Christians. What Andrew discovered and told Peter, was by him told to others, and from them it has spread on and on even to ourselves. The good news which Andrew invited Peter to share was the first message in the good news which we call the Gospel of Christ. Shall we ever dare again to think, and act on the thought, that our good or our evil are for ourselves alone, and not for all with whom we have anything to do?

Lastly, learn from Andrew's own experience how God in Christ makes Himself known to the hearts of men. There were thousands in that day who were ever on the look out for the Messiah, and yet saw Him not when He came among them: such were the men who sought to stone Him, and who at last crucified Him. Andrew, the ignorant fisherman, was able to see the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, only because his hopes and desires were such as none but One of perfect holiness and goodness could satisfy. When he met with Jesus, he needed no proofs to tell him that he had found One come from God. With the man of simple trusting heart, who strives to be delivered from his own sin and burns with love to God and man, Christ Himself, the image of the Father's love, will surely dwell: and such an one will find in Christ the fulfilment of all his best hopes, will rise up at His call, and cheerfully follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.

XIII

THE BIBLE. (1.) THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

"GOD, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son."-Hebrews i. 1, 2.

I PROPOSE to begin to-day a course of sermons on the Bible. In speaking to you from Sunday to Sunday on the lessons contained in separate texts, as I have hitherto done almost without exception, I have often felt doubtful how much I might take for granted as already known to the greater number of the congregation. Every one here, I trust, knows some little about the Bible; every one has read, or has heard, some parts of it, and has carried away some impression from what he has read or heard. Some few, of course, are well acquainted with most of what the Bible contains. I imagine that all except a few are tolerably familiar with the sound. of those chapters which are read in church, and some other chapters; that they have carried away with them, and hold more or less clearly in their memories,

a few of the most striking stories and the clearest and most forcible sayings; but that they could not often tell the place in the Bible of what they do remember, or explain how one thing follows after another, and that of the greater part of the Bible they have no knowledge at all.

I am not saying this by way of blame; I am only trying to put into words what seems to be the plain fact. There is of course some blame attaching to all wants of this kind. If we cared for the Bible more, we should read it more, and take more pains to understand it and remember it. Still there is much excuse for a great deal of ignorance. Of course those who have been at school have gone through some of the most important books of the Bible in a regular and careful way. But unfortunately we have not time at school to do as much as we could wish, or to do anything as well as we could wish. And after school-time it is only too easy to forget what we have learned, if we do not keep it up by constant reading for ourselves, and trying to make sure of the meaning of what we read.

What I wish now to do is to help you to understand in a general way what there is in the Bible, to explain to you the contents and the use of its different parts and books, to point out how one joins on to another, how we learn from one what we do not and cannot learn from another. In this way dim and hazy impressions may be changed into clear and well-ordered knowledge, and the new interest in the Bible which I trust some of you will gain may lead you to read it for yourselves more eagerly and care

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fully in future. Speaking about large parts of the Bible at once, I shall not often have time or opportunity to dwell on single texts; but this is much more an advantage than a loss. Such sermons as those to which we are most accustomed, sermons examining and explaining a single text, are at all times useful and perhaps necessary. There is no better way of bringing before a regular congregation those great truths on which the whole Christian life is founded. But sermons on single texts have one great disadvantage: they help to keep up that mischievous notion which is everywhere so common, that the Bible is nothing but a collection of texts, into which we may put our hand and draw out at random whatever we please without troubling ourselves to think where it came from. Few texts, perhaps none, can ever be quite understood while they are taken alone, cut away from the place in the Bible in which they stand. And many of the most precious truths of the Bible are not to be found in any text at all; they come into our minds only when we think of whole chapters and books together.

A more serious objection to keeping to this one subject for a long time together is that it takes us away in some degree from the ever-pressing needs of our own wants, and our own duties. It is in great measure concerned with what is sometimes called head-knowledge. It is quite possible for us to know a great deal about the Bible, to be able to answer questions about its books, and what there is in them, to be able to tell its stories, and even to explain the meaning of its sayings, and yet have no true sense of

its divine power, to remain untouched by the voice of the Holy Spirit within it speaking to our spirit, to forget altogether that it has been given us after all to teach us God's will concerning us, and to help us to draw nigh to Him. I feel this most strongly, and am anxious that you should now and always feel it too. Yet I do not believe that it is unprofitable for virtue and godly living and the love of Christ to have our thoughts led in church to such views about the Bible as require little more than dry understanding. Knowledge is not religion; yet assuredly want of knowledge very often leads to want of religion. If we were more interested in the Bible, we should love it more, and drink in more of its blessed spirit, and without knowledge it is impossible to have more than a narrow and soon exhausted interest.

Knowledge then, a knowledge of the mere contents of the Bible, is really a step towards increase of religion; it clears away many of the hindrances which keep us from hearing what God speaks to us, it makes us feel at home with the Bible, and that is the beginning of learning to use it as our guide in the daily thoughts and the daily actions of life.

There is no congregation in the whole Church which needs nothing but warning and exhorting; all need teaching likewise. It is not enough to be told what we should feel, and think, and say, and do. We want to have the story of God's wondrous dealings with men in past time impressed on our minds; and many of us will never be able to understand it unless it is explained to them. We want to have the