PREFACE
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The following pages bring together some short memorials of the late awful visitation, from its first origin in India to the present time, particularly it ravages in our own town, from various authoritie not of easy access to the public.—Some may think that the less that is said on this subject the better, as bringing to our recollection gloomy days, and exciting the feelings of many who have been deprived of dear relatives.To such we would say, that we must not view the designs of Providence fulfilled merely on those who fell in the late calamity; the most important consequences are yet future; the improvement we make will either raise or lower the moral standing of every one of us. God has sent the pestilence among us, which has carried upwards of fifty millions of the human family, and hundreds of our neighbourhood, to the grave; and He is now looking on to see the moral effects it will have upon survivors; and our improvement may be counted doubtful if we are averse to have our attention turned to the subject. We have now time to reflect on what we have suffered; and we ought to give thanks to the God of Providence, that the pestilence is now so generally abated. And happy would it be, if this charge could not be brought against us—They soon forgot His works.
Dumfries, March 30. 1833.
