do not always admit of being perfectly and fully justified to the feeble capacity of Man. Enough for us, if we are permitted to discern any significance at all in God's arrangements for the salvation of His fallen creature; if we can only see enough to convince us, that profoundest principles of Justice and Wisdom underlie the entire scheme. Let us feel assured, from what we know and understand of His proceedings, that God has a counsel in all things which He does, although oftentimes it lies hid in the waters so deep, that to track it thither would take us out of our depth. If a father should explain to his children the principles on which he was conducting their education, to some of them, doubtless, what he said would be entirely devoid of meaning; by the most intelligent it would only be partially understood. But the fact of their failing to perceive the wisdom of the plan, so far from proving it to be devoid of wisdom, is what we should naturally expect beforehand, from the limited nature of a child's capacity. And in like manner God's ways being not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts, it is not to be expected that our reason, even when enlightened by the Holy Spirit,-much less when not so enlightened,-should always be able to follow and justify the principles of His dealings with us.

Finally, Reader, I would warn you, as the appropriate close of a Chapter, whose topic has

been the enlightening of the human understanding, that in order to grow in the knowledge of Divine Truth, it is necessary to embody in our practice that knowledge whereto we have attained. Who is there that is acting up to his knowledge, that is faithful to his convictions of duty? To him shall the promise be fulfilled, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." But, alas! how lamentably is the practice of all of us behind our knowledge; for which reason it is that we seem to stand still in our heavenward course, making no solid attainment, no sure advance, as time goes on, and opportunities fly past us. Period after period rapidly draws towards its close; and the conscience of each one amongst us knows how little, within this period, we have improved in the graces of the Christian character. Lord, stir us up to translate into our practice that knowledge of Thy Will, whereunto we have already attained; so that Thou, who dost graciously discipline us by Thy Word and Spirit, mayest lead us on to higher discoveries, and deeper apprehensions,―mayest lead us out of the dim mist and chill night-dews of lukewarmness and indifference, which at present hang about us and obstruct our spiritual sight, into the transparent sunlight of Thy Truth, and the genial fervour of Thy Love.

4 John vii. 17.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ADAPTATION OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION TO THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION.

"Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth.”— JOHN Xvii. 17.

Recapitulation-present discussion confined to the moral and spiritual uses of the Book of Revelation-reasons for believing that it has a moral as well as a prophetical significance-But few can understand the latter-Scripture asserts a moral character for the whole of itself-The great moral influence exercised by the Imagination, especially in youth-Successful appeals to the Imagination by the Church of Rome-and what they argue-The depravation of the faculty shown in its tendency to fasten upon fictions-the relation in which a Romance stands to Human Life-Some of the sublime scenes enumerated, which the Revelation presents to the Imagination-Christ Glorified the Central Figure-The reality of those Visions-the moral influence they are calculated to exercise-Why St. John is called the Divine, and in what sense all should be Divines-Conclusion.

HAVING pointed out a threefold division of that part of the Word of God, with which as Christians we are most concerned, into the Historical Books (or Gospels and Acts), the Doctrinal Books (or Epistles), and the Book of Revelation; and having

observed that there is a power, principle, or faculty of Man's Moral Nature, corresponding to each branch of this threefold division (that Nature being made up of the Affections, the Understanding, and the Imagination), and having further shown how the Gospels are adapted to sanctify, or purify, the affections of the human heart, and how the Epistles are adapted to enlighten the Understanding on the subject of Christian Doctrine; we now proceed to point out how the Book of Revelation is adapted to purify the Imagination, and thus to exhibit the moral and spiritual use of this sublime portion of the Word of God.

1. Let it be distinctly understood that we are speaking only of its moral and spiritual uses. The work has other and most important uses, all consideration of which, however, we waive on the present occasion, as not bearing upon our immediate subject, the Devotional Study of Holy Scripture. The Revelation is evidently a great piece of Prophecy, and probably predicts the fortunes of Christ's Church even to the time of the end. But with its prophetical significance we have nothing to do at present. We confine ourselves to its moral and spiritual significance.

One great reason for believing that the Revelation has a moral significance over and above its prophetical character, is that, on the contrary hypothesis, it is, and must remain, to the great

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majority of Christians, a dead letter. ordinary congregation, not one person probably out of every fifty is competent, in point of learning and education, to study, much less to comprehend, its prophetical significance; and even supposing them competent to the study, scarcely one out of every hundred possesses leisure or materials for its prosecution. Indeed, so numerous and so arduous are the qualifications required, not only in an expositor of this Book, but even in one who would become a judge and critic of existing expositions, that (if the work have only a Prophetical significance) it were certainly wiser and better, for the great mass of the Christian World, not to meddle at all with its perusal. And to this most mistaken conclusion a large proportion of those who read the Scriptures with a simple view to edification, do, in reality, seem to have come. There are comparatively few, I fear, who have done so much as honour this portion of God's Word with one attentive perusal, such as might give them a general acquaintance, if not with its meaning, yet at least with its outline and contents. But can this course of proceeding be at all justified upon reflection? Granting this book (as we all do grant it) to be a portion of God's Inspired Word, what says the Scripture respecting itself and its own uses? "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in