Among such topics as may now claim a seasonable repetition, I may again remind you how much it behoves us, in consulting the written word, the rule of faith and duty, to avoid all partial views, by which restriction one truth would exclude another; or, what is worse, a wrong conclusion may be joined with what is only true in some respects, and both the truth and the fallacious inference may thus gain currency together. The neglect of this rule has brought more strifes and divisions into the Christian world than almost any thing that can be named. Take an instance if you think fit; there is more joy when that which is lost is found again, than for that which was never lost. This is true in that respect; but will you strain the matter farther, and say that the recovered sheep is of more worth than the whole flock to which it is restored? Will you say that the piece of silver which was missing, and when found creates much joy on that account, outweighs all that the purse, from whence it dropped, contained? Will you say, that the pardoned son, who returns to the right path by a true repentance, and fills his father’s heart with well placed and unwonted joy, is in all respects to be preferred to the son who never left the right path from an early day? The forgiving father’s answer will convict that misconception:—“Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” If the elder brother may be thought to have lost his preference, it could only be because of his envious temper and his ill-timed remonstrance. In avoiding partial views and misapplications of what is true, the more numerous and more general and plainer testimonies, and those which admit but of one construction, will be the guiding light for reconcilement and consistency—not for preference, for that would still be but a partial view. I may here add a necessary caution (oftentimes suggested, for it frequently proves needful), to give heed to the native idioms or forms of speech, which were in use, and rightly understood, by those to whom the word of treaty and persuasion was first addressed. The use of learned pains will thus appear, as well as of every method of right reasoning in the study of the sacred Scriptures, the rule of faith and duty for which we have to bless God daily.