nations of the earth, filling them with terror, and transforming populous and extensive districts into "the valley of the shadow of death; yet we have to refer to such an extraordinary concurrence of recent visitations, and those of a nature so fearfully calamitous and distressing, as places it beyond a doubt, that God has a controversy with us. The voice of God has spoken in thunder. The Divine hand has applied the rod again and again. It is easy to perceive that our nation has been torn and smitten by some mighty Hand; that the elements have been moved by some mysterious power, kindled with the energies of Divine wrath. Think, how desolating winds have swept round our coasts, occasioning incalculable losses of property and of life, and that, too, with such a continuance, and at periods so unusual, as clearly to indicate that the hand of God was in it. Think how pestilence has swept away our cattle by thousands and tens of thousands; think of therenewed visitation of the cholera, which has occasioned death in so many dwellings, filling them with lamentation and woe; of the immense destruction of property by fires and inundations of the most afflictive character; of the embarrassments which have occurred in the commercial circles, by which thousands have been suddenly smitten with the blight of adversity. God has visited us also in our foreign possessions. Advert to the destructive fire in Quebec, by which nearly thirty thousand persons were deprived of their dwellings, their property, their clothing, and left exposed, in a state of destitution, to the inclemency of a Canadian winter; to the hurricane which, with such destructive and irresistible fury, swept over the Bahamas, overthrowing churches, chapels, buildings of every description, producing a general wreck, both on sea and land. To these calamities

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must be added the famine which has befallen a considerable portion of our Indian possessions, by which more than twenty thousand of the natives have perished, and sufferings not to be described have been entailed.

That the hand of God is to be recognised in these events cannot, it is presumed, admit of a doubt. If we believe in God at all as the Governor of the universe, we must believe that nothing occurs by chance; were He to resign the reins of the universe, and suffer other powers and influences to interfere with His administration, the result would be universal anarchy, disorder, and ruin. Many, indeed, there are, who never look beyond natural causes; though constantly surrounded by proofs of Divine power and energy, yet they live without God in the world. They behold, it is true, the changes which are perpetually taking place; but they mark only the operation of external causes, they stop at the surface of things. The enlightened and pious observer looks with other eyes:

as

"He sees a Hand they cannot see,

And hears a Voice they cannot hear."

True philosophy never excludes God from the government of the world, nor from the administration of its affairs. "The Lord reigneth," is the dictate of sound reason, as well the declaration of Scripture. Whatever sicknesses or calamities waste and destroy, they have received their commission from Him. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these things." "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ?" Let us see to it, then, that we bring not upon ourselves the woe which is denounced against those who "regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands." When witnessing the

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distressing events of the times, let us dwell not on second causes; but realize in them the chastening hand of God, and inquire wherefore He contendeth with us, and what He would have us to do? Is it then asked, "Why has God smitten us ?" The answer is, because "for our sins He is justly displeased." We have provoked Him by our iniquities, and have only to wonder that we have not had national ruin instead of national chastisement,-that we have not had midnight darkness instead of partial gloom. In proof that the chastisements we have received are punitive, let us look at the—

State of the professing people of God. While in the visible Church there is much that deserves commendation, and calls for thankfulness, there is, nevertheless, much to cause us to mourn in sackcloth. Have we not in our Established Church a wide-spread attempt, on the one hand, to introduce the leading errors and practices of Popery; and, on the other, to propagate a subtle philosophical scepticism, which questions the inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures, and denies the Divinity of Christ, and the reality of His atonement; and this, too, by Ministers,-O shameless anomaly !-who hold their livings under the express stipulation of maintaining the doctrines of the Reformation, those glorious doctrines which our forefathers handed down to us by the sacrifice of property, liberty, and life. Then is there not among Christians generally, a lack of that decided distinction which ought ever to exist between the citizens of earth and the citizens of heaven ? The spirit of the world has too obviously entered the Church, and the consequence is a decay of vital piety, a laxity of moral principle, an eager grasping after wealth, a love of display, a relish for worldly society, worldly conversation, worldly

pleasures and pursuits; and, as these prevail, their influence is seen by an indifference to spiritual privileges, neglect of the means of grace, a lack of zeal and self-denial.

Advert also to the state of our population at large.-Never, perhaps, has a nation been favoured with a greater degree of prosperity than that which our own has enjoyed for the last twenty years. New inventions and improvements have facilitated the acquisition of wealth to an unparalleled extent; and it has poured in upon us from the four quarters of the globe. We might have expected that such blessings would have called forth a grateful acknowledgment of God's goodness; but, alas! the very favours He has conferred upon us have only served to alienate our hearts from Him, and, while He has loaded us with His benefits, we have forgotten the Benefactor. Of too many it may be said, that, the more they have been blessed, the more ungodly they have become. Among our merchants and tradesmen there has been a determination to be rich, which has often led to speculations the most hazardous and unjustifiable, involving, by their failure, numberless innocent victims in ruin and destitution. Among the workingclasses, with the improvement of their condition, there has been a growing disposition to licentiousness, a recklessness of expenditure, a miserable exchange of home-comforts for the boisterous mirth and intemperance of the public-house, a restlessness and dissatisfaction with their condition, an envious dislike of those above them, and an increasing struggle for mastery and domination. Whilst among all classes the general characteristic is an habitual neglect of God and eternal things. With many the private duties of religion are treated with practical contempt: family religion is altogether disregarded; and in public

but a small proportion render homage to that God in whom they "live, and move, and have their being." In the ordinary pursuits of life, multitudes seem to have formed the determination, that religion shall not be named, that God shall not be acknowledged. Everywhere there is an absorbing and vehement pursuit of the world, its possessions, honours, pleasures; and there is presented to our view the sad spectacle of millions crowding rapidly along their earthly path as if they had no death to suffer, no judgment to receive, no soul to save, no hell to escape, no heaven to gain.

In the character of national sins which are especially offensive to God, Sabbath-breaking is conspicuous. Whether we consider the higher or the lower classes, there seems a common agreement that God shall have no time of honour whatever, and that, having given to man six days, He shall be robbed of the seventh. Witness our railway-excursions, our open shops, news-rooms, publichouses, and places of amusement; our infested streets, and haunts of public resort; the brutal merriment of lust and drunkenness, so common on the evening of the Lord's day. Now, it is an established fact, that, in proportion as a nation neglects and abuses the Sabbath, irreligion and profaneness are strengthened; disregard of the laws of God, and therefore, necessarily, of the laws of man, is superinduced, and it recedes further and further from its obedience to God, and belief of His word. It is well understood, that the total neglect of the Lord's day, in papal France, tended, more than any other act of irreligion, to prepare the minds of the people for the horrors of the French Revolution, and the abominations connected with the worship of the "Goddess of Reason."

The extent of profaneness, and in

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creasing habits of drunkenness, must also be named.-Is it not true, that "because of swearing the land mourneth?" Is it not equally apparent, that intemperance is one of the crying sins that prevail, and the fruitful source of almost every other species of crime? For other and darker sins, of which there is an evident multiplication, I refer you to the records of our police and courts of law; and, when you have surveyed the length and breadth of the moral sphere around you, say whether we have not just reason to conclude, that the calamities with which we have been visited are certain proofs that because of our sins God is "justly displeased."

God is long-suffering to every man; "He willeth not the death of a sinner: these are standing maxims of His government. He gives to every one, therefore, leisure for repentance, the opportunity of becoming reconciled; but, when His long-suffering is abused, after a certain limit is reached, then He fails not to avenge His despised forbearance and mercy. The parable of the unprofitable fig-tree stands not only as an emblem of the Jews, but an emblem of every nation,-an emblem of every individual. God planted it, watered it, came to seek fruit upon it, found none; did not hasten then to cut it down, but allowed of intercession, multiplied the means of fruitfulness; and only when all these were unavailing, was the tree cut down, and cast into the fire. So the avenging sword of Joshua was not unsheathed against the Canaanites till their iniquity was filled up, and they had rejected the special visitations of God. Again in the case of the Jews who crucified the Lord of life and glory, a long space intervened between His crucifixion and the final destruction of Jerusalem, during which the Gospel was offered to them, and they were entreated to

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embrace it. He "endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction;" but at last God vindicated the truth of His word, and made their punishment the more conspicuously in accordance with their aggravated offences. Sooner or later, God will avenge Himself upon unrepenting sinners, and this is alike true of a nation and of an individual. "Let him that hath ears to hear," listen and understand: "he that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

A SURE PAYMASTER. "My Lord Cardinal," said Anne of Austria, the Queen of France, to her implacable enemy, Cardinal Richelieu, "My Lord Cardinal, there is one fact which you seem to have entirely forgotten,-God is a sure Paymaster. He may not pay at the end of every week, or month, or year; but I charge you remember that He pays in the end."

This is a comforting and an appalling truth; comforting to some, appalling to others. To those who are now toiling for God, in a course of self-denial and sacrifice-comforting; to those who are going, in opposition to His law and their consciences, in the paths of transgression appalling. Both shall have their pay; the wages of one in blessed rewards; the wages of the other in sore judgments: for "God is a sure Paymaster." "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life : but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil." "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of

the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

SABBATH-MORNING.

LIGHT of lights, enlighten me now anew ; the day is dawning;

Sun of grace, the shadows flee; brighten Thou my Sabbath-morning:

With Thy joyous sunshine blest, happy is my day of rest.

Fount of all our joy and peace, to Thy living waters lead me;

Thou from earth my soul release, and with grace and mercy feed me; Bless Thy word, that it may prove rich in fruits that Thou dost love. Kindle Thou the sacrifice that upon my lips is lying;

Clear the shadows from mine eyes, that, from every error flying,

No strange fire may in me glow, that Thine altar doth not know.

Let me with my heart to-day, "Holy, holy, holy," singing, all my

Rapt awhile from earth away,

soul to Thee upspringing, Have a foretaste inly given how they worship Thee in heaven.

Rest in me and I in Thee; build a paradise within me ;

O reveal Thyself to me, blessed Love, who diedst to win me:

Fed by Thine exhaustless urn, pure and bright my lamp shall burn. Hence all care, all vanity, for the day to God is holy;

Come, Thou glorious Majesty, deign to fill this temple lowly; Nought to-day my soul shall move, simply resting in Thy love. -Lyra Germanica.

THE SEA-LOCHS OF SCOTLAND.

THE West of Scotland, with its jagged and fantastic coast-line, its islands, its rocks, and its mountains, is one of the most interesting portions of the British Isles. While the poet sings its legends, and the artist revels in its grand com

binations of scenery, the geologist, who explores it, finds an inexhaustible field for study, and inquiry, and wonder, and has to build up many theories to account for the striking phenomena around him. A world's history has been written on these rocks, if he could only read it; and forces that have been at work for ages reveal themselves to the earnest student. These studies have received a new impetus of late, and the geology of Scotland is at present occupying the attention of many thoughtful minds. But most of us must be content with a superficial acquaintance with these remarkable scenes. While we leave it to the men of science to find out how the granite-masses were upheaved, and what agencies were at work to hollow the beds of the lakes, and the channels that connect them, we can enjoy the magnificent scenery VOL. XIII.-Second Series.

produced by the grouping of the mountains, the ruggedness of the rocks, the windings of the waters.

On

One of the most remarkable features in the Firth of Clyde is "Ailsa Craig." It is an insular rock, upwards of a thousand feet high, rising perpendicularly from the sea. Its base is about two miles in circumference. the western side huge columnar rocks, from six to nine feet in diameter, rise to a height of four hundred feet. On the north, near the water's edge, is a cave about fifty feet long, and thirty feet high. This picturesque craig is the haunt of innumerable water-fowl; but there are traces of other inhabitants. Vestiges of fishermen's huts are to be found in the most accessible parts; and on the summit, near "the beacon," are the ruins of a square tower, of which three stories, all vaulted, yet remain. Nothing