THE SWORD OF THE LORD.

JER. XLVII, 6, 7. Othou Sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?

Put up thyself into thy Scabbard : rest, and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon ?

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WHEN called to address an Armed Association on a former occasion, I felt it my duty to consider the lawfulness and expediency of such an Association. I then endeavoured to prove, that if, like David, you had quitted for a time your more peaceful occupations to wield the sword, you were warranted, in present circumstances, to repel any objection by replying with him, " IS THERE NOT A CAUSE ?"

I trust the arguments then adduced for the necessity

your recourse to arms, need neither to be repeated nor enforced. The same cause still exists: and that, with accumulated aggravation : and I must add, that you have a claim both upon the gratitude and upon the assistance of your fellow-citizens, in this laudable effort.

The present occasion, however, of our assembling, is that of humbling ourselves before God on a National Fast. Such an occasion is very distinct from the former. On the former, we might, with propriety, discuss the measure of employing the sword as a necessary expedient : but, on a day like this, we are naturally led to deplore it as a judgment; to tremble before Omnipotence in arms; and to remember that the

; Almighty has expressly described War as one of his • four sore judgments: Ezek. xiv, 21.

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While, therefore, as rational creatures, we adopt the means of security which the times so imperiously demand, let me call your attention, on a day of appointed humiliation, to some general reflections on - The Sword of the Lord."

In this passage of Scripture, we have a prophetical denunciation of Jeremiah against the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza.' The prophet foretels an appointed invasion, shortly to overwhelm a nation which added to its other crimes a bitter enmity to Israel. He then describes some of its dreadful effects ; but, recoiling at the horrors which he foresaw, he seems to shrink from his own message, and thus utters the feelings of his heart :

-0 thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard : rest, and be still. Recollecting, however, that it was the sword of the LORD, and that it had a special commission to execute his righteous judgment, he adds, “How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon ?'

In speaking to you on this subject, I shall contemplate the “Sword of the Lord?

as A MENT-AN APPOINTED AVENGER_and MONITOR.

I. A SORE JUDGMENT.

In a single division of this discourse, I can but glance at the dispensation; yet I cannot but help stopping to mark the illusion that is over our minds, while distant from the actual seat of war.

We coolly demonstrate its necessity : we sit at ease and in plenty: hearing only its rumours: the sound of its thunder, because distant, loses its terror. The Ambitious, on a victory, swell at the idea of national aggrandizement: the Politician reclines by his fire, drinks his wine, and feels somewhat disappointed, if his paper brings no account of a hard fought battle: the Idle wander to a review, and are entertained with the glit

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SORE JUDG

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SOLEMN

ter of arms, the melody of martial music, and all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war;" but how little do they reflect to what unutterable woe such preparation tends ! like infants, who admire the polish and workmanship of their father's sword; but consider not that it is formed to be a weapon of death, and drawn to be bathed in blood.

But, while the unthinking amuse themselves with the splendid apparatus of war, and more solid minds sadly ruminate on its dreadful necessity, every good man must deplore its inevitable consequences. To say nothing of the scarcity of provisions, which it may occasion; the demand upon property; the sweeping away the flower of the youth and strength of a nation, and appointing them like so many sheep for the slaughter—to say nothing of the miseries attending war from fatigue, famine, contagion, dangers, and mortal diseases, as well as from the sword—not to mention the grey hairs of parents brought in sorrow to the grave; nor the deeper sorrows of bereaved widows and their fatherless children: I say, passing by these I would call your attention, as members of the Christian Church, to the consideration of the vast multitudes of your fellow creatures plunged at a stroke into eternity; and plunged at a moment, when the spirit of war has roused their minds to violence and revenge little short of fury.

Let none mistake me here, as if I meant to reflect on the profession or heart of a soldier, as such.

He may be, and he often is, a man of the most humane and generous feelings : and such an one will be found weeping over the miseries, which he must, as a soldier, inflict. A soldier, who, like the brave Col. Gardiner, unites piety and humanity with the most determined courage, stands

among

the first of human characters. It must be evident, therefore, that I am speaking, not of the defect of the man, but of the nao

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VOL. III.

ture and tendency of WAR, and of its ordinary effects as a sore judgment.

But the appearance of Armed Citizens naturally calls my recollection to that part of war, which is attended with accumulated horrors: I speak of INVASION. It is this destination of the sword, that the present prophecy particularly regards. Before Pharaoh,' the Invader, 'smote Gaza," the prophet predicts that waters,' the prophetical figure for a great multitude, 'should rise up out of the north'-that 'an overflowing flood should overflow the land and all that was therein'-that the inhabitants of it should howl at the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots,' and 'at the rumbling of his wheels; and such should be the general consternation of that day, that even 'fathers should not look back to their children for feebleness of hands'-You, who are parents, will feel, with me, that a stronger image than this could not be used, to express terror in the extreme.

If the most ordinary conception did not exceed any description, it would be sufficient to recollect facts, even of our own times, respecting a country subjugated by war. The Scriptures. describe almost literally-the field wasted-the land mourning-the inhabitants trembling-a fire devouring before the enemy, and behind them a flame burning the land, as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness-all hands fainting, and every man's heart melting: pangs taking hold of them as a woman that travaileth-they stand amazed at one another'-Well, therefore, may this be called 'the day of the Lord's anger; great, and very terrible; and who can abide it?"

But, would to God, this were the worst that could be said of the sore judgment which we now consider! There is something yet worse than the plunder of the ruffian--than the outrage of the ravisher--than the