claims that are near, however familiar they may be. This, I conceive to be the beauty, the spirit, the genius of our religion. While it animates us at the prospect of what we are to become hereafter, it adapts itself perfectly to man as he is here.

We perceive this beautiful characteristic of Christianity, particularly as it was exhib ted in the first days of our religion, tempering the spirit of the apostles,which everything was conspiring to excite, making it a duty among the new converts, that they should give regular attention to business, live quietly, and perform faithfully the duties of their several vocations. It was not simply the novelty of their situation and their new views and feelings, that were calculated to create a disgust at their old occupations, to render them indisposed to the dull course of their ordinary labors. They might very naturally have conceived, that when the harvest was so great, and the laborers were so few, it was their duty to relinquish their customary pursuits, and to devote themselves to the great work of reformation which had commenced in the world. Plausible as this course must have appeared, when I consider that they did not adopt it; or if they were so inclined, that the apostle, by express injunction,* commanded them to remain, each in the station, no matter how humble and laborious, in which the new religion found him, Christianity receives my profoundest admiration, and I feel that a system so exalting, so calculated, I may say, to excite emotions amounting to rapture, and at the same time so calm, sober and judicious, could not have had a human origin-could not certainly have been introduced by any human means, at that period at

* See particularly 1 Cor. vii. 10-22 inclusive.

which Christianity first appened. In the perfection of its morality, I perceive the impress of a divine hand.

Lest it should be conceived that I have attached a false value to that characteristic of the religion of the New Testament upon which I have now dwelt, and which I hold to be a genuine token of divinity, I proceed to show that it is not merely in connexion with the times of the apostles, that the peculiar excellence of Christianity is visible. There are many other respects in which it is apparent that we owe particular reverence to Christianity, for the important influence it aims to exert upon man in his most familiar duties, in the common routine of life.

1. In the first place, let it be observed that this trait in the religion of the New Testament is, strictly speaking, peculiar to it-that it belongs in no similar degree to any other system. Compare Christianity with any other religion, in the attention which it bestows upon man's daily conduct, in the fidelity with which it accompanies him down among his most ordinary occupations, and in his usual intercourse with the world, and you will find that it is the spirit of all other religions and of all those false forms which Christianity itself has been made to assume, to make only occasional and partial requisitions of human service to leave men to themselves, except upon particular days, and with regard to particular exercises. In fact, religion, except under the liberal dispensation of pure Christianity, is a thing by itself, detached from all the concerns of life, consisting of certain observances very imposing perhaps, in the repetition of certain words, in the profession of certain formulas, or in the achievement of great and separate acts of self-denial or charity. It is altogether peculiar to our religion, according to a liberal

construction of it, that it dignifies the whole life, with all its parts, public and private, social and domestic, with the name of religious duty. It teaches us, that in our daily intercourse with one another, in the humblest details, in every matter of conduct, there is a way of acting and feeling, which when a man pursues, he is entitled to the appellation of a religious man, a Christian. It assures us that a religious spirit can be expressed by a quiet and industrious attention to business, as significantly as by a prayer and a solemn rite. In the vocabulary of every other system, religion signifies something separate, sacred, apart; but to the practised ear of an enlightened Christian, it conveys a very different, a much larger meaning. It is but another word for the whole life, with all its business quietly and regularly performed, all its pleasures moderately enjoyed, all its evils patiently borne. It is the general cultivation and happy and constant exercise of one's nature in all those ways in which it was intended to be exercised. It is the healthy putting forth of the affections around their natural objects. It is the enlargement of the character, until it is made to fill all the parts of human duty.

2. If you would have still further evidence how entirely peculiar it is to uncorrupt Christianity, to place the whole life, with all its occurrences, within the sphere of religious obligation, compare the christian system in this respect with the general sentiment of mankind, and see how vastly superior it is. It is the general disposition to make great account of great acts. Our moral judgments are determined by the manner in which men act upon great occasions, and we are apt to place religious excellence altogether in the performance of striking

which Christianity first appened. In the perfection of its morality, I perceive the impress of a divine hand.

Lest it should be conceived that I have attached a false value to that characteristic of the religion of the New Testament upon which I have now dwelt, and which I hold to be a genuine token of divinity, I proceed to show that it is not merely in connexion with the times of the apostles, that the peculiar excellence of Christianity is visible. There are many other respects in which it is apparent that we owe particular reverence to Christianity, for the important influence it aims to exert upon man in his most familiar duties, in the common routine of life.

1. In the first place, let it be observed that this trait in the religion of the New Testament is, strictly speaking, peculiar to it that it belongs in no similar degree to any other system. Compare Christianity with any other religion, in the attention which it bestows upon man's daily conduct, in the fidelity with which it accompanies him down among his most ordinary occupations, and in his usual intercourse with the world, and you will find that it is the spirit of all other religions and of all those false forms which Christianity itself has been made to assume, to make only occasional and partial requisitions of human service to leave men to themselves, except upon particular days, and with regard to particular exercises. In fact, religion, except under the liberal dispensation of pure Christianity, is a thing by itself, detached from all the concerns of life, consisting of certain observances very imposing perhaps, in the repetition of certain words, in the profession of certain formulas, or in the achievement of great and separate acts of self-denial or charity. It is altogether peculiar to our religion, according to a liberal

construction of it, that it dignifies the whole life, with all its parts, public and private, social and domestic, with the name of religious duty. It teaches us, that in our daily intercourse with one another, in the humblest details, in every matter of conduct, there is a way of acting and feeling, which when a man pursues, he is entitled to the appellation of a religious man, a Christian. It assures us that a religious spirit can be expressed by a quiet and industrious attention to business, as significantly as by a prayer and a solemn rite. In the vocabulary of every other system, religion signifies something separate, sacred, apart; but to the practised ear of an enlightened Christian, it conveys a very different, a much larger meaning. It is but another word for the whole life, with all its business quietly and regularly performed, all its pleasures moderately enjoyed, all its evils patiently borne. It is the general cultivation and happy and constant exercise of one's nature in all those ways in which it was intended to be exercised. It is the healthy putting forth of the affections around their natural objects. It is the enlargement of the character, until it is made to fill all the parts of human duty.

2. If you would have still further evidence how entirely peculiar it is to uncorrupt Christianity, to place the whole life, with all its occurrences, within the sphere of religious obligation, compare the christian system in this respect with the general sentiment of mankind, and see how vastly superior it is. It is the general disposition to make great account of great acts. Our moral judgments are determined by the manner in which men act upon great occasions, and we are apt to place religious excellence altogether in the performance of striking