the institution. We shall not have done our duty by our own souls until we find in these public services the joy of our hearts and the inspiration of our conduct.
Let me go a step further and put into plain words a thought that is floating in my mind. The entire work of the Seminary deserves to be classed in the category of means of grace; and the whole routine of work done here may be made a very powerful means of grace if we will only prosecute it in a right spirit and with due regard to its religious value. For what are we engaging ourselves with in our daily studies but just the Word of God, the history of God’s dealings with His people, the great truths that He has revealed to us for the salvation of our souls? And wht are we doing when we engage ourselves day after day with these topics of study and meditation, but just what every Christian man strives to do when he is seeking nutriment for his soul? The only difference is that what he does sporadically, at intervals, and somewhat primarily, it is your privilege to give yourselves to unbrokenly for a space of three whole years! Precious years these ought to be to you, brethren, in the culture of the spiritual life. If such contact as we in the Seminary have the privilege of enjoying with Divine truth does not sanctify our souls, should we not infer either that it is a mistake to pray in Christ’s own words, “Sanctify us in the truth; Thy word is truth,” or else that our hearts are so indurated as no longer to be capable of reaction even to so powerful a reagent as the very truth of God?
I beseech you, brethren, take every item of your Seminary work as a religious duty. I am emphasizing the adjective in this. I mean do all your work religiously—that is, with a religious end in view, in a religious spirit, and with the religious side of it dominant in your mind. Do not lose such an opportunity as this to enlighten, deepen and strengthen your devotion. Let nothing pass by you without sucking the honey from it. If you learn a Hebrew word, let not the merely philological interest absorb your attention: remember that it is a word which occurs in God’s holy Book, recall the passages in which it stands, remind yourselves what great religious truths it has been given to it to have a part in recording for the saving health of men. Every Biblical text whose meaning you investigate treat as a Biblical text, a part of God’s holy Word, before which you should stand in awe. It is wonderful how even the strictest grammatical study can be informed with reverence. You cannot read six lines of Bishop Ellicott’s Commentaries, Critical and Grammatical, on Paul’s epistles without feeling through and
