be answered, every real necessity relieved, and every substantial interest secured. "Ifthe ministration of death, written and engraven on stones, was glorious; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory."* If the writings of the former system could be appealed to, as needing no further enforcement or amplification, and if, on the ground of their sufficiency, the anxious request of this man in torment was so positively denied,—with how much greater power may the appeal be made on behalf of the system of truth, as now manifested to the world,-expanded by the teaching of the Redeemer and his apostles, sealed by the blood of propitiation, attested by a long-continued succession of miracles and wonders, and comprehending "all the counsel of God!"-Here, indeed, we may well be directed to rest, and permitted to require no more.

The great fact of the sufficiency of divine truth, its title to the faith and confidence of mankind, is one of which it is infinitely important you should be convinced. It has been illustrated by many events occurring with the progress of time, in a manner adapted to press its claims with peculiar energy. To assist this great object, we shall present several matters of reference. In this view, we may contemplate, the

* 2 Cor. iii. 7—9.

conversions of infidels. There have been those who, in the first instance, cherished against revelation, prejudices obstinate and inveterate, and regarded it only as the offspring of falsehood and imposture, but who, when really brought to engage in the examination of its attestations and character, had their prejudices annihilated, their hatred changed into affection, and their infidelity into faith. We know that men, not merely the illiterate and vulgar, but men of talent, learning, and accomplishment, capable of exercising their intellectual powers in the most acute and effectual manner, have deemed it an honour to own themselves thus conquered by the of the word, and have devoted their power lives in homage to the religion they once despised, and laboured to destroy. Every instance of this nature, is a tribute to the fact we have affirmed--a triumph of Christian evidence, which invests and transmits it to succeeding ages with fresh majesty and splendour. That infidels still arise, persons whose minds continue unsubdued, and who refuse to the testimony of God, any respect or even decency of treatment, militates not against its honour. Their infidelity does not exist because there is a want of evidence to satisfy the just demands of reason, but because they have not attended to that evidence,--because there is the predisposition of an evil heart, a dislike to the contents of the system concerning which they profess to judge, which instigates them to advance, and stubbornly to maintain, the charge of

falsehood, and does not allow them to com-, mence an unwelcome process which would result in the discovery of truth. Men who are infidels against the word of the gospel, would be infidels against any disclosure whatever; if with that they remain in darkness, there is no hope that the most splendid brightness of heaven would illuminate and save.

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We may contemplate also, the progress which revealed truth has made in the world. There are indeed cases, as we are fully aware, in which extensive propagation forms no argument at all in favour of the system diffused. Systems which invoke and receive the aid of civil power,-which employ the sword as their advocate, and send forth armies as their ministers, and heroes as their champions, delighting in the battle of the warrior with confused noise and garments rolled in blood,—and which present a bribery to the passions, cherishing and pampering the muchloved sensualities of corrupted nature, and commending themselves as matters of convenience and sanction to the lustings of sin,-systems like these may be, and have been, widely disseminated and believed; but God forbid, that any should ever think of deducing thence, an argument for their rectitude and worth. From these, the religion to which we direct your faith, is, in all respects, perfectly and essentially different. It does not desire, and cannot admit, any support from the enforcements of magiste

rial power; it frowns on war, and conquest, and all their engines, and would annihilate them in the empire of charity, harmony, and love; it opposes, with unequivocal and holy hostility, every impure propensity which unregenerate nature would indulge, aiming not to gratify, but to control, not to cherish, but to exterminate. If, with such a constitution as this, it yet establishes and extends a spiritual dominion, who can reasonably avoid acknowledging the excellency with which it must be stored? And it has triumphed over obstacles numerous and immense, and, by the mere force of its evidence and truth, has made its way against the united energies of earth and hell. In early times, its fishermen confuted philosophers, and commanded kings. The fires of the ten persecutions but fed the flame of its own lustre, and kindled it to new brightness and warmth. From ages of darkness and slumber, when its testimony was again faithfully published among mankind, it appeared in renovated strength, and exerted an influence on the moral world, the effects of which will be felt to the latest generations. Your own day has witnessed its renewed advances; and you now behold it claiming new territories as its own, mastering and directing the minds of multitudes in every variety of circumstance, and preparing evidently for an extent of progression and empire which will excite the wonder of the universe. Is not the conclusion well commended from this course of promulgation, that" the weapons of war

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fare which have pulled down strong holds, cast down imaginations and high things that exalted themselves against the knowledge of Christ, must be not carnal, but mighty through God?"

We may also contemplate the comfort and happiness our religion has conferred on those who have truly embraced it. In all ages, man has been indebted to revelation, as the source of infinite blessing. As it now operates under the institutions of Christianity, it has bestowed an amount of good, the value of which no tongue can express, and no estimate can reach. Wherever man has believed, he has obtained the refinement and elevation of his nature; he has been supported by consolations which, amidst the worst pressure of earthly care and grief, yet gladden and delight the soul; he has possessed the hope of mercy, which has soothed the agitations of conscience, and entitled him to look with calmness and joy on the trial of the last conflict and the judgment-day; he has been made the heir of that felicity in higher worlds, which enshrines his destinies in the radiance of unspeakable glory. Turn to the records of experience; observe thence the influence of religion, as it has been displayed through various ages, amidst the scenes of poverty, persecution, bereavement, and death; and say, on the review, whether we speak not the truth? We tell you to regard the men now on earth, who live most in the spirit of the gospel, who are its firmest