written word. Its vast importance, on the other hand, to the world at large, demands our most careful cultivation; and from this twofold consideration we arrive at the conclusion, that in the writings of those men whose hearts were confessedly imbued with the love of God, and whose minds with patient labour, and in the exercise of devout thoughts, stored up divine precept, Christians may look with safety for the expanded argument of their faith; may find therein the living fountain of truth still on the flow; and discover those traces of the divine Spirit which give equal light and encouragement to the anxious inquirer after knowledge.

One of the chief benefits conferred upon mankind by the writings of eminent Christians, is found in the uniformity of their assent to the prime doctrines of grace. Differing in expression, in the forms of statement, in the species of illustration employed, and even in the advocacy of their several ecclesiastical systems, they agree in whatever concerns the fundamental relations of man to God; and redemption and the methods of sanctification, as described in the pages of the earliest fathers, have been spoken of with equal clearness by each successive generation of Christ's faithful servants. There is one Spirit and one faith, is the golden inscription on the portal of the church; and the lesson it conveys is repeated in every proof that can be given of the communion of God's chosen people.

The importance of this uniformity of testimony to the doctrines of grace, is greatly increased by the efforts which have been made in the world to modify or suppress them, It is nothing less than dishonesty to pretend that these efforts have been confined to the ordinary movements of declared opponents of the gospel. Unfortunately, the history of religious opinion abounds in evidence that the most systematic attempts have been made by professors of Christianity to lower the standard of its doctrines; and this in the face of truth, so fully and implicitly set forth, that the hostility to its lessons must needs be regarded as direct rather than incidental.

It is the noble characteristic of our older theologians, and of those who followed in their track, that they ever seek, with the overflowing gratitude of love, to make known and exalt the mercy of the Almighty. They show no petty anxiety to save the credit of human nature, by asserting its independence of God; nor any desire to luxuriate in the spectacle of a race of fallen creatures made brave, generous, and true, by the force of moral precept. Satisfied of the universality of the divine goodness, and of the thankless and rebellious character of man, they rejoice in contemplating the method whereby their great originating cause of being has still continued to work, securing the recovery of the lost, and the glory of the recovered. Instead of speaking as if their happi

ness or dignity depended on proving what they could do by their own energy and knowledge, they point to the grace of God as the true source of power; and acknowledging that every good and every perfect gift is from above, describe the convictions of faith as the fruit of spiritual and moral conversion.

The vast difference between the style of these writers, and that employed by the simple advocates of moral discipline, must be attributed either to an uncertainty in the statement of doctrine, as found in Scripture itself, or to the opposite nature of the aim which these various parties have had in view. How few believers in revelation would feel willing to shelter the difficulties of their system under the plea, that the broad outline of Scripture truth is but faintly described: and if we are left to examine the probable interpretation of God's word, by an appeal to the known aim of the interpreters, that surely may most safely be received in which the goodness and justice of God are most manifestly displayed.

Christianity may be studied, and its value estimated, first, as it is a spiritual and regenerative system; and secondly, as it operates on the world by its precepts and by its gradually acquired political authority. Under each of these views the subject demands attentive consideration; but the social character of Christianity, or that by which it acts

on the community, is not that which may be described as born with the system. Constituted as

it is, it could not but acquire a relation to whatever belongs to man-to his wants, his hopes, and wishes. Its importance, its usefulness, its power, do literally grow with the growth of society, and the enlargement of the civilizing process. It is in this respect the leaven which leaveneth the whole lump; a plant which spreads its roots far and wide under the soil, every age piercing deeper, though unobserved, into the heart of the universe.

To a philosophically disposed mind, the contemplation of such a great moral engine in operation, is full of interest and excitement; nor is it to be supposed that a subject of this kind, properly weighed, can fail of producing some important effects in determining the feelings to a right point; but it is evident that no slight or casual attention to its bearings will produce these effects, and that, therefore, the ordinary degree of notice paid to the moral power, and political relations of Christianity, is but just sufficient to conceal from the consciences of worldly men their utter ignorance of the real worth of the faith which they profess.

Whatever good, however, may spring from the examination of the Christian system in its internal, or general influence, it is in its personal application, and the energy it embodies for the renewal and the saving of the soul, that the true believer

most rejoices to contemplate it. What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' is a question which carries us at once to the true view of Christianity. Its worth would be comparatively small, though it should establish kingdoms on an everlasting basis of peace and grandeur, if it did not primarily appeal to the hearts of individuals, and, as its grand object, offer them the means of sanctification and eternal life. In this consists its prime value; from this arises its beauty, so visible, so precious, so cheering, when contemplated by the eye of faith; and this it is which renders it the sublimest exposition which the human soul could receive of the divine attributes and counsels.

Our religion is a system of mysteries; and he who should determine to spend his life in the investigation of the abstrusest principles of nature, would have a far better hope of success in making discoveries, than he who should sit down in the pride of human wisdom, to fathom the simplest of Christian doctrines. Religion, as to its truths, is the revelation of the nature and the will of God: and what can be plainer than that, however clearly a truth may be understood, it can, after all, be only understood according to the capacity of the receiver? But how limited must the capacity of the creature necessarily be, when considered in reference to the comprehension of the Creator! If