BIBLE.-The Words of the

There are no words on earth like those contained in the Book from heavennone that come so directly home to the heart, or plead so eloquently and forcibly to the judgment. They are shafts polished by God, and the Bible is the quiver wherein he has laid them.-Dr. Davies.

BIBLES.-Reference

It were to be wished that no Bibles were printed without references. Particular diligence should be used in comparing the parallel texts of the Old and New Testament. It is incredible how much scriptural knowledge one may acquire without any other commentary or exposition, than what the different parts of the sacred volume mutually furnish to each other. Let the most illiterate Christian study Scripture in this way, comparing text with text, and the whole compass of abstruse philosophy and recondite history shall furnish no argument with which the perverse will of man shall be able to shake this plain Christian's faith. -Bishop Horsley.

BIGOT.-The Delights of a

A bigot delights in public ridicule; for he begins to think he is a martyr.— S. Smith.

BIGOT.-The Theological

In that crowd of men

The man of subtle controversy stood,
The bigot theologian, in minute

Distinctions skilled, and doctrines unreduced
To practice; in debate how loud! how long!
How dexterous! in Christian love how cold!
His vain conceits were orthodox alone.
The inimitable and heavenly truth, revealed
By God, was nought to him. He had an art,
A kind of hellish charm, that made the lips
Of truth speak falsehood; to his liking turned
The meaning of the text; made trifles seem

The marrow of salvation; to a word,

A name, a sect, that sounded in the ear,

And to the eye so many letters showed,

But did no more-gave value infinite;

Proved still his reasoning best, and his belief,

Though propped on fancies wild as madman's dreams,

Most rational, most scriptural, most sound;

With mortal heresy denouncing all

Who in his arguments could see no force:

On points of faith, too fine for human sight,
And never understood in heaven, he placed
His everlasting hope, undoubting placed,

And died; and when he opened his ear, prepared

To hear, beyond the grave, the minstrelsy

Of bliss, he heard, alas! the wail of woe.-Pollok.

BIGOTRY-Opposed to Christianity.

Nothing is more opposite to the spirit of Christianity than bigotry. This arraigns, and condemns, and executes all that do not bow down and worship the

image of its idolatry. Possessing exclusive prerogative, it rejects every other claim. How many of the dead has it sentenced to eternal misery, who will shine for ever as stars in the kingdom of their Father! How many living characters does it reprobate as enemies to the cross of Christ, who are placing in it all their glory!-Buck.

BIGOTS.-The Condition of

Bigots are stiff, straitened, and confined, like Egyptian mummies, which are bound round with thousands of yards of ribbons.-J. Spencer.

BIGOTS.-Great

Young converts are generally great bigots. When we are first converted to God, our brotherly affection too often resembles the narrowness of a river at its first setting out; but, as we advance nearer to the great ocean of all good, the channel widens, and our hearts expand, more and more, until death perfectly unites us to the source of Uncreated Love.-Salter.

BIOGRAPHIES-must be True.

In order that biographies should offer a really religious interest, they must, above all, be true; that is to say, they must be complete. What is wanted here is not precept, but example; it is not a theory, or even a symbol, of Christian life; it is a Christian life itself.-Professor Vinet.

BIOGRAPHY.-The Benefits of

As biography is a means of preserving the knowledge and memory of the best of mankind, their noble acts, their beneficial labours, their wise expressions;as it is speaking on God's behalf, who made these men "burning and shining lights" in their generations, all kinds of hearers will be entertained and benefitted by discourses upon it. Great men can obtain their examples only from sacred biography. Here emulation must begin in all; here action must be excited; and here reward must be exhibited to those who, imitating their faith and patience, shall inherit the promises.-Dr. Sturtevant.

BIOGRAPHY-Defined.

It is the mortal life re-produced on the immortal page.-Dr. Davies.

BIOGRAPHY.-Inspired

There is no teaching so interesting or so profitable as that of inspired biography. There are no lessons so grand or so suggestive as those derived from the study of the lives and character of the great heroes of the past. They are truly the world's great artists. They have moulded life. Wondrous as are the conceptions wrought by the sculptor's chisel in breathing marble,-what, after all, are these? Dumb creations-soulless, inanimate expressions of beauty and power. Grander, and more God-like surely, has been the work of those "great ones of the olden time" who, by their words and deeds, have influenced successive ageschiselled the moral features of mankind.-Dr. Macduff.

BIOGRAPHY.-The Pen of

The feather, whence the pen

Was shaped that traced the lives of good men,
Dropped from an angel's wing.-Eccle.

BIOGRAPHY.-The Use of

The chief use of biography consists in the noble models of character in which it abounds. Our great forefathers still live among us in the acts they have done, and which live also; still sit by us at table, and hold us by the hand; furnishing examples for our benefit, which we may still study, admire, and imitate. Indeed, whoever has left behind him the record of a noble life, has bequeathed to posterity an enduring source of good, for it lives as a model for others to form themselves by in all time to come; still breathing fresh life into us, helping us to re-produce his life anew, and to illustrate his character in other forms.-Smiles.

BISHOP.-The most Diligent

I would ask a strange question :-Who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England, and passeth all the rest in doing his office? I can tell, for I know who he is; I know him well; but now methinks I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. There is one that passeth all the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England. And will ye know who it is? I will tell you: it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is never out of his diocese; he is never from his cure; ye shall never find him unoccupied; he is ever in his parish; he keepeth residence at all times; ye shall never find him out of the way, call for him when ye will; he is ever at home; the most diligent preacher in all the realm; he is ever at his plough; he is ever applying to his business; ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you; and his office is to hinder religion, to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry, to devise as many ways as can be to deface and obscure God's glory.-Bishop Latimer.

BISHOP.-The Experience of a

A bishop is more agitated by cares and storms than the sea is by the winds and tempests.-St. Chrysostom.

BISHOP.-The Greatest

The greatest bishop in the Church is he who is most conformable to the example of Christ, by humility, charity, and care of his flock, and who, for Christ's sake, will be a servant to the servants of God.-Bishop Wilson.

BISHOP.-The Qualifications of a

He must be a man of a good private character; possessing and illustrating the Christian virtues, or, as we would say now, an upright man and a Christian gentleman. (1 Tim i. 2, 3.) He must be a man who rules his own house well, and who thus shows that he is qualified to preside as the first officer in the Church of God.—(1 Tim. i. 4, 5.) He must be a man of suitable age and experience-one who will not be likely to fall into the temptations that are laid for the young. (1 Tim. i. 6.) He must have a fair reputation among those who are not Christians, as it is intended that the influence of his ministry shall reach them, and as it is impossible to do them good unless they believe him to be a man of integrity.-(1 Tim. i. 7.)—A. Barnes.

BISHOP. The Superintendence of a

The superintendence is just enough to keep up the sense of responsibility, but not so meddlesome as to repress individuality and keep down freedom of action.-Heard.

BISHOPS.-The Appointment and Office of

It seems to have been the will of Christ that for awhile His Church should be watched over by the Apostles. But after a few years these Apostles all died and passed away; and then Bishops were appointed to take their place, who were to act as overseers of the whole Christian body, and ordain men as ministers in the Church. This is a wise arrangement; and what is more, it is a scriptural one too-Bishop Oxenden.

BOOK-A Bad

It is right to enrich yourselves with the spoils of all pure literature; but he who would make a favourite of a bad book, simply because it contained a few beautiful passages, might as well caress the hand of an assassin because of the jewellery which sparkles on its fingers.-Dr. Parker.

BOOK-A Good

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond.-Milton.

BOOK-The Power of a

A book is powerful in proportion to the genius it develops, the number of the faculties it appeals to, the variety of soul-chords it touches into tune, the inti macy of its suggestions with felt interests, and the congruity of the whole with the inward sense of intellectual and moral propriety.-Dr. Thomas.

BOOK-A Rule for Reading a

In reading a book in which something may be found that we do not approve of, we should resemble the ox in the meadow, who, when he comes to a tuft of grass he dislikes, does not grow angry, and attempt to tear it up with his horns and hoofs, but placidly leaves it, and goes on to feed in the large and rich pasture before him.—Jay.

BOOK.-The Sin of Killing a

As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature,—God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself,-kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.-Milton.

BOOK-Thoughts and Sentiments in a

A book that is to live with you,-to be a companion, an instructor, must have something better than polished words or well-wrought sentences. It must have thoughts and sentiments that touch the head and the heart. Then a book becomes a silent power more and more influential.-H. W. Beecher.

BOOK.-The Wonderfulness of a

Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book!—a message to us from the dead-from human souls whom we never saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away, and yet these, in those little sheets of paper, speak to us, arouse us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers!-Canon Kingsley.

BOOKS.-Authors Live again in their

Our books, we live again in them,

Our being's noblest part;

Our name in many a memory;

Our home in many a heart.-Landon.

BOOKS.-Benefit Derived from

There is no book out of which something may not be gleaned for the preacher's store.-Dr. Hammond.

You will make many works, which chance may throw in your way, tributary to your purpose. You will treasure up one feature or other that may strike you of the Church of the time; in the lives and memoirs of distinguished men of generations gone by, especially in their correspondence; in ballads and rhymes; and in the numerous antiquarian relics which find their way to the press: and you will thus be able to make even the casual glimpses of a book, picked up on a journey, at a watering-place, or in a drawing-room, furnish a contingent, and often a very valuable contingent, some item, the want of which had puzzled you, to the fund of facts you are accumulating; and thus will you eventually work up shreds from all quarters, and of all colours, into a sober coat without a seam.-Professor Blunt.

BOOKS.-The Choice of

There is as much art and benefit in the right choice of books, with which we should be most familiar, as there is in the election of other friends or acquaintance with whom we may most profitably converse.-Bishop Wilkins.

BOOKS.-Copying

Of all bodily labours, that of copying books has always been more to my taste than any other: the more so, as in this exercise the mind is instructed by the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and it is a kind of homily to the others whom these books may reach. It is preaching with the hand, by converting the fingers into tongues; it is publishing to men in silence the words of salvation; in fine, it is fighting against the demon with pen and ink.—Cassiodorus.

BOOKS-Described.

The necessary tools of a Christian minister.-Dr. Davies.

Books are the windows through which the soul looks out.-H. W. Beecher. Books are men of higher stature;

BOOKS.-Desultory

And the only men that speak aloud

For future times to hear.-E. B. Browning.

While in some books every sentence, page, chapter, is like a brick, shapely, well-disposed, all rising in order into a perfect structure; others have a quite different kind of order; affluence is strewn abroad, the disposition and the arrangement have to be sought for; a law is discovered, a purpose, an end; but they are found in the mind itself, in the law of thought: they have the grand irregularity of a vast Eastern tree, throwing itself abroad, carelessly, stupendously, but with assured purpose and method, albeit a method hidden from itself, rowing so deeply within.-E. P. Hood.