out" (as has been beautifully written) "your whole undivided heart before the oracles of God; give your enlarged spirit to the communion of his word; when it blames be you blamed, when it exhorts be you exhorted; when it condescends to argument, by its arguments be you convinced; be free to take all its moods and to catch all its inspirations; "* and you will see it all transparent with the radiance of present Deity; you will find it resonant to you of the voice of the Most High; and you will receive its several communications, "not as the word of men but, as it is in truth, the word of God which effectually worketh in them that believe."

And thus consulting the word of God, you will find it your guide your counsellor and your own familiar friend. You may bring to it your perplexities, and find it answering for you many a harassing enquiry. You may bring to it your heart, and find it speaking home thereto direction, warning, peace. Even as Abraham was permitted to commune with the Lord about the doom of Sodom, and though but dust and ashes to inquire, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" even as Habakkuk the Prophet stood upon his watch and set himself upon the tower to watch and see what God would say unto him and what he should answer when he was reproved; so may the devout *Irving's Orations.

man carry up all his difficulties to the word of God, and derive from it the satisfactory decision, if not the full solution, of the questions which the facts of nature, the march of events, the history of man, the complicated riddle of the world, may raise within his mind. Not indeed that he will expect to understand the ways of God (for what child can understand his Father? what uninitiated man can penetrate the mystery of even the commonest art?) but that he will learn the principles on which they are arranged. Still less that he will turn the sacred page into a horoscope for forecasting private or political fortunes; or dip into the holy volume to discover what special answers may turn up to special questions about doctrine or practice; or bring to it his selfish yearnings in the hope of getting their indulgence authorized by some oracular reply; or endeavour to transplant the recorded sentiments and actions proper to some men on some occasions, root and branch into his own bosom and his own conduct-all this would be only playing over again the heathen game of Superstition in a new field-but that in the Wisdom of God he will discover the seeds of things, the principles of the divine character, the examples of the divine procedure, the declarations of the divine will, guided by which he may adore and acquiesce in, even when he cannot comprehend, the government of God.

These are to him far more than heathen oracles, far better than philosophical speculation, far surer than political cunning. "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and mutter, should not a people seek unto their God? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them." "Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. Through thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."

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SECTION III.

DEVOTIONAL FELLOWSHIP.

THERE is nothing more false, and more unjust to true religion, than to imagine that it stunts the growth of the human mind and withdraws it from the genial atmosphere of social life, in which alone it can blossom and bear fruit, into the withering privacy of selfish pride or moody fancy. The fact is, on the contrary, that pious sentiments, like all others that are great and good, require social intercourse for their full development, press naturally out to seek a kindred feeling in our fellow-men, and find their full expression and enjoyment only when reechoed and intensified by sympathy. And therefore some of the most important exercises of the pious mind are those which are supplied by mutual interchange of thought, and blending of emotion, in the friendly family and public worship of Almighty God. Fellowship with others the mind must have in order to its due development; this fellowship the world cannot supply; but in the family of Christ it may be found.

It is important to consider this point, for if there is one thing which specially characterizes Christianity in its relation to mankind above all other forms of piety, it is its spirit of brotherly affection, and its means and ordinances for mutual edification. It is specially the religion of "the spirit," the mind and reason; and it supplies by its social organization the only atmosphere in which the highest products of the mind and reason can be unfolded.

Remember then, that the very first condition of human improvement and human happiness is fellowship with our kind. Without Society we should not be men. With all our senses faculties and susceptibilities, and with every opportunity in external nature for their exercise, that exercise would not take place to any extent without the relations of social life. It is on the mother's bosom and in the father's arms that the infant begins to feel, before it is acquainted with, the best experiences of its nature. It is in the family circle, the friendly neighbourhood, the ever widening sphere of social sympathies, that we learn to know ourselves, our powers, our wants, our joys, our hopes. And therefore no happy condition of mankind has ever been imagined in which the idea of society and sociableness was not a prominent one. The depth of all conceivable misery is pictured by banishment to a solitary rock, unknown unpitied unsympathized