the individual conscience before the general idol of traditional interpretation and ecclesiastical authority. The true Protestant spirit is not a mere negation, as some pretend, both among its enemies and its professed friends; nor is it to be confounded with the rationalism, liberalism, and latitudinarianism, of modern infidelity. It is not a mere discoverer and destroyer of error; it is a builder up of truth. It is not a spirit of cold indifference,-equally unconcerned about all systems. It is a spirit of warm and intense zeal; not disposed to doubt, but, on the contrary, heartily eager and anxious to believe. It is the spirit which led Luther through the marvellous experience by which he was fitted for his great work of reformation. He proved all things,—not like the gay apostle of atheistic French philosophy, to catch a flaw in each on which his flippant wit might fasten; he proved all things, if by any means he might find any where a place for the sole of his weary foot, some good worthy to be the object of the yearning spirit of faith that was in him,-the spirit that could have no rest until it attained, not to that sense of universal uncertainty in which the scoffing unbeliever found his miserable satisfaction, but to that full assurance in which as a meek believer he might rejoice in peace and friendship with his Father and his

God.

It is a poor device of controversy which would confound these two tempers together, and represent them both as equally the legitimate types of the Reformation. But be not ye deceived. Be not lightly defrauded of your birthright, nor, with all its attendant anxieties and responsibilities, be content to sell it for the mess of pottage with which an apostolic Church,

or a priestly order, would stay the cravings of your hunger. Rather be content to still hunger and thirst after righteousness that you may be filled,-filled, not with what comes through man's hands, and is cooked up artificially to serve his purposes, but with the bread of life which comes direct from heaven, even Christ himself, in whom is all the fulness of God,—and with the water of life, which Christ gives, and which is in him who receives it a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. Thus taking nothing upon trust or at second-hand, but hearing for yourselves and judging for yourselves, you will find true and satisfying rest to your souls; and you will go on from strength to strength rejoicing, until at last you appear before God in Zion, where in his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.

ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN.

III.

THE RIGHT AND DUTY OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT-SEASON OF YOUTH-ASPECT OF THE TIMES.*

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."—1 Tuess. v. 21.

THE general import and bearing of these antagonist but yet harmonious precepts, has been already considered. The inquiry enjoined is an earnest, full, and fair inquiry: and an inquiry, above all, directed, not to the unsettling of all things in the spirit of captious scepticism, -but to the settlement of the soul in quiet assurance and peace. That he has never deeply believed who has never painfully doubted, is almost a truism, as applicable to the experience of all the higher order of minds. But there are two kinds of doubt; the scoffing and the sincere. And the distinction between them may be briefly stated. The one class prove all things, that they may find all to be naught; they travel from Dan to Beersheba, and say it is all barren. The other

The substance of this and the preceding paper was delivered as a discourse to students, 18th December 1842, and afterwards published. With several alterations, the original form of address is retained.

class prove all things, with hearts yearning after something that they may hold fast, and determined to hold fast that which is good.

The general views which we have been enforcing are now to be applied with special reference, in the first place, to the season of youth; and secondly, to the aspect of the present times.

I. To explain and enforce the great principle of this text is always seasonable; but it seems especially so in its application to the place which many of you occupy in the prime and vigour of your opening manhood. Considering your position,-engaged as you are in the studies and pursuits of youth, exposed to its temptations, and looking forward to a speedy entrance on the scenes of busy life, it is especially important to press upon your earnest regard the precept, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." "Get wisdom," says the wise man, "and with all thy getting, get understanding." In the multitude of your engagements and inquiries, forget not to ascertain the chief good, and delay not to make it your own. is good," says the apostle, " that the heart be established with grace;" and it is especially good that your hearts be so established now.

"It

Ah! who can calculate the amount of mischief which has flowed to many a youth in generations now past and gone, from their leaving the question of their relation to God unsettled in their early days, and postponing even the serious raising of it till a more convenient season? How easily do they who so act become a prey to worldly indifference or religious formality! Let a young man, who has never learned to bring this ques

tion to a fair issue and a final settlement,-who has been familiar with the influences and examples of godliness around him, and has had his impressions, and misgivings, and awakenings, but has never made thorough work of his soul's salvation,-let such a one find himself among sceptics and scoffers, or even among the gay and the worldly, who care neither to believe nor to deny the Gospel ;-how is he guarded against the frivolous liberality which, treating with a light jest, or a quaint personal remark, the things which should be thoroughly proved, -the systems and societies, in every one of which there is either God's truth or the devil's lie,-finds good worth holding fast in none of them, or finds it equally in all? Or,-as in these days of increasing earnestness is perhaps more likely,— should he fall into distress and disquietude of soulshould old recollections haunt him, or new relentings come upon him-when he meets with those who have a charm for all his wounds, in the mere name of baptism, or in the routine of church order and the multiplying of church ordinances, what is there to hinder him from laying down his aching head to rest on the bosom of the mother Church that so soothingly invites him to repose in her arms?

How necessary, therefore, is it that you should learn now, ere these trials come, to "prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good!" And be persuaded to make a perfect as well as immediate work of this proof. Begin it in good faith; carry it through with good resolution. Shrink from no pain which it may give, and no sacrifice which it may require. Trifle not with any movements of the good Spirit of God in you; and do not seek a slight or partial healing of the hurt