69 
acquainted, and imparted to them a force derived from his 
own person, of which they were previously destitute. He in- 
voked the moral force of all things which are true, honest, just, 
pure lovely, of good report, of virtue and praise, and of the 
principle of enlightened self-love, which is inseparable from 
our being. But in addition to this, he invoked the whole 
force of the religious principle in man, and brought it to bear 
as a definite conviction on his moral nature. He discovered 
the relationship which exists between man and Hod, thereby 
imparting a mighty force to the principle of responsibility 
and reinforced it by disclosing the fact of his immortality, and 
that he was himself appointed to be his future judge. A 
future state was with him not a speculation, but a fact ; and he 
confirmed his teaching respecting it by himself rising from 
the dead. He also exhibited in his own person the ideal ol 
every perfection, divine and human, and crowned it by sur- 
rendering his life for man. By the ideal of goodness, and by 
every divine and human perfection exhibited in his life and 
death, he proclaimed himself worthy to seat himself on the 
throne of the conscience, and to occupy the highest place m 
the affections ; and taught that the most powerful principle of 
holiness was the steady contemplation of himself. The greatest 
peculiarity of Christianity is that it professes to centre the 
affections of man in a living person, that person being an 
exhibition of the supremest goodness, holiness, and loveliness, 
and to make him supreme, above every other moral force. 
If we read the Hew Testament as we would any ordinary 
literature, we must admit that this is at least an outline of the 
method by which the first propagators of Christianity pro- 
posed to act on mankind. I do not pretend to give a complete 
enumeration of all the forces to which they have appealed. By 
such agencies they have also communicated a more active 
force to the principle of habituation, and created the Church 
as the instrument for its application. 
50. Such is a general outline of the method adopted by 
Christianity for the improvement of mankind. Is the testi- 
mony which philosophy gives to it favourable, or the reverse ? 
51. Philosophy fully recognizes the truth that the only mode 
in which a state of moral corruption can be changed into one 
of holiness, is by the introduction of an idea into the mind 
which had no previous existence there. Otherwise things 
must go on in their old groove. If we wish to divert the 
course of a river, it is necessary to dig a new bed for it. Con- 
viction is the only force by which such an idea can vindicate to 
itself a standing-place in our minds, and if the force of opposing 
passion be great, the conviction must be proportionably deep. 
