power; until the tree of liberty, planted in the rich and fertile soil of pure republicanism, shall send out its broad branches, from the Tiber to the ends of the earth, and all nations shall sit under its refreshing shade, and partake of its delicious fruit.

But more especially, young gentlemen, by the religion of Jesus Christ will you effect the universal emancipation of the souls of men, from the thraldom of sin, superstition and bigotry; and by these moral conquests you will send a thrill of joy through all the hosts of heaven, and a wave of delighted sensibility will move in holy grandeur over the fields of the celestial paradise. Yes, by the religion of Jesus Christ you will change the whole aspect and moral feature of a revolted universe; you will make springs of living water to burst out in the parched wilderness, and roll their living, healing tides along the flowery vales and the verdant. fields, rendered rich and fertile by the industrious hand of your moral culture. With principles like these, you will meet the approbation of God, and in your last day you will be blest with an approving conscience, and the smiles of indulgent Heaven; your age will be clear as the noon, and as a morning without clouds; your sun will set in tranquility, and the beams of eternity will salute your rising peace.

God grant you may possess his grace, and labor for the eternal reward which shall crown your efforts with unfading glory beyond the shores of time.

NATURE OF INFIDELITY.

"Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God; and him that serveth him not.-MAL. 3: 18.

Said the celebrated Phædrus:

"Decipit

Frons prima multos, rara mens intelligit
Quod interiore condidit cura angulo."
"The tinsel glitter, and the specious mien,
Delude the most-few pry behind the scene!"

No effort is necessary, upon this occasion, to prove the distinction which necessarily exists between the righteous and the wicked. Of the one class it is affirmed that they serve God, and of the other, that they serve him not.

The ministers of the sanctuary are under the most solemn obligation to return, and discern between these characters; and the servant that does not do this, forfeits his ministerial charge, and does violence to his high vocation. We, then, as ministers of the cross of Christ, are called upon by all the regard we feel for the souls of our fellow men, to come out on the Lord's side, and draw the line of demarkation between "him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." It was this solemn conviction of duty, and a desire to be useful to my

fellow men, that induced me in the first place to commence this course of lectures; and it is my constant prayer that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon this effort, however feeble.

It is not by the glorious effects of the blessed gospel on the external condition and situation of man alone, that we are to estimate its intrinsic value, its superlative excellence-but in the gushing springs of pure and unearthly joy, that refresh, invigorate and purify the soul. It is inter præcordia, which alone deserves the name of tranquility and joy.

Neither is it to the external condition of man, ruinous and deplorable as infidelity makes it, that we are to look for its withering effects, alone-but to that moral palsy which it induces on all the noble faculties and powers of the soul-engendering and quickening with rapid growth the most gigantic vices; and rendering dwarfish every virtuous principle. It is to show you the importance of correct and settled principles of virtue, and the dangers of infidelity, that our efforts have been, and still will be directed in these lectures. To influence you to study-improve and discipline the mind for philanthropic and noble deeds—we shall ever strive.

"Tis yours to climb the rugged steep,
Where learning's laurels bloom;
Your upward, onward, course to keep,
And gild life's transient gloom.”

After having invited your attention, as we have in the first two lectures, to the claims of society upon you, and to an examination of those principles necessary to qualify you to meet them, we then promised to notice some of the principles which would utterly disqualify

you to meet and satisfy such claims, however reasonable and just. Among these principles, I shall notice, as being corrupt in nature, and ruinous in tendency,

I. Infidelity, or scepticism. I mention this first, because it lies at the base of those practices and irregularities of life, and those aberrations of mind, which have been the ruin of thousands of our brightest and most promising young men. Upon this subject, permit me to be plain and candid; for, be assured, "It is not a vain thing, because it is your life.”

Infidels, and unbelievers of every grade, constantly complain of us, because, they affirm, we treat them with unbecoming severity, in our opposition to their principles. They do not, however, seem to recollect, that the genius of the gospel is in the most direct opposition to infidelity. If the one be true, the other must be grossly false. If man's happiness is consequent on the one, his misery is no less so on the other-and if his admission into heaven depend upon the moral efficacy of the one, his eternal damnation is consequent upon the moral corruption of the other. It cannot be, then, a thing of little moment; because, by it, individual happiness and salvation are at stake, as well as the future destinies of the world.

Who can look with cold and calculating indifference upon that subject, coming down from the skies; bearing the stamp of God Almighty; challenging universal admiration and obedience; throwing a halo of glory around itself; demonstrated by unerring prophecy and miracles; accompanied by an immense cloud of witnesses; based upon the universal expectation of the entire population of earth, that such a revelation would be made; scat

tering in its luminous course, life, liberty and happiness, rolling from the world the deepest shades of moral gloom; dissipating the mists of the tomb; throwing its broad beams across the valley and shadow of death, and opening to our enraptured vision the glories of immortality. Who, I say, can look upon a subject so superlatively grand, and magnificently glorious; and, in scoffing contempt, knit his brow, and close his eyes, and steel his heart against all its claims, and turn away and die?

Surely, it cannot be that man, who, looking through the majesty of nature, up to nature's God, sees his pervading Spirit in all his works; views with admiration the harmony of nature, and sees that

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul;
Which changed through all, is yet in all the same,
Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame.
Warms in the sun; refreshes in the breeze;
Glows in the stars; and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life; extends through all extent;
Spreads undivided; operates unspent.

To him, no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.”

The man who thus views the harmony and beauty of nature, and through this splendid volume, looks up to the great "Author and Finisher" of all these things, will never turn to the dark and grovelling lusts of sordid, selfish principles, or hide in the dank and noxious cells of infidel philosophy.

To define infidelity, is quite impossible. It is not a system, or creed-it is a perfect negation. Infidelity, both in the French and in the Latin, from which it is borrowed into our language, means a want of faith or