BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



12] 



duct, and that every actioo of our lives should 

 have a reference to that immortal existence to 

 whicn we are destined. But it never insinuates, 

 that earth and heaven are opposed to each other, 

 as to their duties and enjoyments, or that we 

 must be miserable here, in order to be happy 

 hereafter. For while it prescribes rules which 

 have for their ultimate object our happiness in a 

 future world, the observance of these rules is cal 

 culated to secure our highest enjoyment even in 

 the present life ; and every one who has devoted 

 himself to the practice of genuine Christianity 

 has uniformly found, that &quot; godliness is profitable 

 unto all things, having the promise both of the 

 life that now is, and of that which is to come.&quot; 

 On the characteristics of the moral code of Chris 

 tianity, then, I should scarcely hesitate to rest 

 almost the whole of the internal evidence of its 

 divine original. For laws, which have a tendency 

 to unite in a bond of affectionate union the whole 

 intelligent creation, which, if practised, would 

 undermine every species of moral evil, and pro 

 mote peace and happiness over all the earth, and 

 which are equally calculated to produce true en 

 joyment in this world, and to prepare us for the 

 higher felicities of the world to come, must 

 have had their origin in the mind of that Al 

 mighty Being whose omniscient eye perceives all 

 the effects of every principle of action, and all 

 the relations which subsist throughout the moral 

 universe. 



6. Christianity explains certain moral phe 

 nomena, which would otherwise have been inex 

 plicable, and affords strong consolation under the 

 evils of life. It throws a light on the origin of 

 evil, and the disorders both of the physical and 

 moral world, by informing us, that man has lost 

 his original happiness and integrity, that the earth 

 has been defiled by his sin and rebellion, and 

 that it is no longer the beautiful and magnifi 

 cent fabric which it appeared during the period 

 of primeval innocence. On the same ground, it 

 discovers the reason, why death has been permit 

 ted to enter our terrestrial system, and the cause 

 of all those afflictions and calamities to which 

 mankind are subjected. It presents before us 

 principles, sufficient to explain most of the ap 

 parent irregularities and mysterious operations 

 which appear in the moral government of the Al 

 mighty, why storms and tempests, earthquakes 

 and volcanoes are permitted to produce their rav 

 ages, why the wicked so frequently enjoy pros 

 perity, while the virtuous groan under the pres 

 sure of adversity,--why tyranny is established 

 and vice enthroned, while virtue is despised, and 

 love to truth and righteousness sometimes expo 

 ses its votary to intolerable calamities. All such 

 occurrences, under the government of God, are 

 accounted for on these general principles,--that 

 Ihey fulfil his counsel, that they are subservient 

 to th accomplishment of some higher designs of 

 which we are partly ignorant, and that the justice 



and equity of his procedure will be fully display 

 ed and vindicated in the future world, where 

 &quot; every man will be rewarded according to his 

 works.&quot; And as Christianity explains the cause 

 of the physical and moral evils which exist in our 

 world, so it affords strong consolation 10 the minds 

 of its votaries under the afflictions to which they 

 are now exposed. For, what is death to that 

 mind which considers immortality as the career 

 of its existence ? What are the frowns of for 

 tune to him who claims an eternal world as his 

 inheritance ? What is the loss of friends to that 

 heart which feels that it shall quickly rejoin 

 them in a more intimate and permanent inter 

 course than any of which the present life is sus 

 ceptible ? What are the changes and revolutions 

 of earthly things to a mind which uniformly an 

 ticipates a state of unchangeable felicity ? As 

 earth is but a point in the universe, and time but 

 a moment in infinite duration, such are the hopes 

 of the Christian in comparison of every sublunary 

 misfortune. 



7. Revelation communicates to us a know 

 ledge of facts and doctrines which we could not 

 otherwise have acquired. It informs, us that 

 the Deity existed alone innumerable ages before 

 Time began that the material universe was 

 brought into existence, at his command, and by 

 the exertion of his A/mighty power and that 

 the earth, in its present form, had no existence 

 at a period seven thousand years oeyond the 

 present. It informs us of the manner in which 

 this globe was first peopled, of the primeval 

 state of its first inhabitants, of their fall from the 

 state of innocence and purity in which they 

 were at first created, of the increase of wicked 

 ness which followed the entrance of sin into the 

 world, of the Deluge which swept away its in 

 habitants, and of which the most evident traces 

 are still visible on the surface, and in the bowels 

 of the earth, and of the manner in which Noah 

 and his family were preserved from this uni 

 versal destruclion, for the re-peopling of the 

 world. It informs us of the time, manner and 

 circumstances in which the various languages 

 which now exist had their origin a subject 

 which completely puzzteJ u i&amp;lt; the ancient philoso 

 phers, which f^sy could never explain, and on 

 which no other history or tradition could throw 

 the least degree of hjj&quot;. .. It unfolds to us views 

 of the state of society in th* ~.?es that succeeded 

 the deluge, of the coun -^s into which mankind 

 were dispersed, and of the empires wnich they 

 founded. It records the history of Abraham, 

 the legislation of Mosfs, the deliverance of the 

 tribes of Israel from Egypt, their passage 

 through the Red-sea, their journeyings through 

 the deserts of Arabia, under the guidance of the 

 pillar of cloud and of fire, and their conquest of 

 the land of Canaan. It informs us of a succes 

 sion of prophets that were raised up to announce 

 the coming of Messiah, and to foretel the moat 



