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

igoSERMONS.oppiclTion, you hear them faying, witli a mAligiiaiitfiicer, The oppr^jllbr hath got his portion, and is nowgone to his own place !4. In confequence of the drudgery and the greathardfliips they undergo, the common people becomeftupid and unconcerned about religion and their immortalfouip. A temporary affliclion is oftentimesthe means of roufnig men to ferious thought, but acontinued oppreflion benumbs their fpirits, and rendersthem incapable of thought and acl:ion. Totallyoccupied about their prefent Hate, and groaning underthe weight of immediate fufferings, tliey haveneither time nor inclination to think of tlie means ofeicaping fufferings of an endlefs duration. The queftionwith them is not, How fliall we efcape the wraththat is to come ? But, How fhali we pay a rigid landlord? How ftiall we fave our cattle from being drivenaway, our houfes from being plundered, and our childrenfrom ftai-ving ? How fiiall we efcape the handof oppreiiicn, and the wrath of cruel men who haveus in their power ? And as opprelhon difqualifies menfrom thinking on God and the itate of their immortalfouls, it even enervates their mmds fo much, thatthey are incapable of difcerning the means of betteringtheir circumftances in the prefent life. As iftransformed into ftocks and ftones, they fit motionlefs,and receive on their backs the furrows of oppreflion.Many of them might find, even in this country, themeans of Icflening their mifcry, at leaft in fome degreej but they have loft the exercife of reafon -, theydream on from day to day, in a drowfy ina6tivityand if at any time they fee a means of being deliveredfrom bondage and mifery, the fmallefl difficultyterrifies tliem., and makes them choofe to abide in flavery.This ftupifying efreCL of oppreflion is remarkablyevident from the hillory of the Iffaelites. Evenwhen their deliverance was a61:ually begun ; when,by a train of miracles, they had got fo far out of E-