that are eternal; which imparts a sacredness, even to worldly affections; and makes them a means of grace, a pledge of heavenly comfort.

But it is needless longer to dwell on that point; for I feel that your own thoughts must far outrun my words. You must feel that, to be possessed in your own persons of the knowledge of God through Christ, and then to be permitted to hold up the light of that same blessing to those whom you loved in this world-you must feel that to be a blessing, in comparison with which all the poor hopes of this life sink into very nothingness.

Now, if this be so with reference to those who are of the same household with ourselves, who are partakers of the same daily bread with ourselves; I would ask you, Does not the same principle exist in kind, though it may differ in degree, with all who are in any way brought within the reach of our influence? The Gospel which we profess to receive teaches us to despise no man; yea, it teaches us to "honour all men." It confines not the friendship of our neighbours within any of those arbitrary sections to which human theorists would confine us but it expressly tells us, that, whatever may be the differences, whatever the gradations which mark our earthly path, it tells us, nevertheless, that "as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."

Bearing this great principle, then, in mind, you will find that to bear the message of Christian truth to the hearts and the consciences of all with whom you are brought in contact, is not only a duty to which you are bound, but a privilege in which you ought to rejoice. And if you perceive that, then you will acknowledge as its necessary consequence, that the object for which I am this day directed to ask your support, is at once a legitimate object of appeal from the Christian minister to a Christian people. For what is it we are commanded to ask? Is it not that you should give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, by pointing to that glorious day-spring from on high which hath visited us? For what is it but to lift up the soul which is weighed down by the cares and sorrows of life, and make it lean upon the sure hope of that Redeemer, who is "the father of the fatherless, and the husband of the widow? Is it not to assure the poor that they are blessed, for that theirs is the kingdom of heaven? Is it not to assure the meek in heart, that they are blessed, for that they shall inherit the earth? Is it not, in short, to instruct your poor and suffering brethren-those who were created by the same Almighty hand that created you-those who are journeying by your side along the path of life-who, like you, are candidates for the same everlasting inheritance, through the merits of the same Redeemer? Is it not to instruct them in the reading of that glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which is not after man, neither is received of man, neither was any man taught it but by the revelation of Christ? It is, in fact, to embody in the hearts of each one present, and to shew forth in the acts of each one present, the same holy and glorious love, which prompted the Galilean apostle, first to find his own brother Simon; then to declare to him the blessings which had fallen on his own path; and lastly, to bring them to the full enjoyment of that Saviour.

More than this-the extension of Christian truth to those who might not otherwise hear it-more than this is not required; nor indeed can much more be done than to give that instruction in the doctrines and duties of our religion,

to which a claim of common right, we maintain, is in some sort constituted in a Christian country, by the very capacity which there exists in its inhabitants to profit by it. Of knowledge in general, I believe the observation to be a just one, that there are branches of it which it would be preposterous in the mass of mankind to attempt to acquire, because they have no immediate connexion with their respective duties, and because they demand talents which nature possibly has not given, and opportunities which Providence has withheld. But with respect to the primary truths of the Gospel the case is widely different: they are of such daily, such actual necessity, that they form, not the luxury of the mind, but the positive needful sustenance of the soul itself. "This is life eternal," saith the Saviour, "to know Thee, the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."

Upon what ground, then, does that objection rest, which pretends to foresee, that, by the advantages of such an education, the poor man may be raised above the laborious duties of his station, and thus his usefulness in civil society may be impaired? It is not easy to conceive, in what manner instructing men in their duties can prompt them to neglect those duties or how that enlargement of reason, which enables them to comprehend the true ground of authority, and obligation of obedience, should dispose them to disobey it. The admirable mechanism of society, together with the subordination of ranks which is essential in society, is surely not an elaborate imposture which the exercise of reason would detect and would expose. I can perfectly understand that such an objection may have force in the case of tyrannical and unlawful governments; the support of which is fear, and to which ignorance is as congenial as it is abhorrent to the spirit of a free nation. I can understand it also to have force in the obedience of papal authority; where ignorance gives a support to prejudice and perpetuity to error. But in a country like our own, in which the meanest peasant has birth-rights, unless they are forfeited to public justice—I say the objection implies a reflection upon the social order, equally impolitic, invidious, and unjust. We are never to forget, that the mass of the people forms the broad basis of that pyramid of our civil and ecclesiastical constitution of which we are a part; and that it is therefore essentially necessary, that the foundation of that vast fabric be made firm and secure, and be well compacted by the sound principles of Christian truths, which are the chief support of national happiness and prosperity. That foundation, I say, must be laid broad, and surely the elaborate ornament would be but a wretched compensation for that solidity that is required in the foundation of the building. Be assured it is not because the people know too much that they are become, or are likely to become, the willing subjects of the factious or the unprincipled demagogue : it is just because they know too little it is because ignorance is the field in which the political impostor reaps his most abundant harvest; it is in ignorance that he finds the most powerful instrument to work, and to carry forward his evil designs. Therefore it is this, so congenial to our nature-this very ignorance, this indolence, this unwillingness to be instructed-I say it is this which continues still upon the hearts of the people, notwithstanding the vast and gigantic efforts that have been made for many years to remove it. The records of crime in this land are sufficient evidence to shew how large a proportion there is to be found amongst those who crowd our jails in the towns and in the country, who are still plunged in the darkness of most fearful ignorance.

In urging, therefore, renewed efforts to remove that evil, I urge not the mere education of letters, as a thing to lay stress upon for its own sake, so much as the education of principle. I agree with those who profess that they have no faith in the efficacy of Mechanics' Institutes alone, or even of primary and elementary schools alone, for building up a virtuous and well-conditioned peasantry. There must be also the lessons of piety; and in the absence of those lessons, they can no more perform the functions of training a people in real morality, than skeletons can perform the functions of living men.

The self-called liberalism of the day, or the pride of lettered wisdom, may undervalue and may deride this assertion; but still I repeat it, that it is with the Christianity of our towns and our villages, that this country must stand or fall. I grant that the force of inward integrity may still do what it did in the days of pagan Italy and Greece. Some master spirit may arise among us, as it arose among them, whose name shall still live in the hearts of future generations. But we may be assured, that it is the power of God, and the power of godliness alone, that can reclaim our population in the length and in the breadth of it. It is that power alone which can shed a moral bloom, and a moral fragrance, over the wide expanse of society. It is only by this, I believe, that we can withstand the assaults of infidelity amongst our fellow-countrymen. It is no argument against it to say, that these alleged objects sometimes appear to fail it is no fair argument against it to say that these proposed effects are oftentimes not manifested: for what system is there to which imperfection does not cling? And what system is there, which, however apparently perfect in itself, may not be marred by the indifference of its teachers? Observe, we are not to form our opinions upon its merits, upon any partial, upon any insulated cases, that may fall within the sphere of our own knowledge. Those cases may, perhaps, make a strong impression on our minds, and may tend to warp and pervert our judgment. But we ought to guard against that partial judgment: we ought to take into our account the whole of what it has done and is doing. Therefore we are not to be limited or restrained in our course of Christian generosity, upon any impartial, upon any fictitious or supposed error that has fallen under our own notice.

Neither is it any fair argument to urge, that the individual exertion of any one present is small, and therefore useless: for it is one of the many advantages possessed by institutions of this kind, that while the efforts of the individual are, and must be partial, are likely to be abortive, and oftentimes mistaken, if you carry out that same idea in support of such societies, the strength of the aggregate becomes the strength of each individual who supports it; and you feel that you are casting your bread upon the waters, not to be swallowed up, but to be found again after many days. You feel that every offering that you make, is given thankfully in the spirit of faith, in the spirit of that eager anxiety that prompted Andrew to come, and bring his brother Simon to the knowledge of Christ; you feel that all Christians who are linked with you in the same work are strengthening your hands, and you strengthening theirs. You feel that as you have one hope, one calling, having one Lord, one faith, one baptism; so are your souls working out the work of that blessed Saviour by one and the same means of union. You feel that you are working out that, not in your own strength, not in your own wisdom, but by a humble, cordial, earnest co-operation with those who wish well to our Zion, who pray for the peace of our Jerusalem.

And if you look upon that mass of population that surrounds you; if you take into your view the efforts there made by the great powers of evil to pervert and poison that mass; if you look to the temptations which this city holds out daily and hourly to the infant mind; if you look forward to the danger that there is among the people, of their giving way to those temptations, of their falling into those snares; if you look to the catalogue of crimes, and see what shame, what reproach they cast on a Christian land; and then feel, that in institutions like this, you are doing what in you lies to diminish that burden, to introduce light and health into that mass which would otherwise be poisoned and dead you surely then will not go forward in the work with any spirit of niggardly or of selfish feeling. And more than this, you will feel, that at no time can you be absolved from carrying on that work: for just as you have heard, in the morning lesson, of the plague that went through Israel's people on account of Israel's sins; so you will remember that the sins committed by God's people in our own day, produce among them, it may be, not always the physical plague, of consuming sickness; but it produces that which is more consuming still-a moral pestilence; it produces a morbid corruption of the heart, that makes both soul and body ruined in God's sight for ever. Therefore, to stay that moral pestilence must be the work of the Christian here, just as in the former case, we know that nothing stayed that plague but the intercession of the great High Priest; we know that it was he who put in incense, and made atonement for the sins of the people; that it was he who stood between the dead and the living; and that it was he who thus stayed the plague. And from him, whose heart is not carried on to the contemplation of the greater than Aaron, to that "great High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec," who stood, and still stands, between the dead and the living, to make intercession for us at the throne of God; he having put on incense-not the perfumes of moral or of human intercession, but having put on the incense of his all-atoning merits; by these did he once make atonement on Calvary for the sins of the whole world; by these does he still plead for his people at the throne of grace; and by these are you invited to draw near, with a full heart, and in full assurance "that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need."

The same intercession, then, would we implore, when we seek to stay the moral pestilence; and we feel that we are staying it, if we carry out into the infected mass the knowledge of Christian love. We know we are staying it, if we shed over that rude chaos of sin the Spirit of Christ. We know that as the Spirit of Christ brought light, and order, and loveliness into the first creation, so will the spirit of his life, if shed abroad in the heart, bring there love, and joy, and holiness.

It is, therefore, that work to which we are summoned; it is that duty to which we are bound; it is that work of mercy at which we should rejoice. That work, then, my brethren, is yours this day. I ask you to join in it, because I feel that the hands of those who now support it, faithfully and truly, need your help to the very uttermost. I ask it earnestly, therefore, feeling that the Christian heart will feel, and the Christian hand will give. I ask it, not for the sake of earthly wisdom or earthly pride, but I ask it in the name of Christ, and for the sake of Christ. I ask Christian men to fulfil the Christian law of Christian disciples-to bring their poor brethren to the knowledge of that same Christ, to the glory of that same Redeemer.

CHRIST'S AGONY AND BLOODY SWEAT IN THE GARDEN.

REV. J. RUDGE, D.D.

HAWKCHURCH, PALM-SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 1835.

"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.-LUKE, xxii. 44.

WERE I to represent to you, my friends, any real case of individual distress, or were I to describe even any afflicting scene of fictitious suffering, there are few amongst you whose sensibility would not be excited, either by the simple detail of the one, or the highly-wrought picture of the other. It is admitted on all hands, whatever differences of opinion exist as to the causes in which it has originated (and it is out of my province to hazard a judgment on such subjects), that the present times are pregnant with great and overwhelming distress, and that they afford instances without number of persons who are reduced from comparative affluence and comfort to a state of beggary and ruin. I might select one of these hapless instances. I might ask you to view a father, with whom domestic peace and competency were once familiar, now plunged into the lowest abyss of deprivation and want, and destitute even of the commonest conveniences and supports of human existence. I might, and without any violation of truth, represent his wife and children looking up to him for that support, and crying to him for that bread, of which he has no longer the means of extending the one, and supplying the other. He is penny less-he is powerless. Ah! where is the heart that would not melt-that does not melt? Your very looks-your very silence prove at least that your hearts melt at this case of paternal agony and anguish. You have tears to shed, you have sympathy to tender for the sufferings of a father. His distress is no fiction of the brain, but real and heart-rending. Now let me once more read the text to you: "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Of whom speaks the Scripture this? Who was in an agony? Some ideal character? or was it some real sufferer? Was it the man-was it the God, Christ Jesus? Then, then is the prediction of the prophet realized, and in his language, I ask ye, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above he hath sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them."

My brethren, from the course of the services of this day it must be sufficiently apparent what the theme is, to which your thoughts should be led, and upon which your devotions should be employed. And what is that theme? The agony,