of wicked men, who could lay no claim to the character of the church of Christ.  A church consists of a society of people, professing the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, and practising them in their lives.  Or, in other words, having both the form and power of godliness.  Without these, no body of men have any right to be called the church of Christ.  If you observe this, you will relieve yourself from much perplexity of mind, which the careless reader experiences from, supposing that all the evils described in any period of the history of the nominal church, do really exist in the true church.  These very evils prove that it is not the true church of Christ.

(2.) RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY, or the lives of individuals of eminent piety, is perhaps the best kind of practical reading.  It is in many respects very profitable.  It furnishes testimony to the reality and value of the religion of Jesus, by the exemplification of the truths of Revelation in the lives of its followers.  It also points out the difficulties which beset the Christian’s path, and the means by which they can be surmounted.  Suppose a traveller just entering a dreary wilderness.  The path which leads through it is exceedingly narrow and difficult to be kept.  On each side, it is beset with thorns, and briers, and miry pits.  Would he not rejoice to find a book containing the experience of former travellers who had passed that way; in which every difficult spot is marked; all their contests with wild beasts and serpents, and all their falls described; and a beacon, or guide-board, set up, wherever a beaten track turns aside from the true way?  All this you may find in religious biographies.  There, the difficulties, trials, temptations, falls, and deliverances of God’s people are described.  You may profit from their examples.  But, one caution is necessary.  Bring every religious experience described in these works to the test of the Holy Scriptures.  If you find anything contrary to this unerring standard, reject it.  Satan is ever busy, and may deceive even good men with false experiences.  I would advise you, so far as practicable, to keep always the biography of some eminent person in a course of reading, and devote to it what time you can spare from your ordinary pursuits, one day in the week.

(3.) In relation to doctrinal reading, I have already given general directions.  If you devote to it the spare time of one day in the week, regularly, you will keep alive your interest in the investigation of truth, and yet avoid becoming so much absorbed in abstract speculation as to overlook present duty.