The Influence of the Bible on the Extent and Certainty of Moral Science

That which gives value and excellency to the religion of the Bible is its truth — its undeniable, undoubted truth. Our belief of it does not make it true, nor does our unbelief of it make it false. The great Author of our nature has so constituted the mind, that where its moral bias is not corrupted and perverted, there is nothing it more delights in than truth. Even in the meaner and less useful sciences, it has no such luxury as in the pursuit of truth. It is narrated of Archimedes, the celebrated mathematician of Syracuse, that during the war which raged between Hiero and the Romans, he was not diverted from his contemplations even by the sacking of his native city, but was killed by a common soldier, while he was in the very act of meditating a mathematical theorem. I doubt not that you have often sympathized with the soHcitude of this philosopher, and in some degree at least, participated in his ecstacy, in that intense pleasure which you have, almost insensibly as it were, derived from the pursuit and acquisition of truth. The thirsty clod, or drooping flower, is not more really refreshed, when it drinks the long-wished-for rain, than the eager and panting mind is refreshed and rejoices as she drinks her fill at some pure fountain of knowledge. It were grateful to know did the acquisition only exalt and expand the mind 5 but it is still more grateful when we recollect, that truth opens so many other sources of enjoyment — enjoyment that is valuable, because it is pure and enduring, that never palls on the intellectual appetite, and which, the oftener it is repeated, is the more sure to be repeated without satiety.

It is not every man who has the opportunity of augmenting these sources of enjoyment. Nature perhaps has denied him the talents, or the providence of God has withheld from him the means of extensive intellectual acquisition. And therefore his mind is narrow, his faculties are degraded, his taste for pleasure is uncultivated and coarse, and he is too apt to be dependant upon the gratifications of sense. Especially have these remarks force, as they relate to the various branches of moral science. Men may be ignorant in very many departments of human knowledge with comparative impunity 5 but there are subjects of intellectual re- 22 search in which every man, without distinction of rank and condition, has a deep and everlasting interest. A being who is the creature of account, and destined to immortahty, whatever else he tnay forego, may not be ignorant of moral and religious truth.

We have seen in the progress of these lectures, that the world is not a little indebted to the Bible for its advancement in various departments of human knowledge. But we should have very inadequate impressions of what we owe to this sacred volume, did we limit them by the information it communicates in the departments o human knowledge merely. The knowledge which most deeply interests us is that which relates to the destinies of man as the creature of God and the heir of immortality. Other knowledge has principal reference to the present world, and terminates with the present life j this refers to the soul, and is lasting as eternity.

We are scarcely aWare how little the world knows, or ever has known of religious truth, for which it is not altogether indebted to this sacred Book. We cannot indeed form any distinct and just conception of the intellectual condition of our race, had the light of a supernatural revelation never shone upon our doubt and darkness. The present actual condition of those portions of the human family who are destitute of the Scriptures, degraded and dark as they are, does not furnish a faithful developement of the still deeper and more profound darkness which would have rested on them, had the light of heavenly truth, instead of having been once enjoyed, and subsequently extinguished, never shone upon them. The design of this lecture therefore, is to mark as clearly as we can in the compass of a single exercise, the influence of the Bible upon the researches and certaintif of moral science.

It has been customary with a certain class of men to represent in glowing colours the powers of human reason; to eulogize and almost deify the intellectual faculties of man, and to give them so high a place as to dispense with the light of a supernatural revelation. Not a little has been said, and much better than we can say it, to dispel this illusion. Moral and religious truth is a field which the lights of reason have never explored, and unaided, can never explore. Under the direction of perfectly sanctified affections, she might indeed have been a safe and sure guide, so far as her limited powers could extend. Unfallen, she might discover the expressive indications of her Maker’s will and glory in his works and providence, and every where read his truth, “clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” But the “gold has become dim, and the most fine gold can be changed.” Her once eagle eye is darkened and benighted. This once lofty intelligence is fallen, its vision dimmed, and its faculties weakened and perverted. I do not know a more fruitful source of error than confidence in the undirected, and therefore misdirected, powers of the human min4 in its inquiries after religious truth. It is the IIqiotov xpwdog the radical error of all false religions, and of every deviation from the true. It would seem that rationalists have forgotten, or are unwilling to acknowledge the extent of man’s apostacy. They have exalted the powers of human reason to an elevation known only to unfallen humanity, and have paid a reverence to its dictates which belongs only to the infinite and unerring Intelligence. I do not hesitate to say, that the man who does not construct his theory of moral science upon the broad basis of human apostacy, and who is not deeply sensible that, at every step of his progress, he has to contend not only with a depraved heart and an erring conscience, but also with an understanding that is darkened and defiled, is sure to construct one that is visionary and wild. It is lamentable, that the age of extravagant encomium upon the intellectual powers of man has not ceased. Who, in a Christian audience, is not weary of these misplaced and ill-timed commendations? What have the boasted powers of reason, unaided and unillumined by light from heaven, ever achieved? Where are their splendid victories over the empire of darkness? What are the conclusions to which they have arrived, the results which they have adopted and defend? After following them through all the intricacies and darkness of their labyrinths, into what world of light do they conduct us?

We cannot answer these inquiries without taking a passing glance at some of the leading religious principles of pagan philosophers and more modern deists, and showing their utter insufficiency to answer the great ends of religion. Of the former we may truly say, that it is painful and even disgusting to contemplate the ignorance of the most celebrated of their number on almost all moral and religious subjects. Their endless differences and inconsistencies upon topics which they conceived to be of the highest importance, were such that one would think it impossible for themselves even to have any confidence in their own speculations. Such too was the immorality of their doctrines, that wherever they were believed they could not fail to exert a pernicious influence upon the opinions and practices of men. Some believed in the existence of a God 5 others did not. Some were unitarians 5 others were polytheists. Every country had its deities which differed from all others: — some in the heavens — some in the air — some in the ocean — some in the infernal regions — while some were deified heroes and men. Every thing about their religion was dark, confused, and imperfect. As we have already seen, they were the grossest idolaters, and their religious rites were distinguished by all that is impure and cruel. They were utterly ignorant of any method of salvation, as well as any effectual means for the attainment of holiness. They had no definite notions of the end for which man was created, or of that in which his highest happiness consists. Of the resurection of the body, they knew nothing, and were in a state of painful suspense concerning the immortahty of the soul. They spoke of Elysium and Tartarus, but these were poetical fancies rather than any just conception of the doctrine of rewards and punishments. The insufficiency of their religion is every where proved from its defective discoveries of the being and character of the only true God *, from the absurdities of their worship j from their ignorance of the true sources of human enjoyment; from their imperfect rules of duty, and ineffectual motives to obedience 5 from their utter darkness on the great subject of pardon for the guilty, and the utter powerlessness of their systems to arrest and subdue the power of moral corruption.*

And what more has reason done for the pagans of modern, than for those of ancient times? Pass through heathen lands 5 visit the savage tribes of Africa and our own continent; travel over Hindostan and China and you will see how little unaided reason can effect in discovering a system of religious truth. Sorcery, divination and magic 5 the transmigration of souls into animals and vegetables after death; endless superstitions and gross

* See these positions illustrated at length in Halyburton’s Enquiry. The ablest dissertation I have met with on this general to’pic is from the pen of the late Dr. John M. Mason, entitled “Hints on the insufficiency of the light of nature.” Vol. III. p. 405. darkness are the acknowledged characteristics of their religion. There is indeed an imposing mythology 5 there is the grandeur of temples, the decoration of altars and priests, and idols 5 there is the pomp of their ritual, and the gaity of their festivals; while the awful tragedy is distinguished by nothing more certainly than the wild and wanton dance; the sanguinary procession, and the bones of men offered to their idol deities bleaching under the arid sky.

If you ascend somewhat higher than these degradations of paganism, and enquire what reason has achieved among deistical philosophers, what do you find but systems of materialism and irresponsibility — a world uncaused and ungoverned — a deity who is neither wise, nor good — conceptions that are obscure and unsatisfying — and systems of dark uncertainty and unhinging scepticism that agitate, without convincing the mind? Deism, it is to be hoped, has seen its best days. From the early part of the seventeenth century, when a few men in France and Italy began to form themselves into a society for the purpose of propagating the doctrines of pure Theism in opposition to Christianity, down to the latter part of the eighteenth century, when so many, distinguished minds both on the continent of Europe and in Great Britain, rejected the gospel under a pretence of veneration for the One true God, human reason made its best, and probably its last efforts in favour of natural religion. And yet nothing more clearly distinguishes this system than that it professes to he no system. It acknowledges the existence of God 5 professes to follow the light and law of nature, and rejects all divine revelation. With this standard it seemed for a while to be marching through the world, and because it quieted the minds of men in sin, multiplied its converts without inquiry and without conviction. But it was destined to overthrow itself. It was never any thing better than a refined sort of paganism. Nor had it indeed half the conscience, or half the stability of paganism itself. At first it was pure Theism, or natural religion-, then it became bold infidelity 5 then materialism 5 then scepticism 5 then it denied a providence, and then a God. Reason became its deity: there was no God but Reason. And now, for the first time elevated to the throne of the universe, reason began to be alarmed for her own safety, and resolved that there was a God. And then she began to tread her way back to the Bible. There, and there only does she discover the God whom the understanding delights in, and at whose authority conscience bows. It is a remark worthy of being remembered, that “however deists may deride and scoff” at the Bible, it is a fact capable of the clearest proof, that had it not been for the Scriptures, there would not at this time be such a thing as pure Theism upon earth. There is not now in the world an individual who believes in one infinitely perfect God, whose knowledge of this truth may not be traced directly, or indirectly to the Bible.*

There is another fact which is enough to wean our confidence from the more arrogant claims of human reason 5 I mean its utter failure in the great department of intellectual philosophy. Employing, as this department has done, some of the most erudite and powerful minds, its whole history has furnished melancholy indications of the blindness and uncertainty of that dependance which men have placed in their own intellectual powers. Though giant minds have grappled with the theme with all their freshness and vigour, what has been more fluctuating than the principles of this science from the days of the schoolmen down to the time of Reed, Stuart and Brown? Who now confides in the visionary system of Malbranche; in the notions of Locke, with respect to the origin of our ideas 5 or in the idealism of Berkley and Collier? Who believes in the annihilation both of the world of matter and of mind, as advocated by Hume 5 in the monads of Leibnitz; in the vibrations and associations of Hartley *, in the negations of Kant 5 or in the transcdentalism of Coleridge and Cousin? And yet, which of these systems has not, in its turn, been extolled as the subhmest effort of human genius, and sharing honour with the most important improvements in human knowledge? Aside

* Evidences of Christianity by A. Alexander, D. D. from the few principles of intellectual philosophy which are obviously deducible from the Scriptures, what evidence have we that a single half century will not witness an entire revolution in this important science? How little confidence then is to be placed in the vaunted powers of human reason? If she has learned so little in the science of mind, how much less will she learn in the science of religion? If her fairest systems of mental philosophy are so undetermined and changing, what can she accomplish in framing and building up a fair and stable system of moral and religious truth!

It is no difficult matter therefore, to discover the appropriate influence of the Bible upon the researches and certainty of moral science. It is just the influence that is needed. It is paramount to every other j is extensive as the wants of the soul, and the sphere of religious truth; is perfect and can receive no accessions. It illumines where men are ignorant, and decides and establishes where reason hesitates and our minds are in doubt and uncertainty. Let us contemplate it a single moment in these two aspects.

In the first place, it extends the sphere of moral science. It reveals all truth. It keeps back nothing that is best for a fallen creature to know. An intelligent child of six years of age, educated in the bosom of a Christian family, knows more on moral and religious subjects than Socrates or Plato. We are scarcely aware of the vast extent and compass of religious truth with which the the Scriptures are so perfectly familiar. We listen to their instructions so frequently, that the thought is not always present to our minds, that they are inculcating truths which none but God knows. They point us back to the eternity which the Creator inhabited before the foundation of the world, and forward to the eternity we shall inhabit after this world shall have passed away. They lead our minds up to Him, who, though he dwells in light unapproachable and fills the universe, is about our path and about our bed 5 on whom all beings depend from the archangel to the worm; and who, while he is slow to anger and of great kindness, is terrible in majesty. They make us acquainted with his vast and perfect purposes, comprehending all his works and all the events of his providence in this world and other worlds, in time and through interminable ages. They direct our thoughts to the great law which he has published, and by which he establishes the moral order and harmony of the universe. They lead us to take a view of that world of wonders — man — a mystery to himself, and yet more than all the works of God, the means of eliciting the manifold glory of his Maker. They proclaim to us the glad tidings of great joy through the incarnation and death, resurrection, intercession, and mediatorial reign and triumph of the Son of God. They make us acquainted with the character and offices of the Divine Spirit, under whose transforming influence the soul is brought out of darkness into marvellous light, and though by nature guilty and impoverished, is enriched and adorned, and made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance with the saints in light. They make us familiar with the import of momentous and melancholy themes — death and the grave 5 with the resurrection both of the just and the unjust. They pour a light upon our path by which we descry the vast continent, the boundless immortality that stretches itself away immeasurably beyond our thoughts, and then lift the curtain where scenes and prospects rise that alternately appal and enchant us — the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven — the throne of judgment — the final sentence — the everlasting retribution. How long would human reason have been clouded in mist, how long groped in darkness, had not the light dawned that has made such disclosures? He who knows all things, and sees as clearly at midnight as at noon day, not only becomes the light of reason, but even condescends to reveal to faith what our limited and imperfect reason may not in many instances comprehend. His intelligence is everlasting; he is the centre of thought, the law of all laws, and the last and supreme reason of all things. It belongs to him to originate and reveal the truths we are to receive 5 and even though they may not be comprehended by us, yet are they all clear and plain to him. Let the man who thirsts for knowledge, who is wearied in his pursuit of truth, and who feels dissatisfied with all that reason has ever taught him, repair to the Scriptures and see how fast he will learn under such a teacher. What amazing resources does he possess, when he becomes the possessor of the Bible! What an ocean of knowledge does he carry in the hollow of his hand when he grasps that sacred book! What uncreated wisdom seems then to be contained within the limits of his finite intelligence! When once a mind eager in the pursuit of

knowledge begins in earnest to learn from this book of God, it continually advances. There are no limits to these exhaustless instructions. As the intellectual powers and faculties expand and brighten by thought and prayer, as sinister and unworthy ends are lost sight of and superseded by the more steady and unalloyed love of the truth, the sphere of vision is enlarged — one degree of attainment facilitates the acquisition of another — the more is known, the greater will be the capacity of knowing, till light poured is upon the hitherto benighted mind from every opened page, and it increases in the knowledge of God till it beholds him as he is. But the Scriptures do not merely extend the limits of moral science. In the second place, they fix its certainty. They reveal nothing as the object of conjecture, but every thing as of absolute knowledge. The truths they disclose are not matters of opinion 5 they are facts, facts ascertained by the God only wise, and the reality of which depends on his veracity speaking in his word.

There is no foundation in the nature of things, for uncertainty in moral, rather than in natural, or mathematical science. Every thing which men perceive, and about which they think and reason, is either certainly true, or certainly false. Independently of all our views and the views of others, distinct from all the notions we derive from custom and education, irrespective of all our caprice, prejudice, and ignorance, there is such a thing as religious truth. There is in the nature of the case, no ground for doubt and uncertainty. — Though not decided by the same kind of evidence by which we resolve an equation, or demonstrate a theorem, or determine the nature and causes of disease, it is not on that account the less certain. Where infinite intelligence and integrity bear witness, there can be no room for uncertainty. All farther inquiry is out of place. One declaration of the God of truth is paramount to all the philosophical theories, and all the opposing systems of faith the world ever beheld. It is amusing to hear some modern religionists talk about a more rational religion than the religion of the Bible! What can be more rational than the wisdom of God? “Who hath been his counsellor, and who hath instructed him?” A suffering, but godly man, was once asked if he could see any reason for the dispensation which caused him so much agony. “No *,” replied he, “but I am as well satisfied as if I could see ten thousand. God’s will is the very perfection of all reason.” So of the revelations of his truth. They are the perfection of all reason. The reason that is opposed to them is not reason, but folly. We need not be surprised, therefore, that the Scriptures claim for themselves certain knowledge j for how can it be otherwise, since they come from God? Nor should it be any matter of surprise to us that those who truly receive the Bible should regard it as an unerring standard, and be established in its truths. “Lord, to whom shall we go, but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life 5 and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God!” Men who love the Bible, know that it is true. They have not merely learned to bow their understanding to the decisions of infinite wisdom, but they have felt its power. Its truths accord with their own experience. They perceive their excellence and beauty. They have felt them; they have handled them *, they have tasted and enjoyed them 5 and those wants of the soul which have so long been mocked, and deluded, and unrelieved, have found in them that satisfaction and peace which have elsewhere been sought in vain. “Do not wonder,” says the devout Pascal, “to see some unsophisticated people believe without reasoning. God inclmes their hearts to believe. They judge by the heart, as others do by the understanding. The Holy Scripture is not a science of the understanding, but of the heart. It is intelhgible only to those who have an honest and good heart. Charity is not only the end of the Holy Scriptures, but the entrance to them.” Men who are born of God, are begotten through the truths of the Bible; they are, as it were, born into them, and they form the aliment of their spiritual being. They have had access to the tree once guarded by flaming cherubims 5 they have plucked its fruit, have breathed its fragrance and perfume, and know indeed that it is the tree of life.

Nor is it a consideration of little moment, that the Scriptures fix the certainty of religious truth. Few principles are of higher importance than that truth, so far as it is attained, can be known with certainty. It is one thing to be on the whole persuaded, and another to be assured. It is one thing to view a proposition undulating between the different gradations of probability, and established only by the preponderance of probabilities j and another to consider truth beyond the influence of a doubt. If, after patient investigation, there were few subjects but may be unsettled by a corrupt philosophy 5 if, after a laborious, impartial, and prayerful study of the Scriptures, it were impossible to arrive at any other conclusion than conjecture, we might well feel ourselves involved in “an horror of great darkness.” I cannot easily conceive of a more painful state of mind. Perhaps, indeed, there is no feeling in the human bosom so distressing as suspense and uncertainty, be the subject what it may. Man needs firm ground whereon to place his feet, and not the marsh or quicksand, that trembles beneath him. He has a singular power to brace his courage to a level with his condition, and to endure with fortitude those evils which, before their arrival, seemed almost insupportable. But a state of hesitation between hopes and fears is, if possible, more tormenting than the fulfillment of his worst apprehensions. The haunting fear, the agony of suspense, prostrate his energy *, and to escape these, he often leaps to grapple with the dread realities. Where then can be imagined a more dreadful state of mind than one of uncertainty as to the most important and vital moral subjects? Is there such a being as God? Is there a future state of immortal existence? Is there pardon for the guilty? At what rate shall we estimate the misery of the mind that ponders upon these momentous questions with doubt and uncertainty? To hang over the deep current into which generations have sunk, while the eye finds nothing but darkness, nor even a ripple which shows the spot where they disappeared; to lean over the abyss to see whether perhaps it might discover some faint outline of the world beneath; whether some gloomy echo, or some response of joy, some sound of mourning, or some song of praise, shall tell the dreadful mystery j what indiscribable anxiety is this! But not thus is it with men who have the Bible. From these unerring pages speaks a voice that is echoed back from every bosom of the living, every tomb and monument of the dead. If every thing were conjecture elsewhere, here every thing is certainty. We know now the value and the true business of life. And if we are misled and perplexed by the shadows of uncertainty, it is because we “love darkness,” and prefer to trace our dubious, hesitating course, under the dim torchlight of reason, to being led by that book which eternal wisdom has revealed to be a “light to our feet and a lamp to our path.”

But you will ask me, Has human reason no place in the pursuits of moral science? She has a definite and definable place. It is her province to ascertain that there is a God, and that he is a being of infinite power, knowledge and rectitude. It is her province to ascertain that he is able to make a revelation of his will to men, and with such evidence of its reality that she can believe and know that it comes from him. It is her province to inquire and judge whether the persons who speak in his name were truly sent by him, and to become assured that what they have spoken and written is in sober verity his own word. It is her province to look at the difficulties, and weigh well all the objections, to the plenary inspiration of the sacred volume j and to be the more severe in her scrutiny because this volume claims to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Nor does her province terminate here. While it belongs not to her to erect herself into a tribunal before which the truth of God must appear to be judged,. it at the same time belongs to her to inquire and ascertain what this divinely inspired book contains. This she must do diligently, humbly, and with becoming meekness. Having ascertained that this is the book of God, she may task all her powers and all her learning, and what is more, all her fairness and candour, to ascertain the true sense and import of the sacred writers. Her views of religious truth she must draw directly from the Scriptures. She is not merely to call in the aid of the Bible in confirmation of her own opinions, but to begin her investigations with this divine source of knowledge. The evidence of the truth she receives is the divine testimony, and she has nothing to do but ascertain and receive it. She may not interfere, nor hesitate, where the God of truth has decided. Her business is to stand a silent inquirer at the shrine of these Oracles, and there hear what God the Lord hath spoken. Her object is to get at their philosophy, and not her own. She must take leave of her lofty independance and dignity, if she would learn of Christ. Her philosophical speculations have nothing to do in ascertaining the meaning of the Scriptures. Nor can we give too great emphasis to this thought. Men are very apt, where they have any fixed views of the laws which regulate mind, to look at God’s truth through the medium of their own philosophy. If for example, God declares that the human race are sinners from their birth, they hesitate at such a statement, because according to their received opinions, the infantile mind is not capable of sin. If God declares that the moral renovation of men is effected by his own

J^2 MORAL SCIExXCE.

mighty power, they call in question this decision, because, according to their philosophy, the mind is an existence which is incapable of being acted upon except by light and motives. Instead of allowing the Bible to influence their philosophy, they allow their philosophy to become the arbitrary interpreter of the Bible. Instead of submitting their judgments to the decisions of the uncreated intelligence, they require that his intelligence should be subordinate to their own. There are few Christian divines that have not to some extent fallen into this error. This was eminently the error of Origin, of Cocceius, of Hutchinson, and of Swedenborg. This is the error of the Pelagians and Arminians of ancient and modern times. This is the error also to some extent of the Calvinistic and Hopkinsian schools. Nay, this is the error of most of us, heterodox and orthodox. Strange to say, we cannot forbear inweaving the shreds of our own philosophy with the wisdom of God. We do it insensibly. But human reason was never given to man for such a purpose. When she has ascertained the true import of God’s revelation, her work is done. To attempt more than this, is rebellion against God — nay it is rebellion against herself, for reason decides, and decides intuitively, that “if we believe the testimony of man, the testimony of God is greater.” It has been well remarked, that “periods in which the pride of philosophy has been most exalted, have often been distinguished for the widest departures from the simplicity of Scriptural theology.” Human reason is never so truly in her proper place as when she sits a learner at the feet of Christ. How can she soar on a loftier wing than when she flies so near the Sun as to veil her face and lose her vision in the brightness of his rays? It is not reason that guides the soul then, but God. It is a heavenly light — a guide from a purer and more intellectual world. It is reason, but not her own — a reason that never hesitates, never toils, and never becomes weary 5 a reason that is never prejudiced, partial or benighted, and that neVer errs.

We think it therefore, no small commendation of the Bible, that it is the only book that has opened to the world the extended field of moral science, and so marked and limited the path of human inquiry, that if the mind wanders, it can never be said that it is for want of light. Few truths come to us with such overpowering evidence, as the truths of the Bible. The cheerless gloom which broods over the understandings of men had never been chased away, but for the beams of this, supernatural revelation. Men may look with an unfriendly eye on that system of truth which reproves and condemns them 5 while they little know the loss the world would sustain by subverting its foundation. We have tried paganism 5 we have tried Mahometanism 5 we have tried deism and philosophy *, and “we cannot look upon them even with respect.” The Scriptures contain the only system of truth which is left us. If we give up th#e, we have no other to which we can repair. We must travel back under the faint and trembhng lights of reason and nature, where “darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people.” We must wander amid the regions of fancy and scepticism, where there is n argument to convince, and no oracle to decide. Every thing we see, and hear, and feel, becomes more and more the source of solicitude and apprehension, and the farther we extend our views, unless guided by this heavenly light, we behold only a vaster desert — a deeper abyss of doubt, darkness and despair. Between reflections upon ourselves, and reflections upon God 5 between just views of his character and our own, we see no ground for hope. We are burthened with a sense of our sin, misery, and darkness, and llong in vain for some quiet resting place — some (covert from the tempest — some shadow of a great jrock in this weary land — something which has “the promise of the life that now is, and that whigh is to come.” We strive to break our bondage, but every struggle binds us faster in our chains, and is only the ineftectual effort of a mind separated from God to restore by its own wisdom its lost fellowship with its Maker. We counsel you therefore to cleave to this unerring word of God. And we counsel you not to be satisfied with mere inteflectual attainments. A mere intellectual” acquaintance with the Bible is not godliness. They know too much of religion, far too much|for their future comfort, who know more than they obey. We claim for the Bible and for the truth it inculcates, not only the submission, the admiration of your understanding, but the submission and admiration of your heart. Ah, my young friends, where else can you find a moment’s repose, when you have, once cast away your confidence in the instructions of God’s word? Cast away this confidence, and there is a chasm before you which nothing can fill — an abyss, across which your dark, uncomforted minds throw their anxious glance, and feel that all their light and hopes are extinguished. You would wonder why you had been created with such insatiable desires after truth, such a thirst for the knowledge of God, and yet coufd find nothing to gratify them. Nor would this inquietude ever pass away, until you had returned to the Bible. The sundered bond would then be made whole 5 the separating chasm filled 5 the darkness dissipated 5 the agitated, despairing mind at peace.