parish there were last Sunday several persons kept from church for the purpose of reaping the corn. I do not state this from mere hearsay, but from actual investigation, and I should not have thought I was doing my duty, had I not thus publicly expressed my extreme sorrow at this highly indecorous and shameful conduct: and I am willing to hope that the considerations I have now laid before you, may have some influence in preventing a repetition of it, at least I shall have the satisfaction of knowing I have done my duty in offering them to your notice.

Can any one think that so poor a return to the Almighty for the glorious weather he has blessed us with, can fail to provoke his displeasure? Can they expect the blessing of heaven to descend on their labours, conducted under such circumstances? Can they reflect without trembling on the judgment so wanton a violation of God's holy laws may bring down upon them?

To those who maturely consider the observations I have now made, I trust they will appear consonant to truth, and to religious feeling; and

may each one, in reflecting on the very important matter now before us, carefully weigh the many real advantages a due reverence for the Sabbath must produce to society, and contemplate with fear and trembling the awful examples we so often meet with of the fatal consequences arising from the breach of this sacred duty, and may the Almighty disposer of the universe grant us the increase of faith, hope, and charity, and that we may obtain that which he has promised, make us to love that which he has commanded, and by giving up ourselves to his service, walk before him in holiness and righteousness all our lives, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, &c.

SERMON V.

ON CRIME.

PROVERBS XI. 21.

THOUGH HAND JOIN IN HAND THE WICKED SHALL NOT BE UNPUNISHED.

EXPERIENCE gives us every day fresh proofs of the truth of this remark, we constantly see that no combination of unlawful force is long able to resist the unerring sword of justice, that those who violate the established laws of the society they live in, are surely visited with their vengeance, and that endeavours to disturb the public peace, and invade the public security, though they may for the moment succeed in their nefarious purpose, ere long, produce to their wretched and deluded authors, ignominy, shame, and destruction. The progress of crime in this country has lately made

most alarming strides ; no well-wisher to the public safety can contemplate without dismay the lengths to which rapine and robbery are now approaching: these things must be alarming to all, but when in the immediate circle we live in the most flagrant outrages are committed, it becomes the sacred duty of those to whom the care of the public morals is intrusted, to warn their hearers against the wickedness they see and deplore.

I therefore think it my imperative duty to seize the present opportunity of enforcing the wickedness and the danger of such unlawful pursuits, and endeavouring to point out some means to counteract the propensity there seems to exist to dishonesty and immorality. That the paths of lawless violence must terminate in disgrace and infamy, and that "the wages of sin is death," are truths so plain that to dwell on them at any length, or to prove them by any arguments, would be useless. Is there any one of those who now hear me, who is a parent, who would not tremble at the idea of his child being torn for ever from his sight by the just sentence of the offended laws of his

country? Yet are ye all careful to train them so up in the way they should go, that you may be able to say you have not by your conduct been the means of such a disgrace falling on your family? Do you early frame their tender minds to the love of God? Do you, by example, as well as by precept, teach them to reverence his holy name? To obey his laws, to frequent his house, and to approach with holy fear the solemn ordinance of the Lord's supper? Do you set them a pattern of industry, sobriety, loyalty, and contentment? In short, do you so conduct your family that you can, with conscious satisfaction, look up to heaven and say "Lord, behold me, and the children thou hast given to me?"

I would now address myself to the younger part of my hearers, to those who are just entering on the great stage of the world, and forming the habits of life which must decide whether they shall be useful and respectable members of society, and pass through the world in such a creditable and satisfactory manner, as to ensure themselves a calm and serene evening of old age, in which they may look on the past without regret, and on the