with all my ways.' The revealing power of Divine truth is indeed wonderful to him; and as he feels 'the secrets of his heart made manifest,' and 'is convinced of all and judged of all,' he cannot but confess the presence and voice of the Omnipotent Spirit in this his written word."

3. Nor is the adaptation of the Gospel to the great purposes for which it was designed, of saving man both from the guilt and power of sin, an insignificant proof to the mind and heart of its heavenly origin. It is a masterpiece of heavenly wisdom. It comes to man as a lost and perishing sinner, with a message of salvation and life to his soul. It gives him a true description of all the symptoms of his wretchedness and ruin, and proposes, by means which excite the wonder and admiration of heaven and earth, to raise him from his degradation and misery, to the summit of purity and blessedness. It does not conceal nor underrate any of the difficulties of the task, whether existing in the inveterate depravity of the human heart, or in the holiness, justice, and truth of God; and it shows how, in the wonderful wisdom and grace of God, these difficulties are fully met and removed. It prepares the way of the Lord, and makes straight in the desert an highway for our God. It exalts every valley and brings low every mountain. The law is satisfied both in its precept and penalty, and the honor of the Divine nature is untarnished, yet

man is fully delivered, and reinstated in the love and favor of God, as if he had always been loyal and obedient. God is righteous, and yet merciful; just, yet he justifies the sinner.

Nor is it the least wonder, where all is so wonderful, that the very means employed for the salvation of the creature from the guilt and condemnation of sin, become the most effectual means for the renovation of his nature, and the exitement of all holy and affectionate desires, in the prevalence of which every vestige of his depravity shall be consumed. The pardon is so dispensed, the freedom so purchased, as to give him such views of the enormity of sin, and of the beauty of holiness; such tenderness of conscience, meltings of heart, and devotion to the service of God, as no personal suffering, nor any fear of suffering, could ever have produced. And as the soul perceives the exact adaptation of the Gospel to its own character and wants, as the conscience, mind, heart and will are made to feel that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation, who can forbear to cry out, "Here are infinite wisdom and infinite gracethis is indeed thy word, O God!"

The nature of this evidence, and the intensity of the conviction which it produces, are so forcibly exhibited by Thomas Haliburton, that we must quote his words: "This light, whereby the word of God evidences itself to those who have spiritual cars to hear, is

nothing else save the impress of the majesty, truth, omniscience, wisdom, holiness, justice, grace, mercy, and authority of God, stamped on it by the Holy Ghost, and beaming into the minds of such persons, affecting them with a sense of these perfections, both in what is spoken, and in the majestic and God-becoming way of speaking, so that they are made to cry out, 'It is the voice of God, and not of man.' It enters into the conscience, a territory exempt from the authority of creatures, and subject only to the dominion of God. It challenges, convinces, threatens, awakens. It sets it a raging, and the creation cannot quiet it again. It commands a calm, and the sea that was troubled before is smooth, and devils and men are not able to disturb the repose. It enters into the mind, opens its eyes, fills it with a glorious, clear, pure, and purifying light, and sets before it wonders before unknown, concerning God, ourselves, our sin, our duty, our danger, and our relief; the works and ways, the counsels and purposes of God. It speaks to the will and converts it. It disengages it from what it was most engaged to; makes it hastily quit its embraces; turns its bent another way, the quite opposite way, and makes it embrace what nothing before could make it look to. It enters the affections, makes them rise from the ground, and gives them such a Divine touch, as that though they may, through their fickle nature, be carried by force another way, yet they

never rest but in pointing heavenward. Now, when the case is thus stated, how can the soul that feels this most powerful word, that comes from the Lord Most High, do otherwise than 'fall down and own that God is in it of a truth.""

Dear reader, do you thus know the word of God? Do all the faculties of your being, own its Die efficiency, and respond to its every utterance? If not, such is the persuasion which we would have you reach, and we beg of you, be satisfied with nothing short of it. Any doubting man is invited to obtain such personal satisfaction of the grace and power of Jesus; to make trial of the efficiency of the plan of salvation proposed in the Bible. Remember that it is a book that deals very little in abstractions. It is practical truth, and demands not a mere intellectual, but a practical faith. It tells us of a hell that we may escape from it, of a heaven that we may seek for it, of a Saviour that we may flee to him; and where such results do not flow from such knowledge, a secret infidelity is at the root of the matter. Though unacknowledged and perhaps unperceived, it is firmly lodged in the very depths of the soul.

The Gospel claims to be a remedy for certain evils and woes, of which we are all in a greater or less degree conscious. How shall a man ascertain, beyond all doubt, that it is a good and sufficient remedy, unless he is willing to try it? So far from shrinking

from such a test, the Gospel eagerly courts and invites it. It throws itself in every man's way, so that he must either take it up, or trample it under foot, and seems to say, Try me, only try me. It is willing to rest all its claims to our confidence on the result of a candid and faithful trial; but if we refuse this, if we condemn and reject it without trial, then should it in the end prove to have been written by the finger of the Almighty, may we not expect that he will condem and reject us upon trial?

Suppose that you

Apply this to other matters. have a certain piece of work which you wish to perform, and a man comes to you with an instrument upon which much time, thought, and labor have been expended, and assures you that it is just what you want, and there is no other in existence which will produce the same results. You may occupy much time in reasoning on the probability or improbability of what he tells you, you may consult intelligent friends,―you may apply yourself to the diligent study of the laws of mechanism. It is all time wasted, while the instrument itself is at hand and unemployed. Your study and consultation may be all in vain. But put the machine in operation. You do the inventor injustice, as long as you refuse the trial to which he invites you, and the result of that trial will be certainty. If you will do what he wishes, you shall know his word, whether it be true or false.