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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 proThe 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 na

tural heart; there that his pulse begins to quicken with ap. prehension; 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 phi losophy 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?

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 an

swer 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 will. ing 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.

SERMON XI.

"And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures." 2 Tim. iii. 16.

THE young man to whom this Epistle is addressed, was the bosom friend of the apostle Paul. The attachment which commenced between them early in their ministerial career was invigorated afterwards by a variety of circumstances. They were fellow-travellers in their missiononce, at least, they were imprisoned together-when possi ble, they were associated in official labors-and during the intervals of temporary separation, they had maintained an affectionate correspondence. Hence it is, that St. Paul so frequently mentions him in his writings. He alludes in several instances, to the kindness and assiduity of his friendship the generosity of his character-the eminence of his Christian attainments; and more than once does he speak of him under the endearing appellation of Brother. Indeed, few persons seem to have surpassed this young disciple in the engaging and dignified consistency of his demeanor ; especially his religious deportment, was correct beyond or. dinary precedent. He appears to have been thoughtful from childhood-and that too in a situation by no means the most favorable-for his father was a professed infidel. His education, however, was superintended by his mother and grandmother, both of whom were pious, and therefore solicitous to mould his principles by the sacred volume. They led him early in life to the fountain of inspired truth. They delineated to his opening mind the relations which he sustained towards God. They carried him in the arms of prayer to the mercy-seat; and the result was, that his first

views received a virtuous bias. As he advanced in years, a reflecting and serious disposition gave him respectability; and in the end he became prepared by personal religion, for the commanding attitude he afterwards assumed in the Church of Christ.

Now, I do not affirm, my hearers, that a similar sysem of education is in every instance rewarded with the same success ; but I do say, and it is very much the doctrine of the text, that a virtuous direction of mind, a useful and respectable standing in the world, and not unfrequently a radical renovation of heart, are results on which we may legitimately calculate when we impart to children in season a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.

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I say, we may expect a virtuous bias to be given the mind. The morality of the Bible, especially in regard to children, stands decidedly unrivalled in the ethical world. Let it take them before the affections are debased, or the habits corrupted, and it will exert an influence through the whole moral system. At all events, it will pre-occupy the ground and impose a set of salutary restraints; growing with their growth, and strengthening with their strength; from which few will afterwards be able entirely to escape. Nor is this all not only will it neutralise in a great degree the temptations of vice, but it will be constantly enlarging its own dominion, and securing its own efficacy and power. It will arrest those angry, selfish, and frequently immortal propensities, which, on the one hand, the whole intercourse with the world is calculated to inspire, and a necessary immaturity of judgment on the other cannot be supposed successfully to resist. By diffusing the light of Revelation, it will disperse that midnight of moral ignorance, of which vice invariably takes advantage to steal from its concealment in the heart, and triumph in the publicity of its depredations. But on a point like this, I need not enlarge.

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