down in body, shall fly to that transcendent Book, which alone can minister to a mind diseased; and resting his hand and heart upon its blessed doctrines and promises, he shall gather from thence hope and confidence to appear before its immortal Author, in that great hour when the Bible itself shall be superseded; and

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seeing face to face, we shall know, even as we also are known."

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SERMON VII.

JOHN V. 39.

Search the Scriptures.

IN a former discourse from these words, it was my endeavour to explain the first of two parts into which the subject was divided, viz. the reasons for our study of the Holy Scriptures. I was desirous, at that time, of impressing upon you the awful and sacred authority of the Bible, by telling you that it was the word of the most high God. I spoke of the precision and harmony of its design; of the authenticity of its intelligence; of the important truths and doctrines which it exclusively revealed; of the beauty, simplicity, and sublimity

of its language; of the excellence of its precepts, and of their peculiar effects upon our hearts and upon our lives.

We come now to the consideration of the second point, viz. the manner in which the study of the Bible should be carried into practice. You remember a remarkable fact in the history of Esau and Jacob, that these two brothers, born of the same parents, brought up together, with the same education, the same advantages, the same examples, yet turned out in the end two such separate characters. Esau was "a cunning hunter;' Jacob was "a plain man:" Esau was “a man of the field;" "Jacob dwelt in tents :" Esau was a man of pleasure and of the world; Jacob was a man of retirement, and a humble servant of God. Why is this? We see it in our experience every day: young persons under precisely the same circumstances, arriving at such very opposite results. It is not enough to say that we are born with various capacities

of mind, because, allowing that, we know very well that we are, to a wonderful extent, creatures of habits, and of habits often superseding natural propensities: and therefore, the fact can only be fully accounted for by the different modes in which the same advantages are used, and consequently by the different degrees of blessing which heaven bestows upon such endeavours. This holds peculiarly true as regards the Bible. You shall see two persons, both reading the holy volume, both turning their attentions to the same chapters, both having recourse to the same commentaries; and yet to one, it shall be all the while "a sealed book :" to the other, it shall open all its treasures. This arises entirely from the manner in which the Bible is studied. The one reads in one way, the other in another: the one reads without; the other within the one tills the ground rightly, and gets a plentiful harvest; the other takes, perhaps, equal labour,

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but, because he sows not in the proper method, reaps but a scanty, or no crop at all. It, therefore, is of the highest possible consequence to find out the right conduct of our religious investigations; and this I shall now at once proceed to do.

Taking it for granted, then, that we all possess the gift of sincerity and willingness in our Christian studies, the first thing necessary in the progress of them is,-humility.

As long as pride rears itself in the heart, nothing can be done: "with the lowly only is wisdom;" for, as the Apostle declares, "God resisteth"-(and what can we hope for if God opposes us?) "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble." And is it not with reason? In the application of man, to any subject whatever, he should be convinced of some want to be supplied in his own understanding, before he will seriously attend to the advice and in