entering within the vail. Under the severest trials he can support you; over all your enemies he can cause you to triumph; and amidst general terror and alarm he can keep you in perfect peace, because your mind is stayed on him. Be strong, then, in the Lord, and in the power of his might; follow him through good and bad report, and cleave to him with full purpose of heart.

By so doing, though your forebodings of public calamities should happily prove groundless, still the watchfulness produced by these apprehensions will soften the stroke of your personal afflictions, and prepare you for your warfare with the last enemy.

Now, unto him who is able to keep you from falling, and present you blameless at the coming of the Lord, and to the only wise God and Saviour, be blessing, dominion, honour, and glory, now, henceforth, and world without end. Amen.

SERMON

SERMON XVII *.

THE GOODNESS OF PROVIDENCE TO THE AFFLICTED POOR.

JOB XXXV. 10.

But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?

NIGHT

IGHT is the season of darkness, alarm, and danger, and is therefore often referred to in scripture, as the emblem of a state of affliction, arising either from the body or mind.

To no class of mankind in distress can the reference be more properly made, than to those

* Preached before the Managers of the Asylum for the Blind, St Andrew's Church, Edinburgb, 14th April 1803.

those whom Providence has afflicted with the loss of sight. Melancholy indeed is their lot in this valley of mortal suffering. Unable to contemplate the beauties of this fair creation, to survey the grandeur of the objects which surround them, or the heavens which our eyes behold, the blind dwell continually in the land of darkness, and walk all day long in the shadows of death. Exposed to ten thousand injuries which they can neither perceive nor resist, they may have to press forward through the bustling multitude; they may hear the bitter taunts of the rude, or be terrified with the painful justlings of the unfeeling. Ingulphed in everlasting midnight, their imaginations are liable to be haunted with unknown terrors, and not unfrequently they are exposed to all the miseries of melancholy and habitual depression. That vivacity of mind which many of them possess does not exempt them from many serious reflections on their unspeakable loss; that conversation which they hold with their happier companions who enjoy the advantages of sight, suggests the ardent wish to take part in the busy scenes of life; that information which is conveyed to their minds from men and books, fixes in deeper characters the inscription

scription which is engraved on all their thoughts; that they are blind, desolate, and helpless. If poverty is added to blindness, the sum of human calamity seems to be completed. So thought a venerable bard of our own country, who himself was blind, and who thus at an early period of life describes his dismal state and painful feelings:

Ye beauteous works of God,
Why are ye snatched for ever from my sight,
Whilst in your stead a boundless waste expanse,
Of undistinguished horror covers all ?
Wide o'er my prospect rueful darkness breathes
Her unauspicious vapour; in whose shade
Fear, grief, and anguish, natives of her reign,
In social sadness gloomy vigils keep.

With them I walk, with them still doom'd to share
Eternal blackness without hopes of dawn,

Nor ending sorrows here,

Soon the hapless hour

May come, perhaps this moment it impends,
Which drives me forth to penury and cold,
Naked, and beat by all the storms of heaven,
Friendless and guideless, to explore my way,
Till on cold earth this poor unsheltered head
Reclining, vainly from the ruthless blast
Respite I beg, and in the shock expire."

So thought and wrote the amiable Blacklock. Under the impression of such afflic

tion, not fictitious, but real, let us direct our attention to the dictates and discoveries of revelation. This sacred volume dispels the gloom, and vindicates the ways of God to man. He giveth songs in the night; the prerogative and character of that God whom scripture reveals, is to shew compassion to the sons and daughters of sorrow. He knows their souls in adversity; and gives comfort to the mourners of Zion. It is not said that he turns their night into perfect day, though this he could do on earth, and will accomplish in a happier state. But at present, when their dark and dreary night remains, he sweetens their bitterest trials, and enables them to go on their way rejoicing. Paul and Silas sung praises to God even in their dungeon at the midnight hour.

Where is God our Maker? He is with these blind men before you, and with the children of adversity throughout the world; he infuses into their minds divine light, tranquil thoughts, patient submission, celestial prospects, and heavenly hopes; for he giveth songs in the night.

That we may derive benefit from the sentiment here suggested by Elihu, and may

apply