So that if any are tempted to look upon religion as an enemy to innocent pleasure, and feel that to be followers of Christ is to take the veil; that to enter the Christian church is to shake hands at the door with every innocent mirth; that putting on the new man is to put on stiffness and austerity; that being converted is being made unfit for social life; and that religion means the surrendering of every thing and gaining nothing, they may see their error corrected by this testimony of Christ our Saviour, in favor of human happiness, in his being present at a wedding, and in his beginning the work for which he came from heaven by contributing to the hilarity of a wedding feast. So far from being unfriendly to human happiness, religion alone warrants and enables us to be perfectly happy in this world. The church of Christ is spoken of in the Bible as the only portion of the human race that have claims to perfect happiness. Christians are represented, by this same figure of marriage, as raised to the height of earthly happiness, in being the bride of Christ. Is this an austere, melancholy creature, that comes floating by us on the wings of fancy, to whom are addressed such words as these: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad;" "The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold"? Though spiritual

things, it might be said, are designated by these metaphors, which describe the church of God in its holiness and happiness, yet if such effects, pictured by such images of beauty, can be the result of religious joy, surely religion is eminently favorable to the highest bliss.

But religion, it is said, forbids us to frequent playhouses, and frowns on dancing between the sexes. There is a great mistake here. Religion is not responsible for making these things obnoxious. Must a man or woman be a Christian in order to feel disapprobation of waltzing? Do none but church members think that such a thing is unsuitable? Do we need to be converted before we can disapprove of things which the devotees of Juggernaut's temple, and before his blood-stained car, practise; are Christians only blessed with the light of nature, to disallow things which the light of nature surely condemns ? Were we to argue against theatres, we would not, or we need not, quote one passage of the Bible; for wise and good men and women, out of the Christian church, are among the very best authorities as to the pernicious effect of playacting; and with regard to novels, (not, simply, works of imagination,) pernicious, not for the imagination in them, but for exaggerated, false views of things, and for the bad effect, even when they are true, of dwelling too much upon fictitious scenes, if one were to preach against

reading novels, so called, and should quote the Bible, he would perhaps, first of all, cite from it a quotation which Paul makes from a heathen poet; for he quotes Euripides, or Menander, for they both have it, when he says, "Evil communications corrupt good

Let not the friends of promiscuous dancing, and of theatres, and of certain novels, lay their condemnation at the door of religion; they are tried and condemned, as it were, in the Common Pleas of moral sentiments, not first of all in the higher judicatory of religion; though if they take their appeal to that, the judgment of the lower court will certainly be affirmed against them.

While with their knowledge of their own hearts, compared with the holiness of God, and with their self-disapprobation, and with opposition, from the world around them, to that which they hold most dear, Christians, if in this life only they had hope in Christ, would of all men be the most miserable, yet, with the hope of future blessedness, which enters greatly into all their present joys, and assures them that their faith is not in vain, Christians are of all men the happiest, and the most to be envied. Take them in the moments of their highest earthly joy, when their best earthly affections are crowned with all that heart can wish. A Christian, from those heights of happiness which, to an unregenerate man,

are the highest conceivable, can say, There is a happiness, now, and hereafter, which is superior to this. O God, thou art my God.' Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.' Sometimes, in the midst of the highest earthly joys, we are visited by this feeling;

After all, this does not satisfy me; my soul craves something else.' It may be said of every form of earthly pleasure, "Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again." And is there any thing else more satisfying than the highest earthly joy? Yes, and something which leaves no desire unsatisfied. And here we have the explanation of those wonderful words of Christ, which none can properly understand till they experience the truth of them: "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Religion alone satisfies the wants of the soul; it is an addition to every form of human happiness; there is not one human joy which is not made richer and sweeter by the consciousness that, with it, we have peace with God. Then, too, the thoughts of change, and decay, and the end of every fond enjoyment, will come unbidden into every bower of earthly happiness; and the Christian alone can triumph over such thoughts, knowing that the happiness which is above all to him, is superior to time, and change. and death; for "things present and things to come

all are yours and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, and we have no private end to secure, when we say to you that, if you would be truly happy in this world, you must be a Christian. We would select some young friend, whose prospects are the fairest, and whose present happiness is all which the world can ever give, and would say to that young friend, Your happiness is greatly deficient. Thousands like you have phantoms, and have found them air.'

lackest.

One thing thou

clasped these

Jesus said to the

people around him, "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead." So we may say to you, These joys seem to you like angels' food, but all before us, who have fed upon them, nevertheless are dead. All like you who have had the world for their chief good, did eat manna in the wilderness;' and what are they the better for it? they had not that bread from heaven, but Christ giveth you that true bread from heaven.

It is deeply affecting to think of those who had this world for their portion, and lived in pleasure, finding, in another world, that Christians were, even in this life, happier than they; but they received their good things, as they esteemed them, and likewise Christians evil things in their conflicts with evil, but now they are comforted, while the sinner is tor