Let not any day pass over your heads without some portion of the Bible, some subject of divine revelation, being brought distinctly to your view. The exercise will interfere with none of your earthly duties, but will help you in the performance of them all; will smooth whatever there be of ruggedness in your way; will strengthen you in the hour of temptation, and comfort you in perplexity and trouble. Many an encouraging promise and many an enlivening assurance will recur to your memory; and “a word in season how good is it:” examples of suffering and patience, of striving and perseverance, of warfare and triumph, will kindle in your breast an emulous ardour, and you will say, ‘By the help of the Lord, I will “go and do likewise.”’ Thus will the Bible be a never-failing source of strength and consolation all the day long; as the waters, which flowed from the flinty rock, accompanied and refreshed the Israelites, ever and anon, in their journey through the wilderness, so will your spiritual musings, suggested by the very hardships or troubles of life, be a perpetual stream of refreshment to your souls, even “in a dry land thirsty land, where no water is.” {113a} And by this means you will be preparing and training your souls for a happier communion with the Saviour in another world; where all the dealings of His providence, and all the wonders of His grace, will be more fully and gloriously manifested. And if the heart of the Christian now burn within him, at the contemplation of heavenly truth and redeeming love; now, in his frail tenement of clay; how unspeakable will be his delight, when these things are revealed to his pure spirit, in the realms of perfection and bliss. Then will he know more of “the love of Christ which passeth knowledge;” then will he see more of “the length and breadth and depth and height” {113b} of the mystery of mercy; he will see God “face to face” and “know even as he is known.” SERMON VII. IF THEY HEAR NOT MOSES AND THE PROPHETS. LUKE xvi. 31. _If they hear not Moses and the Prophets_, _neither will they be persuaded_, _though one rose from the dead_. LET us advert to the occasion on which these words were delivered, to the parable of which they form a part. The case there presented to us by the description of the rich man is unhappily of frequent occurrence in every age. Surrounded by all the luxuries that wealth could furnish, he looked for nothing beyond them: how many fellow mortals there were near his dwelling, deprived of the necessities, while he was revelling in the superfluities of life, was no care, no consideration of his; the selfish enjoyment of this world entirely absorbed his affections, and threw a veil over all expectation of a world to come: satisfied, that he had “goods laid by for many years,” he imagined that he had nothing to do, but to “eat, drink, and be merry.”