justice, they required the calm retirement of the New, and its great distance from the scene of their sufferings, to enable them to judge wisely and deliberately as to what were the true remedies for the evils which they could no longer endure. And now that their work is done, and institutions created by the wise and deliberate counsels of the founders of our Republic, which are alike the happiness and safety of our country; the older nations of the earth are deriving no small benefit from the freedom which we claim as our inheritance. The remark is just and true, that Old England would not have become what she is in the freedom of her subjects, if New England had never sprung from her loins. Her rulers have seen that nothing could save them from a revolution but a spirit of wise and timely concession to the rightful demands of the people; and at this day we see her "conservatives" occupying and defending ground where her advocates of "reform," not many years since, scarce ventured to take up their position. In fact, there is not a nation in Europe that has not felt, and does not now feel, our influence in curbing and restraining tyranny, or in keeping alive an ambition for freedom in the minds of the people.

I have but one concluding topic to urge. It relates to the high and responsible post which God

has assigned to this country, in the great work of evangelizing and civilizing the world. No nation in Protestant Christendom stands so directly face to face with Pagan nations* as ourselves. From our shores on the Pacific, we look immediately, not only on the inhospitable wilds of Siberia, but upon the vast and populous empire of China; upon Farther India, and upon the islands of Japan and the Eastern Archipelago; regions "where Satan's seat is," and where his unclean and cruel dominion, as yet, has been scarcely invaded. A new way of access to them is now opened. We have shown you how the ocean, which divides us from them, is soon to be bridged by our flying steamers freighted with the wealth of the world. While our merchants will be actively employed in gathering golden harvests from commerce with these dark and long inaccessible countries, Christians among us should be equally engaged in sending them "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." They present a field for Gospel conquests that seems to have been reserved for the American Churches; and we should consider it a duty specially required of us to "go up and possess the land," covering it with the blessings of Christian truth and Christian freedom. No nation lies under so heavy a responsibility in this thing as the United States of America.

But we have a work to do at home as well as abroad for Christianizing the world, which, in a great degree, is peculiar to ourselves. I have alluded to the prevalence of the sentiment, that our country is the home of the emigrant, and that to furnish an asylum for the oppressed and destitute of other lands, is one of the destinies which we are appointed to fulfil. I have said, I do not share in the fears which some entertain on this subject. I do not believe that our institutions are jeopardized by the crowds seen flying to us from abroad. I entertain the higher hopes of our country when I see it becoming a Bethesda, a house of mercy for the suffering; for it thus secures to itself the blessings of them that were ready to perish. The nation has possessed a character from the beginning too distinct and enduring, too strong and determined, to be changed by any exotic influence acting upon it at this day of its maturing strength. Let wise legislation and active Christian benevolence take care that foreigners be made to understand and appreciate our civil and religious privileges; and, so far from having anything to fear, we have much to hope both for ourselves and for them by their residence in the midst of us. It is indeed true that they bring with them lamentable displays of ignorance and superstition. But we should look upon them

as sent to us to be enlightened and relieved. We should consider it as so much work brought to our doors, that it may be done the more effectually. They are sent to us that they may gain lessons of wisdom, which they could not have learned so well, nor would we so earnestly have taught them, had they remained in their former homes. When they become inhabitants of a country held in common by them and ourselves, we feel that we are so shut up to our duty that the penalty of our neglect must be our own ruin; that we must give the truth to them, or lose it ourselves; and thus are we stimulated in our duty by the conviction that, while we are acting for the good of others, we are also laboring for our own welfare, and the welfare of our children in future generations.

But the good which may thus be done among "the strangers within our gates" is far from being confined to those who may live and die among us. Through them we are sowing a seed which is yet to spring up and bear its most abundant fruit in the countries from which they have come. There is an incident in New Testament history which has a pregnant meaning on this subject. When Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, was made the radiating point of "saving light" to the world, "there were dwellers in the city out of every nation under

neaven; Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libia about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians," who received the Gospel, and

were baptized in the name of Christ." The time had come when "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" and here do we see the all-wise God preparing the right means for accomplishing that great end. He shed down hist spirit, and brought into his church, men "of every nation under heaven," while they were " dwellers" or “sojourners” among his people, that they might be constrained and the better qualified to carry his Gospel into all the various lands. from which they had come, and to which they belonged. The result was soon made known in the speed and the power with which his kingdom was spread in that day of its glory.

We believe that by a similar instrumentality the Gospel is again to be carried to distant and now darkened regions of the earth; and that such a service as was then rendered by "the dwellers at

Jerusalem from every nation under heaven," will again be performed by "the sons of the stranger"