The prophet Isaiah thus prays to the Lord: “Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee; the desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee. With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me, will I seek Thee early; FOR WHEN THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH, THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD WILL LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS.” { 196b} How “instant in season, and out of season,” must all the ministers of the Gospel be, that through the blessing of God, they may make the Divine visitation, which has fallen on the land, conducive to the religious improvement of their several flocks. The very fear of the consequences of intemperance, as being considered to predispose the system towards this dreadful disease, has, in many places, operated to the production of a great external reformation of the habits of life; let then the favourable moment be seized, and every means used, that the inner man may be converted to God. It is not sufficient, that the pestilence should be considered as a judgment, and thus made the occasion of private and public exhortation; the press should teem with tracts on this most important and engrossing subject; and there should be diffused throughout the country, under every form, and adapted to every rank in life, admonition and entreaty for all to improve to their soul’s health the spread of a pestilence, which so often destroys the body which it attacks. Every clergyman has his own sphere of influence within which, at least, his labours may be beneficially exercised; and if, by publishing, he benefits only those who are principally dependent on him for religious instruction, he should consider himself well repaid:—but who know how far they may be instruments in God’s hands for good to their fellow men? The Almighty often selects feeble agents to accomplish great results, that it may be seen, that “neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but God that giveth the increase.” { 197} And oh! what a source of joy there is to the true believer in hoping he may be an humble instrument in God’s hands of “winning souls to Christ.” The excellent Doddridge, in the preface to his “Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,” says, he should consider his labour far more than amply compensated, if his work, through the Divine blessing, be made instrumental to the conversion _of one sinner_. What a field is now opened to the ministers of the Gospel, in which they may hope, through God’s grace and blessing, “_to turn many to righteousness_;” for in times of great national apprehension and danger the cause of true religion often advances and flourishes. And oh! how sweet in such seasons, how doubly blessed—blessed both to those who minister, and to those who are ministered unto—is the faithful and zealous discharge of the duties of their high and holy calling, who are commissioned to pour the balm of consolation on the wounded spirit, to bind up the broken-hearted, to sooth the terrors of affrighted conscience, and to lead the humble, and contrite, and heavy-laden, to the Saviour, that they may take His yoke upon them, and find rest unto their souls.