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I make these remarks, not to go into a commentary upon Paul's speech, but to show what kind of reflections will occur to an intelligent mind, in thus collating different portions of the sacred volume. Notice every difference; and endeavor to discover, in the circumstances of the case, its cause. You will find by so doing that new and striking beauties will arise to view at every step; the pages of the Bible will look brighter and brighter, with meaning hitherto unseen, and you will find new exhibitions of character and conduct so natural and yet so simple as to constitute almost irresistible evidence of the reality of the scenes which the sacred history

describes.

There are a great many of the events of which two different accounts are given in the Bible, which may be advantageously collated in the manner I have described. In hopes that some of my readers will study the Scriptures in this way, I enumerate some of them.

SOLOMON'S CHOICE.

LESSONS.

1 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles
REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES. 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles
STORY OF ELISHA.

STORY OF ELIJAH.

STORY OF HEZEKIAH. Kings, Chronicles, and Isaiah.

GENEALOGICAL LINE FROM ADAM TO ABRAHAM. Genesis

and 1 Chronicles.

CATALOGUE OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL. Kings and Chron

icles.

CATALOGUE OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH. Kings and Chron

icles.

PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. Matthew, Mark, and Luke

THE SAVIOUR'S ARREST. Four Evangelists.

HIS TRIAL. Four Evangelists.

HIS DEATH. Four Evangelists.

HIS RESURRECTION. Four Evangelists.

INSTITUTION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. Matthew and 1 Corinthians.

GENEALOGY OF CHRIST. Matthew and Luke.

The above subjects differ very much in the degree of intellectual effort necessary for their examination, and in nearly all the reader will often be involved in difficulties which he cannot easily remove. If we merely read the Bible, chapter after chapter, in a sluggish and formal manner, we see little to interest us and little to perplex; but in the more thorough and scrutinizing mode of study which I here suggest, both by this mode and the others I have been describing, we shall find beauties and difficulties coming up together. Let every one then who undertakes such a collation of different accounts, expect difficulty. Do not be surprised at apparent contradictions in the narrative; you will find many. Do not be surprised when you find various circumstances in the different accounts which you find it impossible for you to bring together into one view; you must expect such difficulties. Look at them calmly and patiently; seek solutions from commentaries and from older Christians, and what you cannot by these means understand, quietly leave. A book which, under divine guidance, employed the pens of from fifty to a hundred writers scattered through a period of four thousand years; whose scenes extend over a region of immense extent, and whose narratives are involved with the most minute history of all the great nations of antiquity-Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome-such a book you must not expect to understand fully in a day.

5. Studying by subjects. Select some subject upon which a good deal of information may be found in various parts of the Bible, and make it your object to bring together into one view all that the Bible says upon that subject. Take, for instance, the life of the apostle Peter. Suppose you make it your business on one Sabbath, with the help of a brother, or sister, or any other friend who will unite with you in the work, to obtain all the information which the Bible gives in regard to him. By the help of the Concordance you find all the places in which he is mentioned-you compare the various accounts in the four gospels; see in what they agree and in what they differ. After following down his history as far as the evangelists bring it, you take up the book of the Acts, and go through that for information in regard to this apostle, omitting those parts which relate to other subjects. In this way you become fully acquainted with his character and history; you understand it as a whole.

Jerusalem is another good subject, and the examination would afford scope for the exercise of the faculties of the highest minds for many Sabbaths: find when the city is first named; and from the manner in which it is mentioned, and the circumstances connected with the earliest accounts of it, ascertain what sort of a city it was at that time. Then follow its history down; notice the changes as they occur; understand every revolution; examine the circumstances of every battle and siege of which it is the scene, and thus become acquainted with its whole story down to the time when the sacred narration leaves it. To do this well, will require patient and careful investigation. You cannot do it as you can read a chapter, carelessly and with an unconcerned and uninterested mind; you must, if you would succeed in such an investigation, engage in it in earnest. And that is the very advantage of such a method of study; it breaks up effectually that habit of listless, dull, inattentive reading of the Bible which so extensively prevails.

You may take the subject of the Sabbath; examine the circumstances of its first appointment, and then follow its history down, so far as it is given in the Bible, to the last Sabbath alluded to on the sacred pages.

The variety of topics which might profitably be studied in this way is vastly greater than would at first be supposed. There are a great number of biographical and geographical topics a great number which relate to manners, and customs, and sacred institutions. In fact, the whole Bible may be analyzed in this way, and its various contents brought before the mind in new aspects, and with a freshness and vividness which, in the mere repeated reading of the Scriptures in regular course, can never be seen. It may assist the reader who is disposed to try the experiment, if I present a small list; it might be extended easily to any length.

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There are various other methods which might be men tioned and described; but enough has been said to enable, I think, any one who is disposed, to engage at once, for a short time each Sabbath, in such an intellectual study of the Bible. Parents can try the experiments I have above described in their families; and Sabbath-school teachers can try them in their classes. Sabbath-schools would be astonishingly improved at once, if the teachers would put their ingenuity into requisition to devise and execute new plans, so as to give variety to the exercises. There would be a spirit and interest exhibited, both by teacher and pupil, which the mere servile reading of printed questions, and listening to answers mechanically learned, never can produce.

There is far too little of this intellectual study of the Bible, even among the most devoted Christians. Its literature, its history, its biography, the connection of its partsall are very little understood. It is indeed true, that the final aim of the Bible is to teach us personal religious duty. It comes to the conscience, not to the literary taste of men; and is designed to guide their devotions, not to gratify their curiosity, or their love of historic truth. But why is it that God has chosen the historic form, as a means of communicating his truth? Why is it that his communications with mankind were for so many years so completely involved with the political history of a powerful nation, that its whole history must be given? Why is our Saviour's mission so connected with the Roman government, and all this connection so fully detailed that no inconsiderable portion of the geography and customs and laws of that mighty empire are detailed in the evangelists and Acts? The moral lessons which our Saviour taught might have been presented in their simple didactic form. The whole plan of salvation, through the sufferings of a Redeemer, might have been given us in one single statement, instead of leaving us to gather it piece by piece from multitudes of narratives and addresses and letters. Why is it then, that instead of

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