putting in their own peculiar dogmas and shutting the kingdom of heaven against all who will not subscribe to them. The moment you allow any one to say that a good life is not good and accepta ble to God because it does not proceed from the right principle, the right motive, the right faith, then you reverse the rule of our Saviour and judge the fruit by the tree instead of the tree by the fruit; you must allow each man to define that sanctifying principle to be his own peculiarities of faith, and thus subject the best of men to be judged and condemned and persecuted by the worst.

I allow that the sect which adopts this enlarged, liberal, and Christian principle, does not consult best for its rapid spread and spiritual domination, for it strikes at the very root of sectarianism itself. It forbids the use of the great engine of party, party spirit. It forbids the propagation of the sentiments of a party for the sake of its growth. It forbids that spirit of exclusion and censoriousness so grateful to the pride of the human heart; for no one condemns another without secretly flattering himself. It can grow only with the increase of light, candour, and charity, with a love of the truth for its own sake, and not for the advantages which may be made of it, the benefits of social combination and a fair public standing and reputation.

Persecution was once thought a religious duty, and a backwardness to exercise it a sure symptom of lukewarmness and want of zeal in the cause of Christ. And civil toleration was represented as a certain mark of indifference to truth, and the

readiest way to destroy all religion. Time and experience have corrected these mistakes, and proved that piety flourishes most when there is the least external restraint, where the rights of conscience are most respected. The only vestige of that spirit which now remains is the combination to withhold the Christian name and privileges from those who vary from the popular faith. That, however, is likewise in a fair way of being corrected. The real unbelievers, the real rejecters of Christ and his religion, are showing and avowing themselves in such a manner as to leave no doubt as to the true nature of unbelief, and of the readiness of those who have rejected the faith, to cast off likewise the name of Christians. That the worshippers of one God in one Person in the name of Christ, do not range themselves on that side, ought to be sufficient evidence to all candid minds that they share neither in their sentiments nor their feelings.

I conclude, by exhorting all who hear me to examine themselves whether they be in the faith, whether they have this belief in Christ and his revelation strong within them. If they have it, whether it be living or dead, whether it be a cold speculation of the brain, or an active principle pervading the whole life. I would entreat you to examine whether it merely fills the mind occasionally with fear and regret, or be a "faith which worketh by love," purifies the heart, and overcomes the world.

LECTURE XIII.

HOW DOES A MAN BECOME A CHRISTIAN.

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." Titus ii. 11, 12.

THE subject, which we propose to consider this evening, is comprehended in the following inquiry: How does a man become a Christian? What is necessary to be done for a man, and what must he do for himself in order to be a Christian?

This, you perceive, to be an inquiry of great doctrinal and practical importance. It touches a very nice question in speculative investigation, the limits of human and Divine agency in the process of salvation, spiritual improvement, the formation of the Christian character. Its practical bearing is to show those, who on an examination of themselves, find they are not what they would be, or what their own convictions assure them they ought to be, where the fault has been, whether in themselves or somewhere else, and how this fault may be corrected in future.

How then, we inquire, does a man become a

Christian? Some truths are set in a stronger light by describing their opposites. Perhaps it may be so in the present case. Let us then ask how a man becomes the opposite of a Christian, a heathen in a Christian land. In the first place, he is suf fered to grow up without Christian knowledge. He is not taught to read the Bible by those who have the care of his early years, he does not form the habit himself. The truths, motives, and principles of the Gospel do not operate in his mind, or on his conduct and life. He is not taught to pray, nor does he cultivate habits of devotion himself, and is therefore destitute of its sanctifying influence. He never reads religious or devotional books, so that he never forms a moral and devotional taste. He scarcely ever goes to Church, or puts himself in the way of serious reflection or sacred instruction; he turns his back on the ordinances, and generally on the means of religion. He has no idea what religion and devotion are, nor does he care to know. Suppose this, and you have the way in which a man becomes the opposite of a Christian, a heathen in a Christian land. He may be in some degree moral, and so were heathens. He may, he must to a certain extent, catch the general spirit, and take the tone of the society in which he lives and moves, which has been elevated by Christianity. But he is merely passive in this, and would have floated on the level of any society in which his lot was cast, Christian or Pagan.

But as religious faith, principle and habit, are

the great and most efficient antidote to sin, the probability is, that he will not be moral. Without this preservative, the probability is, that he will fall into bad company, and into many temptations, and that he will yield to them. His natural innocence will be corrupted, his good and upright feelings vitiated, and his will, originally free to good as well as evil, will become gradually enslaved to evil habit. He is then evidently not only not in the kingdom of God, but far from it.

Reverse this process, and you have the way in which men ordinarily become Christians. They at an early age, with the very dawning of their minds, receive Christian knowledge. They are taught and they learn the few and simple, but the great, spiritual, all-pervading, all-comprehending truths and doctrines of the Gospel. This takes place not by a single, undivided agency, but by the combined agency of God, of Christ, of parents or instructors, and of the mind of the child; of God, who gave the revelation through Christ; of Christ, who taught it to men, who exemplified it in his conduct, and laid down his life to prove it and seal it with his blood; of the parent or instructor, who takes these doctrines from the written records of Christ's teaching, and communicates them to the child; of the child, who applies his mind to understand and remember them, and practise upon them when called as life advances, into scenes where moral choice must be exercised. He is taught to pray. By this exercise all the truths