finds it, rejecting evil, let it clothe itself with what authority or splendor it will. The voice which he has heard forbids him to be conformed to this age; for this age is apostate from God, and commands him to be transformed into the character of the renovation, seeking ever to do the highest will. Not from his kindred only, when his kindred represent the presence of evil; not from his father's house only, when his father's house draws him from the higher home; but from his country the voice calls, that he get him out, when once his country throws itself between the soul of man and the spirit of God. And if the question rises, Whither shall I go? Where does this course lead? the answer comes, Trust me; unto a land-await the hour—that I will show thee.

Not unlike this may be the aspiration of the devout soul in the consciousness of such affections and such duties:

Thou who alone art God of all the nations of the earth, assigning their habitations and their laws, watching over their courses, and adjusting their destinies to their characters, my heart ariseth unto thee for teaching and for guidance, for others as well as myself, for all throughout the country so dear to us all. We thank thee for that which is venerable and holy in the history of the past; for every noble instance of

abandonment to duty, and devotion to the worship of thee and the service of thy children; for whatever of sincere faith, and heavenly hope, and divine charity, hath ennobled and hallowed each period of its course; and for those great ideas with which thou hast blessed all true souls, enabling them thereby to give lustre to the ages in which they lived, and to prolong it into those which follow. Father, we beseech thee to renew the great revelation. Let thy truth shine into the minds of all our countrymen; let thy love draw their souls unto thee, and into communion with each other.

Thou seest, O God, how full our country is of sin; how through the various processes of government, through its relations to foreign nations, and those which connect it with the rights and the conditions of citizens and subjects, covetousness, selfish ambition, rapacious injustice, imperious tyranny, have already marked the course which it has pursued; how, through the numberless methods of more private intercourse, of commerce, of conversation, of business in all its forms, similar vices have diffused their corruption; and how now, while we are boasting of our liberties and our virtues, we are plunging into the sins which have debased older nations, and prolonging even a slavery which the soul abhors, and which the world is beginning every

where to repel. Ours is a sinful nation, O Lord; ours is a people laden with iniquity: our vices are multiplied, our oppressions are manifold and severe; but we refuse to be corrected, and reject every voice which comes from thee calling us to repentance and amendment. Fill all hearts, thou Source of good, with godly sorrow, and rouse the nation to the faith, that the Lord God Almighty reigneth.

I beseech thee, Father, to grant unto me clearness of insight, humility of heart, penitence for every sin, strength to resist and overcome temptation, and some measure of power to meet and arrest the terrible current of iniquity. Save me from false and boasting pretence of love to my country; save me from servility to any party or interest which prevails in it; save me both from flattery and from censoriousness; save me from yielding myself to public sentiment, from conformity to this age and nation. Enable me to be and to live as child unto thee, as servant unto mankind. O breathe this same spirit into all hearts! that our whole land may be redeemed and exalted in the name and the spirit of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAPTER V.

THE CHURCH.

It is not difficult to discover how natural are those social affinities which have been considered thus far. Just as natural, we may be ready to confess them, as the organic elements and qualities of the person, nay, portions of those very elements and qualities. The relations, the influences, the services, interwoven with each and all of the several conditions of family, of friendship, of neighborhood, of country, their sympathies and antipathies, and the needs which they involve of divine ministries, we may perceive at once to be vital, not factitious; spontaneous, not artificial; essential, not adventitious. They flow from nature, or rather from Him who is soul of nature, not from any will or policy of men. We come now to a topic, commonly regarded in quite another light. The Church-or general sentiment is misunderstood-presents itself to most men, whether religious or irreligious, not as a natural communion, but as a positive institution; not so much the product of a living

growth, as a form shall we say it? — of mechanical combination; not as flowing from within, as stream from its fountain, but drawn from without, as waters to some cistern or artificial channel; not one with the essence of man, but dependent rather upon the will and the compact of men.

So the first thing we have to consider here is the vital relation of all men to the Church; not, of course, actual and conscious communion with it either in spirit or in form, but, as has been said, vital relation to it, a relation to which our inmost nature attests, and which is as necessary to the integrity of our being as any other natural relation or affection. This again is a thought to which we would address ourselves before coming to the final topic, the depth, which is the same with the height and the breadth and the perfection, of the spirit, because the Church, fully formed and recognized in that higher sphere, yet assumes and encircles us earlier, and is, as it were, the intermediate through which from natural or animal we become spiritual, from earthly we rise to heavenly, thus fulfilling the prophetic idea of the Regeneration.

Let the thought, simple as it is, be kept distinctly before us, Man's relation to the Church, the religious communion, is vital, and an element of his nature. Without resorting to other sour