The not comport with our object to attempt it. Our reasons for believing it are many and various; and these commend themselves very differently to different minds. Some are more easily convinced by one argument, and some by another. evidences are such as address themselves to the reason, the conscience, and the felt necessity of men. They are cumulative. and progressive; they are not appreciated at once. They are still more convincing when we put them to the test of our own experience, and find that they comfort us, cheer and sanctify us, and fit us for action and endurance, for life and for death, for time and what we know of eternity. Without the revelation which God had given us in the Scriptures our life is an enigma which we cannot solve. We know not whence we came, nor whither we are going. We are poor, weak, trembling creatures, to whom the past and the future are alike unknown. We have capacities, and know not if ever there will be scope for their development. We have aspirations, and know not whether they can ever be realised; we have yearnings, and know not whether they will be wholly vain and useless; we have fears, and know not how to be rid of them; we are on a wide, deep, and troubled sea, without chart or compass to guide us, and know not how to steer, and what may be the end. But the Bible answers some of the most momentous questions which a thoughtful man can ask, and answers them as nature cannot, and as nothing but a Divine revelation can; and the answer to those questions invests life with importance, and robs death of its sting, and gives reality and certainty to what might otherwise be mere conjecture. We have barely intimated some of the reasons why we believe that the Scriptures contain the Word of God. Let each one satisfy himself on this subject. Let him not look for mathematical demonstration where the nature of the case will not permit it. him be content with such proof as is possible and suitable; let him remember that, though there are difficulties in receiving the Scriptures as containing a revelation of God's will, there may be greater difficulties in their rejection, and that he is bound to be guided by the preponderance of reasons on whichever side it may be. If there be only a few more arguments in favour of the inspiration of Scripture than against it, we are bound to receive it. But our confidence is that the proof is strong and striking, and will appear stronger still as we follow its guidance, and rely upon its promises, and experience its salvation. If, then, we believe that the Scriptures contain. Let a revelation from God, we must take this into our account in our inquiries after truth. We must not first admit it to have come from God and then treat it as though it was only the word of fallible man, and take the liberty of criticising it and modifying and qualifying it, as we do uninspired writings. We must be willing to receive all its teachings whether they agree with our preconceptions or not, whether they involve mystery and difficulty or not. : There will be plenty of room for the exercise of reason and judgment in determining the meaning of its terms, the principles which it inculcates, the hopes it gratifies, and the duties it demands. But when, we have satisfied ourselves on these things we have nothing more to do than to embody the principles in our lives, to entertain the hopes which it inspires, and discharge the duties which it enjoins. The work of the judgment is then at an end. We must, then, be not hearers, readers, and students only, but "doers of the Word, that we may be blessed in our deed." All Christians alike regard the Scriptures as the Word of God, and all Protestant Christians teach the duty of the private study and interpretation of the Word. We do not claim this, then, as a distinguishing article of the faith of Baptists, but as it lies at the foundation of their faith and practice, their views on this subject should be clear, and their convictions strong. They should not allow themselves to be drawn away from the Word of God by the efforts of those who derive all their religious opinions from unaided reason. Having satisfied themselves that God speaks in the Scriptures, they should listen attentively to His voice, and let His teachings be final on all those subjects which are plainly revealed. And yet, as the Bible is a revelation from the Infinite Mind for all times, we must be willing to receive the new light which may yet break forth from its pages; for, as the Rev. E. L. Hull says in one of his beautiful sermons, "If the Bible is a book for all the ages, there must be some part of it which lies, as yet, in shadow, and will be comprehended only by the men of the future. From the Bible new and deeper meanings have ever been coming forth; the progress of the world has constantly lighted up its old words with a grander significance." Baptists will be ready to receive all the clearer light, and to recognise all the deeper meaning which, under God, the reverent study and the enlarged experience of the future may elicit. IV. THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE. "To me it would appear an impeachment of the Divine wisdom, nay, I might add, of the Divine justice also, to suppose that plain Christians are to learn from the ancient fathers the way in which they are to observe an ordinance of Christ. We must have the basis of all we believe and practice in the Word of God itself."-DR. INNIS. Baptists believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. They can fully endorse the language of the Sixth Article of the Church of England. "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith." This is taught clearly by Paul in his Second Epistle to Timothy, where he says, "The Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation." Paul does not say that tradition is necessary, nor the teaching of the Fathers. We may be thankful that they are not, for who could reconcile the contradictions of tradition, or seperate the little wheat from the much chaff, or the small particles of gold from the large mixture of alloy? How could the common people get hold of what the Fathers have said; or understand all the marvellous things which have been taught by the authority of the Church? To suppose that plain men can learn more from tradition and the Fathers than from the Word of God, or that He has given us a Revelation which cannot be understood without the authoritative teachings of an infallible Church, is surely a reflection on the wisdom and goodness of God. If the Church is infallible, what need can there be for the Scriptures at all ? If we cannot understand them, of what use can they be? Paul complimented Timothy on having known the Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation, from a child. Even a child, then, may understand as much as is essential to salvation. And all that is necessary in order to a holy life is plain and easy also; or how could God's Word be called "a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path?" We do not forget that there are some things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and the unstable wrest to their own condemnation. This is quite con-sistent with what we have asserted. There are some things in nature and Providence hard to be understood, which the same class of persons also wrest; and yet there is sufficient light to guide plain and simple inquirers in the ordinary affairs of their daily life. There is much in the word and works of God to exercise the most vigorous and robust understanding, while all that is essential is so plain that he who runs may read. Moreover, the Divine Author of the Scriptures has promised His assistance in the study of them to all who sincerely seek it, and He is surely able to make Himself understood without the interpretation of an infallible Church. It is because Baptists believe in the sufficiency of Scripture that they are not willing to admit as an article of faith anything which cannot be proved therefrom, nor allow any rite to be imposed upon them as an ordinance of God which is not enjoined or sanctioned therein. It is for this reason that they look with suspicion upon that which requires the support of traditions or the teaching of the early Fathers. If it is plainly taught in Scripture, what need of appeal to traditions, the teaching of the Fathers, or the decrees of councils ? and if not, and yet it is required, what becomes of the sufficiency of Scripture? Our inquiry as Baptists, must ever be, "How readest thou?” "What saith the written Word?" In this we have an advantage over others who have need to be learned in patristic theology and ecclesiastical lore. We have need only to be well read in one book-and that the oldest, the purest, the noblest, the best the Book of God; the balance in which tradition must be weighed; the touchstone by which doctrine must be tried; the standard by which all systems must be measured. Tradition, if consistent with the teaching of Scripture, may be useful for confirmation or illustration; but it cannot lay claim to equal authority with the Word of God. Whenever they are inconsistent, one must be rejected; and we may have no hesitation in saying which it should be. If the Bible tells us that the Scriptures "are able to make wise unto salvation," and the Council of Trent says, "All saving truth is not contained in the Holy Scriptures," these statesments cannot both be true; one must be disallowed as untrue. To the law and the testimony then. It is inconsistent with the sixth article of the Church of England, and inconsistent with one of the fundamental principles of Protestant Christianity, to require as an article of faith or an essential of communion, that which cannot be proved on the authority of the sacred Scriptures, though all the Fathers and all the ecclesiastical councils pronounced in its favour. We must be careful not to incur the awful denunciation with which the book of Revelation closes: "If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book." As John Angell James has well said: "Antiquity may furnish us with fresh illustrations of doctrines which we previously knew to be contained in Scripture, or may afford us examples of the observance of institutions which the Scriptures previously enjoin, but we must have the basis of all that we believe or practise in the Word of God itself." V.-HUMAN STANDARDS. "I am, indeed, abundantly persuaded, that religion ought to be my own free and rational choice, and that conviction, and not human authority, must be the rule of my judgment concerning it.". DR. CHANDLER. Baptists do not believe in the authority of human standards of faith, however carefully and ably drawn up. The Scriptures contain no inspired summary of doctrine, no creed or catechism drawn up by Christ and His Apostles and made binding upon the Churches for all time. We might have expected to find something of the kind in the Scriptures. The sacred writings of almost all other religions but the Christian do contain such summaries, or even more minute directions respecting faith and religious observances. This omission from the Christian Scriptures could not have been undesigned by their Divine Author. He must have seen it best to scatter the various truths of revelation unsystematically through the sacred books, as He has scattered the various orders, and families, and species of plants and animals irregularly over the surface of the earth. All the reasons for so doing we may not be able to discover: "His ways are unsearchable." But we can see some advantages arising from it. The study which is necessary to discover the various truths which are mixed with the history, biography, prophecy, poetry, parable, devotional exercises, and religious discourses of Scripture, and to bring these into harmonious relationship to each other, is beneficial. And if, in addition to these, we had received a summary of the truths thus diffused, we should have been less likely to search for them. We should have been liable to sit down in indolence, making the systematic statement a dormitory in which to enjoy mental repose. As Archbishop Whately says: "The Conpendium would have been regarded as the fused and purified metal, and the other Scriptures as the mine containing the crude ore. And the Compendium itself, being not like the existing Scriptures, that from which |