the visions of God, he might learn the true dimensions of man Let any man of ordinary intelligence be thoroughly initiated into the great things of this book, and it shall be the best possible guaranty, that his estimate of all other things will be correct; to borrow the phraseology of Chalmers, he can never more forget the relative proportion of two magnitudes the littleness of time, the greatness of eternity.

The constant reading of this book cannot fail to form a true taste, because it cannot fail to inspire a love of truth and beauty-a real heart-felt appreciation of the sublime and beautiful both in nature and art. And this taste, if early formed, becomes an effectual safe-guard against all false, meretricious writings. If you educate your child so as to give him an early fondness for such models of poetic art as the Iliad or Paradise Lost, there is not much danger that he will acquire a relish for trash and bombast. Even so it is with a mind, early imbued with admiration for the Bible as a model of classic beauty. In correcting the judgment and elevating the taste, a constant study of the Bible has much of the same effect on the mind, as that which would be produced by an observation of the works of nature and art in all lands. It is, as if one had become a universal traveller—had seen man in all his moods, nature in all her aspects, grandeur in its most stately steppings, and beauty in her loveliest charms. Yes, of all books, the Bible is the truest Cosmos. And of all students, the Bible student is the most thorough cosmopolite. Its variety is endless. Its scenes and characters are diversified and infinite, like the universe.

In illustration of this boundless variety of subjects contained in the Bible, the following words of Mrs. Ellis, at once comprehensive and glowing with the poetry of real life, may be cited: "From the worm that grovels in the dust beneath our feet, to

the Leviathan in the foaming deep; from the moth that corrupts the secret treasure, to the eagle that soars above his eyrie in the clouds; from the ass in the desert, to the lamb within the shepherd's fold; from the consuming locust, to the cattle upon a thousand hills; from the rose of Sharon, to the cedar of Lebanon ; from the crystal stream gushing forth out of the flinty rock, to the wide waters of the deluge; from the lonely path of the wanderer, to the gathering of a mighty multitude; from the tear that falls in secret, to the din of battle and the shout of a triumphant host; from the mourner clad in sackcloth, to the prince in purple robes; from the gnawings of the worm that dieth not, to the seraphic visions of the blest; from the still voice of conscience, to the thunders of Omnipotence; from the depths of hell, to the regions of eternal glory; there is no degree of beauty or deformity, no tendency to good or evil, no shade of darkness or gleam of light which does not come within the cognizance of the Holy Scriptures; and therefore, there is no expression or conception of the mind that may not find a corresponding picture; no thirst for excellence that may not meet with its full supply, and no condition of humanity necessarily excluded from the unlimited scope of adaption and sympathy comprehended in the language and spirit of the Bible."

Are we not then authorized in saying of the Bible, that besides all its other uses, it is entitled to the place of preeminence amongst books, as being the great treasure-house of thought and the great model of classic beauty-the most wonderful and perfect work of taste and genius which has ever appeared amongst men? Call it what you will, a Divine revelation, or a human production-an inspiration from God, or an inspiration of genius; still it must be admitted to be the most remarkable book in the world, and to exhibit the most remarkable

achievement, that has ever been made by man, or for man, in his advance towards perfection. On this point, however, we find an ample solution. We hold it to be the greatest of classics, because it is inspired of God-the most perfect work of the human mind, because a mind more than human is everywhere at work in it. "Thy testimonies are wonderful."

III. THE BIBLE ADAPTED TO CHILDHOOD.

It is worthy of remark, and it should be to all parents an instructive fact, that there is a sort of development and progress in the Sacred Scriptures, corresponding to the development and progress of human life. The world has had its periods of infancy, childhood, and youth, prior to full maturity. Every individual of our race has the same corresponding periods. And, answering to these, the Bible history may be said to have its several periods of infancy, childhood, and youth. The New Testament, with its sublime Gospel history, its profound doctrinal Epistles, and its mysterious prophetic Apocalypse, is but the finishing of that intellectual and moral manhood, which is supposed to have had its early education in the preparatory school of the Old Testament.

The composition of the different books of Scripture extended through fifteen centuries. The Bible, in the order of its formation, seems to be exactly adapted to life in the order of its advancement. And if so, it would appear reasonable, that every individual should follow that order in the study of it, which its great author adopted in giving it to the world. In order then, that a man may be able fully to understand and appreciate the New Testament, he must have read the Old; and not only

have read it, but, what is the all important and instructive fact, he must have read it in his youth--known it like Timothy from his very childhood. If he has failed to read it at that period of life, for which God seems to have expressly designed it, he has lost an advantage which it is almost impossible ever to regain. He has lost, indeed, what no subsequent reading or knowledge of it can ever give him—the impressions of childhood, all those peculiarly vivid and ineffaceable impressions which the Bible never fails to make upon every child who reads it aright. And there is scarcely anything which we receive in childhood, which a man might not better afford to lose. With no remembrances of the Bible, coming up fresh from the fountains of his childhood, in all his subsequent reading, he finds himself in the condition of an old man with an uncultivated memory, sitting down to the task of learning a new language. If we would acquire the knowledge of new languages with facility, we must do it in early life; we must, at least, lay a foundation for it, by studying the grammar in childhood and youth. In an important sense, the Old Testament history is the grammar, by which we must learn the language of the whole Bible. There are some books which we are all accustomed to read in our childhood, if we ever read them at all. They have not much attraction for us, unless we read them as children; and then, they never lose their charm. We can read them with fresh interest even down to old age; just because, having first read them at the proper season, we live over again in each perusal all the impressions of our childhood and youth.

Even so it is with the Bible, especially with those narrative portions of the Old Testament, which no child can read without wonder and delight, and which none that reads can ever forget. Every return to them in subsequent life, will be like

going back to the home of our childhood after years of absence, to renew our youthful sports and pleasures in that quiet valley, or on that river's bank, or beneath that humble roof, where first we saw the light. Indeed, we have no hesitation in saying, that the best possible preparation for a full understanding and appreciation of the Scriptures, in the years of our maturity, is, that like Timothy we should have known them from our childhood.

Have you never observed with what difficulty an old man, unacquainted with the Bible in his youth, is induced to read the Old Testament regularly through? Have you ever seen the experiment of a first reading, made by one who has long cherished skeptical opinions? Take a man of strong common sense, well-educated as to other books, but ignorant of the Bible, and induce him, if you can, to read it for the first time. Suppose him unacquainted even with the New Testament; and now, at your request, he sits down to the task of reading the Old Testament regularly from the beginning. What is the result? In all probability, before he reaches the end of Genesis, he will close the book in utter incredulity and disgust. He cannot understand it. He sees no beauty in it. He abandons the task in despair. No; that will not do for him. With him you must try a different method. He has been too long mingling as an actor, in the daily affairs of our present busy world, to be placed back so far, and so suddenly, into that wonderful world of the past. Had he been a boy of twelve or sixteen years, he would have read on, allured and absorbed by those stupendous scenes which have so repelled and disgusted him as a man. The very things which so offend him as a rationalist, and an infidel, would have charmed him most as a child.