Can we, I ask, afford to despise the authority of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe? If He has visited us already with famine and pestilence, two of His “sore judgments,” why may He not, if we persist in rebelling with a high hand, permit us to know, also, the horrors of “war,” and that from the presence of an invading foe? There may be some who trust with confidence to our wooden walls and to our disciplined armies; but we, even while remembering their past achievements and undying renown, dare not do so. If the present ruler of France has boldly resolved to imitate, step by step, the policy of his great and ambitious uncle; and if, as is confidently said, he cherishes with bitter hate the memory of the bloody field where the star of Napoleon’s destiny set for ever; who can tell (if we provoke God to desert us) whether he may not be permitted to make an assault on our island home, which for a time would paralyse our commerce, outrage our liberties, and stain the pride of our boasting confidence in the sight of the whole world? May that God, before whom our fathers did walk, save us from the guilt which would draw down His vengeance. May He increase among us the number of those whose patriotism is animated and directed by Christian principle. May He give “peace in our borders, and fill us with the finest of the wheat.” May He be “a wall of fire around us, and the glory in the midst!” May he give us grace as a nation so to keep His own Day, that we may reap the blessing with which he has promised to crown its faithful observance: “IF THOU TURN AWAY THY FOOT FROM THE SABBATH, FROM DOING THY PLEASURE ON MY HOLY DAY; AND CALL THE SABBATH A DELIGHT, THE HOLY OF THE LORD, HONOURABLE; AND SHALT HONOUR HIM, NOT DOING THINE OWN WAYS, NOR FINDING THINE OWN PLEASURE, NOR SPEAKING THINE OWN WORDS: THEN SHALT THOU DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD; AND I WILL CAUSE THEE TO RIDE UPON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE EARTH, AND FEED THEE WITH THE HERITAGE OF JACOB, THY FATHER: FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HATH SPOKEN IT.”—_Isa._ LVIII. 13, 14. NOTE. The Rev. D. Moore, in a note to his sermon “Our Sabbaths in Danger,” quotes the following statement, supplied to him from a source which may be “implicitly relied on.”—“There are no less than seven public-houses now in course of erection, or about to be erected, near the Crystal Palace, one of which is to cost £30,000, and to contain stabling for 500 horses, tea-gardens, &c. The road leading from Anerly is literally thronged from ten to six o’clock every Sunday, and persons of all grades are to be seen there, some selling by the way side, others gambling; and in the roads on either sides of the way scenes of the most revolting nature are taking place in open daylight.