IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (Ml -3} 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 tutu BI25 
 
 US ^* 
 
 itt m 
 
 ^ us. 12.0 
 
 (It 
 
 |27 
 
 II 
 
 
 FhotGgra(Jiic 
 
 ^Sdenoes 
 
 CorporatiQn 
 
 '" 
 
 /. 
 
 
 Ms 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 23 WIST MAIN STRUT 
 
 WnSTiR,N.Y. USM 
 
 (7I«)I73-4S03 
 
 '^ 
 
^■ 
 
 
 CiHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHIVl/iCMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadi«n Institute for Historical Microroproductions / Institut Canadian de microroproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliogrnphic Notaa/Notas tachniquaa at bibliographiquaa 
 
 T* 
 to 
 
 Tha Inatituta haa attamptad to obtain tha baat 
 or<ginai copy avaiiabia for fiiming. Faaturaa of this 
 copy which may Im bibiiographicaiiy uniqua. 
 which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha 
 reproduction, or which may aignificantly change 
 tha uauai method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 Coloured eovera/ 
 Couverture de couieur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 n 
 
 Couverture endommagAe 
 
 Covera reatored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture reataurte et/ou pellicula 
 
 Cover title miaaing/ 
 
 La titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured mapa/ 
 
 Cartea gAographiquea en couieur 
 
 Coloured inic (i.e. other than blue or blacic)/ 
 Encre de couieur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured piatea and/or ilFuatrationa/ 
 
 a 
 
 Planehaa et/ou illuatrationa en couieur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 ReliA avac d'autrea documenta 
 
 Tight binding may cauae ahadowa or diatortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liura sarrte peut cauaar de I'ombre ou de la 
 diatortion la long de la marge IntArieure 
 
 Blank iaavaa added during reatoratlon may 
 appear within the text. Whenever poaaible. theae 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II ae peut que certainea pagea bianchea ajoutAea 
 lore d'une reiitauration apparaiaaent dana la texte, 
 mala, loraque cela Atait poMible, cea pagea n'ont 
 paa «t« fiimAea. 
 
 Additional commanta:/ 
 Commentairee supplAmentairaa: 
 
 L'Inatitut a microfilm* la meilieur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 4t£ poaaible de ae procurer. Lea d6taila 
 de cet exemplaire qui aont peut-Atre uniquea du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dana ia mfthode normale de filmaga 
 sont indiqute ci-daaaoua. 
 
 I — I Coloured pagea/ 
 
 n 
 
 Pagea de couieur 
 
 Pagea damaged/ 
 Pagea andommagtea 
 
 Pagea reatored and/oi 
 
 Pagea reataurAea et/ou pellicultea 
 
 Pagea diacoioured, stained or foxet 
 Pagea dteolortea, tachetAea ou piquAea 
 
 Pagea detached/ 
 Pagea dAtachtes 
 
 Showthroughy 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Qualit* inAgale de I'lmpreaaion 
 
 Includea aupplementary matarii 
 Comprend du materiel auppl^mantaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Mition diaponible 
 
 [ — I Pagea damaged/ 
 
 I — I Pagea reatored and/or laminated/ 
 
 r~l Pagea diacoioured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 r~71 Pagea detached/ 
 
 r~J\ Showthrough/ 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 F~| Includea aupplementary material/ 
 
 r*n Only edition available/ 
 
 Pagea wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 alips, tisauea, etc., have been refilmed to 
 enaure tha beat poaaible image/ 
 Lea pages totalement ou partiallement 
 obacurciea par un feuillot d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 4t* filmAea k nouveau de fa9on A 
 obtenir la mellleure image possible. 
 
 Tl 
 
 P< 
 of 
 fil 
 
 Oi 
 b( 
 th 
 si( 
 o1 
 fil 
 si( 
 
 OI 
 
 Tl 
 si 
 Tl 
 w 
 
 M 
 di 
 •r 
 b< 
 ri| 
 re 
 m 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est film* au taux de rMuotion indiqu* oi>destoua. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
 I^BI 1^^^ ■■■H ^BHHI ^^^ ■■■■■ 1^^^ ^^^ H^MH ■■^HB BH^H 1^^^ HBHB ^i^Bi 
 
 V 
 
 12X 
 
 1«X 
 
 aDx 
 
 24X 
 
 32X 
 
The copy filmed K^r > has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity ^r: 
 
 IzMic Walton Klllvn MMnorial Ubrary 
 Dalhouii* Univtnity 
 
 L'exempiaire film* fut reproduit grAse A 3a 
 gAnArositA de: 
 
 Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Library 
 Dalhouiia Univanity 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in Iceeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Las images suivantes ont AtA roproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at 
 de la nettetA de rexemplaire film*, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the b .ck cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on eech microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — »• (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 IMaps, plates, cherts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as meny frames as 
 required. The following diagrams ilfustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est ImprimAe sont filmte en commenpant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second 
 plet, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont filmto en commen9ant par la 
 premlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la derniAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la 
 dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: la symbols -^ signifie "A SUIVRE", ie 
 symbols ▼ signifie "FIN". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre 
 filmfo A des taux de reduction diff6rents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un seul clichA, 11 est film* il partir 
 de I'angle tupArieur gauche, de gauche h droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenent le nombre 
 d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mAthode. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 

 'i ' 
 
 "T^*"; 
 
 [£Wf. %,^ijbjH^t^ld< 
 
 <3(gi^T 
 
 SERMON 
 
 ^, I 
 
 PHKACHKD AFTER THE 
 
 DRUMMONI) COLLIERY EXPLOSION 
 
 OF MAY 13th, 1873, 
 
 AT ST. COLUMBA, HOPEWELL, 
 
 On May 25th, 1873. 
 
 BY REV. D. MACRAE, A. M., 
 
 E. {f W. Branches of the E. River of IHntou. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST, 
 
 HALIFAX. N. S 
 PRINTKD BY JAME8 BOWES & SONS, BEDFORD ROW 
 
 1873. 
 
 
 vj'. 
 
 Ii^' 
 
niiiiiPPilMP^ilPKiffliliiPPPIIiPI^^ 
 
 m m. ■■'■ ^ 
 
 
 \ 
 
ii'Hmm 
 
 W 
 
 S E R M O N^ 
 
 PREACHED AFTER THE 
 
 DRUMMOND COLLIERY EXPLOSION 
 
 OF MAY 13th, 1873, 
 
 AT ST. COLUMBA, HOPEWELL, 
 
 On May 25th, 1873. 
 
 1 
 
 BY REV. D. MACRAE, A. M., 
 
 E. if W. Branches of the E. River of Pictou, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 HALIFAX, N. S. 
 PRINTED BY JAMES BOWES & SONS, BEDFORD ROW. 
 
 1873. 
 
 
SERMON. 
 
 ■'Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it?" — Amos iii. 6. 
 
 The remembrance of the horror which occurred, eince 
 ] -st we met for worship in this place, is already waxing faint 
 in some minds. For, in these days we live fast ; the ends of 
 the earth are being brought together ; every day, fresh tidings 
 come under our notice from one or other quarter. The effect 
 is as if events followed each other more lapidly in the pro- 
 vince of our own immediate experience ; and hardly have we 
 time to meditate for a little on one, before the next claims 
 attention. And so impressions enjoy less opportunity of 
 being rivetted, than was the case in days when information 
 was received more scantily. 
 
 Tt cannot be, however, that the Westville tragedy can be 
 readily forgotten, or that the shudder it occasioned has utterly 
 ceased, as yet, to vibrate through our being. It was too 
 awful in itself. It concerned many of us too closely ; and, 
 in some cases, it opened wounds hardly to be healed until 
 i'cne shall be no more. When the sky was darkened by that 
 \ast cloud of smoke which was seen for miles around, men's 
 liParts everywhere sunk within them for fear. Instantly it 
 eeemed as if the air was filled with the wail of widows 
 bemoaning husbands, — of children lamenting fathers, — of 
 mothers, like Rachel of old, weeping for theii- eons, — not to 
 be comforted, because they were not. 
 
 TI.e disaster was too sudden for its fiill burden of calamity 
 to be realised at once. But when oome of us hastened to 
 
 I - 
 
if 
 
 where " the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a 
 furnace," and saw with our own eyes the hungry flames leap- 
 ing from the mouths of the pits, and knew that beneath lay 
 the charred and mangled frames of some sixty to eighty 
 souls — frames, a few hours before instinct with life and 
 strength, defaced, and dead, and blackened, and felt that all 
 hope of saving even one had vanished in an instant, then our 
 tongues clave to the roofs of our mouths, — our thoughts were 
 voiceless, — we were " dumb, we opened not our lips, be- 
 cause He had done it." Whither could we turn for to[)ic8 
 of consolation ? What urge in mitigation of the blow ? It 
 was too complete. It was not possible in the first hours of 
 grief, to distinguish between soul and body. It was not pos- 
 sible to realise that from those dark depths the spirits could 
 escape, — that the men were not there, — only the outer 
 tabernacle, the tenement of clay. It was not possible for a 
 mother's heart to feel that the manly form of him she called 
 her son, was onl\ a form, — that the hand was but an instru- 
 ment, and the voice an organ, — and that the sovd, the reality, 
 the man, was independent of all these, — " that the spirit had 
 returned to God who gave it." 
 
 But now that with somewhat of calmness we look back, 
 and review the event, lessons are suggested by it which it would 
 be well for us to gather up. It is well for us to " hear what 
 God the Lord doth speak." With our Bible in our hands, 
 to gather up some of these lessons ought not to be difficult. 
 For the Bible, under one aspect, is a record of human sor- 
 rows. From the 3rd chapter of Genesis onwards, it is the 
 history of a sorrowful race. It is full of tears, — from those 
 of Eve over muixlered Abel, to those of Jesus at the tomb of 
 Lazarus, — a roll of " lamentations, and mourning, and woe." 
 
 I. Opening my Bible, and pondering its teaching on 
 human sorrow, I remark that this evil is of the Lord ; and 
 
there is comfort in that. It is of the Lord, I say. It might 
 be — by all accounts it was — of man's misdoing ; but, none 
 the less is it God's doing. Take the greatest crime ever per- 
 petrated by the hands of men — the murder of Jesus — it was 
 done " by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
 God." It was God's doing. "Are not two sparrows sold 
 for a farthing ? and one of them shall not fall to the ground 
 without your heavenly Father." " Shall there be evil in a 
 city, and the Lord hath not done it." 
 
 Now, the word, evil, is used in two senses. And between 
 these we must carefully distinguish. There is evil in the 
 sense of sin, and evil in the sense of calamity, and between 
 these, though' there be a connection, yet is there no necessary 
 connection. Evil, in the sense of sin, is never traced to God 
 as its author. On the contrary, he hates it, abliors it. All 
 his redemptive providence is devised for its overthrow and 
 destruction. He permits it, indeed, bears patiently with its 
 commission ; but, in every shape, it is repugnant to his 
 nature. 
 
 It is evil in tiie sense of calamity, that is meant in the 
 text, — that was meant l)y Job when he cried, " Shall we re- 
 ceive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive 
 evil?" and it is good for us to know that evil, in this sense, 
 is from him. It is under his o-overnment «and control. It is 
 no result of chance or fate. It is by the permission, and in 
 obedience to the will and dictation of God. And God is 
 good. No calamity, therefore, however awful in itself, is .in 
 unmitigated evil. Good is in it somehow, however impos- 
 sible it may be for us to show, in any particular instance, 
 the particular good designed, — good, mercy, whether we 
 can point out the lines and traces of love, or not. That evil 
 in the sense of calamity has no necessary connection with, — 
 or, anyhow, is no necessary mark of evil in the sense of sin, 
 
is evident from this. Many of the best who have ever lived 
 have been among the greatest sufferers. See Paul lingering 
 in his dungeon, v/hile Nero is fiddling in his palace. See 
 Pilate washing his dainty hands, while Jesus is being led 
 forth to be crucified. Were, then, the one the mark of the 
 other, we should be compelled to pronounce many of the best 
 and greatest, up to our Lord himpelf — the man of sorrowa- 
 among the greatest criminals. 
 
 But it is not so. Crime is one thing, calamity another. 
 *' Those eighteen," asks Christ, '* on whom the tower in 
 Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners 
 above all men that dwell in Jerusalem ? I tell you nay !" 
 Thank God for that nay, uttered by the gracious lips of him 
 who "spake as never man spake." Let it lighten our 
 hearts. Let it mitigate our sorrows. Let it help us to con- 
 sider our calamity with calmer souls And 
 
 before Christ came, what was the sublimest spectacle exhibited 
 on the platform of human history ? Is it not that of Job ? 
 But let us turn to the chapter and read. (Here was read 
 from the book of Job, the Ist chapter, the passage from verse 
 13th to 22d.) 
 
 I believe thai the meaning of human sorrow is, perhaps, 
 never clearly revealed in the present life. It cannot be fully 
 understood for the simple reason that the present is only a 
 part, and the smallest part of existence. It is only the 
 threshold of eternity. But I am sure that its meaning will, 
 one day, be unfolded. I am sure of it, just because it is of 
 the Lord, and, therefore, my first counsel to the broken in 
 heart is a counsel of patience. Oh ! There are gray hairs 
 here, which shall go down with sorrow to the grave. There 
 are wounds in hearts here, which shall be open, till these 
 bodies of ours shall be consigned to the tomb. But, as God 
 is in the heavens, I believe that, one day, he will show by 
 
manifold proofs, that, without this calamity, a note of sweet- 
 ness would have been lacking in the songs of eternity. 
 
 II. " Shall there be evil, etc." How frail, my second 
 in^brence is, how uncertain are the storehouses of earthly 
 riches. Twelve days ago, Drummond Colliery v/as a mine 
 of wealth, present and prospective. It furnished one, and 
 not the least of the reasons why we spoke of our county with 
 pride. Men t:.lked of " our boundless resources. ' " Were 
 {horc but enterprise," the cry was, '' our county should be 
 ricli, populous, attractive," — God not in all, perchance, not 
 in any of our thoughts on these matters. One short hour 
 and what a change is yonder ! A single spark, and the deed 
 is done. A calamity unexampled in the history of this 
 colony — almost unprecedented for violence, it is said, in the 
 annals of mining, caused by a single spark. With what a 
 <Hiict, swift, and then appallinjif and terrific suddenness and 
 unexpectedness it happened. The little flash, leaping, as it 
 vere in play, from seam to seam, and vault to vault, ad- 
 vancing thus towards the outlets of escape about to be closr d 
 forever, — a moment's pause, and then a rush and roar, — and 
 above is the smoke of a furnace, and beneath are three-scor«i 
 <3orpse8. 
 
 It is a lesson continually being renewed, and as continually 
 forgotten. Why is it being taught? Why will not God let 
 us alone ? Surely there is mercy in the disturbinpr causes by 
 which our worldly slumbers are broken. " Lay .,p for your- 
 selves treasures in heaven." Who inclines voluntarily to 
 deposit his money in this bank ? Who is willing cheerfully 
 to wait for the getting of its interest ? Its dividend-day is 
 too remote, we think, too uncertain. Or, it will be .time 
 enough to deposit there by and bye. Go then, and survey 
 the ruins of yonder mine. Recall those swift explosions. 
 See how all is brought into desolation as in a moment. Be 
 
s 
 
 persuaded by the voice of God that, if this world is good, 
 heaven is better; if wealth here is good, wealth there is bet- 
 ter ; be persuaded by him if not by the lips of man, that 
 all here is dark, dread uncertainty, — that nothing is sure but 
 heaven. 
 
 " Shall there be evil, etc.," and, therefore, thirdly ^ we 
 cannot violate any divine la»/ with impunity. Nor, fourthly., 
 shall human greed, which is ever one principal motive 
 prompting to the violation of tho^e laws, go unpunished. 
 There is no doubt whatever, I believe, that the dread West- 
 ville disaster was due to human folly. It was of man's mis- 
 doing. It is traceable to the running a known and awful risk 
 for the sake of gain. I am not competent to speak (1) of 
 the merits or demerits of the str kc by which it was preceded ; 
 or (2) of the condition of foulness, into which it is alleged, 
 as a partial consequence, the mine was suffered to fall ; or 
 (3) of the propriety or impropriety of the use of gunpowder 
 in works of this nature ; or (4) how far the right, or the 
 reverse of right was on the part of those refusing a higher 
 wage, and permitting the use of the dread explosive instead, 
 or on the part of those de nanding either a higher wage, or 
 permission to use explosive materials. All these and similar 
 points lie beyond my province, — beyond my power to deter- 
 mine. But it is within ray province to denounce human 
 greed, — to declare that men cannot serve God and Mammon ; 
 and to proclaim that when Mammon in any form becomes 
 uiau's idol, then that God who, for his own glory and for 
 man's good, is a jealous God, is near to vindicate his own 
 glory, and that, at times, by most swift and dread penalties. 
 And thus, it seems plain and undeniable, it was here. 
 
 How does mammon operate for the punishment of its 
 votaries? Just by repeating the old, primitive temptation, 
 v;hereby Adam fell. *'Ye shall not surely die," it says. 
 
 K 
 
(( 
 
 k 
 
 ye may run this and that risk." But first it dazzles the 
 eye by holding before it the golden apple. Faecinated by 
 that, the pursuit becomes eager. Nothing is seen but that, 
 — nothing is cared for but that. Life is counted cheap in 
 comparison with that. God is forgotten. Money against 
 man. Grold instead of God. But God reigns all the while, 
 and none the less that he is forgotten. And his laws are 
 <iperating steadily, albeit they are neglected. And whether 
 it be the winds and currents of ocean, or gas and its explosive 
 qualities in mines, or the conditions of health, and their neg- 
 lect in cities, none of the difficulties created by these are got 
 rid of, or surmounted by being forgotten. And so it comes 
 to pass, in all departments of our being, that sooner or later 
 whether we believe it or nt)t. we may be sure, " Our sin will 
 find us out." I 
 
 Human greed, that cold and murderous spirit I By it our 
 shores are strewn with wrecks ; by it our newspapers are filled 
 with details of destructive fires ; by it our jails are stocked with 
 Cx'iminals, and our hospitals with fevered victims ; and by it 
 our mines are ever and anon transformed into fiery tombs. 
 For God lives : His laws are fixed : broken, they take ven- 
 geance — and the catastrophes caused by their transgression 
 remind us continually of the ancient prophet's question : 
 ' ' Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done 
 
 lb. . ■! ■ -. "i , - 
 
 The sting is, that, so continually, righteous and wicked 
 are involved in the same calamity. Abraham's question 
 comes buck to us. Abraham's expostulation we feel tempted 
 to repeat : ' ' Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the 
 wicked? That be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all 
 the earth do right?" Oh! yes. He does right. There 
 is no doubt about that. But yet, righteous and wicked, 
 believer and unbeliever, so far as appearances indicate, 
 
10 
 
 are continually involved, by violations of his laws, in one 
 common doom. And were this life our all, I do not see how 
 we could vindicate the righteousness of God. Were, I say, 
 this life our all. For, however a Paul might be bitten by a 
 venomous serpent, and yet feel no harm, there are no such 
 favorite children of heaven in this world now. And, how- 
 ever a Peter might walk on the stormy waters, with a 
 Master's hand near to hold him up, when he began to sink, 
 no such interpositions are vouchsafed now. And, however 
 it was promised to the early disciples that, should they drink 
 any deadly thing it would not hurt them, it is not so now. 
 There are no charmed beings who can put their hands or 
 cockatrice dens with impunity, or catch the revolving saw, 
 or pass through the fire unscathed. Piety affords no cloak 
 of protection against fever's infection, or the volcano's explo- 
 sive violence. No. So far as appearances warrant, 
 righteous and wicked are liable to common dangers, and in- 
 volved, at times, in a common doom. 
 
 What then? Kaise the curtain. Look within the vei:. 
 Lazirus dies : Dives dies : both die. Look beyond. See 
 piety vindicating itself. Both chaff and wheat pass through 
 the winnowing fan. la it to the same purpose? See the 
 wheat — every grain of it — gathered into the garner, and the 
 chaff — only the chaff — burned with fire unquenchable. 
 
 This is our consolation. Was there a Christian in that 
 mine I Ah ! I hope there were many ; but was there only one ? 
 That cue is not lost. Aye, was there one who had there 
 time and thought to offer the publican's prayer, or turn iike 
 the thief on the cross, to Christ? That prayer, that work, is 
 not lost. Of such dead we say, they are not dead ; they arr 
 living. They are not yonder, charred, blackened, smoulder- 
 ing, calcined in the horrible pit. No; they are risen, — 
 saved so as by fire. Ours only is the horror of thought. 
 
 
 ^iw 
 
11 
 
 I 
 
 Theirs is the joy of rescue and of rest. To our imagination 
 the death was unspeakably awful. To them the sudden death 
 was only the transition to sudden glory. 
 
 *' Shall there be evil, etc. ?" We see, fifthly, with what 
 ease the judp^ment fire may do its work. We go about the 
 world and its duties, and plan and purpose for years to come ; 
 ^nd who thinks that the earth beneath his feet is mined — the 
 solid earth — and that at any moment the whole may be shat- 
 tored and shivered, suddenly, swiftly, as was that Drummond 
 Coal-iield ? Almost we smile in our hours of ease and seem- 
 ing safety at the Scriptural declaration that the earth and the 
 works that are therein shall be burnt up. The statement has, 
 no doubt, often been laughed to scorn. What 1 The solid 
 earth, men say, consumed I absurd. The solid earth. Go then 
 and view yonder scene of desolation. Recall that cloud 
 darkening the heavens, caused by a single spark. Visit, 
 lext, in thought, some volcanic region, where burning moun- 
 lains, sanietimes by fits and starts, and sometimes perpetually 
 vomit forth their fiery contents. Descend into the bowels of 
 the earth, ard behold that molten sea of fire of which its 
 centre is by many believed to be composed. Take the teles- 
 cope, and view in the heavens, attached to the same solar 
 system of which our earth is a member, and at no g:eat com- 
 parative distance from ourselves, what astronomers believe to 
 be the wrecks of a once considerable planet. Think how 
 small a change in the composition or elementary adjustments 
 of the air we breathe and of the watei we drink, would ren- 
 der these substances explosive like the gas of yonder ruined 
 colliery. Ah I our earth is vast in our eyes. Its destruction 
 seems impossible of accomplishment. But to the universe of 
 God it is no more than is a leaf to the forest ; its destructioi* 
 would cause a blank only as the shrivelling of a leaf. * 
 
 1* # » » * There are quiet times 
 
12 
 
 when religion tends to formality and sentiment. The right 
 words are used, and the right forms observed in a grave and 
 quiet and decorous manner. But there is no life, no reality. 
 Then God, if he has not forsaken a land, wakes it up, some- 
 times by terrible judgments ; by breaking up the fountains of 
 the great deep, — by floods and fires and pestilences and 
 famines. These are his scourges. With these he consumes 
 — strips off masks. Men are taught that the words they are 
 idly using have a meaning. These judgments are the hurri- 
 canes that purify the atmosphere. They summon our atten- 
 tion to the " still small voice." Yes, as we read of that dread 
 flame leaping along the vaults of the mine, and hear the 
 hoarse cry ringing through the " bords," "Escape for thy 
 li^e," the thought comes home with power, " Our God is a 
 consuming fire." We seem to hear afresh that calm, dread 
 utterance, "Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye 
 think not, the Son of Man Cometh." 
 
 "Be ye also ready. Behold the Judge standeth at 
 the door." My young friends, young men, for you especially 
 the warning seems written here. For months the deaths 
 occurring among us were almost exclusively of the old. Some 
 seven in succession were taken who had exceeded even the 
 four score years. Almost you may have begun to think, 
 religion is for age, for sickness, for the weak and effeminate. 
 Death does not ooncern himself with us who ure in the prime 
 of our years. Is it so? Look into yonder pit. Wlio were 
 they who fell in vault or shaft or slope, — some within a foot 
 or two of the surface ? Young men, I believe, nearly all. All 
 men in the prime and vigour of their powers ; the hale , the 
 healthy, the strong. And they are gone. One whiff of 
 pestilentious vapour, one tick of the pendulum, one thunder- 
 ous volley ; and they are gone. " What is your life? It is 
 even as a vapour," «&c. ^ "': < 
 
 4 
 
 
13 
 
 4 
 
 " Be ye also ready." I have no hope, indeed, of fright- 
 ening men into Godliness. I would rather, at any time I 
 endeavor, as a rule, to appeal to nobler principles in human 
 nature. And of the nobler man the gospel is expressly 
 adapted to lay hold. It ought to come home with 
 peculiar force to youthful minds. It was wrought out 
 by one wlio laid down his life in the prime of his years. It 
 was first jireached by young men. Paul was a young man 
 when he was converted. Surely his was a manly life. 
 Would that I could persuade my young men that true man- 
 liness is to be Christ-like ; my young women that true 
 womanliness is to be Christ-like. See what composure 
 Ciu'ist-likeness bestows. The tempest rises on Galilee's lake. 
 The di8ci{)lc8 tremble. Death stares them in the face. 
 Tiiey look for the Master. He is asleep. Yes, let evil 
 come. It would bo " the Lord's doini?." Let the thunder 
 
 voUev. It is " mv father's voice.' 
 
 * 
 
 But if 
 
 ye will hear it, there are " terrors of the Lord." There is a 
 '* Avrath to come." And it may come suddenly. They who 
 do not use God's time cannot expect him to await their 
 time. His smouldering fires, how easily, swiftly may they 
 break forth ! " Like a thief in the night." 
 
 " Shall there be evil," &c. But there was good in it — 
 thank God — good in it, then and there. Thank God, no 
 evil is done by him, but we may sec *' the bright light in the 
 cloud." His fires of destruction are also fires of purification. 
 See this (1) in tlic heroism that the catastrophe called forth ; 
 and (2) in the far-reaching sympathy to which it gave birth. 
 (1) Heroism, I say, — yes, noble, heroic, daring, — not less 
 noble, not less heroic than that evinced by the soldier on the 
 battle-field, or leading the fi)rlorn hope to the fortress's cap- 
 ture. Honour to the brave, who, hearing of danger begun, 
 paused not to think of safety, bowed at once to the dictates 
 
u 
 
 of duty, and rushed, hoping to be of use, hoping to stand, 
 with Aaron of old, " between the living and the dead, and 
 etny the plague." Honour to the brave, who would be where 
 duty and danger summoned) and who, with a calm disregard 
 of self, fell at their post, enriching the sacrifice of human 
 victims with the incense of human devotion. And honour, 
 yet more, to those volunteers who would have saved, were it 
 possible, the lives of neighbours, — not brothers, not friends, 
 simply neighbours, and so trying, lost their own. Such 
 deeds show that the stuff of which ma "tyrs are made still 
 exists in humanity. Man's primitive dignity, as created \n 
 the iniaije of God, however defaced, is not destroyed. Ever 
 and anon it leaps to life. It asserts its existence. It mani- 
 fests its power. It vindicates man's birth-right and original 
 heritage. It declares that man is the child of God. 
 
 Out of this inexpressibly noble heroism I gather a hint. 
 and more than a hint of man's immortality. Man's immor- 
 tality, I say. There is something dearer to him than life. 
 It is honour. There is something in comparison with which 
 life is as the small dust in the balance. It is duty. There 
 is something, to compass which life is parted with as uncon- 
 sciously as the breath goeth forth from the nostrils. It is to 
 obey the behests of love. For man is immortal. The dead 
 live. And therefore the living, — the truly living — are always 
 ready to die. Is a ** cup of cold water" remembered for 
 ever ? Shall the * * breaking of an alabaster-box" be made 
 mention of while the gospel continues to be preached ? And 
 shall God forget — shall the pulpit disdain to refer to those 
 rough, ready miners, who counted not their lives dear to 
 them — who brake, not an alabaster-box, but were themselves 
 broken, — shivered on the desperate attempt to save brother^ 
 men ? Oh I God seeth not as man seeth. I believe that 
 these men's heroism is recorded in the book of remembrance 
 for ever. 
 
15 
 
 " 
 
 Once more. Thank God for the wide-spread sympathy 
 evinced on behalf of the widows and orphans, — sympathy 
 assuming to so great an extent a practical form, — sympathy 
 manifested by those in the business pursuits of life, large, 
 liberal, spontaneous. In this way, also, if the Lord does 
 evil, he evokes good out of the evil. Along with the heroism 
 already referred to, this constitutes one of the strongest 
 proofs, in my belief, tnat God lives and reigns, — that he has 
 not forsaken the world, — that his spirit is operating, mightily, 
 in unexpected ways, in unexpected quarters. Perhaps so to 
 touch our hearts is one of the main reasons why evil, in such 
 forms as that referred to, is permitted. 
 
 Till we think of i'c, we can hardly estimate how much of 
 our nature would lack cultivation — would become barren and 
 unfruitful, were it not ploughed and harrowed by the tales of 
 distress that ever and anon come to our ears. If all went 
 well with us, and all around us, if there were no calamities, 
 no poor, no bereaved, no sufferers, how would the good that 
 is in us be kept alive? We should sink down into hardness, 
 selfishness, be the victims of "pride, and fulness of bread, 
 and abundance of idleness," be wrapped • up in sloth and 
 sensuality, till, like Dives, we should die, and like him *' in 
 hell open our eyes." But got sends one Lazarus or another 
 to our gates, — reminders that ** it is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." Do we accept them? The blessing is ours. 
 We are linked in bonds of living sympathy with Christ. 
 God asks us to " look not every man on his own things, but 
 every man also on the things of others." Do we *' let this 
 mind be in us ?" Honour to those in places near and remote 
 whose liberality has been evinced on behalf of the fatherless, 
 the widow, the bereaved. *' God is not unrighteous to forget 
 their work and labour of love." 
 
 And now, finally, God has spoken loudly, terribly. Let 
 
16 
 
 God's word set forth the application of the whole. '* Sec 
 that ye refuse not him that spcaketh. For if they escaped 
 not who refused him that speaks on earth, much more shall 
 not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from 
 heaven ; whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath 
 promised, saying : *' Yet once more, I shake, not the earth 
 only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, 
 signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of 
 thinjrs that are made, that those things which cannot be 
 shaken may remain. Wherefore wc, receiving a Kingdom 
 ■which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may 
 serve God acceptably, with reverence and Godly fear. For 
 our God is a consuming fire." 
 
 I