we need to have given us the outline as sketched by God, and then it is the noblest work of the imagination to fill it up.

Christianity alone furnishes the model of a perfect manhood, and the true elements of social perfection; it alone furnishes to the imagination a representation of a perfect state on earth; and it unfolds the gates of a heaven, at whose entrance it can only stand and exclaim, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him!" It is therefore perfectly adapted to the imagination, so far as that is a faculty which leads to activity by setting before us ideal excellence which we may attempt to realize in actual life.

Before leaving this point, I may just say that Christianity does not, like systems of philosophy, present us with an ideal excellence without showing us how to attain it. The obedience of its precepts would realize the excellence it portrays; and it is a remarkable fact that thus, and thus only, can there be rought out, into the bold relief of actual life, the isions of those ancient prophets whose imaginations vere fired by these scenes of grandeur and of beauty.

It now only remains to speak of Christianity as dapted to the will. A system may be adapted to he will of man by flattering his pride, by taking dvantage of his weaknesses, by indulging his coruptions; and in this sense false systems have been dapted to it with great skill. But, properly speaking, system is adapted to the will of a rational and moral eing when it is so constructed that it must necessarily

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office and importance of this faculty I agree in the main; but, instead of a world of the poet's creation for it to range in, I would have one of God's creation. Certainly we can, by means of this faculty, form to ourselves models of individual excellence, and of what we may conceive to be a perfect state of things, which shall essentially guide our activity and affect our character and influence. But here, no less than in the intellect, does all experience show that we need to find the thought of God as a model and guide to this formative power. Left to itself, how many false standards of character has it set up! How many Utopian schemes has it originated! How little has it ever conceived of individual excellence, or of an ultimate and perfect state of things, worthy of God or having a tendency to exalt man! Witness the heathen gods and representations of heaven; the classic fables; the speculations of Plato, even, respecting a future state; the Hindoo mythology, and transmigration; and the Mohammedan paradise. These are to that future, and to that heaven which God has revealed, what the conjectures and systems of ancient astronomers were to the true system of the physical heavens. Not more do the heavens of true science exceed those imagined by man,- not more does the actual milky way, composed of a stratum of suns lying rank above rank, exceed that conception of it which imputed its origin to the infant Hercules, when he was nursing, than the glory of the millennial day, and the purity and grandeur of the Christian heaven, exceed any future ever imagined by man, and adopted as the basis of a religion invented by him. In both cases, in the moral no less than in the physical heavens,

we need to have given us the outline as sketched by God, and then it is the noblest work of the imagination to fill it up.

Christianity alone furnishes the model of a perfect manhood, and the true elements of social perfection; it alone furnishes to the imagination a representation of a perfect state on earth; and it unfolds the gates of a heaven, at whose entrance it can only stand and exclaim, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him!" It is therefore perfectly adapted to the imagination, so far as that is a faculty which leads to activity by setting before us ideal excellence which we may attempt to realize in actual life.

Before leaving this point, I may just say that Christianity does not, like systems of philosophy, present us with an ideal excellence without showing us how to attain it. The obedience of its precepts would realize the excellence it portrays; and it is a remarkable fact that thus, and thus only, can there be brought out, into the bold relief of actual life, the visions of those ancient prophets whose imaginations were fired by these scenes of grandeur and of beauty.

It now only remains to speak of Christianity as adapted to the will. A system may be adapted to the will of man by flattering his pride, by taking advantage of his weaknesses, by indulging his corruptions; and in this sense false systems have been adapted to it with great skill. But, properly speaking, a system is adapted to the will of a rational and moral being when it is so constructed that it must necessarily

control the will in proportion as reason and conscience prevail. This is a point of high importance, because, the will being that in man which is personal and executive, nothing is effected till this is reached; and the system which cannot legitimately control this may have every other adaptation, and yet be good for nothing.

I observe, then, first, that Christianity is adapted to the will because it provides for the pardon of sin, and for divine aid in the great struggle in which it calls upon us to engage. I remarked, when speaking of the intellect, that Christianity was adapted to it because it relieved it from the incubus of vice. It is much in the same way that it acts here in reference to the will. The will of man never acts when the attainment of his object is absolutely hopeless; and a sense of pardoned sin, and a hope of divine aid, if not immediate motives, yet come in as conditions on which alone the will can be brought up to the great struggle of the Christian warfare. Without these, a mind truly enlightened would rest under a discouragement that would forever paralyze effort.

I observe, secondly, that Christianity is adapted to the will because it is adapted to the affections. I do not, as some have done, regard the will and the affections as the same. They are, however, intimately connected; and the affections being, as I have said, the only source of disinterested action and of happy moral obedience, it is evident that, just in proportion as any system takes a strong hold of them, it must be adapted to move the will. It is not enough to know our duty, and to wish to do it simply as duty. We need to have it associated with the impulses of the affections, with

that love of God, and of man, implanted in the heart, which are the first and the second great moral precepts of Christianity, and which, where they reign, must induce a happy obedience.

I observe, thirdly, that Christianity is adapted to the will from the grandeur of those interests which it presents, and from its amazing sanctions. Here it is unrivalled. Here every thing takes hold on infinity and eternity. Here the greatness of man as a spiritual and an immortal being assumes its proper place, and throws into the shade all the motives and the interests of time. Its language is, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?” It makes the will of God our rule; it places us under his omniscient eye; it points us forward to the tribunal of an omnipotent Judge, to a sentence of unmixed justice, and a reward of matchless grace. Nothing can be more alluring, on the one hand, or more terrific, on the other, than its descriptions of the consequences of human conduct. It speaks of "eternal life; " of being the "sons and heirs of God;" of a "crown of life;" of "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." It speaks, also, of "the blackness of darkness forever;" of "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched." Laying aside, then, the affections, and looking solely at the direct motives of duty and of interest which it presents, surely no other system can be so adapted to move the will as this, when it is really believed.

I observe, finally, that Christianity is adapted to the will, and to the whole emotive nature of man, because its teachings respecting the character of God and