Moreover, you must learn God’s testimonies:  what He has witnessed and declared about Himself, and His own character, His power and His goodness, His severity and His love.  And where will you learn that, as in the Bible?  The Bible is full of testimonies of God in Christ about Himself; who He is, what He does, what He requires; and of testimonies of holy men of old, concerning God and concerning duty; concerning God’s dealings with their souls, and with other men, and with all the nations of the old world, and with all nations likewise to the end of time.  And if people will not read and study their Bibles, they cannot expect to know the way to eternal life.  That too the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew, and said, “I have had as great delight in Thy testimonies, as in all manner of riches.”

Moreover, you must learn God’s judgments; the way in which He rewards and punishes men.  And those too you will learn in the Bible, which is full of accounts of the just and merciful judgments of God.  And you may learn them too from your own experience in life; from seeing what actually happens to those whom you know, when they do right things; and what happens again, when they do wrong things.  If any man will open his eyes to what is going on around him in a single city, or in the mere private circle of his own kinsfolk and acquaintance; if he will but use his common sense, and look how righteousness is rewarded, and sin is punished, all day long, then he might learn enough and to spare about God’s judgments:  but men will not.  A man will see his neighbour do wrong, and suffer for it:  and then go and do exactly the same thing himself; as if there were no living God; no judgments of God; as if all was accident and chance; as if he was to escape scot-free, while his neighbour next door has brought shame and misery on himself by doing the same thing.  For it was well written of old, “The fool hath said in his heart—­though he is afraid to say it with his lips—­There is no God.”  And the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said, “I remembered Thine everlasting judgments, O Lord, and received comfort; for I was horribly afraid for the ungodly who forsake Thy law.”

I say again:  that the only way to attain eternal life is to know, and keep, and profit by God’s laws, God’s commandments, God’s testimonies, God’s judgments; and therefore it is that the Psalmists say so often, that these laws and commandments are Life.  Not merely the way to eternal life; but the Life itself, as it is written in the Prayer-Book, “O God, whom truly to know is everlasting life.”

But some will say, How shall I learn?  I am very stupid, and I confess that freely.  And when I have learnt, how shall I act up to my lesson?  For I am very weak; and that I confess freely likewise.

How indeed, my friends?  Stupid we are, the cleverest of us; and weak we are, the strongest of us.  And if God left us to find out for ourselves, and to take care of ourselves, we should not sail far on the voyage of life without being wrecked; and going down body and soul to hell.