of religion, in such circumstances, can be accounted for but by the immediate providence and inspiration of God?

Such is the conclusion which I think must be drawn from the view of the nature of the religion of the Gospel, as it relates to the mind of the individual. There is a second view of it which arises from its relation to the welfare of society, or the prosperity of the world. When you look over the history of religion,-when you examine the nature of the systems of religious belief that have existed before the era of the Gospel, or which have arisen since,-you will find them marked by one uniform feature of mortal origin, that of carrying within themselves all the weakness or all the ignorance of the age or country in which they arose. You will see them incorporating with themselves the forms of government -the institutions of society-the manners, the opinions, and the prejudices which were peculiar to the country or age which gave them birth; sanctifying thus the errors and even the vices of barbarous times, and checking, by the most powerful of all restraints, the natural progress of the human mind, and all the improvements of which society is susceptible.- From this uniform picture of the narrowness of the mind of man, even in its greatest exertions, turn your eyes to the religion of the Gospel, and mark the view which it takes of human nature. You will see, in the first place, that it belongs to no age,-to no government,and to no climate;-that it incorporates nothing with itself of the period of society when it arose; -that it embraces, on the contrary, the whole

human race in its contemplation;--and that, while it leaves to society all the improvement of which it is capable, it prescribes only those general laws of social welfare upon which the prosperity of the world must finally rest.-You will see, in the second place, that this accommodation of the religion of the Gospel to the welfare of mankind has actually taken place;-that it is it which has given to modern Europe the foundation of all its greatness;—that it is it which has given to all Christian countries the relation of brethren, and to all Christian people the belief of equal rights and equal duties;—that it is it which has thus (either directly or indirectly) broken the chains of the captive, softened the sufferings of the prisoner,-poured even into the systems of legislation the elevation of its own spirit; and given at last, to the poor and the lowly of mankind, to whom it was first preached, the dignity of men and the rights of nature.-You will see, in the last place, that the world is yet far below the perfection which the Gospel contemplates. In the eighteen hundred years that have passed since its promulgation among mankind, the human race have doubtless made in every respect the greatest advances; and whether we regard the progress of knowledge, of laws, or of manners, we shall find in its influence the most powerful cause of this progress. Yet, who is there that looks at the internal government of nations, or the maxims by which they are yet governed, with regard to the nations around them, who does not sigh to think of the deep and selfish prejudices which still hang upon the minds of men? Who is there who does not see that, if the

principles of the Gospel were really felt and fully acted upon, the prosperity of all nations would be consulted; that the human race would terminate in the simple conception of a family,—in family relations, in family duties, and family affection; and that the universe of mankind would find at last that they had only one Father in heaven, one relation to his various children, and one duty to their brethren upon earth?

*

There is yet, however, a greater view of the subject; and I am to state, in the third place, that the religion of the Gospel is the only one which has ever appeared among mankind which is commensurate to the future hopes or expectations of the human soul. Upon this subject I have little necessity to dilate. When you look at the opinions of the unbaptized world, either in ancient or in modern times, you see in their views of futurity the traces only of a gross and a barbarous invention,—a state little elevated above the ignorance or the darkness of mortality,—in which the same passions, the same prejudices, and the same appetites prevail,—which promises only the continuation of the frail and feverish existence we have experienced,—and which holds forth no promise of some sublimer state of being, where nobler acquisitions may be made, and higher joys be tasted.-When you look at the religion of the Gospel, on the contrary (simply as it speaks upon this awful subject, and fearfully as it withdraws the veil which hides the sanctuary of God), you see a new heaven and a new earth." You see humanity exalted from the grossness of a lower world. You see all that is great, all that

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is good, all that is pure in your nature bursting from the chains within which it has been confined, and purified by the merits and mediation of a diviner Being from the corruptions which it has acquired.-You see an immeasurable space extended, in which the ascending mind may pass to higher states "of knowledge, of wisdom, and of joy."-You see (what is yet more) that, to this exaltation, the precepts of the same religion naturally conduct its followers; that the discipline which it prescribes in time is that which leads to the glories of eternity; and that, in the lowest situation of human nature, the mind of the Christian may be ripened, under the influence of the Spirit of God, to become at last the companion of the angel and the archangel, and of "the spirits of the just," then "made perfect." Of such doctrines I am not now to say that they are the only ones which meet all the instinctive wishes and expectations of our mysterious nature. I am only to remind you of their difference from every thing that human wisdom has taught, either in former or in succeeding ages; and to ask you, whether He who, eighteen hundred years ago, taught these doctrines, and proposed these views, was only a human being? Whether the difference of these doctrines, from all that nature and philosophy had arrived at, is not a proof of the difference of the origin from whence they proceeded?—and whether any other cause can be assigned for this astonishing exception from all the uniform appearances of human nature, than the immediate presence and providence of the God of salvation?

ALISON.

THE HUMANITY OF MODERN TIMES DERIVED FROM CHRISTIANITY.

It is incumbent on the philosophers of the present day to show from whence they derive that humanity to which they now lay claim, and which it seems has produced such beneficial consequences. If they say from the cultivation of their minds, the improvement of their understanding, and the extent of their knowledge and erudition, it is then obvious to ask, how it comes to pass that, before the appearance of the Gospel, philosophy and humanity were perfect strangers to each other, though they are now it seems such close and intimate friends? If we should only say that the philosophers of Greece and Italy were at least equal, both in natural sagacity and acquired learning to the philosophers of modern Europe, we should not be thought to do the latter any great injustice. Yet not one of those great, and wise, and enlightened men of antiquity seems to have had any apprehension that there was the least cruelty in a husband repudiating an irreproachable and affectionate wife from a mere humour or caprice; in a father destroying his new-born infant, or putting his adult son to death; in a master torturing or murdering his servant for a trivial offence, or for none at all; in wretches being trained up to kill each other for the amusement of the spectators; in a victorious prince oppressing and enslaving a whole country from mere avarice or ambition; in putting a great part of his prisoners to the sword, and enslaving all the