lay interrupt, no cold and thankless insensibility dishearten him. From Bethlehem to Calvary, he went about doing good. The history of men furnishes here and there a splendid illustration of active, self-denying, devoted piety; and we observe and remember it as a rare event. It is like a stream of water in a dry place-a green spot in the desert-an oasis amid Arabian sands. The life of Christ has no such inequalities. It does not strike us by its occasional and novel exhibitions, for they are uniform and constant. There is something greatly affecting in the Saviour's spirit. It is more than human. It belongs not to earth. It was never found except in his own immaculate bosom. Whatever there is of true religion in the world resembles such a piety as this, though it falls far short of it. And how unspeakably above the famed excellencies of heathen lands! It is piety altogether of an original character. The heathen genius never conceived it. It never entered the mind of this world's philosophy to form such a character as that of Paul or Howard. Such developements of mind and heart never would have been made but for the Bible. It is not easy to conceive of a deeper, darker chasm than that which would be made by the absence of these principles which have formed thousands of characters assimilated to these, and given so high a direction to minds whose lofty movement is at such a distance from the low and abject spirit of this unbelieving and self-indulgent world. ་ Let it not be supposed that this is a light obligation under which the world is placed to a supernatural revelation. Holiness is the highest attainment of a rational creature. It is the greatest good which man ever can acquire. It is the greatest good in the universe. It is greater than wealth, greater than pleasure, than honour, than happiness. It is the only good that may be sought at all times, under all circumstances, and at every hazard. It is the only good that may be sought as an end and for its own sake. A man is not necessarily praiseworthy because he is happy, nor blameworthy because he is unhappy. Seek therefore, my young friends, not to be affluent and honourable,—no, nor mainly to be happy. Seek what is more sublimely excellent, seek to be virtuous and holy. Seek that your hearts may be subdued and won to God by the power of his own truth. No natural amiableness of disposition, no mere cultivation of intellect, no good name in the world, no unimpeached rectitude in your transactions with your fellow-men, no punctuality in your attendance upon the ordinances of the sanctuary, and no external relation to the church of God can be a substitute for that internal holiness which is an indispensable preparation for the heavenly world. O, when will men understand and feel that nothing possesses importance compared with what relates to God and eternity! Nothing within the range of human thought deserves consideration compared with this. Never was there stronger evidence of folly than that man presents, who chooses this world for his portion. If tears could quench the fires of that world of torment, those fires would be quenched at the remembrance of the folly that preferred this world to the salvation of the soul. And if tears should be ever shed in heaven, it will be at the remembrance of the supineness, the indifference with which those of you who have hope toward God are directing your way toward that "exceeding and eternal weight of glory." A few short years, if not before, and you and I shall descend to the tomb. Time passes swiftly over the head that rests beneath the clods of the valley. As sleep that overtakes us at night, leads us imperceptibly and gently through its long watches, and we neither number nor heed its hours, so will coming centuries revolve, and on the morning of a new world, we shall wake as from a dream to stand before the tribunal of the great Judge. To-day, we are upon the stream of time; to-morrow, we are floated forth upon the ocean of eternity. There is no intermediate state of being -no line of separation between this world and the next. Another step, and we have entered on the world of everlasting retribution. But what retribution is it to which we are destined? Momentous question! Is it to that world of peace and joy; or is it to those regions of perturbation and pain? Is it to those calm skies where no tempest rages and no billows roll; or is it to the eternal agitations of that lake of fire? O, tell me, were it not a melancholy state of existence to be gliding down the stream of time under the awful uncertainty whether it will land you in the realms of bliss, or the regions of wo? LECTURE XI. THE PRE-EMINENCE OF THE BIBLE FOR THE INFLU ENCES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. WE have already remarked that the Bible furnishes all those truths and motives which are the appropriate materials of a spiritual mind, and as such constitute the great and only means of personal holiness. Truth and love are the weapons which the Author of the Scriptures makes use of in the great moral contest that is going on in our world. In this respect, the religion of the Bible differs from all other religions. Other religions have employed force, authority, stratagem: the power of the sword, the authority of princes, the policy of priests and statesmen have all been made use of to accomplish their selfish designs. But the Bible knows nothing of this. Though it reveals a system of truth, and requires affections every where opposed to the selfishness of the hu |