fore
be glad to convey to other people also. It was the custom of some of
these Gentiles to worship stocks and stones; others bowed down to
living animals, such as bulls, or goats, or lizards; and others paid
their stupid adoration to the sun, instead of the Author of it. Many
of them worshipped their deceased fellow-creatures; and the dead men
who were thus turned into gods had been, in general, some of the most
wicked and abominable of the human race.

Now this ignorance of the true God was followed--as all ignorance of
him is apt to be--by great wickedness in their practice. They were
"given over" on this account, as St. Paul, the inspired apostle,
declares, "to a reprobate mind; to work all uncleanness with
greediness." They learned to confound good and evil; vices were then
commonly practised, such as are not named among Christians. False
principles and false maxims of every kind abounded. Slavery prevailed,
even in the most civilized lands; for almost all servants were slaves
in those days. The earth was filled with violence. He that had killed
the greatest number of his fellow-creatures got usually the greatest
praise. "Wars were carried on with dreadful ferocity, and multitudes
were massacred at the public games, in battles fought for the
amusement of the people. Humanity, kindness, and benevolence, were
made of no account; and such a thing as a hospital was not known.
Revenge was both practised and recommended; and those excellent
Christian graces, humility, universal charity, and forgiveness of
injuries, were considered as weaknesses and faults."

I shudder to think of the dreadful state of mankind in those days.
God grant that the same evils may never return. They are the natural
consequences of being without Christianity in the world; for when
Christianity is gone, there is no rule to go by. Every man may then
set up a false goodness of his own. Morals, of course, grow worse
and worse; a fierce and proud spirit comes in the place of Christian
meekness and benevolence, and claims the name of virtue; and the
Saviour of the world, with all his works of mercy, being forgotten,
man becomes cruel, and unjust, and selfish, and implacable, and
unmerciful; for all the violent passions of our nature are let loose.

If we inquire also into the character of the Jews who lived before
the coming of our Saviour, we shall find them to have been deplorably
corrupt, though they expected his coming, and were, in some measur