Washington. Though unequal, they were not altogether unlike. The one was as fond of the banks of the Cumberland, as the other was of the banks of the Potomac.

Did Washington voluntarily lay aside his honours, and retire to Mount Vernon? Four times did Jackson resign civil authority to return to rural occupations. From the conduct of three great and successful campaigns was he followed to his quiet home by the acclamations of his countrymen. And without a longing wish, after filling the highest office in the gift of the people, for the longest term of years, he returned to the Hermitage to die in peace!!

Such, my countrymen, was the man we mourn. But there is joy amidst our sorrows. Andrew Jackson's greatness was completed by his Christian faith. The top stone was brought forth with shoutings of "grace, grace unto it!" Had he departed this life without a hope of a blessed immortality, our task upon this occasion, would have been a mournful one indeed. But like the cloudless sun, increasing in magnitude and magnificence as it goes down beyond his western tomb, so was the decline of his sun of life. It rose with the dawn of our national day; its upward ascent arrested attention; its burning meridian magnificence fixed our gaze; but its setting has exceeded its morning promise, or its noon-day glories. He died a Christian. Therefore, my beloved countrymen, 66 comfort yourselves with these words."

His Christian faith arrested particular attention in his latter days. With characteristic wisdom he closed his political career, retired to the silent shades of the Hermitage, and there prepared to die. And the religious responses from that quiet retreat, should be received by us with more than oracular authority. The sentiments of the dying patriot and sage, should be treasured up in the innermost sanctuary of our hearts. He was a Christian, as he was everything else, decidedly and wholly. No important interest of Christianity seems to have been overlooked by him. The Bible, the Sabbath, and the Sunday School, all received the hearty approval and commendation of Andrew Jackson.

Of the word of God, he said: " The Bible is true. Upon that sacred volume, I rest my hope of eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ." His old Bible, thumbed and worn by constant use, he held up in his right hand, and said to Doctor Edgar: "This book, sir, is the bulwark of our republican institutions, the anchor of our present and future safety." Remember the sentiment, American Republicans: I will repeat it. It is a voice that comes to us on the wings of the sighing winds from the far off Hermitage: "This book, sir, is the bulwark of our republican institutions, the anchor of our present and future safety." It is said his Bible was ever by his side. Like the pillar of the cloud, the symbol of Jehovah's covenant with

Israel in the wilderness, it was moved when he moved, it rested where he rested.

As the light of the Sabbath broke over his earthly habitation, he remarked, "This day is the holy Sabbath ordained by God, and set apart to be devoted to his worship and praise, I always attended service at church when I could, but now I can go no more."

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He charged his family to continue the instruction of the poor the Sabbath School. This new system of instruction, he said, which blended the duties of religion with those of humanity, he considered as of vast importance. He seemed anxious to impress the family with these sentiments. And in his last moments, two of his grandchildren were sent for from the Sabbath School to receive his blessing.

Here was the full-souled and intelligent Christian. He made the Bible the rule of faith and practice. He made the Bible the foundation of the liberties of his country. Observance of the holy Sabbath day-attendance upon the services of the sanctuary-and the religious education of the young, were all inculcated by precept and practice. These are the sentiments, my countrymen, that I would have you treasure up in your hearts, and exemplify in your lives. What a testimony have we from the lips of Andrew Jackson to the truth of our holy religion. He was great because he was good!

Nor did the dying patriarch serve his God for nought. The hero of Marathon was left to die in a dungeon. Caius Marius, in his old age, was driven to seek shelter amidst the ruins of Carthage. Woolsey was left to die, lamenting :-"Had I but served my God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs." But Jackson's latter end was different from all this. He had served his country and he had served his God. And now, at the death-bed of the patriot and Christian, the sympathies of both worlds combined for his support.

When questioned, a few days before his death, as to his future prospects, he said: "My lamp of life is nearly out; the last glimmer has come; I am ready to depart when called." And on the day of his death, but a few hours before life's last struggle, recovering from a swoon, and finding his family around his bed in the deepest grief, he said: "My dear children, do not grieve for me. It is true, I am going to leave you. I am well aware of my situation. I have suffered much bodily pain, but my sufferings are but as nothing, compared with what our blessed Saviour endured upon that accursed cross, that we might all be saved who put our trust in him." He then calmly proceeded to take his final farewell of his family, individually. After which he addressed them for near half an hour on the truth and comforts of the Christian religion, and closed by saying: "My dear children, and friends, and servants, I

trust to meet you all in Heaven, both white and black! both white and black!!" And at six o'clock in the evening of the 8th day of June, he died full of davs and full of honours. In death we look upon him

"As some tall tower or lofty mountain's brow
Detains the sun, illustrious from their height,
The good man dying, rears his august head.
Sweet peace and Heavenly hope, and humble faith
Divinely beam on his exalted soul-

Destruction gild and crown him for the skies
With incommunicable lustre bright."

Such was the man, and such his death, whose virtues and whose services have called us together on this occasion. Long may his memory live. Long may his virtues be cherished and practised by American Citizens.

A

DISCOURSE ON THE DUTY OF A PATRIOT,

WITH

SOME ALLUSIONS ON THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF

ANDREW JACKSON;

PRONOUNCED JULY 6, 1845,

BY

GEORGE W. BETHUNE,

MINISTER OF THE THIRD REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.

"For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." -Psalm lxxviii. 5, 6, 7.

AMONG Our many national sins, there is none more likely to provoke divine chastisement, yet less considered or repented of, even by Christians, than ingratitude for political blessings. That there are evils among us, no one will deny; that changes might be made for the better, it were unreasonable to doubt; and, concerning methods of removing evil, or working good, we may differ widely, yet honestly. Evil is inseparable from human nature, the best human schemes are capable of improvement, and human opinions must be various, because they are fallible. It is a narrow, unthankful spirit, which, brooding over imperfections, or sighing after greater advantages, or bitterly condemning all who think not the same way, refuses to perceive and acknowledge the vast benefits we actually enjoy. Never was there a revolution at once so just and so successful as that which won our country's independence; never, except in the Bible, have the rights of man been so clearly and truly defined as in our constitution; never did greater success attend a social experiment than has followed ours. Since the establishment of our confederacy, tumults, insurrections, and violent changes, have been busy in all the civilized world besides. Throne

after throne has fallen, and dynasties have been built up on the bloody ruins of dynasties. In some nations the people have wrung, by force, partial concessions from hereditary rule; in others, after convulsive, misdirected efforts, they have been crushed again by the iron hoof of despotism; nor is the voice of a prophet needed to foretell a long, desperate struggle of uprising humanity with the powers of political darkness; while the bloody discords and constant confusion of other republics on the same continent with ourselves, demonstrate the incompatibility of freedom with ignorance and superstition. Ours is now, with the exception of the Russian and British (if, indeed, the passage of the Reform Bill was not an organic change), older than any monarchical government in christendom. The increase of our population from less than three millions to twenty, in seventy years, multiplies many times any former example; yet, not withstanding the enormous migration to us from various countries, where free principles are unknown, our wide land has more than enough room for all: growth in numbers has been a chief cause of our growth in wealth, and our laws, strong as they are liberal, have proved themselves sufficient to compose, maintain and rule all in concord, prosperity and power. You will search in vain for another example of a vast nation governed, without troops or armed police, by their own will. It is not five years since, that our people, spread out over an immense territory, after a contest in which the utmost enthusiasm excited both parties, changed their rulers. Yet not a bayonet was fixed, nor a cannon pointed, nor a barricade raised, to guard the place of suffrage. The ballot, falling noiselessly as snow upon the rock, achieved the result. Within the last twelvemonth, the stupendous process has been repeated as peaceably and safely. Each of the great political sects, which divide the popular vote, has triumphed and been beaten. Much there has been to censure in the harsh recrimination and unfraternal bigotry on either side; but when the decision was reached, though the long-rolling swells which succeed the storm did not at once subside, and here and there some violent partisan may have betrayed his vexation, the surface became calm, and the noise soon died away. Every true patriot, submissive to the oracle of the polls, whether wisdom or error, said in his heart, GOD BLESS THE PEOPLE!

Our difficulties, real or supposed, have arisen out of our advantages, for good and evil are mixed with all human affairs. The freedom of those institutions under which we live, has its price, which must be paid, so long as man is prone to abuse, by impatience and excess, those favours of Almighty God which yield happiness only when they are used moderately and religiously. Elated by prosperity, we have forced our growth too fast. We have attempted by plausible inventions to transcend the laws of trade and produc