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to part with the true riches for the earthly mammon, and to barter away the joys of salvation for the gratifications of sense. But beware: the very Bibles which are in your houses condemn you the very blessings of revelation increase your guilt: your negligence and unbe lief have this aggravation in them, that you sin against light. Awake then to your duty. Receive not the grace of God in vain. Cast not behind you the invitations of mercy. Consider the plain and striking language of the text. Consider what it states of the PROPERTIES and EFFECTS and VALUE of the Holy Scriptures. Never be satisfied till you have cordially admitted their AUTHORITY and felt their EFFICACY; and then you will begin to understand their value. To this end, implore the teaching and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Beseech him to illuminate your eyes by his heavenly light to see the won drous things of God's law. Quench not his holy motions; retire from the noise of the world to meditation and prayer; sanctify the Sabbath; attend with seriousness the public worship of God. Hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the portions of Holy Writ which abound in our Liturgical services. Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your soul. Thus shall you know yourself and your lost condition. Thus shall you discover your ignorance and folly. Thus shall you feel

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your weakness and insufficiency. Thus shall you be directed to the way of pardon, peace, wisdom, and joy.

But I turn from these exhortations to the impenitent, that I may,

II. URGE THE SINCERE CHRISTIAN TO A MORE DEVOUT REGARD TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

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The little progress we make in religion is very much to be ascribed to our comparatively low esteem of the Word of God. We read other books and neglect the Bible. We hear what our fellow-creatures say, and forget the authority of revelation. We listen in some degree to our own vain reasonings and suppositions, and virtually dispute with God. We take this or the other part of Scripture, and neglect insensibly the large remainder. We deduce consequences from the Bible, and consider those consequences as of divine authority, and then substitute them tacitly for the Bible itself. We explain away passages of the gravest import, or pass them over cursorily, because they suit not our system or temper of mind. Thus the authoritative declarations of God are imperceptibly questioned; and what wonder, if the EFFECTS of the Bible upon us are so little like those of the text? Let us then study the Bible with silent reverence, with unlimited subjection of understanding and heart, with deep humility, with

fervent prayer; that it may convert and teach and gladden and illuminate our souls more and more, and that our tempers and conduct may be more and more brought into conformity with its holy doctrine and precepts.-To the law and to the testimony, if any speak not according to this rule, it is because they have no light in them.

Thus taught in the book of revelation, let us pray that we may have the disposition and ability to study better the BOOK OF NATURE. The glory of God, which the heavens had previously declared to us almost in vain, we shall now behold. The words and lines of this magnificent volume will be more intelligible. The sun going forth in his strength will lead us more to adore the divine Creator. All nature will have a voice and language to us.

Nor let us cease to labour and pray that the

BOOK OF GRACE MAY BE EXTENDED AS WIDELY

AS THE BOOK OF CREATION; that in every part of the world, man may be taught by revelation those truths which nature never can reveal, and without which all her instructions must be useless; that, according to the expression of the Apostle of the Gentiles, the sound of the Gospel may, like the light of the natural sun, go out into all the earth, and its words unto the ends of the world; so that wherever the voice of

nature speaks, and speaks in vain, to fallen man, the voice of revelation may penetrate and restore him to himself and to his God *,

*It is impossible for me not to notice here the labours and success of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The text seems of itself to be a sufficient authority for the widest possible circulation of the Holy Scriptures; so that whereever there are men who need conversion, wisdom, joy, and illumination; the law of the Lord-that perfect, sure, right, perspicuous, and eternal standard of truth-should be disseminated among them,

SERMON II.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST THE DISPLAY OF THE DIVINE GLORY.

1 CORINTHIANS, I. 22-24.

For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of

God.

THE doctrine of our Lord's sufferings and atonement is the fundamental truth of Christianity. But it is at the same time the truth which is most opposed to the pride of the human heart. Men are prone to establish their own righteousness and to rely on their own wisdom; and therefore despise and reject the humi liating truth which overthrows both. It has been thus in every age. But it was more especially so among the luxurious and learned Corinthians at the first promulgation of Christian

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