the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." And in such deeds of mercy and loving kindness, his holy word has engraved the record of its own divinity and value, throughout all ages and all nations in which it has been known; not on tablets that might decay and be lost, but on immortal souls of the redeemed, who are to live forever. And when infidelity would persuade us to cast it away as delusion and vanity, let her first show us what she has to give us in its room. Let her spread

before us a truthful record of the woes she has healed, and the joys in life and death which she has dispensed. We challenge her to the task; we demand that she tell us where we can find the widow and the orphan that she has comforted, the oppressed that she has relieved, the wounded con

science that she has soothed and healed, the dying that she has made triumphant over death and the grave; and if she will undertake to furnish such proofs of her value to fallen man, we will leave her laboring in the fire, aiming to do what cannot be done till she has wearied herself out with her vain inventions, and we will then open a new leaf to show the fruits of the Gospel, as a proof that it comes from God. What we have seen are but parts of its ways for the welfare of man. We can point to the future of our world with as much confidence as we can refer to the past. The day is coming when the Gospel will expel from the face of the whole earth the calamities which infidelity, and other forms of depravity, have brought on our race; when it will so subdue and calm down the evil passions of men, that with one accord "they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more;" when it will so unite them to God and to each other, and so fill their minds with a knowledge of his will, that "they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother,

saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know him, from the least of them unto the greatest of them;" when even the great and wise of this world who may now magnify themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed, will hasten to lay their earthly glories at the foot of the cross, of their own will "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ." All this happy change is yct to be wrought in our world by the Gospel; and thus, as age follows age, in time to come will the proof grow brighter and brighter, that the Bible is a revelation of grace and mercy from Heaven.

FOURTH LECTURE.

Christianity contrasted with Infidelity, in its influence on the happiness of Man in this world.

Proverbs, xiii. 14, 15.

"The law of the wise is a fountain of life, but the way of transgressors is hard.

...

In a previous lecture we have contrasted the learning arrayed against Christianity, with that which has been enlisted in its favor and defence. We did not confine ourselves to any one branch of knowledge; and to whatever department of letters and science we have turned our thoughts, we have still found the ripest scholarship, the highest standard of learning, on the side of the Bible. But before we have done with this part of our subject we would carry the contrast between Christianity and Infidelity still farther.

It is admitted on all sides that happiness is the

great object of human pursuit, one great end of man's existence. No one who claims to be a rational being would so blaspheme his Maker, or do such violence to his own nature, as to deny that he was made to be happy. God is perfectly blessed in himself, and "in his own image made he man." Of course, whatever most effectually and really promotes our happiness here and hereafter, bears on its face that it comes from God; for it contributes to the fulfilment of His wise and merciful purpose when He called us into being. Let us now weigh Christianity and Infidelity in these balances, so far as may be practicable in a single discourse. Let us contrast their respective influ ence on the happiness of those who embraced the one or the other. Nor will we here speak of what awaits men in the eternal world, when they have passed beyond that vail which no human eye is allowed to penetrate. We confine our argument to what we can all see, respecting which there can be no dispute; and we ask, is the christian or the infidel the happier man in life, and at death, even was there no eternity to follow?

I am the more willing to take a view of our