то

MY MOTHER

AND

FIRST TEACHER IN RELIGION,

WITH THE HUMBLE HOPE THAT

HER PRAYERS FOR HER SON'S USEFULNESS MAY BE ANSWERED

BY THE

DIVINE BLESSING

UPON

THE FOLLOWING PAGES,

THEY ARE

AFFECTIONATELY AND GRATEFULLY

DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

Ir any one should ask why the slight volume now offered to the reader has been added to the multitude of books; the author can only answer, that the pressing entreaties of many, who heard the substance of it from the pulpit, have encouraged him to suffer its publication, in the hope that what was listened to with much attention, may be read, by the divine blessing, with some profit. He lays no claim to originality or depth in his manner of treating his subjects, but he has endeavoured to be plain, and according to the word of God. The critical may find much that a better taste might have corrected, the curious little that is new, and the polemic less that savours of party; but, he trusts, that nothing will be discovered in these pages, which a Christian should condemn as inconsistent with the morality of the Gospel.