xv. A POTTERY MOUND. 279 



idea of the multitudinous fragments reduced together to 

 a heap of powder that is conveyed by the words in the 

 original. And what an impression of complete subjuga- 

 tion and final destruction does it produce ! As frail and 

 perishable as the potter's earthenware vessel is the con- 

 dition of the enemies of the Church. They can no more 

 resist the Almighty power than the broken fragments of 

 the potter's earthenware vessel can resist the heavy stone 

 that is crushing them to dust. Such a fate has befallen 

 all who have stood in the way of God's righteous admin- 

 istrations. The Jews who rejected Him were broken in 

 pieces and dispersed like the dust of the shivered earth- 

 enware scattered by the wind. Heathen Rome, where 

 the blood of His martyrs was shed, has long since been 

 destroyed ; and all the other anti-Christian powers shall 

 share the same doom when the Lord shall take unto 

 Him His great power and reign. It is no jealous, cap- 

 ricious tyrant who inflicts this doom ; an Almighty Being 

 who treats His creatures as the potter treats the clay 

 which he makes without any reason, except his own 

 capricious choice, either into a vessel of honour or into 

 a vessel of dishonour, and who closes the mouths of 

 those who question the justness of His procedure with 

 the peremptory rebuke, " Nay, but, O man, who art thou 

 that repliest against God ? " whose rights over His 

 creatures are absolute. It is, on the contrary, a God of 

 love, who acts in all things upon the fixed and immut- 

 able principles of righteousness, which comprehend in 

 their bosom pity, patience, and mercy. 



