[What is the very religion of such countries, but a mixture of the darkest ignorance with the most gloomy superstition ? And if such he their religio7i, which is under regula- tion and restraint, what must be their habits when subjected
to no restraint ? A desert, or a wilderness, that brings
forth nothing but briers and thorns, is but too just a picture of their state.]
But, through the Gospel of Christ, a wonderful change is wrought —
[See it in the people on the day of Pentecost ; their hands were yet. reeking with the Saviour's blood ; yet, by the labours of a few short hours, not less than three thousand souls were " turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Such is the change which the Gospel operates, wheresoever it is received into the heart b : " instead of the brier grows up the fir-tree, and instead of the thorn grows up the myrtle-treec;" and the whole "desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose."]
This is effected through the instrumentality of man —
[As, in the productions of the garden and the field, it is by human labour that fertility is produced ; so it is by the ministry of man that God extends to men the blessings of salvation : as it is said, " How can they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how can they hear without a preacher d?"]
The power, however, that effects it is God's alone —
[In man himself there exists no power to produce any thing that is spiritually good ; no, " not so much as to think a good thought e:" on the contrary, " in his heart there is nothing but evil, and that continually f." The work, as far as it pre- vails in any man, is God's alone s. As to him must be ascribed the glory of all the products of the earth ; so must all spiritual good, in whomsoever it be found, be referred to him as its true and proper source11. And if this be the case with respect to all the good that is in man, much more must it be so as it respects any good that is wrought by man. Even " Paul may plant, and Apollos water ; but God alone can give the in- crease1." As far as relates to the practical efficiency even of the best means, the creature is nothing, and God is allk.]
" Col. i. G. c Isai. lv. 1.3. <* Rom. x. 14.
e 2 Cor. iii. 5. f Gen. vi. 5. s 2 Cor. v. 5.
k 1 Cor. iv. 7. ' 1 Cor. iii. G. * 1 Cor. iii. 7.