is evident, that a denial of his real divinity manifests a disbelief of his ability to receive and present before the Father the prayers of all saints.

3. Since Christ is the only medium of access to God in prayer, we infer that all pretended religious worship is vain, in which the name of Christ is not used nor his merits relied on for acceptance. Hence the approaches to God of infidels or professed Christians, who deny the efficacy and necessity of the atonement and intercession of Christ, must be presumptuous oblations like those of Korah and his company. All dependence on the intercession of Mohammed, the Virgin Mary, or any other mere creature, is likewise both superstitious and impious. Nor may we substitute morality for the merits of Christ, in our approaches to the throne of grace. In one word, every attempt to stretch out our hands toward the altar of God, except in the way of his appointment, partakes of the presumption and guilt of Uzzah. For out of Christ "God is a consuming fire."

4. From our subject we infer the broad foundation which is laid in the Gospel for the safety and comfort of true believers in Christ. Is their grand adversary attempting to sift them as wheat, they have an all-prevalent Advocate to pray that their faith fail not. The consideration of Christ's intercession inspired the triumphant language of Paul-"For I am pursuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Those therefore may have "STRONG consolation who have fled for refuge to embrace the hope set before us in the Gospel."

Finally. Our subject encourages all to pour out prayer to God, if they are willing to come in the name and plead the merits of our Great Redeemer. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works."

[For the Monitor.]

INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

THE great mass of mankind are but little sensible how much of their present enjoyment is derived from the prevalence of the christian religion. Few, comparatively, regard it as the legitimate source of most of their temporal blessings, and yet this can be made abundantly manifest to every reflecting mind. It is only to compare the present condition of Christian and Pagan nations, or by the light of history to view the condition of ancient Greece and Rome, even when at the acme of their civilization and refinement, and this truth appears as clear as the meridian sun in a cloudless sky. All these benevolent and charitable institutions, which now bless and adorn our guilty world, owe their existence to the influence of Christian principles. Before the Gospel was promulgated, no systematic attempts were made for the alleviation of human misery; even in those nations, where the greatest advances had been made in the acquisition of human knowledge, and where human genius soared as high as it ever has done since, the poor were sold as slaves; the feeble, the helpless, and the aged, were suffered to die unheeded and unattended, and often was the wretched victim of distress deprived of life, as the only means of relief, or a burden not to be borne. In the dark and unblessed parts of the earth, such things are witnessed, even at the present day. How different is our situation, and that of every nation, where the light of divine truth has shed its healing and refreshing beams. Here the the attempt is made, and successfully made, to wipe the tear from every eye; an asylum is provided for the friendless and unprotected orphan, for the lonely and aged widow; hospitals are erected for the comfort and the relief of the sick and needy stranger; the poor are supported at the public expense; and Charity, clad in the robes of heaven, is unwearied in her endeavours to find out, and to instruct the ignorant, to visit the prisoner, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked. As

the famous river Nile fertilizes every spot of the earth which is visited by its waters, so, where the Gospel has been promulgated and accepted, a rich and unfailing stream of mercy flows to bless and ennoble mankind. Were there no hereafter, none but a madman or a demon could wish that the Christian religion should be discarded from the world. Of all the institutions which owe their origin to Christianity, there are none more important in their nature, or more beneficial in their consequences, than that of preaching the Gospel. The beneficial effects resulting from the preaching of the Gospel may be considered in a political, a moral, and a religious point of view; and upon each of these we propose at this time to submit a few remarks.

Before the introduction of Christianity, the rights of man were but poorly understood and but little regarded. This, for the first time, taught the relations in which mankind stand to each other, and the duties and privileges of those relations, and also the solemn truth, so humiliating to the pride of the human heart, that in the eyes of God all men are equal, and that to him they were all accountable. The obligation of governors and governed is now known to be reciprocal. Rulers are commanded to be just men, ruling in the fear of God; to be "a terror to evildoers, and a praise to them that do well;" and they are entitled to be, not the lords of his heritage, but the mere stewards of his bounty. From the fearless preaching of these doctrines by the undaunted Luther and his associates, the human mind became disenthralled from the fetters in which it had been bound, through a long night of darkness, by papal tyranny. Most of the civil, and all the religious liberty that the British nation now possess, was obtained by the clerical dissenters from the Romish and from the established church. They boldly claimed for themselves and for others, that freedom of conscience which the Gospel allows, and in thousands of instances, sealed with their lives, the truth of the doctrines they professed. In our revolutionary contest, the clergy were as forward as any other class of citizens in asserting and vindicating the rights of their country. Relying upon

the word of God for the rectitude of their conduct, they stimulated their countrymen to resistance; and the history of this momentous period leaves no doubt but that the blessing of heaven descended and rested upon this rising nation, in answer to their prayers, and as a reward for their labours. At the present day the preachers of the Gospel afford more aid to our government, and a safer protection of our rights, than ten thousand times the number of armed men. If the virtue of the people is the surest basis of a republican form of government, then the preaching and diffusion of that religion which inculcates the highest and only genuine species of virtue, must be of indispensable, of incalcu lable importance. Laws would be of little avail for the protection of person or property, if religion did not add her sanction for their observance. The rope of the hangman, and the cells of the penitentiary would carry no terror to a people forsaking and despising God. It is from the influence of religious truth, that in our happy land, each one is permitted to sit under his own vine and his own fig-tree, with none to molest, disturb, or make him afraid. Every one who has had the opportunity for observation, will accede to the justice of the remark, that in that part of the community where there is the most frequent and most regular preaching of the Gospel, there is to be found the most social and civil order, and that wherever it is wholly neglected, there is to be seen the most vice and the most crime. Every real friend to his country will feel himself bound to encourage and support an institution which effects so much good, and prevents so much evil; yet it is feared, that there are many who hold official stations, and would conceive themselves grossly insulted, were their patriotism to be questioned, who never visit the sanctuary, nor countenance by their presence the preaching of the Gospel. We leave to such the impracticable task of reconciling their conduct to their professions. [To be concluded in our next.]

[For the Monitor.]

OLD ROBERT.

DURING a visit in the country, I passed a night near the Connecticut, in one of those little villages so elegant and so delightful, which always remind a stranger of domestic felicity. Here, said I to myself, as I looked on their fertile and highly cultivated farms, and their houses which discover so much taste and neatness, here if any where in our happy country, society must be moral, harmonious, and contented; here is that friendship of the heart, which commences almost with life, and gradually matures by mingling local interests and feelings with the greater interests of country and of religion, till it becomes as immortal as the soul itself, and death has no longer any power over it; a friendship which looks forward to Heaven for its consummation, and receives from this source an intense strength and happiness. I imagined that it might be seen in the affection of parents for their children, of children for their parents, and of neighbouring families for each other. I thought that one would find in these families only the generosity of sentiment, and delicacy of taste and moral feelings, which are cherished and cultivated by devout and ardent souls.

These were my reflections as the stage rolled over their smooth roads the preceding day. Not very early in the morning, I was walking with an old inhabitant of the village, who assured me that there was a unanimity of feeling, and a generous kindness among the people. The rich, said he, are benevolent, the poor grateful, and most of us are happy in our circumstances. But come, let us walk beyond that grove; a few steps to the right hand of the road lives a negro man, 90 years old, perhaps 100, an old pensioner. With his pension he lives in African affluence about three months, and for the rest of the year he endures African poverty. Men sometimes rise suddenly to wealth, to power, or to influence, and fall again, once, and perhaps twice in the course of a long life. Not so with this African. Ever since he has received his country's bounty, his affluence