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the agency of his hand, and the development of his purposes,
in the calamities which press you down. If there are se-
cond causes which merit your displeasure—recollect that
even these second causes are under the control of God, and
permitted to act for the purpose of securing, although con-
trary to their and our wishes, the highest interests of his ho-
ly universe. It was this reflection that sustained the ancient
Patriarch, when he said—"The Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord." He
did not say—"The Lord gave, but the Sabeans, and the light-
ning, and the Chaldeans, and a great wind from the wilder-
ness took away my property and my children." No; "The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away."

I have often wondered how infidels, who contemplate no
all-wise, superintending providence, and therefore do not
trace events to the very heart of Infinite love, keep them-
selves from absolute madness in times of sudden and over-
whelming affliction. Nay, I know that some have, in these
circumstances, filled the very air with their howlings and
their blasphemies. Without faith in God—unreconciled to
his Government—their selfish and unsubmissive hearts have
risen in impious rebellion against his throne.

My hearers, nothing short of an intelligent and cordial
submission to the Government of God, can sustain the bur-
dened heart of man crushed beneath the calamities of life—
and this can do it. In the exercise of this spirit, the child
of God may sing in the midst of the tempest,

"When gladness wings my favor'd hour,
Thy love, my thoughts shall fill;
Resigned when storms of sorrow lower,
My soul shall meet thy will.

"My lifted eye, without a tear,
The gathering storm shall see;
My stedfast heart shall know no fear,
That heart shall trust in thee."