But the fitness of Christianity to become universal does not result from any properties merely negative, nor from the possibility of its becoming so; but from all those adaptations by which it appears that it contains the moral laws of God, and lays down the only conditions of individual and social well-being. Of some of these adaptations I have spoken; and, for my present purpose, it cannot be necessary that I should speak further, because, whatever men may think of the divine origin of Christianity-however far they may be from yielding practically to its claims- they almost universally concede that its tendency is good, and that society is improved just so far as it prevails. This is conceded by philosophers, and politicians, and men of the world; and, with the exception of a few of the lowest and most bigoted of them, by infidels themselves. They cannot deny its tendency to promote industry, and honesty, and temperance, and peace, and good order. And, if this is so, then Christianity has a positive fitness to become universal in the same way that any truth or practical knowledge has; and, if there is ever to be any thing like universal order, it must take its place as a part of it.

But, if there is this fitness in Christianity to become universal, then it must have a tendency to become so, or else there is neither a tendency to progress, nor a law of progress, for man. The whole of our hope here rests on the belief that there is inwrought into the constitution of things a tendency by which those things that have a fitness to promote happiness shall gradually remove obstacles, and become universal. That the Saviour intended his religion should become universal is plain, because he left it in charge to his disci

ples to preach it to every creature. That a real apprehension of its truths, and of their value to the race, would lead a benevolent mind to wish to communicate them, is equally plain; and hence we say that, from the command of Christ, and from the very nature of Christian truth and of Christian motives, Christians themselves can never rest till they have carried this gospel over the earth. But we say, further than this, that Christianity has the same tendency to prevail that reason has to prevail over brute force, or that virtue has to prevail over vice, or truth over error, -the same tendency that correct doctrines respecting peace, or justice, or political economy, have to prevail over those that are false. Man is capable of scientific insight, and he seeks to be happy. There are certain moral laws of God, as fixed and unchangeable as any physical laws, in accordance with which alone he can be so.

Those laws, we say, are a part of Christianity, and that all true progress in society must be a progress towards the realization and establishment of those laws. We say that every step in the progress of moral and political science shows that, when these shall be complete, they will be seen to be only the scientific expression of the precepts and laws of Christianity. Hence there is the same tendency to universality in Christianity, not as a mode of salvation, but in its earthly aspects, that there is to any advancement and progress in morals, or in politics, or in political economy. The true laws of these, and of human happiness as depending on them, will be found to be identical with the spirit of Christianity, and they can never be practically applied except as that spirit prevails.

Thus we see a preparation made, in the adaptation of Christianity to the nature and wants of man as

man; in the command of Christ; in the nature of Christian love and of Christian motives; and in the identity of Christianity, in some of its aspects, with moral and political science, for that final and universal triumph predicted by the prophets and waited for by the church; and through these, in connection with that divine aid which is promised and has never been withheld, we think it rational to expect, not only that it will be perpetuated till the end of time, but that "the mountain of the Lord's house will be established in the top of the mountains, and that all nations will flow unto it."

Having thus spoken of the continuance of Christianity till the end of time, I will close this lecture by observing that, in substance, if not in form, it has continued from its beginning. That it should have been always in the world, is mentioned by Pascal as the mark of a religion from God. It is a mark which we might expect would belong to the true religion, and this mark Christianity, and that alone, has. The patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian dispensations, are evidently but the unfolding of one general plan. In the first we see the folded bud; in the second, the expanded leaf; in the third, the blossom and the fruit. And now, how sublime the idea of a religion thus commencing in the earliest dawn of time; holding on its way through all the revolutions of kingdoms and the vicissitudes of the race; receiving new forms, but always identical in spirit; and, finally, expanding and embracing in one great brotherhood the whole family of man! Who can doubt that such a religion was from God?

LECTURE VII.

CHRISTIANITY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ORIGINATED BY MAN.

If we could possibly be called on to argue the question whether the ocean was made by God, or whether it was an artificial salt lake, made by man, we should show, on the one hand, that it was worthy of God, and that it corresponded with his other works; and, on the other, that it was impossible it should have been made by man. Every fact respecting its vastness and depth would show that it was worthy of God, and every relation that could be pointed out between that and the other works of God would be an argument to show that they were fashioned by the same hand. Probably no one could see the sun evaporating its waters, the atmosphere bearing them up in clouds, the clouds pouring them down upon the waiting tribes of vegetation, the springs welling them up for the service of animals and of man, without being convinced that He who made the sun, and the air, and the grass, and the animals, and man, made also the ocean. Such relations of mutual dependence could exist only in the different departments of the works of one Being.

Hitherto, I have endeavored to show that Christiani

ty was worthy of God, and that it so corresponds with his other works, that He who made nature, and the mind, must have been the author of Christianity. I now proceed to show that it could not have been produced by man. It may, perhaps, amount to the same thing, whether I attempt to show that Christianity must have come from God, or could not have come from man; but as the terms of comparison are different, it will lead to a presentation of the subject in an entirely different point of view.

I continue to pursue this method of proof, bringing Christianity, in different relations, alongside of the human mind, because it is perfectly within the reach of every person of good sense, whether learned or unlearned. We know the capacities of the human mind, and we are capable of forming, within certain limits, a judgment, respecting what it can or cannot do, upon which we may rely. The powers of the mind are limited no less than those of the body; and as we can judge what man can do, in given circumstances, by his physical strength, and, in some cases, be sure we are right, so we can judge what he can do intellectually and morally, in given circumstances, and, in some cases, be sure we are right. The question, then, is, whether it is possible that the human mind should have originated the Christian system, under the circumstances in which it was placed. Had unassisted man the capacity to originate such a system? Was there any motive to lead him to labor for its establishment? Upon this point I have already incidentally touched, but it requires further attention.

And here I observe, that the question concerning the origin of Christianity cannot be disposed of by a