INTRODUCTION. In venturing to give this work to the public, the Author complies with repeated and earnest solicitations. The subject is of sufficient importance to have employed the pen of abler men; nor does he doubt that abler thinkers, and students of greater research and more leisure will find abundant cause for animadversion in the following pages. They have been prepared amid the undiminished labours of the pulpit during the last autumn and winter; and now that he has committed them to the press, more deeply than ever does he desire that his time and engagements permitted him to give them a more careful revision. Though very many of the thoughts here presented are not new, he is not aware that the train of thought and illustration has ever been presented before. So far as this humble and imperfect effort may tend to such a result, his earnest desire has been to exalt and honour the Holy Scriptures, more especially in the estimation of the young. With the fervent prayer to their God and their father's God, that it may be thus directed, he submits it to their attention. Brick Church Chapel, New York. June 1839. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. The use of Oral and Written Language to be attributed to a Supernatural Revelation. The Influence of the Bible upon the Social Institutions. Page. 18 67 101 126 158 183 LECTURE VIII. The Influence of the Bible upon Slavery LECTURE IX. The Influence of the Bible on the Extent and Certainty of LECTURE X. The Pre-eminence of the Bible in producing Holiness and True Religion LECTURE XI. The Pre-eminence of the Bible for the Influences of the Holy Spirit.. LECTURE XII. The Obligations of the World to the Bible for the Sab Page 21 252 276 305 330 THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE WORLD TO THE BIBLE. LECTURE I. THE USE OF ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE TO BE ATTRIBUTED TO A SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. "WHOEVER," says the celebrated Tholuck, "whoever stands on a lofty mountain, should not look merely at the gold which the morning sun pours on the grass and showers at his feet; but he should sometimes also look behind him into the deep valley where the shadows still rest, that he may more sensibly feel that sun is indeed a sun. Thus is it also salutary for the disciple of Christ, at times, from the kingdom of light to cast forth a glance over the dark stage where men play their part in lonely gloom, without a Saviour, without a God!" The inquiry has no doubt often occurred to every reflecting mind, What had the condi |