still in night. The Gospel arises, the Sun of righteousness, flooding the world with truth, and warming the heart with love..

The great practical lesson to be learned from the history of Mohammedanism, is, "Keep yourselves from idols." The disciples of that Jesus, who demanded for God a worship purely spiritual, and who, though inspiring four of his disciples to write his life, permitted not their admiration to lead them into one sentence descriptive of his person-even his disciples had filled their temples with images, and worshiped, bowing before stones. From an idolatrous land a sword came, drawn avowedly against idolatry, vindicating the will of God to be worshiped without images; and that sword swept the lands where Christianity had been born, and had been corrupted. Let us beware. Idols are an abomination to the Lord, nor will any land turn to them without multiplying its sorrows.

SELECT LECTURES.

II.

Agents in the Beligious Bevival of the last Century.

BY REV. LUKE H. WISEMAN.

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION,

IN EXETER HALL, LONDON,

DURING THE WINTER COURSE OF 1854-5.

II.

The Religious Revival of the last Century.

one in this assembly can regret, so much as I do, the absence of the gentleman whose name has been announced for this evening-my friend, Mr. Edward Corderoy. It is to be regretted on his own account, that the state of his health makes it impossible for him to attend; on my account, that I should be called to occupy the place of so eloquent a lecturer; on your account, that the pleasure you were anticipating is exchanged for disappointment; and on account of the Young Men's Christian Association, which require that these lectures should not be monopolized by us of the clergy. Among men not of our profession you have already heard, with delight and advantage, the historian, the lawyer, the geologist, the physician, and the champion of temperance; to-night, for the first time, you were to have heard a man of commerce-a most worthy and able representative of that great mercantile class to which so many of yourselves belong. But he is not here; and as the managers of this Association have requested me to take his place and his theme, I reckon on your indulgence, while we glance at an extensive and somewhat delicate subject-"Agents in the Religious Revival of the last Century."

All accounts concur in representing the state of religion and morals in this country at the commencement of the eighteenth century as most deplorable. The court of Charles II had been more profligate and less patriotic than any court in Europe; and during his long reign of thirty-six years, and the short reign-four yearsof James, his successor, liberty, religion, and national honor declined and expired together. The accession of William III restored our honor and liberties, yet we discover few signs of improvement in morals; and during the reign of George I and George II, England sunk lower in ignorance and immorality than at any period since the Reformation. Among the educated classes, a sneering skepticism was almost universal. Bishop Butler, in the preface to his Analogy, dated 1736, remarks: "It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject for inquiry; but that it is, now at length, discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of reprisals, for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." Nor were the morals of the upper classes better than their creed. Marriage was despised; sisters, daughters, and wives of the most loyal subjects, the greatest generals, the wisest statesmen, and the gravest judges, not only practiced, but unblushingly avowed the grossest licentiousness. The most noble and elegant ladies of the court, in their ordinary conversation, were accustomed to utter such oaths as are now heard only among navvies and bargemen. The poet-laureate, in 1681, published a poem, in which he appears to advocate polygamy, or something worse; and this work of his is said to have been univer