elevated, more truly great, than when he bows his head low before the eternal throne. The spirit of the world is obduracy and self-will. It is invincible hardness of heart. It is impenitence that cannot be subdued. It is inflexible perseverance in sin. Truth cannot enlighten it; authority cannot control it; wrath cannot break, nor the tenderest mercy move or melt its persisting purpose. In place of this, the Bible imparts tenderness and contrition of mind. Under its soulsubduing influence, the spirit that never shrunk from danger, nor wept under suffering, turns pale at temptation, shrinks from sin, weeps over past follies, and looks on him whom men have pierced, and mourns. The spirit of the world is grasping and covetous. It is inordinately desirous of wealth, and excessively eager to obtain and possess the treasures of time. It is gay, or pensive, as secular prospects wax, or wane. It is stagnant and spiritless, only when it sees there is nothing to gain, or to lose by enterprise. Be it disappointed or gratified, the more vehement are its desires, and never is it so satisfied as to say, It is enough. In place of this, the Bible imparts a tranquil and happy confidence in the wisdom of Divine Providence, a grateful acknowledgment of the daily mercies which God bestows, a moderation in those desires which are directed to worldly enjoyments, and that lifted eye which no longer fastens on earth, but looks upward, where its resources are undiminished, its treasures never fade, and a

crown of righteousness awaits all who love their Lord's appearing. The spirit of the world is the spirit of ambition. It is the desire of power.

The object that glitters, and enchants, and vanishes, is to be clothed in purple, to sway the sceptre, and wear the diadem. And the more this ambitious desire is gratified, the more is poison injected into the deadly plague. In place of this, the Bible imparts a deep impression of the vanity of all things beneath the sun; a conviction that the fashion of this world passeth away; that the yoke of Christ is rather to be desired than the proudest sceptre; and that it were better to be the servant of the king of kings, than the emperor of the world. The spirit of the world is the spirit of self-indulgence and guilty pleasure. The men of the world are lovers of pleasure more than the lovers of God. Like the prodigal son, they have wandered from their fathers' house, to feed on the husks of the wilderness. They are eager for enjoyment, and find it in dissipation of thought, of feeling, and of deportment, and amid the alternate servitude and liberty, pains and pleasures which constitute their varied adventures. Their senses are flattered by the fleeting illusion, and they can speak of nothing, and think of nothing, but pleasure. Though made up of so many pieces and scraps, that you wonder they are not wearied in gathering it up, yet have they no other desire and no other object. Lawless pleasure, in all the forms of novelty and excess, notwithstanding

its shame, its infamy, its ruin, is the idol of their hearts and the law of their existence. In place of this, the Bible imparts the love of God and duty. Pleasures it reveals, but they are found in doing the will of God; in accomplishing the great end of human existence, and in those vivid hopes which light up the dawn, and noon-day, and setting sun of an ever brightening existence. Those who have drank into its spirit do not live for the pleasures of earth, but are carried forward by a sort of spiritual instinct, beyond this dense and earthly wall by which they are environed. The Bible presents a prospect as much brighter and wider than the pleasures of the worldling, as are the pleasures of holy thought and feeling and expectation, superior to the day dreams, and grovelling pleasures of sense. The spirit of the world is the spirit of unbelief. It is the spirit that rejects the truth of God; that has no confidence in his declarations, and distrusts his promises and faithfulness. It leans to self. It has no wants, timidity, or despondency, which its own presumption cannot relieve. And not until corruptions have kept their ground so long as to be absolutely ruinous, and the day of hope so far spent as to be literally exhausted, does the soul that is under the dominion of unbelief, cry, and cry in vain, "Lord, save, or I perish !" In place of this, the Bible imparts faith in God and confidence in his word. It gives an affectionate, practical trust in the divine testimony as recorded on its own sacred pages,

and that unshaken confidence in the divine character, government, and veracity, which becomes the great principle and impulse of action. It gives subsistence to hope and demonstration to evidence; and while it appropriates grace to help in every time of need, it anticipates blessings, which, though unseen by the eye, are enjoyed by the heart. The spirit of the world is an unforgiving and revengeful spirit. It seeks injury for injury, and blood for blood. What a mournful comment upon the character of man is the savage maxim, "Revenge is sweet!" In place of this, the Bible enjoins, "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." This is a spirit so unnatural to man, that it has been reproached as unreasonable and absurd, and the ancients had not even a word to express it, or if they had, it represented it as a vice rather than a virtue. But how worthy of its Author! how sublime! how truly it bears the stamp of divinity! The wisest moralists of the wisest nations and ages represented revenge as a mark of a noble mind. But how different from the mind of Christ! and at what an infinite remove from the generous, exalted spirit of him who, as he was sinking upon the cross, prayed for his murderers! The religion of the Bible stands opposed to all the selfish and mercenary affections of the human heart, and just so far as it prevails, eradicates and destroys them. "If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,"

they are found in the lofty spirit and high moral virtues of a self-renouncing religion.

Such is the exalted spirit of the Bible, and such some of the great and distinguishing peculiarities of the religion it inculcates and imparts. There is one exalted Personage, and only one, in whom the high dignity of the Christian character was fully and perfectly illustrated. The example of the man Christ Jesus perfectly accords with his doctrines and precepts. He copied out the religion of the Bible in his life. His spirit was known, and developed, and is perfectly understood. He was rich, and for our sakes became poor; happy, and for us became a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs; the Prince of life, and died for us on the cross, that we might be rich, and honoured, and happy, and live with him. The only reward he sought was the reward which alone could gratify his benevolent mind :— diseases healed-sorrows soothed-tears wiped away-ignorance enlightened-the wayward counselled the desponding encouraged-the unholy made pure-the guilty forgiven-the lost saved. This was his reward. When men could not ascend to him, he descended to them. When they neither deserved, nor sought his favour, he gave it undeserved and unsought. The abjectness, the sufferings, the sins of men were the magnet that drew him forth from his retirement and excited his commiseration. No toil could weary, no obstacles hinder, no opposition discourage, no de