even their hearts, are left untrained; they learn only (as a French satirist once said,) the fear of God and the love of money; they are taught that they owe the world nothing, but that the world owes them a living, and so they make a living; but the fresh, strong spirit of Liberty droops and decays, and only makes a dying. I charge you, parents, do not be so easily satisfied; encourage nobler instincts in your children, and appeal to nobler principles; teach your daughter that life is something more than dress and show, and your son that there is some nobler aim in existence than a good bargain, and a fast horse, and an oyster supper. Let us have the brave, simple instincts of Circassian mountaineers, without their ignorance; and the unfaltering moral courage of the Puritans, without their superstition; so that we may show the world that a community may be educated in brain without becoming cowardly in body; and that a people without a standing army may yet rise as one man, when Freedom needs defenders.

May God help us so to redeem this oppressed and bleeding State, and to bring this people back to that simple love of Liberty, without which it must die amidst its luxuries, like the sad nations of the elder world. May we gain more iron in our souls, and have it in the right place; have soft hearts and hard wills, not as now, soft wills and hard hearts. Then will the iron break the Northern iron and the steel no longer; and "God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!" will be at last a hope fulfilled.

DEAR SIR,

REV. JAMES THOMPSON, D.D.

The undersigned, constituting the Committees of your present and former Parishioners, respectfully request, for publication, a copy of the able and interesting Discourse delivered by you this day, on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of your Ordination as Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Barre.

Ps. lxxi. 9:

DISCOURSE.

"CAST ME NOT OFF IN THE TIME OF OLD AGE; FORSAKE ME NOT WHEN MY STRENGTH FAILETH."

THE psalm from which these words are taken was composed by David, after he had descended into the vale of years, and began to feel the infirmities and anxieties of old age. It breathes the pious trust of a heart deeply impressed by the remembrance of the care and goodness of God, and rejoicing in being able to make him still its refuge.

It was probably about the time when this psalm was composed, that David took measures to rid himself of all the cares, labors, and perplexities of his high station, calling together all the princes of Israel and the priests and the Levites, to give them his parting counsels, and blessing them in one of the most sublime and affecting prayers ever uttered by mortal lips, his mind, in all, looking only to the glory of God, and the welfare of them that should come after him.