into brimstone, and all its streams as rolling forth floods of boiling pitch, and yet it means nothing more than the temporal judgment of God upon. that people. Our text is plain, we presume, to every hearer, and we now dismiss the subject. In conclusion, we simply inquire, are the Jews to remain in this. second death? Let Paul answer. Romans, chap. xi. "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead." ***** "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest ye should be wise. in your own conceits,) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins." Here we have evidence, that these dead are again to be brought to life. They are to come forth from their graves; the dark veil shall be rent from their eyes, and "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." From this lamentable catastrophe of their over throw and dispersion, and their present unhappy fate as a people, let us take warning, and not abuse the choice blessings God has bestowed upon us as a nation. Let us rightly value our civil and religious liberty, and remember, if we become corrupt as a people, and unmindful of that Being, who holds the destinies of nations in his hand, we too shall be hurled from our high station of honor to degradation and ruin. Ever bear in mind, that moral death is a sad prelude to national death. SERMON XXIX.* DEDICATION AT AMSTERDAM, N. Y. "If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"-1 JOHN IV. 20. THE purpose for which we are now assembled is, to dedicate this edifice to the worship of the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, to the preaching of the ministry of reconciliation revealed to the world by Jesus Christ, and to the purity of that religion which gives to man his sweetest enjoyments in life, and his fondest hopes of surviving the ruins of death. I stand before you on this occasion with feelings of peculiar interest. This is the home of my childhood and youth, sacredly endeared to me by many pleasing associations, by many fondly cherished delights, around which memory still hovers with emotions better felt than expressed. I find myself surrounded with many of those who were the companions and associates of my early days, and with whom I have so often engaged in the sports attendant on boyhood. But alas, how changed the scene! - Those, who but yesterday, * Delivered at the Dedication of the Universalist Church, in Amsterdam, N. Y., Wednesday, September 10, 1834. were blooming youth, and whose countenances were mantled with fairy smiles, are now grave and thinking men; and many, whose temples were adorned with burnished locks, are now sown thick with grey hairs. What a change is this for sixteen summers! But greater still, if possible, is the change in our sentiments. We grew up together believers in unending woe for millions of the human race, but to-day we are assembled to dedicate this temple to the universal Father, the Creator and Saviour of all. On an occasion like this, I know of no subject of higher moment to the cause of Christ, or that would be of more thrilling interest to the brethren who have reared this beautiful building, than the true worship of God, or pure and undefiled religion. This will be my theme, and the congregation cannot but perceive, that, in order to do this subject justice, I shall be compelled to come in contact with the conflicting sentiments of the day. In defending the true worship of God and the religion of Jesus Christ, I shall have to pay some attention to what passes for religion and divine worship in the present day; and shall closely examine the. doctrine of total depravity, and a mysterious change from nature to grace. It is a matter of trivial moment for us to rear and dedicate houses of public worship, unless we understand the character of that Being to whom we dedicate them, and the nature of that worship which he requires us to render. There is, indeed, a strange infatuation in the human mind, in regard to religion. What constitutes the true worship of God, or true religion, is a subject which has for many centuries occupied the attention of the Christian world. The prevailing opinion seems to be, that it consists in that species of reverential homage paid to God, which will placate his wrath, secure his favor, and induce him to save his creatures from final ruin in the immortal world to which he, in the plan of creation, exposed them. It is believed by a large portion of the Christian community, that man comes into existence totally depraved, naturally opposed to God, and averse to all that is good, virtuous, and amiable, that though he is a moral agent, yet that moral agency consists in freely pursuing a course of sin and transgression against the moral Governor of the world, and that no one of the human family would ever be saved, unless God, by his irresistible grace, brought them to a state of salvation in Christ. These, with a thousand minor speculations, constitute the present systems of theology in the Christian world. Though they vary in doctrine, so far as salvation may be conditional or unconditional, yet they all agree in general terms, that |