or rhapsody, or spiritual reverie, or theopathy? Let St. Paul reply; The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can be know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It is a natural inference from this view of the subject, that prayer is of indispensible necessity in read ing the word of God. This is the medium of communication between God and his children, and the support of all the Christian graces. And if our spiritual understanding of the Bible is in proportion to our holiness, it will increase as we become mighty in prayer. Never are the sanctifying influences of the Spirit more powerfully exerted, never are holy emotions more vivid, than when the soul holds secret converse with God.

It is also an obvions consequence of these principles, that the maxim, "that the Bible is to be interpreted like all other human compositions," is not true as commonly understood. The Bible and other books to which its spirit, extends, are conversant with a class of feelings, which occur in no other writings. And any one who would be a complete interpreter of such writings must be able to enter into these feelings; in other words, he must have spiritual understanding. I am aware that I may here be met with charges of mysticism, or of enthusiasm. I may be reminded of the folly of many who bave trusted to an inward light, and have rejected sound criticism and historical interpretation. But such suggestions are harmless. I am not depreciating the value of philological research, nor of historical illustration in the interpretation of the word of God. Let the interpreter of the Bible be fully armed at all points. Let him be able in ima gination to march through the length and breadth of the land where the sacred writer lived; to climb its mountains, trace its rivers, and mark its scenery. Let him be master of 1826 No. 1.

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the history and philosophy of the age. Let him become a Jew in manners, feelings, and associations. Let him know as far as possible the history, genius, and mental characteristics of each of the sacred writers and let him minutely investigate their peculiar modes of expression. In short, let his mind be enriched by all the treasures of oriental literature and science. But is this all Shall the interpreter be qualified to enter into the views and feelings of the sacred writers, merely as men, and not as holy men? Shall he be unable to share those emotions which in their minds ruled with overpowering sway? Shall he not rather enter into their peculiar feelings as those who had been renewed by the Spirit of God? Do not the laws of the buman mind, and the prinsiples of sound interpretation demand it? And will any deny it, except those who deny the sanctifying agency of the Holy Spirit and assert that there is no essential difference between the feelings of the natural and of the spiritual man? But some one may here object, it spiritual understanding, is indispensable to a full perception of the meaning of the Bible, and yet no man has it by nature, how can men be required to understand the word of God, or be criminal for not understanding it, as does the spiritual man? I answer, if men are able to exercise holy feelings, they are able also spiritually to understand the word of God; for, as I have shown, spiritual understanding depends upon nothing else. Whatever inability exists then, is moral and criminal, and it is as proper to exhort sintuers to remove the darkness of their hearts, and to realize the spiritual meaning of the word of God, as it is to exhort them to repent of sin, to love God, and to trust in Ghrist. They are not surrounded by physical darkness like that of Egypt, which they cannot remove, but, as saith the Holy Ghost, their eyes have they closed, and their heart is waxed gross, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their hearts.

One of the greatest dangers which attends the pursuit of Biblical literature arises from a disregard of these principles. Some modern schools of interpreters, especially the German, have produced authors who are indeed learned and often indispensable to the thorough-going student of the Bible. But they are too often ψυχικοι μη έχοντες πνευμα. If correct in their interpretations, they are without any glow of feeling. They see the truth in what Lord Bacon calls a dry light, and of very many of them we must, without any want of catholicism, assert that we have no reason to think them the friends of God. And is there not great danger lest familiar intercourse with such men, should comImunicate to the student the chilly influence of their cold hearts. Even if they were always intellectually correct, it would be a most ruinous calamity, to acquire the habit of viewing the truths of the Bible without emotion. It would induce a bardened speculative correctness. And the expositions of the man who should explain the word of God with intellectual correctness, but at the same time without corresponding feeling, would be powerless in exciting emotion in others. They would be like the rays of the moon upon a surface of ice, though clear yet cold. But the want of spiritual discernment cannot be merely negative in its effects, so long as the inclination of the heart affects the judgement Not only are unsanctified men deficient in t hat tact, which holy feeling wouldgive them, but the moral repulsion of their heart oft turns them aside from the truth, and in fact all the various systems of false doctrine are to be traced to this as a prime cause. The unsanctified heart of man does not love the humiliating truths of the gospel. If it is true that many truths of the Bible are unpleasant to the uusanctified, and

equally pleasant to the sanctified heart, who would most readily fall into St. Paul's mode of thinking and feeling; one who had no relish for the truths which he communicates, and none of his feelings, and none of his desires in view of them, or the man whose heart is in accordance with the whole word of God, and more especially so with that part of it which is most disagreeable to the other? In short who is most likely to evade and misinterpret the truths of the Bible; he who loves or he who hates them?

The habit of interpreting the Bible, without spiritual feelings, tends also to introduce rash and irreverent criticism. If the Bible is regarded merely as a literary production, and its interpretation as merely an intellectual exercise, the mind insensibly acquires a habit of deciding questions without a due sense of their important consequences. If the interpretation of the Bible involved no more serious consequences than that of Homer, a man might be rash and hasty in his assertions, and yet injure nothing except his own reputation. But the decisions of the Bible are decisions for eternity--and on whomsoever this stone shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. How immeasurably dangerous, then, that spirit which can permit a man to dissect the word of God without care or reverence, as the anatomist would dissect a dead body, and to adopt hastily new theories, or new interpretations, of which he has not seen all the bearings. The constant influence of holy feelings is needed as a preventive of these effects, and a balance-wheel in the mind.

I do not, by any thing which I bave said, mean to exclude those books from our libraries which are written by men destitute of spiritual understanding; but I do mean to lift the voice of warning against a danger which is not unreal. He who loses spiritual understanding, in a coume of theological study, will become learned in vain. Habits of devotion, habits of holy sympathy with the word of God, can alone give a warmth, and power to exposition, without which it will be almost useless. And he who, as he studies the word of God critically, does not also study it spiritually, would be in the conference-room, or in the midst of a revival, like an icicle among coals of fire. He who lays aside this armour is as the man who on the day of battle should throw away his sword and helmet, and march unarmed to the encounter.

Too long has the literature of the Bible been in unholy hands. Must the church always depend on infidels, or on unsanctified men, for her interpretation of the Bible? The spirit of the day demands men who shall be wise in all the wisdom of the age, and yet be strong in the

timid mode of investigation would not have elicited. It has sustained the attacks first of open, then of secret infidelity, deriving new strength and new glory from the encounter. And now some one is needed who can take advantage of the past, and, separating the precious from the vile, unite in one harmonious whole the most important results of modern investigations. There remaineth yet much land to be possessed in the regions of biblical interpretation; but let him who enters these regions take to himself the whole armour of God, and let him not attempt to wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, until the selfsame Spirit have taught him to feel its power. D. R

A SERMON. Hebrews ix. 27.

It is an undoubted fact that there

no commentary on all the Bible, written for the purposes of critical and theological study, by a man who united in himself all the requisites of an interpreter. He who should unite the metaphysical skill and fervent piety of Edwards, with the extensive research, and accumulated learning of German scholars, and with prudence and judgement, could write a better commentaryon the Bible than any now in existence. The results of German research are now scattered over a wide field-good is mingled with bad, and truth with falsehood. And the young traveller who attempts to traverse this vast field, before his devotional habits are deeply fixed, and his the ological principles clearly defined, often suffers loss, either in piety, or in principles, or in both. Yet the adventurous and even impious spirit of modern investigation will result finally in good. The word of God has been severely scrutinized, and in the scrutiny, though often audacious and irreverent, many truths have been disclosed which a more

but after this the judgement.

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This passage, though a separate proposition, is a part of an argument; and is not the great point. which the apostle is endeavouring. to establish. His general subject is, the superiority of Christ to the ancient priests and to all other beings; and in this particular part part he is showing that Christ had made one sacrifice which was sufficient.

The sentiment of the text is however no less, but far more impressive perhaps, than if it were an independent subject. The apostle adduces it as a well-known, acknowledged fact, a first principle in religion; and makes it bear upon Lis subject as an illustration. "And as it is appointed," says he, " unto men once to die, but after this the judgement; so Christ was once of fered to bear the sins of many."

We take it then as an establish-i ed fact that "it is appointed unto men once to idie, but after this the judgement;"-established not only by the assertion of the apostle, but by his adducing it in such a

which his heavenly Father orders, confidently believing that they are what he needs. Who should direct these things but he who is governed in all his purposes and actions by infinite wisdom and goodness?

Of God's right to take our lives when he pleases, there can be no dispute. He who gave, has a right to take away. He who committed into our hands talents which were his own, has a right to resume them to himself whenever he pleases, and to call us to give an account of our stewardship.

Il. Let us see what is the occasion, or reason of death. Here again we must resort to revelation. The language of that book is, "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.". Sin then is the grand reason in the divine mind for inflicting death upon our species. As soon as sin had entered into the world, God pronounced the sentence, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return;" and thousands of years have witnessed its faithful execution. One generation of men has passed away and another has come. One man has died in his fall strength being wholly at ease and quiet; another has died in the bitterness of his soul. No sinless being but one ever died; and he not for himself but for others. "He died, the just for the unjust." The dark valley of the shadow of death must be passed therefore by us all, because we all are sinners. The direct tendency of sin is to destroy all happiness. Hence all the calamities which visit our species are brought upon us by reason of sin. All the sufferings in the universe are endured by reason of sin. The miserable beings who inhabit the bottomless pit are placed there by reason of sin; and it is this reason only that prevents them from rising to the seats of blessedness on high. Sin is our worst enemy; and wherever it holds undisputed dominion, it prepares the way for desolation in the most tremendous sense of the

term. From this source come our troubles of various kinds. On this account our peace is disturbed by a thousand intruders; and earth is rendered a place of disquietude and woe. Sin gives to death its principal sting. Without it, death would be but a comfortable passage to glo ry, like the one which Elijah took when he ascended in a chariot of fire to his everlasting rest.

III. The effect of death is the finishing of our probationary state of existence. There is no knowledge, or work, or device, in the grave whither we hasten. While we live we are met by the messenger of God and invited to partake of the blessedness of religion. The calls of the gospel are sounded in our ears. The warnings of God are held up to our view; the invitations of Jesus Christ to the sweetness of forgiving love and to all the consolations of his religion, are urged upon us. We are visited by the gracious influences of the Spirit of God. We are instructed by the Providence of God. We are perpetually reminded that here we have no continuing city; and we are told of that city which God has made eternal and happy above, where we are urged to place our affections. We are constantly reminded in various ways that our breath is in the hands of God, and that he will take it from us when he sees fit; that now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation; that if we refuse to hear the voice that speaks from heaven, we shall hereafter. suffer the consequence of our guilt in the world of retribution. We are constantly reminded that God now deals with us in the way of mercy, whether by prosperity or adversity, that we may be made partakers of his holiness. And every important truth is impressed upon us by a thousand means which God has set in operation.

But when death comes, our ears are closed, and we cannot hear the invitations of the gospel. The voice