As it regards the reproof administered on page 243, it should be remarked that the author has carefully avoided answering the inquiries of those who have been anxious to identify its recipient. This is wholly unnecessary to the end in view, and would defeat it. And even should he be misinformed upon the matter,―inasmuch as the conduct reprobated is not of impossible occurrence, or unrecorded in history,—the public exhibition of its sinfulness may not be unnecessary.

It was thought the author was rather strong in his judgment upon the vessel and her commander. As he was one of the committee of investigation already referred to, he was, through that evidence now before the public, enabled to express more strongly the fears of his own mind; though it will be perceived he still leaves, and wishes to leave, the conduct of the captain open to any possible justification.

Praying that God may bless this Sermon to the promotion of His glory, and the salvation of men, it is confided to that powerful and ever living preacher-the Press-by

THE AUTHOR.

THE VOICE OF GOD IN CALAMITY.

LUKE XIII. 1-5.

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering. said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

WE have been called upon, my brethren, to hear during the past week, a tale of no ordinary sadness, and to witness calamity of no common or usual endurance. No enemy has been among us, to lay waste and destroy. No plague or pestilence have stalked through our city, brandishing around them the sword of death. Famine has not opened her wide and hungry jaws with earth-quake rapacity. No huricane has burst upon us with the fury of a midnight assassin, nor has the thunder's bolt riven our peaceful habitations. None of these things have happened. There has been among us neither open enemy, nor plague, pestilence or famine, nor yet the fury of the whirlwind and the thunder.

Whence then that pall of sadness which has covered this entire community? Whence that deep and universal sympathy which has taken possession of every heart? Whence that eager, anxious solicitude to hear fresh tidings of alarm? Whence those sounds of lamentation and weeping and great mourning-parents weeping for their children, and wives for their husbands, and friends for their relatives, and all refusing to be comforted because they are not. One subject has entered into every conversation, and suggested the inquiry to every meeting friend. What news of the boat? sounded from every parlour. What news of the boat was heard in every dwelling, and at the corner of every street.

And now we have subsided into the certain and unquestionable belief, that above ninety individuals, several of them our fellow townsmen, and all of them our countrymen, have been swallowed up as in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and perished in the mighty waters. The flood opened and they sunk like lead into its depths. And the sea returned in his strength and overthrew them, and the waters covered them— there remained not so much as one of all that hapless number. They now lie, cold and stiff in death, buried by the sea shore, 16-VOL. V.

where the roar of its illimitable waters will chant their funeral dirge. There they alike repose, having lain down together, to wake no more until they hear that trumpet's voice which will arouse the dull cold ear of death. There are the old and the young-the infirm and the robust the rich, and they who struggled hard in the toils of life. There is the mother and her infant babe-the husband and his long tried bosom partnerthe friend and the friendless. And there are too the talented and accomplished. One grave protects them; the same earth covers them: past them will flow the same waters, and around them will howl the same wintry tempests.

One fortnight since, and how many hearts now stiffened in death, beat high with expectation! One fortnight since, and how many homes now desolate, and forever to remain so, were filled with the hope and the promise of anticipated delight! Separations were to be soon terminated, and torn hearts bound up. The social circle was soon to be enlivened, and its vacant chairs filled up by their accustomed tenants. The festivities and merriment of the approaching season, were already wakened up; and forms now vanished, were seen rejoicing amid the splendours of the scene.

My brethren, we can see this multitude of fellow-beings, as they crowded on board that packet which was to restore them to their own sweet homes. We can accompany them as they cheerfully endured all the trials of their way, in the glad promise of a speedy voyage. We can enter into their fears, as they heard the wind roar around them, preluding storm and tempest. We can sympathise with their distress when they saw the curling, topping waves roll on the increasing fury of the gale, and the darkening heavens shut out the cheerful light of sun, and moon, and stars. We can weep with them, when they remembered home, and children, and friends, and felt that they were theirs, probably, no more. *We can more than fancy their anguish, when the ship began to yield to the strokes of the battering waves; when the water, no longer kept without, forced its entrance; when they were driven from their cabins, now filling with the devouring element; when the machinery, enveloped in the rising waters, could no longer play; when their failing strength was no more able to keep at bay the advancing flood; when the lowering shades of night deepened the gloom of the tempest; and when, in the hopefulness of relief, they welcomed the fearful hazard of running themselves ashore, amidst the breakers, and taking chance among the ruins of the shattered hull.

*The author, with his family, were among those who, through the misconduct and injustice of those interested, were involved in all the sufferings and loss consequent upon the wreck of the William Gibbons.

But who can paint the scene of misery which now presented itself? Who can conceive the horrors of that awful hour, when, having struck the shore, a multitude were at once swept by the irresistible billows, into the dark and foaming ocean; when the boat, filled with those who were willing to make trial of the fearful hazard, was seen emptying its contents into the insatiate waters; when, amid the sepulchral tolling of the bell, the ship herself was seen rapidly cleaving in pieces before the omnipotence of the storm; and, one after another, was torn from his place of fancied security, and whirled into the eddying rush of waters. This is a scene, which fancy may attempt to picture, but which cannot be truly imagined even by the fevered mind of those who were so wonderfully delivered from it.*

And, my brethren, wherefore do I again harrow up your feelings by the sad recital of this woful calamity? Why do I carry you to that night of storm and darkness, and terror, and cause you to hear the shrieks of the drowning suppliant, and the groans of those who were sinking for the last time into the yawning deep? Does not God speak to us from amid this whirlwind? Is He not seen riding upon the storm? Is He not heard uttering forth his voice, and calling upon all the ends. of the earth, to hear what God the Lord would say unto them? And shall we not give attention; and shall we not hear; and shall we not obey? "Despise not the chastening of the Lord. If we regard not the works of the Lord, and the operations of his hands, he will destroy us and not build us up. When the judgments of the Lord are abroad in the earth, let the inhabitants thereof learn righteousness." We have heard, it hath been told us, that of the few who are left to tell the tale of this terrible disaster, one has been heard to make merriment even of its suffering and distracted victims; and because his judgment slumbereth a little, to set his heart fully within him to pursue a course of thoughtlessness and unbelief. He that being thus warned, and thus summoned to repentance, "hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." He shall be "swept away as with a besom of destruction." Hear the words of the Lord, "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O

*Close by me, says one of the survivors, stood a woman with her child, and as she hung on the wreck with one hand and her darling in the other, a surf came and washed her child from her; and such was her delirious agony, that she leaped, and with a most pitiful scream, cried out, "O my child," and disappeared forever. Professor Nott, it is said, stood by his wife, who clung fondly to him. The steam pipe falling, crushed Mrs. Nott, and while he was making efforts to relieve her, they were both together washed overboard.

Israel: and beacause I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God."*

My brethren, as the interpreter of the will of heaven, I have endeavoured to find out the meaning of that hand writing which the finger of God has traced upon this awful calamity. The following lessons, among others perhaps, seems to us very powerfully inculcated. May God impress them on every heart here present, to their salvation and his own glory.

If the providence of God in this world were administered on the principle of perfect retribution, so that of every man it might be said, he is rewarded or punished according to his deserts; then the argument of those to whom our Saviour addressed the language of our text would be correct. It would also be appropriately directed against the sufferers in this catastrophe, and we might, assuredly, conclude of each and all of them, that they were sinners above all others. But this argument of the Pharisees Christ repudiates; its principle he denies; its assumptions he contradicts; and the pointed lesson he directs to their own hearts, saying, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." At present we see the ways of God through a glass darkly. We cannot fathom the depths of his infinite will, or scan the wisdom of his infinite designs. In this present state of being, we see but parts of his ways. We hear his footsteps, and listen to his voice, but He himself remains hid in his own invisible and incomprehensible obscurity. What we know not now we shall know hereafter, when before an assembled universe, he will "vindicate Eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man." This terrible visitation does not then brand a character of necessary evil upon those who are its unhappy sufferers. Doubtless to some, it did ring the knell of eternal justice, and call up "a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation;" but to others, it may have only rent asunder the chains of their mortality, and emancipated their ransomed spirits from the hard bondage of sin and sorrow. This calamity has to do with the living rather than the dead. To us it addresses itself-us it admonishes and warns. For, except we repent, we shall as surely, and as irremedially, and eternally, perish.

And what does this calamity teach us? Does it not, in the first place, demonstrate the severity of God? We are all ready enough to believe in the existence of a God all merciful and generous, the giver only of good and pleasant gifts, and whose thoughts and purposes are wholly beneficent; but we are all unwilling to believe in a God just as well as good-righteous as well as kind-powerful as well as merciful-and severe as well as pitiful. Behold then in this event the severity, as well as

*Amos iv. 11, 12.