How remarkable are the confessions of infidels to the excellent fruit and indispensable influence of the gospel. Bolingbroke acknowledges, that "Constantine acted the part of a sound politician in protecting Christianity, as it tended to give firmness and solidity to his empire, softened the ferocity of the army, and reformed the licentiousness of the provinces, and by infusing a spirit of moderation and submission to government, tended to extinguish those principles of avarice and ambition, injustice and violence, by which so many factions were formed.” "No religion," says the same opposer of Christianity, "ever appeared in the world, whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind. It makes right reason a law in every possible definition of the word. And therefore, even supposing it to have been purely a human invention, it had been the most amiable and the most useful invention that was ever imposed on mankind for their good." Thus even Rousseau: "If all were perfect Christians, individuals would do their duty; the people would be obedient to the laws; the magistrates incorrupt; and there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state." Such are the confessions of many other writers of the same class. And yet, these men would run the ploughshare through the foundations of the church of Christ, so that one stone should not be left upon another. So much for the consistency, the virtue, and disinterested benevolence of infidelity; or rather, so much for the contradiction between its head and its heart, its convictions and its vices.

I know of nothing, in the way of fact, more strik. ingly illustrative of the legitimate fruits of Christianity, more completely in proof that all the social and moral blessings which civilized nations at present enjoy are to be ascribed to her influence, and that what she once was, as a tree of life to the nations, she is now, and ever will be, than the history of the missions among the heathen which Protestant Christians are now sustaining. Here we have experiments of her power in all climates, over all habits and dispositions, and with all classes of mind. She has gone in among the ice-bound inhabitants of Greenland, whose intellect was as slow and sleepy and creeping as the seals they lived on, and whose hearts were as barren and cold as their perpetual snows. She has entered among the inhabitants of the southern extreme of Africa, the Hottentots, the very lowest gradation of human nature, whose souls were supposed to be as incapable of enlightening and enlargement as the instincts of the vermin that covered them. She has tried her powers among the ferocious tribes of American Indians-upon warriors nourished with blood, and breathing a spirit of slaughter which no sufferings nor dangers could ever tame. She has lifted up her voice in the islands of the Pacific, among savages, uniting with the most inhuman idolatry the most beastly vices and unnatural cruelties; and from all this heterogeneous display of unshapen depravity, by the mere influence of her truth and love, she has led forth a multitude of disciples for the Lord Jesus, in whom are found precisely the same distinctive fea

tures of meekness, humility, love, and holiness. Look at the Sandwich, or the Society Islands. Within our own times were they universally pagan, having no altars but those of demons; no law but that of violence; no morals but those of unbridled passion. Theft was the most national art. Polygamy, crimes against nature, the murder of prisoners taken in war, the destruction of infants, and the sacrificing of human victims, prevailed throughout their population. What is the change? Where are now their idols? In the museums of our missionary societies, as trophies of the victories of the cross, or cast "to the moles and the bats" by those who once adored them. The plan and mould of society have been recast. Laws, wisely enacted and well administered, keep the peace and promote improvements. Crimes of all kinds are obliged to cease, or go into concealment. Marriage has given parents new affection for their children, and their children new ties among each other. Benevolence, unknown before, has awakened a desire to go about doing good. The Sabbath is reverenced and widely observed for rest and worship. The arts of peace are cultivated where formerly the only art desired was that of war. The march of civilization is visible in all domestic comforts and private affairs; in agriculture, commerce, buildings, cleanliness, dress, manners, and government. Schools are spread through the islands, and education is eagerly sought by a large portion of the people of all ages and classes. Such are the fruits of Christianity in our day. Nothing else could have produced such fruits. Just after

infidelity had given the world a full-length portrait, in the French revolution, of her power to tear down, and tear in pieces, and drown in blood, whatever is lovely and of good report, then Christianity set out on the opposite side of the world to furnish a striking contrast, in the missions of the Pacific, of her benign influence to exterminate whatever is odious and depraved.*

* It is well known to the author, that travellers and voyagers not unfrequently bring back reports of the effects of missionary labors in the regions they have visited, which stagger the minds of many sincere friends of foreign missions. The accounts of what those honored and devoted servants of Christ called missionaries are doing, and of the advances which the gospel is making under their influence, may all be true; much more than they relate may be true; and yet it is very conceivable, yea, natural, that such men as our ordinary visitors of foreign lands should return from those regions, having neither seen nor heard any thing of the matter. Suppose a missionary were accomplishing, with his schools and his preaching, among a tribe of Indians in the centre of the state of New York, about as much as is reported of the American laborers in the island of Ceylon; how long might an intelligent traveller, with no interest in religion, no relish for its intelligence, no love for the society of its disciples, no knowledge of its journals—a man of fashion and gayety, mingling only with the literary and worldly-minded— how long might he reside in the fashionable circles of the city of New York, and sail up the Hudson, and stop at Saratoga, and visit Niagara, and yet know absolutely nothing of that diligent missionary and his usefulness? Men who have lived all their days in a city which abounds in religious institutions and Christian labors, without having become sufficiently informed to give a stranger a correct account even of their respective characters, much less of their real usefulness, will touch at a port of an extensive pagan land, see the port population, go no further than the coast, inquire of none but the ungodly, and then come home and report that the missionaries have done nothing to civilize of

Not only has the religion of the gospel produced such fruits, but the experiment of eighteen hundred years is perfect proof, that in proportion as it shall ever be possessed in native soundness, and have room

convert the people. How should such men know? On thei principles of judging, it might be reported with equal reason, that Christianity has secured no influence and done no good in the city of New York. An anecdote will illustrate how such authorities deserve to be regarded. A gentleman not long since returned to his native city in England, after having spent some three or four years in India. The pious people of his acquaintance, not considering the extent of the Indies, and his indifference to the cause of Christ, supposed that of course he had seen the missionary stations, and knew by his own observation all about the reported progress of religion in that country. They inquired of him the state of things in this respect. He assured them that the accounts they had read of missionary doings and successes in the East had no foundation-were mere traps to get contributions. He had been in India, and travelled extensively, and had seen nothing of any inroads upon heathenism, nor any changes among the people-had scarcely heard of the existence of missionary stations. The people were amazed. Much harm was doing; when a clergyman of the place, hearing of the matter, took an opportunity to converse with the traveller. Before disclosing his object, he said to him, "You are probably familiar with the national school system of instruction in this country. What do you think of it?" 'Why, no," ," answered the traveller, "I really am not acquainted with it." "But you doubtless know that there is such a system, and have probably seen its establishments, and heard much of its usefulness?" "Why, no, I have never happened to do so, though I have an indistinct idea of the existence of such a system." "Well," said the clergyman, "I will tell you. The national school system has been established for several years in England. Its schools are all over the country; its pupils are many hundreds of thousands; its influence is universally felt. It maintains more than one school in your immediate neighborhood. Almost all your life has been spent in England, a small country, and yet you know

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