inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life.

Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honour. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.

Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs; but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time, when this declaration shall be made good. We may die, die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously, and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.

But, whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honour it. They will celebrate it, with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy.

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in

this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I begun, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment ;independence now; and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER!'

LESSON LXXXII.

Effects of the modern Diffusion of Knowledge.-WAYLAND.

In consequence of this general diffusion of intelligence, nations are becoming vastly better acquainted with the physical, moral and political conditions of each other. Whatever of any moment is transacted in the legislative assemblies of one country is now very soon known, not merely to the rulers, but also to the people, of every other country. Nay, an interesting occurrence of any nature cannot transpire in an insignificant town of Europe or America, without finding its way, through the medium of the national journals, to the eyes and ears of all Christendom.

Every man must now be in a considerable degree a spectator of the doings of the world, or he is soon very far in the rear of the intelligence of the day. Indeed, he has only to read a respectable newspaper, and he may be informed of the discoveries in the arts, the discussions in the senates, and the bearings of public opinion all over the world. The reasons of all this may chiefly be found in that increased desire of information, which characterizes the mass of society in the present age. Intelligence of every kind, and especially political information, has become an article of profit; and when once this is the case, there can be no doubt that it will be abundantly supplied.

Besides this, it is important to remark, that the art of navigation has been within a few years materially improved, and commercial relations have become vastly more extensive. The establishment of packet ships between the two continents has brought London and Paris as near to us as Pittsburgh and New Orleans. There is every reason to believe, that, within the next half century, steam navigation will render communication between the ports

of Europe and America as frequent, and almost as regular, as that by ordinary mails.

The commercial houses of every nation are establishing their agencies in the principal cities of every other nation, and thus binding together the people by every tie of interest; while at the same time they are furnishing innumerable channels, by which information may be circulated among every class of the community. Hence it is, that the moral influence which nations are exerting upon each other, is greater than it has been at any antecedent period in the history of the world. The institutions of our country are becoming known, almost of necessity, to every other country. Knowledge provokes to comparison, and comparison leads to reflection.

The fact that others are happier than themselves prompts men to inquire whence this difference proceeds, and how their own melioration may be accomplished. By simply looking upon a free people, an oppressed people instinctively feel that they have inalienable rights; and they will never afterwards be at rest, until the enjoyment of these rights is guarantied to them. Thus one form of government, which in any pre-eminent degree promotes the happiness of man, is gradually but irresistibly dissem inating the principles of its constitution, and, from the very fact of its existence, calling into being those trains of thought, which must in the end revolutionize every government within the sphere of its influence, under which the people are oppressed.

And thus is it that the field, in which mind may labour, has now become wide as the limits of civilization. A doctrine advanced by one man, if it have any claim to interest, is soon known to every other man. The movement

of one intellect now sets in motion the intellects of millions. We may now calculate upon effects, not upon a state or a people, but upon the melting, amalgamatingmass of human nature. Man is now the instrument which genius wields at its will; it touches a cord of the human heart, and nations vibrate in unison.

And thus he who can rivet the attention of a community upon an elementary principle hitherto neglected in politics or morals, or who can bring an acknowledged principle to bear upon an existing abuse, may, by his own intellectual might, with only the assistance of the press,

transform the institutions of an empire or a world. In many respects the nations of Christendom collectively are becoming somewhat analogous to our own Federal Republic. Antiquated distinctions are breaking away, and local animosities are subsiding.

The common people of different countries are knowing each other better, esteeming each other more, and attaching themselves to each other by various manifestations of reciprocal good will. It is true, every nation has still its separate boundaries, and its individual interests; but the freedom of commercial intercourse is allowing those interests to adjust themselves to each other, and thus rendering the causes of collision of vastly less frequent occurrence. Local questions are becoming of less, and general questions of greater importance. Thanks be to God, men have at last begun to understand the rights, and feel for the wrongs, of each other.

Mountains interposed do not so much make enemies of nations. Let the trumpet of alarm be sounded, and its notes are now heard by every nation, whether of Europe or America. Let a voice, borne on the feeblest breeze, tell that the rights of man are in danger, and it floats over valley and mountain, across continent and ocean, until it has vibrated on the ear of the remotest dweller in Christendom. Let the arm of oppression be raised to crush the feeblest nation on earth, and there will be heard every where, if not the shout of defiance, at least the deep-toned murmur of implacable displeasure.

It is the cry of aggrieved, insulted, much-abused man. It is Human Nature waking in her might from the slumber of ages, shaking herself from the dust of antiquated institutions, girding herself for the combat, and going forth conquering and to conquer; and wo unto the man, wo unto the dynasty, wo unto the party, and wo unto the policy, on whom shall fall the scath of her blighting indignation.

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LESSON LXXXIII.

Right Use of the Scriptures.-A. DICKINSON.

WHEN a letter is received from a far distant friend, or from any person of acknowledged excellence, we are sure to open and read it in good earnest. If it bring tidings that some eminent benefactor of our nation and the world has fallen by wicked hands; or that sudden destruction and overwhelming disgrace await our own family; we read it with increasing earnestness. And if it bear every mark of truth and benevolence, our interest is not diminished, though an air of mystery may hang over some parts of it.

What language then can express the apathy, not to say the guilt, of those, who acknowledge the Bible, with all its grand announcements and rich provisions, to be from GOD, and yet treat it with carelessness or neglect? If this book of God was completed nearly eighteen hundred years ago; and if, as would seem from the closing chapter, no further communication is to come forth from Heaven till the consummation of all things,-if this one Volume is to be our only directory through this world of sin and death, and our only passport to life beyond the grave-how immeasurably important is it, that we use this one Volume aright.

It is not every kind of familiarity with the Bible, that is able to make men wise unto salvation. Surely, then, it well becomes men to inquire, with what feelings they should consult these Holy Oracles. In answering this inquiry, we remark,-Read the Bible under an affecting sense of the goodness of God in thus deigning to communicate with you by his written word.-This blessed Book, sent down from God out of heaven, contains all that men know of the true God, of Jesus Christ the Saviour, and of that eternity which stretches before us. This blessed Book unfolds our ruined condition, and is the grand charter of all our spiritual rights and privileges, and of all our hopes.

If, then, there be any value in such knowledge and such privileges, while you read, let your gratitude ascend up