2. The blessings with which he has loaded us " within " —
[He hath blessed us with ijicrease, so that, notwithstanding the ravages of war, our population has greatly increased. With union of sentiment he hath blessed us to an extent almost unpre- cedented in our history. The whole nation have been fully con- vinced, that the war was both just and necessary, and that it was carried on not for the gratifying of ambition, but for security and independence. With a patient endurance of all the lurthens occasioned by the war, all ranks and orders amongst us have also been greatly blessed. It could never have been conceived that such contributions could have been raised without exciting the most grievous complaints : but they have been paid with liberality and cheerfulness from one end of the land even to the other. With a respect for religion also we have been blessed beyond any
former
'' ver. 20. <■ Russia. « Ps. cxxiv. 1—8.
former period of our existence as a nation. The Societies that have sprung up, in the very njidst of war, for the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures throughout the world, for the conversion of both Jews and Gentiles to the faith of Christ, for the instruction of the rising generation, and for the promotion of piety in every possible way, have far exceeded all that had arisen during whole centuries before. Truly these things abundantly shew how greatly God has blessed us ; insomuch that we may say, like Israel of old, " He hath not dealt so with any nation*^."]
3. The restoration of peace in our borders — [With only two short intervals, the war has continued
five and twenty years: and now at last we are favoured with a peace, which, we hope and trust, will be of long continuance. It is not such a peace as has been often made, a peace no better than an armed truce ; but one which our enemy will scarcely venture to violate, seeing that all Europe is leagued together for its preservation. To say that it is a favourable peace, is to dis- parage it altogether : for it infinitely surpasses all that our most sanguine or ambitious statesmen of former days ever ventured to desire. It has left us too in a state of elevation, prosperity, and power, which our country never before attained. And we have the happiness to say, it is universal, in India, no less than in America and Europe. Now is the happy time come, when we may " beat our swords into plough-shares, and our spears into pruning-hooks," and " sit every one of us under our own vine and fig-tree, none making us afraid^."]
4. The abundant provision he has made for our wants —
[When an extraordinary plenty was predicted by the prophet Elisha in Samaria, the answer given him by the chief Courtier was, " Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be^?" or, in other words, " The thing is im- possible." In the same strain would any one have replied, if the existing state of things had been predicted as to be accomplished amongst us. But behold, we are, contrary to all reasonable ex- pectation, so ^'- filled with the finest of the wheat," that the very cheapness of it creates a general embarrassment : and this singular phenomenon exists, that the only subject of complaint heard in the nation at this time is, that God has been too good to us, and has overwhelmed us, as it were, with his super-abundant kindness and bounty. The promise made to Israel has been almost literally fulfilled to us : he has given us such abundance, that " we have scarcely room to receive it^."]
Such being the circumstances of our Country at this day, let us consider,
II. Our
^ ver.20. ' Mic iv. 3, 4. ^1 Kin. vii. 1, 2. ^ Mai. ill. 10.
492 PSALMS, cxLvii. 12 — 14. [439.