Visitation, will here find their wishes, to the best of the author's power, attended to. The honourable judges of the Supreme Court of Madras will recognize the first discourse as that which they requested might be published at a meeting of the Madras Diocesan Society for Propagating the Gospel. My Reverend Brethren of the same Presidencynow, alas! mourning with all India the death of their beloved and honourable bishop-will meet in the volume all the other sermons, I believe, which I delivered there, and which at a meeting of the Venerable Archdeacon and Clergy on the eve of my departure, they solicited me to publish-a most imperfect but affectionate memorial to the lamented Bishop Corrie is now added. I have placed also in the series the discourses delivered before the Right Honourable the Governor, the Venerable the Archdeacon, and the Clergy and Society of the Presidency of Bombay; as well as those preached at Colombo and other places in that Archdeaconry, and in the Straits of Malacca. The two discourses, likewise, which the clergy at the station of Meerut requested at my hands are inserted; and those delivered on the occasion of the consecration of the Churches of Kurnaul and Delhi -the latter was privately printed and circulated amongst the residents of that station. Lastly, the visitors assembled on the hills at Simla will at once see that I have complied with their earnest solicitation. Indeed to their favourable opinion the publication as it now stands is owing. Their affectionate and unceasing kindness I can never forget. TO ALL THESE FRIENDS I more especially dedicate this Volume. I trust it may be accepted also as a slight, but most sincere testimony of regard by my beloved and honoured brethren, generally, both clergy and laity, throughout the dioceses of India, whether I have been able to visit them or not. Indeed I employed, with the greatest pleasure, the leisure of a residence on the Hills during the last hot season, in preparing the volume, because it would enable me to visit, as it were, by means of it, those numerous scattered stations where I might be unable personally to penetrate, and to recal to mind in others those views of the great mystery of Redemption with its blessed tendencies, which my rapid progress would not allow me sufficiently to unfold. May I also indulge the hope that such as still remember me amongst my several former flocks in England, and especially in the numerous districts of the parish of St. Mary, Islington, may accept this publication as a token of affectionate remembrance, and as a memorial of what I preached amongst them during more than thirty years preceding my appointment to my present fearful and responsible station. I should belie the best feelings of my heart if I closed this address without humbly offering up my thanksgivings to Almighty God for the preservation of life and health for nearly five years since I quitted England; and without entreating of all my Christian Brethren, both here and at home, their continued and fervent supplications on my behalf, that increasing measures of wisdom and grace may be vouchsafed me during my probably very short remaining period of service; and that I may at length "finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Calcutta, April 3, 1837. CONTENTS. GENERAL SUBJECT. THE GENERAL TENDENCIES OF CHRISTIANITY TO PROMOTE THE HIGHEST INTERESTS, TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL, OF FIRST DIVISION. SOME OF THE BENEFICIAL TENDENCIES OF CHRISTIANITY AS THE MOST OBVIOUS AND GENERAL CHARACTER OF REDEMPTION. LUKE iv. 18, 19.-The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver- ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord Page 1 THE EXCELLENCY OF THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. EPHESIANS iii. 8-10.-Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach amongst the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see, what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places EPHESIANS V. 2.-Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO REPENTANCE. ACTS xvii. 30, $1.-And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he |