tercourse of the world-the odd expressions of theological writers, heard, perhaps, from childhood, and disgusting the mind so entirely, that when the ideas themselves recur, even in another garb, the same lurking disgust is sure to be awakened. Put down on this list the demeanor which certain Christians exhibit, the precision of their movements, the solemn manner of doing little things, the audible impulses of the breath, the characteristic tones of the voice, their peculiar positions or gestures in religious worship, and, in short, the whole of that dove-tailed nicety which some men will carry about with them in life. I say, put all these considerations together, and however poor may be the compliment to your better judgment, I doubt much if they have not had their influence in producing your disrelish to spiritual godliness. And look at it, my hearers. On any other subject your fastidiousness disappears. The manners, the style, the peculiarities of men, you never permit to sway your opinions of their sentiments. Some of the greatest personages that ever lived have been the most uncouth and eccentric. Bacon was stigmatised as a juggler; Des Cartes was lampooned as a fanatic; Johnson called Milton a Babylonian, and half the world have called Johnson something worse; and yet the whole of this has never made us doubt a single truth they uttered, or impeach a single profession they made.

But go a step further. Your repugnance to experimental Christianity has been increased, I apprehend, by finding it frequently connected with weak and uncultivated minds. It would be a libel on your good sense, my hearers, to suspect you of unfriendliness to vital religion, from seeing it often professed by the hypocritical and wicked pretender. Like every thing else valuable, it has its counterfeits; and you know, as every body knows, that with such a class of men, except as they seek under its venerable name a shelter for their sins, it has nothing to do. But it has much to do with men of feeble intellect. With them it does really and vitally connect itself, and looking upon it in this association, I fear you have given to it the character of something beneath your notice. But think over this subject again. Philosophy, indeed, had her alcoves, her lyceum, her academies, and every thing that flung around her the magnificent and imposing drapery of a costly decoration. But recollect that the poor had no portion there. Recollect that it is the Gospel alone which is preached to the poor; which walks into every family, however humble, and every heart, however disconsolate, and every mind, however weak, and offers to each and to all alike the blessed news of a provided immortality. And would you undervalue religion, for the very reason that you ought to lend her your loudest applause? Would you despise the sun, which rides through those heavens, because it lightens the meanest beggar on his way, as well as the monarch in marshalling the armies of an empire? Where, tell me, is the mind too lofty to be filled with the sublime announcements of the Gospel? You have seen that there is none too low; when, I ask, shall we find one too high? O, brethren, you might travel over the illimitable dominions of the Godhead; you might converse with those mighty spirits which bend and burn around His Throne, and not one could you meet, who would think beneath his notice that stupendous scheme of mercy which aims to renovate the human heart.

But I need not resort to angels. Walk abroad upon the theatre of mere human excellence. Tell me if you have ever heard of the deep researches of Locke; the powerful reasonings of Owen; the impassioned and unrivalled eloquence of Whitfield, or the exploring intrepidity of Buchanan? Tell me if you have heard of Newton, in science; of Hale, on the Bench; of Booerhave, in medicine; of Milton, in poetry; of Thornton, in commerce; of Zuingle, Gustavus, and Gardner, in the field: and then answer, whether that strict and evangelical religion which you have seen con. trolling the weakest minds, is not fitted also to control the most brilliant, and mighty, and commanding?

But go a step further, and we will stop together. I much mistake the matter if your repugnance to experimental Christianity has not been insensibly rivetted by an acquaintance with what is called polite literature-of the ancient classics, the effect, if there be any, in a moral view, is decidedly hostile to the spirit of the New Testament. The captivating imagery of Homer -the indecencies of Ovid-the licentiousness of Horace -and the illusive fictions of Virgil, have come down to us habited in so rich a livery, that we are in some sort heathenised almost before we are aware of it. I am not saying, that we ought to exile authors of such a cast into irrecoverable banishment from our reading; but this I say, that when they are read, it should be with a mind warned at all points against their fascinations, and keeping up a broad line of distinction between the virtue of Pagan philosophy, and the piety of Christian devotedness to God. But, after all, it is modern literature which operates the most seductively to create a distaste for spiritual religion. Who does not know, that among the publications issuing every day from the press, there is next to none which bespeaks a Christian parentage? Sometimes, it is true, they bring Christianity upon their pages for the purpose of display, and they throw around it the embellishment of all its grand, and all its majestic attributes; but there the curtain falls. To look for that great animating principle which reaches and penetrates the heart, and sends the repenting sinner to the solemn aspirations of the closet-to look for this in almost any of our works of taste, would be like searching the deserts of Arabia for a spot of verdure. I do not mean that all our literary productions, or even many of them, come forth to the world attired in the panoply of a positive opposition to the Gospels. But what then? Neither do they lend the least aid, unless an occasional compliment be called aid, in its defence. In nearly every one of their delineations they are utterly defective; not only wrong in the coloring, but wrong in the groundwork. They make the good man every thing but a Christian, and happiness every thing but experimental piety, and human life every thing but the vestibule of eternal existence, requiring of us the business of an active and constant preparation. I have said that they carried with them no direct hostility to religion; but there are some, upon which even this praise of neutrality cannot be conferred; and sure I am, to mention no more cases, that if the moral taste of the community is not wofully corrupted, it will not be the fault of two of the most eminent poets of the age, who have inflicted, the one by the impiety of his conceptions, and the other by the licentiousness of his verse, the deepest wound in their power upon spiritual Christianity. Perhaps such men may hope, by throwing over a part of their "melodies" the plausibility of a Christian name, to atone for the depravity of the rest; but for myself, I say, and I say no more, that if God had given me such talents as they have, and if He had seen me like them, perverting the splendid endowment from one end of life to the other, I should tremble to hear the terrific summons thundering through the silence of my grave on the judgment day-" Arise, and give an account of thy stewardship."

I will not, my hearers, impose a further tax upon your patience. You will see that I have made it the drift of my remarks, to obviate some of the most plausible objections commonly set up against that strict and spiritual Christi

anity, which I deem it my weekly duty to enforce. I have told you in the language of the prophet, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom;" and now I should like to ask, what is wisdom when applied to the attainments of the human mind? Go and look one moment upon the wonderworking God; wielding the vast enginery of His designs ; analysing the effect of each alone, and of all together, and applying them at once to the ten thousand wants, dependencies, and connexions of the universe. Go and see Him pouring the comprehensions of His Omniscient Eye through the limitless ages of eternity, and setting in motion, at the same instant, all the complicated instrumentalities necessary to fill and animate His mighty dominions with the evidences of His glory! Do this, and you will sink down mortified and abashed from your own ideal elevation, and exclaim," Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him?" Now, it is just this spirit of heartfelt humility which will fit us for receiv. ing in its true character the transforming influence of the Gospel. The plain matter of fact is, that all of us are sinners; and though one may excel another in the extent of literary research, or the lustre of visible accomplishments,though the repulsive name of enthusiasm may be given to truth, or the stigma of weakness be fixed upon piety-all this time, the irrevocable declarations of the Bible are moving forward to their unassuaged and unimpeded catastrophe. About your mere belief, or your external conformities, I have no question to ask. You may credit Christianity, and tender it the homage of your respect, and uphold it as a salutary institution of society. But this is not coming to the point. To be an advocate is one thing, and to be a disciple is entirely another thing. This will never carry you to Heaven. I wish to know how the great business of the heart is getting along, and whether the Saviour has done