As an illustration:—In a union meeting in which we participated, many years ago, and after the discussions had continued eight days and nights, in which some ten parties participated, on the last evening of the meeting, a gentleman rose and inquired if he might speak, at the same time explaining that he was a sceptic. The chairman said that it was no church meeting, and if he intended speaking to the point before the meeting, he should be heard. Several expressed a desire to hear him, and no one objected. He said he only intended to say a few words. Pointing to those of us who contended for union on the Bible, he said: “If the Bible is true, these men are right, for they insist on your taking _the Bible and going by it_. If the Bible is not true, _I am right_, and there is no show at all for the balance of you.” That is a case that needs no argument. Before we belonged to the church, we spent a few days in a worthy family. The head of the family was a class leader in the M. E. Church, a kind-hearted and good man. He was zealous, and desired to benefit us religiously, and made sundry attempts to talk to us. We knew but little about the matters of which he talked, and really did not desire to say enough to discover to him how little we did know. But after further acquaintance we inquired of him as follows: “If a man will take the Scriptures, read them, believe them, and do what they require, will he not be a Christian?” With somewhat of an air of surprise, he replied: “No; he must have something more than that.” This “something more than that” was the perplexing part. What more could there be than the Scriptures require? _Then, if there is something more than the Scriptures require, how did any man find it out?_ And, still further, what is it? _If it is not required in Scripture, how does any man know that it is required at all?_ Of course we mean on the human part, or that which is required _of man_. When we inquire how a man is to obtain a crop of corn, we do not mean how he is to _make soil_, how he is to get atmosphere, sunshine, rain, etc., but how he is to perform _his part_. If the soil has not in it the qualities to produce corn; if the right state of atmosphere is not given, the sun does not shine, and the rain does not come, he is not to blame. It is useless to preach about the properties of the soil, the atmosphere, the warm sunshine, the rain, etc., in showing a man how to grow corn. On all these matters a man might preach philosophically, learnedly and correctly, but not another grain of corn would grow, for all his fine talk. This is not the _practical_ nor the _human part_. But the man must be instructed how to put the ground in order, how to plant and cultivate, in showing him _how_ to obtain a crop of corn, _with_ the divine blessing, but certainly not _without it_.