2. A word of advice —
[" Love the word of God." Verily, it is deserving of all
your love and you should " esteem it more than your
necessary food." Next, " meditate upon it all the day." Many read the Scriptures without profit, because they do not rumi- nate upon them, and digest them in their souls. Let some short portion of God's word be selected for your meditation every day ; and you cannot fail to profit by it, especially if your meditations be turned into prayer. Lastly, take it as the only rule of your life. This is essential to the Christian character. A speculative knowledge, however extensive and accurate, will avail you nothing : it is the practical and experimental know- ledge alone that can benefit the soul. The very use of the
f2Cor. xii. 9. e Rom. xii. 10. Phil. ii. 3. h 2 Cor. x. 18.
Scriptures is, to " perfect the man of God, and thoroughly to furnish him unto all good works." This it is which will make you truly wise, or, rather, that will prove you to be so : for then will the Scripture " have had its perfect work," and you will be " wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus."]
Ps. cxix. 128. I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right ; and I hate every false way.
RELIGION is the same in every age. The doc- trines of it, though they have been more fully and clearly revealed under the Christian dispensation, have never varied in substance ; nor has the prac- tice of it ever changed, except in the observance of rites and ceremonies. To love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves, was the essence of true reli- gion in the days of Abraham and of Moses ; and so it is at this day. Doubtless there can be no true reli- gion where the Gospel is set at nought and despised : but the Gospel may be highly approved as a system, whilst the heart is far from being right with God. It is not by their profession of any principles that we are to judge of men's states, but by the practical effects of those principles on their hearts and lives. Our blessed Lord has established this as the only true criterion, the only adequate test ; " By their fruits ye shall know them."
Now the genuine fruit of piety is as clearly exhi- bited in the words before us, as in any part of the Inspired Volume : and the passage is peculiarly wor- thy of notice, because in the writer of it were combined the fullest conviction of the understanding, together with the strongest affections of the heart : in his judg- ment, " he esteemed God's precepts to be right ;" and in his heart, "he hated" every thing that was op- posed to them.
May God of his infinite mercy inspire us with the same heavenly sentiments, whilst we consider these