gaiety by the intelligence of the destruction of their homes! Who knoweth what a day may bring forth? And as of property so of life. By what various and unlooked-for casualties may it be terminated! The bolt from heaven may lay you low, or your own walls may bury you! That doleful cry of fire became the knell of death to some who were most eager to respond to it. Why then should we glory in riches? Why set our hearts upon them? Why set our hearts on life, or count it for one moment our's? We know not, when we retire at night, but we shall awake in the morning penniless, if we awake at all; and we may be startled at midnight by the burning of our dwelling, to find it our own funeral pile. Be our's then the treasure that cannot fail, and our's the life that cannot die.

A third lesson which God would teach us by this providence, is that which is mainly inculcated in the text, our constant and absolute dependence upon Himself. "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." This declaration comes to us with peculiar point and emphasis. Ten years ago a large portion of the business section of this city was laid waste by fire. The cold of the night, the scarcity of water, the fear of tottering buildings in narrow streets, these and other circumstances combined to baffle all ordinary efforts to subdue the flames. Our citizens were stimulated by that calamity to make provision against fire, by the introduction of that pure and copious stream, which has proved to the city a stream of life. We are indebted, under God, to that provision, for the preservation of an immense amount of property exposed to the recent fire. But we have placed too much reliance upon it. How often has it been our boast, that a fire like that of 1835 never could occur again; that the ravages of fire must hereafter be restricted to a narrow sphere; that we had obtained command of an enemy, that had once sported with our possessions, and mocked at our strength. In the pride of our hearts we said with Ephraim of old, "the bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." We have multiplied our resources, and increased our vigilance, till in our self-confidence, we have looked with contempt on the providence of God.

But God has taught us another lesson. He has shown us that if we can extinguish fire, we cannot control those chemical agents, whose mysterious combination defies all human barriers, and rocks a city to its foundations; that we cannot control the winds of heaven, or regulate those currents and counter-currents which, generated by the heat of a furnace, whirl the flames with indescribable velocity from house to house, and street to street. The fire called to its aid other elements more terrific than itself, and has once more mastered us! We may have the Croton, we may have a vigilant watch, and an active corps of firemen, and still be forced

to weep in our impotence at a city laid in ruins. We need another protector, without whose favor we are never safe-Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!

The best guardians of your property are the men who, morning and evening, implore the favor and protection of God; the righteous, for whose sakes God ever spares or mitigates his judgments; who implore God to be your defence by night, and who acknowledge his merciful protection with the returning light of day. These are our watchmen and our bulwark. Oh, when shall all learn to commit their property, their families, and their lives to God, as to a Father who is all wise and powerful and kind! Let the inhabitants of this city thus with one heart seek the Lord, and he will be "a fire," not within us for our destruction, but "round about" us for our defence, and "a glory in the midst of us."

I add but one more reflection upon this event, viz.: That it is at onee an emblem and a warning of the final destruction of the world. That terrific agent with which we have been called to contend, is yet to rage and triumph on a broader field. How appaling was the sight of scores of buildings sending up their huge columns of flame and smoke till the moon and stars were hid. But there shall yet be a conflagration in which cities shall vanish like smoke, forests shall be consumed, mountains shall melt like wax, the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Does it seem to you incredible? Go view the ruins of a little fire kindled in the midst of us; see the dévastation produced by the explosion of gases pent up in a single chamber. Think then of the fires rolling and surging beneath our feet, of which volcanoes are but the flues giving vent to their superfluous rage; think of the chemical agents held under bonds in the bowels of the earth, and causing it to quake and open and swallow cities in its mouth. God alone restrains these destructive agents. He has them under his control, and he has but to set them free and we shall see a world on fire, and hear explosions that rend the heavens. And he will set them free; yes, proud scoffer, this world once overflowed with water, shall yet, as one great furnace, flame. Oh, that great and notable day of the Lord, when all the artillery of his wrath shall be brought to bear upon his foes! when the wild elements, from above and beneath, shall leap to avenge his insults; and he shall wind up the drama of our world by showing a guilty, God-denying race that he is the Lord, in letters of fire that shall be read and remembered in eternity. These heavens and this earth are by his word alone held back at any moment from destruction. They are "reserved to fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." That day is long delayeddelayed that mercy may gather larger fruits-that Immanuel may see of the travail of his soul. "Yet come it will, and as a thief in the night." The men of that generation shall scarce arouse from

heir midnight slumbers ere "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." There is a day of fire yet to burst upon our world; a day of judgment, when the Lord shall appear in flaming fire with his holy angels; a day of retribution, when a fire shall go before him and shall "devour his adversaries." "Who shall abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth?" "Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire; who among us shall dwell with everlasting burning." "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God"-for our God is a consuming fire! I warn you, dying fellow-men, to escape from that fire which burns to the lowest hell. You heard the cry of those who were struggling amidst the flames; you saw them leaving all and fleeing for their lives. Oh! be in earnest to escape a greater danger. Look not behind you, stay not in all the plain; flee to that rock which only shall withstand the fires that dissolve the universe.

SERMON CCCCIV.

BY REV. THOMAS BRAINERD.

PHILADELPHIA.

ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL JACKSON.

PREACHED IN THE PINE STREET CHURCH, SABBATH EVENING, JULY 6, 1845.

"I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men; for Kings and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty."-1 TIM. ií, 1, 2.

1. We are taught in this passage a respect for constituted authority. Almost any form of civil government is preferable to lawless anarchy, and therefore, Christians, subject even to Roman despotism were instructed to remember their rulers, as such, at the altar of prayer.

2. We are taught by the text the doctrines that God's Providence legislates over all rulers so that in answer to prayer, he will so "rule rulers and counsel counsellors," that their course of government shall bless their subjects.

3. We are taught in this passage that Christians are to regard

their civil duties and the welfare of their country, as a part of their religious obligations and responsibilities. They are so to deport themselves in their offices of holy living and prayer, as to bless mankind here, as well as hereafter. And if it be the duty of Christians to pray for those in authority, because rulers have a great influence on the weal or woe of their country, it may also be the duty of religious teachers to define, illustrate, and enforce the duties men owe to their country, as a part of the duties demanded by God. This I purpose to do this evening.

4. We learn from the text who are the best rulers, and who the happiest subjects. Those are the best rulers who so rule that their subjects, "lead quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness. and honesty." "Quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and honesty," suppose the protection of just laws, property, person, freedom and life made secure, and the subject himself estimating these blessings, pursuing a course of conduct marked by justice, temperance, moderation, benevolence and piety.

When these ends are secured, a nation has the highest tokens of God's favor.

The topics started directly, or by inference, from the text, suggest rich materials for thought and illustration, but I do not now purpose to dwell upon them in detail. I have suggested them not only because they sustain the main principles for which I shall contend, but because they afford license to the sacred desk for the discussion of these principles.

In this discourse I propose, without obligation to any logical arrangement, to discuss generally, the following topics.

What are the essentials of national happiness and prosperity? What were the peculiar responsibilities of those who proclaimed our independence sixty-nine years since, and sustained it against a foreign power, and what are the duties peculiarly devolving on us to enrich and perpetuate our national blessings?

What lessons have been furnished to this nation by the life and death of one whose recent departure has aroused public attention and sympathy.

I can of course but briefly touch points of such magnitude.

What are the essentials of national happiness and prosperity? Negatively, national happiness and prosperity do not depend on extent of territory. It is indeed requisite, that our territory should furnish fair scope for private enterprise and universal sustenance, but when we have already a domain which gives a plantation to every poor man who can invest two hundred dollars for its purchase when our territory embraces the great rivers which conduct our commerce to the broad sea-when our climate is varied enough north and south to furnish the productions of every latitude-when our territory is large enough to embrace the resources of men and

means to defend us from foreign aggression-it is obvious we have no motive for conquest or acquisition.

2. Great wealth is not an essential ingredient of national happiness. All experience tells us that the middle condition of society is the happiest. Great wealth tends to excessive and morbid refinement and indulgence-it tempts to avarice, idleness, profligacy and licentiousness. The palmy days of Rome, of Tyre, of Babylon, were their days of enterprise and relative poverty. When they compelled the world to pour its riches into their bosoms, they sunk into the dead and putrid sea of effeminate and animalized luxury.

3. National happiness does not consist in great military and naval strength. True we need the power to defend our rights and interests, but beyond this our indefinite preparation of the instruments of death, only tempts to national bravado, to the lust of power and conquest, to oppression and legalized murder.

We have seen what are not essential to national happiness and prosperity. We are now prepared positively to state what are such essentials. And here allow me to make the very obvious remark, that a nation is not an abstraction, in distinction from the individuals of which it is composed. That is a happy nation in which there is the greatest amount of personal, social, family and neighborhood, felicity. It is obvious, then, that those causes which minister to the greatest good of individuals are the real essentials of national prosperity. The moral, social and pecuniary degradation of the individuals of a nation, is the degradation of the nation itself, no matter what may be the form of its government, or the loftiness of its pretensions. Keeping this principle in mind, I remark that the first essential to national happiness is civil and religious freedom. God has made man a free moral agent, and designed him to act for himself, under the influence of self-love and religious duty.

There is nothing which human nature more covets than liberty. Take away from a man the consciousness of freedom and the right of self-government-assume that he is born to be the slave of the interest, ease and pleasure of kings or petty tyrants and he feels degraded below the level of his race. The world becomes to him. a orison-large, indeed, but sombre and hateful. The slave of despots may go to his task, but those cheering anticipations of benefit to himself and family, which lighten the burdens of labor, he can never know. The slave may eat and drink and dance in his chains, but his enjoyments are animalized, like those of the brute, to whose condition he is degraded.

Give a man liberty and he covets knowledge. Occupying his natural and Heaven-appointed condition of liberty, he loves light because it reveals his blessings and aids his aspirings, like the soaring bird that rises and floats in the airy element which God has