privilege, but are subject to pay their full contingent to the contributions levied on mortality. They want this sovereign balm under their gnawing cares and anxieties; which being less conversant about the limited wants of animal life, range without limit, and are diversified by infinite combinations, in the wild and unbounded regions of imagination. Some charitable dole is wanting to these our often very unhappy brethren, to fill the gloomy void that reigns in minds which have nothing on earth to hope or fear; something to relieve, in the killing languor and over-laboured lassitude of those who have nothing to do; something to excite an appetite to existence in the palled satiety which attends on all pleasures which may be bought, where nature is not left to her own process, where even desire is anticipated, and therefore fruition defeated by meditated schemes and contrivances of delight; and no interval, no obstacle, is interposed between the wish and the accomplishment*."

Yet even this is far from all: the rich and mighty need religion, like other men, not merely because in common with them they are sufferers, but because like them they are sinners also. The injunctions, "Prepare to meet thy God"

* Burke's Works, Vol. V. p. 193.

"Be ye also ready"-" Make your calling and election sure"-are not limited to plebeian auditors; nor is any class exempt from that universal guilt which made an atonement indispensable, or privileged to slight its proffers with impunity. It is indeed true that religion would be necessary to the great as well as to the humble on every subordinate ground: but in urging it upon their acceptance, the chief consideration is, that their immortal interests are concerned in its provisions; that life and death are set before them; and that the individual, whatever his worldly rank or station, who either wholly rejects Christianity, or who lives and dies a false and fruitless convert, passes. to the unseen world under the ban of its irre versible threatenings, and without one gleam of hope from its otherwise inexhaustible promises.

Considerations like these, deeply fixed in the minds of persons in the more ostensible ranks of life, and rendered practical by that faith which is the fruitful and efficient parent of good works, would create such an example of holy life as must greatly benefit, not the individuals only, but all who should come within the sphere of their influence. "Men, seeing their good works," would learn to "glorify their Father which is in heaven;" and might, by the mercy

of God, be induced "to follow them as they followed Christ."

It needs scarcely be added, that the example which alone can produce such salutary effects in raising the tone of scriptural devotion must be itself grounded on Christian principles. Generalized Christianity is no Christianity; it is another Gospel, which is not another." The religion of many professed Christians of all denominations, churchmen not excluded, practically differs from that of Deists or Socinians in little more than this, that the latter. have travelled out of their road to invalidate what the former acknowledge but neglect. Such a fruitless recognition of religion however is not religion; any more than a heartless repetition of the articles of belief is justifying faith, or a verbal acknowledgment of sin scriptural repentance. The principle of true devotion to God must be deeply engraven on the heart; it must affect the first springs of action, and mix with the whole current of the thoughts and affections. All the doctrines of the Gospel must be brought into efficient action: the consciousness of sin must be attended with corresponding penitence of soul; a belief in the allsufficient sacrifice and death of the Redeemer. must be accompanied with a grateful and implicit trust in his atonement, as the meritorious

cause of our pardon and reconciliation with God; the knowledge of a Divine Agent, who is our Comforter, and Enlightener, and Sanctifier, must lead to that humble and devout communion with him which a late prelate of our church * denominates "the mysterious intercourse of the human soul with its Creator." The stipulations of baptism must be followed up by an actual personal progress in piety and obedience to the Divine commands. The course of moral action must be distinctly grounded on the principles of the Gospel of Christ; and a spirit of devotion be exemplified, consisting of far more than those indistinct generalities in religion and virtue which may be found in individuals of almost every faith, the very heathen not exeluded

and which are therefore rather the effect of natural constitution, or ordinary moral. culture, than of genuine Christian piety. There must be, not only something far surpassing, but something distinct from, and superadded to, the best qualities of heathen sages, or the highest morals of a sober and amiable Deist. For Christian virtue is not a mere sublimation of any inferior species of virtue; it is not ethical decorum purified from its grosser mixtures; or the best deeds of unassisted humanity

Bishop Horsley.

wrought to a state of somewhat higher excellence. But it is a new species of virtue: it arises from the influence of new principles: it is grounded expressly on the disclosures of revelation, on love to God, and faith in Jesus Christ: it can grow only near the Cross of the Redeemer, and in a heart renovated by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. To the expan sion of this blessed principle, and to its effects on the conduct of its possessors, must we look for that example which can alone allure others to a life of devotion, and practically exhibit the truth of the Divine aphorism, that "The ways of [sacred] Wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

In thus adverting to the religious benefits which every member of society may, by the blessing of God, be the instrument of producing by his personal example, it should be distinctly added, that in order for the devotional ardour thus diffused to be connected with the "honour, stability, and influence of the Established Church,” it should be free from whatever has a tendency to infringe upon ecclesiastical regularity and discipline Few things have done more injury to the progress of true religion in the Establishment, than the loose way in which some Churchmen of undoubted piety hold their churchmanship. It would be trivial to descend to par