and varieties of excellence by which the original and eternal Beauty delights to present itself to the virtuous universe. There, every one conscious of being entirely lovely and entirely loved, reciprocates the same love to that great multitude which no man can number, of all nations, kindreds, and tongues, which fills the immeasurable regions of heaven. Out of this character grows a series, ever varying, ever improving, of all the possible communications of beneficence, fitted in every instance only to interchange and increase the happiness of all. In the sunshine of infinite complacency, the light of the new Jerusalem, the original source of all their own beauty life and joy, all these happy nations walk for ever, and transported with the life-giving influence, unite in one harmonious and eternal hymn to the great Author of all their excellences and all their enjoyments, Blessing and honour, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving be unto Him who sitteth on the throne, for ever and ever. Amen."

CHAPTER V.

PERPLEXITY OCCASIONED BY RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES.

What is Truth? JOHN xviii, 38.

SUCH was the momentous question which Pilate proposed to the illustrious and holy Martyr who then stood as a prisoner at his bar. It has been said there are two things in the Scripture account of this circumstance which surprise us, the silence of Christ, and the indifference of his judge that Christ should not answer such a question, and that Pilate should not press it until he obtained an answer. One of these wonders is the cause of the other, and if you consider them in connexion, your astonishment will cease. The levity of the querist was the cause of the silence of the oracle. Truth, in awful majesty, though veiled and insulted, stood before him, and indignantly refused to unfold its secrets and its glories to one who discovered frivolity on such a subject. On his lips it was the question of idle curiosity, not of deep solicitude; it came from the surface, and not from the lowest depths of his heart. If Christ gratified his curiosity, well; but he did not think truth of sufficient importance to inquire after it a second time.

The conduct of Pilate to Jesus and of Jesus to Pilate is repeated every day. Multitudes, by little attention to religion and their Bibles, ask, "What is truth ?" but it is in such a careless and undevout manner, that Jesus Christ leaves them to wander in their own dark and miserable conjectures. Hence so many prejudices; hence so many erroneous opinions in religion; hence so many

dangerous delusions, in what is called the Christian world. Still there have been very many who in sober and solemn inquisitiveness have asked the question, "What is truth ?" Myriads of human intellects of the highest order have engaged in the pursuit of this great object; and as regards scientific knowledge, have by demonstration and experiment echoed in unison, and with something of the rapture with which it was originally uttered, the Eureka of Archimedes. But in reference to moral and religious truth, how multitudinous and how contradictory are the voices which answer the inquiry. If we may judge from the present state and aspect of Christendom, the day is far distant when, in answer to the question, all tongues shall proclaim one doctrine, and triumphantly reply, "This is truth." Hence the perplexities of many young persons at the outset of their religious life.

Many things, young men, will perplex you at the outset of a religious life, and tend to embarrass you in the early stages of your enquiry into this momentous subject. The mysterious nature of the whole subject of religion, so far as it relates to divine, heavenly, and eternal truths; the general neglect of it, to all practical and serious purpose, by the multitude around you; and the lukewarmness and inconsistency of many of those who make a profession of it; will all be apt to produce an unfavourable impression upon your mind, to shake your resolutions, and render your steps hesitating and faltering. There is also another cause of perplexity; I mean the number of religious sects, the diversity of creeds, and the ceaseless and yet unsettled controversies which prevail throughout all Christendom. Bewildered by such diversity, and distracted by such contentions, you are ready to abandon the subject in hopeless despair of arriving at the truth. I sympathise with you, my young friends, in your difficulties, and this chapter is intended, by God's blessing, to extricate, relieve, and guide you, and if it do not remove

the difficulty (for what can remove it ?) may do something to lessen it.

I. I will state particularly what it is that perplexes you. I descend into the depths of your secret thoughts, and I find there some surprise that on such a subject as religion, especially after a revelation from God, there should be any controversy, or any room for controversy at all. You may be ready to suppose that all would be so plain as to preclude the possibility of diversity or mistake. But do men think alike on any other subject? Is there consentaneousness of opinion on any one topic that is sustained only by moral evidence? Was there ever a statute or law passed, (they are usually so framed as to exclude, if possible, all difference of opinion,) about which lawyers cannot, as to some of its clauses, raise doubts and difficulties? Now, is not a written revelation from God, inasmuch as it relates to subjects foreign to ordinary matters, remote from our senses, and out of the usual track of our thoughts, just that one thing about which, beyond all others, diversity of opinion might be expected? Consider the thousands of propositions contained in the Bible; the imperfections of language; the mysteriousness of the subjects; the endlessly diversified temperaments of human minds, and the various circumstances in which those minds are placed; and you will see at once that nothing short of an astounding and constant miracle could produce absolute uniformity of opinion. Nor is this all; for such is the corruption of man's heart, that his mind is not only on this ground likely to go wrong in its judgments, but it is actually opposed with very strong dislike to many of the truths revealed, and on that account it really wishes and attempts to pervert them, as being too humbling for his pride, too pure for his depravity, and too authoritative for his love of independence. Here again you may see reason to abate your surprise at the diversity of opinion.

The young enquirer about religion is not unfrequently

scandalised and disgusted by the bitterness of sectarianism, and the rancour with which controversy is conducted. He sees the evil passions of our corrupt nature, “malice, wrath, and all uncharitableness," as rife in the writings, and therefore in the hearts, of religious polemics, as they are in those of the fiercest political antagonists; and he says in thoughtful seriousness, "Was not Christianity sent to produce peace on earth, and good will to men ? Is it not said that love is its cardinal excellence? Can these men, any of them, really believe in the Christian religion, which places charity at the head of the Christian virtues ?" I admit to you, without hesitation, all this bitterness is wrong, cannot be justified, and is condemned by the volume about which these men contend. To speak the truth in love is one of its own injunctions. But recollect that even the best of men are imperfect, and that nothing so strongly appeals to our imperfections, and brings them into such activity, as contradiction and controversy. It is not true to say there is more bitterness in theological than in any other kind of controversy; but it is true that there ought to be less. One thing should not be forgotten, that the importance of the subject naturally renders men more earnest than any other does, and that earnestness, it must be admitted, too generally degenerates into unseemly violence and bitterness. There is in every human heart, however morally excellent and holy, some corruption lying underneath its excellences, which by controversy is too often brought to the surface; just as sediment at the bottom of clear water is stirred up by agitating the vessel containing it.

The equal mental power with which opposing systems are maintained is to a mind unskilled in dialectics, and unable to detect the fallacies which lurk, and the sophistry which abounds, in erroneous argumentation, often very trying. It is admitted, it is impossible to question it, that great ability is possessed and displayed by all parties in the arena of religious strife, by the combatants for error