alled thereto--not, it is true, by
the governing authorities of the country. No matter for that. It is
right that we should listen to the admonition that we have received in
our own denomination, and do all we can rightly to humble ourselves, and
above all, earnestly to pray to God that He would take away the evil from
us, and that, in taking away the evil, He would render us the less liable
to promote the dire necessity of future visitation. Let me then call
your attention to some general principles connected with God's dealings
with the nations.

There is a national as well as an individual providence. In the ancient
government of God over the nations of the earth, in his dealings with his
own people and with the heathen peoples about them, his hand was clearly
discerned on many occasions, and his arm sometimes made bare. There were
the predictions of certain events to come, and there was the recognised
accomplishment of those predictions sometime afterwards. Then, again,
you find miraculous interpositions of correction, of punishment, or of
deliverance. If you turn your attention to the history of God's Church,
you find all these things manifest; you find Israel in Egypt; then the
command that they should be allowed to pass away from their bondage; you
find Egypt resisting the command, and God sent among the people of Egypt
signs and wonders, and plagues by the hand of Moses, but they submitted
not. He called them to obedience, but they rebelled. By and bye, He
slew their firstborn, the chief of all their strength, and then the
people came out with silver and with gold. Nations are not simply
chastised in this world, they are also punished. Every one of us shall
give an account of himself to God at the last great day, and strictly
speaking, the punishment of separate individuals will not begin in this
life; but nations cannot be judged collectively hereafter; they are dealt
with here; and God's dealings with the nations stand out in his palpable
acts with these Egyptians. They saw the hand of God for a time, but they
fell back into their ancient rebellion and pursued the Israelites to the
Red Sea, and God made that sea a way for his ransomed and destroyed the
pursuing host. Go through the entire history of God's ancient people.
You find the Assyrians round about Jerusalem, you see the angel of God
going forth, and that mighty host is destroyed. Go through all the
dealings of God with heathen nations, and