And the study of _that_ Book, I repeat, you will find no hindrance, no impediment, no burthen to you at all. On the contrary. It will render you a very singular service,--let your classical and logical studies be as severe as they will; (and they cannot well be too severe, too engrossing,--for this is your golden opportunity which never will, never _can_, come back again!) The undersong of "Siloa's brook that flows, fast by the oracle of GOD," will many a time soothe and refresh your else dry and weary spirit. What was begun as a task will soon come to be regarded as a privilege. _That_ jealously-guarded half-hour will be found to be the one green spot in the whole day,--like Gideon's fleece, fresh with the dew of the early morning, when it is "dry upon all the earth beside." Your secret study of that Book of Books, I say, will render you a very singular service. The contrast between the Divine and Human method will strike you with ever-recurring power. Unlike every other History, the Bible removes the veil, and discovers the causes of things,--including the First Great Cause of all, who dwelleth in Light unapproachable, but who yet humbleth Himself to behold, and to controul, and to overrule for good, the things which are done in Heaven and on Earth. And thus, it is not too much to say that the Bible, to one who reads its pages aright, is a certain clue to every other History,--as well as a perpetual commentary on every other Book. It informs the judgment, and cleanses the eye, throughout the whole department of Morals: and as for History, what is it all, but the evidence of GOD in the world,--"traces of _His_ iron rod, or of _His_ Shepherd's staff[267]?"