on the community, is not that which may be described as born with the system. Constituted as it is, it could not but acquire a relation to whatever belongs to man-to his wants, his hopes, and wishes. Its importance, its usefulness, its power, do literally grow with the growth of society, and the enlargement of the civilizing process. It is in this respect the leaven which leaveneth the whole lump; a plant which spreads its roots far and wide under the soil, every age piercing deeper, though unobserved, into the heart of the universe.

To a philosophically disposed mind, the contemplation of such a great moral engine in operation, is full of interest and excitement; nor is it to be supposed that a subject of this kind, properly weighed, can fail of producing some important effects in determining the feelings to a right point; but it is evident that no slight or casual attention to its bearings will produce these effects, and that, therefore, the ordinary degree of notice paid to the moral power, and political relations of Christianity, is but just sufficient to conceal from the consciences of worldly men their utter ignorance of the real worth of the faith which they profess.

Whatever good, however, may spring from the examination of the Christian system in its internal, or general influence, it is in its personal application, and the energy it embodies for the renewal and the saving of the soul, that the true believer

most rejoices to contemplate it. 'What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' is a question which carries us at once to the true view of Christianity. Its worth would be comparatively small, though it should establish kingdoms on an everlasting basis of peace and grandeur, if it did not primarily appeal to the hearts of individuals, and, as its grand object, offer them the means of sanctification and eternal life. In this consists its prime value; from this arises its beauty, so visible, so precious, so cheering, when contemplated by the eye of faith; and this it is which renders it the sublimest exposition which the human soul could receive of the divine attributes and counsels.

Our religion is a system of mysteries; and he who should determine to spend his life in the investigation of the abstrusest principles of nature, would have a far better hope of success in making discoveries, than he who should sit down in the pride of human wisdom, to fathom the simplest of Christian doctrines. Religion, as to its truths, is the revelation of the nature and the will of God: and what can be plainer than that, however clearly a truth may be understood, it can, after all, be only understood according to the capacity of the receiver? But how limited must the capacity of the creature necessarily be, when considered in reference to the comprehension of the Creator! If

the sun should give tenfold the light it does, what would be the effect? Would it enable us to look more steadfastly on its dazzling orb? Should we be nearer discovering the principle by which it is made an inexhaustible source of light and warmth to the universe? However the splendour of its disc were increased, we should only be able to receive so much of its light as the nature of our vision allows; and thus the fullest manifestation of its glory, the opening of its living fountains to their very depths, would not enable us to penetrate the veil which the very glory of the object may thus cast around it.

But are we then, it may be asked, to be kept forever standing in the outward court of the temple of truth? Is there no means afforded us of drawing nearer to its altar, than according to the distance measured by our capacity for understanding God's infinite perfection? Happily for us, the grandest mysteries of heavenly truth are presented to the Christian under a form which, without lessening their majesty, or weakening the transcendent light which they diffuse, enables us to contemplate them with as much comfort as astonishment.

In the first place, then, it has ever been a main truth of revealed religion, that the dark weak spirit of man must experience, ere it can recover its love of truth, an entire and vital change. It has also been declared, with equal clearness, that the means for

its recovery are willingly supplied by the Almighty himself, who drawing it towards him with many invitations of mercy; pours into it a stream of purifying, converting light. This grand revelation of God's readiness to re-create, as it were, the unspiritualized soul runs through every portion of the Scriptures written under the old covenants; it appears in the narrative of the times preceding the flood. My Spirit shall not always strive with men,' was the warning that preceded the awful sentence that overwhelmed the world in ruin: and what did it purport, but that the Almighty had long, by his own eternal Spirit, by the Spirit of light, wisdom, and love, sought to convince men of the danger of sin, and make them understand that there can be no good or happiness but in and through him? And the holy teachers of the law, the prophets, and the whole vast assemblage of those who ministered the truth in after time, whence derived they their knowledge ?-how learnt they to love and labour in the diffusion of holiness, but through that mighty power which wrought upon their souls, and furnished them with a kind of strength unknown to the rest of mankind ?

But the sanctifying principle thus given operated only to a small extent; nor did it unfold to the mass of mankind any method by which the Almighty might be directly approached as a Father by his children. The ordinances of the Mosaic

system pertained to a single people, and afforded in themselves only a dim shadow of the glory of God's countenance. And if, under the very tents of Jacob, men enjoyed not the beams of love but as they came through the narrow circuitous channel of rites and sacrifices, far more restricted in their approaches to his throne must those numerous tribes of the earth have been, who had none of the privileges of the covenant.

The principle, then, that man requires great help from God himself, before he can know or approach him, was established from the beginning; but it was not at first revealed with the full accompaniments of spiritual gifts, and with few exceptions, men lived as if unconscious of the truth, that the human soul in its healthy state, may become the temple of the divinity. It was for Jesus Christ to publish this sublime mystery to the world at large; and not merely publish the truth, but bestow the grace. Under the dispensation of the Gospel, the paternity of God is revealed, with proofs and accompaniments which establish it as the prime truth of all religion; and by the provision made in the covenant of grace, the revelation is attended with a power which both enlightens and sanctifies. This is the wonderful and indescribably precious property of the Gospel, which the apostle describes, when he says, 'God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath