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for fear or for hope, should any be disposed to entertain such hope, that a new reaction will take place strong enough to carry men back to the same causes of evil from which they are now struggling to free themselves.

But this anticipation of coming changes affords in itself alone no augury of good. The restlessness and the convulsions of nations are in themselves no more favorable indications of improvement than the tossings and spasmodic motions of a man in a fever are symptoms of returning health. It is with nations as with the individuals of whom they are composed. It is only through means which may raise the moral and intellectual character of men, that their permanent good may be effected. It can be effected only through the influence of those principles of action which control our selfishness, and call forth our social affections; only through a better knowledge and a deeper feeling of the truths which concern our relations to our fellow-men as founded on our relations to God and to immortality, and which lead us by the highest motives to the performance of our duties.

When, accordingly, we reflect, I do not say on the passions, but on the motives to action, which

govern the majority of men; on the virtual irreligion which is prevalent even under the profession of religion; on the merely outward and ceremonious respect for some established form of national worship; on the wild speculations which appear in the writings of so many, who, from their political station or their great intellectual powers, control directly or indirectly the minds of their fellow-men; on the infidelity and atheism, made only the more offensive by pretending to use the language of religion, which have found favor in our age as the highest philosophy; on the general absence of a recognition of the influence of men's opinions and religious belief in determining their character and conduct, and, in consequence of this, the general insensibility to the value of truth and to the mischief of error on the most important topics of thought, or, in other words, the common indifference as to what is essentially true or essentially false concerning Christianity; — when we consider these things, we may perceive that other influences, very unlike those which are now agitating the surface of society, influences working far deeper in the nature of man, are required to produce any great and permanent good for our race. We may hope, - we may believe, that the - pres

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ent state of things is preparing the way for the more unobstructed action of these influences at some distant period. Christianity, though misunderstood and misrepresented, neglected and calumniated, has been the great civilizer of the world; and it is to Christianity better understood than it has been, that we must continue to look for all essential improvement in the character and condition of individuals, and consequently of nations.

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CHAPTER V.

ON WHAT ESSENTIALLY CONSTITUTES THE VALUE OF CHRISTIANITY AND OF THE GOSPELS.

I HAVE spoken in the last Chapter of some of the characteristics of the Gospels. One requisite necessary to complete our view of their character — one requisite the most important—remains to be mentioned. We must have a correct apprehension of what essentially constitutes their value; and to this end we must have a correct apprehension of what essentially constitutes the value of Christianity.

The Gospels are the history of a miraculous communication from God to men. If this history be true, it relates to an event of inconceivable interest and importance. The Infinite Being has suspended the ordinary operations of his power to manifest himself more immediately to the dwellers on earth. The essential value of Christianity consists in its being such a revelation of Him. When

we inquire respecting the truth of Christianity, the only question at issue is, whether it be a fact, that God, through Christ, miraculously revealed himself to men. Let us consider why this fact is so

important.

One answer is obvious. If God has thus revealed his existence and his purposes towards us, the truths of religion rest on an immovable basis, -the witness of God himself. This needs no illustration. But there is another answer, which has been less considered. It is only through such a supernatural manifestation of God that these truths can be known. This admits of explanation.

In proof of the proposition just stated, we need not appeal to the ignorance, the errors, the uncertainty, and the very limited conceptions of the wisest of heathen philosophers. We will put aside the whole of that decisive evidence to be derived from our knowledge of the condition of men unenlightened by Christianity. We may consider the proposition in the abstract, not referring to what experience has determined concerning it, but regarding directly the actual powers of the human mind, and what in the nature of things must be true.

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