not the prophets declared it? The Lord in his compassion cut short the delay; make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and so a praise in the earth; give to all Christians, in answer to the prayer of Christ, that unity of soul, in which the Father and the Son are united to each other, the unity of divine love and joy. Then shall our unhappy world learn the error of its way, forsake the broken cisterns of sin, and come to the fountain of living waters.

These considerations make it manifest that none of those who call themselves Christians, ought to live so much as one day, or one hour, except when taking their rest in sleep, without the feeling of spiritual delight, potentially at least, in their hearts. It should suffice no member of the Christian church, to maintain a conversation externally irreproachable, to live in honesty and in credit with mankind, and to observe the stated times and services of religion; no, not even, if, in addition to this, he sets an example of liberality. This is but a low standard of religion, and no man who has any just concern for the cause of God in this world, or for his own salvation, can content himself with it. A man may live in this manner, and live in darkness, in coldness, in fear, respecting his own soul, and his fear may be realized. Every Christian on earth ought to be a specimen of the happiness Christianity is adapted to impart; a reflector by example of the light of heavenly joy. He ought to be not only a conscientious, a devout, a liberal Christian, but a happy Christian also; happy in God and the spirit of heaven all the day long. He owes it to the cause of his Saviour, to himself, his family, his brethren in the faith, the world of mankind, to live a serene, cheerful, and heavenly life. This is plainly a just inference from the preceding remarks, and it is an inference which divine authority confirms.

To rejoice in the Lord, is a command urged with great earnestness upon all Christians. Scripture is exceedingly strenuous in its mode of enforcing this command: Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice. What has been said may show us that there is a sufficient reason for this requirement; and is it not strange, indeed, that Christians, whose characteristic spirit is submissiveness to the divine will, should scarcely seem to blame themselves for an habitual disregard of it? What more could God have done, than he has done, to give his people grounds and occasions for joys? Has he kept his glory out of their view? Has he not shown himself good enough? Could he have loved them more than he has done? Could he have made greater sacrifices for their sakes? Could he have gone to greater lengths to win their complacency, than to give up his own dear Son for the ransom of their souls? Could he have added a greater blessing after that, than to send down his Spirit to dwell with them forever? Could he have been more explicit and more full in his assurances of kind feeling and tender love? Could he have given them better promises, or spread before them brighter prospects, or called them to greater privileges, or to a more

honorable service? Has not God seemed in all his dispensations and doings toward his people, to have had distinctly in his purpose, that they should want nothing which infinite love could supply, to call forth their joy and gladness of soul? When, by his apostle, he lifts up the voice of authority, commanding them to rejoice in the Lord always-can they be justified in replying to him, We have no causes for joy; the state of mind required, demands an object suited to produce it, and no such object has been presented to us?

There are, it may be thought, subjective difficulties in the way. But, can it be that there are insurmountable difficulties of this kind, when obligation to rejoice is in full force upon the mind? Who can believe this? Surely nothing but mental insanity, or such a condition of the body as sets aside self-control, in either of which cases, obligation ceases, can be a just apology for not exercising holy joy. So abundant are the promises of divine grace, that if we are not straitened in ourselves, we may be able to keep up a calm, and cheerful, and heavenly frame of spirit in any circumstances of worldly discomposure which do not produce a real derangement of intellect. The triumph of some Christians over such circumstances has been complete; nervous debility, severe sickness and pain, and the very agonies of dissolution have not been able to keep them from rejoicing in the Lord. If any feel incredulous in respect to this matter, let us ask them to consider whether, if they walked as closely with God as did Baxter, or Paul, or Enoch, they would be likely to retain their present doubts. Alas! we destroy the health of the body by our reckless way of treating it, and then make bodily indisposition an excuse for keeping the soul in darkness, and leanness, and spiritual distempers.

The plain truth is this, that what hinders our joy is allowed sin. The power of sin to do this is great. This little hand, said Whitefield, placing his hand near his eyes, as he was preaching in the field, while the glorious sun was flooding creation with his beams-this little hand hides all the luster of the sun from my eyes; and so a little sin may involve the soul in darkness, though the spiritual world be all bright as heaven itself. But should we, therefore, be content to live in darkness, or set ourselves with more resolution against all forms and degrees of sin? The latter is the course of duty, and is it not also the course of wisdom? Is it idle to ask the question, What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Why is it we do not understand, that our only concern in this world is to keep a guileless spirit, a conscience void of offense? Alas! that we should suffer such things as love of lucre, or of pre-eminence, or of sensual pleasure, or jealous, and envious, and irascible feelings, to rest in our bosoms, and stay there from day to day, and week to week, and month to month, in the place which should be ever sacred to the gracious affections; in the temple of the Holy Ghost! Alas! that we should be so infrequent, so cursory, so cold

in

prayer; so seldom in fastings, so formal and lifeless in the duties of the sanctuary; that we should be so uncircumspect in speech, so little intent on walking in the Spirit; in all the pursuits of life, so regardless of the great principle of Christian morals, which demands that we do all things, even to eating and drinking, to the glory of God; that we should have so little fellowship (might we not rather say, such disagreement?) with Paul, in his purpose to do but this one thing all his life long -forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to those before, to press toward the mark, for the prize of his high calling? Here is the secret of our want of religious joy, of our spiritual doubts and fears; and also of our readiness to justify them.

But shall such things vitiate and set aside the law of Christ's kingdom before recited, Rejoice in the Lord always; and again, I say, Rejoice. No, this is as irreversible as any other statute of the eternal realm. It has been given out, not to be neglected, but obeyed. It is the duty of all Christians to rejoice evermore, and the importance of their fulfilling this duty, no tongue can fully tell. Immortal souls, in countless multitudes, have gone to an undone eternity, in consequence of its not having been fulfilled; the salvation of the world still lingers from the same cause; for want of holy joy in the church, all the means of grace in operation, are comparatively ineffectual; the triumph of the gospel is kept back on this sole account; and the gloominess and sadness of Christians keep up a sort of rejoicing among the spirits of darkness.

DISCOURSE XXVIII.

ELIPHALET NOTT, D. D., LL. D.

THE venerable President of Union College was born of poor parents in Ashford, Connecticut, in June, 1773. He lost both his parents while yet a boy. It is said that a thirst for learning was suffered to prey upon him in secret until he had reached the age of nine or ten years; when, upon perceiving one day a neighboring physician ride past the field where he was at work, his feelings were too powerfully excited to be longer restrained. He dropped the hoe with which he was laboring, resolved that his life as a farmer should end there; and going to the residence of the physician, requested to be received as a student. He was advised by the physician to devote himself to the acquisition of knowledge, if his friends favored it; and he soon after this went to live with his elder brother, the Rev. Samuel Nott, pastor of a Congregational church, at Franklin, Connecticut. Here he was enabled to gratify his desire for learning, and acquired some knowledge of Greek, Latin, and mathematics, at the same time teaching district school in the winter, in order to obtain the means of support. At the age of seventeen he took charge of a school at Plainfield; and two years later, obtained his bachelor's degree at Brown University. Young Nott then turned his attention to the ministry, and when twenty-two years of age was licensed to preach. The first year of his ministry he labored as a missionary at Cherry Valley, in the double relation of pastor and principal of the academy; and in the latter capacity he soon gathered around him quite a large number of pupils. He remained there but for two years, however, and in 1798 he became the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Albany, where he preached for six years with great sucWhile here, he preached his celebrated sermon on the Fall of Hamilton; and very soon afterward, in 1804, was elected to the presidency of Union College. He has been to this institution, ever since, its financier, its president, and its most liberal pecuniary benefactor.

cess.

When Dr. Nott took charge of the college, it had but fourteen students; its buildings were unfinished, its funds exhausted, and its prospects generally gloomy. He obtained grants of land from the State, endowed professorships, built libraries, furnished apparatus, and raised the institution to the rank which it now holds. Dr. Nott has also claims to notice by his labors in the field of practical mechanics. By his experiments in heat, and the improvements he introduced, he effected an entire revolution in the mode of warming buildings. Nott's stoves have had quite a reputation. Although Dr. Nott is said to have written much, he has published but little. As a pulpit orator, he is said to have had, in his prime, but few equals. He still continues in the active discharge of his duties, at the very great age of eightyfour years. His ecclesiastical connection is with the Old School Presbyterians,

The leading characteristics of Dr. Nott are candor, discrimination, and versatility, joined with wonderful power of application. As a speaker and writer, his power consists not so much in the logical as the imaginative. His mind is naturally poetic and descriptive. One of his students says: "We have seen him, while lecturing on Kames's Elements of Criticism, draw a picture so touching and life-like that half of the class would be in tears." It is impossible to escape the charms of his eloquence. One has said of his writings: "In Dr. Nott's prose there is more genuine poetry than in two-thirds of the volumes named such on title-pages." It is believed that some of the finest specimens of English literature in the language, lie locked up in his desk.

The famous discourse here furnished, by permission of Dr. Nott, was occasioned by the death of General Alexander Hamilton, who was killed, in a duel, by Aaron Burr, at Hoboken, N. J., July 11th, 1804. It was delivered in the North Dutch Church, Albany, on the 29th of that month; and passages of it have been incorporated into our literature as specimens of singular and thrilling eloquence. Dr. Nott expressed himself as the more willing that we should reproduce it, from the fact that the false "code of honor" seems of late to be somewhat revived.

THE FALL OF HAMILTON.

"How are the mighty fallen!"-2 SAMUEL, i. 19.

THE occasion explains the choice of my subject—a subject on which I enter in obedience to your request. You have assembled to express your elegiac sorrows, and sad and solemn weeds cover you. Before such an audience, and on such an occasion, I enter on the duty assigned me with trembling. Do not mistake my meaning. I tremble, indeed— not, however, through fear of failing to merit your applause; for what have I to do with that, when addressing the dying and treading on the ashes of the dead?—not through fear of failing justly to portray the character of that great man, who is at once the theme of my encomium and regret. He needs not eulogy. His work is finished, and death has removed him beyond my censure, and I would fondly hope, through grace, above my praise.

You will ask, then, why I tremble? I tremble to think that I am called to attack from this place a crime, the very idea of which almost freezes one with horror-a crime, too, which exists among the polite and polished orders of society, and which is accompanied with every aggravation-committed with cool deliberation, and openly in the face of day! But I have a duty to perform; and difficult and awful as that duty is, I will not shrink from it. Would to God my talents were adequate to the occasion; but such as they are, I devoutly proffer them to unfold the nature and counteract the influence of that barbarous custom, which, like a resistless torrent, is undermining the foundations of civil govern