the Psalmist, rejoicing in the prosperity of Israel, began his strain of devotion, with a public and grateful acknowledgment of their indebtedness to God. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake." Such open acknowledgment, God demands from this nation. Not a merely formal acknowledgment: as if we could crowd our praise into one set day of thanksgiving and go and riot on his bounties and delight ourselves in his gifts, in a forgetfulness of him, during the other days of the year. Not a thoughtless acknowledgment: as if we might bring him the offerings of our lips and feelings, and trust to discover reasons for our thankfulness afterwards. The acknowledgment which he demands of the American citizen is an enlightened and ardent one:— that which springs from intelligent and studious minds awake in some measure to the true extent and source of our national blessings; and from warm and grateful hearts which feel how much we owe to his goodness, and carry the feeling with them through the enjoyment, the intercourse and the duties of life. There have been many in this nation in the past periods of its history who have made this intelligent and heart-felt acknowledgment of divine goodness: and presented to God the offering of thankful and obedient hearts. They have borne the sentiment with them from the closet to the family, the social circle, the popular assembly, the bench of justice, the senate, the chair of chief magistracy: and they have united in

66

devoutly expressing it in the sanctuaries of God. There are many such, we would hope, at this day— the salt of the land to preserve it-the breath of the land to revive it;-and it is to add to their number and secure unto himself a grateful nation, that God appears before us at this day reminding us of his gifts and of his high and imperious claims. But more especially does he demand of us supreme trust in him for our future prosperity. This was the demand which he made on Israel through the Psalmist. "O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord." And this demand is now brought to our consciences with no less power by the voice of his providence. He calls us to put our trust in him as the supreme, the only source of our future prosperity. The trust which he requires is not that formal trust, which lifts up the voice to him for aid, but goes away and seeks all its joys and resources in his gifts: not that idle trust, which sleeps in inaction, and waits for God to perform both our duties and his promises. It is the heart-felt trust which enthrones him over our affections and subjects our lives to the guidance of his commandments, and which believes, from the testimonies of his goodness with which he surrounds us, that he is ready to bestow prosperity "on them that fear him, both great and small." It is the active trust that engages cheerfully in the duties or the conflicts through which his guiding hand directs us as the avenues to prosperity; and which, like Israel, labors, endures privation, encounters enemies, when called to it by the cloudy and fiery pillar of his

guidance. This is the trust which he demands of American citizens at this day when, more than ever, we are in danger of withdrawing our confidence from him and reposing in the rich gifts that form our inheritance. He stands before us as the Author of all our prosperity; and asks that we submit ourselves to his future guidance:-that we welcome him to preside over us with his authority and dwell with us with his word and institutions and Spirit of grace, that we come around him, each in our various stations, and cast upon his care the temporal and spiritual interests of the nation, waiting as obedient servants to receive and fulfill his orders. Was ever a claim more just, more pure and disinterested, more worthy of our attention? To this claim, multitudes have gratefully responded in this nation. In the days of past peril and adversity, our fathers trusted in him and were delivered; and in this critical day of our prosperity, when we are threatened with no less dreadful but more insidious enemies, there are many who look to him alone as the supreme hope of the nation. And it is to add to their number and secure to himself a people gratefully submissive, whom he may conduct to increasing prosperity in years to come, that he reminds us at this day of his gifts: "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth."

We are now come to the remaining thought: III. The connection which the claim has with our national welfare in time to come.

Now that the prosperity of this country can be

perpetuated, only by placing, as a people, our grateful trust in God and complying with the claims imposed upon us by his goodness, will, I think, be manifest from the following considerations.

1. We can in no other way secure the favor of God upon the destinies of the nation.

kingdoms of

The Most High ruleth over the men. In his hand it is to plant and build, and to pluck up and destroy. Who can doubt this, that believes there is a God and that he created the heaven and the earth. Surely, he is Lord over the domains of his own creation; and will perform his righteous pleasure among the nations. Nor does it ever enter into his purposes to treat them without regard to their conduct. For the truth rests on the foundation of his essential goodness, and it has been fully attested in his revelations to Israel and by his conduct in the earth, that he will not cast off the people who put their trust in him; and that, though he bear long with those that refuse and rebel, he will not forget to punish. And shall we be exempt from the general laws of his providence? Can this nation withdraw itself from his domains? Can it change the nature of his purposes of government? Or, if he come forth to punish, can it avoid feeling the terror of his indignation?

Truly a weighty responsibility devolves upon us. God who has been the deliverer of our fathers and has brought us into their inheritance with many added gifts, has come, demanding of us the acknowledgment and trust of grateful hearts,

in order that he may continue to us, and to those who come after us, our rich inheritance. Unlike the critical times of our nation's adversity, this is the crisis of her prosperity. The issues dependent, are most weighty; and are to be felt in the joys or woes of the many millions who are coming forward to occupy the bounds of our habitation. If we put our trust in God; if the sentiment be broad and deep in the nation; no doubt he will go with us in favor and perpetuate his heavenly and worldly gifts with us and our children, and "increase them more and more." But if we withdraw our confidence from him; if we ungratefully merge the thought of his goodness in our own worldliness and pride and lust; the scourges of vengeance are in his storehouse, and he will no doubt draw them forth for our punishment. It is only for him to withdraw from us the heavenly gifts of his grace, and convert our worldly gifts into snares of destruction; it is only for him to commission the evils of famine, pestilence, anarchy and war to pass through the land; and we and our children shall feel the tremendous scourgings of his rod.

But the question whether we respond to the demand of God or not, has a most manifest connection with many of the secondary sources of our safety or danger;-a connection which must be conceded, even by him who is so hardy as to deny that God has a direct agency over the destinies of nations. I proceed, therefore, to remark on the connection of our gratitude with our prosperity: