don that rewards the penitent, the influences of a sustaining spirit, the state and the prospects of the soul, its wants and sorrows and hopes, must inevitably be to enervate the mind, and to bind its noble energies with fetters of iron. Does religion ask of us the sacrifice of the intellectual powers, to be brought like victims to its altar? No! It only bids them come thither, to be consecrated as honoured, valued ministers at that altar, and receive instruction how to employ themselves for its honour.

But our fatal errour was to think otherwise of religion. It seemed to come to us as a cloud over the bright day of knowledge and of taste, to which the intellectual vision was opening with delight. Now at last that we have come to estimate the true influence of religion on the powers of the mind, the prejudice has faded away; and that devotional spirit which we had taken pains to avoid, as a foe to the cultivation of the mind, is now welcomed and loved as the only preservative we enjoy against the neglect or perversion of our powers. And what lessons have been taught the scholar, whose pursuits have been habitually connected with deep devotional feeling, that which preserves in all its evidences, a consciousness of being beheld every instant by Him who knows every thought of every heart?

When he has traced the perversities of unhallowed genius, striving to give attraction and beauty to the tyranny of the violent passions, and refinement to sensuality, he has been taught to scorn and brave them. If his powers are exerted in any pursuit of science or of taste, he has learned, to gather only what is innocent; to act as censor upon the deceptions and the evils of misdirected abilities; and, thus instruct ed, he is enabled to remain in alliance with truth and virtue, and to appear triumphantly in their behalf, when the minds of others are wasting away, in the delineation the patronage and vindication of delusion and sin. We are sure then that if any thing can be ridiculous and infantile, it was so, to think, that elevated and sublime as pure devotion must be in itself, as it summons the intellect to the noblest contemplations; and invaluable as it is to an accountable being, as his defence against the perversion of the richest blessing of Godbis power of thought-there could be the least tendency in it whatever to enervate and degrade that power.

But the absurdity was, moreover, a criminal absurdity. For granting it to have been true, that as we grew in love with religion, we lost all zeal in the labours of the scholar, what then? Was the primary object of our creation, literary merit? Did God fashion us, and have we been protected, cherished, and blessed by him, for the purpose (exclusively) of our gathering through many years small pittances of imperfect knowledge; principles of taste perfectly gratuitous and arbitrary in most men, and often learned and unlearned in the interval of a very few years, and these acquisitions, such as they are, being fastened together and bound to us, by only a weak memory that has its old age sometimes when our bodies are in their prime! O no! This is not alone, this is not principally our destiny. There was a far, nay an infinitely higher purpose in our creation; and to lose the view of it, is the sign of the fallen and ruined spirit. It is very simple language

TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE.

In the following reflections, I have spoken in the character of o
among the many votaries of taste, who are at length made sensi
that the attractions of literature may beguile away the affections f
fervent piety. In the fables of antiquity, it was in her character
warriour that Minerva is represented with the terrifick shield v
converted the spectator, at his first glance upon it, into stone.
now, alas! it is the charm, not the terrours, of Minerva, that, c
the warm life blood of devotion, has performed the same mirac
the enthusiast in letters; and the cold, senseless, motionless "
stone" is all the oblation that his taste allows him to bring t
tar of his God.

Should these lines meet the eye of such a one, they may
to reflect, that sweet as the visions of his fancy may be, w
he decorates the famed hills that Greece has consecrated to
there is yet a spot more hallowed, that rises beyond the wa
salem; and to visit the cross on its summit, is a nobler jo
better immortality, than the ascent to literary eminence fo
wreath of fame. Certainly it would be a blessing to him
how madly he is loitering to please his fancy about the C
who has never yet inquired the way to the holy fountair
the mercy of the Saviour is flowing with balm for the
ken spirit, and with the purest of waters for cleansing
transgressions.

It would contribute in no respect to make these tho ful or more interesting to the reader, to inform him, h may justly rank himself with those in whose person h his convictions and resolves.

THE PIETY OF THE SCHOLAR.

THAT is a false religion which calls not all our pow heart to the service of God. With the religion o standing has no concern. With the religion of oth ance of the affections. Yet of the two, that whic heart, even when it is misguided, is better than the cism may more easily be restrained and enlightene lative religion be made operative and useful.

H

161

it

10

and

ime,

s se.t, or a aus in interest. nothing to to consider calls pleains that now thing but the shame eternal. unt of so many ¡y accusation of event all the arts and undiscerning e, means to forsake s out his deformity, prayed for, he prel's malice; and, by Je takes away the sting, otherwise would be his xe the devil's malice usebe reconciled to the Judge , and then we need to fear pp. 42, 43. Lond. 1807. i. 19. Go ye therefore and more properly may be rennations, or, make the persons of Christians. That this is the true clear, from the right notion of the coming from ads, a disciple, it to make disciples, wheresoever it Orvos, Matt. xiii. 52, which is in

I. IV.

which Providence had marked out to them, was it not justifiable and expedient that the Canaanites should have been either forced to emigrate, or considerably extirpated? When we consider the object of the divine purposes, viz. to prepare for the advent of the Messiah, and to establish a nation whose religion should illustrate and afford evidence of this grand event, we shall be disposed to answer in the affirmative.

There is another consideration which has a bearing on the present subject. It may, perhaps, be thought open to objection. It would be wrong, however, to pass it over unnoticed. I mean the opinion entertained by many learned men that the Almighty, in the original division of the world, appropriated the country which the Israelites invaded, to the descendants of Shem, that the grant was renewed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who always asserted their claim to the land of Palestine, and that consequently the Canaanites were intruders. This is the view of Bryant; Rees, vol. vi. pp. 285—294, and some other writers, and certainly it must be allowed that Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, and Acts xvii. 26, seem to confirm the opinion that the settlement of the world was a subject of divine control.* Its defence, however, by no means rests upon this argument, but is maintained upon the grounds, of which a general examination has been presented.

SERMON.-No. XXXIII.

ACTS xxvi. 23. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

THE King Agrippa, here mentioned, was a Jew, and appears to have been the son of that Herod Agrippa, who had married his brother Philip's wife, and murdered John the baptist; though this was his son by a former marriage. He had been educated at Rome, in all the arts and intrigues of the imperial court, and while there, had by his skill and exertions obtained many favours for his countrymen the Jews. The government of a province adjacent to Judea having become vacant, Agrippa obtained it of the emperor, as it was then under the Roman power. He had some hereditary attachment to the religion of his fathers, and some curiosity to know what new ideas had lately been divulged respecting it. But his worldly designs had never afforded time nor disposition to examine closely into the subject. He had been so long absent from his native country, that he was but little acquainted with the doctrine of Christ and his apostles. But when Paul had been seized at Jerusalem, and brought down to Cesarea, and left in the care of Festus, Agrippa being there, and hearing of his imprisonment, was desirous to inquire into his case. He was accordingly brought forth, and permitted to speak for himself. This

Jahn, also, and Michaelis, defend the Canaanitish conquest on this ground. See Arch. 297.

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gave him an opportunity to plead his cause in such an able and ingenious manner as astonished Festus, and almost persuaded Agrippa. Festus, being a Roman, was not so much acquainted with the Old Testament, and of course could not so well comprehend the apostle's argument. He rather supposed, that "much learning had made him mad." But, says the intrepid apostle, "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely." King Agrippa believed the prophets, and understood the evidence upon which St. Paul grounded bis argument. So that, being struck with his profound reasoning, and with the account of his remarkable conversion, be was constrained to declare, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." To this our apostle, with his usual frankness and presence of mind, immediately replied, "I would to God, that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether, such as I am, except these bonds." He wished them his faith, but not his imprisonment. He wished them his graces, his bopes, and his consolations, but not his afflictions nor persecutions. "I would to God, that ye were all as I am, except these bonds." He was anxious that they should all be Christians; and Agrippa, for one, was almost persuaded.

Let us inquire, a little more minutely, what were probably his views and feelings, and what was the result of his impressions.

He had some acquaintance with the scriptures of the Old Testament, and acknowledged the truth of them. From that source he had learnt the opinion then prevailing in the civilized world, that some great personage was about to appear, and establish a powerful Jewish kingdom. Among the Jews that opinion was universal. And it prevailed to a considerable extent among the wisest of the Greeks and Romans. By living and conversing with these various people, and reading their books, it is probable he had assented to the same opinion; though his mind, like that of the Jews in general, was not fully settled as to the true character of the expected Messiah. To him, as he had not read very attentively, the prophecies were obscure. If he had read, that "a virgin should conceive and bear a son, and should call him Immanuel," he knew not what to make of the declaration. If he had read, that "there should be a root of Jesse, who should stand for an ensign of the people, and that to it should the Gentiles seek," he could not comprehend the prediction. If he had read, that "out of Bethlehem should come forth he that should be Ruler in Israel," the expression was equally obscure. He could not even fully understand the language of Daniel, that "it should be seventy weeks of years, or four hundred and ninety years, from the building of the second temple to the time of Messiah the Prince, and that he should be cut off, but not for himself, and should bring in an everlasting righteousness." Many other prophetick expressions in the Old Testament he knew not how to apply. They should pierce his hands and his feet; should give him gall and vinegar to drink; should part his garments among them, and cast lots for his vesture; and that GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. IV.

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