or slow decline, our social comforts drop away; though we must resign our own bodies to the tomb, which is open to receive all mankind; yet in the midst of judgment God remembers mercy. Even in this dark scene there arises light to the upright. God enlarges our view beyond these territories of wild disorder, and shows us our friends already landed on the farther shore. We see the mansions he has prepared, the palms of victory, the crown of glory we hear the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God; we see the dead, a mighty army, springing up from their beds of dust and corruption; we see Jesus on the throne, and the faithful at his right hand; we seem already to be of the happy number, and to hear the blessed sentence, "Come, ye blessed of my Father." Let us ever then "be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord."

CONCLUSION.

"Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.' It will not be deemed uncharitable to say, that the Episcopal Church, in her devotions and institutions, does not shrink from a comparison with any Church on earth. To us it appears, that there is none which contains a more exact transcript of the word of God; more scriptural lessons than her homilies, a more scriptural creed than her articles, and more scriptural supplication, than her Book of Common Prayer. But as the artist threw a veil over the face of Agamemnon, from the impossibility of expressing by his

m Psalm xlviii. 12, 13.

art such a commixture of passions; so we would not presume, in the short space that remains, to enter fully upon a topic, to which, even if we were competent, it would require volumes to do justice."

It is not pretended, that the liturgy is free from the imperfection of all human things. We are its admirers, but not its idolators: and therefore sensible of its blemishes. There are perhaps a few parts which would admit of the knife; but then in whose hands could it be safely trusted? The creed of a whole people is an awful deposit; and it is much to be feared that if ever cast into a modern crucible, it would lose much of its pure gold in the process. We are content then to take it as it is; and remembering our own infirmities, and those of our species, we are rather disposed to wonder it is so good, than to complain that it is no better. Every day's experience shows us, that it is competent under the divine blessing, to produce, to sustain, and, what is perhaps more, to revive, a spiritual religion. The Church in England and America presents at the present moment, a very unusual phenomenon; "a green old age;" a clergy in many instances, combining the youthful ardour of a sect, with the calm wisdom of a long and temperate course. By a resuscitation of her decayed powers, she has as it were, broken the bars of the tomb; revived first in one limb, and then in another; and promises, under God, again to advance, a favourite child of the Reformation, and to bear her share in the dispensation of religion to a perishing world.

The liturgy in its present form, derives an advantage in the powerful influence of association, which it would lose

m Whoever wishes to see this subject treated more fully, will be gratified in perusing Simeon on the Liturgy, and also a Sermon by Bishop Dehon, of South Carolina. The author has borrowed freely, as it will be seen, from the former.

by any material alteration. The period of its birth was the age of the Reformation. And not only does the era of its birth blazon it to the eyes of Protestants; its authors have a no less commanding influence upon our feelings; it is written in the blood, and signed by the names of Cranmer, and Ridley, and Hooper, and Latimer; of those martyrs, "whose blood is the seed of our Church."

If any then should be disposed to leave her communion and seek richer pastures in other folds, can it be wondered if we venture to think they will be disappointed? Let any man live up to the spirit and practice which she inspires and inculcates, and Heaven will require no more. Say no longer then that her forms are cold, her ceremonies unmeaning, and her worship unprofitable. Look within thee, and behold there the true cause of the evil. It is the want of health, and not the quality of the food, which creates the disgust under which many labour, and who, instead of taking the wholesome though sometimes unpleasant, medicines, have recourse to potions which give, though a more agreeable, yet a deleterious stimulus! Men without religion, are in the case of sick men, and the regimen necessary to restore them is not pleasant to the feelings. For this cause, a sober and temperate course of religious exercises may be tedious and irksome at first; but when by daily and constant practice, we have accustomed ourselves to them, and have got the better of our corrupt nature, we come to delight in them, and find them well suited to preserve a healthful and happy state of the system. On the other hand, we may adopt an empirical course, which is at once agreeable to our feelings, and enlivening to our spirits, but this, by keeping up an undue excitement in the system, induces a morbid and sickly condition, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

It is of great importance to avoid extremes in our religious career. We may be too fond of having our feelings roused, and our ears tickled by a good performer; but there is at least equal danger of our contenting ourselves with a cold, unmeaning, and unfeeling kind of religion, which hardly deserves the name. Whatever abuses may have been made of truth, it still remains a firm and glorious truth, that there is a peace which Jesus gives to his people, a peace which the understanding cannot conceive, but which the heart can feel with the most delightful experience. This is a joy which seeks no plaudits, and makes no parade. It blazes not out like the sudden eruptions of the volcano; but burns, like the vestal fire, clear and constant, with a warmth that invigorates without consuming, and a light that illuminates without dazzling.

Ye votaries of the world, ye lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, ye who toil after a false and fugitive bliss, and have always found the flitting phantom to elude your grasp, give over the vain pursuit, and seek felicity in a higher source. Turn from these shallow and turbid streams to the fountain of living waters. If you would tranquillize your bosom, you must have recourse to more powerful medicines than the honours, the pleasures, the riches, or the empirical philosophy of this world. It is religion alone, the religion of Christ, the religion of the heart, which can give true and permanent peace. This is the anodyne of wo, the universal medicine, of mental disease. It makes us holy, and we become happy of course. It admits us into friendship with the Almighty Father, and they in whom He delights must be happy.

In every calamity to which flesh is heir, (and time would fail to tell the long and sad catalogue,) he who by piety and virtue puts himself under the favour and protection of God, will find comforts springing up like flowers under his feet

in the desert. A ray of sunshine will beam upon him from the fountain of light; waters shall break forth to him in the desert, to slake the thirst of his pilgrimage, and make even the borders of death to bloom with fragrant and refreshing flowers. Like the Alpine mountain, he rises above the calamitous scenes of this world, and though clouds may roll around his breast, eternal sunshine settles on his head. He walks with God, and draws his consolations from the inexhaustible fulness of Heaven. The anchor of his hope is cast within the vail, the Heaven of Heavens, and fastened to the very throne of God.

Sweet hope! unknown to the ungodly, into whose dark and callous bosom the beams of grace have never penetrated. Sweet hope! and more to be desired than all the treasures of Golconda and Peru; to walk under the light of the divine countenance, to feel the joys which his presence imparts, to be safe in that ark which rides the waves in every storm. The ocean of death spreads before us vast and dark, and who knows that it will waft us to any shore? But lo! the ark of our safety appears, and the sun arising with healing on his wings, shows us our path upon the mighty waters. We commit ourselves with confidence into his hands, who guides our destiny, who has traversed, before, this "vast profound," whom the winds and the sea obey, and who, we know, will bring us in triumph and joy, into that better region, and that purer sky, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. "I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand; I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."