ery in science or art, or by the exhibition and defense of great truths in morals and religion, without being counted an ultraist by the men of his own generation. Ultraism, in any one's estimation, is simply getting beyond himself. The term is, therefore, entirely relative. The position which exposes any man to this charge depends entirely on the ground occupied by those who make it. Sad, therefore, would it be for men-sunk, as the mass of them have ever been, in ignorance and error-if no one ever got beyond them in the investigation and discovery of truth. It is by raising up men to explore the paths of truth and wisdom, and announce their discoveries to the world, that God promotes the real progress of the race. But those men are, from the nature and necessity of their vocation, ultraists to the men of their own times, who fail to make the same advancements. And though the progress of these discoveries may be but small, yet it is still ultraism to those who make no progress at all, but who plod on, from generation to generation, in the beaten path their fathers trod before them.

The history of the world furnishes an illustrious catalogue of ultraists. On it are enrolled the names of all the great and good of past ages. When Moses and Aaron " agitated " for the abolition of slavery in Egypt, their notions were thought exceedingly ultra by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. "Who is the Lord that I should obey him?" was his indignant question. What new-fangled fanaticism have we here? Has not four hundred years of legislation "sanctioned and sanctified" the bondage of these Hebrews? Away with such ultraism, I will not let the people go.

When the decree went forth from the King of Babylon that no petition should be asked for thirty days of any god, save of King Darius, the conduct of Daniel was exceedingly ultra. Why could not he have drawn the curtains of his window and prayed to his God in secret? Why could he not have refrained from assuming the attitude of devotion? could still have prayed to his God in silent ejaculations. What fanatical ultraism to expose himself to the fury of the lions that were fasting to whet their appetites for blood.

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When the image was set up in the plain of Dura, and the people commanded to fall down and worship, it was ultraism that kept the three young Hebrews erect. What need for them to brave the wrath of the king about so trifling a matter as falling down on their knees with the rest of the crowd? Could they not embrace that as a time for prayer to

the God of heaven? Would not the intention sanctify the deed? Then what fanatical ultraism not to have the fear of the glowing furnace before their eyes.

Isaiah was deemed so ultra for commanding the Jews, in the name of the Lord, to "break every yoke and let the oppressed go free," that he was sawn asunder as the only cure for fanaticism. Jeremiah was repeatedly imprisoned, and punished in other ways, for his ultraism, in denouncing woe unto him that used his neighbor's service without wages, and gave him not for his work.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the very Prince of ultraists. When he denounced the Scribes and Pharisees as serpents and vipers, exposed to the damnation of hell-when he drove out the sacrilegious trafficers from the temple-when he called the Jews, who boasted of their freedom and of their descent from Abraham, the servants of sin, and the children of the Devil, his words and conduct were deemed intolerably ultra and fanatical. Not less so were some of his sayings deemed by his own disciples. When he pronounced blessings on the poor in spirit, when he exhorted to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and to have no thought for the morrow in regard to the things of this life; and when he assured his followers that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven; so ultra were these things regarded, that even his disciples exclaimed in utter astonishment, "Who, then, can be saved!"

Examples of the same character multiply upon us when we come to the history of the apostles and martyrs. What ultraism to refuse to throw a handful of incense on the altar in the idol's temple, and to eat of the meat offered there in sacrifice? When commanded to speak no more in the name of Jesus, their declaration that they "ought to obey God rather than men," was thought then, and is now, the most ultra fanaticism. The rulers thought the " peace and harmony" of the nation endangered by such radical doctrines. The supremacy of the laws could not be maintained if such notions should prevail; nay, the very union of the (Jewish) States would be dissolved "if men should thus set up conscience above the Constitution and laws."

As with the apostles and the Saviour, so with the doctrines they taught. There are very plain and explicit precepts given in the sacred writings, which if now reduced to practice by members of any of the leading denominations of Christians,

will expose them to the imputation of the very folly of ultraism. For instance, the following: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." The world has its maxims and fashions, and the man or woman who conforms not to these, is at once set down as ultra and fanatical. Instances will suggest themselves to every mind, and need not, therefore, be specified. Another explicit command is, "I say unto you that ye shall resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also." Let this teaching be proclaimed now, and urged as a practical duty, and lived out by its advocates, and at once they are denounced as impracticable ultras; as promulging principles that will overturn all order, and all government.

Again: an express command of holy writ is, "Remember those in bonds as bound with them." Let any one manifest but a tithe of the zeal for the oppressed, that he would feel if himself enslaved, and the English vocabulary is exhausted to stigmatize the ultraism of his conduct. The Bible is full of passages which we could quote to the same effect, but our limits do not admit it.

We hold it just as impossible for men to be too earnest in the advocacy of truth, justice and right, as it is for men to be too holy in their character and conduct. That truth may be defended through wrong motives, and under the influence of had passions, is of course true. That men may be ultra in wickedness is equally true. All sin the least, (if there be any least) is ultra rebellion against God. We have used the term only as it is commonly applied, in reference to the advocacy and practice of truth. That men can ever say too much, or do too much, for truth, and justice, and right, is simply impossible.-Equally impossible is it to carry out truth and righteousness too far in the practical duties of life.

DEATH OF HENRY CLAY.

This long looked for event has at length transpired. Minute guns and tolling bells have proclaimed to the nation the statesman's departure. Were the nation but wise it would learn a solemn and impressive lesson in the event. That lesson however will not be learned in the fulsome adulation of political admirers, or in the wholesale panegyrics of the pul

pit and the so-called religious press. Nothing more dangerous to the morals of the young can issue from these sources than the indiscriminate eulogy which is habitually meted out to the worldly great, on their departure from this life. The true moral of the life and death of a man like HENRY CLAY is not learned in those high wrought funeral sermons and orations which hold him up as a model of every political, moral and social virtue. But in a calm contemplation of the great object of such a life, in the contrast between what it did accomplish and what it might have accomplished, and in the view of its last reckoning at the bar of eternal justice, there is a volume of rich and impressive instruction.

It teaches the vanity of mere worldly ambition. What now are the honors of successful statesmanship, or the triumphs of his glorious powers of oratory to Henry Clay? If rescued from oblivion his name will go to posterity as one of the chief pillars of the worst system of wrong and oppression that ever cursed the earth. Often in the day of their extremity has his clarion voice rallied the fainting cohorts of slavery to a renewed and successful charge upon the hosts of freedom. Now as the result of his efforts the dark pall of slavery is settling down over millions of acres of territory until lately free from its polluting touch. In the light of eternity as these "works of his life do follow him," how must they appear to the vision of the departed statesman?

In contrast with what he might have accomplished for God and humanity, the actual results of a life like that of Clay presents a saddening object of contemplation. Seldom have his powers of oratory been equaled. But rarely has man possessed the power to draw around him, and fascinate by the spell of his social accomplishments such crowds of admiring and devoted friends. With these qualities were combined an iron energy and will and an unyielding firmness in defense of his position. Had these glorious gifts been sanctified by the Holy Spirit and consecrated to the service of God, what unspeakably blessed and happy results would have followed! Had the fires of genius been purified and fanned to a higher glow by the coal that touched Isaiah's hallowed lips, what clouds of moral darkness would have been dispelled by their light. Had the battle-axe of truth ever been wielded by the strong arm of the departed statesman, how many a frowning Bastile of error would have been leveled in the dust.

For what have these glorious objects been sacrificed? For the idle flattery of political admirers, and for the unrealized.

hope of reaching the highest office in the gift of the people. Alas that so glorious a birthright should have been bartered for so mean a price.

During his long public career, though we admit that he has "done the State some service," truth compels us to say that he has also done it much injury. Of his connection with the pecuniary policy of the country, we need only remark, that he had the peculiar misfortune of living to see the death of almost every question of public policy of this nature which he took under his special protection. But it is the influence he exerted when the great question of freedom came up for action before the councils of the nation, with which the present and the future will have most to do in writing his history.

No period in the annals of the legislation of this country has possessed deeper interest than when Missouri applied for admission as one of the States of the Union. The pregnant question was then presented-shall this Government, formed to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty, falter in its holy mission? The issue was watched with intense interest, and the hopes of the friends of humanity beat high, as indications were given that the right would triumph. But in an evil hour Henry Clay, summoning all the intellectual powers he possessed, threw his influence into the opposite scale, and gave the victory to the side of robbery and wrong. The result was that Missouri was admitted with a Constitution making human slavery perpetual; and we may add that this triumph of the slave power did more, probably, to paralyze the efforts of the friends of freedom in this country than any other single act since the foundation of the Union.

The next issue presented was the terms of the admission of Arkansas. When that State presented her Constitution for acceptance on the part of Congress, an amendment was offered providing for the emancipation of all the slaves within. her bonuds at a given time. This amendment was defeated by the casting vote of Mr. Clay, and slavery was thus left to curse the soil of Arkansas.

We need hardly say that to Mr. Clay, more than to any other individual, is the country indebted for the series of acts known as the Compromise Measures of 1850. It has been stated by his physician that the labor he bestowed and the anxiety he felt, when these measures were before Congress, did much to shorten his life. We need not here analyze those measures-they have been fully discussed, and are now fresh in the public mind.