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

SttRMONs.r:_5:3ro cities, been wantonly burned, when they mighthave been preferved ? If none of thefe things havebeen done, we have no doubt the better reafon tohope for more fuccefs than we have yet met withbut if any of fuch enormoufly criminal m.eafures havebeen purfued, need we wonder, that though wc faftthe war i« prolonged, and that God hath not yetgiven us the fuccefs which we pray for^?" Ye kill,^nd defire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight andwar, yet ye have not." I next obferve from the text,3. That a people may be long held in diflrefs,though they fad and afk for relief, becaufe they afkamifs. " Ye aik and receive not, becaufe ye aik a--mifs, that ye may confume it upon your lufVs." Thish the characler whicli the Spirit of God gives ofthofe to whom this letter is addreffed y and I wifh itmay not alfo be the character of many who are calledbylavv'ful authority to humble th^mfelves as on thia;fall day.^We have failed feveral times before. We haveprayed for fuccefs, and that this inglorious war mightfoon come to an end; but hitherto things continuejuft as they were. It is well if our condition be notworfe than when we commenced the war :" Welooked for judgment, but behold oppreflion ; forrighteoufaefs, but behold a cry." Still " we lookfor righteoufnefs, but there is none ; for falvation,but it is far off." One year of this tireforne v/ar, afecond, a third, a fourth, hath gone over our heads,and another year of it is begun. " The harveil ispad, the fummer is ended, and we are not faved."May not this be a prefumption that Heaven is difpleafedwith our aim, and, by repeatedly counterworkingour efforts, intimates to us that abundanceof blood is flied already ? I (incerely wiili, that thefomenters of thi^ war, on both fides of the Atlantic,may be of this mind. I remember, that when Otho^in hig conteft againft Vitellius for the Roman empire^