doctrine honorable to God, and consolatory to man? how excellent! this, that can be Look at the effects which it is calculated to produce, and then tell me, if you can, that it is not a good thing. Its moral influence how divine! Where is the sentiment besides safely carried into practice? It cannot be found. You may search from Dan to Beersheba, and you will not find a system of morality, possessing so much beauty, so much excellency, so much of Heaven, as that embraced in the doctrine we profess. I know it is said that this sentiment will exert the most immoral and pernicious tendency. I know we are told that it ought not to be proclaimed - that if it is preached and believed, it will open upon us the floodgates of crime and iniquity. But these assertions are made by those who know nothing of the subject, who are ignorant of the nature of man, and who have never drank from the pure fount of redeeming love. The sentiment we believe teaches that "God is love;" that he is "our Father "—that he is impartially kind to all that he loves, and will eternally bless, not only his friends, but his enemies. It cannot, therefore, but exert a salutary influence upon the minds of those who sincerely believe it. In their families they will be kind and impartial; in their intercourse with the world they will be honest, benevolent and charitable. Every man, so far as he is virtuous and good, so far he acts upon the principles of Universalism. There is something of heaven in this sentiment. Its influence is celestial-pure-heavenly-free! It contains a redeeming power, which is destined to roll back the tide of sin and iniquity; dry up the dark and turbid pools of skepticism and infidelity, and the darker waters of partialism and unbelief. Will you, can you then say that this is not a good thing? But the hopes which this doctrine inspires how transcendently glorious! The prospect which it unfolds to the view of man-how ineffably grand and sublime! A world of rational and purified intelligences, rendered forever free from sin and misery, and clothed upon with the undying beauties of a blessed immortality! Who can think of this blissful truth without being filled with ecstacy! Who can contemplate it without being lost in raptures! A glorious immortality for all mankind! "This is the hope, the blissful hope, The hope when days and years are past, O how precious! how invaluable does this hope appear, when contrasted with the miserable traditions of the wisdom of this world! Look at that poor unfortunate brother, who has concluded that the grave is the end of man that when death shall mark him as its victim, he must lie down like the cattle upon the hills, and know no more forever or him who is looking forward to an eternity of despair, as the wretched doom of himself, or his friends. Do you say that they are happy? Is the prospect before them one which fills them with joy? O, no; the bitterness of death is theirs! Their spirits shrink with convulsive horror at the revolting thought! When they think of death, and think that it is to be followed by a beamless and despairing eternityjoy and peace must be strangers to their bosoms. O, give us then the hope of the gospel! A hope full of immortality, and which never faileth; a hope which triumphs over the power of death, smiles at the darkness of the tomb, and pours upon its dreary mansions a flood of celestial light and glory! With this hope, the unbeliever may scoff and deride the misbeliever may gainsay and oppose my dearest friends may forsake me storm of sorrow may lower upon me the death may stare me in the face - but I shall have a companion which will never forsake me - which will be with me in sorrow's darkest hour, sustain me in death, and land me safe upon the blissful shores of the heavenly Canaan. But, deprive me of this sacred hope, and how wretched must be my situation! I must then believe that I am a poor unfortunate orphan, wandering in this wide world, having no Father to watch over me, no friend to protect me, and no home to which to repair, when I have arrived at the end of life's journey. Did I believe this, did I believe that the grave was my only dwelling-place, or that in another life I must feast forever upon the miseries of my fellow men, earth to me would be but a barren desert, and life itself but a curse. There would be nothing left to satisfy me! It cannot be, it is not possible, that the immortal mind can be satisfied with any thing short of the glorious hope of eternal life! Go to the affectionate wife, or the beloved mother, with any thing else beside the hope of the gospel, ask her if she can rejoice in believing that the companion of her youth or the child of her love has gone down to the tomb of oblivion, or is weltering in unceasing anguish, and her heaving bosom and tearful eye will return you the melancholy answer. Existence could be nothing to her, whose love is stronger than death, if at the grave she is to part forever with those who have been dear to her heart. Nor would heaven have any attractions for her, if her friends are not permitted to share with her in its joys. But, carry her the hope of the gospel, go to her with the precious promise of life and immortality, and the tear of joy and smile of gladness shall evince her satisfaction. And without this hope, I repeat it, there is nothing to satisfy, nothing that will sustain our sinking spirits. A man deprived of this, may have his name inscribed upon the canopy of heaven - he may be seated in a palace surrounded with gold he may wield his kingly sceptre over nations and empireshe may behold temples and mausoleums reared to eternize his fame - he may possess every thing which earth can afford - but still he is poor, when compared with that man who dwells in the lonely cottage, blessed with the glorious hope of a blissful immortality! You may call me an enthusiast, but I cannot help it. When I get upon this pleasing subject, I hardly know where to stop. It is a theme around which I delight to linger! I love to feast by anticipation upon the pleasures of heaven! I love to drink of the crystal streams of eternal life! I love to dwell upon a theme which I calls forth the songs of angels, and the anthems of the blessed on high! Immortality and life eternal! Celestial thought! Give me this hope, and I can ask no more! Is not, then, that doctrine which comforts us with this cheering hope, a hope which produces such sublime effects, and which presents us, all creatures whom God has made, as the happy subjects of the heavenly inheritance must not that doctrine, I say, which presents us with such a hope, be a good thing? O yes! There can be nothing better! It is not possible for the mind to conceive of any thing more honorable to God—any thing possessing more of heaven-any thing better for Iman than this sentiment. It is the doctrine of heaven the laurel of a Saviour's victory - the plant of an unpolluted clime- it must live and flourish forever. It is what angels desire, what good men pray for, and what its opposers acknowledge "is too good to believe!" I have thus shown that the doctrine which we |