So.

fected in any part of their essential prosperity.-Is it to be called then, once more, a retributive judgment upon individuals, upon those whom it has taken, or those whom it has bereaved? This would be, my hearers, to recognize a principle of divine government unknown, as I think, to Christianity. Individuals are to be rewarded for their obedience, and punished for their sins by positive exertion of divine power, affecting their condition according to revealed laws; but it is not in this world that they are to be Providential visitations affecting our lot in this world, are rightly called judgments indeed, if we carefully limit the word to the sense of divine interpositions, affording occasions for reflection, and means for the improvement of the character; and this they may be to us, if others, as truly as if we ourselves, are the persons whose lot they affect. But retributive judgments they are not. Our retribution is to come in the life beyond the grave. All here is tentative, probationary, designed to improve and so to bless; to improve and bless either the individual by calling him to repentance and amendment; or to improve and bless others by enforcing on them caution to avoid the like sins. What was our Saviour's emphatic language used under like circumstances to those considered? 66 Suppose ye," said he, “that those Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, 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, on whom the tower in Siloam

fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell Nay.”

you,

III. We have thus seen, at some length, on what grounds and in what sense the wide-spread malady under our notice is rightly ranked as one of those divine judgments of which our text speaks. And I have urged this latter point, my hearers, because I apprehend that the idea of its being designed as a specific retribution for specific sins, national or personal, would tend, as far as it should give direction to our thoughts, to distract our thoughts from what ought to be the chief subject of their consideration. Should we entertain that sentiment, our obligation would then appear to confine itself to the searching out, and cleansing ourselves from, the particular sin which had provoked the particular judgment, instead of doing,-what is at once much more to the purpose and more feasible,-giving way to all various reflections on God's relation to us, which it is fitted to excite, and especially extracting from it all lessons of righteousness, which it is especially fitted to convey. It is justly reckoned a judgment of God, not as being a retributive visitation,—this, at all events, we have no right to assume, and we have no way to prove,― but as being an apparent and remarkable divine dispensation, addressing us solemnly, and capable of being turned to account for our improvement and good. When the judgments of God are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world ought to learn righteousness. By way of making this principle practically

useful, let us proceed briefly to consider what are some parts of that righteousness which this particular judgment affords us special occasion or advantages for learning.

1. And first, let me advert in a word to a most desirable improvement in the manners of society, to which the attention of wise and good men has been of late with much determination and publicity directed, and which it seems that the prevailing malady may be expected to promote. Certainly it is not disorderly livers alone, who have hitherto been its victims; on the contrary, numbers of men, of character the most irreproachable, have swelled its melancholy lists. Still, one of the prominent facts belonging to the case is, that among the intemperate its greatest ravages are uniformly witnessed ;-in other words, of the few laws relating to its action, as yet ascertained, this is one, that habits of excess create a distinctive and strong predisposition to it. Here, then, is another calamity added to the long which the inebriate plunges himself; and if the rest, from which he ought to shrink, have lost by familiarity something of their power over his imagination and his fears, it is to be hoped that this, with its novel terrors, may still do something effective towards exciting them anew. Indeed, the tendency to which I have referred once settled,-as it may now be affirmed to be altogether beyond dispute,-the result of some further check to intemperate habits can scarcely fail extensively to follow. The call to caution is loud and alarming. The man who is compelled to see

catalogue of those into

that an irregularity in which hitherto he might indulge himself with comparative safety, may now very probably send him to his grave before the rising of another sun, must, to persist, be maddened with something more, if possible, than a drunkard's frenzy. All may advantageously learn, under this added motive to vigilance, to practise a stricter control over those appetites, every undue indulgence of which is attended with various danger, now revealed in a new shape; and the lesson may be found to be attended with so many benefits, that there will be no disposition to unlearn it, when the present peculiar reason for regarding it shall have passed away. And they who have hitherto interested themselves in the measures in operation for banishing the manifold evils of intemperate habits, may feel their hands strengthened for the good work by a perception of the peculiar mischiefs which now are threatened by the vice, and of the increased sympathy which now, under an excited sense of common danger, the public will accord to their endeavors; while others, who have heretofore taken no part in the enterprise, may now be moved to do so by considerations of personal safety; and the sentiment of the public at large may find itself constrained, under existing circumstances, to authorize vigorous measures to be taken for its furtherance, which in common times it would hardly be persuaded to adopt. In short, in addition to those which we have long been hearing, here is another loud testimony of providence against the danger to a community of tolerating habits of vicious excess within it;

and the lessons of righteousness in this respect, which hitherto, as individuals or as citizens, we may have but imperfectly learned, are now commended again with striking emphasis to every man's attention, in every capacity that belongs to him.

2. Another part of righteousness, which the apprehended judgment calls on us to learn, is found in the sentiment of a Christian courage. Not the courage which shuts its eyes against an impending danger, blindly counts upon exemption for itself, and neglects to take steps betimes to avoid or mitigate the evil threatened. No; the levity which, while yet the apprehended scourge is somewhat remote, admits of such a state of mind, is the same which, on its near approach, will be likely to be manifested in the different form of a craven panic. But the courage which looks the evil tranquilly in the face, not overrating either its intrinsic magnitude, or the probability of becoming exposed to it; which coolly investigates the means of safety, possesses itself in a manly composure of spirit, so as to be prepared wisely to make trial of them, and then sustains itself in a calm confidence that, having done its own part, the great ultimate interest is secure, while the issue of the present peril is in better hands. The The courage, which we shall desire to have learned and to practise when the peril shall come, is to be founded in part on what we shall have done beforehand, on what we shall have been doing now. It is our duty, our religious duty, at all times, to endeavor to make the most of, and to retain the longest, the powers of usefulness