pregnant with contagion. A single impulse of celestial feeling would put to flight this whirl of frivolities, or convince the man who gives way to it, that he is under the frown of the God of heaven. But if the first day of the week be thus dissipated into vanity— if the solemnities of that selected season, which God has ordained to be kept holy, can neither awe the soul into thoughtfulness, nor dissolve it into scriptural contrition, nor attune it to the melody of spiritual joy, it would be vain to look for a better state of mind at any other season. In such a case as this, the everyday forms of domestic religion, which, when animated by its spirit, are so finely fitted to sweeten and consolidate the relations of families, with the sublimating tendencies of the pieties of the closet, must be altogether unknown. Or if a few shreds of them make their appearance, they are so dry, and meagre, and ill sustained, as only to increase the moral desolation. The man who has no religion on the Sabbath, although frequenting the scene of its appointed ministration, must of necessity have as little on every other day : for if the influence of that ministration could not warm his soul into adoration, while in the act of appealing to his conscience, or as yet fresh in his recollection, how can it be expected to do so after its impression is weakened by the intervention of secular pursuits. From the use, then, to which a man is in the habit of putting the Christian Sabbath, we may safely estimate the tenor of his life. If, on that day, he give no scope to the exercise of those affections which are specifically religious, it may be confidently affirmed, that a still deeper desecration will sit down upon his spirits amidst the business of ordinary life.

It were indeed a happy relief from this conclusion, could it be said with truth, that these strictures are hypothetical, and have little specific bearing on existing circumstances: but the fact, that the evil exists in a multitude of instances, and is held compatible with a profession of Christianity, while the description given of it is short of the reality, is too notorious to be denied. An individual may indeed be situated in the midst of a pious sequestered circle, who are compact and happy in each other, and see little of the great world, but what is cheering and auspicious; and in this case, he may take it for granted, that what he does not know of the religion of his times, is much of a piece with what he knows. But let him look at the evolutions of religious character as these display themselves on a large scale, and he will find a deficiency of the very kind referred to, so marked, and prevalent, and hopelessly obstinate, as to fill him with dismal forebodings. Nor will it be the least of his regrets to discover, that in cases not a few, this worst of moral diseases has the firmest hold of its victim, and is exerting its sullen and stupifying influence most successfully, where it is least to be expected. For not only is it true, that hearts which are susceptible of the warmest friendships, and endowed with the finest of natural sensibilities, are yet cold as the icy ocean to every thing feelingly Christian; but too often does it happen, that these are the very hearts which are least of all accessible to any attempt to reclaim them. As if conscious that Christianity has a right to their affections, and power to take them captive, they are jealous of all its approaches, and will yield themselves up to any

discussion but that which involves the spirit of its requirements.

It is a very possible thing, that persons of this description may be suffering much uneasiness amidst the decencies of their nominal piety. They may be haunted by a strong suspicion, that a name to live is, after all, the amount of their attainment. They may even retain a habitual consciousness, which is occasionally fired into remorse, that in the sight of God they are deceivers; and, prompted by this consideration, they may form purposes, and fix dates for a thorough renovation of their mental habits, while these formations and fixtures, having no root in the principle of reformation, but proceeding from the restlessness of mere pain, are dishonoured and forgotten as the excitement subsides. Such disquietudes, it is true, are the ordinary presages of reformation; and the man who is under them is hopefully interesting, especially when their power and frequency are on the increase. But so long as the practice continues the same-so long as the risings of conscience, instead of changing the current of feeling, or renewing the springs of action, are combated and borne down by the strength of opposing inclination-just so long are they to be regarded, not as the symptoms of incipient recovery, but as the convulsive indications of increasing disease. They may accumulate the miseries of the man; they may teach him by experience, that he is putting "bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter;" but they furnish him with nothing whatever, which can place him on a better footing for meeting the claims of Christian duty, or appearing before the Judge of all the earth.

The darkest symptom of the case, however, is that in which there is no disquietude, but a uniform and invincible contentedness, undisturbed by the slightest suspicion of any serious defalcation. The man has taken up his profession at the impulse of imitative feeling, or, it may be, from a good natural disposition to support the religion of his country. He admits the truth of revelation, not because it is true, but because his kindred believe it, and he is not prepared to say it is false. He has no stated controversy to plead with its doctrines, or gratuities, or institutions, because he never saw them in any other light than that of cold, and distant, and mystified abstractions, whose agreement or disagreement with his ruling propensities he has never thought of ascertaining. In short, he holds himself a subject of Christianity, associated with its friends, sharing in its privileges, and possessing an undoubted claim to its coming felicities; although he could have said the same thing, and that too for the same reasons, of the visions of Mahomed, or the rites of Juggernaut, had he been born in Turkey or in Hindostan. this view of the matter, dry, and frigid, and cheerless though it be, he maintains a deathlike acquiescence; and while, in the things of this life, he is subject to like passions with other men, partaking with them in the hopes, and fears, and joys, and sorrows of our common humanity, yet on this one point he exhibits a flat and monotonous expectation, which knows no vicissitude and dreads no repulse, but seems alike incapable of elevation or depression. Or if there be some occasional variation, as in the most equable temperament there necessarily must, it is so slight

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and evanescent, as never to show itself beyond the precincts of the inner man.

There is no reasoning required to show, that this way of being a Christian, even in the most favourable of its aspects, is a deep and perilous infatuation. Not only is there ground to fear that the heart which is thus situated is shut out from the grace of God, but the conviction that it is, is forced upon us without the possibility of resistance. What is Christianity? Is it not a system which undeniably can do nothing for man, without working its way into his affections, and making its own of his moral sensibilities? Does not its Author found on it as a first principle, that before men can find in it that substantial satisfaction which it is fitted to impart, the foul affections which characterize him in his ungodliness must be mortified, and new affections, of a pure and celestial order, created in their stead? Although it be unaccountably forgotten, it is nevertheless clear as the light of day, that the religion of the Bible is devised, and revealed, and pressed upon man, under the notion of a remedy; and in calling upon him to embrace it, he is uniformly addressed as the victim of a moral disorder. But this disorder is in the heart: nor has it merely reached the heart in its progressive invasion of the man, it has commenced there. The first blight of its deadly influence was felt at the hearts of the parents of men; it is established in the affections of the heart, as the seat of its wasteful dominion; and it is only in proportion as it is dislodged from the heart, that the symptoms of convalescence can make their appearance in the intellect, or the will, or the conduct of the man.