Last week, at a meeting of the Commission of the
General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, Dr. Begg moved and carried this resolution :—" The Commission, taking ditto consi- deration the threatening aspect of God's Holy providence, par- ticularly in the general and long-continued depression of trade and commerce, above all, with reference to the gloomy prospect of the harvest, resolve to call upon the rulers of the nation to set apart a special time for becoming exercises, and to lavite all 'classes to humble themselves under the hand of God, making 'confession of sin, and imploring his mercy." It is really a problem why teachers calling themselves Christians—as does Dr. Begg—so often assume that every trouble a com- munity undergoes, is a sign of divine displeasure. Lord Bacon said that while " prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testa- ment, adversity is the blessing of the New;" and even that is hardly true, for one of the Psalmists says, " Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest." We cannot see anything but good in asking God, with reverence and complete submis- siveness, for any blessing that the heart desires, spiritual or material ; assuredly, the habit of full and free inter- course with him is better than artificially constrained inter- course, from whatever motive it may be constrained. But to profess ourselves under the belief that we are in some especial and exceptional manner guilty, because we are under some 'especial and exceptional kind of suffering, must be, with genuine Christians, as pure a bit of bad acting, as it is assuredly void of result.
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