enlivening reflexion, that herein the work of God is going on, the soul being subdued unto Him, and in its weakness his strength being made perfect. The disappointment of favourite plans, the loss of property, and even the bitter pangs inflicted by the death or the estrangement of those we love, fail not to be tempered by the same consolation; and bring home to the heart the same heavenly reflexion, when I am weak, then am I strong.

Weak

Weak indeed we are by nature. indeed do these things make us. But if our weakness be attended by humility; if it incline us to rely entirely on God; then, my brethren, we may say with the Apostle, then are we strong, "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' (Eph. 6. 10.) That power upholds all things around us, that might dwells ever near us. It will be granted to our prayers, it will work with our efforts, it will confirm our strength, but it is in our weakness, and in our humble sense of weakness, that it must be made perfect. Be

ye then weak, that ye may be strong. Be humble, that ye may be exalted. Be weak in your dependence on yourselves; weak, in your own apprehension, weak in your trust in this world, in this world's help or strength. And then shall divine strength, more readily, find access to your souls; defend them in danger, support them in death, and sustain them in what is after death, "the judgment." (See Heb. 9. 27.)

Make us, Lord, sensible of our own weakness, and of Thy great power and goodness. Strengthen us by Thy might in the inner man. And give us sufficiency of grace; that we may both please Thee here, and dwell with Thee in heaven for Amen.

ever.

SERMON V.

READING THE WORD.

JOHN 7. 17.

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

THE Bible is the word of God; that is, it is the method by which God has made a communication of his will to man. As a father does by language instruct and reprove his children, so has our heavenly Father chosen, by the words of this book, to correct our faults, and to guide us in the way that leadeth unto life. The proofs that the Bible is God's word are various, and agreed upon by all Christians to be absolutely conclusive. When therefore we read, or hear, this book, we should be as sure of its expressing the

will of the Almighty, as if we could see Him face to face, and hear the gracious words proceeding out of his lips.

The great objects of this book are these, to teach us God's goodness, and our own lost estate; to assure us of our souls being immortal; to inform us that they are made liable through sin to suffering without end; and to instruct us in the only name, the only way, whereby they may be saved from everlasting destruction. For this end, we find here many merciful promises, many awful threatenings, and a great variety of particulars set down, all tending to throw light on the most important of all questions we can ask, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18. 18.) Now it seems, from the nature of the case, to have been impossible, that any words, such as men can understand, should convey to us information on matters so strange, so inscrutable, as these; without alluding, in part, to many things which are utterly beyond our apprehension. Hence it has come to pass, that

there are, in the tidings of our salvation, some things hard to be understood." (2 Pet. 3. 16.) And this which St. Peter says especially of the matters contained in St. Paul's Epistles, is true also of all the sacred writings. Some passages are hard to one man, some to another, more or less, according to the abilities and graces of each; but to all probably there are some, which no wit of man can entirely unravel. And it has too commonly happened, that on passages such as these, more labour, and time, and attention, have been spent by the readers of the Bible, than on those parts which are easy, and in practice most important.

Many take up the volume as a work of curious speculation, and, forgetting that it is no less than God speaking to them of life eternal, have given utterance to the most extravagant conjectures of their own minds, on subjects wherein it is folly, no less than sin, to go a step beyond that which is written. Whilst others, labouring hard to reconcile the