the discussion some admired writer on the evidences of Christianity; who, in his chapter on the benignity of the Messiah, had opposed what he called the harsh notion, that the New Testament contained severities and threatenings inconsistent with a mild dispensation and mitigated law. And so the party would continue to sleep on, and take their rest!

The evident object in such a discussion would be, so to explain away the demands of Christianity as to prevent them from interfering with the pleasures and schemes of the world; in fact, to repel the Gospel as an intruder. The enemies of practical religion, it is true, are always complaining of what they term the dangerous doctrines preached by certain among our public instructors; but their real quarrel is with the holiness consequent upon these same doctrines. They are afraid of being robbed of their licence to live as they please; afraid of incurring loss of caste, in a world where they wish still to stipulate for their share of its profits and delights. They may consent to an observance of an established ritual; but on the understood condition, that nothing acknowledged in the ceremonial of the first day of the week shall interrupt the course of indulgence pursued on other days; neither, indeed, forbid

the pleasurable scheme reserved for the afternoon and evening of the Sabbath; when they have purchased, according to their own calculation, a right to the expected enjoyment, by a morning attendance on public worship.

When men of this class hear a clergyman say to them on the Sunday, "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath-day; thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: thou shalt not kill; nor commit adultery; neither steal, nor lie, nor covet;"-and when, on hearing such mandates, they voluntarily beseech God to incline their hearts to keep these laws, it is asked, whether these petitioners, and these admirers of our Liturgy, really mean to consecrate the sacred day to devotional purposes; to abstain from a repetition of the profaneness of the past week; to mortify their angry and sensual passions; to become really honest, honourable, and generous; and seriously to continue their prayers, that God would melt their unwilling hearts into obedience?

Now, when such inquiries are made, are they directed only to offenders occupying the lowest stations of the community, or do they criminate also their superiors ?-We will, however, retire, for the present, from the refined circles of literature and theology, to abodes where ima

ginative moralists have taught us to seek for primeval innocence and virtue.-They have left out of their account the circumstance of man's universal ignorance and depravity; and of the pauper's resistance also to the demands of the religion of Christ.

Few things are more affecting to a serious mind, than the scene exhibited in what Dr. Johnson calls-in his pensive stanzas on the death of Robert Levet" misery's darkest cavern," when the Christian visitor finds Antichrist reigning even there; when he discovers that the spirit of an infidel world is no more a stranger in a hovel, than in the saloons of fashion, or in the schools of theology; that Lazarus may lie at the gate full of sores, dying in the extremity of human wretchedness, and, at the same time, impenitent and obdurate; spending his latest breath in curses, and passing out of the miseries of time into the bitter pains of eternal death. This is not sketched from imagination, but from reality; in a case which came under the author's professional notice. Neither is it mentioned here as an extraordinary instance of human misery and guilt; except, that the outward circumstances of the party described were more than usually loathsome and revolting. In other examples, there is a

less disgusting exterior; while all within appears to exhibit equal obduracy. The person in question had been, for many years, a regular attendant at church.

In contemplating such affecting illustrations of the state of this country, it might seem impossible for any man of a serious mind, and especially if a minister of religion, to waste his time, talents, and learning in debating the minor differences of opinion and discipline existing in the church, and always certain to exist, unless the Christian world should be awakened from its dreams by some extraordinary effusion of the Spirit of God,-instead of endeavouring to rescue the impenitent multitudes around us from the wrath which they are treasuring up against "the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God!" But, alas! the time is not yet arrived when unanimity, in this view, can be expected.

It is surprising that certain Christian philanthropists, who interest themselves about the causes, effects, and cure of pauperism, should appear to be so ignorant of the spiritual destitution of the poor, either in our villages or thickly-peopled manufacturing towns. With regard to our agricultural population, I can only say, that, as far as my own experience and ob

servation extend, their religion, if so vague a thing be at all capable of description, consists generally in an undefined, shadowy, evanescent notion of the existence and might of a Deity, the author of nature, and the ruler of the world which he made. His value is recognised by them almost exclusively in his being able to give aid in family difficulties; and it is assumed, that he will do this, as the act of a beneficent and potent Being, who furnishes perpetual evidence of his good will, by causing the seasons to pursue their regular course, and to produce the fruits of the earth for the use of man. Their faith is, in fact, much the same as the rude theism usually found among barbarized nations *.

* In Foster's Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance,' the reader may find the subject examined with an originality, strength, and accuracy peculiar to that eminent writer. The third, fourth, and fifth sections should be. particularly studied for they cannot be read superficially -by every person who is at all anxious for the welfare of his country; and who would estimate what might be expected, in any national convulsion, from a populace generally sunk in irreligion and debauchery. Few persons will, probably, be prepared to follow Mr. Foster in the entire system of what he proposes in the shape of reform; but on the fidelity of his statements respecting the evils which require a remedy, there can be but one opinion, among such persons as are at all familiar with what is called humble life. The work now recommended seems to have attracted far less notice than its author's previous volumes of essays. To myself it appears to be essential to the library of a Christian patriot.