rity for persons and property, of the parent state. The Hindoo acknowledges the difference between a Mahometan and Christian conquest. It was the glory of one governorgeneral of India to abolish infanticide in Bengal; it was the glory of another to plant the seeds of moral and religious culture; it will be the glory, we trust, of a third, to put an end to the immolation of widows, and similar atrocities of the heathen nations subjected to our sway. In the mean time, the British authorities, in the various provinces, are pushing our national improvements and advantages wherever they come."

Such is Christianity in her influence on the welfare of mankind. She implants the principles on which the wellbeing of individuals and states depends. She has banished the most frightful evils, she mitigates and raises a barrier against every other; she dispenses the most palpable and important benefits. Nor has she lost this power by the lapse of ages. See her entering now the heathen lands in our modern missions. See her by the labors of Schwartz and his companions, in Southern India; or by the toil of the Moravian brethren, in Greenland and South Africa; or by the recent exertions of a missionary institution of our own times, in the Pacific ocean, displaying and repeating, as it were, her mighty works in blessing wretched man." I follow her to the prostrate tribes of one region of Paganism, or to the wild and debased natives of another. I see the stupidity and indolence of the first-scarcely removed from the fish on which they lived-quickened, stimulated, elevated. I see the fierce, bloody, revengeful spirit of the others -dancing their infernal war-step with the mind of a fury— reduced to meekness, docility, simplicity. I see them cast

(m) The Marquesses Wellesley and Hastings.

(n) The propagation of the discovery of vaccination has been zealous and extensive, as becomes the Christian philanthropy.

(n) "They are not Christians, but pagans," says Lactantius, A. D. 306, "who rob by land and commit piracy by sea; who poison their wives for their dowries, or their husbands that they may marry their adulterers; who strangle or expose infants, commit incest and unnatural crimes too odious to relate."-"Give me a man who is choleric, abusive, headstrong, and unruly; with a very few words-the words of God-I will render him as gentle as a lamb. Give me an unjust man, a foolish man, a vicious man; and, on a sudden, he shall become honest, wise, virtuous."

ing their cruel and obscene idols to the moles and to the bats, and acknowledging the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. I see the tears of penitence flow down their cheeks. I see their manners humanized and softened, stimulated to habits of solid and persevering and well-directed diligence. Principles of truth and purity and uprightness and benevolence take the place of animal indolence and insatiable selfishness and remorseless revenge. I see the Christian institution of marriage opening the sources of the social affections. The Christian village begins to rise, The huts, and churches, and schools, and bridges, and streets, and gardens smile. Commerce visits the newly civilized people. The sabbath interposes a day for religious instruction. The magistrate assumes his office. The minister of religion is the father and friend of all. Disease and vice and misery begin to be lessened and disappear. Virtue, peace, industry, social order are the lovely fruits of the Christian faith.

I turn from the delightful scene to others of an opposite class. I behold the states of Europe where Christianity has most deeply declined, or the Asiatic and African nations where it was extinguished by the Mahometan Imposture. The temporal calamities, the civil and social oppression, the decay of moral order and mutal benevolence, the want of public liberty, virtue, confidence and integrity, illustrate by the melancholy contrast, the immense value of pure Christianity to man, even as it respects temporal benefits. But I will not proceed further. No candid inquirer can fail to perceive that the whole of these statements constitute a strong additional argument in favor of the Divine Authority of a religion which is manifestly productive of such benefits.

Not that I am to be understood as denying for a moment, the lamentable defects still existing in the institutions and manners of the purest Christian states. In none are the principles of Christianity carried out to their full extent. In none are the blessings of knowledge, and morals, and liberty, and equal laws, and the benign influence of peace dispersed to the degree they might and should. In none

are vices and immoralities and public offences against God sufficiently discouraged.

But the argument rests on the larger measure, the far larger measure of every temporal blessing which has been enjoyed since the introduction of Christianity, than under the Heathen governments. The argument rests, not on the evils which remain, but on those which have been banished or mitigated, and on the contrary benefits which have been conferred. The argument rests, not on the minute and narrow examination of a few detached events or some partia impediments, but on the general aspect and course of affairs during all ages since the coming of our Lord, on the universal testimony of history, and the manifest progress of individual and national happiness. Here every thing proclaims the beneficial influence of Christianity, every thing designates her as the friend of man, of human nature, of the whole race, especially of the vast crowds of its population; every thing declares that she has promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.

Much less am I to be understood as implying, that these details of our national and temporal welfare as promoted by Christianity, go to lessen the guilt of our individual vices and sins as members of Christian nations. On the contrary, they increase our personal responsibility. The conduct of viscious men is, in its aggregate, the very cause that the effects of Christianity are less striking and complete. That our religion has upon the whole produced such immense good, notwithstanding the coldness of so many in her cause and the insincerity and vices of more, is indeed a glorious proof of her divine original. The improved aspect of things, the mighty principles set at work, the positive changes effected, are indeed palpable marks of a revelation from heaven. But these very things aggravate our particular sins, our individual neglect of Christian duty, our impurities, our violations of the sabbath, our scorn of vital religion, our resistance to all the light and knowledge and sacred influence which is diffused around us. God forbid that we should suppose that our external advantages lessen the individual criminality, which, in truth, they aug

ment.

Our sins acquire a deeper guilt from the very means

of holiness and salvation which we abuse.

I would therefore, in drawing to a conclusion,

I. Entreat each one to ask himself, how far these good effects of Christianity have been THE RESULT OF RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES IN HIMSELF. Do you, my dear hearers, exhibit in the purity of your manners, the wholesome fruits of the gospel of Christ? Do you so fill up your station in the community as to prove the excellency of the principles on which you act? Do you maintain that uprightness and downright integrity in your dealings, that kindness and friendliness in your temper, that diligence and punctuality in your engagements, that consistency and propriety in your whole conduct, that others may recognize in you the effects of a divine religion? You may be living in a bright day of Christian truth, and in a manner much superior to the heathens as to your particular course of behavior; and yet there may be no Christian principles effectively at work in your own hearts. It may be others who are operating upon you, and not you who are laboring with others to exhibit the Christian pattern. You may be passive, not active in the business. Christianity may be producing its good effects notwithstanding your irreligion and negligence; not in consequence of your virtue and piety. You may be guided to what is externally right, by custom, a regard to reputation, interest, the general habits of those about you; and not from principle, not from the love of God, not from a conscience of the divine law.

Let me then exhort you,

II. NOT TO STOP SHORT IN THE TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Christianity dispenses good, indeed, to all within its sphere of influence. Like its divine author, it blesses the evil and the good, the just and the unjust. But it saves none but those who imbibe its gen-. uine principles, who are humbled for their sins, who receive the gift of pardon in the one sacrifice of Christ, who are led and governed by the Holy Ghost and live a holy life. It is in this way that it communicates not only the promise of the life that now is, as my text speaks, but of that which is

to come.

For its main blessings are spiritual. Its main design is to redeem men from death. Its chief glory is to destroy the works of the devil. Temporal benefits are strewed by the way. Temporal blessings are incidental. It is Eternity that exhausts the designs of Christianity. It is the life that is to come for which it provides. To stop short in its general advantages, is to lose its noblest designs, to frustrate its grand purposes, to defeat its immense provision of grace and mercy.

Nor, indeed, can its temporal advantages be fully secured, unless you imbibe the spirit of Christianity from which they flow. He only knows the genuine happiness, and peace, and joy, which the gospel dispenses, who drinks. them pure and unmixed from the fountain. The dregs

merely are reserved for those who, refusing the living sources themselves, derive these streams through turbid human channels, and receive them into the receptacle of an impure heart. A man cannot be happy as a citizen, if he be not a true Christian. Yield then to the friendly invitation of mercy. You acknowledge Christianity as having promise of the life that now is, receive it as giving also that life which is to come. Let the lower displays of the divine bounty, lead you to seek the higher and abiding blessings of salvation. Soon will all the pageant of this world be passed, and the life that now is, be removed and gone. Nothing then will remain but eternity. The temporal benefits you may have derived from Christianity, if those be all, will then avail you nothing. Secure then the eternal life which is offered you in Jesus Christ. Let the goodness of God lead you to repentance. Let his daily bounties, his constant blessings to individuals and nations, be so many witnesses to you of his providential guidance, and so many inducements to you to seek his face. It is in this way only, that the abundant effects of Christianity can be preserved in each passing age, and handed down to the next. Personal and individual penitence and faith, are the springs of religious prosperity. As these are multiplied, Christianity generally is sustained in its purity, and its attendant blessings of every class are propagated and increased. here I would notice,

And