the fire of divine love! These changes, these resurrection wonders are wrought by the cross! This shaking in the val ley of dry bones comes by the lifting up of the cross. We carry it through the land, and beneath its shade the soul becomes verdant, and the dead revive! Stones melt in its vicinity, rocks rend before it, and waters, long stagnant, again ripple, clear and pure, as if some healing angel had descended into them! Thus spake the eloquent Krummacher in the capital of Prussia! Thus speaks my heart, and almost every heart in this audience; for were you to give expression to your emotions, as if with one voice you would exclaim, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen. ΤΟ CHAPTER LIV. : THE ART OF PRINTING AND THE BIBLE. HE first printed book appeared, I believe, in 1457 about thirty-five years before the discovery of Amer ica. The Book of Psalms, some say, was the book. The first Bible, with a date, was printed by John Faust, in 1460. The wish of Job, "O that my words were now written! O that they were printed in a book." (Job xix. 23.) If you look at the word "printed" in your Hebrew Bible, you will find it weyuchakoo, "And they were caused to be described, traced out, recorded, or registered in a book"-any one of these terms will express Job's meaning, and not printing in our sense of the term. The art of printing had no existence in Job's time, nor for nearly two thousand years after. Writing was done in ancient times on the leaves of the papyrus, the Egyptian flag, on linen cloth, and on thin lamina of different substances, and by engraving on large stones and rocks. Job, you may read in the next verse, wishes for " an iron pen' -a pen with a steel point, as some suppose; others, a chisel. 2. It was well, doubtless, that the art of printing was so long unknown, that the world might be the better prepared for it; at least during those fifteen or sixteen centuries required for the completion of the books of the Old and New Testaments. For we are not sure that even the inspired writers would have been entirely free from a temptation to verbosity or prolixity, if their writings could have been issued as speedily and cheaply and as profitably as now. Nor are we certain, had the art been discovered a thousand years before it was, that the sacred books would not have been overwhelmed, swept away, and buried under the consequent inundation of books, before the world had time to perceive the value of the sacred records. 3. Perhaps the destruction of Ptolemy's Brucian library by fire, with its four hundred thousand volumes, may hereafter be traceable to a similar providential design, as also the destruction of Ptolemy's Serapion library by the same element, under the hand of Saracens, by the command of Omar, the conqueror, who said, "The Koran is sufficient, for it comprehends all necessary truths-therefore the library is unnecessary; but if it contain any particulars contrary to the Koran, it should and must be destroyed." Thus was its doom sealed, and the library and its three hundred thousand volumes were given to the flames. Eternity may possibly reveal that what was designed for the benefit of the Koran may have been overruled for the advantage of the Bible. Providence sometimes works after this manner. "I hate the books I have written, lest they prevent the reading of the Bible," said a great author. "Away with our books," exclaimed another, "that here may be more room for the Bible." 4. Copyright was as much unknown, perhaps, as the art of printing, as book after book of the sacred volume appeared among men; nor were the writers inspired by the hope of immense profits from the sale of a large edition, as among us. Thus, as one observes, we have, humanly speaking, a clue to the fact that the sacred penmen scarcely ever said all that might have been said-often not so much as now seems to us necessary, frequently leaving the supply of a word to the reader, or to draw his own inferences or conclusions. Besides, sir, the advantage of a book reasonable in size was of great advantage to the world financially-to those early ages especially-before the facilities of the press were known. Mark here also the wisdom of Divine Providence! for, had the size of the Bible been in proportion to the number and importance of its themes, it would have been put quite out of the reach of the masses of society, who are usually too poor to purchase an expensive work-to say nothing of their unwillingness to lay out a large sum upon a book for which naturally they can have but little affection, and too expensive by far for philanthropists to give away. Nor could Bible societies have done much in this way. Thus the Bible would have been confined to a few great libraries, as it was, indeed, in the time of Luther, in the university of Erfurth, and another copy which he found in the convent of St. Augustine, but chained to a desk. Fragments of the Bible might have been distributed among the people, but at the peril of mutilations, interpolations, and error. In the thirteenth century, one hundred and fifty years before the art of printing was discovered in Holland, a neatly written Bible cost in England £30, or one hundred and fifty dollars, which, at that age, would have cost a poor laboring man thirteen years' toil to have procured. The building of a couple of arches in the great London Bridge at the same period cost five pounds sterling less than the purchase of a Bible. Had that book then been as large as you propose, how enormous the expense! Now that the press is at our command, the present age might contrive to overcome the difficulty; but, pity on the past! Building of bridges costs more in our day and the Bible less! I thank God for that! * * Thanks for your kind communication! It was Augustine that said, "Away with our books, that room may be made for the book of God!"-a sentiment that required a "note of comment." Luther wished that all his books were burned, fearing that they had tempted men to read them in preference to the Holy Scriptures-a doubtful wish; for his writings had a remarkable effect in preparing the way for the Reformation, and carrying it forward; besides, by them, the people were led to search the Scriptures whether these things were so. Extremes are injurious. Your notion, if carried out, would put an end to preaching, and should lead you to fling away this paper upon which I traced these thoughts. I advise to no such extremes. Let the Bible have the first place in your affections and confidence, and a due proportion of your time. There is to be gained by reading other books a better knowledge of the meaning of Scripture, and the adaptation of the Bible to the wants of the world. Even the secular papers are not without their use; they illustrate the Bible, and show you how God is governing the world! They are the heralds of Divine Providence; therefore do not despise them! The abandonment of all other books for the Bible might be to you a great loss in one respect: should you happen to misunderstand or misapply a passage, you might, perchance, be abandoned to irreclaimable bigotry, or to some pernicious error. In more senses than one, I have thought, we may exclaim with an old author, "Deliver me from a man of one |