ness and all the dependence which are incident to this commencement of our moral existence; and as we go on thus year by year, and find in every changing situation, in every reverse, in every trouble, from the lightest sorrow to those which wring our soul from its depths, that He is equally present, and that His gracious aid is equally adequate, our faith seems gradually almost to change to sight, and Christ's sympathy, His love and care, seem to us more real than any other source of reliance; and multiplied cares and trials are only new avenues of acquaintaince between us and Heaven.

Suppose, in some bright vision unfolding to our view, in tranquil evening or solemn midnight, the glorified form of some departed friend should appear to us with the announcement, "This year is to be to you one of special probation and discipline, with reference to perfecting you for a heavenly state. Weigh well and consider every incident of your daily life, for not one is to fall out by accident, but each one shall be a finished and indispensable link in a bright chain that is to draw you upward to the skies."

With what new eyes should we now look on our daily lot! and if we found in it not a single change-the same old cares, the same perplexities, the same uninteresting drudgeries still-with what new meaning would every incident be invested, and with what other and sublimer spirit could we meet them! Yet, if announced by one rising from the dead with the visible glory of a spiritual world, this truth could be asserted no more clearly and distinctly than Jesus Christ has stated it already. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Father-not one of them is forgotten by Him; and we are of more value than many sparrows—yea, even the hairs of our head are all numbered. Not till belief in these declarations, in their most literal sense, becomes the calm and settled habit of the soul, is life ever redeemed from drudgery and dreary emptiness, and made full of interest, meaning, and Divine significance. Not till then do its grovelling wants, its wearing cares, its stinging vexations, become to us ministering spirits-each one, by a silent but certain agency, fitting us for a higher and perfect sphere.

THE BIBLE, THE WHOLE BIBLE, AND THE BIBLE ONLY, THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND COURT OF APPEAL IN MATTERS OF FAITH AND PRACTICE.

(Concluded from Page 343.)

The Bible contains the Revelation which exactly meets man's requirements in all respects.

Here a question may arise-Is the Inspired Volume of itself, apart from human intervention, capable of enlightening the mass of mankind by

its appeals to their private convictions; or is it necessary that the external wisdom of human agents should fix its meaning? Is the verdict of the Bible sufficient and final as a standard and test of religious truth, or do we require a teacher who is above revelation-a priesthood? Shall we seek the law from the oracles of God, or at the lips of a human judge?

Two classes in our day advocate the idea that the Bible alone is insufficient, and that there must be a tribunal above the Bible to decide what it teaches. These are the Romanists and the Ritualists. These advocate Tradition and Church authority. Then there are the Rationalists, and the Colensoites, and those who deny what are generally received as the fundamental truths of Christianity. Thus the Holy Book has many adversaries.

"The abettors of superstition and Church authority deny the sufficiency of the Bible, because their inventions are too glaring to be admitted by plain people with a plain Bible in their hands; whilst the Rationalists urge the necessity of learning and judgment to warn men at every turn of metaphors and Eastern symbols. The advocate of Church tradition is afraid that with the Bible only people will believe too little; the Rationalist is afraid that with the Bible only plain people will believe too much. Hence the one calls up natural lights in opposition to religion, and the other calls in Church authority in aid of superstition." Such is the real statement of the case; and between these two parties the Bible is sought to be taken from the people, or, what is equal to the same thing, to be so garbled and denuded of its truth and beauty as to be rendered comparatively powerless.

We have lived to witness a most unhappy assault upon the Holy Book by a class of men who make high pretensions to scientific acumen. With an eagerness that must pain the minds of the thoughtful, and an audaciousness that forfeits all claim to the province of calm inquiry after truth, we have recently seen them rushing into the Temple of Science, and with avidity seizing upon some lately-exhumed bone, or some timeworn flint, or some fossil remain which had just been brought in for examination, and at once, with that assumption and confidence which is too often characteristic of those who either possess but little knowledge, or have some preconceived theory to establish, and with an unbecoming haste we have seen them attempting to overturn that grand old volume, which has been, and still is, the foundation of eternal hope to millions of the human family, and which has already been subjected to every possible test which the ingenuity of the sincere inquirer after truth, or even the desire of the wilfully sceptical, could invent, and has triumphed gloriously over the scrutiny. Still, there it stands, like the noble lighthouse of Eddystone, after having endured the howling blast, and the lashing of Atlantic's most furious breakers in the moment of his fiercest storm. Yes, there it stands, still the divinely-appointed and the human-approved

beacon to warn mankind of the sullen dangers of moral evil, and to guide them safely into the haven of celestial peace. It still takes poor sinful sons of fallen Adam by the hand, and bids them "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." And although by certain ones in high places its histories are called in question, its figures are disputed, its doctrines falsely charged with error, its chronology and its genealogy captiously treated, yet still there it stands, like some tall cliff, about whose breast the awful tempest is expending its fury, whilst the glorious rays of the summer sun encircle its brow.

Reader, never let your confidence in the authenticity of the Bible, and its Divine capacity to meet all human wants, be shaken. There is no reason why you should do so. The latest discoveries of modern science, when viewed in the relation which they bear to the Holy Scriptures, clearly show that "there is no proved reason to believe that the truthfulness and authority of the Scripture statements have been even lowered by anything that may fairly be considered as settled and accepted by men of science." And a learned and astute writer, after the fullest inquiry devoted to this branch of theological study, in a work entitled, "The Harmony of Science and Faith "-a work dedicated by permission to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury-affirms that "the result has been that we have not found a single verified statement that should cause any uneasiness to the most timid Christian concerning the harmony between Scripture and science. As to the few points that remain unsettled until more light is obtained, they are even now capable of reconciliation, though the methods of harmonizing are not as satisfactory as could be wished. But there is no reason to doubt that better modes of reconciliation will be developed when the magnificent sciences, yet only in their infancy, shall have attained to higher development and wider generalization. For this issue the Christian believer may wait in calm assurance that it will come; and meanwhile he may rest satisfied with the present unstained veracity of that sure word of prophecy' which it is perfectly in accordance with the latest scientific discovery to believe is God's Holy Word.

"The simplest and best way to dissolve doubts concerning the veracity of Holy Scripture is prayerfully to make ourselves thoroughly and fully acquainted with all that they contain. The immense internal power of the Scriptures for self-defence is only partially known even to those who most earnestly and continuously make them their study. The Scriptures are their own convincing evidences' to hearts humbly and sincerely seeking to know the truth. They have lost none of their power to guide and mould the body, soul, and spirit of man, so as to form him into all that God would have him to be, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure the stature of the fulness of Christ."

Attaining thus to the highest development to which our sojourn in

this land of trial can lead us, we shall be made "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," in the eternal glory of the sinless kingdom of God and of the Lamb, there to occupy for ever the high station destined for the redeemed children of God.

The Bible is then a human necessity, and in every way adapted to meet all the requirements of mankind.

The Bible, moreover, is emphatically a Revelation from God; for such is its internal structure and character that it never could have been invented by man.

It is sufficient to our argument here to remind the reader of the condition in which mankind is found when not subjected to its influences, whether in India, or in China, or the Isles of the Sea. And even if we explore the classic page of history and review the ancient nations of Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, Greece, or Rome, even when in the zenith of their prosperity and civilization, we shall find that rites and abominations were perpetrated among them at which humanity itself might well turn pale. Talk of unaided reason! They had it; and what did it accomplish? Let history answer!

In addition, it will suffice to consider what has taken place in later times when intellect and ingenuity have been brought to bear in matters of faith and practice to the exclusion of the Bible, or at least in judgment upon it. And what comes under our observation ? To quote the words of one who spake with thrilling eloquence, "I see plainly and with mine own eyes that there are Popes against Popes, councils against councils, some fathers against others, the same fathers against themselves, a consent of fathers of one age against the consent of fathers of another age. Traditionary intrepretations of Scripture are pretended, but there are few or none to be found. No tradition but only of Scripture can derive itself from the fountain, but may be plainly proved, either to have been brought in in such an age after Christ, or that in such an age it was not in. In a word, there is no sufficient certainty but of Scripture only, for any considering man to build upon. This, therefore, and this only, I have reason to believe; this I will profess; according to this I will live; and for this, if there be occasion, I will not only willingly, but even gladly, lose my life, though I should be sorry that Christians should take it from me. Propose me anything out of this book, and require whether I believe it or no, and seem it never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart, as knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this- God hath said,' so therefore it is true. In other things, I will take no man's liberty of judgment from him; neither shall any man take mine from me. I will think no man the worse man, nor the worse Christian, I will love no man the less, for differing in opinion from me. And what measure I mete to others, I expect from them again. I am fully assured that God does not, and therefore that men ought not,

to require any more of any man than this, to believe the Scripture to be God's Word, to endeavour to find the true sense of it, and to live according to it." (Chillingworth.)

Every page of this wondrous book bears the impress of Deity. Are we not right, then, in contending that it is God's revelation to meet man's necessity, and to constitute His Court of Appeal in all things pertaining both to doctrine and practice?

Amidst the portentous signs of the times by which we are surrounded, gentle reader, let your watchword be, "To the law and the testimony." This blessed book points out your danger as a transgressor, and it tells you of God's love in the gift of His only begotten Son to be your Saviour. It tells you that you cannot be justified by your works, neither can you be saved by the observance of Ritualistic rites. It promises the grace of the Holy Spirit to regenerate. And whilst yielding all becoming respect to the memory and writings of those devoted men designated "the Fathers," we must contend for the supremacy of God's Word in the Christian Church to decide all matters of doubt. And we must contend for it as a whole, without admitting the depreciation of any of its parts; therefore we say "the whole Bible." And amid the din of controversy and the strife of parties we will not point you to Luther, or to Melancthon, or to Calvin, nor will we bid you to the Confession of Augusta, or of Geneva; neither will we invite you to the Articles of the Church, excellent as they are, nor to that harmony which exists among the Protestant creeds; but we will take higher and firmer ground, and “which they all subscribe with a greater harmony as a perfect rule of their faith and actions, and that is the Bible-the Bible, I say-the Bible only is the religion of Protestants." (Chillingworth's memorable speech.)

In 1522 Luther said, "Let this book, the Bible, be on all tongues, in all lands, under all eyes, and in all hearts." And we of to-day reiterate his utterance.

"The appeal to tradition," says a recent writer, "if we are to be bound by it, will land us in infidelity or Popery. The authority of councils is in the highest degree precarious, and the judgments of the Fathers are often mutually contradictory." This testimony is true. But the authority of the Bible is supreme and unerring, therefore we repeat, "To the law and to the testimony."

Exeter, February, 1867.

R. S. S. SHORT.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS AND NEW YEAR'S OFFERINGS.

In former years considerable service has been rendered to the Society by the judicious use of Collecting Books for New Year's Offerings. The claims upon the Society are numerous, and its necessities urgent. The subject is commended to our congregations and friends. As an illustration