position. It is the production of God. It depends on no other system. It borrows nothing from any other. Other systems live, flourish, wane, and die; but this remains the same. It has already survived, amidst the changing theories and speculations of the world, almost six thousand years; and it is yet clad in all the freshness of its glory, as it was in the day when it was born in heaven, and sent down to the earth for our instruction. Time has not whitened its locks, or palsied its hand, or chilled its heart. Systems of philosophy and modes of interpretation, one after another, have gone down to the sepulchre, and are known only in their epitaph; but the Gospel lives, and is powerful to save. Other systems which are founded in error will in like manner pass away; but the religion of the Bible will never cease to exist and act upon the world till all that God has greatly purposed and kindly promised shall be fully accomplished. Its truths may be tinged or obscured by a false philosophy, or by human speculations, but this effect is local and temporary. These things are no part of the system. The Bible remains the same; and, at another day, or in another country, all is restored. Clouds and mists may, in one hemisphere, or for a few days, cover the face of the sun and shut out the light, but the sun is not extinguished. He is always shining somewhere; and the clouds and mists of all human theories will by and by be dissipated,

and he will break forth, and in full-orbed radiance shine every where.

6. The Gospel has no necessary connection with any form of human government.

The Bible acknowledges the right and sanctions the powers and prerogatives of civil government; but it does not prescribe any particular form. The most that is said on this subject in the New Testament, is rather incidental than direct; and is addressed principally to Christians, enjoining it upon them to be peaceful subjects of whatever government may happen to exist. The following are specimens: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be, are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation." And again : "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." It is also said, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well."

This language is accommodated to the existing governments of the apostolic age; but the spirit of these precepts may be applied with equal propriety to any and every form of civil and political

institutions. Had the Gospel assumed any other ground than this, it would have been fatal to its prospects as designed for a universal religion. If any one form had been selected and approved, and others condemned, it would have converted the message of heaven into a political proclamation, and all nations, except those whose institutions might have received its approval, would have armed themselves against its approach. It would have been met and repelled with the same spirit with which men are accustomed to meet and repel invading fleets and armies.

That the Gospel is friendly to the rights of man and the liberties of the world, is a proposition too obvious to need proof. The influence of this system, wherever it is cordially received, is felt upon every great interest of society-upon the people and upon the government. It will show itself upon the legislation of a country-upon the character and the execution of its laws-and in various ways, and by pervading and controlling influences peculiar to itself, destroy oppression, and diffuse and protect equal rights among men. It makes good citizens and good rulers, without interfering directly either with the form or administration of government.

It was owing to this characteristic of the Gospel that the first heralds of the cross gained access with their message to every country, notwithstanding the peculiar jealousies of the age respecting

international communication; and though often accused of treason, they were never convicted of the charge. And it was on this principle that, without an attack upon any political institution, they introduced a train of moral causes which have greatly modified and well nigh revolutionized the governments of the civilized world. And it is on the same principle that modern missionaries might be permitted to go every where, and freely and fully proclaim their message, without any alarm on the part of existing governments. Indeed, this is the prevailing temper of the reigning powers of the earth at this moment. And in those cases where christian missions are excluded by the laws of the land, their enactments are either founded on ignorance of the real objects of the enterprise, or, as is more generally the fact, are designed to protect some false system of religion, which has become publicly wedded to the state, and which, every one must know, would inevitably fall before the powers of the Gospel.

REMARKS.

1. The religion of the Bible must be true. It cannot be the product of the human mind. Its adaptation to the complicated circumstances— to the wants, the sins, and the miseries of the whole world, and that, too, through every period

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of its existence, is peculiar to itself, and has a parallel in no other system. This one property of the Gospel would require a greater compass of thought and stretch of ingenuity, a more intimate knowledge of facts, a clearer perception of causes and effects, and final results-of existing evils and their infallible remedies, than belong to the finite mind. You have only to compare the religion of the Bible with other systems, and you discern the

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difference between God's work and man's. one undertakes only to provide for what is limited to time and place; the other, dispensing with ages and localities, takes a broad sweep, like the mind of its Author, and actually provides for what always exists, and is every where to be found.

There is not an individual religion of paganism. among the nameless varieties that fill the world; not a speculation of ancient or modern philosophy; not a thought in the vedas or shasters of the Hindoos; not a disclosure in the koran, the pretended revelation of Mohammed; not a system of error, or any part of a system, in any age or country, but might be the production of the human intellect and heart, and would ever be likely to be, in the same existing circumstances. But I ask, who but. God could make the Bible? I speak now only of its adaptedness to the purpose for which it was intended. What eye but that which surveys the world at a glance, and beholds all nations, with their multifarious ills and complicated wants,