volves truths which are equally applicable to every similar situation of human affairs. In whatever period of time an individual arises, whose genius and whose prowess are destined to change the form of empires," to subdue nations before "him, and loose the loins of kings," we may conceive him to be addressed by the Prophet, and "even called by "name." What is asserted of Cyrus, may likewise be affirmed of every conqueror in every age. All are equally undiscerning ministers of designs which they themselves have not framed, and are "girded" to battle by one whom they have not known.

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That the illustration of such truths is suitable to the present occasion of our assembling, I need not, my brethren, explain to you. Year after year our eyes have been wearied with beholding, and our hearts sick at the thought of that

tide of conquest which has rolled around us, till all the nations over which it has flowed, have been swallowed in its waves! We have seen the pride and the violence of usurping power rushing on unchecked, or checked only to return with accumulated force; and when we look into futurity, no cheering beam yet rises to enlighten us, and no commanding voice is yet heard to say, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther, and here shall

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thy proud waves be stayed.". In such a situation, the feebleness of despair is too apt to seize upon us, while we are dazzled by admiration, or blinded by fear, or weakened by internal discord and mutual recrimination! Man, we are apt to suppose, is abandoned by Heaven, a dark fatality governs the world, or, if there is yet any providential administration, ability alone is regarded and permitted to triumph over weakness,

while justice and humanity, and every noble and generous sentiment, are trodden under foot, and are of no avail.

It is in these moments that Religion meets us." at the gates, at the entry of "the city," that she "throws open," for our reception, "her everlasting doors," and, from the darkness and despair of a lower world, lifts our purged eyes to that light of faith and of truth which streams from the sanctuary of God. She teaches us that the same hand which regulates the material creation, upholds, amid all its disorders, the rectitude of a moral world; that the passing tyranny of man is but as the thunder which refreshes the Heavens, or the whirlwind that sweeps the ocean; that it is not "man whom we ought to "fear, or the son of man, who shall be "made as grass;" but that we must learn to bow before Him "whostretched forth

"the heavens, and laid the foundations "of the earth," who can say "to the deep, "be dry, and I will dry up all thy rivers;" who saith to Cyrus, "I am the Lord,"there is no God beside me: I gird"ed thee, though thou hast not known "me."

In entering upon the reflections which the words of the Prophet suggest to us, it may, in the first place, be remarked, that, in all the histories of extensive conquest, which the course of ages presents to our observation, we shall invariably find traces of preparation and design which indicate an agency superior to that of man. It is not alone to the character of the conqueror we must look, when we would explain the prodigies of his valour. We shall rather trace their origin in the situation of the nations which he subdues, in the disaffection of their people, the incapacity of their rulers,

the perplexity of their plans,-or their blindness to danger. When the conquer

or begins his course, he feels that a mightier Power has already preceded him, that One "has gone before him" who has loosed the loins of kings,"opened the two-leaved gates,―made "the crooked places straight,-broken "in pieces the gates of brass, and cut "asunder the bars of iron." The field of death is prepared for him, and is " al

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ready white to the harvest:" he is only commissioned to reap it with his sword.

We find, too, when we examine the character of any of those ministers of vengeance, that it is commonly wonderfully adapted to the circumstances in which he acts. If he is destined to overrun rude and barbarous tribes, he is distinguished merely for the qualities of fierceness and valour: if he leads