purposes, elaborating and evolving that principle which is essential to the support of our existence. We may rest assured that there is not a creature in being-whether great or small, whether it inhabit earth, or ocean, or air, and however noxious it may be in some of its properties-but what performs a beneficent part in the economy of Nature.

SECTION II. THE CALAMITIES TO WHICH GOD'S CREATURES, ESPECIALLY HUMAN BEINGS, ARE EXPOSED.

1. It is alleged that sentient existence is exposed to various calamities, such as arise from earthquakes, pestilence, famine, and war. We reply, that such calamities are few and far between, compared with our blessings and enjoyments. Millions upon millions--indeed, the vast majority of our world-seldom, if ever, experience these calamities; and the question may justly be proposed, What disposition is it that has caused so great a disproportion between our enjoyments and our calamities? Is it a malignant or a benign disposition that has ordained this remarkable difference? God had the power to reverse this proportion, had he delighted in the creature's misery; and the only reason why he did not, must be found in the pure and exalted benevolence of his nature.

Besides, we know that many calamities may be averted, and all may be diminished, by man himself.

1. As to war. This can scarcely be classed among calamities. It is a misery of man's own creating, a misery growing out of man's ambition and cruelty, and can no more be chargeable on God than theft and murder can be laid to his charge. And although it is true that often the innocent suffer with the guilty in the ravages of war, yet their sufferings are chargeable on man's conduct, just as the death of a murdered victim lies on the soul of the assassin. Wars come from men's lusts. God commands all men to love one another, and love worketh no ill to our neighbour. If all men obeyed this command, the din of war would be hushed for ever.

2. As to destruction by earthquakes.-These catastrophes arise from those forces of Nature which, in earlier ages, performed an important part in preparing the world for man's habitation, and they are still working out a benevolent purpose. Earthquakes of a dangerous kind but seldom transpire, and when they do occur, they take place, for the most part, in those districts of country which are contiguous to volcanoes, where Nature herself warns man not to erect his habitation; and if man neglect Nature's admonitions, his presumption is the parent of his destruction.

3. Pestilence is generally the result of neglect, or filthiness, or some violation of physical law. Filthiness is a neglect of the law of cleanliness-a law suggested by a regard to our own comfort and convenience, and exemplified by the habits of many brute animals. From filthiness spring putrid fevers and divers pestilences; and when these scourges do arise, their victims among the temperate, the chaste, the prudent, and the cleanly are comparatively few. As nations become cleanly in their habits, virtuous and temperate in their conduct, and construct their cities and their dwellings in conformity with sanitary principles, pestilential epidemics become less frequent. It is a remarkable fact that the plague has never visited London since the streets were widened and increased attention has been paid to cleanliness; and now that destroyer finds his victims almost exclusively in those parts of the world where the inhabitants wallow in disgusting filthiness. It is true that another scourge, under the name of cholera, has visited our land; but this is undoubtedly engendered by neglecting or violating the laws of Nature, and even amidst its ravages the power of the destroyer is abated and often averted by cleanliness, sobriety, and virtue. Universal cleanliness and virtue, combined with the benevolent aid which man might render in improving the condition and augmenting the comforts of his fellow-man, would probably banish even this fell destroyer from our world.

It is admitted that pestilence has often been sent as a special judgment upon a people; but a judgment for what? For

violating God's laws, his physical as well as his moral laws; and, indeed, God's moral laws are for the most part the comprehensive philosophical exponents of his physical laws. Pestilence, rightly interpreted, is a rebuke upon man's licentiousness, filthiness, and neglect, as well as a denunciation of Heaven's displeasure against his unbelief and evil dispositions; and if all men lived in conformity with God's physical and moral laws, pestilence would cease.

4. Famine is a calamity which seldom occurs. For one scanty harvest which fails to supply our need, how many have we that are abundant! Again, we ask, What is it that makes the proportion so great on the side of plenty? Is it not the benevolent disposition of our Maker, which causes him to delight to do his needy creatures good? How easily he might withhold his bounty! But instead of withholding, he is constantly bestowing, so that scarcity and want are seldom felt. Besides, when famine occurs, it is never universal, but generally confined to a few localities. If there be scarcity in one nation, there is plenty in another, so that God's bounties have only to be distributed in order to supply the need of all. Viewed in this aspect, an occasional dearth seems like a call to the nations to have intercourse one with another, to reciprocate their help, and cultivate commercial and friendly relations; and surely, if the great Parent of all confers his benefits and blessings on his creatures, the children of the same great family ought to minister to each other's aid in the hour of need. In proportion as commerce extends, and nations reciprocate friendly offices, the evils of famine become diminished.

Moreover, if man were to avail himself of all the resources which Providence places at his disposal, the evils of famine in any land would scarcely ever be experienced. Let seed-time be properly improved; let the land everywhere be brought under proper cultivation; let the right kind of crops be grown-those which minister not to baneful luxuries, but to man's comforts and necessities; let nothing be wasted or misapplied; let the surplus of one year be saved for the scarcity of another; let desolating wars cease, and grinding oppressions come to an end;

let nations abroad and neighbours at home live in peace and reciprocate mutual help, and the gaunt demon of famine would be banished from our world.

It is true that famine, as well as pestilence, has sometimes been judicially sent; but for what? For man's sins; and sins consist in a great degree in violating or neglecting the laws of Nature, which are the laws of God. If his laws assume the form of a moral code, that code embodies duties which comprise the fulfilment of physical laws. An enlightened, proper, uniform, and practical regard to the moral laws of God would secure a fulfilment of the laws of Nature; and in fulfilling these laws, Nature would reward obedience with such plenty, that famine as well as pestilence would be driven from the world.

5. It should here be remarked that this reasoning is abundantly sustained by explicit declarations of Holy Scripture; for peace, plenty, health, and long life are promised to the obedient, and the day is expressly foretold when the nations shall learn war no more, but shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; when the earth shall yield her increase; when the curse of sin shall be done away, and God, even our own God, shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

It is evident, then, that these calamities shall be done away from our world when its inhabitants become obedient; and if so, the existence of these evils now is the fruit of disobedience; and, if the fruit of disobedience, they are not chargeable upon God, but upon man himself; and, however clearly they may manifest the punitive justice of God, they do not impeach his goodness. It is indeed of his love and mercy that, amidst so much sin, our present calamities are so few, and God's blessings and bounties so abundant.

SECTION III.-BODILY PAIN.

It is true that we are liable to pain, but it is equally true that our pains bear but a small proportion to our pleasures and enjoyments. The very highest average amount of sickness or loss of health in this country, as furnished by one of the most eminent actuaries of the present day, is the following:

*

At the age of 20 the sickness is 5 days 21 hours per annum.

These statistics are taken with reference to the liabilities of friendly societies, and, therefore, represent the loss of time occasioned by sickness; but it would be very erroneous to suppose all that time passed in pain. During a considerable portion of the respective periods the invalids are ordinarily free from pain, and during another portion in a state of convalescence or returning health, in which life has many of its usual enjoyments.

It is rational to inquire how it is that our health and our pleasures are so abundant, and our pains and sufferings so few. Surely it was not a malignant but a benevolent disposition which determined this ratio.

It must also be remembered, that though we are exposed to pain, that exposure arises from a mere susceptibility to pain, not from any propensity to pain, or from any constitutional contrivance framed to produce pain.

1. Pain, like remorse, is a sensation which does not spring from instinct, as our social emotions and pleasurable feelings do. Pleasurable emotions spring up instinctively; they are natural sallies of physical and mental enjoyment; but pain is a sensation to which we are merely liable, and which rarely

"Observations on Friendly Societies," by F. G. Neison.