there are who would gladly encounter labour and fatigue in the service of their fellow-creatures; but they are discouraged by these difficulties, and are compelled to restrain their bene- volent wishes through a conscious incapacity to carry them into effect. Nor is this all : for the unlearned of our own nation sustain incalculable loss through the introduction of foreign words, and foreign idioms, into our own language ; inso- much that, if they hear a discourse that has been penned for the edification of the learned, the preacher is, in fact, " a barbarian to them," almost as much as if he spoke in another language. Suffering thus as we do for the transgression of those builders, we ought at least to shun a repetition of their sins, and to humble ourselves before God for all the pride and worldliness of our hearts.]
2. How graciously has God blended mercy with judgment !
[When the plan of salvation was perfected, and the time for the more extensive propagation of the Gospel was arrived, God inspired iioly men, without any previous instruction, to speak all manner of languages, and to diffuse the knowledge of the truth through all nations ; that as by the division of tongues he had dispersed men through the earth, so by the gift of tongues " he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad1." The end of that gift having been in a measure attained, and the gift itself with- drawn, he stirred up men of learning and piety in different countries to translate the Scriptures into their respective languages, so that the unlearned might read them in the language which they understood. What do we of this nation owe to God, and, under God, to our Reformers, for giving us the Bible in our own tongue! If the volume of inspiration were locked up in the languages in which it was first written, how deplorable would be our state ! Oh, never, never can we be sufficiently thankful that the fountains of divine knowledge are open and accessible to all !
Moreover, though the languages of men are still different, there is a language in which all the children of God through- out the earth agree, — the language of the heart. As far as respects the work of God upon their souls, they all speak precisely the same thing. Sighs and groans and tears are universally the expressions of their sorrow on account of sin. They all agree in exalting Christ as " their wisdom, their righteousness, their sanctification, and their complete re- demption." They glory in Him, and in him alone. They are indeed Barbarians to the ignorant ungodly world, who
f Acts ii. 3 — 6. with John xi. 52.