respect. There is an energy of purpose, a magnanimity about it, that seems, even in its aberrations, to vindicate the dignity of its origin, and to which, even though it be the magnanimity of a tyrant or a desperado, we can scarcely refrain from paying an involuntary homage.— The most trifling exertion, on the other hand, provided it be the offspring of worthy and benevolent motives, is regarded with approbation.— We approve of the honest industry of a parent to provide for the comfortable maintenance of those, with the care of whom Divine Providence may have entrusted him. We respect the useful citizen who aims at promoting the welfare and happiness of the community to which he belongs, by giving his time and talents to the support and improvement of its charitable and other public institutions. We admire the patriotic statesman who has the good sense and virtue to employ the distinguished opportunities he enjoys of contributing to a nation's happiness, by the wise management of her resources, and the gradual improvement of her institutions. We revere the philanthropist who bestows his labour, and is willing, if necessary, to risk his life, in the cause of suffering humanity. Our feelings towards each of these individuals are enhanced in proportion to the labours they have undergone, and the sacrifices they have made,

and the dangers to which they have been exposed, in the prosecution of their respective schemes of benevolence. Compare, then, I beseech you, the narrow views and mixed motives of such men, with the single and sublime desire of accomplishing the regeneration of mankind, and establishing universal happiness on the basis of universal purity, that animated the bosom of the Saviour, their sphere of action, limited, as it must be, both as to place and time, with his, which embraced the world and mankind, throughout all future generations,—their struggles, and risks, and vexations, with his voluntary poverty, persecution and crucifixion, and say whether words can give expression to the feelings with which his grateful and admiring followers ought to regard him. Does not such a death as his, endured in such a manner, and with such a motive, present a spectacle of moral sublimity, such as angels might gaze upon with delight, and man can scarcely contemplate without improvement? The interest which we feel in the death of Christ will admit, however, of a still further increase, from considering, thirdly, the connection that subsists between the act itself and the unspeakably important object it was intended to effect, and how far the latter was likely to be promoted by the former.

In the view which we take of this part of the subject, we differ widely from most of our fellow Christians. We deeply regret the prevalence of opinions respecting the efficacy of the death of Christ, which we cannot but regard as obscuring some of the most amiable attributes of the Deity, and furnishing the sceptic with grounds of objection to Christianity that appear but too reasonable. Christians in general feel themselves constrained by the authority of Scripture, to ascribe to the event of which we are speaking, a certain mysterious efficacy, in accomplishing the salvation of men, the nature of which they do not pretend to explain, and the existence of which they can attribute to no other cause than the appointment of the Deity. We acknowledge ourselves unable to discover in Scripture an adequate foundation for this opinion. We think we perceive in the consequences which we know to have resulted from this event,-in the connection which we see to exist between it and other parts of the Christian dispensation,—a sufficient explanation of the importance attached to it by the sacred writers; whilst in their national customs and modes of speaking, taken in connection with the particular circumstances of the time at which they lived, we think we can discover the origin of the peculiar phraseology often employed in connection with it, without

having recourse to a scheme which confounds all our common notions of justice and injustice, -contradicts, to all appearance, many express declarations of Scripture,-and seems to us at once to degrade the Divine character and to darken the Divine government. Although, however, we are unable to unite with our brethren in ascribing to the death of Christ any such mysterious and inexplicable efficacy as has been referred to, we are by no means the less convinced of its transcendent importance to the welfare of mankind, or the less inclined to assign to it a prominent place in the history of the introduction of Christianity. The importance of this great event seems to us to consist in its intimate connection with all the great ends which Christianity was designed to accomplish, including that more particularly referred to in the text. The nature of this connection we shall now endeavour to illustrate.

The efficacy of the Christian religion in promoting the moral improvement of mankind, consists in prescribing plain and intelligible rules of duty, and supplying motives sufficiently powerful to lead men to the observance of them. The great excellence of Christianity, considered as a means of moral purification, is to be found in the weighty sanctions by which its precepts

are confirmed. The most important of these sanctions are the Divine authority by which they are said to have been delivered, and the future rewards and punishments which are said to be attached, by virtue of the same authority, to the observance or neglect of them. Now the Divine authority of the precepts, promises and threatenings of Christianity, depends on the Divine authority of him by whom they were originally delivered. Whatever, then, tends to confirm us in the belief either of the Divine authority of our Master in general, or of the Divine origin of any important doctrine which he taught, or leads us to look forward to the accomplishment of his promises or threatenings with greater confidence, must add proportionably to the efficacy of Christianity, considered as a means of promoting our moral reformation and improvement. The question, then, which we have to consider at present, is simply this. Has the death of Christ contributed, in any degree, to the accomplishment of these purposes? Was it in itself, or did it lead to, any additional confirmation of the Divine authority of our Master? Has it been the means of supplying us with additional grounds for hoping that his promises will be accomplished, and fearing that his threatenings will be executed?