of being into which they had passed when they vanished from the earth. At length his own turn is arrived, and he too must die. Whither is he going? What is to become of him? If there be a God, how shall he 10 meet him? If there be a future state, how and where is he to spend it? Not a whisper of consolation is heard from the tomb, nor a ray of satisfactory light is thrown upon its darkness by the instructions of the living. Oh! with what horror does he turn his half avert15 ed eye upon that sepulchre, in which he must shortly be interred; and with what dreadful efforts does he endeavour to force his reluctant spirit upon her destiny, starting every moment at the spectres which rise in her own perturbed imagination. Oh! how much would he 20 give for some one to tell him what there is beyond the grave, and what he must do to get rid of his guilt, so as to be admitted to the world of the blessed. Just at this time, one of our Missionaries reaches his abode, and declares to him that Christ by his death, has brought 25 life and immortality to light. This is music indeed : he never heard such news before. The Spirit of God gives effect to the word. He is drawn to Jesus, clasping to his bosom that doctrine, which gives him life in death, and hope in despair. And he who but a few 30 weeks before was stumbling upon the dark mountains of idolatry, just ready to be precipitated into eternal night, quits the scene of his earthly existence with the language of Simeon upon his lips, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 35 seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to enlighten the Gentiles." James. 98. The efficacy of the cross. Wherever the Apostles went, the doctrine of the cross was the theme of their public discourses, and the topic of their more private instruction. Whether standing amidst the elegancies of Corinth, the classic beauties of 5 Athens, the overwhelming grandeur of Rome, or the hallowed scenes of Jerusalem, they presented this to all men alike. They did not conceal the ignominy of the accursed tree behind the sublime morality of the Gospel, and permit the unsightly object to steal out only in10 sidiously and by degrees; but exhibited it naked, and at once, as the very foundation of that religion which they were commissioned and inspired to promulgate. When the Jew on one hand was demanding a sign, and the Greek on the other was asking for wisdom, they re15 plied to both, "we preach Christ crucified." They never courted the philosopher by a parade of science, the orator by a blaze of eloquence, or the curious by the aid of novelty. They tried no experiments, made no digressions. Feeling the power of this sublime truth in 20 their own souls; enamoured by the thousand thousand charms with which they saw it attended; emboldened by the victories which followed its career; and acting in obedience to that divine authority, which regulated all their conduct, they kindled into raptures amidst the 25 scorn and rage of an ungodly world, and in the fervor of their zeal, threw off an impassioned sentiment, which has been returned in distinct echo from every Christian land, and been adopted as the watch-word of an evangelical ministry, "God forbid that I should glory, save 30 in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Wonderful was the effect of their labour. A revolution more extraordinary than history records, or imagination could have conceived, was every where effected, and this by what was derided by the men who gave 35 laws to the opinions of the world, as "the foolishness of preaching." The powers of Paganism beheld the worshippers of the gods drawn away from their shrines, by an influence which they could neither understand nor resist. Not the authority of the Olympian Jove, nor the 40 seductive rites of the Paphian Goddess, could any longer retain the homage of their former votaries. The exquisite beauty of their temples and their statues, with all those fascinations which their mythology was calculated to exert upon a people of refined taste and vicious 45 habits, became the objects not only of indifference, but abhorrence; and millions by whom the cross must have been contemplated with mental revulsion as a matter of taste, embraced it with ecstacy as the means of salvation. The idolatrous rites were deserted, the altars 50 overturned, the deities left to themselves to sympathise with each other in dumb consternation, the lying voice of the oracles was hushed, the deceptive light of philosophy was extinguished, Satan fell like lightning from heaven, while the ministers of light rose with the num55 ber, the order, and the brilliancy of the stars. Resis tance only promoted the cause it intended to oppose, and persecution, like the wind of heaven blowing upon a conflagration, served only to spread the flame. In vain "did the kings of the earth set themselves, and 60 the rulers take counsel together against the Lord." The Imperial eagle collecting all her strength, and rousing all her fury, attacked the Lamb of God, till she too, subdued and captivated by the cross, cowered beneath its emblem, as it floated from the towers of the capitol, 65 and Christianity with the purple waving from her shoulders, and the diadem sparkling upon her brows, was proclaimed to be the Truth of God, and the Empress of the world, on that very throne of the Cæsars where she had been so often arraigned as a criminal, and condemn70 ed as an impostor. What was it, I ask, which, by the instrumentality of Luther, and Melancthon, and Calvin, and Zuingle, dissolved the power of the Beast on the continent of Europe, and drew away a third part of his worshippers, 75 within the pale of a more scriptural communion? It was the doctrine of justification by faith in the blood of Christ. David Brainerd, the apostle of the American Indians, has left upon record an essay to inform the world, that 80 it was by preaching Christ crucified, he was enabled to raise a Christian church, in those desolate wilds where he laboured, and among a barbarous people devoted to witchcraft, drunkenness, and idolatry. The Moravian Missionaries, those holy, patient, unos85 tentatious servants of our Lord, have employed with peculiar effect these heaven appointed means, in converting and civilizing the once pilfering and murderous Esquimaux. With these, have they also" dared the ter rors of an Arctic sky, and directing their adventurous 90 course through the floating fields and frost reared precipices that guard the secrets of the Pole," have caused the banner of the cross to wave over the throne of everlasting winter, and warmed the cold bosom of the shivering Greenlander with the love of Christ. James. The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain, As if God pour'd thee from his' hollow hand,' And hung his bow upon thy awful front ; 5 And spoke in that loud voice, which seemed to him Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, 'The sound of many waters;' and had bade Thy flood to chronicle the ages back, ΙΟ And notch His cent'ries in the eternal rocks. 15 In his short life, to thy unceasing roar ! And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him, The crisis has come. By the people of this generation, by ourselves probably, the amazing question is to be decided, whether the inheritance of our fathers shall be preserved or thrown away; whether our Sabbaths 5 shall be a delight or a loathing; whether the taverns, on that holy day, shall be crowded with drunkards, or the sanctuary of God, with humble worshippers; whether riot and profaneness shall fill our streets, and poverty our dwellings, and convicts our jails, and vio 10 lence our land, or whether industry, and temperance, and righteousness, shall be the stability of our times; whether mild laws shall receive the cheerful submission of freemen, or the iron rod of a tyrant compel the trembling homage of slaves. Be not deceiv15 ed. Human nature in this state is like human nature every where. All actual difference in our favor is adventitious, and the result of our laws, institutions and habits. It is a moral influence, which, with the blessing of God, has formed a state of society so eminently 20 desirable. The same influence, which has formed it, is indispensable to its preservation. The rocks and hills of New-England will remain till the last conflagration. But let the Sabbath be profaned with impunity, the worship of God be abandoned, the government and re25 ligious instruction of children neglected, and the streams of intemperance be permitted to flow, and her glory will depart. The wall of fire will no more surround her, and the munition of rocks will no longer be her defence. 30 If we neglect our duty, and suffer our laws and institutions to go down, we give them up forever. It is easy to relax, easy to retreat, but impossible, when the abomination of desolation has once passed over New England, to rear again the thrown down altars, and gather 35 again the fragments, and build up the ruins of demolished institutions. Another New-England, nor we, nor our children shall ever see, if this be destroyed. lost irretrievably, when the land marks are once removed, and the bands which now hold us are once broken. 40 Such institutions, and such a state of society, can be established only by such men as our fathers were, and in such circumstances as they were in. They could not have made a New-England in Holland. They made the attempt, but failed. 45 All is The hand that overturns our laws and altars, is the hand of death unbarring the gate of Pandemonium, and letting loose upon our land the crimes and the miseries of hell. If the Most High should stand aloof, and cast, not a single ingredient into our cup of trembling, it 50 would seem to be full of superlative woe. But he will |