human power then existing could have effected. Still, they were wrought out in conformity with that higher, and uniform, and all-encompassing movement with reference to which he who stands at the helm should guide the state, but to ascertain which, he must not take his bearings from the shifting headlands of circumstances, but must lift his eye to those eternal principles which abide ever the same. On this subject there is written upon the walls of the past a lesson for statesmen that needs no interpreter. Look at Babylon. Who is it that stands before its walls, and utters its doom? It is a despised Jew. And who is he that walks in pride upon those walls, and as he points to that mighty city as the centre of civilization and power, as combining every advantage of climate and of commerce, mocks at that doom? It is a politician of those days. The voice of the prophet is uttered, and it seems to pass idly upon the wind. The eye of sense sees no effect. No clouds gather, no lightnings descend. But that voice was not in vain. The waters of desolation heard it in their distant caves, and never ceased to rise till they had whelmed palace and tower and temple in one undistinguished ruin. Even now that voice abides there, and hangs as a spirit of the air over that desolation, and the Arabian hears it, warning him not to pitch his tent there, and the wild beast of the desart and the owl and the satyr hear it, and come up and dwell and dance there. Look at Jerusalem. Who is he that stands upon mount Olivet and weeps as he looks upon the city, and assigns, as the cause of his tears, that he would often have gathered her children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but she would not? Ah! what political Jew would have thought of that! He would have turned his attention to the purposes of governors and the intrigues of courts. Into his estimate of the causes that might affect the prosperity of Jerusalem, the moral temper of the nation as indicated by its rejection of Jesus of Nazareth, would not have entered. And yet, it was from this rejection, even in the way of natural consequence, from the want of those moral qualities which only a regard to his teachings could have produced among them, that the destruction of the Jews resulted. Nothing else could have destroyed their fool-hardy confidence in God, or have allayed those fiendish passions which led contending factions to fill the streets of the city with dead bodies even in the midst of the siege. But they would not have his spirit; they would not have him to reign over them, and we know that from the moment the words dropped from his lips, "Your house is left unto you desolate," that was a doomed city, and no political skill could have deferred the horrors of a siege and of a final overthrow, such as was not from the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be. And not only from Babylon and Jerusalem, but from the grave of every nation buried in antiquity, from Nineveh, and Tyre, and Edom, and Egypt, there comes a voice calling upon rulers to be "just, ruling in the fear of God." The true cause of their destruction was the attitude which they assumed towards the will, and worship, and people of God.

It is from these moral causes, between which and the result there is no immediate, nor, to the superficial eye, perceptible connexion, that I fear most for the stability of our institutions. It is when the sun is shining most brightly, and the face of the sky shows, it may be, not a single cloud, that the elements of the tornado are ascending most rapidly; and it is when men are in prosperity and in fancied security that they become presumptuous, and that a disastrous train of causes is silently put in motion, as resistless as the tornado. Upon this point of security, the eye of the true statesman is fixed. It is here that he sees the danger and provides against it; while the mere politician knows nothing, and sees nothing, till he begins, when it is too late, to see the lightnings, and hear the thunders of embodied wrath.

Can, then, the rulers of this country, in disregard of the warnings of all past time, with a full understanding of the claims and of the controlling agency of the great moral principles of God's government, go on in obedience to men rather than God, and make laws in disregard, or defiance of his will? If so, then, from the reciprocal influence of rulers and people, our experiment of self-government would seem to be hopeless. Then must God scourge this people as he has scourged others. Then are the untoward symptoms of the present time, but as the white spot that shows the leprosy. Then will the altar of liberty decay, and the fire upon it will go out, and there will be heard by those who watch in her temple, as of old in the desecrated temple of God, the voice of its presiding spirit saying, "Let us go hence," and that temple, towards which the eyes of the nations were turned with hope, shall become the haunt of every unclean thing, and shall only wait the hand of violence to leave not one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. In view of such consequences, I cannot but feel that the solemn words of our Saviour are as applicable to Legislators and rulers in their public, as in their private capacity. "And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell, yea I say unto you, Fear him."

To His Excellency the Governor, these sentiments are addressed, as putting him in remembrance, as he stands upon the threshold of a new official year, of that which ought ever to be uppermost in the mind of the Chief Magistrate of a Christian people, of the paramount authority of God, and of the necessity there is that all human legislation should coincide with the principles of his government. It is a great and a sacred trust which the people of this Commonwealth commit to their Chief Magistrate, and they expect it will be used in the fear of God, and for the good of this whole people. That trust is in tried hands, and we rejoice in the belief that it is safely deposited. Especially, may I be permitted to say, does it give me pleasure to welcome to the chair of state one in whose civic wreath literary honors are entwined, and who can forget the toils and lay aside the dignities of office, to cheer the young scholar on his way. Long may our literary institutions continue to raise up those who shall add to the dignity of office, the grace of learning, and the sanctity of private virtue; and who, while they devote their labors more particularly to the good of their own State, shall be regarded as belonging to the Union and to the world.

To His Honor the Lieutenant Governor, to the Honorable Council and Senate, and to the assembled Representatives of the people, the sentiments of this discourse are addressed, as the descendants of those who showed in the hour of peril, that they feared God rather than men. Following their example, you have come up, as you are about to enter upon your responsible duties, to present, in this venerable house, thanksgivings and supplications to the Lord God of our fathers; and to do homage in the name of the Republic, to His Institutions. This is well. But that Republic expects of you that you will imitate, not merely in form, but also in spirit, the bright examples that are set before you, that you will act from principle, that you will "obey God rather than men." So doing the Commonwealth will be safe, for it is the simple wisdom of goodness, that alone is truly wise.