muck further than we are prehaps aware. If a war alliance be sinful, then must also a peace alliance be the same. A commercial alliance must be sinful, a political alliance must be sin- ful, and we must withdraw our embassies from the courts of France, and Spain, and Austria, and every Popish country; we must break up all friendly intercourse with such kingdoms. If, however, these alliances for the purpose of peace be not unlawful, then an alliance for the purpose of war cannot of itself be sin. But though there is no sin necessarily involved in such an alliance, there is some danger. Close contact with a Popish nation, and familiar inter- course with its inhabitants, cannot be without accompanying evil; and, of course, the closer this connexion the greater the peril, for evil com- munications corrupt good manners. We need not then conceal the truth that there is danger to us from French Popery, and prehaps still more frem Freneh laxity, and licentiousness, and in- fidelity. There is danger of moral and religious contamination from these sources. There is the danger arising positively from the injurious influ- ences thus excited, afid there is the danger aris- ing negatively, from the tendency which will thus be cherished of looking on Popery with a more favourable eye, and on all religions as be- ing much the same ; and who can say how much of evil may thus be treasuring up for ourselves, and for our children ? At the same time, let us not forget that even this danger has its brighter side. Instead of re- ceiving evil, we may be the instruments of good by means of this very alliance. Close contact with Protestants, and especially with the truly Christian men in our army, may open the eyes of Romanists, and by simple obvious facts, con- fute the monstrous falsehoods with which the priests of France are filling the minds of the people, and specially of the soldiers, against Protestants in general, and particularly against our Protestant nation. The French soldiers will see that Protestants are not the monsters and savages which the priests have proclaimed them to be ; and possibly, in this way, good may come out of evil, and much misconception be dissipated. And then, besides this, there is the more di- rect and positive good which may be done by the really Christian men in our troops. That there are not a few such, I not only believe, but I know. There are men among them, and officers too, who are not ashamed of Christ, nor afraid to testify for him, either to Mohammedan or Papist. There are among our troops men who will, both in word and deed, be missionaries in the truest sense of the term. In that regiment of High- landers (the 93d) whose gallant appearance at Gallipoli has attracted so many eyes, and called forth such admiration from Turk and Frank, there are not a few devoted Christian soldiers. Some years ago, that regiment was in Canada, and there it pleased God, through the instrumen- tality of the Rev. William Burns, now missionary tn China, to turn many of their hearts to himself. The fruit of that revival remain to this hour. Not many months before they left, a part of the regiment was quartered in Edinburg Castle. A friend of ours, understanding that they had a prayer-meeting among themselves, went to visit it, and found some twenty of them upon their knees in one of their barrack-rooms, one of them- selves praying. Our friend remained conversing with them afterwards, and went away greatly re- joicing in the good work of which he had been the witness. And these praying men are now marching towards the Dobrudska to meet the Russian invader; these men of God are now as- sociated with Romanist and Mussulman, and we cannot say to what extent God may bless their faithful testimony. At all events, they will rep- resent Britain well: and in foroign lands, and amid false faiths, it will be seen what Protestant- ism is—what the religion of the Bible is. When the wild Zouaves of the French army (a corps of mountaineers, half Arab half European) saw them^they are said to have exclaimed, " With such soldiers, what enemy can stand before us ?" But may we not rather say, " With such Bible- taught Christians, what Popish priest or willy Jesuit has any hope of success?" Ah! yes, knowing that there are such men in our army, let us thank God'and take courage, pleading with him, that since, in his providence, we have been thus conjoined in a war alliance with a Popish nation, that alliance may issue in good for them, not evil for us; in a blessing to France, not in a curse to Britain. 2. There is our defence of a Mohammedan nation.—I do not lay the slightest stress upon our assailing a professedly Christian nation, such as Russia; for the Greek Church, which is the Church of Russia, is, if it were possible, more unsound and corrupt than Rome. There is more cruelty, more profligacy, and far more idolatry, in the Christanity of Russia, than in the Islam- ism of Turkey. On that score, there need be no compunction, as if we were warring with Christ- ian brethren. We are in truth warring with a nation that is a greater enemy to Christ and his gospel, than Mohammed himself. (To be continued.) The Council of War. ABSALOM'S advance upon the capital was, as David bad forscen, instantaneous. Guided by Ahithophel, every stroke of the young prince was thus far decisive. It was manifest that an intellect of no common order was presiding over the whole movement. The counsel of Ahitho- phel in those days " was as if a man had in- quired at the oracle of God." He had an almost unerring forsight. He was cool, clear, profound, subtle: yet rapid, forceful, and un- scrupulous. Knowing well that his own life was staked upon the event, he was playing the deadly game with consummate ability, and was to all human vision within a single move of win- ning. Every word, every act, reveals his per- fect calculation of the chances. His fate wds involved in Absalom's. There lay the only danger. Could he but be sure for a very few hours of maintaining undisturbed ascendency over his ambitious soul, all would go well. His first thought is to render reconciliation impos- sible; his second, to cut off the fugitive king. The first point was easy. Let Absalom seize his father's harem, a thing unpardonable in oriental country. So they spread him a tent upon the house-top, and the deed of dishonor was done in the sight of all Israel. " So " said Ahithophel, " all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of the farther; then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong." Render the cause des- perate, break the bridge behind, burn the ships, cut of retreat, and fickle though your followers be, despair will nerve them to fight unto death." Such was Ahithophel's reasoning. Nor was there any thing in Absalom's make to defeat a measure so consonant to his inclinations. Nor had Hushai the Archite joined him in time to interrupt this part of the scheme. It remained then to aim at the life of the king. Now Ahithophel knew David well. He knew that while David lived, no man could be wholly safe on that throne. There was but one thing to be done, and that at once, or not at all. "Let me now choose out of twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night." This was a business he would trust to no hands but his own. He would know no delay, no par- ley, no compunction. He would rush like blood- hound on the traek. Naught should intercept the regicidal stroke. Keen sword, sure hand, deadly blow for him. "I will pursue after David this night. I will come upon him when he is weary, and weak-handed, and make him afraid. The people with him shall flee. And I will smite THE KING only. And I will bring back all the people unto thee. The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned." Dreadfull coun- sel! He calls him "the man' whom thou seek- est." " the king,"—why not THY IATIIEU? Did he think that ever in that ungrateful breast it might create a thrill of remorse to speak of that father that nourished and brought him up ? He need not hesitate. Ambition burns love to WHOLE NO. 693. BOSTON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 26", 1854 YOLUME XIY. NO. 8 i Our Position, Perils, and Duties. RAO* THE LONDON " QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PROPHECY." (Continued from our last.) 6. Look at our infidelity.—The roots of truth have not gone down deep into the soil, and hence they have produced first a superficial formalism instead of a deep-seated religion, and that, in its turn, is shooting up into undisguised infidelity. In the churches, it shews itself in its 'opposition to the thorough out-and-out inspiration of the Bible; but out of the Church, it shews it- self in its denial of all religion, maintaining ei- ther that there is no God, which is atheism, or that all nature is God, which we call pantheism ; between which and atheism there is but£ differ- ence %o*f words and terms. Such are some of the moral and religious as- pects in whieh the nation presents itself. And what an amount of guilt—national guilt—do these things imply ! In what abhorrence must these things be regarded by a holy God! But in addition to these, there are various other points into which we cannot enter specially. Expediency—mere human expediency—is sub- stituted for principle in the government of the nation, instead of stern principle and truth. Public opinion is made the standard of every measure, instead of the Word of God, as if ma- jorities'of men could make a thing to be right, which is in itself wrong; or wrong, which is in itself right. All power is affirmed to be from the people in opposition to the Divine affirmation, that all power is of God; so that kings and tulei-s arc set up, not to govern the nation, but ro be governed by the nation ; not to do simply what is right, according to the ascertained will of God, and for the glory of God, but to carry out the people's will—to be mere executors of the people's decisions. The iteligioits element is set aside, and it is taken for granted that all re- ligions are either equally right, or equally wrong. The moral element is lost sight of, and it is as- sumed, that national acts cannot always be based upon a very nice morality. The element of com- mon honesty is too often disregarded, nnd the distinction between truth and falshood kept quite in abeyance when political ends require it, or personal interests come in the way. I have noticed these points, because they shew us what our position as a nation is. We do not stand on a sure satisfactory footing. Our hands are not clean, and our ways are not upright be- fore the Lord. When a man is setting about ajiy important work, he ought, in the first place, to look well to himself, to see whether he stands on a secure footing. So, as a nation, we are to look well to ourselves, to see whether our footing be firm, when we are setting about one of the most momentous of modern enterprizes, and send- ing forth our fleets and navies to lead the van, in a warfare which threatens to be the most ter- rible that has ever called forth the armies of Eu- rope. A skillful general looks behind him as well as before him. He is careful, when advanc- ing to meet a foe in front, to have no enemies in his rear, "no fortresses which might assail him from behind, ahd cut off his retreat. Thus are we called upon to look behind as well as before —to look around us upon our ownselves, as well as into the distance where the battle is to be waged. Do we go forth with clean hands to this con- flict? Have we no national guilt hanging over us unrepented of, and unwashed away ? Are we "ot speaking and acting as if we had no such load upon our shoulders, no such millstone round our neck ? Are we not talking vain-gloriously, and boasting of our prowess, as if we had a right to victory, and were sure of sweeping all before Are we not overlooking our national guilt, us ? aud forgetting that it is just such a time as this that God may choose for allowing our sin to find us out, and visiting us with humiliation, disaster, and defeat ? We go forth with banners stream- ing, and trumpets pealing, and shouts rending the air, and the thrill of martial minstrelsy, "wice ten thousand British helmets are gleaming; twioe ten thousands British swords are flashing; twice ten thousands brave British hearts are beat- ing, as they march onwards to meet the foe. And yon navy, the mightiest and most magnifi- cent that ever threw its shadow on the ocean— yon navy, with its pinions of steam1, its swelling canvas, and waving pennon, and stately walls of oak, and tier upon tier of cannon—yon navy, with its gallant thousands, weighing anchor amid the acclamations of wondering multitudes, and the farewell of royalty itself—steering on- ward, vessel after vessel, each a floating thunder- cloud, not the shadow of a fear upon one brow, or the faintest suspicion on one heart that it can return less than triumphant, whatever be the might, or daring, or numbers of the adversary. Even thus we go forth, by sea and land, to con- quer, confiding on the skill, and strength, and bravery of our. men of might. We forget our sins; we forget Me displeasure of .Jehovah ; we forget the perilous footing on which a nation stands, when, with unrepeated iniquity, and un- confessed provocation of God, and the cup of its transgression fast filling to the brim, it goes forth in the flush of its accustomed might as If all things were with it as in days of old, as if God were still upon our side. Remembering our national sins, may we not well be humbled ? Remembering our provoca- tions of the Most High God, may we not tremble lest he should avenge himself upon us, lest he should visit us with disaster upon disaster, by sea and land, till he has broken our pride and laid us in the dust, and drawn forth the voice of con- fession from our nation, and taught us that the battle is not ours, but his, that the triumph is not ours, but his, and that if we will yet honor him, he will yet honor us? Having briefly noticed some of the dark fea- tures of our national character, let us survey our present position, and mark the dangers thence arising. It may be truly said, that this war is not one which we have fought, or one which we in any way contributed to provoke. We have gone to the farthest extreme of forbearance, to which either in justice or in honor we could have gone. We have unsheathed the sword most reluctantly, al- most, we may say, by compulsion. Our proc- lamation of war contains no thirst for blood, no fierce bravado, no message of reckless defience or irritating contempt. It is, in truth, more like an invitation to peace than a proclamation of war. Our armies and navies have gone forth, more with the desire of compelling a peace than of forcing on a war. That war has been forced upon us, if ever any war was forced upon a re- luctant people. Thus far it is well. We are not guilty of seeking battle, or gratuitously plunging into it. We have done all we honestly could to prevent the conflict. Most mysteriously has God, in his providence, seen fit to allow the unrighteous am- bition of one man to defeat our desire for peace, and to compel us to draw the sword. What God may have in view, we know not. To what issue he may turn this conflict, we cannot foresee. Yet it is well for us to know that we are not, even in the remotest degree, the aggressors. We have been, and are still, the peacemakers. Our very armaments, with all their stern array of hu- man might, with all their terrible display of in- struments of havoc and death, are yet most truly peacemakers. We do feel that this is something for which we have deep cause of thankfulness to God. Thus far we are guiltless; and to be so is to be saved from much danger; for sin as as- suredly finds out a nation as it does a man. Still, however, there are dangers in our present position which we cannot overlook, and which ought to awaken throughout the nation, and es- pecially among Christian men, a spirit of watch- fulness and prayer, lest not only present and tem- porary injury be done to us, but lest lasting evils should flow in upon us, and settle down in the midst of us. L There is our alliance with France.—I do not mean to say that there is necessarily sin in such an alliance, but most surely there is danger. To say that there must be sin in the present alli- ance with a Popish country, would carry us J« V. IHMES, Proprietor. OFFICE, No. 8 Cliar