answered the end of their creation, shall be dissolved, by fire, while all the branches of the human family enter on a state of endless and unalterable retribution. -Here are subjects calculated to expand, and raise, and invigorate, and purify the mind, and rouse its powers to the utmost degree of activity. Realities are here set before it, infinitely surpassing in interest and magnificence, all that romantic fiction, amidst its ten thousand wild creations, ever imagined: here it roves in immensity, and finds objects commensurate with its utmost wishes, and eternal as itself. No wonder, therefore, that the mind, accustomed to reflect on these expansive themes, acquires a capacity and vigour, which, when directed to other objects of intellectual pursuit, enable it to grasp them with the greater ease, and to retain them with a firmer hold.

Thomas Allin.

THE EXCELLENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

CHRISTIANITY founds her claim to general reception upon doctrines most abasing to human pride, and facts calculated rather to repel, than to invite human credulity. Her cardinal doctrines, which all the rest subserve, are the justification of a sinner, his deliverance from the bondage of sin, and perfect happiness in heaven, through faith in a Saviour, who himself fell a victim to his enemies, and expired as a malefactor under the infamy of the cross. Nothing more repugnant to their preconceived notions was ever proclaimed in the ears of man. It is the object of their dislike, their derision, and their scorn. "We preach," says the Apostle, "we preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." So it was at the beginning: so it is at the

present hour: and so it will remain to the end. The cardinal facts of Christianity, without which all her other facts lose their importance, is the resurrection from the dead of this same crucified Saviour, as the prelude, the pattern, and the pledge, of the resurrection of his followers to eternal life. Against this great fact, the children of disobedience, from the Pharisees of the primitive age, down to the scoffers of modern times, have levelled their batteries. One assails its proof, another its reasonableness, all its truth. When Paul asserted it before an audience of Athenian philosophers, "some mocked,"-a short method of refuting the Gospel, and likely, from its convenience, to continue in favour and in fashion. Yet with such doctrines and facts, did the religion of Jesus make her way through the world. Against the superstition of the multitude-against the interest, influence, and craft of their priesthood-against the ridicule of wits, the reasoning of sages, the policy of cabinets, and the prowess of armies-against the axe, the cross, and the stake, she extended her conquests from the Jordan to the Thames-she gathered her laurels alike upon the snows of Scythia, the green fields of Europe, and the sands of Africa. The altars of impiety crumbled before her march-the glimmer of the schools disappeared in her light-power felt her arm wither at her glance—and in a short time, she, who went forlorn and insulted from the hill of Calvary to the tomb of Joseph, ascended the imperial throne, and waved her banner over the palace of the Cæsars. Her victories were not less benign than decisive. They were victories over all that pollutes, degrades, and ruins man; in behalf of all that purifies, exalts, and saves him. They subdued his understanding to truth, his habits to rectitude, and his heart to happiness.

Dr. Mason.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

My brethren, I need not present to you the contrast -it exists already in your own minds-between the condition of these nations, and that of those countries on which the light of the Gospel beams. Of them it may be said in truth, "The people that sat in darkness saw a great light, and on them which sat in the region of the shadow of death light is sprung up;" before that sacred light, the phantoms of superstition and the fiends of cruelty have fled. Pollution and rapine shun the day it has created, and seek the deep retirement and the midnight gloom. How happy is the condition of that people, by whom the Gospel has been cordially embraced-who bow to its authority-feel the influence of its principles, and are governed by its commands. From that sublime and simple precept, which it lays as the foundation of all morality, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself”—and the steady application of its golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," improvements have arisen in morals-in legislation-in political economy-in commercial intercourse-in the social scene, in the arrangements of its various ranks, and the equitable adjustments of the several duties and responsibilities which they involve-that embellish and adorn the land-render the country it has renovated a theatre of wonders, and excite the astonishment and admiration of the world. Christianity has abolished the worship of impure, vindictive, and sanguinary deities. It has substituted, for the monstrous and unnatural systems of idolatry, the adoration and service of One infinitely amiable and righteous Being. It has abolished those cruel and inhuman practices, sanctioned by the laws of

Paganism, and consecrated by the names of her most renowned philosophers, and noblest chiefs. It has meliorated the condition of society, by diffusing a principle of justice, and a feeling of benevolence, through all its ranks. Beneath its auspices, literature and the arts have flourished. It has reared a thousand salutary institutions; and innumerable trees of knowledge and of life wave in its breeze, and spread their luxuriant branches to its beams. It has imparted a character of equity and mildness to the laws; and persons and property, which once had no defence against the inroads of oppression and the grasp of power, are guarded by authority which all must respect, and the violation of which is instantly avenged. False and degrading systems of religion, which held the human mind in chains for ages, have let go their hold: hoary with age, bloated with blood, and foul with pollution, they have rapidly retired, and sought an asylum in darker regions and in grosser soils; whilst the immortal mind, arousing from the sleep that had oppressed it, hailed the messenger of peace, whose voice awoke the slumberer, and whose hand had scattered round his dwelling, the sweets of liberty and the light of day. When Christianity appeared, and commenced her march of mercy over the continent of Europe, the nations, then sunk in barbarism, ceased to sacrifice human victims to wear the skins of their enemies for apparel-to murder the aged and infirm-to impale men alive-to devour the hearts of their captives to commit suicide from principle-and to cast their prisoners and offspring to the flame; whilst people, who could not be approached because of their ferocity, became gentle and mild. "The wilderness and the solitary place was glad, the desart rejoiced and blossomed as the rose," "-the vision of the Prophet was suddenly accomplished, and the song of angels realized" there was

on earth peace, and good will toward men." And these are not warm and glowing pictures sketched from the fancy-nor are they the prospects, merely, on which hope reposes with delight; but they are a summary of facts, drawn from the pages of impartial history, and the actual condition of mankind. Happily, we need not explore the regions of remote antiquity for our proofs and illustrations; they lie much nearer to our hand, and are thickly scattered round us, in the modern history of the world. The reports of our various missionary institutions, confirmed in their statements by the narratives of recent travellers, yield a rich supply. Our record is in Africa, where the desert is adorned, not merely with the rose of Sharon, but with the verdant meadows and the waving corn-fields of our nalive land: in Labrador, where innumerable comforts heretofore unknown, have entered the cheerless dwelling of the Esquimaux: and in Otaheite, whose Christian temples are the miracle of modern times, and the household gods of whose converted king, the only relics of their former superstition which have escaped the flames, are now the objects of curiosity in the midst of the metropolis of Britain.'

Raffles.

CONCLUSION.

RELIGION is the end of all the designs of God upon earth: all that he hath done here below, he hath done only for it; every thing must be subservient to the aggrandizement of this kingdom of Jesus Christ. The virtues and vices; the great men, and the people; good and ill success; public abundance,