with the corpses and the wreck of that proud Armada, the people of England repaired to the house of God to acknowledge his providence in this memorable deliverance, and sing of the stormy wind fulfilling his word.

3. Again, the finger of God has been often marvelously revealed in the detection and punishment of crime. Men have stood astonished, and have been constrained to say-There was a providence in that. By some remarkable and unlooked-for circumstance, God himself has cleared away every doubt; and said, as it were, with his finger pointed at the confounded, trembling, wretch, Thou, thou art the man! One night, for instance, some years ago, a person in this city awoke to find that his house had been plundered. The alarm was raised, nor was it long ere the officers of justice found a clue. The thief, wounding his hand as he escaped by the window, had left a red witness behind him. The watchman flashed his lantern on the spot. Drop by drop, blood stained the pavement. They tracked it on, and on, and ever on, till their silent guide conducted them along an open passage, and up a flight of steps-stopping at the door of a house. They broke in; and there they found the bleeding hand, the booty, and the pale, ghastly criminal. Now, a shower of rain would have washed away the stain ; a fall of snow would have concealed it; the foot of some wretched street-walker, some midnight reveller, would have effaced it; but no, the crime was one of peculiar atrocity, and there God kept the damning spot. And, unless they be forgiven, covered by the righteousness, washed away in the blood of Jesus, so shall your sins find you out. Wash them

away in Calvary's fountain, or they wait to meet you at the bar of judgment. The step of divine justice may be slow, but it is sure, and I implore sinners to flee from the exposures and the wrath to come: for, what saith the scriptures, Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house tops,-God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

Who should not own in such remarkable events the hand of providence? That man incurred double guilt, who, when passing dryshod through the sea between two crystal walls, thought no more of God than you or I, perhaps, have done, when, on a bright summer day, beneath the flickering shade of overhanging trees, and on a carpet of heath and wild flowers, we were threading some mountain gorge. He too, incurred double guilt, who, having risen with the dawn, and left his tent, ere the sun had shot one slanting ray across the desert sands, to gather food fallen fresh from dewy skies, thought no more of God than yonder merry band, that, with talk and songs and laughter, sweep down the golden corn, or, when sheaves are stacked and fields. are cleared, with gleesome dances keep harvest-home. Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her, for she is a king's daughter," were Jehu's orders; and doubly guilty were his messengers if, as they drove off the dogs that were crunching Jezebel's skull, and saw the curse of an avenging prophet, they thought no more of God's righteous judgments, than does the rude, brutal mob which executions gather from low lanes and alleys around a gallows-tree.

It is good to see God's hand in every extraordinary

event, but it is better to see his providence in every thing, saying with David, I have set the Lord always before me. How happy is such a frame of mind! cherish the memory of one over whose chequered life it shed a perpetual sunshine. A widow with a helpless family, she had literally left father and mother, and house and lands, for Jesus' sake, and had had her full share of trials. Yet nothing came wrong to her; nor did leaden cares ever sit long or press heavy on her saintly breast-hers, a bearing that often reminded me of the beautiful words of Luther, when, in an hour of alarm and anxious councils, he pointed his companion to a little bird, that, perched on a bending branch, was pouring forth a gush of melody in the ear of evening, and said, Happy fellow! he leaves God to think for him. Do that; leave God to think for you, and to care for you. Let clear-eyed Faith behold Christ on his throne, with the strong hand of a God, and the sympathies of a man guiding in heaven the helm of your fortunes, and you may go to sleep in the rudest storm. What storm should hinder him whose head is pillowed on Jesus' bosom, and who feels himself enfolded in the arms of providence, from fulfilling this high, this happy command, Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Child of God! take your rest. He who keeps watch by you, never sleeps.

II. God in Christ presides over ordinary as well as extraordinary events.

By him all things consist. Every object in nature

is impressed with his footprints, and each new day repeats the wonders of creation. Yes; there is not a morning we open our eyes, but they meet a scene as wonderful as that which fixed the gaze of Adam when he awoke into existence. Nor is there an object, be it pebble or pearl, weed or rose, the flower-spangled sward beneath, or the star-spangled sky above, a worm or an angel, a drop of water or a boundless ocean, in which intelligence may not discern, and piety may not adore, the providence of Him who assumed our nature that he might save our souls. If God is not in all the thoughts of the wicked, he is in everything else. And since the comfort of his people rests so much on the conviction that the Lord reigneth, that his hand rules every event, that a wise, and most kind, as well as holy Providence presides over our daily fortunes and all things besides, let me proceed, by some familiar examples, to illustrate that noble truth,

1. Let me show you Providence in a snow-drop-a flower we all know and love, and hail as the fair harbinger of spring. And in this I follow the example of him who extracted from flowers truths more beautiful than their colors, more precious than their most fragrant odors. All the plants that clothe and adorn the earth with such varied beauty, and combining, as is God's way, utility with beauty, supply food to the animal creation, depend for their continued existence on their flowers turning into fruit. Now, the fructification of the snow-drop depends, if I may say so, on the modesty, in it as elsewhere the usual associate of purity, with which, shrinking from its own boldness, it hangs its beautiful head. Let it lift its head up with the pride of a lily, and this herald of spring perishes

from the face of the earth, like the race of a childless man. But God has provided against such an event. Wonderful, and instructive as teaching us how the greatest and smallest things in providence have often mutual and important connections, this vast globe, and that little flower, in regard to their weight, have been calculated the one so to suit the other, that its bells are and must be pendent. Drawn downwards by the force of gravity, they assume a position without which they had produced no fruit, yet one which they had not assumed, had our planet been no larger than Mars or Mercury. See, then, how God takes care of a humble flower! how much more of you and your families, O ye of little faith!

2. Let me take an example from a circumstance which, at first sight, appears to shake rather than to confirm our confidence in a presiding Providence. That plants may produce fruit in our climate, their flowers, warmly wrapped within the folds of the bud, must sleep the winter through-waiting for the genial breath of spring, and the embraces of a summer sun. Well; we are meditating on the care which God takes of many tender plants, by either wrapping them in a warm mantle of snow, or causing them to seek shelter beneath the surface, when our meditations are suddenly arrested, and our trust in God's providence is at first sight perhaps shaken, by a plant which spreads out its blossoms, like unrequited love, to the cold beams of the winter day. The frost has bound the soil, the ice has chained the streams, and the hoary rime, like a work of magic, has turned every tree to silver, and there is not heat enough in the keen cutting air for that unhappy flower to produce fruit. It is with it as