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which Christianity brings you, it is not a curious inquiry, it is not an intellectual disquisition which leaves the state of men's morals and hearts and hopes where it found them. It is a question upon which an eternity of happiness or misery depends. It is a religion which inspires hope in a hopeless world, which establishes a way of pardon and peace, which reveals all the corruption of our fallen state, in order to reveal all the blessedness of the remedy for that state which is proposed to us in the Son and Spirit of God. Christianity is not a magnificent portico, with no temple; it is not a road laboriously prepared which leads to no city its body of evidence is a portal which opens to the temple of the living God; its solid proofs are a highway which leads to heaven.

The question, therefore, as to the truth of the Christian doctrine must be infinitely important. In expounding to you the evidences on which that truth rests, I should shrink from the responsibility of the task, if I were not persuaded that no exposition can be so incomplete as to obstruct materially the faith of a sincere and humble enquirer-and if I did not rely for success on the blessing of that God who has granted us the means of conviction on this subject, in an abundance correspondent to the importance of the case.

Let me further remind you, that if there be a

God, (and with the Atheist I am not arguing,) the duty of prayer to Him on entering upon this argument must be of paramount obligation. Let me entreat you, then, to unite with me in supplications to the common Father of all, whom the unbeliever professes to adore and reverence as well as the Christian, and beseech him to illuminate our minds, to dissipate all prejudices and prepossessions, and to dispose us to receive the truth with humility and joy.

And let the pious and sincere Christian cultivate more of the meekness and fear which are to attend his apology for his faith. It is the holy, upright, consistent, benevolent life of the Christian which forms the best standing defence of his religion to others, and the best spring of hope in his own mind. The effects of Christianity are then prominent and decisive. Were the faith of all who call themselves Christians a really living principle, we should be able to appeal to them with more confidence, as exemplifying and embodying what we describe in our portraits of the Christian character. The inconsistent tempers and lives of the professors of Christianity are the reproach of the faithful, and the stumbling-block of the profane. For no contradiction can be so fatal in its effects on others and on ourselves, as the claim of a believer's hope and the darkness and misery of an infidel's life.

LECTURE II.

THE TEMPER OF MIND IN WHICH THE SUBJECT SHOULD BE STUDIED.

LUKE XVIII. 17.

Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein.

In entering upon a course of instruction with the design of impressing more deeply upon the hearts of young persons the truth and importance of the Christian revelation, we may first naturally ask, What is the temper of mind in which the subject should be studied? To this enquiry an answer may be given from the words of the text, in which our Lord declares, with that solemn asseveration which he frequently used in order to impress his instructions upon the minds of men, That whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein.

VOL. I.

D

Some observations on THIS MEEK AND

DOCILE

DISPOSITION;-upon THE OBVIOUS WANT OF IT in too many of those who reject Christianity;-- and upon THE CHIEF REASONS which prove its indispensable importance, will be the object of the present lecture.

I. The temper of mind here inculcated by our Lord is a simplicity and teachableness resembling what we observe in children, who in their first infancy are free from guile, and give implicit credit to what their friends and parents teach them, without suspecting the possibility of any thing being said to the contrary. A child-like temper as to the subject of religion resembles this; it is a readiness to receive the proofs of the Christian doctrine with candour, and, upon their being found satisfactory, to submit without reserve or objection to the revelation itself. By requiring this guileless disposition, we by no means prejudge the question, nor do we demand any renunciation of the just authority and powers of human reason. Christianity is consistent with the highest reason. We ask only for such a state of mind as the glorious majesty of God and the weakness of man require-such a temper as is obviously necessary to every serious investigation, and without which, conviction

upon a moral and religious subject is impossible.

The characteristics of this temper are docility, seriousness, prayer, obedience — points which natural religion professes to enjoin, and which are therefore held in common by all with whom I am now concerned, and especially by the young Christian.

By DOCILITY I mean an aptitude to receive. instruction, a readiness to enquire after the truth of Christianity, a mind not averse from the subject, a willingness to weigh arguments with impartiality, and follow truth with boldness and singleness of heart. Such a noble temper as this appeared in the Bereans, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles, (and I quote this and other passages now, merely to explain my meaning,) that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.1

But to docility must be added SERIOUSNESS; the attention and earnestness of a mind aroused to some sense of the importance of the enquiry, recollecting the consequences which depend on the question of the truth of Christianity, filled with reverence for the holiness of the great God whose name and glory are involved, and

1 Acts xviii. 11.

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