THE FINGER OF GOD. BY THE REV. FREDERICK CHALMERS, Incumbent of South Malling, Sussex, and Chaplain to the Earl of Carnwath. THE Conversation in a family circle recently turned upon a feature among German writers, which might be characterised as the love of the marvellous, and which, in the opinion of some present, extended even to those writings which approached the nearest to the sobriety of Christian biography. I was led to remark that I thought, if the observation were correct,-it might partly be accounted for by the circumstance of the imagination of German divines and Christians being really more alive to the peculiar and providential interposition of the hand of our heavenly Father; and thus, faith being more in exercise on occasions which to us would not appear to justify its operation,-more marked and visible indications of the Lord's wondrous power and love would be traceable among them. The association of ideas immediately after this remark brought to my recollection some striking incidents in the history of a family of German extraction, with whom I had been intimately acquainted at the Cape of Good Hope, and of the authenticity of the greater part of which incidents, I had from my own personal knowledge been fully assured. Among the earlier professors of vital godliness in that colony, contemporaneous with Vanderkemp the celebrated missionary, was an old lady named Madame S-, who had brought up a family of several children, after having been left a widow at an early age, and by her exemplary piety, earnest devotedness, and simple faith, manifested that she was one whom the Apostle would have described as a "widow indeed, trusting in God, and continuing in supplication and prayers night and day." Among her children was a son to whom she was peculiarly and ardently attached; he was her first-born, a child of many prayers; but at the time the writer became acquainted with him in 183-, there was no mark or indication observable to the eye of man, that he was not, rather one born after the flesh, than, as Isaac was, a child of the promise. The mother's confidence was however steadfast concerning him, for "against hope she believed in hope;" and thus, like faithful Abraham, "being strong in faith, she gave glory to God." During his early life, Valentine S had exemplified much amiability and gentleness, but the very yieldingness of his disposition rendered him more easily misled by thoughtless companions, and there was no evidence that the seed of grace had as yet been sown in his heart. On one occasion his mother's trust in her Saviour's love was powerfully and severely tried. Valentine was on board a vessel bound for one of the more northern parts of the colony, and a few days after she had sailed, some of those heavy gales not unfrequent in that part of the ocean occurred, and the sad tidings of several wrecks reached Cape Town. Among others mentioned, was the name of the vessel in which Valentine had sailed, backed with the mournful intelligence that every soul on board had perished. Several families were thrown into mourning, and friends came to condole with Madame S- upon the loss of her eldest son. Maternal tenderness was of course anxiously awakened, and she received with Christian sweetness and thankfulness the expressions of sympathy and condolence which were offered; but she could not mourn. She knew the earnestness of her prayers for the son of her love; she had not seen them answered in his conversion to the knowledge and reception of the truth as it is in Jesus, and she felt irresistibly persuaded, that somehow or other that son would be preserved. She could not conceal her impression, but disclosed it to several of her relatives, who could not (so circumstantial were the calamitous details,) find any grounds for a participation in her hopes, when, to the surprise of all, and the overflowing gratitude of the faithful mother, after the lapse of a few more days, intelligence was received that Valentine S had been picked up at sea, from a fragment of the wreck, by some fishermen, and landed at an unfrequented spot on the coast, an almost if not entirely solitary exception to the destruction which had overwhelmed the rest of the hapless crew! Years after this event passed on, yet no change ap |