and philosophy of many great empires have sunk into oblivion and are no more known, but the Bible has outlived them all. It contains history more aged than Herodotus, poetry more ancient than Homer, and philosophy more hoary than Plato-and yet here it is, in all its freshness still, the delight of youth, the instructor of manhood, the comforter of old age. Powers, which overthrow dynasties and obliterate kingdoms, are weak and ineffectual when directed against the Bible. It is a pearl on the breast of the Omnipotent, which mortal dare not snatch; it is a book thrown down to earth, endued with immortality; it is a light which earth's wild tempests cannot extinguish; and an ark of truth which cannot sink. The King of kings is its protector, and we need not fear what man can do unto it. "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever."-1 Peter i. 24, 25. Based on the Everlasting Rock of Ages, it remains unmoved and immovable; the storm may roar around it, and the waves of persecution beat violently against it; but as long as a sinner

remains on earth to be told of a Saviour, or a Saint to be instructed in the ways of God, it shall stand as a beacon to warn from the quicksands of error, and as a lamp to guide to the haven of Eternal Truth.

Oh, may that hapless day never arrive when the Church of England shall cease to honour it! As long as the Prayer Book honours the Bible, the God of the Bible will honour the Prayer Book; but let that glorious Article, which we have now been defending, ever be expunged from its pages (which God forbid !) and then farewell to all thy glory, thou Church of my country! "Ichabod" shall be burnt into thy doors with the finger of God's wrath; and thou who art now the fairest candlestick which sheds God's light through Christendom-and thou who art also the most faithful and earnest Evangelizer of Heathendom, shalt become paralysed and weakened, and as conspicuous in disgrace as thou art now illustrious in glory.

Faithfulness to Scripture is the seat of thy strength, and the Philistines know it. They are intriguing with Delilah to shear thee of thy locks; then keep thine eyes open, or thou art betrayed! Thou art ingenuous and confiding,

and hast "shewed men all thine heart," and we blame thee not for disliking reserve; but we conjure thee not to sleep, for if the foe succeeds in robbing thee of this great Article, thou wilt be fit for nothing but "to grind in a prisonhouse;" and thou mayest "go out and shake thyself as at other times," but, to thy sorrow, thou wilt discover that the Lord has departed from thee!

FINIS.