one faith, and the will of his Master done on earth even as it is in heaven.

Nor is this objection formidable in the hands. of the Infidel, because it recoils upon himself, unless he takes refuge in the miserable plea, that before his God moral good and evil are things indifferent that there is no such thing as sin,that neither wrath, nor fraud, nor lust, can degrade the human race in the eyes of its Maker, and rob it of all that gives it grace, and dignity, and worth! With one whose moral feelings are so blunted, it is hopeless to attempt to argue; but if the objection be advanced by any who acknowledges the moral system of the Gospel, and when he has stolen from Christianity all the moral precepts which he can appreciate, and which Revelation alone, or Revelation first, plainly proclaimed to man, then turns round on Christianity, and condemns it as needless, because man's reason is a sufficient guide for his conduct, the plea is utterly groundless, and the weapon falls powerless from his hand, or it recoils and pierces his own bosom! If he objects to Christianity, that while it professes to be the means of purifying man's nature, it was withheld during so many ages, the Christian may fairly enquire of him, where during all this period was the operation of his boasted reason, and what were her victories over sin and corruption?

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The Christian may point to the grosser idolatry of former days, to them that sacrificed their children to Moloch, and gave the fruit of their loins to devils with rites of the grossest abomination, or he may turn to the more enlightened of heathen nations, and when with sorrow he confesses how deeply stained is all the best and purest of their literature with impurity, he may enquire why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grew so slowly, why it delayed so long to bring forth good fruit, and why, even now, so many its branches are withered and decayed, yea, why instead of wholesome and salutary food, they bring forth poisonous and pestilential fruit? We might point out to the unbeliever the gigantic systems of idolatry and superstition which still fetter the human mind in the regions of the East', we might dwell upon the revolting detail of their abominations, the long line of vices which follow in their train, and the impurity which taints even the temples of their worship -for there the very light is only darkness-and then ask him whether this be an evil, and whether his own system supplies a remedy, or gives him even a distant hope of any balm to pour into these wounds! If he has any care for the

1 I may specify Ward's Account of the Hindoos' as a work in which these assertions may be seen borne out by the most ample testimony.

better and higher part of man's nature, if he believes, as he professes to believe, that man was born to serve his Maker in pure and moral habits, he must retract his objection to Christianity, and acknowledge, that if an objection at all, it is an objection which lies against his own system also, and he must acknowledge that his hopes of any remedy, except from the exertions of the servants of that Master whom he rejects, are slight indeed! If he has any hopes, any longings for the purification of this large portion of the human race, and their consequent elevation in the scale of being, his hopes must rest on the life and energy with which the spiritstirring Gospel inspires its sons to lay the words of eternal life before all nations, and kindreds, and people, and to baptize all nations in a name which he does not acknowledge; but thus, and thus only, can he hope to see the moral amelioration effected for which he professes to care! He may expect, when Dagon falls, to set up his own idol in its stead, but he knows that it is only before the ark of the Lord that Dagon can fall! The advocates of the sufficiency of human reason have no banners under which they can fight! The battle must be fought and won by the hosts of the living God, before they can enter on the field! and alas! when they do, how painful is it to reflect that they follow in the train

of this advancing army only to rob the wounded of his most precious balm, and the dying of his only sure and certain hope!

I concern not myself therefore with this objection any farther, than merely thus to state it, and shew what appear to me the grounds on which a Christian is entitled at once to dismiss it from his thoughts. But there is another point of view in which the late appearance of our Saviour, and the rejection of Him by the chosen nation of God, has given painful thought and some perplexity even to the faithful Christian, because he conceives it to clash in some degree with one of the declarations of Scripture. A writer of no common power has declared, that to him there are few texts "more difficult than "the saying of St Paul, that the "Law was a "schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." He acknowledges that "a survey of the state of man "under the law of nature, or under the Mo"saic dispensation, is admirably fitted to shew us "our need of the economy of grace; and that "thus the Law is a schoolmaster to bring us to "Christ," he affirms, "is undeniable and obvious. "It is moreover perfectly discernible by us at

1 British Critic, Vol. VIII. p. 372. Although this is only an anonymous essay, it is written with so much ability, that it is impossible not to attribute it to an author of great eminence.

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"this day, that Judaism was designed as a firm “and substantial causeway in the midst of the morass and quagmire of the ancient superstitions, "by which an universal religion might be intro"duced into the world-as morality seated in "the heart and a worship of sublime simplicity." "But," he continues "our difficulty begins when "we consider this saying of the Apostle with "reference to the perceptible effect of the Law upon the chosen people themselves;" and he enquires, “What was the preparation actually effected by this protracted course of training? what was "the improvement accomplished? and were the "Jews much better prepared for the reception of "the Messiah, at the period of his appearance, "than they were in the days of king David?"

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This is also a difficulty which I would endeavour to remove by a few simple observations, before I enter on an enquiry, which will touch but in part on these points; although if this difficulty were really founded in a true view of the case, these questions would seem to demand an answer at my hands. But, in truth, I think the difficulty into which this writer has fallen, arises rather from his pressing too far the words of St Paul in a sense which they were hardly intended to bear.

Let us suppose for a moment that the Apostle had written, that this Law was a schoolmaster