counsels were darkened by words without knowledge. We sought for thy beauties, and the picture of horrid deformity was exhibited to our view. We sought for thy consolations, and our souls were appalled with the sounds of horror and despair. Surely thou art despoiled of thy graces and thy ornaments. Surely thou hast resigned the lovely honours of thy head. We took thee for the messenger of glad tidings, for the publisher of love, peace, and joy; but we have seen thee clothed with terror, and striking with dismay thy slavish worshippers. We took thee for the support and encouragement of virtue, but, alas! we have seen all that accords with the feelings of our minds despised and overlooked, and we have seen thy blessings and thy rewards attached to the pride of censorious dogmatism, to the confidence of presumption, and to the unmeaning effusions of false zeal. The soul formed to sentiments of generosity sickens at the prospect, and must either rise superior to the prejudices of the times, or (dreadful alternative) shelter itself in infidel repose.

Let us therefore pray the Father of Spirits that He would dispel those clouds of ignorance and error which overwhelm the nations; that He would enable them to see the religion of Jesus in its native purity; that He would enable them to see it through that veil of mysticism with which the pernicious superstition of men hath invested it; that He would enable them to see it as the offspring of reason and virtue. Then they will leave their dark and intricate speculations. They will learn to relish the simplicity of the gospel-that affecting strain of sentiment which pervades it-that warm spirit of benevolence which it breathes-those sublime precepts of morality which it inculcates. They will learn to admire and to imitate the rational and elevated piety, the ardent charity, the pure and exalted virtue of Jesus and His apostles.

SERMON II.

[No date is attached either to this sermon or to that which immediately succeeds it. The state however of the manuscripts, and the style of the penmanship, (which from the marked changes it undergoes at different successive stages is almost of itself a sufficient guide,) as well as certain internal evidences, carry with them the conviction that these two sermons were among the very earliest of Dr. Chalmers' pulpit preparations.]

JAMES IV. 11.

"Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge."

It is not calumny to speak evil of another when the evidence of his guilt is undeniable, and when it is necessary to defend the young against the dangers of his example. It is not calumny to deal out to vice its infamy and its correction—to hold it up to the terror and the execration of the neighbourhood— to lay open the secret recesses of hypocrisy-or to unmask the dissimulations of injustice. If this is to be denounced as calumny, vice will reign triumphant in the world, public opinion will lose its energy, deceit and profligacy will have nothing to fear from the resentment of indignation; they will lift an unabashed countenance in the face of day, and lord it in insolent security. Some are for carrying the victory of candour to a disgusting and an affected extremity. I hate that candour that would control the risings of a generous indignation, where guilt

is open and unquestionable; that candour which can ape Christian charity, while it looks with patience on the oppressions or the triumphs of injustice; that candour which can maintain a regulated composure of aspect, though it sees virtue in disgrace, and vice enthroned in the honours of preferment; that wellbred accommodation which can smile equally on all, and sit in contentment amid the general decay of worth and principle. Such a man as this passes for a lover of peace, an excellent member of society, who never thinks of disturbing our repose by his furious and turbulent invectives-who never obtrudes his own offensive peculiarities of temper or of opinion-who never acts the firebrand of mischief, but suffers us to proceed in quietness. But to complete the picture, this good-natured accommodating man has sometimes an interest to mind, which requires him on the one hand to yield to the reigning corruptions, and on the other to depress the credit and pretensions of an obnoxious individual. Let us observe the plan which this enemy to evil-speaking and to everything that is violent and intemperate, let us observe the plan he pursues to time it to his purposes. This pattern of Christian temper will find it necessary to throw out his insinuations, but then he will do it with decency; he will betray no rash or unguarded violence; he will trample on no established ceremonial; he will speak kindness and smile complacency on the victim of his resentment; he will honour him with the attentions of politeness, and share with him the hour of mirth and conviviality. Some feelings of malignity may rankle in his bosom-but then he does not offend by the ostentation of them. Some secret mischief may be brooding in his intentions, but then he does not alarm. by his menaces. Whatever is calculated to agitate or terrify he kindly withdraws from his observation, and delights him by his manners and civility, though he find it convenient at times. to make free with his character-propagate in secret the tale of infamy-set all his low rabble of emissaries on the work of misrepresentation-and awaken the contempt or hostility of a deluded public. Yet such is the false estimate of calumny, which pervades these scenes of interest and competition—where

the artifices of mere policy have perverted every sentiment of justice, and crushed every genuine and unaffected feeling of the heart-where the indignation of a mind at glaring and acknowledged guilt, is ascribed to the working of a foul-mouthed malignity-while not a man appears to lift the voice of remonstrance against the character of him who, under the semblances of a smooth exterior, will spread his deceitful insinuations and work the ruin and disgrace of the upright.

The guilt of calumny lies in the three following circumstances: First, in the imperfection of that evidence upon which the calumny is founded. Second, in the injury it does to the unhappy victim. Third, in its prejudicial effects upon the general interests of virtue.

First, then, as to the imperfection of the evidence. There are some actions which carry villany on the very face of them, and which can meet with no quarter even from the meekness of charity-such as the foulness of a murder, the infamy of artful and deliberate seduction, the desertion of a parent who is left by the ingratitude of his children to the solitude and helplessness of age, the brazen effrontery of falsehood, which can rejoice in the success of its artifices, and laugh at the unsuspecting simplicity of the virtuous. There are other actions where the merit is ambiguous or uncertain, and this is the favourite field for the exercise of calumny. When a man relieves a beggar in the street, it may be the impulse of generous emotion, but calumny will tell you that it is the vanity of ostentation. When a man stops short in the career of prosperity, and resigns himself to the mercy of his creditors, it may be the cruelty of misfortune, but calumny will tell you of his concealed treasure, of his fictitious entries, of his sly and artful evasions. When a man gives himself to mirth and to company, it may be the innocent act of a convivial and benevolent heart, but calumny will tell you of his midnight excess, of his habitual licentiousness, of his extravagant dissipation. When we hear in the house the music of family devotion, it may be in the spirit of old and respectable piety, but calumny will tell you of the rigour of puritanical solemnity, or the disgusting mask of the hypocrite. When a

man is prosecuting the claims of justice, it may be with all the purity of upright and honourable intentions, but calumny will tell you that it is the gripe of avarice or the insolence of oppression. Where candour would hesitate, calumny assumes the tone of authority. Where candour would demand proof and investigation, calumny gives her confident decisions. Where candour is for waiting in silence and suspending her judgments, calumny draws her precipitate inference, and indulges in all the temerity of invective. Where candour is for checking the progress of a malicious report as unwarranted by evidence, calumny renews all her efforts and gives fresh activity to the circulation. Where the merit of an action is disguised by the uncertainty of its evidence, or the ambiguity of its complexion, candour always gives her decision on the side of innocence and of mercy, but it is the delight of calumny to give it a dark malignant colouring, and to send it round to infamy and reprobation. You must all have observed the successive additions that are given to the tale of scandal as it circulates through a neighbourhood. They sometimes proceed from malice, but oftener I believe from an idle gossiping propensity-from the love of being listened to with astonishment -from the want not of heart and tenderness, but from the want of cautious and reflecting prudence-from the hurry and inadvertence of the moment when acquaintances meet and the happy hour is given to thoughtlessness and to gaiety. Let it be remembered, however, that thoughtlessness is criminal when it is employed in giving currency to falsehood-when it tends to mislead society on a matter of such sacred importance as the character of one of its members-when it consigns the upright to shame and to infamy-when it sets up the hasty cry of execration in cases where the evidence is uncertain, and candour tells us to forbear.

The action which calumny condemns in its unhappy victim should be attributed to him with hesitation, because in each step of its progress the story is apt to gain an addition from the mistakes of the inconsiderate, or from the fabrications of a deliberate malignity. The motive from which the