that is in man, and whose promise of strength is made to every humble believer in his holy efforts. This Divine trust leads to humility, to prayer, to earnest seeking of the Spirit of God, that a new and Divine life may be imparted. And most rapid and amazing have been the changes of natural temper and character wrought by this Divine power received through faith in the promise of the Saviour. The apostolic age witnessed them, and every age since has continued to attest the truth that humble, earnest faith in Christ will enable the sinner to subdue himself unto the dominion of his Saviour. It will not conquer evil habits by external restraint, but by imparting a new principle and spirit, and by securing the aid of Him through whom all things are possible. 3. And now let us apply the same remark to the subject of producing great moral changes in others, or in communities. Human power, and the various means of external influence, may check and restrain the crimes and vices to which so many are constantly in bondage. Much may be done by diminishing the sources of temptation, and keeping men from the sight of, and exposure to, evil influences. External restraints may have influence to a certain extent in producing general moral changes. But if the chief reliance be placed upon such outward means of keeping evil in check, and with the design of imposing a permanent barrier to the ravages of any vice in a community, the result will prove the futility of the attempt. There can be little hope that any coercive restraints can be made so general, or so minute and constant in their operation, as to prevent the opportunity of vice, if there be not any fixed principle of character against it. The incentives and occasions for the indulgence of evil passion are so various, and the means of gratification so many and so multiform, ever shifting in appearance and name, now open and again disguised, that it is to be feared any restraining authority will always be unequal to such a work. There will be the constant necessity of meeting the same vice under new forms and in new directions, and force applied in one quarter may only drive the impulses of passion into a new channel. In individuals, great and permanent moral changes must have their seat in the heart and conscience of each man. And, in communities, the same principle is true. When men are ready to say, "we are able" to change the moral habits and characters of the masses by any external restraint, they will assuredly fail. The direct effort to extend the influence of the great essential truths and doctrines of the Gospel of our Saviour,-to bring men of all classes under the range of their power, is the surest and only effectual mode of securing real and permanent moral changes. Divine truth, applied through the Holy Spirit to the consciences and hearts of men, is the great power placed in our hands for the reformation of men. And any system of measures which neglects this, and which may be completely carried out by men who dishonor the word, the worship, and the ordinances of God, cannot succeed. However active and zealous the efforts of such men may be in moral reforms, they will do more in the end to confirm the power of vice and sin, in weakening by their example and teachings the authority and influence of the grand truths of the Gospel, and the diviner institutions of the Saviour, than any degree of human power can check or overcome. Voltaire or Paine might have been the most zealous moral reformers, but when they succeeded in undermining, in any community, its faith in and respect for the Gospel and ordinances of the Saviour, they destroyed the only foundation upon which any great moral change could have permanently rested. We have, in our day, infidel, irreligious reformers, who poison the fountain, while they would purify the streams; who declaim against vice yet ridicule the Gospel and Church of God; who neglect and dishonor the Lord's day, the Holy Sanctuary and the sacred Scriptures, and "teach men so," and yet hope to change the characters and lives of mankind. But whatever in the example of any man weakens the practical power of the Gospel over society, produces a permanent evil, which infinitely outweighs all the good he may do by any degree of effort for moral reform. And a vast amount of the actual evils which exist in the community may be traced to the diminution of the hold which the truths of the Gospel have over the consciences of Little abiding moral or spiritual good will men. be effected, which does not rest upon those great immutable principles which will stand the test of God's Word, and which are in harmony with the institutions of our Divine Redeemer. And the best of all instruments in doing good is the direct teaching of the Gospel, the extension of the Word and Church of Christ. Through these Divine instruments, with the promise of God's Spirit, we are able both to secure the transformation of ourselves and the conversion of men. While no man can trust in the mere strength of human purpose to overcome a sinful nature and change his heart, it is also true that there is no man, however great his guilt, however fixed his habits of worldliness, who may not begin life anew, - if, renouncing self-reliance, he will humbly, earnestly, and steadfastly seek power from on high,—and faithfully use the means divinely appointed to quicken the soul from spiritual deadness unto a Divine life. Upon this hope, and this alone, must we all depend in working out our salvation, and in seeking that of others. He who comes to Christ with this trust in Him for pardon and for strength to live unto Him, will never fail to find in Him redemption from the power and the curse of sin. When in the temptations and trials of life his heart faileth, he may still look up and exclaim, "but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever." And by the same faith, he may look forward without fear to every future danger, and to the last great struggle, and know that he will be "more than conqueror through Him that loved us." 66 VIII. PRESENT DUTY. Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."- MATT. vi. 34. THIS Divine maxim is introduced by several beautiful illustrations of the providence of God in its protecting care of the most helpless of His creatures. The fowls of the air, though they reap not, nor gather into barns, are objects of His tender watchfulness; and not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Heavenly Father. By Him the flowers of the field are clothed with their robes of loveliness, richer than the most costly raiment of man. These irrational creatures, these perishing objects, all proclaim the most watchful care of their great Author, and teach man constant lessons of trust and hope. Shall he who was made in the image of the Almighty, who alone of all earthly beings was endowed with reason, and made the heir of immortality, — “a little lower than the angels," shall he alone yield to distrust of the Divine protection, extended as it is to the irrational works of God? And yet, notwithstanding the manifold proofs of the compas - |