provement with which he is entrusted, all occasion a variety of judgment on some of the declarations of God's will, both in the book of nature and the book of grace-but none prevent the operation of truth, the obligation of conscience, the main and commanding discoveries of the divine glory which are made. Nay, the very diversities of interpretation on minor details, prove the integrity of the inquirers, the independence of mind with which they have sought truth, and the sincerity of the faith with which they embrace the Christian Revelation.

For these interpretations FALL FOR THE MOST PART ON SUBORDINATE MATTERS, and merely serve as a wholesome exercise of humility towards God, and forbearance and kindness towards man. What have the diversities of opinion as to the discipline of churches done, but set various bodies of Christians to work with redoubled activity, to prosecute with warmer zeal one great object? And even the differences of interpretation on the fundamental doctrines of Revelation, affect not the doctrines themselves, but some circumstances, some particular uses or inferences from them, whilst the capital points remain untouched.

And the remaining evils of these different interpretations may be DIMINISHED AND AVOIDED IN PRACTICE, if the Scriptures be

studied with adequate humility; if the main doctrines and duties of Christianity are kept prominently in view; if the heart be faithful to the love of a crucified Saviour. A practical use of the most disputed texts may be readily found, from the design of the sacred penman; whilst the very diversities are calls for further improvement, larger measures of attention and prayer, growing acquaintance, by the comparison of different proposals and opinions, with the amplitude and virtue of the word of God.

And, after all, the UNIVERSAL CHURCH

HAS PRESENTED BUT ONE FRONT OF TRUTH

TO MANKIND. Controversies have been temporary; new and strange interpretations have seldom outlived the age which gave them birth; differences of judgment have been conciliated. In the mean time, the whole body of sincere and devout Christians—those who really receive the Christian Revelation-have presented one unvaried front of commanding truth ; they have expounded the Scriptures in one way; they have spoken one language; they have been animated with one love to their God and their fellow-creatures, for God's sake; they have found the book of inspiration, emanating from the fountain of wisdom, respond to the language of their wants, fulfil the urgency of

their desires; and supply all the direction and joy needful for them on their way to heaven.

The whole objection, in short, is frivolous: it first misunderstands the facts, and then magnifies them; and then argues falsely from them. No; there are no differences of interpretation as to main points of the divine Records; and the diversities that do exist on less particulars, are as the dust of the balance, or the moats in the sunbeam, compared with the grand, controlling, divine discoveries of salvation to ruined man.

But we hasten to apply for an instant the whole subject to ourselves. The real question is, What kind of faith is it that we repose in the Holy Scriptures? OUR INTERPRETATION WILL

PARTAKE OF THE NATURE OF THE FAITH

FROM WHICH IT SPRINGS. Every man is an interpreter of Scripture-not in public, perhaps, --but to his own heart, to his children, to his family. And every one interprets according to the moral and religious state of his mind. This divides the readers of the Bible into two grand classes; those who have a true and living faith, the operation of grace-and those who have only a dead and speculative assent, the produce of mere unassisted nature.

THE VITAL CHRISTIANITY OF THE HEART

CAN ALONE interpret aright, because it reads with faith, it reads with genuine submission of soul, it reads with an honest desire to know the will of God, it reads with some experience of the blessings treated of, it reads with prayer for the Holy Spirit. This kind of Christianity can employ aright the various rules of ordinary language, under the guidance of plain sense. This kind of Christianity can be aided by the suggestions we have offered on the peculiar character of inspiration attached to the Christian records. But A MERELY NOMINAL AND SPECULATIVE Christianity can do nothing as an interpreter of the divine word. It may discuss some incidental matters, arrange historical testimonies, settle a genealogy, argue a various reading; but what can it make of the infinitely momentous discoveries of Revelation which faith alone can receive and apply? This Chris

tianity wants not an interpreter, but conversion; not direction, but life; not the common aids of literary remark, but the transcendent helps of the Holy Spirit.

WHAT, THEN, IS YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THE HOLY BOOK? Tell me its nature, and I will tell you what your faith is, and what the state of the mind in which that faith resides.

But the case is plain. Multitudes of professed Christians read the Bible with a veil

upon their hearts. They see, but perceive not; they read, but understand not; they hear, but they comprehend not. The defect is not in the object, but the faculty; not in the book of God, but in the will of man; not in the smaller errors of interpretation, but in the want of the first elements and materials of religious perception.

Let each one, then, who is conscious that he has never understood his Bible--that it has been as a sealed book-that its mysteries have been a stumbling block, and its doctrines as foolishness to him-HUMBLE HIMSELF BEFORE THE THRONE OF MERCY, AND IMPLORE THE GRACE OF THE ILLUMINATING SPIRIT; let him seek that aid which removes impediments and obstacles from the mind; which changes the heart; which abases the soul under a sense of sin, and elevates it with the hope of pardon in Jesus Christ. Then all will be clear. Interpretation will become, as I before observed, rather intuition than reasoning. All the mysteries of salvation will lie open in their practical use to his eager view; the import and force of every part of Scripture will commend itself to his conscience; the inward possession of the blessings treated of will correspond with the description of them, as the impression on the softened wax answers to the seal; and diversi