is social, but the multiplication of personal, happiness? What is it that makes up families, neighborhoods, cities, nations, kingdoms, but a multitude of individuals? It is quite obvious then, that if Christianity takes the direction of personal happiness, it promotes also national and universal.

It does this directly and indirectly. It does it DIRECTLY, because it is the very foundation of society. It is a system of righteousness. Sterling truth, equity, justice, without which society cannot subsist, are no where so forcibly inculcated as in the Christian religion.

Then it supplies the defects of human laws. It is seated in the conscience, it interposes a Divine tribunal, it regards the secret intention of man, it goes to the principle of obedience, it restrains not by fear of punishment merely, but by the innate desire to please God and benefit our fellow creatures. What are oaths, without Christianity as their basis? What are human statutes, without the authority of the supreme Legislator?

Again: Christianity goes to subdue the selfishness of man, and implant that regard for the welfare of others which is the spring of genuine patriotism and devotion to the good of our country. And what, I ask, must be the working of that religion whose main object is to eradicte the selfish pas

sions?

And why should I speak of the bearings of the charity of Christianity, of its spirit of beneficence, its forgiveness of injuries, its delight in communicating good, its genuine, diffusive, heartfelt sympathy? Must not all this go to the cementing together the society of mankind, and the rendering nations one great and united family?

And what is the tendency of all the Christian precepts-of its relative duties, its rules for the lowest and higest orders of society, its prescriptions of loyalty and subjection to the powers that be; of the commands which restrain, animate, and direct every class of persons in a state; the injunctions which go to extinguish the causes of disunion, turbulence, sedition, war?

Again: how can we speak adequately of the INDIRECT tendency of the gospel to advance the temporal and spiritual welfare of nations! For there is this of remarkable in Christianity, that none can approach within its sphere of influence, without deriving some advantage from it. It indireetly works upon thousands whom it never persuades to receive its yoke. It operates by the medium of others. It raises the standard of morals. It induces large bodies of men to imitate, in various respects, the conduct of its genuine disciples. It deters from evil by the means of shame, an enlightened conscience, the fear of exposure. Each Christian is a centre of influence, in which his example and instructions are continually operating.

Thus by degrees public opinion begins to work; and as this spreads, it reaches magistrates and nobles, it sways the minds of legislators, it opens the ears of princes, it leads to national measures in honor of Almighty God, and for the propagation and support of revealed religion; and thus it brings down that blessing upon states which is the spring of real prosperity.

Thus Christianity is, like a powerful under-current, flowing beneath the main stream of life, which, without mingling or defiling itself with the troubled waters, pursues its pure, though unseen course, preserving its original virtue, and ready to burst forth and fertilize all around, as external obstacles are removed.

But this leads us to notice

II. THE HINDRANCES WHICH IMPEDE THE FULL EFFECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; for this is the next branch of our argument. The strength of any tendency may be judged of, in a good measure, by the known obstacles against which it has to work. We estimate the genuine bearing of reason by considering the brute force which is opposed to it; we measure the real bias of virtue by the resistance which vice puts forth against it; we discern the tendency of natural religion by the counteracting power of sin and profaneness. There would be no tendency, properly speaking, in any of these cases, if there were no strong impeding principles-all would be effect, not tendency.

Against the Christian religion, then, there are opposing forces drawn up, which will assist us in gauging its essential leaning towards the highest good of man.

For fearful are these obstacles; narrow have been hitherto the limits of real Christianity; numerous are the impediments which hedge it in. I know the difficuly of treating in a clear and perspicuous manner this part of our argument. The mind is prone to hasty and most unreasonable conclusions. We see hindrances, we see Christianity checked on every hand: we confound facts with causes.

But if we examine the real state of things, we shall see that the obstacles spring from a source extrinsic from Christianity; that they are incidental and temporary, not essential and permanent; and that they serve to demonstrate the innate force of the Christian doctrine, which makes head against them, and is gradually overcoming them.

For what are the chief hindrances with which Christianity has to contend? Are they not the hostility of some, and the neglect of others? Is not the enmity of the human heart to the main doctrines and precepts of Revelation, a principal barrier against its progress? Does not also indifference and apathy to these peculiarities disincline man from entertaining the religion? Besides these obstacles, do not the vices of its false adherents, and the crimes and hypocrisy of its pretended friends, form another formidable impediment -to which must be added the various imperfections and errors of sincere Christians themselves? Then take in the more public obstacles presented by corruptions of the Christian doctrines introduced into churches-the contagion of heresy, the vices and unfaithfulness of many of the ministers and professed teachers of Christianity; to say nothing of the apostacies in the East and West, which have left little of Christianity in those quarters except the name. The persecutions directed, from time to time, against the sincere disciples of the religion, must be added; as well as the fearful neglect, with regard to religious influence, of which princes and legislators have too frequently been guilty. Then the judicial infatuation permitted by Almighty God, in punishment of infidelity and obstinate resistance to duty,

must be considered. And, lastly, the great spiritual adversary, who either deceiveth the nations; or walketh about, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.1

Such are the known obstacles which impede the course of Christianity. And whence do they arise? Surely not from the gospel itself, but from a totally different source, the depravity and perverseness of man. They are therefore so far from belonging to Christianity, that they form a part of that disease, which it is aiming to cure. The corruption of man, be it ever remembered, was not introduced by the Christian Revelation, nor in consequence of it; it is a condition of mankind existing as much under natural as revealed religion. Christianity finds man perverse, corrupt, vicious; and brings in the only efficient remedy—a remedy the tendencies of which are to overcome that corruption in every form. The science of medicine is not less a healing process, nor less beneficial in its tendency, because multitudes will not follow its directions, and various diseases do not at once yield to its power. The reign of a virtuous and beneficent prince, does not less tend towards the best welfare of his subjects, because there may be obstacles to the full execution of his designs, in the political constitution or moral habits of the people whom he governs.

The hindrances then to Christianity are extrinsic and foreign, not innate and peculiar. They are incidental, not essential and permanent. They are not inherent in the religion, but arise from an entirely distinct cause, the depravity of man. The true tendency and bearing of the Christian Revelation, is not to create or augment those hindrances, but to work against and overcome them. As well might brute force be said to spring from reason, or vice to arise from virtue, or profaneness and sin from the fear of God, as corruption and disorder from the Christian Revelation-that corruption and disorder which we find to be in fact partially removed, which yields continually to the moral force which the gospel brings to bear upon it, and which, in truth, is the gauge and measure of the true tendency of the religion.

h) Rev. xx. 3. Peter v. 8.

For as the tendency of a fountain to ascend, is judged of by the superincumbent earth through which it makes its way, and as the strength of a river-barrier is estimated by the resisting force of the current; so the virtue and bias of Christianity are measured by the mighty obstacles which it is perpetually overcoming. He that knows best the deep corruption of human nature-he that understands most adequately the hostility of man to real religion, and his apathy to invisible and spiritual things; he who has surveyed most widely the vices and crimes of the false friends of Christianity; he who is most familiar with the history of the corruptions in the visible church, and who knows best the misdirected influence of governors and princes;-can form the soundest judgment of the force of the obstacles which oppose the progress of Christianity, and can discern most clearly, amidst those various impediments, the innate and essential virtue of the religion which is working against

them.

The hindrances, then, are known, and placed boldly before the mind. I dwell not on the judicial infatuation which falls upon nations or individuals as a punishment of sin; nor on the great spiritual adversary; because these are most obviously extrinsic from the Christian religion, and derive their existence or force from the very corruption of man, which is, properly speaking, the only obstacle by which the native flow of Christianity is impeded and restrained.

Let us proceed next to consider,

III. THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANIY IN PROPORTION ΤΟ

THE REMOVAL OF THESE HINDRANCES.

For in this manner we judge of the tendency of a principle. After considering its known obstacles, we examine its success under different circumstances. We take a view of it in a most unfavorable, a less unfavorable, and an actually favorable position. If we consider the case of reason, for instance, we inquire whether, under circumstances more or less advantageous, its success is proportionate. We do the same with virtue and with natural religion. The more numerous are the experiments we make, in times the most distant from each other, at places the most remote, and