frenzy. There is not a doctrine of religion which these men do not deride. Heaven is but a pleasant dream, and hell but a mere bugbear, invented, as nurses do tales of terror, to scare their children into quiet and obedience. Ambitious of sinking, they seek for a perpetual abode in the tomb, and flatter themselves with finding in abhorred annihilation a sanctuary from their fears. It is to the credit of religion to have such men for its opponents. Were its character less holy, their indignation against it would rage less fiercely. It is surely an unwilling homage paid to the Bible, that, as no one has ever been able to prove it false, so none but bad men have ever wished it be untrue. The enmity of the vicious is the test of virtue.

The profaneness we have described has not unfrequently been manifested by men who set out in life with some respect for religion, and proceeded far in their attachment to its verities. But becoming impatient at length of its restraints, and hankering after their former vices, or being ambitious of freeing themselves from the shackles of common opinion, they suffered it by degrees to relax in its influence till all impression from it was gone. And now, as if to justify their formal renunciation of it, or to avenge themselves upon it for its former control over them, they behave towards it in the most insulting manner. From such a state, few that have been surrendered to it are recovered. The chair of the scorner is the last gradation of impiety. Be not mockers," says one of the sacred writers, "lest your bands be made firm.”

Some of these men it has pleased God to exhibit in their last moments, as a beacon to deter others from the same dangerous courses. The fatal bandage of error and delusion has fallen from their eyes, and the hated, insulted truth appeared before them, taking vengeance. Like drowning mariners they see, and detest too late, the gay monsters by whom they have been inveigled to their ruin. In vain we stand by their bed side, entreating them to repent, and to cease their frantic ravings. The season of repentance is past, that of retribution is come. Like men sliding on ice, they

see their ruin before them, yet are not able to avoid it. A few more struggles, and they reach the verge of the tremendous gulf. The last agony commences, the last wild shriek is heard, and all is silent. But who can help fearing that the pause is instantly succeeded, in another world, by torments and wailings that will have no end?

Such is that state of mind towards religion, in various classes of persons, on a large scale, and in a vast multiplicity of instances, for which there is so much cause for complaint, and for the pathetic

love

remonstrance of the text-" How long, ye simple ones, will ye simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."

We may advert for a moment to some of the prevailing causes that contribute to this state of mind among us, and that must be avoided and removed, ere we can hope for any extensive and beneficial change. Undoubtedly the great cause is to be found in the radical corruption of our nature, and its alienation from the life of God. But this, instead of being counteracted, is aided by other causes, much more in our power to remove, and that multiply most fearfully the barriers to the operation of truth. The foremost of these is an erroneous system of education. The power of education over the mind, in forming the character, may be justly compared to that of the husbandman over the plant which he rears in the soil. While the object of education should be to call out the attention of the mind to a variety of subjects, the utility of it consists in placing these subjects before the attention in their due order and relative importance. Now religion being unquestionably of the first importance to us, as rational and accountable beings, its claims should have the greatest weight. Correct views of its nature, and a deep impression of its value, should be carefully given in the first place, that by it the mind might regulate all its other pursuits. It resembles, in the conduct of life, that part of the human frame-the countenance, which the painter first delineates, and to which he adjusts all the other proportions of the body. But instead of priority being thus given to religion, how many parents are there, and even among those deemed religious, who make a far greater provision for the instruction of their children in all other branches of knowledge than on this momentous topic! These their children must learn; no time, effort, or expense must be spared to effect their acquaintance with these; but religion they may learn at random,— at intervals, when it may suit them, or from whatever quarter it may happen to bespeak their attention. Thus neglected, is it to be wondered at if they refuse attention to it altogether; or imbibe the most improper views and opinions concerning it; or even settle into aversion to its influence? Was it for this, ye parents, that ye were intrusted with the care of their souls, in the most pliant season of life? Was it for this ye dedicated them to God and his service in christian baptism? For this was it that ye received a charge from Him, to train them up in the way they should go?—to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Dreadful will be your meeting with them at the last day. If converted,

it will be owing to no instrumentality of yours, and reflect upon you no honour; but, if unconverted, it will be to your inevitable reproach.

"Thy child, if good, will blame,
If bad, will curse his father."

Next to this cause of that unhappy state of mind towards religion which we deplore, may be mentioned that arising from the character of our general literature. The present is an age of light reading, rather than of profound thinking. Knowledge has increased its surface, but decreased, in the same proportion, its depth. Information, on a variety of subjects, is communicated in a multiplicity of forms to the public mind, most of them of a light and ephemeral character; but, unhappily, nearly the whole of them tainted with scepticism and infidelity. The sly inuendo against religion, and the affected superiority of the intellect to it, together with ludicrous exhibitions of its followers, and lowering representations of its dignity, every where make their appearance. While the poison is disseminated in sufficiently small quantities to be easily disguised, the numerous forms in which it is communicated, and their constant iteration, give to it the power of producing a deleterious effect upon the public mind. It is thus unfavourably influenced towards religion, and its natural indifference and aversion to it both perpetuated and augmented. The responsibility thus incurred is shared between authors and their readers. Hence the care that should be exercised over the works we peruse as well as circulate. We should at least be as anxious for the freedom of the food of the mind from base admixture as that of the body. Happy will the day be, though we confess it seems to be far from approaching, when all the fountains of knowledge shall be purified, and the flowers of literature be every where gathered, without any fear of the venom lurking beneath! May we not add, as another cause of the yet too prevailing disposition to trifle with the subjects of religion, the preponderance given among us to commercial speculation and aggrandisement, and to the science of government and politics? We are infected with the spirit of those with whom we continually converse; and who can be indifferent to themes of universal discussion and debate? But while the mind is absorbed by objects that are continually passing before it, on the present animated stage of this world, religion can find it in no state of leisure to attend to its claims. Hence a total ignorance of its pretensions, a shyness of its approach, or an arrogant rejection of all but its bare forms.

Yet, in another point of view, the state of religion in the world is

such as to invest indifference to it at this crisis, and among ourselves, with an appalling criminality. In spite of all obstructions, it has risen in society, and utters its voice in high places. It has challenged and received the homage of great minds. The copies of the outward records, in which its truths are deposited, are multiplied by myriads, and the sphere of its influence enlarged to the remotest parts of the earth. It meets its enemies in open day, towers above all their efforts to depress it, and borrows from their malignant attacks, and base characters, new foils to set off its excellence. All classes of persons who neglect it are deprived of the plea of ignorance of it, or of its apparent weakness. Such neglect must now be resolved into its true causes, which can be no other than reproachful. It reveals an apathy, a worldliness, or a besottedness of mind that must stamp its owner with indelible infamy. At such a period as the present, let us warn all persons against the continuance of this indifference. Would that no other thunders might be necessary to dispel it than those of the living voice of truth's advocates! O ye, who in this day of God's power, when he has a controversy with the nations, and is openly pleading the cause of his injured truth, and plainly defying its adversaries to set further limits to its progress, be no longer callous. Give to it your contemplation; listen to its statements, and to the voice of your own breasts harmonising with them; -see your guilt reflected in the ten thousand thousand sins that you have committed against the God of goodness and justice; but see, at the same time, the loving Saviour whom he has prepared and given to take away your sins by the sacrifice of himself, and to form in your polluted breast a new model of his own gracious and holy image. He it is that cries to you in the latter part of the text; and oh that his words might fasten on your memory, and never cease to ring in your ears"Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you; I will make known my words unto you."

Christian brethren, what an amount of obligation is owing from you to this divine Saviour, and to this gracious Spirit! With the same thoughtlessness of heart as others towards religion, and the same natural coldness and aversion to it; with similar impediments in the way of your regard to it, arising from a constitutional levity, or an injudicious education, or the power of habitual sin, or the influence of erring and deluded associates, you have yet been brought into a close alliance with revealed truth and with its objects. You have heard the voice of Christ, the heavenly charmer, and, obeying its summons, have entered within his arms. You find here

a safe asylum from guilt and fear, and a state of undisturbed serenity

and repose. And, tell me, what purifying influences are continually exerted upon you, and what exalted hopes of the future take possession of your breast! Is it for you to live for those inferior purposes that were once the summit of your wishes and endeavours? A nobler object now stands before you, and one that is worthy of the consecration to it of your highest energies. Live for the promotion of the Saviour's glory, in the extension of human happiness. Labour to bring others acquainted with Him, by whom alone they can be reconciled to God, and be raised from the lowest condition of sin and misery to the highest bliss. Ask you for the ways or means in which you are to act thus?—they present themselves before you in every direction. In some in all of these ways, if possible, be found serving your God, and your generation, according to His will. Happy are you who are associated for these purposes. To have contributed in any measure to the furtherance of truth against error, -to the triumph of righteousness over sin, and of Christ over Satan, will be to us, either in this world or some other, a source of the purest gratification.