to commend "Bible Photographs " to public appreciation. So far as the compiler is aware, an arrangement similar in all respects has not previously been effected. He believes that his method is not only novel, but possessed of important advantages. The book presents the spiritual experience of the Christian, and in contrast thereto, a description of the mental states of the wicked.

If the contrast is frequently defective in pointedness, it may be ascribed to the compiler's deficiency of skill, on the one hand; and on the other, to the interesting fact-confirmed by a careful research-that the Word of God contains many more promises to the righteous, exhibitions of their experience, and consolations for their sorrows, than threats, warnings, or denunciations addressed to the wicked. As the mental history of the wicked is necessarily less varied than that of the righteous, the description of their states must be less diversified. It is life which has variety, and the wicked are spiritually dead." The vicissitudes of the pilgrimage can only be realized in the experience of the pilgrim. Few elements of change operate within those who make their restingplace in evil.

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This little work is designed to bring under the eye of the Christian a few of "the exceeding great and precious promises," so grouped as to be adapted to his various spiritual states, and thus to afford him warning and consolation, instruction and encouragement, suited to his day. The passages are as draughts of "water out of the wells of salvation,” which peradventure may help those who "trust in God" to "run and not be weary,” to “walk and not faint." As the arrangement brings together under their appropriate headings many impressive passages, the book may be found useful to ministers, Scripture-readers, and Sundayschool teachers. With all who find the work thus serviceable, the compiler hopes it may become a bosom friend, small enough to be a constant companion, and valuable enough to deserve so to be.

It unfortunately happens in our times, that much opposition is offered on critical grounds to the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. Perhaps this critical spirit may, after all, be "the spirit of blindness and unbelief." It may spring from "the natural man," who, the apostle says, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness

unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). When humbly read as the Divine guide of human life, and the only expounder of the future existence and states of man, the Word of God displays its own incomparable beauty, and commends its priceless truth. Its impressive teachings win their way to sympathetic souls, and need the assistance neither of the wisdom nor of the art of man. Possibly, the presentation of some passages, the force of which every heart may feel, the beauty of which every mind must recognise, and the truth of which all experience will confirm, may tend to approve and endear the whole of the Sacred Volume to the loving confidence of its readers.

It is sad to know that there is a necessity for there being in the Word of God passages which are sublime only in the horror they describe, and in the calamities they predict. Such passages are in the Bible because sin is in the world. There are the righteous and the wicked among men, and the Scriptures portray the characters of both. The twofold picture everywhere confronts the view. The two classes stand in contrast to each other in the world, and their characters, conditions, and

destinies are contrasted in the Word. They constitute the brightness and blackness, the lights and shadows, of the great picture of life.

The compiler of this work has endeavoured to exhibit this contrast in the following pages. Purity and peace, joy and consolation, trust and hope,sin and remorse, sorrow and misery, despondency and despair, are real things. They live in human experience, and it is the Bible alone which truly describes their effects, and which clearly unfolds their causes. The Sacred Scriptures not only constantly direct us "to choose the good, and refuse the evil;" they also guide us unerringly in our choice.

Out of the rich abundance furnished in the Word, the chief difficulty has been to determine what to omit. The following selection might doubtless be as easily improved as it might be enlarged. Each reader may be able to correct its defects, and to add to its extent. It would help us all to become wiser and better men if we habitually wrote down every passage of Scripture which at any time impressed our minds, or which may have seemed peculiarly appropriate to our state. Such a common-place book would grow to be an invaluable companion, and all the more precious to us

from being the result of our own labour. Perhaps this little book may suggest a method and supply an example. Inasmuch as the work is composed of extracts from the Word of God, we should remember that it is God speaking through its pages. Let it be received as it was compiled, in the spirit of the prayer: "Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me for Thou art the God of my salvation." (Ps. xxv. 4, 5).