sound of the trumpet, waxing louder and louder, and the voice of God, when He had descended in fire, to deliver to man that holy Law which demands the heart's obedience, and announces nought but death to the transgressor, whose guilty mind can know no true and lasting peace, until he find it on Calvary, under the sprinkling of the atoning blood of the Divine Lawgiver Himself—our blessed Emmanuel,-who on the accursed tree was slain for us! Exod. xix. xx; Heb. xii. The manifestations of Divine power were the manifestations of the power of HIM who is holy and just, who cannot look upon sin,-whose pardoning mercy and unchanging love sinners have despised in their rejection of the Unspeakable Gift of that love the Lord Jesus Christ. The hour-the very hour of death was felt at hand-the moment of the soul's unclothing, 2 Cor. v. and appearance in the immediate presence of the JUDGE,—to be seen in its true character,—in the character then worked out,— to be dealt with in perfect accordance with that character-dealt with by God Himself in the midst of the seen and felt realities of the eternal world,-free from all guise, stripped of all pretence,-disrobed of all garments of human texture-to be fixed, for ever fixed, according to the choice made in life,-made in the body, according to moral tastes and habits, and character confirmed,―unalterably fixed for ceaseless ages,-in sorrow or in joy, according. as Christ shall have been, in life, accepted or put away,-according as the Holy Spirit shall have been, in life, received to renewal unto holiness, or criminally resisted, and pollution and death preferred. Oh, what is man,-what is sinful and guilty man, when viewed in the light of God's fiery law,-when contemplated in connection

with the Divine perfections,-when seen in the all-pervading light of Omniscience, and surrounded with all the realities of the eternal world? When we feel ourselves encompassed with the Divine presence,-when we experience the fiery consciousness of His perfect knowledge of us, or of our utter vileness in His sight, -the soul about to quit its clay tenement, to be removed from the sound of the Gospel for ever, and to have its own chosen state for ever fixed,-what then can avail us anything but a personal,-a saving interest in Christ? What can give peace to the conscience, and cover all our iniquities, but His precious blood shed upon the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and effectually applied to our souls, through faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost? What can secure us from shame before Him at His coming, and inspire us with holy and childlike confidence when He appeareth, but the anointing, (1 John ii. 20, 27-29,) of the Divine and Holy Spirit of promise setting His seal upon us, (Eph. iv. 30,) and bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, Rom. viii. 16. Read these three chapters. "The children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." What then sustains and comforts the mind in reference to our beloved relatives and friends, but scriptural evidence that they have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them in the Gospel, and have become the subjects of a heavenly birth? And, oh, how awful_how absolutely insupportable, the conviction then, that we-now about to die,-have neglected them-have not been faithful to them in our dealings with their souls,-in our prayers for divine teaching and divine influences,-have not with all our might, by consistent example, and in the power of prayer in the Holy Ghost, urged them to flee to Jesus, and to flee at once,-and in Him take refuge JANUARY, 1845.

D

from the wrath to come! Oh, how true it is that dying moments should have nothing left for them to do but the work of dying!-of dying in peace,-dying to the glory of our Redeemer,-to the benefit of souls,— dying in the confidence of Him in whom we have believed, and in whom we still believe; whom we have loved, and still do love; whose service we have felt to be our most perfect freedom,-in whose presence we have experienced joy-fulness of joy, and at whose right hand we, through free and sovereign grace, have the well-grounded hope of enjoying divine and promised pleasures for evermore!

The storm continued to rage, in all the terribleness of its fury. No human voice was heard, save the voice, and that but rarely, of the officer carrying on duty. The mind was kept in solemn, in awful watchfulness ; the annihilation of the ship, the destruction of all on board seemed threatened, and at hand; we lay on the borders of eternity! At length a body of electric fire, commonly called a "thunderbolt," struck the foreroyal-mast, shivered it into pieces, melted the copper in the sheave-hole, passed down the masts and the iron chain halliards, and having partially diffused itself through the parts of the vessel immediately adjoining the combings of the foremast, struck, though not fatally, three men; and after doing various damage, entered the prison, passed round the decks amongst the prisoners, and then disappeared. For some time, and until the carpenter sounded the well, it was doubted whether or not the ship was about to go down, and for a while she seemed on fire. I stood watching with my feet the indications of the deck, whether the vessel was sinking or not, and with breathless solicitude, listened for the prisoners' shriek, when they should feel the

water rising upon them, and the ship descending into the deep to be buried, with all on board, under the waves. The scene now appeared to have reached its climax of awful impressiveness. The manifestations of Omnipotence were now unutterably overwhelming to the human mind:-the realities of the unseen world now threatened to open on our view, and to appear before us in the light of the fire of God's own kindling. The prison, as testified by two hundred and sixtyfour men, exhibited a scene that can never be told,-never can be set forth in language. The prisoners were laid prostrate, the most, if not all of them stretched on the deck,-every object seemed lighted up with electric fire; the broad-headed iron nails with which the bars placed around the hatchways are studded, were all most brilliantly illuminated, and appeared as if consuming. The prisoners lay along under their burthens of sin and guilt,-their past lives were placed before them in more than in the light of the fierce thunderbolts, for they had by this time been instructed in the Scriptures, they had all in some degree learned the nature and the requirements, and the penalties of God's "holy law "—they had all heard of His love, His everlasting love, of the unspeakable gift of His love, of His revealed "long-suffering and unwillingness that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" (2 Pet. iii. 9.) all had heard of the divine efficacy. of the blood of Christ to wash away ALL sin, and speak peace to the guiltiest conscience, and they had heard the invitation and command of God that they should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ unto present and everlasting life, and love one another as he hath given us commandment. 1 John iii. 23. They thought that the hour of final account, that the great day of

judgment was come, at least that to them time should be no longer, and that their eternal state should now, in a few moments, be for ever fixed! They already felt that God was dealing with them as His responsible creatures, and with solemn, perplexing, and unquiet anxiety were they now compelled to deal with themselves, and that in the midst of the most fearful tokens of the Almighty power and all-searching knowledge of that holy and merciful and just God whom they had despised, and whose beloved Son, together with His great salvation, they had wickedly put away. The things of time they now saw in all their unsatisfying vanity, and felt the paramount importance of an interest in the friendship of Him who alone is the efficient friend of sinners,-who laid down His life to redeem them, and who alone "is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him, seeing that he only ever liveth to make intercession for them."

All that passed, at this time through the minds of the prisoners, all the communication which took place between them and God, is known only to Him, who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins of the children of men.

After a period of about two hours, the flashes gradually became less vivid, the thunder more distant, and all was ultimately hushed into serenity and peace; and the mind was left to its thoughts, to make a suitable improvement of God's fearful yet merciful visit, and lay to heart all the solemn lessons which He ever intends to teach when He thus passes by, in the whirlwind, or the earthquake, or the fire.