tion-with God "manifest in the flesh"enshrined in dust, surrounded by, suffering from, submitting to, every human infirmity --boundless only in compassion, infinite only in patience, incomprehensible only in gentleness; lavish of his divine power, but only for the relief of others, omnipotent only for man.

I know not, however, whether the reverse of this view is not more astonishing; whether there be not even more to smite a hard heart, and warm a cold one, in the realization of Jesus as Jehovah. When you next peruse his journey to Samaria, how he sat on the well, and asked the woman (from a human need of the refreshment too) to "give him to drink,”—turn to the prayer of Habakkuk; the divine suppliant is the being therein represented as cleaving the earth with rivers,at whose presence "the everlasting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills did bow." He who approached the fig tree, hungry, and desiring of its fruit, was the same who said of old, "all the beasts of the forest are mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." The Lord who "turned and

looked upon Peter," with love that healed even whilst it wounded, was the same Lord who "looked upon Gideon," and in the "might" thereby imparted, bade him go and save Israel; the same Lord who "looked through the pillar of fire, and troubled the host of the Egyptians." He who suffered a disciple to lean upon his bosom in the holy confidence of affection, was one with him who said to Moses, "charge the people lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish."

I will not carry my illustrations further; it is enough if you so retain the idea, that in reading the Scriptures, your impressions of the majesty and condescension of God, exert upon your mind a relative and tempering influence. In my next I will endeavor to furnish you with a few general directions as to what I think the best method of studying the Scriptures devotionally.

Ever believe me,

Fondly and faithfully yours.

LETTER IV.

MY DEAREST

My first hint for your guidance in the devotional study of the Scriptures, is comprised in a single phrase, at once simple and paradoxical :-READ FOR YOURSELF.

Whatever may be the portion that engages your attention, whether history, prophecy, parable, or precept, look through the original and primary application of the passages, for that individual instruction, that personal benefit, which they embody for every attentive reader. By doing otherwise, the Bible is degraded into the rank of common literature, and its wars, and kings, and wonders, have no more influence on our lives, than the wars, and kings, and wonders, of Plutarch, or Josephus. Do not suppose I want you to spir

itualize or allegorize, when neither spiritual meaning nor allegory was intended; I only desire that you should practically remember the inspired declaration, that all Scripture is, in some way or other, "profitable," either for "doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness." The New Testament is so directly preceptive, that there is less danger of reading it without a personal reference, than the Old Testament, which seems devoted less exclusively to spiritual directions and commands. We are apt to think of its prophets, patriarchs, and kings, more with regard to their offices and stations, than their individual characters and actions. should think of them only as CHRISTIANS; Christians, in truth, of larger growth and finer symmetry, but men, nevertheless, of like passions with ourselves; partakers of that very grace which we may partake also; and encompassed with the infirmities which encompass us made indeed, by the providence of God, the precedents, the fathers, and the worthies of the church, but

amples and instructors to it.

set on a hill, not to claim our

We

not the less ex

They are lights

passive admira

tion, and superstitious reverence, but as silent guides to quicken our approach to their abodes, and show the footsteps wherein our feet must tread. We do wrong when we invest the saints of old with a celestial radiance which makes us forget their brotherhood with the flesh;-when the glowing visions of the prophet, the abundant revelations of the apostle, the ineffable scenes which rendered heaven to some a matter of sight, and not of faith-make us look away from their private and personal experience as Christians. In their public privileges, they must, indeed, be like the stars, and dwell in constellated grandeur, far above our reach and measurement, companions only to each other. Elijah, in his chariot of fire; Moses, on the heaven-enveloped Sinai; Job, hearkening to God in the whirlwind; Jacob, met by the host of God; and John, traversing the new Jerusalem, with its streets of gold and gates of pearl-are unapproachable; they are not one with us, nor we one with them. But Elijah, and Moses, and Job, and Jacob, and John, as followers of God in the midst of crooked and perverse generations,—in their