but who come entirely unprepared, and go away neither affected nor improved. During the time of prayer, even if they join in the responses, their thoughts are wholly occupied by other subjects. They have no real devotion; they are affected by no contrition for sin, and no desire of grace; they offer up no heartfelt praises to God. During the sermon they either do not attend at all, or they attend to cavil: they seek no improvement; they apply nothing to their own heart; they are not in duced, by what they hear, to alter any part of their conduct or to put up one earnest prayer to God for his grace. With respect to spiritual life, they are absolutely dead, and so little do they see the necessity or the excellence of real religion, that they hate or despise even the profession of it. They frequently doubt whether there be any truth in Revelation at all. They imagine, that if there be a future state, it will be only a state of greater happiness than this life; and that all shall he admitted into it, except, perhaps, a very few whose vices and crimes have been the most destructive to society. They think that religion, when carried to excess, (and every thing is excess, in their opinion, which influences the conduct,) is one of the greatest evils, and that the profession of it is the result either of hypocrisy or folly. They keep themselves therefore far enough from it, and plainly shew, that they esteem nothing desirable but the gratification of their carnal appetites, and the enjoyment of such a share of health, riches, and pleasure, as they can procure. With such principles it is not to be wondered at, if they remain unaffected by the most awful declarations, the most tender entreaties, the most forcible arguments. What disadvantages do not the ministers of the Gospel labour under, when they address them! Scarcely ever can they obtain an attentive hearing; and if they do, they speak only to prejudiced minds, employed at the very

time in cavilling against what they say, and reviling what they cannot confute. Yet it is the duty of ministers to address them, to warn them, and to endeavour to persuade them; and in compliance with this duty, I would now reason with them, under the hope that the Spirit of God may bless his truth to some who have hitherto been too thoughtless, and too much engaged with other things to attend to it.

1. Permit me, then, in the first place, to ask, whether your present conduct and views have been produced by mature reflection? You have, I doubt not, some arguments to justify your conduct. But this is not enough; have you taken pains to free your mind from prejudice? Have you given due weight to arguments on the other side? Have you seriously read the books which have been written against those principles which you adopt, and that conduct which you pursue? Have you conversed with such religious persons as you had access to, candidly stated your objections, and inquired of them a reason for the hope that was in them? Till you have done this, you have not acted fairly, nor can you justify, even to your own conscieuce, the part you take.

It is a melancholy instance of the depravity of our nature, that so many are willing to embrace irreligious principles upon grounds which, on any other subject, they would think altogether insufficient. Were some objections to occur to us against the philosophy of Newton, many parts of which may appear abstruse, and some strange, if not contrary to the testimony of our senses, yet we should not think this sufficient to make us immediately reject it as erroneous: should we not rather say, "I do not yet sufficiently understand it? There may be answers to the objections of which I am not aware. The difficulties, I feel, may be entirely owing to my own ignorance of the subject. Men, eminent for their Learning,

their abilities, and their judgment, have embraced the philosophy of Newton, after the closest study, and the most careful inquiry. These difficulties must have occurred to them as well as to myself; but they have not been sufficient to shake their belief in it. I will therefore suspend my judgment, and take pains to understand it thoroughly, before I determine upon it." Thus men act about other things; but with Christianity they pursue a different course. The weakest and most absurd arguments against it, such as are the first to offer themselves to the most shallow capacities, are hastily adopted, and, without examination, obstinately retained. Persons who are very young, mere children in knowledge, and whose profession and habits of life have disqualified them from much information or much attention to such subjects, pass sentence on the truths of the Gospel with a degree of confidence and presumption that is astonishing. It does not check them, that persons of the greatest talents, of the most profound learning, and the soundest judgment, have, after the closest inquiry, embraced the truths of the Gospel; nay, many of them, after they once had been of a contrary opinion. Surely some credit ought to be given to such instances as these. Surely a religion, which, uninjured, has stood the assaults of infidels, and the storms of persecution, for eighteen centuries, and which in every age has been .the consolation and the hope of some of the wisest of mankind, ought not to be rejected so lightly; nor to be condemned, without a very serious attention to the evidence which may be advanced in its favour.

Permit me to put the question to .you seriously, What if the Gospel should be true? What if it should be found at last that Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God, sent by Him to be the Instructor of the world, and the Saviour of all who truly believe in him? Suppose he were an impostor: the real Christian

has lost nothing: for if there be a future state, he cannot be miserable in it. He must be acceptable to God who has endeavoured to serve him faithfully, even though he should have been mistaken in this point. But if the Gospel be true, what will be the fate of those who have rejected his word, and refused to have Christ reign over them. Here the event is fatal. It is a loss which is not to be remedied. It is a ruin for which nothing can make amends. Here therefore is a risk which in the fullest sense of the word is infinite. And shall a man run this risk for nothing? For what does he gain by it even in this world? Not more real happiness or honour. Not, indeed, any happiness of a long duration --not the addition to his life of a single moment-but often the ruin of his peace, disease, and early death. This would be infinite folly, even if it were much more probable than it is, that Revelation were untrue. But when we take the other side, and consider the miracles which have attested the truth of the Gospel; the probability that a revelation would be given us by that gracious God who gave us our being; the reasonableness of the Gospel, its excellent tendency, and the innumerable internal proofs which it bears of being given by God, and the wonderful accumulation of external evidence in its favour; here indeed we are at a loss to find terms strong enough to express the folly of those who slight and despise the claims of Christianity.

2. But even if Christianity were not true, yet does not your own conscience bear witness against you, that your conduct is sinful? Do you not do things which you must admit to be wrong, and do you not omit duties which you know you ought to perform? You know, for instance, that there is a God who made you. Is it not, then, undeniable, that it should be your first duty to fulfil his will? Even the heathens, by the mere light of rea

Son, could discover, that if there were a God, he must delight in goodness. Are you not bound to worship him in sincerity and truth; to resist all your evil tempers and affections; to take the utmost pains to find out what conduct is pleasing to him; and having discovered it, to pursue that conduct invariably? But you do not do this. You are living without God in the world. You do not glorify him as God. You bow not the knee to him in secret with just reverence of his power, and gratitude for his goodness. You do not take any serious pains to know his will; nor are you, led by regard to him, to abstain from the practices which you must know are displeasing to him. You do not even act up to the light of nature, You give no earnest heed to the things which reason as well as Reve lation points out to you to be due to God. In short, you are living to yourself as much as you can, and are destitute of any real desire to please or glorify your Creator.

3. Suffer me also to urge upon your consideration the excellent tendency of that religion to the claims of which you have turned a deaf ear. You see almost every day instances of the fatal effects of unrestrained passions and appetites. More than half the misery which mankind suffer, takes its rise from that very in dulgence of them to which you look for happiness, and for restraining which you dislike religion. What multitudes by violating the laws of chastity are brought to misery, reproach, and ruin, perhaps to an early and infamous death! What numbers are sacrificed, ere they have lived out half their days, to excessive drinking; their faculties, their fortunes, their families ruined by it! How many are drawn by their pride, and their love of luxury and dissipation, to commit the most dishonest actions in order to obtain money! What numbers, infatuated by the love of gaming, destroy at once the fruits of long industry, and are either ruined themselves, or

live by the ruin of others! What melancholy instances do we behold of the dreadful effects of revenge, jealousy, or malice! How do they prey upon the breast which nourishes them, as well as produce misery to the unhappy objects of their hatred! Think, also, of the crimes which swell the Calendar of Newgate, and which during the last year spread terror and consternation through the land. Unrestrained passions are the real evils of mankind. These are a perpetual torment. Many natural evils soon end, or become more easy to bear: but these continue and increase, and propagate misery; they poison the very sources of pleasure, and render calamity more painful. These are the true enemies of mankind, which produce discontent and anguish of mind and a broken heart. These are what lead to the perpetration of the greatest crimes. The act of dishonesty, theft, or murder, for which the felon is executed, has its origin in some passion, perhaps pride or the love of luxury, which has not been restrained. Now what effectual remedy can we use against the toopowerful influence of such passions? The gibbet may restrain them by its terrors, but has no tendency to cure them. But the Gospel has. It is the very remedy which God has provided. It points out their evil; it implants holy principles, which serve to restrain and regulate them, and to give them an entirely new direction. All men wish to set bounds to the passions, especially of others, when they transgress the bounds of order and become injurious to society; but, alas! it is not seen that the only way to do this effectually is to attack them in their principles, to apply the axe to the root of their self-love, vanity, pride, worldly mindedness, and to implant in their room the fear and love of God. Now this is to be effected only by the Gospel; and, even if you should be regardless of the guilt and the crimes which the want of religion produces

in the world, at least compassion for the miseries which mankind endure should induce you to spare to them the only consolation which is left to many under affliction. With out the support of religion, what can those do who have lost all that was dear to them in this life? And they who are in this situation are not a féw; nor can any say that he him self may not soon be placed in it. How exquisite is the misery of the husband, who has lost the partner of his happiness! How desolate the state of the widow, who has been bereaved of the stay and support of her life! Still more deserving of our pity are those whose hearts are broken by the perfidy, cruelty, oppression, or fraud, perhaps, of those very persons on whom nature or affection had taught them to depend. What multitudes, also, are suffering under the torment of painful disorders, or languishing under some slow disease, against which they are struggling in vain, and which is aggravated by seeing, perhaps, an infant family left destitute of support by their death! How many are striving in vain to extricate themselves from embarrassed circumstances, and enduring the most painful feelings, while every pleasing hope of competence vanishes, and leaves them a prey to poverty and dejection, perhaps despair! Now where can these unhappy sufferers look for comfort? You have derided religion as imposture or enthusiasm; you have encouraged them, perhaps, to deride it too. What, then, will you now say to comfort them? Relieve them you cannot; and will it console them to say that they must endure what they cannot help? Ah! see now, how that Gospel, to which you have given so little heed, might be to them an unfailing spring of consolation! Had they been accustomed to call God their Father and Friend, to look up to him with a hope full of immortality, to hold communion with a Saviour, and to rejoice in his love and grace; to look not to

things temporal, but to things eternal; then they would not sorrow without hope. They would cleave to their God, and find a refuge in his mercy and love. The whole prospect before them would not be dark and gloomy; but beyond the cloud they would perceive the shining light which would inspire them with the hope of soon enjoying a brighter day. They would then bear with a resignation and a composure of mind evils which else would be intolerable, and enjoy intervals of sweet peace, and hope, and consolation which would overbalance their sufferings.-Little do those parents think, who are training up their children not only without religion but with prejudices against it, how truly they are training them up to bring upon themselves misery, to endure it keenly, and to suffer it without hope. Little do those young persons think, who, like the way-side hearers, pay no attention to the truths of the Gospel; who esteem attendance upon the worship of God a burden, and religion a gloomy thing, the enemy of their happiness; little do they think how fatally they are ensuring misery to themselves. It is impossible that God the gracious Father of mankind could have ordained a service which would not be for the advantage of his creatures. It is impossible that the love and fear of God can have any effect but what is beneficial to the world. Be persuaded of this. Listen to the law of God. Understand the infinite value of the knowledge of Christ as an armour to defend you in this evil world. Unhappiness must be in your ways, not less from the nature of things, than from the righteous judgments of God, while you continue to believe the suggestions of the evil one. No other fruit than this can you reap from refusing to receive into your hearts the Son of God, who hath said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Should you be inclined, from what has been said, to be a more attentive hearer of the Word of God, let me then give you a few words of ad

vice.

Be upon your guard against being offended either by the faults of perons making a profession of religion, or by what may appear to you their absurdities. Religion itself is the same thing whatever be the faults or mistakes of those who profess it. Let it be your business to be earnest in prayer to God, that he would direct you, that he would bestow on you his Holy Spirit to enable you to walk uprightly before him. Search the Scriptures under the guidance of this Spirit, that you may know the will of God; and what you find commanded there, endeavour in the strength of Divine Grace to perform. Examine also your own heart; see that you are not resting in a form of godliness without the power of it. Seek to be conformed to the Divine Will: encourage a tenderness of conscience, and pray to be animated with a pure desire to glorify God.

Such means, steadily persisted in, will not fail, under the Divine blessing, to lead to such a knowledge of your own hearts as will endear to you the love and grace of your suffering Redeemer. They will shew the necessity of faith in him as the medium of pardon and the source of hope. They will explain difficulties better than any commentator; and by the gracious appointment of Him who is the sole Author and Finisher of our salvation, they will be instrumental in carrying on the work of his grace until your souls are renewed in his image, and filled with abiding and abounding love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Amen.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. In reading your Number for the last month, I was much pleased with the excellent letter by RUSTICUS, on "the growing Expensiveness of a

College Education," and I sincerely wish that his sensible remarks may have the good effect desired; but I cannot refrain from expressing to you, that I think the subject may be still further pursued, and that it may be viewed in another and more important light. Rusticus gives full credit to the under-graduates of Cambridge, for amiability of disposition; nor does he wish "for a moment to be understood as impeaching the general excellency of their character:" on the contrary, he is an admirer of their zeal and piety: and yet, such were their entertainments, and such their conversation at table, that he confesses he was glad when the time of his departure arrived." I will not waste the time of your readers, by arguing, that it is absolutely necessary for a minister of the Gospel himself to possess that heavenly treasure which he offers to others; but I would ask you, sir, when we consider the sacred calling for which these younger members of the University are designed, are not some of the practices mentioned by Rusticus very reprehensible, on a ground of still greater importance than the injury their fortunes may sustain? The solemn season of their ordination is approaching, when they will have to profess themselves influenced by the Eternal Spirit, to take the office of the priesthood; from which time they will have to preach to others, "the unsearchable riches of Christ." It will then become them to "know nothing," comparatively, "but Jesus Christ, and him crucified." It will be their business to be "crucified to the world," and for "the world to be crucified" to them. It will belong to them to practise, as well as to preach, the self-denying doctrines and duties of our holy religion.Who is sufficient for these things? Will frequent or regular" wine and dinner parties;" will the ability to treat of the "respective excellencies of Port, Sherry, and Madeira;" will "elegant furniture and dress, expensive entertainments, a well-fur