We are arrived, in our generation, at the opening of the nineteenth age of the Religion of Christ, and we have presented this day, to the Throne of Heaven, the same petitions which have been offered by the faithful who have gone before us, in every age of that memorable time. They are all now mouldering in their graves; but He that made them never dies. The same ear which listened to their petitions, now listens to ours. The same spirit which was in the midst of them, and the infant assemblies of the church, is in these moments in the midst of us, and of every congregation that is met in his name: and the same arm, which, in every difficulty or danger, has made the Church of Christ triumphant to our day, is still uplifted to protect the progress of the " ever"lasting Gospel." There is something, my brethren, inexpressibly consoling to the weakness of humanity, in this reflec

tion: while we stand as it were amid the ruins of time, and see the races of men thus successively rising and falling before us, we see, at the same time, the Eternal Mind that governs the whole design. We see a system carrying on, in which all things" are working together for good " to the wise and to the virtuous; and which is to close at last, "in honour, in "glory, and in immortality." Meditations of this kind are fitted to strengthen and elevate every heart. They are fitted to give a voice to time as it passes, and to make it speak to us of the goodness "of Him who liveth for ever and "ever." They are fitted still more to prostrate us, in the opening of a new age, before the Throne of Eternity; to dispose us to cast all our cares upon that God who careth for us; and to subject every thought and desire of our own, to the will of Him, in whom alone are all

the treasures of wisdom," and who" alone " was, and is, and is to come."

2. In descending from this first and greatest reflection, we are led to consider, in the second place, the nature of that age, of which we have witnessed the close. Every thing tells us that there is some progress going on in Nature,--some advance of the human race, either to improvement or degradation; and it is natural to us to inquire, whether the age which is gone is likely to transmit happiness or misery to posterity. In this respect also, my brethren, we have much reason for consolation. The century which has now left us, has doubtless been one of the most distinguished in the annals of human nature. It succeeded ages of rudeness and barbarism, and has fully discharged its duties in the improvement of humanity. Nations who before lay in darkness and ignorance,

have emerged into day, and taken their position upon the theatre of society. A new world has risen with gigantic steps into maturity, and already begins to display the lights of knowledge, and the wealth of industry. The boundaries of that world we inhabit have at length been explored and a path is opened for the introduction of the gospel to the remotest habitations of man.

In the progress which will for ever distinguish the eighteenth century, our own country, my brethren, has taken an exalted share. In the course of a period, so long for the instability of man, we have enjoyed the greatest portion of national happiness and prosperity that has ever fallen to the lot of the societies of men. The crimes and agitations of a former age have expired: and the constitution of our land has settled into that wise balance of power and of liberty, which

no speculation of philosophy could have foreseen, but which is now substantiated, for the instruction of the future world, by the evidence of a hundred years of unprecedented welfare, and of expanding prosperity. Even in the present moments, my brethren, an event has taken place, which promises to give no mean addition to the prosperity and dignity of the empire. The union with our sister kingdom, so long wished for by the wise and benevolent, and so long opposed by national, and, above all, by religious prejudices, at length, by the perseverance of the legislative wisdom, dignifies the opening of the new century: and I trust in God, that the same sound of public rejoicing which announced it to us, will announce to that long neglected, and perhaps oppressed people, the commencement of a new æra of wealth, of liberty, and of happiness.