truism as-that it is in the separate minds of individuals that the preacher's power is felt. If there is no one hearer that feels the power, feels it as though the preacher had been preaching to him alone, then, however large the audience, the preaching has not been "with power." The methods of studying human nature are many, and there are consequently many modes of dealing with that nature; but, as the preacher has to do with men under an aspect peculiar to his vocation, his proper course is to study the whole case in the Bible, in his heart, in the recorded experience of other preachers, and in those facts connected with the ministry which constitute his own. To degrade the pulpit by making it a stage whereon he acts the censor, the satirist, the assailant of men's mistakes and faults, would be to prove himself too weak a man for any public station, and too much wanting in delicacy, dignity, |