the unamiable and paradoxical spectacle, of a system which has the power of attracting all classes to itself, but of repelling them all from each other;-forgetting, that in the former they see Christianity triumphing over selfishness, and in the latter selfishness defeating Christianity.

Bigotry, is another of the forms in which an inordinate self-love delights-the selfishness of the creed. In this capacity, as in the former, its element is to sow division where nothing should be seen but union-among the members of the family of Christ. The great scheme of mercy originated in a love which consented to overlook the enmity and fierce rebellion of its objects, or, rather, which looked on that enmity only to pity and provide for its removal; but those who profess to have been the objects of that love, will not allow each other the liberty of the slightest conscientious difference, without resenting that difference as a personal and meditated affront; as if the natural enmity of their hearts against God had only changed its direction, and had found its legitimate objects in his people. Under a pretence of zeal for God, bigotry violates the sanctuary of conscience, and creates an inquisition in the midst of

the church.

Erecting its own creed into a standard of universal belief, it would fain call down fire from heaven, or kindle a furnace seven times hotter than an ordinary anger would demand, for all who presume to question its infallibility:-thus justifying the world in representing the odium theologicum as a concentration of all that is fierce, bitter, and destructive, in the human heart. The Lord they profess to obey, would have them to embrace with a comprehensive affection all who exhibit the least traces of his image; but the strongest traits, the most marked conformity to his likeness, is a very uncertain introduction to their hearts compared with a likeness of creed.

Nearly akin to this is, what, for the sake of convenience, may be denominated, the selfishness of the pulpit: that fearful spirit which presumes to limit what God meant to be universal-the overtures of redemption to a ruined world. Selfishness, indeed, in this repulsive form, is of comparatively limited existence; and, as if by a judicial arrangement of providence, it is commonly, in our day, associated with errors and tempers so unamiable, that its own nature forbids it to be

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come general. It daringly undertakes to "number Israel;" to determine not only that few will be saved, but who that few will be. Its ministers, faithful to their creed, stand before the cross, and hide it; lest men should see it who are not entitled or intended to behold it ;—a danger which they jealously avoid, a responsibility they would tremble to incur. The gospel charters redemption to the world, but they have heard that there are divine decrees; and until they can logically reconcile their views of the divine inflexibility with the universality of the divine compassion, the charter must stand over; and souls perish unwept; and the gospel of Christ, God's great gift, the adequate image of the infinitude of his love, be branded with the stigma of exclusiveness. Put the affairs of the kingdom of Christ into their hands,—and, under the affectation of a pious dread of contravening the sovereign purposes of God, or of forestalling his appointed time, they would forthwith call home the agents of mercy in distant lands, break up the institutions, and stop the whole machinery, of Christian benevolence. In the midst of a famishing world, they would establish a monopoly of the bread of life; and,

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though assailed on all sides by the cries of a race in the pains of death, would not cease to exchange smiles radiant with self-complacency while continuing to cater to their own pampered appetites. "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They know not that they are perverting that which was meant to be the destruction of selfishness, into its very aliment and nurse; they know not, that, next to the destruction of the gospel, they could not furnish Satan with a greater triumph than thus to silence its inviting voice, and to suppress the agencies of its disciples. to arrest the course of the angel having the everlasting gospel and flying through the midst of heaven, and to confine him to their own contracted horizon; to demonstrate that nothing is too monstrous to be apprehended from our nature when its selfish tendencies are the materials employed, since it can construct a system out of the gospel itself, whose most appropriate title would be, "Christianity made selfishness."

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The selfishness of the pew, is another form of the same pervading evil; incomparably less pernicious, indeed, than the last mentioned, but far

more extensive in its existence. This, is that modification of selfish piety which lives only to be personally comforted; which, in all its reading and hearing, makes its own individual comfort, not a means, but an end; and which, in pursuit of that end, goes up and down in the world, crying, “Give, give, and is never satisfied." The divine Redeemer describes the faithful shepherd as leaving the ninety and nine sheep for a time, to traverse the wilderness in quest of the one wanderer. But this unlovely spirit, reversing the touching picture, would have him neglect ninety and nine wanderers, to attend exclusively to one folded sheep. An epicure in comfort, it is impatient if the cup of consolation be removed from its lips for a moment, though that moment was only seized to say to a famishing multitude, "Come now, for all things are ready." Devout only in little things, it cannot bear to have its mind diverted from its own personal and particular state, even though the sight to which its attention is called is the wants of a world. It will consent to listen just once a year to the claims of the perishing heathen; but it feels as if more than that were too much, were pressing the subject unnecessarily on