5. "But the most eloquent are not always the most useful and God hath chosen the ignorant, in various instances, ta confound the wise." It is granted. But does God uniformly work one way? When he sends, it is by whom he will send; and he can qualify, and does qualify those whom he raises up for himself. He can give powers as a substitute for literature, and by his own energy effect that which eloquence alone can not. But we set not up this attainment against his energy; we know that it is useful only in dependence upon it. We know, too, why the ignorant are frequently exalted in the scale of usefulness, to show that "the power is not of man, but of God;" and "that no flesh should glory in his presence." But has he not blessed talents also, for the same important purpose? Has he never employed eloquence usefully? Has his favor been uniformly limited, or ever limited to the illiterate? Because he sometimes works with out the means, and apparently in defiance of the means, are we therefore to lay them aside? Who possessed more advantages, or more eloquence, than the apostle whose words are alluded to in this objection? Did Paul make a worse preacher for being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel ?

6. But the gospel of Jesus disdains such assistance: for the apostle says to the Corinthians, "I came not to you with excellency of speech"-"and my speech, and my preaching, was not with enticing words of men's wisdom." That the gospel of Jesus disdains the assistance of eloquence, in a certain sense, I admit. It will not accept of any thing as its support. It stands upon its own inherent excellence, and spurns all extraneous aid. It is a sun absorbing every surrounding luminary. Its beauty eclipses every charm brought in comparison with it. Yet, is this a reason why in enforcing its glorious truths upon our fellow-me, we should disdair assistance which, although it aids not the gospel, is useful to them?

7. Follow the opposite principle, and lay aside preaching The gospel approves itself to the conscience; every attempt to illustrate and enforce it is useless, when applied to the truth itself, for it can not be rendered more excellent than it is: yet it may be rendered more perspicuous to our fellow.

men; it needs enforcing as it regards them; and preaching has been instituted by God himself for that express purpose. So eloquence can not render assistance to the gospel itself; but may be useful to those who attend it. True eloquence has for its object, not merely to please, but to render luminous the subject discussed, and to reach the hearts of those Poncerned.

8. We live in a day when it becomes us to be equal eve: way to our adversaries. This we can never be, if we cherish a contempt for liberal science. Infidelity lifts her standard, and advances, with daring front, to "defy the armies of the living God." Distinguished talents rally around her ensign. The charms of cloquence, the force of reason, the majesty of literature, the light of science, are all enlisted under her banner; are all opposed to the "truth as it is in Jesus." Let us, in reliance upon Divine aid, meet them upon equal terms, contend with them on their own ground, turr against them their own weapons. Let us meet them in the plain, or upon the mountain; let us ascend to their elevation, or stoop to their level. Let us oppose science to science, eloquence to eloquence, light to light, energy to energy. Let us prove that we are their equals in intellect, their colleagues in literature: but that, in addition to this, "One is our master, even Christ”—that we have "a more sure word of prophecy” -and that our light borrowed from the fountain of illumination, will shine with undiminished luster, when their lamp, fed only by perishable, precarious supplies, shall be forever extinguished!

LXXXV. POETICAL SELECTIONS.

1. THE HEAVENLY CANAAN.
1. THERE is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Eternal day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
2. There everlasting spring abides,
And never-fading flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides

This heavenly land from ours.

WATTS

3. Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green:

So to the Jews fair Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

4. But timorous mortals start and shrink,
To cross this narrow sea;
And linger, trembling on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

5. Oh! could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes;-

6. Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o'er,

Not Jordan's stream-nor death's cold flood.
Should fright us from the shore.

2.-GRATITUDE.

1. When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.

2. Unnumbered comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestowed,
Before my infant heart conceived
From whom those comforts flowed.

3. When in the slippery paths of youth
With heedless steps I ran,

Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe,
And led me up to man.

4. Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ;
Nor is the least a cheerful heart,
That tastes those gifts with joy

5. Through every period of my life,
Thy goodness I'll pursue;
And after death, in distant worlds,
The glorious theme renew.

6. Through all eternity, to thee
A joyful song I'll raise:
But oh! eternity's too short
To utter all thy praise!

ADDISON

LXXXVI.-INFIDELITY TESTED.

1. WE might ask the patrons of infidelity, what fury impels them to attempt the subversion of Christianity? Is it that they have discovered a better system? To what virtues are their principles favorable? Or is there one which Christians have not carried to a higher than any of which their party can boast? Have they discovered a more excellent rule of life, or a better hope in death, than that which the Scriptures suggest? Above all, what are the pretensions on which they rest their claims to be the guides of mankind, or which emboldened them to expect we should trample on the experience of ages, and abandon a religion which has been attested by a train of miracles and prophecies, in which millions of our forefathers have found a refuge in every trouble, and consolation in the hour of death; a religion which has been adorned with the highest sanctity of character and splendor of talents; which urols among its disciples the names of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, the glory of their species, and to which these illustrious men were proud to dedicate the last and best fruits of their immortal genius.

2. If the question at issue is to be decided by argument, nothing can be added to the triumph of Christianity; if by an appeal to authority, what have our adversaries to oppose to these great names? Where are the infidels of such pure, uncontaminated morals, unshaken probity, and extended benevolence, that we should be in no danger of being seduced into impiety by their example? Into what obscure recesses of misery, into what dungeons, have their philanthropists penetrated, to lighten the fetters and relieve the sorrows of the helpless captive? What barbarous tribes have their apostles visited? What distant climes have they explored, encompassed with cold, nakedness, and want, to

diffuse principles of virtue and the blessings of civilization? Or will they choose to waive their pretensions to this extraordinary, and in their eyes eccentric species of benevolence, and rest their character on their political exploits; on their efforts to reänimate the virtues of a sinking state, to restrain licentiousness, to calm the tumult of popular fury; and, by inculcating the spirit of justice, moderation and pity for fallen greatness, to mitigate the inevitable horrors of revolution? Our adversaries will, at least, have the discretion, if not the modesty to recede from this test.

3. More than all, their infatuated eagerness, their parricidal zeal, to extinguish a sense of Deity, must excite astonishment and horror. Is the idea of an almighty and perfect ruler unfriendly to any passion which is consistent with innocence, or an obstruction to any design which is not shameful to avow?

4. Eternal God! on what are thine enemies intent? What are those enterprises of guilt and horror, that, for the safety of their performers, require to be enveloped in a darkness which the eye of Heaven must not pierce? Miserable men!-proud of being the offspring of chance; in love with universal disorder; whose happiness is involved in the belief of there being no witness to their designs, and who are at ease only because they suppose themselves inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world!

LXXXVII.-RELIGION THE ONLY BASIS OF SOCIETY.

1. FEW men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends the extent of the support given by religion to every virtue. No man, perhaps, is aware how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain; how powerless con science would become without the belief of a God; how pal sied would be human benevolence, were there not the sense of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it; how suddenly the whole social fabric would quake, and with what a fearful crash it would sink into hopeless ruin, were the ideas of a supreme being, of accountableness, and of a future life, to be utterly erased from every mind.