But in particular we must search the Scriptures with a more especial view to derive from them the knowledge of Christ. As they all testify of him, so it should be our most anxious care to see and learn what they do testify. A mere critical knowledge of Scripture, though good, will bring with it no saving benefit. Nor will an historical knowledge of Scripture, no, nor even a speculative knowledge of its doctrines and its precepts, avail us any thing. It is the knowledge of Christ, and that alone, that will convey to our souls the blessings of salvation. " This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." In the great mystery of a crucified Saviour " are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge :" and " in comprehending the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of Christ as revealed in that mystery, we
1 John vii. 17. b 'EpevvaTE. c Prov. ii. 3 — 6.
shall be filled with all the fulness of God." My dear bre- thren, even good people do not sufficiently bear this in mind. Men, in going into the fields, obtain, for the most part, that which they are in pursuit of. One obtains health, and another pleasure ; but it is the botanist only that accprires the science of herbs. So in perusing the Holy Scriptures, whatever else men may obtain, none will obtain the knowledge of Christ in all the glory of his person, the extent of his love, and the ful- ness and excellency of his salvation, but those who go to them with this express view, and bend all the force of their minds towards the attainment of them. You will remember that the Cherubim upon the mercy-seat were in a bending posture looking down upon the ark, that peculiar symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ as mediating between God and us. This St. Peter explains to us, declaring respecting all the wonders of sal- vation revealed to us in the Scriptures, that " the angels are desiring to look into themd." Be ye then, brethren, in this posture whenever ye take the sacred volume into your hands, and, like the Apostle Paul, seek to your dying hour to know more and more of Christ, " of the power of his resurrection, and of the fellowship of his sufferings:" for, in proportion as " ye behold the glory of Christ, ye shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord e."]
2. Endeavour to diffuse the knowledge of them to the utmost of your power —
[The command to "search them" evidently implies the duty of promoting in others also the knowledge of them. In this respect the Christian world has done well in spreading the Holy Scriptures both at home and abroad, to an extent alto- gether unprecedented. And in the work of translating the Holy Scriptures, and of sending forth missionaries to diffuse the knowledge of them, this age has also excelled all that have
ever gone before it f
But who would ever have thought that a great part of the Christian world should set themselves against the circulation of the Scriptures, and should actually prohibit their people from reading them ? Yet this is done by the Church of Rome in every quarter of the world. The Governors of that Church will not suffer the word of God to be read, except by their special permission, and with their corrupt glosses, which in ten thousand instances obscure and falsify its meaning. And what shall we say to this ? I stand amazed at such conduct in a Church professing itself the Church of Christ. I know
d 1 Pet. i. 12. e 2 Cor. in. 18.
f If this be a subject for a Bible Society, or a Mission Society, the line of discussion must be suited to the occasion.