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 j yunwrJPastor efErskine Church. 
 
 PRINTCD rOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 ^"■'■':-'\:y--^ !■.'.■'.,, /MONTREAL:- ■■ 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN C. BECKET, 84 GREAT SAINT JAMES STREET. 
 
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 "THE LIVING WORD/' 
 
 
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 "THE LIVING WORD." 
 
 •A S'FiaC^H 
 
 DELIVEBED AT THE ANNIVEESAHY 
 
 or TBI 
 
 MONTREAL 
 
 BY 
 
 
 J. MONRO GIBSON, M.A. 
 
 yunior Pastor of Erskine Church. 
 
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 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION^ 
 
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 - -^ MONTREAL: 
 
 PklNTED BV JOHN. C. BECKET, 84 GREAT SAINT JAMES STREET. 
 
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 A reqwsitopum/t this speech was declined, on the ground 
 that there is nothing in it of any permanent value ; hut the re- 
 quest being repeated, it is now prinied pr private circulation in 
 
 order to meet the wishes of personal friends^ 
 
 J. M.G.; 
 
 * -3^-^-^-'- 
 
"THE LIVING WOBD." 
 
 Mr. President,— I consider it an honour to move 
 the adoption of such a Report as that to which we 
 iave listened -so satisfactory is lit, So clear and 
 vigorous, so full of encouragemen^nd so suggestive 
 of grateful acknowledgments to the God of the Bible, 
 who has counted his servants worthy to serve him 
 during the past year with so much success in so 
 glorious a caus^.. * " * * * * 
 
 r Allusion has been made in the Report to the 
 sad loss this Society has sustained during the past 
 year in the decease of Mr. John Greenshields ; and 
 I am sure that we cannot elect the new Committee, 
 whose names I have the honour to submit to you, 
 without a feeling of sadness, so far at least as we are 
 concerned, that God has been pleased to remove that 
 name from the roll of this auxiliary, and from many 
 a similar roUof service and of honour, that he might 
 inscribe it on a roll, whence it shall never be erased, 
 even among the ever increasing company of those 
 who " rest from their labours, while their works do 
 follow them." " All flesh is as grass, aiid all the 
 glory of men a^ the flower of grass. The grass 
 withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away":-^ 
 such is the sad reflection which a change like this 
 aWakens in the mind ; but /Side by side with it there 
 comes by forceofcontrast^noth^er, (for to every note 
 
 igj'ff' j)*"'!?"' y»W' ' f'B 
 
 •/ 
 
^*! 
 
 of sadness in the providence of God there is a coun- 
 ter tone of gladness), *' the grass withereth, and the 
 flower thereof falleth away: but the word of ^e 
 Lwdendurethfoi'emr'" How encouraging it is to 
 think that though one by one the workers &11 away 
 and wither like the grass, the work continues and 
 progresses still— though the lovers, and friends of the 
 blessed /Word and its circulation -must be put far 
 from us^and removed into darkness, yet the Word 
 itself is Tiever darkened and never dies—" It Iweth 
 and aUdethfweoer!' It is a pure river W the water 
 of life, proceeding out of the throne of "pod, and of 
 the Lamb, and flowing down through the fields of 
 time, the streams thereof making glad the wilderness 
 of this world, and making many a desert to blossom 
 as the rose-^and in name of this river jar bf its types 
 in nature it may be said : **men may come and men 
 may go, but I go on for ever." 
 
 This thought of the stability, or rather the 
 changeless progress of the Word of God is one which 
 is very familiar to our minds. But it is none the 
 less wonderful on iftis account or less worthy of our 
 attentive consideration. lict us dwell on it for a 
 short time. 
 
 Think, first, of the simple fact of the preser- 
 vation of the Bible and its safe transmission to us 
 from the earliest times. At first sight this does not 
 strike us of the 19th ce^ntury as anything very re- 
 markable ; for now copies of the Bible are so multi- 
 plied throughout the world, and the spirit aiid eren 
 the letter of the Scriptures have been so tran&fused 
 
 "^£ 
 
 H 
 
 , % 
 
p 
 
 throughout the literature of all civilized nations, 
 that the greatest potentate on earth, or all its poten- 
 tates combined, might as well try to blot the sun 
 out of the heavens, as to extinguish that Word which 
 "is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path." 
 But it was very different in ancient times. The 
 last book of the Bible was- written nearly 1300 years 
 and the iirst book of the Bible nearly 3000 years 
 before the invention of printing. And when you 
 think how during these many centuries horde after 
 horde of heathen barbarians swept like a destroying 
 blight over the viands where the Scriptures had a 
 home ;-- when you think that all the great libraries 
 of the ancient world, those, for example, at Alexan- 
 dria, Constantinople, Athens- and Rome, were de- 
 stroyed by fire ;— when you think that two system- 
 atic attempts' were made by tyrant kings to exter- 
 minate the Scriptures by burning every copy in , 
 existence: the one by Antiochus Epiphanes of 
 Syria, after the Canon of the Old Testament was 
 complete, and the other by Diocletian, Emperor of 
 Rome, after the entire Scriptures of both the Old 
 and New Testaments were in the hands of the faith- 
 ful few who then constituted the Christian Church-^ 
 when you think of all these and ^many other dangers 
 against which the precious Word had to be guarded, 
 you see that it is indeed a wonderful thing that these 
 Scriptures have been preserved and handed down to 
 us in their integrity. Antiochus Epiphanes and 
 Diocletian have long ago goiie down to dishonoured 
 sraves, and the dust of those Barbarian hordes now 
 ^niingles with' the connnoi-^ clay ancl witli the embe|s 
 
 1^ 
 
 / 
 
V 
 
 
 of the destroying fires they kindled; but the Word 
 which they^ sought vainly to destroy, endureth still 
 and shall endure forever. And not only has it sur- 
 vived Ih^hocks of time and change, of tyranny and 
 anarchy, of rapine and war,( which can be said of other 
 old books, though of none so old, and none so hated' 
 as the Bible) ; but it has come down to us, (to use 
 the words of Isaac Taylor, which he substahtiatea, 
 in his ^'History of the Transmission of Ancient 
 Books to Modern Times,") "with an evidence of its 
 genuineness arid integrity, tenfold more various, copiv^ 
 
 ous and conclusive than can be adduced in support 
 of any other ancient wrrting." Thus has God owned 
 and honoured His own Word, and safely transmitted 
 it to us as a heritage forever, and as a sacred trust to 
 publish it abroad and send if to the ends of the - 
 .earth* \ . . •■■ ^ .. " ■■ •.■.:. . ■/ /.; 
 
 Think also of the abiding freshness of the Word/ 
 ofGod. Whocan say the Bible is out of date? Wel^. 
 there are some that dp say it, and we ask then^ : 
 wherein is it out of date? Is it out of date as a bo^k 
 of religion ? Is it out of date as a book of ^Theo- 
 logy, of Humannature, of Ethics, oTSalvation*? All 
 other books that have been attempted on these sub- 
 . jects, except those which have draAvn their inspira- 
 tion directly or indirectly from the Scriptures, were 
 either out of date when th^ were first/ produced, 
 or became outdated in a very few Wrs. Wha,t 
 has become of the ethical and religion^ pyoductionsX)f 
 those that have pursued their investigatipns, and re- 
 corded the Results of them without tWaid of revela- 
 tion ? Where fof example are the morilists and phil- 
 
-■/■'• t 
 
 ■.1- -.- 
 
 heli 
 of 
 
 
 
 osopherB of Greece and Rome 1 Their works indeed 
 are on the shelves of every scholar in Christendom. 
 But in what capacity ? As authprities ? Not at^ all- 
 only as monuments of genius or chapters of Intellec 
 tual History . Who would ever think ol giving to the 
 auesti0n • " Where withal shall a young man cleanse 
 his way r an answer like this : *' By taking heed 
 thereto according to Aristotle's Nicomaxjhian Ethics ?" 
 Yet Aristbtle's Nicomachian Ethics is the hest work 
 on morals^hat was ever produ6ed without aid-from the 
 Scriptures. Who would ever think of seeking a soul- 
 satisMng solution to the |rol)lem, ''If a man di6 shall 
 we again ?" in Plato's /Dialogue on the Immortality 
 xie Soul ? Is therf a ^ngle Greek or Roman Classic 
 the subject of ma-n'f condition or future prospect^ 
 at wo/ld^^th^sfehtest use to a soulburdend 
 with sih,;f4^^s|^ed/ with the weight of that mo^t 
 
 rolemi?#^ •• " H^^v s^»^^ "^^^ ^® JP 
 
 with Gol?" Tl/ey Lve all out of date-cold m(^u- 
 mentTof genius/deii relics of antiquity, almost/for- 
 gottiL attempts t</ sound the mysteries of Liff and 
 De Jli. So much /or the fate of Moralists and ^elig- 
 iou^ Phiiosophers/who have written without ^e aid 
 of revelation. 
 
 And now/ what of those who ha^p 
 ... in opposi&n to the.Word of God;/ These 
 havelDcen m#e speedily and more thoroughly out- 
 dated than tie others. To illustrate tMs we ask : 
 Where are 4e authorities of ouirintellifeeM sceptic 
 cal friends if the present day ? Tou ^U find them 
 all among^thev writers of ^e Mst fey ^eaxs. And 
 
 ■i^- 
 
 //■ 
 
what of all the rest, from Celsus, Porphyry and Ju- 
 lian downwards 1 All out ofdate, as these too very soon 
 will be. Where is the sceptical writer of 2000, or 
 1000, or 500,— aye, or 100 years old by whom the 
 infidels of to day will venture to stand as we stand 
 by MosGS and David, by Matthew and Paul ? They 
 are all out of date, and their works are to be found, 
 if found at all,* amidst the dusty, decaying, moth- 
 eaten relics of the past, in the British Museum, or 
 on the Antiquarian's bookshelf. But who will ven- 
 ture to predict the time when you will have to go to 
 the British Museum or any other Museum to find a 
 copy of the writings of Moses, or Joshua, or David, 
 or Solomon, or Isaiah, or Daniel, or Matthew^ or 
 Luke, or Paul, or John ? These authors are all old, 
 but they are always new. Old as they are, their 
 words are weightier and more powerful, more 
 widely read and more confidently appealed to now 
 than at any previous time, The path of the Bible 
 is not like the path of the infidel production, a steep 
 descent to dark oblivion, but like the path of those 
 who are justified by its faith, which " is as the shin- 
 ing light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
 day/' So much for the abiding freshness of the Bible 
 as a book o^eli gion, as a light to the feet, a lamp to 
 
 ■ ■• A very good jllustfation of the speedy death ftod disappearance of 
 infidel publication^, is given by Voltaire, wbo seems quite unaware of the 
 lienificance of the phenomenon which he registers thus : ;' Parm. les modernw, 
 Thomas Woolston, docteur de Cambridge, fut le premier, ce me semble, qui 
 Boutint effront^ment qu'aucun dea miracles de J68U8 n'avait 6i6 r^ellement 
 ov6t6 * • • * Ses six discours centre les miracles de 
 
 jJsus-Christ se vendalent publiqnement d Londres dans sa ptopre m^aison. 
 II en fit en deux ans, depuis 1737 jusqu' a 1739, trois Editions d« vingtmille 
 exemplair*s cbacune ; et il est dilBcile aujourd'hui d'en trouver chez les lib- 
 raires"- D«c^onal•re Philosophique, Jrt. Miracles. If it was difficult to find 
 one of all these 60,000 copies thirty yeara after publication, wft^t WUBt Ijave 
 become Of the leamfid Tfork by tbif tiw« ? 
 
•r 
 
 :■»■■ 
 
 : . 9 :' . 
 
 th€ path of man in his journey through life, through 
 death, into eternity. 
 
 But some will tell us it 'm " out of date as a book 
 of science." Now in the first place we have to say 
 that it is not a hook of science, ai^d makes no pre- 
 tensions to be a scientific book. It is a book of sal- 
 vation — a book for the people, and therefore couched 
 in such language as the people can understand. 
 " But then even a book of salvation coming from God 
 ought not to contradict science." Certainly not— and 
 neither does it. Have not attempts innumerablp^ . 
 been made during these last fift^^years to prove that 
 Scripture contradicts science ; and is the Bible any 
 weaker now, or any more out of date since these 
 assaults commenced ? It is stronger than ever, and 
 fresher than ever, and more obviously ahead of 
 the times than ever. It would be altogether out of 
 plac6 within the limits of a short speech, as this must 
 necessarily be, to attempt to enter upon the wide 
 field of the supposed controversy between Scripture 
 and science. But there is one way which occurs to 
 me in which the matter may be put somewhat strik- 
 ingly before our minds in a very few sentences. It 
 is not generally known by those who are not in the 
 habit of reading old books how very absurd all their 
 scientific references appear to those who read them 
 in after ages. You find the wisest and most learned 
 iiien writing about such subjects in such a way that 
 school-boys of ten years old will be ready to laugh 
 at their ignoranciB a century afterwards. Innumer- 
 able illustrations of this might be giveii. To save 
 time I shall just present one, Which I think will be 
 
 f 1 
 
 }0 
 
 :fe> 
 
quite sufficient for the purpose. In order to select 
 one I might take you back 1800 years to the time of 
 Matthew, or 3000 years and still be short of the time 
 of Moses; but I shall ank^you to go back only the 
 seventh part of the shorter of these pewods : a dis- 
 tance of 250 years. I might take some period of 
 comparative obscurity, and some country little known 
 to scientific fame like ancient Judea ; but instead of 
 that I shall take the forcm,(Jst natiipn in Europe at 
 * the very height of her literary glory^ viz. : England 
 in the reign of James I, ere yet the glory of the 
 Elizabethan age had begun to fade. I miight select 
 an author that made no pretensions to science like 
 most of the writers of Scripture ;, but I shall choose 
 one who stood perhaps head and shoulders above 
 all his contemporaries as a scientific man, viz. : 
 Lord Bacon ; and 1 shall take the Novum Organum, 
 the greatest of his works. Now bear with me while 
 I read you one or two short extracts from this justly 
 celebrated work, and leave you to judge whether the 
 great philosopher of the seventeenth century, or the 
 simple writers of Scripture, so long before his time, 
 are the mo|e accurate, the more rational, or if you 
 will, the more modern in their scientific references. 
 The extracts are made from Wood's version, Bohn's 
 edition, 1858. In the chapter on ** citing instances" 
 (at page 519) we read : 
 
 " Every tangible bpdy with which wc are acquainted contains 
 an invisible an|. intangible spirit, ^ which it is drawn and . 
 
 which i* secnas to clothe. * * >ic hj * The 
 
 departure or emission of spirit is rendered sensible in the rust of 
 metals, and other putrefactions of a like nature, which stop before 
 they arrive at the rudiments of life, * • • In compact 
 
11 
 
 bodies the spirit does not find pores and passages for its 0S3ap« 
 and is therefore obli;;od to force out and drive before it the tangible 
 parta also, which oonHoquently protrndo, whence oriscfi rust and the 
 like. * • • * ♦ On the contrary, when ' 
 
 the spirit is retained, and yet expanded and excited by heat or 
 the iike (which happens in ttolid and tenacious bodicn), then the 
 bodies are softened, as in hot iron ; or flow, m in metals ; or molt, 
 as in gums, wax and the like. The contrary effects of heat 
 therefore (hardening some Hubstancos and molting othera), are 
 cnsily reconciled, because the spirit is emitted in the formor and agi- 
 tated ot* retained in the latter ; the latter acti<)n is that of heat and 
 the apirit, the former that of the tangible pavtd themselves, after the 
 aplrit's emission," 
 
 Again, OiV the subject of motion, after an enu- 
 meration of eighteen kinds of motion, he explains the 
 nineteenth and last, which he calls 'Hhe motion of 
 repose, or of abhorrence pf motion," thus (p 551) : 
 
 "It is by this motion that the earth stands by its own weight, 
 whilst its extremes move towards the niiddlc, and to urj, imaginary 
 centre, but in order to unite. It is owing to the sanie tendency that 
 all bodies of considerable density abhor motion, and thcjr only ten- 
 dency is not to movo, which nature they preserve^ although excited 
 and urged in a variety of ways to motion. .But if they be compelled 
 to move, yet do they always appear anxious to recover their former 
 state and to cease from motion ; in which' respect they ccrtamly ap- 
 pear active, and attempt it with sufficient swiftness and rapidity, a^ 
 if fatigued and impatient of delay. We can have only. a partial yqJ' 
 presentation of this tendency, because with us every tangible sub- 
 stance is not only not condensed to tlie utmost, but even some spirit 
 is added, owing to the action and concocting influence of the hcityen- . 
 ly bodies." ' { 
 
 . Again, on the doctrine of harmony, the philoso- 
 pher warns his readers against harmonies whi^ ar 
 so obscure and faticifulas to be unworthy of liotic 
 but recommends that proper attention should be paid 
 to true harmonies, of which he gives the following 
 as a sample, (p. 562) : > 
 
 > - 
 
 ' rhr\ 
 
 ■':•< 
 
 .1\r- 
 
 '-■-^i 
 
!*> 
 
 ■ I 
 
 12 
 
 "Tha, tUrei.. »orr™pond«ac« l»lw«on .iilphor, oil, gr.uj 
 ,iW.tion.,.»dp«rh.I»>"»»"l>"'^""f ""'"'"'• 
 
 One might multiply quotations indcnmtcly. as 
 thoroully out of date ..« tlu-«e. In fact the whole 
 JrSnd lK,ok is completely out of date. You 
 cannot read a page of it without smxUng "tj"" ""«- 
 dcrsof the great philoHopher. So <>"(? .'«' '"^ «>" 
 lined himself to atetraetions, as helloes in his first 
 book, he wrote that which was de»tH t° P^^J 
 lastintr value, but ns soon as he attismpted to illus- 
 St Unature he made himself ridJeulouS toaft«r 
 ages. Now that very old book of wh.chje have. 
 bLn sp Jking and which lays claim to be the Word 
 of God; abounds in illustrations from nature, and no- 
 where can you find anything in it that is truly outof 
 Tte Take one of the very oldest of the books, and 
 one which abounds more than any other m refer- 
 ences to nature, the book of Job, and where can you 
 find a single passage, which, rightly interpreted, is 
 out of date? There are passages which have been 
 looked upon in past times as out of date, but wh.di 
 have proved to be ahead of the times instead of be- 
 hind them, such as that where God is spoken of aS 
 .' hanging the earth upon nothing," and where we 
 are told that while>« Out of the earth cometh bread, 
 underneath it is turned up (or convulsed), as by tire. 
 
 Now the above comparison is instituted not to 
 make you respect Bacon the less, for ^it is not^at all 
 to his discredit that his science of the seventeenth 
 centuiy shouW be so completely out of date in the 
 nineteenth; but to lead you "' ««« "^ t>^ *«:* '^^^ 
 the illuBtrati<ms from nature ,vluch abound in th.x 
 
 1^ 
 
 .u^ 
 
.'V« 
 
 Bible, are as, frcBh and accurate ond appropriate as 
 ever, an additional evidence that these ScriptureH 
 were not, aa Bome would have uh believe, the word 
 of men, but are in truth the Word of God. 
 
 We have spoken of the preservation of the 
 Bible in its integrity, and of its abiding freshness, 
 as. never falling behind the times. But there is more 
 than this— much more. It not only exists and holds 
 its ground. It lives. " It Hvetli* as well as ** abid- 
 eth for ever " It is ** quick, (i. e. living) and pow- 
 erful." In some old Bible of your great-grandfa- 
 ther, between the leaves which enclose some cher- 
 ished passage that had often cheered the old man's 
 heart, there is a little relic of the past. ** *Tis but 
 a little faded flower;" but there it is. Its colour is 
 fikded ; but the form still is there. Crush it ; and it 
 will crumble into dust. But leave it there ; and 
 your great-grandchild may see it on some future day 
 as you see it now. In the British Museum, where 
 there is such a noble collection of manuscripts and 
 versions of the Bible, you will see in one of its de- 
 'partments the remains of men and women that may 
 have lived before Moses penned the book of Genesis, 
 the form and features still retained, though life has 
 long fled— the ghastly relics of a long past age. 
 In the solid rocks of earth you will find the remains 
 of animals and plants that have endured there, 
 " sealed within the iron hills," from antiquity so 
 hoar, that Moses is among the moderns by compari- 
 Bon. AH these seem to abide, while others of their 
 kind decay ; but of none of them can you say that 
 ** it liveth and abideth." Not like the faded flower, 
 
w. 
 
 
 \ 
 
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 U 
 
 not like the ghtviily mujniny, not like the itony 
 ** dragons of tho prime,"— but like tlio ^reat Creator 
 of them all| the Word of God '* liveth and abideth 
 for ever." Tho Word of God is not a lifeless sta- 
 tue of the pa»t, like the word of Demosthenes, or of 
 Cicero, whose speeches still may mov^'to admiration, 
 but can no longer stir men up to action an in the 
 days when they were fresh and stifong. But the 
 Word of God is just as powerful now as in the days 
 of olcl-*«aii stir men up to deeds of valour against th« 
 great enqmy of our heavenly Fa^h|^rland, which 
 throw tho exploits of even Atheniflrwarriors/ into 
 shade — can make the soul of the %er)f 'ifiieanest who 
 receives it, the home of a virtue as far superior to 
 that which Cicero commended, as heaven is higher 
 than earth, or God greater than manl The trophies 
 of that v^^r and the flowers of that virtue are 
 such as hisrory docH not point out, and men of the 
 world can never see. The field on , which most o| 
 these' trophies are erected and wher JINnost of these 
 flowers bloom, is the sacred privacy of ten thousani 
 times ten tl^ous^nd Christian hearts— hearts that can* 
 each and alJ^Sj^r witness to the living power of the 
 truth of ^o(^%|||||^|Ki^^, tind U> guide, to enlighten 
 and to bless, ftiS|KtjJ^^d adve, to console in trou- 
 ble, and susta^^pil^h. *^Ald&^noble army of mar- 
 tyrs," who setfeid Sueir testimony with their blood, 
 receives comparatively few accessions now, for our 
 lot has fallen in happier times ; but Christianity has 
 hdr martyrs still, a hoble army of humbler witnesses 
 to the truth, whose noiseless triumphs history does 
 not record, and strangers never know, which yet, 
 more precious than the gold that perisheth, are re- 
 
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 15 
 
 1 
 
 corded irt t 
 day m 
 brinff 
 
 Jook of remembrance which Hhall on« 
 the hiddua thingH of diirkiieHH, and 
 1^1 1 The Hccret triuniphMof faith— «h(>wing 
 I Mft^ i^H^Wt only great things that tlie faith which 
 ^jj^ffkudiii^, on the Word of Ood gives strength to 
 do, that'll in not in great emergencies alone that the 
 powor of the truth in seen and felt, but in the con- 
 stant, wasting, wearing struggle of the soul with its 
 iiourly trials and temptations, and crosses and losses, 
 and burdens and cares, with the powers of darknes* 
 too, and tli^e wiles of the enemy of souls. Yes, there 
 it is, in the secret struggles of the soul, and specie 
 ally in those last d^irk hours "when llesh and heart 
 faint and fail," when light forsakes the closing eyes, 
 and life the drooping head, when, weeping friends 
 stand round the dying bed, and can do no more 
 than weep, when not even human sympathy with its 
 healing touch can reach the soul in that deepest so- 
 litude of all, when the spirit must leave all human 
 fel]o w§}4t> behind, aiid even that body which till now 
 wsbeen its home, and pass into the shadowy land 
 alone,~and yet a single passage of Scripture, such as 
 this : " I am the Resurrection and the Life "; or this, 
 "I am He that liveth, and was d,ead; and behold I 
 am alive for evermore, and have the keys of the un- 
 seen world and of deith*'— a single text like this, 
 remembered in that trying hour, can fill the soul 
 with inward strength to fight the last battle, to slay 
 the last enemy, to gain the l^ist victory, to pass 
 through the last dark night withi-song of triumph 
 land of joy— there and then it is that wc have the t 
 Burest evideftce that the Word of God *Miveth," as 
 well as/tabideth forever." ^-^ , 
 
 ■; ■.■'■'■/ ■ ; ;■ - ■.:■ ■■.' ■—.■■. . ■■.. "... ,S ■"....■■. . V ; \: ., ,' . 
 
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 1 
 
I 
 
 And now, what is the secret of that abidinjr 
 living power? Here it is : « It is the spirit tha* 
 quickeneth :" "The words that I speak unto you they 
 are spirit and they are life." In other words it is 
 hecavse the Scnptures^are inspired. What is the dif- 
 ference between a mummy and a man? The very 
 same difference that there is between Homer and the 
 Bible. From the one the spirit has long fled. In 
 the other it still abides. The Word of God is living 
 ' and powerful because the spirit of the Lord is ever 
 there. Of Homer, and Virgil, and Dante, and Mil- 
 ton; of Aristotle, andSeneca, und Descartes, and Ba- ' 
 con ; of Demosthenes/and Cicero, and Burke, it may 
 be said as was said of one who lived long before 
 ^ them all : « he, being dead, yet speaketh." But of 
 the Author of the Bible and of Him alone it can be 
 said: He, being aZive yet speaketh. "The mighty 
 God, even the Lord, hath spoken." And speaketh 
 still : «a am He that doth speak; behold it is I." 
 And"let him that hath an ear, hear what the spirit 
 aaith unto the Churches.!' 
 
 The Spirit of the Lord may bless, and often 
 does bless other books ; but He identifies B[imself 
 with the Bible, He makes it vocal with His loving 
 voice, and vital with His living power, He breathes 
 throughit on the loving soul, and thus communicates 
 the "Life eternal, which was with theFatherand is 
 manifestedunto us" ; and for that reason it i« that the 
 woMc of this Society, namely, the circulation of that 
 living Word in its integrity and purity, is the high- 
 est work in which a mortal pan engage— a work 
 which ^n Archangel well might envy. 
 
 
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