The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

SERMONS.lOIgvave-ftone ; this would perpetuate the memory ofhis covetoufnefs, of his facrilege, and his being ftonedto death and burned for it,better than any hiftoricalnarrative could have done. Why or whence is thisheap of ftones ? It is the grave of Achan, who tookof the accurfed thing. This would, by terror andihame, operate upon the minds of that people, hithertoperhaps incapable of being v/orked upon by finermotives. Achan being now puniHied, the Lord turnedfrom the fiercenefs of his anger, and the Ifraelitesfoon began to-be again victorious. Ey means ofgreater numbers led out to battle, and an artful ambufcade,they foon exterminated the menof Ai, withthe v/omen and' children, juft as they had done atJericho before. I finifli the explication with this firfglereflection, That if Achan's purloining of tlie publictreafure occauoHed fuch difijrace ta the Ifraciitifliarmy, what mull be the cafe of a nation, where manyof its counfeilors are chargeable with Achan's crime ?If it fhall ever happen hereafter, that. not one perfononly, but many, twelve or (ixteen, for inilance, orforty-five, or two, or even five hundred, or at lealt agreat majority of the number, are carelefs about tliepublic interell,. grafping at tlie national revenue, andeachof them coveting to enrich hlmfeif by feizing onthe flickels of nlvev and the wetige of gold^, muft netfftch a nation fuifer difappointment anddifgrace? Itsrevenues are embezzled, its ilrength is decayed, itsarmies are maricd or ch»fed by contemptible enemies jit is fick, it is in a difeafe v/hich is like to proceedfrom evil to worfe. Can any remedy be found tofave it from political death? If, wliilil the legiilativebody is corrupted, the morals of the peafantry are yettolerably pure, fomething may be done -, for even inthe moll defpotic government the laft appeal is to thepeople ; the people may, by their cries and endeavours,find means to remove the patrons and tools ofcorruption from about the throne-, by inquiries into1 3.