dice and bigotry which make so many really devout people judge unkindly, and think disparagingly, of the characters and moral state of those who differ from them on points of doctrine. This too is an evil of large amount and dark malignity. It is a constant, and widely-extended, and aggravated act of injustice. for that honesty of profession, which is a moral obligation and a Christian duty, the rejecter of popular doctrines is deprived of the fair estimation, and the kindly feelings to which he is righteously entitled. He does not rank where he ought to rank in good men's thoughts and good men's hearts. He is deprived of a favorable opinion due to his deserts, which is as unjust as if he were deprived of property accumulated by his exertions. Prejudice will not render 'honor to whom honor is due,' gratitude to whom gratitude, affection to whom affection, is due. Could these things be represented by money, the withholding of them would be a tangible offence, which the law would put down. They cannot be so represented; they are infinitely more precious; the injustice is so much the more grievous; but the redress is only in the diffusion of liberality. Nor is the evil less to the perpetrator than to the object. Moral wrong is never committed with impunity. Prejudice excludes mental light. Bigotry is at least partial blindness, and to it is 'knowledge at one entrance quite shut out.' And while it darkens the mind, it cripples the affections. A thousand kindly

to narrowness and bitterness. graced. Men do not know that

feelings are sacrificed Christianity is dis

God sent Christ, as

he prayed they might, by the fact that his disciples

love one another. Apostolic authority is levelled before sectarian bigotry. The new commandment of Christ is already made obsolete by the newer decree of dogmatical intolerance. The harmony and power of combined exertions for purposes of common utility are impaired and frittered away. There is alike an invasion of the comfort of social intercourse and the energy of public beneficence. Does not all this imperatively require amendment? Is it not a lawful object of Christian zeal? In pursuing it, are we not in the path of duty? Yes: as much in that of moral and religious duty as in our own personal worship and meditation?

Does it not combine with them, and are we not saving ourselves when we are benefiting others? If it was worth a divine interposition to give the Apostle Peter a clear and heart-felt perception of the truth that 'in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him;' it must certainly be worth some human zeal, sacrifice, and effort, to bring home that truth to the millions of souls which are bound up in the belief of the exclusive excellence of the little faction to which they belong. Here is an object far superior to many, to which philanthropists, whom the world worthily holds in reverence, have consecrated all their years, and devoted all their powers, and even sacrificed their lives.

I shall mention but one more topic, and that is the displacing the gloomy views in religion which too much abound, by those which, as they are more Christian in their origin, are more, O! how much more, productive of happiness in their influences. There is

an immense sum of suffering in the world resulting from misrepresentations of the divine character and government. The spirit of love, as the great spring of action, is too commonly displaced by that of fear, and most true is the brief and emphatic assertion of the Apostle John that fear hath torment.' In some systems, men are terrified into religion, and terrified by religion, and they look up to God with terror, and forward to futurity with terror. Their duty is servility; their motive, the apprehension of punishment; and their heaven, an escape from hell. And those whose views are brightest for themselves, have still so dreadful a prospect for others, for a reprobated world, as only leaves the alternative of selfish indifference or heart-corroding anguish. To such interpretations of Christianity our simpler and brighter views of it bear the same relative character of Gospel, or glad tidings, which Christianity itself did to a benighted world. They are light in the soul's darkness; freedom to mental captivity; and the proclamation of a sabbath jubilee for the rational creation. What better blessing can be sent abroad than hope, a generous hope, for humanity itself? What can extend and elevate the affections like the anticipation of a final universal redemption? We can scarcely confer a greater benefit on any good man than to open his ears to hear that sound for all, which he has only listened to as a promise for a selected portion of the human race, even though in that portion he was included. It is like being present at the descent of an angel from heaven, proclaiming, 'Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you (you, man

kind, the human race) is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!' and joining with all the past and present and future generations of the world, earth's nations and the 'multitude of the heavenly host' in the response of glory to God and love to man.

Away, then, with the notion that there is nothing inoral, nothing practical, nothing which affects men's hearts and happiness at stake, in the religious differences which exist. Even if it could not be shown of any reculiar doctrines, that they are God's truth, and therefore worthy of man's earnest efforts for their dissemination, there is still ample inducement for benevolent and energetic exertion. But there are great and simple truths, though long obscured, of which this can be shown; and the combination, mental and moral, is one which should leave no hesitation in our minds-no lukewarmness in our hearts-no inconsistency in our conduct. It is our clearest duty our best interest-our noblest aim-our highest happiness, to 'serve God with our spirits in the Gospel of his Son;' to advance Christ's spiritual kingdom; and by rightly striving to advance that in others, we also advance it in our own hearts; nor can we establish its full dominion in our own hearts while we are indifferent to its extension around

us.

Let us, then, pursue conjointly what the spirit of the Gospel declares cannot be sundered. It is said of the all-perfect God, that 'he is good and does good continually.' Nor can we really be good, without doing good; or do good, on Christian principles, without being good. By loving our neighbor as ourselves, we work out his benefit and our own salvation.

SERMON XX.

PROBATION AND JUDGMENT.

HEBREWS ix. 57.

'But after this (death) the judgment.'

To any one who should open the New Testament for the first time, and his eye fall on this passage, it would seem a very bold assertion. Man knows not what the morrow may bring forth. The changes of life are continually baffling his calculations. He frequently finds himself in circumstances, the imagination of which a few months or years before, would have been dismissed as a wild and most incredible romance. And, yet, here is one who assumes to tell us, not what will come after this week or year, but after this life itself shall have closed; and who affirms that, when we shall have been removed from all communication with the world in which we live, and the beings by whom we are surrounded; that when we shall have reached what seems to our senses and experience the final close of our existence, that after this will come the judgment.

But the notion of boldness vanishes when further examination shows the writer's authority. He was