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The improvement of time, then, as we stated at the beginning of the chapter, is one of the most important considerations that can enter the human mind. It should be impressed upon the young heart in faithfulness and truth, and should never leave us in all the successive stages of life's journey. The very thought, that with us time may suddenly and shortly close, should make us all diligent, and induce us never to put off till to-morrow, that which can be done to-day. The poet speaks admirably, when he says,

"Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise;

He who defers his work from day to day,

Does on a river's bank expecting stay,

Till the whole stream which stopped him should be gone,
Which runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on."

Christian reader; let us give all diligence to the heeding of these admonitions, drawn from the word of divine truth, and the wisdom and experience of the wisest and best of men. Let us look to our Master, Christ, the pattern of diligence in goodness and truth; and, as professors of his name, heed the advice of the apostle, with which I close this chapter. "Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ; who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." 1 Thess. v.

6-10.

CHAPTER VII.

READING OF THE SCRIPTURES.

EXCELLENT was the advice of the Saviour; "Search the Scriptures." And it is highly important that Christian believers, in every age, comply with this advice. To attempt any good progress in the Christian journey, without much attention to the word of God contained in the Bible, would be like the intention of the traveller to reach a certain place, when he had never made himself acquainted with the road leading to it, and who would take no measures to inform himself concerning it.

It is pleasing, when we come to speak of the study of the Scriptures, to find ourselves in such elevated company; the great, the wise, the good, of various times and places, who, in the true spirit of devotion, have left their testimony for the world in favor of the "book of books." Let us linger for a few moments in their presence, and hear their statements, and prepare our minds by that which we may hear, for a direct inquiry into the most profitable manner of reading the Scriptures, so that they may indeed prove unto us "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

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The eulogy of Sir William Jones, upon the Bible, is full of truth. "The Scriptures contain, independently of a divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected, within the same compass, from all other books that

were ever composed in any age, or in any idiom. The two parts of which the Scriptures consist, are connected by a chain of compositions, which bears no resemblance, in form or style, to any thing that can be produced from the stores of Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Arabic learning. The antiquity of these compositions no man doubts; and the unrestrained application of them to events long subsequent to their publication, is a solid ground of belief that they were genuine productions, and consequently inspired."

When Locke was asked by a young man the shortest and surest way to attain a knowledge of the Christian religion, in the full and just extent of it, his reply was, "Let him study the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament. Therein are contained the words of eternal life. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter." Milton, the great poet, has said, "There are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like the Bible, for excellent wisdom, learning, and use." Boyle has written, "It is a matchless volume; it is impossible that we can study it too much, or esteem it too highly." And Selden, "There is no book upon which we could rest in a dying hour, but the Bible." And Steele, "The greatest of pleasures with which the imagination can be entertained, are to be found in sacred writ; and even the style of the Scripture is more than human." And Sir Isaac Newton, "We account the Scripture of God to be more than human.”

Bishop Porteus, in one of his theological productions, holds forth the following opinions in relation to the great charter of the Christian faith. "Other books may afford

us much entertainment and much instruction, may gratify our curiosity, may delight our imagination, may improve our understandings, may calm our passions, may exalt our sentiments, and improve our hearts. But they have not, they cannot have, that authority in what they affirm, in what they require, in what they promise and threaten, that the Scriptures have. There is a peculiar weight and energy in them, which is not to be found in any other writings. Their denunciations are more awful, their convictions stronger, their consolations more powerful, their counsels more authentic, their warnings more alarming, their expostulations more penetrating. There are passages in them throughout so sublime, so pathetic, full of such energy and force upon the heart and conscience, yet without the least appearance of labor and study for that purpose; indeed, the design of the whole is so noble, so well suited to the sad condition of human kind; the morals have in them such purity and dignity; the doctrines are so perfectly reconcilable with reason; the expression is so majestic, yet familiarized with such easy simplicity, that, the more we read and study these writings, with pious dispositions and judicious attention, the more we shall see and feel of the hand of God in them."

"But that which stamps upon them the highest value, that which renders them, strictly speaking, inestimable, and distinguishes them from all other books in the world, is this, that they, and they only, contain the words of eternal life. In this respect, every other book, even the noblest compositions of man, must fail; they cannot give us that which we most want, and what is of infinitely more importance to us than all other things put together,— ETERNAL LIFE."

Such are the opinions of men, who, whatever might have been their various speculative views, entertained the highest respect and veneration for the word of God. They spake as they were impelled by a sense of truth and justice; and their testimony meets with a ready acceptance in the heart of every sincere Christian to whom it may come.*

*

I. One great object of interest in the study of the Scriptures, is to enlighten the understanding. It is important that we be freed from error, and led into truth; that we perceive and renounce all wrong opinions, and embrace those which are clearly set forth in "the law and testimony." God has made us intellectual beings; and his revelation speaks to our understandings; and we are called upon to examine all opinions and doctrines advanced, and try them by the true standard,—the Word. Opinions which cannot abide this test, must come to nought.

Every true lover of Christian freedom and scriptural investigation, should be found on the side of free inquiry; not that which is reckless of all restraint, and too often runs into wild or deadly skepticism; but that which, while it seeks with all diligence to know "what is truth,” remembers that its author is greater than man, and that he

* Even unbelievers themselves have admitted the Bible to be a book of superior excellence. Herbert, Chubb, Tindal, Rousseau, and others, have given their testimony in favor of it. The language of the lastnamed individual is peculiarly striking. "I confess that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction; how mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the Scripture! Is it possible, that a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be merely the work of man?"

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