MERCY AND GOODNESS OF SOD. 



refreshes the parched ground with gentle show 

 ers, as if they proceeded from a watering-pot. 

 Instead of confining our sensitive enjoyments to 

 bread and water, as if we were the tenants of a 

 jail, he has strewed our gardens and fields with 

 every variety of luxuriant delicacies, to gratify 

 every appetite. Instead of directing the light 

 nings to set on fire the mountains, and to level 

 our cities to the ground, and the thunders to roll 

 incessantly around us, he commands this terrific 

 meteor to visit us only at distant intervals, and 

 in its gentler operations, just to remind us what 

 tremendous instruments of destruction he is ca 

 pable of wielding, and that we ought to &quot; be still 

 and know that He is God,&quot; and that &quot; he has 

 punished us less thin our iniquities deserve.&quot; 

 O that man would praise the Lord for his mer 

 cy, and for his long-suffering towards the chil 

 dren of men ! 



This character of God is peculiar to himself, 

 and cannot be supposed to belong, unless in a 

 very inferior degree, to any created intelligence. 

 Were the meekest man that ever appeared on the 

 theatre of our world or were even one of the 

 highest intelligences in heaven to be invested 

 with a portion of the attribute of omniscience ; 

 could he penetrate, at one glance, over all that 

 hemisphere of our globe on which the sun shines, 

 and, at the next glance, survey the other hemi 

 sphere which is enveloped in darkness ; could his 

 eye pierce into the secret chambers of every habi 

 tation of human beings, in every city, and town, 

 and village, and especially into those haunts where 

 crimes are veiled by the shades of night from 

 every human eye ; could he behold at one glance 

 all the abominations that are hourly perpetrating 

 in every region of the world the pagan wor 

 shippers in Thibet and Hindostan, performing 

 their cruel and execrable rites the wheels of 

 Juggernaut crushing to death its wretched devo 

 tees the human victims which are tortured and 

 sacrificed, to gratify the ferocity of some bar 

 barous chief the savage hordes of New Zea 

 land, feasting on the flesh of their fellow-men, 

 whom they have cruelly butchered, and drinking 

 their blood out of human skulls the Indians of 

 America, tearing with pincers the flesh of their 

 prisoners, and enjoying a diabolical pleasure in 

 beholding their torments the haughty inquisi 

 tors of Spain insulting their devoted victims, 

 in the name of the merciful Saviour, and prepar 

 ing tortures, and stakes, and flames for their de 

 struction the assassin plunging his dagger into 

 



vious man devising schemes for the ruin and 

 destruction of his neighbour the mutinous 

 crew, in the midst of the ocean, rising up against 

 their superiors, slashing them with their sabres, 

 and plunging their bodies into the deep the 

 gamester ruining a whole family by a throw of 

 the dice the skeptic sporting with the most 

 sacred truths the atheist attempting to defy the 

 Omnipotent the prostitute wallowing in the 

 mire of uncleanness the drunkard blaspheming 

 the God of heaven in his midnight revels nu 

 merous tribes of human beings, in every quarter 

 of the globe, dashing out each other s brains in 

 mutual combat hypocritical professors of reli 

 gion, harbouring malice and revenge against their 

 brethren and thousands of other iniquitous 

 scenes which are daily presented before the pure 

 eyes of Omniscience ; could he behold all the 

 abominable acts of this description which are 

 perpetrated on the surface of our globe, in 

 the course of a single day, and were the elements 

 under his control, for executing condign punish 

 ment on transgressors, it is more than probable, 

 that, before another day dawned upon the world, 

 the great globe we inhabit would be shattered to 

 its centre, and enveloped in devouring flames. 

 For no finite intelligence could refrain his in 

 dignation for a length of years, or could pene 

 trate into all the reasons, why &quot;sentence against 

 an evil work should not be speedily executed ;&quot; 

 why the murderer should not be arrested by death 

 before his hand is lifted up to strike ; why thi&amp;gt; 

 tyrant should not be cut off before his victims 

 are secured ; and why the slave should be doom 

 ed to drag out so many long years under the rod 

 of a relentless master. But God beholds all 

 these actions in all their bearings and relations 

 to the plan of his government, and in all their 

 eternal consequences ; and beholding them, he 

 &quot; keeps silence,&quot; and refrains from executing 

 immediate and deserved punishment. 



This part of the divine character, when seri 

 ously considered, is calculated to excite strong 

 emotions of admiration and wonder : and these 

 emotions must be raised to their highest pitch, 

 when we consider the many instruments of ven 

 geance which are every moment wielded by the 

 hand of the Almighty. If forbearance were 

 owing to impotence, or a want of means for the 

 infliction of retributive justice, our admiration 

 would cease. But all the elements of nature are 

 under the immediate control of the Governor of 

 the universe ; and, in a thousand modes incom- 



his neighbour s bosom the midnight robber en- prehensible by us, He could make them tho in- 



tering into the abode of honest industry, stran- struments of his vengeance to ehastist a guilty 



glingits inmates, and carrying off their treasures world. &quot;For in his hand is the soui of every 



the kidnapper tearing the poor African from living thing, and the breath of all mankind.&quot; Let 



his wife and children, and native land the un- us consider, for a little, some of those agents 



feeling planter and overseer lashing his degraded which lie within the sphere of our knowledge in 



slaves tyrants and persecutors dragging &quot; the the system of nature. 



excellent ones of the earth&quot; to prisons, to dun- Of all the elements of nature, there is none 



geons, and to gibbets the malevolent and en- more delightful and beautiful in its effects thaj 



