But it is not my intention to confine the words of the text to ourselves only as individuals; my object on the present occasion is to give them a more extensive consideration, and to propose them as more peculiarly a subject for national reflection.

If the warnings and exhortations of Scripture were written for universal instruction, then surely the pious wish expressed in the text ought equally to become a subject of reflection to ourselves as a nation, and to every land which has received the records of the Divine will. More particularly, however, are those nations interested in their consideration, to whom the favour and protection of the Almighty have been more abundantly manifested, and by whom may have been experienced more signal instances of his providential interposition.

And what nation is there which has experienced so many instances of the Divine favour and protection? What land so elevated by tokens of providential interposition? What people enjoy such signal and glorious privileges as belong to the inhabitants of this great and favoured land?

It must be granted if we allow (and can we venture to deny it?) that the providence of God rules over the affairs of nations-that as a people, we have enjoyed an abundant share of his Almighty favour and protection. Contemplate the amazing resources of this great and mighty empire! reflect how she has become under Divine Providence the arbitress of nations; survey the boundless extent of

her dominion and the influence inspired by her arms; consider the privileges which, as inhabitants of this land, we enjoy; the means we possess of extending the blessings of religion and civilization throughout the world, and then say whether we do not seem raised up by the Almighty to become a beacon to the nations, and the instrument for accomplishing the purposes of his will.

If then we must acknowledge that the providence of God is interested in the concerns of nations, and if we cannot but trace the hand of the all-wise Disposer of events in the many signal instances of favour and protection extended to our country, and the blessings and privileges we enjoy-does it not behove us to weigh well the responsibility we incur if we neglect to profit by these manifestations of his providence, and if we fail to employ the advantages we possess in fulfilling the important ends for which they were vouchsafed?

Does it not concern us to reflect seriously what return, as a nation, we have made for the many inestimable blessings we have received? Have they led us to testify, on our part, gratitude and obedience to our Divine Benefactor; or may the words of our text be applied to ourselves as a nation, as they were to the Jews, "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!"

It requires but little reflection to convince us that we are at all times under a great obligation seriously

to consider the many favours we have experienced at the hand of the Almighty, and to contemplate the danger we incur, should we neglect to profit by their enjoyment, or should they become to us only the means of our forgetting the source whence these blessings are derived.

But if at all times this duty is incumbent on us, much more does it become so at a time like this, when, from the recent calamity inflicted on us, we are roused to the consideration of our future prospects as a nation, and are led to pause on the commencement of a new era of our political existence. Much more so indeed is this a time for such contemplation, when that great and illustrious individual, who has been the instrument in the hands of Providence for exalting our country to its present pitch of greatness, is sunk to rest in the grave, when the sun, whose meridian lustre illumined the world, is set in the darkness of night.

My brethren, we are this day called upon to pay the tribute of our regret to the memory of one of the greatest monarchs that ever sat on England's throne; and how can we better discharge the duty which this melancholy occasion imposes upon us, than by endeavouring to improve the consideration of the mournful event, by drawing from it those reflections both of a spiritual and of a temporal nature, which it so abundantly affords for edification? "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!"

From the words of the text, taken in connection with the melancholy event which this day calls upon us for our reflection, the following important considerations demand our most serious attention.

From the pious and warning wish expressed by Moses, we should be led, both as a nation and as individuals, to consider seriously the many mercies and blessings which, under the government of our departed sovereign, have been extended to our country, and to contemplate the responsibility we incur should we neglect to make them grounds for our gratitude and obedience. And these reflections should be so applied as to become the means of producing in us a serious and devout consideration of our latter end. And may He, by whose preventing and assisting grace alone can all our meditations become profitable to his service, so shed abroad in our hearts the influence of his Holy Spirit, that the reflections which we shall suggest may tend to the increase of his honour and glory, and of our own present and future welfare.

In reviewing the series of events which adorn the annals of our departed sovereign, what extraordinary instances of Divine mercy and favour, what signal tokens of providential interposition and protection extended to our country throughout the course of his government, must present themselves to the mind of the contemplative Christian!

Reflect for a moment on the state of this country, on the state of continental Europe, on the state of

the civilized world, when it pleased the Almighty to afflict with a mental malady the revered father of our late sovereign, and the government of these realms became entrusted to the hands of our departed monarch: Who can revert to the time when the clash of arms resounded throughout the civilized world, when kings were hurled from their thrones at the will of a cruel and unrelenting despot-when a bloody and exterminating war seemed waged against the civil and religious institutions of every state in Christendom, and all were doomed to sustain its horrors, or to groan under the chain of servitude— when those sacred ties, which bind together individuals, and which constitute and civilize society, were broken asunder, and a host of fierce, discordant and unsocial passions were let loose upon the world—who, I say, can reflect on these, and more than these, things without asking, What were we, as a nation, that we should have escaped unhurt and uncontaminated amidst the wreck of empires and the disruption of the ties of civilized society? Must we not indeed declare with the Psalmist, "If the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us. Yea, the waters had drowned us, and the stream had gone over our souls."

While the whole of Europe groaned under the horrors of war or the chain of servitude, it pleased the Almighty to make this nation the instrument for

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