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selected from of old the instruments best suited to receive successively the breath of his Spirit. Thus we have in God's great anthem of revelation the sublime simplicity of John; the argumentative, elliptical, soulstirring energy of Paul; the fervor and solemnity of Peter; the poetic grandeur of Isaiah; the lyric moods of David; the ingenuous and majestic narratives of Moses; the sententious and royal wisdom of Solomon. Yes, it was all this-it was Peter, Isaiah, Matthew, John, or Moses: but it was God." "And such ought to be the word of Jehovah-like Immanuel, full of grace and truth-at once in the bosom of God and in the heart of man-powerful and sympathizing-celestial and humanexalted, yet humble-imposing and familiar-God and

man."

But here, gentlemen, a thought comes over me compunctiously. It seems as if we had this evening come, a large party of us, to view a famous palace, and we have stood on the lawn in front, or looked up from the quadrangle, and told its towers and marked its bulwarks, and sketched some of its ornaments; but however commanding the elevation, however graceful the details and various styles, after all, the glory is within. O, my brethren, there is a loveliness even in its letter; but there is life for our souls in its divine significance. Be you not only Bible-visitors but Bible-occupants. That Book which God has made the monument of the great redemption, and where he has put his own perpetual Shekinah, do you choose it as the gymnasium where you may nourish a youth truly sublime; the castle where, in a world of impiety and an age of peril, you may find intrenchment for your faith and protection for your principles; the sanctuary at whose oracle you may find answers to your doubts and light upon your path; the spirit's home, whither your affections shall every day

return, and where your character shall progressively ennoble into a conformity with such a royal residence.

Yes, my dear friends, as a supplement to this lecture, let me entreat you to peruse the Bible itself. With prayer, with expectation, with eyes alert and open, read it; in your most tranquil retirement read it; and when a few of you, who are friends like-minded, come together, read it; search it, sift it, talk about it, talk with it. And as he thus grows mighty in it, I promise to each earnest Bible student among you two rewards-it will make you both a wiser and a holier man.

Wiser: for the sayings of God's word are solid. There is a substance, which you must have noticed, cast on the sea-shore, the medusa, or sea-nettle, as some sorts of it are called; an object rather beautiful as its dome of amber quivers in the sun. And a goodly size it often is so large at times that you could scarcely lift it: but it is all a watery pulp, and if you were carrying it home or trying to preserve it, the whole mass would quickly trickle out of sight and leave you nothing but a few threads of substance. Now, most books are like the marine medusa; fresh stranded, "just published”— as the expression is-they make a goodly show; but when a few suns have shone on them, the crystal jelly melts, the glittering cupola has vanished, and a few meager fibers in your memory are all the residue of the once popular authorship. If you ever tried it you must have been struck with the few solid thoughts, the few suggestive ideas, which survive from the perusal of the most brilliant of human books. Few of them can stand three readings; and of the memorabilia which you had marked in your first perusal, on reverting to them you find that many of them are not so striking, or weighty, or original as you thought. But the word of God is solid; it will stand a thousand readings, and the man

who has gone over it the most frequently and the most carefully, is the surest of finding new wonders there. And just as the pearls of Scripture retain their intrinsie worth; as, notwithstanding the frowsy head-gear they have garnished, the dull discourses they have adorned, they beam brighter than ever when the hand of a Vinet, or Chalmers, or Hall has arranged them anew into a coronet of sanctified taste and genius: so he among sages is the wealthiest man who has detected, and appropriated, and thoroughly possessed himself of the largest number of Bible sayings-the merchantman who, seeking goodly pearls, has sought them on this exhaustless strand.

And holier: for, though we have this evening spoken of the Bible very much as if it were a human book, you can not be long versant with it till you find that it is something more. Like Tabor, it is a "mountain apart." Among the books of this world it is isolated, unique, peculiar; and the farther up you get, the more acquainted you become with human books, and the more along side of them you study the book of God, the more amazed will you be at its outstanding elevation, its world-topping pre-eminence. And just as in scaling a high mountain it needs no chemistry to analyze the air and tell the pilgrim that it is free from miasma and impurities; as every breath which paints a purer crimson on his cheek and sends a tonic tide through all his suppling frame would tell its salubrity: so it needs no argument, no analysis, to persuade a spiritual mind that the air of heaven, the breath of God, is here. In his holier feelings as he reads, in the godly zeal and joyful strenuousness which requite each mounting footstep, with instinct sure his regenerate nature hails the congenial inspiration. And just as on Tabor's summit, when from heaven saints in snowy garments came down, and from Christ his own

glory came through, it needed no refracting prism or condensing lens to assure them that it was a body of more than earthly brightness which they were gazing upon: so, my dear friends, when a text is transfigured, when the Holy Spirit in the word lets out his grace and glory, it will need no Paley nor Butler to prove that the wisdom and the power of God are there, but, radiant with emitted splendor, and dazzling your admiring eyes, in God's own light you will see it to be God's own word. Nor can I wish for you a better wish than that thus you may be often surprised and overwhelmed. Yes, dear brethren, in the very midst of this noisy capital, and in the meridian of this man-wasting, money-making age, may you often find your Sabbath, and your place of prayer, and your Bible, a mountain apart!" In blissful bewilderment may you forget the fascinations of earth and the pleasures of sin, and only wake up to find yourself alone with the Master! And none shall less grieve than he who has this evening addressed you, if the literary attractions of the book be thus merged and superseded in charms more spiritual, in attractions which, if they draw you to the Bible, will also draw you at last to heaven.

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SELECT LECTURES.

V.

The Instincts of Industry.

BY REV. SAMUEL MARTIN.

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

IN EXETER HALL, LONDON,

FEBRUARY 11, 1851.

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