The sermon was as extemporaneous as the prayer, if any thing can come
extempore from a mind so drilled and fortified in opinion. It contained
much the same matter, delivered a little less in the form of an
apostrophe. The stricken congregation, while they were encouraged with the
belief that they were vessels set apart for some great and glorious end of
Providence, were plainly told that they merited far heavier affliction
than this which had now befallen; and they were reminded that it was their
duty to desire even condemnation, that he who framed the heavens and the
earth might be glorified! Then they heard comfortable conclusions, which
might reasonably teach them to expect, that though in the abstract such
were the obligations of the real Christian, there was good reason to think
that all who listened to doctrines so pure would be remembered with an
especial favor.
So useful a servant of the temple as Meek Wolfe did not forget the
practical application of his subject. It is true, that no visible emblem
of the cross was shown to excite his hearers, nor were they stimulated to
loosen blood-hounds on the trail of their enemies; but the former was kept
sufficiently before the mind's eye by constant allusions to its merits,
and the Indians were pointed at as the instruments by which the great
father of evil hoped to prevent 'the wilderness from blossoming like the
rose,' and 'yielding the sweet savors of godliness.
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