the apostles had no help but that of their own ingenuity and diligence! Such is the belief of the unbeliever. To escape acknowledging that the apostles were aided by miraculous assistance, he makes them to have possessed in themselves miraculous ability. To get rid of one miracle in the work, he has to make twelve miracles out of the twelve agents of the work. The Christian takes a far different course. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. The weapons of their warfare were not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. To which solution genuine philosophy or common-sense would award the prize of rational decision, it is easy to determine.

The argument for the propagation of Christianity is not yet complete. Satisfactory already, it is yet to receive an immense accession of strength. "The wilderness and the solitary place," the immense regions of pagan and Mohammedan desolation, shall yet be glad for the blessings of the gospel, and "the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose." Every nation and kindred shall be brought "into captivity to the obedience of Christ;" for the word hath gone forth out of the mouth of the Lord, "I will give theo the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." How should every heart respond, Amen; and pray,

"Thy king

dom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

LECTURE X.

THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY.

IN our preceding lectures we have followed the currents of three independent arguments, each of which was found sufficient to conduct us to a complete proof of the divine authority of the gospel of Christ. That to which we now proceed is especially capable of being "known and read of all men," and deserves to be ranked in the highest class of the evidences of Christianity. Our blessed Lord, speaking of false pretenders to divine revelation, delivered the following rule by which they might be distinguished : "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." This is a test universally approved of, and necessarily employed. Its influence on our judgment is unavoidable, and when properly applied, its results are certain. The goodness of a tree cannot be doubted while we know the excellence of its fruit. No more reason have we to question the holy character and divine origin of religion, while its legitimate effects on the lives and hearts of its genuine disciples are holy.. We may come to an erroneous conclusion by judging erro

neously of the fruit; by ascribing effects to causes which did not produce them; by charging upon religion a train of consequences of which it was only the incidental occasion, instead of the natural cause. But these are errors in the application, and independent of the correctness of the test. Whenever you have ascertained the true results of any system of doctrine, you have found a plain and certain expression of its intrinsic character. It is good in proportion as the fruit is good. If its fruit be godly, it must itself be of God.

Let infidelity be always tried by this equitable rule, so as to receive the full credit of all the evils which may easily be found to have grown upon its branches-let it be stripped of all those adventitious circumstances of a favorable kind for which it is indebted to the surrounding influence of Christianity, and few eyes will fail to see that the root is one of bitterness, and the tree fit only to be cut down as a cumberer of the ground. If men would judge Christianity also by the fair application of this rule, carefully separating from her genuine productions all those of which, however enemies may love to lay them to her charge, she is only the innocent occasion, it would require but little discernment to be convinced of her heavenly origin, and of the duty of all to spread the knowledge and acceptance of her divine revelation. Such will be the object of the present lecture. Christianity may be known by its fruits. Christians are desirous that their faith should be judged by this test, as well as by every other that is

just and equal. We set out, therefore, with this question: What are the fruits of Christianity? In the examination of this subject we will consider,

1. The effects of Christianity on society in general.

2. Its effects on the character and happiness of genuine disciples.

Reserving the latter of these divisions for another lecture, we devote our attention at present exclusively to the former.

I. In proceeding to illustrate THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY ON SOCIETY IN GENERAL, I know of no way so direct as to consider in what condition the countries now blessed with its influence would have remained, had they been left to the several forms of religion under which they had previously subsisted. Let us take a brief survey of the moral state of the ancient world in the age when the preaching of the cross effected its wonderful revolution in the whole fabric of society. And that we may not be accused of unfairness, let us take into view, not the more distant and uncivilized provinces, but those chief central states where all the light and moral vigor of the heathen world were concentrated. Let our survey be confined to the society of Italy and Greece, where philosophy held her court, and literature and the arts were cultivated with the utmost devotion and success. Unfortunately for the interests of truth, the history of Greece and Rome has fallen for the most part into the hands of writers much more concerned with their intellectual and martial prowess, than their

moral attainments and social virtues; so that while the reader is occupied in admiring the acuteness of their schoolmen, the taste of their poets, the perfection of their arts, and the warlike character of their soldiery, he is seldom called to look within the inclosures of society, and inquire how they lived, what manner of men they were in their families, in their social relations, in their moral principles, and their private habits.

A certain eminent writer who lived in the age to which we refer, addressing the people of Rome, describes the heathen population of the civilized world as given up to the vilest, most unnatural, and beastly affections; filled with all unrighteousness and degrading wickedness; full of envy, murder, deceit, malignity; disobedient to parents; covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; not only committing such things as were worthy of death, but having pleasure in them that did them. Such, according to St. Paul, were the polished Grecians and the sterner Romans.*

1. Consider their religion. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things."t Deities were multiplied till there was a god for every thing, and any thing answered for a god. Athens was full of statues dedicated to different deities; those of various countries being so crowded together, that it was said *Rom. 1: 29-32. † Rom. 1:22, 23.