benefited by the absolute repose of one day in seven. The observance of this day recals to the minds of all a revelation that is past, and a revelation of a condition of human society which is not yet attained. It is the special characteristic of revealed religion during all its successive periods. Instituted at the creation, its observance was commanded from Mount Sinai, and enjoined by the prophets; inculcated by our Lord; observed through every phase and by every sect of the Christian Church; openly abolished by the infidel government of revolutionary France, and its violation justified by the progressing infidelity of all Christian people.

Next to the institution of marriage, and the keeping holy of the Lord's-day, the study of the written Word of God is that which was enjoined for keeping in the minds of men the knowledge of God Himself, and of the duties which He demands from man. From the creation of Adam to the deluge, Methuselah was the means of keeping up the communication of all the circumstances of Adam's life to Noah, with both of whom he conversed; and Noah, we know, was a preacher. (St. Peter, ch. 5.) All men who know God are preachers, heralds, proclaimers of His will by silent example and by vocal instruction. From Noah to Abraham was a short period; and to this latter was made an additional revelation, even

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that Messiah should be a descendant of his, after his posterity had been constituted into a nation. Abraham and his family were migratory, as the Arabs are to this day, until they went into captivity in Egypt. So soon as they were delivered thence God taught them the use of letters, and Moses reduced into a Book all the knowledge that men had of God's former dealings with their race. For some time after the invention of letters on Mount Sinai men made but small use of them; chiefly, it is to be supposed, from the want of materials on which to work, and the small extent of their requirements for trade and the common necessaries of life. Hence the knowledge and the use of letters were confined to the literary class, who had leisure to cultivate it. It follows, of course, that when there was little to read there were not many persons able to read it, and the instruction of mankind was confined to the ecclesiastics, poets, and philosophers, who recited what they wished to communicate in the ears of their audiences. When our Lord was upon the earth we find there was a class entirely employed in making copies of the Law, but only a few who were rich could afford to acquire one of those copies. Our Lord, therefore, appealed to such passages as they heard continually read in their synagogues; but the Scribes were often unfaithful, perverted the original,

inserted remarks or comments of their own, for which our Lord frequently blamed them.

After the death of our Lord, when the profligacy of the Christian clergy had arrived at a great extent, when the people were become disgusted at it, when trivial observances were magnified into unjust proportions, and when slavish obedience to the priesthood was established as a heavy burden on men's backs, and the people could not read the Scriptures in their own tongues, God taught men the art of printing, which was, indeed, like another Pentecostal effusion, for all men could henceforward read God's word in the language in which they were born.

It is impossible to estimate too highly the value of the Bible, whether we look on it in its lowest sense as a mere history of a religious sect, or in the still more important view of its being a record of all that God has done with the object of blessing His creatures, and raising a portion of them to be sharers of His power, of His wisdom, and of His love. Neither is it possible to overestimate the sin of that man, or of that body of men, who shall venture to throw impediments in the way of every one becoming possessed of so as to study constantly-the sacred volume.

The sin of preventing men obtaining access to the written Word of God is marked by a variety of

flimsy pretexts. But the thing which we claim for all men is exceedingly simple. It is declared in the New Testament, by one of the twelve men commissioned by our Lord to teach all mankind, that the most honourable distinction which He had conferred upon the children of Israel was, that He had committed to their custody His holy oracles. We have, therefore, nothing to do but to apply to the Hebrew Church for a copy of the oracles of God; and this they freely give us in a certain number of books in the language which was once-and is in great part to this day-their vernacular language. All literary history in Christendom gives us, without hesitation, the original Scripture, as written by the Apostles, and their associates, in Greek. This body of writings, therefore, partly Hebrew and partly Greek, learned men have translated into all the languages of the earth. They have all endeavoured to translate the originals faithfully; there is not a shadow of pretext for saying that there has been any intention on the part of the translators to pervert the sense from its plain grammatical meaning. Such a charge being proved to be false, recoils upon those who make it, and stamps them as dishonest men. The bibles in Protestant churches are as truly the words of God in English, French, German, and Italian as it is possible for works written in an

Eastern language to be, when translated into a Western language; and they certainly contain no more faults than are found in translations of Thucydides, Æschylus, Pindar, Lycophron, and other Greek writers.

In the early ages of the Church the bishops of Rome inculcated the necessity of the study of the Word of God. In those times, however, none could read but the priests; and soon afterwards they only taught the people as much as would serve to inculcate their own domination over them. When, however, in the days of Wycliffe, the people began to get copies in their own hands, they found out the im postures which had been practised upon them; and then the priests began to refuse to allow the laity to read it and from those days to these, for nearly seven hundred years, has one great point of contention, between the Roman priests on the one side and all mankind on the other, been respecting the right and propriety of reading the Word of God. This contest never could have continued if every man would have considered his own personal responsibility to his Creator, and his private duty to take advantage of every means which he could lay hold of in order to increase his knowledge of his duty. If then it be true, and it is impossible to deny it, that God has given to men great means by which