The state even of the civilized world at this day is truly deplorable. Although whole nations profess the Christian faith, yet every city, every village, and almost every hamlet, contains families in which there is not a single disciple of Jesus. The sun rises and sets upon a prayerless roof. No altar is erected to God--no love exists to the Saviour--nothing to attract his attachment or to furnish a subject for angelic joy--no repentance--no faith--and none of "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." Whatever may be the temporal circumstances of such families, Christian benevolence cannot avoid weeping over their spiritual condition. In many cases, the society admitted into their houses is of a most pernicious class. Uninfluenced by the sentiments of David, who said, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee," the friendships they form are but too plainly indicative of their own principles. You will not see them, like Martha and Mary, choosing the excellent of the earth, and welcoming Christ or his disciples to their tables, to share their comforts, to refine and improve their intercourse; but if they occupy a high station in life, the gay, the dissipated, or the thoughtless--if in an inferior situation, the vulgar, the sordid, the intemperate, and the profane, frequent their dwellings. Religion is in both cases too often treated with ridicule and contempt, vilified as mean-spirited in its principle, and enthusiastic in its pretensions; and the truth of the Gospel treated, as its Author was when upon earth, and would be were he still incarnate, with contemptuous rejection.