of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." Judgment, however, is the last resort of the King of heaven: at least in its extreme and crushing form. He destroys only those nations that refuse instruction, and obstinately adhere to their impieties, when His goodness should have led them to repentance, and His longsuffering have effected their reformation. National

afflictions are always evidences of national corruptions, and of aggravated guilt: Up to a certain point, however, they are intended as chastenings, and warnings-they are meant to work the cure of the evils which draw down upon them the divine anger-they are merciful expostulations-they occur at intervals-till the day of national, as well as of individual probation, is over. Till then, the judgments befalling nations, are always bounded by some favourable circumstances. They do not alight contemporaneously on a land, as "his four sore judgments" were said to do, for destruction. There are intervals of respite-a large preponderance of good-general prosperity-progress may be traced in the affairs of an empire-ameliorative institutions spring up, to maintain it in vigour, and expansive poweryet, are we never to forget the judicial character of national visitations, even though somewhat ordinary; much less then, the extraordinary and astounding events which have so suddenly burst upon us; and which involve, not one nation only, but the whole family of Europe, in peril and dismay! Surely, if there be truth in the doctrine of a providence, and especially that of the divine sovereignty over nations; the present condition of Europe is a most awakening example of it. The suddenness and magnitude of these events are unparalelled in the history of ancient or modern times. All was peace yesterday-to-day, all is agitation and tumult. Dominion seemed a little while ago

to be firmly seated, "like the great mountains," which "He setteth fast by his power." Kings seemed to sleep upon their thrones, and subjects to look upon their State guardians, and institutions, if not with unmixed complacency-yet with respect; and with no disposition to revolt. The military profession seemed but the lingering relict of a barbarous, and all but forgotten age. History was to record wars, but posterity know none. The form, the material, the science, the holiday pomp of soldiership, were kept up-but the temple of Janus remained closed in Europe so long, that the hinges of its doors seemed too rusty to allow them to be again opened, and itself more likely to be converted into the temple of Concord. How vainly was it imagined that our race verged upon the last golden age of the world, after innumerable centuries of strife, bloodshed, and comparative savagism? Science was henceforth to renew the face of society-commerce to bind the nations for ever into a compact and peaceful brotherhood. Mutual confidence, continual intercourse, friendly converse, ardour for social advancement, national development, and political regeneration, were to become the guarantees for the everlasting tranquility of nations, and triumphantly to usher in the Jubilee of the world! All sciolists, and minute philosophers-all worldly patriots, commercial theorists, and utilitarians of every class, who dreamed every man his dream, or beheld in his vision the image of his wishes-of his interests-or the paradise of his impiety-have suddenly been awakened, as by the shock of an earthquake, to behold in the tottering and paralized condition of a whole continent, the vanity of their imaginations, and the falsity of their predictions. The pride of power, the loftiness of princes, have been suddenly abased. The rulers of the earth have been most affectingly taught the insecurity of thrones, and the shadowness of man, in hi best estate-that there is a Power

which gives power, as well "as life, and calls them to surrender it, at His will.

breath "—and The haughty

prince, who heard the dread oracle, so soon fulfilled-" the kingdom is departed from thee"-was scarcely more grievously abased than have been some potentates within the last few weeks; or taught more loudly the lesson urged upon him, that "The Heavens do rule." How has the sovereignty of God been proclaimed by the sounds of falling thrones, and sovereigns cast into exile, or compelled to make a humiliating compromise with their people-having only left to them a shadow of royalty, a reedlike sceptre-bruised, or broken, by the blasts of popular breath. What rebukes has God uttered to nations for their ingratitude for the blessings of a long and fruitful European peace! Exhausted nations have been recruited-commerce has been prodigiously extended-and the hearts and enjoyments of life have progressed to a degree formerly unknown-yet what have been the returns? Religion has everywhere languished-pride and luxury, covetousness and worldliness, immorality and Sabbathbreaking, have increased fearfully-portending a coming deluge of atheism and wickedness that would sweep religion from the earth. Principles at war with the stability, and even existence of society, have been silently and plentifully sowing, during the long season of general peace-levelling doctrines, which-under the guise of of patriotism and liberty, the dearest names, and, (next to religion,) the best friends of man-disallow all authority, human and divine-have been spread by manifold agency, and with wide success. Now, at once, the harvest is ripe! All lands are big with anarchy, and overspread with the signals of convulsion and ruin. The arts of peace are already supplanted by the habiliments of war. Military millions rise up, as the mighty host from the sod

of the prophetic valley of dry bones, at the breath of these furious winds. The weapons of death are clasped, as the dearest companions of man-the guarantees and and badges of his freedom-his pride, and glory. The world again flies to arms-just as if the experiment were to be for the first time made: and knew not, as Abner said to Joab, that "bitterness was at the latter end" of every appeal to the sword. The shock of present events is felt through the whole frame of society-it thrills from the centre to the circumference of nations. The true interests, the every day business of men, are in abeyance. A rabid fever has taken the place of a healthy actionthe ordinary tone of human sentiment, feeling, and conversation, has given place to a tension of mind bordering on madness. The private citizen, is lost in the huge, monster attributes, of his nationality, and the sudden assumption of those functions which exalt all into kings, but leave no residue as subjects. The transient characters of this strange movement, are perhaps the less to be regarded than its career of probable consequences. We seem to look on breathlessly; as heaven, after a seal has been broken, or a trumpet sounded, to observe its effects— or to anticipate another-and yet another. But whatever may be the results-be they ever so beneficial ultimately— the dispensation cannot be divested of its judicial characters. These are indellibly stamped upon it. God has arisen out of his place, to punish the nations for their iniquities-to break in pieces all the muniments of national glory-to dissolve, as by one touch the compacts which have held the greatest powers together-to toss them as feathers in the blast-to shove them into new and hazardous positions towards each other, and to raise up in some respects a new form of evil-the present contest not being as heretofore between nation and nation, from

the designs of ambition, and the secret intrigues of Courts. Between the rulers of the earth there was never better understanding—a more perfect resting in mutual friendship, and the faith of treaties-when, lo! in a moment the evil rises as from under their feet, and from the bosoms of their own subjects rushes the mighty element which overturns thrones, and transforms the face of the world!

(2.) Providence is not only judicial, but ameliorative. It destroys, in order to rebuild-it plucks up, that it may plant again. Its whole scheme is to counterwork evil, and to educe good from it, in opposition to its own laws. We are to "come and behold what desolations" God "has made in the earth," but we are to behold them in their evangelical connections, never alone. Thus the desolations are the pioneers of beneficial changes-and the work of judgment is to plough the soil, and to prepare it for the sweet husbandry of mercy-as it was, ere our world was as now it is --or when first created-then paradise bloomed, and smiled o'er the ruins of former epochs unchronicled by the hand of man. As the fall-that mightiest desolation-blasted all the virgin vigour and beauty of a new made world—yet was this desolation but the precursor and condition of a sublimer restoration, whose issue was a new and nobler existence to man, redeemed by incarnate Divinitybought off from the penalties of sin, and bought for the highest honours and offices of eternal being. The natural seasons, are the types of the moral. Winter harbingers Spring-and Summer's golden glories await the prelude of vernal showers and suns—the music of awakened naturethe general concert of new-born life, everywhere sportive and vocal. Thus too in personal religion, the translative process is from ruin to restoration-from sorrow to joyfrom the curse to the blessing-and thus too it is ordained that sufferings should perfect the discipline of immortality

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