deeds, and little is thought of the general tenor of a man's life. We can scarcely help thinking well of an individual, if we only know that he is zealous about religious forms, or that he has occasionally done some great act of generosity. Men attach little or no religious value to that form of character which may be exhibited under the common relations of society. If the most that

you can

say of a man is, that he is a faithful son, or an affectionate brother, or that he is inflexibly upright in his calling -this may be all very well-but it proves nothing in the general mind, as to his possession of the temper and character of a Christian.

Nothing illustrates the general feeling on this point more strikingly than the effect commonly produced upon people's minds in seasons of great religious excitement, when men are more than ordinarily impressed. Then what a disgust is created at that domestic, household religion, that excellence which may be won and exhibited in the common walks of life! How does the excited mind nauseate a humble calling, ant to quit its lowly station, and undertake the office of a spiritual leader. If a want of the requisite qualifications, if the sex of the individual preclude the possession of official weight, still the domestic circle will be deserted, the foot will be turned away from the familiar paths of life, and such exercises will be engaged in, as best accord with the enlivened sensibilities of the mind. The high labors of devotion and exhortation, will be undertaken upon occasions and in places which have all the excitement of publicity without the name.

Thus when men are taking the deepest interest in religion, they only show how superior the moral tone of

Christianity is to their best moral sentiments. The generality of believers have not yet come up to the spiritual import of their religion. The Christian system, properly viewed, makes account of our every-day feelings, of manners even, of our social intercourse, of our domestic habits, and attaches to them a religious value, and brings them into the estimate of the character. And if men were really christianised in their sentiments, every revival of religion would be marked by an increased tenderness of conscience, not with regard to devotional acts only the outward forms and signs of religion, but to the daily conduct and the natural obligations of human life.

3. In further illustration of our subject, let us observe how perfectly Christianity, in our view of the representations which it makes of human duty, coincides with some of the plainest dictates of reason, some of the clearest conclusions of common sense.

Where we are, we are stationed by our Creator. And from the exquisite wisdom displayed in all his arrangements, the inference is that our duty is here, that our chief labor is to be performed in that portion of his vineyard which he has assigned us. And if we look immediately around us, we may find enough to do. Are we children? Then have we parents to honor and comfort. Are we parents? Then have we a great work to do; to rear minds, the depth of whose resources, and the splendor of whose expectations, transcend our loftiest conceptions. But it is unnecessary to enumerate all the relations in which nature places us. From all of them spring duAll furnish abundant occupations to our hearts and As then it is the dictate of reason, that the ser

ties.

hands.

vice of human life lies among its domestic, social and civil relations, so we cannot fail to honor Christianity, when we find her corroborating this dictate, and pointing to the very same sphere of duty.

4. Again, we infer that our principal duty is close to us, within our personal circle; not only because we find ourselves where we are through the overruling wisdom of God, and have employment enough provided for us in our ordinary duties, but also because it is apparent that, by filling his own place, one may do something for the benefit of the whole family of man. What a host of good influences would be sent through the world, if every individual were to perform the duties of his own station, no matter how obscure, to the utmost of his ability. What a lively effect is produced by a bright example of diligence, integrity, and common kindness, upon those who come within its attraction! The young man, just entering upon active life, looks up to him who has won his admiration by his undeviating uprightness and unfaltering perseverance, and his ambition is, to resemble him whom he respects so profoundly. The family, in which good order and good will preside-how lovely it is! and how is every man prompted to arrange his own household upon the same beautiful plan. In a similar way, the beneficial influence that is propagated from individual to individual, and from family to family, spreads from community to community, and from nation to nation. The effect which a country like ours, with its free institutions, has, and is destined to have, upon the general condition of the world, is obviously beyond all estimate. The longer our political prosperity lasts and the more firmly it is consolidated, the more impatient will

the rest of mankind become of the numerous and unnecessary drawbacks upon their liberties and their peace. Let one free and happy community exist, and what can withstand the stirring charm of its example? As the connexion between the individual and his race is thus disclosed, the simple religion of Jesus must appear beautiful and true, when we observe how it aims to make every man fill the place assigned him by Providence, to the best of his ability.

5. But in order to see still more clearly that every man's main duty in life lies among those with whom nature has placed him, suppose yourself for a moment detached from all your present connexions, lifted out of the place you occupy, and carried up to some eminence, where the whole world-the whole field of moral exertion, might be spread out before you.

you were then required to select the

Suppose also, that scene of your labors the spot upon which you might endeavor to act upon mankind with the best prospect of success. Now as a man can always exert upon those whose modes of thinking, feeling and speaking, whose habits of life, are in unison with his own, a much readier and surer influence than upon those who are separated from him by foreign ways of thought and action, you would be compelled to return, for the sphere of your efforts, to the very place from which, by the supposition, you had just been withdrawn, for there alone, in your natural circle, would you be surrounded by those whose sympathies and habits are in the closest accordance with your own. In the communication of moral and intellectual good, there is need of some community of thought and feeling between those who give and those who receive. There can be but lit

tle intercourse that is profitable between those who are separated from each other in all their modes of mental association and of conduct. Our principal duty, therefore, is among those to whom we are most nearly assimilated in all these respects. And with whom do we, generally speaking, most closely sympathise, but with those of our own kindred and tongue, with those who have been subjected to the same influences that have contributed to the formation of our own tastes and habits? Now all this cannot fail to magnify our blessed religion - to increase our reverence for it, when we find its spirit thus identical with the clear and sacred voices of reason and nature.

6. There is yet another consideration, which, by showing that we are to be first and habitually devoted to those who are nearest to us, helps to illustrate the lovely spirit of pure religion; and we cannot omit it. It is a remarkable fact, that while any single instance of distress occurring in our own neighborhood, excites the liveliest sensation, a most extensive and awful calamity taking place in a distant region of the earth, scarcely awakens the most transient emotion. We are bereft of our composure, and overwhelmed with pity, at the sight of an individual suffering before us; but the tidings of some vast city, in a distant portion of the world, laid in ruins by fire, or laid waste by the plague, may arrive, and scarcely one thrill of compassion vibrates through our hearts. Why is this so? Some may ascribe it to the perversity of our nature; but it admits of an interpretation far more honorable to the Creator. If we were affected by suffering in direct proportion to its amount, whether it were near us, where we might relieve it, or at a distance, where it would be beyond the reach of our kind offices, we should be abso