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to those who are in the habit of studying the philosophy of history.

The passion of loyalty to princes, as I have noticed before, is no less unaccountable, on ordinary principles, than that of patriotism. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose, that the circumstance of its being called forth with peculiar strength, under the government of Christian monarchs, must have had some special bearing on the Christian system. The principle which I speak of, is not that blind and slavish homage which was paid by the subjects of the ancient dynasties. What I mean is that chivalrous devotion, that free-will offering of the heart, animated by a sense of honour, and true to death, which characterized the loyalty of modern Europe. What was it, I would ask, which, on the field of blood, and in the jaws of death, could disarm that king of terrors, by the consolation that the knight or soldier was dying for the honour of his prince? What was it which, on the scaffold, could employ the sufferer's latest breath in blessings on that king, by whose unrighteous sentence he was brought to that tremendous hour? Was this unconquerable attachment the result of cold calculations of the political advantages and public benefits, which it is the office and duty of a first magistrate to secure? No: these calculations belong to a far different category. The warm and heartfelt loyalty of which I speak was altogether unconnected with expediency. It embraced the object of its attachment for its own sake. It considered,-and to do so was its very essence, the people as belonging to the king, and not the king to the people. On what ordinary principle of human nature was it, that one man should have felt this actual devotion towards another, to whose person he was perhaps totally a stranger, of whose character he had possibly heard no good report, and whose influence had shed no blessing on himself, his family, or his friends? For my own part, I can explain it in no other way than this: that it pleased God, for purposes of his own, to infuse this passion into the human mind. Such was its originating; and if it be asked, what was its final cause? I answer, it might have been a secret intimation, that a prince is to arise in the latter days, to whom this deep attachment of the soul will be justly due; that a king is to ascend the throne of universal empire, in whose reign this devoted loyalty will no longer be a blind and headlong instinct, but will identify with our high allegiance to God, and fulfil the first and great commandment, of loving him with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.

With one observation I would now conclude. It is the peculiar characteristic of the present times, that the reverence

for all established institutions is upon the wane; and that, amongst other instances, the fire of loyalty burns no longer with its wonted strength. May not this, then, be a further intimation, that the glorious advent of the King of Righteousness is near at hand? May not this be one of the signs of the Lord's appearing? And while the stars in the political firmament are losing their lustre, and growing dim upon our sight, may we not hope that the great luminary, who is to rule the day of Millennial blessedness and splendour, is about to rise with "healing in his wings?"

ON

THE SECOND ADVENT

OF THE

LORD JESUS CHRIST.

BY THE

REV. HUGH M NEILE, M. A.

MINISTER OF ST. JUDE'S CHURCH, LIVERPOOL.

PHILADELPHIA:

ORRIN ROGERS, 67 SOUTH SECOND STREET.

E. G. Dorsey, Printer.

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