and who therefore speaks to him with authority.  The young are sometimes advised to study certain authors, that they may thus gain “a knowledge of men.”  It cannot be denied that, within the sphere of this world, the knowledge of men which some of these writers possess is admirable.  But the Bible contains not only all this knowledge in its most complete and practical form, but also, what is wanting in the authors referred to, a perfect knowledge of men in their higher relation to God.  With wonderful accuracy does the Bible describe men’s character and conduct as citizens of this world.  But here it does not stop.  It regards them as subjects of God’s everlasting government, and thus as citizens of eternity also; and it portrays in vivid and truthful colors the way in which they harden their hearts, blind their minds, and stupefy their consciences by their continued wilful resistance of God’s claim to their supreme love and obedience.  In a word, it describes men in their relation to God as well as to their fellow-men; and every man who reads the description, hears within his soul the still small voice of conscience saying, “Thou art the man.”  Whence this all-comprehensive knowledge of man contained in the Bible?  The answer is:  He who made man has described man in his own word with infallible accuracy; “because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man.”

6.  We come now to the argument from personal experience.  To receive Christ in sincerity and truth, is to know that his salvation is from God.  Many thousands have thus a full and joyous conviction of the truth of Christianity.  They were oppressed with a deep consciousness of guilt, which no tears of sorrow or supposed good works could remove.  But they read in the Holy Scriptures that Jesus is “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”  They put their trust in his atoning sacrifice, and thus obtained peace of conscience, and joyous access in prayer to God as their Father in heaven.  They were earthly in their affections, and able therefore to render to God’s holy and spiritual law only an obedience of the letter, which they knew would not be acceptable.  But through faith in Christ they have been lifted up to a holy and blessed communion with God, and thus enabled to render to God’s law an obedience of love “in the spirit and not in the letter.”  They were oppressed with a painful sense of the empty and unsatisfying nature of every thing earthly; but they have found in Christ and his glorious service an all-sufficient portion.  In a word, they are assured that the gospel is from God, because it meets all their wants as sinners.  They have the same evidence that God made the gospel for the immortal soul, as that he made bread for the stomach, air for the lungs, and light for the eyes.  The sincere believer has in himself the witness that the gospel is from heaven, for he is daily experiencing its healing, strengthening,