curing disease. That God has a perfect knowledge, not only of our physical, but of our intellectual and moral natures, needs no proof; and hence it is certain that his truth has an exact fitness to man, the same as light has to the eye, and sound to the ear. Consequently those governed by it, will be perfect in physical, intellectual, and moral stature.

3. Truth is perfect in itself. Being the production of an infinite mind, it must be adequate to answer all the ends for which it was given. It has completeness; there is no doctrine, no moral or religious rule wanting. If you add to it, you encumber, disfigure, and weaken it; if you take from it, you destroy its symmetry and perfection, and render it incapable of doing the work for which it was intended. In a fragmentary and imperfect state, it may have power and produce good, but only to a limited extent.

In these propositions, we have that only which is self-evident, providing we admit that God is the author of truth. Assuming that, I will ask your attention to its necessity in the work of sanctifi cation. I will begin by saying, that it was giver to govern our motives and actions, and holds the

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same relation to us which physical laws hold to the universe. Destroy those laws, and universal ruin would ensue. All things are governed by law. Every particle of dust, and every drop of

water, owns the sway of law, the same as the great system of nature. What law is to the universe, truth is to the soul-its food, its light, its support. When diseased, and blind and wretched, it is because deprived of truth; nothing else can nourish, guide, or uphold it. Human wisdom, with all its resources, has never been able to discover any way for nourishing the body, except that provided by God. Neither has any method ever been devised by which beast, bird, or fish, can live out of its native element. So nothing has ever been discovered which will serve as a substitute for truth. Men in all ages have been searching for substitutes; but those found have proved a curse in exactly the same proportion as they have been composed of error; for error poisons, cheats, destroys; it diseases the soul, and weakens its power, and wraps around it the shroud of death.

That I do not mistake the nature of truth is certain from the various figures by which it is

represented. It is said to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; the bread of God of which a man may eat and never die; the living water of which a man may drink and never thirst; the quickening spirit which can infuse life into the inanimate soul, and the healing balm which can restore health to its prostrate powers. Thus it is in the moral world, what light, and food, and water are in the natural world; and as we could not look for a blooming earth without sunshine and rain, so we could not look for a moral paradise, without the Sun of righteousness and the dews of grace.

I would not dwell thus particularly on the relations of Truth to man, did I not see a growing disregard of it. of it. Many speak of truth as though it were entitled to no place in the world, and had no office to perform; and not a few denounce it as a relic of antiquity, which ages ago it was found had no mission. But I would ask such, why God gave it to the world? That he did, and at an immense cost, they will not deny. Read that chapter in sacred history which records the deliverance of the Jews from bondage and their establishment in the holy land; and after

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you have duly considered all the wonderful miracles and terrible judgments there detailed, tell me why all that was done, if not to have a people who should hold and defend some of the great doctrines in the vast system of truth? Pass from this chapter to the one which records the life and labors of the prophets, and tell me, why they were inspired and commissioned, and doomed to a living martyrdom, if truth has no value? As a third lesson, read the chapter pertaining to the Saviour, and tell me, why God sent his Son, clothed with our nature, in the form of a servant, and to die on the cross, if truth is worthless? Does God exert his power in vain, and send his holiest, truest, best servants to waste their energies in a fruitless toil?

There is another point which claims attention. Is it important that man should know God, the laws of his government, and the purposes of his grace? Will it be of service for man to know his origin, his relation to divine and human beings, his duties and his destiny? If so, truth is indispensable, for to know all this is to have its very substance. It is not a mere figment, a deception, but a revelation of that which is - a

mirror in which we see God and Christ as they are a transcript of all that is divine. If then, truth is not essential, to know God is not essential, ignorance is as valuable as wisdom, and a vacant mind is as highly blessed as one stored with all the riches of divine knowledge.

"But why," you may ask, "do I labor to prove the worth of Truth? Who has declared it valueless? Who! Why, look at the Episcopal Church, and you find thousands among its members who say openly, that they have no faith in its doctrines, but support it because they like its forms! A very large proportion of the money which sustains partialism is paid by those who deny its fundamental doctrines. But they are not alone in their low estimate of truth. Almost ever since the Unitarians have been known as a sect, they have been constantly preaching, that it is immaterial what men believe! Why, they have asked, contend for doctrines, for modes of faith? Singular questions these; for if it makes no dif ference, why disturb old landmarks? why de nounce Calvinism, total depravity, the trinity vicarious atonement? Why build Unitariar churches, or have a Unitarian ministry and press