present and promising the future. That shame and fear is likewise the voice of God, condemning the present, and threatening all ill to the future. These universal and unalterable sentiments of the human heart, reveal the moral attributes of the Deity. That vice is really culpable, is a conviction that we have, merely because it is his will. We cannot doubt it, for a belief in the veracity and goodness of God is equally instinctive and necessary. Our instinctive persuasion of his veracity is the undoubted ground of our expectation that he will reward and punish us. Thus our religious convictions grow out of our moral natures, and thus the convictions of our moral nature receive an Almighty sanction. He, who made us, made all things. He, who created us, sustains all things. He who made our souls, upholds and guides all their operations. He is the ever present Witness, the Judge and Rewarder.

Here then comes in a new moral power, that of religious conviction, of greater strength than either of the preceding, to enforce the moral instincts and sentiments of mankind, and thus to purify and elevate them. There are besides, certain sentiments in the human

heart which immediately spring up toward this august Being, such as reverence and gratitude, and demand expression. Times are set apart for the purpose, and ceremonies invented. An order of men springs up, consecrated to conduct these ceremonies, to make what may be known of God and our relations to him, the moral and religious nature of man, their peculiar study. At set times, and in various manners, they teach the result of their investigations to the people. In all Christian countries all original investigation on these subjects is rendered unnecessary and is superseded by the possession of a Divine Revelation, in which all the truths of religion are laid down in wiser words than man's wisdom teacheth, and enforced, moreover, by an authority which no human demonstration could possibly attain, the authority of miraculous interposition. Temples are built where God is worshipped, and these truths are statedly taught. Thus the religious element of our nature is brought to act upon the moral with an intensity which casts all other influences into the shade, and the Pulpit has become the great, the divinely appointed instrument of the elevation and moral progress of mankind.

Such then is the moral nature of man. It contains within itself the elements of the perpetual advancement of the species. It expresses itself in law, public opinion, religious institutions, and these in and these in turn give freedom to his faculties, security to his possessions, control over his baser propensities, and wider and wider command over the resources of nature. Thus it is that politics, morals, and religion are the great topics of human interest. Legislation, education, religious instruction, are the objects which the philanthropist must ever keep in his eye. The Laws, the Press, and the Pulpit,-in them rests the ultimate hope of man. Legislation, Literature, and the Bible,-their influence is progressive and irresistible. They are all parts of one system, devised by Infinite Wisdom, to secure the temporal and eternal well being of mankind. The ministry do not labor alone for human good. The sage in his closet, the philosopher in his laboratory, the philanthropist in the public assembly, the author at his desk, the editor at the press, the judge in the court of justice, the professor in the halls of science, are all co-workers in the same great cause of human comfort, improvement, and happiness.

LECTURE X.

ON THE PROGRESS AND THE PROSPECTS OF SOCIETY.

HE last lecture was devoted to the investigation of the Moral Constitution of Man. That discussion led us to the conclusion that man's moral nature developes itself in the form of law, of public opinion, and religious institutions. These in turn react upon his individual character and his social condition, continually elevating them to higher degrees of purity and perfection. I spoke of religious institutions as springing out of

man's moral nature, because it is man's moral nature alone which makes God known as the Lawgiver, the Judge, and Rewarder. By reason he is made known as the Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor. But these rela

tions constitute too faint a tie to be the foundation of religious institutions. They say nothing of futurity, and were there no belief in immortality, all religion would fall to the ground. It is only the feeling of responsibility created by man's moral nature, and the natural expectation of immortality, modified by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward, which keep alive religious investigation, sustain worship and public instruction, and thus give force and sanction to man's moral convictions.

Laws, public opinion, religion, these are the means of human progress, the ultimate hope of man. As these improve, man will advance to higher degrees of perfection and happiness. If they are stationary, so will be the condition of the species. If they deteriorate, the hope of humanity is just so far eclipsed. We shall speak of them in their order, laws, public opinion, and religion.

It will not be necessary, I hope, to prove to such an audience as this, the immense influence of government and legislation over the morality and prosperity of a people. It will only be necessary to illustrate it by