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: — God's hand is in the wind and storm. He raises it, He directs and rules it, and He stilleth it again.

I. GOD EMPLOYS THE STORMY WIND TO FULFIL HIS THREATENED JUDGMENTS. I do not say or suppose that men who perish in the storm are sinners above others, more than were the men on whom the tower of Siloam fell, or the men whose blood Pilate mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. We are forbidden to judge of any man's eternal state by the manner of his death. But we know and are assured that death is never an accident — that in every case, and as the common effect of sin, it is always a judgment; and that, so often as it is brought to pass by the stormy wind, this is the minister of the judgment which God has decreed and threatened.

II. THE STORMY WIND FULFILS GOD'S WORD OF PROMISED MERCY. Directly, and by its proper effect, it is the executioner of judgment; indirectly God makes use of it for the very opposite result. For need I tell you that God pursues a plan of mercy on behalf of our world, as well as judgment, which in His wonderful working doth in part accomplish it by the very judgment which He sends abroad on the earth? The same events in providence, you know, work to the most opposite ends in regard to different individuals — as the pillar of cloud, which threw fear and confusion into the host of Pharaoh, animated the camp of Israel with courage and confidence. And who of you all, that are careful to mark God's dealings with you, but has, in connection with the storm, reason to sing of mercy as well as of judgment — that, amid your frequent exposures, you have been preserved — that you have been delivered from those dangers in which this and that other of your messmates have perished? This surely demands of you, at the least, that you acknowledge the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering to you-ward, as not willing you should perish, but that ye should come to repentance.

III. THE STORMY WIND FULFILS GOD'S WORD AS SERVING IN MANY WAYS TO PROMOTE THE GREAT END OF MORAL DISCIPLINE.

1. To recall men to the sense of a forgotten God.

2. To rebuke and chastise men.

3. To try the grace of God's people, to explore its weakness, or to manifest its strength.

(J. Henderson, D. D.)

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KJV: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

WEB: Lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;