صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Light, food, water, physic, aud whatever else is necessary or conducive to the health and comfort of the body, afford apt emblems of the Holy Scriptures. A total removal of the light of day, and a perpetual involution of the land which we inhabit in thick darkness, similar to that which was for three days diffused over Egypt, is an evil less to be dreaded, than the deprivation of that which is the only "light to "our feet" in the way to heaven. "A famine " of bread" is less to be deplored than "a fa"mine of the word of the Lord," since the former could only kill the body, and after that would be able to do us no further injury; while the latter would leave soul and body to perish for ever. The scorched desert, where no water can be found, is to be preferred as a place of residence to the most delightful and well watered garden, through which the water of life doth not also flow. The Scriptures are "a light "to them who sit in darkness and the shadow " of death." They are "sweeter" to the spiritual taste," than honey and the honey-comb." They are "health to the navel and marrow to "the bones;" the balm of Gilead, the genuine spiritual panacea.

O what thankfulness then is due for this act of grace which the collect commemorates! Who can rightly appreciate the worth of the Bible? And O how insensible are we of the obligations to love and praise, under which Divine bounty has laid us by this precious boon!

That part of our collect which constitutes the preface, is a ground of encouragement in making the request that follows. For, if God "has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written "for our learning" or instruction; and if we

are incapable of deriving the intended benefit from them without Divine aid; He cannot, unless we blasphemously charge His conduct with inconsistency, be supposed unwilling or reluctant to afford that aid to those who ask for it. By word and deed He assures us, that He is more willing to bestow than we are to ask.

The request which forms the body of the collect contains five distinct petitions, which, though distinguished from each other, are so connected as to afford, by increasing gradations of importance, a beautiful climax. We pray for an ear to hear the Scriptures, eyes to read them, a disposition to attend to them, a mind to understand them, and a heart to digest them. O that God may bestow these blessings both on the writer and reader of these pages! This He will do, if, in the use of the collect, we "pray "with the spirit and the understanding also."

We ask, first, for the hearing ear. And it is to be remarked that the collect has with propriety mentioned the faculty of hearing apart from that of reading, and given to it a priority of place; because there are many persons who can hear though they cannot read the Divine word. These probably were much more nu

merous at the time of the reformation than now. For most deplorable ignorance preceded that glorious æra; insomuch that those who were the appointed instructors of others, were themselves utterly uninformed on the most common and important subjects. The number of those persons who are incapable of reading the Scriptures, is, through the kind provisions of Divine Providence, daily decreasing. The recent institution of Sunday-schools, and the increase of other means of instruction for the benefit of the

poor, ought to be acknowledged with fervent gratitude to God; from whom, whatever intermediate instruments are employed, all good primarily descends. The faculty of hearing may also claim a priority in the list of blessings which we implore, because the first religious impressions on the mind are usually made through that organ. This is generally the case: were we to say it is always so, we should limit the Holy One of Israel, and contradict matter of fact. If oral testimony be the usual mean of conviction and conversion, this is sufficient for the justification of the order of words observed in the collect. For till the mind has been excited to some concern about salvation, very little inclination for reading the Scriptures can be felt.

But as God has bestowed the faculty of hearing on all persons, with the few exceptions of those who are either born deaf, or who have by some accident been deprived of it, or through age have lost it; where, it may be asked, is the propriety of teaching us to pray for what we already possess? To this objection the reply is easy. We have a natural, but not a moral or spiritual ability to hear "the things which We have the power,

make for our peace.'

but not the will; and without the latter, the former cannot benefit us, but will increase our condemnation. The multitudes who, in every parish according to the extent of its population, neglect the public ministry of the word, afford evidence that there is a strict propriety in this petition of the collect. The legs which carry them on worldly business, or schemes of pleasure, during the season of worship, would, doubtless, carry them to the house of God.

The ear that listens to the Sunday-concert, the village-chat, or the roar of bacchanalian songs, has a natural power of receiving and distinguishing the sweet sounds of Divine truth, the notes of David's harp, or the heavenly eloquence of an inspired Apostle. But the bias of inclination is averse from the latter, and bent on the former. And the inferior faculties obey the imperious mandates of the will. The ear that is open, Sabbath after Sabbath, to the proud notions of the Arian, Socinian, or Pelagian theologue, whose declamation tends with unvarying aim to the exaltation of man and the debasement of Christ, in direct opposition to Scripture-doctrine, has naturally the same ability to admit the humiliating doctrines of the cross, the truths of Christianity. But the former are congenial to the diabolical pride of human nature, while the latter are hostile to it. The ear therefore is shut against the latter, and open to the former. The Scriptures distinguish between the natural and the moral sense of hearing. With this distinction in his view, Moses addressed the Israelites, Deut. xxix. 2-4, "Ye "have seen all that the Lord did before your

[ocr errors]

eyes, in the land of Egypt, &c. yet the Lord "hath not given you a heart to perceive, and "eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." Thus also Ezekiel's situation, in the execution of his prophetic office, chap. xii. 2, is described: "Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a "rebellious house, which have eyes to see and "see not; they have ears to hear and hear not; "for they are a rebellious house." How often did our blessed Lord address His congregations, saying, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!" and how awful is His declaration respecting many

66

[ocr errors]

of them, Math. xiii. 14-16! "In them is ful"filled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, Hear"ing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and "seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For "this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they "have closed, lest at any time they should see "with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and "should understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them." "This,' therefore," is the condemnation, that light is "come into the world, but men love darkness " rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” Are the reader's ears open to Divine truth? Let him know that this is from God. Does he visit the house of God from Sabbath to Sabbath for the purpose of listening to the everlasting gospel? It is God who inclines him so to do. From the first gradation to the last, in the work of conversion and salvation, all is of God.

ap

We ask, in the second place, for eyes to "read "the Holy Scriptures." For not only is the art of communicating knowledge by legible characters, in its first discovery, from God; not only are we indebted to His kind providence for the instruction which we have received in the science of deriving information from books; but the plication of our ability to its proper end is from the tuition of His grace. Many can read, who do not read the Bible. The Book of books, though God is its author, and salvation its subject, has no attractions for them. The novel and the newspaper, or the ledger and the cash-book, easily gain and fix attention; while "the words "of eternal life" are suffered to lie on the shelf covered over with dust. How wise then is the church in teaching us to pray for a moral ability to read the Scriptures!

« السابقةمتابعة »