different purposes, by men that had no sort of connection with each other; and yet, when brought together, though they may not be arranged with accuracy so far as order of time is concerned, as a series they have a certain spiritual unity, and that is all the unity there is about them. External unity in the books of the Bible is utterly wanting; but interiorly they are one. That is, they all bear on the general questions of man's sinfulness, his duty, his righteousness, his relations to God and eternity; they are uniform in that regard; while in their outward characteristics they are very different one from another.

I think one of the most interesting things in England is the Winchester Cathedral. It represents every order of Gothic architecture, from the old Saxon down to the latest developments in this direction, running through four or five distinct periods. In one part of the building you see represented the most ancient, in another more modern, in another still more modern, and in another, the most moderh Gothic architecture. The whole constitutes a magnificent pile. It represents several different schools, with hundreds of years between them; but the peculiarities of these different schools are brought together so that, although the individual elements in them are unlike, they compose a unit which is admirable, and serves the purposes of the church, at the same time that it is beautiful to the eye.

In old Warwick Castle, before it was destroyed by fire outwardly, you saw the most irregular and strange grouping. One century built one side, with its tower, of a particular kind of wall. Another century built another side, with its palatial residence and magnificent halls. By accretion, with the growth of architecture, it came into its more recent condition. Now, outwardly, it represented very different epochs and very different architectural ideas, strangely grouped together; but inwardly it was a place fit for a noble to live in. All its parts were brought into domestic uses, and it answered the purposes of a refined and cultured household.

The Word of God is filled with books which, though written in different ages, have an interior unity. They are united in telling man how he shall be in harmony with God; how he shall live above his animal life, so as to be immortal; how he shall learn the secret of happiness in years to come; how he shall be forgiven for sin and avoid it. There is but one voice in these books in regard to the history of men; they are in perfect accord in this respect; whereas, in respect to the instrument, the literary implement, by which the great truths of the gospel are conveyed to men, the exterior elements of the Bible are exceedingly diverse.

From this general statement it will appear that the setting aside of any book that is bound up in the Bible will not invalidate the others. We know very well that Luther did not believe the Epistle of James was a canonical book, and that he set it aside. We know very well that there are modern critics who suppose parts of "Isaiah" were not written by the author of that book, and should not be ascribed to him. We know very well that some of the earlier historical books are supposed by critics to be invalidated because they seem to show traces of being compilations of still earlier documents, and as they say could not have been written by Moses or any single writer.

As for myself, I say that if even it should be proved that some of the books of the Bible are not authentic, and must be rejected-as I do not believe it will, and that others though in the main correct contain more or less errors which must be eliminated, it would not destroy the Bible, any more than to take a rotten joist from an imperfect place in a house would destroy the house. In taking out from the Bible whatever is false, you simply take out something that does not belong there. Therefore, to criticise a single book does not alter the whole canon. The Bible remains.

If men go to the Old Testament, then, and undertake to give to all that is there an interpretation under the im

pression that every word and sentence has been forged in the soul of God, and put into his Word by his own direct influence, instead of its being a demonstrative system adapting the amount and the method of truth employed to the nature of the minds to be operated upon through the instrumentality of other minds inspired and aroused to wisdom by the Holy Spirit, making use of natural objects, society, all available means, for teaching and developing the human race,-then one of two things must happen: either the Bible must give way or they must give way.

This Book is elastic; and if you put a cast-iron frame about it, if you cramp it by theories and philosophies, it cannot stand-it will die of suffocation. If you are going to save the Bible, you must proceed on the Bible ground: take facts as they are, and act according to those facts. If men will go to the Word of God simply for the purpose of knowledge, to profit withal, and not to find material for controversy, not in a spirit of criticism, not even for literary enjoyment; if men will go to the Scriptures with the wish that they may be thoroughly furnished for every good work; if they will go to the inspired record as they would go to any other document in which they were profoundly interested, to seek for what is right and pure and good, and to be built up in holiness-if men will go in that way to the Bible, they will find there treasures that are not to be found in any other quarter. It is the history of the evolution of the highest forms of human nature. Along with this history are accounts of wars, revolutions, catastrophes. There are records of lives and achievements of men of God. The Book is filled with facts and lessons that men would not willingly let die. I could not afford to let go what it has taught me of the experiences of mankind in the patriarchal age. I could not afford to lose those grand old figures of the Israelites, more majestic than any sphinxes. I could not afford to have destroyed the records of their captivity, and of their wanderings in the desert. I could not afford to give up the knowledge that I have gained of the commonwealths that sprang from the

polity of the great lawgiver of the ages. Greater than he has never been upon the earth, as a mere human being. I could not afford to lose the magnificent wisdom and poetry and spiritual experience of those grand old statesmen of the Israelitish nation. I cannot afford to dispense with one of the records of those wonderful triumphs of human nature under God's guidance. The world has been marching through a wilderness amidst conflicts and victories, and the records of these victories and conflicts are infixed as jewels in the Word of God. They stand there to brighten our lives on our pilgrimage, to encourage our faith and hope, to cheer us in our childhood, to help us in our manhood, and to comfort us in old age.

I love the Word of God; and the more I free it in my mind and use from superstition, from narrow ecclesiasticism, and bring it into the atmosphere into which it was born and in which it has lived,--the more I make it the man of my counsel, the guide to my path and the lamp to my feet, -the sweeter it is to me. The more I give to its interpretation the largeness, the variety, and the liberty which in every other direction we have learned to employ, the more profoundly am I affected by the inspiration of God's Word.

II.

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE.

'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."-Psa. cxix 105.

THIS Psalm is, in the original, a literary curiosity, after a manner that was apparently delightful to the Oriental mind the formation being something like acrostics in our times, every letter of the alphabet having its section. But while the outward form is somewhat peculiar, the inward form is still more striking. It clusters together, from every point of view, the expressions of the sweet psalmist, whoever he was, as to the Word of God, both in the written Scriptures and in unwritten nature.

The language is unmistakable, not once nor twice, but many times, in which, while speaking of the precepts of . God's Word as written in his time, he also speaks of the law of the Lord as it is made manifest in nature. It conforms, therefore, to our idea of the two Revelations-the Word and the World.

You will observe that the point of emphasis in the passage I have read is the guiding power of the Bible; and if at the time this was uttered, when comparatively a small portion of the Scriptures had been written, that portion of it which we are now almost inclined to reject, certainly largely to neglect, was so much esteemed by this ancient writer, how much more would he have rejoiced if he had seen the fullness of the revelation of God as he is made known in Christ Jesus, and in the New Testament writings of the disciples of Christ!

Sunday morning, October 20, 1878. LESSON: Psa. cxix. 97-144.