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Father, and from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

These are lofty pretensions, and unless they are sustained, the book and its authors are worthy of infinite contempt and abhorrence. It is a natural impossibility that the evidence by which such claims are established, should be of doubtful character. If at any time the sun shall rise at midnight, we shall certainly know it by the testimony of not a few wakeful men. We shall hear none who were fully awake and of sound mind, disputing whether the alleged wonder was truly the sun, or one of the inferior planets shining in its borrowed light.

Or, shall one succeed in palming off on you the portrait of some stupid brute, as the portrait of one of the wisest and noblest of men? Not surely while you possess the faculties that are necessary to the recognition of the lines of intelligence, goodness, and humanity, as they manifest themselves in the expression and features of the countenance of man.

We must expect that the evidence for or against such a book, will be more decisive than if it were a book of ethical maxims, or of ordinary historical statements. It may admit of a question whether the Proverbs of Solomon, or the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, are altogether superhuman; whether they are necessarily the productions of men writing under Divine impulse or superintendence. One may rea

sonably ask for evidence outside of themselves. But not so dubious will be the reasons for believing or denying that in Jesus Christ" dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Is this man God, and shall he not bear about with him in every look, in every act, and in every tone, the evidence of his Divine nature, so that seeing it we shall be able to say, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth?" Shall the love, and purity, and wisdom of God be embodied on earth, and shall it give no sign of its presence? Shall not every heart that is capable of recognizing and loving what is truly glorious and lovely, be irresistibly attracted toward it, crying out with the centurion at the cross, "Truly this man was the Son of God?"

It is not necessary to the establishment of our point, to prove that this evidence is so luminous and convincing as to overcome all impediments to its reception, existing in the soul itself. Such impediments there are. It belongs to another part of our subject to show what they are, and how they may be removed. It is enough for our present purpose, that there are innumerable multitudes who testify, that though once blind, they now see the Divine charms of Jesus Christ, and that their persuasion of the truth of the Bible, has been formed not upon the testimony of others, but upon the evidence which their own hearts have discovered in him, whose coming, power, and

grace, constitute the principal subject of its pages. In due time we shall consider what importance is to be attached to the counter testimony of those who say they do not see this evidence.

2. Another important part of the evidence which the Bible gives of its own truth, lies in the profound acquaintance which it discovers with all the hidden recesses of the heart of man. It follows with unerring skill all the windings and turnings of its pre-eminent deceitfulness, discloses all its secrets, explains all its mysteries. It is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." It will give a man fuller knowledge of himself in an hour, than he can learn by the self-inspection of years. It has filled the soul of many a sinful creature with trembling and fear, and made all his bones to shake as if a spirit were passing before him, as it has laid bare to his view an evil in his nature, of which he had no previous conception, and which only the infinite God could have known. He not only sees as he never saw before, the description on the inspired page, but a light seems to flash out from it into the dark corners of his own soul, in the brightness of which he sees the very thing described actually existing in himself. What shall he think of this? Wretched man that he is, what shall he do? He wants no miracle, he demands no sign from heaven. "Come, see a man which told me all

things that ever I did." That is a sufficient miracle to bring him convinced and humbled to the feet of Jesus. How often, during the ministry of our Lord, was a conviction of the truth brought suddenly to the doubting mind, by the exhibition of this supernatural knowledge of the thoughts and deeds of man. "He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." "Is not this the Christ?” asks one; "Thou art a prophet!" exclaims another; "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God,- thou art the King of Israel!" declares a third; "My Lord and my God!" cries a fourth; as they were severally convinced that he knew the secrets of all hearts. And these words of his, though eighteen hundred years have passed over them, according to the years of the life of man, have in them yet such freshness and life, that they often seem to the heart and conscience, as if they were just being spoken, singling out the individual for the separate disclosure of his own peculiar sinfulness before God, as if he were the only sinner on earth, and this a special revelation to him.

Nor is the force of this evidence confined to the earlier stages of religious enquiry, but in all the varying phases of Christian experience, in all our temptations, in all our wanderings, in all our conflicts, and in all our griefs, the word of God is a faithful mirror, in which we may behold a true reflection of our own natures. As we receive from this word that advice,

encouragement, and comfort which our special trials" need, we obtain new confirmation of our confidence in the Bible, as a "lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path." This has been well described by a living author.*"The written word unravels to the Christian the mystery of his own heart; his former resistance to the clearest convictions of truth; his obstinate neglect of his own highest interest; his defiance of supreme authority; his insensibility to the most amazing kindness. It is this which accounts for all his previous inconsistencies; his weakness and irresoluteness under the most urgent motives; his remaining aversion to what he yet loves and values; his rebellion against a law in which he delights; his ingratitude toward a benefactor whom he yet supremely loves; his coldness towards objects from which he seeks his chief happiness; his difficulty and heaviness in duties which he aims constantly to fulfill; his constant falling off from a course which he regards it his glory and happiness to pursue. In a word, his whole inward conflict, unaccountable on the supposition of a nature such as it came from the hand of God, is all interpreted by the Divine word, and his faith in it is confirmed by this exact coincidence. In reading the declaration of God in his word, he cannot but say, 'O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me; thou understandest my thoughts afar off; thou art acquainted

*Gilbert Wardlaw.

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