the brotherhood of worms--on the one side, it unveils to us our
relation to angels and archangels, on the other. Nay, more; it not only
shows us our relation to the celestial hosts, and to Him who presides
in their midst, but it points out to the penitent and the humble, the
road which, through divine grace, will conduct them thither.

I have spoken of the study of the Bible without note or comment. Notes
and comments, indeed, after you have made diligent use of all your own
faculties and powers, and sought thereon the blessing of God's Spirit,
have their use. I am exceedingly fond of them: and I would not wholly
deny to you what I am so fond of myself. The danger is, of leaning upon
them too much. Scott, and Clarke, and Henry, and Jenks, and Calmet, and
Barnes, and Bush, may help to show me the true way of finding out and
interpreting the Scripture for myself; but if I go farther, and either
indolently or superstitiously suffer them to interpret it for me, it
were almost better that I had not sought their aid. But the Bible, with
or without notes, is--I repeat it--the great volume of self-knowledge
which I urge you to study, and which, in comparison with all the books
written by man, and even the great volume of nature herself, is alone
able to make you wise to salvation.

It seems to me to have been too seldom observed, and still more seldom
insisted on, how apt the love and study of the Bible are to awaken the
dormant intellectual faculties, and to enkindle, even in the aged, a
desire for general improvement. On this point, Mr. Foster, in his essay
on Popular Ignorance, has some very striking remarks. In alluding to
that great moral change which it is one object of the Bible to produce,
and to the consequences which often immediately follow, he thus
remarks: