nature, would be found to be valuable principally as its carelessness or profligacy might present a contrast with the earnest piety of his later years, and thereby supply him with a convincing proof of his repentance; of the renewal of his nature, and conversion to the ways of righteousness. And, surely, the Apostles of Jesus Christ cannot, with any reason, be assumed to have lent their sanction to so eccentric a presumption. It was, doubtless, a necessary result of their circumstances, or their peculiar position as teachers of the Gospel, to be conversant with sudden and conspicuous changes of character as the fruits of their labour in that office; but they were far from concluding that such changes would necessarily, or properly, attend the progress of religion, and signalize the success of the Gospel, in a professedly Christian society; among persons initiated into the doctrines of Christianity in early life, and trained to the observance of its sacred institutions. On the contrary, we may cite their authority in confirmation of the presumption for which we are contending —namely, that such persons might, by a timely and proper use of Christian instruction and ordinances, be raised above the necessity of an actual change in their own

character, however much it would behove them to expect temptations; to watch the movements of their own minds; and to seek the continual improvement of their principles, aspiring even to perfection. The injunction of St. Paul to Christian parents," to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,"* obviously implies that the purification of the corrupt elements of our nature should commence from the earliest exercise of the mental faculties; and that the religious course of the Christianly educated should be as we find as we find "the path of the just," under an established system of divine instruction, illustrated in the Sacred Scriptures" as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." It was judged a fair presumption by St. Paul, that if children were nurtured in Christian doctrines and ordinances, the principles of holiness would operate and develop themselves with the powers of reason; growing with their growth, and strengthening with their strength; until they reached the stature, and showed the lineaments of a perfect man in Christ Jesus: thus rendering the whole life, in its successive stages, in the fulfilment of the * Ephes. vi. 4. Prov. iv. 18.

duties appropriate to each of its seasons, an acceptable service to Almighty God, a tribute to his praise and glory.

We must add, especially, that the opinion which we combat is, with no propriety, inferrible from the agency of the Divine Spirit in effecting the renovation of our nature; for the Scriptures, which assert that agency, insist, as we have seen, on the advantages of an early acquaintance with the doctrines unfolded in them. Indeed, it merits our especial observation that the word of God, while it asserts the need and efficacy of a divine influence in the fulfilment of our religious duties, assumes and presses on our attention, together with the influence of early instruction, the power of example and companionship, the force of habit—in a word, the operation of all those principles which are observed to originate so manifest a difference in the minds of individuals to determine the bent of the thoughts, and the motives of conduct-to found and build up the human character. It is replete with maxims and injunctions which entirely harmonize with the knowledge acquired by observation and experience of the human mind; and prescribes those identical rules for the improvement of our religious prin

ciples, which our reason would itself have suggested, if the divine assistance had never been revealed and proffered :-carrying us to the unavoidable and most important conclusion, that the agency of the Divine Spirit is exerted in conformity with the laws of our mental constitution; as far as these are subject to our examination, or come within the scope of our philosophy; uniting and concurring with them in a manner indiscernible to our consciousness, and inexplicable to our understanding.

We have abundant proof, then, that to lay down the universal necessity of a change of mind in persons who were never unacquainted with the doctrines of the Gospel, or unprovided with the means of Christian improvement, is to disparage the sanctifying power of our religion, and to merge a most essential distinction, which, however many of us may desire, it is at our peril, to forget a distinction between that necessity of conversion which adhered to a condition of heathenism, and that which is superinduced and wilfully incurred under the Christian dispensation. It is to disguise that aggravation of sinfulness and folly which is now imputable to a careless and unholy life.

But it may be alleged, that, with whatever

reason it might have been presumed that an early acquaintance with the Gospel would anticipate the necessity of such a change of mind as the Pagans and many of the Jews underwent, in becoming Christians, yet that, in reality, the great body of true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have experienced such a revolution in their moral nature, as to warrant them in appropriating the language of the text, "Old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new"-that whereas, before that period, the salvation offered them in the Scriptures was a matter of habitual indifference, it is now the supreme object of their desires, and the principal aim of their lives-that whereas, before that period, they were at all times accessible to the seductions of forbidden pleasure, and an easy prey to every temptation, they now "stand in awe" of the word of God, and turn with dread and loathing from the way of the transgressor-that whereas, before that period, the Lord Jesus Christ was a personage of no greater interest to their feelings than any one of the numerous individuals who have figured on the world's stage, any other teacher of morality or leader of a sect, He is now the minister of peace to their conscience, and the