with Him in prayer? Would we have more security for light, life,
strength, holiness, peace, or comfort, if there was no such Person
revealed as the Spirit of God, who freely imparts His aid to all?
Would it be glad tidings to hear that men were not to be born again,
nor to repent, nor to deny themselves, nor to do God's will, but their
own? What is there which a good man would gain by the destruction of
the Christian religion!

I have one question more to suggest with reference to the duty of an
unbeliever towards us as Christians, and it is this, Why should he
disturb our faith, or, as he might term it, our superstition? If he
retorts by asking why we should disturb his unbelief, our answer is
ready--because we wish with our whole soul to share with him the
blessings which God our common Father has for him as well as for
us; because we truly lament the loss to our brother who refuses the
eternal good which he may now enjoy with the whole family of God;
because we love our God, and his God and Saviour, and desire our
brother to know and to love them too; because it is so unjust, so
selfish, so hateful, not to love and obey such a glorious Person as
Jesus Christ, who knows us, loves us, and has died to gain our hearts!
These are some of the reasons, rudely and roughly stated, why we
desire, with all our heart, that every man should believe in Jesus
Christ. But if any man, for any reason which may be beyond our
understanding or sympathy, desires to destroy this faith in all that
is most precious to us, then I ask, not in Christ's name,--for it is
unnecessary to appeal to Him,--but in the name of common sense and
common philanthropy, why he should not only labour to do this, but to
do it without apparently any apprehension of the untold misery which
he must occasion if he succeeds in his attempt? Do not tell us, with a
boast, that "the truth must be spoken, come what may!" Be it so; but