soul to save, an eternal heaven to secure. Sluggish Christians, can you slumber? Just on the verge of heaven, and yet slumber! Your Master will soon come, and call you to his home. "Watch, therefore, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is your salvation nearer than when you believed."

Fellow-travellers to the tomb! we have thought on the past; we have anticipated the future. A new year is now begun; its scenes are coming on; its duties demand our care. Let us begin it with new resolutions. Let us spend it in new obedience to God. And if we fall before its close, let us fall like men, fall like Christians, who hope to rise again; fall like faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ,-faithful to the last. Be not dismayed. Tremble not as you go. Tread even the verge of Jordan with firm, unfaltering steps. with a calm and steady eye. There is a blissful ocean beyond. The angel of life shall guide you safe through. Your feet shall stand in the promised land. Another year these eyes. may not behold. Another year, and our names may be read on the list of the departed. Be it so. Let God determine. Thy will, O Lord, be done." The future is all thine own. Mourning friends, dry up your tears. Fearful hearts, lay hold

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on hope. Erring sinners, turn to God.

Behold its dark waters

Believing Christians,

press onward to your home. Immortal souls, live for heaven. Then yield to death, in peace, at his coming. Let these bodies die. Give these limbs to the dust.

before you. You may welcome it with joy.

Another life is

Welcome, not

a new year, but a new, a happy, a glorious eternity!

SERMON XIV.*

HITHERTO HATH THE LORD HELPED US.-1 SAMUEL 7: 12.

THERE are times when it is peculiarly proper for us to pause a moment on the journey of life, and to look back upon the past, that we may derive instruction and encouragement from the scenes we have gone through, and to cast an eye around upon the present, and send a glance forward to the future, that we may discern more clearly the right direction of the course we are pursuing, and learn what duties yet remain to be fulfilled. There are periods in the history of states, as well as of individuals, which serve as a kind of waymarks in the progress of human affairs, and which invite the traveller, as he passes, to rest froin his weariness, to look back, reflect, gather up new strength, and form new purposes. There are times when we seem rightly called to direct our attention more especially to the errors we have made, the mistakes which have impeded our advancement, the faults we have committed, and the sins of which we have been guilty, that by seasonable repentance, by fasting and humiliation and prayer, we may reform our lives and hearts, avert the displeasure of the Great Ruler of events, and move forward with a more steadfast and undeviating step. There are days, also, like the present, when we are invited to notice principally the mercies that have followed us, the blessings we have received, the kind interposi

* A Thanksgiving Discourse, delivered, it is thought, in 1832.

tions which have been made in our behalf, and the bounties which have been graciously bestowed upon us, that we may render again to God according to his benefits, with festive joy and gladsome thankfulness, as did the pious Jews at the yearly feast of the tabernacles, immediately after the ingathering of the fruits. For there is a time to rejoice, as well as a time to

mourn.

It was wise and pious in our Pilgrim fathers, in the establishment of this young community, to appropriate one day in the return of each year to thanksgiving. It may be welcomed now with the increased interest that ever venerable time has thrown around it, the pleasing associations that memory weaves in recollection of the yearly return of long absent friends, the reunion of scattered families, the light that has relumined the faded cheeks of revered parents, and flashed in the face of youth, as the most pleasant scenes of childhood and home were lived over again, and crowded into the bright hours of a single day. Well may it be observed, therefore, with happy hearts and cheerful voices, suppressing for the time at least every mournful emotion, and indulging only the kindlier feelings of our nature. Let it be a day of grateful rejoicing. Partake generously of the various profusions of the year, give freedom to the sweet sympathies of humanity, and impart with an open hand and a liberal spirit to those who have need, that the voice of gladness may be heard in every dwelling. In accordance with the time-sanctioned example of our fathers, and the simple but pertinent language of the Bible, "Eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto the Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

The present, however, is more especially a public, and in some sense a national, festival. It is appointed by the high authorities of our Commonwealth. We are directed to observe it in reference to those blessings which we enjoy as members of a well-established, prosperous and growing republic. It may not be inconsistent, therefore, with the design of this appointment, to turn our thoughts, for the passing hour, to the consideration of some of those circumstances in the settlement and growth and present condition of our country, which best evince the watchfulness and control of a kind Providence, and call for an expression of universal and heartfelt thankfulness.

There is scarcely any thing to be found in political history, that has affected, and is likely to affect so deeply, the interests of mankind, as the establishment of genuine civil and religious liberty in this land of our fathers. And for no other events have the seeming preparations of divine Providence been so great and so strongly marked. A system of government entirely new was to be set up; and there was not a spot in the known world where it might stand: another continent was called into being. There was not a nation on the face of the globe fit to support this new government;-one was formed for the purpose, in a manner altogether peculiar. The whole world seemed to be moved and renovated. Religion was reformed, learning revived, printing invented, a compass provided, to guide the daring mariner through the pathless ocean, and America itself discovered, almost in an instant. Since the moment when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light," nothing more evidently manifests his agency than this.

But it may be more particularly observed, as one of the circumstances to which we should turn our attention, that this part of the newly discovered country, on which the footsteps

of human freedom were first impressed, was exactly adapted to the purpose. It was wild, iron-bound and stubborn, yielding an ample support only by the most energetic and persevering industry. It was the soil in which the tree of liberty, that often dies in a garden, flourishes best. The hardihood, enterprise and independence of New England might never have been, if her sons had found here the fertile fields of Italy, or the vineyards of France. The rich mines of Mexico and Peru have only served there to weaken the energies and retard the progress of mind. It was here, amid these rough and unsightly hills, that was laid the foundation of what has long since gone into a proverb, "That New England men can do any thing, endure any thing, accomplish any thing."

The people who were selected by unerring wisdom to settle this land, next demand our notice. They were gathered from among the choicest spirits of the most favored nation then on the earth. The principles of reform which were spreading over the continent of Europe, had reached the shores of England; they were congenial to the superior knowledge and bold, liberal spirit of that high-minded people. Notwithstanding the efforts that were made to suppress or restrain them, there were those among this people who could not be satisfied even with what they considered a partial reformation. Their minds had just awoke from long slumber, and could not easily be lulled to sleep again. Under the reigns of Henry VIII and of Edward his son, they persevered in firm adherence and devoted attachment to the cause they had espoused, making any and even the greatest sacrifices on its account. In the reign and under the persecutions of queen Mary, being banished from their native land, they made still farther advances in the school of Geneva, and returned, when afterwards recalled