To illustrate its value, let us conrenders life pleasant originates

tures to the image of God. sider how much of all that from and depends upon the existence and exercise of this faculty. It will not be necessary to my purpose to dwell upon what would be the consequence were we, like idiots, to be entirely deprived of it. It is evident that then, with the present structure of our bodies, we must cease to exist. By the mere exertion of physical force, we could not be secure from bodily dangers; and the food which is necessary for the support of life cannot be obtained without skill. But to contrast our situation with that into which we should sink, were we to possess intellectual powers in no greater degree, or be capable of no higher exercise of them, than many human beings whom we class in the lower orders of mankind; or to consider how far superior we are to those who have preceded us, by means even of their own intellectual exertions, may impress us with a sense of the value of our rational powers.

The knowledge of nature, by which we are taught to procure the means of supplying our wants or gratifying our desires; the arts by which we provide for ourselves food, and shelter, and clothing, and surround ourselves with comforts and conveniences; and those of which the ends are decoration and refined amusement ;-all skill in agriculture and commerce; the sciences, that give rules for the improvement and perfection of art, and enlarge and dignify our minds by their study;-our delightful literature ;-our laws, government, and the economy of society-these all are the indications and results of that inspiration of the Almighty which giveth understanding. In these things we surpass not only those nations whom we consider ignorant and barbarous, but the most refined and cultivated people of ancient times. Not that we are superior in our powers to those who have preceded us, but because we possess the result of their labors together with our own inventions. In ancient times, the great

mass of human knowledge was slowly accumulating; and this is now possessed by us together with all that we have added; so that the conclusions which were drawn from long reflection, and the rules of conduct which were taught as the results of the highest philosophy, are now possessed by the schoolboy, and practised upon by those who are least improved. For, by his noble intellectual powers, man is enabled not only to improve by his own experience, but to grow wise by the example and precepts of others. The rational being is born to the inheritance of the knowledge of his ancestors. He becomes with facility master of inventions which it required the labor of ages to perfect. It is by this gradual increase of the stock of human knowledge, that we are superior to those who have preceded us in the most glorious periods of their history. For though we are dazzled by the representations of their splendid achievements, and their works of wisdom and genius, the ancients were indeed rude and ignorant in comparison with those of modern times. They knew not that the earth moved; they supposed that the torrid zone was uninhabitable. They were unacquainted with the wonderful uses of the magnet;—the art of printing was not known-and they had no public institutions for education. And if they were not in possession of things like these, which to us are the fundamental and elementary means of so large a portion of all our most valuable knowledge, and of all our social and domestic blessings, it would be easy to deduce a thousand minute particulars in which we infinitely excel them; for the existence of all of which we are indebted to the exercise of the understanding, and of which we are able to avail ourselves, when they exist, only by means of our rational powers.

Our reason then is admirable, because it enables us to acquire knowledge by which we can supply our wants and desires; and especially for the power which it gives us of retaining the acquirements of others, of profiting by their inven

tions in art and their discoveries and improvements in science and philosophy. It thus opens to us a noble prospect of the melioration of the human character and condition, and shows us a tendency to good, which we can hope will operate with continually less and less opposition. There is in rational beings a promise of constant and indefinite improvement, so that we may look forward to a distant period, when those results and conclusions which now are the greatest reward of the labor of the scholar, shall be known to all; and the laws and principles which are now shrouded in the obscurity of science, shall be open to the view of every one.

But the excellence of reason will be still more apparent, when we consider it as the guide to truth, the rule of moral action, the only means of receiving divine communications, and as the interpreter of the revelations of God. The desti nation of the spiritual part of man, or of his soul, his relation to God, and in what the excellence of his nature consists, are subjects to which the thoughts of men have been in all ages directed. To us, whose doubts are removed almost ere they rise in our minds, who are instructed by a voice from heaven in the knowledge of our immortal existence, the dim and uncertain light which reason casts upon these subjects, may appear little better than darkness; and we are indeed ele vated to a most glorious superiority over those who were unblessed with revelation. Yet, though this be so, still there is nothing which produces more reverence for the human understanding, than the conclusions to which some of the hea then philosophers arrived on the subject of religion—than their attempts, unsatisfactory and imperfect as was their suc cess, to discover and to comprehend the character and counsels of God, the purpose and duration of our existence, and in what consists the perfection of the human character. But praised be God all that they feebly believed, and faintly hoped, and much more also, is now familiar to the meanest Christian.

It is by reason that mortals have been able to hold con verse with God, and to receive his laws. It is to man as a ra tional being that all revelation is addressed. It is by reason that we can judge of the evidences of our religion, understand what it reveals and what it commands, be influenced by its sanctions, enjoy its blessings, and be animated by its prom ises.

Being then deeply impressed with the value and excel. lence of our intellectual powers, it becomes an important inquiry, what are the duties which arise from the possession of them; for with every blessing God has connected corres→→ ponding obligations. I answer that it is our duty to culti vate and improve our reason; to regard it as the inspiration of the Almighty; to follow its unbiassed dictates, as the guide which he has appointed to lead us to happiness; and to believe and act in all respects according to its directions. The force of this obligation in the common affairs of life is admitted by all men; for all profess to be under the control of reason. Even those whose deliberate actions, and whose whole course of life, are in opposition to the judgment of the wise, are never without what they think a reason for their conduct and no principle or opinion is maintained which is not professedly founded upon the dictates of the understanding. But it is not so generally agreed that we are to follow this guide in matters of religion. Here the use of reason is thought by some to be superseded by revelation; and it is supposed that obedience to the one is inconsistent with submission to the other. It is most true that by reason alone we have no light afforded as to some, and that we are but imperfectly instructed in all of the great truths relating to our moral condition and expectations; but the opinion I mention extends much further. It is thought not only that reason recommends many things which religion condemns, but that many religious observances and duties are not capable of the support of reason.

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But is it not a more rational supposition, that since God at all times designed his human creatures for virtue, and the happiness connected with it, and inspired them at their creation with a faculty by which they are able to choose between good and evil, and regulate their conduct according to the designs of their Maker, that all the religious truths which he may reveal will be in perfect conformity with the knowledge which they may already possess by means of right reason. If we were in expectation of another revelation, we should look for more complete and full information on subjects to us still obscure and doubtful; but can we conceive it possible that a commissioned teacher from God should contradict any thing which we now believe on the authority of God's word at former times? It would be impious to suppose that we could be thus trifled with, or have been deceived by our Maker; and shall we entertain the idea, which is not less derogatory to his character, that without altering the objects of our existence, or making any change in the means of happiness, he would contradict those laws and principles of action which we adopt in conformity to our reason-the faculty which he has given us for our guide? Such opinions must have their foundation in ignorance either of the dictates of the understanding or of the truths of revelation, or in ignorance of both. For we might as well suppose that two divine revelations should be inconsistent and contradictory, as that the dictates of reason, which is the inspiration of the Almighty, should contradict the injunctions of a religion which he has communicated.

Between these two sources of religious knowledge there is the most perfect harmony. Without reason we could know nothing without revelation our knowledge would be insufficient. The one provides the foundation, and roughly designs the plan; but the other completes, polishes, and perfects the superstructure. It is a chief source of the credibility of our religion, that its truths are such as had before been al