and must be, to answer the permanent and uniform ends of their agency; and can, by no power of their own, accomplish these steady results, and veer about continually to meet the ever-changing exigencies of a moral providence, to meet the continual fluctuations of human character, no more than the battery, chained down to one direction, can send protection or death to all points of the horizon, and the infinite variable exigencies of good or evil within its circumference; no more than an army can stand still and run at the same time, or march at the same time upon a straight and an infinitely crooked line. And yet, in the hand of God, they have a work to perform, which he can employ them to do, without so innovating upon their uniformity, as to abolish science and experience, and the calculations of life.

Some of these laws, men, in a limited sphere, can modify and apply to wise and useful purposes, without innovating upon their general unmodified order: as in agriculture and chemistry; and mock storms, volcanoes, and earthquakes; and cannot the God of storms and earthquakes do the same? Once, for a thousand years, he did control the Laws of Nature, in many respects, aside from their native course, in good and evil, according to its character and deeds, in maintaining or abandoning his institutions and worship. Thus corroborating, by the sanctions of time, the motives of Eternity, in maintaining his worship against the encroachments of Idolatry.

He sent the plagues of Egypt to deliver them; gave them bread from Heaven, and water and meat in the barren wilderness. Once in seven years their land lay fallow, and the year preceding produced the results of two harvests; and peace and war, and rain and drought, and abundance and famine, and sickness and health, and captivity or safety, were the varying and embodied allotments of their history, as they obeyed or disobeyed the laws and institutions of heaven. Now, I should be glad to know, where those laws of nature were, all this time; which are never reached by prayer, or touched by the hand of Omnipotence; and yet dodged about in endless mazes, to meet the ever-varying exigencies of a nation, for a thousand years, according to its character and deeds.

How can prayer be answered by nature's laws, when it is the single, onward, overpowering movement of nature's laws which creates our distress, and nature has no ears to hear, and no mechanism to let on or let off the pressure as our exigencies demand? O God, it is thou that ridest on the whirlwind and directest the storm. So in the hurricane we understood the matter, and went directly to him, who on earth walked upon the waves and stilled the tempest, and brought his disciples to land.

And with infinite benignity he heard our prayer, and comforted our troubled heart, and delivered us.

By what law of wind or wave could our ship have held on her course for 36 hours, through raging winds, and over mountain waves and deep valleys, every moment changing their relation to the ship and her course, and environing her with the network of Death; any one of which, had it struck her in one of the thousand ways it might, was sufficient to whelm her in the deep?

Where now was the mechanism of nature's laws to save us; and who but God, by his providential control of them, could have opened a way for the ransomed of the Lord to pass? What mechanism of nature's laws stopped the wreck and desolation, which for half a day and more, had been multiplying upon us, from the time of our prayer meeting, though the storm raged on for 24 hours longer, with greater power and peril than before? Who saved us, when the wind had knocked down our good ship, and the wave had buried her gunwales and wheelhouse, and she struggled, and trembled, and groaned through all her timbers, but could not rise? And who stopped the lion mouth of three successive waves, that rushed upon us, and broke and passed harmlessly away? which produced the exclamation of our Captain, "Surely there is a power above which is working for us."

And now, rescued from danger and death, by the merciful God to whom we cried in our distress; what shall we render unto him, each one of us, for this his merciful deliverance? Shall it be mere gladness that we have escaped, without gratitude to God? Shall it be the quick oblivion of our distress, and confessions of sin, and resolutions of reformation, and prayers and promises, if God would hear us? Shall the World, its pleasures, business, and love, annihilated in the light of Eternity, return to its strength; and, like the waves we have passed, roll over us, and sweep us away? Have any of you, till now, neglected known duties; will you not from this time resume them? Have you lived habitually, in habitual and known sins; and will you not break them off? I beseech you to do so, by the mercies of God, and the terrors of that day, if you persist, when death will come indeed, and you will then cry, and God will not answer.

Has God, by the trumpet-tongue of wind and wave, preached a sermon to your inmost soul, and swept away the cobweb sophistries of your scepticism? Be honest then, and fear God, and not the sneer of fools; lest, if you relapse, he send upon you strong delusions, that you may be damned, because you have no pleasure in the truth; but have pleasure in unrighteousness. Has he opened the eyes of any of you, the children of christian

parents, to see your sin and danger; and broken up, for a time, your habits of procrastination? How shall you escape if you neglect now so great salvation? Think what your condition was when the storm commenced; a poor hardened, stupid, procrastinating sinner. Think what, a few days ago, you would have promised and given, to be as safe as you now are. And think what convictions of sin the Spirit of God has wrought on you, by means of the storm. And will you now quench the spirit, and go back to stupidity and folly? Alas, my friends, if you do so, the Spirit of God may give you up forever. If you do so, the day may come, when fears and terrors, surpassing those of the storm, will come upon you in desolation; and when you will again call on God, but he will not answer; and will earnestly seek him, but he will not be found. Now then, is God's time and yours, to seek and secure the salvation of your souls. To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

In anticipation of the hour which might sink us together in a watery grave, I had considered what I should say to impenitent sinners like you, when in the jaws of death you should with loud voices cry to me, "What, what must we do?" and my answer prepared was, Believe instantly on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved; love him, confide in him, and commit your soul to him; and, spite of the strife of elements and a terrific sudden death, you shall be saved; and what I would have said in such an exigency, I now repeat. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

Have any of you who are professing christians, been living in a cold, formal state, conformed to the world in its temper, fashions, amusements, pleasures and business; and have you confessed before God and bewailed these sins, and promised reformation, and found the tokens of pardon in the Love of Christ, shed abroad in your souls; go your way then, in grateful love and steadfast obedience, lest, if you now fall away, a worse thing come upon you.

And now let me inquire of my own heart, and of you, my beloved brethren in the ministry, what shall we render to the Lord, and how shall we fill up the measure of our new chartered time? I felt, as a father, the sudden, unlooked for parting with all my children, so long interwoven with every fibre of my heart; and I prayed to the Lord that I might see them again. But, as a minister of Christ, I prayed more fervently to be spared, to do a few more things, which I had projected, for his service and glory. And I go home, resolved to postpone the work no longer, but with double diligence to attempt its completion.

And may it not be well that each of us, by such reminiscences of past neglect, be quickened to redeem the time by double diligence; to clear off the docket of duties neglected, and to fill the remaining page of life with the things which ought to be done? And especially, shall we not give ourselves to prayer for those that sail with us in this ship, that God would begin and consummate a work of grace by his Spirit among them? There has been much prayer already, I trust, for this purpose; and the solemnities of the scenes through which we have passed, have aroused attention and armed conscience with a new power; and produced a new tenderness of mind and of good resolutions; a happy preparation to be consummated by the Spirit in answer to prayer. And shall we not in our general vocation, walk more by faith in things not seen, and less by sight and the influences of time? Be swayed less by ambition and the praise of men; and less by the pleasures of sense, or intellect and taste; and less by things useful, which appertain to the outworks of religion; and more to our direct preaching and pastoral labours, for the conversion of sinners and the augmentation of holiness in the Church of God?

With such a mainspring in the hearts, and preaching of God's ministry, revivals will multiply, and the harvest of the world will be planted and reaped; while without, all will be but a splendid formal machinery of unholiness, while the whole world lieth in wickedness, and the battle goes against the Church, and the glorious things spoken concerning Zion are deferred.

Oh, my brethren, what is the itching ear of mortals and the praise of men for brilliant classical sermons and splendid eloquence, which amuses the ear as a pleasant song, or skilful music upon an instrument; but which awakens not the conscience, and pricks not the heart, and does not regenerate the soul by the power of the Spirit, and fit it for Heaven. God grant that by this storm we may all be made more spiritual, more prayerful, more faithful, and more successful and happy, in winning souls to Christ!

33-VOL. V.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE

THE JUST GROUND OF

CONFIDENCE, LOVE AND GRATITUDE.

A DISCOURSE

BY THE REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.-PSALM cvii., 21, 22, 32.

As it regards the occasion on which this Psalm was written, we have no information. Indeed, it would seem to have been designed for all occasions, and to refer to no particular event. Its illustrations are drawn from the general course of Divine Providence, and addressing themselves to men in "whatsoever state they are," it teaches them therewith to be content, and therein to recognize, and seek, the divine guidance and blessing.

The nature and object of the Psalm is, however, very apparent. "Eternal mercy is the theme here proposed; and they who have tasted its sweets are invited to join in setting forth its praises." As the preceding Psalms alluded to God's dealings with Israel, this refers to his general superintendence of the material world, and his special care of mankind in general. And the admiring praise, confidence, and affection of all his creatures are shown to be imperatively binding, since all are the recipients of his kindness and compassion, and the objects of his watchfulness and interposing mercy.

There are three truths of great and practical importance, which are here forcibly impressed upon us, and to which we will briefly advert.

I. And in the first place, it is here very distinctly taught that all the laws of nature, by which the physical and material world are governed, are under the direct and immediate control of God, and are made to work out the accomplishment of His plans. It does not appear to have been the purpose of God so to order these laws as to secure in this world, and as it regards the things of this life, a perfect distribution of rewards and