threatens his fellow men. I have therefore chosen the subject so graphically described by the prophet, that I may awaken that kind of feeling and interest in reference to the coming conflict which becomes a devout people; and is suitable to those who fear God and put their trust in his merciful and overruling providence.

You will mark that the patriotic seer shows the alarm and abhorrence that war produces in the mind of the man who contemplates it with a devout spirit. The sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war which his soul had heard constrained him to cry out; he could not hold his peace. Destruction was cried upon destruction; the whole land was agitated; the tents and curtains of even those who inhabited the wilderness were suddenly spoiled, as in a moment; and the impatient philanthropist exclaimed, "How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?" The vision presented to him the horrors which should follow. Briefly we proceed to consider these horrors, as described by the prophet. His language pictures the scenes of desolation, of individual suffering, and of what may be considered divine wrath, as the consequence or rather as the concomitants of war.

We invite attention here, then, to scenes connected with the separation of friends, the severance of kindred; some of whom are sent forth to the war.

Parents are compelled to surrender their children, husbands are torn from their wives, brothers from their brothers and sisters; and those, who obey the sound of the trumpet, go forth under the solemn assurance that they are stepping into the jaws of danger that they are placing themselves within gunshot of adversaries who are seeking, panting, waiting for their destruction. Let each one place himself as a relation, as one of the members, of such families. Think of a mother's feelings in looking at her favourite and most fondly loved son, whom she has nursed in her bosom, and cradled on her knee; whose growth she has watched with a woman's love, and whose manhood she has waited for as the crown of her own life. Contemplate her taking a last embrace of such a child, that he may march forth, ostensibly as a servant of his country, but really as the hired combatant; to rush into collision with adversaries whose skill, counsels, plotting, stratagem, and waiting, are all artfully designed for his destruction. How sad and mournful must be the musing hearts in thousands of families at this moment! The multitude may vaunt of martial triumphs, and try to wrap up the scene in gay-coloured and flaunting garments. The public voice may talk of it as a duty to be brave and bold in the field; but bring it home to the domestic circle, and ask, Is not this foreboding and misgiving of a parent's, of a sister's

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heart, a matter to be deplored and questioned? It is true that Britons in our sea-girt isle may imagine themselves free from the intrusion of the invading adversary, the conflict and strife of the battle-field, the blood and carnage of the victory. It is true, that we may speak of our wooden walls as our floating defences and bulwarks, and sing our songs of heroic chivalry concerning naval warriors: the battles of the Nile and Camperdown. But look quietly on the reality, and deliberately contemplate the whole matter; observe the home circle thus bereaved of its choicest, of its loveliest, and it may be its most promising member and ornament.

Again, follow those men into the camp and on to the field, examine them arranged in battle order, marshalled for the hour of death or victory. With whom is it they have gone forth to fight, as with a deadly foeman? Is it with the man that has done the wrong is it with men with whom they have had any natural animosity-is it with men who have in any measure been the originators of the cruelty and injustice of which our diplomatists complain, and whose conduct the most eloquent advocates of warfare resent? We answer, No. From all the families of Russia, first one in a thousand has been ordered to gather round the eagle standard, and a second in a thousand has been required to muster to the trumpet sound, whether they were willing

or reluctant; and these have been clothed in the garments of the warrior, and sent forth by a power; to resist which would have been as perilous as the hour of battle. A despotic and irresponsible compulsion has placed them in this attitude of selfdefence, and arrayed them as combatants with men against whom they have no hatred or dislike, and with whom naturally they have no desire to contend. It is no dream of fancy, thus to picture the poor serfs, who are dragged away from their homes and kindred by tens of thousands to rot in marshes, the helpless, ignorant, and miserable victims of an all powerful sovereign, while their parents and kindred remain as hostages for their fidelity under his vulture eye. Men drilled and stimulated by schemes and stratagems congenial to war are thus placed in rank against one another-are prepared, required, and commanded to seek each other's lives; as if to take the life of the one was to be the salvation of the other. They rush into the presence of God in this spirit. They seek as much as possible, each one, to slay his neighbour. The violation of natural feeling, the breach of Christian rule, disobedience to the first and great commandment of God, are all necessary in order to accomplish what is presented in the triumphs of deliberate warfare.

And then mark the sad things which follow. "Nothing," with awful emphasis uttered the greatest

general, "nothing is worse than a victory, except it be a defeat":-our companions in arms, as they are called, weltering in their own blood, unable to crawl from the place of their conflict and destruction to obtain a draught of water to quench the thirst which fractured bones and lacerated wounds have produced; unable to bandage their own wounds; exasperated by incidental circumstances-maddened, it may be, by what they see around them in the fury and demon passions of awful carnage; whilst they are unable to move from under the tread of the war-horse or the feet of retreating battalions. Such is their bed of death, such their gate to the eternal world! Is this a preparation for immortal man in which to meet his God? The horrors of war, as to the individuals themselves who are engaged in the actual conflict, are such, that when they are about to enter into action (so soldiers have described it), there is a kind of fainting of the heart and giddiness of the head, as if everything were swimming around them. But after they have fired the first shot, and the bloody strife has begun, they rush on to the contest, and know comparatively nothing of what they are doing or saying, until they have withdrawn again from the conflict; the word of command is given as by an impulse and obeyed as by an automaton. Some of you doubtlessly have read descriptions of great battles. I have pondered the