119, 204

119, 204

119, 204
119, 204

THE season is a solemn one. Another year of time has ended, and a new year has begun. Thoughts manifold and diverse fill our minds, but somehow we find them taking form under these three heads, Thanksgiving, Humiliation, Prayer.

I. THANKSGIVING.

Thanksgiving is the giving of thanks for mercies received-for blessings enjoyed. Whence come all our mercies and all our blessings? Come they by chance? Owe we them to mere natural law? Were such the case there would be no room for gratitude, and all thanksgiving would be an uncalled-for and unbecoming service. We know nothing of blind chance. It is nothing more to us than a pagan deity. We admit the reign of law. We acknowledge the constancy of the laws of nature. At the same time we believe in a living, loving, personal God, above all law,-presiding over, and controlling, and arranging all events, and working out, through the medium of His own laws, His own purposes and plans; and therefore, when mercies are vouchsafed, and blessings are bestowed, that it is fitting that we, God's intelligent and moral creatures, should not be like dumb dead stocks when good is given, but should joyfully and heartily respond to the invitation of the Psalmist, "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness!

י!

Recognising the great duty of giving God thanks for His goodness, let us mention some blessings calling for special recognition and thanksgiving at this season. During the past year our country

was under the necessity to undertake an expedition into Abyssinia, for the purpose of releasing certain captives unjustly and cruelly detained there. It was undertaken with the greatest reluctance, and not until all other means had failed to obtain its object. When it was finally resolved upon, every preparation was made to secure its success. An able general was placed at the head of it,-one, too, in whom, we believe, is the fear of God. It set out on its hazardous enterprise. Great difficulties had to be surmounted. Terrible risks had to be faced. Defeat would have brought disgrace, loss of money, and of prestige. It prospered, however, far beyond the most sanguine expectation; and within a few months from the time it left the shores of the Red Sea, it returned, bringing back the captives, and without any loss of life; constraining every Christian heart to say, "What hath the Lord wrought!" This event calls for devout gratitude to God. God seems to have exercised a special providence over this expedition, from its commencement to its close; and it is most gratifying to find the general who was at the head of it, publicly acknowledging the hand of God in its success, and speaking of it as an answer to prayer. "Years ago," said Lord Napier, in Edinburgh, "I happened to read one of your delightful authors-a writer who, I believe, is very popular among you, I speak of Hugh Miller. I well remember a description there given of a scene which happened one stormy night. The mother of Hugh Miller was sitting in the house of a minister, and being terrified by one of the fiercest gusts of the storm, she ran to the minister's door, and knocking at it, said, 'Come and let us pray for those that are at sea,' and they knelt down and prayed. Her husband, who commanded a small coasting vessel, was out at sea that night, and during a tremendous gust of the storm a mighty wave submerged the barque, which struggled as though she would never rise again, but at length she with difficulty emerged to the surface, and the father of Hugh Miller, who was at the wheel with his mate, said, as soon as he could recover his breath, 'There must have been a gude soul praying for us this night."" "I felt," said Lord Napier, "that those poor Abyssinian captives, as they breathed the open air after passing the gates of Magdala, might have said, 'There are many good souls praying for us this day.'"

It was the fact that this expedition went forth on its hazardous enterprise followed with the prayers of God's people throughout the land. Prayer was made for the soldiers, that God would watch over them in the midst of the hardships and dangers to which they were exposed; and they were specially preserved. Prayer was made that the captives might be delivered; and notwithstanding that they

were in the hands of a cruel, passionate, and capricious monarch, who might have ordered their death at any moment, they were all set free. Surely the Lord hath heard our prayer. Prayer heard and answered should be followed by thanks returned; and all the more when the event was so unexpected, and so conspicuously the doing of the Lord.

It seemed as if the Lord

Another mercy of the past year, calling for devout and special thanksgiving, is the harvest that was gathered in. The past year has been a remarkable one. The first part of the season was most favourable, all that the most ungrateful could desire. The crops promised well, and the brightest hopes as to the harvest were cherished. But there came a long and severe drought. The pasture lands were burnt up. Great fears were entertained that the cattle would perish for want of food and water. The growth of corn was arrested. Green crops were ready to fail. had shut up the heavens, and there would be no more rain, and the flocks of sheep and herds of cattle would be consumed before our eyes, without the possibility of our helping them. It seemed as if there would be a famine of bread in the land. Then, then, after much anxious waiting and prayer, the Lord did give rain, and that in large abundance. Fields that were burnt up, and which people thought would not revive, were ere long covered with verdure. The green crops, where they were not entirely destroyed, were invigorated. All kinds of crops were much benefited, and the year was crowned with the goodness of the Lord. Some may say, O, but the straw is deficient. Well, be it so. But in consequence of the rains there has been a larger after-math than usual, and the weather having continued open, cattle have been kept longer without, and the fodder economised. Instead of murmuring and repining, and taking too close note of respite and drawbacks, rather let us praise the Lord, saying, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

Under this head other mercies might be named, calling for thanksgiving at this time. Have we not reason to thank God that we are still alive? for the health we have enjoyed? for all the goodness and mercy, both in providence and in grace, that hath followed us during all the days, and weeks, and months of the bypast year, and to which we owe our being presently in life, and all our religious privileges, as the Bible, the Sabbath, and the sanctuary; and especially our possession and experience of the peace and joy and hope of the applied salvation of the Gospel?

In view of all the mercies of the year that has just finished its

course, mercies personal, domestic, and national,-mercies temporal and spiritual,—thanksgiving is due to God, the bountiful Bestower of them all. Let ours be the thanksgiving, not of words but of deeds, thanks living is the best form of thanksgiving. Easy to say, "O God, we thank thee for all thy mercies." Easy to sing with the lips a psalm of thanksgiving, but not so easy to live a life of thanksgiving,-not so easy to have our life so animated with high and holy motives,—so consecrated to God and His service, that our whole living shall be a thanksgiving to God; our whole life a psalm of praise. This is the true thanksgiving which God's mercies require at our hands. Let each one now ask, What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me? And let the answer be, A life yielded to God, and devoted to His service, under the constraining power of a heartfelt gratitude.

II. HUMILIATION.

God's mercies to us, how many and varied! Our sins against God, how multiplied! Doth God daily load us with His benefits? No less true is it that we daily provoke God by our sins. The season of the year summons us to give thanks to God for His goodness. It also summons us to call to remembrance our sins, and to humble ourselves before God on account of them. Alas! what sins and iniquities are in this nation of ours, notwithstanding that God hath given it His statutes and His ordinances, notwithstanding that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, and the Church of Christ is our most cherished institution. So highly favoured as respects these things, what manner of people ought we to be in comparison with other nations and peoples. Ought we not to be more pure, more just, more righteous, more honest, more honourable? Ought we not to be an example, in one word, of pure Christian morality to the nations of the earth,-we, our princes, our nobles, our merchants, our agriculturists, our artizans, our labouring classes? Yes, truly. Are we so? We are not going to vilify our nation, nor run down our countrymen; we are not going to heap indiscriminate abuse upon this class or that in our commonwealth. No, verily. But, considering our Christian privileges, is there not too much drunkenness, too much uncleanness, too much licentiousness, too much swearing, too much Sabbath-breaking, too much selfishness, too much pride, too much betting, too much hasting to be rich, too much practical ungodliness? We do not expect perfection, but considering our religious advantages, we should be a better, a holier, a more God-fearing and God-honouring people.

Because of these abounding and prevailing evils, there is a loud call to humiliation before the Lord. And the humiliation to which