:

from whose shores that angel winged his way, who flies with the everlasting gospel, to every nation under heaven Is she, not only to sink in the scale of nations; but also to be deserted of God; and abandoned, at the last, to profligacy, superstition, and infidelity? It is a solemn question. Let us, before we answer, view it by the light which God's past dealings with the churches throws upon it. Let us trace the history of Christianity in its progress throughout the churches. And let us mark, how the Divine Spirit, like Noah's dove, sought in each, successively, to find rest for the sole of its foot and when it failed of effecting its great object in each: when worldliness, and immorality, and ungodliness, affrighted this pure and heavenly visitant; how it spread its light wings, and fled away; and left that church to all the horrors of a tenfold deeper night. For "it were better never to have known the way of righteousness, than having known, to turn from this holy commandment given us." "If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is, henceforth, good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot

of men."

Let us, then, rapidly trace the course of that gospel which was to be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem and let us, first, contrast Jerusalem as it now is, with Jerusalem as it was, in those days, when our Lord is sued that commission; or, when the spirit, poured out from on high, animated its first christian church. When the disciples of that church " were of one heart and one mind; and continuing daily in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat in gladness, and singleness of heart; praising God, and having favour with all the people."

Where is, then, that temple, which, once, like the ark amid the deluge, maintained the truth and unity of the living God, amid the flood of an idolatrous world; or, like the beacon upon the shores of a tempestuous ocean, shed its cheering light upon many, who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, without hope, and without God, in the world? where is, now, that temple, in which, God himself dwelt, by a visible manifestation of the Divine glory? Where is that temple, in which, Jesus, God manifest in flesh, prayed, and

preached, and taught? The Divine vengeance has swept, with the besom of destruction, this once loved habitation of the living God. Its very foundations, in fulfilment of his own prophetic warning, have disappeared. And on its site there stands, indeed, a temple; and from that temple prayers and praises ascend; but not to the living and true God-but to the impostor Mahomet. Look at the land which surrounded the temple, and which, once, was called holy; because the chosen vineyard of God--because trodden by the feet of his prophets and apostles-because trodden by the feet of his beloved Son. And behold it, now, trampled and desecrated by the feet of the infidel. Look at that holy mountain, on which, once, stood the cross of our master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, there dying for us: that cross which was the great altar of propitiation for a guilty and perishing world: the banner of the city of refuge. And see, now, waving upon its summit, in proud rebellion against the Messiah's kingdom, the crescent of the false prophet. Stand, in thought upon a pinnacle of the temple, and survey the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them. Look eastward, and westward, northward, and southward, and behold, in every direction, the many strong holds of Satan, which the apostles themselves subdued, by the omnipotent and diffusive energy of the first outpouring of the spirit: which they brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and on which they planted the standard of the cross. And where are, now, those verdant spots of cultivation which gemmed the moral waste? Where arc, now, the once flourishing churches of Asia and of Africa? Where are the churches of Syria and Hindostan-of Carthageof Egypt-of Ethiophia? Alas! How has the fine gold become dim? How have they relapsed from civilization and christianity, into barbarism, superstition, and idolatry.

:

But, pass, with the spirit of Christianity, westward, whither its main current flowed: and visit first the Seven Churches of Asia, to which God himself dictated those epistles recorded in the Revelations. See, as those epistles threaten, the candlestick removed from some, as from Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicca: In none of

:

:

which, according to late accounts, is there a single church-a single minister -a single Christian! See, in others, a faint, glimmering, expiring ray, just discernible amid the dense gloom of infidelity and superstition which surrounds, and hems them in. Pass onwards to those churches of Greece and Macedon-to Corinth-to Philippi-to Thessalonica, which St. Paul planted Where he laboured more abundantly than all the Apostles: And to which he addressed some of those inspired epistles, which are noted in the Scriptures of truth." And behold them, now, fallen from their original glory marred and defaced by one corruption of Christianity. Pass onward, and still westward, to Rome; to which he addressed another of those inspired epistles: When he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: But proclaimed Christ crucified, amid the satellites, and in the palace, of imperial power; and sealed his testimony with his blood. And behold her, marred and defaced by another corruption of Christianity. Behold this mother of harlots drunk with the blood of saints: debased by her foul commerce with the kings of the earth: Even in the hour of seeming bloom and vigour, pregnant with the seeds of corruption and decay: Withering by an unseen and unfelt blight of heaven: And, while boasting in her pride, "I shall be a lady for ever," tottering to her fall, in all the moral and mental imbecility of judicial infatuation and dotage. And while, like Babylon, thy prototype of old, thou sayest in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High! Thou shalt be brought down to hell, which, from beneath, is moved for thee, to meet thee, at thy coming. Which stirreth up the dead for thee; even all the chief ones of the earth. Which hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations; who shall take up this taunting proverb, and say, art thou also become weak as we ? Art thou become like unto us? How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst shake the nations! Which didst make the

earth to tremble; and didst shake kingdoms !

But let us pass onward, and still westward, with the spirit of Christianity, to nearer lands and nearer times. Look at Germany and Switzerland, whence dawned the light of reformed Christianity upon the dark ages of superstition. And behold them, now, deluged with Neology, Arianism, and Infidelity. Pass onward, and still westward, to our own country-once the nurse, who cradled, in her bosom, the reformed religion: Where martyrs and confessors bled and burned for the truth : And whence that angel took his flight, which bears the everlasting Gospel to every nation under heaven. And though, blessed be God, there is, still, a remnant amongst us, which hath not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Though the Bible is, still, held up among us—if not nationally-yet, at least, by that chosen remnant, as the only infallible guide. Though our national creed be, still, Scriptural and pure-and may God grant, that, in those days of accommodating liberality, which has no principle to sacrifice; no profane hand may be stretched out, to touch that ark-to erase from our formularies the ever blessed Trinity-and, thus, expel from our church all her genuine sons. Though, still, there is amongst us, a leaven of sound principle and sincere piety-not, however, mingling withbut, awfully ominous of the nation's doom! daily, more and more, separating from the mass. Yet do we not see infidelity, superstition and sectarian virulence; the last, poisoning, with its gall, the scanty cup of pure and undefiled religion. The others, like two gloomy and portentous clouds, closing in together, and awfully overhanging the land; intercepting the favour of God's countenance, and the light of truth? And beneath the cover of this murky night, do we not see profligacy and worldliness, deeds of darkness and of blood, polluting and defiling the land. Calling the vengeance of God upon a guilty nation. scaring from among us that Holy Spirit, which can dwell but in mansions of purity and peace! Viewing, thus, God's past dealings with the churches. Reading, as in his epistles to the Seven Churches, the principles upon which he acts. Considering our national apostacy have we not good reason to

And

beware, lest our candlestick, also, be removed? Lest that voice be heard among us, which, once, sounded in the Jewish temple, and was the prelude to all its woes, "Let us depart hence !" Lest the Divine Spirit continue its westward flight across the waves of the Atlantic; whither many of our persecuted and expatriated brethren are bearing it in their own bosoms; and, let the sun of righteousness set to us upon the shores of the western hemisphere. Upon shores, whence a voice of simple and more earnest piety is, even now, ascending. Whose religious biography indicates a state of religion, whether collective or individual, to which these countries can furnish no counterpart. Where the great council of the nation practically recognises the existence, and the paramount authority, of the living God. Where the Sabbath is remembered to be kept holy. Where its religious societies have lately declared it to be the Christian's duty-and have pledged themselves, actively to promote the work to supply every family in that great nation, within the space of two years, with a copy of the Word of God. Have we not good cause to beware, lest the kingdom of God be taken from us, and given to this nation bringing forth the fruit thereof?

But, each may say, What can I, an humble, solitary individual do, to avert this great national calamity? How can I prevent the spirit of God from taking his flight from amongst us? You can do much to prevent it, by cultivating a deeper spirit of piety, and, thus, retaining the Spirit of God in your own bosom? Until the last witness for God had departed from Sodom: Until the last echoes of the voice of prayer had died from its walls, the arm of Divine wrath was restrained. "Haste thee. Escape thither. For I cannot do anything, until thou be come thither." "But, the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." Cultivate this spirit, and you will do more to retain the ark of God among us; and to promote the happiness and prosperity of the land, than all the newfangled political œconomists, and all the bold speculators upon the face of the earth, could accomplish. This is the radical reform, which would, soon, purge out all the dross of an unprinci

pled and revolutionary government; and cleanse the Augean stye of a demoralized nation. We are told, on high authority, that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And was its aid, ever, more required, than at the crisis, in which, at this moment, we stand? It touches the hidden springs of providence. It has, ere now, open'd the windows of heaven. It has prospered the warriors sword. It has stayed the fate of guilty nations. It moves that hand which moves the world.

In recommending that the supporter of Church and State should clothe himself, as is most suitable, in the whole armour of God, to meet the desperate struggle between order and chaos which, evidently, impends; we would damp no zeal in the sacred cause of order and religion. God knows, that between the lukewarmness of some, and the apostacy of others, there is little zeal to be found. Nor do we see why, zeal in this cause, and piety, need to be contrasted, as incompatible. We would cheer every upright and well principled effort to roll back the tide of revolution and infidelity, which is sweeping away all ancient landmarks-burying in ruin our noblest institutions-and desolating the land. But we would point out, what we firmly believe to be, the only spirit, in which, with any prospect of success, these efforts should be undertaken by their agents, and responded to by the Protestant body. Protestant political feeling has well nigh sunk, under reiterated disappointment. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." A few leading minds, whose energies it, first, developed, prop, with giant arm, the tottering and deserted fabric of, once ascendant, Protestantism. But there is, in Ireland, a scattered and undirected mass of Protestant religious feeling, which waits but persecution, on the one hand, or a sufficiently religious appeal, on the other, to elicit and concentrate it. We believe, that there is a superintending and unsleeping providence, by whom, "the hairs of our head are all numbered;" and "without whom, not a sparrow falleth to the ground." But even those, who, in despite of his own declarations, would volunteer to relieve the omnipotent and omniscient God, from a watchfulness so incessant, and cares so minute and troublesome, will

66

surely admit, if Epicurus be not their master; that, if ever a state of things indicated Divine interference, the present condition of the world, in general, and of these countries, in particular, indicates it as to the past; and requires it for the future. Protestantism seems, in righteous judgment upon its sins and negligences, to be sold of God, as of ten has been his Church of old, into the hands of its, and his enemies. Great Britain and Holland, the arms of Protestant Europe, are fettered, by priests and demagogues from within, or by tyranny from abroad. Their common industry, and wealth, and virtue, and protestantism, persecuted and oppressed. Can these things be, without the knowledge and the will of God? Can the spirit of moral change which so rapidly, of late years, passed over the mind of Europe, generating in it the elements of corresponding political change; some of which have, already, fearfully exploded-some are in awful preparation. Can the angel of pestilence which visited successively, the nations of the earth, alarming even more than destroying, as if a forerunner, to announce the advent of an angry GodCan the convulsions, by which the world has been, lately, revolutionized; and which have prostrated so many thrones, and changed so many dynasties-Can the sudden crumbling away, as if touched by the enchanter's wand, of the well-cemented fabric of Protestant ascendancy, pulled down, alike, by friends and foes; and in whose "membra disjecta—in the magnitude of whose ruined fragments, one sees an argument for Divine interposition, and Divine judgments, as in the razed foundations of Babylon, or Nineveh, or Jerusalem-Can all these things be, " sine numine ?" If, indeed, there be a moral governor. If, indeed, man be not wholly abandoned to his own guidance, to mould, by his own skill and power, the destinies of nations! There can be but one reply. And, therefore, it is, that, in this awful crisis, when the wisdom of man and the arm of flesh have proved impotent, we would call on the Protestant body, to humble itself in spirit beneath the mighty hand of

a chastening God. It is the privilege of every religious Protestant, to feel, in the present struggle against the powers of darkness-against superstition, anarchy, infidelity, and vice of every type and degree, that his is the cause of God. And that however, for the chastisement of our national sin, the Divine countenance may be averted, still, God is on his side. Let us not, by drinking in the careless infidel spirit of the age, deprive ourselves of the comfort and the power, which such a conviction must bring with it. We are deeply convinced, that if Protestants so lived, as that they could see and feel the truth, that their cause is the cause of God; that the Divine power would be, then, ranged upon their side; and their cause would be triumphant. Our best hopes are drawn from the growing light and increased spread of genuine piety, among individuals of the Protestant communion; contrasted with the blackening shades, moral and religious, of the unholy alliance opposed to it. We have among us, in and out of parliament, a few names, at least, which have not defiled their garments. And we are proud to say, that our University, in its elective capacity, has contributed to these. On such men-under Godwe stake our last hope for the country. If the sentence of Divine wrath has not, already, gone forth against Great Britain, "She was the first among the nations, but her latter end shall be, that she perish for ever!" This band of Christians, daily reinforced by the concentrative power of persecution, rallying to each breach of the constitution, in a spirit of prayer, and under the banner of the cross, must be omnipotent. But there is another, and a higher interest, which, especially in these days of uncertainty and danger, it were madness to leave at risk; and which, the cultivation of such a spirit will, effectually, secure. And if the decree has gone forth against Great Britain, "Delenda est P We shall fail indeed to save the country; but, from amid its ruins, we shall save that treasure, which is worth ten thousand worlds-our immortal souls.

The first adventure, in which I was concerned, took place very shortly after I joined the Dolphin, a beautiful sloop of twelve guns, and arose out of a love affair of one of our officers. We were lying off the small town of Manchos, where we had been ordered by the Chiefs of the Revolution to wait for further orders, and, as I had only just joined the service, I was glad of the opportunity of creating an intimacy with my future companions during the idle time and ample leisure we enjoyed on that station. Among them was a very young man, who, if one might judge from first appearances, was the last person I would have expected to meet among such bold and daring companions as those with whom he had associated himself. This person was George Falkland-he was below the middle stature, and was extremely slight in his person, with a face remarkably feminine, both in the form and the expression; it was oval, with a small mouth and nose, light blue eyes, and a complexion approaching that of a female more nearly than I have ever seen in any other man; but what gave the great peculiarity to his face was, his having neither beard nor whisker, and as all our party had very large whiskers and mustachoes, his deficiency was the more remarkable; he used often laugh at his own appearance when contrasting it with that of others, and he would then divide his hair, which was a very light brown, in the middle of his forehead so as to make the contrast greater by giving the most feminine appearance possible to his face. Notwithstanding this peculiarity, the first impressions which he created on the minds of strangers were always of the most favorable kind, especially among females, for whom he seemed to possess some irresistible charm: his manners were generally mild and gentle, and his mind seemed to have been moulded by his favourite studies, which extended to every species of romance,

so that he became essentially romantic in much of his feelings; he loved an adventure for its excitement and for the novelty that was often connected with it; as to its danger, he never thought of that, unless as being more likely to heighten the excitement. He was naturally mild and gentle, but when roused by insult or by danger he was fierce as a young panther, and rushed forwards reckless of consequences. He was a kind and warm-hearted fellow, and was a universal favorite among both the officers and crew of the Dolphin, at the time of my joining them.

I have already said we were lying off Manchos. That town was a small but convenient place, and possessed all the usual characteristics of those towns which were built by the Spaniards in their American possessions; it had nothing, however, that could give it any peculiar charm in the eyes of our party, who looked to no interest in it except as far as it was ancillary to our amusement or convenience. It had once possessed a pretty extensive trade, and many of the first mercantile houses in Spain had accredited agents resident in it, but it lost all these advantages during the troubles of the revolution, which have certainly estab lished the independence of the States, but have at the same time destroyed the trade and desolated the fortunes of the wealthiest inhabitants, and as they left some of the towns in a state very little removed from utter desolation, the little town of Manchos was not the least afflicted among the sufferers. Close to this town there was a place intimately connected with the adventure I am about to relate. It was a broad road of about a mile in length, and perfectly straight; it had a double row of the most magnificent trees on each side, and they threw a deep and cooling shade from their rich luxuriant foliage, so remarkable in this climate. This spot was once the place-the favourite place of promenade. It was so