many cases, from the principal objects of religion, and fixed it upon the anise, mint, and cumin,— the things of trifling importance, which might engender strife, but could not edify. In as far as men are theologians in this sense, they are no better, but rather the worse for their theology. They have the knowledge which puffeth up, but not always the charity that edifieth; and if they are destitute of this, however much they may know, they know nothing yet as they OUGHT to know it. Charity is religion. It is the whole of religion. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it without substracting thus much from the religious character. When exercised towards God, it is piety, and prompts to all the duties which piety includes, to the cultivation of devout affections, and to the display of these affections in private and public acts of devotion. When exercised towards man, it is justice and benevolence, and prompts to all the duties which these include. It does justly, giving to all their due; tribute to whom tribute, honor to whom honor, respecting the rights of all, and claiming no more than fairly belongs to it. It loves mercy, is kind and sympathizing, alleviating, as it is able, the sufferings of humanity. It is an angel of compassion, whose wings are always extended to shelter the defenceless, ever employed in doing good, and finding its own happiness in making others happy. We see then, why our Saviour included the whole law in these two commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself; and why his apostles describe love as the fulfilling of the law and the end of commandment. Reflect a moment, my hearers, and you will perceive, I think, that I was not mistaken in saying that charity, or love, was the whole of religion. Under the head of love to God, or love to man, you will find every duty which has reference to your Creator, to your fellow-creatures, and I may add, to yourselves. Now, speculative theology has done little, if anything, towards promoting this charity, and muchperhaps more than every thing else towards checking its growth and impairing its influence. It has erected walls of separation. It has opened the floodgates, and let out the bitter waters of contention which have mingled with the pure, refreshing, fertilizing streams of divine truth, and often dyed them with blood. I tremble when I witness the presumption of men, dogmatizing about things of which they know nothing and can know nothing with certainty, attempting to withdraw the veil (or affecting to have withdrawn it) which Infinite Wisdom has seen fit to interpose between our feeble sight and the nature of his Essence, or the operations and results of his government. I mourn that good men should so often mispend their time, and lose their good temper, in teaching men to bite and devour one another, when they might be so much better employed in teaching their fellow-christians to bring their passions into subjection to the law of Christ, and in learning, at the same time, more effectually to subdue their own. Sad is it when those publications which are the organs of 'religious parties,' become the vehicles of crimination and recrimination, descend to bitter invective, or unkind insinuation, when a spirit is manifested most foreign to the mild spirit of the gospel, and language used which would be far from honorable on the arena of political warfare, and would not be tolerated in the intercourse of private life. We may well address to those who conduct them the rebuke which their master addressed to his first disciples when they were for calling down fire from heaven upon a city of the Samaritans,Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. No. They are men, encompassed with infirmities, like others, and doubtless believe themselves to be zealously affected in a good thing. The zeal which they discover, they imagine to be a zeal for GoD and truth, when it is a zeal for their own theories, which they have magnified far beyond their just proportions, which may be true or may be false, but have little or no influence in promoting the great end of christianity. -- That end, I repeat, and I would it could be sounded in the ears of theological combatants till they were compelled to yield their attention to it,that end is godliness, and it is the losing sight of this, that gives rise to the strife and railing of which the apostle speaks. Were this end kept steadily in view, there would be no contention but who should best answer it. It is absurd to say that a contentious spirit can exist when there is a sincere, heartfelt conviction of this fact, and a paramount desire to promote its exemplification in ourselves and others. There has been much misconception, I am persuaded, and consequent misrepresentation of the opinions of those who have taken a stand against controversy, but I will not retort, in their behalf, the charges of want of discrimination, and the taking but a superficial, contracted view of the subject, or of ignorance and timidity, which have been so lavishly bestowed. If I am not mistaken, there has been no opposition to controversy but when it has been employed about theological dogmas, or when it has degenerated into contention and strife. Such is the controversy of the present day, which is not a controversy about religion, but theology,—— speculative theology; not about what the bible has really taught, but about the various, contradictory doctrines which it has been said to teach. It is a controversy about terms, or opinions as opposite to one another as light and darkness, about systems and theories, which systemongers and theorists have framed out of something which has been said, or has not been said in the word of God.-And what has been the effect of this controversy ?-I speak of the controversies of the present day; I do not ask you to go back and contemplate the mournful tragedies which have been enacted by controversialists in the times that are gone by.-Open your eyes, my hearers, and look at the page of church history which is spread out before you. What heartburnings, divisions, evil surmisings, railings, bitter contentions does it not exhibit!—in families, and churches, and parishes, and towns. How many churches, once united and flourishing, have been rent asunder and their dismembered parts scattered by the wind,—I might in most cases say by every wind,— of theological doctrine !-If the seamless coat of Christ had been woven by the hand of man, it would long since have been torn in pieces by those who have claimed it as their exclusive property, or have contended about its colour, or texture, or the materials of which it is made. What a melancholy aspect does this commonwealth exhibit, in this particular, compared with what it once did, to a religious observer who loves peace, and believes that the religion of Christ was designed to promote it? But, I am triumphantly asked, if it be admitted that controversy has disturbed the repose of the church, has it not excited an activity which has promoted its life and vigor? If it has troubled the waters, has it not brought up and mingled with them ingredients which have imparted salutary and |