wrote, was to assume cert.ain principles as true, and reason down to the facts. The new method, to wliich all the victories of modern science are due, is to reason bnck from facts to principles; first carefully observing, then testing your conclusions; first learning by experience, then verifying by experience, This method, which in human science is but some three centuries old, is the method of the Bible fr<>m the beo-innine1, God l,as led his Church step by step; taught his children by experience (Gal. iii. 23..:'.. 26). The lessons of the Bible are the voice of e:x:perionce. The aim of the Gospels as of the eulire Bible, is not merely to convey instruction, but to create a supernat~al experience. And its invitation to each of us is to put Divine truth to the test and make this experience our own. "Oh, taste and see," etc. I (1) The goodness of God can he truly known only by personal experience. (2) If there be any truth to which experience bears convincing testimony, it is this: "that the Lord is good," (3) Thi, experience is within reach of every one to whom the gospel i~ preached. J. lF YOU WOULD SEE, YOU MUST TASTE; AND IF YOU DO TASTE, YOU WILL BEE, Certainty is to be had, and this is the road to it. "Taste" is the most expressive image for personal experience. It is personal. Tastes differ. What to one is delicious, to another is insipid, to a lhird nauseous. To taste fully, you must not slightly touch with your tong11e, but eat or drink-receiving its substance, So, in Scripture language, to taste death means to die. To taste God's goodness means to receive and enjoy it in heart-felt experience (Rom, v. 5). For example: 1. God's goodness in pardoning sin can be known only hy the pardoned sinner-by actual repentance and faith. lllust.: Matt. ix. 2-7. 2. God's goodmss in answerin_q prayer can be known only by those who pray (ver. 6). lllust.: Disobedient, spendthrift, runaway son, writing in sore extnmity from a foreign land to his father. Under the sea, over the hills and plains, the wire carries the swift message, "Come home. Money sent. All forgiven." That son knows his father's heart as he never knew it before. 3. The goodness of God, revealed and stored in the Bible, can be known only by long study and diligent search (Ps. cxix. 97,103). Ps. cxix. 72 would be unmeaning cant in the mouth of a good many Christians. They are on visiting terms with their Bible; know it as you know one whom yon meet daily in the street and call on for a few minutes now and then. Spend a day with him in his home or yours, talking over your troubles, and you will learn what twenty years of morning calls would never teach, IL EXPERIENCE BAB NO SURER LESSON THAN THIS: "THE LORD IS aooD. 11 The Bible is our great storehouse of experience (Ps. cxvi. 1; 2 Tim. i. 12). Christian experience in all ages continues and confirms this testimony-the most remarkable body of practical testimony on record (' Basis of Faith,' pp. 358-860). Our lacl~ -of experience constitutes no reason for questioning the reality of this experience, or doubt- ing the truth to which it bears witness. Truth is truth, believed or not. The earth went round before Copernicus was born ; and still would, if all men relapsed into the old superstition that it is immovable. The world would be full of God's goodness, though all were idolaters or atheists (Acts xiv. 17). But personal experience begets invincible certainty (John ix. 25). III. IF THIS E:X:PEBIENCE BE NOT YOUBB, IT OUGHT TO BE; IT MAY BE, God offers it. These words are an invitation-a warrant. Beware of turning them into an upbraiding-a condemnation (John v. 40; Lam. iv. 2; Luke xix. 42). Are you young, L~ppy, prosperous ? 'l'~ank God _for his goodness. But h~ has better gifts, which will last when these fail (Matt. v1. 19), Aro you poor, friendless, sorrowful (Isa. lv. 1; Matt. xi. 28)? Are you lost, helpless against temptation, burdened with ~in ? Oh, taste and see the goodness God waits to pour out upon you (Rev. l l , 17; Rom. L 11-13) I
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-22.-Li/e's ezperienaa turned to manifold uses.1 There is no sufficient re~so_o for severing this psalm from the detail of history to ,which its title refers; and it 1B 1 Another direction in which the unity of this psalm mny bo mode use o_f in. pulpit exposition would be, "The experiences of the fathers recorded for tile use of tl.ie1r children: a sermon to the young." PS, XXXIV, 1-22.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 269