to the affairs of France; which, for about twenty-four years, had been almost uninterruptedly successful, to the vast consternation of the world. This retreat became a flight, and that of the most disastrous kind. "Come, behold the works of the Lord! what desolation he hath made!" Truly, "God is known by the judgments which he executeth." Defeats and miseries were poured upon the straggling fugitive armies. And the roads were, for hundreds of miles, strewed with their dead and dying. Thousands upon thousands sunk under the accumulated horrors of cold, nakedness, famine, fatigue, snow storms, the sword, and showers of balls from the vengeful legions of the enemy. Count Segur (an eyewitness) gives a history of this retreat. He says: "The winter now overtook us; and, by filling up the measure of such individual suffering, put an end to that mutual support which had hitherto sustained us. Henceforth the scene presented only a multitude of insulated and individual stragglers. All fraternity of arms was forgotten; all the bonds of social feeling torn asunder; excess of misery had brutalized them. A devouring hunger had reduced these wretched men to the mere instinct of self-preservation; to which they were ready to sacrifice every other consideration. The rude and barbarous climate seemed to have communicated its fury to them. Like the worst of savages, the strong fell upon the weak, and despoiled them. They eagerly surrounded the dying, and often waited not for the last sigh, before they stripped them. When a horse fell, they rushed upon it, tore it in pieces, and snatched the morsel from each others' mouths, like a troop of famished wolves. If an officer or a comrade fell alongside of them, or before a wheel of a cannon, it was in vain that he implored their aid! he obtained not even a look. All the frozen insensibilities of the climate had passed into their hearts. Its rigidity had contracted their sentiments, as well as their features. All, except a few chiefs were absorbed by their own sufferings, and terror left no place for pity. To stop for a moment, was to risk their own life. In this scene of universal destruction, to hold out your hand to your comrade, or to your sinking chief, was an admirable effort of generosity. When unable from total exhaustion to proceed, the individuals would halt, while winter with its icy hand seized on them for its prey. It was then that in vain these unfortunate beings, -benumbed as they were,-endeavored to rouse themselves! Voiceless, insensible, and plunged in stupor,

they would move forward like automata; but the blood, already freezing in their veins, flowed languidly through their hearts, and, mounting to their heads, made them stagger like drunken men. From their eyes,-now red and inflamed by looking on the snow, by smoke, and by want of sleep,-there sometimes seemed to flow forth tears of blood, accompanied by profound sighs. One would look on the sky,—then look at us,-then upon the ground, with a fixed and haggish stare of consternation!—this was the last farewell. They dropped upon their knees, and then upon their hands, moving, for an instant, from right to left, or the reverse;-while from their lips escaped the most agonizing moans. They then fell prostrate upon the snow, perhaps disgorging blood, and were here no more! Their comrades passed by them without ever stepping aside;-dreading to lengthen their march by a single step. They even turned not their heads to look at them; as the slightest motion of the head, to the left or right, was attended with torture; the hair of their heads and their Scenes of still beards being frozen into a solid mass. greater horror took place in large log-houses, which were In these, found, at certain intervals, along the road. soldiers and officers would rush, huddled together like cattle. The living not having strength to remove the dead that were close by the fire, sat down upon their bodies, until their own turn came to expire;-when they also served as deathbeds to others. Sometimes the fire would communicate itself to the wood of those sheds, and then all within the walls,-already half dead,—would expire in the flames. In Jaupranoni, the soldiers set fire to houses, in order to warm themselves a few minutes. This would attract crowds of wretched men, some of whom the intensity of the cold had rendered delirious, who would rush forward like madmen, gnashing their teeth, and, with demoniac laughter, plunge themselves into the flames, where they perished in horrid convulsions. Their famished companions looked on without affright; and, it is but too true, that some of them drew the half-roasted bodies from the flames, and ventured to carry to their lips the revolting food!"

Those fleeing distracted legions came to the river Berezina. They must soon cross, or perish, as their furious foes were pressing upon them, and any escape to the right or left was impossible. Cannon, arms, implements of death, threatened to destroy them at once. In despair

and terror, they flew towards the river, which was rolling with hills of ice. Some plunged in, and perished. Most of them labored to gain the bridge, over which the emperor had just slipped, and fled! All order was banished. The rear of the Russian cannon and musketry filled the air; and the ground was covered with the dead and dying. The multitude pressed upon each other to gain the bridge, till the way was perfectly choked. Many were suffocated and trodden to death. Many hurled their comrades off the bridge, to gain their places. Thousands were plunged into the river, and lost among the blocks of ice. The air resounded with the shrieks and yells of the terrified and the dying, which fell upon the ear when the intervals of the firing of the Russians could permit them to be heard; which added to the matchless horrors! A great part of the residue of the huge army of the north, which till now remained, here sunk in death. The bridge over the river, while loaded with a jam of French soldiers, was set on fire, according to antecedent arrangement, to finish the fatal scene. Here men were at the same time frozen and burned! And while crowds were pressing upon the bridge, and upon each other, the whole bridge gave way, and all the multitudes upon it were precipitated into the rolling surges among the blocks of ice, and to inevitable death! The few who had passed the river, were pursued, and most of them destroyed. Thus ended this huge army of the north! The origin of all the mighty operations for twentyfive years, had been a design to destroy the Christian religion, and all civil liberty from the earth. And the angel of the covenant interposed, as in this chapter, and blasted the impious design! The Russians picked up, and burned in piles, more than 213,000 bodies of their fleeing foe. And but very few of the 400,000 men ever reached their home.

The emperor, thus vanquished, had the address in France to raise new armies; and a number more of great battles were fought in the closing scenes of the seven thunders in our text. In the battle of Grossgorchen, which place was taken and retaken six times at the point of the bayonet, 20,000 men fell. In the battle of Bautzen, -a general action of nearly four days' continuance, and with about 300,000 on both sides engaged,—about 50,000 fell. The Confederation of the Rhine, so called, now revolted from their new imperial master, Bonaparte, and 400,000 men were soon in arms against him, under a host

of the first generals of the age. A number of furious battles were fought, before the noted battle of Leipsic in Germany. In this, all the remaining armies were now concentrated. The citizens of Leipsic could behold, from their steeples, the armies of the French encircling their city. And soon they could discover the armies of the allied enemies of France forming another exterior circle. The work of death commenced, with six hundred cannon on both sides, which, with more than half a million of small arms, presented a frightful preparation for blood and carnage. The furious contest raged for a day, without bringing any thing to a decision. The second day was then taken up, by mutual consent, in making preparation on both sides, to renew, on the third day, the fiery combat. The third day dawned, on which it was conceived the fate of Europe and the world rested! Five of the most able generals of Europe (Blucher, Wittgenstein, Barckley de Tolley, Bernadotte, and Schwartzenberg) led the allied armies on the one hand; and Bonaparte, with his generals, on the other. Monarchs of allied nations were present, to engage as aids to these powerful generals; or to stand as anxious spectators of the scene! The work of death commenced; and before nine o'clock it raged through the whole lines. The day was dreadful. The French were defeated, with the loss of 40,000 men. An equal number, probably, were slain on the other side. And the confusion and terror of the French emperor, in his retreat, were exceeded only by his flight from Russia the preceding year. The consequent slaughter of French garrisons, between Leipsic and the French capital, were most disastrous to the latter. The vanquished emperor entered France a second time as a fugitive, and demanded of his astonished people a levy of 300,000 men. The victorious combined armies of 300,000 men followed him. Further scenes of carnage ensued, till Paris was taken by the combined powers, invading in their turn; and the noted emperor was vanquished, and banished to the little island of Elba!

After a season, Bonaparte again found means to appear in France at the head of a mighty army; and the combined powers were once more compelled to take the field against him. But in the general and tremendous battle of Waterloo, he was again defeated, and lost his empire, and was banished to the desolate island of St. Helena, where he ended his days! In the scenes of carnage and terror

which thus closed, in which the seven thunders of war unitedly roared for about a quarter of a century, we find events which seem fully adequate to the sublime figures in the text, and which do most fully agree with them, both in point of chronology, and in the description of the events. The remaining part of the chapter is deferred to the next

lecture.

It is striking to reflect how fully these events accord with other prophetic descriptions of them in the same period, as may be made to appear. It may be shown under the vials, that they are the same with the fifth vial, poured upon the seat (throne) of the papal beast, and filling his kingdom with darkness. Rev. xvi. 10, 11. They are thought to be the same with those in Zeph. iii. 6, 7, where (just before the battle of the great day, which is there given, verse 8, to introduce the Millennium, verse 9) -God says, "I have cut off the nations; their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste; their cities are destroyed," &c. The scenes are thought to be the same with the dragon's casting out of his mouth floods of water, to cause the destruction of the church, and the earth helping the woman, and swallowing up the floods, Rev. xii. 16. The same with the description in Dan. ii. 41–43, where the feet and the toes of the great image-meaning the latest remains of the secular Roman empire-are "part of iron, and part of clay; partly strong, and partly broken," until, under the seventh vial, the stone (Christ) shall smite them, and grind them to powder, in the final battle just antecedent to the Millennium. And they are the same with the descriptions given of the same power as the beast from the bottomless pit, Rev. xvii., which is believed to have been fulfilled in the explosion of French atheism, and the horrors of their revolution and consequent scenes of blood. They are also the same with that descent of Christ, given in chapter xviii., where its effects upon the papal see, and upon its doting multitudes, are described.

How terrible are the judgments of Christ against his enemies! He has plenty of justice for them, as well as of mercy for his friends. He proclaimed not only the acceptable year of the Lord; but the day of vengeance of our God! The latter he executes as "Head over all things to the church!" When a violent, extensive, and armed system of atheism arose in the French revolution of 1789, which threatened to banish Christianity, as well as civil