There is something so repulsive in naked infidel. ity, that the mind approaches it with reluctance, shrinks back from it with horror, and is never settled till it rests on positive religion.

I am aware that that spirit of devotion, that sense of guilt and dread of punishment, which pervades the human mind, have been attributed to either the force of habit or the influence of superstition. Let the appeal be made to human nature. To the posi tion of irreligionists on this article, human nature itself furnishes the most satisfactory refutation. Religion is a first principle of man, It shoots up from the very seat of life, it cleaves to the human constitution by a thousand ligaments, it entwines around human nature and sends to the very bottom of the heart its penetrating tendrils. It cannot therefore be exterminated. The experiment has again and again been tried, and the result has always proved worthy of the rash attempt.

Young as you are, you have witnessed, with a view to this extermination, the most desperate efforts. But just now, a formidable host of infuriate infidels were assembled. You heard them openly abjure their GOD. You saw them wreaking their vengeance on religion. For a season they triumphed. Before them every sacred institution disappeared every consecrated monument fell to dust. The fervors of nature were extinguished, and the lip of devotion palsied by their approach. With one hand, they seized the thunders of the heavens, and with the other, smote HIS throne who inhabits them.

It seemed to crumble at the stroke.-Mounting these fancied ruins, BLASPHEMY waved its terrific sceptre, and impiously looking up to those eternal heights where the Deity resides, exclaimed, "VICTORY!"

Where now are those dreaded enemies of our religion? They have vanished from the sight. They were-but are seen no more. Nor have the consequences of their exertions been more abiding. A great nation indeed, delivered from the restraints of moral obligation, and enfranchised with all the liberties of infidelity, were proclaimed FREE. But have they continued so? No; their minds presently recoiled from the dismal waste which skepticism had opened before them, and the cheerless darkness it had spread around them. They suddenly arrested their step. They retraced, in sadness and sorrow, the paths which they had trodden. They consecrated again the temples they had defiled: they rebuilt the altar they had demolished; they sighed for the return of that religion they had banished, and spon taneously promised submission to its reign,

What are we to infer from this? That religion is congenial to human nature-that it is inseparable from it. A nation may be seduced into skepticism, but it cannot be continued in it. Why, I would ask, has religion existed in the world in ages which are past-why does it exist now-why will it exist in ages to come? Is it because kings have ordained, and priests defended it? No; but because GOD formed man to be religious. Its great and eternal

principles, are inscribed on his heart; they are inscribed, in characters which are indelible; nor can the violence of infidelity blot them out. Obscured indeed they may be by the influence of sin, and remain not legible during the rage of passion. But a calm ensues: the calm of reason, or the night of adversity, from the midst of whose darkness, a light proceeds which renders the original inscription visible. Man now turns his eye inward upon himself. He reads "RESPONSIBILITY," and as he reads, he feels a sense of sin and dread of punishment. He now pays from necessity an homage to religion-an homage which cannot be withheld it is the homage of his nature. We have now traced the effect to its cause, and referred this abiding trait in the human character, to its principle.

The question is not, then, whether you will embrace religion? Religion you must embrace-but whether you will embrace revealed religion, or that of erring and blind philosophy. And with respect to this question can you hesitate?

The former has infinitely more to recommend it than the latter. It originated in heaven. It is founded, not on conjecture, but on fact. Divinity manifested itself in the person, and shone in the life of its Author. True, he appeared in great humility; but though the humility in which he appeared had been. greater than it was, either the sublimity of his doctrines, or the splendor of his actions had been suffieient to evince his Messiahship, and prove that he

was the SAVIOR of the world. never spoke! Whence did he

He spoke as man derive wisdom so

transcendant? From reason? No; reason could not

What reason could that in the vast and

give it, for it had it not to give. never teach, the Gospel teaches: perfect government of the universe, vicarious sufferTM ings can be accepted; and that the dread Sovereign, who administers that government, is gracious as well as just. Nor does it rest in declaration merely—It exhibits before our eyes the altar and the victim-the LAMB of GOD, which taketh away the sins of the world.

The introduction of CHRISTIANITY, was called the coming of the kingdom of Heaven. No terms could have been more appropriate; -For through it man shared the mercy, and from it caught the spirit of the heavens. The moral gloom which shrouded the nations, receded before it. The temples of superstition and of cruelty, consecrated by its entrance, became the asylum of the wretched, and resounded with their anthems of grace.

Most benign has been the influence of Christianity, and were it cordially received, and universally submitted to, war would cease; injustice be banished, and primeval happiness revisit the earth. Every inhabitant, pleased with his situation, resigned to his lot, and full of the hopes of heaven, would pass agreeably through life, and meet death without a sigh.

Is the morality of the Gospel pre-eminently excellent? so is its object pre-eminently glorious,

Philosophy, confines its views to this world principal. ly. It endeavors to satisfy man with the groveling joys of earth, till he returns to that dust out of which he was taken. Christianity, takes a nobler flight. Her course is directed towards immortality. Thither she conducts her votary, and never forṣakes him, till, having introduced him into the society of angels, she fixes his eternal residence among the spirits of the just.

Philosophy, can only heave a sigh, a longing sigh, after immortality. Eternity is to her an unknown vast, over which she soars on conjecture's trembling wing. Above-beneath-around-is an unfathomable void; and doubt, uncertainty, or despair, are the result of all her enquiries.

Christianity, on the other hand, having furnished all necessary information concerning life, with firm. and undaunted step, crosses death's narrow isthmus, and boldly launches forth into that dread futurity which borders on it. Her path is marked with glo ry. The once dark, dreary region brightens as she approaches it, and benignly smiles as she passes over it. Faith follows where she advances; till reaching the summit of everlasting hills, an unknown scene, in endless varieties of loveliness and beauty, presents itself, over which the ravished eye wanders, without a cloud to dim, or a limit to obstruct its sight. In the midst of this scene, rendered luminous by the glory which covers it, the city-the palace— the THRONE of GOD appears. Trees of life wave their ambrosial tops around it; rivers of salva