what, according to them, cannot be learnt. And are they not unjust to themselves? Have they really such narrow and shallow understandings, so impossible to widen and deepen? Would they confess to such incapacity if they were listening to a scientific lecture? would they complain if the lecturer introduced them to new facts, showed them fresh experiments, suggested to them explanatory theories, sought to make them wiser than they were? Would they shut their ears at the sound of the first new term: would they shrink back at the first invitation to tread upon unfamiliar ground; would they protect themselves against being enlightened, by claiming to be hopelessly ignorant? Would they not rather make the most of the opportunity, opening ear and stretching mind to catch all they could, finding pleasure in being carried beyond and above themselves, resenting indignantly a hint that the thing was out of their reach, professing, somewhat ostentatiously pretending a greater delight and fuller understanding than they really had? O why is it the fashion to claim to be so wise in secular matters, to boast of ignorance in religion? It is well, indeed, that men should not sham to be wise in GOD’S presence, but it is ill, very ill, that they sham to be ignorant, or that they should be content to be ignorant when they might be wise, ignoring and disowning the powers which GOD has given them! Take these remarks, dear brethren, into your serious consideration. Remember that GOD has given you intelligent minds, in order that you might think of and serve Him with understanding. Much, indeed, about Him is absolutely incomprehensible; much has He designedly withheld; before many mysteries, has He put up the warning, “Draw not nigh hither;” but much has He told you plainly, and much has He propounded in sufficiently obscure or difficult terms, to task and exercise your minds in their necessary unravelling. With respect to these things, as it is only by much resistance that you can withstand the temptations to which you are exposed; as it is only by great efforts that you can acquire the holiness without which no man shall see the LORD, so is it, only by real and often hard study, that you can attain unto the knowledge of which GOD has made you capable, and in which He bids you grow. The elementary, the vitally necessary truths of the Gospel are, it may be, within the immediate comprehension of the simplest and most uncultivated understanding; but shall it, therefore, be said to you, shall you be allowed to say of yourselves, that you need not be concerned about anything beyond? Would you be satisfied if you had only so much secular education as would enable you to spell out sign-post directions? Would it be no reproach to you, having so many faculties and opportunities, only to be able to read and count? Would you miss nothing of duty, of interest, of pleasure, if your intellect were uncultivated, if you were wholly unacquainted and