clearly revealed. He never troubled either
himself or his children with those incomprehensible subjects on which
many people are so prone to speculate and dogmatize. He read but few
books, and those which he read he carefully compared with the sacred
Scriptures. The Bible was his only authority, and by it he tested both
books and preachers, receiving nothing but what he saw and felt to be in
harmony with its spirit and teachings. He liked Bunyan, especially his
_Pilgrim's Progress_; and he liked Wesley; but he liked the Bible best.
There were no bounds to his love and reverence for the Scriptures. He
regarded them as the perfection of all wisdom, the true and perfect
unfolding of the mind and will of God. He read them every morning on his
knees, before the rest of the family were up. Whatever might be the
calls of business, he spent a full hour in this exercise. He read them
every noon to his family. He read them at night before retiring to rest.
He read them with a sincere desire to learn God's will, and with earnest
prayer for Divine help to enable him to do it. He read them till all the
plainer and more practical portions were safely lodged in his memory,
and deeply engraven on his heart. He read them till their teachings
became a part of his very nature, and shone forth in his character in
all the beauty of holiness. He was a thorough Christian. The oracles of
God were the rule both of his faith and conduct. They leavened his whole
soul. They mingled with all his conversation. They were his only
counsellors and his chief comforters. They were his law, his politics,
his philosophy, his morals. They were his treasure and his song. And he
received their teachings in their simple, obvious, common-sense meaning.
He had quite a distaste for commentaries, because they would not allow
the Scriptures to speak forth their own solemn meaning in their own
plain, artless way. He hated the notes to Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_
for the same reason. He could understand the Bible, but he could not
understand the explanations of it given by theologians. He would not
study theology. He would study the Bible and Christ; he would study
precepts and promises, exhortations and warnings, examples and
historics; but not theology. And he never bothered us with theology.
There was no theology in his conversation. There was none in his
prayers. He never used theological terms. In all he said on religious
matters, whether to God or man, he used