lights and joys of a Mother! O! if the inhabitants of other worlds were permitted to know what passeth upon our earth and if they were left to select one object in nature, which more than all others was adapted to engage their attention and interest their feelings, they surely would be most attracted by that moment, when a mother's sensations first begin to thrill round the female heart. What in the compass of human experience can be compared to this! And such was the moment which the inscrutable wisdom of Heaven chose for that awful event which we now deplore! It was then, when the heart was beating high with expectation and hope; when the world was going to assume a new aspect, and life to acquire double its former worth; when a rapid rise was taking place in all her feelings, and the overflowings of her joy seemed prepared to obliterate every pang, and to cast all the sorrows of nature into oblivion; it was then that the hand of Omnipotence spread itself over her, and depressed every rising hope, and threw darkness over the scene, and extinguished the lamp of life itself; leaving a nation in tears, and mankind to marvel at thy ways, Lord God Almighty! For "thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and "thy footsteps are not known."

Further. The interesting and accomplished female who has been removed under these affecting circumstances, was a Princess. She was therefore apparently destined to become a leading character in the highest circles of society, and to occupy a large space in the public eye. Her removal from this elevated station has left a void, the sight of which we know not how to sustain. The qualifications which we believe she possessed, combined with the high peculiarities of her rank, render our loss in this respect unusually severe.

Sermon preached by Thomas Snow, at Cheltenham.

REVELATION, chap. i. v. 18. (Part of)

"I am he that liveth, and was dead: and, behold I am

evermore."

ve for

THE lesson of the uncertainty of life, and its b· prospects, is read to us distinctly; I may say, it was neve

loudly thundered in the ears of the inhabitants of Britain, than on the present occasion.. It speaks so loudly that men must hear it, and so affectingly, that they must listen to it. By a strange absence of all reflection, no one seemed to expect the possibility of the event which we now deplore. Where were the prayers of the saints, either for the body's or the soul's health of her who ought to have been dear to every heart? The unexpectedness of the event has caused the shock to be more severely felt and now our hope, as ministers of religion, is this, that she, who might have lived for the benefit of this nation, may yield it at least one benefit by her death-by reminding many, that, perhaps, before they are aware of it, they also must die: Thus might she prove a greater blessing to the people of England, by her death, than she would have done by a longer and more splendid reign than ever emblazoned the page of history.

Amongst other circumstances, the youth of the departed Princess should be remembered. God, indeed, shews us the vanity of the present state; when, even in old age, persons are removed, after having reached their fourscore years. In such instances, we are taught what a speck of being is the life of man, even in its utmost extent; and how soon our existence in this world will be terminated, even though it be protracted to its farthest limit. But when death, seizing as it were, by violence, the sickle from the delaying hand of Time, cuts down a person in the bloom or in the prime of life, who stands in some near and dear relation to ourselves, then is the uncertainty of life preached to us in the most affecting and striking manner. The eldest daughter of our land, who should have been as the mother of our succeeding generation, and whom we had expected to be the parent of a line of kings, possessed of qualifications for an useful life, and for domestic happiness; entitled to the esteem of millions, is cut off in the very bloom of youth, preaching to us in the most solemn and awful accents, the uncertainty of this life, and all its brightest prospects. Our ears receive the lesson under the present circum

stance; not in soft whispers, not in a common voice, but as in a peal of thunder, rattling through the whole kingdom. Now we hear the cry sounding as it were in an overwhelming and irresistible energy, "All ficsh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it."

Extract of a Sermon preached at Carlow Church, by the Rev. Richard Frizell, Minister of Ilfracombe, in Devon.

St. Joнx, chap. xi. v. 35.

" Jesus wept."

IF the Lord of life and glory, who had power over death and the grave, wept on approaching the tomb of a departed disciple, may it not be permitted to weak and feeble man to lament with the bitterness of sorrow-with all the anguish, but not with the despair of grief, on an occasion which furnishes more real matter to excite the sensibilities of our naturemore real cause of regret-more present and more permanent calamity and woe, than any other event in the history of this, or perhaps any other civilized nation? Jesus wept-yes, tender and benevolent author of our salvation; thou, whom none of the ills or misfortunes, or ingratitude of a wicked world, could move to express a tittle of impatient feeling, who borest with calm resignation an ignominious death; thyself amidst the insults of ferocious, persecuting, and murderous enemies; who wouldst not suffer the daughters of Jerusalem to weep for thee, but for themselves; whose deepest sorrows were occasioned by our sins; wert struck with compassion and moved to tears on beholding a pious sister lamenting the fate of a beloved brother; and with the same benign and Godlike feeling, didst stop the bier, and restore to life the widow's son. Here it is not a beloved brother, or an only son, the last hope of a single family-but it is a nation's hope; a father, a prince, a crown, and a people, have lost their all!-where all that

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was innocent in youth, lovely and amiable in woman, tender and attached in a wife, affectionate and devoted in a child; retired and almost solitary in private life, that she might better study the duties of her public station, cultivating with assiduous care, in the nursery of domestic virtue, the mind and the talents to which the destinies of this great empire were to be committed (and how often have the destinies of the world depended on ours); when such an object as this is snatched away at the moment she was bringing, it was hoped, a future Sovereign to the land, and the helpless form lies embalmed in the lifeless bosom, which but a short fortnight ago, enjoyed life, and with that life the sweetest hope, the highest rank, and the dearest love; a father's pride, a nation's hope, and a husband's treasure ;-when all this is gone, we may be allowed to weep, when under circumstances, infinitely less afflictive, he who could weep at little else than our sins-even Jesus wept.

Sermon by the Rev. Bryant Burgess, A. M., preached at the Church of St. Mary-le-bone.

HEB. chap. xiii. v. 14.

"For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." IF the imagination were to set herself to deck an image of all that is splendid, and great, and lovely, and enviable, in human life, she could scarcely embody a more perfect image to our view, than that which has just vanished away from every eye for ever. At the summit of all that is magnificent in rank! Flushed with all that is luxuriant in health! Animated with the liveliest vigour of youth! Adorned with nature's choicest charms! The heiress to an unrivalled throne! Enjoying a rich fruition of all that love and domestic life can consummate! Merciful God! what a contrast does she now present! bewailed by every tongue,---the topic of universal pity,-embittering with unquenchable poignancy the heart she delighted to love and

cheer; the object of funereal pageantry; joint tenant with the infant of her hopes of the lonely sepulchre of mortality! Oh ye that are in love with life, transported with pleasure, inflated by renown, or giddy with vanity,-oh look on your shrouded Princess, and read a lesson that may wean your hearts for ever from dotage on any charms within the realms of time! Let us one and all, my brethren, strive to bosom ever this actuating impression, that the fashion of this world passeth away; that the things which are seen are temporal, perhaps, will be momentary; that the things which are not seen are eternal, perhaps, are at hand. There is not a deadlier foe amongst all the enemies of our souls than worldly-mindedness, than a fond acquiescence in this material scene, an undue regard for the vanities of time and sense. Nor is there a more appropriate lesson contained in the dispensation which we deplore, than that which it levels at all such inordinate affection. May God give us grace, my brethren, to bear this lesson retentively on our minds for ever; that we may learn to sit loose to all that has this life alone for its dependence, and to fasten our desires on those things which have God and Heaven for their basis. Let us acquire a holy distaste for treasures, thus treacherous in possession, thus liable to mock our fond caress; and imbibe a keener desire, a sincerer longing for the unsearchable riches of Christ, which are as durable as the throne of God.

A Sermon by the Rev. James Rudge, of Limehouse.

ISAIAH, chap. xxvi. v. 9.

"When thy judgments are in the Earth, the inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness."

ON such a subject, it is very meet, and perhaps my bounden duty, that I should say a few words; but I must necessarily be brief, for thereby I shall best consult the state of my own mind, and the feelings of my hearers.