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solemn in the remembrance of the duties which so high a commission involves. And there is an instinct which must teach all that of our conduct in these trying hours we are finally to render an account. It is this exalted prospect which ought ever to be present to us in the seasons of difficulty and alarm. It is now, in the midst of wars and the desolation of nations, that we ought to fortify our hearts at the shrine of religion. It is now that we are to weigh the duties which are demanded of us by heaven and earth, and to consider whether, in that last day, we are to appear as cowards to our country and our faith, and as purchasing an inglorious safety by the sacrifice of every duty and every honour of man, or as the friends of order, of liberty, and of religion, and allied to those glorious spirits who have been the servants of God and the benefactors of mankind. Over the conflict which is to ensue, let it never be forgotten that greater eyes than those of man will be present; and let every man that draws the sword of defence remember that he is not only defending the liberties of his country, but the laws of his God.

Let, then, the young and the brave of our people go forth, with hearts inaccessible to fear and undoubting of their cause. Let them look back into time, and see the shades of their ancestors rising before them and exhorting them to the combat. Let them look around them, and see a subjugated world the witnesses of their contest and the partners in their success. Let them look forward into futurity, and see posterity prostrated before them, and all the honours and happiness of man dependent upon the firmness of their hearts and the vigour of their arms. Yes! let them go forth, and pour around our isle a living barrier to injustice and ambition. And, when that tide of anarchy which has overflowed the world rolls its last waves to our

shores, let them show to the foe as impenetrable a front as the rocks of our land to the storms of the ocean.

REV. ARCHIBALD ALISON.

WAR.

THE first great obstacle to the extinction of war is the way in which the heart of man is carried off from its horrors by the splendour of its accompaniments. There is a feeling of the sublime in contemplating the shock of armies, just as there is in contemplating the devouring energy of a tempest; and this so engrosses the whole man, that his eye is blind to the tears of bereaved parents, and his ear is deaf to the piteous moan of the dying, and the shriek of their desolated families.There is a gracefulness in the picture of a youthful warrior burning for distinction in the field: and this side of the picture is so much the exclusive object of our regard as to disguise from our view the mangled carcases of the fallen, and the writhing agonies of the hundreds and the hundreds more who have been laid on the cold ground, where they are left to languish and to die. There no

eye pities them. No sister is there to weep over them. There no gentle hand is present to ease the dying posture or to bind up the wounds, which, in the maddening fury of the combat, have been given and received by the children of one common Father.

DR THOMAS CHALMERS.

DELAY IN RELIGION.

PERHAPS you say that your neglect of religion is only deferring it; that you are sensible it is a concern which you must attend to some time; and that you are fully resolved to do so in maturer life. And are you saying this with the images before your mind of one, and another, and still another, within the circle of your knowledge whom you have seen cut off in youth? Go, stand by their graves and repeat it there; for there is folly in it, if you could not on those spots repeat it with undisturbed assurance: say, over those dead forms, now out of sight, but which you can so well in memory recall, such as you saw them, alert and blooming: say there deliberately, that you know not why you should not be quite at your ease in delaying to some future time your application to religion. It is possible that some of them in approaching the last hour, expressed to you an earnest admonition on this subject, conjuring you, in the name of a friend dying in youth, to beware of the guilt and hazard of delay. If so, go to the grave of that one especially, and there pronounce, that an impertinence was uttered at a season when every sentence ought to be the voice of wisdom. Say, "I am wiser in this carelessness of my spirit than thou wast in the very solemnity of death."-Why should you shrink at the idea of doing this? and if you dare not do it, what verdict are you admitting, by implication, as the just one to be pronounced on your conduct?

REV. JOHN FOSTER.

CONFIDENCE IN THE DEITY.

MAN, considered in himself, is a very helpless and a very wretched being. He is subject every moment to the greatest calamities and misfortunes. He is beset with dangers on all sides, and may become unhappy by numberless casualties, which he could not foresee, nor have prevented had he foreseen them.

It is our comfort, while we are liable to so many accidents, that we are under the care of one who directs contingencies, and has in His hands the management of everything that is capable of annoying or offending us; who knows the assistance we stand in need of, and is always ready to bestow it on those who ask it of Him.

The natural homage which such a creature bears to so infinitely wise and good a Being, is a firm reliance on Him for the blessings and conveniences of life, and an habitual trust in Him for deliverance out of all such dangers and difficulties as may befall us.

The man who lives always in this disposition of mind, has not the same dark and melancholy views of human nature, as he who considers himself abstractedly from this relation to the Supreme Being. At the same time that he reflects upon his own weakness and imperfection, he comforts himself with the contemplation of those divine attributes which are employed for his safety and his welfare. He finds his want of foresight made up by the omniscience of Him who is his support. He is not sensible of his own want of strength, when he knows that his helper is Almighty. In short, the person who has a firm trust on the Supreme Being is powerful in His power, wise by His wisdom, happy by His happiness. He reaps

the benefit of every divine attribute, and loses his own insufficiency in the fulness of infinite perfection.

To make our lives more easy to us, we are commanded to put our trust in Him who is thus able to relieve and succour us; the divine goodness having made such a reliance a duty, notwithstanding we should have been miserable had it been forbidden us.

Among several motives which might be made use of to recommend this duty to us, I shall only take notice of those that follow.

The first and strongest is, that we are promised He will not fail those who put their trust in Him.

But without considering the supernatural blessing which accompanies this duty, we may observe that it has a natural tendency to its own reward, or, in other words, that this firm trust and confidence in the Great Disposer of all things contributes very much to the getting clear of any affliction, or to the bearing it manfully. A person who believes he has his succour at hand, and that he acts in the sight of his friend, often exerts himself beyond his abilities, and does wonders that are not to be matched by one who is not animated with such a confidence of success. I could produce instances from history, of generals, who, out of a belief that they were under the protection of some invisible assistant, did not only encourage their soldiers to do their utmost, but have acted themselves beyond what they would have done had they not been inspired by such a belief. I might in the same manner show how much a trust in the assistance of an Almighty Being naturally produces patience, hope, cheerfulness, and all other dispositions of mind that alleviate those calamities which we are not able to remove.

The practice of this virtue administers great comfort to

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