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CHRISTIANITY THE BEST SYSTEM OF ETHICS.

THE efficiency of the salvation which Christ accomplished, to deliver men from the guilt of sin, shall be seen in the result of the faithful preaching of the Gospel, when compared with any other scheme, that all the talent and all the application of men can invent. Philosophers may try to regenerate a nation, a neighbourhood, a family, or an individual; and moralists may try to reform them. They will work in vain. Crime, robed in every possible character of deformity, and blood shed under every circumstance of horror, and accomplished villany buoyed up with every feeling of pride and self-righteousness, have been too plainly seen to be the legitimate results of that "philosophy falsely so called," which forsakes the guidance of revelation. And as to the moralist, even though he take with him a certain portion of the Christian religion, and teach that as a divine system of morals, which ought to be taught as a system of divine grace; or as a system of reward on sincere obedience, and not as the system of justification by faith; we have now, on every side, sufficient and melancholy proof, that notwithstanding his best efforts, the people may and will decline from every good way; that a general corruption of manners may and will prevail, against whose overwhelming tide the voice of moral suasion will be raised in vain, and the daily aggravating deluge will threaten with speedy desolation a once fair and promising land, and every safeguard which such a heartless and unauthorized system can rear round the altar and the throne. But the faithful servants of the living God, and of his Christ, go forth armed only

with the pure and heavenly weapons of Gospel mercy, and the result shall vindicate the truth of God. Let the missionary hasten to the polluted savage of Taheite, or the worshippers of devils on the Bullom shore, or to the civilized, though blood-stained votary of Juggernaut, or the high-minded servant of the false prophet; and let him declare in Christ Jesus, "the righteousness of God, for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;" and this word shall be effectual-the sinner shall receive it, shall believe, shall be reclaimed, and sanctified, and comforted.

CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE RELIGION.

I SEE many contrary religions, all of which must be false but one. Each of them claims credit upon its own authority, and deals out its threatenings against all who disbelieve it. I do not therefore take them at their word. For they can all do alike in this respect, just as every man can call himself a prophet. But in Christianity I see the accomplishment of prophecies, and an infinite number of miracles, attested beyond all reasonable doubt, and these I find in no other religion.

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

PRACTICAL Christianity may be comprised in three words; devotion, self-government, and benevolence. The love of God in the heart is a fountain from which these three streams of virtue

will not fail to issue. The love of God also is a guard against error in conduct, because it is a guard against those evil influences which mislead the understanding in moral questions. In some measure, it supplies the place of every rule. He who has it truly within him, has little to learn.

Look steadfastly to the will of God, which he who loves God necessarily does; practise what you believe to be well-pleasing to him, leave off what you believe to be displeasing to him; cherish, confirm, strengthen the principle itself which sustains this course of external conduct, and you will not want many lessons, you need not listen to any other monitor.

The behaviour or practice of every man who is vitally united to the holy Jesus, is universally conformed to the law as a rule of duty. Such a holy practice is the grand business of his life; the business in which he is chiefly engaged, and which he pursues with more earnestness and diligence than he does any other. His understanding is divinely enlightened, to see the transcendent beauty of holiness; his will is renewed to choose holiness, and his affections are sanctified to love, desire, and delight in it. He is also constrained by the love, commanded by the law, and enabled by the spirit of Christ, to be "holy in all manner of conversation." He therefore makes the constant practice of universal holiness his choice, his delight, and in an eminent degree his employment. Relying on the righteousness of Jesus Christ for all his title to eternal life, trusting in Christ for continual supplies of grace, and aiming in all his performances at the glory of

God; he perseveres through all changes, and under all trials, in the love and practice of universal holiness, to the end of life.

SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY.

CHRISTIANITY breathes nothing of the malignity of national prejudice, or the exclusive spirit of a rancorous bigotry. Its spirit is that of unlimited benevolence, and its employment is to do good to all. O that those who are disgusted with it as disfigured by the trappings of superstition, and breathing the fury of intolerance, would turn their eyes to it as it appears over the plains of Bethlehem! pure and benign as the angel who proclaimed it, and announcing peace on earth, and good will to men.

CONSOLATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY.

CHRISTIANITY offers even to the irreligious, who relent amidst their sufferings, the alleviation springing from inestimable promises made to penitence; any other system, which should attempt to console them, simply as suffering, and without any reference to the moral and religious state of their minds, would be mischievous, if it were not inefficacious. What are the principal sources of consolation to the pious, is immediately apparent. The victim of sorrow is assured, that God exercises his paternal wisdom and kindness in afflicting his children; that this necessary discipline is to refine and exalt them, by making them "partakers of his holiness;" that he mer

cifully regards their weakness and pains, and will not let them suffer beyond what they shall be able to bear; that their great Leader has suffered for them more than they can suffer, and kindly sympathizes still; that this short life was not meant so much to give them joy, as to prepare them for it; and that patient constancy shall receive a resplendent crown. An aged Christian is soothed by the assurance, that his almighty Friend will not despise the enfeebled exertions, nor desert the oppressed and fainting weakness of the last stage of his servant's life. When advancing into the shade of death itself, he is animated by the faith that the Great Sacrifice has taken the malignity of death away; and that the divine presence will attend the dark steps of this last and lonely enterprise, and show the dying traveller and hero that even this melancholy gloom is the very confine of paradise, the immediate access to the region of eternal life.

SEED-TIME.

YOUTH is the spring of life; and by this will be determined the glory of summer, the abundance of autumn, the provision of winter. It is the morning of life; and if the Sun of Righteousness does not dispel the moral mists and fogs before noon, the whole day generally remains overspread and gloomy. It is the seed-time; and "what a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Every thing of importance is affected by religion in this period of life.

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