youthful votary, and praise falls sweetly from a youthful lip.

Praise him in your family worship: praise him in your private devotions: but, more especially, praise him under this sacred roof, within his holy temple, where he delighteth to dwell, and which is dedicated to his honour.

So shall the praise now uttered by you with a feeble lip, swell into hallelujahs before the throne so shall the notes, here faint and faultering, rise into the full chorus that echoes around the Lamb: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive honour, and glory, and power, for THOU HAST CREATED ALL THINGS, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created."

SERMON VIII.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE ensuing sermon was originally preached, unlike many of its predecessors, at EVENING SERVICE; a service to which I profess myself partial, and from which, I am persuaded, great benefits result. Yet, as its partisans are few, and its opponents powerful, I may, I hope, be pardoned for making a few remarks on its advantages and defects.

For villages, for country congregations, or any congregation, in fact, of which the members are scattered, and come from a distance, it is, I admit, ill adapted. But in towns, where you have to combat dissent on the right hand and on the left; where unauthorised teachers find little or no difficulty in assembling a large and respectable evening congre

gation out of the Establishment, I must ever contend that it is the paramount duty of a watchful pastor to meet them on their own ground, and see if he cannot collect a congre gation as numerous and as respectable within it.

Moreover, the convenience of such a service is great. It constantly happens, in a large family, that, from domestic cares, sickness, interruption, or unexpected hindrances, some portion of it is debarred from Church in the former parts of the day, whom a third service would find thoroughly disengaged, and by whom the option of attending it would be proportionably prized.

There is also another inference which appears inseparable from the subject. We hear much of the ingratitude of servants, of their profligacy, of their want of principle, of their heartless and hollow attachment to their masters, and of the rapid strides which duplicity and dishonesty are making among them. To correct this evil, so dangerous to the whole community, we must endeavour to rekindle among them religious feeling. And after family prayer, a practice which ought to prevail in every household which assumes to itself

the epithet of Christian,* I know no habit so likely to feed and foster it, as that of being sent, once at least, on every Sunday, where they may hear of their duties and their dangers; where they may be supported under temptation, and encouraged in integrity. Now a third service is one which can never interfere with servants' duties, in any well ordered family; and for which, at least, they may, without difficulty, be spared. On their account, then, if on no other, it merits consideration and encouragement.

Facts, however, have more force than principles; and it has been placed, by enquiries, beyond the reach of doubt, that in our large towns, such as Liverpool, Birmingham, and Bristol, those Churches have the largest, and the most equal, congregations, whose doors are opened for evening service; so clear is it that families prefer a Church with evening worship, if a choice be offered them, to one without it.

* 66 Every family," says the pious Bishop Horne, "is a little kingdom of which the master is prince; it is a little flock of which the master is shepherd: appointed by Heaven to govern it in righteousness, and to guide it in the way of peace."

But there is yet another reason why evening service appears peculiarly valuable; its freedom from noise and interruption. Day, with its visible attractions and sounds of many voices, hath passed with trackless flight; the shades of evening fall around; and in the stillness of the hour, the minister has a greater chance of influencing and impressing the hearts of his hearers; of snatching them from the turmoil of earth and restoring them to reflection; of arousing the dormant energies of conscience; of prevailing on them to dwell, were it but for an instant, on God, on judgment, on eternity. Add to this, that the hour of rest is so near, that these impressions are likely to remain unbroken and undisturbed and no man, I am persuaded, but would seek his pillow with holier thoughts and happier feelings, from having so recently offered up his prayers and praises, his wants and wishes in the Sanctuary of his God.

I am aware, no one more so, of the objections which may be raised against this peculiar service; that it is hostile to morals; that it affords a place of rendezvous to the evil disposed; that others, besides worshippers, are, at such an