ies--mysteries concerning not your duty, but God's secret and
inscrutable methods of acting?

And since the question now before you is not one of mere speculation,
but one that concerns your immediate duty, be on your guard against the
seductive influence of sinful passion and sinful habit. There is a deep
and solemn meaning in the words of Jesus: "Every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved." Corrupt feeling in the heart and corrupt practice in the life
have a terrible power to blind the mind. The man who comes to the
examination of the Bible with a determination to persist in doing what
he knows to be wrong, or in omitting what he knows to be right, will
certainly err from the truth; for he is not in a proper state of mind to
love it and welcome it to his soul.

Remember also that it is not the grosser passions and forms of vice
alone that darken the understanding and alienate the heart from the
truth. Pride, vanity, ambition, avarice--in a word, the spirit of
self-seeking and self-exaltation in every form--will effectually hinder
the man in whose bosom they bear sway from coming to the knowledge of
the truth; for they will incline him to seek a religion which flatters
him and promises him impunity in sin, and will fatally prejudice him
against a system of doctrines and duties so holy and humbling as that
contained in the Bible. Take, as a comprehensive rule for the
investigation of this weighty question, the words of the Saviour: "If
any man will do his will"--the will of God--"he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." So far as
you already know the will of God, do it; do it sincerely, earnestly, and
prayerfully, and God will give you more light. He loves the truth, and
sympathizes with all earnest and sincere inquirers after it. He never
leaves to fatal error and delusion any but those who love falsehood
rather than truth, because they have pleasure in unrighteousness. Open
your heart to the light of heaven, and God will shine into it from
above; so that, in the beautiful words of our Saviour, "the whole shall
be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee
light."

COMPANION TO THE BIBLE.

* * * * *

EVIDENCES OF REVEALED RELIGION.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

I. The Christian religion is no