so distinct from Christianity, that the reader would almost conclude religion to be another science complete in itself. It is striking to observe how small a portion of the ideas which distinguish the New Testament from other books, many moral philosophers have thought indispensable to a theory, in which they professed to include the entire duty and interests of men. A serious reader is constrained to feel that there is either too much in that book, or too little in theirs." The justice and importance of these observations will occur to the mind of every one as he adverts to the treatises of Paley, Gisborn, Brown, Stewart, and McIntosh. It should excite no great surprise in a Christian audience to be told that the science of morals is founded on the principles of divine revelation, and that the great principles of morality are inseparable from the word of God. Moral philosophy is the science which treats of the nature of human actions, of the motives and laws which govern them, and of the ends to which they ought to be directed. And surely such a philosophy is found in the Bible alone. For the heart to be right toward man, it must be right with God. Motives for the regulation of human conduct are suggested in abundance by men whose moral theories were never identified with the sacred volume; but they have been addressed, if not to the worst, to some of the most unworthy passions of the human heart. But the morality founded on such a basis, and supported by such incentives, is devoid of principle.

It knows no law but the opinions of men, and the ever fluctuating state of human society. It invests itself with different forms, as the character of the age, the state of the times, and the circumstances of the individual require. It is one thing in Europe, and another in Asia; one thing in the palace, and another in the mansions of the poor; one thing amid the quietude and searching observation of a rural village, and another amid the bustle and concealment of a crowded city; one thing on the Exchange, and another amid the retirement of private life; one thing in the equable seasons of untempting prosperity, another amid the embarrassments and agitations of calamity and misfortune; onc thing in peace, and another in war; one thing at home, and another abroad. It is one thing to-day, and another thing to-morrow. It is unstable as water and variable as the wind. It is a temporizing, time-serving morality. It complies with the hour and the occasion. It humours the current of opinion and circumstances. It is a system of moral obsequiousness, that is every where pliant and conciliating except to the claims of sterling integrity.

But with what different views do we regard the morality of the Scriptures. On every page of this sacred volume we see a system of ethics as pure, as lofty, as invariable as its Divine Author. We meet with perpetual evidence of those great principles of unbending virtue, which, while they purify and regulate the interior, also purify and regulate the exterior man; and which produce an

equability of character, a "calm constancy," a tenderness of conscience, a kindness of spirit, as far removed from the morality and philanthropy of the world, as are the cold abstractions of heathen philosophy from the sermon on the mount. The Bible settles the great question, What is duty? It is every where familiar with that all-important principle, that to do right, men must do what is right in itself, from right motives, and with a right spirit. These two things God has joined together, and no man may put them asunder. It is not enough that a man's conscience is satisfied that he is doing right, unless he does it with a right spirit and from right motives. Nor is it enough that he acts from a right spirit and right motives, unless he does what is right in itself. He may not speak what is untrue, because he does it with benevolent intentions; nor wreak a malignant revenge upon his enemy, because his conscience may be so blinded as to justify his malignity. Conscience may be so blinded as to lead a man sincerely to do what is abomination in the sight of God. The rectitude of his conduct may not depend on his sincerity. He may act from prejudice, selfishness, and malevolence; and the time may come when, notwithstanding all the convictions of his conscience, like Saul of Tarsus, he may bewail the madness of his spirit, and see that he was altogether without excuse. His conscience may adopt false conclusions, conclusions in which light is resisted because he loves darkness; while

in opposition to evidence he may persist in these conclusions, because a wrong spirit has paramount power. It is only when conscience is obeyed from a right spirit, that we have convincing evidence that our conduct is right in the sight of God. We may do many things that seem to be right, from a wrong spirit; and we may do many things that are wrong, from a right spirit. The morality of the Bible teaches us that to do right, we must do so from a right spirit.

Such a morality is the same thing every where. In every portion of it you see the divine original. What it is now, it always was, and always will be. The knowledge and love of God impart a simpli city, a symmetry, a beauty to the theory of morals which insinuate themselves into every part of the system, and by a thousand imperceptible shades and impulses, adorn and control the whole. What beautiful simplicity, what resistless energy, when contrasted with the heavy and complicated movements of an infidel, a pagan, or a pharisaic morality! God requires it—this is the motive which sways the Christian moralist. You may descant upon the dignity of his nature, upon the beauty of virtue, the turpitude of vice, and the claims of a well regulated selfishness; but how weak and un attractive are such considerations compared with the authority of that Supreme Being whom he loves and adores!

Would you reform the manners of human so ciety, you must aim at the heart; you must diffuse

throughout the mass the leaven of truth; you must throw around the conscience the strong bonds of obligation, and draw the heart by the cords of love, as with the bands of a man. You must extend the empire of the great Lawgiver over the understanding, over the memory, over the imagination, over the warm and grateful affections, over the whole soul. This alone will suppress the germinations of crime, and check wickedness in its bud. This will impart the seeds of virtuous principle, which, in the maturity of their growth and expansion, will exemplify on the largest scale the great practical axiom, distinguished alike for its certainty and its perspicuity, "Make the tree good and its fruit good."

The only specious objection to the morality of the Bible is, that it is one of its leading doctrines that moral virtue avails nothing toward making an atonement for sin; that no transgressor of the divine law can merit anything by his good works; that his justification is entirely gratuitous and rests upon the righteousness of another; and that in the whole matter of his salvation, "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." If this is so, of what avail, it is asked, are all the moral virtues, and what encouragement have men to do the will of God? We need only reply to this, that the foundation of man's acceptance and justification before God is one thing, and the character or moral condition in which he is justified is another. The foun