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fold direction, and does not permit a perversion and exaggeration in one direction to the detriment of all.

In this manner it is to be discerned how the Word of God, designed to educate man for eternity, does also, in the highest and best of ways, constitute the highest education for time. The whole complex nature of man receives the loftiest and the most perfectly proportioned development of which it is susceptible. But it is necessary that we should not only have a knowledge of instruments, but of method. We may have the most exquisitely constructed and accurate instruments, and they will be entirely valueless if we do not know how to use them. We require to combine with the study of the Word the teachings of the Church. Most of all, we require the illumination of the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts, that we may understand what we read. mistake than to accept the

There cannot be a greater mere "literary" theory of would read any other Some measure of sym

the Bible, and read it as we book of ordinary authorship. pathy is always needed for the full comprehension of a great writer. If the pale cheek of the scholar who reads the Greek text of philosopher and historian lights up with enthusiasm, surely the Christian may be allowed to dwell with love and reverence on the pages of revealed truth, and to implore those aids essential for their due comprehension. As well might we endeavour to read the heavens without the aids of science and its instruments as to study Scripture

THEORIES AND FACTS.

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with unloving and unprayerful minds. If the Scriptures are not read aright, men will wrest them, as we know on the highest authority men have so wrested them, to their own destruction.

Let us think also of the unspeakable awe and solemnity with which this supernatural volume is invested. It comes to us as the message of God Himself, fraught with all the mighty issues of immortal life and immortal death. The liberty of choice is not left open to us, as in the case of any other book, to read it or not, to study it or not, to carry out its precepts or not. It is not open to us to look upon the Bible as the evolution of mere theories which have only a speculative value, and which we may accept or dismiss as we choose. Life is not a theory, but a fact. Time is not a theory, but a fact. Sin is not a theory, but a fact. Death is not a theory, but a fact. Immortality is not a theory, but a fact. We add also, though some may be slow to admit this, that the judgment is not a theory, but a fact; heaven not a theory, but a fact; hell not a theory, but a fact. Whether we will hear or whether we will forbear, the facts are the same. The Bible is the heavenly constitution under which we live; it is the supreme law to which we owe allegiance; it is the statute-book by which we shall be tried. The Bible comes to us hallowed by every awful and tender association. It is hallowed by the thunders of Sinai ; hallowed by the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat; hallowed as the accents which flowed

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from the lips of Incarnate God Himself; hallowed as that to which millions have implicitly trusted who have departed hence in His faith and fear. The great question-the question of questions-for us is this: In what light shall we regard it, and shall its aspect be inimical to us or friendly? Shall it be the deathwarrant of eternal condemnation, or shall it be our blessed charter of life, honour, and immortality?

Lastly, to recur once more to that general subject of reading, in which Biblical reading must always hold the position of paramount importance. It has certainly not been the intention of these pages to limit the field of general letters, or to deter any reader from freely expatiating therein. The desire has rather been to give a warning against that limited and contracted reading which has sometimes, not untruly, given rise to the reproach against humble and religious men of narrowness of mind and defects in education. God has not more freely imparted to us the objects of use and delight in the natural world, than all the fair and fruitful growths of the human mind. Christianity is eminently favourable to science, literature, and art. Where Christianity has not existed, the ancient types of civilisation have passed away, and even the immobility of the East yields to change and decline. Christianity forms the life of European civilisation, and is our surest guarantee of its continuance and permanence. It would almost seem that the assertion is true, that with the Bible the

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poet tunes his harp to a loftier measure, and the astronomer walks the heavens with a firmer tread. The Christian is not debarred from the wisdom of this world. He, too, may make himself free of the company of poets and philosophers and statesmen. His may be the most æsthetic taste, the highest literary culture, the habit of most rigorous reasoning. But he will be able most fully to use this knowledge when he regards it in its adaptations and relations, and subordinates it to the highest knowledge of all. He will diligently study those great works in which noble thoughts are set to noble words in imperishable beauty. He will hold communion with those "dead but sceptred monarchs, who still rule our spirits from their urns." He, too, may take draughts from the famed Castalian spring, and listen to the whispers of Ilissus. These things may be true; still, in the language of Milton:

"Let Zion's hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God."

CHAPTER VII.

THE CIRCLE OF DUTY.

THE Christian finds himself, so to speak, amid a system of concentric circles. When he is enabled by God's grace to break through the natural bonds of selfishness, he perceives that no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. He perceives that there are certain ties which indicate and fix his relationship with all around, and these he definitely recognises as his duties. The Christian race is to be run, not after some rare and difficult fashion, in which from natural causes some men might easily outstrip others, but with patience. This patience is to be exemplified specially in well-doing. This well-doing is to be showed, not only in the pleasing direction of exercising the law of kindness, but in the careful discharge of our specific duties, and in the diligent consideration of all the claims which in a complex state of society really lie upon us. The path of duty is often stern and monotonous. Those long, uninterrupted spaces of life, which we often have to traverse sadly and laboriously, form, as a rule, the general character of the landscape which life's pilgrims have to traverse, and exercise, not