the destinies of worlds, shall profess unto them, “I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Now, upon the other hand, while I deal freely by the prejudices of my religious brethren, I do but introduce myself with the better grace to speak as freely upon the prejudices which the less spiritual part of the world have upon this awful event; who, while they profess to believe in Christ, do advance into an equal place within the temple of their thoughts many other objects of admiration and affection, at whose shrine they offer incense, so that after a life spent in giving him only a republican share of their regards, they cannot see how in the end he should sit supreme, the Lord of judgment and of fate. Nor will they cease to wonder that he should be so advanced, until they come to recognise him as the representative of God, the all-beholding sovereign, before whom every action should bow the kneethe all-hearing auditor, into whose ear every word should breathe its confession-and the all-conscious fountain of understanding, to whom every thou,,ht should acknowledge its obligations, and perform its homage. But things being accounted of, as they seem in the eye of blinded nature, and not brought to the law of God, to be there weighed in the balance, it cometh to pass, that many principles in themselves amiable, but yet not so excellent as the love of God, are taken to the heart, and many services praiseworthy in themselves, vet not so exalted or enlarged as the service of Christ, are followed after. Now, those who know no better than as blinded nature teacheth, do offer no contempt to God in not using his noble discipline and guidance of the soul, which they know not; and if they do reverence to the good instincts which he hath implanted within their breasts, I do think that the amiable sentiments of nature and the praiseworthy pursuits of the worthy will stand them in stead before the Judge of all. But not so to us, who have had the horn of God's treasures emptied into our lap, and the oil of his consolation and joy poured over our head, and have rejected the use and blessing of them, to follow after nature's and the world's ruler; not to us will they stand in any stead! For, are we not bound to listen unto the voice of him who made us, even though not bringing a gift; and is it not guilty in the creature to spurn his parental Creator and Preserver, when uttering his good will? how much more obligated to receive him kindly, when bringing ten thousand institutions of good, and bonds of tender love! how much more guilty, if we turn a heedless mind and a callous

heart to his offerings, and spurn him from the tabernacles where he keepeth us, and which he would fain overshadow with his grace!

Thinkest thou then, my brother, because thou art following after stainless honour, diligently avoiding all meanness and untruth and ignoble ways; or, because thou art following after honest traffic, diligently shunning injustice or wrongous advantage or usurious gains; or, because thou art following after the liberation of men from political thraldom, fighting in thy courses against corruption and oppression, and the rod of tyranny; or, because thou art following after pure and blessed philanthropy, visiting prisons and dungeon-glooms, and midnight revelries, and sickly hospitals, and doing thine utmost to medicate the natural maladies and self-inflicted wounds of human life; or, because thou art escaping out of the sphere of vulgar ignorance, to bask above its cloudy region in the everlasting beams of truth and knowledge, and bringest tidings to the wondering throng, of things yet unattempted and unknown-Thinkest thou, my brother, that for one or all of these good and noble affections and pursuits of thy soul, thou shalt not be challenged by thy Creator, whose authority thou didst not regard in thy manifold avocations, and to whose glory thou didst not give the praise of all which he put it in thy heart to think, and enabled thy hand to perform? If thou dost, thou judgest far, far amiss, and hast need to be disabused by words of counsel, which for thy soul's sake I now beg leave to offer thee.

These excellent and amiable pursuits, which Nature prompts to with a voice less or more distinctly pronounced in every breast, and which call forth the good parts of her consciousness, and draw out the admiration of others over the head of envy and every bad principle, are worthy of all your estimation; and may his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth who would enter into argument against them! Now if God did withdraw your footsteps from such high walks of virtue, I should hesitate once or twice whether it was better to listen to him or not. But, seeing he doth but lift another voice in harmony with Nature's voice in their behalf, and superadd to the rewards from within and from without, a greater reward from above; and, that you may not by obstacles be impeded, or by discouragement be downcast, doth offer you every aid and needful instrument, and whisper into your ear that his Almighty power is on your side, and will enable you to surmount every let and hin

drance, why should you refuse to take him to your side as a coadjutor, or to acknowledge him as your leader, and render to him the glory of your success? Is it a hard thing for thee to march under the banner of him that is the Almighty? is it a debasing thing to acknowledge as thy chief the Lord of heaven and earth? is it a slavish thing to be indebted for counsel and for further strength to the Creator who gave thee thy present counsel and meted out to thee thy present strength? Nay, but, my brother, is it not a proud thing in thee to give him no acknowledgment for thine excellent parts of nature? And is it not a disloyal thing for thee to make a head for thyself, when thy Captain summoneth all fencible men to march to his help against the mighty? And in the little head thou makest for thyself in the battle, is it not most contemptuous for thee to leave the lines, and, like a vain, vapouring, unsoldierly bravo, go tilting on thine own pleasure and responsibility? Then at thy responsibility be it; and if by court-martial thou be condemned, whom hast thou to blame but thy proud and petulant self?

But I seem to myself to mince the matter with the world in my wish to embrace them with the brotherly tenderness of this argument. For upon looking at these virtuous avocations of men with a less complaisant and juster eye, I do perceive that they often exalt themselves into a head and leading against Christ, and become nestling-places for those high-faculties of human nature which are too high to stoop to be counselled by him that is the Almighty. I do find your men of honour, arching their proud brows at the harmless glories of a Christian; and your men accomplished in incorruptible honesty, presuming thereupon to claim a free passage into heaven, and setting at nought our self-veiling doctrines; and your public-spirited advocates of good government, I do find sneering upon the self-government of the Christian, and screening private delinquency behind public spirit, dying in the faith that mere patriotism will save a man, and requiring the same sentiment to be sculptured on their tombs. And your philanthropists, (be Howard for ever an exception, who appointed for the panegyric of his tomb, " In Christ is my trust,") I do frequently find magnifying their deeds and making them honourable, and placing their everlasting confidence upon their charitable works. And for Knowledge-she is as vain as the plumed peacock, and stretcheth out her neck on high, and calleth to the stars of heaven to magnify her greatness. The sons of knowledge or fancy, having gotten a spark from

heaven, or it may be from hell, make themselves gods, and say unto the populous world, What are ye without us? Truly these, when accurately examined, must be pronounced broadly out to be no better than wicked idolaters, each in his proper temple, of the idol that dwelleth therein, and despisers of the only living and true God.-And we behove to speak to them in sterner language than we used above.

Hear, then, ye despisers, and perish! Is it a less crime for a philosopher, a man of wisdom and understanding, to despise God, than for an ignorant and unlettered man? Is it a less crime for a sceptred monarch to despise the King of kings and Lord of lords, than for a labouring peasant or a poverty-stricken beggar, who earneth a poor pittance from providence? Is it a less crime for a speculative statesman, who knows and covets good government, to despise the government of God, than for a slave who knoweth only the government of the lash? Or for a man who knoweth the sacrifices of mercy, is it less crime to despise the inestimable sacrifice of Christ for mercy's sake? or for a man who sitteth in his house at home at his ease, is it a less crime to neglect to study the ways of God, than it is for low-born, hard-toiled, unenlightened men? Whence, then, in the name of sacred truth and justice, this whining, puling pity, that these sovereigns of their various spheres should be turned to the left with the throngs which they served to mislead? It is both bad philosophy and spurious sentiment, that the mind should shrink and misgive for their sakes, as if they were not the most privileged and therefore the most responsible of men. Nay, verily, I am for swaying the other way, and pitying the poor ignorant, misguided man; the unlettered, untutored rustic; the wretches born under evil stars of vice, and bred amidst the contagions of evil. But my soul is like flint and steel against these proud, outrageous despisers of God, who, though nursed in the lap of his providence, and cast in the finest mould of nature, and basked on by the sunshine of knowledge, entertain for his ordinances a high despite, taste his blessings with ingratitude, and, but for Death the destroyer, would I believe, set up themselves for gods, and lord it over the very spirits of their kind. No, no; we have enough of this sycophancy of the soul, this unbonneting of manhood, and selling of evenhanded judgment in time, to let it go further. Verily, these qualities, according to their estimable degree, have in time that estimation which alone they sought, and, having aimed no further, they will not reach any further. God will have

a rewarding time for himself, a reaping time for righteousness and piety.

And shall not God have a reaping time for righteousness and piety? Shall science reward her servants with knowledge and with fame, with honour and with power; shall mammon reward his servants with wealth and pleasures; and temperance reward his servants with health and beauty; and honesty bestow trust; and affection find affection in return; and every grace of life have its season of gain, but God alone have no opportunity of rewarding those who loved him and wrought for him and suffered reproach for his name's sake, despising the rewards of mammon, ambition, luxury and pride, and affection itself, when they stood in the way of his honourable service! What hinders these noble spirits from regarding the Lord God Omnipotent who reigneth, and who is surely higher than they? Why do they not stretch out their hands to the tree of life, and live for ever? Are they too great to come under such a sovereign too learned to learn from such a master-too well employed to have to do with such occupations-too exalted to deign a look from their several spheres upon the whole dispensation, except it be a look of scorn? Well, well! let them have their elevated places, and bear them bravely in their gallant courses, and nurse their enmity to God, and their contempt of his plebeian ordinances. But let them bear the brunt of the judgment which they have braved, let them reap as they have chosen to sow. What is that to us that we should whine and mope with melancholy over them more than over others?

I hope I do not frown upon the distinctions of temporal excellence, which I rather love and admire as the ornaments of time; but I will not exalt the Genius of philosophy or the Muse of poetry or the Spirit of patriotism, much less will I exalt the base god of lucre, or the demon of pride and passion-above Jehovah, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Nor will I admit into my mind that they shall shield their favourites, and keep them secure in rebellion against the God of all the earth, who alone doeth righteously. I think it patience enough on the part of the Most High to tolerate these, the idols and deities of our polished society; to tolerate them in their power, and their subjects in their idolatrous rebellion, for the length of life, and to stand by begirt with grace and mercy, holding out proffers of forgiveness all the duration of time. But, no; it is too much that he should yield them a place in his heaven, whence he