enter into no discussion here as to the causes of this change, but wish simply to fasten your minds upon the painful reality. Discord and strife have entered into its ecclesiastical courts, and the affections of its ministry and people are divided and alienated from each other. On questions of doctrine, and policy, and ecclesiastical responsibility, conflicting opinions and unkind feelings are developed; and the times and places on which good men used to meet to take sweet counsel together, are turned into the occasions of warm debate and unbrotherly contention.

In the mean while spiritual slumber would seem to have settled down upon the churches. God's people are conformed to the world; and, to a great extent, interest themselves in matters of religion no farther than to talk about existing dissentions.

To the ministers of Christ and the elders of the churches, also, it may not be as in months past, when the candle of the Lord shone upon them, and those branches of Israel of which they are God's appointed watchmen, are like the vineyard whose hedges are broken down, or the daughter of Zion sitting in grief and solitude.

Religion dwells not in the daily thoughts and calls not forth the nightly intercessions of good men. Unconverted sinners, comprising in their list many of the baptized youth of the church, tread the downward path, unwarned of their danger, and unblessed with the effectu al prayers of the children of God. The spirit of the world silently encroaches upon the church, and if vice and irreligion do not come in like a flood, they yield no ground to the ascending march of the king. dom of the Son of man. To this statement there may be, and I would fondly hope are, many exceptions, but that something like this is the humiliating and mournful state of things in our body, is declared by brethren of all parties, and in all sections; and it is of immense importance that we, as a people, should seriously consider what God has wrought for us, and how much we need to be aroused and awakened to pray for the return of his Holy Spirit.

3. But again, God's people, Israel, were to consider what He had wrought for their political and national usefulness and happiness, and the obligations which he had thence imposed upon them: and though our civil and ecclesiastical relations, unlike theirs, are entirely separate and distinct from each other, and though we are but one of the Christian denominations of this land, yet we are not to forget our peculiar responsibilities as a portion of the American people. God in his providence has not only cast our lot as Christians under a form of government, whose efficacy must depend upon the prevalence of religious principle, but where there is a great opportunity in the promotion of order and piety, not only of moulding and influencing the moral, and political, and spiritual destinies of this republic, but through the salutary influence of its institutions, of exerting a benign and pow. erful effect upon the course of events throughout the world. The early history of our country was strikingly providential, and its progress in population, wealth, and every public blessing, has been without a parallel. Here, on shores first sought by religious men from motives of religious freedom, God has established the rights of conscience; and planted down a system, which is to test both the efficacy of the plan of the voluntary support of the institutions of religion, and the

capacity of a people to maintain the privileges of self-government. On the results of this experiment, the events of the future history of this world, must, to human view, very much depend. The course of law and order here, must repose entirely in the will of the people at large, and that will reposes, for its safe and healthful character, upon a sound and wholesome public sentiment, sustained and influenced by the religion of the gospel. If the current of the national feeling finally goes in favor of immorality, irreligion, Sabbath-breaking, disorder, and political corruption, the question of the destiny of both will be speedily settled. If the result is otherwise, it is impossible to say what an amount of temporal and spiritual good it may be in the power of this nation, directly and indirectly, to impart to almost every portion of the globe. In the mean time, all forms of iniquity, and error, and disorganization, rush in, to try their fortunes in a land where they promise themselves present freedom and future ascendancy. The friends of God and the spirits of evil, plant themselves alike upon the banks of the stream of a nation's character, and the conflict has now begun in good earnest as to who shall direct its future course. Great and difficult questions, also, of common concernment, are arising to darken the prospect; and Europe, for the most part, is casting into the opposing scale, the multitudes of her emigrant population. The wrongs of the Indian, the desecration of the Sabbath, the prevalence of pride, and ungodliness, and corruption, and other things, would seem to lead some to think, that there are already general and national sins too great to be forgiven. These, my brethren, may be trite and familiar thoughts, but they present a subject of great responsibility, and they look to an issue, which must be contemplated both in heaven and in other portions of the earth, with the profoundest interest. Why should not the ransomed of the Lord in this land, by one united, and persevering, and holy effort, insure, by the grace of God, such a result as would form one of the most important events in the history of man? The great and merciful Lord of providence has set such an object before us, and we may trust that great as our sins have been, nothing has yet past that would imply its defeat, if the church of God were in good earnest to set herself to the work of repentance and reformation: and in doing so to carry her humble and fervent appeal to God for the shedding forth of his Holy Spirit in light and power, without which such a result would now seem to be impossible. Whatever may be the views of their coadjutors in the service of Christ in sister denominations, surely Presbyterians may well exhort each other to a sense of their appropriate responsibility, and resolve to unite their hearts in the petition of our text, that God would, in this respect, strengthen that which he has, in so much kindness, wrought for the American people.

4. God has wrought for us, in common with all our fellow Christians, an opportunity of carrying forward a great and powerful work for the melioration of the condition of the whole human race. And as he has thus set before us an open door, so he he has made it a precious privilege, and an imperious duty, on all who would share in his favor, in the respective ways which his providence provides, to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. I need not remind you, my brethren, to what an extent the last half century has developed the

prospects of Christianity, and thrown around its professed friends a vast increase of responsibility. How have the elements of religious knowledge, and the means of active usefulness, been accumulating! How has increased intercourse spread abroad over the earth a knowledge of the superior arts and attainments of Christian nations? and how has the Lord prepared "in the wilderness and in the sea,” a way by which "to go out with joy and be led forth in peace" to disseminate his everlasting gospel?

If we look abroad upon our church, to say nothing of others, how many benevolent associations are there-how many thousands of Bible classes and Sabbath schools—what large and important missionary and educational organizations-how many colleges and seminaries of various kinds do we see, which need the strengthening and sanctifying help of Heaven, and whose prosperity and usefulness turn upon the prayer of faith and the revival of religion in the churches. If God's people truly resigned their hearts to him, and were anxious for the honor of his kingdom; and ambitious to please him, would not the idea of being thus more and more associated with Jesus Christ and his holy angels, and with all good men, in the sacred cause of truth and righteousness, afford the most grateful satisfaction? Most certainly it would; and prophecy marks out the period of abundant activity, liberality, and prayer for the increase of Christ's kingdom on earth, as unexampled in the happiness and prosperity of the righteous.

Now, it should not be concealed, because it cannot be questioned, that in respect to the actual success of these benevolent enterprises in the conversion of sinners and the overthrow of iniquiry, a dark cloud at present overshadows the kingdom of Christ. The fathers looked forward to these, as the times when the Spirit of God would be sent down in an extraordinary manner into the Christian camp; and an era of reforms and conversions dawn upon the world. In their anticipa tions, benevolent action was conjoined with a deep experience of the power of godliness; and the multiplication of the means of grace, with early and multiplied conversions to God. But what is the fact at present, as to the progress of religion and the growth of holiness in the churches at home? And, as to the foreign field, though much good has been done, yet those who have been sent abroad among the heathen, all unite, from the banks of the Missouri to the shores of China, in attesting that the cause of Christ seems to linger; and that the eventful crisis appears to have come when prayer without ceasing should be offered to a gracious God that he would pour out his Spirit from on high and melt the hearts of pagan sinners, while by the power of his grace among ourselves, the means and instruments may be provided for carrying forward and enlarging the efforts which they have commenced.

Thus, brethren, it is. To a great extent, Providence has succeeded the outward and preparatory work. Institutions for literary and theological science have been planted in the midst of us-the temperance reformation has nearly won the day-the whole Sabbatic, and missionary, and educational machinery of the church has been adjusted; and for the provision of elementary books, and Bibles, and Tracts, in our own and foreign languages, the press is in motion, and the work of translation far advanced. But at the eventful moment, darkness and uncertainty rests upon the cause of God both at home and abroad.

A voice from the throne would appear to say, "If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land:" Since "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." O, that in view of such obligations and necessities, the followers of Christ might be constrained to unite humbly and cordially in the petition, "Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us!" What, then,

II. IS THE BLESSING WHICH OUR

CIRCUMSTANCES INVITE US TO

SOLICIT?

Is it not such a measure of strength from above as may revive, and sustain, and carry forward the work of God, and enable his church to meet the exigencies of her condition? An ordinary degree of spiritual influence there undoubtedly is in the true church of Christ at all times; and under the faithful preaching of the gospel and the due administration of the sacraments, there will be a gradual, though often a feeble and scarcely perceptible progress of salvation, both as to the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believers. This, however, may not keep pace with the growth of sin; and, at all events, in a country like this, where the increase of population is so rapid, and in an age like this, when the increased demand for the means of salvation over the largest portions of the earth is so great, every prospect of an auspicious issue must be connected with such special out-pourings of the Spirit, as have in past ages been uniformly connected with every distinguished advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. We have already mentioned the indications of an uncommon divine influence, on the occasion of the removal of the ark to the city of David, and the candid reader of the Bible can hardly fail to perceive at one or two periods during the administration of Samuel, previously to that time, and in the reigns of Josiah and Hezekiah, after it, and especially in the days of Ezra, when the reading of the law to the assembled multitude of Israel, was accompanied with such remarkable effects, the marks of an unusual impression upon the minds of the people. Indeed, the prophets as well as the apostles constantly interwove the doctrine of special divine influences, not less than special and signal providences, (as forming a part of the established plan of God in the government of his church,) with all their communications. Thus, they spoke of the reign of the Messiah as a season of light, and power, and glory on earth, because God would 'pour out a Spirit of grace and supplication upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem;" and, because, eventually, "when the Gentiles should come to his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising," "God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh," insomuch "that nations should be born (as it were) in a day," until "all the ends of the earth should see the salvation of God."

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The apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, explained the remarkable descent of the Holy Spirit then witnessed, to be but the fulfilment of this prophecy; and the Acts of the Apostles show that the great, and sudden, and astonishing effects which every where attended the preaching of the gospel, were occasioned by this power of the Holy

Ghost, and not by the mere novelty and splendor of apostolic miracles. These servants of God and their successors, so long as they were like Barnabas, themselves filled with the Holy Ghost, appear to have cher. ished and inculcated the expectation of frequent if not continued effusions of this kind. The spirit of revivals sunk beneath the weight of the Roman apostacy, but it measurably re-appeared with the Reformers and the Puritans. Among these were a host of men, as remarkable for their qualifications in knowledge and piety, as for their attachment to the pure doctrines of the Bible and the unction of the Spirit; and, in their times the inward experience of religion was great in the church, and the power of the word in many cases astonishing, unfavorable as the period itself was, (owing to many circumstances,) to become an era of revivals.

To mention the honored labors of Whitfield and Tennent, as remarkable in this country at least, for the spirit of prayer in the churches, which accompanied their preaching as its effects, and the Journal of Brainerd among the Indians, and the Narrative of Edwards of the work of God in his day, is but to record the return of the Author and the Spirit of revivals to the bosom of the churches. Nor can any person reasonably doubt the reality and purity of the great proportion of those seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which prevailed twenty, and thirty, and forty years ago; nor account for those extensive and permanent reformations-those numerous and astonishing conversions, and that subsequent and long-continued prevalence of practical religion which followed them, on any other principle. The great work which overspread the whole western country about the beginning of the present century, and the effects of which appear to this day, was, indeed, in many cases, attended with great bodily affections, but the ministers of that day appear to have accurately distinguished between this appendage and the inward experience of its subjects, and while they laid no stress upon the appearance itself, and did nothing to encourage it, they witnessed in the work itself, an excitement, which lasted for two or three years without abatement, and brought into the churches within a few months, larger accessions than in ten or fifteen years in the ordinary way. I may add, also, that the experience of more than a quarter of a century, during which most of its subjects have gone down to the grave, has shown that no additions have, in proportion to their numbers, turned out better.

Such, brethren, is the doctrine of revivals, as taught in the Scriptures and illustrated by facts, and it indicates a blessing too important and precious not to be most carefully and anxiously distinguished from its own accidental accompaniments, and from what, at best, are its mere appearances. It should not be forgotten, that, though the influence of the Spirit of God is in itself most pure, and holy, and true, yet still as it is exerted upon minds, all of whose thoughts, and aims, and motives, have the taint of sin, it must not be supposed, either that the judgments and affections of its subjects will thence be exact and unerring, or that the animal susceptibilities of man will not modify its effects. We look not, then, for a perfect revival, any more than we look for a perfect Christian, in order to satisfy us that it is the work of God. Where revivals of religion, (as was the case with a great many of those to which I have referred,) are preceded by a state of spiritual