motley disguise of Oriental and Gothic metaphysics, that they may no longer turn away with such an unhesitating incredulity?

Let us do no such injustice to the omnipotence of truth, as to think it a sluggish element. It is thoroughly instinct with life. There is no estimating the vigor of its vitality, or the bounty of its fruitfulness. And it is not our business to estimate them. But it is our business to place it where it may spread and fructify. The religious sentiment, which we do not hold for truth, is worthless or mischievous, and we must reject it. That, which we do hold for truth, is inestimable, and we must impart it. If the reformers had reckoned the dissemination of just religious views no worthy object of great zeal, we might now have been buying indulgences, or doing whatever other impious act an infatuated ecclesiastical authority might have imposed; for they too might have argued, while the church of Rome can form such characters as those of Ximenes and More, why take the risk and trouble of reforming it? If it be not a fit object of human effort, why does the divine providence seem now to be moving it so rapidly onward on the swelling current of human improvement? No; religion was meant to do no less an office than to lay a powerful hand on all the affections and faculties of men. False religion, in its least hurtful form, is that same hand smitten with palsy, which, though it should be as willing, can never be so strong.-Divine wisdom is our pledge, that the unadulterated system of evangelical truth is able to form a christian character of greater grace and elevation, is able to develope and mature a more godlike virtue, than is within the reach of the most re

spectable among its counterfeits. Acknowledging, as all men do, the imperfection of the Christian character, as it has been hitherto exhibited in the best of Christians, we have a right to assume, that the proper instrument for removing that imperfection is the unobstructed power of pure Christian truth. But, even if it were not so, even if we should allow truth to be no more fit than error 'for the use of edifying' the really religious mind,— we should still have motive enough for striving to diffuse it, in the hope of engaging the indifferent, convincing the sceptic, and evangelizing the heathen. The statement, that sincere men, who believe error, are as advanced Christians as sincere men who believe truth, would be unsatisfactory in this connexion, however just it might be proved to be. The undeniable and the really important consideration is, that, according as religious truth or error prevails in the world, the amount of religious feeling and conduct in the world is greatly augmented or abridged.

Will we justify ourselves then for taking no part in this momentous work by such arguments as, that the truth is great and will prevail ;— that God knows how to accomplish his own great purposes, and, when the time is come, will bring them to pass without any help of ours? God is able to accomplish his own purposes; but, when they have related to human welfare, it is not often that he has accomplished them except by human agency. Truth is great, and will prevail. But it will prevail because it is great enough to enlist strenuous minds in its cause. It was great in the Apostles' times; but it did not prevail, till, by impressive evidence of the power of its confessors to do and to bear, it had over

powered the bigoted opposition of an unbelieving world. It was very great at the period of the Protestant reformation, and it prevailed, because it was great enough to nerve its champions to do desperate duty on the fields of Switzerland and Germany, and its martyrs to glut the flames and dungeons of England, Italy, and Spain. We are not to expect miracles to do what God has designated for the appropriate work of well-principled human energy. We are not to discharge ourselves from the duty of promoting a good object, by saying that it cannot but be contemplated in the counsels of God. God designs that his truth shall be diffused; and he designs that men, impressed with its worth, and faithful to its obligations, shall diffuse it. It will at length prevail, because men will not always be content to express a confidence in its power, for the purpose of releasing themselves from its service. We have only to decide whether it shall be advanced by our instrumentality, or left for other hands; and our assumption, true as it may abstractly be, will be false in its application, as long as it is used for our apology. We are self-contradicted, if we argue that truth is great enough to make its way, while our conduct shows that it is not great enough to command from us those services, by means of which it must ultimately triumph.

Do we say, then, that we will not be fellow-workers with providence in this great work of religious reformation, because it will subject us to the imputation of a party spirit? God forbid that such a spirit should ever actuate us! It wages deadly war with that temper-of universal charity-which is the distinguishing temper of the gospel and its author. It gives the mole's eye, and 3*

VOL. IV. NO. IV.

the adder's ear, and makes the heart like the 'nether mill-stone.' God keep us from bringing scandal on such a holy cause, by enlisting for it such a corrupt auxiliary, and dispose us, so far from laboring for it with any selfish view,— to wish from our hearts, that, if we have mistaken its character, a signal defeat may follow all our endeavors for its advancement! But, on the other hand, let us remember, that the promoters of the largest designs of the most pure and elevated charity are liable to the stigma of a party zeal; and we are by no means at liberty to abandon a post of duty, because of the danger that a bad name may be applied to the earnestness, with which we labor in it. It would be an easy task, indeed, to frustrate good undertakings, whose accomplishment requires joint effort, if to call their advocates partisans, were sufficient to discourage them; and would it not be a shameful confession, that a good cause suffered for want of our support, because we feared our motive would be mistaken? If we are capable of being moved by such an apprehension, we may be sure that it is not such advocates as we, that any cause asks, or can be advanced by.

But are we anxious lest we should become tinctured, and not lest we should be charged, with a narrow spirit of party? This is a reasonable anxiety, and we ought to cherish it. It is an anxiety, however, which, vigilant as it ought to make us, does not entitle us to find our safety in unprofitableness. We have no right to shrink from entering on a sphere of duty, which God has opened, because he has also placed temptations there. What would the condition of the world be now, if they, have rendered it important services, had excused them

who

selves because of the danger, that, by the fault of others, they might be placed in situations where their dignity might be exposed, or beset with opposition of a nature to ruffle their tempers? If we are truly fit for God's service and the world's, we shall distinctly contemplate these dangers, and cautiously guard against them; but we shall not practise such a self-deception, as to think of evading them by relinquishing our set task. When the best happiness, the most weighty interests of others, are in some sort given us in charge, we have no more a right to abandon them, for fear of being tempted to promote them in a narrow spirit, than we should have a right to say, that we will not give in charity, lest we should contract a habit of profuseness, and that we will not ask in prayer, lest we should be tempted to a negligence of our secular concerns. One way alone is safe for us; to enter boldly on the field of our appointed duty, and trust humbly to our own watchfulness and the grace of God, whom we are serving, to secure us in its attending trials.

This is the spirit, by which we should be actuated; a glowing zeal to promote the influence of our religion, and a jealous self-distrust, lest our ardor should betray us into any deviations from its path. A party spirit never served religion, and it never will. We must give it no aliment; we must allow it no indulgence. If suspected, it discredits our labors; if real, it vitiates and makes them vain. Without a fervent, and, if need be, a self-denying spirit of religious reform, on the other hand, religious truth is not to advance; and, unless we will say, that the cause which God most favors deserves not our concern, we shall not discard the one because