and with his God, as concealing the honour which God has given to His Son, and being ashamed, (for what else is it but shame or cowardice which withholds a truth through fear of offending?) being ashamed before men of the divinity and cross of his Saviour. In what I have said, I seek to dissuade no man from propagating the truth which he proposes, but I desire to impress on those who profess the same truth with myself, that on the support and munificence of the members of the Church of England, the institutions of that Church have a paramount claim, beyond those of any other sect or society.

Of that Society, and that particular Institution for which I am now anxious to interest your bounty, it may be said in few words, that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, has, since its establishment in the year 1701, been sedulously and successfully labouring, with the approbation and under the guidance of the venerable fathers of our Church, and of some of our most distinguished statesmen and philosophers, in supporting a line of missionary stations, (above 100 in number), in some of the wildest and most neglected portions of the British empire, in the Scilly Islands, in New South Wales, in the wildernesses of Africa and America. Having been encouraged by recent events, and by an increase of funds derived from the contributions of a liberal public, it has extended, within the last ten years, the range of its labours into Bengal, where it now maintains three episcopally

ordained missionaries, (one more is on his way hither), and is the chief contributor to an institution in which all the three presidencies are equally interested, the establishment of Bishop's College, Calcutta, of which the avowed and appropriate objects are to superintend and forward the translation and publication of the Scriptures in the languages of India, the education of youth, both native and European, (and selected in equal proportions from Bengal, Madras, Ceylon, and Bombay), in such a manner as to qualify them, as schoolmasters, for the diffusion of general knowledge among the natives, and, as missionaries, to impart that saving knowledge, without which the value of human acquirements is small indeed. It is on these grounds, and with a more immediate view to the present unfinished state of this establishment especially, (as an institution of no foreign or distant interest to those whom I am addressing, but which only wants your bounty to enable its conductors to do that of which they are most desirous, and extend its operations to this very neighbourhood, and to every part of the Western as well as the Eastern coast of this vast peninsula), that I respectfully but with confidence appeal to a bounty, to which appeal has never yet been made in vain.

And, as you desire the glory of God, and that the truth of His Son should be made known to every creature under Heaven; as you covet the happiness of mankind, and that innocent blood should be no longer shed amongst us; as you long

SERMON XII*.

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.

[Preached August 5, 1825, on the Consecration of the Church of Secrole, near Benares.]

GEN. xxviii. 16, 17.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, how dreadful is this place! this is none other than the House of God, and this the gate of Heaven.

THIS was the natural and touching exclamation of the patriarch Jacob, when, in his lonely and perilous journey from Canaan to the land of the Chaldees, the God of his fathers appeared to him in a dream

* This Sermon was published at Calcutta, with the following dedication:

TO WILLIAM AUGUSTUS BROOKE, ESQUIRE, SENIOR JUDGE, &c. &c. &c., SIR FREDERIC HAMILTON, BART. COLLECTOR, WILLIAM JOHN SANDS, ESQUIRE, SECOND JUDGE, AND THE OTHER CIVIL AND MILITARY OFFICERS OF THE CITY AND DISTRICT OF BENARES, THE FOLLOWING SERMON, PRINTED AT THEIR REQUEST, IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, AS AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THEIR MUNIFICENT ZEAL FOR THE INTERESTS OF TRUE RELIGION, AND THEIR FRIENDLY AND GRATIFYING ATTENTIONS TO THEIR MUCH OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

to confirm him in his faith and service, and to encourage him in his wanderings with the assurance of an unseen and Almighty Protector.

At that time an outcast, in some degree, from the tents of his father Isaac, and a fugitive from the anger of a justly offended brother; a forlorn and needy wanderer, he had laid him to sleep on the sands of the wilderness, his head supported on a pillow of stone, and his staff and scrip his only riches. But in his dream he saw Heaven opened, and "behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that of which I have spoken to thee. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not! and he said, how dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this the gate of Heaven!"

In this memorable history are many circum

for the salvation of souls, and that those who serve and love you here should feel a yet purer and stronger affection for you in Paradise; as you love your own souls, and would manifest the sincerity of your grateful faith in that Saviour by whom you are redeemed, I exhort, I advise, I entreat, yea, in the name of my Master and yours, in the name of Jesus, Son of God Most High, I demand, in this cause, your assistance and your offerings.

The Son of God, indeed, must reign, be the people never so unquiet! The Gospel will finally triumph, let us neglect or oppose it as we may ! But woe be in that day of God's power to those who have set themselves against His Church's infant weakness! and woe be to those minor or more timid sinners who have not lent their hand to His harvest! "Curse ye Meroz," said the angel of the Lord," curse ye bitterly the inhabiters thereof, because they went not forth to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty!" But of you, my brethren, I am persuaded better things; and, both as knowing your liberality, and as desiring that your bounty may be made beneficial to your own souls and to those interests which you seek to forward, let me entreat you to devote those good works to God and His Son alone, by a lively faith, by a more excellent repentance, by a fervent prayer-that while you build an ark for others, you may not yourselves be shut forth and perish-and by a participation, let me add, in the blessed body and blood of Him by whose merit