[1] Christianity ends not in negatives. No man clears his garden of weeds but in order to the planting of flowers or useful herbs in their room. God calls upon us to dispossess our corruptions, but it is for the reception of new inhabitants. A room may be clean, and yet empty; but it is not enough that our hearts be swept, unless they be also garnished, or that we lay aside our pride, our luxury, our covetousness, unless humility, temperance, and liberality rise up and thrive in their places. The design of religion would be very poor and short should it look no further than only to keep men from being swine, goats, and tigers, without improving the principles of humanity into positive and higher perfections. The soul may be cleansed from all blots, and yet still be left but a blank. But Christianity is of a thriving and aspiring nature, and requires us to proceed from grace to grace (2 Pet. i. 5-7), ascending by degrees, till at length the top of the ladder reaches heaven, and conveys the soul so qualified into the mansions of glory.--_South,_ 1633-1716. SOCIAL REGENERATION. i. 26. _And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shall be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city._ We have in the contest a picture of a dismantled city, a disorganized community; and here God tells us that He will undertake the work of its reconstruction. +I. All the arrangements of society are absolutely in God's hands.+ "_I_ will restore," &c. No man can overturn, or build up, but by His permission. On Him all projects of national, social, or ecclesiastical reconstruction depend for their success. That on which He smiles flourishes; that on which He frowns withers away. Let reformers and reconstructors of society remember and recognise this great fact, that God rules on earth as in heaven. +II. All interruptions of social order are under the control of God.+ Revolutions occur not by chance, nor by the will of man, but by the will of God. They occur only when, and continue only as long as He pleases. By Him judges and counsellors are swept away, and by Him they are restored. No nation is so broken that it cannot be uplifted by Him to power and glory, "as at the first." +III. No social state can be purified but by religious processes.+ There are many philanthropic and political projects which have for their aim national regeneration, but they are all foredoomed to come to nought, because they lack the religious element. Moral reformation must go before social advancement: a return to righteousness is the first step to national exaltation.[1] +IV. The great name will follow the true regeneration.+ "_Afterward_ thou shall be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city." Not first the exalted title, but the illustrative character; not first the splendid renown, but the