y its _power over
the human conscience_. The apostle says: "The word of God is quick and
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," Heb. 4:12; and
this declaration is confirmed by the experience of every thoughtful
reader. Whoever studies the pages of the Bible in an earnest spirit,
feels that in them One speaks who has a perfect understanding of his
heart in its inmost workings; one who knows not only what he is, but
also what he ought to be, and who therefore speaks to him with
authority. The young are sometimes advised to study certain authors,
that they may thus gain "a knowledge of men." It cannot be denied that,
within the sphere of this world, the knowledge of men which some of
these writers possess is admirable. But the Bible contains not only all
this knowledge in its most complete and practical form, but also, what
is wanting in the authors referred to, a perfect knowledge of men in
their higher relation to God. With wonderful accuracy does the Bible
describe men's character and conduct as citizens of this world. But here
it does not stop. It regards them as subjects of God's everlasting
government, and thus as citizens of eternity also; and it portrays in
vivid and truthful colors the way in which they harden their hearts,
blind their minds, and stupefy their consciences by their continued
wilful resistance of God's claim to their supreme love and obedience. In
a word, it describes men in their relation to God as well as to their
fellow-men; and every man who reads the description, hears within his
soul the still small voice of conscience saying, "Thou art the man."
Whence this all-comprehensive knowledge of man contained in the Bible?
The answer is: He who made man has described man in his own word with
infallible accuracy; "because he knew all men, and needed not that any
should testify of man; for he knew what was in man."

6. We come now to the argument from _personal experience_. To receive
Christ in sincerity and truth, is to know that his salvation is from
God. Many thousands have thus a full and joyous conviction of the truth
of Christianity. They were oppressed with a deep consciousness of guilt,
which no tears of sorrow or supposed good works could remove. But they
read in the Holy Scriptures that Jesus is "the Lamb of God which taketh
away the si