Practical Lessous.

I.
“Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say go's

INTRODUCTION.

answer.

The Bible is confessedly the most valuable possession of man; and yet we are too ready to be satisfied with the bare confession that it is so, without troubling ourselves much by inquiring in what its true value consists, that it is valuable, not in itself, but in the effects which God, in giving it to man, has designed it to produce, is a truism, which every person will admit; and yet not a few Christians, if pointedly asked to explain what that object really is, would be at a loss for a very definite

To this vagueness of idea concerning the design of Scripture, much of the formality amongst Protestants, many of the errors in religious education, and all the superstitions of Catholics, may fairly be traced. The reader would find it interesting, and very profitable to himself, were he here to pause for a little, and to make up his own mind on the subject before proceeding.

The Bible has not been given merely to satisfy our natural curiosity about those great and glorious things which it, and it alone, has revealed to man ;-nor has it been given principally, and as its ultimate object, to make known to fallen meu the being and perfections of God ;-nor to give the history of his doings and dispensations to his church and people ;-nor to declare the way of