PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL IN CITIES.

TEXT.-" I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also."-Rom. i. 14, 15.

THE sentiment of the text is, I am under obligations to preach the Gospel to all; but am especially desirous to preach it at this seat of wickedness.

I. Why should the Gospel be preached to all?

II. Why, especially, should the Gospel be preached in places of great wickedness?

III. What should be the measure of our effort?

I. Why should the Gospel be preached to all? 1. The Gospel is needed by all.

2. It is the dictate of a common humanity, that we should send the Gospel to all.

3. God has made it our duty to give the Gospel to all, II. Why should we desire to preach the Gospel in places pre-eminently wicked.

1. Such places are generally seats of great influence. 2. In cities sin is strongly entrenched.

3. Cities are, therefore, a grand theatre for the exhibition of the power of the Gospel.

4. Such places are peculiarly exposed to the divine displeasure.

III. What should be the measure of our duty?

The rule of the Apostle was, as much as in me is; and such should be our rule, according to our utmost ability. Conscience will assign no other; the law of expediency will assign no other; the general precepts of the Gospel combine to enforce the same rule.

God's providence admonishes us, that what is expected to be done, should be done quickly; as much work is yet to be done, and the labourers are constantly dying.-Rev. W. Hague, Boston, U.S.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY W. HARDING, 11, RED LION Court, and 14, GRAY'S INN TERRACE.

Printed by C. Roworth and Sons, Bell-yard, Temple-bar.

THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND PREACHER.

Patronized by the Clergy and others.

THE PRESENT DEMORALIZED STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

A SERMON

PREACHED BY

THE REV. JOHN HARDING, Rector of St. Ann's, Blackfriars,

AT THE EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, GRAY'S INN LANE,

ON BEHALF OF THE

CHURCH PASTORAL AID SOCIETY.

Text-"Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"—Jeremiah, viii. 22.

THE Condition of the Jewish people at the time of Jeremiah's prophecies, was one of deplorable ignorance and depravity. Nationally, indeed, they were still the people of the Lord, but notwithstanding all his mercies and their own professions they had grievously departed from his faith and fear, they had "slidden back with a perpetual backsliding." The contemplation of their guilt, and of that wretchedness which never fails sooner or later to follow, as well on national as on individual sin, had filled the Prophet's soul with lamentation, and mourning, and woe. "For the hurt of the daughter of my people," said he, "am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, and assembly of treacherous men. [No. 14.]

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And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies; but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord."

Such was the state of moral degradation into which the mass of the people were plunged. Sin abounding in the midst of them, like a raging pestilence overspread and threatened the speedy destruction of their peace and security. But was there then no remedy? Were there no means existing by the vigorous use of which the plague might yet be stayed? The words of our text imply in the strongest manner possible, that such means did exist, and that it was only because they were not employed as they should be, that the condition of the people had become so bad: "Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?" In other words, had not God provided all that was needful to correct and remove that evil which was desolating his heritage? Had he not made known to Israel his truth? Had he not appointed civil and ecclesiastical rulers among them, charged with the duty of teaching and influencing the people to know and to do his will? Had he not caused his worship to be set up in the midst of the land, and established such public means of grace, as should furnish to the people sufficient opportunities of spiritual instruction and improvement? And, if all these provisions were but used aright-if the king, and the priest, and the prophet, and the governors of the land, had set themselves to the work of reforming and instructing the people according to the law of God, could the aspect of the country ever have been so deplorable? No; the means of health and cure were at hand; it was not for lack of these that things had come to such a pass. "Why then," asks the Prophet," why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" And thus it was, because the remedy which God had provided had been too neglected. The people had been allowed to grow estranged from the word and worship of God, and ignorance and vice together were ripening the whole nation for the speedy judgment of the Most High. The rulers, both in Church and State, had failed of their duties, the people had become accustomed to every species of iniquity, and the vengeance

of heaven was about to descend on them all, in just and awful punishment of their common transgression.

Now these things, my brethren, were written for our admonition. In very many respects this our nominally Christian land, now occupies the place which the Jews in ancient times possessed. Favoured pre-eminently by the mercies of God, and acknowledging ourselves only as his people, we are under obligations to his fear and service no less binding than those of Israel in her best days. May the Lord of his goodness forbid that we should ever become like Israel in their provocation and sin! And yet, is there no cause to fear the possibility of this? Can we look abroad upon our people, and see no signs of a moral degradation too much resembling that which ruined them? and might not the prophet Jeremiah, if now he were here to stand up in our midst, ask again the very same questions as those of our text, and inquire whether all had been done which should be done, to check and to suppress the spreading evil? Might he not appeal to our ample possession of the Word of God, and to the long established institution of a national Church-means so graciously supplied by Divine Providence for the welfare of our population and demand why it is that the health of the daughter of our people has not been preserved? and why, if now impaired, it is not recovered? Alas, I fear such questions might be urged with too much cause upon the conscience of our Church and nation. For there is a pestilence abroad among our people, and multitudes are perishing under its ravages, and the moral tone and feeling of our whole population is in danger of being infected; the spiritual health. of the rising generation is in peril; and unless we make some effort to stop the progress of the disease, applying for that end those means which God in his mercy has already furnished to us, who shall say how soon we, like Israel, may be found guilty of such sins in our national capacity, as shall draw down on ourselves, even as they did on them, the righteous and terrible wrath of an offended God?

Now I stand here this night, my brethren, to urge the claims of a Christian institution which, as well in its origin as in its plans and operations, stands in close connection

with such views of our country, and her moral condition, as those which I have been suggesting. The founders of the Church Pastoral Aid Society have been moved to the attempt which they are making for their country's good, by a solemn persuasion that a plague has begun, and is spreading through the community, which, unless checked, must ere long work our ruin. They have trembled at the sight of sin so vast, and at a practical atheism so daring, as that which they behold exhibited by thousands throughout this land; and they have asked themselves, what may be done to meet the rising danger? Are there no remedies which might be applied? Are there no means within our reach, by the strenuous employment of which, under God's blessing, the threatening evil may be removed? We believe, my brethren, that there are such means; and we think that we see, especially in the provision which the Church of England makes of the ministration of God's Word and Sacraments, such a machinery prepared as if only due efficiency be given to it, might still be the saving of the land, conveying to the mass of the people, however ignorant or depraved, that Gospel of Christ our Lord which is, we know, God's own appointed ordinance for the healing of the nations of the earth. And we believe too, that it is mainly because the Church of England has not been efficient, and could not be efficient in her present circumstances, that the people of England have, to so lamentable an extent, fallen the victims of ignorance, infidelity, and crime. Our resolution therefore is, by the help of God, to aim at the deliverance of our fellow countrymen from those miseries, temporal and eternal, which must be entailed upon them by this sad pestilence of sin; and we propose to do this not by introducing any novel remedies of our devising, not by setting up any unauthorized expedients, inventions of our own, but simply by furnishing certain means of which the parochial clergy may, as they see fit, avail themselves for the carrying out of whatever plans the intention of their Church, and the desires of their own hearts, suggest for the spiritual welfare of those among whom God has placed them.

This then is the position of our society, and this is the ground we take in asking the co-operation of our Christian brethren. We believe that there is a balm in Gilead; we