PREFACE. Two reasons have concurred and induced me to prepare the following Sermons for the press. First, a conviction that the duty of attending to the wants and circumstances of those around us, is far less generally practised, than is consistent with the spirit of Christianity. Secondly, a belief that attention to such wants and circumstances, i. e. that CHARITY in all its branches, is the appointed preventive of the evils connected with a fully peopled and highly civilised community. Where it has not acted as a preventive, it may yet be blessed as a remedy. There exists, therefore, in the religion which is professed in our country, a principle of charity; and there exists in the charity which might be exercised, a remedy for the moral and physical |