biography of holy men, because even an unsanctified man can here exercise his sympathies. He can calculate chronology, expound prophecies, illustrate manners and customs, and historical allusions, for here intellect merely is concerned. He can also admire the beauties of poetry, and descant upon its rhetorical decorations But there are parts of the Bible, and those of great extent, which to him are without form and void-upon which darkness rests, and with which no feeling of his soul accords. These are spiritual parts, which are not discerned by the eye of the natural man. But let the work of the Spirit commence in this man, let him feel his sinfulness, and his exposure to the wrath of God-he may have believed them before, but now let him feel them, and let fear and trembling take hold on him as a mighty man— upon what class of passages will divine illumination now fall? He opens his Bible, and all those passages which express the feelings of a soul bowed down with a sense of sin, and terrified with anticipations of coming wrath, meet his eye, and thrill through his soul. What Christian, who has ever felt the Wormwood and the gall, does not remember this hour? When the word of God became indeed quick and powerful, and the arrows of the Almighty pierced his spirit. The sinner now sees in passages long familiar, a new and unutterable power. They pierce even to the dividing asuuder of soul and spirit, and search the secret thoughts and intents of his heart, and he wonders by what delusion all these things have been before concealed from his vision. In some parts, the Bible seems no longer a dead letter, it glows with the freshness of novelty, and speaks with the authority of God. But has the Bible changed; or does the heart of the sinner for the first time swell with the fellings therein recorded? Yet at this stage of his progress, the illumination of

the word of God is still incomplete. Though the sinner can sympathize entirely with passages which describe the existing feelings of his soul, yet with those which speak of the emotions of him who is born of God, he has no sympathy. Upon them the veil still remains untaken away. But while the sinner fears and trembles under a sense of the wrath of God, when the law has done its work, and his hopes from himself are slain, let Him who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shine into his heart, and give him the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as it shines in the face of Christ Jesus; let old things pass away, and let all things become new; let repentance, and faith, and love, by turns rule in his soul, and let him rejoice in Christ with joy unspeakable and full of glory; and immediately a new class of passages is illuminated with spiritual light. He has felt the loveliness of the Saviour, and the infinite mercy of God manifested in his atoning sacrifice, and now he recognises with sympathetic delight, those expressions of ardent love to the Saviour with which the pages of the scriptures abound. They shine with heavenly splendour, and glitter before him like gems, so that he rejoices in them more than in gold, yea, than in much fine gold, and his heart burns within him as the glories of the Son of God illumine his soul. The testimony of Edwards, that devoted servant of God, concerning his own experience, is exactly in point. He says. "Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading; often dwelling long on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders."

Again, he says of himself, "On one Saturday night in particular, I had such a discovery of the excellency of the gospel above all other doctrines, that I could not but say to myself, This is my chosen light, my chosen doctrine,' and of Christ, This is my chosen prophet.' It appeared sweet beyond all expression, to follow Christ, and to be taught and enlivened and instructed by him; to learn of him and to live to him." If, in this state of mind, he had opened the word of God, how would such passages as hese have caused his heart to glow with holy sympathy! "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” "Whom, not having seen, we love, and in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." And in every part of a Christian's experience, as feelings of any par ticular class glow in his heart, he has the spiritual key of a corresponding class of passages in the Bible: and as the Bible was written by men of all ranks of society, and who passed through all the vicissitudes of providence to which men are subject, it is of course a very extensive record of feeling, and in proportion as the experience of a Christian enlarges, he is surprised and delighted to find something in the Bible to correspond with every state of feeling, the beauty and richness of which he would never have known, had not the providence of God placed him in circumstances which excited corresponding emotions. In sorrow, or in sickness, when persecuted or slandered, when in doubt or in darkness, he turns to the word of God, and finds that the children of God who have gone be fore him, had been in the same circumstances, and as he reads the pious effusions of their souls before

God, he sympathizes with them and is comforted.

If it should here be said, that particular feelings may often lead a man to adopt language apparently applicable to them, but in reality spoken in a different state of mind, and for a different purpose, I grant the truth of the remark. But it does not interfere with what I have said. It merely shows that the existence of feeling in addition to its effect in enabling a man to understand those passages, where the same feeling is really described, has also the power of causing a man to adopt language as applicable to his feelings, which was in reality intended for another purpose. Now if this be a defect, it can be corrected by an increase of intellectual light; whereas if the feeling be absent, although it should be true that a man will not commit this fault, it is equally true that he cannot sympathize with those passages where feeling is really expressed. Nor can any increase of knowledge, enable him to do this.

The same principle extends to the writings and conversation of pious men. Whence is that mysteterious union of soul which enables Christians wherever they meet, to speak and to understand a common language? It is the harmony of holy feeling. What is that which chills the warmth of the heart, and checks all freedom of conversation, when the holy heart would communicate to the unsanctified its sacred joys, and heavenly communion? On all other subjects they can sympathize, and converse freely; but here oue heart glows with feelings unfelt by the other, and silence ensues. Why are diaries of eminently pious men, so barren of interest; nay, why are they so disgusting to the unsanctified world? Why do infidels and Unitarians, and all who are unholy, so often ridicule the pious effusions of such men as Edwards, and Brainerd? Why do they call them cant,

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 reading 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 obvious 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 have 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 imaginafon 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.

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 human mind, and the principles 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 dif ference between the feelings of the natural and of the spiritual man? But some one may here object, if 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 sinners 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 Christ. They are not surrounded by physical darkness like that of Egypt, which they cannot removė, 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 communicate 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 hardened 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 that tact, which holy feel ing 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 unsanctified, 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. 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.

But

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 en

counter.

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 Lord, and in the power of his might. It is an undoubted fact that there is 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 theological 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

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 arinour of God, and let him not attempt to wield he sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, until the selfsame Spirit bave taught him to feel its power. D. R.

A SERMON. Hebrews ix. 27.

It is appointed unto men once to die,

but after this the judgement.

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 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 his subject as an illustration. as it is appointed," says he, “unto men once to die, but after this the judgement; 80 Christ was once of" fered to bear the sins of many."

"And

We take it then as an established fact that "it is appointed untó, 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