“If amidst many and abundant demonstrations of Jehovah’s goodness to this nation, there have been painful aud heavy visitations, it is because the sins of the people have provoked the divine displeasure. It cannot be unprofitable to investigate the doings of transgressors, that the Christian observer may discover why the God of heaven ‘pleads a controversy. with the land.” — James R. Willson, Tokens of the Divine Displeasure, in the Late Conflagrations in New-York, & Other Judgments, Illustrated (1836)