Rational ©riumjh: or the gangers of Dutorg. I. Samuel, 4: 6. “what meaneth the noise of this great shout?” This passage has not been chosen for discussion in the connection in which it stands, but as serving significantly to introduce the topic to be considered, while a decent regard is paid to the ancient and important custom of founding pulpit discourse upon scriptural texts. It is the anxious question of men jealous for the honor and safety of Philistia and her children, excited by hearing a triumphant shout in the camp of their enemies. The shout which aroused their fears was the birth of ignorance and supersti- tion, and boded evil only to those who made it. It was the Hebrew welcome to the Ark of God, instead of God himself as their deliverer. It was a shout which speedily died away into the wail of lamentation, as in their slaughter and defeat the honor of the Supreme Ruler was vindicated ; God declaring by a field stro’wn with thirty thousand dead, and the sacred Ark itself borne in triumph to an enemy’s land, that homage paid to no object, however sacred and august rendered by present worth or past history, would compensate for heart allegiance to Him and practical loyalty to virtue. As listened these barbarians to tri
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