nor even conceived. The history of nearly twothousand years has displayed in our holy religion those rugged features and sturdy principles, which adapt it, not only for the brilliancy of present effect, but for the purpose of invincible endurance. On more occasions than one has it risen like the the phonix from the ashes of desolation, plumed its pinions anew, and with a more ample circumference of motion, mounted again towards its native heaven. That the movements of such a power, therefore, should be formidable, for good when used for good, and for evil when perverted to purposes of evil, is what we should naturally expect. Under beams so potent, and showers so refreshing, how can it be otherwise than that the moral world should teem with the forms of life or of death?

But the extremes which we have noticed in the effects of the gospel, of evil on the one hand and good on the other, are filled up by many gradations extending mutually from the one to the other. Those to whom it proves a savour of death unto death are not all as rancorous and malignant as the Jews; nor are all who may humbly hope to enjoy its future rewards as preeminent in piety as its first of ministers. No; some who are in heart opposed to the gospel wear the garb of candor and moderation like Gamaliel, who seemed willing to test its quality by fair experiment; others, like Gallio, are too much occupied with other interests to admit of any strong sensation on the subject; others are induced by admiration of it as an object of pure intellection or as an efficient means of virtue and social order, by interest, by the influence of their associations in life, or by other motives of this kind to array themselves on the side of its friends; and thus, the shades of difference in its effects upon different unbelievers are as numerous as their diversities of original character or accidental habits of thinking and feeling.

In like manner, those in whom the latent principle of enmity to the gospel is subdued have the purifying influence which it imparts variously intermixed with errors of opinion, remains of former depravity, uncorrected evil habits, and hence, the line of demarkation between them and the opposite class, is too indistinct and uncertain to be always obvious to our imperfect vision. Had we listened to the oaths of Peter at the time of denying his Master, and been present at the baptism of Simon Magus, we should have judged the former to be in the gall of bitterness, while to the latter we should have assigned the apostolic dignity. If the devil sometimes invests himself in robes of light, the saints we are sure sometimes appear in the dismal livery of darkness. To adopt the illustration of of a holy man lately gone to his rest,* christians are like men standing in concentric circles round a luminous point. Those who occupy the first circle turn to the luminous point and so are filled and overwhelmed with light,-those who occupy the next, have still less light, while some stand laterally to the luminous point, others have their faces downward or turned another way, and hence they are but imperfectly illuminated; and, so as we advance from circle to circle we not only find a diminished amount of light, but we see those occupying them standing in positions still less and less advantageous for receiving the light that reaches them; till coming to the outer circle we find some bowed down, others laying prone, and others with their backs turned to the luminous point, insomuch that the light which reaches them is so intermixed with darkness, that we are at a loss where to assign their place on the moral chart, whether within the boundaries of light or upon the coasts of darkness.

* Payson.

It is owing doubtless to this blending of good and evil in those affected by the gospel,—this confluence of pure and turbid waters-this claim to nourishment of plants whose qualities are opposite-that our Saviour in one of his parables seems to discourage our attempts in this world at separating between them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn."* Some men who are radically evil are so far removed from that class in whom evil puts on its most malignant aspects, and their approaches to the opposite class are so near; while on the other hand those who are radically good exhibit characteristics so similar to those of the evil, that we are not always able to distinguish with accuracy between them. We are therefore, under necessity of waiting the disclosures of future years, or the still more lucid exhibitions of the judgment seat.

The difference of moral character between these two classes is not one of degree but of nature. The question whether a man falls on this or that side of the line of distinction between them is not to be settled by balancing his good against his bad qualities to see which preponderates; but by determining the state of heart from which his actions flow. Has he within him a taste so corrected as to render holiness, truth, justice and goodness objects of his supreme delight from what they are in their own nature, as well as from their influence in making him happy? Does he aspire after personal sanctification? Or do his amiable qualities and the many virtues which we might be inclined to throw into the scale in our balancings between his good and his evil, exist independently of any love of holiness, regard to God, or delight in his

* Math. 13, 20.

worship? Are his good qualities social merely, or are they divine? If the social virtues which render a man interesting to his friends, should exceed those of an angel, and yet, he had no regard to his Maker in the exercise of them, he would fall on the side of the evil. I need not refer to the young ruler whose amiable qualities called forth the admiration of our Saviour, but who, upon being brought to the test, was found to be a worshipper of gold rather than of God, nor to the numerous other passages and incidents of scripture by which the view we present is attested. For, every careful reader of the Bible will be able to supply from recollection evidence sufficient, that it rests a mans claims to a classification with the good, not upon the number or extent of his social virtues, (though these are by no means omitted from the account,) but upon the state of his heart in relation to God, his redemption, and his law. It is the nature of his goodness, and not the degree of it which may appear to our view, that must determine the class to which he belongs.

Some men have so many and powerful native propensions to evil to encounter, or such a formidable array of old habits in sin to withstand, that, unless we enter the sanctuary of their hearts and observe their secret compunction and confession before God, we should judge that the evil of their character altogether overbalances the good; while others have so much constitutional amiableness and their feelings and conduct so perfectly attuned to the sympathies of society, that without any exercise of divine love or relish for holiness, their goodness might be thought greatly to preponderate over their imperfections. In the end, however, we find from observation that those who are good on the principles of scripture, turn out to be so in our view, and those who are evil by its rules, notwithstanding their social virtues, stand confessed in their true characters before all the world. The selfishness and im

piety of the latter are disrobed of their seeming loveliness, time and temptation wear off the tinsel of their character, and the latent evil stands out with a prominence that cannot escape detection; while the secret repentance of the former, and their continual effort to conquer themselves to Christ, are crowned with ultimate success, and in their declining years or under peculiar trials, the pure though long concealed gold of their character appears unto praise and honor and glory.

Now, the persons for whom these pages are more especially intended are those, whatever their external characteristics or associations, who have derived from the gospel this radical love of goodness. Numerous as may be the diversities among them, or distant as they may be from apostles and martyrs or those who like them occupy the heights of christian attainment, they are all alike in this essential particular, that they love holiness and hate sin. They are all laboring with different degrees of advantage and success to conform their lives to their idea of the divine requirements, and to be holy even as he who hath called them is holy. There is within them all a strong current of desire towards heavenly things-a tenderness of conscience-a dread of sinning-an affectionate concern for the salvation of men-a benevolent sympathy with whatever relates to the happiness of the world at large-a kindred tie binding them to good men and angels-and a habit of esteeming Jesus as all in all to their souls. They are all begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and regard the imagery in which the scriptures invest a coming life with a faith which gives it substance, or the same power of controling the feelings and purposes of life with the things already seen. They are all created in Christ unto good works which God before ordained and appointed that they should walk in them. Hence, the radical principle of their difference from