and triumph of his sect. The sectarian in the good sense is thinking only of truth, its author, its beneficent influence. The good Samaritan of the soul, he wishes that others may share that which has blest himself. And though he must act with others and give and gain strength by associating himself with others, still he labors not for himself or his sect, but for truth and its blessed fruits and the good of his brethren. He cares not if he and his sect die and are forgotten, so that truth spring from their grave to bless mankind. Such sectarianism God looks

on and blesses.

But it is said; the great part of religious sectarists be. long to that body of whom it is said, that "they compass sea and land to make one proselyte," caring only for the triumph of themselves and their sect, and utterly heedless of truth or its benign effects. Very well; it may be so. But if I were addressing those who make this assertion the excuse for their indifference, I would say; Do you the good that these men do, from a better principle. Let not their doing what is right from a wrong motive, prevent your doing it from a right one. Let not their committing sin on one side, cause you to commit as great a one on the other.

The truth is, that wherever thought is not utterly dead and men not utterly selfish, there must be sectarianism in some form or other. And for the plain reason that there will be difference of opinion and efforts to propagate opposite cpinions. And imperfect and as subject to error as men's minds are, it is well that it is so. It is by the collision of hostile thought and effort, that Truth is struck out, lightning-like, to illuminate the world. It is the motive that makes the difference between the good

and bad sectarian. Let not men trouble themselves, if they are troubled in this matter, about other men's motives. God, not man, is their judge. Only let each man take care of his own purposes. Let each man look to his own heart and see that he aids in spreading divine truth, from good motives, and he need not trouble himself about sectarianism.

But I dwell on this too long. As I write, the difference between a good and a wicked sectarianism seems so plain, that I cannot think that many who are truly christians should mistake one for the other. Allow me for a moment to refer to another objection which many of our brethren make against efforts to disseminate our views.

It is said; "Men are not saved by their intellectual opinions. Feelings, motives, the governing principles of action are all and only essential. No matter how a man's intellect is, provided his heart be right. And, as a matter of fact, you find right religious feelings and right principles of action in members of every sect."

Undoubtedly this is all true. I have learned from what I cannot but consider a useful experience, that christian. feelings are not monopolized by any single sect. I say it with a thankful heart, for I consider it one of the great blessings which our heavenly Father has permitted me to enjoy, that I have known as friends, those who were christians in the truest and noblest sense, (if christians there are in the world,) of almost every sect into which our country is divided.

But does the fact that christian feelings and principles exist in all sects show that opinions are unimportant? Let it be granted that very different opinions may produce or accompany like feelings. Does it follow that all

opinions will equally accompany or produce them? There was one righteous man in Sodom. Christ found a Roman Centurion that put Israel to shame; and both of us have seen more than one infidel whose character was far more luminous with christian graces, than many of their nominally believing neighbors. But surely this does not prove that the religious opinions received in Sodom, or even those received by Lot, or a faith in the Roman Pantheon, or a scepticism about all religion, is of as much use as a true faith in the gospel of Christ? Surely this does not show that religious opinions are unimportant.

Opinions not important! Opinions rule the world, and each individual in it- affection — wish-will. Opinion plied the bloody knife of the guillotine. Opinion built the walls of the inquisition. Opinion buttresses the hoary despotisins, and consecrates the blood-cemented religious institutions of Asia. False opinions sink and keep men in degradation; true opinions raise them out of the gulf and the darkness into the day.

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Do not many who speak of the primary importance of right religious feelings a heart right with God-and of the comparative unimportance of opinions, forget the intimate connection which our Maker has established be. tween feeling and opinion? Does not the latter determine the former? Before men can have right feelings towards God, must they not have right views of what God is? Before they will have right feelings towards men, must they not have right notions of the relations between man and man? Right feelings are born out of right opinions. In ancient times, in almost every nation, the words stranger and enemy were held to be synonymes. What has wrought the reform in christendom

which now causes the stranger to be looked on, not as an enemy, but as one having a claim on us for hospitable care? Opinion. The introduction into the world of the truth that men are all brethren of one family, the children of one God, heirs of the same eternity.

True, there is in man a religious principle, as there is a social one, and under all circumstances it will be more or less developed. But the character of that development depends very much on the man's religious opinions. False opinions dwarf and deaden it. They act as a Chinese mould, to distort and benumb it. True opinions stretch over it the genial sky, beneath which it can spring and grow with a healthy growth.

But there are others of our friends, though I think the number is small, who take a different ground. They say that truth cannot be spread at all, certainly not with profit, by foreign influence;-that there must be preparation in the minds of those who receive it; that it must spring up in a great degree spontaneously, each individual being in some sort a discoverer; and that every successful reformer does not so much teach new truths as give expression to those which already lie in unquiet sleepalive, but unuttered in the hearts of those to whom he speaks.

There is enough truth in this to give it a degree of speciousness; but so far as it is true, it affords no objection to any missionary enterprise of which I am now speaking. If it were strictly true, Newton should have been dumb, and Wickliffe should have kept heaven's truth cloistered in his heart, and they who have thought that the very winds which wafted the ashes of Huss over the valleys of Bohemia were hallowed by their burden, must

henceforth correct their opinions, and think of him as one who was led into a foolish undertaking by a good purpose, but a weak head. This sybaritic doctrine- this convenient plea for doing nothing to relieve men of that evil which is the fountain head of all other evils, error, should be cast out of the world. It accords not with our Saviour's command; "Go ye and teach all nations." The world is surely as well prepared for the gospel now as it was when this command was given.

Besides, though there must be preparation for the reception of every new truth which is taken into the mind from childhood up, yet how is it ever propagated except by foreign influence. In the spirit of the objection to which we have referred, every mind is foreign to every other mind. Shall the parent therefore not teach a child, but wait for the spontaneous growth of truth? Nothing can be more foreign to another than the schoolmaster's ⚫ mind to his pupil. Shall the schoolmaster no longer be abroad in the land? Shall the orator be silent, and the philosopher cast the sheets on which he has toiled into the flames? "There must be preparation for truth in the mind of the recipient!" Certainly. But how prepare men for the reception of moral truths? By presenting again and again the truths themselves to their minds. This the being brought to look steadily at a moral truth is the preparation needed for understanding it. But if God has honored you with that greatest of honors the being a steward and dispenser to the world of a great Truth, is the fact that the world is unprepared for its reception, any excuse for your inactivity? May you therefore put your talent into the earth? No;. go and prepare the world. Prepare at least as many