transcribed the precepts and example of the Lord Jesus into every part of your daily deportment in life."

"This should be the last dying advice, I say, which I would give to the tenderest friend I have on earth. I will therefore say to each one of you, my beloved brethren, READ YOUR BIBLES,' and read till you love to read. Pray daily over them, and pray till you love to pray. When the Scriptures and Prayer become delightful, and the time spent therein seems soon expired, then may you humbly suppose that you have made some proficiency in the divine life. But, if you can pass whole days together without refreshing your soul with some portion of the Holy Writings; if you feel yourselves cold, remiss, and negligent in private prayer; or if, when you read the Scriptures, and retire for devotion, you have little or no taste for the divine employment, but it appears irksome and disagreeable, you may be equally assured, let your professions be what they may, and the sermons you hear ever so numerous, or ever so excellent, that your soul is wholly dead to things divine, or that you are altogether in a backsliding and dangerous condition."

Lastly, I can here imagine many of you to say, "I have no time for this employment." My brethren, suffer me to relate to you narratives of

two humble and homely individuals, who, in this respect, may be examples to us all.

I have read an account of an aged man named Willis, a labourer, who had devoted almost every hour that could be spared from his labour, during the course of a long life, for he was eighty-one when he died, to the devout and serious perusal of the Holy Scriptures. He had read, with the most minute attention, the Old and New Testaments eight times over, and had proceeded as far as the book of Job, in his ninth reading, when his pious meditations were terminated by death.*

A still more excellent account we have in a small tract called "The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which is, like the above, not a fiction, but a true narrative of real facts. This excellent man's name, I believe, was Johnson, and he gave the following account of himself:-"Blessed be God," said he, "through His mercy I learned to read when a boy, and I believe there is no day for the last thirty years that I have not looked into my Bible. If we cannot find time to read a Chapter, I defy any man to say he cannot find time to read a Verse; and a single text, well followed and put in practice for a day, will give us a great treasure at the year's end-three

* Gent. Mag. for June, 1798.

hundred and sixty-five texts, without the loss of any time, would make indeed a valuable stock, a golden treasury, from one new year's day to another; and if children were brought up to it, they would soon learn to look for their texts as naturally as they do for their meals.

I can say the greatest part of the Bible by heart. I have led but a lonely life, and have often had but little to eat; but my Bible has been meat, and drink, and company to me-and when want and trouble have come upon me, I know not what I should have done, if I had not had all the gracious promises of this blessed book for my stay and support.'

My dearly beloved brethren, let no man hereafter pretend he cannot find time to read the Scriptures. Every person has abundant leisure for the purpose. Find but inclination and you

will soon find time. The example of these two poor, homely, humble-minded, and excellent men is, in my estimation, more admirable than that of half of the Kings, or Heros, or Statesmen, or Geniuses, that ever lived. I will only say, and you may believe that I say it from my heart, may God Almighty give each one of you His Grace to go and do likewise.

LECTURE VI.

THE HYMNS.

Colossians, iii. 16.

LET THE WORD OF CHRIST DWELL IN YOU RICHLY IN ALL WISDOM : TEACHING AND ADMONISHING ONE ANOTHER IN PSALMS, AND HYMNS, AND SPIRITUAL SONGS; SINGING WITH GRACE IN YOUR HEARTS TO THE LORD.

In one or two previous discourses, my brethren, I have said how much the language of Praise is suited to the service of the Sanctuary, and how Christians, in all ages, have continued to make the singing of Psalms and Hymns a very material part of their religious worship.

The service of the Church, as I have already observed, principally consists of Prayer, of Praise, of Thanksgiving, and of hearing God's word.

After each of the daily Lessons has been finished a Hymn is appointed to be "sung or said," and for the following reasons-partly,

that we may pour forth to God all the varied feelings of a religious and thankful heart at the remembrance of all the gracious blessings which He has promised us in those Scriptures which we have just heard partly, that the Service may be varied and relieved by the change from Prayer and religious Instruction to the exercise of Praise; and partly, because it has been the custom of the Christian Church to use Hymns of this kind from the earliest ages in its worship of God and of His Christ.

Accordingly, the Church has provided us with two Hymns to be used after each Lesson both in the Morning and Evening Service-making eight in all. They usually go under their

Latin names of the "Te Deum," the "Benedicite," the "Benedictus," the "Jubilate, Jubilate," the

66

Magnificat," the "Cantate," the "Nunc Dimittis," and the "Deus Misereatur,"-so called, because such is the beginning of each of these Hymns in the Latin version. All these, with the exception of the two first, are taken from the Scriptures, and are therefore extremely suitable for us to use in the worship of God. To direct your attention, my brethren, to these very ancient, holy, and most scriptural compositions, to inform you of several particulars relating to them, and to induce you to join both "with the

K