Welsh Journals

THE WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODIST RECORD. JANUARY, 1854. THE GREAT ENTERPRISE OF THE AGE: THE CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. The highest honour ever conferred upon any individuals of the human race was that enjoyed by the " holy men" who, being " moved by the Holy Ghost," were made the inspired vehicles for revealing God's word to man¬ kind. Second only to this honour is that of diffusing the knowledge of that word by the circulation of copies of the Scriptures and the preaching of the gospel. We need not «pend any time in the attempt to estimate the comparative importance of the written word and the living expounder of that word, as means for the religious instruction and the salvation of men. In God's plan they appear to be supplementary to each other. To¬ gether they form a " simple and unencumbered" but efficient whole; and the means for the evangelisation of a community cannot be said to be complete where either is absent. He who gave the universal command—- "Search the scriptures"—gave also the special command—"preach the gospel to every creature.w Listening and reading, act and re-act most beneficially upon each other. The eunuch read and listened and believed. The Bereans listened and read and believed. The great result was attained to in both cases, though the order in the use of the means in the one case was reversed in the other. The apostle Paul, in his last appeal to the Thessalonians, identifies the one with the other: "finally, brethren, pray for ws, that the word of the Lord may have free course." The apostle John blends them in one magnificent vision: " and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth." Providence, however, may make it appear to the church, under certain circumstances, that one of these agencies must take precedence of the other,