men, historians, and orators will be trained on this ground, to shine in senates, to grace the bar, to adorn the bench. of justice, and to record the doings of the wise, the brave, and the good! But more than all, what may not this seminary do for the churches at home-what victories may she not gain in distant lands, by sending forth her sons under the banner of the cross, and clad in armor of heavenly temper to fight the battles of her King?

Who is there in this assembly, that is not ready to answer, May these glowing anticipations be more than realized, in the future prosperity and usefulness of this Institution? May it live to gladden and bless the church through all future generations; and in that world, where holiness is perfect and knowledge is transcendant, may all its founders, patrons, and friends meet, and dwell together forever in the presence of God and the Lamb.

THE LORD OUR HELP.*

-Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.-I. Sam. 7, 12.

WHETHER this touching acknowledgment was actually inscribed by Samuel, upon the stone which he had hastily set up between Mispeh and Shen, does not appear from the laconic notice of that signal deliverance which it records. It will however always stand on the sacred page, in glorious contrast with the inflated, not to say atheistical, bulletins and inscriptions of some of the most renowned Chieftains of ancient and modern times. But in the Book of God it does not stand alone. It is associated with the Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, of such illustrious statesmen and warriors as Moses, Daniel, Joshua, and David. Would that we could find a thousand more such pious memorials of national deliverances. Would that every great captain had a cause as righteous, as that which summoned the chosen tribes to Mispeh ; and that every deliverer of his country, knew how to brighten his laurels, by writing upon the battle ground, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' The few instances of this sort which occur, though far between,' afford some little relief to the eye of the christian patriot, on the dark ground of militant ages; and happy would he be,

Delivered at the Dedication of the College Chapel in Amherst, Mass. Feb. 28, 1827.

if while his ear is every where persecuted by the clash of arms, he could discover more and brighter glimmerings to cheer him through centuries of night.

But let it not be thought, that the conquered and cannon-ploughed field, is the only spot on which the helping arm of God is to be acknowledged, or that none but great and critical occasions, demand the pious record of the heart, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' No one is so independent, as not to need God's help. And no one is so forsaken, as not to be in a measure protected and sustained by it. Let the pious king, then, when his enemies are scattered, inscribe our text upon the pillars of his throne. Let the defender of his father's sepulchre, engrave it upon his shield. Let the men of active business and honest gains, write it upon their ships, upon their manufactories, and in their counting-rooms, at the corner of every street, and at the entrance of every field. Let the student, as he advances from stage to stage in his education, record it upon every blank leaf of his classics. Let the christian pilgrim leave it upon every way-mark of his journey. In a word, let all, 'both high and low, rich and poor together,' cherish a grateful sense of their dependence, and ever be ready to exclaim, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' O how will the guilty and sorrow-worn face of an outcast world, be lighted up with christian loveliness, in that fast coming day, when the inscription of the holy Seer of Rama, shall be engraved on every heart, and break from every tongue!

The text thus introduced, suggests a number of interesting topics for our present consideration.

The first of these is, that without God we can do nothing. In him we live, and move, and have our being.' We cannot brace a muscle or draw a breath with

out him. But for his unremitting care and mysterious energy, the wheel would be broken at the cistern,' and the perennial stream of life would congeal in an hour, through all its channels. The vital impulse of this living machine, so fearfully and wonderfully made,' would cease, and death would come in to take it rudely down, and lay it away out of sight. It is God who prevents it; who keeps every chord in tune; every valve in repair; every wheel in motion.

And as we are at this moment dependent upon Him for life and breath and all things, so we always have been. Why died we not in the cradle ? It was because God sustained us. He cherished the spark, which his own breath had kindled, while as yet it had scarcely begun to warm our infant bosoms. In childhood, so beset with dangers, in youth so reckless of evil, in the noon of life, and in its winter eventide so bleak; in every slippery path, in all our toils, adversities, perils, and escapes, God has been our preserver. Having obtained help of Him we continue unto this day.' But for this, the last fever would have dried up all the fountains of life within us ; the last ague would have shaken us to pieces.

If we have not like many others yielded in the hour of temptation, so as to break, or sadden every heart that cared for us--if we have not become drunkards, and vagabonds, and are not cast out an abhorring to all flesh,' it is because the Lord hath prevented us. 'Who maketh thee to differ from another, or what hast thou which thou hast not received?'

Art thou, my beloved hearer, a disciple of Christ? Once thou wast led captive by Satan at his will, and we saw thee ignominiously grinding in his prison-house.' Blind and in chains as thou wast, why didst thou not die