its triumph, strike off, but also the millions who understand and grossly violate it; then those who practise only its decent moralities, without being controlled by its loftier spirit, in business, society, and domestic life, what gulfs of ruin open at every word! till, coming down to a Christian city like this, perhaps as good as any in the world, you behold thousands living in the direct light of the gospel, heedless of its influence; and still again, reducing your field of observation, enter a Christian assembly, and honestly own how much change must be preliminary to a true growth. Nay, even in the Christian's own solitary regenerate heart, what conflict, what room still for change!

Oh that we might reach to that fountain of renewing strength which would change us from all that is low and unworthy, from the inordinate love of pleasure, love of possession, and love of the world, into the very image and inward forming of Jesus Christ! What a transformation, without as well as within, would then be witnessed, in the zeal of our worship, in the warmth of our fellowship, in the true growth that would succeed, in the overflow of our numbers, and the still better enlargement of our hearts!

Is all right with us now? Are we content to go on in the old, beaten way of tolerable respect for religion, or of formal monotony of worship? Would some little access of zeal, some working of the revival spirit, hurt us? Ought there not, in fact, to be something like an exchange, in this regard, between the different portions of the Christian church? Some congregations have, by appeals of unmitigated excite

ment, been burned and blasted into a deadness of conscience to common duties. Might they not well, as some of them are beginning to feel, borrow something of the pungent, moral strain? Are not others in that general course and latitude where they need an awakening to their religious relations? Might not we well pray and strive for such "times of refreshing" as Peter, in the text, predicted, and lived to see fulfilled; pray and strive, not in displays of fiery intolerance and high conceit, but "of power and of love, and of a sound mind"? These times of refreshing may come, indeed, not in any proud and blazing demonstrations, but in our domestic privacy, or in the social gathering. The refreshing of God may run into our hearts, as we peruse his word, and ponder his gracious, spiritual providence. It may flow to change our stubborn will, and melt our frozen affections, as we listen and think and praise in his house. It may break like a healing flood to alter and exalt our purposes, as we meditate in the solitude of the closet. It may mingle in with the torrent of sorrow that has burst over us, or fall noiseless, as a reviving dew, upon the prostration of our sickness. Everywhere, and in every hour, let us welcome its access, entreating that it may change and "turn" us "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," so that we may "grow unto an holy temple in the Lord."

To most persons, this is discouraging language. It does not furnish a very frequent theme of preaching, except among a particular body of Christians, who, struck with its commonness in the Scriptures and with its neglect, have associated themselves on its special basis, and are styled Perfectionists. But the idea is, not that we should grasp perfection as an immediate result, but make it our aim; and this, so far from discouraging, only inspires. Is there no reason in the condition of the church, as well as authority in the Bible, for urging the precept, "Be perfect"? Is there not much more among us of a contented and barely respectable virtue than of the thirst and aspiration after excellence? How many are satisfied to be as good as others, to reach the current medium of reputable character, to stand with the majority, that potent talisman in our community, and seek to accumulate fancied morality enough for a passport into the gates of heaven! To such men the gospel is a sealed book; nor can one gleam of its real meaning penetrate their souls, till the perfec

tion it proposes dawn upon them, and they pursue it as their glorious end.

But what is this perfection? First, it includes all the virtues. It suffers us not to rely on some good qualities to the neglect of others, or to hope that we can, by a partial innocence, compound with God for the commission of any sin. In the scales of his justice, generosity will not atone for intemperance, irritability, or dishonesty; but the virtues least congenial with our temperament, or most trying to our resolution, he requires us to cherish with the greatest care. Again, perfection requires that each quality, like the Jew's unblemished offering, should be without debasing alloy. Lastly, perfection requires that all the graces be expanded to an unlimited degree. As the seed contains in spotless purity every part of the plant, as the infant's frame is perfect in every member, as the child's harp may be no less harmonious than the great organ, or his tiny trumpet mock in its note the alarming blast of battle, yet all these things are of imperfect size or power; so how many faultless yet feeble characters need unfolding towards the perfection of moral stature and strength!

But, immeasurable as perfection is, shall it not be our aim? See how every thing great and good on this earth has grown out of the aim at perfection. Its fruits, if not in religion, are everywhere else around us. Why do we live in such comfortable dwellings? Because men were not satisfied with a cave in the ground, or a rude fabric above it; but aimed at perfection, till the lowliest of our abodes surpass those once occupied by kings and princes.

Why that proudest monument of architectural skill careering swiftly between continents, through the waste of waters ? Because men were not satisfied with the creaking raft, slowly pushed upon the quiet stream, or with the timid boat that crept along the coast; but, pressing on to perfection, came to span the breadth of the seas almost with the punctuality of the revolutions of the globe. See the Eastern caravan, once, with flocks and herds and merchandise, plodding its slow way through the desert: by the thirst for improvement, the aspiring to perfection, it is now transformed into a self-moving train, bearing through hills, over rivers and plains, greater multitudes and stores, as on the wings of the wind. Behold there a pale student, bending in tedious toil over a manuscript, which he is transcribing upon parchment by a process so expensively long and laborious that a few books exhaust a fortune. But progress is made; perfection is aimed at; and now the word of God is printed as in a moment, and the shelf of the poor man lined with treasures of knowledge that would once have excited the envy of monarchs.

In yonder village, a painter paces, in quiet meditation, his little room. Beautiful pictures has he sent forth to charm every beholder; but he alone is not satisfied. He draws some grand theme from the mighty chronicle of the Bible. He would turn the words of the rapt prophet into colors. He would hold up to the eyes of men a scene of the divine judgments, that should awe down every form of sin, and exalt every resolve of holiness in their