phecies were written hundreds of years before our

Lord Christ came.

tell future events.

God only could foresee and fore

God has manifestly done so in the Old Testament, respecting Christ Jesus: here is one proof that it is the word of God.

Look again at another class of men in the world. You see millions of human beings professing to be CHRISTIANS. Christianity spreads over the most civilized and intelligent part of our globe. Whence did this arise? The gospels and the Acts of the Apostles show you. They tell you of mighty MIRACLES, worthy of the glorious God, obvious to all, done in the broad day, before many thousands of witnesses, and such as their very senses made evident; and of Christianity being founded on these wonderful facts. These miracles prove that the Bible is the word of God, and the very existence of Christianity proves the miracles.

Look at a still larger class of men, THE UNCONVERTED NATIONS of the earth; and see how the want of the Bible is attended with innumerable evils. Among the heathen, where no ray of revealed light shines, the most debasing idolatry, licentiousness, cruelty, and wickedness prevail. Among the Mahomedans, or followers of the false prophet Mahomet, but feeble remnants of revealed truth are left, and there despotism, oppression, and many abominable vices, mark their condition. In those lands where the mild, and kind, and purifying principles of the Bible are unknown, there invariably are, the greatest darkness as to the future state of man, the deepest degradation of women, and the most entire neglect of the poor. The system of other religions is a system of vice;-all manner of iniquity is sanctioned by

false religions. If the light that is in them be darkness, how great must that darkness be! But the Bible denounces the most awful threatenings against all wickedness, and if Christians sin, they sin not according to their religion, but in spite of it. Just in proportion as the Bible is received and followed, just so much are the fruits of righteousness yielded by men, to the glory of God and the good of their fellow

men.

These things, with much more that might be said, unite with one voice to testify that the Bible comes from God.

You may, however, each for yourselves, put the important fact, that the Bible is the word of God, to this very plain and simple test or trial. Read it daily, with much prayer to God, to teach you and sanctify you by it, and see if you do not become quite another man, born again through the word, and sanctified by the truth. God thus gives men experimental conviction of its power. Again, the Bible is full of gracious promises, to be fulfilled even in this life, to those who use the appointed means. Try the truth of those promises. God says, Ask, and you shall have; seek, and you shall find.—He will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask. Perseveringly pray for the Holy Spirit, and you shall receive that Spirit, obtain the gift of saving faith, and have inward witness that the Bible is the word of God.

Should you be tempted, on opening the Bible, to imagine that God would speak to you in some other way, or tell you some other thing than he has told you, look at the visible creation; look at what you see with your eyes and hear with your ears, and witness all around you-are there not difficulties in

natural things and in the daily course of the world, similar to those which you find in revealed things? Do you not frequently meet with things for which you cannot account, and yet must believe? Have you not often to acquire your knowledge in ways that you think at first difficult, and which are contrary to your preconceived ideas? Shall the little child set up its own notions against the experienced parent? Trust God, till you have, with deep reverence and in prayer, and according to his directions, diligently searched his word. You will, after doing this, obtain complete conviction that there are no real difficulties to hinder your believing the all-important fact that the Bible is the word of God; that there is the fullest satisfaction of mind in receiving it as such, and in forming all your principles and regulating all your conduct by this blessed and holy

volume.

Meditation.

O wonderful Book! the Book of Books! does God, the great Creator and Lord of all, condescend to speak to me! Is this his own word which he sends to show me himself, the work which he would have me to do, and the way to attain his favour! With what diligence, with what reverence, should I read its sacred pages! How thankful ought I to be for so rich a blessing! What an unspeakable advantage to have such a means of knowing my God, such an infallible test of all human sentiments, and such a sure discovery to me of every thing that is most important for me to know! All glory, all praise be to my heavenly Father, for this lamp to my feet, and this light to my path!

2. WHAT THE BIBLE CONTAINS.

It is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testament (2 Cor. iii. 6—14). They are called Old and New, for the purpose of distinguishing the time when those parts were written; the Old being written before the coming of Christ, and the New since his death. Testament means a will; and viewed as a will, the Bible is full of gifts and blessings confirmed to believers by the death of the Testator.

There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, and twenty-seven in the New. They were written at different times, by different inspired writers. Both Testaments begin with historical books, and then follow doctrinal and practical books, and both conclude with prophecies.

The first five books were chiefly written by Moses. They are the most ancient books in the world, being written above three thousand years since. The names of the writers of some of the historical books of the Old Testament are not certainly known. Most of the other books were written by the persons whose names they bear, or to whom they are usually ascribed, and the whole sacred volume was completed about one thousand seven hundred years since. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews, and the New Testament in Greek, the most generally known language when it was written. There have been from a very early age translations of the bible into other languages, and this has greatly helped to preserve the whole sacred volume in its purity to this day. Our present English bible was translated out of the Hebrew and Greek languages

in the reign of our king James the First, and was published in 1611. The bible, in all or in part, has been translated into nearly one hundred and sixty different languages, the chief known languages of the earth.

The bible contains the history of man, from his creation to the end of the world, either by relating what is past, or by foretelling what is to come.

It begins with the creation of our first parents in the likeness of God, holy and happy-their fall from that happy state-the promise of the Redeemer-the sinfulness of the human race-their destruction by the deluge the preservation of Noah, and the new world's again falling away-the confusion of their tongues, and their being scattered abroad over the earth.

It then shews the call of Abraham, and the separation of a peculiar race as the depositories of the true religion, and the people from whom the Redeemer was to come. The history of this people takes up the largest part of the history of the Old Testament; and in their experience we have a full developement of what man is, and what God iswhat our duties are, and what our hopes are-what God will do for those who seek him, and how he will punish those who disobey him.

But chiefly there is set before us continually the great truths of our redemption, and full accounts of the person, life, character, sufferings, and glory of the divine Redeemer.

The New Testament continues this glorious theme; containing four histories of the life of our Saviour, in the four gospels,— -an account of the outpouring of the divine Spirit, and the commencement of the