occasioned him, were perhaps better evidences of the genuineness of his piety, than if he had never fallen.

He remained more than two years in Auburn, growing constantly in the confidence and affections of all who knew him. It is about ten years since he came to this place; and, during this period, his life has been before you. A few weeks ago, Jacob spent not less than two hours with me in my study. We had much conversation in relation to himself. Among other things he said,—and, from the connection in which he said it, I know that it was not in a spirit of boasting, I have now lived ten years in Canandaigua. Every body knows Black Jacob, at least by sight; and I challenge all, men, women, and children, to say if I have ever injured any body, or done any thing inconsistent with my profession, except that I have not been as humble, and as much like my blessed Master, as I ought to have been; and this I know better than any body can tell me, and I am ashamed and mourn for it.' This was saying much,-more, I fear, than many of us dare say.

all confess, it was a safe challenge for Jacob.

But we must

Some things I would particularly say of him; and I would ask your attention to them, as furnishing examples well worthy of imitation.

He was a man of prayer. This he must have been, or he could not have been what he was in other respects. He began his christian course with a strong sense of his dependance on God. Perhaps there was something in the peculiar difficulties which he had to overcome, that led him in a peculiar manner to realize this truth. Certain it is that he did realize it more than almost any other christian that I ever knew, and, as a necessary consequence, he prayed more than most other christians. Those of you who have heard his eloquent pleadings with God in the prayer meeting, need no other evidence than the exercise was a familiar one. How often has the remark been made, that one of Jacob's prayers was always enough to change the character of an otherwise dull and spiritless meeting! How full and fervent were his petitions. How near to the throne he always seemed to get! Think, that it was not until he was in Prison that he learned to read; then remember how chosen was his language, how exceedingly fine it was sometimes; how apt and abundant were his quotations from scripture, how well he could adapt himself in prayer to the peculiar circumstances of the time; and you must be convinced that he was thoroughly practised in the duty.

Jacob was a very humble christian. You may say that he had much reason to be humble. So had he many temptations to be proud. You know with what marked respect he has always been treated among us; and he was the object of very general interest, so that strangers, visiting the place, have frequently sought to be introduced to him. Many times I have been apprehensive that he would be injured by the attentions which he received, but I never discovered that he was. He did not seem disposed, on any occasion, to put himself improperly forward, or anxious to attract notice. The memory of what he had been, seemed always to be present with him. Many of you well remember that thrilling scene in our lecture-room, a year ago, just previous to the commencement of our precious revival; when, just as we were about to separate under most disheartening circumstances, Jacob was invited to address us. You have not forgotten that truly eloquent and overwhelming appeal, which seemed to shake the very house in which we were assembled, while the whole congregation was convulsed with weeping.

Do you remember the words with which he began? My Masters and mistresses-for I dare not call you my brethren and sisters.' There was breathed the spirit of the man; and I never knew him to appear to cherish any other. There was a peculiarity in his prayers which you must have noticed. In that part of them which consisted of confession, he always used the first person singular.' He seemed to think that his confession of sin could only be appropriate for himself. He often alluded to the past with expressions of the most profound abhorrence and shame. Sometimes he spoke of his crime, but it was always with so much evident pain, that it was distressing even to hear him. I have seen him seized with violent trembling at the bare mention of that subject.—He has said to me,— Master, I do believe that my heavenly Father loves me; but how wonderful it is that he should love me! I cannot love myself; it seems to me that nobody ever sinned against him as I have done.'

Jacob was an earnest christian. This was true of him in every sense, but I speak now with especial reference to the work of his own salvation. He was constantly examining himself. Every sermon he heard he sought to apply in some way as a test of his own character; and he was never satisfied unless he saw evidence that he was growing in grace. To this end he was diligent in his use of all the means of grace. Until

their duty to their children, ministers would have little to do in converting sinners. This showed the strong opinion this good man entertained as to the favorable position that parents occupy for the promotion of the kingdom of Christ. But need I ask you how the drunken parent performs his duty in this respect? How he fulfils the solemn promise which he made in the presence both of God and men, as he successively presented his children in the holy ordinance of baptism, to train them up in the way they should go ? Alas! what lesson has his stuttering lips imparted, unless to lead them in the downward career which he himself pursues? That home which should have been a nursery to train immortal souls for glory, has been changed into a dram-shop, to render them ten-fold more the children of the devil. And, oh! should the mother, broken-hearted by the conduct, or tainted by the example of her husband, become partaker in his crime, what a spectacle is then presented! Father and mother united in betraying their offspring to the destroyer! In the United Kingdom, about 600,000 are branded as drunkards! Are the one half of these parents? Has each but one child? Then there are 300,000 little ones, as far as their parents are concerned, in imminent danger of being destroyed for time and eternity.. Oh! ye parents, who offered up the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul, yours was a virtuous deed, when compared with that of parents under the light of the gospel, who lead their unconscious little ones into the jaws of the devouring lion, and rob the kingdom of Christ of those whom they had ceremonially dedicated to Him.

In your 66 own romantic town," nearly 2,000 are licensed to sell intoxicating drinks; say 1,000 keep tippling houses, and are the heads of families; let each family consist of five members, and here you have 5,000 among yourselves upon whom, it is to be feared, the influences of religion are scarcely permitted to fall. How can God be worshipped in these families, where all are busily engaged from early dawn till late at night? Suppose the scriptures are read in one room-the voice of the reader is drowned by the roar of the drunkard in the other; a psalm is attempted to be sung, but the song of the bacchanal rises in its chorus far above the melody of joy and health. Can such a state of things be continued? No; men must either give up sinning or praying. Now, if such is the case in one city, what must it be in the 100,000 establishments for the sale of intoxicating drinks in England and Wales, which is at the rate of one for every twenty, whilst, in some of our city parishes, one may be found for every eleven families? Will any man then venture to gainsay the assertion, that this extensive traffic in strong drink must prove a powerful barrier to the extension of the kingdom of Christ?

3. View the matter for a moment in connexion with churches. Alas! the sacred calling of ministers has not shielded them from the attacks of this fell destroyer. Under the delusive notion, that wine gives strength to the body and vigour to the mind, many have fallen from their high estate into the depths of degradation. The Rev. Leonard Woods, looking back to the time when ministers and christians generally made use of such drinks, says, "I am ready to wonder that their spiritual interests

were not totally blasted, had not God, in great forbearance and mercy, winked at the times of this ignorance. It tends to inflame all that is depraved and earthly in a minister, and to extinguish all that is spiritual and holy. It is poison to the soul as really as to the body." Parsons observes, that "men of first-rate talent, respectability, and apparent piety,-men that could not ascend a pulpit without attracting crowds to hear the word, nor address an audience without the people's hanging on their lips,-have had their ardour quenched, and their characters implicated by these desolating liquors, The ministers, the hopeful ministers of the sanctuary, that have fallen, not a few."

Turning from this painful scene, let us next contemplate the effects of these delusive draughts upon our congregations. Suppose that the 600,000 drunkards that pollute our country, never were members of any church, it is evident that, while they retain this character, they never can be received into church-fellowship. By so many, therefore, has the church of Christ been diminished, and the forces of the enemy recruited in this nation.

Leaving those who have thus been precluded from taking a place in the kingdom of heaven, let us contemplate the probable number of those who, within a very limited period, have been seduced from their allegiance to their king, and have been excluded from his table, after creditably occupying for a time a position there. In our country, there are at least 20,000 places of worship, voluntary and established; now, suppose that each congregation has had occasion to dismiss one member for drunkenness, and has also seen with grief the buds of promise in two hearers blasted by the breath of this destroyer: every one must see that these suppositions must fall far short of the truth; and yet, what is the appalling fact that they present? Why, that 20,000 members have been excluded, and 40,000 hopeful hearers precluded from the table of the Lord, on account of this accursed poison; making a total of 60,000 individuals, of whom the church of Christ has been robbed through this powerful device of his subtle opponent, and this may have happened in the course of a single year. Distribute these into congregations of 800 each, and you have thus an equivalent to 75 churches burnt to the ground, and 60,000 christians destroyed beyond the power of any persecutor that ever appeared in our land; for, whether popish or prelatic, he could only destroy the body, and, after that, had no more that he could do; but here is an enemy to the church, that destroys both soul and body. How long shall we slumber in cold indifference to the interests of the kingdom of Christ, and the welfare of our nation? When shall we arise as one man, and shake off the bondage of this enemy, and expel him from our shores? Lord!--may thy kingdom quickly come. 4. We can do little more than glance at the next topic-"The influence of intoxication in retarding the progress of the gospel in distant lands and thus preventing Christ from receiving the heathen for his inheritance."

We might take a two-fold view of this matter-1. The baneful example of so-called christians on foreign shores: and 2; the loss of the means for sending abroad the message of salvation.

It is unnecessary to dwell at length on the first point, as there is not a missionary that has not complained of the barrier thrown in his way by the indulgence of his countrymen in this demoralizing practice. Oh! the disgrace of having to state, that so intimately is drinking associated in the mind of the heathen with christians, that drunkenness has been identified with christianity. When the missionary has been labouring to turn the heathen from dumb idols to serve the living God, his attention has been directed to a drunken countryman, and he has been told to go home and preach to his own people, and that a sober heathen was better than a drunken christian. And when the missionary has got the start of the trafficker in fire-waters, what awful havoc has their introduction produced, where the kingdom of Christ had come in its beauty and power! The martyr Williams, in speaking of the effects of this cause during a temporary absence, says, I could hardly believe they were the same people among whom I had lived so long, and thought of so highly." That the intemperance of professing christians is a great barrier to the coming of Christ's kingdom among the Jews, for whose conversion they pretend a heartfelt desire, is evident from the "Sketch" of R. H. Herschell, a converted Jew:-"They (the Jews) see the country part of the population coming in to join their brethren of the towns in the services of the church, and after these are over, they see them resort to the public-houses, not merely to spend the rest of the day in rioting and drunkenness, but even in the commission of crimes." Thus, among Jews and Gentiles is our use of intoxicating liquors preventing the promotion of the kingdom of our Lord, to an extent of which these hints give but a very inadequate conception. May the Lord open our eyes to this evil, and teach us to be consistent !

Let us now turn our attention to the amount of that gold and silver which are worse than thrown away upon intoxicating liquors-gold and silver which are the Lord's, and ought to have been consecrated to the advancement of the kingdom of our God. This will present us with a lamentable view of our conduct as christians, and show how fearfully deficient we must be in living faith and brotherly love. The following statements may well make us blush at the driblets bestowed to promote the cause of Christ, when compared with the sums expended in upholding Satan's reign :— -"For the period of twenty years after the establishment of the Church Missionary Society, there was collected for it, throughout the whole nation, £250,000; while, during the same period, in this country, there was no less a sum than £375,000,000 expended in the purchase of ardent spirits."-Bacchus. "In the year 1830, the aggregate sum given to all the religious institutions put together, averaged but sixpence a year for each individual. The bare duties on British and Foreign spirits, amounted to thirteen times as much.'"-Bickersteth. "Not more than half a million sterling is contributed per annum to the support of all the religious institutions of the present day, which are designed to make an aggressive movement upon the empire of darkness and sin. This is about a sixth part of what the inhabitants of London expend in gin; a sixteenth part of what