any point of morals is now corrected. Public sentiment rules the world, and time has been, when it seemed as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Moral influences were nearly stagnant, and little could be done in the work of reform. But the scene has changed. Moral influences are now active and numerous, and can be easily concentrated and made to bear, with tremendous energy, upon any given abuse. As illustrations of this, I refer you, among other things, to the increasing unpopularity of war. Not long since, nations, for the most trivial reasons, would plunge into the guilt and horrors of this wholesale butchery of their species; but public sentiment now frowns upon that practice, and the consequence is, that most civilized nations are reluctant to decide their controversies by an appeal to arms, but prefer their settlement by the arbitration of a third power.

A few years ago, the slave-trade was prosecuted with vigor by nearly every nation in Christendom. But, by the efforts of Clarkson, Wilberforce and others, public sentiment has become so enlightened and reformed, that many of those very nations have pronounced that traffic to be piracy and punish it accordingly.

A short time since, intemperance rolled its waves of "distilled damnation " over the fairest portions of the world; and though the deluge has not yet entirely died away, a rectified public sentiment has reared an effectual barrier against its power, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."

You may labor, then, for a general and thorough reformation of morals, with this inspiring conviction, that public opinion can with comparative ease be reformed, and made to bring its resistless energies to your help.

Do

But the crowning encouragement to a life of usefulness is the certainty of success. God has indissolubly joined the effect to the means. you pray? He has said, that praying breath shall not be spent in vain. Do you labor? He has said, that your "labor shall not be in vain in the Lord." Do you give your substance? He has said, you "shall in no wise lose your reward." No efforts, put forth with right motives to build up his kingdom, can prove abortive. Good will be done. The world will be converted. "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." There is no cause in which you can labor with such certainty of success. Disappointment here is impossible. God

has promised to convert the world, and has pledged all the resources of his Omnipotence to redeem his promise. "Hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word shall not pass away." Here, then, is the supreme encouragement to live and to labor for Christ and his cause.

Let us contemplate,

IV. Some of the particular results of a life of supreme devotedness to Christ.

1. It will produce a state of elevated religious enjoyment. Go almost where you will in the churches and you will hear the complaint, "We have but little holy consolation and peace." Over nothing, perhaps, are so many tears shed by multitudes of professed Christians, as the withdrawment of the divine presence from their souls. Much of their time they walk in darkness, and they have walked in darkness so long, that they regard deliverance to be nearly hopeless. They almost expect to live and to die under the cloud. They perhaps can recollect the time, when the candle of the Lord shined brightly upon their tabernacle-when God was enjoyed, and their days and nights were full of peace. But that holy, halcyon season has long since passed away, and gloom, and wretch

edness, and tears are now their meat and their drink.

Now, it is evident, that this state of mind is not only quite common, but most deplorable. In primitive times, religion was a matter of habitual and high enjoyment. Its consolations were ever present in seasons of trial. And so it is now with that class of Christians, who live devoted to their Lord. Why was it that Paul could say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain?" Because his was a life of supreme devotedness to Jesus. Why was it that Latimer, when enveloped in the flames of martyrdom, could say to Ridley, his companion at the stake, "Be of good cheer, brother, we shall this day light such a candle in England, as, I trust in God, shall never go out?" Because a life of simple, entire consecration to Christ had prepared him for that hour. A missionary of the cross, who was embarking from our shores to go and spend his life in the isles of the Pacific, said to the speaker, as he “accompanied him to the ship," "Go and tell my brethren at the theological seminary, that this is the happiest day of my life." O, if Christians would live devotedly to their Master, their harps would no longer hang on the willows, the light of God's countenance would return, and their "peace would be as a river, and their righteousness as the

waves of the sea."

"Heaven waits not the last moment, owns her friends
On this side death, and points them out to men."

2. Eminent devotedness will result in the conversion of many souls. "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit, then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." The tone of piety in the soul ordinarily determines the extent of one's usefulness. Harlan Page, by his ever-living, warm-hearted piety, was the honored instrument of converting a great number of individuals. His piety was of that active, practical character, which sought to bring the Gospel to bear on the conscience of any and every person to whom he could gain access. His affectionate, solemn and pathetic appeals to the consciences of individuals was the secret of his success; and he could make such appeals, because his views of the danger of sinners were rendered absorbing and overwhelming by his steady contemplation of eternal scenes. Brainerd's success among the Indians was never so astonishing, as when he was " dwelling on the sides of eternity." That degree of piety in Christians, which makes them relinquish their