The observation itself is a most noble testimony to the efficacy of the Scriptures; but the terms used by the apostle carry it to its highest pitch. Language could not express more than is contained in these few words: " which are able to make thee wise unto salvation."

Wisdom has been so much the object of a universal passion, that from the first workings of the human mind it has been every where either aimed at, or pretended to. The most ancient of the sacred poets, the most distinguished of the Jewish kings, and the most enlightened of the heathen sages, wonderfully accord in pronouncing upon it almost the same eulogium. "It cannot be gotten for gold," says Job, "neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof: no mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies." "I Wisdom," says Solomon, "dwell with Prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment." And, says Cicero, "Wisdom is the mother of all good arts, therefore nothing more profitable, nothing more delightful, nothing more excellent than the love of wisdom has been conferred on man by the immortal gods."-De Legibus, lib. i. prope finem.

But when St. Paul wrote to Timothy, the term wisdom had become ambiguous; much was so called which was utterly unworthy of the name.

VOL. III.

BB

The natural thirst for wisdom was as keen as ever; but not being able to find for themselves "the fountain of living water," the wise men of the world had hewn out cisterns, broken cisterns, which could hold no water. Of this the learned will find striking instances in the philosophy of the Epicurean, the Academics, the Stoics, and even the followers of Plato.

The Apostle therefore fixes his meaning by declaring what was accomplished by the wisdom of which he spoke: "The Scriptures," says he, "are able to make us wise unto salvation;' so wise, as to attain perfect security and genuine happiness. And here he falls in with the most natural wishes of man. Salvation being really the instinctive aim, however erroneously pursued, of every child of Adam. Nor does he less accord with all that was true in philosophy: for, to rescue man from the ills of nature; to heal the maladies of the soul; to lighten the load of life; to expel misery and to confer happiness; in a word, to bring salvation to mankind, was the professed aim of all the pursuers of, or pretenders to, wisdom.

That man needs to be made wise unto salvation, that is, requires to be instructed how to escape the miseries of his nature, and attain tranquillity of mind and self-enjoyment, can need little proof to him who either observes or feels. Human nature has in all ages been represented by poets as well as by philosophers. (by those who caught the appearances of things as well as by those who sought to fathom the causes of them), as pregnant with wretchedness. The gayest of the Latin poets

has peculiarly dwelt upon this theme; and who that has any portion of sensibility, does not in his heart respond to his beautiful, yet melancholy strains,

"Tamen

Curta nescio quid semper abest rei." "Post equitem sedet atra cura." "Patriæ quis exsul, se quoque fugit?" And what Christian divine could more earnestly press the necessity of seeking salvation from this misery?

"Ut jugulent homines surgunt de nocte latrones, Ut te ipsum serves, non expergisceris?"

Shall we, then, question that wretchedness of human nature which poets and philosophers thus agree to attest? If we doubt, let us judge for ourselves; let us cast our eyes over the extended mass of mankind. Let us observe the brutal ignorance in which so vast a majority helplessly remain, lower in some respects than "the beasts that perish." Let us mark the vice and profligacy which pervade not merely this degraded rank, but so much of all ranks. Let us inspect even more respectable characters, and see how much foolish desire, unbridled passion, rankling envy, gloomy discontent, appear even on the surface of life: whether, therefore, we view men as individuals or as social beings, whom can we pronounce happy, while we cannot but see thousands and tens of thousands who are, from some one or other of these causes, undeniably miserable?

Can any earthly good furnish a remedy for these evils? On the contrary, do they not most

appear where worldly prosperity is highest? The evil passions are, at least, as much at work here as in the lower classes of society; and, even where they do not prevail, there is one feeling to which the most favoured children of fortune are most liable, and which is itself a mass of calamity, a chaos of misery -I mean, that horrid vacancy of mind known by the name of ennui. This is strictly the atra cura of Horace; and is peculiarly the disease of high life. "Some charitable dole is wanting," says Burke, "to these our often very unhappy brethren, to fill the gloomy void that reigns in minds which have nothing in earth to hope or fear; something to relieve the killing languor and over-laboured lassitude of those who have nothing to do; something to excite an appetite to existence in the palled satiety which attends on all pleasures which may be bought, where nature is not left to her own process, where even desire is anticipated, and, therefore, fruition defeated by meditated schemes and contrivances of delight, and no interval, no obstacle, is opposed between the wish and the accomplishment."

But, even where these miseries are not felt, there is still the dread of death, by which most are, in some degree or other, "through all their life subject to bondage." "O death! how bitter art thou," says an apocryphal writer, "to the man that is at ease in his possessions!" "Caret mortis formidine virtus," says Horace; and Virgil,

"Felix qui

Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum

Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari."

What, then, is human nature, if left without a remedy; if there be no such charitable dole as Burke speaks of to be found? It was this, as I have observed, that the philosophers professed to pursue; and Horace seems to have had a strong idea of such a thing when he wrote those lines, Epist. i. lib. i., "Sic mihi tarda fluunt," &c.

But he was, after all, but a disappointed alchymist; though, as if touching the very moment of projection. St. Paul, and they who bore the same commission, could alone accomplish what Horace and such as he could only aim at. And this is precisely what the Apostle professes to do. He declares the existence of an adequate and efficacious remedy for all those evils, when he says "that the Holy Scriptures are able to make one wise unto salvation." Salvation, in St. Paul's sense, has a plenary reference to every one of the evils we have mentioned; and, therefore, what he means to assert, is, that there is no calamity, no weakness, no fear, no misery, to which the heart of man is liable, from the sting and distressing feeling of which he may not be effectually delivered, by fully and cordially receiving that wisdom which is promulgated in the Holy Scriptures.

Let us examine for ourselves this assertion, and consider whether the Bible, indeed, merits this high encomium. Infidels in our day have ransacked it, for supposed contradictions and absurdities. Let us who possess that holy religion which the word of God alone has discovered, do as much for God's honour, and our own and our neighbour's happiness.

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