so much like going forth in serious earnest, to take possession of the kingdom and dominion, and the greatest of the kingdom under the whole heaven as at this very day.

5. But suppose the cause did seem declining, we should see no reason to relax our exertions, for Christ has said, preach the gospel to every creature, and appearances, whether prosperous or adverse, alter not the obligation to obey a positive command of Almighty God. Again, suppose all that is affirmed were true. If it must be, let it be. 6. Let the dark cloud of infidelity overspread Europe, cross the ocean, and cover our beloved land-iet nation after nation swerve from the faith-let iniquity abound, and the love of many wax cold, even until there is on the face of this earth, but one pure church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ-all we ask is, that we may be members of that one church. God grant that we may throw ourselves into this Thermopyle of the moral universe.

7. But even then, we should have no fear that the church of God would be exterminated. We would call to remembrance the years of the right hand of the Most High. Wo would recollect there was once a time, when the whole church of Christ, not only could be, but actually was gathered with one accord in one place. It was then that that place was shaken, as with a rushing mighty wind, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. That same day, three thousand were added to the Lord.

8. Soon, we hear, they have filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. The church has commenced her march-Samaria has with one accord believed the gospel-Antioch has become obedient to the faith-the name of Christ has been proclaimed throughout Asia Minor-the temples of the gods, as though smitten by an invisible hand, are desertedthe citizens of Ephesus cry out in despair, Great is Diana of the Ephesians-licentious Corinth is purified by the preaching of Christ crucified.

9. Persecution puts forth her arm to arrest the spreading superstition, but the progress of the faith cannot be stayed. The church of God advances unhurt amidst rocks and dungeons, persecution and death-she has entered Italy, and appears before the walls of the Eternal City-idolatry falls prostrate at her approach-her ensign floats in triumph over the capitol-she has placed upon her brow the diadem of the Cæsars. WAYLAND.

LESSON CXLV.

Extract from Mr. McDuffie's Speech on Corruption.

1. Sir, we are apt to treat the idea of our own corruptibility, as utterly visionary, and to ask, with a grave affectation of dignity-what! do you think a member of congress can be corrupted? Sir, I speak what I have long and deliberately considered, when I say, that since man was created, there never has been a political body on the face of the earth, that would not be corrupted under the same circumstances.

2. Corruption steals upon us in a thousand insidious forms, when we are least aware of its approaches. Of all the forms in which it can present itself, the bribery of of fice, is the most dangerous, because it assumes the guise of patriotism to accomplish its fatal sorcery. We are often asked, where is the evidence of corruption? Have you seen it? Sir, do you expect to see it? You might as well expect to see the embodied forms of pestilence and famine stalking before you, as to see the latent operations of this insidious power.

3. We may walk amidst it and breathe its contagion, without being conscious of its presence. All experience teaches us the irresistible power of temptation, when vice assumes the form of virtue. The great enemy of mankind could not have consummated his infernal scheme for the destruction of our first parents, but for the disguise in which he presented himself.

4. Had he appeared as the devil, in his proper form; had the spear of Ithuriel disclosed the naked deformity of the fiend of hell, the inhabitants of Paradise would have shrunk with horror from his presence. But he came as the insinuating serpent, and presented a beautiful apple, the most delicious fruit in all the garden. He told his glowing story to the unsuspecting victim of his guile. "It can be no crime to taste of this delightful fruit. It will disclose to you the knowledge of good and evil. It will raise you to an equality with the angels."

5. Such, sir, was the process; and in this simple but impressive narrative, we liave the most beautiful and philo sophical illustration of the frailty of man, and the power of temptation, that could possibly be exhibited. Mr. Chair

man, I have been forcibly struck with the similarity between our present situation and that of Eve, after it was announced that Satan was on the borders of Paradise. We, too, have been warned that the enemy is on our borders. But God forbid that the similitude should be carried any farther. Eve, conscious of her innocence, sought temptation and defied it. The catastrophe is too fatally known to us all. She went," with the blessings of heaven on her head, and its purity in her heart," guarded by the ministry of angels— she returned, covered with shame, under the heavy denunciation of heaven's everlasting curse.

If our

7. Sir, it is innocence that temptation conquers. first parent, pure as she came from the hand of God, was overcome by the deceptive power, let us not imitate her fatal rashness, seeking temptation, when it is in our power to avoid it. Let us not vainly confide in our own infallibility. We are liable to be corrupted. To an ambitious man, an honourable office will appear as beautiful and fascinating as the apple of Paradise.

8. I admit, sir, that ambition is a passion, at once the most powerful and the most useful. Without it, human affairs would become a mere stagnant pool. By means of his patronage, the president addresses himself in the most irresistible manner, to this, the noblest and strongest of our passions.

9. All that the imagination can desire-honour, power, wealth, ease, are held out as the temptation. Man was not made to resist such temptations. It is impossible to conceive, Satan himself could not devise, a system which would more infallibly introduce corruption and death into our political Eden. Sir, the angels fell from heaven with less temptation.

LESSON CXLVI.

Character of Mr. Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

1. The secretary stood alone. Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Original and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. His august mind overawed majesty, and one of his sovereigns thought royalty so impaired in his presence, that he conspired to remove him, in order to be relieved from his superiority.

2. No state chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories, sunk him to the vulgar level of the great; but overbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was fame. Without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. 3. France sunk beneath him. With one hand he smote the house of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of England. The sight of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to affect, not England, not the present age, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were the means by which these schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestions of an understand ing animated by ardour, and enlightened by prophecy.

4. The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent were unknown to him. No domestic difficulties, no domestic weakness reached him; but aloof from the sordid occurrences of life, and unsullied by its intercourse, he came occasionally into our system, to counsel and to decide.

5. A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her.

6. Nor were his political abilities his only talents: his eloquence was an æra in the senate, peculiar and spontaneous, familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instinctive wisdom; not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration of Tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres.

7. Like Murray, he did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtility of argumentation; nor was he like Townsend, for ever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed.

8. Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to

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break the bonds of slavery asunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority; something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe. GRATTAN.

LESSON CXLVII.

Mr. Pulteney's Speech on the Reduction of the Army.

1. Sir-We have heard a great deal about parliamentary armies, and about an army continued from year to year. I have always been, sir, and always shall be, against a standing army of any kind: to me it is a terrible thing, whether under that of parliamentary or any other designation; a standing army is still a standing army, whatever name it be called by; they are a body of men distinct from the body of the people; they are governed by different laws; and blind obedience, and an entire submission to the orders of their commanding officer, is their only principle.

2. The nations around us, sir, are already enslaved, and have been enslaved by those very means; by means of their standing armies they have every one lost their liberties. It is indeed impossible that the liberties of the people can be preserved in any country where a numerous standing army is kept up. Shall we then take any of our measures from the example of our neighbours? No, sir, on the contrary, from their misfortunes we ought to learn to avoid those rocks upon which they have split.

3. It signifies nothing to tell me, that our army is commanded by such gentlemen as cannot be supposed to join in any measures for enslaving their country; it may be so; I hope it is so; I have a very good opinion of many gentlemen now in the army; I believe they would not join in any such measures; but their lives are uncertain, nor can we be sure how long they may be continued in command; they may be all dismissed in a moment, and proper tools of power put in their room.

4. Besides, sir, we know the passions of men, we know how dangerous it is to trust the best of men with too much power. Where was there a braver army than that under Julius Cæsar? Where was there ever an army that had served their country more faithfully? That army was com