hour has been transferred; and prepared for all the efforts and sacrifices of the cause which he has espoused, and which he believes to be the cause of truth, and right, and human happiness? Who has read of the wise, intrepid, persevering, disinterested benefactors of their age, be that age as distant from us as it may, and has not felt that they were the glory of our race? Who has not sympathized with them in their purposes, shared their toils, triumphed in their successes, and lamented their defeats ? Who has not felt, when under the influence of their examples, the true greatness and dignity of a heroic, self-denying, upright and benevolent spirit; struggling against the difficulties that opposed it; sacrificing its ease, its security, its peace, and all its immediate interests, for the advancement of the condition and happiness of others? And who has not felt himself to be raised in the scale of being, by the consciousness that he is united, by the bond of a common nature, with all this virtue, this greatness, this excellence?

Yes, it is not less a law of our nature, that we should go out of ourselves, that we should feel a strong interest in others, and not only in the wants and the happiness of our family, our neighborhood, our country and our age, but in those too of men in every country, and in all time, than it is that we should love ourselves. I say not, that one principle is as strong, and steady, and active at all times, or that it is as generally manifested in human conduct, as is the other. It is not. In many, it is bound in the chains of a sordid avarice. In many, it is kept in subjection by a miserable ambition, which values nothing, but as it conduces to personal dis

tinction. And in many, it lies buried under heaps of the rubbish of cares and interests, of appetites and propensities, of prejudices and passions, not one of which has an object beyond the individual, to whom they are the chief, and perhaps the only good of life. But the principle of sympathy, of sympathy, I mean, with the cause of human nature, of human good and happiness,— dead and buried as it sometimes seems to be, does also sometimes rise, and manifest itself; and, with an electric influence, at once animate, and give new vigor, to. thousands, and millions. How has the thrill of its power been felt, in the cause of the abolition of the slave trade? How was it felt, when the first struggles of the Greeks for freedom were published throughout Christendom? How was it felt, when it was thought that the sun of liberty had broken through the clouds, which, for centuries, had covered Spain; and that a new day was about to open upon that dark spot of the earth? And how was it felt, when we were assured that one and another of the oppressed nations of South America had conquered, had triumphed, had secured a government of its choice, a constitution, equal laws, independence? And who, that has tasted the blessings, and that knows the happiness of civil liberty, does not desire, and will not pray, that it may be universal ? Who would not rejoice to hear, that despotism is everywhere at an end? Who would not contribute what he can, to the cause of the universal emancipation of our race, from the injustice and cruelty, the degradation and misery, of civil tyranny?—And is civil freedom, or are civil rights and privileges, so great a boon, that, merely to name them, is to kindle desire in every heart, that they may

be universal? And is the sympathy that is thus excited, one of the provisions of God, for the advancement of the great cause of civil liberty throughout the world? What, then, should be our sympathy in the cause of religion; of religious liberty; of the rescue of man from the slavery of a superstition, a thousand times more debasing than is any civil bondage; in the cause of bringing men to the liberty, the exaltation of condition, and the happiness, of the sons of God?

Christians, let us feel the value of our privileges, and the greatness of our responsibility for them. God has committed them to us for our own improvement, and as means of our own salvation. But is it not also his will, that we should be his instruments for the improvement and the salvation of our fellow-men? How, think you, is our religion to be extended through the world, but by the christian earnestness, and the christian benevolence of those, who feel its reality, its worth, and its power; and the greatness of the blessings which it will impart to those who receive it? We believe, indeed, that it ever has been, that it is,

and that it will Son to be the

be, in the care of him, who sent his Saviour of the world. But our Lord committed it to the immediate charge of his apostles; and they have left it to those who shall believe in it. God will honor us as his agents, in the work of imparting to all the greatest of all his blessings. Is proof of the principle demanded? I will ask, why has God, in such diversified measures, allotted to us our talents, and our capacities? Why has he appointed such a diversity in the condition of men? Why has he connected us in bonds of families, of neighborhoods, and of communi

ties? And why has he subjected all to so many weaknesses, and exposures, and wants, and sufferings? No one will doubt, whether one purpose of these ordinations of his providence is, the accomplishment, by the instrumentality of man, of his designs of benevolence towards man. And is it less clearly God's design, that we should extend, as far as we may, the bread of life, and the waters of life, to those who are suffering from the want of them, than it is that we should give of our bread to the hungry, or relieve the distress which we have the means and opportunity of relieving?

Fellow-christians, let us feel that we are to give account to God, for the use which we make of our powers of mind and of body, of our property, of our influence, and of every means which we have of being good, by doing good. And if, where much has been given, much will be required, will not much be demanded from us, and may not much be most justly demanded, in return for the most precious of God's gifts to us, the religion of his Son? Admit that the heathens are safe, as far as that idolatry is concerned, the evil of which they know not. The great question to engage our attention is, are we safe, while we possess the means of their instruction, their reformation, and their best happiness, and yet fail to employ them to the purposes, for which God has entrusted us with them? Are we safe, if this talent shall be kept by us, laid up in a napkin ? Can we render our account with joy at the bar of heaven, if, having freely received this unspeakable gift, we have cared nothing for the condition of those who have it not; and have done nothing, that they may be partakers with us of the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with everlasting glory?

Suffer me here to say, that I fear we do not think enough of the importance of prayer, in this, as well as in all our great and important enterprises. God wills that religious truth, like other truth, should be extended by human agency. But not by an independent agency of man. We are, in this great concern, to “be workers together with God ;" and while our wills, and affections, and labors, are to be given to the service, we are "in all our ways to acknowledge Him, that he may direct our steps." Before our Lord elected his apostles, he was all night in prayer to God; and we see his apostles relying not more on their miraculous powers, than on their prayers, for the cooperation of God in their work. Let us not, then, indulge narrow views of our relation to God; of the intimacy of the communion which we may hold with him; and of the influence which may be exerted by God upon us, and by God, in cooperation with us, in perfect consistency with our own moral freedom. Let us, more than we have done, realize what we ask of God, when we pray, "may thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven !"

We live in a time, peculiarly favorable to every attempt that can be made for human improvement and happiness. Nor is it alone in those departments, to which science with her new and wonderful discoveries, has extended her influence, that we find a new spirit of excitement, and of enterprise. The fact, that the long known mechanic powers are, of late, found to possess capacities, very far beyond all the uses to which they had been applied; and the fact too, not less interesting and important, of the discovery of a new mechanical agent, which may be applied alike to works the most