"I honorable old age! and that, by the direct interposition of God! This is one motive by which children are exhorted to honor their parents.

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2. Another motive is, that obedience to this commandment is the only way to secure peace of conscience. Children who dishonor their father and mother, cannot escape from remorse. Where ever they go, conscience goes, and whispers in their ear their guilt. It traverses the ocean, and is heard closeupon their heels in the wilderness. In a strange land it accuses them of the injuries they have done to their parents. Nor will it let them alone in sickness. In dreams it terrifies them. When they think of the judgment day, they tremble at the thought of the grief and sorrow which their conduct gave their parents. And if they hear that their father and mother are no more, even these tidings give them no relief, but redouble their distress. "Oh! could we but bring them back from the dead," they will say to themselves; "Could we but enjoy their presence one hour, how earnestly would we implore their forgiveness, and confess the offences by which we dishonored them! But now it is too late! Oh! the intolerable bitterness of having grieved our parents' hearts." If children would avoid the bitterness of such reflections, let them obediently comply with the precept: Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

3. Another motive, in view of which, we would insist on the performance of this duty is, that parents are the nearest and dearest friends of their children on earth. This is a consideration of great weight. Whom will children honor if not their dearest and nearest friends? Whom will they love and obey, if not those who love them with a tenderness which no language can express? Men have doubted and questioned all things, even the existence of the world and the being of a God, but there never lived the child that doubted or called in question the love of its parents. That love is a reality. It ceases not, we believe, no, not with the going out of life itself; but from the eternal world looks back and longs to minister to the welfare of its well-beloved. Woe betide the unhappy, graceless outcast, who grieves the heart of his father or mother, and renders all their love and affection vain. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." But,

4. The final motive we urge upon children for the obedience of this commandment is, that God requires them to do it. This is the highest and most solemn of all considerations. He that commands angels, and sways the awful sceptre of the universe, and is Lord of lords and King of kings; He, in whom centres all power, and all glory, and all authority; from whom all created beings received their existence, and to whom alone they are all

amenable, the Holy and Eternal Jehovah presents himself before every child with this special command: "Honor thy father and thy mother." What a motive in the very being and attributes of Him by whom the precept is uttered! Alas! youth do not always remember this. They often disregard the inquiry whether this or that action will dishonor their parents, as though it were a matter of but small consequence. They indulge themselves in pleasures, in books, in the company of associates, in forming associations of the most serious nature: they imbibe sentiments, cherish plans, and pursue courses of life at war with every known feeling of their parents' hearts: and this they do when they know it is wrong, and con trary to their parents' oft repeated advice; but how seldom do they consider the greatness of their sin. It is not only an earthly parent's heart that they have wounded; it is not only the law of their father and mother's honor they have violated-it is the Majesty of Heaven and Earth that they have disregarded! it is the law of the Most High God they have broken! it is the honor of their father in Heaven, which they have so grievously offended! In dishonoring a fellow mortal, they have disobeyed God. Think of this, O youth, when temptation be sets you. Think how, when you consent to sit with the scoffer, to walk with the wicked in his ways, and to put away from you the commandment to honor your father and mother by conduct such as makes them not ashamed, you not only for feit a blessing-wound your own conscience offend against your best earthly friend; but more than all, you sin against God and break his holy and eternal law. Beware then, how you ever give yourself to the disobedience of this commandment. Make a covenant with yourselves, that, by the grace of God, you will at least have the unspeakable satisfaction of knowing, in your own consciences, that you have faithfully endeavored to do this one thing to honor your father and mother, in the very terms of God's requirement.

In the keeping of this good commandment, you have the special promise of God to cheer you. And when that promise is once fairly realized, you will be happier, more honored and more honorable than the sons and daughters of kings. You will be masters of a wealth, which all the gold and gems of this world can never equal-the wealth of an approving conscience, and of the favor of God. Nor must you ever forget, that as part of this blessing promised, you will enjoy your parents' blessing. That is one of the most precious treasures of the soul. There is hardly a sorrow of earth but what it will lighten--not a grief but what it will greatly assuage. It will disperse many of the clouds that gather around that melancholy day when you are for the first time fatherless and motherless. To be sure that you have their blessing, will diminish the bitterness of that hour which consigns them to the dust. It will be to you as a good pledge that you and they will meet in that happy land, where holy spirits forever dwell together, in the pure and blessed service of God.

It is the commandment of God that you should honor your father and mother. See that you do it. Do it with all your heart. Do it because God requires it. Do it on all occasions, and at every sacrifice of personal feelings. Seek grace from God day by day, that you may keep this commandment without fail or fault. Begin every day with the remembrance of it on your hearts. When you retire at night, examine yourselves conscientiously, whether or no you have obeyed it; and wherein you have failed, confess honestly, and pray that you may be forgiven. Take pleasure in honoring your parents; for God is well pleased with all chil dren who thus obey his will; and your obedience of this precept in regard to your earthly parents, will teach you the higher obedience of your Father in Heaven. Obedience to God will become the law of your lite. You will love all that is good, and learn to do all that is right. And your life on earth, being prolonged to a happy old age, you will then be prepared, through the mercy of God the Saviour, and through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, for the service of God in glory, where your life will never end. Amen, and Amen.

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him, unless he had known that their denial would have destroyed all the confidence of the world in him as a credible historian? Coming from such a man, the significance of such admissions is greatly augmented. Besides he had abundant facilities for satisfying himself of the truth of what he recorded, aside from the simple New Testament narrative. He was so near the advent of Christ, that he could not well be misled as to all the prominent facts of religion. From written accounts by various authors, as also from authentic tradition, he could gather all the data requisite for his deliberate opinion. And the only way he could counteract the influence of his records was by covering them over with the coarsest and most vulgar jests a thing not uncommon in our day among those who are unable to fortify their hate of christianity by sound argument.*

This, then, must be confessed by all, that during the first three centuries christianity had spread over the greater portion of the inhabited world. "But," says an objector, "did not also Mahometanism make similar conquests?" I reply, No. Not even similar conquests. For although millions were brought under the sway of the Koran, yet the means used were entirely different. Christianity made its appeals directly to the consciences and hearts of men. Mahometanism appealed to their superstition and sensuous nature. The one came in peace, and with mild and persuasive countenance said, "Come unto me all you who are weary," &c., the other came in the tramp of armies, "breathing out slaughter," with the clangor of steel and the shouts of fury. The one was zealous for purity and God; the other, for sensual gratification and man; the one pointed the way to holiness, and hence to heaven; the other said, "If you die in battle contending for the glory of Mahomet, you shall loll in endless luxury in the fields of Elysium." No one who is at all acquainted with the history of Mahometanism, will for a moment deny that in its beginning and continuance, it owes its propagation to the power of the sword while christianity relies entirely upon the power of God in making effectual its truths upon the moral nature of his creatures.

Look for a moment at the power of the Gospel over mind. It must be confessed that the doctrines of Christ are in opposition to the natural passions and inclinations of men. They conflict with the general current and tenor of human prejudice and belief. And this must have been peculiarly so in an age when Grecian philosophy had so generally operated to exalt man's conceptions of the essential goodness and purity of his own nature. But notwithstanding all this, christianity had free course among the nations, as it does this day. In the face of all this opposition, it found its way into all ranks and classes of men. Origen, in writing of this, says, "It is not so much to be wondered at that the eloquence and reason of philosophers should prevail on some very few persons. But that the mean and contemptible language of the Apostles should convert such multitudes from intemper ance to sobriety, from injustice to fair-dealing, from cowardice to the highest constancy, yea, so great as to lay down their lives for the sake of virtue; how can we but admire so divine a power as was seen in it."*

Lactantius, a christian writer, declares that no philosophy could do so much good in the world as christianity, because that was suited to all common capacities. Whether Jesus was proclaimed on Mars Hill, or in Ephesus, or at Jerusalem to the gathered hosts at Pentecost, its conquests were alike sure. And so has it been until now. There is no order of mind, from the weakest and most uncultivated, to the mightiest and most refined by education, in which Christ and his cross has not found a dwelling place.

But beside the opposition of the natural heart to christianity, the powers of the State were early arrayed against it. The whole weight of government and example were thrown against all who professed attachment to Christ. And all evils were attributed to them. "They were looked upon as the pests of human society, as they were called the common enemies of mankind." This, says Tertullian, was the common outcry, "If the city be besieged, if anything happen ill in the fields, in the garrison, in the islands, presently they cry out, 'It is because of the christians! They conspire the ruin of good men, and thirst after the blood of the innocent, patronizing their hatred with this vain pretence, that the christians are the cause of all public misfortunes and calamities. If the Tiber overflows the walls, if the Nile do not as it is wont, overflow the fields, if the heaven do not keep its accustomed course, if an earthquake happen, or a famine or a pestilence, presently the cry is, Away with the christians to the lions!"" Yes, my hearers, eloquently has it been said, "Rome in the fullness of her power, when her standards were planted on every soil from the Humber to the Indus, Imperial Rome! would trample out the dangerous principles that began to lurk in her palaces and whisper in her market place. And so she put forth her giant arm and clutched the lawless dissenters from her pagan faith and cast them into the amphitheatre, a prey to wild beasts. And still into the dread arena broader and deeper ever flowed the living tide of martyrs to their doom, and bolder and louder in the ears of the wondering city swelled the triumphant death. song, proclaiming to the last the majesty of the christian's God." Now well inquires Bishop Stillingfleet, "Had it been possible for a cunningly devised fable or any mere contrivance of impos

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tors to have prevailed in the world, when the most potent and subtle persons bent their whole wits and design for suppressing it?"

I think we must see that a supposition like that in the face of facts is a most astounding absurdity. And yet he who rejects christianity must account for all these facts to which I have alluded. And he can do it in no other way than by believing that all the success that has hitherto attended christianity has been the result of chance circumstances! He must give an explanation so surrounded with difficulties as to challenge the contempt of a world, that, with all its wickedness, is still conscious of its obligations to the Son of God. If there are mysteries in religion, there are many more and greater for him who votes its destruction. And if there are obscuring clouds sometimes flitting over the disk of the christian sun, then it is sure that he who ignores Christ and his cross, must move in a world whose sun is suffering an intense and eternal eclipse.

IV. I have spoken of christianity as a whole; but the credulity of infidelity will not be the less apparent if we consider its rejection of any single doctrine of the christian religion.

1. The doctrine of the new birth. The christian receives christianity as the means of the moral renovation of mankind. The infidel rejects this notion and resolves all religion into the dictates of nature, making the rule of duty, the mandate of the passions. And yet who so blind as not to see that he alike with the believer must account for all the phenomena of spiritual regeneration in the world?

Let him commence if he please with the Hebrew law-giver, and tell us why he should leave the court of Egypt and all the luxuries of an oriental monarch, and volunteer under the hardships and ignominy which must hedge him about, and at length die on the summit of Pisgah in full view of the promised land? Let the unbeliever explain to us the conversion of Saul of Tarsus into the meek and quiet disciple of Jesus. It was on his way to Damascus, whither he was going to persecute the people of God, that he was converted to Christ, according to the account of it which he gives to King Agrippa and Festus, the Roman governor. Here was a man trained in direct hostility to Christ, and taught to oppose his doctrines with all the force of his impetuous nature. He is suddenly arrested, and his whole character assumes an opposite tone and inclination. And Saul the persecutor terminates a long and glorious career of christian labor and faith, by martyrdom under the blood-thirsty Nero. Will the rejector of the christian doctrine of Regeneration tell us how all this result was effected? Will he give a reasonable account of Paul's radical change from Saul to Paul?

But this is not all. The world is full of instances alike inex