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Indebted to some smart wig-weaver's hand
For more than half the tresses it sustains;
So gaudily bedecked, she might be deemed
(But that the basket, dangling on her arm,
Interprets her more truly) of a rank
Too proud for dairy-work, or sale of eggs.
Expect her soon with foot-boy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train, and her umbrella, all her care.

-Cowper.

DUTY OF THE STATE TO PROPAGATE THE
GOSPEL.

EXTRACT from a speech of the DUKE of WELLINGTON, delivered in the House of Lords, July 30, 1840.

"It has been my lot to live among idolatersamong persons of all creeds and of all religions, but I never knew yet of a single instance in which public means were not provided sufficient to teach the people the religion of their country. There might be false religions: I know of but one true one, but yet means were never wanting to teach those false religions; and I hope that we shall not have done with this subject until we have found sufficient means of teaching the people of England their duty to their Maker, and their duty to one another founded on their duty to their Maker . . . and besides that, shall be able to teach the word of God to every individual living under the protection of her sacred Majesty."

TO THE MEMORY OF

So hath God's mercy willed it. She is dead,
Who clothed the naked, and the hungry fed:
In THY dread Book recorded let it be,
Lord JESUS, that she fed and clothed THEE!

The Churchman's

Monthly Companion.

AUGUST, 1844.

A VILLAGE SERMON ON RAIN.

1 SAMUEL Xii. 18.

"And Samuel called unto the LORD and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel."

THE Israelites having sinned against GoD by asking a king, Samuel told them that he would call upon GOD to give them a sign, that, by doing this, they had incurred His grievous displeasure. It was then wheat harvest, and in Judea there is seldom any rain except in the spring and autumn, the former and the latter rain, which we so often read of in the Bible. Rain at that season seems to have been as strange and unnatural as snow : 66 as snow in summer, and as rain in harvest," says the wise man, so honour is not seemly to a fool." The Prophet told the Israelites that he would call upon GOD, and that God would immediately send thunder and rain, that they might perceive that their wickedness was great which they had done in asking them a king. "So Samuel called upon the LORD: and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel."

66

A power over the elements of nature always strikes terrour into the heart of man. Over these elements he is powerless; no wisdom of man can chain the

Q

winds, or command them which way to blow; no power or wisdom of man can cause the rain to fall or to cease; no power or wisdom of man can hurl the irresistible arrows of the lightning, or forbid them to fall, when God wills that they should fall, amidst the pealing crash of the thunder. We know how, when on Mount Sinai there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, all the people of Israel that were in the tent trembled. And on that day, when Mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, the Lord did really descend upon it in a fire, the smoke thereof ascending as a furnace, and the whole mountain quaking greatly. Well therefore might the Israelites greatly fear the LORD and Samuel, when the thunders rolled at the bidding of the Prophet, not only from a natural awe and fear of this great proof of Divine power, but because they might not unreasonably expect that the LORD was about to appear actually amongst them in the midst of the thunder, there to declare to them His wrath, and perhaps consume them in His fierce displeasure.

In this narrative we see the mercy of God, who usually granted a harvest-time to His people of fair, dry weather and we see the same Almighty BEING breaking through this usual order of things with the utmost ease, and causing in a moment the thunder to roll through the sky, and the rain to pour down upon the earth. It is to this power of GoD over the seasons, and our absolute dependence upon Him for the fruits of the earth, for every particle of food by which our bodies are supported, that I wish to call your attention this evening. I need not say that the present season is one which ought to have disposed our hearts to receive this lesson. We have been made to feel this at least,-that GOD, by withholding from us his blessed rain a little longer, might have destroyed every crop on the ground, might have prevented a large portion of the earth's surface from

having any crop so much as sown in it, and entirely deprived our flocks and herds of their necessary food. St. Paul, when he rushed amongst the people of Lystra, who were about to offer sacrifice to him and Barnabas, as to gods, told them that, even in the past days of ignorance which GOD winked at, He had not left Himself quite without witness, "in that HE did good, and gave men rain from heaven, filling their hearts with food and gladness." Amongst the thousand proofs that there is a GOD, this yearly miracle, you see, of causing the rain to fall in a proper quantity to nourish and not drown the crops on which man's life depends, was fixed upon by the Apostle as one at least of the most striking to simple and unlearned men. And so it is. If no Almighty and merciful hand poured out the rain, and checked the supply when more would injure the crops, why should not the destruction of these crops, or their not ripening, constantly happen, instead of being so rare an occurrence? But a little more than such variations as do happen, and all would go wrong; famine would kill its victims; sheep, and cattle, and men, would perish for want of food. Feeling, then, that we can do nothing towards warding off this misery, we feel, when it is warded off year after year, that it is warded off by a higher Power than our own, and a Power that is usually exercised in mercy. What an amount of wise and merciful contrivance is really employed by our great CREATOR in adapting the seasons, and the soil, and the properties of plants, for the production of food for living beings, is more than any man can fully make out, though he may learn much that is most surprising and most beautiful. But what I

want to press upon you is, that if heathens ought to have been led, by the blessings of the yearly harvest, and the rain that is necessary to its growth, and is so seldom withheld, that there is a gracious and mighty Being-a GoD-who rules the seasons and

the elements, and cares for that man whose heart He fills year after year with joy and gladness; much more ought we, to whom that GOD, in His mercy, in His power, and in His holiness, has been fully preached, to be led, by the sight of His mercies in nature, to the thoughts of His power, of His goodness, and of His holiness! to the thoughts of His mercies in grace!

In His Law given to the Israelites, God told them on what condition He would promise to send them rain in due season. "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments to do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the land shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing-time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely." If, on the other hand, they would not hearken to Him, He declared that, after trying other means of punishment, he would make their heaven as iron, and their earth as brass, and their strength should be spent in vain, for their land should not yield her increase, neither should the trees of the land yield

their fruit'.

I need not tell you, that it was but seldom that the Israelites did walk in GoD's statutes, and keep His commandments; and, accordingly, GoD often withheld His rain, and prevented the land and the trees from yielding their fruits. You will all remember the wicked reign of Ahab, when God, for the sins of the people, suffered no rain to fall upon the earth for the space of three years. Imagine how every thing would be burnt up in three years! how the heavens would be iron, and the earth brass! and you may imagine the feelings of the distressed nation, when GOD first swept off the idolatrous priests of Baal (who were the curse of the land) by the righteous arm of Elijah; and then, at the prayers of

1 Deut. xxvi.

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