him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

My father, my father, is the language in which a disciple was accustomed to address his instructor and guide. As used both by Elisha and Joash, it is the expression of grief and affection; a lament over the departure of a revered and beloved instructor. And the words "chariot of Israel, and horsemen thereof," are an encomium passed upon him. He was the defence and ornament of his country. Elisha asserts of Elijah, and again the same is said of Elisha by Joash, that he was the chariot and horsemen of Israel;-her defence and glory more truly than were her horsemen, and chariots, and munitions of war.

We are led then by the text to the sentiment, that the man of piety, especially when endued by God with talent, and placed by him in a commanding station, is the defence and ornament of his country.

1. My first reason for this remark is, that he who embraces religion with all his heart, is instrumental of propagating it.

It is one of the most prominent injunctions of revealed religion addressed to all its professors, that they should win their fellow men to embrace it. "Go ye, says the Saviour, and disciple all nations." And to the command thus given, a special promise in favor of him who obeys it, is subjoined as a motive to obedience. "Lo, I am with you alway to the end of the world." "He that obeyeth one of the least of these commandments and teacheth men so, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." He shall be highly honored in a state of future felicity, and in the church below. "They that turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars and as the firmament forever." To make no efforts of this kind,

is in the Bible, even treated as a sin, and is attributed to the worst of motives. "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." If, too, the Christian believes himself in possession of a priceless treasure-a treasure which is but increased by impartation, and if he believes that others are to be ruined through eternity who possess it not; should he be endued with but the common feeling of sympathy and benevolence, he will strive to diffuse his own principles around him, and to make others the partners of his joy.

And the quiet, unintended influence of the pious man over the community in which he lives, cannot but win a respect for the principles he professes, and, with the divine blessing, convey them to the bosoms of others. It is often said that familiarity with vice removes its hatefulness and makes us its votaries. And it is a declaration of the Scriptures, that "he who walketh with wise men shall be wise, while the companion of fools shall be destroyed." Through all the forming period of life, it is by the imitation and observation of others, that we acquire most of our knowledge; and, with the majority of men, their views, principles, feelings, and characters are gained, not by the study of books but by contact with men. There are so many points of interest about each man's character, that they who know him well, love rather than abhor him. And sympathy, which binds us to each other, that responding of heart to heart, as face answereth to face in water; that awakening of kindred emotions in other bosoms; that transfer of our joys and griefs, our opinions, emotions, and prejudices, to others whom the ties of society, kindred or friendship have bound to us, causes all the lessons of wisdom or of folly which any man may teach, to be indelibly imprinted in the minds of others. How obvious then is it, that whatever goes to constitute piety, cannot be

confined to the one mind in which it resides; that its influence must go forth from that mind as a centre, and spread itself more or less widely around it.

Thus, we have been affected, and our education has resulted from the influence which minds that have come into being before us, have exerted upon us; and we ourselves, when we are born, enter into this immense world of intellectual being. We enter into it, to send around us on every side, whether we will or not, an incalculable influence over relative and connection, over neighbor and friend, and to draw in the course in which we move, other immortal spirits, to virtue and consideration or to infamy and degradation in this life, and in the next to glory or eternal shame.

So that no human being, man or woman, lives devoid of responsibility, even to our fellow men. None is so small that he has no centre of influence, though he may sigh and say, What can I do? And who will regard me? And he who shall diffuse the disease of bad example or bad principle, is no less an offender in the sight of God, and no less guilty of sin against man, than he who designedly poisons a spring which furnishes a city with water, or intentionally spreads abroad a mortal pestilence.

2. Now Christianity, which is but the perfection and completion of the Mosaic form of revealed religion, is a combination of moral influences more powerful and more salutary than man has yet conceived. What Christianity can do to elevate man and to give peace and prosperity to nations, will not be known till the day predicted in prophecy shall arrive, when her influence shall reign on the earth, and predominate in the cabinet of every government, in every hall of legislation, and in every mart of business, as well as in the social circle and by the domestic hearth. Moral principle is essential to every government. Even an army of soldiers is without

value if it is entirely wanting among them. They are miserable aids to be depended upon for the defence of their country. Virtue must prevail in the hall of legislation, must preside on the bench, must reign in every seat of power, must pervade the mass of the people, or a government of law can never be maintained. Do we not all know

that revealed religion is the perfection of moral virtue, and that the sanctions by which she enforces it, are of inconceivable power. Finding a conscience in the nature of man, and some knowledge and sense of a present Deity and a day of retribution, she reveals to the mind of each individual his true place in the scale of being. She bids him look from these scenes of time down the interminable vale of endless years. She shows him himself existing through eternal duration, feeling at every step the retributions awarded by God to his behavior here. She lifts up his eye from his present employments, and present relations to society, and shows him that he is connected with a larger society than this, at the head of which is the great and awful Jehovah, fearful in his praises and his judgments, but clothed with kindness to his creatures. She presents with faithful friendship the unnoticed and slighted claims of a heavenly Father to man's gratitude, love, and veneration. She follows him to the pillow on which he lays his head after a day of toil, and reveals the Creator to the created; the friend to the befriended; the benefactor to the object of his benefaction; the king to his subject. She thus makes us tremble to do ill, and fills us with anxiety to pursue the path of virtue, and with a strong hand holds out her shield to protect society from harm. You are not aware how much of the peace and quiet you enjoy flow from the protecting power of that religion which many affect so much to despise, and would pluck from her dominion over the hearts of men. Your

dwelling is safe from the incendiary's torch, your property from depredation, your life from the hand of the highwayman; the peace of your domestic retreat from the ruffian who would invade it, not because man is by nature virtuous and true, but because revealed religion, the object of ridicule to the shallow-minded skeptic and the thoughtless youth, watches with incessant care to protect you, creating around you, around your country and her institutions, a rampart of impregnable defence. While a cradled infant she has defended you; amid the gambols of childhood, has been your guardian; has attempered the fiery heats of youth; has given sobriety and dignity to the years of manhood, and silvered the head of age with her celestial radiance.

This religion is treasured up in the hearts of men. They who embrace it are its representatives, its teachers, its epistles of commendation. Their influence therefore, while they live, ought to be highly prized, and their removal should be lamented. One attached to them by affinity or friendship, might well mourn over them and say, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. Especially should this be the case, if these individuals have occupied such a station as gave their example greater influence, and their efforts a wider sphere of operation. If they have themselves been conspicuous to the public eye, and been honored with the public approbation; and if from their elevation they have shone forth in blessing and radiant purity; if with their tongue, with their pen, or with their wealth, they have exerted themselves to promote the reign of truth and piety, the world can ill afford to lose them, the good may sigh over their ashes and say, "When the foundations are removed, what shall the righteous do."

But who occupies a more enviable post of usefulness than