Page images
PDF
EPUB

Finally, let it be permitted me to express a hope, that the statements which you have heard this day may not be without benefit to yourselves; if they should serve to convince any individual hitherto careless and inattentive, of the value of the Church of England, or to confirm and increase attachment to the Liturgy, where a regard for it already exists, they will have answered no trivial purpose. It may occasionally happen, that the ministers of religion are occupied in pursuing an argument, (as indeed is the case in the present instance,) which almost precludes them from giving, at the time, all the prominence they could wish to the saving truths of the gospel, and some casual hearer may thus lose, in a great measure, the benefit of their ministrations: it frequently happens, that neither in their exposition of some particular doctrine or precept of the Scriptures, nor in their appeal to the con

incapable of improvement; and it is with great satisfaction that he refers to the intended revision of the Tracts by the committee of one of these societies, and to the resolutions recently adopted with respect to the slaves upon the Codrington estates, by the other. He ventures to indulge the persuasion, that these plans of improvement for ameliorating the condition of that unhappy race, will be effective and complete.

sciences of men, can they satisfy their own sense of the obligation imposed on them, or speak with the energy which becomes the messenger of God to a guilty world; and however great be their faithfulness, and however eminent their success, the revolution of a few years consigns them to the grave. What a blessing is it in all these cases, that whilst the Liturgy remains, you cannot be deprived of the gospel. The very confessions, the responses, the prayers, and thanksgivings which you utter with your own mouths, still testify to you the gospel of the grace of God, and that too in terms, than which none can be more simple, more intelligible, more persuasive. Let us thank God then for the advantages which he has so mercifully vouchsafed to us! Let us entreat of him to give us his Holy Spirit, that we may enabled to make a right use of them; and may the effect of our religious services be visible in our dispositions and our lives! in our zeal for the glory of God, in our love to the Redeemer, in our charity towards all men!

THE END.

LONDON:

IBOTSON AND PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

be

The Gospel Message.

S4.1829

A SERMON

PREACHED DECEMBER 21, 1828,

IN

THE CHAPEL OF FARNHAM CASTLE,

AT

AN ORDINATION

HELD BY THE

LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

BY THE

REV. W. DEALTRY, B.D. F.R.S.

RECTOR OF CLAPHAM,

AND CHANCELLOR OF THE DIOCESE OF WINCHESTER.

LONDON:

JOHN HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY;

AND H. N. BATTEN, CLAPHAM.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT REVEREND

CHARLES RICHARD,

LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER,

THIS SERMON,

PUBLISHED BY HIS LORDSHIP'S COMMAND,

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

« PreviousContinue »