through the sea: the air and the waters close again, and no trace of the passage remaineth. We have, in truth, but a short time to live. We drop, some in infancy; some in early youth; some, like her whom we now so deeply deplore, in the flower and opening bloom of life; some in more advanced years; and some amidst the natural decay of age. But no one knows the day of his departure. We wait our appointed time, and die. To some our Lord cometh at the third hour, to some at the sixth, to some at the ninth, and to some even at the last watch. The rich man, in health and prosperity, laid up for himself much good in store; yet that night was his soul required of him.

Sermon by Joseph Fletcher, M. A., preached at the Independent Chapel, Blackburn.

1 COR. chap. vii. v. 29-31.

"Brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away."

OUR holy religion is friendly to all the tender sensibilities of our nature: Tears are the natural effusions of grief, and alleviate the sorrows from which they spring. The deepest affliction is that which darkens the tearless eye and finds no vent for itself, out of the agonizing and distracted heart. How many have sought relief from the wounded spirit of mortified pride, disappointed hope, or conscious guilt, in the cup of intemperance, the dissipations of life, or the rashness of self-destruction! O sufferer! whatever be thy calamity, turn thine eyes to that fountain, where thou mayest taste and live for ever! Let thy sorrows drive thee to the refuge which infinite mercy has provided. Look at the hand that smites thee. It is the hand of a Father: it is not yet the rod of vengeance. He

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calls thee to listen to the voice of heavenly compassion. He says to thy perturbed and agitated soul-" be still,—and know that I am God!" In all the condescension of love he deigns to expostulate and instruct-" Wherefore dost thou spend money for that which is not bread-and thy labour for that which satisfieth not?-Hearken diligently unto me-Hear and thy soul shall live!"

Sermon by John Pye Smith, D. D., preached at the GravelPit Meeting-House, Hackney.

JER., chap. ix. v. 20, 21.

"Yet hear the word of the Lord, ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation: for death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces."

IN their nature, accountableness, and moral state, all men are originally equal. But the intellectual and providential distinctions of individuals, and the necessities of society, produce the inequalities of station, power, and rank. Government is instituted for the benefit of mankind, for the terror of evildoers, and for a praise to them that do well. Hence have arisen, through a variety of complicated circumstances and occasions, high dignities and hereditary rank. By the reason of the case, by the authority of God's holy word, and by the political constitution of Great Britain, these are held in trust for the public good, and under high responsibility to man and to God. To those whom "his hand has thus made great," an "honour is due;" not the false honour of servility and flattery, but the rational homage of respect and loyalty, obedience to the laws, and attachment to the person so long as he remains faithful to his trust. We feel it to be our choice and our happiness, not less than our duty, to love and reverence and "honour the king, to render to all their dues, to obey magistrates, and to be ready to every good work." But when kings and their families have been the means of doing eminent good,

their memories are embalmed in every recollection of honour and tenderness, and the attachment of prudence and duty becomes a warm-hearted and heroic devotedness. No law of the human affections is more constant than this. Nations have always been enthusiasts in gratitude to just and beneficent sovereigns.

Sermon by the Rev. T. F. Bowerbank, M. A., preached in the Parish Church of Chiswick, Middlesex.

Axos, chap. viii. v. 9, 10.

It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

BUT there is a lesson, vouchsafed in the mournful occasion which has assembled us on this day, that addresses itself to all, in our several relations and capacities. And, God be thanked, it is a lesson by which we may all profit. Death, under every possible circumstance, affords a subject of serious and important consideration to the human mind. It is that great event in which every man must one day bear his part: that event which, removed from the hopes and consolations of Christianity, is of all dreadful things, both in contemplation and reality, the most dreadful. The wish of Balaam, that he might "die the death of the righteous, and" that his "last end" might "be like his," (Numbers xxiii. 10.) was never yet heard by mortal ear with a feeling of indifference or disregard. No man ever yet hesitated in adopting it as his own. Would to God, however, we could be as easily prevailed upon to live the life of the righteous! For be assured, if ever we hope to follow the righteous to glory, we must first live as he has done. The consequences of death never can be separated from the pursuits of life; and if these have not been previously holy, the former must never be expected to be blessed.

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Sermon by William Newman, D. D., preached in the Baptist Meeting-House, at Bow, Miaaleser.

LAM., chap. ii. v. 1.

"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger."

HER condescending kindness to the poor in the neighbourhood in which she lived, was in the highest degree amiable. She was accustomed to visit the cottagers and relieve their wants, with every token of genuine feeling. It is very pleasant to reflect that she was most beloved where she was most known. Oh that this could be affirmed with truth of all, as it may be of some, who move in elevated spheres.

The memory of the Princess will be cherished with admiration, on account of her conjugal affection and fidelity. Her marriage was pre-eminently happy. She often said that she was the happiest woman in the kingdom. It is too well known that happy marriages are seldom seen among the great.

Born in Britain, and educated in constitutional principles, her heart was truly British; and all classes and denominations of our countrymen, it might have been expected, would have considered her as their own.

When the sad tidings were first heard in London, it was remarked by a Dissenting Minister with whom I was conversing, 'We have lost a good friend!'

Sermon by William Gordon Plees, Vicar of Cressing, and Curate of Rivenhall, Essex.

JAMES, chap. iv. v. 13, 14.

"Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continuethere a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. IF the early and untimely death of this amiable and beloved Princess is calculated to rouse the dormant feelings, and to in

duce us to reflect upon our moral and political situation; surely it may also be made highly productive of good in another point of view, that of a serious and solemn lesson to us all, as individuals. Here we behold one in the full enjoyment of exalted rank, in the gay and charming season of vigorous and healthy youth, hurried in one most bitter moment from among the living, and numbered with the dead. She, who so lately might justly hope to be spared for many long years to come, is gone for ever. She is vanished as a morning cloud. Alas! she whom we so recently saw, where is she? She is blotted out from the living page, as though she had never been. What, then, should this teach us? What is the improvement we should derive from it? These are questions in which we are all concerned; and which it becomes our interest, as well as our duty, to put to ourselves.

Sermon by John Evans, A. M., preached at Worship Street, Finsbury Square.

ECCLESIASTES, chap. i. v. 1, 2.

The Words of the Preacher, the Son of David, King of Jerusalem,— Vanity of Vanities, saith the Preacher, Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity."

"GO," said St. Chrysostom, "go to THE TOMBS! no spectacle will be found more proper to moderate the human passions; and we say to you the same, go to the tombs of your fathers; or, if a spectacle yet more striking is necessary to move us, let us transport ourselves in spirit to that ancient temple which is the last, the perpetual dwelling of our sovereigns! Alas! their palaces are but the asylum of travellerstheir sepulchres are their perpetual dwellings. The Pontiff to whom Louis the Great had intrusted the education of his son, one day conducted thither the heir to the throne, and did he ever give him a more impressive lesson? Let us then descend into those funeral vaults in their train. I think I hear the elo