What various departments of inquiry and knowledge there are in the fruitful and beautiful oracles of God! 2 Tim. 3. suggests this. There is the devotional, the prophetical, the practical, and the doctrinal. Each of us, it may be, has a tendency to nourish our souls with one or other of these, somewhat out of due proportion. And the character of our mind will form itself accordingly, and the character of our communion also. Some of us will be known rather as orthodox, some as spiritual, some as practical, some as intelligent. Might we not pause for a moment and ask, have we been unduly feeding our souls with one or other of these meats provided in the word, to the damage of the full health of the soul?
And can this be discovered from the character of mind which prevails among us, and from the character of communion which our own souls have with the Lord, and one with another? I believe this would be profitable. And is it so? Is the mind and the communion which has been produced among us (let me so express it) of so marked a character that we can discover from them the food we have been living on, and the air we have been breathing?
There is a variety of character among us surely. We need not question that—it must needs be so, I might say. But still, is there not something prominent—something pervading? I believe there is, and I am disposed to express it in this way: That we have been looking more at our social than our personal standing, and cultivating knowledge rather than devotedness. The result as to our communion one with another has been marked accordingly. We find, on social occasions, very generally, points of inquiry, pointed and nice distinctions (correct, also, I allow,) taken and discussed; but the beauty and perfection of the Lord Jesus self, and what our souls have learned of Him, are less our material. We have been wanting in " fervency of spirit," and have talked, and talked accurately, about truth, but 'have not broken the heart over it sufficiently.