God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." And surely, a greater than prophet spake that golden rule of human actions; that most accurate guide of relative duty; that most excellent interpretation of the true principle of human intercourse: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them." Thus is Christianity consistent with the law and the prophets; thus is it the completion of the divine will, “the power of God, and the wisdom of God unto salvation."

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SERMON III.

(ADVENT.)

A DAY APPOINTED FOR JUDGMENT.

ACTS xvii. 30, 31.

But now God commandeth all men every where to repent; because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

It is of some importance to the due influence of Christianity upon our hearts, that we should obtain a correct estimate of the full extent and value of those benefits which we have received from the revelation of Jesus Christ. And in forming this estimate, we must examine the state of human knowledge upon the most important of all subjects, namely, the character and attributes of God, and our relation to him as his responsible and moral creatures; not only as that know

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ledge now exists in its extended measure, but as it is displayed in the recorded sentiments of the wisest heathen moralists and philosophers. The wise men of our own days, those who profess to be wise above that which is written, and who scorn the teaching of the sacred oracles, will be found to have borrowed the light which they do possess from that very source which they reject; and if, in their knowledge, they have reached a point to which the unassisted heathen failed to attain, it is to that very revelation which they despise, that they owe their proficiency. "The world by wisdom knew not God;" and though this is equally true in our own days, yet to ascertain the depth of that ignorance in which the natural man is enveloped, we ought to trace the progress of the sages of Greece and Rome in the knowledge of God, and consider the limits to which they arrived by the guidance of unassisted reason. We shall find these masters of human learning unacquainted with those truths, which to the most unlearned amongst us, have become the principles of their faith, and the motives of their conduct truths, the belief of which elevates the soul to something of her original dignity, and liberates her from those fetters which mortal frailty has thrown around her capacities. How splendid is the contrast between the wisdom of the world, and that wisdom which is from above, as exhibited in the narrative before us. A poor

and despised citizen of a despised nation appears in the very centre of the learning, the taste, the science of the ancient world; and yet, from his lips the wisest there may be content to learn, and the most distinguished must confess the inferiority of his attainments. What Athens in her wisdom had failed clearly to discover, yet in her superstition was afraid wholly to neglect; that unknown God, whose existence she faintly conjectured, did Paul proclaim unto her; and amid the multitude of her idolatries, he showed her at what altar she might no longer supplicate in vain, if she would but recognize Jehovah's power, and seek a further knowledge of his perfections. "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." Where all had hitherto been vague speculation or philosophic doubt; where the Divine perfections were enveloped in fable, and secondary causes were invested with the attributes of Deity; where the worship of the Creator was merged in the idolatry of the creature, and the conviction of human responsibility rested rather on poetic imagery than on moral feeling; amid all these errors and delusions, and with all the prejudice and pride of self-sufficient reasoning arrayed against him, did the apostle stand forth before the tribunal of Athens, to answer the inquiry, rendered doubly interesting to the Athenians from its novelty: May we know

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what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest

is ?" And how clear, how rational, how solemnly convincing, is the apostle's answer! He told them that there was one God, the Creator and Governor of all things; who, as he dwells not in temples made with hands, requires of his intelligent creatures a spiritual service: that he had always given to all men the means of discovering something at least of his divine character, in that "he was not far from every one of us;" but that now in these latter times, he had made a more explicit revelation of his purposes; and by the manifestation of his Son Jesus Christ, had brought life and immortality to light; and had clearly established the responsibility of his moral creatures, by the positive announcement of a judgment to come. "Now God commandeth men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead."

This discourse of St. Paul at Athens, as it is concisely given by the sacred historian, contains a plain and judicious exposition of the principles of true religion, calculated to make an impression upon the minds of those to whom it was addressed, and admirably suited to the circumstances of the city in which it was delivered. We shall, however, at present only notice the