itself make, but which, when made by revelation, recommend themselves by their consistency, sublimity, and holy character and bearing. It satisfies the conscience, by directing the self-convicted and penitent transgressor to the sacrificial blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin; and by placing him under the influence of the sanctifying Spirit of God, by the power of which he becomes both inwardly and outwardly holy. It satisfies the boundless desires of the human spirit, by bringing it into a state of direct and happy intercourse with God in Christ, out of whose fulness it may receive grace for grace to an unlimited extent, and by opening the bright prospect of immortality. It alleviates all the afflictions of mankind, and sanctifies all their enjoyments. It makes the poor contented, and the rich benign. It renders the widow and the orphan cheerful; the afflicted, patient; and even fills the dying with unutterable joy and hope.

Practical Christianity is therefore the truest philosophy. He is the best patriot who does most to leaven the community with Christian godliness. To fill the world with evangelical light is the purest benevolence. Education is ssentially defective when it does not compre

hend an acquaintance with the nature and evidences of our holy religion. All parents, tutors, and the guardians of youth, sin against God, against their charge, and against their own souls, when they neglect this great object, whatever they may secure beside. Wealth, science, profane literature, however important in themselves, are utterly worthless, when compared with this. All secular accomplishments and possessions will fail; but the benefits of Christianity extend through eternity, and will only be fully disclosed there. Its plan was laid in the Eternal Mind before any part of creation rose; and its blessings will retain all their freshness and value when the earth shall be burned up, and all the heavenly bodies shall cease to move and shine. They are deathless as the human spirit, and as the mercy of God from which they freely emanate.

LONDON,

October 9th, 1837.

THE

BENEFICIAL EFFECTS

OF

CHRISTIANITY

ON THE

TEMPORAL CONCERNS OF MANKIND,

PROVED

FROM HISTORY AND FROM FACTS.

BY BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D.,

BISHOP OF LONDON.

B

THE

EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY,

&c.

SECTION I.

THERE are few arguments against the truth and divine origin of the Christian Revelation, on which the adversaries of our faith more frequently and more vehemently declaim, than that spirit of cruelty and intolerance which they contend is its distinguishing feature, and the endless massacres, wars, and persecutions, with which they affirm that spirit has desolated the Christian world.

That too many of the professors of our religion have, by their intemperate and inhuman conduct, brought reproach upon the Gospel, and extreme misery upon their fellow-creatures, is, it must be confessed, unquestionably true; but it