The first of these two codes is the Christian law in its purity; it retains the ten commandments without any alteration; it enjoins upon us to love God with our whole heart, and our neighbor as ourselves; it exacts chastity without blemish, perfect temperance, incorruptible justice, transparent truth; in a word, it demands all that God wishes and all that Jesus Christ practiced.

The second of these codes of morals is the Christian law arranged for the accommodation of sinners; it includes the ten commandments, interpreted in such a manner as to reach only the most scandalous sins; it prescribes a certain degree of love for God and for one's neighbor; it requires chastity, temperance, justice, truth; in a word, it demands all that God demands; but within certain limits-each one being a judge for himself. Those who have invented this code of morals, have reasoned thus: "Jesus Christ was far above us; we should not pretend to do what he has done. The person who suffers for our sins, ought to be perfect; but we ourselves have no need to be perfect."

I have said that each of the two codes has its business, its place, and, I might add, its hours. Do not imagine that the Christian code, in its purity, may be rejected; it is of great use; it is the morality of the temple; every one expects to hear it read in public worship; to find it in the sermon; no one is offended by it; it is, for many Christians, the morality of the communion day. By this law they judge themselves, condemn themselves, recognize themselves as sinners, and pray for pardon. For a large number, it serves as the morality of their discourses, and of their public writings; it is the morality which is admired, respected, adored; it may be called a magnificent picture, before which almost all Christianity bows.

The second of these two codes of morality-I mean the Christian law -arranged for the accommodation of sinners, does not receive the same homage; but it finds much to do, and if honor consists in effects, it is much more honored than the first. Long, indeed, would be the catalogue of the uses made of it by Christians-we must limit ourselves to the enumeration of but a few.

It is the morality of the family circle. It excludes, or, at least, is called upon to exclude the grosser vices, the scandalous habits, such as drunkenness, adultery, violence; but it permits the father of the family to be deficient in piety, charity, and purity; it permits the mother of the family to be quarrelsome, frivolous, and avaricious; it permits children to be wanting in respect for their parents, to lie, to dispute. It is, for a large number of Christians, the morality of education. What they propose in bringing up their children, is not, above all things else, to save their souls; but to put them in a condition to earn money, to honor themselves, and to reflect honor upon their parents. They desire, without doubt, to give them the name of Christians by bringing them to the baptismal font, and subsequently to the Lord's Supper; but they do

not design to make a serious matter of it; the vows which they make at baptism, to bring up their child in the fear of the Lord, is not, for them, a solemn engagement; they expect the minister to teach and recommend to him the word of God in the church, or in the school-room; but they themselves, recommend and teach it very little; the word of God is, with them, a sort of catechism, to be put into his memory and his mouth, rather than a law to be put into his heart, and to be exhibited in his life. The basis of education, in all families, almost without exception, or entirely without exception, is not the book of God, but the books of men. Often, alas! the books of heathen; heathen in fact, or heathen in principles.

The code, arranged for the accommodation of sinners, is, again, the morality of business. I mean in the speculations and relations of commerce, in daily labor, in the exercise of a profession, in the competition of interest, of honors, of studies, where there is little scruple about lying and deceiving within certain limits, about injuring one's neighbor, or sacrificing the religion and the service of God. To love one's neighbor as one's self, and to love God with the whole heart, are, with business men, absurdities which can be tolerated only in the church and in the sermon. This code is, moreover, the morality of governments, and of civil laws. I do not mean to say that Christianity has exercised no influence over the governments and laws of modern times. But does it affect the mutual relations between different governments? Do you know a single sovereign, a single legislator, who has laid down the Bible as the true foundation of the edifice of law? Do you know a single nation that has taken, as the model for its constitution, that which God himself gave to men? I will name to you such a sovereign, and such a nation; but I must seek them far away beyond the seas. Some years ago, a queen of Otaheite invited her subjects to make for themselves a code of laws. Interrogated by the representatives of her people as to the model they ought to follow in the performance of this labor, she answered by sending them a copy of the New Testament. But such a fact would be received as fabulous in Europe, whose Christian sovereigns and Christian people would never be found acting in such a manner. They render homage, it is true, to God and to Christianity; they cause themselves to be consecrated in the name of God, and in his temples; but it is only an empty honor which they accord to him, in order to legitimate and to honor themselves; it is a sacred mantle with which they cover their own nakedness; they would smile at the idea of giving Moses, or Jesus Christ, as model to a constitutive or legislative assembly. They admire, it is true, that constitution and those laws which God himself dictated to Israel, and which contain, under images so simple, in language so popular, the perfect type of justice, the purest principles of right; they admit that the people would be happy, if all legislators were animated by the spirit of Christ, and imbued with his morality; but when laws are to be made, and the government

of nations is to be regulated, it is not the wisdom of God nor the morality of Jesus Christ that they consult; it is rather the wisdom of miserable sinners; it is their morality, their particular opinions, and, very often, their interests and their passions. In this way most of the laws and constitutions of Christian people are formed. Occasions upon which a national council is seen to adopt a measure because it is commanded by Christianity, as when the English Parliament abolished slavery, are rare exceptions. It may be said without exaggeration, that Christian sovereigns and Christian people have placed the name of God at the head of their codes, while in these codes they have placed their own laws.

In short, to express my thoughts in a few words, and to declare plainly a fact which I find throughout all Christian society, the sinful law of which I have spoken, the second code of morality invented by Christians, is, outside of the temple, outside of worship and religious books, the law of the rich and of the poor, of the small and of the great, of the child, the young man, and the old man, of the merchant, of the artizan, of the man of letters, of the citizen, of the magistrate, of the people, and of the pastor.

To Christians, the law of God is an awful word, a venerated symbol; and, like a beautiful painting, they suspend it in their temples and upon the walls of their academies. But their own law-that law into which they have changed the law of God, in order to accommodate their weaknesses, is the law by which they judge themselves, and the road in which they walk. Has not God, then, a right to complain that we treat him as an enemy? Has he not reason to say: "O, my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me!" In view of the slight esteem in which we hold the law of God, might it not be said, that we have found, by experience, that this law is hurtful and dangerous? Might it not be said that God is an unjust master, whose yoke is heavy and insupportable?

Wherein is the yoke able to tell? Would

And what is dangerous and hurtful in this law? of God heavy and insupportable? Would we be we dare to tell? Ah! my brethren, let us in silence permit God to speak for us, and expose to us our iniquities, with that love which belongs to him alone. The reason for which we do not accept the law of God for our law-the reason for which we seek to obscure it, and to substitute for it another law-is, that the object of this law is to make us holy; the reason is, that this law is the law of a Saviour who, after having offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, wishes to snatch us from our sins. This is what is dangerous in his law; this is what is heavy and insupportable in the yoke of Christ.

O shame! my brethren; a merciless Lycurgus found a people willing to adopt his code of blood! An impure Mohammed found whole nations that have submitted for ages to his licentious laws. The false god, Brahma, found people ready to burn the living in honor of the dead!

The severe laws of the Romans became the laws of Christian people! But Jesus Christ has found no people willing to receive his law sincerely; and those who call themselves his people refuse to make this law their law! And what law? The law of him who, being the King of kings, and Sovereign over all, abdicated his royalty in favor of his sinful creatures; the law of him who is love; the law of him who was willing to suffer and die for all men-who wished to relieve all their miseries by his suf ferings, to bring them back to God, and to reconcile them to one another; the law written by God himself, by God the Saviour, and which is a law of salvation. This is the law, the only law, which could not be established upon the earth. This is the legislator, the only legislator, whose authority all men have rejected. The charity of this legislator is his crime, and the charity of his law is the reason for which this law is rejected.

Obedience to this law required the banishment from one's house and daily conduct, of every thing that is contrary to charity and justice—and this could not be endured; it required that children should be brought up under the influence of charity, by giving them an example conformed to that of Jesus Christ-and this could not be endured; it required that all business should be regulated according to the principles of rectitude and truth—and this could not be endured; it required the banishment, from constitutions and codes, of every thing that affected injuriously the rights, the property, the repose, the happiness of mankind-and this could not be endured; in a word, it required a life of love toward God and toward man-and this could not be endured. As human forms of worship are preferred to the worship established by Christ, as human theology is preferred to the theology of Christ, so the morality of sinners is preferred to the morality of Christ; and although eighteen centuries have elapsed since God himself descended upon earth to point out to men the way of truth, still they and their conductors wander about, groping apparently in darkness.

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I have pleaded your

My brethren, I have argued the cause of God. I have done it impartially, and without taking any advantage at the expense of truth. I have pleaded for God alone against the hosts of Christians. What do I say? No; I have pleaded against no one. cause while I have pleaded that of God. I have pleaded for you both against sin, and against your common enemy-an enemy that has caused all your misfortune.

It is written: "Righteousness exalteth a nation;" that is, God blesses the people who do his will. It is also written: "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it ;" that is, God invites the people whom he has smitten to inquire wherefore they are smitten. Inquire, then, my brethren, why he smites all the nations professing Christianity; why he troubles them by fears of war, by divisions, by civil discords, by frightful combats, by incendiaries, by inundations, by famines, by scourges of every kind, by

unexpected convulsions of nature. It is because they have rebelled against him, and have compelled him to chastise them. For the evils inflicted upon Europe, God will call to account both the people and the rulers, the Catholics, the Protestants, and the Greeks. For the evils endured by our own country, he accuses both the friends and the enemies of the government, both the magistrates and the people, both the rich and the poor. Let us therefore reform ourselves, and encourage others by our example.

My brethren, how near heaven is to men, and what happiness is within their reach! How easy it would be to relieve the miseries of others as well as our own! "The kingdom of heaven," in the beautiful words of Christ, "is at hand." His gospel is offered to us with all the blessings which accompany it. But the only remedy which can entirely remove the miseries of men, is that precisely which they will not try, or which they try but partially. In seeking a cure, they weary themselves, and only aggravate their sufferings. In vain has civilization progressedin vain does the torch of science burn-in vain does industry display its wonders-in vain does peace appear to protect commerce and agriculture -in vain does tyranny fall, and liberty dawn upon the nations; all hearts groan and are in anguish, and we weep as our fathers wept before us.

Let us try now the most simple, the most pleasant, the most powerful of all remedies; let us try that which God has given to us, and the success of which he has guarantied to us; that of making the Bible our guide. For three centuries, Protestants have elevated the Bible in the eyes of the people; and, although they may have done it with unclean nands, and often with hypocritical hearts, the Bible has elevated them above all people, for the Saviour loves to glorify his word. How will it be when we shall believe sincerely in the Bible, and live in entire conformity with its teachings; when it shall truly enter into our hearts, into our works, into our business, into our laws, into our institutions; when the leaven, as Christ says, shall have leavened the whole lump! How will it be when we shall follow the Bible, and live in accordance with the Bible; that is, when we shall follow Jesus Christ, and live in obedience to Jesus Christ, and like Jesus Christ!

O God, thou hast placed the torch of thy word in our temples; place it in our dwellings; place it in our schools; place it in our councils, and grant that we may do all things by its light. Make us Christians, Christians for a life-time, and not for a single day; Christians for all places, and not for thy temples only; Christians in every thing, and not in thy worship only; Christians in heart, and not in externals only; Christians in very deed, and not in words alone; Christians towards all; Christians like Jesus Christ. Make us truly Christians, and we shall be saved, and our country shall be saved, and the whole world shall be saved. Amen.