variety of light, and examples under every diversity of circumstances.

It is a great mistake to think that any part of divine truth should be omitted. The passages which are supposed to be the darkest, are made sufficiently clear in their general design by judicious interpreters. But even if their bearing towards the persons and events to which they chiefly refer were not clearly discerned, their practical bearing towards us is never doubtful. The particular events to which prophecy refers may require an interpreter, but the moral lessons which it inculcates, and the view of the divine character which it exhibits, require none. A humble and patient study of prophecy, attended with much prayer, not neglecting the best human help, would not only be beneficial, to the Christian himself, but would check the rise of many of those pernicious errors and extravagant fancies, which, upon this subject especially, from time to time, infest the Church of Christ.

XI. Great is the power of the Christian ministry, if rightly used, in all things that pertain to life and godliness, and not least in repressing the growth of heresies. Ministers have but to ask for the prayers of the believing part of their congregation, and surely they will have them; and if they have them, they will have the large aid of the divine Spirit also. Accompanied with a divine energy, the word of

God is made widely effectual to the conversion of sinners, and opens its inexhaustible treasury for the supply of the wants of all believers. The great aim of the Christian teacher should be, to make his scholars acquainted with the general scope of the whole Bible, and to make them intelligent readers of it at home. This seems the essential part of Christian instruction; whatever can be added to this is highly desirable, though not so imperatively necessary; and the minute explanation and enforcement of particular passages will be most advantageous to those who are already furnished with a general comprehension of the Scriptures.

There is one temptation which besets those who have often and clearly preached the Gospel; a weariness of repeating the same truth, day after day, and year after year, and frequently too with little visible effect. They think if they could vary their discourses they would make more impression upon their hearers; and accordingly the Gospel is thrown into the back ground, and in some discourses altogether omitted. The resolution of the apostle is a necessary one for all who have to speak to perishing sinners; to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. The more variety with the Gospel, and the less variety without it, the better. There is no theme throughout the whole of existence, where Christ, the creator of all worlds, and the

Redeemer of our lost race, may not with propriety hold a conspicuous place.

Another error, still more hurtful and objectionable, consists in laying aside a doctrine for a time, which happens to be peculiarly patronized by some who are esteemed heretical. The very contrary is, no doubt, the course which good sense would recommend; the more a doctrine is perverted, the more need it has of being frequently placed in its proper light. If the freeness of the Gospel be exaggerated, and placed in an absurd point of view, the more need there is that the infinite freeness of the Gospel should be clearly and Scripturally maintained. If a spurious assurance of faith is gaining ground, the more necessary it is to point out on what grounds Scriptural assurance is founded.

XII. One great origin of heresies is the pretension to novelty. Now, it is impossible that there can be any thing new in the essentials of religion. Whosoever is saved, is saved by believing the same fundamental truths, from the days of the apostles to the end of the world. The only place where novelty can be admitted is in the illustration or application of these truths; for as these truths are facts relating to the divine government, they are as boundless and endless in their influence as space and eternity, they are possessed of infinite variety, and allow of endless discovery.

Since the truths by which each believer is saved

are for ever the same, this identity of religious views dissuades us from cherishing any peculiar notions of our own, and urges us to maintain the same leading doctrines, and to hold fast the form of sound words, which are common to all good men, whether alive or dead, whether intimately connected with us, or removed far from us in all other views and sentiments, except those which relate to eternal life.

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Our belief is, indeed, not to rest upon the opinions of fallible men, but upon the sure word of God. Yet, in casting off human authority, a great and absurd mistake is too frequently made. independent seeker after truth judges rightly that all men are fallible. Unfortunately, without perceiving it, he makes an exception in favour of himself. He thinks his opinions must be right, because he took them wholly from the Bible; and because he despises all human authority, he forgets that there is the same cause for his seeing the truths of the Bible through a discoloured medium, as for other men; his understanding is naturally as dark, and his heart as corrupt, as that of the divines and commentators whose interpretation he rejects. One great use of consulting commentators is this, that all minds are liable to error, but not equally to the same errors. Thus, the ray of truth is refracted as it enters, through the dusky medium of the mind of man; but different minds having

different refractive powers, we can so adjust them as to countervail the defects of our own peculiar vision, and behold correctly the distant objects which revelation discovers, and form a correct outline of the remote, though rapidly approaching realities of eternity.

XIII. But to unite with all good men, we must join with them in heart as well as understanding, and for this we need the Spirit of life and love to be poured out abundantly upon us. None are so richly furnished with Christian gifts and graces as to be able to stand alone, and unconnected with others, without much loss both to their usefulness and to their advancement in the spiritual life. The Holy Spirit does not merely impart his gifts to the children of men, he divides them severally to whom he will, and it is only by the united exercise of these divided gifts that all the mighty advantages to be derived from them can be reaped. It is a harvest which must be collected for the public benefit before it can be individually appropriated. Without the teaching of the Spirit, not only will Christian gifts languish, because cultivated in the case of each individual only by himself, and for himself, but the clearest understanding, even when put in possession of the truth, will retain but a cold and moonlight view of it. Distinct it may be in its dark outlines, but not represented in all its diversity and life, unless the divine Teacher, who