those of St. Paul. This is a sad error. To set the Epistles above the Gospels, is to set Light above Love. And, possibly, our Reformers may have intended to protest against such notions, and to indicate a certain superior regard, due to the Evangelical Narratives, when they left standing in the Communion Office an order which came down from the Primitive Times, that the people, who are seated previously, should stand up while the Priest reads the Gospel.

In conclusion, it will be well to ask ourselves, whether the groundwork of Christianity has been ever yet laid in our hearts? Are our affections engaged with Christ, as his so eminently were, who gave to this our School all that it has to boast of excellence and efficiency? The great beauty of Dr. Arnold's religious character,

-a beauty which those who differ from him widely in sentiment may yet be fully able to appreciate, was that his heart was ever true to his Saviour, as the needle to the pole. Is it so with us? The Gospels are designed and adapted to conciliate our affections to Christ. But those affections cannot be so conciliated, unless Christ Himself should by His Spirit draw us to Himself. The perusal of the appointed daily passage will be but a formal routine, except that Spirit enforce it on the conscience, and bring it home to the heart. Be Thou, then Lord, the Agent in our

Sanctification!

Draw us to Thyself, when we read Thy Gospel, with the bonds of affiance, and gratitude, and love! And help us evermore to follow Thee, with the prayer of Faith, in the path of obedience and self-denial !

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ADAPTATION OF THE EPISTLES TO THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING.

“Sanctify them through The Truth: Thy Word is Truth."JOHN Xvii. 17.

The Divisions of the New Testament and of the moral Faculties of man recapitulated-The Epistles contain the Philosophy of the Gospel tidings-Possibility of appreciating the Philosophy and Poetry of the Scheme of Redemption, without any emotion of the heart-Light without Love-The existence of a profound Wisdom in the Scheme of Redemption, argued from Scripture-and from Reason-Men dwell little upon this Wisdom, though alive to Wisdom in its other manifestations-The common want of appreciation of this Wisdom has its root in Pride-Several points enumerated, in which the Epistles unfold the Philosophy of the Scheme of RedemptionEntirely to follow this Philosophy is out of our power, and why -The revealed method of growing in the knowledge of Divine Truth is to embody in our practice that knowledge to which we have attained.

THIS text (as we saw in our last Chapter) implies that the Truth of God is one great means which He employs in making Man holy. Now the Bible is the Truth of God; and that part of

the Bible with which, as Christians, we are most concerned the Volume of the New Testament -may be divided, as we have already observed, into three parts,-the Gospels, with their Appendix, the Acts, the Epistles, and the Book of the Revelation. Corresponding to this threefold division of the New Testament, we observed a threefold division of man's Moral Nature, which consists of the Affections, the Understanding, and the Imagination. We then proposed to consider how the Gospels are adapted to purify the Affections, the Epistles to enlighten the Understanding, the Revelation to refine the Imagination of man; and the first of these points was sufficiently discussed. We saw that the Gospels present to the Affections of man a Divine and yet a Human Person; One Who, because He is human, is level to our apprehensions and sympathies, and yet towards Whom, because Divine, the heart may pour forth its utmost store of love and trust and devotion, without fear of Idolatry.

The Gospels stand naturally first in the Canon of the New Testament; for the historical facts recorded in them are THE GOOD TIDINGS; the Basis which the other New Testament Writers assume, and upon which they build. Then, next upon the Tidings themselves, follows the Philosophy of the Tidings, unfolded in the Epistles; and the Poetry of the Tidings, which is sung (in

strains how sublime and stirring!) by the exiled Seer in Patmos.

And let me warn you, Reader, before proceeding to explain how the Epistles are adapted to enlighten the Understanding of Man, that it is very possible for the mind of an educated person to appreciate, in some measure, both the Philosophy and the Poetry of the Scheme of Redemption, whose heart has never been touched, in the slightest degree, by the Good Tidings of the Gospels. Such a person may possess a considerable insight into the principles of God's dealings with His creatures, and yet this shall not be inconsistent with such a coldness and indifference to the claim of Christianity upon the Affections, with such a want of interest in the tale of Jesu's Love and Jesu's Suffering, as shall conclusively argue that the Gospel, however much light it may have poured into the Understanding, however much it may have refined the Imagination, has never penetrated with healing, sanctifying influence to the seat of the character. We observed in the last Chapter, that the love of Christ may exist in the heart, where there is but a scanty measure of light on the subject of Christian Doctrine. And conversely, Light may exist without Love. Yes, light may exist; but it is like the cold silver lustre which, at midnight, streams down from the moon, streaking the dark water with a luminous line, and frosting