seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God."*

LECTURE XI.

THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY.

THE rule by which christianity was tried in our last lecture, is as philosophical as it is scriptural. It is the rule of experiment, in distinction from all the whims of conjecture and ingenious theory, and has an application, as legitimate and conclusive, to the character of christianity, as to that of any tree, or food, or medicine. None can deny that the experiment of the religion of Christ has been varied sufficiently to put it to the fairest trial, and continued long enough to develop its most hidden qualities. Exposed to all extremes of physical and moral temperature; tried upon all descriptions of human beings; required to preserve its purity amidst all contagions; to display its energies under all conceivable burdens and bonds; to bear its fruit under the most blasting influences; and to stand against all possible combinations of enmity; sometimes subjected to the action of the fire, then of the rack, and then of the knife, of unrelenting persecutors; eighteen hundred years have measured out its trial, during which, whatever could be effected by science united with industry, malice united with power, or vigilance united with hypocrisy, has been done unceasingly, to torture it into a confession or a display of something at variance with divine original. The trial, therefore, is sufficient. The tree has had time

1 Cor. i. 18-24.

and ample opportunity to be known by its fruits. If it may not be finally tried by this rule, in the nineteenth century of its budding and bearing, the fault must be sought in the rule itself, not in the subject of inquiry.

In our last lecture we confined our attention to the fruits of christianity in regard to society in general. In the present we are to consider

ITS FRUITS IN REGARD TO THE CHARACTER AND HAPPINESS OF ITS GENUINE DISCIPLES.

It is not without reflection that I introduce this subject into the department of external evidence. I am aware that it is generally considered as belonging exclusively to the class of arguments denominated internal; but I see not with what propriety. So far as any effects of christianity on individual disciples are incapable of being brought under the observation of others, being confined to the inward experience of the true believer, they are unquestionably internal in their character, and do not belong to our present department. But if they be such effects as witnesses can take knowledge of; if the proof of them may be seen and appreciated by those that are without, and who can look only on the outward appearance; I see not but they belong, as appropriately, to the external evidence, as any of the effects of christianity upon society at large. Without further vindication of a matter of mere classification, I proceed.

I. The moral transformations which the Gospel, in all ages, has notoriously wrought, and by unquestionable proofs exhibited to the world, in the characters of those who have become its genuine disciples, cannot be accounted for, but on the supposition of a divine power accompanying its operation.

To illustrate my meaning, let me describe what has been witnessed under the ministry of christianity

so repeatedly, that hardly any who have been in the way of such things can have failed to become acquainted with apposite examples. Persons of all grades of society and of intellect, and of all degrees of enmity to the religion of Jesus; in circumstances the most unpropitious to its influence on their hearts; even while they were filled with the spirit of malice and persecution against its truth and disciples; have had their minds suddenly arrested by some simple expression of the Bible, or some unpretending statement of christian doctrine or experience; perhaps it dropped from the lips of a minister, against whom, at that very time, they were nerved with anger; or was read in a Bible, or a little despised tract, that seemed accidentally to lie in their way, and at which, as if by accident, they condescended to look. It told them nothing new; nothing but what they had often heard or read before without the smallest effect. And yet, without any argument to shake their ungodly principles, or special application, by any human being, of the word thus heard or read, to their particular condition; they felt their minds seized upon by an influence from which no effort of infidel argument, nor struggle of pride, nor drowning of thought, nor exertion of courage, nor devices of company and amusement, could enable them to escape. A hand seemed to be upon them, which all their efforts to shake off only fastened with more painful power. They could get no peace of mind till they submitted to its arrest. They were induced to listen to the Gospel of Christ, even while deeply conscious of a cordial opposition to its requirements. A conviction of sin and condemnation, such as they had ever derided, soon brought them to a posture of body and a spirit of supplication before God, in which, a short time before, they would not have been seen for the world. Soon they submitted to the claims of the

Gospel; became believers in Jesus; confessed him before men, and appeared, to all that had known them before,-in what aspect? As new creatures ! Only a few days have elapsed since they were notorious scoffers, bold blasphemers, angry persecutors; of profligate habits, impure conversation, and hardened hearts, armed at all points against religion; immoveable, in their own estimation, by any thing christians could say, and regarded by almost all that knew them as utterly beyond conversion. Now behold the change! It is a change, not merely of belief, but of heart. Their whole moral nature has been recast; affections, desires, pleasures, tempers, conduct, have all become new. What each hated, a few days since, he now affectionately loves. What then he was devotedly fond of, he now sincerely detests. Prayer is his delight. He thirsts for holiness. His old companions he pities and loves for their souls' sake; but their tastes, conversation, and habits, are loathsome to his heart. Feelings, recently obdurate, have become tender. A temper, long habituated to anger, and violence, and resentment, is now gentle, peaceful, and forgiving. Christians, whose company and intercourse he lately could not abide, are now his dear and chosen companions, with whom he loves to think of dwelling for ever. The proud unbeliever is a humble disciple. The selfish profligate has become self-denied and exemplary, animated with a benevolent desire to do good. All these changes are so conspicuous to others he has become, and continues to be, so manifestly a new man, in life and heart-that the ungodly are struck with the suddenness and extent of the transformation.

This is a drawing from life. That such cases have frequently occurred, and have been followed by all the permanent blessings of a holy life, in thousands of places, and before witnesses of all descriptions,

it were a mockery of human testimony and of the faith of history to question. There is scarcely a faithful preacher of the Gospel, whose ministry has not been blessed with such fruits. There is scarcely a village in this country, whose inhabitants cannot tell of many such examples. They began when christianity began. They have been repeated as pure christianity has been promoted and extended. Such a case was that of Saul of Tarsus. One moment he was a furious enemy of Jesus; learned, talented, proud; of high reputation; of brilliant prospects; the champion of Judea against the Gospel of Christ; bearing the commission, and full of the spirit, of a persecutor. The next, he was on his face on the ground, calling upon Jesus in the spirit of entire submission and deep repentance. In a few days, he was preaching Christ in the synagogues, at the risk of life, having made a total sacrifice of all earthly prospects and possessions, and given himself up to reproach, poverty, and universal hatred, for the sake of the Gospel. All his dispositions, affections, and habits had in that short space undergone so complete a change, without any human agency, that he had become, and continued to be, directly the opposite of his former character. Many similar examples must have been included in those three thousand converts of the day of Pentecost, who, although when the morning rose upon them they were filled with all the enmity of Jews and of crucifiers of Jesus, before the day was over, were bowed at the feet of the same Jesus, as his baptized disciples. So changed were they in every worldly disposition, that they" sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need;" and all this under no human influence, but that of the preaching of men whom they began to hear with contempt, and of a doctrine to which they began to listen with the most