you have enough to condemn you if you neglect to use it; God says to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find:' if then God be true, you can ask, you can seek; and if you do, you will find.

H.

THE IMPERFECT INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

It is a common occasion of complaint with many, and with some it has led to a distrust and even an open unbelief of Christianity, that it has not exercised a more perfect influence over those who professed to believe in its truths. There is undoubtedly much in the aspect of things in the christian world to excite the regrets of the serious observer. We look abroad into the world, and we see sin, which Christianity came to subdue, gaining its triumphs. The Christian revelation was sent to point out to men their relation to God, but we see them constantly forgetting and disregarding this relation. It was sent to unfold to the eye of faith a future life of conditional blessedness, but these conditions remain unperformed. It came to bring peace and good will, but to how many has it furnished.a subject for discord, hatred and strife! Its design is to make men humble, self-denying, pure in heart,—but how many are proud, self-indulgent and corrupt! It is designed to kindle up in men's bosoms an ardent love of God and their fellow-men,-but how often does

this give place to the unhallowed flame of a criminal self-esteem! It is designed to purify and elevate the affections and fix them on worthy objects,-but how many look at the things which are seen and temporal, and disregard those things which, though unseen, are eternal. Of how many might the Saviour say, 'I was a stranger, and they took me not in!' To how many has this pearl of great price, this treasure of worth untold, been presented, and recklessly, madly declined!

What inference must we draw from these indisputable facts? Shall we conclude that God has given us a dispensation too imperfect in itself, to work out its intended effects? Or shall we, on the other hand, refuse to acknowledge its divine origin? Before we assent to either of these propositions, let us briefly consider the causes of its imperfect influence, and the nature of the influence it was intended to exert.

It must be considered that man is a free moral agent. Christianity can exert no influence on him, inconsistent with such an agency. It can have only a moral influence. It cannot compel men to refrain from sin, and if it could, there would be no virtue or merit in the person so refraining. It must operate entirely as a means of convincing men of their duty, and persuading them to perform it. Now it has to address itself to many differently constituted minds. In some, it finds understandings perverted by education, which it cannot convince; in others, it has to combat fierce passions, unaccustomed to restraint, and which are difficult to control. In others, still, it has to encounter evil habits, which are grown so inveterate that it is nearly as hard to overcome them as for the Ethiopian to change

his skin or the leopard his spots. Now it is natural that over minds thus differently constituted and differently trained, it should have different degrees of influence. Over one it gains an easy ascendency; with another, it has a precarious struggle. We must not, because the counteracting circumstances, in some cases, are so strong, as to neutralize its influence, therefore, say, that Christianity is worthless. It exerts as much power, as is consistent with man's moral freedom. In the case of individuals of strong passions, and whose principles want firmness, we should expect that the motives and sanctions of the gospel would not be able to make them uniformly virtuous. If, notwithstanding the frailty and imperfections of our nature and the temptations by which we are constantly surrounded, sin had been banished from the world by Christianity, we should have had reason to believe that it exerted on us something more than a moral influence, an influence which did not leave us entirely free.

Many are apt to expect too much from Christianity. They are apt to suppose that it will exert a sort of magic influence upon him who embraces it, to make him at once what he ought to be. They expect it, in a moment, to transform a bad man into a good, a corrupt and vicious into a pure and virtuous man. It needs no reasoning to show that these expectations are extravagant and absurd. It is evident at the first glance. The mountain summit cannot be attained at a single stride; but patient and unwearied progress, step by step, will place us there. It is by slow degrees that all our knowledge is acquired, and our intellectual riches

hoarded. The whole field of truth is not at once exposed to our view. One new fact at a time is presented to us. One new truth throws its radiance upon our minds, and prepares us for the reception of another. Thus by a gradual but steady progress, we are raised from one elevation to another, till, at length, many rich fields of knowledge lie spread out in beauty and luxuriance before us. It is thus that the hand acquires its cunning, and skill is gained in the various arts and occupations of life. It is not till after many painful efforts and discouragements, that the painter can teach the canvass faithfully to describe the beauties of nature, or tell the melting tale of tenderness or sorrow. It is the work of a life to the sculptor to gain the power of drawing out beauty of proportion, grace and even intelligence from the block of marble.

While all our other acquisitions require much time and labor, let us not suppose that a Christian character, the greatest of all acquisitions, is a free gift, which will be bestowed upon us in some fortunate moment. There are here more counteracting circumstances to be met, more obstacles to be surmounted. Appetite grows clamorous for indulgence, and is hard to be suppressed passion becomes headstrong, and cannot be subjected-temptations are alluring, and we cannot resist them. It is impossible, then, for a mere man to become thoroughly imbued with Christian truth all at once. It is the work of time. He, who contemplates in the character of Jesus Christ, a perfect model of what a Christian ought to be, will not regard it as the work of a moment. It will require constant vigilance and long-continued exertion. Accordingly, when we look

around us, we see men in all the different stages of advancement, from the greatest degree of imperfection, up to the brighter image of our Saviour, as reflected in the character of a Howard or a Fenelon.

Another cause of the imperfect influence of Christianity may be found in the false doctrines which have either been interwoven with the truths of the gospel, or substituted in their stead. Its simple, fundamental doctrines have, it is true, been generally admitted. Yet erroneous doctrines have, at the same time, through the application of false principles of interpretation, been deduced from the Scriptures, which have essentially modified their character, and counteracted and neutralized their influence. Men have always been prone to bring to the study of the Bible biassed and prejudiced minds, and have often manifested more ingenuity in wresting it to favor their preconceived opinions, than desire to know and obey the truth. When false doctrines are once fixed in the nind, their natural tendency, so far as they operate at all, is to impair the influence of the opposite truths. How, for instance, can he who believes in the total depravity of man and his utter inability to do any good thing, feel in any degree a sense of his responsibleness? How can one who believes that a certain portion of mankind have been, from all eternity, without the least foresight of faith, good works, or any conditions performed by the creature, elected to everlasting life; and that the rest of mankind have been ordained to dishonor and wrath? how, I say, can any one with this belief feel the necessity or perceive the benefit of obeying the precepts of the gospel, of personal effort; or virtuous endeavors? How can he