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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 opv 1 ADDRESS 
 
 TO 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF BURLINGTON 
 
 IN REFERENCE TO THE AWFUL EVENTS OF AUG. 29, 1855. 
 
 A meeting of citizens of Burlington was held in the City Hall, Sept., 
 12, 1855, pursuant to a public call "to give expression to the serious 
 feelings appropriate to tHe impressive and afflicting dispensation of 
 Providence which has recently occurred in our midst." 
 
 After the object of the meeting had been briefly stated by the Chair- 
 man, Dr. J. Howard Pugh, the Rev. F. R. Harbaugh made an eloquent 
 and impressive discourse, and in conclusion moved the appointment 
 of a Committee to draft an Address to the People of Burlington. The 
 Chair appointed Rev. F. R. Harbaugh, Wm. R. Allen, Esq. and Rev. 
 John Reynolds, who withdrew, and on returning reported a docu- 
 ment which was accepted, A spirited and interesting discussion en- 
 sued, which was participated in by Messrs. Harbaugh, Reynolds, AI- 
 linson, Allen, South, Dr. Chalonef^, &c. The discussion of second 
 causes, and every thing intended to cast censure in any direction 
 was excluded, the order of the meeting being decided to be an ex- 
 pression of feeling respecting the event as a dispensation of Divine 
 Providence, with a view of impressing the solemn lessons therein 
 contained. Much regret being expressed that an Exhibition intended 
 to excite merriment, should have been held in the City Hall, at such 
 a season of solemnity and mourning, it was explained that the use of 
 the building had been contracted for before the disaster, and that the 
 Showman having incurred considerable expense, refused to relin- 
 c(uish his claim. 
 
 On motion of Wm. R. Allen, Esq. the Essay of the Committee was 
 referred to a publication Committee composed of the Rev. F. R. Har. 
 baugh, Wm. R. Allen, Rev. Joha Reynolds, George W. South a»d' 
 William J. 4'Ilinson. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah has declared that "when the judg- 
 ments of the Lord are in the earth, the inhabitants of the 
 world will learn righteousness." (Is. 26, 9.) Even now, 
 "His judgments are in all the earth." The eventful history 
 of the present day, most plainly indicates that we are 
 drawing nigh unto some most momentous crisis. "War, 
 Pestilence and Famine, those terrible ministers of desola- 
 tion, are at this hour declaring the messages of the AU- 
 *\Vise God to the children of men. And especially — ^by 
 the local calamity in our midst, has God given to the peo- 
 ple of this community a most solemn and palpable admo- 
 nition. The sudden and violent termination of useful and 
 endeared lives — the number of suffering, maimed and 
 mangled, the intense grief, and irreparable loss felt by many 
 and widely extended circles of relatives and friends, the 
 full extent of which can be known only to Him, who in 
 His inscrutable wisdom, sees fit at times to plead with his 
 creatures "by terrible things in righteousness" — deeply 
 impressed with all the circumstances of the Divine displea- 
 sure, so palpable in the manner and locality of this visitai- 
 tion — and believing that such signal and local judgments of 
 the Almighty, are because of signal and local sin — it be- 
 comes usj in the deepest humility and penitence to prostrate 
 ourselves as a community before God, and supplicate th€ 
 removal of those sins, which are bringing the tokens of. 
 His holy and righteous displeasure so fearfully nigh unto 
 us. It becomes us also to offer our united thanksgiving 
 and praise to God, for the indications of His goodness min- 
 gled with His severity, in sparing^the lives of those of our 
 fellow citizens, who were sharers of such imminent death. 
 
It becomes us also, from the fact of this Divine visitation 
 occurring at our very doorSj acquainting us with scones of 
 mutilation and destruction, until " the whole head is sick, 
 and the whole heart is faint," thronging our houses with 
 the dead and dying— filling our streets with the mourners 
 — all these circumstances, so affecting in themselves, so 
 impressive because ordained by God for wise and good pur- 
 poses, we feel call loudly upon us as a sinful and warned 
 community, to turn speedily in repentance and faith to our 
 holy Redeemer and Intercessor, before the infliction of our 
 chastisement come upon us. 
 
 The people of Burlington deeply sympathize with the 
 sufferers now or recently in our midst — with bereaved 
 wives and husbands, parents and children, and with all 
 who mourn the death or injuries of relatives or friends* 
 That sympathy was promptly shown in deeds of mercy by 
 our inhabitants of every class, without distinction of sex/ 
 occupation or condition in life. We can appeal to one 
 another that our hearts were tendered with sympathy and 
 grief; that the terrible event, to a great extent excluded 
 other subjects from our thoughts, — that we ate our meals 
 sparingly, and with sadness, — and that we had no desire 
 for public shows to excite levity and merriment, to grate 
 harshly upon the feelings of our afflicted visitors, and to 
 turn the thoughts of the people from the impressive lesson 
 and the solemn warning which our heavenly Father had 
 spoken to us all. It has been, therefore, a source of pain," 
 of mortification and deep regret to us, that displays of th© 
 kind should have been broughtj by strangers, at such a 
 time, into this sorrowing community, and that scenes of folly 
 should be enacted in the very building so lately used as a' 
 receptacle for the mutilated dead. We express ourselves 
 on this subject with kindness and tenderness; and we desire 
 
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 to call the attention of the people to the solemnity of life, 
 to the vanity and folly of premeditated mirth, to the loss 
 which the soul sustains from everything that dissipates reli- 
 gious collectedness of mind, to the very subordinate place 
 in life, which those who are wise will assign to mere 
 amusement, and to the fearful condition of all those of 
 whom it may be said that ^'God is not in all their thoughts/' 
 
 In conclusion, we cannot forbear a reference to those 
 who evinced, at this awful moment, that their peace wa^ 
 made with Grod. Who of us has not been impressed with 
 the beautiful confidence of the sufferer who, when stricken 
 with sudden death, calmly declared that his trust was re- 
 posed in his Saviour, and who resigned his life when its ties 
 were strongest, and its prospects fairest, with peace and 
 hope and holy joy. Let his exhortation to his absent 
 friends sink deep in all our hearts — " Tell them to put 
 their trust in the Saviour — tell them not to put off a pre- 
 paration — tell them not to trifle*'* 
 
 " Blessed is that sertant whom his Lord, when he com- 
 eth, shall find so doing/' ^^Be ye also ready, for in such an 
 hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." 
 
 By every incident of this awful event — by the merciful 
 preservation of those who escaped unhurt — by the sudden 
 departure of those who had no time to cry "God be mer- 
 ciful to me, a sinner'' — by the blessedness of those who 
 had their portion in Christ, and whose robes were made 
 white by His atoning blood — by the sparing mercy which 
 has saved us from destruction — and by the warning of 
 impending judgment, we are solemnly admonished to pee- 
 
 PARE TO MEET OUR GOD. 
 
 Printed at the American Office, Burlfiigtdn, N. J. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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