he appeals to them, whether his word would not be a source of unspeakable comfort to them, if they would turn to him aright ? " Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?"
We propose to shew, I. Who they are whom the word benefits —
Certain it is, that all are not benefited by the word. When it was dispensed by Him who " spake as never man spake," many made no other use of it than to cavil at it, and to form it into a ground of accusation against him. And when St. Paul laboured at Ephesus for three months successively to establish the truth, many were only hardened the more in their prejudices and infidelity b. While in every age it has been "to some a savour of life unto life, it has proved to others a savour of death unto death0." Those who alone are benefited by it, are " the people who walk uprightly," or, in other words,
1. The unprejudiced —
[If we come to the word of God with prejudices against any of the doctrines which it is supposed to contain, it is scarcely probable that we should receive any material good from it : for as soon as the truths which we hate are brought to light, we shall set ourselves against them, and exert all our endeavours to invalidate their force. The plainest and most fundamental doctrines of our religion are very commonly treated in this way. Men like not to hear of the depravity of the heart, the insufficiency of our best works to recommend us to God, the necessity of divine influences, and the impossibility of being saved without an entire dependence on the merits of Christ, and an unreserved surrender of ourselves to his service. But if, instead of reprobating these things as enthusiasm, we would lay our minds open to conviction, and submit to receive instruction from God, we should find a reality in these things which we never imagined, and an importance which we were not aware of. God has promised that " the meek he will guide in judgment, the meek he will teach his way d."]
2. The diligent—
[Nothing is to be attained without diligence, in spiritual any more than in temporal concerns. If we read a portion of the Scripture in a superficial way, or hear it explained to us
b Acts xix. 8, 9. c o Cor. ii. 16. d Ps. xxv. 9.