and hope that others of them found their way to that healthful clime, where the people never say, "We are sick." "There God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things," among which are those dark hospital scenes, shall have "passed away."

CHAPTER VIII.

A BROADSIDE UPON THE ARMY OF THE ALIENS.

ON Sunday afternoon, the 5th of May, 1850, I took my stand upon the porch of the "Old Adobe," on the Plaza, and after singing up a crowd of about a thousand persons, I announced as my text, the fourth and fifth verses of the one hundred and fortieth Psalm. "Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me."

Before me lay a vast scene of desolation; for on the day preceding, at four o'clock in the morning, the dwellers of our city were aroused from their slumbers by the cry, "Fire! fire! fire!" It commenced in the United States House, on the east side of the Plaza, within a few feet of where a fire broke out in December, 1849, in the midst of the "gambling hells."

For an hour or more, nearly everybody seemed to stand back aghast, and silently watch the devouring element, as it swept block after block of the best

buildings in the city. Three entire squares, with the exception of three or four houses, were consumed within the space of four hours. The loss was variously estimated at from three to five millions of dollars.

In the elucidation and application of the text announced, the Lord assisted me greatly in exposing the snares, and pits, and gins, (gambling-houses, grogshops, and houses of prostitution,) and the wicked "and violent" men employed, with all their deceitful, attractive appliances and "cords."

While special thunder was thus being dealt out, a man on horseback gathered a crowd on the opposite side of the Plaza, and marched up, as though he intended to make a charge upon us. But the truth, peal after peal, continued to mount the wings of the wind, and make the sinners quake in its onward flight, so that our opposing general, by the time he reached the outer circle of our crowd, was awe-struck, and beat a quick retreat, leaving his men in our hands, who remained quiet and orderly listeners till they were regularly dismissed. We warned the people to beware of those snares, and pits, and wicked men, and urged them, as their only sure means of safety, to adopt the Psalmist's prayer, "Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man," etc. The power of the Lord was graciously manifest on the occasion. The day of eternity will exhibit the fruit.

CHAPTER IX.

THE IRISH SAILOR'S DILEMMA.

ON Sunday night, the tenth of March, 1850, at the close of sermon in our "Little Church on the Hill," an Irish sailor came to the altar, in presence of the congregation, and said he wanted a word with the captain, meaning the preacher. I shook his hand, and asked him what I could do for him.

Said he: "I want you to teach me. My mother was a poor widow, as are the mothers of a large proportion of sailors, and she didn't know what to do with me. She couldn't take care of me, nor teach me, so she sent me to sea when I was a little boy. I have been to sea ever since. I am now thirty years old, and have niver had ony teaching. Now, I want your riverence to teach me."

"You have learned to use strong drink occasionally, have you not?"

"O, yes; I takes a wee drap sometimes."

"And you've learned to swear too, I suppose?" "O, yes, sir, I've been a very bad man; but now I wants you to teach me how to be a good man."

I then explained to him his wretched condition as a sinner, and gave him a few lessons in "the first principles of the oracles of God," and urged him to fall out with his sins, and renounce them forever, and accept of mercy through a crucified Saviour.

"I thank your riverence for your good advice. I'li try from this very hour, and do as you say."

He turned away and went immediately out of the church; but within two or three minutes he returned. and said:

"Your riverence, you'll pardon me, but I've thought of another thing I want you to tell me about. I've heard that the Bible says, if a man strike ye on one cheek, you must turn round and let him strike the other! Now, does it say so?"

"That is the doctrine," I replied, "that Jesus taught his disciples; but that is a hard lesson for you to learn now. If you will practice the lessons I have given you, and pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ until you obtain the pardon of all your sins, you will love God so much for his great mercy to you, that you will not feel like fighting an enemy. You will feel that as God has forgiven you so many thousands of sins, you, too, can forgive those who trespass against you. And then, you will be so anxious to have everybody get acquainted with Jesus, that you will want to pray for your enemies, that they may find pardon too."