moment, totters instantly to its fall. The Deists have travelled by a torch snatched from the temple of God; but its light has been insufficient whilst it lasted, and has gone out ere they could boast of following it. To illustrate the importance of revelation, we have only to point to the ignorance, the fluctuations, the unsanctioned and uninfluential tenets of our modern unbelievers, even when sustained and illuminated by the vicinity of the Christian doctrine. We have only to plant our foot upon this very spot, cultivated by modern skepticism, to show the hopeless sterility, the utter absence of life and fruitfulness in the principles of Deism.

III. But let us now turn our eyes for a moment to THE

DIFFERENT HEATHEN COUNTRIES OF THE PRESENT DAY.

If the light of nature, under any circumstances, be sufficient to guide man to his duty and happiness, we shall find the proof somewhere. If the force of conscience be capable of illuminating the path of man, we shall doubtless discover its irradiations, either in the more cultivated and civilized parts of the heathen world, or in the more unrefined.

To begin with the polished and civilized regions of paganism, what, I ask, is the moral and religious state of India? Is the temple of natural religion to be found there? Does the torch of unassisted reason enlighten and sanctify her countless tribes? The dominion of Britain enables us to speak with full knowledge of the case, and we affirm that a grosser state of vice, idolatry, cruelty and lewdness was never seen in any of the heathen nations before the coming of Christ. Take the testimony of the learned and accomplished Bishop Heber, who in 1826 thus wrote-"Of all the idolatries I ever read or heard of, the religion of the Hindoos really appears to me the worst, in the degrading notions which it gives of the Deity, in the endless round of its burthensome ceremonies" "in the filthy acts of uncleanness and cruelty, not only permitted but enjoined, and inseparably interwoven with those ceremonies."-Let this trait be carefully noted, their religion inculcates, encourages, compels them to vice." In the total absence of any popular system of morals, or any single lesson, which the people at large ever hear, to live virtuously, and do good one to another."-Let this again be noted.-"In general, all the sins which a Soodra (a person of the lowest caste) is taught to fear, are, killing a cow, offending a Brahmin, or neglecting one of the many

...

frivolous rites by which their deities are supposed to be conciliated. Accordingly, I really never have met with a race of men whose standard of morality is so low-who feel so little apparent shame in being detected in a falsehood, or so little interest in the sufferings of a neighbor, not being of their own caste or family; whose ordinary and familiar conversation"-mark this, I entreat you-" is so licentious, or in the wilder and more lawless districts, who shed blood with so little repugnance. The good qualities that are among them (and thank God there is a great deal of good among them still) are in no instance, that I am aware of, connected with or arising out of their religion; since it is in no instance to good deeds, or virtuous habits of life, that the future rewards in which they believe are promised."

Such is the testimony of an eye-witness, with which all other travellers and writers of credit agree. So that the eloquent and nervous language of a distinguished statesman,* in alluding to this subject, is fully supported—" In India we behold all around us, smeared with blood and polluted with lust and cruelty, scenes of such detestable barbarity as seem to be intended for the very purpose of displaying the triumph of infidelity over all the instincts of human nature; rendering parents destroyers of their children, and children of their parents; in short, in every way of horror that can be conceived, mocking and rioting in deadly triumph over all the tender feelings of the human heart, and all the convictions of the human understanding."

If from these we turn to the uncivilized nations of Western or Southern Africa, where shall we find the pure and virtuous self-taught people, who exhibit the law of nature in any real force, and demonstrate that revelation has little to teach them? Let any candid person peruse the accounts of the native tribes of Western Africa, from the Senegal to the Congo, or of the Hottentots from the Cape to the tropic of Capricorn, and say what it is which nature has done for them. Where are the lessons of primitive piety and virtue to be found? Are we

to look for them in the frightful idolatries, the devil's houses, the murder of children and the aged, the indiscriminate intercourse of the sexes, the horrible cannibalism, the total want of any notion of conscience, sin, holiness-of any code of morals or sanction of duty?

Or shall we betake ourselves to any other heathen nations, * Mr. Wilberforce, in 1819.

the pagan tribes of the Russian empire, of the North and South Americas, of the vast tracts of China, or the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean-where, I still ask, is the proof of the innate power of man, without the grace of revelation? Do we not see every where the frightful traces of depravity and misery?

Nay, do we not see, what adds force to the whole argument, a uniformity in the vices of all the heathen nations now, with those before the promulgation of Christianity, which stamps on fallen man one impress of degradation and wo! Is not the multiplication of deities in India similar to that in Rome and Greece? Are not like monstrous and impure fables attached to them? Is not the infanticide of China of a similar character with that of the world before the coming of Christ? Is there any essential difference between the detestable practices, the horrid cruelties, the impure rites of heathenism, in all ages and places, from the first dispersion of mankind to the present hour? In Christian countries, indeed, "the god of this world" hides his more hideous features, and sceptics frame ingenious theories of religion; but, in pagan lands, he displays his true character, he marks his progress with ferocity and blood, he whitens the plain of Juggernaut with the bones of pilgrims crushed under his car, or lights the lurid flame which consumes the widow on the funeral pile of her husband, or assembles his devotees around the human sacrifice; whilst his mysteries and his morals are frightful for their fierceness, and disgusting for their offences. against nature. Moreover, the offering of animals in sacrifice, the voice of oracles, and the other pretended communications with the Deity, have been lost or silenced since the coming in of Christianity; and paganism now retains only the dregs of its old traditions. She exhibits no religion but that of terror, no representations of the Deity, but those of cruelty and lewdness, no hold on the original revelation to Adam, but the faintest traces of distorted fear.

If any thing can be added to this picture, it is that amongst all the heathen tribes and the individuals who in Christian lands profess sceptical principles, scarcely one is to be found who ever acts up to that light of nature, scanty as it is, which he still retains. Perhaps it may be said, that not one, by the unaided powers of the moral sense, ever fulfilled uniformly its dictates: "Therefore, they are without excuse, because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God"-faint

and obscure as that knowledge was, and limited and defective as its prescriptions would necessarily be. What, then, is man without revelation? What can make out the absolute necessity of some authoritative guide, to lead men to the practice of pure religion and real virtue, if the above statements do not?

IV. One additional topic remains: the state of men generally in CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES IN PROPORTION AS DIVINE

REVELATION IS INADEQUATELY KNOWN AND OBEYED.

Have men in Christendom too much light? As they recede from a real obedience to revelation, is their knowledge increased, and are their morals improved? Does the state of Christian nations show that revelation was probably needless? Is it not quite notorious, that the standard of religious knowledge and holiness rises in exact proportion as Christianity is fully acted upon; and sinks as it is neglected or obscured? Can any thing prove more clearly the indispensable necessity of a divine revelation? Is not the proof unavoidable, prominent, demonstrative, tangible?

From the seventh to the sixteenth century, when, from a gradual corruption of the Christian faith, revelation was more and more lost sight of, what was it that marked the decay? Was it not morals depraved-superstitions multiplied-heathenism revived under the garb of Christianity-spiritual tyranny established-the pure worship of God forgottenmoral duties exchanged for vows and pilgrimages and austerities-secularity-selfishness-moral apathy-vice? And what was it that recalled men to the truth and practices of essential religion at the period of the reformation? Was it unaided reason; or was it the book of revelation re-opened, re-published, re-appealed to by the magnanimous zeal of the reformers and martyrs?

Take any period you please, and tell me the instance in which reason ever brought men up from the gulf of ignorance and degeneracy; show me the spot where its boasted irradiations shone forth; point out the people amongst whom conscience and the moral sense and the contemplation of the works of nature, I will not say, first planted religion, but preserved it when it had been planted, or revived it when it had declined, or purified it when it had been corrupted. It is by revelation only that truth is first sown; it is by revelation only

that it is nourished: it is by revelation only it is recultivated and made fruitful.

Cast an eye over the states of Christendom now, and tell me whether the moral and religious purity of each is not in proportion to its adequate knowledge of the Christian revelation? Is it to France, during the late rule of infidelity, that I am to be directed for a proof, that revelation can be spurned by a Christian people without injury? What! have we forgotten the overwhelming corruption of all ranks of her people, not a quarter of a century since, as the infidel school succeeded in their daring designs? Have we forgotten the goddess of reason, and the abolition of the sabbath, and death proclaimed an eternal sleep, and the reign of terror, and the murders of thousands and tens of thousands all over the finest country of Christendom, when it had renounced its religion and its God?

I will not stop to say a word on the state of Italy and Spain, where the gross ignorance of the Christianity they still profess in name, is marked with the correspondent demoralization of the people; I will come nearer home, and put the question of the necessity of a revelation to the test of our own observation. Survey the state of your populous towns, and the mass of your manufacturing poor, and say, have you any sufficient hold upon the conscience, except as the Christian religion is adequately known and obeyed? What does the neglect or ignorance of the peculiar truths of the Bible produce? What do all the improvements in education, in the mechanical arts, in science, and the exercise of the reasoning powers produce, if disjoined from Christianity, and poured into the receptacle of a proud intellect? Must not every one be compelled to acknowledge that revelation is the foundation of virtue, conscience, subjection to law, and the peace of society? That it is so far from being unnecessary in its original communication, that it is indispensable still to the maintenance and application of the truths it has discovered, and the principles it has taught?

Indeed, may I not advance a step further, and appeal to the heart of every true Christian before me? Do you find revelation unnecessary? Can you do without your Bible, without your Saviour, without the promises of grace? Do you find that, if you close the sacred volume, and rely on natural light and reason and argument and the fitness of things, you increase in the love of God, and obedience to him? Do you not, on the contrary, feel that all I have said of the absolute