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designed for some exalted end, as that of all beings, it is evident that the end designed cannot be attained but by the aid of revelation, which alone can give us positive information in relation to our nature, origin, and destiny, while it guaranties the possession of that which is supremely good and true. Christianity, as it is found in the New Testament, is ordained to better and to beautify existence as it is;" a religion of love and saving grace, addressing itself to the head and to the heart; in harmony with the natural as well as moral world; and bringing to all the magnificent proofs of Deity without us, and the still more impressive proofs of Deity within us; a religion which is adapted to man's condition and wants every where, admitting no compromise with vice, making sincerity the test of sanctity, and practical benevolence the test of sincerity.

True religion is every way infinite, because it is all full of God. Between it and our faculties there is a perfect harmony; therefore, in all time, and in every place, man, naturally inclined to worship in some form, has felt the need of being enlightened by divine doctrines, consoled, vivified by lofty hopes, and conducted by unerring precepts. The more religion is pure, holy, and vigorous in its claims of truth and justice, the greater is its power over man, and the more is it conformed to his nature, despite the disasters of the fall. Hence, in every region of earth, Christianity has only to be proclaimed in purity to be universally heard. The follies and crimes of paganism, superstition, bigotry, and fanaticism, cannot long resist its influence, taint its spotless purity, nor prevent its diffusion even in the darkest corners of earth, where, as on the boldest heights, its prerogative is to create the " sunminds that warm the world to love, and worship, and bright life."

The voice that cries, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," always resounds in the desert rather than in the garden, among the masses of the obscure, who pant for improvement, and not in the halls of the luxurious, already

satiated with ease. Christ has taught us not to seek him in a terrestrial paradise, but in the Nazareths of virtuous penury, the Bethanies of simple domestic joys, the Gethsemanes of agonizing prayer, on the Calvaries of martyrdom, and the Olivets of triumphal ascent from earthly sufferings to immortal joys. He who came down from the Father of lights, kindled the mild splendors of Christianity first in the most hidden vales, not that the more prominent should be left benighted, but that the most unfortunate should be especially blessed.

As the young eye of Christ opened upon the world he came to redeem, he every where saw vice and tyranny in the ascendant, crime and imposture ruling supreme. He had not made kings to destroy their fellow-men, nor priests to harness them, like brutes, to regal chariots, thus in the person of religionists giving to the world the basest example of pride, perfidy, and avarice, to debauch and destroy; but as he had built the universe to proclaim his power, so he came to enlighten and protect the feeblest of the rational creation, the most glorious manifestation of his mercy. It is in this respect, especially, that Christianity excels all preceding religions. It alone lays a pure basis, adapted to the community at large, inculcating the spirit of universal authority, and at the same time of such a character as to unite all hearts together, and bind them to God himself. This was an innovation upon all local systems, an overthrow of all contracted creeds, of which Plato, for instance, the wisest of uninspired reformers, never dreamed. Says he, "No man who has sense, whether he undertakes to erect a new state from the very foundation, or merely to restore an old one which has been broken down, will attempt to change those things relative to the gods and to sacred ceremonies which ought to be stable, from whatever gods or demons they may have received their appellation. Nor should the legislator touch in any respect that which is founded upon the authority of the oracle, or upon sacred old sayings." We should infer from language like this that paganism, as religion, never rose to the full conception of the Divine, as something

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holy, spiritual, individual, and superior to nature. Judaism, on the other hand, was an ethical, monotheistic religion, distinguishing God from the world, it is true, but, like preceding systems, leaving man more as a phantom of another state of being than as a social creature to be cultivated in this. The great difficulty was, that whilst paganism confused the ideas of the Divine and Human, of God and Nature, Judaism not merely distinguished, but separated them. Christ came to correct this fatal falsity of view, and placed the whole truth, unmutilated and unobscured, palpably before the eyes of all mankind. He taught and exemplified his teaching in his own wonderful person, that all true religion has both a divine and a human character. He showed from the nature of God, as Spiritand Love, that he should communicate himself to his creatures, even the most lowly, receive them into intercourse with himself, and impart to each some measure of the fulness of his own infinite blessedness. This is at once the origin and consummation of Christianity. "God reveals and communicates himself; man accepts this revelation, and enters into this com munion. All genuine religion is therefore of divine origin.But this is only one side of the question; there is another, also of much importance. This divine message can be received by mankind only through means adapted to human capacities. Revelation has to work upon the human mind, with all the faculties and susceptibilities with which it has been endowed for this very purpose, and which constitute its rational character. Nor is this all. This mind, at whatever period revelation is communicated, must be in some particular stage of progress, and under some peculiar historical influences. Thus all true, living religion must have also a human form, an historical impress and character. But while this is the case with all religion, it is especially so with Christianity. No religion is at once so divine and so human, so creative and original, and at the same time so deeply and grandly historical, as this; and in none are the two elements so entirely and so indissolubly united. The grand ideas which form the basis of all religion are here

presented in their greatest perfection and simplicity; God manifests himself in a form wholly corresponding with his character, and imbued with his spirit; and this type of his perfections is a man, thinking, feeling, acting, and suffering; as a man, exemplifying every human quality in its entire simplicity and truth, condescending lovingly to the smallest human interests, and thus investing them with a divine glory. Viewed in this light, Christianity appears divine in its essence, human in its form; divine in its origin, human in its imbodiment and development. It possesses the full originality and independence of a new religious creation, such as could proceed only from an immediate divine impulse; and is yet in the fullest sense historical, bearing the most intimate relation to the whole previous training and progress of the human race. It appeared when the fulness of time was accomplished; it is entwined by a thousand threads with reality; and has been, ever since its first appearance in the world, so completely the moving spring of history, that we cannot but regard it as the germ of the higher development of humanity; while, superior both to reason and nature, it is at the same time the highest reason and the truest nature. For no reason could have invented, no reflection discovered, that which forms the central point of Christianity; the self-sacrifice made by divine love on the cross, for the sake of sinful humanity; and yet both recognize therein the only effectual means for the redemption and regeneration of humanity."

Christianity alone distinguishes between God and man without dividing, portraying the true characters of both, and realiz ing their perfect union in the person of its divine Author. It teaches the perfect holiness of God, but at the same time his infinite grace and condescension to our fallen race; the distinctly human nature of man, but also his divine origin and capacities. In this respect has our holy religion attained the end to which all previous systems vainly aspired, being the grand luminary of absolute, unchangeable Truth, into whose effulgence all the subordinate beams of imperfect systems are

sublimely merged. And it is the highest glory of "the dayspring from on high, which hath visited us," that it arose in the deepest gloom, on purpose to pour solace on the most obscure. Secondly, Christianity is designed to mitigate the keenest pangs. All religion not intrinsically Christian is deficient in respect to the prime element of true morality-sympathy for hidden suffering. This was one of the fatal defects that prevailed in the morality of pagan antiquity. Apart from the fact, that it favored selfish principles mainly, and constituted merely a system of rules for sensual gratification, which rendered man a proud and obdurate being, it exerted no influence upon the great mass of the common people, and had no tender emotions to soothe the suffering poor. Its guardians satisfied themselves with disputing in their schools about certain abstract principles, and left the struggling people to their fate. All moral restraint and fraternal obligations derived their chief support from traditionary customs, dogmatical ceremonies, and mercenary maxims; and even this poor basis, always weak, was rendered still more insecure and pernicious by the prevalence of the most degrading superstition. But such dispositions, feelings, and moral habits, Christ came to extirpate, and to substitute in their place the most salutary laws of personal and social improvement. The feeble and unfortunate were no longer to be despised, but as brethren to be recognized and protected. Matrimony was to cease being a state for the male to exercise unjust dominion over the female, and keep her in miserable bondage. Every house was to become a temple, and every inhabitant, however humble and destitute, to be ennobled, improved, and consecrated to the service of God and mankind. Animated by the highest and purest mutual esteem, every family, neighborhood, and state was to become a venerable and beneficent whole, wherein all should be equals, and none abused. How desirable a consummation is this! Said Plato, "Could we create so close, tender, and cordial a connection between the citizens of a state, as to induce all to consider themselves as