CHAPTER XII.

On the Effects of Christianity.

WHEN the question concerns the probability of truth in a revelation, we are irresistibly led to take into the consideration its effects upon human happiness. Is it of such a nature as to improve the general condition of those to whom it is proposed? To raise or to depress the character of mankind? A revelation might possibly be made on such evidence as could not be rejected, which had no such beneficial tendency. But this at once strikes our reason as a case so improbable, that we feel it would require an unusual weight of positive testimony before a revelation could be accepted by us as divine, which did not bear witness to its origin by the excellence of its immediate effects.

At the same time, in every question of this kind, the object of the revelation must be kept in view. It will make an essential difference, whether a revelation professes to be designed to place men at once in a perfect state, or to lead them towards one. The Gospel no where professes to place men at once in a perfect state. It professes to address those who are in an unhappy and guilty condition, naturally frail, and morally corrupt: a condition requiring that God should send

his Son into the world, that the world through him might be saved. To such a condition it offers a remedy not pretending to remove all the evils incidental to such a state; but promising, in behalf of those who put themselves under its guidance, to diminish and alleviate them.

Whoever refuses to bear this in mind, is incapable of forming a judgment respecting the operation of Christianity. A world exists, in which sin and sorrow are largely mixed up. To suppose that Christianity should take these altogether away, would be to suppose that it should create the world anew. It makes provision against them: it proposes a cure for them; and we can reasonably look for nothing more.

But there are other causes, independent of itself, of the partial benefits produced by Christianity. We have formerly seen, that the writers of the Gospel foresaw that its effects would always be inadequate to its inherent powers, and fall short of its avowed design, on account of the unwillingness of mankind to receive the remedy offered them. And to this obduracy we must in great measure attribute the evils which disfigure the face of Christianity. The first Christians, in particular, were taught to expect tribulation. And this tribulation was to come upon them, because their brethren refused to listen to the Gospel, and chose to persecute those who did. No small portion of the difficulties which have always beset Christians, arises from a similar cause from the general discountenance which earnest piety and Christian circumspection meet with. The

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dread of this keeps multitudes still at a distance from God; and thus deprives them of the happiness resulting from the conscious possession of his favour, which nothing short of an entire devotion to his service can procure. And the feeling of this discouragement cannot but occasionally disturb the comfort of other more consistent believers.

The remainder of corruption adhering to those who do cordially embrace Christianity, is another cause of the imperfect happiness it procures to them. They have received an impression, with a force which nothing but the Christian religion could have employed, of the dreadful consequences of sin. They have declared war against it, and are striving for the mastery. But the enemy still makes head is always restless; and will sometimes prevail. This cannot but occasion disquietude. A remedy is proposed to a diseased constitution; is accepted, and tried. But from the nature of the constitution, and inveteracy of the disease, the effect of the remedy is incomplete. Still the patient, if not in perfect health, is in a much better condition than he would have been without the remedy. And so none will deny that the man who is struggling against his evil passions, and keeping them in subjection, is in a much better moral state than he would have been by giving loose to them: though he cannot enjoy that perfect tranquillity which might belong to a heart brought into complete conformity with the will of God.

These are among the reasons why Christians are

often distinguished by a seriousness of deportment, which is ill understood by those who are strangers to their feelings, and misinterpreted as melancholy and gloom. Some persons are acutely sensible of that open ridicule, or even that silent contempt, with which religion is too often treated in the world. Others are tremblingly alive to those remains of corruption which they daily discover in their hearts, and afraid to take home to themselves a comfort which they fear it would be presumptuous to indulge. What shall we say then? To escape the censure of the thoughtless and profane, must principles be lowered down to a standard which none shall think too lofty? This will hardly be proposed; for we know that to whatever depth we descend, a lower depth will still remain; multitudes will still be found, for whom the meanest standard of religion is too high. Or will it be argued, that because a nature originally sinful cannot be altogether purified, therefore it should not be meddled with? That because evil propensities cannot be entirely subdued, therefore they should not be opposed? None will avow this; yet anxiety respecting the success of a contest against sin must be inseparable from such a contest; and those alone can be without anxiety, who never resist their passions, or endeavour to regulate their hearts.

Let it be remembered, too, that most of the complaints concerning the melancholy tendency of religion are made by those who have no just sense of religious obligations; and who adopt their opinion

from the demeanour of persons whom their own levity, neglect of God, and indifference about vice and virtue, must naturally render serious. Could they enter into the minds of those persons, or see them in their families, in their daily occupations, or on their beds, they would quickly perceive that Christianity has a cheerfulness and tranquillity belonging to it, to which irreligion is a total stranger. The Christian is encouraged by the writings which he maintains to be divine, to look for "all joy and peace in believing;" and the expectation thus raised, is commonly and in most dispositions fulfilled.

From these preliminary observations, I proceed to consider the beneficial tendency of the Gospel in a few distinct particulars.

The general benefits procured to the world by Christianity are very important, and such as nothing else any where received under the name of religion has produced. For a code of duties like that contained in the Gospel is not limited in its effects to those who admit its divine authority. The existence of such a rule, and far more the existence of persons obeying it, has a general influence extending even to those who might seem removed beyond its reach; as the sun softens and brightens every object in the landscape, and not those alone upon which its rays directly shine. In this way a general improvement of habits has followed the progressive diffusion of the Gospel. The inhuman sports of the Roman amphitheatres were gradually discontinued: the most savage