for neither do its motives influence, nor its rules guide the conduct: there may be the external form, but there is not the power of godliness; there may be the cold and lifeless statue, there is not the living Christian, possessed of intelligence, volition, and motion, and animated by faith and hope,—the origin, exercise, and direction of which belong to the Spirit of God. This is a necessary consequence of that neglect of the Bible, which has been already noticed as being such a prolific source of error. There is very general in the world a standard of faith and morals, which Scripture does not recognize, and a reliance upon Divine mercy, which Scripture does not sanction. Thus the world calls vices venial, which Scripture says shall exclude from heaven; and the world speaks peace, where Scripture pronounces woe. Take, however, the life of a large body of men, trace it from the cradle to the grave; observe in childhood its toys, in boyhood its sports, in youth its pleasures, in manhood its occupations and enjoyments, and in age its employments; all in succession deemed of supreme importance, and the excessive indulgence of which has never been considered criminal: then take the Bible, and compare the survey you have made with what it reveals of the nature and object of man’s probation; and the conclusion will force itself irresistibly and painfully upon you, that as life is to be a state of moral discipline to fit the heir of immortality for his bright inheritance, the life, which has been depicted, is not that which will lead to the blessed mansions of heaven.