of a multitude has a barrier to burst, a solitary point of benevolence to carry, or a single blow of vengeance to inflict, he may address the passions, and work them into a tempest, and attain his object at once by an instant burst of their impetuosity. But if he has a cause to propagate, which depends for its prosperity on acceptance with the public, he must leave the passions asleep, or venture to stir them no farther than may serve, by a gentle swell of emotion, to ingratiate his opinions. So general is the truth of this maxim, that, so far as mere power is concerned, it does not matter very much whether that which is called principle be true or false, sound or unsound, useful or injurious in its tendencies to action. So far as it is taken for genuine principle, it comes with the energy which principle possesses on the mind of the man who embraces it, and binds him to the cause with which you connect it; because it is justified to his understanding, and not merely to his momentary feelings.

Those who gave establishment to false religions, were acquainted with this secret, and dismally skilful in making use of it. They saw very well, that although the tide of mere feeling might be made to flow in coincidence with their wishes for a time, yet there was nothing in feeling itself to prevent an untimely reflux; and therefore they found it necessary to mould their measures into the form of principles, and plant them in the consciences of men, as the only possible means of gaining them permanent faSo entirely did they feel themselves dependent on this expedient, that, when their principles became so monstrous as to expose them to the detection

vour.

even of the most untutored minds, they still proclaimed them as principles solid and essential; but enshrined them in mystery, and raised up around them a mockery of veneration, which awes the deluded votary, and deters him from rational inquiry. The lowest demagogues are aware of the expedient, and without it feel themselves powerless; and a recent statesman was awfully aware of it, when, in taking something like a prophetic survey of Europe's political acrimony, he told Britain, in Parliament assembled, and told the world at large, as the darkest feature of the dreaded conflict, that it was likely to prove itself a war of opinions. A war of passions, like the sweep of the tempest, may expend itself and be gone ; but a war of principles, like the course of nature, is steady (and resistless, and settles only in extermination. 1

2

Now, this is precisely the footing on which Christianity must be placed, in order to deepen its roots, and realize its power, either in the conscience of an individual, or in society at large... That it produces feelings we are aware, and feelings too the most Lexalted and pleasurable; but these feelings are pute and healthful, and acquire the steadiness of nature, only in as far as its sublime doctrines are understood and appropriated, and thus exalted to that ascendancy which principle alone can maintain. It is preeminently a matter of principle, containing, not simply a remedy for our nature's moral disorder, but the essential and immutable elements of all religious truth; and it cannot be taken for what it is, nor accomplish the mighty moral revolution for which it is promulgated, except in as far as it holds the place, and exeits the influence, which belongs to principle of the

highest order. But we are to remember, that, just because it is absystem of truth at war with a working system of error, its individual principles, like the constituents of an army, must be marshalled, in order to be effective, Taken separately, they possess an excellence, and display an adaptation to our forlorn condition, which more or less clearly evince their divinity; but, like the members of the human-body, we must see them in combination, each filling its own place, and contributing its own part to the symmetry and strength of the whole structure, in order to ac*quire an adequate conception of its intrinsic or relative efficiency. All the truths in the universe, of whatsoever class or kind, are bound together by reciprocal relations, the study of which is very serviceable to a suitable acquaintance with their powers or pro-perties; and the eye which can trace their subtile affinities, perceives them all converging towards, and finding their eternal consistency in, the simple unity of the Godhead. But what are called theological -truths, especially the truths of the Christian theoology, are peculiarly of this description; so obviously and so intimately connected, that the man who looks bat any ones of them, as isolated from all the rest, and - makes it the subject of reflection in this detached form, -is in danger, at every step, of carrying it out into consequences which its place in the system forbids, and -which lay a foundation in his own mind for a multitude of misconceptions.

dalkThis, we should think, is so clear, that it cannot -be seen without being admitted; but if it be admitted, it brings along with it the other admission, that nothing but the means of systematic information can

give to the doctrines of Christianity that coherence of parts, or concentration of light and power upon the conscience of an individual, which is necessary to its full effect on the formation of his Christian character. Without this, in short, the scheme of Christian truth, viewed as a whole, cannot be reduced, in his mind at least, to the form and effectiveness of settled principle. His views of any one topic must be not only crude and impoverished, but in a state of positive discord with his views of other topics; and what else can be his impression, in such a state of mind, than that there is a schism in the body of truth, as there too often is in the body of those who profess it; and that this schism is a good reason for doubting or denying its claims to divinity? Or, if fear should restrain him from a result so awful, there are other evils entailed by such confusion, which are neither few nor easily defeated. It must interfere with Christian practice, and enfeeble the exercise of Christian virtue, in all its departments, and in all its forms, whether social or individual. It is true that faith, and not mere knowledge, is the origin of evangelical obedience; and that the Christian whose knowledge is very limited, confused, and incoherent, may yet be most exemplary in his conformity to Christian law, because his heart is really sanctified, and his whole soul influenced by the fear of God. But it is also true, and worthy of deep attention, that this conformity is often estimated at more than it is really worth; for knowledge is essential to the very existence of that obedience which the Christian law requires. Obedience to God, in any sense that is competent to man, is the intelligent act of his intelligent

creature; and Christian obedience is just the result of sound Christian information purifying the Christian's conscience and regulating his will. Faith is the spring of obedience, and without faith there can be none; but as knowledge is necessary prior to belief as the means of perceiving the thing to be believed, and of discerning the grounds of its claim to confidence-it is no less necessary after belief, as a means of strengthening the believer's hold of those rich and precious doctrines, which are thus made the matter of his belief, and which, just because they are so, his mind can now examine as glorious realities. But if faith be the spring of obedience, and knowledge the food of faith, the amount of obedience, as an expression of enlightened homage to the eternal Lawgiver, must in all cases be measured by the extent of the person's believing acquaintance, not merely with the number, but with the nature and relations, of the doctrines and precepts of that economy under which he presents it. There is not, and there cannot possibly be, a single particle of genuine obedience in any act of conformity to any one precept of God's revealed will, beyond the point at which he ceases to be really (that is, believingly) discerned in that precept, as understood in itself, or illumined by other parts of the revelation to which it belongs. It is not deeds of conformity to precept, however punctually or gravely performed, but accordance of soul with the spirit of precept, as expressed by these deeds, which alone can bear the character of genuine obedience. The man, of course, is fittest for obedience, who has imbibed most of the spirit of the law; but the spirit of the law can only be im