In their devotional exercises, the faithful servants of the Lord are peculiarly blessed; are made sensible of His presence and His power. When they pour forth their prayers and praises at the throne of grace; when they thus hold a nearer communion with their reconciled God, a heavenly tranquillity and delight are spread over their souls; they know and feel their connexion with “the Father of spirits,” and they rise from their devotion with an humble confidence, that the tribute of their heart has been accepted; that their fervent supplications will be answered, in God’s appointed time and way, through the merits and intercession of a merciful Redeemer. To these inspiring hopes and persuasions the impenitent sinner is an utter stranger: if he prays at all, it is but the outward service of the lips; there can be nothing of the spiritual principle of devotion, and therefore nothing of its fruit. Again: when the humble pious believer sits down to the study of the Bible, with a pure desire to discover and perform the holy will of God; to be nourished with the bread of life; and to draw, from the fountain of truth, the waters of eternal salvation; the grace of the Holy Spirit is with him, to remove the veil from his corrupt heart, and thus to open and enlarge his understanding: by this means he perceives “the wondrous things” of the divine law, and applies them for his own personal edification and comfort. The true import of the doctrines, there contained, is progressively unfolded to his view; and the full bearing, of every precept and rule of life, is pressed with increasing force and authority upon his heart. He admires and reverences the holy book; he loves all that it contains; his soul is rapt in the contemplation of the stupendous mystery of goodness and godliness; it elevates his prospects and affections above this lower world; he has “tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come;” {341} he beholds, with the eye of faith, his inheritance in the skies; and this his heavenly view brightens as he advances. Every sincere Christian can bear witless, that his acquaintance with the word of life is continually improving; that in every page, and almost in every passage, he is perpetually discovering fresh truth and beauty, fresh obligations and delights. Of all this, the carnal-minded and the sinner are profoundly ignorant; to them the Bible is comparatively a dead letter: they see little of its harmony or its excellency; and where they do see, it has no lively or permanent effect upon their heart; no more, than any other book, of history, or morality, or amusement.