came more and more estranged from Christianity by their intercourse with the leading savans of France. In their days France was one vast hot bed of impiety and infidelity, of sparkling intellect and profligate manners. It set the fashion not only in the world of gaiety, but in the world of philosophy. So alluring did Hume find his position when he was in Paris, that he had a strong inclination to make it his home for life, notwithstanding his attachment to his friends in Scotland. Gibbon's love of France amounted to such a passion that he preferred writing in the French language rather than in his own. His exclamation when he met with Voltaire was-" Virgilium vidi tantum ;" and to such a ridiculous length did he carry his desire to appear at home in every thing which was French, that his friend Mme. DuDeffand remarked, she was often on the point of saying to him, "Don't give yourself so much trouble; you deserve the honor of being a Frenchman." It is a melancholy proof that a nation has reached the last stage of moral delinquency, and the contagion becomes doubly dangerous, when the poison of impiety strikes as deep into the minds of women as of men. It was remarkably so

at this time in the French nation; and no one can peruse the biographies of Hume and Gibbon without perceiving that whenever they came out from the licentious and brilliant salons of Paris, they had fallen from bad to worse.

But among the external causes of the widespread infidelity which showed itself not only in Hume and Gibbon, but also in many of their cotemporaries, we must not fail to mention the low state of religion which then prevailed to a lamentable extent. It is a truth which cannot be too often repeated or too solemnly urged, that the strength of Christianity to "still the enemy and the avenger," and "put to silence the lying lips," is never so irresistible as when displayed in the purity and filial devotedness of Christians. When the church "looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun," she is also "terrible as an army with banners;" and goes forward, like her Lord, conquering and to conquer. If all is well within, she has nothing to fear from without, "though an host should encamp against her." But widely different was her condition at the time of which we speak. With the exception of a comparatively few redeem

ing points, the picture was gloomy and forbidding throughout the wide territory which had once owned the sway of Christianity, and still claimed to pass under her name. In some lands she was disfigured by superstitions that brought her worship into close affinity with the corrupt rites of Paganism; and in others she was enervated and depressed under the weight of cold indifference or proud unmeaning formalism. She had not yet felt the influence of the burning and shining lights which have since arisen to restore her to herself, and wake her up to the duty not only of repairing her own desolations, but of making the aggressive inroads on the kingdom of darkness which are both the index of her strength and the sure means of increasing it. "While men slept" in this deep slumber, the tares of impiety and infidelity were sown broadcast, especially throughout the nations of the Old World; and we must lament that among those whom we find sleeping at their posts, are men who were distinguished for their official station and extensive influence; and yet, when weighed in the balances are found greatly wanting in the spirit of firmness and decision with which they ought to have rebuked

the open enemies of the faith they were appointed to defend and vindicate.

But in whatever degree external circumstances or the state of the times may have influenced the ultimate views of infidels, it is too plain to be questioned, that their infidelity had its origin and its chief aliment in an "evil heart of unbelief." The Bible which they assailed explains their case and unfolds their motives, when it tells us "they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil;" "having their understanding darkened, because of the hardness of their heart, they became vain in their imaginations;" "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." And from the language which the Apostle here uses, describing their ambitious desires to be noted for superior wisdom, we are reminded, that, if among the unworthy motives which excited their hostility to religion there is one which seems to have obtained the greatest ascendancy, it is that prurient ambition for distinction in knowledge which was man's first sin against his Maker, and is frequently the last which will yield. to the power of the Gospel. Like Simon the Magician, the first of their race on record in modern his

tory, "giving out that himself was some great one," they were captivated with a desire of exhibiting themselves as great; great in the enlargement of their views, the fearlessness of their inquiries and the extent of discoveries which they hoped would overturn the received belief of former days.

This dangerous ambition is peculiarly the besetting sin of active minds in early life. Happy for those who, in the formation of first opinions on great subjects, are under the influence of guardians and instructors whose sober and experienced judgment may avail to chasten these ardent aspirings, and implant in the heart that humility and becoming self-distrust which are the beginning of true wisdom. Had a wise and timely control, by some parental hand, been exercised over the minds of Hume and Gibbon, how different might have been their course and their influence in the world! But unhappily they were left to themselves at the period of life when the self-sufficiency, of which we speak, was unchecked; and they fell easy victims to the temptation of thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Hume, while in childhood, lost his father, and seems to have met with no one