out in the chains that wear the heart? What is the service of the world? A slavery to many masters; changing with the hour, yet never intermitting; cheerless, to endure, and thankless, in the end. What is the service of the Devil? Subjection to a slave; who, bound himself in misery and iron, indulges his vindic tiveness, against the GOD, who chained him, by the wrongs, he wreaks upon God's image, in our nature. The service of God, meanwhile, is perfect and eternal freedom. The Son hath made His children free. And, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Not the liberty, to sin; but the liberty, not to sin. Not the liberty, to live away from GOD; but, to live near Him, and lean on Him, and look up to Him. The liberty of a good conscience. The liberty of virtuous habits. The liberty of a holy life. The liberty of prayer. The liberty of peace. The liberty of love. Continual are our exertions, and our prayers continual, that these dear children, whom the Lord has lent us, for a while, to train for Him, may grow up, as His children, and His freemen, in the religious Liberty, which dwells with Duty. Happiest, for my purpose, and in most perfect harmony with this twice blessed Day, in both its aspects, as it made us Freemen, and as it finds us Christians, are the words of WILLIAM WORDSWORTHI, the Sage and Poet of our times; saintly, in all his life, now sainted, in his death; my admiration, always: and, nine years, my kind and faithful friend. His "Ode to Duty" is the noblest strain of Christian morals, which even his harp has uttered. And to knit its heavenly tones in with this day, and make it heavenly; to imbue, with its angelic spirit, the young hearts of these children, and fit them for the choir of angels, where his voice now rings, will be, so God shall grant it to my prayers, their fittest, fullest answer. Stern Daughter of the voice of God! O Duty! if that name Thou love, Who art a light to guide, a rod To check the erring, and reprove; Thou, who art victory and law, When empty terrors overawe, From vain temptations dost set free; And calmst the weary strife of frail humanity! There are, who ask not, if thine eye Be on them; who, in love and truth, Where no misgiving is, rely Upon the genial sense of youth: Glad hearts! without reproach or blot; Who do thy work, and know it not: Oh! if, through confidence misplaced, They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast. Serene will be our days, and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security. Even now, who, not unwisely bold, Live in the spirit of this creed; Yet, seek thy firm support, according to their need. I, loving freedom, and untried; No sport of every random gust Yet, being to myself a guide, Too blindly have reposed my trust: And, oft, when, in my heart was heard Thy timely mandate, I deferred The task, in smoother walks to stray; But, thee, I now would serve more strictly, if I may. Through no disturbance of my soul, Or strong compunction in me wrought, I supplicate for thy control; But, in the quietness of thought: My hopes no more must change their name; Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee, in their beds; And fragrance, in thy footing, treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! I call thee; I myself commend Oh, let my weakness have an end! The confidence of reason give; And, in the light of truth, thy bondsman, let me live! V. PATRIOTISM A CHRISTIAN DUTY. * THE FIFTH FOURTH OF JULY ORATION AT BURLINGTON COLLEGE. TWENTY-FIVE years ago, this day-I was younger then, in years, than I am now; but, by the good righthand of God upon me, not younger, by one whit, in heart or hope-I delivered the Jubilee Oration of American Independence, in the City of Hartford, by the appointment of the civil authority. I was then, as now, enlisted, hand and heart, in the good work of Christian education; and the officers and students of Washington College, of which I was the senior Professor, were a portion of my audience. I have scarcely seen the manuscript, from that day to this. But the circumstance, that we complete to-day three-quarters of a century of freedom, induced me to look after it. And I cannot better serve the purpose, which I have in hand, than by the re-production, now and here, of its opening and closing paragraphs. "This day, a half century is completed, since the 'Thirteen United States of America', by their 'unani * A. D. 1851. mous declaration,' claimed for themselves a name and a place, among the sovereign nations of the earth. You have listened to that inimitable paper, stirring your hearts within you, as with the sound of a trumpet, in which their claim was urged. And yourselves, my fellow-citizens, casting aside, for a season, the cares and duties of your daily life, and come up hither to profess anew its principles, and to rejoice in its success, are liv ing witnesses of the unparalleled result. The thirteen colonies, then, rich in nothing, but their love of liberty, and strong in nothing but their trust in God, are now become twenty-four States; the members of a Federal Republic, which, on the side of justice, may defy the world. The three millions of people, which were then thinly sprinkled along the coast, are multiplied to more than ten. The tide of their increase, rolling westward, with the course of day, has long since occupied the Alleghanies; and is now pouring its thousands out through the vast valley of the Mississippi. Upon the tree of our liberties, which the fathers of the republic, as on this day, planted with holy hands, that trembled, but not with fear, the dews and rains of fifty years have fallen. Cherished by favouring heaven, with light and warmth, and only rooted to a greater depth by winds and tempests, it stands erect among the nations: offering its grateful shadow to the oppressed of every land; and sheltering from the heat and from the storm the happy millions, who repose beneath its branches. Is it not meet, my fellow-citizens, in the remembrance of such a triumph, and in the enjoyment of such a bless |