an arm may be fractured, without a direct judgment visiting the sufferers.

We must not consider every calamity which our fellow-creatures experience as a Divine judgment. We must remember what Solomon observes-" All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean." Eccles. ix. 2.

Our Saviour, too, reminded the Jews of eighteen persons on whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew, and said to them, "Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish!" Luke xiii. 4, 5.

By a Divine judgment we understand a marked, a decisive visitation from Heaven expressly as the punishment of sin. So it was in the case of the guilty inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. There can be no mistake in relation to it. The angels said to Lot, "We will destroy this place (Sodom) because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." Gen. xix. 3.

The awful visitation which befel the wife of Lot, so sudden, and extraordinary, was unquestionably a Divine judgment. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Gen xix. 26.

The fearful destruction of the Assyrian army, during the reign of Hezekiah was, beyond question, a Divine visitation. "Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses." Isa. xxxvii. 36.

Scriptures. The judgments of God are often long delayed. Divine Providence seems reluctant to strike the blow-to visit guilty nations with condign punishment, with some extraordinary and awful infliction; but when their cup of iniquity is full, the stroke of justice which falls on them is accumulated, crushing, indescribably appalling,-as, to mention no other examples, in the history of the antediluvians, the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Jews.

The Divine judgments are invariably preceded by admonition and remon

strance.

God does not punish without cause, without equity, without design. He does not send fearful and desolating visitations to any people in an arbitrary manner. He uniformly precedes his judgment with powerful admonitions, with loud and reiterated warnings, with accumulated appeals, with distinct and pathetic remonstrances; and after employing every means, making every tender and importunate communication, he finds that his counsels are unheeded, and his admonitions and remonstrances are despised: then he punishes with a blow that is overwhelming.

The judgments of God are often inflicted on a nation for its pride, for its arrogance, its daring and audacious self-conceit, self-confidence, self-complacency. This has been often verified in the history of communities, of powerful empires for there is no sin more odious to God than national pride, and "those who walk in pride" "he is able to abase," and, sooner or later, will abase-it may be in a very unexpected and awful

manner.

A nation is often visited with Divine judgments for its idolatry, its wanton, flagrant, universal departure from the worship of the true God, and its indulgence in the adoration of idols without life, without intelligence, without the slightest claim whatever to respect or veneration. There is no transgression

idolatry, none which has been more fearfully visited than this. "He is a jealous God; his glory he will not give to another."

A nation is often punished by God for its neglect and contempt of His Word, treating it with marked inattention, with habitual disrespect, with undisguised and disgraceful ridicule, as though it were unworthy of reception, of regard, of obedience. God will not suffer a nation always to trifle with his Word, and to despise it with impunity. He will maintain and vindicate, perhaps in the most sudden and fearful manner, the authority and honour of his own truth.

A nation is often signally punished for its murmuring and ingratitude. When there is no submission to the Divine will, no acquiescence in the Divine arrangements, no expression of contentment or satisfaction with the Divine allotments or procedure, no pouring forth of the incense of thanksgiving for daily, hourly, uneeasing, unnumbered mercies,-but the sour, complaining, unlovely disposition of the children of Israel in the wilderness, satisfied with nothing, always fretful, uneasy, and repining, whatever the tokens of Divine care, whatever the manifestations of Divine goodness and love. The Jews in the desert were often chastised-and how equitably !-for their shameless murmuring and ingratitude.

A nation is often visited with Divine judgments for its cruelty to God's ministers and people. This was especially demonstrated in the history of the unfeeling and hard-hearted Jews, who treated the prophets with so much contempt, unkindness, and malignity: involving them in difficulty, exposing them to danger, throwing them into prisons, shedding their blood. It has been uniformly seen, when the ministers and servants of God have been generally and cruelly persecuted by any people, that the persecutors have not done it with impunity; they have not altimately escaped, they have met, even

here, very often, with some fearful re turn for their iniquity.

A nation is frequently visited with heavy judgments in consequence of the general disobedience and rebellion of the people, their undisguised and gross sin. There is the utmost recklessness with regard to the Divine requirements, a stubborn determination not to obey, a spirit of opposition to God's authority, general profligacy of manners, an abandonment to everything corrupt and vile, and God has visited the guilty land fearfully for these flagrant and habitual enormities.

On this ground the antediluvians were punished, and even extirpated; the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Jews also, have been appalling examples.

We should inquire,

II. What are the characteristics of Divine judgments, and in what manner, in what forms, are they inflicted? We briefly reply,

The

God often deprives a guilty people of the neccessary supplies of life. "The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth." vine is laid waste, the fig tree, the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered. Howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. (Joel i.) How soon can God do this, and how often has he accomplished it, pouring nothing but desolation over an entire country! And he can effect it by the most insignificant instruments-the locust and the caterpillar. “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." Joel i. 4; see Exodus x. 15.

God often sends among a sinful and obstinately rebellious nation some raging and terrible disorder, which no human

means can mitigate, which no combination of skill and energy can remove. The plague desolates cities; a burning and deadly fever sweeps away the popu lation of large and entire districts.

God often scourges a guilty land with war, and this is the most terrible inflic tion, not only connected with rapine, misery, and death, but frequently occasioning moral, as well as physical and domestic ills, from which the country so visited never recovers.

God has swept a city or a nation away at once. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Genesis xix. 24, 25. Peruse that fearful narration in Genesis vii. 21-23.

Divine judgments are often sudden and unexpected. The thunder-cloud bursts at once; the lightning's flash is instantaneous, as well as awful.

Divine visitations are often most appalling in their character, and, indeed, so appalling that the mind shrinks with instinctive dismay from their contemplation. Read Isaiah xxxvii. 36; also, 1 Chronicles xxi. 11-18.

Divine judgments are sometimes of long duration, and, in their results, continued and fearful. We see this especially demonstrated in the tragical and admonitory history of the Jewish people. Are these statements accurate and amply confirmed? then what can be more pertinent and significant than the inquiry,

III. In what manner should the judgments of Heaven be received and improved by a guilty and chastised nation? The following thoughts are obvious and important:

1. The people should beware of indifference under these judgments. This would discover ignorance, folly, and moral insanity combined, which nothing could excuse.

2. The people should recognise the

hand of God in these judgments. This, to us, is very palpable in the present visitation. Whatever may be stated respecting natural causes, or the occasions of increase, it is obvious that the pestilence, desolating multitudes of families in our land, comes from Heaven. It is God's rod. Let us acknowledge this, and not run, like the fool, to second causes, and fix our attention entirely on them.

3. The people should be profoundly humbled in consequence of these judg ments. There must be no self-inflation, no self-complacency; all boasting must be annihilated. We must cover our faces with sackcloth. We must lie in the dust before God: the prostration cannot be too deep, too unqualified.

4. The people should cherish universal and pungent contrition, because of these judgments. Every man, every woman, must mourn apart. Every family must mourn apart. Sin must be confessed, must be bewailed, must be renounced, must be execrated. When God sees a nation of penitents, his judgments are soon removed. It is impenitence which brings the visitation down, and which continues it among us.

5. The people should institute immediate and rigid inquiry respecting the causes of these judgments. They should ask, "What has occasioned them? what particular sins have induced them? where is the Achan in the camp? let us bring him forth and destroy him in the presence of the Lord." When a nation acts in this manner, God remembers it in mercy.

6. The people should discover unmurmuring submission to the Divine will when experiencing these judgments. There must be no ignorant and foolish complaints, no senseless and criminal repinings; this would only occasion the blow to be heavier, the calamity to be more fearful. The spirit unfolded must be, "Let us now fall into the hands of God, and not into the hands of man." God's most appalling visitations must

not be quarrelled with. We deserve infinitely worse.

7. The people should present united and fervent prayer for the sanctification and removal of these judgments. And when God observes a nation praying unitedly and importunately to him, from a conviction of their guilt and depravity, for the sanctification of general calamities, he will listen to that prayer: indeed, the prayer is already heard. The sanctification of these judgments is begun, and in due time-his own appointed and best time-the visitation will cease, the plague will be stayed.

8. Careless and open sinners among the people should see, by these judg ments, how dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God in a guilty and unrepentant condition. They should

be aroused. They should be alarmed. They should tremble. They should me ditate. They should bewail their transgressions. They should flee to the refuge. They should pray. Sin and misery, sin and destruction, are inseparable!

"While o'er our guilty land, O Lord!
We view the terrors of thy sword;
Oh, whither shall the helpless fly?
To whom, but Thee, direct their cry?
"On Thee, our guardian God, we call,
Before Thy throne of grace we fall:
And is there no deliverance there?
And must we perish in despair?

66 See, we repent, we weep, we mourn,
To our forsaken God we turn:
O spare our guilty country, spare
The church which Thou hast planted
there!"*

T. W.

President Davies.

I do not know you-but this is the very reason why we should relieve him, because we do not know him. That we have never seen him before, and may never see him again, should induce us do him all the good we can while he is at our door. "I WAS A STRANGER AND YE TOOK ME IN."

You may be an impostor. But this we cannot know, and it is cruel to judge that one man is an impostor because others have been-" Charity hopeth all things." But if he were an impostor, this is no valid reason for refusing him an alms. God maketh his sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good, &c., and we are to do the same. And do we ask God to give to us according to our merits? Then why do we do so to our fellow-creatures? If we knew a man to be undeserving, it would be God-like to give to him notwithstanding. Nay, if a man were not only undeserving, but a personal enemy, we should still be bound to give to him. "If thine enemy

drink."

There is a legal provision for the poor, —you must go to a magistrate and get an order for relief at the poor house.

But the magistrate may be out—or he may be suspicious or unfeeling-or a proud livery-servant may drive the poor man from the door-or it may be miles to the relieving officer, and nature may be exhausted-or a nice sense of delicacy may restrain from making an official application-in either of these cases the sufferer starves-and at whose door does his death lie? How can we evade the force of that plain precept: Give to him that asketh thee ?"-Matt. v. 42. But by indiscriminate charity we encourage beggary.

But the same objection holds against all kinds of charity-you cannot give a garment to the naked, or medicine to the sick, or instruction to the children of the poor, without encouraging them to relax in their own efforts and to depend upon you. And the same may be said against forgiving our enemics - it encourages

people to wrong us, since they find they can do it with impunity. This arrow, indeed flies higher than the objector supposes or intends, for it smites even the throne of God himself; for no one can doubt that, when God pours the blessings of his providence upon wicked men, he encourages them in their wicked

ways so, at least, through the depravity of their hearts, his goodness operates upon them. When, therefore, any one would cramp your benevolence by suggesting evils which may spring from it, meet them at once with the Divine expostulation, "Is thine eye evil because I am good?"

THE PESTILENCE.

(Stanzas composed September 12th, being the day set apart for united prayer.)

STAY thine avenging hand,

O God of Judgments, stay! Recall thine angel from the landFor lo! thy people pray.

Let our united urgent voice

Ascend like incense to thy throne, And bid our isle once more rejoice, It is thine own.

Yea, thou hast laid us low,

And dire affliction sent:

May all thine hand in sickness know,

And all to thee repent!

Loud sounds the warning through the halls Of Mammon and the busy mart,

Nor vainly if the echo falls

Deep in the heart.

Hear, pitying Lord, the sufferer's groan,
Show mercy in the spreading doom!

For many a flower that Spring hath shown

Now mourning earth reveals a tomb! What ample harvests crown the field,

The bounden sheaves how fairly sleeping! Must life an equal harvest yield

Where death is reaping?

If, when the cloud shall be withdrawn, Full many an eye in death has closed, If light re-shine the tombs to adorn

Where Love's own idols have reposed:-
Still we will praise that thou hast spared
The living, guilty though they be,
And granted space-lest unprepared
Thy face they see.

As now our voices join in prayer,
Then shall they utter songs of praise;
The old shall sing, the young declare
Thy mercy in their early days.

No longer hide thy face, O God!

Let prayer prevail before thy throne, From this fair isle remove the rodThis isle-thine own!

J. R. LEIFCHILD.

LINES SUGGESTED BY THE DEVASTATIONS OF THE CHOLERA.

Sept. 1849.

So God hath sent a fearful scourge
To visit all this guilty land,
It rolls along like th' ocean's surge,
And terror strikes on every hand.
It spares not either rich or poor,
Nor pays respect to sex or age,
Nor town nor village is secure

From the sad influence of its rage.

Before it science stands aghast,

And skill lies prostrate at its nod, The Nation 's made to own at last, That "here's the finger of a God."

Yes, here's the finger of our God,

Whom rebel man would fain deny, He lifts his hand, and waves his rod,

And thousands tremble, sink, and die. O man! vain man! thy Maker own;

He judgments sends, but can relieve, Fall prostrate at his awful throne, Confess thy crimes, and ask reprieve. Let every subject in the land,

Let peasant with the prince combine, And bow beneath the mighty hand

Of Him whose mercies are divine. Let all the church in concert meet, And wrestle now in mighty prayer, And for this guilty land intreat,

And God the nation yet may spare.

Great King! who sitt'st enthroned on high,'
And sway'st thy sceptre at thy will,
Now hear a prostrate nation's cry,
And lengthen out our trial still!
Billericay, Sept. 12, 1849.