even at the present day, do we see divisions of friends and families upon the topic of religion; yet who will doubt that these are the lamentable results, not of knowledge, but of ignorance; they proceed not from the adoption of the true Spirit of Christ, but from some partial views of the truth, some deficiency on the one hand, some extravagance on the other. These ought not to be entertained, as objections to the reception of that Christianity, which professes to abolish every hostile feeling, and to bring together into one common bond of union, the children of God, the children of one common parent. It were as well to argue, that the gospel tends not to promote the happiness of mankind, because Jerusalem enjoyed no days of splendour after its promulgation, but rather became a desolation and a by-word among the nations; and thus to lay to the charge of the message of mercy to mankind, the guilt that refused the message, and despised the mercy. But if the real tendency of the gospel be, as it was announced, the promotion of God's glory, and of man's best and final happiness, the choice which our Saviour made of his apostles, and the considerations which he impressed upon them, will surely induce us to seek greater knowledge of its real efficacy, and closer acquaintance with its holy principles. This is a task which the most unlearned may undertake with success ; this is a privilege which the poorest and the loftiest of the sons of men may equally embrace. Learning, science, philosophy, are here but empty names; riches, and rank, and honours, are but useless titles. God hath chosen the foolish to confound the wise, and the weak to confound the strong. The operation of the whole system is from God. The message which the apostles delivered, is God's message. The strength under which they went forth, was the strength of God, and therefore to despise or reject their message, is to refuse to hearken to the Lord; to resist the conviction of their preaching, is to resist the strength of Omnipotence. "He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me." Every one is left without excuse; every one has the full and free offer of the salvation of the gospel; every one has the assurance, that he may accept it as the means of his everlasting happiness, or reject it to his everlasting despair. On the one hand, he has the example of those apostles, who went forth to bear the name of their Master to the world, and of those who by their word believed on the Saviour. He knows the fulfilment of the promises which they expected; he can recount their sorrows and their consolations, their difficulties and their deliverances, their wants and their supplies. On the other hand, he has the awful example of those, who rejected the gos pel to their own destruction, and who turned that to their ruin, which ought to have been their greatest and their richest privilege. With these examples before us, there can be no reason to doubt the fulfilment of that awful caution of the Saviour: "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven: but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." BB 370 SERMON XXVI. THE QUALITIES REQUISITE FOR THE LUKE ix. 57, 58. And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. THE narrative, of which these words form a part, and which occupies the remaining verses of the chapter, is one that deserves our serious consideration. Three characters are placed in contrast with each other, so as to exhibit the different motives and views, under the influence of which many persons embrace the profession of religion; and while the insufficiency of these motives, and the error of these views, are clearly shown, the advice of the Saviour is calculated to inform the mind with such principles, as may promote the adoption of a religious profession upon the best grounds, and the adherence to that profession upon the soundest convictions of the truth. It must be allowed, that, in consequence of the general acknowledgment of the truth of Christianity, and its establishment as a national religion, we are placed in a very different situation from that of the early converts to the faith of Christ. Their adoption of the new system was an abandonment of all which they had been taught to hold sacred: it was a disruption of ties which they had long reverenced it was a voluntary exposure of themselves to scorn, to persecution, to death. No one can have embraced the gospel under these conditions, without the conviction that his own eternal welfare was involved in such a step; and that the security of this his eternal welfare must outweigh every other consideration. No one could have become a Christian without first counting well the cost, and estimating the consequences of his choice. We can know but little of these peculiar feelings they arise solely out of the circumstances in which the early Christians were placed. To us, Christian instruction has been familiar from our earliest years. Our infant prayers were lisped in the name of Christ; our infant praises were offered up to his Majesty. The purest and |