This, of which we have instanced two comparatively unimportant out of a multitude of instances, is what we call our national inheritancethe fruit of ages of religious and civil liberty. It is upon this foun dation that we trust we are building; from this root that a vigorous and wide-spreading tree is extending its branches beyond our own shores, distributing generous fruits, and affording wholesome shelter to others. It is the perverted taste of some men to deny all this; there are men, our countrymen, who delight to tell us, that we are only seemingly strong and rich, that our day of glory is gone by, and our star descending: that with an overwhelming debt, and an impoverished population, the states of Europe know that war is impossible to us, and therefore that we hold our high rank only by courtesy, and the yet unextinguished though fading memory of the past. Some there are who listen to these teachers-we envy neither-the masters nor the scholars. War undoubtedly is not desirable for us, and on general grounds we would sacrifice much to avoid it; but if ever a nation was heart-whole, if ever institutions were vigorous and flourishing, if ever there were riches flowing through a people, redundant and demanding employment, if ever liberty was secure-surely in all these predicaments is the English nation at this moment. We do not say that there are no dangers or difficulties before usintimately connected as all parts of Europe now are, there can scarcely be an unsound member any where, and England not be affected. The state of Spain, and her projects on her colonies, are either of them enough at any moment to place us in a puzzling dilemma-what, under certain circumstances, should be the conduct of this country, it is not for us to say we have great con fidence that the same moderation and firmness which reconciled our honour and our interest on a former occasion, will be able to preserve both, if future difficulties arise. But of this we are sure, that if unhappily we should be driven into a necessary war, we shall go into it as high in hope, as gallant in courage, and as firm in resources, as any war which this country ever waged, or which it ever brought to a prosperous conclusion. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. R. W. has been received. C. J. has been returned to our Booksellers, as desired, but the substance of his note shall not be forgotten. By "the word of Christ," in this passage of the Apostle, we are to understand the Gospel of Christ, as it is contained prophetically in the Old Testament, and actually in the New; embracing all that was predicted of our blessed Lord in the former; and all that he said, and did, and suffered for our sakes, as related in the latter, together with the preaching of his Apostles, and those holy Epistles, which were written to particular Churches, or to individuals, or to the Church of Christ generally, and that glorious revelation of future events which was vouchsafed to the beloved Disciple, when an exile in the Island of Patmos, for the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is, in a word, the Bible, that everlasting record of our salvation, of our hopes, and of our duties; which is no longer, what it once was, a sealed book, read and exhibited only in a language that the people did not comprehend, but open to all, placed within the reach, and understanding of all, in whatever is essential to salvation, and read every sabbath-day in the Church, as were Moses and the Prophets in the synagogues of old. REMEMBRANCER, NO, 62, [VOL. VI. By the indwelling of this word is intended to be expressed that strong hold which it should retain on our should make, in our hearts, and the affections, the abiding, which it inseparable companionship, if I may so speak, which it should have with all our actions. are The persons admonished Christians-men, like ourselves, baptized into the name of Christresting all their hopes of salvation on Christ-and looking to his example and commands for the guidance of their conduct, and to his promises for their spiritual strength and consolation-men consequently, who, if they believed as they professed, could not but have been anxious to search the holy Scriptures daily with their fellow disciples the Bereans, giving attendance to the reading of them, that they might be thoroughly furnished therefrom, as from a spiritual armoury, unto every good word and work. The degree in which we are thus to be conversant with the Scriptures, and their holy and animating truths, is expressed by the remainder of the apostolic admonition, "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom"-abundantly, and with as perfect a knowledge in all essentials, as is attainable by your own endeavours and by prayer to the Father of lights for K his light and guidance. The Apostle's admonition, therefore, may be summed up in these few words: that we labour, under the divine blessing, to make ourselves as thoroughly acquainted, as we can, with the holy Scriptures. And has not the Apostle repeatedly enforced this same admonition in various other parts of his Epistles? Has not our blessed Lord left a strict injunction unto us to search the Scriptures, an injunction addressed indeed to the Jew, but applying with double force to the Christian? "Search the Scriptures," saith he, "for in them ye think," and that rightly, "that ye have eternal life; and they are they that testify of me." Was not David's study, the man after God's own heart, all the day long in them? and was not this the solemn command of Moses, uttered indeed by him, but inspired by the Holy Ghost? Lay up these my "" words," the words of God's law, in your heart and in your soul; and teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them." Moses not only enjoins in these words, the careful study of the holy Scriptures then existing, but attaches unto this study a temporal promise of the highest value: an earnest of that no less sure, and still higher promise, that awaits the Christian, that truly studies the whole body of them now. And, consider what they are by whom written, and what containing-written indeed by men, and in the language of men for our understanding-but by men immediately inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, and recording the commands, and threatenings, and promises, the very words and works of God himself. These constitute the contents of the Scriptures contents most intimately concerning every child of earth, who looks forward after death to live through his Redeemer in heaven. Consider then, I beseech you, with becoming attention, the expression of the Apostle in the text. How often is the spiritual busbandman seen sowing the good seed on the hearts of his hearersbut it falls, alas! upon them, as did the seed in the parable on the rocky, and shallow, and thorny soil, where it either abideth not, or taketh no root, or is quickly choked by the cares and vanities of the world! Or how often in the privacy of the chamber, or in the presence of our families, are the Scriptures taken up and read, and laid down again, and the reader can be compared only after the powerful similitude of St. James, "to a man beholding his natural face in the glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was;" and how many spiritual blemishes, shewn in the mirror of the Gospel, he had to correct. But neither in the hearer, that heareth only with the outward ear, nor in the reader, that readeth only with the outward eye, can the word of Christ be said to dwell. In him alone it dwelleth, on whose memory it is lastingly im pressed; on whose heart it is deeply imprinted; whose affections are constantly warmed and purified by its heavenly anticipations, and holy precepts and examples; whose words savour of it; and whose actions are in all things regulated by it-who can truly and practically say of it, with holy David, Lord, what love have I unto thy law! thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths! thy testimonies have I claimed as my heritage for ever; and why? they are the very joy of my heart-I have applied my heart to fulfil thy statutes alway, even unto the end. In him that can thus heartily feel the excellence, and by the assisting grace of God, can "virtuously transform himself," (to adopt the language of an old Father of our Church,) into the sanctifying spirit of the word of Christ, in him it truly dwelleth-and in him it shall dwell abundantly; for he will read with a hearty desire to know, that he may practise, and thus, through his Redeemer, be made wise unto salvation. He will read carefully, and with a strong and fervent interest in what he reads-and what is thus read will be sure to leave an impression deep and lasting on the mind. He will compare Scripture with Scripture, in the just expectation that one part of the same divine volume may serve to throw light on another; he will call in to his aid all the learning, that is within his reach, of the living or the dead; he will apply all the powers of his own mind to understand, and will be continually imploring the prevailing light and strength of God's most blessed Spirit-and to the exertions of a man so earnest, so humble, so pious, and yet withal so unwilling to leave any power, with which God may have endowed him, untried, the blessing of our most gracious and heavenly Father will never be denied. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and it shall be given him," "I will shew you," saith the Church, in her first Homily, "how you may read the holy Scriptures without danger of error. Read it humbly with a meek and lowly heart, to the intent you may glorify God, and not yourself, with a vain shew of the knowledge of it; and read it not without daily praying to God that he would direct your reading to good effect: and take upon you to expound it no farther than you can plainly understand it. For the knowledge of holy Scripture is a great, and large, and a high place; but the door is very low, so that the high and arrogant man cannot run in; but he must stoop low, and humble himself, that shall enter into it. Presumption and arrogancy are the mother of all error, and humility needeth to fear no error. For humility will only search to know the truth; it will search and bring together one place with another, and where it cannot find out the meaning, it will pray, it will ask of others that know, and will not presumptuously and rashly define any thing which it knoweth not. "And concerning the hardness of Scripture, he that is so weak, that he is not able to brook strong meat, yet he may suck the sweet and tender milk, and defer the rest until he wax stronger, and come to more knowledge. For God receiveth the learned and unlearned, and casteth away none. And the Scripture is full as well of low valleys, plain ways, and easy for every man to use and walk in; as also of high hills and mountains, which few men can climb unto. And whoever giveth his mind to holy Scripture with diligent study and burning desire, it cannot be that he should be left without help. If we read once, twice, or thrice, and understand not, let us not cease so, but still con tinue reading, praying, asking of others, and so by still knocking, at the last the door shall be opened." I would add one other remark, which is in some measure anticipated by this extract from the Homily, on the expression" in all wisdom." There are some things in the Scriptures, especially in the Epistles of St. Paul, which, as St. Peter says, are hard to be understood; and which there is consequently danger that they that are unlearned-unprepared by a previous course of education, and unstable-not suffi ciently grounded in the principles of our holy religion, may unhappily wrest, unto the destruction of their present, if not of their everlasting peace: but then, to our comfort be it remembered, that it is not neces sary to the plain Christian to understand every deep and difficult text, and every local allusion, of which the learned themselves can scarcely discover a trace. The word of Christ will dwell richly enough in them, if they are wise in all that is essential to their salvation; this is all the wisdom that they require; and in this wisdom let them pray, and labour earnestly that "the word of Christ may dwell in them." Every Christian should be intimately acquainted, as he may be, with the history of the creation, and with the state of man before and after the fall, as far as it is clearly revealed in the Scriptures; every Christian should have, drawn out in his mind, a chain of the most striking prophecies, with their interpretations and fulfilment in the person of his Redeemer; every Christian should be familiar with the life, and sayings, and actions of his Lord, and more especially with every particular of his death and passion, on which all his hopes of salvation are founded; every Christian should have, stored up in his mind, all those passages of the Epistles in which the essential doctrines of the Gospel are plainly and briefly laid down, together with the numerous and affecting exhortations scattered throughout, to a pious, and holy, and charitable life; and from the Apocalypse itself much may be extracted for the sanctification of his conduct, and the confirmation of his trust in God's overruling providence. Now for this neither much time nor learning is required. An early education for laying the foundation of good principles, for checking the growth of the tares of evil, and for strengthening and enuring the mind to reflect, and the memory to retain -an ability to read-and a knowledge, not of the words only, but of the full meaning of that admirable summary of doctrine and practice, the Catechism of our Church-these, added to the light continually thrown on the meaning of Scripture in the Liturgy, and the discourses of God's ministers, will be abundantly sufficient to enable the plainest Christian, whose heart is in his duty, to learn out of the Scriptures all that is needful to make him, with God's help, holy and happy here, and to secure for him, through the merits of his Redeemer, eternal happiness hereafter. And as to the matter of time, there are few, rather I would say none, but can find leisure to read some portion of the Scriptures, before they enter on the business of the day, or lay themselves down to sleep at its close. Joshua, David, and Daniel, men occupied in the weighty affairs of states and kingdoms, could yet find time, amid them all, for the study of God's law. I will not, however, press this farther: my sole object is so to bring before you, from year to year, the duty and benefit of reading and meditating on the holy Scriptures, that you may be led to examine your own conduct on this point; that if you have not hitherto been duly impressed with their value, you may hasten to learn it, by a more intimate acquaintance with them; that if you have not hitherto made a conscience of reading them daily, you may henceforth begin to do so; that if your reading has been hitherto irregular, through the interruption of worldly business, you may henceforth be careful to preserve a strict and unbroken regularity, remembering that the first and last thing in the day that the Christian has to seek, is the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and that these can primarily be found only in the Scriptures-using to the right understanding of the same every help that is in your power, that the word of Christ may indeed dwell in you richly in all necessary wisdom; and, above all, praying to the Father of lights, in some such words as these: Oh eternall and most mercyfull God, whois word is the lyght unto our stappes, and the lanterne unto our fete, We moost humble beseche the to illuminat our mynds |