work of goodness was ever done under the Old Covenant which can compare with what the Gospel is doing every day in our time, both on Christian and on heathen soil? What large and extended blessedness was ever carried through all the earth, to all the sons of men, by any religion before Jesus came? There was no such universal agency in being; no such world-wide influence existed anywhere. But when the angels of Bethlehem proclaimed on the mild airs of Palestine, "Peace on earth, good-will to men!" then a new order of things was heralded to all the sons of men—to every quarter of the globe. The Gospel then began its work, and ever since has been pushing its way through the giant hindrances of sin, and proving in innumerable ways its adaptedness to all the conditions of life, to all the nations of the earth, to all the sons of men.
The phenomenon is before us in the history of man, and its details are manifest. Look now among men for any thing high, noble, manly, brave, generous, beautiful, large-hearted, expansive, and where do you find it? Nowhere else but among Christians! The bravery of arms; the security of freedom; the order of states; the manliness of nationality; the purity and excellence of woman; the expansion of colonies; the beauty of art; the assiduities of philanthropy: what are these but the gracious fruits of Christianity? Aye, and wherever Christianity goes she produces these fruits. See how, in a single generation, our Holy Faith has brought forth the first beautiful blossoms of these excellencies from the dark and chaotic disorder of the Pacific isles, New
