_expanding_ efficacy in the third, and its _victorious_ operation in the last. Mark the influence of religion on society. It is the grand cement of pure and permanent friendship among individuals; is the great preservative against disorder and discord in families; is the sacred bond of union in the assemblies of the righteous; the only safe guarantee of the faith of nations; the healer of divisions; the sovereign peace-maker between contending parties; and the most powerful antidote against strife, animosity, and revenge, and all the other vindictive and turbulent passions, that disquiet the breasts of individuals, break the bonds of domestic tranquillity, or disturb the peace of nations. “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” says St. James: From religion? No, from the want of it. “Come they not hence? even from your lusts that war in your members.” Were religion but universally known, and the empire of the Prince of Peace as extensive as the dominion of pride and secular power, of ambition and revenge, we should then see all the belligerent powers of the earth “beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” and wars of every kind cease for ever. 5. The _evidences_ of religion. Religion, when possessing its sacred empire in the heart, is in scripture called by different names, according to the different faculties which it governs, or the passions respectively which it controls. In the understanding, it is light; in the affections, love; in the will, acquiescence and submission. In the passions of the renewed mind, it is the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom; the hope that maketh not ashamed; the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory; the holy shame that covers the soul with overwhelming awe in a view of the presence and condescension of God; the peace that passeth all understanding. Under crosses, it is patience; under affronts and injuries, meekness; under persecution and losses for Christ’s sake, fortitude and resignation; in prosperity, humbleness of mind; in adversity, spiritual support; in death, triumph. Considered in a complex point of view, either as implying the commencement of the divine power that produces, or the progressive influence of the grace that advances, that assemblage of the fruits of the Spirit, which form religion into a sort of bright constellation; it is, the new birth, sanctification, the divine life, the image of God restored, the soul’s union to Christ, and a growing meetness for the everlasting inheritance of the saints in light.