these good effects of Christianity have been

THE RESULT OF RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES IN

HIMSELF. Do you, my dear hearers, exhibit in the purity of your manners, the wholesome fruits of the gospel of Christ? Do you so fill up your station in the community as to prove the excellency of the principles on which you act? Do you maintain that uprightness and downright integrity in your dealings, that kindness and friendliness in your temper, that diligence and punctuality in your engagements, that consistency and propriety in your whole conduct, that others may recognize in you the effects of a divine religion? You may be living in a bright day of Christian truth, and in a manner much superior to the heathens as to your particular course of behaviour; and yet there may be no Christian principles effectively at work in your own hearts. It may be others who are operating upon you, and not you who are labouring with others to exhibit the Christian pattern. You may be passive, not active in the business. Christianity may be producing its good effects notwithstanding your irreligion and negligence; not in consequence of your virtue and piety. You may be guided to what is externally right, by custom, a regard to reputation, interest, the general habits of those about you; and not from principle, not from

the love of God, not from a conscience of the

divine law.

Let me then exhort you.

II. NOT TO STOP SHORT IN THE TEMPORAL

BENEFITS

OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

indeed, to all

Christianity dispenses good, within its sphere of influence. Like its divine author, it blesses the evil and the good, the just and the unjust. But it saves none but those who imbibe its genuine principles, who are humbled for their sins, who receive the gift of pardon in the one sacrifice of Christ, who are led and governed by the Holy Ghost and live a holy life. It is in this way that it communicates not only the promise of the life that now is, as my text speaks, but of that which is to come. For its main blessings are spiritual. design is to redeem men from death. glory is to destroy the works of the devil.

Its main
Its chief

Tem

poral benefits are strewed by the way. Temporal blessings are incidental. It is Eternity that exhausts the designs of Christianity. It is the life that is to come for which it provides. To stop short in its general advantages, is to lose its noblest designs, to frustrate its grand purposes, to defeat its immense provision of grace and mercy.

Nor, indeed, can its temporal advantages be

fully secured, unless you imbibe the spirit of Christianity from which they flow. He only knows the genuine happiness, and peace, and joy, which the gospel dispenses, who drinks them pure and unmixed from the fountain. The dregs merely are reserved for those who, refusing the living sources themselves, derive these streams through turbid human channels, and receive them into the receptacle of an impure heart. A man cannot be happy as a citizen, if he be not a true Christian. Yield then to the friendly invitation of You acmercy. knowledge Christianity as having promise of the life that now is, receive it as giving also that life which is to come. Let the lower displays of the divine bounty, lead you to seek the higher and abiding blessings of salvation. Soon will all the pageant of this world be passed, and the life that now is, be removed and gone. Nothing then will remain but eternity. The temporal benefits you may have derived from Christianity, if those be all, will then avail you nothing. Secure then the eternal life which is offered you in Jesus Christ. Let the goodness of God lead you to repentance. Let his daily bounties, his constant blessings to individuals and nations, be so many witnesses to you of his providential guidance, and so many inducements to you to seek his face. It is in this

way only, that the abundant effects of Christianity can be preserved in each passing age, and handed down to the next. Personal and individual penitence and faith, are the springs of religious prosperity. As these are multiplied, Christianity generally is sustained in its purity, and its attendant blessings of every class are propagated and increased. And here I would notice,

III. That the Christian religion is productive of all the advantages we have been detailing,

ONLY IN PROPORTION AS IT IS ALLOWED TO DEVELOPE ALL ITS STRENGTH AND ENERGY.

If our religious profession sinks into formality, the good effects of Christianity sink with it. If the heavenly medicine be diluted or mingled with foreign ingredients, its virtue is proportionably diminished. Christianity will not contribute effectually to the temporal good of man, except it be exhibited as the remedy for all his spiritual maladies. The life-blood must flow warm at the heart, in order to cherish every extremity of the frame. The shape and lineaments of a man, without warmth, and circulation, are of no avail. Around

the living substance of Christianity, temporal blessings will be collected, as comeliness and form and flowing garments around the per

VOL. I.

G G

fully secured, unless you imbibe the spirit of Christianity from which they flow. He only knows the genuine happiness, and peace, and joy, which the gospel dispenses, who drinks them pure and unmixed from the fountain. The dregs merely are reserved for those who, refusing the living sources themselves, derive these streams through turbid human channels, and receive them into the receptacle of an impure heart. A man cannot be happy as a citizen, if he be not a true Christian. Yield then to the friendly invitation of mercy. You acknowledge Christianity as having promise of the life that now is, receive it as giving also that life which is to come. Let the lower displays of the divine bounty, lead you to seek the higher and abiding blessings of salvation. Soon will all the pageant of this world be passed, and the life that now is, be removed and gone. Nothing then will remain but eternity. The temporal benefits you may have derived from Christianity, if those be all, will then avail you nothing. Secure then the eternal life which is offered you in Jesus Christ. Let the goodness of God lead you to repentance. Let his daily bounties, his constant blessings to individuals and nations, be so many witnesses to you of his providential guidance, and so many inducements to you to seek his face. It is in this