"besom of destruction" which swept so fearfully over the land, has made of them a heap of ruins. Their downfall is a subject of deep and general lamentation, but we must not relinquish the hope that the same pious feelings which led in the first instance to their erection, will, if the means are attainable, prompt the inhabitants of the colony to replace them, without any decrease in number, or diminution in size.2

In enumerating the means by which the word of God is made more generally known in the land, I ought not to omit the improved tone and character of preaching among our clergy. The cold and unscriptural appeals to virtue which levelled the discourses of the Christian

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I have the satisfaction of being able to state, that since this sermon was preached, through the liberal assistance afforded by private subscriptions and by pecuniary grants from certain of the religious societies in England, nearly all the chapels will be rebuilt. Some have been already opened for divine service. The churches are still in ruins.

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minister to the standard of mere gentile exhortation, are giving place to the sound and influential doctrines of our holy religion. The dry bones of a heathen morality are now animated by the breath of the gospel, and Christ crucified is no longer forgotten by the preacher, or revealed by him, but partially to an untaught and unenlightened congregation.

I may observe also, that, generally, in discourses from the pulpil, there is a greater adaptation to the capacity and information of the least instructed of our bearers. These have yet to learn the first principles, the earliest rudiments of the religion of Christ. They are as babes, who must be fed with milk, with the elementary and most intelligible doctrines of the gospel. They must be taught that there is a just and holy God, of purer eyes than to look upon iniquitythat man is a sinner, very far gone from 41 Cor. iii. 1, 2.

3 Ezek. xxxvii. 4.
5 Hab. i. 13.

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original righteousness, and therefore a vessel of wrath and fitted to destruction

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that while thus lying in wickedness, and with the judgment of death upon him, a Saviour is offered to him in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who hath suffered for his sins, the just for the unjust1 -that by grace he is saved; and that not of himself: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast — and that every required aid in obtaining and preserving this grace, is supplied by the Holy Spirit, and is granted to all who truly repenting of their former sins, and having a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ, ask for it humbly and fervently in prayer. Thus being made free from sin, and become servants to God, they have their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

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These are the essential and fundamental truths of our religion. They can be

rendered intelligible, even to the most ignorant among rational and responsible beings, and they involve belief in God the Father who has created us, in the Son who has redeemed us, and in the Holy Ghost who sanctifies every real believer.

Whenever the minister has been earnest in enforcing these leading doctrines of the gospel, and has drawn his instructions from the scriptures of inspiration, and not from the enticing words of man's wisdom, he has seldom failed to create a desire in those who most need his teaching, of frequenting the house of God, and partaking in the services of our church.

And let it not be thought by the more improved and enlightened part of our congregations, that because these truths are familiar to them, their declaration from the pulpit with the earnestness of solemn and reiterated admonition, is not required also for their edification and growth in grace. It is a painful consideration, that the advantages arising out of the Christian dis

pensation are often not duly appreciated by even the most intelligent class of our hearers. Though admitted by the understanding as truths, they are seldom brought home to the heart with the feelings of joy and thankfulness, which ought to spring from this inestimable boon from the Creator to his creatures. The light which burst forth amidst the moral darkness and the shadow of death, having lost the excitement of novelty, is now viewed with much of the indifference with which we regard the ordinary phenomena of nature; and that glorious luminary who arose with healing in his wings,' though he still continues to spread far and wide the beams which nourish and support spiritual life, shines, however, like the material sun, without a due acknowledgment of his bounties, and often even without notice from those who are indebted to him for blessings incalculably greater than light and heat, and even daily existence.

' Malachi iv. 2.