phets and teachers whose writings are recorded in the Old Testament; witness the prophets Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, out of whose books portions are appointed for this day's service; they all concur in representing such calamities, as those under which part of these realms is now labouring, as inflictions of the Almighty; inflictions imposed both as a punishment for past sin, and a warning against continuing in it; all concur in setting forth the same remedies; in insisting upon the exercise of prayer, confession of sin, and humiliation before God, as the best resources of a nation, the readiest way to obtain deliverance and relief from its distress.

Yes, and not only do the Holy Scriptures teach this doctrine respecting God's judgments, but they further afford us eminent examples of the good results that attend a hearty belief in it, and a practice of those acts of penitence that it prescribes. David, we read, in the twenty-fourth chapter of the second Book of Samuel, tempted by Satan, had provoked God through the pride of his heart in numbering the people, whereupon the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel; a pestilence so deadly and so general, that though it lasted but three days, there died in that time seventy thousand men. What was the conduct of the Psalmist under the weight of this severe calamity? He presented himself before God, and offered sacrifices before Him;

66

and "the Lord," we read, was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel."

Another instance, and the last I shall mention, is well known, and is that of Nineveh; and this is the more remarkable, because it shows the effect of timely humiliation, in warding off impending calamities: Jonah, the prophet of the Almighty, had received a mission from Him, to preach to the Ninevites, the destruction of their city; it was a city of vast magnitude, and amongst the most powerful of the world in that day; a city, as it is described, of twenty-three days' journey in circuit; a city, in which there were more than six hundred thousand people; but it was a city given to idolatry and wickedness, and so it was threatened with the wrath of God: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," was the cry of Jonah as he passed along the streets of the populous city. Yet Nineveh for all this was not destroyed; and why? The people "believed God." When the words of the prophet reached the ears of the king, Ihe arose from his throne," and " COvered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes:" (marks of humiliation, still practised by the eastern nations :) and he issued a proclamation for the like to be done by his subjects, decreeing, that neither man, nor beast, herd nor flock, should taste anything; but "be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily

unto God:" "Yea," said the words of the proclamation, (and they are very much those that have been put forth on the present occasion for our use,) "let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?"

66

The result of this general, and sincere humiliation of the whole people of Nineveh, was as beneficial to themselves, as it is admonitory, and encouraging to all who read the record in the Bible. God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.”

Such, my brethren, is what the Bible teaches respecting God's judgments; it tells us both their cause and their remedy; their cause is the wickedness of man-provoking, and bringing down upon his head, the displeasure of an offended God: the remedy is, the forsaking of that wickedness; and turning to God in humility and contrition of heart; in one word, Repentance.

Further, the Bible encourages us to have recourse to this remedy by exhibiting many signal instances, in which it has been used with success. In the case of David, in the case of Rehoboam, in the case of Ahab, of Jehoshaphat, of Manasseh, in the case of the Ninevites, and many more that I

could name, we are presented with proofs of the efficacy of timely humiliation and repentance.

It only remains to apply this knowledge, to the case immediately before us. The hand of the Almighty is visibly stretched over us in anger; for two successive years, has He broken the staff of food throughout a large portion of these realms: nor is it in Ireland only that there are marks of His visitation; but in this country as well; yes, and in many other countries of the world: true it is, (and thankful should we be,) that the visitation here has hitherto been far less grievous than in our sister nation; so little grievous, that we scarcely like to call it by so awful a name; we scarcely like to think that we too are lying under God's displeasure; but surely it were wiser to acknowledge such to be the case even now; there is great scarcity and dearth already in our land of almost all articles necessary for our sustenance; scarcity and dearth that has been gradually increasing for several months past, and which has materially affected the comfort of large classes of our countrymen: and who can say, that this scarcity and dearth shall not, ere another twelve months come round, have become that, of which it is often the forerunner, viz. actual famine? Who can say that the dreadful and heartrending accounts which daily reach our ears of the sufferings of our

fellow-subjects in Ireland, may not by next year be realized by sights of equal misery and distress amongst our own people? What, if the next harvest on which so much depends should prove a failure,-what, if that blight, which has almost deprived us of the help of one great staple article of food-a blight as unforeseen as it is yet unaccountable on any knowu grounds,-what, if that blight should also fall upon another portion of the earth's produce,-what, if our corn should become infected by it? Would there not ensue a burthen of misery, such as is fearful to the mind to contemplate? And yet, my brethren, there can be no question but that this calamity is possible. It is as easy for the Almighty to command the clouds that they pour no rain upon our hitherto favoured fields, or to cause the seed to rot under the clod, as it was for Him to do that which He hath wrought in Ireland; it is as easy; and may we not add, that it is likely, that He should so visit us? If the affliction in that land be represented (as the Bible teaches us to consider it) as a judgment for national wickedness, what, I would ask you, can we allege why the like punishment should not reach also unto us? Are we less sinners than they? Is there less forgetfulness of God-less abuse of His merciesless mistrust of His promises-less disregard of His ordinances amongst us, than there is in Ireland?