still be tempted to be ashamed of our religion, by being
thrown among skeptics, who deny and deride it. We
may be tempted to be ashamed of the simple and ra-
tional doctrines of Christ, by being brought into con-
nexion with narrow zealots, who enforce their dark and
perhaps degrading peculiarities as essential to salvation.
We may be tempted to be ashamed of his pure, meek,
and disinterested precepts, by being thrown among the
licentious, self-seeking, and vindictive. Against these
perils we should all go armed. To be loyal to truth
and conscience under such trials, is one of the signal
proofs of virtue. No man deserves the name of Chris-
tian, but he who adheres to his principles amidst the
unbelieving, the intolerant, and the depraved.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." So
said Paul. So would I say. Would to God that I
could catch the spirit as well as the language of the
Apostle, and bear my testimony to Christianity with the
same heroic resolution. Do any ask, why I join in this
attestation to the gospel? Some of my reasons I pro-
pose now to set before you; and in doing so, I ask the
privilege of speaking, as the Apostle has done, in the
first person; of speaking in my own name, and of laying
open my own mind in the most direct language. There
are cases, in which the ends of public discourse may
be best answered by the frank expression of individual
feeling; and this mode of address, when adopted with
such views, ought not to be set down to the account
of egotism.

I proceed to state the reasons why I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ; and I begin with one so impor-
tant, that it will occupy the present discourse.

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