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spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."

Here we ought to notice another alarming evil, I mean the frequent occurrence of fraud and flagrant impositions upon the honest and industrious-an evil which is destroying all confidence, loosening the foundation of private rights and property, and shaking the security of social intercourse. 2. This subject should impress on our minds the obligations we are under, not only to govern ourselves by the rules of religion and virtue, but, also, to employ the abil ities God has given, and the means he has put into our hands, to influence our fellow-men in this only safe and truly honorable course.

Notwithstanding the views we have been called to take of sin and misery in our country, we have reason to be thankful that piety and morality are far from being extinct. We would be grateful to the God of our fathers, that our principles of civil government are so favorable to the promotion of Christian principles and duties. Neither would we be forgetful that the example of a large portion of our rulers is of such a character as to excite respectful attention to these great subjects. Nor would we withhold from the friends of God and man, those congratulations which are merited by the extraordinary exertions recently made in this country to promote the diffusion of truth, and all the leading objects of Christian benevolence.

But much yet remains to be done, and much must be done, or poverty and ruin will overspread our country.

This wicked world must be reformed and converted to God, or millions of human souls will go down to eternal perdition. The friends of God and man must arise in the strength of their great Redeemer, and exert themselves in this glorious enterprise.

The grand instrument by which this gracious work is to be accomplished, is the word of God. That instrument is

in your hands, and the principles of it must be diffused through the community, and extended all over the world. Parents must teach their children, masters their servants, school-teachers their pupils, and Christians their friends and neighbors, the fear of the Lord. The numerous benevolent and Christian societies, which have for their object the conversion of mankind, must go on in their labors of love, and increase in their benign operations, till the world is evangelized.

The Gospel of the kingdom must be preached through all nations, and the Gentiles must be enlightened, and brought to bow to the Prince of Peace. Let its messengers rise higher and higher into the spirit of their heavenly mission; let them spread abroad through the tribes of the earth, bearing the glad tidings of salvation, till the "people who sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death shall see a great light," and place themselves under the government of the Son of God. All who love our Lord Jesus Christ must "pray for the peace of Jerusalem," and cease not, "until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."

The promise is gone forth, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." "The heathen," the infidel, and the skeptic "may rage, and the people imagine a vain thing," but the work of the Messiah will go on, and his conquests and kingdom shall be extended, till the King of Zion shall reign over all nations. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

This earth was never made for sin and Satan; they are

intruders and rebels on it-they have no right in it, and Messiah, the Prince, will yet drive them from it. Neither are the men who serve sin and Satan to remain here in rebellion for ever: if they will not submit to the Prince Emanuel, " they shall be broken with a rod of iron-they shall be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel." They "shall be driven away in their wickedness," and chained down in the bottomless pit with "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan," who deceived them; but the earth shall be the Lord's, and he shall be the Governor, and shall have millions of holy and happy people to serve and honor him in it. "He shall have dominion, also, from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him."

What a happy world shall this then be, when the accuser of the brethren shall be cast down-when sin that brought death into our world shall be driven far from it! The righteous shall then no longer be vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. The abominations which now scourge the world, shall no longer be seen or heard, nor their dreadful consequences torment the inhabitants of the earth. "The wolf, also, shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

SERMON II.

BY REV. BEVERLY WAUGH, D. D.,

ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

A FUNERAL DISCOURSE

ON THE DEATH OF REV. ROBERT R. ROBERTS, SENIOR BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH; DELIVERED IN LIGHT

STREET CHURCH, BALTIMORE CITY, ON

THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1813.

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life," Rev. ii, 10.

BRETHREN OF THE MINISTRY AND FELLOW-CHRISTIANS-In the midst of general joy and rejoicing throughout our wide-spread connection, on account of the unparalleled success with which it has pleased God to crown the united labors of our preachers and people during the past twelve months, we have been suddenly called to sorrow and mourning. A chief minister, late at the head of the hundreds of thousands of our Israel, has been removed from our sight and service. The venerable

Roberts, senior bishop of the Methodist Church is no longer on earth. On Sunday, the 26th day of March last, he bade adieu to terrestrial scenes, and immediately hailed those of celestial glory and blessedness, with which he will henceforth become more and more conversant for ever and ever. The demise of such a man as Bishop Roberts, might well be the occasion of a momentary pause in our shouts of halleluiahs; but let no unbelieving sadness mar the sacredness of the hour in which we perform appropriate services in connection with our recent bereavement. Our sorrow is not that of those "who have no hope." For him to have lived would have been "Christ," but "to die" has, indeed, been gain to him; he having departed to be with Christ, which is far better than his continuance in the body. We have good and valid reasons for believing that Robert R. Roberts was "faithful

unto death," and that his divine Master has already placed on his triumphant brow the "crown of life." Our lamentations, therefore, Christian brethren, should be mitigated by commingling with them sentiments of pious resignation, and feelings of chastened praise, like those which were so impressively and sweetly expressed by an ancient servant of God under sore bereavements, and at a time of great domestic affliction: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Dear to us as was our beloved Superintendent, who was venerable alike for character, office, and age, we ought rather to rejoice and give thanks that he was so long spared to go in and out before us, than to grieve that he has

"His body with his charge laid down,

And ceased at once to work and live."

The sacred text which has been quoted on this funeral occasion, is rich in theology and instinct with promise and hope. The whole science of Christianity, in theory, in experience, and in practice, is included in the first clause of that part of the verse which has been read in your audience, "Be thou faithful unto death," and its blessed results in eternity, are rendered indubitably sure by the promise of its immutable Author, as set forth in the emphatic words of the second part of our text, "I will give thee a crown of life." The original application of the words now under consideration, was to the angel or pastor of the Church of Christ at Smyrna, and, through him, to "the flock over the which the Holy Ghost had made him an overseer." Some commentators have said, that the chief minister, to whom this portion of the Apocalypse was addressed, was the celebrated Polycarp, who, at a very advanced age, suffered martyrdom, during the fourth general persecution under an edict of Pagan Rome. Of this venerable man of God and minister of Jesus Christ, it has been recorded, that, when brought before his judge,

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