proach nor want, contempt nor threatening, sufferings nor death, change their sentiments, nor destroy their faith. Multitudes were brought to believe in the same doctrines: the system gained ground, and has been preserved to the present day, notwithstanding all the efforts of infidels and persecutors to stop its progress. Indeed, the evidence of the truth of Christianity has always been accumulating. Consider its surprising propagation, and the wonderful effects it has had on mankind. Plato complained that he could not bring over the inhabitants of one village to live by the rules of his philosophy; but this has abased the proud, civilized the barbarian, awakened the insensible, curbed the ambitious, reformed the prodigal, and conferred happiness and peace on millions of mankind. Whole nations have felt its effects; civil institutions have been improved by it; the tone of morals has been raised; and even the very cruelties of war have been lessened by its influence. Nor, reader, must you forget that it is greatly confirmed by the accomplishment of its prophecies, in the various events now transpiring in the world. The very opposition of its

adversaries, too, have also been overruled; and the evidence has gained considerable strength by the very attacks made against it. The tes→ timonies of heathen writers might here be mentioned. Tacitus, who lived near the age of Christ or his apostles, assures us, that, in Nero's time, who began his reign about twenty years after Christ, that there were vast multitudes of Christians, not only in Judea, but in Rome, against whom, it is well known, he raised the most violent persecution. The same author records, that Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, that Jesus was brought into judgment before him, and by him condemned and crucified. Julian the apostate, Porphyry, and Hierocles, all of them professed enemies to Christianity, confessed that many miraculous cures and works, out of the ordinary course of nature, were wrought by Christ. Pliny writes an account to the Emperor Trajan, of the great multitudes he every where found of them, and of the respectability of their moral character. Phlegon, in his Annals.confessed, "That Jesus foretold several things, which came to pass according to his predictions." Besides these tes

timonies, many others might be brought forward, but these shall suffice. There is no reason to doubt, then, the truth of the Christian religion; and who is there, that has any concern for his eternal happiness, that would wish it to be untrue? It is here that God is seen merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. It is here we find how sin can be pardoned, how our nature can be purified, and how to obtain everlasting life. Come then, reader; let me entreat you to examine this system for yourself. Take the Bible, and consider what it prohibits, what it commands, what it promises; what it holds up to your view. as worthy of attention and regard. If you have hitherto so lived that you find yourself condemned by it, then consider it as the best friend that warns you of your danger. It will, indeed, give no countenance to sin; it will not allow you to indulge in secret iniquity; it will not suffer you to make light of it; but if you feel a sorrow for it,-if you know what it is to have a broken and contrite heart, it will be found to be the only remedy suited to your case. "Come unto me," said the Saviour, "all ye that labour

and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."*

THE SOUL.

BUT perhaps some of my readers care for none of these things; or, if they do believe that Christianity is true, it produces no effect on them. They live in a state of indifference, and care but little about their final happiness. Let me remind such, then, of their real state. Do you consider you possess an immortal soul; that you have a vital principle within you that can never be extinguished? Have you ever considered how capacious are its desires? how eagerly it is bent on the enjoyment of happiness? that after it has tried ten thousand objects, it flings them away, and wants thousands more?

* Matt. xi. 28 to 30.

that its desires rise beyond the bounds of every thing here?

Does not this prove that there must be something higher than earthly enjoyments to satisfy it? And what is this but the Supreme Good? A soul without this is a world of confusion, of disappointed desires, of restlessness, of mortification, and of misery. But when God is the object of its affections, when he is the object of its dependance, then, and then alone, does its happiness begin: for thus hath the Almighty decreed, that none of his creatures shall find hap piness but in him, and that all beside shall be vanity and vexation of spirit.

While the soul possesses such capacious desires, consider too that it is immortal. Man is not a little animated matter, created with a few organs of sense, to move only for a few years in the present world. "If this were the case, the dignity of man would make his misery. His desires of immortal duration, his faculty of thinking and reflecting, of expanding and perpetuating the mind-this superiority of soul that seems to elevate mankind above beasts, actually place the beast above the man, and render their con