should everywhere prevail, respecting the responsibility and the duty of churches, and the powers which, when obedient to their high and solemn destiny, they are appointed exclusively to wield. Let them be unyoked from an unequal vassalage with earthly ministers, and earthly institutions. Let them evoke from slumber all those living agencies which have been too long dormant within them, and apply them to their several uses, with fearlessness and vigour. Let every means be tried, and every talent improved, and every resource expended, and every spring of action stimulated and directed. Let every name enrolled in their society be understood to become, from that very hour, that of a plighted soldier of the cross, to move in concert with a great and conquering army, steadily and determinately, upon the foe. Let the oath be taken, and the pledge pass round amongst them, that each will do his uttermost, to enhance the common triumph. Let it be seen what heaven and the church confederated can accomplish, to dissolve the dire confederacy between earth and hell. Let every man abide by his own standard, or advance in his own place. Let every man charge himself, in his full measure, with the final event of the day. And I will not mock you, brethren, with the vain endeavour to depict that victory which then awaits us. I will only say -It is ours! Your throbbing bosoms,-your exulting hearts, these must speak the rest.

For ourselves, we cannot cast our eye over the events of the last few years,-nor reflect upon the progress of free and manlike sentiments, which even

our short life has witnessed, without many a thought of our great and noble-minded predecessors, and of the magnitude of the precious trust they have bequeathed us. We cannot look on the unquiet heavings, and the mysterious portents of the troubled sea around us, nor yet at the dovelike spirit of purity and peace, which at intervals reveals its spotless breast upon the dark and stormy wave,-without perceiving, that the angels of mercy and of wrath are preparing for the contest. But we view the scene with more of exultation than of fear. It is a calm, yet a stern and solemn joy,-brooding on change and danger, yet resting in the confidence of hope.

Ours is the happiness, my brethren, of feeling that we are prepared for whatever may be demanded of us, either by the current of events, or the discoveries of reason and of truth. And in this we are sometimes impelled to contrast our situation with theirs, who deem that they have everything at stake. We will not conceal, that so strange a contrast is the occasion of thankfulness mingled with commiseration. We know no such enemies as knowledge, enterprise, or free inquiry. We own no such allies as superstitious veneration, or hereditary belief. We do not look to see the church of God crushed or trodden down, beneath the very mightiest of her enemies. Our expectation is, that when, in the strife and tumult of that dark hour which is approaching, her bands shall be broken in sunder, and her arm loosened from the chain,-then, like her great Master, she will exert her liberty, to bless, not to

destroy; and, stretching forth the hand, which is now at length unbound, heal, with the gentlest touch, those scars and bleeding wounds, which an inconsiderate and furious zeal may have adventured rashly to inflict in her defence.