of the sterner virtues of human nature, together with many of its sinful passions, obtained a niche in the Pantheon; but such a virtue as that enjoined by Paul, not only was not worshipped, but would have been despised, by all classes of ancient idolaters, as diametrically opposed to those qualities in which they considered human greatness to consist. To say nothing of that spirit of cruelty which, like a demon legion, possessed, and tortured, and convulsed, the worshippers of Moloch, even the milder and classic mythology of the Greeks and the Romans, breathed into its votaries no spirit of universal philanthropy. The patriotism of these nations, the chivalrous self-devotedness, which is blazoned with such splendor on the page of history, and which kindle such enthusiasm in the youthful imagination what is it but the light of a consuming fire? The patriotism of Rome, and of Greece, in their best and purest days, was but a selfishness of the most destructive kind, which would have trampled down pure philanthropy with indignant scorn, as a mean and cowardly spirit-a traitor against the absorbing glory of Athens or of the Roman commonwealth. Those proud and haughty patriots thought that the world was made for them, and cared not what rights of other nations they invaded, so as they could strengthen their own power; nor what misery they inflicted, so as they could extend their own fame. Selfishness the most engrossing was the soul of their system; every man considered himself as represented by his country, and, in contending for the honor of the latter, was fighting for his own aggrandizement. Had love been the ascendant in those ages, the world would never have been made to lie prostrate at the feet of Alexander, or of Cæsar.

แ

And who among the poets sang the praises of universal benevolence; who among the legislators made it the basis of their morals, who among the philosophers expatiated on its glories, or laid the obligation to cultivate it, upon the consciences of their disciples? The highest virtue of paganism was martial prowess. So heavenly a glory never shone upon it, as is contained in that one sentence, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" or if any theory, distantly analogous to it, was found there, it was a borrowed light, the dim reflection of the distant brightness of divine truth.

And as to modern paganism, we need not say how vain it is to seek for universal love amidst the ferocities of the American Indians, the murderous cruelties of the South Sea Islanders, the disgusting selfishness and ridiculous vanity of the Chinese, or the insulting and degrading oppressions of the Hindoos.

infidels are not only enjoined in many passages of the Koran, but are declared to be in a high degree meritorious in the sight of God. How completely Islamism has filled its votaries with the most ferocious bigotry and the most merciless intolerance, is known by universal testimony. They every where pour insulting contempt upon all who are not Mussulmans, and feel a savage delight in adding cruelty to insult. "The infidel dogs," is a common appellation applied to Christians. The spirit of the system is every where visible in the absolute despotism of the governments of those countries in which it prevails; where it is found, the arts and the sciences do not flourish, and liberty withers in its shade. The flaming scimetar of the Sultan is its patron and defence; it was propagated by the sword—it is supported by the bow-string, and it is essentially and unalterably cruel. Such is Islamism; a curse to the world, a mystery in the divine government, a dreadful obstacle to the spread of Christianity, and the reverse of all that is holy and beneficent in the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

INFIDELITY, it is true, has attempted an imitation of this virtue, but infidels have had revelation to copy from; and even with this model before their eyes, have produced a caricature instead of a fac simile. The universal benevolence of this school is at war with the private affections and individual tenderness: that of Christianity springs out of them, and is founded upon them. We contend, therefore, that this noble, and generous, and useful disposition is one of the peculiarities of revealed truth; and whence, but from heaven, could it have proceeded, and who but Jehovah either could or would have given it the authority of a law? Whoever will reflect for a moment, will be struck with the singularity of the fact, that the Bible resolves the whole of practical religion into love to God, and the whole of morality into love to man. Is this, we ask again, the work of human invention or does it look like the production of imposture? Would the selfishness of man have devised such a system; for where, among all his handy work, do we find any thing like it? O no!-It is part of the superscription of heaven-it is the impress of divinityit is the seal of truth.

2. We learn, that the spirit of true religion is not only unlike, but opposed to, the characters most admired by the people of the world.

The character which the historian loves to delineate, on which he delights to exhaust the stores of his genius, and to lavish the richest coloring of his pencil; which he is most pleased to exhibit to the admiration of his readers; and in which, with an eager sympathy, those readers take as much delight Next turn your attention to MOHAMMEDANISM; as did the author, perusing it again and again, till and in what page of the Koran will you find, we the soul glows with enthusiasm;-is not the meek will not say, such a description, and such an en- and virtuous prince, who is intent only on the arts forcement, of philanthropy as we have in this chap- of peace, and the internal welfare of his kingdom: ter; but where do you find a recognition of the no, but the ambitious hero, who fills the world with principle? In all those pretended revelations from the fame of his victories, and by the aid of dauntheaven, of which Gabriel is said to have been the less courage, consummate skill, and inordinate lust bearer, where is there such a description of Deity of dominion, goes on from conquering to conquer: as this "God is love!" or such a sentiment as that this is the man for whom the admiration of posterity which arises out of it, "he that dwelleth in love, is claimed; whose crimes are lost sight of in the dwelleth in God, and God in him!" So far from splendor of his genius, and whose cruelty is forgotrecognizing this principle, Islamism condemns and ten in the success with which it is followed. Thus forbids it. It enjoins almsgiving, it is true, and it is, that under the power of a peculiar fascination, gives it a high place amongst its virtues, but this is demons are worshipped in sight of the miseries not the same as love, and may be often carried to a they have inflicted, and within hearing of the great extent without a particle of its nature. This groans they have extorted, merely on account of the system of imposture, abounding, as it does, with vast genius they possess, and of their power to minute and ridiculous ceremonies, and a slavish curse the children of men. But the New Testaregard to absurd ritual observances, enforces, by ment lavishes no encomiums on such men, bestows the authority of its founder, the most ferocious and no praise on their deeds, but treats them as the bitblood-thirsty hatred of all who do not receive it interest enemies of human happiness. The sword the exercise of implicit faith. Wars against all of conflict and the laurel of victory are not among

the objects which it commends to our attention, but which it devotes to our detestation: the peace-maker is the character on which it bestows all its praises,

and invests with its richest honors.

his own heart, that it is the most difficult thing in the world. The Scriptures every where represent true piety by terms, allusions, and figures, which imply the greatest effort and the most persevering If we descend from national affairs to the more labor; hence we are commanded to "strive to enter confined range of social intercourse, we shall find in at the strait gate;" to "lay aside every weight, the same perversion of judgment, the same miscon- and the sin that doth most easily beset us; and to ception of true excellence, and the same misplaced run with patience the race that is set before us;" to admiration. What is the character which is usu- "labor for the meat which endureth unto eternal ally most applauded in fashionable circles, and also life;" to "fight the good fight of faith;" to "mortify by the generality of mankind, whether rich or the deeds of the body;" to "crucify the flesh."poor? Is it not the high spirited individual who is What terms! what ideas! what metaphors! Can quick to discern offence, and bold to resent it; who any thing that is easily accomplished, require or will allow no one with impunity to tread upon the justify the use of such language? If it were a light skirt of his dignity, or his right; who is, perhaps, in thing to be a Christian, could the sacred writers, some things, frank, generous, and affable, but under with any propriety, have employed such strong and this exterior conceals a proud, independent spirit, very expressive figures? Nothing, surely, can more which can brook neither a superior nor a rival, but impressively teach us the absolute and indispensais ever aspiring to distinction; who is courteous but ble necessity of the most incessant as well as vigorambitious; who would not willingly and intention- ous effort. The course of a sinner is down hill.— ally give offence, but, having given it, would feel "Easy," says VIRGIL, "is the descent to hell:" a himself for ever disgraced by putting on the gar-transgressor has nothing to do but to give himself ment of humility, and asking forgiveness; who up to the indulgence of his corruptions, and he will would give alms to the needy, but not precedence slide, without effort, to perdition. Not so the saint. even to the deserving ;-is not this the most admired Heaven, by an appropriate figure of speech, is reof the world's favorites? Is not revenge dignified presented as on a high eminence, which cannot be with the name of honor, and pride called spirit? reached without constant and laborious climbing.In short, are not the qualities generally admired Not that all this is necessary to merit heaven, but to by men, of the active, irascible, and ambitious reach it: we are justified by faith without works, kind; and are not the meek, and gentle, and passive and become entitled to eternal life exclusively by virtues, looked upon with disesteem, and treated the righteousness of Christ; nor are we to conceive with contempt? Is poverty of spirit, is humility, is of the faith by which we receive this righteousness self-abasement, is the forgiveness of insults, is pa- as consisting of any violent strivings of our minds, tience under provocation, admired, applauded, imi- but as a simple dependance on the Lord Jesus tated? Is it to the character formed of these Christ for acceptance with God: but we are speakgraces, that the silent homage of the heart, and the ing of the Christian temper of practical religion, of loud praises of the tongue, are paid? Quite the sanctification, of going on through all the trials and contrary. The men who would practise these temptations of life, to the possession of that crown things, must make up their minds, to endure the of glory which Christ has merited for us; and if world's scorn, and to be treated as poor tame-spi- this be easy work, there is nothing difficult. rited creatures, who deserve all the contumely they 4. Religion is a comparatively RARE thing among receive, because of their forbearance in submitting men. to it and yet this is the spirit of religion, for this is This is, indeed, a melancholy and a painful rethe temper of Jesus. When Jesus Christ came into flection; for it is saying, in other words, there are the world, he found it full of the notion that human but few that are saved. It is applying to our own glory consisted in ambition, pride, and resentment; times the awful language employed by our Lord as The Jew and the Gentile participated in the senti- descriptive of the state of things, in his days upon ment, and hence he took particular pains to correct earth. "Broad is the way which leadeth to dethis notion, giving, in his sermon on the mount, a struction, and many there be which go in thereat; delineation of character the very opposite of this.- strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which Indeed, the design of that sermon was to rectify the leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."mistakes then universally prevalent on the subject Tremendous and truly dreadful is the idea, that the of character and of happiness, and to teach the greatest part of mankind are moving towards the world that his disciples were to be pre-eminently bottomless pit, and sinking daily in crowds to the distinguished by humility, penitence, meekness, pu- miseries of perdition. Such a sentiment ought not rity, peaceableness, forgiveness, thirsting after right-to be admitted to the mind, except upon the clearest eousness; these are the qualities of a true Christian; and every one who bears that character must sedulously cultivate its appropriate dispositions, and be willing to bear the ridicule to which they will expose him. He must never seek to conciliate the favor of the unconverted, by imitating their spirit, or disguising his own; but bear their scorn, and wait with patience for a world where humility and meekness will be honored and rewarded, and love, their parent disposition, be crowned with glory.

3. This subject plainly shows us, that religion is exceedingly DIFFICULT.

evidence; neither ought it to be uttered by the lip, much less be recorded by the pen, except with a view to lessen the havoc which it describes, by disturbing the delusion which is the cause of this extensive ruin.

It is evident-at least if the word of God be true that no man can be saved without religion; and that the religion which does not include love, is in fact, no religion at all: the only inquiry, then, to be answered is, Does Christian love abound, or is it comparatively rare? Is the great mass of human beings around us actuated by a spirit of universal It is a very common supposition, that it is an benevolence-a benevolence which is the fruit of easy thing to be a Christian. And if to be a Chris- regeneration, and the effect of faith; which springs tian were nothing more than going to a place of from love to God, and is cherished by a sense of reworship, indulging in pious emotions, subscribing deeming grace; which is exercised in obedience to to religious institutions, and professing certain reli- the divine authority, and with a view to the divine gious opinions, the supposition would be correct; for glory; which, in its operations, is full of forbearance nothing is more easy than all this: but if the spirit and meekness, kindness, candor, and sympathy, of religion be the disposition described in this chap-humility and disinterestedness? Is this the preter, then must it be obvious to every one who knows vailing disposition of the bulk of mankind? Do we

see it manifested in the intercourse of society ? |
Alas! alas! instead of this, do we not still see these
passions in operation, which the apostle mentions
as descriptive of the conduct of mankind to each
other in his day. "For we ourselves, who were
sometime disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy; hateful,
and hating one another." Are not auger, malice,
revenge, selfishness, envy, pride, censoriousness,
the predominant dispositions in the generality of
mankind? Who can deny this, or who will attempt
to deny it? And if this be the case, religion must
be comparatively rare. Few, indeed, are living in
the exemplification of Christian love. Dreadful, tre-
mendous idea!-I tremble as I write !-my soul is
distressed, and groans with anguish over my own
statements. I would disbelieve them if I could;
and even believing them, I would shut them up in
my own bosom, if it were not necessary to promul-nality and great enormity of the warlike spirit. In-
gate them, in order to detect that delusion which,
by leading men to think that it is an uncommon
thing for souls to be lost, makes it a still rarer oc-
currence for them to be saved. I must come to the
conclusion-for I cannot help it, without becoming
an infidel-that there are, in our time, many more
who perish, than are saved. "Hell hath enlarged
herself, and opened her mouth without measure;
and their glory, and their pomp, and their mul-
titude, and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it."
Reader, let the dreadful announcement, that it is a
rare thing to be saved, startle you like thunder from
your slumbers, and lead you to institute the most
serions, and solemn, and impartial examination of
your hearts. Do not rest satisfied with a mere
vague idea of religion, or a mere general careless
assumption that you are a Christian. Without such
a disposition as that we have considered, you have
no religion; and without religion you must perish
eternally. You have been a professor of religion,
and have approved a gospel ministry, and have en-
joyed the light and advantages of gospel ordinances;
but this will only aggravate your guilt and condem-
nation, and misery: if you are not living under the
influence of love, you are living without religion,
and must have your doom with those of whom it is
said, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all
the nations that forget God."

tions that dwell upon the earth; and, therefore, that
all men are our brothers, and should be loved as
brothers. A Christian is, in one sense, a citizen of
the world; and although he was born in England,
should abhor the thought of an hereditary dislike to
an American, or a Frenchman. When national
passions are roused and incensed, he is to bear no
part in the widely circulating hatred; and amidst
much that he may regret and condemn, is still to re-
member, that he is not to be "easily provoked."
Allied to this is the passion for war.

5. We learn the great criminality of many things still remaining, and in some degree connived at, among professors of religion.

Whether the abstract principle of the unjustifiableness of war in every case be tenable, we will not now discuss; but that war, as it is usually maintained, is utterly indefensible on Christian principles, can admit of no question. It is but too evident, that nominal, and even great numbers of real Christians, are not duly impressed with the deep crimistead of bearing their testimony, by all proper means, and on every suitable occasion, against it, they partake of the general and murderous enthusiasm; they cherish the same antipathies; are actuated by the same revengeful, proud, ambitious spirit, as the people of the world; defend by argument the wars that arise, as just and necessary; read with as much avidity the details of battles; boast with as much exultation of the victories which are obtained; and enter as deeply into all the ardor of the hostile passion, as though they were the worshippers_of Mars, the god of war, instead of Jehovah the God of love. Ought these things to be? Are they not a manifest and flagrant violation of all their principles and professions? The whole substance, genius, and tendency of Christianity, is pacific. The God whom we worship delighteth in mercy, and is infinitely benevolent; the character of Christ, who is our example, no less than our atonement, is formed of all the meek and gentle virtues, in the greatest perfection; the scheme of salvation is a plan of grace; all the doctrines of revelation unite in their tendency to soften and sweeten the temper; while the precepts of Christian morality forbid wrath, anger, malice, revenge of every kind or degree, and enjoin us, in no case, to render evil for evil, but ever to return good for evil. The New Testament is directly opposed to that rage and resentment, to which the world has given the delusive names of spirit and a sense of honor, and from whence wars and contentions proceed. To these haughty and mischievous sensibilities, which are but an imitation of the passions that rage in full force in the natures of brute animals, the religion of Jesus Christ offers all the resistance of a divine authority. Let any man think of the crimes committed and the miseries inflicted, by a single battle, and surely, if he has ever read only one of the Gospels, or one of the Epistles, he must be convinced that a hatred of war is an essential feature of practical religion. But we need go no further than this chapter to prove that the warlike passion, even in the least degree, is opposed to Christianity; for if

National antipathies are too often found in considerable strength in the minds of Christians, especially in a time of warfare. Mistaking the nature of patriotism, and thinking, as did the ancient Greeks and Romans, that love for our country implies hatred of every rival nation, we are too apt to imbibe the spirit of the times and places in which we live, and to cherish a feeling of ill will towards our national competitors. The religion of the New Testament is by no means hostile to a spirit of pure and sublime patriotism; that patriotism which seeks to exalt a nation by all the arts of peace, the discoveries of science, the inventions of fancy, the diffu-love were universally prevalent, swords would be sion of knowledge, morality, and religion: but the beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruningthirst of conquest, the love of aggrandizement, the hooks. It is high time for the followers of the meek lust of domination, which would make us dislike a and lowly Jesus, in every part of the world, to study nation, because it limits our powers and resists our the genius of their religion, since, in the knowledge aggressions, is an unchristian feeling, and an of- of this, many of them are still lamentably deficient. fence against the law of love. From every thing It is a shame upon what is called the Christian which would flatter the pride, or excite the ambition, world, that it has not long since, borne universal, or exasperate the anger, or increase the irritability, impassioned, and indignant testimony against that of a nation-every thing that would swell the cur- enormous evil, which still rages not merely among rent of prejudice against another country, we should savages; but among scholars, philosophers, Chriscarefully abstain: we should have no national ene- tians, and divines. In vain, so far as regards the mies, no enmities and aversions excited, by the geo- diffusion of a pacific spirit, has science enlightened graphical divisions of the globe. We should re- the mind; in vain has learning softened the manmember that God hath made of one blood all na-ners and cultivated the taste; in vain has art multi

Love forbids the indulgence of sectarian prejudice. God has, for wise ends no doubt, permitted the existence of various and conflicting opinions among real Christians: but, unhappily, instead of making these differences merely the occasion of mutual forbearance, and opportunities for showing through what interposing media Christians can press to recognize and embrace each other; instead of converting them into tests of the sincerity, and proofs of the strength of our attachment;-we have permitted them to rise up into separating walls, which divide and alienate our hearts from each other. Perhaps, even towards those whose errors are too fundamental to allow us to acknowledge them as fellow-Christians, much less to hold communion with them in the bond of church fellowship, there is not enough of genuine charity; for is there not something of bitterness and contempt, of wrath and ill will, instead of that deep compassion and tender pity with which their situation should ever be viewed? Poor men! with all their boasted reason, they walk in darkness at noonday, and, with the lamp of truth in their hands, they are yet stumbling like the blind. We may feel a holy abhorrence of their sentiments, but, for themselves, we should cherish the deepest commiseration.

plied the comforts; in vain has even religion esta- | churchmen that the law of love is violated; for it blished the faith, and in some measure sanctified the must be confessed, and regretted, that it is not alminds of the inhabitants of Christendom; for war, ways observed as it should be, by the various sects horrid, bloody, destructive war, is as much prac- of Dissenters, Baptists, Pædo-baptists, and Methotised, and as much patronised, as ever. Whatever dists, are all too often actuated by a degree of envy, men have learnt, they have not learnt to love one jealousy, and selfishness, utterly unworthy of the another; whatever attainments they have made in great cause of religion, and altogether at variance knowledge, they have made scarcely any in cha-with their common principles. What attempts are rity; however high they may have soared above the sometimes made by the Wesleyans to raise a presavage into the heights of science, they are still judice against Calvinism and its adherents, by denearly upon a level in a taste for war. But real formed, horrid, and ferocious looking caricatures Christians should come out and be separate, and of that system; and, on the other hand, how often touch not the unclean thing: let them act upon their are the whole body of Methodists condemned by own principles, and become not only the friends Calvinists, as upholding all the errors of Pelagius! but the advocates of peace: let them echo back in Baptists pour unmeasured contempt on infant baptheir several spheres the angel's description of tism, and are repaid by their opponents in ridicule Christianity," peace on earth, good will to men:" on adult immersion. Statements are often given let ministers from the pulpit, writers from the press, of the sentiments of a sect, which they would deny, private Christians, in their intercourse with each and consequences deduced from them which they other and with the world,--inculcate a fixed and would abhor. And then, what clashing of interirreconcileable abhorrence of war: let the church ests frequently takes place when a new denomination of God be a society for the diffusion of the princi- is introduced into a town or a village. Sometimes ples of universal peace. this introduction takes place without occasion for it: there is really no room for another body of Christians; the existing means of public instruction are already sufficient, both as to quantity and quality;-and, in this case, to be animated by such a zeal for our denomination, as to set it up at the certain hazard, and especially with the very hope, of dividing a prevailing and hitherto peaceful body of Christians, is, in the last degree, a hateful effusion of party spirit: men may call it zeal for the glory of God; but call it what they will, it is, when exhibited in its own deformity, nothing but envy, or the selfishness which seeketh its own. In other cases, what jealousy and ill will have been stirred up in the minds of an existing party, by an attempt made by another to establish itself in the same place! It signified nothing how large was the place, how great the population, how inadequate the means of religious instruction: all this was left out of view; and the new denomination, though they preached the gospel in its purity, was opposed and disliked, because it came into a field, where there was al ready an evangelical body, though that body could not be said to have occupied more than one little nook or corner of the uncultivated land. It would be invidious to name any denomination as having manifested most of this spirit,-no one, perhaps, is But as to those who agree with us in all the fun- altogether free from it: but we have known, in damental doctrines of the gospel, and differ from some instances, such wretched, paltry, nay wicked, us only on the forms of church government, on the means resorted to; such attempts to oppose the new mode and subject of a sacrament, or on some of comers, by defaming their principles, by insinuatthe minor points of doctrine,-surely-surely, to- ing charges against their ministers, by throwing wards them we should maintain the full force of suspicions even over the purposes of their private brotherly affection, without allowing our differences meetings; such a system of espionage, by sending to interrupt for a moment the exercise of the most spies to gather something to cavil at from the disentire good will. We would indulge a hope, that, courses of their opponents, as they choose to call in this age, there is a nearer approximation than them; such a series of kidnapping tricks to draw there was, of the various denominations of Chris- away the young and unwary; that we have felt it tians to each other; that the spirit of intolerance is somewhat difficult, in witnessing this absence of dying away; that there is a greater disposition to Christian love in others, to retain it in exercise in recognize each other, in the fullest sense of the our own hearts towards them. Instead of indulgterm, as members of the same body, and brethren ing such envy, jealousy, and ill will, all denominain the same family: but even yet, there is too much tions who agree in the fundamental truths of the of the odium theologicum remaining among minis-gospel should regard and hail each other, as only ters, and too much of the spirit of party among laymen; too much of the feeling of rivalry and suspicion; too much disposition to misconstrue actions, to arraign motives: too much inclination to envy and jealousy. It is too common for the ministers and members of the establishment, to look with haughty contempt, and to speak as they feel towards those who secede from their church; and to revile them as troublesome schismatics, as rebels against established authority.

Let it not be thought, however, that it is only by

so many companies in the same regiment, or so many laborers in the same field, or so many workmen in the same building,-having one common object, and serving under one common head. But, alas! alas! no rival companies of a secular nature can be more jealous of each other than some congregations of professing Christians are. This remark does not apply so much to the larger bodies, which are to be found in our great towns and cities, as to the smaller ones, which exist in our less populous places. But we have all too much prejudice,

and too little Christian affection for each other.|for the faith," they indulge in all kinds of unħalWe all need more of the mind of Christ. We do not wish to see a spirit of indifference to our distinctive opinions, this would be a sin in the other extreme; but we desire to behold more cordial good will and confidence towards those who differ from us, and far, far less of the spirit of sects and parties.