NOTICE TO THE READER.

The Sermon here presented to the Public is below all criticism. It makes no pretensions to novelty, or to merit of any kind; it is only one of the thousands which are preached every week by men, who, in the midst of evil report, labour, nevertheless, with an anxious zeal for the salvation of souls. It was composed in haste, with no intention of printing it, for a sequestered parish, where much remains of ancient simplicity; but where the author lamented to see, as he thought, a neglect of public worship, not occasioned by infidelity, or by profligacy, as in great towns, but by ignorance of the subject, or thoughtlessness of conduct.

The inclemency of the weather having prevented him from preaching it at the time intended, and no other opportunity being likely to occur for many months, he determined to print it at once for the use of his parishioners; but some other little tracts of his, with the same limited object, having been called for by persons desirous of doing good in their several spheres, and on a larger scale, he thinks it possible that they may wish to have this also, and therefore he publishes it.

The subject of the sermon, in these days especially, is a momentous one. May God bless it, for the sake of the subject, to his own glory, and to the benefit of men! The author has no other wish.