holy, as befitting those who have partaken of the Divine nature. Finally, brethren, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

CHAPTER XI.

ON ACQUAINTING OURSELVES WITH THE ADJUSTMENTS OF TRUTH WITH THE INSTINCTIVE TENDENCIES OF MAN'S NATURE, AS A MEANS OF INCREASING THE MORAL POWER OF THE CHURCH.

As the gospel system was constructed by the same hand that formed the nature of man, it follows that the two are adjusted to each other. Not only so, it is natural to suppose, that this adjustment should be with man himself a matter of keener sensibility at some points than it is at others. The bed, the room, the attendants, and every thing about a sick man, may be exactly suited to his wants; but nothing seems to him so acceptable, as the remedy adapted to cure his disease. The gravitating power, the atmospheric gases, and every thing that touches the bodies of men, may be suited to their organization; but at no point do they feel the impression, as at the eye, the ear and through the other senses. So, the moral nature of man has its assailable points, and the gospel its truths adapted to touch those points, and to leave upon them

impressions that vibrate on all the chords of feeling and penetrate to the deepest recesses of the soul.

I take leave, therefore, to suggest, whether the moral influence of the church would not be greatly increased, by searching out these points themselves and the truths adapted to assail them, and urging the contact between the two to the utmost possible extent. It is as if you wished to influence the conduct of the sick man, in the case before supposed, by threatening to withhold from him some of his personal comforts. In that case, which would do most for your object? telling him that he must lose his bed? his room? his attendants? no, but that if he does not comply, he will deprive himself of the only remedy that can save him from death. This, made real to him, would move him to a compliance, if any thing could do it. The besieging army expends not its blows upon the whole line of the fortress; but selects its most vulnerable points, and brings its heaviest artillery to bear upon them with concentrated force. Thus, in assailing the soul of fallen man, we must find out those points which are most susceptible to impressions, and array against them the whole force of truth's divine artillery, till they give way to penitential sorrow, or to a malignity, approximating the sin against the Holy Ghost.

I fear that in all our theological reasonings upon fallen human nature, we have run our notions of man's depravity, not to an extreme, for that is impossible; but into the absurdity of making it physical, rather than moral, and of supposing that there are no chords in him that can vibrate to the touch of gospel truth, till grace has put them in tune. We entertain no

tions of a death in sin and a resurrection to spiritual life, which, if analyzed, would destroy the obligation of believing the gospel. And it is well known, that some have gone so far, as to deny the duty of saving faith to men by nature. Yea, these extreme doctrines of Calvinism have been so pervading, within the last fifty years, as to require the whole force of Andrew Fuller's intellect, to explode them and to bring Christians within the pale of reason and common sense. Their influence is not so far destroyed, however, as to admit of our realizing even yet, the full power of the gospel over the moral nature of man. You cannot get from the chords of his sensibility right vibrations, it is true, till they are attuned by grace; but then, you can get vibrations that will grate like harsh thunder to the lowest depths of his soul. And these horrible sensations must be awakened, and he must be slain by the law, before he can be made alive by Christ.

Considerable reflection and inquiry on the subject, give me confidence to suggest the doubt, whether the theories which have been broached in reference to the conscience of man, are adapted to explain the phenomena of that faculty. My mind has labored under these impressions. for years. What has more to do with the history of this world, than the workings of conscience, or the religious elements of the human character? What more than the moral sense? Does the soul of man know a keener pain, than the lacerations of a guilty conscience? It is the Medusean head, shaking pestilence from her horrid hair. It seems to me, therefore, that to make conscience nothing more than the understanding or intellect acting on moral subjects, comes short of the real facts in the case. We trample on our reason and judgment continually, submitting to customs and practices which we are free to pronounce foolish in the extreme, and yet it gives us little or no pain. Why, therefore, this horror of the judgment we form of right and wrong? Acute pain is rarely if ever experienced, except where violence is offered to our instinctive affections. The mother feels it over her dying child, and the miser over his consuming treasure; because, instead of the reason, the maternal, or the hoarding instinct, in such cases, receives the shock. If the reason of