Shakespeare's debt to the Bible

as well moral as mystical, depends upon Divine Revelation."

No moral responsibility, but duty depending upon "the interaction of social forces" (whatever this may mean), and no God except these "social forces". this may be Professor Tyndall's gospel for the world; but what a miserable substitute for the Divine law, which is "holy just and good," and the Divine Gospel, which brings a forgiven past, a peaceful present, and a glorious future. It is mar

vellous how much trouble some men will take to show us how little we need believe instead of how much we may believe. A child striving to believe he has no parent is no unapt representative of the man who labours to disprove the Fatherhood of a Personal God. What substitute can Dr. Tyndall offer for the happy faith of one who can say, "As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me"; "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want"?

It is the highest philosophy to hold fast the sacred deposit of revealed truth-the Word of God.

"The Bible," exclaims Boyle, "is a matchless volume it is impossible we can study it too much or esteem it too highly."

"We account the Scriptures of God the most sublime philosophy," is the testimony of Newton.

“There are no songs," says Milton, "to be compared with the songs of Zion."

"There never was found," writes Lord Bacon, “in

* Lord Bacon.

any age of the world, either religion or law or discipline that did so highly exalt the public good as the Christian faith."

"I have regularly and attentively read the Bible,” writes the distinguished Oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, "and I am of opinion that this volume, independently of its Divine origin, contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more impartial history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within the same compass from all other books ever composed in any age."

"The Bible," exclaims Locke, "has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter."

He who em

The Bible is the Book to live by. braces its teaching, receives its doctrines, practises its precepts, hopes in its promises-he who lives the Bible, is himself an epistle of its truth, and a demonstration of its origin.

And it is the book to die by. It is recorded of Sir Walter Scott, that when the last hours of his life were approaching, he said to his son-in-law,'Bring me a book!" Lockhart. "Can you

man

-“Can you ask? Yes! One book to

"What Book?" inquired

ask?" replied the dying There is but one!"

die by! "There is none

other in the universe," exclaimed the great Selden, upon which we can rest our souls in a dying moment except the Bible."

Precious Bible ! Truth that never grows old, riches that never decay, pleasures that never cloy

a crown that is never tarnished, griefs assuaged and fears tranquillized, bright hopes and incorruptible immortality-there is nothing it does not offer, nothing it does not give, to the man who feels his wants and seeks its bounty.

"Lord, Thy Word, our brightening treasure
In life's deepest shade,

Yieldeth still increasing pleasure,

As all else doth fade :
From the wilderness it shows
Whence the land of promise glows,
O'er the vale of sweet repose
Where the dead are laid.

"Sweet repose, until the breaking
Of that coming day,
When the holy sleepers, waking,
Shall their home survey!

Then, not seraph's tongue may tell
'Mid what glories they shall dwell,
With what notes of rapture swell
Heaven's eternal lay.

"May Thy Word, O Lord, be clearer
To our vision still :

May the good it shows be dearer ;
Hated more the ill!

Grant us, Lord, the grace we need ;
Light vouchsafe us as we read;
Tend us, guard, and safely lead

To Thy holy hill."-T. Davis, M.A.

BLACKHEATH, April, 1879.

PREFACE.

CONTENTS.