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I 
 
 "A. 
 

 DIVINE 
 
 D- I 
 
 SERMON 
 
 BY 
 
 The Venerable EDWARD WIX, M. A., 
 
 Of Trinity College, Oxfordy 
 ARCHDEACON OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 
 
 %, '%{ 
 
 ,*'. 
 
 i. 
 
 Thee, O God of Hosts ! we pray — 
 Thy wonted goodness, Lord, renew ; 
 From Heaven, Thy throne, this vine survey, 
 And her sad state with pity view. 
 
 So will we still continue free 
 
 From whatsoe'er deserves Thy blame, 
 
 i\^ if once more reviv'd by Thee, 
 Will always praise Thy holy name. 
 
 Do Thou convert us. Lord— do Thou 
 
 The lustre of Thy face display. 
 And all the ills we suffer now 
 
 Like scattered clouds shall pass away. 
 
 Ps. Lxxx. 14, 18, 19. 
 
 %\ 
 
 
 jr. RYAN, king's printer. 
 
 1832. 
 
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 40621 
 
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 ' -^^MiiMM>a«MMMinMHii 
 
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 T, 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 HK following Discourse, composed under extreme lassitude 
 consequent upon a laborious journey overland to Harbor-Grace, 
 undertaken when the rumor of the distressing calamity at tliat place 
 reached the ears of the Author, who was then in Trinity Bay, atten- 
 ding the Bishop of the Diocese upon His Lordship's Visitation of 
 this Island, has not, in the opinion of its Author, the slightest merit 
 beyond its accordance with Scripture. The very favorable notice, 
 however, with which it has been received, and the flattering manner 
 in which the Author has been informed that it has been considered 
 likely to be useful if it should obtain circulation beyond the limits 
 of the congregation for which it was intended, have induced him to 
 oflFer it to the Public. Those who have done him the honor to re- 
 quest its publication are, accordingly, presented with the Sermon, 
 without alteration or amendment, exactly as it was delivered at 
 St. John's Church on Sunday August 26, on the occasion of a con- 
 gregational collection for the re-erection of the Church at Harbor- 
 Grace, which, with ninety-seven dwelling-houses, had been totally 
 consumed by fire on the 18th instant. The amount of a collection 
 made in the town of St. John, during the preceding week, for the 
 general relief of the sufferers, had been about £'(>00. The amount of 
 the collection made at the Church-doors, after the following Sermon, 
 for the re-building of the Church was £18 3 3 ; to which, it should 
 be added that the Communicants of that day, who amounted to 104, 
 had no opportunity of contributing, as the alms gathered at the 
 administration of the Holy Communion were not diverted from tlieir 
 ueual objects. 
 
M. 
 
 -OST gracious Father and God ! Who hast promised forgiveness 
 of sins to all those that with hearty repentance and true faith turn 
 to Thee, look down, we beseech Thee, from Heaven, Thy dwel- 
 ling-place, upon us Thy unworthy servants, who, under an awful 
 apprehension of Thy judgments, and a deep conviction of our sin- 
 fulness, prostrate ourselves before Thee : We acknowiege it i be 
 of Thy goodness alone, that, whilst Thou hast visited other people 
 with pestilence. Thou hast so long spared us. Have pity, O 
 Lord ! have pity on Thy people both liere and elsewhere ; with- 
 draw Thy heavy hand from those who are suflFering under Thy 
 judgments, and turn away from us that grievous calamity, against 
 which our only security is in Thy compassion. We confess, with 
 shame and contrition, that, in the pride and hardness of our hearts, 
 ■we have shewn ourselves unthankful for Thy mercies, and have fol- 
 lowed our own inclinations instead of Thy holy laws : Yet, O mer- 
 ciful Father ! suffer not Thy destroying angel to lift up his hand 
 against us, but keep us, as Thou hast heretofore done, in health and 
 safety ; and grant that, being warned by the sufferings of others to 
 repent of our sins, we may be preserved from all evil by Thy 
 mighty protection, and enjoy the continuance of Thy mercy and 
 grace, through the merits o£ our only Mediator and Advocate Jesus 
 Christ. Amen. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 o 
 
 Those eighteen upon irhoni the tower in Si loam fell., 
 and stew them — think ye that they were sinners 
 above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? 1 tell 
 you — nay ! — But, except ye repent, ye shall all, 
 likewise, perish, — Luke xiii. 4. 5. 
 
 W E are tolil, in the 1st verse of this chapter, on 
 what occasion it was that our Lokd made this 
 observation. Pilate had, with the cruelty which 
 marked his character, caused a number of Galileans 
 to be slaughtered, while they were engaged in some 
 act of sacrifice. It is probable that the persons who 
 related the sad tale to our Lord may have ventured 
 on the expression of some opinion respecting the 
 general guilt or innocence of parties who seemed to 
 have been abandoned to this cruel fate by the Al- 
 mighty, when He might have been expected to have 
 interfered in their behalf. — Whether they did so 
 express themselves, however, or not," our Lord 
 brought forward a similar instance of many persons 
 having been suddenly deprived of life by a desolating 
 accident ; and H e then introduced a reflection which 
 will apply generally to such cases of indiscriminate 
 destruction. This reflection informs us that it is in- 
 correct, in the sight of God, to imagine, or to insi- 
 nuate that accidents of this kind are proofs of the 
 individual criminality of those persons who may fall 
 victims to them. It may, in charity, be presumed 
 that those whose blood was mingled with their sacri- 
 fices, who were arrested by death in the very per- 
 formance of a religious service, were found watching. 
 
 
 \»-"" 
 
6 
 
 Our Lord, indeed, says, with reference to the sup- 
 position which was entertained or insinuated, that 
 they were egregious sinners — "I tell you nay !" — 
 Again, those on whom the turret of Siloam, or part 
 of the city wall, fell, and suddenly crushed them, 
 may, many of them, have been engaged in occupa- 
 tions, or bent upon schemes, which were, indeed, ill 
 suited to prepare them for so sudden a call into Eter- 
 nity — Our Lord, however, would not pronounce the 
 awful fate, of which man was the instrument in the 
 one case, and a calamitous accident in the other, to 
 be denominated a judgment or a visitation of His 
 special vengeance for particular iniquity. Each was, 
 doubtless, an infliction of Providence ; as from His 
 own words we learn that not a sparrow can fall to 
 the ground without God's knowlege (Matt. x. 29). 
 But in these cases there was the same event to the 
 righteous and to the wicked (Eccles. ix. 2.) — The 
 lowly publican may have been stabbed at the same 
 altar with the scornful pharisee (Luke xviii.) — The 
 fragments of the shattered wall may have dashed 
 harmless at the foot of many a sinner more daring 
 than any of those who were crushed in the fallen 
 ruins. These were visitations of Providence. They 
 were sent by God, as the Christian's belief is that 
 the desolating pestilence, vhich now sweeps the 
 globe, is sent by God. In His plan of governing the 
 world God deals, as it appears best to His wisdom, 
 with nations and with individuals. At one period 
 prosperity and uninterrupted enjoyment maybe the 
 mode of discipline which He adopts — at another mo- 
 ment the calamitous visitation may be the mode in 
 which He tries us : The good and the bad may 
 equally fall victims to public inflictions. Such in- 
 discriminating visitations must still be considered as 
 inflictions from God, and since all suffering what- 
 ever may be traced back to sin as the original cause 
 of it's introduction into this world, these inflictions 
 say loudly to all of us — " Except ye repent, ye shall 
 
 « 
 
I cause 
 
 all likewise perish.** Those are blesJsed who, in the 
 time of trouble, hear the rod and who has appointed 
 it (Micah. vr. 9.) — Those are wise, and learn, in the 
 school of suffering, the lesson which Gon would 
 teach them, who so take the warning — and so re- 
 pent, and so turn, in faith, to their Redeemer, that, 
 through His mercy and merits, it may be said of 
 them, that, though suddenly summoned io the tomb, 
 they yet may not taste of death (Matt. xvi. 28.) — ► 
 may know nothing of it's bitterness and ol' ihc awful 
 state to which it consigns the wicked, till they shall 
 see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom to own 
 them as His own and to place them beyond the pro- 
 bability of pain and sorrow. 
 
 It is, however, my Christian friends ! an awful 
 sign of the times in which we live — that there is a 
 disinclination, on the part of many, to acknowlege 
 God as the author of the trials to which nations and 
 individuals are subjected. That presumption — that 
 want of charity — that immodest appropriation to 
 ourselves of an attribute of God — wnich would lead 
 men to describe each particular visitation as the in- 
 fliction of Providence upon it's unhappy victim for 
 some particularsin or for some course of sin, cannot 
 he too much condemned. But the unhappy infide- 
 lity which would remove God from the government 
 of this fair world of His own creation — That folly 
 which would describe those second causes which 
 under Hh direction may keep together, or may 
 partially derange. His system, as mdependent of 
 His will, has in it presumption yet more awful ! 
 
 Nations which have been never blessed with the 
 light of the gospel have been ready to acknowlege 
 God in the season of pestilence. The very heathen 
 uniformly adopted religious ceremonies of purifica- 
 tion under such calamities, — they sacrificed, under 
 such circumstances, to propitiate the favor of their 
 Gods — nay — the light of nature, as it pleases some 
 to call it, led them further ; lest, in their general sa- 
 
criHces, the true God whom in their conscious blind- 
 ness, they confessed that they did not know, shouhl 
 he omitted, the Athenians, once, in a seasoji of 
 phi<i^ue, by the advice of K[iim(;ni(UNs, sacriHced to 
 the Unknown God ; and, when they were delivered 
 l)y the mercy of our (jOD,whoni they <lid not know, 
 they sh(;wed their «;ratitude by erectin*i; an altar to 
 this unknown God to wliom they ascribed their de- 
 liverance. 
 
 is it worthy of persons living beneath the light of 
 Christianity to cast themselves back into a train of 
 reasoning and a style of thinking of which a heathen 
 would have betMi ashamed ? shall we refuse to re- 
 gard calamities of this description as visitations of 
 Providence ? 
 
 Hear, O Heavens ! and give ear, O Earth ! for 
 the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and 
 brought up children, and they have rebelled against 
 me. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his 
 master's crib. But Israel doth not know, my people 
 doth not consider. (I^a. i. 2. 3. — Jer. v. 29.) 
 
 Will not God avenge Himself on such a nation 
 *as this ? 
 
 Is God's people smitten before an enemy ? Is 
 the Heaven shut up — and is there no rain ? Is 
 thci'e a famine in the land ? a blasting or a pesti- 
 lence ? Can we do better than take the counsel 
 which was given in these cases by the wisest of 
 men ? He traced such calamities to some sin with 
 which the people must have offended God, and He 
 recommended that they should turn again to God 
 and confess His name and pray and make supplica- 
 tion in His house. (1. Kings, vim.) O! my Bre- 
 thren ! on all sides aroutid us a disorder is hurrying 
 it's victims with such awful haste to the grave that 
 the living have time to pay to the dead such obse- 
 quies only as a field of battle would permit ! 
 Shall we not see God in this ? 
 
 This plague, as it has taken its hasty march from 
 
)>eople to poiple, has actually been proved to liAve 
 fallen lightly, in comparison, on nation^ vhich have 
 fallen down in instant humiliation before Gon and 
 ac.knowleged Him as the author of the Visitation. 
 It has lingered, on the other hand, with a more 
 intense malignity among those nations which have 
 refused to own God — which, in the spirit of heart- 
 less scepticism and this world's shallow philosophy, 
 have resorted to sciencti alone for protection, with- 
 out one prayer for God's blessing on the preventive 
 ineans which were adopted I 
 
 Shall we not si:b God in this ? 
 
 This pestilence has been, like all general scour- 
 ges, somewhat indiscriminate in the selection of it's 
 victims ; yet a predisposing susceptibility for the 
 reception of it has been allowed : one person, that 
 is, is, from a particular state of body, more likely 
 to take the disease than another: this particular 
 susceptibility hajs generally been found among the 
 drunken and the profligate — among those very 
 persons who are threatened by the Almighty with 
 such visitations. 
 
 Shall we^not see God in this? 
 
 Can it be allowed, my Brethren ! — (and here I 
 would not be considered as appealing to your pride 
 - — I would appeal to your regard for the honor of 
 God — I would call up the tenderness of your love 
 to God, and the warm feelings of your faith in 
 Christ) — Ought we to sit in silence while that 
 blindness which does not see God in these things 
 shall vaunt itself beneath the name of science, and, 
 in the arrogant assertion of its own dignity, shall 
 pronounce that any acknowlegement of God in 
 these mysterious visitations is a mark of ignorance ? 
 
 If ye were blind, ye should have no sin ; but 
 now ye say, we see — therefore your sin remaineth» 
 (John IX. 41.) 
 
 If it be a mark of ijjnorance to acknowleg^e God 
 in His visitations, — that ignorance be ours ! Thus 
 
I V 
 
 10 
 
 saitli the Lord : Let not the wise man glory in his 
 wisdom ; neither let the mighty man glory in his 
 might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches. 
 But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he 
 understandeth and knoweth me that I am the 
 Lord, which exc cise loving-kindness, judgment 
 and righteousness in the earth ; for in these things 
 I delight, saith the Lor:l). (Jer. ix. 23, 24.) 
 
 If the refusal to acknowlege God be a mark of 
 science, — away with such science ! There is a cer- 
 tain kind of wisdom which St. James describes. 
 (James iii. 15.) He says that it does not descend 
 from above — but that it is earthly. It cannot look 
 beyond this earth and secondary causes for the 
 origin of good or ill. He adds^ moreover, that this 
 inability to look beyond this earth is not it's worst 
 feature. It is, also, devilish. And, in truth, we do 
 not envy the satisfaction which such wisdom, or the 
 fruits o} it, may obtain for the self-styled man of 
 science. His neighbours are immersed in the very 
 dissipation which, in his own wisdom, he must ac- 
 knowlege makes them susceptible of a prevailing 
 disease. They are quaking at the judgments of 
 God ; and ready to ask — what shall we do to be 
 saved ? (Acts xvi. 30.) and he smiles in the face of 
 the returning sinner and offers him the cordial of 
 unbelief ! 
 
 The judgme. s of God have touched the heart 
 of the prodigal : The frightened penitent is found 
 upon his knees acknowleging God's justice in Hi.^ 
 mysterious visitation : he is just reaching forth his 
 hand to take of the waters of salvation ; — and the 
 man of science, with officious charity, attempts to 
 dissipate the illusion of such penitence ! 
 
 Is the last word which St. James applies to such 
 wisdom more harsh than it deserves ? O, it is not 
 harshness, — it is Christian kindness, — it is truest 
 charity, to call such wisdom by it's right name, to 
 point out it's awful consequences. The judgments 
 
rr i Tiin i p. i nw »■ 
 
 "MtRnMipmili 
 
 11 
 
 of God might justly overwhelm any community, 
 which, while it mourned in secret, for the insulted 
 majesty of God, should yet dread to make a public 
 confession of it's belief in His Providence. (Matt. 
 X. 32. 33. — Mark viii. 38.) If a people had no 
 o^'ier cause for public humiliation than that an insi- 
 nuation of unbelief in the providence of God were^ 
 here and there, hazarded beneath the seeming sanc- 
 tion of authority,^ we should see abundant cause 
 
 * Circumstanses transpired, during the Author's late absence from 
 St. John's, which may appear to fix upon this expression an appli- 
 cation to the individual who was, up to the last few days, adminis- 
 tering the Government of this Island. The circumstances are these : 
 A tract entitled *' Reflections on Cholera Spasmodica" was pub- 
 lished m St. John's late in July or early in August. It was inscribed 
 by its Author to His Iionor Richard Alexander Tucker, the 
 President ; and its first page exhibited the autholity under which it 
 Lad been composed, in the following Letter : 
 
 « Secretary s Office, 1 1^/t July, 1832. 
 
 " Sir, — Tlie President feeling strongly the advantage it >vould be 
 to the Inhabitants of the Ports of this Island who are destitute of 
 medical assistance, io be apprized of the symptoms usually attending 
 the first stage of Cholera, and of some of the most simple and ap- 
 proved rules of treatment, — and aware of the very great value which 
 would attach to any publication on this subject coming from you, — • 
 Las directed me to request you will have the goodness to compile a 
 small tract pointing out such symptoms and the best mode of treat- 
 ment, to be published and circulated in all parts of the Colony. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c. 
 
 (Signed) " Jas. Crovvdy, Secy. 
 
 « To Dr. Cabson." 
 In the next page of this treatise, AvhicL was avowedly coih; iled un- 
 der the direction of His Honor the President that it might bo " pub- 
 lished and circulated in all parts of the Colony," the following very 
 dangerous sentence is found : " This disease through our ignorance 
 Las been viewed as a mysterious visitation of Providence : and sci- 
 ence, too often forgetting its own dignity, has fostered whilst it 
 should have dissipated the illusion." It is only an act of justice, 
 however, to the excellent individual who was, at the time, adminis- 
 tering the Government, to say, that it is impossible that any who 
 know him could read this sentence, thus ushered into the world 
 beneath the apparent sanction of His Honor's name, with any other 
 feelings than tliose of regret and of sympathy with this estimable 
 person, that his confidence should have been so sadly misplaced. — • 
 The known character of our late President forbidb the supposition 
 
I 
 
 12 
 
 for deep humiliation, for self-examination, for fast- 
 ing — and for prayer. 
 
 The whisper of such unbelief put fofth at the very 
 moment when it was threatened with the visitation 
 of the Almighty's wrath, and when it needed His 
 blessing upon the counsels of it's officers of health, 
 might be just that drop which was required to fill 
 the cup of a people's iniquity, and to bring down 
 upon it the lightning of God's anger ! 
 
 The feeling of the Christian when his God is de- 
 nied or insulted, however, is lot a feeling of anger 
 against the individual who shall have thus shocked 
 his sensibilities. Let us never forget this. His feel- 
 ing is one of indignation against the blasphemy. 
 His zealous affection is in a cause so good, that he 
 might be angry in it and not sin, — (Gal. iv. 18. — 
 Ephes. IV. 26.) ^mt it is not in anger, — it is in love, 
 and in the spirit of meekness, that he would pray 
 for those who do not acknowlege God in His judg- 
 ments that they may be brought to a better mind 
 and into the way of truth. # In charity he would 
 pray himself — and commend his unhappy brother to 
 the prayers of those who believe, that ne may yet be 
 brought to experience the comfort which the Chris- 
 tian derives from the assurance that, in every thing 
 which befals him, God intends for him a lesson of 
 correction — of encouragement, or of warning, — and 
 that, in the end of life, he may experience the con- 
 solations of that faith which alone can cheer the 
 passage to the grave. 
 
 It is now time, my Brethren ! that allusion should 
 be made to a recent calamity which has arrested, for 
 a moment, those feelings of awe which had before 
 
 timt he could have perused the manuscript of the pamphlet thus 
 inec.ibed to him. Had he seen it^ we are assured that he would 
 liave exclaimed, with that generous Christian enthusiasm for which 
 he is remarkahle, Non tali auxilio, non defensoribus istis 
 Tempus eget ! 
 
 * See Third Collect for Good Friday. 
 
 bee 
 drej 
 
et thus 
 would 
 which 
 
 S ISTIS 
 
 13 
 
 been absorbed by the dread of pestilence, and by the 
 dread of the effects of that Divine anger which 
 might most righteously ensue upon prevailing god- 
 lessness and Goo-denying blasphemies. 
 
 My hearers have too frequently suffered by the 
 devouring element of fire to make it necessary that 
 I should describe to them the particulars of distress 
 which I gathered, on my late visit of inquiry upon 
 the spot, — nor need I picture the harrowing scene 
 of desolation which that ill-fated town now presents : 
 up to an hour beyond noon each house could offer 
 tne attractions of it's domestic hearth, — trade was 
 busy — and there was the prospect that such tem- 
 poral blessings might be prolonged, — but, before 
 the sun had set, a withering spell had passed over 
 the fair scene. In the place of a closely peopled 
 street was a scorched and blackened field. — The 
 eye of the stranger searched for some well-remem- 
 bered dwelling — the seat of former hospitalities, — 
 but it fell on desolate vacancy : it searched for the 
 sacred building within whose walls he had joined in 
 prayer and praise with those who would now find 
 comfort in such an assembly — who would, in such a 
 place, acknowlege the justice of God and depre- 
 cate His further judgments. That church, too, was 
 no more ! — There is no temple now in which our 
 Brethren may there pour forth their sorrows into 
 the ear of God. — They have no altar before which 
 they may bow themselves in deep humiliation, in 
 penitence and prayer." Alas ! the very first thought 
 which occurred to the minds of many who were thus 
 suddenly deprived of those treasures which had hi- 
 therto drawn their minds too much from God — mav 
 have been — O that I should ever have fixed my heart 
 so intensely on trifles such as these. Now will I look 
 for treasures more substantial, I will now bend my 
 steps to the Church which I have slighted. I will 
 now listen to those truths to vhich^ in my prospe- 
 rity, I turned a deaf ear ; 
 
14 
 
 Why more sliould I on worthless toys 
 
 With anxious cares attend ? 
 On Thee alone my future hope 
 
 Shall ever, Lord ! depend. 
 
 Ps. xxxix. 7. 
 
 His steps are directed to the plgice where God's 
 
 honor dwelt; but that church invites him, with 
 
 it's open doors, no more ! 
 
 Now, you, my Brethren! are called to work 
 together with God. He has touched the hearts of 
 many there by this affliction : you may help them 
 to rear a building in which they may, hereafter, 
 praise God for this very affliction beneath which 
 they now are groaning. (Heb. xii. 11.) 
 
 These desolating scourges shew us, indeed, the 
 power of God. They strengthen our belief in 
 the retributions of a future state. When we ob- 
 serve that one ruin involves equally the righteous 
 and the wicked, we are reminded of the sentence 
 of Revelation, that the Lord chastens those whom 
 He loves (Heb. xii. 6) ; and that the day of Judg- 
 ment, in which the discriminating doom of the 
 righteous and of the wicked shall be finally awar- 
 ded, has its dawn in another world. Such calamities, 
 however, have another religious use. They afford ex- 
 ercise for Christian sympathy ; they call forth those 
 godlike feelings of charity which, when they spring 
 from a proper motive and are directed to a proper 
 end, help to fit those who entertain them for Hea- 
 ven, These feelings, however, might never be 
 called into lively exercise, if there were no suffering 
 in this lower world— no distress— no disease— no 
 persecution— no penury— no pain. 
 
 It is a part of our moral discipline that frequent 
 claims should be made upon such sympathy* —fre- 
 quent appeals to our love of our fellow-men. Whoso 
 hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have 
 need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from 
 him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? — 
 (I. John III. 17.) 
 
 rec 
 
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 ,se— no 
 
 15 
 
 Let us look, then, upon this calamity which haiS 
 recently befallen our neighbours, (a calamity, be it 
 remembered, to which ourselves are, each moment, 
 liable !J Let us look on it as a call upon us that 
 we shew forth our Christian liberality. 
 
 The reflection on the sad state of those who arc 
 deprived, for the present, of the means of worship- 
 ping God in their own temple, should lead you to 
 make use of such advantages while you yourselves 
 possess them, and while you flock to these sacred 
 walls, to pour forth your prayers for the averting of 
 the pestilence — or for consolation to the houseless — 
 or the conversion of the unbelieving, — do not forget 
 that one of the duties of a season of humiliation^ 
 such as this, is that you be liberal of your substance, 
 that you contribute, according to your ability, to the 
 alleviation of your neighbor^ distress and to the 
 promotion of the honor of God. The promptness 
 with which relief has been extended to the general 
 suffering has been very creditable to you. But it 
 would be far from creditable — it would argue that 
 you place very little value yourselves upon the 
 means of grace — and that you pay little regard to 
 the honor of your God, — if the store and the wharf, 
 the dwelling and the workshop, should be re- 
 erected, while the temple of the Lord should still 
 be an heap of ruins. 
 
 Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses, 
 and this house lie waste ? says the Prophet. These 
 ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 
 undone. (Hag. i. 4 — Luke xi. 42.) 
 
 On my conscience I believe — (though the feeling, 
 I am aware, belongs to a former generation) — I 
 believe that a true Christian, .n the desolation of his 
 own house and of the house of God, would set him 
 to the restoration of the house of God before he 
 applied to the restoration of his own ! 
 
 Sanctify your bounty, then, by giving to a portion 
 of it this sacred destination. 
 
I 
 
 Have you ever, in tho time of deep dIsfVess, foUnd 
 Coiiilbrt in the House of Prayer ? If sudden cala- 
 mity should, at this time, overtake you, — if this aw- 
 ful scourge* which is hurryin;^ its thousands to the 
 tomb, should, indeed, in the wise Providence of 
 God, batfle the means which we are putting forth 
 for its prevention, and visit this healthy island,—^ 
 to what place would you first betake yourselves ? 
 Would you not tiy to the mercy-seat ?--- Would you 
 not i£0 to the hallowed Font at which you and your 
 children had been dedicated to God, and there pray 
 for your own safety and for their's ? — Would you not 
 fly to THi; Altak before which you had made the 
 vow of alfection to the partner of your heart, and 
 there pray that the mercy of God might overshadow 
 you both, aiul that the bonds of your holy union 
 might not be thus vi<*lently torn asunder ? — Would 
 you not go to the place at which you knelt, at the 
 season of Confirmation, and dedicated yourselves 
 anew to God, and received the sign of His protec- 
 tion in the benediction and prayers of one of your 
 spiritual Fathers, — and there beg pf your Heavenly 
 Father that He would correct His children, but with 
 judgment; not in His anger, lest He bring you to 
 nothing ? (Jer. x. 24.) 
 
 Next to your closet you would wish to have con- 
 tinual access to this place. It would excite within 
 your hearts a deeper, sadder feeling of desolation, 
 —(were it not for the strong exercise of faith, your 
 disappointment might lead you, almost, to doubt 
 whether God would be still propitious to your pray- 
 ers,) — if, under circumstances of distress, you should 
 find, in the place of the sanctuary, only one bare 
 field of scorched level — ^only broken tombs, and 
 other mementoes of that fiery scene, and of that 
 blackness of darkness, which shall be the doom of 
 those who do not confess and call upon the Lord. 
 
 I have described the precise situation, and, I 
 doubt not that, in very many cases, I have de- 
 
 ?or 
 cai 
 A 
 com 
 
mft 
 
 17 
 
 scribed, also, precisely, the feeling, of those whqse^ 
 cause it is my painful duty now to plead before you. 
 A series of unsuccessful years,---an unexpected 
 commercial failure,— had plunged many of these 
 our neighbors to the very borders of poverty. An 
 awful pestilence was so dreaded by them, that those 
 precautionary measures had been resorted to, which, 
 if resort be had to them without prayer, at the same 
 time, to God, and religious humiliation, must convict 
 us of practical atheism. At such a monient a de^ 
 vouring conHagration takes from some hundreds of 
 individuals, the habitation which had shielded them 
 from the storm, — ^the couch on which they had re- 
 freshed their toil-worn frames, — the clothing which 
 had been their protection from the winter's bitter- 
 ness. Thev, then, bethink them of the Loud who 
 will hear those who cry to Him. They bethink 
 them, for their consolation, of the pledges of their. 
 Redeemer's love, which they received at the hands 
 of one of the Church's governors, when he dealt 
 to them, lately, from that altar, the bread of life. 
 They think of the deep feeling with which they 
 dedicated their future lives to God, when lately, at 
 Confirmation, they took on themselves the Chris- 
 tian engagements, and were assured, by an authorizec( 
 Minister of Christ, of God's favor and gracious good- 
 ness towards them.'X' They would now Hee to that 
 altar to thank God that they yet live, and to dedi- 
 /Cate the lives, which God has spared, to Him who 
 has, they are convinced, afflicted them in mercy. 
 
 But — alas! they are desolate ; — and though their 
 vshepherd is, in mercy, spared them, to be still their 
 friend, their counsellor, and earthly comforter, — • 
 they are bereft of that place of meeting which is 
 endeared to thom by a thousand delightful associa- 
 
 *Seventy-spven persons were Confirmed by the Right Reverend 
 Bishop Inglts, at the Churcli of Harbour-Grace, on the 8th of July. 
 On the 18th of August it was totally consumed in the short space 
 of one hour. 
 

 0^*' 
 
 18 
 
 iiorisi In that place of meetiiig tlioy met not only 
 their fellow-vVorshippors ; — ^they may meet them 
 now : They met not only their fellow-sinner, the 
 Minister of Gon ; — they may meet iiim now : — But 
 they met God Himself, in whose name, and hy 
 whose authority, our ministrations are all ( •>n(lu('te(J^ 
 fend they were refreshed with His presence in such 
 manner, an<I in such decree, as in no other plac^ 
 than in the Lord's own house can they expect to 
 he refreshed. O aid them, my Brethren, in their 
 holy resolution to think early, to think llrst, of thti 
 service of Goo and of the decencies of His worship 
 before they gather around them again the comforts 
 or the luxuries of life. 
 
 Show them with how deep a sympathy members 
 of the same body can mourn with their fellow-mem-s 
 hers in the time of mourning — and how cheerfully 
 they can make a sacritice, if need should be, of some 
 personal present comfort, that they may extend to 
 others the blessed, the lasting, privileges of the faith 
 in which they stand, and in which they trust to 
 die. 
 
 Now imto the great Shei^herd and Bjsiiop op 
 OUR Souls, who has purchased us with His own 
 most precious blood ; — unto our Heavknly Father^ 
 the maker and preserver of all things ; — and unto 
 The Holy Spirit of grace and consolation and 
 counsel ; — three persons, of equal nature and power, 
 in one everlasting Godhead, be ascribed all glory 
 and adoration and praise, henceforth and for 
 even 
 
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 ir-"<#*w*wt.»' 
 
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 O Almighty God! VVtjo, by tlie many Instances bf moHaUiy 
 whicli encompass us on every side, dost call upon us seriously 
 to consider the shortness of our time here upon earth, and remind us 
 that, in the midst of life, we are in death, so teach us to number our 
 days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Give us grace td 
 turn unto Thee witii timely repentance, and thus to obtain, through 
 the merits of our Savioi*, that pardon today which tomorrow it may 
 be too late to seek for ; that so, being strengthened by Thy good 
 Spirit against the terrors of death, and daily advancing in godliuessii 
 We njay, at all times, be ready to give up our Souls into Thy liands, 
 O gracious Father ! in the hope df a blessed immortality, through thd 
 bediat'^m and for thd merits of JesUs Christ our LohD. ^wltn. 
 
 TURN i'Hbu us, O Gboi) Lono, and so shftU we be turned. — 
 Be favourable, O Lord, be favourable to Thy people, who 
 turn to Thee in weeping, fasting, and ptliying. For Thou art a mer- 
 ciful God, full bf corapassibo, Ibng-suifering, and of great pity. Thou 
 sparest wlien we deserve punishment, and inTliy wrath thinkest upon 
 hrercy. Spare Tliy- people^ good Lord, Jpare tiiero, and let not I'himd 
 heritage be brought to confusion. Hear us, O Lord, for Thy mercy 
 is great, and after the multitude of Thy mercies look upon us ; through 
 the merits and mediation of Thy blessed Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
 
 O Almighty God ! who, in Thy wrath, didst send a plagud 
 upon Thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate 
 rebellion against Moses and Aaron ; and, also, in the time of King^ 
 David, didst slay, with tlie plague of pestilence, threescore and ten 
 thousand, and yet, remembering Thy mercy, didst save the rest ;— 
 Have pity upon those of our fellow-r ;jtures who are now visited 
 with great sickness and mortality ; t' <u ^i' a as Thou didst, theii> 
 {accept of an atonement, «nd didst r« ; r d the destroying angel to 
 cease from punishing, so if ;nay now j ease Thee to withdraw from 
 our suifering fellow-creatures, and to avert from us, this plague and 
 grievous sickness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amtn. 
 

 ■^ i*i: 
 
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 L03D ! unafflicte^, undism&y^l, 
 In pleasure's path how loug I stray 'd , 
 But Thou hast made nie feel Thy rod, 
 And turn'd my soul to Thee, my God ' 
 
 What ilip' it pierc'd my fainting Wart, 
 1 bless Thy h^nd which caus'd the smart ; 
 Ittaugfht my tears awhile to flow> 
 But sav'd me frotn eternal wo I 
 
 ! had'st thou l^ft nie unchastii'^, . 
 Thy precepts I had stil I (re«piB*c^ 
 
 And fltijl the spare in secret laid 
 H^d ray unwary Teet betray'd. 
 
 1 love Thy shasteniog^i O my Gob ^^ 
 They |ix my hopes on 'I hy abode ; 
 Where in Thy presence fully blest, 
 Thy.iH¥ioken saints for eyer rf^st. 
 
 
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