creatures by training up among them, for the hour at which they were peculiarly wanted, statesmen to illustrate their natural rights, and military men to maintain them. Is the land of Egypt to be preserved from the desolations of famine; mark the providences which elevated Joseph to its regency! Or, is Egypt to be chastised for her oppressions; contemplate the mysterious, the admirable process, by which the infant boy, from the bulrush-ark, is introduced into the court of Pharoah, made familiar with the wisdom of the only refined nation upon the earth, until at length, "mighty in words and deeds," he receives his commission from the flaming bush to accomplish wonders in the land of Ham, and lead forth Joseph as a flock. Is Palestine to be vanquished? Jehovah presents his people with Joshua for their general. Is a Goliath to be subdued? The shepherd boy is in the camp. Is Judah to be rescued from Babylonian servitude? Not only at the appointed moment are conductors, and heroes, and architects, and priests at hand, but Cyrus is raised up and girded, and the first becomes the most illustrious year of his reign. There was a time when America wanted a WASHINGTON, an ADAMS, a JEFFERSON, a LAFAYETTE, a FRANKLIN, and others, who like them, were great in council, or great in arms, and thanks be to God, he gave them us at the requisite hour. "Whose

is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the fear of the Lord." The talents of JEFFERSON and ADAMS are now not imperiously demanded ; a luxuriant undergrowth has supplied their place, and he who will hereafter fold up the heavens and lay them aside as a garment, when, for the execution of his sublime purposes, he shall no longer require them; has gently said to each of our deceased patriots, "I have no need of thee."

I might expatiate on the advantages which moderation in aliment secures, in the extension of life to its remotest limits. I might insist on the unquestionable superiority of the favoured climate of these United States, as well in the northern as in the middle, I had almost said, and in the southern regions, for producing instances of longevity; and exemplify these truths, by requesting the world to read the epitaphs which the faithful marble, that shall rise over the graves of these our departed Presidents, must confirm. But passing by such ideas, let me press on your minds a consideration of the most encouraging

character.

Manifestations of the kindness of the Lord, in trials that are past, should inspire our confidence in his Holy Name, that he will make "bare his arm," in our favour in difficulties that yet may approach. Our states are happy among themselves, and, I trust, this

happiness will be coeval with the harmony of the spheres. But it were folly to throw the idea into shade, that the powers of the earth have in relation to us their jealousies and their aversions. Our political institutions, free, wise and honourable, are at entire variance with theirs. Their people are beginning to see, but like the heath in the desert, they see not when good cometh. What combinations they may form, what navies they may associate, what armies they may transport, we know not; and if our trust be in the living God, who made heaven and earth, in the spirit of humility, we may subjoin, we care not. For, "if God be for us, who can be against us?" It was the habit of the holy prophets of Israel to encourage the people by calling up to their recollection what God had already wrought. Take, for example, the language of Isaiah ; "awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea, a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion!" Let our nation lay her hand on the altar, and implore celestial assistance, and she may confidently believe that God

will provide some future WASHINGTON, some future ADAMS, some future JEFFERSON, who will lead her sons to victory, and by their wisdom, spread peace, like a river, through all her regions.

If, on the face of the earth, there exist a people under peculiar obligations to obey the precepts of Heaven, we are that people. His goodness should lead us to repentance for our offences, and ever influence us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him. Let temples every where rise in honour of his name, and let them be crouded with grateful, adoring, and holy worshippers. It is an instructive truth, asserted by the judicious Rollin, and attested by the whole history of our species, that nations have risen into a state of grandeur, or descended into ruin and infamy, in proportion as they have been governed by, or have neglected, moral principle. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation. It is righteousness, which so finely harmonizes with the equality of a Republick; which suppresses the rising of animosity, by instructing us that whatsoever we would that men should do unto us, we also do unto them; it is this which spreads contentment through all the walks of life. It is this which inspires the merchant, the mechanick, the agriculturalist and the man of science, to prosecute his course with success and honour. What sound more

charming to the ear than the voice of the individual, high in the service of his country, who can stand and in presence of his fellow citizens exclaim, as did the patriarch, "I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not, I searched out; and I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." But if we sin against Heaven, and in His sight, the sagacity and moral worth of no statesmen can deliver us. The vessel of our commonwealth will be found in an eddy too powerful to escape the tremendous vortex. Our eagle, divested of its pinions, will drop to the earth. The folly of Rehoboam was the immediate cause of that disruption between Israel and Judah, which, like a deadly wound, refused to be healed; but the real excitement is to be traced to the vices of his father, during the latter periods of his reign, and to the immoral condition of the people. Does Babylon put on the garments of pride, of inhumanity and of impiety; a prophet is directed to say, Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation-wild beasts of the desert shall lie