impress them with the privilege and the respon sibility of being citizens of such a country? And is it not due to all future generations, that we cherish the recollections which this celebration is fitted to awaken; and send them down as an accompaniment of the rich inheritance which we hope to transmit? Whether, then, we regard the dead, or the living, or those who are hereafter to live, it seems a dictate of reason, that we should celebrate the birth day of our country's liberty,

Let no one

But let me not be misunderstood. suppose that it has been the design of the preceding remarks, to confound intellectual greatness, or heroism, or love of country, with religion. You surely need not be told that a man may be a very giant in intellect, and so devoted to his country as to be willing to face the cannon's mouth in her defence, who yet may even be a reviler of the cross. It is only when the character comes under the presiding influence of religion, that any trait can be considered a christian virtue; yet we do not exalt the qualities of which I have spoken, too highly, when we say that they are praiseworthy and of good report

and though they will never furnish any one a passport to heaven, yet they may have a useful operation in the present life, and may be made, in the providence of God, to minister even to the cause of religion.

2. Let the anniversary of our country's independence be celebrated, because it commemorates an event, which is a signal monument of divine interposition.

I know that a spirit of atheism lurks in the human heart; and though God is speaking to us by a thousand voices every moment, yet, because he holds back the face of his throne, and is seen and heard only in the regular march of his administration, we overlook, in a great measure, his agency, and limit our views to second causes. But the history of our revolution furnishes a rebuke to this spirit. In every part of it, we behold the footsteps of an All wise and Almighty God. It may emphatically be said of us, as of Israel, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.

For a people situated as we were, to cast off the yoke of political thraldom, was a mighty event. The very announcement of the purpose drew the eyes of the world upon us; and every one, both at home and abroad, felt that it was an enterprise of appalling magnitude. Between the conception of the purpose and its accomplishment, there were mountains of difficulty; but before the hand of Omnipotence, they were destined to become a plain. There were indeed, as we have seen, much human wisdom and human valor enlisted in this enterprise; but if He who sitteth in the heavens had not put forth a directing and controlling agency, the counsels of the wise would have come to nought, and the earth would have drank the blood of the

brave to no purpose. It was Jehovah, the King of nations, who arranged the whole system of measures, that produced this stupendous result.

Do you inquire for particulars, in respect to which the special providence of God was manifest, in procuring our independence? It was manifest in all that previous train of events, which awakened in our countrymen the purpose

of becoming a free people. It was manifest in bringing a set of men upon the stage, at that very time, who were eminently qualified to conduct such an enterprise ;-one man in particular, who, like Moses, was emphatically the leader of his people. It was manifest in the general harmony that pervaded our counsels; in the union of feeling and purpose which existed among our citizens; in the high beating of the public pulse towards a state of political freedom. It was manifest in bringing us foreign aid, when our condition was most necessitous; especially, in sending to these shores a brave young man, with a rich offering both of treasure and of service, to the cause of freedom; a man who became a powerful coadjutor with the Father of his country, and who, in these latter days, has returned to survey the inheritance which his very blood helped to purchase. And we might descend to many events still more minute; and show you how the providence of God was manifest in exposing and defeating the designs of our enemies; in deciding the fate of battles; in removing obstacles, by an agency which seemed almost miraculous, when our path was hedged

up. Yes, I repeat, though in all this there was the stirring of a brave and patriotic spirit;— though wisdom, and courage, and burning zeal, were exhibited in almost every movement, yet a higher than human agency was here: it was the agency of Him, who orders all things according to the counsel of his own will.

Here, again, my friends, I ask you whether you do not find an argument for the celebration. of this anniversary? If it is right that the day should be observed, because it is commemorative of that noble human agency, by which our country's cause was sustained, in the days of her peril, much more should it be observed, as a memorial of God's power and goodness in our behalf. Let the celebration of this day, then, be perpetuated; and when our children's children, or those of more remote posterity, shall inquire, 'what mean ye by this service?" let them be told that it commemorates the deliverance of their fathers from bondage, by the strong hand and the outstretched arm of Jehovah.

3. Let the anniversary of our independence be celebrated, because it has been followed consequences of most deep, extensive, and perma