in regard to the perpetuity of our unexampled national blessings, if the great duty of praying for public men and for the peace of our Jerusalem, which is so solemnly enjoined upon the Church, were as faithfully performed by all its members.

One who had enjoyed more than others favorable opportunities for knowing the deceased well, said to me that she thought the most remarkable trait of her old age was deep humility. This was precisely the remark which I had frequently been led to make. She possessed a strong and cultivated intellect, was well read, and especially so on religious subjects, and she retained to the last a complete and unimpaired use of her mental faculties. So, at least, it appeared to me. I was unable to perceive any decay in her powers during the twenty years of my acquaintance with her. Add to this, that the most intelligent and experienced Christians and ministers ever felt and manifested the greatest deference for her judgment and counsel. How natural-how almost unavoidable was it, under such circumstances, to acquire a measure of self-reliance incompatible with great humility! For this virtue, however, Mrs. Garrettson was pre-eminently distinguished. Deeply taught in all the great truths of revealed, experimental religion, she was the most teachable of all who sat with her at the feet of Jesus. Every minister who clearly, earnestly, and lovingly preached the cross, was sure to win golden opinions from her; and she seemed desirous of learning something about the way of salvation from every traveler toward Zion. She manifested profound respect for the religious experience of common, unlettered Christians, because she regarded this as a field in which the grace of God bestowed equal honor upon minds of very unequal capacity. I have looked on with intense interest and pleasure, to observe the docility with which she received lessons from persons greatly her inferiors in intellect, knowledge, and Christian attainments. It was manifestly because she

thought she saw in them evidence of a deep piety which was not likely to be unaccompanied by divine teaching.

Finally, I have known few Christians in whose theology, experience, and daily life, Christ occupied so exalted a place. He was literally the Alpha and Omega-the beginning and the end of her religion. She was wont to speak of her Savior with the profoundest reverence, and yet with an undertone of intense affection which constantly reminded one of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, or of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. It was this that gave to her piety its marked -I may say, its characterizing peculiarity. You would have thought, from her humble, abasing views of herself, that she would likely enough be a doubting, troubled Christian all the days of her pilgrimage. Nothing was farther. from the reality. I never heard her express a doubt of her acceptance and prospects of heaven. It is my impression that she lived on, from her conversion to her almost patriarchal age, ever assured of her being a child of God. Her peculiar views of Christ naturally led to this confidence. He was, to all her thoughts and conceptions, such a Saviorso divinely compassionate, so mighty to redeem and saveas quite to banish all distrust, and put out of the question her own unworthiness as being any obstacle to the displays of His grace. I have not known a Christian at once so humble and prayerful, and withal so fearless and confident. This was the spirit that pervaded her daily life. It was also the spirit that reigned ascendant in her dying hour. She triumphed at the thought of dying, because she clung to the Savior with so divine a hold. Her last intelligible utterances were made up of what made up her life-earnest prayer and triumphant assurance. Come, Lord Jesus! come, Lord Jesus! come quickly!" she cried, with eyes and hands raised toward heaven. Soon after, clapping her hands in holy triumph, she three times exclaimed exultingly, "He comes! He comes! He comes!"

IV.

CHRISTIANS ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

Ye are the light of the world.-Matt., v., 14.

THE world itself is dark. "Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people." The apostle Paul speaks of the darkness of this world" not as an accident, or an attribute of our moral condition here, but as its essence and principal element, as wholly pervading and overshadowing all human society. It is no wonder that the dwellers in this dim, dismal region "go astray from their birth," for "he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." "The god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them that believe not." It was in reference to the spiritual condition of beings to whom such language was universally applicable, and to the merciful designs he entertained toward them, that the adorable Savior announced himself as "the light of the world." He that followed Jesus should walk no more in darkness,.but should have "the light of life." Christ, in the season of his incarnation, illuminated the palpable obscure by his miracles, by his testimony of the Father, by his evangelical doctrines and morals, by his pure example and deeds of mercy, and by bringing "life and immortality to light." When he ascended up on high, having fulfilled his earthly mission, he devolved this function on his faithful disciples. The Church, itself radiant with the word and the spirit of God, became thenceforth the medium of that blessed illumination before which, in the large plans of the divine benevolence, all moral darkness is to be chased away from the face of the whole earth. are the light of the world.”

"Ye

The Gospel, of which the Christian Church is thus made the depository and sole agent, is "the true light," in distinction from all other systems, whether of religion or morals. This was and is its grand distinction. Other systems could never attain to this excellence. They were for the most part positively and universally mischievous in their entire action and tendencies. They led to evil, and that continually. As guides to virtue and mere worldly happiness they were inadequate and treacherous. But it was chiefly when the uninspired teachers who preceded the Christian dispensation assumed to be teachers of religion, that they became, one and all, "blind leaders of the blind." They only led men away from God. The objects of worship, the forms and rites, the methods of propitiation which they prescribed, interposed so many obstacles in the way of true piety. It is very remarkable that the religious principles and observances of idolatrous nations tend almost always to the subversion of the moralities and virtues which their philosophy sometimes inculcates. In every idol they raise up a rival to the Almighty; and when the fundamental doctrines of all true religion are thus corrupted, it must of course follow that all progress will be into error and darkness. Christ is the "true light," so far, at least, as religion and virtue are concerned; and the Gospel, as living in the faith and developed in the conduct of the sincere followers of Jesus, is, and is intended to be, under the present economy of the divine Providence, the sole guide and safeguard of the human race—it is "the light of life."

So much, I suppose, I may take for granted, that we are indebted to Christianity for whatever of sound piety and good morals may exist in the civilized world. I fear, however, there may be more of skepticism in regard to another claim that I am disposed to assert on behalf of the Gospel, that no really valuable improvement, no social melioration or progress can be effected by other than Christian agencies. It

may well be doubted, I think, whether Greece, or Rome, or Hindostan, or China, was ever the better for its religion or philosophy; whether the state was better governed, or society at large more refined or happy; whether the domestic circle was richer in the pure affections and sweet charities which constitute its bliss and its peculiar charm. Good government, I am quite ready to admit, may do a great deal for humanity; so may a wise system of education; so may voluntary associations with benevolent objects; not, however, because they are professedly divorced from the Gospel, but because they have really manifold alliances with it; because they act upon, and must fashion their measures and ministries to the sentiments and wants of a Christian people. A law that should do violence to the religious sense of the country could not be enacted, or, if enacted, could not be enforced. A society that should be formed upon an avowedly anti-Christian basis would, unless protected by its insignificance, be put down, either by public sentiment or by the mob; while parents, who never see the inside of a church, will yet contend might and main against the exclusion of the Bible from our common schools. So much, at least, has the Gospel achieved among us. It has won an acknowledged authority over the general conscience. It has become supreme in the theory of popular ethics, if not in our actual morals, and it thus very beneficially fulfills its mission as "the light of the world." It irradiates where it does not purify, and gives law to opinion where it fails of gaining any permanent authority over the life. Thus it is that Christianity, or its impersonation, the whole company of true believers constituting the Church, sheds forth upon the entire mass of human society a very benignant and conservative influence, while it may yet be true that it becomes "the power of God unto salvation" only to the few upright souls who truly believe in the Savior, and bear his cross. It has breathed a measure of its own spirit into our laws and insti