God's perfection, or about the deformity of moral evil: but they presume that, whatever be the case of others, they are themselves so far excellent, whatever be their faults, as to be pleasing to God. They speak of His mercy; expatiate on their own virtue; and proceed in their careless course of life.

20. In consequence of the absence of that conviction of which we are speaking, what becomes of the Gospel of Christ? what becomes of Christian holiness and obedience? In a word, to what is religion reduced? We answer, to a creed, a name, a profession, a form; all destitute of life, spirit, and energy. Men live according to "the course of this world:" they have no anxiety about their souls and futurity: they are buoyed up by a presumption which they call hope: it is, and it will be, well with them. Thus they spend their days in delusion, because they spend them in moral torpor.

21. From the evil which results from moral torpor and insensibility, we may safely and soundly argue the good that would result from the exchange of them for moral wakefulness and sensitiveness. Men speak of moral evil, but, since it is not felt, they go forward, each in his own way: but if it were seen and felt as that which is displeasing to God and ruinous to the soul, then all men would be anxious to believe and live according to the Gospel of Christ. Deliverance from sin would be accounted

an essential matter.

22. We look around us; we converse with men;

and we soon find that they are exquisitely alive to temporal good and evil; but do we not as quickly find that they are dead to spiritual good and evil? They have no proper notion of inward and of practical disorder; no notion that the misery of man proceeds from the sinfulness of man.

23. Let us look only to an individual: no matter who he is: we only suppose that by the grace of the Holy Spirit he obtains an effectual sense of his natural corruption: and then we say, that this one sense, feeling, or conviction, will act most powerfully and beneficially on him; it will, if we may speak so, revolutionize him in heart and conduct; for it will cause him to come to Christ, to be His follower, and to bear His yoke.

24. But make the case universal. Suppose all Christians to feel the moral malady: then they would come to the only Physician; and then they would live in the Christian faith and spirit, and by the Christian rule. Here is excellence, and here is happiness.

25. The subject is most deeply interesting to every Christian: for with a conviction of moral evil does true piety commence in the soul, and with that conviction it is carried on in it. An abiding sense of sin and an abiding sense of holiness; of the malignity of the one, and of the beauty of the other; followed up, as such a sense will be, by proper aversion and desire, and by the outward or

practical effects of such aversion and desire;-in these we see some great primary elements of sound piety; elements which, we fear, do not abound among us; elements which we cannot pray for too earnestly, and perseveringly.

CHAPTER X

MORAL EFFICACY.

1. Many wrong notions respecting religion are common among us. Instead of attempting to enumerate them, we may notice one point, namely, a forgetfulness of moral power, or moral efficacy.

2. Some regard religion as a peculiar creed; others, as a matter which only demands a formal or mechanical attendance on public worship: and how few are those, comparatively, who consider it to be “the power of God unto salvation?" But we hold, that the right reception of it produces all those inward and outward effects which result from a divine energy put forth upon the soul.

3. If we treat religion as if it were only notion, form, rite, and outward ordinance, destitute of spirit, life, and power, we reduce it to something altogether inert; no further useful than as it secures and promotes social order and virtue; a mere utilitarian thing for the present world; not that which prepares the soul for final happiness.

4. In the animal and vegetable kingdoms we see clear proofs of life, energy, power: and can we think that the spiritual world is in a healthy state, or that our souls prosper, if there be not a moral efficacy

that descends upon us, and that works mightily within us?

5. Among our noblest and most solemn thoughts are such as these: there is a God whose favour is life and whose wrath is misery; there is an unchanging eternity before us, either of happiness or of misery; our great work upon earth is, to prepare for a future state; we are sinful creatures, surrounded with enemies, and exposed to dangers. But our happiness depends on our being truly religious: and then the question is, What must religion do for us in order to make us happy?

6. We certainly want something more than a creed and a form; something more than an outward moral polish. Assume that God is holy, and that we are unholy, and that our true happiness depends upon our being like Him; and all this is scripturally correct; and then it follows, that we need a power to be put forth upon us; an efficacy, or victorious might, which shall produce all those effects which are essential to our happiness.

7. If we consider the nature of things and our own condition, we must realize not merely an outward change by which we are correct in the sight of men, but an inward change by which we are pleasing to Him who seeth the heart. What is powerless does not meet the exigency of the case.

8. Without any power but that which is inherent in ourselves, we may have our creeds, notions, speculation, and profession; we may have our rites