intentioned, and however valuable, may be the suggestions occasionally offered by those who press forward either in our defence, or for our improvement; more may sometimes be lost by affording occasion for continued warfare, than gained in any accession to our real strength. Too eager a spirit of conflict may also lead to rash encounters, embarrassing, rather than advantageous, to the cause it is intended to uphold.

Enough, however, there is, in such times as these, to occupy the thoughts and call forth the exertions of every one among us, whatever be his post or station. To counteract the effect of those pernicious stimulants, by which the whole community has been wrought up to a state of maddening irritation ;—stimulants, administered by atheists, by revolutionists, by the thoughtless or desperate of every description;-is, at this moment, among the first duties of the vigilant Pastor. Fatal must be the consequences, if the monstrous fiends of blasphemy and disorganization now

66

going about seeking whom they may de"vour," and stalking openly through the land with menace and defiance, be suffered to take undisturbed possession of our peasants and artificers, or of those on whom they immediately depend for their support.

To you, my Reverend Brethren, belongs the awful charge of endeavouring to dislodge from their haunts these pests of civilized society. It is for you, not only from the pulpit, but in your daily and hourly discharge of pastoral duties, to be watchful in interposing a shield against these dangers. To be "in"stant in season and out of season," in imbuing the minds of your flocks with those principles of sacred truth which afford the only sure preservative against the subtle poison of infidelity, or the envenomed darts of sophistry and falsehood;-to watch as those who "must give account" of the souls committed to their charge;-to restrain, if possible, their misplaced ardour, in following every visionary that would entice them to disorder and confusion, by vain hopes and ideal speculations of a state of things, never to be realized, or, if realized, at the cost of every thing that ought to be most dear and sacred;―to enable the inconsiderate, the deluded, the feeble-minded, thus to escape the snares which beset their path;-these are the duties to which we are now indispensably called. By the prudent and strenuous discharge of them we shall better approve ourselves faithful servants of our Lord, than by encouraging the fantastic theories which are

leading our people, they know not whither, to "seek,” as saith the Prophet, "that which "shall not satisfy their souls, because it is "the stumblingblock of their iniquity.”

That in a Christian country like this, and in so advanced a stage of mental cultivation as is the boast of the present day, it should be needful to press these admonitions, is indeed grievous. And if we inquire how it has become needful, the answer is but too obvious. The main root of the evil lies in a want of sound, sober, and practical religious feeling, operating steadily throughout the community, and influencing the conduct in all the various departments of social life. The want of this is discernible in attempts to carry on the work of popular education without taking Religion for its basis; in the systematic and avowed separation of civil and political from Christian obligations; in the disposition to consider all truths, on whatever sacred authority they may rest, as matters of mere human opinion; and in a persuasion, that the whole concern of government, of legislation, and of social order, may be conducted as if there were no MORAL RULER OF THE UNIVERSE controlling the destinies of men or of nations; no other responsibilities than those which subsist between man

and man, unamenable to any higher tribunal. So long as these pernicious sentiments obtain currency among us, (and who will say that they do not fearfully prevail in every rank and every station?) it is impossible for any believer in a righteous Providence not to look on such a state of things with unwonted misgivings. Need I add, then, my Reverend Brethren, how seasonable, in its application to ourselves, is the Apostle's affectionate advice to his beloved Titus, "In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works; in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be con"demned; that he that is of the contrary

66

66

66

part may be ashamed, having no evil thing "to say of you." On this indeed must our best hopes be stayed. Nor will I allow myself, under whatever discouragements, to regard the aspect of our affairs with despondency or dismay, so long as the Church is true to itself, and its ministers faithful to their charge. That the Protestant Church of England is a genuine branch of that holy Catholic Church, of which it is promised that “the

66

gates of hell shall not prevail against it," none of us, I trust, can hesitate to believe. Yet the pledge, with reference to any particular branch of the Church, is, like every

P p

other Divine promise, conditional as to its fulfilment. A corrupt or careless Clergy, an unfaithful or unthankful people, general neglect of public worship, desecrated sabbaths, daring impieties, indifference to the truth, encouragement to superstitious vanities, or to doctrines subversive of the fundamental truths of Christianity; these, or any of these, when they become general, and especially when they infect those in high stations of authority, whose duty it is to control and to correct them; may provoke the Almighty to withdraw his protecting hand, and to say, as to his rebellious people of old, "Shall I not "visit for these things, and shall not my soul "be avenged on such a nation as this?"— Yet let us cherish the hope, that the labours and virtues, the exhortations and admonitions, the prayers and intercessions of pastors not lukewarm in the faith, and of multitudes of their fellow-Christians, who have not yet cast off their allegiance to the Most High, may prevail, to avert these evils from our favoured land. Many have been heretofore the perils it has encountered, many the deliverances it has experienced; and until that leaven of Irreligion—the Irreligion which cares not for God, neither is God "in all its thoughts"-shall have spread still