1. It exercises and improves the understanding.

From beginning to end, religion is an intellectual process. Whatever raises man above the dominion of the senses, and renders him independent of these, as sources of gratification, must have a salutary influence upon the mind. Now the objects which religion exhibits, are such as the mental faculties alone can converse with: and the moment a man begins to feel solicitude about spiritual things, he begins to experience a considerable elevation of character. And then the subjects of divine truth, are of the most sublime and lofty kind. They form the Alps in the world of mind. The existence and attributes of the great God; the system of Providence, embracing all worlds and all ages; the scheme of redemption, planned from eternity for the salvation of millions of rational creatures; the immortality of the soul; the solemnities of judgement; the everlasting states of the righteous and the wicked; these are the every-day topics of thought to a Christian. Can a man live in daily contemplation of these vast ideas, and not feel an elevating influence upon his understanding? It will probably be said, that science will have the same effect. This is admitted in part. But how many are there to whom philosophical pursuits are utterly inaccessible. Besides this, it might be replied that nothing but religion will infallibly guard the soul from being debased by vicious indulgencies.

Read the missionary records, and learn by these interesting details, what religion has done for the Negroes of the West Indies, the Hottentots of South Africa, the Esquimaux of Labrador,

the fur-clad Greenlanders of the arctic regions, and the voluptuous cannibals of the South Sea Islands. It has raised them from savages into rational creatures; it has awakened their dormant understanding; sharpened their powers of perception; taught them the art of reasoning; and invested them with the power of eloquence. But why do I go to distant countries, while our own furnishes illustrations so numerous, and so striking? How many persons are there, who were educated in our Sunday schools, and who are now filling stations of importance, credit, and usefulness, who, but for religion, would never have risen in the scale of society, or ascended above the lowest level of poverty. Education, it is true gave the first impulse to their minds; but it was an impulse which would have soon spent its force, had it not been continued and increased by religion. It was this that gave the sober, serious, and reflective turn of mind which has led to such mental improvement and they who, but for the power of godliness, would have been still earning their bread at the plow or the anvil, are filling the place of tradesmen or clerks; or are raised to the distinction of preaching with ability and success, the truths of salvation.*

*As a proof of the influence which religion has in strengthening and elevating the powers, of even the most cultivated understanding, I may give the following quotation from the Life of the Rev. Henry Martyn, a book which I most emphatically recommend to the perusal of all young people, as one of the most interesting publications that modern times have produced.

Since I have known God in a saving manner," he remarks," painting, poetry, and music, have had charins unknown to me before. I have received, what I suppose is a taste for them; for religion has refined my mind, and made it susceptible of impressions from the sublime and beautiful. O how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God, by their becoming a source of pride."

As it may be fairly argued that the sublimity of Milton's genius, was owing in no small degree to the influence of religion upon his mind.

2. Religion guards the health.

I do not mean to say that the rose will ever bloom upon the countenance of piety, but I will affirm, that where it already displays its beauty and sheds its fragrance, religion will prevent those vices, which, like worms at the root of a flower, consume its strength, and shorten its existence. How many diseases are generated by sin. It is calculated that even in a time of war, there are more who perish by drunkenness and licentiousness, than by the sword. "Ye victims of voluptuousness, ye martyrs of concupiscence, who formerly tasted the pleasures of sin for a season, but now are beginning to feel the horrors of it for ever; you serve us for demonstration and example. Look at those trembling hands, that shaking head, those disjointed knees, that faltering resolution, that feeble memory, that worn out body all putrefaction; these are the dreadful rewards which vice bestows now, as pledges of what Satan will bestow presently, on those on whom he is preparing to exhaust his fury." Religion will prevent all this; that passion which wastes the strength as with a fever; that ambition which wears out the frame faster than hard labour; that malice which robs of sleep; that gambling which hurries a man backward and forward between the delirium of hope and the torture of fear; that gluttony which brings on apoplexy; that drunkenness which preys as a slow fire on the organs of life; that debauchery which corrupts the whole mass of the blood, and brings

This is at once far more direct and obvious in its tendency, than any natural scenery, however bold and striking may be its features; since piety not only brings the mind into the region of sublinie mental scenery but fixes the eye most intently upon it.

the infirmities of age on the days of youth: yes, religion keeps off all these vices and their consequences. "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days; it is a fountain of life to guard us from the snares of death." But of the drunkard and the fornicator it may be said, "His bones are full of the sins of his youth, which lie down with him in the dust. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth; though he hide it under his tongue; though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth; yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him."*

3. Religion builds up and protects the reputation.

It prevents those sins which render a man dishonourable and infamous: it promotes all those virtues which raise and cherish esteem. How much is the liar, the extortionate and imposing tradesman, the unfaithful servant, the unkind husband, the cruel oppressive master, despised. Who respects the individual who is notoriously addicted to vice, and flagrantly neglectful of the lowest obligations of virtue? Whereas a man of consistent piety, who is known to be a real Christian, and whose Christianity renders him scrupulously true, honest and upright, such a man is universally esteemed. The wicked may laugh at his piety, but is he not the very man with whom they love to trade; in whose character they find sufficient vouchers for the propriety of his conduct; and in whose fidelity they can repose unbounded confidence? This was remarkably exemplified in the instance of the missionary Schwartz, who laboured to spread the

*Job xx. 11-14.

Gospel in the southern part of the Indian peninsula. Such was the repute in which this holy man was held by the native princes of Hindos tan, that when Tippoo Saib was about to enter into a treaty with the Company, not being disposed to place much confidence in their agents, he exclaimed, "Send to me the missionary Schwartz, I will treat with him, for I can confide in his veracity."

How many persons has the want of religion brought to an untimely end! No man would ever have been exiled as a felon, or executed as a malefactor, if he had lived under the influence of piety. No jail would have been needed, no gallows erected, if all men were pious. Godliness may not indeed guard us from poverty, but it will certainly save us from infamy. It may not advance us to wealth, but it will assuredly raise us to respectability.

4. Religion promotes our secular interests.

I do not pretend that piety bears into the church the cornucopia of worldly wealth, to pour down showers of gold on all who court her smiles and bend to her sway; but still there is a striking tendency in her influence, to improve our worldly circumstances.

It certainly prevents those vices which tend to poverty. Penury is often the effect of vice. How many have hurled themselves and their families from the pinnacles of prosperity to the depths of adversity, by a course of wicked and profligate extravagance. Multitudes have spent all their substance, like the prodigal son, upon harlots and riotous living. Pride has ruined thousands, and indolence its tens of thousands. It is a quaint observation of an old writer, but