SERMON V.

ON SEASONS OF SCARCITY.

PSALM XC. 3.

"Thou turnest man to destruction: Again Thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men."

In this psalm, composed evidently in some season of national affliction and despondence, the Psalmist expresses the great truth of the dominion of the Almighty over nature, and the continual dependence of man upon the God “that "made him." It is not only as an indi

• Preached after the severe season of 1800.

vidual, but as the representative of his people, that he here prostrates himself before the throne of Heaven; and, feeling that He whom he addressed, "was God " from everlasting," he acknowledges, at the same time, that it was His power alone which "turned nations to destruc❝tion;" and which again could say,"Come again, ye children of men."

In this deep and awful sentiment, every one who hath lived to the age of understanding must agree with the Psalmist. Life, we all know, is no scene of security; it is a broken and uncertain scene, in which both individuals and nations are mutually subjected to the apparent rule of time and chance. Amid the opening promises of prosperous times, some unwelcome blast often comes to wither the hopes we had formed; and, even when prosperous times return, we tremble to think, that the adversities we have suffered may

again be renewed. It is thus now, therefore, as in the days of the Psalmist, that the Governor of Nature displays his power, by, at one season, seemingly turning man to destruction ;" and at another, saiyng, come again, ye chil

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It is probable, my brethren, that the seasons of adversity and of want which we have witnessed, may have brought this reflection to all our minds, and that the highest as well as the lowest of us must have felt his dependence upon him" who inha"biteth eternity." With all this, however, it is possible for us to entertain very erroneous and very ungrateful views upon the subject. We may forget the beneficence of God amid our considerations of his power; and, while we meet adversity with superstitious terror, we may meet prosperity with an unbecoming joy. Suffer me, therefore, in the present discourse,

to consider the purpose or end of this apparent uncertainty and instability in the government of nature; and to shew you the important effects it has upon the improvement and happiness of human nature. On so important a subject, I can offer you only a few very imperfect reflections:-Yet, I trust, that to those who pursue them, they will afford a happiness, and awaken a devotion of no common kind.

1. I must observe, then, in the first place, that there is no other system than this of variableness and uncertainty, which could be fitted to the character of such a being as man. In the human mind, as we all know, there are capacities and virtues of very different kinds, and which respect very different situations of human condition.-There are powers of understanding which are adapted to prosperity, and others to adversity; there are

the virtues of patience, of resignation, of magnanimity, in scenes of distress,—as well as those of gratitude, of generosity, or of beneficence, in scenes of enjoyment. The perfection, however, of human nature, and, what is far more, the voice of conscience within us, demand, that both of these should be brought into exercise; and the character of man ever remains mutilated and imperfect, while it is the virtues or the capacities of one condition alone which he possesses or displays. To such á being,—to a state of existence intended to call all those various powers and virtues into action,-no conceivable character of nature around him could be adapted, but that of variableness and uncertainty. Were it in a scene of perpetual prosperity he was placed, all the nobler capacities of his nature would be lost in indolence and enjoyment.-Were it in a scene of perpetual hardship, on the con

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