TO THE CHURCHWARDENS AND CONGREGATION OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, NEWPORT. My Dear Friends, The following Sermon was composed in the hope that it might lead the Working Classes of this town generally, and especially those of my own congregation, to ponder seriously upon the evil courses into which wicked and designing men are hurrying them. Although the Sermon was written with no view to publication, I cannot hesitate to accede to the request you have conveyed to me, that I would commit it to the press; trusting that it may please God to make it more extensively useful to that class for whose benefit it was composed. In dedicating it to you, I beg to state that your favourable opinion has given it a value which to me it could never otherwise have possessed; and with earnest prayers to God for your present and eternal welfare, permit me to subscribe myself with great respect Your faithful Friend and Pastor, Newport, April 26th, 1839. JAMES FRANCIS. SERMON. JEREMIAH ii. 13. My People have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns,-broken cisterns, that can hold no water. In reading the Old Testament Scriptures, no one can fail to remark, how prone the Jews were to Idolatry, After Jehovah had by a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm, delivered them from the oppression of Egypt, we find them quickly forgetting the wonders he had wrought for them, and in open violation of his express command, making a molten calf, and falling down before the work of their own hands. In the subsequent periods of their History, when they were in |