bers of the corporation of this institution have been selected from four different states-a majority of them resident in this state, and the remaining number in Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio.

"The agricultural department is exciting considerable interest, and students have already entered at the distance of several hundred miles. No section of the United States is more healthy, and the country all around is proverbially fine and picturesque. Even the site selected affords facilities of no ordinary kind: and should the principle of association lead any of you at this moment to reflect upon the Tusculan villas of classic memorythe academy, the lyceum, the Alban mount, the gardens of Sallust, or even the babbling rill that used to sooth the ear of Cicero, after the toils of the forum-that same principle will direct your attention here to the mountain, the vale, the plain, the heavens, and the wild cascade with echo undefined;' in a word, with scenery, all of whose diversities are classic

"And here, amid the cheerfulness of country, solitude, and village comfort, the student will find himself shut in with his book and his study-surrounded by a plain, sensible, and unpretending population, devoted principally to the interests of agriculture and manufactures. He will have but little to tempt him from the duties and studies assigned him. And like the young Agricola at Massilia, he can happily blend in the language of

"Here, then, may science come and fix her throne-and long may it be thronged with ardent and aspiring votaries! and as the muses once communed with the Aschraen shepherd, upon mount Helicon, so may they come and commune with the youth destined to be instructed here!

"Friends and patrons of Madison college: Let religion, virtue, freedom, and literature, be our motto. Religion shall always have our fond and first regards. To virtue let us consecrate the hours of our being. Let the principles and institutions of religious, civil, and social freedom, duly balanced and rightly proportioned, be cherished by vigorous effort, and the plenitude of our resources; while literature shall extend its mild and improving influence over all the hours and movements of our existence! Thus we shall descend to our graves in peace, conscious that we have contributed to the best means and methods of human happiness-and that long before posterity shall realize the final evolution of the plans of Providence, in relation to our fallen world, the beacon fires we have attempted to kindle, in our humble spheres of action, will every where be lighted up, upon the continents of the earth and the islands of the ocean; and shall diffuse their rich and mingled radiance over the vast map of the nations!"

of the most holy place; let us go within the veil; let us follow the enraptured prophet to contemplate the visions of God; and what do we behold there among the sons of light, the pure spirits of immortality? The Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up, and his train filling the temple; above it standing the seraphim, the burning ones, each having six wings; with twain covering their faces, as unable to look upon the brightness which surrounded the throne, and filled with reverential awe in the presence of their God; and with

twain covering their feet, to denote the depth of their humility, and their unworthiness to be employed in his service; and with twain flying, thus proclaiming their readiness to obey him. And one crieth unto another and saith, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And is it thus, then, ye sons of light, that elevated as ye are above the condition of humanity, uncontaminated by sin, unassailed by temptations, unredeemed by the blood of the eternal Son of the Father-is it thus that ye veil your faces before the glory of the divine presence, and attest your humility, and declare your obedience, and extol the holiness of the Most High? What then should be the depth of that reverence, and the nature of that adoration, with which we, the guilty offspring of transgression, with subjects for gratitude and love which angels feel not, and cannot feel, should come nigh unto the Lord! When we can say that Christ hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and of enemies and aliens hath made 18 KINGS AND PRIESTS UNTO GOD; how should our adoration take, if possible, a yet higher tone than theirs, and the voices of the seraphim themselves be lost in the louder praises of the ransomed and the redeemed of the Lamb!

There is, with careless and unreflecting minds, an easy way of avoiding all conclusions which tend to the enforcement of a holy life, or to the demand of holy worship, by setting forth the conditions and circumstances of men upon earth. "You make no allowance," it is said, "for human infirmities and the necessarily distracting cares and occupations of this world's pursuits, or you would never expect that man is to conduct him

self in any respect here as he will among the inhabitants of heaven, when his views will be enlarged, and his faculties refined, and his soul purified from the dross of earthly contaminations. What resemblance can there be between the people of this world, and the inhabitants of the world of light?"

In reply to such observations we would state, that while we admit to the full extent the infirmities of human nature, and not only acknowledge but contend that this life is a scene of probation, and that, so long as we continue upon earth, we shall never be perfect like the inhabitants of heaven, yet is it incumbent upon each of us to cultivate as much as possible the spirit and the dispositions to be found in those pure and peaceful regions: and no reasoning, grounded upon human infirmities or human trials, with a view to qualify the duty which we owe to the Almighty, or to defend any mode of worship which does not sanctify God in them that come nigh him, will bear the test of fair examination. When we hear a good man under the Old Testament dispensation, or a true Christian in later days, speaking of his trials and his weakness, we know that his language is consistent with the purest spirit of devotion, and the most sincere dedication of himself to the service of God; and that while it denotes his own deep humility, it implies also an ardent aspiration after views more exalted, and affections more heavenly, and worship more worthy of the Lord; but to plead the infirmities of our nature, or the concerns of this life, as an excuse for coming nigh to God with cold hearts and wandering desires, and unhumbled and irreverent dispositions, is to set aside every conclusion of sound reason.

If we acknowledge the power and holiness of the Supreme Being, and consider the relation which we bear to him, is it possible, we may ask, that we can be too devoted in our services, too fervent in our prayers, too earnest in our praises? The question is not whether our hearts can burn with holy love like the seraphim, or our lips, like those of the prophet, can be touched as with a live coal from the altar; but whether, upon the plainest principles of duty, it is not incumbent upon us to summon to the service of God all the powers of the mind, and to dedicate to him those bodies and spirits which are his? Has God said, and that not merely in the way of peremptory command, but because his holy nature absolutely requires it, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me; and are we to delude ourselves with the notion that the worship of the heart is of little moment in his sight or that he will accept of an inferior oblation? Whence is it, my brethren, that the service of our Creator, that sacred employment of the hallowed courts of the Lord, which seems to bring together in the common sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving the whole family of his household, both in heaven and in earth, should with so many of us amount to little more than a service of compliment, without any exercise of faith, any warmth of love, any aspirations of affectionate desire towards that high and holy One, whose name we invoke, and to whom we proffer our allegiance? Whence is it that the soul, which was created in the image of God, and which once delighted to converse with him, and which, when refreshed and invigorated by the life-giving air, from the mercy seat, becomes endowed with new energies, and can mount up with wings

as an eagle, so often appears as with pinions flagging and broken, weak-hearted, spiritless, faint, with no tendencies heavenward, no delight in the fellowship of the saints, no thirst for divine communications, no pleasure in meditation on the things of God; contented, as it should seem, to merge the realities of the spiritual life in a routine of ordinances and forms, in themselves a dead letter, if unaccompanied by grace and power from on high? Whence is it in all cases where God is not sanctified in them that come nigh him, that to such persons the worship is unblest? Is it not because there is wanting the preparation of the heart? is it not because men. go to the house of God, without having qualified themselves to profit by the ordinance, and especially without serious meditation upon the holiness of him to whom they profess to offer up their petitions? Would an earthly potentate consider himself honoured by the civil professions of men, whose whole conduct declared that they had little respect for his person, and little regard for his authority? And is it with such hollow and unmeaning ceremony that we treat him who is the blessed and only Potentate, the Creator, Preserver, and Judge of the world? Can this be the import of the solemn declaration, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me?

Whether we contemplate the character of Almighty God, the precepts which he has given for our observance, or the example of saints and angels; they all urge upon us the duty of meeting him in the institutions of his worship with the deepest reverence, and the most active devotion of every faculty of the soul. May the spirit thus inculcated, and thus set before us, be universal in the assemblies

of his people! May the ministers of Christ present before God no other fire than that which they have taken from the altar! May the people be filled with a due sense of his holiness and majesty, and come near him by the mediation of his Son, through faith in his name, with whose dispositions of reverence and godly fear, which the visible symbols of his presence could not fail to inspire! For be it impressed upon every heart which is capable of being moved by a sense of the divine presence, that God marks all the wanderings of our minds, and hears every sigh of the contrite, and observes every heavenward affection, and that through the intercession of him who made atonement for transgressors, he reveals his loving kindness to them that fear him: on these he confers benefits according to the sure testimony of his holy word, even with prodigality of blessing such is the favour with which he regards the spirit of reverential fear, that the sacred writers seem almost at a loss for expressions to describe it in all its fulness, and all its variety of application. The secret of the Lord, they tell us, is with them that fear him. eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him his angel encampeth round about them that fear him the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him his salvation is nigh them that fear him. Is it thus with his people on this earth? What then will be the manifestations of his love, when, beholding

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him in the majesty of his perfections, they sanctify him with that entire devotion, and those nobler ascriptions of praise which belong to the world of glory? In this life it is needful that we be stimulated by motives of fear as well as of higher principles: there is the end of Nadab and Abihu, to show that God is jealous of his honour, and will avenge the breach of it: but the people of that world have holiness inscribed upon their hearts. To be reminded of his majesty they need not, for they ever behold him upon his throne: to be reminded of his purity they need not, for in that region all is pure: to be told of the relation in which he stands to them they need not, for this is the subject of their ceaseless song; and his love is in place of every lower consideration to stimulate them to heavenly musings, filling them with a delight suited to the nobler faculties and capacities of their heavenly natures, as they walk through the boundless fields of their blessed meditations.

Such too in its nature, though lower in degree, is the character of our service on earth! May the Spirit of that Saviour, by whom alone we have the liberty of access to God, purify our minds, and qualify us to worship him in the beauty of holiness! So may we bow with reverence in his holy temple! So may we sanctify him in all his ordinances below, till we are translated into that place where every thought and every feeling is in unison with his glorious perfections, and joy and bliss shall be our portion for ever.