some secluded corner, aloof from inspection, and entirely uninterested in the practical concerns of life. And if this were really owing to the want of time, the case might admit of palliation. But an apology so far fetched, carries on the very face of it the evidence of its own insincerity. For the newspapers we always husband sufficient leisure. The state of exchange, or the character of the market, or the prices current, are subjects which never fail to find us at some hour in the day disengaged; or, if indifferent to them, a new play, or a new novel, will sometimes rivet us down, as if our reputation were suspended on reading them; and, even after we have read them, or whether we ever read any thing, a large proportion of our employments are resorted to for the purpose of killing time, while it seldom occurs to us that we are immortal, or that we owe any duties directly to God.

I am speaking on this subject, my hearers, not so much in reference to the guilt we inevitably contract, by disregarding the messages of Inspiration, as to the unhappy, though too natural, consequences of it in practical life. This, more than all besides, is the reason that infidelity finds so welcome a shelter in the mind; for, to disbelieve what we know nothing about, and especially if it would impose a restraint on our indulgences to believe it, is one of the easiest tasks in the world. Hence it is, that the most obstinate and exasperated skepticism has commonly been engrafted on the most benighted ignorance. Men have not been wanting who would fix the charge of imposture on the Bible with a positiveness bold as demonstration; and yet, come to push the inquiry, they never read six pages of the volume. They reason in a circle from assumed premises, to a conclusion which they are compelled to use in turn, to prove the premises; and half of them cannot tell whether he obnoxious Saviour lived in the reign of Julius Cæsar or

of Constantine the Great. Who does not know that the original of this picture is found in almost every community in Christendom? Even those who adopt their ordinary opinions with caution and care, seem to think perfectly at random in religious things. Instead of argument, they furnish themselves with the convenient terms of enthusiasm, credulity, or common people, and especially if a fine sally of wit can be indulged at the expense of Revelation, the whole thing is reduced to the certainty of. Euclid. With men of this description, it is but justice, I will not say to the Scriptures, nor to their own souls, but to common discernment and good sense, that they should examine opinions more carefully which they are so forward to condemn, and, at all events, while they are too indolent to investigate the evidence, they would suffer nothing by aspiring to a little more modesty in rendering their verdict.

There is another respect in which an acquaintance with the Bible is absolutely necessary; and that is, to understand its doctrines. On a subject so important as religion, all men feel, as they ought to feel, entitled to their own opinions. They know that what a minister of the Gospel may say is not true, because he says it, but because it is supported by "Thus saith the Lord;" and the only reason that his sentiments are entitled to unusual weight is, that, if diligent, he has examined them with unusual care, and, if sincere, has felt their practical influence on his own heart. Now, there are men accustomed very seldom to look within the lids of the Bible, who come to church once in a while, perhaps once a week, as prompt, as they could be after the most laborious research, to admit or deny the doctrines to which they listen; and what is remarkable, a few of these, such as human depravity, regeneration, and eternal punishment, have a doom almost exclusively unfortunate. They are rejected on the threshold; they are consigned to thought

less oblivion, without even the ceremony of asking the opinion of the sacred Scriptures on the subject. To such a course of conduct, every thing like reflection enters a solemn protest. The fact is, if doctrines of that kind be true, they ought to be believed; and if they be not, it is the Bible alone which has a right to disclaim them. There never was, and never will be, a sentiment uttered from the pulpit, which any man with the everlasting Gospel in his hand may not legitimately arraign; but to leave the sacred volume untouched and unexamined, and set to impeaching truths merely because we dislike them, is as if we should condemn the medicines administered in sickness, because they might not suit the relish of appetite. In this way, not only is the minister charged with bigotry-a charge, however, much more unjust than it is alarming-but the admonitions of that God who cannot lie are denied, or despised, or forgotten, at the very moment that they are rolling forward to all the certainty, and all the awfulness of their accomplishment. But the final and most powerful inducement for searching the sacred Scriptures is drawn from the result mentioned in the text-that many of them believed. It is a maxim as correct as it is common, that to be sensible of an error is half the work of reformation. I do not say, that to read the Bible is any part of repentance; but one thing may be safely affirmed, that it is an indispensable preliminary to every step we take in religion. It is impossible that we should comply with the terms of salvation while we remain ignorant of them, and comply we must, or we shall never be saved. Either God Almighty must give us another, and a very different revelation, or those who choose darkness rather than light must go away into everlasting punishment. Indeed, the whole index of those exercises through which a sinner passes in the process of conversion, is found in the Bible. It is there he detects the character of the natural heart; there that his pulse begins to quicken with apprehension; there that he learns to kneel in the dust, and cry for mercy; there that he discovers his own helplessness, and leaves himself behind him, and grasps the Cross of his Saviour, and drinks in the precious consolations of pardon. The Bible alone dries up the tear from his cheek, and points him to the sinner's friend, who demands from the broken heart no recommendation but wretchedness, and no condition but the acceptance of relief. All this may sound, my hearers, like the language of mystery, and indeed it is so, unless interpreted by the Bible. I do not wonder that every thing connected with experimental religion is mysterious, to him who examines it only from the cold regions of philosophy and speculation. The hidden things of God are contained alone in the volume of God. Nothing but "His law is perfect, converting the soul;" nothing but "His testimony is sure, making wise the simple." We might as well descant on colors while blind, or study mathematics without figures, as attempt to understand our relations to the Godhead without an intimate acquaintance with the Bible. Where is a Christian who will not acknowledge it to have been a guide to his feet, and a lamp to his path? who has not drawn from it the rules of his conduct, the nourishment of his piety, the support of his trials, and the encouragement of his hopes? And if this evidence be insufficient, where is the secure and slumbering sinner who has not neglected his Bible just in proportion as he has found himself hardened in impenitence? Can it be, that the profane oath, or the violation of the Sabbath, or the insanity of the gamingtable, are indulged after a serious perusal of the word of God? Rather, can it be, my hearers, that any of us can sleep on in our sins over the brink of eternity, and feel ourselves so little at home in our closets, and forget so easily our most lively impressions, and our most salutary fears?

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Can this be, if we permitted the Bible every day to warn us of our danger, and to disclose the approaching retributions of the invisible world? These are questions which appeal to our consciences for an answer. Sooner or later an answer must be given, and ours is the gain, if it be not postponed to too late a period. The time is coming, when all of us may be anxious to understand the meaning of that volume which reveals to a sinner his only hope. If we can make up our minds to believe that to-day alone is the day of salvation, we must begin with the Bible. If we are willing to run the risk of deferring the subject to a dying hour, let us at least inform ourselves of the true state of the case; for in that tremendous moment we shall need all we can now know, to furnish the feeblest probability of conversion, under circumstances so desperate.

May God add his blessing. Amen.