THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIMS.

DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 7.

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations.

rise up

I HAVE spoken to you of the scene of family piety, within the doors of your birthplace; and of the religious scenes which God has in mercy spread around the home of your childhood. These scenes do not now first for our benefit. See; down the stream of time flows the rich abundance of our blessings. They were prepared among the days of old, far back among the years of many generations. They have been copied and handed down from those ancient patterns, when first Christianity took its abode in our land. Our fathers! where are they? They are gone from the land which they inhabited; they are mouldered in their narrow houses:

yet there is something remaining of their piety in the land of their lives and of their burial. They did not hide from their children, nor they again from theirs, the words and works of God; and so even now we hear them speaking, though they have long been dead, and see the scenes, all fresh and fair, which their piety spread out.

Come, then, with me, while I am helping you to remember the days of old, the years of many generations. Come, look back upon the Christian pilgrims, the patriarchs of our country; who in its early and afflicted days received the kindness of God, and prepared for us and for remoter generations, the scenes and lessons of religion.

Our fair and pleasant land, when our forefathers came hither, was one deep forest: from east to west, from north to south, for hundreds and thousands of miles, a dismal wilderness; where wild beasts and wild men roamed without rest and without home. Then, there were no fields, beautiful and fruitful, under the hand of cultivation; but the heavy foliage of the forest shut out the light and heat of the sun from the soil which yields rich

and they believed he was leading them in a right way. The rising sun reminded them every morning of that wide and pathless ocean they had come over since they sought his guidance, kneeling on the shore of Holland; but they felt that he was with them still; and willing to hear and answer their prayer from the ends of the earth, They saw the sun tracing his bright pathway through the skies, and pouring his light into the depths of a boundless wilderness; but they received it by faith for themselves and their children, and gave it up, and themselves, and their children, to God, their leader and their guide.

There, as soon as they landed, and on the very border of the wilderness, they began to spread out the scenes, and teach the lessons of religion.

There, on the border of the wilderness; in that wintry cold, where savage and restless Indians had roamed from age to age, the pilgrims rested on the sabbath-day. On the rugged shore of the sea; on the rugged borders of the forest; the sabbath's sun arose, shedding its milder light, and man serenely rested from his toils. As the pilgrims saw that sab

bath's sun arise, and sweep in its circuit the whole arch of heaven; and sink at last in unknown regions of the west; it led their eye of faith over the wide country of their children's children: and though that day it poured its light upon the Indians that roamed that unknown forest, they foresaw that in some distant age, that same sun, rising from those eastern waters, and sweeping that same arch of heaven. And shedding its light upon the same regions of the west, would pour the sweet light of the sabbath upon towns, and villages, and cities peopled by millions of their sons, to the farthest west.

There, on the rugged shore of the sea; on the rugged border of the forest, they spread out the scenes of family piety. The house was homely; the fare was coarse; the grounds around were rough and broken woodlands; but it was a house of prayer; its master was a man of prayer; the family called upon the name of the Lord; prayer raised them above their trials, and spread joy over their comfortless lot for God blessed their home, and called their children his own; and made them,

in their poor abode, rich in the foretaste and hope of heaven.

There, also, among the first rough buildings, our forefathers reared a house for God's worship, where all their families met together to offer public prayer, and to receive the public lessons and ordinances of religion.

There the baptismal water was shed forth upon their infant seed. The Father, Son, and Spirit, gave it as the sign of an unfailing covenant, and received it as the sign of the pilgrim's faithful promise, that they would command their children and their households after them. Oh, it was the lesson to each succeeding generation. Know thou the God of thy father. It was the pledge of the prosperity of New England; the safeguard of that wide America, whose open regions they were come to fill.

There, also, was assembled a little band, at the Lord's supper. It was a solemn hour, while they tasted the memorials of their suffering Lord. They were sufferers too; exiles in a dreary wilderness, labouring hard for the necessaries of life; and suffering severe