ing, our beloved Princess is no more!" No publick event ever was felt by me, as so bitter a disappointment: or excited so deep and lasting sorrow in my heart. Accordingly, as some of you know, I the next day gave vent to my feelings, in preaching on the words of the apostle, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass," &c. (1 Pet. i. 23-25.) But I would hear the Lord say, "Be still, and know that I am God:" "I would be dumb because he did it." I would "hear the rod, and who hath appointed it." Sermon by the Rev. Robert F. Bree, F.L.S., preached at JEREMIAH, chap. vni. v. 14, 15, 18. “The Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us waters of gall to drink, because we have sinned, against the Lord; we looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, but behold trouble and when I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint within me." HUMAN character is so often the child of accident, and so frequently derives its colouring from adventitious circumstances, that no great dependence can rationally be placed upon the expectation of an undeviating pursuit of every thing that is honourable and virtuous. We are beings of too imperfect a nature not to be sometimes influenced by the occasional ebullitions of passion, or the continual incitements of objects of sense; but in the aggregate of characters from which the least stability in virtue and action may be expected to result, we may safely include those who have been nurtured in affluence, and weakened by excessive indulgence; who, intrusted at an early period of life with unbounded wealth and the unlimited means of every personal gratification, have no other restraint than that which a partial education, or the accidental suggestion of a principle naturally virtuous, though weakened by constant indulgence, occasionally supplies. In the discharge of those of her duties which were immediately of a relative nature, there appears little to disapprove, but much to commend. As a daughter, placed in circumstances of uncommon difficulty and delicacy, she was, happily for her own peace, equally free from that indecision of mind which, denying the right, yet yielded an unwilling obedience to superior power; or that impetuous ardour of temper, which rashly opposed an attempt to fetter the indulgence of opinions nature had taught her to cherish and encourage. Warmly attached to both her parents, she allowed nought but conciliating acts and opinions to escape her; and although she revered with filial affection the person of her father; to her honour be it spoken, no entreaties, no commands, no influence, could induce her to desert or withdraw her affections from an absent mother, whose anxious solicitude and remembered kindness in her childhood, ever secured the warmest filial affections of her grateful and pious heart. Sermon by the Rev. E. T. Vaughan, M. A., preached at 1 COR., chap. xv. v. 53. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." THE Gospel has something to say to the Christian Mourner as the subject of divine inflictions.'-What art thou? A sinner-corrupt child of a corrupt forefather-of one in whose transgression thou hadst part-transgression, for which the earth is cursed, and thou upon it-transgression, through which thou hast received the judgment of an infected naturea nature, which is in its very essence the just object of God's wrath and condemnation, and which has acted itself in innu merable negligences, ignorances, forgetfulnesses and wilful sins each constituting a forfeiture of every claim to divine favor each deserving not only the withdrawal of all good and enjoyment, but also the killing of the body, and the killing of both body and soul in Heli.-Wilt thou complain then, sondaughter of affliction-wilt thou complain, if, when the wages of thy sin is death, God, who reserves unto thee the gift of eternal life, shall, in the way to it, warn thee that thou art a transgressor, by blasting some one or many of thine earthly comforts and hiding some of thy idols from thy face, lest thou stumble and be cast away for ever? Sermon by George Cornelius Gorham, M. A., Fellow of Queen's College, preached before the University of Cambridge. 1 COR., chap. vii. part of v. 29, 30. "But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that .. they that weep (be) as though they wept not." IN lamenting the awful dispensation with which this country has recently been visited, the christian patriot will remember that he must weep in a frame of humble resignation to the mysterious will of Providence. In our limited view, this event is, indeed, most deplorable; for, doubtless, according to the maxims of human policy, every interruption of the direct line of succession is a national calamity :-but there are counsels deeper than those of men; and if ever we have been taught the utter emptiness of worldly expectation, the lesson has been given in the sad cause of our present sorrow. The calculations of human wisdom sink into folly before the inscrutable purposes of the Most High. This observation is not directed against the exercise of prudent foresight; but is intended to check presumptuous and too anxious speculation into futurity. We should look rather to our actual state and present conduct, than to remote possibilities; humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, by repentance for those sins which have provoked his anger, and by reformation in every class of society. Instead of suffering our minds to be disturbed by political alarms excited by an over-curious anticipation of remote contingencies, relative to our hereditary succession, let us repose our sorrows in submissive reliance upon Him "by whom kings reign." Let, indeed, the tribute of our tears be paid to that virtuous Princess, by whose early death our fondest hopes have been frustrated!-let us heave the patriotic sigh over the tomb which envelopes the remains of illustrious rank, of youth, of loveliness!—but let us weep in the same humble spirit of resignation "as though we wept not;" leaving the succession of our Rulers with Him, upon whose "shoulders" is "the government" of empires, as well as of His church-who "ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will,"-who is "KING of kings, and LORD of lords!" Sermon by William Bengo' Collyer, D. D. F. A. S., Honorary Member, and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Philosophical Society of London, &c., preached at Hanover Chapel, Peckham, and at Salters' Hall, London. LAM. chap. v., v. 14, 15. The elders have ceased from the gate: the young men from their music. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. I SCARCELY know how to trust myself to speak upon this subject. Our loss is irreparable: and the time in which it occurred, calculated to give it the full effect of its awful character. It was when Europe was reposing in tranquillity, after a state of warfare prolonged beyond all former example: it was when the inilitary glory of our country had reached an height unparal leled in former periods of our history, and when it was com mitted to her to strike the decisive blow which should termi nate a conflict upon the issue of which the liberties of mankind were suspended: it was when the earth had brought forth her fruits, when the channels of commerce were again opening, when the hopes of the husbandman and of the merchant were alike reviving it was when the political importance of Britain was most deeply felt, and her alliances with surrounding potentates most firmly cemented: it was when the whole empire were looking with joyful anticipation to the prosperous issue of an event most earnestly desired-the pledge of domestic felicity of the most endearing character, the confirmation of the reigning dynasty by new and extended relations, the birth of the future heir to a crown consecrated to freedom, and pre-eminent among the nations: it was at this flattering moment, that the blow descended, which annihilated our fond and confident expectations, and swept at once two princes to an untimely sepulchre!" The elders have ceased from the gate; the young men from their music. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning!" It speaks to all ranks.—It is one of the disadvantages of rank, that while every thing surrounding it tends to fascinate and flatter, the most solemn considerations of religion seldom find admission within the privileged circle. It is not always that those, who have access to persons in elevated stations, have the courage to speak with fidelity: nor is the heart always disposed to receive the dictates of truth. But, oh! a preacher has this day arisen, in the afflictive dispensation under which we mourn, who will be heard-who speaks from the palace to the cottage-and sounds an alarm that penetrates all recesses, and pervades all stations! And if those shall listen, who have hitherto refused instruction: if the warning voice, heard so often in vain in the temple of religion, shall be effectual from the mausoleum of royalty:-if those who will not hear the pleadings of public ordinances, shall attend to the "still small voice" of mortality, the event so justly deplored will not be unsanctified, and the illustrious dead will not have expired in vain. If the great lesson shall be taught, that man |