collisions of ambition, pride, and party interests, does he never cause "the mighty man to stumble against the mighty, and both to fall, together?" "Cease ye from man," says God to his people.

We talk of our institutions of learning, and of the intelligence and mental elevation of the people, as preservatives. Did learning save Greece, or Rome; or France, in her days of fearful preparation for that moral earthquake which shook the civilized world? Has there never been exhibited the spectacle of a nation of mighty but unsanctified minds, working with awful efficiency a nation's ruin?

Wise alliances are sometimes judged an auxiliary to national prosperity and safety. But when God has been dishonored by confidence in this and other like means, instead of simple trust in himself, does he never, in holy indignation, convert a national alliance into a chain of slavery, or into a political cable, by which one sinking nation shall pull down another along with it to destruction?

We talk of the safety which may come in the triumph of one party rather than another; and through one administration rather than another. But in punishment of the civil contentions and animosities in which a nation moves forward to its ballot-boxes, may not a righteous God "overthrow our judges in stony places," or give us rulers who "want understanding;" "oppressors;" "like wolves, ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain?

In the pride of our hearts we listen to foreign praises of our free institutions, and to the spirit-stirring declamation of political predictors among ourselves. But has God never forbidden national as well as individual pride; and punished nations, which have "hearkened to observers of times, and unto diviners;" by sending the judgments of his hand instead of the fulfillment of their political prophecies ?

No-seeking to such reliances as these, is national distrust of God. The Christian who loves his country, should dread, as the forerunner of divine judgments, such habits of thinking and feeling. He should take most jealous care of his own heart, lest he sin thus himself. And amidst the "noise of the waves," and "the tumult of the people," who are making their unbelieving boasts, he should lift his voice; not once only, not twice, nor thrice, but unceasingly, in warning against such sins. It is a part of that flood of iniquity coming in, respecting which, he should be alarmed,

and seek to alarm other men, before it sweeps away all that is fair, and overwhelms us in destruction.

There is still another point of caution, to which the attention of the Christian, as a citizen, should be anxiously directed. It is the sin of political "biting and devouring one another," which goes on with such system, steadiness, violence and animosity. Men professing to be Christians, have been partakers, deeply, in this sin. It is high time that they repent of it, and put it away; and get themselves ready to say, with "clean hands, and pure hearts," to other men of our country, "Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye these things?" It is truly one of the blackest blots upon our character, as a free and independent nation, that it has been our habit, almost ever since our national existence commenced, to carry on with one another a war of tongues, and pens, and presses; and it is no thanks to us that it has not been a war of still more deadly weapons. We are a vast family of freemen, true; but God has seen it, and other nations of the earth have known it, that we have been a very quarrelsome one. While other nations of the world have been fighting for their liberties, with powder and shot, we have been disgracing the liberty we have enjoyed; and putting arguments against liberty itself, into the mouths of its enemies, in other quarters of the globe. Thus the motto upon our standards, “E pluribus unum," has been converted into a solemn satire on our real state of feeling towards one another. And the grievousness of all this consists, deeply, in the fact that men professing to be Christians, have been concerned in fostering this ungodly spirit of contention. We speak of that which every man who has eyes and ears has seen and heard, of a long time. Our halls of legislation have resounded with the angry eloquence of men abusing one another; and with insinuations ungentlemanly, and accusations bitter, of men under the influence of party spirit. And then the public journals have trumpeted these things from one end of the country to the other, to set the constituents of these official wranglers, into the same kind of heat and contention with them. Take up a newspaper, and you discover, in a very few moments, some ill-natured paragraph, betraying the fact that it is the mere speaking-trumpet of a party. So commonly is this the case, that scarce a commercial or political paper is to be found in the whole country, from which can be obtained a fair-minded and really credible account of

many political transactions; and which does not contain a heavy infusion of political vitriol. Irritating insinuation, slanderous falsehood, bitter accusation, and "blistering wit," seem, in such journals, to be the only things in which men can deal with one another. It is also difficult, if not impossible, to learn the real character of a candidate for office, of whatever party; for, according to the high praises of the party whose man he is, he is almost an angel; and, according to the representations of the opposing party, he is "possessed with a devil." Step into a political meeting, and there is a petulant scramble between two or three parties, who, seemingly, care more about votes, than concerning the virtues of candidates. Stand by the door, at a public dinner, when wine has begun to quicken the passions of men, and see how the honey of adulation is poured out upon some men, and the chalice, overflowing with the gall of political bitterness, is dispatched away to be poured upon the head of some absent political opponent. As election approaches, it might be supposed, to hear speeches, and read in the journals the notes of warning and malediction from each contending party, that the destruction of all that is fair, and the blasting of all that is lovely, would be consequent upon the triumph of the other party.

This state of things is productive of various unhappy consequences. It abridges the enjoyment of our blessings as freemen. It keeps up a feverish excitement in the community, unfavorable to every interest, social, moral and religious. It alienates members of the same church from one another. It keeps alive a spirit of mutual distrust and apprehension. It makes men of different political sentiments foolishly boast of themselves and their friends, as though "they were the people, and wisdom would die with them;" and as though integrity and safe government were to be expected from the one party alone, and the other were a gang of political desperadoes, who would turn the nation "upside down," could they have the handling of it. It demands assent to the doctrine, that an existing administration “can do no wrong;" and denounces dissent in opinion from acts of government, as rebellion. A thousand things are seen through the spectacles of party. An existing administration is extolled to the stars, by one set of men; and denounced almost without measure, by another. Points of moral obligation, in which the national character and the honor of the

divine law are concerned, are made "party questions," and many more evils than it would be proper here to name, spring from this most unhappy and heaven-provoking state of things.

Ministers, as well as private Christians, have too easily symbolized with the politicians, in this matter; and some have made the pulpit a place for the display of the banner of a party, and for crying up, or crying down, an administration. "Wo to the inhabitants of the earth, and the sea, for the devil is come - !" announced a minister, for his text, in the pulpit, on the accession of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency of the United States. And but too common, in years past, have been the excitements of feeling, on political subjects, which have been created by inflammatory addresses from the pulpits of different denominations, on days of public fasting, or at the opening of legislative sessions, as well as at other times. God has thus been dishonored in his own sanctuary, and the place for "preaching the word," been made a place for that odious and irritating exercise, "preaching politics."

Now the Christian mourns over various vices which deform man's outward character, and he ought to mourn over these hateful vices of the mind, which have had place in his own, and the character of multitudes of the professors of the Christian faith. "That no one of you should be puffed up for one against another;" and, "be clothed with humility; and, "trust ye in the Lord Jehovah, in whom is everlasting strength;" are divine sentences, on which he should think; and by the close and faithful application of which to his conscience, he should be kept from sinning. In the midst of all these proud boastings of worldly minds, these contentions of fellow citizens with one another, or these false and irritating alarms about ruinous administrations; he should be the serious and considerate friend of his country, urging the precepts of that "charity which is the bond of perfectness," and warning his countrymen, that if this nation is ever in the righteous judgment of God, "dashed in pieces as a potter's vessel," it will not be for the political sins of one administration, nor two, nor three; but for the transgressions of the ruled as well as the rulers, and for the accumulation of national guilt through years of prosperity, and in continued and ungrateful abuse of the "long-suffering of God."

He should give honor to God, among his fellow citizens,

by taking that view of our national prosperity, which is gained in "remembering the years of the right hand of the Most High," and his "wonders of old," and by pointing other men to the right explanations of all which has been so happily realized in our history. Especially, whenever he feels solicitude respecting national affairs, should he do this. He should ever guard against distrustful and melancholy forebodings, which would wrong the divine goodness and mercy. "I will trust, and not be afraid," is a frame of spirit both happy for the Christian citizen and honorable to God. "Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord," said the prophet, who saw God's hand in all the prosperity his country had enjoyed, "thou hast increased the nation, thou art glorified." The richness of our blessings will be enhanced by contemplating the hand which has bestowed them. The events in which we were "brought out into a large place," built up, established, increased on every side, filled with spiritual privileges, and with gifts of Providence, and made to be in reputation among the nations of the earth; "these are the Lord's doings." And let the Christian have no fellow-feeling with those who would say, "by the strength of our hand have we done it, and by our wisdom, for we are prudent."

But with his highest confidence, he must study and do his duties as a citizen, steadily, conscientiously, devoutly. We have said the Christian must pray for the government of his country. He must pray, too, for the people. The memorable prayer of Daniel, is full of instruction on this duty. He set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes;" not for himself, for his noble heart seemed to have scarce a corner for the dwelling-place of selfishness. He went to the footstool of "the throne of grace," that he might weep, and confess, and plead, for a nation and kingdom which had forgotten God, and "lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation." He took his place with them in the tenderness of penitential sorrow, for his own participation in the guilt which had "provoked the eye of God's holiness." And while he was thus employed, Gabriel touched him, and spoke words of comfort to his troubled spirit; and showed him that his solitary voice, pleading for a "sinful nation," had "entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Ezra and Nehemiah, too, could testify that God is a hearer of