Who, coming to this sacred book, with a sincere desire to know God's
will for the direction of his life, will say that he can not find it?
Who, desiring to be instructed in the way of salvation "through faith
which is in Christ Jesus," will consult its pages, and say it is not
made plain to him? Who, coming to it for equipment of his spiritual
life, will say that there are still needs of that life which are left
unprovided for? Who, seeking direction in the way of the life
everlasting, can doubt that, if he faithfully obeys its teaching, he
will reach that goal? The Scripture fulfils the ends for which it was
given; no higher proof of its inspiration can be demanded. * * * * *
What the closing verse of the 20th chapter of John's Gospel says of that
book: "But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life through His
name," may with equal truth be applied to the Bible as a whole.
--_James Orr, D. D._,
Glasgow.
121
_A Little Bird Told Me_--The origin of this phrase is doubtless to be
found in Ecclesiastes, x, 20:--For a bird of the air shall carry the
voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
122
Old birds are hard to pluck.
123
A man ashamed of his humble birth is never alone, because all good
people are ashamed of him for being ashamed.
124
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that riseth with us, our life's star,
Hath elsewhere had its setting,
And cometh from afar.
--_Wordsworth._
125