Whether the agency of God be more or less visible, it is certain that not so much as a sparrow falls to the ground without his special direction. Let us then take a view of the mercies he has vouchsafed to us. These have been,
1. Pubhc—
[These have been exceeding great^ and they de- mand our devoutest acknowledgments.]
2. Private —
[We shall find abundant cause of thankfulness, if we sur- vey our temporal mercies. How are we indebted to God for life, when multitudes have been taken into the eternal world ; and for health, when many have been pining away with sick- ness, or racked with acute disorders ! What an unspeakable mercy is it that our reason is continued to us, when many are bereft of this noble faculty, and thereby reduced, like Nebu- chadnezzar, to a level with the beasts! What do we owe to God, if we have found comfort in our relatives and connexions, (for "it is God that maketh men to be of one mind in a house,") and if death has not been permitted to rob us of those, in whose welfare we are deeply interested ! Perhaps during the preceding year we have entered into new connexions, or had our families enlarged. Perhaps our business has prospered ; or the difficulties with which we have contended, have been overcome. In all these things we ought to acknowledge the hand of God, and to think how highly favoured we have been above myriads of our fellow-creatures.
But if we turn our thoughts to the contemplation of our spiritual mercies, what ground shall we find for the liveliest gratitude, and the profoundest adoration! That the ordinances of the Gospel are continued to us, when, for our misimprove- ment of them " our candlestick might so justly have been removed ; " what a blessing is this ! If we only consider that the preached Gospel is, though not the only, yet the principal mean which God makes use of for the salvation of men, we never can be sufficiently thankful that its sound has reached
^ Those specified at the close of the year 1804, were, our long- continued preservation from foreign invasion, or domestic tumults, or even the sound of war; as also our freedom from pestilences, earth- quakes, and hurricanes, whicli had recently committed dreadful ravages in Spain, America, and the West Indies. But these things must of course be varied, according to the occasion on which the subject is used, whether it be Victory, or Peace, or any other signal mercy.