Impressed with the truth of this sentiment, and led by the impulse of their own feelings, the citizens of America celebrate the day that gave birth to their independence.

At the recollection of this event, the pulse of joy beats high in a thousand hearts, and the song of joy sounds loud from a thousand tongues.

The hoary veteran is now ruminating the toils he has endured, and the battles he has fought for his country; and the matron of seventy-six is rehearsing the long tale of American independence.

The return of this auspicious day brings back the scenes and revives the emotions of former times.

Influenced by one common ardor, the patriots of America are assembling on the east and on the west, on the north and on the south, to review the perils and hardships through which they have struggled, and to celebrate the happiness and glory to which they have attained,

Called to lead your meditations on an occasion like the present, I should do violence to my own feelings, as well as insult the dignity of a Christian assembly, should I attempt to act the partisan, and thus lead you into the uncertain field of political discussion.

So obvious is the design of this anniversary, that methinks my audience must have already anticipated me in the choice of my subject, and assembled with minds prepared to review the wonders which Gon hath wrought for our fathers and for us:

With a view to this, I have chosen for my text the 8TH VERSE OF THE iii CHAPTER OF IXODUS.

"And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, unto a good land and a large; unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

These words were spoken to Moses, at Horeb, out of the midst of the burning bush; and they contain a declaration of the designs of Providence relative to his suffering people, then in Egypt, and a gracious promise of speedy deliverance. They admit, however, of an application to American Zion. For "all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

Our deliverance from foreign domination may be not inaptly compared to the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage-In the view of which, we may reiterate the sentiment of the text and say, surely the Lord hath been down, and delivered us out of the hand of the Egyptians and bro't us up out of that land, into a good land and a large; into a land flowing with milk and honey.

See thus, my hearers, the subjects and scope of the present discourse, subjects interesting to every American and correspondent to the purposes for which we are assembled.

In retracing the history of our fathers, from the first settlement of our country down to the revolu

tion, we find little else but details of hardship and suffering.

Few in number, and scattered over an immense territory, the greatest part of which was a howling wilderness, swarming with inhospitable savages, their wants, their perils and their enemies were many.

United to a foreign nation, they were necessarily entangled in her politics, disturbed by her broils, hated by her enemies and distressed by her wars.

Goshen soon became an object of contention..... France coveted the place assigned for Joseph's brethren to feed their flocks. For more than half a century she strove to obtain it. On the west she encompassed us with a chain of fortresses, and on the east our shores lay defenceless to her carnage. Nothing less was contemplated than the complete extirpation of the Protestants in America, and the establishment of the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ro

man see.

To accomplish the more effectually this nefarious purpose, she excited the jealousy of the natives against us, put into the hand of their warriors the instruments of death, designated the families to be butchered, and even rewarded their cruelty, when they had butchered them.

Thus hunted down on the one hand, by hordes of barbarous savages, and pressed on the other by the more barbarous troops of a sanguinary despot, every man's heart fainted, and every man's hands became weak.

Danger encircled every dwelling, and death lurked in every path! Neither age nor sex furnished the least protection. The groans of the widow sadly echoed from the cottage, and the sighs of the infant floated on the breeze. The labourer was mur

dered in the field, the slumberer was massacred on his pillow, and the worshipper was slain at the Altar of his God.

These calamities, tho' great, were but the beginning of sorrow. Hitherto we had received some protection from our parent country.

George the second was a father to his colonies. How different the character of his successor ! May we not say, in the language of scripture, that now "there arose a new king in Egypt that knew not Joseph."

After the accession of George the third to the throne, Great-Britain adopted a policy towards America cruel and oppressive-A policy which, had it been submitted to, must have enslaved these colonies, and put an end to all their chartered privileges.

The colonists were not insensible of this fell de sign. They saw with indignation the first encroachment on their liberties. The alarm was instantly sounded. Every citizen awoke to a sense of the common danger, and measures were immediately adopted to ward off the impending blow.

Desirous of peace, and loyal to the British crown, they first addressed his majesty in language of humble petitioners.

But their petitions, like the groanings of Israel in Egypt, only provoked new grievances and drew down heavier burdens upon them. One exorbitant claim was followed by another. A more numerous herd of task-masters were appointed to superintend our labours, tax our industry, and fleece us of our earnings.

Despairing of redress in this way, and finding that insult was only added to injury, and injury to insult, the colonists altered the tone of their address and assumed the attitude of bold and manly resistance. This, however, instead of discouraging, only strengthened Britain in her resolution to enslave her colonies. To this object all her measures were directed, till at length they terminated in open war.

The first blood was shed at Lexington. Never did an event give a more general shock. A sudden thrill passed through the heart of every American. In what manner this contest was to be decided remained no longer uncertain. Then the brave NewEnglanders, while the blood streamed from the wounds of their slaughtered brethren, grasped every man his arms and flew to their relief. Then the patriots of America unsheathed their swords, and appealing to Heaven for the justice of their cause, pledged themselves to each other by every thing dear and sacred, never to sheathe them till their country's wrongs were redressed, and her violated rights restored. Thus the veins which Britain opened, nerved the arm of resistance, and qucikened the pulse of independence; and the first blood she drew from the