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intricacies of conflicting opinions. Through its precepts we get understanding, and therefore hate every false way.

There remains one other effect of the Holy Scriptures, which includes all the preceding, and is necessary to the due apprehension of themTHE FEAR OF THE LORD. This expression appears to be used in this place, by a figure common in Holy Writ, for the doctrine or commandment which produces the fear of the Lord; and it seems to sum up all the previous commendations of the Scriptures; so that the Bible itself is nothing else, if I may use so strong a figure, but the Fear of the Lord. This fear is indeed the beginning of wisdom, the fruit and evidence of conversion, the guardian of joy, the guide to knowledge. All religion may be comprehended under it. A holy, filial, reverential fear of God, which acknowledges the divine majesty, bows to the divine will, receives the revelation of mercy in a Saviour, trembles at the approach of temptation, employs diligently all the means of grace, dreads provoking God, examines itself, walks circumspectly, and works out its own salvation with a holy solicitude-such a fear is the very life of all religion; nay, it is religion itself. It well consists with all the joys and privileges of the Gospel; and indeed is at once the best preservative of those blessings, and the best evidence that they are scriptural: whilst without it

our faith is dead, our hope delusive, our knowledge vain, our profession hypocritical. This blessed principle the Bible can produce, and the Bible only. Human laws may infuse a terror which may restrain the hands, but not an ingenuous fear which sways the heart. The Bible subjects the inner man, makes him love his dependence, acquiesce in the will of the glorious God, adore his majesty, and see his infinite, right to the obedience of his creatures.

Such are some of the surprising effects of the word of God, which should impress us with a sense of its EFFICACY, as the considerations suggested under the first head filled us with a conviction of its authority. It is indeed the incorruptible seed of everlasting life. It is the sword of the Spirit. It is that by which the grace of God first begets us again to a heavenly life, and then sanctifies us wholly, body, soul, and spirit. It contains all the truth which the ministers of God's word expound in their instructions, and which the Holy Ghost teaches in his divine operations on the heart. It is not only the law of truth, but the instrument of salvation.

It is observable, that in the Psalmist's commendations of the works of creation in the verses which precede the text, no mention is made of any effects produced by them. The heavens pour out a discourse with an overflow

ing voice. They present to the eyes of men the great volume of nature, for them to read therein the glory of God. The sun has his station as in a royal tabernacle, and goes forth as a bridegroom for beauty and as a hero for strength. But no effects are described as following from them. It is only when we come to the law of the Lord that we hear of conversion, wisdom, joy, illumination, and fear.

I proceed next to consider,

III. THE HIGH AND AFFECTIONATE REGARD WHICH WE SHOULD PAY TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. -More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey,' and the honey-comb.

With respect to their value, they are more precious than gold; whilst for delight, they are sweeter than honey. In the first point of view, they are the objects of our esteem; in the second, of our love.

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AS TO ITS VALUE, THE WORD OF GOD IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD. This is a consequence of what has been already stated. For, if the Scriptures possess such excellent qualities, and are capable, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, of producing such astonishing effects, then the merchandise of them must be better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. The penitent who has

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felt the authority of divine truth, and who has experienced its transforming virtue, will necessarily esteem it above all earthly riches. For, what shall a man be profited, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Observe how men in general value gold; with what diligence they acquire it, with what care they preserve it, with what sorrow they lose it. And shall not a Christian much more value his Bible? Do not the Scriptures contain durable riches and righteousness? Do they not relate to spiritual and unseen and eternal blessings? Do they not regard the soul? Do they not reveal the way of salvation? Do they not open all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, yea, the unsearchable riches of Christ? And shall he not count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord? Can this saving knowledge be gotten for gold, or can silver be weighed for the price thereof? Can it be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire? Can the gold or the crystal equal it; or can the exchange of it be for jewels of fine gold?

But it is not enough to esteem the Holy Scriptures; we must love them,-FOR DELIGHT,

THEY MUST BE SWEETER THAN HONEY AND THE

HONEY-COMB. How emphatic are these expressions! In the preceding clause, the value of gold was heightened by the words, fine gold,

and, much fine gold. But even this fell short of conveying the full meaning of the Psalmist.. Men may highly esteem what they are still unable to love. But the word of God is not only to be esteemed as gold, but to be delighted in more than the most refined pleasures of sense. Honey, proverbial as it is for its sweetness; yea the honey-comb, or, as it is in the margin, the droppings of honey, that which flows of itself and bursts from the comb, and is therefore most clear and refined-is but a faint image of the treasure which the Christian finds in the Holy Bible. He esteems the words of God's mouth more than his necessary food. His soul is satisfied thereby as with marrow and fatness, whilst his mouth praises God with joyful lips. Yes, there is a delight in the prospect of salvation, in the discoveries of faith, in the contemplation of the promises, in the intimacies of communion, which no words can express. There is not only the knowledge of Christ, but the savour of that knowledge, in the sacred Volume. The name of the Redeemer is as ointment poured forth. All his garments smell, as it were, of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made him glad. Such language expresses the joy of the Christian in the knowledge of his Saviour, the relish and repose and refreshment and reviving of soul which he derives from the knowledge of him; and therefore the

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