us to pause and inquire, how we are qualified to stand that awful scrutiny at the judgment-seat of Christ? Will the Saviour then confess us for his own faithful servants, and shall we hear with joy the gracious welcome? or shall that day find us hopeless and unprepared, with a horrid desperation calling on the rocks to fall on us, and the mountains to cover us? O my brethren, these are works which should be done now, "in the accepted time, and in the day of salvation:" for there is "no work, no device in the grave," whither we are all so fast hastening!

t

Still, however, in the study of the holy Scriptures, the most essential requisite is yet to be mentioned, without which our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain; and that is, the Grace of God.

It is this which must prevent and further us in all our works begun, continued, and ended; and thus the whole glory will be the Lord's. It is Grace

which must first bring us to the Bible, for Grace shall soften our hearts to desire the truth; show us the mighty value of spiritual things, and lead us to the Scriptures, hungering and thirsting after righteousness; eager to get from thence an answer to our penitent inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?"

But the Grace of God shall not only bring us to the Bible, it shall bring us in the proper spirit: it shall make us humble! O yes, who can be proud when he receives salvation as the free gift of God? Who can be proud, that pleads no work of his own, but leans only for help on the righteous cross of Christ, and who reads in every page of the Bible, that he can do nothing of himself; that nature has ruined him, and nothing but the mercy of the Lord of Hosts can bring him to salvation? Grace, therefore, shall banish every high look and every proud thought: Grace shall show him the Bible as the un

doubted word of God; exhibiting some difficulties, but only to make him rest more firmly on the divine wisdom; propounding some mysteries, yet such only as are best explained by our doing the divine will.

But Grace shall not only bring us to the Bible, and bring us in the right spirit, it shall keep us there. The Holy Ghost shall tell us to press forward; that our work is never done; but that we must go on step by step, and from growth to growth. Under these holy suggestions, the Christian will read the Scriptures day by day: he will more than read them, he will search :- the text says, "Search the Scriptures." My brethren, you know what it is to search for a thing: if one have lost a piece of money-if any have lost one of a hundred sheep, do we not turn and return every part of the house with anxious eyes and an untired resolution? do we not go over hill and dale, inquiring

for the absent stray until we find it? And what have we lost? have we not lost our happiness? have we not lost our hope? have we not lost our souls? But Grace will teach us to search, and we shall find: to light the candle of devotion in our hearts, to sweep diligently the noble edifice of the Bible, to range over all its pastures, all its hills and valleys, and at last we shall discover treasures surpassing human riches, and find the most precious of all the flock, the spotless "Lamb of God."

And then, lastly, the Spirit shall help us to adapt the Bible to our own cases: and while every example speaks to us its words of wisdom, and Patriarchs and Prophets deal out to us living lessons, "in line upon line, and precept upon precept," Jesus himself shall there be seen in every circumstance of life, a pattern and a sanction to us in all our duties. Thus the Grace of God helps us for the right study of the Bible. It

168

SERMON VIII.

ST. JOHN iv. 46, 47.

So Jesus came again unto Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine.

And

there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.

When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

THESE words introduce us to the account of a miracle, which, from the manner both in which it was requested, and in which it was accomplished, holds out several points of useful instruction, and forms a very fit subject for the serious consideration of a Christian assem