of the frailties of humanity. He was the greatest of mere moralists, and the undoubted chief of modern men of letters. Nor is this all; he exhibited a vast amount of moral greatness, but it was of a mixed and imperfect character. The words of our Master in relation to the comparative merits of John the Baptist and the subjects of the New Dispensation, are remarkably appropriate to Johnson. Of those that were devoted to the study of morals, there had not arisen a greater than the author of the "Rambler," but the least among the missionaries of the cross is greater than he. His inferiority arose mainly from his ignorance of gospel doctrine. In your own published views respecting the anti-evangelical character of his writings, and his "capital fault" of omission, I entirely concur. Oh! had his noble mind been duly enlightened by the Spirit of God, and his vigorous pages been pervaded by evangelical truth, what a contribution would have been rendered by his writings to our theological literature! As it is, he could scarcely have been greater without becoming experimentally acquainted with the system of revealed truth, and cordially embracing it. Men and things are great, in the highest sense, only as they partake of Christ, and promote his glory. Tried by this test, "Rasselas," "The Rambler," and the "Lives of the Poets," are comparatively worthless as writings, and powerless as organs of human reformation. Who has heard that they ever converted a soul, or that they ever comforted a mourner? Those tiny tracts, Fuller's "Great Question Answered," and Scott's "Force of Truth," possess a value and a power infinitely superior to all the writings of the great moralist. His achievements in literature, were, in their own line, prodigious, incomparable, matchless, immortal;

but, compared with the infant Christian literature of the South Seas, and other heathen lands, they are only as a taper before the sun.

If, then, even Samuel Johnson is so diminutive a person in the presence of the missionaries of the cross, it is surely preposterous to seek for any other who may better abide the test of comparison. I should, nevertheless, did my limits permit, very much like to extend the list, and to place in the balances a Burke, a Butler, a Paley, and a multitude of moralists besides,-all men of noble natures, of vast attainments, and varied accomplishments; for the result would exceedingly serve to heighten the contrast, and to illustrate the importance of the office of the Christian missionary. I also greatly wish I could subject to the same test our historians, orators, and poets, and, above all, our mental and physical philosophers. The nations of Europe have been prodigal of praise upon the illustrious names of Malebranche, Leibnitz, Condillac, Helvetius, Kant, Locke, Reid, Hartley, Stewart, and Brown. These distinguished men have contributed much to enlighten the world in matters relating to the human mind. But it cannot be denied, that to a great extent their speculations have been curious, rather than useful. They have but very slightly contributed even to the temporal welfare of the human race, and they have been still less influential upon its spiritual interests. Had not one of their lucubrations ever seen the light, the wretched inhabitants of Europe could not have shed one tear the less, nor would there have been one additional outrage in the catalogue of crime! The single work of Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations," has conduced ten thousand times more to the world's welfare. If they

have so little contributed to the good of man, it is not to be supposed that they have advanced the Divine glory. Had the whole body of European metaphysicians never had a being, their absence would not in the least have retarded the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. Their elegant speculations have broken no hard hearts, have incited no perishing souls to flee from the wrath to come. Neither at home nor abroad have they sped the salvation of mankind. No class of scholars are more inferior to the missionary servants of the Son of God.

There is another class of illustrious men, with whom I should much like to compare and contrast the missionary, and with whom such comparison and contrast would be more formidable. These are jurists and political economists, such men as Machiavel, Hobbes, Grotius, Puffendorf, Montesquieu, Hume, Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, and others of the same order. These are men of various views and merits, but most of them men of

transcendent powers. A portion of them have contri

It is difficult All, however,

buted much to the welfare of nations. adequately to estimate their services. has been "seen and temporal;" it has chiefly, or rather solely, had to do with man's body, and with his political relationships; his immortal part, and his eternal interests, have not shared their consideration. I speak not of the infidel and atheistic part of them, but of such as professed better principles. In their own sphere they are truly great, and highly honourable; but that greatness is of an humble order, and that honour of a perishable character. Neither has it in its nature aught of the celestial, aught of the immortal. The extinction. of some of those lights in the cradle, had been to man

kind a great, an irreparable loss; but that loss would have been limited by earth and time. It could not have extended to eternity. They laboured not for souls; and hence, into the world of souls their glory cannot enter; and in the day of final reckoning but small account will be made of their toils. They, and only they, work for immortality who work upon that which is immortal-the spirit of man. They, and only they, will realize a crown that fadeth not away, who are devoted servants of Jesus Christ, and co-workers with God in the recovery of a lost world! The men whom earth despises, are precisely the men whom heaven will honour. They who share in Messiah's shame, are the men who will participate in his renown. The name of Christ alone will constitute a passport to the region of eternal fame. The poorest missionary now toiling in the wilderness, teaching the alphabet to the child of the savage, and pointing the parent to the skies, fills an office of far greater distinction than the prime minister of the proudest kingdom in Europe. His work will outlive the stars, and his reward will be as lasting as his labours. In the world of light, the first political philosopher of our earth,—if, through the mercy of God, he be permitted to enter it,—will be a very humble personage as compared with the meanest instrument in promoting the kingdom of heaven. How altered then will be men's views of Christ and of his service! How different then will be their estimate of his mission and of his messengers, especially of those whose lives were peculiarly dedicated to the extension of his kingdom and glory!

There is another class of philosophers whose pursuits are profitable and praiseworthy, noble and sublime :

their fame will be wide as the world, and lasting as time. Of this illustrious throng the heads and chiefs are, Brahe, Kepler, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Halley, Fontenelle, Bernouilli, Newton, Berkeley, and D'Alembert; and while the eldest is Brahe, the most distinguished, without controversy, is Newton. What a constellation of intellectual lights! How immense the range of these men's contemplations! They traversed the ample realms of time and space. Their inquiries extended throughout the whole universe of God. Nothing was beneath their notice, nothing above it. They laboured to scan creation in all its parts, the largest and the least, from an atom to a system; the nearest and the most remote, from the light by which they conducted their midnight researches, to the burning sun, and the farthest star. Such men do honour to human nature, by displaying its stupendous powers even in its fallen state; and they bring glory to the Creator, by their illustration of his wisdom, power, and goodness. Their position as interpreters and expositors of the volume of nature, is one of the most honourable distinctions. I feel constrained to believe that they were as certainly raised up for the especial purpose of illustrating the natural attributes of God, as the holy prophets and apostles, for the special purpose of illustrating his moral attributes. I respectfully submit to you, Sir, that there is something very extraordinary in the time and place of these great men's appearances in our world. Is it not remarkable that they were all born in Europe? Not even one such star has ever yet appeared in any other than a European sky. Is it not still more remarkable that they all burst forth within the brief space of little more than a century? Is it not the fact, too, that

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