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An old divine used to say, that a preacher had three books to study—the Bible, himself, and the people. Gillies’ Hist. Coll. Bishop Burnet remarks it, as ‘the capital error in men’s preparing themselves for the sacred Ministry, that they study books more than themselves.’—History of his Own Times. ‘While a minister is engaged in composing and preaching, he is giving out to others; but while he is occupied in familiar conferences, he is taking in for himself. One half hour’s practical study of the human heart in personal visits, gives an impulse to ten hours’ speculative meditation from men and authors.’ Bishop of Calcutta’s Essay to Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, p. 43. ‘I was fond enough of books’ (said Halyburton, on his death-bed); ‘but what the Lord let me see of my evil heart, and what was necessary against it, was more useful to me in the course of my Ministry than all my books. This is the best pulpit I was ever in. I presume, in the case I am now in (on his death-bed), to suggest this advice: that it may not only be your care to be diligent in composing sermons: but above all, examine your own hearts; and make use of what discoveries you get there, to enable you to dive into consciences, to awaken hypocrites, to separate the precious from the vile, and to do it with that accuracy and caution as not to make sad the hearts of those whom God has made glad. This is the great point in religion, and in the management of your Ministry, that you may obtain the testimony of the great Shepherd, when he shall appear.’ Halyburton’s Memoirs. The aphorism (Prov. 27.19.) proves the habit of self-inspection to be the most valuable means of knowing and addressing the hearts of our people.